Luna Reflects: The Moon
By: Technopony
Cover Art Courtesy of: Google Images
It was night over Canterlot, Princess Celestia had laid to rest until morning, and Luna had just finished raising the moon.
Luna sighed as she stood on a large balcony overlooking the Southern part of the castle and city. Slowly, she raised her eyes to the newly risen moon. She closed her eyes and let it's glow shine down upon her.
After a minute of quiet thinking, Luna spoke, as if to the moon itself.
"Hello, Moon. Namesake, Occupation... former Prison." She said quietly, slowly opening her eyes to glare upon the surface of the moon. She sighed again, this time in exasperation. "I don't know why I'm talking to you. You're not even sentient! You aren't like the stars! You have no motives! You just do what you do. And what you do is what I make you do..."
'I'm going crazy, talking to the moon like it's a pony... but I need to get this out. Celly wouldn't understand, I can't talk to the guards... I can't say this to anyone but the moon...'
Again, she sighed. 'One would think I was depressed, all this sighing.'
"I guess I'll go through with this then..." Luna muttered, then stepped her fore-hooves up onto the railing before pushing off with her back.
The force of the push somersaulted her over the edge and she went into free fall. Halfway to the ground she spread her large, majestic dark blue wings and pulled herself up towards the sky. Once her momentum upwards had ended, she began to slowly flap her wings. Even with the slow, long strokes of her wings, she propelled herself through the sky as if she weighed nothing.
As she flew upwards, she slowly felt the pull of gravity lighten as she made it into the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Before reaching the highest level, she cast the spell which would create a bubble of self-replenishing air that would allow her to breath in space. The spell she was ultimately very intimate with, as it had been her saving grace for those thousand years in the moon. Slowly she rose further and further, until an hour after launching herself from the balcony thousands of feet below her, she landed and the surface of the moon.
As she curled her wings back against her sides, she let out a deep breath.
'So... here I am... I guess I should just... let it out now?'
Luna looked out across the empty expanse of the moon, nothing shifting, nothing moving. She slowly lowered herself to sit on the hard, rocky surface and breathed in and out slowly. Then she opened her mouth and began to speak.
"This is for me to say, nopony to know of, to get this off my chest..." She then sighed and began again. "For a thousand years I was imprisoned on you. Every day I looked down onto the world with hate in my eyes, my mind corrupted by my plea to the stars. Inside I knew what I had done was wrong, but I would not, could not, admit this to myself. I never believed that my punishment should have been so cruel, but deep down I knew that it was the only thing Celestia could do. I gave her no choice. I know that if she could have, she would have driven off the stars' influence with the Elements of Harmony right away. But she was only one pony, even if she was an alicorn. Our race is not all-powerful despite what the others think..."
Luna huffed as she trailed off, looking out once again at the empty expanse of space. 'Nothing changes in space... I just wish I could say the same for the world below.'
'I don't know what will come of this, I don't know what I'm doing up here... talking to some inanimate object in the sky, like I'm trying to get something off my chest... Might as well continue.'
With another deep breath, Luna began to speak once more.
"So, with what little she could do, she put me here, with more than a little effort. She knew it was the right thing... I... knew it was. Days became weeks, weeks became months, months to years... years to centuries. And finally drawing more and more power from the stars, I broke from my prison, and was unleashed on Equestria, to give them what I thought they deserved. Little did I know but Celestia had found a group of newly made friends to wield the full power of the Elements of Harmony. I'm thankful they could get rid of the evil of the Nightmare... but whatever small part of it that's left in me hates them for it. whatever is left in me hates all of them. Everypony. All I know is that I can't do anything about it. The Elements have done what they can... I just have to live with it now... I fear, though, that I will never be able to have any true friends on the world below if I am to have the hatred inside me, no matter how small it is."
Luna finished with one last sigh before standing and turning to look down at the ball of blue that was the world. She imagined she could see Equestria from there, the old version, the one from which she had been banished all those years ago. Back when it seemed she could do anything... So long ago...
She looked away, down at her hooves. Then she spread her wings once more, and made her way back down to the planet below.
As she landed back on the balcony at the Canterlot Castle, it was obvious that she had been missed. She hadn't known it, but she had been gone for four hours. In those four hours, it was clear that Celestia had almost turned the castle upside down looking for her.
Looking around, Luna stepped inside at her now messy room. "Wow... I wonder what's going on..." She muttered, looking confused.
Just then the door burst open and a guard walked through, but as he noticed the princess he turned his head to look back into the hallway, yelling "She's in here!"
Luna looked at the guard with an expression of shock and confusion, but before she could say anything, Celestia walked through the door, past the guard, and into the room.
"Luna! Where have you been?!" she yelled, concern flashing across her face, "I've been looking for you all night! Are you hurt?"
"Relax, Celly! I'm fine, I'm not some little filly who needs to be watched every minute of every night!" Luna yelled back before, in a calmer voice, saying, "But I do appreciate you concern, sister."
Before responding, Celestia looked back at the guard and waved a hoof, dismissing him. "Alright, alright... I'm sorry I overreacted. It's just... I thought maybe you'd gotten hurt or decided to leave or something. You haven't been back all that long, and you haven't been acting yourself" the large white alicorn apologized to her sister with a soft, nigh un-hearable sigh.
"Celly, I haven't been acting myself for a thousand years! I'm never going to be the same. Especially not in this day and age. I have just got the gist of speaking like a commoner, I've just discovered technology the likes I've never seen... I've just got over possession by a force that I can't even explain." Luna clarified, "I think I have a right to get a bit of alone time."
"Yes, I guess you're right. Just... tell me next time you leave, please?" Celestia requested, smiling at her dark coated sister.
"Alright, Celly. I'll do that."
"Okay... I love you, Lulu."
"I love you to, Celly."
