> Lullaby on the Moon > by My Sister Tia > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Fate has Been Cruel > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am Princess Luna, ruler of the night, the moon, and the stars. I raise the moon when night time comes, put the constellations up in the sky, and visit the many ponies´s dreams every night. Or at least, I used to be Princess Luna. Now, all I am is Nightmare Moon, known to all ponies as not the wise and kind ruler I once tried to be, but as a nightmare made to destroy all good, with her eternal night. And even worse than it all is that now I am isolated from all the ponies, including my very own sister, the very one who had banished me herself. I know this may be quite a change, from ruler of the night to the very nightmare of the night, but I shall explain it all to those who are willing to listen. In my younger years, with my kind and helpful sister, Princess Celestia, it was quite fun to be ruling with her. While she took care of the day, I took care of the night. But this is not quite as easy as it may seem. During the day, she would bring the sun up, deal with political affairs and public appearances, then lower the sun again at the end of the day. I would then raise the moon into the sky, and visit those same ponies´s dreams. Sometimes, it would bring me great delight to do so, while others, it was only emotionally depriving, bringing sadness, sorrows, pain, fear, and sometimes even guilt, to me. This would always wear me out when it did, with so many dreams to visit each and every night. But then, when I feel like going to sleep in the daytime, I can´t, because I am a princess that has to sometimes go to really long formal meetings, public gatherings, and holiday celebrations. Getting even just a little sleep to myself would be rare, making it only more and more difficult to do my regular duties. This was slowly starting to turn my heart colder and colder, smaller and smaller, darker and darker. Until I finally did the unthinkable. One night, I was sick and tired of this old tiring routine, and while I was entering a pony´s dream, I noticed that they had noticed me. No pony had ever done that before, in or out of a dream, so I would normally be happy about it. But my cold heart only interpreted the kind gesture as a doing of hatred, and I especially got mad when they had asked me to give them a hoof shake. I only yelled at them about how it was simply useless for me to do such a thing, because I thought that they were trying to mock me, for not having as many who loved me, or cared about me, or even acknowledge me for once. Then, I turned their dream of sunny fields, a bright sun, and lots of beautiful forests to the dark night sky, with a glowing full moon that kept trying to force them to the ground. I left them to scream and yell, stuck inside their dream until they woke up. On that very night, I had created my fist nightmare. Instead of being emotionally draining, it gave me a sense of power and strength. I soon started creating more and more nightmares for pony after pony, until they all feared me. I did not mind, however, because I was only getting more and more powerful, powerful enough to confront my sister Tia for the throne. So that I would not only rule the night, but to also rule the day, by overthrowing her from her throne of loving and adoring ponies who would do anything for their ruler of their precious day princess. But not if it was the nightmare that had haunted their dreams. I would then have the power to do anything I wanted, especially to have at least one pony enjoy her over reign over Celestia´s pitiful, weak self, compared to the Nightmare of the night. But first, I had to ruin one more pony´s dream; my sister´s. When I entered her dream, I saw her raising the sun, surrounded by ponies cheering and singing. They were all celebrating her rule, not mine. They were all celebrating the sun, and not the moon, my moon. I also saw that my dream self was right beside her, celebrating more than all the others combined. I was enraged, and sent all the dream ponies into the castle dungeon. I then made everything dark, the sun disappear, replaced by the massive, glowing moon. I sent my dream self to attack her next. They were using all manner of spells to try and get to her, but it was all nothing compared to what I would do. I then sent a jolting sensation into her real body, to wake her up, scared as a little filly. A filly that would want to run and flee from me, the nightmare, and from her precious crown. I was ready to banish her from this land, forever. In the throne room, I awaited her arrival, standing on the balcony in the center of the room. Soon enough, in about a minute, she was finally there, easy to send away from my soon-to-be kingdom. I prepared myself to look at her one last time before she was gone, the one that I saw through eyes of hate and jealousy. When she arrived, I took in all the additional power that I could grasp from the moon, before becoming the true nightmare that I was inside; even worse, and more cold hearted than I had ever been before. My teeth sparpened, and my eyes narrowed into slits. My mane turned to a thick cloud of dark blue smoke, wafting in its non-existent breeze. My coat turned black, wings taking on a sharper, bat-like form. Glistening blue armor appeared on my limbs, sparkling like crystal. It was all part of my big plan to send her away from my life forever. I then gave an evil laugh, glad that I had finally gotten so close to having all the attention that I thought I had deserved. But her reaction was not one out of terror, yet instead out of love. She told me that she would not fight me, and that I should just calm down. But the darkness had already taken my heart, and it was already too late to turn back, even if I had wanted to. I then started attacking her--but for real this time, not in a dream. I attacked her with very powerful beams of magic from my horn, trying to send her away from what was now my kingdom. It was no use, she kept dodging them or blocking them with her own magical sheilds. I decided to take this battle outside of the castle, and shot a beam that purposely missed her- instead hitting the wall. Seeing another way to get away, she got out of there, quickly. This was all getting easier and easier than I thought it would. Following her to complete getting my revenge back at her, I kept trying, all the while maneuvering through the sky to keep up with her--I was still getting used to these new wings. Then, after a few tries, a long beam of bright blue shot straight into her heart. It looked as if my job was done, and she would go away forever, too intimidated to even try coming back. But then, I saw her get up, more boldly this time. Then, she flew up into the sky with her pitiful-looking gems, held within the aurora of her horn's magic, and flew up to where I was. She spun them around herself, and I thought was just to use it as a pitiful little shield. She had just been asking to get hit again, so I did a heavy blast of a distance-teleportation spell at her, but then she used those little gems to give me an even more powerful blast--which I then realized were really the elements of harmony, more powerful than anything known to mare-kind. I was then flung backwards, towards the thing right behind me-the moon. > And Order Unkind > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It really was all my fault. The blame is my own, the punishment's mine. And all because I did not wait for the ponies--now I must wait a thousand years, many more moon cycles, moon rises, and moon sets, just to come back. I know that it is the rightful way to pay for my wrongful deed. I now care not about the other ponies' thoughts about me, but instead, righting myself of my wrongs. I have now learned that as each sunrise needs a sunset, each moon rise also needs a rightful moon set. As soon as I was sent to the moon, I started to feel a bit less angry. Some of my anger was replaced with sadness. Also, I felt a bit... calmer. I didn't know why, but it probably had something to do with the moon. My moon. I had never imagined being so close to it before. All I've ever really done concerning it is to move it up for the night time, and lower it down for the daytime. It felt a bit like I belonged there. A few hours after this realization, I saw a golden beam of light coming for the moon. My first thought was that my sister was trying to put some kind of spell on me, but I was wrong. She was lowering the moon. I tried to move it myself, but that power was gone, though I was right on top of it. Once the moon was up, I looked towards the sun. It was rising. After what I had done, she had taken on the responsibility of both of our symbols in the sky. I was going to accept it, for she deserved it more than I at the moment. I was going to have to get used to it anyways. If I were to come back, who knows where Tia would send me then--and if I would truly be sent away, instead of for a thousand years, forever. The first thing I decided to do was to make a reminder for her that I was still there. For about an hour every day, those days numbering a week, I flew about. I used my wings like a Pegasus to control the "weather". I carefully used small craters to carve my face into the moon, and cast an aging spell to make it look the same for a thousand years.... then disappear. The next thing I did was start to mourn. I cried for days and days, knowing that I would always be unhappy till I could look at my sister again. After a while of this tearful routine, I became used to this view of the changing of day and night. Then, something surprising happened. Instead of the moon moving, there was just a magical golden burst. I found this odd, but then the moon and the sun were being moved like they normally should. I flew over to where the burst was--and couldn't believe my eyes. Right in front of me, there were normal household objects I hadn't seen in so long. A table with food, a mattress with bed furnishings, and pictures of my past memories with my sister. The first thing that I looked through was the food--I hadn't eaten in days, after all. I was immortal, but that didn't stop hunger from tearing me apart inside. I saw hayburgers, fruits and vegetables from the castle garden, and many more varieties of food for my long time here on the moon. But the thing that really caught my eye was the moon pies. Not only did the name make me feel as if there really were those who payed attention to my moon, but they were delicious. Next I made the bed, and finally went on to look at the pictures. I saw us at the beach, talking with the royal guards, even us getting our cutie marks together when we were still young. But then, I saw a letter attached to the back of a picture with me raising the moon--I was shocked that she had even cared about that. What it said had made me start to cry, and hope to someday return. "Dearest sister Luna, I am very sorry for having to send you away, and wish that we wouldn't have to be so far apart from each other. Fate has been cruel and order unkind How can I have sent you away? Goodnight dear sister, -Tia" I was so touched by this letter that I started crying again. Not sobbing hopelessly, but just a few small tears slowly running down my face, then to dissolve to nothing once they hit the rocky surface of the grey moon below. I really missed her now, even more than I had before. But where my sister missed me or not, I would still be a monstrous nightmare in the eyes of most ponies. For it was still I who had turned their dreams to nightmares, though my purpose was that of the opposite. But I was going to change that. Moved by her short, yet touching, words, I stood, picked up the letter in in my magical aura, and began to read it again. But when I looked down this time, I saw that she had left a quill and a small canister of ink. I started writing my feelings of sorrow and of repentance to her on the back of the delicate parchment. After a while, it read something along the lines of: Thank you, dearest sister. And I forgive you for sending me away, for if you had not, I would have been but a nightmarish tyrant, and would still not have all of the love that I was hoping for. If it were not for you, all of Equestria would have turned to ruin, and my heart equally so. Also, thank you for the letter. It has left me good company, and I hope that you will write back soon to keep me company. Yet, if you don’t have enough time, I understand. For now my moon is your responsibility. All I ask is that you just remember to take good care of the ponies for me. I wish to come back to a loving kingdom full of ponies that are loved back. That night, when she started to retract her magic after moving the moon up into the sky, I used my magic so that the special letter would be sent back to her down in Equestria, hoping that she would read it and write back soon. > Update > --------------------------------------------------------------------------