From the Journal of Princess Luna
It's... been a long time. I'm quite surprised that this journal is even intact after all of those years; I thought it would've been ruined by the damage ~~I~~ we did to the Castle. But here it is, fully intact. Slight aging, but nothing bad. It's been a thousand years since I last saw this journal. ~~I~~ we were banished to the moon by Celestia. Maybe if I had been strong enough, I might have been able to hold it off. Anyways, I think that I should tell this story from the beginning. In case somepony finds this journal in the years to come.
It fed off of my jealousy, apparently. I had been slightly jealous of Celestia for a while; she was the important pony, the pony everypony else practically WORSHIPED. Not a lot of ponies talked about me or my night; it had always been talk about Celestia and her day. I wanted more ponies to notice me; I didn't want to be in the shadows any longer. Figuratively speaking, of course. I like being in the shadows, just not those shadows, if you know what I mean.
Back to it. I guess it had been growing stronger and stronger by the day. In fact, I never even knew it was there until I started feeling a slight pressure in my skull. I just woke up evening, and there was a constant, dull pressure. And it got worse every day. One day, I had a dream, where it manifested itself in front of me. It said that it was going to take over. I had no idea what it had been talking about that day. Until the day it happened.
It happened at breakfast... dinner? My dinner, Tia's breakfast. Breanner. That's what I will call it. Okay, it happened at breanner. Tia was quiet until she started talking about how I was playing too many video games and that I had been slacking off on my duties. Now, I have loved video games ever since they were invented in Equestria. But I have ALWAYS made sure to balance my video game time with my duties. But, I guess I had spent the day before marathoning Fallout Equestria (it's a great game; you should play it if it is still around ~~when~~ if you discover this journal). Okay, it was ONE day. I slacked off for ONE day. That's it. I didn't understand why Tia was so mad. And that is when it happened; I broke. And it took over.
It was an excruciating pain that happened in my head, but I couldn't cry out. Everything went dark. And then I was looking through the eyes of myself. But I wasn't myself; I was IN myself. Pushed aside as it started taking control of me. I was helpless to do anything. I watched ~~myself~~ it rage at Tia. ~~I~~ it stormed out of the room and galloped to my bedroom. By now, I was scared. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't move. Well, I couldn't move myself. I could move around inside of my head, if that makes sense. Suddenly, it partially materialized in front of me. I remembered it's words as clear as night.
"I told you I was going to take over, didn't I? But ha-ha-ha! You didn't listen! Your jealousy; you wanting to steal the spotlight from Celestia gave me the power to take over you! HA-HA-HA! And now we are going to take over Equestria; shrouding the entirety of Equestria in Eternal Night!"
It laughed maniacally. I couldn't stop it. I was powerless. The days went on, my body being increasingly meaner and meaner to everypony, including Tia. I tried to call out to Tia, but I failed. She couldn't hear me. Nopony could. I was alone. I don't the company of it as 'company'. It tortured me every day my body went to sleep; I couldn't get away from it. I missed being in control of my body; but, most of all, I missed Tia. The next day was when everything went down.
~~I~~ we woke up in the middle of the day. We made our way down to the main hall, where our thrones sat. Suddenly, I felt a chill surround me. It wasn't just any chill; it was a painful chill. I saw Tia down at the other end of the hall; she had just been returning from business in another town. We started talking.
"Not. Another. Step." Our voice echoed throughout the hall. "Did you really expect me to sit idly by while they all basked in your precious light? There can only be one princess in Equestria. And that princess... WILL BE ME!" The chill intensified; it was getting unbearable. We crashed our hooves down onto the ground, sending a crack running all the way up the wall and breaking a hole in one of the stained glass windows, facing right where the sun was currently in the sky. A sharp, stabbing pain went through my head as we began to use our magic to lift the moon into the sky, right to the exact location where the sun was at. The pain was excruciating; I don't understand how it was dealing with it. Or maybe it was just me.
Suddenly, strands of darkness came down from the phenomenon in the sky (later named an Eclipse), surrounding me in darkness. The pain kept getting worse and worse as I realized that it was taking over my physical form, transforming into something so terrifying I couldn't even begin to describe it. We began to shoot magic from our horn, the stabbing pain coming every time magic was used by it. Celestia stood at the end of the hallway, a sad look on her face. I began to cry out to her, forgetting that my calls could not be heard. I wanted to cry; but in the form I was currently in, I could not.
"Luna. I will not fight you. You must lower the moon. It is your duty!" Celestia said, her voice ringing out across the hall. We began to speak again.
"Luna? I am... NIGHTMARE MOON! I have but one royal duty now. TO DESTROY YOU!" we yelled. The next few minutes passed by in a blur; I was struggling to comprehend what I was seeing. I vaguely remembered us shooting a lot of magic; essentially destroying the castle. At one point, we struck Celestia down, knocking her into the castle below. Then, the most horrible event of my life happened.
Celestia brought out the Elements of Harmony. And she used it against... us. The pain was excruciating once again, even more so than before. I screamed. Suddenly, we were shooting through the sky to the moon.
The pain faded, and suddenly, I was in control of my body once again. I then realized what it had done; it had retreated from my body, so that I could face banishment. It was horrible. I cried out, but my cries were lost in the sky.
The next thousand years passed, agonizingly slowly. I can't even describe how it was up there on the moon; and I don't want to. I don't want to think about it again.
One day, I felt that familiar pressure in my head again. It took over much faster than before, transforming fairly quickly. Suddenly, we were surrounded by a bright light; a bright light, I noticed, that was coming from the stars surrounding us. Suddenly, we were shooting through the sky, back towards Equestria.
I was forced to watch as we, once again, shroud Equestria in eternal night. We had taken over on the thousandth anniversary of the Summer Sun Celebration, a festival dedicated to Tia banishing us to the moon and bringing light back to Equestria. The rest of the events went by in a blur, but I remember the major points. There were 6 ponies; the ponies you now know as the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. They went into the Everfree forest, trying to retrieve the Elements of Harmony to defeat us. We tried to stop them many times by going against their element, but to no avail. Eventually, however, they reached the Elements of Harmony, defeating us. I had prepared myself for banishment once again. But... the pressure in my head was gone. I could feel my body again. I looked around. I was... free! I WAS FREE! Tia floated in the window in front of me. She looked much older; although her radiance shined.
"Princess Luna," she said. I was so happy to see her again; I was so happy to be free. I was happy to be with my sister again.
But every night, I am haunted by it. I managed to effectively trap it inside of something, creating the Tantabus. The Tantabus tortured me every night, turning all of my dreams to nightmares.
I still regret everything to this day; I should never have been jealous of Tia. And so comes the end of this journal. I will be leaving it here, in the library at the old castle. Maybe some pony will find it some day. If you are reading this, then you have already found it. I hope that you never have to experience what I went through. Remember, whenever you feel jealous, think everything through; don't let the jealousy get to you.