//------------------------------//
// Chapter ???: 
// Story: Beyond Our Harmony 
// by Hyperspace Nomad 
//------------------------------//

<WARNING>
<DOMAIN PARAMETERS COMPROMISED>
<PROHIBITED BLUE DATA CONSTRUCT DETECED>
<POINT S1004593.34674/5004.27836/555.98885 T25257.54/544/232 C99.8/15.34/3.12>
<CHECK>
…
….
…..
<COMPLETE>
<EXECUTING PROVISIONS: TIER 4 PURGE : REPAIR-FROM-COURSE-DATA>
<TARGETS : OBJECT –LIT98-566854-TEXT : BEING-1-CLASS-7M-ORDER-1”LUNA”  SUBSET RANGE: T-R 0.001/0/0  >
<>
….
<PROVISION 1-1: COMPLETE>
<PROVISION: 1-2:  ERROR-RESISTANCE >
<PROVISION :2-1:  ERROR-RESISTANCE >
…..
…..
……
<WARNING>
<TIER 2 RESISTANT FORCE DETECTED>
<EXECUTING PROVISIONS: ACTIVE NODE PILOT ALERT “NOBLE III-B” :  SUBNODE : BEING-1-CLASS-7M-ORDER-2 : ”CELESTIA”  >
<PROVISION 1-1: COMPLETE>
<ASSUMING DIRECT NODE CONTROL>
………………….



Celestia’s whole world went dark. 

Her head was pulsing with a sharp pain.

Everything was dead silent.

At first, the Sun Princess felt panic race through her. She had just suddenly seemed to ‘black-out’. Was she being assaulted by some sort of magic? She quickly tried to calm herself and locate the source of the attacker to cast a counter-spell.

Nothing.

There was nothing there.

It was like she was in an empty void.

It was immediately after this thought that strange sensations and thoughts being to read themselves in her mind. They were completely alien to her and at the same time completely familiar. A sort of mental message rang through her mind. It was like information was being directly injected into her head.

<WARNING>
<DOMAIN COMPROMISED>
<POINT S1004593.34674/5004.27836/555.98885 T25257.54/544/232 C99.8/15.34/3.12>
<PROVISIONAL FAILURE>

She did not hear or see this message; the message was in her mind and thoughts, yet still somewhat separate from her. It rang in a format and language that Celestia had no knowledge of yet could understand it completely.

“What?...... Hello?.......... Hello?! What is the meaning of this?..... Who is there?”

At first there was no response, but quickly her mind became a torrent of information as countless visions flashed through her mind. Her panic only made these actions more chaotic. It was not until she caught a glimpse of a familiar Blue pony that Celestia’s mind snapped back into focus.

“Luna!” Celestia yelped.

With this thought, the cycling of information ceased and returned to the vision that sparked Celestia’s curiosity.

<PURPLE-GREEN-BLUE : SURVEY-COURSE-DATA : BEING-1-CLASS-7M-ORDER-1”LUNA”    POINT T25257.81/544/232>

Celestia found herself in the hall of harmony. It seemed to be late at night judging by the darkness outside.

No, that could not be right. Celestia recalled that It was around mid morning.

As she looked around, she saw Luna further down the hall, with her back to the elements of Harmony resting on the pedestal.

“Luna!” Celestia called out but Luna did not respond.

The Princes of the night showed a look of intense bitterness.

“Luna please!” A voice rang out from behind Celestia, it was the same as her own but strangely not of her own. Celestia quickly spun around to find an almost mirror image of herself standing near the doorway to the hall with a look of intense worry and sorrow.

“Luna, please do not go down this path!” The new Celestia cried out.

“What ever happened to the all high-and-mighty princess of the sun? Why could you not just stop taking all the love and glory and never once considered how I ever felt! I am only doing this for myself because you would not!” Luna shot back

“Luna, using dark magic will never bring you anything other than suffering!”

“It seems clear to me now that nopony will ever like me. If I cannot find fulfillment in their love, then I will simply become what they want me to be and find enjoyment in their FEAR!”

“Ponies need both the night and day Luna! Let me show you just how much they do like you!”

“You lie sister and your time for any sort of redemption has long since passed!” Luna spun around with her horn and hooves covered in a black haze. She plunged her hooves down onto the six stones and begun to extract energy. The powers of harmony she absorbed became tainted and twisted as they fused with her.  The night princess was quickly engulfed in a dark aura as her form began to shift. 

Both Celestias began to charge at the mist, disregarding any safety on their own part.  The first Celestia made impact, tossing the jet black mare off her feet. However, as she ceased direct contact, the mare simply snapped back into position as if time had just undone her action.

Finally, the second Celestia tackled Luna and disrupted the transformation. Both mares were flung in opposite directs has the first Celestia could only barely watch from a paralyzing state of shock.

As both of the other mares raised to their feet, both Celestia’s looked on in terror at what had become of Luna.
The dark mare before them was tall and clad in silvery pieces of armor. Her mane was now a dark mist and her eyelids opened to reveal two almost cat-like eyes.

“Now then ‘Celestia’……” The dark mare began to speak.

“Luna, NO!” Both Celestia’s almost cried in unison.

“That sad mare is no longer with us. She was for you only a silly little dream. For everypony else, she was a nightmare. Now it is time you share such a nightmare and now I will see to it that the sun will never come to wake you EVER AGAIN! HAHAHA.”

The first Celestia simply started to wish strongly for it all to just go away, tuning out the rest of what was unfolding.   Finally after some time, she noticed that everything had gone silent again. She was once again resting within a sea of nothingness.

<RED-BRONZE-BLUE : SURVEY-COURSE TERMINATED>

Now she really wanted answers. What in the name of equestria was going on here? She was so afraid and confused. Why did she see a clone of herself?  Why did Luna transform?  Why did her actions do nothing to affect that fate? What had Luna become?

Celestia perked up in fear as another message pierced her mind.

<RED-RED -CYAN-BRONZE: ACTIVE-COURSE-INTERNAL-PRECONSTRUCT>

<BLUE-BRONZE-RED: REXTRACT-CACHED-DATA>

The hall of harmony quickly materialized once again to Celestia’s chagrin. However, this time it felt somewhat different. Her head was once again hit by a piercing pain as she looked upon her clone and the dark mare in front of her.

“What trickery is this?!” shouted the Dark mare as she now focused her gaze at what appeared to be a second Celestia appearing in front of her and behind the other. The other Celestia at first did not understand what the Dark mare was staring at but then was shocked as she turned around to find an exacted copy of herself sharing the same expression.

“W-why is this happening to me! Who are you ponies? Stop this!”   Celestia shouted, beginning to break down from the terrifying and unreal situation she was now in. It was not so much the Dark mare before her as it was the whole world that she had be thrust into and the mysterious power that had caused it all.

“It does not matter how many Celestia’s there are! Nothing will end the night ever again! You both shall taste my power!” The dark mare shouted as she began to unleash a blast of dark lightning at her foes.

Both Celestia’s were hit hard with pain and screamed as the lightning made contact. 

Celestia, the original Celestia, that now seemingly found herself trapped and tormented in some demented prison, was close to losing her mind as this point. She just wanted it all to stop. She wanted Luna and the other Celestia to just go away. 

She felt frustrated, terrified and confused all at once. Why could somepony not help her?

<PURPLE-RED-BRONZE-BLUE-BLUE : ACTIVE-COURSE-DATA-BEING-INJECTION : SUBINSTRUCTION-SEARCH-DATA-ADAPTION : EXODUS-TYPECOMBAT-TIER-3-CLASS-ATM-SENTINELMKII-B-ASTTYPE-49 :  POINT : S1004593.34674/5004.27836/555.98885 T25257.54/544/232>

<GREEN-BLUE –BRONZE-BRONZE : ACTION-EXECUTE-COMMAND-DATA : TYPECOMBAT-TIER-3-CLASS-ATM-SENTINELMKII- B-ASTTYPE -49 : FEED : ATTACK-ELIMINATE: TARGET: BEING-1-CLASS-7M2-ORDER-3”NIGHTMAREMOON”  : BEING-1-CLASS-7M-ORDER-2-2”CELESTIA”>

Before Celestia could think of letting out another scream, a new form had just appeared beside her.
Celestia had never seen anything so bizarre in all of her time and adventures.  It was a bipedal creature  of about her height made of strange metallic materials. It’s large forelimbs and sloped torso were colored ivory while other sectors were of a silvery shade of grey. It had a strange red light emanating from a source on its torso and from its single large “eye” on its head. The head and back had different types of thick spikes jutting out backwards . The overall contours were sharp, simple and angular. It lacked any hands but instead had large cylindrical holes bored into hands would usually be.

“What is the meaning of….”  The dark mare’s shouting was quickly cut off as the strange metallic being drew both its arms forward with incredible speed and fired beams of red-orange energy at both the other Celestia and the dark mare. The last thing the remaining Celestia could see of the dark mare was a quick look of excruciating pain and surprise as her body quickly vaporized out of existence from where the beam had struck.

Celestia herself had little time to process what had just happened before the being then quickly spun around and fired another beam at her. At the beam hit, the world around her once again faded out of existence back into a void of nothingness.

<ACTIVE-SURVEY-TERMINATED>

<PURPLE-BLUE-BRONZE-BLUE : DATA -NODE-DATA-BASE-STATE>

She just wanted it all to end.  This all had to be some sort of twisted nightmare that she would wake from, right?  The white alicorn tried to keep calm by thinking that but the dream would just not seem to end fast enough for her.

She however, just had to vent her agitation one last time.

“ENOUGH!!! NO MORE!!!!!” the princess screamed as hard as she could, trying will every bit of effort to wake up, break free, or shut all of it out; whatever it took to end it all.

<RED-CYAN-CYAN-CYAN-GREEN-GREEN: ENTERING-NODE-DEEP-STANDBY-STATE>

<DOMAIN-AUTONOMOUS-MODERATION-DISENGAGED>

<ACTIVE-MONITORING-DISENGAGED>

<DIRECT-PILOT-CONTROL-INTERFACE-DISENGAGED>
……………….
As the Princess of the sun finished her screaming, she opened her eyes to find herself back in her court in front of several dozen staring ponies.

Celestia, now noticing this, quickly tried to compose herself as she took a deep sign.

“COURT IS NOW CLOSED!” Is all she could say to the surprise of everypony present.