To some eyes, a few months may seem almost hilariously insignificant compared to a millennium, a tiny blink that flew past, leaving no stain in the ever-flowing river of time. Although to a certain mare, this blink colored her river to a spectrum more marvelous than those millenia could ever create.

It was during times like this Luna toyed with the thought that the moon wasn’t so bad after all, a place of solitude and peace, instead of the endless babbling of the well-groomed, dark coated stallion entangled in discussion with her sister, never giving but a quick glance at the Princess of the Night. Though, that was probably for the best, because that Princess did not know at all what the discussion were about, nor who the stallion was. It could have been a diplomat, discussing the situation with the buffaloes, or even a farmer begging for support after a bad harvest. Luna did not know. She did not care. She felt guilty for that.

The colossal throne room in Canterlot was occupied by ponies from all over both the map and the social ladder. In the magnificent marble hall, a sea of ponies full of awe and love was gazing at her and her sister like the goddesses they presumably were, and one of those goddesses were not caring.

Luna often found her eyes lock on to Celestias smooth face, loosing herself in those eyes that always shoved equal concern, love or pity for all the subjects approaching her. Luna felt her sister throwing all of her immense wisdom into each advise she bestow upon the ponies approaching the immortal alicorns for answers only one of the alicorn would produce, whilst the other-

Immortal. With that thought in her head, Luna felt the entire situation loosing what significance it still held upon her mind. The storm of thought, feelings and emotions rampaging through her head suddenly revealed its eye. Immortality.

Even immortals sometimes pounded over that word. To forever remember all the happiness of your life and knowing that all the future wonders was waiting for you, while at the same time be forever haunted by your sins and forced to watch as the world descend into the darkness created by them.

Luna knew that bitter sweetness well. For a thousand years she had clung to the wonderful memories of her sister and fought to keep her spirits up for the day of their reunion, while at the same time she had been constantly haunted by the nightmare she had created and powerless watched as the day of its release grew closer. Indeed could immortality be both a divine blessing and a demonic curse.

This time, however, it was not those philosophical thoughts that filled Lunas head. It was the feeling of failed friendship that grasped her, and the fear of it clinging to her mind for an eternity.

She had been on her way out of the clustered room if it was not for her sister and her eternal love for her that made her remain seated in the throne, waiting for her sister to finish the time she spent with her beloved subjects. She needed Celestia. Not as a goddess, but as a big sister. And she needed the happy Celestia.

Despite the storms ravaging through her mind had now disappeared, Luna could still not concentrate on the subject a green pegasus worriedly explained.

She had an apology to make, and, more important, she had a thank-you to say.

***
While Rainbow Dash often spent more time napping than cloud-clearing, Twilight could not help but be amazed by the setting she had created; Ponyville basking under Celestias afternoon sun, which rays passed through a sky showing no trace of the gloomy mourning she woke up to. Having decided to spend the day rearranging all the books in the library by genre instead of in alphabetical order when she saw the clouds from her window, this afternoon stroll gave her the first fresh air of the day, letting her free herself from the question if the Hoofhikers Guide to the Galaxy was to be labeled science, comedy or religion.

Even if Dash did a wonderful job in clearing the skies, one could never expect her to afterwards be either napping or training, and as a blue colored thunderbolt sent Twilight diving into the small stream floating through Ponyville she decided that the second was the most probable case this day.

“Oh, hi Twilight. New trick, worked out way better than expected. I mean, did you see that speed? No? Exactly! I was flying to fast for the eye to catch me!”

After pondering if she should ask for a Rainblow-dry, Twilight remembered that her past experiences with it had let to involuntarily visits to Rairity, and while spending some time with another Unicorn was something Twilight appreciated, she decided that she at the moment was in no need of a new dress and therefore canceled out the entire idea of asking for the Rainblow-dry.

Instead, she grabbed the hoof that Dash offered when the cyan pegasus noticed her friends condition in the stream. it didn’t take much encouragement from Twilight to assure Dash that she indeed was unharmed and really enjoyed the autumn dip, and that Dash should continue performing her amazing stunts before the pegasus left Twilight sitting by the edge of the stream, gazed fixed on the graceful maneuvers that the cyan athlete pulled of.

***

It was hard for Luna not to get reminded of her ralation to the puclic bwhen she entered her sisters private chambers. There on the wall above her desk in her study was a great numbers of paper hanged. On these papers were drawings, pictures of varying quality featuring Celestia flying over Canterlot, Celestia raising the sun, just Celestia being Celestia and tons of other motives. When Luna compared the admiration the foals of Equestria had for her sister with she herself only recognized as the horror of Nightmare Night, she could feel the typical shadows of envy creeping over her.

However, remembering the easing sensation of the Elements of Harmony as they had suffocated her burning jealosy, she could focus upon the wielders of said elements and what she owed them and managed to speak out to her sister, who was sitting under the desk by her own paitings.

“Hello Celestia”

All her previous jealousy all but disappeared when she saw the sincere kindness in her sisters eyes as they turned towards the un-anonced visitor.

“Oh, hello Luna, how nice of you to visit me.”

“Thank you sister, I hope that I am not disturbing something important by showing up like this”

Luna answered, feeling doubt entering her mind. Would her sister believe her? Would she allow the former host of a nightmare so close to something she held so dear?

“Oh no Luna, not at all. You know that I have all the time in the world to do these dull chores”

Celestia said and levitated some tax-calculations and law-propositions as she spoke.

The pun made Luna crack a simple smile, and she now felt confident enough to walk up to her sister and begin her plan.

“Celestia, I would like to visit Ponyville”. After seeing her sisters silent response and not beeing able to read a single expression in her face she decided to continue.

“I have business there that needed to be attended to a long time ago.”

Luna started to feel dread as Celestia closed her eyes and remained silent, so she spurteled out

“There is somepony who deserves my thanks, and apologies.”

Luna felt her heart begin to fill with the cold void as she watched her sister process her words with closed eyes. She knew she had failed. Her sister did not believe her. She could not trust her not to be influenced by the nightmare, and in truth, could even Luna know she was not? No she was still a monster, still..
“I am so glad to hear those words for you, Luna”, Celestia said.

The dark void that had begun to cover Lunas vision now gave way to a smile planted under the tear-filled eyes of her sister, a smile beaming of pure happiness.

“Now I know that you are truly free from her grasp, for a horror such as the nightmare would never allow you to perform an act of thankfulness or humiliating yourself by feeling pity and remorse”.

Luna could not hinder tears of joy and relief from sipping from er eyes as she embraced her sister with wing and hoof and for the first time in far more than a thousand years began to believe in the magic of friendship.”

***

Completely consumed by the feeling of the clear autumn air in her lungs, Twilight realized that her slow trot had let her to sugarcube corner. While silently laughing at her own thoughtfulness, she felt the gingerbread building making her hunger promote itself, leading her to the decision of entering the store.

While the bakery first appeared empty, Twilight soon found her face covered in pink, fluffy mane as Pinkie Pie dropped down from the ceiling, landing on top of the unsuspecting mare.

“So THAT was my twitchy-tail, it was I who fell” the party-pony announced, before suddenly leaping to her feat and asking Twilight:

“What are you doing down there? Is it a game? Can I play? Oh! I want to play! Are we treasure hunting? Floor sniffing? NO! We are-”

She was interrupted by Twilight, who, based upon the situation, hid her mixture of rage and laughter very well as she rose up and said:
“Sorry Pinkie, I’m not playing, I simply fell to the floor while on my way to buy some cupcakes.”

“Oh! Cupcakes! I like cupcakes! Do you like cupcakes? Oh, off course you do, you want to buy them, silly me. What kind do you want? Hay? Chocolate? Vanilla? Hot sauce? Blueberry? Cranberry? Noberry?

“Just give me two cupcakes of some kind Pinkie” Twilight said as a smile started to show on her face, clearly shoving the power of the Element of Laughter.

“Oooohhh....” responded Pinkie. “A surprise... Well, I’ll get you the super surprisiest surprise sweet anyone has ever been surprised with!”

With those words, she bent down behind the counter to reappear seconds later with a paper bag revealing the shape of two cupcakes.

“No charge for them” Pinkie answered as Twilight started to search her mane for spare bits. “Just promise you tell me what you think of the new flavour!”

“Thank you, Pinkie, I certainly will.” Twilight responded as she headed to the door, urged home by the compromise of her wanting to try her cupcake now, and her wanting to have Spike try his at the same time.

However, as she closed in on her library home, she started to note a growing gathering of ponies. Worry crept up along her neck as her thoughts went to an accident, but she slowed her sudden gallop as she noticed a Royal Chariot standing outside the tree.

“Ah, how lovely to see you Twilight, you are wanted over there” she heard Rarity's voice say before she locked on to a perfect, purple mane and followed it out to a white, outstretched hoof pointing at the chariot.

Nervously going over all possibly reasons Celestia visiting her unannounced, Twilight felt both sudden chock and a creeping fear as she passed the last pony before the clearing around the chariot, finding herself looking straight at the turquoise eyes of Princess Luna.

***
Amongst the eyes of those staring at her Luna could see expressions of both awe, joy, fear and doubt, but only one pair of eyes was completely blank; those of the purple mare in front of her.

Luna involuntarily felt the expression replicate itself on her face. The world became shaded with grey and she could hear the echo of her own thoughts. The pony in front of her was the target of almost her full jealousy. She was Celestias substitute for HER, she was the pony her sister loved instead of her while she was banished, she was the one that stopped her from claiming her place on Equestrias throne, she-

No. As many times before, Luna took a firm grip around her mind. She was standing in front of the mare willing to risk herself and her friends to help free both Luna and her sister from the Nightmare that haunted them. And Luna needed her help again.

***

Despite subconsciously suspecting that something like this might one day happen, Twilight stood completely paralyzed in front of the dark alicorn while her analytic mind ran a probability calculation on all the possible explanations. The data input was overflowing and her chocked state of mind led her to the explanation that the Princess of the Night was out for vengeance, and that Twilight was a top-candidate on that list. Nightmare Moon hid it well, but now that Twilight knew her intentions, she could see the hatred behind those teal eyes.

She was not fooled by the curl of beautiful, blue mane that covered one of the eyes belonging to the mare standing before her, nor would she fall for the sorrowfull look on her face as she now turned away her gaze and faced the dirt-stepped town square, just as she outwitted her attempt to hide her dark form behind the soft featherded wings that shivered, as well as-

“I.. I’m sorry”

Twilight’s entire logical machinery snapped and the paralysis snapped with it. The real world began fading in again, replacing the chaotic mind-map visualising eternal darkness and unspeakable horrors. In front of her was a tear-filled, teal eye, connected to a midnight-blue alicorn not much bigger than herself, who was hulking on the ground beneath her.

***

Despite that the words she just uttered was an echo of the entire message she wanted to deliver, she felt as if nothing she could have said could have ruined everything more. How could Twilight know what she was sorry for? For something that was about to happen? For Luna being about to kill her and mock her corpse as the last sunset of ponydom occurred?

As the failure was inevitable, she could no longer suppress the tears that formed in her eyes. After endangering the lives of Twilight and her friends, stole their sun and kidnapped the one mare Twilight adored more than anything, she said she was sorry? And was that all she could produce? Not even an “Sorry I almost killed you, Twilight?

She felt the grip she had on her consciousness slip as she collapsed on the ground, now fully crying as she started to feel the could thoughts that now inevitably would haunt her for an eternity.

***

A/N 1:

So, either if you choose to read this first or really survived these pages, here’s the situation:

I have never before written stories of any kind. This is just an idea of TwiLuna shipping that I got when I was about to go to sleep the other day and hastily noted on a piece of paper.

If you happen to be such a loving and tolerant brony after reading this, then I would appreciate any help you could offer in form om writing errors/spelling, grammar, punctuation etc.) because English is not my native language.

Any kind of comment is apriciated, but the thing I think both I and this story need is cold, hard criticism. What do you think of the writing so far, and of the story(may be easier after i update the prologue)? Is it beyond salvation? Do you require me banished and locked up where I am banished?

Finally, if any of you awesome people out there feel like editing/co-writing/whateveryoucallit, then I am more than willing to share with you my plans for the story, because I fear that my artistic talent and creativity is... limited, yeah, lets go with that.

Love and tolerate.

A/N 2:
So, after dodging an F in Chemistry, handing in homework for AI and Machine Learing at 23:55, I was finally able to bring this forth again.

This is just an itty-bitty-super-minor edit on the prologue, adding Lunas reaction, because I felt that that was missing. Now, I do believe that I have a quite large part of the story prepared for being produced, but the fact that spending a weekend at an army camp with a total of 19 hours of sleep during 3 days made me feel that this is not the appropriate moment for doing so, especially considering that my spelling, grammar and artistic talent was pretty bad to begin with.

With that said, my plan for the next step is to enlarge the prologue a bit more, both with continuous story and more fill-in on that I’ve already written, before later getting started with more story(after consulting the web and every book I have(and possibly even my teacher) to see if I am capable of correcting some of the linguistic errors(which I hardly doubt I will be able to, thank’s to the Swedish school-system who apparently thinks that grammar is unnecessary and therefore doesn’t teach it).

As you might have noticed, massive work in progress, lots of errors and a story I am still modifying, but I can’t thank you enough for actually reading it and not banish me to the moon afterwards, because in my world this thing isn’t even half-good. It is people like you who gives the random geniuses out there a chance, and still have enough tolerance for me.