Chapter 10

Princess of the Night

The door to the room of the past was closed. The room itself was built for the sole purpose of having no windows to the outside which suit the young mare perfectly for it would allow her to continue her training in isolation as well as being left in darkened silence. Every now and then a bright light shun from inside the darkened training grounds of the soon to be Princess of the night. While her big sister would be training with their mother before sunrise, Luna would be below the castle before sun set to start her studies. Before her father had left, he left her instructions on what she should continue practicing while he was away. The blackened room shimmered bright again as Luna put her hoof in the fountain moving it around until the small dots of light swam into view. She then went over what her father had instructed her to do in her head. With her horn glowing she focused on the specks of light and began to draw a picture in her minds eye. For a moment the dots remained stationary, but then to her amazement, they started to drift into formation and begin to form the shape she was imagining. Before her eyes she saw that an outline of a bird was drifting peacefully in its watery home. Intrigued by her success so far, Luna continued to picture more images for the dots to form. The bird broke apart and became stallion then it stretched out to become a snake. Deeply amazed by her accomplishments Luna had an idea, but she wasn’t sure if it would work. She placed her hoof back in icy water where the snake continued to shimmer. She touched the tail and felt something soft and fragile like snow brushing against her hoof. Startled by the experience she lifted her hoof out of the water afraid that she might damage the specks.

To her surprise as drops of water fell back into the fountain, the dots of light shot up from the depts. And rose to the ceiling and stayed their undamaged and giving off the impression that Luna was outside right now looking up at the night sky. Her hoof remained raised as she carefully moved it to the left. The dots of light followed her movement and in a matter of seconds Luna was making them take the shape of a number of things that she could think of. A heart shun bright in the corner while a diamond hovered to the side. The dots took on the forms of animals along with shapes and constellations that she already knew were in the night’s sky. When she was done, she lowed her hoof and the dots drifted back down into the depths of the water. The next thing she was entrusted to do was to try out what she has been practicing on the real thing. Luna thought for a moment on how she was supposed to do that when her sister couldn’t even raise the sun yet. Still, she headed outside where the sun was just starting to set. Luna flew up and concentrated hard on what she had to do. Her horn glowed as she spread her hooves out and closed her eyes.

“I am the Princess of the night,” she recited in her head. “It is my duty to raise the moon and the stars. I will fulfill my destiny, I will… I will…”

But she couldn’t finish the rest of her thoughts. Her horn dimmed out and she lowered her hooves exhausted from casting her earlier magic. She hovered in the sky watching the sun disappear behind the mountains. The moon began to rise somewhere in the east, casting its light upon the grounds of the city. Luna lowered her head sighing in disappointment.

“You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself,” said a comforting voice from behind.

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping sister?” Luna asked as the white Alicorn approached her.

“Yes, but I thought you might want somepony out here with you since dad isn’t here,” said Celestia coming to a stop beside her little sister.

Luna flushed at this. Didn’t her big sister think she was perfectly capable of practicing her duties on her own? Just because she was younger didn’t mean that she wasn’t able to be on her own at night! Did it? It was her duty to one day bring forth the night after all. a more important thought surfaced. Why was her big sister out here?

“I’m perfectly fine doing this on my own sister,” said Luna taking a proud stand.

“Relax Luna, I wasn’t coming all the way out here to play the role of ‘Teacher’." said Celestia jokingly. "I wanted to show you something! Come on, follow me!”

Frowning slightly, but curious, Luna tailed her sister up to a cloud drifting near by. The two rose up to it and Celestia told her sister to land on it. Luna raised an eyebrow. She couldn’t be serious, but after her sister held her confident expression she did as she was told. Luna drifted down until she was inches from the cloud’s surface.

“Go on,” Celestia said egging her little sister on. “Trust me, it’s so cool!”

Luna hovered over he cloud for a few more seconds before her hoofs touched the white sheet. It was like she was on solid ground. Luna lifted a hoof in amazement! Trails of the cloud rose up with her action.

“See, what did I tell you!” said Celestia landing on the cloud happily. “Isn’t this the coolest!?”

“How did you know about this?” asked Luna trotting in place to see if the cloud would remain intact. “Wait, did you come out here to fly on your own without Snap Shot instructing you?”

“I might have done that once… Or twice,” Celestia said sheepishly.

“Why do you continue to do things like that?” Luna asked frowning at her sister.

“Oh come on Luna,” said Celestia waving the matter aside lazily with her hoof. “Why should finding out about this stuff be left to studies when we can go out and seek it ourselves?”

“I don’t understand you,” said Luna. “How can you be so nonchalant?”

“Is that what you see in me?” Celestia asked.

“I don’t know, forget it,” said Luna sighing. “You already have your Cutie Mark and yet you still act the same as usual. How can you when our destinies are so… big?”

Celestia didn’t say anything for a bit. She was considering her sisters question. It was true that she acts so calm and collected in situations where anyone else would panic. Even when she got her Cutie Mark, she still treated it as nothing particularly important. Sure she was proud of it, but she didn’t think much on what the mark represented. She sat and stared off into the distance pondering until she finally had an answer.

“I think the reason why I do it, is because I too am afraid,” she said smiling warmly at her sister. “I may not look it on the outside, but on the inside it’s a completely different story.”

“Really?” questioned Luna raising an eyebrow.

“Trust me little sister. When we found out about our destinies I felt like I could scream. I didn’t know what to think, I felt so lost. I didn’t know how I was going to fulfill any of it. But I think, and I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but… Snap Shot is right about one thing. When the time comes for us to show Equestria who we are, we will know and I think we will be able to preform our duties.”

Luna knew she could trust her big sister. She and Celestia looked up at the sky, their thoughts on the day when they would be able to raze the sun, moon and stars. Luna could tell that the topic of doubt upset her sister, so in order to change the subject, she let magic flow through her making her horn glow once again. With confidence she raised her hoof and started to draw something in the sky. She knew that this time she could control stars, and before their eyes a patch of stars began to obey Luna’s commands and formed the picture she was thinking of. The stars reflected back in Luna’s eyes as she continued to draw something in the sky. Celestia felt a smile form as the two looked up at the constellation Luna had made.

“That’s right, we will rule over Equestria together. Just you wait.”

Above them, the image of four Alicorns twinkled in the night sky. The two sisters stayed out for some time. They amused each other by discussing what they would do once they became Princesses of Equestria. Celestia seemed to have gained back her old cocky attitude as she let her sister know what she would do when she became Princess. Luna entertained them both by making more constellations appear in the night sky. Before too long, the two headed back to the castle where they drifted off, their dreams filled with smiling ponies as they cheerfully welcomed their new Princesses of Equestria. While she wasn't aware of it while she was asleep, something began to take form on Luna's flank. She turned in her sleep and there fully fledged on her flank was what looked like a dark blue cloud and spots and in the center of the cloud was a white crescent moon.