Luna’s eyes popped open. She immediately knew she wasn’t at the castle, but exactly where she was instead, she couldn’t tell. All was black. She raised a hoof, and could see it, so she cast a light to see what else was here. When the light revealed nothing, she extinguished it. The ground felt like metal, yet, when she stood and took a cautionary step, sounded as if it were grass or dirt. She sniffed, and the air smelt musty. The only sound reaching her ears was that of a wind she could not feel.
Until the voice appeared. It sounded full of kindness at first, yet with a tinge of malice behind it, as if the speaker were concealing some hatred. “Dear Luna, it seems you have received my summons,” it called. It seemed to come from every inch of the darkness around Luna. She couldn’t pinpoint the age or location of the speaker, but it sounded vaguely female. It continued, “As much as I would like to make small talk, we’ve no time. After all, you’ve business to attend to later. You must move the glorious moon across a beautiful sky with no one to appreciate it. Though, if you so wish, I can help you with that.”
Luna began to grow suspicious, but still she did not speak. She would wait until her questions were answered. What did this creature want with her? Why were all her instincts telling her to simply blast away at her surroundings in the vain hope of destroying the voice? The creature seemed to read her mind, for it answered the former. “All I want is to help you gain the recognition you so deserve and pine for. I can help you gain adoration beyond your wildest dreams, beyond even what that fool Celestia possesses. Though, she is still involved, of course. After all, how can one take over a kingdom if its ruler still lives?”
Luna blasted arcs of lightning in random directions, hoping to at least graze this beast for even thinking to harm her sister. But so far as she could tell, there was no reaction save for amusement. “Well well, someone’s getting feisty. You really shouldn’t interrupt when someone’s talking, dear. It’s quite rude, and it could get you killed in some circumstances.” Luna’s throat clenched, as if a vice were closed tightly around it. She collapsed from the lack of air, and her vision began to dance with spots for a moment before the pressure released and she gasped and coughed on the “ground” for around a minute. “Think twice before you speak or act flippantly, Luna. Otherwise, you could pay with the lives of a kingdom.
“Now then, back to business. Would you like me to gain you such adoration as never before, as not even Celestia can command? It could be yours. Think of it. Every single person in the world, even beyond the kingdom of Equestria, weeping at what you provide. All throughout the lands, people would come to worship your night as never before, forever. Your night, which you put such work into, your art that people merely sleep through, not once noticing the patterns of the stars, or the correlation of the moon with the entire sky. Your night is a painting, my dear, one that shifts and changes with every cycle. These people are merely ants that cannot hope to comprehend what goes on as they slumber, but you can educate them. With my help, the night doesn’t have to end. Celestia will never steal the recognition you deserve again.”
Luna sat through this spiel, all the while actually considering this offer, and condemning herself for it. At the last, however, she shook herself and declared that it would never occur in a thousand years, and the voice grew contemptuous. “Very well, then. If that is the way you so wish, then I shall simply have to take control by force. I wish you a good night, Luna, for it may be one of your last in free will’s grasp.” The “ground” shattered, and Luna started falling rapidly. She clenched her eyes tight, bracing herself for impact.
Her eyes opened to an insignia of the night sky with the moon surrounded by stars above her. She sat straight up and looked around. She was back in her bedroom, safe, if not sound. She heard a knock on the door and jumped out of bed, readying herself for an attack of any sort. All that followed, however, was Milos, one of her personal servants, stating that it was almost dusk, and Celestia was upon the castle peak awaiting her sister.
Luna relaxed at that. It seemed that the dream of the day before had a bigger effect than she would have liked. Nearly killing a servant just for waking her up. How would that look to the kingdom, she wondered? She allowed herself a chuckle at her momentary lapse in logic, waving her bed made. She composed herself and left for the peak, genuinely thanking Milos on the way out.
When she arrived, Celestia was watching the horizon as the sun set over time. Luna joined her sister at the edge of a veritable mountain’s-height tower and watched her sister finish her daily duties. When it was done, Celestia and Luna turned round and watched the opposite edge of their world, as Luna slowly raised the moon into its cycle through the heavens, surrounding it with stars of differing patterns and brilliance.
Once finished, Luna turned to see Celestia with her head angled skywards, and what looked like tears in her closed eyes. Luna asked immediately if something was wrong, but Celestia merely stated, “No, not at all, dear sister. It’s merely a refreshing sight to see you raise the night sky after so long of my not being here to appreciate it. I thank you for doing this.” Luna began shaking her head, and opened her mouth to protest, but Celestia interrupted her. “No no, don’t argue. I truly mean it with all concern for your well-being. I know you’ve been feeling rather beside yourself recently, and I’ve been meaning to ask you: What is it that troubles you so? Is it enough to completely ignore your sister and our subjects?” Luna remained silent and turned her head, so that she wasn’t forced to look her sister in the eye; for she knew that if she had, she would have broken down and spoken the truth then and there.
Celestia stared at her sister for another few moments, then closed her eyes and sighed. “Very well. But if you ever need my help with something, please, do not hesitate to ask it of me. You are my sister, and I will do all I can to help you through anything that troubles you.” Still Luna remained silent. She thought that her sister sounded condescending of her, as if mocking her for having problems, that she wasn’t as perfect as Celestia was. And then Luna mentally crushed her left foreleg for thinking this thought, and she had no idea where in all the world it had come from. Surely that dark…thing hadn’t actually begun to have an effect on her? Luna made an excuse to leave, apologized, and left Celestia to sit on the peak another few moments, contemplating on what could possibly change her sister this much, before leaving herself and heading to sleep until the dawn.
Luna went about her nightly business the next few nights with only half of her usual energy, if that. She was constantly troubled by what had occurred between her and her sister. That conniving witch that everyone loved without question. And then she magically clenched her stomach very painfully in punishment for thinking this again. It was the third time since the dream that she had thought badly of her sister. She was beginning to dread going to sleep, as she remembered that the creature had promised to meet her again soon. Still, even she could not survive without rest, and she inevitably fell to slumber’s sweet yet horrid embrace for the first time since she had met the thing.
As soon as she closed her eyes, they opened again in the void, as she had come to call it, for there was nothing save for her and the voice, which she had come to call…well, nothing. All she knew was that it was filled with malice. She called out in the darkness, asking for its name, hoping that maybe she could discern something from what it called itself. It responded quickly, first in laughter, then in speech. “So, you wish to speak with me now? There is no other reason for asking my name of me. Very well, since you finally had the decency to ask, I shall tell you.
“Somnus is what I have come to be called, and so, you shall address me as such. Perhaps Celestia remembers me still, considering that she and your parents locked me away centuries ago. I assume that was what eventually killed them, but I cannot say for sure. I am sad, however, that it was not I who slew them. In any case, I felt and feel, even as you feel the same, that she was and is nothing but a tyrant, forcing people to do her bidding with that regalia of hers.” Luna was surprised at this. She had no idea that the regalia were anything other than adornment. “Oh…you didn’t know, did you? That’s what causes the people to adore her so, though she’ll never admit it. Now, if you had one similar, than they would adore you so much more, don’t you think? Of course, we would need the power from hers first, to recreate the effect, and that will require sacrifices, but surely you understand? What is the life of one mare compared to fulfilling your dreams?”
Luna would hear no more. Not until this Somnus showed themselves. “Hmf. Very well. You seem to be in quite the bossy mood today. But I suppose you deserve this much.” With that, Somnus stepped out in front of Luna, who gasped at what she saw.
Somnus looked to be as female as she sounded, though it was hard to tell, for she was covered horn to hoof in armor of darkest black and accented with dark blue, almost as if she were wearing a clear night sky without even a moon or stars. As soon as Luna had recovered from the sight, she blasted the armor with all she had. It left not even a scratch.
Somnus simply laughed and dipped her head slightly, whereupon Luna was suddenly pinned to the ground, dumbstruck. “Can you not see? You can’t hold even the smallest of candles to me. Just submit, and you will have all that you ever dreamed of and more. Do you not want that? What part of you is so ‘noble’ and ‘virtuous’ that you do not want to be seen and appreciated? Simply say those few little words, and it shall all be yours. And then, finally, your work will be appreciated and worshipped for what it is: a masterpiece that nothing can come close to being similar to, no matter how hard they may try. If you do not, then I can just as easily kill you as I could an ant under my hoof. So, what do you say?”
Luna sat in silence for a while, thinking back on everything that her sister had done for her over the years. Her sister had never fully appreciated or even, it could be said, acknowledged the night for what it truly was: a true masterpiece, toiled over night after night, arranging the stars in just the right order. Luna constantly painted beautiful pictures with them, even as a sculptor hammers and chisels away for years trying to find the perfect image within the stone. The only real difference was that Luna did this same amount of work—years’ worth of hard toiling—all in one dusk. Slowly, as she continued to consider all the years of her life under her sister, always in her sister’s shadow, she began to hate. And so it was that Luna agreed to Somnus’ terms, granting her nigh-on complete control over their body whenever she so wished. Somnus ordered Luna to close her eyes. She did so.
She heard a voice instruct her to open them again, and she did so. Something wasn’t right. She was standing in the middle of the forest outside of the castle. She had fallen asleep in her bed, hadn't she? How did she get out here? She turned around to see if she could find her way back to the castle…except the castle wasn’t there. Not completely, at least. It had collapsed in on itself, crushing nearly everyone inside. She felt around with her mind for something, anything still living; Milos, her other servants, an ant, but there was nothing. Nothing alive within a ten-mile radius of where she now stood. Not even her sister.
She broke down and began to weep. She collapsed onto the forest floor and wept for what felt like hours, until Somnus spoke from within Luna’s skull. “It is done. You are now known throughout the lands as the hero who ended the tyranny of one who considered herself a veritable goddess. Now, for your end of the agreement.”
Luna gasped in surprise, and fell to the forest floor. The body that was once Luna’s convulsed violently, shaking as if in seizure. A void-like area erupted around her, decimating everything within two miles. When the smoke cleared, there stood Somnus, expressionless, in all her glory. She flew straight up for a few thousand feet and looked around at the night and its beauty. And she smiled. She smiled a wicked smile as never before this day had been seen or even thought of, for she was victorious. All of the land was now hers to rule in eternal night forever as she saw fit. And to destroy. She began to laugh. She laughed for minutes, for she was finally, truly, free to wreak havoc for all eternity. She suddenly considered that she would need a new title. Yes, "Somnus" didn't seem to fit anymore. She thought for a moment, and smiled once more. “Night Mare Moon”. Yes…that would do nicely…