Intra In Nocte (The Night Inside: A Luna Story)

Chapter Eleven

        Luna felt the impact of Nightmare Moon hitting the moon. It was none like any pain she had ever felt, for it was a million times worse. Every bone in her body seemed to shatter as she hit the moon, and she could feel her energy, and consciousness, slipping from her body. Luna closed her eyes, and the stars went dark.

        Luna awoke on the hard surface of her moon, dizzy and unable to stand at first. She lifted her head. Physically, she seemed mostly okay, despite being dizzy. Slowly, Luna rose to her hooves. She was quick to notice she had control over her body again, something she had not expected. Pleasantly surprised, Luna attempted to raise her wings, and was met with shock. They didn't move. She tried to force her wings upright, but they continued to hang limp at her side. Luna tried to use her magic to fix them, and discovered her magic did not work either.

        She attempted to process this new information. Whatever the elements had done to her, it had been much more detrimental than Luna had thought. Luna stared out at the now faraway land of Equestria. She could see the calm, quiet forest she had destroyed in her rage against her sister. She could see the villages where her subjects lived, the ones she had failed. She could even make out the mountain range she and her sister had grown up in. 

        Luna's mind flashed back to the time she had lived with her father and mother. She thought back to her mother's careful yet kind advice, to her sister's light and happy ways, and to her father's overprotective care of her. Luna wished for a moment that she could go back to that life, with its carefree days and happy moments. Then she remembered her last encounter with her father, the only pony who could truly understand what she had been going through. Tears began to roll down Luna's cheeks. Luna wished only to be loved for who truly was, not the monster she carried with her. If only she had listened to Father, she may have been able to. But she had ruined that too.

        Luna thought of what the ponies must think of her now, what her sister must think. The ponies would fear her forever, and her sister must have been terrified, if not ashamed. Luna no longer just carried the monster, she had embraced it, and by doing so, become it. Luna's cries of nostalgia turned to sobs of regret and sorrow. Luna had tried to save the ponies, and in doing so, destroyed herself and endangered them. Luna stared up at the once warm stars, which now had become her prison. I deserve this, Luna thought as all traces of hope left her.

       Then Nightmare Moon took control of Luna once more.