Ballad of the Eclipse

Equestria at night was worthy of being called one of life’s greatest pleasures. The deep-blue sky was a vast sea that could calm the mind of the most stressed of ponies. Each star was a beautiful spot that joined others to form a tapestry of constellations, telling the universe’s story. And among it all was the full moon: a beacon that lit the way for everyone, and a piece of the cosmos that almost seemed like it could be touched if one just reached for it.

This was the gift that Princess Luna gave to Equestria, each and every night.

This was the masterpiece that Nightmare Moon forced upon Equestria for eternity.

Princess Celestia looked into this sky. It had been there for an unnaturally long time. She knew that the world could not live this way. Eternal night would upset the balance of the planet: everypony would be left in darkness, with no sunlight to nourish them and no daytime to awaken to.

Any effort to raise the sun had been in vain, for a force that rivaled her own kept it eclipsed. Normally, she would suspect another despot seeking power, but the evidence of her eyes proved that wrong. The terrible beauty of the night sky could only be achieved by one pony.

And that knowledge made heart hurt.

She approached the door of her castle. She raised her hoof. Every fibre of her being demanded that she not open the door. Her heart screamed that she was wrong.

Celestia opened the door. She walked into her shared throne room. At the end of the stone corridor stood two thrones, one for her and one for her sister. The arrangements reflected the facts as she saw them: both sisters ruled the land with equal power and say.

This was apparently not the facts as Luna saw them.

“Not another step.”

Celestia halted. She looked towards her sister’s throne, where the voice had come from. From behind it stepped the Princess of the Moon. When Celestia saw the look on her face, her heart gave up its protests.

Luna spoke once more, “Did you really expect me to sit idly by why they all basked in your precious light?” With each word, the venom in Luna’s voice grew.

Celestia stood her ground, presenting a barrier as with any threat to her subjects. But inside, her stomach twisted in the deepest guilt. Luna’s rhetorical question confirmed the fears she held: Luna did not see their rule as equal. For years, she had felt undermined and underappreciated.

And it was because of Celestia.

Luna walked to the balcony between the thrones, intent to speak above her sister. “There can only be one princess in Equestria! And that princess, will be ME!”

With that last word, Luna’s eyes glowed an unnatural whit and she demolished the balcony in her rage.

The blow shook the room, throwing off Celectia’s balance. She now faced one of the greatest threats in Equestria’s history. Luna held great power over the land, equal to her own. If Celestia could not get her to see reason, she would be forced to do something she would regret for the rest of her eternal life.

Shadows crawled up the wall behind Luna. A crack followed in its wake until it reached a stain-glassed window set on the wall between the thrones. The window depicted the image of a tree. It was from a tree that the princesses had acquired the power to protect their nation. It stood as a symbol of growth, peace and harmony.

No longer.

The window exploded, leaving a great hole in the wall. Through it, the moon shone down upon the two. Luna raised herself into the air to bask in the light of her charge. Its silver beams became black, and Luna took that darkness into herself.

Celestia watched with dread as her sister was enveloped in a dark sphere of magic that then glowed red and spun with enough force to create wind and kick up debris. Celestia could feel the transformation occurring inside. Hatred, fear and resentment were becoming one with Luna’s very being. Her body was changing to reflect that.

The sphere’s red glow was replaced by jet black, then a blue mist. That mist burst out in opposite directions, and between them was the silhouette of what had once been Princess Luna.

Her mist-like blue mane and tail trailed around her and blue barding showed her readiness to fight. She opened her eyes, and her pupils became long and thin. She opened her mouth, and her teeth became as razors. Nightmare Moon touched down. The moonlight framed her evil form. And she laughed. A laugh that expressed her glee at her chance for revenge, at her disregarding of the Status Quo, at the knowledge that her nighttime would be seen by all, forevermore.

A tear rolled down Celestia’s cheek.

Another tear landed on the floor of Canterlot castle.

The Princess of the Sun felt her knees weaken. She did not fight as her body crashed on the floor.

Twilight was immediately at her side. She held her mentor as she released one-thousand years’ worth of guilt from her eyes.

Twilight looked at the top of the window. Above the picture of Nightmare Moon unleashing destruction on the old castle, another image portrayed Celestia wearing another crown on her head. The crown was embedded with a jewel that seemed to glow with a powerful magic. With the crown, Celestia’s image was shooting a rainbow-like beam from her horn at an image of Nightmare Moon. Above that, Celestia’s image stood between images of the sun and the moon, for which she had taken responsibility.

Twilight had to force herself to look at the moon. For within it was an image that she knew brought immeasurable pain to her mentor.

It was the image of an Alicorn.

Am Alicorn that had been banished to the moon.