"Go now! Leave my presence!" the black alicorn snarled. She turned her back on the silver and red pony cowering before her. "Through the Mirror. NOW!" She spat. The silver pony stepped closer to the mirror set before her. "Oh, and one more thing," Nightmare Moon broke in. The silver pony stopped. "Good luck, my faithful traitor."
Rarity was in Canterlot, working to sew a dress. She had just finished, and was very pleased with the result. Rarity stepped outside of her room and was shocked to see that it was past midnight. She started to run down the halls, knowing that she had to give the dress to the pony she was working for-Rarity just couldn't remember the mare's name. She was in such of a hurry, she didn't see the glowing red eyes following her every move.
She suddenly sensed that she was being followed, and whipped back around. She let out a startled yelp. She was face-to-face with a pair of blood-red eyes. The color flashed silver, then green, then shone with a diamond blue color that was irresistible. Rarity was transfixed. She reached out with her hooves, trying to catch the beautiful color. Two blood-stained fangs, glistening in the glow, appeared where a mouth would be.
Nopony ever heard Rarity's scream as the creature leaped at her and sank its fangs deep into her neck.
The library door opened without warning. "Have y'all seen Rarity anywhere?" Applejack called from the entrance. Twilight dropped her book, startled.
"She was supposed to be back in Ponyville by noon. Why? Is she not here?" Twilight asked. Applejack came closer to Twilight.
"She hasn't shown up yet," Applejack remarked.
"What if something happened to her?!" Twilight gasped. She leaped up and started to pace around the room. Twilight was mumbling frantically under her breath about Rarity, if something had stopped her from coming back, if she should write to Princess Celestia, if they should go searching for her.
"Twilight, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about," Applejack soothed. Twilight kept on pacing like nothing had ever come out of Applejack's mouth. "Um...I've got to...uh...go and buck some...apple trees..now," Applejack coughed. She slowly made her way over to the door, slipped outside, and quietly shut it, leaving Twilight alone.
"What if she...if she...was killed?" Twilight whispered, her eyes growing wide. She galloped over to one of her bookshelves, frantically searching for clues. "Perplexing Pony Plagues...no...Crystal Empire History...how did that get HERE?!" Twilight exclaimed, pulling book after book out of the shelves. "Curious Canterlot Killings...that must be it!" Twilight sighed. "The only thing wrong with it is the last word...hmm..." Twilight mused.
She sat down, opened it, and started to read. "Discord-reformed. King Sombra-is he even a killer? Nightmare Moon-," Twilight stopped at this. "Nah. She's gone now," Twilight's eyes were suddenly drawn to a few words down near the bottom. "Queen Chrysalis and the Changelings?! They feed on love, not the killing of other ponies! They couldn't have killed anypony, EVER!" Twilight shouted.
"Not blood? Not...a changeling?", came a voice from the shadows around Twilight.
"Who's there?!" Twilight demanded, lighting her horn. It was as if a shadow was moving around the room, faster than Twilight could light it. Twilight's wings flared, putting her into a defensive posture.
Twilight started to blast magical energy at it, in the hope that she could catch it and find out what it was. Suddenly a blood-red light washed over her. She didn't even have time to scream before the shadow was upon her.
"Two ponies down. Six to go," the silver pony reported.
"Well done, Silverblood. You will be well rewarded," The voice came from inside Silverblood's head, a telepathic link. Silverblood's spirit rose, as a reward was nigh impossible to get from her master. "But after, and only after, the fifth and sixth are brought to me. Personally," Nightmare Moon commanded. Silverblood turned and vanished into the shadows of the night. The moon shone a blood red, like it was weeping for all the blood that was and was about to be spilled...
Princess Luna tossed and turned in her bed. Even though it was noon, and she was desperately tired, she still couldn't sleep. There was something deep inside of her, a pull, almost a longing, for something she was afraid to name.
"No. That part of us is gone. Gone forever," Luna muttered to herself. "If that is so, why do I feel this ache, deep inside of me, where the Nightmare hath rest?" Luna gasped as she thought of a possibility. "The Mirror?!" Luna galloped down to the throne room. She activated a special Alicorn magic-protected seal, and it glowed and opened. Luna rushed downwards, and was met with a horrible sight.
The room was dripping with blood, from the floor to the roof. In the very center was the Universe Mirror. It had turned a deep red, streaked with black. "This...this cannot be true!" Luna screeched. She tried to back away, only to find her back connecting with stone. The magic seal had somehow malfunctioned, and had trapped her inside the bloody room with the corrupt Mirror. She felt a lust for blood, for murder, for death, like she had never felt before. Even during Luna's time as Nightmare Moon had not had a darkness as great as this.
Luna was drawn to the Mirror-and it seemed to come up to meet her. The blood smell was overpowering. It only made her deep ache stronger. Two black hooves, adorned in blue armor, reached out to meet Luna. She took her front two hooves and placed them in these ones. Luna was pulled through, and she felt herself becoming one with the other. Her mind slowly whirled away, to be replaced by only the craving, and the desire...
Equestria was in chaos. "The moon!" everypony was screaming. "The moon hasn't set! Nightmare Moon is upon us all!" Princess Celestia was just laying on her bed, pillows pressed tightly to her ears, trying to block out the havoc of everypony panicking at once. She had broken, for her sister had disappeared just the previous night. Celestia now felt the weight of both the sun and the moon. It was as if Luna had not just disappeared into thin air, but had left her power as well. She would have felt it if Nightmare Moon was in Equestria, and it still wouldn't explain why she now had to raise both the sun and moon. Nightmare moon could still do that-but had refused to do it.
With a defeated sigh, Celestia stepped out onto the balcony and lit her horn to bring the moon down. Everypony cheered when they saw the moon setting, but the ponies in Canterlot gasped when they saw that Celestia, not Luna, had come out to lower the moon. A troubled murmuring spread across the city. Celestia stepped back into the castle-only to find scrolls piling up all around her. She levitated one towards her, opened it, then almost let it drop in shock. It was the normal handwriting of the Mane 6's letters-only it contained horrible words. Celestia kept reading scroll after scroll, and she realized that they all had mostly the same thing written on them. It consisted mostly of mentions of blood all over the library and Rarity gone missing, and the worst of all, Twilight was gone.
"My faithful student. What could have gone wrong?" Celestia moaned. "Another two subjects near and dear to me. Gone."
