Nightmare's Reign

by NorrisThePony

Dusk Falls (XI)

The wind howled as Luna landed on the ground outside of a small settlement on the very edge of Equestria's limits. The sound of something shifting as she began to walk grasped her attention, and looking down she saw that she had landed on a rectangular sign bearing a simple message scrawled in friendly looking block capitals.

"Welcome to Dusk Falls!" The sign proudly exclaimed, many of the letters faded beyond legibility. What had once been hung as a shining beacon of invitation was now knocked carelessly to the ground and abandoned, as was everything else in the town in front of her. There was nary a sound save for the screaming wind as Luna entered the town, although the occasional repeated slamming of a decrepit house's hanging shutter initially made her flinch in surprise before becoming a simple part of the sullen atmosphere. She had heard the town's eponymous waterfalls on her flight in, but they were a dozen miles from the town itself. Why it was named after them, Luna did not know.

There wasn't much of the town left to take in, simply ramshackle old buildings once beautiful under the burning sun. Peering inside one's broken window, Luna saw that absolutely everything had been left behind. It was somewhat troubling to see the affairs of a family of her humble subjects in a frozen freeze-frame that perfectly described the frivolous familiarity of their day to day lives. Especially disturbing to her was a pile of some filly or colt's toys carelessly gathered. She could almost hear the foal's pleading as her parents told her they could spare no room for such unimportant things as they fled Equestria. In Luna's mind, anything that could comfort the troubled soul of a child could never at any point be considered unimportant.

Past candy-stores and post offices Luna walked, not stopping again but still glancing around at each and every building in the small town. Several looked as though they had been looted, but for the most part it looked like the town had been abandoned with it's dignity still intact. Once she was past the marketplace of Dusk Falls, the buildings became much less frequent and further away from each other. The town street continued onwards, branching off in three different directions; to a boardwalk and park down by the ocean, to a lighthouse that no longer produced light, and to Luna's destination. In the distance Luna could faintly see the park, with it's partially collapsed bandstand, lonely looking carousel, and even a Ferris Wheel closer to the beach. Many portions of the boardwalk had been pulled away by the foreign ice, and carried out to sea by the strong current. The portions that did remain sagged in multiple sections, dipping in and out of the water at random.

Sighing deeply, Luna carried on through the town of Dusk Falls until her destination came into full view; looming ahead lay a large white log beach-house with a blue roof which was almost the exact same hue as Luna's coat. Beyond the beach-house lay the ocean, which was thin ice for several dozen feet before giving way to ocean water. There was no snow, but a thin layer of frost did cover mostly every surface, crunching under Luna's feet as she stepped onto the veranda of the log house. Most of the white paint was chipping and peeling away, and a thick veil of dust completely blotted out both large windows in the front of the house. The welcoming wide circular door looked like it had been forced in, and was now balanced precariously on broken hinges. Instead of pushing it aside and heading inside, Luna hesitated.

"Where are we?" Nightmare Moon asked. Despite Luna voicing her discomfort, it seemed as though she had been elsewhere in Luna's mind once again.

"I thought I told you to stay out of my subconscious!"

"Accusations! I've been here this whole time!"

"Uh huh," Luna rolled her eyes. "We're here."

"This is it? Dusk Falls?" Nightmare Moon observed. "What a dump. Whose house is this then?"

"This would be my sister's house."

"You mean Celestia?! I was expecting a palace, or perhaps an oversized pink dollhouse!"

"You don't know my sister at all then," Luna sighed and finally worked up the courage to push the broken door aside and walk into the log cottage. Dust swirled everywhere as she did, it was coating every single surface like freshly fallen snow, causing Luna to cough several times. Like every other building, it looked as if it had simply been abandoned without a second thought, time itself the only variable to lead to it's slow but steady disintegration.

"My sister loved this place. She spent decades here, all by herself," Luna muttered, her eyes sweeping the wide room that made up the majority of the house. If one could consider the kitchen its own room (which, Luna didn't, since it was only separated from the rest of the living room by a strange half-wall that was certainly a bold new architectural statement) then Celestia's temporary home was only four rooms. The main room took up at least two thirds of the entire area of the house, it's ceiling towering and huge windows making up the entirety of the ocean-facing wall. There were bookshelves, a neat and orderly study area, and a large fireplace, but mostly the house had a very Celestia-like minimalistic design. In the places that did not house windows, the floral wallpaper was peeling and rolling upwards, the foreign cold undoubtedly contributing to the beach-house's gradual disintegration. Sitting in front of the fireplace were two large red mats, where Luna remembered sitting with Celestia and discussing each others lives during her occasional visits. Her sister's bedroom was somewhere off to the side, but Luna wasn't quite sure if she had the courage to go in there yet.

"It must've been rough for her staying here," Nightmare Moon said. "Not that it's a poor place, mind you. Just...I guess it's more the reason WHY she was living here."

"I can't even begin to imagine," Luna agreed, shivering with both cold and emotion, as well as coughing once again. "Ugh, this dust is infuriating. Give me a moment."

With a light humming her magic sprung to life, the wide windows creaking open for the first time in several years as she simultaneously created a strong wind to force all the dust out. In mere seconds it was much more tolerable, and Luna promptly re-closed the windows and collapsed to the hardwood floor.

"I actually like this place," Nightmare Moon confessed, her voice evidently showing signs of self-loathing for saying something so uncharacteristically soft. "Very peaceful. If I were a pony this is the sort of life it'd want."

If she was a pony. Although she probably didn't intend for it to be so, Luna felt a bitter sadness in Nightmare Moon's words. Did she really want such a thing? Nightmare Moon had never once admitted it, but really when Luna thought of it, all of her actions in the past definetly hinted towards her being overall dissatisfied and ashamed of what she was. Luna imagined that if Nightmare Moon really had the chance, she would jump into a mortal, physical body in a heartbeat. The only thing that conflicted with this desire was her longing for subjects to rule over.

"I fear Celestia had a lot of difficulty managing an ideal life here," Luna said, before Nightmare Moon decided to listen in on Luna's thoughts of her, "Even with me at the Castle everypony came all the way out to Dusk Falls when they needed the help of the 'Royal Princesses.' If Celestia ever got a moments peace here I would be genuinely surprised."

"I hardly think she's the most sympathetic one because of that," Nightmare Moon replied. "You were right there in the heart of Equestria and nopony even noticed. That must have been insulting."

"It was," Luna confessed, shivering again. She crossed the large room and floated the fireplace door open, placing a few old, half-rotten logs inside and using her magic to ignite them. When she was done she left the door open and sat down in front of it, staring intently at the building flames within. "Well, Celestia, I made it. I'm finally taking a vacation, like you told me too."

"Pardon me?"

"Oh, just something my sister used to badger me about. She said I never rested, which in my case was actually quite literal. I think this house was a last ditch effort to try and convince me to stop trying so hard for my subjects recognition."

"That seems like a selfish thing for Celestia to do," Nightmare Moon chanced. "I know how high and mighty you see her as, but that's just the way I see it."

"I don't want to get into anything with you, Nightmare, so I'll pretend I'm not insulted."

"Fine. But do you not agree that it was her act—"

"Drop it, Nightmare," Luna said sternly. "I am not so petty as to stoop to blaming my sister for her own death."

"Luna, she treated you like you were worthless. When you needed her help, she LEFT. Literally. When her subjects started running here instead of to you in Equestria, like they were supposed to, she said NOTHING. And when she saw that you were trying to fight back the darkness alone...trying to fight back me...she chose to turn a blind eye and pretend what she saw did not concern her."

"I SAID I did not wish to speak about these matters!" Luna snapped. "Why must you continue?"

"Because you need to wake up! She didn't care about you and that's a fact! And this...this fortress of solitude built far away from her own responsibilities only proves that! Stop acting like you're the sole problem in the universe!"

"Fine! If it will make you be silent, then I accept that perhaps me and Celestia BOTH handled out crumbling relationship poorly! Can you please let it go now?"

"I didn't mean to insult you..."

"I know..." Luna took a deep breath and sank to the floor in front of the fireplace. "For future reference, my sister is a topic not ripe for casual conversation. Understood?"

"Yeah, whatever." Nightmare Moon said, and then mumbled a nearly indistinguishable apology. "I shouldn't have said she didn't care about you. That isn't true."

Shifting into a more comfortable position, Luna watched the dust and snow swirl and dance across the high ceiling above. In time, she would rise and begin her reluctant ransacking of Celestia's home, looking for that one book that she wasn't even certain would be here to begin with.

The Tome of Manifestation. That was what it was called...or at least that was what Luna called it. It was probably called something much simpler by it's original author, but Luna enjoyed the dramatic flair. If she remembered correctly, it had been an experiment conducted by Starswirl the Bearded. An attempt to create a source of seemingly unlimited magic. What Starswirl had not anticipated was that he would actually succeed, and when he did he immediately brought the book to Celestia. Not her, but to Celestia.

Celestia had hidden it in the castle, telling only Luna it's location. But when she went to find the book after Celestia left for Dusk Falls, it was nowhere to be found, leading her to believe that Celestia had taken it with her. Why, Luna had never asked, although she distinctly remembered being furious when she found it missing. It felt...insulting, to be treated like a child, as if she was not to be trusted around a magical artifact that powerful.

Luna let out a wide yawn and shut her eyes on the dust's endless caper. Although she had initially only wanted to rest her eyes, sleep swiftly crept on the laying alicorn, and in mere seconds her mind slowly calmed itself from it's past worries with the soothing promise of slumber.

"Not quite yet, Luna!" Nightmare Moon said in a purposefully jarring tone, causing Luna to groggily open her eyes once again. In that moment she realized just how exhausted she had been...not to mention the pain of hunger that she had tried to ignore. Assuming one could disregard her four years in stone, it was still more than ten days since she had anything to eat.

Stumbling to her feet, Luna yawned again and rubbed her eyes with a hoof, before drunkenly making her way across Celestia's living room to the opposite side of the house. There, she saw Celestia's desk and several bookshelves lining the wall, and she began scanning them looking for the familiar harsh spine of the cold and intimidating looking book. It should have stuck out like a sore hoof, but there was nothing out of the ordinary amongst Celestia's compilation of poetry books and dusty hardcovers with spines damaged by a couple centuries worth of reading. Her sister had always been a voracious reader, it had been her first demand when their castle in the Everfree was first erected to have an enormous library with thousands of books. This corner of the house, by comparison, was a mere grain of sand in the ocean of literature that the royal library contained.

Analyzing every row of every shelf again and again, Luna cursed in frustration as the Tome of Manifestation was nowhere to be found. Once it became apparent that the bookshelves did not house the forbidden book, she moved on to Celestia's desk, violently ripping open every drawer and flinging the various papers aside. Her head throbbing in synchronization with her growing fury, Luna eventually grabbed the entire desk in her magic and pushed it over, a resolute slam causing dust and paper to fling up like fireworks into the dark of night. She next moved on to the bookshelves and did the same thing, screaming a frustrated cry as they impacted with the ground and flooded the hardwood floor in a sudden torrent of ancient novels.

Luna stood panting in a sea of fallen books, her frustration gradually seeping away and being replaced with dread. If the book wasn't here...then where WAS it?

Whipping around, all her previous exhaustion gone, Luna stormed off in the direction of Celestia's bedroom, but hesitated at the door. This was the one room in Celestia's house that she felt the most uncomfortable being in...perhaps because it was the only room she had not been in during Celestia's living years. Ultimately, she couldn't deny herself the fact that it was necessary, and she heaved a great sigh and enveloped the wooden door in her magic. She pushed it lightly, found that it was locked, and then pushed it more intensely. A subtle snapping sound was heard from the other side as the deadbolt snapped off and clanged against the floor.

Raising a shaking hoof, Luna pushed the door open the remainder of the way, and took a cautious step in. She slunk through the threshold and into the room, which was almost pitch-dark. Casting a light spell, Luna saw that the room's only window had been boarded up, allowing not even a trace of moonlight in. She did, however, spot a candlestick and in a moment it burst to life, flooding the bedroom in its soft, glowing warm light.

The moment she saw Celestia's bedroom in its entirety, Luna instantly felt her breath be taken away and her eyes well with tears. Crumbling in the entrance way and leaning against the door-frame, she basked in the sight of photograph upon photograph of herself...her and Celestia in regal looking poses at their thrones, herself looking up at the clouds from the summit of Canterlot Mountain, herself standing with her eyes closed, raising the moon from a castle balcony in the middle of a snowstorm...

Almost every dresser, wall, and end-table had at least one eloquently framed photograph of either herself or herself and Celestia. One particular painting filled Luna with the strangest feeling of frisson, it was an artists depiction of the two of them as fillies. Typically, whenever an artist attempted to predict what the two of them looked like as fillies, they would secretly laugh uncontrollably at the hilarious inaccuracies, but this particular painting was an eerily familiar depiction. They'd even got Celestia's sparkly violet mane right...the majority of depictions showed her sister with a light pink mane. The two of them both had their backs turned to the viewer, and were facing a bright and over exaggerated moon. One of Celestia's wings was resting on Luna's back, and from the angle at which Luna was laying on her sister it looked as though she was sleeping.

"We shouldn't have come in here..." Nightmare Moon said eventually. "I can't imagine seeing all this is—"

"No, no. I'm quite alright. I feel as though I needed this. This place has only served to bring forth the memories of our conflict these past few years. But these pictures have shown me the past that I should be remembering."

Stumbling to her hooves once again, Luna started into the room and did her best to not be distracted by the nostalgic artifacts from the past, and simply on finding the book. The room, like the rest of the house, was tidy and well-kept, proving without a doubt that it had once housed the overly neat and organized Princess of the Sun. All four walls, windowless save for the one small one that was boarded up, were covered in floral wallpaper which in the bright light of summer might've looked pretty, but in the cold looked like something from a nightmare. Celestia's bed was still made, although dust and age had rendered it as a mere shade of what it once was.

There were more books stacked neatly on a shelf above another desk, smaller than the one in the living room, and they were the first things Luna checked. Unfortunately, there was less than a dozen and not a single one the Tome of Manifestation. Nervously rifling through drawers and finding every single one of them empty, Luna felt her previous dread slowing giving rise to panic. If the book wasn't here, she would be in serious trouble.

Sudden movement caused her to jerk her head in surprise, but all she saw when she turned was a tall black alicorn with tears dripping down her face reflected in a musty and cracked vanity mirror. Sighing in defeat, she turned and began her deliberately slow walk back to the living room.

"Wait, Luna...did you actually LOOK at the books on that shelf?"

"I did. None of them I recognized."

"Perhaps that was intentional. I mean...if it is the Tome of Manifestation then it isn't unreasonable to assume that Celestia used it's powers to disguise it as something else, right?"

"Ah, a fair point!" Luna concurred, trotting back to the desk. Grabbing all the books in her magic, she stacked them all on the desk in front of her and one by one analyzed their covers and contents.

"No..." she muttered aloud, flinging each one carelessly behind her. "No...no...no....AH! This is it!"

The book Luna held in front of bore absolutely zero resemblance to the harsh stone book she remembered it as. What was once a grey spellbook with spikes decorating its cover was now a pink paperback novel with a generic title and author name scrawled across in golden lettering.

"Creativity's Spark..." Luna read aloud, grinning, "...by Ethereal Sunshine. Very subtle, sister."

"This book is...dangerous...?"

"Yes, certainly. I shan't activate its magic until we face Discord, since it corrupts the mind over time."

Feeling joyful and optimistic, Luna grabbed the book and gleefully carried it with her back into the living room, where her saddle-pack lay strewn over one of the mats in front of the fireplace. She tucked the book inside and turned her attention to the fire, which had consumed the last log she put in and was in need of another, which she willingly opened the gate and placed inside. Accepting it's fuel, the fire once again flared to life, and Luna turned and paced into the kitchen, praying Celestia had left some sort of canned food in one of the cupboards.

Thankfully, she had. Luna found several cans of tomato soup, which she carried with her in her magic and floated with her back to the fireplace, where she levitated them into the heart of the flames and patiently held them there. Her stomach began grumbling in anticipation of the meal, and after only several minutes her willpower failed and she took them back, violently ripping off the tin tops and drinking the icy soup straight from the cans. In that moment, pride was not something she cared too much about.

When her meal was done, Luna laid down in front of the fire on her usual mat, closing her eyes and feeling sleep once again attempt to overtake her. Nightmare Moon did not interrupt her, nor did any dreams or visions of forthcoming doom.

Comments

[Unbridled Dolly]

Oh, Celestia.

That is exactly why I hate her. Loved the chapter, now that I finally had time to read it.

[Razzy]

More feels...

Cya
Raziel-chan

[DivinePanzer]

in the past definetly

definitely

handled out crumbling relationship

our

[erictheblue]

They'd even got Celestia's sparkly violet mane right...the majority of depictions showed her sister with a light pink mane.

i've actually fan art of Celestia with a pink mane.

[Ice Star]

Nice backstory for the stone book thing in Inspiration Manifestation. Also, I love how Luna's basically a hobo in this chapter.