Its name was Grimdark, that was all it was. It was formed when the forces of time and space had come together at the beginning of Equestria and spawned the princesses, it had been born for a single tear of sadness when the forces had been forced to move on and leave their children. It had no true form and no reason to exist. It travelled between dreams afraid of the outside world and all the pain and hatred it had felt at the hooves of others.
Grimdark searched for something. It did not know where to find it or what the item it searched for was. The only way it found to sustain itself in its search was to feed on the emotions and memories of the creatures of Equestria.
As it wandered it searched for the ponies and creatures with the most intense emotions and at one time it had found a pool of emotions so strong they shone like the sun. One of the princess ponies, the one named Luna.
* * *
Luna lay slumped in sadness on the balcony of the canterlot palace staring at her beautiful night sky. She sighed again. Why could the ponies and even her own sister be so blind to the beauty she gave to them each and every night. Grimdark slithered up the walls in its shadow form and feeling the sadness flowed over her latching onto her and soaking up her feeling of sadness and loneliness. Luna shivered and felt all of her problems melt away Luna shrugged “Someday, people will see the beauty I give to them, but for now there is something I have to do” Luna trotted back inside to apologise to her sister.
As the days went by Luna felt something inside her her being to change she felt her strength and magic being to grow and her coat darkened. For that was the curse which Grimdark carried, whilst he latched onto a creature he ate their emotions and gain access to the host memories, in return the creature grew in power and was no longer burdened by bothersome emotions, meaning it could do anything it wanted.
As Luna grew in strength and following celestia's concern grew until one day she confronted her younger sister. “Luna I am concerned for you, your body grows every day and your temper worsens. I heard for the captain of the guard that you summoned three of the strongest of our guard to you room and proceed to attack them until they lay barley alive on your floor. WHY?”
Luna grinned “Dear sister, that is easy. I had to test the limits of my powers but found those creatures servilely lacking Now you will listen to me about extending my nights”. Celestia step back and gasped in shock as dark energy flowed round Luna , Lunas fury darkened her mane grew and her once silver ornaments turned black. Luna had merged completely with Grimdark taking all of his shadow power in return for unlimited energy.
“Sister Luna what has happened to you” Celestia whispered.
“Luna is no more. I … am … Nightmare Moon”
* * *
From this point on it is the tale of Celstia verses Nightmare moon. To the common pony it would be told it was about Luna trying to gain control and make her nights last for ever, and celestia using the elements of harmony to bansih Nightmare Moon for thousand years, that much was true.
But the part that was never told was that Celestia realized that her precious sister would never act this way of her own volition. She and Luna had fought many times in the past but this was different and Lunas power felt evil and corrupt.
She tried to use her magic to separate Luna from whatever was that was possessing her but found her magic lacking and was unable to separate the two. In the end she had to call upon the powers and strength of all five of Luna's friends and brought them together and fought Nightmare Moon.
“SISTER, WE WOULD HAVE WORDS YOU!!” Celestia yelled as the doors to the throne room blew inwards and flanked by 5 multi-coloured ponies Celestia marched in.
“Your eternal night harms our people, the ones we chose to serve and protect” she gestured to the ponies at her side “even you friends can see there is something wrong with you” Luna roared and blasted and massive energy bolt. Two of Lunas friends, both unicorns, step in front and built a magical barrier to stop the bolt. The remaining three two pegases and an earth pony ran and flew from behind the barrier and tackled Nightmare moon.
Celestia nodded to the Unicorns and together they unleashed a spell they had been working on for the past month and tired to rip the darkness from Luna. Nightmare Moon now incoherent with rage lashed out and slammed the ponies holding her into the throne walls, with a loud crunching sound. She turned and lashing about again with her magic breaking Celestia's spell and sent the two unicorns flying and landing in a broken heap on the floor. Celestia raised her head up and looked at the broken bodies that surrounded her and listening to the evil laughter of Nightmare Moon, tears rolled down her cheeks as she remembered all the happy memories of Lunas friend.
All their kindness, their loyalty to Luna, the laughter the shared, the honesty they had, their generosity and what they had sacrificed to help their friend. All of this burned in Celestia causing her to unleash a spell. The spell was primal it did not need a unicorn to control it, it just was. It wrapped round the broken bodies and raised them into the air transforming them into crystals each empathising one of their traits . The floated round Celestia and channelling the last of here magic into a final spell, if she could not save her sister now then she would save seal her away until she could save her. Grimdark screamed as he and Luna were sealed in eternal sleep and sealed with the heavenly object.
After the battle had ended Celestia and found herself alone, her once pink mane now imbued which each of the colour of Luna’s friends, and 5 beautiful gemstones hovering above the now empty clothing of the 5 late ponies souls. Celestia felt the tear fall down her face and watched as the elements of harmony turned to stone and fall to the floor.
* * *
1000 years past and the stars gathered together and the bright light and awoke Nightmare moon from her sleep and using the powers of herself and Grimdark escaped and returned to Equestria. Together they fought to take control of Equestria through trickery and cunning but where stopped by 6 ponies who together wielded the strength of the elements of harmony defeated Nightmare moon and tore Grimdark away from innocent little princess.
Now without host or a source of food Grimdark was forced to flee to the world of shadows but now he had flicker of what he searched for, the tomb the thing with which he could obtain a life and a true place in the world which had done so much to deny him.
