The evening air was cool as the sun slowly lowered towards the horizons.
The winds passed over the sea of dunes slowly, picking up some sand to be taken elsewhere.
Somewhere in the dunes, there was an ancient castle. The sandblasted towers stood over the sea of sand like lighthouses over the ocean and the walls protected anything within from the frequent sandstorms that raged across the land. It was a safe haven from the hostile desert and a place to project immense power from.
Yet, no one was to be seen anywhere. There was no settlement nearby or around the castle like there usually would be. Not a single soul roamed the dunes around the castle and none had for a long time for the Sun Goddess had forbade anyone from entering the area a long time ago, even before the desert was there.
The grand castle stood alone for a long time, half buried in the dunes, a testament to the feats of architecture that ancient Equestria created. No one was there to witness the strength of the structure, however.
The wind started picking up.
The sun continued its decent and when it was just about to dip beneath the horizon, it stopped. The wind continued getting stronger, heralding a sandstorm.
Unseen by the world, ancient magic within the castle started reacting to the return of someone. Runes half covered by sand started glowing a rich red colour as the moon slowly became visible over the horizon opposite to the sun. Spellwork from a millennia ago started gathering magic, a lot of magic. That magic was pushed into runes that continued glowing brighter and brighter as the moon stopped in its position at the very edge of the horizon.
The face of the Mare in the Moon could be seen on it one moment, and in the next, it vanished. A thin beam of light shot from the moon and into the castle through a broken window and directly onto the runes that had reached the zenith of their power.
The Mare in the Moon, Nightmare Moon, was finally returning. The beam of light hit the centre of the circular rune and a flash of light followed. The rune, made to kill whatever was in its circle, set off and the room flashed once again, this time with red light as the pent up magic was channelled into the circle to tear apart the being within with sheer power.
It became quiet in the room once more.
The sandstorm outside started pouring sand into the castle through broken windows.
A groan could be heard in the room. This was followed by a dark furred mare sitting up and rubbing her head to alleviate her headache. She sat there for a minute as the sand piled around her slowly, rubbing her forehead before stopping suddenly.
She lowered her hoof and looked around the room she was in as if anticipating an attack. However, the only thing she saw was the sand slowly filling the abandoned structure. She continued looking and spotted the twin thrones on the raised platform at the end of the room. She was back here at the place where the fight had taken place all those years ago, in the throne room where both sisters once ruled Equestria from.
'Back here once again, though I am disappointed that Celestia didn't come here by herself to fight us.' a voice said in the mare's head. It seemed that Nightmare Moon was not yet aware of her surroundings.
"She did leave a rune trap..." Luna said as she shook her wings to remove the sand they had picked up, "and a lot of sand."
'Bah! A rune trap is no match for a Goddess. She insults us by thinking this can stop us.' the voice replied. Luna shook her head. She could waste time arguing later but right now she had to figure out what had happened in the time she was gone.
The castle, once the centre of the capital city, was now in ruins and seemed like it had been abandoned long ago. There was also the question of how all the sand got there but it had to wait as the sandstorm outside continued raging on.
In the meantime, she looked herself over. Her iron armour was still on her form. Her fur was dark colour between her original blue and black. Her mane was as it was, moving like the northern lights. Her wings were not the wings of a pegasus but those of a bat. She felt her fangs with her tongue as she made sure that none of the sand got in her mouth.
She sighed as she took flight up to one of the broken windows. She summoned a shield in front of her face to protect her eyes from sand blowing in. Outside, she could not see much other than the raging sandstorm.
She sighed. Did nopony care for her return or was she forgotten by history? She had become one with Nightmare to defeat her sister and gain her subjects respect and admiration but here she was, sitting alone in the ruins of her home. Not a single soul was there to welcome her or even to stop her. Was it her fate to be ignored and forgotten by everyone she cared for?
A glint of light caught her eye. She looked again and saw it once more.
Somewhere in the sandstorm, was a light shining like a beacon in the dark. She felt overjoyed. Somepony had come for her; she had not been forgotten yet!
'Careful, it could be somepony here to end us.' Nightmare warned.
Luna registered the warning and continued waiting. The light was getting closer by the second, getting brighter and larger. Luna was happy until she realised something. The light probably belonged to a carriage and it was not slowing down. She made out the dark form the light was attached to get bigger rapidly as it approached her without slowing down.
She stopped her hover in front of the window and fell to the sand covered floor. Moments later the walls around her shook as something hit the castle hard. She looked up to the window she had been hovering next to saw that a wooden hull reminiscent of a ship had broken through the wall and occupied the space she was at moments ago. She caught the sight of a metal hatch on the bottom, between two large metal rings which were glowing yellow attached to either side of the hull.
The rings emitted a continuous hum along with the yellow light and Luna could feel the magical energies flowing through them.
The hatch shook a bit before opening inwards. A light was shined through the opening and a unicorn mare peeked her head through the hatch looking around before her eyes spotted Luna. Both of them stared at each other for a moment. Luna could see wrinkles and scars on her face and could tell that she was an old pony.
They stared at eac other for what seemed to be a long time before the unicorn quickly jumped down from the hatch and scampered up to her. Luna could not react quickly enough and the pony was already bowing in front of her.
"Moon goddess, you've finally returned!" the pony said with great happiness and relief.