Author's Note
So...here we are...20 stories.
Admittedly most of these are one shots, but 20 whole completed stories each with their on unique idea or spin on an idea. That's...that's something I can be proud of.
I may not have the biggest fan base in wide world of FIMFiction, but I'm so proud of my fans. I love you all and I'm glad you're here.
So, let's do this...they way it should be done. You all know my favorite trope...and here it is.
Evil...vs...Evil.
Act of Evil
“My love will give you strength!” A desperate Cadence said as she cuddled closer to her Shining Armour. She draped her foreleg around his neck…and their horns connected.
“What a lovely but absolutely ridiculous sentiment,” Chrysalis laughed.
The ponies began to glow. The light was pulsating, full of love that the two Equestrians had with each other. Chrysalis smirked to herself as the light grew brighter and brighter. And then…
Boom!
An explosion of power shook Canterlot, slamming full-force into Chrysalis. In a flurry of light, love and life, a shockwave was felt.
Princess Luna, though far away, felt the bright strength invade the space around her.
‘“What in Equestria is happening?” Her eyes widened as her soul traced the source of the magic. “Canterlot? Oh no…I knew I should have stayed behind, but that fool of a bride sent me away! I have to get there as fast as I can!” She narrowed her eyes and spread her wings. “I’m sure to get an earful today, but I don’t care. My sister could be in danger and they need me there.”
In Canterlot, Shining Armour collapsed in Cadence’s arms. Her pale irises shook as Chrysalis giggled delightedly. “As I said before…a lovely sentiment…but an absolutely ridiculous one.” The giggles morphed into laughter, growing stronger and stronger as Cadence shook violently against its harshness. “Did you really think that a love-based attack would stop me and my changelings?” she mocked.
Her laughter ceased and Cadence looked up as she sighed dreamily. “This day really has been just perfect...” She glanced up at the cocooned Celestia, sneering. “And the Sun Princess is at my mercy too…the cherry on the cake, if you ask me.” Her gaze then turned to Twilight and her friends. “Her little minions are to weak to stop even my changelings…” She turned to Cadence “…And that little blast of yours took so much energy” She laughed. “What rotten luck.”
She began to prowl down the aisle towards the altar. “There is no pony that can stop me,” she hissed. Cadence flinched as she threw her head back and howled maliciously. “There is nothing in this universe that can stop what I have begun!”
Suddenly, a dark blue blast slammed into the wall behind Chrysalis and she dived and fell to the ground.
“I do not know. I think I may know a pony.” Chrysalis glanced up and her pupils constricted.
“Princess Luna,” she growled. The alicorn’s hoofsteps were unwavering as Twilight and her friends stared up at her.
“Luna, don’t!” Rainbow wheezed. “She's too powerful!”
“Get Celestia down,” Luna ordered, refusing to slow her pace until she reached her sister, where she stopped and raised her gaze to the cocoon. “I’ll be fine,” she murmured, more to reassure herself than anypony else. She closed her eyes. “When she gets down, tell her something for me, Twilight Sparkle…” Twilight peered at her, eyes clouded with confusion. Luna smiled sadly. “Forgive me…”
Twilight’s unspoken words shattered against the cackle which tore itself from Chrysalis’s throat. “So the long-lost Princess from ancient times has returned?” she mocked “You don’t honestly believe that you have a chance at defeating me, do you?” Fluttershy yelped and covered her ears as she whistled, long and loud and shrill. Almost immediately, a hoard of changelings bulleted into the room and encircled Luna. “Your little friends may have picked off the small fries, but I still have plenty of changelings at my disposal. An entire kingdom! And all of them well-fed after Cadence and Shining Armour tried a little too hard to defeat me.”
“So that explains the god-complex,” Luna retorted scathingly. “Now tell me something…what is the difference between me and my sister?”
“You control the sun and she controls the moon. You were trapped in complete isolation for a full thousand years, while your sister became the sole ruler of an entire nation,” Chrysalis answered, tilting her head slightly; Luna was almost…calm.
“You are correct in your summation,” Luna stated “However, you are forgetting one…small…thing. “That doing the right thing is never easy. Being nice, helping others, being good, is never easy.’ She gritted her teeth. “And I’m willing to sink to the opposite end of the scale to defeat you. If being good is never easy…I’ll simply become evil.” Her horn began to glow as Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. Suddenly, a cloud of darkness emanated from Luna's horn. “Meet the nightmare of the night,” she whispered “The Tantibus,”
Luna closed her eyes as the Tantibus grew larger and larger, smashing down changeling after changeling as Chrysalis simply watched in horror.
This....cloud...it felt evil...not the type of evil that Chrysalis was accustomed to. This was pure evil incarnate, crushing changelings left and right, spreading rapdily, going stronger and stronger and stronger and…Chrysalis backed up in total fear as the thing wormed its way back into Luna. “What…what is it?” she stammered.
“The Tantibus is a being I created...to punish myself for every sin I have committed” Luna said quietly. “Each and every night I have given myself nightmare after nightmare after nightmare.”
Twilight stared at her.“That…that thing feeds on her guilt.” She shook her head. “Why, Princess? Why did you make something like this?"
Chrysalis gazed at her, seemingly nauseated. “Why....why would you do such a thing? You're Celestia's little sister, what sins could you possibly have committed?”
Luna smiled darkly“Why do you think I was banished to the moon?”
Despite her now growing fear, Chrysalis snorted.“What? Did you accidentally spill your drink on some poor stallion and now you feel really bad about that?”
“Oh no…nothing quite so trivial.” The Tantibus began to shift and change, surrounding her. Luna nodded to Twilight. “As soon as you release my sister, I want the seven of you to get the Elements of Harmony…and take Cadence and Shining Armour with you as well....no matter who wins this battle...you need to…” She bit her lip and swallowed. “To do what needs to be done.” Twilight’s eyes widened.
“But what”-
And then, the Tantibus swarmed towards the Princess of the Night. Her teeth became jagged as her dark blue fur became as black as midnight. Her eyes became bug-like and slitted as Shining rose from unconsciousness.
Chrysalis backed up against a wall. “What...what...are you?” she whispered.
Another dark blast. Chrysalis rolled and shot back, but the Tantibus slammed the magic into the ground, extinguishing the magic like flames in the wind.
The light of the moon began to glow brighter, clouding Luna in shadows and light and death…the day had fallen to night. The Tantibus was gone, only flowing outside of the mane of the legendary mare of darkness. “What am I? *” Luna whispered. “I am a nightmare of the night. I am…Nightmare Moon.”
Chrysalis was backed into a corner, not noticing as Rainbow cut Princess Celestia from her cocoon and raced out of the door along with the elements of harmony. Then she smiled.
This changed nothing.
“You’ve changed nothing,” she smiled. Her confidence had pieced itself back together. “I have absorbed more than enough love to defeat you!” Nightmare Moon calmly raised her shield, then raced forward as Chrysalis began to shoot beams of energy towards her. She fired back more and more, but Nightmare Moon's shadowy mane blocked each shot. Realising that she couldn't use magic, she lunged forward and slammed her leg into Nightmare Moon's face sending the infamous pony soaring across the moon.
Nightmare Moon climbed painfully to her hooves and released a gasping laugh from her chest.
“So…you with to do battle that way?” She closed her eyes and suddenly she was right at Chrysalis's side…teleportation magic could not be underestimated. With one bash of her hoof, Chrysalis received the same treatment, sending her into a wall. Nightmare Moon padded forward, her eyes gleaming savagely. “Shall we try something else…or do you understand that you have no hope?”
Chrysalis’s lip curled. “I will not be defeated by a relic!” she screeched. She spun on her hoof and smacked her back hoof against Nightmare Moon’s jaw, sending her sailing backwards with her head raised painfully. Her confidence evaporated as she skidded to a stop and lowered her head. “Quite frankly,” she growled. “I’m disappointed.”
Chrysalis froze. She had nothing left in her. Nightmare Moon was just standing there…taking everything that came her way with terrifying calm. She couldn’t…And then with a wave of her mane, Luna threw Chrysalis to the floor, causing the stone to break around her frame.
The Queen glared at her. She couldn’t…but she had to.
“Enough of this!” She howled. “I did not come this far, defeat all of Equestria's heroes to be defeated by the likes of you!” Her horn glowed brighter and brighter, and suddenly a large, lime green blast fired from it. She’d put everything she had left in one attack. It soared straight out the window…but only after hitting Luna squarely in the chest.
“LUNA!”
Below, Princess Celestia heard the screams of her sister and called her name in terror.
“Princess, we have to hurry!” Twilight called urgently. Her heart was racing as they ran up the stairs, elements in hand…
The wedding altar lay in a smoke-stained ruin. Luna was nowhere in sight. Queen Chrysalis laughed. She laughed and laughed and laughed and…
And then, someone was laughing along with her.
Nightmare Moon was howling with manic glee, her body covered in burns, cuts, and bruises. She climbed shakily to her hooves. “I’ll admit, I didn't expect that! It actually hurt a bit.”
Chrysalis barely had time to register her own shock before she found herself pinned against the wall by her neck.
It was over.
It had been so…easy…she had been so easily defeated…what was she supposed to say…
“I give up.”
That was it. The only words she could think flew to her mouth. Then, she started to choke as Nightmare Moon slowly applied pressure to her throat. “You...you can't!” she breathed, her voice laced with pain and panic. Blood fell in showers from her throat as she hacked, staring into the blank eyes of the night. “You’re…you’re…” Nightmare moon smiled silently, her face a picture of midnight gazing upon its mundane prey.
“I told you before…” she whispered. “I am a Nightmare.”
Crack.
And then, Queen Chrysalis fell to the floor, her neck broken…killed by Nightmare Moon.
Suddenly Nightmare Moon turned to see Celestia and the elements staring at her, aghast. Terrified. Disgusted. Shocked. Mortified. She tensed her shoulder blades and threw back her head, mad with hatred-fuelled adrenalin and gut-wrenching fear.
“You are not going to defeat me again!” she hissed.
Celestia simply shook her head, gazing upon Nightmare Moon. “We are...because it is Luna’s wish.” Suddenly, a large rainbow coloured helix emerged from behind her and the nightmare looked up in horror as she was hit by the magic of friendship, the Tantalus shattering behind her.
And then, Luna emerged from the shadow of Nightmare Moon to stare at the corpse of Chrysalis. For a moment, she stood completely still. Then she gasped before looking down in silence as her sister came to comfort her.
