Prologue - Lullay, moon princess

In the city of Canterlot, ponies were bustling about, news presses were at work, and reporters on the prowl. News had it that Princess Luna, the younger sister of Princess Celestia, had returned.

What they couldn't have known is how broken she was.

The night of her arrival, she was laying in her room, laying on top of the new blankets of the bed as the old ones had perished hundreds of years ago. Her mind was like intricate clockwork, ticking silently as multiple thought processes went flying through her mind. Or the ticking could be the dusty old clock in the corner.

Princess Luna had recently been through an incredibly hard time. When Nightmare Moon had taken over her body in the unfortunately one sided fight within her mind, she had to watch and bear the pain of the fight between the evil deity and the princess of the sun.

Then she was on the moon for an entire millenia. Poor Luna was driven crazy over the span of the time with nothing but inanimate objects to keep her desperation at bay. When she was returned she was an empty shell that used to be the princess of dreams.

A knock at her door brought her out of her stupor. She snapped, "What?"

The gentle voice of Celestia, the white princess pony asked to be let in. Luna opened the door up and sat up in her bed.

"What doth thee needeth?" Luna muttered.

Celesta walked up to the edge of the bed and sat on it. She hugged Luna, who didn't hug back. "I missed you."

"I did miss thee too."

"Do you remember the lullaby I used to sing you?" Luna nodded. "After you left, I actually finished the song…"

"Thee didst?"

"I revised it, per se. It was more of a sad song I sung to you every single night as I raised the moon."

"Can thee sing it to me one more time?" Luna asked quietly.

Celestia gave a warm smile, cleared her throat and started to sing softly as Luna laid in bed.

"Lullay moon princess, goodnight sister mine

And rest now in moonlight's embrace

Bear up my lullaby, winds of the earth

Through cloud, and through sky, and through space

Carry the peace and the coolness of night

And carry my sorrow in kind

Luna, you're loved so much more than you know

Forgive me for being so blind…"

A silence was bestowed upon them. Celestia looked down to find her sister crying softly, eyes squeezed shut.

Then she suddenly found herself on the cold marble floor outside Luna's private chambers. The door shut with magic. Celestia sighed and stood up. She knew that this was going to be the case - the question was if Luna would ever forgive her.

---

Inside the chambers, Luna's eyes were shut and she was asleep.

Meanwhile her mind was wandering through the dream realm for the first time in a thousand years. Many odd rectangles of ponies' dreams spinning around her, moving swiftly to accompany the first use in a thousand years.

She took a step forward, shooting what would be kilometers in the living world forward, halting in front of a darkly shrouded dream. It was a nightmare. Luna looked into the dream, to find the source of the nightmare. She sighed and stepped into the dream.

Inside the dream, she defeated her first nightmare, then stepped out of the now happily dreaming civilian.

She patrolled dreams the rest of the night.

---

The next morning, the two sisters sat next to each other eating breakfast in a small room with a relatively small sized table. Celestia had eaten most of her breakfast, while Luna only had a small bite out of the already small plate of food.

Celestia motioned for her to eat at least something. Luna was silent still, but started to eat a bit of food. After a solid half hour, only half the plate was missing.

"What is wrong, Luna?" Celestia questioned.

"Nothing."

"You know, you're being really anti-social."

"I care not." Luna looked down at her food.

"You need to do something about yourself, maybe a student perhaps could bring some life back into you?"

"Doth thee very much bethink I'm lifeless?" Luna asked. Celestia said nothing in return. "Very well. I'll taketh a student if it be true thee very much bethink so."

Celestia smiled and said, "You know there will be many ponies willing to learn from you. You just need the motivation to actually go through and select your pony."

Luna nodded. She ate the rest of her breakfast and they both left the room.

---

The next day, Celestia entered Luna's private chambers with a small pile of papers. "Well, maybe less ponies than I anticipated, but then again, you literally only just came back. No beings save for old dragons may know who you are, anyways."

Luna took the papers in her own magic and looked at them. There were at least a good fifty ponies who sent in applications for studentry. She sighed and looked at the top one. This pony knew absolutely nothing about anything Luna would be interested in teaching, and probably just wanted the media attention. It went in the bin.

Through all fifty-four ponies only five ponies had actually shown interest or profession in the subjects of the night princess, and of those five was one who didn't actually have a job. This pony was a hobbyist in observing the moon and stars, and he used his small telescope to chart some stars. He was relatively young and fit the item perfectly.

"This pony seemeth fit to beest a student." She floated the paper to Celestia, who nodded.

"Very well. I'll see him to you in the coming week."

"This is hard worketh, wherefore doth I needeth a student?" Luna asked.

"You need someone to also bring you into the modern world, sister. Your speech patterns are a little out of date." Luna winced. "Good now. I guess I behold fia to this."

Celestia smiled and left Luna's private chambers. Her smile faltered as she walked down the hall, looking at the pony's handwritten paper. Her sister made an odd decision, but she wouldn't question it. She turned a corner and disappeared from the Lunar Hall.