Celestial Tortures Book II: Nightmares

by Rarity Belle

Chapter 5

 
While the being spoke its name right in front of them, both Celestia and Blitzwing glared in full horror to the events that had happened. It was there in reality, yet it seemed all so surreal. For Celestia it was the hardest hit of all. For weeks she had spoken to her little sister about the matter and that little sister had become a being of unspeakable darkness. Luna’s heart had become as black as coal and her eyes stared at the visible one of the princess of the sun as a deep smirk grew on her face.

Both of the ponies were both speechless and motionless. Neither of them were able to process the information they got on a short notice to act. Who were able to act, where the guards that stood on their watch. But they proved little of worth, for they only kept their lances and swords aimed towards Nightmare. The dark alicorn erupted out in a deep chuckle before she spoke her much desired words. The tone in which she spoke was a much darker voice than what normally left the mouth of Luna. “This is what you have created sister. This is the form you feared the most didn't you? This is where it all ends.”

Blitzwing was unsure of what to do at it all. His mind was conflicted. He knew that he had to attack, for the changed princess threatened Celestia. But in his heart he knew that the being was in fact Luna herself. Torn by the conflict that went on in his brain, he had no true idea of what to do. Yet without much thinking he drew his sword out of its sheath and pointed it to the dark alicorn. Even though he wore no armor to protect himself, he could still defend. His sword was something he never left behind in case something would happen. “You have no words to speak here, veil creature,” spoke Blitzwing in a brave tone towards Nightmare Moon. “Guards! Surround her, it!”

All of the guards that didn't had a clue of what they had to do, suddenly reformatted themselves to stand all around the being. With orders to guide them to actions, they knew what to do almost in an instant. But where they expected the being to do something, Nightmare did nothing in return except watching. With her cat-like, cyan irises, she just glared at the stallions before her. Her looks alone were indulging fear like no other being ever could do. It was through those kind of glares that none of them ever dared to attack her, for she did turned around on her spot.

In the end she faced the throne once more. The wings of Nightmare tucked back against her body and a small cloud of steam got released through her nose. With the amulet still around her neck did Blitzwing try to make the connection in his mind. “Is this the best you can do to contain us, sister? Are these puny mortals, the best way you wish to defense yourself? Are you really such a coward that you are not even willing to face us?” said Nightmare Moon in a taunting voice. She didn't move her head up to the other princess, but just her eyes. The cutting glare frightened Celestia.

“Hold your mouth, I said! Guards, carry it away. Lock it up in the dungeon for interrogation. There are a few words I wish to exchange to our, ex-excellency,” the commander spoke with a stern tone in his voice. When the order was given, the guards readied themselves to guide the beast over to the dungeon.

“No,” was suddenly spoken in the sweet but determined tone of Celestia herself, “she, stays here.” Words that had a massive impact on everypony. Though one stallion had no clue why.

The grayish white stallion turned himself around to face Celestia with a questioning look in his eyes. “W-With all due respect your highness, we possibly can’t keep this monster that just consumed the princess of the moon, right here in your presence, now can we?” Blitzwing pleaded for himself. When he was done, he looked back to Nightmare and then to Celestia again.

“Commander Wing, you shall do as you were being told, whether you like it or not. Guards, stand down and return to your posts,” the princess of the sun said. For all Celestia knew, she was digging her own grave. As ordered, the swords and lances went up again as all of the guards walked back to their posts with clapping knees. They had seen the gazes of hatred she gave off, the fear her eyes indulged within their bodies. None of them liked the decision of the princess, but it would be a lot better than that they had to carry the creature over to the dungeon.

“Your Highness, I do ins-”

“Oh hold your mouth!” Nightmare suddenly replied to him as she had grown angry of his words. “Let the lady decide the fate of this terrible beasty,” she added as an extra tease and taunt. “What’s it going to be, sister? Charge us, or release us over the land?”

Celestia let a deep sigh escape through her nostrils. Her eye closed itself off from the world for a moment. She didn't want to fight her younger sister. But the monster before her was everypony but her younger sister. Unsure of what to do, she then got a spark of inspiration and her eye revealed itself once again. It stared down the nightmarish alicorn as she stood up from the throne. “I shall deal with you, myself, Nightmare Moon,” she said in a just- and rightful tone. Both Blitzwing and the guards all looked up at her in the greatest of surprise.

 
For none of the beings within the room, not even Nightmare, could have predicted that the princess of the sun would go over to such drastic acts. But when the white alicorn stepped down from the throne, Nightmare erupted in laughter and took steps back as well. They created an area within them that was nothing but open. The battlefield would have been created.

Celestia continued to stare down to Nightmare as she spoke her words in a confident and clear voice. “I take it that you still remember the rules of the magic duel.”

“Hmhmha, I do. First one to get hit by the beam of the other, loses. The stakes?” Nightmare replied. She smirked like the devil she was. She knew that her amulet would almost ensure her the victory as it brought her enough power to defeat Celestia. If not overpower her. But there was a little catch to the amulet, for nopony had ever seen the white alicorn in her full power. Nopony knew just where the limit for her laid. Not even Luna knew of the true capabilities of her own sister.

“Good, then draw!” Celestia bellowed before she charged up her horn in the golden aura. She even rose on her hind legs. She wings spread themselves and the posture she gave off was one that looked like she was going to war.

Nightmare did the same just before she spoke the final words. “Fire!”

Two magic beams filled the room almost in an instant. A harmonious, golden one released by Celestia and a hellish, blue one by Nightmare. Where bits of light circulated around the blast of the white alicorn, bits of darkness went around the beam that originated from the dark one. The two beams clashed against one another in the middle of the room. A loud and roaring explosion was heard as the two opposing forces gave the other everything they had.

Nightmare wore of course the amulet which made her even stronger than she normally would have been. The dark alicorn even managed to push the beam of Celestia back, almost coming up to her face. But the mare wasn't from the day before though. She threw everything she had into battle to not lose from the monster that was once her sister.

“I, won’t, lose,” muttered Celestia to herself. She gave even more power to her horn. She drained the magic from everything around her, her heart, her mind, but also from the hope the guards had for her to win.

Speaking of them, none of the guards nor Blitzwing had the guts to even speak when the two titans clashed against each other. All the guards had just been gathering themselves against the backside of the room, the side which housed the great doors that led to the main hallway. Whereas Blitzwing just stood next to the throne, scared to death he was. In all his years of service had he never seen such an output of magic by any being.

Though where Celestia fed her beam with harmonious thoughts and hope, Nightmare powered her beam by the amulet, her dark heart but also the fear from the guards. All of them were truly feared Nightmare Moon. “Give it up Celestia, this is the end for you!” she snarled up.
“No, it is never over until the last mare falls,” she countered with a groan.

“Or, until the fat lady sings,” added Nightmare in a chuckle. She too added even more power to her beam. Tough it was the idiom that caught Celestia a bit of guard and Nightmare made great use of the opportunity. She gave everything she got and within two seconds she had obliterated the beam of Celestia. There wasn’t any time to react to it anymore. Impact would happen.

The beam of Nightmare made contact with the horn of Celestia, the very centerpiece of the magic from the mare. As a result, there was a deafening explosion took place and the mighty white alicorn was send over to the throne. Luckily for her, she managed to land on the soft cushions of it and she coughed a couple times.

Then she oriented her situation and figured out that she laid upside down on it. Nightmare however, had turned her attention over to the window and she just stared out of it with a tilted head. Time didn't had to progress long before the light of the moon shone down upon the castle and through the window the creature stood for. Celestia, Blitzwing and the guards all looked over to Nightmare. Nobody dared to speak a word, they all feared what would happen.

“The power of the moon, the fear of the mortals, it’s flowing all so richly through us,” she whispered to herself. Her wings kept standing in their spread position. “But before that, we have business to finish.” Nightmare turned her attention away from the window and in a tempting way she walked up to the throne. A smirk had grown on her face and only became bigger and bigger the closer she came.

“W-What is your plan?” Celestia pleaded.She wanted to know just what the intentions of the being were. It was apparent that she would meet her end either way. “Tell me...” The explosion and the landing had severely weakened the mighty alicorn. She was unable to move a muscle in her body or to call upon her magic. All that she could do was talking and the basic functions of her body.

Nightmare set her forehooves on the first elevation of the throne and thus she could stare down in the weak eyes of Celestia. Who on her turned stared back into the hate filled eyes below the helmet. “W-What have you b-become..?”

“We have become, that what you always feared us to be,” Nightmare replied to her in a dark but calm voice. At that point she stood above Celestia with a smirk “We, became your doom. And with you down on the ground like this, you are not a help when your subjects will never seen the light of the sun ever again.”

“That, that’s madness!” Celestia coughed out before Nightmare erupted out in a deep laughter. “C-Consider your actions!”

“Madness?" Nightmare growled as she almost pressed her nose against that of Celestia. "This, is, redemption!" The nightmarish alicorn released a roar of power right in the face of her sister before the head allowed some distance to fall in between the two again. "We have discussed this with you, for many times. But every time you didn't listen to us. Now you shall see, what happens when you defy us! The night will last, forever!” she spoke in a true reply to her sister.

        But Blitzwing had gathered all of his guts. He had drawn his sword unseen to the dark alicorn. Without any sound from his mouth, he walked up to the nightmarish alicorn. He wanted to slice her head just clean off, ending her once and for all. He didn't care if it would have killed the princess of the moon. He wasn’t going to live in a world where eternal night was the only time of day. While the event happened, Celestia was buying herself time. She felt that her powers returned to her again.

Everything was too late though. The commander wanted to lash out towards the creature of hatred and darkness. Yet Nightmare saw the attack coming out of the corner of her eye. The being of darkness did a couple steps back under a yelp. Even though it had missed the neck of the alicorn, the sword managed to break the chain that was connected to the amulet. In the heat of the moment had Nightmare forgotten about the amulet and she charges up her horn without a thought.

Without a warning granted to him, had the stallion found himself within the air and he was flung over to other guards as the eyes of Nightmare followed. “You’ll get what you deserve!” she shouted after him before her attention returned back to Celestia. “Where were we? Oh yes, your end would be next. I told my plan, harmed your bodyguard, guess that that's the last of the checklist.”

“You still going by your schematics and all that nonsense?” the white alicorn said in an attempt to win herself even more time. She needed just a bit more in order to come back at her force. “Can’t you never do things just, out of the blue, now can you?”

“Silence foal!” Nightmare shouted in an echoing and booming voice. She then continued to speak her words in a more normal tone while all of the windows in the throne room where still wobbling from the shout. “Plan everything, get the upper hoof quickly and crush your enemy! That’s our standard. You should have learned that a long time ago when you kissed that filthy Dracon.”

“Leave, leave Discord out of this!” Celestia coughed before her eyes closed themselves off from the world.

“If we want to include him, we do so! Now sister, the time has come for you to say farewell to your pathetic, little, life.”

Everypony in the room thought she was a goner. With the power Celestia was hit, it would have crippled even the strongest of stallions. All of the guards –including their commander– glared over to the events in terror and they gave it up already. Their princess was too weak to repel another attack from Nightmare Moon. And to only add, the coming attack would be even closer to her body.

 
But during the time that the dark alicorn was speaking and rambling her words, they had given Celestia the time to regain her strength just enough to be able to call upon her magic. With one swift motion of her head, the horn was armed and aimed right at the throat of Nightmare who froze on the spot. “No, it shall be you who is going to say farewell. For you are no longer my sister! You are something different,” she stated from her upside down position. It had got to be the strangest way she had ever spoken to a pony since her foalhood.

        Before Nightmare Moon could even react to the words, she was hit by a sphere of harmonious magic. One that sent to her back a couple hooves away from the throne. The crash was hard enough to send a dull bang through the room. Blitzwing silently send the guards over to her.

        The spell also had a counter effect, for next to knocking the dark creature back it also blinded her for a couple minutes. She growled and snarled like an animal as she tried to get back on her hooves. “You’ll pay for that, Celestia!” Nightmare shouted while she faced the window that had a view over the land. However, in her ears she heard all of the sounds that guards made and through some nifty use of echolocation was she able to pinpoint their exact location.

        Her horn charged itself up within the dark blue aura as the words of a tome from long ago left her mouth. Celestia had rolled to the right side and rose herself up on her hooves as she heard the words spoken. “Oh no...” was all she could whisper to herself before she raised her tone. “Do that spell and you shall suffer a judgment higher without any chance of sentence relief! Don’t do this to yourself, Luna!”

        “Shut up Celestia! We are the judges and executors from now on,” bellowed Nightmare in return before she turned over to the guards. “...Charging your queen with drawn weapons shall have a severe punishment. Imprisonment in stone!” And then the charge got released from her horn. The dark blue beam that would seal the fate of the guards it would hit.

        From the ten guards that stood watch in the room, only three got initially hit when the group separated themselves. Where the others cowered behind something was it Blitzwing who had the idea of saving the others from their fate. Then he saw just how fast the stone rose up from the bodies of the and that they were actually stoned. “Impossible,” he mumbled to himself before he saw a young guard trying to squirm himself away from the freshly made statues.

        With the risk of his own life had Blitz rushed over to the statues and he managed to get a hold of the guard who looked at him with pleading eyes. “Yes, you will live to see your mother again! Now hurry!” he said to the guard. Nightmare readied her horn again for another blast.

        The creature was still blinded from the spell but the voice of Blitzwing had drilled itself in her mind as she remembered him more than the others. “Get here!” she shouted to him as she released the secondary blast. Celestia did nothing to stop her as she couldn't believe all of the events were actually happening right before her eyes. All of the carnage and words spoken were simply unbelievable for her and it send her into a shock.

        “Ragh!” the stallion groaned when he felt the beam hitting him right in the back, he closed his eyes as he spoke to the young guard, the last words he would ever speak. “G-Go! Run as fast as you can, go!” The young stallion nodded and then left the side of Blitz to join himself by the other. Their they all watched how the brave commander got sealed in stone in a fleeing pose. A pose he would never have assumed himself out of free will.

        All of the guards took off their helmets and held it against their chests. Their hooves gave a final salute to the brave stallion who gave his life but got locked up in stone for all eternity.

        “Enough of this madness!” Celestia all of the sudden boomed through the room. Her horn charged up and she released the counter spell to the imprisonment one. But when the beam hit the guards, there was first nothing that happened. Then there was the deadly silence that fell in the room as all the ponies anticipated the stone to crumble upon itself and to release the stallions.

        Though there was nothing that happened.

        Nightmare managed to regain her vision and she turned over to the other alicorn with a teeth revealing grin. “You were always so, naive. You think that a simple spell can release them?”

        “Of, of course I thought that... You imprisoned them, that was the spell given to you by Starswirl years ago,” Celestia managed to stutter out in her defense.

        “While it is true we were taught that spell from the stallion. You are forgetting one little thing, we trained ourselves and thus found a spell that turns flesh, muscle and every other part of the body into nothing but...” Nightmare spoke before she continued to grin upon the other royal.

        “...But stone,” Celestia interrupted. She had managed to tie the ropes together in her mind.  Though the revelation also snapped some wires in her head. An ancient anger was released in her body a her horn charged itself up greater than ever before.

        “Exactly.” Nightmare pleasantly hissed while she then proceeded to spread her wings and gave a couple powerful flaps. Even before Celestia could release her saved charge was the monster already gone. It disappeared through the window and was flying free through the Equestrian skies.

        Celestia made no time to waste as she walked up to the window with her horn charged and aimed right for the wings of Nightmare. “Flight lesson, cancelled,” she simply stated before the beam released itself under the sounds of electricity and a roaring thunder. The guards that were still in the room kept themselves as silent as the grave and simply watched the events unfold before them.

        The beam that was shot into the skies actually missed the dark alicorn by almost a hair. But where Celestia expected a counter to come in the form of a dark and destructive beam being shot back at her, there was nothing. At least not in the form of a countering spell. The beam that Celestia had fired continued to travel over the land like a shooting star and those fortunate enough to see it, did a wish before they went to bed.

        Little did they knew the true reasoning behind the powerful blast.

                    
Nightmare Moon turned herself into nothing more but a purple mist as the eyes of the white alicorn continued to follow the trail of her sister. “Where are you going, you daughter of a peasant,” she cursed to herself as she kept watching. The trail went over the plains where she met the draconequus many years ago and it disappeared into the woods of Everfree. The woods that were known for their dark and mysterious powers.

        The princess of the sun released a deep sigh in response. She had lost the trail the moment it entered the woods. “So that’s how you are going to play it then, aren't you?” she mumbled to herself before she turned herself around. She turned away from the window while the wind began to blow itself through the gaping hole and over the coat of the royal. It was then that her eyes were given the reality of the situation of what happened, what truly happened. What her sister had done to ponies they both loved and became herself. It was heartbreaking and devastating to say the least.

        The eyes of the princess continued to stare gently over to the stoned guards as her hooves set themselves before the other in a careful manner. She was shifting in between actually realizing it was real and denying it wasn't. Everything that happened to her guards seemed surreal to her at the point in time.

        “R-Remove yourself out of the room, please, I need to be alone for a little while. Make it, a long time, actually,” said Celestia in a clear and defeated voice over to the other guards. Each of them nodded before they left the princess alone and all went their own way. Some went over to the mess-hall were all the others had gathered themselves. They wanted to hear just what was going on as some just went to bed in an attempt to shake the horrible events off of themselves.

                    
“That’s unheard of!” Warding Scale shouted through the hall as he heard the story from the young guard. “You are making this story up like some kind of writer! Our princess of the moon becoming such a dark being? For the love of the moon itself kiddo, you’re insane.” They all found themselves around different sets of tables but all of the eyes from both the celestial and lunar guards were looking over to the young stallion who shook his head heavily.

        He looked around the hall and passed the faces of all the other mares and stallions. The hall was literally what it was, a hall where the guards could eat and relax a bit. The neutral colored wall satisfied both the guardians of the sun as well as those of the moon. “It’s not a lie captain Scale, you weren't there when it all erupted in a fight between those two!” the young guard pleaded for his life. Yet all of them found it a bit hard to believe.

        “I still call a load of baloney!” Warding shouted as he punched his hoof on the table and stood up. “Gentlecolts, ladies, goodnight.” And then he was off, off to do whatever he needed to.

        “But, it’s true Warding!”

        “Oh shut it!” where the last words of the stallion before he disappeared. He left the hall with stomping hooves. All of the guards knew they had to leave him alone for some time. His own anger was racing through his body and he needed to calm down. And the only way he could do that, was to just walk. If he didn't, some of the castles furniture would be broken into more than one piece.
             
        Celestia had tried everything in her might to undo the spell cast upon the guards, but nothing seemed to work. Also adding up the fact she was still tired from the duel with Moon, she was a wreck to say the least. “No, this won’t be happening. In all of those years I have stood at the helm of these lands, I will not give up,” she spoke softly to herself as she tried to make herself sound tougher. Celestia tried to make herself wise that she was able to save them from their doom.

        Everything was too late though. None of the stoned guards could be saved anymore. Slowly had everything turned into nothing but solid rock. A single tear went down the cheek of the high alicorn.Her eyes just stared at the statue and her horn finally discharged itself. She was through it all. There was nothing within her might she could have done to save them, not anymore.

        Deep within the stone prison gave the heart of Blitzwing its final beat before it turned into stone as well, thus completing the spell. Where Discord was granted the mercy of being able to live on within his prison, the guards left their earthly lives behind them and turned into true statues.

        Commander Blitzwing and three other guards were the first lives to be brutally taken by the being that was only known as Nightmare Moon. And if the monster would have its way, more would follow without a doubt. Which Celestia had to prevent from happening.

                    
The being of darkness submerged from the shadows. She stepped into the castle that stood in the woods of Everfree. A wonderful castle that was often used as their summer home but it also had a different purpose. It was that castle which held the very elements of harmony for storage. As Nightmare Moon created herself again out of the mist, her eyes did glare lightly over to the altar that housed the orbs of the elements. Her cyan colored eyes couldn't look at anything else. Not the stained glass windows, not the candles that lit up the room, just the altar was in her mind.

        “With those things destroyed, the night shall last forever! And then, we shall finally get what we deserve. The praise we wanted for years,” she spoke to herself. Moon came even closer to the desired place. Even though she set her hooves unto the ground in a gentle manner, the clattering sound was still loudly audible. Streams of shadow crawled under her hooves with every step she took. Almost like they were dripping off of her, like water from a lake.

        Her attention was caught by a light that shone through one of the stained glass windows. The head of Nightmare turned itself over to the window as she first looked to the image of it. An image which contained Celestia that rose the sun in all of her might as behind it, the sun actually rose.

        When she realized that it was the real sun, Nightmare released the loudest and darkest roar so far as her body gently turned back into the purple mist. “You, traitor!” where the last words she spoke in the physical realm. Her head was the last part of body that would disappear and she then took refuge in the shadows of the building. The light shone majestically over the altar of the elements and thus making it impossible for her to either access it or destroy it.

        She had to wait until it was her time again, her time to strike. Before that could be done however, she had to ready herself. But also, her troops. The troops that would be living under the name of the Nightmare Forces.

                    
All those miles away, in the lonely tower that stood still on its place after all those years that went by, Starswirl the Bearded found himself resting on the bottom floor. His old and tired eyes gazed upon a gem that was suspended within his magical aura. “I remember it like yesterday,” he mumbled as he stared into the gem. “Like, yesterday...”

        At the break of dawn of the new solar circle had the two armies gathered by one another. The almighty alicorns all stood on the hills, their numbers rich and proud. On the other side stood the ever so feared Draconequus kind. Beasts that countered the harmony of the alicorns. It was there, that the final battle would be fought.

        But the Draconi never set foot on the ground of Equestria, instead they hovered in the air with their wings. Bat, pegasus, eagle, gull, owl, anything and everything was used. That was the beauty of a Draconequus, none were alike and all were different from one another. Their temper was fierce as they were enraged by the alicorns who had taking the fight to them. Yet no words could possibly solve the argument. And in the end, they did the worst possible thing. They armed and charged.

        It was a bloody battle. A battle from which both sides made heavy losses. Both species nearly send the other to extinction. But in the heat of battle, when nopony ever could have expected it, two young alicorns opened their hearts. Not just for themselves, but also for the Daconi. They rose up like angels and spoke in the same voice, that booming choir that reached far and wide.

        All of the warriors dropped their arms and looked up to the couple. They couldn’t do much else then agree on what was spoken. The alicorns ceased their attacks and negotiations had to be made with the Draconi kind.
            
        Starswirl shocked up from his sleep and stared once more into the gem. The ruby that was shaped like two diamonds mirrored  at their sharp tip, creating the illusion of an hourglass. A weak smile formed itself on the face of the stallion as he shook his head from side to side. “Oh, and I had almost thought I had forgotten the memory of it. I still see that young unicorn on the hill, watching the tension just break. Unable to fight, shocked from surprise that it came that far,” he mumbled against himself. His eyes closed for a brief moment and then opened up again.

        With all the strength that was left within his body he rose up from the chair and walked up to the front door. The stallion had some things to do within Everfree itself and most likely it would take him some time before he would return to his beloved and solitary tower.