Lunar Memory

by Mordy

Prolgoue: Luna's Shame

Lunar Memory
By Mordy

Prologue: Luna Landing

The sun had set, the moon had risen and the goddess retired early. It had been quite the long and eventful day in Canterlot. What was to be a happy day filled with the smiles and joyful tears quickly became a nightmare of fear. It was the wedding of Luna’s niece, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza or Cadance for short, but it quickly turned sour as the beloved niece had been replaced by the changeling queen Chrysalis. Thankfully, to the efforts of her sister’s pupil, Twilight Sparkle, the queen had been revealed, her niece rescued, and the changeling invasion thwarted.

Luna however, was nowhere to be seen when these events had taken place. She was most definitely not sleeping during her nieces wedding and was most certainly not sawing logs so hard that she didn’t hear the changelings invade the kingdom. What kind princess would she be if that happened?

The alicorn princess of the night sighed dejectedly as she thought of the answer to that question, “We would be a terrible princess,” she said aloud to no pony in particular as she walked alone to her quarters. She had done exactly all of that, slept through all of the events of that day. Sure everything worked out in the end, but that didn’t make her feel any better. What if she had been there? Things could have turned out better than being such close call.

She had also embarrassed herself in front of her sister and Elements of Harmony. Her sister Celestia didn’t do it in front of everypony, but when they were alone she was scolded for not being there. And she wasn’t even mad because she wasn’t there when the changeling invasion. She was mad because Luna was about to sleep through her niece’s wedding!

Luna shivered at the thought of how angry Celestia had been. It was not often that she got angry, but it was scary when it did happen. She was thankful that Celestia had been so forgiving and was very happy when Luna was actually there for the rest of the wedding and the reception. Something she too was thankful for. It had been a lovely ceremony and very fun reception thanks to the efforts of the bouncing pink puff of a party pony, Pinkie Pie.

A yawn escaped Luna’s lips as she finally entered her room. Normally she would be up this late at night, but being awake through most of the day and a late night party had left the princess of the night tuckered out. She approached the bed made of silk colored in deep blues of the night, matching her coat. Her hoof brushed away her mystical starry mane out of her eyes as she looked at her bed like an old friend or long lost lover. Her long horn let off a blue aura as she removed her crown and regalia as she slipped under the covers for a well deserved rest.

Unfortunately, she didn’t feel that she deserved it. The lack of help she had given during the invasion still haunted her, tugging away at the sleep that she desired. Another heavy sigh escaped her as she closed her eyes and thought about it all again. She wasn’t there when she was needed most, she got lost in her dreams, and everypony she cared for nearly suffered for it.

She opened her eyes and sat up, “Never again!” She was careful not to shout in her Royal Canterlot voice, “We will never allow ourselves to be away from our loved ones sides when they need it most!” She took another deep breath and whispered out to herself, “Especially you Tia. We don’t want to lose thou again. Especially not because of thee….” She shook her head as she started speaking more in her old archaic language than before. She had gotten better since Nightmare Night thankfully, but old habits die hard.

Luna then felt some of her guilt fade due to her promise and her body began to relax. She unfurled her wings and laid her head back on her pillow. A smile dared to spread across her face as sleep began to take her.

*ERROR ERROR ERROR*

MEMORY CORRUPTION DETECTED

EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN AND BACKUP PROTOCOLS INITIATED

Forgive me… it’s for your own good….

---

Luna’s eyes shot awake, her breathing was normal, but she felt like she had just awakened from a nightmare. She tried to remember, but found nothing. Only the guilt from the night before that had been alleviated by her promise. She felt unusually well rested. She knew she had gone to bed early, but felt like she had slept far longer than she normally did and wasn’t she supposed to lower the moon soon?

Her head noticed a faint blue light from beside her bed. She noticed there was a nightstand next to her bed. She never recalled having that before, at least not that close to her bed. She took noticed to the little black box on the stand. From inside of it were glowing light blue numbers covered by see through glass or plastic. Luna squinted her eyes at this and noticed that there were two letters glowing too. She leaned in closer to get a better look through her somewhat blurry vision. It said 8:42 AM.

Oh, it’s a clock. That’s helpful! She thought and smiled as she let her eyes close again. She was still being amazed by the advancements that had been made since her banishment.

A realization struck her like a rock and she shot up in her bed, “8:42!” she shouted out and looked out her window to see the night sky still, “I need to lower the moon!” She panicked and shot up, throwing on her regalia and crown. It seemed to be just one humiliation after another due to her over sleeping. And she wondered if ponies were going to panic if they realized the moon was still in the sky. Last thing she wanted was for them to thing she became Nightmare Moon again to bring about the eternal night. That was the last thing she needed.

A thought occurred to her as she finished dressing. Why hadn’t Celestia got her up? Why hadn’t she raised the sun or even try to set the moon herself? Sure she might have just respected Luna’s authority over it, but then she could have woken her up. Was she letting her sleep in and letting Equestria have a few more hours of cool moonlight? It all felt very odd to Luna. She started to get worried and her thought rushed to horrible conclusions like the changelings returning.

She rushed out into the hallway and slipping into her old Equestrian and even her Royal Canterlot voice, “WE’RE SORRY, WE’RE SORRY! WE OVERSLEPT AND… huh?” she was greeted by a deathly quiet hall that only echoed her loud voice through it. She expected there would at least be guards, but there was no pony in site. She shifted nervously and cantered down the hallway fairly quickly. It was well lit by magical orbs, something she never recalled being there before, but she was preoccupied by more important things. Like why the sun wasn’t up or that no pony had come and got her up when she overslept.

She got even more worried the further she got. There was still no pony around. Only the echoes of her hoofsteps could be heard and it was becoming eerie. Her canter became a full blown sprint, her eyes shifting all over as she peered down halls or peaking into rooms to see if some pony was there, but wherever she looked there was nothing. Only the empty castle walls greeted her. As she passed a window she looked up at the night sky. Countless stars covered it with its majestic beauty and she got lost in her sky for a moment. However, something seemed odd, amiss, but in her worry she shook her head and ignored it.

Finally she arrived at the back entrance to the throne room. She took a deep breath and pushed the door open, fearing the worse. It wasn’t as bad as she thought though. She had half expected changelings or some other menace inside, but it was also empty. This made her glad nothing had wormed its way into the castle, but at the same time didn’t take away her sense of dread.

The throne room was well lit, the same magical lights made it seem as if it was daytime if and could fool most ponies if they didn’t take a look through the stained glass windows and caught sight of the night sky that lingered still. She stared up at it for a moment again. A nagging feeling was at the back of her head that something was missing from her sky yet at the same time, nothing was.

She sighed dejectedly as she walked to the center of the room. Luna wanted to figure out what was amiss, but now was not the time to worry about that. There were bigger things missing, like everypony else. She turned around ready to start her search through the rest of the castle when she looked up at the throne and huge wave of relief washed over her.

Sitting on the throne was her sister, Celestia.

Celestia was a beautiful white alicorn with the sun as her cutie mark and a rainbow mane that flowed even though there was no wind. She was the princess and co-ruler of Equestria, though if you asked anypony they would say she was the real ruler. She always took charge during the day when more problems would be presented by the ponies that were awake.

It was a mixed blessing for Luna because she got to avoid most of the bureaucrats and insistent whining from the nobles. At the same time though, she rarely felt like she contributed to the kingdoms well being. The one time she could have made something herself and aid the kingdom was completely lost to her need to sleep in.

Luna approached the throne, speaking to her sister as she did, “Oh thank goodness we found you!” She was finally calming down and was only speaking of herself as more than one pony now instead of speaking in Old Equestrian, “Why did you not wake us dear sister?” She asked growing a bit worried that his might be some form of lesson or punishment from her sleeping in during the wedding. But as she approached the throne she noticed that Celestia hadn’t even acknowledged her yet or maybe not even aware that she was there. Her eyes were distant, staring out into space and she seemed lost in thought.

Luna approached the throne, “Sister?” She spoke softly as she sat just off to Celestia’s side, looking at her expectantly. More relief filled her as Celestia finally seemed aware that she was there. She turned her head and cocked it to the side slightly, part of her mane covering her right eye as she did.

She looked like she was ready to say something, but stopped and put a hoof to her mouth as her eyes rolled up to look at her forehead as she began to think. She did this for a little while, Luna not wanting to interrupt her thoughts, just stared blankly at Celestia. After a little while she looked to the floor still in thought. She looked like a child who had been given their first hard math problem and was carefully counting in their head. A few more seconds and she brought her eyes back to meet Luna’s. She stared absent mindedly at her and then a smile cracked on her face, “LUNA!” She shouted out in a cheery and almost child like voice as she raised her forehooves in the air.

This caused Luna to jump at the unexpected outbreak. She fumbled with her words to answer, “Umm… y-yes?”

Celestia smile broadened and she closed her eyes and clapped her hooves together while chanting out, “Luna! Luna! Luna!” She reminded Luna of a filly who had just learned to speak her first word and was then given praise by her parents.

Luna was a bit dumbfounded by her sister’s behavior, but then she remembered that the sun need to rise and she had to set the moon. She’d have time to question her reactions later. She reached out and grabbed her sister’s hoof with her own, “Come sister! We have no time to dally; we must raise the sun and set the moon!” She tugged on Celestia and she offered no resistance as she let Luna drag her along. As was pulled she kept chanting her sisters name while giggling like a daughter walking with her mother to the park.

As Luna pulled her sister through the halls to go to the nearest veranda so they may begin their ritual, she finally asked, “Sister… Tia, where are the guards? Where is everypony?” Her only reply back was her sisters continued happy sing song of Luna’s name. A frustrated sigh escaped her lips and she thought it best to worry about this odd behavior after their duties were finished.

After a few minutes they finally reached the doors to one of the lower balconies. No sense climbing up to the taller towers to perform duties that could be done on one of the lower ones. It was a bit of an emergency as they were very late on the lower of the moon and raising the sun.

Luna pushed open the doors and quickly dragged Celestia out. It was fairly cold out, but nothing too bad. Just a little bit nippy, a temperature she enjoyed quite a bit. She sighed and looked up to the night sky. It was inky black and filled to the brim with stars. Then that nagging feeling came back again that something was off. She finally noticed one of the things that were odd. The sky’s color for one was a near pitch black at the time being; usually it was more of a literal night blue when it was this close to morning.

She shrugged it off; she had a moon to lower! Luna quickly scanned the sky and it finally hit her was had been out of place. There was no moon. The sky was completely devoid of her most sacred orb. Her jaw dropped and she scanned every corner that she could see and finally shouted in the Royal Canterlot voice, “WHERE’S THE MOON!” She searched the sky again, turning up empty hoofed. Meanwhile, Celestia was still singing out Luna’s name cheerfully and had giggled when she used the Royal Canterlot voice.

Luna dropped her head, catching a glimpse out into the horizon as she hung it in defeat. However, she noticed something when she let her head sling down. She quickly shot her head back up to look out from the castle. Normally one would be able to look out from the castle and see almost all the land of Equestria, but that was not what was before Luna right now. All she saw was dull gray rock that stretched as far as she could see and she could also make out many craters here and there within stone surface.

Her eyes grew wide and she slowly turned to her sister, “Tia….” She whispered out to Celestia who finally stopped singing when she noticed her horrified gaze. Luna then shouted out the million bit question, “WHY ARE WE ON THE MOON!”

Comments

[RaptorCalloftheShadows]

XD This sounds like Trollestia performing the queen-of-all-pranks. ... I LOVE IT~! :D

[Mordy]

1390628
Way off, yet somehow it's all very trollish if you think about it and know the truth. :P

[SteampunkScootaloo]

is this by any chance include Celestia X Luna shipping?

[Mordy]

1618911
The answer to that is complicated without giving away too much of the story.
The simple answer would be yes and no. I plan to try write another chapter for this after
finishing my latest chapter of Roses for the Grave.

[SteampunkScootaloo]

1619264 ok........so it will be only two chapters? i am the admin of the Celestia X Luna shipping group, so i kinda wanted to know. maybe PM me the reason you say yes and no, but very generic. like "one tries, but fails to convince the other" or "yes, but only in the dream world" or something very generic like that. what ever the reason is. might just wait till after the update otherwise.

wish i could say adding it to the group would boost your popularity, but its kind of a small group

[Diamond Sparkle]

I wonder who put her there?

[Mordy]

1621790
The answer will surprise you. :P