The Canterlot dungeons were built ten thousand years ago, during the warring era of Equus. Starting out as an interrogation chamber, the dungeons had expanded as the range of its use increased. Soon it was used to contain political prisoners and then criminals that didn’t warrant being sent to Tartarus, but were too dangerous for the local prisons to handle. The last prisoner was sentenced there three thousand years ago during the reign of the two sisters. After the prisoner committed suicide to escape the conditions of the prison, Princess Celestia ordered the dungeon to be shut down and the entrance sealed away.

Three thousand years later, the seals to the dungeon entrance were being undone by the very alicorn that had placed them there in the first place. As the last seal faded away, the doors to the dungeons swung open quietly, their hinges not making the slightest sound and released a blast of stale air. Scarlet Thorn’s nose scrunched in disgust as she inhaled, the preserved scent of iron, blood, sweat, excrement, and rotting flesh almost making her throw up. How the ponies of old could stomach such a place, much less working here willingly would never make sense to her.

Waiting a few minutes for fresh air to seep into the dungeons, Scarlet Thorn made her way down the ancient steps, doing her best to avoid the splotches of dried blood and other unmentionables that littered the way. Six hundred and sixty-six floors, each more repulsive than the last. The pony made her way down the steps, her horn the only source of illumination and her hoofsteps the only sound to accompany her in the darkness. “The darkness breaks them further,” she remembered her commander telling her, on the first time she came here, his scarred face illuminated by a torch attached to his armor. “The pony mind is hardwired to be afraid of a lot of things, and nothing scares us more than the dark,” she shuddered, her mind conjuring images of ponies screaming and begging for mercy as the guards tortured them. “After all, the dark makes the mind cook up a lot of crazy things”

The sound of the two guards that Celestia had stationed at the last level of the dungeon stomping the butt of their spears into the ground in salute forced her out of her recollection and back to the matter at hand. In front of her was a simple door composed of metals that would never see the light of day in Equestria if the princess could do anything about it. Taking one of the guard’s spears, she held it in her hoof and used it to push the door open, revealing a midnight-black foal suspended in the air by a series of heavy chains. The cell had no floor, just a hole that led to the darkest bowels of the earth. The foal’s wings were encased in metal and forcefully splayed, preventing her from using them. Her horn, the conduit of magic was bound by shackles and a casing that had several spikes jutting out of it. The slightest hint of magic would force the spikes into the horn, destroying it and crippling the unicorn trapped within.

“What’s this? Celestia sent her little pony down here to interrogate little ol me? I didn’t think she was the type” the foal spoke, her voice distorted by the muzzle that was forced onto her. “Then again, a thousand years can change a pony,” she chuckled, that last part the punchline to a joke that only she knew.

“The famed Nightmare Moon, turned into a foal, bound in chains and tossed into the darkest hole we could find,” Scarlet Thorn retorted, crimson red eyes staring into blue-slitted eyes. “Ain’t Celestia good?” she chuckled, poking the foal with the spear in hand.

“Poke me with that spear again, and I’ll shove it so far up your plot, your descendants will be tasting metal,” the foal hissed, pulling against her chains with all the power she could muster, resulting in cracking sounds emanating from where the chains connected to the wall, cracks spreading out across the cell, causing Scarlet Thorn to backpedal in fear. “I may be a foal in chains, but I’m still Nightmare Moon!” she hissed venomously, stopping her actions out of exhaustion, the chains sapping her ambient magic to repair the cell walls, reinforcing it even further.

“Now, now, don’t be too harsh on her,” a voice emerged from the pit below, interrupting the duo and forcing the door shut, alerting the guards that something was wrong. “After all,” the mare watched as a dark liquid rose out of the pit, stopping just short of the rim. “You’ve been gone a thousand years,” the liquid rose, twisting and rearranging itself to take on the form of a massive snake with violet, slitted eyes that watched the pony for any sign of weakness.

Ignoring Scarlet Thorn, the serpent turned to face Nightmare Moon who was struggling against her bonds, trying desperately to free herself from the chains. “Impatient as alwaysssss,” the serpent hissed softly, wrapping itself around the foal to stop her struggle.

“Forgive me for not wanting to make my death easy,” she retorted, contemplating whether or not she could get away with using her horn to teleport herself out of the chains. On one hoof, she might pull it off and escape, but on the other hoof, she could end up with a destroyed horn, something that she couldn’t afford right now.

“Death? Why would I do that?” the snake chuckled, its tongue flicking out to taste the foal, enjoying the revulsion on her face.

“You’re joking, right? I'm in the body of a defenseless foal, bound in chains that sap my magic and so deep underground that nopony would find my rotting corpse until whenever Celestia decides,” she pointed out the facts to the serpent, doing her best to keep the fear out of her voice.

“True, but the game isssssn’t over,” the snake replied. “There’sssss more of your kind. The white one, the blue one, and you,” the snake chuckled, tightening its grip on the foal. “Three of you, two new playerssss for the game. Equessssstria, Equssssss, the entire world our ssssstage,” its speech was cut off by a loud shout.

“Hey ugly!” Scarlet Thorn called out to gain the snake’s attention, making it turn away from the foal.

“Curiousssss” the snake stated as it examined Scarlet Thorn, the liquid in the pool wrapping rushing out and enveloping the earth pony and dragging her close to it. “A pony that issssn’t ssssscared of my presssence,” the liquid’s tightening grip forcing the air out of Scarlet’s lungs. “It sssseemssss I’ve found a new player,” the snake threw Scarlet aside with enough force to break her bones, her screams music to its ears.

Retreating into the hole, the serpent melted back into the liquid that it emerged from. “I’ll be ssseeing you ssssoon,” the words hung in the air as the liquid drained from the hole, and soon there was nothing left, nothing but the imprisoned Nightmare Moon and the screaming Scarlet Thorn.

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“This is Tartarus,” the solar diarch muttered under her breath as she cast a wary glance at the ornate clock that hung above the archway that led into the throne room, the contraption’s hands indicating that only five minutes had passed. There were times she swore that the throne room had been enchanted to make each second drag out as long as possible each time an annoyance walked into her halls.

Just as she was about to speak up to dismiss the day court, an earth pony burst through the doors startling everyone. “Princess!” the sweat drenched pony gasped, as she desperately tried to stay on her feet, “Scarlet Thorn went to check on Nightmare Moon in the dungeons and now she’s trapped in the cell with that beast!” the words fell out of the pony’s mouth quickly before detoriating into a blabbering mess of snot and tears.

“Day court is now adjourned,” Celestia announced firmly before turning to one of her guards “Tell my sister to meet me in the dungeons,” she instructed him before teleporting to the entrance of the dungeon, missing the words of the collapsed guard where to her surprise, an armor-clad Luna was descending the stairs, a halberd strapped to her side and a pair of wing blades attached.

“Sister what are you doing here?” Celestia called out, frowning a bit when her question wasn’t met with an answer. Luna hadn’t ever answered her since her return. Chasing after her sister, Celestia held onto her shoulder and spoke once more in a firmer tone her hoof strength stopping her sister’s progress. “Luna, what are you doing here and why are you armed?”

“We are simply fixing our biggest mistake,” Luna shrugged off Celestia’s hoof and continued her journey, picking up the pace until she was now in full sprint, leaving behind a Celestia that was currently hoping that her sister didn’t mean what she thought she meant.

“Wait Luna!” the solar diarch called, spreading her wings and taking to the air with a single leap and chasing after her sister. “What do you mean! How do you plan to fix it!” she yelled, hoping that Luna would give her any answer that wasn’t the one she already knew. She knew it was stupid to keep Luna and Nightmare in the same region, let alone the same town, even more so to have her imprisoned under their hooves.

“The same way you fix a mistake made in a foal’s school book,” came the reply, her sister’s wings now spread and lifting her into the air, the shadows around the solar diarch coming alive latching onto her, effectively putting an end to her chase, “By erasing it. Thoroughly,” the shadows tightened around Celestia, forming a cocoon around her, sealing her away from the outside world. “Do not worry sister, we shall release you once the deed is done,” Luna reassured as she made her way to the lower levels where the mistake was kept.

Luna walked down the dungeon steps with a goal in mind; the extermination of the mistake that now wore the skin of foal. She knew her sister didn’t have the stomach to do what was necessary, which was why she had planned to come down here alone and deal with it herself. Celestia might be older than her by a few hundred years and may have been given the name Daybreaker and Dawnbringer, but she had earned the name Nightmare Moon and carved it into the hearts of those who stood against her and her sister. She was the warrior, Celestia was nothing but a diplomat, a peace broker, an excellent princess, but next to useless as a warrior. It should be her sitting on the throne, not the golden waste of space!

Shocked by her thoughts, Luna shook her head in order to rid herself of the thoughts as well as to alleviate the headache that sprung into existence. What was she thinking about again? Oh yes, erasing the mistake that was Nightmare Moon. She couldn’t help but find it funny that in order to keep Equestria safe, she’d have to kill the part of her that helped build it. Life was funny like that. Reaching the last floor of the dungeon, she pushed aside the guards who were futilely trying to open the door and with tore it down with a well-placed punch, revealing the bleeding Scarlet Thorn and the restrained Nightmare Moon.

“Hello mother, I was wondering when you’d finally pay your dear daughter a visit,” the foal raised her head to look at Luna, her slitted eyes watching her mother with the calculating gaze of a predator. “I’d hug you, but,” she moved her limbs, resulting in the chains producing a clinking sound, “I’m tied up,” she chuckled. “So what do I owe the visit?”

“This isn’t a visit you monster. This is nothing more than a late term abortion,” Luna snapped at the foal, before dismissing the guards. Once she was sure that there was nobody around, she pulled the lever next to the door, which allowed for Nightmare Moon to be lowered until the two were looking at each other eye to eye. Taking out the halberd from its place on her side, Luna placed its blade against Nightmare Moon’s neck, her eyes filled with barely contained rage.

“Don’t waste our time mother,” Nightmare Moon scoffed at Luna, ignoring the blade pressed against her neck. “We both know you can’t and won’t go through with it.”

“And how do you know that!?” Luna scowled, angry at the abomination’s calm tone. Its like she wasn’t being taken seriously. “You hurt ponies! My ponies! You ruined my name and forced me into a thousand years of banishment! A thousand years of loneliness! So tell me what makes you think I wouldn’t slit your throat and leave your corpse to rot here!” she pushed the weapon closer as if to prove her point, that she was indeed able to kill the foal.

“Several reasons,” the foal replied, making sure to look Luna in the eyes, “One; when you threaten someone with a weapon,” she leaned as far forward as her chains and neck would let her and dragged her neck across the blade, slitted cyan eyes still staring at surprised bluish green as her throat was cut open, red blood staining the blade and splattering against the floor “Make sure to cut them,” she pulled back her neck, still maintaining eye contact with Luna as her wound began to close.

“Two; you’re not a killer. You’re violent, vindictive and a thousand other things your sister isn’t, but you’re not a killer. If you were, then I wouldn’t be here right now. I don’t mean in chains. If you were a killer, I wouldn’t exist,” she licked her fangs as her mind wandered for a split second before continuing, “Last of all, and most importantly; you wouldn’t kill your daughter dearest,” a smile grew on her face as Luna stepped back a bit.

“You’re no daughter of mine!” Luna spat, throwing aside the halberd. “Something as foul and disastrous as you could never have come from me. You laugh at the suffering of others, you kill simply because you feel like it, you feel no remorse. You have nothing that our ponies have, nothing that could even remotely be identified as a heart. You’re nothing more than a monster!” Luna’s body shook in rage as she vented.

“I’m the monster?” Nightmare asked, her voice dripping with anger, “Who was it that fractured her soul to create a new pony whose sole purpose was to kill! Who locked away that pony in the darkest recesses of her mind, keeping her from seeing the outside world until she was needed to cause mayhem and destruction! Who was it that forced me to train each night until I could use each weapon there was! Who made me hunt down everything that went bump in the night for her precious little ponies!” Nightmare Moon roared, her arms lurching forward to grab Luna, only for the chains to stop her hooves inches away from her mother.

“Who praised me only when I killed something! Who shut me in the dark whenever I wasn’t good enough for her! Who made me fight nightmare after nightmare for her little ponies and never fought mine! Tell me Luna!” the chains groaned and creaked as Nightmare Moon strained, her lips curled up in a snarl. “You made me! You shaped me! I did everything you ever wanted and what did you ever give me in return!” her body shuddered as tears of anger made their way down her face. “You made me and now you dare deny me!” her screams and accusations made Luna retreat slowly, the ferocity of Nightmare Moon scaring her. Picking up the unconscious Scarlet Thorn, she turned round to leave.

Stopping at the door, she pulled the lever once more, raising Nightmare Moon back into place and with a pulse of her magic put the door back on its hinges, plunging the room back into pitch black darkness. Hearing her mother walk away, Nightmare Moon closed her eyes and let out a tired sigh. She shouldn’t have lashed out. Lashing out showed that she was hurting and you couldn’t predict what a creature that was hurting could do. Fortunately for her it didn’t matter if they knew she was hurting. All she had to do was be patient. Soon he would begin his game, and when he did, Equestria would need a seasoned player to move the pieces. Celestia was a decrepit symbol who relied on her control of the sun to take the lions share and enforce her will.

Luna was simply a warrior who didn’t have the stomach to see things through herself. The equestrian army was a joke. They would need her. They would come to her for help. And when they did, she would take what was she was owed.

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay. I was busy with exams, plus I had to redo the chapter. I've found a direction of sorts and want to see if it'll work. Please bare with me