Disclaimer – I own none of the cannon characters, settings, or locations contained herein. All ownership credit goes to Hasbro/Lauren Faust respectively.
Chapter 2: Revelation
Celestia slowly backed away from the bound and chained figure of Nightmare Moon before her. The six chains glowed brightly, each with a different hue of the rainbow and binding a different part of her body before seeming to sink back down into the active magical seal beneath her. Yet Celestia took no notice whatsoever of Nightmare’s shackled state, instead only seeing her most dreaded foe before her. The very same foe that had enslaved her sister, nearly destroyed both her and Equestria, and finally forced her to banish both Nightmare and her own sister to the moon.
“You… you MONSTER!” Celestia spat, her face twisted into an enraged snarl. She began charging her horn with arcane solar magic.
“What have you done to Luna? I will NOT allow you to take her from me again!”
“Calm down Celestia. What are you going on about?” Nightmare Moon asked as her wobbling hind legs gave out and she fell to sit on her haunches with a rattle of chains.
“Give me my sister back!” Celestia cried, continuing to build power into her horn. She flared her wings and crouched into a fighting stance.
Nightmare tilted her head to the side and sighed deeply, giving Celestia a confused and exasperated look.
“In case you failed to notice princess, you can see her right over-”
“GIVE HER BACK!” Celestia shrieked, launching her attack at the dark alicorn.
As Nightmare immediately began to struggle against the chains in wide eyed horror of the impending and unavoidable attack, time seemed to slow around them. Celestia caught movement in her peripheral vision and flicked her eyes to the perceived threat only to catch sight of the large mirror in the room. Her heart nearly stopped as she saw Luna in the mirrors reflection where Nightmare should have been, her small fore hooves beating uselessly against the other side of the mirror as she shook her head frantically.
The beam of destructive solar magic slammed into the desperately struggling Nightmare Moon, throwing her to the ground with a sharp scream. She would have probably been thrown clear through the next three walls had the chains around her not halted her progress with a horrendous metal on metal screech. All of the energy behind the initial concussive force was immediately absorbed into the glowing chains and converted to crackling, arcing electricity. The electricity coursed through Nightmare’s fallen body, causing her to spasm and seize violently. Soon the air in the chamber began to fill with the sickening smell of burning hair and seared flesh as the chains heated up. Nightmare continued to scream for several torturous moments until the energy in the chains had subsided.
Celestia galloped across the room, ignoring the shuddering and smoking form of Nightmare. She was confident that Nightmare would take a minute getting up from her attack, giving her precious time to attempt to free her sister from the mirror prison. She skidded to a halt before the mirror that contained Luna and pressed her fore hooves against the surface.
“LUNA! LUNA! Can you hear me!?” Celestia plead desperately with the mirror image of her sister.
Tears were streaming down Luna’s face as she turned and fixed Celestia with an utterly soul crushing glare. Seeing this, Celestia backed up slightly as Luna began gesticulating wildly between Celestia and the downed Nightmare while she appeared to be screaming at her sister, although no sound was produced through the mirror. Celestia was lost until she began reading the words on her sister’s muzzle as she repeated one phase over and again. After a moment it dawned on Celestia that Luna was repeating the words, ‘You swore’. Recalling her oath before the start of the spell, Celestia’s heart sank lower than she could have believed. Although they had not put any stakes on it, an oath taken by an alicorn was not to be broken, ever. Inexplicably, Luna seemed to be fine with Nightmare being out there, while the idea made Celestia's head swim.
Once Luna saw the look of comprehension take on her sister’s face she then pointed to her horn, then to Celestia, shook her head and then gestured towards the still prone Nightmare Moon. After repeating the action a few more times Celestia understood the meaning once again, she was not to attack Nightmare again. Nodding to her sister, Celestia steeled herself and turned to gaze at the dark alicorn lying on the floor. Seeing minimal movement, and none that appeared threatening in the least, she got to her hooves and began to slowly walk to the clearly injured Nightmare. Once within a dozen paces she stopped as she heard barely audible whispers coming from Nightmare’s mouth.
“L...Lu…Lu-na. Y-You saaaid she w-wouldn-n’t hurt m-m-me… ” Nightmare then began to whimper softly in clearly extreme amounts of pain.
Celestia could not help feel like she was walking straight into an elaborate trap as she approached the fallen Nightmare. Her wings flared and lighting her horn to prepare as powerful a shielding spell as she could. Any second she expected Nightmare to leap to her hooves and blast her with corrosive dark energy, or sink her horrific fangs into her neck. Memories of her last encounter with Nightmare Moon coursed through her mind at dizzying speed. The last time they had been this close to each other the situation had been reversed. Celestia had been lying on the cold floor, broken and bleeding, just before summoning the Elements and banishing Nightmare and Luna to the moon.
As Nightmare looked up she noticed Celestia approaching her, wings outstretched, horn lit, and wearing a grim face. This sight caused Nightmare to cringe and close her eyes, bracing herself as best she could for the expected follow up attack.
“N-no… Luna h-help me…” The once mighty dark mare whimpered helplessly from her prone position.
Nightmare could not even protect herself as her shackled limbs still refused any commands. After several moments of silence and no pain went by, Nightmare slowly opened one of her eyes to look up at Celestia. She had folded her wings back down and undone the magic she had been preparing, and now moved to stand apprehensively before her. The movement caused Nightmare to cringe again involuntarily but otherwise keep still and silent.
Celestia looked back to the mirror to see her sister nodding her head and then pointing at the two of them, urging her to continue this course of action. Her memories screamed at her not to get any closer to the dark mare before her, but her love for her sister fought back and made her press forward. With a titanic force of will, she stopped next to Nightmare and lowered herself onto her haunches, all limbs tensioned like springs. After another moment of hesitant silence, Celestia finally spoke to Nightmare with a clipped, but no longer enraged tone of voice.
“Nightmare Moon… I never envisioned myself saying this to you of all ponies… but I… I am sorry, for attacking you unprovoked.”
The look on Celestia’s face suggested that apologizing to Nightmare for anything left a deeply bitter taste in her mouth. For her part, Nightmare looked up at Celestia and understood that as weak as she already looked right now, sneering and haughtiness would fool no one. Being who she was, she instead opted for the blunt trauma of venting her anger.
“A-as well you s-should be witch! Did you e-even stop to consider if a-attacking me would hurt Luna as w-well?”
How Celestia managed to visibly blanch under a white coat was anyponys guess. But the weight of Nightmare’s words must have hit the right spot, for that is just what she did. Beneath her, Nightmare was beginning to regain most of her motor control. Along with her physical self control, Nightmare found her temper flaring, tamping down her pain with righteous indignation.
“I would never-“
“And yet you just did! Without a second thought to breaking the oath you had just given her! How responsible is the mighty Celestia when her word clearly means so little?”
Nightmare hissed in both pain and anger as she managed to raise her head from the floor to glare at the white alicorn. Her glistening fangs and draconic eyes gave her an intimidating aura despite her clearly debased position. Celestia sat in silence for a moment before looking at Nightmare again and none too gracefully attempted to shift the conversation from her guilty actions.
“Enough Nightmare, I said I was sorry for attacking you, you can choose to take it for what it is worth or not. Now what of my sister? Why and how did you imprison her within that mirror?”
“Imprison? After all we have been through, why would I…” Nightmare’s statement drifted off as she surveyed the scene before her and the recalled the actions that it had resulted in.
“Ah, now I get it. I suppose this does not look good from another perspective.” Celestia slowly nodded at this.
“Explain yourself Nightmare. I am willing to listen for Luna’s sake, but don’t you dare test my patience.”
“Well isn’t that a pleasant change of attitude.” Nightmare snidely muttered mostly to herself before turning her head to look at the mirror and continue what seemed to be a private dialogue with Luna.
“Yes, yes, fine, I said I would try... But she attacked me... No, but… I can’t help it if her royal fat flank has trust issues!”
Celestia raised an eyebrow at Nightmare’s monologue and decided to get her attention before she was lost completely in her own private world. She had no time for the ramblings of a mad mare.
“EH-HEM…”
With a start Nightmare snapped back into the present situation and looked at Celestia’s un-amused expression.
“Right, I guess you want to know about dear Luna. First off, she is just fine, we merely… switched places for a while. With the aid of this spell we created, and the light of the moon, she has receded within our mind while I am once again in the physical realm. The mirror that you can see her in over there? It is affected by this same spell, projecting the image of her consciousness onto it once the summoning spell activates.”
“And how does my sister come back?”
“Once the spell is ended we will switch again. She will likely be exhausted, but no worse for the wear.”
Celestia let out a sigh of relief once she looked back to the mirror and saw Luna confirming Nightmare’s words with a nod of her head. It seemed that her earlier attack had not harmed Luna after all.
“Now a question for you Celestia, what do you know of the relationship between Luna and I?”
Celestia gave Nightmare a hard look and responded without hesitation.
“I may not know exactly how you came to be, but I do know what you are responsible for. You corrupted my sister, poisoning her mind with false thoughts, turning her against me. When she was finally broken by your deceit you possessed her body and tried to disrupt the rhythm of day and night. In the end you fought against me and lost to the power of the Elements of Harmony.”
“Hmmm. A tenuous grasp of the basics at best I suppose. Very well then, allow me to enlighten you as to just what Luna and I represent to each other.”
With a strained grunt and a clatter of chains, Nightmare shifted from her side to lay down on her belly. Taking a moment to catch her breath and collect her thoughts, she stared down at her hooves. This would not be easy, and the rational side of her knew that Celestia would be hard to convince of anything. Gritting her sharpened teeth and taking a deep breath, Nightmare looked into Celestia’s eyes as she began.
“The simple way of stating it is that we are two minds in one body. Naturally our situation is a bit more complicated than that though. More properly, we are differing facets of the same mind in one body. I embody most of Luna’s strongest emotions and subconscious desires. I am her confidence and the expression of the apogee of her power.”
“How do you mean ‘differing facets’?” Celestia interjected.
“Hmmm. It is difficult to explain to one who has never experienced it. Our thoughts are shared and we can tell what the other is feeling or experiencing through our intrinsic link. We are somewhat like twins in that our opinions rarely differ, although I am more confident and impulsive in how I deal with things. Because of this, Luna listened to me when she was hurt and alone before our imprisonment.”
“And whose idea was all this?” Celestia asked, indicating the spell seal.
“It was both of ours actually, but for different reasons. Luna only wants to try to save me, and I want to see her restored to her rightful immortal glory. In Luna’s perfect scenario both events would occur.”
Celestia sat and contemplated what the strangely amicable Nightmare had been revealing to her. Could she really be so altruistic as to want the best for Luna? That didn’t fit in with what she knew of Nightmare Moon. Then again, she had only really interacted with her while in combat for about an hour or so a thousand years ago. Deciding she still needed time to decide if she trusted the dark mare, Celestia opted to prod for more information.
“Indeed. Now tell me, when did you first take residence in my sister’s mind?”
“Perhaps some background first, since I am sure you must have forgotten the fundamentals after so long. When an immortal magic user begins to realize their power, there is a common experience that they all go through without exception. I am speaking of the introspective journey into one’s own subconscious realm. It is here that they gain an understanding of the nature of their magic and the power potential that they have. For Luna the resulting effects of her actions during this journey created me.”
Waiting for the expected outburst of denial or confusion from Celestia, Nightmare paused in her explanation for a moment. Seeing Celestia carefully studying her, yet not interrupting she chose to continue.
“When Luna looked within herself she beheld the infinite darkness that was the source of her power and strength. While some see a beautiful aurora or others a village turned upside down and inside out, Luna only saw herself, alone in the darkness, with no concept of the potential it held. For a filly at that developmental level, even with her affinity for darkness, she reacted quite naturally. She panicked. In her desperation to escape the darkness she rejected it, putting up mental barriers and partitions to keep the darkness at bay. You must remember this from when she was a little filly. Did she not have a rather large setback as she should have ascended to her role?”
Celestia sat in silence as she searched her memory, and sure enough Nightmare’s words rang true. Just as Luna had reached the age of about one hundred fifty years old and she was preparing to take on the responsibilities of the night, she had seemingly shut down magically. Their father and mother had done all that they could to encourage her to embrace her power, but for the next fifty years it seemed as though the moon was beyond her grasp. Yet, one day, out of the blue seemingly, Luna had changed. She had taken hold of her power with a vengeance, and was given the reigns of the night from her father to make it her own.
“Yes, father began to wonder if she was sick.” She slowly admitted.
“When a magic user of immortal caliber denies their own essence and attempts to cut it off from themselves it does tend to have adverse effects. However for Luna, she did not cut all of her power source off, merely dividing it into both a majority and paltry remainder set. The remainder of what she had still had part of the divine spark to it and allowed her to remain immortal. Eventually as the reserve she was left with grew and developed, she in turn began to develop normally once more. The next time she peered within herself, her barriers were in place and she was not afraid.”
Nightmare paused to let Celestia absorb the information. She knew that with Celestia’s lack of trust for her, she would be mentally cross checking everything she said against her own memory of their childhood. As Nightmare waited and caught her breath, she attempted to gauge the white alicorn’s acceptance of what she was being told. It looked like she was grudgingly going along with the history lesson, perhaps miracles did occur.
“After her first contact with her essence an imprint was formed, but when she abruptly broke contact before the process completed and attempted to seal her power, what she ended up creating was more or less an egg. This egg contained most of her power and a chunk of some of her personality traits.”
“Are you saying that… you are the result of what happened to Luna as a filly? I don’t believe that for a second. You are a demon! A foreign spirit that has latched onto my sister against her will!”
“Settle yourself Celestia. How else would I know the intimate details of her life? Look to Luna if you doubt my words. She can hear you through me, so go ahead and ask away.”
Celestia rose to all fours and turned her head to look at the mirror that Luna stood within. Luna looked at her and pressed a single fore hoof to the mirrors surface and slowly nodded her head, her wings hanging limply at her sides. Celestia beheld the exhausted look in her sister’s eyes and turned back to Nightmare.
“What is wrong with her?”
“Hmmm, she is reaching her limit for the night it seems, and I tire of explaining myself to you. Step outside the circle and we will switch places again. You likely have much to discuss together anyway.”
Eager to have her sister returned and her old antagonist gone once more, Celestia needed no further encouragement to quickly trot outside the circle borders. With what looked to be a colossal effort, Nightmare rose to a sitting position with a rattle of chains. Her eyes were closed and she was gasping for breath, but she focused a small amount of power into her horn. As she did, Luna disappeared from the mirror and the seal on the floor began to slow down its rotations. With a final grunt of effort Nightmare was swallowed by the black fire that appeared around her hooves.
As Celestia watched the dark mass reduced in size, the chains around it went taut and dragged the dark form under the surface of the seal like it was a giant quick sand pit. Once the chains were gone, all of the light was suddenly stolen from the room for a moment as the seal stopped rotating. With a thoroughly anticlimactic POOF the lights slowly returned to reveal Luna where Nightmare had been not but a minute before.
Celestia galloped to her sister’s side as Luna’s shaky legs gave out in complete physical exhaustion. Scooping Luna up in her forelimbs, Celestia immediately began to nuzzle her sister furiously, attempting to ease away any pain. Luna cracked an eye half open, weakly nuzzling her sister back and spoke in barely a whispers volume.
“Sister… so tired…”
“Of course sister, I will carry you back to my room. You need to rest.”
Celestia levitated her sister onto her back only to feel Luna begin to struggle weakly before her movements slowed and her breathing pattern went slow and steady. Turning her head and angling an ear towards her sister she heard Luna murmur softly before falling into sleep.
“Noooo… Tia, iz ‘mbarass… ing…”
Smiling softly and using her wings to keep her sister comfortably positioned Celestia slowly made her way to the door. Undoing the wards on the door she stepped out into the hall and was greeted by a puzzled look from the waiting guards. The confusion in their eyes was evident as they glanced between the passed out night princess on her back and Celestia.
“Gentlecolts, please have tea sent to my chambers for my sister and I.”
Snapping into action one of the guards saluted and peeled away, marching towards the kitchen area. Celestia looked back to see her sister sleeping peacefully on her back and then began towards her own room, the remaining guards falling in behind her. As she walked on in more or less auto pilot mode, her thoughts were divided between her peacefully slumbering sister and the shackled monster she knew was somewhere within. Something had to be done, and soon, but what?