Mille Nox Noctis

25 AB caeco risus (Blind/hidden laughter)

After hiding my tears from you for months, you are there for me, and I cry while you hold me.

“I had a bad dream, Sister.” I hiccup as I look up to you, tears streaming down my face.

“I am here for you, Luna. I will protect you.” You tell me, as you hold me close.

The foal became so scared from seeing her own memory, her fear took hold of me. I must still be linked to her somehow. I will have to find a way to sever this connection.

For now I coddle her like a child. It is quite amusing that she does not know I was the one that killed her precious flower.

Eventually I stop crying and you leave me alone with my thoughts.

Soon I turn to my window and I look up to the stars.

The beauty of the stars have always been a refuge to me, a tapestry I could paint my soul upon and sometimes, every once in awhile a pony would come to me to talk of them.

I turn away from the window, and am met by another memory.

In front of me, tied down upon a chair, sits Brightstar.

I cannot do justice to the scene before me, but I will try.

Brightstar was a unicorn of unparalleled beauty, with a coat of the purest ocean blue and a mane of deepest black. Her bright red eyes always seemed to shine with joy even in the darkest of times. Brightstar was my light in the darkness.

Her eyes shone no longer. She had no eyes to see with.

In their place sat cold rubies, enchanted with a spell to allow her to see through them as though they were her eyes.

Around the chair she is tied to, hundreds of fake eyes and stand ins lay smashed on the stone.

My voice returns

“That damnable sparkle is gone, I see.” My voice sounds bored, as if this is routine.

“I... I’m so thirsty, Luna.... Please.” Bright begs, her gem eyes turning away from me in fear.

“Well, I just so happen to have some water right here.” The bored, clinical voice replies.

A bit of hope returns to Bright’s face, before a bucket of frigid water is dumped on her.

In the shock she still manages to catch a little in her mouth, gasping for air and spluttering weakly.

“V... Very funny, Luna. T.... Thanks.” She says with a weak smile.

“I’m sorry, how are you to address me, jester?” My voice replies.

“My queen! s... sorry, thank you m... my queen.” Her smile is gone.

“Better.”

The scene changes and we are standing in the throne room of a castle I don’t recognize.

Brightstar is dressed in garish clothes that in another time she would have torn off as an affront against dignity. I feel that she likely is beyond caring.

She is grey, faded as though touched by Discord, but upon closer inspection it is because she has not been allowed to bathe or care for herself in a very long time. The clothes are sewn directly onto her, and were not designed to be comfortable.

“Play me something.” My voice calls out, no longer flat but full of spite and malice.

A small harp is tossed at Brightstar as she scrambles to catch it in her weak magic then pull it in front of herself.

“Any requests?” She asks in a wavering voice.

Somepony I don’t recognize replies; “The lunar anthem.”

Brightstar bows and begins to play, and after getting a bit into the bright, soaring melody, she began to sing.

“Upon the moonlit sky, with a tear in ev’ry eye, we shall spread our wings and fly, for the night!”

“Our wounds cut deep, our eyes beg for sleep, but never shall we surrender.”

“The sun shall fall, and after it all, we shall have our Luna.”

“I sing this words, as a pact of ours, between a queen and country.”

“But Lunas gone, and in her place, a demon will kill us all.”

The last verse was punctuated by two daggers shattering the rubies and piercing deep into the singer’s head.

She died quickly, is all I can think, as I cower in a corner.

The memory fades as does my own voice laughing cruelly, and my sobs are the only sounds that I can hear.

Looking down, I am holding the stone with the four stars carved on it, and I hold it tight as I rock back and forth in the darkness.

26 AB caducus commissio (The commencement of the descent)

I will not burden you with my memories and my pain, Sister. I see you in the halls and we talk of the stars and of plans to take Equestria in the name of our glorious moon, but my heart is not in it.

Your silky black coat and steady voice ring in the back of my mind, as though I am not seeing something that is right in front of me.

Then we talk of the beauty of my stars and all is forgotten. How could I doubt my only sister?

I have begun marking the days that I have the visions, two on the same day of the year cannot be coincidence. I do not believe in things so improbable.

This time I am prepared. I awake and I do not rise from my bed, I simply look into the memory and wait for it to progress.

Starswirl sits with his legs curled beneath him on a great balcony. He is the oldest pony I have ever seen, though he has never used his powers to extend his life.

He wears dark blue and black robes, and in place of the bells I found so silly, he wears small moon charms along the edges of his cloak and hat.

“Good evening, my queen.” He says, as impassive and proper as any noble.

“Why do you still follow me, Star?” My voice demands from the shadows.

“There is a great potential for good to be done here. I may further magic and reduce the suffering of others in one fell swoop. That prospect has been a tad distant of late but I have faith in you, my queen.” His level headed response infuriates me.

“Why don’t you run? Why don’t you save yourself?” I ask.

“Why, saving myself would do me no good. You even less. You need something of me, and I have always been willing to give.” He replies.

“I am going to end your life, you should run.” I beg the memory, wanting him to flee, to teleport away.

“I have given my life to you, my queen. I never expected this to end differently.” He looks to me with pity in his eyes. Pity!

“I offer you a great power, Starswirl the bearded.” my voice says in a warning tone. “I offer you power over every aspect of magic, and a long life at my side.”

He smiles sadly. “It is not your side I wish to stand next to. It is Luna’s.”

I rise from my bed to move towards him but my own memory is faster, a bolt of magic smacking him across the tower, burning a hole in his robe.

I recoil in shock as the scene fades, to be replaced by that of a bedchamber with Star laying on the soft covers of a royal bed I do not remember.

“It has been forty three days.” He says in a soft voice. “I would ask you to let me go, but we both know you will not. I knew this would come to pass, and sadly I do not think I was incorrect in assuming you will end all six lives tied to the....”

Before he can finish his sentence, lightning forks in from every angle, lifting the unicorn off the bed sheets and filling the air with his screams.

He falls back to the bed a moment later, smoke rising from his fur.

“I’m so sorry, you were saying something?” My voice asks, a hint of amusement behind the venom.

“I forgive you.” He rasps, before another bolt of lightening suspends him in the air, screaming.

“I know you well, Luna. I know you and....” Another electric blue flash, more meaningless sound.

“I know you will hurt. You will regret this and I forgive you.”

This time I enter the memory in my own place, striding up to him and placing a hoof upon his neck.

“How dare you.” I hiss. “How dare you assume to know me.”

My magic burns him, black ichor seeping from his eyes and ears.

“Please... Please make it stop.” He wheezes.

He is scared in the end.

It is a shame that my memory counterpart does not let it end for several hours.

The servants have to carry him out in a bucket.

I sit, head hung low in shame, looking down on the stone with the single star radiating lines from it.

Regret is a heavy burden. One I must carry alone.

Even as you knock on my door, Sister. I deny you entry. I am alone, as I should be.

27 AB vastitas anima (Devastation of the soul)

Silver Wrath was my general when I led the Equestrian army. Once upon a time she was no longer my general.

The end.

No, I do not get off so easily, Sister. I know whose face I will remember as the date approaches again, and I dread it.

The night before that day I stay awake, looking into the depth of the stars with tears in my eyes, I don’t want to know how it ends.

I don’t want to know what terrible things I did to my greatest friend and closest companion.

But when I turn from the window to finally lay my head down, the vision has already come to me.

Like Brightstar, her eyes are red, but there the similarities end. Silver would not let herself be described as beautiful, and the word did not fit her.

Dangerous. That word was far more fitting.

Silver Wrath came from a family of great renown among the nobility as they were one of the few families that had given up their estates yet kept their title.

The Wraths were elite warriors to the very last, trained from foalhood in the art of combat to keep up the tradition.

After all, the best guards and the finest commanders were Wraths.

Her very mark was of twin blades crossed over a crescent moon.

She stood at attention in that unfamiliar throne room, her signature weapons stowed at her shining silver sides.

She stood a bit taller than the average mare, and her short midnight blue mane just begged others to make snide comments at its unkempt appearance, to give her an excuse.

Her eyes watched everypony with the same amused air of superiority, except for me.

She bowed as I entered the room, and her eyes seemed to soften with a friendly sort of smirk.

“I see you wear armor now, my queen.” She says haughtily.

“Decoration, nothing more.” My cold voice intones.

“Perhaps we should spar, make sure that you don’t need more.” She replies with a dangerous smile.

I had nearly lost a wing in one of our duels, and although I had increased in skill significantly, I still let Silver hold that above me.

“I prefer not to damage it so soon after having it made.” I reply. “Have you completed your mission?”

Silver rolls her eyes. “I wouldst not be here otherwise, my queen. I have executed all the captured citizens not willing to swear to an oath of fealty towards thy cause. Any children left orphaned have been taken to the garden.”

I cannot reply, the uncaring manner in which she speaks throws me off, but my voice continues.

“Excellent. Have two saved, we shall use them to deliver our messages to the Princess.” I know I speak of the goddess of the sun.

The scene fades and I return to the bedchamber in which I killed Starswirl. Silver Wrath sits upon a nearby cushion as I tell her in gleeful detail of the others I have killed.

Her face is a mask of stone.

“So I would assume I am next.” Silver says calmly.

My voice does not reply.

“It would only make sense. You cannot risk their use against you, so I must die.” She stands and moves closer to me, dropping her weapons with a ringing clang upon the stone floor.

“Well, what holds your hoof? Strike me down, my queen.” She bows with a wicked and cruel grin on her face.

“Or are you too weak?”

I finally find my voice and reply in tandem with the memory.

“I cannot kill you, Silver. I simply cannot.”

She snorts in disgust and looks down on me, eyes narrowed in anger.

“You are pathetic. Despite your power, despite all you have done, you are a filly.” She spits on the ground.

“You must make a plan and follow through. If you truly wish to free the world and remake it in your image, you must be ruthless and exact in the actions you take.”

She shakes her head as she turns away.

“You shall fail, but perhaps that is what you have wanted all along.” She gives me one last, pitying look, and she walks out of my castle and into the night.

I do not follow her.

I rage and scream, I destroy my writing desk, I kill a guard who gets in my way.

But I do not follow her.

Because she is right.

The memory falls away and I look across the room at the stone with the twin blades etched upon it. Far more painful than my own cruelty and evil is the scorn and disappointment of my only and closest friend.

I do not cry, but it is more because I feel I don’t even deserve my own pity.

28 AB solem adversum intueri (To look directly into the sun)

I stare at the four stones, I have found a fifth of roughly the same shape and size.

Equal parts of dread and anticipation drive me as I decorate and modify the castle, spending my days looking up to Equestria, wondering where the mystery castle I once owned was.

Has it really been nearly thirty years?

I spend my nights trying to dredge forth the memories that may fill in the gaps I feel. I do not know who this fifth pony was. I don’t know what horrible things I have done to this one, but I know that a fifth exists.

As the day grows nearer, I begin to withdraw from you.

I hide my growing anger at my own mind for hiding what I need, as well as suppress my growing fear at what new facet of my past this stone will show me.

Finally the night has arrived. I go to sleep early, wanting to delay the memory as long as possible.

When I awake, I am blind.

White is all I can see, I stumble from my bed in a panic, running into a wall and trying to use my magic, but I feel numb

My magic is not responding to me.

Then a voice interrupts my blind terror.

“Luna, I cannot let you do this.” The voice says. It crackles like flame, and fear overwhelms me.

“Even now, my little ponies are suffering because you will not lower your moon. This must stop.” The rage, I can feel it searing my flesh, I can smell my hair burning in the light of this fury.

My voice finally replies. “Then end this. Finish me, or let your precious Equestria fall.”

“Very well, you leave me no choice.” The inferno replies.

I feel victorious for a moment before the fear returns. “What... how?!” my voice screams.

“You cant, its impossible! I killed them!” my memory shouts.

Finally the cursed flame consumes me, and I could swear I hear the sun goddess say something more, but it is drowned out by my own keening cry before the blessed darkness reclaims me.

29 AB Pereo inlumino (The death of illumination)

I awake to your embrace, Sister. I am silent as I contemplate the stone laying on the other side of the room, a jagged sun carved upon its face.

“Now you know why we must fight the Sun, little one.” You say quietly.

I am not burned, but the cold of the metal floor I lay upon is comforting.

That cursed ball of fire, and its god, are responsible for all my suffering.

We will destroy them. Our suffering will pale in comparison to the things we will do to her.

But first, we must escape.