The Two Sides of Luna

It was the day of Nightmare Night and everypony was busily preparing for the celebration. Fillies tried on their costumes, mares and colts prepared candy and sweets for the little ones. The whole Equestria was livelier than ever and everypony was looking forward to the celebration. However, there was one pony that was anything but happy.

"Why? Why can't I go? I was looking forward to this day for the whole year!" The royal blue pony stomped her hooves in frustration as she shouted on her bigger sister.
"I said you can't go and that's final."
"Who are you to give me orders?" Luna screamed in frustration.
"I am your bigger sister," Celestia shouted with a frown on her face, "and you will listen to me. Trust me when I tell you it's for your own good."
With those words, the white pony marched out of Luna's room and slammed the door shut.
The little sister felt how Celestia locked the door with her magic. She tried to unlock them but she was fully aware that her own power is weaker than Celestia's.

"Stupid Celestia." Luna murmured, sitting on her bed. She grabbed a plushie and threw it at a wall in anger.
"Stupid Celestia!"
One after another, Luna furiously hurled her plushies all over her room. She stretched her hoof behind herself to take another plushie when she suddenly touched something hard. She quickly turned around and saw that she was touching a book. She picked it up and read the title: 'Complex Spells for Beginners'.
Luna stared at the title for some time and wondered: "How did you get here?"
Of course, she didn't expect any response from the book but it still puzzled here. She was sure that such a book wasn't in her library. She thought it over several times and finally reached a conclusion. She thought Celestia must have forgotten the book here from one of her lectures in magic she did for Luna. Out of boredom, the navy blue pony flipped the pages when suddenly, something caught her attention. It was the title of one page that sparked her interest. She stared at the page as if transfixed and a huge smile slowly spread on her face. The page read: 'Teleportation spell – 5 meters'

"I can do this!" Luna screamed gleefully.
Five meters was just enough for her to teleport to the garden outside her window. But before she can do the spell, she has to make some precautions. The little pony went to her desk and wrote a quick letter in which she explained her situation to Celestia. She hoped it will be possible for her to return before Celestia finds out she is missing but she didn't want to take any chances. After placing the letter in front of the door so it would be visible to anypony who opened them, she dug through her wardrobe and pulled out an old cloak.
"Perfect. This will make it more difficult for ponies in Canterlot to recognize me."

The young pony carefully read the instructions and then focused all her magic on the spell. It was extremely hard spell and she has never tried anything of such level before. She was trembling from the effort and had big trouble staying concentrated. Fortunately, she managed to stay focused enough and soon, she felt her hooves lift off the ground just for a split second before landing again. She stopped channeling her magic and opened her eyes. A light breeze stroked her mane and she heard the chirping of the birds. Luna realized she was standing in the garden, exactly at the place she wanted to teleport to.
"Yes! It worked! It-" Suddenly realizing that Celestia might hear her if she shouts, Luna quickly cut off her celebration.

The princess of the night quickly made her way over to the stables. She knew that her two personal guards won't betray her by telling Celestia. She boarded the wagon and told the strong stallions to take her to Ponyville. Without any questions, the two ponies ran out of the stables and with one gracious leap, took off into sky. Luna sat back calmly and looked at the skies.
"The stars… they're so beautiful… And the moon, shining so brightly. Oh the beautiful full moon."
While thinking about the beauty of the night sky, Luna slowly drifted off to sleep.
Luna woke up when she realized her name is being called. It was one of her guards.
"Princess Luna, we are nearing Ponyville."
She rubbed her eyes and yawned. It was a nice short sleep but she felt different. She couldn't fully understand it but she felt like she wasn't really herself.

Finally, they arrived above Ponyville. Luna didn't wait for the stallions to land and she jumped out of the wagon, landing directly in the middle of a crowd. Every pony around her gasped as she landed.
The princess smirked and threw her head back, causing her cape to fall on her back. Upon seeing her, everypony immediately fell on their knees. That's right, thought Luna, your princess has arrived.

A lot of things happened and Luna was having a great time at the celebration. She just zapped Rainbow Dash who was trying to zap Twilight Sparkle and they were all having a good laugh about it. Suddenly, Spike fell over to the ground with a loud thud. Twilight became alarmed and ran over to the baby dragon to check on him but let out a sigh of relief when she found out that he was only sleeping.
"Well, I guess it is already quite late. Most of the ponies have already gone to sleep. We should go too." Twilight announced, instantly noticing the look of sadness cross the Princess's face.
"Luna, if you want, you can sleep over at my place. After all, it's a long way back to Canterlot."
"That would be wonderful, Twilight Sparkle," Luna said as her face brightened in a flash.
With the royal pony's agreement, Twilight picked up Spike and they all went to the library. Twilight was always ready to have a guest so there was no problem with getting a bed. Twilight put Spike in his little bed, helped Luna prepare hers and bid good night to her before going to sleep herself.

The next morning, Luna woke up startled. She looked around herself in panic. She had no idea what was going on. The last thing she remembered was how she went to sleep while looking at the full moon. Suddenly, she heard a rustle from a bed opposite her own. She yelped in surprise and scuttled to the wall, trying to put as much space between herself and the bed. She saw the blanket move around like something was trapped under it and tried to get out. She shook with fear over the unknown creature. She saw the blanket rise and finally, it fell off, revealing its contents. The princess screamed in surprise as she saw Twilight Sparkle. Upon hearing Luna's scream, Twilight quickly snapped out of her slumber and rushed over to the royal pony.
"What's going on Luna? Are you alright?" Twilight put her hoof on Luna's shoulder but the blue pony was visibly startled. And that was when she noticed something.
"Luna? You look… different. Your mane and coat have a lighter color. And what's more, it seems you have… shrunk?"
Luna was too shocked to answer but her mind processed everything Twilight said. She looked at her hooves and her mane. The color seemed the same as usual. And she didn't feel any smaller either. Worst of all, she couldn't remember what happened the last night. She remembered Twilight from the time she freed her from the curse of Nightmare Moon but she hasn't seen her since and it didn't make any sense to her why would she be in Twilight's house. Suddenly, a terrifying realization came to Luna's mind. She feared to ask the question but she knew she had to.
"T-Twilight…" asked Luna, her voice shaking, "Last night… What happened?"
"We had fun!" Twilight announced happily with a smile on her face.
"F-Fun? We had fun?" With each passing second, Luna felt her blood freeze in terror.
"Yeah! We had fun the whole night!"
The blue pony's eyes widened as her worst fears were confirmed.
"We had fun the whole night?"
"Of course! Nightmare Night is celebrated during the night so we had fun the whole night!"
The royal pony relaxed as she remembered that yesterday, it was Nightmare Night. But she still didn't remember anything that happened. However, she knew one thing. No matter what happened, she has to do the one thing she wanted to do from the start.
"Twilight? Do you think it would be possible to gather all the ponies in one place so I can give a speech to them?"
Twilight turned to the princess, a puzzled expression on her face.
"Sure but… what kind of speech do you want to give. You know what? Nevermind that. I think the mayor will be able to gather everyone in no more than two hours. We'll listen to your speech then."
"Thank you Twilight," Said the royal pony, "Thank you."

Everypony was standing in front of the main building and there was a speaker's desk set up on the platform of the building. Excited whispers could be heard throughout the crowd when the mayor went to the desk and cleared her throat. "Fillies and Gentlecolts!" she announced, "I'd like your full attention please. We have a very special guest here in Ponyville, who would like to speak to you all. Please welcome, Princess Luna!"
The mayor made room for Luna to go to the desk as everypony clapped furiously. However, when she went forward, the clapping quickly ceased and was replaced with surprised gasps.
"She's small!"
"What happened to her mane?"
"Didn't she look more menacing yesterday?"
Everypony excitedly shouted over each other and Luna didn't know what to do. Twilight, who was standing next to the mayor saw that the princess was almost in a panic state so she quickly run over to the desk and shouted into the microphone.
"Quiet everypony! Luna has something important to say!"

The power of Twilight's voice was enough to calm the ruckus down and Luna calmed down. She took a deep breath and started speaking.
"Dear citizens of Ponyville. I know you probably don't think well of me and you have every right to do so. As Nightmare Moon, I did some horrible, horrible things that nopony should have gone through. I always regretted my actions but I was unable to express my apology because I had to stay in Canterlot and catch up with 1000 years of history I missed. But now, I can finally do something that I should have done long ago. I have to apologize to you all for the terror you experienced because of me. I'm sorry everypony."

With those words, Luna stepped next to the desk and fell on her knees, bowing down to the whole crowd. The silence of the moment was astounding. And then, as if on a cue, everypony started shouting at once but Luna was unable to recognize the words they were shouting. Suddenly, a thunder sounded throughout the town and bright light filled the platform. When the light disappeared, there was Princess Celestia standing next to Luna. Her face was twisted with displeasure and her voice resounded mightily.
"Luna! How dare you disobey my orders! I told you to stay in Canterlot! I can't even begin to imagine what you did last night!"
The princess of the night cowered before her big sister and tried to voice her protests but Celestia didn't let her.
"You don't remember what happened last night, do you? Do you know why that is? That's because it was full moon on the Nightmare Night. It was the only time of the year when Nightmare Moon in you gets strong enough to partially take over!"
"But I-"
"Don't you understand? There is still a fragment of Nightmare Moon's personality deep inside of you. Who knows what happened last night. You could have gone and abducted some little filly into the Everfree Forest or maybe you hurt somebody. I am very displeased with you, Luna. You're coming with me. You will be punished for your actions."

"No!" A resolute voice was heard over the whole town square. Celestia turned around and saw Twilight Sparkle, glaring fiercely into her eyes.
"What is the meaning of this, Twilight Sparkle?" Celestia was clearly taken aback by Twilight's opposition.
The purple pony made her way in between Luna and Celestia.
"Luna did nothing wrong. She only wanted to have fun on the Nightmare Night."
Celestia was clearly agitated as she almost shouted: "Twilight Sparkle. This is an order from your teacher. Step aside. Luna is coming with me."
Without any doubt and hesitation, Twilight looked directly into the princess' eyes.
"No," she stated calmly, "If you're going to punish Luna, you'll have to punish me as well."
"And me too." Applejack stepped out of the crowd and went to Twilight, joining her in her resistance.
"And you'll have to punish us as well." Pinkie and several of the little ponies climbed on the platform, next to Twilight and Applejack."
One after another, all the ponies started shouting to Celestia that she'd have to punish them as well. Completely forgetting any royal grace, Celestia stared with her mouth agape.
"B-But… Luna… Nightmare Moon… She…"
The shouting of the ponies grew stronger and stronger and Celestia was starting to panic. That was when Twilight went to the speaker's desk.
"Princess Celestia," she said.
After her first words, the noise quickly died down as everypony listened intently.
The pony continued: "You can't punish Luna. She did nothing wrong at all. Just recently, she apologized to us for her actions as Nightmare Moon even when we all know it wasn't her fault and she was in no way in control of her actions. Luna knew it too and yet, she apologized to us all. And she didn't do anything last night either. It's true that she changed. It's true that her mane and coat were of darker color. It's true that she was bigger than now. It's true that her behavior was… rather rude at first. But even as her Nightmare Moon self, Luna was able to change her demeanor, become friends with everypony and have good fun at the celebration."
The royal white pony was dumb-struck over the turn of events. Finally, she let out a sigh.
"I guess…" Celestia said, "I guess I was mistaken. It is now I, who owes an apology. I'm sorry Luna. Will you please forgive me?"
The blue pony princess looked up to her big sister with tears in her eyes.
"Yes. I forgive you sister," she whispered, "I forgive you."

Luna smiled as tears of happiness flowed down her face. She came to Celestia and the two sisters hugged each other as all the ponies broke in a huge cheer. After some time passed, Celestia leaned closer to Luna's ear.
"Let's go home little sister. We have a lot of catching up to do," she whispered.
Luna nodded meekly and Celestia used her magic to call for a chariot. Before they got in, Luna went to the speaker's desk for the last time.
"Thank you everypony," said Luna, her voice trembling with emotions, "Thank you for everything you have done for me."
One of the little ponies ran over to the princess.
"Are you going to visit us again sometime?"
"Of course I will. I will visit you all again soon," said that blue pony, smiling warmly.
The little fillies cheered happily, along with the rest of the crowd.
The two princesses went into their wagon and with one last farewell, took off to Canterlot.