The skies were dark. We had pushed hours into the moonless part of the night, because even without the sun, Nightmare Moon kept the lunar cycle in place to ensure that people still had some semblance of time passing in their lives. The moon being everpresent in the sky would probably not go over well. Night was still night without the moon, after all. I sighed, rolling over in my tent. We had decided to siege the city come the moonrise, when we had a little light to see by. I got up, deciding to take the final watch. It wouldn't be long now.

I walked out of the tent and up onto the hill where the moonwatch was, and tapped the other guard on the shoulder with my hoof. He whirled around, then saluted when he saw me. The Mage-Commander in full regalia was a sight to be respected. I dismissed him, and he trotted back to the camp, hidden in a valley between 3 hills, hidden from sight as perfectly as possible. We were a mere mile from the city, the hills were pretty tall and covered us well. I watched the horizon. This night, the moon would rise behind the city, allowing one watcher to watch for both scouts or raiders from the city and the moon, all at once. I settled in, watching intently. I watched for about twenty minutes, and then, it rose.

I galloped down the slope of the hill, racing the moon down. We had to time this perfectly. I roused Pinkamina, who roused everyone else immediately, in a way I could never have done. I sighed, but couldn't help smiling grimly. Even in the midst of all this, Pinkie, even buried underneath Pinkamina, could still find ways to be random and try to make ponies happy. I shook my head, dismissing the thoughts from my mind. I couldn't have these thoughts on the battlefield. I trotted to the ranks. I was going to flash from within them as soon as I saw her, and take her before she could react. Atleast, that was the plan. We marched silently through the last mile of fields and stood before the city. Five unicorns, standing at the fore of the group, charged up a bolt of magic strong enough to shatter the gate.

As soon as it hit, I saw magical glyphs shred through the air, shield after shield failing. Interesting, that they would expend this much power on the main gate. However, it wasn't enough. The gates eventually flew open, the hinges snapping like twigs under the pressure. We marched through the street. It made no sense. Where were the defenders? The Element Bearer? I grunted in frustration. Just when I was about to call an about-face, though, it happened. I saw magic streaming through the air, and powerful magic at that. I turned to face the source. There she was, the azure mare of Laughter. She didn't look much like laughing right now, though. Still, the plan came first. I flashed forward, slamming into her flank, then immediately slammed down the second glyph, which had been prepared and stored in my horn days ago. I had been feeding it power ever since. To get from here to Canterlot would take more power than I could spontaneously generate fast enough for this to work, but a glyph of this magnitude, cultivated over days of charge, would do it.

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I had closed my eyes, feeding all my might into one powerful glyph of explosion. Suddenly, something slammed into my flank right as I released it, and I was spun around. NO! I had just released it on my own soldiers! I opened my eyes, and realized I was nowhere near that battlefield to tell the damage I had just done to our cause. I pushed magic into my horn, but a flash of blinding pain prevented it. I knew immediately that there was a ring of disruption on my horn, and cursed my inattentiveness. If I had had my eyes open, I would've seen the flash and had that much more time to react. As it was, I reacted once I was already gone. It was useless to try anything now. I slumped against the wall, defeated.

"Now, now, don't even think of giving up just yet. You haven't even felt any torture yet!" The voice...That voice! It couldn't be...It was. I turned to face the traitorous lavender mage. She deserved no cowering from me. I had no magic, but we were both unicorns, and so would have similar builds. I launched myself at her, only to be slammed into the wall by magic. I felt bones in my side splinter from the force. I cried out in pain, and a muzzle was forced around my mouth, silencing me. I turned, glaring hatefully at the witch, and a blindfold was tied around my eyes. Every act of defiance was countered in a debilitating way so I couldn't do it again. Then, they set to work on my body. My mane was shorn off, as was my tail and my coat. My horn was depleted, all my magic drawn out through it. It took a very powerful and well-studied mage to perform that particular spell. I admired her skill even as she abused me. Then, she spoke again.

"If you want your magic back, you'll submit and pledge yourself to Nightmare Moon, eternal night, and myself. The longer you wait, the more time I have to do something with it before it's returned to you, so I'd do it now, were I you." I froze. If she tainted my magic with some curse, I would be trapped in a way even worse than Princess Celestia. I would be completely brainwashed from the inside out, in whatever way they desired. It would completely destroy my mind and reform it under their rules. But that would take time, and if I submit right now, they couldn't do it.

"I...I pledge to serve both Nightmare Moon and Twilight Sparkle until such time as they deem fit to release me from service." My eyes widened as the words flooded through my mind, encasing my mind and echoing through every crevice. The pain was excruciating.

"This spell will make sure of that. Any pony that gives their word without being one hundred percent behind it will be bound in pain by their own words until they accept them." I knew the spell she was referring to. She must've cast it while I was blindfolded. I was such a foal to think they would give me a way out of this mess. I would soon be an unthinking zombie mare until I accepted what I had said, and would be for all intents and purposes be dead or comatose. I had to give myself completely to the cause I had pledged to without any reservation to reverse the spell. This wasn't good at all...

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I watched her writhe against the wall for a while, then walked out. I would come back tomorrow to see how she was doing.

"Any noise or funny business in that cell, notify me immediately. That's an order!" I couldn't risk her being rescued or rescuing herself, unlikely as that was. I trotted down the halls to Nightmare Moon's chambers to report my success. I reached the room in minutes, knocking my hoof on the door. After the obligatory 'Come in' sounded, I made my entrance. I bowed slightly before her.

"Mission successful, Princess. The Element of Laughter was nabbed within seconds of the battle starting. It couldn't have gone smoother." I was swept up into an embrace, hooves wrapped around my body, and I looked up, straight into her eyes.

"That's not the kind of things I want to hear from your lips right now." She giggled once, before kissing my muzzle and leading me to the rather large bed on the other side of the chamber...

Author's Note

So, I've set up the next to chapters, and I must say, I like them. First, we have the battle that just started. That will probably take an entire chapter in itself. Second, I don't know if I should or how I should do it, but the next chapter for Twilight is going to be all clop, no story. If you're reading for story, I dunno, I guess skip the chapter two after this one. Again, I'm interested in your thoughts on story progression so far! The battle chapter will most likely be from Pinkie's perspective 90% of the time, as the only major character present. (Twilight and Trixie are gone, so that.) I'd like to know how well I pull that off, so prepare to judge me on that. :)

EDIT: I decided to flip the order of the chapters, so the next one will be Twilight's chapter, and the battle will be after that one.