Lost Moon

Prologue: Nightmare Mark.

In the cold, shadowy recesses of her celestial prison Night Mare Moon shuffled around restlessly, her consciousness wrestling with that of the old princess'.

"We doth not wish for thine assistance any longer." Hissed Luna's voice within Nightmare Moon's mind, she blocked it out, but today the young mare's conscious was stronger than usual. It was also the Summer Equinox; her strength must've come from that blasted older sister of hers.

"Go. Back. To. Sleep!" She commanded drawing on her dark powers, she felt the other pony struggle against her, but eventually fade away again. After nearly a millennia in her prison, she had amassed powers like no other, whilst Luna remained the same, a practical comatose child for all these years.

Oddly, not two hours later Luna stirred again.

"We doth not have need of thy any longer!" She commanded, attempting once more to break free. Moon was surprised, normally after she silenced the young mare, she would sleep for years before trying to regain control again.

She grimaced as she realized what that meant, it was almost time to put her plan into motion, she had waited two thousand years for this time.

Long before Equestria had, had the civilization that it now possessed, was when Nightmare Moon had first roamed the lands. Back then the Moon and the Night had been exulted. Back then, when she'd first lived, she'd been called Fantasy Moon, and she had been worshiped like a goddess for her powers over the Moon, Night, and Stars, as well as weather, such as clouds and lightning.

But one Winged Unicorn, Solarsphere Luminescence, had thought different, and had turned the others against her.

Using the power of the Sun, which was a force much weaker than the Moon's had been, she banished the True Nighttime, and with it the Moon and her power.

For a long time Fantasy Moon, as Nightmare used to be, was merely a wreck, the Night had become frail and weak, whilst the Sun came full circle and gained immense power.

Then, she had decided upon revenge. Utilizing what power she had left, she entered the dreams of Solarsphere's daughter, Sun Sparkle, and every night began to weave the stories of the Moon, and the past times of it and the Night's great glories.

Sun Sparkle, who hadn't been born when her mother had exiled the Moon soon became angered at her mother, she hadn't been able to see the True Night, or witness the beauty of the Moon. She demanded that her mother bring back the True Night, but her mother refused, claiming that it was both dangerous and stupid.

Sun Sparkle became angered at her mother, and refused to call up the Light to span the skies, without the Light, the Sun became sick, it was never meant to be cast into the darkness. But, that wasn't enough to satisfy Sparkle's rage. She used her power over the Light, to seal away light for what was to be eternity.

Soon though, without the True Night being reborn into the world, and with the Pure Day sick and dying, the land was cast into disharmony, with no one power to rule over the ponies of the land, everything was brought into terrible chaos.

However, within this period of Chaos, seven ponies, both male and female came forth and using all the power they possessed, along with their very essences, created the Elements of Harmony and restored both the Moon, and the Sun.

However, to keep the land from ever having to face the dissidence of the two conflicting powers again, they sealed away both a portion of the Sun's power, and the Moon's power.

And within the collective Elements, they hid both the True Night and Pure Day, placing a strong Blood Spell of Secrecy on it, sacrificing their very lives for the spell. They became known as the Sages of Harmony.

The Seven Sages of Harmony were Double Bass, a deep brown colt with grass green eyes and tan snout, Sweet Drop, a light yellow Unicorn-mare with grape coloured eyes and a sunset orange mane, Rainbow Melody, a white pelted Pegasus filly with blue-green eyes flecked with purple, and a red, orange and yellow streaked mane.

Heavens Echo, a Pegasus mare with soft pink wings and body and pale, pale blue coloured mane, she had golden eyes, Serene Rivulet, an earth pony, like Double Bass, she isn't a Pegasus or Unicorn, her pelt is pebble gray and her mane is river blue as well as her eyes.

Fathom Whisper, is a Pegasus he is deep, almost black, purple, with tawny speckles across his back and across his legs, his eyes are storm gray, and Rhythm Nature, a Unicorn coal whose hide is the colour of candy apples, his eyes are a playful brown, and his mane is leafy green.

After they brought balance to the world, modern civilization began to form. The citizens of the land chose Solarsphere Luminescence to become Queen of the newly named Equestria, and, with much forgiveness, Sun Sparkle to become the Princess of Equestria, however, they did not forget Fagntasy Moon who had been a kind ruler when the Nighttime had ruled over the land.

They wished her to rule alongside Luminescence, and at first the newly named Queen agreed. But Solarsphere learned of the dreams Fantasy Moon had given to her daughter, the dreams that had made her turn against her mother.

So, she placed a powerful curse on Fantasy Moon, turning her into a wraith. Nightmare Moon viewed the time when the curse was laid upon her as the time she died, when she awoke, she became invisible to all others, she knew something terribly wrong had happened.

But she did not remember Solarsphere's curse until decades later, because of an amnesia spell that was surely placed on her for the Queen's safety.

However, she knew it had been the Queen's fault for what had caused her to become a specter, but, the Queen told the ponies a false tale of what had occurred, she told them Fantasy Moon had grown jealous of the shared rule she had with Solarsphere.

She told them that Fantasy had made an attempt on her life because of this jealous rage.

Fantasy Moon, being in the wraith state that she was, could not protest against the Queen's falsities, nor make herself known to all the ponies.

When the others bought Luminescence's lie, and cast Fantasy Moon out of every written document of history. And turned their backs on her, she realized that with falsity, and power, Solarsphere Luminescence had made them more faithful to her. Then they were to Fantasy Moon, who had ruled them, kindly for many, many years.

For as long as the night lived, so did the Moon. After decades in loneliness and of being part of the world, yet not a part of it, Fantasy Moon started to despair.

She had very little power left within her, for she regained her power twenty thousand times slower than she normally should have, and the power she did have, was only that which she had, when she had first been cursed. So it was no longer that she could enter dreams and give suggestions, or bring about wild and beautiful fantasies to the ponies, she was existent, but useless.

What seemed like no time to Fantasy Moon, for she was now an immortal outcast, was centuries to the ponies of Equestria. When every pony she had ever known in her lifetime had perished, and with no written texts of the past about her, she soon became forgotten.

All except for one Winged Unicorn mare, Sun Sparkle, grew up to be a wise, kind, and fair princess of the land. She remained a princess her whole life, even after her mother had died, for she knew what her mother had done, but in a pact of blood and magic had sworn to secrecy, at the threat of her own life.

And because of this, she refused the title of Queen, for she knew what corruption lay ahead of one who had been given too much power than they should have.

So, she shared all power with her own daughter, Day Star, whom she named with both the nighttime and the daytime in mind. Not only did she structure a fairer and more just system of monarchy, she also worked for days and nights, trying to figure out a spell that could bring Fantasy Moon back.

But, when she had finally completed the spell, she was murdered in cold blood; and the spell burned, and forgotten.

However, it wasn't the losing of the spell scroll that had turned Fantasy Moon sardonic, but the murder of her last, her only friend. The only one who believed in her even after all the time that had passed.

After the death of Sun Sparkle, Fantasy Moon turned and embraced the dark powers that had beckoned her for all her years as a wraith. She drew upon the darkness and slowly, very slowly, began to regain her strength faster, her powers once more becoming restored.

In acknowledgment of her new life, she renamed herself; she was now called Nightmare Moon, for she swore upon revenge, and freedom. She made an oath that she would take her vengeance out on the royal family, because they had been the ones who had cursed her, and the ones who had killed Sun Sparkle.

So she waited, for a thousand years, until one day, a filly was born of pure Royal blood, she was purple, with a mane the colour of blue mist. Her mark that of a dark night sky. Luna.

Now, the rulers of Equestria still structured their rule like how Sparkle had set it to be. The filly had an older sister, Princess Celestia.

Celestia was the older pony, and was the one who took more power than her sister did. She controlled the sun, like Solarsphere had so long ago, but she had also taken upon powers which was not hers to take.

At Luna's birth, Celestia used her power to draw some of the Night's power out from within Luna. This infuriated Nightmare Moon, for so long her hatred towards Solarsphere had lain dormant, but now, this 'Celestia', who reminded her so much of her old torturer and deceiver, had brought back all the memories. And all the hate.

By this time, Nightmare's powers had grown enough that she would be able to enter dreams once more. She chose not to whisper the glories, and the powers of the past to the older sister; but to the younger sister, Princess Luna.

Luna, being the newborn embodiment of the Moon and all its glories of the True Night, was easily contacted by Nightmare Moon. So much so, that after the first few dreams that was given to her, Nightmare was able to enter Luna's dreams herself.

Luna and Moon met nightly, together sharing the beauty of the Moon and the night, Nightmare told, and showed Luna of the past, of how everything used to be.

Luna, like Sun Sparkle soon desired to see the True night and the full power of the Moon. But she was not like Sun Sparkle in one way. Luna was herself part of the Moon, and she could feel its restraint, she knew that what Nightmare spoke of was the truth. And she knew that with her help, she could bring it back.

But, Luna was lacking in the full power she should have possessed, stolen by her own sister. So Moon told Luna about what had happened, what her sibling had done, at first Luna didn't believe her. But eventually she had to face the facts. She had to confront the truth that she already knew.

It was true.

Now, Nightmare required a physical body to regain her all her old powers, and keep her new powers. And Luna required the power that Nightmare possessed.

So Nightmare Moon formed a deal with the young Princess, in return for letting her host her body, Luna would be able to access all of Nightmare Moon's powers.

However, what first started out with a hosting soon turned into a possession. Nightmare Moon had gained the body she needed and had once more regained all the powers she once beheld. And more.

But, that cursed Celestia had exiled her sister to the moon as soon as she first turned bitter, and angry at her, and at the people for shunning the night. Though what Celestia hadn't expected was that, that was exactly what Nightmare Moon wanted.

Once on the moon, her powers began to grow to incredible heights, it had been years since Nightmare had been so close to the source of all her powers, even if the moon's powers were currently diminished, with her plan, it would not be for long.

"Leave! We doth not need you!" Luna demanded once more, finally startling Nightmare out of her memories of the past. Yes, it would not be long now.

Moon suppressed the younger pony once again, and looked up into the night sky, the stars were beginning to align. It was now or never.

In a flurry of magic and moonlight, Nightmare Moon striped Luna of her cutie mark, and replaced it with her own mark, similar in form, and appearance, but it was filled with her power, and it was where she was going to hide for the next part of her plan.

Transforming herself into her wraith form, she quickly sealed herself inside the marks she had placed on Luna's hide. With her, she sealed parts of Luna's memories, the parts that could lead the young pony to ruin her plan.

Then, in a flash of brilliance and celestial lights, the stars aligned like prophesized, and Luna, once more restored to her body, burst free from her prison.