Luna had never been a morning pony. Or the equivalent for one whose day officially began at dusk. The point was that Luna hated to wake up. Unfortunately for her, the duties of the crown often required her to rise well before an hour that she’d find acceptable and today was one such day. Her sister’s protegé had devised some celebration that, of course, she’d be required to attend as a princess of Equestria. Despite her reluctance to wake, she had to admit that she was at least some bit excited, and nopony could deny that she truly loved her ponies. With that in mind, the Princess of the Night decided it was time to get dressed.

Luna would be arriving late to the celebrations. It was just a fact of her particular lifestyle that she wouldn’t be at the opening ceremony, and it was expected. That, however, didn’t mean she wouldn’t make an entrance worthy of a princess of Equestria. Her mind raced as she recounted her plans to herself, an entrance to dazzle her subjects, to remind all that no matter what festivities took place in the day, she ruled the night.

Finishing her morning routine, and adorned in a most fabulous black and cyan dress, the nocturnal diarch stepped into the hallway of her wing of the palace expecting the usual cacophony of sounds only to find complete silence. While it was true that the festival would demand some absences she didn’t expect complete desertion. She began to wander through the palace searching for any pony, but the desolate halls provided no signs of life. It was only upon reaching the official end to the wing of the palace she used as living quarters did she hear a noise signaling activity. The loud crash coming from what sounded like the main hall was completely unexpected, the Princess of the Night, assuming that the festivities had gotten out of control, proceeded to race towards the noise only to stop once her logical thoughts caught up to her. She began to notice that the lack of noise besides the single loud crash persisted even outside of her wing of the palace. She began to grow concerned; this was not normal and she felt something was deeply wrong. Spending a thousand years in exile had not dulled her senses a bit. Immediately she began to utilize the skills she acquired from the wars of yesteryears. Traversing more carefully now, Luna continued to the throne room, noting every small detail in her surroundings as she got closer. Eventually she did hear noises, but not ones she wanted to.

Sounds of battle rang through the halls, followed by a scream of pain that undoubtedly belonged to the most powerful alicorn in the land. The pure anguish in Celestia’s voice spurred her younger sister to bolt towards her, but her instincts forced her to slow down right outside the western entrance to the throne room. Luna peaked in and immediately wished that the scene before her was a dream, but above all ponies she knew what a dream felt like, and it wasn’t this. Before the throne she had ruled from for a millennium, Celestia was bent over, her head in some wicked contraption that Luna immediately knew the purpose of. Surrounding the alicorn were creatures that Luna had never even heard of. They were built similarly to ponies but stood at least a head taller than most stallions she knew; even the shortest of them had a good dozen centimeters on her. When eyeing their height she didn’t take into account the massive antlers that protruded from their heads and only added to their imposing form. The creature she assumed was the leader by the crown on his head stepped towards her sister with a smirk on his snout. “I told you, cunt, your proper place is on your knees or on my cock, the natural order demands it, why would you be allowed to defeat me with your pitiful display of so-called power?”
Luna began to creep along the shadows of the throne room to get as close as she could before attacking when Celestia replied. “Death to your name, Dainn! Equestria will never bow before a despot like you! Even if you kill me here, my sister will defeat you, my student will defeat you, or my niece will defeat you! Your tyranny will be over before it begins!”

The monster known as Dainn slapped her across the face before countering. “Kill you? Sun Slut why would I kill you? You’re not a casualty in this war, you’re the grand prize.”

The king pulled a lever on the machine holding Celestia down and within a moment a loud crack signaled the most horrific sight Luna had known. That horn that adorned her sister’s head for so many centuries lay at the feet of Dainn, its former owner wearing a look of pure terrified shock that Luna herself had never seen. Somewhere in the back of her mind her thoughts pushed her to act, to spring to her sister’s rescue, but she couldn’t move, she couldn’t force herself to do anything but stare at the awful sight.

“And as for your contingency plans, your sister will be as worthless of an opponent as you, your student even more so, and your niece… well, you’ll see.”

As he finished talking Luna saw something that caused her deep shame. Twilight Sparkle, the youngest of all of them, had mustered the courage to step out of who knows where on the other side of the throne room. The young princess looked as though she had come from a battle, knowing the situation she probably had. The remnants of her once elegant dress clung to her lithe form, dirt and scars littered her body, and her mane resembled that of a mare who had just risen from the dead. But the most notable thing about the purple pony princess was the look of pure hate she wore, her rage-filled eyes illuminated by her horn glowing with awesome power.

“Get away from her.” The short phrase echoed through the silence caused by the finishing of Dainn’s gloating. Not a single one of the creatures said a word, but all turned towards her, many of them smirking.

Seconds later it was Celestia herself who broke the auditory tension. “T-Twilight, you need to run, you can’t b-beat them!”

Twilight’s expression faltered for a bit as her eyes drifted to her old mentor “Princess, I can’t leave you!”

Their short conversation was cut short by Dainn and his troops charging Twilight Sparkle, her eyes finally betraying all the fear held in her mind.

“TWILIGHT RUN!”

With tears in her eyes the young alicorn heeded the words of her teacher, and with a bright flash, she was gone.

The fear in her sister’s voice caused Luna to falter; sure her own power had always been superior to her elder sister’s, at least in regards to combat, but the utter hopelessness she heard caused her to second-guess the situation.

Luna was about to turn to leave, trying in vain to convince herself that it was a tactical retreat and not a cowardly one, when she ran right into a large caribou seemingly waiting for her to notice him. She collapsed onto her butt and attempted to scramble away but was stopped by the brute grabbing her waist with a grip of iron, lifting her up and slamming her back down. The air rushed out of her lungs as she unsuccessfully struggled to regain her footing. The commotion caused the rest of the room’s occupants to turn towards her, including the king himself. His eyes burned into her own like two beams of arcane flame, boring into her very soul, almost physically pinning her down onto the ground. The intensity of those eyes combined with her immense fear held her in place as the king slowly approached her; all other noise was drowned out by his steps. Finally the horror of her situation dawned on her and the night princess’s horn lit up with the intention of following Twilight Sparkle to anywhere but there. The surge of energy to her horn however was cut off by a forceful smack to the back of Luna’s head. Those steps of the king being the last thing she registered as her world became black.

Author's Note

So this is the first thing I've ever actually written. Taking the content into account I obviously don't expect a thunderous applause but if any criticism can be sent my way it would help a lot. Thanks!