> The Endless Citadel
>  by Archvile
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: The Ponysty Metropolis (v1.2)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author’s note:
A fair warning: I’m dyslexic and English is my second language, so don’t expect greatness.

This story is a little off from My Little Pony. Luna and Nightmare Moon isn’t the same pony, and Twilight Sparkle is Nightmare Moon’s student/prodigy and not Celestias’.

Also this is now the prologue of the story, so you don't have to read this chapter to follow whats going on in the story, but it'll help you along the way for the ride. The main reason for this is that I think the first chapter is pretty poor compared to the next chapter which is far better in my humble opinion.

But nonetheless I hope you'll enjoy my story! <3

The story:
The Lunar and Solar princesses’ escort where making its way through the lands now ruled by the dark empress Nightmare Moon, the apparently one and only ruler of the ponysty. They had been requested by her empress to come to her land to discuss something of most dire importance, but Celestia already had a few theories as to why their presence had been requested by the mistress of nightmares.

Celestia had heard several rumors about how the empress was running her ponysty into the ground by her heavy focus on military and running the once fertile land. As both she and Luna had observed on their journey though her lands, it was nearly forestless, probably all used to fuel her war machine and industry. The rumors also said that Nightmare Moon’s land was running low on pretty much all of its natural resources, which would most likely mean that she was interested in expanding her borders to occupy new land to keep expanding her influence and power. And sadly the two princesses’ ponydom was the closest to the ponysty, well beside the Griffin Empire who was already in a dispute with the ponysty about rights for some mines between their borders that had become a prolonged armed conflict rather than a war.

Nightmare Moon had probably realized that she did not have the needed resources to sustain her army in a full out war with the Griffin’s mountain empire. So she had most likely come to the conclusion that she needed their ponydom’s land to fuel her conquest of the Griffin Empire. Beside the ponydom was nothing compared to the Griffins, they didn’t have any vast mountain chains, where they would have a tactical advantage like griffins would. No, their land was mostly flat and could easily be overtaken by a greater force such as her empress forces. Not to mention that they had no military what so ever.

The Solar princess almost cursed herself; perhaps she should have focused a bit more on military than she had ever wanted to. But it really wasn’t her style; she wanted all to be at peace with each other though understanding, respect, friendship and of cause love.

The sisters had decided a long time ago, that they would never resolve to violence to obtain anything in life. They firmly believed to live in harmony with nature and to achieve peace though understanding, respect, friendship and of cause love. Just they had taught all of their subjects that they should. Beside, even if every single mare, colt and foal had been armed; their ponydom would still be massively outnumbered against the many mighty houses of the ponysty.

The ponysty had always been the problem child of Equestria, for as long as Celestia could remember there had always been dispute between its many houses that constantly fought between one and another to rule the entire ponysty. But for many years none of them had been very successful at obtaining complete power, which ensured the peace of the rest of Equestria. Because if all of the houses somehow united or got overthrown, the rest of Equestria would be faced with a nearly unstoppable force as no other nation could rival the combined size of the ponysty.

With all of their houses always in internal conflict with one and another, the peace of Equestria was ensured, as all of the houses individually posed no threat to anypony, but combined the power balance would be out of order. But then suddenly a few years ago; a regent had been empowered somehow, a alicorn by the name of Nightmare Moon who had taken complete control over all of the houses of the ponysty and then proclaimed herself as the sovereign empress of the ponysty and probably also to become it of all of Equestria.

How she had come to power was unknown to Celestia, maybe she had overthrown all of the other houses’ head figures or maybe they all had just seen something within her and decided upon her as their ruling body of their state.

Lunar had never heard too much about the ponysty and its ruler, not beside that she was suppose to be a very exotic and majestic being, with a weakness for feminine beauty. The latter being something which Luna had in common with her, which was something Celestia didn’t know of and was never suppose to.

Her sister had told her that the ponysty had become the single most powerful nation/state within all of Equestria and should therefore be addressed with care once they arrived, particularly with a ruler such as Nightmare Moon. It was said that she was the source of all nightmares in all of Equestria, if you can believe those ponytales that is. Story tells that she is a very powerful alicorn, even more powerful than Celestia and Luna together, she was only second to creatures such as Discord.

The further they made it into her land as they traveled towards the capital, the darker the skies became. Celestia looked at them and thought to herself that this was the reason she was unable to see what was truly happening within the ponysty. After all one of her powers being that she is able to see all that her sunlight touches, but with these thick smoke clouds she wasn’t able to see anything beyond them, almost as if they were trying to hide something from her sight.

When they finally came to the capital of the ponysty they were both shocked and left without words. It was more of a fortress than a city, as huge and tall walls covered the entire immense metropolis; it even had walls within its city walls. Vast and extremely tall chimneys rose all around the city, indicating its many factories, which laid a large part of the land covered in darkness with its thick deadly clouds; this must  was the empress’s famous ‘eternal darkness’ as it had been dubbed, so even though that it was in the middle of the day, here, it was always night.

And in the middle of it all was a dark endless citadel itself. It was the only construction that Celestia could see, as it rose far above its smoke clouds, far beyond Nightmare Moon’s eternal night. She knew of its title from rumors as well, it was called the endless citadel because it went so far into the skies that the top could not be seen.

The massive iron walls themselves were of a design unlike any other, almost as if it only considered of metal spikes that somehow grew from the earth itself, crossing each other in almost every direction, forming an impenetrable fortification. Celestia was very puzzled by the origin of this city wall, there was something more to it than just mere spikes. She focused her magic for a moment and was stunned, this wall had somehow been giving life, it grew on its own and it had a will or at least sort of a mind of its own.

Luna looked from side to side, wondering why there wasn’t any guards or nothing else. Even if they ponies inside truly believe their wall to be unbendable, shouldn’t they at least have had someone to greet them? But her thoughts were interrupted as the metal wall’s spikes began to move away, making way for the Celestial sisters to enter. Inside was a platoon of 29 waiting for them, all covered in pitch black armors covering almost all of their body, including their faces and with different colored markings, all of them beside one had white markings, the one and only yellow marked one came out to greet them and told them that only the Celestial sisters were allowed to enter. Celetia’s guards didn’t like the idea but she ordered them to stand down, then the yellow marked one told them to follow and he also told them that within the city walls all flight was forbidden unless you were of the Special Forces or the Overwatch, apparently he was the captain of their dark escort.

As they entered the city and the iron wall closed behind them Luna began to wonder, but afraid to ask. Who or what was the Overwatch? Surely Special Forces sounded logically enough as to what they could be, but the Overwatch she wasn’t quite sure of, it didn’t sound like a nice pack of ponies.

It was an interesting walk indeed, all of the streets were quite bright even though not a shred of light came from the sun, being lit up by strange globs of light hanging all around the city. Both Celestia and Luna looked in awe, everywhere they looked they saw as many ponies as there were in all of their ponydom, it was truly a massive city. But they also notice the soldiers in black around at pretty much every corner.

The air was thick with dread and the civilians seemed to fear or at least they had a extreme high respect or loyalty for the military personal; as they jumped and ran to get out of their escort’s way, which seemed to care little for if they had to walk over a foal to keep their pace. Neither Luna nor Celestia knew how Nightmare Moon had chosen to rule her land, by the sights of things it could be seen that the empress favored industry and science over nature. Just like all of those big glass buildings, with black painted windows and an odd purple luming glow, which they had passed. She was informed that those were greenhouses where they somehow grew all of their crops by mimicking the sun inside. It was suppose to be much more efficient than Celestia’s ancient sun, she was told, almost as if they had grown beyond the need for her sun and maybe perhaps they had, but Celestia was not happy. How dared anyone to insult her beautiful sun like that?!

There were a lot of wires everywhere, some bigger than others, and some even had lifts running along them. They had been told when asked that they were cable lifts; used to transport something they called electricity and others were used to transport ponies from one location another much faster than they could run. Luna and Celestia had been a little surprised when one of them came flying pass them, never before had they seen such a contraption.

Celestia had asked the captain along the way why they didn’t use magic or something to clean their sky, and she wasn’t to pleased with his reply. “So those who aren’t suppose to see, shall not see.” The escorting captain had told her sharply, well knowing that he had indirect told her that; she was one of those who were not suppose to see what they were doing. Celestia was rather bitter at this point, she had not heard anypony talk to her so disrespecting in ages, first he had insulted her sun and now he was insulting her aswell? The audacity!

She had wondered how they had discovered all of these wonders of sience when she was suddenly told by their escort that all of this was the gifts of science from the Techminister.

After a walk of some 20 minutes they walked up a platform and entered one of those ‘cable lifts’ which quickly made its way towards the wall surrounding the citadel, as they finally arrived the celestial sisters were made with yet another sight to behold, beyond the inner walls of the megatropolis where the citadel lied was no ground. Then looked over the side of the wall they now stood upon, looking down into a deep hole which the bottom could not be seen and in that massive hole stood the dark citadel, in all its intimidating might. It was no wonder this construction were called endless, unless one could see it from beyond the ozone layer no pony could would ever be able to see its top and as for the bottom? Not even the Celestial goddesses could see that.

Celestia looked around while Luna still gazed upon the wonderers sight, she couldn’t see any entrance to this place at all That there was no entrance into the citadel. Before she could ask the captain told her that there was no way into the citadel beside though the use of magic and only the empress and her prodigy could allow entrance.

Then what had the purpose of all this been? Celestia wondered, she should have been perfectly able to just transport them from outside the city, if rumors did her justice that is. So did Nightmare Moon just want them to see at the wonders of her dark techno city, as if she wanted to rub it in their faces somehow? But her thoughts were cut short as the captain held a hoof to his ear and then turned around telling them that Nightmare Moon was ready and hardly before he had finished; a summoning teleportation circle was formed underneath them by magic.

Now they found themselves within the massive citadel, facing the mighty iron throne of the sovereign regent empress of the entire ponysty, the mare of the moon, the ruler of nightmares; Nightmare Moon herself.

Author’s note:
Sorry about the lack of dialog and what not (like the bit of jumping around in the description of the city and its wonders), this chapter was pretty much just an introduction of the story and nothing else really (sorry if it seemed a bit crappy, I pretty much just wanted to finish this chapter so I could get to write what I really wanted to write). The next chapter will be a lot more interesting and have quite a decent amount of dialog. But for now I’ll go make some coco and write some great dialogs, so until next time!

FYI: I was very inspired by the Zaibach Empire's capital from Escaflowne as well as City 17th from Half-Life 2 when I created this mega-techno-city of the ponysty.

I hope you have enjoyed the story so far and please comment! <3
> Chapter 2: The usurper (v1.2)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author’s note:
For those who decided to skip the prologue I've added a little background story so you know what is going on.

Background story:
Some years ago a shadowy figure had somehow managed to pull off a historical event as she managed to unite all of the many houses of the ponysty into one gigantic superpower. But now the rulers of the ponydom; the Celestial sisters presence have been requested by the sovereign empress of the ponysty. And now Luna and Celestia finds themselves standing face to face with the mare of the moon herself, after they have traveled to the capital of the ponysty to meet her within the dark ‘endless’ citadel that towers beyond the skies.

The story:
Celestia and Luna had been magically teleported inside the dark ‘endless’ citadel of the ponysty megalopolis capital. They now found themselves inside a colossal hall with huge pillars at left and right of them. It was illuminated by hundreds of light torches hanging on the mighty iron pillars. There were no walls, or at least they could not be seen, nor could the ceiling, beyond the floor and the pillars only darkness could be found, beside a huge throne in front of them. And there she was, the pitch black Nightmare Moon, sitting gracefully in her huge malevolent looking iron throne. She wore some sort of war armor, looking like she was prepared to head off for the warfront herself. And at the left side of her there was a small throne, it didn’t look very threatening nor very malicious not compared to the empress’s throne nor to any other throne really; where a small lavender unicorn was sitting, looking at the sisters with seemly great interest with her turquoise dragon eyes, at least much more than the ‘whatever’ glace they were receiving form the empress.

“Welcome my dear guests, welcome my celestial sisters, welcome to my sanctuary, welcome to the dark citadel.” The usurper empress spoke up. “I’m so sorry, so TERRIBLY sorry in fact!” She continued in a mocking tone. “That I wasn’t able to oblige you sooner, I had an important meeting with some of the head houses. But now I’m here for you with my full attention!” And before either of the Celestial sisters could response she continued. “So did you like the tour of my ponderous mega-techno-city?” She said with a proud voice, lifting one of her hoofs to her chest and closed her eyes as she looked away into the ceiling.

Celestia just looked at her mildly, not finding her very funny. “You wanted to see us?” She just said.

“I do?” She stuck her tongue out at the side of her mouth as she put left hoof to her cheek resting her head on it as she looked elsewhere, like she was a little child whose attention was rather questionable. But the princess just narrowed her eyes at her. “Aw, you’re no fun babe.” Nightmare Moon said while trying to make an attempt at a sad face even though she was clearly amused for some other worldly reason.

Celestia humped at the ‘babe’ remark, who did she think she was? Surely she had also heard of all the rumors of Nightmare Moon being the ‘mare of the moon’ as some sort of sex idol that every stallion would give his right hoof to have a single night with, but Celestia also knew the rumors of Nightmare Moon’s taste in, well, mares. She most likely just wanted to drag her to her bed and lick her all over. A shiver went though Celestia’s body at the thought, so repulsive she thought.

Nightmare Moon just looked at her, kind of waiting for a replied. First she rested her head on her left shoulder and then her right shoulder but apparently she wasn’t much for patient, so rather than waiting for a reply that she would probably never get, she move the conversation onward by saying: “Don’t be so grim, I invited you here today for a glorious offer that you simply cannot refuse! But first, please sit.” Her smile was wide, but so very cold. As if it was one of those kind of smiles a villain would wear when he was about to win.

In front of the empress’s throne was a mighty stone marble table filled with various and exotic foods. Celestia raised an eyebrow at the sight; there were dishes on this marvelous table that she had never seen before in her millennium long life. They both looked at the two quite elegant royal wooden chairs that stood out quite a bit form the rest of the scenery, before they took their seat. The chairs were placed at the opposite end of the thrones, so that Luna and Celestia would be facing Nightmare Moon and whoever was beside her.

“I hope you can find something to your liking.” Nightmare Moon said, sounding a bit out of character as to how sincere she could sound when she wanted to. “I made it all myself.” She told them proudly, once more lifting a hoof to her chest plate.

“You made this?” Luna asked, quite impressed. How could she manage to pull off something like this when she herself hardly knew how to make coffee? Celestia too, she makes awful coffee, all of a sudden her entire body shuddered with terror as she recalled its unworldly bad taste.

“That I did!” She semi-yelled at Luna; assumingly because she appreciated the comment as she now wore a frank smile on her face. Luna smiled, more to herself than the empress, she had finally been addressed her by the ruler of the ponysty, instead of her sister like she had done so far, instead of just adding her to the conversation she was having with Celestia by just saying ‘them’. But she didn’t keep her focus on Luna for long before she once more continued to indirectly speak with Celestia once more.

“I still can’t believe that the two of you would come such a long way just to see little poor me?” She said with a fake giggle. “I didn’t know we had such a strong bond with one and another.” She finished with a devious grin.

Celestia just signed but Luna frowned, it was always Celestia this and Celestia that, she was always in the spotlight, her and her little stupid sun. Why was she always the main dish? What about her? Had she not creatred the most beautiful night sky, its moon and all of its trillion of stars which each held their own story? In matter of fact she has! Why was anypony always so oblivious to her? She looked over to mare who was sitting beside the empress, who was she? The empress hadn’t even introduced her yet. But as she looked at the lavender while in thought, she suddenly snapped out of her little thought trance as she found herself lost in big purple beautiful eyes, it was as if she was staring at sparkling stars, she then suddenly thought it over what this meant; she was eye gazing into some other mare’s eyes she didn’t know! Luna quickly looked away from the lavender colored mare, who just in turn rose an eyebrow at her.

“We only came because you asked it of us.” Celestia said. “Something of dire importance.” She was starting to lose her patience with the mare of the moon.

“Ah, yes!” Was all she got of a replied from the empress before she dug into one of the exotic foods. “You should really try some!” She gobbled with her mouth full.

Celestia just narrowed her eyes at her. If killing another was legal and would most likely not ensure the total destruction of the celestial sisters’ ponydom; she would have strangled the empress by now. But Luna just giggled by her sisters priceless expression.

Then suddenly all four of them shivered as if the place they were; was filled with a bone chilling inner cold. An unholy horrific soul shaking feeling crept over them. Celestia and Luna looked fiercely around the throne room to locate where this horrible feeling was coming from. But the pitch black and lavender mares seemed like it was something that was pretty normal for them. Luna could swear that she could see her own breath in front of her.

“Ah, Slemmer, you’re here!” Nightmare Moon shouted unexpectedly as she rose from her mighty cruel looking metal throne. The celestial sisters almost fell off their respective chairs as a light grey stallion had mysteriously appeared in between them.

“I see you have guests.” The newcomer told the empress, eyeing the two princesses just barely from the corners of his eyes to each side of him. He was a short light grey earth pony, looking like he wasn’t getting enough sun light. He had some scars in his face, like one of his eyes had been clawed out, but it was still there, it just looked, odd. It didn’t look like a glass eye and it sure as heck didn’t look like his other eye which looked like a normal pony eye. Down his neck and over his back were metal pieces placed that looked like they were his vertebraes.

“Yes, I invited them here today to discuss the future of the celestial ponydom’s future in the grand scheme of things.” The regent told the newly appeared grey pony.

He just gave a small nod as response.

“But where are my manners. Celestia, Luna. Allow me to introduce my Techminister; Baron Herr Von Slemmer. It is thanks to him and my prodigy; Twilight Sparkle’s hard work and study that we have been able to create this amazing self providing mega-techno-city of ours.” She finished off as she looked to the lavender mare and gave her a soft genuine smile. And the little young mare smiled brightly back at her and bowed her head a little.

The baron kept his gaze at his empress as he told her: “Sorry to have interrupted, I just wanted to inform you that I have returned and I have things that I must discuss with your excellence and your prided student.”

“Very well.” His excellence; Nightmare Moon said. “We’ll accompany you after we’re done here then.”

“As you desire my lady; I’ll see you later.” And with that said the baron disappeared into the thin air just as suspiciously as he had entered to begin with.

Celestia and Luna were still fighting a heart attack at the surprise guest’s intro. “What a wicked aura.” She muttered to herself, but apparently the empress had a good hearing and felt like answering the princess’s question.

“They say that he once summered a demon and tricked it so he could eat its flesh in order not to starve to death, which is probably how he obtained that rather malevolent aura about him.” She said mildly, like it was the most normal thing in the world one could do.

“He wha...?” Was all Celestia managed to say.

“That was also how he came in passion of this wonderful place.” Nightmare Moon continued uninterrupted by the solar princess’s lack of wording as she lifted both her forelegs to each side to show the celestial sisters that she was referring to the place that they were within; the dark ‘endless’ citadel.

Celestia had wanted to know more about this place; so many things about it seemed completely off. Like how the entire place felt like it was alive somehow and how it felt like they weren’t even in Equestria anymore as they had entered, but most importantly where did it come from in the first place? So she had to ask: “Could you perhaps explain to me the origin of this place?”

“At some other time I’ll tell you everything that your heart desires to know.” The pitch black mare flirted with a wink to Celestia. “But for now, let’s get back to the topic at hand; as to why you are both here today.” Her voice had taken a more serious tune. “To ensure total peace I must ensure total control and that is where the two of you come into the picture. I have requested your presences here today so that the two of you may choice your own fate as well as your subjects’.”

“Our fate?” Luna asked raising an eyebrow, as Celestia was still narrowing her eyes at the dark empress.

“Yes my sweet.” Nightmare Moon simply replied. “To either become my wivesand your ponydom becoming one of my allies or to become my slaves when I conquer your land by force.”

“You disgust me.” Was all Celestia replied.

“Now, now my dear, that is no way to talk to your future empress and wife.” Nightmare Moon smartassedly commented on Celestia’s statement.

“My empress.” Twilight suddenly spoke up, surprising everypony more or less by her unexpectedly broken stillness. They now all looked towards her.

“Yes?” Nightmare Moon simply replied, with a softness that came as unnatural to the celestial sisters by her continuous change of demeanor towards the lavender mare.

“Well ehm…” Twilight stemmed, a bit taken back by the sudden interest they all now showed in her, also feeling a bit outmatched by being a simple unicorn against three alicorns or goddesses as most would refer them as. “Well, you can’t marry more than one of them.” She told Nightmare Moon. “That would be against the rules of a dynastic marriage.”

Nightmare Moon looked at her for a bit, then to the celestial sisters, then back to Twilight again, before her thoughtful face turned into a wide grin as she returned her gaze to the sisters. “Then I’ll marry the solar princess and my prodigy shall marry the lunar princess.” She said with a vile smirk. “I’ve prefered my chocolate white and creamy anyway, no offence Luna.” She finished with a small lustful purr.

“WHAT?!” Was all that Celestia, Luna and Twilight Sparkle yelled in contemporary, each for their own reasons.

“Well…” Nightmare Moon began as if she was a bit dumbstruck by their sudden outbursts. “I can’t go around and breaking the rules, you know? I mean, the houses would be furious at us!” She finished off in a mocking tone.

“But I…” Was all that the prodigy got to say before the sovereign empress again looked at her softly and with a hint of sympathy? Then Twilight Sparkle just gave a small humph before she looked away from her, looking rather sad all of a sudden. Nightmare Moon frowned a bit at this and looked thoughtful for a moment before she seemed to recall about her visitors and returned her gaze to them.

“You can’t be serious?” Celestia spoke up.

“But I’m, my dear.” Nightmare Moon replied. “Either the two of you become our wives and your ponydom will become a vassal state of the great ponysty or we’ll simply conquer your little ponydom and enslave all of your subjects. It’s your choice. And trust me when I say this, there will be a lot of death on both our hoofs if you don’t accept my proposal.”
Celestia looked hurt, she knew there was no way they could ever stand against the ponysty and even if they could it would cost so many lives that Celestia would rather die than to see the corpses pile at her feet, but she also thought of Luna, she knew Luna had always wanted one of those fantasy like loves, but now she would be forever rubbed. “I’ll agree to this proposal but only if Luna is not dragged into this.” Celestia said firmly.

“Sorry my dear, but that won’t do. You are both rulers of the ponydom and therefore both of you have to be married to the ponysty, trust me when I say this; I want as little to marry away my amazing student as you want to marry away your sister, but sacrifices must be made in this world.” She said, looking both thoughtful and hurtful at the same time, probably recalling some past torment. “I know of your subjects’ loyalty, they can only be used as slaves or kept servicing you as they do now and I don’t see the need for unnecessary blood. As much as you probably distrust me I only want to ensure the safety of everypony.” She spoke softly.

Celestia was unsure of what to say and how to act, she felt completely lost and striped of power, two feelings she was very unfamiliar with. And she was a puzzled by Nightmare Moon’s words. She was also confused, and her mind tried to find a way to somehow flee from the situation they currently found themselves in. “How can there be a law against polyandry but at the same time support same-sex marriage?” She asked, as some sort of escape to avoid this marriage by their own laws.

“Well…” Twilight began. “technically there aren’t any ponysty laws that says that you most have a specific choice of gender. Here it is believed that love is love and you can marry whoever or whatever you want as long as it is a being with an intelligence of its own that can agree that it wishes to be your eternal mate.” Twilight said very knowingly.

“That sounds reasonable enough, but then what are the reasoning for not being able to enter a polygamy marry then?” Celestia then asked, as she was quite astounded by this little young mare’s apparent gift and also with a sudden growing interest in this foreign land’s laws, but her mind already knew that her probably last change of escape from this forced marriage was lost.

“It is common believe in all of the ponysty; that a ‘true’ romantic bond based on nothing but pure love for one and another, can only be shared between two living conscious souls and will be connected for all times, even after death.” The lavender mare replied looking like her thoughts were in a far away land.

Nightmare Moon gave a cough before she should, trying to gain everyponies attention. “As much as I would love to just chat all day we do have some business to attend to, so you’ll have to excuse us. I’ll transport you to your quarters that I have prepared in your honor and tomorrow you’ll have your answer for me and my prodigy.” She said before she summoned a teleporting circle around the princess sisters and teleported them away.

Twilight looked at the spot where the celestial sisters had been, thinking about her maybe soon to be wed lunar princess, she couldn’t quite believe that she might soon be the wife of the creator of the night, her most beloved of things. She looked to her teacher and empress with soft eyes and Nightmare Moon just looked at her as she muttered a low ‘sorry’ but Twilight just embraced her patting her softly on the back.

Author’s note:
Ah, this was so much more fun to write than the first chapter ever was! I don’t have too much else to say about this, so I hope you enjoyed my second chapter of the story.

Also I invented a new word ‘smartassedly’ xD

Until next time, please comment! <3

PS. Sorry it took me so long to finish this, I’ve been wasting my life on playing video games. Screw you steam sales!

> Chapter 3: Night at the roof (v1.2)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author’s note:
Yeah… sorry about the length of the chapter : / please don’t hit me! ;_; It’ll never happen again, I swear it!

The story:
Celestia was furious! Never in her life had she been insulted and looked down upon like this before! The captain of their escort had insulted her and so had the sovereign empress. She was so angry that she hadn’t even yet noticed the surroundings she and Luna now found themselves in.

It was a large room and unlike Nightmare Moon’s throne room it had actual walls. From the loft hang long purple banners with a sun in the middle with a crescent moon around it, almost as if it was protecting the sun from harm, which Luna thought was really cute because in a way she was always there to lighten Celestia whenever she was down. The circumference of the banners was a bright golden yellow, looking very majestic. The floor was covered in fine dark marble, obviously the empress were into the darker colors, which Luna found a bit odd thinking back to where Nightmare Moon told Luna that she liked her chocolate white and creamy.

Luna was stunned by the absolutely fascinating chamber that she would assume Nightmare Moon had prepared for them, and if that was the case she sure had her own ideas of how the celestial princesses would furnish their own castle and bed chambers. Luna looked towards her sister, whom looked like she was about to explode into a billion tiny Celestias. Luna giggled a little at the thought of having such a vast number of Celestia running around on the floor in miniature version. But her smile turned into a frown as she confronted Celestia. “What do we do?” She asked her older sister.

“To be fairly honest.” Celestia replied as she shacked her head a bit to clear it of the blood that had risen to it. “As much as I would hate to say it; I don’t really see that we have much else choice than to agree to this so called marriage.” Celestia sat down on the floor, looking aimlessly in front of her while she thought.

The celestial princesses sat around for almost an hour chatting a bit back and forth about how they could perhaps escape their current fate, but no solution came. But then suddenly a loud knock rang though the chamber, they both looked up and towards where they assumed the sound had come from and noticed a large wooden door. Another knock rang though the room and the sisters rose from the floor, looking at each other. Celestia’s face had an expression that asked Luna wheater they should open the door or not and Luna set back a expression of her own telling her that would be the normal thing to do, then Celestia waved her hoof towards to door signaling for Luna to do the honor at which Luna just rolled her eyes at she made a firm bow and aimed one of her hoofs towards the door; more or less saying ‘after you your highness’. Celestia just signed and then they both moved towards the door.

As soon as Luna and Celestia had just barely opened the wooden door they slowly stuck out their heads out into a dark corridor which seemed to have neither floor nor walls, they slowly looked around as if afraid of a wild beast might jump them and bite their heads off as they looked out. But much to their relief they only found the lavender mare outside their door standing on nothing, they both signed in unity as the lavender quickly made a deep bow in front of them.

“Good evening,” Was all Twilight said with her head facing the floor, not really sure how to address true royalties.

“Oh, hello there.” Celestia mumbled as a somewhat stupid reply, being the best she could come up with at the given time. She was a bit shocked as to how courteous she could be with a mentor such as Nightmare Moon. “Twilight Sparkle was it?” She asked the lavender mare.

“Yes your grace!” Twilight yelped a little too loudly, being very excited to be in the presences of the celestial sisters, goddesses; especially the lunar one, the creator of the wonders night, which she was so found of. Not that Nightmare Moon wasn’t a goddess herself but the connection they had to each other was almost like that of a mother and her daughter, so she had no fear in her heart for the dark empress whom she dearly love. “May I borrow the lunar princess for the evening?” Twilight asked the solar princess as humbled as she could as she looked at Luna who just looked dumbfounded back at her; probably being a bit puzzled by what she wanted from her all of a sudden. Celestia on the other hand now seemed to have become lost in thought as her gaze dropped to the lavender legs.

Luna was quickly to catch what was probably going in her sister’s head. Luna knew that Celestia was both older and much more experienced than her, but she was her own pony and she didn’t like it when Celestia decided for her what to do and not to do, even if she only meant the best for her. “I’ll allow this.” Luna told Twilight like she was some sort of spoiled princess, who was given all in her life that she wanted.

“Are you sure?” Celestia said with a worried look.

Luna was a bit taken aback by this, perhaps this wasn’t the best of ideas she had, particularly with the face her sister worn, but she wouldn’t lose face to neither Celestia nor the usurper’s so called prodigy. “I’ll be fine sister.” She said. “I’m a big pony now.” She teased at her sister who now worn a soft smile but still with a worried look.
“Please come back soon.” Celestia said.

“I’ll, don’t worry about me so much.” Luna smiled at her dear sister.

“Very good.” Twilight sparkle said breaking the emotional moment between the two alicorns. “If you would please be so kind to stand beside me then.” She offered the lunar princess. Luna wrinkled her nose a little at this, not really sure as to why she had to stand next to her, but none the less she did as told and walked over to Twilight, almost brushing her. A teleportation circle formed under them and they vanished, leaving behind Celestia at the door.

“Please be safe.” Celestia whispered softly into the darkness.

-

Luna suddenly found herself gasping for air, was she being strangled?! No matter how hard she tried to breath hardly no air came to her, but after a little she slowly began to breath. She took deep and slow breaths to control the volume of H2O, the air was just incredible thin she noticed, which was why she felt like he was being strangled. She looked around herself and noticed no clouds above her, she then looked the sides where she saw clouds beneath her, Twilight had apperently teleported them to the very roof top of the so called 'endless' citadel.

Luna noticed that the sun was slowly making its decent. Her sister had probably realized the time as Luna and Twilight had left her and thus removing the sun to make space for the night and Luna’s moon.

“I knew you would adapt quickly, you’re an alicorn after all.” Twilight said in a mocking tone.

Luna said nothing but she was a bit confused by Twilight’s demeanor. At first she seemed to respect her and her sister a lot, almost to the point of fearing them, but now it was almost as if she was trying to deprive her; like some sort of jealousy had overtaken the prodigy. She seemed just as socially awkward as Luna is, most likely not having a lot of friends if any. She probably only clung to Nightmare Moon much like how Luna always clung herself to her sister, she didn’t really have any she would consider friends and she didn’t really dare to make any as they would all just passed away as she would live on forever and ever, which would leave the poor lunar princess heartbroken, but then again her heart was already breaking from the loneliness, only her sister held its pieces together.

“Could you rise the moon? I’ve always wanted to see how it is really done.” Twilight asked in a superficially way, breaking Luna’s path of thought.

So Twilight had only lured her out because she was curious to see how Luna rose the moon each night? Luna became a little bitter at the thought, but nonetheless she did it anyway, she had never before refused to rise her moon and she sure as hay wouldn’t do now either. Also it was her job after all and it was time of the day for the moon to come forth anyhoof. So Luna closed her eyes and focused her magic for a moment as her alicorn horn began to glow a dark purple and the moon then slowly crept over the borders of the world as several of her brightest stars began to shine, much stronger than normal thought, how high into the sky were they really?

Twilight stood beside her with her mouth open, stunned, amazed and deep in thought at the sight. To be able to do so much with such ease, that was truly something that only a goddess could do. She had always been amazed by the thought that her mentor was the source of all dreams, both good and bad. But having the power to create things like the sun, the moon and the billion of stars was also truly amazing on a whole different scale. Even though she herself was suppose to be some sort of unicorn genius, her magic power were still nothing compared to that of an alicorn; no matter how hard she would study, no matter how much she would train she would always be a shadow compared to an alicorn. She was both angry and bitter at the thought, why did they have to be born with so much when she had been born with so little? Why was life so unfair and cruel, that those alicorns had been given all while someone like her who had been born merely a unicorn. Her thoughts went to Von Slemmer for a moment; he had been born the lowest, he probably cursed his birth even more than she did, but he on the other hoof had went to the extremes and had became something between a demon and a pony. Was either of them not deserving of the same favors that an alicorn had?

Luna stared at Twilight, she seemed lost in her stars, it had been nearly quarter since she had risen the moon and yet the mare had said nothing since. She looked deep in thought but so was Luna, this whole thing just seemed really out of place; as if there was no plan what so ever and perhaps there wasn’t one. She coughed trying to remind Twilight of her presence but when Twilight didn’t react Luna gave the other mare a small push with her rump, having not moved from her side since they got there.

Twilight snapped back to reality as she noticed herself falling to the side like she was some sort of cardboard blown over by the wind, she landed on the hard cold iron roof of the citadel with a small stump. “Oh my, are you okay?” She heard the lunar princess ask her. “I’m so terrible sorry! I didn’t mean to knock you over like that! Did I really use that much force?” The princess continued sounding a little scared of what Twilight’s reaction might became to her sudden assault.

“I’m fine.” Twilight muttered, angrier at herself than Luna that she could be knocked over like that from hardly nothing, she felt rather stupid at the moment.

Luna offered Twilight a hoof at which Twilight looked at with great suspicious, as if Luna was some sort of scorpion that would strike her and kill her the moment she would show weakness and accept her kindness. But nonetheless after a minute or so she took the offer and Luna helped Twilight to stand up once more.

“Sorry.” Twilight said all of a sudden, almost kicking the air out of Luna in sheer surprise. “I know it isn’t your fault that this has happened, I had no idea that she would force us into a marriage.” Twilight said softly, with a hint of uncertainty in her voice. “I’m not really sure why the empress desided upon this, all she told me when I asked was that it was for the greater good and that it would ensure our power.” She looked to the side. “I know I probably shouldn’t tell you these things, as of right now you’re still considered an enemy of the entire ponysty. Von Slemmer would have my head if he knew I’ve talked with you about this, but luckily; out here he has no power.“

Luna was taken aback by Twilight sudden openness with her. Her thoughts went to Von Slemmer; what was his exact role in all of this? She wondered. Truly she felt a wicked aura around the empress, but not necessarily an evil one, more like a misguided one, a spirit lead astray. But she was cerious about who this Von Slemmer really was, so she asked the prodigy with sincere curiosity: “What kind of pony is Von Slemmer?”

“Like the empress said, the baron is the technology minister of the ponysty, but she left out that he is also the head of the Overwatch; our intelligence agency.” Twilight told her. “He is a dreadful stallion whom rules with fear and dread. The only reason he is allowed the position that he now possess is because he is the best of the best of what he does best.”
“Which is?” Luna asked, not really sure she wanted to know the answer by the tone that Twilight held around this head figure of the Overwatch.

“To keep ponies in check and make sure they stay obedient to the empress and the ponysty.” Twilight answered her. “He is a venomous snake that tries to buy him self’s favors from the empress at every possible opening.”

Luna looked thoughtful for a moment, she really wanted to know more but she could feel on Twilight that there was much more behind the baron that she would let her know.

“But no matter.” Twilight quickly added, only reassuring Luna’s suspicion. “The true reason I came to your room was to apologize on the behalf of my sovereign empress for forcing you onto me. As much as I disagree with her I can understand her reasoning; the influence that the ponysty would gain from having their ruler married to even just one of the celestial sisters is a powerful signal for all of Equestria to behold, but both of them? That’s like saying that the ponysty now rules the night and day.”

“So, the reasons Nightmare Moon forces me and my sister to marry the two of you is to ensure your power?” Luna asked Twilight who simply nodded at her question; telling her that she was correct.

“Both to ensure our influence over the many houses that makes up for the entire ponysty, but also for the rest of Equestria to behold the might of the ponysty.” Twilight told Luna.

“So, how did you get mixed into all of this?” Luna asked Twilight.

Twilight’s eyes went white for a moment as horrible memories crept back into her mind, most which she had tried to forget but was unable to let go of. “That’s a long story.” Was all she said, looking at the metal she stood upon. Then she looked back into the skies; now it was truly night, most of the stars had come forth from the hiding and the moon could now be seen fully. “Such beauty.” She mumbled to her selves, not really meaning to let the lunar princess hear it, whom in turn turned to face the night sky.

“Thank you.” Luna said in a happy tone, for the first time feeling at least some joy after she and her sister had reached the mega-techno-city of the ponysty.

Twilight blushed a little as she just realized by what Luna had said; that she apparently had just said one of her thoughts out loud for everypony to hear. “Back in the day, it was all that I had and by watching its beauty I was allowed dream, dreams of wonder and hope which was the only thing that made me to cling onto life even though it was a living nightmare.” Twilight told Luna all of a sudden, stunning the poor mare. Twilight couldn’t quite put her hoof on why she kept being so honest to the lunar princess. A silly thought entered her head that was against all that she really believed in; that maybe this forced marriage was fate and that Luna was truly her one true soul mate. Twilight shacked her head, now that was indeed a silly thought, wasn’t it? 

“You were once a slave weren’t you?” Luna asked the lavender mare.

“What makes you think I was a slave?” Twilight asked her back surprised and curious.

“The noble selfishness in your eyes, your commitment to the serves of something greater than yourself; the ponysty and your empress.” Luna replied.

“I don’t see commitment as slavery.” Twilight said with a little anger in her voice.

“I’m not saying that it always is, but when it comes at the cost of yourself; then it’s almost the same.” Luna said with a caring tone. “I should know.” She added, thinking of the loneliness she always had to endure by the path she had chosen as being her sisters shadow.

“In that case.” Twilight told Luna firmly. “I’ve rather be a slave to the one who saved me from my past than to be a slave to them.”

“Who?” Luna mildly asked, being really interested in the other mare’s suspicious past.
“The ones that…” Twilight trailed off.

Luna just looked at Twilight’s obvious pained face. “I can see you are bearing a heavy burden. Let me help you carry it with you Twilight.” Luna told Twilight as she smiled softly.

“I was a WHORE! OKAY?!” Twilight cried out with a broken heart stunning the other mare by the out of nowhere snap. “I was a slave who was rented out for use…” She trailed off as she began to sob.

“I’m so sorry Twilight, I didn’t know.” Said a shocked lunar princess, she had been able to feel her tormented heart but she had no idea it was this deep, being raped as a filly, having her innocence stolen like that. “If I had known, I would have come for you. No pony deserves a life like that.”

This was too much for Twilight to handle, those soft kind heartwarming words from Luna that showed nothing but kindness and care made Twilight cry loudly, wishing that someone would just striped her of this pain.

Luna looked at the crying mare with a broken heart, she knew deep inside of her that the empress’s prodigy could really use a hug right about now, but Luna wasn’t sure if it was her place to do so, but as she kept looking at the poor mare crying she couldn’t help but to embrace her and hug her deeply.

Twilight was a little surprised at the sudden embrace she now found herself in. She automatable buried her head into the other mare’s mane and returned the deep hug she was given as she continued to cry. Normally she would never have cried in front of another, she had her pride and her dignity but right now Twilight didn’t care, nothing really mattered much to her at this very moment. She had been strong for so long, holding it all in, not even letting it out in the presences of the one she trusted her life and dreams to.

Luna just held onto the crying lavender mare, feeling her troubled soul trying to find its place in the grand scheme of life, trying desperately to escape its tormented past.

After some time Twilight had stopped sobbing and slowly redrew from their embrace as she looked towards the night sky. “A few years ago Nightmare Moon aproced me when I was a slave; she granted me the power of vengeance over those that had misused me, but she also warned me that I might come to regret my decision. But I was too angry to listen, too much hate and misery made up for my thoughts as I gave them their just reward.” The lavender mare told Luna. “Though I still think they were let off to easily and I still believe that what I did was right, but even so I now know what she meant when she said I would regret it, because I soon after realized that in some way I was no different than them, I too had fallen; with my hoofs socked in their blood.” She held her hoofs up as she looked at them, picturing them running with blood as they had some years ago. “I have lived almost all of my life with nothing more making me go on than my dreams of happier times and of cause me dreadful lust for revenge. I guess that some things can only be taught though ones action and its consequences.” She signed. “But with all that said I still own you my thanks; it was only because of your beautiful nights that I was ever allowed to dream of something better, of something greater; than my miserable life as a slave.” She returned her gaze to Luna once more as she carried on. “Ever since I heard about you; the one that made the stars I’ve wanted to meet you and thank you. I’m sorry for my behavior, but as much as I adore your work I’m still jealous of you, you who lucky being born an alicorn and thus becoming a goddess while I had to suffer a life of misery and yet I still know that you are not to blame for this and either am I, but still my heart cannot seem to accept that is simply how the mystery of life works; some are lucky and others are not, and it is not determined by fate nor destiny.” She finally finished off.

Luna just stood there watching her, her mind racing over the things she had just told her. That sure was a lot of information to take in all at once and to process. But before she could find out what to say; Twilight spoke once more.

“After I had become free from slavery I felt a joy unlike any other I had ever felt, even beyond that I felt in my dreams. But as I stood there all of the pieces slowly began to fall together.” She said as she sat down on top of the cold irony floor that made the very rooftop of the ‘endless’ citadel. “But that joy faded with the realization that I had ended the one responsible for my sorrow and with that I was still left with a bitter and painful past but now I no longer had a future, I no longer had my source for vengeance, I had lost my one and only true purpose for living.” Twilight dried her eyes with her hoof as fresh tears had begun to form, but she continued her story nonetheless. “True enough I had my dreams, but they seemed so far away and impossible to reach, after all; they are only dreams. But then Night- I mean the empress.” The prodigy cut herself short. “She offered me to aid her in her quest to pursuit ‘the greater good’. I agreed and then I became her apprentice and she became my mentor, I then had a purpose even though it was not my own. But that was good enough for me, or at least that is what I thought. I lived to serve her and her ambitions, but it hasn’t really brought me any happiness since then. So it’s just like you said Luna, I still remain a slave. Only difference is that this time I decided whom to serve.” Twilight finished off with a sad look on her face, but still a small smile crossed her lips.

Luna sat down beside the lavender mare, it had been quite a bit to take in for the lunar princess. “I’m not really sure what to say.” Luna tried, honestly not really sure what to tell Twilight. After all their lives couldn’t really be compared, well not beside that they both were slaves; each in their own way and to their own cause.

Twilight just looked at Luna and gave her a small soft smile as she went on. “A little while after I had become Nightmare Moon’s student, we were approached by a spiteful being; the baron. He offered himself and his service to Nightmare Moon as well as an ancient artifact.”

“An ancient artifact?” Luna asked puzzled, interrupting Twilight’s monologue.

Twilight just smiled at Luna, she had no idea. “You sitting on it.” She told Luna with a small giggle.
“The citadel?!” Luna asked surprised.

“Yup.” Twilight said all knowingly. “But it wasn’t always like this; the artifact Von Slemmer presented to us; were a little metal rocklike object that one could hold in a pocket. When he showed it to us; me and my teacher thought little of it, but when Von Slemmer demonstrated some of its awesome powers we were baffled, and we all saw it had much much more potential, probably even more than the baron had ever thought, but then again; maybe he knew exactly what could be gained from it and that he just didn’t have what it took to unlock its secrets on his own.”

“Where did he get it from?” The lunar princess asked.

“He only told us that he gained it from the demon which he fought and devoured while he was trapped inside a cave by an avalanche, deep within the griffin’s mountain empire. And that is all I know.” 

Luna looked thoughtful for a moment before she asked: “Why don’t you find out the truth?” She asked Luna with questionable eyebrow, she really did wonder how they could become allies and then know nothing of each other’s pasts.
“Well…” Twilight slowly began. “We all sort of agreed on that none of us were to happy with our past and wanted to put it behind us, so out lives kind of started from that moment.”

“I see…” Was all that Luna said, certainly not content with the answer she had been given.

Twilight on the other hand once more continued the story from where Luna had interrupted her before. “Even to this very day I still don’t think we have fully understood what the stone or rather what the citadel can truly do, but more importantly there is one thing that keeps worrying me; the baron seems to have some sort of unnatural connection to it, even before we started to experiment on it. Whenever me or Nightmare Moon has to use its powers we use our own magic to utilize it, but the baron whom possess no magical powers whatsoever; merely uses his thoughts to make use of the citadel. But anyhoof, after we had tirelessly worked on the stone for a long time we decided to use its power to conquer the mightiest of the ponysty houses, where we planted the stone and thus the citadel sprang forth and then they surrendered as the saw only a fragment of the power it can muster.”

Luna looked a little shocked at this, which Twilight noticed.

“It’s not like that; we managed to pull it off even without a single casualty. The plan was to show our power to the other houses so they would come to us in seek of protection instead of being foolish enough to oppose us.” Twilight tried to reassure the celestial princess. “Though I have to admit I don’t really like the idea that we have to rule with power and fear, but both Nightmare Moon and Von Slemmer says that there is currently no other way and that it is for the greater good of all that we do it, though I remain a bit sceptical about that, but it have proven to be efficient enough, but for longer lasting effect I can’t really say.”

Luna sat there deep in thought, she and her sister ruled their ponydom with love, respect and understanding. Sure enough the idea seems naïve and could easily be abused but so far their rule hadn’t backfired. But Luna would rather see the ponydom break apart than to see her subjects quiver in fear at the mere mention of her name or her sisters.

“Which reminds me.” Twilight suddenly said “The reason I brought you outside, well besides watching your night sky that is.” She stopped for a moment, as if trying to find the right words. “Well, because it has come to my attention that everything that happens within the citadel; Von Slemmer somehow knows of. I’ve already tested this little theory of mine and I can say with 82 % accuracy that all that is said and done; Von Slemmer will know of. In a way his unnatural connection to the stone makes me a god inside the citadel, a place where his powers cannot be rivaled, not even by the empress. So that is the main reason that I brought you out here, so we could talk in private.” The prodigy said as she again looked towards the stars, they were all now visible as it had truly become nighttime. “But I’ve already said much more than I really had wanted to.” She then told Luna with a smile, breaking her gaze from the stars.

Luna just looked at her smiling softly, but inside her head her thoughts were running at top capacity. She wasn’t entirely sure what to think of all of this she had just learnt, but not wanting to stop talking to the lavender mare she told Twilight that: “It would seem that you’ve have lived quite the life, I’m sorry but I won’t be able to impress you much with my boring life story.” Luna said, thinking back a little she frowned as she could see some of her own words could be understood natively by the past that Twilight have lived though, but she didn’t show Luna any sign of being hurt by her words, on the contrary; as Twilight laid her head on Luna’s shoulder.

Twilight rested her head on Luna’s shoulder. “Sometime I would love to hear about your boring alicorn life.” Twilight said with a sleepy sugar sweet voice. “And thanks for listening.” Was all Twilight got to say before she drifted off into sleep, under Luna’s star full night sky that suddenly just became somewhat brighter.

Luna just smiled as she softly warped one of her wings around the sleeping lavender mare, pulling her closer to keep her warm and conformable. Maybe marriage a mare such as Twilight Sparkle wouldn’t be the worst thing that she had been forced to doing in her millenniums of living; was all she got to think of before she too fell asleep, resting her head on Twilight’s.

Auther’s note:
The first part of this chapter felt rather rushed, which I didn’t mean to. It might have something to do with that I had nothing planned ahead for this chapter, unlike I had with my 2nd chapter (which is still my fav chapter so far), I’ll probably change that in the future and plan ahead before writing. But I still hope that you have enjoyed my work even though it might have been a bit rushed at some places :|

FYI: This story will be paused for some time (maybe until January) as I really want to write a Luna x Twilight Xmas story before Christmas Eve and I also have an exam I really should read up on, but after all that I’ll continue this story once more, I promise! I hope ye all are okay with that :3 Also the next chapter will be about Nightmare Moon and Celestia, look forward to it my dear readers!

So until next time, please enjoy and comment! <3

> Chapter 4: The Sovereign Empress (v1)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author’s note:
I know that last time I wrote this story would receive a break for some time as I have an exam coming up plus that I wanted to write a one-shot Xmas story before Xmas, but it seems that I can’t leave this story alone *sad face* So here you go, here is chapter 4! BTW I’m still working on my Xmas story, I’m just having a writer’s block ATM with the plot >_<

Oh! Can anyone find the ‘Warhammer 40k’ and 'Star Trek' reference? :D

Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy this installment of PvsP (doesn’t that kinda mean the same as PvP?)!

The story:
Celestia had been standing there for what seemed like hours, though in reality she had merely been standing there for mere moments. Had it been okay that she let Luna go along with that prodigy of hers? Obviously referring to the dark empress. Maybe it had been some kind of trick to lure them apart, but that didn’t make much sense if Nightmare Moon could just freely transport them around as she desired. Nonetheless Celestia couldn’t help feeling that it probably was a pretty bad idea. She finally signed to herself as she turned around and closed the door; leaving behind her the strange endless darkness.

As soon as she had closed the door she noticed it was that time of the day where her sun has to make way for the moon. So Celestia closed her eyes and focused her magic for a moment, until she could feel the sun fading away for the skies.
Celestia then looked up for the first time since they had been teleported to their new (quarters). As the solar princess gazed at the scenery she thought to herself that the empress sure had her own ideas as how they decorate.

Then suddenly an evil and wicked laugh rang though the chamber, a laughter which she already knew whom it belonged to, even though she had never heard her laugh. ‘Nightmare Moon’ was all she thought as she narrowed her eyes once again that very day.

A bang was heard and a huge cloud of dark smoke started to spread though the room, and from within a starting cough could be heard. The coughing grew loader and uglier as suddenly a pitch black mare rushed out of the smoke coughing madly and gasping for air. “Bloody smoke bomb!” She cursed. “That’s the last time I’ll use one of those!” Nightmare Moon told herself with a hoarse voice.

The mare of the moon looked around herself as she gained some control over her coughing. “It would seem my prodigy moves more quickly than I had anticipated.” A wide smirk began to take form on her lips. “I have taught her well!” She then told herself proudly.

Celestia just dropped her head, there were truly no hope for the empress she thought. “I guess that Twilight had to teach herself some manners, because she surely couldn’t have gotten any of them from you.” Celestia told the empress as she had appeared into the room without permission.

“Shush my sweet.” Nightmare Moon told the princess. “Do not worry for my health as I’m a creature of immortality.” She then said, clearly ignoring what Celestia had just said, probably lost in some bizarre dream world where she thought Celestia was worried for her well being.

Celestia just rolled her eyes at the other mare.

“Could I perhaps get a glass of water?” She asked the sun princess with a pleading manner.

Celestia just gave her the ‘death stare’.

“What an uncaring wife.” Nightmare Moon then said with a humph.

“I’m not your wife.” Celestia told the empress firmly. 

Nightmare Moon didn’t reply as she walked over to desk with a rather impressive collection of booze. As she started to use her magic to levitate different kinds of bottles around in the air, trying to make the two of them some drinks she said: “But you will be.” The she suddenly paused and turned her head just enough so she could see the celestial sister out of the corner of her left eye. “Right?”

The solar princess looked away from the empress. She really didn’t want to be forced into something like this and especially not with her!

The empress made a frown, but said nothing. She fixed the drinks and then turned towards the solar princess, walking over to her and offered her the drink she had made for her, hovering in the air.

Celestia muttered a silent thanks as she used her magic to grasp the blue liquid drink she was being offered, she could really use something strong right now and she wasn’t let down. In a matter of fact it was a bit too much for the poor ruler as she coughed hard. “What the hay is this?!” She asked the empress with her tongue hanging out of her mouth, as if she wanted to the air to dry it “Are you trying to poison me?!.

Nightmare Moon just giggled at her. “Its Romulan ale, my sweet.” Celestia just raised an eyebrow. “A medicine man told me how to make it once. Its quite effective to cure lesser diseases such as the common cold. He once said that one sip will make a stallions hair grow on his chest and the second would burn it away again. Ah, yes, he was such a silly little pony that one.” The empress told Celestia as she smiled to herself, probably remembering some joyful days she most have had at some point. “Such a shame that he died all those millenniums ago. Even today his knowledge would have been appreciated.” She added to her tale.

Celestia just stood there lost in thought, saying nothing. It was pretty clear to her that Nightmare Moon were trying to warm up to her by the use of ‘small talk’ but Celestia didn’t really feel like making any kind of relationship with the pitch black goddess. But something had made her wonder.

“If you have lived for so long how come I’ve only heard of you though rumors and stories?” Celestia asked the nightmarish goddess.

“Oh, that’s an easy one!” Nightmare Moon said with a happy glee to her voice as she bounced around for a moment. “That’s because I lived on the moon where the nightmares couldn’t reach me.” She told her as she stopped hopping around like some sort of bunny, abruptly looking a bit gloomy, like she had just hurt herself with a memory.

Celestia’s eyes were wide, not quite sure about the piece of information she was just granted by the sovereign regent. It had only left the sun goddess with even further questions than the one the empress had just answered. 

“Oh, don’t worry your little pretty head about that.” Nightmare Moon told her out of the blue as she was nervously rubbing one of her front legs with the other one; seemingly wanting to close the case that she had opened in her omission.

Celestia just signed, there were so many things she wanted to know. Like what was the Citadel really and why was it alive with a consciousness of its own? What had she meant by living on the moon to avoid the nightmares? And what were her true reasons for their dynastic marriage, Celestia knew all too well she could just roll over the ponydom is she so desired, so why? True she did mention that it would be easier the other way around but she wouldn’t be directly conflicted by that, so why would she care? But Celestia asked none of these questions, she was tired, her head hurt and the Romulan ale sure hadn’t improven on that and to be fairly honest she didn’t really want to share another moment with the dark empress whom was planning to steal her life away and threaten to destroy her and Luna’s ponydom and to enslave their people, their subjects.

And then she found herself leashing out at the regent. “I’ve had enough of this Nightmare Moon.” She spat at the empress. “First you ask me and my sister to travel all the way over here, forcing us to neglect our duties and only to force us into a marriage that we possible can’t disagree to as you hold our entire ponydom in your shackles. And then you have the audacity to mock us!” Celestia finally finish off, becoming more furious than she had planned to, breathing heavily.

Nightmare Moon didn’t look like she was very astonished by the swift show of hostility towards her, probably expecting the sun mistress to explode sooner or later. She took a big gulp of her drink before she put it to the floor with her magic, as if she needed to be a bit tipsier to summon up enough courage to face the angered princess.

“Well, if you truly think I’m such a bad pony, then why don’t you strike me down, right here and right now as I stand before you?” She asked the sun princess. “I won’t even resist! There is no way I could lift my lesser hoof against my heart desires. I’ll die for love!” She then finished off in a dramatic manner as she threw herself to the floor like some hamlet play. She couldn’t help herself, no matter how hard her mind pleaded for her to be somewhat serious fell to the ground with her; as she continuously teased and flirted with the mighty celestial sister.

Still angered, all Celestia said for a reply was her following words: “If I knew that killing you wouldn’t end up in the total annihilation of the celestial ponydom; then we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” She told the empress with a displeased tone.

“Do you really mean that?” Nightmare spoke with a voice shallow and sorrowful. “Do you really think that I’m that distasteful and undesirable?” She finished as she started to draw circles on the floor with one of her forelegs.

Celestia was actually a little doubtful if she was being sincere or mocking her yet again. So she just ended up with saying: “Whatever.” Not really giving a flying hoof at the other mare’s feelings, true or not. She turned her back to the empress, wishing she would just go away and leave her forever, but instead she heard hoofs walking softly and carefully across the room over to her, she felt the dark regent stop close to her.

“I’m sorry.” Nightmare Moon whispered in a voice Celestia had only heard her use towards her prodigy earlier that day.
Celestia turned around surprised. “Come again?” She asked without thinking, sounding rather blank.

But the empress made no attempt to insult the ruler of the sun this time around. She offered the sun princess her hoof, which Celestia just looked at questioningly. “Trust me.” The empress added with a sweet smile not before seen by the albino mare.

Celestia was a little hesitant about this offer she was presented with, but after looking at the so called ‘mare of the moon’ she felt as if it would be better to accept than not. Though for whatever reasons the regent had for this she was unaware of.
And as soon as she touched the other mare’s hoof and received a small subdued smile; Celestia almost instantly found herself shrouded in darkness, and yet embraced by a strange unfamiliar warmth in the vast dark void. She knew she had been teleported somewhere by the dark empress, for more than one reasons; being that she no longer felt the mysterious presence of the living citadel and the more obvious fact she knew what a teleportation spell felt like. But the place she had been teleported to she was unaware of, she couldn’t see a thing in front of her, even as she lifted her hoof and almost poked herself in the eye one would assume it should have been visible present in front of her, but still she could see nothing.

Celestia then heard a precipitously thump as if someone had walked into something, followed by a “Ouch!” Emitted by the sovereign ruler of the ponysty, Celestia just kept quite at this though she could swear she would probably have laughed if the circumstances had been different. Celestia listened closely so she could better hear the movement of the empress waltzing around wherever they were. But after a short moment all she heard was Nigtmare Moon giving up, sighing in defeated. “Screw this shit!” She said loudly. “I’ll just have to this the good old fashion way!” She told herself but loud enough for Celestia to hear clearly.

The Celestia saw her horn glow up in the darkness, a dark sinister purple glow lighten Nightmare Moon’s figure in a gloomy vile glow. Making the empress truly looking like an evil deity, but much to Celestia’s surprise she felt an unexpected warmth emanated from her dominance. There were no traces of malice, wickedness or corruption in the magic that she used. Celestia had imaged a bone chilling cold when she saw the empress’ glow in the dark, she found it kind of odd that something that looked so vile could feel so pleasant. But soon the both of them found themselves in a dim fervour light emanated by torches hanging along a cave like wall, litten by the magic of the regent.

“There we go!” She said with a happy voice, wondering why she hadn’t just done that from the start. She turned around so she was now facing her maybe soon to be wed. “Welcome to my secret lair!” She said in an evil manner as she began to laugh in a wicked way, like some sort of super villain, quickly leaving her softer and more side behind in the citadel.
Celestia just rolled her eyes at her, good old Nightmare Moon she assumed. “How far are we from your citadel?”

“Some three hundred miles, so we aren’t that far from the outer walls of the city. We always knew the mightiest of the ponysty houses would be our first target; so we decided to set up base not too far from the city.”

“It’s still rather impressive that you can teleport around with such ease over such vast distances and with such precision nonetheless.” Found herself saying, being rather surprised that she was praising her maybe soon to be conquer.
“I’ve had a lot of practice.” She replied as she thought back to her travels between the moon and Equestria.

Celestia not really knowing that she meant anything unusual about her statement just moved on to her next question: “So what is this place?” She asked the empress.

“This is where I, Twilight and Von Slemmer lived and did our research on the citadel stone,” She told Celestia. “before we… well you know, hostile takeover and all that.” She added as a joke. 

“I see…” She simply said. “So, how come you brought me to this place?” She asked her.

“Because it isn’t safe to speak within the citadel.” Nightmare Moon replied.

“What do you mean that ‘it isn’t safe’?” Celestia asked a little bewildered.

“Well you see…” She said shortly, cutting herself off as she thought her next words over in her head. “I don’t really know the true origin of the ‘citadel stone’ I have absolute no idea as to where the baron has gained that power artifact from.” She held a short break, forming her next words in her mind. “He himself told me that he gained it from a demon, but I know for a fact that there isn’t such a thing as demons, or at least not of this realm.”

“Meaning?” Celestia asked confused and getting a little annoyed that everything she had questions about just ended up with bringing forth more questions.

“Demons are creatures made from nightmares,” She told the mistress of the day and the sun. “and I should know this as dreams and nightmares is sort of my specialty.” She added with a wink at the princess. “So if he were to summon one of those to our world; he would have to summon it from a very powerful being’s mind; at least that of an alicorn.” She said as she became lost in thought.

“So you’re saying that the ‘citadel stone’ is made from a dream?” Celestia asked as she rose an eyebrow.

“I can’t say for sure, but it is possible.” Was all Celestia got as a reply. “Did you notice Von Slemmer’s appearance?” The empress asked her.

“Not really, I only noticed his rather ominous and unpleasant aura.” Celestia said with shiver, recalling the terrible feeling.

“His body is changing and I know he has an unnatural connection to the citadel, so one can only assume that…” But before she could continue she was cut off by an odd sound, coming from underneath her armor.

She took forth what looked like some sort of clock. Celetia could easily hear that it was what made the odd sound. Celestia jumped back as a living image spawned forth from the clock lookalike item Nightmare Moon had pulled forth.

“Relax dear, it’s just a hologram.” The empress signed as she shakes her head a bit at how silly the solar princess was for being startled by something as simple as a three-dimensional image created with photographic projection.
“A what?” Celestia asked unknowingly.

“Hol-o-gram. You know… science and stuff?” Nightmare Moon said mockingly, which Celestia just rolled her eyes at. But in truth she had no idea how it was put together, after all it was a creation of the combined brainpower of the two eggheads; Twilight Sparkle and Von Slemmer. “Anyway, sorry about that Herr Von Slemmer.” She then told the hologram. “You called?” She asked the miniature version of the baron.

“That I did.” He said superficially. “I couldn’t help noticing that both you and Twilight have vanished this evening, along with the celestial sisters.” He told his empress.

“We’re out on each of our respected honeymoons!” She told the baron; without a sec of thought and without any doubt. If Nightmare Moon was being cautious of the baron she sure could act her part. Not for a moment was there an uncertainty or a lose face as she continued a rather dull and stupid conversation with the baron; that neither Celestia nor the baron seemed to take very serious. The baron hardly said anything during her ramble, probably because he saw right though her many lies during her imagery honeymoon. “Don’t be so gloomy, take a day off or something.” Nightmare Moon told the baron and thus finically ending her ramble.

“And do what exactly?” Von Slemmer merely replied.

Nightmare Moon had in her rambling forgetting with whom she spoke with. This was the baron after all; he was one of those who only lived for the cause neglecting his own life. Or at least that was what Nightmare Moon had thought of him, but she knew why he did the things that he did, and she knew he would go any length to achieve his own goal, but at the same thing he was a respectful stallion, even though she and Twilight was probably useless to him at this point he still considered them allies and he still tried to buy favors form his empress.

“Sorry…” Nightmare Moon just said, in the same manner that she had with Celestia before they left the citadel behind. “I didn’t mean…“ She stopped mid-sentence as she couldn’t seem to find the right words, which the baron noticed and went on to help her out a little.

“I know.” He simply said, ending the now awkward dialogue going on between them.

Celestia got an odd look on her face, she was really unsure of what was going on. Hadn’t the regent more or less just told her that Von Slemmer wasn’t to be trusted? Then why this sudden understanding and equal respect they shared for each other? What had been as if Nightmare Moon was fearful of him listing in on what she wanted to speak with her of, but what did she want with her anyway that the baron mustn’t know? What was their connection to each other? But back to the topic, the talk they had just shared was as if the fear they had for each other vanishing in a moment of understanding, or at least for now.

“How is Twilight?” The empress asked, moving away from their seemly heart breaking chat.

“She’s with the lunar princess atop of the citadel, but I can’t tell you if she is fine or not as I’ve been unable to reach her.” He merely replied, sounding a bit uneasy, which Celestia caught onto.

“Don’t worry, Luna wouln’t harm a fly.” She told the two of them as if they needed some sort of reinsurance that Luna wasn’t some deranged mare.

“Then I’ll take my leave, be well my empress.” The baron then told her.

“And you as well Herr Von Slemmer.” The mistress of nightmares told the stallion before the living image vanished into the clock like device.

There was a short break before Celestia spoke once more. “Tell me Nightmare Moon and be honest with me.” She told the ruler of the ponysty. “Is it the baron whom wants to overtake me and my sister’s ponydom?” She asked her.

“Well…” Nightmare Moon began. “He is the one who has been pressing me into doing it, but it would have happened either way, seeing that we have sort of dried this land bare for its natural resources, in particularly metal.” She told her. “Beside to achive our objective all will eventually become a part of the ponysty, so like said, it would happen anyway, if not now then later. But Von Slemmer just wanted you to takeover your little ponydom, probably mostly because he wanted to test out our new steam-tanks and your flat land would be perfect for that and make a very easy conquest for us.” She told her. “But like I have told you, I’ll do anything within my power to minimize casualties thus I decided without your knowing to force you into a marriage which would cost not a single life, but I did this behind the baron’s back so it would be over and you would be our allies before he knew of it. I had no idea that he would return today, that totally ruined my whole plan.” She looked away for a little while as she thought over whether or not she should add more to the story or not as it would probably make the solar princess uneasy, but she decided to hold no secrets from her. “So right now I really can’t say for sure if the baron will attack your celestial ponydom or not.” She finished off.

Once again that day she had been told something that only made up even more questions! And what the hay was a steam-tank?! Celestia thought harshly wanting to rip out the hair of her mane. “I don’t quite understand how you can be running dry on metal, seeing that your living fortress is overly massive and seems to keep expanding on its own.” Celestia told Nightmare Moon. “Couldn’t you just use some of that?”

“Sadly that is not possible, as all of our defensives are connected to the citadel, which is made by a living metal known as ‘necrodermis’ the most sturdy metal known to exist.” She informed Celestia. “And as to the citadel’s growth. Well, I’m guessing that on your tour you saw the hole which the citadel resides?” She asked her, which Celestia in turn nodded to. “That hole goes all the way into the core of Equestria, where it is supplied with an endless amount of metal and sadly we can’t go there, or else there wouldn’t have been any problems to our materiel needs.” She told her with a sign. “Nonetheless, there is something I want to show you.” She said as she made her way towards the princess in the obscure darkness. And before Celestia could act she found herself teleported to yet another place, but this time it had went much more quickly and she hardly got to feel the magic of the dark alicorn.

They now found themselves in another chamber, looking more like a living quarter than the previous room that had looked more like some sort of laboratory, but definitely still within the same cave like place. In the ceiling over a wooden bed were a skylight window where one now could see the vast night skies filled with millions of stars; Luna’s incredible craftsmanship.

Nightmare Moon noticed Celestia looking at the night sky. “This room belongs to my prodigy Twilight Sparkle.” She told here. “I made that skylight view especially for her, so she could always gaze upon her precious stars.” She said with a soft smile. “Did you know that your sister’s creation made all of this possible?” She asked Celestia, but before she would let her reply she continued onward, explaining in greater detail what she had meant by that. “Twilight always wanted to meet your sister, but the more she desired to meet her, the more fearful she also became of meeting her. She was worried that she might dislike her and that would totally ruin her life; as Luna’s night is the only confront she has ever known, the only friends she ever had were the stars of the night in her loathsome life.” She told the solar goddess with a hint of sadness. “I actually didn’t think she dared to confront her, I’m glad she eventually got the courage to face her greatest fear. But then again it also fills me with as much fear as joy. I really sincerely hope she isn’t disappointed. You see, it was only because of Luna that any of this was possible. Twilight would most likely have killed herself when she was a slave, if it hadn’t been for the comfort she found in the night that let her dream those wondrous and beautiful dreams. I saw her broken soul and painful existence, I saw the horrors, the torment and the sorrow that her soul and heart had to endure; I couldn’t believe anypony with such wicked lives could dream something so utterly stunning in beauty. It was so overwhelming that I saw a new hope in this world and I made up my mind on the spot; to save Equestria from all of its sorrow and suffering. So I returned from the moon to Equestria and saved her from slavery and alongside with our ally we did the impossible and united the entire ponysty! Something which no living creature had ever succeeded, just with the three of us; Von Slemmer the mislead, Twilight Sparkle the mistreated and I; the employment of nightmares; Nightmare Moon.”

Celestia had listened closely to Nightmare Moon’s every word and she seemed to understand better why she had done the things she had done, but still so many questions remained unanswered, but there was one the empress more or less had knocked her in the head with tonight, the whole thing about the moon, so she had to ask. “You keep mentioning that you were on the moon, why where you there?” She asked.

“To better explain that I’ll need to tell you whom am I.” The dark mare said. “You are the goddess of the sun and the day, Luna is the goddess of the moon and the night and I’m the goddess of dreams; both good and bad.” She told her. “At some point I was known as a pure being that let every living creature experience the joy of dreaming, but as I let them dream freely something happened, dreams were no longer the product of one’s pure desires but now they had also become the product of their fears, which was never my intention. Dreams were suppose to bring happiness to those who could not find it in life, dreams were supposed to make them chase their hopes and desires, but what happened in most cases were their fears taking hold and thus created ‘nightmares’ a power which I couldn’t control or undo. I lost my bright as I became this dark figure you now see stand before you, but before I was completely overtaken I decided to flee Equestria and sleep forever, never again feeling the endless torments of the dreams that I had shared with all and in my nativity creating much more pain than happiness.” She told the princess with a sorrowful voice, Celestia could swear that she saw what could only be teary eyes in the nightlight.

Nightmare Moon walked over to the wooden bed and laid down on her back, putting behind her two forelegs behind her head as she stared into the night sky above her. Celestia was a little hesitant but eventually did the same, laying down beside the empress but making sure to keep as much distance as possible to the other mare without falling over the side of the bed. Celestia noticed the bed had a sudden scent to it, it smelled like Lavandula? Celestia couldn’t help herself to smile at this, what a perfect scent for a lavender colored mare, she thought. 

“So what made you come back?” Celestia then asked her as she found some comfort in the prodigy’s bed.

“Well…” The empress started, not taking her eyes from the sky, not even when Celestia had come to bed with her. “Twilight happened.” She then said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “It was her beautiful dreams that made me realize that there was still hope, in particularly when one lived such a horrible life. Just like I said before, she was the one that made all this possible but only because of Luna.”

Celestia wasn’t really sure what to feel, she was glad that Luna’s greatest creation had such a positive impact on others, which she would surely tell her as Luna always seemed to believe that only the sun and the day were appreciated.

“To think that I came to make you drunk and see what could happen would result in us star gazing instead in my students bed nonetheless!”

“You truly know how to win your price.” Celestia told her ironically, but the mistress of nightmares merely smiled at this.
“I’m glad that you deiced to come and grace my humble citadel with your stunning beauty. No stallion can compare to the beauty of a mare and you Celestia, you are one of the most beautiful of them all. You are a price anypony would desire, a collector’s greatest trophy and soon you’ll be mine! Literally!” She laughed at Celestia, which in turn just rolled her eyes over.

“I haven’t agreed to anything yet.” She merely told her, but as she received no reply she turned and looked at Nightmare Moon whom was now asleep.

Author’s note:
I hope you had as much fun reading this as I had writing it, I’m a little unsure what will happen in the next chapter (need to plan ahead once more), so you’ll just have to keep reading to see what I come up with next ;) But dear me this story is slowly progressing! And I’m even planning 2 endings for the story, a happy and a sad one. So this will probably take forever to finish! Oh well, better get to work I guess :3

And like always, please comment! <3