Fly Me to The Moon

Act 1: Dawn of an Era

When Princesses Celestia and Luna first took their thrones, everypony in Equestria fell somewhere on the spectrum of elated relief and anxious trepidation. Indeed, the two diametrically opposed emotions were not even mutually exclusive on some ponies' parts. They bore with them strange powers to which they had referred as the Elements of Harmony, and each could raise and lower the Sun or Moon at will, without the help of the rituals that once required dozens of powerful unicorns working as one. This, incidentally, was a threat to the unicorns' place in pony society. The ability to control the celestial bodies was the breed's primary contribution to Equestria, and the only weight they had to throw into interbreed disputes. Another worry was that such power had gained authority before, become or proven corrupted, and made life miserable for everypony. The fact that these two had defeated each of these other corrupted powers in turn did little to ease the tension, since it illustrated that they had far more strength than any prior threat to ponykind, and where there was little hope for a successful rebellion against the likes of Discord and King Sombra, there was absolutely none for the event that the Princesses should also prove to have dark hearts.

Fortunately, this was revealed to not be the case as of yet. Princesses Celestia and Luna reigned with benevolence, grace, and kindness; although the elder sister did on occasion display an interest in having fun at the expense of others, it was never anything serious or lasting. So it was that the ponies of Equestria slept peacefully at night for once in their lives, knowing that such caring monarchs held sway over their skies. It was, ironically, here that the seeds of a real problem were sown. In light of the Royal Sisters' power and the fact that it was widely believed that nopony would dare risk threatening the peace they brought, a Royal Guard had not yet been established. During the day, this absence of arms and armor combined with Celestia's glowing presence made for a warm, welcoming environment within the castle walls. However, at night under Luna's reign, with nopony else awake to come visit, it made for a very empty and isolating atmosphere.

Luna, aware of her elder sister's growing fondness for pranks as an escape from the tedium of her new-found royal duties and the grating nature of the upper crust of pony society, took it upon herself to start setting up little scare traps in various places around the castle. Celestia was elated at the new game, after her initial fright of course, and Luna was happy that in this way she could reconnect with her sister, her one and only companion for much of her life. She didn't want to admit it, but the young Princess had felt a rift growing between them due to their differing waking hours. So while Celestia spent the day steeped in administration and general government work, Luna spent the night making sure that her elder sister didn't lose herself to the position.

One evening, looking up at the sky she reigned, barely lit as it was by the moon, Luna remembered how much the ponies of the land loved to look up at the clouds made in a joint effort between Celestia and the pegasi and make games of trying to see images in their shapes. She also remembered that, with her elder sister growing increasingly preoccupied with the tasks of rulership and the pegasi being horribly practically-minded, the clouds had taken on a tendency for rather boring shapes. Which in turn cost the ponies one of their precious few sources of entertainment, and as the bearer of the Element of Laughter, Luna could not abide by that.

So it was that she decided to give everypony a new reason to look up at the sky. With that thought in mind, over the course of the night, she took some of the Moon's light and scattered it across the sky in tiny points of light that varied in intensity. With great care, she pushed, pulled, and dispersed these pinpoints of light until the brighter ones made vague shapes that were somewhat hidden by the dimmer ones. The Sun peeked over the horizon, at once obscuring her little lights and indicating that her elder sister had awakened and was expecting her to lower the Moon, which she did. Luna resigned herself to showing Celestia, to showing everypony the fruit of her artistic labors in the heavens, once Celestia had retired the Sun for the day. Luna was about to go and meet Celestia for their traditional twilight greeting, but a silhouette against the rising sun caught her eye. Immediately taken by curiosity, Luna trotted over to the silhouette and saw that it was a rather unusual-looking pegasus, one which did not seem overly fond of her sister's charge. When the pegasus saw her, he gave her a short bow before addressing her in a gravely serious tone.

"Beloved Princess of the Night. Please forgive this humble servant's request, but we have dire need of thy aid." the areion spoke.

"Do not fret, little one." Luna said, trying to get into the persona which the unicorns of Canterlot had built up for her, adjusting her stance to appear dominant and regal while trying to find a balance between talking down to her subject and showing that she really did care. For the first time in her life, she resented Celestia just a little, because the same demands were not made of her. "Thy pleas do not fall upon deaf ears. We would hear this dire need you have of us, and if we can, we will provide you this aid."

"You honor and grace me with your regard, Your Majesty," the areion responded, bowing lower now that he knew for certain that this was not just another royal demanding respect, but one who might just be interested in actually earning it. "It is about the Moon, Your Grace. Your servants have accepted your power to make it rise and fall at your command, and it is a mighty power indeed, Your Highness. I only ask, however, if you might know what terrors lurk on your Moon, claiming it as their territory and home, and from there, haunting the nights and very dreams of everypony across Equestria?"

"Show us." Luna said, scowling independently of her sister for the first time in her life. She was sorry she would have to give up their meetings, but if what this little bat-winged pegasus claimed was true, then taking effort to maintain their relationship was just going to have to wait.