Primeval Retribution

Prologue

The inside of Canterlot’s royal quarters were always quiet at night, but not this quiet. The sounds of Canterlot’s wildlife had been repressed down into a dull whisper of howls and hoots, the tension within the buildings of the royal city more than enough to give the animals notice of the situation. The regular hoofsteps of a royal guard patrolling the inside of Celestia’s palace seemed to have been taken away, and the water flowing on each side of the princess of the sun’s throne sounded as if it had hushed itself, knowing that Celestia was listening for something. It wasn’t wrong.

Princess Celestia sat still in her throne, staring intently at the large doors across the room with tired eyes. Her patience was dwindling into a thin string held out to its point of snapping, and the thread didn’t look as if it were going to be let loose even after the princess met what she waited for. The full moon outside let soft light into the colorful windows lining the hall of Celestia’s throne room. The elegant designs of red, blue, and yellow placed on the tinted glass displayed themselves onto the floor of the hall, the moonlight almost as if it were brighter this night than ever before. The brightness of the moon, to Celestia’s mind, wasn’t a coincidence, and the heavy and hurried hoofsteps slowly approaching through the halls of the palace almost made the light of the moon intensify even more. Celestia knew the meeting with her sister couldn’t wait any longer, and with the growing anger of Luna becoming a problem as of late, the princess of the sun couldn’t hold the talk off for another day. Night’s fate was decided tonight, whether Celestia wanted it or not.

The hoofsteps thumping through the halls came to a stop as they reached the doors of Celestia’s throne room. Heart pounding as she waited, Celestia stood up and trotted down from her throne to the floor of the hall, keeping her eyes set on the doors that hid her visitor. The silence from inside of the throne room after Celestia came to a stop at the base of her settle of sovereignty speaking for itself, Luna finally got her wish to discuss the matter she had been longing for ever since she returned to Equestria. Slowly, the doors of the throne room pushed open to reveal the princess of the night on the other side. Sisterly love aside, both princesses kept in mind that the matter at hoof wasn’t for family matters, but for Equestria’s safety. Their eyes locked with their thoughts ready to be unleashed, Celestia and Luna began.

“Sister,” Princess Luna said as he gradually passed through the doorway and continued into the room. “I have been waiting to talk with you about this matter for long enough. I cannot allow you to push this away another time.” She stopped as she reached the middle of the hall, standing up straight and strong. “You know why I am here. We both do.”

A sigh escaping her mouth, Celestia closed her eyes for a moment before staring back into Luna’s. “We both do, yes,” Celestia admitted. “I assume that I’m not going to be able to talk you out of letting this go.”

“We ruled one thousand years ago in harmony, sister. You know that giving me the responsibility of night once more can be done. I may have gotten out of control before, but I have learned to contain myself. I can take control of night again.” Luna nodded subtly. “I know I can.”

“Do you?” Princess Celestia furrowed her brow, taking a step forward. “Nightmare Moon isn’t just another side of you, she is another part of you. A part of you that cannot be allowed to be let out again. I haven’t forgotten what I had to do to try to get rid of her; I never will. Can you promise me that I won’t have to do it again?”

“I promise, sister.” Luna winced as her voice wavered slightly. “With all of my heart, I know I can control her.”

Celestia squinted her eyes. “You don’t sound very confident.”

Princess Luna trotted forward quickly, but stopped as Celestia put a golden aura around her horn. “Please, sister, I can take control of night again. You have to let me have it.”

“What makes you so sure that Nightmare Moon is gone? What makes you so sure that she won’t get out again somehow?”

“I’ve learned how to contain her. She isn’t in control anymore. I won’t let her take control. Please, I miss raising the stars at night. I miss raising the moon.”

Celestia quickly shifted her eyes to the floor. The talk about night’s control had been in Celestia’s mind ever since the first day Princess Luna came back, but the decision to let her sister have night again was as harder than she expected it to be. Sincerity clear in Luna’s words, the princess of the night tried her best to make her sister turn night over to her, but the questions that soon came out of Celestia’s mouth were the ones Luna had dreaded.

“What have you learned?” Celestia asked, returning her eyes back to Luna. “What have you learned that makes you sure that Nightmare Moon is gone?”

Luna quickly swallowed a small lump in her throat before she could even open her mouth. She had thought of the questions before, but the answers were never in reach. “I’ve... I’ve learned that night isn’t something to be treated as if it were a possession. It’s something that is to be admired by everypony. It is not mine.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “What else?”

Finding herself in a silence, Princess Luna bit her lip and eyed her surroundings. Her mind raced for something to say just to answer the question. What else had she learned? What else could she learn? To Luna, there was nothing else to learn, but to her sister, there was much, much more.

The quietness of Luna giving Celestia what she had anticipated, and the princess of the sun spoke again, “Have you learned that jealousy is a dangerous thing, at that it has no place in the position as co-ruler of Equestria?”

Luna stepped back. “I...”

“Have you learned that letting your feelings get the best of you is highly unsafe, and that your job as keeper of the night could be affected by them?”

Her ears falling flat against her head, Luna could only whimper quietly.

“Have you learned that there is no competition between night and day, and that there never will be any of the sort?”

“Sister-”

“Have you learned that Nightmare Moon is a part of you, and ever since she has become a part of you, she will always be there?”

“Please...”

“Have you learned that-?”

Beginning to feel herself on the verge of letting her tears go, Princess Luna had to put an end to the assault. “Please, sister! Stop!” Luna pleaded loudly. She hung her head close to the ground and shut her eyes tight, knowing that she had made a mistake.

Celestia took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Forgive me, Luna, but I cannot allow you to have the responsibility of raising the moon and the stars. Your past has sealed that decision, and it will be a long time before you will be able to take back what was once yours. For now, all I ask is that you remain by my side as a sister.”

Princess Luna raised her head up as Celestia began to walk back up to her throne. This wasn’t over. “Sister,” Luna called. She trotted forward to the base of Celestia’s throne as the princess of the sun turned to face her, Luna’s eyes glistening and her brow tilted inwards. “You can’t hold me back from what I love. I want the control of night.”

“Luna, I can’t give you it. There are too many risks involved, and you know this. Just let this go and-”

Anger taking over, Luna slammed one of her hooves down on the stairs leading up to Celestia’ throne. “I’m not going to let this go! We went into ruling Equestria as sisters! We trusted each other! How can you hold me back from what I earned my talent for!?”

Sensing something else beginning to rise up from within her sister, Princess Celestia stepped down to the floor as Luna backed away from the throne. “I’m not holding it back from you to anger you. I am holding it back for the sake of Equestria. Your anger with me has not left you just yet, and as long as it is still in you, night is in danger if you take hold of it.”

Princess Luna clenched her teeth and flared her nostrils, and slowly, a dark aura began to form around the littler sister. “You put me on the moon for one thousand years because I threatened to make night eternal! How can I let my anger go for that!?”

The changes beginning to take place on Luna’s appearance and tone of voice were becoming distinct, and Celestia could recognize the horrific figure that her little sister was starting to turn into. Celestia stepped forward and tried to walk to her sister, but was abruptly stopped as a sparkling purple wall of magic blocked her path. The transformation was beyond Luna’s ability to contain it. Nightmare Moon had taken over.

Celestia tried desperately to get around the wall of magic in front of her, but only found her efforts blocked each time by the familiar cloudy magic. “Luna! Do not let her take hold of you! Nightmare Moon can’t be let out again! Contain her!”

The wall of purple magic in front of Princess Celestia slowly became cloudier and cloudier, eventually turning into a mass of magic unable to be seen through. The sound of a mare’s laugher began to take over Luna’s yells, and the formation of armor pierced into the hall loudly. The howls of laughter were not those of the princess of the night’s any longer, but those of a being that Celestia had dreaded would return. In one fell motion, the wall of magic in front of Celestia disappeared all at once, and the figure standing within the hall along with Princess Celestia stared at her with pale green, sinister eyes.

The figure tilted her chin back down as her laughter came to a halt. “Ah, if it isn’t my other half’s sister!” Nightmare Moon exclaimed as Celestia came into view, grinning at the princess of the sun.

Celestia glared back at Nightmare, bringing her horn down to point at what her sister had become. “Nightmare Moon. I should have realized that Luna wouldn’t be able to control you to her best capabilities just yet.”

Nightmare waved a hoof limply through that air. “She’ll never be able to control me. I’ve become a part of her! How can you control something that has control over you?”

A golden aura forming on Celestia’s horn, the princess of the sun bared her teeth. “You are not in control of her, you never will be. She’ll grow strong enough to be able to vanquish you completely. But until then, I’m going to have to repress you back.”

“You are?” Nightmare laughed loudly. “Oh please! Not even you can stop me anymore! I’ve grown stronger over the one thousand years that Luna and I have spent on the moon! If it weren’t for those six mares, I would’ve taken night forever. But they’re not here, are they?” Nightmare giggled malevolently. “I know things about magic that you would never know in your entire life!” The armored mare examined her hoof as she lifted it up in front of her face. “Now how would you like to be brought down from power? Violently, or would you rather give up the throne right now and be my servant? Night is very pretty, you know. It’ll look amazing as it stays in the sky forever. You’ll be able to admire it straight by my side!”

Celestia scraped a hoof on the ground. “I won’t let you take this throne. You won’t be taking any sort of power as long as I am here!”

A large beam of golden magic shot from the tip of Celestia’s horn and headed straight for Nightmare Moon. Slightly shocked at the sudden attack, Nightmare gasped at the beam of magic heading toward her, but ultimately laughed wildly. Before the beam could hit her, Nightmare burst outwards into a sparkling purple mist, the beam of magic that Celestia had shot at her passing straight through the purple cloud and colliding with the wall beside the doors of the throne room.

Nightmare Moon continued laughing as she formed back into her alicorn form, trying to suppress her wicked laughter with a hoof to her mouth. “Did you really think that would get me? Your ways are quite simple, Celestia. And don’t even try putting Luna and I back on the moon again.” She smiled maliciously at the alicorn staring her down. “That trick isn’t going to work.”

Fed up with petty insults, Celestia began to relentlessly fire beams of magic at Nightmare Moon. A smirk on her face, Nightmare turned into a cloud of purple magic once more. Every beam of magic that raced through the air passed through the purple cloud with no damage done to the pitch black mare. The attacks Celestia sent toward Nightmare Moon flew wildly around the throne room as Nightmare began to float around in the air, the beams of magic burning the walls and banners with each impact. Laughter echoed throughout the palace as Nightmare Moon continued to fly around in her cloud form, dodging Celestia’s ever growing irate attempts to get rid of her.

Figured she had tormented the princess of the sun enough, Nightmare Moon decided to end the useless fight. In a sudden move, the cloud of purple magic dove down into the ground and released a burst of purple magic. A wave of magic coursed along the floor faster than Celestia could react, the wave sweeping Princess Celestia’s legs out from under her and harshly bringing her to the floor. The drag of the wave slammed the Celestia’s head against the floor of the hall, a flash of white interrupting her reddened vision as she rested on her side. Quiet and hushed laughter gradually made its way into Celestia’s muffled hearing as Nightmare Moon walked closer to the princess, the pitch black alicorn standing over Celestia putting a hoof on the princess’s neck.

“I told you that I wouldn’t be so easily defeated as before,” Nightmare Moon taunted. “Simple as it may have been, there isn’t a lot to you when it comes to using magic to get rid of your foes. Stone encasement, turned to shadow, banishment to the moon, it’s all just a complicated, single spell.” She leaned down and whispered into Celestia’s ear, “Such a shame that it’s harder to do when you don’t have your little sister to help you.”

Composure edging its way back into Celestia’s blurred vision and muffled hearing, the princess laying on the floor looked up at the mare of night holding her down. “Simple... but effective. You’ve experienced it first hoof, remember?”

“And so has your sister,” Nightmare Moon said as she raised her head away from Celestia’s. “Once a trick is done, one will find out how it works. Unfortunately for you, I know how that little spell operates. I know how to avoid it.”

Celestia lifted a hoof up to Nightmare Moon’s leg and pushed up against it. “But do you know how to avoid a magic that you have never experienced before?” she asked.

Nightmare tilted her head and squinted slightly. “What are you talking about?”

A smirk on her face, Celestia tightened her grip on Nightmare Moon’s leg. “My point precisely.”

For a creature as dark as herself, even Nightmare Moon was surprised to see what Celestia had planned. Accompanied by the sound of a shrill shriek seeming to originate out of nowhere, Princess Celestia’s partially smug expression turned to that of hatred and anger. The whites of her eyes were instantly covered with a bright green glow, and her irises pierced with a red hue as her pupils sharpened viciously. A dark purple aura flowed freely from Celestia’s eyes, and a darker and misty aura formed around her horn, bubbling with green and purple surges of a magic foreign to the creature of the night staring at them with surprise and fear pumping through her.

“What is that!? What are you doing!?” Nightmare Moon shrieked, trying her best to get her hoof out of Celestia’s grasp as she pulled as hard as she could at her leg.

“A powerful mare you may be, the influence of dark magic has the ability take over anything that it comes across,” Celestia explained. “There isn’t much a pony can do once the magic gets twisted with its victims. Let us see if you can escape the hold of dark magic, Nightmare Moon.”

Before she could even conjure the embryo of a spell, Nightmare Moon soon found that the power that had taken over Celestia was much more potent than she had assumed. A ring of a misty black magic flowed down from Celestia’s horn, coursing along her body before it made its way to her right foreleg. With no stopping, the ring of magic shot across Celestia’s hoof to Nightmare Moon’s trapped leg. The magic didn’t wait to take effect on the mare of night, and as soon as she felt a strange warmth grow within her, Nightmare Moon began to panic.

“What is this!? Let go of me!” Nightmare screamed.

Celestia didn’t have to loosen her grip on the pitch black alicorn for Nightmare to escape. Confused and hysterical, Nightmare Moon’s trepidation flung her into a delirium of frantically looking over herself and breathing quickly and heavily. Cracks of a magic blacker than her coat began to form along Nightmare’s body and legs, her armor already starting to deteriorate as it darkened in hue. The warmth in her body grew stronger and stronger with every second, and the mare of night could start to see glows of purple and green from within the cracks that grew ever larger on her form. A red light slowly pushed its way into the edges of Nightmare Moon’s eyes, and through the warm haze glazing over her perception, Nightmare could see Celestia staring at her emotionless.

The effects of the dark magic dwindling away on herself, Celestia backed away from the mare flailing around in the hall as she tried to stop the dark magic within her. “It has been a long time since I have last used this type of magic on others,” Celestia spoke. “I fear to use it at all, but I cannot allow you to take this throne. There is nothing that you can do to stop this, Nightmare Moon. This is where you go back to sleep.”

Her eyes fully engulfed in a red glow, the cracks along her body wide and bubbling with green and purple surges of magic, black crystals forming on her horn, and her armor disintegrating, Nightmare Moon stopped her frenzy and locked her vicious and angered eyes with Celestia. “I will not give up this easily!” the mare of night howled. “I will live! You will vanish!”

Despite the overwhelming feeling of defeat spreading over Nightmare Moon, it didn’t stop her from trying to take the princess of the sun with her. Magical means of attacking seemed to have been blocked, Nightmare resorted to charging Princess Celestia head on with her horn pointed directly at the princess. She gained a fair amount of distance between her and her target, but soon after a loud shatter rung from within the mare of night, Nightmare Moon felt herself grow weak. Her quickly trotting hooves slowed down to a brisk walk, and were soon confined to a weak and decrepit hobble. The armor attached to Nightmare Moon fell apart into sections and fell to the floor, gently turning to a fine dust and disappearing. The cracks along Nightmare’s body commenced to seal as the glows within them died down into nothing, gradually taking the darkness of Princess Luna’s coat with them as well. Nightmare Moon’s features diminished as Princess Luna’s features appeared, and the dark magic effects that had been on Nightmare Moon went along with her.

Soon enough, Nightmare Moon had passed and Luna had returned, the dark blue alicorn standing on sluggish and shaking legs a few meters away from her sister. Her strength wiped away with the dark magic, Luna couldn’t keep her eyes open for more than a second after she returned, the younger sister falling unconscious and limply tipping over. A golden aura saved her from slumping onto the floor of the hall, Celestia trotting to her sister’s side and sitting next to the comatose princess of the night. Princess Celestia gently let her sister onto the floor and let go of the levitation spell around her, leaving Luna to sleep for the night until her strength grew back.

“Forgive me, little sister,” Celestia whispered, “but other options to stopping Nightmare Moon were little in number.” She brushed her hoof up against Luna’s cheek. “For now, sleep, Luna.”

Princess Celestia shifted her eyes away from Princess Luna to the entrance of the hall as a shuffle of hooves scurried away from the doors and further into the palace. Whether a royal guard or a citizen of Canterlot up late, who the hoofsteps belonged to didn’t matter, but if the pony saw what had happened did. Useless as it would be to chase after the pony, Celestia sighed to herself and looked back down at her sister.

She hoped the night wouldn’t have carried out as it did, and soon enough, all of Equestria would have wished the same.