Princess Luna was the younger of the two sisters who ruled over canterlot. Her job was to raise the moon and to watch over the dreams of ponies all across equestria; however, Luna felt jealous of her elder sister and betrayed by her ponies. This feeling allowed a darkness inside her to take control and to transform her into Nightmare Moon. Princess Celestia, Luna's older sister, made the decision to banish her sister to the moon in order to save their subjects. What she didn’t know at the time was that sending away Luna would set free an ancient beast, The Lorik.
Celestia stares up at the sky, tears falling from her face. The silhouette of her sister now covering the moon. Celestia has won, but at what cost. The princess takes a moment to silently weep before lowering the moon and raising the sun. As the sun rises the cheers of ponies in the distance echoes through the forest.
Celestia walks slowly though the destroyed castle, her guards lay on the floor breathless. She walks through the halls and finds herself at her sister's door and decides to go in. The room around her is destroyed, tainted with darkness, and the floor tiles beneath her are shattered. The sight brings the princess to tears as she is forced to exit the room closing the door behind her. Celestia begins to loudly sob, her cries echo through the castle. Luna is gone.
“Princess Celestia!” a voice shouts from down the hall. The princess turns to face the voice and sees a guard running towards her. Once he gets to her he stops and bows. “Are you alright? I was stationed at the village next to the castle when I saw the fighting. I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner.”
Celestia stood up quickly and brushed the tears from her face before speaking “I am alright. Call any and all ponies to assist with the bodies. I will prepare a new location for my castle.”
“Yes princess.” the guard says before hurrying up to arrange the burial of his fallen brothers.
Celestia lets out a sigh of relief and returns to the tower. As she enters the top room she sees the elements laying on the floor, each one dull and grey. Celestia uses her magic to return them to the podium where they were stored before the battle and then exits the castle.
Guards and civilians alike have gathered outside helping to gather the dead. Families cry and fall around Celestia, the sound becoming deafening.
A guard runs up to her in a panic. “Princess Celestia, we cannot find Luna anywhere. Do you know where she is?” he says.
Celestia freezes for a moment. “The ponies don’t know it was her.” she thinks to herself. A thousand thoughts run through her head at once.
“Princess?” The guard says snapping her back to reality.
“I am sorry for what I am about to do. I love my sister and I will not let her be remembered for this.” Celestia says as she begins to cast a spell taught to her by Starswirl the Bearded.
“Memories across the land,
Be re-written at my command,
Erase my sister from the mind,
Tuck it where they cannot find,
Let me mold the memories,
Let me erase the pain.”
A magic fog falls across equestria. Ponies everywhere slip into unconsciousness. All memories of Luna are gone, and all mentions of her in books are erased. The bodies of the fallen turn into grass, the castle crumbles into ruins with vines coating the outer walls, and everypony who was out of bed is moved into their homes.
Celestia opens her eyes and looks back at her old castle before taking flight towards the mountains in the north where she plans to start over.
Eight days have passed since Luna was banished to the moon and the memory of her erased. The building of Canterlot Castle and the new city surrounding it is well underway. Princess Celestia sits on her throne in the new castle with bags under her eyes as she approves layout plans for the city.
“I like the second option best.” Celestia says while letting out a yawn. The brown earth pony in front of her nods and exits the throne room.
Celestia stands up and walks to the window nearest to her. The new city beneath her moving slowly as the ponies build. She lets out a sigh and walks out of the throne room into the hall.
Two guards greet the princess as she walks by. “Princess” they say as they bow.
Celestia nods and continues walking when she hears something fall behind her. She looks back quickly and sees one of the two guards collapsed on the floor.
“What happened?” Celestia asks as she rushes over.
“I don’t know!” The guard says in a panic before collapsing himself.
Celestia looks at the two panicked then calls for help “I need a nurse!”
Two guards come around the corner and run over to Celestia.
“What happened?”
“I’m not sure. I came out and they both collapsed. They are barely breathing.”
The three look with worry at the two collapsed guards in front of them when an older unicorn mare walks up beside them. “I was afraid of this.” The mare says as she brushes her silver mane out of her green eyes.
“Afraid of what Nurse Nan?” A guard says.
“I’ve seen about 20 cases like this so far today. All of them are in comas now.” Nurse Nan says as she teleports the two collapsed guards to the nursing wing of the castle.
“Do you know what's causing it?” Celestia asks.
“Yes. Have any of you gotten any sleep in the last eight days?”
The three ponies shake their heads no.
“Thought so.” Nurse Nan says before clearing her throat. “Something happened eight days ago and now nopony in equestria can sleep. The average pony can go 8 days before collapsing from exhaustion and eventually passing.”
“No.” Celestia whispers under her breath.
“If all ponies can’t get real sleep soon, we will all die. Princess, do you know what could have caused this?”
Celestia shakes her head back and forth, a look of horror on her face. “I. I must go at once.” Celestia says before running away from the group and to her room.
Celestia enters her room and closes the door behind her. The walls of her room are an eggshell white and the floor is a medium grey with purple undertones. The room around Celestia is almost completely empty, the only thing in her room being a heep of purple pillows that she was meant to use as a bed.
Celestia paces the room speaking aloud to herself. “Could this be Nightmare Moons doing? No. She is on the moon. Of that I am certain. It has to be something else.”
Celestia stops her pacing suddenly. A feeling of absolute dread fills her body. Her bones ache, her breath starts to catch, the hair at the base of her mane stands up, and she feels her heart beating in her ears. She turns around slowly, sensing something behind her. She looks at the wall behind her, but sees nothing. She lets out a sigh of relief but can’t get this overwhelming feeling of dread to subside.
“What was that?” she says as she walks to the wall and puts her hoof on it. “It feels normal and I don’t sense magic…” Celestia lowers her hoof and walks back to the center of the room. “Maybe if I meditate I will be able to figure out something… First I need to stop talking to myself.”
Celestia sits on the floor in the center of the room and takes a deep breath in. She focuses all of her feelings, magic, and thoughts into the tip of her horn. Her mane begins to flow faster as the air around her begins to move and the room around her begins to fade away. She begins exhaling her breath and a vision starts to play in her mind.
The vision is of ponies collapsing on the street from exhaustion, elders passing away, and of fillys trying to wake up their parents. Slowly something begins to form around their bodies. Like a snake it wraps around each one of them and shrouds them in fog.
“What are you?” Celestia says as she tries to get a closer look at the creatures within her vision.
“Princess Celestia!” Nurse Nan says as she barges into Celestia's room.
Celestia loses control for a moment and sends a ball of magic into her purple pillow pile causing them to explode sending white feathers everywhere in the room.
“Sorry Princess. I didn’t mean to disrupt you, but we have a problem.” Nurse Nan says as she walks into the room. “We don’t have as much time as I thought. Ponies are already starting to die.”
Celestia gasps in horror. She looks at the ground beneath her hooves and her vision starts to fog. Nurse Nan is speaking to her but she can’t hear a word. All she hears is static, all she sees is static, and all she feels is static.
Celestia shakes her head and yells “show yourself you monster!”
Celestia is suddenly enveloped in a ball of a dark static like magic. Nurse Nan attempts to rush over to the princess but collapses from exhaustion before she can make it to her.
“Now, now, now. I do not take kindly to being called a monster.” A distorted voice says to Celestia.
“What are you!” Celestia exclaims while firing her magic into the darkness around her, only to have it shoot back at her just narrowly missing her horn.
“Let us just say I am a friend to your old teacher, Starswirl.”
“Show yourself to me then if you are a friend.” Celestia says taking a defensive stance.
“Only if you say please and thank you.” The voice laughs, teasing Celestia.
“Please and thank you.” Celestia says begrudgingly.
A creature shaped like a serpent reveals itself to Celestia. It is just as large as her, its body is somewhat see-through, and where its face should be is just one large empty mouth. The coloration and pattern of the creature is that of an old static TV with many blacks, greys, and whites.
“Now was that so hard?” the creature laughs in amusement as it snakes itself around Celestias body.
“Are you the one causing my subjects to be unable to sleep?”
“How rude of you to not even ask me my name before accusing me of such things! My name is Lorik. If your teacher had not removed me from history I would have been called The Lorik. Has a nice ring to it right? What a pesky stallion he was.” The Lorik rambles.
“Enough!” Celestia shouts, beginning to lose her patience. “I asked you a question.”
“A question you already know the answer to.” The Lorik retorts.
“Then why are you killing my subjects?”
The Lorik wraps itself around Celestia's throat tightly. “Because you erased her.”
“W-what?” Celestia stammers out.
The Lorik puts its face to Celestias and screams “you erased Luna!”
“How do you know my sister?!” Celestia asks in confusion and concern.
“Your teacher bound us together when she was born. You neglected her, rejected her, and made her feel worthless until she turned into the nightmares she fought hard to keep away from your so called subjects. You are all responsible for her turning into Nightmare Moon and when you sent her away you tore apart our bond and left me here alone. You claimed to be her sister but did you even care!” The Lorik begins to audibly weep.
The magic around Celestia and The Lorik releases and they both float to the ground.
“I loved her. I was stupid and blind because of that love. I didn’t want to see her suffering so I pretended not to. I blame myself but I have a job and erasing her is the only way I can do it!” Celestia sobs and falls to the floor.
“Even you know it. You deserve to suffer.” The Lorik says.
Magic begins to slither into the room and to The Lorik combining with its body making it larger.
“I will spare your subjects.” The Lorik begins. A tendril of magic exits Nurse Nans body and enters the creature. “But you will suffer until the day she is free!”
The Lorik rushes towards Celestia and fuses itself with her body. “You will not sleep for the next 1000 years. I will not speak to you past today either. You will have to spend every moment awake thinking about what you have done. Goodbye Princess.”
Celestia stands in the room in silence. Nurse Nan awakens behind her and picks herself up from the floor. She says something to Celestia but Celestia just nods and waves her hoof signalling for her to leave.
“I've got a bad case of the 3:00 am guilts - you know, when you lie in bed awake and replay all those things you didn't do right? Because, as we all know, nothing solves insomnia like a nice warm glass of regret, depression and self-loathing.”
― D.D. Barant,
The End
Author's Note
I wrote this over the course of a few days and didn't edit any spelling or grammar so please forgive any errors.
