Luna walked slowly through the darkness, it was pitch black. The darkness had consumed everything, except for a spark of light in the distance.
She shuddered, the darkness reminded her of him. Her nightmare. She did not remember how she arrived, only that she had to find Twilight and leave.
Luna kept heading towards the single sparkle, it's light growing brighter and brighter the closer she got. It began to take shape into a bright six pointed star, what did it mean Luna wondered.
She finally arrived at its centre, it was glowing bright with someone purple in the middle. Luna walked closer, cautiously. She stopped when she could see the purple middle clearly.It was a small filly, with a dark blue mane with two strips and had a light purple coat, it was Twilight!
She immediately stopped her slow cautious walk and ran to her daughter, only to find herself unable to move. She looked down and saw that her hooves were stuck to the ground. Luna tried and pulled but she could not set herself free, she spread her wings but she could leave the ground and tried to use magic but her horn did not produce a spark.
Luna did not know what to do, her alicorn powers had been beaten. She had nothing left to save her filly with, if only she wasn’t needed to save her filly. She would gladly stay here for eternally if it meant Twilight could leave. But how? Nopony pony else was around and Luna could not summon help using her magic.
Perhaps, she thought…. Perhaps Twilight could save herself. She had been crawling recently, she could crawl away!
Luna now only had to wake her and hope that Twilight could release herself from the glowing star.
“Twilight!” She yelled, hoping to wake her daughter quickly before anything else happened, “Twilight!” She yelled again, causing her filly to open her eyes at sound of her mother's voice.
Twilight began giggling and rolled off the star and causing her to land on the floor. Luna hoped she not walk towards her, unfortunately the filly began crawling towards her, “No Twilight!” She yelled, her daughter stopped and looked at her with confusion.
Luna hated yelling at her daughter but she needed to leave,”Go! Leave Twilight!” She yelled once more spreading her wings to make herself look more intimidating to the young filly.
Twilight began to cry and stopped her crawling, Luna felt awful,“I’m sorry, Twilight,” she whispered softly, she lowered her wings, “Come here little one,” Luna said in a soothing voice.
But, Twilight continued to cry and did not move, “Come to Mama, Twilight,” she tried calling once more but it was as if her filly did not hear her. Twilight had never acted like this before, she thought, this made her very worried.
“I don’t think she wants Mama, Luna dearest,” a voice from behind her called. Luna knew that voice, she hated that voice.
Luna quickly turned around and saw the devil himself, Sombra, standing close behind her. She repressed a shudder at having him so close and focused on her innocent daughter.
“Why are you here, Sombra? Is this your doing?” Luna cried, trying her best to remain strong in front of her filly. She wished she could pick Twilight up and run away from him.
“I am here for my daughter, surely you didn’t forget who her father is,” the voice she hated said in his arrogant voice.
“SHE IS NOT YOUR DAUGHTER!” Luna yelled in the Royal Canterlot voice.
“tsk, tsk. So you have forgotten, such a shame how the memories fade,” Sombra said, circling Luna like a vulture circles a dying animal.
“Twilight is my daughter, she bares no resemblance to you,” Luna growled, desperately trying to escape the floor to run to her precious daughter.
Sombra stopped circling in front of Luna and raised his hoof under her chin. Luna wanted to slap it away but she was unable to do anything.
He looked deeply into her eyes and smirks, Luna has a feeling deep in her gut something bad is about to happen.
He turns away from her and starts to walk in towards Twilight!
“NO!” Luna cried, “Please leave her alone! Please! Please, I’ll give you anything!”
He stopped, Luna was glad. She had gotten through to him, he would leave Twilight alone,”Hmm, Anything I want?” He asked, walking away from Twilight and back to Luna.
“Yes!” Luna said, immediately not even thinking about her answer.
“What I want is to hold my daughter and raise her, can you allow me to have that precious Luna?” He asked, shifting away from her again.
“No! Please! No!” Luna cried, trying desperately to break free from the floor.While she tried to break free Sombra walked towards Twilight and picked her up using magic.
Twilight immediately started bawling and reaching for her mother, “No, No crying my little star. We’ll get reacquainted with each soon,” he said, placing the filly in his hooves.
Twilight whimpered and still tried to escape, Luna wished she could safe her. She knew how Twilight hated to be carried by strangers.
“Twilight, I am Papa. Can you say Papa?” he asked, pronouncing the words slowly.
Twilight didn’t say a word, she just continued to babble.
“I suppose it doesn’t matter. You will learn to speak sure enough. Let’s go Twilight,” he said walking off with Luna’s filly.
“No! Please Sombra!” Luna screamed.
“Don’t worry Luna. We will meet again,” Sombra said walking off with Twilight in his hooves.
“No! No!.......”
Luna opened her eyes and sat up. It was just a dream, just a dream. Sombra wasn’t here, he was gone. Twilight…..
Twilight! Luna scrambled out of her bed and ran to her daughter’s crib. She looked down at her daughter, she was asleep. She was here and not with that evil stallion.
She would never allow that to happen, she would never allow Twilight to meet Sombra. Never! She would protect her filly forever.
Luna picked up Twilight using her magic and carried the sleeping filly to her bed. She wanted to make sure she didn’t disappear during the night.
“I promise, Twilight. We will be together forever,” Luna whispered nuzzling her little filly.
On the secluded hilltop, Princess Luna rested. She was glad it was secluded else she would have been noticed as her dark coat stood out among the bright green causing her to stand out like Celestia did when next to her, her less important sister. Luna pulled her filly at the thought of someone discovering them and Twilight's existence. Her old anxieties resurfaced at this thought that she would not be able to keep Twilight safe and hidden forever. Luna felt useless, not for the first time, and took a moment to pray to Selene that this moment would last forever.
Carefully sinking deeper into the lush green floor, as to not disturb the precious bundle sleeping peacefully, she took this moment to stare at Twilight’s cute sleepy face, and resisted the urge to coo, she breathed a deep sigh of relief as her anxiety slowly disappeared as she knew her filly was safe. Luna wished she could join Twilight in her peaceful dream and abandoned reality but she could not.
In her months of research, as a attempt to not screw her filly as she screwed up everything else, Luna and her most loyal guards, whom she trusted with her most deepest secrets, observed all types of parenting styles and discovered the importance of separation. They had discovered separation anxiety which struck at the very heart of many foals causing them to feel anxiety later in life at the thought of being away from their parents or guardians. It had caused Luna to worry, she had a plan to spend every moment of her eternal life with her foal and the discovery that she could not was painful.
It had taken several days for her guards to coax her out of her chambers and only managed due to the fact that Luna still had much to learn on how to become the perfect parent. It had taken many trips a undercover Pegasus to learn the perfect technique which was to commit to several groups involving other foals and parents. Luna had already committed to a few once she was assured that Twilight was old enough to not mention her Aunt Tia and their many, many guards.
It was only once Twilight was born that she realised her filly could not speak and that she had forgotten that important fact, so they quickly attended the meetings and Twilight gained many friends and Luna gained the knowledge that she was not a bad parent so far.
All of this had caused Luna to fulfil her goal to not give Twilight anxiety from being separated, she had vowed the moment her filly was born that she would not cause her the anxiety that Luna had suffered with for millennia, that she never wanted her filly to plagued with constant doubts with a voice whispering at her mind causing her to question her every choice. Well, every choice except the choice to keep Twilight, at the beginning she had many doubts but all disappeared once she held her in her hooves.
Luna shivered as a slight breeze rushed past her, causing her to pull Twilight nearer, allowing her filly to absorb her body heat which was very little due to her connection with the night and moon. She prayed that her little body heat would be enough to protect her filly from getting sick. If she was sick then it would be Luna's fault and then she would have failed as a parent and then..... and then he would be right that she was nothing without him... that she couldn't even take care of her daughter without him that she was truly useless and powerless unable to do anything but fail...
She felt tears roll down her face at her realisation that she was a failure only to be snapped out of her pity party by a light tap on her face, she looked and saw to giant purple eyes full of worry as she realised her mama was crying. Luna felt her heart burst with joy at her filly's concern and quickly wiped away the evidence of her tears, "I'm alright...I'm alright..." she whispered and began rocking her filly until she lulled back to sleep. She was so lucky that her filly was so wonderful.
She took a deep breath and attempted to wrestle her remaining depressing thoughts into submission so that she could not start crying again and wake up Twilight, the remaining thoughts were simple to wrestle as she was comforted by her Twilight's love for her. She pushed away all her thoughts and took a moment to imagine a future where Twilight was a fully grown alicorn able to protect herself. Finally at peace, Luna decided to take Celestia's advice and enjoy her single night off and sleep.
The shadows smiled with glee as Moon Princess fell asleep allowing the shadows to sneak towards her, this was the perfect opportunity to begin her mistress's work for their Queen. The shadows would do anything for their mistress and Queen. It quietly moved towards the mare and was careful not to disturb the filly.
The shadows quickly infected the mare's mind and saw her fears and doubts and it knew exactly where to strike, it quickly whispered promises of power and control in a world without the sun where the moon would have all the power. It promised in this world Twilight would never have to face hatred because of her family and would be able to be introduced into society where she could be whatever she wished. All that was necessary for this world was power and the only way to get power was to follow the shadows to a place where a dark castle stood tall unaffected by time and to surrender and become a true vessel of the night.
It's words caused the mare to turn a dark blue and for her eyes to snap open and turn into slits, the shadows chuckled with glee and plucked the filly from her grip causing the mare to growl and follow the shadows. It felt victory, it had succeeded. It was too powerful for the alicorn and the shadows would not be beaten by the vessel's resistance.
They had almost left the hilltop when it felt the sun approach, the shadow's hissed as it knew it wold be impossible to escape with the sun goddess around. She would foil everything and discover their plans! They could not be discovered why they were still so weak!
The shadows returned the vessel and her foal to where they were before and arranged them so nothing was a miss and left before the sun wench noticed her. The shadows hid behind a tree and watched the exchange waiting for next moment to strike.
“Hello sister!” called a voice merrily, disrupting Luna’s sleep. She recognised her sister's aura instantly and rolled over, she felt irritated by her sister’s presence and constant joyful nature at such a ungodly hour, why couldn’t she just go bug one of her loyal subjects and leave her and her Twilight. She wished Celestia would just disappear and leave her to her slumber.
Luna snuggled deeper into the grass, she was content to ignore Celestia until she left. Until, she heard a giggle which caused her to snap her eyes open and see her Twilight giggling in Celestia's hooves, she thought that Twilight only laughed like that to her and the thought that Celestia had once again stolen something from Luna caused her emotions to boil. She quickly snatched Twilight from Celestia's hooves causing Twilight to cry and whine as she had been taken away from her game but Luna couldn't bring herself to care. She would make it up to her daughter later, all that mattered at the moment was getting Twilight away from Celestia.
She glared at her sister and felt the searing hot feeling get worse and worse until she couldn't take it anymore and she had to release it somehow, "Why did you wake Twilight up!?!?! She has a schedule that she needs to keep but of course you don't care your happy to just have all the fun and leave me in the background like you always do!" she screeched, causing Twilight to cry louder and for Celestia to flinch and quietly mutter, "I just thought.."
"Don't you dare say you thought this through! You only thought of yourself like you always do! I know what I'm doing with my daughter and I don't need you to interfere like you always do!" Luna stomped and lauched herself into the air with her walling filly and flew back home, she couldn't bare to deal with the 'perfect' sun princess for a second longer.
Luna landed on the balcony and quickly kicked the doors open and soothed Twilight with a gentle lullaby as she paced allowing all her emotions to settle, she hugged her sleeping filly closer and placed her in her crib, she then collapsed into her bed and dreamt dreams of power where she was the favoured pony not Celestia
LINE BREAK
A figure covered in dark purple cloak and cursed as it walked into the room, her shadows had acted against orders and had almost exposed them to the sun wench! Everything could have been ruined! She pulled a scroll of paper out from under her cloak and placed it in the room causing a clock to appear and glow. The time was finally right from their Queen to appear in a new more powerful form which would give her people the justice they deserved after all these years!
The cloaked figure lowered herself into a bow, revealing ghastly bat like wings that were covered with scars, she muttered the words, "Ne verum obnoxia surgere Luna!" causing the clock to turn black and be filled with magic, "I am ready to serve you my Queen," her Queen appeared before her in a ghostly form, her Queen was so very powerful! It was so very beautiful! It made like her feel so powerful!
“Excellent… the alicorn and her daughter will soon belong to our Queen. Guide them and prepare them for my awakening,” croaked a voice from the cloak, as it lifted the prophecy into the clock causing it to disappear.
“But, my Queen… I thought your plans involved the mare. Should we not just capture the filly and use her to manipulate the mare?” questioned the cloaked figure, as she remained in a bow.
“NO! Anypony who touches the filly will die by my hoof!” The mysterious voice yelled causing its voice to break. The figure flinched from her yelling,“I understand my Queen, none shall her the child. Anything else you desire, my Queen?” the cloaked figure asked, eager to please and to ease her Queen’s anger.
“Yes, I need you to separate the sisters and ready the herd, then send one of your sisters to prepare the mare for her purpose. She needs to be ready or all shall fail, can you do this?” the voice commanded, the figure nodded under its hood as if she would refuse her Queen and give her important task to one of her useless siblings. One last thing, control your shadows, they almost ruined everything! Make sure they are punished!"
“I understand, my Queen.” the cloaked figure said, as she lifted out of her bow and muttered, " Et luna celare!" causing the clock to lose its magic and returned to its previous light. The figure gritted its teeth, its servant had made her look bad in front of her Queen! She would have to deal with them soon but first she must fulfil her mission and send her shadows after the sister.
The figure looked back only once, "soon we will have everything we desire, my Queen!"
Celestia stared at the sky and watched as her sister disappeared, she couldn’t believe Luna… none of those things were true… she had simply wanted to be apart of her niece’s life. She hadn’t wanted to take her from Luna.
“Liar…”
Celestia looked around for where the voice was coming from, she didn’t see it. Perhaps it was her true feelings finally speaking to her, she felt all fears reunite, she felt wrong, she felt that she had failed her family and her ponies. She didn’t lie, it was against her principles but she didn’t tell the truth either, that didn’t count as lying did it. It couldn’t! She didn’t lie! She had to be a honest, golden filly that could set an example for all! They would stray without her perfect example!
Liar… you aren’t golden, you are rotten, the voice whispered full of contempt,causing Celestia to place her hooves over her head trying to block out the voice, it didn’t work, “You simply try to bring your sister down so you look better. You couldn’t handle her having something that you did not… it killed you on the inside.”
“I am happy for her!” She yelled, she was happy for her! Her sister deserved everything!
“Lies, if she deserved everything, why is she not your equal? Why do you hide her in the shadows of your sun? You want everything she has… don’t you?”
“I don’t hide my sister, I love her! You are wrong!” she cried, “if i am wrong then why do you dream of Twilight being your filly, of Luna simply raising the moon and agreeing to your every word. You don’t love her..”
“I do! I do! I do!” she cried again and again and again before collapsing, it was all wrong, all wrong!
The shadows watched the sun mare cry and scream, it had fulfilled its mission. Hopefully this would be enough to win back her mistress's approval once more. The shadows would soon return to help its mistress reunite the herd and begin the next part of the mission. Everything was going perfectly and soon the shadows would further isolate the sisters and return the moon to the Queen!