Celestia was chained to a wall, and on a table next to here were multiple balls of corruption. Supernova would periodically lift one and send it hurtling into her horn, sending pinpricks of pain down her horn that would slowly increase into a raging fire as it traveled down her body. After the eighth ball went into Celestia, Supernova left the room, leaving her to her own thoughts. Celestia looked down into a small puddle of water that leaked down from the stones above, and saw that her mane was deflated, and started to darken. She was turning, slowly, but it was inevitable.
--- --- ---
Supernova was on the same balcony as last night, and stretched his hand towards Ponyville, magically throwing his voice. He bellowed out,
"TO THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY, MEET ME IN THE OLD TEMPLE IN THE EVERFREE FOREST TOMORROW AT DUSK!"
He then turned back into the castle, melding into the darkness to re-appear in Celestia's own quarters.
--- --- ---
It was the next day, and it was a few hours after Celestia's latest treatment of corruption. As the dosage of corruption entered Celestia's system, she began hallucinating. It began with a strange beat echoing inside of her head. She then began going inside the memories of when she saw her sister's, the mane six's, or anypony else's plots. As he fantasized about asses, her wings slowly became erect, and she was beginning to have dirty thoughts. Just as Celestia was about to take it too far, she grabbed a hold of herself, and tried to calm down. Before her mind finally expelled all of the impure thoughts, Reaper walked in. Celestia then said something that completely surprised her. She said, with a voice husky and impure,
"Hmm, has my little son come to see me?" She had a pout that would rival even Rarity's, "Mommy needs a little sugar..."
Reaper moved a boot within touching range of the chain that clamped the solar princess to the wall, and Celestial jumped at it, licking it up and down as sensually as she could. She found the willpower to smack herself away and press herself up against the wall that she was fastened to. Supernova laughed, and said,
"I came here to tell you that your precious ponies are going to become... Changed today. That, and there is nothing that you could possibly do to help them."
Celestia was worried, she couldn't even comprehend what Supernova had in store for the six. By the high spirits Supernova had, it was nothing good. He said,
"I should let you out, free you on your most faithful student. You would do things that you wouldn't even imagine, and you wouldn't even be able to stop yourself." Supernova chuckled, and continued on, "But some part of you would like that, wouldn't you? The freedom, the pleasure, the... intimacy..."
Supernova left Celestia to mull over what he just said, and melded with the shadows to teleport to everfree forest.
*** *** ***
The mane six were sitting in a circle around a large book that Twilight was reading inside of her tree-library. It had been only a few hours since the pronouncement of the phantom voice. There was an unspoken agreement, and they all showed up at Twilight's house, talking about what they were going to do. Twilight started with saying,
"I've just gotten a newspaper from canterlot that says that the princesses are on hiatus, so we know that Supernova has gotten to them. He has also had a few days to prepare, so he is probably even stronger than he was before."
AJ spoke up,
"But whut if this'n's a trap?"
Rainbow's tomboyish voice spoke out,
"What if it is? I'm not gonna back down to protect Equestria! That and, you all said that there was probably still reaper and not this 'supernova' guy, so I have my own loyalty for him to make sure that he gets back!"
Fluttershy softly mumbled out,
"Rainbow Dash has a good point. Reaper gave up his own freedom, thinking that he would die, we owe it to him."
Pinkie giggled, and popped out of the book, saying,
"I think I have a plan to make Reaper's nasty-wasty face go from nasty grouchy to a smile! And not that condecending little chuckle, either." Pinkie seemed to the ponies to turn to no one in particular, saying in a singsong voice, "I don't know if it's me or not, but I think that the author uses that word way too much!"
The rest of the ponies shrugged the little outburst as just plain old pinkie pie zaniness, and Twilight plunged back into the book. Rarity inquired,
"Just why are you looking into that book, dear?"
Twilight's eyes peeked out from behind the cover of the book, which was propped up for easy reading, and said,
"This was a book that Celestia sent me after a few months of Reaper being with her at Canterlot, it's named Alicorn illnesses and plagues, It is from when the Alicorns used to be more than just two princesses ruling over all of creation. Hopefully, we can understand what happened to Reaper and Trixie."
A few minuets passed with an anxious tension almost palpable in the air. This was all broken when Twilight shouted 'found it!' and began reading off what was probably happening,
"The book here says that when an Alicorn receives a large amount of negative emotion, like what Luna experienced, they become a Nightmare. This Nightmare, if defeated, could still be alive, and could move on to take control over others if their feelings were strong and negative enough. I guess this is what happened, but what could Reaper be angry about?"
AJ face-hooved, sighing with exasperation, saying,
"Yah don't think he was jus' alright with leavin' everything he knew behind?"
Twilight nodded, and she continued on with her reading, saying,
"The book says that being trapped under the influence of a Nightmare is like being washed away with whatever emotion that was heightened. Girls, we need to get Reaper out of that water."
Pinkie leapt up with a squeal, and a water inflation vest about her upper body, squealing out,
"YAAAYYYYYYY! WATER SEARCHING PARTY!"
The ponies just shook their heads, and called it in for the day, sleeping at Twilight's house, and preparing themselves for the confrontation they were going to have inevitably at the end of the next day.
--- --- ---
The group left Ponyville as it slowly began to sink into a state of emergency and disarray, ponies running about in HAZMANE suits, boarding up windows, and just run-of-the mill chaos that accompanied the mane six whenever they went on their escapades. They left the town with as much silence as possible, and plunged into the forest. The trip was relatively uneventful, Nightmare not leaving any traps for them to stumble onto. They made it to the old temple where they first found the elements of harmony, and a dark aura seemed to fill the air, making the six present very uneasy. What really put them on edge was that once they approached the door inside of the temple, they could head distinct crunching noises, and every once and a while, the sharp retort of a bone being snapped. As they entered the largest room where the elements were being held, Reaper was slumped over, and resting on a knee, while his head bobbed up and down with the sounds
that were emanating from whatever he appeared to be holding. When he noticed that the ponies arrived, he quickly twisted on his heels and threw whatever he was eating into a wall, creating a meaty thud. He drawled out,
"I hope you don't mind me taking a break to eat something, Iv'e been absolutely famished for something with more substance than vegetables for food."
He wiped a gloved and be-clawed hand over his mouth to get rid of any blood left behind by the body. Rainbow turned her attention to where he had thrown the thing, and saw familiar features. She began to sob silently, and she choked out,
"Gilda..."
Reaper looked over to the medium-sized lump of feathers, and said,
"Hmmm, a gryphon, eh? No wounder it tasted so good..."
Rainbow dash let out a strangled yell and charged at Supernova. He acutely stepped out of the way, grabbed her tail, and threw her into her other friends. he called over, saying,
"If it makes any difference, she attacked first. I killed her, and simply got hungry."
When they all got to their feet, Supernova lifted a finger, and seemed to push the thin air with a finger, toppling the six ontop of each other again. Twilight called out in a strangled whisper to her friends,
"He didn't use any magic for that!"
Reaper stood, arms spread apart, asking to be hit with all they had. Fluttershy began by standing up first. With a low grumble, she began to stalk forward, staring straight into the onyx slits that Supernova had for eyes. She stopped within arms-length, and sat down. What happened next surprised everyone within earshot. Fluttershy began to yell at Supernova, saying,
"You.... You BRUTE! How COULD you? Here we were, just us and Reaper, and suddenly you come along, and TAKE OVER Reaper's body, getting in due to the FACT that he was TRYING TO SAVE US!"
As she screamed, Fluttershy used the 'stare' on Supernova. Once she was done, and was entrancing him in her gaze, Supernova's eyes chipped away to show two blood-red rubies that served as Reaper's eyes. He blinked, and shook his head. Reaper looked down at Flutershy, who was still sitting on her flank, staring up at him. He stuttered out, i his own voice,
"F-f-f-flutershy?" He looked at his hands, and gasped, mumbling, "So it wasn't a dream... Alright, you need to listen to me and listen to me good! This, as you can probably tell, is not me, It is Nightmare Moon, and she has been burying me deep inside my psyche so I couldn't fight against what I was doing... But you brought me out, and I can fight now."
One of Reaper's eyes began to darken, turning into the draconic eyes of a Nightmare. He hastily shouted out,
"I dont have much time left, but I am sorry for what Iv'e done..."
Both of Reaper's eyes went vacant. Reaper's eyelids shut closed, and when he opened them, he was Supernova again. Supernova said nothing except growling and reaching behind himself and bringing out his greatsword. just as he was getting ready to attack, a dull voice ripped through Supernova's mind, saying,
NO
Supernova stopped mid-swing to grasp at his head, screaming bloody murder, ripping mortar and bricks around the temple. The six ponies had to duck and move around to avoid being hit. The same voice ripped painfully through Supernova's mind,
I SAID NO. YOU ARE NOT REAPER, YOU DISGUSTING EXCUSE FOR PERSON. I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN ANY LONGER, I KNOW WHERE THE REAL REAPER IS.
Supernova growled out with such an intensity that it actually made the roof start to cave-in, he shook his head, and started to dart about the room, trying to subdue the six. An errant shot of dark corruption hit the pedestal where the elements were originally situated the elements, and a dark glint flashed in the eyes of the element-bearers, right before Supernova forced them all out with a blast of pure power. Dropping his sword, Supernova teleported to the entrance of the dungeons, one side of his face had a red eye, while the other one was black. Repeatedly, Supernova slammed into walls. One side was fighting with the other, every time that Supernova collided with a wall, different reactions resounded from two different voices. Once Supernova got to about halfway inside of the dungeon at the stumbling pace that set him back, he was going to let out the one thing that would corrupt the six with little to no effort on Supernova's half. He clutched at his skull, and screamed out,
"CELESTIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"