Author's Note

Bested by insomnia again Idk it's been like 8 years for this one

Read it I guess?

The flesh is willing: the mind is not

Flames sputtering about the castles interrior could be seen as fireworks to those around; if any pony were still there to witness them. Not on this day or any further, would ponies of any kind, griffins, mermaids, dragons... None would ever witness this poor queens last few hours. Even if they did, she doubts they would care what she was to do.

There in the throne room, alone forever more, apart from her own minds Nightmare, Luna, the last serving member of the royal family sat in her busted chair... hoping for the end.

"You know, my dearest friend..." Luna, lost in her emotional last few moments, having broken her already fragile mind, spoke to her trapped doppelganger.

"Yessss... Luna?" She seethed through her ethral teeth, at this moment ready for her own finale.

"You've hated this land for eons... And I've truly never understood why. The ponies, they tormented us... I hated them for our long imprisonment, for the pain and COMPLETE disappointment we felt when returning." Luna's eyes were shining from the reflection of the growing flames; hopeful, pleading. Never happy, or content, simply sorrowful and apologetic for not creating this timber sooner. "I felt joy for the first time in millenia when sister touched us once more. When we saw the world itself for the first time in centuries... But you?" She spit at Nightmare.

"I lived and continue to do so BECUASE they were WEAK." She spat back at the sorrowful elder queen. "You accepted that they hated you- US - you accepted that sister threw us to the side for that... That... PURPLE SCHOLAR."

Luna, in her last minutes, for the first time in nearly six thousands years; smiled at the mention of Twilight Sparkle.

"You mean Magic?" She grinned with her split teeth showing prominently. "Sparkle... The only student sister had cared for as our own." Luna, gapping out into her memories as the flames grew high, slowly but surely nearing the tips of the thrones legs.

"You still remember her name... And the GRACE she was bestowed instead of US?!?!" Nightmare was taking her down a road. Trying anything to weaken the wall between the star speckled mares mind and the true world.

Deeply sighing into her steadily falling tears with a truly beautiful smile strewn onto her muzzle, she spoke. "Yes, Nightmare Moon... I remember them all." Pressing into her chest, she tapped the various necklaces adorned over her body, the very elements themselves, the only powers left in the Equestrian World now. The powers Nightmare needed. "Twilight Sparkle... Magic. Kind, intelligent, hopeful yet lost in her own life. Pinkamena Diane Pie... Joy. Infinitely happy, the best friend of all, only needing the smiles of others to carry her will..."

"Joy was the worst of them..." Nightmare began chiming in as Luna recanted these heros of Equis.

"Rainbow Dash... Loyalty. Arrogant, quick minded, and above all; there for anypony at a seconds notice..." As she named these long deceased creatures, she tapped her hoof on their respectful charms. "Rarity... Generosity. Prim, proper, yet never caring to throw them aside if it meant helping another."

"You may stop at any moment, you're aware?" Her dark sulken friend let her know.

"We have minutes, Moon. Let us remember the creatures that saved us from you... At least once." Exhaling, she continued as her smile grew more frightening, feeling the heat of fire on her hooves. "Fluttershy... Kindness incarnate. Frail, fearful, the only being I'd witnessed save a beast from another, for the sake of them both. Applejack Apple... Honesty. Tough, fair, never afraid to let you know when you'd made a mistake, or might be doing so..."

Luna clung there with her head hung low, unable to carry the weight of her insurmountable depression any longer. This was her final minute. If there were any clocks left without her hooves broken through them, they might have been helpful for her to watch them tick down to her demise.

"Loneliness is the only thing we have in common, Luna." Nightmare happened to soften her hellish voice.

The downtrodden mares ears fell flat to her head, "We have more in common than that." They were honest. Why not be at the very end? "You wished for happiness, for friends, for love and understanding... We hoped one day you would leave this plane amused with it. Not a mongrel terrified of it..."

"We wanted..." Her voice was wavering now, fearful their existence may very well be near a gruesome end. "We wanted you safe..."

Luna's hooves now tingling, the scorching heat of the eternal sun, setting upon them for the last time. "Saftey was for foals, Moon." Her tears flowing freely as a waterfalls torrent, "Happiness and sorrow, hoof in hoof..."

"The moon itself held more joy than this ball of dirt, Luna. We could leave. We could let this world die and watch th-"

The flames had reached her fur, igniting the painful flesh of the empty mare. Alone.

"W..w..ee.." She fought through the agony, screaming internally to her last familiar memory. "WE... MUST..." They were both screaming now, nothing left to hold them at bay, no pony or critter alive to witness their howling. This was it.

Staring at her night sky twinkling dimly with the last few stars she could muster, dancing by her adored moon through the hole in the palace ceiling, Luna felt at ease. Nightmare did not.

Laying a calm expression on her muzzle, Luna's last words spoken aloud, were simply-

"You were never real, were you?"

The usual echoing of the nightmarish creatures voice was absent. Nothing left, nothing ever being there.

She had always been alone.