“What do you mean, ‘no’?” Celestia asked, shocked. “And what happened to your voice?”
“I will not lower the moon.” Luna replied, coming out of the corner of her room, which was covered in shadows. “I will not let the day come, never again!”
“Luna...” Celestia said, with her eyes wide at the sight of the Princess of the Night as she backed away. ”... Wha-what happened to you?!”
Some part of the younger alicorn’s mind noticed the fact that she stood much taller above the floor then she was used to, as well as the fact that her mane was different and her voice changed, but since she could feel that her foal was fine, she didn’t care about it.
“The night will last forever, and all ponies will have no choice but to love me!”
“Luna! You cannot make night last forever!” her sister said, trying to appeal to her senses. “It would be the end of Equestria!”
“Of course you would say that.” Luna snorted, her eyes blazing with hatred. “Everypony loves you and your sun, and you don’t want them to stop loving you!”
“Luna...”
“ENOUGH!”
As soon as she had said that, the younger of the two Princesses casted a powerful spell, which hit unprepared Celestia right in the chest and hurled her across the hall and through the wall, and after that 4 more walls; causing the surprised ponies, be it guards, servants or visitors, to run away in fear as they saw they beloved Princess fly by.
She finally lost her momentum as she hit another wall. Luna teleported and now stood next to her, as Celestia tried to pick herself up and failed, falling back to on the floor.
“Since you love your sun so much...” the Princess of the Night started as she lowered her head and pointed her horn at her sister. “... I think it will be only just that you will spend some time sealed within the heart of it. Maybe, once you learned some humility, I will bring you back.”
“Luna...” Celestia tried to speak some sense into her once more as small stream of blood dribbled from her mouth. “Don’t...”
Luna casted her spell, and in a flash of light, her sister was gone. There wasn’t even her blood left on the floor.
“I was right...” she thought to herself, surprised that she managed that spell so easily. “When I spoke to myself earlier: by acting as my heart tells me, I am stronger!”
“W-what have you done to Princess Celestia!?” one of the royal guards asked, staring at the space where her sister laid few seconds ago. ”W-why...?”
“Equestria doesn’t need two Princesses.” Luna cut him off, and magically caused her voice to be heard all across Canterlot, but spoke in her normal speech: she had always disliked the Canterlot Voice and the royal ‘we’. “From this night forward, all ponies will answer only to me, Princess Luna, sole ruler of Equestria and Princess of the Night!”
“You did what?!” asked her Shadow Bolt with terror on his face.
Luna glared at him through her reflection in the mirror. They were both inside her bedchambers. Bolt had just returned from his mission, night after the night when she banished her sister for trying to control her, and he was, to say at least, a bit surprised at the time of night and Luna’s new appearance. Her increased powers caused her body to change, making her not only taller, but also more regal; her coat was much darker, almost black, which was befitting the Princess of the Night, and her mane and tail were much longer and ethereal. But there was one thing that she liked the most in her new look.
Her eyes, while still cyan, and also catlike irises, like her love.
Who was currently getting on her nerves.
“I thought you said you don’t care about Celestia, and only love me.” she reminded Bolt, with a hint of threat in her voice.
“I love you, but she’s still my friend. And your sister! The aunt of our foal! How could you, sending her to the sun?!?”
“I didn’t send her there, I sealed her there, which means no harm will come to her.” Luna replied with a bored tone as she returned to admiring her new regalia. “As soon as she had enough time to consider her behaviour towards me through all those years, I will ring her back. I still love Tia, even if she hates me.”
“She doesn’t...” Bolt started, but she had enough.
“ENOUGH!” Luna screamed at him, and the strength of her voice almost knocked him over. “I will not hear anymore about my sister, not from you or anypony!” she continued, in quieter voice. “Speaking of other ponies, a group of royal guards has disappeared soon after I made sure that everypony knew who are now their one and only ruler. They’re probably planning a coup d’etat.”
At least, that was what her other voice told her.
“You want me to find them?” Shadow Bolt asked, unsure.
“Don’t be silly.” Luna replied, and chuckled, amused by his dedication to his duty. “I just want you to pass the order of finding them to your subordinates.”
“Subordinates? I don’t have any subordinates. Night guards perform solo missions, and answer only to you.”
“Not anymore.” Luna told him, beaming up. “I’m making you officially the Champion of the Night, which means you are my second-in-command among not only night guards, but royal guards as well.”
“I’m... honored.” Bolt said after a moment, bowing.
“I thought he would be happy.” Princess thought, and for a second, a suspicion arose in her, but she brushed it off; Bolt would never, ever hate her, or betray her like the Tia or the rest of her subjects. “He’s probably tired from the fly back, and scared of the new responsibilities.”
“After you made sure the other guards know you are in charge, give them the order of apprehending those traitors. The castle quartermaster has the list with all the missing guards. Once you’ve done that, return here.” she lowered her head and kissed him on the nose. “I missed you.” feeling her foal kicking, she corrected: “We missed you.”
“The crops are dying, Princess.” the messenger said, bowing. “And the temperature...”
“I’ve ordered the seeds of harvestable plants that can survive with the light of the moon to be delivered to all cities and villages in Equestria, and ordered royal guards to cast heating spell on ponies, animals, plants, and cities and villages.” Luna replied in bored tone, twitching on her throne to be more comfortable; she had discussion like this more times that she cared to count.
“As if they expected me to believe that things could get this badly within month.” she snorted in her thoughts.
Luna knew what was really going on - they were all lying to her, in hopes that she would reconsider lowering the moon and brought her sister back.
“Not going to happen.” she thought, and as she felt her little one kicking, she quickly tried to sooth him mentally: “Shhh, Mommy is not angry at you.”
“Yes, and we are eternally grateful for that.” the messenger quickly replied, as if scared that she would smite him. ”But those spells wear off after some time; and as for crops, it will take time for them to grow. And the last delivery didn’t make it...”
“What?!?” Luna asked, paying attention.
Until now, she didn’t hear about any seeds delivery not arriving on time.
“They never arrived, Your Highness.” the pegasus from Manehatten repeated.
“But that’s impossible.” Princess said. “My guards said that they delivered it to ponies of Manehatten... unless... those were those cursed traitors!”
“Yes! Finally, a lead!”
“Don’t worry, my little pony.” she told the messenger in sweet voice, noticing that he almost jumped when she screamed. “You will make sure the next delivery will be reach to your city.”
“And I’ll deal with those traitors.”
“THEY GOT AWAY?!?”
Shadow Bolt had to cover his ears to avoid becoming deaf. As per orders, he came to delivered her the news of his recent mission, even if it meant waking her up.
“How could they get away from Bolt?!? That doesn’t make sense...”
“Unless he’s with them...”
“No! He isn’t! He loves me!”
“You’re fooling yourself! Nopony loves you...”
“Luna, why are you crying?” the voice of her lover pulled her back from her inner arguing.
“Why?” Luna asked Bolt, subbing. “Why all ponies hate me? I did so much for them, and all I ever wanted in return was to be loved. Why do they hate me?”
“They don’t hate you.” her consort replied, pulling her into hug. “They’re just... scared of everything that has happened. If you were to bring back Celestia and day...”
“No!” Princess of the Night cut him off, backing away. “They had the chance to love me! Now they shall fear me!”
“Luna...”
“SILENCE!” the alicorn shouted, as she raised her hoof and swiped it towards Bolt,
…and slapped him across face.
That shocked both of them. Shadow Bolt looked her, pressing his hoof to the red on his cheek which marked the spot where she hit him. Luna stared at him, with her hoof still in the air, as her mind tried to comprehend what she just did.
“I’m sorry!!!” she half-screamed, half-sobbed and hugged him quickly, almost too quickly given her state as realization came upon her, before he could leave her. “I didn’t mean to do that! Please don’t hate me! I’m sorry!”
She continued to beg, sob and cry for few more minutes. Luna couldn’t bear the thought of Shadow Bolt, the only pony beside her yet unborn foal that loved her, hating her. She would do anything that it would take to make him forgive her.
“Luna...” she realized that for some time Bolt has been saying her name. With eyes full of tears, she stopped her begging and looked into his, full of love and worry. “I could never, ever, hate you.”
“He doesn’t hate me!” was all that Luna could think of as she leaned closer to Shadow Bolt for a kiss.
Luna couldn’t be happier.
So what if everypony hated her? So what if Equestria and all that lived in it was slowly dying? They deserved it. None of this mattered, because she had Bolt.
Her Champion. Her consort.
Her love.
She still shivered at the thought of him rejecting her for that slap. Luckily for her, Bolt was far more caring for something like this to influence his view of her. After few days of staying together, he even promised to find those traitors, just to make her happy.
And soon, she would also have her own foal that will love her.
“I am so lucky!” Luna suppressed a giggle as she now awaited his return after barely three days of search within the throne room. “Once I get a hold of this traitors, and deal with the appropriately, everything is going to be just fine.”
She didn’t have to wait too long. Shadow Bolt entered the throne room, escorted by two other night guards. They stopped before the throne and kneeled.
“My Princess, I’ve done as I promised.” Bolt said in calm voice. ”I’ve located the hideout of traitors.”
“I knew you wouldn’t let me down, my consort.” Luna told him warmly, barely containing her excitement on both the sight of him and the information he brought, as she urged him and the others to rise. “Where are they hiding?”
Bolt raised his head and looked her in the eyes. For some reason, there was uncertainty in his eyes.
“At... at the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.”
“WHAT?!?” Luna yelled, exploding into anger. “THEY DARE HIDE THEMSELVES WITHIN THE CASTLE OF MY PARENTS?!?”
She stopped screaming and took few deep breaths to regain her composure.
“There will be reckoning for this insult!”
Luna, Princess of the Night and ruler of Equestria, flew towards the castle where she was born in. Donned in battle armor and surrounded by her elite night guards, her Champion among them.
Upon hearing of traitors hiding there, she insisted on coming there personally. She had confidence that she could protect herself and her foal, but gave in to Bolt’s plea and kept a force field around her at all time, which was nothing. Here power kept growing. What she was going to do with those powers to those traitors once she had them in her grasp, she did not know.
But she was sure it would be something gruesome.
The group landed at the entrance to the castle. Luna registered with small interested that the abandonment didn’t serve it well: her first home was falling into ruin.
“Spread out and search every room.” she told her loyal guards. “Find them.”
They all bowed and flew into castle, leaving her alone with Shadow Bolt as they trotted inside.
“Soon, all opposition will be annihilated.” she thought, glancing around for any signs of traitors. “All ponies will love and worship me, as it was supposed to be all along!”
That, however, proved to be harder than she thought. They walked around all corridors and rooms, chambers and secret passages, but the traitors seemed determine to not be found.
“Maybe Bolt was wrong? Maybe they aren’t here?”
“No, it’s impossible. Bolt wouldn’t make that kind of mistake.”
“True... unless he was...”
“SHUT UP!”
“Luna?” Shadow Bolt asked her, and she realized she said that out loud.
“Where are they?!?” she asked him now, determine to show her other voice that he would never betray her. “Didn’t you say they are here?!? Did you... lie to me?”
Bolt was about to reply, but somepony beat him to it.
“He didn’t lied to you monster. We’re here.”
“See?” Luna gloated to her other self as she turned to regard the owner of that voice, but then her mind registered how the traitor called her. “I AM NOT A MONSTER!!!”
“Make him pay...”
“Ah there you are!” Princess told calmly about twenty ponies of all kind, all wearing pieces of royal guard’s armor. “Have you come to beg for forgiveness?”
“There will be none...”
“No, we’re here to defeat you.”
Luna couldn’t help but burst into laughter after this declaration, but her laugh soon died out as she found herself unable to move.
“What is this?!” she asked as whirling beams of energy formed around her, limiting not only her movements, but her magic as well.
“A cage we’ve prepared specially for you.” the leader of the traitors, a unicorn, spoke. “You will not escape from it.”
Luna growled in frustration, but she soon relaxed as she noticed that her night guards have gathered around her.
“Well then. I was hoping to deal with you myself, but in this case, I guess I will leave you to my loyal subjects. Night guards, attack the traitors!”
It took her several seconds to realize that nopony has budged.
“What?” Luna asked, shocked, looking at her guards. “Why aren’t you attacking?”
None of them looked her in the eyes.
“No... this can’t be... they hate me too...” Luna thought, almost tearful, as she glanced at the one she knew that would stay loyal to her.
“Why aren’t they attacking?” she asked him, hoping that he had some explanation.
“Luna...” Bolt replied, and as they eyes met, Princess saw in his something she did not expect: regret, and guilt. ”It’s over.”
“Told you...”
“No...” she tried to deny it.
It couldn’t be true...
“You are not yourself.” Shadow Bolt continued, ignorant to what was going on in her head right now. “I don’t know what caused this, but you’ve become insane.”
… her Champion, her first night guard...
“I’m sorry that I lied to you, but there was no other way.” she barely heard him anymore. “You will stay here, until those zebras won’t be finished with using their magic to bring back Celestia through her connection to the Elements of Harmony. She will then use their power to heal you.”
… her foalhood companion, her friend...
“Heal her!?” the voice of traitor unicorn cut in. “Have you lost your mind?! We trapped her so we could kill her!”
“What?!? That wasn’t part of agreement!”
…her consort, her love...
“Because it was obvious, she is a monster! She needs to be destroyed now, while we have the chance!”
“She’s still the Princess! And she’s pregnant, for pony sake!”
… the father of her foal...
“Royal guards, kill that monster!” The traitor commanded as the royal guards readied their weapons towards the trapped princess.
“Shit! Night guards, defend the Princess!” Shadow Bolt commanded to his night guards, as they prepared to defend the Night Princess.
…hated her.
Luna screamed. She screamed her pain, her rage, her hatred, all in one; blasting away her prison. Blind with fury, she blasted everypony that she could see, one by one. To her, they were all dead.
Everything is dead to her.
“Luna!” she noticed the voice of the pony that seconds ago, caused her more pain that she could had ever imagine to feel. She turned her head towards him. “Luna, stop, I beg of you-”
Whatever else he wanted to say was cut off as Luna gripped him by his throat with her mane.
“I should have known...” she whispered as Bolt struggled for air. “That nopony, besides my foal, will ever love me.”
“Ghh... Luna...” he once again tried to speak, to spread his lies, to hurt her even more.
She would not allow it.
Luna casted him aside, hurling him into the wall. She returned her attention to the battlefield, when she felt something grab her by her wing. The Princess turned her head and saw that most of the night guards were laid in defeat, either by her or by royal guards, as her wing was being held by magical tendril conjured by some unicorn. Snorting, she was about to blast him away, when her other wing was caught in similar manner, causing her to lose balance and miss. Two more tendrils caught her by her neck and brought her head down, making her unable to aim properly.
“Now! Quickly!” somepony screamed.
What Luna saw in the corner of her eye made her blood froze.
A pegasus royal guard was hovering above the ground few meter away from her, and was about to throw at her spear, which was covered in identical runic symbols. She recognized the runes, it had one purpose.
Negating magic…
“It will cut through my force field...” Luna thought, dreaded. ”... through me... and through my foal!”
“NO!!!” she screamed as the pegasus throws his spear.
She raised her forelegs in what she now was a futile gesture. Her flesh could not protect her foal. Soon, she would lose everything she had left.
“I’m so sorry, my foal.” she said goodbye to her or him as she closed her eyes, preparing to the cold feeling of steel that would kill both of them. “I’m sorry...”
The feeling that she dreaded so much didn’t come. Instead, she felt something very warm press itself against her, hugging her. Surprised, Luna opened her eyes and looked.
It was Bolt... and the spear was stuck in his chest.
“W-wha...” Luna mumbled, unable to comprehend what she was seeing. “W-why? Yo-you hate me...”
“Luna...” Bolt interrupted her, coughing some blood in the process. “I could never hate you.” another cough. “I loved you since the day we met... but I thought you disliked me, so I wanted to make you jealous by pretending to be in love in Celestia...” once again, he coughed, this time weaker, but his eyes remained locked with hers. “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you from your sadness... please, forgive-”
Luna watched in shock as his body slide down and fell on the floor, dead.
He was dead.
Her love, Champion, consort, guard, father of her foal, was dead.
Shadow Bolt was dead.
The roar that Luna gave this time as she proceeded to slaughter Bolt’s murderers could be heard all over Equestria.
“HOW DARED YOU?!?” she shouted as let loose her rage on them, tears streaming down her face. “HOW COULD YOU MURDER HIM?!? I WILL REAP YOU ALL TO PIECES! ALL I EVER WANTED WAS TO BE LOVED! WHY DO YOU TAKE EVERYTHING AWAY FROM ME?!? WHY?!?”
“Luna, stop this at once!” some voice called.
“Another traitor to be slaughtered!” she thought as she attacked with a powerful magic beam, and was surprised once it bounced off from... “What are those? They look familiar...”
“Those are the Elements of Harmony! Destroy them and the monster that controls them, quickly!”
The dark mare has casted another powerful spell, and aimed it at the white, shining monster. It stood, surrounded by the five hovering stones, with the sixth one directly above it. The sixth stone shone as her spell collided with it, and, to her shock, deflected it at her.
She teleported herself some distance away, mindful that she still had foal inside her, the only pony left that will love her now, and all that she had to remember Bolt. The dark alicorn proceeded to attack again, but she found herself unable to.
She was surrounded by light, which almost felt like real bonds. She tried to break them, but to no avail. Whatever it was, it was something much stronger than her that was holding her in place.
“Trying to rob me of everything, aren’t you?!” she roared at the monster. “I will not let you harm my foal!!!”
“Luna, I would never want to harm you or your foal.” the monster replied with a voice that seemed to be... crying?
“It’s lying.”
“Stand still and I will make everything alright, I promise. It will only hurt for a little while, and won’t harm your foal.”
An incredible pain shook the dark alicorn to her very bones. She screamed, as if her body was on fire.
“My foal! It’s trying to burn it alive!”
“It wants to eat it...”
“No! It isn’t working!” she heard the monster utter as the pain disappeared. “Luna, please listen to me.” the voice of the monster, while traiterous, was almost soothing, as it leaned closer and continued: “You need to let go of your hatred! I know it’s hard, but you have to! I can’t control the Elements by myself well enough to save you! Please, try and remember how much everypony loves you, how I love you, how our parents loved you, how Bolt loved you! Do this for your foal!!!”
“Let go of my hatred!?” the dark alicorn growled at the monster that tried to harm her foal. “I will once you’ll give me my subjects love back! I will once you’ll bring my parents back! I will once you’ll bring Bolt back! I will once you bring me my sister back!”
“I’m here! Luna, it’s me, Tia, your big sister!”
“That monster has the impudence to pretend to be my sister?!”
“No, you’re not! My sister is the most kind, loving sister a pony could ask for! You are a monster that wants to take everything from me!!!”
“No, Luna, I love you!”
“Don’t make me laugh! If you love me, then why did you did all of those things?!? Why did you take my subject’s love away from me?! Why did you did do nothing as they shunned me away!? I was so lonely, and I only had Bolt, and now you took him too!”
“Sister, please! Fight it! I cannot help you if you don’t fight! Don’t make me...” the monster that ruined her live pretended to choke on her fake tears. “I cannot allow you to harm other ponies! Luna, please, don’t make me...”
“There is no Luna!” the dark alicorn interrupted, screaming in rage as she continued to fight her bonds. “She died! There is only Nightmare! I am Nightmare Moon! And I will not let you harm my foal!”
“... Luna... I’m so sorry...”
Nightmare Moon’s eyes narrowed as the surrounding light got brighter.
“What are you doing?!”
The monster looked her in the eyes and spoke:
“Goodbye, little sister. I’m so sorry...”
The light enveloped her.
When Nightmare Moon opened her eyes, she was all alone.
“My foal!” she screamed as she checked if everything was alright with it.
Once she made sure, she sighed in relieve, thanking the fate that at least her foal was not taken by the white monster.
“Where... where am I?” she asked aloud, glancing around.
She was at some barren wasteland, for all that she could see. Everywhere where her sight stopped, there were only rocks.
Nightmare Moon decided to look up and try to figure out where she was by the position of the stars, but as she found her mind blank as instead of stars scattered across night’s sky she saw a giant blue-green globe.
The realization of where she and her unborn foal were came down on her.
Nightmare Moon roared in anger and rage, but a small part of her was rejoiced.
“Now we won’t be bothered.”
The pain was far greater than she ever heard it would be.
“Even then they lied to me...” Nightmare Moon thought begrudgingly as she lay on her side giving birth to her foal.
“Come on, little one...” she managed to whisper in pauses between pushes. “... Mommy wants to see you.”
With the last yowl of pain, Nightmare Moon finally pushed away the foal she was carrying inside of herself for twelve months to give birth to it on the surface of the moon.
“Yes... I-We did it, little one!” Nightmare Moon whispered as she pulled her foal gently with her magic to her face so that she could wash it with her tongue, due to the lack of everything that could be used as tissues. She took the opportunity to take a better look at it... her!
She was beautiful. She was an alicorn, had her father black coat, and her old blue mane.
“Your father would be so happy to meet you.” Nightmare Moon told her daughter as she washed her face from her own body’s liquids. “And so would be my sister, my parents...”
She finished cleaning her face and pulled her into embrace, wanting to see her little daughter smile as she in turn looked at her mother.
Her eyes were closed.
“Little one?” Nightmare Moon asked, with the cold claws of fear gripping her heart. “Come now, wake up for Mommy.”
The filly didn’t react, and as the dark alicorn pressed her head closer to her, she knew why.
She was dead.
“NO!!!” Nightmare Moon screamed in pain as she tried to massage her small foal’s heart, to cause it to beat, tried to make her warm. She tried everything, but after hours, she finally gave up.
“NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Nightmare Moon screamed once more to the empty space on the moon that she is trapped in; crying to herself, for she is now left to lonesomeness with her dead precious foal in her hooves, as no pony will hear agony for the coming months that will turn to decades.
The monster won. Nightmare Moon... had nothing left.