My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is owned by Hasbro, The Hub and of course Lauren Faust who seems to have gone out of her way to make a show about pastel colored ponies with names like "Twilight Sparkle" completely awesome. This story is just for fun and no profit shall be made so please above mentioned people don't sue me. You're not gonna get much. Any OCs that pop up in this fic belong to me and can be used with permission. Please don't steal from me. Now with that out of the way, on with the show.
The Elements of Discord
Chapter 9: That Fateful Night
During the day the throne room of Canterlot Castle is hub of activity. From noble ponies requesting an audience to farmers bringing gifts to show their gratitude to even the Guardians themselves simply being around her, there was an almost constant influx of ponies vying for Celestia's attention. During the night, though, it was a much different story. Usually there was only one lonely princess in the room with only the occasional night guard checking in to keep her company.
This night was different as there was currently nopony on the throne and in fact the room itself was completely empty. This was quickly rectified when a cloud of star-filled blue smoke began to rise up through the cracks in the floor. It hovered over the throne for a moment before it broke into two pieces with one being smaller than the other. The larger cloud stayed above the throne while the smaller floated next to it. Soon the clouds began to swirl and take pony shapes before they finally pulled back to reveal the forms of the newly created Nightmare Moon and her companion Dark Sky. The remnants of the cloud still hung over the dark Alicorn's head and back to act as her mane and tail. While Nightmare Moon seemed quite all right from the unusual mode of transportation, Dark Sky seemed a little dazed.
"What...was that?" she asked, swaying back and fourth a bit.
"Just one of my many new powers," Nightmare Moon replied casually. "Powers that will help me take down my sister and her Guardians and rule Equestria for all time! HAHAAHHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Just one problem. There's nopony here," the unicorn pointed out with a wave of her hoof to the empty room.
This simple statement stopped the mad mare's tirade of maniacal laughter and she gave her friend a slight look of annoyance.
"Well of course there isn't! Everypony is asleep after all," she snapped.
"So are we just going to wait until morning to attack Celestia and the others?"
"Of course not. In fact, I believe the perfect messenger for our arrival should be arriving just...about...now!"
The word "now" had barely left Nightmare Moon's lips when a guard came walking up the steps that led into the throne room. When he stepped into the room he stopped in understandable shock at the sight of two ponies he had never seen before inside the room.
"Who are you? How did you get in here?" he demanded, his horn glowing as he prepared himself for a fight.
"You wouldn't be able to understand how I got in here," Nightmare Moon dismissed casually. "As for who I am, that is quite simple. I am your new ruler. Now go fetch your Princess and tell her to come here and pay homage to her new Empress. And bring those "Guardians" with her. I wish to have a word with them as well."
The unicorn guard simply continued to stand there in a slack jacked surprise at the audacity of the creature before him.
"Well, you heard her. GO!" Dark Sky shouted before she used her own magic to push the guard out of the room and down the stairs. She then looked back up at her friend. "Too much?"
"No I think you handled that quite well," Nightmare Moon reassured her in an amused tone.
"So what do we do now?"
"We wait..."
They didn't have to wait too long as within mere moments Celestia and the Guardians stormed into the room themselves. Like the night guard before them they were shocked at the new Alicorn sitting on the Princesses' shared thrown. For Celestia though, her shock turned to anger surprisingly quick.
"Who are you? What are you doing on that throne? What have you done with my little sister!" she snarled, as her wings spread open and her horn started to glow.
Nightmare Moon sneered as she stepped off the throne and moved towards the other Alicorn.
"And there it is," she growled. "Not only was I last in that list but you didn't even refer to me by name, only as 'your little sister'. That's all anypony thought of me as when they even bothered to remember me at all! Well no more! Tonight nopony will ever forget me again!"
Celestia's look of anger and concern turned to one of confusion with a quick blink at the dark mare's words. Although she had never met her before, this strange Alicorn seemed to speak to her with a very familiar tone. In fact there seemed to be something familiar about her overall. And the things she said, it was almost like it was...
"Luna?" Celestia asked, not entirely sure what answer she wanted to hear.
"Finally figured it out, did you? Well I shouldn't be surprised, you never did pay too much attention to me," the black Alicorn snarled.
"That's not true! I was merely busy with royal duties! Perhaps... perhaps a bit too involved I grant but I never meant to make you feel neglected. Luna, I-"
"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" Nightmare Moon screamed, her wings spreading out and celestial hair and tail swirling erratically around her. "I am no longer Luna! Now I am Nightmare Moon, Empress of Darkness!"
Celestia stood stark still, completely dumbfounded by everything that was happening. Her little sister had somehow become this...thing standing in front of her. She was so... angry. More so than she had ever seen Luna before. They had certainly had their arguments in the past but it was never anything like this! This new anger along with her change in appearance and name really did make it seem like she was a completely different pony. One Celestia had never seen before and was certain she didn't like.
She was also certain that something or somepony else had to be responsible for this change. Luna would never become something like this "Nightmare Moon" on her own. It was then that Celestia noticed that there was another pony behind Luna. Some unicorn she had never seen before.
"You!" she shouted, glaring death at the dark blue unicorn. "Who are you? Did you do this to her?"
"Me?" Dark Sky cried out in surprise and indignation. "I never-"
"Do not blame her for your failures dear sister!" Nightmare Moon growled, stepping in between her friend and her sister. "You brought this all on yourself! Ignoring me. Neglecting me. Not even bothering to get to know the one pony who was actually my friend!"
As she continued her rant, Nightmare Moon's ethereal mane and tail swirled around her violently, creating an air of menace that kept the seven ponies at bay. Of course Celestia's hesitation was also brought on by her continued confusion. She just couldn't understand how all of this was happening. How could it have reached this point? More importantly what could she do to stop this and get her little sister back?
Unfortunately, she couldn't think of any answers to those questions. So for the first time the Princess of Equestria, the Bringer of the Sun felt completely and utterly helpless.
Thankfully, one of her loyal subjects was quick to act in her stead as Moonracer stepped forward between the two Alicorns.
"So was I not your friend as well then?" the teal coated Pegasus asked quietly and with a hint of sadness.
This time is was Nightmare Moon who paused in the face of a surprising remark and raging storm of her hair and tail died down a bit as she calmed slightly.
"Of course you are Moonracer. You were the only one out of these so called 'Guardians' that ever treated me like they treated Celestia," she explained, giving a pointed glare at the other five ponies behind her sister.
"Hey! That's not-" Firestar started but was stopped by a gentle hoof on her shoulder from Rainmaker.
The red unicorn looked at her friend in frustration and confusion but the shake of the Pegasus' head was enough to clam her. For now.
Nightmare Moon continued to glare at the group, especially Firestar, for a moment longer before she turned her attention back to Moonracer.
"Because of this I'm willing to give you one chance to join Dark Sky and I as we create an everlasting night. You always said you enjoyed my moon and now you can enjoy it forever."
"But the moon is not supposed to be out forever," Moonracer countered. "Plants would die. Ponies would freeze. The moon must fade in the daylight just as the sun must set in the nighttime. They were meant to work together just as you and your sister were meant to rule together."
"Does that meant you will not join me?" the black Alicorn asked with growing irritation.
The Pegasus lowered her head in shame and shook it slowly.
"No," she said softly before she looked up into Nightmare Moon's eyes. "But only because you are not Luna. My friend would never do anything so vile."
Nightmare Moon let out a sorrowful sigh as she closed her eyes and hung her own head. She was still for only a moment before her eyes popped back open and she glared hatefully at the pony in front of her.
"Then..." she whispered as her horn started to glow brightly, "...DIE!"
She then shot out several arcs of energy that struck the seven assembled ponies and sent them flying backwards across the room. At first even Celestia was flung helplessly back as the attack caught her by surprise but when she regained her composure she was able to use her own power to counteract those of Nightmare Moon's and keep them all from being forced down the steps. Unfortunately, they all still landed in a rather undignified heap when she dispelled the attack.
"Alright, now it's my turn!" Firestar snapped before she jumped up and ran towards the dark mare.
She stopped halfway between herself and Nightmare Moon then scraped her metal covered hoof along the floor to create the necessary spark for her magic to send a wall of flames towards her opponent. The Alicorn seemed rather unimpressed by the feat even as Dark Sky huddled over in fear of being burned alive. To her great surprise her fear ended up being unfounded as Nightmare Moon merely erected a force field around the two of them that caused the flames to go flying around them. Of course her surprise was nothing compared to that of Firestar who gaffed at the block at first but then quickly sent out another torrent of flame with her other hoof. Again the attack was blocked which only caused the red unicorn's temper to flare up like the fire she controlled and to send even more bursts of flame at the other mare. Throughout the attack Nightmare Moon kept a cool head and even yawned in a mocking manner.
"Did someone leave a fire unattended somewhere? It feels a bit warm in here," she remarked with a taunting grin.
Firestar growled before releasing one last wall of flames from both her front hooves that still could not breach the magical barrier. After which she finally gave a defeated sigh then turned to her comrades.
"Okay, I'm all out of ideas, anypony else have something?" she asked.
"Yes. In fact we all do," Shooting Star said as she stood up and walked over to the other unicorn. "The Elements of Harmony, remember?"
Firestar quirked and eyebrow before she looked down at the bejeweled amulet hanging from her neck.
"Oh. Right," she muttered sheepishly.
"Right," Shooting Star returned a bit irritably. "Which we could have used by now if somepony hadn't charged ahead like she always does."
"Hey it's not my fault the rest of you can't keep up with me! Fires burn quickly!"
"You just control fire you're not actually-"
"Girls! Can we stop the bickering and focus on the task at hoof?" Deep Dive asked as she and the others surrounded the two.
"Oh don't stop on my account. I'm finding this all very amusing," Nightmare Moon chuckled.
Shooting Star glared at the dark empress before she nodded to her fellow Guardians. They all returned the nod in silent understanding before Rainmaker and Moonracer took the air and hovered above the other four. Torchlight and Deep Dive then took positions on either side of Shooting Star and Firestar so that the two unicorns were in between the two Earth ponies. This formation also succeeded in creating a barrier between their enemy and the princess. The jewels in the necklaces and tiara then began to glow brightly just before they shot out multicolored beams of light towards Nightmare Moon.
The Alicorn strengthened her shield against the attack but despite her "unlimited power" she still felt herself being pushed back again. She groaned in concentrated effort as beams continued to beat down on her and even started to crack her shield a bit.
"Luna!" Dark Sky cried out in fear and concern as she started to run over to her friend.
"No! Stay back! I can do this!" Nightmare Moon shouted back at her.
"But I can help you!" the unicorn pleaded desperately.
"But you don't need to put yourself at risk for me. As I said I..." her horn started to grow brighter, "...can..." her eyes followed suit as she concentrated her power even further "...do..." the cracks in the shield repaired themselves before it grew even stronger "...THIS!"
With that last outburst, not only did her shield completely repair itself but also repelled the Element's beam and sent them shooting back at their wielders, once again sending the six mares crashing to the floor. Nightmare Moon breathed heavily for a moment but still smirked as she looked up at her sister.
"You see? Not even your vaunted Guardians are a match for me," she taunted.
"Then perhaps it is time we settled this between ourselves sister," Celestia challenged as she stepped forward.
"Princess no, you can't..." Shooting Star pleaded with her weakly.
Celestia stopped and smiled down at the young mare.
"Time and again you six have defended my sister and I from all manner of threats. Now I shall return the favor and protect you from one. Even if that threat is my own sister," her resolve faded into sadness with that last line.
A sadness that was quickly replaced by frustration when Nightmare Moon's laugh cut through the room once again.
"Oh yes! This is what I have waited for! Come dear sister, let us find which truly is the most powerful, the day or the night!" the mad mare cackled.
Despite the vast amounts of power each sister wielded, their fight began like that of so many ponies before them; by charging full tilt at their opponent. They met in the center of the room and their collision cause of a backlash of power that exploded from around them, sending the Guardians flying around the throne room helpless for a third time while introducing Dark Sky to the idea of unwarranted flight. Nevertheless, the two sisters stayed perfectly in the middle of the destruction as they struggled against one another. They glared at each other and grit their teeth as they each pushed forward with as much power as they had in an effort to gain the advantage.
"Why must you continue to defy me?" Nightmare Moon snapped as she put more of her energy into pushing forward.
"Because I am trying to save our kingdom from you and you from yourself!" Celestia countered as she met the applied force.
Sparks began to fly from their horns from the amount of energy surging between the two.
"'Our' kingdom! Bah! You never cared about me before now!"
"I have always cared about you Luna!"
"I told you before to stop calling me that! I. Am. Nightmare. Moon!"
That last surge of anger gave her enough power to finally push Celestia away, flipping her to the floor. Once there, Nightmare Moon jumped on top of her prone body and started to rain blows down upon Celestia's face with her forehooves.
"You never cared for me! You always ignored me! You thought I was weak! Helpless!" she shouted with each hit she landed. "Well who's the helpless one now?"
"Not...ME!" Celestia growled between the blows before she sent a quick blast of magic through her horn and knocked Nightmare Moon off of her.
She then jumped up and pinned the dazed mare to the floor, trapping her head under her right front hoof.
"Now you will listen to me!" she snapped coldly right into Nightmare Moon's ear. "Whatever lies that beast told you are completely unfounded!"
"He didn't tell me anything! I-ugh!"
She was cut off by a quick jab to her throat.
"I said you will listen!" Celestia growled again. "I love you with all my heart Luna but I will not allow you to endanger our subjects! That is just what an endless night will do! Moonracer was right, it will kill the plants and freeze our subjects. If you wanted to your nights to be more acknowledged you should have come to me beforehoof. We could have created a celebration in honor of your lovely nights."
"Oh I did come to you! Time and again I did! But you were either too busy or too tired or treating me like I was a foal to ever truly listen to me! Well, do I have your attention now sister? Am I not worthy to stand before the all mighty Sun Goddess Celestia yet?"
"You know that is not true! I have always seen you as my equal!"
"Stop...LYING!" Nightmare Moon shrieked in rage.
Again the power of her anger was enough to repel her sister but before she mounted an effective counter attack, Celestia hit her with another blast of magic that sent crashing into the wall just above the thrown. Nightmare Moon shook her head as she stood to clear it then melted into her mist form and faded through the floor once again. Celestia's eyes widened in surprise and she started to look around frantically to see where her sister might have disappeared to. And more importantly where she might reappear from. Unfortunately, the answer came in the form of Nightmare Moon rematerializing right behind her and kicking her full force with both of her hind legs. Now it was Celestia who was spiraling through the air and crashing into, and through, one of the nearby pillars. She picked herself up and shook her head to throw off the now lopsided crown before she launched herself at Nightmare Moon again.
While the two sisters continued to clash, the Guardians started to pick themselves up and regrouped. Naturally the first thing they noticed was the all-out brawl going on between the two most powerful ponies on the planet.
"We have to help Princess Celestia!" Shooting Star shouted urgently.
"Of course we do, but how?" Rainmaker asked. "Not even the Elements of Harmony could stand up to this Nightmare Moon."
"Doesn't look like Celestia is doing a much better job herself," Deep Dive noted as she watched the princess fall from another of Nightmare Moon's vicious attacks.
"Well there has to be something we can do!" Torchlight screamed desperately.
"Well..." Shooting Star mused as she rubbed her chin.
"Well what? Star if you've got an idea then spit it out!" Firestar said impatiently.
"It's just...it's a little risky is all."
"How so?" Moonracer asked.
"Because despite the fact that we've had and used the Elements for so long we still don't know where they come from or what they're really capable of," the unicorn explained. "But the one thing I have noticed is that when we use them we use them beside each other but never with each other. We use them separately but not together. Not... in harmony."
"So you think if we combine our power we'll be able to stop Nightmare Moon?" Deep Dive suggested.
"Maybe. But I just don't know for sure," Shooting Star confessed.
"Wait, didn't you tell me before that crossing the beams would be a bad idea?" Torchlight asked.
The unicorn nodded. "Again we're just so unsure of what they can do that I thought crossing the beams would create too much power."
"So what you're saying is... we could try it but we might not make it through this," Firestar stated bluntly.
Shooting Star merely closed her eyes and nodded softly. The other five looked between each other in shock and disbelief. But more importantly they looked to each for solidarity. Although Equestria was a mostly peaceful land, it still had its enemies that would love nothing more than to watch it burn. That of course meant attacking and killing the princesses. As the Guardians it was their job to protect the princesses. That meant risking their lives when they needed to. They had done so before when fighting Discord and now it seemed they may have to again. But this time something felt different. Not only because they were trying something they had never tried before but also because they were now attacking one of the princesses they were supposed to be protecting. No matter how they looked at it, it was a terrible situation and one that seemed to hang a dark cloud over the whole ordeal. Much like the literal dark cloud that was hanging over the castle for some reason. It seemed to personify the bad feeling they all had and the nagging suspicion that this might actually be not only the first time they try this trick but the last time as well.
In spite of this feeling they looked toward each other and slowly started to nod in silent agreement to the plan. All except for one...
"I like this plan! I'm excited to be a part of it!" Torchlight said in her usual cheerful manner.
The others all chuckled in appreciation of her tireless efforts to cheer them up in even the darkest of hours.
"Also so what do we do?" Firestar asked Shooting Star.
"I think if the five of you stand in a circle around me and focus your beams on my tiara then with it and my own abilities I should be able to focus all of that power into a single blast and fire it at Nightmare Moon," she explained.
"So if you're the one being focused on how would that effect the rest of us?" Deep Dive asked.
"Like I said I don't know what this will do. I might hurt Nightmare Moon, it might hurt the rest of you, it might just hurt me. But if that's the case then I'd rather take the chance myself instead of seeing the rest of you get hurt," Shooting Star said sincerely. "Besides my tiara is the center piece of the Elements so it just makes sense."
"If you say so," Firestar scoffed. "So we ready to do this?"
"Not just yet. If this is to be our finale battle then there is something I must do first," Rainmaker stated.
She then walked over to Firestar and much to everypony's great surprise, especially the fire-wielding unicorn's, she reached out with a hoof to draw her face close and give her a long passionate kiss. The others stood in utter wide-eyed shock of this action but of course nopony was more surprised than Firestar herself. She just stood completely still with her eyes twice their normal size until Rainmaker finally pulled back and stared sheepishly at her. For the longest time the reddish-orange unicorn continued to stand stalk still until finally her eyes focused and a small smile covered her face.
"You have the absolutely worst timing ever," she remarked. "And if we get through this we have a lot to talk about."
"Looking forward to it," Rainmaker replied with a wink before she turned her attention to Shooting Star. "So where do we stand again?"
"Huh?" the unicorn asked, still unsure of what she saw. She then shook her head to clear it and get back on track. "Right. Make a circle around me."
They did as they were instructed.
"Now just concentrate like you usually do on using your Element's power."
They nodded once again then closed their eyes and started to concentrate. Soon enough the familiar glow of their jewels lighting up started to fill the air. They glowed brighter and brighter until they eventually released their colored beams right towards Shooting Star who was concentrating on powering up her own Element. Like she had thought the beams were attracted directly to the tiara on her head and started to swirl together above her. What she hadn't thought of, however, was the power swirling back to the other five, encapsulating them all then slowly lifting them into the air. A bubble of white light surrounded them as their bodies became lighter and started to overflow with energy. It was like nothing they had ever felt before. Certainly not like any other time they had used the Elements before. The only problem was that this power was starting to becoming more than they could handle and needed to be released soon.
"Princess!" Shooting Star shouted, locking her now glowing eyes on Celestia. "Move out of the way!"
At the sound of her name being called, Celestia turned her attention away from her struggle with Nightmare Moon just in time to check a sucker punch from the Night Empress. She was about to capitalize on her advantage when she noticed the bright bubble of light on the other side of the room.
"What is that?" she screamed in terror then looked down at her fallen sister. "What have you done?"
"I...don't know," Celestia whispered in shock herself.
"Please Princess, move out of the way!" Shooting Star shouted again.
Taking her guard's advice, Celestia quickly rolled along the floor right as the power around the six reached its peak and shot out in a giant, rainbow-like beam of light that struck Nightmare Moon directly. The twisted pony screamed out in terror and pain as this newly focused and immensely powerful energy started to tear down the foundation of her own power.
"LUNA!" Dark Sky cried out for fear of her friend before she started to rush to her aide.
"N-no Sky! St-stay back! It's...too much!" Nightmare Moon warned her.
Unfortunately, it was too late. She had reached the edge of the tornado of light that was surrounding her friend and that was enough to mingle with the dark energy now flowing through her own body. She let out her own scream as she felt parts of her body began to stiffen up and saw that slowly but surely she was turning to stone.
"Luna! Help me! Please! Help MEEEEE..."
Her screams eventually faded as the petrifying process made it's way up to her mouth and soon enough went all the way up to the tip of her horn. Nightmare Moon thrashed in horror and rage at the site of her friend now covered in stone.
"Sky! No! NOOOOOO!" she screamed, her own energy starting to fight back against the combined Elements'. "I'll kill you for this! I'll kill ALL of you!"
"Princess...even with this power... we can't hold her..." Shooting Star struggled to say.
Celestia still stared slightly dumbfounded at everything that was happening but she quickly regained her senses and stared resolutely at the creature thrashing around inside the brightly colored energy funnel.
"Then I shall assist you," she stated determinedly.
She then channeled her own great power and focused it up into the beam. Their forces combined forces were enough to combat Nightmare Moon's powers but she still struggled against them. In that struggle, a stray blast shot through the roof and created a hole that revealed the dark Alicorn's revered moon. A sight which gave Celestia an idea on how to defeat this menace and perhaps regain her sister. Even if it was rather cruel.
"I have an idea! Can you allow me to take charge of this energy?" she asked Shooting Star.
"I have no idea!" the unicorn confessed.
"Then I suppose we'll have to find out together!"
With that she closed her eyes in concentration and sent even more of her power into the energy wave. Along with that power was her plan on how to hold the pony thrashing around inside the funnel. Reacting to that thought the swirling mass of color started to extend skyward until it reached the moon itself, linking its caretaker to it in a whole new way. Nightmare Moon herself could feel this connection starting to take shape and so thrashed around even more trying to prevent Celestia' plan from coming to light. She poured more of her own dark power into her counterattack which caused the castle around them to shake. Anypony that had not already been awoken by the sound of the battle was awake now and running for their lives. All they could see from the outside where brilliant flashes of lights coming from the windows of the throne room as well as a shaft of light shooting out of the hole in the roof.
On the inside Nightmare Moon could feel her power quickly draining as Celestia's spell started to take effect. She could feel herself being pulled towards the moon despite her fighting to the contrary. When the last of her power started to fade along with her body she cast one last, sorrowful look back at the statue that used to be her only friend.
"I'm sorry Sky. I'm so very sorry," she said softly.
"As am I sister," Celestia's voice broke through the funnel as did her face. "Please forgive me."
Nightmare Moon stared hatefully back into the Sun Goddess' eyes as she spoke only one word:
"Never."
Her physical form then completely vanished as it was changed into dark energy and was sucked up towards the moon. Before she was completely gone, however, she used the last bit of her remaining energy to send down one final blast that crashed against the rainbow tunnel and caused it to explosively dissipate. The shockwave flung the seven ponies around the room helplessly and destroyed much of the castle before it continued outwards to destroy the village just outside the castle as well as much of the countryside, leaving what was left of the grand structure on a precarious cliff. The wave continued to surge forward through the forest, twisting trees and creatures within until it finally seemed to rise up and settle above the whole area creating an even darker sky than the regular night sky.
Back inside what was left of the throne room, Celestia let out a pained groan as she slowly began to regain consciousness. Considering how much she hurt though, she wasn't sure if that was a curse or a blessing. As her blurred vision began to clear she could make out several round shapes in front of her. When she could finally see straight she found two sets of six stone orbs. One having the markings of the Elements of Harmony on them while the others were unfamiliar to her. She assumed they were the Elements of Discord that had been driven out of her sister's body. They might have even been what had caused that last explosion. But if they were driven out did that mean her sister was cured and she had just banished her for nothing?
"No. No that can't be," she muttered to herself in a panic. "Maybe there's still time to fix it. Shooting Star we must..."
She stopped when she turned and found all the Guardians lying still on the floor. Far too still. Somehow they were still in their circle formation around Shooting Star with the only exception being Firestar who was laying on top of Rainmaker as if she had tried to push her out of the way or save her. But the fact that none of them had woken up yet or even appeared to be moving shook Celestia to her core. With heavy hoofsteps she slowly walked over to the prone forms of her friends then reached down to gently shake Shooting Star's shoulder.
"Star?" she asked softly.
She didn't receive a response.
"Star?" she asked again, a bit louder and shaking more firmly. "Shooting Star. Wake up. Please."
When she wouldn't awaken Celestia moved onto the next one.
"Deep Dive? Are you awake?" she asked, growing even more desperate.
Again nothing.
"Torchlight. Rainmaker. Firestar. Moonracer. Anypony! Wake up! Please! Just...just wake up," she pleaded helpless as tears started to roll down her eyes.
When none of them would respond she felt her knees suddenly grow very weak and eventually give way. She slumped down to the cracked floor next to Shooting Star and stared to sob uncontrollably. In one horrible night she lost her sister and her closest friends. Through the pain of her tears she could see her crown a few feet away from her. She had saved her kingdom and her subjects.
But she had lost some very important parts of her own life...
( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )
"And that is how that night had ended," Celestia finished the story, having taken over the last part from Luna.
Twilight stood in stunned silence, not sure what she could or should say. Finally after a long pause she said the only thing that she could think.
"I'm sorry," she said gently.
"Do not be. It was not your fault Twilight Sparkle. The fault lies with me," Luna said and looked up at her sister. "And I shall never be able to make it up to you. Or them," she motioned to the painting in front of them.
"It wasn't your fault either Luna," Celestia reassured her as she gave her a gentle nuzzle. "For all her ranting, Nightmare Moon was right in that I should have paid more attention to you all those years ago." Her face then hardened a bit in anger. "But, of course, the true monster in all this is Discord. He was the one who infected you with his dark magic and twisted your mind."
"Speaking of that, I've never heard of him before or these Elements of Discord," Twilight spoke up.
"Discord's tale is one for another time," Celestia explained. "As for his Elements, I had all records of them stricken from historical documents and stories."
"But...why?"
"Twilight, let me ask you, you've read the Daring Do series, yes?"
"Of course! I've read them all! In fact I've read a couple of them a few times now," Twilight said, positively beaming. "I'd have to say my personal favorite is Daring Do and the Staff of Star Swirl the Bearded. But of course that's because I've always been a fan of Star Swirl too and found a lot of this spells to be quite amazing and-"
"That's enough Twilight," Celestia cut her off with a raised hoof and a small chuckle. Even dredging up painful memories couldn't stop her from being amused by Twilight's love of reading and learning. But now was not the time for that. "I only bring it up because in those stories aren't there sometimes instances where Daring is following a set of clues that leads to some dangerous artifacts?"
"A couple of times, yes," Twilight nodded.
"And haven't you ever wondered if the artifact was so dangerous, why would anypony leave a trail to finding it?"
"Well...yeah! I mean if it is that dangerous what sense does it make to have a series of clues that lead right to it? In fact, why tell anypony about it at all-ooooooh!" she mused in sudden realization.
"Exactly," Celestia confirmed with a nod. "I knew the Elements of Discord were far too dangerous for anypony to know about and so had to wipe them out of the Equestria's known history." She then let out a sad, sorrowful sigh as she looked back at the statues leading to the mural. "Sadly that meant having to erase the knowledge of my friends as well. But I have kept memories alive here and in my heart."
Twilight grew silent again out of respect for the Princess' fallen friends and apparently her predecessor. It didn't last long as thinking about her made her think about something else from the Princesses' stories.
"Wait. If the spell you used to banish Nightmare Moon was something you just thought of on the spot than how did you make the prophecy that would set her free 1,000 years later?" she asked as she scratched the back of her head in confusion.
"That's something else I need to tell you..." Celestia started.
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: Well once again it took a long time to get this chapter done! Don't think it was quite as long as the last time but definitely much longer than I would have liked. Mostly because I was having trouble figuring out just how the hell to write out this fight scene. Pony battles are kind of hard to write especially those ones between two god-like figures like Celestia and Luna. Add the fact that I put them in a confined space and that there were the original Elements of Harmony around and Dark Sky and I really didn't know what to do. So when in doubt I went with my standby: a bitter, drag out brawl between the two! Which I actually think worked pretty well as it made the fight more personal and visceral as it needed to be. Especially on Nightmare Moon's part as she had a lot she had to get out.
I probably should have had the other ponies do more but it just felt right focusing on the two princesses mostly for this one. Plus again, staging the thing was kind of a nightmare all it's own. I just hope it didn't let anyone down and lived up to the two chapter build up to it. Course I'm sure everyone has their own version of what went down that night, if it even was just one night, and this is just my version of it. I hope you enjoyed it. Obviously nopony else did, especially Celestia.
Oh and yes, I was an evil bastard to have Rainmaker confess her feelings to Firestar right before dying. That's why I had in mind all along! Muwhaahahahahahaha! What was Firestar going to say to her afterwards? I guess we'll never know now will we? Aahahahahahahahahaahahhaha! Yeah I'm a jerk, I tease some shipping and then take it away but what do you expect, I'm a shipping writer and I had to do something to get it out of my system. Course it's not and something will definitely pop up again. Probably between two of the Mane Six. And anyone who knows my shipping preference for this fandom can probably guess who it is already.
Also I wrote the friendship between Luna and Dark Sky to be very slash friendly I noticed. I honestly didn't mean to, it's just the way it worked out. Where will that lead when the two meet up again after all this time? Well you'll just have to stay tuned to find out that answer.
Til then, see ya!