The sun made its way over the trees of the forest. The light filled the bed chambers of a pony whose daily task is to raise said sun everyday, but yet can still be found sleeping in. Celestia never seemed to have any luck, she counted down the seconds before it would be at her door.
BANG… BANG
“CELESTIA, TIME FOR THOU TO GET UP.” The voice of her dear little sister. Celestia wished Luna would stop with the royal voice. It made the mornings harder than what it needed to be. She let out a grunt as she slowly made her way out of the bed. Before she opened the door, she moved her hands down her nightgown to remove any wrinkles. The door opened to find the princess of the night beaming with joy.
“I do wish you would let me sleep in a bit longer, Luna. And may I ask why you are all smiles this morning?” Celestia was fighting to keep a yawn down as she rubbed her eyes.
“I have high hopes that thou will allow our night to last a little longer this night, so that our ponies can see and love our night.” Luna looked up into Celestia’s eyes. The look about broke the older mare’s heart. This happened every morning and it always pained her to tell Luna the truth.
“Luna… You know that I can’t do that. The ponies rely on us keeping things constant,” Celestia moved next to Luna and wrapped a wing around her. “And I can promise you that our ponies love your night very much little sister.” Celestia really hated this morning ritual, it’s been happening every morning for the past ten years.
“Please, sister, just for one night. Just let it last a little longer. Tis is all I... ask of thee, dear sister.” Luna looked down at the floor as Celestia guided her down the hallway. The whole way, the younger mare sniffled as she tried not to cry. Celestia was beside herself, Luna was still very young for an alicorn. She had not learn the true value the ponies had for her night. And that was something she had to find out on her own.
“Luna, please don’t cry. You will just have to trust your older sister on this. Now how about we get something to eat? I don’t know about how much the moon drains you, but raising the sun makes me really hungry.” Celestia grinned as an idea came to mind. “You know what sounds good to me little sister?” Luna look up to her sister’s smiling face.
“Cake.”
“Cake?”
“Yes.”
“Do you really mean it?”
“I do little sister.” Celestia giggled when she seen a real smile spread across her sister’s face. It was the first real smile she had seen in ages. She marveled at the power cake on on ponies lives. It seems to always put a smile on anypony’s face.
She looked down to where she had Luna under wing and found that the spot was empty. Celestia just let out long sigh and made her way down to the dining room. From what she hears, its smaller than the one that is going to be build in the new capital of Canterlot. She wasn’t too happy about having to move to a new castle, but Luna was overjoyed at the chance at having bigger room.
The walk to the dining room wasn’t that bad, the paintings showing moments of the age of chaos. They only showed the good moments, but nothing of the horrors that she and her sister seen. When she got to dining room, she found Luna halfway through a cake. Luna looked up, meeped and took a nose dive into the cake.
“I see my little sister couldn’t wait for me before she pushed her face into a cake.” Celestia took her seat next to Luna, as the young alicorn removed her face from the cake. Not long after she had taken her seat, there was there her favorite cake placed on the table. It was a double-layered chocolate cake with chunks of more chocolate, covered in chocolate icing and chocolate shavings.
Luna wiggled her finger at Celestia. “Are thou back to eating such cakes again? You know that it will all go to thy flank.” Celestia looked down at her flank and thought about what her sister was saying. Her flank was a little on the big side, but she never thought that it was going to get any bigger.
“I don’t think my flank is that big. And I don’t think that you have much room to talk, Miss Full Moon.” Celestia took a bite of her cake as Luna whimpered while looking down at her flank.
“Does thou really mean it? Our flank is not that big.” Tears started to run down her face, but that didn’t stop the young mare from eating her cake. Celestia just giggled and pulled Luna into a deep hug.
“You know I am only jesting, little sister. Both our flanks look fine and you know that.” Celestia started to tickle Luna’s tummy. The young alicorn tried to break free, but this only caused the older one to pick up speed which caused Luna to giggle harder.
“Sis… Sister, please stop. We can not breath.” Luna tried with all her might to free herself from Celestia, but to no avail. After a few more minutes Celestia let her Luna free.
“I think that I’ve had my fun for the morning. Now I think I shall eat my cake.” The older alicorn grinned as she took a nice big bite of flank enlarging cake. Luna was still gasping for air as she tried to eat the rest of her cake.
“I think that we shall take a nap for a bit dear sister. Wake us if you need us.” Luna rose from her seat as she yawned. Celestia smiled and nodded as she ate more of her cake. She would attend to her day court after finished the best cake ever.
****************
Luna made her way to the other side of the castle where her room was. She normally enjoyed her walks back, but this walk felt off to her, like something following her. Luna stopped in the middle of the hallway and looked around for whatever was following her, but there was nothing there. She let out a nervous sigh as she continued down the hall. That was when she heard it.
“Luna”
The princess of the night froze where she stood. The voice was cold and empty. It was like it came from some pony’s nightmares. “W-who is there? We are the princess of the night. Show tho self.” She looked around waiting for whoever or whatever was out there.
“Are you just going to let her trick you that way?”
“Who are you and what do you want with us?” This was starting to freak her out, the voice seemed to be coming from everywhere, and nowhere all at the same time.
“Do not worry yourself about those small details. We just wish to speak the truth with you.”
“What truth do you speak of?” The shadows around her seemed to grow darker and looked as if they were moving as if they were alive. Luna was growing scared of the turn of events her trip to take a nap had become.
“The truth of what your dear older sister is doing. We know of why she truly won’t let your night last a little longer.”
“Our sister has told us the truth. You can keep thy lies to thyself.” She let a huffed and stormed off in the direction that she thought would take her back to her room. But the shadows followed her and continued their whispers.
“How do you know that we are lying? Celestia could be the one lying to you. Why do you think she allowed you to have cake just moments ago?”
“Because she loves us and felt sorry for telling us the truth again this morning.”
“Lies, all lies. She doesn’t want the ponies to see your lovely night. She wants them to only love her day. So are you going to let her keep ponies from knowing your night?”
“Stop thy lies! Sister has not lied to us!” Luna was in tears. The voice sounded so sure of itself. What it said made her think, but she didn’t like what she was thinking.
“You know it’s the truth! She keeps your night away from the ponies. She doesn’t want them to love your night. You should make the night last forever so that everypony can see what beauty they have missed because of your dear older sister.”
“We couldn’t do that even if we wanted to. Celestia wouldn’t stand for it.”
“Than defeat her.”
“We can’t, she is much stronger than we.”
“We can give you the power you need, Luna. You just gotta agree.”
“We agree to anything, we just want our ponies know the beauty of our night for once.” She didn’t care anymore, she wanted the night she had worked so hard on to be seen by everypony. She would do whatever it took to make it so.
“Good.”The voice started to laugh that sent chills down Luna’s spine. The shadows that was around her began to move toward her. She just closed her eyes as the shadows engulfed her. Luna hollowed in pain at first, but soon it past. The young mare felt the anger she had bottled up, started to boil and burst free.
“I think I might want to visit my dear sister’s day court.” Luna gave a little chuckle as she turned around and slowly walked back the way she came. Wisps of something black coming off her body.
*****************
Celestia yawn as she looked around the room. Ponies rarely came to court anymore. The distances that need to be traveled was too much for some, So Canterlot would be placed in the middle Equestria. It would be hub for everywhere in the land. Her wandering thoughts were broke by a knocking at the door. Celestia smiled and walked over to the door, her robes fluttered behind, feeling glad that she could do something besides sitting on her flank all day.
The door opened, but the white alicorn found nopony outside. She missed the black mist that rushed past her. Celestia surged as she closed the door. Once the door closed, somepony behind her started to laugh.
“Dear, sister. It seems like your little ponies don’t feel like visiting you today.” Luna’s voice was colder than what she normally was.
“Luna? I thought you were going to take a nap.” Celestia started to take a step closer to the mare of the night.
“Not… another step!” Luna snapped at her sister, the anger in the young mare’s eyes was burning brightly.
“What is the matter?” Celestia worry grew watching Luna acting strangely.
“Did you really expect me to sit idly by while they all basked in your precious light?” The princess of the night sneered.
“Luna, we talked about this. They love your night.”
“There can only be one princess in Equestria! And that princess… will be me!” A dark glow started to form around Luna as she lifted off the ground. The room started to shake and Celestia fought to stand up right. Once everything settled down, the white mare had a look of horror as a taller mare stood before her.
“L… Luna?” Celestia’s voice was shaky as she looked at the mare before her. The mare before her laughed a blood curdling evil laugh.
“Luna? I am… Nightmare Moon,” She held a hand up and with a flick of her wrist, the moon started to rise and eclipse the sun. The sun made a slow path to setting once again. “And I think that my night shall last forever!”
“You can’t do this.” Celestia helped out a hand as she channeled her magic from her horn to her hand to pulled the moon back down, but the magic that was gathered in her hand faded as a sharp pain in her chest. Celestia looked down to see a stone rode stabbing through her chest. She coughed and watched as blood landed on her clothes.
The world around the older princess seem to stand still. There was a low thumping sound and a sound of something dripping to the floor. She turn her head around and looked at the ground where her blood was slowly dripping to the floor. Celestia turn back to look at the grinning face of Nightmare Moon.
“Sweet dreams dear sister. May your eternal sleep be a peaceful one.” Nightmare’s voice sound kind of sad to her, but Celestia just guessed that it was the lack of blood causing her to hear things. The world around her faded away to black nothingness.
BANG… BANG
“CELESTIA, TIME FOR THO TO GET UP.” Luna’s voice called out to Celestia. The white mare shot up out of bed, padding her chest to feel for where the stone rode priced her chest. It wasn’t there.
Author's Note
I want to thank everyone who help me edit so far. Plan to do more editing myself once I have longer free time that is coming up in the next few weeks. I will try and keep everyone posted. Please enjoy the story.
