Nightmare in Canterlot Part 1

(Takes place before and after “Make new friends but keep Discord”)

As always, the Grand Galloping Gala was a huge celebration of stuff... nopony knew exactly what they were celebrating, but they knew it had to be important for it to be annual. Plus, all the princesses (usually) showed up. Luna was getting ready by putting on her royal armor with cape. Her armor consisted of a “bikini chest plate” as Princess Celestia, her sister, called it. And of course, everything was stylized to look like the night sky. Her Bikini chest plate was hoof-crafted and painted. “Bikini Chest plate” wasn’t exactly accurate, because it stopped halfway down her back and underbelly. It was painted mostly black, but had stars dispersed around in the void that was her armor. But the main event in her outfit was a long flowing hoodless cloak that was the same as her armor in color stylization, but connected with her armor with a clasp, which eventually met in the middle of her armor. The clasp met as a fully formed circle with an engraved crescent moon shape painted with real moon dust. It was the only thing she kept from her Nightmare Moon outfit. That is, beside the helmet that was held in the Canterlot museum.

Celestia knocked again. Luna opened the door for her sister. “Good, you’re ready to go.” Her sister said. Celestia was clothed much the same, except for a sun in place of a moon, her cape and armor were entirely white, and she had pink, green, and blue polka dots randomly placed on her cape.

“The Grand Galloping Gala was a disaster!” Luna argued at Celestia. Celestia’s expression stayed calm. They were at the single table in the library of The Castle of the Sisters, surrounded by heaps of knowledge, that they were simply not going to use. Celestia’s expression turned in to a scowl. “I’m sick of this! I invited Discord this time and that’s it! No questions! No answers!” Celestia walked to storm out of the library, but stopped in the doorway. “In fact, I’ll do it next year.” Celestia walked triumphantly in to the hall, leaving Luna alone in the two-thousand-and-counting year-old library.

Luna sat, thinking about what her sister had said, at frankly she was worried about her sister. Her eyes felt heavy, she decided she should raise the moon before she fell asleep.

In her dreams, Luna did something she would be arrested, beaten, and subsequently executed for, and that was exactly why she was doing it. As usual she was looking down at HER empire, HER subjects, and they were all real, every last one of em’. Real families, real ponies lived in her dream kingdom, and it was all to get away from Celestia’s territory. One might ask, “Why don’t they just move to the Crystal Empire or-“ THAT my friend is because every single place ANYWHERE on the pony planet is secretly controlled by Princess Celestia. Sure, she puts on little shows, but her “Sun Cult” had control of EVERYWHERE. Luna knew this, because she was part of the Sun Cult.

“Loyal subjects!” Luna was making her first speech of the night and was adorned with her royal attire. It was the same as she wore at the Grand Galloping Gala, except for the crown, which was her Nightmare Moon helmet. She was standing on the balcony overlooking her version of Canterlot. It was basically Canterlot, but everything was black and silver instead of white and gold. Besides that, everything was the same, except for a crescent moon symbol which took the place of the sun symbol. Her subjects looked up at her from the streets, her guards were posted next to her, with of course, a black and silver armor set. They were almost identical to the royal guard in the real world, but had black armor and silver horsehair on the helmet. Her captain of the guard was posted next to her, except that he was lacking a helmet. He coincidentally had a silver mane, like the horsehair helmets. “I have gathered you here today to make an important announcement-““Wake up, Luna!” Celestia yelled from the hall. Luna awoke with a jump, she had been about to make one of the most important speeches in the history on the Lunar Empire, and Celestia had just booted her out of the dream. “Someone’s here to see you.” Her sister said as she walked into the room. Luna noticed that she was back at Canterlot Castle, not the Castle of the Sisters, Celestia must have teleported her here. With her sister was a pitch black pegasus with an electric blue Mohawk. “Ah, Thunderlane, I’ve been expecting you.” Luna said as Celestia left the room. “Here’s the... medicine you ordered,” Thunderlane said as he put down two marked pill bottles. His eyes darted to the guards in the hall. “It takes care of everything you need.” He tossed a piece of paper to her and left as casually as he could. Luna read the paper. “Dear Empress Luna, a few meetings back you discussed possible ways to overthrow Celestia, disabling her magic was one of them. All I have to say is: thank goodness Zecora the alchemist is on our side. This is an altered Poison Joke essence. It disables all magic until an antidote is taken. I have delivered to you both the antidote and the poison. The poison is green and marked with a “P” the antidote is blue and marked with an “A”. Good luck Empress.

-Thunderlane

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Luna knew what she had to do. She put the poison in her saddlebag along with the note, and hid the antidote in her desk. She donned the pure white cloak and hood, and set off to the secret room where the Sun cult base was. As she strode forward down the hallways, she tripped on a stray guard helmet. As she fell to the ground, she saw the poison and note do the same. The bottle crashed to the ground and sent the poison flying everywhere. It just so happened... that some poison sprayed at her mouth. “Just my luck.” She thought as she felt her magic leaving her. As to make things worse, a guard turned the corner. “So we’ve finally caught you red-hoofed, Empress Luna.

To be continued...