//------------------------------// // Reaction Control // Story: Luna's Return Trajectory // by Stainless Steel Fox //------------------------------// Reaction Control Richard Nixon was a skilled politician with all that implied. With his administration coming out of its 'honeymoon' period, the Apollo mission, especially Apollo 11, the first moon landing was like manna from heaven. Unlike the ongoing war in Vietnam, the moon missions were something that almost the entire country had gotten behind. However, there was more than just simple political gain to be made there, this would be something remembered as long as there was a United States, for as long as there was a human race. While John Kennedy might have started the ball rolling, the Nixon Administration would be remembered, indeed he would be remembered above all as the president who oversaw man's first steps upon another world. His speech to the two astronauts had been the culmination of that effort, until something beyond belief had happened. He'd seen something approaching them from behind, and even his urbanity had been tested. “Behind you, right behind you!” A few seconds after he'd said those words, and even as they turned to face the... horse? the TV he'd been viewing the two astronauts on cut out. Mindful of the fact that there was a camera there in the Oval Office, recording his half of the conversation, he turned to face it. “It seems something unexpected has happened. Let us all pray that it is nothing bad. I'm sure whatever it is, our brave astronauts can handle it.” He looked behind the camera, at Frank Borman, the NASA liason, who was holding a radio-telephone. “Do you have the signal back?” “Sorry Mr President, but they cut it at Houston. We don't know what's happening.” “I'll find out.” The most important thing to do was look decisive and calm. He picked up his phone and pressed the key marked Haldeman. “Bob, get me Houston, the Director of Flight Operations. I want to know what has happened to our boys up there.” The phone call was set up in moments. He plugged the handset into a recess that connected it to a speaker system, used for conferences. The voice on the other end of the line sounded harried. “This is Donald Slayton, Mr President. I know you must want to know what's going on. We're still trying to figure that out ourselves.” “What's happening up there? Are our boys alright? Why did we lose the television signal?” “Both Commander Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Aldrin are perfectly fine. We pulled the broadcast signal until we could find out what's happening. Gene Krantz, the on watch Flight Director made the call, and I agree with him, as does Dr Paine. Of course, we're still recording everything. As you yourself saw, they appear to have been approached by a creature.” “Then there was something?” Nixon frowned at the phone as if it had suggested he vote democrat. “If this is someone's idea of a practical joke on the U. S. of A, there will be consequences.” “If something's hinky, it's not at our end. We're still confirming things with the deep space network, but the signal delays match and by triangulating from the two ground stations currently seeing the moon, we're certain the signals are coming from the lunar surface. Command Module Pilot Collins confirmed it, he's listening in and not getting the audio delays. Whatever's happening, it's happening up there.” “So what is happening?” Nixon demanded. “The thing looked like some sort of horse, a horse with wings.” “That's correct Mr President. A blue horse with a single horn and wings, according to Commander Armstrong. There's some sort of symbol on its hindquarters, but we don't have an angle to see it yet.” “As long as it's not a hammer and sickle.” Nixon said, quipping for the camera. “No sir, white on black, some sort of crescent moon pattern. Armstrong has engaged it in a dialogue, while Aldrin is prepping the lander for an emergency return to orbit if needed. Thankfully it doesn't seem like it will. It, she, calls herself Luna and seems friendly. She has somehow provided a bubble of air between herself and Commander Armstrong, and speaks English in a feminine voice.” “Son, I understand you wanted to shut down to confirm what you were seeing, but the country, the world is watching, and they will want to see this for themselves. Get it up again.” “Very well sir.” The room could hear him giving instructions off to someone at his end. “We're setting it up on a delay line so we can play back from when we cut out.” Nixon nodded, and made a mental note to tell Haldeman to listen to the real time speech, as soon as the attention was off him. The delay would give them a chance to cut out anything they didn't want to get back to the general public. They should also get a trained interrogator over there to guide the astronauts questions. “Good thinking. We want everyone to see we have nothing to hide.” “You have to understand Mr President, while we can confirm what we're seeing is really happening up there, we can't confirm anything else. Though this is no cheap fake, it would have to be an unbelievably complex and expensive fake to do what we're seeing. But we have to consider it may be the real thing, in which case it's the most important thing that's ever happened in the history of the human race. Wait, we're linking in the playback now...” His TV screen came on, and so from the noises behind the camera did the network feed. The unit director signalled and the light on the camera went dark,and not a moment too soon. Even as he talked to Haldeman on the phone again and watched the unbelievable conversation develop, one of his aides came in with a slip of teletype paper. He recognised the format, it was from the Moscow hotline, which was not a phone as people frequently thought. Having to write messages back and forth allowed both sides to think about what they were saying, and avoid any heated words that might have unfortunate consequences, such as World War Three. Though this particular missive wasn't particularly sanguine. Translated from Russian and stripped of diplomatic language, it basically asked what the hell the United States were playing at. Richard Nixon, president of the United States of America rubbed his forehead, this was going to be a very long day. &&& The set-up of the EASEP had gone ahead faster than they'd ever managed to do it in the simulator. Having an extra pair of hands, even when it was actually a horn, had proved very useful, especially as Luna's telekinesis had proved more dexterous and powerful than space suit gloves. She hadn't trained for it, but Neil and Buzz had, backwards and forwards, which meant they could describe each operation exactly, which was all the alicorn needed. In the process they'd given her a very basic explanation of how things worked. As the self test button was pressed, Neil said, “Houston, are you receiving telemetry on the EASEP?” After three seconds, Charlie's voice came back. “That's a roger. We have a good signal... uh huh, all the instruments are checking out okay. Nice work, all three of you, we've made up some time. You have fifteen minutes for any personal activities, then retreat to the lander for scheduled rest period. We'll be extending the stay one orbit to give you some extra down time. ” “I'll pass on your thanks.” Neil replied. “Luna, they say we did a good job.” Buzz shook his head, though the motion wasn't too clear through the helmet. “It still seems like magic.” “That is because it is.” Luna replied humour in her voice. “It was the least I could do after interrupting your work as I did. I find this technology fascinating. Devices that use light and lightning rather than magic, 'radio' and 'electronics' as you call them; powered by light as well. Unicorns have light spells, and pegasi can buck thunderbolts out of clouds, but no-pony ever considered such devices as this might be made.” “We find your magic just as amazing. Like that spell you did earlier to show us your home. What sort of magical devices do your people have?” Neil moved away from the experiment package, reaching into an external pocket for his pack of memorial items. “Mostly amulets and other wearable items that give some fixed effect, such as enhanced magical power or protection. Farspeaking and scrying mirrors, though those are rare since careful attunement is needful. A few unicorns and earth ponies have crafted clockwork automata or magically animated golems to do simple tasks, but they are usually too expensive or too fragile for any practical use.” Buzz had moved back to the lander and collected the Hasselblad still camera.“Could you build them?” “The clockwork, no, but I could probably turn my horn to golem crafting. While 'tis not a speciality of mine, I have knowledge of the basic animation spells and methods.” “One moment.” Neil placed the package on the ground, mounding up the lunar soil around it in a cairn. He stepped back and looked down at it, silent. Luna started to ask what he was doing, but Buzz put his finger up to his faceplate over the lips, and when that just got a puzzled look, placed his whole hand in front of his mouth. Luna's eyes widened in realisation, and she nodded and touched a fore-hoof to her mouth as Buzz raised his camera. Neil stood back and saluted. “Well guys, we made it. I just wish you could see what we've seen. You paved the way for us, and for that we'll always be grateful. Godspeed.” “Amen.” Buzz echoed. Neil. “A tribute of some kind?” Luna asked. Neil turned back to face Luna. “A memorial to three American astronauts and two Russian cosmonauts who've died. Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee And Ed White were killed in a fire testing the first Apollo module, the ship that brought us here. I knew all three of them. Yuri Gagarin was the first man to fly in space, then ended up dying in a routine training flight. Vladimir Komarov died testing a new Russian space craft.” Luna nodded her head. “I understand, 'tis a noble thing to remember your lost friends this way. But I thought from what you said earlier, and the way you said it, that Russia is no friend to your nation.” “Russia may not be, but none of us astronauts had any quarrel with their astronaut corps. We even tried to send a representative to Komarov's funeral, but the guys in charge over there wouldn't allow it.” “I am sorry to hear that.” Luna stepped towards the cairn and bowed her own head. “Rest well, brave adventurers. Your sacrifice is remembered.” Buzz had remembered the camera and took a picture of her as she gave her own benediction. Charlie's voice broke the silence. “Tranquility base, you're down to ten minutes before your rest period, but we need you to ask Luna some questions. Neil, you seem to have a better rapport with her.” “Understood, Capcom.” Neil replied. “I'm guessing it isn't whether Luna has any walk on luggage?” “Sorry, but no-one's gotten back to me on Luna's request. I doubt they'll have an answer before you return to the Columbia. Which means it's probably going to be Apollo 12.” “I understand. I didn't really expect anything else, you don't make a decision like that on the spur of the moment.” Luna could hear his side of the conversation, and the disappointment in her expression was easy to read, despite the differences in species. “My request to travel with you?” “With us, probably not. But Apollo 12, our next mission is in four months, four lunar days, so they'll have time to plan for your recovery properly. We'd have to improvise a berth for you in a cramped capsule, and still be able to reach the controls. They'll be able to move things around to give you a safe space.” “If they will allow me at all.” Luna sighed. “I'm sure they will.” Neil said comfortingly. “After all, there are so many things people will want to learn about you. You certainly seem to be nice enough.” Rather than reassuring her, it seemed to distress her. She took a hoofy step back and looked away. “I want to be. I am! But I was not, and I should have told you before now. I swore when I first approached you that I would be completely open and honest about myself, and your kindness in meeting me in friendship rather than with fear only makes that obligation more needful.” Both astronauts looked at her, puzzled. She visibly steeled herself, and looked back at them. “I wasn't sent to my moon voluntarily. I was banished there. That's why the remnants of the spell act like a geas, binding me here. In a few hours of madness, I turned against my sister, against everything I believed in; I abandoned my duties as a Princess, refused to lower the moon and even struck at my beloved sister with powerful magic, fully intending to... to... destroy her!” The last few words were whispered, and there were tears dripping from her face and sizzling soundlessly away on the ground below. “Fortunately, she weathered the blow and returned to the fight, or rather to remonstrate with me to turn aside from the dark path I had taken. When in my folly and pride I refused, as a last resort she used the most powerful artefacts in the land, the Elements of Harmony, to seal me away in the moon as a bodiless spirit. “I do believe that is exactly what happened to the greater part of me. I had taken the name Queen Nightmare Moon, no mere Princess I. My ego and pride were as boundless as my rage and just as foalish.” She shook her head as if dislodging a fly. “However, I was once the bearer of the Elements of Loyalty, Honesty and Kindness myself, and even though I'd abandoned all three in favour of my delusions, I think some part of me still resonated with them, this part of me.” She gestured to herself with a hoof. “For but a moment I was apart from Nightmare Moon, aware of my folly, and that is when the outside force, this Star Bomber you talked about, tearing me away from the rest of myself, finishing the job.” She sank to the ground, looking downcast. Her voice was hollow and gloomy, a far cry from the erudite scholar from a few moments before. “But even though the sum of mine anger and malice was separated from me and sealed away, I can not escape the fact that Nightmare Moon and I were once one being, and that the ultimate source of all that rage and despite came from me. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked you to take me with you. I deserve to be here. I will go, yes, leave you alone. It is the least I can do after your kindnesses to me.” She sprang back up and turned away. Both astronauts felt a sudden absence, and realised that the spell she'd used to talk to them had vanished. As she bounded away, Neil exclaimed, “I'm going after her!” “Are you crazy?” Buzz called out, even as Neil set off with the 'kangaroo hops' they'd copied from seeing Luna do it. Capcom added his own two cents, “You're almost at the end of your scheduled EVA, even with the extension!” Neil kept most of his attention on the princess, who was fleeing in the direction of the shadows, and on watching his footing, but he managed to say, “These things are designed with a four hour operational limit. I've got plenty of time on the PLSS. The risk is worth it to make sure Luna's last contact with humanity isn't what just happened. She's in a bad place right now, and I don't aim to leave her there any longer than necessary.” Capcom spoke after a few moments. “Surgeon says your vitals are high but acceptable, and EECOM agrees with your life support assessment. The investigator who was going to guide you through the questions states that we need information. He's particularly interested in that lowering the moon comment. You are authorised to follow.” “I'll try and get her to open up, but I won't push her.” The regolith crunched soundlessly underfoot as he chased her, but it seemed that four legs were better than two for this kind of work, and she pulled ahead, over the slight rise to the west. When he reached it, he had to stop for a second to look around. He stopped himself calling for her, even if her 'farspeaking spell' had been working, it wouldn't have given him a direction. At first he didn't see her, then he spotted a flash of movement at the edge of a small crater. He walked in long bounds to the edge, and saw Luna just below him, sprawled on a slight mound, and crying silently into her crossed fore-hooves. He made his way down carefully, and moved so his shadow would be visible. She looked up and flinched as if he was about to hit her, which was ridiculous, since her earlier demonstration of telekinesis suggested that in a fight she could handle him like small change. He moved around until he was illuminated, then crouched, not an easy thing in his suit, and held out his hand as he had when they'd first met. After a moment's apparent confusion, she sat upon her haunches and placed her fore-hoof in his palm, as she had before. There was a sense of a soundless echo in his helmet, and her voice spoke to him. “Why didst thou come after me? I told you what I was, what I had done. I was sure you'd want nothing more to do with me!” Neil chose his next words carefully. “It sounded terrible, but you also sounded like you really regretted what you'd done. I hope you don't think I'd judge you so quickly. I have trouble seeing the monster you describe in the pony in front of me. And even if you were, I don't think that's who you are now.” Luna looked up at him, eyes wide. “Truly?” “What I see is a pony, a person, who has been nothing but friendly and helpful, someone I'd be happy to call a friend. Someone who was willing to sacrifice the only contact she'd had with anyone in eight years to avoid the remote possibility of hurting us, unless this 'Nightmare Moon' alter ego is likely to pop up at the drop of a hat?” “No! Never!” Luna rose to her hooves. “That part of me is sealed away for a thousand years, and good riddance!” “Then come back with me to the lander. I'd like to get to know Princess Luna, and how someone like you could have turned into Nightmare Moon. Maybe if we know what happened, we can stop it from ever happening again.” Luna closed her eyes, deep in thought for a moment, then opened them with a nod of agreement. “I said I owed you a debt of friendship, and if you truly wish to hear my story, that is a minim of fair recompense.” &&& They arrived back at the lander, still talking, and Neil made sure that the three of them were in view of the television camera mounted on the lander strut, close enough for it to record Luna's expression. Mission Control had granted another extension on the EVA, at the direct orders of the president. “Sir Neil, you asked what I meant by refusing to lower the moon? I believe that is the place to start.” An image of a blue and white marbled world, the size of a football appeared as her horn glowed. Despite the similarity to the one in the sky above, the patterns of green and brown showed it was not earth. “Equis, my homeworld, as I have seen it on rare occasions when I flew above the skies to perform some particularly precise piece of astronomy. Even the best light amplifying enchantments are defeated by the distortions of light passing through the envelope of air surrounding our world. Didst also collect some fascinating astrolites before they burned as meteors in that same atmosphere...” It shrank, and started to show phases as it reached the size of a golf ball. Now two marble-sized motes orbited it at a distance of several feet. One was a brilliant ball of light that illuminated one side of Equis, the other a dappled grey sphere that shone with a softer glow. At first glance they appeared to be simply chasing one another around the same orbital path on opposite sides of the world. However, on closer inspection, it was clear the two had slight and varying inclinations in their paths, in part because the 'moon' moved up and down through the planet's shadow, creating different degrees of full to crescent moon. “Both Celestia's sun and my moon orbit Equis, providing day and night.” She looked expectantly at the astronauts. Buzz sighed. “Okay, I'll bite. First of all, if that sun is the size of our moon and works the same way, it couldn't exist unless the laws of physics in your universe are seriously different, enough that I can't believe you could survive in this one. Second, there no way those orbits would be stable. Perturbations would build up until one of those things crashed on your world or was flung off in to space. I'm guessing the answer is magic, but what kind?” Luna nodded. “As far as I can tell, you are correct on both counts. Both our suns work by elemental transmutation of phlogiston to celestium. However, since I detect no trace of magic in its emanations, I would guess your giant sun uses sheer mass and pressure to hold together and fuse fragments of phlogiston, whereas Celestia's sun has powerful enchantments that allow it to maintain itself, beyond the power of even an Alicorn. Some part of the energy released is converted to magic to power the spells; the excess magic in turn is carried away on the solar wind. “Both sun and moon also have a passive enchantment, once again of vast power, that amplifies the effect of telekinesis upon them many millionfold, and makes them easier to find and grasp with that power. As you surmise, both orbs require daily maintenance of their paths through the sky, both to prevent catastrophes and to produce the varying months and seasons. In the present epoch, that duty fell to myself and my sister.” While both astronauts had seen what she was leading up to, it was still a thought to give them both pause. Neil recovered and asked, “and before that?” “I do not know. When they were created there was a system of controls that maintained them, or so we believe. However, the earliest records from the time of the three tribes say that a team of the strongest unicorns banded together to provide the necessary cornual control, and demanded tribute from the other tribes as payment for their services. They were the first ones to call it 'raising the sun' and 'raising the moon', as propaganda to support their demands, when in fact they would not have been able to stop them. My best guess is that it was all they could do to make the necessary orbital adjustments. “Celestia and I can actually hold them in position with some effort, though we've never needed to. We still have a ceremony of making adjustments at sunrise and moonrise, but that is mainly because the horizon gives us a reference plane to check the trajectory against. The unlettered may call it 'raising the sun', but any educated pony knows the truth. Even we two sisters sometimes use it as an expression. It is forsooth easier than saying 'adjusting orbital parameters and minimising orbital perturbations.'” “So when you said you refused to lower the moon...” Neil prompted. “I didst raise it and stop it at its zenith over Equestria, eclipsing the sun and forcing my sister to adjust its path to avoid a collision.” “Whew! That's quite a claim.” Neil said. “Out of interest, what can you move without those enchantments, and from how far away?” Luna frowned in thought. “No easy question to answer, that. Both of us regularly adjusted the orbits of minor moons and comets that threatened to impact Equestria, the greatest of those did mass in the tens of thousands of tonnes, and at a range of many thousands of leagues. But they had absorbed residual magical energy from the solar wind, and to a degree its enchantments, making them easier to move. Also those movements were far less than that needed to hold them up against Equis's own gravity. “Without any inherent magic? I couldst lift some few thousand tons at a range of a dozen leagues on the surface of Equis, maybe ten or twenty times that at close range. Of course, that was when I was fully empowered, right now I would struggle with a tithe of that, and drain my reserves in moments. Might probably loft yonder vessel back into orbit without excessive strain, but not much more.” “That's still impressive.” Buzz stated. “But you said they were created; that implies creators. If not you, then who?” “Once again, no-pony knows for sure. The common term is the Makers, though that is more a label than an explanation. We know of them only two things. That they could craft and alter reality on a planetary scale, that they reshaped Equestria and created the sun and moon between fifteen and twenty five thousand Equestrian years ago.” “You have a time scale?” “Yes, from age detection dweomers cast on rocks from undisturbed locations and mines. Also the magical build up on those captured astrolites calculated against their orbits and intensity of emission from my sister's sun. At that time-scale they are not precise, but they at least give a hoof-grasp of the age. The body from which Equestria is formed is far older, of course. There is a shift noticeable in all the deepest mine-shafts, a layer beyond which no fossils are found and the spells give a vast age, years beyond counting.” “Of course.” Prompted by the voice in his headset, Neil said, “So the big question is why? It sounds like you had an important role, a vital one, and that you care for Celestia deeply. What could have made you turn into this Nightmare Moon?” Luna hung her head. “Loneliness. Jealousy. Pride. I guided the moon, oversaw the creation of beautiful nights, even patrolled the dreams of pony-kind to ward them against nightmares both self-inflicted and those caused by the denizens of that realm. However, I no longer felt appreciated for it, or that I was even noticed. I was merely a caretaker, while my sister was the sole true ruler of Equestria.” She shook her head. “It wasn't always so. When we ascended the throne together, we were equals in respect. We had discovered the Elements of Harmony, ascended together, bore them together, and ended the reign of Discord as a team.” “Discord? There was some sort of civil war?” “Discord was a monstrous being, he called himself a Lord of Chaos. What he truly was, we know not. A Maker gone mad, some great mistake of theirs, even a force of nature given the personality of a mean spirited foal with a twisted sense of humour. I doubt even he knew himself. He could warp reality with a thought and used his powers to hold all of Equestria in a state of misery and turmoil. Ponies were his playthings, and he frequently forgot how easily we broke. “My sister and I were born during that era, myself a unicorn, my sister a pegasus, of earth pony parents. As we grew, I discovered I had a talent for magic, especially illusion and conjuration. I was the last apprentice of Starswirl the Bearded, who was seventy years young by that time. He taught me what little magical lore had been salvaged from before Discord's depredations. My sister was a strong flyer, but more than that she had a talent for understanding ponies, what they needed, what they wanted, and a desire to make them happy. She did her best to help, but everything we did was overturned in an instant at Discord's whim. When we received our cutie-marks, we swore a pact to go out into the world, and find some means of bringing down Discord and restoring Equestria.” “Cutie-marks?” Neil asked. Luna looked quizzical, then moved to present her flank more clearly, flicking her tail across her moon symbol. “I see, that mark on your hindquarters? Some sort of coming of age tattoo?” “A symbol of coming of age, yes, but not a tattoo. 'Tis an expression of a pony's magic, their soul, and symbolises what makes them special, often a talent that they both excel at and enjoy. It forms when they realise that talent is special to them. It also acts as a focus, enhancing that talent with a pony's magic. Some-pony trained and working under the influence of their cutie-mark talent can accomplish things beyond the most skilled practitioner whose skill comes from training alone. “We believed that my moon mark symbolised my talent for magic and astronomy, and my sister's sunburst her ability to bring ponies happiness and understanding. Which they were, but that was only a part of the picture. Both of us were powerful in our respective magics, and both of us were determined to use our powers to end Discord's reign. I sought ancient legends, powerful conjunctions, divination spells and scraps of ancient magic. My sister talked to ponies, helping them where she could, and collecting knowledge and rumours, filly tales, anything that might give me a clue.” She started to intersperse her story with illusion images from her point of view. Pegasus Celestia was smaller, more compact, and her mane was simply pink with a blue streak. The landscape around them looked like it had been created by a Looney Toons artist who'd been drinking too much, possibly for years. “Ultimately we pieced together a possible location for the Tree of Harmony, an artefact Starswirl had once told me he once saw in a vision, though had never found himself. It was possibly an artefact left by the Makers, and therefore powerful enough to affect Discord. Our quest to find it would be a story in itself, but find it we did, in a cave in the depths of the Everfree Forest. It was a place Discord had lavished special attention on, and hideously dangerous as a result. “We were both injured and weary when we finally found the great crystalline tree, but from the moment I saw it, I knew that it had a power beyond anything I'd ever sensed. However, it was dormant, suppressed by the chaos around it, and no spell I knew could revive it. As we rested, I devised a mad plan to awaken it, a direct transfusion of our combined magic to spark it back into life. The drain could easily kill us or worse, permanently drain our magic, but Celestia never even hesitated. I drew the ritual circles and empowered them, and we stepped into place. “The shock did almost kill us, but the sacrifice we were willing to make as much as the power we supplied seemed to resonate within the tree. The Elements emerged from the tree as gems of different colours and their light washed over us, healing us and binding them to us. I was bound to Loyalty, Honesty and Kindness, while Celestia received Laughter, Generosity and the keystone, Magic, the focus empowered by the other five working together. We fell into a deep slumber, and when we awoke, we were alicorns.” She paused and created an image of a dark blue alicorn, taller than her and with a mane and tail that moved like Celestia's, though its two tones were deep blue and shot with stars. They saw Celestia in a large room behind her and a fancy gilt frame around the edges and realised this was her memory of looking in a mirror. It was replaced by the confrontation with Discord after a moment. She frowned. “After all our efforts, the actual confrontation was anti-climactic. We found Discord by going where things made the least sense, and defied him. He laughed in our faces, we were well known to him at this point, and I believe the futility of our prior efforts amused him. We called on the power of the Elements and turned him to stone in mid-laugh.” The image of a petrified Discord falling from his throne vanished, and Luna continued. “Defeating Discord and cleaning up his mess was the easy part. We had to rebuild our nation, our society from the ground up. It didn't help that many other nations and creatures thought our weakened state made us easy pickings. As the defeaters of Discord we were respected, even worshipped, and more or less drafted into the position of ruling. “It helped that one of the first things we discovered about our new forms were our connections to the sun and moon, and the true meaning of our cutie-marks. That is why I suspect the Tree of Harmony was part of the original control system that maintained the harmony of the heavens. It had to have been failing even before Discord's reign, or the unicorn council wouldn't have been needed, but his cavalier control finished things, so it chose replacements.” Her distant look and wistful smile were clear. “It was the happiest time of my life. Together we defied dragons, gathered stalwart ponies of all three races to form the Earth-pony Unicorn Pegasus guard and fend off griffon raiders and marauding Diamond Dogs. We laid the foundations of new towns and cities, brought ever more land under cultivation, set the seasons in motion, tamed the Everfree and created the weather patrol to manage and deliver clouds across Equestria, as Discord's reign had damaged that natural cycle too. “We collated and crafted a code of laws from the best ideas of all three races, created an elected legislature to maintain them and an honest judiciary to enforce them. We opened up trade routes from the Griffindor to Zebrica, sponsored a renaissance in art and scholarship. Equestria once again became a great nation, greater than it ever had been, a centre for culture, trade and learning. The three races living together in equality and harmony, as the Founders would have wanted.” Her eyes sparkled as she spoke and they could hear the remembered joy in her voice as she stood tall. Then the light dimmed, and her shoulders slumped. “But eventually we became victims of our own success, or at least I did. As the centuries passed, and fewer crises needed our combined efforts, we split the duty of ruler-ship into day and night, and it became routine, tradition. We saw each other for only a few hours each day, when we ate our morning and evening meals together and did our duty in maintaining the sun and moon. However, while Celestia's Day Court was thronged with ponies, my Night Court became less and less frequented, until it was little more than myself and my guards presiding over an empty throne-room. “The ponies worked and played in the day, but slept through my night, and few ever looked at my sky, let alone came to give me compliments, or even to ask for advice or council. I told myself that was a good thing, that it gave me more time for my studies, but it still made me feel like the lesser sister, the spare. I should have talked to Celestia about it, I'm sure she would have helped, but my own foolish pride prevented me. I was a princess of Equestria, I could stand on my own four hooves...” She gave a deep sigh, which was some trick considering the lack of air. “I denied what I felt, even to myself, and my isolation grew, along with my jealousy for my sister. It did not help that she had received the Element of Magic; yes, she had more raw power, but I was the more skilled as a mage. I put on a brave face for my sister when we met, and the sad thing is that with my understanding of her nature, I was the one pony who could fool her uncanny ability to understand what was in ponies' hearts. It became a habit, until I no longer even considered it. “I did try and make my own niche, sponsored scholars and mages and worked with them to advance our knowledge, which gained me renown and respect within that learned community, but not the sort of widespread admiration my sister received. I created a mid-winter festival in the manner of my sister's summer sun celebration, to celebrate the longest night rather than the longest day of the year, but it was subsumed by Hearth's Warming Eve, the celebration of the founding of Equestria, and the ideas I created, decorated trees and gift giving, became Hearth's Warming traditions. “When my studies of planar magic gave me a way to travel to the realm of dreams and trot amongst the dreams of pony-kind, I thought I finally had something that was my own, that could gain me the feeling of being useful again, and proving to my little ponies that I could care for them just as well as Celestia. Rather than sitting in an empty throne room, I would protect them from their darkest nightmares. And for a time it worked, until some idiot courtier claimed I was responsible for the nightmares, 'defeating' them only to make myself look good. “His scheme seemed to be to blacken my name and sister's by association and use that uncertainty to force us out of power. Then he and a cohort of like-minded unicorns could bring back the glorious rule by a unicorn council that controlled the sun and moon. It would never have worked, and didn't, but that didn't stop him trying. My sister and I denied it, and ultimately exposed him as a fool and a traitor, but once a rumour like that starts, it is impossible to stop. Pride made me continue, but I had to disguise myself, work without ponies noticing me, as it hurt to see them fear me only slightly less than the nightmares I fought. “It was in the year 852 Post Ascension that things finally came to a head. An allied nation state in the Northern Wastes, the Crystal Empire, was usurped by an evil minded unicorn enchanter by the name of Sombra, who delved deeply into the darkest of magics. He enslaved the populace to mine the magical crystals that would have enhanced his power many-fold, enough to challenge us and take over Equestria, and so we responded in force as soon as word reached us. “It was like the olden times, my sister and I going out to vanquish a great evil and save ponies, and despite the grave nature of our quest, I'm ashamed to admit I felt some joy over it. We faced him in battle, and won, but at a terrible price. Even as we cast him down he used the last of his magic, his very life-force, to curse the Crystal Empire, twist it out of normal time, so that it vanished beyond our ability to rescue it. It was at best a bitter sweet victory, and I keenly felt that I was the reason we'd failed. “Then some unicorn noble-pony had the same idea as his predecessor and claimed the same thing, that I had somehow 'jogged Celestia's horn' at the critical moment. He was silver tongued, and did his work carefully, avoiding Celestia's notice until it was too late. When I found out how many ponies were ready to believe him, even some of my own servants, I fell into a deep depression and fled to the summer palace we'd built over the cavern of the Tree of Harmony. I sent the servants and functionaries away and brooded. “That was when it happened. Maybe Sombra had cursed us too, or some remnant of a nightmare I had not fully destroyed had found the place in my heart where I'd bottled up my unworthy feelings for so many centuries, and fed on them. Maybe I just reached a tipping point, where it was just too much to bear. Whatever the reason, I snapped, when Celestia came to me to find out what was wrong, I raised the moon and eclipsed her sun. I was consumed by my jealousy and rage from centuries of desire for what she seemed to gain so effortlessly, the love and respect of ponies. “In my madness, I decided that if they would not respect me for what I did, I would blanket Equestria in night until they _had_ to accept me as Celestia's equal, as worthy of love and respect as she. When she called on me to lower the moon, I decided that I would never have what I wanted unless she was... destroyed.” The last word was whispered. Another illusion formed before them, of the confrontation between Celestia and Nightmare Moon. “The rest you know. We fought, I injured her, but she came back at me with the Elements, and I found both my connections were broken. That day, she showed why she had been the one to receive the Element of Magic, by wielding all six in harmony. I realise now that magic, true magic is far more than books and cleverness. She used them and... here I am. “I know what you will say, that my actions would have had the opposite effect. But you have forgotten, I was insane. Madness cares not for logic, or consequences. As Nightmare Moon, I wouldst have seen all of Equestria destroyed, frozen in an sunless eternal winter, and still considered it justified vengeance against those who had wronged me. I have had eight years to reflect on my memories, eight years free of the madness that once claimed me, and I know just how pointless my actions were. “I understand now what I did, and what it must have cost my sister to banish me. If I could change one thing, it would be to take her place, destroy that monster though it cost me my life. The sad thing is, if I stood before her right now, I know she would forgive me, despite the harm I did her. Whether I will ever forgive myself is another matter entire.” She looked levelly back and forth between the two silent astronauts. “Now you know my history, told as much without fear or favour as I could. It is no justification for my actions, but it is at least an explanation. Tell your leaders, that they may know who and what they are dealing with.” “Thank you, Luna.” Neil replied, gently. “I could see how difficult that was for you.” “What boots it to prevaricate?” Luna asked, then said firmly. “You deserved nothing less than the full truth. I just hope knowing it does not ruin our friendship.” “I still consider you a friend, and I don't think you should place all the blame on yourself. You made mistakes, but so did others. Someone should have realised what was happening, before it all came to a head.” Buzz had his eyes closed in thought. “Nobody is without flaws. It is how we respond to them that defines us. God doesn't expect us to be perfect, only that we try our best. However far you fell, you've repented, and seem to have learned from what happened. You've been given a second chance, and you need forgiveness, not condemnation.” Luna had tears in her eyes again, but this time her radiant smile showed they were for a far different reason. “Thank you, thank you both of you!” Buzz added. “Though some people may not react as well... Your full story will need to be carefully released.” Charlie's voice came across the communications relay. “I'm afraid it's a bit late for that. They restarted the feed soon after you met. Nobody told me, or I'd have warned you, it's still a bit hectic down here. Everybody watching saw and heard everything.” “What!” Buzz and Neil yelled together, while Luna looked puzzled at their reaction. “Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction too. Sorry about that.”