Prologue - Four Hours to Dark
Canterlot.
The seat of the Equestrian government is a truly enigmatic place. More eloquent than the tiny hamlet of Ponyville that rests below its sweeping spires, Canterlot remains not so far removed to make a country pony feel unwelcome. She is as cosmopolitan as the labyrinthine street corners of posh Manehattan, yet chic and couture in her own subtle way. Less lusty than the golden, burlesque temples of Los Pegasus to which ponies looking to make a quick bit pray, but she commands a far deeper respect than mere money can buy. Lady Canterlot is a dowager who’s had her share of the limelight. She feels no need to boast, and welcomes all her nation’s children in equal measure.
But not every night under Canterlot’s skies is a quiet one. On a certain such evening, basked in the pale glow of Luna’s radiance, a torch remains burning in the city’s highest tower. These are the private apartments of the crown princess of the sun, who persists this night beyond her hour.
* * * * *
“Eight hours?” Princess Luna gazed at the proclamation inscribed upon the parchment before her eyes in abject shock. “You cannot be serious!”
Celestia, eldest sister and matriarch of the Equestrian nation, lay wearily upon an embroidered rug before a crackling hearth. Her hour past for the day, she wanted little more than to lay her head upon the first satin pillow she could find and pass into blissful unconsciousness, until her internal alarm lock reminded her of her morning duties. Sleeplessness breeds grumpiness, but she retained the decorum to wait for the servant tasked with replacing the linens to beat a hasty retreat before levitating her heavy tiara from her forehead and rubbing the throb from her temples in a rather unprincesslike way.
“Luna,” She chastised gently, eyes closed. “You mustn’t speak that way around the servants. It frightens them.” Celestia heard her younger sister taking in a sharp breath, but cut her off. “And no, I did not mean to say that you frighten them. I’d hoped we’d be past that by now. I meant that they see in us souls above question - ageless rulers whom they trust in implicitly. We must maintain an air of cooperation in their eyes.”
Luna spun the parchment about in her magic and thrust it in the face of her elder. “You call this ‘cooperation’, my sister? A proclamation intended to reduce the number of moonlight hours each day from twelve to a mere eight?” Luna cast the paper aside before Celestia could raise complaint with having it shoved at her. “To what do I owe this one-sided decree? Are there insufficient sleep masks to distribute amongst the populace?”
Celestia sighed, recalling that there were still times where she felt the need to handle ‘kid-sister’ with appropriately-sized gloves. “It is not a proclamation, merely a proposed stratagem, and of course I planned to bring it to your attention before simply taking action upon it. The fact is, as time goes on and our nation expands, so too does our population. More hours of the day means more time for crops to grow, and more light by which we ponies, who are not blessed with nightvision by nature, can be productive.”
Luna harumphed, her starry locks fluttering sharply with an annoyed tilt of her head. “And what of bat ponies? Their sight, by contrast to other tribes, is weaker by day. Is it proper to deny them equal time to ‘be productive’?”
“Bat ponies represent a small minority of the population, Luna--”
“Then discrimination is the order of the day, is it!?”
Celestia was on her hooves in an instant. She loomed over her sister and toughened her expression, though she kept her cool. “You know that’s not what I mean, Sister. Bat ponies are citizens of Equestria just like any other tribe, and I respect them as much as I do a pegasus or an Earth pony. But as princesses, you and I are sworn to make our decisions based upon what is best for the majority of our population. I have no intention of ending the night - it is both a wrong and foolish thing to do. But bat ponies represent a miniscule percentage of our population, and nearly all of them who come of age enter into your employ as a guard or soldier. They are not famers, not historians, not firefighters nor school teachers. In their primary vocation they will remain as effective as ever despite the lessening of the night hours, whereas the multitude of other ponies who toil under our skies will benefit greatly from extended time by which to function.”
“What to you plan to do about sleep, then?” Luna seethed. “Are our citizens to work themselves to the bone and never seek respite?”
Celestia rolled her eyes. “Of course not. Everypony knows how important day and night cycles are to all of us, as living things. But this is a minor shift. Night cycles will still exist, and the average pony only requires eight hours of sleep a night to begin with. There will still be sufficient time.”
Luna had her brow narrowed for so long that it was beginning to hurt. With a flurry of her feathery wings she pranced about the room, talking with her posture. “Do you believe that’s all ponies do at night? Sleep? That everypony in Equestria takes perfectly to their rest at the falling of the moon and stays that way precisely until the cock crows? Do you suspect that ponies are only active during daylight hours? What of the species of animals and plants that thrive at night? What of the inspiration of a moonlit lagoon, to fuel the minds of our greatest thinkers and the hearts of our greatest artists?”
“None of that is going away--”
“But it is going away,” Luna insisted. “You just said it yourself. ‘The average pony only requires eight hours of sleep a night to begin with.’ So they must now either spend part of their sleep cycle in daylight, thus ruining your plans of ‘productivity’, or they must sacrifice the beauty and joy a warm summer night can bring, or the crackling of a hearth before a snowy backdrop in darkness.”
Celestia gritted her teeth, but did not open her mouth to show it. Swallowing, she smacked a pile of papers on a desk across the room with her magic, shuffling but not scattering them. “Do you know what’s begun to happen in our country, Sister?” She accused. “I suppose you don’t because the daily reports aren’t brought to you, but are you aware that as our population expands, so does hunger? So does poverty? So does want? Magic can only do so much, Luna. Each year we have a surplus of nothing, and though it is slight, each year grows a deficit of materials. Our output is starting to fall behind our needs. Something must be done to stop this before it becomes so ingrained of a problem that it changes our very society for the worse. Do you think I like the idea of shortening the night?”
Luna blew on her bangs and looked droll. “Do you not?”
Celestia finally gave herself over to a sneer, her voice raising beyond decorum. “This is not a personal competition between us, Luna! The day and the night are not our playthings - they are not a game of one-upmanship between you and I! They do not represent us, we represent them, and it is our duty to use them in the most responsible way we can!” Celestia paused to rein herself in. “And if you are going to ask me which I find more important between the coziness and introspection of the night versus food in a foal’s belly, well...I believe I have made it clear which one I would choose, though I lament the loss of either.”
Luna said nothing. With a dirty scowl maring her stygian complexion, she made a show of staring forlornly out the window, as though the entire horizon were about to stretch from a hangpony’s noose.
Celestia softened. “Luna...if I didn’t care about the night, would I have bothered to raise the moon every single day for a thousand years on my own? Raising the moon was never easy for me and it never will be because it is not my sphere of influence, but you are no more the princess of the night than I am princess of the day. We are the trusted servants - the scions of our heavenly bodies. Can you truly look all of our subjects in the eye and tell them we have chosen not to address the deficit that seeks to harm their way of life?”
Luna’s jaw was working, as though she were chewing on tough leather. “There must be other ways. We ought to explore--”
“There are no other ways, my sister,” Celestia insisted, “not any short of forcing our citizens into specific vocations or putting them on strict rations with no end in sight for all of their days. This is the best way to deal with the problem without severely impacting everypony’s way of life.” The crown princess managed a reassuring smile. “Is it truly so bad? Look at it this way. You would have more time off, no?”
Luna’s eyes lanced out to stab her sister from afar, their respective lids narrowing. “For you to say something like that to me, Sister, after you have experienced a night in my slippers and you now know firsthand the importance of my work...for you to think I can be placated with an idea such as altering the very cycles of nature around us simply so I can sleep a few extra hours each day--”
“--that’s not what I--”
“ENOUGH!” Luna shouted, her magic hurling an inkwell into a stone wall where it shattered completely. “I believe you when you say that you believe you have our citizen’s best interests in mind, but you have not thought this through entirely. There has to be another way, and until you are willing to sit down with me and seek it out, I will listen to no more prattle!”
Celestia’s ears flattened. She bowed her head, her expression one of loss. “...then you leave me no choice, my sister. I love you dearly, but I am the elder sister. I am the crown princess. Every day we argue over this is another day lost, and I already have the support of the counselors and officials. If you are able to find another way, I promise that as your sister I will listen; for even though you won’t acknowledge it, I honestly do not want to do this. But in the meantime...I must ask you to raise the moon four hours later in the day from now on. Please don’t--”
Luna raised a brow. “Please do not what, Sister?”
Celestia choked off the sentiment. “Nothing. I have said what I needed to say.”
“Please do not what, Sister?” Luna repeated.
“Luna--”
“I know that look in your eye,” Luna accused, staring down her taller sister for all she could manage. “It’s fear. There has been only one time in all my days I can remember you being afraid of what I would do. You think that because this decision has to do with lessening my sphere of influence, that I will resort to the evils of Nightmare Moon to prevent it, don’t you.”
“...we agreed never to utter that name again outside of historical significance,” Celestia muttered.
“But you’re afraid that’s what I’ll do,” Luna persisted. “That’s why you’re trying to ‘handle’ me so carefully. Once a villain, always a villain, yes?”
“No!!” Celestia choked. “That isn’t what I think at all! Luna you are NOT a villain! You were upset, very upset, and the nightmare power found you at just the right time. I love you, I know that it all wasn’t truly your fault, and I know you would never stoop to something like that of your own volition!”
Luna made for the door, her hooves echoing against the crackling of embers in the hearth. “I wish you did know me, my Sister. But clearly you do not. You are right - you are the crown princess, and that binds even me to following your commands when they are absolute. So I will do as you ask. But I will not agree with it, I will not like it, and I will be actively seeking a way to stop it--” she sniffed, blowing out a brazier by the door as she opened it, “--and whatever you may think, the way I choose to stop it will not involve trying to murder you or conquer the land for myself. Tch.”
“I...I know you wouldn’t...Luna…”
The chamber door closed on Celestia’s morose sigh.
* * * * *
Minutes later, Princess Luna found her gait gradually mutating into a skulking canter. Her pace increased with each conclusion she drew regarding the recent conversation with her sister, and every guard she passed in the halls gave her a wide berth.
“...doesn’t know me at all…” Luna muttered aloud. “...a thousand years raising the moon, a night doing my job, all the kind words she has had for me, and she doesn’t even try to understand my position. It is madness, altering our way of life on such a grandiose scale...clearly she has not considered possible alternatives...she would prefer to simply pass judgement against those ponies who depend on the night. Who can argue with the darling image of a hungry filly? What a very convenient shield to hide behind. What of the wide-eyed and innocent bat filly? What am I to tell her? That her inactive time increases, while those of the other tribes flourish? Not fair...not any of it fair…”
Luna gave her attendants the eye - a clear signal to begone from her private apartments when she made her appearance, tasks complete or not. Therein lay her observatory with the tall curtains drawn back, and her chambers were bathed in the pale light of her orb in the sky. She walked to the windows, closing her eyes and turning her face heavenward as though for a warm shower.
“...to think that I would simply call up the villainy of the nightmare power voluntarily, just because of one disagreement...insulting that she thinks so little of me…circumstances were different back then...”
Luna spread her wings, straining her primaries to their fullest span in a catlike stretch. She failed to stifle a yawn, and when her jaw finally came under her own power again, she noticed a presence - a tickling sensation in the back of her mind, as though someone had lit a candle there and was passing it back and forth under her brain. It was a feeling as unpleasant as cracked hooves on a chalkboard to her, and her eyes snapped open wide.
She had only felt such a thing one time before - the last time her sister had feared her.
Luna’s heartbeat tripled in the turning of a second. She whirled about, only to find that nearly half of her chambers were simply gone - blotted out from her sight, by a great wave of glistening, ichorous blackness that folded and jiggled upon itself like a mockery of pudding. It was thick like tar, reached clear to the tall ceiling, and emitted a scent Luna could only ever describe to historians as ‘evil’.
Terror gripped the night princess. The last time ‘it’ had come for her, the thing was less than half its present size - a mere oozing puddle that had caught her unawares. Now it wasn’t even bothering to conceal itself, and the sheer mass of it was horror enough.
“N-no...NO!!” Luna bowed her head and opened fire instantly, piercing the gloom with sizzling blasts of magic energy that burned holes in the very stone behind the blob. “You cannot be here! I am rid of you - you are no more!! Guards! GUARDS!!”
Muffled shouts rose instantly from the other side of the door followed by wicked bucking against the wood, but the mass coated the portal, blackening out the sounds and blows. The holes Luna had rent in it simply closed up. It began to unfold like a pie crust being laid out, but there was no end to the layers, and in seconds it filled so much of the room that Luna had naught but a tiny sphere against the window in which to maneuver.
The princess kicked wildly at the glass, shattering it with ease, and leapt to her escape, seeking to take wing. She was barely off the precipice when a great tendril of the void clamped around her midsection, plucking her easily out of the sky and dragging her towards her fate.
“No, NO!! Unhand me! Begone!! Sister!! Celestia!! SAVE--”
Without maw or mouth, the creature emitted a ghastly wail that remotely resembled the cackling laughter of the thousand-year-old Mare in the Moon.
Above the tallest parapet a new ensign flew, but ‘Princess’ Celestia could only imagine what emblem was emblazoned upon it.
The assault had come only days after the edict to decrease the number of moonlit hours in each day; shortly after the unexplained disappearance of Princess Luna. It had taken place in the dark of night, and was executed by the hooves of bat ponies - those whom the city of Canterlot already put their trust in whilst they slept. Sun guards, forced to battle either straight from their beds or beleaguered after wandering the countryside in search of Luna were easy prey, and the process was complete in a matter of hours. With little energy among them to fight, casualties had at least been very minimal...so far as Princess Celestia knew.
The princess of the sun had lots of time to ponder her circumstances, for she could perceive nothing around her, nor had she any ability to for the past three weeks. Without sufficient light to see and with her horn tightly bound in a repression sleeve, she hung...somewhere, suspended before the floor, in a gilded cage once meant for Philomena, her pet Phoenix. The only difference was that Celestia never locked the cage, for she believed in her pet’s freedom to come and go as it chose. Now the cage bore a stiff yet simple lock - chosen on purpose, to infuriate her further given that she could have undone it easily with a mere spark from her horn.
There Celestia hung, stuck in the small cage like a chicken in a tiny wagon coop; darkness and inactivity threatening to spiral her into madness. Oddly she felt neither hunger nor thirst, and had no inclination to relieve herself. She suspected this was the effect of some enchantment that had been placed on her in order to ensure total seclusion, but as she filled up the hours with memories, poetry, and any other exercise to keep her thoughts alive, she began to consider the grim possibility that they had left her. That all of this was the apex of some cruel bad ending, and the rest of her immortal days would be spent in a dark cage, making friends with the bars and going completely insane.
Just as she had begun to feel chinks form in the armor of her sanity, the torment ended with a shaft of pale light that shown in her face from a crack in a door. It was not intense, but so unused to it was she that she winced to the point of pain when her irises began to retract for the first time in weeks.
It took time for Celestia to adjust to the light. By then, three ponies with neutral expressions were already standing before her. The two flanking figures were clearly members of Luna’s bat pony brigade - they were familiar in their garb and stoicism, but the empty darkness in their stares suggested the minds behind their eyes were not at all what they had once been. Between them stood a familiar figure, and Celestia did a double take.
“...Raven?” The Princess piqued. “You...you are well? How are you here?”
Raven Inkwell, Celestia’s personal assistant in affairs of state, tilted her snowy head. A wayward brown curl that had escaped her tight hairbun flitted over her eye, but she paid it no mind. “You are to come with us.”
Celestia was taken aback by the condescending address, but moreso by the changes in her advisor’s countenance. Raven’s eyes were bright yellow - the irises more catlike, as with the bat ponies. The tips of her ears were tufted in the same way, and Celestia thought she detected the glint of fangs from the unicorn’s lips.
“R-Raven…” The princess repeated. “Are you...well?”
In lieu of response, Raven lit her horn and easily undid the mundane lock on Celestia’s cage. The princess thought of flight despite the soreness in her unused limbs and wings, but Raven anticipated this and stayed her with words.
“I would not advise that, Celestia,” the unicorn said, making rude use of the sovereign’s given name. “You are in no condition to fly, particularly in order to make away from an army in which every member possesses the virtue of flight as well. Your magic is of no use, and even if you were to escape, certain ponies might consider taking your absence out on the populace.”
Celestia balked, recalling the tall, dark figure who had led the vanguard of bat ponies on their assault. “She...she would not do such a thing…”
Raven raised a pensive brow. “Are you so certain?”
Celestia said nothing. She slipped from the cage as they bade her, her sore body grateful for her temporary decision not to resist. She fell in with her captors, the guards flanking her whilst Raven led the way, and emerged from a chamber Celestia had thought magically blackened. She was quite wrong, for the sky over Canterlot was alive only with bat ponies, and Luna’s grace hung high in the sky, bathing the palace in a cloak of purple night.
Celestia marched quietly along with her troupe, making use of the opportunity to reconnoiter. The city seemed little the worse for wear, and she thought this odd. There had been a great battle, of that she was quite certain. Miraculously there had been few severe injuries, but she recalled telltale damage upon the city itself, as the aftermath of a minor earthquake. Yet the princess could find no apparent stress. There were no charred buildings. No broken battlements. No splintered roofs, and no towers set upon precarious foundations. The masonry beneath her bare hooves was without blemish, and the receiving carpets that led to the throne room weren’t so much as singed.
Her thoughts turned to the events of those precarious hours, weeks ago. Celestia’s protege-turned-princess of friendship had been visiting, along with her five closest friends. They had joined the search for Princess Luna, and their presence made it seem like the worst possible time for an invader to commence an assault. This bold tactic - attacking at the least likely moment - plus the precision with which the maneuver was carried out confirmed Celestia’s fears about the lithe, dark mare who was at its head. Whomever had led the charge knew exactly where the defenders would be, what they would be up to, and precisely how to coordinate for the greatest chance of success.
Attacking by night and with a host of bat ponies, it could only have been Princess Luna.
Celestia had believed her sister when she took insult with the idea that she would revert to the guise of Nightmare Moon over a mere spat, particularly given how relieved Luna was to be rid of the nightmare force that had resulted in her thousand-year imprisonment. The being who now sat upon Celestia’s throne seemed like a resurgence, but some portions of the equation were missing. Whomever it was did not resemble the Mare in the Moon the way Celestia remembered her, and this creature was far more powerful than Nightmare Moon had been. Even the magic of the six elemental keepers had not been enough to withstand her, and had it not been for Celestia herself forcibly teleporting Twilight and her stubborn troupe away, they too might now be prisoners or worse. She had done her best to send them as close to the Crystal Empire as she could, but by then Celestia was tired, and her spells were wearing out. She couldn’t say exactly how far they had gone, but she hoped they had the wherewithal to regroup and seek the counsel of Princess Cadance rather than trying to immediately return. They did not appear to be in the city, but in truth, Celestia had no idea where they were.
The sun princess considered her guards. The two burly bat ponies marched on in lockstep. They were perfect models of efficiency to rival her own guards, but they had empty stares, as had nearly every bat who had sortied against Celestia on that fateful day. During the battle Celestia had lost both ground and time in her desire not to hurt them, but something wasn’t right. It was as if they were all being controlled en masse. Such power, as far as Celestia knew, was beyond even that of Nightmare Moon.
Celestia watched the swaying rump of her assistant, and couldn’t spare words.
“Raven, what...have they done to you?”
“Improved me of course,” Raven said dryly. “Our Lady has infused in me the blood of the bat, and elevated me to the level of a denizen of the eternal night. It is a singular honor.”
“Raven--”
“Be silent!” Raven squawked as the party approached a large and familiar double door. The guards shoved Celestia rudely through it, and she found herself in the palace throne room. It too was little different, save for the banners depicting Luna’s device only, and the depth of shadows brought on by the many lit sconces.
Upon the dais, at the highest throne, lay the being who had thwarted Canterlot. She bore the same piercing eyes and fanged jaw as Nightmare Moon, but the resemblance ended there. This being was dark of coat unto stygian blackness, and without a helm, her flowing mane and tail sparkled with the endless, swirling depths of galaxies. She wore segmented, functional barding plates about her flanks that hid her cutie mark, and upon her hooves sported spiked silver slippers. Upon her head was a circlet in the manner of a royal tiara, but it bore arms that ran down her temples, like an upside-down version of the horrible crown worn by King Sombra. This being’s horn was longer than Celestia’s and sharp to a point. Her wings, featherless, were leathery like a bat’s.
The being sipped from a levitated goblet that sported a dark red, viscous liquid Celestia chose not to ask about. “Ah, good,” she mused. “Bring that to me.”
Celestia was hustled forward. She did not resist, until one of the bats shoved at her withers in an attempt to make her kneel. A scuffle broke out, but the bat guard relented immediately at a wave of his leader’s hoof.
“Yes, she will not kneel,” the dark mare confirmed, rising from her throne. “She is too proud. And that is just as well.” The being elegantly stepped from the dais and drew close to Celestia. She was taller than the sun princess, and her hot breath rose goosebumps under the alicorn’s coat as she circled her. “There would be no joy in it if she came to me already on bended knee.”
Celestia stood tall and puffed out her chest. There were guards everywhere, and this creature had already shown her power during the battle. Without magic and fatigued from captivity, Celestia knew this was not her time to resist.
“If you intend to execute me I suggest you get on with it,” Celestia stated defiantly. “I have nothing to say to you and I see no point in any of this.”
The creature threw back her head in a hearty laugh. “Execute you? You’re no good to me dead. Do you think me so cruel that I would want to see my precious pet run over in the street like a stray dog?”
“...pet?”
The mare ignored the question and stepped away with a flourish. “What things you must have conjured up about me in your brain during all that quiet time. Have I killed a single one of your subjects? Have I inflicted any pain upon them, beyond what was necessary to ensure the cessation of hostilities?”
“...I wouldn’t know,” Celestia practically spat.
The mare grew serious. “I have not. I suspect you don’t believe me in that, but I will spare upon you no confirmation. You will have to take my word for it.”
“Who are you?” Celestia finally ventured.
The dark mare was staring at the moon. “Do you not know?”
“...Luna?”
The being only grinned.
“B-but,” Celestia sputtered, “Nightmare Moon is not this--”
“--powerful?” The mare cut in. “Oh, you’re quite right. You’ve nothing to fear from Nightmare Moon ever again. Your protege and her companions murdered her years ago. She’s yesterday’s model, better left in the dust of the past.” The being spread her bat wings to full spread. “I am Phantasma Dark, and I am twice the rightful ruler of Equestria as my forebearer ever was! I am the force that created Nightmare Moon, but I have had time to redouble myself - to become more than ever I had been a thousand years ago. When the time was right for your sister to come back to me, I became that which you and your former subjects shall live under forever.”
Celestia shook her head. “...my sister is still inside you, and I believe in her. This cannot stand--”
“SILENCE!” Phantasma cried, several of the torches in the sconces snuffing out by force of her pumped wings alone. She leveled a hoof in Celestia’s direction. “Were you not present? Did you not witness the perfection of my dominance? Your trinkets, which destroyed Nightmare Moon, were as naught compared with me.”
Celestia gritted her teeth. She brought her magic to bear, and beneath the repressor sleeve felt the warmth of it. She was still a princess, after all. Perhaps she might break free by force alone.
“You are nothing more than the same disembodied dark power than corrupted my sister a thousand years ago. What happened to her was not her fault then, and it is not her fault now. She is inside you, at the core of you, and because of that, you cannot stand for long.”
Phantasma grinned. She stepped to the dais, where Raven had taken up position, and caressed the bat-unicorn’s cheek. “Are you so certain? With my improved abilities I have made Luna’s entire species of bat ponies into my vanguard. Nightmare Moon was on her own. I am not.”
“If you truly bothered to take the time not to severely harm or kill anypony in this conquest, and you refuse to execute me, then Luna’s heart still resides within you. It will be your undoing.” Celestia replied.
Phantasma dipped her head, her starry mane floating about her like the universe, tipped Raven’s head back, and claimed a sensual kiss from the mare, who accepted it without question.
“You think in two dimensions, ‘sister’.” Phantasma said after she came up for air. “I control the blood of the bat, and as I have introduced it to this creature, I now control her, too. I did not spare your subjects out of some conflicted sense of altruism. I plan to make them all mine. The process has already begun you see, and when it is complete, my subjects will love me. With their loyalty and adoration, it is you they will never desire to hold sway upon them ever again.”
Though she had tried many times before without success, Celestia summoned her all in an attempt to simply explode from within the repressor sleeve that held her horn. Miraculously she managed to at least bring forth a little light. This startled the guards into action, but she bucked wickedly at them, sending the two that had flanked her flying even as more vomited forth from the windows and doors.
The princess of the sun fought, but inevitability was against her. The sleeve upon her horn somehow ‘felt’ like darkness, even though she could never have put that sensation into words. It was chill and perversely cozy - every attempt she made to thwart it only caused it to tighten its grip. She fought off a few more guards, but they swarmed her by the score, bearing her to the red receiving carpet in a veritable pile of bats.
Phantasma merely wandered over to her opponent and stood above her. She summoned her magic as well, but to Celestia’s shock, Phantasma’s horn did more than glow. It bled with a single drop of dark fluid, as if she had just skewered an unlucky pony through the heart.
“You will not die, Celestia. As I said, you are my pet now.” She gestured, and Celestia followed her eyes to a set of silken screens that had been set up next to the dais. “I desire you to look the part of my property, and you will comply.”
“And if I refuse?” Celestia struggled.
Phantasma stomped her hoof twice in succession upon the cold stone floor. Raven, with no hesitation whatsoever, trotted over to the edge of the great windows that brought light to the throne room by day. She pushed one ajar and stood on the sill.
“May I die now?” Raven asked of her Lady. A juvenile, excited smile spread upon her lips, as though she were a child hopeful for reward.
Phantasma nodded, her smile motherly. “Yes my dear, you may step to your death for me. Your loyalty makes your mistress proud.”
Raven made as if to simply trot right out the window, but Celestia uttered a cry of anguish. Phantasma held up a hoof, and Raven froze in place.
“Y-you...you wouldn’t do this…”
“I?” Phantasma looked innocent. “I will do nothing. As I have told you, the blood of the bat is my blood. Those who I share it with are only too elated to enter into my service, and they would think nothing of laying down their lives for me. It begins with this city, but it will become the future of Equestria. Even if you could stop me, you cannot stop all of your former subjects from mass suicide to curry my favor. It would pain me to see so many destroyed, but their brethren would applaud them for their loyalty, and I suppose I can suffice without a few hundred, considering the entire population of this country.”
In Raven’s face, Celestia could see nothing but total dedication to her cause. She intended to walk to her death with as much simplistic conviction as she would walk off to bathe, and it was clear that no amount of cajoling could stay her. Celestia didn’t entirely believe that any creature with Princess Luna at its heart could truly do such a thing, but for now, she could not afford to find out. She turned her head, her ears wilting.
“...what do you want of me?”
Phantasma pawed the ground again - Raven and the other bats returned instantly to their places. “You retain your wisdom after so much solitary confinement, Pet. Rise, and before me take to your knees.”
Celestia hauled herself up. She was not a ruler given to ruinous pride, so she acquiesced, and bent upon both her forward knees before Phantasma. She expected gloating, but the dark one merely clicked her tongue with approval.
“Excellent. You are now ready for your preparation.”
As if this was their cue, no fewer than three bat ponies emerged from behind the screens. They were all mares, dressed as hoofmaidens, and like Raven, seemed to have some greater glint of individuality in their eyes than the guards had. One of them was laden with a large basket in her teeth, while the other two moved with them a thin, tall mirror. These they arrayed before the dais, and then took up positions around Celestia, just as personal hoofmaidens might in the privacy of her personal chambers in order to bathe or dress her.
“These are your handlers,” Phantasma explained. “They, or some combination of them, will tend you at all times. You are to speak respectfully to them, obey their commands, and accept their machinations. As you will refer to me by the title ‘queen’, you will refer to them each as ‘mistress’. Under their constant watch, everything you say and do shall find my ears. Including disobedience.”
One of the bat-maidens pushed her cheek up against Celestia’s flank and nuzzled it. “Mm, she smells lovely. What a luxurious pet our queen has chosen.”
Another maiden was unpacking the basket, removing silks and jewels from it. “We should dress her properly right away!”
The third maiden stood before Celestia and unceremoniously grabbed her cheeks with both hooves to reposition her face. “Eyes front, Pet.”
Celestia’s knee-jerk reaction was to pull away from this upstart little bat pony. She did so, but the bat merely gave her a condescending look.
“Do as you’re told, Pet. Your mistresses are above you and you need to be respectful.”
Celestia hesitated, but one look over at Raven, who likely stood ready to kill herself again, broke her stubborn resolve. She stuck her head back out for the waiting grasp of the maiden and let herself be repositioned.
“What do you say?” The maiden asked.
“...yes...mistress,” Celestia replied. “I am...sorry, mistress.”
“Yes, you should be,” the maiden smiled, her voice resonant. “Be still.”
The three maidens began to drape the silks and jewels over Celestia’s body. Phantasma looked on.
“There was a time you told Luna that bat ponies had no purpose beyond serving in her personal guard,” Phantasma admonished. “You will learn better now, for in my land the bat pony shall be first among the tribes, to be afforded by all others the respect they deserve.”
Celestia glanced into the mirror. Silks in pastel colors that matched her hair were being arranged over her supple curves such that she had begun to resemble a Saddle-Arabian concubine. Two maidens bade her lift each hoof to receive a soft slipper of spun gold that had little practical use beyond looks, while the third yanked her mane back tightly and began to braid it. The magic that kept Celestia’s beautiful locks in constant movement complained, but the combs and bejeweled ornaments the maiden employed gradually imprisoned the hair into a single long queue, which fell helpless by Celestia’s side. Accenting the ensemble were necklaces and bangles of precious metal so numerous they shook whenever Celestia moved, creating both a pleasant sound and marking clearly her location.
One of the maidens began to braid up Celestia’s tail, and this finally brought a blush to the princess’s cheeks. Tail ornamentation was not uncommon among ponykind, but the maiden was tying it so tightly and pinning it up such that Celestia could not employ it to maintain modesty over her marehood. Feeling exposed, she bowed her head as another maiden fitted her with a soft leather bridle, attached at either side of her muzzle with a sheer, transparent purple veil over her lips.
The maidens backed away, and Phantasma again slowly circled her new pet with an appraising glance.
“Acceptable. We will need to work on your posture of course, and you’re still missing one important thing.” With that, Phantasma slapped Celestia hard, right in the sensitive area between her hind legs. Celestia couldn’t help but squeak with discomfort. Phantasma drew up near Celestia’s side, and floated before her a particular object in a conical shape, with a large diamond fitted to the end.
Celestia was confused momentarily, but when the ribbing and general shape of the metal object registered in her brain, she blushed deeper.
“Yes, you are not so virginal as not to recognize it, are you?” Phantasma commented. “Likely you have never seen one meant to be ornamental. This one is for display, and as my pet, you will wear it in public with pride.”
Celestia watched the object move from her sight. She felt the cold tip of it prod at her rump, and could do nothing but close her eyes and flush with embarrassment as it began to invade her backside.
“You even know to relax your muscles, though I was expecting that,” Phantasma quipped. “You and your sister have been close for many years. I know what she knew, and I know that at the top, where you must always set a prim example for your subjects, you only had each other.”
Celestia gazed in defeat at the floor. The plug slid home, taking hold inside her, and without free use of her tail she could not so much as hide it from any casual observer. Bedecked in her new outfit, she held out her wings on command from her queen, who inspected them.
“Yes...good. I have business to tend to, Pet, but when next I see you, you shall be better prepared to be in my presence. Your mistresses will see to that. Tonight you will have the light of the moon to see by, and your cage shall be of a more comfortable size.”
With a clap of her hooves, Phantasma Dark sent Princess Celestia’s entourage off. The maidens guided Celestia through the halls to a new place, drawing purposeful attention from every passerby to her new garments and the plug in her rump.
Celestia thought of her sister and her student. She wondered if it was too late for Luna to be saved, or if Twilight had been able to hatch any sort of plan.
