Afraid of the Light

by BiniBean

A Warning

Chapter Thirteen: A Warning

The day when the world came to a stop was normal at first. In fact, the night before the world stopped was also normal other than an Alicorn in Canterlot Castle. A royal navy blue alicorn paced her balcony with irritation. She should have been monitoring the realm of dreams, which she had been doing until she saw her sister's dream. She couldn't get inside, of course, Celestia had created a spell preventing her from doing so many many generations ago for the sake of privacy. So, Luna was alerted of a sleeper needing help. It was her sister in a dream she couldn't access so she held the orb that contained her sister's nightmare close to feel, to listen, to perhaps make sense of what was troubling her sister's mind.

Luna flinched as she heard screams of horror, a cackling laugh that sounded so much like her sister but at the same time...not quite her. She felt the horror of what was inside. At whatever was happening in there she trembled when the ord suddenly blasted heat off of it as hot as the sun. Luna momentarily cried out in pain when she yanked the orb away from herself before tumbling out of the dream realm and appearing back on her balcony.

So she got up and began to pace. She didn't know what to do. She had been back in Equestria for perhaps a year and a half. Her royal speech had adjusted (Mostly with a few slip-ups) to the normal Equestrian language. They had just defeated Discord a mere two weeks before and frankly, Luna had spent most of that time worrying about Celestia on top of her usual duties.

When she first returned to Equestria, she assumed her sister's cold behaviour and rather fake emotions of happiness was something she had no right to reflect on since after all, she had missed one thousand years of her sister's life. She asked around, No pony thought she was acting strange. That was just Princess Celestia. The pony they can all see as nothing as perfect. So no pony but her noticed something was perhaps, not right.

So she kept watching her sister. She watched as she gave smiles that never reached her eyes. Her eyes never sparkled anymore with the happiness of life. She no longer talked about her interests and always had to work at all hours until she dropped into bed in the dead of night after a round of awful meetings. She had no hobbies. She did nothing but work.

Then, she began to talk to herself.

She mumbled in her sleep a lot. Luna noticed this when she went into Celestia's studies to ask about some scrolls she needed and found her sister asleep. Mumbling some nonsense about magic and the sun as if she was talking to somepony who wasn't there. Based on her sleeping expression, which was more tense and angry than peaceful, she assumed it wasn't a pleasant one but she draped a blanket and performed a spell to keep her mind at ease since she couldn't directly interfere due to the spell.

But she paused before she left the room, hoping to see perhaps the effect it had at calming her sister since it had been lifetimes since she had truly been calm and happy. Those results never came. She kept mumbling. Kept scrunching her nose. Luna was on a time limit with the scrolls she needed, so she took them and left. In denial that perhaps the spell was taking longer because she was out of practice.

The next noticeable incident was right before Discord and the elements came to Canterlot. She swore she could have heard her sister yelling at somepony through the corridor's door. She couldn't make out what she said but she was angry, that's for sure. Without a doubt.

She opened the corridor door to see her sister glaring at her sun as if she were in some sort of staring contest with it. She questioned her of course, Celestia denied everything before they slipped into the national emergency that distracted Luna for a few days with the chaos of it all and the clean-up needed afterwards. After that, she promptly forced Celestia to have a break by taking away her work for a week.

She had hoped it would allow her sister to relax but she came back more determined than ever to work. She spent most of her time in the study anyway with the curtains hiding her away so she wasn't quite sure what she even did to relax during that time off other than fly in the sky at night.

She tried to speak to Philomena about her concerns and perhaps she could give her some insight into what was going on with her sister. Unfortunately, she wasn't connected to the sun as the fiery creature and her sister was so she could not understand her sister's immortal friend as they could understand each other. To Philomena's credit, she tried to help. She tried to write ponish on paper but her ponish was bad at best and birds aren't known for their skill in writing so all that Luna could make out was "mad" and "sun."

Philomena eventually seemed to grow angry at the lack of understanding and disappeared in a blaze of fire. So Luna was left to ponder the page of messy writing that had no form other than "mad" and "sun." She couldn't be sure of course that's what Philomena intended to write or her mind just told her what she wanted to see due to her own concern for the sun during her time on the moon.

Now she was here. Pacing. Days later with no answers and a feeling of dread over what she saw and over the fact it felt like some sort of clock was running that was coming to an end. Like an unseen hourglass that was about to drop its final grain. She didn't know why but the suspense was killing her.

She came to a stop as her internal clock alerted her that it was time for the night to end. She gave a deep sigh, unhappy with the questions swarming in her mind as she walked to the edge of her large balcony and looked to the moon. Sometimes, very rare times, she wished the Nightmare was still around. Granted it destroyed her sense of self but the voice made some sense and gave her advice on how to handle certain matters.

She could really use some advice at this point. But, the nightmare was silenced with the power of the elements. Her moon could no longer give her advice or corrupt her mind as her magic flared. The moon had emotions too, which was a concept she knew many would be confused by. But deep, deep inside she could sense it. The moon was once angry, just as Luna was. But soon grew to mirror Luna as it gave up the fight against her when she returned to Equestria. Now having a peace of calm. She took a deep inhale and smiled. She loved calm. She missed calm during her time on the moon.

But somehow, deep in a part of her soul Luna had forgotten long ago, a sense of anxiety grew as the dots slowly came together. Not all at once. But enough for the anxiety to grow without her knowing with the simple questions of "Why does this sound so familiar?"

The moon fell below the horizon and the sun peaked above. She cringed as she saw the light and backed away a few steps, choosing to look to the highest tower of the castle at the pony allowing the sun to rise.

Her sister stood tall. Her magic encircled the sun as it rose, which she never took her very tired eyes off of. Even from a distance Luna could tell there were bags under her eyes and her posture was not as ridged as it usually was. She had just woken up and hadn't the energy to fix herself.

Luna mumbled an ancient prayer of health to her moon for her sister, before she disappeared into her dark room to take a nap before the afternoon set in.

---

Celestia woke up just before dawn, per usual nightmares had plagued her dreams. She groaned as her tired body shifted on her bed to get into a sitting position as her mind struggled to awake. As she grew more conscience of the world, she knew something felt off. Not with the world. With herself.

She flexed her wings as she used her hoofs to push the blankets off of her. Her mind was fogged as she stumbled onto all fours to make her way to the balcony. She was cutting it close. Nearly was late again.

She didn't want to raise the sun. That is what was wrong with her. When she raised the sun, her mind became wrong. She craved control. Power. To rule without being questioned. To drop the act of the kind alicorn, the generous alicorn. At night, those impulses died down. Her sun went into hiding so of course she escaped for a few precious hours.

She slowly moved onto the balcony, taking in a deep breath of air as she glanced at the moon.

She was tired frankly. The last nightmare took far too much out of her. The sun was quite persistent and...convincing. She had been fighting the very thing she was supposed to cherish the most for more than a thousand years. She wanted to love it again. She missed that love she once held for life.

Perhaps Daybreaker could give her that. Then she wouldn't feel so empty.

That's the exact thinking that got her to be so miserable.

Her golden magic ignited, latching onto her destiny as Luna lowered her own. The sky turned to warmer colors as the time-shifted forward.

She knew Luna looked over at her from the lower balcony. Probably noticing she was tired. She supposed it didn't matter as much. She was so very tired. She was tired of fighting and arguing with everything and everyone.

She would give those ponies one more day to prove Equestria's worth.

She wouldn't give them a warning if they failed. If they failed to prove why she shouldn't take control.

They didn't deserve a warning.

An unnatural smirk crossed her face as the sun rose higher in the sky, calling to her with thoughts of conquering. For once the sun was not full of burning rage, it was happy for the first time in a very long time. They had come to a dangerous understanding.

Comments

[Faux Smile]

This descent is actually so good. Amazing work.

[KnightMysterio]

Uh oh.