It was a shining, beautiful morning at Canterlot Castle, The birds outside were chirping, the sun beaming down, making the inside of the castle glow with warmth. Everyone in the castle was having a wonderful morning, except for one, Princess Luna. She was sitting at her desk, her head resting on one of her front legs. She looked up at a clock that hung on the wall, it was 9:34, she had been awake for nearly 30 hours now. Luna slowly dragged herself off of her chair, not even bothering to go into the bathroom and take a shower or brush her teeth. As soon as her hooves where on the ground, she felt like she was going to collapse from exhaustion any second. She lumbered towards her door, walking out into the hallway, squinting from the brightness of everything. Hoping it was late enough to where her sister, Princess Celestia, was not in the Dining hall, she turned and headed down the corridor, not only tired enough to drop to the floor and sleep at any moment, but she was hungry enough to eat a drywall sandwich. Luna had made her way to the Dining Hall doors, slowly pushing one of the large doors open and walked inside.
"Well, good morning Luna, finally came for breakfast I see."
Said Celestia, smiling at her droopy sister that had come in through the large Double Doors of the Dining Hall.
"Muugh."
Luna grunted in response, walking over and sitting down opposite of Celestia at the large table. Celestia took the grunt as a greeting, but it was really a grunt of annoyance, she didn't feel like seeing Celestia right now. Luna looked up and Celestia, who was chewing a bite of toast, when their eyes met she stopped chewing.
"Are you alright? Dear Luna, you look like you haven't slept in two days!"
She said, putting her fork down and leaning close to Luna, there where dark circles under her eyes, her mane was disheveled, her eyes were blood-shot.
"Uuummg, that's because I haven't."
Luna responded, letting her head flop down on the table.
"My god, why not?
Celestia exclaimed, looking more and more concerned by the second.
"It's, nothing really, I've just had... a lot of work to do."
Said Luna, lifting her head to take a bite of pancakes.
As much as Luna hated Lying to Celestia, she had to, if Luna told her why she had been up for 2 days in a row, she didn't even want to think of what would happen.
"Well, if you say so."
Celestia finished, taking a bite of scrambled eggs.
Luna levitated the jam over to her, taking a butter knife and spreading some on a piece of toast, lifting her head to take a bite. After swallowing, Luna stood up from the table, slowly walking out of the room, she was too tired to eat. Celestia turned to one of the Guards standing in the room.
"Is it just me or is there something wrong with Luna?"
She said, taking another bite of eggs.
Luna lumbered down the corridor towards her Royal Chambers, her heavy hoof steps making a loud clop sound as she sluggishly moved down the hall. It had started about a week ago, She had been having, dreams, thoughts, but they weren't hers, it was like there was a part of her sub-conscious that had split off, and was telling her to do all of these, terrible, unmentionable things, and her dreams, they had been scrambled images of, horrifying things. They had been getting worse, the one that had been imprinted in Luna's mind was an image of Celestia, laying in a puddle of blood, a huge, gaping cut along her throat, the voice in her head said that this is what will become of the future. Luna shook her head, trying to forget all of the terrible images in her head.
She was not concerned for you, she just wants to make you think that she loves you, she thinks your flawed, weak, I can make you stronger.
"No, you can't, get the hell out of my head."
Luna said aloud as she walked down the corridor.
Luna came to the two large doors of her Personal Chambers, pushing the door open and walking in, slowly walking to her bed, flopping down and closing her eyes, she was asleep before she even hit the bed.
Everything was dark, only vague shadows could be seen. It was freezing, snow covered anything she touched, she could hear sobs coming from the distance, echoing in the complete silent. She slowly walked along, looking around in the desolate wasteland she was in, the only reason she could see was the full moon, looming harshly in the cloudy sky. She could feel her heart start to beat faster, her limbs shaking from fear and the cold. As she walked down the cold, hard, frozen path, she saw a house coming up. The home was deserted, no light shown from any of the windows, as she approached the structure, she could start to see into one of the windows. She peered into the frost covered window, trying to see inside, she could see what looked like a couch, on the couch was the bodies of two ponies, the second body was that of a small colt, a thin blanket wrapped around the motionless pair. She backed away from the window, tears coming to her eyes, sitting down on the cold pathway, putting a snow covered hoof over her mouth, trying to contain her cries, there was no doubt that the pair was dead. She slowly stood up, wiping tears away from her eyes, looking around, realizing why it was so... quiet. She slowly continued on, still crying from the sight she had seen. She walked into something, tripping and falling down, a bolt of pain going through her body as she hit the cold, frozen ground. She slowly started to crawl towards whatever she had tripped on. She felt around on the cold, snow and ice covered object, it felt like it had some sort of a cover on it. With her already shaking, numb hoof, She slowly pulled the frost bitten cover back, her eyes met with those of a pale, dead face. She screamed at the sight, jumping backwards, covering her face with her front leg, violently crying, tears streaming down her face, her body shaking violently from the intense cold. She tried to wipe the tears from her eyes and cheeks, but her tears had frozen before they could fall to the icy earth, leaving trails of ice down her cheeks. She slowly and shakily stood up, her limbs in pain from frost-bite. She tried to take a step, but as her hoof collided with the ground, she collapsed back onto the cold, hard earth, she tried to stand back up, she wanted to leave, run away, be gone from this land. She was able to stand back up, but only for a short amount of time before her frost bitten limbs gave out, shocks of pain going through her body, it felt like her hooves where going to fall off, she wished they would, so the pain would end. She had no option but to drag herself along, each time she moved, intense bolts of heart-stopping pain shot through her body, making her cry out in pain. She let her head fall to the ground, laying motionless on the cold earth, she couldn't move her limbs anymore. She began to cough, she felt cold inside, the taste of blood slowly crept into her mouth as she coughed more violently. She closed her eyes, when she tried to open them, seering pain struck as she did, keeping her eyes closed, any tears that had came out had frozen, freezing her eyes closed. She broke some of the ice away with her hoof, trying to peel open her eye, she was able to free her eyelid, opening it, but everything was still black, she had gone blind, every bit of moisture in her body was frozen. "WHY WON'T I JUST DIE!?" She cried out into the dead night. No one could hear her. She tried to keep moving on, doing anything she could to move, but her back legs were frozen, frost bitten to where they could not move. She slowly lifted up a hoof, using every last bit of her strength to pull herself along, but nothing came of it, only pain. That was all she felt, pain, she coughed violently once more, blood splatting out onto the ice in front of her. She laid down her head, giving up, letting the cold consume her, letting the sweet in brace of death take over, she finally slipped into the darkness.
"AAAAAAHHHHH!"
Luna screamed in terror as her head shot off of the bed, her heart beating rapidly from the adrenalin rush she got. She looked around in her room, she was in a cold sweat, she was shaking even though it was warm in the room. Two Royal Guards came bursting in through the doors to her Chamber, both of them had their swords levitating next to them.
"Princess, What is the matter, are you okay?"
The first guard called, stepping over to her bed.
"Yes, yes, I'm fine... it was just a... terrible nightmare."
She said, putting her hoof on her chest, trying to keep back tears.
The second guard looked over, walking to the side of the first.
"Are you okay, My Lord?"
He asked, putting his sword back in its sheath.
"No, no I'm not, my brain is torturing me!"
Luna screamed, putting her head in between her hooves, trying to hide her sobs and cried from the two Guards standing in front of her.
"I keep having t-these damn dreams, a-and all these images of death, and... t-they won't stop!"
She cried out, looking up at one of the Guards.
"Do you want us to fetch Princess Celestia?"
Said the guard Luna had been looking at.
"NO! No, Do not get Celestia! I-If she knew about some of the t-things I've seen... She'd... I'd..."
Luna screamed, making the guards jump.
Luna got off of her bed, walking up to the Guards.
"I'm sorry for bursting like that... it's just, there's something tearing away at me, I don't know what, or who it is, but it... it talks to me, and tells me things, bad things, and gives me terrible images... I... just need to be alone for a while."
She said, turning away from the two guards.
"As you wish your Majesty."
The guard on the right responded, turning towards the door with his companion.
Luna waited for the Guards to leave before she moved, once they had exited, she walked back to her bed, laying down, trying to calm her nerves.
I give you these images to show you what I can accomplish, you just have to embrace me.
"GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HEAD! WHY WON'T YOU LEAVE!?"
Luna screamed, breaking out into tears again.
She collapsed into a pile on the bed, sobbing into her pillow. After a second Luna lifted her head back up, calming herself down.
"I have to... find some way to stop this, I won't let you win over me."
Luna exclaimed, standing up and walking towards her door.
Luna opened her door, stepping out into the hall.
"Guard, come with me, I know who I can see to get some help."
Said Luna to one of the Guards that had come in when Luna woke up.
She and the Guard walked away from her Chamber, the Guard trying to follow behind Luna.
"Your Lordship, would you mind slowing down?"
He said, trying to walk faster.
"Yes, yes... sorry."
Luna responded, slowing her pace.
She hoped that who she was going to go and see could help her with her problems, Celestia had been telling her about how Twilight Sparkle was coming for a few nights, and how excited she was to spend time with her Prized Pupil. After navigating through most of the West wing of the Castle, and some assistance from the Guard she had dragged along, she found the Guest room Twilight had been staying at. Luna raised up a hoof, knocking on the door. A second later, a purple colored Unicorn opened the door.
"Hello Princess Luna, wow this is strange seeing you here, I know you live here, but still!"
Twilight chimed happily, beginning to realize how bad Luna looked, the usually happy, perky Princess was reduced to a depressed looking pony, her mane didn't have it's usual waviness to it, her eyes where blood-shot from crying, large black circles under her eyes.
"Uh... you don't look so good."
She said, a concerned look on her face.
"Yes, I know, I came to you for help, I really hope I'm not intruding or anything, I hope you're not mad or anything."
Luna said, noticing Celestia sitting on a couch in the room, as much as Luna didn't want her sister to know about what had been going on, she had decided it was time to tell her, before something happened.
Luna stepped inside, she had to admit, it was a rather nice temporary place for Twilight, there was a large bookshelf on the left side of the room, a nice looking kitchen across from where she was standing with a white ceiling fan on the roof.
"Your Lordship, do you wish me to enter or to leave back to my post?"
Asked the Guard that Luna had brought along.
"No, you can leave, you've seen me cry enough tonight."
She responded, giving the Guard a look that made his heart sink.
She turned around as Twilight closed the door behind her.
"Hi 'Tia."
Said Luna, looking at her sister.
"Why did you say 'you've seen me cry enough already' to that guard, Luna what's going on?"
Celestia asked, her heart sinking at the sad site Luna had been reduced to by her own mind.
"I really wanted to not tell you, in fear I would have my powers striped from me, or I would be locked away from you or something, but I guess here it goes. It all started about a week ago, after I went out to raise the moon, once I got back, I got a bad headache, so I went to sleep, I had this weird dream... it wasn't anything, just indistinct blobs, I couldn't tell if they where ponies or what, that next day I kept hearing a voice, telling me these, unmentionable things, to... kill, to, let myself embrace the nightmare. I thought it was someone playing a prank on me, but I realized it was in my own head, there's something living in my mind, it keeps giving me these images of what is to come and all this twisting things, I can't take it anymore, I keep having these dreams that I'm in Pony Ville, but its dark, and cold, and everyone is dead."
Luna said in a rush, tears starting to roll down her cheeks.
"And with these dreams I have these images in my mind, the ones I remember the most are ones of the castle, its dark, and theres a Guard leaned against the wall, and theres blood, and broken glass and..."
Luna finally broke, the tears she had been holding back breaking out.
Celestia put a hoof over Luna's shoulders, trying to comfort her distraught sister. Luna contained her tears as best as she could, looking up at Celestia.
"I don't want to tell you the other image the voice gave me."
Luna said shakily, looking away from her sister.
"Luna, please, you have to tell us what this, voice has been telling you, we have to know."
"It's about you, I've seen you, laying on the ground, in a puddle of blood, a huge, gaping cut along your throat, the voice said that I wouldn't have to watch if I let the voice take over."
Luna looked down up at Celestia once more, a distraught look was on her face.
"Luna, why the hell didn't you tell me sooner, this is, this is... my god."
Celestia said, hugging Luna tightly.
"Princess, did you say that the voice called itself, the Nightmare?"
Said Twilight, making Luna look over.
"Yes, and I think I know what you mean, I think Nightmare Moon has returned."