Equestrian Betrayal

Luna rubbed her eyes tiredly. She had been pouring over maps, legislation, and abridged history tomes for the last few days in an attempt to be better acquainted with modern Equestria.

Currently, she was in the library section designated “Reference” by a large polished plaque. Luna rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck, she had been reading and taking down notes for close to five hours now. Soon enough it would be time to lower the moon.

“Luna,” somepony whispered. The sound came seemingly came from everywhere at once.

The Princess lifted her head in confusion and cocked an ear to the side. Who would be seeking her out at this time? Furthermore, who even knew she was here? After a few moments of silence Luna returned to her books. She frowned at the text; it appeared blurry, as though she were looking through frosted glass. Luna shook her head and rubbed her eyes once more. When she looked again the books were just as they were moments before. Writing it off as fatigue, she began to clean up the little alcove she had claimed as her own. As she was piling up the various scrolls and books she intended to keep she heard the voice again.

“Luna,” somepony hissed. It was somewhat louder this time yet still faint enough that Luna barely heard it over the rustling of her saddlebag. The speakers voice sounded ragged, more like a death rattle than somepony calling out. Now Luna was perturbed. She stood tall and strode out into the large pathway between the bookshelves and looked around.

“Whom calls to us, show yourself immediately,” She commanded loudly. Nopony responded. The library was still. Luna huffed and illuminated her horn.

“If you think to hide from us then you are sorely mistaken,” she muttered before firing off a life-detecting spell. It was a simple incantation, functioning like sonar and using the life force of any given pony as a marker. An invisible bubble rapidly expanded from the tip of the Alicorn’s horn, racing forth and bouncing off all of the solid surfaces in the library.

“How can that be…” the hair on the back of her neck stood up straight as she pinged the room once more. According to her spell she was alone. She had an instinctual feeling that something was behind her and whirled to face it. There was nothing there however. She was isolated in the vast library.

“Okay Luna, you need rest and maybe a good meal. Yes its high time to get out of the library,” She said to herself. Luna trotted back to her alcove to grab her books, her silver slippers clacking harshly on the rough stone floor. She had collected all of her books in her saddlebag and was trotting past the front desk when she heard it again.

“Luna,” the voice gasped, blasting through the silent library with a gale force wind. Ancient manuscripts were sent flying across the great chamber and the chandeliers that illuminated the library were blown out one row at a time.

Luna panicked and galloped as fast as she could from the disembodied voice. It still followed her, hissing her name and promising damnation. In a fit of desperation she focused her horn and tried teleport herself. When she felt the magic wash over her body and the familiar disjointed sensation associated with teleportation, Luna screwed her eyes shut.

Everything was quiet. No whispers, no vibrations, not even the wind could be heard through the castle walls. Luna cracked an eye open fearfully. She had successfully teleported into her private chambers. After giving her room a brief once over she lurched to her bathroom on shaky legs. Her carpet was singed from magical overflow, but nothing else appeared damaged. Luna let out a shuddering breath and turned on the cold tap, splashing her face with water.

Resting her front hooves on the sink she hung her head and watched the water swirl down the drain. She was coming down from an adrenaline high larger than any she had experienced in a long time. Snatching a towel off the rack next to the sink, Luna dried her face off and looked in the mirror.

She was standing face to face with Nightmare Moon. She looked gaunt and feral and was breathing heavily with a loud rattle. Her angry eyes were bloodshot and the pupils narrowed to hair thin slits. Rancid saliva dripped from her cracked yellowed fangs and splattered on the other side of the mirror. Her ears were tattered and bloody and her once gleaming helm was tarnished with large crack running down the middle. She looked a shambling wreck of her former glory, yet was all the more horrifying.

“Luna,” the demon roared, lunging towards the petrified Princess. Nightmare Moon slammed into the mirror. It exploded outward, sending splinters of crystal flying at lethal speed.

Luna wailed in agony as the shards of the mirror imbedded themselves in her face, shredding her delicate features and destroying her eyes. As Luna flung herself away from the sink, a particularly large fragment of the mirror buried itself in her throat. Luna collapsed on the cold tile floor, thrashing and screaming silently. Nightmare Moon cackled with glee, her malevolent visage reflected in each individual shard of glass.

Blackhorn was concerned. He had just left the Royal Library and the only sign that his Mistress had ever been there was her saddlebag, lying forlorn on the floor a few dozen meters from the Library entrance.

Interrogating the assistant librarian only got him obvious information. She stepped out for a restroom break and returned after the Princess had disappeared. The old mare had just assumed the Princess had finished her work and left.

In the old days, the entirety of the Lunar Guard would have scoured Canterlot from top to bottom until their sovereign was found. Unfortunately, this was impossible now. The Princesses banishment had left the Guard with nopony to defend, and slowly they died off during peacetime. Nopony wanted to join the “tainted” night guard to defend a mad Princess who was no longer on the planet, so recruitment dropped sharply.

So it fell to Blackhorn to find his Mistress. Iron Wing was off attempting to solve the recruitment problem and nopony else could be trusted with such an important task. Blackhorn scrutinized the large and ornate corridor from the position of Luna’s saddlebag. Nothing looked out of place, which worried the guard even more. Ever so carefully the Unicorn redirected the flow of magic through his body. Splitting a thin filament of his natural energy off its intended route and directed it towards his eyes.

Doing this always ran the risk of permanent damage, but with the proper discipline and skill Unicorns could greatly enhance individual senses in this manner. The corridor suddenly became much brighter, forcing Blackhorn to squint. There, he finally saw something!

An ethereal afterimage of Princess Luna raced through the closed library door, galloping without making a sound. When the phantom was a few paces past the saddlebags on the floor her horn flashed and she was no more. Where she last stood hovered a magical tear in reality, indicative of teleportation. It was closing rapidly, yet Blackhorn could vaguely make out the furnishing of Princess Luna’s personal chambers.

Releasing the magic from his eyes, the stallion wasted no time and performed his own teleportation spell.

Everything hurt, especially her throat. Luna gurgled feebly as she blindly felt for the door. She needed to get away but it was so hard to move. Her body was involuntarily writhing as though her mind had been severed from it.

Nightmare Moon hadn’t ceased her deranged laughter and she so desperately wanted her to be gone. She was descending into the depths of madness once more. It had to end.  Luna desperately reached for the glass imbedded in her neck. It only needed to move a short distance forward and it would all be over.

She wouldn’t have to suffer any more. Vaguely she heard somepony shouting, but she didn’t know who or what it was about.

“Lie still,” whoever was shouting felt close, but sounded so far away.

Then she felt it. Something hard and smooth at the base of her skull, followed by the sensation of being submerged in freezing water. Luna gasped and inhaled deeply as the world came rushing back to her. She could see once more.

The Princess was breathing hard and drenched in sweat. She felt terribly nauseous as she tenderly felt around her face with a hoof. No glass shards were there. She shifted uncomfortably, somepony heavy was standing on her shoulders, pinning her to the tile. She struggled to look up, and saw the concerned Blackhorn looming over her.

He moved off of her quickly and moved to help her up.

“Your highness, are you well?”

Luna wasn’t paying attention to him however. She was staring at the unbroken mirror fearfully. This could only mean one thing. Nightmare Moon still existed. And she was growing stronger.

“Blackhorn, we need you to do something of the utmost importance,” she said. She supposed she had been screaming for an extended period. Her words came out as barely a whisper.

The dutiful stallion supported his drained Mistress and leaned in to hear her words.

“You must go to Ponyville tonight. Seek out Twilight Sparkle and bring her here at once. Speak to nopony and remain undetected. Do not even inform Twilight of why she is being summoned, she need only know that it is urgent.”

The exhausted Luna struggled to rise.

“G-go, now Blackhorn. This is a dire situation.”

“Your highness I must protest leaving you in this state. Were my brother here I would acquiesce but I should not leave you unattended your Majesty. We both know the significance of these waking terrors,” the stallion explained out in his gravely voice.

Luna tried to fix him with an imperious glare but was too drained to make it look menacing. She sighed and decided to meet him in the middle.

“Help us to our bed then,” she demanded. Luna was not in the mood for the overly dedicated guard routine right now. Any other day and she would have found it charming, flattering even.

Blackhorn gently helped Luna maneuver to her large circular bed where she fell in a heap.

“In the silver chest on the bookshelf rests a small copper flask. Fetch it for us please,” she gestured half-heartedly to the far wall.

“May I inquire as to what it is,” said Blackhorn.

“A magical stopgap, intended for emergencies. It is also a compromise so you will actually leave us and do as we say.”

This time she managed to pull off her glare. Blackhorn did as she commanded without hesitation, opening the chest and levitating the desired object across the room to Luna. She carefully unscrewed the cap from the small flask and downed the contents. When the flask was empty she grimaced ant tossed it to the side. The elixir was bitter to the extreme.

Blackhorn’s eyes widened, he could actually feel Luna’s magical aura expanding and growing denser.

“This is only temporary, when the effects fade we shall be weaker than we were before. But we still need to raise the moon and keep Nightmare at bay. She wont catch me unawares again in the same night. Now go, we haven’t much time!”

Blackhorn saluted disappeared in a flash of magic. He was stalking toward the Ponyville library by the time the moon was visible, right on schedule.  No pony would be the wiser to the ticking time bomb in his Mistress’ mind.

Twilight Sparkle yawned as she clambered into her bed. She had gotten carried away in her reading once more and had stayed up far past her self-imposed bedtime.

After blowing out the candle on her bedside Twilight settled in to bed and tried to sleep. She could hear spike snoring in his little basket and a gentle wind blowing through the high branches of the living library.

The Element of Magic closed her eyes and thought of sheep jumping a fence. Unfortunately for her, she accidentally imagined them all with minute defects. This inflamed her obsessive-compulsive nature and kept her awake. She groaned in frustration and got out of bed.

Perhaps a quick snack would help her get to sleep. She didn’t want to use a sleeping spell because she tended to over do it every time and sleep through the whole day.

As Twilight quietly raided her pantry, she failed to notice the thick black ooze working its way through her house. It approached from behind and split into many tendrils, snakes ready to pounce on unsuspecting pray. She didn’t even know it, but she was completely surrounded.

“Ah ha, finally, something light to ea-“ twilight was cut off when a black pseudopod shot forward and wrapped around her muzzle, clamping her mouth shut and muffling her words. In a matter of seconds, twilight was thoroughly immobilized by the dark slime. She struggled fruitlessly as a large blob rose to eyelevel with her. It rippled, as if acted upon by a strong magnetic force and a Unicorn’s head came into being.

Twilight screamed, though it sounded like a whimper to Blackhorn.

“Silence,” he growled, “Princess Luna summons you.”

Twilight paused in her struggle and shot the strange Unicorn-blob-thing a confused look.

Instead of explaining, Blackhorn oozed around Twilight, swallowing her as a boa constrictor might devour its victem. Blackhorn effortlessly teleported himself, and Twilight by association, back to Canterlot.

Spike toddled in to the kitchen sleepily.

“Twilight, is that you in here,” the baby dragon yawned and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, “Uh… Twilight?”

Luna looked awful. She was slumped against the marble balustrade on her balcony, shivering and sweating profusely. She had been drifting in and out of consciousness ever since she had raised the moon, a textbook symptom of magical depletion.

After Twilight had been magically tossed into the room by the terminally serious Night Guard, she decided her irritation could wait.

She rushed to the Princess’ side, “Oh my goodness, are you alright Princess Luna? You look exhausted.”

“No, no we are not alright. We will be honest with you Twilight Sparkle. We brought you here because we desperately need your help. It is Nightmare Moon that has us in this state.”

Recoiled and gasped, “Nightmare Moon? I thought the elements destroyed her.”

“It would seem that the demon has eluded demise, but just barely. We have always existed as one being, myself and her, and even now she drains my strength. She hopes to reverse our roles, to escape from my mind and trap me. This can never be allowed to pass. So I ask of you Twilight Sparkle, what do you know of the arcane arts?”

Twilight gulped nervously. She dearly hoped that what Luna asked of her was not totally over her horn.

Luna was sitting in the center of a large and elaborate chalk circle, drawn courtesy of Blackhorn and Twilight. She wearily looked at Twilight, swaying with fatigue.

“You could have gotten anypony else to help you, why not my brother, or any of the guard ponies, or Celestia, your Alicorn big sister? You know, the ruler of all of Equestria,” Twilight was babbling nervously. She had never dabbled in anything this… dark before. Dark, that was really the only way to describe it. Some of the processes described in the books she had open were just ghastly. Luna was seated in the center of a large and elaborate chalk circle. She was swaying from fatigue as she checked Twilights work.

With help from Blackhorn and careful instruction from the beleaguered Princess, Twilight had gotten everything right. The lavender pony eyed one of the magical focal points warily. Honestly, she looked like she was about to be sick. Luna followed her gaze down and realized why Twilight looked ill.

A neat little square of Pegasus wing bones surrounding an Earth Ponies heart that had been stabbed by a severed Unicorn horn. Well… these were dire times. Luna was just glad she had the sense to preserve her ingredients with magic so many centuries ago.

“Twilight Sparkle, we have the utmost confidence in your abilities. If all goes well, then we shall explain everything to you. If not… well, we have a failsafe in place so there won’t be anything to worry about. Do you two know your positions?”

Blackhorn nodded and nudged Twilight to the proper place. He assumed his own position and they began at Luna’s signal.

There was no warm up and no warning before the large enchantment circle activated with a tremendous flash of light. It was as though somepony flipped a switch. The room was shaking and the worst noise Twilight had ever heard was blasting its way through her eardrums. It sounded like somepony had ripped open the gates of Tartarus and its occupants were begging for help. The lavender Unicorn snapped her eyes shut and kept them closed.

Twilight grit her teeth and leaned back, trying to resist the strong magical pull. She hoped Luna knew what she was doing; she really didn’t feel like dying of magical depletion tonight.

After what felt like hours of exertion, Twilight plopped down on her haunches.

‘I probably look just like Princess Luna did when I got here, ugh, I feel sick…’

Twilight’s horn was throbbing as though somepony had been trying to pull it off of her skull. She looked over at Blackhorn, and he hardly looked any better.

“Did it work,” he ground out, rubbing his eyes.

“I haven’t looked… oh no. No, no, no, no, no this- I don’t- I- I have to get Celestia,”

Blackhorn shouted after her to explain but she was already gone. Growling in frustration, the gruff Unicorn blinked the spots out of his vision. He had kept his eyes open as long as he could so he could watch his Mistress. Now that he could see her he wished he had gone blind.

Gone were the delicate chalk circles and grisly reagents of a bygone magical discipline. Luna remained seated in her original position. The most beautiful mare in all of Equestria- no, the world, was perfectly motionless. She was the only mare that Blackhorn would kill for, die for, and the only reason he cared to live. And seeing her like this was devistating.

She looked so small and fragile. Her shimmering mane and tail had receded and were replaced by the soft blue locks she wore as a filly. He could sense no magical presence from her either. It was as if she were just a void in the world, a place where life just chose not to exist. It was terrifying, and spurred the zealous guard to rise, despite his fatigue.

Luna’s horn had been blasted off her head, leaving a jagged stump in its place. It must have exploded, as there were little bits and pieces of it scattered across the room. Her mouth was frozen open in a perpetual scream of agony or terror, he couldn’t decide which was more painful to think of. But the worst of it was her eyes.

Slowly but steadily, blood was seeping out of Luna’s eyes, creating a macabre illusion of tears. The world came crashing down around Blackhorn. For the first time since his colthood Blackhorn wept.

“I killed you,” he gasped, stricken with grief, “I killed the only pony I’ve ever loved…”

He bowed his head and grit his teeth.

“Why the hell did I let you do this, why,” he shouted in her face, hoping she would admonish him for raising his voice to her. Nothing happened.

“Oh Goddess no…”