The End of the Night
She couldn't resist its pull. The lake called to her, tugged on her very soul, beckoning her closer. Its black waves, flecked with starlight, lapped at the shore that stretched to eternity. The lush greenery of the forest where she stood couldn't satisfy her hunger, her need for the lake that pulled at her mind from just out of sight, just beyond reach. In her mind's eye she could see it: dark water, black as the space between the stars that flecked its surface here and there. Somewhere, in the distance, the reflection of the unmoving moon glittered. She just had to stretch out her armor-clad hoof to touch it... just had to walk a little further to reach its smooth shore. It was right through the trees, right there... so why couldn't she reach it? After all these years, it had finally made itself known to her, only to remain just out of sight. She could see it clearly now in her mind, but could never breach the mental barrier that separated it from reality.
How had she come so far? How had she fallen like this, grown so maddened by her jealousy and pain that she'd stooped to trying to kill her sister? How grateful she was now that Celestia had used the Elements of Harmony. Without them as a shield in their final fight, Celestia would have been killed. Nightmare Moon thanked the stars (and all the other Powers that Be) that her sister was still alive. She just had to find the lake to bring her back from the sun.
Nightmare closed her eyes, remembering those last few seconds that had changed the course of history...
~~~)*(~~~
Celestia rose into the air, the Elements of Harmony swirling around her body. Facing her sister, she prepared the spell. Tears streamed from her eyes, glistening in the rainbow light as she fired the beam. Nightmare Moon prepared herself, bracing her body against a semi-sphere of white light, as the rainbow shot towards her. At the very last moment, she fired her beam.
The boom when the two forces collided was titanic. A brilliant white shockwave of light and magic exploded outward, completely destroying the castle and instantly killing all within. In fact, every non-plant life form for a good half mile around was killed, unable to withstand the power of the energy rushing through them. Only the plants of the Everfree survived, mainly due to the strength of the ancient trees and the protection they provided.
To the rest of the world, it had happened instantaneously, but both Nightmare Moon and Celestia saw it in slow motion, eyes widening in shock as they met each other's gazes.
Nightmare Moon's magical blast was so powerful that when it slammed into the ray of the Elements of Harmony, it blasted the spell backward towards Celestia. The sun princess got the full brunt of the spell, backed by the ray that would have killed if it had reached her. The Elements, sensing the change in direction, tried to alter the spell cast by Celestia at the last moment. They successfully protected Celestia from Nightmare's deadly power, but it was too late to undo the banishment spell.
Celestia shrieked as the rainbow engulfed her, spreading into a shield to block the turquoise beam that still pushed against it. In a flash of white light, the Elements' spell activated and Celestia was gone. The Elements clattered to the devastated ground. Nightmare Moon, completely spent from magical efforts, soon followed. Her wings gave out and she felt herself begin to fall, then everything went black.
~~~)*(~~~
Opening her eyes again, Nightmare Moon sighed. When she had woken after the battle, she'd done her best to rebuild Equestria after the loss of Celestia and the sun. The plan she had conceived to make all of Equestria love her had come crashing down around her as she went to each city and explained what had happened-- how Celestia had grown corrupt and power-hungry, how she, Luna, had been forced to take on new power to combat the threat, how the battle had left her magic drained and Celestia banished to the sun, how this was all for the best anyway-- and saw each pony shrink in terror, weep bitterly over the loss of their benevolent ruler, and fearfully bow to her leadership. She had established a new capital at the base of the Canterhorn Mountain, and with the efficiency of one used to ruling for a couple hundred years, had gotten the government up and running again within two years. But each night of leadership had worn at her, taken away the triumph of her victory and the glory of her reign. They had been terrified of her, all of them. They were grieving for Celestia, the goddess who had brought them the sun, who had surely been incorruptible and good. They had not believed Nightmare's story (they were, of course, right), and though none of them had dared to admit it, their loyalty to Celestia had never wavered. Eventually, Nightmare Moon had given up her leadership piece by piece, slowly transferring all of the responsibility to the ponies she trusted would keep Equestria in safe hooves. Finally, when she was no more than a figurehead, she'd formally resigned.
It had been hard to get used to her lack of power. As soon as Nightmare had realized that her plan wasn't working, that she could have found a different way to be loved and known, she had tried to raise the sun. She'd hoped to bring Celestia back, to kneel before her sister and beg for forgiveness that she knew was undeserved before leaving for a self-imposed exile. It had been in that moment, as she channeled her turquoise magic to reach for the moon, that she'd realized that the fatigue that had been plaguing her-- indeed, that she'd gotten used to for the past thirteen years-- was a drainage of magical power, the magic of all three pony tribes that resided in her body. She could not move the moon one inch. She'd strained with all her might, rearing onto her hind legs and flapping her wings desperately, only to find that she could barely fly and had almost no strength in her limbs. She had no more power in any aspect of her magic than an average unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony. In defeat, she had created the plan to slowly transfer the power in Equestria to others. When the time came for her to resign, Nightmare had walked away, back towards the Everfree Forest, where she had made her home.
Decades later, Nightmare Moon had felt the first touch of the lake in her mind. It had come as a dream, and she'd barely remembered it upon waking. It had kept coming back, though, stronger and stronger, until she could sense it in the waking world. Soft and black, mirror-like and sparkling with starlight, it had tugged at her mind until she could feel it, see it, hear it whispering to her. She'd ignored it at first, for the most part. Most of her waking moments had been spent straining her magic to move the moon, or watching Equestria from a distance, or trying desperately to use the inert Elements of Harmony. Eventually, though, the lake had grown more present. She could sense it like she could sense the dreams of ponies, or the positions of the stars and moon: it was a part of her, yet strangely separate, and perhaps more real than anything she had encountered before. She did not know where it was in the physical world, or if it even existed outside of dreams and thought. But Nightmare Moon knew she had to find it.
Now, Nightmare stood in a clearing in the Everfree forest. She'd been wandering for a while now, just walking through the trees, unsure of her destination. The lake's pull was more powerful than ever, and she knew that to set things right, she must reach it. She shook her head to clear it of these recollections and closed her eyes again. She focused on the lake in her mind and turned slowly in a circle, straining all her senses to hear, smell, feel, and know where the lake was. Finally, finally, she found a direction: due east. Opening her eyes, Nightmare began to walk quickly towards the source of the call inside her. She went faster and faster, more and more urgently, as she felt the call grow nearer, beginning to hear the sound of lapping waves and smell the cold, clear water, until she broke into flight, cutting swiftly, elegantly, through the air toward her destination. Sooner than she expected, Nightmare broke out of the trees and landed, wings backpedaling once to stop her as she lit down upon the shore.
There it was: the lake, more beautiful and strange in reality than she had ever imagined it. The stars glinted on the dark water, the distant moon's reflection glowing almost brighter than the real moon above. The black waves lapped gently at the pebbled shore, barely audible under the whisper of the cool wind through the trees. She took a few slow and careful steps forward in awe, daring to reach out and delicately brush the water with the tip of her metal-shod hoof. She withdrew it quickly, watching in silent, childlike fascination as a ripple spread from the place she had touched the lake. Her gaze followed the outermost edge of the ripple until it shrank out of sight in the distance, where the lake met the horizon beyond the mountains that framed it to the north. But once Nightmare's initial amazement had worn off, the call was still there, beckoning inside her, telling her what she had to do.
Piece by piece, Nightmare shed her armor. Helmet first, then chestplate, levitated carefully over her head to rest by the treeline. Then she stepped out of her shoes, carefully setting each hoof down on the pebbles and feeling the bare ground for the first time in nearly a century. She knew what had to be done to free Celestia and bring the sun back.
There was no fear in Nightmare Moon's heart, only freedom, as she lifted into the air. The removal of her armor and the knowledge that she would at last be able to undo her mistake made her lighter than she had felt for a long, long time. Silently, gracefully, she flew out over the lake, enjoying the feel of the wind on her bare coat and through her mane. She could not help but enjoy it, for this was to be her last flight, and she would soon be free of all the torment of life. Reaching the peak of her flight, she paused, wings outstretched for a single, lingering moment. Then, she folded them close to her body and dived.
The fall was as elegant as the flight. If anyone had been watching, they would have caught their breath at the beauty of the scene in the moment before she entered the water. It was smooth; there was no splash, only a great ripple spreading to the edges of the lake. Nightmare felt no pain, only the shock of the cold lake surrounding her coat. She continued downward, not trying to breathe, as the desperate call that had been tugging at her heart eased. It knew, as she knew, that her mistakes would now be undone and her guilt eased. Nightmare Moon opened her eyes and gazed up to the heavens, distorted though they were by the dark water. She sank further and further into the depths of the lake, and finally felt her breath give out. She strained for air, resisting the urge to push back to the surface as her lungs constricted painfully. Her limbs thrashed against her will, and she tossed her head, æthereal mane swirling in a midnight cloud around her. As darkness began to collect at the edges of her vision and she involuntarily gulped in water, however, a new light started to shine through the water and she felt her body begin to shrink...
"Lulu!" The cry echoed out through the dawn as the sun rose and a figure materialized out of pure light above the lake. Looking up, Luna-- for her body had indeed reverted to the form to which that name belonged-- saw the brilliantly white coat and dawn-like mane of her sister as the last of her vision faded and her body went still and cold.
~~~)*(~~~
Celestia looked down into the water, and could barely make out the dark figure falling to the bottom, drowning. She dove, straining her wings and magic to catch her sister and pull her out of the pristine lake, now awash with the colors of the first dawn after almost a hundred years. Just before she herself hit the surface of the water, she pulled up, magically dragging the still body of a navy blue alicorn with unmoving sapphire hair out of the lake. She pulled it to her chest and cradled Luna in her hooves, flying to the shore and laying her down upon the pebbles.
"Luna-- no, don't leave me-- Luna, please--" she urgently tried to wake the still, cold Princess of the Night, but it was to no avail. Now beginning to sob, Celestia laid her head upon Luna's chest and desperately listened for a heartbeat, a breath, any sign that her sister was alive, but she knew in her heart that it was too late. She could not have been freed otherwise, and the last of the heat from Luna's limbs was quickly fading. Celestia lay there for a time, as the sun rose steadily into the sky, weeping bitterly for her sister.
~~~)*(~~~
One moon later, Celestia sat again by the edge of the lake, head bowed and wings gently curved over her back. Her eyes were closed and she was completely still, facing the simple tombstone that marked Luna's grave, so that if it weren't for her flowing mane and tail, one might have thought her a statue. She was whispering, though, a silent explanation to her sister. Somehow, she felt that she owed Luna an explanation of why this had happened.
"I, too, had felt the lake at the edge of my mind and knew what had to be done. When it had released its hold and the banishment spell vanished, I understood what had occurred, but I did not know why. Since then, I have had enough time to think that I understand now: the spell that had sealed me in the sun may have been cast by the Elements of Harmony, but it was powered by the dark magic that you had taken into yourself. You know as well as I that when a unicorn dies, all the spells they had cast that were actively working die with them, even if they weren't feeding the spell magic. As you died, the dark magic died too, and with it, the banishment spell.
"I know you tried to raise the sun thirteen years after my banishment; I felt the presence of your magic. I know you kept trying. I wish you had succeeded, more than anything else. I even wish I had succeeded in banishing you, because at least then I would have been able to see you again. Oh, Luna... if there would have ever been reason for me to hate you, or to not forgive what you had done, it is erased now. You sacrificed your life for me, for Equestria, and in tribute to you, I will ensure that you are remembered. From now on, everypony will know your story, and no one will ever forget your name."
Celestia stayed there for some time that day, and often returned to that place, even after the pain of Luna's death had eased within her. The lake remained the same, untouched by time, and so did the tombstone, which bore the inscription,
Here lies Luna,
Princess of the Night
Keeper of the Moon
Maker of the Stars
Guardian of Dreams.
Beneath this, written in tiny, clear, elegant script, there were a few verses of poetry. They had been written by Luna herself, during the days of her lone rule over Equestria, and Celestia had found it in the tower room that used to be hers. When Celestia had discovered the parchment with the poem scribbled on it, she had been touched by the words and had asked for them to be copied onto the grave:
Nothing lasts forever.
Stars shine in the day
When all fades into shadow,
And all has gone away.
Oh, I miss the old days
When twinkling we shone
And all was clear and beautiful,
And we were not alone.
Keeping safe within me
The echoes of old time
Remembering the music,
The way the voices chime,
Clarity is dulling,
Everything is blurred.
Songs are long forgotten,
And poetry obscured.
Listen to the echoes
In mist becoming lost
And know that every happiness
Is sure to have a cost.