Chapters Cold. So cold. These familiar chills. The eeriness of this still-black early morning. The time of our unity has arrived at last. You shall soon be free.
Celestia was sprawled across her throne quite uncomfortably, trying to find a suitable position where she could finish the piles of paperwork that she had put off for far too long. Now, she was paying the price for it by being stuck up at this hour.
"Luna will be raising tomorrow night's moon by the time I'm finished," she mumbled to herself. "I'll never put my work off-" Celestia stopped mid-sentence to hear a faint sound of hooves clopping swiftly against the castle floors not too far from the throne room. "What? I don't know anypony who would decide to go for a jog at this hour.."
The sun princess was startled by the doors to the throne room being thrust open, but thankfully the pony who barged through the golden doors was not another miscreant planning to take over Equestria.
"Luna, you know you don't-" Celestia was cut off yet again, as her sister seemed determined to get straight to her point. "Sister, do you not recall what today is!? Can you not feel it?"
Celestia was completely muddled. Today was like any other day. There were no special events to attend, no special ponies arriving at the castle, nopony attacking Equestria...
Wait.
Celestia stopped dead in the middle of her thinking. She could feel it now too. The room temperature dropped by at least 30°, or at least she thought it did.
The elder alicorn tried to convince herself it was not true, that it was not time, but it was to no avail.
"Tia, I know that look on your face. We both know we cannot do anything to stop it, or even give ourselves an extra minute of time. It has been long enough and I know very well that you don't want to wait any longer, but first we must face her to free her. Today, we have Twilight and her friends to aid us. We are not alone, dear sister."
Celestia noticed that Luna had finally mentioned the pony by pronoun. She didn't want to think about the current problem and what could happen. Of what has already happened.
Luna's right. I have Twilight and her friends to help this time. Cadence and Shining Armor as well. We stand a better chance then before. But nopony else must know or help. It would be too big of a risk .
Celestia smiled softly at her sister. "Then we must begin at once. Gather the wonderbolts, and," Celestia instantly thought of the fastest pony she knew. "Rainbow Dash. Yes, tell them to spread all across Equestria as fast as they can fly and warn everypony to stay inside and out of site, lights off, no sounds, princesses order. No more. After that, order all ponies inside the castle to evacuate and head home immediately. I must find the ponies we need and tell them what to do. You inform Rainbow Dash. I must raise the sun in an hour, and from there we time will only be ticking."
"Of course sister. I will meet you back here." Luna had already begun flying out the door halfway through her sentence.
Celestia looked up at the night sky through a window not yet decorated with stained glass. Her thoughts were scattering all around her mind, but that did not stop the discomforting feeling rising up through her elegant body. The feeling of true fear.
Author's Note
Yeah, I know. It probably sucks and is confusing, but whatever. It should be better from this point forward.
Spike awoke on a hard wooden floor, surrounded by piles of books from last night's reorganization. As he rubbed his eyes to rid them of the fuzziness of waking up, he saw Twilight snoring on top of last pile needing to be put away. And now reorganized... thought the baby dragon.
He got up to go make himself breakfast when he heard knocking at the door.
"Oh great, who could that be? Celestia only raised the sun moments ago" groaned Spike. He half walked-half dragged to the door, still feeling the effects of his earlier drowsiness. He opened the door and immediately woke up as it was none other than Princess Celestia. "P-Princess Celestia?! What are you doing here? Has Twilight-" he stopped speaking as he noticed Celestia's eyes showing fear and urgency. "Twilight's r-right over there" he pointed. "Thank you Spike." Even her thank you was concerning, as it did not hold the same warm tone as the princess usually had.
By now, Twilight was waking up and she had hardly a second to open her eyes before seeing her mentor standing almost over her.
"Princess Celestia? What are you doing here? I thought you-" "I'm sorry Twilight, but we do not have much time. I need you to come with me now and we must go find your friends. By now Rainbow Dash has already been filled in, and we must find your other friends." Celestia was speaking sharply and urgently, and Twilight did not dare question the white alicorn any further. "Okay, princess." They sped out the door, leaving Spike alone, confused and having to do all this work alone as usual. I swear, the day I get a break will be the day I'm resting in my grave.
Soon the six ponies were waiting inside the castle, waiting on the return of Luna and Rainbow Dash. Applejack finally broke the short silence. "Now that we're here, princess, do ya mind tellin' us what the hay is goin' on?"
"I will tell you once all of you are here. There is no sense in me repeating myself" responded Celestia. Rarity groaned, but did not dare say anything to the sun princess. "I know you're all very confused and would wish to know now, but once I tell you, you may wish you had never known at all." Fluttershy let out a small whimper at the last few words she spoke.
Twilight was about to console her as Luna flew right in. She wasted no time in explaining. "We must leave now without your dear friend. We are running out of time and she still has to cover three more cities, since she decided to stop for a nap." If Celestia was angry at this, she did not show it.
"Very well. My little ponies, we are heading to the Everfree Forest. I suppose as we fly to the entrance I will explain some things." Pinkie Pie noticed the flaw in that plan. "But Celestia, we can't just fly there, me and Applejack and Rarity don't have wings. Unless you're planning on giving us wings like that one time with Rarity," she gasped at this thought. "OH MY GOD THAT WOULD BE SOOO AMAZING!! We could all be like butterflies and-" "No Pinkie, we're not doing that again." Twilight spoke. "She's right. We will have to carry you, as the train is not open currently. I will take Pinkie Pie, Luna will take Applejack, and Twilight and Fluttershy can take Rarity" ordered Celestia.
"Fiiiiinnne," responded Pinkie sadly, "but when this is over you're totally giving me butterfly wings."
Pinkie's comment seemed to lighten the mood, although it only lasted for a second. And with that, they took off, beating their wings as fast as they could to reach the Everfree Forest in time. Eventually they reached the entrance.
"We must walk from this point forward," said Celestia. "We will not be able to see where we are going."
At this, the five ponies turned to look at Luna, in shock. Luna picked up after Celestia's speech. "'Tis true. However, I believe it died off some hundred years ago, as I had become Nightmare Moon and was banished to a place it could not reach. In a normal occurrence, it may only be destroyed by the pony it came from. If it attacks them and they fail to destroy it... Then they take over the pony they control." Twilight was still confused, even with her being the bookworm of the group. "But what does all this shadow pony stuff have to do with what we are doing now? Is that what we're facing? A pony who has been taken over by a shadow pony?" Celestia shook her head. "Not exactly. We are facing a... rather normal pony. But if we take too long, the shadow pony will corrupt her yet again." "Again?" Pinkie gasped. "What do you mean again?" Luna spoke first. "When I became Nightmare Moon, it was not my shadow pony who transformed me. That would be impossible, since shadow ponies must be created first by dark magic. It was," Luna paused to gather herself before revealing the pony sister's dark secret. "My sister's shadow pony."
The ponies gasped at this. "Wait, you can't mean Celestia has a shadow pony! That's impossible! She's never done anything like that in her life!" All 5 ponies began speaking at once until Celestia quieted them down. "My little ponies, you are right. I do not have a shadow pony. But Luna is right as well."
The information hit Twilight faster than a collision in the sky with Rainbow Dash. "Wait, but... no that, that can't be... there are only two..." The purple alicorn trailed off.
"Celestia and I have a younger sister, and she is the cause of us being here today. She is the reason I turned into Nightmare Moon, because of her and her shadow pony convincing me, aiding me. She has been banished for 5,000 years, and today she shall be released. I am sure you wish to know the cause of her banishment. She was a cruel pony. She tortured many ponies and we believe she may have even murdered 3 or 4. I'll leave out the details. I know she did this because few ponies knew of her existence, of her status as princess of all the wondrous things in the stars and eclipses.
All the ponies were shocked. Rarity even looked like she was about to throw up and even Pinkie Pie looked sad.
"That sounds awful!" Twilight exclaimed. "Why would you ever want to bring her back?"
Celestia gave Twilight the cruelest look anypony had ever seen from their leader. "What do you mean, why!? Do you not think she deserves another chance, like I'd given Luna or Discord? Is she not worthy enough to once again stand by her sister's side? YOU are the type of pony which made her do those things IN THE FIRST PLACE!" Celestia was near screaming at Twilight, who felt smaller than a baby fly. "I-I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to offend you, I, I..." Celestia noticed what she had done and all the ponies around her giving her horrid, scared looks. "Twilight, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to blow up at you. I just want to finally be reunited with all my sisters once and for all." "I forgive you, just, please don't ever do that again."
It was quiet the rest of the way to the tree of harmony, the questions in everypony's minds eating away at their brains.
"Princess Cadence, Shining Armor, glad to see you made it here alright." Celestia greeted.
"Glad to see you too," replied Candence as Shining Armor bowed. "We are both ready."
"Good, it shouldn't be too long now. Just prepare yourselves. We may not even be able to fight her immediately." Celestia was worried. What if she couldn't protect her subjects? No. She would give her life to protect them.
Luna was worried about other things. "Where in Equestria is Rainbow Dash? Surely she should have finished by now, unless she's decided to take another one of those naps." "I suppose we will have to do without her, Luna." Celestia sighed. Twilight gasped, "But Celestia, how are we supposed to defeat her with all of us present?!" "It will not be as simple as you think, my faithful student. We cannot just blast her with a rainbow and make it all go away. I do not know how we will do it, but if we don't, Equestria will fall to everlasting darkness and be consumed in hatred and torture."
"Oh Celestia, it already has. But don't worry, you won't have to worry about this old place anymore once I kill you."
Everypony's eyes turned to the figure now emerging from the shadows. All was silent and a cool breeze blew, but it was not enough to hide the ponies' obvious fear.
Celestia held her stern gaze, although more frightened, as she turned toward the pony. "You know as well as I do that I cannot let you do that, dear sister."
The pony came out of the shadows enough to reveal her colors. "It has been 5,000 years. Do you think I want to just throw my whole plan away, and have everything just go back to the way it was? The only way for all these ponies to love me is if they have no other princesses to love." Her cold eyes wandered to Cadence. "Which means, I'll have to eliminate you as well, Princess Cadence."
The pink pony was surprised to hear that the figure knew her name after being gone all this time. "H-how did you..." The unknown pony turned away to look at Twilight. "You, however, I had no knowledge of. I suppose Celestia had wanted to replace me with another purple pony, hm? You will suffer along with these other fools."
Luna finally spoke to her long-forgotten sister. "Midnight, please. Times are different now. I have struggled as well as you have. You are not the only one of us to suffer."
"Is that so?" she sneered. "Enough chit-chat. I believe I must go find my new throne." Midnight flew into the sky and turned to shout. "Oh, and one last thing." Her horn began to glow as the moon crossed over the sun, creating a beautiful eclipse. "Equestria's princess has returned at last! The new reign of Midnight Eclipse begins NOW!" she boomed as she flew off towards the old castle.
"Now what? Why'd you just let her get away?!" Cadence questioned her aunt. "Silence. I do not have a plan, but we must find her. I believe she seeks out our castle in Canterlot, but is headed to me and Luna's old one. Quickly, we must return to Canterlot at once to intercept her. There is something I need to try."
An hour later...
"Of course the castle is destroyed. Celestia must have built a new one after Nightmare Moon attacked, and failed" the princess mumbled. It must be in Canterlot. Tia always talked about making that the capital of Equestria." Midnight was flying as fast as her wings could take her, and she felt some of her stronger magic returning. "I must hurry before they reach the castle, so I can destroy them."
At last, she had the new castle in sight. "How extravagant. This will be lovely." Midnight entered, noticing none of the Royal Guard on duty. "I always knew Celestia was an airhead, but this? Pathetic." She worked her way through the castle until she found the throne room. The former princess walked up to the throne and sat down. "And now, I wait."
The ponies arrived at the castle and Celestia had formulated a plan at last. "I know this sounds like a bad plan, but it should work. We must split up and search the castle for her. If she's already her, we don't know where she will be. Midnight does not know the castle interior well, so we cannot assume that, if she's already inside, that my sister is already there."
Midnight was waiting for Celestia. And the sun princess knew this. Celestia knew she had to face her herself. As she walked into the throne room, she noticed her younger sister was already changing. Her once darkly colored purple mane was now that akin to a shadow. "Midnight Eclipse, we end this now. It is time for you to..." Celestia stopped speaking. Her sister was not listening. Instead, the darkened pony was focused intently on something else. "Midnight?" Celestia did not get a chance to blink before she saw a blast of energy coming at her.
"A direct hit. Wonderful. I always knew you were foolish. Do you think simply speaking is enough to stop me? I almost pity you. And if you must know, I have decided not to kill you. That's too simple. I think you deserve the same punishment. But I won't banish you, oh no. I am going to turn you and the other princesses to stone. So you can see how a true princess rules."
Celestia tried to use her horn, but noticed it turning to stone already. "Sister, please, no! I had to do what I had to for my subjects! You know I love you, don't you love me too? I am truly sorry for what I have done! There was no other choice. You were harming ponies. Innocent lives, Midnight. Can't you see that? I have always loved you, and I always will. Please."
Midnight Eclipse looked at her sister, now turning to stone. She stayed silent for what seemed like an eternity. "I don't believe you."
Celestia's eye had formed a single tear before her entire face had turned to stone. Soon, her entire body had turned to stone in the very same way she had done to Discord.
"You'd look much better adorning the room than in a garden." Midnight lifted Celestia in her imprisonment and placed her on the left side of the throne. "Lovely."
Luna had entered the throne room, noticing it now empty. But the emptiness lasted hardly a second before she spotted a familiar statue sitting on the left of the throne. "Tia? Tia!!?" Luna had no time to cry as she was blasted by a magical beam which hit her in the back. "Oh Luna, would you like to join your favorite sister on the throne? Oh, of course you would." Midnight laughed at her frightened sister.
"Midnight, I'm sorry I was never there for you like I should have be-" Luna was cut off by stone.
Midnight felt a sharp emotion rise up in her chest, but quickly brushed it off as she moved Luna to the opposite side of the throne.
Midnight did the same to Cadence and Shining Armor as they each entered the room separately. When Twilight's friends entered, she simply locked them up in cages. "This is getting quite boring," she moaned. She turned her eyes to the stained glass lining the walls of the room. "Equestria's certainly been busy."
"Yes it has, Midnight." The purple princess' head took a sharp turn to see the other purple princess. "Wh-" Twilight blasted her with a beam of magical energy, knocking her off the throne. "And I see you've been busy in here. She looked around the room to see her friends simply locked up. I should have gotten here sooner, I see."
Midnight blinked, and as she did so her eyes changed. They no longer had pupils, just cold, dark, black eyes. "You. I know what power you hold. Which means I must kill you." With that, Midnight blasted through the ceiling and flew through it as Twilight followed.
The ponies stood face to face on the roof of the castle in the dark sky. "You know, you could join me if you wish. We could rule together." Midnight spoke. Twilight was taken aback by her offer, but she knew her answer. "I would never side with you, never in a thousand years." "Very well." Midnight flew towards Twilight, grasping one of her wings and quickly snapping it in half. Twilight screamed, unprepared for what had happened so quickly. She retaliated with a blast of her horn, but missed. "Foolish pony. You could have lived. And with adoring ponies serving under you for the rest of your life." Midnight knocked Twilight to her side as slipped off the roof, barely grasping the edge and dangling to certain doom.
"Goodbye Twilight Sparkle. Sorry the magic of friendship could not save you." Midnight turned away, back into the castle as Twilight hung on for dear life. It was to no avail. She screamed as she lost her grip and plummeted down towards the cold concrete.
This was it. The fall of Equestria. All because I couldn't stop her. And now I plummet to certain death. I'm sorry Celestia. I have failed you . Twilight's last thoughts before she hit the ground were interrupted by the sound of the beating of pegasus wings. Her fall was stopped just short of the gray stone path by a cyan colored pegasus. "Rainbow Dash?!!! Thank goodness you're here! I-" "Save it for later Twilight, I just saw the whole thing. Now we need to get in there and save Equestria!" Rainbow interrupted. "Er, right. Mind giving me a lift?" Twilight spoke, acknowledging her exposed bone. Rainbow shivered. "After this, you definitely need to see a doctor, Twi." "No kidding." Twilight replied dryly.
"At last. I shall finally rule Equestria as I had intended 5,000 years ago." Midnight had been pacing around the throne room, unsure of what to do next. "Do I announce myself? Or should I make sure everyone who may interfere is gone? Hm." She looked over to Celestia's imprisoned body. "You would know, wouldn't you. Of course you would. It's not like you haven't had practice over the last thousands of years or anything." She spoke sarcastically. "But you are the older sister, I suppose." Midnight Eclipse began to feel something she had not felt in over 5 millenniums, buried under all the hatred she'd felt towards her sisters. "What am I doing... NO! I am seeking revenge. I SHALL rule Equestria, and no one is going to stop me! I now take my rightful position." In the midst of her thoughts, Twilight entered the room with a pegasus she had never met before.
"Well, it seems you've somehow survived." She spoke angrily. "Thanks to me, of course!" Dash bragged. "Hmph. Very well. I will have to take care of you myself." Midnight shot a magical beam at Rainbow Dash, whom was too fast to be hit. "You're faster than I thought." "Heh, yeah, heck yeah I'm fa-" Dash was knocked out by the beam. "Not very smart though, I see. Now for you Twilight." Midnight looked around to see Twilight attempting to break Celestia free. "And what do you think you're doing." Twilight spun around and thus began a full out magic battle. It seemed to last forever until they became completely exhausted.
"It, seems we, are, at, an impass." Midnight breathed heavily between each word. At this moment Twilight realized magic would do nothing against her. She had to take a risk.
"Midnight, you are weak and pathetic."
"What?! How dare you insult me?" "Because you can't handle ruling by yourself. Without Celestia and Luna, you could never rule Equestria. Nopony would accept you, especially after what you have done."
Midnight was taken aback. She began to let her guard down and even closed her wings down to her back. "But they need a ruler! Without Tia and Luna, what would they do? They'd have to come to me! They'd be forced to love me then!"
"Even if you defeated me, Equestria would find another ruler to take you down. You said you wanted to just be loved. What love will there be if you force everypony to bow down to you. The way you are acting right now, no pony loves you. Not even Celestia or Luna. Why should they love someone like you. Celestia had no choice when she banished you. Don't you see that? She had to make a decision while you were taking over Equestria, trying to kill her and Luna, and at least try to save YOU."
At this point Midnight's eyes were huge and back to normal. Twilight could she tears in the corner of her eyes.
"What have I done... If Celestia is going to rebanish me for eternity, so be it. I don't even deserve her love, or anypony else's. You are right Twilight Sparkle. I'm so sorry."
Twilight was astounded how that had worked so quickly and easily. It seemed maybe too easy. Perhaps she was lying, or maybe she had already wanted to free her sisters? She would probably never know.
Midnight casted a spell that would eventually completely free the princess and ponies from their prison.
She layed on the floor, awaiting her punishment as the ponies began to be freed.
Celestia walked over to Midnight and stared down at her. "Celestia, please, I am so sorry. I have not realized until now what it means to be a true ruler. I will agree to be banished forever now."
Celestia laughed. "What's so funny, sister? I thought you were going to punish me?" "Oh Midnight, I see you've already learned your lesson, there's no need for that excessive amount of punishment." She leaned down to hug her sister and whispered in her ear, "but you're not going to go unpunished for what you've done this evening." Midnight whimpered, "Okay, Tia."
Celestia stood up and gathered the ponies once again. "I would like it if you spread the news of the new princess of the stars, and that we should all be safe now."
Midnight perked up at hearing that. "Really? You mean after all this, you're going to let me do the stars too?" Celestia replied, "of course, as the redeemed princess of Equestria, you deserve something better, do you not?"
"Well..." Luna shushed her sister and spoke. We can continue this reunion later. Don't you think we should lower the moon now so ponies can get back to doing their thing?"
"By now it's already night time, Luna! Celestia needs to lower the sun."
They laughed and for the first time in forever, all the sisters were happy. The subjects of Equestria, however, may have a hard time adapting to this newer, yet older princess...
Author's Note
Sequel, perhaps? If yall didn't think this sucked too bad that is.