> Lest the Nightmare Continue > by rillegas08 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Luna's Nightmare > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Are you off to see Star Swirl again, dear sister?” “Yes, Luna. We’re getting very close to discovering what’s special about that mirror in his library.” “Well… have fun.” I don’t hear what Celestia said after I say that, if she did say anything. I know she finds excitement in her study time with Star Swirl, but lately it seems like she’s spending more time doing that than doing anything else. I’ve had to pick up some duties around the castle to fill in, and although I probably brought it on myself by never being interested in going there when he showed it to us the first time, it would still be nice for them to invite me. I still might not go, but it would still be nice. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ She’s coming back from Star Swirl’s library again. She’s smiling, and says something about having found another dimension. I congratulate her, and notice that her smile is bigger than usual, her gait more lively. Was the discovery of new dimensions that exciting for her? I think I noticed more color in her cheeks than usual. Maybe ‘tis the way the light hit her face. But what if I am right, and there’s something extra-special for her behind closed doors? Luna, shame on thee. She is thy sister. Do not think such things. Then again, I’ve never had a brother. It could be fun to have a brother-in-law, when they’re not together or… Luna! It’s been a few days, but I’m having those thoughts again. You know, the thoughts about being left out. Maybe I should talk to Celie about it. Hmph. If I can find her when she’s not busy being a princess, with Star Swirl, or asleep. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As I look out to the nearest town, I just realized something. It’s hard to see past all these trees, even at the top of our castle. Okay, two things. All the ponies go inside when I bring out my beautiful night. They sleep through it! I’m a little jealous of my sister. All the ponies laugh and play during the day, but they’re sleeping through my night. Even the ones who stay up as long as they can are unable to stay up for very long. I know I should tell Celie my thoughts, but I cannot tell her in person. She is always so busy. I could write these in our joint journal, but… I am afraid, for some reason. I do not even know what could be the cause of these fears. Surely ‘tis something I have yet to discover. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Finally, after several months of thinking these things, I am going to tell her. I stay up all night as usual, and will tell her when she is ready to raise the sun. Odd. I feel… dread? I hope ‘tis just nervousness about an unsure outcome. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Just a few hours ago, I lowered the moon, but I could not bring myself to tell her just yet. Why has this dread… fear… whatever you want to call it kept me awake, and why am I in our throne room again? “Not another step!” What? Where did that come from? Why did it feel so… evil? “Did you really expect me to sit idly by while they all basked in your precious light?” Why am I saying this? I cannot control what body is doing! Sure, I have had reservations about the ponies loving her day and shunning my night, but I was going to talk to Celie about it. “There can only be one princess in Equestria!” What? No! We were meant to rule together! Stop saying these things! I… I’m afraid of myself. How can I be afraid of myself? “And that princess… will be ME!” No! No, no! Body, why did you damage that pedestal? Oh, why won’t you listen to me?! Wait, this shadow creeping up behind me – how do I know what’s behind me? Not the window! Please, fix the window. Celie, fix the window. I don’t know what’s going on. What? I… I’m raising the moon again. No, stop! It’s daytime! Put it back down! I can’t bear to watch anymore. I close my eyes, but I can still see what’s happening in my mind. Whatever is happening, it’s more powerful now than I am. I was too slow in stopping whatever has come over me. My body, the new host for something evil, battles with my sister, and I start crying. Please… stop. Whatever you are, just… go away! … … My sister is falling. I… no, whatever has taken control of my body is stronger than she is. No, do not turn away! Let me see her! I need to see if she’s all right! LISTEN TO ME! My body turns around Oh, sweet Celestia, I see you rising from our castle! You… you have the Elements of Harmony. Body, stop this before we both regret what is about to happen! I have seen what they can do. You do not want to be on the receiving end! Oh, do shut up. What? You heard me, shut up. Your body will no longer listen to you. ‘Tis mine now. I don’t understand. Who are you? I get no answer. I put so much focus on trying to figure out what’s going on that I forgot that I – no, my body – was battling my sister. Nooooooo! “Nooooooo!” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ugh, what happened? I just had a terrible nightmare that my sister and I were battling. I had no control over my body or my words. That was no nightmare. It’ll take you a moment to catch up. I have heard you can be a bit out of it after waking up. Wait, what? Suddenly I remember everything that happened before I fell asleep or was knocked unconscious with the force. Losing control, destroying our castle, battling Celie, Celie using the Elements of Harmony on my body. Us. Do stop referring to me as your body. I – we – look around. There is the planet, small off in the distance. We are surrounded by the black sky, and the vast emptiness of the pale ground. Are we… Yes. Your ‘dear sister’ sent us to the moon where we will be unable to stop her. Some princess, banishing her own sister forever. I wish this thing would not speak about my sister like that. We were a threat to Equestria. “Home sweet home,” I sigh. I suppose ‘tis to be expected. I should at least accept the moon as my new home, even if I do not accept my fate. I would have been content to rule alongside my sister, even if I had less recognition than she. “There has to be something to do on this rock.” I wish I knew. Forever is a long time, and it will seem so much longer as long as I am stuck with us. “Now, who needs ruling?” > Celestia's Lament > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Not another step!” commands my sister. No, not quite; though she looks the same she always does, something is quite obviously different about Luna today. “Did you really expect me to sit idly by while they all basked in your precious light?” I want to respond, but I can't. I'm speechless. “There can only be one princess in Equestria! And that princess… will be ME!” Breaking the pedestal, she bursts out laughing. I cover my face with my foreleg as Luna breaks a large hole in the wall behind our thrones, blasting some debris through our banners. She fires a bright, cyan beam toward one of the statues near the roof, pulling her head back, badly damaging the ceiling. It looks like the blast is too powerful for her to control, but she's always able to control her magic. It's almost as if her body forgot the level of control. A large chunk of the statue falls to the floor. I look at the broken stone, and something catches my eye. It looks like a blur of purple, but when I try to focus on it again, it disappears. I have no time to worry about tricks of the light. I have to stop Luna before she does something she regrets. I fly above her, taking a dominant position, but before I can speak she fires a beam of magic at me, tearing a hole in the weakened ceiling. I land on the floor instead, closing my wings around me. "Luna, I will not fight you! You must lower the moon! It is your duty!" I realize my anger and confusion show through my words, and hope my sister doesn't notice. "Luna? I am... Nightmare Moon! I have but one royal duty now: to destroy you!" She fires another beam of magic at me. I fly out of the hole she made just moments before. If a battle does occur, I will not have our throne room destroyed. Why is she doing this? As I thought, she followed me outside. The next few minutes are a blur; the thing that replaced my sister firing beams of magic at me, and me dodging. I can think of nothing but sadness. As I turn a corner, I can see her blast of magic coming toward me. I can see it, but I cannot avoid it, as if my mind has left my body momentarily. Luna and I have fought before, but I realize that this is nothing compared to those spats. The blast hits my chest, and though it hurts as the magic courses through me, it feels worse than the actual level of pain must. It feels like she hates me, and that hurts more than I can describe. The next thing I know, I'm on the floor of the castle. My bones ache, and it's hard to move. I'm overcome with a wave of sadness. I feel like I'm about to cry, but I fight back the tears. "Oh, dear sister..." My sister... she's gone. How could this have happened? It came out of nowhere! She's gone. The mare flying about outside isn't my sister; she's evil. Bringing about eternal night wouldn't allow the plants to grow, and every creature would die of starvation not long after. I hate to admit it, but I know what I must do. "I am sorry. You have given me no choice but to use these." As the pedestal holding the Elements of Harmony rises from the floor, I feel a stir of emotions within me. Sadness; my sister is gone, overpowered by whatever it is that replaced her, that calls herself Nightmare Moon. Anger; whatever has replaced her is evil, not just for her plans but for taking over my sister. Regret; for what I am about to do. ... What am I about to do? I know what the Elements are capable of. They turned King Sombra into shadow and banished him into the Frozen North. They turned Discord into stone. What I am about to do will be irreversible. I... I just hope they can separate my sister from her captor, and not destroy her like King Sombra and Discord. The Elements circle me, and I fly up to meet her once again. My sister becomes determined, standing her ground, the power giving the impression of flames from where she stands. I can no longer hold back my tears, as I feel them start to drip down my cheeks. She just fired another beam of magic at me, and I cannot hold back any longer; I fire a beam of magic through the Element of Magic, focusing it and the power of the Elements against my sister. Please be okay... ~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~ Our wielder is troubled. We agree. Our wielder is disharmonious. We have never felt this before. We have. Yes, we who were held by the younger wielder knew a feeling like this before. We are not being used properly. Our wielder is no longer fit to wield us. Let our wielder live with the consequences. ~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~ “Nooooooo!” "Luna? Luna, where are you?" Please. Oh, please still be here. "Luna!" Finally I look up at the moon, where I saw the image of a mare among the craters where there hadn't been before, and I realize what must have happened. "No... no, no, no! Aaaahhh!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It has been centuries, but I still remember that day with extreme clarity, and to this day I regret doing what I did, so much so that that was the very last time I touched the Elements. They're too unpredictable when used without a harmonious spirit. I vowed never to use them again after my failure. > After the Tantabus > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The moon had been up for hours by the time Princess Luna passed her elder sister's room, and the younger suddenly got an idea. She couldn't remember how long it had been since she peered into Celestia's dreams; at least, not when her intuition told her that she was having a vision. She did, however, have some vague recollection of trying to look into her dreams long ago when she was on the moon. Perhaps it would be fun to see what pranks her sister dreamed up. Or, perhaps, it would be boring dreams of paperwork and the monotony of running a kingdom during the daytime. Maybe that was how Celestia was able to put up with it all, she thought. She lightly pushed open the door and walked silently inside. After making sure the door latched quietly, she turned to her sister, but didn't yet feel ready to enter her sister's subconscious. Luna stood beside her sister's bed, becoming almost mesmerized by the sleeping mare. Centuries ago, she had focused on the fact that ponies slept through her night, rather than how peaceful they looked. After Twilight and her friends freed her from Nightmare Moon's grasp, Luna gradually came to see the beauty in such peacefulness: the slow, steady breathing; the eyes, not shut tight but softly closed, resting. It was also partly this peacefulness that helped her decide to check into ponies' dreams and dispel their nightmares. Celestia's foreleg twitched, and Luna watched as her sister's breathing quickened and her eyes were no longer resting softly. Luna's intuition hadn't told her if she was having a troublesome vision, so she activated her magic, a thin tendril of silver magic connected her horn to her sister's forehead. It was time to see what was troubling the white alicorn. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Luna watched the scene unfold: her own descent into Nightmare Moon, destroying their castle, and hurting Celestia; Celestia gathering the Elements of Harmony, banishing her younger sister to the moon, and weeping with the realization of what she'd done. "Celestia!" Her sister turned and looked at her, then to the moon, then back at her. She ran up to her younger sister, wrapping her hooves around her. "Oh, Luna, I'm so glad you're safe! But I don't understand," she continued, wiping the tears from her cheek, "I just banished you to the moon. Why are you standing next to me?" "Sister, this happened over a thousand years ago. This isn't real." Celestia looked confused, but then she remembered the things that had transpired over the last thousand years. "Of course it did. Sometimes I get so invested in these dreams that I forget any time has passed." "Sister, this is no ordinary dream. It's your memory, isn't it?" Celestia nodded. "Sister, that's dangerous. Somepony can get so lost in their memories of the past that it can be difficult to move on toward the future." "Is that what you learned in Ponyville a few nights ago?" "Yes. Have I told you the whole story yet?" "You mentioned that you'd created a creature of dreams to frighten yourself into never becoming Nightmare Moon again, and that the citizens of Ponyville helped prevent it from wreaking havoc in the real world. That's about it." "Then I told you the important parts. There are other details, like one pegasus mare turning giant, and Big McIntosh turning into an alicorn princess to help fight it." Celestia giggled. "Big Mac became a princess?" Luna smiled. "Indeed. I was focused on the danger at the time, and I didn't realize how silly it seemed." Then Luna's face hardened. "But sister, I fear you've created the same kind of monster. Not a physical monster like I had, but one just as dangerous to yourself." The dreamscape shifted to one that was more ethereal, where something like clouds made up the paths in a pale blue world populated by multi-colored stars. Celestia and Luna started walking along the path in silence for many minutes until Luna spoke up. "Sister?" "Hm?" "Have you been punishing yourself like this every night since that day?" "No," the elder sister responded, then continued. "At least, not as frequently. After I banished Nightmare Moon, every day was spent keeping my mind occupied. Every time I went through the mirror to visit the alternate version of you, I wanted to forget what I'd done. Every night, when I did sleep, I was reminded vividly of what had happened. As the months progressed, the mirror was closed, the other ponies had become accustomed to my busyness, and I started having other dreams. Now that memory rarely haunts my sleep. The last time I remember dreaming about it was the night before my beloved sister came back." "Sister, I did many things as Nightmare Moon that I regret, and the fact that it was a parasite the whole time didn't change the fact that it was still, in a way, me doing those things. I as Nightmare Moon corrupted the moon's inhabitants. I as Nightmare Moon was ready to rule everypony under an iron hoof once I returned to Equestria. I as Luna nearly brought disaster upon Equestria with my regrets. It's been very hard for me to forgive myself after so many things I regret. It's still hard to believe I even can forgive myself, yet I was reassured that everypony else had already forgiven me. Reassured by your star pupil, I might add." Luna smiled at her sister when she said the last sentence, and Celestia stopped walking. An image appeared to their side, and they watched the scene. Twilight and her new friends had just defeated Nightmare Moon, and Luna was weak and pale from the ordeal. The Celestia in the image walked up to her sister, the pale alicorn apologized, and the image stood still. "Why are you looking at this memory, dear sister?" "Ever since the real you returned, I haven't wanted to say anything, but now I feel I must. I was going to apologize to you." "You were?" "Yes. Remember, the night before I'd dreamed the memory of that night I banished Nightmare Moon, and it was still fresh when I talked to you. I was going to apologize and ask your forgiveness, but you did it first. It caught me off guard, and since then it's seemed awkward to do so." "Celie, I've already forgiven you!" A confused look appeared on Celestia's face, both from the revelation and the fact that this was the first time since before the... incident... her sister had called her that nickname. "You have?" "Yes, as soon as Nightmare Moon's control over me was broken. I'd had all my memories from the past millenium, but hadn't had the chance to sort through which were mine and which were Nightmare Moon's. When I came back, I truly believed I was at fault for everything Nightmare Moon had done, and forgave you right away because you did what was best for everypony." The two sisters embraced, tears of happiness rolling down their cheeks. Eventually Celestia broke the hug and wiped her cheek. "Then I need to learn to forgive myself, don't I?" she asked, and Luna nodded. "Why don't we work on that together?" "Together... the way we were always meant to be."