A Frozen Heart

"Luna..." whispered a strange, mysterious voice, almost inaudible.

Luna grumbled lightly in response.

"Luna..." called the same voice again, louder this time.

Luna grumbled louder, her tired eyes opening slightly.

"Luna!" the voice suddenly exclaimed.

Luna gasped, waking up from the sudden yell. She panicked at first, looking around herself but noticing...nothing. Nothing and no one. She still laid in her bed, in her bedroom, in Canterlot. Luna rubbed her eyes before laying back down onto her pillow.

"I must be hearing ghosts." She said to herself while pulling up her blanket once again.

Her eyes closed once more and Luna went silent as she was on her way to drift off into sleep again. However, fate had other plans with her for that night.

Luna's ears twitched as an evil, manical laughter echoed through the room. Luna jumped up from her pillow, sitting on her bed, and scanned the room for the host of the laugh. However, she was unable to find anyone in her room, just like before.

The laugh continued and intensified, as if it were mocking Luna and her attempt of finding it. Luna grumbled at the mocking tone of the voice and jumped out of her bed. She looked around hecticly as the voice seemed to be moving throughout the room, yet there was nopony to be seen.

"Who are you?" Luna shouted into the empty room, the laugh getting even louder. "Show yourself!" Luna demanded.

The laughing stopped as Luna's voice echoed throughout the room, slowly becoming quieter. Suddenly the room was completely silent, the silence only being interrupted by Luna's breaths.

The voice gave out a brief chucke. "So old and experienced..." Said the voice from behind Luna, making her turn her head slightly. "...yet so foolish and blind."

Luna frowned while looking around, becoming increasingly annoyed. "How dare you say such things and not show yourself to me?" She asked it.

A short cackle filled the room before dark smoke began crawling out of many dark corners of her bedroom. Luna looked in horror as the smoke travelled through her room, even past her, to meet up in the middle of the air. The cloud in the middle of the room grew larger and larger as more and more of the mysterious, black smoke flooded into it.Luna watched, horrorstruck, as the smog started to change, to...metamorphose. The previously deformed ball now, all by itself, grew legs and hooves, just as it grew large, pitch-black wings. Princess Luna watched with big big eyes as the changes finalized. In less than one minute, the cloud had shifted into the form of an alicorn. A pitch-black alicorn, one that reminded Luna of a creature she had seen before.

The smoke figure took its first step towards Luna, stepping into the bright moonlight that entered the room through one of the big windows. The creature stood still in the light, opening its eyes and staring at Luna. Luna froze for a brief moment as she saw the same blue slitted eyes she had seen before, from her nightmare.

"You..." Luna said quietly. "You!" She repeated, loudly this time.

"A blind fool you are." The creature said, "Believing to be a hero for your subjects when the devil sits right in front of you."

Luna kept quiet as the black figure turned away from her, instead facing the window on the wall from which the moonlight entered.

"I've seen what your mistakes cause." It said, slowly taking steps towards the window. "I've seen what fate awaits you and your subjects."

Luna slightly raised an eyebrow in confusion, but did not interrupt.

"Equestria will be consumed by evil, plunged into an era of darkness. An era of anarchy and terror." It said, arriving at the window and looking through it.

"All this..." The creature said with a heavy, quiet voice. "...Because the moon had failed them." It said, the image of the moon mirroring in its eyes.

"No. Never." Luna interrupted from behind the creature. "I would never fail my subjects. I have pledged my loyalty to them, I am their shield and guardian!" Luna shouted, becoming louder as she went on. "I would never let that happen." She added with lowered voice.

The creature sighed after hearing Luna's speech, turning away from the window and eyeing her. "And it is because of that why you must take action, Princess Luna." It said with a serious voice.

Luna wanted to frown as she heard it say her name, but refrained from doing so. "I'm afraid I am still puzzled." She replied honestly.

"Do you not understand?" The cloudy creature yelled at Luna. "I have seen the future! I have seen the horror, the dead ponies in the streets and the reign of terror! You must stop this! As their guardian and rightful ruler, you must!" The creature explained loudly.

"Their rightful ruler..." Luna thought, the phrase echoing through Luna's head. Luna didn't notice how she briefly formed a smile at the thought.

"I...understand." She replied halfheartedly, slightly shaking her head, getting rid of the previous thought. "But how did all this...evil happen? Who would do all that?"

Luna could hear the figure chuckle briefly. "Who you ask?" The creature said, getting closer to Luna. "None other than your lovely sister, of course."

Luna gasped briefly, before growing furious. "How dare you accuse my sister of such things!" Luna yelled. "She is the kindest, most generous and most loving pony to ever have lived and you do not have the right to ever accuse her of such horrible things!" Luna lashed out at the creature, losing control of herself for a brief moment.

The creature gave Luna an unexpected smile. "Perhaps...too kind and loving..." It said, floating past Luna. "Don't you think?" It whispered into Luna's right ear as it passed by.

Luna opened her mouth to reply, to deny what the creature was saying about her sister, but...she couldn't. Somehow she couldn't interrupt the creature and its speech.

"Think about it." The creature started, slowly floating around Luna as it talked, its hooves not touching the ground anymore. "Think about how much power she holds. How she has gained the everlasting trust of many ponies all around Equestria, how she uses her victories to increase in power." It continued, stroking Luna's back with its cold, yet soft hooves, making Luna shiver. "She is a puppeteer, Luna. She pulls the strings in Equestria, controls almost everything and everyone."

The pitch-black creature suddenly appeared right in front of Luna's eyes. "Except for you." It said quietly.

Luna held her head as a headache overcame her. "No...no, that's..." She began quietly and weakly, unable to finish her sentence as the pain in her head grew.

"It is this why you must take action against her. To stop her and her cursed plan of terror and dictatorship." The smoke creature said, pulling back from Luna.

"You must act before she does, Luna." It said, walking backwards. "Kill your sister."

Luna was brought to her knees as the pain grew. She could feel how her thoughts were split apart, fighting for control. "I...I..." She started.

"You must." The creature with a loud voice. "For if you don't...Equestria will be lost."

Luna looked up and saw how the creature began dissolving into thin air again. "I...I can't...no!" She said, struggling to hold back the strange thoughts in her head.

"You must keep the promise you made to your subjects and this nation, Princess." The dissolving creature said, making Luna look up with a painfilled face once more. "Be their shield. Be their guardian."

The creature dissolved completely as a gust of wind entered the room.

"Be their savior." Said the voice of the already dissolved figure.

Luna simply looked at where the mysterious creature had stood, forgetting her headache from one moment to the other. She slowly and carefully got back on her hooves, keeping her eyes locked on the location the frightening, black creature had stood in.

"Their rightful leader..." Luna mumbled to herself, looking past the place the creature had disappeared in to see the moon through the big window. The moon now mirrored in her eyes, just as it did with the creature before, and she stepped forward into the moonlight.

"Their guardian..." She mumbled again, eyeing the moon. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, taking a deep breath and breathing out a cold puff of smoke.

"Their savior." Luna said in a halfhearted voice, turning away from the hypnotizing sight of the moon. "Their savior, indeed." She said again, quiet this time as she wandered off, back towards her bed.