The door to the chamber shattered as Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria, raced towards the place she had heard her sister’s scream. Before the splinters had hit the ground, a blast of energy sent her flying muzzle-over-tail into the opposite wall of the hallway. As she scrambled back to her hooves, she saw a dark maelstrom of power, hatred, and malice coalescing into a midnight figure clad in armor.
“Who are you?” demanded the solar princess. “What have you done with my sister? Answer me, demon!”
The figure slowly turned to face her, and the moment Celestia looked into the figure’s eyes, she knew the answer to her questions. “Have I really changed that much, Celestia?” asked the dark mare coldly. “Do you not recognize your own kin?”
Before Celestia could reply, the black alicorn fired a beam of energy that struck her full in the chest. She fell to the ground, writhing and screaming in agony as dark lightning crackled over her body.
As the spell subsided, the ebony figure gazed harshly down her muzzle at Celestia, who still lay on the floor trembling. “Get up, sister. We aren’t finished here yet.”
“This…this power…” panted Celestia, shakily getting to her hooves. “Luna was always strong, but this…she was never this powerful. Who are you? What have you done with my sister!?”
The midnight figure laughed, the mocking sound echoing off the walls as Celestia began to circle her. “You can deny it all you want, but the fact remains that I am your sister. If you had paid even the slightest attention to what was going on around you, you would have seen this coming. You were so preoccupied with your duties that you never saw the things you were stealing from me. And now, I want them back.”
With that, the dark alicorn launched another blast of energy at her opponent. It met with a magical shield that Celestia had woven during the monologue, but the bolt tore through it like paper, sending the solar princess crashing to the ground again as pain wracked her body.
“Once I am done with you, sister,” said the shadowy being with a smirk, “every pony in the land will forget about you and love me instead. Never again will I go through this pain. Never again will anypony DARE betray me!”
The dark, sparkling mane of the ebony pony seemed to take on a life of its own, writhing and coalescing over her head, forming into a spear of such intense blackness that it seemed to draw in the light around it. So focused was the dark alicorn on the object of her hatred that she didn’t even notice the sky-blue unicorn charging in from the doorway until...
Luna gasped as she awoke, still disoriented by the vivid experience. Panting, she glanced towards the window to see that it was early afternoon, several hours before she needed to perform her royal duty.
With a small groan, Luna sat up and slid out from under her bed’s covers. She knew she wouldn’t be able to get any more sleep, not after that vision of the past, of the reality that everypony seemed to have forgotten, including her own sister. They all seemed to believe that Nightmare Moon had been some dark demon or a servant of Discord. Luna couldn’t bear to tell them the truth.
All of those actions from a millennium ago had been hers. She was in control the entire time, her thoughts were her own, and Nightmare Moon was nothing more than the name she had wanted for her new self.
When the Elements of Harmony had defeated her and stripped her of her power, Luna had been terrified. She had fully expected her sister to strike her down for her crimes, and Luna would have welcomed such an oblivion. Instead, Luna had received the one thing she had never expected: forgiveness. After everything she had done, not even in her wildest dreams had she believed that her sister might forgive her.
She still wasn’t quite sure what the Elements had done in that moment. All Luna knew for certain was that the spell that changed her appearance and gave her power was fueled by the dark emotions within her. Instead of overcoming her power, it had been as though the connection between her hatred and the spell had been severed, but nothing had been destroyed. The spell had collapsed without anything to power it, and the feelings she had harbored for centuries seemed to vanish amidst her fear, before being forgotten in the joy of forgiveness.
Sometimes Luna wondered if that darkness still existed within her somewhere, if her soul had truly been cleansed. She glanced at a mirror on the wall of her bedchamber, even now half-expecting to see a pair of slit-pupiled eyes looking back at her. After all, the memories of the events that had given birth to her darkness all those centuries ago remained in her mind. So long as they remained, could the darkness ever be truly gone? Perhaps she should have died that night, perhaps her soul was beyond redemption.
No, thought Luna. Celly forgave me, Twilight and her friends forgave me, so why can’t I forgive myself? They believe in me, and so should I!
She sighed. If only it were that easy…
There was very little for Luna to do in the palace at night. Her sister was always kept busy during the day with petitioners and the governing of Equestria, but none of those things were present when the moon was out. Luna had mostly been spending this time in the library alone, reading up on all the events she had missed during her imprisonment.
Tonight, however, focus eluded her. No matter how she tried, her mind kept returning to her earlier vision, and to what happened on that night all those years ago…
“Are you alright, sister?” came a voice from behind the lunar princess.
Luna’s head snapped up as she turned to look at Celestia, startled out of her ruminations by the elder alicorn who had somehow crept up on her unnoticed. “Oh, y-yes sister, we are fine. Why dost thou ask?”
Celestia frowned. It was usually a bad sign when her sister started slipping back into Old Equestrian. Luna had been doing so well lately with more modern grammar, but she tended to revert back to old habits when unsettled or nervous. “You were unusually silent and withdrawn at dinner this evening, and now you are having difficulty speaking again. I can tell something is troubling you.”
Luna took a deep breath and smiled. “It is nothing, sister. We…I have just been having trouble sleeping lately. You needn’t worry about me.”
“But I DO worry, Luna,” insisted Celestia, taking a seat beside her sister and gently nuzzling her. “It saddens me that I am still your only friend, but as your friend, I cannot simply stand by when you are so clearly distressed. Please, tell me what is wrong.”
“Well,” began Luna hesitantly, “I really have been having trouble sleeping recently, it’s just that…”
“Is it the dreams again?”
“No. I mean, yes, but…” She sighed. “They aren’t simple dreams anymore, sister. These visions are memories; memories of that night.”
Celestia smiled gently, drawing Luna close and draping a large wing over her, just as their mother used to do when they were little. “It’s all right, sister,” she whispered. “The Nightmare is gone, and all is forgiven. There is nothing to be afraid of.”
They remained this way for a time, taking comfort simply from each others’ presence, but it could not last forever. “Thank you for the time and comfort, sister,” said Luna, gently withdrawing from the feathery embrace, “but I cannot ask you to stay here all night. My sleeping hours may not have been very restful, but that is no reason for me to deprive you of yours. Besides, I still have much to catch up on that I missed in the past thousand years.”
“That’s very thoughtful of you, Luna, but I can spare as much time as you need. Still, if that is your wish, then I shall respect it,” said Celestia, nuzzling her sister one last time before turning to leave. “I shall see you tomorrow. Good night, sister.”
“Good night, sister,” replied Luna, turning back to her book.
As comforting as the moment had been, it did not last for long. Luna was only able to progress a few pages before the doubts began creeping up on her again. Frustrated at her inability to focus, she snapped the book shut and left the library to return to her room, hoping that the exercise would help clear her head.
Arriving at her destination, Luna stepped out onto her balcony and took a deep breath of the cool night air. From here, the lunar princess gazed out over the kingdom, bathed in the soft light from her glittering canvas. No matter how many times she stood there, the sight of the moonlit landscape never lost a fraction of its beauty.
Whether or not Celly is right about the Elements purifying me, it changes nothing, thought Luna. There’s no guarantee that it won’t happen again. The darkness in my heart was of my own creation, forged from grief and despair, and shaped into the image of the power I desired. How can I possibly keep that from happening again, when my heart is still in such turmoil?
Perhaps she ought to go out and try to make friends, as Celly kept encouraging her to do. It was always so difficult to find anyone awake during the nighttime hours apart from the guards though, and she was still too nervous to attend the evening gatherings and celebrations held at the palace. Surveying the vista spread out below her, the dusky alicorn’s gaze lingered upon a particular small village at the edge of the Everfree Forest as she recalled all the recent events that had transpired in that seemingly ordinary town.
Hmm...didn’t Celly mention that her student Twilight Sparkle would be coming by tomorrow? Perhaps I could spend some time with her, if she isn’t too busy. She was certainly welcoming enough on Nightmare Night, and she has been studying the magic of friendship. If anyone can help me, she can!
Feeling a new determination, Luna turned back inside and strode over to her bookshelf. After a moment of searching, she selected a book and levitated it with her back to her balcony. Unlike most of the other volumes populating the shelf, it was not a tome of Equestrian history or the like. This particular book had been lent to her by Celestia, and was a collection of Twilight’s reports on friendship. It was as good a place to start as any.