Maledictum Insania: The Creation
By Nero Darkard (aka. NeroTheDarklord)
Warning: This is a grimdark my little pony fan fiction. Read at your own risk.
"Luna! Hey! Are you even listening?" Celestia wondered.
"Eh. Y-yes! I am!" Luna replied.
"So what do you think? Should we create this cutie mark spell or not?" Celestia repeated.
"Well... it certainly would make the reconstruction of Equestria much easier if we could find out what everypony's special talent is by just looking at them... but, I... I don't know..." Luna answered, very unsure.
Princess Celestia sighed in frustration. This was just like every other day to her. It was always the same with her sister.
"You know, this is one of the reasons why I don't understand why we are supposed to rule Equestria for all eternity together. If it was just one of us, everything would run a lot smoother," the bright demi-goddess stated.
Princess Luna stared down to the ground. Once again, she made a mistake. Once again, she was unable to increase her reputation towards her own sister.
"Luna. The ponies count on us. They need guidance now, since Discord completely destroyed their society," Celestia explained.
"I know..." Luna replied.
A moment of silence passed while the dark demi-goddess kept staring at the ground, trying to avoid the judging glance of her big sister. Finally Celestia turned around.
"The ponies need sleep. Please raise the moon, sister," she requested.
With these words, Celestia left Luna's throne room.
"Of course... I will... because that's the only thing my nights are good for... sleeping..." Luna mumbled.
And so began another night in the land of Equestria. Yet another where the subjects would immediately go hide away in their houses and sheds. But who is to blame them for this behaviour? Discord barely ever gave them a moment to sleep, so it is just understandable that they would use every moment of the night to sleep, Princess Luna figured.
Before she came to this world, the nights were just pitch black and gloomy. But ever since the spirit of chaos and disharmony had fallen, Luna was working hard on making the night time much more enjoyable for all creatures of this world.
Instead of total darkness, she had changed the color of the night sky to a beautiful purple. The moon also was no longer the only object seen in the sky. Millions of tiny sparkling stars helped the moon in illuminating the dark hours of this world with a soft blue light. Luna even went through the effort of arranging the stars in the sky to create pictures.
Yet, all this was only what she had done for the world in the first few years. There was so much more to be seen during the night, like shooting stars, the lunar eclipse, nebulas and distant galaxies to name just a few.
Princess Luna spent hundreds of years on the night sky. Until today, nopony ever even looked at her work more than a few moments. Too much did they desire to use the night time for sleeping and recovering their strength for the heavy working hours on the next day.
Turning Equestria back into the land it used to be was a very difficult task. Two hundred years have passed and the entire population was yet only half done in undoing the chaos. The unicorns, for example, tried hard to use their magic to break the chaotic incantations of Discord's magic.
The pegasi were busy the entire day, everyday, with dragging down levitating objects and whole landscapes. What made this task even more exhausting and frustrating was the fact that most of these objects were still too strongly imbued with magic to stay on the ground, forcing them to think of ways to hold them down until the unicorns could take care of this.
The earth ponies put all their strength into restoring the ecosystem of the land. With food and chocolate milk no longer randomly falling on their heads and having the problem that nearly all animals abandoned Equestria long ago, most subjects were suffering from hunger and thirst. Only very slowly where they able to cultivate forage crops, as well as other creatures came to understand that Equestria was inhabitable for all lifeforms again.
So, knowing how hard everypony was working, what right did Luna have to complain that no creature spent time with her or looked at her work?
The princess of the Night talked the situation down for herself. How bad could a few years of loneliness be when they served to restore Equestria and improve the living standard for all its subjects? But instead of just a few years, hundreds have passed and she still was alone.
Suddenly, Princess Luna was brought out of her thoughts as she heard somepony heading up the stairs to her throne room. On the outside, Luna remained her strong, determined and divine appearance, which was expected of her as the co-ruler of Equestria. But on the inside, her heart started beating faster in excitement to finally be able to speak with somepony other than her sister.
Finally, an earth pony with a straw hat on his head came into Luna's line of sight. He stepped forth to the end of the long carpet leading up to her throne and bowed down.
"Salvē," he greeted, using the common language of the land.
"Please, speak to us in our tongue," Princess Luna replied, using the royal voice.
Back then, the ponies expected of her to speak like this. After Celestia and Luna defeated Discord, they were praised and worshipped as goddesses. Luna constantly had to maintain a divine and powerful appearance to not insecure the ponies in their perspective on the princesses and to ensure them that they were capable rulers for the land. Along with this, Luna also had to insist on the ponies using her language when they wished to speak to her. Everything else would appear as if she stepped down from her unreachable heights and divinity.
"Oh, right. Forgive me, Princess. I came to ask for more land to grow my crops," the farm pony spoke.
Luna sighed in disappointment innerly. Of course. The only times when a pony actually came to her, it was due to it searching out the wrong princess.
"What you ask for concerns the sun and daylight. You must speak to our sister for this matter," the demi-goddess of darkness replied.
"Ah... thank you, Princess," the colt spoke and turned back around.
As soon as he was out of sight, Luna hung her head again. For a long time already, her sister was the only one talking to her. But even she only came to Luna when they needed to make decisions.
That was okay, though, Luna figured. Pretty much all activities and celebrations were held during the day, so she had a lot to do. Just like the rest of Equestria, the bright demi-goddess had to work from the moment she woke up until she returned to bed.
Alicorns don't need free time or hobbies. They can work without the need for a break and rarely ever get bored. But still, Luna figured these permanent expectations put on her sister were the main reason she had become so... well, bad mooded towards her.
Celestia and Luna used to be very close. But since they had taken over responsibility for Equestria, daytime and nighttime, sun and moon, they found themselves getting pulled apart of each other. But that was just how things were, Luna kept telling herself. It was all for a greater good.
The princess of the Night got up from her throne and began wandering through the castle. Even the servants were sleeping by now and since there was no need for guards, it seemed like the castle had been abandoned and Luna was its last inhabitant.
Every last of her steps echoed across the seemingly endless halls and turns. Luna tried not to think of how depressing it was that the only signs of life during the night were from herself, but it just underlined her loneliness too much to be ignored entirely.
Finally, she reached the balcony. The dark demi-goddess put her front hooves on the banister. The wind blew gently across her face with a pleasant coolth while she gazed up to her greatest masterpiece, her night sky.
For a while now, she kept trying to improve it furthermore. But each night, it became more difficult. Everything was just arranged perfectly. But somehow, Luna still felt like something was missing. Maybe another nebular? Another galaxy? Or should she maybe create another supernova in the far, far distance?
As she kept pondering for more than an hour, she suddenly had a strike of inspiration. Of course! What was still missing was a final detail! Something that just stuck out, similar to the moon, but far not as dominant!
Luna concentrated her magic and sent a dark blue beam up into the sky. Moments later, a new star appeared, right in the center of the night sky. It was brighter than all other stars and Luna gave it a special ability.
She figured that ponies should have an easy way to find their way in the night, without the need of a compass. So, she made this star always indicate where north is. She also instantly had a name for it in mind: the polestar.
The princess of the Night smiled a bit, very satisfied with her work. The polestar added perfectly to the night sky and also had a very useful purpose.
She immediately looked down to the city below, hoping somepony might have seen the change, but the smile on her face quickly vanished again as she realized all lights were out and nopony was on the streets.
Below her was Everfree, the capital of Equestria. A giant city with thousands of inhabitants. During day, it was quite a noisy place. Ponies constantly keep walking the streets, transporting goods around or making arrangements with other ponies. But now that it was night, it seemed like the city had become deserted.
In Luna's opinion, that was a shame, though. At night, the city was far more beautiful than during the day. The gentle blue light of the moon and the soft shades of the stone and wood houses mixed perfectly, making the city appear as if it was made of an unknown blue and black material. The overall purple aura of the night sky only enhanced this feeling furthermore.
But it seemed like Luna was the only one able to appreciate this sight. All the citizens were asleep and none of them even thought of looking outside. Sometimes, the demi-goddess of darkness liked to imagine how the city would look like if a few widely scattered torch lights would be glowing and one or two ponies would be still roaming the streets.
Luna sighed in longing for company. All she really needed was somepony to just be with her. Nothing more. She didn't care too much about nopony appreciating her work or even trying to see the world as she did. But she just couldn't take being this isolated.
Sometimes, she felt like being a ghost. A creature nopony was able to see or hear. Wherever she went, every being was already sleeping. It didn't matter if she came early or late, the ponies would go to sleep as soon as the sun set and get up again as soon as it rose again.
For a moment, Luna toyed with the idea to wander through the city and maybe peek into one or two windows, simply to see if she truly wasn't the only living thing in this world. But then she remembered that she still had work to do.
The dark demi-goddess slowly went back to her throne room. There was still a lot of paperwork to be done. This was pretty much the only thing Luna actually did. Paperwork. Mostly just conflicts between ponies she had to settle, changes of landownership she had to approve of or big transactions she needed to give authority. The only reason she even got this was because Celestia had so much to do, she couldn't handle all the paperwork herself.
The last time she got a real letter was more than a hundred years ago. It almost felt like, even though the ponies knew she was here, they had already forgotten about her.
But, again, Luna talked it down. One day, when Equestria would be fine again, they would start exploring the night and come to remember her, she kept telling herself.
The princess of the Night sat back down on her throne and continued with the paperwork. After three hours, she was done. Yet, the night was still far from being over.
Having nothing else to do, Luna went to the castle archives to do some magic studies and furtherly advance her skills and knowledge. But since she did that every night, Luna ran short on books she hadn't read at least four times by now. So, it is just understandable that, whenever a new book published, it was the event of the day to her. What else would be there for her to look forward to? She had nopony to talk to. Nopony to share her feelings with.
No. Luna was all alone. The only being awake in all of Equestria during the night. Simply changing her sleeping habits wouldn't work either. She is the demi-goddess of darkness, night and the moon after all! She would not be able to endure constantly being awake during the day.
Finally, it was time for Luna to lower the moon again and make space for the dawn. The ponies had to get ready for another day of heavy labour.
The dark demi-goddess got up again and wandered all across the castle to Celestia's throne room. Her sister was awake already.
This act of exchanging heavenly bodies was such a daily routine to both of them by now that they didn't even greet each other and simply closed their eyes while their horns began to glow. Moments later, the moon disappeared and the sun rose up instead.
Dawn and sunset had become the only two moments in the day the two sisters met by now. Before they saved Equestria, Celestia used to stay up late for Luna occasionally and Luna in return sometimes spent a part of the day with her. But with all this work going on now, this was no longer possible.
"Did you make up your mind about the cutie mark spell?" Celestia wondered.
"I suppose it would be a good idea. But maybe you should ask the subjects first if they agree to this," Luna answered, causing her sister to roll her eyes a bit.
"You know, you could ask them yourself. You got all night to speak to them. It's not like you do a whole lot anyway, considering how much time you spent in the archives," the bright demi-goddess insisted.
"But, sister..." Luna started, but got interrupted by Celestia.
"No buts. You know how busy I am. All I'm asking for is a simple favor. Don't tell me you can't even help me with that," she countered sharply.
Luna just didn't know what to say or how to explain this to her in a way so she would understand and believe her. Celestia was so deep into her work and so focused on the subjects of Equestria, she just couldn't see what Luna was going through.
Without saying another word, Luna simply turned around, getting ready to walk to her bed chamber.
"Have a nice day, sister," she spoke before leaving.
So ended another night for Luna. Nothing changed. It was like every other: Empty, lonely, depressing.
But Luna stood strong. She wouldn't complain when she knew the ponies were going through much worse things, like starvation and diseases. She had no right to complain, Luna kept telling herself. She had to keep her head up and continue being the symbol of power, hope and salvation the ponies expected her to be. Yet, she had no idea how much longer she could endure this.
