Mother Mare's Foal Tales

Once upon a time, there were two alicorn princesses born of the same parents but different in every way.  The older sister, Celestia, was cherished by all for her beauty and grace, while the younger was treated with suspicion due to her dark appearance.

“What shall we do?” the queen asked her husband.  “Our subjects fear Luna.”

The king looked down from the balcony at their kingdom below with a heavy heart.  “I do not know, my love.”

In a neighboring kingdom, a cloaked figure watched the king and queen through a mirror.  A cackle escaped from the shadows within the hood.  “Mirror, mirror, on my wall, where is this pony feared by all?”

The vision swirled.  Briefly, the face of a zebra peered back at the figure with a compliant nod, then faded into a view of a bedroom.  On the bed was the young alicorn filly, crying into her pillows.

“Why does everypony hate me?”  She sniffled.  “What did I do wrong?”

There was a knock on the door.

“Go away!”

“Lulu?” came a soft voice.  “Please, let me in.”

“No.”  Luna hiccuped.  “I just want to be left alone.”

Celestia put her hoof on the door.  "Lulu, I know what happened today.  I know that they threw things at you."  She looked at the door with sadness.  "I'm sorry..."

A strangled cry came from inside the room.  As Celestia took a step backwards, her eyes widened when dark shadows crawled out from under the door.

"Luna?!"  Her horn glowed and she blasted the handle off the door to obliterate the lock.

The door flung open with a loud bang, but she was too late.  A menacing figure stood at the foot of the bed, which was empty and Luna was nowhere to be seen.

The figure spread a pair of black wings from beneath a cloak and whirled around to face Celestia with a wicked cackle.  Her pupils were narrow slits filled with a dark fury.

"There can only be one beautiful gem of the night...  And that gem is me!"

In a swirl of the suffocating dark blue miasma, the alicorn disappeared, leaving the filly alone with her tears as she cried, "Luna!"

Somewhere far away, Luna found herself in a dirty excuse for a room.  Some straw and tattered blankets were in one corner, presumably to be a bed.  She ran to the small window and gasped.

Gone were the beautiful sights of Canterlot.  There were no happy houses or green treetops.  Instead, she found herself looking out across a dreary landscape of twisted black trees and a cloud-covered sky.

Luna backed away from the window.  "Tia?!"  she called, looking around in desperation.  "Tia, where are you!?"  Her ears fell.  "Where am I... ?"

"You are in the kingdom of Pełneigha," hissed a voice from behind her.  "I am Nightmare Moon."

Luna screamed and ran to the furthest corner of the room and faced her abductor with terror.

"Tsk, tsk, little one," cooed the tall alicorn.  Her bright blue eyes were fixated on the filly before her.  "Is that any way to speak to your mother?"

"My mother?  You are not-"  Luna winced as the alicorn's horn glowed blue.  Her legs trembled beneath her and she struggled to stay on all fours.  "-my... mother..."  Slowly, her eyes closed.  "My... mother?  ... Mother?"

"Yes, I'm here now."  The alicorn scooped her up with both forelegs and cradled her.  "Mother's going to make sure you grow up exactly as mother wants you to..."  A sickeningly sweet smile graced her lips.  The filly gave up the fight and fell asleep against her.  "Wretched and unloved."

From that day onward, Luna grew up in the empty castle with the mare she called mother.  She had no friends aside from the animals that dared to live in such a sad kingdom, which grew in number as she tended to them over the years.  The castle's courtyard became her personal haven for various birds and critters, bringing some small bit of life to the otherwise desolate gloom.

Though Nightmare Moon treated her with cruelty, and though she remembered nothing of her life before she had been brought there, a part of her heart still clung to the love for her sister, manifested as a longing for any sister at all.

Luna hummed to herself as she trotted across the courtyard to fetch water from the well.  A few birds swooped down to listen to her and she smiled at them.

"Do you want to know a secret?"

The birds nodded their heads and leaned in.  She glanced around.

"Do you promise not to tell?"

More nodding from them and more smiling from her.

"We are standing by a wishing well," she continued in a sing-song voice.  "Make a wish into the well, that's all you have to do.  And if you hear it echoing, your wish will soon come true."  She leaned in to the well and called sweetly down.  "I'm wishing-"

"I'm wishing," her echo replied.

"For a sister of my own to find me, today. I'm hoping-"

"I'm hoping."

"And I'm dreaming of, the nice things she'll say."

"She'll say."

She sung a chorus of varying ah-ah-ahs as she went about filling the bucket with water.

Outside, a weary alicorn made her way toward the crumbling castle walls.  Though her sister had forgotten her, she had never forgiven herself for being unable to stop the abduction.  Years of loneliness and regret fueled her to continue onward across Equestria in search of the nightmarish alicorn she had seen for only a moment.

Her ears perked at the distant singing.  "That voice," she murmured under her breath and ran toward an opening in the wall.

"I'm wishing," continued Luna.  "for a sister of my own to find me-"

"Today!" Celestia interrupted as she burst into the courtyard, her wings unfurled.

"Oh!"  Luna dropped the bucket into the well.  She turned to face the white alicorn and flinched back a few steps at the unfamiliar mare.

Celestia's wings slowly closed.  She looked at the other with a gentle smile, her voice equally calm as she said, "I'm sorry.  Did I frighten you?"

Her smile fell as Luna turned away and ran for a door on the castle wall.

"Wait."  She trotted forward.  "Wait, please don't run away!"

Luna disappeared through the doorway.  The heavy sound of them slamming shut echoed in the courtyard.

Celestia's head lowered, but she lifted it back up and sang with soft desperation.

"Now that I've found you, hear what I have to say.

One song, I have but one song,

One song, only for you.

One heart, tenderly breaking,

Never forsaking,

Constant and true.

One love, that has possessed me,

One love, seeing me through.

One lost, my heart keeps searching

For one lost,

Searching for you."

Her eyes searched for any sign of her sister through the windows along the walls, but she saw no movement.  Her heart started to sink.

Inside the castle, Nightmare Moon stepped lightly through the corridor.  "Slave in the magic mirror," she said as she entered her chambers, heading straight for the large mirror on the wall.  "come from the farthest space.  Through wind and darkness I summon thee."

The wind began to howl outside and the sky darkened.

"Let me see thy face!"

Lightning struck just outside the window, tearing bricks off one wall, though she cared not.

Zecora's face slowly faded into the green mist inside the mirror's glass.  Her eyes opened and she peered at the alicorn with a blank expression.  "What wouldst thou know, my queen?  What wouldst thou like seen?"

"Magic mirror on the wall, who's the darkest one of all?"

"Famed is thy dark beauty, majesty.  But hold, a darker mare I see.  Rags cannot hold her ebony.  Alas, she is far more dark than thee."

The wicked alicorn's face screwed up in disgust.  "Alas for her!  Reveal her name."

"Coat as dark as midnight,

Mane filled with starlight,

Eyes radiant as twilight..."

Realization struck Nightmare Moon with momentary horror.  "Luna..."  She twisted away from the mirror and the zebra faded into the darkness, dismissed.  "Luna!"  She scowled.

Pillows rose from the bed and flung in all directions.  The furniture shook with her rage.

"I should have killed her.  No!"  One hoof scraped across the floor.  "You thought yourself so smart, didn't you?  Why kill her when you could turn her into labor?  Yes, so smart of you, your majesty.  Now what have you done!  She has grown up more beautiful than you.  If only you had killed her..."  She slowly walked over to the window.  "But it's not too late, is it?"

A gasp fell from her lips when she saw Celestia in the courtyard.

"The princess?  Here?!"  Her head jerked to the side.  "Chrysalis!"

A changeling crawled out from the shadows where she hid.  Her wings buzzed in anticipation.

"Get rid of this pest."

The changeling hissed a snicker.  She lifted from the ground and flew out the window, shifting into a large raven as she dive-bombed the white alicorn.

"What's this?"  Celestia jumped back to avoid the blow.  "No!  I will not leave!"

She tried to run to the door, but the raven swooped at her again.  She landed on the ground between her and the door and started to grow larger and more intimidating.

"Luna!!" Celestia cried desperately.  She tried to use her magic, but the shapeshifting raven seemed immune to it.

The giant raven reached out a claw and wrapped her sharp talons around the alicorn, then took flight.

"No!  Luna!"

Unfortunately, Luna was too deep within the castle to hear her once-sister's pleas.  She ran through the corridors to reach her mother's room.

"Mother!"  She burst in through the doors.  "Mother, the most wonderful thing just happened!"

Nightmare Moon was barely able to lift her wicked grin into a gentle smile.  "What is that, my pet?"

Luna hopped from hoof to hoof with excitement.  "I wished for a sister, and one appeared!  I-I know you told me never to talk to strangers, so I didn't, but oh, please let her stay!"

"Let who stay, little one?"  Nightmare Moon inclined her head to peer down her snout at the empty courtyard.  "I see no one."

"What?"  Luna hesitated, then trotted over.  Her ears fell to the sides.  "But, she was just there..."

"Oh, come now, don't cry.  Mother hates it when you cry."  She wrapped a foreleg around the other and pulled her close.  "Why don't you go into the forest and pick some wildflowers?  Perhaps if your figment reappears, you can coax her to stay with a gift."

"A gift?  Yes..."  She perked up.  "That's a wonderful idea!  Thank you, Mother!"

"Yes, yes.  Run along now.  Try not to wander too far."

"I won't!"  Luna ran for the door, bubbling with new excitement.

Nightmare Moon leaned against the window and watched the younger alicorn when she exited the castle.  At this point, Chrysalis had returned.  The queen smiled at her arrival.

"Is the brat princess gone?"

"Yes, my queen."  Chrysalis, still in the form of a raven, landed on the window sill.  "What would you ask of me next?"

"Follow our dear little Luna, to a secluded grove in the woods.  And there, my faithful changeling, you will kill her!"

The raven's beady eyes widened in shock.  "Kill the little princess?  But, your majesty-"

"Silence!"  Nightmare Moon stomped a hoof.  "You know the penalty if you fail."

The raven flinched away.  "Yes, your majesty."  She spread her wings and took flight once more.

It wasn't very difficult to find Luna in the forest.  The young alicorn galloped through the woods in search of the prettiest flowers she could find, plucking them and carrying them all with the aid of her magic.

"One song," she sang loudly and happily.  "I have but one song.  One song, only for you..."

Chrysalis had followed her, but the unprecedented joy in the younger's voice halted her.  Guilt crawled up from the depths of her heart, a feeling she had never felt before, and she stepped into the light.  "I can't!"  She bowed her head to the startled alicorn.  "I can't do it.  Forgive me.  I beg of your highness, forgive me."

Luna gathered the flowers she had dropped from her broken concentration.  She offered the changeling a soft smile.  "I don't understand."

Chrysalis shook her head.  "She's mad!  Jealous of you!  She'll stop at nothing!"

"But...  But who?"

"The queen!"

Luna blinked a few times.  "Mother?"  She shook her head.  "But why would she-"

"Quick, child!"  She pointed a foreleg at the woods.  "Run!  Run away, hide in the woods!  Anywhere!  And never come back!"

Luna hesitated.  The desperate sincerity in the changeling's voice gripped her heart and, feeling that she had no other choice, she swallowed her cries and nodded.  The flowers scattered as she finally obeyed and ran into the dark forest.

"Go!"  Chrysalis called after her.  "Run!"

Luna ran without knowing where she was going.  Eyes peered out at her from the shadows.  The darkness suffocated her and branches reached out to scrape along her face and sides, but she continued onward.

Why would her mother be jealous of her?  What had she done?

"Aahh!"  she screamed as she fell down a steep hill.

She tumbled head over hooves and landed at the bottom of the hill, sprawled, exhausted, and sore.  Finally, unable to run, she cried.

"Oh, what do you do when things go wrong?"

She pulled herself back up with a little strain.  Her legs hurt from the fall, but she forced herself onward.  In the darkness, she saw a distant light.  With no other options, she made her way toward that light.

Eventually, she reached a small cottage in the middle of a clearing.  It was an idyllic scene straight out of a picture, with green grass, colorful flowers, and a small stream with a bridge crossing over it.  For the moment, she felt at peace by the sight of it.

"Hello?"  she called.  She trotted up to the door and knocked on it.  "Is anypony home?"

The door squeaked open when she knocked.  She took a tentative step back, then stepped inside.

"Oh, my..."

The whole house was a disarray of mixed decorations.  It had an area that was perfectly neat, while another was covered in party decorations.  Yet another corner was stacked to the ceiling with books.  She walked through the main room with eyes wide in awe.

"It's as though there are many different personalities!  But all under one roof?"  She sat down in the center of the room and looked around.  "Some things are such a mess...  Perhaps I could tidy up just a bit and they will let me stay?"  Her horn glowed as she started to clean.

Elsewhere, in a nearby village, six mares set about their jobs, one aided by a young dragon.  Though almost all of them they were in separate places, the same tune kept their spirits up as they worked.

"We read,"  "help," "bake," "sew," "farm," "fly," "tend,"

"in our jobs the whole day through."

"To read,"  "help," "bake," "sew," "farm," "fly," "tend,"

"is what we like to do."

The end of the day came.  Each of the ponies met up at the center of the village.  The dragon rode on the purple unicorn's back.  Happy to see each other again after a long day of work, they trotted in a group toward their home.

"Neigh-ho, neigh-ho,

Neigh-ho, neigh,ho,

It's home from work we go!

Neigh-ho, neigh-"

Spike tugged on Twilight's mane like reigns to stop her.  The other mares crashed into each other from the sudden halt.

"Spike?!  What's the big idea?"

He pointed a claw ahead and stared with wide eyes.

Twilight followed where he was pointing.  She gasped.  "Look, girls!  The lit's light!  I mean, the light's lit!"

"Jiminy Cricket!"  Pinkie covered her mouth with both hooves.

"The door is open!"  Applejack stared, slack-jawed.

Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs over her chest.  "Mark my words, there's trouble a-brewin'.  Felt it comin' all day.  My hooves hurt."

Fluttershy looked at the other pegasus with concern.  "That's a bad sign..."

"What'll we do?"  they all asked in unison, save for Twilight and Spike.  "Let's sneak up on it!"

"Yes.  Ahem."  Twilight cleared her throat and put on a brave face.  "We'll squeak up- I mean sneak up.  Follow me."

Having to shh each other every few steps, they poorly sneaked up to their cottage.  One would step on a twig while another would bump into somepony and startle them.

Reaching the door, Twilight said, "Careful, girls.  Search every cook and nanny- uh, hook and granny- crooked fan-  Oh, just search everywhere."

The door slowly creaked open and they all gasped.

"My balloons have been inflated!"  Pinkie looked around with glee to see all of her balloons blown up and floating at various heights throughout the room.

"My books have been organized!"  Twilight ran her hoof along the books stacked on the shelves.

"Hey, somepony stole my apples!"

Pinkie giggled and opened the cupboard.  "They aren't stolen, they're hiding in the cupboard!"

Rarity looked with tired eyes at her sewing area, which had been left exactly as it was.  "Well, I seem to have everything in order."

Twilight frowned at the long table in the center of the room.  "Look what's happened to our stable- uh, our table."

Fluttershy gasped and squeaked happily, "Oh, flowers!"

Applejack lifted a hoof.  She waved it in Fluttershy's direction.  "No, don't do it!  Take 'em away!  My hay fever!  You know ah can't stand it!"

They heard a gentle creak from upstairs.

Twilight lifted her head to look at the ceiling.  "It's up there."

Fluttershy nodded.  "Y-yeah, in the bedroom."

"One of us has to go down and chase it up.  Uh, up, down."  Twilight looked at Spike.  "Here."  A broom lifted from the corner of the room and floated over to him, forcing itself into his hands.  "Take this.  Don't be nervous."  She nudged him toward and up the stairs.  "Don't be nervous; we're right behind you."

The mares followed a few steps behind Spike.  A soft yawn came from inside the bedroom and Spike tried to run back down the stairs, but they pushed him back to the landing.  He gulped, pushed the door all the way open with the broom, and tip-toed inside.

They saw a lump under the sheets of one of their beds.  They approached it carefully and quietly to surround it on all three sides.  Slowly, the corner of the blanket lifted up and Twilight gasped, losing her focus and dropping the sheet back down.

"Why, it's a-"

"What is it?"  Pinkie squeaked in a voice just above a whisper, her eyes wide.

"It's an alicorn!"

Luna, still asleep, rolled over, the sheets moving so that all could see her.

"She's mighty pretty," commented Applejack.

"Oh, she's beautiful."  Fluttershy smiled.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and turned away.  "Beautiful, hah!  She's an alicorn!  And all alicorns are poison.  They're full of wicked wiles!"

Fluttershy looked at Rainbow Dash, a bit of fear present on her expression.  "Wh-what are wicked wiles?"

"I don't know, but I'm against 'em."

Twilight raised a hoof to her lips.  "Shh!  You'll wake her."

"Aw, let her wake up!"  Rainbow dismissed her with a wave of one foreleg.  "She doesn't belong here anyhow!"

At the increased noise, Luna began to stir.

Applejack took a step back.  "Look out, she's movin'!"

Luna sat up, yawning, rubbing her eyes with one hoof.  She blinked a few times at the many faces peering at her and smiled.  "Oh!  Hello!  How do you do?"

Rainbow Dash frowned at her.  "How do you do what?"

Luna's smile brightened.  "I mean, how are you?"

"Bah."  The pegasus turned away again.

Twilight lifted both hooves onto the edge of the bed.  "Who are you?"

"Oh, how silly of me."  Luna crossed her hooves delicately in her lap.  "I'm Luna."

All of the mares gasped.  "Luna?  The princess?!"

Luna nodded.  "Why, yes, that's me."

Twilight dropped back onto all fours and bowed low.  The others, save for Rainbow, followed suit.

"We're honored, your majesty!"  Her head lifted to peer at her.  "But why are you here?"

Luna's smile fell.  Sadness overtook her expression.  "My mother, the queen...  She wants me dead."  Tears welled up in her eyes.  "I don't know why, but all of a sudden she tried to have me killed!  Please let me stay.  I have nowhere else to go."

Rainbow scoffed.  "If the queen finds her here, she'll swoop down and wreak vengeance on us!"

"But she doesn't know where I am."

Twilight moved to stand between Rainbow and Luna.  "Of course you can stay."

Luna beamed at them all.  "Thank you so much!"

Elsewhere, back in the castle, Nightmare Moon strode across her room with a wicked smile on her face.

"Magic mirror on the wall, who now is the darkest one of all?"

The green mist inside the glass swirled and Zecora's face appeared.  "Over the six jewelled hills, beyond the sixth fall, in the cottage of the six mares, dwells Luna, the darkest one of all."

Nightmare Moon's smile twitched.  "Luna lies dead in the forest.  Chrysalis has brought me proof.  Behold, her heart."  Her magic lifted a small lockbox and opened the lid.

"Luna still lives as the darkest in the land.  'Tis the heart of a pig you hold in your hand."

"The...  The what?"  The lockbox fell to the ground.  "The heart of a pig?  The blundering fool!"  She stormed out of the room and toward a spiral staircase leading down.  "I'll go myself!"  She quickened her pace. "To the mares' cottage, in a disguise so complete no one will ever suspect."  Her horn glowed with furious magic.  "Now, a formula to transform my beauty into ugliness..."

Her steps slowed until she stopped.  She closed her eyes and focused hard on the task before her.  A light blue aura seeped from her horn and began to swirl around her.  Where the aura touched, she changed, becoming old and frail.  Her mane of the night sky became grey and withered.  Her coat became pale and sickly.  She cackled, her voice now raspy and frail.

"A perfect disguise!  And now, a special death, for one so dark..."  She stepped out into the courtyard.  An apple from a nearby tree plucked from its branch and floated toward her.  It began to glow.  "A poisoned apple!  One taste and the victim's eyes will close... forever!"

Another menacing cackle echoed throughout the courtyard.

The mares and the dragon had finished their dinner.  They all sat around Luna, looking up at her in varying degrees of adoration, including Rainbow's disdain.

"Tell us a story," Rarity said in a wistful voice, her dreamy eyes sparkling.

"Yes!"  most of the others cried.  "Tell us a story!"

Pinkie giggled.  "A true story."

Fluttershy hid her flushed cheeks behind a hoof.  "A love story..."

Luna thought carefully.  "Well, once there was a lonely princess..."

"Was the princess you?"  Twilight crossed her forelegs over one another and rested her chin on them.

"And she found a sister."

"Was it hard ta do?"

"Oh, it was very easy.  Anypony could see that the sister was perfect.  The only one for me."

"Was she kind?  Was she caring and smart?"

"There's nopony like her... Anywhere at all."  Luna sighed.

"Did she say she loved you?"

Luna looked out the window at the starry sky.  "She was so amazing, I could not resist..."  Her eyes closed slowly, a smile on her lips.

"Some day, my sister will come

Some day, we'll meet again

And away to her castle we'll go

To be happy forever, I know."

Rainbow rolled her eyes.  "Hah!  Mush."

The others glared at her and she huffed indignantly.

Luna's eyes blinked back open.  "Oh!  It's far past bed time.  You all must get your sleep to rise early in the morning."

They started to climb the stairs, but Twilight stopped them.

"The princess should have our beds upstairs," she said.

"But where will you sleep?"  Luna tilted her head.

"Oh, we'll be quite comfortable down here."  She looked at the other ponies with a serious expression.  "Isn't that right, girls?"

Rarity looked even more displeased than Rainbow Dash.  "But I need my beauty sleep!"

Applejack nudged her with one leg.  "Ahem!"

Rarity rolled her eyes, as did Rainbow, but they said nothing as the others chimed, "We'll be just fine!"

Luna started for the stairs.  "Well, if you're all sure, then...  Good night, everypony."

She smiled down at all of them before she walked into the bedroom and shut the door behind her.  She sat down on her haunches beside the window and pressed her forehooves together.

"Bless these six mares, and their dragon, too, who have been so kind to me.  And may my dreams come true."  She looked up at the starry sky with a hopeful smile, then dropped her head back down.  "Oh, and please make Rainbow Dash like me, too."  before she climbed into one of the beds.

In the morning, Luna stood by the door to see all of them off to work.  Twilight stood beside her to give her a thorough warning.

"Now, don't forget, your majesty.  The old queen's a sly one.  Full of witchcraft, so beware of strangers."

Luna nodded.  "I'll be all right."

Applejack stopped to give her a warning of her own.  "Be awful careful, 'cause if anythin' were to happen t'ya, I-... I-...!"  Her nose twitched back and forth.  "Be sure to watch ou-  t'watch ou-  t'wa-choo!"  She sneezed into her hoof.

"Bless you."  Luna giggled.  "I'll be fine, I promise."

They all started off in single file, singing as they went, "Neigh-ho, neigh-ho..."

"Good-bye!  Good-bye, everypony!"  Luna waved from the door.  She was startled when Rainbow Dash suddenly stalked out of the house, clearing her throat.

"Now, I'm warning you."  The pegasus had her arms crossed, head inclined so she was looking anywhere but at the alicorn.  "Don't let nopony or nothin' into the house."

Luna's face lit up.  "Why, Rainbow Dash, you do care!"

"Whatever!"  After stealing a quick glance up at her, Rainbow dashed away to catch up with the others.

"Good-bye, Rainbow Dash!"  Luna leaned against the doorway and gave a heavy, happy sigh as she watched them disappear behind the rolling hills.

Lurking in the shadows at the edge of the forest, Nightmare Moon hobbled along with her saddlebags full of apples.  "The little mares will be gone away, and she'll be all alone with a harmless old peddler mare."  She snickered to herself.  "Harmless...  Hah!"

She limped into the light and up the path.  As she drew closer, she heard Luna singing as she worked in the kitchen, the window open to let in the fresh air.

"Some day my sister will come...  Some day we'll meet again..."

"All alone, my pet?"  Nightmare Moon asked in a haggard voice, startling the princess.

"Oh!"  Luna nearly dropped the pie tin she was carrying.  "Why- why yes I am, but-"

The false peddler took a deep inhale through her nose.  "Making pies?"

"Yes, gooseberry pies."  She smiled innocently.

"Bah!  It's apple pies that makes the ponyfolks' mouths water.  Pies made from apples like this."  She turned to face her side to Luna and nudged the flap open to expose the apples in one of her saddlebags.

"Oh, they do look delicious."  Luna leaned out through the window to get a better look.

"Yes!  But wait 'til you taste one, dearie."  She held up an apple in one hoof.  "Like to try one?"

The apple lifted from her hoof as Luna's horn glowed.  Her bright eyes seemed to reflect the shiny red apple as they widened in awe.

"That's it.  Go on."  The wicked queen leaned in with hunger in her own eyes.  "Take a bite."

"Just one bite..."  Luna smiled.

The apple drew closer.  Her lips parted.  The sound of the crisp peel broken by her teeth resounded throughout the forest, which otherwise fell silent.

"Oh..."  Luna's smile dropped.  Her legs wobbled.  "Oh, I feel strange."

Nightmare Moon's disguise faded and her cackle rose out, sinister and foul as Luna fell to the ground.  "And now I am the darkest in all the land!"

"No!  I won't let that happen!" came a loud, regal voice from the forest.

"Wha-"

Celestia flew out from the darkness and knocked Nightmare Moon to the ground.  She put a threatening hoof at her throat.  "I won't let you take my sister away again!"

Nightmare Moon looked up at the princess with a panicked look that twisted into a smirk.  "You're too late.  She's gone."  She laughed.  "She's gone forever!"

Celestia's horn glowed.  "For your crimes against Equestria and the crown, I banish you, wicked queen!"  A blinding beam of light exploded from the white horn.

The dark alicorn screamed as she disappeared into the light.  Celestia was left standing alone outside the cottage.  The forest went still and quiet.

"Luna?"  she called softly.  "Luna, please..."  She stepped into the cottage and fell to her knees beside the motionless body of her sister.  "Oh, Luna..."

She pulled her sister's head into her lap and stroked her mane with a trembling hoof. The pain and loneliness of the thousands of days they had spent apart bubbled up in her chest and she cried.  There was no truer love than the one that brought forth her tears, which fell down her cheeks.

Pit.  Pat.  Pit pat.  Pit pat.

The sound of her tears landing on Luna's chest filled the still air, followed by the startling sound of moaning.  Celestia paused when she realized it wasn't her own ragged breathing causing the moans.  She slowly opened her eyes to see Luna staring up at her.

"S-sister?"

"Luna?!"

The alicorns embraced, more tears flowing freely, but this time they were fueled by joy.

Reunited, and with Luna's memories returned, the princesses went to the nearby village to bring the good news and the first of many celebrations were held in that tiny village of Ponyville.  The six mares (and one dragon) were rewarded generously for aiding Luna in her time of need before the sisters returned to Canterlot, where they lived happily ever after, never to be parted again.