Downfall
By Quid Pro Quo
Princess Celestia opened the door, entering the long forgotten west wing of Canterlot castle. She had been meaning to do this for a while; it was something she needed to make her peace with, something she had been thinking about for quite some time.
The Princess walked past the marble columns that surrounded the worn, carpeted walk way in the west wing, the marble columns towered over the alicorn as she trotted past at a slow pace. Celestia gazed at the cracked and somewhat broken marble, many ponies would wonder how this part of the castle could be in such a state of disrepair, unfortunately Celestia knew all too well.
-1,000 Years Ago-
Princess Celestia burst open the door to the West Wing, slowly making her way to the end of the hall. She made a stop to look outside a castle window to observe the battle outside. The outside of the castle was complete chaos. Celestia’s guard ponies clashed with Luna’s soldiers, The ponies fought with tempered swords and magical spells, causing death and destruction across the battlefield, debris was falling everywhere as statues and marble that took years to build was destroyed in an instant. The wails of agony from fallen soldiers could still be heard even within castle walls. Celestia was shocked by the carnage, war that could never be imagined in modern day Equestria. War that her sister caused…
She still had trouble coming to the reality of that, she of course acted brave in front of her little ponies, but this was Luna! She had grown up with her, loved and took care of her; they built this entire world together. Now she was tearing it apart, killing innocent ponies, her protégé…
She looked out a window, seeing the chaos. “Discord didn’t even like chaos like this” she thought to herself. The princess looked away from it, not bearing to see it, she had to focus, Lu- No, Nightmare Moon had to die, for this to end.
Nightmare Moon was what she called herself now, her manifestation of the claim that her beloved night was perverted by the ponies, stricken with words such as “scary” and “evil” and usually associated with foul beasts. Now Luna had become the embodiment of their fear. All this fear and hate all bottled up in one name.
The Lunar Stallions were soldiers of Nightmare Moon; they had numerous reasons for their betrayal. Dissatisfaction with Princess Celesita, Promises of power by Nightmare, or simple mind tricks to make them into slave soldiers.
The Solar Stallions were the remaining soldiers under Celestia’s command, still loyal to the sun princess. So many stallions died in this war, that still today there is a higher population of mares to stallions.
The Princess of the Day was in her royal battle armor, much like royal guard pony armor, however the armor was radiated with an aura of beaming light. She was a symbol of the day; she might as well look like one. Her tiara, Harmony radiated with peaceful bliss, Harmony was the embodiment of all things right with their world. Celesita hoped that with its power she could turn Nightmare, but she was too distraught, the tiara wouldn’t work unless the wearer was truly in harmony, and Celesita was far from it.
Harmony was powerful relic created by the alicorn sisters, used to unify the land and create peace and prosperity, Harmony truly was all that was good, the sisters had made it that way. Powered by the bond Celestia and Luna shared, through their friendship and love the land prospered however with Luna’s betrayal, Harmony had been split in Equestria. Celestia had come to one somber realization to unite Harmony’s union, to remove the source of its fissure: Princess Luna. As much as Celestia wanted another solution, it seemed there was no other way.
The long marble hallway she was in led to a giant door, Nightmare Moon had invaded the castle a couple hours after the lunar ponies began their siege of Canterlot, Nightmare Moon quickly stormed her way to the castle and took over the west wing, challenging Princess Celestia to one final duel, one last fight to the death.
Nightmare had been fixated on Celestia during the course of the war, trying her best to lure the alicorn out into the open where Luna could have the fight she so craved.
Celestia had been dreading this for so long; even killing lunar ponies still bothered her, now her sister! She couldn’t bear it, but she couldn’t live with herself if she let this continue any longer.
She began to run towards the great door at the end of the wing; she could think no longer, this had to end here. Maybe then Equestria can know peace.
The doors opened for her, making ever so more obvious Nightmare was expecting her. The Sun pony slowly trotted into the great chamber. The west wing was more for ceremonial purposes, a storage area for setting up events in Canterlot, usually festive ones but anything festive about the room was immediately sucked out as she saw the presence of her sworn foe.
“Oh, I didn’t think you had the nerve to show up.” Nightmare sneered; she was looking out a large, circular window out looking into the center of the battle raging outiside, a sadistic smile at all the carnage the battle was brewing.
“You know I can’t let you do this.” Celestia responded, her eyes locked at Nightmare, with grim determination all the while trying to cope with the fact that this was what Luna was now.
“You can ignore me for years but the second I try and have a little fun, you’re suddenly concerned!” Nightmare shouted to Celestia.
“Fun?” “This is fun to you now?” “Ponies are dying!” “How can you take any joy in this?” Celestia roared, angered by her callous attitude.
“It’s all your fault princess, the only reason any of this is happening today is because you were so arrogant, arrogant to think that you were better than everypony!” Nightmare retorted.
Celestia mentally fell back; she wasn’t always the wise and just pony she was now. The princess had grown arrogant, grown so by her rule over one of the most successful cities in Equestria, all the statues of her, her god-like status to the people, it had gotten to her and in that process she had hurt the pony she cared for most of all.
“Why make them suffer for my mistakes?” “Your quarrel is with me; don’t kill all these ponies just to make a point!” She cried, she only hoped Nightmare could just hate her and only her.
“They were arrogant with you!” “They believed you were best, that they didn’t even need poor Luna!” “They feared my night, associated with all sorts of nightmares and beasts!” Nightmare then suddenly paused and grinned manically, “And now I have become what they fear, the monster they always wanted…”
Celestia was both hurt and angered at her sister’s sentiments. Had she really been pushed this far? This was justification enough for this brutal war for her? Some sort of petty vendetta?
“I’m so sorry Luna, I really am… I shouldn’t have treated you like that but please!” “No pony deserves this!”
“Blasphemy!” “Look at your little lapdogs, look at all their statues of you, the sun god!” Nightmare began trotting closer to Celestia, “You haven’t even begun to learn your lesson!” Nightmare looked back out towards the battle, a brave little Solar pony tried to make his final stand against three Lunar soldiers, as they dueled with each other, the Solar pony tripped and fell, and became victim to the ravenous Lunar troops, one last final cry before death took him.
Celestia turned her head away, tears in her eyes. The sad realization that the paradise her and Luna had created was falling apart. Nightmare squealed in delight at Celestia’s pain. “There’s plenty more like him that will die today.” Nightmare hissed.
“Not if I can do anything about it.” Celestia shouted, her anger had finally destroyed the wall of hesitation that was holding her back, Nightmare must die.
Celestia immediately shot into the air, her angelic wings shined in the daylight; catching Nightmare off guard she immediately shot a bolt of solar energy, hitting Nightmare square in the chest.
Caught off guard by the sudden attack, Nightmare was blasted across the room, hitting and cracking the wall behind her. Nightmare roared, a starry mist forming around her as she poised for battle.
Celestia shot another shot of solar energy at Nightmare, however the aura surrounding her suddenly turned into a shield, deflecting the blast of energy. The wisps of night suddenly formed into tentacle-like strands, and launched towards Celestia, grabbing her by the wings and smashing her into the ground.
The Princess quickly got up from the shattered floor, and charged forward at Nightmare, a radiant light surrounding her as she gained speed; Nightmare quickly started charging as well, her own mist forming a black, night looking energy as she charged at Celestia.
Even through the millennia Celestia still remembered that explosion.
The ear shattering explosion completely destroyed the walls of the room they were in, flinging both ponies several feet away from each other. Slightly bruised by the collision, both ponies staggered to stand as they got on their hooves.
The war around them completely halted, not just because of the explosion, because this was the moment everypony had been waiting for, the final battle, as cliché as it seemed. This is how it had to end. A fight to the death.
Celestia eyed her opponent from across the broken wreckage of the west wing, she hoped the explosion would kill her, as unlikely as it seemed, she didn’t want to see Luna’s eyes as she landed the killing blow but it seemed fate was cruel, as Nightmare was only slightly bruised the other side of the former room.
They simply eyed each other, Celestia’s a pleading one, one last final chance to end this madness. The look in Nightmare’s said it all, to the death. One final chance, gone like all the others, no more words then… time for action.
-Present Day-
Celestia was once again in that same broken room, the room had never been repaired. Due to the amount of magical damage the room took, the area was simply condemned to be a scar. A reminder of the horrible events that transpired here. It was odd; it was like time had never touched the place, maybe which was an accidental result of the numerous amounts of magic that happened here. Magic even with all the knowledge ponies had developed still had entities that were beyond them. More than likely it was just the fact that no pony went here anymore, calling the place forbidden. Who could blame them?
The room was quite literally now just an open black mark upon the usually perfectly white castle, it caught any pony's eyes almost instantly as it contrasted with the enviroment.
Celestia could still feel the energy from her visions, they were defintely more prominent this time. She had several flashbacks to her past but never like this.
The Solar Princess was crying now, influx of memories that came from this hellish place was overwhelming, but she had to come to terms with this eventually might as well do it now. She closed her eyes again, feeling the energy from that day come back to her.
-1,000 Years Ago-
Celestia and Nightmare shot into the sky, both becoming apparitions of night and day, the sky was in turmoil, unsure if to turn to night or day, ending up looking like a mix of both. Strands of light cast into a dark, starless void overhead the battle between the two goddesses.
Celestia's solar energy took the form of a eagle made from pure sunlight, the light from its huge wings danced across the city of Canterlot.
Nightmare's energy took the form of a raven, its black coat spreading shadow across the charred city, hoping to burn out any light possible.
No battle had affected the heavens like this; Canterlot was cast in some sort of chaotic twilight, somewhat beautiful in its insane madness. Nothing that was about to happen was beautiful however.
Celestia clashed with Nightmare, light and shadow collided with each other. Celestia was hoping she could overwhelm her, but Nightmare’s power equaled to hers.
The ponies below looked in awe, the whole world was torn by the sister’s conflict and it showed it. Nothing like it had happened before; a battle that seemed like the entire planet was involved. The shadows skimmed across buildings in Canterlot, trying to wipe out any sources of light. Light countered back as it radiant gaze drew shadow back.
Nightmare broke off from the contact, and shot several beams of darkness at Celestia, The Sun Princess’s own radiant energy quickly cut off the beams before they could hit her. Celestia returned with a volley of energy, breaking through Nightmare’s aura and nearly hitting her. Nightmare cried out in anger and suddenly charged at Celestia.
Celestia didn’t time to prepare a defense and was caught off guard by the ferocity of her attack, sending her crashing through a building, still in Nightmare’s grip. This sudden charge dispersed the two figures formed by the alicorn's power.
Freeing herself from Nightmare Moon, she quickly turned around and bucked her in the chest, sending her reeling backwards. Celestia quickly shot another volley of light at her foe before she could recover, causing even more damage to pony of the night.
Thinking she could maybe rest for a while, she gently landed on a war-torn building which had a giant Celestia sized hole now thanks to Nightmare. The princess gazed into the smoke Nightmare disappeared in, wondering if it was over.
Judging by the shadow forming behind her, it wasn’t.
“YOU CAN’T KILL ME!” Nightmare shouted, Pouncing on Celestia and tackling her off the building and dragging her down into the ground, Celestia quickly sent out burst of pure solar energy from her horn, knocking her nemesis back onto the charred earth.
Trees were on fire in the background, buildings were crumbling to ruin. The ponies had gone back to fighting now, invigorated by the sister's display of power. A small part of Celestia was completely thrilled by this, this was fighting like nothing before, she quickly shooed those thoughts away, hoping to not become the monster before her. Nightmare got back on her hooves, bruised and bloodied but her eyes still showed pure determination, this was far from over.
“Give up now!” “I don’t want to kill you!” Celestia shouted, breathing heavily from her wounds. This battle was taking its toll on the princess.
“You were always weak! Even now you still are!” Nightmare retorted.
Nightmare’s aura created more tendrils of dark energy, they quickly surrounded Celestia, and began to start a whirlwind around her slowly closing in on the Princess. Each time the wisps went past Celestia, they would cut her, like a giant tornado of knives. Celestia quickly shot out of the tornado; however Nightmare was already above her and stomped on her head, sending her back into the volley from hell.
The princess quickly made another burst of sunlight which dispersed the volley long enough for her to jump through, swearing at her idiocy to fall for that earlier move Nightmare pulled, she quickly scoured the area for any sign of Nightmare.
Nightmare Moon was the very living symbol of Night, the shadows were on her side. Celestia was bleeding, her once amazing white coat was faded by the rubble and ash on the battlefield, her armor was torn, but she still glowed with beautiful light, Celestia would not die yet.
Nightmare was nowhere to be found; Celestia had no idea where to look, quickly thinking for any possible answers. The white alicorn noticed that her shadow seemed strange as if it was looking at her. She looked down to see the familiar dark blue eyes of Nightmare in place of her own shadow, she quickly mystified in her original form and slashed at Celestia with her sharp hoof plates, drawing blood from the white alicorn.
Celestia was completely stunned by this and fell back as Nightmare continued her volley of attacks, tearing at Celestia’s fur and armor, drawing blood wherever she could. Nightmare finished her attack by bucking right in her face, sending her back against one of the statues of the Sun Princess herself.
The statue collapsed on Celestia, pinning her with it weight. Nightmare laughed at the irony of the situation.
“Hubris, dear Celestia, Hubris.” Nightmare laughed, “A fitting end for you, dying by one of your pathetic statutes.”
Celestia groaned, her body had taken quite a beating, blood and torn armor dotted her now crimson stained coat, she had to win, somehow.
Celestia coughed and smiled, “Don’t you think that the same can apply to you?” “All mighty princess of the night…”
Nightmare simply laughed, “You’ve had this coming for a while now, you deserve Every. Second. Of. Pain.” Nightmare said as she stomped on Celestia’s chest, getting a cry of agony in return.
Celestia was experiencing a tirade of emotions now, pure and utter hate for the pony she had sworn to protect, she couldn’t stand it, and she had to fight or do something, something to end this.
“Now to finish this.” Using her horn’s magic to grab the fallen spear from Celestia’s statue, she turned around so its sharp end pointed straight at Celestia’s heart.
No!
A sudden surge of energy flowed through Celestia, she reconized the source of the power, Harmony.
With a huge burst of solar energy, she blasted the entire courtyard with an almost nuclear bomb like explosion, blasting Nightmare back into the air, she quickly used her wings to steady herself.
The explosion kicked the statue off of her and soon enough the Princess of the Day was back on her hooves, bleeding but alive.Celestia quickly shot through the air with the speed of light itself and tackled her nemesis, sending her to the ground with a meteor like effect.
-Present Day-
Modern-day Celestia had already walked back to her quarters, it was sundown. She had spent most of the day reminiscing about the fight. Tired and emotional, she laid down on her bed, letting its cloud-like softness envelop her with the hope that it might drive away this nightmare.
Celestia had been having these visions from the fight for over the millennia, ever since that fateful day. She had never forgiven herself for how she treated her, and what it had led to. How could she? The supposed representation of Harmony has such a troubled past, that she just couldn’t seem to escape from.
The worst memory was yet to come, the final memory, the look in her sister's eyes…
-1,000 Years Ago-
Nightmare and Celesita clashed in the skies above Canterlot, each one using their hooves to pummel the other into submission.The attacks of Nightmare were like lightning. For a split second Nightmare’s hooves would look for an opening in Celestia’s defenses, quickly finding one and doing as much damage as possible. Celestia responded with a quick hit from her own hooves, stunning Nightmare.
Celesita quickly backed away, panting furiously. Nightmare had managed to hit Celestia in her lung, damaging her ability to breathe properly. The Princess of Shadow pounced once more on Celestia hoping for a quick kill. The Princess summoned a shield of solar energy, instead of simply deflecting the attack; it ensnared its target. Taking the moment of opportunity, Celestia jumped above the trapped Nightmare, she prepared her wings and flew downward into Nightmare tackling her downward.
Time seemed to slow as they fell, Celestia still couldn't imagine things went this far.
The two alicorns fell through a church sky roof, smashing into the marble floor. The skyroof depicted Luna, before she turned into Nightmare Moon.
Celestia quickly got back on her hooves and saw the figure of Nightmare Moon, her armor was completely broken, her helm torn in half, and her shadowy wing appeared to be broken.
They had fallen in the church of Luna, one the few remaining to the alicorn after her betrayal.
The room was an Arena styled church, several pews all surrounding the Shrine of the Moon, an ancient shrine built by Luna to display how the moon affected the tide. The Shrine was a pool divided in two halves, one of the high tide and one of the low. The pool was surronded by rocks taken from the moon itself.
The shrine hadn’t been affected by the fall, but glass pieces from Luna’s sky roof remained scattered across the floor, showing fragmented features of Luna’s face. Light lifted down in the usually dark church, shining down onto Nightmare who had fallen in front of her own shrine.
One showed Luna’s moonlit face torn in half.
“It’s only fitting that it ends here” Celestia said, mocking Nightmare's earlier claim. She noted her adversary’s position in front of the Shrine.
“Who said it would end…” Nightmare tried to stand, but only accomplished falling back down, she was severely beaten. Alicorns were immortal to old age but they still felt pain and with enough of it, could very well die.
“Nightmare you’ve hurt my citizens enough, you’ve brought enough chaos to my world.” Celestia stated.
“So it’s your world now?” “I wondered when you decided to make that official… It had always been official in your head.” Nightmare retorted weakly.
“You’ve forsaken your position… you’ve brought so much harm to a world WE created!” Celestia cried, she was done pretending this was simply another foe, this was her sister and she could hide it no longer
.
“It was a world that you wanted from the beginning, a world where you gave me the lesser half that no pony cares about and take all the glory for yourself!”
“What glory is there in this?” “Villages have burned, families slaughtered, so many dead…” Celestia began to cry, remembering all the violence and death that had happened during the war.
Nightmare did not respond, she simply gazed towards the sky; the nightly hue against the sunny energy had begun to fade. Nightmare was losing this.
“The night fades Luna…” Celestia spoke, her tear stained eyes full of sorrow from the act she was about to do.
The black alicorn simply stared Celestia down, knowing she couldn’t kill her.
Celestia’s horn glowed with its magical prowess, preparing a strike that could kill the weakened alicorn.
Nightmare’s eyes simply followed the magic, a smug grin upon her face.
Celestia’s tiara glowed, stopping the white alicorn from finishing her spell. Harmony had never activated on its own…
Suddenly several images and sounds exploded into Celestia’s mind, showing her visions of six ponies, six she had never seen before. These six were shown together, each with a mysterious necklace on its neck, they appeared to be female and each necklace had one singular color from Harmony’s six. Red for loyalty, Pink for Kindness, Gold for Honesty, Violet for Generosity Blue for Laughter, and finally purple for Magic, the most mysterious of them all held by a pony that looked strangely like Celestia’s late protégé. She had no idea how she knew what the images were, she tried her best to decipher some meaning.
Suddenly the figure of Nightmare Moon burst through her thoughts, bearing vampire like fangs she descended upon the ponies, Celestia gasped as she thought the six were as good as dead. However the ponies suddenly glowed, each illuminated by the same color as their jewelry. The figures stood unfazed by Nightmare’s imposing appearance, and suddenly Nightmare was hit with a rainbow, sprouting from the six’s united power. Celestia felt the familiar feeling of pure harmony, reminiscent of her times with Luna before her downfall.
Nightmare’s figure was torn apart, disintegrating into nothingness by the power of Harmony. Celestia was hurt as she witnessed Nightmare’s death, wondering what the purpose of that was. The vision was not yet over, out of the ashes of Nightmare Moon stood Luna. She was scared, small, and her luminescent coat renewed by the blast.
She was turned, back into the Luna she once loved.
She could be changed, there was still hope.
But how? Celestia had no idea who these ponies were as she had never seen them before in her life.
She had to figure it out, somehow…
Harmony glowed again, this time amassing a large amount of energy, solar and lunar,forming a rainbow.
Nightmare during this was confused by Celestia’s apparent blanking out and Harmony's sudden burst of power. Nightmare hadn’t seen the vision and didn’t care too, as she had regained some strength and was poised to attack Celestia.
The attack never came.
The power Harmony had amassed struck Nightmare Moon with all its might, instead of blasting her however the power amassed a large circle of pure energy that surrounded Nightmare, several strips spread out from the circle and all amassed to Nightmare who was in the center.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Nightmare screamed, somewhat scared by this sudden burst of power.
“This is Harmony’s doing! Not mine!” Celestia was completely stunned by what was happening before her, unable to control it in any way.
“I’LL KILL YOU!” Nightmare cried.
The lines transfixed on Nightmare, the power was amassing around her being, slowly forming some sort of portal.
Nightmare used all her wing power to escape this mysterious power and even with a broken wing she managed to gain altitude, however tendrils snapped out of the circle, ensnaring Nightmare in their wake, slowly bringing her down to a newly formed portal below her.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” Nightmare was flying frantically, ignoring her injuries in an effort to escape the bonds that brought her down, to no avail however.
Celestia merely stood before the portal, desperately torn between stopping Harmony, or letting things take their course.
Nightmare began to claw at Celestia, trying to bring her down with her, the tendrils however keeping her in the middle of the portal of energy. Celestia had no idea what was on the other side of that portal and only hoped it wasn’t some form of hell.
Nightmare gazed into Celestia’s eyes one last time, a look of pure hate, of pure desire to end Celestia’s life, a look that her very sister gave; it shook Celestia to her core.
The Princess of the Night was finally engulfed in the portal, the circle of energy suddenly taking the form of a tornado.
Nightmare issued one final cry, “I’ll RETURN, AND SHOW EVERYPONY WHAT A MONSTER YOU ARE!” Nightmare was in the middle of the vortex as it slowly collapsed on itself, pieces of glass flying into the swirling mass.
Celestia could only watch as Harmony had its will be done, and Nightmare was swallowed into the vortex, which then completely collapsed onto itself, the energy then imploded and slowly faded away.
All that remained was Nightmare Moon’s shadowy helm, still cracked from the battle.
Before Celestia could even think, Harmony then completely removed itself from Celestia’s neck with a forceful tug. Floating up into the air with an aura of magic, the giant necklace was split in six pieces, and then flew up through the shattered sky roof, then seperating and sprinting out in different direction.
Celestia simply stared, events completely overwhelming her as she collapsed onto the ground, only hoping her dear Luna was safe.
I'm so sorry...
The hooves of other ponies could be heard rushing out into the church as the door to the shrine was burst open.
I remember the day you learned to fly...
Blood was trickling from Celestia now, her wounds worse than she thought.
I was so proud of you...
The blood began to cover one of the shattered glass pieces on the floor; a part of Luna’s face was now covered with Celestia’s blood.
I would forgive you in an instant...
Several guard ponies rushed around their princess, jaws agape at the sight…
I love you...
Her vision faded, and peace came through sleep.
-Present Day-
Celestia caught herself gazing at the moon often, sometimes just naturally doing it without even requiring a thought.
The moon glowed in its ethereal gaze; even from here she could see its otherworldly beauty. It twinkled, Celestia would like to think it was Luna coming back but she didn't know.After their duel, the moon showed an odd figure plastered on its face, simply called the Mare in the Moon.
Celestia was sure it was Luna, it was odd to imagine her cursed to live on what she had created but it seemed fitting none the less.Celestia recently had just raised the moon, it was hard at first but she eventully got it hang of it, but never could get it the way Luna always managed to.
She still blamed herself for that terrible war, Canterlot may have recovered over the years but the scars it left were painful.
Harmony's sudden outburst was still beyond her, several books and legends had been created trying to explain how something created by ponies could somehow take a life of it's own. It's pieces still hadn't been recovered, many ponies such as the famous Daring Do had wanted to go after the mystical pieces. They were stopped by Celestia herself, keeping them away in honour of her sister.
The vision… It all hung on that vision, that one little piece she held on to in order not to lose herself in guilt.
The guilt from Luna’s downfall was overwhelming, but that vision gave hope that maybe she could redeem herself and save her sister.
She noticed a picture of her latest protégé had been knocked over; odd considering no pony had been in here.She quickly adjusted it back to its proper place, smiling inwardly at herself.
"Twilight always did get on me to clean my room..." Celestia thought to herself.
I really just wish she could find some friends.]
Celestia’s gaze returned to the lunar rock, still mesmerized by its glow. It was truly Luna’s magnum opus, a symbol of the night; it may have diminished after the years gone by without its master’s care but its otherworldly beauty still showed true.
The moon was a double edged sword however, it reminded her that her sister was gone and possibly forever.
The Princess could only hope her ponies saw Luna’s night as the beautiful symbol of one pony’s love, not a grim reminder of the past.
Celestia quitely made her way towards her bed, gently laying down as her eyes grew weary from the day's events.
Celestia’s eyes slowly lidded shut, and for once it wasn’t the guilt ridden sleep she was used to, rather there was a glimpse of hope in all this.
The Summer Sun celebration was tomorrow, it was going to be a good day.
-The End-
