//------------------------------// // Nightmares // Story: Eclipse Bane // by Nightwing //------------------------------// Your Majesty? Wedge... I think she's fallen asleep. Celestia stood across the throne room, a look of pure sorrow, shame, and regret upon her face. Clad in the armor of Nightmare Moon, Luna stood opposite the chamber with a smirk of pure accomplishment. Nightmare Moon was about to accomplish her mission of bringing about eternal night, even if she had to kill her own sister to do it. Through the stained glass murals within the windows, fading sunlight bled through the colored glass storybooks of old legends as the moon intruded upon the cosmos of twilight. "Luna," Celestia finally called out. "Remember who you are. You aren't Nightmare Moon... You are my sister, to whom I have given my love to for the entirety of our lives. Your night sky, it is of pure beauty. Sister... You are a half of our world that must stay true. Believe in me, in yourself." Nightmare Moon scoffed, the true emotions of the Princess Luna were obscured and locked away. All that remained was the bravado of this dark spirit that had lived within the mare. The dark mare's phantasmal sparkling mane curled and flicked as she shook her head in a soft laugh. "Sister? You think yourself equal to me, Celestia? What power does a single star have against every star of the cosmos? I am infinitely more powerful than you could ever be, and for that, you are unworthy of your title as Princess. Pitiful Equestrians have ignored the unlimited power above them as they slept, basking themselves only in your puny sun. What hope could you--" Celestia shouted, cutting Nightmare Moon off. A droplet of water fell from the Sun Goddess' eye, glimmering like a sapphire before it hit the marble floor. Celestia was in pain, her heart shattered threefold by her sister's betrayal. You must wake up, my lady, there is not much time... "Luna! Listen to yourself! We wanted nothing apart from peace and harmony in our world, and we both took up our responsibilities with joy. Why... Why are you doing this?" Nightmare Moon's expression changed from confident and strong to angered, and even hurt. She stamped her armored hoof firmly upon the marble floor, her horn and body glowing with a midnight-blue aura. She was no longer interested in arguing with Celestia. Your Majesty, please, wake up! Celestia shook her head, multiple jewel-like tears were now streaming down her face. "Luna... I forgive you, for everything. I only hope that you can forgive me for this... If I cannot stop you... Please... Just remember... I love you." The Sun Goddess' voice cracked as the entire room bathed itself in a golden light emanating from Celestia's horn. "Elements of Harmony... Grant me the strength to free my sister from her torment--" "Enough!" Nightmare Moon had charged forward, leading with her magical lance-like horn. "--And restore harmony to Equestria. Grant me the strength to vanquish Nightmare Moon." The entire room emanated a blinding, golden aura as Nightmare Moon came dangerously close to Celestia. ****** "Your Majesty!" Luna heard a stallion's voice call. She jolted her body in surprise violently to discover that she was in the center of the Ponyville library, books and scrolls littered around. I'm having the nightmare again. The recurring nightmare Luna kept experiencing, the conflict between Celestia and Luna that took place one thousand and one years ago, had been occuring every night since Celestia began to change. It was vivid and perfectly recounted through the eyes of the lunar Princess. It was a reminder that Celestia loved her so dearly, even after Nightmare Moon had taken over and betrayed her. It also, ironically, put Luna in the exact same place as Celestia was over a millenium ago. Luna still loved Celestia, and must do everything in her power to save the life of her sister. Luna rubbed her eyes with her hoof, two dark blurs in the room now revealed to her as her eyes scanned the moonlit structure. They were her two final allies. Her most faithful guards, the brothers Biggs and Wedge Darklighter. "Your Majesty," Biggs began to say. "You were asleep, tossing and speaking softly. Wedge and I were worried you were having a nightmare. Is everything okay?" Luna nodded her head, the pain of Celestia's betrayal, and the perfect retelling of the cataclysm over a millenium ago, weighing heavily upon her ability to think clearly. "Thank you, my faithful Biggs. What time is it?" Biggs adjusted his ebony helmet, his bat-like wings folding around his body as he glanced to the undamaged clock. "It's nine-thirty, Your Majesty. You raised the moon just before you began reading, and fell asleep." Wedge chimed in, bringing Celestia a ration of tea with a large smile on his face. "It's not fit for a Princess, Your Majesty, but here, this is my last tea pouch." Luna smiled softly and shook her head. "That is alright, you two need every bit of strength that you can muster. I am grateful to have you both at my side." The Darklighter brothers, Biggs and Wedge, were standard pegasi before Luna returned to Equestria. Their coats were a natural brown, Biggs with a black mane and Wedge with a red mane. Biggs had earned his cutie mark, a silver coin, for his generosity. Wedge's mark was a chef's hat. Although he could have gotten a plenty stable job with his talent of cooking, he wanted to join the Royal Guard more than anything and become a military chef. Both of them were rookies when Luna returned, and were on Canterlot guard duty for most of their career, up until Celestia granted Luna the title of Princess again. That was when Celestia was generous enough to open a separate Guard Corps for her. All of the Guards under Luna's control volunteered for a magical augmentation, which changed their feathered wings into bat wings whenever their armor was donned, and their eyes slightly modified for vision in the dark. Each of the guards were faithful to her, and gladly accepted the augmentation. However, when Celestia began to lose her mind, most of Luna's Guard Corps were forced into abandoning the augmentation by force, if they did not submit immediately, and return to their standard pegasus form. Biggs and Wedge aided in Luna's escape from Canterlot, and are the last of Luna's guards. They would gladly lay down their lives for her. ****** The library was Luna's safe haven for that night. Mere hours ago, she had witnessed the six Heralds of Harmony stand against Celestia at Canterlot, their idol, their Goddess. The image of the six being gripped in a powerful spell and changing into those dark, evil reflections of themselves horrified Luna, knowing that there was nothing that Luna could do to stand up against both Celestia and the corrupted Heralds. Luna did her best to focus her attention to the books before her, searching desperately for a way to stand up to Celestia. "Got 'ny sixes?" Luna heard Wedge say by one of the large windows. "Uhh... No. Go fish," Biggs said in reply. Biggs and Wedge were on watch duty while Luna researched, stationed at the main windows about the structure. Luna understood their boredom, and was not going to scold them for it. She owed them a great deal of compensation for their efforts, and allowed them to play their card game. Luna had searched through a countless number of books within the library, and let out a frustrated sigh at the amount of useless information in the piles of books behind her that was of no use. She had read almost thirty books, desperately searching for a way to free her sister, when quickly, a seemingly average book lay before her that caught her eye. The cover was beaten, yet a lustrous emerald-green. Luna curiously plucked the cover off of the pages, and began to read. The Three Runes of Power Property of Princess Celestia Odd, Luna thought. Why would Twilight Sparkle have one of Celestia's personal books? An ink message on the inside of the book's cover, appearing to be written by Celestia herself, was revealed to her, but the writing seemed jumbled and out of place, the lettering in a completely different alphabet. Luna recognized this alphabet immediately, and with a quick cast of a spell and a touch of her horn, the ink shifted and twisted into legible letters. My faithful student, this tome contains a secret that I would only entrust to the greatest magical power in Equestia. The decoding spell you have used to decipher this message is only known by Luna and I, and if you are reading this, we have decided that it is now time for you to learn a powerful secret. Luna had stumbled upon a rather important book. For Celestia to have encoded the writing with this kind of spell, this powerful secret contained within the tome must be able to help Luna free Celestia. Three Runes, Luna thought to herself. I remember a mention of these Runes from thousands of years ago, when Celestia and I were mere fillies, but I remember nothing else... Although this was personal material, and Luna felt somewhat guilty going through a secret meant for Twilight's eyes, she opened the first page of the book and deciphered the writing of the entire text with the touch of her horn.