Fallen Kingdom

I didn't dare tell anyone about my encounter with my friends in the Realm of Magic. In fact, come to think of it, it was probably just a terrible, terribly hallucination. Yes, that's it. I had convinced myself of this lie, saying that it was the heady scent of power that weighted me down in that safe haven that made me think I was seeing my friends. After a month, I had all but forgotten that memory and moved on to happier times, where I would be at peace.

Maybe it was Celestia's mane or the way Luna cringed whenever her older sister walked by, but I was slowly growing uneasy. As the Equestrian Historian Princess, I had then dedicated myself to learning about alicorns. Mostly about how they aged.

"Luna!" I called out one day. I was in thew Starswirl the Bearding wing of the palace library. I had found something rather remarkable, I'd already known it, but yet there was a hidden message that Starswirl himself had hidden deep in the text.

The midnight-blue princess wafted into the room, hovering slightly. Her mane drifted around her withers like starry blue smoke, and I found myself lost in its depths.

"Twilight," Luna said, coughing lightly. "You needed me?" I jumped.

"Oh! Yes, of course! You see, I found this scroll containing information on alicorns. It was written by-"

Luna raised a hoof. "You understand, Twilight, that anything written by Starswirl is nothing but a theory? He lived back in the olden days, when everypony spoke in the way I did before Nightmare Night. Alicorns hadn't even existed then. I don't even think we existed," she told me gently.

"I know. Just listen, though. Please?" Without waiting for a response, I shot forward in my findings, quoting directly from the text at times.

"Alicorns, the mots powerful of us pony-folk, are creatures who have been bestowed celestial or astrological powers of the world in which we inhabit. They have the power to raise the sun and the moon, to command the earth below our hooves to move, and raise the water in the oceans and lakes as pegasi do. 'I know all of this because I have seen it. I have found a heaven in which death is not necessary to access, and in which I was granted wings, though I fear that they are no use, as I am in my final stages of life.'" I paused for effect.

"Starswirl found the portal to the Realm of Magic, where he was turned into an alicorn by an unknown entity who looked like a massive expanse of stars... there were so many stars that it looked as if 'the night had been used as a cloak'. After he was given wings, Starswirl saw, in one of the windows, two young fillies with wings and horns playing together. One rose the sun, the other the moon. Stawswril then left the Realm, and died before he could return. In another scroll, it says that he faded away. It was his beard first, then his horn, then his wings, and then the rest of his body faded soon after, according to witnesses." I looked at Luna.

"Twilight, as you know, Tia was not born an Alicorn. I was. And yet she is the one who wields the most power. It is because of this that I have held my jealousy get the best of me. That was only once. Once. And now, I'm still jealous." She looked out the window, across the gardens, out towards the horizon.

"I envy her because, even though she was not born an alicorn, she has enough power on her own to move the sun. I can only lift the moon. I'm jealous because she gets to leave this world sooner than I do. She has come to accept the fact that she won't be here for much longer. I have noticed that her horn has gotten shorter."

"Her wisdom has always been greater than mine. She has always known more magic, always found a way around war. I fear, Twilight, that when she is gone... when she's gone, I won't be able to channel her ability to make peace and friends. I fear that my destructive impatience will destroy everything my dear sister has made.

"So yes, I know about how Starswirl died an alicorn. I know that my sister will die, too. I know that you will inherit the world as we know it... and I know that I, Luna, will die before my sister."

***

Luna wasn't wrong. She began fading to silver, too. Her mane was gone in a day, her tail was gone, too. Her horn was shrinking. She stayed tucked away in her room in the tower, desperate for peace and quiet. I knew she was being ravaged by terrible migraines... but that didn't stop me from going up to talk to her one last time.

"Luna, I only have one question for you," I said. She nodded weakly. Her eyes were closed, and her breath was ragged and shallow.

"You said that you were scared of ruling the kingdom after Celestia died. But then you said you knew you'd be gone first. That's a big contradiction..." I trailed off, and Luna smirked.

"Sometimes, Twilight, you don't know something until after you have contradicted that knowledge. Now, this is the last you'll see of me, weak and small. Please, tell me something before I go." I nodded weakly, fighting the tears that I hadn't known were welling up behind my eyes.

"When you became an alicorn, what did you feel?" She asked.

"Unending joy," I said without hesitation.

"Could you give that to me? Find a memory, a really good one. Just give me my joy so that I can be happy when I move on." I thought for a moment, and nodded again, consenting. Luna extended her neck towards me, and I touched my horn to her bare forehead and began my search.

It was as if I was in the Realm of Magic. All of her memories splayed out before me, and all of them were fading quickly. I sifted through them with my magic. After a few minutes of searching, I found one. A young black colt with pretty green eyes a long horn, and little wings flapped up next to Luna's flank. He grinned and hopped about her, cheering at his success at a spell. Luna leaned down to nuzzle the coat, saying: "I'm so proud, Sombra. You'll make a great prince, someday." I blinked. Sombra? An alicorn? I didn't care, though. A good memory was a good memory, no matter who was in it.

I returned back to the outer world and brought the memory to the surface of Luna's mind. She chuckled.

"Can you believe it?" She asked. "Sombra had such potential. But then he met Chrysalis, and he learned dark magic... he learned how to change his appearance and... I had to take away his wings and his horn. When his wings left, smokey red and black shadows helped him fly. His normal horn was replaced by that- that thing you saw long ago in the Crystal Empire.

"But he was so handsome as a colt. When he got older, I taught him more magic and flying. He was the best student I had. I was so proud. Pity he can't be here today. I'd always asked him if one day he would consider being my son. I hadn't adopted him, he didn't want me to. But when he was older, I asked. One day, he said yes, and the deal was done. The very next day, he went missing...." Luna sniffed.

"This was a good memory. Thank you, Twilight Sparkle." I nodded and left.

"And Twi?" She asked. I noticed her use of my nickname.

"Yes, Luna?"

"Please call me Lulu."

"Okay... Lulu."

And with that, she was gone. Drifting away in a wind that tore open the windows and came to get her silver soul, pure and clean. There was no tinge of Nightmare Moon. I smiled through my tears as I watched the wind carry Lulu's soul upwards, towards the rising moon.