I counted every day that I spent on that moon. Before I knew it, days turned into years and years into centuries. I stopped keeping track of time, leaving the knowledge of how soon I was leaving up to the magic I felt growing. It surged among the alicorns, and soon, it would flow into me, sending me back to Equestria. I could feel it. It was coming soon, very soon. Not much longer and I would be free, hopefully freeing Equestria as well.
Suddenly, I felt a longing well up inside me. I missed the light of Equestria—the sun, the moon, I didn’t care. I just wanted my feet in grass instead of moon dust, and light beaming down through the atmosphere and upon my face.
For the next few days, I was sleepless. I was too excited to return to my country. You would have thought that, at some point, I would have grown weary and slept at least a little, but adrenaline is a marvelous thing. It kept me going, pacing, waiting, for that long-await burst of magic that would carry me home.
“Princess Luna, there is something we felt you should know.”
Hearing the stars speak, I turned my immediate attention to them. They were all separate entities, yet one being at the same time. They could act on their own if they wanted, but occasionally they would all feel, think, and speak the same thing at once. Usually, when they did that, it was because they all genuinely felt the same way, or because it was something important. Or both.
“Do you know the stories your sister has been spreading regarding your attack on Canterlot Castle?”
“No,” I replied, now curious.
“According to her, you became jealous that she received more attention than you. You were planning to have night reign eternally.”
This made me mad. How could she do that, just lie to the denizens of Equestria like that and—
She lied.
Celestia lied.
She was no longer in tune with the Elements of Harmony.
An immediate wave of pity washed over me. Banishing me to the moon had taken its toll on her, too. I was not the only one hurting. She was much less powerful now, and probably wouldn’t stand a chance against me when I got back. It was likely she would be afraid of me when I showed up. My dear sister…afraid of me? I didn’t want to see her like that.
“I’ll play along with it. Sending her to the sun can be part of my ‘evil scheme,’” I told the stars.
“Very well.”
Something suddenly dawned on me. Since I had been gone so long, nopony would really remember me from my time in Equestria. All they had to judge me by was what Celestia had said about me in my absence…and that was something that could not be further from the truth. All my subjects were bound to hate me the moment I showed up. It was possible that there would be little chance for redemption in this generation, and I’d have to wait several generations to come before I was accepted. This infuriated me. At least when Celestia was viewed in bad light, it was something she did to herself. This wasn’t even my fault.
But yet, at the same time, I understood Celestia’s need to protect her glory. I understood it, but I didn’t agree with it. It was very possible that she only did it to save her own flank, and not for my harm. My heart softened a little at this. It was hard for me to stay mad at my sister, I just loved her too much.
“Princess Luna, are you ready to depart?”
“Yes,” came my steady response. “Yes, I am.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, I was encased in a wondrous white light. It shone all around me, sending white-hot pinpricks across my skin and through my fur—I didn’t even know you could feel sensations like this in your fur, but with magic, anything was possible. I felt the lights of Equestria calling, calling me home where I belonged. Where I could have ruled with my sister…
But the time for that had passed. Celestia had to be punished, and I was the only pony who could do it. In that way, I wasn’t looking forward to returning home, but I knew I had to for the good of my subjects. It was the right thing to do, and now that my deal with the alicorns had been made, the only thing to do.
For a moment, I found it funny that I called them “the alicorns,” when I was one too. The alicorns in the stars (is that better?) had told me that the spell would place me wherever Celestia was, and that the surplus of magic would force me into my Nightmare Moon state. It was just as well. Apparently, that would go along well with Celestia’s little fable. Either she was a very lucky mare, or she had planned this too elaborately. Maybe it was both.
Whatever it was, I had no further time to think. I felt as my body began to reassemble itself, in the form of Nightmare Moon. Right before my eyes was Celestia, looking regal as ever, and apparently ready to make a public appearance of some sort. All I could discern was that we were behind a curtain in a room that was narrow one way, but wide the other. There was only room for one pony of our size to stand back here if trying to stand beside somepony, but the room was long enough the a whole line of full-grown alicorns to fit.
Celestia’s eyes widened in mock surprise. “Luna. I wasn’t expecting you to come back.”
“That is not my name, and you know it,” I growled.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Nightmare Moon,” she corrected herself. “I apologize deeply, but I’m about to give the Summer Sun Celebration speech. I must be going. I would ask you to come, but you would scare everypony like that.”
So it had been a thousand years to the very day. Needless to say, I was quite impressed with the alicorns who had helped me.
“You are giving no speech!” I thundered. “Your reign is no more!”
And with that, I summoned the magic needed to send her to the sun. It was a rather fitting imprisonment, if I do say so myself.
Suddenly, I noticed the curtains in front of me had been opened. I evaporated into night-colored mist, complete with stars and everything, and began to float away, but something was pulling at my heartstrings. I couldn’t let my sister’s legacy end with a disappearance, and the possibility of her lies being exposed once I got to the throne. If I wanted her to be remembered as anything, it was the Element of Honesty that she had lost and I wanted her to have back. It was…the least I could do for my beloved sister. It was the right thing to do.
I turned around, swirling so that my particles were forced to come together and recreate my physical being. Standing before the ponies of…wherever I was…I felt contempt for them. The shocked looks on their faces, the horrified expressions, the terrified countenances…it was all too much. I could bare it no longer.
“Oh, my beloved subjects,” I addressed them. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen your precious sun-loving faces.”
An azure pegasus with a mane and tail sporting all the colors of the rainbow in their exact order gave me a harsh look. “What did you do with our princess?” she demanded, starting to fly my way faster than I had ever seen a pegasus fly before. Certainly, this pony had talent.
“Whoa there, Nelly,” cautioned an orange pony, sporting a blonde mane and a cowpony hat. Her cutie mark was in the shape of three apples. Immediately, I assumed the blue pony’s name was Nelly.
All of that aside, I began to grow angrier. “Why, am I not royal enough for you?” I asked them. “Don’t you know who I am?”
A pink pony with a darker pink cotton-candy like mane began bouncing. “Ooh! Ooh! More guessing games!” she exclaimed (funny, because I didn’t know when the first guessing game began), “Um…Hokey Smokes! How about Queen Meanie? No! Black Snooty, Black Snooty!”
I was offended by both her ignorance and her horrid names for me. Surely, these ponies would know. But I still played by my sister’s game. “Does my crown no longer count, now that I have been imprisoned for a thousand years? Did you not recall the legend? Did you not see the signs?”
A lavender-hued unicorn bearing a deep blue mane that contained both one heliotrope stripe and a cerise one stood high, ready to speak. “I did, and I know who you are,” she spoke up, her voice carrying a bit of nervousness. “You’re the Mare in the Moon. Nightmare Moon.”
I grinned. The game was getting interesting now, but at the same time, I felt bad for deceiving these innocent ponies. I had half a mind to stop and let the truth out about Celestia then and there, but something stopped me. Instead, I continued my act. “Well well well,” I said in my most malicious voice, “somepony who remembers me. Then you also know why I’m here.”
Now, the unicorn was shaking from head to hooves. “You’re here to…to…,” she tried to respond, but failed.
I spared her the time and misery. “Remember this day, little ponies, for it will be your last. From this moment forth, the night will last forever!”
And with that and a malevolent cackle, I evaporated once more and flew out the window. I lingered for a moment, watching as six ponies—including the rainbow one, the cowpony, the cotton candy-mane, and the unicorn who knew who I was—left for the same destination. I followed them to what appeared to be a library, and tried to make sense of their plan. I had a funny feeling that whatever they were about to do would spoil my plan to have “eternal night” for a day or so, then suddenly repent and step up to the throne, claiming Celestia was beyond my reach. Sure, it would have been an unsteady rule, but I had to at least try.
Suddenly, I managed to catch the tail end of a conversation. They were headed into the Everfree Forest to search for the Elements of Harmony! My sister must have stored them there in the old griffon castle. These ponies knew not what they were doing, freeing the tyrant that is my sister. I had to stop them.
But one thing first. Everfree? Did that mean my sister had finally sent ponies to settle Everfree Territory? Allowing myself to float high above, I saw the forest on the edge of town and knew it to be so. My sister had done something right. Was this going to be one thing in a long string of good deeds, or a stand-alone act?