A Bad End Leads to a Good End

Chapter 3: Battle! Luna vs. Darkrai

Princess Luna was right now asleep, even though it was daytime. As the princess of the night, she slept during the day and woke up during the night to raise the moon and make the stars appear. Luna was sleeping peacefully until she started to struggle against something, like she was having a nightmare. In her dreams, Luna was seen running through a dark hallway from something. She suddenly tripped as she looked back and saw a large shadow creature come up towards her.

"AHHHHHHH!" screamed Luna as she woke up from the nightmare. She had no idea why she had that nightmare. The last time she had one was a couple of days after the Night Mare Moon incident.

"Why hast thou...Ugh, why did I have that nightmare in the first place? And what was the creature?" asked Luna, obviously confused. However, a large shadow was seen in the room, startling Luna as she jumped out of bed. She looked towards the window and saw a pitch black creature floating just outside the window.

"Enjoyed my nightmare? That was my ability for your information, Bad Dreams. When you're asleep while I'm around, you have terrible nightmares while also taking damage." exclaimed the creature.

"Who are you!? I demand an answer!" yelled Luna, obviously enraged knowing it was this creature who made her have the nightmare. She then took notice of the small amount of pain she had, knowing this creature's ability caused this.

"Well princess, I am Darkrai, the legendary Pokemon who has control over nightmares. And the reason I'm here in Equestria is because I plan on turning it into a land of darkness." said Darkrai, obviously chuckling evilly. Luna could sense the power Darkrai had and it felt like both Night Mare Moon and Discord's power combined was nothing compared to this. She got into a battle stance anyway.

"I will not allow you to bring harm to my subjects! If you want to take over Equestria, then you'll have to go through me first!" yelled Luna as she fired a powerful magic beam from her horn. Darkrai, however, seemed to disappear into the walls and the beam harmlessly went out the window. Darkrai reappeared behind Luna and used a Dark Pulse attack to knock Luna out of the room through the window. Luna used her wings to keep herself afloat as Darkrai came up to her.

"You honestly think you stand a chance against me? I'm more powerful then you think." said Darkrai, sounding as if he was not impressed with Luna's power.

"You haven't seen anything yet!" yelled Luna as she suddenly teleported behind Darkrai and bucked him in the back. Luna then shot another beam from her horn, which struck Darkrai and sent him crashing into the wall. Luna then charged at Darkrai, sending him through the wall back into the bedroom. Luna then delivered another strong kick to Darkrai right to the face, causing some blood to come from his mouth.

"Hmmm, seems as if you actually do have some power. But play time is over now! Thunderbolt!" Darkrai yelled as a blue lightning bolt came from his hand and struck Luna, sending her flying through the hole and she landed in the Canterlot Garden. Dakrai came down to where she was, but then took notice of the statue next to her.

"That's quite an interesting statue there. A draconequus, huh?" Darkrai said. Luna, after she recovered from the electric attack, looked up at the statue and immediately knew who it was.

"Discord..." Luna said, remembering what the draconequus had done before. Darkrai suddenly laughed, which got Luna's attention.

"This is the spirit of disharmony, huh? Well it seems he doesn't need his powers anymore so I'll take them for myself!" Darkrai said as he suddenly used a weird looking beam to start sucking power away from the statue.

"No! You can't!?" Luna said, knowing what would happen if Darkrai was successful in obtaining Discord's power. But the process took faster then she expected as Darkrai returned the beam.

"Not bad. This is impressive. Now let's see what I can do now." Darkrai said as he suddenly lifted up his hand, using psychic powers to lift Luna by her necklace. Darkrai then pointed his arm at the statue of Discord and Luna suddenly flew at it. The collision caused the statue to suddenly break into pieces as Luna went through it. Luna found herself struggling to get up, not believing what had just happened. Discord was no more thanks to Darkrai. She then saw Darkrai forming a black energy ball above him.

"Y-You won't get away with this!" yelled Luna . Darkrai just laughed at this, knowing he had won this fight.

"I'd like to see anyone try to stop me. Now I believe it's past your bed time so good night. Dark Void!" yelled Darkrai as he threw the energy ball at Luna, which consumed her and Luna suddenly found herself falling into a black void. When she finally landed, she started to get up, still suffering from the wounds of battle.

"W-Where am I?" asked Luna. She looked around and immediately saw that she was in the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, or as she remembered it, what was formerly Canterlot Castle. She looked up and saw Darkrai's shadow in the sky.

"W-what the hay is going on!?" Luna said terrified as she backed up into a mirror. She turned around and was greeted with a terrifying sight. She looked exactly like Night Mare Moon. Her face turned into a terrified one as tears formed in her eyes.

"No...NO! This can't be happening!" yelled Luna as she collapsed onto the floor crying. What she didn't know was that she was actually asleep. In reality, Darkrai stood over the sleeping form of the real Luna.

"That was easy. But she put up more of a fight then I expected. I'll need to rest before I can go after the other princess." Darkrai said as he suddenly slipped into the shadows. Meanwhile, some of the royal pegasus guards were seen flying overhead. They had seen what had happened to the bedroom and were looking for Luna. They soon found her asleep in the garden next to the destroyed statue of Discord. They saw the injuries on Luna and immediately rushed her to the nearest hospital. Princess Celestia was soon informed of what had happened to her sister.

"This is bad. I must inform Twilight immediately." Celestia said as she began righting a letter to Twilight. While she had no idea who attacked Luna, she knew that if this creature defeated her, then it was a threat to Equestria. If she ended up getting beaten by it, Equestria's only hope would be the Elements of Harmony. Celestia only hoped this letter would get to Twilight in time as she rolled it up and teleported it to her.