Princess Luna held a lit candle with her magic; it softly hummed through the gloomy and depressive silence as the wax slowly melted down the sides, collecting in a small puddle at the bottom of the metal plate. It was more symbolic than it was necessary; she could see through the darkness of her personal chambers without a problem. Her gait was slow, patient, carefully thought out as she gracefully lifted her hooves in a relaxed trot towards the closed balcony door. She looked past the thin glass and into her sky – the same sky which she shared ownership of with her sister and her respective deity of hydrogen. Accompanying her moon in the sky was a myriad of speckled, bright orbs of light.
Most of them had been gone for a while now, but she could still see their foregoing beacons of life in the dark sky, broadcasting a brief glimpse into the past and cutting through the black veil of night, and they would continue to be seen for countless millennia to come. The glass door slid open as the azure aura of the princess’s magic encompassed the handle. Luna shivered as she took a step into the frigid air; a strong breeze blew her mane about wildly and chilled her to the core. She had to take a moment to relight the candle with her magic - it had gone out in the initial gust of wind.
She rested her hooves on the cold metal railing in front of her and sighed, her breath forming a thick cloud that floated off into the sky. The city – her city - or rather the city she and her sister shared residence in, was quiet and dead; not a single light could be seen from the collective homes, restaurants, and shops below. Most, if not all, of the ponies of Canterlot were at home and asleep. As always, they rested through her beautiful night, which she worked so hard on. And still, Luna did not let such feelings of resentment build up in her heart. She understood that ponies, unlike herself, needed rest and was happy to give them the period of time in which they sought slumber and renewal for the day ahead.
Luna cleared her throat and smiled through the tears that were flowing freely down her face and dripping off her muzzle. “Heniag, you were always the most rebellious and determined, never wanting to leave when sister’s sun rose, always competing with her bloated, monstrous giant for attention.” she began, and quickly halted, noting her unconscious, hatred-filled tone and mentally scolded herself. Truth be told, Luna was still jealous of her sister, but she would not allow herself to admit it. “And you,” Luna pointed with her hoof. “Arkhme, you were always there for me through the lonely nights; always whispering guidance into my ancient ears.” She sniffed back tears in remembrance of when nopony was there to comfort her but her stars – her children. “Dervum, and your sister-star, Vorrux, were always there together. Through thick and thin.” She laughed awkwardly, forcing the noise out of her throat. “Even in the end, Dervum, you and Vorrux’s… departure came at the same time.” Luna rubbed her hoof against her puffy, red eyes.
The princess, regent of the stars, moon, and the very night itself, closed her eyes and began reciting her epoch-old prayer. “Though thou art not with us any more in this realm of existence, we shalt remember thou – thine names shalt forever be engraved in mine own thoughts. Methinks thou all had full lives and lived them to the fullest of extent; a couple of billion years is quite a long life. And so we bid thee farewell, my children, for thou shalt now transcend into greatness and into the great beyond, for thou hath truly earned it. Amen.” Luna bowed her head and blew out the candle, symbolizing the demise of her beloved kin.
This was not the first time the princess had lost a child, nor would it be the last. Luna had witnessed the death of her first, last, and only biological child many millennia ago. Instead of listening to her sister when she was advised against having a foal, Luna ignored her sister’s pleading. After the defiant act towards her sister, eleven months later her foal was born healthy. A beautiful pegasus filly; Luna was surprised to see the barren expanse of coat and lack of a horn on her forehead when she was handed to her, wrapped in a blanket as all newly born foals are.
Luna was always there for her, teaching her everything she knew. Time, an immortal’s perdition, had ultimately been her demise. It all flew by so fast in the eyes of the moon goddess. In what seemed to be the blink of an eye, the adorable filly had grown up into a stunningly gorgeous mare. Eventually, she met a nice colt, and, sadly, after many years of a successful relationship they were unable to conceive a foal; natural remedies, medication, magic – it all failed.
She lived for a century and then some, (thanks to the alicorn blood in her, Luna thought, though she was never able to discern exactly why) well over the natural lifespan for an equine, though sadly outliving her husband by a couple of decades. Making a living as the royal gardener, though in her later years she was rather fond of cooking, happy and content in Canterlot Castle with her mother and aunt was an easy, slow paced life. But eventually her time came and she did not fight it. Luna was heartbroken beyond words. After mourning for many years, without any grandchildren to care for, the princess turned to the molten, gaseous spheres of plasma far beyond the sky – her creations of hydrogen and helium. But they too were not burdened with immortality, and as such, Luna held a ceremony for her hundreds of thousands of adoptive children every night.
Luna focused on her room and teleported a small notebook, quill, and inkwell into the frigid night. As the inkwell floated around her, she brought the bright red, leather-bound book to her face and, with her right hoof, began flipping through, careful not the rip the thick yet brittle pages. The names of her children, far too many of them to quantify, all written on the ancient paper, passed by Luna’s aquamarine eyes as she attempted to find the next blank page. The quill gracefully glided across the rough paper, making a loud scratching sound as she wrote the three names.
She closed the book and a small plume of dust shot forth from the binding. The book, quill, and inkwell were all teleported back into her room, back to the small, gold leaf trimmed chest, which resided in the darkest and most hidden of places. Inside of the chest lay stacks upon stacks of filled books that hadn’t seen the light of day in only Luna knew how long, but frequently bathed in the moon’s healing glow.
The princess returned to her chambers, sighing as the warmth emanating from her fireplace cleansed her of the harsh cold. She teleported the candle holder back onto her dresser and exhaled deeply, emptying her lungs and refreshing it with fresh, book-scented oxygen as she climbed into bed. Luna closed her eyes as her horn glowed. And then she was one with the night, trotting about the cosmos and beyond. What remained of her children was all around her – vast explosive shock waves of beautiful, bright color that painted the blackness like a splotch of paint, making their past presence known to all.
The princess noticed the ‘Red Giants’, feeling that their time would come by the week's end. Be it peaceful or not, Luna would be there to guide them, as she always was. Some of her children took everything with them that they could in their death; others compressed themselves and shrank, trying their best to keep themselves composed, however it was in vain. Their white bodies would eventually cool into a black mass, and with that, release.
Luna focused her energy into the black canvas and drew in what energy she needed from the galaxies around her, birthing a strong gravitational pull that would gather hydrogen, which would in turn begin bonding and generating helium and heat. That, however, would take many, many years, but Luna had all the time in the universe to watch her child grow.
”Phoebus.” she whispered. “Your name shall be Phoebus, the caretaker.” Luna knew that, in actuality, her children didn’t get to choose their path in life, nor did she, however something told her about Phoebus… a vision, though it was only brief, cut through her mind’s eye. Tall bipedal creatures, hairless for the most part, gathered around a fire, speaking in a foreign tongue that Luna could not decipher. Large and lumbering ape-like things returned with primitive weapons slung behind their back and… dead animals. Luna felt herself grow sick, and the image faded.
Perhaps it would care for an inhabitable planet one day and give the creatures the energy that they needed. Luna could only hope so. Though she felt disgusted, she swore that she would not interfere with evolution and the likes. It just wasn’t natural, she thought. “Neither is eating meat…” she added, shivering.
It hurt to know that she would, in an unquantifiable period of time, have to put her newly birthed star’s name into one of her small books, however she tried her best to ignore the thought and continued on her way. Luna’s ethereal form smiled faintly before floating off to check up on the rest of her stars, most of which were well. The few that weren’t were very close to their end, and Luna gave them their last rites, knowing that their names would be scrawled down into her book. Her immortal mind worked rapidly to uncover the memory of their creation and, when it turned up the series of fuzzy images, she smiled.
“Life is short, quoth the wise mare. To some, it is unfair. To others, it is just. We all take it for granted, and that is nothing to be ashamed of. We seem to think that we will live forever. The harsh truth of the matter is only a select few truly live forever. Your brightness shall reach the creatures of the universe for years to come. Seek comfort in the fact that you have helped and will continue to help them through tough times even in your passing. They shall look up to you in the night sky and coo in awe, at the spectacle of your millennia old beacon of life and they shall rejoice.” She closed her eyes. “Amen.”
When she opened her eyes, her sister’s sun was beginning to rise and Luna’s moon was on the opposite side of it, setting in the west as it drew a small amount from Luna’s pool of mental energy. The spell, which the alicorn upheld every moment of her life, did not take much out of her. Luna scratched down on a piece of paper what she desired for breakfast and teleported it to the kitchen. While waiting for her meal to be prepared, she returned to her chambers and glanced towards her own easel. It hadn’t been touched in a while, notable by the thin layer of dust on the thick piece of canvas.
Of course, it and all of her supplies were of the highest quality that Canterlot taxes could afford, however, Luna rarely had the opportunity to paint, nor did she have the necessary drive to most of the time. This, however, was not one of those times. She brought the palette into her wing and dripped an ample amount of paint from the various tubes scattered about her room. Meanwhile, she began sifting through a can full of paintbrushes until she found the perfect one. As she continued looking through the can, she used her magic to restrain her ethereal mane and hang it into a ponytail behind her head. Now readied, she used her magic to blow the dust away, trap it inside of a sphere, and teleport it outside.
The easel was covered in various dark shades of paint, which, after some time, began to resemble the sky on a peaceful, cloudy night. When her meal arrived, she ignored it and continued on with her painting. From the cloudy image she held in her mind, she had created her painting. It had taken a couple of hours, but, unlike her sister, she was rarely on a tight schedule, if any at all. Most of her days were spent alone studying.
A knock on the door alerted the princess. “Come in.” She said while magicking her hair back to normal. Celestia stood in the door, smiling as she always did.
“Hello, Luna. Are you well, on this fair night?”
“Night?” Luna’s voice cracked as she dashed towards the window, using her magic to move the blinds out of the way. “I – yes, I am fine, sister. And yourself?”
“Good. Thanks for asking. I see you’ve been painting again, hmm?” She asked, looking towards the dark easel.
“I just finished. I didn’t know it took me the whole of your day.” The princess laughed light-heartedly, beckoning her sister over to the easel. “What do you think, ‘Tia?”
“Is that mother and father’s…”
“Yes.”
“Luna, I simply do not know what to say. I knew you were talented, but this… this is just… words are beyond me right now.” Celestia turned away in an attempt to hide her tears.
“Celestia, do not cry."
"It's beautiful, Luna."
"Thank you, my sister."
Luna's stomach growled, and the two sisters burst into mirthful laughter.
"Shall we go get something to eat?" Celestia asked, the object of consumption on her mind being a large slice of cake.
"Lead the way, sister."
A/N: Credit for 'Luna’s painting' goes to an artist by the name of Moe on the now dead Ponibooru.
Hi, I'm Ben. I suck at writing endings!
