Nightmares May Dream - Part 3
The darkness around him was… lighter than usual.
That was the only observation he bothered to make as he and the being continued their journey. Beside him, the being walked with a bright smile on its lips, the red marks now only slightly visible on its cheeks. Even though there was nothing more of interest to see on the being’s face, he found himself unable to look away from it. Only when the being turned to look at him did he hastily pull his head away, trying to hide the fact that he’d been staring.
“Were you staring at me?”
With little success…
“Does it matter if I did?” he questioned without looking back.
“Hmm…” the being thought out loud as it brought a limb to its chin. “Nope! I guess not.”
“Then don’t bother bringing it up,” he summed up as he picked up the pace a bit, leaving the being a few steps behind.
“If you want to kiss again, you only have to ask.”
He stopped dead in his tracks as the laughing being passed by him, giving him a quick whisk with its tail before walking ahead. While he still had no knowledge about the being’s invented concept of time, he was still sure that he remained motionless for quite a while before willing himself to move on. By that point, the being had already disappeared out of sight, its last direction being the only thing leading him in what he guessed to be the right way.
There she goes, running off again. I wonder if she-
A realization hit him, causing him to once again pause in his steps. “She”? When had he begun to refer to the being like that? He wasn’t even sure what a “she” was. It just came to mind for him out of nowhere, like many of the other words he had simply known when he first found himself in the void.
But I’ve never called her ‘she’ before. Why did I start now?
Shaking his head upon not reaching a plausible answer, he restarted his journey after the being. It didn’t take him long before he stopped for a third time, noticing something coming towards him in the distance.
“*--*-*?” he called out, but realized that the thing approaching him wasn’t the being. It was far more massive, and it was shining with an intense light that came close to almost burning even his eyes. Despite the lack of pain, he immediately shielded his eyes from it, finding it bothersome to look at for various reasons. He stood back and let the object pass by him, even from a close distance not appearing to be more than a giant, round sphere of light. Some of the light was thicker than the rest, flickering back and forth a bit at random. Some of it licked across his body a bit as it passed, but left no mark in its wake.
He stared after it as it drifted past, watching it slowly grow smaller as it got further and further away.
“…What was that?” he asked himself.
“The sun,” he heard a voice answer, and he turned back to see the being now standing behind him, smiling proudly.
“The sun?” he repeated. The being nodded sharply.
“Yup! It’s what I came up with to keep the place going while I was away. It warms it up, lights it up, and various other complicated things!”
“What… ‘place’ are you talking about?” he asked, sensing that he was finally about to learn the being’s secret. The being beamed at him and pointed a limb towards something behind her. What he saw beyond wasn’t anything he had ever predicted.
At first glance, it seemed to be just a massive sphere of dirt, like the type he and the being had made up early on. But various differences were present across its surface, most noticeably the various colors. Green, blue, white, and even a few traces of yellow were spread all over it, and when he squinted his eyes, he swore that he could see parts of it move slightly. The “sun” he’d seen before was in the process of spinning around the object, and a smaller, gray sphere was spinning on the opposite side of it, chasing after the sun endlessly.
“**--*,” the being proclaimed as she flexed out her limbs, her back turned to it all as she faced him. “Welcome to my planet!”
He didn’t comment on the revealed surprise at first, opting instead to wait and see if the being was about to elaborate. It turned out that she wasn’t, so he voiced his first question himself.
“Planet?” he repeated. The being blinked a few times before scratching the back of her head.
“Well, I was going to think up a clever name for it, but nothing really came to mind. But nevermind that! Come, let me show you around!”
Grabbing his limb, the being dragged him down to the sphere’s surface. At first he expected to just see layers of differently colored dirt, but was once again left speechless by what he saw instead. The green part of the “planet” turned out to be a vast field of grass, like the one the being had created on his own work. Scattered around the area, a few other similar, but much greater objects were planted into the ground. It reminded him of the grass, due to its long, green petals, but the brown centerpiece it was all connected to made it stick out. To his surprise, he could see mountains, something he himself had created during his own work, far in the distance, some of their tops mysteriously colored white.
“You remember the conversation we had just before I left?” the being began to explain. “You thought that my grass was pointless, and I was trying to think up a word for why I thought it wasn’t. Wanna know what word it was?”
He didn’t say anything, which the being took as a sign to continue.
“’Lifeless’! I didn’t want our creations to just do whatever we created them for. I wished that they would have… well… a mind of their own.” She pointed down at the grass under them. “Like this grass does. It can’t talk or really react to anything that happens to it, but it is… alive. As is that tree over there, and those flowers growing on that field. There are even things hidden in the dirt all over the place that are alive. This whole planet is living and breathing, just like us!”
He did his best to absorb the information the being was giving him. Most of it, like the concept of “life”, passed over his head, but he could tell from the being’s descriptions that she had put a lot of thought into this.
“I’ll admit that your work here is ambitious,” he said once the being stopped talking. “And there are parts you’ve gotten further with than even I have. Still, I fail to see how ‘living things’ are-”
A small shadow passed over the grass below him, gliding over its surface like a flat image. Seeing it even pass over his own body as if it was sticking onto him, he turned around to see where it went. His eyes widened when he saw the shadow join together with some kind of strange creature that landed on a nearby tree. Unable to even describe it in his head properly, he stood up and walked a bit closer to get a better look.
“What is that?” he asked the being.
“That’s a bird,” the being answered quickly.
“A bird?” He was aware of how often he’d simply repeated whatever word the being said, but he simply had no better way to question it.
“Yup! And that over there is a rabbit!” She pointed down the field towards another creature with overly long ears. He didn’t have time to ask more before the being grabbed and dragged him away yet again, stopping over another field filled with larger, more muscular creatures.
“Those are cows,” the being said, this time not waiting before dragging him away to a new place. “That’s a snake. There’s a few fishes. And these…”
A final pull left the two floating above what seemed to be a collection of strange-looking objects planted into the ground. They were made out of rock, what he guessed to be part of trees, and other materials he couldn't recognize. What perplexed him were the holes that pierced through nearly every side of them all.
“…These are ponies.”
The creature that walked out of one of the objects shocked him more than anything of what he’d seen until now. It was a four-legged creature, its coat colored yellow while its tail and the mane on its head were dark red. After yawning a bit to itself, the creature was soon joined by several others of its kind all over the area. All of them sported unique colors and were of different sizes, and they nodded to each other as they passed each other by and went their separate ways down the surrounding fields.
But it wasn’t any of these facts about the creatures that had shocked him so much. The real reason… was because they looked familiar.
“They look… just like us,” he stated as he looked back at the being.
“They were the first creatures I created,” the being explained while looking down at the ponies with a warm smile. “Well, okay, not the first. I experimented a bit with a few others before them just to get the technique down right, but they were the first I managed to make without screwing anything up. I’ve made several others types since then too, but these are the only ones that look like us, like you said. Look! I even gave some of them horns, others wings, and some got neither. I think they’re okay with that, though. They haven’t really complained.”
“If they are as unable to talk and react to what happens to them as the grass is, I’m not surprised,” he figured out loud.
“Oh no, they can talk.”
His eyes widened as he quickly looked over at the being.
“And react, and think, and make decisions, and anything else you can probably think of. Or… no, not everything. They can’t create stuff out of nowhere like we can, and they have their set limitations in other areas.”
He remained silent for a while as he just watched the ponies pass by below him. A few looked up from time to time, but none of them seemed to acknowledge his or the being’s presence. Perhaps they were invisible to them, probably by the being's choice.
“So this… is what you’ve made while you were gone?” he eventually asked.
“Yes,” the being answered, and her voice was now every bit as warm as her smile. “This is my achievement. A world that can live on its own without my control. A place where countless creatures other than us can live and be happy.” She turned and smiled to him. “This is my… OUR home.”
He sat and simply stared at the being for a moment, once again unable to look away as he felt the void in his soul fill up a bit more from her smile.
“I, uh, hope you aren’t mad about all this, though,” the being suddenly said while laughing awkwardly. “Your stuff was great, I swear, but it seems like I got a bit ahead of you this time.”
“Don’t get used to it,” he countered. “And you’re just unable to see the brilliance behind my designs, like al-”
“What are you two talking about?”
His and the being’s conversation ended abruptly as they both spun around to face the source of the new voice. Behind them, a pony was sitting down casually, floating in the air just like them. While the colors of its coat and hair was visible, they were a bit obscured by a shimmering light that engulfed every inch of its body.
“Welcome back, *--*-*!” it said as it waved happily at the being.
“Why can it see us?” he asked the being, who was now breathing a bit irregularly and looking back and forth between him and the pony.
“Uh, well… You see… That’s…” she tried to explain, but the pony swiftly started talking again.
“Are you new here, mister? I haven’t seen you before. Although you remind me a bit of those other guys.”
“…What ‘other guys’?” he asked, even surprised at himself by how interested he suddenly got.
“Those guys, who else?” the pony answered as it pointed into the distance above them. Squinting his eyes, he could vaguely make out small, shadowy forms floating high above.
“What are they?” he asked the being.
“Oh, um, nothing you need to worry about! Just a few experiments I’ve yet to fini- H-Hey, wait!”
He didn’t listen to the being’s objections as he began to walk towards the distant shadows. Whatever it was that the being was trying to hide from him, he felt an uneasy need to figure it out.
HAPPY MONTHIVERSARY, LULA!
The first thing Lucario saw as his sight returned were these words clumsily written on a blue-colored banner. The banner in turn was clumsily held up by two colts, smiling widely as they and their surrounding friends waved and beamed in Luna’s direction.
Luna, standing still after having seemingly just seen her welcoming party, gave Lucario a chance to take in his new surroundings. They were standing in some kind of circular kitchen, traces of flour and various other ingredients visible all over the place, including on some of the children’s coats. The cake that had been made out of these ingredients stood on a nearby table, almost comically sinking into itself due to its bakers’ inexperience. A pair of simple stairs went up to the upper floor near the wall, and a few, oval-shaped windows were spread out evenly around the room. While it was clearly darker than during daytime, there was still enough light for anyone to see what was around them clearly. Luna was of course used to it, but the children also seemed to be able to see just fine.
The door behind Luna shut quietly as Landlubber walked into the room. After giving Luna a smile of her own, she soon took notice of the banner and promptly sighed.
“Okay, who was in charge of writing the banner?” she asked with great constraint.
“Me! Why?” Sneaky quickly answered on the side of the room, oblivious to her friend’s annoyance. As Landlubber tiredly pointed her hoof up to the banner, Sneaky and the other children looked up to see what was wrong. The reaction was immediate.
“Oh darn it, Sneaky! How could you misspell ‘Luna’ out of all names?!”
“What? Don’t look at me, you were the ones not holding the banner steady.”
“It was lying on the floor!”
“Like I said, you weren’t holding it steady!”
“What could be steadier than the freaking ground?”
“Your hold, for one.”
The never-ending argument was thankfully stopped by an uncharacteristic laugh coming from Luna. The children watched in silence for a moment as she brought a hoof up to shield her mouth before small giggles began to leak out from them as well. It didn’t take long before everypony in the room was laughing, with some of them even rolling around the floor. Even Landlubber couldn’t keep her composure as she soon descended into a laughing fit of her own.
“Hah… hahahaha,” Luna finished as her laughter died out. “Thank you, children. I was surely not expecting this when Landlubber suddenly asked me to go with her on a moon bunny hunt.”
“WHAT?! NO FAIR!” Sneaky yelled in jealousy before being hushed by a nearby colt.
“But why celebrate a… ‘monthiversary’, as you’re calling it, everypony?”
“Well, a month is the time it takes for the moon to make a full orbit around the planet, right?” Landlubber answered. “We thought it was more fitting than to wait an entire year.”
“Not to mention it would be BORING!” Sneaky exclaimed as she dramatically waved her head back and forth. “I love this place and you all, but we needed to have a party! I can’t wait an entire year for that!”
Luna giggled as a few of the children actually nodded in agreement with Sneaky’s statement. Wild in behavior as she was, she still had the same core mindset as most of her friends. The alicorn walked up and spread out her wings for a group hug, which the children made no delay in holding off.
“This is a wonderful surprise,” she said gently. “Thank you all so much.”
It only now occurred to Lucario that Luna didn’t talk using the ‘Royal We’, instead talking just as she’d done with Celestia before. Somehow more noticeable to him was how content she sounded. Her voice hid the same happiness that it had during her song, and the way she pulled the surrounding children closer into the heartfelt hug was reminiscent of that of a mother figure.
She really loves these children… doesn’t she? Lucario thought. If she ever loved them just because they loved her night like Celestia said, then it has definitely changed now.
Luna broke the hug and let the children step back. Giving all of them a bright smile, she turned her attention to the ever-shrinking cake on the table. “Now then, I think it’s time to dig in on the main dish.”
“Actually, why don’t we eat it outside?” Landlubber suddenly suggested. “It’s as beautiful as ever out there, and we always eat inside anyway.”
Seeing her friends nod in approval, she began to order them around, assigning some with carrying the cake and the table, while others handled the chairs. After assigning Sneaky with keeping charge of the outside arrangements, a choice Lucario was certain would end in disaster, she stayed behind with Luna as the rest of the group went out the door. After a while, Luna walked up to one of the windows and looked out, finally revealing the outside to Lucario.
What he saw immediately spawned memories in his mind.
This is… where I fought Nightmare Moon, he realized as he looked over the giant flower field surrounding the building on all sides. Although he couldn’t see it directly, he became certain that the building in question was the great tower that had stood in the middle of Nightmare’s field as well.
“This is my kingdom, or at least what it once looked like. A paradise free from my traitorous sister’s rule and her misled subjects. It was a place where the true beauty of the night could be displayed in its full splendor.”
Remembering Nightmare’s words from before their battle, Lucario got the chance to look up at the moon when Luna lifted her gaze upwards. Which is why he was shocked that he never had a chance. For the moon was gone, instead replaced by a colossal landmass stretching out almost as far as his eyes could see. The multicolored mix of white, blue, and green immediately revealed its true identity.
That’s the planet, he thought in disbelief. Which means that… we’re on the moon?
Creating her new country on the very celestial object she’d built her night around was something Lucario guessed that he could’ve expected from Luna. Not only was it located far away from the influence and interference of Equestria, but it was also the most fitting choice for building a land of eternal night. He briefly questioned how they were all able to breathe in this atmosphere, but quickly figured it was thanks to Luna’s magic. Perhaps the moon had always been habitable in this world, in contrast to the one from his old life.
The sightseeing of the area ended as Luna turned away from the window to look at Landlubber.
“Has there been any sight of Whiteout yet?” she asked, the question taking Lucario by surprise. Landlubber frowned and walked up to join Luna’s side by the window.
“If you can’t find him, I doubt any of us can,” she said sadly. “I don’t know how he survives out there, but I’ve heard that a few of the others leave food around for him to eat in case he passes by.”
Luna nodded, the disappearance of the young foal clearly weighting her down. “Maybe I shouldn’t have brought him along. I knew that he wished to be left alone, but I just assumed that-”
“He’s a sillyhead for not wanting to be with us,” Landlubber quickly reassured the princess. “Or for not wanting to be with you, for that matter. I’m sure I speak for everypony when I say that you’re the best thing that has ever happened to us.”
Luna smiled at the compliment, nuzzling the filly in thanks before letting her eyes drift back outside once more. The two of them sat in silence as they listened to the yells of the other children, clearly upset with something Sneaky had messed up again. It was a peaceful moment, eventually broken by Landlubber as she spoke up again.
“Do you remember the night we first met, and you asked me why we all watched your night?” Looking up to see Luna nod in affirmation, she continued. “I said that we simply loved your night so much, and it was complicated to explain exactly why. But now… I think I can tell you.”
Luna looked down at the filly in surprise, but remained silent in order to let her speak freely.
“I was always acting as the leader of all the kids, trying to make sure nopony did anything stupid, and that everypony was all right. But I’m just a kid myself, and there were times I couldn’t keep them all in check. Both because I just couldn’t handle them all, and because they wouldn’t listen without a real adult present. There were times I felt so powerless and hopeless that I just up and left the orphanage, hiding myself away in some random part of the city until they came and found me. I didn’t know how we were supposed to survive, what would become of us in the future, or… why we even struggled to keep going at all.
“One day, I ran away like I’d done before, climbing up on one of the rooftops to hide from the other kids. I lied down and just cried everything out up there for ages, until I by chance opened my eyes and looked up at the stars. There were so many of them, and out of boredom, I began to see if I could imagine as many futures for myself as there were stars. A firemare, a guard, a teacher, a simple cleaner. The list just grew larger and larger, and even when I was beginning to run out of ideas; I forced myself to continue, because there were still so many stars left for me to mark.
“Eventually, I began to fantasize about how my life would be in each of my futures, like what struggles I’d face, or what goals I would accomplish. Before I knew it, Sneaky eventually found me, but I got her to sit down and think of different futures with me. The day after, we invited a few of the other kids, and the day after that, even more wanted to come. We spent hours just sitting up there, talking about our dreams, or what we would do if we couldn’t fulfill them. I learned more about each and every pony in a few days than I’d done in months.
“And now… I’m not sure what I want to become anymore. Not because I think that it’ll be hopeless for me, but because I have so many choices that I don’t know what to go for. I can have as many dreams as I want, as many possibilities as I want. I don’t even care which one it’ll eventually be. I just… want to fulfill one of them. And as long as I’m alive and breathing, I know that I’ll do so.”
Landlubber slowly turned to Luna, her eyes twinkling from building tears. Judging by Luna’s strained face, Lucario guessed that her eyes did the same.
“That’s what your night taught me. It taught me that I can be whatever I want to be, as long as I’m willing to actually try it. And even if I fail, there’s always another chance, just like how there’re still an endless number of stars left if one of them would go out. You… make me keep going. You keep supporting me. You always… love me.”
The tears were now flowing unhindered down both Landlubber’s and Luna’s cheeks, the latter holding her hooves to her mouth.
“Thank you… m… mother.”
Luna let out a shaky gasp as she embraced the small filly in a bone-crushing hug, which Landlubber returned in kind. Only Lucario knew how long they sat there, lost in time as they forgot about the rest of the world. Only when Sneaky slammed open the front door did they pull apart.
“Would you two hurry up already? The Children of the Night are waiting for you!”
“What did you just call us?” a muted voice asked from outside.
“Oh shut it, you know that sounded cool,” Sneaky replied as she closed the door again. Luna and Landlubber laughed briefly at the filly’s antics before they stood up.
“She’s a bit of a hoof-full sometimes, isn’t she?” Luna asked jokingly.
“I know,” Landlubber laughed. “I still can’t believe that you managed to take her with us.”
“Now now, Landlubber. I know that she can get on one’s nerves sometimes, but that’s no reason for me to consider leaving her behind.”
“No, not that. I mean, I still can’t believe you managed to persuade her parents to let her come with us.”
An ice-cold feeling of dread spawned inside Lucario’s stomach. Luna must’ve shared the same symptom, as her entire body froze up and turned cold. Her legs twitched ever so slightly as she looked down at Landlubber.
“W… What did you just say?” she asked, a layer of panic seeping into her voice.
“Her… parents,” Landlubber repeated unsurely. “Or more like her foster parents? They’d taken care of Sneaky for quite a while after adopting her from the orphanage.”
“Bu-But…!” Luna stammered. “You told me that she simply had a house to live in! I thought that she lived there by herself!”
“N-No, her parents just aren’t home very often. That was why she went inside that night we met without caring about waking them up. Y-You mean you didn’t-”
“Luna? Are we having company today?”
Briefly shaken out of her panicked state, Luna turned her head to answer Sneaky’s question from outside. “N-No, why?”
“Because there’s a group coming this way right now! They even brought torches to keep us warm!”
The word “torches” was all Luna needed to hear before she flew towards the door, nearly slamming it out of its hinges in the process. Ignoring all the set up furniture, she followed Sneaky’s still pointing hoof. In the distance, barely within eyesight, a group of ponies were approaching steadily. Like Sneaky had said, they were carrying numerous torches, which they held up and waved back and forth threateningly as they walked. Distant murmurs could be heard coming from them, and Luna didn’t need to have heightened hearing to piece out the blatant anger in them.
“Landlubber, get everypony inside, now,” Luna commanded automatically. She left the filly no room to argue, as she immediately fired up her horn and teleported away, reappearing just a few meters away from the approaching group’s side. They didn’t notice her at first, but one stallion happened to look her way.
“There she is! Hunt her down!” he immediately screamed before throwing his torch over his fellow ponies’ heads. Luna was so caught off-guard by the sudden violence that she failed to avoid the incoming projectile, letting it painfully strike her right wing. The fire burned up a good number of her feathers as she grunted in pain, beating her wing fiercely in an attempt to put it out. Knowing that she was grounded for the moment, Luna turned tail and ran as the entire group chased after her, screaming and throwing whatever objects they were holding at her. She did her best to avoid it all, but the hateful yells rang so loudly in her head that all she could think of was to just run away.
For what felt like ages, she ran across the moon’s surface, her pursuers never letting down the chase. She had begun to pant heavily even before she started running, and now it was an unbearable mixture of fatigue and panic. Lucario himself was for once not in a much better shape of mind, his lack of control over the situation leaving him to simply watch powerlessly as the alicorn ran.
Eventually, after the tower and the flower field had long disappeared into the horizon, Luna reached one of the giant craters planted across the moon. It was far too steep for any non-pegasus to follow her down, so she leapt up and forced her wings to cooperate for the incoming dive.
She grunted in surprise when her dash was stopped by seemingly nothing, sending her falling backwards to the ground. She tried to get up and try again, but stopped when she noticed the yellow, magical barrier that had suddenly materialized in front of her.
“That’s enough, Luna.”
The familiar voice made Luna hold her breath, and as she slowly turned around, she noticed the even more familiar figure making its way towards her through the group.
“S-Sister…” Luna stood back up on her hooves and stepped as far away as the barrier allowed her to. “W-Why are you-”
“Why do you think I’m here, Luna?” Celestia interrupted her. Her face was making no attempt to hide the feelings of contempt hidden inside. “Did you really think I wouldn’t come and look for you after what you did?”
“I… I wasn’t-”
“She took my child away!” an older mare suddenly shouted behind Celestia, barely held back by two younger stallions. “I’ll never forgive that witch! Not after she took my little Sneaky!”
Luna’s eyes widened as she realized the identity of the mare. “No! I mean, I swear I didn’t-”
“There are a lot of things you didn’t do, Luna,” Celestia interrupted her. “You didn’t think things through, you didn’t tell anypony, and worst of all…” A flash of seething fury flashed over Celestia’s eyes. “You didn’t listen to me.”
Luna winced at her sister’s words, but her fear soon made way for a wave of her own anger. “Listen to you? All you’ve ever told me to do is to hide away, or do something impossible while you try to stop me every bit of the way!”
“Don’t try to shift the blame this time, Luna,” Celestia almost growled back. “The children will be returned back to Everfree where they belong, and you’ll be lucky if even I’ll ever forgive you for this. Now, where is he?”
The sudden question took Luna by surprise. “W-What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play games with me, Luna!” Celestia shouted, her patience at an end. “You know who I’m talking about, so just-”
“About time somepony came to pick me up.”
The new, high-toned voice interrupted the argument, and everypony present turned to the young colt that was now standing on the sidelines. His coat was grayed out from moon dust, but his dark brown coat was still visible beneath it all.
“W-Whiteou-” Luna began, but was interrupted by a familiar-looking elder stallion.
“Young master!” Mr. Bitworth exclaimed as he ran up to the bemused-looking colt. Instead of embracing him, Bitworth stopped and bowed down gracefully like a common butler. “It delights me to no end to see you safe and sound! After your fight with your father, I was beginning to lose hope of ever seeing you again!”
“Be quiet, Bitworth,” Whiteout commanded, his voice far more arrogant than Lucario could’ve ever expected. “I’m willing to admit my fault in my father’s argument, as long as I’m taken away from this disgusting place. I’ve been forced to sleep out on the streets like a common bum, make up a fake name when interacting with those pathetic foals, and now I’ve spent a month’s time fending for myself on this piece of rock because of this joke of a ruler.”
“My apologies, young master,” Bitworth answered professionally. “It was uncouth of me to further annoy you after your terrible ordeal. I’ll make sure you’re brought home post haste.”
“Very well, but make it quick,” Whiteout said as he walked towards the back of the pony group. “It will take me days to rub all this filth off my body.”
“Yes, master Blueblood.” Bitworth didn’t throw Luna another glance before following after the colt. Luna herself didn’t say anything, Whiteout’s real identity leaving her speechless.
“Are you happy now, Luna?” Celestia broke the brief silence. “Is this what you wished to happen all this time?”
“N-No, I didn’t…” Luna tried to answer, but her words died in her throat as her entire being shook from trauma.
“I’ve told you more times than there are ponies in the city that none of this would ever work. I tried to make you think up different ways to do this properly, but you’re always sprinting ahead, unable to hold your shallow self-control in check!”
“I… I…”
“Why, Luna?! Why?! Why do you keep insisting on doing this?! Why are you so desperate for attention?! WHY DO YOU ALWAYS TRY TO SHOW OFF THAT STUPID NIGHT OF YOURS?!”
Celestia’s Royal Canterlot Voice echoed across the entire moon before eventually fading out. All that was left in its wake was silence, even the gathered ponies keeping quiet after the outburst. Facing them on the other end of the small plain stood a motionless alicorn. Her eyes seemed to stare into space, but within, a Pokémon could see them locking on to the eyes of the other princess. Nothing in the area dared to move as Luna slowly brought a hoof to her chest, still staring into her sister’s eyes.
“I… I just wanted…”
The rest of the words never left Luna’s mouth, but her lips voicelessly worded them out for no one to hear. Only the princess of the sun, who was watching her the entire time, made out the unheard words. Slowly, like a burning candle, her furious expression melted away, bit by bit giving way for one of sudden understanding, pity, and regret.
“Luna… I…” she tried to say, but Luna interrupted her by bringing both of her forehooves to her head, letting her head fall down into them as she did.
“IjustwantedIjustwantedIjustwantedIjustwantedIjustwantedIjustwantedIjustwantedIjustwanted I… I JUST WANTED…!”
And then a bone-chilling scream erupted from the alicorn’s mouth, her hooves pressed to her eyes as she stood up on her hind legs. Every single pony standing behind Celestia stumbled back and fell to the ground as the scream shook them to their very core. All around Luna, a dark blue aura faded into existence, and Celestia’s barrier broke into pieces as it could no longer stand the overwhelming magical force. The aura grew thicker and thicker around Luna, her body steadily disappearing out of sight within. For just a brief, heart-wrenching second, Luna lowered her hooves to lock eyes with Celestia one more time before everything turned dark.
This darkness was on a completely different level from the one Lucario had experienced during Luna’s crying. He could still hear the magic swirl around him outside his vision, but he found himself instead searching for any sound that could come from Luna. He knew full well what was happening, but that didn’t make him care about Luna’s state any lesser.
And then he finally heard something, and it was the last thing he'd ever hoped to hear from the alicorn at this point.
Laughter.
“Ha… hahahahahahaha… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That’s right… What I want is…!”
Unbeknownst to Lucario, a pair of blue, catlike irises became visible to the outside ponies.
“AN ETERNAL NIGHT!”
The darkness around him exploded, and Lucario’s vision returned just in time to see the wave pass over the surrounding ponies, making several of them cry out in fear. Only Celestia stood still, her expression in a broken state as she watched the creature that stepped out of the shadows. Lucario didn’t need to notice the difference in height to understand Luna’s new from.
“What’s the matter, big sister?” Luna asked sarcastically. “I thought you would be the last pony in the world to be surprised by this form. After all, isn’t this how you’ve always imagined me? Isn’t this who I truly am?”
“Luna, you-” Celestia tried to say, but Luna lifted her hoof and wiggled it disapprovingly.
“Tsk tsk tsk, that’s no longer my name. I need a more fitting name, one that every living creature on our planet will recognize. Like…” A malevolent smile grew on her face. “’Nightmare Moon’… or what do you think?”
Celestia again opened her mouth to speak, but Nightmare continued before she got the chance.
“On second thought, scratch that. I don’t really care what you think. I’m sure you know the feeling.” Dark aura surrounded Nightmare’s horn as she raised her head to the sky. “Now let’s begin, shall we? The conflict you oh so wisely have predicted all these years. Let’s decide once and for all who is fit to rule Equestria!”
With that, she flew forward and slammed her horn into Celestia’s own. The older alicorn barely had the chance to prepare a spell of her own to deflect the slash, and a mixture of yellow and dark magic flooded every inch of Lucario’s vision.
“But just so you know, dear sister… The night… will last… FOREVER!”
Before his eyes, the intense battle between sisters raged across the surface of the moon. Time and time again, the advantage changed between them, and the two fighters gained wound after wound as they continuously tried to overcome the other. One was fighting like a mad beast, doing her best to inflict as much suffering as possible upon her opponent. The other was barely able to fight seriously, as tears of grief ran down her cheeks in fruitless reluctance.
But Lucario paid no attention whatsoever to the fight, and he had no interest in doing so. He knew how it was going to end, and what would happen long after the battle had ended. His thoughts and focus instead drifted off to the memories of what he’d seen before now, and what had led to this tragedy.
He saw a mare desperately trying to reassure a panicked dreamer. He saw the same mare walk alone through the city streets, her head hanging in sadness. He saw her reaction to a pair of fillies loving her night. He saw her very being warm up in the knowledge of finally not being feared of. He saw her attempting to convince her beloved sister, only to be ignored. He saw her cry into her pillow the following night. He saw her make a choice led by her heart, and then saw her entire world collapse as a result.
“Why do we even bother anymore? As if entering their dreams like that will ever work.”
“Sorry. It’s just… It’s her. It’s really her.”
“We just love your nights so much, princess.”
“No, Luna. To you… they’re your nobility.”
“You… make me keep going. You keep supporting me. You always… love me… Thank you… m… mother.”
“I… I just wanted…”
For the first time since the vision of Luna’s past had begun, Lucario closed his eyes at his own accord. Celestia’s and Nightmare’s battle disappeared, and he let out a deep, long sigh to himself.
“I’ve been a fool.”
And then he simply turned and walked away, his conscience leaving Luna’s body as if he’d never been bound to it at all. He didn’t open his eyes as he walked further and further away, paying no more attention to the lingering sounds of the princesses’ battle. But instead of growing darker, a light slowly began to make its way past his closed eyelids. When he finally opened them, a blinding beacon of light was shining just a few feet in front of him. Most others would’ve thought that a light like this was the gateway to the waking world, but he knew better. And as he lifted his paw to the light, a mysterious voice echoed inside his mind as his whole body grew warm.
Surpass me…
“Just a little more,” Nightmare said out loud as she forced the ever shrinking moon above her to crush the Pokémon within more and more. “He can’t survive much more of this! Soon, everything will be-”
Light. It was a part of life that Nightmare preferred in smaller doses. The small twinkle of a star, or the reflected light bouncing off the surface of the moon. Perhaps even a small candle to lighten up a small room, if only for the sake of atmosphere. She hated daylight, the rays of the sun, and even something as little as a lamp, which only served to shine light upon an area that needed none.
She hated too much light. But until that moment, she’d never been sure if she outright feared it.
Afterwards, she knew what her answer was for sure.
The moon above her exploded in the most blinding light Nightmare had ever witnessed. The tower, the field around her, and even her own body were drowned out by the endless wave of bright yellow that flooded through anything and everything in its wake. She wasn’t even able to lower her foreleg down from her eyes due to well-placed fear of turning blind. Even closing her eyes did little to spare her from it all.
“W-WHAT?! WHAT’S HAPPENING?!”
Within the core of the floating moon, a figure engulfed in yellow light stood unburdened by the giant mass of rock and stone pressing against him from all sides. He lifted up both of his arms, effortlessly stretching them outward as they simply pressed the surrounding rock away like a limb through water. His paws opened up, and he let his palms press themselves against the sides of his prison.
“Force Palm.”
If Nightmare had been able to see anything through the light, she would’ve beheld the two, giant shock waves that erupted on both sides of the shining moon. As a deafening explosion reached her ears, the light immediately ceased. She heard quakes around her as rock and debris fell to the ground, and her mouth could taste dust blowing into her face. When only a few, lingering sounds of small rocks hitting the ground remained, she finally lowered her hoof and opened her eyes.
The moon she’d created to imprison the Pokémon was gone. A cloud of dust still floated slightly in the air above the tower where it had floated a few seconds ago, but giant boulders and rocks as big as chariots lied spread across the now ruined flower field. The tower, in comparison, had survived mostly undamaged, the moon’s explosion having sent the debris falling outwards away from it. And on top of it, staring down at her from the edge, stood a seemingly unfazed Lucario.
A minute passed as the two simply looked at each other. Lucario’s expression was as hard to read as ever, while Nightmare’s was frozen in a state of terrified shock. She barely dared to move as she looked up at the Pokémon, fearing what he would do if she did as little as to even flex her wing.
“H… How…” she found herself asking against her will. “How did you-”
“You were right before.”
Nightmare blinked and ceased her question as she heard Lucario’s sudden statement. “A… About what?”
“About me being cruel. The night I met Luna, I was so fixated on my own past that I used her own as a bargain to keep mine secret. I thought the inhabitants of this world didn’t need to hear it, or that it was even too horrible for them to comprehend. I was… foolish. Because right then, I saw something in her eyes. I saw a shrouded past just as painful as my own, and deep in my heart, I knew I was selfish to ignore that past. But I still did, and now…”
He lifted his paw up and inspected his palm briefly before clenching it.
“Now that I’ve seen that past, I wonder if I pained her by not even lending my ear to listen.”
Nightmare’s eyes widened upon hearing Lucario’s words. “Now that you’ve seen it? You mean that…?”
“I was a fool,” Lucario said as he lowered his paw. “If I’d heard about her past beforehand, maybe this battle would’ve never taken place. Maybe I would’ve understood her dream sooner… both of yours.” He looked down at Nightmare, regret clearly visible in his eyes. “But I do now… and I’m sorry I took this long to do so.”
Nightmare didn’t answer Lucario’s apology. She didn’t even visibly react upon hearing it. To Lucario, she still seemed frightened and confused, ready to run away or cower back at any moment. But inside her mind, a new feeling was starting to grow by the second. Inwardly, a smile grew on the alicorn’s lips as she made out the implications in the Pokémon’s words. And the answer she found warmed up a heart that had long since been left cold.
Does he… does someone finally…?
“I’m going to end it.”
Again, Nightmare’s expression didn’t change. But the faint glimmer of happiness that had slowly begun to grow in her chest disappeared without a trace. It now instead felt as if someone had pierced her heart with a sharp blade, and she could feel the sensation spread across her entire body as her eyes slowly widened. Above her, Lucario’s paws were engulfed in blue flames as he pointed one of them down at Nightmare.
“I’ll wake you up… from this false dream of yours.”
Windless as the area was, the field of grass and flowers still begun to wave backwards as some unseen force slowly began to push at them. It was barely noticeable at first, with even the most fragile flowers managing to hold on to their petals. But eventually, as moment after moment passed in complete silence, the force gained in power. Petals, blades of grass, and uprooted flowers started to fly off the ground, and even one of the distant boulders turned slightly as dark energy started to spread across the area. In its center, still frozen like a statue, stood Nightmare Moon. Her teeth were clenched shut, her lips slightly parted in a furious grimace, and part of her mane had floated over her face, obscuring it from sight. It felt like the entire world shook as she was more and more enveloped in her dark blue magic.
“How… dare you…”
She threw her head up, and her catlike eyes glowed with terrible power as she directed all of her wrath at the Pokémon.
“CALL MY DREAM FALSE?!”
Nightmare’s body exploded in a sea of stardust, but instead of shooting out in all directions, it flew towards and began to spin around the tower at unbelievable speeds. Before Lucario could’ve had any possible chance to react, a giant, dark blue tornado engulfed the tower, leaving it standing in the center of its eye. The edges of the tower were torn off by the force, and various flowers and debris from below flew up to join the ever-growing spinning cloud of destruction.
“HOW CAN YOU WITNESS EVERYTHING I’VE GONE THROUGH AND STILL DENY THE TRUTH?! WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY CLAIM TO UNDERSTAND IF YOU STILL CHOOSE TO FIGHT ME?! YOU’RE JUST LIKE THE REST, JUST LIKE ALL OF THOSE FOOLS WHO’VE FEARED ME FOR CENTURIES WITHOUT REASON! FINE THEN! OPPOSE MY DREAM! I WILL CRUSH YOU JUST LIKE I WILL CRUSH EVERYPONY ELSE!”
Despite the alicorn’s deafening cries all around him, Lucario stood unaffected by the chaos around him. His eyes were once again closed, something he always seemed to do when not taking something seriously, which only served to enrage Nightmare even more.
“YOU CAN’T STOP ME, GUARDIAN! I’VE SPLIT MY BODY INTO BILLIONS OF PARTICLES INSIDE THIS ATTACK. NOT EVEN YOUR SENSES CAN FIND THE REAL ME, NOT IN A THOUSAND YEARS! NOT THAT YOU COULD EVER UNDERSTAND HOW LONG THAT IS MORE THAN I DO! BUT I’LL MAKE YOU SEE! I’LL MAKE ALL OF YOU SEE! THE NIGHT…!”
“WILL LAST…!”
“FOREVER!” Ignoring the quiet words coming from the Pokémon, Nightmare’s tornado shot inwards towards Lucario, her yells echoing louder than the greatest thunder. She didn’t react when a ball of light blue energy bigger than an Aura Sphere appeared in his right paw as he opened his eyes.
“Focus Blast.”
In a millisecond, Lucario spun around and showed his paw downwards, striking Nightmare’s head from above. Time grinded to a near halt as she found herself slowly falling down towards the roof below her, traces of her stardust still floating motionlessly in the air around her. She didn’t wonder how the Pokémon could’ve possibly hit her, nor what the words he’d said just before his attack had meant. All she could focus on was the incredible force pushing against her head, soon followed by her helmet finally giving in and breaking into pieces.
Lucario’s Focus Blast sent Nightmare crashing through the roof with a deafening rumble. One by one, the floors on the lower levels gave way as the attack forced the alicorn further and further down, destroying more and more of her and the orphaned children’s past home. When she finally reached the ground level, the light still pressing against her head briefly intensified before finally detonating.
Lucario activated Magnet Rise just as the entire tower exploded under his feet. The walls holding up the bottom floor turned to dust that blew outward over the surrounding field, and giant cracks spread up the rest of the structure, splitting it into pieces. Several pieces of rock and stone were launched into the sky, flying past an uncaring Lucario before gravity finally reclaimed its hold on them.
But as the seconds passed, the falling sides of the tower began to slow down. The surrounding smoke froze in midair as a few rocks falling around Lucario also stopped in their tracks. The sound of the explosion grew distant before it faded out completely, leaving Lucario in complete silence and inactivity.
As he looked around himself in surprise, Lucario saw the unmoving tower walls beginning to glow. Soon enough, the dust, the smaller rocks, and even the flower field below him turned completely white, and small orbs began to float into the sky as the objects they were born from slowly shattered like leaves falling from a tree. As the orbs began to fill the sky, Lucario descended to the ground and walked up to the center of large crater. He didn’t need to use his Aura Sense to see what was hidden inside the still lingering cloud of white dust.
But what he heard coming from within was a sound his heart had never hoped to hear again after his vision.
*sob* “Why…?”
The dust faded away, exposing a broken, but still conscious Nightmare Moon lying within. Her left wing was broken in several places, and dark stains were flowing down her head and onto her neck. The helmet she’d been wearing until now was gone, letting her disheveled mane fall over her face just like Luna’s bangs. Despite the difference in coat color, it was almost impossible for Lucario to tell them apart from each other now.
“Why does everyone… oppose my dream?”
Nightmare painfully brought her foreleg to her face, hiding it from Lucario’s sight as she continued to cry. The sounds of her sobs and tiny gasps were the only things to break the lingering silence. The Pokémon’s expression remained unchanged, simply staying quiet as he watched tears flow down his beaten opponent’s cheeks.
“I’m not a monster… Why is it that everyone’s wishes but mine can be fulfilled? Can’t nightmares have dreams of their own? What’s so wrong about mine compared to all others?”
Lowering her hooves a bit, Nightmare rolled onto her back and stared up at the night sky above them. Even the stars and the moon she had created for herself there were beginning to disappear, leaving only a layer of darkness behind.
“It’s not fair…! I don’t understand…! Why can’t I have my dream? I don’t care if my night lasts forever, or even for just one more day.”
Nightmare covered her face with her forelegs, but her open mouth could be seen from the side as she let more sobs escape her breath.
“I just wanted… someone to see it…”
Nightmare’s open cries continued to wail across the area. She continued to hide her face, as if trying to shield herself from the rest of the world. Lucario kept his silence for a few more moments, but then closed his eyes as he slowly shook his head.
“You’re wrong. That’s not what you wanted.”
Nightmare gasped sharply, and though she still hid them behind her hooves, her eyes turned in Lucario’s direction.
“The one you wanted your subjects to see… was you.”
Nightmare’s eyes now widened visibly as her hooves fell down a bit from her face in shock. Her tears stopped falling, and she briefly held her breath as she looked up at the Pokémon.
“The ponies from your past hated you. I don’t know why or how it began, but they did. At some point after you defeated Discord, they simply started to fear your night, blaming it and whatever it brought for all the terrors that plagued them. Monsters, darkness, nightmares, and whatever else they could come up with. In time, you became nothing more than a lesser version of your sister to them, or barely even a shadow of her. It reached the point where you were no longer even welcomed to help or associate with them… and it left you in a state of isolation from which you had no chance to free yourself.
“You knew that you had to make them accept your night… but why? Because you wanted to have your work appreciated? Because you wanted to show everyone that you were your sister’s equal as a ruler? No. Those things barely even mattered to you. You just didn’t want to… be alone. And when you met Landlubber, Sneaky, and the other children from the orphanage, you finally no longer felt that way. They praised you. Accepted you. Loved you.
“But they were the only ones who did. The rest of your subjects continued to despise you, and when you made a desperate attempt to find happiness for yourself with those you held dear, even your own sister seemed to feel the same as them. ‘Why do you always try to show off that stupid night of yours’? That was when you realized… that no one truly understood you.”
Lucario looked up at the now blank sky as he remembered the words he’d heard in his vision.
“Isn’t this how you’ve always imagined me? Isn’t this who I truly am?”
“The night became an excuse. Thinking that they refused to accept your night was much easier for you to take than knowing that they didn’t accept you. You tricked yourself into believing that that was what you fought for. Overthrowing your sister and taking over Equestria so that your night could be eternal. But… like you said, you don’t care how long your night lasts. Because in the end, what you wanted…”
He looked back down at Nightmare, who was still staring at him between her hooves.
“I… I just wanted…”
“…was friends, wasn’t it?”
Lucario fell silent as he watched Nightmare. The alicorn’s expression was unreadable at first, processing what he’d just said. After a while, she looked away in what looked like shame, either humiliated by Lucario’s words, or simply unable to know how she was supposed to take it all. Her crying had stopped entirely, and she didn’t look back at Lucario to either object to or acknowledge anything. Thus, she didn’t see the gentle smile that appeared on his lips.
“But you know… Luna…”
Nightmare blinked and inhaled in surprise upon hearing her true name. When she turned back to Lucario, the Pokémon carefully knelt down next to her to take her hoof in his paws. Their eyes locked with each other, and Lucario’s head tilted slightly as his smile grew even warmer.
“…You’ve already fulfilled that dream, haven’t you?”
Nightmare's breathing had ceased for reasons unknown to her. She stared up at the now completely non-threatening Pokémon that was holding her hoof, her mind trying to get working after grinding to a halt. She found it peaceful, just looking into Lucario’s eyes. She was so tranquilized by it that she didn’t notice her world beginning to blur, or how the hoof Lucario held in his paws began to turn slightly transparent.
“Now if only another will as well…”
A distant voice echoed in her ears. It was too dark for her to see, but the voice sounded… familiar.
“Princess Luna.”
Nightmare opened her eyes, finding herself lying on the rocky floor of a castle. Lifting her head up in shock with widened eyes, she noticed the tall, white alicorn walking towards her.
“It’s been a thousand years since I have seen you like this,” Celestia said as she approached, her head held high like always. Her expression wasn’t angry, but Nightmare couldn’t bear to look at her. She closed her eyes and cowered back, fearing what her big sister would do.
“Time to put our differences behind us.”
Not expecting to hear these words, Nightmare carefully opened her eyes to see Celestia kneeled down in front of her. A strange urge inside her heart forced her to keep up the eye contact, letting her see her sister’s face up-close for the first time in centuries.
“We were meant to rule together, little sister,” Celestia continued. Behind them, the voices of other ponies could be heard asking something, but Nightmare ignored them. She watched her sister stand back up, a small, hopeful smile appearing on her lips as she did.
“Will you accept my friendship?”
Nightmare felt her body reflexively wince back, but her heart was yelling at her. She spared another glance up at Celestia, still seeing the warm smile directed at her. It was then that the words finally sunk in, a certain one standing out from the rest.
Friendship… No… she would never say that. She would never… I… I…!
“I’m so sorry!” she heard herself scream as her body ran up to Celestia by itself. While her mind panicked, she found herself lovingly nuzzle her sister as tears of joy fell from her eyes. “I missed you so much, big sister.”
She screamed at her body to back away, to escape before Celestia could do anything to her, but fell silent as she felt drops of liquid drop down on the back of her mane. A small sniffle made her open her eyes, and she found herself staring into her sister’s equally teared-up eyes.
*sob* “I’ve missed you too…”
Nightmare’s real eyes widened as her vision blurred again. She didn’t see how the transparency on her hoof had spread over her whole body, or how she slowly began to evaporate into small, white orbs. She instead found herself standing in the middle of a small village, a pair of pegasus fillies flying by to place a wreath of flowers around her neck.
What… are these?
The village gave room for a bedchamber, with her drifting off to sleep under her sister’s wing.
Are these… memories?
A bat-winged pegasus held a door up for her, smiling genuinely as she thanked him.
Whose memories are these?
She stood among a group of dressed-up villagers, laughing as they all threw spiders on a distant web.
Why am I seeing them?
Hugging her sister in a dark hospital room.
Why…?
Hugging a group of familiar ponies in the middle of a decorated hallway.
Why…?!
Flying through the air with a blue creature, smiling at each other as they simply talked.
……Why do they… make me feel so happy?
Against all odds, despite all her hardships and past tragedies, Nightmare Moon couldn’t help but smile as the last traces of her body disappeared, leaving white orbs to peacefully float away into the endless dark above.
Lucario continued to hold Nightmare’s hoof until it simply passed through his paws. He then watched in silence as the alicorn disappeared, just as the last traces of the similarly fading environment around him did the same. With no stars or moon to spread their light, the area was once again left in darkness, now nothing more than a wide, empty cave.
The only exception, Lucario found, was the vast field of grass. The flowers that had once adorned it were gone, but the grass itself defiantly remained, unaffected by the evaporation that had claimed everything else. Lucario wasn’t sure what to make of this, and his focus was soon shifted to the exit that suddenly opened up by itself in the nearby wall. Knowing that this was a sign to leave, Lucario turned to it and walked a few steps forward, but stopped as he looked back one final time at where Nightmare had disappeared.
“I’ll… keep your dream alive… I promise.”
With that, he turned back and ran through the exit as it closed itself behind him, leaving the field of grass in his wake.
And unbeknownst to Lucario, it would always remain there, waiting for however long it needed to finally fulfill its own dream.
To one day have its creator happily roll across its surface once more.
Sometime before, elsewhere in Tartarus...
Curse this place and its mazes! I can’t figure out if it’s leading me somewhere, or just spinning me in circles!
Luna’s patience with the never-ending tunnel she was flying through was growing thin. Not only was her sister still being held captive somewhere in this world, but she’d had Twilight and her friends seal the entrance behind her with the Elements of Harmony so that no creature or monster could pass through until Celestia was saved. Worst of all, she’d been separated from Lucario, her only companion, and she had no idea what had become of him.
And now I’m being led around like a dog chasing a treat, she thought to herself in frustration. I swear that when I find the one responsible for all of this, I’ll-
A distant growl from behind her reached Luna’s ears, interrupting her inner rambling as she landed back on the ground. Turning back to face whatever was coming, she engulfed her horn with magic.
“Show yourself!” she shouted, predictably receiving no answer. She was about to fire a beam down the tunnel when a second growl made itself heard, this time in the tunnel ahead of her. Turning so that her sides faced both directions, Luna eyed back and forth repeatedly as she waited. Her heartbeat grew louder and louder, each beat seemingly representing each step the unseen monsters took towards her.
*beat* *beat* *beat* * beat* *quack* *beat* *beat*
Wait… ‘quack’?
*POOF!*
Luna found herself standing in the middle of a checker-patterned field, surrounded by a group of dancing frogs. They were all yodeling together as they spun each other around by the elbows, waving their top hats up and down joyfully. One of them, for some reason wearing black armor that covered every inch of its body, walked past and dipped its measuring jug into the ground, somehow filling it with water before clumsily pouring all of it into a bottle. After splashing a bit of it over its face in an attempt to drink through its helmet, it gave Luna what seemed to be a curt “Good morning” before continuing on its merry way.
Luna stood still as she watched the dancing frogs and their armored friend, who was licked up by the distant sun before he could disappear into the horizon. Understandably overwhelmed by what seemed to be her sudden descent into madness, she found herself thinking the only question her mind could currently handle without breaking.
Where the hay is the duck?
A flash of light briefly blinded her from above, and she turned her head up to look for its source. Her near-shattered mind quickly pieced itself together when she saw the figure floating above her, holding a camera in its claw while laughing its lungs out.
“HAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh, that was PERFECT! I wish I had a newspaper to send this in to, because that reaction-shot was the best! Hahahahahahaha!”
Luna didn’t share the creature’s enjoyment. Instead, a stone-cold mix of hatred, dread, and fear took hold of her heart as memories of her past gave name to the monster above her.
“D-Discord?!”
“My, my…” Discord leered down as he threw his camera away. “It’s been a long time, WOONA.”
To be continued…
Many thanks to halo003qd for helping me proofread this chapter!
Whew! Now when that's all over, let's get down to business!
Luna's past is without a doubt the most difficult part I've written in this story yet. At first, I'd planned to actually make it fairly short, as I originally intended to tell all of it in one chapter. But as my planning stage continued, I realized that there were just too many small details I needed to focus on for it to come out properly. How much personality and background story could I give the children without making them steal the spotlight? How much personality and backstory did I HAVE to give them in order to make Luna's relationship with them sympathetic? What subtle teases did I need to throw in about the eventual revelation about Sneaky's and Whiteout's families without making them too obscure or too obvious?
Another great detail was the way I needed to explain Luna's dream solely through her backstory. Nightmare Moon always goes on and on about her night, but I've always seen it as a facade for her true wish: To just be accepted by her subjects and the ponies she loves. So I needed to somehow blur the lines between her dream for friends and her false dream for an eternal night in these chapters. I decided to make it seem that she was always wishing for the latter, but make it just vague enough that it could be interpreted as the former. Of course, this turned out to be even more complicated to pull off.
And then of course we have the fact that I had to tell Luna's entire backstory through Lucario's eyes... while he watched everything through Luna's eyes. That means we couldn't hear what Luna was thinking, and that not everything was explained out loud to us immediately, like when Luna went to see Celestia without saying why for Lucario to hear. Trust me, writing from such a viewpoint is HARD. Like, dear Faust, I hope I never have to do that again.
The release of the finished version of "Children of the Night" also put a few stops in my schedule. Since I'd always planned for Luna's backstory in this story to be based on that video, I had to make the two fit together as perfectly as possible. I started to study the animation obsessively, trying to make out where it was located, what all the houses looked like, and what all the children in it looked like as well. If you watch the video, you can actually see the ones I based the characters on in a few scenes. Landlubber is seen on the right as the children wake up in the orphanage, and she's the pony in the black robe we see narrating at the beginning of the video. Sneaky is seen sleeping and then floating out of her house before nuzzling Luna towards the end. Even Whiteout is seen sleeping in the tunnel I described in the story. Then there are other details, like the overall design of the orphanage, and how part of the Everfree Forest could be seen some distance behind it.
Celestia's personality in Luna's backstory is surely something I think a few of you will disagree with, but it makes sense in my head. This isn't the same Celestia as the one in the present, who has had over a thousand years' worth of experience in ruling a country. This one is still relatively new to her duties, and has been weighted down and mislead by all the awful choices she's no doubt been forced to make throughout her rule. The fact that she pretty much did it all alone after her subjects began to fear Luna probably didn't help much.
There's actually a second reason for why I chose the name Whiteout, aside from the Pokémon reference I mentioned in the previous chapter. According to Wikipedia, a whiteout is "a weather condition in which visibility and contrast are severely reduced by snow or sand. The horizon disappears completely and there are no reference points at all, leaving the individual with a distorted orientation." This was a very subtle hint on the fact that there was more to Whiteout than we could see upon first seeing him, as if his true identity was hidden within an unseen horizon.
I couldn't think of a way to explain how the moves Foresight and Mind Reader worked in the actual text, so I made them into links leading to their descriptions on a major Pokémon site. In short, Foresight lets the user hit Ghost-type opponents with Normal and Fighting-type attacks, and Mind Reader makes his or her next attack have a 100% chance to hit the target no matter what. Focus Blast, for those of you who were wondering, is a more powerful energy attack than Aura Sphere, but it lacks the latter's homing capabilities, and is in fact rather inaccurate (70% chance to hit in the games). Combined with Mind Reader, however, it works itself around this flaw.
I would like to thank all of you for staying patient when waiting for these chapters. The combination of real life and the complexity of this part of the story didn't mix well together. But despite the hardships that came with it, this was one of my most looked forward to parts of the entire story. You can't imagine how many times I've replayed Nightmare's passing in my head these past months. I can only hope that you find it even a fraction as good to read as I do.
Next time in Friendship is Aura: Over a thousand years ago, Luna helped save the world from the tyranny of the master of chaos. Now she faces him yet again, but without the sister and the elements that had been vital to her last victory. How will she fare when she now faces this nigh invincible opponent all alone? Join us next time when we dive from one great battle directly into the next: Luna vs Discord.
- KangTheGuardian -
P.S: Yes, I know Luna's backstory here will be proven false once season 4 kicks in, but it doesn't matter.
P.P.S: Does this pic look familiar to you?
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123,000 + words?!
This is going to take a while to read from the start...
Oh well, no time like the present!
3397484 Good luck to you, good sir! Please excuse the first few chapters for their lower quality compared to the later ones. I wasn't completely set on the tone of the story when I first started writing it (but I think you'll find it much better once you get going a bit, so just stay strong).
Will Lucario mega evolve in this story?
What is this "sense" and where can I buy one?
You've got a typo!
Other then that, excellent chapter!
So Whiteout was actually Blueblood? But I thought he was a unicorn who was alive in the present. What was he doing in the past?
Damn, the part where Luna became Nightmare Moon...lots of feels there!
And the Kirk Summation Lucario gave Nightmare Moon after defeating her seemed spot-on to me.
So now we shift to Luna vs Discord. Only problem is, she doesn't have her sister or the Elements of Harmony to help her with his chaos this time. So Lucario had better hurry up before it's too late!
fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/057/f/a/princess_luna_approved_by_ambris-d4r3ibw.png
fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/060/f/5/princess_celestia_approved_by_ambris-d4rftlj.png
Later!
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3397752
Thanks for the typo heads-up, but I'm afraid that you're wrong on several other parts, dear viewer. For example, would it be so far-fetched to assume that "Blueblood" is not his given name, but his family name? And if you want to figure out the true secret behind Landlubber's and Sneaky's family line, you have to go look for more than just physical appearance and personality.
Names go deeper than what your mind finds smooth
For even a misspelled one can hide the truth
3397854 Gotcha. And my guess about the two entities who are doing all that creating in the beginnings of the chapters is also wrong, because those two Legendaries do not look like ponies. Well, if you squint, Dialga might kind of look like a pony, but not Palkia.
Well, with any luck these two chapters mean you have managed to overcome the bane of all writers, writers block, and won't take as long with later chapters.
Dang. This is epic
Just one question, will Lucario mega evolve in this story? Just wondering 
Again, very excellent job, looking forward to more 
3398000 Shh, don't tell anyone.
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3398127
I came up with this entire story long before mega evolutions were revealed. It has even reached the point where including them would just complicate things I've already planned. Mega Lucario for president and everything, but I'm afraid it's best that he sits this one out.
The part with the female being naming off the animals in her planet made me think of The Greatest Story Ever Told: The Book of Genesis by Hanna-Barbara.
Lucario's explanation to Nightmare Moon after her defeat made me think of Ed talking to Envy about why they were so jealous in FMA: Brotherhood.
Overall, this chapter was full of feels
...Well, until Discord showed up
Then it became Monty Python with a side of Michigan J. Frog.
*Begins dancing* "Hello, my baby! Hello, my honey! Hello, my ragtime gal~!
great chapter loved Landlubber and Luna, also i agree Mega-Lucario for president and Mega Absol can be his running mate.
ABOUT BLEEDING TIME YOU UPDATED THIS, MOTHER BUCKER!
Well, since that's out of the way... WHO HERE HAS BEEN ENJOYING POKéMON X AND Y SO FAR, AND WHO WANTS LUCARIO TO GO MEGA?
3398814
3.bp.blogspot.com/_fZnAADKlFTE/S3F4On01IqI/AAAAAAAAAnc/vshGQe3hrck/s320/gomenasai.jpg
And then they wrote a song about the night and endless possibilities. And it was written by Bowling for soup...
What? TRY to ponify that band's name. You can't.
3397854
Misspelled...
Lula...
Trixie's last name is Lulamoon.
So, is there a relation? Trixie is a disguise Luna made to test Twilight? To get back with the common ponies? Her daughter? Niece? Cousin? Whatever it is it includes Trixie.
3398373 *responds with a Roar of Time-loud answer*
IT'S AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE!!!
3399893 This line from the chapter Fear and Blaming in Ponyville shows how wrong you are.
Headcanon achieved.
this is how things happen in my mind now.
Thank you for that.
Lunario...That's a really nice ship name.
3399785 Fixed.
3399947 That's a ponification of Crush 40's name, I'm afraid. Not Bowling for Soup. Still...
3399893 Foaling for Soup... though it's disgusting when you think about it.
3400886
Hey girls, I know how we can get our cutie marks!
How, Scootaloo?
We'll just write a song about our lives, and what trying to find our cutie marks is like!
...Don't you remember? We SUCK at musical performances.
*ignores them* It can't fail!
And thus Foaling for soup was born.
Following the crusaders surprising success, Pinkie gave the musical world a go and created Magna-Pie. Not one to be left behind, Rainbow dash also started her own band, Dash-Dash.
I liked the yodeling frogs with top hats the best.
Make him be able to Mega Evolve w/ the help of Luna
Oh my God... This story...At first you got my curiosity with Lucario arriving in Equestria, it was nice to see another variant of the Human in Equestria fanfic. Later you got my amusement with him being an absolutely paladin-like gentleman
and ponies thinking about him being not worthy of being trusted. After that you got my attention with the fight sequences that were a ton of fun to read (although maybe Lucario being almost unbeatable was a bit far fetched, and combining two pokemon moves into one was kinda pushing it). To be honest I was even enjoying more the story behind the two god-like beings that little by little were becoming clear who they were. But you finally got my adoration with the backstory of Luna turning into Nightmare Moon, I haven´t read that many fanfics about the events that caused her corruption, but this......this is my favorite. Not only you put together that the Eternal Night wasn't the true motive behind it, but you combined it with one of my favorite animations so far: Children of the Nigth, and all the hints about the family origins of certain fillies and colts was just the icing on the cake.
Beautiful, just beautiful. Thank you for this story
Said the pony who refused to listen to her sister... Anyone know where Rita is right now? Somepony is in desperate need of a beat-down
3402481
Like from Looney Tunes. Ya know, "Hello ma baby, hello ma honey, hello ma rag-time gal!"
Wait, how did an angry mob get on the moon in the first place? Did Celestia teleport them there or something?
Just wondering...does this take place before or after Lucario and the mystery of Mew? Or an alternate universe?
3398168
I, for one, am very glad Lucario won't be Mega-Evolving in this story. The Megas are great and all, but complications or contradictions to your current plans aside, think about how Mega-Evolution is achieved in the games. It'd be really hard to implement that system into this story without it sounding out of place somehow. Or at least, I can't really see an easy way to get the concept in.
So much feels also is there a real photo from that newspaper about luna and lucario or the one discord took lol
fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2013/269/3/d/mega_lucario__redux_by_kansaibou-d6nwy5j.png
so AWESOME
3417293 let me help you say that in rainbow. MOOOOAAAAAAARRRR!!!!!MOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRR!!!!!MOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRR!!!!!!MOOOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRR!!!!!!!MOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRR!!!!!!MOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRR!!!!!
3566279
Mewtwo is a girl!?!?
Also, I can see Mega-Evolution working in this story. In the game , ME is achieved through the Mega Items and a strong bond between the Pokémon and it's trainer. Since this story has romance between Luna and Lucario, I can see them working together to achieve ME later in the story, after finding the items (or after stealing them from Lord Tartarus, I think that's his name, cause he randomly has them; also, Pinkie could gift Lucario the Mega Items cause she's Pinkie Pie)
No megas does not work he be "too strong"
Awesome chapter. Any chance of seeing Celestia thought's on her actions all those year's ago later in the story?
We need
A SEQUEL WHERE LUCARIO MEGA EVOLVES
That chapter was sad/happy, I don't like conflicting feelings... I do like, however, well written chapters xD
3626793 FUCK YEAH!
I'm kinda curious as to where Giratina was in the whole "creating equestria" thing. wait, let me guess, he was: images2.wikia.nocookie.net/creepypasta/images/8/80/Giratina.jpg
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3659731
Cool!
Booyeah!!!!
can't wait for the next chapter! Update soon!
Yet again, Blueblood is an instrument in making someone else's history miserable, assisting in ruining a life with his stupid act of self righteousness that is undeserved.
oh well, I hope Luna can survive for long enough so Lucario can get her out of there.
Not only should lucario reach his mega evolution state, but Luna as well. Maybe a merge with nightmare moon to create MEGALUNA.
...THE FEE-HEEEE-HEELS!!
My chest aches. I'm so choked up I can barely breathe.
You know a story is special when a scene is so devastatingly emotional that it physically hurts.
Bravo.
This... this was beautiful. The "false dream" thing just became part of my headcanon.
Oh dear goddesses(LoZ fan), I am bucking crying. I am crying like I have watched my dog die in my arms. HOW THE BUCK DID YOU WRITE A CHAPTER SO DAMN SAD AND BEAUTIFUL AND AMAZING?!
!@#@!@#$%^&*&^&*(*&^%$#$%%$#@!~!@#@#$%^&*()(*&*()_+_)(*&^%$#$%^&*(*&^%$#@!!!!!!!!
And then came the Darth Vader pouring water into a jug while standing in the ocean's surf picture that made no sense.
WAY TO MAKE ME FEEL BETTER!!!