//------------------------------// // The Moon // Story: Nightmare: An Equestrian Tragedy // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// The Moon - Countless days The last thousand years - The Solar Era I sat on a field of gray dust beneath a black sky, with only the palest motes of light to hint at a mere handful of stars. As if somepony had pulled a cloth over a lantern to extinguish it. The sun burned harshly overhead, showing me a strange and alien view of a dark and unpopulated world. Over the horizon hung a blue jewel, forever out of my reach. It’s beauty kept from me by the bars of an invisible prison. A reminder of what had been taken away. A reminder of a terrible wrong where all held equal parts victim and villain. The endless field’s size did not matter. It may as well have been a single square foot. It was more empty than a wasteland, for there was nothing here to have gone to waste. Nothing existed here by my own anger, loneliness, and isolation. With only the rare cry for help from those I could never reach to remind me other people existed. Though I cried out for help and in distress, none could hear me for I made no noise. Not even my connection to the Dream Realm could bring me any form of contact, though I tried to send my own waking nightmare to the few I had known and could call friend. I never knew if they heard me. Night Court, Canterlot - 8th of Solardusk 17 EoH Present Day “Woah, woah, woah! WAIT! You were alive, like living, on the moon the whole time!?” Lyra asked jaw dropping in shock and horror at Luna’s words. “Yes. The banishment spell prevented me from leaving magically or flying back. But I was not in stasis or sent forward in time. Celestia is… Misinformed about that. And refuses to accept the truth of what she did to me,” Luna said in a matter of fact tone. “I lived each and every last day on the moon’s surface. Walking around in the burning sun. Starving but unable to die.” “But, I… That’s horrible! How could anypony do that to anyone!? Especially their sister!” Lyra exclaimed, her face distorting in distress and alarm. “We are thousand of years old, Lyra,” Luna sighed. “All of the tensions of three millennia were released in that single fight. Besides, after the first two centuries it wasn’t so bad.” “Well, sure. Eventually, actual torture would just fade into background sensations,” Lyra muttered to herself. “Actually, I was able to find some shelter after several centuries of wandering,” Luna informed casually. “What, like, a crater or something?” Lyra asked. Luna shook her head, “No. There are ruins…” The Moon - Countless days The last thousand years - The Solar Era The ocean of gray sand stretched out forever, shining brightly but painfully, reflecting the harsh white light directly into my eyes. There was no escape from the light. It burned with a rage and hatred that was directed at me. I wandered the blinding and burning days for an uncountable time matched only by the freezing and lightless nights. The sun was the enemy no matter where it was. Above the horizon, it burned, below the horizon and it froze. The moon held no warmth through the night, nor provided any shade. I roamed the wastes aimlessly, only wishing to find a place away from the endless torment of the sun. Suddenly, shelter! Impossibly, something existed in this lifeless land. A metal skeleton of a four-legged beast, it’s bones covered in scraps of golden hide. I crawled into a hole in its underbelly, it’s belly little more than an empty bowl. A space scarcely big enough to curl up in. But it was dark, and the light didn’t shine like death. It was a mercy. With that shelter came opportunity. The Nightmare still burned within my mind. The rage and desire to kill Celestia sitting foremost in my thoughts as it always did. But sometimes, the rage would calm enough for me to think. Enough for me to plan. If there was something constructed here, there must logically be other things too. Nature can create itself, but metal objects that seem designed to shelter ponies certainly do not. There must have been someone here who created this thing. And I would find them. I was able to voyage out at night. I had the use of very little magic, and it would take entire days to focus enough to cast even a simple spell. But eventually, I was able to conjure a light ball. I used it to search the endless ashen wastes while the sun was away. The freezing cold was worth being able to see. My search was futile. It never turned up a single thing. The mysterious golden skeletal ruin seemed to be the only thing there was on this world aside from myself. Eventually, I got bored of the pattern. Hiding in a small metal bowl from the sun only to venture out into the cold, then return with nothing but the pain from the cold’s bite to show for my efforts. There was nothing but torment for me, even the bowl only shielded my eyes from the sun’s wrath. It did nothing for the searing pain. So I left. I chose a direction at random and just walked. I didn't stop for days. I just walked in that line. Going over any obstacle in my way. Not caring how badly it slowed me down. The point wasn't to go anywhere. The point was to expend time. To try and maintain my sanity by feeling like I was doing something. Anything. One day, in the blinding wrath of the sun, I hit something. I had hit many things before, but this was different. It was cool to the touch. Not blistering hot, not flush dropping off cold. It was cool. Pleasantly so. I think I had a heart attack from the surprise. Because suddenly it was dark and freezing, and my chest hurt badly. Night had come, and all I had to show for it was chest pain. Remembering the cool touch I had felt before, I timidly stretched a hoof outwards, and felt something metallic in the darkness. Running my hoof over the surface I could tell it was rectangular and set inside a cutout section of a hill. A door. It had to be a door! That meant people! That meant companionship! That meant shelter! I drew back my hoof and pounded on the door, I could feel myself strike it, but no sound came from the blows. In that moment I realized I had not heard a single thing for the entire time I had been on the moon. It was a terrifying experience. Nopony came to the door. But that made sense. Because my knocking made no sound. So how could anypony hear anything? There was only one thing to do. Finding the edge of the door I pushed, and pulled,and heaved, eventually sliding the door open, revealing another door. Because there was light inside. Dim, barely there, orange light. Like a dying flame. I stepped inside, and the door slid shut behind me as I opened the second one, pleading with every bit of my heart that there would be someone on the other side. There was not. I had not found a home. I had found a ruin. A tomb. The space inside was large. Once sprawling, perhaps as big as the castle I had shared with my sister. But most of it was buried behind collapsed hallways. There was dust everywhere, a hoof deep in fact. I never found any bodies. This place had been abandoned for more time than I could comprehend. But it was away from the evil sun. It was pleasantly cool. And though the lights died completely a short time after I found it, it stayed cool. I believed most ponies would consider it to be a prison cell, the one habitable place made into an isolation room by the deadly heat and cold outside. But not me. It was such a relief to not be burning or freezing that it felt like home. I couldn’t see anything in the inky blackness after the lights died, so the confines of that tomb of an unknown people became oddly nostalgic and comforting. I felt safe there. It’s a pity that without the sun, I had no idea how long I remained in the dark, starving but unable to die... Night Court, Canterlot - 8th of Solardusk 17 EoH Present Day “And that’s basically how I spent the last two hundred years until the spell ended and I felt myself ripped back to Equestria,” Luna finished. “Shelter found, but still suffering permanent hunger pains. But I did manage to fix a few things up for comfort’s sake. Though I was still very much enraged to the point of white hot fury the entire time… And soul-crushingly alone… And in despair about that… Ever been enraged and despair at the same time? It really hurts your brain.” Lyra bit her lip, clearly holding back a million questions. The torrent of curiosity only held back out of respect for her friend and leader, not wanting to turn the mare opening up about her banishment into a data mine for her own hobbies. “I… Um…” Lyra stammered. “I think you really, really need a special somepony. I mean shit, you deserve some motherbucking comfort and love after that!” Luna nodded slowly, a sigh accompanying the gesture. “I would like one. But we can’t always have what we want. Perhaps I will have somepony someday. But in the meantime, I do have some good friends.” Lyra nodded firmly. “Damn right you do!” she exclaimed as she gently pulled Luna onto her hooves. “Which is why we're not going to sit in an empty courtroom and mope anymore. We're going out and having some fun.” Lyra quickly shifted position, setting her shoulder against Luna’s left Flank and pushing her along the floor towards the door. “Come on! Enough depression for one day,” she said adamantly. Luna laughed, a genuine heartfelt sound of happiness. “Lyra, talking about this is enough to make me sad, but you will never begin to fathom how high my bar for ‘depressing’ has been set. Let’s go, I’ll buy the snacks.” The two mares walked out of the courtroom, heading for one of the brighter pockets in the dark of the night.