Rescuing the night

by Arthtrott

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 1867

Luna knows that she is losing herself. No one else can help her. She will find her own way.

Tia knows that Luna needs to be helped, but can only do what she can. Her treatment had worked for these last few years but Luna's time was running low. For the sake af Equestria Tia would not let Nightmare Moon return. But Luna will have to pay the price. This is not a dark fiction. It is meant to show that Luna can help herself overcome her demonds and use them to make herself whole again.

Published 2012-01-21 21:15:28 UTC
Last updated 2012-01-21 21:15:28 UTC

prolog

Luna, a short story

prologue

Rescuing the night

Luna is the most Psychologically complex of all ponysonalities and therefore is often shunned as a chosen protagonist. Recently writers have been tackling her struggle with mixed results, most stories, thankfully, ending better than I had hoped for.

I wish to present an easy fix to her psyche.

This story in no way is intended to replace the outstanding quality stories, that other MLP writers, with skills beyond my hope to achieve, have already written. This is only an attempt to bring peace of mind to those who are disturbed by the suffering Luna endures as she struggles to remain sane, each day that the sun rises.

the Lauren faustian bargain

Luna

Chapter 1

How will it begin

The Lauren Faustian bargain

Once again the sun was rising, it was more beautiful then anything Luna had to offer. Her moon had been pale, as if she was sick. Her headaches were getting worse.

Her creatures had fled the day, and nopony had noticed her work, they were in bed, asleep.
Once again she was the only one that had seen the night that she had created, it might as well have never even been made. But for the few who had seen it, she was grateful though.
Twilight, thank you. Though soon this would not be enough.

She could if she wished reach into the dreams of others, unless they resisted, so she would only play a small role. It would always be entertaining, but the dreams were always about their days, Celestia’s days, and held no pride for her.

Ponies all slept at night except for the most evil intentioned ones, they used her night to hide their crimes.

This made her the cause of great harm. Responsible but not culpable.
Feared and hated but without redress.

Luna had been Nightmare Moon for the thousand years of banishment. To which she was also enslaved. When she was back to herself, she had not grown to match the stature of Celestia, once again undermining any attempt to command the respect that should be hers. Celestia’s Love was for the simple minded Luna of foalhood not for the complex mind of a pier. Tia was now a mare, Luna was nothing but an annoying little filly to her.

In a thousand years she would finally be as Tia already was, and Tia would again be ahead. Only as Nightmare Moon was Luna even close to Tia in stature.

NMM was the one Tia respected. Luna shuddered, calling forth NMM would make her a prisoner in her own mind, it would be worse than death, but...

Perhaps there was another way. perhaps there was a better solution available to her. The idea was so simple she already knew just what to do, and with the largest smile she had managed in an eon, she trotted off to the garden. she would visit the walk of heroes, where all the statues of great ponies past, all of whom only Celestia had ever met. They were no more than fables to Luna. Just one more buck in the face, for her long exile.

There were hundreds, none of whom meant anything to her, even though she could name them all off by memory alone, except for one, Discord. Under her crest breast plate was a small private necklace with trinkets that she had acquired more than a thousand years ago, all except for one that she had bought to remind herself of her captivity. It was a tiny golden bird cage. It was now empty, but it was still awaiting it’s prey, it was meant to represent her own captivity but now it would serve her purpose well.

She looked around, but no guards were paying her more attention than just a casual glance. Guards were ever present, always watching her, but they were also complacent and bored. Celestia’s spies.

Perfect, she didn’t even need to use a sleeping spell.

She cast a Shadow spell instead, they could still see her, but not what she was doing.

She began to cast multiple layers of trap, confuse, dream, sleep, idiocy, shield, stun... on the small trinket, and kept it up for as long as she could until she had exhausted all her night spells, it would not be able to stop something of great power for long, but it would slow them down enough.

She searched out her new quarry, his statue now loomed in her sight. His body was stone, but his soul was still trapped inside, she could now safely transfer him to her new toy.

He was helpless, he was awakening, but slowly, piece by piece, until he was whole, and no longer trapped, he would not be free to use his powers. Luna’s horn continued to transfer the thin silver strand into the enchanted cage, within moments the transfer was complete, and a tiny squeaky little Discord could now be seen ,to be, raging inside the cage.

Awwwwww, he was mad, and he was quickly collapsing her spells to gain his freedom.

Luna searched her mind for the place where NMM was now held. Oh it was so large.
Form inside she could hear the whispers of the hideous creature held captive, and Luna now built a portal into the dungeon of her mind. She could put something in, but it could still not escape.

Discord could now taste his freedom, but before he had overcome the remaining few pitiful spells he was once more being moved to his new home, sweet, home.

Luna’s horn was re-lit, she was now transferring his soul in trough the portal crowding him in with her evil alternate self. NMM began to shriek. She was not happy to share her space, like all good little filly should. The transfer complete, Luna closed the portal and waited for the logical outcome to occur, and went for a lovely walk in the garden. She began to sing a cute little Equestria girls tune she had heard so many times recently. The guards saw only a happier alicorn than they were used to, skipping along like a foal. She was endearing and cute.

Luna’s mind was now boiling with conflict. She could feel Discord and NMM battling with each other, instead of trying to escape. Just as she had expected, villains are so stupid, even with their immense intelligences. Soon they would destroy themselves, and each other, but this was not in the plan.

Luna’s patience was bearing fruit, they had now stopped fighting long enough to reevaluate their own positions. Right on schedule. She opened the portal again and offered them the deal that they themselves would have asked for eventually of their own accord.

She told them to combine forces and promised to let them both out, they accepted for it would surely destroy her, and before they could back out, she crushed them, in their weakened states, into one being and then began to siphon them out into her own Psyche. They were in shock. At first they fought as was natural, but as she slowly enveloped them into her own mind, she was reshaping them to fit herself and, then, they began to love being part of her, and by the end they were eagerly awaiting completion. Poor things, they weren't evil, they were just misunderstood the same way she had always been. Well, no they were evil, but loneliness was to blame.

The blockage collapsed, there was nothing left to imprison, she was now whole again, NMM had taken up a substantial amount of her mind that part was hers to control again. Discord/Nightmare was now just a part of the vast mind that was now all her.

The moon in the sky now shaun as brightly as the sun, but it’s light would not banish the night. It’s clear cold light would send chills of wonder, thought those who would soon observe it.

She found she no longer had the desire to acquire power for it’s own sake, unlike her poor silly sister who would still continue to make this mistake. Celestia had become nothing more than a pompous bureaucrat, trapped by her own ambition ,and living out her life vicariously through her only student’s achievements. Her only real joy.

She was to be pitied, not exulted, nor even despised.

Luna reentered the castle and strode to the royal dining hall to meet up with Tia for a lovely breakfast. Tia looked up and before she could protest her sisters lateness, Luna earnestly apologised and walked over and gave Tia a loving heartfelt kiss. Tia was... confused, Luna was always depressed, wasn’t she? There had been no flinching, no malice?

Luna’s mind now swam with thoughts of how to make the night adored by everypony.

All she had to do was wait for her night to return, no longer would ponies just sleep during the night, they would be eagerly awaiting the darkness to reward themselves for their days labours.

They would all still enjoy the day, but soon enough they would learn to love her nights.

Daytime would be for working but the night would be for fun, and Tia would envy her and be happy for it.

The first thing she would do is open night clubs for music and dancing, and the new phrase would be TGiF. But then any night is the right one ,not so?

Revenge? Don’t be stupid, this was going to be better for everypony.

A thousand ideas now floated in her head, she would appoint Pinkie to be her minister of entertainment, not really, and that would be just the start.

She smiled more widely than ever, it would now be her ‘equestra’ and her castle, but it was her new smile that mattered far more. This was going to be fun.

P.S. discord was sharing a little secret. Celestia was in love with him. Luna had no intention of holding hostages, unlike Tia had held her, and planned to release him under one simple request, he would leave her a part of his mind, and in return she would gift him part of hers, these would regrow quickly but the real plan was that their gifts to each other would soon blossom into a full fledged intelligences of their own, integrating seamlessly into their own minds. This would make her and him closer than siblings.

Next time Tia would meet with her lover, he would now be the one to save her soul.

Where once there had been a crater with four blacked spirits, soon there would be mountain for them all to soar.

This part belongs in the prologue, but is to disturbing to include earlier.

Tia had been sneaking into Luna’s sleeping room to erase the part of her mind that would, inevitably, be engulfed by the advancing barrier that separated NMM from the rest of her mind. soon there would be nothing left of Luna to stop the takeover. But before this would happen, Tia knew that she would have to slaughter her sister, to protect her kingdom and her ponies, and herself, most of all.