The Dark Side of the Sun

by Ice Star

First published 14th of February, 2015

Thousands of years ago three youngsters roamed the wilds together. Many things happened some were good, but others are better off forgotten. There are plenty of those. One has just resurfaced, one that Celestia would rather forget.

Thousands of years ago three youngsters roamed the wilds together. Many things happened some were good, but others are better off forgotten. There are plenty of those. One has just resurfaced, one that Celestia would rather forget.

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Although this now has a prequel ( maybe even two) you can read them in whichever order you like. It is not required to read any of the stories that come before this, it is only marked as a sequel because it comes after another story even though it can be treated as a standalone work. Contribute to the TVTropes page!

Chapter 1: Dreams and Streams

"Tia when can I pick out Our campsite?" Luna asked, for about the third time this week. Now We had to think a little harder to come up with a reply that would please her. A couple of minutes passed before we came up with one.

"When We get our first set of flight feathers, you can pick out our campsite," We piped, imagining the excitement.

Luna thought about this and nodded eagerly as she laid out her blanket. The sunset behind us both was slowly turning into the night, with sickly orange hues, a cold distant darkness. Sunset used to have beauty. Night used to awe Us, and sweep Luna off her hooves. How long ago was it that day and night felt natural and inspiring? Like something more than a lantern being lit and blown out. As We lay down, we could not help but wonder: When had the sky become so sick?

Our eyelids closed softly and the uncertain realm of dreams took Us. Nopony could protect Us there. Recent events flashed by the darkness like vanishing ripples: Luna and 'I' home in the castle in the woods. We were saying good bye. Mommy and Daddy stood over us glowing with power. Luna begged for them to come back. I stood aloofly next to a window and offered an almost curt farewell. We were now in charge! Beside they would come home anyway. Then was the great game Luna and Us were playing: hide and seek, which she was fond of.

Mommy and Daddy had been gone for quite a while but we were okay. Until We figured it out. What if they were just playing a game of hide and seek? Luna and 'I' would find them! We had to go find them and I could be a hero! The dream changes: packing knick-knacks for our trip, which has now become more of an exploring-adventure, like in the bed time stories Mommy used to tell. Again the image clouded over and a new one took its place. Meeting our new friend Discord who also wants to find his parents. Lastly was us. We were telling Luna a story we made up about stars and clouds.

Things like that.

The next morning after another breakfast of dried clover Luna and yours truly went to a small mountain brook to wash up.

We tried out a new spell that we had been working on that is meant to warm up water. We even made up a rhyme for it.

After our manes dried Luna and I - it only mattered if I made the mistake of talking about myself as one outside of my head - went back over to the brook to look at our reflections. Luna was not as in to this as we are. Our Mother used to have a big crystal mirror that we loved to look in, and she told us stories about it, and the worlds behind the glass I think only Luna truly believed. Before our parents left she locked it away somewhere in the castle for it to collect dust. No more worlds for Luna.

We looked over at Luna's reflection. She has a blue-ish coat and shiny turquoise eyes. Her mane and tail are the color of cornflowers, which are Mommy's favorite. But unlike our mane hers is less... 'magical' and could be mistaken for a normal pony's mane.

We haven't seen one in ages. Luna and I are what our parents called 'Alicorns' which our really special, and look a lot like ponies from what I can guess. We have wings, horns, and more, yet are different from just any old pony in many other ways. Like being extremely magical. Oh! Our manes! Our manes are not at all like most ponies. Even at first if they look like a regular mane they are far from it. They can become shimmery and move.

It is a bit hard to describe kind of like the last part. 'Immortal'. Mommy says Alicorns are 'immortal' but I haven't figured out what that meant yet.

Now, we glanced over at our reflection and watched in awe as High Princess Celestia Galaxia stared back. That was my full name. Luna's was High Princess Luna Galaxia, but she was not big enough to know or have such a fine, royal name, and We do not think Mommy and Daddy even told her of the name 'Galaxia' in the first place, so I shall not.

We have a white coat and wings with the exception of my last remaining pre-flight down feathers, which are tinged with pink. My eyes, which I think are my best feature. They are like a perfect blend of magenta-pinkish-gray and remind me of the glorious sunrise hinting at the coming dawn. Next are our mane and tail which are the palest pink and have just started to develop into the their later stage. I grow my mane and tail really long so now it drags on the ground. Luna prefers to keep hers short at the time being. She is the one who trips over things less.

I would be beautiful forever.

"I really like adventuring like this," Discord said while munching on dinner, having caught up with Luna and I after bumbling about in the meadows and rising late.

An apple and some corn was all he had. These were from the provisions which were running kind of low. Discord had an odd manner of speaking. He says 'I' instead of 'We' out loud, and all these other choppy little phrases that were mushed together and simply not right. I don't know why but he seems just as baffled when we say these things. You are not supposed to say 'I' when 'We' is clearly the proper term.

Hmph. 'Tis not our fault that Mommy taught us how to speak correctly.

"We like the adventure too, and all the stars 'an nature. Especially at night... it has so much depth," Luna poked her tongue out and looked all dreamy-like, when her mind stays all stirred-up inward, but she poked her tongue out like the word 'depth' was big and could be tasted, like wind.

We frowned slightly. "Luna do not talk with your mouth full." Manners were paramount in a place like this - there, that was a word too big for my little sister, hee-hee! If somepony found all of us, being polite is super-duper urgent.

She sulked slightly and mumbled, "Yes, Tia."

We always slept at night, it was dark then and monsters could be out, and even if it 'awed' us once, it was only barely. We think if night were a pony they would not be a nice pony, it is unsafe and so dark and cold. Bedtime had to be early, and that is what Mommy would do anyway. Luna was sleeping at this time and Discord was examining to-morrow's route. From what I can tell his mom and dad taught him about stars, like Daddy did with me, leaving Luna to make up her own tales and give them her own imagination-names like 'Gemini' and 'Orion' while Daddy said a little of his star-beasts to me, the ones that lived in our forest. Discord also knows some maths and geography, which Luna and I know too. Unlike us Discord is not an Alicorn or pony of any kind. He says he is a 'draconequus'. They look nothing like Alicorns but can use magic. Maybe they are immortal but We are not quite sure since We do not talk about Our family with others.

Discord's parents taught him many things but not as many as Ours did. Both of us can read. Discord cannot.

The map we obtained from the library is nothing more than pictures to him.

Chapter 2: To Touch the Sky

Two Moon Cycles Later...

"Luna that clover better be going those bags, not into thine mouth!"

"Yes, Tia," came the reply from across the meadow, and I expected it. Luna was a boundless bit of energy, but she was more content to speak little, and look around, like silence could be gathered. Ugh, sometimes I think she does not listen to a single thing I say, but I only want for her to be safe and happy. I always have. Luna is worth more than any toy or jewel I had to leave behind, and lots more fun too! Mommy always let me hold her like she was one of my baby dolls, but Luna is still way better! She can always make me smile. I do not want another sister because she is very perfect and I get to be her Tia and not everypony else's Celly.

According to the map Luna, Discord, and I were half way across the Unicorn Range Mountains. From the mountains warm salty air blew down from somewhere across their immense reach. This breeze made the plants around us perform a quivering kind of waltz. Waltzing. A small sigh escaped me. How long since We had danced, Our regal step as silent as starlight?

Too long.

It was time to change that, we told ourself. Even if we were out of practice, Luna and Discord were across the vast expanse of pink-and-green that was clover. Only the sun would see me. It could be my partner. Slowly, we dropped into a sweeping curtsy, startling a few butterflies into flight.

"It is our pleasure," We whispered gazing up at the cloudless sky and taking in the melody of the wind. Even nature must be shown kindness, no matter the creature. Maybe a little breezie was flitting about, and maybe one was not, but that never meant that all creatures great and small, all plants and things that were good and nice were not to be treated anything but the best if they did the same too.

To accompany this beat Our heart joined with the radiant warmth and a elating, pulsing meter only we could hear began to play out. Taking a deep breath We stretched out our legs and tried to recall what our mother taught Us about dancing, trying to hold ourself properly. As We absorbed the warm sunlight We let this knowledge fade, just keeping ourself as Mommy would have said, 'regal'. It was rude to keep a partner waiting. Slowly, Our heavily lashed eyelids closed.

A-one-and-a-two-and-a-one-two...

We started to twirl gracefully, Our fresh-picked flowers swayed to the beat thumping in Our ears but they did not spill. Their gentle rustling joined the symphony. More steps played out below in our blindness. Leaps and spins that caused the grass to gasp and murmur. Soon the ground seemed to fade beneath Our hooves. We became so absorbed in movement, We swear it faded all together. We so badly wanted to view this feat. We were afraid, though. Would the opening of Our eyes spoil the moment?

Just... one... little... peek...

Our thick eyelashes flew open, exposing all. The meter was silenced and the world seemed to stop. A new song emerged. The song of Our heart, thumping wildly. I... We... are hundreds of lengths off the ground. From here, We could see Luna and Discord, both who looked ever so small below Us. Our flower bags are still on the ground, thankfully their contents had not spilled: fresh picked rations of a vibrant green shade. We look to Our sides. We had nearly forgotten but our wings flapped softly, We noticed long white flight feathers, graceful and sleek. In the sky Our mane and tail no longer dragged but billowed around me in streams of thick, cloudy pink.

I am touching the sky.

Two weeks later

All of us agreed to stay in the fertile meadow with its gentle winds and tasty clover. Luna could not stop asking us about the whole dancing-in-the-sky event. Every time we talked it seemed she had a new question relating to flight. Little did I know, stranger things would happen.

One night, feeling safe and warm with our bellies full, an excited Discord, Luna, and I decided to stargaze, even if I still felt ever so nervous about the night, I would hide it, putting fear under my face like a mask. Luna sat in the grass with Discord, and between them I floated like a butterfly, refusing to be grounded. Sometimes my face colored when I looked at Discord and he laughed, all pink and flower-bright, but my mane totally hid it and he always went back to his jokes.

The stars were twinkling so irresistibly that even We agreed with Luna tonight. We had to watch them, just this once. No harm of any kind could befall Us here. As We stared reds and pinks faded to blues, purples, blacks, and colors I could not place. Soon these became illuminated as orchards of stars shed their gold-white light joined by a solitary moon whose silvery blue attempted to humbly mix with the stars' glow, and the barest memory of Our castle in the Everfree Forest played itself in my heart, and I missed it. Soft beds, warm food... it was a good place, and it was safe. I always knew what would happen there. The orb of light that was the sun, and my friend, spiraled out of the sky, like it was falling through jelly.

It was at this moment on a midsummer night something extraordinary happened. Something that will remain in our minds forever, Discord, Luna, and I, because it was beautiful then. But what might have been the most important thing is how this event changed me.

Out of nowhere the starry sky exploded into ribbons of color: pink, blue, and yellow. Every other fathomable shade of pastel shimmered between these main ribbons in crystalline manner. Luna was overly awed by this, eyes shining back as she looked into the night, her eyes filled with those colors. A little too awed for me, though. She turned to me and lightning quick and begged me, talking and talking in a way that was so rare for her. She was pleading that it was important and since I could fly, I should go up there. Luna believed it was signal from Mommy and Daddy. If I could fly fast enough to go receive the message, she reasoned, we might be able to know where they are hiding. We agreed to this and glided up, but tried to look as good as possible doing it, since We had to set an example for Luna. These lights were not as high in the sky as one would have thought but that did not make them any less brilliant. Now that We were this far up the darkness, which was still spooky, enveloped Us.

What were We supposed to do?

The stripes shimmered from the reflected light with an aurora beauty. We were entranced by this. How lovely, it was almost like We could hug it.

Gingerly, We stretched out a hoof... and touched it. Instantly, a sharp gasp was wrought from Our lips. We had expected to feel pain for this foolish choice. Instead I felt wondrous love and colossal amounts of energy infest my insides and encircle me. So warm! I knew that if I could stand next to the sun, all kind and bright, it should feel like this too, maybe! Or not quite...? Hugs did not feel quite like this. Laughing with Luna did not feel quite like this. Looking at Discord when he did his magic tricks or told me that my mane looked nice and he helped me pick flowers was not the same.

What was this power?

More importantly; why wasn't this energy... theirs? Upset and confused, We tried to withdraw our hoof from this force. As We pulled, slowly our hoof comes out spinning back at me until it smacked Us square in the eye. Our magically charged hoof struck with such a force We were sent flying out of control. Like a shooting star, We fell to the terrain below. Slowly, Our eyes closed until fear of crashing faded along with Our alertness.

We think it was afternoon when We arose in an unfamiliar part of the meadow.

How long...? What happened...?

The memories of last night came and hit hard. They hit harder then the pain in Our head and the soreness of Our legs. In the distance a racket emerged. A very concerned racket.

"Tia! Tia! Tia? Tia? Tia?! Tia!"

The familiar tone of the voice caught us off-guard. Who...? Luna came over the hill and bounded up to Us. A smile exploded on her face and she dashed over hooves encircling Us tightly. Quickly, We became more sore, feeling further bruised. If she embraced Us any tighter, We would turn as blue as she was!

Ages seemed to pass in Our head before she let go. Luna drew back a bit and her eyes widened as she gazed somewhere near Our face.

"Tia... what did you do with... what happened to your mane?!"

What did she mean?

We gazed down and saw what she meant. When we touched that crystal light it changed us in some way. Now We saw how. Our formerly pink mane and tail was now mostly streaked with green, blue, and purple. An ever so slight golden hue seemed to dance around the pink bits. We were colored just like a crystal prism now.

Shakily, We rose.

When We arrived back at camp with Luna, Discord stared at Ue like he had been hit with something.

"Celestia... what did you do to your mane... and tail?!"

Only three beings called me Celestia. Discord... and the greatest scum to ever walk this land, when they did not call Us 'Celly' all those years ago, and other childish names. Scum we will never acknowledge again. We spit at their hooves and 'boo' at their backsides! They deserted Luna and left Us both in that castle! Neither planned on coming back...

Briefly, We explained to him what happened. During that discussion We noticed a random shimmer in Our mane. Pleased, Our heart skipped a beat.

We are growing.

It was a little after lunch when Luna asked Us the dreaded question.

"Tia what was the message Mommy and Daddy had for us?"

We swallowed Our clover abruptly and choked due to discomfort.

"Luna... that light... it was not... from them."

Luna dropped everything she grasped in her magic. Her face paled went slack and her eyes grew big.

Quickly we added a curt ending, a quick kindness. "We are sorry."

It did nothing. Luna's eyes filled with tears.

Against Our will, and Our 'mask', Our eyes began to fill with tears too, but when We saw her final expression...

I almost wished I was dead...

Present Day

We left that meadow forever. Or at least Luna did, I think. Discord did. It's not like he cared much. Mentally, I never did. Luna wouldn't stop crying, you know? She cried so much... for an entire month, she would burst into sobs on and off. I counted every day. Every unbearable day. You killed me. You hear that?

Hmm?

Noctus and Lumina... if you were still out there, if you still exist you broke the heart of your only daughter that day.

The one that never gave up.

And still hasn't, even if I wish she would with all my heart.

Author's Notes:

In case you were curious, Celestia is biologically 9 while Luna is 4.