The Crystal Eclipse

Everything seemed to stop in Equestria as the Moon rose to cover the sun. The logical assumption was that Luna had turned into Nightmare Moon again. Celestia was missing and the power had gotten the best of Luna. Making her crave it so much that she turned into Nightmare Moon again.

The ponies of Canterlot knew better.

Mere minutes before the Solar Eclipse, a young filly unicorn trotted out of Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. She pulled out a book from her saddle-bag and began to carefully read through it. She weaved and maneuvered in between crowds until she reached her home. She smiled. Thinking about how her dear mother was probably making her favourite dinner to celebrate her first day in the best school in Equestria.

Suddenly, there were screams of alarm as the world around her darkened. She looked up and also cried to alarm as the moon moved in the sky, to block out the sun. Strangers looked at strangers. Hopping that somepony had an answer. Then there were sounds of an explosion in the distance. She watched as guards galloped past her, yelling at anypony outside to get inside.

She felt her mother grab her and began pulling her into their house with fear. The little filly's curiosity got the best of her. She broke free of her mother's grip and galloped into the middle of the street. She squinted her eyes as they adjusted to the unnatural darkness and watched as an Alicorn slowly made her way down the main street of Canterlot.

Guards were too determined to stop the new threat to notice the filly and immediately started attacking her. The Alicorn looked familiar to her. But the darkness was affecting her vision so much that she wouldn't tell who exactly it was. The alicorn bucked a few earth ponies as she blasted pegasi out of the fire. The blast hit a nearby building and set it ablaze. There.

The fire illuminated the figure.

It was Princess Celestia.

She made quick work of the twenty or so guards with mild destruction to the buildings surrounding the area. She slowly marched forward and stopped and stared back at the small filly, who at this point was too confused and scared to even move.

"P-Princess Ce-Celestia?"

The figure, who resembled Celestia in almost every way gave her an evil toothy grin with sharp teeth. The Alicorn flared up her horn. The filly shielded her eyes. Waiting for oblivion when she felt the ground shake at the impact of something hitting it at great speeds. She opened her eyes once more to see Princess Luna in front of her. Her mother galloped forwards and picked her up. Rushing her back into the safety of their home as Luna stared down at her sister.

"Celestia? What has happened to you, sister?" She asked with concern. Celestia chuckled and flared up her horn. There was no longer compassion or kindness in her eyes, which scared Luna more than she predicted.

"I have seen the light."

Celestia blasted a shot at Luna. Luna flew into the air and fired a shot at Celestia. Celestia blocked it with a shield and slammed it into Luna. Luna went flying into one of the nearby buildings. Her fur and wings were cut and bruised from the impact with even a few splinters. She stumbled out of the rubble and was tackled by Celestia.

Celestia's eyes glowed green and red with purple as she pressed her hoof against Luna's throat with a sick twisted smile.

"This is more fun than I thought."

Luna used her back leg to kick Celestia in the stomach. She yelped in pain and stumbled away before Luna encircled her in an orb of pure darkness. It was a spell Luna invent generations ago. It was supposed to encase the victim and make them go to sleep. Dreaming of nightmares so awful as to break their mind. It was mostly made to give Luna time on how to handle the pony in question.

She only ever used it once on Starswirl to get the spell to make her Nightmare Moon. It nearly made him go insane. She never thought she would be forced to use it again. She never thought she would have to use it on her own sister. But, the spell was not built to contain Alicorns.

Celestia burst out of the bubble and landed on the ground as if nothing happened. Luna stumbled away in surprise.

"Give me Equestria, Luna. Or...I will have to take it by force." Celestia snapped. Luna's mind frantically tried to come up with some other plan when Celestia conjured up a sword and held her in place as she brought it up to her throat. She knew that Celestia was going to kill her any second now. Whatever was attacking Celestia's mind was much more twisted and cruel than Nightmare Moon ever was. "Surrender or die."

Luna knew she couldn't do anything. She had to retreat and come up with a better plan.

"I...I surrender."

"Pity. I was hoping for more of a fight so this would be more justified in the history books. Oh well. History can be manipulated." Celestia muttered. Luna felt fear at unknown levels. She closed her eyes as she felt the blade slice across her throat.

Blood spilled onto the streets and any bystander screamed in horror as Luna dropped to the ground. Gripping her throat in an attempt to stop the blood from leaving her body. She looked up at her sister's red and green eyes as her vision faded to black.

Twilight Sparkle had arrived in Canterlot sometime in the past week. She must have been over-exhausted from studying all week so that is probably why she didn't remember any of it. She had bigger problems now than just Celestia's disappearance. There was a Solar Eclipse and a wave of destruction going through Canterlot. Her friends were still in Ponyville and this was one of the moments she wished they were with her. She was terrified. Something told her this was going to end very badly.

She galloped onto the main street and came to a halt when she witnessed Princess Celestia holding a sword, almost as bright as the sun itself, against Luna's throat. Princess Celestia didn't look like her normal self. Her eyes were green and red with purple emanating from them. There were dark veins sticking out of parts of her body. Her mane was limp and she had battle injuries, such as deep lashes, scratches and bruises all over her body. The worse ones were noticeably on her back.

She and Luna seemed to be exchanging a few words when suddenly the blade sliced across Luna's throat. Blood spilled onto the streets and Luna collapsed. Twilight screamed along with a few others and managed to have enough courage to gallop towards the elder Alicorn. She fired at Celestia.

She was too enraged to care how it hurt her teacher. Celestia screamed as the purple energy hit her body and flung her back. Leaving very bad burns of charred fur and flesh on parts of her body. Twilight took a sharp left turn towards Luna. Who had passed out from lack of blood. She teleported the pair to Ponyville medical hospital. She had never done that big of a jump before, it caused her lots of pain and disorientation.

The nurses and Doctors quickly rushed around them. Immediately going to help Luna while some tried to get Twilight's attention. She stumbled and swayed and managed to see Luna being rushed into the emergency wing before her vision completely faded into black.

Bini and Arone were being escorted by Shining Armour and three guards towards the throne room. They had told Cadence everything they thought she needed to know and desperately had spent the past half an hour convincing her that Arone wasn't evil like the rest of the Changelings.

Chocolate and Rocky were being escorted to another part of the castle where the guest rooms were located while Cadence had requested their attendance in the throne room to discuss the whole "Celestia killing Sombra" situation further. They passed a series of large windows and paused when the daylight started to rapidly fade. Everypony looked outside the window in alarm as the Solar Eclipse took place.

"Oh no," Arone muttered. Shining Armour looked at them. His eyes pleading for answers.

"Do you know anything about this?" He asked.

The pair shook their heads. Unable to look away from the event taking place outside. Shining Armour motioned the guards to hurry everypony up. They broke into a gallop towards the throne room.

Celestia stared down at the pool of her own sister's blood that started to attach itself to her own hoof. She lifted her hoof up to examine it. Deep buried emotions were horrified at her actions. They struggled to the surface but lost the battle within moments when the sick and cruel emotions flared in her mind.

Luna was dead.

She was, now, the true ruler of Equestria. She let out a series of evil laughs that shook most ponies to their core. The citizens cowered in the safety of loved ones of just strangers as the Royal Guard and Lunar Guard joined forced to take down the sun Princess. She looked at the approaching ponies. A large group moved to surround her in the skies and an even larger group filled the streets around her.

"Fools." She growled and reared up on her front hoofs as they all moved to attack. She hit the ground hard. Causing a shock wave to knock everypony off their hoofs. She snarled as they looked around the city. Canterlot was useless, It was going to crumble sooner or later. The Crystal Empire was home to the Crystal heart. With the crystal heart gone, with the elements gone. No pony could stop her.

You see, Celestia had come to the conclusion that Twilight had teleported Luna to the nearest medical hospital. Which, of course, was in Canterlot. So even if Luna did survive, which Celestia doubted would happen, when the city crumbled it would take the Element of magic and the Moon Princess with it.

It was true she would lose a few hundred citizens but most of the unicorn population lived in Canterlot. Unicorns had the highest chance of hitting Celestia with their unicorn magic. That was another threat eliminated. Celestia flared up her horn and caused the foundations of Canterlot to crumbled.

The hanging city fell down the mountain. Thousands of screams filled the air and were silent within seconds as the city hit the ground below. Celestia flew above the destruction. Feeling absolutely nothing.

---End of Chapter One---