Genesis

by Helrael

3 - Three Immortals Born

Genesis
Chapter 3 – Three Immortals Born

I… I. Me… I am?

What am I? Who am I? Where am I?

Gray, everywhere gray. There, gray. Here, gray. All around me…

Me… Who am I? What am I!?

Am I? Am I not? Nothing is here. Nothing is there. Nothing all around me. I am… nothing?

The gray is around me. The gray doesn’t… change? Change..? Change, yes. Nothing changes… no… no, nothing doesn’t change. The gray doesn’t change, nothing doesn’t change.

So… So if I am… What am I? If I am nothing, if I am gray, I do not change… Yes.

Do I change? Am I different? Am I gray? Am I nothing? I… I am. Nothing… nothing isn’t. The gray… the grayness… isn’t. I am different.

I change. I am change. I bring change. Where am I? I am in a place that doesn’t change. I am… something… something here in the nothing.

Why am I here? I… am different. I don’t belong… I don’t belong! I am change, this is not! I am… I am… trapped. I’m trapped in nothing! Nothing! Nothing! Nothing!

Wait… that… that was not nothing. Something. Something not me and not nothing and not gray. It was here. Now it is not.

I must know… I must… I must wait…

…

There! Gray, but not nothing! I must… I must have it… I must wait…

…

There, I hold it. It is… It is… life? No. Death? No. Neither. And both. It wishes to leave this place. Then we are alike. It has come from life. Where it was… That is where it belongs… That is where I belong. I must know more. This life… If I become life, I will belong where life is. Maybe… maybe I can leave this place. This something, this something that isn’t me has to be… me. We must be one. It struggles, but I am stronger.

…

I… sense it. There is something beyond this place. All around me, but not here. I see it. It… It’s gray? Are all things gray? Will everything I see be blank and featureless?

I… am change. I bring change… Is this what I must do? I must change what is gray. I must… I must bring…

I must bring chaos.

As it had done so very long ago, the great herd of alicorns took wing in search of a home, but compared to their previous foray through the void of inexistence, the trip across the great mountain range beside them took only a small moment. They settled once more after having travelled down the length of it, landing in a small, fertile valley at the foot of the mountains.

Joining their powers as one, the Alicorn of Light and the Alicorn of Diamonds worked together to call forth a brilliant tower of shining marble and diamond, rising up out of the very ground it stood upon. Atop the tower was a dazzling beacon that shone with the light of the new alicorn king, and it became the palace of the capital he named Orien, signaling the beginning of his rule; a rule that would last for generations upon generations.

For a century, Ignis worked hard and long, working his magic deep into the very core and into the farthest reaches of the sky of the world he and his kind now inhabited. The glowing, bulbous plants that spewed venom at any and all creatures soon gave way to colorful flowers and trees with vibrant green leaves and fruits that filled the stomachs of his subjects. The sky above turned from black to gray as his light, the superior element as he had dubbed it, saturated the air around the alicorns and propagated skywards to stain the very heavens.

The great city of Orien expanded as the alicorns grew more and more numerous, and soon the entire valley in which the king’s radiant tower had first been erected was paved with marble and diamond, with spires reaching heights of more than a hundred feet and mansions and manors that were works of art in themselves. Ignis’ people set out and claimed new lands, building cities and towns and the civilization the king had dreamed of since before he and Umbraeus had set forth from their old home.

The white alicorn’s rule enjoyed a blessed beginning, and he shared its joys with Anancita, the alicorn who had helped him defeat his greatest foe and the mare he had come to care so very much for. She became his queen and he her king and for a century they ruled together.

On the hundredth year of their rule together, Anancita bore Ignis his first foal, a beautiful filly with a soft white coat and a mane pink as her mother’s eyes. The remarkable thing about the young filly was not her appearance, however, but her companion. For as she was born, so too was the greatest wonder Ignis had ever seen, a sight whose magnificence far surpassed any hope the king had had of lighting the world he ruled. The dark sky he had worked so hard to banish for a hundred years was whisked away as smoke on the wind as a golden orb rose on the horizon, bathing the entire world in a warm radiance that could nearly put the white king’s own light to shame. The sun, as Ignis dubbed it, was the brightest marvel the alicorns had ever seen; a blazing globe of heavenly fire affixed to the sky whose dark grayness was transformed into a pale blue.

Ignis named the filly, his first-born daughter and beloved fellow bringer of the light, Celestia and he proclaimed that with her coming, the alicorns had entered into a golden age; an age that could last for an eternity, the white king realized, for Celestia was different from other alicorns. Just like himself, the young filly seemed to possess the same immortality that he had only ever seen in himself and Umbraeus.

Celestia became Ignis’ greatest pride and treasure and she was raised as the princess she was, basking in the adoration of her subjects as they basked in the light of her sun, which after a year had travelled to the very zenith of the sky and ground to a halt far above the world.

The Daughter of Light, as the alicorns took to calling their new princess, matured quickly from the love born to her, and her beauty became renowned throughout the world as she grew. Eighteen years after her birth, the Solar Princess underwent the fateful transformation which Ignis had named the Ascension. The pink hair of her mane and tail melded together and became a flowing veil that shone with the colors of the rainbow, her coat took on a faint luster much akin to Ignis’, and her magical powers were vastly augmented as she joined her father in the paramount echelons of the alicorn civilization.

Happiness reigned supreme now that the world had not only an immortal king, but a princess as well, the two of them along with the queen gracing their subjects with their powerful magic. Celestia would bring light to the world through the sky as Anancita brought the light through the diamonds of the earth and above them both stood Ignis, illuminating the world in its entirety. But very suddenly, after more than a hundred and twenty years of the alicorn king’s rule, the world changed irrevocably. After twenty years, Anancita bore him his second daughter, and the sky that had been so bright for more than two decades darkened so very terribly upon her birth.

What’s this? Change! Color! Not here in the nothing, but there! There where nothing is nothing and everything is! So existence is not gray. Existence is different from nothingness. A world that changes… that is where I belong.

But how to get there? Consuming the life here makes me stronger, but it is not strength I need…

…

A key, a key, a key is what I… this? What is this? It is there in existence, buried deep underground, but it is here as well, in the grayness, among the nothingness. Trapped… like me…

It is alive, and it is not… Here and there… And within it… within it is the key… within it is the path I seek… with this life, I can leave here, I can go there!

…

This life is strong. So very strong. Can it be stronger than me? It will not… let me… take it! Why? I need to leave! I… I’m change! I need to bring change! Why must I be trapped here in the gray where there is nothing!? Is this my destiny!? My cruel destiny!? Am I doomed to wander this empty, unchanging void forever, knowing what I must do, but knowing too that I can’t!?

Should I give up then? Whatever I try, however much I try to leave this world, some obstacle blocks my path. My whole life I have been trapped here in this void. I must… I must resign myself to it.

…

No! Again, existence changes! What was blue is now black! Again! What was black is now blue! Colors and change! Light and darkness! Only in existence! Why is it not here!? It’s not..! It’s not fair! I am change! I must bring change! Why am I here when I should be there!?

I must go there… I must, I must! The one who is here, the one who is neither dead nor alive, the one who is stronger than me… Umbraeus, yes that is his name. I must be stronger than him.

His name… a name… What is mine? Why do I not have a name?

Who am I? I… I am…

I am Discord.

Until it happened, she had had such a wonderful day. Truth be told, it was a day not much unlike any other, but Princess Celestia was wise enough to see that she led a wonderful life and so counted each of her days as a blessing; a day to be grasped and enjoyed to its fullest for, being hers, she could allow herself to do with it as she pleased.

She had awoken in her chambers at the very top of the Dawn Tower, the part of the multi-spired royal palace that belonged only to her, brimming with energy for the day that awaited her. She had stepped out onto her balcony and flown off toward the King’s Spire, the centerpiece of the shining white palace where her father and mother resided. Normally, the small royal family would break their fast out under the light of Celestia’s sun, but as the due date of her little sister loomed ever closer, her mother had found it increasingly difficult to move about. That, and for some reason, sunlight did not seem to be agreeing with her recently, the queen preferring instead to remain indoors.

And so the three alicorns found themselves sharing their meals in the dining hall of the main tower, which had otherwise fallen into disuse after Celestia’s birth. She and her father had discussed the recent breakthroughs in communication with the enormous and apparently largely sentient indigenes of their new world, the ones who called themselves dragons. While the two had talked, Anancita had eaten, for while Ignis drew power solely from the admiration of his subjects and Celestia fed upon the light of the sun, the Alicorn of Diamonds still required physical sustenance.

After breakfast, Celestia’s father had spent most of his day with her, teaching her everything he knew of the dragons, the only race in this world that could pose a threat to the alicorn civilization. During the afternoon, however, they were told that Anancita had gone into labor, and Celestia soon found herself wandering around the palace alone as her father went off to help her mother.

As so often was the case for the Solar Princess, however, she was not alone for long as she was soon joined by her friends from court. Most of her day had passed in the company of these friends, but when evening had come upon them, it had happened.

For the first time in almost two decades, the sun that shone so far above the alicorns had budged. Celestia and her friends watched, along with every other alicorn in the world, in horror as the sun seemed to drop down from the zenith of the sky. Not only that, but it seemed as if the very heavens were suddenly overturned, the brilliant blue of Celestia’s day giving way to the dark black sky she had only heard tales of. And from the east horizon, where her sun had risen twenty years ago, rose a sphere so dark that it was clear to see upon the black night sky, replacing the globe of fire that had lit the world for so long.

Almost immediately, the princess of the sun had dismissed her friends, and within moments, she found herself standing upon the balcony of her Dawn Tower, beholding the sun as it vanished beneath the west horizon.

For the first time in her life, Celestia felt truly vulnerable as her source of power, her source of life, was cut off from her and replaced by something dark and mysterious instead; something that seemed to be the very antithesis to the superior light she and her father brought.

Father… Celestia thought dully as she watched the black orb rise. Father will know what to do, he can help.

Spreading her wings, the Solar Princess took off once again toward the King’s Spire. As she alighted in one of the doorways leading from the palace exterior to the tower’s interior, she shivered at the alien darkness surrounding her. While the palace still shone with Ignis’ light, it was still strange to see it without Celestia’s light as well. Instead, the slightly luminescent walls cast oddly deformed shadows all around her that would otherwise have been banished by the sunlight streaming in from the now dark windows. Without the warmth of her sun’s radiance, there was some sort of ghostly quality over the glowing, diamond-infused marble of the palace, something that was definitely to prefer over total darkness, but still unsettling for those who had known only the light of the sun throughout their life.

Eventually, she reached the top of the tower and her parents’ private chambers, where all had become deathly quiet. The white mare soon found herself treading as carefully as she could upon the marble floor, wondering why the guards had all been dismissed. She flinched as a loud shout cut through the thick silence of the royal tower and recognized her father’s voice, although she had rarely heard it being raised.

The outburst was met by another long while of silence as Celestia approached the door to her parents’ bedroom. Finally, she heard Anancita speak. “What should we call her?” she asked in a voice that sounded as if on the verge of tears.

Yet again, there was a period of silence. “You ask of me to name this… to name… the one who has done this to my kingdom? Look outside, Anancita! Have you ever seen the sky so dark!? That… That thing has torn down everything Celestia and I stand for! Everything we have accomplished!”

“That ‘thing’ is your daughter!” Anancita shouted back, bursting into tears, and an unpleasant heat welled up inside of Celestia, one that made it difficult for her to breathe and left her ears burning.
She found herself wishing to be back in her own tower, but for reasons she could not explain, she was compelled to remain where she was.

“The Night Mare, that is what she is,” Ignis hissed, and before the princess could react to the sound of hoofsteps, the door to the bedroom flew open and the shining stallion emerged, a deep scowl set in his face. He showed only mild surprise at seeing his firstborn daughter at the door, but did not stop as he headed toward the nearest exit.

“Father…” the Solar Princess started, raising her voice so as to be heard over the sound of her mother’s sobbing.

“Not now, Celestia,” he cut her off dismissively and soon disappeared down a hallway. The young mare shivered although she was still suffering from the almost suffocating heat within her. She had never seen her father like this. Ignis was a kind and sympathetic king, not one filled with what could only be described as cold hatred. Was it her newborn sister that had caused this transformation? Was she the one to blame for the darkness?

Taking a deep breath to steel herself, Celestia went through the door to her parents’ chamber, finding her mother lying in bed, desperately fighting back tears as she clutched a tiny blue foal to her chest.

The little filly was crying with her mother, its face hidden partly behind a long, pale azure mane and buried against its mother’s chest. Where Anancita carried a diamond star and Celestia a sun, the newborn foal displayed only a dark, formless splotch on its flank.

“Is this my sister?” Celestia asked of her mother in a puzzled tone, circling the bed to get a better view of the blue filly.

The Alicorn of Diamonds started at the voice, but, realizing it was only her daughter, calmed down again and smiled through her tears. “This is… Luna, my dear. Your new baby sister. Is she not beautiful?”

With that, the mother detached her youngest child from her chest and held her out for the elder sister to see. Had the filly not been stained with its mother’s and its own tears and howling and screaming, Celestia might have agreed. “Why is she like this?” she asked instead. “Why is she a creature of darkness?”

“She is no creature!” the queen reprimanded the princess defensively, returning the little blue filly to her chest. “She is an alicorn like you and me!”

“And Umbraeus,” Celestia remarked, looking at the strange black mark on her sister’s flank. “How can her destiny be to bring darkness to our world when she is a daughter of Father?”

Anancita’s features both hardened and darkened as she stared down her firstborn child. “You never knew Umbraeus, Celestia. And you had better pray that you never do. You cannot compare what he was to the innocence of this foal!”

“But it has taken away the sun!” Celestia insisted, hissing in a hushed whisper so as not to disturb the foal that had finally stopped crying. “Without it, I will die! Alicorn or not, Luna is trying to kill me! What do we do!?”

“I do not know what to do,” the Alicorn of Diamonds said dismissively, shaking her head. “I am sure everything will be fine, Celestia. Speak with your father if you must. I am so very tired after all of this…” With that, the queen settled further into her bed and closed her eyes, still holding the little foal against her chest protectively.

Celestia pressed her lips together and turned away from the bed, exiting through the door to the balcony. She stood there for a while, leaning against the balustrade as she let poison cloud her mind.

Her life had been perfect. She had never wanted for anything, she had been loved by all that she knew, and her sun had shone tirelessly for more than twenty years. But now, all of that had changed. Luna had caused everything around the Solar Princess to transform. The sky was black as it was during the dark ages of her kind. The sun, her only link to life, had vanished without a trace. She knew it still existed, but where it was, she could not say, and neither could she say for how long she could carry on without it. Already, she could feel her vast and powerful magic shriveling away. In just a few days, there would be nothing left. Her parents had changed too, not just the skies. Her father had pushed her aside without even listening to the fears she now carried so strongly in her heart. Her mother had simply dismissed her and gone to sleep when she had told her she might die.

She glared disdainfully at her shadow, cast upon the balustrade by the enormous brilliant beacon of light set atop the King’s Spire. Why was it that after all she and her father had done, there was still darkness in this world? Why was it that darkness had now defeated them?

“The shadow is an enemy even I fear shall never be defeated,” she remembered her father saying once. “You must be wary of the shadow, my child, for it always lurks at your very hooves. And as we strive to become one with the superior element, the shadow will grow ever larger.”

Is this what we have come to then? Have we striven too close to the light we worship only to be cut down by some greater force of destiny? No, Father will not let that happen. He will help me, he must!

Jumping on to the balustrade, Celestia let her gaze wander upwards and, as she had expected, found her father sitting beside the great, shining jewel that adorned the top of the King’s Spire. Within moments, the white mare sat beside Ignis, gazing out upon the dark sky and the darker orb rising from the east.

“It is as if even from the realm of death, Umbraeus is able to cast his shadow upon me, upon this entire world,” the white king said after the two had shared a few minutes of silence. “My own blood has unwittingly become one if his agents. One of his most powerful agents at that,” he said, gesturing with frustration at the dark sky. “She is a newborn filly, and she has already banished your sun and drained this black sky of all the magic I had poured into it!”

“Will it be back?” Celestia asked with concern. “Will my sun return?”

For an uncomfortably long while, Ignis was silent as he looked at the rising black sphere. “It took your sun a year to rise to the zenith of the sky. This… this moon rises much faster.”

“But what happens when it reaches the top of the sky?” the daughter pressed. “Will it remain there for twenty years? Until you have another foal?”

“In our old home, the one we left when we came to this one, we had a sky very much different from this, I remember,” Ignis said. “Every day, it would have some new hue. I believe we measured our years after each completed cycle of colors. It is one of the few things I remember of my home.” The shining alicorn chuckled to himself. “It is strange how I can never remember why it was we had to leave. What I am saying is that perhaps something similar is happening to this world. I believe we will be subject to an eternal cycle of day and night from this moment onwards.” The father nuzzled his daughter affectionately. “Your sun will return to us, Celestia; you need not worry.”

The mare’s smile lasted only for a few moments. “But…”

“But so will the moon, yes. And with it, night shall return,” Ignis said. “Even if we could force your sun to remain upon our sky, my youngest daughter is no doubt as dependent upon this moon as you are upon the sun. Speaking of which, how is our Princess of the Sun?”

“Not as scared as I was,” Celestia replied, looking at her hooves. “But I feel… tired… vulnerable… All of my powers seem to be… ebbing. Disappearing as we speak.”

“They will return soon enough,” Ignis reassured his daughter once more. “Until then we shall just have to tolerate this change of scenery.”

“You said… You said we could force the night away?” the mare inquired after another while of silence. “If we are Bringers of Light, if we defend our people against darkness, should we not do whatever is in our power to preserve what is right?”

Ignis took a deep breath and stood, turning away from the twenty foot tall jewel of solid light beside them. The beacon that was now behind him seemed to shift in its luminance as he spread his wings, casting a faint shadow upon the city beneath the two royals. “As we approach the light, our shadow deepens. You must be wary lest it consumes you.” He folded his wings and the light behind him returned to its usual strength. “It is true that we must do what is right and that we should strive toward this end with all our power. But it is also true that we must do no wrong in the defense of what is right, or else all that we stand for will crumble and your shadow will overtake you. While the night is terrible, we cannot repel it without bringing harm to our newest family member. The Night Mare is many things, but she is my daughter, and she is your sister. We will have to… tolerate her. Who knows what the future may hold? Perhaps we will one day grow to love her despite her flaws.”

I doubt it, Celestia thought to herself. My sister she may be, but who could ever love this Night Mare?

The doors to Luna’s bedroom shone blue and swung open as the Princess of the Night entered, hanging her head low in defeat. Her black tiara, given to her the day she turned sixteen, slid off the top of her head and bounced off to the side as it hit her horn, but the princess did not bother to retrieve it.

A crown is for a princess… A crown is for a Daughter of Light.

The dark princess strode through her chamber and out onto her balcony, facing the twilight that had overtaken the world. Behind her, the sky was wreathed in the gold and scarlet of Celestia’s setting sun. Even in death, her sister’s fiery globe far outdid her own dark moon.

Once, she had been told, the sun would never die; it would never vanish beneath the west horizon. Before her birth, the world had been bathed always in Celestia’s golden light. But now Luna, and Luna only, took away that sun each day for the sole purpose of sustaining her own life.

And so I cast a million souls into darkness, she berated herself as she lifted the moon over the horizon, substituting the cobalt evening sky with the night’s dark shades of lavender and blue. …So that I may live another day.

And as it did most every night, a terrible feeling of selfishness overcame the young alicorn.

Every night, every week, every month! Eighteen years! For how much longer must I do this!? When will the wearying cycle of routine dull the pain of inflicting this atrocity upon the very people I should be serving?

“I am sorry,” she whispered to the world below her as the sun vanished, its remaining embers slowly dying away before Luna’s onslaught of darkness. “I do not hate you, my subjects.”

But the love you bear them is eclipsed by your narcissism, that hated part of her mind told her; the one that spoke with the voices of both the Bringers of Light. Words weigh nothing, especially when whispered to naught but the wind. Why are you not more like your sister?

“Why indeed…” the princess muttered to herself, lifting her gaze to Celestia’s shining abode which towered above her own.

Apart from the complete sovereignty of the sky which she so richly deserved, the Solar Princess did not seem to want for anything. She had more friends than Luna could ever keep track of along with hundreds more waiting desperately for a chance to receive the elder princess’ favor. As it was so clearly demonstrated by the towers of Dawn and Dusk, she had a family that was proud of her. One towered above the other, the other stood as far from the King’s Spire as possible. One was connected by bridges to all parts of the palace and beyond, the other was abandoned save for its one inhabitant and her reluctant servants. Luna had learned recently that there had been talk of building a dungeon in the lower recesses of her tower.

A place for all those enemies of light who do not bear an ebon crown. And above them all will stand the Princess of the Night. Fitting.

Luna shook her head, attempting in vain to clear her head of her somber thoughts. Recently, she had had difficulty distinguishing the thoughts of her self-loathing subpsyche from her own, even though the two spoke with different voices.

A growing luminance caught her eye below her, and she saw one of the ornamental trees of the palace’s public gardens blooming out of season, its hundreds of flowers glowing bright pink by some magic. It did not take her long to identify her sister standing near the tree, half-silhouetted by the tree’s luminance. Beside her stood two other alicorns, no doubt her close friends, admiring the Solar Princess’ work as far as Luna could tell from their body language.

For reasons she could not explain, the dark young mare was struck by the sudden urge to join the three below her or at least approach them.

What have they done to deserve your presence? the voice in her head complained as she stretched her wings, but was ignored as she let herself drop from the balcony, her wings slowing her descent only seconds before touching the ground.

Aberrant shadows flickered about the Night Princess as she approached the large building that constituted the bases of both the King’s Spire and the Dawn Tower, its luminescent marble and diamond structure lighting up the gardens surrounding the palace’s various towers in an eerie glow. Silence enveloped the mare as she walked along the white cobblestone pathways, her urge to go see her sister evaporating as the fear of facing her sister replaced it. As she rounded a corner of the main part of the palace and the three alicorns standing before the shining tree hovered into view, she drew to a sudden halt, one of her rear hooves clacking noisily against the stones she stood upon. Before Celestia could turn, however, the shadow of a nearby tree shifted, veiling her in that evil element against the eyes of the Bringer of Light.

Celestia, seeing nothing in the shadows, soon turned her attention back to her friends. “You could at least try, Nimba,” she said to one of her companions, a sky blue mare with a dark blue mane.

The mare in question, however, simply shook her head. “You do not want to see me try, Celestia. My magic works best on clouds, not plants. If you want to see glowing clouds, I would be happy to oblige, but please don’t let me near these flowers,” she said, chuckling lightly at the Solar Princess’ insistence. “Neapentha can help you, or even better, you can do it yourself.” The little knowledge Luna inexplicably possessed of her sister’s friends helped her identify the third alicorn, this one a faint green with a faint red mane, as Neapentha, who giggled at the expression of shock Celestia adopted.

“Do it myself?” the princess exclaimed in a tone of mock haughtiness. “I am your Princess of the Sun! I do not ‘do things myself’! The audacity!”

“Come now, Nimba,” Neapentha teased. “Do as your princess commands. She wants to see pretty little lights on that tree.”

“They won’t be pretty…” The blue alicorn muttered as her horn glowed a deep purple, directing her magic at a tree standing next to the blooming one. After a few seconds, the tree did not start glowing, but rather caught on fire, every single leaf and withered flower exploding violently from the weather alicorn’s misplaced magic. “I told you!” she hissed loudly at her two friends as she stumbled backwards, tripping over her own hooves, but Celestia only laughed, her magic putting out the fire as soon as it had started and replacing the incinerated leaves and flowers.

“Well you did make the tree glow,” the Solar Princess said, trying in vain to suppress her laughter. “But perhaps you are right in leaving the duty to Neapentha and me.”

Ah, so this is why you inflict your presence upon them, the voice in Luna’s head said as she smiled at her sister’s antics.

“Oh, Celestia! Can’t you show us how it’s really done?” Neapentha gushed, the light in the glowing tree fading away as she cut off the power to the spell sustaining it. “Both of us have shown you our attempts.”

What other happiness can you experience than that of others?

“Very well,” Celestia answered, still smiling from Nimba’s failed attempt as her horn shone golden. “Though one tree will hardly be a challenge, now will it?”

You are so very much like a parasite…

The trees that had previously been subjected to the two alicorns’ magic took on a brilliant radiance as Celestia’s magic took hold. After only a few more seconds, the neighboring trees and flowers and bushes all began shining as well, and another moment later, the whole garden was ablaze with the princess’ powerful magic. Luna, without the shade the tree had provided, now found herself standing only in a small patch of shadow that clung unnaturally to the white path she stood upon.

“There,” Celestia said among whispers of awe from her friends. “That should banish the darkness of Luna’s night just fine.”

“In the palace at least,” Nimba remarked. “I must say I do not envy the commoners living in the darker recesses of Orien. Or the other cities, for that matter.”

“It used to be nice out there,” Neapentha remarked, a hint of nostalgia in her voice. “Before the Night Mare.”

“Everything was better before her,” Celestia pointed out, her smile quickly replaced by a more somber expression. “Ignis was happier, Anancita was… not as detached, the world was lighter, and, oh, how we thrived. Strange how such a creature can be my sister.”

“Strange how she can be the king’s daughter,” Nimba pointed out. “How did that happen? Seems more like a daughter of… him.”

It was no new thing for Luna to be equated with Umbraeus, but like raising the moon each evening, being compared to the greatest evil alicorns knew hurt each time.

“I wish you could be my sisters instead of her,” Celestia admitted, and the green mare laughed, agreeing heartily.

Luna turned away from the three alicorns, the shadows surrounding her finally yielding to the lights in the garden as she took to the sky, the only sign of her having ever been in there a few teardrops staining the white cobblestones.

“Anyone but her!” she heard Nimba concur before she had travelled beyond the reach of the three mares’ stinging words.

You believed she loved you? The voice asked mockingly of herself as she passed beyond the walls of the palace and above the city of Orien, her wings beating furiously to escape her own thoughts.

Love is not for the wicked. Love is for the light, happiness is for the light. Fear and misery, hate and despair, those are the companions of darkness. Those are my companions.

You will find no solace in light; you are its greatest living enemy!

“Then what is my life?” she whispered to herself and herself. “Why have I been born into a world of light when I am not meant for light? When all I bring is darkness and despair?” Beneath her, the alicorn capital finally gave way to the mountains to which its northern reaches clung, shining white substituted by shadowy ridges that towered above the rest of the world. But above them all soared the Lunar Princess, ascending blindly as the tears welled up in her eyes and spilled out onto the mountains a few hundred feet below her. “It’s not fair!” she screamed, her voice echoing off the peaks below her.

Fair? You speak of justice? You!? You said yourself that you each night plunge a million and more lives into darkness so that you may live another day!

I have no other choice, Luna told herself, stopping her mad flight and clearing her eyes of her tears. She found herself hovering more than three hundred feet above a jagged mountainside that led down to a small valley another three hundred feet below her. On the horizon ahead of her, she saw the very faint silhouette of a dragon flying around amongst the peaks of its home. Perhaps the beasts indigenous to this world would be more welcoming of her.

They would not welcome an alicorn and even if they did, you would still not be deserving of their love, would you? Love is for the light!

Then what would you have me do? Return to Orien and cry myself to sleep each night?

You could do that. Live your eternal life of misery and despair, bringing nothing but pain to the world.

Or..?

There is always the other option…

Luna’s attention was drawn from the dragon upon the horizon to the fatal drop beneath her. Six hundred feet in total with nothing but solid rock to meet her, should she fall. “Is this my fate, then? Seventeen years of unending misery culminating as nothing more than a stain on a mountainside?”

Do you wish to live on? the voice taunted her. Do you even wish to be remembered?

It is either death or it is an eternity of misery for myself and the entire world to bear…

Do you have the courage to do what is right? To bring light to this world as your family does?

One life for a million others… Luna thought, mulling the possibility over for several minutes. It would be selfish to refuse.

Cowardly, Celestia and Ignis’ voice added. Like a true denizen of darkness.

I am selfish, Luna pointed out to herself. I am a denizen of darkness.

Luna shut her eyes, folded her wings, and bid her night farewell as she began to fall.

Comments

[Jirodyne]

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What is going to happen to Luna?!

[Protocol]

It was pretty nice coming back to this rewrite while waiting for Succession's release and looking for some inspiration to break my writer's block. Time for me to go be productive for once.

[thatonerandombrony]

Luna! No! (why are there no Luna pics for this?)