The Moon Ponies

by kad1097

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure
Length: 1514

Luna's account of her thousand-year banishment

After being banished from Equestria by her sister, Princess Luna finds herself face-to-face with a race of pony nopony has ever heard of. Naturally, the Moon Ponies are loyal to the Princess of the Night from the moment she arrives.

Or, at least that's what she expects. To her displeasure, it seems the loyalty she desires so much lies elsewhere. Can she win over her new subjects with time? Or will she pledge her own loyalty to the Moon Queen?

Or, will her pride lead her down a darker path?

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-02-18 03:47:10 UTC

Prologue: A New Home

Day 1: We have arrived in a desolate location which we at first presumed our sister has control over, for it would not make much sense for her to send us somewhere we control. However, we can see our beloved Equestria and Celestia's beloved sun from our new home; therefore, unless there is another mass in the sky, we have been banished to our moon.

We are displeased with our sister. She has once again underestimated and overlooked our love for Equestria. When we refused to lower our moon, she assumed that we were acting purely in selfishness. She could not be more wrong. We are simply unhappy that her day is celebrated by everypony, but our night is regarded as nothing more than a time for quiet and rest. We shall find a way to escape the confinement of the moon and show Equestria that our night can be just as wonderful as our sister's day. We will bring to them everlasting night and they shall be forever pleased with us.

That is, of course, assuming there is a way to leave. We have tried to fly, but we were unable to ascend more than a few feet as we were stopped by some sort of barrier which was unaffected by our magic. Perhaps over the next few days, we shall roam our moon and find an exit. Otherwise, we fear we shall be stuck here for a very long time.

And indeed, we were stuck for a very long time. One thousand years, to be precise. We documented every day of it, even if only to keep track of how long we were alone. Most days of the first few centuries were exactly the same as it did not take long for us to give up hope of leaving. But, our little ponies, we did meet other ponies who inhabited our moon, at which point we began to write in order to remember, not to pass time. The ponies of the moon did not live on the moon in the same way as the ponies of  Equestria, but rather inside the moon. These ponies helped us to find our way back to our true home and we are eternally grateful to them.

Our story is not the story of our escape or our reason for betraying our sister and our subjects, but rather the story of how we became one with the moon and its people.

Chapter 1: A New Realm

Day 124,658: Finally, after nearly three and a half centuries of isolation, we have met another pony...

"Why dost thou not grovel before us, young colt?" we demanded. We realize now that we could have greeted the colt by other means, but we had not been so blatantly ignored ever in our life. The startled colt galloped away as quickly as he could. Offended, we followed him, demanding the typical greeting given to royalty, which we were obviously accustomed to. Eventually, the colt abruptly halted and slammed his hoof into the ground. We were quite startled, as the colt, who appeared to be a simple earth pony, sank into the ground. We tried to imitate him, to no avail. We laid down and put our head in our hooves. We shed a single tear, which was all we could manage at that moment.

         Soon after, we jumped up to our hooves in shock. A mare and stallion, who we presumed were a couple, rose from nearly the exact same spot into which the colt had sunk.

         "Our son told us there was a scary mare up here," the stallion informed us. He smiled apologetically, as did his wife. "I do hope he didn't give you any trouble."

"No, kind stallion," we assured him. Their manes almost seemed to fly backward from the force of our voice and their eyes widened. "However, he did not bow before us as he should have. Hast thou not taught thy child how to greet royalty? And why dost thou not bow before us either?"

         "Royalty?" the mare inquired, confusion taking over her expression. "Why, the only royalty we have here is Queen Nocta. I didn't know she had any family."

"We do not know anything of thy queen. We wish to meet her. We order you to take us to her at once." The couple looked at each other with eyebrows raised. "Dost thou dare defy thy Princess of the Night, thy Goddess of the Moon?" In our anger, we spread our wings and allowed our magic to flow freely. The couple, still uncertain, lowered their heads in a slight bow, intimidated by our magic. We sensed we had gained their loyalty, but despite our progress, we did not feel pleased. We still have trouble placing our hoof on why exactly, but we believe that it had to do with how we gained these subjects. We have never wished to rule through fear, but we had always been okay with it if it ensured our subjects would remain loyal. Our anger left us and we folded our wings back in. The couple lifted their heads slowly, the shock in their eyes replaced with pure terror.

         "Your Highness," the mare began with a shaky voice, "I fear the Queen is not usually open to visitors. I will do everything I can to help you, but for now, it seems all I can do is offer you shelter at my home." Her husband opened his mouth to protest, but no sound would leave it.

"We thank thee for thine offer. Thou art indeed a gracious couple. Now, gentle mare, tell us how we may find thy home." We pounded our hoof into the ground, punctuation our order. The couple, clearly already desensitized to our royal habits, did not so much as flinch.

         "Well.. I-I suppose the best way w-would be to," the mare hesitated between every word, considering her options. With a sigh, she continued, "hold on to my mane." We were shocked at her uncouth suggestion and took a step back in horror.

"Art thou suggesting that we put thy - thy hair in our mouth?" The mare, sensing our uncertainty, quickly apologized before informing us that we were, in fact, correct. We reluctantly did as she had directed and watched as she stomped her hoof on the ground, releasing a spark if energy and sending us slowly sinking into the moon.

         Gravity seemed to work in strange ways within the moon. We have been accustomed to defying gravity since we were a filly, but we had never floated aimlessly. We looked down upon streets littered with common ponies gaping at us. Of course. We were unfamiliar and strange to them, in part due to our wings and horn that every one of them lacked along with the bold colors of our coat, a striking contrast to their pale and pastel colors. But of course, what most set us apart was our lack of control over gravity, for nopony else was floating. We used our magic to steady and lower ourself, stopping with our hooves still several yards above the ponies and spread our wings.

"Citizens, behold thy Princess of the Night!" A few ponies began to laugh, while others stomped their hooves, unwilling to to bow to us. "Why dost nopony acknowledge our status? Thou art truly disrespectful!"

"Listen, lady," one of the ponies, a dusty silver stallion just past his prime, started slowly, "You may be royalty where you come from, but Queen Nocta will have your head if she hears you've been claiming titles here."

"Nopony would dare separate our head from our body. The very idea is simply ludicrous!"

"Wouldn't put it past the Queen." Several ponies murmured in agreement. We placed our hooves on the ground and turned to the two subjects we had claimed thus far.

"Kind couple, take us to thy home." The couple nodded to each other and started walking. We followed close behind. Soon, we arrived at an admittedly tiny home, only a small fraction of the size of our chambers at our castle alone.

"We appreciated thy generosity, kind couple," we mentioned as we were led into the house, "and we have just realized that we do not know thy names. Please, enlighten us." The couple's eyes lit up. The mare was the first to find her voice and speak.

"I am Beam and my husband, who seems to be having a bit of trouble with words right now, is Stone. Our son, who you met earlier, is Light. He's in bed, but I suspect he'll be excited to meet you tomorrow."

"Princess Luna," Stone breathed with little to no trouble regarding his words, "today must have been exhausting. Would you like me to show you to the spare bedroom?"

"Yes, thank you," we replied, forgetting our tradition volume. "But tell us, you did you know our name? We did not tell thee." Stone grinned.

"I will explain in due time, Princess. For now, rest."