The Darkness Is My Light

With how sad steps,

O Moon,

Thou climb'st the skies;

How silently,

And with how wan a face.

~ Philip Sidney

"Stop Zasdin! What has thou brought upon us!" Luna cried in dismay as they tried to subdue the bipedal being on their tallest spire, leaning over the balconies edge.

"You must stop immediately! Think of all the lives you will have cursed!" Celestia yelled, fear dominating her features.

"Me? It is not only me. I wouldn't dream of taking all the glory for myself. We are doing this together, just how we agreed upon dear royal sisters. And I have thought of the lives, I've double checked and triple checked, and I promise only the bare minimum will be effected. And we all know there's more than enough suffering creatures for that." Zasdin answered with a mad laugh while he froze the Sun and burned the moon as he brought about an inverted-eclipse. "Luna," He began with genuine sadness, "what have you done with your Other? She was the one who aided me in the creation of this martyrdom scheme. She had decided if none would have naught of the of night, then none would have of the day. A rather ingenious idea if I do say so myself, because, while she thought of the idea, she had no means by which to achieve it. That bit of ingenuity is my claim, but even after I had devised what to do exactly, we still l

lacked the resources required. And that's where, what did she call herself? Oh yes, Nightmare really shone." He finished wistfully.

"What are you saying? We would never do such a thing!" Luna finished in abject horror at the thought her Other had been the start of

this.

"Sister? What do you mean 'We'?" Celestia asked, her curiosity peaking.

"Well, what she means dear Tia -" Zasdin began before the sun's keeper interrupted.

"I told you never to call me that again after what you did to -" She furiously started but paused once noticing he wasn't listening.

"Is that she has been keeping a small secret from you." He finished quietly.

"What secret would that be? Luna, I thought we could tell each other anything?" Celestia inquired, hurt that such a thing would happen.

"Well, remember when we found that crystal hallow and tried to use them as magical amplifiers?" Luna responded after taking a deep breath.

"Yes." Her sister answered hesitantly, unsure where this was going.

"And how I was acting...strange, when we were finished?" Luna continued.

"Yes but that was only because your early body was unused to such a flow of energy." Celestia answered, somewhat relieved it was only this again, "But where are you getting at here?"

"Well," She started as she took another breath, "do you also remember how we discovered all beings are born only with a finite reservoir of magic," she trudged on as a look between comprehension dawned on her sister's face, "and is incapable of containing anymore unless they keep extra reserves in an enchanted container of a sort?"

"Yes, but where-what are you trying to tell me?"

"When I...attempted to harvest the energies from the cove, I experienced some, unexpected results." Luna finished with a wince.

"Unexpected how?"

"Oh for the love of God! She's a schizophrenic!" Zasdin interrupted, "Geez Luna I never thought you were one for stepping on eggshells!"

"No, she was just, disoriented." Celestia tried to explain.

"Dry off Tia! You're knee deep in de Nile! Just tell her Luna!"

"N-no, I'm not her! I'm fine! There's nothing wro-"

"Nightmare Moon!" Zasdin began to call, "Nightmare Moon, come out and explain to them the purpose of the Second!"

"Don't! D-no! NO!" Luna tearfully yelled as she began to transform, her midnight blue coat turning into a flat sheen of black, as viscous,

flowing black, bubbling like tar, her mane and tail began to lose their consistency as they began to thin out, omitting their previously accented and defined outer blue rings, she began screaming as her bones degraded and rebuilt themselves, increasing her already impressive height, she put a hoof to her mouth when blood began flowing as her incisors fell out only to be quickly replaced by fear-spawning fangs that hung out her mouth as it closed. Her body was sent into throws of pain, but she was too worn to scream, leaving her to silently cry as she writhed on the ground, but she stopped as her fangs became prominent and dominated her muzzle, her horn elongated, her wings increased in girth, and her bones solidified from their previous non-Newtonian state, leaving only her eyes to be seen, but they were shut tight. Slowly though, they lost their appearance of pain and fear, becoming less tense, replaced by an imperious look, calm, cool, and collected. She stopped shivering, her tears were stemmed, and she stood up. When she rose to her new staggering height, she opened them to reveal, not their past compassionate and sparkling blue eyes, but cruel, serpentine, concise, calculative, and observing stormy night blue eyes. She first looked at Zasdin and gave him a curt nod, then she moved her gaze over to Celestia who had been silently crying as well while she was observing her sisters transformation, to frightened to move, and feeling useless as her magic kept sputtering out every time she tried to do something. When she saw her beloved sister's sight resting on her, her breath caught, her eyes threatened to water again, and her knees shook.

"Wh-what has happened to you dear Luna? Are you quite all right now?"

"I am not Luna. I am Nightmare Moon and I have answered the call of my associate." Nightmare put matter-of-factly as her voice took on an echoing and distorted tone, a resonating sound of both Luna and another. But as she spoke, another within her raged and cried in fear and disgust. Fear for herself and others, and disgust at what she had become, she was nothing more than a passenger watching through the glass that was her vision. But the newly transmogrified Alicorn turned her head to Zasdin as her horn began to glow a soft and subtle midnight blue giving away no sign of what raged within her mind, "What is it that you require? Have we reached our margins?"

"No, not our margins." He answered as he gestured to the sky.

She looked at the masterpiece and beheld, her stony features were betrayed momentarily as she displayed the most miniscule amount of surprise, "Why have you left out my person? I thought we had come to a consensus on my partaking in this act of apathy?

NO! You changed! We were to live together and share a symbiotic existence!

Symbiotic? Neigh, I would be forced to exist within the confines of your mind while you leeched from my plentiful magic reserves. I want what would be best, for the both of us. Her counterpart was beginning to respond but Moon had been drawn out by her partner.

"No my dear Nightmare, we have far exceeded our margins!" Zasdin continued with a sweeping gesture with his arms, indicating the whole city and all its horizons, "I have been busy while you were...away." He finished with the smallest hint of anger as his eyes flickered towards Celestia, "But you need not worry, I was just getting started."

Celestia then regained herself to the best of her abilities and started on Zasdin, "What have you done to my sister you demented hell-spawn? If you do not restore her immediately return her to her previous state I will have no choice but to end you, to end your control over her!" She finished in the Mind Manipulators Enigma.

"I would have thought more carefully before I'd spoken." Nightmare began, "Because what if I decide to take the shot instead? Would become of your dear Luna?" She finished venomously as her forked tongue danced on the 'L'.

Stop it stop it! Please just leave us be and we'll- we'll come to an agreement! The downtrodden possessed princess screamed.

The time for agreements has come and gone long ago. Now it is my turn to live while you must sit back and watch life pass you by as everypony and everything you ever knew passes you by and you can only watch as it all turns to dust, knowing that if you had been there you could have prevented countless sorrows. Nightmare settled as her armor encircled her, but it being for Luna it was too small, she changed it to fit her...acquired tastes. Gone was the armor of midnight black with a right-facing moon, to be replaced by a night-shadow blue ensemble with a flipped moon and prominent edges.

I-I had no -

"Luna what have you done to your battle raiment?" The Sun goddess inquired, "Why would you say such a thing? Obviously he has overcome you with his degraded forms of magic! Please Luna, come back to me." Celestia cried as she held back her raging anger at Zasdin and her fear for her sister's being.

"No Celestia, I haven't done anything of the sort. Nightmare and I have come to terms with our scant differences and decided to do what is best for Gaia as a whole. Nightmare. Show her your...love for the crown." He finished in the quietest, most menacing voice she'd ever heard.

Wha-what does he mean?

"Of course Zasdin, all for the better.

What are you saying?

"Luna? What are you doing?" Celestia questioned as her sister's horn began glowing an ominous black.

NO! Don't do it Nightmare! Please! I'm begging you! We'll do anything you want just please don't do it!

Yes, we will do anything I want. Nightmare finished with a surge of power leaving her heading towards Celestia. She was caught off guard and struck her down, dead before she hit the floor. And Luna watched it all as if it were all in slow motion. From the killing-curse leaving her twisted and contorted body, it going through the air, hitting her sister, the final moment of surprise and sadness on her sister's face, and as her body fell gracelessly to the floor like a puppet whose strings have been cut. And she'd have to live with that for the rest of eternity. And Zasdin reacted with the most boastful and hate inspiring sound she had ever heard as he laughed and laughed over the corpse of her fallen sister.

"Oh I'll be back dear Luna. I'll be coming back." He finished with another round of raucous laughter, "You can be sure of that."

"NO! CELESTIA COME BACK!" Luna shouted as she pounced up and off her bed.

"Sweet dreams, I'll be back." Was the last thing she could remember hearing before her sister herself barged through her door into her room.

"What is it Luna?" She started, searching the room for any potential instigators before shutting the door, "Sister, did you, Princess of the night and Dreamscape, have a nightmare?" She finished with ill-hidden mirth before noticing her sister's condition, "Oh my, Luna was it truly something dreadful?"

Luna, who had been recuperating on her bed in practically a comatose state as she was shivering uncontrollably and imperceptibly tearing again, just looked at Celestia with both hooves over her mouth before saying one shaky word, "Zasdin." And that's all it took to break down Celestia's regal appearance as well before she rushed to her sister's side and barely containing herself from shaking as well, knowing all to well the kind of dreams the very memory of him could incite.

"He said," Luna began, nearly crying again, "he said...he's coming back." She finished, the dam holding back her tears breaking as she screamed, "I don't want to go back I don't want to back!"

Celestia wrapped a comforting wing around her mess of a sister as she too paled to nearly the point of losing color, "N-no, he-he can't come back. We made sure of that. We made sure of that." So beginning the chant repeating the final phrase. Remembering, in acute detail, of the painstaking and abhorrent trials they went through to defeat him, "We made sure of that."

"I don't want to go back to sleep." Luna whispered.