To Know Hell

by Crensler

First published 12th of July, 2016

To truly know hell, to fully understand it, you must experience it for yourself. Unfortunately for the "hero" of our story, he's going to get a first hand look at what hell really is.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be trapped somewhere with no escape? To see freedom every day and night, and yet know that you can't possibly ever reach it? No food, no water, no rest; only you, your thoughts and your prison for a thousand years. Worst of all? You aren't even supposed to be there, let alone exist. This is the story of David, an average salary man thrust into a situation that can only be described as a waking nightmare. Welcome to hell; enjoy your stay~

Prologue: The Nightmare is Real

When you live a mundane, day to day life as one of hundreds of employees working in a cubicle farm, you get used to the dull, weary grind of it, never expecting it to change. You wake up, you get ready for work, you go to work, clock out at the end of the day, maybe head to the bar with your fellow workers for an hour or two, head home, eat, sleep, then start it all over again the next day. And the next. And the next. So it was for me while working for the Daulton Corporation, an international pharmaceutical company that supplied medicine for millions across the globe. Who am I? My name is David and I was just another cog in the machine. I had dark brown hair that bordered on being black, brown eyes and I was never really the healthiest person around.

I can run maybe twenty feet before ending up doubled over, gasping for air, and my tight budget didn't allow for the best of diets so I was also pasty and lacked energy on a fairly regular basis. The only thing that wasn't average was my height, though I suppose a guy standing at just over six feet isn't all that uncommon, either. I also couldn't grow facial hair to save my life, so it was either shave every day or end up with unruly, splotchy patches of hair that didn't grow nearly thick enough to be anything beyond glorified peach fuzz. So, yeah, nothing great about me I'm afraid. But, that's not why you're reading this, is it? No, you want to see how my life went from dull and mundane to the worst possible thing I could have ever imagined.

It started on a Friday night, just after seven in the evening, and I'd allowed several of my coworkers to talk me into going with them to Jerry's, the cheapest dive downtown. At least the music didn't make me want to rip my ears off. This is going to make me sound old, but I can't stand the techno, pop crap younger people listen to these days and it tends to infest most every bar and club I've had the pleasure of being to over the years. So, the fact Jerry only plays older rock tunes at his place is a welcome treat for the ears, even if it's mostly just Aerosmith and, occasionally, Metallica. The first sign that my night was going to be troublesome was when an attractive woman approached me.

Like I already said, I was never much of a catch, so when this redheaded beauty sat next to me, smelling of some sweet, cloying perfume and flashing me her best smile, you can imagine that I was wondering just what in the hell she wanted from me. Could have easily been fishing for free drinks, I suppose, but this was not my lucky night. Now, Daulton Corp. expected its employees to dress professionally, even us simple cubicle jockeys, so I was wearing a fairly decent looking business suit. She must have smelled money and, since I was the homeliest of the group, she also likely figured I'd be the easiest to dupe. Turned out she was right, though not how I would have initially expected.

“I couldn't help noticing that you're looking kinda lonely,” she said, all sweetness and sex appeal with the faintest trace of an accent I couldn't place. If I were more attractive, and less cynical, I'd be all over her. What? I'm homely, not dead. So, right then, I was thinking she's an...escort, the type whose clientele works a dozen floors above my personal little slice of heaven.

“Look, I'm flattered you think I can afford you,” I began, my tone as dry as the whiskey that was left in my glass, “but don't let the suit fool ya, honey. I'm not-” I was cut off by someone bumping into me, my attention diverted to some drunken asshole who should've been sleeping it off. “Hey, watch it!” The man slurred something my way, an apology I guess, but he was gone almost as quick as he'd arrived. “Christ, what an asshole.” I looked back to the redhead, only she was no longer there, which only prompted me to shrug. I figured must have gone looking for someone else to sell her services too and thought nothing more of it.

I grimaced as I finished off my drink, the whiskey oddly bitter despite how smooth the rest of it had gone down earlier. It wasn't until I got out to the parking lot that I realized my mistake. My vision blurred, doubled and came in and out of focus, my balance lost in seconds. The next thing I knew I was kissing asphalt with someone tugging on my suit jacket, trying to get it off me. I couldn't even struggle, a garbled protest slipping from my lips, which only made my mugger kick me in the ribs, the pain distant through the haze of whatever the hell that red haired bitch slipped into my drink. My wallet hit the gritty tarmac next to my face and I tried to get up, but the heel of the hellion's shoe struck the back of my head and stopped my efforts to rise in their tracks. I think my nose broke as it hit the asphalt, but things kind of went black at that point so my recollection of that night ends there.

I don't know how long I was out, exactly, but the screaming agony pounding through my skull was what finally brought me out of my less than restful slumber. If you can imagine a thousand hot, scalding knives jamming into your head from every possible direction at once and twisting around inside your brain, you'd get pretty close to how I felt right then. I retched, gagged and dry-heaved, which only made the pain worse, distracting me from the odd position I was laying in as a piteous whine escaped my lips. I kept my eyes squeezed shut, some bright, blinding light shining through my eyelids, prompting me to cover them with my hands...except instead of feeling my hands I felt the cold, flat press of metal instead. I opened my eyes then, only to shut them almost immediately as sunlight stabbed into my retinas, my body convulsing as I tried to again empty my stomach, yet strangely nothing came up. I hadn't had supper before I hit the bar but there should have been something in my stomach to get rid of instead of just the bitter, acidic burn of bile climbing up my throat.

“Fuck,” I hissed, noticing another oddity as my voice wasn't as deep as it used to be, though there was more as I started to try to move. Why did my legs feel like they were folded under my stomach? Why did I feel like I was burning up and freezing all at once and why the hell couldn't I feel my fingers or toes? I forced my eyes open, grinding my teeth, that felt too large in my mouth, against the fresh searing agony that lanced through my brain, and tried to focus on my hands. Except my arms didn't end in hands. It was like someone cut them off at the wrist and encased my new stubs and forearms with some kind of strange blue metal.

“What the fuck?” I rasped, my throat terribly dry and my tongue like sandpaper in my mouth. Was I still on whatever that bitch slipped me last night? I couldn't think, couldn't remember anything beyond walking out into the parking lot. As I tried to focus I noticed something else out of place: my nose. It wasn't there. Or, it was, but it was lower, longer, broader and black. I'm not talking the nice, smooth brown your average African-American is blessed with, either. No, it was blacker than the blackest of pitch and covered with a short, fine layer of what could only be fur, though my view of it was partially obscured by more of that strange metal covering the bridge of my...muzzle?

“I have to be dreaming,” I groaned while trying to rise, only to stumble as my legs didn't work right. I ended up falling on my face, which did wonders for the hangover from hell, let me tell ya. “No, this isn't a dream,” I gasped, clutching at my head with the metal encased stubs that used to be my hands and arms. “This is some goddamn nightmare!” I cracked an eye open, trying to get my bearings, only to stare upwards at the vast expanse of stars overhead. “What?” I whispered in disbelief, truly seeing my surroundings for the first time. I knew where I was, having seen footage of the lunar landing, but I couldn't accept it. My mind rejected it, railing against the stark, cold landscape of the moon and the trackless void beyond it.

The searing heat was the sun beating down on me, the cold that of space, and, as I turned my head, I saw what I assumed to be the Earth, only closer than it had been in the old film reels brought back by the first humans to set foot on its sole orbiting satellite. I could only stare at it, my eyes wide, my pulse thundering loudly in my ears and my breath coming in short, panicked gasps. I then did what any sane, rational being would do under the circumstances. I screamed, the sound somehow carrying despite the lack of an atmosphere, and ended up passing out as my brain simply shut itself down, unable to accept the information my senses were giving it. I had a single thought before the bliss of unconsciousness took me. Please, God, let this just be a nightmare. But a nightmare is exactly what it was and, unfortunately, it wasn't one I would be able to wake up from. Welcome to my own little slice of hell; please, enjoy your stay.

Author's Notes:

This is a human in Equestria story, as you already know, with the main character having somehow been turned into a Rule 63 version of Nightmare Moon. The thing is, while I've seen stories where human characters either assume the form of or take on the actual body of the villain in question, it's usually after she's either returned or already been redeemed. So I decided to create a story where the human becomes Nightmare Moon right after she's been banished, with the focus of the narrative on how he handles it and the events to follow. Like it? Hate it? Please, let me know your thoughts in the comments below and, if you do like it, click that thumbs up if you're so inclined. Or, you know, the thumbs down, if you don't.

Chapter 1: Facing Reality

I awoke in darkness, my surroundings a still, quiet void of black nothingness. Was I dead? Was I dreaming? It was hard to tell, given the surreal experience that had sent my sanity reeling and left me unconscious in the first place. All I knew was that it was blacker than the devil's asshole and that I was back in my original body instead of that strange quadruped I had woken up as on the moon. My mind shuddered at the memory, the darkness around me quivering in tandem as I hugged myself tightly. Then something moved at the edge of my vision, my head turning to see what it was, only for it to turn out to be nothing. Someone laughed, a woman from the sound of it, and I spun around, searching for the source. All I could see was the same, inky blackness.

How curious.

I froze, the strangely sensual voice seeming to come from everywhere at once, my eyes casting about as fear gripped my heart. What was going on? Who was that?

You do not belong here.

I gave a startled little scream as a pair of large eyes, the irises the blue of a robin's egg with slit, serpent-like pupils, opened in the darkness before me. I felt small as they glared at me, sizing me up as if trying to decide if I was something good to eat. I couldn't move, couldn't breathe as an equally large mouth was revealed, full of sharp, predatory fangs as the...thing grinned at me.

Good, you should be afraid of me, little ape. You are nothing before me but prey to be devoured.

I screamed again, louder now, as the mouth opened and those teeth descended on me before the darkness took me for a second time.

0o0o0o0o0o0

I woke still screaming, limbs flailing as I instinctively tried to flee, only to stumble and fall as the fact I wasn't used to walking on four legs, combined with the lack of familiarity I possessed with this new body in general, caught up with me. Still I scrambled in the off white dust, head jerking about as my wide eyes darted left and right, heart racing and breath coming in short, ragged gasps. I was back on the moon, though it was darker now, the Earth(?) shrouded in the embrace of night. What was happening to me? Had that blow to my head caused some kind of coma induced hallucination? But I could feel the ground beneath me and the pain still faintly ringing in my skull felt all too real for me to dismiss it out of hand. Perhaps a test was in order? Couldn't possibly make the situation any worse, or so I reasoned. So I rolled over onto my belly and tried to butt my head against the ground, only to grunt and go cross-eyed as something stopped my progress and sent a fresh jolt of agony ripping through my head.

"Fuck!" I cursed loudly, trying to see what exactly had stopped my head from hitting the lunar surface. Whatever it was I couldn't see it but maybe I'd be able to feel it? It was worth a shot anyway. I looked down at my metal encased forelegs(?) and tapped them against the ground, able to distantly feel it as if I was wearing boots. Maybe I could take them off? I sat up, shaking first one leg, then the other, grunting as they refused to shake loose. Well, if it was armor I supposed that made sense. I turned and twisted my head, my neck longer than what I was used to, allowing me to see latches holding them shut. Okay, that answered that question but brought another to mind: how in the hell was I supposed to undo them? This, among other things that were painfully obvious, confused me greatly.

What even was I? I turned my head, craning my neck to look back at my body, not exactly all that surprised to see it was that of your typical quadrupedal animal, though two things stuck out as fairly abnormal. Item one: there were a pair of ebony feathered wings folded against my sides. Item two: something was sticking out just above where I assumed my, ahem, butt would be, floating and twisting in the air as if in a gentle, nonexistent breeze. It was nebulous and blue, with sparkling lights shifting within the semi-transparent mass, like the stars I could see in the black void of space. I focused on it, the...tail swishing a bit as muscles I'd never had before contracted in my hindquarters. Okay, it was definitely a tail then. Did the wings work? Using unfamiliar muscle groups was a bit of a pain, as all I managed was to get them to shuffle and twitch, but yes, they seemed to be functional, not that it mattered under the circumstances.

"How is any of this possible?" I asked no one in particular, having always had a penchant for thinking aloud whenever I was by myself. "I'm on the moon, somehow, and I'm some kind of black colored animal with butt marks...wait, butt marks?" Yep, I had butt marks, one on each side of my hindquarters. The fur there was purple and a crescent moon stood out against the blotches of color. "Great, I'm in the body of an edgy, winged creature with something sticking out of its forehead and a tail that looks like it's made out of sparkly gas." Definitely the most insane coma dream in existence. "On top of that I'm somehow breathing and talking on the moon instead of, I don't know, suffering from explosive decompression!"

My vision blurred as my mind tried to deny the insanity, but I growled and shook my head, unwilling to fall back into whatever black hell that I'd gone to the first time it happened. "S-stop freaking out, David, it's not helping!" But I was starting to hyperventilate anyway, my instinctual response to this impossible scenario being to panic. "I don't want this! God, please, what is happening?!" I tried to stand, stumbling and shaking, but I somehow managed to get all four legs under me this time. What I was planning to do or where I was going to go, however, even I didn't know. "I can't...I don't..." I trailed off, staggering forward, my movements jerky and fumbling in my inexperience and hysteria. "Get me out of here!" I tried to jump, but the gravity wasn't like what it was supposed to be and I only managed to end up painfully sprawled out on the ground once more.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I started to cry, babbling nonsense as I curled up in the dust as best I could. How long I stayed that way was anyone's guess, but something eventually happened to snap me out of it. A voice rose from the ether, warm, kind and sorrowful, stilling the chaos of my mind and drawing my attention to the world below me as the moon became bathed in a golden glow of light that sent tingles through my whole body. I listened to it, enraptured, a myriad array of emotions forcing their way into my brain. Regret, pain, love, rage, hate, guilt, a sickening inferno of unwanted feelings that weren't mine, both making me want to start crying again and start spitting furious curses at the voice at the same time.

How dare she sing to me, as if I were some helpless filly that needed her pity!

I don't deserve it anyway. I've hurt her too much to be forgiven.

No, those weren't my thoughts! What's happening to me?!?

"Make it stop!" I shouted, clutching at my head as the song continued, images flashing through my mind, of chasing another winged quadruped through the air, of laughter and pain. "Stop it! STOP IT NOW!" Yet it continued and I wept, trying to shut out the voice and the thoughts, shuddering helplessly as I felt the moon shift beneath me, the glow that enveloped it growing brighter as the singing began to wind down, the strangely familiar voice bringing the lullaby to an end. All I could do was lay there with the hate, love and guilt warring inside me, but I remained unable to understand any of it. Alone and afraid, I just closed my eyes and covered my ears, praying to whoever was listening that this really was just a coma dream and that I would wake up in a hospital soon. A childish, naive hope, but it was all I could do.

0o0o0o0o0o0

I'm still not sure how long I senselessly lay there, my tortured psyche having been battered from all sides. It's hard to describe what it's like to have your sanity assaulted, to have the sheer wrongness of a situation make your whole being just scream: NOPE. The singing, sorrowful voice had triggered some sort of reaction from deep within my subconscious, turning what sounded like a comforting, heartfelt message of apology and remorse into shards of jagged glass stabbing me in the brain. Even with the song having ended, the turmoil in my soul wouldn't relent. Something was twisting within me, like an oily tendril of hate wrapping itself around my guts. At the same time, however, there was something else beneath that mass of rage; a sliver of guilt that made me want to either weep or throw up.

Maybe both, it was hard to tell given the circumstances. Eventually, however, these alien feelings would grow quiet and I was left to recover from mental and emotional overload. First I'm assaulted in the parking lot after being drugged, then I'm turned into some kind of talking, winged, possibly horned, animal that hears voices in its head and can somehow hear someone singing through the vacuum of space. Let's not forget the icing on this shit cake my life had turned into: for some reason I couldn't even begin to fathom, I was now trapped on the lunar surface. Clearly God hates me, but back to the fact I'm recovering from my latest round of mental and emotional trauma.

I was dazed, confused, nauseous and once again nursing one hell of a migraine. I managed to stumble to my...hooves? I could only assume my legs ended in hooves considering I didn't have the sense of toes inside the odd boots I was currently wearing. So I had become some kind of quadruped with hooves but I wasn't any sort of animal I'd ever heard of. Wings, hooves...was I some kind of pegasus? What about the thing poking out of my skull? I reached up to touch it, having surprising dexterity for something on four legs, able to feel that it was conical in shape, like you'd see on modern depictions of unicorns. Wings, horn...what did those make me? A pegacorn? A unisus? You might be wondering why I was trying to figure this out.

Frankly, when faced with a situation that challenged everything I had thought I knew about how reality works as a whole and what in God's name I was inhabiting the body of, I'd rather focus on the problem that was more readily solved. At least I was still male, or so I assumed. I sounded male, though my voice was now that of a baritone rather than my original deeper bass. A quick duck of my head confirmed this, the sight of a sheath and scrotum oddly comforting. Could you imagine how messed up I'd have been if I'd been a girl? I like being male, so my gender identity being utterly destroyed would have added a huge, tumorous cherry on top of the already rancid sundae my life had inexplicably become. With that out of the way, and with my migraine starting to finally calm down a bit, I decided to survey my surroundings, choosing to take things one step at a time rather than focus on the mind shattering whole of it all.

As you can imagine, there really wasn't much of anything to see. The moon's surface is just as barren a place as you'd expect given the footage from the Apollo 11 mission and what could be seen through modern telescopes: a blasted, dusty landscape riddled with the evidence of millions of years of impacts from meteorites of various sizes. I could barely see the sun around the shape of the earth, squinting against the glare and somehow not going blind considering there was no atmosphere to filter out the more harmful aspects of the light it cast. How long had I been here? Time was hard to keep track of beyond the position of the sun, but I had passed out multiple times already and had remained unconscious during these instances for what could have been minutes, hours or even days. As I went back to stumbling my way along, however, something began to feel off. More so than everything else going on, I mean.

I couldn't shake this feeling that there was something out amidst the crags and craters, watching my every move. Were there other pegacorn things on the moon with me or was I just succumbing to a sudden onset of paranoia due to an extreme reduction in SAN? I couldn't see anything out there, so maybe I really was just crazy. Wouldn't be surprising, given my situation, so I decided to ignore the feeling and just...wander some more. What? I'd like to see any of you come up with something to do while stuck on a barren planetoid with no clear means of escape. So I walked, slowly becoming accustomed to the gait required to keep myself from toppling over and planting my face in the lunar dust, though that did happen multiple times. I walked and walked, the trip only solidifying in my mind the bleakness of my situation, the thought of dying of thirst on a lifeless ball of rock sending chills up my spine.

"Couldn't even kill myself if I wanted to," I grumbled, petulantly scuffing at the ground with one metal shod hoof. Though I suppose if I was feeling masochistic enough I could have maybe flown into Earth's atmosphere and burned myself to death. No, dehydration seemed a much gentler way to go, if not a more expedient one. I couldn't just give up, though, right? I got to the moon somehow, so there had to be a way to get off. Hope. Faint and flickering, like a candle in the night, but it was all I had. I would eventually come to the border where the light from the sun didn't reach, staring into the inky darkness beyond.

As I peered into that abyss where the light did not shine, I felt my sense of unease return, like something was telling me not to venture within. Not that I would have regardless, given I wouldn't have been able to see, but still the feeling persisted even as I turned back. My thoughts turned back to survival, wondering how long I could survive without water. A human being could only last a mere handful of days, but what about an oddly proportioned unisus thing? I knew that some animals could survive a bit longer than that, others for weeks, like camels, but given I still wasn't sure what I'd become, I couldn't even begin to fathom my physical limitations.

"Who cares about water when I can't even understand how I got here in the first place!" I shouted at space, feeling my focus, my one way to stay calm, fading fast. I couldn't ignore the bizarre nature of it all, the blaring incongruity of being alive on the moon as a winged, horned horse thing enough to drive anyone to distraction, if not outright madness. I wanted out, to go home to my shitty apartment and my mind numbing, piss poor excuse of a job! "Fuck this noise!" I started running, nearly falling as I raced across the rough terrain, heart pounding as the desire to escape drove me onward. The next thing I knew I was stepping into air, a startled cry escaping me as I fell over the edge of a crag that I hadn't seen in my rush to get away from everything. So much for not being able to off myself, right?

As I tumbled through the air, however, I felt the muscles in my back contract and, with a jolt, my wings unfolded. While I was upside down. My screams were legendary as I spun through the air, wings flailing as I tried to right myself. You can imagine that this did not work out well for me at all. At the end of my imitation of a flying brick, I crashed to the ground below, craving a small trench in the rock and getting covered in off-white dust. It hurt, certainly, yet somehow I hadn't broken a single bone or even gotten a bruise from the experience. Just how tough was I now? Dizzily rising to my hooves, I groaned and glared up at the cliff I had just fallen from before turning my eyes to my wings, which I experimentally tried to flap. They sort of twitched a bit but remained pretty useless. Shaking myself off, and sneezing at the cloud of dust this act generated, I shambled along, the urge to just mindlessly run having been thoroughly knocked out of me by my sudden encounter with the ground.

Now I was tired, hungry and ached all over from my fall. What poor decision would I end up making next? Panicking was not going to help me figure things out, yet what exactly was I supposed to do about it? The only thing that sprang to mind was trying to fly back to the Earth, but how would that even work? Not only had I just demonstrated that I didn't know the first thing about using my new wings, I also had no way to tell if I could survive reentry. Still, I had taken that fall pretty well. Who was to say I wasn't somehow also fireproof? But that was ridiculous, right? Like being a pegacorn, unisus, whatever I had become wasn't just as out there, if not more so. I could probably learn how to fly eventually, but could I do it before I died of thirst? I was already feeling parched, though that could have been attributed to the amount of dust I had inhaled moments before.

I coughed and tried clearing my throat, yet it only made things worse. I wished I was back in the parking lot being mugged. I wished I was sleeping in my lumpy old bed. I wished I was sitting on my couch, eating a shitty microwave dinner. I wished to be anywhere but here, but my wishes went unheard. I coughed a few more times, hacking and spitting in an effort to clear my mouth and throat. One thing I noticed in my misery was that my aches were gradually disappearing, my muzzle turning down into a frown as my eyes narrowed. I've watched and read plenty of fiction over the years and, given my clearly impressive durability, as that trench in solid rock would attest, my conclusion was that my body was somehow repairing itself beyond anything a human being was capable of. Had I taken that fall back in my real body, I'd have been severely crippled, if not killed outright.

"Oddly proportioned and capable of surviving what would kill anyone back home," I muttered to myself, part of me glad to have something other than my looming death to focus on for the time being. "Wings, horn, butt marks...what sort of creature am I?" I was going in circles, but what else was there for me to do? I spent a long time thinking, looking myself over, testing my limits a bit as well. I learned that I could jump quite high, though my landing was...spectacularly bad, to be honest. Still, my insane durability let me walk it off and, with a bit more caution, I figured out how fast I could run before my inexperience with four legs had me tripping over my own hooves. I'll spare you further details, but suffice it to say my new body was capable of more than I would have ever expected. If not for the fact I wasn't going to be around long, I might have enjoyed the prospect of being so physically adept, but as it stood I wasn't all that thrilled to say the very least.

The whys and hows of my situation still nagged at me, as did the source of that mysterious voice and the feelings hearing it had brought up inside of me. There was also that persistent feeling of eyes on my back, despite how there shouldn't have been anyone or thing to watch me. Of course there shouldn't have even been a me in the first place, so something else being out there wasn't completely out of the question. As much as I wanted to just curl up in a ball and shut out the world around me, I'd always been too curious for my own good. Besides, if I could figure things out, there was a chance I could escape, or so I reasoned. A goal and deadline, something I was all too familiar with having to deal with, though this time I was playing for keeps rather than for my next paycheck. "No pressure."

0o0o0o0o0o0

"Gah, what was I thinking?" I groaned, having just walked from one end of the light zone to the other, not having found anything beyond rocks, dust and more rocks. I don't know what I had expected to find, exactly, but I'd ended up with having done nothing but waste my time. Time I didn't have. Now I was even more tired than before with nothing to show for it. "Damn it." No clues, no sign of whatever was causing me to feel like someone was constantly watching my every move, just a whole bunch of nothing. I paced a circle in the dust, finally giving in to the urge to rest and laying down, legs folded beneath me as a sigh escaped my lips. Then my skin began to tingle, my head, which had started to lower, shooting up as a golden glow swept across the lunar surface. "The fuck?!" It took me a moment, but I remembered this happening before when I heard that voice.

"No more singing, Christ, I can't take more voices in my head!" I scrambled to my hooves, tense, yet there was no voice, at least not one I could hear, but a sensation of movement, like when you ride an elevator, was felt in the pit of my stomach. "The hell is going on?" The Earth was moving, or rather the moon was. "What...WHAT?!?" I stared at the passing view of the Earth, left eyelid twitching as my brain was again assaulted by reality shattering information. This wasn't right at all. The moon doesn't spontaneously begin to glow and move more swiftly along its orbital path! My whole body was tingling, like a million ants were scurrying over my skin, my wings flaring as my fight or flight instincts kicked in.

"Not right," I murmured, the movement of the moon slowing until it seemed to stop, though instinctively I knew it would still be in motion, the light fading gradually until it was gone entirely. "It's just not right." My flanks hit the ground and I stared blankly at the view of the Earth, or what I had thought was the Earth. But I was starting to realize the truth of my situation. "We're not in Kansas anymore Toto." My sanity cracked, a twisted grin splitting my muzzle as I started to giggle, then chuckle, until I gave in to maddened laughter as the reality of my situation became all too clear. That wasn't the Earth and I wasn't on its moon. "Not only am I a deformed horse thing, I'm an alien deformed horse thing!" I continued to laugh, vision blurring as moisture built in my eyes, then spilled down my cheeks as the sound of my crazed release of tension and burgeoning madness rang loud in my ears. This was my reality now, inescapable and undeniable, but I had no idea what in God's name I was supposed to do about any of it.

Chapter 2: Falling Into Darkness

My hysterics went on for some time and, though I don't remember all that well, I must have tired myself enough to pass out. Once more I was floating in darkness, though there was no voice this time, no giant teeth trying to snap me up, just me and the feeling of wrongness that pervaded it all. I again was unable to tell how much time had passed, though the land masses of the planet below seemed to look different. I felt no more rested than I had before my little fit and I was hungrier and thirstier than ever. Had it been hours? Days? I shook my head, unable to be sure of anything anymore, not even moving from where I lay sprawled in the dust.

I didn't want to think, to feel, my mind already protesting being aware of the nightmare I had been dropped into, seemingly without rhyme or reason. I covered my eyes and tried to shut it out, gritting my teeth and groaning, a vain attempt to deny reality that did nothing to stop the rising sense of fear and panic blossoming within my chest. What brought on this unbridled, gibbering terror? The unknown. Mankind had always feared it and I was no exception. I was trapped in an alien body, floating above an equally alien world, with no idea how I would, if ever, return home. Would they even realize I was missing yet? With no sense of time, I could have been there for years and not known the difference.

Luckily I wouldn't have to worry about such things, or so I believed. I felt a strange sense of amusement at this thought but was too preoccupied with my own pathetic whimpering to truly notice. I really wished my memory of these things was both more and less clear, my madness sadly forever etched into my brain along with everything else. The crying, the pleading, the screaming and railing against the powers that be; God, whoever was listening, I didn't care. I paced circles in the dust, saw shapes flitting in and out of my peripheral vision and heard odd, incomprehensible whispers just at the edge of my ability to detect them. What was real and what wasn't blurred together; I think I even talked to an outcropping of rock at one point. Clarity of recollection regarding these events is difficult to manage even at the best of times, I'm afraid.

The next truly clear memory I have is of staring into the darkness on the far side of the moon, having the most unfathomable urge to walk right in despite the fact I wouldn't be able to see my own muzzle, let alone anything else. My own personal safety wasn't much of a concern, however, so it didn't take me long to start walking into the murky blackness that lay before me.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Visibility without a light source was about as clear as could be expected; that is to say, I couldn't see a damn thing. I stumbled and tripped multiple times, yet I kept getting back up to continue my journey to seemingly nowhere. I could hear the whispers again, still unintelligible but louder than before, like a thousand voices muttering, buzzing and hissing to one another all at once. I had a sense of movement from the darkness to either side of me, yet my ability to see remained nonexistent no matter how much I squinted or strained my eyes in an effort to make something out.

The voices grew ever louder the deeper into the darkness I walked, yet I still couldn't understand them. Perhaps, in hindsight, it's a good thing that their speech sounded like nothing more than mere gibberish. Some things are better left a mystery, after all. Regardless of understanding or purpose, I didn't stop my trek, though I began to notice something peculiar. My vision was becoming clearer. At first it was just shapes, vague, blurry masses, then details came into focus, all of it in gray scale, like you'd see in older photographs. I also got my first look at what was moving in the dark, my legs locking up and a chill crawling up my spine.

Shifting masses of smoke and mist surrounded me on all sides, their forms indistinct and mercurial in nature. The only constant was their eyes, piercing and clear even in the gray of my sight, and all of them focused on me. If I hadn't been afraid before I certainly was then, but my avenue of retreat was completely cut off by even more of those...creatures, whatever they were. The circle began to close in around me, the creatures whispering turning into words in some twisted language, words that crawled over my skin and chilled me to the bone.

"K-keep back!" I stammered, turning in place and wanting nothing more than to escape. "Don't fucking touch me!" They paid my words no mind, tendrils of mist forming into grasping limbs that they used to claw at me, as if trying to drag me away. I struggled and kicked, their touch like ice, my rising sense of terror sparking something within me, a rush of energy that I couldn't explain at the time. "I said STAY AWAY!" That energy burst from my horn, a flaring light that drove the strange entities back, causing them to hiss and snarl like wounded beasts. There was no time to question it, my instinct to survive forming the light into a scything beam that lanced through them, their bodies dispersing into mist and opening up an avenue of escape.

I wasted no time, the creatures giving chase within moments of me leaving the broken circle they had formed, heart pounding and adrenaline pumping as I pushed my new body to the limit. I was never more glad than in those moments for my new body as my old one would have easily been overtaken by the creatures, though I still wasn't outpacing them by much. Something told me that I didn't want to be caught a second time, the whispers and mutters now the bloodthirsty howling of a pack on the hunt. They swarmed to either side, my breath coming in harsh pants as I tried to push myself harder, the light still shining from my horn burning brighter as that energy from earlier flooded my limbs, newfound speed causing the world to blur around me.

The things, monsters, they didn't give up, their howls turning into an urgent roar as they swept towards me, trying to cut me off before I could escape. I could see where the darkness and light met now, feeling that if I could just make it into the light that they wouldn't be able to follow. When they tried to bar my path I didn't even slow down, my fear mingling with anger at them for daring to try and stop me. Baring my teeth in a vicious snarl, I forced the energy powering my legs into my horn again, picturing the lance I had somehow used before clear in my mind. "Out of my way, you wretched foals!" I shouted, the beam that shot from my horn striking home and exploding, shattering rock and sending the creatures into retreat. My rage became glee at the sight, taking this chance to power through the dust and smoke that the explosion had kicked up and dashing into the light.

"I DID IT!" I cheered, turning and facing the dark where the monsters roiled and seethed, grinning at them like a madman as I relished my victory. "Oh yeah, suck on that, bitches!" I cackled in delight as they hissed at me in response. "Who's bad? I'm bad!" I did a little dance, waving my hindquarters at them tauntingly. "Kiss it, you fucks! I win, you lose, hahaha!" They could only hiss and snarl, my laughter echoing off the rocks as I found it oddly hilarious. Strange how a brush with death will affect your sense of humor. "Oh man, that was awesome!" I giggled as I started walking away, prancing and skipping as the adrenaline high and endorphin rush left me feeling rather giddy. Then I suddenly stopped, my brain finally catching up to something I had said earlier. "Wait...foals?" I glanced back at the darkness, the creatures having dispersed. "Why would I call them baby horses?"

0o0o0o0o0o0

Sometime later I was sitting in the center of a fairly sizable crater, eyes closed as I tried to focus. Ignoring the odd use of the word foal, I was suddenly presented with something interesting, something that could change everything about my situation. Back in the darkness I'd tapped into something, something I could only describe as magical. The energy had saved me from those strange creatures, so, I wondered, how else could it help me? There was just one problem: how in the hell was I supposed to tap into it again?

Before I had been fighting for my life, desperate to survive. Now I was just groping in the dark, unsure of how I'd even managed it in the first place. Had it just been luck? Instinct? No, there had to be a way to access it outside of a life or death situation, or so I reasoned. I tried remembering the feeling of it, how it had pulsed and flowed through my body, filling me with power, making me feel unstoppable! I couldn't help shuddering, remembering the savage glee I'd felt when I had used it against those mist monsters. It had felt...good to destroy them. Like they had deserved it for standing in my way. I shook my head, dismissing those thoughts from my mind and trying once more to focus.

It wasn't easy. I had tried meditating before back when I was a kid, back when I thought taking martial arts classes would be cool from watching silly movies where people fly around on wires while being horribly dubbed by bad voice actors. Of course I hadn't understood that you had to work at it to be good at martial arts, so when I learned how hard it was my interest kind of plummeted and....well, anyway, I never really understood the whole centering yourself thing. Of course I had been a fidgety kid then, so surely I could do so as a grown man. Right.

"Fuck, calm down," I admonished myself, still on edge from my close encounter of the creeptastic kind. I had opened my eyes but swiftly squeezed them back shut, still able to see things out of the corner of my eyes. At least the whispering had stopped after the whole thing on the dark side of the moon. "It's not real, just chill out and focus." This was a chance at improving the odds, maybe even a way I could escape. So, taking a deep breath, I tried again. I let it go, all of it. The stress, the worry, the doubt; it was time to let it go and focus only on my breathing. I don't know how long I just sat there and breathed, not thinking or allowing myself to be distracted. Eventually I felt...something inside myself, something warm and flickering, like embers in a hearth, waiting to be stoked into a roaring blaze.

I tried to grasp it, to summon up that power from before, only for it to slip through my nonexistent fingers. Again and again it slipped away, my frustration growing with every attempt. After a time I gave up on trying to force it, instead going for more of a relaxed approach. The next thing I knew those flickering embers burned brighter and sucked me down into the darkness.

0o0o0o0o0o0

So, you finally found your way here. You certainly took your time going about it, but I suppose I cannot expect too much from a creature of such limited imagination as you.

My eyes opened to a familiar void of darkness, though this time I wasn't alone. Standing across from me was a quadrupedal creature with a dark sapphire blue coat, teal eyes and possessing both wings and a horn. It wore a dark cerulean crown, a peytral of the same color with a white crescent moon and silver...hoof guards, I guess? What struck me as truly interesting were the marks I could see on its flanks: a crescent moon against a pattern like mine, only black instead of purple. Its mane and tail floated as if on a breeze, cobalt blue in color and glittering as if filled with stars.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked warily, taking a more guarded stance, remembering the last time something had spoken to me in that place of darkness. "Where am I?"

Are all your kind so rude? It asked without moving its mouth, the voice feminine and regal in tone. I am not the one possessing your body, after all.

"Possessing?" To say its, her, words confused me would be an understatement. "I'm sorry, but what in God's name is going on here?" I wanted answers, not more questions.

I am afraid I do not fully understand our situation myself. She sat down, looking me over curiously. Tell me, is your species some sort of relative of the minotaur? Perhaps the diamond dog?

"What?" I shook my head, wondering what in the hell was happening to me now. "No, no, I don't...I'm a human being!" Was this some kind of fever dream, I wondered? "Is this really important right now? What even are you anyway?"

No, I suppose it is not. She shook her head slightly. Such impatience. Of course, you are mortal, so such a thing is to be expected. My name is Luna and I am an alicorn. She smirked. As are you, now that you are in control of my body.

"I'm what?" I felt a headache coming on and she had barely even started. "How can I be possessing you? How did I even get here anyway?!"

Calm yourself. Luna chided me, smirk fading as she regarded me coolly. I am afraid I do not have all the answers. You said you are human? I am afraid I am unfamiliar with your kind. From where do you hail?

"Not from anywhere around here," I told her, frowning at her for a few moments before continuing. "I lived in a city on a planet called Earth. Lots of other humans there but no talking, colorful horse things." I tensed as Luna narrowed her eyes at me. "What?"

The term is pony, you knave. She snorted derisively. So, you are from another world altogether. This would explain much about your...alien nature.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I wondered if I should have felt offended by the way she made the word "alien" sound.

Before you found your way here I attempted to make contact with your mind. She seemed annoyed by something. But it was like trying to navigate a maze layered atop a mire of strange feelings and desires that worked to keep me from navigating through to your subconscious.

"Then what the fuck is this then?" I asked, gesturing to the void around us.

This, human, is a construct within my mind. She gestured around with one foreleg for emphasis. A place I come to think, to meditate on things. Like our current situation, for example.

"I've seen this place twice before," I said, shivering at the memories of it. "Something tried to...eat me the first time."

I apologize for that. She looked and sounded contrite. I thought you to be some sort parasite, like those creatures you escaped from in the darkness of my moon.

"Your moon?" You can understand why I found the phrasing odd. "How the heck does that work?"

I am its steward, its guardian. Her posture matched her regal tone as she explained it. As princess of the night, it is my duty to guide it through the night sky, as well as guard the dreams of my subjects. I stared at her blankly, causing the mare to sigh softly. I know this must be quite difficult for you to understand, being from a world separate from my own, but what I am telling you is the truth. Surely you must have noticed that foul usurper guiding the moon at least once by now?

"Usurper?" God, I sounded like a fucking parrot. "Do you mean that golden light I saw?"

Yes, the very same. Her voice was tense with restrained anger. She stole my throne from me and now rules my ponies in my stead. She took a moment, closing her eyes and probably counting to ten or something. Now I am banished to my own moon, trapped here by the usurper's magic.

"Damn, that sucks," I commented bluntly, her anger understandable in that case. "So how did I end up mixed up in all this?"

Magic is a curious thing. Luna seemed to consider the possibilities. There could be any number of explanations, but without the means to properly study our condition I doubt I could come up with an accurate answer for you.

"Great." So much for getting answers, not that I had truly expected any. "So what now?" Luna didn't reply at first, as if thinking something over. Then, she answered me with an offer.

We cannot escape, not as we are. She seemed to stare straight into the depths of my soul. You have my body, my power, but you lack any of my skill or experience. I will train you in how to wield my strength and, when the time is right, we shall both be free.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Luna's offer was fairly straightforward. She would teach me how to wield her magic, to master her body and its abilities, and when we were free from our prison she promised to find a way to send me home. In return she only asked that I help her defeat the pony she simply called "the usurper" and retake her rightful place as ruler of the land she called Equestria. She told me of its history, how the three pony tribes of pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies had fled their old homeland to found a new nation after stopping the threat posed by creatures called wendigos. How she had risen to power alongside the usurper, how they fought off threats together, stopping great evils time and again, only for the usurper to betray her in the end.

Something about her story struck me as off, but with no other options, and no way to put my finger on what exactly bothered me about it, I played along with her plan. Besides, I needed something to preoccupy my damaged mind with, the shapes and whispers invading my consciousness from time to time. It made learning from Luna a frustrating experience, for the both of us, but I had to learn what she wanted to teach me if I was ever going to get home. How I wished things were as simple as I so foolishly believed. Regardless, I did my best to follow her instructions, no matter how difficult it was to carry them out.

Magic is as much about emotion as intent. She was able to communicate with me in the waking world now that I had established contact, which certainly made things easier. I gazed at an outcropping of rock, frowning as I "listened" to her. Those rocks are your most hated enemy. Feel your hatred for them, let it guide your intent and unleash your fury upon it! I closed my eyes, picturing the rocks as one of those creatures that tried to...do something to me; remembering the fear, the anger and...and the hate. Yes, that's it! Now use that hatred to destroy your foe!

I opened my eyes, teeth bared in a snarl as I used the hate to channel the power inside my body, our body, through my horn and directed it to strike the rocks. A bolt of black lightning shot from my horn, shattering the rocks with ease, though the experience left me feeling oddly queasy and even a little dizzy. I felt...dirty, now that I think back on it. Like I'd taken a dip in muck instead of having just used magic.

Yes, that was excellent! Luna praised me, though I could only grimace in response. With enough practice you will be an accomplished magus in no time at all.

"I-I don't know, Luna," I said, sweating a bit as I gazed upon the shattered rocks. "That didn't feel right to me."

You are merely unaccustomed to wielding my power. Luna's tone was reassuring, yet it did little to make me feel better. Take a few moments to rest and we will continue when you are feeling up to it. I immediately took this chance to sit down, panting a bit and shivering as the lingering effects of using Luna's magic left me feeling ill at ease.

"Do you mind if I ask you some questions?" I asked her, hoping to get some answers out of the alicorn princess.

No, please, go ahead.

"Well, alright then." I took a deep breath to steady my nerves and closed my eyes to shut out the distractions my still fragile psyche was all too keen to provide. "First of all, how am I still male when you're, um, you know, not?"

I am a shapeshifter. The simple reply caught me off guard. I am able to change my form as I desire and, since you identify as male and are in control of my body, my body changed to reflect this fact. It took me a few moments to digest this information and I decided not to inquire further lest I end up with gender identity issues on top of everything else.

"Is that why I look so different as well?" I asked next, looking down at myself for emphasis. I looked almost nothing like Luna in her mental work space. "I mean, other than the butt marks we look nothing alike."

First of all, those butt marks are what we call a Cutie Mark. Again, she sounded irritated with me when my lack of knowledge on the subject wasn't even my fault. It is the mark of one's destiny and special talent. Second of all, yes, the form you are in now is the form I take when I go into battle in order to intimidate my foes so that I might gain a tactical advantage.

"C-cutie mark?" I smothered a snicker, not sure what to make of the cutesy wootsie sounding name for something that was, by all appearances, a butt tattoo. "Yeah, okay, I guess that makes sense." I could tell she disapproved of my amusement but I also really didn't care. I still think it's a silly name for something that's supposed to be the most important discovery a pony can make in life, so stop glaring at me already!

Clearly you have had more than enough time to rest, if your levity is any standard to judge by. I groaned softly, Luna sounding as displeased as I had imagined she would. Now that you understand how channeling magical energy works, we will move on to the most basic skill in a pony's repertoire: levitation. I could almost hear her smirk as I failed not to grimace. Come now, no need to be so dour. It is so simple that even foals have no trouble with mastering it, so clearly you should have no difficulties whatsoever.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Sometime later I was laid flat on the ground, limbs splayed out around me with my tongue hanging out of my mouth, a quiet whimper passing my lips. It had been several hours and I had just managed to brain myself with a sizable rock. Luna's laughter rang loud in my head, the princess clearly quite protected from the fallout of my training inside her little "safe space" or whatever she called it.

I-I stand corrected. She didn't even try to control herself, not caring that her laughter made my pounding headache all the worse. You are somehow less competent than an infant foal. Congratulations.

"Go fuck yourself," I slurred in response, trying to blink my vision back into focus. I had never felt so humiliated in my entire life as I did then. Magic is so much more difficult to use than my first encounters with it had led me to believe.

What is this word you keep using? She asked once I managed to scrape my dignity off the floor and pick myself up. Fuck. Such an abrupt sounding word. What is its meaning?

"I'll tell you when you're older," I grumbled, the helmet I was wearing having done little to protect my head from that damned rock. Or maybe I would have dashed my own brains out without it on, I didn't care to speculate then and it doesn't matter now.

Why? She sounded genuinely puzzled by my response. I am a grown mare of three hundred and seventy two. Why must I be older to learn this word's meaning? I could only blink stupidly in response. What? Why are you silent?

"...you're seriously over three hundred years old?" I asked after a long period of silence, digesting this little bombshell about as well as I had the others. "What kind of crazy alternate dimension did I get sucked into?"

Must you carry on so? Luna sounded exasperated with me. Is the concept of longevity truly that difficult for you to grasp when compared to the power to move the very moon itself? You really must stop becoming so flustered over each new piece of information that challenges your clearly narrow world view, human, lest you fully succumb to madness.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I guess I'll just have to suck it up then, won't I?" The sarcasm was thick in my tone as I started to pace. "You know, my life had to be the most mundane existence imaginable, so excuse me if I'm having trouble adjusting to this insane little slice of the universe you live in, princess!"

And carrying on about it this way helps solve our problems how exactly? I hated when she made good points like that. Made it difficult to keep brooding. No, I do not mean pout! Our shared situation is a difficult one, human, and I understand why you are so distressed, but please, try to remain focused. She seemed to hesitate. We will be here for a very long time, after all.

"W-what do you mean?" The way she said that made me feel very ill at ease, as I recall. What she would say next, however, would simply be too much for me to bear. "Luna?"

The spell the usurper used to banish me to the moon was a very powerful one. She sounded hesitant, like she didn't want to tell me more. We cannot hope to dispel it, especially with how unskilled in the craft you are. A cold feeling began to spread through my gut. I cannot say for certain, but it could be decades, perhaps even centuries, before the spell will have weakened enough for us to escape.

"No," I immediately denied her words, my already fragile mind buckling under the strain this knowledge caused me. "No, no, you're wrong! You have to be!"

I am sorry, human. She seemed to pity me. If it is any consolation, you will not be spending the years alone. She tried to lift my spirits, but right then her words did nothing to soothe me. Human? Can you hear me? I could, but my vision swam with darkness and there was a loud ringing in my ears. No, stay awake! We cannot afford to lose time! I felt myself falling, her words growing distant. Human, wait! Darkness.

0o0o0o0o0o0

I woke again to the darkness of Luna's construct, curled into a ball and hugging my knees tightly to my chest. I couldn't handle the fact I would never see my family again, that when I returned home the Earth would be drastically changed. Given how much we advanced in the last thousand years, I couldn't even begin to imagine what another thousand would lead to. The fact I would be on the barren rock of Luna's moon for that time didn't help me any, either.

Human. I yelped at the sound of her voice and flinched when something warm draped itself across my shoulders. I looked up to see Luna standing next to me, her wing spread across my shoulders as she looked at me with sympathy in her eyes. Your despair is more than understandable. I, too, dread the years we must spend banished here despite the many already behind me. She offered me a smile. You cannot give in to this despair, human, no matter how crushing it seems. There is hope for the future, if you look for it, and I will be right here beside you to help.

Her kind words triggered a reaction in me, my eyes growing wet as a sob escaped my lips, my next actions likely having shocked her. I closed the small distance between us and hugged her tightly, needing the support as I wept. She returned the embrace after several, likely awkward, moments, softly humming an unfamiliar tune as she gently rocked me back and forth. She let me get it all out, an indeterminate amount of time passing in the darkness as I let the stress, panic and despair just flow out of me. I imagine we stayed that way for a long time as a result, but it's impossible to say for certain.

Now, dry your eyes. She pushed me away, still offering me a kind smile. We have work to do.

0o0o0o0o0o0

"You're joking," I said as I stood on the edge of a rather steep cliff, looking down into a rather large impact crater from an uncomfortably high vantage point. Yes, I'm afraid of heights. Shut up.

I have never been more serious. Luna was again amused by me, the poor, fumbling mortal out of his element. Honestly, though, after having just finished a dozen more rounds of "lift the rock", jumping off a cliff seemed almost exciting by comparison. In days of old, pegasus parents would hurl their foals from the highest peaks in order to teach them how to fly. Rather effective, in my opinion.

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure," I snarked, pacing along the edge of the cliff and trying not to look down too much. "Except when they end up hitting the ground!"

Stop being so dramatic. I huffed in annoyance, grimacing as I ended up looking down despite my best efforts. Not only are you vastly more durable, you are also not going to fall from anywhere near as high a height.

"That makes me feel so much better." The sarcasm was thick enough to walk on. "So I just...jump?" I swallowed thickly. "Isn't there something else I could try first?"

For Faust's sake, just jump! Her mental shout caused me to miss my next step, a scream escaping me as I tumbled right off into the open air. Not what I had in mind, but whatever works. And I plummeted towards the ground, still screaming. Spread your wings! Like I needed the reminder. Hurry!

"I know!" I snapped, trying to flex muscles I had never possessed before in order to open my wings. The ground was looming unsettlingly close by the time I figured it out, my wings flaring open and slowing my descent. "Sh-shit, that was close."

Very good, you're now gliding. Score one for Team David. Now, try flapping.

"Christ on a cracker," I grumbled, concentrating on those new muscle groups and trying to get them to flex in a way that wouldn't send me crashing to the ground. To be perfectly honest, I am amazed I managed to even open them. Still, I did manage an awkward flap, sending me higher into the air when I'd been moments away from touching down. "Oh shit!" I admit that I panicked, trying to compensate, only to end up flailing my wings ineffectually, which ended with my face meeting the ground. Again. "...ow."

Well, you have all the grace of an inebriated duck, but it's a start. Ouch, my pride. She really seemed to enjoy busting my balls, like it was her personal mission to cause me grief or something. Given the fact I somehow invaded her body, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised. Now, climb back up there and try again. I let out a sorry sounding groan. Just get up, you sorry excuse for an ape.

0o0o0o0o0o0

As time wore on and my training sessions progressed, I began to notice something I really should have picked up on far earlier. The fact of the matter was, I no longer felt hungry or even thirsty. One of my major concerns from the outset and I wasn't feeling the effects of dehydration as I had initially feared.

"Hey, Luna," I began, levitating three rocks around my head without watching them, an exercise she had assured me would improve my control over her magic. "I know you said you're not technically immortal, but...well, why aren't I dying of thirst here? I don't know how long I've been here, exactly, but it has to have been awhile by now right?"

To answer the simpler question first: you have been here for roughly two hundred and fifty six winters. My concentration faltered, the rocks hitting the ground with dull thumps as I stared blankly ahead of me. She called that the simple question?

"Okay, time out!" I made a T shape with my forelegs for emphasis. "I've already been here for over two hundred years?!" My shock was astounding. "I know I'm kind of not altogether well in the head, but I can't have just dazed my way through that long a period of time!"

You know, one of these days you will react in a more rational manner when I answer one of your endless questions. At that moment I highly doubted the validity of her statement. From what I have gathered regarding the structure of the usurper's spell, I was meant to be in stasis during my exile. She likely wished to ensure that I would not escape, but regardless of her intent, your presence has fouled her craft.

"S-so what then?" Admittedly I handled that one better than the last time she decided to shatter my perception of reality. "I-I'm fucking up her magic? What's that even mean?"

If you mean that your presence has disrupted the stasis spell, then yes. As you can imagine, the idea of us being awake because I screwed things up turned my stomach into knots. You will recall my construct. While you are within its depths, the stasis spell can affect my body. Except for the first time, when I forcibly ejected you from it, each trip to the construct has caused years to pass in the mere span of seconds by our reckoning. I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing, trying to remain calm. Focus, human. I have no way of knowing how much time passes until after exiting the construct, so you must remain awake for as long as possible.

"I-I'm sorry," I replied, steadying my nerves as best as I could. "I'll do better, I promise."

I would expect nothing less. Somehow, I could just tell that she was smiling. Now, on to your second question. The reason you do not feel the pangs of hunger or the weakness brought on by thirst is the fact my body is drawing on the energy of the moon and stars to sustain itself. This is only possible thanks to our shared exile, for if we were to supplement our body with these energies back in Equestria, it would not be nearly so effective.

"That was the more complicated answer?" I shook my head in amazement. "You're one odd pony, Luna."

Oh be quiet, you dew-beater, and get back to work.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Again! A black bolt of energy launched from my horn, my breath coming in ragged gasps and my coat lathered with sweat. Again! Another bolt. Again! Another, this one weaker. Do not falter, human! Now fire again!

"No!" I snarled, blinking the strange purple smoke using her magic this way generated from my eyes. "I'm tired, I need to rest!" My mood always turned foul during these particular training sessions, something that I would only come to understand much, much later, unfortunately.

You must master my magic if we are to stand any sort of chance against the usurper in combat! I let out a growl as I stubbornly parked my flanks in the dust. Get up and fire again!

"I said no!" I shouted, feeling even more bad tempered than usual. We had been at it for...well, again, it's hard to say how long. Long enough that I felt filthy, inside and out, and I didn't want to do any more drills. "I am taking a goddamn break and there is literally nothing you can do to stop me, moon butt!"

M-moon butt?! Oh, yeah, I shocked her with that little nickname. I am N-Luna, princess of Equestria, and I will not be called such a demeaning name by a base, mortal foal who cannot even muster the will to fly properly! Yeah, I still hadn't quite gotten the hang of flying, though magic seemed to be coming to me more easily as time went on. At least when I was blowing things up, but we'll get to that later. So stop being such a mule and get up! I refused, not even deigning to respond. Human, so help me I will-

"David," I interrupted her tartly, one major bone I had to pick with her coming to light. "My name is David, princess, not that you ever bothered to ask." I let out a snort as she didn't respond. "What? Not gonna badger me some more?"

...I apologize.

"What?" I flicked an ear and rubbed it with a hoof. "I can't have heard that correctly. Did you just apologize?"

I will not repeat myself. Now there was a surprise. Yes, I am rather fond of sarcasm, just like my father, the bastard, and I do mean that with all due affection for the old man, by the way. Moving on. Human...David, I understand you are tired and that the training is difficult, but we need to be ready. We only have one chance to catch the usurper by surprise and I do not wish for us to waste it. I let out a world weary sigh.

"I know." I forced myself to stand, mouth set in a grim, determined line. "Let's just get back to work."

0o0o0o0o0o0

Something was wrong. I felt so damned sick, my insides twisted into painful knots as I writhed in the lunar dust. It had been several years since I first began training with Luna's magic, having steadily progressed in terms of controlling it, but in that moment, after having just destroyed maybe a thousand rocks of varying shapes and sizes in a multitude of different ways, I felt like I was dying inside. Thrashing, flailing and crying out in agony, I could only pray that it would end swiftly.

"Luna!" I gasped, soaked in sweat and clutching at my stomach. "What's, aghn, happening to me?" There was no response. The world around me seemed to spin, everything taking on a strange, greenish tint while black energy sparked around my horn. "Luna, please, help me!"

I am sorry, David. Her voice was cold and pitiless. This is something that must happen if we are to succeed. She sounded so heartless, a huge contrast to how she'd acted before. Do not fret, human. This pain is merely transitory and soon you will have nothing to fear ever again.

"W-what are you saying?" I managed to groan, heat spreading through my chest even as cold gripped my extremities. "Please, it hurts!"

Even if I wished to intercede, there is no stopping this now. She sounded so fucking casual about it, like my pain was nothing to be concerned about. Then again, given she couldn't feel it herself, I suppose to her there really wasn't anything to worry about. Normally I would never resort to such methods, given how dangerous they are, but then again, I'm not the one at risk here, am I?

"W-what are you, hngn, talking about?" She sounded like she'd been expecting this outcome, which wasn't exactly comforting, let me tell you. "What risks? What's happening to me?!"

And still you ask questions. She seemed to marvel at this fact. Is it human nature to be so inquisitive? It matters little in the end, I suppose, but your naivete was genuinely surprising. And it clicked.

"You've been...using me?" It should have been obvious, I suppose, but then I hadn't exactly been in a position to question her motives.

Ah, so you do possess a modicum of sense. I'd bet anything that she'd been smirking at that point. Yes, David, of course I have been using you. You somehow invaded and took control of my body, so what choice did I have? Still, it allows for certain tactics to be used against my dear, sweet sister that I would have never considered in, well, a thousand years. She laughed then, though personally I didn't it very funny under the circumstances. You see, David, you haven't just been practicing how to use my magic all this time. A spasm passed through me as she continued. I have been teaching you how to channel Dark magic, which is why you've been feeling oh so terribly sick whenever I've had you conduct combat drills.

"D-dark magic?" As little as I knew about magic then, I still feel incredibly stupid for not having seen it sooner. "You...I trusted you!"

Oh, I know, and it was so very easy to manipulate you. I grimaced, feeling something inside me contort in a distinctly unpleasant way. You were so alone, so terribly vulnerable that it was simply child's play to gain your confidence. Now, I suggest you brace yourself, this next part will be particularly excruciating~ Something inside me cracked and fresh, searing agony lancing through my entire body as the energy sparking from my horn enveloped me, a ragged, tortured scream ripping from my throat while my body convulsed uncontrollably. It was like nothing I have ever experienced and I would never wish such a thing on even my worst enemy.

And as the pain wracked my body, something horrible clawed at my mind, full of hatred and desiring nothing more than to spread misery and sorrow in its wake. My very sense of self was under attack and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Not for the first time I found myself falling into darkness, but now I feared that I would never escape it.

0o0o0o0o0o0

I slowly stood up, eyes shut as I took stock of my condition. I felt...good. Better than good, I felt amazing. My muzzle was split by a fierce grin as my eyes opened, the world seemingly more alive than a barren wasteland of dust and rock had any right to be in my eyes. I was also once again surrounded by the strange beings from the darkness of the moon, yet I felt no fear. Instead their presence was comforting, like I was among old friends that I hadn't seen in years. As I gazed upon them they bowed, my grin widening in satisfaction at the sight. It felt proper for them to do so, as if having their respect was my God given right. The weak should bow to the strong. Such was the natural order of things.

Welcome home...Artemis.

Author's Notes:

For those of you curious about why things progressed in this chapter the way they did, it's because I cannot think of how to drag this portion of the story out any longer without resorting to pointless padding, and no one wants to read pointless padding. Nevertheless, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and that you're looking forward to the next. Until then I hope you have a nice day and thank you very much for all the feedback and support

Chapter 3: The Line Is Crossed

You might be starting to wonder just what in the hell was going on at this point. Then again, given who I'm talking to right now, maybe you're not and there's little reason for me to explain it. Still, for the sake of posterity, I'll do my best. My understanding of the workings of magic still isn't perfect, even with centuries of study under my belt, if you could even consider what I did under "Luna's" tutelage as studying. I'm from a world where magic is relegated to slight of hand and flights of fancy, so forgive me if this isn't the best of explanations. From what I understand, dark magic isn't something one should be casually flinging about, like I had been over the course of a decade's worth of practice.

Its influence is unsettling, corrupting the magic of any who carelessly practice it and warping their very self into a twisted caricature of who they once were. It seems to almost feed on negative emotions, especially those of fear and hatred, empowering the caster even as it seeks to subvert them. Granted, from what I've seen, while the mage does feel much stronger, unstoppable even, and spells they cast can gain potency from their emotional state, dark magic and regular magic do not seem to be all that different in terms of baseline levels of power. To sum up: while they may not be different in terms of applicable force, dark magic seems to be easier to use and quicker to master in comparison, while also being more seductive in nature. It's probably why our dear princess had me using it in the first place.

Allow me to elaborate. Do you have narcotics here? Drugs that are chemically addictive in nature?

(...)

Ah, I see. Well, that will certainly help you to understand what it was like for me then. While I had almost no experience with drugs in my previous life, and what I did was relatively mild in nature, I can just about say for certain that using dark magic is very much like being intoxicated. It was a rush, unlike anything I had ever felt previously, as if I were standing on top of the world and nothing would ever bring me down from the heights to which I had soared. Fear? Doubt? These were things for lesser beings, not for one such as I. Honestly, I can't even begin to imagine how insufferable I must have seemed to you.

Now, where was I before I went off on a tangent?

(...)

Oh, yes, of course. Artemis. Even in my magic induced high I recognized the name. It's interesting the parallels that exist between our two worlds, now that I think about it, but we can discuss those another time. In this case, Artemis, at least where I'm from, was the name of a mythical goddess, worshiped in ancient times, whose domains were the hunt, nature and the moon itself. Fitting, given the circumstances, though obviously the gender didn't really match in my case. It certainly sounded better to me than David did. David might have been a name that once belonged to a king from Earth's ancient history, but Artemis? Artemis would be a conqueror of this new world and I would embrace my new persona with my whole being.

So, tell me, Artemis: how do you feel? How did I feel? There were no words sufficient to describe how I felt then. I touched on the feeling of empowerment in my earlier ramblings, but even that didn't do it justice. I think that, given my earlier feelings of powerlessness, of dread, fear and doubt, this sudden, heady rush of strength was made all the more intense as a result.

"I feel...amazing," I purred in response, my gaze passing over the gathered creatures of shadow and mist, wondering at the purpose of their presence and how I had ended up on the dark side of the moon during my little...transformation. Again, I felt no fear at the sight of them. I knew they could not hurt me, not when I had been infused with such might the likes of which coursed through my veins at that moment. "But that's what you were hoping for, wasn't it?" I had to give her credit; she'd played me like a fiddle. Of course I was all too aware of her betrayal of my trust, even then, but what was I supposed to do? Getting pissy with her wouldn't do me any good, after all.

You're certainly taking this better than I had expected you to. Her words made me chuckle. I accepted what she had done, even understood it. What would I have done in her place, after all? An alien being invades my body, taking complete control of it and rendering me almost completely helpless. You're damned right I'd have done something to make things balance more in my favor. But did that mean I forgave her for it?

"Were you expecting me to scream at you?" I asked casually, walking through the crowd of monsters as I spoke, intent on getting back into the light. "To cry and rail against your betrayal of my trust?" I scoffed at the notion. "No, of course not. What would be the point?" I narrowed my eyes and let out a hiss. "But am I angry? Oh, you bet your moon bedecked ass I am."

Get over it. I let out a snort. I need you to be able to go up against Celestia and there was no way you could match her given your previous mental state. Well, she certainly had a point. There was no way I'd have been able to fight a millennia old alicorn, well versed in combat and the use of magic, not with how damaged I'd been becoming. Of course now I was even more deranged, not that it even occurred to me at the time.

"Is that the name of your so called usurper?" I asked, no longer believing a word of her previous story. "If I'm to be your weapon against her then I should know more about her, wouldn't you agree?"

Humans are truly strange creatures. I rolled my eyes at this, having nothing more to say until she answered my questions. You are correct, she is no usurper, merely a weak spirited foal who does not deserve to wear the crown she bears upon her brow! There was real venom in her voice as she spoke of the mare that had imprisoned us both. Always she basks in their adoration and ever was I trapped in her shadow!

"So it's jealousy then?" Jealousy, such a human motivation. Wars have started on my world over less petty reasons than the ones she held, so I honestly wasn't all that surprised to hear it.

It isn't about jealousy, but what I deserve. I frowned slightly, noticing that I had no idea where I was amidst the grayscale picture my vision gave me of the darkness that enveloped me. I supposed just picking a direction and walking until I saw light would work, but it would be nice to be able to get my bearings regardless. Celestia is too soft to truly rule Equestria. I will bring order to their pathetic little lives and they will all come to appreciate my work as they always should have!

"How childish," I ridiculed her, able to sense her outrage over my dismissal. "And how narrow minded. Surely there is more to the world below us than just Equestria."

Are you...are you suggesting what it sounds like you are? I smirked, pleased to have so surprised her. Such ambition and to think all I had to do was give you the proper nudge in order to reveal it.

"Why shouldn't I be?" I asked her, having already considered my options many times during my incarceration. "What else is there for me to do? Return home?" I let out another snort at the notion. "It's already been hundreds of years since I first arrived here. What sort of homecoming could I possibly have after we finally escape?" Besides, the idea of returning to a life of soul crushing mundanity turned my stomach. "No, there is no such thing as home for me there. My future is here and I will take advantage of your machinations to the fullest extent possible."

I think I may actually come to like you, Artemis. My smirk returned, the name she'd given me only serving to cement my decision. This is so much better than listening to David's constant whining. She'd even separated my old self from who she now saw me as. Perfect. Still, there is much we have to do before our escape will be possible.

"Well, Luna, I'm ready to start whenever you are." I gazed upwards at the stars. "Where do we begin?"

You can start by not referring to me as Luna. I raised an eyebrow at this. I am...Nightmare Moon.

"And I have only one royal duty now...to destroy YOU!"

I staggered, pain lancing through my head as the world shifted and distorted, the sound of her voice echoing in my ears, Nightmare Moon trying to ask what was wrong with me, but all I could see was some off-white alicorn flying away as I tried to blast her with my magic.

Artemis! Her mental shout finally made it stop, my breath coming in short gasps and my heart pounding away against the inside of my rib cage. What in the name of Faust was that all about?

"You...you didn't hear that?" I asked, wondering just what it was I had experienced.

Hear what? Nightmare Moon clearly hadn't shared the experience with me, the mare sounding irritated yet again. We do not have time for any more of your delusions. Now, pull yourself together, Artemis. There is much to prepare and you must be focused in order to do it.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Nightmare Moon's preparations had to do with constructing a complex magical array that, in her words, would allow us to shatter Celestia's spell and escape using the power of the very stars themselves. She told me of their falling out, slanting it in a light that made her sound more favorable when compared to her sister, and how the older mare had used a sextet of artifacts called the Elements of Harmony to banish her. Elements of Harmony...I suddenly felt as if I were trapped in some Saturday morning cartoon serial or something. What? Nevermind, it's not important.

From the plans she shared with me, the array would take decades of careful work to construct, every detail having to be precisely calculated to maximize the power output and bring the binding spell to an end. We had to work diligently at it, using every waking moment to the fullest in order to get it ready in time for the end of the longest day of the thousandth year following her banishment. Something about this date was important to the array's function, but she couldn't explain it to me in any way I could easily understand. Something about the celestial alignment or maybe it was orbital wobble. Either way, it had to be done perfectly, or we'd miss our chance and have to wait another thousand years. Definitely not a thrilling prospect, let me tell you.

Whenever I had to sleep, time would pass, usually decades at a time, and during these periods of rest she would drill me further in magical combat. I'd be facing someone with much more experience in such things than me, after all, so I needed all the prep work that I could get. As it turned out, Nightmare Moon proved to be a merciless taskmaster. My body hit the floor, for lack of a more apt term while inside the construct, and a groan passed my lips. That was the umpteenth time I was knocked down since the torture...excuse me, since the training initially began. Death being a none issue, Nightmare Moon didn't pull any punches. While I begrudged it at the time, and still do to an extent, I can understand why. You have to use intense heat to properly forge and temper a weapon, after all.

Get up. Cold, pitiless, but given my mental state at the time I would not have accepted mercy. I hated her just as much as I hated her sister, who I blamed for my incarceration, and even now my resentment lingers. Regardless, she offered me no quarter and it was just how I wanted it. Pain is nothing but a trick of your mind. If you let it conquer you now, then you will have no hope of ever defeating Celestia.

"Do you ever stop talking?" I hissed while pushing myself to my hooves, having taken equine form in the construct. Not much point in trying to shift back into a human body after all this time, when you think about it. For one thing, even though she's able to shapeshift almost at will, it takes a lot of energy to maintain an altered form for any length of time. And on top of that, with the human body being so very different from the quadrupedal form of a pony, the energy consumption would have been even higher. Since we were also working under a time constraint and, unlike the slight shift in gender, I didn't know how to actively change our shared body out in the real world anyway. It was obvious Nightmare Moon didn't really want to waste the time it would take for me to learn how to change into something more familiar to me, let alone how to regulate the flow of our magic in order to sustain it. And honestly, she didn't know how to teach a biped to fight, nor would I be any help in that regard myself, so it would have ultimately been a detriment. Besides, I was already fairly adjusted to this new body anyway. So I really got sidetracked there, forgive me.

"Or are you so enamored with the sound of your own voice that all you can do is carry on like some chattering fucking monkey?!" A spiral made up of millions of jagged shards of glass was her response, a scream ripping from throat as blood ran down my coat in rivulets from the myriad number of cuts her attack opened up in my flesh. Perhaps taunting the demigoddess intent on shaping me into the perfect killing machine wasn't the best of ideas, but it felt good to get under her skin after all the lies she'd fed to me. The spiral of glass swarmed around me, forming a dome of agony that I was helpless to stop.

While I do enjoy a good monologue as much as the next mare, I much prefer listening to the sound of your screams. Though I couldn't see it, I know she must have been wearing that insufferable smirk as she did her level best to flay me alive. Do you think Celestia will show you any mercy, you pathetic little foal? I couldn't see anymore, the glass having shredded my eyes. Get up! Fight back, you insufferable little insect! Hatred for her welled inside me, my magic rushing through my body as my desire to silence her became overwhelming.

"I HATE YOU!" I shouted through the pain, blood welling in my throat as glass leaped down it, though the attempt to ruin my insides was short lived. A burst of black energy turned the glass to dust, which was swiftly swept away by the rising tide of my power. I can only imagine what it must have looked like, but Nightmare Moon only appeared pleased, even as my magic turned her into so much red paste. Of course, in the construct, such things were as nothing. Only the pain was real and even that was fleeting.

Good. Her remains shifted into vapor the color of her mane before reforming into her once again intact body. My own injuries vanished soon after, my now working eyes glaring at her balefully. Use that hatred well, Artemis. You will need every ounce of it you can muster to defeat my sister. She met my gaze unflinchingly. Though she is sentimental at heart, she will not hesitate to kill you should you force her hoof. She was smirking again. But you will do more than that, my dear prince. You will drive her to the edge and send her screaming into the abyss. Her smirk became a grin. Then, all of Equestria and beyond will be ours to do with as we wish.

"And why do you think I will continue to work with you after we kill her?" I spat, not really inclined to share given the circumstances. "I hate her, as I hate you, so why should I just hand the world over to a childish narcissist like you?"

You shouldn't. She shrugged carelessly, not in the least concerned to be the target of my loathing. I am no foal, Artemis. You will be my equal once we are finished here and I am more than willing to share if I can avoid needless conflict with one who hates my sister just as much as I do. She gave me an appraising look. That is if we can even determine a way to separate ourselves from one another once all is said and done.

"Now there's a horrifying thought," I muttered darkly, my nebulous tail flicking like a whip in my agitation. "Being stuck with you for all eternity? I'd rather piss glass."

Charming. She rolled her eyes at me. That's enough training for now, I think. Let us rejoin the waking world and see just how long we have been detained within my construct this time.

0o0o0o0o0o0

The scratch of rock against rock made my ears twitch, my eyes staring blankly at the ground as I painstakingly etched a complex magical array into it. It was the tenth, each of the previous ones having taken hours upon hours to complete...and the one I worked on at that moment was barely a quarter done. They say hell is repetition. I can understand why. I paused in my etching, having noticed a mistake. All that meticulous, mind numbing work, wasted because of a single, stupid mistake. With a feral growl I wiped it away using a pulse of magic, my breath coming in harsh pants as my frustration made me see red. Even when I finished that one, there were thousands upon thousands more to complete.

"I can't stand this," I seethed, the rock I'd been using to carve with soon pulverized in the grasp of my telekinesis. "It's been days and I've hardly even begun to construct it." Decades? Of this? My mind reeled at the prospect. "Is there no way for us to share the work load?" I had to do everything and it was simply maddening.

You complain more than I care to listen to. I let out an indignant snort, deciding to take a break and stare up at the stars. What? No witty retort? I ground my teeth, wishing I could shut out her voice. Oh, I see. You are ignoring me now. She chuckled. And you call me childish.

"Christ, do you ever shut up?" My ears folded back against my helmet. "I'm trying to relax and listening to you is like having to sit through someone dragging nails across a chalkboard."

Ah, there's the snark. I let out a groan in response. What has you so fascinated, by the way? Her paltry attempts to mimic my work are not worthy of such rapt attention as the kind you were displaying just now.

"If you must know, I was marking out constellations," I replied, the parallels between our worlds even more apparent as I gazed upon the stars. "The Big and Little Dipper." I pointed them each out in turn. "Orion, Leo, Cancer, Pisces, Scorpio." I sighed, feeling homesick for the first time in decades. "Makes me curious what else our worlds share, I guess."

I was not expecting that. I quirked a brow at her words. Not many could so readily point them out as you just did. There was something odd about her tone, though I couldn't quite make out what it was. Were you a practitioner of astrology before you...arrived here?

"No, I'm just full of useless trivia," I replied dryly, having always had a good memory for unimportant facts. "Astrology isn't really practiced as science back where I come from anymore." Indeed, it's now been out of practice for over twelve hundred years, if the passage of time on our two separate worlds is in sync at least.

Tis a shame. This made me frown, Nightmare Moon almost having sounded melancholic. There is much wonder to be found amidst the canvas of my sky. I opened my mouth only to immediately close it, wondering where her sudden shift in mood had come from. Knowing what I do now, though, I can't say that it surprises me in the least. Well, if you are quite finished lazing about, we have more work to do.

"'We', she says," I groused, grabbing another rock and starting to work on the array again. "Just like a mare to let a stallion do all the hard work."

Excuse me? Ouch, open mouth insert foot...or hoof, rather.

"Nothing, dear," I replied, sarcasm lacing my tone heavily. "Just marveling at what a generous taskmistress you are."

And well you should. A brief pause. Oh, you missed a line there.

"GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!"

0o0o0o0o0o0

So, have I mentioned how much I dislike heights? Well, we were back to flight training, which somehow worked with no atmosphere. Magic; destroyer of physics and wrecker of your shit!

(...)

Sorry, I felt my retelling of events was becoming a little too dark, though my sense of humor isn't exactly for everyone.

(...)

Yes, yes, I know, back to the story it is then. It took awhile and many unfortunately intimate encounters with the ground, but I was finally truly flying. I've been on planes before, but there's no comparison between that and actually taking to the air. Clumsy as it was, my first real flight was a truly liberating experience. I forgot my troubles, Nightmare Moon's plans and even my hatred for those few blissful minutes it lasted.

"This is amazing!" I cheered, the physics breaking nature of my flight forgotten as I let myself enjoy the heady rush of speed. "Why didn't you tell me flying could be so much fun?"

You are not learning to fly for "fun", Artemis. Ah, that was why. Nightmare Moon was a complete stick in the mud. How could I forget? You will be fighting somepony who will seek every advantage against you that she can get. Now, stop acting like such a colt and focus. And my feelings of elation went plummeting downwards, my face twisted into a scowl as a result. This is not something you can truly learn in the construct, as it requires the development of muscle memory and the strengthening of key muscle groups essential to flight.

"You are such a pain in my ass," I grumbled, irritation causing my stomach to churn in a distinctly uncomfortable manner. I couldn't even have a few minutes to myself without her dragging my mood back into the muck. But that was what she wanted, I suppose. Feeding my negative emotions was key to her plans for me, after all.

I was not aware that you were in possession of a donkey. I let out a groan at this particular jab. She was learning how to best push my buttons, a fact that still vexes me to this day. Wait, you are flying too high! Dive, you foal, now!

"What?" My confusion was soon replaced by pain, my flight carrying me headlong into a prismatic shield of light that crackled upon my impromptu meeting with it. Moments after impact, chains of equally multi-hued light shot from the moon below me, entangling themselves around all four of my legs, the base of my wings, my barrel and my neck before wrenching me violently downwards. My sudden reunion with the ground was spectacular, the crash echoing loudly in my ears even as fresh agony rippled through my body. My legs were twisted at odd angles and I think several ribs had fractured as well, but all I could focus on then was how much it hurt.

Stop writhing, you will only make it worse for yourself! But I couldn't help it, unable to hold still as my body slowly repaired itself. I was able to feel the bones sliding back into place. Not the most pleasant of sensations to say the very least. Just breathe through it, Artemis, it will be over soon.

"Damn it," I hissed, eyes rolling upwards to glare at the planet we orbited even as my wrath festered like a loathsome cancer within my breast. If my irritation with Nightmare Moon over spoiling the mood wasn't clue enough, then let me say my feelings for her sister only grew worse still by comparison. "Why can't I just have this one thing?" I had believed that I could escape my worries, if only briefly, only for that illusion to be violently shattered. "I won't give up, Celestia!" I cried, pushing myself up even as my bones finished knitting themselves back together again. "Do you hear me?! I will kill you, you goddamn useless coward!"

Nightmare Moon remained silent as I continued to scream out my frustrations, my pain fading to be replaced by unyielding rage and a heady dose of euphoria as I imagined all the tortures I would visit upon my jailer once I finally escaped. I suppose my fellow captive wanted this reaction, even if she had tried to warn me about flying too high. It's also likely that she let me vent because she realized I needed to, otherwise it would be difficult for me to focus on the still lengthy task ahead of completing the preparations required for our escape. Eventually I tired myself out, my breath coming in ragged gasps.

We will have retribution, Artemis. Nightmare Moon's promise helped to calm me, if only slightly. She will not evade our vengeance, no matter what plan she enacts or strategy she attempts. I bared my teeth, greatly looking forward to the day when Celestia would lay broken at my hooves. Catch your breath and find your center, my prince. We still have much more to do for our wishes to be realized.

0o0o0o0o0o0

"Get out of my way," I snapped as I stepped into the darkness of the moon, the misty shadow creatures having been waiting for me. At my harsh command they cleared a path for me, though they watched me intently. How, I wondered, was I ever afraid of these creatures? They were nothing compared to me. My upper lip curled in disgust at my former fears, though even then I had to admit, however silently, that their staring was proving to be mildly unsettling. "What even are these things, Nightmare?"

Entities from outside the physical realms of reality. I glanced over their shifting forms as she explained. They drift through the spaces between, feasting on the fears of those who live in the material world, though their influence in these ethereal places is limited at best.

"So how are they here then?" If they came from some sort of astral plane, or something like that, how could they be manifested out in the physical world?

Because, at the center of this darkness, there is a tear in the fabric of reality. My eyes widened upon hearing that. They use it to slip into our world and have done so for centuries now.

"How did it happen?" I asked carefully, wondering if this tear had anything to do with my arrival into this world.

As I once explained, a being of pure chaos once ruled Equestria, using it as his own personal playground. There was genuine disgust in her voice as she recalled the time when Discord, spirit of chaos and disharmony, once terrorized Equestria for sport. His powers warped reality in unnatural ways. I have a theory that his actions weakened the walls that separate our reality from that of the immaterial, which allowed these shadows to open a hole through which they could escape.

"It...could that be how I came here as well?" I decided to ask, wondering if Celestia truly was at fault in that case.

It is certainly a possibility. Nightmare Moon sounded doubtful, however. But I feel that it is merely one of the factors that led to your arrival. Otherwise you would have been here before my banishment and not immediately following it. She did have a point, my doubts swiftly erased by her logic.

"Okay, but why are we out here then?" From what she had said regarding her plans, we wouldn't be carving any part of the array out here, so the purpose behind our little expedition eluded me for the moment.

The immaterial is a place of power, Artemis. I felt a sudden chill as I walked further on, not liking where her words were taking the conversation. A realm of raw energy based on emotion and instinct rather than reason and logic. We will be utilizing it to energize the array. That brought my trek to an immediate halt. What is it? Why have you stopped?

"Because this sounds like a terrible idea," I replied, frowning severely as I gazed further ahead into the grayscale world that was the dark side of her moon. "Drawing power from a place where things sound like this Discord guy would love to hang out?" I shook my head. "Is that really something we should be doing?"

I will not deny that there are risks involved. That sounded like she was putting it mildly. But if we wish to be absolutely certain of our escape, we will need more than just the aid of the stars.

"I just want you to know that I really don't like this plan," I told her, though I did proceed onward once more. "So if we end up blowing the moon apart or unleashing a Bloodthirster, I reserve the right to say I told you so."

What in Faust's name is a Bloodthirster? I couldn't help letting out a snort, deciding to mess with my fellow captive a bit.

"Big, angry, likes to rip people to bloody ribbons," I replied casually, not mentioning that they're also works of complete fiction. "Not something you want to ever meet, really, not unless you plan on sacrificing a metric ton of virgins to it."

(...)

Stop giving me that look. It's not like I invented the concept of it, after all. "Even then it'll probably end up murder-fucking you anyway."

(...)

Oh for Christ's sake, it's fiction! Stop looking at me like that already!

A truly disturbing creature. This from the mare who wished to plunge the world into eternal night and planned to use me to commit sororicide. While a concerning prospect, we will not be doing anything that would allow such a beast to enter our world. Still, perhaps this will require more caution than I had initially thought. A snicker escaped my muzzle before I could even think of stopping it. This is no laughing matter. I do not need some foul demon from the beyond ruining my plans. That did it. The snickering turned into full blown laughter. Please, take this more seriously, Artemis! A creature the likes of which you described would be next to impossible to contain! That only made it worse. Oh, for Faust's sake, you are such a colt!

0o0o0o0o0o0

It was another hour maybe before we reached the center, though you wouldn't know it just by looking. Like every other part of our prison, it was simply a flat area of dull gray dust and rock. My less tangible senses, however, were alight with this high pitched droning that set my teeth on edge.

"So, this is it, right?" I asked for confirmation, wondering what exactly I wasn't seeing. Then again, given those shadow creatures, I'm kind of glad it remained hidden from my sight. I have enough terrible memories as it is.

Yes, this is the rift. I nodded, having figured as much. It felt like someone was taking a belt sander to my horn or something, just this constant buzzing sensation in my skull. We will be setting up a conduction matrix, a type of array that transmits energy across great distances. It will allow us to tap into the tear and safely siphon the power of the immaterial through it.

"And you're sure of that?" Knowing my luck we were just as likely to summon the flying spaghetti monster or do something equally idiotic by mistake. Don't ask.

Don't tell me you're afraid. I felt my hackles raise at the taunt. Relax, my dear prince, I know what I am doing. That wasn't exactly comforting. Now, begin with the standard thaumic induction circle. And so it went, until the conduction matrix was complete. Once we finish the array, and the proper time arrives, we will return here to activate it. And then we would finally be free.

"I'm looking forward to it."

0o0o0o0o0o0

At this point you might be wondering about the clarity with which I have been able to recall these events. Honestly, I haven't been sharing every single detail of the time I spent with Nightmare during our shared incarceration. Much of it tends to blur together and there are large segments of memory that are missing entirely, likely due to mental trauma and the passage of time simply taking its toll upon my mind. Human beings were never meant to live for such lengthy periods as I have, magical pony body or not. So, naturally, what I have been sharing with you are the events I can remember most distinctly, and even then my ability to do so may be inaccurate in some fashion or another due to emotions and/or my mindset at the time coloring the true nature of those events.

The time spent constructing the array in particular is a jumbled mess, mostly due to the repetitious nature of the work and my own sense of extreme boredom. There is something that happened during this period of time that may interest you, but I will warn you that it is mildly disturbing to hear. I know, you wouldn't have asked otherwise, but I feel that I should still preface what I am about to say with a warning. You won't like it. Why should you, when even thinking about it turns my stomach? As you wish, there will be no more delays. I had decided to get in some practice on real world targets, shaping rock into facsimiles of alicorns that I blew apart in a myriad of ways. Yet it felt unsatisfying. Destroying rock, no matter its shape, was doing nothing to sate my cravings for the rush using my magic usually brought me.

"It's not enough," I growled in frustration after destroying my twentieth sculpture. "Why isn't it enough?" I remembered feeling the same rush during similar exercises before, so what was different? The answer was a relatively simple one. I was well and truly addicted but now the drug wasn't working at the same dose as it had before. I needed more, but how was I supposed to get it? There was nothing else for me to destroy, nothing except the shadow creatures. Would they suffice, I wondered? "Only one way to find out~" I then took to the air, though I remembered to remain low to the lunar surface. It didn't take me long to reach my destination, touching down just outside the dark zone. I waited in silence, eyes scanning the darkness for signs of movement.

They eventually began to gather, their amorphous masses shifting in the dark and their glowing eyes watching me with what might have been wariness. Did they feel the emotion they supposedly fed upon? Did they know why I had come? The idea that I struck fear into the same beings that once did the same to me was satisfying to me, a desire for vengeance fueling my magic as fear became unadulterated hate. They shrank back as black lightning arced from my horn, the energy coalescing into a mighty bolt a split second later. I felt a heady rush of savage glee as it ripped through their ranks, the dying ones screeching even as the survivors scattered. I made a game of chasing them down, relentless in my hunt and eager to feed my addiction through their pain.

It brings me only shame to speak of now, but I laughed as they cowered before me, ruthlessly butchering the shadowy creatures for the sake of nothing but my own pleasure. A few tried to fight back, I think, but they were unable to so much as lay a scratch me. Their bodies crumbled like ash when they died, the air soon choked with it. In the end there was but a single shadow left. I had it backed into the wall of a crater, where it trembled at my approach. I let it see its death, my horn pulsing with light as I gathered the energy to obliterate the creature entirely. I took a moment to sneer before unleashing my attack. The rock beneath the shadow creature shattered, all that remained of it a black stain and a scorch mark.

You are finally ready, my prince. I only vaguely heard what Nightmare Moon said, too busy reveling in the sensation of having ended their existences to truly pay attention. Celestia will not stand a chance.

I told you that you wouldn't like it. I don't know what else to say. I slaughtered the shadow creatures without even a shred of mercy. And why? To get my fix. I'm sorry, I need a moment.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Again, sorry about that, I'm just feeling a little rattled. Thank you for the tea, by the way, it helped settle my nerves a bit.

(...)

No, I can continue, but thanks for your concern. Now, where was I?

(...)

Oh, yes, I had just finished brutally murdering a group of sapient entities just to secure my next buzz. I strode out of the dark zone, skipping along like some giddy little school girl. I felt energized and ready to take on the whole world, riding high on the rush of power that unleashing my frustrations upon the parasites had given me.

"That was amazing," I purred, taking a moment to stretch languidly. "I've never felt so alive!"

I imagine you've never been so filthy, either. This made me pause, as I had no idea what Nightmare was talking about. Look at yourself, Artemis, you're caked with ash.

"Ash?" I lifted a foreleg to inspect it, noting that I was indeed covered in gray ash that only smeared into my coat when I tried to rub it off. "Ugh, it won't come off." I tried scrubbing harder, but it only made it worse. "What is this stuff?"

Don't tell me you've forgotten what you just did so quickly as that. I blinked in confusion. You only spent the last few hours hunting down those parasites, remember? Her words brought me back into focus and allowed me to shake off the euphoria that had been clouding my senses. I'll have to teach you a cleansing spell in order to get it off. It is no substitute for a bath, but it will do well enough in this case.

I didn't reply as I looked myself over, the memory of the last shadow I had killed playing through my mind on a loop. I recalled how scared its eyes had looked and the way it had burst into ash when my magic annihilated it. it made me feel just as filthy on the inside as I had become on the outside, my stomach twisting into painful, nauseating knots. What was wrong with me?

Are you even paying any attention to what I am saying? Nightmare Moon's annoyed voice cut through the shock, causing me to nearly jump out of my fancy metal boots in surprise. I was trying to talk you through how to execute the cleansing spell. I shook my head, feeling shaken and still quite sick to my stomach. Are you well? I gave a nod, shaky as it was. Are you certain? Experiencing any dizziness or weakness in your limbs? Perhaps you should-

"No," I cut her off abruptly, trying to shake the inexplicable feeling that gnawed at me with such unsettling persistence. "No, thank you, I'm fine." Why was I feeling so disturbed? The shadows were nothing, mere parasites, and just weren't worthy of consideration, let alone the turmoil that raged inside of me over their deaths at my hooves. But those eyes haunted me, terrified and pleading even as I snuffed them out. "I'm just a little tired." Liar.

Very well then, Artemis. She sounded like she didn't really believe me but to let it pass without any further objections. In any case, take a few moments of rest and we will continue work on the array once you are ready. She had likely passed it off as exhaustion, or something equally trivial, given how much magic I had just finished throwing around, but I knew better. Even if I couldn't admit it to myself, I knew what was wrong. I had crossed the line, becoming a monster as a result, and there was no way to take it back.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Excuse me, but can we take a recess or something? I'm not feeling very well after all that and I'd like some time to recover.

(...)

Thank you, Your Highness.

Author's Notes:

The way things are going to work as far as scheduling goes, since several people have asked, is that I'm going to alternate writing chapters for my two stories. So just keep that in mind should you get worried about what's taking so long

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this installment of To Know Hell and, as always, let me know what you think in the comments below. Have a nice day

Chapter 4: Confrontation

Where do I even begin? What words could I possibly say after having just finished admitting to you that I committed genocide? What does any of this matter, anyway? You already have everything you need to know, Your Highness, so just get on with it already!

(...)

What? You want to hear the rest of it? Why? Do you really enjoy listening to me recount this twisted little melodrama that much?

(...)

Fine then, Your Highness, I'll continue if you really want to hear it. Suffice to say that I wasn't exactly feeling very good about myself after having realized the full extent of what I had done. Nightmare Moon wasn't an idiot, of course, so she noticed my change in behavior almost immediately. Dear Christ, I wish I could give that heartless bitch a piece of my mind. That or a swift buck to the face. Either way, I imagine it would be very satisfying, not to mention cathartic. At any rate, my work on the array suffered, as my already troubled mind had trouble focusing when the images of the violence I had carried out kept playing through it over and over again.

Artemis, stop. Her voice startled me, the rock I had been using to carve the next part of the array dropping from my telekinetic grip as a result. You have been staring at that same line for the past ten minutes now. What in the heavens is the matter with you?

"Nothing," I snapped, picking the piece back up so I could get back to work. The lie was bitter on my tongue, her disbelief almost palpable as I etched the design into the stone beneath my hooves. "Just shut up and let me work in peace." Peace was another lie, something I believed I would never know, a dull, throbbing ache settling into the base of my skull as I forced myself to continue the work. Freedom was my only hope, my only escape from the barren wasteland that was the moon. My prison. My own personal little slice of hell.

(...)

Hell? It's different for everyone, or so I've heard, yet there's one thing most I've spoken to on the subject can agree on. Hell is repetition. Prometheus getting his liver pecked out every day. Sisyphus, forced to toil at rolling an immense boulder up a hill again and again, only for it to tumble back down every time. Me, scratching the same symbols into rock over and over, though at least I had something to look forward to at the end of it all. At least that's what I told myself, though looking back I don't think I truly believed it. Especially not at that moment.

No, I will not sit here and watch you sulk. I let out a growl of annoyance. It is time for another chat, I think. My consciousness spiraled downwards until I stood inside her construct, scowling irritably at her projection where it stood across from me. It has been three weeks since you returned from the dark side of my moon. Three weeks and still you mope. Why? Why do you flagellate yourself so? We have too much work left ahead for you to be-

"We?" My tone spoke of my sense of incredulity, Nightmare Moon glaring right back at me for having interrupted her. "What we? I have been the one doing all the work here, Princess! All you do is take up space in my head and talk down to me like I'm your own personal little slave!"

You are the one inside my head, you ungrateful foal! I scoffed, still scratching out the array as I listened to her bitch at me. If it were not for me, you would not even exist anymore. This made me pause, as I hadn't really contemplated the nature of my new existence in some time. You are but an echo, a shadow of a mortal that has invaded my body, and nothing more!

"And yet I'm the one that's in control," I reminded her coldly as I forced my way out of her construct, the stone I'd been using to carve with crumbling to dust in the grasp of my magic. "Where would you even be without my presence? Locked in the stone beneath my hooves, a helpless prisoner for all eternity." I could tell this fact rankled, a vicious smile settling onto my face. "So how about showing a little gratitude for once, Your Highness?"

Go to Tartarus, you insufferable bastard. I laughed, picking up a fresh stone so I could continue my work.

"Maybe I'll take a vacation there once we're free." I chuckled at the thought, finding it oddly amusing. Given the parallels between our two worlds, I could only assume that Tartarus is your version of Hell, so why not? It can't be any worse than anything I had already experienced during my incarceration.

(...)

Oh really? Well isn't that interesting. Carrying on with our story, I worked for...I don't know how long. Time passed oddly, to say the least, so I might have toiled for months without realizing it. Suffice it to say, it was a long time before Nightmare Moon deigned to speak with me again.

I apologize. You can imagine my shock, hearing her say something so unexpected. She never struck me as someone that apologized for anything, after all. I sometimes forget that we are both prisoners here, in our own ways, and that without your presence I would not even be aware of my plight.

"It's fine," I responded dismissively, finishing up for the time being and deciding a break was in order. "It's not like I've been any more pleasant." I sighed, taking a seat and trying to relax. "Don't get me wrong, though. You're still a heartless bitch."

And you, my prince, are a feckless, charmless ape. Her tone was harsh, yet I got the impression that she was smiling. I don't know how to explain this odd comradery we seemed to share at times, when at others we seemed ready to kill each other. I'm no psychologist, so I really can't say for certain what caused it. We had a mutual enemy and shared a goal, but is that enough to explain it? I honestly don't know. Now, be a good slave and get back to work.

"As you command, your worshipfulness~"

0o0o0o0o0o0

Time dragged ever onward, though its passage seemed overly fast and yet, at the same time, painfully slow. The work on the array continued, as did my training, Nightmare Moon honing my skills to a razor's edge in preparation for battle. I was to show no mercy and I was happy to agree. I hated you more than anything I have ever despised in my entire life and, even now, I still do to an extent. Is that so surprising? The way you're looking at me now, how you have been this entire time; it makes me curious how well your subjects really know their queen.

(...)

I don't care what you choose to call yourself, Highness. We're not here to talk about your title, after all. So, shall I continue or are we going to start arguing over semantics?

(...)

Fine, on with the story it is. There's really little more to say about my incarceration at this point. It was a terrible experience that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy and it will likely haunt my nightmares for years to come. A thousand years with a high functioning psychopath and wannabe tyrant left me just as deranged, if not more so, and, if not for the events that transpired following my arrival in Equestria, I'd have been a worse dictator than even the late King Sombra ever had the chance to be. I will never be able to express how glad I am that things have worked out as they did, but for now let's just move on.

The longest day of the thousandth year since our shared banishment had arrived. The array was long since completed and the stars were aligned just as Nightmare Moon had predicted. It was time to claim our freedom at long last. I could practically feel the power thrumming beneath my hooves as I stalked my way into the darkness, my senses alive with anticipation. The agony, frustration and doubt I had felt, the countless hours of sleepless, painstaking toil and enduring Nightmare's so-called training; all of it had led to this one chance and I didn't plan on wasting it.

Hurry, Artemis. I didn't exactly need the reminder, but I could certainly understand her urgency. If we missed that one opening it would be another thousand years before we'd get another chance and I doubt my mind could have handled another minute in that place. I couldn't truly see the rift with my eyes but I knew when we had reached it, every hair on my body seemingly standing on end as I focused on the spell matrix. Now, my prince, before it is too late!

"I know," I said quietly, already focusing all the considerable power Nightmare's body put at my disposal, a silvery-white beam of light lancing from my horn and striking the matrix dead center. Could you sense what happened next from your balcony, Celestia? The power unleashed by the rift was astounding at ground zero, so surely you must have noticed something.

(...)

I see. Well, the rift certainly was visible once the spell array tapped into it, a gaping wound in the air that bled magic that put a chill in even my heart at the time. There were...things moving inside of it. More shadows? Something else entirely? I guess we'll never really know for sure. The point is that the Elements' power over us was broken, a great weight lifting from my shoulders while a rush of elation filled my heart. Then we were gone, teleporting away with the intent of finding you and, well, you know the rest really.

(...)

What, why? You were there for the next part and I'm sure your dear student filled you in on the rest.

(...)

For posterity? Really?

(...)

Right, right, you have that stern looking old bat sitting in the corner over there, writing this all down. Okay then, we'll play it your way then. Teleporting for the first time in the waking world was an experience that's hard to really describe. It was like someone grabbed me by my insides and yanked me hard enough to make me feel like I was going to be sick. It lasted for all of a second before I appeared at my destination, staring at the ruins of an old castle around us.

"Um...did we take a wrong turn or something?" I asked, not recognizing where we were. "I mean, we were supposed to appear in your old throne room, weren't we?"

We have. Nightmare's response was oddly stiff, even for her. That useless nag let it fall into disrepair rather than rebuild. It was like nostalgia sprinkled with heartache and then mixed with disgust. It doesn't matter where she hides herself, though. We will find her.

"And then I'll crush the life from her body with my own two hooves~" The thought was certainly a pleasing one at the time. Hell, right now I have the urge to smack that judgemental look right off of your stupid face.

(...)

What're you gonna do about it, Your Worship? Glare at me some more? I've already hit bedrock, so it's not like anything you do will somehow make things any worse for me. So yeah, go ahead, disapprove of me all you like. I'm too fucking tired to care anymore.

(...)

Of course, we wouldn't want to leave your precious steward with nothing to...wait a second. Is she really still writing all this? Even that whole exchange just now?

(...)

Oh, well, in that case, Celestia is a huge, flaming whore and can go suck the biggest bag of di-

0o0o0o0o0o0

Was that really necessary?

(...)

Oh, come on, it was a joke!

(...)

Well I have to get at least a few laughs in before you send me off to the chopping block. Anyway, where was I?

(...)

Oh, right, the ruined Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. You two couldn't have come up with a better name for it? I mean, I know it's nearby the most uninspired name for a town ever, but you could have put at least some effort into naming it. Well, anyway, you can imagine we were left wondering just where in Equestria you'd set up shop.

I cannot believe how much has changed. I could, given it had been a thousand years and all. What was left of your castle held up well enough through the passing of said years, at least. We shall have to start our search in the surrounding countryside. Perhaps we can persuade the local peasantry to tell us the location of the new capitol. Deciding to take a bit of a risk, I flew upwards into the air, wanting a better idea of our location. We were in the middle of a great, wildly growing forest, stretching out beneath me in all directions. It must span for miles, but I'd have to look at a map to be sure.

"What the hell is all this?" I asked, Nightmare having never described her home as being surrounded by a sinister looking forest on all sides. "I've heard of places being reclaimed by nature but this is fucking ridiculous."

The Everfree Forest has grown more wild and expansive than I had ever imagined. She'd never spoken of this Everfree place, but from the sound of it she had never seen it like it was now. What else has that useless sister of mine let slip in the thousand years since our battle?

"I'm sure we'll find out," I growled, not really caring about some forest when there was vengeance waiting for me to carry it out. "We have work to do." I shifted form, taking the appearance of a wisp of cloud and darting across the sky, scanning the land beneath us for any signs of civilization in an ever widening search pattern. Eventually, maybe an hour of searching later, I spotted a small town that was bustling with activity. I swooped in low, dodging a grey pegasus mare that seemed to be delivering mail, startling her into dropping the satchel of letters she'd been carrying as a result.

What were they doing? I found myself wondering why they were in such a hurry, making preparations for some sort of festival from the looks of it. I stayed to the shadows as I snaked my way through the town, observing the goings on, not really paying much attention to the preparations themselves, listening to ponies as they chattered excitedly. I learned they were about to host something called the Summer Sun Celebration, their excitement quite obvious. Nightmare was, understandably, furious.

She made a celebration focusing on her wretched sun? She sounded like she was barely keeping herself from screaming at the perceived injustice of it all. The audacity on display...it makes me sick! I rolled my eyes, well, I would have if I'd had them in my mist-like form. I could understand it in a way, but we had no time for it. We needed answers and we needed them now.

"Enough," I muttered, my form solidifying and taking on that of an onyx coated earth pony stallion where I hid behind a cart laden with carrots. My eyes, mane and tail were the same colors, though the latter two didn't retain their ethereal nature in my disguise. I had been intent on questioning someone when my vision was suddenly filled with an ungodly amount of pink, causing me to jerk back instinctively.

"Hi there!" A female voice belonging to the pink thing spoke to me, sounding incredibly peppy and mildly grating to my ears. I focused on the pink form before me, causing it to come into focus. An earth pony mare, her mane and tail poofy and bouncy as the mare herself seemed to be, was standing there grinning at me cheerily. To be honest it made me feel mildly uncomfortable but I tried, key word tried, to smile back. "What'cha doin' back-" I can't properly imitate the sound that issued from the mare's mouth as she took in a large amount of air, seemingly defying gravity as all four of her hooves left the ground. She rambled out a string of mushed together, high pitch words, something about needing more party supplies, and then she was off like a shot, leaving me to blink owlishly at her sudden, and confusing, departure.

What in the world was that? Nightmare asked, voicing my own thoughts on the matter. Nevermind, we should find someone else to-

"Oh, dear, you look like you just had a run in with our resident party pony," a more elegantly accented female voice remarked, drawing my gaze to a soft looking unicorn with a delicately styled violet mane and tail, her eyes looking me over curiously. "And I can certainly see why. No one in Ponyville looks quite like you, I'm afraid, so you being a newcomer to our fair little town is startlingly obvious."

"Yes, I'm here for, um, the Summer Sun Celebration," I lied, glad this one wasn't too strange. "I heard it was being held here this year and I didn't want to miss it."

"Oh, of course darling," the mare said, seemingly taking my excuse with no suspicions whatsoever. "Do forgive me, I forgot to introduce myself." She held out a hoof to me, smiling disarmingly. "My name is Rarity. It is nice to meet you, Mister...?"

"Dusk," I answered before I could hesitate over thinking up a name. "Dusk Shade, and it's nice to meet you, too, Miss Rarity." I fought the urge to gag as I gingerly accepted her gesture of welcome. "I take it you know the...mare that just ran off?"

"Oh, yes, everypony in Ponyville knows Pinkie Pie," Rarity replied with a soft chuckle. Ponyville, of all the names. It would be like calling a town Humanville back on Earth or something equally ridiculous. "So, Mister Shade, did you travel far?"

"Oh, um, no, not really," I told her, trying to remain inconspicuous. "I...came from the capitol, actually." It was a gamble, certainly, but it was worth the risk.

"You're from Canterlot?!" Rarity asked with an exaggerated gasp, her eyes widening in obvious excitement. "Oh my stars, what fortune this is indeed! To run into two ponies from the height of sophisticated society...goodness, lady luck is certainly smiling on me today!" She giggled girlishly, doing a little prance like she'd just met a celebrity instead of some random stranger who wasn't even who he said he was, not that she knew that last part. "Did you happen to arrive with the event coordinator, Miss Twilight Sparkle?"

"No, sorry, the name doesn't ring a bell I'm afraid," I replied dismissively, having a name to work with thanks to my calculated risk. Canterlot...what other parallels are there here anyway?

(...)

It's actually similar to the name of a fictitious castle from medieval times. Don't worry about it, I just found it interesting is all.

(...)

Of course. I was only half listening to Rarity as she rambled about how her dreams or some such vain sounding nonsense. I needed to ditch her, yet the mare seemed intent on talking to me. I needed a distraction, my eyes scanning over her carefully prepared appearance, my lips curling into a cold smile as I came up with an idea. My tail turned to mist where it was still hidden by the cart, scooping up some of the loose soil underneath it and chucking it into the air. The result was Rarity becoming covered in it, the unicorn giving a devastated cry as it got in her mane and clung to her formerly pristine white coat. I couldn't help chuckling as she ran off, close to tears, feeling a twisted little feeling of satisfaction at seeing her so distraught.

(...)

Let's just say she reminded me of people I met back on Earth and leave it at that. Regardless of whether I should have ruined her day or not, I now had a name to work with, my eyes scanning over the ponies as they went about their business. Who to approach? There had to be someone who wouldn't view my questions with suspicion, after all. I simply had to find them first.

"I'm sorry, have you been waiting long?" The unexpected question had my head turning before I could stop it, yet another earth pony mare standing nearby with an expectant look on her face. I looked her over, noting her pale, golden yellow coloration, green eyes and carrot orange mane and tail. Speaking of carrots, that happened to be her...Cutie Mark. My eyes glanced from her flank to the cart full of carrots and jumped to the logical conclusion that she was the one selling them. Though why she'd left her cart unattended for so long is beyond me.

(...)

What? Why wouldn't I think that's strange? Anyone could have taken her produce, after all.

(...)

Yes, I'm sure your precious little ponies are just saints that way.

(...)

Oh, just forget it. I don't want us getting bogged down by more pointless subjects when we're so close to the end of it all. I shook my head and stepped away from her cart, making sure my tail was solid before it came into view and raised a few brows.

"No, I'm not here to buy carrots," I replied, glancing over the produce briefly once again. "I'm a little lost, to be honest." The only bit of honesty she was likely to get from me, as a matter of fact. "I wasn't sure who to ask but, well, I'm trying to reach Canterlot and I was wondering what was the best road to take from here."

"Off to the capitol, eh?" She took her position behind the cart, a pony coming to purchase a bundle of carrots while she continued to speak, the transaction happening seamlessly, as if she'd done it a thousand times. "Well, you'll want the north road there," she informed me, nodding in the direction of it for emphasis. "But it'd probably be a lot quicker and easier for you to take the train." She paused, as if thinking. "Next one won't be arriving for another hour, though. If you'd like to wait-"

"No, it's fine," I interrupted her, eyes focused to the north. "Thanks for your time." And I walked away, doing my best to ignore those I passed and the mare's call after me, intent on leaving as swiftly as possible. There was a burning itch between my shoulders, my eyes trailing over several ponies as I walked. It was so tempting to just reveal myself to them and burn the entire place to the ground. It would have been so easy and I kept thinking how good it would feel to finally feed the beast lurking inside me. It paced in my chest, eager in the presence of so many potential sources of pain and fear, my teeth growing sharp as my disguise started to slip.

ARTEMIS! Nightmare's mental shout brought me up short, my head pounding with the echoes of it. Focus, you foal! We still may have the element of surprise on our side and I will not allow you to ruin it with your sadistic cravings!

"You're the one that made me like this, remember?" I reminded her quietly, stumbling my way out of town and fading into mist once more. It pained me to just leave without even causing a little pain, to not even instill a sense of panic in the populace, but I knew that she was right even in my less than clearheaded state. "But you're right...I can't waste time here." My mercurial form darted to the north, allowing me to see the shining edifice of Canterlot, standing in stark relief against the mountainside upon which it was built. My eagerness built inside me as my desire to exact what I felt to be perfectly justified retribution upon the one I blamed for my imprisonment with the psychotic megalomaniac that called herself Nightmare Moon reached its boiling point.

(...)

Of course I know that now, but I can't help but resent you for it regardless. My words can never accurately portray to you what it was like up there and I pray to whatever deities that might exist that you never have to experience it for yourself. As much as I dislike you, with your holier than thou attitude and pious ways, no one deserves that sort of fate. I'd have rather died back in that parking lot than go through it a second time.

(...)

What? Why are you looking at me like that? No, forget it, I don't care. It's not like it'll matter in the end. What I did can't ever be taken back, magical artifacts or no.

0o0o0o0o0o0

I remember having a love for dramatic entrances, mainly from my time spent watching anime and the like, so I felt it appropriate to make as big of a splash as I could for our first and, I hoped, final meeting. My mist-like body settled over the roof of what I could only assume was the throne room, able to sense your presence like the heat of the sun above. I took physical form once again, my face splitting into a wide grin as my anticipation peaked. I wasted no more time, my body lighting up with magical power as dark energy sparked around my horn. I turned myself into a equine missile, smashing through the castle's roof and down into the throne room below, the screams of panic music to my ears amidst the debris and clouds of dust thrown up by the impact.

I relished the fear I sensed from the ponies around me, the pain of the injured and the reek of blood from those that I had crushed beneath the rubble. The look on your face as the dust cleared, however, was what made the whole ordeal of waiting for a thousand years completely worth it, or so I believed. The utter confusion, the horrified way your eyes widened as you took in the damage I caused, it only served to make me feel even more alive. Looking back on it now, though, all I feel is sick.

"Luna, what have you done?!?" I heard you cry, tone emphasizing how you couldn't believe what just happened. But as you took in my appearance you must have realized something was wrong beyond what I did. "Wait...no, you're not her." The odd relief I sensed from you only served to turn my stomach.

"I hate to burst your bubble, Highness," I began tauntingly, "but your precious Luna is here, too! And the look on your face...she's relishing it." I ran my tongue over my teeth, chuckling maliciously. "You're just as soft looking as I imagined you to be. What were you even doing these last thousand years, Celly? Too busy basking in your hard won victory over your little sister to keep yourself in shape?"

"I demand to know who you are." You flat out ignored my taunts, rising from your throne and glaring at me as if you were trying to set me on fire with your eyes alone. "Even in her corrupted state, Nightmare Moon would never have done something so callously cruel!"

"Oh, so we're back to calling her Nightmare Moon, eh? Fine with me, Celestia, but we both know who she really is." I smirked as your eyes narrowed. "As for my name? It used to be David, not that it matters these days, but you can call me Artemis!" I noticed a slight widening of your eyes then but at the time I didn't exactly care about it. Now, though, I'm a little curious as to why the name Nightmare Moon gave me surprised you so much. "I've had enough chatter, Princess, so let's cut to the chase." I began gathering magical power in my horn. "I'm here to kill you. I hope that's okay~"

"Silence, creature!" My gaze was drawn away from you by the presence of your royal guards, who decided it was a great idea to rush an alicorn for some strange reason. "You are under-"

"Shut up," I snapped, the power I had gathered lashing out at the golden armored stallions, bolts of black lightning and rays of purple light striking them down mid gallop. "You're interrupting my big moment with the princess."

"ENOUGH!!!" I had no idea what the Royal Canterlot Voice was, or even that it existed, until that moment, but your voice propelling me at Mach 12 into, and through, the throne room's doors certainly introduced me to it in a big way. I hardly registered the impact with the reinforced wood, my entire body feeling like one big mass of jello when I finally came to a stop. My ears wouldn't stop ringing, making it impossible to hear anything, and my vision kept going in and out of focus. Funny, I don't remember Nightmare Moon ever mentioning that you were capable of producing a Thu'um, and yet I now know what it's like to be on the wrong end of a Fus-Ro-Dah.

(...)

You know what? I give up. Clearly using referential humor on someone who has no idea where or what it comes from is a bad idea.

(...)

Yes, yes, I was laying there on the castle steps, trying to get my body to stop quivering and start functioning properly once more, when my surroundings drastically shifted due to someone casting a teleportation spell. When I could see again we were in the middle of what could only be described as a wasteland of sand and rock, with no sign of any life to be seen for miles. I suppose you wanted to keep any more damage to a minimum, not that I can blame you really. If we had fought inside Canterlot, well, it wouldn't have been pretty.

Get up, Artemis! Nightmare urged me, my hearing still nonexistent at that point. She will not wait for you to recover, now get up! I forced myself to my hooves, growling in a fair bit of pain as my body protested the recent abuse you leveled upon it. Still, I was up, adrenaline pulsing through me as I locked eyes with you, meeting your steely gaze with a manic glare.

"I'm giving you one chance to release my sister and surrender yourself, demon," you told me, your voice hard and cold, reminding me of the lunar surface in a way. "Otherwise I will have to remove you by force and I promise you that the process will not be a pleasant one." I couldn't help myself, laughter bubbling up from inside me at your words. "And what, pray tell, is so funny?"

"You don't get it, do you?" I shook my head, my grin showing how amused I was by your assumptions. "You think I'm some kind of parasite, some malignant tumor that you can just cut out and everything will be all better?" I chuckled, finding your belief regarding your sister's role in it all simply hilarious. "Your sister made me what I am, Celestia, not the other way around."

"Your lies won't save you from me, creature," you ground out, my words having clearly touched a nerve. "Now, for the last time, surrender!"

"Death first!" I shouted back, letting loose with a quick blast to grab your attention, leaping into the air as you erected a small shield to deflect it. You predicted it was just a distraction, however, your attention never leaving me as I dove down on you, a midnight black sword manifesting itself in the grasp of my magic. I watched as your shield solidified and took the shape of a golden halberd, sparks flying when the magical constructs clashed. Our weapons moved faster than any normal person could hope to keep track of, the only sign that they were there the sparking energy of their clashes, which were coming faster and faster with each passing second. Neither of us moved, unflinching as we matched one another strike for strike. Had I gone into that fight without Nightmare's training I would have lost in an instant, but I suppose I ought to be thankful she took the time to teach me what she knew.

"You've clearly learned a lot from your possession," I heard you taunt me, your expression like a chiseled mask of stone as you stared at me from only a foot away now. "You fight just like her, but sadly for you," I felt my blade become locked in the beard of your halberd's blade, "I'm the one that taught her!" The blade shattered as you gave the halberd a twist, the butt of the haft striking me between the eyes and causing me to stagger backwards. "You will never defeat me through mere imitation, demon!" The haft struck me across my forelegs, knocking them out from under me. "Yield!" The flat of the blade slapped across my muzzle, sending me tumbling away to lay sprawled across the cracked, dry ground of wherever you had taken us. I have to say, you can certainly lay down quite the beating when you're in the mood to, but it wasn't enough.

"You're holding back," I grunted out once my jaw clicked back into place. "Do you still honestly believe your precious Luna can be saved?"

"With all my heart." Your reply drew a growl from my throat. "I will hurt you if I have to. Please, just surrender and I promise that-"

"Shut up!" I snarled as I stood, glaring at you balefully as dark clouds of energy swirled around me, purple smoke curling up from the corners of my eyes as the whites of my eyes shown with emerald green light. "You want to save her?! She's a monster! A heartless, backstabbing bitch who doesn't care who she hurts!" I grinned, my expression downright feral I'm sure. "And now, well, so am I!" A dozen obsidian blades formed in a cluster before me. "I'm going to kill you, Celestia!" I launched them at you, one after another, though you deflected every single one. "I'm going to mount your pretty little head on my wall for everyone to see!" The energy that swirled around me converged into a tight, pulsing ball, the air sizzling from all that power focused down into something the size of a marble. "And I'm going to enjoy every second of making you pay for what you've done to me!"

I couldn't gauge your reaction very well and I still can't to tell you the truth. You've got the whole stoic, passionless wall thing down to a science. But I think something flickered through your eyes then, if only for a second. I was probably just imagining it, though. I didn't waste another second on my little rant, launching that marble sized ball of hate, pain and rage at you at Mach 10. The air rippled and the sound barrier was shattered in less than a second, that little marble striking the shield you raised at over three thousand meters a second. The noise was indescribable, my ears ringing as the screech of it threatened to render me deaf. But I could see your shield starting to crack, the thrill of elation rising in my chest as I noticed your composure starting to slip. You erected a second barrier just behind the first, just moments before it shattered.

"What's the matter, Celestia?" I shouted over the din of conflicting energies. "You're not still holding back, are you?" I formed a second marble sized sphere of energy, my grin returning to my face as it hovered before me. "You might want to try a little harder, otherwise this is going to get boring real fucking fast!" I launched it the moment I finished speaking, the second blast striking the back of the first, causing them both to explode in a spectacular conflagration that I don't have the words to describe. It was strangely beautiful, looking back, but I'm really, really glad you got us out of Canterlot when you did. This would have destroyed it, down to its very foundations. The barren wasteland had certainly gained one hell of a crater, the rock glowing cherry red with the lingering heat of the blast. I looked for any sign of your presence, not believing that I'd beaten you so easily. "I know you're not dead, Celestia! Quit hiding and fight!"

"If you insist." That was my only warning, the sound of your voice behind me causing my head to turn, just as a golden beam of light struck me dead on. It was like you had taken the sun, turned it into a cannon and shot it at me, the heat of it enough to sear the flesh from my bones. Lucky me, I was kind of durable as an alicorn, otherwise I'd have been dust, something you were surely counting on when you attacked. Still, it hurt like a bastard, let me tell you. I managed to get my hooves under me, stopping my little tumbling jaunt across the rocky terrain, though your beam didn't let up. Gathering my magic, I coated my hoof guards in it and pushed back, grunting and straining against the force of it, blinding me in its intensity. "Isn't this what you wanted, Artemis? It's not too much for you, is it?"

"It's a start!" I growled, my horn flaring with energy as I shoved against your beam, my hooves feeling scorched even through my armor and shield, the smell of burnt hair tickling my nostrils. "But is this really all you've got?!"

"No." That one word told me how much of a mistake goading you was, the force behind the beam increasing ten fold, my startled gasp swallowed by the roar of burning, searing light that I was barely managing to hold back. The ground was giving way beneath my hind hooves, the fear of death turning to rage, which in turn became power, giving me just enough of a boost to turn your attack aside. There wasn't anything living out there in the wastes, right? I mean, I assume there wasn't, given that you chose it as our battleground, but I just wanted to be sure.

(...)

Oh, good, because I'm pretty sure you glassed over half the landscape with that particular attack. I have to admit, you certainly impressed me, even then. Still, I wasn't about to quit, not after everything I'd had to endure those thousand years I spent under Nightmare's hooves.

I would not recommend taking one of those head on like that again. Nightmare's advice had me rolling my eyes, as if I hadn't already figured that out for myself. I warned you that she would not be defeated so easily, but did you listen? Of course not.

"Christ, shut up, I'm trying to-eep!" I ducked under a second blast, though this one wasn't nearly as intense as the last. "Quit with the commentary before you get us killed, you idiot!" Luckily she chose not to comment further, as you landed a good dozen feet away, looking a little ruffled but not all that hurt. Granted, given how fast we heal, I'm not at all surprised that the only thing I had to show for my opening attacks was a few out of place feathers and some soot staining your coat. Hell, even I was likely only slightly singed after that little beam number, but I know it did more than burn a few hairs when it first hit me. "Had enough?"

"What are you playing at?" The question threw me off, my head tilting to the side curiously. "Is this some sort of twisted game to you?"

"Oh, please, Princess," I scoffed, dusting myself off a bit with a flutter of my wings. "If this was a game I'd be having fun." I smirked. "Or killing you. Now that sounds like a good time~"

"Be serious!" You snapped, my attitude clearly not to your liking. "You've killed my subjects, destroyed a portion of my home and now you're talking to yourself like a complete madpony! This has to stop!"

"Stop?" I shook my head, my smirk falling away as my expression became serious for the first time since we'd met. "No, Celestia, this has only just begun." I let out a derisive snort. "And you're still holding back on me." I bared my teeth, not happy about that fact. "What is it going to take to get you to go all out? Do I have to threaten your precious little ponies?" The way you stiffened brought my grin back to my face once again. "Yes, that's your button, isn't it? Well then, I guess I'll have to go play with them instead." I turned and shot off into the air like a rocket, only to have to stop when you cut me off, legs spread out in a halting gesture.

"Leave them out of this!" Your plea only made me laugh. "Monster!"

"I am what your precious Luna made me," I hissed in response, darting around you and flying in a random direction. I didn't know where we were, after all. "Catch me if you can~!"

"Stop it!" You gave chase shortly after, the two of us racing across the sky, this way and that, my laughter echoing across the wastes as the thrill of the chase got through to me. "This is not a game, you foal!"

"But I love games!" I jeered, glowing a raspberry at you childishly over one shoulder. "Where should I start? Oh, maybe that little town I came across after leaving the Everfree!" Your eyes widened, causing me to chuckle. "Yes, I think that will make a good first-"

"NO!" You were just suddenly in front of me, something in my neck cracking as one of your hooves struck my cheek. I spiraled down to the ground, kicking up a large amount of dirt on impact, my body numb from the neck down as I wheezed for air. I'm pretty sure you broke my neck, now that I think about it. I hardly noticed as you landed next to me, your words lost as I focused on fixing whatever it was you damaged, a groan escaping me as things that shouldn't move shifted back into place. "-please, please, Luna, wake up!" I caught the last bit as my focus returned, the damage you inflicted in your desperation having clearly freaked you out.

(...)

Yes, I understand that, but you have to know it'd take more than that to kill one of us, right?

(...)

Right, emotion over reason and all that. I let out a raspy laugh as I pushed myself back to my hooves, causing you to stagger back in shock. I met your gaze, saw the tears, and laughed harder than ever. I don't think you took it very well.

"How dare you!" You took a swing at me, my right leg swinging up to counter the strike, stopping it cold. I grinned at your furious expression, pleased by what I saw.

"Now that's more like it~"

0o0o0o0o0o0

Our battle reshaped the wasteland into a scarred, crater pocked mess, my glee at throwing your fight switch to ON having quickly dimmed as I was forced to meet you blow for blow. I can see why you just outright banished Nightmare Moon instead of trying to fight her. Who knows what sort of damage the two of you would have inflicted before all was said and done. Most of the day had fled by the time we were even close to being finished, both of us worn out by the experience. I had used every trick Nightmare had taught me and you'd risen to the challenge every single time. I understood how Equestria had stood uncontested for a thousand years with you at the helm. I'd lost my helmet at some point, one eye squeezed shut as blood flowed freely from a cut on my brow, my magic too exhausted to waste on healing it.

"What's the matter, Artemis?" You asked, looking just as bad as I felt, your once pristine white coat matted with blood, dirt and sweat. "Isn't this everything you hoped for?"

"Shut up," I muttered, my witty banter running on empty after slugging it out with you for hours on end.

"Do you see how pointless this is now?" You continued regardless, causing me to grind my teeth. "Violence can only breed more violence. Please, let's just end this before-"

"I said SHUT UP!" I charged at you, head lowered and horn aimed for your chest. My magic might have run dry, but I could still stab you to death if it came down to it. You managed to dodge my clumsy rush, though I think I clipped your leg. "I've had enough of your self-righteous blabbering!" I swung my head up, slashing at you with my horn like it was a sword. Pain lanced through my head as your horn clashed against mine, our faces inches away from one another as I let out a snarl. "I won't rest until I've ended your miserable life, you wretched whore!" You said nothing, having finally figured out that talking me down wasn't going to happen, even with how tired I was. We struggled, both of us trying to overpower the other, the only sound to be heard the labored panting of our breathing.

I played dirty, stomping on your hoof, causing you to rear back with a pained cry. I tackled you to the ground, hooves on your neck, though strangling someone without hands is kinda awkward at the best of times. Slick with blood and sweat as we were, I was left scrabbling at your coat, trying to keep you pinned even as you kicked at my belly with your hind hooves. I resorted to striking your face and neck with my own hooves, my desperation to win coming into play as I furiously battered away at you. Blood stained my hoof guards and your struggles grew weaker. Eventually I was left staring down at you, hoof raised, hesitating as I listened to you struggling to breathe. Why? Why did I hesitate? I had you right where I wanted you, broken and bloody under my hooves, and yet I couldn't finish you off.

What are you waiting for? Nightmare finally came back into the picture, egging me on. Finish her, my prince! You will not get a second chance! And yet I still couldn't do it. FINISH HER!!!

"...no." I lowered my hoof, stumbling back as images of what transpired in the dark of the moon flashed through my mind. "No, she doesn't get off that easily."

Are you insane?!? I didn't pay any attention at first, slowly walking away and trying to get some of my strength back. Why are you showing her mercy? She trapped the both of us on that damnable rock for a thousand years! You cannot have forgotten that fact!

"No, I didn't forget," I replied tiredly, glancing back at you as I scooped my helmet off of the ground where it had fallen. "But killing her would be quick. I don't want this to be quick." I slid the helmet back on, wincing as it pressed against the cut on my brow. "She'll learn what it's like to suffer, like we did, first." I turned my head back to look again, only you weren't there anymore. "What? How did...where did...that's not possible!"

You contemptible, imbecilic foal! Nightmare cursed me, causing me to wince as it only served to make my headache worse. Did you really think she would not have some form of fail-safe in place to whisk her away to safety? My sister is a crafty mare and clearly her wit has not dulled with age!

"Okay, okay, I fucked up," I admitted, feeling too tired and sore to argue with her about it. "But it's not like she can do anything to capitalize on her escape. She's worse off than I am right now, after all."

And yet again you underestimate her! I grit my teeth but held my tongue, knowing there was no point in getting into a shouting match. So, what now, oh wise prince? Even a foal could defeat you in such a weakened state.

"We recharge our batteries," I replied smoothly, raising a hoof to touch my peytral, a spark of energy twirling around my hoof at the contact. "She's not the only one who can set up a last second get away plan, after all." I'd tied a teleportation spell connected to the castle in the Everfree to the piece of armor in question, just in case. A smile crept onto my face as the sun started to set. "I think it's time we paid Ponyville a little visit~"

Author's Notes:

And it's finally here! Praise be to Fausticorn, the wise and magnificent! Good Christ, this took forever for me to finish. Honestly, I don't know what it is, but it can be a real challenge to put fingers to keyboard some days. At any rate, here it is, Artemis' arrival in Equestria and his showdown with Celestia! I hope you enjoyed it and please, as always, let me know what you think in the comments below. Have a nice day

Chapter 5: Defiant To The End

The fail-safe spell returned me to your old throne room, though in my weakened state I was left a little disoriented in the process. To be perfectly honest I didn't have a plan, only a vague idea of how I was going to proceed. Unfortunately I wasn't about to let that stop me, so I marched my way downstairs, trying to formulate a strategy for when we would eventually fight again.

So, how do you intend to "recharge our batteries"? Nightmare asked, causing me to roll my eyes. I was becoming increasingly exasperated with the mare, her attitude towards me having degraded steadily for years before we escaped the moon. Because there is no way in Tartarus you could handle a mayfly right now, let alone a grown pony. I imagine she was having her own problems, given how powerless she was, and venting at me over my failings was likely her only outlet for the frustration it must have caused her.

(...)

You seem to be forgetting that I wasn't always a power crazed lunatic. Of course I can be reasonable, otherwise I'd have never made it in that dreadful little cubicle farm I worked in for five years.

(...)

I'm not explaining what a cubicle is for fear of somehow unleashing the dreadful reality of them upon your innocent, naive little ponies.

(...)

You spend a thousand years with a wannabe despot and see how snarky it makes you. Anyway, Nightmare was in a mood to pick at me and I was too tired to have one of our usual verbal spars. So, I did what came naturally.

"If you keep at me like this, I'm gonna knock myself senseless and wait for Celestia's troops to come pick me up," I growled, not wanting to deal with her attitude when I was having trouble with just walking down a simple flight of stairs.

Oh, yes, I'm sure that would work out very well for the both of us, my sweet, idiotic prince. I let out a huff, spotting some sort of raised dais when the stairway opened up into some sort of antechamber and decided to put it to use. Wait, what are you-?

"Shut!" I slammed my armored brow against the edge of the dais, just beneath the base of my horn, feeling like someone had taken a hammer to my brain as a result. "Up!" And I did it again, causing me to stagger and drop onto my plot, the world spinning in and out of focus as a shrill ringing echoed in my ears.

(...)

I'm sorry, but did you forget that I was BLOODY FUCKING CERTIFIABLE?!? Of course it was stupid, but I didn't care! I'd dealt with her voice for a thousand years and I wanted her to shut the fuck up for once! You can't understand what it was like, never having a single, solitary moment to myself, always having to check my thoughts for fear of letting her know every little waking detail that passed through my mind! I'M GLAD I FUCKING LOST TO SIX LITTLE GIRLS BECAUSE NOW I'M FINALLY ALONE IN MY OWN GODDAMN HEAD AGAIN!!!

(...)

I'm just fine, thank you for asking, Your Worship! My life couldn't be any goddamn better if I fucking tried! Definitely no problems here when I'm locked in irons and being interrogated by a judgemental demigod that could either send me back to the moon for another thousand years or just incinerate me on the spot if she fucking wanted to! Why are we even talking about this still? You were either there or had your precious little student to fill in the blanks, so WHY AM I STILL HERE?!?

(...)

Posterity? POSTERITY?!?

0o0o0o0o0o0

I can't take it, I can't take it!

"You can take your precious posterity and shove it right up your stupid fucking plot!" I rail at her, teeth gnashing as I tug at my bindings, the guards flanking Celestia tensing at my outburst. "Sentence me, or whatever it is you're going to do, but just get it over with already!" Yet she stares at me, silently, her expression unreadable as if it was carved from solid marble. And how I hate it. I try to lunge but her magic holds me fast, leaving me helpless. "Just finish me off, damn it! You've won, so just fucking FINISH IT!"

"No." This one word, so innocuous and simple, breaks me. I grind my teeth and squeeze my eyes shut, yet the tears come anyway. I'm so tired. The fight with her, the aftermath, my defeat, it's all just left me so exhausted. Why won't she end it? So I cry; I cry until the tears stop flowing and I'm a snotty, red eyed mess. She's silent again, but a handkerchief dries my cheeks, wipes my nose and is promptly incinerated. "Are you up to continuing now or do you need some more time to rest?" Why? Why does she want me to tell it? I don't understand and so I slump, defeated again, this time by her composure, submitting to her reluctantly.

"I'll be fine." Liar. "Let's just get it over with."

0o0o0o0o0o0

Right, so I just got done braining myself pretty hard. I couldn't even hear Nightmare, though I'm sure she was taking this opportunity to point out what sort of moron I was for trying to dash my own grey matter out on a hard piece of rock. I admit, not my finest moment, but it bought me at least a few moments of silence. The headache, though? I definitely could have done without it, but that was my own stupid fault I guess. Alicorn recovery speed being what it is, though, my head began to clear up and I was left staring at the thing I'd just tried to lobotomize myself with via blunt force trauma. On top of the dais sat a pedestal, crowned by a large, cracked stone sphere draped in vines and moss, with five arms sprouting outwards in different directions, each bearing a much smaller orb than the one that served as the sculpture's centerpiece.

"What the hell is this?" I asked once I was capable of forming words again. "Looks like a tacky piece of modern art, except, you know, ancient." Dead silence. "Great, we're back to the silent treatment." I let out a snort. "Who knew that a being over a thousand years old could be so petty and childish."

I'm petty? I'm childish? You just tried to brain yourself in an attempt to silence me! I smiled, the incredulity and frustration in her voice music to my ears. You are the most imbecilic, brainless, gormless, feckless, useless ape I have ever had the misfortune of encountering in my entire existence!

"I love you, too, Nightmare," I teased her, to which she gave an inarticulate scream that caused me to chuckle evilly.

(...)

I was crazy. Crazy people don't make sense. We covered that already when I told you that I tried to bash my own brains out. After a good solid minute of cussing me out, Nightmare Moon finally ran out of steam, though she was definitely not happy with me at all. Me? I had the biggest shit eating grin on my face, pleased to have gotten under her skin for once. "So, what is this thing?"

It looks like the pedestal that once housed the Elements. Nightmare's answer was reluctant, the mare clearly still rather upset with me over my antics. However, I sense very little of their presence within this place.

"So she moved them then?" I asked, looking over the spheres more closely, thinking that a perfectly reasonable course to take. Except you didn't, as I was about to learn.

No, I do not believe she did. This caused me to arch a brow in query, though I knew she couldn't exactly see it. Touch your horn to one of the spheres. I wish to test something.

"This had better not blow up in my face," I muttered but complied, the tip of my horn coming to rest lightly on one of them as she'd requested. At first I didn't notice anything and began to feel rather foolish as a result, yet something changed after a few moments. I began to feel a hint of warmth from it, a sliver of some ancient power that stood my hair on end and caused a frown to form on my face. "No way. Did she really...?"

Leave the Elements of Harmony sitting out to collect dust? Nightmare sounded just as disbelieving as I felt. Yes, yes she did.

"Why?" I asked, my mind boggling at the idea of such a weapon being left out for just anyone to take at their leisure. Of course I wasn't yet aware of how they functioned or how dangerous a place the Everfree Forest is to the average pony, but we'll get back to that later.

Because they are functionally useless. I tilted my head, wondering what she meant. The sixth Element is not present. Without it, the other five are all but powerless. She hesitated briefly. At least that is the only reason I can conceive of as to why Celestia would simply abandon them like this.

"Well, it doesn't really matter," I announced, knocking the spheres from their perches, one by one. "There's no way in hell I'm getting sent back to the moon." I pressed down on the first with my hoof, increasing the pressure until the stone cracked apart, then ground the pieces into powder before scattering them to the wind. "And without these there is no possibility of that happening ever again." I did the same with the others, satisfied that the threat they represented to me was well and truly dealt with. "Now, on to Pony-" And I froze, staring out the window at the moonlit forest that surrounded the old castle. But that was the problem. "Nightmare, please tell me I'm hallucinating."

Fortunately you are not succumbing to another of your "episodes", my prince. I let out a string of incomprehensible grumbling at her tone but didn't interrupt. It seems somepony has taken up the task of moving the sun and moon in my sister's stead.

"Are you sure it isn't her?" I asked, half expecting you to show up somehow fully recovered at any moment.

You may relax, Artemis. My paranoia amused her apparently. There is no means that Celestia would be willing to use to recover from your battle with her in such short order. Well, that was a relief, let me tell ya. No, she likely has a team of unicorns on standby for just such an occasion. They moved the sun and moon in ages past, so they could be instructed in how to do so again. I swear I could hear her frown for the next part. However that would place a great deal of power in the common pony's hooves. Power they might use to try and leverage control away from her, should they be so ambitious as to challenge her right to the crown.

"So she teaches it to a bunch of ponies she trusts, right?" I dismissed it easily, not really caring after all. "Not that it matters. Her government is the first thing to go once I have her head on a pike."

A classic image. Quite. But let us not celebrate too soon. You did, after all, let her get away during your last battle with her, so-

"So I'll just cut her head off next time and be done with it!" I interrupted her snappishly. "She could have an army marching on the forest as we speak, so let's just get a move on already!" And I took to the sky, wings flapping hard to get to Ponyville before you launched whatever counterattack you might have had planned. Had I known your actual plan, though, I imagine I would have laughed myself sick over what you considered to be a sound strategy. One wonders as to the state of your mind, Celly. One truly does.

0o0o0o0o0o0

When I arrived at Ponyville I found the planned festivities to be in full swing, with no sign that anyone had any idea as to what transpired earlier that day. The celebration was centered around a large tree, with ponies making quite the ruckus, at least as far as it looked from where I sat perched on a handy bit of cloud I'd found on the way. I took a look at the surrounding countryside while I was up there, unable to see any sign of an army of any sort, nor could I detect any hidden with the magic I could spare to do a quick sweep of the area. It was frankly puzzling and, admittedly, a little concerning.

"Why hasn't she moved out yet?" I whispered, glaring downwards in my confusion. "She knows how dangerous I am, doesn't she? I could flatten this place easily, magic or no magic." So why, I wondered? Why would you not have at least evacuated the area? It's not like you wouldn't have had the time, after all. "I don't understand."

My sister's machinations are mystifying at even the best of times, I fear. Nightmare Moon was equally as puzzled it seemed. So then, where would you like to start? I wasn't really sure. I looked down on the ponies as they made merry, all blissfully unaware that their death loomed so close, and felt a kernel of envy grow inside my chest. You seemed to despise that talkative marshmallow earlier. Why not find her and have some fun?

"Good question," I muttered in response, again finding myself hesitating. Part of me wanted to just leap down on them and start ripping the entire lot to bloody shreds, while another part felt queasy at the thought of stamping out so many defenseless lives. But then I realized that I didn't have to kill them in order to slake my thirst. Besides, I told myself, simply killing them would be too quick. "This celebration was supposed to be visited by Celestia, wasn't it?"

So that frivolous unicorn said. Even the mere mention of you seemed to stir Nightmare's ire. Why? Do you have something in mind? I grinned like a hungry shark and told her my idea. Oh, yes, that will be perfect! I cannot wait to see the looks on their precious little sun loving faces!

"Neither can I~"

0o0o0o0o0o0

"Are you sure this will work?" I whispered, lurking in the rafters of the town hall some time later as ponies filtered in slowly below me. "Do we have enough magic for it?"

Trust me, I know how to work with my moon. I kind of had to take her word for it, since I don't know the first thing about how the magic behind it works. Just do exactly as I say and it will be no trouble at all.

"If you're sure," I murmured, though I held a few doubts. "It'd better be worth the effort."

Believe me, they will simply lose their heads when the moon fails to set. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, feeling strangely nervous. Do not tell me that appearing before a crowd frightens you? You faced down the full wrath of my sister earlier and this will be nothing compared to that!

"It'll be my first time speaking to so many people in over a thousand years!" I hissed, cheeks flushing with warmth out of embarrassment. "I'd like to see you put on a performance after so long, Moony!"

Do not be such a colt, Artemis. I let out a quiet snort. And if I could then it would be simply foal's play. Speaking to the masses is a required skill when you are royalty, so it is only natural that I would take to it again with absolutely no trouble at all.

"Yeah, yeah, shut up," I grumbled, her bragging getting on my nerves, even if it was over something so irrelevant. "The show's about to start." An earth pony mare stood at a podium, speaking to the crowd, several of which I recognized from my little jaunt through the market. She went on about how she was so honored that Ponyville was hosting the celebration this year, blah blah blah, I didn't really start paying much attention until she started your introduction. Wait, now that I think about it, how did they not know you weren't going to show?

(...)

You normally teleport in? What a showoff.

(,,,)

Wait, how do you get the timing-no, never mind. I really, really don't care.

(...)

Because shut up. Now, like I was saying, I only started paying real attention when she started your introduction, leaning over the beam I was perched on in anticipation of the curtain being drawn. Of course when it was you didn't show, causing an awkward silence to fill the room when you failed to appear. The marshmallow unicorn with the purple mane from earlier checked back stage but naturally she didn't find you, announcing that you were simply gone. Oh, yes, the beginnings of fear stirred in them then, the crowd murmuring to each other and just when the earth pony told them all not to panic is when I made my move.

My laughter started low at first, a rumbling that filled the hall and quieted the ponies as their fear spiked. It then echoed loudly as thunder crashed and lightning flashed in the swirling vortex I became, the entire display all flash and no substance of course. I didn't have the magic to waste on real lightning, not at that point at least. Slowly the vortex funneled down to the stage, my form coalescing out of the starry mass, causing the crowd to gasp in shock. I grinned, though the expression was more a baring of teeth, letting them see my sharp fangs, my laughter ringing out anew as they trembled before me, feeding my power with their burgeoning terror. Then someone had to spoil the mood by opening their know it all mouth.

"This isn't right!" A young mare called out, my grin turning into a rather displeased frown as I searched the crowd for whoever had dared to speak. "You're not supposed to be a stallion!" I spotted her, a unicorn with a lavender coat and a striped mane, looking displeased by my gender, of all things. "The prophecy was specific, telling of the coming of the Mare in the Moon, Nightmare Moon, not some stallion!" She opened her mouth to continue, only to freeze up as I glared at her with all the fury at my disposal, causing her to shrink back with ears drooping and eyes wide. "I-I mean-"

"Be quiet." I didn't shout, my tone completely reasonable, which only served to make them even more afraid. "Prophecy? Mare in the Moon? Well, I guess your precious soothsayers were wrong." I stepped toward the crowd, the lot of them stepping back in response. "As for who I actually am-"

"Oh, oh, I love guessing games!" My jaw clicked shut and I ground my teeth, the pink pony who had run off shouting about party supplies having interrupted me that time. "How about...hokey smokes? Oh, maybe King-mnf!" A mare wearing a stetson had the sense to gag the pink thing with a handy cupcake, otherwise I don't know what I would have done to silence her.

"As I was saying," I continued, trying not to let the interruptions bother me too much. "I am Artemis and I am afraid your precious Celestia will be unable to make an appearance as she is currently...indisposed."

"What did you do to our princess?!" A cyan coated, rainbow maned pegasus demanded, even making an attempt to blitz me, only for the same stetson wearing earth pony to snag her tail between her teeth with a muffled "whoa, Nelly".

"I proved that I am the superior alicorn, of course," I boasted, remembering our battle fondly. "I will admit, your princess was strong, but in the end she proved to be no match against me."

"Liar!" The pegasus shouted, to which I laughed cruelly.

"You will have all the proof you need when the sun fails to rise," I told them, their fear returning once again at my ominous words. "I hope you made the most of this day, little ponies, for it will be your last. From now on the night shall last forever!" I played up the thunder, adding another laugh for good measure as the ponies screamed in terror.

"Stop him!" The mare who had made the speech before the unveiling ordered the nearby guards. "He has to know where the princess is!" She was probably right, of course. You were likely busy licking your wounds in Canterlot during all the fun I was having tormenting your darling little ponies.

"Get away from me, you worthless insects!" I snarled, striking them down with what looked like lightning but was mostly a burst of concussive force. I decided a quick exit was in order, wanting to feed on their panic from a comfortable vantage point without having to deal with any more idiots. So, taking the form of a cloud of stars, I seemingly disappeared into the night. Of course I didn't go far, but watching them conduct a search for me was certainly amusing in its own right. I was once again perched high above them, resting on the cloud I had positioned above the town earlier, just taking it all in. The guards eventually expanded their search, but what caught my eye was the lavender unicorn who had called my gender into question came running out of the town hall, looking determined and focused as she ran for the tree that the party had been centered around before. Not long after she was followed by the pink party pony, the marshmallow unicorn, the stetson wearing one, a butter yellow pegasus and the loud, angry cyan pegasus with the Roy G. Biv mane.

I had to admit, I was curious, so I took on the form of a starry cloud and went down to see if I could listen in. The tree, it turned out, was a library and I was able to spy on them from one of the second story windows with ease. The six of them were talking about me, which was flattering, but they seemed to be of the mind that they stood a chance of stopping me. Of course their plan was to find the Elements, which would have caused me to laugh if I'd had a mouth. Still, I figured I would save them the trip and cut their little nightly jaunt short at the edge of the Everfree's only path. My appearance was met with several gasps, my smile cold as I looked them all over more closely. The unicorn leading them, the lavender know it all, was one of the first to recover, eying me as if I were a puzzle she could figure out the solution to.

Next was the cyan loudmouth, who was glaring at me angrily, though I could detect the undercurrent of fear she was trying to mask. At least she wasn't a complete idiot. I noted her more athletic build when compared to most of the others, some kind of sports enthusiast I imagined. Third was the pink earth pony with the poofy mane and tail. Still not sure what to make of that one, to be honest, with her happy go lucky grin and perky disposition, like she was living in her own little world compared to the rest of us. The stetson wearing orange coated earth pony was the fourth I observed, her expression determined and the only other pony who seemed to be athletically inclined. Given her hat and oddly Southern accent, I pegged her for some sort of farmer or cowgirl. Fifth was, of course, the hoity toity Rarity, who was looking me over like someone was holding a turd under her nose. Finally the butter yellow pegasus, who was half hiding behind the cyan one. She looked ready to faint the moment I locked eyes with her.

"You all must have some sort of death wish," I drawled casually, starting to slowly circle the small group, like a predator would its prey. "Did you really believe I would just let you find the one thing that could threaten my reign?" I let out a derisive snort. "Don't make me laugh." I came to a stop in front of them once again. "Do yourselves a favor and just go home. You'll find nothing at the castle but your own deaths."

"Oh yeah?" The cyan one, Rainbow something I think is what one of the others called her. "Well I think you're just scared!" I raised one brow at her claim, not at all impressed. "If we didn't pose any threat to you, why would you be out here trying to get us to quit?"

"Because I'm trying to save your lives," I replied bluntly, the stetson wearing one staring at me in surprise. "Not only is this a dangerous forest, and you lot are clearly no soldiers, but I don't feel like wasting my time with a bunch of children trying to play at being heroes."

"That's super nice of you and all, but we were kind of hoping to go anyway," Pinkie, yes, that was her name, spoke up next. "We'll just borrow the Elements for a bit and make everything all better, so please, please, please let us pass?" I narrowed my eyes at her pleading expression, again wondering what was going on in that bubbly brain of hers. I'm not sure I actually want to know, now that I think about it.

"Besides, darling, how is Equestria supposed to function when it's always night?" Rarity decided to add, the mare flinching as she drew my gaze. "I-I mean, crops would wilt, ponies would freeze and you'd end up ruling a land of ice."

"She's right," the stetson wearing one piped up, the fear in her gaze tempered with a steely resolve that I found surprising, to say the least. "If we don't starve first we'll just end up freezin' ta death instead!"

"I'm not an idiot," I told them, rolling my eyes at their protests. "I've been assured the light the moon reflects can be altered and amplified, so you won't have to worry about any of that."

"Assured by who?" The lavender one spoke at last, analyzing me just as much as I was her. "Your presence here still doesn't make any sense to me, either, but errors in translation from Old Equestrian to the modern dialect could explain-" The stetson mare nudged Twilight pointedly. "A-anyway, your odd choice of words aside, I think you're bluffing."

"Oh really?" Curiosity piqued, I had to hear the reasoning behind her claim. "And how did you come to that conclusion, little Twilight?"

"I might not be an alicorn, but I'm no slouch when it comes to magic myself," she began, her gaze traveling up to my horn as she spoke. "That little show you put on in the town hall was just that: a show and nothing more. Those guards weren't even injured by that 'lightning' you conjured either." I cursed her silently, having not expected her to see through me so easily. "I think you really did fight with Princess Celestia, but it took most of your power to do so, didn't it?" I said nothing, but she was on a roll and wasn't about to stop. "And now you're trying to scare us off because you don't have the magic to waste in case she comes back." I began grinding my teeth. "So, am I wrong?"

"Fine," I hissed, wishing I could spare a bit of magic to wipe that confident smirk off of her face. "Go to the castle. Risk your lives for nothing. See if I care." I took off, Rainbow shouting insults at my back. Damn them, I thought, why couldn't they just go home?

Relax, my prince. Nightmare's tone was soothing, but it didn't help my mood. Let them waste their time trying to find the Elements. It matters little in the grand scheme of things.

"You're right," I conceded, deciding to head to the castle in order to rest in a place where I wasn't likely to be disturbed. "I'm sick of being nice, so if they die it's their own damn fault."

0o0o0o0o0o0

I sat on Nightmare's old throne, doing some simple breathing exercises and just trying to recover from our battle. I didn't think about the six mares foolishly risking their lives in pursuit of something that was doomed to fail, nor did I focus on the future and what ruling this quaint little land of yours might actually entail. Oh, who am I kidding? Of course I wondered what drove those mares to risk their lives and of course I wondered if ruling Equestria was what I really wanted. But I had come too far, I reasoned, to stop just because of a few misgivings. My course was set and nothing would turn me away from seeing it through. Or so I believed. But as I sat there, in the dark and silent throne room, I felt your presence moments before you flew in through the hole in the roof. I opened my eyes, your form giving off a faint light, and glared at you heatedly.

"What are you even doing here?" I asked, voice tight with barely restrained anger. "If you want to continue our fight-"

"No." You cut me off, much to my displeasure. "I've come to talk."

"About what, exactly?" I found the idea of talking with you about as appealing as having my ears slowly ripped off. "Unless it involves your surrender then we have nothing to discuss."

"I want you to reconsider the course you seem determined to follow," you said, my mouth tightening into a thin line as you continued to speak. "The path you are on can only end in pain. Please, don't-"

"What would you know about pain?" I asked, seething with hate as I stepped down off of the crumbling throne. "I was forced to endure hell because of your mistakes!" Your calm mask cracked, allowing me to see a hint of confusion peaking through the seams. "A thousand years, Celestia! A thousand fucking years of being under the hoof of that callous bitch you call your sister!"

How dare you-

"Shut up!" I snapped, causing you to flinch back slightly. "I've had enough of you manipulating me! This is my show, now, my future, my decisions and you have no goddamn say in any of it!" I imagine I was quite the sight, seemingly yelling at the air and all. Nightmare cursed me but had no power to affect me outside of the construct, so I tuned her out to focus my attention on you once more. "I'll make you pay for forcing me to endure all the pain she put me through, Celestia! Even if it takes me another thousand years I will find a way to make you suffer!"

"Don't do this, Artemis," you pleaded with me softly, your concern for someone who had tried to kill you only making things worse. I wasn't in any mood to listen, though, not to you or anyone else. "There's another way-"

"Be quiet, damn you!" I yelled, only to freeze as I heard something coming from downstairs. Several ponies moving around, my expression one of surprise before shifting to disgust. "I told them to go home!" My body shifted into my favorite mode of travel and I blasted past you, ignoring your cries for me to stop.

"We'll have to search the castle," I heard Twilight say, just moments before I made my appearance. Theatrics forgotten, I merely took shape and stared them all down, murder in my eyes.

"I can't believe how stupid you ponies are," I growled, baring my fangs as I pawed at the moth chewed carpet beneath me with one hoof. "Do you all want to die that badly?" I heard your hooves on the stairs and wasted some magic on collapsing the stairwell to slow your progress. "Fine then, I'll give you the death you clearly wish for so dearly!"

"You don't scare us!" Rainbow shouted, drawing my gaze like a hawk to a darting mouse. She would be first, I thought.

"Besides, Ah know ya'll don't want to kill us!" The stetson pony called me out, freezing me mid step. "Ah consider mahself a good judge of character and Ah sure as heck don't have ya'll pegged as a killer."

"Well guess what?" I cleared the distance between me and the group of mares in an instant, my hoof cracking across the stetson wearing one's jaw with brutal force, knocking her to the floor in a limp heap. "You're wrong this time. I have absolutely no qualms about ridding the world of a few useless idiots like you."

"Applejack!" Rainbow's cry drew my attention once more. "You jerk!" She flew at me head on, no skill, no finesse, just straight up trying to deck me in the face. It was child's play to avoid and even simpler to strike her down just as I had her friend.

"You were right about me not having the magic to spare, Twilight," I began quietly, the other four staring at what I did in horror. "But I'm more than strong enough to beat you all to death!" I rushed them, my first strike halted by a hasty shield that Twilight managed to raise. I'll admit, she's got some serious talent, but I wasn't going to let her stop me. "I told you to go home!" I struck the shield a second time, a crack forming beneath my hoof. "I told you that you'd only find your death here!" A third, the crick widening. "I destroyed the Elements, you idiots!" My forth blow shattered it entirely. "Just like how I'll destroy the lot of you!"

"Artemis!" I growled and turned at the sound of your voice, glaring at you balefully. "It's me you want, so leave them alone!"

"They became involved when they disregarded my warnings!" I countered, gesturing to the mares as they checked on their friends. "Choices have consequences and they need to learn that the hard way!"

"You don't fool me, David!" The use of my old name made me flinch. "You could have easily killed them just now, yet Applejack and Rainbow Dash are both still breathing. You even spared me, the pony you claim to hate the most. Those aren't the actions of a killer."

"Sh-sh-she's right," the meek pegasus confirmed, having been the one to fully check them over. "Th-they're unconscious b-but they're okay!"

"Shut up! You don't know one thing about me!" I yelled, backing away and trying to shut you all out. "I do hate you! I hate you more than anything!"

"I don't believe you do," Rarity countered, of all ponies. "If you did hate her as much as you claim to, then why spare her life? Why simply knock out our friends? After what has transpired tonight, I do not believe you have it in you to do something so brutish as to commit murder."

"Don't you dare and try to analyze me, you sycophantic marshmallow!" I spat, the mare flinching but not backing down. "I won't hesitate to kill every last one of you if that's what it takes!"

"B-but that will only cause more pain!" The yellow one protested, shocking me as she stepped away from her friends. "Not only to our loved ones, but to you, too!"

"You don't have to keep acting so mean," Pinkie added, offering me a wide smile. "Turn that frown upside down, mister grumpy pants! How can I throw you a party if you won't even so much as smile?"

"You're all crazy!" I shouted, not believing my ears. "I've hurt your friends and you're offering me pity?! None of you ponies make any goddamn sense!"

"It's not pity," Twilight argued next. "It's compassion. I won't claim to know your reasons for wanting to overthrow Celestia, but my friends are right. I don't think you have it in you to be a killer, no matter what you say."

"THEN YOU KNOW NOTHING!" I roared, my hatred, confusion and pain spiraling around me in a dark purple vortex of violent energies, the whites of my eyes shining with green light. I let my desire to cause pain to fill me, to take complete control where once I'd fought to keep it in check. "I'LL SHOW YOU ALL HOW WRONG YOU ARE!"

"Stop this, Artemis!" You pleaded above the screeching roar of my rising power. "You don't want to slip into the abyss!"

"A-and Ah wasn't wrong about you before!" I heard Applejack gasp, the mare sturdier than I gave her credit for. "Don't go making a liar outta me now, dagnabbit!"

"Please, you don't have to do this!" The yellow one tried to get through to me as well. "You don't have to be in pain anymore!"

"Yeah, Arty, cheer up!" Of course, Pinkie would say something. "Let's be friends!"

"Yes, darling, listen to us!" Rarity, surprising me yet again. "We can help you if you'll let us!"

"And if you try, really try, then nothing will keep you down!" Rainbow, also hardier than I thought. "You can be so much more awesome than this! You just have to give us a chance!"

"BE QUIET!" I railed against them and you, feeling as if giving up would be the worst path I could take. "IT'S TIME TO DIE!" And yet, as I stared into those earnest faces, I once again found myself hesitating. So sure that they could help me, that everything would work out and be okay. So naive, so...innocent. Could I really do it, I wondered?

What are you waiting for?! Nightmare demanded of me, like claws scraping over my mind. Destroy them, now! I felt the power to crush them utterly within me and yet I couldn't bring myself to do it. So be it. A crushing weight settled over my consciousness, my body trembling as Nightmare tried, for the first time ever, to take back control of her body from me. If you are too weak to do what must be done than I shall do it for you!

"No!" I snarled, the sound of my voice swallowed by the rising gale of magic that surrounded me. "Back off, Nightmare! This is my fight!"

I should never have tried to use you! She hissed, the weight on my mind increasing as she tried to crush me. You are nothing but a weak, simpering foal and I will now do what I should have done the moment you invaded my body! But something else was happening as we struggled, something I could barely make out past the fight going on within me. Twilight and her friends, standing amidst the chaos, defiant to the end. I couldn't hear what the lavender unicorn was saying, but I saw the outcome as the Elements somehow reformed as a set of golden torcs and a single, resplendent tiara. An idea, desperate and poorly thought out, came to me in that moment.

"You want your body back, Nightmare?" I ground out as the six mares were surrounded by a prismatic display of light. "Then go ahead and have it!" I ceased my struggle and let her take it back, just as that light swept towards me. I heard her scream, felt a searing agony and a blissful warmth pass over us until I blacked out entirely, consumed by the rainbow light.

Author's Notes:

Well, you guys asked for more, so here it is. I'll probably get called out for how the chapter ended, that it's cliche and corny and all that, but it's my story and this is how I always planned things to go, though you can thank my girlfriend for the cliffhanger. I hope you enjoyed reading anyway and that you'll continue to do so in the future. Lemme know what you think either way and I hope you all have a nice day

Chapter 6: A Gilded Cage

It's kind of hard to describe what it's like to be hit by a rainbow laser superweapon of doom.

(...)

Hey, I'm the only one in the room with any experience regarding being blasted by your precious Elements, so I'll call it whatever the fuck I like. The super doom laser of rainbows was like being hit by a thousand angry suns-

(...)

Stop interrupting me, damn it, it's my goddamn story! I'm trying to describe an experience that can't properly be described, so cut me some slack! It was warm and burning and soft and hard and all these other strange, fucked up things that I don't have words for, so if I wanna say it was like being hit by a thousand angry suns then I'm gonna do it! All I know for sure is that it knocked me out for god only knows how long and that's not even the start. Now this is going to sound strange, but after the Elements hit me I woke up in some sort of void, an almost ethereal place full of stars and nebulae that seemed to stretch on forever in all directions. I know, it's mental and it was probably just some sort of hallucination, but I was left floating along, disoriented and confused, and wondering just what in the hell happened to me.

Am I dead, I wondered? There was no pain, no fear, no hate...maybe I was. I still honestly don't know how your world works, not entirely, so perhaps I had slipped into some sort of Limbo. And you've gone all inscrutable again. Don't deny it, I recognize that look on your face. Nightmare Moon had a similar look. Yes, I just compared you to Nightmare Moon. Deal with it. So, yeah, I floated along, feeling quite lost as time seemed to drag along at a snail's pace. Had hours passed by as I drifted? Days? It wasn't exactly all that easy to tell, considering everything looked the same and the light never got any less bright. After what felt like an inordinately long period of time passed, something finally happened. The light ahead of me started to take shape, an amorphous cloud of prismatic light that shifted through the entire color spectrum seemingly at random.

What is it, why is it, what is going on? All these questions and more passed through my mind in rapid succession, the cloud of light seemingly solidifying into a vague representation of the pony form, though it wasn't exactly sticking to a single shape. It's hard to describe, really, as I've never seen anything quite like it. Still, I felt no fear or even the slightest trepidation as this...thing floated in front of me, only an odd sense of warmth and comfort. There was also a sense of regret, but the feeling wasn't coming from me. It was emanating from the being of prismatic light. Finally, I mustered up the will to speak.

"Who...what are you?" I asked it, my voice hardly recognizable. It was my old voice, my human voice, and when I realized this I could feel a solid surface under my feet. Let me say that again. Under my feet. I was human again, my body feeling awkward and clumsy after so long in the form of an equine. I suppose I should have felt elated to be back to my old self but...well, to be frank all I felt was tired. Tired of everything. The creature seemed to study me, the regret I felt pulsing stronger briefly, before it responded in a voice that was both young and old, male and female, as if a thousand different people were speaking at once.

"We are One, We are All," it began vaguely, much to my irritation. Cryptic sounding nonsense, just what I needed. "We are the Beginning, the End and all that lies Between. We bring Order out of Chaos and bring Peace where there is Unrest." The feeling of regret it was giving off grew stronger again. "We wish to apologize to you, who We have wronged. We could not return things to the way they should be." This seemed to pain the being greatly. "Too much time, too much distance. We could not repair the damage that We helped to cause." Its form shifted, mimicking my own for just a second before returning to that of a pony once more. "We can only grant you a second chance and wish you well." The being's form pulsed with power and heat crept along my skin. "May you one day find peace." The light grew brighter and brighter, until my world was consumed by it and I knew no more.

0o0o0o0o0o0

After taking this time I've spent in your "care" to mull things over, I think I know what that being was. Yeah, that was some sort of representation of the Elements, wasn't it? You don't have to answer, it's fairly obvious given what it said and the whole rainbow light body thing it had going on. Had I been on the verge of death and only its intervention brought me back? If that's the case, I have to be honest...I wish it hadn't. I'm so, so tired. When I woke from whatever state I'd been in, it was like coming out of a terrible dream. And yet, I was still afraid. The world was too bright, too vibrant, the sun shining in through one of the shattered windows and piercing my eyelids, making my head throb painfully. I felt so weak, so terribly, terribly vulnerable and when I opened my eyes I expected to be shattered, my body wrecked by whatever attack the Elements had unleashed upon me. Strangely, though, despite the weakness and feeling utterly exhausted, I felt better than I had in over a thousand years.

It's rather odd, realizing you'd been weighed down by so much only after you're no longer burdened by it. It didn't make me feel any better without whatever had been taken, though. In fact, I felt practically naked. I of course realize that might not mean much to a species that is almost always in the nude, but it wasn't a very comfortable feeling. Oddly the fact I hadn't awoken as a human helped ease my growing sense of panic. Not all that surprising given I'd spent a thousand years as an equine alien, but I digress. You stood with your student and her friends, the sun at your backs, while I lay amidst the shattered remnants of my armor, with something lumpy and squirming underneath me. I looked down, finding myself sprawled across the back of a strangely familiar young mare, while you and the girls stared at the two of us in shock. I pushed myself off of her with a grimace, my limbs not wanting to obey me, proving that my perceived vulnerability was, in fact, a reality.

"What gives?" Rainbow Dash asked, glancing between the as yet unidentified mare and myself several times. "Wasn't there just one bad guy? Why did the Elements split him in two?"

"And they're practically twins ta boot," Applejack noted, causing me to take as good a look at myself as I could without a mirror. Coat, mane, tail, all matched the colors the still unconscious mare was sporting, though unlike her I lacked a Cutie Mark. Second chance, Elements? More like a joke played in extremely poor taste. I identified the mare, glaring at her as the realization settled in. The Elements had separated us and turned me into her fraternal twin.

"Artemis?" You asked to confirm, to which I responded with a terse nod. "I knew the Elements were powerful but this...this is extraordinary."

"So if that's King Meany, then who's that?" Pinkie Pie asked what they were likely all wondering, hoof pointed first at me, then Luna.

"Celestia's sister, Luna," I rasped, my throat feeling terribly dry, making it painful to talk. "You might know her better as Nightmare Moon, the one from your precious little prophecy." I shook my head, looking over the six mares who had used the Elements, smiling wearily. "I never thought I'd be so happy to have been so thoroughly humiliated by a bunch of little girls." I could tell that they didn't appreciate being called little girls, but I didn't much care. "Yet here we are." I closed my eyes, reveling in the silence. No more browbeating, no more orders, no more nagging, complaining or insults. Just me and my thoughts for the first time in over a thousand years. "Thank you." I found myself crying, tears streaming down my cheeks. "I've been tired for so, so long now. No matter what happens I next, I can never thank you enough for stopping me."

"Oh, goodness, are you alright?" Rarity asked, my shift in mood clearly having thrown her and the others off a bit.

"I'll be fine," I lied, wiping my eyes with one fetlock and turning my attention to you. "So, when is the guard getting here? I can't imagine you coming without backup."

"W-what is he talking about?" Fluttershy asked quietly, the six looking to you for answers. "A-are the guard on their way here?"

"Well, they'll be disappointed when they get here too late to help," Rainbow remarked, her ego on display for all to see. "We totally saved the day before they could so much as lift a hoof!" I saw Applejack roll her eyes, telling me she'd seen the pegasus act like this before. Were they friends before their shared misadventure, I wondered? Possible, though I let the thought go just as quickly as it had come. It didn't matter, after all. Not to me, anyway.

"I can't wait till we get back to Ponyville!" Pinkie exclaimed, literally bouncing in her excitement. "I can throw the first 'We Totally Saved The Day' party ever!" She looked around at the rest of us. "You're all invited and there will be cake and balloons and-"

"Sounds like it'd be fun, but I'll have to miss it I'm afraid," I cut her off before she could get a good head of steam going, having heard her speaking at full speed before after all.

"What?" She looked at me like I had just kicked a puppy. "Why would you ever even consider missing a perfectly good party?!"

"I have a...prior engagement," I replied evasively, my eyes meeting yours. They didn't need to know what I'd done, I reasoned, but I still had to pay for it. I deserved and still deserve to pay for the pain I've caused. I would have left it at that, but that student of yours is one smart young mare. She caught the look that passed between us, my evasive tone, and connected the dots.

"Wait," the unicorn interjected hastily. "You're arresting him?"

"What?!" Rainbow Dash was astonished, as if I hadn't done anything illegal that needed to be addressed, even without the knowledge of my attack on Canterlot. "But we won!"

"I'm afraid it isn't that simple, my little ponies," you began gently, my gaze settling on the stone beneath my hooves. "Artemis has committed crimes against Equestria and its citizens, the attempt on my own life notwithstanding."

"Well, shoot, we ain't gonna press charges or nothin'," Applejack said, elbowing Rainbow pointedly. "Right?"

"O-oh, yeah, right," Rainbow quickly agreed. It's almost cute how naive they are, your ponies. This world must be a rather...gentle place. "So no problem...right?"

"No, there are definitely problems," I muttered, glancing at Luna, who had begun to stir. "Ah, look who's finally decided to join us."

"W-where am I?" She asked, eyes fluttering open at last. "Sister?" Of course she focused on you.

"Princess Luna," you began sternly, your sister flinching as you approached her. "It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this." I couldn't help but stare at you as you lowered yourself to the floor, looking the mare who had tormented me for that entire time in the eyes. No way, I thought, watching as your gaze softened. "It is time to put our differences-"

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" I interrupted what might have otherwise been a touching moment, springing to my hooves in outrage, my voice cracking with emotion. "You're just going to forgive her, after everything she did?"

"My sister has served her sentence," you replied coldly, meeting my glare with your infuriatingly steely gaze. "A thousand years imprisonment was more than enough-"

"You don't get it, do you?" I interrupted you again, your eyes narrowing in annoyance. "She didn't spend those thousand years repenting for her sins, or some nonsense like that!" I focused my glare on Luna, who remained silent, her crestfallen appearance only angering me even more. "I was put through hell by that...that thing you call your sister, all so she could use me to kill you!"

"I won't let you speak of her with such disrespect," you said, tone absolutely frigid as you rose to your hooves. "You have no idea what-"

"No, you don't get to just brush this off!" I snapped while striding towards you, doing my best to ignore the way the world began to swim in and out of focus. "I was tortured, manipulated, deprived of sleep and practically brainwashed! I won't let her just get off with just a slap on the wrist!" I found myself staggering, the earlier weakness I had experienced coming back tenfold as adrenaline failed to keep me going. "You...she..." And I didn't even feel myself hit the floor.

0o0o0o0o0o0

I sit at the center of some grand courtroom, rune etched iron shackles hobbling my legs, a metal band binding my wings to my sides and a chunky ring around the base of my horn blocking my magic. The retelling of events has left me tired, my stay in the Canterlot dungeons having not exactly been all that conducive to getting restful nights of sleep, either. I imagine I'm quite the sight, though there aren't many present to see me so humbled. Celestia sits in what I can only assume is the judge's chair, but there are no jurors, lawyers or bailiffs. Just her, the guards who had escorted me and the wrinkled old mare who had been recording it all "for posterity". So I raise my eyes to look at the mare who sits in judgement of me, more than ready for these proceedings to finally come to a close.

"There's nothing more to tell," I inform her, tone reflecting how defeated I feel. "I spent a few weeks in a cell, far more comfortable than I'd expected, but that's it. No more to this sad little story other than how it finishes." I raise my chin, one last show of defiance. "So, Celestia, what is it going to be?" I can only pray she doesn't send me back. Another stay on the moon would break me, I'm sure of it. "Beheading, perhaps? I can't think of much else that would be a surefire way to kill an alicorn, so when's my execution scheduled for?"

"You...expect me to have you killed?" She asks, as if surprised. How can she act so puzzled? I killed and injured dozens of her ponies, attempted to assassinate her and overthrow her rule, so how can I not be slated from the chopping block? "My sister and I abolished the death penalty when we first became the rulers of Equestria." My eyes widen and my ears fold tightly against my head, fear causing my heart to race. No, no, she can't send me back!

"I-if you have any mercy, don't send me back," I plead shamelessly, not caring about looking like a scared little boy as the prospect of going back to that hell shakes me to the core. "I'll leave Equestria, the continent, anything, just don't send me back!"

"Anything? Really?" What is with that twinkle in her eyes? Doesn't she realize how serious this is?! "Very well then." She nods to the court reporter, who gets ready to record whatever the mad mare has to say next. "Artemis, you have been found guilty of attempted regicide, inciting rebellion against the crown, the murder and assault of our guards and citizens. I hereby pronounce your sentence." I could only wait, the silence dragging on forever before she continues. "You are to spend no less than the next two hundred years in service to Equestria." Okay, I will admit, I wasn't expecting that.

"What?" I ask, completely dumbfounded. "That's it?" I cannot believe I'm objecting to my sentence, but how can that be it? "I did all those things and you're giving me community service?!"

"Thanks to what you said back in the ruins of our old castle, your testimony here in court and the...intervention of somepony on your behalf, I realized that I cannot judge you without taking the circumstances that led to your decisions into account," Celestia replies, causing me to blink at her stupidly. "While you chose to commit the crimes I have listed, you did not do so on your own initiative. I believe it is more than fair to say that without the actions of Nightmare Moon to turn you into a weapon to wield against me, you would not have chosen the path you took. This is still a punishment, however, so you will be required to follow certain restrictions."

"A-anything," I say readily, still unable to believe my luck. I'm not going back and I have a good idea why. If she judged me harshly, she'd need to do the same to Luna, otherwise she'd be one massive hypocrite. Either that or these ponies are the most forgiving creatures in the entire universe.

"You will be required to wear this," Celestia begins, conjuring what I can only describe as a collar, however fancy it looks. "It will replace the inhibitor you wear, allowing me to track your position at all times and control your magic should the need arise." The shackles, wing binders and horn ring vanish, only for the collar to appear around my neck. A snug fit, but at least it isn't choking me. "You will also not be allowed to leave Canterlot without permission and even then you will require an escort. Any infractions against the crown or our citizens will result in your immediate banishment." I swallow thickly, making a mental note to behave. "Finally you will be assigned someone to monitor you, to make certain you follow the conditions of your parole. You will serve Equestria and safeguard its citizens in whatever way he or she decides." She raises an eyebrow as she smiles in a coy way. "Do you understand the conditions and terms of your sentence as I have described them to you?"

"Yes," I reply without hesitation. "I...I don't know what to say right now, though. Why are you letting me off so lightly after everything I've done?"

"Forgiveness is a quality we hold close to our hearts, Artemis," Celestia informs me. "No one is beyond redemption and even the most wicked deserve a chance to make up for their mistakes. This will not be an easy path, as many ponies will fear you for your crimes. They will even condemn you for them." She sighs. "My little ponies are good at heart, but they are not perfect by any means. Knowing that you must bear their judgement despite what has been determined here today, and that a difficult path has been laid before you, are you prepared to face the days ahead?"

"I am prepared," I say firmly, not caring that they will judge me. They have every right to hate me for what I've done, after all. "I'll do my best not to waste this chance." Do I deserve it? No, of course I don't. I don't understand what she could be thinking, really, but how can I complain? Am I supposed to say: no, please, banish me to the moon again, I deserve it? I can't go back there, I just can't, but...but why? Is she just planning on using me, then? A nice, useful little tool to parade around as a trophy of her victory? Or is she somehow serious regarding all that bullshit about second chances and forgiveness? Ugh, these ponies don't make any fucking sense!

"The guards will show you to your new quarters," Celestia tells me while I'm busy wondering just what is going on in that scheming head of hers. "I truly hope that you understand how serious this is. I am risking a great deal in giving you this chance."

"I promise to do my best not to let you down," I reply, offering her the shakiest of smiles. This was going to be hard, but I had to at least try, right?

0o0o0o0o0o0

Celestia watched as Artemis was escorted out of the courtroom and the court records keeper leaves with her transcripts, sighing wearily and letting her posture slump a bit when she was finally alone.

"Are you sure about this?" She asked, gaze turning to her right as Luna stepped out of the shadows of one of the nearby alcoves. "If he chooses to again embrace the darkness, I won't have any choice but to banish you as well."

"I am indeed certain, Celestia," Luna replies firmly, gaze lingering on the now shut courtroom doors. "I am as much to blame as he for the crimes committed against our subjects and I could not bear receiving leniency while he is punished."

"But sister, you are not-" Celestia cut herself short as Luna raised one hoof and shook her head, the alicorn of the sun sighing once more. "Very well. I just hope you are right about him."

"As do I, my sister," Luna murmured as she slipped back into the shadows. "As do I."

0o0o0o0o0o0

It's a strange thing, finding yourself staring at what looks like a perfectly comfortable bed, with clean linens and a fluffy pillow, all the while dreading the idea of climbing in and going to sleep. Questions still gnaw at me, like why Celestia chose to be so lenient. Granted, two hundred years in service to a nation I care nothing about isn't going to be fun by any stretch of the imagination but she could have done far worse considering my crimes. So why? She also mentioned someone having spoken on my behalf. I don't know anyone here other than her, so who could have done it? I'm also afraid that if I go to sleep I'll just wake up to find that this had all been some sort of wishful dream. It's silly, of course, but fears are very rarely rational in nature.

"Can I even do this?" I whisper, having to struggle to summon enough magic to draw back the sheets. "It all seems so surreal." And why wouldn't it? Just a few weeks ago I'd been crazed with hunger for hatred and pain, yet here I am, almost if none of it happened. Were it not for the memories that linger in my mind, I bet I'd be able to convince myself of such a lie, but no. No, I really was mad, driven insane by isolation, dark magic and the constant abuse of a power hungry tyrant. The Elements had done something to me beyond giving me my own body. Just how powerful are they to be able to do so much, yet still be so limited? They couldn't fix what they had broken, admitting to me that they had been part of why I had ended up merged with Nightmare Moon. The question, then, is what else contributed to it?

"Why do I even care?" I groan, allowing myself to fall into the soft mattress, muzzle pressing firmly into one of the pillows. "It's done. This is my life now, so I should just get used to it." I've traded a penal colony for a gilded cage. I suppose it could always be worse, but right now I'm too tired to think about it anymore. But I don't want to sleep. Yet, despite my wishes, my eyelids grow heavier and, soon, I'll be asleep.

0o0o0o0o0o0

I'm back in those barren wastes, the terrain shattered and melted by the fury of our battle. She's pinned beneath me, helpless, and all I have to do is strike. My hoof raises, poised to land the final blow...and descends without the slightest hesitation. I strike again, and again, the meaty thumps of hoof striking flesh soon becoming wet, the crunch of bone joining it shortly after as I furiously pound her skull into paste. The red blood of her life covers my hoof guards, fragments of bone and...other things mixed in with the slick, sickeningly sweet smelling liquid. I stare at them, panting harshly, and the world shifts and spins. I'm in the throne room, standing atop the rubble, screams of the wounded and frightened filling my ears. Ponies lay around me, dead or dying, crushed by my grand entrance as their blood seeps from beneath the shattered pieces of masonry. Again the world spins and I'm in the ruined castle they once shared, standing over Applejack, her head twisted at an angle that shouldn't be possible, eyes wide and face locked in an expression of pain and fear. Then her eyes swivel in their sockets, locking on to me, accusing me, demanding to know why I would do this and I scream.

0o0o0o0o0o0

My scream echoes in the small, dark room as I jerk upright, heart pounding in my chest as the nightmare is fresh in my mind. I pant for breath, trying to calm down as I stare at my hooves, still able to see the blood, see her eyes, and I roll out of bed and thrust open the balcony doors. I need air and I stumble out, sucking in great lung fulls of the cool, crisp night, the moon bright in the sky above me. As I watch the stars emerge, one by one, painting an elegant canvass across the deep, midnight blue of the sky, and my raging heartbeat starts to slow. The only solace during those thousand years was seeing those shining jewels, appearing to be so close I felt I could reach out and pluck one from the canvass of the night. I take several more deep breaths, forcing myself to calm down and gaze out over the city below. A city I would have happily destroyed not so long ago. I step up to the railing, staring straight down at the ground below and consider it.

No. Not only would the fall not be enough to kill me, I could never take that route. I'm too selfish, I guess, though so many would likely be happier if I did. I let out a snort. Fuck them. I'm here to stay, whether any of us like it or not. So I sigh, turn, and return to bed, wondering why it feels like there are eyes on my back.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Luna stares at the now empty balcony, perched in the shadows of another not so far away. For a moment she had feared he would leap, hurl himself to the hard cobblestone of the palace grounds below. But then he had seemed to shake whatever had consumed him off and returned to his room. She wants to cross the distance, speak with him, yet knows to do so would be pointless. As if he would wish to speak with her, of all ponies. She only hopes that, one day, he can move on with his new life. For all their sakes.

0o0o0o0o0o0

The night passed slowly, painfully, my sleep tormented by further visions of my sins. Finally able to sleep, yet denied the ability to rest. I suppose I must pay my dues somehow, so why not this way? I functioned on little sleep for most of my adult life back on Earth, after all, so this would be no different. After taking care of certain biological issues, and after figuring out how the toilet and shower work when I have to work with hooves instead of hands, makes me wonder again how the ponies even open doors with these things, I'm left wondering just what to do with myself while brushing the tangles out of my mane. Magic is still difficult, like it's being strangled and the source is weak to begin with, but I doubt this would be possible without it. God, I really do look just like her. I stare at my reflection, mindlessly brushing, tugging at the snags, and grind my teeth. Now this is truly hell, being forced to wear her face.

"What a sick joke," I growl, tossing aside the brush once I finish. I want to break the mirror, my pupils narrowing to slits as I watch. The sight is enough to startle me and I stagger backwards, ears pinned back as I stare in shock. Had I imagined it? I creep back up to the reflective glass, looking at my eyes, yet they're no longer those I dreaded to see. Yeah, must have been imagining it. I suddenly let out a little yelp, the sound of a knock at my chamber door having startled me. Damn it, now I'm getting jumpy.

"What?" I snap, only to flinch and sigh. Yelling at someone for giving me a scare isn't a good way to start out. "I mean...what is it?" I ask, more civilly this time.

"May I come in?" Female, soft, muffled by the door. Maid? One way to find out I guess.

"Sure, why not?" I sigh again, squaring my shoulders and turning to face the door as it opens...and stare at the pony that steps through it.

"Good morning, Prince Artemis," the mare, alicorn, regalia, sort of on the thin side, greets me. Wait, prince? What the hell is going on here? "I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but honestly I'd prefer it if you call me Cadence." She smiles, lifting up a clipboard I hadn't noticed in the grasp of her magic before. "Also, I'm here to make certain you stick to the sentence Auntie Celestia told me about." Auntie? Jesus, it's not even mid-morning and I already have a headache. "So, before we start, do you have any questions for me?"

"Why are you so goddamn pink?" I ask without thinking, giving myself a mental kick in the ass as she blinks at me, clearly taken back by what I'd just said. Great one, Dave, start out by making a complete ass of yourself. That's certain to win her over. "Sorry, forget I asked that. I'm not used to talking to anyone other than a homicidal maniac driven by jealousy and revenge."

"Right," Cadence says, the word slightly drawn out, my attitude having obviously thrown her off her game a bit. "So, um, Auntie sort of filled me in about your...situation." Oh really? I wonder how much she actually told this...girl. She seems young in a way that makes me feel ancient. Ugh, I'm turning into a fucking old man! "Are you okay?"

"What?" I ask, surprised by the question. Oh, right, spacing out and going off on a mental tangent. "Yes, yes, I'm fine." Lie, but she doesn't want to hear otherwise I'm certain. "You were saying?" She tilts her head, staring at me, my wings shuffling against my sides in discomfort. Why is she looking at me like that? "What?"

"Oh, nothing," she says in a mysterious way that reminds me of Celestia. "Well, as I was saying, I'm aware of the circumstances that brought you to us, and, you know, the things you did." Wow, she was told everything then. Great, no wonder why she was looking at me so strangely. I'm a murderous alien, why wouldn't she look at me like I'm a bug trapped under a piece of glass? "Now, personally, I don't approve of it but Auntie Celestia has assured me that you won't be any trouble."

"Kind of hard to be, all things considered," I mutter, the collar around my neck a constant reminder of my sentencing.

"So, with that in mind, I'm to put you to work." A quill that she was hiding under one wing scratched something onto the clipboard. "First order of business on the agenda today is getting you dressed." I stare at her like she's grown a second head.

"Dressed?"

0o0o0o0o0o0

"Kill me now," I say dryly as some stallion I don't know pokes me, again, with yet another pin, ears folded back in annoyance. I'm stuck standing on a pedestal, having had my measurements taken, and now I'm acting as the mannequin, or is it ponnequin(?), while Cadence looks on, seemingly enjoying my suffering.

"Oh, stop whining," she says, sounding just as amused as she looks. "You're acting like an impatient little colt."

"I'd be less, ow, impatient if this butcher didn't keep stabbing me," I hiss as I'm jabbed again, the stallion working as if I didn't exist. "Why am I being fitted for...whatever it is this cloth is going to be turned into?" So far it was just so much cloth, pinned together as it hung from my body.

"It'll be a suit and I was told to leave the why as a surprise," she tells me, her cryptic response only serving to irritate me. "Auntie was rather insistent about it, as a matter of fact."

"You keep calling her Auntie," I begin, wincing as I am yet again poked by this sadist who is fitting me for a suit of all things. "I have to say, you look nothing like her."

"That would be because I'm her adopted niece," Cadence informs me, which answers that question. "Now just be patient and we'll both find out what she has in store for you soon enough."

"I hate wait-ow, damn it! Do that again and I swear to god that I will jam those fucking pins through your eyes!"

0o0o0o0o0o0

Hours later and I now have a new suit...jacket. Yeah, why am I not surprised that these ponies don't wear pants? Still, it fit snugly, yet comfortably, and complemented my coat color instead of clashing with it. Almost makes the torture of being fitted for the damn thing worth it. It brings me an odd feeling of nostalgia wearing a suit again after so long. Well, half a suit. God, please, someone give me a pair of pants! How do these ponies walk around with everything on display all the time? Granted, I saw one or two ponies wearing skirts, but I doubt they had anything on underneath them.

"I feel so fucking exposed," I grumble under my breath as I walk along beside Cadence, wondering just where in the name of fuck we are going.

"Did you really need to threaten the tailor?" Cadence asks me for the third time since we'd left.

"The bastard kept stabbing me with inch long needles, on purpose," I remind her, again for the third time. "He only stopped once I threatened to turn the tables on him."

"By saying you'll use them to stab him in the eyes?" God, why are these ponies so sensitive?

"Yes," I reply without a single shred of hesitation. "When I threaten to do something, I'm not likely to actually do it."

"Then why?" Good question.

"It gets my point across without actually being violent," I tell her and now she's looking at me like I have grown three extra heads, all of which are spitting fire or something equally ridiculous. "Oh, for fuck's sake, stop freaking out every time I say something. I'm not a goddamn pony, remember?"

"When you walk like a pony, look like a pony and smell like a pony, it's kind of jarring when you open your mouth and end up saying some of the craziest things I've ever heard before," she informs me, which makes sense I suppose. I don't exactly know much about the culture of these ponies, so I guess I should, perhaps, try to be less abrasive. Maybe. I can try at least.

"I'll try to be more polite, but I won't make any promises," I concede, only to frown slightly as I remember something she said. "Wait, what do you mean smell?" I showered this morning, even used that flowery body wash that they had stocked in the bathroom, so how do I still smell?!

"Quiet down, we're almost there," she shushes me as we turn a corner, a pair of double doors at the end of the hall with a pair of golden armored guardsponies who immediately come to attention at our approach. Okay, now I'm getting worried. And what's that noise? I hadn't heard it till now, but the closer we get to the doors the louder it's getting. My heart beats faster when the guards open the doors and my eyes squint as sunlight floods into the hall. The sound becomes a dull roar and I finally recognize it. There is a crowd out there and a very big one at that. My knees lock up and Cadence, noticing this, moves behind me and gives me a small shove, startling me into motion. I'm suddenly standing on a grand balcony, overlooking a large courtyard packed with hundreds of different ponies, with Celestia to my right and Luna to my left. What the hell is going on here?

"My dear little ponies," Celestia says, continuing a speech I had barely registered on my sudden exit from the safety of the castle. "It brings me great joy to present to you our younger brother, Prince Artemis, returned to my sister and I after a thousand years spent in exile." What? I'm frozen, unable to even look at her, stunned by these words. "It was his noble sacrifice that granted me the time I needed to banish Nightmare Moon and, with Luna's redemption, he was finally freed from her grasp." What is she doing? What is going on?! Why is Celestia suddenly hugging me with one wing? I turn my head, my neck stiff, and look up at her. Her expression is one of overflowing joy but the steel in her eyes is unmistakable. I get it. This is some crazy political maneuver, it just has to be. It's the only explanation that makes even an iota of sense! "Smile," she instructs me while Luna brushes up against me from the other side. "You look ready to pass out."

"Are you insane?" I hiss through my teeth, doing the best I could to paint on a smile for the now cheering masses. "Is this some kind of sick joke or what?"

"My sister and I discussed how best to introduce you to our ponies," Celestia informs me quietly, raising one hoof to wave to the crowd. "The title is in name only. You will have no authority beyond what we grant you, but no alicorn has ever be anything less than royalty to them before."

"What's this bullshit about me being your long lost brother then?" I ask heatedly, wincing as Luna has now added her own wing over Celestia's.

"This was Our idea," Luna answers quietly, my gaze snapping to her, the odd use of the word "our" catching my attention. "As Mi Amore Cadenza is Our niece, thou shalt be Our brother."

"It was the easiest way to explain your striking resemblance to Luna," Celestia adds, which makes some sense when I stop to think about it. "Now wave to the good ponies for me, will you?" I take a deep breath and raise one hoof, waving to them and putting on a more convincing smile, drawing on years of customer service experience. "Thank you, my little ponies," she goes on, addressing the crowd once again. "You're all far too kind and my siblings appreciate this grand welcome. But now they must get their rest, as they are still recovering from their harrowing ordeal, trapped as they were under the hoof of Nightmare Moon." Definitely political, what with that last little statement. Yes, Nightmare Moon and this crazy homicidal alicorn guy were different people, no need to inquire further. God fucking damn you, Celestia, I didn't ask for your fucking charity.

I'm herded inside as the crowd starts to disperse, glowering as I step away from the royal sisters. Cadence stands waiting, appearing fairly surprised before she schools her expression to one of careful indifference. Celestia walks away once the doors are shut, not even sparing me another glance. I shoot a glare at her back, still feeling rather pissed off. I deserve to be treated as a criminal, damn it, not as some beloved long lost brother! Luna pauses as she moves past me, looking as if she wishes to say something. Finally she gives me a simple nod and continues on her way, much to my relief. What would she even have to say anyway? Sorry for torturing you for a thousand years? Sorry, "sis", but that doesn't cut it, something she obviously realizes.

"That was...interesting," Cadence remarks awkwardly, causing me to let out a soft little snort.

"Just don't start calling me uncle and we'll get along fine," I tell her, walking forward with purposeful strides and tugging off my tie with a short pulse of magic. "Now, where's the kitchen? I've been eating gruel for weeks and I need real food before I start eating the furniture."

"Oh, of course. We can discuss your schedule while you eat," Cadence says, catching up with me and leading the way. I go from homicidal maniac to a prince in name only in a span of a few weeks. What sort of grand farce have I become part of? What game is Celestia playing and why did Luna agree to it? Ugh, I almost wish I was back on the fucking moon. At least there I didn't have to deal with the goddamn minefield that is politics.

"Is education part of that schedule?" I ask, tucking my tie into my suit-jacket's pocket.

"Well, yes, it is," Cadence replies, bringing a genuine smile to my face.

"Good." I won't be a pawn in your game, Celestia. If I have to be on the board, you can bet that fat flank of yours that I'll do everything in my, admittedly limited, power to take back some form of control over my life. I didn't trade one hell just so you can trap me in another, you fucking manipulative bitch. "I have some work to do."

Author's Notes:

Well, there you have it folks. Took me a lot longer to publish than I expected, but hey, shit happens right? Anyway, hope you all enjoyed because I'm going to be working on the next chapter of my other story, which I have neglected for awhile now. Just so you know and hopefully it'll keep you from asking where the next chapter is. Knowing some of you, though, you'll probably ask anyway. Toodles~

Epilogue: The End of an Arc

You know, when I started the day I never would have expected to be crowned as a prince, even if only in name, nor would I have ever conceived of being chaperoned by a pink pony princess who looks like she doesn't eat nearly enough to be considered healthy. But the most unanticipated thing of all? I now have to reeducate myself from the ground up, because, as it turns out, despite how it sounds exactly like English, the alphabet of Equish (groan) is entirely different from what I had expected it to be.

"Son of a bitch," I groan, setting aside a book on history I had planned on reading, Cadance standing at attention nearby, watching me like a garishly pink hawk. "Well, this is certainly going to set back my plans a bit."

"What's the problem?" The princess asks, seemingly oblivious to my plight. She's really starting to seriously remind me of Celestia and not in any way that could be conceivably be construed as good.

"Oh, you know, just a minor thing," I reply, holding up a second book to emphasize my point. "Just that, despite being fluent in speaking it, I am somehow unable to read your language."

"Oh, is that all?" Her response brings a frown to my face. "Auntie Celestia thought that might be the case, so she took the liberty of having a tutor be placed on retainer. She actually had to do the same for Auntie Luna, considering how different modern Equish is from its classical format."

"You know, your 'aunt' kind of scares me sometimes," I admit casually, wondering what else the princess of the sun had anticipated. "Though I guess you can't run a nation for a thousand years and not develop a spooky level of forward thinking to keep you ahead of any would be threats to your rule."

"Well, anyway, we can have breakfast brought in while we start your lessons," Cadance offers, to which I tilt my head slightly in brief confusion. Breakfast? Damn, how long has it been since I last even thought about food? What do ponies even eat, anyway? "Is something wrong?"

"No, I just...it's kind of embarrassing actually." I sigh softly, dragging a hoof through my mane as I glance between Cadance and the tabletop several times as I try to word it in a way that doesn't make me sound like an idiot. "I haven't eaten anything but gruel in over a thousand years." She stares at me, making me feel even more awkward as a result. "I-it's not my fault, I-"

"Come with me!" She exclaims, snagging me by one leg and dragging me towards the door.

"Gah, hey, watch it!" I protest, shocked by her reaction. Where the hell is she even taking me anyway?

0o0o0o0o0o0

We eventually arrive in the palace kitchens, Cadance leaving me by the door to go speak with a pony who, I assume, must be the head chef. Jesus, did she have to drag me the whole way here? It feels like she nearly pulled my leg out of its socket. I watch them as they exchange words, unable to make it out over the hustle and bustle of the kitchen staff at work, only to shift uncomfortably as the head chef stares at me, stunned by something Cadance had just told her. Why is she looking at me like that? Okay, now they're coming over to me, leaving me feeling even more awkward when the chef bows to me.

"Your highness," she says formally, rising from the bow before continuing to speak. "Is what Princess Cadenza tells me true? Have you really not eaten anything save that slop they dare call food that is gruel?"

"Yes?" I reply uncertainly, something about this whole thing making me feel very nervous. My reply brings a pained look to the chef's face, Cadance standing next to her looking unusually solemn for some reason I can't even begin to guess.

"Oh, how cruel fate can be," the chef moans piteously, bringing one foreleg over her eyes in a decidedly overly dramatic fashion. "To think a member of royalty has never sampled the fare we have to offer. It simply makes my heart ache to even think about it!" She lowers her leg and I have to resist the urge to step back as I see fire in her eyes. "Such an injustice cannot stand! We shall prepare you a feast such as you have never before had the pleasure of sampling, my prince! My honor as a chef demands no less."

"Oh, no, please, you don't have to-" My reply is brought to a halt when the chef's hoof touches my lips, leaving me to blink down at it stupidly.

"No, please, you must allow me to correct this grave slight against the culinary arts!" She pleads, my gaze flicking to Cadance, who is now nodding in agreement. "My pride cannot suffer such a thing to remain true, Prince Artemis. Allow me, us, to serve you as royalty deserves!" I open my mouth, now hoof free, close it and try again, the pleading look the chef is giving me melting my resolve. Oh, what the hell could it hurt to let her throw me a banquet? Come to think of it, the smells in here are making me rather hungry.

"Well, alright, if that's what you-" I don't even get to finish, the chef raising a pot and ladle she retrieved from thin air and gives them three hearty, ringing strikes.

"Attention!" She calls, the whole kitchen going silent as everyone present turns their attention to the head chef. "I have just been informed that our newly returned prince has yet to sample what we have to offer." They collectively gasp, drawing a sigh from my lips as they all look horrified. Dear Christ, what the fuck is wrong with these ponies? "We must work our hardest so that he might come to know the sumptuous pleasure true, hard working ponies such ourselves can offer him." Wow, that sounded vaguely dirty. And now they're all saluting. Christ on a bicycle, what have I gotten myself into now? "Now, to work my fellow artists, for we have much to do and little time in which to do it!"

"What the hell have you gotten me into?" I ask Cadance as they get to work, the princess simply offering me a mysterious smile. "Stop that. One Celestia is bad enough as it is."

0o0o0o0o0o0

"Okay, when she said feast, I didn't expect this," I say to Cadance quietly, sitting at a long table, a dozen waiters and waitresses standing on call to answer my every whim and desire, platters of foods that both puzzled me and made my mouth water at the same time laid out before me.

"And this is just the first course," Cadance informs me impishly, causing me to blanch.

"Are you serious?" I hiss, not wanting to upset the staff. "There's no way I can eat even a fraction of all this!" A thousand years without food and then subsiding on water and gruel for a few weeks must have left my stomach the size of a walnut. "Isn't it just going to go to waste?"

"Now now, don't fuss," she chastises me, still smiling that infuriating smile she obviously learned from her "aunt". "You aren't expected to clean the platters, you know. Just sample whatever catches your fancy and we'll go from there."

"I don't even know what half of this is," I say, eyes scanning what's on the menu curiously. "Are those flowers?" Must be garnishing.

"Ooo, daffodil," Cadance says, gazing at the flowers appreciatively. "They make for a great sandwich."

"Are you serious right now?" I ask, giving her the flattest stare I can manage. Ponies, Jesus, of course they would eat fucking flowers.

"Why wouldn't I be serious?" She asks, clearly puzzled by my reaction to her words. "Do humans not eat flowers?"

"No, they don't," I reply, though honestly we...they can eat a few kinds of them, not that I can recall what they are at the moment. "What's the brown stuff?" I ask, the long strands of crispy looking, golden brown substance catching my eye.

"Fried hay," Cadance informs me and I have to resist the urge to smack my head off of the edge of the table. What's next? Grass? "Seriously, why are you so surprised? What do humans even eat?" My mouth opens, only to click shut as I realize something. Ponies are herbivores. Shit, how do I explain it to her without freaking her out?

"Uh...not hay," I tell her to stall for time, uncertain as to how I should word it. "Well, do you know what an omnivore is?" I ask tentatively, trying my best for the diplomatic approach.

"Of course," she replies immediately, then seems to catch on to my train of though. "Wait, so humans are like gryphons?" Oh thank fucking God!

"Yes, exactly," I reply, relief allowing me to relax a bit. "Though, well, I'm obviously not a human anymore so...I guess I'll start with the fried hay?" Can't hurt to try it, right?

0o0o0o0o0o0

"Oh, fucking God, please kill me now," I groan a couple of hours later as the table is cleared, my stomach comically distended. It had all been so good, I hadn't been able to stop myself! "I think I'm gonna explode."

"Well, you're the one that decided to have a helping of everything," Cadance reminds me unhelpfully. "But, since you're obviously not going anywhere any time soon, we can get started on that tutoring I mentioned earlier." Her clipboard is back. "First on the docket: teaching you how to read. Thankfully it shouldn't be too hard, given the grasp you seem to have on our language." I groan pitifully. "Oh, quit complaining. As my coltfriend would say: sack up already. We've got a long day ahead of us."

"I hate you so much right now," I grumble, shooting her the best glare I can muster under the circumstances. She remains completely unphased by my ire. Gotta work on my glare, I guess.

"Yes, yes, I'm sure," she replies dismissively, heading for the door. "I'll be back with the tutor and we can get started." She looks back at me with mischief in her eyes. "Don't go anywhere now~" And she's gone.

"Cheeky bitch," I huff, trying to position myself so I'm more comfortable. Christ, I look like I'm about to give birth. "Well, at least things can't get any worse." Famous last words.

0o0o0o0o0o0

The Badlands; a stretch of sand and rock so barren no pony has ever dared attempt to settle there. So desolate that nothing grows within it, not even the hardiest of desert plants. Only the most foolish, or desperate, would ever attempt to make a home here and, as far as anypony knows, no one has ever tried. Because of this fact, Celestia had reasoned it would make the perfect battleground for her confrontation with the strange entity inhabiting the body of her sister. Their titanic struggle reshaped the already inhospitable landscape into a hellish, blasted crater, the sand turned to glass and the rocks to rubble and half melted lumps of slag. If it was next to impossible for life to be sustained there before then there was no chance at all for even a microbe to survive there now.

Yet, deep at the heart of this twisted, broken hellscape sits a shattered spire, formed of a black rock that had weathered the assault of the two superpowers little better than the lands around it. It had taken a direct hit from the blast Artemis had redirected, the beam of solar fury having sliced it in half, the rubble of the aftermath laying in a crumbling heap around its base. As the day draws to a close and the sun begins to set, a low rumble begins to emanate from the "roots" of the spire, accompanied by a trilling sound that is almost insect-like in origin. The rubble shifts, the trilling grows louder, and a thousand pairs of luminescent eyes appear in the shadows. Every decision has consequences and, soon, Equestria will reap what Celestia has sown. Will they weather the storm? Will Artemis break free of the darkness that still grips his soul? And will Luna learn to forgive herself for all that she has done? You'll have to read Finding Artemis, the continuation of our intrepid alicorn's journey to make the most of his "second chance", in order to find out.

Author's Notes:

Originally I stated that majority would rule in the case of what path I was going to take with the story but, after some consideration and reading your comments, I've decided to finish this story with this epilogue and start up a new one. I hope you enjoyed the first installment in the journey of Artemis and will continue to enjoy my future works. Thank you all so much and I wish each and every one of you the best