Light of the moon

Luna felt her heart sink as her carriage approached the city of Canterlot. Celestia had gone ahead to try to distract the ever-present newspapers and photographers, but it was not enough. It never was.  The swarm of reporters were barely being contained by the Night Guards, and even some noble citizens had come to push back the paparazzi. Luna sighed.

This was the part she hated the most.

The escort knocked on the window, and Luna moved it down so that he could yell inside to his Princess. “The LZ is hot, we are going to create a perimeter around our secondary drop zone. Thirty seconds, be ready!” He gestured upward, and she rolled up the window to obscure the press’s view of her.

Luna smiled a bit at the soldier’s military jargon. It was obvious this Pegasus spent more time ferrying diplomats of the Gryphon Empire, or even some of the ambassadors to the Dragon Wastes. While Luna herself was no stranger to war, or even military jargon, she was confused for a second. Celestia had never told her about a secondary stop point. And, what could he possibly mean by “drop zone”?

Luna looked out of the tinted window. Something deep in her chest ached. She was not looking forward to her return to business. What new issues could Lord Seed possibly have that she needed to deal with this time?

Her thoughts were interrupted by a tap at the window. The escort gestured at his wings, and shouted something she couldn’t hear. Luna leaned forward to open the window. She expected him to tell her that they were about to arrive. She was NOT expecting the floor of the carriage to retract, leaving her falling through the air right over Canterlot Castle. Possibly, she could get inside the castle before any of the various inquisitive eyes caught sight of her.

She was not so lucky. Within a flash, several pegasi had surrounded her with pencils and cameras, and began shouting questions at her.

“What do you have to say about your recent collapse? Who was that figure that the Guard captured? Is it true Lord Seed tried to assassinate you? Are you pregnant? Do you know who the father is?”

Luna was shocked at the questions. Not only did they make no sense at all, they were so personal! Her eyes flashed, and then faded to a solid black. She was done with these ponies. She didn’t want to hear any more stupid questions. They would all pay for disrupting HER free time! Their children would suffer the wrath of Nightmare Mo—

Luna stopped, her eyes reverting to their old colour, and she looked around. Gone were the clouds and nosy reporters. Instead, a soft, warm light blocked her view. What just happened? Where was she?

Out of the darkness, a ball on three legs walked out. It rotated until a single iris stared at her.

“He came… Hurt. Deals were… Struck. We require one life to… balance… the scales. Ten days. You must… Control Her, or She will… return. Memories were awoken. We stopped Her, for now.”

Luna stared at the creature that would give demands to her. This creature was one of the Void-beasts, creatures who guard the realm of death from those who would unravel Fate’s Tapestry.  It may have supreme power, but it would not get away with threatening her citizens.

“You will not take the life of a single pony! You shall not harm our subjects!”

“Misunderstanding… has occurred. Not a life… An… experience of life. Those… who make the deals want to know what… living is. Power, pain, pleasure, sadness, joy, weakness, hunger… love. Those are… requirements. Find them… Or we return for the boy.”

The light faded, and she was in Celestia’s room. Her sister stared at her in shock. Luna raised a hoof to find a wet streak on her cheek. The memories of the last thousand years came crashing down onto her. The memory of what she was going to do to those poor reporters up in the sky.

“Sister… Nightmare moon… I remember everything!”

She collapsed into her sister’s arms, and let the tears flow, leaving damp spots on her sister’s pristine, warm coat. Celestia held her sister as she cried, and could only stroke the hair as she too remembered the sister she had failed to protect, all those years ago.

Moon was drifting, floating upon the waves of nothingness, suspended only on the tides of the universe itself. The mist had faded, and so had the pain. Now, he was left in complete nothingness. Part of him kept tugging at his mind, reminding him to do… something. The other half of his mind was tired. It wanted to stay, sailing on the endless, invisible sea. He didn’t know how long he hovered there, as time had no meaning. The concept of time was ludicrous. Moon Light was finally happy.

Happy. That word resounded in his mind, bringing together both parts of his divided mind for a single instance, as he thought about it. Happy. Were others happy?

Others. What others? He was alone. “But,” something in his mind said, “not alone as well.”

He remembered. He was falling. He was up in a storm cloud, trying to find the idiots responsible for such a big storm. The strange, multi-coloured pony walked up to him. The tree called to him, relaxing him while soothing his worries. The armour glinted in the darkness, the light reflecting from the last room. The simple, impossible wall. The pedestal loomed before him, with its strange, empty platforms. The castle loomed up from the shadows, with its open fields nearby.

Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle. Pinkie Pie. Rarity. Applejack. Fluttershy. And her: The most beautiful of them all, Rainbow Dash.

Their voices tugged at him. They began pulling him from his spot, calling him to a warm, new location. A dim light appeared. As the voices grew louder, so too did the light. The voices were quickly turning panicked, and a steady whine filled the air. Moon felt something on his chest, but saw nothing when he looked down.

“EVERYPONY, GET CLEAR!”

Sudden, horrific pain filled him, originating from the strange feeling on his chest. The whine changed to a beeping and then back into a whine. As the beeping changed back, the pain immediately vanished.

“Celestia curse it, AGAIN!”

The pain returned, and the beeping resumed. This time, however, it did not end. The pain caused him to open his eyes in shock as he took a deep, gasping breath. Everything was very difficult to concentrate on, and he could barely make out a large splotch of various colours on the side of the room he was in. The room was a colour… Blue. The word came to him, as things began fitting into place.

Unfortunately, things did not have long to settle, as he was immediately assaulted by a violent combination of yellow and pink. It appeared the yellow splotch was trying to stop the pink. Sounds came from them, but they made no sense to him. He opened his mouth again to speak, but forgot how. Instead of a greeting, only a simple gurgle came out of his mouth.

A red shape with a white background moved across his view. He didn’t recognize it yet, but he knew it meant safety. The object in front of him began making loud noises, and the large, multi-coloured smear collected its yellow and pink bits and flowed toward an opening. A door. They flowed toward a door.

A face appeared in his view. The mare smiled at him, and he tried to wave weakly. Even though he didn’t know the face, he knew he was safe. He was alive.

The letter arrived just as Twilight got back to the library. Immediately taking it, she read the message it contained. It certainly was a strange one, but Princess Celestia always knew what she was doing. Dropping it on the floor, she ran back out, hoping to get her friends together again before they all went to sleep. She had some important news they needed to hear.

Back in the library, Spike picked up the letter. It wasn’t like Twilight to not even put away letters after she had finished reading them. He looked around, and, seeing nopony, began reading.

Dearest Twilight,

I have an important mission. You need to help Moon Light experience life as much as possible. We do not have much time to do this. I will not explain the reason why, but if he doesn’t experience all forms of life, he may die. I know this will hurt, and I hope to explain later, but he must take in the bad as well as the good. Leave no stone unturned. I believe in you, my student. You have never let me down yet.

Princess Celestia,

Lady of the Sun, Protector of Canterlot

Leader of all Equestria,

Guardian of the Citizens