Prologue
- - - -
Year 145 P.D. (Post Discord)
April 16
Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters
Princess Celestia lay on her luxurious bed, where she had finally been freed of the politics and gossip that is the royal court, to rest and relax. She laid there for a short while, simply basking in the lack of somepony trying to persuade or ask something of her. She was moments away from finally reaching a state of contentedness, until she was interrupted by a puff of purple smoke that formed a letter from none other than her younger sister. Celestia looked at the letter and thought to simply let her sister wait but immediately disregarded that thought with the sight of Luna's wax hoofprint sealing the letter shut. She noted that Luna would only ever use her hoofprint in very personal letters, otherwise she would simply stamp it with the royal seal. Celestia opened the sealed letter carefully with her magic and started reading.
Dearest Sister,
It brings me a great amount of pain to write this, but it must be said. As you may know, I have been, emotionally and physically, at a great distance away from you and our subjects. This is only with noble intentions, for I fear that envy has engulfed me.
“Our” loyal subjects seem to not be as loyal to I as they are you.
This truth is not merely evident in my own thoughts. There have been one too many instances where I have received a lack of acknowledgement. Nopony appreciates my heavenly body that watches over them for half the day, nor do they care for the stars that I paint in the sky every eve. Nopony has ever came to me with laws or treaties that they wish to be in effect. I am hardly acknowledged by anypony short of you. I am not accepted in society. I am not respected in the courts.
However, this is not a letter for complaint, this is a letter of warning. I fear that I have almost succumbed to these feelings of hatred and jealousy. I often find myself thinking of ways to harm you and how to overthrow you from your throne. I am afraid of these thoughts sister, for they are not what I wish for you. I cannot control them and they are beginning to control me. Even now, I struggle to put these words onto parchment without attempting to verbally assassinate you.
I do not know what to do Tia, so I ask for your advice my sister. I also wish that this remain in soul and ink for I know not what will occur if we meet in body. I ask your forgiveness sister, in what may happen following this letter, for my mind is nearly lost and I am weak.
Love,
Luna
Celestia laid there, and read it over and over again, until it started to sink in. She knew that her sister was acting rather strangely as of late, but Celestia thought that she may be having a direct reaction to the cycle of the moon. Now, she doesn't know what to think, nor what advice to give her sister. She is at a complete loss as to what she should do.
Her thoughts are misplaced when she hears loud hoofsteps coming from outside of her bedroom doors. She clears her throat and adjusts her posture whilst shelving Luna's letter. Princess Celestia looks to the door with both surprise and suspicion when she hears the knob click and the door starting to open.
"Who is there?" She calls out with authority.
A misty darkness starts to creep in through the creak in the doorway. It moves away from the door, closing it and then a black aura attaches itself to the door, magically locking it. Then, the mist sweeps across the floor until it's directly in front of Celestia's bed and then stops. The mist thickens and then gets taller and taller until it's about the same height that Celestia is standing. It starts to solidify at the ground, creating black hooves with shining silver regalia. Then it moves up, placing four pitch black metallic legs upon those hooves. It shifts to revealing more silver armour and a powerful, strong, and dark body. The mist moves up more to show the tall neck of a mare and then it's head appears as black as a clouded night, with two eyes of a deep turquoise. It starts to form jet black wings, and an alicorn's horn. A starry night sky starts to form as it's tail and mane. Then, the alicorn's cutie mark starts to appear and it forms a crescent moon with purple shading around it. The mare resembles Luna in most aspects except for height and color.
"Luna? Is that you?" Celestia asks, a little taken aback.
"Luna isn't here anymore," the pure black mare whispers as she takes one step forward and suddenly Princess Celestia is engulfed in pure blackness.
- - - -
Year 998 P.N.M. (Post Nightmare Moon)
April 16
Manehattan Lower District
Apartment #23
Zenith could see nothing but a black plane. A space to which there was nothing. A whole world where the sun and moon were absent and there was not a trace of hope. This world was infinite and unnatural. A place where only the most unfortunate are to be forgotten. He could have walked for centuries in this barren plane, if it had a sense of time and the reality of physical existence, but he was afraid. When his fear took over completely he started to fall. Falling for eternity into infinity.
He landed on his bed in the physical world of his studio apartment in Manehattan. He was drenched from his horn to his hooves in sweat. When he finally opened his eyes, all he could see was darkness. He felt a sudden drop in his stomach and started hyperventilating, then he took a deep breath and felt reality once again. It was dark into the night, so dark it was impossible to see anything, but he could feel his bed and relaxed.
He turned onto his side and stared into the empty space. He could hear the wind scrapping by the window, drowning out the sounds of the city, opposite to the wall he was facing. He took this sound and focused on it for a while until he was distracted by a different noise, it sounded like a mare crying into her hooves, but what struck him as odd was that it sounded as if it was coming from his bedroom, right behind him.
- - - -
Year 145 P.D. (Post Discord)
April 16
Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters
The dark figure thought she had won against the princess of the sun, until she saw that Celestia had escaped from her grasp. She looks around the room until she realizes exactly where her elder sister would have gone. To the only thing Celestia could ever wield to stop her, the Elements of Harmony. She lets out a growl and then teleports to try and stop her from reaching them in time and reappears in the hallway to the throne room, just five feet in front of Celestia. She looks in to the alabaster mare’s rosy, wide eyes with disgust and venom.
"You were always so predictable. Whenever something has gone wrong or there is somepony threatening in the world, you go straight to the Elements of Harmony without any effort to handle things yourself. How pathetic are you, dear sister?" hissed the dark figure.
"Luna, what has gotten into you?" Princess Celestia said with a start.
"I told you, Luna isn't here any more. I am NIGHTMARE MOON!" she yelled as she lunged forward to attack Celestia. Celestia jumps out of the way and looks Nightmare Moon in her serpentine-like eyes.
"I will not fight you, sister," Celestia said, as Nightmare Moon strikes at her with a magical blast, but is deflected.
"Then you shall perish!" growled Nightmare Moon.
What was once Princess Luna screams and throws Celestia across the room into the sun princess's throne. Celestia stands up slowly and braces herself on her hooves. Nightmare Moon flies over to her as she is getting up and fires at her elder sister again, but misses as Celestia teleports to the other side of the room.
"Please Luna, stop this madness. Nothing good will come of it!"
A blast of magic is aimed at Celestia, but she dodges it, and then another as the energy shoots more and more rapidly towards her. The Nightmare misses again, but then succeeds as she sends a stronger blast where she predicted Celestia was to be after she had dodged. Celestia is then knocked down across the hard tiled floor.
"You leave me no choice, dear sister," Celestia says as she stands and uses her magic to open the doors to the room beyond the throne room directly behind her. She retrieves the Elements of Harmony from the locked chest in the center of the room. She faces her sister and ducks out of the way just before a spell were to hit her again. She then flies up until she is away from any surface and starts to power up the elements.
The six Elements of Harmony, each in a different color, start to circle the white alicorn, causing a ring of prismatic harmonious power to form around her. The elements pulse and start to give off energy in the form of light and transfer that energy into the alabaster alicorn of the sun. She harnesses this power and blasts it towards Nightmare Moon. The Nightmare tries to counter this strike with a force of her own, but to no avail. The blast reaches her within seconds, and all she could feel was a terrible burning sensation and then nothing.
- - - -
Year 998 P.N.M. (Post Nightmare Moon)
April 16
Manehattan Lower District
Apartment #23
The crying was coming from behind Zenith, that much he knew. He listened closer as the sobs continued to be more and more labored. The crying had started off being just beyond his sense of awareness, but then it got to the point of being the only thing that Zenith could hear.
He lay there with apprehension, he didn't know whether or not he should be utterly terrified at the fact that there was an unknown mare inside his apartment that was crying uncontrollably, or if he should try to comfort that mare and ask questions later. He decided to ask questions first, so he turned over and could tell that the mare was on the floor, directly in front of his bed, but he could not see her at all.
"Miss?" he called out to the darkness and received no reply, only more and more sobbing. He decided then, that this mare just needed somepony right about now. So, he removed himself from the bed and slowly moved towards the sounds.
He felt around until his hoof caught something soft, the feeling of the mare's skin frigid and stiff. Zenith embraced the mare, attempting to soothe her thoughts. He used his horn to fetch the covers of his bed and place them around the two of them.
"It's alright. I'm here for you," he reassured.
The mare fell into his embrace openly, continuing to sob at whatever it was she felt so strongly about. She hadn't noticed the male unicorn's embrace, but she had noticed the heat. All the warmth in the world, forgiving of the cold of her own betraying body. Slowly, the mare began to calm down to only a whimper and was able to breathe regularly.
"You're okay. What happened?" Zenith tried to ask as politely as possible, but when the sobs threatened to come back up again, he discarded his question. "Nevermind you don’t need to explain what happened to me, just relax and warm up.”
The mare's emotions had finally started to calm down, and she began to be a bit more coherent. She relaxed herself and put herself closer to the stallion. He relaxed a little better himself and finally noticed that this mare had wings. So, that explains how she managed to get into my fourth story window. She was probably distraught and had no idea where she was going, only wanting to get somewhere a little more safe. He soon realized that none of the windows to his apartment were open, however, but, decided to stick with the explanation he had given himself.
"W-Where am I?" asked the mysterious mare.
"You're in my apartment, in Manehattan." He didn't know if it was necessary to mention the city, but he did anyways, seeing as how shaken up she seemed to be.
"Why am I here? I thought I was d-dead," her voice cracked as she spoke the last word.
"Well, you feel pretty alive to me, but you were rather cold when you came in," Zenith spoke softly, trying to keep the mare calm. "And I was hoping that you could answer that question for me. It's not common practice for mares to randomly barge in to somepony elses home, neither is it polite."
"I-I'm sorry," she said as she tensed up a little at the disappointment in her own actions. "I do not recall ever entering your home."
"Hey, it's alright. Just knock next time," he tried adding some humor, but failed miserably as it came out rather colder than he intended it to be. "Oh my, I'm terribly sorry, but I have truly forgotten my manners. My name is Zenith, and yours is?"
"L-Luna," she spoke her name carefully, not knowing what he might think of her. No one except maybe her sister had ever cared for her, so she expected to be discarded immediately. She braced herself for what came next.
"Well, Luna, it's very nice to meet you. You have a very beautiful name, you know," he complimented her in hopes to both lift her spirit and to voice his true opinion.
"W-What?" she asked, completely dumbfounded by his words.
"Your name is rather pretty, which I can only guess goes with a beautiful face," he realized what his words were implying in such a scenario and quickly tried to clarify things. "Oh, please do not take that the wrong way. I was simply thinking out loud. I'm not that kind of stallion, I assure you."
"You, think me beautiful?" she asked hesitantly.
"Well, your voice is rather soothing and your name certainly is, so I’m assuming that your appearance mimics that. Sorry for not giving you a definite answer, I just can't see a thing right now."
Luna noticed this as well and lit up her horn to see the friendly stallion smiling slightly at her and then move away with a rather irritated expression on his face. She grimaced at this action, fearing it was triggered due to the sight of her face.
"Woah, that's bright!" he moved his hooves in front of his face to keep the unfamiliar light away.
"Sorry," she frowned and dimmed the light coming from her magic.
She took a look at the stallion, Zenith. He was a tall, muscular unicorn. His mane was two toned with dark blue and black that flowed over his right eye, accenting his grey coat. He was very handsome and would be very intimidating, if not for his calm posture and gentle eyes. He had a cutie mark resembling that of a full moon radiating with celestial energy. Luna knew not what that cutie mark entailed, but she thought to ask later rather than sooner, as she still didn’t know why things were as they were right this second.
"H-How did you do that?" Zenith asked, taken aback at the implications of her actions.
"Uh...with my horn?" Luna said.
"No, no, I can- wait, you have a horn too?!" Zenith was a little more than surprised by that revelation. His eyes became adjusted to the light and as he brought his hoof down from his face he managed to get a good look at the mare he was holding only seconds ago.
Luna was about the average height of a unicorn mare, except she happened to have rather large wings, compared to pegasi, to go along with her horn that was a little longer than his own. Her coat was that of a light royal blue and her hair was only a few shades lighter than that. Her cutie mark was of a crescent moon in the night sky. She was very majestic and very regal. Her body was quite slender but had very noticeable curves to it. She had the body every stallion hoped to find in a mare, the perfect curvature. However beautiful the rest of her was, was lost to him, for he hardly noticed. He was transfixed on one thing and one thing only. Her beautiful, turquoise eyes.
"W-Wow..." he had never seen such a perfect mare in his entire life and he was truly mesmerized by her. Not a single one of the unanswered questions mattered now, he didn't care. He hardly even noticed that he wasn't standing in his bedroom anymore nor did he notice the many stars surrounding them, all he saw were her eyes.