Night has fallen in Equestria, autumn breezes making the trees flutter. Every Equestrian inhabitant is getting ready to sleep on this late hour. Yes, even those staying in a temporary base inside one dormant volcano. The would-be queens of Equestria need their rest too.
Celestia Equestris sat on her makeshift throne, about to close her blank eyes, when her zebra servant approached her queen with her mouth opening to say something. “I do not need anything now, other than rest. We will continue with our plans on taking back Equestria tomorrow,” Celestia said, cutting her off.
Zecora looked unsure at first, but then she bowed and said, “As you wish, my Queen. I hope your dreams shall be serene.” As the zebra walked away to her chambers, Celestia contemplated on what her most loyal servant wished for her.
How I wish that were so. For these last thousand years, my dreams had been anything but serene, she thought morosely, I bet my very own crown that my traitorous sister is behind all these nightmares. As she closed her eyes and her mind swept into the dreamscape, she knew that this would be another of her terrible dreams to come. She thought she was ready for them after suffering nightmares for a thousand years. She wasn’t.
***
It was a dark night. It shouldn’t have been night in the first place. Celestia tried to raise her sun, but a powerful dark magic cut her ties with it. She instead tried to push down the moon, but the same dark magic stubbornly kept it at its zenith. Celestia looked at the now evil moon with a disbelieving expression and checked what kind of dark magic stopped her from taking control of the celestial objects. Bile rose up her throat when she recognised the magic. Tartarus magic, she gasped. As Celestia desperately looked around for any signs of escaped evil from the dark realm of Tartarus, she noticed fire roaring below her. What she saw under closer inspection horrified her. The magnificent marble city of Canterlot was now a flaming ruin with many ponies, her subjects, screaming for help and being slaughtered by an army of goblins.
Goblins, those accursed beings from Tartarus, were cackling with great pleasure in slaughtering her ponies! Celestia gave out a loud war whinny and prepared her great solar powers to burn those disgusting beings of darkness while trying to avoid harming her subjects. The goblins stopped what they were doing as they looked at the Solar Alicorn and rightful Queen of Equestria, with great fear showing on their twisted faces the cowards ran away from her. Watching the army of darkness retreating with grim satisfaction, Celestia looked at the ponies whom she had saved. Her subjects cheered at the sight of their saviour and ruler, and this made her feel more obligated to search for the monster behind the massacre.
Celestia continued searching for the escaped prisoner of Tartarus so that she could give the monster behind the slaughter justice. As she searched, Celestia failed to notice a dark figure plummeting towards her with indigo magic serving as a spear. Celestia cried out in pain as the figure struck her. When another spell was shot at her, Celestia was ready this time and conjured a golden shield before the spell struck her again. As Celestia saw who was the culprit, she growled with intense hatred. “Luna. So you were the one behind the slaughtering of my subjects?” Celestia cried.
The black coated, slit pupiled alicorn in silver armour grinned at her solar counterpart’s fury, showing her white fangs. “Indeed, my dear sister. This is what my master desired, and I was happy to oblige,” Luna gloated with pride.
Celestia growled. “You are no sister of mine. I have no sister, you… you… Nightmare!” Celestia spat. She attacked her former sister and her golden missile struck its target. Luna shook off the attack, gave off a loud whinny and charged at Celestia. The alicorns used their magic as well as their own hooves, horns and teeth in their battle. What buildings had been left intact during the goblins’ attack were reduced to rubble by the massive fight between the former sisters. Both Celestia and Luna had one thing on their mind, and that was to bring death towards their opponent.
The alicorns punched, kicked, bit and fired magic at each other, destroying more buildings and uprooting trees in a forest as they flew down the mountain. Celestia grabbed her opponent, plummeted to the ground with Luna under her. She repeatedly rammed the black alicorn on the ground and flew towards Mount Canterhorn while dragging Luna in front of her. Celestia finally managed to knock her enemy out after plunging the both of them through Mount Canterhorn. The mountain collapsed, bringing all of Canterlot down with it. Panting, Celestia glared at the downed alicorn with disgust and contempt and looked around her. The amount of damage caused by Luna’s utter betrayal to ponykind saddened her and she resolved to find any survivors of the collapse and put the refugees of the thankfully short civil war under her wing for protection until the rebuilding of Equestria is complete. Celestia noticed a strange sickly glow going towards Luna and grew horrified when she saw that souls, most likely of those poor massacred ponies, were being absorbed into the black alicorn. Her horror grew as she saw Luna standing up, seeming fresh as if she had never took part in the battle the alicorns fought.
Luna laughed maniacally and pushed Celestia hard on the ground with her armoured foreleg. Celestia tried to push back, but the souls Luna devoured had made the black alicorn too strong! “You fought very well, sister. But my master taught me new tricks to make me more powerful than you could ever hope to become,” Luna goaded while giving a very wide predatory grin. She grabbed Celestia with her magic and threw her at a nearby mountain. Luna flew upwards while Celestia watched helplessly on the ground. Weakened as she was, the cursed night blocked her attempts to regain strength from the sun. Luna looked downwards at her former sister with contempt and, using the Royal Canterlot Voice, shouted at Celestia, “How does it feel, knowing that soon every pegasus, unicorn and earth pony will bow to mine and my master’s will?” She plummeted towards her sister, intending to kill, while shouting, “And that there is nothing you can do to stop us!”
With the last of her strength, Celestia managed to conjure a weak shield that shattered, but managed to cushion Luna’s lethal strike. Tired and spent, the two alicorns faced each other and panted. Luna spasmed, her face started to turn a lighter shade of blue and looked at Celestia, her eyes back to how she knew them. In desperation, she pleaded, “Tia, help me! Please, free me!” Another spasm and Luna’s face turned black again and her eyes had gone back to slit pupils with a bluish tinge in their whites.
Then came a voice that brought shivers down Celestia’s spine and joy to Luna’s spirits. “Well done, my faithful student. You managed to use all your training I gave you to lay waste on Equestria and Celestia. For this alone, I will let you rule Equestria by my side and start bringing a new era to the rest of the world together,” said a looming figure of a demonic centaur riding a black chariot pulled by his strydons, the tusked demonic dragons baring their fangs hungrily.
Luna grovelled in front of Tirek and said in ecstasy, “Thank you, oh great master! I am very grateful for your reward!”
“Be that as it may, we have unfinished business here and my strydons are getting very hungry,” Tirek told his student and looked at his pet corrupted dragons from Tartarus, “Dinner is ready for you two.” Tirek’s strydons loomed towards the helpless solar alicorn and their tusked mouths went towards Celestia’s head.
***
Celestia awoke with a frightened shout, the sweat steaming off her body. She looked around her and saw that she was back in her makeshift throneroom. She felt for the sun. It was early morning. She will not stay idle any longer. Time was running out, and her traitor of a sister might start allying herself to Tirek again at any moment. “Zecora! Let us enter our war room. We must plan to strike soon.”
