Sacrifice.
Sacrifice is not something that comes naturally to anyone. It takes a certain mental state to achieve, to be willing to give up something for someone else. One waver, one second of hesitation, and you’ll fail.
I sacrificed my life for her without a second thought. Even as she turned from the one I loved into a bitter and dark mirror of herself, I was willing to risk everything, risk anything, for her.
She wanted attention; attention to her work, to step out from under her sister’s large shadow, to be able to stand on her own. She wanted the same reverence that they gave to her sister, the warm light she brought them.
They betrayed her, blamed her for things beyond her control. They demonized her, willing to throw her under the train if it meant that they could get to bask in her sister’s light.
The elder ruled the day, the younger ruled the night. They didn’t seem to realize that, when they turned in for the night, they were placing their hopes that they would wake up the next day to her sister’s light in the hooves of the very pony they loathed.
Normally, sleep brought with it peace and comfort. She took those away from them. She made them afraid to close their eyes.
Neither I nor her sister could comfort her. We weren’t enough and she pushed us both away. She fell into her darkness and emerged as something no one recognized.
Gone was the night-blue coat, gone was the light blue mane and tail that I admired. Gone was the sparkle in her eyes, the smile on her lips. Gone was the mare I loved.
In its place was a Nightmare come to life. Black as the darkest night, teal eyes slitted like a dragon’s, her mane and tail pure malevolent energy, a constant maelstrom of power that came from her stars and moon.
And I was still willing to sacrifice anything for her. If I had to die so that she could return to the way she was, so be it.
One way or another, I’d get my Luna back.
- A dark place, surrounded by everything and nothing; where am I? –
I knew Celestia was holding back. She wasn’t fighting at full strength; she was afraid to hurt her sister.
Nightmare Moon, on the other hoof, had no such deterrents, and her magic lashed out at the Solar Princess. Her magic raged, out of control, blasting holes in the walls, shattering windows and making craters in the ground. Celestia could evade easily enough, but she was afraid to strike back.
I could only watch helplessly from the sidelines, helping to clear non-combatants from the palace. I wanted to help, but to be honest, I wasn’t sure who to help.
Help Celestia in subduing her sister, or try to help Luna regain control of her mind and body? I could see it in the way Nightmare Moon moved. There was just the barest hint of restraint in her movements and her spell casting. I had a feeling if Nightmare Moon had been in complete control, Celestia would have had a much more brutal battle.
Then Celestia made a mistake. Nightmare Moon had faked with casting a bolt, and when Celestia had flinched, she had launched her real attack. I could only watch in horror as the bolt of dark energy raced towards the startled Sun Princess.
One second, I had been helping a wounded palace maremaid, the next, I found myself in front of Celestia, shielding her with my small body.
I could hear her scream, felt her trying to push me out of the way, yet I fought against her, and I felt the dark magic strike me in the chest.
The pain was unreal. It felt like every molecule of my being was set on fire, flash frozen, torn inside out, electrocuted and crushed.
One second, I was between the feuding sisters, trying to save both of them; the next, I was floating in darkness.
Dying was a strange sensation. No one would describe it the same way, and no one has ever come back from it to describe their own experience.
What surprised me was how quiet it was. While I sure as heck didn’t expect to see demons dragging my soul into eternal damnation or being guided into a light by a multitude of hosts, I certainly didn’t expect a complete lack of sound.
I opened my eyes. At least…I think I did. I could think the thought ‘open your eyes’ but I couldn’t feel the sensation of my eyes opening. I couldn’t feel anything either. No wind against my coat, the feel of my mane draped down my neck, or ground beneath my hooves. All my senses were dead. I couldn’t see, hear, smell, touch or taste anything.
While I had heard stories of sensory deprivation experiments, I had never had it done to me and it was a rather surreal experience. Was this how foals felt in the womb? Safe and warm? I was in my own little world.
How long had I been in the dark? Seconds? Years? I couldn’t tell.
If this was death, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
But how had I arrived at this point? My memory was hazy; all I got were scattered and distorted images of a black mare with a blue mane.
Nightmare Moon.
Nightmare Moon? She had been…the pony that had overthrown Celestia, banished her from Equestria and cast Equestria into eternal night. I knew that much, and that unnerved me. I knew of a mare in my thoughts, but I didn’t know why she was there.
Luna.
Luna? Luna…the name sounded familiar to me; I felt my heart warm at the mere thought of her. Had she been somepony important to me?
~noise~
My entire mind went white at the force of the sound and my entire world suddenly erupted into a mix of colors and sound.
I realized I was screaming.
I clamped my mouth shut, feeling my eyes water as what felt like every nerve in my body flared in pain. Hissing in agony, I blinked my eyes to clear them and the colors snapped into focus.
From what I could see and feel, I was resting on my side on a cold stone surface. Across from me, I saw a dark blue-coated mare slowly getting to her hooves. I could hear ponies shouting and making noises, but they were dull and muted in my ears. I only had eyes for the Alicorn.
Her coat was a deep blue, the same shade as a night sky, while her mane was a flowing tapestry of stars.
Luna?
She looked nothing like the mare from my memories, but she had the same eyes and cutie mark. She wasn’t wearing her royal regalia, which I found odd.
I became aware of a weight pressing down on my body and I tried to lift my head to get a look at what was pinning me.
Something smacked sharply against the side of my head, below my ear, forcing it back to the ground. I hissed in pain as my head connected with the hard stone.
“Don’t move,” a voice snarled from above me. The dark-coated Alicorn cast a brief glance at me, but there was nothing that I could make out in her expression.
“Leave him be, Descent,” she said softly, her voice strained, “there’s a lot to go over and we need him alive.”
The Lunar Princess got to her hooves and I felt the pony named Descent move away from me and step toward her. He was a dark-coated pegasus with a dark blue mane. Luna took a few careful steps before she stretched her body. A pained grimace flicked over her face. From my prone position, I could see Descent’s tail twitching slightly and I felt my body warm with anger.
How dare you…
As much as I wanted to get to my hooves and strangle him, my body wouldn’t move, so I settled with glaring at him and imagined gelding him. He looked back at me and rolled his eyes with an amused snort before moving so that he blocked my view of Luna. I closed my eyes and rested my head on the floor.
- Shattered; broken…a mirror? Why does it fill me with longing? –
I was woken rather abruptly by somepony shaking me. I opened my eyes slowly and blinked to clear them. I was lying on my back in a clean white room. The soft beeping of machinery led me to guess I was in an infirmary. I tilted my head up to see a white earth pony mare with a pink mane standing beside my bed. The look on her face was one of careful neutrality, yet I could see that she was hiding her nervousness by the way she kept looking around the room.
“I’m…um…supposed to inform you…that…er…” she stammered as she tried to get her thoughts in order. I watched her in silent amusement as she took a deep breath and spoke in a rush. “When you’re feeling better, you are to make your way outside and take the carriage to the Palace to speak with the Princesses,” she said in a single breath before dashing out of the room.
Shaking my head, I sighed as I slowly moved my limbs and was pleasantly surprised to find that they finally listened to my brain. I cast off the sheets and stretched each limb, moving it through its full range of movement before I trotted in place and flexed my wings. I eyed them for a moment, contemplating preening them, yet they appeared to be fine. I wondered if the mare had preened them and that was part of why she was nervous. Shaking my head, I opened the door and trotted down the hallway, following the signs to get to the front entrance.
Looking through the glass doors, I could see the carriage that was to take me to the Palace. I thought about ignoring it and flying directly to the palace, but I had a feeling the Princesses wouldn’t appreciate my disregard for their generosity.
That, and I had no idea where it was.
I nudged the door open and stepped outside, making my way towards the carriage. Two burly Earth ponies garbed in golden armor stood at the front and a pony in a suit was standing by the door.
“You’re that Midnight bloke, then? Well, come on, we don’t have all day; hurry up!” he barked at me and I flinched, making my way meekly into the opened carriage. I sat on the one of the seats and relaxed. The curtains were drawn over the windows, darkening the interior of the carriage. With a jolt, we started moving.
A voice suddenly spoke up from across me and I bit back a startled yelp.
“It’s good to see you again, Midnight Runner.”
I blinked and gazed across the interior of the carriage to see Princess Luna sitting across from me. I felt my mouth go dry and I swallowed nervously. I saw something flicker over her face but it was too dark for me to make it out completely.
“So you don’t remember me?” she asked. I didn’t know what to say, so I simply remained silent. Luna gazed at me thoughtfully for a moment and then leaned across the seat and pressed her lips firmly to mine.
The feel of her soft lips touching mine ignited something in me and I felt my wings snap to attention as my lips conformed to hers.
I remember this…
“MINE.”
My body trembled from the contact and I felt Luna wrap her hooves around me, slowly stroking over my body as she deepened the kiss. I melted under her touch and barely registered the feeling of her pulling away from me.
I blinked and shook my head to clear it to see Luna smiling. “Did that help?” she asked gently. I nodded slowly.
“I’m a patient mare; I’ll wait for as long as I need to for you to come to love me, or hate me. Either way, so long as you’re happy,” Luna said softly. “I don’t want to force you into a relationship that you don’t remember.”
“I take it I was somepony important to you?” I asked, curious about the past. I grimaced at the rasp in my voice and Luna pulled a bottle of water from under the seat and offered it to me. I took a drink and sighed silently as I felt it soothe my throat.
Luna looked at the floor for a moment then raised her eyes to mine. “You were important to a lot of ponies, Midnight, not just me,” she chuckled softly. “You were somepony very near and dear to my sister as well.”
I blinked stupidly. “Sister…?” I tried to recall anything on Luna’s sister. I felt the name at the edge of my mind, but it eluded me.
“Princess Celestia,” Luna replied and something in my mind clicked.
Celestia had been overthrown and banished from Equestria…
“After Nightmare Moon was…I don’t know if I can say ‘defeated’ or not…Celestia was able to return to Equestria and return the day and night cycles to normal,” Luna said. “We are hoping you would be able to provide us with some answers.”
I looked at her in confusion. “Answers?” I asked.
Fragments, flickers, glimpses, insight…
Luna looked out the window of the carriage. “When I woke up, you were the only other pony in the room…” she shook her head. “We’ll be able to go into more detail once we’re with Celestia.”
She sank into a thoughtful silence while I tried to remember what had happened. But my mind remained a dark blur to me and I sighed in frustration, shaking my head.
“All I have are fragments…” I sighed, looking down at my hooves. I felt Luna’s gaze linger on me for a moment before she took her eyes off me.
“There are times when Fragments are better than nothing,” she said softly, tucked her hooves under her, and closed her eyes as the carriage rolled on.
