Celebrations were supposed to be wonderful occasions. Events full of joy, happiness, and utter euphoria at having achieved or done something incredible and then being paid with praise for doing something incredible in advance.
Today, she’d bested her sister without even trying. All the more reason to celebrate. So, if today was such a good day, why did she feel so empty?
Nightmare Moon blinked, hard, then opened her eyes to find her vision just a bit blurred. Her mouth felt dry and it almost felt like she’d been hit in the barrel with more than two chairs. Which made it even harder to speak.
“W-What, did you say?”
The two alicorn princesses that now occupied the throne room, looked to each other with a frown. Nightmare Moon ignored it, her voice didn’t crack when she said those words. They were just lying to buy their queen the time she didn’t deserve.
One of them, the younger of the two, took a step forward and after exchanging some unseen look to the pink one, the younger alicorn turned to the empress of darkness with a sympathetic smile.
“I said,” she took another careful step closer, “I’m Princess Twilight. And...this is my castle.”
“...Oh.” Surprisingly, she didn’t laugh. Normally this would’ve been laughable, hilarious even. Celestia throwing around one of her students to handle some problem like this while she was out doing something else too ‘important’ to deal with an imminent threat. It was just like her. Have someone else do all the work, while she stayed in the castle and soaked up the praise.
Nightmare Moon, nodded.
It was the kind of dull, dumb nod you got from a foal when they were awestruck or too distracted by something else to pay attention to what was actually being said. It was the sort of nod that showed the empress of the dark, the ruler of the night, wasn’t all there in the present with the two other princesses.
The slow head bobbing continued while Nightmare’s eyes scanned the room. And that’s when she noticed. Everything was...different. No solar themes, no sunlight color based drapes, most of the romaneic windows had all their depictions of Princess Celestia changed and replaced with...Princess Twilight and some confounded mares she didn't care for in the slightest.
Everything had changed. Just like how the buildings dedicated to Luna began to change when she emerged and began making things right. When they made their deal.
Anger gave way to magic, magic gave way to strength. Reaching out in the middle of a breaking daze, Nightmare’s magic instinctively went for a throat, and like a bear trap her hold firmly grasped Twilight by the withers and forced her into the ground.
“Where is she?” Her voice was cold. Her breathing was heavy. “Where is that coward?!” She didn’t even realize her volume had grown.
Twilight squirmed, Nightmare’s hoof found its way to her barrel and pushed. An ear flicked to the right and the voices within her said the pink one prepares to strike.
If it was a duel these fools wanted in exchange for real information- for the damned truth, then it was a duel they’d get. She’d tear this place apart searching for Celestia. She’d ruin Canterlot like she ruined the first castle. If the sun empress was feeling meek, then she needed encouragement.
Encouragement, was what she was here for.
“Wait!” She paused. The warmth in her horn subsided, Nightmare’s grin turned into a scowl but waves of aethar and mana still crackled. Her eyes turned to the pink one, the one calling herself Cadence.
“We can--” she bit her lip and paused, glancing at Twilight. “We can take you to her. Prove it to you.”
Twilight had long since stopped squirming. She was looking at Cadence and back to Nightmare Moon. A glow of her horn and she was back by Cadence’s side. Nightmare Moon stayed where she was.
Seconds went by, magic still crackled in the air. Nightmare’s eyes shifted from Cadence to Twilight, to Twilight to Cadence and back. Three horns were glowing, if she wanted she could obliterate them. All she had to do was call upon the magic that was filling the air.
Inflict the worst kind of pain she felt she could much like when those accursed elements were used on her. But...on the other hoof, a scowl formed, they’d stop this farce as long as we ‘submit’ they take us to her, to Celestia.
Then they could watch the coward fall before they went next.
Serrated teeth formed a smile. “Make it quick. We don’t have all day.”
Hoofsteps echoed throughout the darkness, horns lit the cobblestoned pathway towards the Solar Memoriam.
They’d been walking for no more than five minutes now and already Nightmare Moon could tell the subtle differences that had been made.
For starters, there was an actual garden, smaller than the one before, more genuine than a bunch of vile vines and trees. Shrubs and flowers decorated the sides of the ground along either side of the pathway they’d taken away from Canterlot castle and gold encrusted lining glittered along the sides of their path.
It was disgusting. Vile. So much had changed. And she hadn’t been there to see any of it. It was a miracle these two still spoke old Equestrian.
It made her want to heave. It felt like they were pitying her.
If Celestia really was upholding this charade, she was doing a fine job of beautifying everything as they made their way to her supposed ‘resting place.’
The dark empress couldn’t help but snort as they passed a small effigy of the sun princess. Another reminder of something she wanted to forget, another reason she couldn’t wait to see her ‘sleeping’ foe and put this all to an end.
Ears perked up when Nightmare heard the hoof steps ahead of her stopping and without even blinking-- her wings snapped open, unnatural air flooded into its folds, she took to three feet as her horn charged with a spell that would paralyze the muscles, shock the nerves, induce hallucination upon the mind. All that adrenaline, caution, and mistrust slowly gave way as Nightmare Moon saw what the two princesses were actually doing instead of attacking her.
They were bowing. Bowing to the largest statue she’d seen so far or the largest statue her clouded memory could recall. Treating her like she didn’t exist.
A statue built in Celestia’s memory. Her wings were outspread and her muzzle was adorned with that sickening smile. It gave her a more divine look that perhaps the sculpturer had intended. Even as she glided three feet above ground, the statue still towered her. Made her small and weak, just like all those times her other half had visited Celestia on return from one of her trips in the night only to find her growing taller and...prettier every. Blasted. Century.
Nightmare’s horn burned brighter, much like her anger upon seeing this display of affection and devotion. This was why she couldn’t stand ponies then, like she couldn’t stand these two now. The love they had for her and the doubt and anger they showed for me. Aggravating.
Twilight and Cadence scattered out of the way when Celestia’s statue blew up into nothing but debris of stone, dust, and marble. Chunks of the commemorative effigy rained all around the garden pathway; pieces of Celestia’s wings, her horn, that tiara, her smile, every time a part of the princess rained down and hit the ground Nightmare obliterated it without a single care but only glancing in the obscene object’s general direction.
Four minutes went by in a snap, and when she was done nothing was left. All the other statues were destroyed in that process, the flowers were drained of their life and the bushes shrivelled up into mangled twigs.. Princess Twilight and Princess Cadence did nothing to stop her. They couldn’t have done anything even if they wanted.
With a whip of her star night tail, the alicorn empress moved past them. “Hurry up and take me to Celestia. We’re wasting time.”
Another statue.
Zap, and it goes kaboom.
Foals smiling at Princess Celestia, another statue of kindness and love she clearly never had for her. For them. Zap and a armored shoe crunches it all to dust.
“Cadence...she’s destroying everything.” Twilight’s horn hummed with restrained anger.
Cadence ran a hoof down her soon to be sister-in-law’s shoulder. “It’s okay Twilight. She’s frustrated. We’re almost there and I don’t think she believes any of this the more evidence she sees.” Her lips formed a frown as she watched Nightmare shoot another concentrated blast of mana.
“You know how denial and anger can affect ponies differently...I think she needs this. So she doesn’t do anything too rash.”
Nightmare’s breathing was heavy but shallow. They’d entered a hexagonal chamber, open roofed so that her beautiful moon could shed its light through. Just ahead there was a gate that led to Celestia’s resting place, it sparkled in the moonlights gentle caress, but that didn’t matter. In the past six minutes they’d been walking she’d become...what’s the word?...Anxious?
Fearful.
What if they’re right? A painting exploded into flames, the flames licked the walls till another aura doused them out. The remains showed Celestia and Luna depicted reigning together. It made them look like equals. It was a lie.
What if--what if she really did die?! A hole punctured several inches into a bright beige painted wall.
She can’t be dead! Somepony not Nightmare screamed. She can’t be DEAD! Another statue went kaboom, another two holes were made in three different walls.
“LUNA!” Nightmare tensed. Hearing that name gave her a throbbing headache, her ears rang, like somepony was screaming. Screaming in anguish, screaming in sorrow. Then in a snap her muscles relaxed and her dread was replaced with that scream turning to anger. She turned only to see Twilight rising to her full height, which wasn’t much now that Nightmare actually payed attention.
“Stop doing this!! You’re destroying everything, can’t you see that?”
Nightmare snarled, but yes she knew. She just didn’t care. A blink of cobalt blue and she was right in front of Twilight, muzzle to muzzle. “Never call me that name again.”
They eyed each other. Both full of anger, both at different individuals. Nightmare furious at Twilight for using her mortal name, Twilight incensed at this beast that had the princess she’d heard so much about in its clutches.
It was a minute before Cadence’s magic slowly pulled Twilight away. Not once did the two break eye contact during.
Nightmare snorted. “Leave. I wish to be alone with her.”
Twilight glared. “No.”
“Come again?”
“I said--”
“I SAID, LEAVE!” The force of the royal voice only made Cadence and Twilight slide back an inch or so. But neither seemed willing to leave.
The empress huffed. “Fine. Stay. But interrupt me and you die.”
Without another word her horn glowed, she turned and the gates were open. A second passed and she was through them, a second later and the gray steel barred gates slowly slid shut behind her.
Powerful magic protected the sun goddess. It filled the air, covered the walls, and formed blockades right in front of her. With a flicker of her horn and a second of reflection, the first weakest barrier was gone. One down five to go.
This room was empty, empty except for the sleeping alicorn that lay on the stone tomb, encompassed by glass.
Nightmare Moon smirked. She took a step forward but hissed in pain when her armored hoof touched the ground an inch below. Craning her neck down she studied it, squinting. Pig Latin, dead language. The inscriptions were to prevent evil from getting close to the sun goddess’ tomb.
Her smirk was replaced with a frown. They’d come prepared for my arrival. A warped smile replaced her frown. At least history has not forgotten me like it has most likely forgotten you. Nightmare Moon set to work removing the inscriptions and removing the barriers.
An arduous task that took her almost twenty minutes. Each time she got closer though her vigor was revived.
By the time Nightmare had finally reached the tomb, she nearly forgot to check for traps. Her horn glowed at the tip. A small ball of writhing dark blue magic sparkled and hissed till she put her horn to the glass and tapped it.
Inscriptions burned red, heated like metal on the glass, but another tap of her horn and they all turned a dark blue and faded away.
Like opening a new cake, Nightmare delicately removed the glass and then she stared down into her sister’s slumbering form. Perfumed, grandiose, immaculate. It reminded her of all those times her other half had stumbled through the woods, trying to provide aid and help for vulnerable ponies against the monsters that lurked in the dark.
A scowl formed anew. “...You really are something, aren’t you? Even now you use a spell to protect yourself and act like you slumber.” Her horn glowed. “But, one Pulse Detection spell, will tell me the truth. And then I can put an end to this” she smiled, “ and to your pitiful existence.”
Their deal would be complete.
Words of the dead flew from her lips. “Show me those that still live and strive. Show me the ones who live, the pulse alive.”
Like a sonar the spell echoed from her horn, passed through her, passed through Celestia, the walls, Twilight, then Cadence, going as far to cover the entirety of Canterlot Castle.
It took a second to sort them all out. 53 individuals in total, two minutes in and she’d narrow downed herself and their location.
Nightmare’s forehead furrowed. What? She tried the spell again. The result was the same. A grimace formed, her heart rate quickened. “What in Tartarus--” opening her eyes, the serpentine eyes the mare of the moon looked down at Celestia. She saw no aura. No magical signature. No pulsing essence.
There was no life in this body.
She was dead.
Nightmare hadn’t realized she’d been laughing. There were spells that countered beings that had eyes like hers and spells that sought out life like the Pulse spell. This was a trick. Nightmare wouldn’t believe it. Or maybe it was the other princess who wouldn’t believe it.
It didn’t matter. She tried a different spell. A spell that looked past the magical signature and focused on the magical essence that all beings -dragon, minotaur, goat, pig, cow, pony, horse, beast- possessed and held. It overlooked the heartbeat and looked into the spirit.
Turning the spell’s attention on Celestia, Nightmare waited to see what result would be brought. Instead she got nothing. No familiarity that she could recall about Celestia’s aura or magic that told her she was still alive. None of the magic that surrounded her body belonged to her it belonged to other ponies. Twilight, Shining Armor, Velvet, Torch, none of the magic here, belonged to her sister.
None of it was Celestia’s.
Nightmare’s heart raced, this time she wasn’t laughing. What lies you spin. Her ear pressed into Celestia’s chest, like hearing her heart would tell her this wasn’t true. That, in the millenia and then some that she’d been gone, that in all those years her sister hadn’t just gone up and kicked the bucket.
When no pulse came, Nightmare stood erect immediately. Like she’d been startled bad and she was a filly again even though she never once had been a filly in her past. “No...no, no no no nononononono-- this” her breath hitched. She started panting. “This is a lie!” Her horn glowed a sickly green. Dark magic.
She’d devour a hundred souls to bring Celestia back just so she could see her die by her own hoof. But if that was the case what was with the wetness? Why was she crying?
“She spoke fondly of you, you know?”
The dark thoughts, clouded vision, anger, hatred, disgust, fear, and dread didn’t subside...but Nightmare Moon still turned her vision away from her fallen sister to the somber Princesses standing in the open gates before her.
Nightmare didn’t reply, but the light around her horn grew a shade darker.
“Please Luna” Cadence spoke softly. So softly that Nightmare was amazed her voice could breach all the voices in her head. “Please,” she begged. “Don’t do anything you’ll make us regret. We’ll tell you what happened to your sister. But...we need to use the elements before--”
Nightmare’s wings shot out ready to fly and ready to fight. She wouldn’t go back there. Never again. But before she could cast the dark spell that would paralyze Cadence and leave her muscles burning like they were on fire a voice called out to her.
Luna told her to stop. And the beast that possessed her listened.
The white in the corners of her vision faded with her magic. The dark thoughts and their whispers faded to a murmur. In a burst of darkness, cobalt blue, a black, a taller, darker Princess Luna emerged.
She towered over them. Both Cadence and Twilight. Much like Celestia probably had. Once had.
The tears wouldn’t stop, the pain in her chest burned brighter in a mixed flurry of emotions that washed over her. Empress Luna moved forward, draconic eyes boring coldly and coolly into the only ones that could tell her what happened.
Her leather wings twitched, her serrated teeth disappeared behind her lips in a blank expression mixed with shock, depression, and anger. Closing her eyes and composing herself, suppressing the dark thoughts to kill, maim, destroy and conquer, Empress Luna looked back at her deceased sister and after shedding a tear she turned her attention back to her foes.
“Tell me the truth.” She said in a voice bereft of haughtiness and pride. “Tell me, what happened to my sister.”
