You live life and then you die. But what happens when you can never die? Everypony may think that being able to live without ever having to fear death would be the greatest gift. Yet to Luna nothing is more haunting then the fact that she can never close her eyes in rest. But no matter how hard she tried to run from reality, immortality’s grip on her was undeniable. When you have eternity to do whatever you desire, how do you fill the endless time?
From the time she was young she and her older sister were forced to protect their land from an evil mismatched creature. This beast forced everypony to live their lives in discord rather than the happiness that came naturally. But, no matter how many times the three god-like beings were wounded, none of them could cease living so the battle rained on. She and Celestia fought in vain, never dying yet never defeating the monster who threatened their land. Finally the two immortal sisters bound their powers together creating the elements of harmony from the metals of the earth ponies, determination of the pegasi, and magic of the unicorns in one last stand against the ruler of chaos. She watched as the fiend slowly became imprisoned, his legs wouldn’t allow him to escape for they turned as thick as concrete. Stone surrounded him, plastering to his body as if becoming a second layer of skin. Upon returning to Canterlot the sisters were praised for their bravery and strength when sealing the foe that threatened everyponies existence.
The land returned to how it was before, harmony beat strongly in the hearts of everypony. The sisters returned to their royal duties, Celestia raised the sun every morning and Luna brought the moon at night. But dark thoughts from their previous victory shadowed her thoughts. How could she live for eternity repeating the same activities every day? Each day was a repeat of the last; she then realized why the creature wanted to have disorder. He was not evil; he was simply immortal like she was. With discord no day was planned out, he could live forever with no regrets.
As she started to understand the entity she also started to sympathize with him, because she learned the hatred that existed in everypony. As princess, it was Luna’s duty to bring the moon, yet she realized that the citizens of Canterlot, no all of Equestria, shunned the night. Everypony favored the bright days to the dark nights, everypony favored Celestia to Luna. The more she thought how everypony hated her the more she believed that the days were so bright, they were blinding. She craved for the nights to become longer, for everypony to recognize her as she was, the Princess of the Night.
One day she had had enough, she was subjected to the obvious contempt towards the night day after day, she no longer cared for the harmony she once protected. So she refused to remove the pale white moon from night sky to allow her older sister to bring that accursed beaming sun. She watched as everypony panicked, the darkness closing in around them as the lingering chill of the cold night air replaced the warmth and love that came with the sun. Deep, intense pleasure consumed her body, numbing all thoughts of reason as emotions ran through her like a tornado. Anger, sorrow, pain, rejection, abandonment. It ate away at her soul like a poison, controlling her. She cried out in the darkness as she was broken down, she was longer Luna but Nightmare Moon.
It was not long before the steady rhythmic clip-clop of hooves echoed the air, a sound that grew steadily closer, drowning out the cries of fear. Nightmare Moon looked to see her elder sister, Celestia, followed by the intense sun creating infinite shades of orange, yellow, and red tangled together. The two stared at each, the boundary between night and day clear in the sky. Celestia looked at her sweet, beloved younger sister who was now turned by vengeance and hatred. Celestia refused to believe it was her sister; her dear Luna’s soul was twisted, so although it pained her she knew that she was the only one able to stop Nightmare Moon’s tyranny. Celestia was fighting for those of Equestia with pure intentions, so her magic was much stronger than that of Nightmare Moon who was fighting for herself out of bitterness.
Celestia was able to defeat her sister in battle using her magic but since the two were turned against each other the elements of harmony lost their power, and there was no spell that could expel the shadow in her sisters’ heart. Celestia had no other choice but to banish her own sister whom she loved to a prison amongst the debris of the lunar surface.
After what had felt like an eternity of silence a loud, creaking sound suddenly filled the small prison cell she had found herself in. The stars had allowed Nightmare Moon to escape the prison she had been locked away in after a thousand years of solitude confinement. Yet the day that the prophecies claimed would be the day she broke free, strong enough to defeat her sister and reign night for all eternity, was incorrect. Although she truly did break free of her desolate cell, six mares discovered the power of friendship, the elements of harmony, which was unstoppable. Using its power the six ponies were able to transform Nightmare Moon back into Princess Luna.
Although she was finally reunited with her older sister and her heart was cleansed of all thoughts of hatred, Luna could not help but realize the differences in Equestria over the thousand years. All of those that she knew were gone, the only familiar faced that remained was her sister. So many had been lost to the claws of time, sinking away like grains of sand in an hourglass. As her sister was often busy attending to her duties or meeting with citizens, Luna could not feel anxious, without her sister she would be alone for all eternity.
So she tried to help Celestia with her duties, using the excuse that she was a princess and should assume the duties of one, but truly she desired to be closer to her sister. But, during these expenditures outside of the castle walls, the citizens faces seemed to be painted with fear and mistrust. Although Luna was saved from her passed and wished to atone for what she had done, no one could see that. Everypony judged Luna thinking that she was still her past self, for the first time in countless years she wished that she could die.
She could not bear to live this way anymore, she did not wish to take her own life but she did not want to be there anymore. To know that every single second someone is looking at her with utter disgust wishing she never existed. She thought of leaving Equestria but she that would only disappoint Celestia, her only reason for staying; for living. She knew that she could not ask for help, because although she knew she needed it, she could not allow anypony to know how broken she truly was. She felt helpless because no matter how much she wanted everypony to know that she had changed, that she was not evil, she knew she kept some tendencies. She was not an entirely new person, she could not change all of her old habits that were considered to be bad. Every day was another silent plea, screaming for someone to help her but always going unanswered. Each moment she was slipping, farther from hope of ever fitting in again, losing her will to live.
Yet unexpectedly the same pony who led to her second defeat, Twilight Sparkle, was the only pony who did not run away in fear at the sight of her. Instead Twilight assisted Luna in learning how to fit in and told her that she understands Luna is no longer Nightmare Moon, and that she should not have to live in the past any longer. These words which were said without a moments hesitation simply as an act of kindness meant everything to Luna. From this she became determined to live her life, protecting the harmony that allowed a pony to say such words of kindness.
