Celestia cautiously opened the doors and entered the pitch-black throne room. As she lit her horn to cast a light spell she was startled to hear Luna's voice coming from the darkness.

“Why weren’t you there for her?” Luna growled, her form barely visible in the dim light from Celestia's magic.

"Luna? Thank Faust you're okay." Celestia said, relieved to have found Luna, seemingly unharmed. "Something is blocking my control of the sun, probably the same thing that attacked the castle. We need to find whoever is doing this and stop them.”

Luna chuckled bitterly as she rose to her hooves. “Always so concerned about you little ponies” she spat. “Never thinking to look beyond their smiling faces, their worship of you. Totally failing to see what was happening right under your nose. Do you want to know who chained your precious sun? Look no further, you’ve already found her.” She responded venomously, igniting the throne room’s torches with black and red flames that seemed to paradoxically make the room darker while still revealing its contents.

Celestia’s jaw dropped and she took a step back in shock. The creature that stood before only shared a passing resemblance with her Luna, but she could feel from her magic and her voice that this was undoubtedly her sister. “What has happened to you Luna?” she whispered meekly, unable to form a more coherent thought at the sight that met her.

“I’ll tell you what happened. Your ponies tormented Luna relentlessly, unceasingly until she could bear it no more. She was breaking, and when they ambushed her with this-” Luna said, grabbing the drained Alicorn Amulet from its resting place near the thrones. “-they shattered her into a million pieces. They created the Nightmare they always feared. Luna is dead. Nightmare Moon has risen in her place, and I will not rest until they have paid for what they put her through.

“Luna, please –” Celestia began.

And you.” Nightmare Moon spat, interrupting her, the torches flaring in their sockets as Luna loomed over Celestia. “You are the worst of them all!” she shouted. “You, who Luna would have followed to the ends of the earth, left her alone!” She fired a bolt of magic that crashed into Celestia’s shields. “You abandoned her!” She stepped forward, launching a wave of black fire, which was once again weathered by Celestia’s protective magics as it blackened the stones. “You left her to die!” Luna -no not Luna, this isn’t her- Nightmare Moon roared, unleashing a titanic wave of raw dark magic that finally broke Celestia’s shields and tore the roof off, tile and stones raining down into the courtyard. This display finally broke Celestia out of her stunned stupor. She sprung up with a flap of her wings as Nightmare Moon’s next spell blasted the tiles where she had been standing to dust.

Celestia knew of the power of the Alicorn Amulet. Many had been tempted by its power over the millennia and its return had always brought misery. That it had corrupted her sister in its most recent reappearance nearly broke her heart. The only bright spot in the situation was that its victims weren't unrecoverable.

“Luna!” Celestia pleaded “We both know you’re better than this. You need to snap out of it. You’ve spent years defending our ponies. I know this isn’t something you want.” She said as she took flight, doing her best to weave around the Nightmare’s spells.

“Luna is dead!” Nightmare Moon retorted harshly. “Your ponies brought doom upon themselves, and it’s nothing less than they deserve!” She shouted, taking to the air and following Celestia into the sky.

“No!” Celestia responded. “Luna would never let you do this to our ponies, and neither will I!”

Nightmare Moon scoffed. “And how are you going to stop me? Luna was always a better warrior than you, and I have all her experience and power and more.” Nightmare Moon laughed confidently, summoning a dozen spheres of dark fire and launching them at Celestia.

Celestia folded her wings and dove under the attack as she lit her horn and prepared to return fire. At this point, there was no choice; she was going to have to fight her sister. She unleashed a searing column of solar fire at Nightmare Moon, lighting up the sky as if the sun had risen after all. Nightmare Moon gave a powerful beat of her wings to avoid the beam. It was true that her sister was far more skilled in combat than her, but Celestia bore the Element of Magic. She would make up the difference with sheer power.

She was preparing to fire again when she was struck from behind by the Nightmare's opening attack. Celestia hadn't noticed the attack changing direction and homing in on her after she had dodged it initially. The dark fire splattered against her defensive spells and began eating away at them rapidly. The spell also had the effect of weighing her down and slowing her movements.

Celestia blazed with light and magic as she burned away the spells that had been clinging to her, but the distraction had given Nightmare Moon enough time to prepare her own assault. Celestia immediately had to bring up further defenses as dozens of spells rained down on her. Spells ranging from ice to poison to lightning rained down on her protections. She was forced to counter each of the effects individually, each being too different for a single shield to stop completely, preventing her from regaining the initiative. It was only a matter of time before Nightmare Moon cast a spell that she couldn't counter in time. This occurred when an arrow of pure shadow, nearly invisible against the dark sky, pierced her wing and knocked her from the sky. With a cry of pain, Celestia fell into the ruins that remained of the throne room, cratering the floor and kicking up a cloud of dust.

Nightmare Moon laughed maniacally as Celestia fell from the sky. Nightmare Moon wasn't going to kill her, that would be far too kind a fate. She soared above Everfree city, its citizens trapped in an unnatural sleep by her magic, locked into stasis until she decided that she was ready to wake them.

What would be a fitting retribution these ponies’ crimes? She wondered to herself.

She smirked as she thought of the perfect punishment. She would wake them one by one, alone in a silent city, wandering, watching their fellow ponies sleep. Unable to wake them as they realize that this isn’t just a nightmare, despairing. Until their bodies give up. Yes, that sounded suitably ironic, dooming them to feel the same loneliness they had inflicted on Luna. Maybe Celestia would even find some of these tortured souls and stay with them until they invariably died, leaving her once again isolated until she found the next one and the cycle repeated.

She smiled a wicked smile and began weaving her spells. She'd have plenty of time to play with these wretched souls. After all, this night was going to last forever.

Celestia reached the Royal Vault. She was out of breath and her wing was aching and bleeding where Nightmare Moon's arrow had struck it. Dust and ash covered her white fur, staining it black and her mane had lost its ethereal quality, hanging limply. Her subjects would have been horrified to find her in such a state, but, of course, there were none around to see it.

She hurriedly worked her way through the spells and locks guarding the vault, nearly ripping the huge door off its hinges when she was done. She tore through the vault, searching for the Elements of Harmony. There!

She grabbed the Elements with her magic. They were her only hope of saving Luna and her ponies. Celestia ran out of the Vault, throwing herself out of the first window she could find, shattering it and taking flight despite the pain it caused her damaged wing.

As she flew, she saw Nightmare Moon, in the center of a sprawling mass of shadows and of dark magic, huge tendrils of darkness reaching down into the city, but they faded away as spied Celestia's approach. Nightmare Moon’s confident smirk morphing to surprise when she saw the Elements in Celestia’s magical grip.

Luna smirked and pulled back her magic when she saw Celestia jump out of a window. Back for round two, I suppose? But her smug look vanished when she saw what Celestia had with her, changing to pleasant surprise. The Elements! Why hadn't she thought of the Elements? If anything could heal Luna it would be the Elements of Harmony!

As the Elements began to glow and Celestia floated in their magic hope she had thought dead rekindled itself within her.
Moonbeam's face split in a joyous smile as the light of the Elements struck her, giggling joyfully. The Elements would fix Luna! She cheered within herself, ignoring the pain of the Elements burning the Amulet’s dark magic from her.

No, she mentally chided the elements, pushing their magic towards the fragments of her broken mother, focus on Luna first, I can wait. The Elements had other ideas though. They refused to be directed by someone they had not chosen as a bearer, violently tearing the dark magic from her. Burning away the magic she was using to try to hold Luna’s fragmented soul together and scattering her fragments far and wide.

NO! Nightmare Moon shrieked at the Elements within her mind.

This isn’t what was supposed to happen! The Elements were supposed to fix Luna not break her further!

Screaming, Nightmare Moon pulled back on the dark power that the Elements had torn from her. Throwing the full force of her magic against the Elements, she forcefully ejected their power from her mindscape. Dark magic wrapping around her body in an inky black aura of power as she tried to resist their power. She cried as the Elements, now barred from her mind, began attacking her body.

I’m sorry mom. She thought as her body dissolved, and her spirit was ejected from Equestria, locked in the moon. I guess it’s just me now.

Looking down on the green and blue orb of her home, her sorrow and pain threatened to crush her, fraying away at her sanity. Her hope had been taken from her, leaving her feeling even more empty than when Luna had first been destroyed. Even the Elements had failed to save her.

304 ANM (After Nightmare Moon)

–in the end the princess’s body was destroyed, her soul doomed to watch from the moon for eternity.

Celestia penned the last words of the final chapter as she sat at the desk in her study. She put down her quill, pushing aside the manuscript to keep her tears from staining the page. She dried the parchment with a quick spell and closed her book. The cover, in silver letters, proudly stated ‘The tragedy of the lonely princess’ by Sunny Skies.

When the Elements had struck, the dark magic that had been under Nightmare Moon’s control was torn from her. It had been absorbed by the land surrounding Everfree Castle and had infected it, warping the surrounding forests into a twisted nightmare populated by horrors. Wolves made of nothing but sticks and loam attacked the city in droves. Titanic creatures, appearing as if the night sky had come to life smashed down the walls and tore apart buildings. The dead rose and even the shadows themselves ambushed ponies. Under this assault, the ponies of Everfree were forced to evacuate, harried all the way by monsters and undead, migrating northward to the plains once occupied by the absent Crystal Empire.

After Luna had been banished and Everfree City abandoned, Celestia had withdrawn into herself, living in a haze. After what had happened, nothing seemed to matter anymore. She had drifted, wandering the wilds and rarely interacting with ponies, fading nearly into myth. During her absence division had arisen among the ponies she and her sister had ruled. The tribes had separated, only interacting out of necessity, and had eventually erupted into a war that had nearly destroyed them completely, and had buried the northern plains in ice. Only an unlikely friendship tapping into the latent magic of the Crystal Heart that had lingered behind had saved them from extinction.

Celestia had visited the resettled Equestria, and she had found new purpose in teaching and spreading knowledge among the ponies there. She had taken a position at a local school of magic and 'Sunny Skies' had quickly distinguished herself as one of the leading experts of Ancient History and Magic.

A knock at the door of her office broke her out of her memories. "Enter!" She called.

A purple, white-maned stallion entered the room. “Thank you Sunny, I could use your expertise on something I've been working on recently.” Starswirl said. “In my studying, I've come across stories of a creature referred to as 'Nightmare Moon'. When I first saw the name I assumed it was a simple myth, but there are far too many stories that are too consistent to be a simple fairy tale. I began researching their origins and discovered an immensely powerful spell anchored in the moon. After study I found it to be a binding spell trapping something in the moon. Of course, I was interested in the mechanics of such a spell and began analyzing it as much as I could. I've learned so much about sealing spells and binding! You wouldn't believe how complex and intricate those enchantments were, this research could push magical theory forward centuries."

Celestia smiled sadly, she knew far more about those particular seals than she could ever want. "Yes, thank you for the information, but what did you need help with? As much I'd like to hear about what you've learned I do have work to do."

"Oh sorry, I guess I was rambling." Starswirl apologized. "The problem is that the spells are failing."

Celestia’s eyes widened. The seal isn’t permanent! She thought, a faint glimmer of hope igniting in her chest. “Well, this is grave news” She stated solemnly. "Give me a few minutes to finish up some paperwork and we can reconvene in the library to see if we can find a solution."

Starswirl thanked her and left, closing the door behind him.

Celestia smiled, chuckling and reopening ‘The Tragedy of the Lonely Princess’ to add a single line. ‘But the Seal upon the princess wasn't as perfect as her sister suspected. One day the Lonely princess will return.’ She wrote with a flourish, closing the book and adding it to her bookshelf. Celestia's heart may have begun to heal, but she would never feel truly whole without Luna by her side, and now she had hope. It would likely take preparation and careful maneuvering, but when Luna returned she would be ready. It was time for Princess Celestia to take charge once again.

This time, Luna, I’ll free you from the one that has taken you from me, no matter what it takes. She vowed, diamond-hard determination solidifying in her mind. I won’t let anything stand between us ever again.

Author's Note

As I was looking over what I had written for this there were a few parts I didn't really like. I ended up totally rewriting Celestia's fight with Nightmare Moon. I also ended up changing a lot of the final scene with Starswirl, which I'm still not totally happy with.