The Darker Side of Equestria

1.Luna's Madness/Children's Nightmare

You ever wondered what is was like to be in the shadow of someone as great and powerful as Princess Celestia. To watch them succeed and become well thought of in the eyes of their citizens while you were saw as nothing more than what you once were. She would raise the sun and bring joy to their lives while you raised the moon and brought sadness and misery. Nobody ever sees you as who you really are. All they see is the nightmare you brought to them. Celestia tries to tell you that they will come around to see you as you are but they never do. In her eyes are the words: Hope, Happiness, Greatness, Determination, Drive, Harmony, Power, Joy, and Purity. In your eyes, they see: Nightmare, Monster, Hatred, Devourer, Chaos. All they ever saw and will ever see in you is HER. A looming mass of hatred that was always ready to come out and devour anything in it's path. It cared for nothing and would only see to it that it's citizen feared it or be destroyed. You could almost say it was as maniacal as King Sombra or as chaotic and disturbed as Lord Discord. It might be just as hungry for power as Queen Chrysalis or maybe,just maybe...you would be as uncaring, spiteful, destructive, and psychotic as Lord Tirek. Any one of them was portrayed as monsters and one of them met a terrible fate in his own empire. Had it not been for her faithful student, it would have been likely that she would have killed you. The Nightmare would've ended if she took that road but perhaps your mother had other ideas or an alternate means of saving you from yourself. That is not to say that you aren't greatful for being released but you just wish you weren't seen as The Mare in The Moon, The Devourer of Fillies and Colts, The Nightmare Weaver. You wish they called you Princess Luna or just Luna instead of Nightmare Moon.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

In the city of Canterlot and within the halls of the princesses' castle, the guards silently await their princesses who have been talking for sometime in Celestia's chambers. This has become normal for the guards as rumors have spread around that Luna has been trying to garner attention from her "loyal" subjects. Celestia has tried to reason with her sister about the matter but Luna would always bring up that they only appreciate her during Nightmare Night and after that they would go back to fearing her again. Luna hated being feared. She knew that what she did in the past was horribly wrong and that is something she will always have gnawing in the back of her head but she has since left it in the past. Like before, Celestia tried to reason to her but it was not enough to ease her younger sister's pain. The guards of both sisters had a hard time keeping a stern face as they worried about their princesses.

Inside Celestia's Chamber...

Celestia covered her face with her right foreleg, blocking from a pillow that was hurled from the very bed Luna was laying on. Luna gave her worried sister a look of pure hatred. Using her magic, Celestia levitated the pillow from the floor back onto the bed in it's proper place. She brushed herself off with her elegant wings. Never taking her purple eyes off her younger sister.

"Sister..." Celestia said in a lowly sympathetic tone.

Luna sharply looked away with a face that could instill fear in anypony. "What does thou wanteth?"

Celestia could feel the sharpness of each word hit her but didn't want to show her fear. "They will come around but it will take time. It won't be easy and that I know but just trust me."

"We have waited long enough sister." Luna's tone was calm. "Thou claim that they will come around. I found that hard to believe in the slightest"

"They will. Just you wait." Celestia said with a small smile on her face.

"Prove it." was all Luna could say at the moment.

Celestia took a second to think about it. "Well there's Sunset Shimmer and Discord."

"A has-been student and a jokester that has betrayed you more times than anypony else are you proof." Luna sarcastically said with a grin on her face.

Celestia had became irritated with her sister's sarcasm. "They didn't have a problem fitting in and if I remember correctly, Discord was reformed twice and still garnered positive friends."

The dark mare wanted so badly to just yell out her anger or do worse but the image of what she once was was enough to prevent that. It was always that image that made her stop from doing unspeakable damage. She could tell that she deserved that response from her sister. She didn't like her sister's way of stating the obvious yet couldn't argue about the truth. Discord was reformed by Fluttershy after she almost gave up on him and after Twilight saved him even though he sold her friends' energy to Tirek. Compared to her, he had it harder in life. Luna took a deep breath, finally deciding to look at her sister with a more nicer expression. Celestia smiled softly, embracing Luna with her large wings. Despite the tender moment and their happy demeanor, both knew that the conversation still happened.

"They still fear me...of me...of what i'll become..." Luna thought with a look of sadness.

After meeting with the other two Alicorn Princesses, Princess Cadence and Princess Twilight for a meeting dealing with the social equality in Equestria, Luna had begun to raise the moon as Celestia went to her chambers for sleep. The guards that usually protected the hallway were off duty so their bat-pony counterparts took over. The moon began to move in place, Luna could see the stars twinkling throughout the dark skies. Whenever she and her sister were done with the day, she would look to the stars for comfort. To her and her alone did these stars obey. They did not fear her and were there to listen to her when she needed it most. At her appearance they did not flee nor ever bore malice against her. They never betrayed her like the ponies she tried so hard to impress during her freedom. She poured her heart and soul at these stars, always telling her secrets, greatest fears, feelings, day to day life. The personal information would be kept in privacy among the stars and in turn they would tell her their secrets.

For a time the guards watched as their princess of the night gazed out at the twinkling stars. They stand erect while listening to Luna talk to the stars as if she was a psychotic mare. They would also hear everything she say. Of course they never say anything for fear of being punished. To them,their beloved Princess of The Night was just talking to the stars as a coping mechanism for her dilemma.

Now the moon was properly positioned over Equestria with the princess looking on to examine her work. "A beautiful site as usual. Tis a shame that our subjects cannot see the beauty of the night." she said in a depressing tone.

The princess of the night sighed silently to herself while looking up at the stars. She hated this moment more than her and Celestia feuding because it was the moment that her nightmare would begin to haunt her. The monster she thought The Elements of Harmony had banished would climb it's way through Luna's mind and excessively call her out. No matter how many times she poured her memories on it to push it back it would hold on with strong force. Sometimes she can hear it growl and moan as it advanced on. The nightmare got closer and closer to the point Luna had curled up into a ball. She groaned lowly to herself, covering her face with her hooves. The guards, seeing their princess in pain, ran from their position at the door up to her to see what was wrong only to be met by a fainted Luna. They gave each other a worried expression before returning their attention to Luna. One of the guards aided with putting their princess on the other's back and proceeded to take her to her chambers.

Luna was still unconscious as they walked down the long hallway filled with constellations and bright stars floating around and throughout the long passageway. From time to time, the guards would check to make sure Luna was okay. She would mumble some words in a light gentle voice that opposite to her usual proper loud voice. The guards could only smile at the princess since it was rare for them to see their princess do anything as cute as that.

A couple of steps later they finally entered the chambers of Luna to meet two unicorn guards bearing their armor. The unicorn guard to the left of the bed used his magic to levitate the princess off the batpony guard's back and gently placed her in her bed. They levitated the cover on her to once again show a cuter side of Luna. The guards left the room with big smiles on their face. Taking pleasure in watching over their princess through the hallway.

Despite normal appearance while sleeping it was completely different in her mind. It was bleak and dull. She looked around to see floating images from when she attended the Nightmare Night Festival but something was wrong. The images were distorted with ponies having sharp cat-like eyes, darker colors, sharp teeth. Some of these horrible pictures were as if somepony smeared their hooves all over the pictures. Instead of fillies and colts laughing and playing, they had distorted cries and screams of anguish. She tried to cover her ears with her hooves but since it was in her mind, even her thought form could still here it. All the screams were like knives slowly digging their way into her from all over. She shut her eyes and clenched her teeth as the stinging of their words made her scream.

"They fear you..." The voice said.

Luna hit the ground hard still covering her ears and clenching her teeth.

"They resent you..." The voice continued pressing on.

She resorted to another mean of enduring the pain of their screams. With great discomfort, she bit her own tongue with enough force to nearly cut it off.

"You resort to pain but tis not enough...the fear hurts them but pleasures me to no end..." The voice mockingly said.

After failing to shift the pain, she rose from the ground weakly and tried one more time to end her pain by using her magic to rip off her ears.

"How far have you gone Princess Luna...biting your tongue...ripping your ears off...and still no relief..." The voiced laughed out.

Luna was now at her wits end as she tried to get the children's screams out of her head.

"This can all go away...if you embrace me...embrace...The Nightmare !" The sound of a horn illuminated could be heard off in the distant.

Luna's eyes were wide open now. The screams and cries stopped and the images went back to peaceful and non-distorted. Their eyes were not that of Her. "Tis a lie!"

"Is it?" The voice sarcastically asked.

"Yes it is.Thou art sharing tales of false." Luna sharply replied.

"If it is then how come when you were me...they did not scream nor harbor anger...only fear but when you were freed of me...they cried and ran without hearing you out?" The voice asked with a hint of joy in it.

The hurting princess was holding back tears after hearing Her mention the obvious.

That entire phrase was just enough to make her remember the craziness of Nightmare Night. The children yelling and screaming at her along with their parents. Bringing the spiders to life only for them to attack the ponies. Her arrival striking fear among them as well as when she tried to save Pipsqueak and even thanking Fluttershy. It was always haunting her to know that they would always be fearing her. It began to drive her wild. She wanted it all to end, the nightmare, the memory, the hatred and resentment.

"Why do they love Celestia but are willing to hate and shame me?" Luna pounded her hooves onto the ground.

"They don't want you...so why should you stoop to their level. Say my name and I will make all of them simply go away..." The voice impatiently said.

Luna,despite being in a mangled state, refused to say her name. This only made her old self angry. She decided to make Luna suffer more than she already did. Luna attempted to force herself up to show her bravery to the voice in her head. What she did not realize was that the voice was behind her as a mass of ghastly mist. It shaped itself into a form she could easily recognize. The entity she had been keeping at bay since her freedom. It pinned her down by her wings and pounced on them multiple times with it's sharp hooves. Luna bit her tongue again to avoid screaming as the entity severed most of the bones in her wings. Seeing Luna hold up alittle more only infuriated the monster more. It rose it's rear legs into the air and pounced them hard onto Luna's back hooves. Luna yelled as loud as she her vocals could carry. Her eyes opened as wide as she could with tears streaming down her cheeks. The monster proceeded to ram it's rear legs into Luna's again, they screams grew louder yet no one was there to help her or even comfort her from the pain. It took four more times before loud cracks could be heard. Blood trickled down the sides of both her rear legs. Within seconds a puddle had formed underneath her body. The monster laughed maniacally at the princess' pain but knew it could do more. It rammed it's sharp fron hooves into Luna's skull. The response was pleasurable to it, Luna was screaming and crying louder than she had ever before. It was moaning at the sight of seeing Luna breakdown in front of it yet despite all she had endured, she refused to say it's name once.

"Say my name...SAY IT!!!!" The monster yelled out furiously

"I will never speaketh thou name ever again." Luna said as anger filled her eyes. "You are nothing more than a shadow that thinks it can make me say it's name but I will NOT!!!"

"You seem to have more backbone than when I first took over...but it will not help you for the night shall last FOREVER!!!" The monster removed itself from Luna and stepped back from the mess she made.

The monster expanded and stretch to unmaginable lengths inorder to consume the mind of Luna. All the images, names, voices, and her own sister began to disappear altogether. Nothing was safe from it and neither was Luna who got caught in it's waves of anger and misery. She found that she could not fly because of her broken wings and she could not swim due to her broken legs. Waves upon waves of rage hit her hard and relentlessly. She did her best to stay above the waves of hate hitting every ounce of her being. Each hit made her cry, scream, shake, and lose her sanity piece by piece. Once again, the monster moaned at the site of Luna losing everything she loved most.

"Since you refuse to say my name Luna...I will do it for you...My name..." The voice happily yelled out.

"No." Luna tried to cover what remained of her ears.

"Is..." The voice continued.

"No!" Luna fired magical beams in every direction but none made contact.

"Nightmare..." The voice continued.

"No!!!" Luna fired a powerful energy beam into the sky. She was already halfway gone at this point.

"Moon!" A loud evil laugh covered the entire monster covered landscape. Luna finally heard the name she was doing her best to forget by making memories to counter it in the beginning.

"NO!!!" Was the last thing Luna yelled out before she was engulfed by the mass now called Nightmare Moon.

In her chambers, Celestia awoken to the sounds of the guards outside groaning in pain. She did not leave her bed as she figured the guards were getting tired of doing their shift. As far as she could tell it seemed that everything was fine until she looked at the door. It was still dark in the room so she illuminated her horn to get a better view of her room. Her attention was drawn towards the door. She could see a pool of blood entering her room from under the door. Fear consumed her as she began to here the sound of hooves making their way to the door. Following these hooves was low giggling. The sun princess had become a nervous wreck when she heard what sounded like a lullaby.

"The little princess was all but adorn...held in place by her subjects' scorn...she fell on death's ear while everpony grew in fear...til all that was left was a single tear..."

The doors swung open quickly with the corpses of the two guards falling inside the room. Their bodies were shown to have bite marks all over as well as stab marks. Their eyes were glazed over and their armor was cracked in several places. Celestia nearly screamed but caught herself in a gasp when she saw who had done the deed. In the door stood a dark blue mare with sharpen cat like eyes with bloody tears staining her cheeks. Her hair was ruffled which gave the appearance of a psycho. Her wings were broken yet they stood up misshaped. Celestia's illuminating horn also gave her clear view of the figures teeth that appeared to be jagged as if she tried to sharpen them. She soon realized that it was her little sister, Luna. The princess of the night was beyond repair at this point. This was evident by the permanent smile she had gave herself and her demonic eyes. Princess Celestia wanted to get out of her bed and confront her sister yet was too scared to do anything. She was still processing what was going on and was having a hard time trying to cope with the thought of another banishment.

The new Nightmare Moon spoke first. "Are you scared of our appearance sister?"

Celestia didn't want to talk but did not know what her sister would do if she remained silent. "Yes I am.What has happen to you?" She asked.

Nightmare Moon smirked. "I haven't changed since the last time you banished me and I haven't change now."

Her eyes widened as the name slowly came out of her mouth. "Nightmare Moon."

"You are correct sister." a sinister grin appeared on her face. "And the age of my new empire will soon begin!"

Moving the sheets aside to prepare herself for battle, Celestia tried to advance off the bed but felt a sharp pain go through her chest. She looked down to see a blue beam of energy going through her chest from the horn of her sister. Nightmare Moon snickered under her breath at the site of her defenseless older sister. This was what she wanted a thousand years ago when she was first born. To see her sister beg for mercy and fall at her hooves. She retracted the beam from her horn to allow her sister to fall onto the floor muzzle first. Blood spilled onto the floor around Celestia just like the guards before her. She tried to balance herself but became too weak to move from the loss of ounces of blood. Celestia was completely shocked by what just happened. It was hard to think that her own sister would go this far to make herself be loved. Nightmare Moon walked over to her sister, her legs showing signs of instability due to their mangled state. It didn't take long for Nightmare Moon to relish in her weak sister's fragile state. She had finally accomplished what was impossible in the past. Using her magic, Nightmare Moon fashioned an axe with her cutie mark engraved on the back park of the axe. Still having her magic active, she aimed the axe precisely over Celestia's head.

"Do you have any last words big sister?" Nightmare Moon asked sharply with hints of a mocking attitude.

Celestia only looked up at her sister with eyes that showed fear of what will eventually happen to her sister. "Don't lose Luna, Nightmare Moon is only a nightmare and you can defeat it. Don't lose your way."

Nightmare Moon just laughed. She basked in the glory of her victory. " Luna is gone."

"You are wrong creature –" Celestia forced all her energy into moving her body but no movement was found. "– Luna will return to defeat your evil."

Nightmare Moon laughed harder than she ever had. "Are you really serious right now. Luna is gone and soon you will be too."

"SHE IS NOT! MOTHER AND I WILL ALWAYS BE BY HER SIDE!!!" Celestia, in a state of fury, had yelled out.

"Then see her in the afterlife!" was the last thing Nightmare Moon said to her former sister.

The axe came down full force upon Celestia's neck. The cracking sounds of bones within the neck breaking at once. The last line of life was gone from Celestia as her head rolled to the side if her body. After the room fell silent, Nightmare Moon continued to kill off the rest of the guards and maids inside the castle. She left no area unchecked with bodies of the servants continuing to pile on over the night.What she had wanted years ago had came into fruition with the death of Celestia. The moon never fell from the sky and everyone in Equestria was laid to sleep eternally. Never aging, never knowing the taste of freedom and unable to use The Elements of Harmony against their new Regal Queen of Nightmares. They now hailed her whether they like it or not. They could not escape her nightmarish grip on their world. This made them lose their sanity over the course of the years.

It took years to break certain ponies like The Mane Six, Doctor Whooves, Shining Armor, and Princess Cadence. Hundreds of years had passed and her subjects were now mentally broken beyond repair. Nightmare Moon awoken her subjects to their new kingdom. This kingdom would be feared all over as each and every pony from Canterlot to Baltimare was fiercely loyal, willing to do whatever it was to protect the queen they adored. Nightmare Moon took on her original form now complete with her sister's regalia as a reminder to her greatest triumph in the history of her life. The Mane Six became her royal guards, watching her every move. They would follow wherever she went or go in a room before her to make sure that the room wasn't a trap. Shining Armor and the former Princess Cadence became her second and third-in-command. They didn't have a say in anything, however they are tasked with leading their warriors into battle. Since Nightmare Moon considered Spike was harmless as long as he was small. She allowed him to remain by Twilight's side and acts as a transporter of letters between Nightmare Moon and her guards. Discord tried his best to reverse the damaged done to his friend, Fluttershy. He tried his own brand of mind control but found it was useless so long as their queen was still alive. He challenged her to battle. Despite his bravest efforts, he lost and was banished to the moon for trying to fix her mistakes. Fluttershy showed no emotions to her friend's banishment. He could easily break his emprisonment but refuse to because he saw it to be useless now that he lost his friends. To this day he has never left the moon.

No kingdom was safe from The Queen of Nightmares while her army continued to grow with the births of new fillies and colts. Similar to their parents and their grandparents, these children were brainwashed to serve their queen in battle. To brainwash them was easy since they didn't know right from wrong. Never knowing they were serving the killer of Celestia, the former ruler of Equestria. To this day she remains on the throne with no one to usurp or save the ponies from her rule. Everyday before they go to battle and before they sleep, they would scream to the high heavens and stomp to the lowest levels of Tartarus what she instilled into their heads as a reminder of their loyalty...

"All hail Queen Nightmare Moon...All Hail The Lunar Republic!"

Overlooking the The Lunar Republic, above the heavens. A young Princess Celestia is watching her mother, Lauren Fausticorn cradling a young Alicorn filly with a moon cutie mark in her arms.