//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Lunafall: Moonrise 
// by Bridgebrain 
//------------------------------//


PONYFALL: MOONRISE





*Thu-Thump* *Thu-Thump*


        I look down at the talons at my throat. They are clenched tight enough to constrict my breath, but not halt it. More importantly, it hurts. He knows it hurts, and revels in my pain, but he won't kill me; that's not his style. As I struggle to break free, he tightens his grip slightly, just to remind me that he's in control here. I stop fighting and glare at him. 

His name is Discord, and it shouldn't be possible for him to be here right now.

        The day started like most others as of late. My dear sister Celestia awoke the world from its slumber with the raising of the sun. I brought the night to an end a little late, allowing the sun and moon to share the same sky, if only for a moment. This may seem silly, or possibly even lazy, depending on who you ask, but to me, it's something profound; I get to be close to my sister. Sure, we eat our meals together most of the time, and we do talk occasionally, but things have been... estranged between us since my return.

        My name is Luna, and I am the Princess of Night. There was a brief time when I wished to be the ruler of all. I was once consumed with jealousy and hate against my own sister; my own flesh and blood. The ponies of the world reveled in joy through her bright day, but did not tread the dark. They shunned it in favor of sleep and artificial lighting. This alone was manageable. It is not a ruler’s place to question such actions, even at the cost of said ruler’s heart. It was the feeling of rejection that surrounded it all that bore into my soul.

I began to grow distant, which only further served to set the populace against me. For centuries this unrest grew, both between myself and my subjects and between me and my own mind. Something slowly formed, an all consuming thought borne of the darkest recesses of my soul. Her... “its” name was Nightmare Moon.

        Determined to force the subjects to accept us, she decided to plunge the world into eternal darkness. They would see the light eventually... well, not literally, but they'd appreciate the beauty of my night sky, whether they liked it or not. Needless to say, this was madness, and my sister was fully within her rights to bring about my destruction. She harnessed the Elements of Harmony and banished me, Nightmare and all, to the moon to slumber eternally. She took upon herself my duties, and peace and harmony reigned once again.

        Such would be a good end to this tale, everyone living happily ever after, except for me, trapped within my own mind with a terror spawned from my own dark emotion. To continue the peace forever, I would have gladly remained banished evermore. The universe seemed to have other plans. After a thousand years time, an ancient prediction came true. Four stars, still loyal to their dark mistress, broke their bonds of space and magic and released me from my prison. 

To this day, I'm not sure whether or not to thank them. The Nightmare still reigned over my mind and would have been the end of Equestria, were it not for the interference of Celestia's personal protege, Twilight Sparkle.

        I know not whether Celestia had planned for my return with this young mare, nor if she had planned for things to go as well as they did. When I returned, I had a millennium's worth of magic at my disposal. Consuming most of this power with a single spell, I set my sister to slumber. Even with such power used, I couldn’t believe that she was so easy to defeat. To this day, I sometimes wonder if she feigned her failure in order to let her protege shine. 

The lavender unicorn had that very day founded the friendships that lead to my defeat. Just as I know not my sister's level of foresight, I also know little of my thoughts at this time. It is like looking into a shattered mirror, with all the cracked lines shielding me from the blemishes upon my face. I know what I should see when I look into my memories, but instead there are great places of ephemeral shadow and broken shard.

        I doubt that I was aware of the nature of the ponies who represented the Elements. However, I do know I tried to stop them. The Nightmare seemed to fail at understanding the better things of life; of honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity, and loyalty. Had she attempted to use her wiles upon those who were not teeming with such traits, she may have been successful. As it was, she ended up playing each challenge to their strengths. 

Perhaps she was aware, and simply too full of hubris. The last underestimation she made was that of the combined power of friendship, something that reached out to me in the turmoil that had taken my mind. Twilight Sparkle managed to do the impossible; she stilled the storm in which my world had existed in for so long. Celestia, having been freed with the ending of my darkness, returned to the world, and did the most unforeseeable of actions. She forgave me.

        Again, this would be a wonderful place to end the story, the redeemed princess, the living elements of harmony, and the reunited sisters. The problem was, I was not fully redeemed, not yet. To forgive doesn't inherently mean to forget; a thousand years only burned away the anger at my actions, not the fear. My subjects still feared me, though they no longer feared my night. This in itself was a blessing: I could watch them stare into my sky and feel their peace, and yet not have to be concerned with interruptions and royal duties.

        This nearly brings us back to where we began, however, with the sun and moon alighting the sky simultaneously. My subjects were not the only ones to not forget my treason and the many acts that followed. Forgiven as I may be, my sister is still distant from me, guarded. 

While I cannot expect more - I am honestly still surprised with her capability to forgive - the look in her eyes when she turns around stings greatly. A flash of fear crosses them as she turns her back toward me to walk ahead, as if she doesn't fully trust me to not suddenly attempt to strike her down. Regardless she turns, and this benign action speaks volumes. One does not turn their back on a possible assailant. This has continued for many months, diminishing only slightly as time flows by. It shall be a distant memory in the past with time... I hope.

        I digress. The day begun, I joined my sister for my dinner, her breakfast. Being on opposing schedules, the kitchen staff has been most creative in making matching meals. After dining I departed, leaving my sister to deal with her court, and headed into the gardens. It had become a ritual for me, to walk the grounds before adjourning to sleep. Many things are more beautiful in my night, but the gardens belong to the dawn and dusk. The seeping of color from the sky highlights them all, and brings about a unique beauty. 

I walk by the statue of Discord some days and remember his defeat with a smile. It sours as I remember the years before his banishment though, and I leave quickly. Today was no different and I soon retired to my chambers. Upon arrival, I found awaiting me a missive from Twilight Sparkle which, while addressed to my sister, contained a note meant for me. She had observed a strange stellar phenomenon and wondered of my opinion. 

Intrigued as I was, I was far more tired. I had spent much of my night calculating the next set of rotations for an immense group of stars. Over the course of the next five years, they will align into an intricate spell of unimaginable beauty and complexity. On the night of this event, the stars will cast forth colors of blue, pink and green unto the sky in ribbons of flowing color, then realign to their natural states. It shall be quite the event. 

Yet again, I digress. I was awoken from my well earned rest by an assortment of factors. Foremost, the breaking of a spell that guaranteed that I would not be disturbed which I had placed upon my door. This jarred me from my rest, but did not awaken me fully. The subsequent removal of my doors from their hinges, however, did. As the great wooden planks crashed to the floor, I sprung to face this unknown assailant. From the clearing dust, my sister appeared. I could immediately see that something was wrong, even if my decimated doors were a previous indication.

        “Discord has escaped,” was all she spoke, and then turned and flew.


*Thu-Thump* *Thu-Thump*




I stood there in complete silence, letting the words settle through my shocked mind, even as cries of panic and strange chaotic noises began to assault my ears. Quickly recovering, I rushed through the castle, intent on repairing any damage I could before rejoining my sister. Passing through the halls, I saw that of the statues of assorted historical ponies were doing the Can-Can. No damage being done, moving on. I heard screams from the royal kitchens and diverted my path to intersect. Upon entering, I overheard the calm conversation from the toasters and the bakers, who each seemed to simply be happy to have someone to talk to. More pressing, however, were the ovens, which had decided to rise up against their earth pony oppressors.

        I flew to the ponies who were cowering before their new sentient cooking overlords, allowing them to escape. One young earth pony stayed behind to assist with their defeat.

“Don’t make me use The Spoon!” quoth he, holding a long wooden spoon in the face of the infernal kiln. It simply glared, followed by the throwing of a great flame. His wooden weapon incinerated, the pony disappeared into the nearest doorway.

 I turned upon the advancing flaming menaces and negotiated their peaceful surrender. With my hooves. Leaving the piles of burning refuse behind, I launched down the hall once again, only stopping to help a half drowned mare that had been assaulted in the bathroom. She spouted something about a super toilet, curled into a ball, and kept repeating “So. Much. Clogging.” Seeing she was no longer in any more danger than we all were, I finally reached my destination, the outer gardens. Indeed, the statue of Discord was shattered, leaving an alabaster white pedestal now made of swiss cheese. I greeted my sister with a nod and together we wordlessly flew to the new center of chaos: Ponyville.

        Withholding words is not a sign of a tranquil mind, and mine was built of a thousand raging storms. How could this have happened? How did that monster escape again?

During the first months of my return, I had pitied the creature encased in stone, knowing the feeling of isolation and abandonment which lingered, even in the eternal slumber of the body and mind. I had maintained this position until his first escape. Immediately upon taking his freedom he taunted my sister and the bearers of harmony while I remained asleep. 

He had taken the magical elements away and hid them and in a horrible display of treachery and deception, he accomplished this psychologically as well.  The greatest threat to him waylaid, he turned his attention on my sister and I. He locked us within our cycles at random intervals, speeding up and slowing down time to fit his mood. It would take us half an hour to walk across a room, then we would fly into multiple walls in a single second. The scum also left our minds unaffected, rendering us unable to compensate for such changes. Awakening to this was quite traumatizing, considering how many times I flew into the ceiling, crashed into the floors in slow motion, and careened through assorted hallways. 

My sister managed to retrieve Twilight Sparkle’s friendship reports and send them back to her through her dragon, Spike. Then, we waited. We had no way to know whether or not such an act would result in our salvation, or simply a very disheveled dragon. Our hopes payed off, as the elements of harmony rose from the proverbial ashes and struck Discord down with the full force of Harmony: a beam of pure prismatic power. Hoping to see the monster freed from his chaos, I expected to see a young being in a similar way that I had been released. He was instead bound once again to stone. 




*Thu-Thump* *Thu-Thump*




I turn away from my thoughts and look upon the chaos abounding. Buildings twisted and contorted, ponies in fear, fields of lollipops in assorted shapes and colors, and above it all, a sickening pink sky, dotted by cotton candy clouds filled with chocolate rain. In the strange light of the atonal sky, the abomination of chaos speaks. 

“Oh, now isn’t this so very delightful. I do hope you didn’t really think that brute force could overcome my stunning wit and charm.” His visage fell, but the traces of mirth in his voice betrayed his joy. 

“Do my words not impress you? What about my latest interpretation of Ponyville, hm? Does it not scream chaos?” His visage truly falls now, out of a mask of sadness into genuine boredom. He looks down to me, seemingly having forgotten that he has me by the throat. I struggle more as his unbalanced gaze seems to pierce through me.

“Very well then. I suppose I’ll just have to make things more interesting for you all,” he smarms as his other appendage begins to glow with eldritch energies. I have to buy them all some time to defeat him. I have to do something chaotic. Fight fire with fire, as I am told the recent adage goes. The spell begins to charge in my horn, as I weave a teleport in my mind. A teleport with no coordinates. We could end up anywhere, and I will be stuck with this monster. A worthy sacrifice I think, and at least whatever he decides to do with me will be reversible. He tends to avoid permanent damage for some reason. 

Just as my spell completes, his paw touches me, and I feel something wrong. My magic feels off, as if infected by the chaos. It’s too late to stop it now though. An explosion of pink magic surrounds both of us and time seems to slow to a standstill. Now something else feels wrong. No time to concern myself with this, I think as I realize that his claws are off of my throat. I breathe deeply and close my eyes. The danger abated for a moment, and air flowing through my lungs, I regret lunging at the creature in the first place.


*Thu-Thump* *Thu-Thump*




Having just arrived in Ponyville, my sister and I had rushed immediately into magical battle with Discord. He had been easy to find, seeing as he sat upon giant throne surrounded by our subjects driven mad.  He easily deflected every attempt at throwing power, but we were able to deflect his attacks as well. That is, until he began reflecting our power toward the ponies we rule. 

His own energies changed our attacks - altering a binding spell into one that would wrap the target in ropes, a sleeping spell into a loud snore, and a confusion spell... he left that one alone - and smashed them into the nearest living creatures. When the last hit a young colt, something inside of me broke, the final line keeping me sane. I charged him, intending to spear him with my horn. He managed to catch me midflight, an impressive feat to say the least. 

My remembrance is shattered once again as the air is ripped out of my lungs. I realize now that the world has been fading for a few moments, and that my lapse into memory is the fog of air loss leaving. With the mental blur now removed, I am faced with the horrifying truth of my new surroundings. There is only darkness and my beating heart. 


*Thu-Thump*


        One last beat. Now only the darkness remains.






{Ponyfall lives! We've taken great lengths to improve the collaboration with quality control and general pickyness with our authors, and we're just about to really produce. We have a lot of work put into this, and we hope you all enjoy it. 

Extra thanks to TheSlorg for being awesome and pretty much managing everything and keeping us all alive, Ok for running the channel and being a killer mod, J_Xayph, Cheesedeluxe, and even Rainbowdashian (between trolling sprees) for editing, Hivetyrant25 and Silverness for assorted idea bouncing and companionship, and Draequine for providing enough chaos to turn a thousand ships to caramel corn. There are others I should probably thank, but I have the most fail of memories, so sorry if I missed you. 

Now then, the rest of this will be in 3rd person subjective from my characters point of view, so don't get too attached to first person flashbackandforthandbackandforth. Hope you enjoyed it, and continue to enjoy it. }