Everything in the world hinged on what Celestia chose to do next. Her body ached, one wing was badly burned, one eye would be useless for a very long time, and a troop of loyal solar guard lie dead all around her.

Nightmare Moon was just too strong.

And Celestia was just too weak.

Stay and fight, or flee and recover.

It was a difficult decision. An impossible decision. Fleeing meant the death of so many more, as it would take time to recover. Staying and fighting might mean the death of everything. A nagging worry played in Celestia’s mind that Nightmare Moon may have the ability to unravel immortality. Celestia’s wounds were not closing as they should.

As Celestia stood, making ready to begin her assault, another option presented itself. A lone figure came streaking down out of heavens, a silvery white contrail streaming out behind him, and he slammed into the side of Nightmare Moon, knocking her from the air and slamming her into the earth.

“FOOL! she spat, climbing back up to her hooves.

Celestia saw that the intercepting guard was one of Luna’s own, a lunar pegasus. He was already up and moving, which was surprising. Nightmare Moon snatched him up in her magic and slammed him into a pillar with a wet thud.

Celestia looked at the guard, seeing he was still alive somehow after the horrific collision, and he peered back at her.

“Run your Majesty, do what must be done,” he growled.

Nightmare Moon lifted a broken pillar with her magic and then dropped it down upon her guard, laughing maniacally. Celestia, seeing that the guard had been crushed, took advantage of Nightmare Moon’s gloating to flee the ruined hall, going down deeper into the palace of the Royal Pony Sisters.

Celestia could hear the sounds of battle up above her. She heard horns. It seemed that reinforcements had arrived. Behind her, she heard hoofsteps, which filled her with terrible fear. She whirled, and saw something unexpected.

The guard who had bought her time to escape was limping along behind her, panting, and trying to keep up.

“You… I watched you die,” gasped Celestia.

“Sorry your Majesty, I will not allow that to happen again, forgive me for causing you distress,” the guard gasped and groaned, struggling to keep moving.

He was a mess. One leg was broken. There was a tear in one leathery bat-like wing. A gash ran from nostril to ear, one eye gone, only a bloody gaping socket remained. A wet whistling sound came from a ragged red crater in his side, in front of his wing, exposed ends of shattered ribs visible and poking out from the mutilated flesh around the hole.

“Why are you here?” asked Celestia.

“I swore fealty to your sister and you. I was one of the few that did so. Luna is gone. That monster is not Luna,” he said sadly.

“How are you still alive?” asked Celestia, still not believing what she was seeing.

“Begging your Majesty’s pardon, but I am damn hard to kill. I was swallowed by a dragon once and I kicked my way out from the inside,” the guard replied. “I will serve you until there is no breath in my remaining lung.”

“You are relieved. Go wait this out. You have done enough,” commanded Celestia.

“No,” the guard replied, shaking his head.

“No?” asked Celestia, not believing what she had just heard.

“I’d rather take a flogging for disobeying an order. My reply is no. Er, no your Majesty,” he retorted.

“Name and rank,” demanded Celestia.

“Coronach. Watch Captain,” he replied, wind still whistling horridly in and out of the jagged pitted hole in his barrel. “Look, I beg your pardon, but Nightmare Moon was very surprised to see me crawl out from under that pillar. She left me impaled on the twisted remains of an iron gate. I have a bone to pick with her.”

Celestia’s jaw dropped open.

“Shouldn’t we be moving your Majesty?” Coronach inquired in worried tones.

“I go to fetch the Elements of Harmony,” Celestia said, still baffled by the guard’s tenacity for clinging to life. Lunar pegasi were tough, but Coronach seemed to defy reality. He was almost as large as she was, easily standing at a hight equal to her wing joint.

“I will serve you until such a time that I no longer draw breath, and then probably for several minutes afterwards,” promised Coronach in a wet raspy wheeze, blood trickling from his lips as he spoke. “Forgive my manners your Majesty,” he begged. “I have soiled your pelt with my common blood.”

“We should be going,” commanded Celestia, moving down the hall once again, a deep passage beneath the castle commons. She ignored Coronach’s blood on her pelt. Above her, she could hear Nightmare Moon destroying their home. There were explosions and the entire foundations shook.

Coronach followed obediently, saying nothing else, the terrible sucking sound of the wet whistling wind going in and out of the hole in his barrel filling the hall. He limped as he walked in three legs, dragging his broken leg along behind him. The passageway was too small for him to fly.

The pair walked into the darkness, Celestia’s horn lighting the way.

“No…” moaned Celestia, halting, her wings opening and spreading slightly. “Clover!” she wailed, falling down beside the body on the floor. The body was slashed and mutilated, causing the flesh to dangle off in tatters. There was no bloody trail leading to it. Celestia concluded that Clover the Clever had teleported down here after surviving the assault. She didn’t survive very long. Clover it seemed, had also gone after the Elements of Harmony, probably to bring them to Celestia. “My dearest and most trusted friend,” sobbed Celestia.

Coronach stood patiently, oozing blood from dozens of wounds, standing watch over the grief stricken monarch as his own life force continued to flow from his body, making dripping sounds that echoed in the deep dark.

The hidden vault lie ahead. Some months ago, Celestia had moved the Elements from their original vault, the one that Luna knew about. Celestia had lived in fear of this day coming for quite some time. The only other pony that knew about the change was Clover.

Celestia rose and pressed her nose into Clover one last time, pulling away with a muzzle that dripped her friend’s life blood.

“Come, Coronach, we finish this. Once I have them, I will use what little energy I have left to teleport us to the surface. I will be weak and exposed after I do so. I will need time to activate the Elements and deal with my sister. You have offered so much already, but since you seem willing to give your life, I now require that you buy me time. ” Celestia explained in careful detail.

Coronach nodded when Celestia looked at him, causing a frightful amount of blood to spill from his gaping garish eye socket. It trickled down his muzzle and splattered upon the floor in large wet drops, sending awful echoes off to dwell in the darkness.

Celestia opened the vault, going into the hidden room, and the Elements rose up from their hidden stand in the floor to greet her. They twinkled with faint light at first, and then began to glow in her presence. She carried them in her magic, and they attuned themselves to her, realising that one of the bearers, Luna, served the Elements no longer.

“Ready?” asked Celestia, looking at her loyal guard, and feeling a brief pang, wishing that she had taken time to know him. Usually, she felt repulsed by the lunar guard and their savage ways. Coronach seemed gentle and noble.

“I will serve,” barked Coronach, spitting blood as he did so.

Celestia’s horn flashed, causing her and her companion in the dark to vanish.

They reappeared in the now ruined gate yard, Coronach glancing around him with his remaining eye.

Nightmare Moon descended with a screech, death swooping down on black wings that made no sound as they slashed through the night. Coronach spread his wings and moved to intercept, taking off with a jerky clumsy movement that seemed to make flight impossible. Somehow, Coronach flew.

“HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?” Nightmare Moon screamed, seeing Coronach. “STAY DEAD, YOUR PRINCESS COMMANDS IT!”

“No!” growled Coronach, pumping his wings so he could rise to meet Nightmare Moon and engage her in combat. “Go stuff a pike up your foul piss hole!”

Nightmare Moon spared him the trouble. She seized him in her magic and smashed him into the gatehouse, causing the stone wall to crumble with the impact. Before his limp body could slide down and hit the ground, she sent him flying again, moving with great speed, and slamming him into the observation tower. Coronach’s broken body fell from a great height and tumbled into the gate yard below.

“AND NOW SISTER, THE NIGHT SHALL LAST FOREVER!” Nightmare Moon shrieked, cackling madly with laughter.

“Not if I have a say in it,” wheezed Coronach, rising up into the air, another leg now hanging at an odd angle, his skull looking lumpy and somewhat misshapen. He flew straight towards Nightmare Moon as Celestia began to be surrounded by a piercing rainbow coloured glow, filling the darkness with light.

“DIE! I COMMAND IT!” shouted Nightmare Moon, filled with rage at the insolent lunar pegasus that refused to die. She snatched him with her magic, flung him around, mercilessly smashing him into several walls, and then impaled him on a flagpole, fiendishly laughing as Coronach squirmed and writhed, trying to pull himself upwards using his one good foreleg to free himself. “DIE IN PAIN!” Nightmare Moon commanded, enjoying the agonised writhing of the impaled guard.

“SISTER!” Celestia screamed, “I AM SORRY!”

A lance of rainbow light rose up from the ground, striking Nightmare Moon, burning away her black flesh, revealing for a moment a dark blue alicorn. There was an agonised shriek, and then the lance of rainbow light streaked off towards the heavens, towards the moon, binding Nightmare Moon, who was once Luna, sister of Celestia, into a terrible lunar prison. Celestia took no joy in her triumph.

Struggling to fly with her badly damaged wing, she made it to the roof after expending great effort, finally landing with heaving gasps. She looked up, seeing the impaled pegasus, and with dawning horror, realised that he was still alive, face pointing down at her, a pleading look on his face. His remaining eye, sensitive to light, had been burned by the light the Elements had produced, leaving it white and milky, his vision forever lost.

“Kill me,” Coronach rasped, blood flowing from his lips. He hung, head downwards, his backside pointing skywards.

Celestia gagged at the sight, and, unable to keep looking, turned away. “I can not,” she murmured, her heart breaking, realising she could not deal any more death this night, even if it was mercy.

“Oh Goddess, I have served you faithfully, kill me…” Coronach begged.

“I CAN NOT!” Celestia snapped, falling to the roof, sobbing, having endured too much, the sorrow of her own lost sister settling in, Coronach’s blood raining down upon her as she wept, her body shaking with sobs of grief.

A few surviving solar pegasi landed, forming a protective circle around her, their numbers now a precious few. They peered up at the impaled lunar pegasus, their faces contorting in horror, the hardened veterans of war, forced turn away.

“Kill me,” Coronach burbled, blood trickling from his loose and limp lips.

“No!” commanded Celestia. “No more death!” she shrieked. “Thousands have died, no more!”

The solar guard shuffled, torn between duty and loyalty for their bat winged brethren. There was no doubt whose side he had been on, and the solar pegasi treated him as one of their own.

“Your Highness, I can make it swift and painless,” promised a guard.

“NO!” squealed Celestia, bawling from grief, and grinding her teeth together for a moment. “I cannot bear any more death, forgive me my selfishness.”

“I forgive you my Goddess,” Coronach rasped, his head hanging limp, his blood staining the flagpole as the sun began to rise for the first time in days.

Celestia struggled to her hooves, rising to greet the sun, feeling her magic flowing back into her as the sun now began to finally shine upon her.

She carefully teleported Coronach’s body off of the flagpole and gently cradled him in her magic, swearing silently that Nightmare Moon’s rampage would not claim this noble guard pony’s life.

Moments later, she suffered the horrifying realisation that Coronach was a creature of shadow, and she would not be able to heal him with her magic.

Celestia wept bitter tears.

Author's Note

Well, here it is, a reversal of "To Dance In Shadow."

The opening chapter of Blinded By the Sun, a story about Celestia finding a bit of solace after banishing her sister.