My Twitter: https://twitter.com/KalloSkull

Artwork by 28GoodDays: https://www.deviantart.com/28gooddays/art/Moonrise-828701891

Happy 10th anniversary of MLP:FiM! Although purely a coincidence, somewhat fitting this ended up coming out on this day. :)

Well, here it is. The longest piece of music I've written to date. Will probably remain that way for a while. You know, originally I was never going to do a song based on Nightmare Moon. I just felt like it had been done so many times there was nothing new I could add. But then I saw this picture by 28GoodDays and got inspired. But I knew if I was gonna do a song based on the subject of Luna's turn into Nightmare Moon, it'd have to be something special, for the reasons mentioned above. So it took a lot of time for all the ideas to gather, but ultimately that's how we've now ended up with this 19-minute composition, with 5 different parts. I guess I could go into a bit more detail about each part specifically, and what they represent...

"Skysculptor's Sorrow" is based on Luna's feelings of being in her sister's shadow. Musically, I went for something very light and almost ethereal-feeling, but also somewhat spooky. I wanted to start off with almost like a twisted-sounding version of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata". Which you might guess the title "Moonlight Sororicide" could also be seen as a reference to. Of course, we all know neither sister actually killed one another, but it's meant more in a symbolic context. Towards the end, this section almost has somewhat of a Danny Elfman -style atmosphere to it, I feel. Was never the intention, but I'll take it, heh.
"Descending Mind" is about Luna starting to hatch feelings of resentment towards Celestia, and losing her mind. This was the last part written for the song. Initially there was supposed to be a short organ section at the start of "Usurper of Dawn", but as the song was nearing its completion inside my head, I felt it lacked something. The song is supposed to musically tell the story of Luna's downfall, but it didn't feel fully complete the way it was. So I got inspired by the extremely chaotic organ part in Nobuo Uematsu's "Dancing Mad", decided to do something similar with my own personal twist, and created another entire section for it.
"Usurper of Dawn" is about Luna being taken over by Nightmare Moon. I knew from the start I wanted a choir section in the song. At first I was going for something a bit more heavy-hitting, having been inspired by a choir part in one of the songs of a band called Whispered. What I ultimately ended up with is vastly different though. It ended up being a much darker, almost Luciferian-sounding choir chant. I think it ended up fitting the theme of the song much better, though.
"The Eclipse" is about Celestia and Nightmare Moon's battle. When planning the song, I knew it was going to need to be something more than just a purely orchestral piece. Sure, it was already going to be long, but it needed more to its soundscape. So I decided to go for my first ever heavy metal section in a song, while still maintaining symphonic elements in the background. It's somewhat of a mix between prog-, thrash- and symphonic metal. And what better place in the story to have it than the battle.
"Luna Captivus" is based on the immediate moments following Luna's banishment to the moon. I mostly came up with it on the spot, but the very end was a part I'd had for a while, and was looking for a place to use in a future song. It ended up being more than a perfect way to close off this 19-minute piece.

Thanks for listening (and reading) and I hope you enjoyed! :)