Hidden in Blood

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."