A Thousand Years

Luna groaned herself awake, slowly opening her eyes. Looking around in confusion she did not see her bedchamber that she normally woke up in, or the table of a tavern that she occasionally found herself sleeping on; waking up with a headache and a dry mouth, but on a bleak dark gray landscape. Shaking her head in confusion she lifted her weary bones off of the ground and stood up, looking around in an attempt to figure out where she was.

This was no place that she had ever seen, or heard of before either. Everything was dark gray and... fuzzy looking? Luna pawed at the ground a little, stirring up a small cloud of dust that hung and almost seemed to glitter in the air. Focusing a little more on the ground around her it wasn't just here but everywhere seemed to be covered with a good few inches of this strange dust. Looking up and around again Luna could just make out hills and even what looked like mountains in the dim twilight all fuzzy and soft around the edges from what she could only assume was this covering of dust.

What really shocked her was the sky. Devoid of both sun and moon it was covered with the thickest blanket of stars Luna had ever seen. She considered herself the leading expert on the little studied topic of Astrology and while she could easily pick out many constellations what surprised her was how clear it all was and how many stars there were to begin with. She could see at least a dozen times as many as she was used to and could see them even more clearly than if she was on a mountaintop in the clearest of winter nights. It truly appeared that the sky was dominated with a vast blanket of shining diamonds, ceaselessly twinkling and sparkling in a never ending dance of infinite size and complexity. Not seeing the moon was disconcerting though, without its familiar presence watching over her she felt a little naked. Raising the moon can wait till she figures out where she is though so Luna tried to remember the events leading up to her ending up where ever she was.

Her eyes widening in shock combined with a small gasp of realization she did indeed mostly remember what had happened in her immediate past. She remembered long night after lonely night keeping ponies safe from their nightmares and working on bettering themselves. She remembered standing alone against denizens of darkness while the rest of the kingdom slept peacefully. She remembered the countless battles and the thankless, ungrateful whispers and murmurs she got in return. The rumors started to spread that she didn't care about anyone but herself, that she obviously couldn't be bothered to help Celestia run the country when in reality she was usually healing from a long and deadly night of fighting demons and other ilk. At first Celestia offered to help and barely tried but tried nonetheless to quench the bad rumors surrounding her younger sister. Then she stopped altogether and Luna kept quiet about what she did at night, preferring to just do her job and go to bed without seeing anypony, rinse and repeat.

She remembered the love and adoration heaped and poured on Celestia, no one could find fault with their perfect Goddess of the sun. She remembered the loneliness she felt even from the one pony who she was stuck with for eternity. Celestia was soooo busy micromanaging the country and basking in their love she reciprocated none of that in Luna's direction. She remembered Celestia never helping her, always saying she was too tired to go on patrol and eventually Luna stopped asking for help altogether. She remembered the feelings of jealousy and bitterness towards her sister and her fellow ponies. Lastly she remembered in the midst of one particular lonely night sensing a soothing and friendly presence out there in the night, in the stars and she remembered reaching out to it, looking for anything really to side with her. She remembered the rushing feeling as something came into her filling her with validation and a sense of simply being wanted. Something she hadn't felt in a long time... longer than anypony had a right to bear with.

Luna shook her head again as if she was trying to clear up cobwebs that were lodged in that thick, uncooperative head of hers. Why couldn't she remember anything after that, it felt like a while ago but she could not fathom why that would be... maybe that was the last thing that happened? She did not feel that was the case but it still could be. Either way she first needs to find out where she is so with that desire planted firmly in her mind she took flight, high into the inky sky and off in a random direction leaving only a few hoofprints and a puff of dust in her wake.

Luna always had loved flying, loved the feel of the air running through her feathers, the wind in her mane and the feeling that she could do anything she set her heart on. The rushing sensation always invigorated her. Not so this time, this time there was no air in her feathers nor wind in her mane. In fact she had to keep periodically checking the ground to feel like she was moving at all. The stillness and quietness of this strange place she found herself on was unnerving to say the least. She did notice however early on in her flight that the ground seemed to be not only covered in dust but that it was pockmarked with small circular divots that looked like craters. The more Luna looked at them the more that seemed to be true but there were too many for that to be the case. This place was getting stranger and stranger by the minute, Luna even began to wonder if this was a dream after passing out drunk on a flour sack or something.

Since there was no real change in the landscape and with nothing better to do Luna idly wondered if she would be able to tell where she was or even what time it was. Maybe by the position of the stars? There was no clouds of any kind to block her sight, plus they were so much bigger and brighter than they normally were. She knew the stars appeared in different parts of the sky when she wasn't home, courtesy of her trips to other countries but strangely enough they were in the same spots that she last remembered them, it was as if she was right in the middle of Equestria. But that was impossible she thought as she shook her head, there was nowhere in Equestria that looked anything close to this. She did think she could tell rudimentary time by the position of the stars, but she would have to be in the same spot for the whole time and it would not be all that accurate so she quickly abandoned that idea since at best she could tell what month it was.

After flying for what felt like an entire day Luna began to see what appeared the predawn light coming up over the horizon, thankful for some possible daylight to better find her bearings she pressed on. All of a sudden the stars above her rapidly moved out of position. It was as if the whole sky rotated in just the space of a minute or so and Luna was presented with a new sky of stars that she had never seen before, new constellations that had never before been seen by ponykind just suddenly manifested themselves before Luna's wide eyed face. This new canvas of stars was so sudden and so breathtaking that Luna forgot to pay attention to where she was flying and flew face first into the side of a mountain.

With a nasty sounding thud Luna created a new cloud of dust from impact on the mountainside. She dug herself out of flank deep dust, sending a giant thick cloud of the stuff everywhere.

"Fuck me with the sun! There is a lot of dust here!" Luna exclaimed and very quickly realized that that was a terrible mistake.

Breathing in a lungful of the fine stuff from talking she started coughing dust from what felt like her very soul. Hacking and coughing like a plague mare she made her way to the top of the mountain and sat there composing herself.

When she finally got control of herself and had gotten most of the dust off of her Luna immediately looked back up at the sky amazed with the new stars that were everywhere and wished to the bottom of her heart that she had parchment or something to chart this out with. She did notice one constellation that she seemed to remember, it was always sitting at the bottom of the horizon and while it was still there it was weird looking with all these unfamiliar ones. Getting lost in the sky Luna sat there and stared at it for who knows how long but was probably hours.

Finally breaking her gaze from above her and looking to the side she saw again the predawn light coming from over the horizon, weirdly enough it had not gotten brighter at all and she still could not see her sisters sun. It looked like morning was coming and Luna knew she should have seen the sun come up by now, she had been looking at the new stars for far too long for day to not have come since she saw it before she stopped to look at the sky.

Stretching the stiffness from her wings Luna took flight again towards the light, hoping that once she could see better she could get some answers to what was going on. Even as a filly she never really stopped to think about stuff before she flew off to find answers, she just looked for them. As she flew closer and closer to the light it started getting brighter. After a while further she saw the Sun peeking over the horizon, what was strange though was it looked smaller than it normally did, about half its size really. Blinking away tears from the bright light Luna looked down and noticed something coming up ahead of her that made her have to stop and get a better look at at. While normally sunrises gradually turn the whole land brighter she saw an obvious and distinct line where the twilight grey of where she was now met with the brightness of over there. The difference was shocking, on one hoof everything was gray and subdued, on the other hoof the other side was as bright and blinding as noon on a snow covered mountain. Pure whiteness and stark shadows were all Luna could make out on the other side.

Coming down to land near the edge of the line, she was greeted once again by a large puff of dust that, once airborne it latched itself to her blue coat and stuck to her mane. Once again for more times than Luna could count, she cursed this horrendous place and its infernal dust! When she returned, she vowed would keep the entire castle dust free and sparkly clean. With a flash of her horn, the dust on her body fell off and with a vigorous shake of her head, her mane also dislodged the offending particles, sending them cascading to the ground in a brilliant shower of crystalline shower. Eyeing, well everything around her with contempt, Luna turned her attention back to the line between what appeared to be day and night in front of her.

With more care than she probably needed Luna took a few steps into the light and nervously laughed at her sheepishness. Looking around she noticed a few things, the stars were not nearly as visible as before, even though they were much closer now than she was normally used to seeing them in Equestria. She also saw a bright and burning spot in the sky, very much like the Sun she was used to, but only about one half the size was used to. She also saw what seemed to be a dark circle in the sky, twice the size of the moon she was used to seeing and blotting out the stars. She stood there looking dumbfounded at all the new things she hadn't ever seen before in the sky. Because though she was so transfixed by the sky and looking up, she didn't even see what was coming next.

Luna was hit in her side with enough force to knock the wind out of her and send her flying a few dozen meters. Choking trying to get suck some air back in her lungs she inhaled a bunch of the dust. Coughing and hacking, holding the side of her body with one of her wings Luna used her magic to to blow away the dust cloud and whipped her head around wondering what in Tartarus just hit her. All she saw was a large and very obvious and thick black cloud about three times her height that was constantly roiling around and wrapping back in on itself making it impossible to see what, if anything was inside. Watching it intently Luna finally got her breath back, sucking in air with ragged gasps that seemed to violate the still quietness of this foreign landscape.

“What are you!” Luna demanded of the cloud as soon as she was able to speak.

The cloud didn't reply, well that's a first Luna thought sarcastically, so far all her attempts to talk to clouds hadn't worked for some funny reason even though this is the first one that attacked her. Nursing her side she carefully stepped closer to it trying to see inside of it, if there was anything there. The moment she moved however the cloud blitzed to her with alarming speed, faster than Luna had seen anything move before and enveloped her. Her vision became clouded and she felt smothered by this repulsive fog that boiled and pressed around her. It felt alive as it started writhing in her nostrils and mouth trying to suffocate her and worm its way into her lungs. At least that was all she could feel before another powerful blow stuck her other side sending her flying again.

This time she was ready, as soon as she was enveloped she tensed her body on reflex to prepare for the inevitable blow. This time though she recognized the shape that hit her side, just before she hit the ground she knew that it was a hoof that had hit her, another pony. Getting back up quick as a thought she spread her legs apart and readied her horn, pointing it at the roiling blackness.

“I warn you that I will not go easy on you and I have fought demons and terrors for centuries!” Luna declared as she shot a powerful immobilizing spell right at its center. She had once stopped an Ursa Major in its tracks for a few minutes with this same spell. It would at least hold whatever it was steady so Luna could maybe get a closer look at it or put it down in some way. She heard the thud sound indicating that she hit something so she immediately threw a strong shock-wave its direction, attempting to dispel the cloud so she could get a good look at this thing.

The blast appeared to go straight through the cloud not affecting it at all, it was as if it was entirely unaffected by her powerful spell casting. Luna only got a moment of surprise in before the thing rushed at her again. With a quick and desperate push of her wings she managed to gain enough height that the thing went beneath her. Skidding to a halt it stopped while Luna hovered a dozen feet or so above the top of it. Opening her mouth to ask again of it what it was she didn't get the chance as a great darkness suddenly clouded her vision. She could still hear her ragged breathing, coming in short and heavy spurts but she could not see anything, it was as if she suddenly went completely and utterly blind.

Blinking her eyes rapidly in a reflex to try and clear them she tried shooting blast after blast of shock waves, when nothing happened she tried blasting light in every direction, as powerful as she could muster. Long ago she had accidentally and permanently blinded several ponies with this very spell so she normally never used it. She could see for the briefest of moments that it was working, the darkness around her was dimly, oh so dimly lit but then the light coming from her horn seemed to just get sucked into this void that surrounded her. With this suffocating void that Luna was so desperately trying and failing to dispel it is no wonder she didn't see or could comprehend what happened next.

With great crushing force Luna was in an instant forcefully pushed to the ground. She didn't feel anything on her back so it was not as if she was pushed down it just felt like she was so heavy that her wings simply would not keep her aloft anymore and with great speed she was dragged to the ground flapping her wings for all she was worth but it was futile, with rapid speed she kept getting sucked down to the ground. When she hit the ground she felt like a great weight was on every inch of her body pushing it down and grinding her into the dust. Planting her hooves solidly on the surface she pushed and strained with all her might. Well toned muscles flexed and sinew tensed as Luna pushed upward with a truly herculean effort. After a few moments she collapsed into a heap on the ground again, not able to surpass whatever this was that was holding her down.

It was at this time that the void that had stolen away her sight lifted, her eyes blinking rapidly from the contrast of the bright light and she could see that nothing was holding her down, she was just being crushed into the dust by a lot of empty nothing. Straining her neck she could see the thing just off to her side hovering there. Slowly and purposefully it started to float its way over to Luna in total silence. For the first time in a very very long time Luna felt something she had grown complete strangers with, terror. Her body started to quiver and even a small whimper snuck its way past her lips it was all she could do to shiver as she watched the thing make its way slowly over to her, her face unmoving as she stared at it with shrunken pupils.

The roiling cloud oozed its way over her body and when it covered her completely she felt an uncontrollable sense of claustrophobia. She felt like she was suffocating, her ragged gasps and shivering as she struggled even more desperately against the force holding her down as she felt like she was drowning and would never make it back to the light. Her vision robbed from her again she didn't see her attacker until she felt a hoof on each of her wings. She sensed more than heard or anything that the being leaned over and she felt its hot and sickly breath wash over the side of her face. It didn't say anything but a small puff of hot air made her think what ever it was, it was smiling. She felt it straighten back up and felt both the hooves holding her wings down lift off of her but before she could move an inch they came back down with titanic force right at the front joint of her wings. She cried out in pain as it lifted its hooves again and smashed them down. Over and over it smashed its hooves down and Luna's cries turned more into screams of agony, every fresh jab of pain lancing through her whole body until with a final stomp both of her wings were broken in half.

Luna shrieked until her throat tore and her mind could not think of anything else from the pain that held her entire existence captive. She shrieked never ending until her voice gave out and with a final gurgle, red froth dripping from her lips she passed out.

A sharp jab pervasively brought Luna back to the waking world. Her eyes snapping open from the new pain she was experiencing she tried to look around her but still could not see anything, the thick cloud roiling and choking swirled around her still. She was lying on her back her legs bent out at odd angles. Unnatural angles Luna thought briefly before trying to move one of them and moaning in pain as her voice still was gone, all of her legs were broken save for her back right leg and it was being gripped by the being that still had her surrounded, pinned to the ground with its strange magic and utterly held her at its mercy.

Luna whimpered knowing what was about to happen and tried to beg but with her throat torn as badly as it was there was no way she would be able to get the words out. With a mighty twist it snapped her last working leg completely backwards as Luna convulsed spastically and moaned again, her eyes bulging out and her pupils almost gone so lost was she in the pain. It let go of her mangled limb and Luna almost lost consciousness again as her leg hit the ground, a new wave of pain rolling over her body.

The void smoke cleared up just a little bit, enough so that Luna could just make the outline of her tormentor. It was pony shaped but a good two or three times larger than Luna. It had a horn as well but Luna could make out little else. It opened its eyes and Luna could easily see them even, harsh yellow orbs like miniature suns glowed and seemed to thrum with power. Following its eye movements she watched it lazily admire its handiwork and she shivered despite the pain, despite its hot eyes they only held cold hard malice. Leaning over its face mere inches from Luna's it fixed her in a stare that seemed like a cockatrice's as Luna found herself drowning in those eyes of power, unable to turn her head or even think about moving her broken and mangled body. It studied her face for a moment and then touched its horn to hers.

Luna felt something happen, like a surge of magic enter her head and change something in there but after a few ragged gasps and nothing happening she opened her eyes that she didn't realize she was squeezing shut a looked once again at the face of the monster.

He grinned at her, a lopsided sickening look and before Luna could unscramble her thoughts in between bouts of pain he picked her up in a field of levitation and without so much as a word threw her back over the line just barely into the dark side. She still couldn't get her mind to work properly amidst all her legs screaming at her and as such she did not prepare herself for when she hit the ground.

In the absolute stillness of this alien land a single shrieking note could be heard, a sound completely alien to ponies if there ever was one. For a moment it forced its way out of lunas already torn throat before the Princess of the Moon blacked out.

Luna dreamed fitfully, not one she was familiar with though and not one that could be considered a good dream by any stretch of the imagination. She saw herself standing on top of the staircase in the throne room of the castle looking at, well herself.

“Not... another step!” Luna declared strongly. Dream Luna stopped in her hoofsteps, and gazed sadly at herself. Realizing she was viewing somepony else dream from their perspective she idly wondered what was going on, usually she viewed dreams from a third party perspective it was pretty novel to get it from their point of view.

Looking imperiously at the host of this dream Luna said vehemently, “Did you really expect me to sit idly by while they all basked in your precious light?” Ugh she thought, whomever dream this was they sure did have an active imagination. Sure she got angry from time to time just like everypony but this sounded way more hateful and venomous than she ever had been.

“There can only be one princess in Equestria! And that princess... will be me!” Luna yelled and stomped the ground hard enough to crack the floor. Dream Luna only just snorted and rolled her eyes, sure she would have to check up on the mental health of whoever this was when she got everything sorted out but it was so wildly out of character for her that she could not help but to feel entertained by it. What happened next though was surprising to her but she felt like she should know what it was.

There was a rumbling and the weird acting Luna rose up in the air, eyes glowing with great and terrible power. The cracks on the floor extended to the window behind her and as it shattered, the sun was visible for just a few moments before Luna forcibly moved the moon in front of it blocking the sun off completely plunging the world into unnatural darkness. Luna began laughing like the maniacs in stage plays and her body transformed into someone else, something else. She grew taller, her coat grew much darker till it became black, her eyes became unnatural slits and her teeth elongated and sharpened much like those of predators. With an exhilarated laugh she gazed in utter contempt at the host of the dream. A voice so familiar to Dream Luna that her mind jerked sharply countered this monstrosity.

“Luna, I will not fight you! You must lower the moon! It is your duty!” Celestia declared righteously. Dream Luna just got way more confused and a little bit scared of this. Celestia knew her better than anyone why would she be having a nightmare about this? How could she be in Celestia's dream if she could not find her, the only thing she could think of was she somehow lost her powers or control of her magic or something, but that still does not explain what the hay this dream was even about. She was trying to unravel this latest bit that she almost missed out on what happened next.

“Luna? I am... Nightmare Moon! I have but one royal duty now, to destroy you!” With that Luna launched a magical attack at Celestia and took off into the air, attacking her. Dream Luna watched on with growing dread as this Nightmare and Celestia fought, even injuring her sister. When all hope seemed lost Celestia brought out the Elements of Harmony and using them blasted the deranged monster to the moon, shockwaves rippling through the air and whipping her hair around. The dream did not end there however and though Luna could only watch on with horror and wish it would end but there was just a small part left.

After the blast Celestia looked upwards to the moon which now was marred with the visage of the creature that was once her sister. Luna felt an almost unimaginable amount of guilt and the most soul-wracking sorrow wash over her and she heard Celestia whisper as her tears fell upon the uncaring stone... “What have I done?”

Luna painfully jerked awake and instinctively tried to get up. Agonizing pain shot through her entire body and she remembered belatedly that standing was probably the worst thing she could do right now. Slowly slumping down with a whimper she settled back down in the slowly swirling cloud of dust motes. Since her head was about the only thing that did not hurt she lifted her muzzle off of the ground and glanced around, trying to keep as still as possible.

Taking a mental category of what all felt wrong with her body without moving at all turned out to be too difficult and she gave up.

"Fuck me everything hurts" she tried to say but her torn throat prevented that too so she just settled for laying her head down gently and feeling like utter dragon shit, and dragon shits were some scary stuff.

Luna stopped feeling pitiful about herself. Her wounds would heal, eventually that is with a lot of magic helping it along although she would be very stiff in all of her broken joints for a while. What was that thing? Luna thought to herself. She knew she had never faced anything like that before. She guarded the kingdom during the waning hours from nightmares, both real and imagined. In all of her decades fighting the fight she had never even got close to being killed or injured that badly. Her even being alive was more due to whatever that thing wanted from her, or had in store for her. If it had wanted to kill her she would be dead already, that she knew.

Seeing as she was going nowhere anytime soon Luna pumped as much healing magic as she could into her broken body and wracked her brain trying to figure out where in Tartarus she was, what in Tartarus that thing was, and how in Tartarus she was going to get back. Luna knew that Alicorns healed at a much faster pace than any of the other ponies but seeing as she never was hurt that bad all she knew is that it would take some time before she would be able to walk again, let alone run or fight if need be.

Speaking of fighting Luna had been deliberately not thinking about her being destroyed that badly and she was keeping it that way. No way was she ready to revisit that terror anytime soon.

Not really thinking of anything on purpose other than the healing her stomach lurched like she was moving very very quickly and just as before the sky dramatically changed. The stars streaked their way across the dark sky and as Luna gave them a little bit of pondering she saw the familiar constellations she grew up with. Looking around hoping for something else similar but all she saw was the contrast between the light and dark side of wherever she was and those two strange orbs that were similar in feel to the moon and sun but seemed different than she was used to.

Thinking back to that strange dream she visited after the... thing. She thought about it too keep her mind occupied with something else and the more she thought about it the more she started to become uncertain that it was a dream at all. Dreams usually had this strange fuzziness about them. Even people that lucid dream don't have everything thought of, there's always sensible things missing but generally there is always going to be an inherit fuzz just in the corner of your eye the whole time. This was sharp, painful, even with how well Luna dreams she knew this had way more clarity than just any old dream. The more she thought about it the more she became sure until she had convinced herself that was a memory of her sisters.

“But how can that be a memory if I've never done that?” Luna thought, her voice not fully healed yet.

With the expected soft silence as her only answer she blew air out of her nose in idle frustration before returning to her thoughts. If I have never done that then how could she remember it? Luna's train of thought started. Maybe that thing put it in there to haunt me but that just doesn't feel like the right answer. She continued musing. If she remembered it, and assuming that its real and that it happened. Then at the end there where Sister used the elements against the monster that was me and sent us off to...

Lunas eye's shot open as wide as they would go and her mouth fell open with a gasp. All of a sudden it was as if everything made sense. Everything clicked together and Luna's mind lit up as everything made sense now... She was on the moon.