Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NSckYREMuCpQ-XknxcHm7HnVX54n7slbfvpejgQ2yCM/edit

“It looks like creating the cutie mark spell was one of the best decisions we have made so far, Luna! It still surprises me to see how quickly the ponies accepted this mark as part of their personality!” Celestia announced in a pleased tone.

“Well... that does not surprise me at all. We even went so far as to cast the spell on ourselves, so it is no wonder the ponies accept it,” Luna stated.

“Anyway, I’m glad to say that the recovery of Equestria has been boosted quite a bit due to the cutie marks. It fills me with so much joy to see how happy my subjects are. They talk about their cutie mark, what it means and it helps them organize much better. By now, we do not even need the help of every last pony anymore. Some of our subjects have started looking for ways to live out their professions in public service. I heard they are planning an excavation on a mountain not far from here,” Celestia spoke happily.

“I see... um... sister... is there any chance we might... be able to spend some time together?” Luna asked carefully.

“Oh, Luna. You know I am constantly occupied. When do you suppose I would be able to find the time for leisure activities?” the bright demi-goddess asked back.

“Perhaps... you could just give yourself that time... just an hour if even... I... I just miss you, sister...” the Princess of the Night spoke lowly.

“Come on now, Luna. We both are immortal. We have unlimited time. The subjects of Equestria do not. They are more important right now. You will just have to get over the fact that I can not be with you before Equestria has fully recovered, which will be in a few hundred years,” Celestia stated.

“A few hundred... it... it already has been a few hundred since-” Luna started again but got interrupted by her sister.

“Really now, Luna. You have to stop being so selfish. Equestria is suffering! Our subjects are suffering! Do you not think that helping them rise out of their misery is more important than sharing a late night tea together?” Celestia asked sharply.

“I... guess you are right... Forgive me...” the dark demi-goddess apologized lowly.

Princess Celestia sighed lightly in frustration. She wondered if her sister will ever stop asking. Nearly every night, she kept on requesting the same things over and over again.

The Princess of the Sun turned around, aiming to leave and go to her bed chamber.

“Celestia... one last thing,” Luna requested solicited.

“What now, Luna?” her sister replied, a bit harsh and annoyed in tone.

“How... how much time has passed since we created the cutie mark spell?” The dark demi-goddess wondered.

“About fifty years I would say,” Celestia replied.

This answer shocked Luna a bit. But much stronger than shock, she felt a deep sadness filling her heart.

“Fifty years already...” she spoke to herself.

Celestia did not react anymore. She just continued walking, until she was out of Luna’s throne room.

Fifty years had passed since the Princess of the Night had her last conversation with one of the subjects. This conversation just now also was the longest Luna had with her sister in years. Usually, time would feel as if it was passing by with enormous speed to an immortal entity such as her. But everything seems to go so slowly when you are lost in isolation.

In the past years, Celestia spent even more time with the ponies of Equestria and disregarded her sister’s needs further, causing Luna to start losing track of time. By now, the demi-goddess of darkness was about to drown in her loneliness and desperation. With the way everything was developing, it was clear things will only get even worse for her.

It could not go on like this anymore. Princess Luna just couldn’t take it. She had to act, but what could she do? She could hardly likely force anypony to stay awake during the night with her.

If nopony in all of Equestria was willing to stay with her, then she just had to create a pony simply for this purpose, Luna figured. Just one single pony. That would be enough.

Since she obviously could not do this the natural way, because it would damage her reputation as a pure and almighty being and because there simply was no pony that even noticed her, she had to do this the arcane way.

Technically speaking, it could work. Luna knew a couple of ten thousand magic books by heart due to her spending so much time in the archives and of course, she had a lot more highly advanced knowledge of magic than most normal unicorns. But there was a huge difference between creating a tiny glowing spot on a purple sky and creating a fully functional, breathing, living and thinking creature.

Still, it wouldn’t stop her from at least trying. Luna was just too desperate. She felt that, if her situation would not change soon, she wouldn’t even know what to do anymore.

The demi-goddess of darkness made her decision. Tonight, she would get her duties done as quickly as possible and begin her research on how to artificially create a pony.

---

Nearly twelve years later, Princess Luna was finally ready. To maximize her chances, she researched every kind of magic known to ponies. Due to this, she was able to create a unique magic rune, which should lead to the desired result once it was imbued with her magic.

As the sun started to set, Luna woke up. Tonight, it would happen. Tonight, as soon as her sister went to sleep, Luna would seal off her throne room and draw her magic rune on the floor.

The demi-goddess of darkness hadn’t been this excited for a very long time. She put all her hopes into this one, highly complex spell and was absolutely sure it would work. For a while now, she had been wondering how this artificial pony would look like, what race and gender it would become and what she would name it. Ultimately, Luna decided to wait with giving it a name until it actually stood before her.

The princess of the Night left her bed chamber and aimed straight for her throne room. As usual, all servants already retreated to rest. But this time, Luna did not care too much about that. She had plans after all.

As she entered her hall made of dark stone, she saw her sister waiting for her already. As always, they simultaneously used their powers to exchange sun and moon without even greeting each other. It was until afterwards that Celestia tossed in some quick informations while heading back outside.

“The excavation made an interesting discovery. The mountain they were researching is filled with a huge crystal cave system. The excavators ask us for permission to gather them. I think, if we start mining and selling these gemstones, we could bring Equestria back to its former wealth and glory,” she spoke.

“Then we shall grant them permission,” Luna replied.

“You mean you will grant them permission. You have all night to do the paperwork. I need to rest and I expect you to be done at sunrise,” Celestia objected.

Luna did not reply. She just nodded mutely, although her sister wasn’t even looking at her and half out of her throne room. Honestly, she didn’t even care about the fact that, once again, Celestia only saw a way to get rid of extra work in her own sister. This change may have made her delay her plan by maybe an hour, but it did not change her determination.

---

Finally. The last word was written and the orders were complete. Now, Luna could finally do what she had planned for years.

Using her dark magic, she made the large door leading to her chamber close, covered all windows and sealed the whole room to make it soundproof. She figured that this spell might turn out quite noisy.

Now, she let a piece of charcoal lift into the air. Luna trembled in excitement, making it difficult for her to draw the rune on the floor precisely. She had to keep it together. Rune magic was known to be very unforgiving about even tiny mistakes. If she messed this up, the spell could turn out malfunctional.

After ten minutes of carefully drawing each line and double-checking them, the rune was done. It was so huge that it just barely fit into the whole throne room and so complex that a bystander, who was not familiar with rune magic, would mistake it for artwork.

Luna started getting very excited now. In just a few moments, her loneliness would end. Not able to wait any longer, she stepped in front of the rune and closed her eyes. Her horn began to glow in a blue light, followed by a blue beam striking the rune in its center.

Directly after, the lines of the rune started giving off a black fog, quickly rising up and gathering in the center. More and more darkness clustered together at one spot, creating a large, black, rotating sphere that continuously accelerated as it grew.

Luna grinned happily. Everything seemed to work as expected. Since she wished to have a companion during the night, she needed to use her darkness and dark powers to create a nocturnal pony. In just a few moments, the sphere should start forming legs, a neck, a head and a tail.

But suddenly, the spell ended. The stream of darkness coming out of the rune aborted and the black sphere stopped rotating, just levitating in the center of the room.

Luna was shocked. This was not supposed to happen. Did she make a mistake? Was there an error in her calculation? Or did she really mess up the rune somewhere?

The demi-goddess of darkness checked the rune very carefully and made some recalculations. No. Everything was perfect. Everything was supposed to run smoothly. There was no reason why the spell failed.

Luna’s glance wandered to the levitating ball of concentrated darkness in the center of her room. For some reason, she couldn’t help but feel sorry. This dark ball was supposed to become a pony, her pony. The most literal child Luna could get. Now that the spell failed, this sphere rather seemed like an aborted fetus to her. A thought that brought her close to grief.

The princess of the Night dropped her gaze to the floor. She was so sure this spell would work. This was her last resort to ever find a way out of this loneliness. She now had no idea what to do anymore.

“Why...” she started speaking to herself. “Why must everypony ignore me? Why must they all shun the darkness? What have I ever done to deserve this?”

Luna closed her eyes. The memories of several hundred years ago came back to her. Oh how much the ponies had cheered for her after Celestia and she had defeated Discord. Oh how much they adored and praised her. But these times went by very quickly. Just ten years later, the ponies started to avoid the night. After sixty years, they began to focus way more on her sister. A hundred years later, Luna already became reduced to the secretary of Celestia. Everything just got worse and worse.

“All I long for is company. Why is it that this is asked too much for? Why can I not experience the same happiness everypony else has?” Luna asked herself loudly.

Her expression slipped more and more into one of desperation and sorrow. But on the inside, a different feeling ignited: Anger.

She was angry at the subjects of Equestria for disregarding her. She was angry at her sister for ignoring her desperation and mendicancy. If only there was a way to make them pay and see what they all had done to her.

“Damn them! Damn these ponies! Damned be my sister!” Luna shouted.

As soon as she finished speaking, she stomped hard on the ground in frustration and desperation. As her hoof hit the magic rune, it reacted violently. The black charcoal lines suddenly turned red and sent strong red beams into the black levitating sphere. A split of a second later, it too turned red, followed by a massive explosion of red darkness.

---

After Princess Luna regained consciousness, she realized that the rune, the sphere and the red darkness were gone. It was as if they had just vanished. Or was this all a dream? Did they ever even exist?

“Good evening”

The unfamiliar female voice brought Luna out of her thoughts and caused her to get up, pose royally and look around in confusion.

“Who is there?” she spoke in the royal tone, expecting a pony to be somewhere.

“I do not have a name,” the voice replied.

Luna failed to determine the source of the voice. It sounded like it came from everywhere.

“Stop hiding, child! Step forth!” she demanded.

“I can’t. And I am not one of your subjects, Luna,” the voice replied.

This confused the dark demi-goddess even more. What did she mean by she can’t? How is she not a subject of Equestria?

Suddenly, an idea shot through Luna’s head. Could it be? Could the spell have worked after all?

“Are you... have I created you?” Luna asked in normal volume.

“Yes,” the voice replied.

Luna gasped a bit and started smiling widely with open mouth, tears of happiness filling her eyes. She did it! She created an artificial pony! Now, she would never have to be alone again!

“Oh my! I can not believe it! Where are you? Please, do not be afraid! Show yourself to me!” Luna requested happily.

“I can’t, as I already said. I do not have a body,” the voice answered.

“W... what do you mean you have no body?” the princess of the Night wondered.

“I do not have a body. Not even a soul. I am inside you. Your mind, to be exact,” the voice replied.

The happy expression on Luna’s face vanished and became replaced by one of stun and bewilderment.

“Inside my mind?” Luna asked again.

“Yes. I need you to survive. Since I do not have a soul, I need yours to exist,” the voice explained.

“If you have no body and no soul, then what are you?” Luna asked.

“There is no description for what I am, since you just created me,” the voice replied.

“Well in that case, we should first try to determine what you are. You seem to be sentinent and rather intelligent. Please, try to describe what you are as well as you can,” Luna requested.

“The closest thing I can be compared with is a spirit, although even that does not fit very well. I was created from the deepest depths of your mind. Your most secret wishes and desires. I exist, but can hardly be called a living being,” the voice described.

“Hm... a spirit... a creature created from the depths of my mind... how would the subjects of Equestria name such a being... Let’s see. ‘Manis’ mean ‘spirit’ or ‘ghost’ in their language. ‘De’ means ‘down’ or ‘below’, as in from somewhere deep. Putting it together the way they speak... that would make you a... de manis,” Luna inferred.

“So this is what you wish to name what I am?” the voice asked.

“Yes. It sounds the most fitting,” the demi-goddess of darkness replied.

“Then I shall be known as the de manis from now on,” the voice agreed.

Luna smiled again. Although this was not exactly what she had planned, she still got what she wanted. The princess of the Night was no longer alone.

“And what shall my name be?” the voice wondered.

“Hm... you are a pretty mysterious being. Your voice also sounds pretty strong and dark. Maybe something powerful and fierce, possibly even spooky would be suiting you. Let me think for a moment...” Luna spoke.

While thinking, she slowly went over to her throne and sat back down on it. Several seconds later, she made a suggestion.

“What do you think about Nightmare Moon?” Luna wondered.

“If you think it will fit me, then this shall be my name,” the voice replied.

“I think it is great!” Luna explained.

“Then it is decided. From now on, I am Nightmare Moon, the de manis,” the voice agreed.

The princess of the Night closed her eyes and smiled widely. Although she could not see Nightmare Moon or be with her in any physical way, Luna still had a companion now. The hundreds of years of isolation had come to an end.

“What do you wish to do, Luna?” Nightmare Moon asked.

“Talk. I just want to talk with you. Nothing more. I haven’t been able to speak with any creature for such a long time,” Luna requested.

“Then we shall talk,” Nightmare Moon agreed.

From this night forth, the demi-goddess of darkness and the de manis kept on having prolonged conversations. To Luna, everything seemed to be fine now. But the opposite was true.

This was just the starting shot for a new era of horror and series of unimaginable catastrophes.