Special thanks to Reasons Lost taking time to edit this chapter for me. Without your eye and advice I would have published with the same mistakes I (embarrassingly) always make and Celestia would be way out of character.
Special thanks also to REVOLuTiontte En Casca for helping me with the flow and introduction to the "villain." Much appreciated.
My first attempt at fan fiction. If this seems a little short it is because I need a good anchor for my story. Other Chapters will be longer. This was actually pretty fun to write.
Chapter 1: A Deal With the Devil
It was twilight when he showed up at Canterlot Castle. All was normal, Celestia was sitting in her throne room winding up the day, and Luna was in the library feverishly going through various books. She had taken up spending her days in the library going over myths and legends. Luna was clearly looking for something in the old ponylore. Celestia had once pointed out to her younger sister that these stories were old mares tales, to which Luna replied, "So was the mare in the moon if I am not mistaken." Celestia decided to leave Luna to her books after that. She was taking her duty ruling the night very seriously. All was peaceful in Equestria, until he showed up.
Nobody saw him arrive and the guards still to this day swear he just materialized at the end of the great hallway leading up to the throne room. He walked up to the guard and claimed he had an appointment with the princess. He was cloaked and the guard could not see who (or even what) he was. He was told to come back the following day, partly because the princess had no appointments after four o'clock, and partly because this strange visitor seemed off. He was very adamant that he do see the princess right away. Eventually the guard gave in and let the visitor into the throne room.
Celestia had just taken down the sun when he barged in. She had never seen this visitor before. Something was queer about him. It unnerved her, but she remained polite regardless. "I'm sorry, but I have no more appointments today. Maybe you can come back tomorrow. The guard should not have even let you in."
The visitor did not remove his cloak when he spoke. His voice hissed with every syllable in a snakelike fashion. This visitor was clearly not making a friendly visit. "My apologies Princess Celestia. I am so sorry to barge in on you like this. I do in fact have an appointment, an appointment with your sister. If you would be so kind as to inform her of my arrival..."
"Luna isn't here right now," Celestia told him calmly. "She is off bringing in the night. There is no way she could have any appointments right now. I'm sorry, but you can come back later."
Just then Luna came trotting into the throne room, unaware that her topic of study was standing in that very room. "Alright sis, I'm off. See you tomor-" Luna cut off when she caught sight of her appointment. Luna immediately started shaking in dread. "No. Not you, not now."
"I have come to collect on your side of our deal," the visitor began, "you do remember our deal, right Nightmare Moon?" Luna flinched at the mention of her other name. The visitor removed his hood, revealing his horn. He had a dark coat, a crimson mane, and dark soulless voids where the eyes should be. The eyes had clearly seen such evil; jaded to the point where the cruelty and suffering they had witnessed reflects out of the gloss formed by staring into them. Celestia had to look away after only a few seconds. The length of his horn did not suggest that they were talking to a unicorn. The mysterious visitor was an alicorn, and alicorns could be very dangerous.
"I remember," Luna softly whispered, "but I thought the deal was invalid. Otherwise why wait this long to collect?" Luna knew something, this alicorn knew something, and Celestia had no idea what it was. Luna had kept Celestia completely in the dark about any deals she may have made with anypony. Somehow Celestia knew that the harmony in Equestria was under attack right here before her eyes, and she was powerless.
"Now hold on, what deal is this? What is going on, Luna?" Celestia asked, not being able to stay silent any longer. She had to say something. She hated feeling powerless, out of the loop. It reminded her too much of seeing her sister descend into madness. Luna wouldn't even look her sister in the eye and the alicorn wasn't betraying anything to Celestia that might hint as to what was going on.
"Remember how I escaped the moon?" Luna began slowly. "That was a really strong binding spell you cast. There is no way I could have escaped alone. So-"
"-she made a deal with me. I would help her in exchange for something I want," the alicorn finished. He seemed quite pleased with himself. "She made a deal with the devil. Now I want what's mine. My children of the night must now be allowed to walk in Equestria, doing as they please. Sounds like fun doesn't it?" The alicorn started laughing. "Well, it won't be as much fun now as it is no longer night eternal thanks to your damn student, Celestia. Who the hell does Twilight Sparkle think she is, ruining the night for me and my children?"
"Twilight Sparkle was acting entirely under my orders. If you have a problem with her actions, discuss it with me, but leave her out of this. She is just a filly," Celestia defended. "Who are you anyways, who sent you? Was it Discord?" Celestia asked calmly with her panic rising inside. The implications of her theories were catastrophic. "Where you sent by some lord of Tartarus?" The alicorn didn't answer. "Luna, do you care to tell me who this is?" Luna still wouldn't look her sister in the eye.
"Sis, he told you who he was," Luna replied softly. "He told you when he said who the deal was with. I'm sorry, but this isn't Discord, or a lord from Tartarus. That would make things easy. I'm afraid it is worse than both combined."
Celestia took a moment to think this one through. Whom can be worse than Discord and a lord of Tartarus, she thought. Lets see, he said the deal was with the devil. Deal with the devil. Celestia froze. She knew who this was. It can't be! Celestia took another look at the stranger, then Luna, then said, "Beelzehoof, you make a deal with Beelzhoof. Luna, my sister, made a deal with Beelzehoof, who now stands before me demanding he get his payment. How could you be so stupid!?" Celestia could not help herself from yelling at her younger sister. The recklessness of her actions was astronomical.
Luna went over to Celestia and meekly said "I am sorry sis." That wasn't going to cut it.
"You made a deal with Beelzehoof, and all you can say to me is 'sorry sis.' 'Sorry sis' doesn't cut it when you have caused a major crisis for Equestria. Your immaturity little sister, may have doomed us all."
"I will fix this. Trust me" Luna pleaded
"No, you have done enough. Let me fix your mess, again little sister." Celestia rather angrily replied.
"Just shut up!" Luna screamed at Celestia. "Both of us are thousands of years old, yet you treat me still like a little filly who doesn't have the wisdom to make her own choices. You want to know why I was always in the library studying ancient ponylore? The answer is right in front of you. I had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but now it has. Right now I am the only one who has any clue whatsoever on how to fix this. So just shut the fuck up and let me!" Luna was clearly holding nothing back. Clearly this was built up and just then getting released. Celestia recognized her sister was right and decided to let her fix this mess.
"Ok, fix this Luna. You have one chance to prove to me you can." Celestia surrendered reluctantly.
Luna turned to face Beelzehoof, who seemed to enjoy watching their little spat. "Our contract was that you would only try to collect after two conditions are met. The first condition was that I was in control of the night once more, the second was that I banished the sun and night was eternal.
"That was our deal. Good to see you remembered it, Nightmare Moon. Do you see any reason to deny me what's mine?" Beelzehoof asked.
Much to the surprise of Celestia (and apparently Beelzehoof based on his reaction) Luna replied, "Yes, in fact I do." Celestia was about to tell Luna to shut up, she blew her chance when Luna shot her a look that said relax, I got this. This is all part of the plan. "Only half the requirements are met. I am in control, but the night is not eternal. Therefore our deal must be amended. Since you want to collect on half, I can pick another half of the deal that must be followed through. You can have your children walk in Equestria, but only at night, of course. I want to add to the deal a requirement which dictates when they must leave. Do as you wish, but if the Elements of Harmony survive you and your children, then you must return everything to its original state and leave Equestria."
"What makes you think I agree. Your sister is right, you are a fool Nightmare Moon." Beelzehoof jeered. But Luna just shook her head.
"We bound our agreement in blood-"
Celestia couldn't stay quiet through this piece of information. "YOU WHAT! not only did you make a deal with the devil, but you BOUND IT IN BLOOD!" Luna pretended Celestia hadn't said anything and continued.
"-and the weight of the agreement must be equal to the weight agreed in blood or we both should die. In my research I first looked into how these agreements work. You can get less than what we bled upon so long as I consent. Well, I do not consent, for that would make me a fool. You make a mistake coming here, counting on my ignorance. My terms are as stated. Do you see any reason to deny me what is mine?"
"Luna..." Celestia was unable to say anything out of awe for her sister. She understood the plan. Luna was a force to be reckoned with. In her deal with the devil, she was winning.
Beelzehoof was not happy with this development. However, there was nothing he could do in spite of it. "I... agree to your terms. Should the Elements of Harmony survive I will pack my bags and leave erasing this whole ordeal. Everything. This should be fun, actually; gives me a project. I think I will start here, with you two."
Beelzehoof horn started to glow a sinister red. Energy then shot out of it hitting both Celestia and Luna. Luna felt a strange tingle all around her when the energy hit. It only lasted what seemed like a few seconds. After it stopped Luna turned to face Beelzehoof who was standing in front of a window. His back was to both of them. Strangely it was night out.
"I hope you don't mind," he began with his back still turned, "but I changed to night for you tonight. Think of it as an act of good faith. This will be fun indeed." Luna turned look at her sister for reassurance, but was shocked at what she saw. Celestia was just getting up from getting hit with Beelzehoof's magic. Clearly it wasn't a stun spell Beelzehoof cast on them. Her sister was bigger and menacing looking. She seemed to be lightly plated in gold. To Luna, Celestia looked like her equal to Nightmare Moon. No, Luna looked at her reflection in the window and sure enough she was in Nightmare Moon's body once more. There was something more Luna noted. She had long predatory fangs protruding from her mouth, not quite unlike the Changlings. Celestia had them too.
"I need to go warn Twilight," Celestia decreed still oblivious to her new form. Celestia ran through the open window and immediately fell to the ground in agony. "L-luna... hel-p m-me. It-t hurts!" Luna raced over to her sister and pulled her inside. Celestia recovered only after half a minute. She stood up and faced Beelzehoof. "What the hell did you do?!" In doing so Celestia caught her reflection. "N-no, no no NO NO NO!" She fell to the ground weeping. "This isn't happening. This isn't happening. No no no." Luna went over to try and comfort her sister. Luna knew that this was hard for her older sister, who was used to being at least a little bit in control. This was the first time Celestia was in a situation where she had no control.
Beelzehoof just laughed."Oh how the mighty have fallen. Look at you, Celestia. That is no way to behave. You're supposed to be strong, wise and in control. If this is all it took to strip that from you then this will be fun indeed." Luna shot him a dirty look."I guess I do owe you the knowledge of what I did. I won't explain everything as that would spoil the fun, but I can tell you this. Celestia, the reason that you feel so weak is that you are now deathly allergic to moonlight. More I won't say."
"What about me?" Luna asked desperately. This development caught her completely by surprise. He hadn't expected Beelzehoof to do something like this. Clearly her victory was short lived.
"You're a smart filly, you figure it out." Beelzehoof replied. "Now if you ladies with excuse me, I have some mischief to cause." with that Beelzehoof vanished as quickly as he appeared.
"Luna..." Celestia said softly. Luna wasn't paying attention. Suddenly she understood what Beelzehoof did to her.
"Sunlight. I am allergic to your sunlight. Makes sense when you think about it." Luna said absently.
"Luna, you need to go warn Twilight. Now." Celestia said calmly with deep traces of fear.
Luna caught what her sister said. "I know. Once again Equestria's fate lies with her and her friends. I just hope she is strong enough. Stronger than me." Luna said shamefully. Celestia didn't say anything. Nothing she could have said would comfort Luna now. Without saying anything Luna took off out the window for Ponyville.
God speed little sister. Celestia thought silently. After that she started getting strangely hungry.
This concludes the first chapter in this story. If Celestia seemed a little out of character, i am sorry. What I was going for was portraying Celestia, who always seems to bee somewhat in control in any situation, suddenly involved in a situation where she has no control. Also if anyone is wondering where the name Beelzehoof came from in my mind, the story is simple. I was trying to think of a name for the demon pony while listening to Bohemian Rhapsody. I heard the lyric, "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me," and decided then to go with Beelzehoof. Why not eh?
Anywho, in the next chapter Luna meets up with the mane six informing them of the situation, Celestia and Luna figure out what more there is to Beelzehoof's curse.
My computer is being wierd, so it may take a while.
Peace out, and remember;
Bronies before ponies