"Why won't you see Luna?" pleaded Infernia. "How can you be so blind?!"
"It is you who are blinded, sister." said Luna calmly. "Blinded by the rage of a star in pain. I have seen such before, yet I weep for you still."
Infernia looked on the rage of snapping Luna thought. From the turn of her moon, Luna estimated it had been around a half hour since her imprisonment. Her so called sister had been there for most of it. The golden chains that bound her here, however, had been here from the beginning.
She could have sighed. Her elder sister's over-protectiveness had finally become chafing. Literally.
"They don't care for you that way I do sister! How could they? They were still fighting among themselves when we were driven from our homes!"
"As I recall we left."
"Only because of them" spat Infernia. A hundred years of wandering, all because they hated anything that was different from them!"
"They had flaws. And they learned."
"How can you say that?!" Infernia yelled. "After all they did to you? After how they shut you away, just for having wings. How they trampled you beneath their hooves?"
"Because these are not the same ponies as back then."
"Mortals do not change. A thousand years and they still paint the Sun on their pennants like it were their protector."
"Because I ask them to."
"Because they are weak. Weak unchanging cowards who will turn on you for less than thirty pieces of silver."
"Courage and growth are found only in the weak Celestia." Luna said calmly. "I am weak. You are weak. Everypony is weak."
"I AM NOT WEAK!!!" screamed Infernia. "And I am NOT Celestia. CELESTIA, your precious dead sister is the weak one. I am Infernia and I will have you too Luna. Even if I have to make you hate me to do it."
Luna looked Infernia dead in the eye. "I could never hate you sister" she said sadly. "Even if sometimes I wish I could."
"Luna..."
Luna raised her chin defiantly, tears already frozen on her face. "You will be stopped Nightmare. I only hope, when you are, my sister can live will whatever atrocities you commit." She turned away. "I know I cannot.."
Infernia hesitantly reached a great white wing, the outer feathers still singed black at its tip. "Lulu..."
She shrank away as if burned as Luna pulled away, golden chains protecting at the sudden movement.
"Don't you see?" Asked Infernia passionately. "All they do is cause you pain. Let this be my burden to bear. Then we can finally be at peace."
"Peace." spoke Luna, her quiet the rage of a storm fast approaching. "You would call the eradication of every living being on this planet, peace?!"
"From our first till our last all they have done is cause pain. Once they are gone we can finally be free. All we need is each other. Not that bug, not those noble bloodsuckers, not even that precious student of yours."
"Stay away from Twilight Sparkle." Luna threatened lowly.
"Not of them care about you. Only I really love you." Infernia's eyes widened in manic realisation. "I'll prove it to you. That stupid student of yours is traipsing through the Everfree looking for our elements."
Luna froze, eyes wide in fearful realisation.
"Don't you see? Even she only uses you for power! She claims to those friends of hers she's getting them for you, but really she just wants the power for herself!"
"You're wrong"whispered Luna, voice cold, her mane whipped around her; a black sky, cold as the void, with no blanket of cloud to ease its frozen cold.
"Am I really sister? As I recall I was always the better judge of character."
"Yet I bore the Element of Honesty."
Infernia sighed. "How about this Lulu? I'll make you a deal."
"A deal? There is no deal you could possibly make that.."
"I won't kill that precious student of yours." Infernia shrugged. "Tartarus, I wont even kill those friends of hers. It's not like they pose a threat. But if I convince them to turn back, then you admit I'm right. And you don't try to stop me."
"And if they do?"
"Well if by some miracle those mortals manage to awaken the Elements I doubt I will be around to complain afterwards. They were always rather...efficient."
Luna grimaced. Forcing herself back to cold hard logic, her mind ran through the options and their possible outcomes. Each seemed worse than the last. A world on fire. Her sister dead by her own hand. A kingdom of bones. She pushed herself to be detached; figures, statistics. If need be Equestria could go on without her. That was, if there was an Equestria left. Silently she thanked herself for sending Cadance away.
Ponyville though. Ponyville, no matter what she did would be in the blast radius. Over a hundred ponies would suffer for her sister's anger. All the ponies at that party. Spike. Twilight. All necessary sacrifices for the greater good. Pieces on a chessboard that must be sacrificed to win a game.
She shook her head. No. She had done this once before. And in circumstances far worse than this. In far darker days than this.
Equestria stood behind her this time.
She would not fall to such again.
But what to do?
The ground beneath her feet gave her the answer.
Infernia quirked her head, her sisters silence had begun to worry her. Surely Luna could not be thinking of rebellion already... Was she wrong?
Luna glanced up at her, eyes filled with reluctant acceptance.
Infernia thew thoughts of doubt from her mind. She was correct. This was the only option. Luna would see it soon enough. Besides she had no choice. Her little sister was a fighter, not a strategist. And the battle had already been won.
She pushed for an answer. "What is your response sister?"
Her sister looked up, the weak candle of flame that had once burned in her eye slowly beginning to flicker and die.
"What happens if I refuse?"
"I kill them." Infernia said bluntly. "They are of no use to me. Then I carry out the plan anyway. It's not as if you can stop me from here anyway."
Luna gritted her teeth. "Fine."
"Celestia was always rather good with words," mused Infernia, already planning the many ways she would torment her sister's protege. "Maybe I'll try that first. After that, well, I have other skills."
She looked over at her sister sitting on the ground. Luna looked diminished. The stars in her mane had dulled to the extent where they could barely be seen at all. Even her coat had lost its lustre, white chunks of moonrock dust sticking to it.
As Infernia watched Luna rose once more to her hooves, her legs shaking slightly as she did so. Her belly was so caked with dust it appeared almost as white as Infernia's own coat, blending in with the rock around her.
She hesitated. Luna looked so weak now. Had she really hurt her so badly?
Her little sister looked up at her eyes locked in a fierce determination her body now betrayed. "Leave me Nightmare. I am sick of the sight of you."
Infernia sank. "Alright Luna." she said quietly.
Spreading her wings she flew off, back towards the planet in the distance. Within a few seconds she was little more than a white dot in the distance. A few more after than she was gone entirely.
Turning away Luna looked back at her Moon. Gently her mind reached out to touch the new tie of her own making that now tethered her to it. The thing that called itself her sister was gone, Time to make her own move.