Her head throbbed and her vision was blurry as if she had been dealt a blow to the head. She couldn't quite feel her legs but she tried to get to them. If it was the last thing she did, she would stand to face her attacker. Shaking her head as her vision started to clear just a bit, she managed to find her hoofing and she took a wide stance. While the reason she did this was because she felt weak in the knees, she had hopped it doubled to intimidate whoever decided to come at her from the shadows. Lowering her head and pointing her horn in the direction her ears flicked towards a source of sound, she looked out into the darkness, eyes blazing and furrowed brows, with her horn already lit with a spell.
“Ah, she stands,” Came a leering voice that seemed to surround her all at once. It was both sinister and slightly...insane all at the same time; the effect chilling and unnerving. Lavender fur bristled as she felt a chill run down her withers and end at the tip of her tail.
“Tell me Princess,” Spoke the darkened pony as she came into view, trotted around her in a circle all the while she eyed her with those slitted pupils as if she were her prey.
“Why does thou continue to fight when the war has already been won?”
A gasp caught in her throat as recollection hit her with a force that almost knocked her over.
She knew this voice.
“Luna,” the words hung in the air as they fell from her slack jaw. Shock was instantly replaced by anger as she gazed at the dark pony who's eyes lit up in utter amusement.
“Who were you expecting?”
“Princess Luna, how—why? I don't understand. Why are you doing this?” Flabbergasted that once again it seemed that the Princess of the Night had taken up her Nightmare form to plunge all of Equestria under her eternal night, Twilight stood there trying to figure out what had happened to cause it this time. Princess Celestia had done all she could to keep Luna's name untainted and not many ponies came to still fear her since her return. They even shared the throne, both ruling together as they had always done though now extra attention was given to include Luna so she would never have reason to feel as if she were lesser.
Did Celestia have something to do with this? No, that couldn't be the reason, Twilight thought to herself as she moved on to her next theory noting how perfectly their relationship had been mended. Princess Celestia had welcomed Luna back with opened wings and Luna had been ever the remorseful for her actions. Surely there was something else going on here she had overlooked. Following her with her eyes as she was not the one to be stupid enough to let her opponent out of sight for a second time, she watched as a dark blue energy began to glow around Nightmare Moon's horn. In reaction, Twilight's own horn lit up in a magenta colored light and she steadied her stance ready to dish out a stunning blow. If she could stun her, even for a second, that would be enough time for her to get to her friends and--
“Why now, Twilight Sparkle, is that a look for a princess?” She asked as she paused, the glow from her horn fading as whatever spell she was going to use died. Twilight flicked her eyes to her sides and quickly brought them back to look at Nightmare Moon as she realized she was alone. Feeling utterly powerless knowing that her magic alone would never be enough to rid Equestria of such a formidable foe, her own magic trickled and died on the tip of her horn. There was a pang of sadness in her core when she realized that her friends weren't here to help her.
But that only raised another question: just where were they?
“Ah, I was wondering when you would notice. You are correct. You are alone. They've abandoned you. What did one expect when you decided to leave the ponies you would dare call your friends alone to suffer?”
“What are you talking about!” The young mare shot at the corrupt princess trying to muster as much venom as she felt churning inside her.
“I would never abandon my friends!” This caused Nightmare Moon to cock an eyebrow quizzically.
“Oh? So thou-st say now. But where were you when I invaded their dreams? Where were you when I crushed their spirits? Where were you when I stripped them of their elements only to use them as the perfect weapons to end them all?” More angry than anything, Twilight stamped her hoof in retort.
“What are you talking about, Luna? I would never abandon my friends. I would never leave them alone to—to suffer!”
And that is when the most vile smile happened to cross the face of the princess. Fangs extended over dark lips and green, cat eyes lit up with joy. What made the look so vile was the sheer amount of pure joy was just unnatural to see coming from a being so dark in nature. Seeing it made Twilight's stomach turn and made her heart sink.
She acts like she knows something I don't. But—but, I would know if my friends were in trouble. I would know if they needed me. I would, wouldn't I?
“One would think so, no? But that is where you are wrong. You didn't.” Hearing this made Twilight realize her worst fears. That's when she saw her horn light again and suddenly shapes appeared before her. Five gems suspended in the air above Nightmare Moon all displaying a single, large and painful looking crack running through their centers. It looked at if the gems had been damaged and badly at that.
That was when she noticed the dull shimmer as the slain images of her friends reflected of the gems' surfaces.
The Elements of Harmony had been destroyed. Her friends had been defeated.
“But—but how? How did I—how did you? Why did you?” Tears burned in her eyes as despair quickly began to sink in. She wanted to disappear or better yet, she wanted to die.
How could I have allowed Nightmare Moon to harm my friends?
As if she was reading her thoughts, Nightmare Moon spoke.
“Allow me to show you,”
And with that, Twilight saw Luna's horn light up in her signature magical aura but she couldn't react fast enough with her own magic before its beam reached her. As it enveloped her, she found herself forcibly pulled into the memories of the fallen princess and was shown exactly what had happened.
One by one, Twilight witnessed both with her own eyes and through the memories of her now sworn nemesis, the demise of each of her friends. All bested by Nightmare Moon because she had not been there to save them. When the vision was over, Twilight was released from Luna's magical grip and her thoughts were once again her own. It wasn't long before realization began in root itself in her mind. Her face, already wet and stained by her still flowing tears, crumpled as a cry wound itself out of her mouth as she sunk to her knees, devastated.
“No...” came her weak protest as she shook her head feeling the world begin to crumble around her. Darkness loomed from Nightmare Moon and surrounded her in a cold, vice-like grip. As if that was needed, for her heart was already broken. The dark mare reared up on her hind legs and flailed her front hooves in the air triumphantly as she threw her head back to cackle, the sound echoing around the younger alicorn princess.
This has to be a dream, it just has to be...
Defeated, Twilight looked up at her victor and watched horrified as her form morphed and changed into another.
Nightmare Moon's armor fell away and her pitch black coat began to lighten to a shade in the same color range as Princess Luna's normal coat. Dappled throughout the dark blue fur were speckles of white that looked like stars. Luna's flowing, nearly translucent mane changed colors entirely and became more opaque and more like actual hair instead of the astral background of the night sky. It gave her new emerging form an almost mortal appearance. Deep burgundy locks grew and spread out in a wild array, the tips colored a familiar shade of pink that at the moment, escaped Twilight's reasoning on why the color was so familiar. The mare's tail followed shortly afterward, matching the wild mane.
Then suddenly, the voice of the mare who moments before sounded like Luna had changed to sound less like the princess and like somepony Twilight had never met before. It had a melodic quality to it and lacked much of the princesses' regal, old fashioned, Canterlotean accent. It was almost child-like, like the voice of an adolescent or somepony closer to Twilight's own age. Still with tears freely flowing down her cheeks, Twilight stared at this new pony with wide eyes not understanding what was happening. Scanning the unknown mare over from ear to hoof, Twilight attempted with all that remained of her cognitive reasoning skills to give a name to this mysterious newcomer but failed to do so. This mare was an alicorn judging by her horn and wings and should have been somepony everypony should have known. There were only four alicorn princesses in Equestria. Surely somepony would have noticed the sudden arrival of a fifth.
“Who are you?” Gold eyes opened to look at Twilight and as they found her, she took note on their appearance. She had round, normal pupils, no longer sporting the predatory eyes of a hunter like the Nightmare she came from. She even appeared to be less threatening; her features average and more like a regular pony except for the combination of having both a unicorn's magic and the wings of a pegasus granting her the power to fly. All was lacking was a show of strength and as the pony lowered her front hooves and returned to stand on all four, Twilight noticed the small fissures having been created in the ground beneath her which stood to demonstrate that while still managing to look quite frail, this pony was undeniably an alicorn. Her face seemed to hold a sense of kindness as she spotted Twilight, her eyes growing wide as if she had just seen her there for the first time. Lowering her head, Twilight's eyes were drawn to something odd that she hadn't caught before about the alicorn.
Her horn was broken; snapped off about halfway down from the tip and spouting a small shower of light pink sparks that matched the pink tips of her mane and tail. Again, Twilight's eyes widened in shock and question.
“D-do you wanna see the stars fall?” The young mare asked, her voice hitched and soft putting the lavender alicorn in mind of one of her soft spoken friends who also had a shy demeanor.
“The stars fall? Why would I—where's Luna? Where's my friends?” The young mare looked down and turned away. Without warning, she broke out into a run.
“Wait!” Twilight called out as she started to run after her. Darkness filed out from in front of the mare and wrapped around the both of them blocking out Twilight's vision leaving her only aware of the sound of her galloping hooves as they became harder and harder to hear with the increasing distance put between them.
“Wait! Come back! Who are you? Where are my friends? Where is Princess Luna? What is going on here?” She yelled to no avail as the floor gave way to the small fissures the alicorn had created earlier and widened, pulling her into the darkness itself.
“...wait! Come back. Don't leave...” Tossing and turning in the large bed, Twilight was still calling out for the mysterious mare when her eyes fluttered opened as she began to wake up from her dream. As the images of her dream left her, she came to see a concerned purple and green dragon looking at her.
“S-Spike?”
“Uh, good morning? Are you okay, Twilight?” Looking around the large, princess approved bedroom, she came to realize that she had been asleep for Celestia knows how long, possibly missing her duties to hold court. Turning back to her faithful assistant, she wasn't exactly sure how to respond to his question.
“Y-yes. No? I don't know, Spike. I honestly don't know.”
“Were you having a bad dream or something? You were shouting so I came to check on you but when I got in here you were all tangled up in the blankets.” Realizing that she was indeed ensnared in her bedding, she wriggled herself free and left the unmade bed to go to one of her most visited room in her new castle: her library. Following her was the pittering claws of the baby dragon that was still waiting for her to reassure him that she was indeed alright.
“So do you wanna talk about it?”
“Yes Spike, and to say that I had a bad dream would be an understatement. I think I may have had a precognitive dream and I really, really, really hope that's the furthest thing from whatever that was. Have you heard from the others? What time is it?”
“It's just barely morning, Twilight. And um, Rainbow Dash called and said that she'd be running late 'cause some random cloud front blew in and they're having a bit of trouble at the factory getting rid of 'em all. Rarity wanted to know what drinks to bring and since you were sleeping, I told her I'd have you call her back when you woke up. And Pinkie Pie called but the only message she left was a shower of confetti. Why you ask?” Relief flooded her hearing that Spike had heard from three of her friends and they seemed to be alright at least. While that didn't shake the fear from her, it did make her feel a little bit better. If that had been a precognitive dream, she still had time to figure out what she could do to prevent it from happening. But first, she had to write a letter to Princess Celestia.
“I think we're all in trouble, Spike. I need to write a letter to Princess Celestia.” The young dragon's eyes grew wide and he swallowed. Nodding his head, he pulled out a quill and a scroll from his belly pouch. Taking the quill and wrapping it in a cloak of magenta magic, Twilight was distracted from putting quill to parchment as something caught her eye from the window.
Trotting over towards the large window that provided her library with ample light, the lavender mare pressed her nose to the class as her jaw dropped and a shiver spread out all over her entire body. Streaking the early morning sky was a a blip of light with a dimmer trail that was easy to spot in the muted colors of the early dawn as the sky was still slightly dark. Pressing his face to the glass too, Spike watched the shooting star streak the sky and disappear upon the horizon.
“Wow, a shooting star. That's so cool.”
“No, no it's not. I think that's the start of this. I think I might already be too late!”
“Why? Too late for--” Before he could finish his sentence, Twilight was surrounded by the aura of her magic and the room lit up in a bright magenta flash which caused Spike to close his eyes. When he opened them, Twilight was no where in sight.
Sighing to himself, he went over and picked up the quill and parchment that she had left behind and stored them back in his pouch before going over to Twilight's huge bed and curled up in it. With a yawn, he closed his eyes and decided that he would catch a few more hours of sleep until Twilight came back.
She'll get me if she needs me, The young dragon thought to himself not realizing the severity of the situation at hand.
Author's Note
Firstly, I would just like to thank all of you who decided to read both the first version of this story and give even more thanks for those who came back to read my attempt at re-visioning it. You guys mean a lot to me. I hope all of you enjoyed this as much as I have and look forward to what's to come.
“Are you positive that it was her?” The Princess of the Sun asked the Princess of the Moon, her jaw tight and her eyes sternly looking over the images that Luna was showing her on the curved walls of her Dreamitorium*.
“Is thou blind? Clearly it is her, sister, for what other pony other than those who are either descended from royalty or who have ascended to alicorn status are adorned with both horn and pair of wings? Who other than her would have a star on her flank? Who, might I ask you, could this otherwise be? Who--”
“Alright, Luna, enough. I understand your point,” Came Celestia's terse reply to silence her sister's tangent as she found herself more annoyed at the plethora of reasons Luna could point out that left no doubt that it was indeed her of all ponies. Pacing, Celestia chewed her lip as the gears of her mind ground together in her attempt to find any other reason to discount this unsettling bit of information.
“Perhaps it is best that her horn is shorn off completely,”
Stopping in her tracks and biting down on her lower lip hard enough that she could feel the metallic spurt of her own blood in her mouth, she whirled around and stared at Luna utterly shocked at the words she heard her say. As her back was turned, she asked her to repeat what she said to make sure she had not heard wrong and that the words had indeed come from her.
“I was saying that instead of simply causing temporary damage to her horn as in with the use of the poison joke, that we act to completely remove it. It would sever her connection with magic indefinitely, thus never allowing the dark--”
“I know what it would do which is why I am shocked and utterly appalled to have heard you say such a thing. That is cruelty. It is unthinkable. To rob a unicorn of her magic...” Her voice trailed off as she pondered over that thought. Sharply shaking her head to remove such horrid hypothetical solutions, she focused back on her sister seeing her unwavering composure. Her face was blank though her brow was raised in a questioning manner.
“Then what does thou propose we do? Allow her to keep it? Allow her to practice it under our very noses? To do nothing to stop this—this nightmare from taking on a life of its own in the waking world?”
Silence stood between them as Celestia was still taken back by Luna's idea of a solution. Though she heard her sister fumble over the word nightmare, she seemed little concerned with the repercussions for taking such a rash measure to keep Equestria safe.
But perhaps it is not that she lacks concern but that she simply doesn't see reason to be? Clearing her throat and taking a softer approach with her more blunt and direct other half, she walked over to stand beside her and draped a wing over her back.
“Perhaps that would be one way to handle this but I honestly cannot say that I would be willing to do such a thing if another, less...” She paused trying to find another word in her vocabulary other than the one used earlier to express how she felt about the whole idea and when she couldn't find one, she continued on while silently cursing herself for not recovering from her shock to resume higher cognitive skills.
“...cruel method presented itself upon further thinking.”
“Thou doth not think there is any other way. You know as well as I that a unicorn's horn is both one's most powerful asset as well as being their greatest downfall. If their magic is left unchecked or finds itself becoming corrupted, the results would be more than devastating. To add that she is not just a unicorn but an alicorn like ourselves makes such results catastrophic at the very least. That much power should never be allowed to be corrupted. Ever. Has thou not learned this in the thousand years spent alone?”
It was times like these that Celestia truly could not help but realize that they were as different as the day was from the night. Calculative, blunt, direct, one could go so far as to even say ruthless, Luna had always been the one to lean towards the decisions that would most effectively take care of a problem no matter the means to achieve said results and never thinking long enough to measure the effect it would have along the line. But as much as she hated the idea, she had to give her sister credit. She did feel that this needed to be handled in a manner that did not leave room for error but she also felt that this error could fall on either part; be it theirs or be it...hers. The very thought sent a small ripple down her withers, right between her wings. Hopping her flowing mane hid any outward signs to the involuntary reaction, she chewed her lip again as she thought.
Act too little and she becomes a Nightmare whilst doing too much would more than likely just result in the same fate. This truly is a complicated matter.
Celestia had to face losing a part of her magic once before and that hurt came to a very close second to the pain felt when she had to banish Luna to the moon all those many years ago. Being stripped of the Elements of Harmony made her feel weak and vulnerable for many, many years afterwards and that was while she still retained all of her original powers that were not supplied to her by the Elements themselves. She had been weakens as an alicorn while she had not lived nearly as long as they had and by comparison, was just a foal. She had barely enough alicorn magic to hold her afloat even now. Surely she had accomplished amazing feats in her own right but those could easily be written off as simple occurrences of huge amounts of beginner's luck combined with years spent in eager study. As much as she hated to discredit her valiant actions, the Sun princess truly believed that if they acted on her sister's plan, that would be all it took to destroy her.
There must be another way to go about this.
“Suppose we do nothing or at the very least, do very little. That way if need be, we could dial up our efforts to prevent this only using the precise amount of force to stop the problem without having anything go too far.” She really hopped this idea sounded appealing to the princess of the moon and night.
“Pray tell you have something else in mind, sister? We act 'very little' and we face grandiose consequences.” Celestia sighed as she turned away to walk out of the Dreamitorium in a huff, Luna noting her departure yet made no move to follow her. She couldn't talk to her like this. Not when she would not validate her ideas possibly being just as effective as her own. Bristling the feathers of her wings and the pristine white fur of her pelt, she silently fumed as Luna's sarcastic tone echoed in her mind.
As her hoofsteps echoed throughout the large corridor on her way back to her chambers, she was stopped suddenly by a familiar spark of light followed by a flash of magenta. There, having blinked herself directly into the castle and having successfully avoided the guards, stood her former most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.
Princess Twilight Sparkle, she corrected herself mentally as she worked to rid her expression and her body of any vestigial harshness from her verbal quarrel with Luna. The young, lavender alicorn looked flushed and her body was vibrating with what appeared at first to be excitement but upon a closer inspection, she realized it to be something different. Still catching her breath, Twilight looked up at her former mentor with wide, purple eyes. It was obvious that the young mare had been shaken by the images of her dream.
“P-Princess Celestia!” breathed out Twilight as she caught her breath and found the sun princess standing no more than a few short strides away from her. Galloping to her instead of trotting over in her haste, she nearly bumped into her leg before she skidded to a halt.
“Why good morning, Princess Twilight, what brings you here so early?”
Keep calm and smile. Act like you know nothing and like there is nothing wrong. Technically there is nothing wrong so just act normal. Chanted the princess in her head as she flashed Twilight a warm smile.
“I have something that I need to tell you. You see, I had a bad dream or at least I hope it was only a bad dream but everything that happened in it felt so real. I think it may be something more, like maybe a precognition or something and that's why I came to you,” Celestia had to fight back a small smile as she tried to keep a neutral expression while listening to Twilight tell her of the dream she had witnessed herself at the hooves of Luna who had showed it to her in her Dreamitorium; a room which was used to view the dreams of every pony in Equestria. The smile had come from the many memories of listening to her former student rattle off to her in her panicked state, her fur flustered and the gears turning in her head a million miles per hour.
Twilight Sparkle had always been an excellent analyzer; nothing seemed to get past her, but with that talent came a fatal flaw which was her habit of over analyzing things and taking them out of context. While in this particular case, she may have been right to worry as the princess found herself worrying about it too. Twilight was on to something about it possibly being something more serious but she couldn't let her in on that just yet. Instead, she allowed the newly made Princess of Friendship to continue as she listened intently to her warning.
“Princess Celestia, I think something bad may happen to Equestria.” Taking a few beats to convey the sense that she had taken in what she had said and had pondered over it, she nodded to her, her expression going from neutral to serious as she took a breath preparing herself to sit through the retelling of her dream.
“Come, tell me about this dream.” And turning, she walked with purpose to the direction of a common room in the large castle, Princess Twilight Sparkle hot at her heels, feeling desperate to warn her former mentor and hopping with all her pony heart that if anypony could save Equestria from what she had interpreted as a threat, it would be her.
“...and then this morning when I woke up there was a shooting star.” finished Twilight. Pouring herself yet another cup of tea making this her fourth, Celestia took a sip and took a breath as she let Twilight's retelling of her dream sink in. Somehow hearing her tell it made it all seem so much more like a real threat and the fact that this was the second time she was given all the information that made it near impossible to see it being anypony else. It had to be her. It just had to be and that thought unnerved the princess.
From across the room sat Luna, cerulean eyes focused on her sister giving her a look that said “you need to lay off the tea” and “I told you so”. Looking over the rim of her cup, she even thought she saw Luna's eyes target Twilight’s horn and she nearly lost hold of the porcelain cup, her magic aura faltering as she felt her heart quip. Clearing her throat after setting it down in fear that she would drop it, it was Luna who broke the small span of silence that has passed between the three.
“So, Princess Twilight Sparkle, if what you saw did in fact happen to be a premonition, what would you do to prevent the events shown from taking place?” The lavender alicorn looked down at the floor and fumbled with her hooves. Taking advantage of this, Celestia threw a scornful look over at her sister who was unmoved by it whilst she waited eagerly for Twilight's answer.
“Well, you see, that's why I came here. I-I don't really know what the dream means. I mean, I feel like it's foretelling something bad happening but I don't know what. I was hopping the two of you would have insights on what I should do about it.”
“Regardless of if you know what the dream foretells happening, you've made us aware that you fear something horrendous in effect. Surely this would mean that we are to act with hast to prevent it as you rushed here wasting no time.” Taking another sip of tea, Celestia allowed the warm liquid to idle her tongue from saying the harsh words she was screaming at her sister in her head. For once she wished that they had a telepathic link so that she could hear her thoughts. If Luna kept this up she would be forced to say something and she wasn't sure just what might come out given their intimate relationship with the other pony in the room.
“I would think--”
And then it happened.
There was a loud boom as the thunderous noise shook the castle's very foundation causing the book cases and desks of the study to tremble along with the chandelier that clinked and chimed as glass and metal hit each other. The teapot jumped and fell to the floor, her tea cup saved only because it has been primed in her magic to take another sip just as the sudden ruble rolled through. A few books did fall from the shelves and at the sound of their heavy bound tomes hitting the floor, Princess Celestia raised a hoof to her sister and Twilight as she wrapped all three of them in a cocoon of protective light. Wrapped inside her bubble was another aura of Luna's signature blue and around the entire castle was a large orb of magenta. The shaking only lasted a few seconds and then it was over.
“Is everpony alright?” Celestia asked as she was the first one to get up from her seated position and go to the doors of the closed study to make her rounds to check and see if everyone else was alright.
“I'm f-fine,” came Twilight's small voice as she looked at Celestia with lowered ears as she got up next to follow.
“As am I,” Luna jumped up and strolled to her sister's side leaving Twilight behind due to her longer strides. The door opened on its own and in the doorway stood three large, similar looking stallions with expression that wanted to be held firm but were obviously spooked.
“My Princesses, there has been a troubling discovery just on the outskirts of Canterlot,”
“Is everypony alright?”
“We have scouts out now to see what, if anything, we can do about it.”
“We will have more information soon,” Came all three of them at in quick succession after one another, all talking in a manner that lead off from the last pony to the other as if they were some hive mind. Then from behind those three came running another; a pale gray stallion dressed in all his splendor though his armor was streaked with black soot.
“...My Princesses...” He was out of breath seeming to have traveled a long distance at his full speed as he came to a halt in front of the three alicorns.
“...news from the seventh sector: about an hour ago, a falling abject fell out of the sky and landed on the mountain range above the castle. Sectors four and nine are responding to the situation now and all other sectors have been placed to hold up a protective barrier around the city.” Princess Celestia and Princess Luna nodded as the guard did the same.
“I will be your guide to transport you through the castle until we know that things have stabilized.” And with that said, a bubble of orange magic wrapped around the three of them.
There was a thud from behind.
Craning her head to the source of the sound, magenta eyes found the crumpled mass of lavender.
“Twilight!”
Author's Note
*Dreamitorium - A portmanteau of the words "dream" and "auditorium", this room is styled with high, curved ceilings much like an IMAX theater or a Planetarium used to view the night sky in all its splendor. This special room was designed to help Luna view the dreams of ponies as they slept and allows her the ability to choose between them at will to either simply take a closer look or enter into the dream itself. In essence, it functions much like Professor Xavier's Cerebro from the X-Men fame.
