Dr. Horae

Nightmare Moon steps onto a massive pedestal and takes a deep sniff of the cool night air. Her whole body relaxes as the pleasant scent tantalizes her nose, and she gets a moment of bliss that’s she’s been waiting for all day. She then relaxes on the balcony and her head tilts towards the full moon as her horn glows. The world shifts away into something more sinister than her lavish palace. The obsidian pillars and decorated tiles glow as red veins trace their patterns and bleed into the air around her. The peaceful view of the sleeping city she has claimed as her throne disappears behind a dark, wispy cloud that sinks from the sky, and through the clouds, the silhouettes of dark spires surrounding a gothic throne rise up. Sitting on the throne is the shadow of another being of equine build. As the details become more defined, the spires become dotted with green lights that constantly fade in and out, and the creature on the throne turns out to be an alicorn. When everything is as solid as reality, Nightmare Moon opens her eyes and smiles lovingly at the alicorn. He has piercing green eyes, a gray coat with his mane pulled back and colored in different shades of gray. He’s also donning a green sweater and a dark blue cape held in place by gold pads that have glowing, green stones imbedded in them as well as gauntlets of the same color with the same stones.

“Sirius, I am so happy to finally see you again,” says Nightmare Moon as she approaches him, planks of stone coming from the abyss to assist her in her walk to him. “I must thank you for the gifts you gave me. They will surely help me defeat the Sun.”

Sirius smiles and descends his throne, meeting Nightmare Moon halfway.

“No, it is me who must thank you, my love,” says Sirius, his voice radiating charisma, “for without you, my return will have been just a dream. Do you know how to assemble them?”

Nightmare Moon frowns. “Yes, you’ve already told me how to do it.”

Sirius chuckles as he brushes his hoof affectionately against Nightmare Moon’s cheek, making her close her eyes and purr. He paces around her, eyeing her beautiful figure closely with more planks flying up to keep his pace even.

“Now, now, Nightmare, you know I am merely eager to return to Equus after my,” he takes a deep, scornful breath, “banishment.” He smiles at her when he sees her looking at him. “But thanks to you playing off of my baby sister’s childish ambitions, I will return and rule Equus.”

“You mean ‘We’, Sirius,” sneers Nightmare Moon.

Sirius ascends his throne and turns to the dark alicorn with a thin smile.

“In due time we will rule as one, but first I need you to play your part. Celestia must not live and the Elements destroyed. As long as they have a presence, we cannot wish to have an absolute victory.”

Nightmare Moon takes a couple of paces towards Sirius’s throne.

“And what of Luna?” she asks quizzically.

“Keep her as a token of my appreciation.” Sirius says with a casual wave of his hoof. “Without her, none of this would have been possible.” Sirius extends his hoof, his horn and the stones on the gauntlet shimmer and envelop it in a green fog. Nightmare Moon shudders as she feels a tingling sensation when the mist covers her. “Soon, my love, we will rule more than just Equus. Soon all the Heavens and Hells and Earths will bow before us, and Father and Celestia will pay for their betrayal!”

There is a bright flash of light and Nightmare Moon gasps as her eyes snap open. She’s back in her room, overlooking the balcony, just the way it was before she meditated. Nightmare Moon peeks over the edge and sees a small patrol illuminated by torches clamped to their barding approaching her palace. The patrol is carrying a large box of some kind, but Nightmare Moon can sense the power in the box, and it brings a smile to her face. She hears the door open and meek footsteps approach her, but she doesn’t take her eyes off of the approaching box.

“Your Highness, would you like me to get you anything?” asks a maid.

Nightmare Moon turns around and looks down at the maid. She’s about to tell her servant to get her a big meal, but her smile and desire for such a thing disappears when she senses an unwelcomed guest not too far from her.

“No, you are dismissed.”

The maid nods and practically runs out of the room as Nightmare Moon’s eyes narrow at the hill overlooking the city. She can see a faint glow, like a small star perched on the hill’s apex, and she can feel the eyes of the source locking on to her’s.

“Celestia.”

Celestia launches a spell into the sky, and when its reaches its full height, it pops open with deafening results and momentarily brings sunlight. Nightmare Moon turns away and holds her wing up to shield her eyes from the blinding light. When she does lower her wing and look back, though, her eyes widen and her ears droop from the unexpected wave of blazing rocks being lobbed towards her city. Buildings collapse in mere seconds and the ground shakes with plumes of fiery smoke towering into the sky with each landing stone, drowning out the ringing bells and shouts from the guards and fleeing civilians. Nightmare Moon watches in sick fascination as the endless supply of burning rocks are lobbed into her city, and she’s snapped out of her trance when a portion of the city walls collapse in an inferno. Then she glances down to watch her soldiers clad in lavender armor charge the breach head on.

She growls and launches a spell at the onslaught that explodes into a purple shockwave, reducing the volley into ash. Then she points at the army and her voice rings over the chaos with divine power.

“DEFEND ARMONIA WITH YOUR LIVES!”

Nightmare Moon continues to shout her orders while trying desperately to keep the catapult assault at bay. She can hear the soldiers on both sides fighting and dying behind the clanging metals, magical attacks, and barked orders. At first it looks as though Nightmare Moon’s soldiers’ defenses will hold, but her coat pales when she sees Celestia disappear, only to reappear a second later in the middle of her soldier’s inside a large fireball. The soldiers are seared to crisp skeletons as the fire shoots outward in a deadly shockwave. Then Celestia’s soldiers swarm inside like a deadly, golden wave.

Nightmare Moon snarls and spreads her wings to confront her nemesis and her army, but stops when the doors to the chamber are pushed open followed by frantic galloping. She turns around and smiles with relief when she sees the dozen soldiers from earlier running in. Four of them are carrying a large, golden box with a crescent moon and a sun mixing with each other and a red crown in the middle while the others are acting as their guards. Nightmare Moon teleports in front of them and uses her magic to open the seals on the box. They click and whir as the gears inside turn, and then the top pops off easily while eerie smoke pours out from the interior.

Nightmare Moon quickly levitates six pieces of stones out of the container and carries them to the center of a pedestal located directly under the center of the domed ceiling. After half hazardly placing them on the ground she steps back, closes her eyes and aims her horn at them. Her horn and the pieces brought in glow a dark purple, and the said pieces gradually lift off of the ground. Each piece gives off a burst of energy and the glow around them changes from a dark purple to blue and floats on their own. Nightmare Moon grins and approaches them with her guards cautiously following.

Nightmare Moon guides the first pieces together, they are a snug fit and glow brighter for the briefest of seconds as they fuse as one. The guards look at each other nervously as Nightmare Moon claps her hooves together, cheering about the supposedly simple action. When her short celebration ends, she starts guiding the other pieces together and the lead guard carefully approaches her.

“Your Highness, I’m afraid we cannot hold the city much longer. Celestia is overwhelming our forces,” says the lead guard as two more pieces of the puzzle fuse together.

Nightmare Moon chuckles while slipping the some of last pieces in place. “Fear not, Colonel, for when I open the path to the Allo Kosmo we shall get the help promised to us, and victory will be ours!”

The Colonel gulps nervously. “The Allo Kosmo? But, Your Highness, isn’t that the realm ruled by the Stars?”

Nightmare Moon lifts up the final piece and grins as she studies it by gradually turning it in her grip. “The Stars rule everything, simpleton, but these Stars, and the Banished Prince, will aid us in our victory.”

“The Banished Prince? Your Highness, I never-”

“SILENCE!” The Colonel clamps his mouth shut and Nightmare Moon’s reptilian eyes focus on the spot where the last piece goes. “Soon, nowhere will be safe for Celestia and her pitiful followers. Soon, the Night will reign supreme!”

Nightmare Moon slams the last piece in and at first nothing happens, prompting the dark alicorn to scowl and use magic and muscle to push the piece further in. The guards exchange glances as Nightmare Moon curses under her breath while using all of her might to get the piece in. There is a horrible squeaking noise as her armored hooves dig into the polished tile, making her guards cringe and fold their ears down. After a minute of struggling, Nightmare Moon swears and steps back, panting with her dark coat shining with sweat.

“This is ridiculous! This is unacceptable!” shouts Nightmare Moon. She stomps her hoof and the noise echoes in the empty chamber with deafening results. “WHY ISN’T THIS WORKING!”

A guard bursts through the large double doors and gallops to Nightmare Moon, frantically shouting: “Your Highness, Celestia and her army have breached the palace! We cannot fight them off! We must retreat!”

Nightmare Moon snarls and the guard yelps as she yanks him off of his feet with her magic and brings him close to her snout. Even with her magical grip and his purple armor, the guard is still visibly trembling.

“Fool! We will not be retreating! We will fight the Sun and we will achieve victory!”

Nightmare Moon throws the poor pony against the levitating cube and he falls to the ground, motionless, with a splotch of blood on the cube. The cube suddenly glows a dark red as it hums, and while Nightmare Moon and her guards step back, the pieces of the cube break apart into six smaller cubes. Green light snakes out of the cubes as they grind against each other, burning occult symbols into them, and the cubes make a rumbling sound that shakes the room as they grind against each other. The red gradually dissolves into green and the little cubes twist and turn at a more rapid pace until they are but blurs. Then, they all come to a sudden stop with every side having matching symbols and the whole cube becomes dim. Everyone in the room silently stares at it as it floats on its pedestal, humming and spewing eerie, obscured whispers. The guards look over their shoulders when there is an explosion, closely followed by shouts and soldiers clashing.

Nightmare Moon approaches the cube, grinning eagerly in anticipation as to what will happen next. She doesn’t even turn around when the large doors are disintegrated in a blast of fire, or that Celestia storms the room with a wave of gold armored troops that quickly cut down the guards in a deadly barrage of magic and taloned gauntlets. When Nightmare Moon turns around and sees Celestia standing in the doorway, wearing the jewelry encasing the Elements of Harmony, with her soldiers flanking her, she cackles and jumps down. Celestia remains steadfast while her soldiers take a step back when Nightmare Moon lands.

“You’re too late, Celestia! The Lunar Cube is already activated and soon your precious Sun will be no more!” cackles Nightmare Moon triumphantly.

“Nightmare Moon, release Luna now!” orders Celestia furiously.

She stomps her hoof and a burst of fire erupts under her hoof and burns the ground around her.

Nightmare Moon laughs. “Oh no, your sister belongs to me, now. She will get her little republic, but at the cost of her freedom and the rise of the Eternal Night!” Then in a low tone: “Besides, there’s somepony who's dying to have a word with you.”

The Lunar Cube suddenly shoots out a green shockwave that knocks all of the soldiers down and makes the two alicorns stumble. An earsplitting screaming and a bright beam of light bearing the same color as the shockwave overwhelms the senses as it shoots straight into the sky. The beam breaks through the domed ceiling with ease and most of the debris is sucked up, but a few large pieces of the ceiling breaks loose and falls to the ground. Celestia shields her soldiers from the falling debris and when they hit her shield, they break apart in a flash of golden light. When the light reaches high above the clouds it explodes outward, pushing away every cloud and covering the night sky in a swirl of dark clouds illuminated by lightning slithering in between them.

“What have you done!” cries Celestia over the cube’s screaming and the rolling thunder.

Before Nightmare Moon can answer, a blob speeds down the beam and dives into the dark alicorn’s back. She grunts and stumbles to the ground, cursing about the pain. When Celestia steps forward, Nightmare Moon screams and contorts on the ground, arguing with herself with three different voices. One of which is Luna.

“Luna, can you hear me!” calls Celestia hopefully.

“Tia!” cries Luna as she stretches a hoof out

“She’s mine!” snarls Nightmare Moon.

“Nightmare Moon, surrender now! You cannot win!” says Celestia boldly.

“No, Sister!” hisses Nightmare Moon, but this time she no longer sounds like a power hungry aristocrat, but a stallion instead. A very angry stallion. “You will not keep my throne from ME!”

Celestia and her soldiers take a step back as Nightmare Moon approaches them with wobbly steps, each step making her writhe and curse the stallion possessing her. She is sweating from pain and the light from the cube becomes more intense as it spins faster. She falls to the ground and when she lifts her head up, Celestia sees Luna’s eyes filling with tears of regret and terror.

“I’m sorry, Tia!” sobs Luna.

Celestia cries for Luna as she gallops forward, but is forced to skid to a stop when she sees the monster possessing her sister convulse. When she looks at Celestia again, all the white alicorn sees is a pair of bright green eyes full of loathing and a desire for control.

“The throne of Equus is mine by birthright!” screams the stallion.

“Release my sister now or suffer the consequences!” orders Celestia as she boldly approaches Nightmare Moon while charging her horn.

Nightmare Moon collapses on the ground, gritting her teeth and looking up at Celestia with Luna’s eyes, begging for help. Parts of the palace start collapsing and the debris gets sucked towards the light. The thick pieces of stone set off small flares as they enter, and Celestia’s soldiers cling to whatever their hooves and teeth can grab. Nightmare Moon writhes on the floor again as the three personalities battle for dominance while flapping her wings madly and sprouting out random attacks from her horn. Luna begs Celestia to help her as Nightmare Moon commands the stallion to leave at once, but the stallion is determined to stay. When Nightmare Moon’s spasming ends, she’s on the ground, panting and drenched in sweat and tears. She bares her sharp teeth and shakily pushes herself back to her hooves.

“Do you not recognize my voice, Sister?” sneers the stallion, his voice dominating the other two. “Has Father commanded you to forget about me as well?”

The cube gets a burst of energy that makes the floor crack all round it and suck up the crushed tiles into its magical vacuum. While the stallion laughs from sheer aggravation Celestia’s eyes widen and she waves to her soldiers as she orders them to leave. When they show reluctance, she stomps on the ground and uses her Royal Canterlot voice to order them to do as she commanded. As soon as the guards leave, she turns to Nightmare Moon -or whoever is in control of her now.

“Father always loved you! You and little-” Nightmare Moon grunts painfully and collapses on the ground, still under the control of the mysterious stallion, “Woona!”

Then Nightmare Moon glares at Celestia, this time as herself. “You selfish quim, leave this palace at once! The throne is mine! Equestria is mine!”

Then her facial expression shifts to one of pure terror and Celestia tries to run to her, but a collapsing pillar almost crushes her. As Celestia skids to a stop, the pieces of the pillar that were knocked loose from the impact are sucked away along with more stones and loose items, creating a horrible cloud of garbage.

“Tia, help!” sobs Luna as she extends a hoof.

“Luna, I’m coming!” cries Celestia over the demonic howling of the portal. She charges her horn and shoots out a beam of fire that drills through the pillar and sends its red hot pieces to be greedily sucked away. “Fight them, Luna! Fight them!”

“You forgot about me, didn’t you!” accuses the stallion furiously.

Celestia slides in front of Nightmare Moon, grabs her head with her hooves and looks into her eyes. They are constantly shifting from Luna’s soft, terrified blue eyes, to Nightmare Moon’s power hungry lizard eyes and the stallion’s bright green, hate filled eyes. When they stop at the stallion’s eyes, she hesitates before saying his name. His response is a growl.

“I didn’t forget about you, Sirius,” sniffles Celestia, she puts up a shield in time that crackles when a piece of the collapsed pillar hits it. The pieces bounce off and disappear in a blue flare. “I never forgot about you, but please, let Luna go.”

Then the eyes shift to the lizard’s and Nightmare Moon screams: “NO! SHE’S MINE!” Then she twists away from Celestia and stabs her in the shoulder with her horn. Celestia screams in pain and falls on her back, and when Nightmare Moon twists her horn out of Celestia’s shoulder she screams again and awkwardly puts her hoof over the injury to stop the flowing blood. “LUNA WILL BE MINE, FOREVER!”

There is an earsplitting roll of thunder and the sky cracks open, spilling red light in the palace and revealing a hellish mixture of black and red clouds being illuminated by green lightning. Celestia’s ears flatten when there is a horrendous screeching that is quickly drowned out over a terrifying roar that shakes the palace. Nightmare Moon and the stallion laugh in unison as a slimy tentacle covered in toothed suction cups slithers out.

“The armies of the Dark Stars are almost upon us!” cheers Nightmare Moon triumphantly.

“No! That wasn’t in our arrangement!” cries Luna, horrified by what she’s seeing.

“The doorway is almost opened, Sister,” growls the stallion as his eyes focus on Celestia, “and when it is, you and Father will pay for the ultimate sin!”

Celestia groans as she rolls to her feet, weakly saying: “You were foolish to boast such things, Brother.”

Nightmare Moon’s green eyes widen to that of dinner plates when she -or he, in this case- realizes what was just said. The dark alicorn screams in protest with both tyrannical voices as both alicorns charge their horns for an attack. Celestia’s eyes glow and the jewelry she’s wearing glow like benevolent stars as aims her horn at the spinning cube, which is now but a blur, and Nightmare Moon aims her horn at Celestia. They both fire at the same time with Celestia’s being rainbow colored and Nightmare Moon’s being dark purple. The rainbow beam’s power creates a shockwave that disintegrates Nightmare Moon’s attack and when it strikes the cube, it stops spinning and the rainbow colors overtake the electric blue light created from the device. The tentacled creature howls in pain as the sky closes up, slicing off its exposed tentacle. The tentacle burns to ash when it hits the rainbow and Celestia hears the stallion scream in anguish as the greenish blob he arrived in is sucked out of Nightmare Moon and pulled back to the other dimension before it closes. Then, to her horror, she sees Nightmare Moon surrounded by a rainbow funnel and has to shield her eyes from the explosion of blinding light. She hears Luna scream for her over the sonic boom and crumbling stone. Celestia calls Luna and tries to fly after her as the colorful orb containing Nightmare Moon and her sister is launched into space. But it’s hopeless, the orb is too fast and Celestia watches helplessly as the orb flies into the moon, creating a colorful shockwave that can be seen and heard by all. When the colors disappear, she sees a silhouette of Nightmare Moon imprinted on the moon.

Celestia stares at the moon in disbelief as tears swell in her eyes and roll down her cheeks freely. She can’t speak, can’t think and can hardly breath. Then there is another explosion and Celestia turns around to see six blue orbs fly out of the palace in different directions and disappear across Equestria, but she doesn’t care. She turns her attention back to the moon as she lowers herself back into the palace through the gaping hole in the ceiling, never taking her eyes off of the celestial object and the image imprinted on it. When her hooves touch the destroyed tiles she sits on her haunches and continues to stare at the moon. Then she lets out a choked whimper and looks at the jewelry around her. As Celestia stares at the magickal pendants her sorrow changes to rage. She grits her teeth and yanks off each of the Elements of Harmony, screaming incoherently, and she throws them to the ground and stomps on them, sobbing and ignoring the burning pain in her shoulder. With each stomp, the pieces become grayer and more stone like, and soon the jewelry is nothing but crumbled pieces of stone. Celestia stares at the bits, huffing and crying, and her mane no longer flowing freely, but hanging around her shoulders, messy with loose strands all over being matted to her face, neck, and body from sweat and the muddy dirt and soot from her fight.

She continues to breathe heavily, sniffling and trembling, as she stares at the mess. The once beautiful palace is now dark, ruined, and the grave site for the Elements of Harmony and her family. Celestia sits in her spot, unmoving and crying, for an indefinite amount of time before she wipes her eyes and glares over her shoulder.

“You can stop staring anytime, Custos,” sniffles Celestia.

Custos coolly approaches Celestia from the shadows, saying: “You did what you had to do. Your home is safe for now.”

Celestia snaps around, mane, tail and hooves engulfed in fire. “I LOST MY SISTER AND BROTHER!”

Her scream shakes the building, causing loose debris to fall over, but Custos shows no signs of intimidation.

“Brother by blood, but not by heart,” says Custos simply. “It was for the best. Luna was lost to Nightmare Moon and your father banished Sirius because he cared not for Harmony or Equus, but rather his own ambitions, which led to him breaking the rules of his exile. Despite all of this, however, Nightmare Moon, Luna, and your brother will return in time.”

Celestia knocks the featureless unicorn to his back and presses her hooves against his chest, breathing heavily from rage. Custos, as usual, doesn’t feel threatened in the slightest sense and actually relaxes under the Sun Goddess’s crushing hooves.

“Enough with your lies! I banished them with the Elements of Harmony! They won’t return!” Then she returns to her normal self and collapses to the ground, crying. “Why did the Elements do that? I could’ve saved Luna. I could’ve talked sense into Sirius.”

“Just like you could’ve saved Discord from himself?” Celestia looks up at Custos as stands up and she averts her eyes when he gazes down at her. “Your father created the Elements of Harmony to protect Equus. They care not for blood relations or deep friendships. A threat is a threat and they will remove them as they see fit. But, as I said, they will be back, and when Luna is freed from Nightmare Moon, Sirius will no doubt make his return.” Celestia looks at Custos, sniffling and eyes red and puffy. “Your brother’s lust for power knows no bounds and he will not stop until he gets what he wants. Or until he’s killed.”

Celestia’s jaw drops and Custos leaves without another word, and when Celestia calls after him, he melts into the shadows. Celestia stares at where the mysterious unicorn disappeared to for a moment before curling up on the ground and weeping in her hooves with the only light being the moon and stars shining down on her.