When the Day Met the Night

By Regidar and Art Inspired

In Collaboration with Shortskirtsandexplosions

In the Canterlot Palace, the two alicorn’s sat, gazing through the window at the radiance that shimmered brightly from the Crystal Empire. Lines of spectrum rays danced with the aurora created by the setting sun. While the beams merged together, Luna’s usual scoffing appearance remained unchanged, no smile showed despite the outcome of the recent incident. Celestia slowly turned her body round to face her trusted student. With a simple clearing of the throat, she motioned Twilight to finish her report of her endeavors.

“There was... one thing that stuck out to me in particular,” Twilight reported after the lengthy description. Most of which were things they had done in the empire. “There was... something underneath King Sombra’s Palace... at the bottom of the stairs... ”

Princess Celestia cocked an eyebrow while Luna turned her head to the right, letting her mane flutter by her shoulder. “A door?” the sun princess questioned.

Twilight nodded. “Yes... the door showed us our deepest, darkest fears. Mine was...” Twilight drew in a pained breath of air. “Of you, Celestia.” Tears brimmed Twilight’s eyes. “You claimed I had failed, and there was no need for me to be your student anymore...”

Celestia frowned at the stunning statement, bowed her head and returned her gaze to the distressed mare. With her hoof raised, she grasped the teary pupil. Holding her closely to comfort the worked up pupil, Celestia assured her she’d never expel her, regardless of what she would do. While her sister cared for the disciple, Luna speculated on this matter. For all her life, The Princess of the Night assumed her biggest phobia was being sent to the crescent moon due to overly misbehaving. She stared at the two mares, judging the door would be somewhat enjoyable to investigate.

Her slight smile spread slowly across her mouth as she thought about how ready she’d be to see that vision. After all, she thought, how could such a thing affect my mental state as I already know what’s to come? I can see it now. I’ll quaintly walk in, observe myself being sent to the moon by my sister and by the end of this little experience, I’ll be back in front of the door.

Celestia, soon after, informed Twilight of her success and allowed the young student to meet her friends in the courtyard. The two princesses stood in the throne room, perplexed by the long, delirious wait. Both were thinking about that door, what it might hold beyond; what it could possibly reveal about them. In the past as well the present, Luna believed, that she understood her fears, but she’d yet to learn an important lesson: No such individual is allowed to choose their fears in life.

She’d seen beyond her selfish desires of attention and opened her heart to the light, while still remaining lost in the darkness of the blackest nights. In time, very soon in fact, she would learn more than she could’ve ever possibly hoped for. Nopony wishes to learn what scares them the most, but at the same time, it’s not that simple to ponder it. She had thought about the simplicity of her fears, and the fact that she had been traumatized by the one thousand years of being trapped on the lunar surface. Little did this alicorn know of something much more devastating than simply captivity?

Along with twenty prestigious Canterlot Guards, the royal sisters ventured to the Crystal Empire hoping to not only examine the door, but to hopefully rid the land of their concern for the safety of others. Walking towards the shimmering throne, Luna stared at the seemingly endless abyss, counting every stair step. Celestia gulped her frustrated thoughts away and took lead, while Luna followed, still shaken by the possible, far fall.

“Now, remember Luna,” Celestia said calmly, lighting the way with her enchantment, “I’m not going to look in, as I’ve no such desire to see what that cursed door may show. You, however...” Celestia looked at her sister with her soft, pink eyes. “You are free to do as you choose.”

“We understand, fair sister,” Luna said in a calm and dignified voice.  “As we are the one acquainted with darkness, we are more prepared to deal with fear.”

“I knew that you would be of mind,” Celestia said, though her voice was distant, like dull bells ringing higher and higher up the shaft.

Luna trotted ahead of her sibling, descending to the bottom of the stony abyss.  When she reached the frame, her trotting hooves shuffled to a slow stop.  She stared at the gnarled rectangular entrance, observing its corners and mahogany hinges.  It appeared just like any other door, but in a place that steep within the bowels of the tower, she knew not what it would ultimately lead to.

“We believe it is stationary enough for us to approach, sister,” Luna said, though she was given no response.  Accompanied solely by the sound of her breaths, she approached the entrance to the other realm, the gate to her subconscious. With grim determination, her magic grasped the handle, and she opened the door.

The light was blinding. With a burst of color, she was no longer in the dark cylindrical

Chasm ringed with stairs. Instead, she was in a large room fairly reminiscent of the new Canterlot Palace. But this one was in ruins. The windows were shattered, the walls collapsed in the distance and a huge hole torn straight through the side of the east frame.

“Hello? Are thou anypony there?” No sound escaped but the faint whistles of winds scratching against the glass and deteriorating blocks of stone above her worried head. The princess speculated on why she wasn’t on the moon, but soon, her mind would be wrapped around other matters.

“L-Luna... Is that... y-you...?”

Celestia’s wounded voice came from the throne where curtains and other once shimmering fabrics hung high on the now destroyed ceiling.  Luna spun around. “Sister? Art thou injured?”

As the cloth was thrown off of Celestia’s body, her sister stopped and stared. Some trickles of blood seeped through her chest and fur. Her mane was tangled with blotches of dirt between locks. Her eyes had been blackened with battle fatigue as well. She just gazed at the evening mare with spiteful eyes and muttered, “Y-You... were never... to be trusted!” As she rose slowly and painfully, her sister backed away, almost tripping over some mounds of dirt behind her. “I should’ve known... y-you’d turn and try to... d-do this to me again.”

The closer she approached, the more Luna forgot it was all a fantasia in her mind. “Sister, we do not understand what thou are preaching.”

All Celestia did was grow more and more hateful. Her eyes filled with rage, and as she collapsed, Luna felt her frame act on its own. Wrapping her hooves around the obviously dying mare, Luna pleads with a scratchy voice and tears now cascading down her face, “Please, sister, tell me what became of us! What happened to me? We must know!”

The only thing that was uttered from her last breath, the same that came with fate’s gripping claws was a scorning, “You will n-never be... f-forgiven.”

As the white, hazy eyes closed, Celestia’s mangled body went limp. Tears dripped upon her fur like snow on a winter’s day ground. Serenely, Luna gulped and buried her head into her sister’s chest, crying her poor eyes out. Pain coursed through her body worse than ever before. She couldn’t have been any less prepared for this outcome. As ruins in the background crumpled and fell to the corrupt, tainted land, Luna could be seen plainly, holding her deceased kin tightly, almost smothering herself in the ruffled hairs. Tears sorely escaped along with shivers. Her wings wrapped and coiled themselves around Celestia, comforting the mare while their owner walloped. Just as she was about to scream, she returned and awoke from the nightmare the door forced upon her.

Back in the dark depths of the chasm, Celestia stood looking down at the sobbing mare with a worried look. “Luna, are you alright?” she asked with a sweet, sisterly voice. “I thought you were prepared for this? What did you see?”

Luna leaped onto her sister, forcing her to collapse onto the cold, rough flagstone. Celestia shook her head and pondered what came over her. Once again, this time in reality, Luna’s salty tears fell reluctantly. While the princess explained what happened, Celestia just nodded off and gazed at the menacing door. She understood full heartedly it was a thing of sheer evil, and proceeded to destroy it.

While Luna wept on the floor, Celestia sent a radiant beam of magic into the opening, sealing away the frightful form of darkness for good.

“Sister... What did you see?”

Luna merely sobbed on the floor, unable to control the flood of tears cascading from her azure eyes. Celestia looked down in pure empathy for her younger sister. She could only imagine the traumatizing horrors that had befallen her beyond the doorway.

“Was I there?” Luna nodded, her tears having stopped, but her cheeks remained shimmering with water. “I...” Celestia stopped for a moment, her single word echoing endlessly in the chasm’s space. “Did I... banish you again?”

The distraught mare still lay on the flagstone, soft whimpers escaping her lips. Celestia leaned down, and brought her hoof to Luna’s damp cheek. The nighttime sister cringed at the touch, and closed her eyes, causing more of the moisture to slightly splash into the air.

“No...” She whispered painfully. “We had betrayed you.”

The alicorn of day was taken aback by this. “You had... what?! How?”

“It didn’t show...” Luna’s voice trailed off slightly. Finding her voice again, she picked back up. “The palace was in ruins, the stained glass holding the History of Harmony... it was all shattered... and thou lay battered and betrayed, cursing me with your final breath.”

Celestia didn’t know how to respond to this. She simply stared down at her sister, becoming enticed in her mane, letting her thoughts wander. What could have Luna possibly done to betray her, even in the figment of her own imagination? Plenty, of course. Celestia knew of many possible outcomes Luna would fulfill, but none had occurred. She was sure her sister would never again stoop to such levels of corruption.

Celestia leaned forward, and held her sister tightly. Their two manes intertwined, and their fur brushed softly against one another's. The soft noon-white coat combined leisurely with the midnight blue.

“We would never do such a thing, sister,” the midnight matriarch breathed softly to the solar princess.

“We-... I know, Luna.” The two broke their embrace, and stared silently at one another for a few moments before Celestia turned her head to look upward.

“What do you think we should do with the crystal palace?”

Luna sniffled a bit, and looked around. “It is, quite a glorious estate. However, we

personally think it would be best to let the crystal ponies harbor an election or some other form of decision to choose who would own it.”

Celestia smiled. “I think that’s a wonderful idea, Luna.”

Luna felt the smile grace her presence. The feeling it bestowed upon her was one of utmost warmth. Her sister rarely grinned at her anymore, and had seemed cross with her for the past two weeks. This smile, however, struck a spark of hope. The two alicorn’s didn’t need to speak anymore. They both extended their wings, and shot up the shaft. Aligning with the floor of the Crystal Palace, where two ponies were seeking to gain entrance, Lune looked down, replaying the memories in her mind that remained fresh and repetitive.

“I told you, they won’t even blink, but you can’t go past them!” the one on the left said, in reference to the royal guards.

The one on the right muttered to herself, “It’s kinda creepy... Anyway, we want to get in! We’re holding democratic elections in about an hour’s time, and we need to make sure it’s ready for our new president! Also, we might have to change our title to the ‘Crystal Republic...”

“Don’t get ahead of yourselves yet, my little ponies,” Celestia said to the crystal mares. “We’ve yet to discuss if the empire will be annexed by Equestria. To help you back up to your hooves and to get you accustomed to Equestria proper.”

Luna turned to the royal guards. “Art thou prepared to return to Equestria?”

The two present guards nodded their heads in accent, and trotted swiftly to the carriage where the other eighteen awaited. The alicorn rulers of Equestria followed soon behind, and embarked upon their journey back.

As the cold airs of the north whipped through the manes of the sisters, Luna glanced up at the sky. As she noticed Celestia concentrating on letting the sun fall down into the surface of far off lands, the rays of bright light danced vigorously in waves while enhancing the clouds to form pink pigmentations. Light blue formed into silhouette night as the last beaning lines of illumination vanished, and was slowly but surely replaced by a dense, lazy fog.

Luna stared in wonder at it. Long over a thousand long years ago, she had been in the north as a filly. She had once, many years ago, seen this sight. It had entertained her mind as she existed in ethereal form on the moon.

“Aurora Borealis...” Luna’s eyes were filled with the glowing beauty as the royal carriage was pulled across the sky. The natural wonder made the night all the more beautiful, even though it still felt dark.

“Forgetting something?” Celestia asked with giggles. Luna stared confused for a moment, then cursed her own forgetfulness. With a grunt of concentration, she pulled the ancient ley lines of her horn to summon upon the astral powers contained in her. The moon began to slowly rise in the east, with the sun not fully set yet. The combined lights of the sun, the moon, and the Aurora created a soft glow of intermixing and wondrous colors.

Celestia turned to her sister and smiled, something which was rarely seen by the lunar controller. “I love you, Luna.”

Luna offered a shining grin back. “We love thou as well, sister.”

All was golden when the day met the night.

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