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// 4 An Unlikely Alliance 
// Story: The Final Throw of the Dice 
// by Bronyxy 
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Celestia departed safely less than an hour later telling everypony merely that she would be gone on an urgent assignment, but revealing nothing more to anypony other than her sister. She stepped out onto the Royal balcony with saddle bags secured to her back. A number of her advisers stood at a respectful distance and plenty more waited in the grounds below as she rubbed muzzles tenderly with Luna and took off towards the Badlands, the opposite way to her true destination. Luna showed no emotion, but smiled inwardly at the deception as her sister disappeared westwards; then she turned and walked back into the castle, and the seductive siren call of her bed chamber.

Before she allowed herself the luxury of turning in, she went down through the castle to the high security dungeons that held their inconvenient guest. The guard on the enchanted old wooden door had been increased to around a dozen and beside them had been placed a wooden writing desk with a pile of books on it, partially obscured behind which was seated an important looking unicorn.

At her approach, the guards all sprang to attention and the unicorn without looking up from his spellbook muttered something about being rudely interrupted, before rising smartly to his hooves as well the instant he stole a glimpse over his glasses and caught sight of Princess Luna coming towards them. She bade the guards to stand at ease and asked how eventful the shift had been. The senior guard advised having heard nothing suspicious, and the unicorn confirmed that he had not detected any magical activity beyond that which had been used in subduing Chrysalis in the first place. She felt the tension begin to seep away from the understandable misgivings she held from hosting such a malevolent and tricky character.

Nonetheless, something ate at Luna’s mind and she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep properly until she could see for herself that Chrysalis was safely under lock and key.
“Is the door magically sealed?” she asked.
“No, your Majesty” replied the unicorn, “there are four guards and another unicorn in there. It is open so they can get out or raise the alarm if needed.
“How long before you change shifts?” she enquired.
“Another three hours yet, your Majesty.”

Luna nodded, but her eyes flickered with a hint of uncertainty; a sixth sense, possibly? She couldn’t be sure.
“I desire to see the prisoner and her guards for myself please.”
The senior guard nodded imperceptibly to the guard nearest the door and he opened it enough for her to get in.
“Would you like it shut, your Majesty?” the guard asked.
“I shall do it myself if I feel the need, thank you” confirmed Luna, walking into the damp smelling dungeon.

It was quiet.

Four guards, one unicorn and Queen Chrysalis, and it was quiet.

Luna drew further into the room, on her guard.

Suddenly the door shut behind her with a resounding clunk.

“Welcome to my parlour …” came a familiar voice from somewhere in the room.
“…Said the spider to the fly” completed Luna warily, looking around and noticing a green mist clinging to the ceiling.

There was a movement high on the wall above the door and Luna refocused quickly, seeing a black shape scuttle onto the ceiling. She felt a tingle run down her spine and scanned in circles from where she had last seen what she assumed to be Chrysalis.

“I am disappointed you didn’t wear your flower for me this time” came the voice from behind her. She turned quickly and came face to face with Chrysalis, her hooves secured to the ceiling, her body hanging down and her head turned right around so it faced the right way up.

Luna swiped at her, but she had pulled back, just out of reach.
“What have you done, Chrysalis?”
“I have had a wonderful time and now you’re here I can complete my fun.”
“How did you escape?” she persisted.
“Oh, you helped me there, Princess Luna” Chrysalis replied scornfully, “I merely stopped my heart and pretended to be dead. Your minions were terrified in case I died at their hands, so the unicorn set about trying to revive me. However, to check me over, he had to remove the magical protection that you had cast on me. Once my horn was free, I recast the same magic spells that you and your friends had already used against me, so it would seem like it was a continuation of your own spellcasting. And hadn’t you all been so generous in having given me so much magic to choose from?”

Luna shivered at the realisation of how Chrysalis has outsmarted them so easily and so effectively.
“But, where did you get the magical power from? You were exhausted.”

“Another mistake of yours. Two of the guards only volunteered for this duty so they could be together and then take a long time off as a couple, if you know what I mean. It was easy to feed off their love and grow strong.”
“What have you done with them, Chrysalis?” asked Luna, fearing the worst.
The dark Queen slithered down from the ceiling, picking up a sword that lay next to a pile of discarded armour that had recently been vacated by one of the guards, and stood facing Luna, still a safe distance away.

“Five such excellent specimens” she crowed triumphantly, “I cast cocoons around them and hung them from the ceiling. All but one; he was the strongest.”
“Tell me you did not …” began Luna, shocked.
“Mate with him? Why yes, as a matter of fact I did. I will create a whole new hive of changelings in his image now.”
Luna drew her two daggers, wishing she had something that had a longer reach, but determined not to let Chrysalis get the better of her. The two circled each other, each sizing up the other for an attack.

“You have given me everything I set out to get from you, Princess Luna. How stupid do you feel now? How gullible have you been? I couldn’t have got what I wanted any faster if you had lined up and given it to me, and all this time it was you who thought you had me captured!” 
She laughed with contempt as Luna stared back at her, unblinking, calculating, reflexes honed, dangerous.

Chrysalis lunged, sword outstretched, and Luna sidestepped easily, a flash of blue light shooting from her horn, cutting the blade in half. Chrysalis performed her recovery and stood back as the end of her blade clattered across the hard stone floor. Without breaking eye contact, she casually threw the hilt of the sword away with a brief look of disgust.
“You did not riposte” she observed.
“That was not a proper attack” replied Luna.
“Throwing away an advantage?” Chrysalis taunted, “You may not get another.”
“It is only an advantage when I deem it so. If you offer it, then it is but a pretence.”

Chrysalis laughed a hollow echoing laugh.
“You know, I would rather have mated with you. Our offspring would have been unstoppable, but as it is I had to settle for strength alone.”
“You revolt me, Chrysalis.”
“I know” she replied with an evil smile, “Just imagine what I could do to you when I overpower you.”
“Thou canst not goad me.” 
“You’re slipping back into the olde Canterlot tongue, Luna” gloated Chrysalis, her smile broadening, “I am in your head!”
Luna felt anger rising within her, threatening to compromise the clinical insight she needed to give her an advantage over such a tricky adversary. She was good at mind games and so Luna vowed not to let her words turn into doubts that would lead to her own downfall. Her sister would be away for days, so she knew she had to subdue Chrysalis alone or Equestria would be paying a heavy price.

“What was it like, being abandoned on the moon, Luna?”
“You waste your breath.”
Chrysalis threw her head back and laughed, breaking eye contact, just for a second.

Luna saw a chance, a slim chance and lit her horn, firing off a stream of magic. 

Chrysalis cried out in surprise, her vision swamped by blue coloured magic and retaliated by firing off random bolts of her own green energy in Luna’s general direction. The green flashes zipped past her, the closer ones making a fizzing sound as they ripped holes in the very air around her.

Green magic ricocheted crazily around the room, one bolt slamming into the big old wooden door with a resounding echo. The sheer force of the impact told Luna clearly that Chrysalis was no longer merely playing with disarming or freezing spells; this had suddenly become a whole lot more serious.

Luna had no time to stop and look at the damage unfolding around her, but pressed home her attack praying that none of the green energy hit her. She felt a stinging from one of her hindlegs and knew she had sustained an injury, but was not prepared to take the time to look. 

Chrysalis had stopped screaming and had regrouped, able to withstand the lower power magic that Luna had been using to subdue, rather than kill her. She braced herself and focused all of her green energy towards Luna, who dug her hooves in, gritted her teeth and ratcheted up the power of her own magic, pouring lethal amounts of energy towards her adversary. She was fighting not just for Equestria, but her own survival. 

The two streams of magic met in a brilliant flash where the energies collided, forming a magical vortex which edged first one way and then the other as each fought for supremacy. 

The stream of green energy was drawing closer to Luna. She felt something sticky all down her hindleg and it stung, drawing away some of her power when she could least afford it. 

She was losing. 

The thought made her redouble her efforts, but Chrysalis was getting closer; she could not allow her to win, too much lay at stake.

Suddenly she heard a cackle of demonic laughter.

Luna braced herself for the coup de grâce.

It didn’t come.

Instead, she felt an easing of the load on her as something or somepony helped out. She dared not look, but could feel something strangely familiar.

Guards spilled into the room, alerted by the three foot diameter hole that had suddenly appeared in the door, and bore witness to the most amazing spectacle. Three dark coloured ponies were firing very heavy calibre alicorn magic at each other; two against one.

The green energy was finally beaten back, and Chrysalis screamed in horror as she suddenly vanished from the room, her last hollow echoes dying away eerily shortly after.

Luna was dizzy with blood loss and exertion, and slumped to the floor at the hooves of a jet black alicorn with sharp teeth and vertically slit turquoise eyes.
“Nightmare Moon …” she gasped, desperately trying to stay conscious.
“Of course” came the terse reply, “Who else was going to come and save you?”
“But … but why?”
“Oh you silly little Luna” she lectured imperiously, “If you die, I would die too as I am but a projection of you; I am only immortal if you stay alive.”
“I would rather Chrysalis have taken over Equestria than you!” said Luna defiantly, trying to get back onto her hooves and face off another threat, “And if I die this day to protect Equestria, so be it!”

Nightmare Moon brushed aside the words and turned to the guards, raising her wings and presenting a fearsome pose.
“Summon medical assistance NOW!” she barked, “Or your beloved Princess will die!”
The guards and the unicorn with them were riven with indecision; should they protect their Princess from a known enemy of Equestria or instead take her orders?
“NOW!” she repeated firmly, her voice booming as it echoed around the room.
Their minds made up, the guards pressed for the door and ran to fetch the Court Physician.

Luna looked up at her alter-ego. Her vision was fading to grey around the edges as her blood loss continued and she knew she would lose consciousness shortly.
“Where did she go?” she asked weakly.
“I sent her to the moon, of course” replied Nightmare Moon, “The dark side, from where she will never see Equestria for as long as she is banished.”
“And we will not see her …” whispered Luna, her head lolling back against the cold stone floor, her energy spent.

The Court Physician rushed in with an entourage of doctors and nurses, but stopped still when he saw Nightmare Moon standing over his Princess.
“Well?” demanded the black alicorn, “Do not waste time, she is close to death!”
A cursory glance at the spreading pool of blood on the floor confirmed the finality of her words and the medical team sprinted into action as Nightmare Moon watched on.

“There’s too much blood lost!” announced the Physician, “Does anypony know her blood type?”
“There is no time” interrupted Nightmare Moon, “Take blood from me, we are the same.”
He looked up in shock, but realised this was probably the best course of action and quickly applied a tourniquet before inserting a needle and beginning the transfusion.

Nightmare Moon stood imperiously as her blood was drawn off, showing no discomfort as the medical team continued working feverishly on Luna’s hindleg which had suffered an horrendous looking deep flesh injury.
“She’s stabilising” announced the Physician, then turned to the black alicorn, “Are you feeling dizzy?”
“Take as much as you need” she replied. She knew there was no point in protesting, because if Luna died, so did she.
“Thank you, your Majesty” he acknowledged, the term of respect bringing the hint of a smile to her usually cruel face.

After a few more minutes of frantic activity, the medical team seemed a lot happier.
“Your Majesty” said the Physician, “Princess Luna is stable now. Thank you.”
She lifted up her foreleg and he removed the needle. Just as he was inspecting the puncture wound to check for a clean exit, she vanished in front of him.