Luna’s Descent
A Short Story by SpiritofthwWolf
Princess Luna began the night like any other; raise the moon, set the stars in motion, and light them all. Upon completing her tasks, she began her usual long, lonely trip back to Canterlot Castle. Every night she made this trip. Every night for as long as she could remember. How long ago was that anyway? She couldn't recall the number of days and nights that it had been. Every one of the nights that she made these trips felt like an eternity in itself.
She never had anypony to talk to, for they all had gone to bed when her sister lowered the sun each day; they never cared about her or her night, she thought.
“If only I had somepony to keep me company on these nights,” she sighed into the cold, still air. She knew no one would hear her, much less reply. But reply somepony did.
“Why so lonely my dear? No one to talk to?”
Luna stumbled in the air when she heard it, startled by this sudden voice. “Who’s there? Where are you?”
“Why, I’m here! You’ve known me for a long time,” came the voice once more. It was an older mare’s voice, but there was something both comforting and soothing about it.
“That can’t be. No pony ever talks to me, never even sees me. No pony except my sister, and you most definitely aren’t her!”
“Oh, but somepony listens. I’ve always been listening.”
Luna was really frantic at this point, and without saying anything, began to fly as fast as she could home to Canterlot Castle. There she’d be safe from whoever this was. When she finally reached the castle, she landed on the balcony of her chambers and exhaled a sigh of relief.
“Why do you try to run from me? You can’t get away, you know.”
Luna about jumped out of her dark blue coat. Looking around in terror, she wondered how somepony could have followed her so quickly, let alone get into the castle and past all the guards. However, she saw nopony anywhere, yet she could still sense some other dark presence in the room, and the voice came again.
“You can’t escape me. I’m all around you. I’m inside you. I AM you.”
Still scared to the very core, Luna did her best to remain calm. “How do you mean? It is impossible, what you say.”
“No! It is possible. You know it in your very soul, for you birthed me, raised me, fed me – all with your loneliness, your fear, and your jealousy.”
“It’s impossible!”
“Search your mind; you know it to be true!”
“But how can you be me?”
“I live within you. Within your heart, your mind, your body, and your soul. I am you. I am everything you fear. I am your nightmares!”
While Luna fought this voice with all her might, she could not bear it. It burned her mind the more she thought about it. Fighting it for as long as she could, it eventually overcame her and she let out a blood curdling scream that reverberated all across Canterlot – all across Equestria.
The guards burst in to investigate, but what they found there was their princess, except she now sported eyes like a dragon’s, slitted and green. Those eyes seemed to stare into their darkest depths, as if they could see the guard’s very souls and every little thing they had done in their lives.
‘Kill them,’ came the voice in Luna’s head.
“No, I don’t want to!” Luna shouted out loud.
“Princess, are you okay?” asked the guards, but they received no reply.
‘If you won’t, then I will!’
Luna continued to fight as every muscle in her body began to move against her will. Whatever this voice in her head was, it was trying to possess her, and she realized it was no use; she panicked.
“Run!” she yelled to the guards, but this only confused them further.
As their princess approached them, she began to transform. She grew larger. Her coat, dark as it was already, melted into a darker shade of black. Her mane became even more like the night sky she so coveted. And her voice had changed.
“Princess... Luna?” the guards asked together one last time, their minds failing to comprehend what was happening before them. Their bodies shook with fear now. Their princess was lost to them.
“I am no longer your beloved princess,” came the voice from Luna’s head, no longer constrained to its prison but now aloud, and from what was once Luna’s timid lips. “I am the embodiment of nightmares.”
The guards, still dumbstruck, stared at her as she drew closer until she was right in front of them. What happened next was something they never would have expected.
A sudden flash of black, and she was gone, or so one of the guards thought. When he turned to his companion, he screamed in horror at what he saw there, stumbling backward in shock from where he was.
The other guard still stood where he had been, but through his side now protruded a horn, black as night. The mare had ran him clean through, impaling him right through his heart. The body then lifted up into the air and the creature flung it off her horn like it was nothing. It crashed to the floor with a thud, the metal armor that was meant to protect it clanging as it hit the ground. This gave the mare of darkness an idea.
As her bloody horn began to glow, she tore the armor from her kill and crafted it with her magic to better suit her tastes. This she then donned – A helmet and chest plate, replacing the former princess’s crown and attire. She then turned her attention back to the other guard, who was now cowering in the nearest corner, overtaken by the traumatic experience.
“Now, what to do to you?” asked the mare. “Oh, I know! How about we turn you into something so pathetic, I won’t even have to kill you!”
At this her horn began to glow again, but something stopped her...
“Luna!” A stern and steady voice that she had heard a hundred times before. A voice she hated.
“Dear sister,” she said, turning around to face the doorway. There stood a regal alicorn of white, with a flowing pastel colored mane, and clad in golden attire. “Celestia, I am no longer Luna. You may call me Nightmare Moon.”
“I don’t know what this is about, but you will return my sister to me and never return,” demanded Celestia.
Nightmare Moon let out a hysterical laugh before speaking again. “As if. Not when I can finally take my vengeance on this land. On you.”
“What vengeance? I have done nothing to you, nor have the citizens of Equestria.”
“Oh, but you’ve done everything to me. In fact, you’re the very reason I exist. If it hadn’t been for you and your loyal subjects not giving me the love and recognition I so deserve, I wouldn’t be here.”
“I-I don’t understand...”
“You never have, and you never will!”
Nightmare Moon leapt at Celestia, catching her off guard and pinning her to the floor. Her horn was at the throat of the Sun Princess, ready to end her reign right then and there.
“Any last words, dear sister?”
“Just three... Luna, I’m sorry...”
At this, the creature yelped and twitched, as if something was fighting it from the inside. Luna was still in there somewhere, alive. This was enough to allow Celestia to break free from Nightmare Moon's hold. Her horn began to glow with daylight and the creature began to scream in even more agony.
Celestia quickly released the magic though, fearing for her sister inside that beast. The creature stopped twitching again as it subdued Luna’s spirit once more, and in a blur of shadow, disappeared out the still open balcony door. It left no trace of ever being there, save for the blood and body of the dead guard. Sadly, it also left no trace of Luna either.
Celestia sighed and sat on her haunches, staggering a bit as she did so; a million questions flooded her mind.
And that’s how it happened – the birth of Nightmare Moon.
Author's Note
This was written both as a practice for dialogue and as a warm up to a longer, unrelated story I'm starting to write. Expect the first couple chapters of that in the next week or two with any luck! For now, enjoy my first FiMFiction story!
