Just do it!

by WaitWhut

The Birth of Nightmare Moon

Luna stood next to her sister at the front of the palace, their horns blazing gold and blue as they both carried out the ritual to give birth to a new day.

All eyes were on Celestia.

Nopony paid her any attention.

May as well just be her ponies for all the notice they give us, she thought bitterly.

She sighed, turned her back to the now-cheering crowd and headed back into the palace and to her room to rest, with only bitter resentment for company.

She reached her room and removed her regalia, the faint light of her horn dimly lighting her room; her curtains were drawn to help keep the sunlight out so she could sleep easier.

She climbed onto the bed and closed her eyes. Sleep didn’t come easy though as the muted cheering of the crowd did nothing to ease her bitter thoughts.

----------

“Lulu, time to wake,” somepony whispered to her.

She opened her eyes and rubbed them with a hoof to clear the sleep from them. A flash of jealousy swept through her as she saw her sister before she swallowed it down and smiled.

“Good evening sister,” she replied. “What time is it?”

“We still have a while.”

Luna shook the last dregs of weariness from her mind before climbing off of her bed and opening the balcony window, closing her eyes and letting the coolness of the night wash over her. After a moment she turned around and headed to her dresser, levitating a brush to her mane to tame the unruly mess that was her bed mane into a state fitting for a princess. With that accomplished, her horn fired up again and she placed her regalia on.

We don’t know why we bother with all this, she thought. She dwelled in her resentfulness for just a moment before a voice snapped her out of her reverie.

“Ready?” Celestia asked.

“Yes, sister. Let’s go.”

Luna grasped the door handle with her magic and opened it allowing Celestia through it. She nodded her head in thanks and walked through, and Luna followed after. As she followed her down the corridor Luna looked at the back of her sister’s head, her thoughts and emotions switching between resentment of the adoration her sister gets and fear of sounding like a jealous child and upsetting her.

Both exited the palace to their usual spot.

To Luna’s surprise, there was a grand total on zero ponies there to watch them transition into the night. Her ears drooped and she sighed.
Celestia looked over to her sister, and for the first time she saw the sadness there that she had missed many times before. She draped a wing over her and pulled her closer.

“Let’s do this, Lulu.”

Luna looked at her sister with a rather neutral look and fired up her horn.

The last vestiges of daylight vanished as it was replaced with the cold light of the moon and stars.

“Lulu…”

“We have to go to Night Court. Sleep well, sister.”

After those words, Luna walked off. Celestia started to walk after her but with a flash of her horn, Luna teleported to the court hall.

----------

Luna had been on her throne for an hour now and the only visitor she had was a moth that kept fluttering around the candlelight, casting flickering shadows onto the walls.

With nopony for company, she soon retreated into the depths of her mind into the pool of bitterness and resentment where her usual thoughts swirled around:

We don’t know why we bother with Night Court. Nopony has come here in years.

They don’t even appreciate the night sky we’ve painted.

Maybe we should just refuse to take the moon down…

“DO IT!”

Luna snapped out of her thoughts, her horn firing up as she launched a magic missile out of pure shock. However, when the missile reached the one that assailed her ears, the missile diffused around the creature.

The creature stood on two legs and wore garments of black, and had its arms pointing down with its paws forming a loose diamond shape. It reminded her somewhat of a hairless ape.

That’s what must have blocked the spell the part of Luna’s brain that wasn’t reeling from shock surmised.

“Wh-“ was all she managed to get out before it shouted at her again.

“JUST DO IT!”

“Do what?” she asked.

She thought back to what she was thinking before the creature and her dreams of ponies noticing her night sky.

“Don’t let your dreams be dreams!”

A small flicker ignited in her, but rather than being a warm flame of hope, it was a flame fuelled by her resentment. Something about what this ape said seemed to drive her to want to achieve her goals.

Yes, yes. Tomorrow we will-

“Yesterday you said tomorrow! So JUST DO IT! MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE!”

Again, she reeled at the way this creature yelled at her as its voice stoked the flames within her; it was like he was more a force of nature than a sentient being.

“JUST DO IT! Some ponies dream of success, while you’re going to wake up and work hard at it!”

YES! WE WILL DO IT! WE WILL MAKE OUR DREAMS COME TRUE!

“NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!”

Luna felt the dark flame within her grow and start enveloping her mind save for a small spark of her original self that remained as a bastion against the encroaching darkness.

Maybe if we just try and be more like my sister we’ll get the same adoration…

“You should get to the point where anyone else would quit, but you're not going to stop there.”

But…

“What are you waiting for?! DO IT! JUST DO IT!”

We can’t betray her like this…

“YES YOU CAN! JUST DO IT!”

But…we know we haven’t achieved much, but we’ll lose it all…

The next bit of advice came out as more of a whisper as the ape said:

“If you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up.”

That final bit of advice was all she needed as the last vestiges of herself flickered and was consumed by the resentful flame surging through her mind.

Darkness exploded around her, and thus Nightmare Moon was born.

When the smoke cleared, she looked around only to find the strange ape missing.

Never mind. It does not matter, she thought just as Celestia burst through the doors.

“Lulu, are you…Oh Lulu”, Celestia said sadly as she saw what had become of her sister. “What happened?”

Nightmare Moon smirked, showing her teeth. “The strange ape showed us the way out of your shadow, dear sister”.

Celestia cocked an eyebrow at this and looked around.

“What strange a-“ was all she got out before catching a blast of magic to the face.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

----------

1000 years later, give or take a few.

Luna was walking with Twilight on her first Nightmare Night since being purged by the Elements of Harmony, where Luna was learning from Twilight more of the modern dialect and decorum.

However, one thing she stood firmly on was the use of the Royal Canterlot Voice.

“Nay, young Twilight. We – I shall keep using this voice. While a darker time, it was this voice that drove us – me to pursue my dreams. While it led me down the wrong path, we…I will ensure it will not do so again.”

Twilight stopped in her tracks. “Huh?”

“Yes. A strange ape appeared, and with such force and conviction in its voice encouraged me to follow my dreams.”

Twilight cocked an eyebrow.

“What strange ape?”

Author's Note:

So yeah.

Shia LaBeouf was responsible for pushing Luna over the edge and giving brith to Nightmare Moon.

Who'd have figured?

Comments

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What a shitpost... I love it.