The Day, Defeated

by The Accursed One

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Celestia, Dark, Alternate Universe, Sweetie Belle, Nightmare Moon, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 2000

An alternate universe take on the season 4 battle between Nightmare Moon and Celestia.

Princess Luna was corrupted, transforming into Nightmare Moon, the bane of Equestria. Her sister, Princess Celestia, tries to stop her. Needless to say, an epic battle ensues.

Cover art by Stabzor

Published 2013-11-25 23:20:06 UTC
Last updated 2013-12-10 00:07:46 UTC

And the Night, Victorious

The Day, DefeatedBy: The Accursed One

                Princess Luna walked out onto a balcony in the castle that she and her sister inhabited. Exclaiming that she would be the only princess in Equestria, she destroyed the wall behind her and rose the moon, leaving it in the sky. A black cloud enveloped the pony and she started glowing with red light not unlike that of a star. Princess Luna, the benevolent princess of the night, became Nightmare Moon, the tyrannical mistress of night eternal.

        Her teeth grew into fangs, which she promptly bared with a maniacal laugh. The ruler of the night took flight, summoning a beam made of pure nightmare energy. Launching the beam at Celestia, Nightmare Moon flew away before her sister could retaliate. Flying out of the Everfree Forest castle to Equestria’s capital, Canterlot, she tried to escape her sister’s vengeance. Little did she know, though, that her attempts would be in vain.

*****

        Princess Celestia of the Sun had just witnessed her sister succumb to jealousy, letting the Spirit of the Nightmare into her soul and transforming into Nightmare Moon. Her heart was broken, yet she still persevered in the hope that she could save Luna. But that all changed when she was hit by the jet-black beam of pure nightmare energy.

        Pain. That was all Celestia knew for seconds after the blast. Enraged, the solar ruler headed underground, to the vault where the Elements of Harmony were kept. Levitating the gems around herself in a circle, she immediately took flight, following after Nightmare. Her rage, her despair, and her hope all spurred the pony on to fly faster, just so she could catch up.

*****

        Nightmare Moon looked behind herself, seeing Celestia gaining rapidly. Knowing that she’d never be able to out-fly her sister, the ruler of the night turned around and stood her ground.

“Celestia, why do you still persevere? You know that We will create night eternal!” Nightmare Moon called out, her booming voice ringing across the mountains of Equestria’s capital.

        “Luna, you do not need to do this! You can resist the Nightmare; you can still save the planet! Night eternal is going to kill us all! If you do not stand down, I will be forced to fight you, and I will win! If you stand down now, your punishment will be less harsh; if you don’t, you WILL get banished!” Celestia replied, anger pulsing throughout her voice.

        All that Nightmare did was summon dark energy and form it into a ball around her, using it as a potential shield in case Celestia tried to use magic to fight. She saw her sister summon the power of the Elements of Harmony, which she once wielded against Discord, and fired a blast of dark magic at Celestia. Seeing the white pony fall, Nightmare Moon stopped in mid-air and laughed triumphantly. The Elements of Harmony had been interrupted whilst channeling their harmonic energy when they were hit by chaotic energy. The forces canceled out, and the effect was nullified.

        Nightmare Moon levitated the fallen, depowered Elements of Harmony up to herself. Attempting to activate their power to turn the tables on Celestia by sending her to the sun, she found out that with her chaotic magic, the Elements could not be activated.

*****

        The Elements were now at full power, circling around Celestia with their energy being fueled by the harmonic magic emitted by the princess. Celestia felt herself turn into an Element-fueled, more powerful version of herself with a blast of energy. She decided to start charging up her most aptly-named attack that was possible with the Elements: the Rainbow Beam of Death. Instead of killing Nightmare, though, Celestia decided to banish her instead. Death was too quick of a fate for such a monster.

        Her harmonic energy that was being built up got interrupted by a blast of chaotic energy emitted from Nightmare Moon. The Elements stopped circling Celestia, and they all fell to the floor with the pony, who was knocked unconscious for a few minutes after the hit. She woke up, seeing that the Elements were gone. Celestia quickly got up and chased after Nightmare for the second time that day… night? She had no concept of time now that the moon had become permanently raised. The battle could have taken minutes, or it could have taken hours.

        Flying after Nightmare and getting the Elements back, Celestia used the last of her spare harmonic energy to charge a Rainbow Beam of Death. She fired it at Nightmare Moon, hoping it would catch the corrupted alicorn by surprise.

*****

        Nightmare Moon heard a blast and turned around, quickly summoning a lesser shield to temporarily ward off the attack while she channeled her attack. The shield miraculously worked as expected, and Nightmare fired a beam of pure chaotic energy to counteract Celestia’s beam of pure harmonic energy.

        The attacks met in the middle between the two ponies. Now, the deciding factor was just each pony’s particular power and stamina. The rainbow got closer to Nightmare, then the darkness got closer to Celestia. It appeared as if the two were locked in a stalemate. That power-lock lasted until the damaged Celestia finally ran out of her internal mana reserves, stopping her attack.

*****

        The beam of jet-black chaotic energy enveloped Celestia, making her feel as if ten thousand white-hot spikes were impaling her all at once. The pain was incomparable to anything she had ever felt before, and she knew she had lost. The pain turned to burning as Celestia realized she had been forcibly removed from Equus to the planet’s sun. She did not know how long the banishment would last, or if she would have healing to keep her alive. It turned out she could heal herself so she was alive. Horribly burned permanently, but alive. She thanked the elder gods for her luck.

*****

        After months of night-time eternal, the lands of Equus were ravaged, causing almost all edible plant life to wither away and die from lack of sunlight, killing thousands with the resulting famine. Nightmare Moon realized that her subjects were dying, and the spirit of the Nightmare left Luna, causing her to fall unconscious as the spirit left Equus to other lands. She woke up a few hours later, the malevolence leaving her body.

        Nightmare Moon, turned Luna, set out immediately to lower the moon in an effort to stop the famine. After many months without sunlight, the ponies around Equestria rejoiced, throwing a party on the day the moon was lowered. Luna then went to where she had her fight with Celestia, hoping that the Elements of Harmony were still where they were after the fight.

        Luckily, they were in the crater that had formed from the blast, and Luna attempted to use her power to bring Celestia back from the sun. Summoning the Rainbow Beam of Death, she aimed it directly at the sun and fired. To the ponies, all they saw was a giant rainbow coming down from the sun. To Luna, all she saw was the rainbow enveloping her vision. To Celestia, all she saw was hope. Hope that she would return. And return she did.

“Sister, I’m so sorry! It wasn’t my fault, the Nightmare had its hold on my mind, forcing me to follow its will!” Luna was quick to apologize to her sister, hoping all would be forgiven quickly.

“Dearest Luna, I forgive you. There’s just one more thing I need to do, though,” Celestia replied in a tone one would use when trying to contain anger when talking to a small child.

Celestia slapped Luna, and the night princess rubbed her cheek where she was hit. Sibling rivalry had taken a drastic turn, but all was forgiven in the end.

*****

And so ends the tale of Luna’s corruption, her fight, and the aftermath. As if in a fairy tale, all went smoothly afterwards. Equestria had its rough times, it had its great times. But the two sisters ruled together peacefully, until one day…

To be continued in the next chapter… (Coming within a week)

Bonus Chapter

The Day, DefeatedBonus chapter: Nightmare Sweetie!By: The Accursed One

        As the Spirit of the Nightmare left the former Nightmare Moon’s body, it started searching for a chaotic, yet inconspicuous target. Discord was out of the question since he was simply too unpredictable, and he was imprisoned in the mana-infused marble form caused by the Elements of Harmony. So, the Nightmare wandered Equus, going from pony to pony, and sometimes gryphon or minotaur, until it reached the time of Twilight Sparkle’s heyday.

        The Nightmare began searching over Equestria, as it decided its next target should be a pony. But which race? Should it take over a unicorn that can wreak magical havoc, a pegasus that can cause harm with the weather, or an Earth pony that can, well… The Nightmare decided that Earth ponies weren’t that useful for one to cause chaos with. It eventually chose to control a unicorn, and set out to find the most chaotic unicorn in Equestria: Sweetie Belle.

        After the Spirit invaded Sweetie Belle’s mind, turning her into the most dangerous creature in Equestria, it decided to wreak havoc across Equestria once the Nightmare was accustomed to being in the body of a filly. Using Sweetie’s limited magical ability, the Nightmare tested the limits of its new body, using the Carousel Boutique as its proving ground.

        Sweetie Belle, now turned Nightmare Sweetie, started out levitating a mannequin and knocking over all of the incomplete dresses that her sister was working on. Her internal magical reserves were increased so that she could stand to hold anything below 70 pounds for more than a few seconds at a time. She then opened all the drawers in Rarity’s work room and threw the contents on the floor. The pony tried to lift and upturn many more things, then realized that there was not enough mana to do so.

        “Argh, this body is horrible!” The Nightmare screamed in an outrage. “It can barely do magic without my help, and it’s very frail!” Deciding to leave Sweetie Belle’s body, the Nightmare took its charge to Ponyville’s stargazing hill and relinquished control of the body, leaving it for dead.

        Sweetie Belle woke up in intense pain. She felt like her mind had turned off, then was forced back on. Waves of pain also emanated from her horn and torso as well, since her magical power was exhausted beyond its normal capabilities. Even a surge wouldn’t have caused her that much pain. All the filly could do was lay down, unmoving, and just hope somepony would help her.

*****

        “Sweetie Belle? Where are you?” Rarity called out, fearing for her sister’s life. Sweetie Belle had disappeared hours previously, and nopony had heard from her or the other Crusaders as to where she went. Rarity hoped that Sweetie Belle was alive and well, and she got her wish.

        Sweetie Belle finally mustered the strength to use her voice, and called for her sister, who followed the voice to where Sweetie was. She felt herself being picked up in a warm, light blue magical aura, which she immediately recognized as Rarity’s. Sweetie fell back asleep, knowing that all would be well.

*****

        The Spirit of the Nightmare had decided that there was nothing for it on Equus after finding out the pony that could have caused the most damage was too weak and useless. It flew itself out into deep space, hoping some other planet would have a more dangerous being.

        The Nightmare flew, if you can call it that, until it saw a blue and greenish planet: Earth. It went into the atmosphere and inhabited a random human. Its charge seemed normal, but the Nightmare realized all too late that the human it had inhabited was going to die from age. When its host died, the Nightmare died with it.