After the bells of curfew chimed throughout Moonhaven, the Queen forced herself into her chambers. It was a long day for Luna, but a day that she knew was coming for years without end. Her horn glowed and glistened in the dimness of her bedroom; the ornamented doors slowly creaked shut behind her.
Luna pulled off her veil and pulled at the laces on the back of her dress. As she took a large breath in, the constriction of her corset strengthened around her chest like the thoughts of shame, anger, and sadness that have beaten into her skull for centuries.
“Y o u d i d t h i s t o h e r…”
The bulk of her dress began to loosen and sag from its own weight. The Queen’s magic began to untie the supporting laces around her torso. The entirety of her extravagant clothing was enveloped in the aura of magic. Her majestic wings unfolded. Slowly, the dress was lifted as her wings slipped through their openings seamlessly.
Levitating the dress, Luna intricately placed it upon a hangar and returned her royal garb to her armoire. Next to which stood a finely crafted mirror that had caught the alicorn’s eye. She approached her reflection as if she was looking back at a complete stranger. It was this very stranger who so brazenly wielded the Elements of Harmony against her sister.
“I t w a s a l l y o u r f a u l t…”
“No.” She shook her head and turned away from the mirror in defiance. “Get a hold of yourself, Luna.”
The Queen removed her hairpins; a gorgeous, starlit mane fell into a more natural stance. Luna then settled into her bed. Silk-like curtains shrouded her from being seen by any others, but were partially transparent enough for the alicorn to see the remainder of her bedroom.
She took in a large breath of the cold air of the underground, only then to exhale in order to relieve the stress that fell on top of her shoulders. With that, she nestled comfortably underneath the covers and closed her eyes. She rested on her mattress, shifting and tossing with the lingering thoughts and memories that haunted her for decades.
As the time began to pass, she began to lose her grasp on reality. More and more, Luna drifted into the depths of her mind; her vision dampening as the darkness overtook her.
Then, there was laughter.
It was something that was a rare occurrence within this blackened forest.
The branches were bent in wicked shapes; leaves brushed in a petite twister by a gust of wind. Ravens and crows were squawking in the depths of the thicket.
“You won’t catch me!” A voice hollered out.
“Just you wait,” the other one cried, “I’m still on your tail!”
The two of them galloped down the weathered trail, quicker than when mother would finish baking her homemade cinnamon-butterscotch pie.
The distance between the two of them lengthened more and more as they raced further into the woods.
“Tia!” The little mare cried. “Wait for me!” She dashed as quickly as she could, but the endurance of her older sister was still more superior.
Shortly after a few moments, Tia was visible again. To the young one’s surprise, she had stopped in her tracks.
As the other one neared, they slowed down in an attempt to catch their breath.
“Okay… Tia,” she panted, “You win… hah…”
Tia was oblivious to her younger sister, but softly exclaimed, “Luna.”
Luna’s ears twitched. Confused, she looked up to her sister who was caught in a trance.
“Tia?” She inquired. “What is it?”
“Look.”
Luna set her eyes upon what her sister was beholding.
Before them was a mighty cathedral, hidden away within the confines of the Everfree Forest. There was a grand corridor with a golden emblem of both the sun and the moon upon it. Stained glass windows were scattered along the sides in multitudes of different colors.
Luna decided to break the silence. “Is that.. Is that the castle?”
Tia nodded. “Remember how I told you I heard Starswirl was building a castle in honor of mom and dad?”
“Uh-huh.” Luna was more at a loss of words.
“I think this is it.”
“Wow.”
Without hesitation, Tia bolted forward across the wooden bridge that went over the river’s chasm meters below. The ropes clenched tighter, bearing the weight of the alicorn.
“H-hey!” Luna hollered. “Wait for me!”
They both rushed further towards the castle for a closer look.
Standing before the castle, Tia pointed out to Luna to look at some of the towers. “Look, sister. See anything odd about them?”
Luna squinted and tried to catch the towers in further detail. “Hmmm…”
From what she could see, bricks were missing on most of the upper parts of the castle. Only one tower seemed to be intact while the others were either missing or only partially remaining.
“Do you think there was a battle here?” Luna questioned.
Tia shook her head. “I don’t think so. It seems too… clean.”
“Clean? What do you mean?”
“I don’t see any damage or debris, Luna. Do you?” She paused to let her sister absorb her statement. “I don’t think they are finished building it yet.”
Filled with curiosity, Luna went up to one of the windows and peeked inside. She couldn’t fathom just how massive the inside was. “Tia! Oh my gosh! We have to go inside!”
Tia’s expression dropped in shock. “What? No. We don’t want to get into any trouble.”
“Trouble?” Luna chuckled. “We’re in the middle of the Everfree Forest and you’re talking about getting into trouble?”
“This is a different kind of trouble, sister.” Tia lectured out. “We can get back home and not tell anyone where we’ve been. But if someone catches us here, I am sure that word will spread very quickly.”
Tia grinned wickedly with a new thought and whispered into Luna’s ear, “You wouldn’t want Starswirl to find out we were here, wouldn’t you?”
Luna’s heart dropped like a cannonball slipping off the edge of a table. She whimpered at the thought of seeing Starswirl enraged by them running amok through the castle. It was even more frightening to think of what kind of punishment would befall the two princesses.
In an instant, Luna snapped out of it and shook her head in protest. “No… no…” She backed away from the window with a couple of hoofsteps.
The elder sister snickered. “That’s what I thought.” Tia turned around and motioned for Luna to follow. “Come on, then. It’s probably best we get going.”
Luna watched as her sister simply began to trot away, humming one of her favorite tunes. She started to catch up to her sister, who was already about to cross over the bridge again. Luna took one last look upon the castle, which still gave a mystifying aura of wonders and curiosity to the young alicorn.
The towering wooden corridors could not seal away how enticing it was to step inside the magnificent structure.
It called to her.
It beckoned to her.
Whispers seemed to seep into the young one’s mind. All of the voices were speaking over each other.
“This may be your only chance…”
“Come in… come in…”
“What good does your sister know?”
“Just a peek…”
“There is no one else around… n o o n e w i l l b e t h e w i s e r…”
“G o n o w… D O I T!!”
Tia skipped to the tune of mother’s personal lullaby’s. As she crossed the bridge, she noticed Luna was being rather quiet. “Don’t worry, sister. We’ll find plenty of things to do once we get back h--”
A crash of a slamming door came from behind her.
Alarmed, Tia spun around. “Luna!?”
She was nowhere to be seen.
In a panic, Tia looked back to the castle. Movement struck her attention. The castle doorway swayed forward and backward. It was at this moment that Tia knew what had happened.
“Luna!” She cried out and spread her wings. Flapping diligently, Tia took off and flew back towards the castle as fast as she could.
As she pulled the doors open with her magic, she jumped inside, scanning for her missing sister.
“Luna!?” Tia hollered into the castle. She ran forward, seeing more than four different hallways on each side of the entrance. Banners of the sun and moon dangled from chandeliers up above, along with two prominently larger ones at the end of this hallway where two thrones were placed atop a small flight of stairs.
She ran to each respective hallway to catch a glimpse of her sister. Luna couldn’t have gone terribly far.
One by one, each hallway was empty. “Luna! Where are you??”
Just then, Tia could hear another door creak open from the third hallway on the right. Going on intuition alone, she hurried along to where she heard the door. The hallway grew darker and darker as the candles had either been smothered out or were never lit.
Peering down the next left, she looked for anything out of the ordinary. A partly open, but heavily damaged door seemed too out of place for Tia.
As she opened the door, she could finally see the silhouette of her sister. She was in front of a pedestal, opening a strange and thick book from an old and cobweb filled bookshelf. There was no source of light in here other than the cylindrical hole in the ceiling above where Luna stood. It went up for multiple stories before it opened up to the outside. Sunlight shone down into this opening and coated both Luna and the pedestal in this entirely blackened room.
“Luna!” Tia ordered. “Stop right there!”
The oblivious young one continued. Her horn began to glow and she started muttering in an unfamiliar tongue.
Tia quickly went over her. Luna looked into her eyes, but what frightened Tia more than anything is what she saw in Luna.
Her right eye was in tears, looking up to Tia in complete and total desperation. Teardrops dribbled down her cheek like a small stream.
But her other eye was blank and soulless. It was devoid of all emotion. It stared off into the distance as if it was under some kind of spell.
A spell.
Tia quickly grabbed the book and threw it to the wall before tackling Luna to the ground. “Luna!” She cried. “Wake up! Please! Luna!!”
Luna was not responding, still chanting the words of whatever spell she was trying to conjure.
Tia had no other choice than to slap some sense into her. She reluctantly smacked the sides of Luna’s muzzle.
Then, Luna stopped chanting. The darkness of the room began to smudge away from every corner of the chamber. Tia was in tears, but stopped to see at what was happening. The shadows were twisting and winding around the walls in a slow but looming manner.
“...Tia…” Luna muttered.
“Luna! Oh Luna, are you alright? I am so sorry…”
“...Me too…” It was then that Luna raised a hoof and pointed at something.
In an emotional confusion, Tia looked behind her to see the shadows and darkness become absorbed by the book that was on the floor.
“Run.” Tia gasped. “Run!!!”
Tia pulled Luna up. She was still riddled with fatigue from her ordeal, but Luna was able to have enough strength to follow Tia out of the darkened chamber. They were in a dead sprint, pulling the long ornamental rugs from underneath their hooves.
As they fled, the shadows were absorbed by the book. It began to levitate above the ground and return to the page that it was originally on. The inscriptions glowed in a violet hue, pulsating rapidly until the entirety of the darkness was engulfed into the book. From the very letters on the parchment, seeped out a hideous cloud of smog. The density was overwhelmingly thick, tainted black with the dark magics that fueled it.
The magical anomaly locked on to the trail of the fleeing sisters and slipped through the walls at incredible speed. The chilling groans that came from this dark being snuffed the life out of any and all other candlelight that was in the castle. The sound was as like an ethereal cry of blistering agony after having been tortured for weeks without end. It was not a groan of terror, but one that knew mercy would not rescue them; a slow and painful death was all that remained.
Tia and Luna hurried in fear down the last stairwell. At last, they could see the entrance, lit only by the light coming through the stained glass and through the cracks of the corridor. They both were gasping for breath, hearts were racing and fueled with adrenaline as they screamed out in fear.
“IT’S RIGHT BEHIND US!!!” Luna shrieked, struck with terror to not look back again.
“HURRY, WE’RE ALMOST OUT!!” Tia cried.
They both slammed into the door, but it would barely budge open. In a panic, they both pushed hard. In total desperation, their horns glowed with magic to force the door open. They were making headway, but Tia knew time was off the essence.
Looking back, Tia could see the shadowy creature leap at them.
Time slowed down for Tia.
She gasped, looking at Luna.
Luna was crying heavily, doing whatever she could to escape.
Looking back at the evil spirit, Tia could see it was focused on her sister.
It was either fight or flee.
Tia knew what she had to do.
Her horn glowed brightly as she growled in defiance.
She leapt forward at the beast and fired a heavenly stream of light.
The beam pierced through the figure.
It had no effect.
It kept coming.
Tia’s heart stopped beating and everything was swallowed into darkness.
Thud!
Luna heard something fall heavily on the ground, but the groaning noises of the ghost were silenced.
In shock, Luna looked behind her to see the body of her fallen sister.
“TIA!!!”
She rushed over to her.
“Tia!! No!!” Luna shook her sister frantically. “No, no, no, no!!”
It wasn’t enough.
Luna stopped, weeping on the chest of her fallen sister.
“I t w a s a l l y o u r f a u l t…”
As she weeped, she could suddenly hear the heartbeat of her sister once more. Luna gasped. “Tia!?”
Her sister began to frown and shift about.
“Tia!” Luna cried happily, “You’re alive!”
Tia did not say anything, but put her hooves on the ground and slowly got up.
“I was so worried! I thought you were d--”
“We’re leaving.” Tia ordered.
Luna was struck in shock at her sister’s tone. “I.. Tia..?” She raised a hoof and reached to Tia.
Smack!
“Ow!” Luna winced in pain, retreating her hoof.
Tia growled at Luna, scolding at her. “Now!”
Luna could see into Tia’s eyes. They were so unfamiliar to her. They were not the eyes of a loving sibling, but were filled with fire and hatred. For a brief moment, she couldn’t even recognize that she was looking at her own sister. Something was really, really wrong.
Luna wiped the tears from her eyes.
The two of them left, speaking not another word to each other. As they exited, Tia looked back inside. She paused, almost as if she was entranced by the inside.
Her horn glowed with the color of her magic, the color of which seemed dull. The door’s handle glowed as well in the same hue. In an instant, the door slammed shut.
“AH!!” Luna awoke, gasping for air.
The bedroom was deathly cold and silent.
The Queen was sweating profusely and her heart pounding out of her chest. The covers were thrown and tossed into discord.
Luna thought of where she was, starting to let reality sink in once more.
She panted like a dog.
It was all my fault...
“Just… another nightmare…”
Luna collapsed back onto her pillows. A freezing sensation sparked her attention on her cheeks. Tears.
Most of the nightmares she had gotten were of her innermost fears were always related to her sister, Celestia. There were two days that Luna dreaded the most in her life. It was no surprise to anypony that one of those days was when she used the Elements of Harmony to banish her sister. However, she kept the other darkened memory all to herself.
It was the day she lost her sister.
Luna got out of bed, her legs still shaking. Her relapses haven’t been this severe in a very, very long time. She returned once more to the mirror and looked upon the mess of a mare that was her reflection.
The Luna within the mirror weeping uncontrollably, barely having enough composure to look at herself. Luna began to lose feeling in her face and hooves. Her heart was pounding in her chest as though she was running a marathon. The sudden rush of blood went to her skull as the room began to spin.
Her skittish legs began to buckle and the alicorn collapsed to the floor.
The Queen wiped her tears away yet felt nothing run down her cheeks, save the staticy feeling of her numbness spreading across her muzzle. She did not realize just how bad her emotions were spilling out.
The others could not see her like this. It took a lot of willpower to hide the pain she felt on the inside. It was that day which her whole life would change forever.
And it was because she was so gullible.
She did not know it at the time, but many moons after that fateful day was when Starswirl introduced them to that very castle. What Luna had caught notice of was that every time he entered the castle, he casted some sort of spell onto the door. It would seem to expel some blacked ash that dissipated into nothingness. It began to sink into Luna shortly after that it was some kind of security measure. When she was there with Celestia at the beginning, they both had so brazenly stepped upon the castle grounds. It must have triggered something. How foolish they were.
By the time she had peered back before leaving with Celestia, it was too late. Something took hold of her. Luna tried to fight back, but the powers that lured her in were far greater than the strength in magic that she, petty weakling, possessed. Deep into the castle she went, controlled like a mindless puppet. As this pitiful mare entered a strange room, a book was brought from the shelves onto a strange altar. With black magic, the book opened and stopped on a specific page filled with runes and cursive writing. It was hard to decipher through the handwriting, but Luna made out the title of this strange spell.
Miasma.
Luna didn’t know what it meant. However, after all the events that would take place, it became clear to her that whatever happened to Celestia was the result of what this ‘miasma’ spell wrought.
She never truly was the same after that day. Celestia became much more resentful of her sister. The love between the two of them drifted further and further apart as each day passed. It felt as though that Celestia saw her as a threat to what she was able to have. The two of them could never seem to get along, eventually resulting in never communing with the other. A broken Luna had many nights where she would cry herself to sleep, unable to find out how to get her loving sister back.
It was hard for her to convince others there was something terribly wrong. Whenever Celestia was confronted by others, she would put on a sweet and innocent persona. The others did not believe Luna. Starswirl the Bearded thought nothing of it. Even while mother and father were still around, they too did not take her seriously. It was a fitting punishment for what Luna had done.
It was hard during that time.
Luna loved her sister.
It broke her heart to see the one she loved the most slowly become a shadow of what she used to be.
Luna was flooded with hopelessness. It had gotten to the point to where she began to blame herself for what had happened to her sister. She knew deep down what her protected her from the miasma. But the looming doubts that bore into her mind brought even the truth to question.
There were no doubts.
It wasn’t until mother and father were gone that Celestia showed her darkest colors.
On the longest day of the year, Celestia did the unthinkable. She refused to lower the sun.
It was then that tensions boiled over.
Celestia didn’t want Luna to share the rule over Equestria. No, Celestia wanted all of it.
The darkness in her heart began to burst out of her, turning her hatred into a raging fire that set her mane and tail aflame. Demonic horns sprouted from her head. Her pupils became slits like the eyes of a vile serpent.
The Celestia that Luna grew up with and loved was no more. In her place stood corrupted form of the miasma that had taken hold of her those many years ago.
Nightmare Star.
The two of them fought for dominance, but it was clear to Luna that Nightmare Star was more powerful than she realized. As a last act to save Equestria from this wicked mare, Luna gathered the Elements of Harmony. She knew if there was anything left of her beautiful and kind sister, the Elements would be able to purge away the darkness and purify Celestia.
Or so she thought. What a foolish child she was.
Once the Elements were used, they sent a magical beam of light in all the hues of the rainbow at Nightmare Star. She reeled in pain and was cast up into the stars. Luna realized what was happening, but it was far too late.
Not even harmony itself could save her own sister.
Queen Luna bawled out in utter heartbreak. She grabbed one of her fallen pillows, screaming her lungs out into her pillow. All the suffering, all the concealed despair, and all of her depression spilled into screams and tears into this pillow.
Her sobbing was deeply muffled. Past her own chamber doors, no pony could hear her.
And that is how Luna had always kept it. Everypony else needed a great and proud Queen to serve the Republic. This weak and emotional mess of a mare was anything but that. Luna locked her emotions away, smothering even the truth of what happened with her sister with a delicate lie. Simply put, the elder sister was filled with greed and a lust for power.
After Celestia’s banishment, Luna never once mentioned her trip with Celestia into the Everfree Forest. There was nothing said about coming across a castle.
History itself was ignorant.
But only two ponies would ever know that history did not.
Princess Luna and Princess Celestia.
It was always hard to steer others away from the truth. She lied her friends, her advisors, the loremasters, her subjects, and even the whole of Equestria.
For Luna, it was all she could muster in order to convince not only the world, but even herself of her deepest and darkest doubt.
It was all her fault.