A Frozen Heart

As the moon rises above Canterlot, the streets of the city become empty and silent. The few street lanterns illuminate the streets while most of the ponies in the city rest in their homes, fallen into a deep slumber.

Yet this is not the case for everypony. The bringer of the night and ruler of the dream world herself, Princess Luna, is restless. For many days now she has been haunted by nightmares, unable to close her eyes and rest. This has, quite visibly, left Luna scarred.

This had all started a couple of days after she and her sister returned from the Crystal Empire. They had struck down the evil King Sombra and his demonic army...but their victory was short-lived. With his last breath, Sombra managed to cast a spell on him and the empire, causing it to seemingly vanish. How he managed to do that...nopony knows. Where he and his empire went, nopony will ever know. All Luna and her sister know is that they and their home are safe. For now.

However, unlike her sister, Luna has been dealing with a series of nightmares, hallucinations and visions ever since they returned. At first she thought it was normal, that it was a side effect of the battle she and her sister had fought against Sombra and his devilish army.

But she quickly realized that is was much more than that, much more than just a simple mood swing. As time went on, the nightmares became more frequent, not letting Luna rest for a single night anymore, while the hallucinations and visions Luna saw became...disturbing.

Luna came up with the only possible answer she had to all this: It was a disease, one that has yet to be discovered by anypony else because it originates from the Frozen North. Luna must have caught this new sickness when she and Celestia made their way to the Crystal Empire, flying through an intense blizzard. Yes, this would be the answer, it was the only possible reason for all this.

Even with a seemingly reasonable answer, this did not help to lessen the effects of the sickness. She had called for many doctors to examine her about this sickness and possibly find a cure to it. Ponies arrived from across Equestria, only to be met with something they simply...didn't understand.

As the last of the doctors opened the door, he told Luna the same thing as all the others had done before: "There's nothing we can do. I'm sorry."

Luna had always been very fond of science. She had always loved to look at things from a new perspective, to find out why things are the way they are. She would often spend hours every night looking through her telescope. She had spent so much time on science, so much time on research and so much effort into trying to understand the world they are living in.

Yet, even with all this...science let her down when she most needed it. Science did not know an answer to this mysterious new sickness. The doctors told Luna that they could not make out any form of bacteria or virus within her body while using the most modern medical equipment Equestria had. If they were right, then all this might not be a disease after all.

But if it isn't a disease...then what is it?

The cold, fresh night air swirled around Luna as she leaned herself on the railing of the balcony outside of her bedroom. She looked down from the balcony, down onto the streets and houses, spotting not a single pony that was left roaming around the city during these late hours.

Just when Luna thought she could have a moment of silence, a stabbing pain flared up inside her head.

"Gods...not again..." She cursed quietly, resting her left hoof on her forehead as the pain grew.

This was far from the first time Luna had experienced this. She had felt the same sudden, piercing pain in her head multiple times now. Unfortunately, that did not help lessen the pain.

Luna tried making her way back into the room to lay down in her bed, slowly turning around while still fighting the pain and making a few hesitant and careful steps forward.

She was quickly stopped in her tracks though as the pain suddenly shot up, causing Luna to cry in agony and collapse to the ground. She breathed heavily as she tried getting back up, but froze as she looked up from the ground. The door that lead back into the bedroom...had vanished! She gasped, hastily looking around. She saw how black smoke clouds appeared all around her, slowly consuming her surroundings as they closed in on her.

Luna used the tiny bit of strength she had left and pushed herself back onto her hooves. She once again looked around, her eyes filled with fear, as the pitch-black clouds were coming closer and closer. Luna tried charging her horn up to possibly push back the clouds with magic, but she let out a loud, painful cry once more as she tried to do so. As the clouds were only a few more meters away from her, she realized that there was nothing she could do, she was helpless against whatever was going to happen.

Luna closed her eyes in expectation of the clouds, expecting the clouds to close in on her to consume her just like they consumed everything that was around her.

Yet...that did not happen. She stood still with closed eyes for about 10 seconds, then opening her eyes again. She immediately saw that the black clouds were still there, but...they had stopped. They had stopped just about 1 to 2 meters away from her.

Before Luna had the chance to ask herself any question about her current situation, she saw something moving inside the smoke. She could hear sounds all around her, some familiar, some strange.

Luna leaned forward as she tried to identify what it was that moved around inside the smoke in front of her. She saw how the smoke gave way for the thing inside the cloud, letting Luna spot just what it was that had hidden in the smoke.

"Sister...?" She asked in surprise, spotting the image of her sister standing just a few meters away from her, her head lowered.

Celestia did not respond to Luna. She stayed where she was, her head still lowered to the ground, making it impossible for Luna to see her face.

"What is going on, sister? What is all this?" Luna asked her sister, hoping that she would know more than her. Yet, again, Celestia did not reply.

The renewed silence of her sister made Luna both suspicious and afraid. She gulped, taking a first careful, scared step towards the image of her sister, an image that now striked fear into Luna, rather than joy. Luna made sure to keep her eyes locked onto her sister, who still had her head lowered. Her heart pounded as she finally stood right in front of her, her breathing becoming quicker and heavier than ever before. With great hesitation and fear, she held out her right hoof towards Celestia's head.

She slowly nudged closer, whispering: "S-sister...?" at Celestia. Then, after a few more fearfilled seconds, she was in reach of her sister. Her right hoof slowly inched closer to Celestia's forehead, just a slip away from touching it when suddenly...

"At last..." Celestia said, her words echoing in a way that made Luna's fur crawl

Luna pulled back her hoof and walked back a step as Celestia lifted her head. Luna looked at her in fear as her head slowly but steadily rose.

Luna froze as she finally was able to see the face of her supposed sister. She stared at Celestia, at the most familiar face she knew, and saw it...covered in blood. The entire face, covered with bloodstains and deep, bloody scars and scratches.

"N-no....no! No!" Luna cried out as she stumbled backwards instinctively.

The terrifying creature that was her sister gave out an almost demonic chuckle as her pupils suddenly turned into reptile-like slits while her teeth grew larger and sharper.

"Where do you think you are going?" Yelled Celestia with a mighty echo as she saw Luna backpedal in fear.

Luna shivered in fear as the creature in front of her came closer. She could hear a loud rumbling every time Celestia's hooves hit the ground. She was unable to run from her, the smoke blocked her escape, leaving her with no possible way to escape.

Luna stared into the now slit eyes of Celestia as she stood in front of her.

"At last...At last I will do what has always been my destiny..." Said Celestia with a loud voice which once again gave off a loud echo.

She smiled maniacally as her horn began to glow before finally lighting up in her typical yellow aura.

"I will finally free my realm from the parasite that is my sister!" She shouted at Luna, her aura lighting up brightly.

Luna could feel her heart ache after those words. Luna quickly broke down onto her hind legs, grabbing her chest with her right forehoof. She could feel herself become weaker and weaker, losing her senses, how her sight became blurry as she looked up to Celestia one last time.

Celestia looked down to Luna with a look of disgust and hate. "I have waited too long to do this, have sat idle while you gathered power over what is rightfully mine!" She paused, putting her left hoof under Luna's chin and kneeling down to look her into the eyes.

"And now, Luna..." She said with joy, "You...will...DIE!" She yelled, kicking Luna with the hoof that she had laid under Luna's chin.

Luna now laid a few meters away from Celestia after she had kicked her away. Luna laid on her belly as she saw Celestia's horn light up more than she had ever seen before. Robbed of all her physical strength and faced with the emotionally unbearable, Luna simply could not keep up anymore.

Her sight became blurry as she saw a bright light where she last saw Celestia. With her last bit of strength she could make out a bright ray of light shoot towards her, before passing out.

Luna wandered off into darkness. She did not know why she did, nor could she control her movements. It was like she was merely a passenger in her very own body. She watches as she moved deeper and deeper into the darkness while more and more disturbing images flashed before her eyes. She could even make out that some of the images told a story, that they were connected.

There was an image that showed a normal pony family at first: A lovely mother and father with a little daughter and son sitting in front of them. She figured it would have to be a family picture.

However, with a sudden flash of light, the picture...changed. The father was missing one of his eyes. Then, with yet another flash, the son in front of the father was suddenly holding the head of the mother in his hooves. Luna wanted to look away from the images, wanted to close her eyes, but none of that was possible as she had no control over her body.

The picture changed yet again, but this time without a flash of light. This time Luna could see how the terrible things happened. She saw a creature walking up to the father of the family and rip out one of his eyes with magic. Luna watched in horror as the creature went over to the mother next to the father. She was unable to clearly identify who or what the creature was, as it was covered in complete black. The only thing that was not black was the magic aura of it, which was blue, a darker blue tone than that of Luna herself.

The creature stepped up to the mother who, like the rest of the family, was frozen. The creature pulled back it's head and shot it back forward, stabbing it's long, sharp horn into the throat of the mother. the creature then sliced through the rest of the throat with the horn, leaving the head to fall to the ground.

Luna wanted to vomit at the sight of such brutality, at all the blood being spilled...the blood of poor, innocent ponies which she had pledged to protect. She could suddenly feel a sense of guilt come up inside her. She watched as the mysterious creature picked up and placed the head on the young colt's hooves.

Luna watched, with increasing guilt, as the creature suddenly turned towards her. The creature's eyes shot open, showing Luna two blue eyes with slit pupils, reminding her of those that the image of Celestia had.

The creature then disappeared with a gust of wind, together with the rest of the pony family. Luna looked at the empty image in confusion as it was completely empty.

Suddenly, the same black creature appeared right in front of Luna, still covered in complete black, except for the eyes.

"They are dead. All dead." Said the creature with a voice that sounded very reminiscent of her own.

The creature then leaned forward, revealing it's full body. "She is right, you're a plague, a threat that needs to be destroyed." Said the creature into Luna's face.

The creature had a pitch-black coat while wearing light-blue armor. She immediately noticed the moon symbol that was visible on the chest plate.

"W-what...Who are you?" Luna asked in confusion.

The creature gave Luna an evil smile. "Who I am, you ask?" The creature chuckled at Luna before getting as close as it could, right in front of Luna. "I am your destiny."

Luna froze momentarily while the creature unfolded and flapped it's wings, slowly disappearing into the darkness once again.

"No...no! No!" Luna shouted repeatedly in denial. She knew the creature, what-or whoever it may have been, was lying. Never could Luna do those things to anyone, especially not innocent ponies. "You're lying, I am no cold-blooded murderer!" She shouted after the creature that had already disappeared in the darkness again.

"Oh, you're not." The voice of the creature replied as it echoed through Luna's head. "You are their worst Nightmare."

"No! No! That's not true! Nooo!" Luna screamed as her vision turned black before becoming unconscious once more.