ETERNAL NIGHT
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MYTHS AND LEGENDS ABOUT NIGHTMARE MOON FROM AROUND THE WORLD
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1st Edition
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By Parchment Papers
Royal Canterlot Archives
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PREFACE
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Few events throughout the entirety of recorded history are thought to have had more of an impact on the world at large than the Nightmare Moon Incident. In fact, many historians today believe that it was the single most wide-reaching event besides the Reign of Discord.
It is, of course, prudent to mention that, until some twenty years ago, Nightmare Moon’s attempted coup of the Equestrian throne from her sister, Princess Celestia, was thought to be nothing more than a fairytale. We celebrated Nightmare Night, we told tales of the Mare in the Moon, but it never crossed our minds that it was ever real. Princess Celestia certainly never gave any indication otherwise.
When Princess Luna returned to Equestria to rule alongside her sister in peace, every account that even remotely mentioned Nightmare Moon or of the Mare in the Moon was called into question. Many academics realized that what was once thought to be a quaint coincidence across various cultures now was a very real event that affected every being in the world.
This book strives to catalog the diverse ways that the Time of No Light and Nightmare Moon’s subsequent imprisonment in the moon propagated throughout the world and integrated itself into various cultures. It was over a thousand years, when many civilizations were still in their infancy, that one day, the moon did not lower to make room for the sun. For many, they knew not what it meant, as they had no idea that Equestria even existed, let alone the fact that its two alicorn rulers had to physically raise and lower the sun and moon each day.
For a period of about four months, it was eternal night across the entire planet, and chaos reigned, harkening back to the Discordian Era that they were only a few hundred years removed from. During that time, the sun never once appeared in the sky. Crops withered and died. Mass panic and starvation swept through major population centers. Many took it as the end of the world.
It was only when Princess Celestia defeated her sister and imprisoned her within the moon that light and peace was restored to the world.
At this time in history, many civilizations were entirely separate from one another. The zebras had never heard of the griffons, or the griffons of the dragons. And so, independent of any outside influences, every civilization crafted their own stories and myths about what had happened, concurrent to their own beliefs.
This one, singular event embedded itself in the minds and histories of every culture around the world.
Every single civilization tells their own tales and accounts of the Time of No Light and of the Mare in the Moon. Over time, as firsthand accounts of the event trickled in from Equestria, the truth of what really had happened and the fiction that had been created were blurred into something wholly unique.
Although this is a textbook, it is designed to be of interest and accessible to anybody with a desire to learn about the current understanding of this newly discovered period of history. Although new information is being brought to light every day, this serves as a valuable introduction to the subject. As long as you have a desire and willingness to learn, this book is for you. I wish you well in your efforts.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Preface
Equestria
The Griffon Kingdoms
Zebrica
Saddle Arabia
The Dogs of the Crag
The Dragonlands
The Bison Prairies
The Minotaur Isles
Yakyakistan
Burrico
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EQUESTRIA
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Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn; the younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies.
But, as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon.
She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night. Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom: the Elements of Harmony. Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister, and banished her permanently in the moon. The elder sister took on responsibility for both sun and moon, and harmony has been maintained in Equestria for generations since.
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- [‘Tale of the Two Sisters,’ Equestrian Tales, Vol. 2]
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As with all historical events, it is best to begin at the source. For this one in particular, we look to the country both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna ruled together, the nation of Equestria.
The Equestria as we know it today, ruled by the Two Royal Sisters, had only been around for a total of ninety-two years when the Time of No Light occurred. Prior to that, the three pony tribes attempted to govern themselves for about three-hundred years, which eventually led to near disaster in the icy grip of a group of Wendigos. It was this incident that led to the founding of Equestria and the instatement of Celestia and Luna, a well-known and much-respected third party, as the governing rulers.
The series of events leading up to the Time of No Light are nearly as important as the event itself, but are only remembered in very generalized terms today. In the intervening ninety-two years after Equestria’s founding, Princess Luna grew resentful of her older sister’s overwhelming popularity with their subjects. In every bit of daily life, Luna was ignored and shoved aside in favor of Celestia. This can be seen plainly in the fact that, even today, the defeat of Discord was attributed solely to Celestia, and not to the both of them. In fact, a great deal many of the achievements attributed to Celestia from that era were not her’s at all, but actually Luna’s.
For many, it was as if Luna did not exist, and even if she was spoken about, it was often only to openly mock and deride her. Most scholars at the time simply did not even bother to acknowledge she existed, and completely rewrote history around her, leading to the completely biased and lacking historical accounts we have today, where we thought her existence was nothing more than a myth. It was because of this treatment, and surely many other things we have no way of knowing about, that Luna’s envy and hatred grew and grew, until one day it all spilled out.
Princess Celestia has since gone on record saying that the greatest mistake she had ever made in her life was failing her sister in this regard, and not recognizing how bad the public had turned against her until it was too late.
Many researchers agree that the advent of Nightmare Moon began with the murder of Esteemed Councilstallion Puddinghead, one of the co-founders of Equestria, at the hooves of Princess Luna. In the courtyard of the Castle of the Two Sisters, in full view of everypony, Luna killed Puddinghead for reasons still unknown and quickly fled the Everfree before any retribution could occur.
Eight months then passed by with nary a sighting of Luna. Princess Celestia turned the entire country upside-down searching for her sister, but could not find her anywhere.
In more recent years, Princess Luna has divulged that, during that time, she retreated to the Frozen North, to the area the Crystal Empire had once occupied. There, she discovered something that ‘further emboldened her hatred and anger,’ effectively completing her transformation into Nightmare Moon, but refused to elaborate any further.
It was only after those eight months that, with no warning, Princess Luna finally reappeared in the form of the dark and twisted entity known as Nightmare Moon. While the boundaries between Luna and Nightmare Moon are not quite known, and likely never will be, considering Luna’s reluctance to broach the subject, it is known that Luna largely acted under her own will when she came back to the Everfree and challenged Princess Celestia for the Equestrian throne. Celestia refused to concede, and instead tried to convince her sister to see reason, and also to attempt to make up for the transgressions made against her. But it was all in vain, and it was then that Nightmare Moon refused to lower the moon and ushered in the Time of No Light.
Four more months went by, during which Nightmare Moon’s perpetual night wreaked havoc throughout Equestria. Though the exact effects were not documented, it is all too easy to predict what such an event would have on the planet. At the very least, a drastic drop in temperature would occur, effectively freezing over the entire world, and the movement of the tides would become erratic and unpredictable, due to the constant presence of the moon, not to mention the potential loss of life caused by mass panic.
Nightmare Moon and Princess Celestia engaged in several skirmishes over that period of time, with neither side gaining any ground against the other. Frequently, Nightmare Moon would terrorize towns all across Equestria, resulting in entire villages being razed to the ground, and a loss of life that ultimately numbered in the hundreds. Celestia, in turn, would confront her sister in the hopes of getting her to resolve things peacefully, to no avail, and things quickly descended into battle. These battles between the two alicorns would oftentimes last an entire day, and were a fearsome display of the raw magical energy alicorns possess. It is a testament to the sheer ferocity that took place that much of this magic still lingers to this day in the form of ‘hotspots’ throughout Equestria where the ambient magical energy is much higher than normal.
Eventually, in one last, desperate bid to take the Equestrian throne, Nightmare Moon assaulted the Castle of the Two Sisters once again. It was only then that Celestia confronted her sister with the Elements of Harmony and reluctantly imprisoned her within the moon.
And so, peace and harmony returned to Equestria, though it would take many years for the scars to heal.
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One cold autumn night, in the hours when the world was still, a group of three young, foolish ponies stole away from their homes with the intent to have some fun without their parent’s supervision. Their nighttime revelry through the town took them on a path next to the Sleeping Hollow cemetery, where much of the town’s deceased were buried.
It was midnight when they came to the graveyard. It was a dark night, as thick clouds covered the moon and stars, and the only light came from their lantern. The air was still and silent.
They had all heard the tales their parents told of the Mare in the Moon, and how she would come down to the earth in search of wayward foals to gobble up, but they took no heed to the warnings. They were brash and fearless, and they had the idea to enter the graveyard. It was while they were defacing the headstones and laughing raucously, that the clouds parted from the sky, revealing the moon.
Suddenly, their eyes were caught by a bright light shining from above them. They stopped and looked as a dark mist came forth from the moon and formed into Nightmare Moon herself.
They let out a terrible scream as the Nightmare swooped down at full tilt, a hungry gleam in her eyes. Each of the three took off in a different direction at full gallop, desperate to get away.
The unicorn took for the bridge, as he knew that dark spirits could not cross running water, but was caught before he could make it, when the Nightmare teleported directly in front of him. The pegasus took for the skies, hoping to fly far away, but the Nightmare was faster still, and caught him before he could escape. The earth pony took for the nearby forest with the intent to lose the Nightmare among the trees, but the Nightmare cast dark magic and made the branches and roots entangle him, and he too was eaten.
When morning came and the townsponies could not find the three adolescents, they wept, for they knew the Nightmare from the Moon had taken them.
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- ['The Nightmare from the Moon,’ transcription of the folktale by S. E. Withers]
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Over the next one-thousand years, Princess Luna, her stint as Nightmare Moon, and the Time of No Light was allowed to fade into obscurity not only by the general public, but also by Celestia herself. Even the very fact that Celestia had ever had a sister was completely forgotten. It is not quite known how this happened, as the Time of No Light was a very significant historical event, not only for Equestria, but for the entire world. When asked as to how she could have let her own sister be struck from history so, Celestia declined to comment.
There is hardly any evidence of Princess Luna prior to her return in 1404. What evidence remains is contentious and debatable at best, as it only vaguely alludes to her existence, and is full of unreliable accounts, third or fourth-hand sources, and heavily-altered and censored historical records. What remains after even that is so little that it has taken researchers over a decade to come up with and assemble the information presented here in this book.
In the end, despite everything that happened, Luna was almost completely erased from history. The ponies she so desperately wanted love and attention from completely forgot her.
Though, that is to say, there is still some memories of her that have found their way into the modern age. Some of the clearest remains of Luna and the Time of No Light is the ‘Tale of the Two Sisters,’ which many believed was only a simple cautionary fable warning against letting anger and envy rule your heart, and the ‘Tale of the Mare in the Moon,’ which was thought to have been started by parents to keep their unruly foals in line, lest the Nightmare from the Moon spirit you away. Prior to her return, these stories were nothing more than works of fiction, but in the light we see them in now, it is all too obvious to see the connections and the roots from which they began.
It was only in the popular holiday known as Nightmare Night that Nightmare Moon, and by proxy, Luna, was truly remembered. Nightmare Night originated from a longstanding tradition shared by all three tribes that took place near the end of autumn, now known to be approximately the time Nightmare Moon was banished. It was believed that, around this time of year, the Nightmare from the Moon would temporarily break free of her lunar prison and soar through the skies, searching for anypony, mostly young foals, to gobble up.
As time went on, each pony tribe found their own way to ward off the dark spirit’s predatory hunger. Earth ponies would traditionally give up offerings of that year’s harvest and various sweets, so that the Nightmare would eat those in lieu of them. Unicorns would go from door-to-door in their communities, gather two small coins or a trinket from each family, and place them all in a basket in the town center to appease the Nightmare. Pegasi would dress up in elaborate and frightening costumes in an attempt to scare the Nightmare away, or at the very least, make it seem that there were no ponies living in town.
Nowadays, many of these traditions have blended together and formed what we know as Nightmare Night. While any actual fear of the Nightmare has long since subsided, adults and foals alike dress up in costumes, go from door-to-door to collect candy in decorative baskets and sacks, and offer some of it to Nightmare Moon, all in good fun. It is now one of the most popular holidays in Equestria, save for perhaps Hearth’s Warming Day.
Since her return, Princess Luna has publicly embraced Nightmare Night, and frequently takes part in many of the festivities herself. Every year, she visits as least one town in Equestria, playing the role of Nightmare Moon, and spends the night scaring residents before joining in on the fun and games herself and spending time with her subjects.
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Oh, at the time of no light
Oh, at the time of no light
Oh, when the night sky never sets
At the time of no light
Oh, when the sun refuse to shine
Oh, when the sun refuse to shine
When the night sky never sets
At the time of no light
Oh, when the stars fall down from the sky
Oh, when the stars fall down from the sky
When the night sky never sets
At the time of no light
Oh, when the moon turns red with blood
Oh, when the moon turns red with blood
When the night sky never sets
At the time of no light
Oh, when the drums begin to bang
Oh, when the drums begin to bang
When the night sky never sets
At the time of no light
Oh, when the heavens move to war
Oh, when the heavens move to war
When the night sky never sets
At the time of no light
Oh, when the land turns to ice
Oh, when the land turns to ice
When the night sky never sets
At the time of no light
Oh, at the time of no light
Oh, at the time of no light
Oh, when the night sky never sets
At the time of no light
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- [‘At the Time of No Light,’ traditional bat pony song]
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Often referred to as the ‘fourth pony tribe,’ the bat ponies are probably the best source of information about the period of history they refer to as the Time of No Light, which is from where the term originated. Bat ponies are indigenous to the region now known as Equestria, and it was only when the three pony tribes expanded throughout the newly founded country did the two groups come into contact with each other.
As they are a nocturnal race, bat ponies found a particular affinity under Princess Luna, who tried to integrate them into Equestria in a series of government-subsidized programs previously thought to have originated from Princess Celestia. For the intervening ninety years, bat ponies were slowly combined into the population at large, though to much distrust and outright hatred from the other three tribes.
Traditionally, bat ponies spend most of their lives in various isolated communities scattered in caves and mountains throughout Equestria. This highly-secluded nature leant itself to a comparatively well-preserved history that filled in many of the gaps about Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon where the historical reports in Equestria proper failed. Unfortunately, it was this same isolation that made it so that very little of this information ever made it outside their ancestral homes until very recently.
What their accounts tell us about the Time of No Light is intriguing. When Princess Luna killed Esteemed Councilstallion Puddinghead and fled to the Frozen North, the public outcry was immense. The citizens of Equestria looked for somepony to blame for his death, and in lieu of Luna herself, many sought to hold the bat ponies responsible, as they had since become closely associated with the princess of the night.
It is important to note that, contrary to many rumors, the bat ponies do not and did not worship Princess Luna or Nightmare Moon. At the time, most were more beholden to the Equestrian state than any one alicorn, and when Luna fled, they all firmly stayed in the country that they had grown to call home.
Though many bat ponies publicly condemned Princess Luna’s actions, as they were disillusioned by what she had done, growing societal unrest forced many to return to their mountain enclaves in fear. But regardless of their actual opinions, it was in the bat ponies that the three tribes found an enemy, and not even Princess Celestia or the remaining Founders could put a stop to the increasing amount of violence against the bat ponies. By the fifth month after Puddinghead’s death, only about a hundred bat ponies remained in Equestria, as many had decided to leave. Those that remained tried in vain to continue to live the lives they had built for themselves, but it was only after several public lynchings and other targeted murders, that a mass exodus occurred, and all bat ponies left Equestria proper to return to their ancestral homes.
By the sixth month after Puddinghead’s death, every bat pony in Equestria was gone.
When Nightmare Moon reappeared three months later, the bat ponies stayed in their homes. By their reckoning, they were nocturnal and full of indignation about their treatment, and if Nightmare Moon successfully took over Equestria, then they would let her. Of course, not everypony felt the same way. There were quite a few bat ponies who returned to Equestria to assist however they could, and there were even some particular individuals who actively sought to join Nightmare Moon on her crusade of terror. These bat ponies, or the Thestrals as they would later come to be known as, were disavowed by the High Enclave, and never actually made contact with Nightmare Moon before she was banished. Instead, they roamed the countryside and terrorized several towns and villages for almost a year before they were stopped by the Royal Guard.
In the thousand years since then, the bat ponies have slowly but surely integrated into Equestria at large, and today it is not uncommon to see them all across the country, though many still live in their ancestral homes. There is more to be said about the relations between the bat ponies and Equestria proper, but that is for the subject of another book entirely.
With Princess Luna’s return, she has once again made it her initiative to further assist the bat ponies in a series of sweeping reforms to several laws put in place by the Council of Native Affairs. It is thanks to her and several members of various enclaves that the information presented in this section was ever brought to light. Most of bat pony history is not written down, but is instead an oral tradition, where it is verbally passed from one generation to another.
As of right now, this is the most complete information we have about the Time of No Light as it was experienced by Equestria. Princess Luna has respectfully declined to divulge any further information about her time as Nightmare Moon or the exact reasons that led to the fateful event. Princess Celestia, as is the norm for her, has also refused to comment on any of the historical accuracies presented here, despite the fact that she could easily clear up a great many things, having lived through it herself. Any other evidence is still yet to be discovered, or is too tangentially related to be included here.
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