It was on the tenth day, of the tenth month, of the one thousand and tenth year of the Celestial Sisters Era.
The moon shone brightly at the apex of the sky accompanied by an endless sea of stars looking down upon Equestria.
Nopony noticed when they trembled. For on this day, the moon shone brightly in the sky, and fear clutched at the hearts of all as they wondered where the sun had gone.
A black alicorn cackled to herself as she stood upon the highest tower of Castle Everfree. When she laughed, the stars twinkled with her, as if they all shared a joke that the rest of the world hasn't caught up on yet.
"Oh but isn't it gorgeous my dear sister?" she spat out the last word as if it were poison in her mouth, "Now they shall see the beauty of my nights that they have shunned for all these years!"
Celestia stood across from the black alicorn with a robe wrapped around her body, to keep the cold at bay as she tried to talk her sister down from her mad desire, "Luna, please listen to reason," the black alicorn scowled at Celestia as she motioned for her to go on, "The ponies need our sun. You must lower thine moon so we may bring dawn before our ponies freeze to death! Please sister, I beg of thee!"
"Your ponies, your sun, your light, that's all I ever hear out of you!" she snapped at Celestia as her draconic eyes gave off a bright green glow, "My night court lies empty for months on end! All I ever hear is that you are so busy with your little ponies, that you just don't have any time to see me! ME! Your own sister! And why? Because you are busy, because everypony praises you, but they leave me in the dark and shun me!"
Celestia winced as she looked away from her sister's accusing eyes, "We try Luna, we try so hard to make time for you, but the land needs us. They need us both, even if you don't know it they need you. We, I need you. Please come back to us sister."
The dark princess felt a tinge of surprise that Celestia dropped the royal we for emphasis, but let it pass as she opened her wings and spoke, "They do not care for me sister, your little ponies FEAR my nights. They shun and sleep through nights that I labored on since time immemorial to perfect." she lowered her tone almost to that of a whisper before continuing, "No sister, they do not need me, only because they are blinded by the light of your sun. I will show them the awe of my nights, I will MAKE them appreciate me, AND the work I do! Even if my night must last FOREVER!"
Celestia stepped forward and opened her wings wide to look as intimidating as possible, "Luna, you can't do that! Everypony would die! They would either starve or freeze to death! I beg of thee sister, stop this madness!"
The younger princess chuckled again as her ethereal mane shifted in a nonexistent breeze, "Madness you say?" she paused, took a step to Celestia and placed a hoof over her own heart before continuing, "Is it madness to wish to be loved?"
The white alicorn lowered her wings, looking down slightly, "No, it is only natural, and rightly so. But if you seek to gain their affection like this, try as hard as you wish, you will not find it, only death lies in what thou hath brought."
"THEN THEY DIE IF THEY WILL NOT LOVE ME!" the princess of the night shouted in the royal voice, "If they starve to death, it would be insignificant to the emptiness that they have left in place of my soul when they ripped it out of me. If they freeze, it would only be half as cold as you made my heart, my dear sister!"
Celestia took a step back from the mare across her, "Thou can not be our sister! Luna would never kill another pony."
"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" the black pony cried out, "Luna is dead! You and your precious ponies saw to that! I am what was created from her remains, I am your every waking nightmare, I am the master of the moon! And let it be known, oh sister of mine, when everypony is dead and gone, and you live forever to rule over the remaining dust, that Nightmare Moon did this to you!"
Celestia backed away until her haunch bumped into the turret wall. She looked down at the stone floor as if to accept her fate, then looked up with a gaze as sharp as steel, "No."
Nightmare Moon looked back at her, a look of shock flashed across her face, "No? What do you mean no?"
Celestia took a step forward, "Thou might think that thou shalt cover the land in darkness eternal, but harmony will find a way. If we must fight our own sister to save our subjects, then I won't rest until I have defeated you!" A blast shot out of the white mare's horn and struck Nightmare in her chest, forcing her backwards off the edge of the tower.
Nightmare Moon opened her wings and tried to correct herself from her tumble, but to no use. She crashed into the roof of the castle and smashed into the throne room below. The ruler of the night checked herself as quick as she could to make sure nothing was broken, and was fortunate that her armor protected her.
She looked up through the hole she had created and witnessed Celestia diving after her, robes off, revealing a golden suit of armor.
The princess of the sun aimed to land directly on Nightmare Moon, to quickly end the battle with a crippling move, but the dark mare saw through her attack. She became an ethereal cloud of stars, and glided to the edge of the room as Princess Celestia slammed her hooves into the marble ground, with enough force to send fracture line cracks spider webbing around her.
The formless Nightmare Moon slithered her way over to her sisters ear, "You cannot win... my new dark powers are stronger than you can ever possibly imagine."
Princess Celestia spun in an attempt to catch the formless mare, only to find it was as if she were to duel with moonbeams. Nightmare Moon laughed as she solidified back into her usual form, "Oh what's wrong, you give up already?"
Celestia gave a battle cry as she charged Nightmare Moon, horn lowered and charging with magic, ready to attack. The dark princess feigned boredom as she sent a wave of lightning bolts at the princess of the sun. "Really? Is that all the great Sun Princess has to offer in a fight? I expected more out of you. After all, you and I defeated Discord and your former student, what was his name? Oh yes, Sombra I believe it was?"
Celestia gritted her teeth as she attempted to rise from the ground, "Sister, we do not wish to harm thee. Please, don't make us do something we'll both regret."
The night mare laughed as she reared up and slammed her hooves down on Celestia's breast plate "THEN YOU WILL BE CRIPPLED ON THIS NIGHT!"
The dark princess slammed her silver armored shoes into Celestia's golden armor, with enough force to shake the very earth. The soft metal of the armor dented easily, forming cracks in the weak spots and pushing out the many rivets, revealing the white coat underneath.
Nightmare Moon laughed the entire time with the kind of joy that only could be shared by the truly insane.
Princess Celestia's horn glowed as she tried to bring forth the power to stop her sister. Every time that she would bring forth the power needed to cast a spell, Nightmare's silver shod hooves would again slam down upon her.
Finally, the armor of Princess Celestia, bringer of the sun, could not withstand another moment of abuse, and fell away from her body, crumpled and dented beyond recognition. All Celestia could do was try to protect herself by trying to become as small as possible.
Nightmare Moon brought the assault on her older sister to a halt. As she listened to Celestia's wracking sobs, Nightmare Moon leaned down to her sister's ear and whispered softly, in tones a mother would use when trying to calm her foal, "This can all stop now sister. All you have to do is surrender, and let my beautiful night reign supreme."
Celestia looked up at Nightmare Moon. Blood streamed out of her muzzle, and cuts from her sisters harsh silver shoes covered her body. "I'm so very sorry sister, thou art beyond reason."
A light, brighter than a thousand suns burned in Celestia's eyes, "If thou shalt not stand down from madness, then we shall send thee where thou shalt not harm any living being!" She spread her wings and began to ascend into the air, revealing all six elements of harmony around her neck.
Nightmare Moon shielded her eyes from the glow and took a cautionary step back, "No, surely this is some sort of trick! No one mare can hold all that power! Nopony is so pure and righteous as to resemble all of harmony itself! Face it, you lost!"
Celestia paid no mind to Nightmare Moon as the elements began to activate, "Forgive me, sister."
Nightmare Moon charged her horn for one final attack. Simultaneously, the elements let loose a rainbow in her direction.
The shock wave from Nightmare's spell left her horn with enough force to knock over several pillars in the palace. The stone cracked as the building groaned in protest. Every window shattered as the spell rushed out the castle.
The magic seeped its way out into the grounds surrounding the castle. Embedding itself into the very nature, twisting the plants and animals in unnatural ways. Ponies caught unaware fled in fear as the very land seemed to turn against them.
The rainbow hit Nightmare Moon, and for a moment nothing happened. The rainbow swirled around Nightmare Moon as she laughed maniacally,"The elements have failed you! Your folly will destroy them and MY NIGHT WILL LAST FOREVER!"
Celestia watched as the rainbow swirled around Nightmare Moon like a tornado, "That is the last act that thou shalt use to defile my country!"
Then the rainbow shot up into the sky. The screams of Nightmare Moon rose before fading away. As the sound faded, the light of harmony's rainbow dissipated, leaving Celestia alone in the throne room.
She looked up to the sky, and saw the image of a mare's head looking down at her from the moon, and knew that even if the Everfree Forest was as lost as her once beautiful castle, Equestria was saved.
The stars shone brightly in the sky, but nopony could tell as the air was thick with dust.
Upon the surface of the moon, if you were to look close enough, you would find the princess of the night sleeping. Her breathing shallow and body as still as if she were dead.
Nightmare Moon slumbered within the newly formed crater, broken as a pony could be. By all rights she should have died, but death is more elusive than one might think.
Yes she lived through the first ordeal, and breathed in the thin stale air that surrounded the pale surface. She choked through the dust as the sound of cracking bones and joints popping back into place echoed across the barren landscape caused by her body healing itself while she slept.
And behind her lidded eyes she did dream. ________________________________________________________________________________
Luna sat in the Night Court and stared at the oak double doors before her. And waited.
Her eyes drifted out the window to her right and witnessed the sight of her beloved moon sitting high in the sky, as at peace as a ship in a calm sea drifting its way to the horizon.
A soft sigh escaped her lips as she again looked to the doors. The night guards stood at attention, with their bat like wings folded to their sides and their eyes glazed open. Forever staring off into space as they waited for anything to happen.
Luna stood from the throne, "Guards," the guards looked up at Luna expectantly, "announce to anypony in waiting, that night court is closed. We shall be in our office, adjusting tax codes if thou art in need of us."
The guards saluted before opening the door, revealing the long lush purple carpet of the waiting hall, empty of any ponies waiting to get in at all.
As they walked out to inform the snoozing secretary, Luna turned to her left and walked to the solid stone wall. She cast a spell on the wall, causing the stone blocks to slide away from her and to the right, revealing a secret passageway.
Luna walked into the hall and listened as the stone slid into place behind her, blocking out all the light from the room behind her. She cast a light spell and looked around the narrow hall, it was so narrowly built that even with her wings tucked into her sides as tight as possible, she would still lose a few pinions to the roughly carved stone walls if she moved too quickly or carelessly.
Cautiously she began to move, and watched as the light from her horn cast strange shadows in the chamber creating a very surreal atmosphere. Luna watched the shadows and could almost see the faces of her subjects hiding in the dark spaces, choosing to hide in the very shadows they fear because they fear the holder of nights dim light even greater for allowing the darkness to even exist.
Luna shut down her mind and moved up a flight of steps, took a left at the fork in the hall, and soon she found a framed glass looking into an office space. She pressed softly on the frame to open the door through an ornate mirror and stepped into her most private of chambers, the royal Office of the Moon Princess.
Softly swinging the door shut behind her, she trod across the plush royal purple carpet, sat down upon a silver colored pillow. Finally secure in knowing nopony could see her, Luna let go of the tears that she held inside.
It could have been hours, days or years even that she would have cried, but it was only a matter of minutes before her tears were broken by the sound of laughter.
"So this is the mighty Princess Luna, Mistress of the moon wallowing in her own tears! BAH!"
Luna jerked her head up quickly and turned her head behind her, "Who dares to insult us?" she paused and rubbed her foreleg across her face in an attempt to dry her tears quickly, "Show thy face so that we may see whom it is that incurred our wrath!"
The laughter echoed around the chamber, and Luna tried in vain to track down the source of the voice as she stood in the center of the room, "Over here Lulu! Can't you see me?"
Luna flared her wings as she turned, spell at the ready, "What foul beast are you that dares to mock a Celestial Sister?!"
The air shifted in the room, as if a breeze came through an open window when there was none to be opened. Suddenly Luna felt a tug on her ethereal tail, "GOTCHA!"
Luna spun about and zapped at the offender, only to find that she had blasted a hole the size of a dinner plate into her favorite chaise lounge. "Oh, you thought I was there?" the laughter started again, echoing throughout the small room making ti sound as if there were now dozens of ponies laughing at her.
Luna crouched down on the carpet and pressed her hooves against her ears as tight as she could and screamed, "STOP IT! STOP IT! LEAVE ME ALONE!"
Silence shattered the laughter violently. It was so quiet that she could hear her own pulse pounding in her ears. If one were to drop a pin, it would be as loud as the toll of a bell.
She stood and looked around her. Luna found that she was all alone, just her and the furniture.
"I can make the laughter stop."
Luna turned to the voice and saw nopony, except for her own reflection in the mirror.
"They don't laugh at us," Luna said to herself, "We must be tired for our mind to plague us with phantom voices on this eve,"
"We are not tired. We are more awake than ever." Luna focused on the mirror and saw a her reflection step closer to her behind the glass, "Nor am I a mere phantom. You might be weak and unwilling to do what must be done. But I know what bothers you, I can help you stop it."
Luna stepped closer to her mirror in curiosity, as she did so, her reflection also walked closer, "What form of trickery is this?"
She studied her reflection, as it mimicked her perfectly, "Boo!"
The Princess fell back as her reflection laughed openly at her, "Oh my! But you made that all too easy!"
Luna's horn began to glow softly as she formed a spell, "Alright thine joke is over. Step out, show yourself and end this charade!"
Luna watched as her reflection began to stretch taller, shifting tones from a dark blue into a black darker than a moonless night, "This is no trickery. You called me remember?"
Luna stared at the dark reflection of herself, "We called no such pony. Away with thee and let us get back to our royal duties."
The image in the mirror changed, showing Luna laying upon her bed, "Why does nopony love us?" she sobbed to herself, "We just want to make them happy." The Luna in the mirror cried as she held onto a pillow stained with tears. "We would give anything for affection!"
As the image faded, Luna's dark reflection came back into view, "You see, I came because you called for me. I know what you want, and I know how you can get it."
Luna tilted her head at her reflection, and shivered slightly as it gave a fanged smile back at her. "How dost thou know of our desires?"
The black alicorn chuckled at her, "Don't you understand, wittle woona? I am everything you want to be. I am your hopes and dreams! And I am going to tell you how to attain them all, and more..." ________________________________________________________________________________
Nightmare Moon's eyes shot open.
Her breath was labored, as if she had flown around the world non stop in under an hour. She looked up and saw the stars in the sky.
"I knew I would win." she said softly, "That fool of a sister went and destroyed herself with the elements." she stood up on her hooves and heard her joints pop and crack as they fell back into position. Her eyes scanned the sky, and a sense that something was wrong settled into her. It took a few moments before she realized what it was and asked aloud, "Wait, where is my moon?"
The black mare searched the night sky for her glowing orb and found nothing. She nearly gave up her search when she found a blue orb in the sky. "How queer, did my magic do something to my moon?"
She focused her draconic eyes on the orb and cast a spell to enhance her vision to view the orb as close as she could.
That is when she noticed that what she was looking at, was the gryphon empire from several thousand miles in the air.
"No, this can't be." The night mare muttered to herself as she began to look around her. Finally Nightmare noticed that she was standing in the center of a crater. She flapped her wings and flew over to the edge and looked over the horizon.
Light grey dust and rocks covered the land as far as the eye could see. Only a few craters and mountains made any change on the landscape.
Nightmare looked back up to the planet above, then to the surface below her. Finally realizing where she was she let out a yell of agony as loud as she possibly could.
Nightmare Moon had howled until her voice became so damaged that she could not even manage to whisper.
The pony of the moon silently looked about her, "So thirsty, I must find water." she cast a spell, hoping to collect the moisture in the air into enough water that she could drink, "Come on, come on! WORK! the spell's power intensified as she poured all her strength into it, only for the spell to fizzle out, the air was perfectly dry and could not produce any water at all.
She breathed deeply and fell to her knees as she recovered from the failed spell. The air was so thin that it took almost an hour for her to recover. "Alright, there is no water to be siphoned from the air. Perhaps I can find a lake, or even be able to dig a well. Every sentient being knows if you dig deep enough you will find water."
And so, Nightmare Moon set out in one direction and hoped to find a source of water. ________________________________________________________________________________
It was three days later.
Not lunar days, it was still light out where she was. However, the shadow on the moon's horizon has grown closer to her location. The only way she could tell that days as she knew them have passed were by looking back home, and seeing Equestria has passed by three times.
She was exhausted. There was no water to be found anywhere. No plants to forage food from. And nothing to give conversation, or offer help.
The dark alicorn had taken to talking aloud to herself lately, just to hear something other than her hooves trotting on rocks all day.
"Well no food, no water, and to be honest with myself I am bored. There has to be a way off this fucking rock!"
Nightmare Moon looked around herself and saw nothing different from here, or thirty miles behind her. "Alright Celestia, this was amusing at best. I'm out of here."
She closed her eyes, and began to weave a teleportation spell. She concentrated with all her might on the location of Castle Ever Free. "Once I come back, the first thing I'm going to do, is quench my thirst. THEN I'm going to sate my hunger. Finally, I will crawl into a bed and sleep for about a week. And when I finally awake, I will find Celestia and enact my righteous vengeance upon her!"
She released the spell, and disappeared off the face of the moon.
Her eyes opened, and Nightmare saw that she was back in her own room at Castle Ever Free and smiled brightly. "YES I did it!" She galloped across the ruined room and reached for a vase of flowers, hoping to drink the water and have a quick snack afterwards. "I'm STARVING!"
Her mane shot forward and began to wrap around the vase. A sudden pop filled the air causing Nightmare Moon to blink in surprise, when her eyes opened, Nightmare found that she was back on the moon.
Nightmare Moon blinked, and looked around her, as if doing so would change the situation she found herself in again, "What happened? I was back! That wasn't even five seconds!" She cast the spell to try again, and once more appeared in Equestria. Before she could even move a muscle the teleport undid itself and she was once again upon the moon.
The mare stared off into the horizon and growled to herself, "Fine. If I can't teleport off this blasted rock. Then I'll just fly back!"
She spread her wings and leaped off the surface, flapping as hard as she could in the direction of the planet above, "This is it, I can do this. Just fly as fast as you can, and once you find that there is no air to move any more, just let the momentum you built up drift you back home."
Her wings flapped as hard as she could force them to as she accelerated to just under the speed of sound. A mach cone began to form around her body, but as she left the atmosphere the cone dissipated and she began to free float to the planet ahead, "Alright, at this speed, I should reach the ozone layer in about an hour, just hold out until then."
There was no air to breathe, but this fact did not seem to phase the immortal pony as she drifted through the blackness.
The dark princess's mind began again to plot what she was going to do upon her return, "First find some water, then food, then sleep, then revenge. I'll send that stupid sun bringing foal to the surface her precious sun and see how SHE likes it. Wait a moment, am I slowing down?"
Her rate of speed was indeed slowing down, as if something was trying to pull her back. She began to flap her wings and move her legs to fly, or gallop onward in space, despite the fact that there was nothing to grab on to, "No no no no no no no no NO! What is pulling me?!
Nightmare's course began to reverse, not slowly but quickly, the moon pulled her back to its surface like a rodeo pony would lasso a bull and force him down. "What spell could possibly cause this?"
She entered the atmosphere of the moon so fast that she created a sonic boom. She flapped her wings and made an attempt to use magic to levitate herself, anything to stop her descent to the ground.
As she fell, she cursed the name of Celestia, and vowed to destroy the Elements of Harmony if she ever saw them again.
She fell to the dust and rocks and created a new crater. That is when she realized something, and as she coughed she could not help but say it aloud as if to confirm her thoughts into reality, "There is no escape." ________________________________________________________________________________
Two hours later she finally stood up to assess her situation, "Teleportation would just send me back, fly away and I get pulled back, there MUST BE A WAY!"
That is when it dawned on her, "The moon may be my prison, but the stars... perhaps they may give me enough power to escape permanently."
Her horn glowed as she called out to the four stars that were closest to her, and patiently waited for them to come to her aid.
Celestia rested in a simple tent as she and the mass exodus of ponies from Everfree made their way to the mining city of Canterlot, with hopes to build a new capitol there.
She suddenly awoke from her deep slumber as she felt a subtle shift in the flow of the night sky.
The princess left the tent, and stared up at the stars. She searched for what could have possibly changed. Nothing looked different, but she could feel it nonetheless, four stars were slowly on the move.
She galloped through the field of tents, searching for somepony that could help her. Finally reaching a blue tent she opened the flap and roused the pony sleeping within, "Starlight! Arise, we are in need of thee at once!"
The pony snapped awake instantly and looked at his princess, "Your Highness, what's wrong?"
The Princess grabbed him with her magic and pulled him outside, "The stars are on the move, we need you to get your best prophets gathered as soon as you can to find out what it means!"
As the Princess lowered Starlight to the ground, he eyeballed the sky and noticed no difference. "Your highness, forgive me but I can not see anything on the move. My eyes are not as strong as yours. This is going to take a telescope, and time to find what is moving, where its going to and how long before it effects us."
Celestia nodded as she tried to calm herself down, "Very well, as soon as we arrive at Canterlot we will see if the city has a telescope thou might use. If not, we shall have one made for your prophets."
Starlight bowed low before the princess, "Please rest, Your Majesty. You have been through a lot, and there is a long journey ahead."
Celestia nodded politely back. "You as well."
Starlight trotted back to his tent as Celestia turned back to hers, "For the sake of my ponies, I hope this doesn't mean what I think it means."
Luna sat as still as Discord did outside the window. She poured all of her attention to the book before her, The truth about dark magic, and its uses. As she read on, she could not help but feel as if she was being watched. She did nothing other than perk her ears up and try to listen for any confirmation of her suspicions.
"Hello, Luna. I see you have taken to my advice.
Luna scoffed as the page turned, "We have done no such thing. We are simply amusing ourselves in our spare time."
The voice suddenly came from Luna's left, and she looked out the window out of habit, only to see the the black alicorn in the reflection instead of her normal self, "You can not lie to yourself Luna, tell me, what are you thinking about?"
Luna swallowed, "Perhaps if we were stronger, if we could become more like our sister, to be able to do anything, certainly the citizens of Equestria should take an interest in meeting their Princess of the Night."
The shadowy reflection shifted, "Good, good, you show a hunger for knowledge. It is important to want to be more than what you are. The black alicorn paused to lick her fangs idly, causing Luna to shiver at the sight of them, "Perhaps you might even be able to give your sister some time to herself."
Luna's eyes flashed brightly at the thought of being so helpful to her sister, "You really mean that?"
The darkness smiled back at her, "Absolutely.
Across the library, the Night Guards stood watch so still one could assume they were made of stone and placed there for decoration.
There names were Swift Strike, and Thunderhead. Thunderhead had been in the guard for five years, while Swift Strike, was his subordinate under training.
"Sir?"
The sound invaded Thunderhead's ears like a shout, he turned his eyes to Swift Strike and muttered out the side of his mouth, "Yes, private?"
The two guards did not move at all, other than their eyes and sides of their mouths, "Permission to speak freely, sir?"
Thunderhead thought about it for a moment before nodding in consent, "Speak."
Swift Strike looked hard at the princess for a few moments before breaking, "Why is she talking to herself?"
It finally happened, the loaded question. Albeit that he lowered his voice as much as he could while asking it, the question was still asked.
Thunderhead watched as the princess looked out the window and would answer questions in her own voice, then suddenly switch to a silky, dark tone and ask questions or give commands to herself, "I don't know private, but when we get to H.Q. we need to make a report about this."
The private nodded as they both went back to playing statues by the door.
Nightmare Moon had fallen into a routine over the last twenty two days.
Sleep, wake, wander, talk to herself, attempt to use magic to either escape or make food and drink, wash rinse repeat.
At the moment the black pony was sitting down looking at a particularly large rock, "So, I guess you'll have to do." the block of moon rock that she was talking to, was roughly the size of a wardrobe. However its size did not make it any more intelligent than any other rock. This fact did not phase Nightmare Moon in the slightest as she continued, "Its going to take the stars years, maybe even decades before they can come to my aid. Until then, you are my source of entertainment, Rocky."
The rock naturally just stood there.
Nightmare Moon smiled and cast a beam spell to begin cutting at the stone. Large pieces fell off as she carved away the upper area.
An hour later a panting Nightmare Moon observed the rough shape of a unicorn's head made out from the carved stone, "I think, that's enough for today."
Suddenly, from her left Nightmare Moon heard the flapping of wings.
She turned around and searched for anything that could have made the noise and found nothing. Giving off a sigh she turned back to the stone and saw her.
A medium blue pony with light blue hair. She was approximately the size of an average mare, if not a little bit taller. However, her being what she was, made her seem positively tiny next to Nightmare.
A depowered princess Luna stared at her with her wide innocent eyes,"Hello Nightmare."
"Hello.....me?"
Luna looked up at nightmare, and asked as innocently as she could, "Why did you kill us?"
The Nightmare balked, and took a step back, "I never did such a thing, I still live!"
"You killed us and took our place. You tried to kill our sister and kill everything else. Why would you do that?"
Nightmare Moon looked down at her younger looking self and shook her head, "You're not here! I am imagining this, go away, LEAVE ME ALONE!"
The image of Luna faded away, leaving only the shadow of the rock Nightmare was carving. She breathed deeply and looked up to Equestria and began wondering, "What is happening back home? Do they even miss me?" ________________________________________________________________________________
"Are you certain?"
Starlight nodded his head grimly, "Yes your highness, the stars Ain, Mizar, Navi, and Vega are all on the move."
Celestia nodded grimly, "Very well Starlight. Please tell us, have your prophets found what it means?"
Starlight trembled for a moment, wishing not to bring down the wrath of the remaining Princess upon him, "Well your majesty, They all seem to have a common goal, they appear to be headed for the moon."
Celestia's face scrunched up a little, "Tell us, dost thou think that our sister is behind this?"
The light blue pony visibly sweat as he tried to keep his nerves under control, "Farsight and Deep Thought both believe so, your highness."
The Princess gave off a light sigh as she looked out the window of the Canterlot Inn and stared up at the moon, "How long do we have?"
"Well, we have a rough draft on the calculations, but it is going to take some time to get an exact date. However Deep Thought believes that they will all be in position in roughly a thousand years."
Her mind began to click, in her mind she saw her sister advance a rook on the long chess game that has started. The Celestial Sister thought out every option and decided to advance a simple pawn, "Then we don't have much time. Find the exact date, down to the minute if you can and let us know the moment you are sure."
Starlight bowed deeply, muzzle nearly touching the simple wooden floor before running off to the small observatory.
Celestia walked over to the window. She stared up at the moon, and studied the imprint of a profile of her sisters head, "I know what you are planning Luna, and I hope I have the strength to do what I must without the Elements to aid me." ________________________________________________________________________________
As darkness finally fell across the area Nightmare Moon had decided to make her home base, a chill filled her to the very core. The moon's air was very thin, and while in the light it kept warm enough to keep comfortable, in the darkness the surface was well below absolute zero.
Nightmare Moon shivered as she huddled against a cliff wall in hopes of keeping at least her back warm. For the first time in her life, the invincible alicorn felt vulnerable to the elements.
"There has to be some way to keep warm, a fire, or hot rocks, or something I can't take this cold!"
The fallen princess tried to stand back up, and found that a thin layer of ice had formed on her body from the cold, "Water..." Without thinking about it, the black alicorn ran her tongue over her body in hopes of getting even a small amount of moisture into her body.
The ice melted inside her mouth. Despite how little it was, the vital liquid made a world of difference to the pony. She almost forgot about how cold she was as she tried to lick off the ice.
Finally having enough moisture in her throat, she looked at the cliff behind her. A thought had entered her mind, so simple yet brilliant.
Her horn glowed as she carved into the dead stone, creating a small cave, just big enough for herself to stand upright in and pace around for ten steps or so. She ran into her makeshift shelter and used her magic to grab hold of a pile of rocks.
She lit her horn once again and sent a hot beam of magic to the pile, making them so hot that they glowed red.
Finally, she could lay down, and know that on this long night, she would not suffer too much.
Nightmare Moon felt her stomach growling again. There wasn't much she could do about it, unless she felt like eating rocks.
She stared straight ahead of her at the carved stone with the image of a unicorn mare, her eyes closed as a scroll wrapped around her body, "I think I shall name you, Knowledge." Nightmare said with a smile. She picked up the work and moved it to the side as she brought forward another stone block, "Hmmm, Knowledge, what do you think? Should I make you a sibling, or a friend?"
Nightmare looked at the statue as if expecting it to actually answer, it did all that it naturally was able to do. Nightmare Moon took it in stride and nodded her head, "Oh, I agree, siblings are over rated. They tend to want all the attention on them even if they don't deserve it. Perhaps a friend, a great confidant that you can share your knowledge with?"
Nightmare smiled as she carved out the stone slowly, taking her time. Talking to herself as she went on, "You know, once I am done with you, I should really do something to protect you and Knowledge... After all, one can not be too careful here. Why just yesterday when I was walking around I found a new crater." She paused as if listening, "You know I don't know how recent it came by, perhaps a couple weeks ago. The point is, I need to build a better way to protect the three of us and our future confidants. After all, it gets very cold here when my sister's sun can't get to us from the other side of the world above."
The mare used a wing to brush some of the dust off of the roughly carved stone, "Now you aren't much to look at yet, but don't worry, in time, i’ll make you a handsome young stallion” The stone sat there as the mare on the moon used her magic to carve chunks out in finer detail. Nightmare Moon nodded every now and then mumbling the occasional yes or no to the statues.
Nightmare Moon kept carving and mumbling to herself as she did so. After all, she had all the time in the universe to work on this. _______________________________________________________________________________
It has been a little over three months since Celestia had been forced to send her sister to the moon.
In that time, much has happened, Parliament had made arrangements to meet at a local tavern in a private room every day. In that time, the Princess would listen to the nobles, elected representatives and other important ponies as they carefully planned out what the next move for the Equestrian government would be.
At this moment, they were listening to the budget for building a new official capitol building.
"Now what I am thinking of doing, Your Highness, is we need to build a strong defensive castle, that is large enough to house yourself, and as much of the nobility as possible. If ever there is another attack on the capitol, this time we want to be prepared for the worst."
"Excuse me," Penny Pincher interrupted, "But what you are planning could deplete our country's coffers before we even have a chance to rebuild anything for the common pony!"
Blue Print sighed as he rubbed his forehead with a hoof, "I was going to get to that before I was so rudely interrupted." The light blue earth pony said with a frown, "I think that if we simply pull back on the plans to restabilize the Everfree Forest, we could use the funds from that, plus whatever would have been used as Princess Luna's stipend to make this work, with little effect on the common pony."
Silver Tongue stood up with her forehooves on the meeting table, "Are you out of your little pony mind?! That forest was home to thousands of ponies! If we pull out of that plan, then we would have to relocate nearly a thousand households into new cities and homes. Maybe even found all new cities! Unless you can shit bits in your spare time, there is no way that you can fund a whole new castle of the proposed magnitude!
Ink Well was writing down something on a piece of paper while the other ponies argument grew louder and louder. Celestia turned to her and whispered, "What are you working on?"
The cream colored mare looked at her princess through a pair of stylish glasses before using her horn to remove them, "Well your majesty, I was just thinking that there is a way that we can relocate the families to more permanent homes, and have a palace built. But I don't know if anypony here would like what it is."
Princess Celestia nodded, "We," She paused, correcting herself, "I think you should share your idea, after all you never know. Even if your idea is not popular, if it is a good one it shall chosen. You are apart of this too, and every idea counts."
Ink Well smiled a little bit, and raised her hoof to the air to grab the attention of the arguing trio, "Excuse me," The timid mare never stood a chance to get there attention.
Celestia saw this and rapped her hoof on the oak table, "Everypony calm yourselves, I believe that Miss Ink Well has an idea." She nodded her head to the bookish mare to begin.
"Um, right. So, my idea is pretty simple, It is a program in several phases. The first phase is to start a relief program for the dislocated ponies. As incentive to donate, we offer that their investments will grow. The more they invest the more they will have returned."
Several ponies balked at the idea, "Madness! Bits don’t just grow on trees you know, the economy doesn't work that way!" Penny Pincher yelled above the crowd.
"Yes It does, its called inflation! As time goes on, the money that they invest won't be worth the same when we give it back, so we offer to give more back than they turn in. It will be the same value, but they won't realize that. The next phase is to hold a contest for contractors to build the castle, the best design for the least amount of money, in order to qualify, you must pay to enter a competition to win the grand prize. The castle would pay for itself."
"Well that's all fine and good, but what about me? I'm the Royal Architect!" Blue Print yelled.
"You shall be one of the judges, and put in charge of overseeing construction of the winning contractor. Any more questions about this phase?"
Several ponies grumbled around the room before Ink Well continued, "The final phase will be after the fact, when everything is all done here, we start an initiative to make Canterlot grow into a bustling metropolis. We start a grant program to initiate new businesses in Canterlot. The businesses will generate income and create jobs, once our city is stable enough to do so, we can raise taxes for the better off ponies to spread the wealth to other cities that were hit hard by this crisis."
Celestia nodded, "All in favor of enacting Ink Well's plan, raise a hoof and say aye."
Out of a dozen ponies, eight raised there hooves.
"All opposed?"
Four ponies rose a hoof and said neigh.
"The aye's have it, we will begin as soon as possible." _____________________________________________________________________________
Nightmare Moon's horn glowed as she cast the spell on a pile of scrap rocks.
This time the plan would not fail, this time for sure she could do it. The rocks began to take form, and strained under pressure. Finally the rocks could not help but bend to the alicorn's will, and became brick shaped.
"Huzzah!" Nightmare called out as she took the pile of fresh stone bricks to the low wall that she was building up. "This shall become a grand palace indeed, with almost all the comforts of home away from home."
"Oh Nightmare Moon, you are so wise. I can only hope to become half as good at spell casting as you are. Not to mention as wise and beautiful." Knowledge said from her pedestal.
"Oh don't be so modest, you are perfect just the way you are." Nightmare said back to the statue with a smile. "Oh Skippy? Can you bring me more rocks to change?"
"Oh you bet Nightmare! You know I just love to help you out cause your my bestest best friend ever!" Skippy said in a squeaky voice. Nightmare Moon's horn glowed as she moved Skippy over to a pile of rocks, and then brought the statue and rocks over to herself.
"Aww, you're the best Skippy!" The mare rubbed a hoof over the statues mane as she made it toddle away to the side before she cast the spell on a the rocks a few at a time, always laying the bricks on the ever growing wall as she carefully looked back at the blueprints that she etched into a rock to her side.
The work was hard, but it would be worth it. In a months time, she would have a single room built. But over time as she got better at this craft, she could make a truly grand palace of the moon within a year. Maybe two if she was slow.
"You know, Knowledge, I was thinking. Maybe after I finish with this room, we can look around and see if that new crater has any water in it. Who knows, a comet could have crashed and melted there for all we know."
"Oh Nightmare Moon, you are so smart!" Knowledge said without moving her lips.
Nightmare Moon nodded to herself as she continued laying bricks as fast as she made them, "Yes, yes I am."
Princess Celestia and Luna sat across from each other in the dining room. There was an awkward silence between the two of them as they ate their meals.
Luna paused mid bite from her breakfast as she looked over to Celestia and saw that she was signing papers as she absentmindedly ate her dinner. After waiting for a minute Luna felt the need to speak up, "Sister, can I speak with you?"
Celestia looked up from her paperwork, a fork halfway floated to her mouth, "Luna, what have we told thee about using common language?"
Luna sighed, "That we are a princess, and we must show our status not by power, but intellect that is above the average pony." She droned with a frown before taking a breath to speak again, "But it is just you and I sister, why can't we just-"
"No. Our little ponies are very accustomed to the way we speak and act. Tis a tradition older than ourselves, or even Equestria itself. Now, speak thine mind little sister, but make haste for we are falling behind on work just to speak with thee."
"Well," Luna started, "We have been hearing the voice of a specter as of late, she speaks words that tell me to do dark things, and comes to me in our own reflection."
Celestia paused for a moment and thought about it. Finally after what must have been an entire minute she spoke, "Sister, we know that thou is lonely as of late. But art thou not too old for imaginary friends?"
Luna felt an eye twitch before she heard the voice again, this time whispering in an ear, "I warned you she wouldn't listen. See how she is too important to even continue this conversation. Go on be more insistent if you really wish to be rid of me."
"Sister, we must insist that the voice is as real as you and I! She claims that she can help me, but we think-"
"Well if she can help thee then let her do so, I don't have the time to listen to what you come up with in your spare time. Imagination is healthy, but we have a kingdom to run." With that Celestia stood up and trotted to the door out of the dining hall, "It was wonderful to see thee sister, but we must go finish our work before we may slumber. Enjoy night court."
The doors slammed shut, leaving Luna alone with her eggs and pancakes. ______________________________________________________________________________
Celestia woke up from her hotel room bed, and found that the pillows were wet with tears. Quickly she ran a hoof across her face to wipe them away.
She looked out the window to the horizon and saw her sister's moon glare back at her. The face imprinted upon it looked almost accusing. "Forgive me, Luna, for if I had only listened to thee, this disaster could have been prevented"
After taking a few more moments to look at the sky, She lit her horn and lowered the moon to it’s place beyond the horizon, making way for her morning sun.. _______________________________________________________________________________
Nightmare Moon sighed as she looked around herself. Over the course of a month she had built a small home for her new friends and herself.
Skippy and Knowledge were now accompanied by a set of stone friends, Rocky and Squishy. The tell-tale sign of her magic enveloped the statues to make them hop up and down as multiple voices were emitted from them one at a time.
"Oh this new home is simply divine!" Knowledge shouted she hopped around the room.
"Yeah, what she said." Rocky grunted in an eastern accent as he stood in the corner, scowl on his face.
"I really like how you made this lovely glass window by melting some of the sand outside." Star Wishes said quietly as her stone eyes looked out the window.
"It's okay Nightie, but I think you could do better after a few more years." Skippy quipped as he bounced over to a corner and stood there.
Nightmare Moon grinned as the iris in her eyes were shrunk to pin points. She moved the statues about and did voices for all of them and responded back, "Oh well thank you everypony. I'm glad that you all like our new home. Now, beds are a bit on the hard side, but I did what I could with what I have available."
Nightmare turned about and looked outside the window and saw the massive landscape before her, "Yeah," she said without thinking why she did so. then turned back around and looked at the statues.
She stopped moving them, "I'm sorry everypony, but I can't do this... It's just not real."
The statues did nothing but bare the expression that she carved into their faces. She shivered a bit before walking out the doorway and looking around herself.
Other than the changes that she had brought to the area of the moon that she called her home, nothing was different. The stars haven't changed, the world above had not changed, and the stone around her was still the same.
The black alicorn began again to start another long trek across the moon, to finally go and check the new crater to see if any water might be within. _______________________________________________________________________________
In order to become more approachable to our little ponies, I shall no longer use the royal voice. I also think that in order to be more relatable to our shared subjects I will drop the royal we, and speak Common Equestrian, and not the High Equestrian royals of the past had used.
Princess Celestia read Luna's journal to herself privately, and smiled at the idea she had already enacted from her sisters journal. The smile was a rare one these days, as the guilt of losing her only sister had been eating at her since the banishment took place.
The Sun Princess had been looking through Luna's personal journals for a month now in hopes of finding the cause of her changes, and a possible way to reverse and bring her sister back to her.
"Your Majesty!" Her chamber door burst open as Starlight came rushing to her, "Your majesty, through the efforts of our best astrologists we have found that Princess Luna will return!"
Celestia let the book fall from her magical grasp as Starlight brought forth the report, "According to what we have determined, The Stars will aid in her escape, and on the longest day of the thousandth year the ruler of night shall be freed from her prison!"
Princess Celestia closed her eyes and nodded, "Did the prophets say anything else?"
Starlight shook his head, "No your majesty," he unrolled a scroll and read the exact prophecy word for word, "Of the Night Princess's imprisonment it is written that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars shall aid in her escape. Princess, what do we do?"
The monarch sat with her eyes closed as she carefully weighed things out in her mind before speaking, "A prophecy should never be taken at face value. We should hope for the best and prepare for the worst to avoid surprises.”
The stallion nodded, "What are your first orders on this matter Princess?"
"I want this to be archived with other prophecies that are yet to happen," The white alicorn began, "But do not make a general announcement about this, we do not need a panic from misinterpretation. Only a scholar would search for its true meaning. The wisest of ponies will unlock the secrets, hopefully before the time is over."
Starlight bowed before departing, and in her mind Celestia moved her queen out onto the battlefield. _______________________________________________________________________________
On the moon, Nightmare kneeled as she looked to the stars, miles away from the home she built for herself. And prayed to the only power higher than her.
"Mother, I know I wasn't the best Princess, or even a good sister, but I beg of you, please... Don't let me suffer like this forever. Let me go home. If I can just leave now, maybe I can change. I won't try to force my night on ponies any more... I'll just leave. I just wanted to be loved. But maybe if you can see it in your heart mother, help me.”
Nothing......
Nightmare Moon gave off a sigh, "What should I do mother? Should I fight on my return, or flee away to another haven? Should I beg for forgiveness or force my wrath upon them? Surely after what I have been through this far, I should enact vengeance, right?”
The alicorn drew circles in the dirt with her hoof and breathed a heavy sigh. "I don't care anymore if everypony hates me forever, I just want food, and water."
At that moment a comet streaked across the vast sky above her, and she smiled, it was as if an answer had come.
She watched the comet pass, and a small piece broke off and fell down from the sky. Nightmare jumped back in fear of being hit.
The piece smashed into the crust a few yards ahead of Nightmare, and she ran forward in hopes of something, anything that could be consumed. When she arrived, there in the center of the small crater was a chunk of pure ice.
"Thank you, mother for blessing me with a small way to ease my suffering."
"And I am proud to say, that on this day, the palace of Nightmare Moon is officially done!"
Nightmare Moon smiled as she walked into the grand palace that she had labored on for over a year, what once started off as a simple one room building had expanded into a full castle, made of the natural stones and materials that could be gathered from pulling asteroids and other space junk onto her moon.
In other words, while there were many surfaces made up of gold, platinum, silver, glass, and rare gems and metals not found in Equestria nor the rest of the world. The palace lacked in carpets and beds and other things that fibers were needed to make, all the fiber material that Nightmare Moon found went to one bed. So she may slumber in comfort.
Nightmare Moon smiled at the building and turned behind her, "Alright everyone, find your rooms." Her horn glowed as she levitated the roughly three dozen statues of various creatures that she had made over the year. All the statues hobbled inside to the different room locations, and Nightmare gave off a weak smile.
The dark princess kneeled before the sky once again, spreading her wings open across the lunar floor, "Mother, I thank thee for your guidance in the building of my house, and ask that you bless it and all who dwell within, So let it be written, so let it be done."
Nightmare rose and headed inside, her stomach rumbled as she trotted across the entrance hall and she noted that she was hungry.
Turning to her left she decided to make her way to the royal kitchens to see what she can do to stop the hunger.
Moments later she found herself looking at the food stores that she had. Minerals, different kind of nutritional minerals that were mined out of the moon's rocks, and siphoned from the dust were labeled in neat little bottles that she made from melting glass herself.
Nightmare grabbed a bottle drained the dusty contents down her maw. She swallowed down as much as she could before gagging and licking at the giant chunk of ice that she had moved here from a crash site.
Nightmare sighed as she walked through the empty palace, nodding at the guard statues as she passed by them until she reached her room.
The alicorn curled herself up on the bed she made herself, and sighed as she drifted off to sleep. ________________________________________________________________________________
"And it is with great honor, that I, Princess Celestia of Equestria, dedicate this, the founding of Canterlot Castle!"
Thousands of ponies cheered for their princess, shouts of praise came to her from ponies that had been given new homes in Canterlot, Manehatten and Fillydelphia as compensation for the homes they lost in the forever abandoned Everfree Forest.
Celestia took a breath before continuing, "I now wish to present to you, the Royal Architect, Blue Print." A polite smattering of applause this time.
"My fellow Equestrians, it is my privilege to lay down the foundation of what will become Canterlot Castle, with this corner stone." As he spoke, a trio of earth ponies brought out a slab of stone on a cart. Carefully, the three earth ponies slid the stone off the cart into position, showcasing the writing upon it,
The Royal Castle of Canterlot Founded on June Sixth One Thousand and Twelve C.E. May Celestia's Light Lead This Nation To A New Era of Peace and Prosperity Designed by Stone Wall Royal Architect Blue Print Funded by Ink Well's Taxation Plan
Everypony cheered as the ceremony came to a close, but Celestia’s eyes were filled with tears, though mistaken for ones of happiness, were actually tears of sorrow. ________________________________________________________________________________
Nightmare Moon's slumber was harsh and disturbing. The dreams that plagued her were not of victory, not even of better times, no, these were dreams of guilt that haunted her almost every night.
A scream across the palace tore through the chilled air jolting the master of the night awake, "Who's there?" She called out in as brave a voice as she could.
Nightmare quietly made her way out of the bed, and placed her helmet and other war dressings upon herself before quietly sneaking to the door.
A loud knock echoed across the room as somepony pounded on the door desperate to get in. "Please, I'll be right there!" Nightmare called out.
She quickly went and flung the door open and looked into the hallway only to find it... “Empty? I was sure I heard somepony out here, I must finally be losing my mind.”
The mare cautiously looked around and saw no indication that there was any other living being on the moon that could have possibly made such a sound. She was about to step back in when she saw a red tail swish around the corner of the hall.
"WAIT! COME BACK!" The alicorn called out as she gave chase after the other pony.
No matter how fast Nightmare Moon ran, the pony ahead of her was faster, always evading Nightmare around another corner just as she was about to catch up.
It lasted for what seemed to be forever, until Nightmare Moon, exhausted from hunger and running collapsed to the ground. "Please," she sputtered, "Come back..."
A clip clopping sound echoed through the halls, as Nightmare looked up to see the form of a white alicorn make her way back to her.
She was tall as her sister, and a pure white with fiery red mane and tail. Nightmare Moon looked up at her in fear and love, "Mother."
Faust, the mother of the world looked down upon Nightmare with a frown, "Why did you lock away my daughter to die?"
The black alicorn balked at this, "Mother, I did not harm my sister. She lives! She lives and is loved by her subjects while I suffer here alone, please help me mother!"
Faust looked down at her and frowned, "Why did you lock away my youngest daughter and take her place? Give me back my Luna."
Nightmare smiled at her mother as wide as she could, "But mother, I am Luna! I am just more than I once was, I have grown and become wiser for it!"
The white alicorn shook her head, "Nay, my daughter is a good mare who never harmed any of her ponies, you tried to kill the entire world in one swoop posing as my daughter with a false mask."
"I don't understand mother,"
"Then let me be as clear as I can to you, the stars will aid you in your escape, but only the stars will free my daughter from her prison."
The alicorn turned to leave as Nightmare Moon stood back up, "Mother, please! Don't leave me! Not here, not like this!"
The white alicorn turned back to Nightmare, "I can never consciously let Nightmare Moon ever roam the world again. Until the stars are able to aid in her escape."
The white alicorn vanished into thin air as Nightmare Moon called after her one last time. ________________________________________________________________________________
"MOTHER!"
The dark maiden of the moon jolted up from her bed and looked around her, she hadn't moved and nothing had changed.
She jumped out of bed and ran into the hall hoping to find something that would prove she wasn’t just dreaming..
The princess searched every inch of her castle for over two hours, asking every statue weather or not they saw anything. They would always answer no.
Just as the Nightmare gave up her search and started to head back to her room, she looked down and found a lone white feather upon the ground.
Nightmare Moon could handle the hunger, want of food would not kill her only be a mild annoyance.
Thirst was a breeze, oh it made her throat parched, but she could always find ice chunks hitting the moon, and if things got bad enough she could drink her own fluids just to coat her throat, be it with blood or... other liquids.
No, the time ate at her. Worse than the hunger and even the lack of other ponies, time was the real killer.
Nightmare looked at the new project that she had began. A calendar of sorts to count the time she had been on the moon. Every anniversary of the day of betrayal, she would start a new wall, and every day she would lay down a fresh brick.
By the end of the decade, the ten walls together would make a decagon structure. So all she had to do to count how long she was here, she counted the decagons, finished walls, and how many bricks lie in the unfinished wall.
Also, it gave her one more thing to occupy her ever bored mind and kill time.
Being that today was the second year anniversary, she decided to begin by building two full walls with 365 bricks neatly arranged into two walls conjoined at an angle.
She looked at the walls with a sad sort of smile and looked up into the sky, "How much longer must I suffer this terrible loneliness?" ________________________________________________________________________________
Celestia stared up at the moon and studied the face imprinted upon it. "Sister, why couldn't I have saved you? Why didn't I even try?"
It was the end of the second anniversary, and Celestia had taken the day and night to herself. She took the time to think over her life, and what mistakes she had made. Most importantly, when did she trade her sister's companionship for her subjects fleeting infatuation?
The solar princess closed her eyes and thought it over, but no particular moment stepped forward. How long was it? A decade? A century ago? Longer perhaps? Far too long if she wasn't sure.
A knock came upon the door, and Princess Celestia turned away from the window to face it, "Who is it?"
"Your Highness? It's me, Ink Well, may I come in?"
The Princess took a quick glance in the mirror to make sure sure her best neutral face was indeed on before nodding without realizing that she could not see her do so, "Yes, you may come in."
The cream colored mare opened the door carefully, and wiped a strand of very dark grey, almost black hair away from her face as she slowly trotted in. Respectfully, she bowed before Celestia before speaking, "Your highness, I know that on this day you like to have time to yourself. However, I wished to ask you a question."
Celestia considered for a moment what could possibly have brought this bookish pony over to her when most ponies were sleeping at ten at night. ‘Surely, it must be important if she came this late’. “Yes, what is it?"
"Well, its a rather personal question, if you don't mind." the mare said as she carefully took a step forward.
The princess looked down at Ink Well and frowned slightly, "Well, it depends on the question. I'll allow you to ask, but only if you let me choose to answer or not."
Ink took another step forward and nodded slightly, "Well your majesty, we, being most of the ponies that you have help run the government, noticed that whenever we see you, it has something to do with work. Then afterwards you lock yourself away in this room. What are you doing? I mean, I am getting worried that you might be overtaxing yourself. Don't you ever unwind, or go out with a friend or something?"
The alicorn gave the smaller pony a rather stern look, and Ink Well took this as a sign to back away, "It's ok, you don't have to answer. I am just worried about you."
Celestia was about to tell her that she was fine and that her concern was appreciated, but then, she actually took a moment to think about it. ’When was the last time I took a moment to talk to somepony? Luna's gone, I can't just talk to her whenever I feel like it any more. Two years I have been silent to everypony else.’
"Your majesty? Is something the matter?" Ink Well began to back away from the princess, hoping that she had not offended her ruler with such a crass question.
Celestia smiled softly at the member of nobility before her, "No, its fine... I just haven't thought about that in a while." She paused as she looked down at the floor boards for a moment, "I don't really keep friends, or go out for fun. I have a job to do, and I just don't know how to balance things out like that. I even pushed my own sister aside, I wouldn't be a very good friend."
Ink smiled politely and removed her glasses as she looked Celestia in the eyes, "Princess, everypony needs somepony to talk to. A confidant, a best friend, a special somepony. Time will heal all wounds that you might have, Princess, but it can also eat you alive if you let loneliness stew inside."
Celestia paused as she looked out the window. As she looked over the city she noticed that not everypony truly was asleep. There were parties and public taverns operating even at ten o'clock and she sighed, "I can't just go out there. I'm not like the rest of the ponies, where I can just go where I want, when I want. Everypony would notice me and practically kiss the ground I walk upon."
"Well," Ink well paused as she tapped a hoof to her chin before the idea came to her, "What if the ponies came to you?"
Celestia paused and turned to face the smaller pony, a look of puzzlement on her face, "What do you mean?"
"Host a gala, a party for everypony to come to! The best of entertainment, and music and dancing, where anypony that is worth knowing can come to you and see that you are just like them, and you like to have fun! You can dance and have a drink or two, just cut loose and know that everything will be fine!"
Celestia's ears perked at the idea, "Yes, a grand gala. We can host it to celebrate the opening of the castle. Test the waters and see if it even can be done. You’re a genius Ink Well!"
Ink Well blushed slightly, "Oh, well I wouldn't say that. Just I wanted to tell you that the other nobles and I worry about you Princess."
Celestia smiled a little as she pulled out a scroll and began to write down some notes, "When the castle is finished, we shall host an all night party!" She began to wildly write down all the plans that began to pop into her mind as a grin spread across her face.
Ink Well, feeling that she had accomplished something in this night, quietly left the room to allow Celestia to plan her dream party. _____________________________________________________________________________________
Summer, 1009... Luna had been spending more and more time locked away in her tower, but nopony seemed to notice.
The nights were more stunning than ever before, and yet all it bought was an hour of a new activity called star gazing. Not for predicting the future as prophets have done before, but for pleasure.
As for the news reaching Luna, it never happened.
Luna sat at her desk, pouring over a book of the most forbidden magic known to pony kind, all the while listening to the voice in her ear, "I think you should cast this spell, surely the greater power could put you on equal status as your sister."
Luna stared down at the spell and laughed slightly, "Oh but its so simple, how could this possibly make me an equal to my sister?"
"Starswirl did more than just the amniomorphic spell! With this, you and I will fully merge, and together overpower Celestia! Think about it Luna, you and I, as one mind and power. Nopony would over power us. Nopony could doubt us, and everypony would love us."
Luna nodded to the voice as she read the spell casting, "It really is that simple, to merge you and I, bring your id, ego and super ego into the conscious mind as one... Boost my own power with no regrets."
"Do it. You won't ever be alone again once you cast that spell."
Luna nodded and closed her eyes as she began to cast it upon herself...
Luna wasn't herself lately. Anypony that worked at Castle Everfree could see that.
She spent more and more time by herself in her private office than anywhere else, Night Court had been canceled until further notice, and she had dismissed her private guard.
For weeks she had been locked away in her tower office writing decrees and proclamations concerning the governing of the night and changes to the night court.
Starting with the elimination of the old night court council, and founding a new court where Luna herself would be the only pony making final judgment on any case brought to her.
If no pony wanted to see Luna before, then certainly she drove away any pony that worked with her in the past. Her guards, hoof servants, and private council all shooed away from her. Either reassigned to different posts, or given walking papers.
While the entire former night court and staff balked at the idea, only one pony paid no mind.
Celestia slept through the night. Not knowing, or caring what Luna did. When Sharp Tongue approached her, and asked what they were to do with her sister's constantly changing laws over the ruling of night, Celestia only mildly paused before saying, "It is not our business, Luna will rule the night as she sees fit, as We rule over the day."
Daily, Celestia was bombarded with complaints about Luna's changes of staff, either eliminating or shifting positions about to make Luna herself the only pony running the show after dark. The princess of the sun would either give condolence for the lost position, or offer a new one for the day court. But when it came to the one biggest complaint of "DO SOMETHING ABOUT LUNA!" She would just smile and say, "I'm sure that she will be fine, she just is experimenting with new ideas to make Equestria better."
Celestia did not know then, that she would regret her inaction to the end of all time. ________________________________________________________________________________
It had been awhile since Nightmare Moon finished her grand palace on the moon. And true to her plan, every day she lay a new brick down on the wall throughout the year, It wasn't a very high wall yet, but it was still getting up there.
All throughout her days, Nightmare muttered to herself in voices, "I'll teach them to lock me away to the moon, yes. I will come back, and when I do they will pay! All those little ponies are going to suffer as I am suffering now! Lets see how they like to be on the moon for two years with no food or water. Lets see how they like their precious sun without an ozone layer to filter out all that radiation. I bet they would BEG for an eternal night at that point."
She walked across the surface of the moon in her never ending search for fallen ice chunks, talking to herself just to hear a voice, "And as for my sister, oh I don't want to even call her that any more, she is no more family to me after this. Oh I'll lock her on the surface of her overpowered star and see what she thinks of its never-ending heat after that! Yes, she will char and burn like a gryphon's barbecue meal."
The sun beat down on Nightmare's black coat as she walked, but did not care. The harshness of the sun on the moon was easily a million times better than the darkness of night on the moon, with no light other than the stars feeble twinkle and no heat at all, practically freezing her solid.
"And furthermore," The fallen princess continued as she marched on, "I will decree that anypony that begs for forgiveness, shall have it! I am not a monster, no matter what that overpowered sister of mine would tell them! No, I will be merciful, even if they don't deserve it... I will forgive anypony that simply asks for it."
Nightmare Moon looked up at the sky at Equestria, and saw the glowing of the biggest cities’ lights, glowing brightly with their fire. "I can be forgiving."
Nothing answered her. The statements hung in the air for nothing to latch onto as Nightmare Moon continued to wander across the lunar landscape. ________________________________________________________________________________
A week later Nightmare Moon still was wandering in an eastward direction.
She had grown silent at last as the bitterness grew in her heart. Not to the little ponies, they did not know better. But to her sister Celestia, she would bide her time and on return have her revenge. Even if it took a thousand years to get back home.
At Canterlot, the grand palace was well under construction day and night to try and finish as fast as possible, and in cities like Manehatten and Baltimare industry never let the cities truly come to a stand still.
But then there was Trottingham, this little hamlet on the edge of the frozen north was quiet around this time of year. The harvest was just about done and as the nights grew longer and the days colder the ponies here would go indoors at sunset.
Some families have been here for generations, however a number of them came from Everfree. And some of those ponies used to be night guards.
Every Monday night you could see them, sneaking away through the moonlit streets of Trottingham. They did what they were trained to do best, clinging to the shadows of the buildings as they made their way out of town to the top of the tallest hill where you would find the old temple of the moon.
Within the abandoned temple were twelve stallions wearing black cloaks. Their hoods lowered and voices hushed with dark words on the lips. Not all of these ponies were pegasi, and they ranged in color without the enchanted armor, wings were feathered and the color of their eyes, coats, mane and tail were in their varying natural states.
There was quiet small talk in the temple as they waited for the leader of this group, the thirteenth stallion.
Thirteen was the number of the night guard division from Castle Everfree, the thirteenth lunar night guardianship of Equestria. Chosen by Luna herself and blessed with her prized number to bear on their flags and uniforms, the Thirteenth Everfree Division was considered the luckiest of all military groups. Once with hundreds of members it is now down to only these few.
A hush fell over the small crowd as a door behind the altar creaked open, and out stepped a tall, buff stallion in full armor, his eyes shone golden with draconic slits for pupils, his coat was an ashen grey and his horn sharpened to a dangerous point. He gave off a fanged smile as he stepped to the altar and held up his hooves, "Brothers! Let us unite! For on this night, we bring forth our fallen princess, Luna!"
The former guards in the room shouted and stomped their hooves to the ground as they applauded their leader for a few moments before he raised his hoof to silence them, "Tonight, with the aid of all the unicorns here, and several others away from this fair town, we shall undo the spell that keeps our princess bound to the moon, and help aid her back to where she belongs! RULING OVER THE NIGHT!"
Everypony cheered once more as the leader called forth four more unicorns to help him cast the spell. "Gather 'round my fellow guards, and cast your eyes to the waters of the basin."
The armored unicorn lowered his horn to the water, sending a ripple across the surface. When the water cleared he could see more night guard unicorns from other cities. "Everypony, cast your spell when I give the word."
They waited, breaths held in anticipation before finally, "NOW!"
Horns throughout Equestria in many secret locations glowed at once to cast the same summoning spell, to bring Luna back to Equestria, to the old temple of the moon.
The spell casting lasted for a full minute before finally, the image of a pony began to form in a circle traced atop the altar. "Focus now everypony! Bring her in!"
The spell faltered a bit, but finally before the thirteen lunar guards stood Princess Nightmare Moon. She looked starved, sick, and unsure as to what was going on. The thirteen ponies bowed before their princess as one, "Your Highness." they all mumbled keeping their eyes lowered.
Nightmare Moon smacked her lips as she saw them all before her, a fanged smile crossed her lips as she uttered only two words, "I hunger."
Things never really wound down in the city of Canterlot, unlike most hamlets and townships Canterlot had a vibrant night life that the miners would indulge in once the sun went down.
Of one thing that can be assured of, there was plenty to do in the city if you had a few bits to your name, and time on your hooves. Princess Celestia had bits, and an eternal life to spend them in, and yet more often than not she spent her time locked away behind the desk of a small office space that served as temporary headquarters until the castle was ready for occupation.
Celestia was looking over the last of the paperwork on the desk, a tediously long request for more law enforcement in the rural areas, and she could feel her eye lids trying to slide their way down in an attempt to make her sleep as soon as possible.
The Princess sighed and poured herself more tea as she read the request as quickly as possible while still searching for the inevitable loophole or fine print where somepony somewhere would try to gain more money or power out of this proposal.
As she continued to read in her solitude, the sound of galloping hooves reached her ears. She looked up at the door and listened as her guards prepared to turn the would be intruder away.
The sound of her two guards low monotone voices came through the door, "I am sorry, the Princess is not seeing anypony."
"Please, I must see Princess Celestia! I bring urgent news from Trottingham!"
The sound of swords being drawn could be heard through the door as the pony attempted to step forward, "None shall pass."
Celestia opened the door and gave a stern look at the stallion that had attempted to enter, "One such as yourself must have urgent news indeed to brave Equestria's finest." She stepped forward as the strange pony bowed before her with his wings open to the floor, "Rise, and tell me what is so urgent that you disturb my work only to avert your gaze to the floor before me?"
The pegasus before her rose and looked his ruler in the face with tears, "I come from Trottingham, representing the last of the Thirteenth Lunar Corps, I beg of you to be merciful."
Celestia raised an eye at the pegasus, "The last? When I disbanded the Lunar Corps there were thousands, of the Thirteenth there were hundreds alone. Why do you claim to be the last?"
The pegasus glanced nervously to the solar guards on either side of him before continuing, "I am the last to live, and the first to come back to serve, NIghtmare Moon has come back and killed them all."
That was the last thing that the former soldier said before breaking down entirely. Tears fell freely down his face as he burbled out the rest of what he had to say, "We thought we could bring back Luna! We thought we were saving her!" The two solar guards quickly grabbed him to take him away as he screamed down the halls, "SHE ATE THEM! SHE ATE THEM ALL!"
Celestia narrowed her eyes as she strode out of the small office space with confidence. She made her way down the hall and opened a single door without knocking, "Guards," The three that were inside quickly stood and saluted, "Ring the bell, an emergency has befallen Trottingham that we must see to personally."
Nightmare Moon roamed freely down the streets of Trottingham, and everywhere she went death seemed to follow.
The Princess, while still looking the same as the day she had left Equestria, was so hungry that she turned to anything that looked even remotely edible on her return.
Nightmare Moon laughed as she thought of the guards that had greeted her, they did not know of what she had become, or why she was banished from Equestria in the first place. When they had changed from her heros to her opposition, she made quick work of all twelve of them. Their blood and raw meat were enough to sustain her before she searched for more food.
Eyeing the door of a home, Nightmare Moon galloped to the door and knocked it over as if it were made of paper rather than wood. The crashing sound was quickly followed by the screams of terror given off by the family hidden within.
Nightmare smiled coldly at them, "As your sovereign of the moon, I am hereby demanding any and all food stuffs that you have are now the property of Nightmare Moon. Surrender the food, or sacrifice yourself to me!"
The family reacted in much the same way as everypony else so far, panic then run. She did not mind, as it left her free to raid the pantry for whatever it was that she could find ready to eat or drink as quickly as possible before heading back out to search again.
SISTER! SURRENDER YOURSELF AND YOU WILL BE TREATED FAIRLY, AND TAKEN INTO CUSTODY! RESIST AND I WILL NOT HESITATE TO DEFEND MY PONIES TO THE DEATH!
"No," Nightmare breathed out as she looked out a window. What she saw she could not believe, an army of solar guards thousands strong had surrounded the house she had trapped herself in. Celestia stood out in front wearing a new set of golden armor, "NO!"
Nightmare Moon blasted out a force of magic with all her strength, blowing the small house to shreds as she charged at her sister. "I WILL NOT SURRENDER!"
The dark pony charged with all her might at her sister, horn lowered to run her through. Celestia closed her eyes and waited.
Finally, the Princess of the sun raised a single hoof and in one clean motion swiped and brought her sister down with no resistance, "Three years without food, without practice of combat and you have grown sloppy Luna."
Nightmare Moon struggled under Celestia's shod hoof tried to rise and found she couldn't bring the strength to lift herself at all. As she struggled, the guards closest to the sisters lowered their swords, ready to attack.
Celestia and Nightmare Moon looked each other in the eyes, "Yield sister. Surrender now and come home. I am the master of both day and night now. This freedom you have in an illusion." Celestia took a breath before she continued. "You yield, and I will see to it that you get a fair trial, and will live in relative comfort with me in Canterlot."
Nightmare Moon looked at her sister, and for a moment, her draconic eyes flashed back into her old ones as Nightmare shed a tear, "Sister..."
Celestia faltered for only a moment, and that was all it took. Nightmare quickly cast a spell, and the sound of ponies screaming filled the air, as the armor and swords of every soldier suddenly became red hot. "I will NEVER SURRENDER after what you have done to me! Three years! Three years of eating dust and ruling over stone!"
As the Solar Guard scrambled to shed their armor, Celestia sighed. "Very well sister."
Suddenly a clock began to strike, "This Nightmare you have brought upon us is over, and with the end of this day, so ends your chance of redemption. Rule over the stones, but know that I pity you, for you chose this path."
Nightmare Moon stood proud and defiant to the end, as the spell cast to bring her back undid itself, and she slowly faded away to nothingness. Before she faded entirely, she spoke the final words anypony would ever hear from her, "Tis better to rule in my own personal hell, than to serve you in your personal heaven."
For a few moments nopony said a word, until finally one guard asked at last, "Is she gone forever?"
Celestia shook her head sadly, "The spell is cast, if she ever becomes as starved as we have just seen, her return will become annual." ________________________________________________________________________________
Word spread quickly about what had happened that night.
The tale of how one lone former guard from the Thirteenth Division managed to escape by disguising himself in an old sheet became a legend.
In order to keep Nightmare Moon from returning, an annual sacrifice of food was made to keep her at bay.
Over time, sacrifice became tradition, facts became legend, and an annual night that was once feared became a holiday.
All across Equestria, foals would disguise themselves to beg for food to offer to Nightmare Moon for fun rather than from true fear. All except for one village, where the memory of what had happened was too painful to remember. In Trottingham, there is no Nightmare Night.
One hundred years is the longest recorded sentence in a prison that any living being had ever had to endure. Naturally, nothing had ever been able to live out a sentence that long.
Nightmare Moon had not squandered her time on the moon, ever since her short night of freedom there had been a steady yearly supply of food large enough to last an entire year. Most of these items were sweets or designed to have a long shelf life.
The ruler of the moon had kept busy as always, building onto her castle and its inhabitants by constantly carving rocks into new subjects and structures. However, she was also not above random acts of violence on her works and would almost always find herself tearing down walls and executing her own subjects she had carved.
Nightmare Moon lived in a gilded cage that she had wrought with her own hooves and horn. A prison with silent inmates and all the comforts of home.
Almost all.
The dark princess wandered the halls of her stone prison and looked over the stone guards she had placed, two by two guarding every door and said nothing.
There was nothing to be said.
"Why bother wasting my vocal chords on stone."
Nightmare Moon turned the corner and was greeted with the site of another empty hall, and continued to walk. Her head bowed low and wings slumped brushing the ground. If one were to look at her it would be hard to belive that this filthy mare had once been the Princess of the Night in Equestria. To look at her now one would think that she may have been a hermit. Her once proud battle armor was unkempt and covered in filth. Her coat was missing patches of fur in some places and had enough dust to make it appear to be grey.
She shook herself off as she walked, not quite managing to get any dust off, but still felt better for it.
And loneliness filled the soul of this pony.
"Let us uncork that champagne."
The sound of a pop echoed through the hall from some distant chamber and laughter followed with the sound of tinkling glassware.
The sound of hundreds of voices carrying on at a party reached the ears of Nightmare Moon, causing them to flicker and swivel for the source of the sound.
The pony looked up, and began to run. She ran through the halls of the castle, coming ever closer to the source of the noise, until finally she found the doorway to the ballroom. Nightmare flung open the doors and looked inside.
The room was filled with ponies from the upper crust, laughing and carrying on. Eating small bits of food from the buffet table as the wait staff ponies ran around passing out glasses of champagne to all the guests.
Nightmare Moon walked through the crowd, yet none looked at her. Instead all eyes were focused at the far end of the room, where three empty thrones sat. Everypony was waiting for something to happen.
The dusty alicorn walked through the room, as the ponies waited for something to happen, suddenly realization struck the Night Princess, "I've been here before..."
A group of ponies marched out from behind the curtain, and blew a fanfare on trumpets, "Presenting, Queen Faust, and her daughters, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna!"
Nightmare Moon felt her jaw drop as she saw her mother walk regally out onto the stage. Shortly afterward a lanky teenaged Celestia followed with her pink hair done up in a bun, and lastly little Luna came out nearly running to keep up with her much taller mother and sister.
The large group of ponies applauded as the three royals sat in their respective thrones.
Queen Faust smiled as she looked out over the crowd, "Tonight, as you are all aware, is a very special event. We are here to celebrate my daughter, Princess Luna's birthday."
The ponies in the room applauded politely for the youngest alicorn as Luna blushed with a smile of pride. "Now, please enjoy yourselves!"
The short speech over with, all the ponies politely applauded once more before going back to mingling with the other ponies in the room. Nightmare Moon wandered through the crowd to the front of the room and felt as if she was fighting a current in an ocean of ponies before she reached the front at last.
"Mom, I don't understand why I have to be here." Luna said with a pout, "Can't I just open my presents and go to my room?"
Her mother gave off an amused smile, "Not yet sweetie, you have to remember that making an appearance in social events is important when you are a Princess."
"But it's so BOOORING!" Luna whined as she pulled her faced down with her hooves.
"Mom, let me handle this," Celestia said with a confident smile, "Lulu, you can't stay cooped up in your room all the time."
"But these ponies are so boring, and stuffy. There are no games here or anything." Luna started to whine again as the crowd of ponies continued to mingle with each other, too caught up in the world of adults to notice that Luna was bored at all.
Celestia smiled, "Luna, you know how you always complain that you don't have any friends," the little blue alicorn nodded at this statement. Nightmare Moon then knew what was coming, and said it along with her sister in perfect time, "How do you expect to have friends if you lock yourself away?"
The little princess sat and thought about it, "Well, I'll stay I guess."
Suddenly a little grey unicorn colt went running through the hall, and right past Nightmare like she wasn't there. The little colt ran up to the stage and bowed clumsily before the Queen and two Princess's, "And who is this before us my little ponies?"
The grey unicorn smiled as he rose from his clumsy bow, "My name is Spyglass your majesties, and I would like to give Princess Luna a gift. If I may."
"A gift? Where is it?" Luna suddenly jumped out of her small throne with excitement before her mother calmed her down.
"Queen Faust? I need to tell you what it is, so I know its alright to give to her."
The white and red alicorn leaned forward with a kind smile, "Whisper it in my ear Spyglass, and I'll answer you."
The colt whispered in the Queen's ear, and as he did she giggled slightly, "Oh but you are a brave one, go on ahead then."
Faust, and Celestia watched as Spyglass walked over to Princess Luna and gave him a smile, "Are you ready?"
Little Luna was so excited that she was nearly bouncing on her throne, and Nightmare silently watched with a grin on her dusty face.
The colt reached forward with an empty hoof, and lightly touched the end of her muzzle, "Boop."
Luna blinked at him, and in her moment of wondering what just happened, he leaned forward and gave her a little kiss on the cheek.
Celestia, Queen Faust and the few crowd members that saw this act started to laugh imediatly as the colt ran away laughing out loud for his brazen actions.
Luna on the other hand ran after him out of the room in as much anger as a little filly could manage.
As Luna left the scene, everything in the room faded away, back to the empty room it should have been as all the guests, furniture and features turned to stone that Nightmare Moon had carved over the last century. "Do you remember what happened next?"
Nightmare Moon whipped around to see that her mother had not faded to stone, and was looking directly at her like a foal to be punished, yet she did not have the heart to do it. "Tell me, what happened next?"
Nightmare Moon stammered for a few moments, looked down and felt the tinges of a smile across her lips, "I-I chased him, almost all the way to the throne room, where he stopped and ducked behind a vase."
Her mother smiled at her, "Go on,"
"H-he pulled out a box from the vase, and gave it to me, it had an abacus inside." Nightmare Moon felt a tear drop as she smiled, "I tried to cast a spell on him or buck him into next week but I just couldn't find the heart to do it. We became best friends over the course of the night."
Faust smiled, "You kept the gift if I remember, and you still have it."
"Had," she corrected instantly, "I don't have anything here to remind me of him."
Faust neeled down on the floor, "Forgive an old nag if I insist on it, but I just feel that the mask you wear is not suited to who you are deep down inside Luna."
Nightmare flinched, "I don't want to be her any more mother. Luna was weak, and let everypony walk all over her."
"YOU are in control of yourself my daughter. Shed the mask Luna, and be yourself. Try to love yourself or you won't ever truly break out of this prison you have made for yourself."
"Celestia did this to me, you should lecture her about imprisoning ponies."
"No my daughter," Faust continued again, "you built this prison with a mask, and you can shed it by taking off the charade."
The white pony stood tall as she looked down at her daughter, "You know, despite that you have food, and water here now, you can't stay forever."
"I won't mother," Nightmare started as she stood as proud as she could in her dusty state, "as soon as the stars arrive I will be free again."
"Only when you learn from your mistakes will you truly be free my daughter." Faust stood again, and was nearly a head taller than her daughter. "I must go."
"Wait mother!" the black alicorn called out, "Will you return?"
Faust smiled, "Perhaps some day... Perhaps."
As Nightmare turned away, she blinked a tear away from her eye, and when she looked back the image of her mother was gone, a solitary feather left behind on the ground.
Celestia sat in her throne room. She had been living in it for a little over a decade now, and yet she still wasn't used to it.
The halls always felt empty, even when it was so full of guards and staff.
She looked up at a grand clock on the wall and gave off a small smile to the audience, "The court of the sun is now over, leave me so I may raise the moon."
The ponies in the room bowed before leaving the room, only one guard stayed behind as a precaution, even if she never really needed him. Celestia walked over to the window, and reached out with her magic to lower the sun.
The sun was easy, it always complied to do what was needed to be done, but when it was time to raise the moon, it fought her every step of the way, as if it knew what she had done.
As the moon rose, she saw the image of her sister's relief on the moon and sighed.
"Two sisters locked in prison. Both alone, yet surrounded by memories and shadows." Celestia murmured to herself.
The guard raised an eye at this, as Celestia turned away from the window and marched out the double doors to eat dinner before she finally attempted to sleep in a cold castle.
It was time again for the event to end all events, the Grand Galloping Gala, and again Celestia was looking forward to it's end.
Over a hundred years ago, when Ink Well suggested that Celestia would throw the biggest and grandest party of them all for her subjects, she had imagined a grand masquerade ball with the best musicians, entertainment, and decorations money could buy.
She got the decorations, musicians, and a room filled wall to wall with noble ponies that would make the common ponies that came, if they dared to, feel as unwanted as they truly were in the nobles eyes.
To the nobility, the commoners, the descendants of the miners that had founded Canterlot years ago, and the third generation of ponies that were displaced from Everfree, were nothing more than an ends to a means to make sure that there was somepony that they could actually all agree upon that they were above.
Princess Celestia had come to truly hate her own party. She loathed the Gala.
The Gala, once a symbol of equality of all ponies, and a chance for Celestia to cut loose in front of some of her closest friends, was now just another event for stuffy know it alls and high brow nobles to try and win her favor and cut each other down.
Celestia walked slowly through the castles gardens as she contemplated these facts, lowering the sun all the while letting dusk settle in.
The wandering was not truly as aimless as she tried to make it appear, and soon came to a fenced in area in the back corner of the gardens.
Her gentle neutral expression never left her face as she nodded to the two guards standing at attention. Nor did she allow the frown that was tugging at her lips to have its way as she walked through the gate.
Instead a small sad smile settled on her lips as she sat down midst a field of graves, and looked on at the tombstones.
"It has been a long time now, hasn't it? You have been gone for almost fifty years, and yet I feel like it were only yesterday when you were last here."
The stone before her marking the final resting place of Inkwell stood as a silent testament to her words as Celestia sat down before it, "It's funny now, how out of all the ideas you had for me, that the one you came up with for my own well being might be the one that undoes me."
She sighed a little bit to herself as she looked back at the castle, "I'm just glad that you got to see your plans come to fruition, and that you never had to live long enough to see them spoiled."
The last rays of the sun disappeared over the horizon, and Celestia almost lazily cast the spell needed to pull the moon up from the east, "When will I ever learn to let go of the past?"
Celestia looked at the newly raised moon at the image of her sister glaring down at her. "At least you don't have to worry about my petty problems where you are sister," she said before starting the walk out of the small private cemetery, "But I would give anything to have shared the same fate as you, it must be better to be alone than to watch others die as you go on living alone."
The guards opened the doors to let Celestia back into the castle with a salute, and as she walked in she turned into a wash room and grabbed the nearest towel to wipe off her face of the tears that the memories brought her.
She only was in the room for mere moments before a knock jolted her back to reality, "Your majesty? Are you ready to see the groomer? The guests will be arriving soon."
Her face immediately fell back into its calm neutral as she called out, "Yes I am ready!"
Celestia opened the door and saw a pony she never met before, she was steely in color with bright blue eyes and a forced on smile that poorly hid the worry in her eyes, "Then let's go, before Lord Boysenberry arrives and makes a scene with Duke Scrollworthy."
The two mares walked down the wide halls of Canterlot Castle with equally false smiles to the grooming salon when Celestia looked down at the other pony and asked, "My little pony, why do you seem so worried?"
The steel colored pony jumped slightly before looking at her princess, "Oh well, it's my first day on the job and I guess I am just a little nervous, My mother expects me to live up to very high expectations."
Celestia tilted her head, "Why?"
It was a simple question, but one that made the grey pony visibly jump as she tried to think about how to answer properly, "My grandmother was Ink Well, your highness. My mother thinks that because I work here as a servant I can move up and become like her, but I'm nothing like her. I get nervous around other ponies, and then I ramble and oh my I'm doing it again aren't I?"
Celestia gave a genuine laugh at the behavior of the maid and smiled, "Never fear, just be yourself and everything will be alright. What is your name?"
The grey pony blushed slightly as her ears fell back, "Steel Resolve, your highness."
Steel Resolve and Celestia stopped before the castle's salon, "It was nice to meet you Steel Resolve, I shall see you around the castle I am sure."
The steel grey earth pony smiled as she went down the hall and Celestia smiled a little bit before going into the salon to be pampered by a dozen ponies so she would look her best for an event she hated to go to these days, "Perhaps, this year will be different."
Nightmare Moon looked over the last pieces of her once mighty armor. One hundred years ago, this would have covered her entire body for battle.
Because of her habit of wearing the armor on a near daily basis, the only parts that were still recognizable were the shoes, necklace, and helm. Everything else that had moving plates to cover her legs and body was falling apart.
She looked sadly at the pieces that were no longer usable and gave off a sigh as she cast a spell to melt down the silver, "I have tried to be calm, and I have tried to forgive myself."
Her magic picked up the molten silver and she poured it into a mold that she made from carving the rocks into shape, "I have tried to see past my suffering, one hundred years of loneliness and nagging hunger." She pulled the now more solid silver out of the mold and dumped it into a small basin of water, "I can never forgive my sister, my subjects, or even myself."
As the worked metal cooled in the water, Nightmare Moon put the necklace, helm and shoes on with a sad look.
Using her magic to pull out the newly formed silver knife from the water and held it before her eyes to examine it, "I have not been able to forgive anyone, so mother forgive me."
The blade flew forward and plunged deep inside of her chest "Let me be free."
Nightmare Moon blinked a few times as her heart bled out into the dust, and a smile crossed her features.
It has been five hundred years since Nightmare Moon first was locked away on the moon, and today she wandered the halls of the great palace she had built with her own hooves and horn. Surrounded by statues of ponies long gone from Equestria and barely alive in her own memory.
"When will I escape? Five hundred years of this I waited, Celestia will know my vengeance."
The stale air reeked of decay and long rotted food supplies that had stopped coming in years ago. The only things that came in was once a year candy. Nopony seemed to know or care if the mare in the moon was real or a legend any more. She looked up at the walls and saw numbers carved over every inch. Counting the days she had been prisoner of her own moon."
"Don't you see the light any more my daughter?" Nightmare Moon did not even blink at the sudden apearence of her Mother appearing in the hall, a small blue filly beside her.
"What do you want mother? Don't you see that I am, busy," She pointed at the carved walls around her as if the mad writings were a sign of her work, the short phrases accompanying the tally marked numbers that carried on to the long destroyed tower of time she once built to mark the decades.
"Hmm, yes, Nightmare Moon, murderer of Luna is a very busy pony." At the phrase the ghost of Luna shied away behind Faust, "You think that the universe revolves around you simply because you controlled the moon and a few stars."
"The universe bends at my very whim mother." Nightmare Moon exclaimed with a stomp of her hoof, "I control the very cosmos themselves. You know this."
"You know nothing Nightmare. You control the realm of nightmares and can fly a rock through the sky. You can move a few paltry stars to do your whim and yet you don't. Five hundred years you toil on this stone, and yet you could have left centuries ago if you had only learned."
Nightmare Moon began to gallop away only to find that her mother and former self where following. She galloped faster and ran into an empty room. Quickly slamming the door behind her she saw that the room was filled with mirrors, and her mother was already there. "You never learned patience, you never learned to be content."
Nightmare Moon whisked herself away from the scene and quickly galloped through the halls. She ran for what felt like hours, all the while she could hear the voices continue.
"Why did you kill me?"
"You were a master of Generosity, Honesty and Magic, yet you never could master Kindness, you never could make others Laugh, and you even failed to be Loyal to anyone, even yourself."
"Wake up."
"You don't know what you must do yet."
"Your destiny is not this place."
"You cast this nightmare yourself."
"You brought this on us both."
Nightmare Moon ran, and watched as the palace around herself began to crack. The stone shook as if through a mighty earthquake and the stone began to shift into rubble. "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!"
As Nightmare Moon ran into the sanctuary of her throne room she slammed the doors behind her, and silence greeted her.
Calm came back into her life as she saw the perfection of her work, carefully she tread across the room and sat down upon her stone throne, "I wan't you to wake up."
Nightmare Moon jumped slightly as she saw her younger self and mother at the far end of the throne room sitting high up on thrones of their own. "I want you to bring me back Nightmare, wake up."
Nightmare Moon blinked at her younger self, "I can't, I can't go back to being weak. I can't go back to being walked upon like I was before."
"Nightmare Moon, this is not real," Faust finally said with finality as the walls began again to crumble down around the trio, "You built this illusion yourself."
"No, no It's not true I am trapped here! Celestia did this to me!"
Faust rose from her throne as she walked to her daughter, "No, you are not trapped on the moon. You are the moon, and this nightmare is of your own design."
"Look to the stars Nightmare," Luna spoke the words with a dead pan look on her face, "Look at what you and I have done together."
The castle disappeared at last, and the three alicorns stood on the surface of the moon and witnessed the stars coming closer, "Daughter, you have bought your slow ticket to freedom, but you can escape now if you only realize what to do."
Nightmare Moon cried as she looked at the four stars, closer now than ever. "What must I do to go home?"
The two ponies looked at her, "Forgive," they said in unison before disappearing as well.
Nightmare Moon stood on the surface of the moon and looked around her, she reached out into the air and felt it shift around her hoof, "A nightmare..."
Back on Equestria, Princess Celestia silently lowered the moon to allow the sun to rise again, "Good morrow Sweet Luna. Sleep well. It's almost over, and soon we will meet again."
As she rose the sun she looked as the light brought a new life across her land below her and gave off a sad smile, wishing that the only pony that mattered was there beside her.
Princess Celestia had not had a proper nights sleep in centuries. The reform of a country was a long and daunting task, one that despite the fact that not a living thing besides herself remembered the actual destruction of Everfree and the corruption of her sister over eight hundred years ago, the repercussions still echoed across the globe.
The Everfree Forest is possibly forever a lost cause at this point, dangerous and unresponsive to ponies, the woods continue to thrive on their own with no assistance. The Gryphon Empire, once spanning over half the globe a sea away was now in ruin because of Diamond Dogs raiding the outskirts, taking chunks away from the empire at a time. All that was left of the once continent spanning empire, was a small mountainous country in the far north, the former capitol center of the eastern world.
Equestria itself had not expanded, nor shrunk over the years and has been considered a place of great harmony and balance. As of late, Equestria has become a surrogate home for displaced gryphons, zebras, and even some of the smaller dragons that were left to fend for themselves. All victims against the hoards of peoples scrambling in the power vacuum left by the fall of Gryphonia.
Naturally, when these different peoples once divided amongst themselves came together to find a home in Equestria, she felt that it was her duty to see to the well fair of everybody she could, equine or not.
Celestia was tired. Governing both day and night had left Celestia in a state that should have by all means left her dead years ago. Deprived from sleep, and overworked she was constantly exhausted and only was able to catch quick naps for one, maybe two hours from two to three in the morning.
In Celestia's mind it had all seemed so easy, to know that rest for her would come with the return of her sister. To know that friends that were mortal were bright burning candles, disappearing if one blew hard enough, or finally burning out after years of giving all they could. To know that she deserved a far worse fate than this for failing to save her sister.
Her mind was a torrent of thoughts as she sat on her throne, listening to the proceedings as she waited, until finally, "Court of the Sun has come to a close."
Celestia stood after the page announced the end and gave off her best smile, "Thank you Clear Call. Everypony please return for Night Court two hours after sunset if you must have an audience tonight."
The remaining ponies murmured to themselves as they left the royal hall, and Celestia made her escape to the gardens for a moments peace before dinner, and the night court.
In the garden Celestia was free to actually be herself, free to reflect on her past and enjoy the simple things in life. The gardens, while private to most was available to guests or staff of the castle Oftentimes Celestia would find a few ponies enjoying the gardens and would strike up conversation with them if the mood struck.
"I only have a few minutes before I have to head off for dinner, just a quick stroll through the pathways then I'll eat, lower the sun, raise the moon and open night court."
The thought seemed to loop in her mind over and over again as she walked the paths of the gardens in a haze. That was when she spied a yellow filly staring at a statue.
She tilted her head in curriousity as she came closer to the young unicorn. She looked at her face and saw the deep level of concentration on her face and almost laughed aloud before stopping herself, "It's very rude to stare."
Celestia blinked at the boldness of the small filly, "I'm sorry but I was wondering what are you doing?"
"Mommy told me if I can levitate and turn the statue around, we can get some ice cream after she gets off work. So that is what I am trying to do," The filly stopped staring at the statue and looked down at an open book in front of her, not once turning to look at the princess before nodding and trying again to summon the magic to do her bidding.
Celestia smiled as she watched the filly brush aside her blue and pink mane away from her field of vision before speaking up again, "The book says that I have to imagine the weight of what I am moving before I can move it, but the only thought that I get is that it's really really heavy."
Celestia laid down in the grass next to the filly, "Your mom must be a great expectations if she expects you to move this statue."
The unicorn snorted a bit as she kept trying to focus, "Tell me about it! I don't even know what I am doing, they just got me this book for my birthday the other day after I," she suddenly stopped, looking embarrassed she turned away from Celestia even more.
"What did you do my little pony?" Celestia asked with serious interest.
"I turned the cat into an alarm clock... But it's okay! She changed back to normal!"
Celestia's eyebrows raised up slightly at this, "That is fairly advanced magic," Celestia commented. "Did you pick it up from your parents?"
The unicorn sighed as she focused back on the statue, "That's what mommy says, that's why she bought me this book from the book store," She pointed at the open magic book titled, Spellcasting for foals.
Celestia was still impressed that a unicorn this young could even do as much as she did. She smiled as the filly flipped through her book some more and asked, "What is your name little one?"
The little pony turned to finally face the pony she was speaking to and made a polite bow, "My name is Sunrise," As she rose from the small bow, she looked up into Celestia's face, and finally realized who she was talking to, "Oh my gosh, you, you're the princess!"
Celestia smiled and nodded slightly, "Hello Sunrise, that is a lovely name for a young filly to have." She paused and looked left and right as if to make sure nopony was listening before leaning down and whispering to Sunrise, "Would you like to know a secret?"
Sunrise was enthralled and bounced up and down quickly in excitement, "Tell me tell me! Oh please Princess!"
She leaned down to Sunrise and whispered loudly to her, "Imagine the statue as light as a feather, it makes it easier to move. Go ahead and give it a try, I'll be right here to watch."
The little filly continued to smile as she slowed down her bouncing to concentrate on the task ahead of her, she closed her eyes and focused as much as she could on casting her aura out over the statue, "You are light as a feather, come on, its a statue made of feathers, light light feathers."
The statue glowed under the spell of Sunrise, and slowly but surely the statue levitated off the pedestal, just enough that somepony could slide a sheet of paper underneath it. Slowly it rotated, making the figure face the castle rather than the hedges. The spell then suddenly cut short and the stone dropped back down with a resounding thud, sending a slight vibration through the earth. Sunrise opened her eyes and looked wearily at the statue, "I did it!"
Celestia gave a bemused smile as she nodded, "Indeed you have my little pony. Tell me, have your parents tried to enroll you in school? Or do they teach you themselves?"
Sunrise shook hear head, "No, they can't afford to send me to a school, and they are earth ponies so I have to teach myself," she said with a proud smile as she held up her book, "Will you go with me to see my mommy to let her know that I did it?"
Princess Celestia puzzled some thoughts to herself before finally nodding, "Yes I think we can do that, come along little Sunrise, lets find your mother."
It did not take long for the first staff member she had ran into to find Crystal Clear and bring her to Celestia's office. When she arrived, she found Princess Celestia and her filly sitting down and chatting with each other, "Ahh Crystal Clear, please come in and have a seat, would you like any tea? Cookies?"
Crystal sat down in the offered seat and smiled bashfully, "No thank you your highness, I was told that you needed me, and it concerned my daughter?"
Celestia gave a slight smile and nodded, "That is correct, I wanted to ask you more about your daughter's education."
Sunrise looked at the Princess, then at her mom in confusion before Crystal finally did answer, "Well, my husband and I try our best, but you know how it is. It's very expensive to send a colt or filly to school, and even more expensive per lesson with a private tutor. We are trying our best in the magic department, but I can only do so much."
Celestia smiled bemusedly at the light blue mare, "And you are doing a wonderful job, but I think I can help," Celestia paused to take a breath and sip of her tea before continuing, "Your daughter has quite a bit of raw potential, I witnessed her lift a statue in the garden and make it face the other way around. Once I got to know your daughter a little bit, I knew I had to ask you this question. How would you like for me to personally teach your daughter as my private pupal"
Crystal Clear sat in shock at what was just proposed to her, and dumbly nodded as a response. Sunrise had burst into shouts of joy and bounced around the room like a ball while Celestia smiled, "Then I will set everything up, and will send you a message when the first lesson is to begin."
Because of this, many things changed for the future of Equestria. Celestia slowly did away with Night Court, to make room for study time with her young, and first student.
Over the first year of teaching Sunrise, Celestia found that despite her years she could still be surprised. Through the second year, Celestia created the public school act, making education a right, and no longer a privalige for the well to do. When nobility asked why she would do such a thing to close the gap between the nobility and common pony, she looked to the sun out the window and replied, "A mind should never be wasted because of where a pony is born, what tribe they belong to, nor how many bits are in their hoof. Everypony should be allowed to become something great."
Sunrise has been Princess Celestia's private student for the last five years, and through that time she had proven over and again her prowess at magic, and an insatiable thirst for knowledge. It was fall, Sunrise and Celestia sat together in the gardens with several open books as the day's lessons came to a close, "Now Sunrise, it is time to apply what you have learned," Celestia said with a smile.
The young mare nodded slightly as she brought the small stone closer to her, "Concentrate, see the change, and apply," she said to herself as she weaved the spell. Slowly, the stone began to vibrate before stretching and squishing under the unicorns magic. Finally, after several moments, the small stone changed into an apple. "Princess, I did it!"
Celestia nodded with a smile as pride filled her heart, "Indeed you have my prized pupil," she then stood up and began pulling some sheets of paper out to look at before addressing her student, "You have been doing very well in magic theory, as well as science and math," Sunrise seemed to glow at the praise given to her as Celestia continued, "However, your history needs some work."
Sunrise's face fell into a frown, after the shock died down, she began to search through her notes to find out what went wrong where. After finding nothing the matter, she looked at Celestia and said, "But Princess, I don't understand, what did I do wrong?"
Celestia sighed slightly as she turned about in place, reading the notes once again, "It's nothing you have done wrong, but my own fault I am afraid," Celestia admitted with a heavy voice. "While I have been concentrating on magic study with you, I have neglected to teach you in history, a field that I may have avoided in the past." As Celestia finished her sentence, Sunrise could not help but notice her teacher look up into the sky, ever so slightly for just a moment. Afterwards, Celestia smiled and continued, "I have been discussing you with some of the prominent professors that teach in this city, and they agree that you need to learn more about history than the founding of our city, or even just our country. That is why I have decided that you need to prove yourself by taking a test."
Sunrise gathered up her books into a set of bags before rushing up to Celestia, "Bur, Princess, what if I fail? I mean, where do I even begin?" Even as she stopped speaking, questions began to enter her brain at a mile a minute, causing the poor pony to hyperventilate.
Celestia lay a wing down on Sunrise's back, and gave her a reassuring smile, "Do not worry my student, the test was devised by Professor Lore, and he is giving you a month to study. Therefore, I shall help you in the best way I can, by giving you access to journals of those that lived through the era's you are to be tested on."
It was several hours later, when Sunrise found herself in her room. It was not lavish as one would expect the private student of Celestia to be, it was a simple, functional room with a bed, lamp, closet and desk. Spartan by all means, but that was simply the way that Sunrise liked it.
As she sat down at the low desk, Sunrise smiled to herself and pulled out the first book to be studied, "Nothing special looking about this one," she noted out loud. The book was simply a black bound book, with several yellowed pages sticking out. Sunrise opened the book, and found inside a loose sheet of paper. Currious, she picked up the note and read it to herself.
Sunrise,
For the first part of your exam, you will be quizzed upon the origins of our world. Within the pages of this journal, you will find my mother's notes. Please be sure to compare these notes with chapters one through five of World History abridged. I have faith in you,
Celestia.
"Wait," Sunrise began as she placed the note down on the desk, "This book has got to be thousands, if not millions of years old!" She let the pages turn in her magic as she examined the book, "How has it not turned to dust by now?" As she pondered the question, she scanned the book for any lingering spells, and found a strong preservation spell binding through the pages. All she could say was simply one word, "Incredible."
Finally, after several minutes of examining the spell, and trying to figure out how it worked, Sunrise shook her head and remembered she was in fact supposed to read it, "I can study the spell later. Right now, I need some tea, and a fresh quill and scroll of paper for notes." As she spoke, she brought the items closer to her, opened the first page, and began to read.
Even as Sunrise began reading the book to herself, far away, Nightmare Moon struggled with her sanity. The alicorn's spirit struggled against the bonds of the moon, trying to break free from the prison of her own mind. As she did, the stars drew ever closer to the celestial object that wound it's way across the earth's night sky.
In her private chambers, Celestia looked up at the angry face of the mare locked inside the moon and sighed, "My sister, soon it will all be over. I never was as good as you at walking the world of dreams, but sleep dear sister. Sleep, for your own sake. Soon you shall be free to live among your ponies once again."
As she spoke, Celestia closed her eyes, and cast a spell. It had taken centuries of study to learn it, finally allowing her to walk into the world of dreams. Her hold was shaky at best, however as soon as she set hoof in the realm, she could sense the presence of her sister. Making it simple to find her way to the world that Nightmare Moon had crafted for herself.
Celestia stepped through the ethereal realm of the dreamscape, and was shocked at the sight brought to her. Over eight hundred years of time, she had believed her sister to be able to find relative peace within her own world of dreams, but was instead dismayed at what she had found.
A vast grey landscape, littered with rubble as far as the eye could see greeted Celestia, with a vast black sky shining with stars as the earth soared above was the sight that greeted Celestia. As she stepped forward, a deep feeling of dread filled her heart, before finally, she found what she was looking for.
Nightmare Moon sat before the rubble, cowered before the crumbled remains of the palace that she had built for herself. Celestia stepped forward with caution, then softly called out, "Sister, what happened?"
Nightmare Moon could not help but jump at the voice and turned quick as a whip to face her sister, "What do you want with me? Can't you see I have suffered enough?"
Celestia frowned before answering, "Luna, why must you suffer at all? You know the world of slumber well, and yet you punish yourself still?"
Nightmare Moon barked out laughter, like a feral dog before answering, "All this time, and you still think I am Luna?" She asked with a sickening grin, "You think that I would do this to myself?" As she asked the question, she began to pace around Celestia, "You thought you would do your sister a favor, lock her in the moon and force her to dream forever, but it would appear that you did not plan for something."
Celestia backed away from Nightmare Moon, despite not truly being there, she was afraid of the chance that any harm brought to her could sever the weak hold she had upon this world. Nightmare Moon grinned maliciously at Celestia before turning away, "For all this time I have been here, I thought, nay, knew you were my enemy. Yet, it is only now that I find that there is one worse," as she finished the phrase, a small blue alicorn appeared from behind a pile of rubble.
Celestia looked at the filly, and could not help but smile to herself slightly, "Luna..." as she began to step forward to greet the small pony, Nightmare Moon stepped between them. Celestia backed away slightly before looking Nightmare Moon in the eyes, "Let me speak with her."
The black alicorn narrowed her eyes from under the helmet at Celestia, "She is dead. Only the dead come here, for that is how she designed this dream for me," she said with spite in her voice, "All that is, is a figment of my imagination, a ghost of who I was before I became strong."
Celestia frowned slightly at Nightmare Moon, then spoke with a strong and steady voice, "If she is a part of you as you say, then I may help you yet if you let me speak with her."
Silence grew between the three ponies, finally after a few moments Nightmare Moon simply moved aside and walked away, allowing Luna to step forward and speak, "My sister, I'm so sorry, I let my nightmare destroy me."
Celestia leaned down to give the small pony a nuzzle, only for Luna to back away. Finally, Celestia stood and spoke with a firm voice, "Sister, why do you do this to yourself, why do you make yourself suffer?"
"I am dead, all I am is the memory within Nightmare Moon," Luna said in an eerily calm voice, "I live on through her guilt. As long as she remembers me, and how I view justice, she will suffer."
Celestia turned to look at Nightmare Moon, to find her looking up at the stars above, whispering to herself. Finally, she looked at the image of Luna and whispered, "I have a message. On the longest day, of the thousandth year, the stars shall aid in your escape." The small alicorn tilted her head at this news, and Celestia could not help but smile at the look Luna was giving.
Finally, after a few moments, she responded, "Then prepare for war, for if I am coming, I ride only in memory of the pony that took my place. Nightmare Moon shall come."
Celestia nodded, "Please, let her have peace at last. Let her last moments here before freedom be something worth living. Perhaps then, she may not be so bitter upon return."
Luna paused before shaking her head, "So long as I live in her memory, she must suffer in her dreams." With that said, Celestia felt her hold in the dreamscape give way, the world melted around her until finally, she found herself within her chambers once again.
Celestia looked up at the moon with a heavy heart, and spoke only four words, "I'm so sorry sister."
Ch. 16 On the longest day of the thousandth year. 6/21/2010
The cruel fate of time marched on from that day. Every week Celestia would try to reach the part of Nightmare Moon that was still Luna, only to fail and the nightmare would continue. Despite failure, Celestia still had hopes for saving her sister, and through the course of time, kept a close watch on her subjects. Watching, and waiting in hope for the ones that could succeed where she failed.
In the dreamscape, Celestia tried to convince her sister to let go of the anger, in hopes still of being her salvation. Yet as her attempts failed time and again, she found herself trying less, and less. Her focus instead drew herself more to finding others that could do what she could not. It was by chance that she found a clan of honest hard working ponies selling seeds, and granted them land by the Everfree Forest, after that pieces seemed to fall into place. As if somehow they were guided by an unseen hoof.
The eldest daughter of the Smith clan, discovered the legendary Zap Apple tree, once apart of Castle Everfree's royal gardens, and with her discovery, ponies from miles around settled in on the land near the farm. From what was once a dangerous part of Everfree Forest, came the village of Ponyville.
A prominent family of unicorns, that long ago claimed the proud linage of being descendants of Princess Platinum herself, donated what remained of their fortune to the budding village. Forced into near poverty, what was left of the small clan dropped away from Canterlot elite to live out the simple life as merchants in Ponyville.
One of her sentry guards, was caught in a scandal and accused of being disloyal to the crown. Even as he begged to the court his case, it was through the act of kindness of a lone mare that saved him from banishment from Equestria entirely. Shamed, he left to live out his days in Cloudsdale as a weather pony. For generations to come, his descendants would hear about how important loyalty is from the old pony until his dying day.
The mare that showed him kindness, became one of his few friends in life, leading to one of the longest family friendships ever to be recorded by any family. Celestia took note in these unusual ponies, and watched their descendants carefully.
It was nearly a decade before the thousandth year, and Celestia carefully followed the lineage of her former student Sunrise. Hoping that the elusive element of magic would grace one of her descendants. Sunrise's daughter, Daylight was an earth pony, and was a prominent historian in her time. Her son, was another earth pony named Daylight Special, who went down in history as the inventor of what became known as time zones, to help organize the ever expanding railroad services. His Daughter, Sunset Shimmer, the first unicorn since Sunrise, was automatically accepted as Celestia's private pupil without much thought.
It was five years in her tutelage when she proved a disappointment by choosing a darker path. Eventually choosing to turn away from her teacher to live a life in an entirely different world.
There were only five years left until it was times up, and despite how closely Celestia tracked ponies that seemed to give off certain attributes, she could only make vague guess work, and even if her hunch was right, there were still no obvious signs for anypony to take on the future roll of the bearer of either Laughter, or Magic.
Then the sonic rainboom happened.
It was as if fate had favored her once again, and signs pointed to six very distinct fillies all at the same time, four of which came from families she had been following for almost two hundred years. Yet two came as a compete surprise to Celestia, the daughter of a rock farmer becoming a high candidate for the element of laughter was a surprise that she never expected. But for a potential bearer of the element of magic to come to her as an ordinary student for her school, she had to train this one herself.
Finally, it was time. The stage was set, and every single pony that Celestia had believed would become a bearer of an element was living, or working in Ponyville, thanks to circumstances even she couldn't believe, or through careful manipulation. All except for one.
Princess Celestia frowned deeply at the usual pile of paperwork before her, looking over not only the same sets of bills, propositions, and taxes that always seem to make their way back to her, but also she was looking over the names of ponies involved in this years Summer Sun Celebration.
"I think I'll bring Thunderstriker and Aquilinus with me," she mumbled to herself as she looked over the list of potential guards for the next day's events. As she looked over the guards she casually sipped her favorite tea, and sighed.
"Your majesty, is something the matter?" Her secretary asked from her desk across the room.
Celestia simply gave off her best smile to the mare and shook her head, "Everything's fine. I just have a lot going on is all." She looked back down at the stack of papers and quickly stamped a few of them. Then, the green mist of dragons breath carrying a letter, floated in the window. "What's this about?" Celestia wondered aloud before breaking the seal and reading the letter from Twilight Sparkle.
After a few moments, the mask of a smile that had grown comfortable on her face broke slightly, and a flicker of hope shone through. "My faithful student, I should have expected you would find out." She chuckled slightly as she began to write a letter to her student. "I knew that just a few choice books placed in your library would get your attention." She said the words with a light laugh, almost giddy with anticipation as she set quill to paper and began to write, My dearest, most faithful student Twilight, you know that I value your diligence, and I trust you completely...
Nightmare Moon stared off into the darkness ahead of her. It has been a long time since she had moved from this particular rock. All she did was stare upwards at the sky, watching and waiting for the stars that would aid in her escape. "They are almost upon us." She mumbled, more to herself than anyone else that was with her.
"We shall be free." Luna said softly. "Free from you, and this prison you brought upon us."
"Free from dreams, from memory. Free to live again." Nightmare Moon spoke again, she looked behind her, and saw the ghosts of her mother and Luna standing behind her, fading away into the nothingness. "Free from myself."
The stars continued to move, they were nearly upon her, yet still too far to be of any use. Don't get too excited. This may be another of her tricks.
The earth above flickered slightly, as the light of the stars began to fade away one by one. Nightmare Moon closed her eyes at last and smiled. "Let the dream end, and my sister's cruelty be known. Let her harsh light and tyranny come to an end!" The world around her disappeared in a flash, leaving nothing but a blank void of nothingness.
How long she fell through the void, she did not know. There was no air, no ground or sky. No up or down whatsoever. Nightmare Moon did the only thing that could come to her mind, and let out a primeval yell as she continued to fall into the waking world.
Princess Celestia was quite alone in the private room given to her by the mayor of Ponyville. It wasn't anything too fancy, just a comfortable room with sparse furnishings a short distance from the balcony within the town hall building.
In less than an hour, she would have to raise the sun from the horizon, and yet she cared not for the event before her. All that mattered was what lay out the window. She stared upward at the glowing white globe in the sky, and stared intently at it, watching the stars get ever closer to their goal.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the stars made it to their goal and in a flash, disappeared. The face of her sister gone from the surface of the moon. Celestia stood and turned away from the window as she heard the bird choir begin to sing. There was a knock on her door, and a pony simply said, "Three minutes your highness." Then galloped away to make sure that everything else was going smoothly.
Celestia nodded and began to exit, when a cloud of stars swiftly blocked her path. She backed away as the cloud quickly took the form of a pony she both expected, and hated. The form that stole her sister from her all those years ago, now stood before her ready to strike.
Celestia began to speak, only for Nightmare Moon to hold out a hoof. "You know all to well that I have never been one to mince words, especially when time is running short. Goodbye." Celestia vanished in an instant, sent to the center of the sun. "A worthy revenge for a worthy opponent." Nightmare Moon muttered as she heard the fanfare announce her sister, and went to go meet her new subjects.
Princess Luna looked herself over in the mirror and frowned slightly. It has been just a little over a year since she had returned to a much changed Equestria, and was still unsure of how to deal with things.
During the course of the year, Celestia had the finest teachers from her school tutor her in the ways of modern culture, to try and get her caught up on what she had missed over the years. Most important in her lessons, was the way that the laws had changed over time.
Thus, her manners still were archaic at best. Grounded in tradition that she feared to let go of, feared that if she were to slip out of the way she was assured in her mind was the proper way to speak, and act, that the Nightmare may take her body away once again.
Luna continued to frown as she looked herself over, her ethereal mane had just come in the night before, and now constantly flowed in a nonexistent wind. As she sat, she heard the door creak open slightly, but refused to turn and face her. "My dearest sister, is everything alright?" It was Celestia, as she suspected it to be.
She still did not turn, but instead looked over the black crown and matching necklace that lay on the dresser before her, then at the silver shoes with a slight frown. "Do we look so pitiable to thine eyes sister?"
Celestia walked slowly to sit by her sister, and lay a wing across her back. "Luna, you know you can tell me anything. I'm here for you, and you know I will do anything for you."
Luna couldn't help it, but cry. "We doth not deserve to wear such vestiges! We sent you to the sun! We tried to murder you, all of our subjects were targets for us to destroy on the whim of greed, and jealousy! Thee should have kept us locked away forever. Not a mere millennium."
Celestia listened, and let her sister lean against her for support, her head resting gently upon Luna's in a comforting manner. "Luna, you have as much right to a crown as I do. You only turned to such a demon because I failed you. All of this, I brought upon us. If anything, I should be the one to step down, but I don't and neither will you. Do you know why?"
Luna sobbed for a few more moments before looking up at her sister and shaking her head slightly.
"It's because we need them, just as much as they need us. The ponies look up to us for inspiration, and we look back to them for hope. Hope of a better world, hope for ways to better ourselves, hope for a way to grow. We may need each other, but you also need them, and they may not realize it yet, but they need you too."
Luna wiped her eyes slightly and hung her head low, her breath shaky with sadness. "Sister, you lead an era of peace and prosperity in the wake of destruction we hath wrought upon you. You alone could raise our moon and thine own sun. Surely we are not needed."
Celestia grabbed Luna by the shoulders and shook her slightly. "LUNA! I need you! We need each other, and the ponies out there know it! Without you, I am a shell of a pony, dead on the inside. Peace and prosperity, you speak about my own cowardice in the face of aversion. The Everfree Forest still looms over the center of Equestria, untamed and dark as ever because I fear losing a single pony in the name of reclaiming the land. The minotaurs and gryphons had taken entire colonies away from us in negotiations, because I was too afraid to raise an army. Without you, I am nothing."
Luna and Celestia sat there for a few moments looking at each other. Finally after a few moments, Luna steadied herself and looked up at her sister. "Then we, I.. Should go meet our subjects. When can we do so in a small setting?"
Celestia smiled slightly as she made a small calender book appear. "Well, it's now October, Nightmare Night is the next holiday. Perhaps you may wish to attend the one in Ponyville?"
Luna frowned deeply at the thought, then asked a very simple question. "What is Nightmare Night?"
It only took a few moments to explain what the holiday was, and what the supposed, and real origins of the holiday was. Afterwards, Luna decided then and there to attend, if only to see if she could convince the public to end a holiday based on such dreadful origins, and instead hold a new, glorious feast in the name of both her, and her sister's fondness of each other.
