//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9 - The beginning of the end 
// Story: Old Mare Luna 
// by Leondude 
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"You want to know what happened?" Luna asked Discord. "You want to know why I haven't been doing my duties or protecting my subjects?" She sighed resignedly. "It all started was on the day Sombra returned. The day Grogar had assembled Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow together to take over Equestria."





Five hundred years in the past, Twilight and her friends were desperately trying their hardest to stop the Everfree Forest from getting into Ponyville, with little to no avail. Then Luna and Celestia flew down from the skies, destroying the invading vines with only a couple of blasts from their horns.

"I know we're supposed to be able to handle things on our own" Applejack said, "But I've never been happier to see two ponies in my whole life!"

Just when they thought they could get all the help they need, Star-Swirl teleported right next to them, ready to assist them.

"Nopony is meant to handle this on their own," Star-Swirl declared.

"Star-Swirl!" Twilight called out. "The Tree of Harmony! It's-"

"Destroyed. I know," Star-Swirl said matter-of-factly. "I alerted Celestia and Luna about it as soon as it happened."

"I-I am so sorry, Star-Swirl. There was nothing I could do, and…"

"It's fine. Really, it is," Star-Swirl said. "Trees can be replanted, but ponies like you can't be." 

Star-Swirl walked to where the princesses were, lifted himself up, and blasted away the vines with a powerful wave of his magic before descending in between the princesses and using powerful blasts to keep the Everfree Forest at bay. 

Twilight then ran up to Celestia. "But Sombra's taken control of Canterlot and placed its citizens under his spell!" Celestia and Luna exchanged worried looks as they realized they left Canterlot defenceless.

"Then, you must go, Twilight," Celestia announced. "Go, defend Equestria. We're all counting on you.".

But little did everypony know that, rather than redecorate the throne room, which he can do later, Sombra watched as Twilight and her friends teleported in front of the castle that was protected by his mind-controlled forces.

"So those little ponies have freed themselves from their little prison" Sombra mused to himself "Perhaps I should have destroyed them when I had the chance. Ah, but where's the fun in that?"

He then looked into the distance and noticed Luna, Celestia and Star-Swirl blasting away at the writhing mass of vines coming from the Everfree Forest.

"No matter, I have one last trick up my sleeve."

While blasting away at the vines, Luna was suddenly struck by a blast of magic, knocking her down. When she got back up, Celestia and Star-Swirl were nowhere to be found. Instead, she was face-to-face with Sombra and Chrysalis.

"Hello there, Luna," Sombra said, "I hope you're ready for the big one".

Luna tried to attack but Sombra used his magic to slam her into a tree.

"Do you have any idea how many villains you, your sister and those meddling little foals have faced? It was only a matter of time before somepony organized all that latent talent."

Luna was then surrounded by foes from Equestria's past, some of which were even residents of Tartarus. Luna pawed at the soft earth beneath her and charged at the monsters in front of her.

"We've brought our greatest minds together and worked the whole thing out" Sombra boasted. "What chance do you and your little friends have for beating us this ti-"

Before Sombra can finish his sentence, Luna compressed the air in front of her into a blade and impaled him through his black heart. He impaled sharply and staggered back, eventually teleporting out of sight. While Celestia and Luna never had to take a life for the sake of Equestria before, she felt there was no other way. Especially considering how Sombra was destroyed the last time he returned. She then started attacking the other villains facing her. She slashed them into ribbons with spinning blades of wind, blasted them into dust with navy blue beams of magic, even stomped their heads into red paste for good measure. She was starting to grow exhausted, frustrated at the absence of her sister and their mentor.

"Where the Tartarus is everypony?"

Soon enough, Chrysalis, looking relatively unscathed,  started attacking, throwing Luna into one of the dark crystals Sombra left behind. Luna screamed as the crystal cut into her abdomen. She fell to the floor and looked at the gash left by the crystal. She quickly got up and charged into Chrysalis before blasting her with a powerful beam of magic. She then flew up and noticed that her worst nightmare, the Tantabus, had returned as well and, in a fit of panic and anger, blasted the Tantabus as hard as she could.  She hovered back down to earth, exhausted by the amount of energy that attack had cost her. It was enough for her to be pinned down by Chrysalis, who had survived Luna's previous attack. Luna then quickly charged at Chrysalis and started throwing punches at Chrysalis with bursts of magic in between. They fought for about ten minutes but it felt ten times longer, taking chunks out of each-other all the way. In spite of all the injuries Luna was receiving, she was not going to give up. She can tell that the villains are through playing around this time. She shuddered at the thought of what Chrysalis would do everypony once she got her hooves on them. With all of her strength, she impaled Chrysalis through the heart before pulling out, knocked her down onto the floor and started beating in her head until it was all swollen and Luna's hooves were aching, roaring animalistically all the while. When Luna finally stopped from exhaustion, one word managed to escape Chrysalis' bloated, bruised mouth.

"Why?"

But Chrysalis did not say it in her voice. She said it in Celestia's. This caught Luna off-guard. Everything started fading away and standing right next to her was King Sombra, no worse for wear.

"My my my," Sombra said in a mocking tone. "Did you really think you could do this alone, Luna? Did you seriously think you alone could defeat all of us?" Sombra scoffed. "And they say I have delusions of grandeur."

Luna looked down in horror as "Chrysalis" turned into Celestia, all bloodied and bruised as a result of Luna's vicious attack on her, with a gaping stab wound in her chest. And then looked around to see piles of pony corpses covered in blood, some of them scorched as a result of Luna's magical attacks. There were even some ponies impaled on the dark crystals Sombra was fond of making. And right in the centre were the burnt remains of Twilight and her friends, all with petrified faces of terror. 






Back in the present, Luna simply stared off into the campfire she and Discord made. While Luna was overcome with a wave of guilt and grief, Discord just glared daggers at her. Luna then turned to Discord and noticed the hate-filled look in his eyes, something she never expected from the happy-go-lucky if mischievous draconequus. And then Discord seized Luna by the throat and brought her closer to him.

"You killed Fluttershy?" he snarled, his tone devoid of his usual cheeriness.

"I...I didn't know!" Luna said through gasps of air, choking because of Discord's grip on her. Tears were running down her eyes as well. While Discord felt very tempted to unload five centuries of grief onto Luna in the most painful way possible, he realized that's not what Fluttershy would have wanted.

"I-I'm sorry," Discord said mournfully as he let Luna go. "It's just that I missed her so much that I thought, maybe if I found out who took her from me, I would feel better. Maybe I would finally be able to accept it."

"I know how you feel. I thought about subjecting Sombra to every horrendous torture he dealt out to everypony else before finally ending his evil once and for all!" Luna sighed. "But, alas,  that is not the way we do things. Or rather, not the way we did things."

"I spent one century in the stage of denial, pretending that a pillow was Fluttershy. After that, I spent the next century smashing everything in my house in a fit of rage. The century after that, I was begging for anyone, even Grogar, to bring Fluttershy back. I spent the century after that in my house sinking into a deep depression. I thought that when I get to the stage of 'acceptance', the pain would go away. But it didn't. Not even when I met new friends." 

Luna and Discord gazed mournfully at the campfire, thinking about the past. Eventually, storm clouds gathered above them and it started to rain, putting out the campfire. Discord then turned back to Luna.

"You know how I said Tirek stole my magic?"

"Yes, why?" Luna raised an eyebrow.

Discord snapped his fingers, making the rain stop and reigniting the campfire.

"I lied. I just wanted an excuse to hang out with the only friend I knew from before all of this that was still alive. I'm sorry for dragging you into this."

"It's okay, Discord. I understand."