Luna and Orion stared at each other for a moment, finally realizing how each other's lives might have gone. All the days of mourning for parents who would never return; all the terrifying, lonely nights; all the events missed by older siblings; all the anger, all the sadness, all the pain.
Everything.
Speaking as if with one voice, Luna and Orion said to each other the only thing that could be said:
"I am so, so very sorry."
A long silence followed, the only sound being the birds outside. At last, Luna came to a realization:
"The danger you were talking about....the nightmares are back, aren't they?"
But they both knew the answer before the question was asked aloud: the Changelings, perhaps the descendants of those who had killed both of their parents, had returned. Now, anypony Luna or Orion knew could possibly be a buglike killer. As if a weight had dropped onto their backs, they sat down all at once. Though, they were no longer facing each other. Instead, they were side by side. A strange shiver ran up Luna's back. In this circumstance, it would be logical to think that it was a shiver of fear. In this case, however, it was one of excitement. Never before had Luna been so close to Orion, literally or emotionally. Gently leaning her head against him, Luna closed her eyes. The terrors played before her eyes as soon as she let them: the faint sense of dread when her parents had left for war, the piercing scream of her sister when she found out that Solstice and Sirius were dead, the emptiness of Midnight Winter's death, the anger at Celestia. The slow rage that burned against Discord when he broke Celestia's heart, the numb terror when the Nightmare appeared. The darkness, the madness, the sadness, the pain.
And then Luna opened her eyes. The terrors of that age were no longer, the failures of herself and other ponies not important. Look at how far she'd come! A sister, a friend, a stallion, and a nation of her own! Orion seemed to be reflecting on his own life, head on top of Luna's own. They could have stayed there forever, as a Princess and a painter, but they both had work to do.
It was time to save their two kingdoms.
YOU ARE READING
After Midnight
FanfictionLuna is home after one thousand years of exile on the moon. She has Celestia, and her old friend, Midnight Winter, by her side. She'll need them, for though she has repented from her deeds as Nightmare Moon, the ponies of Equestria still think of he...
