This continued for too long. The only thing keeping me from ever quitting on her were the memories of a time when Celestia was there for me, rather than the other way around. It helped that I actually felt like I was making a difference, that I was helping the pain go away.

At some point, I just stopped going into her dreams as often. I just couldn't handle going through that more often than I needed to. Maybe I'd do so once a month. Any more than that and I'd start going through depression as well. Some of the imagery I saw while in there... I just don't want to talk about. Trust me, those are things that I'm better off forgetting and not remembering.

During these times, the Grand Galloping Gala was stopped completely. Not only because neither of us wanted to deal with planning it and all that, but also because of what happened last time. Because of that incident, we both kind of had trust issues, especially towards the Crystal Empire. The only ponies I knew I could trust were Celestia, Uncle Starswirl, and myself. Celestia was in the same boat I was in, just a lot worse, and I knew Starswirl well enough to where we'd mess around and trust each other... a lot. I called him Uncle for my sake (several years have passed and I still have yet gotten used to using my name as a swear).

Not too long after I stopped entering Celestia's dreams as often, the greatest thing imaginable happened! After our parents' death, I continued my training to raise the moon. I didn't have a trainer, so I had to teach myself with my sis giving me pointers every once in a while. In the mean time, Celestia was the one raising and lowering the sun and moon. She said that the moon was a breeze compared to the sun, as you can imagine, that didn't do much to help my self esteem. One day, I was trying to put the moon in the sky with Celestia right next to me, as usual. I put all my energy into it, as I normally did. This lasted a good 5 minutes, at most. Maybe 2 or 3 at least. When I finally gave out, I looked into the sky and it was up there!

The moon! I was finally able to raise the moon! My eyes were closed during the process to use as much energy as possible into raising it, but according to everypony who saw it, the moon wiggled and jolted around a bit until it stayed in place. But I didn't care and I still don't care, I raised the goddessdamn moon!

Right after the fact, I found my energy come right back to me! I jumped around with glee for what seemed like hours! I didn't care, I was finally able to reach one of my lifelong goals and something that I know only Celestia and I would be able to do for who knows how long! Not even the great and powerful Uncle Starswirl has the ability to do that!

As I jumped around, the only thing that stopped me was the look on my sister's face. It was one of shock and surprise, her jaw was wide open and her eyes were centered on my plot. I said the first thing that came to mind, "What? You didn't think I had it in me?" She just continued to stare at my behind like there's text from my diary printed on it. And not the innocent chapters, the really raunchy ones that I hope nopony ever reads. I finally gave into temptation after staring back at her curiously for about a minute or two. That's when I truly saw the greatest thing ever!

As I turned my head to look at my own flank, an automatic smile sprawled across my face as I saw it. My cutie mark, I finally got my cutie mark! I just couldn't believe it, I thought it was a horrible prank somepony was playing on me. But no, it was really there! A crescent moon, obviously meant to represent my ability to raise the moon and control the night. I would've probably been disappointed in the lack of creativity with it, but I seriously didn't care. I got my cutie mark!

I found myself staring at my bottom along with Celestia for a very long time. We were finally taken out of our daze when Starswirl came over. He said something about how weird the moon was raised today when he finally saw my mark. It seemed like he put two and two together instantly because he suddenly congratulated me for my accomplishment. He gave me a hoof bump continued by, "I didn't think you'd be able to bring it up within my lifetime! Let's hope raising your first coltfriend will be much easier!" I found myself rolling my eyes at that stupid joke as both Starswirl and Celestia came in to give me a great hug. It lasted for at least as long as the hug I gave my sister when she got her mark, maybe even longer.

My sister said, "So, when should we start it up again?"

Out of confusion, both Starswirl and I said at the exact same time, "Huh!?"

"The Grand Galloping Gala, when should we start it back up?"

I said, alone, "Why would we start making the Gala a yearly thing again?"

"Well, we have to celebrate this momentous occasion somehow. So, give me a date!"

"Oh yeah! I forgot that the triple G was created to celebrate the coming of your cutie mark. About two months sounds like a good time frame, what do you think?" Starswirl added, pointing at me.

I nodded, agreeing with him, as my sister said jokingly, "And no faking an illness this time."

Celestia was happy again! I thought I'd never see the day! I could tell that's exactly what Uncle Starswirl was thinking as well by the way he was looking at her teeth while we were all beaming. I take back what I said earlier, seeing my own sister smile again is the greatest thing ever!

Author's Note

I believe this chapter is the one that both took the most amount of time to write & went through the most amount of edits. In any case, the last 2 chapters got a fair amount of great feedback that I'll definitely listen to. One critique I heard the most was that I didn't use much detailing, & I'll admit, I've never really been great at doing so. Even this chapter, though a lot more detailed than the last 2, I wish I could've put a bit more detailing into it. Thanks for all the feedback, as a critic myself, I know how important it is to listen to other's criticisms of your work & I'll make sure to listen to them. Now, I'll fix any misunderstandings of the story.

Truly is spelled that way! That's autocorrect on Word keeps telling me & I trust it enough to listen to it!

Luna, in this story, doesn't talk royally or uses the royal "we" because I straight up think that it would get annoying after the first 2 chapters.

Alicorns can die from murder, suicide, or natural causes. Being an alicorn only makes it so that they're stronger & can't die from old age or lack of oxygen. The way their bodies are built makes it so that they can make oxygen out of anything they breathe. Since there's no food or water on the moon, Celestia is sending Luna food & water once a week. That won't be discussed in the story because I want to focus on what was happening to her at the time of she was reading. Yes, I do think that's a silly & stupid excuse, but it's still more than the show gave us.

As for Nightmare Moon, that will be discussed more in later chapters. I'd go into greater detail, but I don't want to spoil anything in this story.

Thanks again for all the criticisms & keep them coming! I don't care if they're positive or negative, as long as they are actual critiques rather than complaints, I'll listen!