All this time, Luna. All this time, I thought you were happy. All this time, I believed your lies when you said you were fine. You hardly ever complained about our rule as the sisters two, nor had you ever revealed your woes to any other.
You were my sister, dear Luna. Why didn’t you tell me before?
Why was it that you opted to hide the dark secret of Nightmare Moon until it was too late? Had I ever wronged you? I do not understand, sister.
Don’t you remember who lovingly watched over you in our early years? The sister who agonized over your well-being during the wartime years, the sister who had shielded you at times from those who believed we were inferior, the sister who you knew as Celestia.
Please, dear sister. Tell me. Why?
Was it because I hid you from praise to prevent you from becoming too prideful for your own good?
Was it because ponies slumbered during your night and danced during my day?
I believe I may not ever be able to understand true loneliness, sister. Or perhaps, at least, not until that day. I have come to the habit of convincing myself, every morning and every night, that one day, you will return. Not as the vengeful Nightmare Moon, but as my sister and everlasting friend.
It is hard to believe that nearly a thousand years have passed since I turned to performing what I previously thought I’d never do. Yes, sister. I remember the day when I banished you to the moon from nearly pure rage. It was a curse of anger, of confusion over why one would betray their own family.
A thousand years. A millennium has passed since I have last gazed at my living sister in the flesh. A thousand years to debate over my own decisions. A thousand years since I have last felt true joy.
It is true that over the centuries I have taken on many fillies and colts as my personal protégés, sometimes to truly refine their abilities for the good of Equestria, and sometimes in attempt to fill the hole in my soul that you left behind when I banished you so long ago.
It’s sometimes hard to gaze upon the moon at night; to stare into the silhouette emblazoned onto its face, an unforeseen consequence of your banishment, I’d presume. Though it’s long since become a common occurrence, with some ponies referring to the specter as “The Mare of the Moon”, I still know it as a sign of you. A sign of my younger sister. The mark of Luna.
Sometimes, I find it difficult to perform day-to-day duties without thinking back upon you, sister. In the past, throughout my many protégés, I’ve more often than not found myself gazing upon the young fillies and colts, entranced by their playfulness and innocence. They, unlike myself, could easily live a lifetime carefree, unknowing the darker side of emotions that to this day, still boil within me. They remind me of you, Luna. They remind me of our early years, when we too once roamed the land without a care in the world. They reminded me of us.
The curse shall lift in only a matter of time. There isn’t much time left before you are once again free to return. Please, sister. Forget your ambitions of eternal night that Nightmare Moon has placed upon your mind. Fight off the dark plague that has invaded your body, and let us be sisters once more. I have no will to fight you any longer, and on the day of your return, you may find me in the highest tower of Canterlot Castle, gazing upon the moon. I cannot let myself harm you again. I don’t think my heart may be able to handle being broken another time. Whatever you may bring upon your return, please do not bring about eternal night, sister. You do not know the effects of even prolonged night upon the crops. Ponies would die by the millions of starvation without the warmth of the day to grow their crops by. I know you must feel vengeful for what you consider as my sins against you, but please, sister. I just wish for your return.
In other words, welcome home, Luna.
All this time. A thousand years have passed since you struck your own sister. A greedy blow serving only to further elevate your image on the ponies of Equestria. It’s hard to believe how one could be betrayed in such a way, Celestia.
You have only delayed the inevitable. I eagerly await the day I become free from this dastardly place. I long for the day when I may one day see my revenge enacted for my years of suffering.
To this day, I still cannot bring myself to believe your lies. Your complete and utter greed, hoarding the praise of the ponies for yourself as you let them, at the same time, shun me, your very sister, and allow her to practically fade into obscurity.
I deserve love, sister. I only wished for a day when the ponies would come to appreciate what I had put so much effort into to give them. However, that wish, to this day, continues to go unfulfilled, I presume.
Long ago, dear sister, I believed your dirty lies. I truly thought that you cared for me when you told me that you were shielding me from the plagues of corruption. You said that power could corrupt. Well, look who’s the corrupted one now?
I eagerly await the day I shall be free. The day I shall set my hooves upon you in revenge. The day I shall make you suffer for my woes. You say you love me, Celestia, yet to me, those lies only scream of deception. You say you protect me. Look at the sky, sister, and tell me that isn’t myself, cursed upon the wretched surface of this lonely satellite.
I cannot say what you may be doing when I return, or even the state of our nation. My eternal night would’ve brought everlasting beauty to the skies, it would’ve given the ponies a beautiful work of art to gaze upon every night. I would’ve granted access to innumerable powerful spells to the mages of the land in order to allow the crops to live. I would’ve even allowed for the day to return, if you only apologized, sister.
Even then, however, I would be a fool to believe an apology as thin as yours. You are a coward, Celestia. You would rather sooner banish your very sister than to just for once, listen to what she had to say.
I lived in your shadow all my life, sister. I lived in awe of the praise that had elevated you to the status of what could only amount to a goddess. I once believed that one day, I would stand beside you without a care in the world. I thought that I could be happy. There were so many ways that this life could’ve played out. But why did it have to be like this? Even I do not know.
There were times when I thought I could perhaps talk to you, convince you that I deserved better.
Nightmare Moon, the persona you claim to be a plague upon my mind, was nothing but a creation of my own. It was the embodiment of the many years I wished to be like you, sister. It was the light in my eyes that I held onto so longingly, the ambitions and dreams I had of being your equal one day, and not just the sister of the night that ponies would sometimes even go as far as to claim to be a myth.
Do I look like a myth to you, sister? Nightmare Moon was once a fantastical dream. A dream of family and friends, a dream of belonging. Yet, slowly, over the course of years, it grew corrupted by your power. You always received the praise and love for my actions. When ponies were to be thankful, they claimed thanks to you. When they stared into the night sky and saw my stars, they came to you with boasts of its beauty. I was never given a chance, sister, and those emotions funneled into my dreams. My thoughts. Soon enough, they became Nightmare Moon.
Fear was all I felt when you banished me so long ago. Your face was contorted into a ghastly vision of pure rage, of fiery passion that even now, I fear to ever dare face again. It was the face of a sister I wished I didn’t have to strike, but what was the point of leaving you with such power if you were only to wield it with the heavy hoof of a mare who refused even to acknowledge the woes of her own sister?
When I return, Celestia. When I return, I shall find you, and you may expect to find yourself facing your own creation. You made me this way, sister, and I hate it.
Watch your back if you may ever find yourself a protégé, sister. I fear your heart may be too cold for their own good.
