Starlight had been sleeping in Twilights' Castle, under constant night guard by a decree placed by Celestia. Celestia had issued this with the strange paranormal activity that surrounded Twilights' Castle. while Luna recovered from whatever plagued her deepest psyche. However, it wasn't a peaceful nights sleep, she was being plagued by her own terrors of the night.
Starlight felt the cold and sickening taint of evil magic running rampant through the Crystal Empire as she roamed through the once beutiful place. She saw the Crystal Ponies suffering miserably, their eyes were hollowed out, and their faces were masked by dark shadows.
She noticed that the naturally bright transeunt pelts of the crystal ponies, had all but faded into dull shadows of the former beauty they shared, when the northern lights bathed them in brilliant greens and blues. They were filled with darkness; you could physically see the sorrowful despair filling their very souls.
As Starlight continued to walk through the now tainted Crystal Empire, she saw more suffering and despair. She could see the crystal heart shattered on the ground, blackened from evil magic.
At the front of the Castle entrance, she saw a pile of bodies with a silhouette of a reformed changeling standing upon a mountain of bodies. She moved closer before the ground gave way, dropping her into a graveyard. She rose from the ground that had turned into soil, and when she looked around she noticed that she was surrounded by tombstones, she looked at the graves closely, noticing the name of the one changeling, she didn't wish to see written upon a headstone; and the changelings' name that was written, was 'Thorax,' and soon; She saw undead claws reach out of the grave dragging her down to the depths of Gehenna.
Starlight woke up with a scream, covered in cold sweat. She composed herself after realizing that it was only a terrifying nightmare; she soon heard a voice in her mind that she didn't recognize.
"My Protege will become more powerful then you could ever imagine, and will bring Equestria to its' knees."
However, the night had been restless for another pony who had been suffering in silence deep within her psyche. Luna had been in a fight with her inner demons, while she slept nearly lifelessly, her breathing was shallow, and her body grew colder with each passing moment, her pelt had also grown slightly darker. She was reliving her childhood, and all of the events leading up to becoming Nightmare Moon.
Luna had been trying to fight off the demons' influence with everything in her arsenal, and all of the power she could muster, but as her demons grew stronger she grew weaker. Her magic had been fading rapidly. She knew she would not be able to keep the demon at bay for much longer.
"Luna, stop fighting me... let your inner self-take over, you will have everything you wanted... and more. give into your hate."
"I'll never give into hatred, I have friends now, the ponies of Equestria love and respect me! I will never let you leave here, even if I die trying! I will never release that nightmare from her chains!" Luna glared with disgust at the shade with an insatiable rage.
"You can only keep me here for so long... SUBMIT!" The shade boomed as his claws ignited in bright crimson, draining more of Lunas' magic from her.
Luna howled in pain as she felt the very connection to her magic being torn from her. She resisted slowly turning the beam of red magic from red to blue.
"I will... not argh... let you!" Luna stated weakly as she formed a shield of magic around her and sent the shade flying, repelling its crushing influence. Luna released her magic as the shade recovered. She could feel her strength waning with every time she resisted him, she had to get to her sister somehow, they could only defeat this shade together.
She ignited her horn faintly, exiting her own prison briefly returning to her body, she gasped as she sat up suddenly. Celestia jumped back, she hadn't been expecting Luna to awake.
"Lu-Celestia, I don't have time... you... must... enter the portal... I'm under attack from the shade." Luna opened a portal into the dream world with her last ounce of strength, before she fainted, becoming unconscious again, returning to the prison she created. The portal started to rapidly close. Celestia reacted, diving through the portal within an instant.
This had been the first time she had entered the dream realm. The first thing she noticed was how strange it looked, it was a massive hallway with doors on either side. The floor resembled the universe filled with stars colored in vibrant and soft blues, greens, and reds, swirling together filled with a myriad of different colored stars.
But her admiration had to wait, she heard Lunas screams coming from the door at the end of the hall. The dream world had slowly started to collapse around her, transforming from its majestic beauty into a horrific nightmare.
Celestia galloped towards the end of the hall, trying not to stumble while the world shook and creaked, growing only darker as the very fabric of Lunas' magic was ripped from her body.
Celestia made it to the end of the hall. She blasted the door and it shattered open. She was surprised at how much her magic had grown from entering the dream realm.
Celestia saw her dear sister struggling, Luna had collapsed to her knees and her horn was gradually flickering as her magic began to deplete.
Luna only had enough power to create a small shield to protect her. Celestia added her magic to lunas magic and they started to gain ground. Their combined strength was a formidable force and the shade began to struggle as his sickly red beam began to return.
Luna had started to rise from the ground with her new found strength. However, the shade bellowed a rage-filled cry before moving his sickly claws together increasing his magics' strength, absorbing both luna and Celestias' magic at the same time.
The beam gradually became wider and more potent, the shade started gaining ground once again in the epic game of magical tug of war. It wasn't long till Celestias' magic began to wane.
The shade only seemed to grow stronger before it all but completely shorted out Celestias magic, hitting luna directly as her shield finally shattered, and the beam made contact with Luna's chest. Luna screamed in pain as the prison fell apart, leaving nothing but a void of what it once was.
"LULU! NO!" Celestia screamed before she was sent flying as Lunas' horn, shattered into midnight blue shards.
Celestia fell from the shockwave as Lunas' horn shattered. She looked up and she saw a pony she recognized but hadn't seen in over a century.
"WHAT... NO, IT CAN'T BE... YOU'RE DEAD!" Celestia exclaimed with shock.