[Prologue] The Dawn Rises
“No sister, this is not right!” Princess Luna stated. Princess Celestia had just finished explaining how her new spell worked, how she was able to create a bubble of perfection using just her horn. The whispers of space had stopped, feelings of extreme fear were gone, but Luna felt awfully uneasy despite the new peace. Something was terribly wrong. They were standing together in a central rotunda, a place where the two of them commonly would practice new spells. It was far off in a wing of the castle the two never visit, despite the fact that this was the biggest rotunda in the whole complex. They would come here to practice because there was no threat of damaging each other or another creature; they could let loose and push the limits of their powers, which was the cause for all of the damage throughout the room, only right now the room was perfect, like nopony had ever set forth on its floors. The moonlight came through the windows creating dim lines of white rays.
“Look, my dear sister, I solved all of our problems, I’m finally able to create a world without the pain we’ve felt, it’s what we’ve always wanted” Celestia remarked, Luna took a step back and looked at the door behind her to the right.
She looked back at Celestia, “not like this, this is wrong. It goes against what we’ve been taught our whole lives, we can’t do this to everypony.”
“We must! Don’t you see Luna? All the destruction out there, all of the chaos, it won’t stop unless we write our own laws of nature. This world is doomed to suffer”
“I can’t just let you…” Luna started to say, but was interrupted suddenly by the sound of Celestia screaming,
“Ah! Stop!”
Luna stared at Celestia with concern, Celestia had never actually yelled at her before. Her concern shifted however when she saw Celestia jolt her head to the side as if trying to fight something off. Luna reached out with her magic to find out what was wrong. She had been learning how to enter the subconscious mind, and it was a simple enough thing to do because you do it whenever you dream at night, but she had not quite perfected this ability yet so she could only feel images rather than see them clearly. And she could feel a massive amount of conflict within Celestia.
“Sister, are you okay?” Luna asked, still wary of what Celestia may try to do to her. Celestia lit her horn, and her eyes began to glow white. They continued to glow brighter until they matched the intensity of the sun, lighting up the room as if it were noon on a summer’s day.
“RAAAAAHHHHHH!” Celestia screamed.
Then, as if nothing had ever happened that night, Celestia unlit her horn, her eyes returned to normal, and it was quiet in the room once again. Luna was now standing yards away, closer to the door. “C-Celestia?”
Celestia took a deep breath, and relaxed. “It’s okay Luna, I feel better.”
“What happened? I’ve never seen you do that before.”
There was a small pause. Celestia looked up as if she was listening for a sound. “I cured myself.” Luna made a look of disbelief, then Celestia continued, “I feel amazing sis. Please, let me cure you too, everything I’ve been saying will make sense after I’m done.” Celestia started to approach Luna.
Luna couldn't shake the sickening feeling she felt, she stared at Celestia with a strong amount of fear and, most oddly, revenge. “No, what exactly did you do?”
“Just stay there, it will only take a moment. Please, let me help you.”
Then a voice spoke in Luna’s head, “run.”
Luna didn't question the voice, and simply bolted out the door.
“Wait! Luna!” Celestia yelled out.
Luna ran down the hall leading out of the rotunda, down a flight of stairs, and into another hallway with doors lining either side. She stopped at one doorway and went through it, entering through the side door of a large throne room with Sun and Moon banners draped above the stands. Celestia followed after her through the door.
“Sister, please wait, you have to trust me!” Celestia called out.
“You’re scaring me sis, whatever you’re trying to do it isn't something I want.”
“That’s why I need you to stop running, I can fix your feelings, I can save you from all of it.”
“No!” Luna started to run again, this time taking flight, but Celestia grabbed her with her magic, brought her down to the floor, and started to make her way over to the struggling alicorn.
“It will be okay, I promise.”
Luna charged her horn and teleported away as it reached its peak. She didn't go very far, just straight to the throne chairs behind them, but it gave her enough time to turn and prepare another spell.
“Why are you fighting me sister?!” Celestia said with a tone of annoyance.
But Luna didn't reply, she felt something grow inside of her, as if it was trying to rise to the surface after being submerged for so long. She felt herself slipping, her vision became foggy, and then a dark shadow began to rise from behind her. The moon was strong tonight. As the shadow rose, it made cracks in the wall behind her until it finally created a hole, letting bright rays of moonlight shine down into the room.
Celestia moved in quickly to stop what was happening, she could tell that something was taking over Luna. She needed to cure her sister, and do it fast. She lit her horn, her eyes began to glow as they did earlier, but Luna started to be engulfed in a dark haze which turned into a violent red orb of energy. Celestia tried to pierce it with her magic, maybe drag Luna out, but she was not strong enough. Then all of the energy discharged from Luna and pushed Celestia back, knocking her into the floor. When Celestia looked up, she didn't see Luna, she didn't see anypony she recognized. Luna had transformed into a mare of darkness, a black alicorn with waving blue hair patterned after the stars. The new alicorn was also larger in size and stature. Celestia was too late.
The dark mare looked dead on at Celestia with her slitted eyes, power surging throughout her body, and a tear ran down her face as she screamed “CELESTIA!!!”
Celestia took a step back. The Night was very powerful, much more powerful than the Day, and Celestia had missed her opportunity to save Luna. She didn't know what to do, Luna was trapped inside that evil being, so if she tried to cure her now she could end up killing Luna other than purging the Night from her soul. Almost everything has gone wrong, and she wasn't about to lose her sister like she lost everypony else. The universe is cruel, but today is the era for the Day to become brighter than the Night. It must be done! As Celestia was trying very hard to come up with a plan, the dark mare shot a lethal beam of magic towards Celestia. Celestia barely dodged out of the way before running off away from her corrupted sister. She couldn’t fight Luna without fear of possibly damaging her, so fleeing from the scene to buy time was the best option. The night shaded alicorn chased after Celestia in pursuit, shooting several beams of magic with the intent to seriously injure or kill her.
Celestia found an opening in the roof and flew through it to get outside. She had always been faster than Luna when it came to flying, so she assumed that she could use this opportunity to lose her and think of a real plan while not under pressure. The night stained enemy, however, had no problems keeping up with Celestia and continued her assault. Then finally, a few moments later, she landed a blow on Celestia. Celestia let out a cry, fell out of the sky, and crashed straight through the roof of a ballroom, landing on the floor with a pile of rubble. Her torso ached with pain from the blast, causing her to wince as she tried to stand. The dark mare glided through the new opening in the roof and landed in front of Celestia.
Celestia looked up, “Luna, why are you doing this? All I wanted was to help you” she pleaded.
“Luna? I am Nightmare Moon,” the dark alicorn replied.
Celestia’s fear has been realised, Luna has been taken over by this being. Cursed Night! “You must fight this Luna, I can't lose you to.”
“Hahaha!” Nightmare laughed out loud, “you really think she would listen to you?”
“Let her go!” Celestia demanded.
Nightmare Moon started charging her horn with one final beam to finish off Celestia, “never.”
Celestia felt crushed, defeated, she truly has lost everything to the wretched Night, and was suffering an amazing amount of torment. She had lost the one good thing left in her life, her most beloved sister, Luna.
She finally stood upright, filling herself with solar energy, “then you leave me no choice.” Celestia lit her horn, and immediately a door in the floor behind her opened up, and a complex stand of crystals ascended.
“No!” Nightmare screamed as she fired her shot at Celestia. Celestia focused her magic to deflect the blast, but only succeeding in dampening most of the damage. The shot still made contact with her body, and the resulting force pushed her back slightly, enough to lose her footing. Nightmare charged towards Celestia, charging another blast as she ran. Celestia was still gathering more solar energy as she grabbed the Elements of Harmony with her magic. The Elements started to shine, and Nightmare shot a beam square into Celestia’s chest. Celestia’s radiant solar energy had been weakened from the last blast, so she took most of the blast this time, causing her chest to collapse, knocking out the air from her lungs, and breaking a couple of ribs. Celestia fell to her knees, but kept her focus on the Elements. Nightmare reared onto her back legs when she got directly in front of Celestia, her next shot already charged within her horn, and she dove her head down to fire a point blank range shot. The Elements started spinning around Celestia however, and perfectly deflected the shot into the floor in front of them, creating a puff of dust. Celestia gained altitude until she exited through the opening in the roof, and Nightmare followed. When they were high enough, both alicorns charged their abilities to full power.
“I’m so sorry, Luna” Celestia thought to herself as tears ran down her face.
Then, as if the whole world stopped to behold this single moment, they fired their attacks at the same time. The beams collided in the middle, pushing against each other. The Night was powerful, much more powerful than the day, but the Elements of Harmony contain a special magic that transcends time and celestial forces. As if there was no struggle, Celestia’s beam from the Elements pushed through Nightmare’s beam effortlessly.
“No!” Nightmare screamed out as the beam engulfed her. It continued to push further, carrying Nightmare with it all the way into the moon.
Luna is now gone, leaving the Day unopposed for the next 1000 years.
Author's Note
Thank you so much for reading. It's been two and a half years since I started working on this story, so I am very greatful to be able to return to the writer's corner and finish it. For the sake of creating a better story that smoothly transitions from part to part and includes my new ideas, I decided that simply editing the original story (Conclave of the Clairetti) wouldn't be enough. I have to re-write the whole thing from the ground up. I will leave the original story available to the public so that comparisons can be made, and so you can see that I am not republishing the same story for publicity reasons.
I would not encourage you to read the original however, it does not reflect my current ability as a writer, and the plot took a huge turn from the original outline. In other words, it's not the story I thought I was writing.
Stay tuned for more if you enjoyed this prologue, I will continue to write more until the story is finished, unlike last time. I will publish each chapter as they come. Again, thanks for reading.
