//------------------------------// // Ch. 9 If Not Nightmare Moon, Then... // Story: Reaper // by CherryTune //------------------------------// Chap 9 *If Not Nightmare Moon, Then…* The ram helmed captain looks down and sees his necklace hanging. On it are pictures of his mother, Bast, and Sekhmet, and a picture of him and Celeano. He struggles to grasp it, then looks up at Set and yells “Set your smokescreen!” Set looks over, nods and struggles to make is way to the edge of the ship. He pushes a large container near the bow, lights a fuse and forces it over board. It falls towards Apeps face as the dragon turns to face the ship. The container explodes right in front of Apeps face releasing red sand and shrapnel into his eyes. With Apeps stare broken the captain recovers from the paralysis, throws off his helm revealing a bird with golden feathers. “Great work Set!” Ra says. “Thanks Ra!” Set replied. “Alright Set get your spear ready and let’s finish this.” Ra says. Ra commands his ships to fire the remaining harpoons while grabbing one off the deck. The Kluge ships follow suite and launch right after. Ra moves to the edge of the ship, jumps down, and throws the harpoon at Apeps face. Ra lands on the ground and pulls on the chains trying to pull Apeps head forward. Capper and Sekhmet run over and help pull the chain which causes some of the larger minotaurs to join in. Set lowers is helmet grabs his spear stands at the edge of the ship and says, “Here goes nothing.” Luna continues to fend off Reapers attacks before being pushed against the wall. She struggles to defend the onslaught and in a split second and a miscalculation Reaper knocks her spear up and with enough force to release it from her magical hold. In the split second it takes for her to realize she’s open Reaper strikes at her. She quickly puts up a bubble shield but the trident was already close enough it gets lodged inside the forces field. Celestia gets up, shakes off the hit, looks over, and cries out “Luna!” Reapers bears down on his weapon, cracking Lunas shield. He stares at her through the fissures and says, “Become strong again, be the true ruler of these lands, become Nightmare Moon!” His trident slips further into the barrier. “Or you will be destroyed!.” He continued. Luna struggles to keep up bubble and it shatters against Reapers power. Reapers weapon nearly impales Luna but he whipped around and blocked Celestia spear which she had hurled with an immense force. Celestia's spear was burning with golden flames but was deflected by his trident and lodged itself into a wall. Celestia stares with piercing eyes at Reaper, her main almost as fire. She growls, “Stay away from my sister!” “Daybreaker!?” Luna says in shock. On the edge of his ship Set raises his spear then jumps off. He starts a spin to increase the striking power of his weapon. Ra shouts “Alright every creature. Pull!” The dragons head lurches forward just as Set comes into range. He comes out of the spin, locks on, and strike with his full momentum. His blade cuts through the dragons scales with ease. The giant beast bursts into dust and a bright white orb hovered over the battle field for a moment then flew off. Set landed safely on the ground as the dust settled behind him. “Father!” Sekhmet said to Ra. “Good to see you again sweetie! Your sister will be glad to see you unharmed!” “Father?” Capper questioned. “No time for that young feline, we’ve got work to do!” Ra replied. The group fall back and set up a perimeter. They fight the hordes from the ground and use the remaining airships to launch attacks from above. The victory against Apep halted the hordes advance and, with the sun just under the horizon, gave a little momentum back to the creatures of the Badlands. Reaper glances back at Luna and says “Daybreaker?” He looks back at Celestia “Now this IS interesting. Here I thought Luna was weak of will. Who’d of thought my miasma would corrupt the great Princess Celestia!” “Celestia?” Luna questions. “Fear not dear sister, Daybreakers powers and mine are one in the same.” Celestia said. Her main as fire and eyes darkened. "Now get up Luna.” She barked. Luna stands, grabs a hold of her spear for support. “Yes sister, I am up!” She said. “Together we are stronger than this dark spirit, he will not corrupt us, and he can not defeat us!” Celestia reassured. Reaper gives a chilling smile at Celestia and says, “Is that so!” He materializes dark smoke blades and launches them at Celestia. She quickly puts up a shield but at the same time his trident shot backwards striking Luna in the abdomen. Luna gasps and looks at Celestia, while Reaper still grinned. Lunas eyes teared up as she asked “Tia?” “Now you are alone!” Reaper says with glee. Celestia's main and eyes return to normal as she cries out, “Luna!” “Now show me Daybreaker, even more powerful than Nightmare Moon. Show me!” Reaper demands as he pulls his trident form Luna. She falls limp and hits the ground. Celestia closes her eyes filled with tears. “I can’t lose you, not again. Not to him.” Reaper positions his trident next to him and say “Daybreaker does not need—“ Celestia quickly opens her eyes and glares Reaper down. “I am NOT Daybreaker! And I never will be!” She proclaimed. “I am Celestia, Princess of the Sun, ruler of Equestria. And this will be the last time you see the light of day again!” she said. “Hmph, what a waste.” Reaper said disappointingly. He hurled his trident with full force at Celestia. Her horn started to glow and she charged forward. She jumped up and with great reflexes and kicked the weapon aside. She took flight and conjured an ethereal blue bow simultaneously drawing the string and placing Reapers trident in place of an arrow. She imbued the weapon with her light, and raised the sun over the horizon. The beams shot into the broken roof of the throne room, from behind Celestia. It blinded Reaper for moment as she charged her shot with the full power of the Sun. Reaper recovers and quickly morphs into a vicious creature with many eyes, a large circular mouth encircled with teeth, and dark smoky tendrils protruded outward from his mist-form. He flung his writhing extensions toward Celestia from all directions in hopes to snare her and consume her body. She looks directly at Reapers center unphased by his approaching attack and lets loose her arrow. The trident pierces Reaper through and through lodging itself in the ground behind him. With a gaping hole in his mist form body it quivered and shook as he struggle to maintain his form. The trident had torn away his core and it was lodged in the trident. He growls and slowly fades out of existence and the core burst into nothing. The sun began to fully rise over the sandy hill and as the creature of the Badlands continued to fight, the hordes slowly crumble and dissolved into dust. The group cheers on the ground which alerted the airships who also began cheering. Celeano smiled as she peered over the edge then she quickly frowned. She dove off her ship with her crew and landed a few meters away from Ra and his group. Sekhmet sees Celeano and then grabs Capper saying “We’d better go say hi to my brother. Hey Set!” “What why?” Capper asks as he notices Celeano charging forward. “Oh I think you’re right, let’s meet your…brother?” he continued confused to see Sekhmet referring to the fenic fox as her brother. Celeano stomps forward and stops directly behind Ra. With her crew looking on she shouts “Ra!” He turns around while putting his helmet on. “Uhh” he says while rubbing the back of his neck and faces away. She’ll pulls the helmet off and stares him at him. He nervously turns to face her and says, “Well hey there Celeano!” She shoves him and asks “That’s all you have to say?” Ra responds “Well I uhh, but there’s this... And the Storm King.” She hugs him and says, “I thought you were one of them. Where did you go?” “It’s… a long story.” He replied returning the embrace. The rest of Ra's’ crew disembark their ships near Ra and Celeano. Some of the crew were part of his old pirate days and they greet Celeano. Capper walks over and asks, “Hey now, have y’all seen the princesses?” The crew rush to the castle and begin to search the halls and chambers. Ra, Heka, and Capper make their way to the throne room where they find Celestia holding Luna in her arms. Ra, Capper, and Heka run over. “I tried healing her but I used all my energy on Reaper.” Celestia says choking back tears. Heka looks Luna over and says “Here let me see her.” Celestia reluctantly hands Luna over to Heka and he gently lowers her to the ground. He casts a warm light from his horn and Luna's wounds begin to heal. “She’ll need a couple days to rest. And not in a place like this of course.” Heka said. “Thank you.” Celestia replied. They take Luna back to Klugetown and a few Minotaurs, bovine, hippogriffs, and some creatures of Klugetown stay at Sand Dune. The princesses rest while Ra and Celeano catch up on lost time. Sekhmet takes Capper to meet her “siblings”, Bast and Set, as well as the rest of the crew. Ra tells Celeano that she can have Mandjet, his second airship he modeled after Celeanos old ship that was destroyed by Tempest. A couple days later Luna had made a full recovery and Celestia packed their old armor that the bad landers gathered up after the battle. Celestia and Luna boarded Mandjet and Captain Celeano directed them to Canterlot. The ship flies over Canterlot market. Tempest, who was visiting with Starlight and Trixie and drinking a cider, looked up and with wide eyes, gasped choking on her drink and struggled to breath. The airship docks at the balcony behind the throne room and Twilight walks out to meet them. Celestia and Luna disembark the airship and wave goodbye to Celeano and her crew as they fly back home. “Princess Celestia! Luna” Twilight said excitedly. “Princess Twilight!” Celestia said as she, Luna and Twilight give a group hug. Discord blinked in just at the last second and joined in. “Oh it is so good to see you ladies.” Discord chimed. “It’s good to see you too Discord.” Celestia said. “You‘ll never guess what your star pupil accomplished Celestia!” Discord said while pointing at Twilight's wings. “They’re gone!” Celestia said. “Yes but she returned to me my dear Flutter Shy! What an amazing leader she turned out to be aye Princess Celestia.” Discord chimed. “Don’t worry princess I still seem to have all my magic that I had as an alicorn.” Twilight replied. “I don’t know what to say. I don’t think I have ever seen anything like this before.” Celestia said “Well I got my friends back and I managed to rule Equestria, at least for a few weeks while you two were gone!” I think it was a worthwhile trade off. Celestia looks at Luna and says, “I understand how you feel. I’d have given anything to get my sister back.” “But she’s right there.” Twilight said. Celestia chuckles and says, “I’ll tell you about later.” The four walk into the throne room and Twilight's friends, Trixie, Starlight, Tempest, had rushed to the thrown room and Luna's friends, Moonlet, Cherry Tune, Sunny Side, and Nightfall were all there waiting for the princesses return. Sugar Cloud and Sapphire Spark who were also there, started their journey to Equestria after the defeat of Reaper to tell Twilight of the success. Promenade was there with Sunny's’ sister who was being introduced to Sweetie Bell, Apple Bloom and Scutaloo. Celestia and Luna sat on their thrones and smiled as they looked upon the new friendships being made and the bonds created in hard times. They looked at each other with renewed strength and confidence that they could overcome anything. Nightfall, Moonlet, Sunny Side, Promenade, Cherry Tune, Sapphire Spark, and Sugar Cloud came together and discussed each of their minor roles in the past few moons. Even though they were not princesses or, great heros, nor were they royalty or extraordinary ponies, they all played a critical role to each other, the lives of the princesses, and the lives of every creature in Equestria. The End