Luna sat down in her throne in the royal sisters castle. It was like any other day, nothing to do until sundown. She turned to her loyal assistant, Sharp Flint, and requested him to go get her the daily newspaper. He nodded, and teleported himself in a shimmer of sparkles. Oh how boredom overwhelmed her during the day. She did not sleep all day as you would expect for a pony who stayed up all night, for she had been dreading closing her eyes this last year. Nightmares. That was all she ever had, and she even had been to the physiatrist to see if there was anything that she could do for her. All the response was was a bottle of capsules, to ease the mind. They were useless. Everything was useless. Even when she requested Celestia to sleep with her for comfort, it did nothing. The nightmares weren't what worried her though, it was the fact that everything seemed so real in the dreams. To real to be true.
She then wondered what was taking Sharp Flint so long. As if her thoughts commanded it, Flint came bursting in through the doors. With being out of breath, his words were hard to understand.
"S-S-S-Celesti-ia requests *gasp* your presence immediately!"
Luna turned her head in surprise, before asking him;
"WHERE, PRAY TELL, HAS THUS BEEN! COULDN'T THOU HAVE TELEPORTED HERE! AND WHERE DOES FELLOW SISTER REQUEST MY PRESENCE?"
Flint smiled sheepishly, before telling her to meet Celestia in the Library. Luna gracefully glided through the hall, and levitated the newspaper from Flint's saddle. Celestia must have something important to say to her. And sure enough, Celestia was 'absorbed' in a book, meaning she didn't want to tell her what she had to. Luna coughed to gain attention, and Celestia turned her head towards her, pretending to be surprised. She put down her book and stood up, towering above Luna. She hated that. It seemed to make Celestia the bigger one, the better one, the one the ponies loved. And then there was Luna. No pony whatsoever. Regardless of Celestia's pose, Luna let her speak. With a sigh, she began.
"Luna, I apologise for this, but the honest truth is no pony likes your night. I mean, why not sleep when desired, or play in the beautiful sun when desired? The night is, no offence, useless. It is time I put my loyal subjects out of misery, and make all-time day time."
Luna's right eye twitched with anger, and Celestia tensed, waiting to call her guards if it got out of hand. But the sheet of anger disappeared from Luna's face, and she sighed.
"I presume thou is right..."
Celestia smiled.
"NOPONY LIKES MY NIGHT! AND I WILL MAKE THEM PAY!"
Luna grew taller, and changed her shade of deep purple to navy blue. Her eyes became like slits, and her teeth were like that of a lion. A lion ready to attack it's prey. Somewhere, deep inside the monster, a young filly was screaming, needing to turn back to her original state. But the young filly grew tired, and whispered with a hoarse throat.
"Sister, please, save me, take away the nightmares, take away the moon, and most importantly, stop the monster I have became, Nightmare moon..."
Luna woke up. She realised she had been dreaming, again. They seemed to have just got worse. She saw that she had been asleep for awhile, for Celestia's sun began to drop to make way for her moon. One day, she feared the sun would never move. She had to tell someone before she raised the moon. Not Sharp Flint, he'd just tell all of his friends anyway, not Celestia,,for she'd never understand. But that did leave one pony...
Starswirl was in the laboratory underneath the castle of the two sisters, mixing a potion to heal the new disease, the cutie pox. Then Luna burst in, ran up to him, knocked all the ingredients over, yet Starswirl still managed to remain calm. He turned to Luna, wondering what had got her so clumsy. She blurted out all her nightmares, her fears, and her deepest, darkest secrets. When she was all done, Starswirl looked suprised. He suddenly seemed to light up, and lead the way down a mysterious archway. Luna was confused what this had to do with anything, and why they were even down here. Starswirl lit up his horn,revealing a pond.
"This is a pond that has revealed many things to me, and it will reveal something to you. It cannot prevent 'Nightmare moon' yet it can keep her from returning after you. Look inside and all will be explained."
With a doubtful expression Luna looked into the pond. She saw a filly, covered in mud shivering in a small cardboard box. A family of pegasi take her in, and give her a bath. To their surprise, it is an alicorn. Luna got a sudden feeling she was her daughter, and continued watching. The alicorn filly grew up to be the head of Equestria, after Luna and her sister both die. Her speed, her strength, her generosity, her kindness, and her boldness shined across the land, giving no reason for anypony to feel negative thoughts. Her line lasted forever, and she became the greatest mare who ever lived. Luna gasped in suprise, and turned to Starswirl, knowing he hadn't seen any of it. She opened her mouth to speak, but Starswirl silenced her.
" Whatever you saw in the pond is none of my business, so do not inform me of what it was you saw."
Luna nodded, and walked up back to the throne room.
Then the years went on, Nightmare moon came, Celestia banished her, cities grew around Canterlot, and the sisters castle was moved after being invaded by plants. Twilight became Celestia's personal student, she grew up, became a princess, and time still went on. Yet Luna never gave in. Her daughter would come.
Mrs. StarDance slowly went down the register at Canterlot primary, boring the Y6's as she went down. With her mumbled tone, she
Began to call out the O's.
"Owl Eyes?"
"Here!"
Called the unusually big eyed colt.
"Pair Matcher? Pear Drop? Pen Pal?"
One by one, the pupils responded. Towards the back, a filly was reading a magazine.
"Perfect Stitch?"
The filly with the magazine began to respond, but a sideways chair leg caused her to topple over onto the floor. Everypony else began to laugh, that is apart from the teacher. She walked over in her high-horseshoes and towered above Perfect Stitch. In a highly non-amused voice, she began to speak:
"Miss. Stitch, it is taught in Y3 to keep all four legs of a chair on the floor. How is it that when you are in a class that is double that you still fall over?"
Perfect explained that the only reason she fell was that she had tried to lean over her desk to see the front of the class, but Mrs. Stardance, being very hard to sway from her own opinion, did not believe her. The bell rang for next lesson, and Stardance went up to the white board to begin the math session. Song Lyric, the filly sitting next to Perfect and the most annoying girl in the class began to jeer at her.
"Not so 'Perfect' now, are you?"
Perfect rolled her eyes and decided to concentrate on the lesson.
When Water Droplet set out, it was already dark. Her job was to collect water from the local stream every night for her sick Mother. It was dangerous, having to cross through Poison Joke and nettles, but if she ever wanted her Mum to get better, this was the way. She knew the route fairly well now, and she dodged the moving cabs with ease. But Manehattan was not a place to think you know completely. Not with a new building popping up every week. It was expanding into Tick Tock woods, a place where time seems to stop. It was there where the river was, but soon a building will probably be in its place. Soon they will stop Water's Mum's life source. A sudden splash of mud came over her as a out of control cab roared past. In anger, she shouted after the driver using unladylike words. But the cab was already half a mile away, so she continued to walk. Then she heard it. A cough. She turned around to see a filly caught by the same mud splash. Though it was hard to tell what condition she was in because of the mud, Water Droplet could see that she was bleeding. In a attempt to get the filly to safety, she abandoned going to the river and went straight home.
Opon arriving at her abode, Water Droplet set the filly down onto the floor. Her Mother was upstairs in bed, and her father was not sober enough to help wash the filly. But Water was 16, and she could handle giving a filly a bath. She took her upstairs to the bathroom, where it stunk, but it still was nessasary to go in there. After turning on the tap, Water watched the green, unhealthy sewer water trickle down into the tub. It was horrible unlike the water from the stream. Water Droplet realised that the filly was staring at her. It was time to ask the question frequently asked when somepony meets somepony else.
"What is your name?"
In a voice hardly able to hear, the filly responded.
"I... I don't remember..."
Luna was standing next to her telescope on the balcony, watching the stars. She heard the distant grumble of Tia as she got into bed. Oh how Luna adored the night. The quiet, the fireflies, the knowing of sweet fillies having beautiful dreams all made up Luna's adoration. She decided she would try making constellations out of the vast sea of stars, though she wasn't as good as you would presume a princess of the night would be. She managed to make out Leo, Aquarius, and Pieces. In the corner of her eye, she saw the letter A. Turning her telescope towards it, she saw it was followed by a R, E, L, then another L.
"Arell."
She spelled out, before concentrating to see if it was followed by anything. But now she couldn't see anything now, not even the A. With a sigh, she headed back inside to check on filly's dreams.
"Must be my imagination."
Meanwhile, Water had filled up the bath. She still had no idea of who the filly was, but instead of calling her 'the filly' she realised she needed a better name until they found out the truth. After a long discussion with the filly, the two decided on Primrose. Primrose hopped into the bath, revealing her white legs. Water switched on the shower, draining the mud from Primrose's head.
"Huh, your a unicorn."
Said Water whilst moving the shower over Prim's body.
"I don't see much of unicorns, even though I live in the biggest city in all of Equestria! but I don't go out much, that is, unless I'm getting the water from the forest for my Mum. She's really ill, and if we were richer we would have got her better by now. If your wondering who 'we' is, I mean me and my Dad. Though he only goes with me for the water if he's sober. Which has been very rare this last year, because I think he's worried that Mum might die so the only way to get her better is to drink. Which takes up half of our money. Anyway, I know I talk a lot, but it's just in my nature because I rarely get to talk to anypony!"
Water was filled with shock when she saw Prim clean. Her horn had a touch of orange on the tip, followed by white. Her body colour was purple, and she had long, blue hair. Her socks of white on her hooves glimmered in the dim light, but there was one thing that shocked Water the most. Prim had wings. Water stumbled over a basket as she slowly walked backwards, afraid of what the Alicorn might do. Only one thing came apparent to Water.
"Dad!"
She shouted to downstairs where her Father was reading the newspaper. He dragged his drunk-self upstairs to his daughter, where he saw her in the bathroom with Alicorn. He stared at Water, and then Prim, and then Water again. In his usual gruff voice, he began to speak to Water.
"Well what are you waiting for! Tie her up and ask the Princesses for a ransom for her!"
In fright, Water began to do so. But then she came to her senses, and stopped weaving through Prim's hooves. In anger, water told her Dad what she thought about the situation.
"Dad, this is Primrose. I found her on the street, alone and bleeding. I took her in, believing she was a Earth pony or something like that. But even though she is a Alicorn, she still is a pony, and she doesn't deserved to be tied up. She doesn't even know her own name, Dad! Being in the state she's in, I think we should just hand her over!"
Prim gave Water a reassuring glance. But Water's Dad, on the other hoof, was fuming with rage. Though no matter how hard Water's Dad tried, he could not help but see the sense in his daughter's opinion. With a deep sigh, he responded.
"Go. Go get the train to Canterlot using the money underneath my pillow."
Without hesitation, the two girls left him in a pit of regret.