Before the nightmare

by Bloodshade

Rating: everyone
Tags: Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Adventure, Princess Celestia
Length: 2528

700 years before the rise and banishment of Nightmare moon, Celestia and Luna battle against their crazed brother and his dark powers. He wants the elements of harmony for his own dark purposes, and he's willing to kill his own flesh and blood to get them. Can Celestia and Luna stop their brother before he gets what he seeks, or is Equestria doomed.

Published 2012-01-16 04:39:25 UTC
Last updated 2012-01-16 04:39:25 UTC

Before the nightmare

It was a dark and misty night sometime around nightmare night, and the inhabitants of ponyville were gathered at the shore of Lake Cocytus. Its waters as black as ink, they all listened as the old story teller began to sing in a rhyming tune:

"There's an old tale wrought with the mystery of Tom the poet and his muse

And the magic lake which gave a life to the words the poet used

Now the muse she was his happiness and he rhymed about her grace

And told her stories of treasures deep beneath the blackened waves

Till in the stillness of one dawn still in its mystic crown

The muse she went down to the lake and in the waves she drowned

The poet came down to the lake to call out to his dear

'When there was no answer 'He was overcome with fear

He searched in vain for his treasure lost and too soon the night would fall

And only his own echo would wail back at his call

And when he swore to bring back his love by the stories he'd create

Nightmares shifted in their sleep in the darkness of the lake

In the dead of night she came to him with darkness in her eyes

Wearing a mourning gown, sweet words as her disguise

He took her in without a word for he saw his grave mistake

And vowed them both to silence deep beneath the lake

Now if its real or just a dream One mystery remains

For it is said on moonless nights They may still haunt this place

As the story teller fell silent and the towns people applauded and Twilight found herself staring into the inky dark waters of the lake, almost as if she was being drawn into it, her concentration was broken as the storyteller began to speak again.
“now we all know the tales of this lakes dark history, of deaths, mysterious disappearances, and strange shadowy figures stood by the lake side at night, but few know why, few know the origins of the mysterious darkness that fills the inky waters of this lake, and it is this story that I am going to tell you.” He was silent for a moment surveying the ponies as they hung onto his every word, and then he cleared his throat and began his story.

Few ponies know this but our beloved Princesses Celestia and Luna once had a brother, a dark pony, with a dark purpose and his name was Prince Bloodshade, he was about the same height as Princess Celestia, jet black with a dark crimson mane, his red, dragon like eyes were almost constantly narrowed and hate filled; and instead of the beautiful feathered wings of our princesses his were leathery and bat like. Our story begins almost 1700 years ago, 700 years before the banishment of Nightmare moon; it begins at the castle of the old pony princesses in the Everfree forest.

“Stand aside sister!” Bloodshade ordered, every word lased with malice and hate, and he glared at the white alicorn of the same size standing resolutely in front of him, barring his way to his prize. “I WILL NEVER LET YOU USE THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY FOR SUCH EVIL!” Princess Celestia screamed at her brother, “You can’t stop me, one way or another I will have the elements” Bloodshade replied calmly, seemingly amused somewhat by his sisters outburst. “IF YOU WANT THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY THEN YOU WILL HAVE TO GO THROUGH ME FIRST!” Celestia screamed back at him, Bloodshade’s small superior smirk quickly vanished and was replaced by a look of pure unbridled fury, he stared at her for a moment; his eyes boring into her soul before he spat “well then, if you will not stand aside then we must fight.” “I do not wish to fight you brother, please, please listen to reason, I want you back, the old you, before the darkness, before the hate, I want the brother I loved and cared for, I miss you; Luna misses you.” The Princess said on the verge of tears, and at this last part Bloodshade looked like he had been shot, he just stood there shocked, and then he lowered his head.
Princess Celestia thought that she had gotten through to him. That he had listened; she realized too late that he had merely been leveling his horn with her chest. There was a bright flash of red energy and a sharp fiery pain coursed through Celestia’s body, it felt like she had been hit by a freight train as she was sent reeling back and landed hard on the stone floor, 3ft behind where she had once stood. She rose painfully, each movement causing a new wave of pain to course through her body, she glared at her brother as he advanced on her.

Celestia waited until Bloodshade was almost on top of her before firing back, a brilliant white bolt of magical energy exploded from Celestia’s horn; because of the proximity Bloodshade didn’t even have time to react before the bolt struck him square in the chest. It sent him flying back into a pillar half way down the corridor which then collapsed on top of him, Princess Celestia stood up triumphantly, cuts and bruises peppering her body, this was before she noticed the rubble beginning to move. Suddenly the rubble of the pillar exploded outwards, the princess only barely had time to erect a magical barrier to protect her from the flying debris. After the debris had finished flying and the dust had settled Celestia noticed her brother standing in the corridor facing her, his face contorted with rage, teeth bared, eyes narrowed, blood flowed from a deep gash down his flank but he seemed not to notice, or care.

The creature of darkness that wore her brother’s face then uttered a sound that sent ice through her veins, a sound that no living creature should ever, ever make, a single hate filled shriek that pierced the very fabric of the air and reverberated of the stone walls of the castle. “oh brother, what have you become, what darkness now controls your mind” Celestia thought to herself as she watched the dark alicorn’s horn light up with red energy as he charged down the corridor towards her, the darkness in the corridor around them appeared to writhe and hiss with anger, almost as if it felt the pain and rage of the black alicorn. Princess Celestia shook these thoughts out of her head as her horn lit up and she too charged to meet her brother head on, the two alicorns collided with a bright flash of energy and a deafening boom that shook the entire castle to its foundations.

Luna awoke with a start as she felt her bedroom shake; the bowl and pitcher of water on her dresser had fallen off and smashed on the floor. “What was that?” Luna wondered aloud, she threw back the covers and swung her legs out over the edge of the bed, she listened one ear cocked trying to decipher the raised voices downstairs. One was defiantly her brother Bloodshade and she thought the other was her sister Celestia, she hated hearing them fighting, they were always fighting these days, tears pricked her eyes as she thought about the arguments that her two siblings had had over the breakfast table, or across corridors. She then made the decision that she was going to investigate; she dropped onto the stone floor and walked over to her bedroom door, it creaked loudly as she opened it and she bit her lip fearing that her sister might have heard it. When she was sure that no one had, she slipped out of the door and crept off towards the source of the noise.

Luna crept through the dark empty corridors of the castle, each step bringing her closer and closer to the voices. She eventually came to a door that led into the corridor of harmony, the corridor that led to the chamber that housed the elements of harmony. As she opened the door she had to screw her eyes up to avoid being blinded by the brilliant light that flooded through the now open door, as the light died down she gasped as she took in the scene before her. She saw her brother and sister standing in the middle of the corridor, horns locked, sparks flying, both trying to gain ground on the other, and as she looked around the corridor she could see, smashed pillars, parts of the ceiling had collapsed and the floor was strewn with pieces of glass from the broken windows. “they’ve never fought like this before” Luna thought to herself as she looked at her siblings, they were both covered with cuts and bruises and caked with dust, Bloodshade was bleeding heavily from a large gash running down his flank and one of Celestia’s wings was twisted at an impossible angle.

“STOP, PLEASE STOP, PLEASE!” Luna screamed, tears running down her face. Through the noise and anger clouding Celestia’s mind she heard the piercing sound of her sister pleading, “Luna” Celestia gasped as she realized her sister was in the room, but that momentary loss of concentration was all Bloodshade needed, there was a flash of red light and the next thing Celestia was on the floor, pain shot through her body as she realized that she had landed on her broken wing and she screamed in pain. “Celestia!” Luna cried running to her sister side, “Luna, move out of the way” Celestia said, eyes locked on her brother. “What” Luna squeaked unsure of what her sister wanted to do, regardless, she did as she was told, Celestia then said in a calm and clear voice “Luna, when I tell you to run, run as fast as you can to the elements chamber,” Luna nodded, Celestia’s horn glowed and she fired a wave of white energy which pushed Bloodshade down the corridor. Celestia then turned to Luna and screamed “RUN!” the two then took off down the corridor towards the chamber that housed the elements of harmony, running as fast as they could.

Luna ran as fast as she could, not daring to look back, her heart pounding in her ears, tears blurring her vision. Celestia appeared next to her a look of pure terror on her face, they both barreled through the door and Celestia slammed it shut behind them and magically locked it. There was a thump as Bloodshade collided with the door, “what’s going on? Why is he acting like this?” Luna hurriedly asked her sister, “I don’t know Luna” Celestia said. There was a loud bang as Bloodshade pounded on the door and black, shadowy tendrils were seeping through the gaps between the door and the frame, Celestia’s horn lit up and the door was surrounded with a golden aura, there was a shriek and the tendrils reseeded slightly, then there was a huge bang as Bloodshade threw his entire body against the door and it moved on its hinges. “That door won’t hold for much longer” Luna said suddenly very, very afraid, “Luna, I need you to get the elements of harmony” Celestia said sounding more calm than her sister but still pretty shaken, “why? What are we going to do?” Luna asked warily. Celestia turned to her sister, looking her directly in the eye and said “Luna, I don’t know what is making Bloodshade act like this, but we can’t let him get his hooves on the elements”, “but what are WE going to do with them?” Luna asked, “We are going to use them to contain Bloodshade until we can figure out how to help him, please Lulu I need you to trust me” Celestia begged. Luna didn’t know what to do but she trusted her sister, there was another crash and a splintering sound as Bloodshade hit the door again, Celestia turned her head to her sister, her eyes wide and fearful, “Please Lulu!” she screamed.

Luna made her decision in her heartbeat, she ran into the center of the chamber and grabbed the two mantels off their pedestals, one was gold, the other a brilliant silver and each was adorned with three gem stones that represented the elements of harmony, she passed one to Celestia and they both put them on, feeling the rush of energy that came with them. “Ok Lulu, on the count of three I’m going to open the door, are you ready?” Celestia asked, Luna felt sick, she was scared, scared of what she was about to do, scared of her brother, she just wanted to run and hide in her room, for all this to be over, but she knew that she had to do this, that she had to stop Bloodshade and so she nodded her head firmly. “Ok” Celestia said, “On the count of three, one, two, three” she threw open the door and immediately the tendrils exploded into the room, Bloodshade standing furiously in the Centre. His eyes suddenly widened in shock as he realized what his siblings were about to do to him, “NO!” he said backing away, “NO, NO NO NO!” he continued eyes widening in fear as his sisters began to rise into the air and glow with a brilliant white light, “YOU CAN’T DO THIS, YOU CAN’T DO THIS, IT’S NOT FAIR!” Bloodshade screamed the tendrils lashed out at the pair of alicorns, disintegrating as soon as they touched the glowing aura surrounding them. Suddenly a rainbow coloured beam exploded from the aura surrounding Celestia and Luna and shot towards Bloodshade, “NOOOOOOOO!” Bloodshade bellowed as the rainbow light engulfed him.

Celestia and Luna awoke on the stone floor of the castle, light streaming in through the broken windows, their brother was gone and so were the black tendrils, chased away by the light of the dawn. “Where is he? What did we do?” Luna asked her sister shakily, “where’s Bloodshade!” Luna screamed tears running down her face once more, Celestia turned and embraced her sister, allowing her to cry her heart out into her chest, “he’s safe Lulu, he’s safe” Celestia whispered a few tears falling down her cheeks and into her sisters mane. At the bottom of Lake Cocytus Bloodshade awoke surrounded by darkness, he remembered only bits and pieces of the previous night, but he remembered what his sisters had done and his eyes narrowed in a hateful glare, and in that instant he vowed that he would be free of his prison and that his sisters would pay for what they did to him. “And they say he waits there still, in the dark place at the bottom of the lake, waiting for some pony to release him from his dark watery prison, to continue on his dark quest.” The story teller fell silent and Pinkepie found herself staring into the dark waters, she suddenly screamed as a pair of red, dragon like eyes flashed, before melting away into the murky, dark depths of the lake.