Spotlight

Starlight did not remember waking up. She was suddenly awake. And devoid of the splitting headache that usually followed a migraine episode like she had just experienced.

Three jackals were between her and the cave entrance. Eying her warily. Seeing if it was worthwhile to attack.

She levitated herself into the air and was about to cast a boom spell to spook them when the ground shook to the sound of tartaric laughter. This caused the intruders to flee, whimpering.

It was only as Starlight returned to her hooves that she noticed that it was still nighttime outside the cave. That did not feel right. The tartaric laughter came from outside. That felt worse.

Cautiously, Starlight walked out of the cave, to see that the night sky was dominated by the enormous, faded head of a unicorn in a metal helm, her fur midnight-blue in color, with glowing cyan eyes that possessed slitted pupils, like a cat or a dragon. Her teeth were those of a predator. She was the one who was laughing, and her laughter echoed from horizon to horizon.

(A clear case of copyright infringement.)

The moon was also visible in the sky, somewhat larger than normal. But Starlight was a little too distracted at the moment to pay much attention to this fact.

When Starlight looked up at this threatening image of Evil Triumphant, her first thought was not to fear for her life or her liberty, or to wonder what horrible thing this being had just accomplished to justify that laugher. No, what she thought was this: ‘She stole my Communion spell!’

And indeed, the effect of the illusory head was clearly a variant of what Starlight had produced with her spell. She looked back at the Vault, and saw all of the cutie marks glowing, along with her own mark on her flank. This was exactly what Starlight could do with the spell, if she had a thousand times or more magical power to force into it.

“Ponies of Equestria…Heed my words!”

The pony head had stopped laughing and was now addressing her audience.

“I am Empress Nightmare Moon, your new ruler!” the disembodied head continued. “I have overthrown the former Princess Celestia and replaced her day with my eternal night!” She paused for effect.

Starlight pondered if the words of this being were entirely accurate. For one thing, that must mean that this “Nightmare Moon” was as strong, both magically and physically, as Princess Celestia—she did appear to have a semi-transparent mane like Princess Celestia, if that meant anything. And for another…

Starlight looked across the sky to gaze upon the “Mare in the Moon”. It was gone—the face on the moon had been wiped clean. So, this truly was Nightmare Moon.

She noticed that Nightmare Moon had continued speaking. “You might ask what has happened to ex-Princess Celestia. I will tell you that your Celestia is safe…for now.” The face in the sky smirked for a moment. “Her continued safety will depend on your good behavior.

“You might ask what you need to do in this new Equestrian world order that I am…have established. I will answer: very little. I do not require your worship. I just want you to stay in your homes. Continue your daily work…except it’s nightly now, so…It’s just the same, alright? Where was I…? Ah yes. Obey the laws. Pay your taxes. And don’t cause trouble.” This last sentence was growled more than spoken, her dragon eyes briefly glowing.

‘So…as powerful as Princess Celestia. But nowhere near as good at addressing crowds,’ Starlight thought to herself.

“There was a group of six ponies, led by Celestia’s personal student, who were sent by her to stop me as soon as I stepped hoof upon Equestria, bearing the most powerful and fearful artifacts known to ponykind…The Elements of Harmony. That assault failed…utterly.”

The bloodthirsty sneer upon the Empress’ lips on that last word “utterly” strongly implied to Starlight that…. But no, things like horribly unnatural deaths didn’t happen to the ponies in Celestia’s Equestria.

But then again, this wasn’t Celestia’s Equestria anymore.

“To the survivor of that attack, I have this to say: I bear no grudge towards you. Your attempt was doomed to fail. And you were all clearly manipulated into making a cowardly attack upon me with your beloved Princess hiding behind a rock while you did her dirty work.

“Come back to Canterlot. Come back to me. I will forgive you. I will find a place for you among my followers.”

Her Followers? How dare she! Oh, wait. She means followers, lower case.

There was an awkward silence as Nightmare Moon pondered what else she might want to say. She raised an ear as if hearing something that nopony else could. “Ah, yes. Farmers, I have not left you in the lurch. With my control of the moon, I can make it brighter for a few hours each night, long enough to keep your crops alive. We will call that period ‘evening’ and the true darkness ‘night’.

“There was…probably something else, but I’ve forgotten it. I’ll come back tomorrow when I remember it. Good night, and welcome to your new eternal…night.” With a disappointed scowl, the enormous face disappeared.

Starlight stood there for a while, waiting to see if anything else would happen. As she did, the moon brightened as promised, until the landscape was illuminated as much as an overcast day, despite the stars still being visible in a pitch-black sky. Then she walked back into the cave to ponder.

She noticed that her sleeping bag now had several burned holes, as if it had been struck by multiple lightning strikes. Unable to accept that conclusion, she looked up…to notice for the first time the bank of depleted mana crystals that were right overhead. They must have run right through the roof of the cave to the top side of the mountain, where they had been gathering electrical energy from every thunderstorm for the past hundred years.

Those crystals had always been there…right? Right?