The Moon Kingdom Chronicles

by Rehlia

Rating: everyone
Tags: Discord, Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, Alternate Universe, Main 6, Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 11662

Lunas banishment AU. Freed of the Nightmare but trapped on the moon, Luna finds a way to occupy herself before she goes mad, creates life on the moon and discovers that sometimes, redemption must be earned on your own, instead of being given.

In the split-second before the Elements of Harmony hit Nightmare Moon with their concentrated power, Luna manages to reach past the parasite in her mind and connects with her old elements, one last time.
Freed of the Nightmare but trapped on the moon, Luna finds a way to occupy herself before she goes mad, creates life on the moon and discovers that sometimes, redemption must be earned on your own, instead of being given.

Published 2016-03-17 04:00:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-03-28 15:35:44 UTC

Chapter 1

The mare awakened to a grey, empty plane.

She watched it through half-lidded eyes, traced its lines into a horizon of cracks, sandy slopes and clusters of white and gray stone. As far as she could make out, there was no end to it. There was a faded, dim light coming from everywhere at once, barely enough to see her surroundings, and the sky above the plane was completely black.

A stuttering cough sat deep in her chest and she hacked and heaved and finally fell back to the hard ground, shuddering with fatigue. There was no sound. Not even her coughing could be heard. The silence engulfed her like cotton, like clouds pressing on her ears, her snout, her body, her entire being. The silence was so heavy it was almost, almost a sound of its own.

She was engulfed and could not breathe. There was no energy inside of her to fight it. Her eyes closed and she lay on her side, breathless and lifeless.

Time passed. Nothing changed.

The mare slowly opened her eyes again. She could not breathe, but she was not dead. The silence was absolute. The plane was dim and barren, the sky pitch-black. During the time she had laid there, everything had stayed exactly the same. There was no indication any time had passed at all, and only her feeling of being rested, of being not quite so exhausted anymore, told her that minutes and hours did indeed pass by.

After another while, the mare finally rose. No breath filled her lungs, but her head was clearer and her legs not quite as leaden anymore. When she looked around in curiosity, she saw that the plane stretched endlessly into every direction. On and on it went, sandy, grey slope after sandy, grey slope, until it met with the tenebrous sky. Underneath her, not even her own hooves made a sound as she turned.

Something within her noted this as unusual, as strange. She looked down in surprise and saw her own shadow. Pale and diffuse in the low light, spreading in several directions at once, it met four indigo hooves. Wisps of pale blue mane hung into her eyes as she lowered her head. She watched her shadow, followed it with her eyes as it stretched outwards. Her head was crowned with a long protrusion; she had a horn. On her back there rested two large shapes she identified as wings. When she turned her head to observe her own body, her wings folded themselves without the rustle of feathers, sending a burn into her shoulders. She winced and briefly closed her eyes. Once the pain passed, she resumed her examination of her own body. On her flank was a dark spot crested with the thin sickle of the moon.

She observed the outlines of her body, it’s shape and colours, and a memory formed; her name was Luna.

Luna frowned. Where was she? What was this void with its grey surface and diffuse light? She lifted her gaze until it met the deep, dark sky. A small gasp escaped her, unheard, soundless in the stillness of the air. She looked up into the faintly glittering, vast expanse of space. In its middle hung a round sphere covered with greens and blues and swirling wisps of white. A planet she knew well as she now remembered, for one of its continents was Equestria, her home.

Luna came to understand she was on the moon.

She did not come to understand how or why. Had an enemy befallen her beloved Equestria and sent her up here? In this case, her sister was in danger and she needed her help. Because of course she had a sister, her name was Celestia and they ruled Equestria together in peace and harmony. How could she have forgotten? She needed to return if her sister or her country were in danger. Besides, as much as Luna loved her moon, she did not want to stay on it for a prolonged time. It was beautiful of course, but empty and barren, quiet and cold and without life.

She started to gather her magic to form a teleportation spell, but quickly realised that despite her time of rest, she did not have enough power to do so. Her magical reserves were drained completely, her horn and wings and body had barely enough energy left to move. The state of her mane was a sure enough indicator of her complete magical exhaustion, she had noticed it’s flatness and pale blue colour and should have known what it meant. It was rare for her to revert to this state; nevertheless, it had now happened somehow.

Luna frowned again at her inability to remember what had led to her predicament. There was no doubt in her mind that the memory would return eventually; her head felt undamaged and even though she was dizzy, the visual cues she had encountered so far had helped her recollect important information swiftly and without problem. This at least meant that long lasting problems with her memory were unlikely. It was still cumbersome and frustrating not to know what had happened.

Stranded for now she decided to inspect her own body more closely. Her hooves were undamaged, but her legs felt sore, as if she had exerted herself. This feeling was even stronger in her wings, where her muscles prickled and burned underneath her feathers when she stretched them out. Her mane was the flat, pale blue she noticed earlier, the complete magical exhaustion she had at first failed to recall.

Testing her strength, Luna sparked her horn. The tiny glimmer of light felt unbearably bright to her eyes after the dimness of the moon surface. It formed a small circle around her and sharpened the shadows at her hooves, creating an ominous atmosphere.

She allowed the spark to extinguish. Her magic was functional, only depleted. This meant that long lasting magical damage was unlikely as well. She would need rest and time to recover, but ultimately she should be able to return to her old form.

Although anxious at her situation, Luna lay down once more. One last look at her home planet hanging in the middle of the dark expanse of space, and she closed her eyes and lay her head on her forehooves.

Sleep came easily to her, swift and dreamless.

She woke to find her situation unchanged. Out of reflex she tried to sigh, only to notice that she still had no air to breathe. Immediately, she sparked her horn and formed a bubble around her, filled with precious oxygen.

For the first time since she awoke on the moon, Luna drew a deep breath, and was met with no resistance. Air flowed into her lungs, stale and with the distinct smell of magical conjuring, but air all the same. It felt sweet and precious to her. She allowed herself a smile and it blossomed into a blessedly audible laughter.
Rest and air had helped her feel refreshed and strengthened. She climbed to her hooves, delighted at the muted clip-clop of her hooves she could now hear in her atmospheric bubble, and once more focused on the planet above her. By now, she could not see Equestria anymore. That meant the sun and moon were still moving in the sky and the night had passed from her home and on to the other side of the planet. Immediately, her mind was overwhelmed with questions.

How did the moon move without her to do it? This time, Lunas frown was deep and mixed with concern. The moon had not been risen by anyone but her in a long time, not since Discord. The wretched creature had taken the control over the heavenly stars from the unicorns and after that, she and her sister had brought forth day and night with their magic. Had Discord returned, his seal been broken?

Luna shook her head, it could not be Discord. The progression was too smooth and calm for the incarnation of chaos. When he had dominion over the heavens, he had pushed day and night around within minutes and had not cared for the natural order of things, the merry chase of sun and moon erratic and turbulent. So it must be something else.

The thought scared her. If it was indeed a foe that had taken control over the moon and flung her to its surface, it must be incredibly powerful. Discord had been bad enough, but his own hubris and careless, chaotic nature had been his downfall. An enemy with the power to move sun and moon, but with a stable enough mind to ensure their natural progression - that was another order of dangerous. Focusing her magic, she tried to reach out for the moon and move it. It felt like trying to grip a smooth globe of ice with polished hooves, she could touch it, but she was unable to establish the grip needed to actually move it. This was even more concerning. The moon was hers. Even stranded on its surface and with weakened magic she should have been able to move it.

She unfurled her wings. They were still somewhat sore, but she had energy enough to fly at least. If such a dangerous enemy had indeed befallen Equestria and taken the sun and moon away from her and her sister, she had to try and return immediately, no matter how tired she still felt.

With powerful strokes, she lifted herself off the ground, helped along by the low gravity. It did not take her long to climb high in the moon's thin atmosphere, leaving the dusty surface with its dim glow behind her until she was close to the darkness of space and could see the twinkle of stars.

This was the point Luna could not pass.

She tried everything. Pushed her wings until they ached and screamed with the exertion, gathered the bit of magic she had recovered and tried to push through or teleport herself past the boundary and into open space, if not back home.

Nothing worked, and it was not for lack of trying or her own exhaustion. Something was blocking her.

She was trapped on her beloved moon, apparently free to roam its surface and a large part of its thin atmosphere, but ultimately unable to leave. When she tried to send a beam of light towards her home planet, as a sign that she was here, the magic did not go further than the boundary she had discovered, instead dispelling in a subtle rainbow sheen.

Luna stared at the point where her beam of light had vanished into a hint of colours.

She knew those colours, that rainbow shine, muted as it was. It was unmistakable even in its subtlety.

Memory crashed into her and she forgot to flap her wings, all magic and her atmospheric bubble fading, falling back to the surface of the moon. She did nothing to break her fall. Her eyes were unfocused, directed inwards as she raced towards the ground, the low gravity slowing her fall significantly, but not enough.
She remembered.

“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!”

Shadows, lightning and pain. Her own body stretching into a grotesque caricature of her former self. Poisonous laughter dominating her thoughts and spilling from mutated, black lips. Struggling against what felt like slick, black tar in her own mind, jealousy concentrated and used by a parasite that was stronger than her. Fighting not only in her own mind, but against something outside as well, the source of all her jealousy and bitterness. Winning, and the sweetness it brought, a sweetness that could not fully pierce the clouds that shrouded her own mind. And then, finally, a bright, concentrated beam of multicoloured light, behind it a face she knew almost as well as her own, and her desperate attempt to reach past the parasite in her mind, to reach the Elements of Harmony as they were already wielded against her by her sister. A spark of connection, tearing apart as soon as it was formed, and tearing the parasite with it. And then, nothing.

Luna crashed into the lunar surface, sending dust and crumbling rock into a miles wide radius. Had there been enough atmosphere to carry sound, the resulting boom would have shattered her eardrums. Pain shot through her body and went unacknowledged.

She lay in the crater of her own fall and cried.

The Nightmare had fled her as she reached out for her connection to the Elements, her feverish mind making a last, desperate attempt to undo what it had brought upon itself. It had been enough to leave her free of her hatred and the darkness that had taken her, but not enough to stop what had already begun. She was trapped on the moon, sealed by the Elements of Harmony, because she had allowed herself to become a monster.

Luna stared at the blue sphere above her, now even more unreachable than before. She had allowed herself to become a monster and attacked her own sister in her bitterness. Had callously declared herself the sole ruler of Equestria and brought forth an eclipse to make the night last eternal.

A bitter laugh escaped her, silent as there was no air, but there all the same. The irony was so fitting, Luna thought. Nighttime eternal she wanted, and nighttime eternal she got. As the sun and moon revolved around the planet, they stayed opposite of each other, never meant to meet in the sky. As long as she was on the moon, the night would truly last forever, at least for her.

She lay in the crater for a long time.

At last, she pushed magic through her horn and allowed herself to heal, knitting back together her broken spine and fractured wings. She had never felt more exhausted, not even when she first woke on the barren plane of the moon's surface. The guilt of what she had done was heavy on her mind.
It was a fitting punishment, she supposed, alone and powerless on the moon she had tried to force upon the world. Briefly, the question how long her seal would last entered her mind, but she did not dwell on it long. If it was anything like most powerful seals, it would likely be a thousand years until she would be allowed to leave.

A thousand years on her beloved moon, all alone, in silence.

The thought was unbearable, impossible. It would drive her mad before the first year was over. She finally rolled over and left the crater of her fall, wandering aimlessly in a random direction as she thought.

For how long, she didn’t know.

If she was cleansed of her hatred and rage, but still stuck on the moon, then there must be a reason for it, she decided. The Elements of Harmony were harsh in their punishment, but not unnecessarily cruel. There had to be a deeper meaning to this.

Luna didn’t count her steps as she walked, but the next time she looked around, Equestria was no longer visible anywhere above her. The dark side of the moon, the ponies used to call it. It was darker here, although not by much. The stars in the sky were clearer, more easily visible now that they did not share it with the planet. Their stark beauty, resplendent as they sparkled uncontested within the inky expanse of space, brought her no joy.

She resumed walking.

Her banishment had a purpose, but she did not know what it was. The only logical solution was for her to find out. That would be the first thing she could do while she was here. Her head started spinning again at the implication of a thousand years that needed to be filled. What would she do? Finding a purpose would fill only so little time, and what else could occupy her here for so long?

The thoughts chased themselves in her head without ever reaching a conclusion.

She stopped. She could once again see her home above her, the planet dotted with clouds over the continents.

How long had she been walking? How long had it been already? Luna felt a jolt of homesickness, mixed with fear. She had completely lost track of time and her thoughts were a mess. If she did not return home soon or alternatively find something else to occupy her, she would lose herself again. It made her skin crawl. The memory of that black, sickening fog in her mind, fueled by her own emotions and yet separate from her - no. She could never lose herself like that again.

Gathering her magic, she shot more light out of her horn, in long and short intervals. The light dissipated as soon as it reached the invisible barrier that made her seal. Leaving was no option, and neither was signalling anyone on her planet, as far as she could tell. Whatever she was to do, it had to be on the moon.

Although there might still be another way left to send a signal back to her home.

Focusing her magic, this time in her hooves rather than her horn, she imposed her will onto the barren surface of the moon until a fragile, blue flower popped out of it.

Finally, despite everything, Luna smiled. She would make them see her.

Chapter 2

Keeping the flower alive proved harder than Luna thought. She had entertained thoughts about an entire field of flowers, overgrowing the moon with verdant life as a signal she was here, something to be seen across the distance between the moon and home. Instead, the flower had started to droop after moments. There was no air, no warmth, no nutritious soil and only the faint glow of the moon surface for light. The moon was simply not made for life.

Luna planned to change this.

The moon was hers after all, she raised it and lowered it, moved it across the heavens each and every night - or at least she did, before her banishment. Raising and lowering now probably fell to her sister. It was bitter, that the result of her jealousy was her sister being the sole focus of everyone’s attention. Luna had declared herself the only Princess of Equestria, but now it was her sister who filled that role, controlling both sun and moon as her duty. Exactly the opposite of what Luna had wanted. Still, the moon was originally hers, and thus it fell to her to change it if she felt like it. Since she could not affect anything outside it’s atmosphere, she had decided to change the moon.

She had rested in preparation, barely allowed the air bubble to persist so she wouldn’t spend more magic than she absolutely had to while drawing on the energy the conjured oxygen provided her. Inside the bubble, she curled up and focused all of her power inside herself, waited until the first pinpricks of light appeared in her mane again. Luna was still weak, and stretching an atmosphere across the entire moon would take a lot of time. Then again she was banished - time she had in abundance.

She lay in her bubble and sparked her magic, pushing the boundaries of the magical barrier further away. Then she rested once more. Over and over she continued like this, until she lay under a high arching dome the edges of which she was barely able to see. Stretching it and by extension her magic in all directions at once was no longer feasible. The bubble, once created, would remain stable unless she dispelled it or it suffered great damage - as long as there was an anchor for it. In her mind, she split her magic into two, one tendril focused on maintaining the bubble, the other reaching into the ground in front of her hooves. The moon rock began to bubble and boil, then stretched upwards until it had formed a thin, elegant column topped with a graceful sickle moon. Runes etched themselves into its sides, glowing with the magic she infused into them. Then she combined the two strands of magic again, tethering the atmospheric bubble to the newly created runic pillar. When she pulled away her connection to it, she was covered in sweat and breathing heavily, but the bubble remained stable.

Doing this had taken out more of her than she thought. A two-way split was normally beyond easy for her. Even a six-way split she could manage without too much effort under regular circumstances. Her magic had to be split twentyfold before she began to notice the strain.

It bothered her, that she was so weak. She was used to feeling powerful, to wielding her strength freely and with barely any hindrance. The many rests she needed now made her antsy. Still, it was better to do this while rested. She forced her muscles to relax as she waited and felt her magic return, although she did not have the patience to wait until it was fully recovered. That would have taken far too long.

Slowly she wandered to the edge of the bubble and pushed more magic into it, growing it larger into one direction. Like this she began her long and solitary march, broken up only when she raised another pillar or when she needed to lie down and recover once more. Like the first time she had wandered, it was difficult for her to tell how much time was passing. The endless night offered no clear hints. She could have tried guessing it by watching the planet above her, but she dismissed the thought almost as soon as it came. It would be nothing but a bitter reminder of her situation. The slow trot was monotonous and allowed her mind to wander.

She thought about the fight with her sister and felt ashamed, but she didn't feel shame for the things that had led up to it. It had been unfair, tremendously so. They had been meant to rule together, but nobody had really cared about Luna and her night, about her court or the laws she proposed. All attention had gone to Celestia, all the love, the devotion, the loyalty, and that had been the worst really. Luna had poured so much of her own loyalty into her kingdom and her subjects as the wielder of the corresponding element - was it any wonder that she snapped when she got nothing in return?

It wasn't, not if you asked her. Of course Nightmare Moon had been going too far, even Luna could admit that. But the events leading up to Nightmare Moon - no, nobody would be able to say she hadn't been in the right. Hopefully, she would be able to prove this.

There was some calculation in her decision to cover the moon in plants. As a signal, it was not the most effective way to do things. She could have just carved a giant “I am here” into the moon's surface and be done with it. But for one, she didn't want to deface her beloved moon so terribly, which led to two, it would have been unlike her. And after Nightmare Moon, she needed to make it abundantly clear that her signal was from Luna and nopony else. It needed to be so unmistakably hers that there would be no doubt in her sister's mind so she would come and free her. And then they could talk and work out a fair solution to the problem of their co-rulership. So it had to be something unique and reminiscent of her. She needed to enhance the moon, not ruin it. Giving it an atmosphere, water, plants, the means of supporting life and beauty in within her night was exactly the right thing, as tedious and time-consuming as it was.

Luna did glance up once a while as she worked, after she had already walked for a long, long time. She had lost all concept of time anyway, and as long as she didn’t start counting now it didn’t matter much. Sometimes she would be lucky, and look up just as the planet's rotation showed her Equestria. The continent looked beautiful, but so unbelievably small and far away. She wondered what Celestia was doing, if Equestria continued to be peaceful, if her subjects were safe and happy. Once her heart began to ache with homesickness she looked down again with newfound determination to complete her task. At other times when she looked up, she would find herself on the dark side of the moon and see nothing but inky black, dotted with silver stars and the occasional comet. A different kind of beauty than her homeland, but it made her heart ache nonetheless. How could they have ignored this? The grandness of the cosmos at night? It was incomprehensible.

Thanks to her many breaks, her mane completed its transformation back into its ethereal form. What had began as soft pinpricks of light and a shimmer of movement after her initial exhaustion strengthened each time she rested, even with all the magic she used to create the atmospheric bubble and its anchors. Soon there was once more a living piece of the night sky weaving gently in her peripheral vision, engulfing her in the beauty of the night she loved so much. A spring returned to her step and her hornwork became quicker, more confident and less laboured. She felt her power thrumming underneath her skin and enjoyed the feeling of pushing large quantities outwards without feeling tired. Pillar after pillar grew in her wake while she moved in a slow but steady spiral pattern.

Finally, she began to see an end. The gap in her atmospheric bubble, between the dark expanse of space and her own blue magic was clearly visible for those last moments she needed to finish her work - then the edges melded together and the bubble was finally complete. The sky now appeared tinted in a blue hue, barely perceptible against the black of the night sky. It was a disturbance to the pure beauty of the night, but a necessary tradeoff. A quick scan on the nearest of her anchoring pillars allowed her to check the entire network. There was not a single hole in her bubble. The moon had an atmosphere, magically created air and warmth that would replace itself at a steady rate. All created and maintained solely by her magic. It was an impressive feat by itself and Luna considered it a great shame that nopony was around to witness it.

The groundwork was done. Now began the fun part.

Luna spread her wings and took off, quickly seeking out one of the deep craters that littered the moon surface. She rubbed her hooves together in anticipation. It would strain her magic to its limit even now that she was once more at the peak of her magical strength, but the result would be oh so impressive. The atmosphere had only been the beginning. The tip of her horn began to glow a soft blue, then grew brighter, finally reaching a blinding, silvery white that surrounded her horn entirely as Luna focussed her magic. When she had gathered so much magic there that her horn began to smoke with the generated heat, she held the image of her desired result in her mind, released the energy forwards and pulled.

Within the artificial atmosphere upheld by runed pillars and magic, a deafening roar reverberated over the moon surface. Luna felt the vibrations of this sound deep within her being, shaking her down to the core, and couldn’t help but laugh at the sensation. It reminded her of a drumming performance she had seen thousands of years ago when ponykind had still been in its earliest stages and it gave her a deep, primal sense of joy. The roars grew louder and louder and she began to see its cause: water. It still appeared as nothing but puddles in the distance, but it was swelling. In time, it would fill the craters and cover most of the moon surface, a new ocean to give water so that things might grow. How much water should she create? She felt the magic pour out of her in torrents, barely held back the rush before it threatened to take more than she could reproduce. It was straining her, but it didn’t deplete her. As long as she kept this steady flow, she had time to think how much she wanted to make. A small ocean, with more land? An even distribution? Or did she want to emulate her home and make the ocean bigger than the land?

Yes. The latter was a safe model that had already proven that it worked, and besides, it was a big, visible change that would serve nicely as the first signal to her sister that she was here, alive and awake and capable of thought and magic.

She flapped her wings harder and rose until she reached the edge of her atmospheric bubble, almost touching the seal that kept her on the moon. From this new vantage point she had a better idea of how much water there was on the surface. It crept over the dusty moon rock inch by inch, connected across distance to form streams, rivers, lakes and seas. She idly occupied herself with naming them as she watched them form; the Sea of Serenity, the Sea of Clouds, the Sea of Vapours. One very deep part continued frothing and swirling as it filled with water, this one she called the Ocean of Storms. It was a game, almost, to pass the time until she had reached her goal, a long, long time after.

Most of the moon surface was now covered with water. Of the remaining land masses, the largest formed an irregular, downturned crescent shape dotted with circular lakes. A moon on the moon, wasn’t that something? Some smaller continents stretched from the tips of this crescent and another sat right in the middle of the largest ocean. Numerous smaller islands dotted the coasts of this ocean.

It was pretty. Entirely different from the coastlines of her home. Luna glanced up to compare them; she could not currently see Equestria, but even when comparing her creation to the other continents of her home planet the difference was immediately visible. The thought of what all the sentient creatures would think, looking up at the moon only to see it so changed, made her smile. Let them wonder. The more they looked at what she did here, the more likely it was that she would be rescued. Until then, there was more to do.

She stilled her wings, lowered herself and started to trace the coastlines, then turned inland to follow the rivers that had formed. Some rushed in mostly straight lines from their springs to the sea, others slowly meandered their way downwards. There were waterfalls emptying themselves over cliffs into dangerously fast streams and into calm and pristine lakes. The rims of former craters now formed riverbanks and lakeshores. Other craters had been high enough to remain undisturbed by the water, their white and grey cliffsides rising like mountains into the sky.

Her horn sparked again as she flew in lazy circles, leaving a trail of budding blue grass in her wake, filling the ocean with algae, all modified to thrive under the dim light conditions. She stopped on her way in regular intervals to add more; a sprinkle of moon flowers here, a bush of Brumansia there, Wisteria floribunda and Polianthes tuberosa, Night-blooming Jasmine and Angel’s Trumpet, all the wonderful plants that flowered only under moon and stars.

No reason to leave it at that, though. A wave of her horn produced bushels of green stalks winding upwards in a spiral pattern topped with curled black filaments. In a spark of inspiration she gave it access to a trick normally found more commonly at the bottom of the seas: bioluminescence. The plant glowed a faint green, basking the surrounding plants in the softest of lights.

It looked lovely. Luna wanted more of it, so more of it she made. She grew towering blue mushrooms whose undersides glowed a warm, rich yellow, as if they were hiding rounds of cheese under their caps. Orchids the size of trees whose pink light fell like spotlights on the ground beneath them. Small flower cups shining in the softest blue, fragile lavender blooms dotted with glowing golden freckles, thick velvet red blossoms shot through with iridescent white veins. Like an artist she covered her moon in soft, pleasing colours and shapes with the gentlest of brushstrokes.

It was pure beauty, imagination come to life by nothing but her magic and she flew in loop after loop as she hollered her joyous laughter at how wonderful it was. Finally, after all these years, there was nothing restraining her, no Celestia to tell her no, to tell her not to go overboard with her imaginings, nopony at all to suggest that she couldn’t just bend nature to her will if she felt like it. An entire world created to exist under moonlight, and it was as beautiful as she’d always dreamed it would be, and thanks to her magic it worked. She had known it would. As soon as Celestia came to her rescue, her sister would finally have to admit that Luna had been right all along. All of them would see the wonders she had created. They would fall in love with the night. They would respect and love her.

In her giddiness about her creation and her daydreams, she almost forgot to add measures to allow the new plants to survive. True, there was an atmosphere now, and the artificial warmth it produced would allow for rudimentary weather patterns, evaporating ocean water to form clouds and rain - a crude, wild weather without the efficiency and precision of Pegasus control, but it would work. What she had forgotten about was reproduction. Many species relied on something other than wind to pollinate and propagate. It was an easy enough fix.

From her horn erupted a flurry of colourful, rapidly fluttering wings. Moths of all sizes and shapes and colours spread and began travelling to their preferred species of flower. She didn’t want only moths though, so she added some hummingbirds for good measure. And because she was already at it, she recreated some other nocturnal species as well, owls and bats, mice and hedgehogs and sugar gliders, bunnies and cats and badgers, chinchillas and crickets and fireflies, frogs and toads and scorpions, foxes and skunks and spectacled bears. She filled the new oceans with fish and dolphins and even the odd whale. And all the while she kept making the slightest tweaks, more bioluminescence and better adaptations for a life in perpetual night.

Luna only stopped a long while later, after having created entire ecosystems out of things she had known from home and those she had invented herself to fill some of the gaps. She stood on a lush meadow, the sweet, heavy smell of flowers in the air, watching some of her hummingbirds feed from their blossoms. It allowed her a feeling of peace she hadn’t known for years. Maybe even centuries. She looked up to her home planet once more, elated to see Equestria this time. The moon had changed so drastically - her sister would not be able to ignore this. It was Luna's masterpiece and it would set her free. All she had to do now was wait until she would be released. It wouldn’t take long.

For the last time, Luna sparked her horn. From underneath the grass, a white column of rock emerged, bent over and formed itself into a bench with a comfortably rounded seat and gently curled backrest. She lowered herself onto its surface and rested, watching the stars blinking around her home planet while she waited.

Chapter 3

Luna had been exceptionally patient. It would have been very easy to become restless during her wait, but she had reminded herself that even for somepony as powerful as her sister, getting to the moon would be difficult.

Still. It shouldn't have taken her over a year.

This time around Luna had allowed herself to keep track of the passing time. She had counted the rotations of the planet and watched the stars meander across the sky ever so slowly. And by doing this she hadn't been able to help herself - she had compared them to how they had looked when she had first woken up on the moon. The movement of the stars was slow and tracing them by eye was difficult and inexact. Had she not been the ruler of the night, she might not have noticed the changes at all. But she was Luna, Princess of the Night and she did notice. And it made her skin crawl.

By her estimates, she had already been on the moon for more than half a century.

In all that time Celestia had ignored her. Had Luna been right about her sister after all? Did Celestia not care about her as long as she had the attention of her subjects? Or was this an act of revenge for her outburst as Nightmare Moon? Because after everything Luna had changed here, there was no way not to notice that it was her who was stuck here instead of the Nightmare, and that she was conscious and sound of mind - was there?

Did Celestia think that Luna deserved this punishment?

That would be cruel. Beyond cruel. Luna had been the Nightmare for only such a short time and she barely caused any damage.

But she had wanted to, hadn't she? Her plan - or the Nightmares plan, it was difficult to determine in retrospect where her own feelings ended and that of the parasite began - had been to defeat her sister and bring forth eternal night. And while she had just proven that life was possible under only moon and stars, that was only with heavy modifications and a focus on nocturnal species. Would she have made the same effort for the creatures of the day, had she succeeded? For all of them, in all of Equestria? In all of the world?

Luna honestly didn't know, even now, and what did that say about her? And yet, a thousand years on the moon, all alone - surely nopony deserved that? She suddenly couldn't help but remember the enemies she had helped defeat before. Was Sombra awake under the ice? Was Discord conscious in his prison of stone? Did they regret and question just like she did? Had they sent signs that she ignored?

She shuddered. If that was indeed the case then she could no longer count on her sister to save her. So she needed an alternative, but what?

Around her, the glade she had rested on was just as peaceful and beautiful as before. And even if there were hummingbirds and sugar gliders and all manner of animals thriving among the plants she had created, it was ultimately just as empty.

It was terribly lonely to be the only pony around.

Even before, when she had felt that the entire world had abandoned her to fawn over her sister, she hadn't felt this alone. She had still met her courtiers, the servants, a rare subject here and there, and of course her sister too. Right now, she would have given anything to have Celestia here no matter how jealous she had been before. Her sister had been her closest friend once, after all.

Luna lowered her head. What she had done had not been the acts of a good friend. Never mind her jealousy or how much she thought she had been in the right, those had not been the actions of a true friend. It had not been loyal. It had not brought laughter. It had been honest, perhaps, but honesty untempered by kindness or compassion.

She glanced up and saw Equestria half covered under a swirl of soft looking clouds. Bad weather. Maybe it was winter back home.

“I'm sorry,” she said out loud. It did nothing of course, it didn't even help her feel better. She began walking again. It wasn't as if she had anything else to do. Flowers and trees passed her by without her paying them any attention. Meadows and forests crisscrossed by rivers and lakes. She stopped at one and watched her reflection in the water. Her face looked tired and defeated, and sad, but it was still nice to see the face of a pony, even if it was just her own.

“I wish I could say I didn't mean it,” she told her reflection. “But I did. I really did.”

There was, of course, no reply. It would have been worrying, had there been one. It was a sure sign that you were going mad if your reflection was answering you, as Luna unfortunately knew from firsthoof experience. Still, she wished there was somepony to reply. Anypony.

Her hoof touched the surface of the water and her reflection blurred. This didn't help. She could wish for company as much as she wanted, it didn't change her situation. Nothing she could do was of any help. In the slowly stilling water, one of the hummingbirds she had created so long ago was reflected as it flew past, right above her face.

Nothing..?

No.

Blasphemy.

The very thought shouldn't have crossed her mind at all. It was wrong, she didn't even know if it was possible and it would be even more selfish than allowing herself to become the Nightmare.

But she was so lonely…

Luna glanced away from her reflection. Thus she did not see her face as it contorted, the wars she fought inside herself mirrored on the outside. The moment when she stilled felt breathless, lightheaded with the decision. Her horn ignited, the magical blue aura wavering with her insecurity. She extinguished her magic again. How should she even start? This wasn’t anything that had been taught or even discussed when she learnt magic. Creating flowers and non sapient animals from magic was already complex and took a lot of power. But a pony?

Luna thought about ponies she had known before. Maybe it would be easier to start with a template. She had done that with the flowers and animals too, after all, before she had started inventing things. The problem was just that working from a template… well, that would result in a copy. In Luna's mind that would be even more problematic than the creation itself would already be. Forever feeling as if they were only a shadow of another person - no. Of course she couldn’t do that, not after her own experiences.

So not a single template - but what if she combined them? Mixing looks and personalities into something new? It would still be troublesome, but better.

This time when she ignited her horn, the blue aura did not jitter. The steady glow intensified as she concentrated on her task, recalled ponies she had known before her banishment. Luna did not pick and choose the traits of those ponies, instead allowing them to combine and merge by themselves.
If she was going to create a pony, she could not make it a pony molded to her desires. They would have to be their own pony, free from her wishes.

That's what she told herself. She also kept telling herself that this didn't make what she was doing any better. Allowing free will in her creation did not make her a better pony while doing this. What she was doing was completely selfish, motivated by loneliness and personal desires against all morals. She was a bad pony and she would not allow herself to forget it this time around.

Her aura spiked. A bolt of energy shot from her horn and struck the water in front of her. Small jets of it rose into the air and split, and split, and split again, forming a complex, finely carved network. The water turned red. Luna watched in fascination as water transformed into blood, arteries and veins created from magic and normal liquid. She no longer controlled this process at all, merely kept the pathways of her magic open so the process could continue.

Steam rose from the remaining water underneath and packed itself tighter into cloud matter. The white, fluffy material wound itself around the complicated network of a new bloodstream. Fuzzy cloud became hard bone and tightly packed muscle, fur and mane and tail and a spread of feathers.

The pony in front of her was a soft, pale green with a teal mane and tail. It had the slender build of a mare and a pair of wings. Her eyes were closed and Luna marvelled at the fact that she had no idea what colour they would be, at having created something with so little conscious input.

The magic holding the mare aloft slowly faded and the pony was lowered onto the ground. She lay there and breathed and Luna caught wisps of a dreamscape at the edge of her perception. She decided to let the pony rest. She was technically a newborn after all, even if Luna's magic had decided to give her the form of a grown mare.

The pony began to stir after a couple of hours. Her hooves twitched and she blinked.

Her eyes were a light brown, almost beige.

Luna smiled at the pony and tried to make herself look as nonthreatening as possible. It was hard to say if she succeeded. The mare simply stared at her. Then she began to look around, still not saying a single word. Had Luna made a mistake? Guilt washed over her. If she had created this pony only for the mare to emerge unsound of mind… but then the mare spoke after all, and Luna's fears settled.

“Hello. Where are we?” The mare asked.

“We are on the moon,” Luna said. She had decided right away that she would not lie.

“Oh. That is not what I remember the moon to look like.”

“Remember...?” The astonishment was clear in Luna's voice. She had tried to avoid direct copying and so the mare should have no memories… shouldn't she? Luna felt out of her depth.

“Yes? But ‘tis a bit strange. I am fairly sure the moon is supposed to be comprised of rocks and dust, from what I remember. I cannot seem to remember my name though. But I do know who you are.”

Luna's stare became even more incredulous. What was happening?

“Truly?”

The mare nodded. “You are Princess Luna.” And she stood up and bowed.

Luna fought within herself. Years of habit told her to rise, tower over the mare, extend her hoof out for a kiss and boom a Royal Greeting as was protocol. Her instincts, on the other hoof, told her to do none of these things and be gentle. Luna remembered the mad desire of Nightmare Moon for subjugation and decided to go with instinct.

“Please, rise,” she managed to say with only a moderate amount of volume. It felt very strange to keep her voice down like this. The mare appeared to be just as surprised when her face returned to its normal position.

“Princess Luna? May I ask you a question?”

“Thou art free to ask Us any question thou desirest.”

“Why are we on the moon?”

Luna sighed. Straight to the point it was. But she had sworn not to lie, and she would keep her oath. She lowered her head.

“We were… I was banished to the moon by the Elements of Harmony for my crimes. Out of jealousy, I allowed myself to become a monster and tried to plunge the world into eternal night. Now I must atone.”

The mare began to look distinctly uncomfortable and Luna couldn't blame her.
“Was I banished too?”

“No,” Luna whispered. “I began to transform the moon in the hopes of sending a sign back home. When I noticed how long this took and that it did not work… I was very lonely. So I…”

“You made me?”

The mare really was very direct. Luna nodded.

“I know it was selfish. I can only hope for thy forgiveness.” She lowered her head even further and waited. Any anger the mare would hold for her, any harsh words, she would take it all, had accepted their necessity the moment she had decided to go through with this.

It was silent for a moment, then she heard hoofsteps. Pale green hooves appeared in her field of vision as the mare walked up to her. Luna braced herself for a strike. Instead, she felt the mare sit down next to her and touch one of her wings to Lunas.

“I am not angry, my Princess. There is nothing to forgive.”

Luna's head shot up in disbelief.

“I- what?”

“My Princess, if you created me, then without you, I would not be alive - and I rather enjoy being alive. How could I be angry about my own existence?”

Luna opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Try as she might, she couldn’t find an answer to this. She closed it again, slightly mortified at her own lack of dignity.

“Is it not the same as if a mare and a stallion decide to have a child? Nopony would call such a couple selfish, would they not?”

“I suppose not… although there are situations where one might say… ”

The mare shrugged.

“We can sit here all night and you can insist you are a bad pony while I protest, but I would much rather do something fun, my Princess. Would you not agree?” It was said with a warm smile that Luna found utterly irresistible. She could feel her loneliness draining away at this smile.

“I would,” she said and allowed herself a small smile of her own. This pony seemed to be quite dedicated to having fun. As the - former - Element of Laughter, Luna could appreciate that.

“Then I would like to start with a name. I do not have one yet and I would like you to give me one, please.”

“Wouldst thou not prefer to choose thy own name once thou receivest thy cutie mark?”

The mare shook her head.

“I do not yet know when that will be, it might mean that I have to wait a lifetime for one. I can still change my name once I receive my cutie mark, after all. Besides, if I am of your creation, I might just as well call you mother, and as such it would be your duty.” The mare winked at her while Luna's face contorted itself into a mixture of embarrassment, protest and a faint hint of pride.

“Very well,” Luna finally managed to say, trying to regain her composure. “If thou truly wishest for my assistance…”

The mare looked up to her with a look of pure joy and excitement, her pupils blown wide like that of a begging pet. Although upon further reflection, it might have been a side effect of the dim light conditions. Wresting her thoughts back to the topic at hand, Luna tried to find something matching for the mare in front of her. Foals were often named after their colours or for the wishes their parents had for them. Then once they found their cutie mark, custom dictated they could decide if they kept their birth name or if they wanted to change their name after their mark with the help of their family. A cutie mark was a first step towards adulthood and to achieve it meant being allowed to make some first decisions of adulthood as well - like the change of a name. Luna didn’t know what she should wish for her creation. She wanted the mare to be happy, but who wouldn’t want that? It was far from specific. She decided to go by the colour of her coat. This particular shade of green reminded her of sunlit grass - something she found she actually missed after so many years of only night.

“Mignonette,” Luna said.

“Mignonette,” the mare repeated thoughtfully. The smile Luna had found so irresistible reappeared on her face. “I like it!”
Luna chuckled and Mignonette chimed in. Her laughter reminded Luna of her sister. What a sweet, sharp ache that was. She wanted to hear more of it.

“So, Mignonette. Thou hast received a name as was thy wish. Wouldst thou like me to show thee the moon?”

“Of course!” Mignonette laughed once more and spread her wings. “I have to earn my cutie mark somehow, after all!”

To Luna’s astonishment, Mignonette remembered how to fly. Talking to her revealed that she remembered a lot of things apparently: she knew how to wield a lance and how to make bread, could speak in detail about the layout of Everfree castle and the surrounding gardens, could describe how to maintain these gardens and how to avoid all the prank traps installed there. She recalled the basics of weather management and the exact daily schedule of Princess Celestia.

But she didn't know who her parents were or what her childhood had been like, couldn't name a favourite dish or favourite colour, couldn't tell if she'd had friends or who they might have been.

It did not seem to bother her, as far as Luna could tell. She gave it a lot more thought than Mignonette seemed to while they flew and explored the moon together, time flying just as quickly with them.

“I think I understand thy nature now, Mignonette. Or at least that of thy memories.”

“You do?”

“Indeed. I suspect that my working with different templates and their merging left some residual knowledge of these templates in thy mind. Though as thou art not a mere copy of a single pony, thou didst not receive any personal memories, and instead only the practical and impersonal took hold.”

“That does sound logical, my Princess.”

Luna gazed up at Mignonette where she was perched on a cloud. They had reached the edge of the ocean where Mignonette was trying her hoof at weather management, which she appeared to be quite good at.

“Why dost thou call me thus?”

“My Princess?”

“Yes, that.”

“Because I remember protocol enough to want to call you Princess. But you are also my creator and special to me. So you are my Princess.” She ignored Luna's thoughtful frown and hopped on the cloud, striking it repeatedly with her hooves. The cloud quivered and emptied the water contained in it in a relatively soft drizzle, soaking the grass growing at the edge of the cliff.

“I approve of thy form of address,” Luna finally declared, which for some reason drew another laugh from Mignonette, as carefree as the first two.

“I approve of how this cloud feels under my hooves! It feels nice to make it rain like that.”

“Art thou discovering thy cutie mark?”

“Maybe? It is unlikely I would know until it happens.”

Luna nodded thoughtfully. She could have suggested different approaches, but it was generally believed that it was better, healthier, for foals to come into their cutie marks by themselves, a theory that Luna herself subscribed to. Besides, as much as she tried to ignore the fact, she couldn’t help but think of the fact that Mignonette was her creation, the first entirely magically created pony that Luna personally knew of. Something Luna hadn't even been sure would be possible at all. She had to know if Mignonette was… well. Normal. If her cutie mark manifested without outside help, Luna would take it as the final, ultimate proof that she had indeed created a normal pony. A cutie mark was, after all, the manifestation of a pony's destiny. One might as well call it an emblem of their soul.

“Thou shalt surely find it in time,” Luna finally said. She might not help, but she could at least encourage the young pony. Young in more ways than just one. She couldn’t help the curiosity she felt bubbling within her mind.

“Dost thou feel like a filly?”

Mignonette shot her a stern glance, stopping her work with the cloud for a moment.

“No. I would prefer for you not to think of me as such, my Princess.”

Luna tried to say something, but Mignonette hurried along, as if she didn't want to interrupt and figured if she just continued fast enough, it wouldn’t count as an interruption.

„For one, I do simply not feel like one, even if I lack memories of a childhood. I assume you must have thought only of adult ponies when you made me, and that mindset took hold.”

Mignonette was correct. Foals were long asleep by the time Luna woke and she hadn't seen one, let alone met one, in a good long while before her banishment.

“In addition to that, if you think of me as a foal… well, it serves as a reminder of my technically artificial nature, does it not? And I do not like that, my Princess, not because I mind how I came to be, but because of what that implies. I may have been created by magic and willpower, but that does not make me less of a pony. If you continue to remind us of my artificial nature, I feel that it diminishes me. It diminishes the fact that I am I pony, regardless of how I came to be.“

The two of them stared at each other in a moment of heavy silence. Luna finally gave her a single, serious nod.

„Thou art correct. I apologise; the way I treated you was not… ‘twas not right.“

„I forgive you, my Princess.“ Just like that, the tense moment was over. Mignonette wrangled the cloud a few paces over so its rainfall would reach another patch of plants. They looked a bit droopy, and Mignonette stared at them looking all pleased, knowing she was helping them to survive.

„Thou art quick to forgive,“ Luna said, taking great care to speak around the lump in her throat so it would not be audible. It had been a thought for her for so many of her lonely long years here on the moon: If only the Elements of Harmony had stopped to forgive her so quickly. If only her sister had forgiven her and come to fetch her. She didn’t feel she deserved such quick forgiveness, not anymore, and she had thought she should better accept that. And now, just like that, she had been granted some measure of forgiveness anyway and it was too much, she almost didn’t know what to do with it.

„That is what friends do, or at least I think it is. Especially for you.“

„Because I am a Princess?“

„Because you look just as droopy as these flowers I am watering. You need a bit of kindness to water you and pick you up. Just like I can give these flowers water, I can give you my kindness. I love giving you that, to know that I can help. I will do it again and again, whenever you need it. If I spend my entire life doing just that, I do not feel it would be wasted.“

The lump in Luna’s throat grew conspicuously heavy, and surely that had nothing to do with how blurry her field of vision was becoming. Was it her impaired vision, or was there a flash of light? She tried to smile and it felt strangely difficult.

„Now I am not sure whether I should thank or congratulate thee.“

Mignonette looked confused for a second, but then she turned to look at her flank with a gasp of joy. Her cutie mark was a white, curly looking cloud, with three pink, heart-shaped drops falling from it.

„My cutie mark!“

„It suits thee well. We shall have to celebrate it.“

„I do not suppose there is cake on the moon yet?“

There was such a deep sense of longing behind those words, one that felt achingly familiar, that Luna couldn’t help but erupt in laughter. It felt good.

„Nay, I am afraid there is no cake yet. But I could still try and conjure one if it would please thee.“

Mignonette’s eyes lit up at that and so Luna complied, still chuckling. It was a simple cake - she had never quite mastered this particular spell quite as well as her sister - but it still did the trick. Mignonette dove off her cloud and snatched the sweet treat out of the air, almost looked like she was about to gobble it all up in a single, enormous bite, only to restrain herself and nibble daintily at it. Her eyes closed in apparent pleasure.

„Vanilla frosting! It tastes heavenly.“

„It used to be my sisters favourite,“ Luna said gently. „I learned this spell for her.“

Mignonette lowered herself with a few quick beats of her wings until she reached the ground. She held half of the cake out for Luna.

„Let us share it, then. ’Tis not much of a celebration if only one participant eats cake in any case.“

They sat and ate in companionable silence. A couple of bioluminescent moths came fluttering by, lured in by the sweet scent of vanilla, and Mignonette shared some crumbs of her cake with them too, calling them her guests. She was not able to convince them to join in her in the games though.

„Hast thou decided if thou wishest to change thy name yet?“ Luna asked after the moths had left.

„Oh, you are right, I get to do that, do I not? I forgot about that for a moment there.“

„A change of name if she wishes for it, and a celebration for the occasion, such is custom,” Luna reminded her with a smile. “Although ours is a small celebration.”

“What matters is who you spend it with,” Mignonette said with another easy smile.
“Now, as for my name - I have decided I do want to change it.” She nervously fidgeted on her spot without ever quite standing up and cleared her throat. Luna waited patiently as the mare got ready.

“Heart Drops,” she finally said.

“Heart Drops,” Luna repeated thoughtfully. “ ‘Tis very fitting. Thou hast chosen well.”

Heart Drops smiled and seemed to sag a little under the relieved breath that left her. It transformed into a giggle, and then into a loud burst of laughter as her smile grew ever wider.

“I was really worried about whether or not you would like it, my Princess!” She confessed. “The one you gave me was so beautiful, I didn't want to disappoint!”

“Truly, ‘twas that important to you?” Luna couldn’t help the indulgent tone that had crept into her voice. Heart Drops was - and as much as she might protest it, Luna would always remember it on some level - her creation. But even more importantly, she was her friend. To see this friendship returned and have somepony care so much was something Luna truly cherished in the deepest parts of herself. How could she not feel indulgent for this mare?

“Well, yes, my Princess,” Heart Drops said, now insecure again. “I… I confess there is something I would like to ask of you, though I do not know how to start.”

Luna perked up at this serious tone, eyes and ears alert on the mare in front of her.

“Honesty is by far the best approach in most situations, Heart Drops. Speak thy mind freely, and know that I shall not hold thy words against thee, whatever they may be.”

Heart Drops visibly gathered herself. When she spoke it sounded strained, as if she was speaking past the weight of the entire moon.

“I would like to ask you to create another pony. Several even.”

Luna almost sprung up, but once more Heart Drops rushed forwards to intercept her before it even officially became an interception.

“My Princess, please! I know you are wary about this, but at least hear me out until the end.”

Luna's muscles kept wanting to propel her upwards, her barrel and flanks twitched with the anger thrumming through her body. Heart Drops sat in front of her in silence, eyes blown wide from the lack of light and her worries, waiting. If Luna decided to dismiss her, Heart Drops would listen. The decision was Luna’s. She controlled herself, barely.

“Speak.”

Heart Drops gathered herself and her first words sounded breathy with the air she had held while she waited for Luna to make her decision.

“My Princess, it is just… if I stay the only mare on the moon with you, then what will become of me? Will I live out my days with you as my company until I die, never to know the company of anypony else, and knowing that I will leave you alone again? Or would you have me become like you, to live the centuries of your banishment out with you?”

The was a short moment where neither mare said a word.

“My Princess, I confess… I do not wish for immortality.” She witnessed Luna's flinching. Carried on regardless. “I dream of a normal pony life… of a family to call my own. I dream of a community to grow in, of falling in love, to see my foals play in the grass and guide them as they grow up, teach them all they must know, pass on my knowledge to my children's children until I'm old and grey. And then when my time to go should come… I will go.”

“Heart Drops, no!” The words were spoken in pain, the kind of razor sharp feeling that only love can lodge deeply into your very soul.

“Thou art my friend. My first and only friend on the moon.”

“Your first, my Princess, yes. But I don't have to be the last. The only. That is what I am trying to say.”

There was another moment of silence, interrupted only by the smallest sound of sobs, barely perceptible over the rush of the sea, the cries of the seagulls and the sweet songs of nightingales and hummingbirds.

“I'm sorry, my Princess. But you asked me to be honest.” Heart Drops lay down in the grass, right next to where Luna had sunken down. She draped her pale green wing over the dark blue one and held Luna carefully in a feathery embrace.

“My Princess, you were so worried when you made me and I can see that you still are. But I still don't think you did anything wrong. I am sound of mind, I earned my cutie mark. Is that not proof that I am normal?”

Luna tried to steady her breath. It was true, but there was still her guilt. She had wished for company and so she had created company, against all rules and warnings she had known. She had not wanted to suffer her banishment alone, and so she had inflicted it on another without care. She could not blame Heart Drops for having the same wish, but was it not her duty to stop this before it escalated further? Even if that meant Heart Drops bleak predictions for her own future became true?

Luna shuddered. What had she done? She had not foreseen this when she had created the mare beside her. Now it was too late to change the outcome. All she could do was deal with the consequences of her own mistakes.

She opened her mouth, but then closed it again before any sound came out.

Luna had given much thought to how she felt about the matter - but what about Heart Drops? Her she had only considered as an extension of her own thoughts. It was still entirely selfish, just as selfish as when she had first created the mare. And what did that say about her?

Those were not the actions of a true friend.

She was not the Nightmare anymore. Luna knew this. But then the Nightmare had been a parasite and the base template of it's character - that had been Luna and nothing else. She could recognise it within herself now, the points of her character where the Nightmare had latched onto her and twisted until she became the monster. Inherently passionate, too passionate, quick to rise to anger, impulsive and unthinking of consequences, easily jealous and often caught up in her own problems to the point of utter selfishness. The Elements of Generosity, Kindness and Friendship had always been her sister's after all.

Loyalty though - that had been all hers. It was time to act it. And maybe it was time to reach into herself and drag out Generosity and Kindness and Friendship too, Elements or no.

Maybe she had began this out of selfishness, but she could change that. If she continued without any thought to her own worries and hesitance, doing it solely for the benefit of Heart Drops, would that not mean something? Overcoming her own worst qualities, perhaps?

Luna didn't know. All she could do was hope that she was right. She wiped away the residue of tears on her face and rose, Heart Drops rising with her. They both turned until they faced each other.

“I will do it, Heart Drops. For thee.”