Night time in Equestria was a quiet, solemn time. Most ponies would be long since asleep and those few that weren't would soon be drifting off as well. No one stayed up during the night. The shadow-shrouded hills and fields looked so barren and empty that Princess Luna often found herself turning away. She didn't like the night; not really. Oh it was her thing. She controlled the moon as easily as her older sister did with the sun. Once, she supposed, she would have quite liked the night. Once she might have found it peaceful; the complete lack of anypony might have appealed to her sense of isolation. Even when young she had never liked crowds. Not like Celestia. Her sister was always at home, fit in with ease. Didn't matter that she was nearly twice the size of any other pony or even that she was the power behind the sun. With a few words she could have put anyone at their ease in her presence. She was just that good.
Luna had never been that good. She never liked crowds, never fitted in. That was why she had found such peace in her role. Originally it had seemed a blessing. No one to disturb her. No crowds hemming her in and no speeches to make, always desperately wondering what was the right thing to say or not to say. It all seemed so natural when it came from Celestia. But Luna had never been able to do it. She would open her mouth and say just the wrong thing and then Celestia would swoop in any say something else, save her from her own blunder. That was why she liked the nights. No one to talk to, no one to answer to. Just Luna and herself and the great moon in the sky above her head. Early on, she would look forward to the nights just as she imagined that Celestia would look forward to the days. She would sleep in during the days too, just so she could spend more time out at night. Celestia had been worried but what was the worst that could happen? Luna knew that everypony would recognise her, and it wasn't like anypony would even be up ether. And what natural dangers could befall her? Luna wasn't her sister, but she wasn't some innocent filly that could fall prey to the slightest danger. Reluctantly, Celestia agreed.
Luna took to wandering during the nights; it didn't matter where she went as long as it was somewhere. The cloak of the night covered the hills so beautifully, she could spend years there just imagining it. She loved the stars as well; like tiny moons they shone down upon the land of Equestria full of warmth and light. She had decided that her night was so much more beautiful than Celestia's day. So much more welcoming. The night was never too hot, never overcast when she was bringing it. Always perfect. That was her source of pride. For even though Celestia's day had always been more welcome than Luna's night, the night had a certain kind of beauty that the day could never compare to.
The day was brief, a flashing trail of events and actions but night time was old. Ancient. Night wasn't simply waste light and heat filling up the sky like the day was. No, night was the absence of that light and heat. Night was true. Luna realised. Nigh-time was as old as the stars themselves and even the sun that Celestia so proudly controlled paled when compared to the night that was Luna's sole dominion. Before the sun, there had been the stars. Before the moon even, there had been night. Each day was something new, born and died as fast as some insect but the night was a single thing, ancient and continuous.
That really had been the start, she knew now. Knew it with a chilly confidence. Was reminded of it each and every time the sun rose and set, and each time she called upon the moon. The night had been ancient and beautiful as rare as silk, the day had been brash, too quick to change and never the same. Always too warm or too cold, too bright sometimes. She had never realised just how much she truly disliked the day until she immersed herself fully in the night. She changed her sleeping patterns. Giving up on the day altogether just to spend more time under the moon. Celestia had been worried but Luna brushed her off. She was feeling better now, under the stars she was stronger. More sure and confident. Celestia had to remark that the changes in her sister were for the better, and yet they had made her uneasy. Luna had seen it in her eyes and that had hurt. Why would Celestia doubt her now? Why couldn't her beloved sister see the beauty that Luna had gained? The confidence, the majesty?
It didn't matter, she told herself. Celestia just didn't like change, in time she would grow to admit that Luna was better now than she had been before. But deep down it did matter. She was the younger of the two and for as long as she had lived she had wanted Celestia's respect. She had thought that she had it but that look...
No, she had told herself. She was overreacting. Celestia was just worried about her younger sister. She just had to show Celestia what she meant.
So Luna had wandered farther afield, sometimes she didn't come back to the palace at all. Celestia was worried the first few times but Luna blew off her complaints. She wasn't a filly anymore. She could travel on her own. But one thing bothered her. Before, the complete solitude of the night had been a blessing for her. But now she wanted someone to see the beauty that she had brought. Each and every sunset she did her best to make the night perfect. Never rain, never overcast. She focused on the moon too, made it just so. She worked hard and all she wanted was one pony, just one pony to see it and think of her. But in all her travels she never met anypony who would stay up past sunset for any length of time. She gave her all to the night and nopony would ever think of her or thank her. And what was worse, whenever she did talk to somepony on her travels they would always gush on about her sister! Celestia this, Celestia that. It didn't seem right to Luna. She had always had a fine sense of fairness, but now that sense was bring turned against her. She tried telling herself that it wasn't Celestia's fault, that the ponies worked during the day so of course they spent most of their time in it. It was no more Celestia's fault than it was hers that the night was dark. And yet...
And yet she remembered the look that Celestia had worn when Luna began to travel. And the hurt that had come with it. She didn't want to hate Celestia and she didn't. But she did feel just a tiny bit bitter. That was when she first thought of the Plan. Celestia spent most of the nights sleeping so if Luna were to refuse to move the moon, her sisters wouldn't know in time to do anything about it...
The idea was small, dark, she shied away from it at first. It was something that she knew was bad, balance was important. The day and night, summer and winter, life and death all had their hand to play in shaping Equstria. What kind of pony would she be if she did that? But the days turned to weeks and then to months and no one acknowledged her work. Nothing so much as a ''job well done, Luna.'' And everyone always thanked Celestia for the day. They praised her when it was warm and they had their little parties, they thanked her when it was cold and they stayed inside with friends. Some of them even thanked her when it rained! They said the crops needed water, but the night was a hundred times more beautiful than the day and no one ever noticed. She put in more effort than her sister ever had and what did she get in return? Nothing. Nothing at all.
Her bitterness had begun to ferment inside her, she carried it around for months before acting but it was all too much for her in the end. It was one event that set it off, one stupid little event that triggered the worst time in her life. She had been coming over the hills towards a small outlying town hoping to meet someone, anyone. But everyone had been in bed. That wasn't what did it, though. She was well-used to that.
What did it were the banners, the tables, the plates, all set out in preparation for a grand celebration. Drinks were chilling in iceboxes nearby and the lingering smell of food being prepared was still wafting through the air. She'd felt a great churning in her gut as she drew closer to the banners.
Princess Celestia. They had read. Summer Sun Celebration
That was like getting hit by a brick. She wasn't sure, but she thought that she might actually have staggered back a bit. They were throwing her a celebration? A celebration of the end of the longest night in the year?
Luna had just turned and run; she didn't even think to fly, the running motion eased her pain, but the tears in her eyes were still real enough. People would never appreciate the night, she realised, not as long as the day was there ahead of them. And it was the same with her; Celestia was always the good one. Always the one people came to for help. When they were younger, it was Celestia who made the speeches, talked to the crowds. Even now Luna had always felt that her sister was the one really in charge. And the ponies all loved her! Oh, they knew about Luna and perhaps some of them event felt a liking for her. But they loved Celestia and she never could compete with that. All her bitterness, sadness and remorse boiled up inside her and as such emotions are prone to do when combined, turned to something else.
Celestia. It was her fault! She'd always been the one to speak, she'd pretended to be doing it because Luna was shy but really she had been winning the hearts and minds of Equestria! She remembered the look on her sister's eyes, the one that she had attributed to simple worry for Luna. But now she suspected the truth. The truth that she had always known in her heart of hearts. It was painful, so painful, but she knew she would never be accepted as Celestia was. She would always simply be ''the other one.'' Simply Princess Luna, never anything more. Never loved, never cheered for. Never celebrated. But what could she do? What could she do to compete with her sister?
And then she remembered, that odd thought. The one that had seemed so dark and out of character for her. Now she grimly realised it was just what she had to do. Steeling her heart, she knew what she would do. If the ponies of Equstria would continue to sleep through her nights in favour of the days, she would bring the nights to them. A week of nights. And after that, they would know the beauty of night and her job would be done.
That morning, dawn didn't come. At first, Celestia was worried. She didn't know what had happened to her sister and feared the worst. By the time she had located Luna the week was into its second day and the ponies were starting to panic. Celestia calmed them as best she could, reassured them it was all part of the plan.
When Celestia came before Luna, the Princess of the Moon noticed a change in her sister. Gone wasthe friendly air with which she carried herself, gone was the smile on her face. Nowadays of course, Luna appreciated that the emotion Celestia had most shown was worry but back then, with her own internal thunderstorm of feelings she didn't care to notice. She had noticed when Celestia had ordered her to move the moon, to allow the sun to come and shine. But she couldn't have done that, the week wasn't over. Instead she had point-blank refused. Celestia had been taken back, things were said. Things that cannot be unsaid. Celestia left a newly hardened Luna. One who was determined to see the week to the very end even if she had to fight her sister to do it.
They did fight, and Luna lost. Banished to the moon for one-thousand years. It was only when she arrived there did Luna realise that she had never told Celestia that the planned ''eternal night'' was only to last for seven days. But it was too late now for that, the moon was her home and the stormy emotions that bubbled below the surface her own companions. And for a thousand years that was how it was. She slowly began to lose sight of just why she had done what she had, slowly began to resent and then actually to hate her sister. And then the seal was broken and Nightmare Moon unleashed.
Well, everyone knew how that had went. So now Luna was back at the palace in her old room looking out of her old window at the moon that had once been her home and her prison. Funny, but the night didn't seem quite so magical anymore.
She never had got round to telling Celestia that she had only ever intended for the night to last a week it just seemed...
Too cruel.
Author's Note
This is something that I wrote some time ago for a contest on Equestria Daily, it never got uploaded there for various reasons so I figured that I may as well put it up here and see how it could have done. Be aware it was written back before Luna had reappeared in the show -- just after series one -- so any inconsistencies are down to that.