It was a dark day. Black clouds adorned the sky and torrential rain drenched everything. Ponies stood silently with heads bowed in respect as the casket passed through the streets of Canterlot. Some threw themselves on the ground weeping openly whilst others comforted them.

Celestia walked beside her sister refusing to ride in the carriage with Twilight and the others. Her face was covered by a black hood which concealed her features and hid the look of agony and silent rage on her face. Celestia looked down at her baby sister, ‘so peaceful’ she thought, it was as if she was sleeping and at any moment would jump up and yell “Gotcha!”

A small smile flashed across Celestia’ face as she remembered how Luna and she used to play when they were fillies, “but that was so long ago wasn’t it” she said soflty, her voice cracking as she broke down and began sobbing softly. “I still remember my promise, that I would never let anything hurt you. But I failed you didn’t I” Celestia said tears streaming down her face. ‘But I will find it, the monster that took you from me and it will suffer endlessly for doing so’ she promised her sister this.

***

High on the roofs of Canterlot, Syren watched the procession a dark vision dragged itself from the depth of his memory as he was again forced to watch that night.

…A boy stood at the edge of a town as he watched it burn, the flames dancing in the night sky. Tears ran down his face as he screamed “mother, father! Where are you?” A rustle in the bush behind him startled the boy and he quickly spun around and what he saw horrified him more than any else he had ever known…

Syren quickly forced the memory down and returned his focus to the matters at hand. He watched as they descended into the crypt, “svefn nú máni eða rísa endr” he whispered, smiling, his eyes full of dark anticipation.

…Two days later…

Luna’s gasped and drew in a large breath, life once again had returned to her body, she tried to steady her breathing but air only came in gasps ‘What’s happening? How can I be alive, it killed me, I felt it kill me, I’m dead’ she thought. Luna’s mind was telling her, her body lived, but she knew in her heart that she was dead.

Luna took in her surroundings; a dark room with a glass window that was tinted red illuminated a tiny room with an old oak dresser in the left corner of the room. There was a large wooden chair by a brightly lit fireplace with a shadowy figure sitting in the chair. Luna strained to make out the features of the figure in front of her, but nearly fell out of the bed when she did. “Oh no, I am dead and this is hell” she cursed loudly.

“Hardly” the creature sniggered “but that can always be arranged” it added smiling menacingly at her. “What the hay do you want with me now” Luna snapped at the creature, the irritation evident in her voice. “Oh nothing much” it replied casually looking at its hand. This infuriated Luna “YOU INSOLENT FOAL, TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT!” she yelled at the creature shaking with uncontrollable rage. “As I said nothing much….. Just you!” the creature replied, looking her dead in the eye as it removed its hood and for the first time Luna could clearly see the creature’s face.

Its hair was jet black; its skin was smooth and hairless; but perhaps the most striking feature was its eyes, blood red and glowing faintly. It smiled at her darkly “perhaps you should look in the mirror” the creature suggested.

Luna walked over to the tall ornate mirror and almost fainted when she saw herself; here normally lustrous fur coat was now pale and bleak; her mane had lost its shine and her eyes… By Celestia’s mane her eyes had dark circles under and her iris’s had dulled significantly.

Luna was horrified and enraged at the same time, she turned her eyes seething with anger “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!” she screeched at the creature before lunging at it, the desire to kill this creature had overwhelmed her.

***

Syren felt the anger inside her swell, ‘Oh yes, she’ll do just fine, she is starting to succumb already’ he thought to himself, as he dodged Luna’s first attack. She turned around and ran at him again, this time Syren clenched his fist and swung at the oncoming Luna. The punch connected with Luna’s maw sending her flying into the wall, she slumped over and began to cry in frustration. “WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME?” Luna screamed again at Syren. He thoroughly enjoyed the look on her face when he offered his response “because it was fun, because I was bored, because I loved seeing the life leave your eyes…”

Syren suddenly snapped. “Because I could, because it felt good, BECAUSE I NEEDED TOO!” Practically shouting at her, Syren seemed to lose all control as he flung himself back from Luna. Hands covering his face as a twisted smile spread across it, he laughed manically, a look of deranged insanity in his eyes. Everything in the room started to move; the windows shattered showering Luna with glass; the furniture flew around the room and the walls cracked, as Syren slipped further down into madness. He needed to kill something, now.

***

Luna had never seen such power. The creature seemed very unstable and was threating to bring the whole place down around them. She heard the creature talking (or rather shouting) at somepony. “I HATE YOU!” It screamed jumping at Luna clearly believing her to be somepony else. Pinning Luna to the ground she could clearly see its face, but it wasn’t the same face she had seen before, this face was changing before her eyes.

Luna watched on in horror as the creature seemed to change form. It went from whatever it was to a young black stallion, flickering between the two forms.

Next the creature walked towards her slowly, hand out stretched. ‘Oh no not again’ thought Luna, she couldn’t bear the pain of dying again. But the creature stopped short and collapsed in a heap in front of her and lay there. ‘What! Just happened” Luna said aloud, confused. She got up slowly and walked over to the creature, she gently nudged it with her hoof ‘is it dead’ she thought. No movement but the light rising and falling of its chest. Luna felt a sigh of relief ‘good it’s still alive, Wait what am I saying, I should kill it and rid Equestria of this evil once and for all!’
Luna pointed her horn at the creature and charged her magic; she knew she had to do it. But the creature’s eyes snapped open and looked up at her. At first this only strengthened her resolve to kill the creature but the longer she stared into its eyes the more she saw until it hit her, the creature wanted Luna to fire. She could see it in the creature’s eyes, it wanted to die.

Luna couldn’t bring herself to do it; it would go against everything ponies held dear. So it was decided that she would take the creature to Canterlot where she may be able to save it from insanity.

***

Little did Luna know Syren had been planning this for years, he would not lose sight of the ultimate goal here, ‘this is just a little detour’ he thought to himself, oh yes, he would be able to get that much closer to the ponies if he pretended to go along with them and the best part would be, they wouldn’t even know until it was too late. Syren smiled darkly to himself as Luna prepared to travel to Canterlot…..

….to be continued

END CHAPTER 3

Author's Note

hey guys not much to say this time. Like favourite story etc. etc.

Weird twist of events but next chapter, well I guess you can say Syren strikes again

Also any OC names for guards would be appreciated cause if I keep writing "the guards" all the time it makes them sound like Stormtroopers (i'll have to start numbering them)

also for anyone who was wondering what “svefn nú máni eða rísa endr” means. It is norse for "sleep now moon and rise again"