Back near the Midnight's Rising's base, Princess Luna lost control of her magic and her sense of thinking. She struck down Princess Celestia in front of everyone on both sides of the war and the onlookers Discord and Specter, shocking all of them to some degree. Celestia's body lay in the middle of the field, completely limb and unmoving, as Luna flew above her, glaring at her body, contemplating on dishing out more damage to the already defeated leader.
"WE TOLD THOU NOT TO INTERFERE WITH OUR MISSION," Luna bellowed, her voice echoing throughout the plains around her, "BUT THOU DID NOT LISTEN. WITH YOUR DEFEAT, WE HOLD ALL POWER IN THIS REALM! OUR NIGHT IS GOING TO LAST FOREVER!"
Without missing a beat, Luna raised her two front hooves as she used her magic to raise the moon high into the sky. The troops on both sides watched from the ground as the night began taking over the course of the land. Tensions were getting high, rifts were being furthered, and the weather started getting unbearably and noticeably colder.
Using the discordance to their advantage, the windigo spirits circled around once more, snow falling and wind rustling everywhere they went. The soldiers down below started to disperse and seek shelter while Luna transformed further into Nightmare Moon. Even Discord and Specter fled higher, above the windigos and away from the situation they watched unfold.
Luna fought hard to refrain from completing her transformation, but found it extremely difficult to regain control of her magic. Coupled with a piercing pain that originated from her horn, she couldn't help but let the nightmare forces take her over. Screams of pain soon devolved into laughter and evil maliciousness as ponies fled the area quickly.
Touching base with the ground, Luna, now Nightmare Moon, towered over the body of her fallen older sister. She smirked at Celestia's collapsed body and neared her slowly.
"Take a look around you," Nightmare Moon oozed, "you've lost everything. We've won this pitiful war! Ponies across our land will know how weak their leader truly was!"
Using her magic, Nightmare Moon lifted Celestia off of the ground and held her up high, showing her to the fleeing ponies. She used a bit more of the magic to amplify her voice, making it echo throughout the plains once more.
"LOOK AROUND YOU, OUR FELLOW SUBJECTS," Nightmare Moon boomed, "CELESTIA HAS BEEN DEFEATED AND SLAYED! THE UNITED HELIACAL FACTION HAS BEEN DEFEATED AND OUR NIGHT WILL LAST FOREVER!"
Flying closer towards the Midnight's Rising base with Celestia in her grip, Nightmare Moon took Celestia towards the prisoner area and, after tossing her into the cell, locked her up behind bars. Celestia still lay limb, her conscience barely hanging in there. She felt hurt and betrayed, but more so from Luna's corruption rather than her magic attacks. They may have had their disagreements, but Celestia never meant any harm when it came to the fighting, and she passed that knowledge and instinct on to Twilight, teaching her defensive capabilities mostly.
Keeping her eyes closed, all Celestia could do was lay in her cell and think about all the negativity that's gone on over the last couple of weeks for her, with Twilight reportedly having gone missing and the number of increased scuffles with her younger sister. She let out a lengthy sigh and began thinking about any sort of possibilities she could get out and reach out to her former soldiers. As for Nightmare Moon, she slammed the door to the cell shut and left Celestia alone, exiting the holding area and beginning her search for Dusky.
Meanwhile, high up in the clouds, above even the circling windigo spirits, Discord and Specter both sat feeling troubled about the new circumstances that were risen. Specter, disguised as a Pegasus pony at the moment, sat quietly on the cloud, waiting for Discord to speak up first.
Discord, flapping his wings to keep him airborne, wondered just what to do next. He knew that Luna falling to the nightmare forces was a beneficial factor to him, since it provided an all-but-certain end to the United Heliacal faction and Celestia's leadership, but it was also one that complicated things since it now meant that he had to overpower an alicorn that was driven by the full-force of her magic now.
Specter noticed this and, instead of saying anything, opted to sit back and watch Discord contemplate their next move. Specter had a few thoughts himself, but with his ultimate goal to steal power and leadership from Discord, opted to keep those ideas to himself.
"You know, Specter," Discord said after a long, impressive silence, "chaos is truly a wonderful thing…but this seems different than what I had originally intended."
Specter cocked an eyebrow with doubt, "Are you saying that you plan on going back on our mission? The Lord of Chaos himself ousted by a larger than anticipated serving of chaos?"
"Not in the slightest," defended Discord, "but with Celestia out of the picture and Luna becoming Nightmare Moon once again, I'm not sure what we do now. It's as if our next steps fogged up completely now."
"Sounds dismal when you put it that way," Specter responded, "but shouldn't the plan remain the same? With one alicorn out of the picture for now, we could run through Nightmare moon and overthrow her with ease when she's not paying attention."
"While technically true," replied Discord, "you don't know the true nature of Nightmare Moon's newfound power. An alicorn holding back their own power is one thing, but when they don't hold back? That's the scariest thing imaginable. There's a huge difference between being blasted at by a purified alicorn and one that has no boundaries set for themselves."
"And you know this how?" Specter wondered.
"I've told you already," continued Discord, shutting his eyes and lowering his head slightly, "I'm much older than you think. I've been around these two alicorns since before you were even a thought. I've seen just how much they devolved into this unruly mess."
"I see."
Opening his eyes slowly, Discord simply looked down towards the circling windigo spirits. Below them, things were getting colder and more unbearable but, much like Nightmare Moon's current reign, the night was young and there was work that needed to be done. Flying off with Specter, Discord began adjusting his plan slightly, trying his best to come up with something better to throw off Nightmare Moon and steal the power from her somehow.
Back in the chasm, the group was starting to wonder what was going on between the two factions. By now, the moon would have set and the sun would be halfway up in the sky and the morning would have already started. Being the bat ponies that they were, both Noct and Eclipsa didn't mind the extra darkness, but others began to have their own types and levels of concern.
"Something must have happened," Lustrous thought. "Why else would the moon still be that high in the sky?"
"Perhaps the princesses are still sleeping and think everypony should be too," Pinkie Pie chimed happily.
"I'd doubt that," Rainbow Dash replied.
"Rainbow Dash is right," Rarity added, "though both of them typically have risen and set on their own, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have agreed that there needs to be both a day and a night cycle."
"Then why were you fighting for an eternal day?" Astral questioned. "You were part of their faction, so you knew the end results when you fought us."
"The same reason you decided to fight for an eternal night," replied Rarity, "but rather than argue about it, let's let bygones be bygones. We're all here to support our friends in a new kind of lifestyle, are we not?"
A round of agreements went around before anyone spoke up again.
"Plus," said Fluttershy, "we have each other, and that's more than we can ask for right now."
"A clean slate of health would be nice," admitted Rainbow Dash, looking to her broken leg.
"Nothing but a little more waiting on that one," Star smiled. "Healing spells aren't that strong right now. Hopefully, when all is set in stone, I'll be able to study the spells and find one that will be."
"And I'll be right there with you every step of the way," Lunar encouraged, wrapping his good wing around Star's body playfully. "You'll make an old pony proud, I just know it."
"Oh please," Twilight laughed, "you aren't that old, Lunar."
"Nope," Eclipse smirked, "those honors would belong to us." He motioned between Lustrous and himself.
"You're not that old either, Grandpa," Star giggled.
"Real talk, though," Applejack butted in, "ain'ch y'all wonderin' why the moon's still up like that? What if somethin' bad really did happen?"
"Not for nothing," Noct stated, "but it has been getting colder lately." He pointed to some clouds circling around an area far from them. "Look familiar?"
"The others turned to see what Noct was pointing at and noticed the spherically shaped clouds in the sky. Precipitation could be seen falling from them over the land they positioned themselves over. Twilight raised an eyebrow and had a feeling as to what the cause could have been.
"Windigos," she said aloud, "I knew their presence was imminent but I didn't think it was that imminent. Noct and Applejack are right, something has gone wrong over there."
"What should we do?" Eclipse wondered.
"To be fair," Lunar chipped in, "we're still wounded ourselves. Establishing a base of operations and getting our new lives started is priority number one. We cannot invade or risk capture while we are still trying to get our own hooves on the ground now."
"But what about the creatures that need the help over there?" Fluttershy whispered, sounding as if she wanted to keep that question more to herself than ask it aloud.
Noct smiled, "Since Eclipsa and I are bat ponies, we could scout the area for the rest of you and, if there are any critters that need help, we'll let you know so you can tell us what to do."
That made Fluttershy feel a little bit better on the inside. She nodded at Noct and Eclipsa and watched as the two bat ponies extended their wings and took off high into the nighttime sky.
"They'll take care of things," encouraged Star, "I just know it."
"I hope so," responded Fluttershy, watching as Noct and Eclipsa flew towards the impending danger.