Betrayal

It had been a week since Luna and I had taken over Equestria. While most of Equestria was consumed by the eternal night, I had used my magic to cast an illusion over Ponyville to make it appear that the sun and moon were still rising and setting perfectly. I couldn't risk Twilight and her friends figuring out what had happened. However, I started to realize that she might get suspicious if she had received any letters from Celestia. I made my way to the throne room, where Luna was sitting in the throne. I suggested to her, "My queen, despite the illusion I've cast over Ponyville, Twilight may still grow suspicious if she does not hear from Celestia. Perhaps sending her a letter claiming that Celestia has fallen ill will distract her from this."

Luna twirled a finger in her hair before saying to me, "I believe you're right darling. Twilight would grow worried if Celestia didn't reply to her letters. I'll send her a letter telling her that my dear sister has come down with the Cockatrice Pox. That should be enough to convince her."

I nodded and grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill before writing down her every word. I sent the letter off to Twilight, and brought up a crystal orb to allow us to see if our deception would fool the naive mare. We saw her reading a book in her library, her wings flapping to cool her down from the heat that the false sun was producing.

As Twilight put down her book, she wiped some sweat off of her forehead. "Good Celestia it's hot out today..." As if on cue, Spike came into the room with two cones of ice cream, to which she perked up saying, "Thank you Spike, it's so hot out today I feel like I might pass out!"

Spike started eating his ice cream before a burst of green flames escaped his mouth and a roll of parchment appeared. Spike handed it to Twilight saying, "Hopefully Celestia has an explanation as to why she's made it so hot today. I may be cold-blooded, but even I can't stand this kind of heat."

Twilight chuckled at her assistant's joke as she unrolled the parchment and started reading

"Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I am writing you on my sister's behalf. She has fallen ill with a case of the Cockatrice Pox and is unable to attend to her duties of lowering the sun. I've been temporarily placed in charge of both the sun and moon while my sister recovers. I hope you'll be able to forgive any hot days you experience in Ponyville, I'm still not used to controlling the sun. Hopefully my sister will recover quickly and the heat will settle down. I hope you are enjoying the cool nights better than the hot days.

Warm regards,

Princess Luna"

Twilight sighed saying, "That explains this heat, Luna's in charge of the sun and the moon right now."

Spike looked up from his ice cream and asked, "Huh? Is something wrong with Celestia?"

Twilight nodded, "She's come down with Cockatrice Pox. I hope she'll recover soon. I know Luna means well, but this heat is unbearable."

Back at the castle, I grinned at Luna and said, "It appears to have worked my queen. She suspects nothing." We went away from the crystal orb and towards our bedchambers to have a nice romantic dinner. Little did we know that we had also been deceived.

Twilight took the letter and showed it to her friends, and Fluttershy said worriedly, "I hope it's not serious..." Before Twilight rubbed the ink that wrote out the word 'Princess' and revealed the word 'Queen'

The group stood in shock as they saw that Luna tried to trick them, they knew what this meant... Nightmare Moon had returned.

Rarity pointed out that the sun was still high in the sky, something Nightmare Moon would never allow, trying to convince everyone that it was just Luna's famous ego getting out of hand again.

Twilight shook her head saying, "I wish that's what it was. Come outside and I'll show you." The group walked outside and Twilight's horn glowed before firing a magical blast at the sky, removing the illusion that the sun was still in the sky.

Back at the castle, a rush went down my spine, interrupting my dinner with Luna. I muttered something under my breath before flipping the table over in anger yelling "DAMN IT ALL!"

Luna seemed quite annoyed at my outburst, but kept her temper under control and calmly asked me, "What's wrong my king? It's not like you to lose your temper like that."

I looked at her, my eyes burning with rage as I yelled, "We've been had! I just felt my illusion over Ponyville disappear!" Luna's eyes went wide as I said this, and I knew she was about to blow her top, so I slowly made my way to the door and ran for dear life.

Luna yelled out in anger "DAMN YOU TWILIGHT! DAMN YOU ALL TO TARTARUS! I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS! I WILL NOT LET YOU RUIN MY PERFECT WORLD AGAIN!" she stormed out of her room, obviously looking for me to make me explain how she had found out.

Back in Ponyville, the group could hear Luna's yell, despite Ponyville being a day's trip from Canterlot. Fluttershy said meekly, "Uh-oh..."

Twilight had also been startled. She knew Luna was well known for her loud voice, but she had no idea that her anger could make it even louder. After shaking off the fear she felt from Luna's anger, she turned to her friends saying, "We have to rescue Celestia and make sure that this time, Nightmare doesn't come back."

Rainbow Dash retorted by saying, "And just how are we supposed to do that without the Elements of Harmony?" Only to get a look of annoyance from Applejack, as she remembered saying, "Oh... Rainbow Power, duh."

Pinkie started twitching like crazy, before calming down and saying, "Uh... guys, something tells me that we're not going to be able to rescue Celestia this time..."

Just as she said that, a newspaper flew into Twilight's face. She pulled it off of her and as she looked at the story on the front page, she gasped, falling to her knees. "No... NOOOOOOOO!" she put her head in her hands, crying.

Her friends tried to calm her down before Applejack picked up the paper and read the story as well and handed it to her friends as they tried to calm Twilight down.

The air grew heavy and the group stood there in silence as they saw the story until Spike broke it saying, "C-Celestia's... dead...?"