Written by Craine
***
Stupid. That’s what it was.
And it was the one word screaming in Twilight’s head as she stared into darkness. Pure, unquenchable darkness. An element of the universe. A misty veil for the unknown. A gateway to thoughts beyond thoughts, questions beyond questions.
And now, as it had been the moment she learned to crawl, darkness was Twilight Sparkle’s worst nightmare. Stupid. Stupid, all of it. Twilight had battled foes infinitely more threatening than this.
Darkness couldn’t drown the sky in chocolate-raining cotton candy, and turn everything she’s ever known inside out. Darkness couldn't enslave an entire empire and crush the freewill of its people with a dictating hoof. Darkness couldn’t infiltrate the Equestrian Capitol and blast Princess Celestia into next week.
Yet, there Twilight stood, shaking like a leaf in still wind, gazing into a starless sky on the dark side of the moon.
Twilight had to do this. She knew that. Twilight never failed an assignment, an accomplishment she wore like a badge of honor. But becoming a princess, learning to raise the sun AND the moon, finding her place among the alicorns she came to call family… Twilight was still afraid.
And there was no other word for it, but ‘stupid’.
Setting and arranging the stars before moonrise was supposed to be simple. Luna had mastered it, Celestia had managed it, even Cadence found her way around the canopy of night. Without it—without the stars to splash detail around the moon—Equestrian nights would be empty. Toneless.
And if Twilight couldn’t stop shaking for two lousy minutes, that night would fit the profile. And it would be all her fault.
A hoof tenderly planted on Twilight’s shoulder, and she yelped.
Twilight faced the intruder, inexplicably relieved by the wavy stars cascading in Luna’s mane. It was the only source of light for miles.
Luna disregarded Twilight yelp with a soft chuckle. “Twilight? Do you—”
“Of COURSE I’m not afraid of the dark! Why would you even ask that? I’m insulted!” Twilight whipped her head from Luna with a loud ‘humph!’
Luna laughed again. “I was going to ask if you needed help,” she said between chuckles.
Twilight blushed. And just as she opened her mouth to speak, Luna darted into the starless void, leaving a jarred Twilight cold and alone. Her hooves ground into the moon’s cold surface and her wings twitched and churned.
“Don’t go…” Twilight wanted to scream it—at most, she wanted to soar after Luna, after the light that cut the dark—but could only whisper as the darkness choked her. “Luna, don’t go…”
Next Twilight knew, white dots sprang to life. Before her very eyes, stars of many shapes and size strung along the darkness. Cutting through it like it was never there, twinkling amongst themselves in a dance nopony could ever understand.
Nopony… expect for the mare who danced with them. With every wing-flap, legions of stars clustered into the constellations Equestria knew today. With every hoof-thrust, shooting stars set the sky with a gentle blaze, sprouting countless other stars in its wake.
And with every twist of a delicate indigo form—darting to and fro, swimming through that starry black ocean—Twilight’s breath left her lungs and followed her fellow princess.
Before that night, like many, many nights before, Twilight Sparkle could recall every reason she feared the dark. But that night?
That night, Twilight Sparkle found the only reason to love it.