Get ready for a doozie of a chapter, folks. You are warned that this chapter is where the story truly earns its dark tag. Nopony will be hurt, but... well, you’ll see. Trigger warnings include the slow and gradual seduction of an initially unwilling Princess, mind reading, magical groping, mare-on-mare with boob-on-boob scenes, some brief stallion-on-Blueblood, breast expansion, futa growth, foalcon fantasies, and tales of great evil and outright atrocities involving sexual depravity long past.

But don’t let that discourage you. In the end, Best Princess shows why she’s Best Princess. —Firesight

Outside of Canterlot Castle, an increasingly anxious crowd was gathering.

Some of them were the many dusk-to-dawn Nightmare Night revelers still in their costumes, who were wondering why the Lunar Guard was ringing the area while others were the morning shift maids and Solar Guardsponies coming on duty from their homes and the outside barracks, only to be told that they could not enter the palatial home of the Princesses.

When asked why, they were informed that a “minor magical malady” had occurred within the castle, in the words of the light-furred bat-pony Colonel who was second in command of the Night Guard Canterlot Garrison. He assured all present it was “under control”, further informing his uncertain audience that Shining Armor and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza were only there “out of an abundance of precaution” to ensure it did not spread.

“Remain calm, all is well!” he promised even as his membrane wings twitched nervously and his smile seemed forced; still others wondered why he kept glancing uneasily over at his commanding officer. The latter was speaking in low tones to his pegasus counterpart commander of the Day Guard, who flinched at whatever he heard. As all present watched, messages were relayed by word of muzzle only as Solar Guardsponies then joined the thestral formations at intervals, the unicorns among them erecting shields and casting what civilian mages recognized as various defensive wards.

“So what do you think?” Lemon Hearts asked Minuette from behind the barricade, still dressed in her old Sponyish unicorn swordspony attire. She and her friends remained in their costumes following a night of partying and pub-crawling on the outskirts of Canterlot, where the more working-class and far-more-fun establishments were located.

“I don’t like it,” her friend replied from under her mad scientist attire, which she’d taken pains to wear the previous day at her dental practice to scare a few of her more skittish patients. “This is a lot of security for some ‘minor malady.’ And the castle has plenty of defenses and enchantments that should isolate it anyway. So the only thing I can think of is that Discord did something. He was supposed to be master of ceremonies at the Royal Nightmare Night Masquerade Ball.”

“Yeah…” Twinkleshine agreed. She’d elected on a military theme of her own, dressed as an old Maregolian warrior in reflection of the ancestry and interests of her longtime marefriend Shoeshine, or ‘Linky’ as her friends affectionately knew her.

“Even the Griffon Kingdom Embassy down the street had a protective shield up and Magus guards out—not that it would do any good if it was Discord. Guess it’s too bad we didn’t go to Ponyville this year for Nightmare Night—I had an invitation from Linky to spend a few days with her, too! At least it would get us away from whatever this is…” She motioned with a hoof to the military activity around them. “Any thoughts, Moondancer?”

“I’m with you,” Moondancer replied. Her bespectacled eyes scanned the area from beneath her tribal crown; her costume making her look the part of an old Coltic chieftain. “So why didn’t we just go to Ponyville? We had standing invitations from Twilight herself!”

“Because the trains were packed, because the ticket prices were astronomical, because the inns down there were full, and because Twilight wouldn’t be available to spend time with us given all the Nightmare Night preparations and festivities she had to oversee,” Minuette pointed out. “You said as much yourself last week. Personally, I think we should have gone to Las Pegasus instead.”

“That would have been even more expensive!” Lemon Hearts pointed out, then smirked. “Or were you just hoping to run into your old earth pony flame there again?”

“Oh yeah… what was her name?” Twinkleshine teased as Minuette broke out in a blush, the former giving the latter a playful nudge and wink. “Sex Star?”

“Five Stars!”Minuette corrected sharply with a fierce flush, but then turned wistful. “And if you weren’t there, you could never understand what she did for me…”

“At least you got to be with her once.” Moondancer turned depressed and downcast, as she still often did when thinking about Twilight. “For the mare I want, I don’t think I ever will.”

“Still crushing on Twilight, eh?” Twinkleshine dropped her teasing tone, knowing how sensitive their old friend remained when discussing their former schoolmate. They’d made a great deal of progress since Twilight’s earlier visit in pulling her further out of her shell, and eventually elicited an admission that part of the reason she was so hurt by being stood up so many years earlier was that she was hoping to admit her feelings to Twilight then. “So that’s why you went with a Coltic costume? Because you knew Twilight had a fascination with them, too?”

“Yes,” she admitted, squeezing her eyes shut in pain for a moment. “We studied them together at one point. She liked their culture and clothing. And I liked her, so…”

“So, I do the same thing with Linky and the Maregolians,” Twinkleshine admitted, laying a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “It’s not weird at all.”

Moondancer gave her a grateful look, only to turn pensive again. “Thanks, Twinkie. So what should we do about all… this?” She motioned to the growing army of Guardsponies, both Solar and Lunar, ringing the castle in front of them.

“Well, what is there to do?” Lemon Hearts wondered aloud. “We’re doctors and scholars, not soldiers.”

“But anything that worries them is something that should probably worry us,” Twinkleshine decided, noting the bat-ponies of the Night Guard were remaining on duty even as the earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns of the Solar Guard joined them, instead of retiring for the day as they usually did. “Whatever’s happening in there, they look really worried that it’ll get out and get them as well. We don’t have enchanted armor protection or military-grade defensive spells, so I vote that we get the hay out of here! And preferably out of town entirely.”

“Seconded!” Moondancer said, raising her hoof, and the other two mares nodded their agreement. “So maybe now’s the time to head south for Ponyville? Tickets should be cheap the morning after Nightmare Night. If we move fast, we can catch the 6 AM train out…”

The entry of Luna into the newly conquered Canterlot Command Center was marked by a sharp flash of light and massive eruption of wind and lightning that bowled all present backwards, knocking many bat-ponies into panels or walls. The magical backflash of her brute-force entry blasted through the remaining protective wards, shattering crystals and stunning all except for the four horn-equipped thestrals, whose overpowered auras proved just barely sufficient to keep them awake and alert, though not without a sharp headache and a wave of severe vertigo.

“ENOUGH!”The voice of Princess Luna thundered through the room, instantly recognized by all despite their dazed states; their vision clearing quickly enough to stare at her in a mixture of shock and giddy delight.

“Cease thy rutting and desist in thy debauchery! Know that I do not hold any of thee responsible for thy actions under this curse’s influence, but nor can I allow thee to escape this place! Thy efforts to infect not just Canterlot but all Equestria end here and now!”she told them, noting with both surprise and a measure of appreciation their larger and more predatory forms—the curse altered them to not just make them more attractive and fertile, she realized instantly, but also better able to hunt down new hosts!

“P-Princess Luna…” an awestruck Corporal Concord addressed her first, still deep inside a newly transformed Major Borealis despite the pair being bowled over and knocked into a nearby instrument bank. The latter moaned and shivered, his body still adjusting to both his new form and the massive phallus filling him, only to be disappointed as it was withdrawn and the former Corporal stood up to face his regent. He flared his large wings to bow low before her, seed still dripping off his well-slickened shaft.

“Greetings and welcome, Mistress of the Moon! Your timing could not be more fortuitous! For with you as our leader, we will be unstoppable!” With a heady grin, Concord turned his new mating aura directly on her, as did every other thestralcorn present, only to find that they did not affect her at all, thanks to what they belatedly recognized as several layers of defensive enchantments protecting her.

As a result, her only immediate reaction was for her eyes to narrow and then glow brightly as she spoke in her Royal Canterlot Voice again. A violent wind then came up around her, forcing them to flinch away. “Thy new thestralcorn power is impressive, young Nightborne. But not enough against me!” She emitted a new spell that cut their auras off instantly, bands of magic materializing around their horns to block any further spellcasting or emissions of mating magic.

“Unfortunately for thee, I am well aware of this curse’s nature and can defend myself against it! You will neither tempt me nor transform me! What you will do is obey my orders! You will all submit to my spellcasting and fall into a deep sleep so you can be cured later!” A fresh wave of magic erupted off her horn, causing all non-horned members of the converted command staff to do so along with Penumbra and Spring Air. They collapsed to the ground like puppets cut from their strings, still aroused and with dreamy expressions on their faces as they fell into slumber while occasionally still in each other’s arms.

Their magic remaining available internally if not able to be projected externally, the more magically-experienced Concord and Riesling used it to maintain consciousness with some struggle; their new thestralcorn auras already working on weakening the wards around their horns.

“No…” the former called out as he fell back to the floor, his excitement growing at both her presence and the challenge she presented, knowing it was their chance to convert the Lunar Princess herself! “We don’t want a cure! We love being this way! We only want to share this great gift with others! With you!” Concord insisted.

“He is correct! So let us show you our new power to pleasure! We know of your history and the torrid tales of your onetime Lunar Court, so let us have you, our Lovely and Lustful Luna!” Riesling said as he took a slightly unsteady step towards her. He felt the magic behind his blocked horn build like the swelling of his own backed-up apples, which despite having already emptied themselves countless times that night were ready and eager to erupt again.

“Lovely? Lustful?” Luna echoed in disbelief, wondering how insidious was The Nightmare’s creation that they would deliberately appeal to her pride and have knowledge of her own past decadence and depravity! Some lurid memories of her time as Nightmare Moon flashing through her mind, she picked him up in her aura and pinned him against a wall, making clear that he was helpless before her and she could do far worse than restrain him if she wished.

Despite that, his flush and excitement only grew at her magical touch as he closed his eyes to drink it in, raising her ire further. “Thou art ill, young Highborne! Thou hast been infected by a Nightmare-created curse that blinds thee with lust, so it could then be used to bind thee to her! Thou art nothing more than disposable pawns in her latest play for power!” She felt the edges of her aura tingle as it interacted with the corrupted magic within him, but she ignored it, reinforcing her wards to make sure it could not taint her.

“We care not where it came from!For you are still our Princess, and we would serve none but you!” Concord stood up shakily, his slightly softened organ wobbling hard beneath his belly before stiffening immediately again at the sight of her, catching her gaze. As his eyes drank in her beautiful form anew, Luna could all but feel his eyes devouring her; watch his enormous membrane wings grow rigidly erect along with his oversized shaft—he was certainly of sufficient size to service her, she couldn’t help but note, even when she’d been in the larger form of Nightmare Moon.

“None but me?” she echoed in disbelief even as she suddenly wondered if all the corrupted ponies were so phallic and fertile. She turned her attention back to a captive Riesling, whose wings were splayed hard against the wall and whose tongue lolled out of his mouth in her magical grasp. It wasn’t just his endowments that had grown, she realized anew; his curse-converted form was far larger, sleeker and stronger than the average thestral, leaving him a panther-like apex predator able to overpower his prey both physically and sensually.

“None but you!” Riesling concurred, trying to lean into her, his entire body tingling from her magical touch. The corruptive curse within him tainted the edges of her aura in turn, turning it a more purplish hue and slowly increasing its sensitivity. “You alone have the right to command us, Princess! So set us free so that we may swear allegiance to you properly!” he implored her unsteadily through glazed eyes, his hips thrusting into and forelegs pawing feebly at her aura.

The more he spoke, the more her magical grasp began to relax on him as her eyes played over his altered features repeatedly, allowing the head of his organ to fall forward to point towards her from where it had been pinned against his belly. Its tapered tip stayed fixed on her muzzle even as the shaft behind it wobbled, like the eye of a predator locked on its prey.

“Command thee? Swear allegiance?” Luna blinked at the unexpected statements. The immense concentration of curse-enhanced mating magic within him acting on her aura like a magnet, she didn’t immediately realize it was drawing him closer to her of its own accord, shortly leaving his hovering phallus but a foot away from her face. “But I already have thy...”

Her voice trailed off as the deeply masculine sight suddenly filled her vision, bringing the first hint of blush to her cheeks. By the Moon… such incredible stature rivals the Highborne High Priestess HERSELF! she realized as she studied his stallion attributes. His impressive organ was rigidly erect and visibly pulsing; she further noted its size exceeded even the most physically gifted and magically enhanced of her onetime harem’s Saddle Arabian stallions!

But why would I even NEED a harem if I have such exquisitely endowed and overpowered servants as these? They could serve as both my soldiers AND my stallions! she realized, and without thinking, she ran her aura directly over his endowments. She was trying to get a sense of both his shaft and oversized apples, wishing to determine just how fertile he was and how frequently he could mate.

She was shocked into speechlessness by the answer she received—with the curse having consumed him, and given sufficient food, he could rut continuously and convert an entire room full of ponies in mere minutes! His seed was so potent he could even impregnate females of other races, his powerful pheromones and mating aura instantly turning them both receptive and fertile! And that meant…

Her mind went awhirl at the possibilities—it meant that at long last, the thestral race she so loved could truly expand and flourish!—she then experimentally stroked him, eliciting a sudden moan and spurt of clear fluid directly into her magical field. The injection of the curse-corrupted substance caused a larger portion of her aura to take on a more purplish hue around it, the color change creeping back towards her horn until it touched it.

The sudden spike of sensation and sensual desire it produced broke the near-trance she was falling into; her aura providing a conduit for the corruptive energy that bypassed all her protective enchantments.

“What? No!”she immediately cut off her aura before it could feed her any more tainted mating magic. She dropped him back to the ground at the realization she’d been magically fondling him, a blush reaching her cheeks for the first time as her tail partially but involuntarily flagged behind her. Luna was both confused and aroused at that moment, her reactions and the sexually charged atmosphere around her reminding her keenly that she’d not known love or rutting since her rebirth.

Despite that, she forced the growing urges back, reminding herself sharply of the stakes. “By the Moon Goddess herself, this curse is truly insidious! It appeals to not just a pony’s physical desires, but their deepest emotional ones! And thus it must never see the light of day!” She charged her horn with a more powerful sleep spell only for it to falter; the corruptive magic already within her horn disrupting it; altering it to produce not sleep but a soothing effect aimed not at them, but inward at herself!

“Why did you stop?” Riesling asked her forlornly as he pulled himself unsteadily back to his hooves, his cheeks still flushed and phallus still throbbing. “Your touch felt so good! Do you not like us? Are we not worthy of you?” his wings slumped along with his organ even as his blocked mating magic built stronger behind the ward she’d placed on his horn.

“‘Tis not a question of worthiness!” she reminded herself as much as them. She had just caught herself from casting her altered spell, recognizing its calming effect would likely have quieted her fears and made her more amenable to their advances. She shook her head sharply and quickly purged her aura of foreign influence with a dispersal spell, only to find that she couldn’t rid herself of all of it—a trace of the curse’s corruptive magic remained firmly embedded in her horn, and she could not expel it without a great deal of additional effort.

“Then you do find us worthy! What you see is yours to command, My Princess!” Concord sensed her uncertainty and read from her thoughts how long she had been celibate, standing forth to present himself in offering, stretching out so that his lithe body, wide wings and impressive erection remained in full display. “We pledge our lives and loyalty to you! Allow us to show our love and devotion properly!”

“Silence!” she ordered again through a deeper blush, her confusion growing as the mating magic crept further down her horn and her own long-suppressed passions seemingly rose to meet it. Her scrying powers enabled her to read their deepest desires, and from them she realized that they weren’t trying to trick her—that they truly did love her and wanted to follow her, whether as Luna or Nightmare Moon! “I cannot!”

“Cannot what?” an unsteady Riesling challenged, trying to stumble towards her despite the restriction spell in place against his horn, wishing only her tingling touch again. “Cannot accept our love? Our desire to set you free? To make you whole?” he implored her again, reading the same thoughts and emotions from her as Concord was. “We can see how repressed and conflicted you are! Let us release you, Princess! Let us restore the great Queen you once were!”

“Release me… restore me...” she echoed, her voice almost forlorn. Her desires warring with her duty, Luna couldn’t help but reflect that her chastity was not because she’d had no interest, but because she still did not fully understand the rules of this new era—stallion harems were no longer allowed, for example—and because she feared running afoul of modern sensibilities so badly that ponies might turn back against her. She also did not trust herself to not manipulate a prospective lover by entering their dreams as she’d so often done as Nightmare Moon, bending their passions and proclivities to her own designs, indulging her deepest and darkest desires in the process.

The sharp reminder of the immoral and evil acts she had done under The Nightmare’s influence gave her fresh impetus to resist. “NO! I dare not! You will not tempt me! You will not convert me!” she proclaimed even as she further found that the fantasies running through their minds were not unpleasant ones, involving not raping but ravishing her. Far from simply using her for gratification or seeing her as nothing more than a new host, they wanted to worship every inch of her body by tongue, aura and tuck until she was not just transformed…

But well and truly satisfied!

The urge to surrender herself growing even further at the idea of receiving so much long-sought love and outright adoration from her subjects, Luna realized if she didn’t act soon, she would not be able to act at all. “‘Tis not a question of worthiness, but a question of thy curse and how to cure it! Now no more delays! You will submit to my sleep spell!” she ordered imperiously again, ignoring the mating magic within her to charge an even more powerful incantation around it—one both thestralcorns instantly realized they had no chance of resisting without the use of their horns.

“If you wish to stop us, then do so—we cannot prevent it! But consider this, Mighty Luna! You call it a curse, but is it truly?” Concord challenged, speaking quickly, having gotten a good idea from her thoughts by then of what she wished and wanted most.

“Look around you, My Princess! Look at the love for our kind and kindred we can spread! Look at our enhanced forms, now as predatory and powerful as they are fertile! Look at our new powers and all the consummated friendships!” He motioned to the horn on his head and then the unconscious couples lying intertwined around them, trying desperately to hold her attention just a little longer, until his backed-up magic combined with her weakening will could break her various wards fully.

“Realizing she was wavering again, he pressed his advantage further as he sensed the lock on his horn starting to slip. “Look at how we may now breed all races, spreading the glory of our bat-pony bloodlines throughout the world! Look at your greatest dreams of thestral unity realized—how Lightborne and Nightborne now freely mate and mingle!” he further pointed out, nodding to where Andromeda and Milky Way remained locked in a cream-and-cerulean swirl of Highborne-on-Nightborne mare-on-mare action, then pointing behind them to where Private Pulsar remained the center of attention of several Nightborne Stallions.

Following his gesture, her eyes locked on the former first and widened slightly at the unlikely but undeniably arousing sight, lingering on it for several seconds—perhaps it was The Nightmare’s influence on her, but Luna had greatly enjoyed compelling different races to copulate as Nightmare Moon, and she found that the intense desire to violate that taboo remained entrenched within her, even now.

“Lurid though that is, ‘tis not—” She had barely begun to speak when she then started and audibly gasped when her gaze fell upon the second scene of Private Pulsar, whose stallion suitors had clearly been adoring every inch of his effeminate body and the same enormous ears she had once possessed, but later magically shrunk to merely somewhat oversized when she found them too awkward and ungainly.

She went weak in the knees as she saw that Longlance’s erect organ remained firmly and quite deeply embedded within him, even as his own still-partially-erect half-sized stallionhood was lovingly tended by a Highborne muzzle in turn. Even more arousing, she could tell by their poses that he had been returning their adoration, stroking and suckling the other stallions with his wings and tongue.

Luna felt faint and her sleep spell evaporated uncast as she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the scene, finding one of her most secret and forbidden fetishes triggered. She couldn’t help it—just as her sister enjoyed adolescent fillies, she’d always desired younger colts, frequently visiting them in dreams to fulfill their fantasies—and her own!—even before the days of Nightmare Moon.

It was a desire she had suppressed hard after her return, no matter how tempted she had been, warned privately by Celestia that such things were now frowned upon, even by a Princess. And she had good reason not to go back to it, given what she’d done during her time as Nightmare Moon…

The two stallions then blinked and broke out into grins of heady delight as they saw where her gaze fell and recognized the effect it had on her, to say nothing of the thoughts and emotions she was so strongly broadcasting. “So, you like that! You like him!” Riesling realized giddily, suddenly regretting mildly that he hadn’t been transformed into a more teenage form like the Prince or Colonel. For maybe then she could not resist him?

“Then you can have him, Princess! You can have whoever you wish! You will no longer be beholden to such ridiculous rules and restrictions as this new era imposes!” Concord quickly followed up as he sensed Luna’s deepening doubt and leaned his words into her increasingly conflicted thoughts. “You may do as you once did before The Nightmare! You may even do what you enjoyed as The Nightmare! Caress and convert all the colts you wish!” he all but purred to her, causing Luna to suddenly feel faint.

“As The Nightmare… all the colts I wish...” she whispered to herself silkenly, feeling her eyes turning slitted and marehood beginning to moisten as she felt the familiar pull of the dark urges she’d not only once known, but only too eagerly indulged rise within her. And then abruptly, her eyes snapped open as she realized what she was thinking and instantly teleported the group out of her sight lest she be tempted to wake them—or worse, join them!—cursing The Nightmare again for what she’d done to her psyche. But flustered as she was, the spell backfired and answered instead to her internal desires, moving them halfway towards her!

“NO!” she shouted again as she beheld them at closer range, and worse, felt them start to stir. She reeled as she felt her sleep spells and wards begin to weaken but could not bring herself to immediately restore them, her desire to let them expire and drop her defenses entirely increasing as the single spark of curse corruption within her began to take root and grow, like an ember fanned into flame. “I cannot! Thou art trying to trick me!” She deliberately turned away from the sight of the young colt, feeling unable to come up with even a single countercurse even though she knew every such spell in her impressive magical arsenal by heart.

“‘Tis no trick! Please hear us, Moon Princess! ‘Tis but the start of remaking not just Canterlot but the entire world!” Riesling pleaded in his best imitation of her olden tongue, taking a step forward as he sensed her ward on his horn weakening like a loosening knot, either due to his internal magic prying it open or her own slipping focus. “We need thee to help spread these wondrous gifts throughout the world! We seek only to serve under your sensual banner as we go forth and conquer all Equestria! So don’t fight us, Mighty and Magnificent Luna! We know thy hidden passions and seek only to sate them!”

“He speaks for both of us!” Concord added eagerly, sensing the magical knot around his own horn rapidly weakening. “Far stronger and more sensual though we are, we still recognize thee as our beloved regent! Thou shouldst be leading us in the effort!” He then focused all his will and power, and with a massive magical surge, broke the ebbing bond around his horn with a bright flash of light and then helped his compatriots to do the same as Riesling dispersed her sleep spells in turn.

Their power and wits restored, the four thestralcorns swiftly clambered to their hooves as their magic returned to them, instantly reinvigorating them and restoring their excitement. Their wings grew erect again as they stared fixedly at the surprised and uncertain Celestial Sister; at Concord’s mental command, they cast an anti-teleport suppression field to ensure she could not leave their presence or attempt to remove any other temptations from her sight.

“What?” Luna was visibly surprised by both feats as she realized her immediate egress was blocked—it was a spell that the average unicorn mage took a great deal of time and training to learn, yet these four knew it instinctively? For the first time, she had a moment of severe worry as she hastily reinforced her personal wards, sensing it would take her some minutes to undo their enchantment and every minute she spent with them was weakening her will to resist.

Concord grinned at her reaction and what he read from her mind as the reason for it, risking a second step towards her. “As you can see, we are no magical neophytes! As we acquired our horns from Blueblood, every spell he knew, we know! Except our thestralcorn auras are far more powerful...” he explained in newfound confidence, gently probing at her outermost magical defense as his horned comrades followed his lead by fanning out to do the same, knowing they’d bought themselves a few precious minutes to try to sway and seduce her.

Riesling spoke next. “But those powers belong to you, our Glorious and Gorgeous Luna! We would serve in whatever capacity you wish, whether as simple soldiers or thy own sensual mages!” He then sent another mental command to the revived command center staff, telling them that resuming their amorous activities was the key to weakening her resolve further. They instantly and eagerly obeyed, watching her out of the corners of their eyes and keying their actions to what they sensed she liked.

“Please do not hate us for desiring you, Mistress of the Moon! And please do not hate yourself for your own desires! For to make love to you is the greatest dream of all Nightborne!” Concord pled, reading the spell that made up the outer layer of her defensive enchantments instinctively—a simple ward against most common curses that could not block the curse by itself, but could at least blunt it enough for the layered enchantments beneath it to absorb.

He experimented with his aura until he found a counterspell for it, imagining himself picking a lock with a key—or better yet, stripping her of a protective piece of armor by releasing its internal fasteners, letting it fall to the ground to bare part of her beautiful body. “Your duty is to us! And ours is to you!” he added as, to his great satisfaction and even greater excitement, the ward deactivated instantly.

Luna blinked anew at the astonishing feat and then shook her head sharply as yet more of their mating magic seeped through, erecting what the foursome sensed was a shield against dark magic to protect herself from the intense sensual energy assaulting her. “My duty is to all Equestria! And your duty, young Nightborne, is to me!” She restored some snap to her voice, trying to advance on him only to stumble slightly as the first wisps of smoke started to come off her crown and royal vestments.

“A duty we will gladly fulfill as we love and worship every inch of you!” a quickly recovering Private Penumbra replied fervently, licking his lips again at the sight of her. His attuned senses picking up on her growing interest and arousal, he reared up and pinwheeled his hooves to show off his massive wings and equally enormous erection in an attempt to entice her further; he was gratified as her eyes flickered to it repeatedly. “For our new forms do not shake our loyalty to you! Even now as we desire you, we wish only to serve you!”

“It goes for the Highborne as well!” Spring Air added eagerly as he moved to surround her and slowly approached her, their glowing horns and throbbing phalluses pointed directly at her. The latter twitched as each intensely imagined what they wanted to do with her; which part of her beautiful body they wanted to touch, caress, and fill first. “Please! Grant us your favor and your very body, Keeper of Dreams, so that we may at long last unite the two tribes under a single sensual banner! Do so, and I safely speak for all my kindred when I say we will gladly swear allegiance to you where we once failed to!”

He then succeeded in deactivating her dark magic defense as Penumbra likewise found the key to removing an olden chastity spell, designed to badly blunt if not entirely quash any sensual urges. Their loss caused her sexual excitement to surge in earnest, and her final defensive ward—a simple magical dispersal spell designed to deflect any attempted enchantment—then expired of its own accord as its caster no longer had the will to sustain it.

“I…” A flustered Luna knew what was happening to her but couldn’t stop it. She couldn’t help it—she had expected them to try to overwhelm her and take her by corruptive magical force; she had not expected them to do so with such heartfelt love and flattery, offering not to enslave her but to adore her!

To follow her!

To worship her!

To give her the respect and reverence she had always so fervently sought!

To give her all that she had ever wanted, and fallen victim to The Nightmare attempting to gain!

“Cease thy resistance, our beautiful and desirable Luna! Do so and we will give you all our love and attention! We will make love to you as you have never been made love to before!” Penumbra promised as they began working on removing her royal vestments, which they quickly realized provided additional layers of personal protection with powerful enchantments designed to defend her when she was no longer able to defend herself, preventing possession or corruptive effects while they remained in place.

“But…” Luna was increasingly at a loss as rutting again erupted all around her, finding her gaze flickering to first Andromeda and Milky Way as they made out while rubbing their bulbous belly breasts together. As if sensing her gaze, the pair instantly turned to give her a bigger eyeful, one aided by a quick incantation cast by Concord to increase their size and milk production further.

They didn’t have male organs yet, having not been tucked by any who had them, but that just gave a badly flustered Luna an equally spectacular view of their femininity beneath their flagged tails, watching as Andromeda’s mammary and marehood milk ran freely down and over those belonging to Milky Way.

“This isn’t…” She had barely absorbed that enticing vision before shifting to the equally unlikely image of a Highborne stallion—Lieutenant Noctilucent, she recalled—being taken from both ends by two of his subordinates, one Nightborne and one an Earth Pony who had acquired Highborne attributes, driving home again the curse removed all moral restrictions on both colt-cuddler and inter-tribal affairs.

“Stop it…” she squeezed her eyes tightly shut only to open them again, her long-suppressed desires now pounding at her remaining mental and physical barriers from within even as the sights and sounds of rutting coupled with thestralcorn magic outside ate them away from without. But they did not stop, sensing the effect they were having on her and encouraging her further, increasingly certain she would not or could not stop them.

Her gaze next fell on a thestralized and feminized Blueblood himself, reduced to a toy for bat-stallion pleasure. Though she’d never liked him, she couldn’t help but consider it an extremely apt and brilliantly erotic punishment for his arrogance and mistreatment of her soldiers, watching as he eagerly accepted every phallus offered him by Highborne and Nightborne alike.

The earlier enchantment that had helped overcome the enchanted armor of the command staff was still active, her vestments began to evaporate in earnest as, in a moment of weakness, she mentally urged a nearby Nightborne to mount him and, with a wink at her, he immediately did so.

He gave her a spectacular view as he sank himself within the Prince all the way to the medial ring, stretching him deliciously wide and causing her to take an involuntary step towards the scene. It reminded her all-too-vividly of what she’d done when she’d captured his ancestor, Blueblood the 4th, and broke him by breaching his mind and twisting his dreams to make him want only her, addicting him to her body and then using it to force him to spy on Celestia.

“Stop it!”she ordered herself again as she then recalled some of the more wild nights of her former Lunar Court; celebrations of victories won or simply welcoming foreign dignitaries whose alliance she sought to dinner. She recalled that it was said to rival even the Court of Coltugula in sheer debauchery, in which she sometimes offered up herself as a reward or enticement for those who had pleased her, or those whose stallions or soldiers she sought.

As if an answer to her remembered treatment, a Nightborne mare stepped forth in offering, locking eyes with her. “Was it anything like this, Princess?” she asked. She was then quickly serviced from head to toe by multiple mares and males, bat-ponies of both races flocking to her. They orally worshipped her wings and various other intimate areas before mounting her from multiple angles, males taking all three of her openings at once as several mares suckled her teats and stallionhood from below, keeping their tails flagged and intimate areas in full view of her.

“Y-yes…” a dry-muzzled Luna confirmed. She reeled anew as every sight, smell, and sound around her was seemingly tailored to arouse her long-forgotten and most desperate desires. They prevented her from focusing enough to cast new spells or even sustain her old ones; the pace of her protective vestments evaporating increased in response to her excitement—she had no idea what incantation was at work that could cause that!—until they suddenly all crumbled into dust on her body and disappeared into wisps of smoke, leaving her completely naked and defenseless; even her crown was gone from her head!

“N-no…” despite her words, she did not resist as the four thestralcorns then began moving closer, lovingly caressing and outright groping her from afar with their auras. After casting various sensitivity and enhancement spells on her, the former making all her erogenous zones tingle while the latter made her ears lengthen and teats expand, the four males then ran their auras through her flared wingfeathers and the fur over her flight muscles; their magical touches as exquisite as they were progressively more welcome.

Getting bolder as they sensed her respond to and no longer resisting their efforts, she felt a magical touch brush over her flanks; its owner—a wide-eyed Private Penumbra—breathing raggedly as he touched her directly for the first time and then moved her half-flagged tail fully aside, revealing her swollen and needy marehood fully.

He nearly came on the spot as he spread her deep blue lips wide with her aura, using it to illuminate the glistening depths within. It had been so long since she had been touched there that she gave an involuntary gasp and squirt, which he captured and brought to his muzzle to taste. But she was given no time to offer up another before Spring Air began directly fondling her teats—another weak point of hers—making her legs threaten to buckle and vision go unfocused for a moment at the sharp shocks of pleasure being sent through her.

When it cleared, she was staring the phallus of Sergeant Riesling in the face again as he self-levitated before her in lieu of hovering on his arousal-stiffened wings, nibbling along the full length of her erect ear as the tapered head of his stallionhood found the lips of her muzzle and began to part them.

Her remaining resistance ebbing quickly, her slackening jaw began to admit it as the muzzles of Spring Air and Penumbra locked on her teat and clit in turn, threatening to make her climax instantly as Concord simply sat back and watched, stroking himself to the sight of her seduction as he continued to work on her wings and flight muscles, helping the efforts of his comrades where needed.

Through it all, Luna remained as confused as she was sorely aroused. But this makes no sense… The Nightmare wishes to use this curse to conquer me with their LOVE? By making them appeal to my own passions? To my desire for tribal unity? To my own remembered DEPRAVITY? Even more lurid memories of her time as Nightmare Moon suddenly resurfaced and flashed quickly through her head, involving a particularly memorable instance of being serviced in such a manner by her entire elite Shadowbolt team.

They were led in both war and lovemaking by her mighty Captain and one of the very few ponies she had ever truly loved, the great Nightborne warrior Star Sable, who was both her Prince and who had the sole and exclusive rights to her tail. The memory alone brought a shiver to her as she found herself for the first time since her rebirth in a place where those scenes could be recreated, in full.

Watching her carefully as he continued to help pleasure her, Concord blinked and grinned. “Well. If it is only he who has the right to take you there…” Tapping his magic, he transformed himself into the spitting image of Star Sable himself, moving forward to mount her tail, causing her to gasp and stare fixedly at him.

Her reaction made them all decide she was ripe and ready; Riesling gained entry with his organ to her muzzle as Penumbra and Spring Air positioned themselves to take her marehood together from below, leaving her anal orafice to Concord himself.

“Deny it no longer—you do desire this, Moon Princess! You seek the same reverence and rutting you knew before! Know that we will grant it and more! We will do whatever you wish, whenever you like!” Concord all but purred as he advanced on her in his altered form, his compatriots likewise taking on the visage of the Shadowbolts they’d seen in her thoughts as they readied to claim all her orifices at once.

“So… what was that little standoff back there about?” Sunset asked Delta Requiem as her power allowed them passage through Juniper Neptune’s shield, and then hid them from detection by the corrupted.

“It’s nothing you need to worry about,” Delta replied coolly as they began their approach to the Friendship Castle, an anxious Twilight keeping close behind both. “I’d have thought that such topics were considered taboo even among humans.”

“Well, they are… sort of,” Twilight admitted, as much to distract herself from her sexually charged surroundings; the eerie atmosphere and nightmare forms of various ponies they saw not helping her nerves. “Doesn’t stop people from talking about them.”

“Besides, if there’s some tension between you and the High Priestess, that could cause issues, which makes it something to worry about,” Sunset pointed out dryly. “The last thing we need is one of you getting converted because you couldn’t keep your heads in the game.”

Delta flinched at the none-too-subtle reminder. “I… concede the point,” she sighed. “The truth is that Juniper Neptune and I were in a relationship some years ago. It… ended poorly.”

“You and a Highborne High Priestess?” Sunset was surprised. “She’s a hay of a catch. Can I ask why you broke it off? Because it looks to me like you got the best of both worlds, there!” She gave Delta a nudge and wink.

“Sunset!” hissed Twilight, mortified as she felt Midnight perk up and take notice of the news.

Delta, however, showed little reaction. “It was entirely her fault… well, mostly.” Delta shook her head, sighing wearily as they paused long enough to let a pack of Timberponies pass. They sniffed at the air in some confusion, but finding nothing, they moved on. “It’s complicated,” she continued once they were alone again.

“Try me,” Sunset replied, her expression defiant.

Delta nodded as they resumed their advance. “Very well then. It started off well enough. We were both talented and accomplished magic users meeting each other for the first time in a small Highborne enclave inside of the traditionally Nightborne northern half of Thestralslovakia. A really obscure place up in the mountains,” she recalled, pausing only briefly to sing a few bars under her breath to better keep the effects of the curse-charged air and weather away.

“Her name was Tranquil Tide back then. She was very pious but not stuffy and condescending like too many of her kind. The thestralcorn priesthood isn’t normally known for consorting with the ‘lesser’ races of ponykind, preferring to tend to the spiritual needs of the Highborne alone, telling them stories handed down for generations of how they managed to survive despite being hated by the Nightborne and oppressed by their larger neighbors.”

Twilight frowned, wondering how such an unharmonious attitude could be so commonplace among any creatures living in their realm. But she offered no comment as Delta Requiem went on.

“The first time I saw her, I was on a goodwill tour of Thestralslovakia for the Princess. She was hosting a sermon in the marketplace, centered on the concept of reconciliation and forgiveness with your neighbor. Must have been the entire town who showed up, dressed in their uncomfortable woolen robes to listen to her speak with a brilliant pink sunrise overhead.”

Delta looked up into the stormy sky, seeing it in her mind as if it had been yesterday. “It was a beautiful morning, very cool and comfortable—nothing at all like tonight. So I sat down and listened to her speak until the end. She spoke eloquently and passionately of lasting peace between the different pony races being possible.”

Twilight raised an eyeridge at the last part. “That seems to contradict your previous statement about the priesthood not liking other ponies, just a bit…” she said before she could catch herself.

To her relief, Delta only chuckled, though Sunset knew from long experience there was the barest note of bitterness in her laugh. “Quite so, Twilight! She was quite different… or so I thought.”

“It sounds like something out of a fairy tale, honestly. Or a romance novel...” Twilight grinned sheepishly, her trepidation growing with each step they took towards the darkened castle in the distance—and worse, her corrupted counterpart within—her nerves not helped by the fact it was backlit by lightning like some of the cheesier suspense movies she’d seen at Rainbow’s insistence. “So what happened next?”

“After she finished her speech, she spotted me in the crowd and came up to talk to me. I must have been a sight, being the only non-leucistic creature for perhaps a hundred miles in all directions. She wasn’t shy—she told me she ‘sensed the aura of a mighty magus emanating from me’. And like a foal, I bought that hackneyed line and as the cliché goes, one thing led to another and we ended up in bed together that very night.

“Things took off from there and we ended up getting in a pretty serious relationship after a while. We were together for going on five years when things went pear-shaped.” An angry shadow passed over her face at the memory.

Sunset cringed slightly. “That does sound like a pretty hokey pick-up line, I gotta admit. Still, it sounds like you two were marriage material for being together so long. She liked you and from what you said, you liked her! So what went wrong?”

“I guess you could say she got a promotion,” Delta intoned sarcastically. “Tranquil Tide was on a very short list of names to replace the then-current Juniper Neptune after she ascended to the stars, making her the highest-ranking religious authority in the Highborne faith. She had a lot of high-minded ideas about reforming it to make it less hostile to intermarriage or interbreeding with the other pony tribes, and for that, I maintained a shred of respect for her.

“But when I saw her again after her ascension, she was a changed mare. And I don’t just mean that male equipment she had.” Delta’s face hardened. “I thought maybe that meant she could finally give me a foal, but instead, she turned cold and distant—it was like she didn’t want anything to do with me!” Her next melody to hide them from a pair of dragonponies passing overhead sounded slightly discordant, and both Twilight and Sunset felt a wave of vertigo pass over them.

Delta noticed and grimaced. “Sorry… maybe we shouldn’t talk about this right now.”

“Maybe not, unless you need to get it off your chest immediately?” Sunset agreed, but still snorted angrily. “Sounds like all that power and authority went to her head! Not that I’m one to talk...”

Delta shook her head, disregarding Sunset’s words. “I’m almost done. It took some persistence—I invaded her temple sanctum more than once, which is a big no-no for non-thestrals—but I finally got her to stop avoiding me and explain what happened to all of her promises of being together forever.

“It was then she told me it was impossible. She said the wisdom passed down to her from the previous incarnations of Juniper Neptune convinced her ‘it would be folly to reform the Highborne’ to accept or interbreed with outsiders. She said it would bring about the Highborne’s destruction in the long-run and ended on an apology — however futile — for leading me on…”

Twilight winced. “Ouch!”

“I second that ouch!” Sunset concurred. “I’m really sorry, Delta.”

“Well, so am I. That was five years of my life I wasted on her,” she growled, then took a deep breath to recenter herself, her expression hardening. “Thanks for letting me vent, but enough. We have a job to do, and we’re nearly there. So the plan is that I’ll mask you for as long as I can, but the closer I approach, the more danger exists that whatever pony acquired The Nightmare’s power will detect me.”

“That’s fine,” Sunset said. “I don’t plan to hide myself anyway. Twilight, you hang back with Delta after I go in. Delta, you hide her, and when you two sense me teleport the portal back over, that’s your cue! Teleport in yourself to my location and tag Eclipse with your pendant, Twilight! She won’t expect you and that should hopefully give you all the surprise you need. With the biggest gun out of the way, Delta and I can then hold off the rest while we power up the portal and have our friends on the other side create their countercurse song…”

Corporal Concord, who despite his previously low rank had ascended to the unofficial leader of the curse-infected Canterlot Castle garrison, was fully confident in his actions and seductive abilities, having tailored both his appearance and actions to appeal to the Princess and release her repressed passions fully, hoping and expecting she would return to being the greatest of all Queens and patrons the Nightborne had ever known—the great Nightmare Moon herself!

As he began what he thought was his final advance on his regent, intending to take her tail, he only realized something was wrong when Luna’s shocked expression at seeing the guise of her former Captain suddenly gave way to a full-throated growl around her mouthful of Riesling’s organ, the first four inches of which had made it into her before it was suddenly and violently expelled.

He felt a white-hot wave of pure fury rise up from deep within her; the very air around erupted with wind and lightning in direct reflection of her sudden and very frightening rage as all four thestralcorns were flung back hard, bowled over again by the eruption of her enormously powerful aura and elemental energies alike.

“HOW DARE THEE!” the Moon Princess screamed in outrage as she bodily hurled them far away from her again, all other sexual activity around her instantly ceasing. Her wings, which had been previously flaring in readiness to be rutted now did so in pure ire. “So… ‘twould seem that despite my mental defenses, thou hast been reading my very thoughts this entire time!

“‘Twould seem all of thee hath been prying upon my most private of desires and altering thy actions to suit them! To trespass upon my mind is an affront I cannot abide! And thou further believes I would betray my beloved to but a feeble copy of his courage and convictions?” she recited angrily as for the first time, Concord felt a moment of fear. He realized at that moment just how badly he’d overstepped, potentially ruining her seduction and conversion with just one overly-presumptuous and extremely foalhardy action. “Were we still The Nightmare, we would execute thee for thy insolence on the spot!”

Concord felt both a chill and thrill go down his back at the threat, cursing himself for only reading her surface thoughts instead of her deeper ones. And worse, he felt her slam mental shields in place, blocking further use of the enhanced scrying abilities they’d been using so effectively on her.

“Please, My Princess! He meant no offense! Like all of us, he sought only to know what would please you! How best to pleasure you!” To Concord’s relief, Spring Air tried to defend him, and did so honestly as Concord only belatedly remembered Luna’s scrying abilities dwarfed even their enhanced ones, and that she could quickly tell if they were lying.

“He speaks the truth! I didn’t mean to denigrate you, or your memory of the great Star Sable!” he bowed very low in supplication, his mind whirling as he tried to come up with an alternate strategy. He silently cursed his overconfidence anew, now only hoping to stall long enough for their pheromones and the remaining ambient magic to make Luna more amenable to their advances again.

Taking a deep breath, Private Penumbra stepped fractionally towards her, only to freeze as she turned her angry gaze on him. “I do not excuse his actions… or my own, Princess. But do not begrudge us our desires! For wishing to revive The Nightmare herself! We do not wish to control or conquer her! We wish only to follow her!”

But far from placating her, his words only infuriated Luna further. “Silence!” she shouted angrily, recasting and restoring her wards around their horns. To their alarm, they were far more powerful and painful than the ones she’d used previously. Wards designed to restrain alicorn-level mages that they quickly realized they could not break; the constriction on their magic draining them physically as well. “For thou know not of what thou speak!”

“Then show us, mighty Luna!” A weakened but still-excited Sergeant Riesling challenged. The thought that she might well be able to overcome and overpower all of them despite their enhanced thestralcorn auras and her undeniably strong desires only added to his still sky-high excitement, as did the tip of his organ still tingling in utter rapture from where it had all-too-briefly gained entry to her muzzle. “He speaks for all of us! Show us the supreme and sensual regent you once were, and we will happily serve thy dark will again!”

Luna picked him up in her aura, drew him to her and held him fast, this time steadfastly ignoring the thestral stallionhood dangling in her face. It throbbed a mere inch from her lips, but she made no move towards it with either her aura or muzzle despite the flush of her cheeks and the twitch of her nose, keenly remembering its scent and taste.

“Thou wouldst be very wise to mind thy words and wishes carefully, young Highborne,” she informed him ominously, dropping him at her hooves and causing him to scramble back from her in fear and excitement. “For ‘tis certain thy fondest wishes would be quickly and sorely regretted!”

“Regretted?” Concord echoed in disbelief, realizing that she was now far more resistant to their sensual charms, ignoring them despite her still-strong sensual urges. “But we have already seen what you once were! What is there to be scared of—simply a fondness for foals? ‘Tis no less than we would do, so why fight it? Why not let us set her free again?”

“NO! I dare not!” she replied, fighting with all her rekindled will as she felt not just the urge to rut, but a deep darkness accompanying her most perverse desires rising once more within her. “For you know not the creature Nightmare Moon was! You know not the depths of her depravity!”

“Then tell us!” Concord beseeched her, hoping against hope that having her recall her past corruption would allow it to emerge again. “Show us those depths! For how could they be worse than all you have seen before you now?” he motioned around the room, where all activity remained stopped; all eyes now locked on Luna in fear of her display of temper.

“Not worse?” Luna replied acidly, then began advancing on them slowly, her head lowering. “When the Caribou King refused to swear loyalty to me, I cursed his line and condemned all who followed it to have insatiable sexual desires! To have endless urges but no way to sate them except to love and serve me!” she said as her aura took on a deeper hue, in reflection of her own remembered darkness, the room itself seeming to fall deeper into shadow and a cold tingle to fall over all of her increasingly anxious subjects.

“When the Fourth Blueblood tried to trick me, I addicted him to my magic, which he could only gain by feeding off my horn or marehood! I ensured his loyalty by making his need so great and so strong he would die unless he serviced and spied for me!” Her eyes turned catlike and slitted, beginning to glow like a thestral’s as her words caused her audience to take a step back from her in fear for the first time.

“When the zebras attempted to assassinate me, I captured their mercenaries and made them my harem’s concubines! Enslaved their mares and forced even their males to bear bat-pony foals!” she announced as she advanced steadily on her corrupted subjects.

Their hearts skipped a beat as her teeth turned to fangs and a series of apparent gashes appeared on her body from which leaked not blood, but a miasma that seemed to stain both her fur and the very air around the openings a deeper hue.

Her body began to grow and her voice began to boom louder as all converted but Concord backed away, the remaining thestralcorns hastily erecting shields to protect themselves.

But Luna did not stop her advance or her speech, her horn lengthening and wingspan increasing to fit her growing stature. “When the gryphons allied with a dragon clan against me, I cursed them to be attracted to each other! Caused their best warriors to desire dragon females above their own kind and left their males irresistible to drakes in turn!

Traits that remain dormant within each race to this very day!” she then recalled, her lighter coat soon subsumed completely and her tone of voice turning more dangerous with each passing second as she pushed right through the magical resistance, dissipating the hastily raised defensive wards without effort. “And lest thou think I was being benevolent, such alien and unwanted desires destroyed their alliance and left them easy prey for my army, which later slaughtered them!” she further pronounced, eliciting a series of gasps and audible whimpers.

“When a captured Minotaur general insulted me, implying he could do far more for me than any stallion, I forced him to service his own bullhood for my amusement and then put him and his entire command staff in stocks, leaving their tails exposed as entertainment for my allies and Elite Guard during my evening feast!”A massive stallionhood then descended beneath her belly, dwarfing even those of the already-converted Night Guard who began to cling to each other not in desire but in abject fear. “Unable to bear his humiliation or the fact that I forced them to enjoy it, he committed suicide that very night!”

Despite all their new strengths and magic, the converted command staff began to cringe and cower. But still, the slowly transforming Luna did not relent. “When the Ibexians attempted to ambush my invading Army, I reversed pain and pleasure within their ranks! They then hacked each other to pieces in their efforts to orgasm! And once they were all slain, I ordered their horns removed and reshaped into toys of female pleasure!” she next told her aghast audience as a pair of equally enormous apples materialized beneath her marehood, each the size of an unconverted pony’s head, making clear she could both mother and sire foals even without the help of the curse.

“But my greatest atrocity of all… was when my sister’s army menaced me, I demoralized them by twisting their dreams to make them desire their own foals! Or worse, deliver them to me to molest!”With a painful screech that filled the room, mangled metal pieces began ripping out of consoles and walls to begin flying towards her, molding and reshaping themselves in midair.

“I forced them to observe as I turned their offspring into my sexual playthings! Or worse, compelled them to do the deeds themselves! Molded their minds to serve whatever perverse desires I wished! And you dare claim you know the depths of my depravity with but a few enhanced attributes and some minor acts of indecency?”

As her alarmed but awestruck audience watched, the orbiting metal pieces fused into a familiar helm directly on her head as a series of additional armor pieces formed, slamming into place to cover her legs and torso, completing her new Nightmare ensemble as her transformation completed. But she spoke as if she was barely aware of it, continuing her tirade the entire time.

“You know not the meaning of depravity! Your feeble corruption cannot even begin to touch the horrific creature I once was! The creature you see before you now! A creature that must never again walk free in this world!”she proclaimed imperiously; lightning flashing around her and deafening thunder echoing throughout the room as she stood over an awestruck Concord, her wings flared in anger and a display of pure dominance and power. “So set her loose, our young and naive Nightborne, at thy peril!”

All present then fell to their knees in terror and reverence at the image of pure darkness and demonic possession before them, her visage as famed as it was frightening. They prayed to the Twisting Nether and Moon Goddess for their safety as they realized they were no longer in the presence of Princess Luna…

But in the thrall of the unholy and utterly amoral Nightmare Moon!

As if overtaken by her memories, she then cackled evilly, rearing up and pinwheeling her hooves to show off her incredibly intimidating size and stature; her elemental powers turning the inside of the room into a maelstrom as she soon focused her attention on a cowering Concord himself.

“So, what dost thou think of us now, thou ignorant and arrogant stallion? Dost thou still think setting us free and unleashing the full measure of our mating malevolence and desire to defile ‘tis a ‘good idea’? Dost thou still wish to serve us, knowing that we are not merely corrupted, but utterly and irredeemably evil?” she asked in mockingly gleeful tones as she regarded him as little more than a piece of meat, licking her lips at the sight of him. “If so, then thou art the greatest foal who ever lived!”

To his credit, a trembling Concord stood his ground in the face of her elemental fury and utterly intimidating gaze; her slitted eyes and sharp teeth glowing brightly even as the rest of her smiling yet snarling face remained in shadow beneath her gleaming metal helm. He had never been more excited—or terrified!—in his life, even counting the events of earlier that evening. His organ stood rigidly erect and for the first time that night, he lowered his ears and posture, ready to submit himself to her elephantine ebon organ right then and there even if she enslaved or slew him after. For what point would there be in living after that, when no experience could ever equal again being sexually conquered by the Queen of Corruption and Empress of Erotic Evil herself?

“Th-then you are already the greatest of us! Even without this magic!” He dropped to his knees at that moment, realizing that despite his fear, he was well and truly in love with her. “Please, Great and Terrible Tyrant of the Moon! Let us join you! Command us! Corrupt us! We will be both your soldiers and your sensual servants! Say the word, and we will serve in any capacity you wish!” He turned and offered himself to her, shifting his tail aside.

“NO!” she shouted over her storm, still in the guise of The Nightmare even as her jet-black stallionhood twitched and spurted beneath her belly, its head rising to point directly at his offered orifice. “As thou can clearly see, The Nightmare indeed remains within me! Even now, I cannot escape her influence or the memories of what I did as her!

“Unfortunately for thee, what this means is that I am only too familiar with this madness and thus can resist such depraved desires of the flesh! Such corruption is what I swore never to return to, so be assured, that I will not succumb to this curse! That I will never surrender to such base and evil urges EVER AGAIN!”

Her horn then erupted with her most powerful and prolonged magical suppression and dispersal spells, which she maintained at full power for the better part of a minute. Her magic very ungently dealt with the corrupted command center staff as she shocked them all into unconsciousness, crushing their physical, magical and mental defenses without mercy in an assault none short of another Alicorn could withstand. When her power finally ebbed, every converted bat-pony lay in a deep sleep on the floor, wisps of smoke coming off of singed thestralcorn horns from the forced magical overload.

Breathing hard, Luna sank to her knees, sweating and shaking, relief warring with deep regret as she removed her opportunity to be rutted.

“So… at long last, I pass the test I failed so miserably a millennium ago,” she whispered to herself, still in Nightmare Moon’s form. But she could not celebrate—the urge to rut and release her fallen forces to finish their work remained unbearably strong within her. Worse, she very much wanted to bury herself in the Corporal to not only claim him, but let him know what power and passion truly was; leave him unable to enjoy any sensual act except with her afterwards. Her anger and sheer force of will had briefly beaten her amorous intentions back, but they rose again as a fresh surge of darkness-fueled desire filled her, and thus she knew she could not tarry in her task.

“Prince Armor and Princess Cadenza!”she called out as she cast a fresh communication spell, one connected to the Prince and Princess standing guard outside the Castle.

“Yes, Princess!” Shining Armor and Cadance responded instantly, and as one. “We just felt a massive surge of dark magical energy—we thought it was King Sombra himself for a moment, but then it passed! Is the curse contained? Are you safe?” the latter asked anxiously.

“Yes, and no. ’Tis done and the curse is contained. But I regret I underestimated the intense pull and power of its corruptive magic, and thus, I am… affected.” Despite her deepening desires not to, she magically restored the containment fields around the affected castle wing and Command Center, and then scrambled their control frequencies to unknown combinations to ensure they could not be lowered by her again without her bringing down the entire castle—which, even corrupted, she knew she would not do, lest she slay her own subjects.

That much of The Nightmare’s corruption was gone from her, at least, thanks to her earlier cleansing by the Elements of Harmony. “I was forced to resort to… extreme measures to defeat it, but ‘twas not without cost. Though I remain unconverted, the curse magic is now within me, and thus, I dare not leave this place.

“So whilst I still have my sanity, I call upon you both to ensure I cannot escape! Use your strongest shield and sleep spells to reinforce the inner containment fields and keep all infected within quiescent. Together, your combined power should be sufficient to restrain me. Inform my Moon Mages and my sister’s Sun Sages that ‘twill now fall to them to control the heavens in our absence,” she said, referring to the ancient but still-active unicorn orders that raised the sun and moon before the rise of the Celestial Sisters; their existence remained a failsafe in case either or both fell.

“Them? But why not—” Cadance began, only for Luna to anticipate the question and answer before she could finish.

“Because I dare not attempt to transfer my power to you, Princess Cadenza, as ‘tis likely I will transfer the curse along with it.” She gritted her teeth but forced herself to say the words, sensing she was surrendering a golden opportunity to set the corruptive magic loose upon her, and all Canterlot in turn. “You are the last unaffected Alicorn, and you must at all costs be kept safe. Thus, the Solar and Lunar Orders must now fulfill their olden roles again,” she explained further, even though she hated it, part of her regretting being so loyal to her crown and devoted to the duty of all.

“Yes, Princess,” Shining Armor’s subdued voice answered. “By your command, it will be done. But if you cannot intervene, what of Ponyville? What of my sister?” he asked in audible worry.

“Fear not. The Highborne High Priestess has already quarantined the town, and the human element bearers have a plan to cure the curse from the portal within it. If they do not succeed, then curse or no, I will launch my own final effort to defeat this amorous abomination from the dreamscape itself, where my spirit should be able to resist its pull far easier when unencumbered by my body.

“I will keep the nature of that effort secret in case you yet fall prey to this curse yourselves—’tis possible it may yet erupt elsewhere in Canterlot, so stay alert! But as of this moment, do not accept any more orders from me, as I may be corrupted and trying to trick you,” she forced the words out even as part of her desperately wanted to countermand it on the spot; wishing to first awaken the four new thestralcorns to let them complete her conversion, and then lure the two Crystal Kingdom regents inside where she could transform them into her nocturnal servants in turn, making her new army all-powerful!

“Understood,” he replied solemnly, unaware of her thoughts. “Your sacrifice to save Canterlot this night will be remembered. We will come for you when we have the cure. The Sun and Moon Goddesses be with you, Princess Luna.”

“And with you,” she gave the traditional reply even as she vividly visualized sexually subjugating Shining Armor and his wife, turning them into her sensual satraps before setting them free along with all her new army to descend upon Canterlot. The urge to corrupt and conquer growing within her, she felt herself turning into Nightmare Moon again, her long-suppressed stallion organ growing again from her belly to hang down almost to the floor itself.

Its tip twitched hard as she imagined pursuing and then magically overpowering Princess Cadance before plunging her nearly-forgotten phallus into her depths, claiming her and forcing her to grow a stallionhood of her own! Once properly corrupted and conditioned, she would then set her loose to hunt down her own husband, the pair of Princesses then cornering him and taking him from both ends!

He would struggle but finally surrender and accept his place as not just her commander but her favorite concubine, while she would become head of her new harem and enforcer of her sensual will! In the end, Luna would not only turn them and all ponies into her playthings, but force them both to bear her foals!

She would reign as Queen and let all other races become breeders for herself and her thestral servants! She would at long last conquer Equestria, and then even the realms beyond! She would subjugate and sexually enslave all who resisted her, even her own sister! Her great and glorious Lunar Republic would be reborn as an empire of rapturous lust! And then she would—! Would…!

Luna blinked and chuckled, her eyes reverting back to their normal state. Breathing softly, she suppressed the sensual urges and retracted her swollen stallionhood through sheer force of will; her laughter and Nightmare features subsiding as she forced her most fervent fantasies back to bay.

“Not this time…” she whispered to herself, wishing The Nightmare was there to see that she was no longer vulnerable to temptation. “No matter how badly I may want to, I will not give in to this curse.”

She then aimed her magic inward and cast her most powerful sleep and magic suppression spells, silencing the amorous urges within her. Her body collapsing like a puppet cut from its strings, she fell to the floor unconscious in the middle of the four vanquished thestralcorns, who snuggled up to her in their sleep.

Author's Note

Picture credit goes to: https://www.deviantart.com/dream--chan/art/Nightmarish-Luna-356111332. I looked for something suitable for her post-transformation but didn't really find anything that tickled my fancy. Suggestions for such a picture will be considered.

I sincerely apologize if folks found this too dark, but Nightmare Moon was not a nice creature, and unfortunately, these actions and proclivities Luna recites make perfect sense to me. It explains why she's so driven to atone and why she refuses to give in, even in the face of all temptation, because she knows what she was once was and fears becoming that way again. Yes, she was under the possession of Alya--i.e., The Nightmare entity herself--at the time, but when you're possessed for that long, she's going to leave a deep mark on you even after her possession has ended.

You know, if folks were to ask me what my biggest grievance is in the way the MLP:FiM series turned out, I would say it's destroying the mystique and power of the princesses, reducing them to little more than figureheads who couldn't solve crises on their own and couldn't wait to retire. It makes zero sense--not only is that completely at odds with their initial appearances and depictions, but there is no way in hell Equestria could have survived for a thousand years ruled by Celestia if she had no actual ability to rule or fight. With Luna, it's even more egregious--she just got back after having a thousand years of her life and her rightful place as diarch stolen from her; why the hell would she want to retire now?

I endeavor to treat the Princesses well in all my writings; show how powerful, passionate and battle-tested but also how deeply scarred they really are. Their wisdom is hard-learned; they've both done plenty of things they're not proud of. But they are worthy rulers who can certainly deal with matters on their own, even if they do have slightly different philosophies on when and how to do so. With this chapter, I really did want to show both the best and worse of Luna, from her desirability and suppressed sensuality to how strong her will and power truly is; just how far she's willing to go in order to fulfill her once-neglected duty to crown and country. And if that meant showing how evil and amoral she was as Nightmare Moon, then so be it. Just gives her an even greater edge and interest, in my view!

As this was the climactic chapter of the Canterlot arc, I'll leave the story here for a bit, and this will be the final chapter of it before Halloween. For Halloween itself? A Gilda-themed bonus chapter of Midnight Rising is coming, so be following my blog for that!

Thanks goes to AJ_Aficionado and Silentwoodfire for prereaders, and to AJA and Leo Archon for collaborating on the Delta/Juniper section. Each wrote about half of it, followed by me editing it and fleshing it out in places. Delta and Juniper are their OCs, so it seemed fitting. Please note, however, that you've only heard Delta's side of the story on their relationship thus far. You can bet Juniper's got a different perspective, and you'll hear it in due course.