After Midnight

by Nebula Star

Prologue: Rise of the Empress

After Midnight
By Nebula Star

With a scream of agony, a pitch black alicorn collapsed at the base of a stone statue after another failed attempt to stand. Her night-blue armor was battered and broken. One wing was completely gone, sheered off by a spell of terrible power; blood was running down her side from the stump that remained. Her right fore-leg was bent at an odd angle under her, quite clearly broken. Cuts and burns littered her body. Her mane and tail, normally nebulous clouds of energy, had returned to their original form of regal purple hair which was tangled and matted with sweat and blood. All of her magic was gone, drained completely during the battle.

She heard hoofsteps approaching.

Desperately she tried to scramble to her hooves despite her broken leg. She only succeeded in causing herself more pain. Still, her fear drove her to cause herself more and more pain as she tried to escape.

Fear. She hated being afraid. The shame of her cowardice made her sick. She was Nightmare Moon! She was suppose to inspire fear in others, but for the last few hundred years it had been her living in fear.

Her fear of Discord had caused her to live practically as his slave. She'd only ever wanted eternal night, wanted ponies to see her beautiful sky; but for centuries she'd been forced to serve Discord, with no choice but to do his bidding or suffer his wrath. The punishments he'd inflicted on her had been mild, almost comical, if humiliating. At first. But over the years Discord had grown bored of his childish pranks. He had turned darker; his chaos more terrifying, his punishments more... severe.

She'd lived most of her life in fear. She hated it; hated herself for her cowardice; hated living in fear. And now here she was, cowering again.

A purple hoof came down right in front of her face causing the ground to crack open and emerald flames erupted from the fissures. Her attempts to get away forgotten, she slowly raised her head to look up at the unicorn standing over her, terror sending a shiver down her spine.

It was impossible. She was an alicorn; an immortal! She had the power to move the sun and the moon, she was more powerful than even Celestia! She had defeated her sister and banished her to the sun a thousand years ago. True Discord had aided her in the conquest, but she could have defeated Celestia on her own. So how could this unicorn; this mere unicorn; be more powerful than her!? How had she found herself at a unicorn's mercy!?

The unicorn looked back with burning red eyes; her head cocked oddly to one side, grinning with obvious insanity. She laughed manically as she looked down at the once mighty alicorn.

“Who are you?” Nightmare Moon gasped; her breath shuddering and her voice barely more than a whisper.

The unicorn's laughter cut off suddenly. Her horn glowed and a sword materialized in the air next to her. Darkened blue steel; the blade was covered in threatening patterns of blood red. Without warning it flashed through the air toward Nightmare Moon's neck.

She flinched, but couldn't get away. Her eyes closed, expecting the end.

It didn't come.

Slowly she opened her eyes again and found herself looking down the length of the deadly blade. The unicorn leaned closer to her, until their horns almost touched. Hatred and insanity burned in her eyes as she looked down at her victim.

“You want to know my name?” She said softly, her sword blade lifting Nightmare Moon's chin, forcing her to look into those terrifying eyes. “My name is Midnight Star!”

She cocked her head to the other side. “And you...” Her expression darkened, anger and hatred wiping away her amused grin. “You're just a memory!”

Nightmare Moon's eyes widened as the sword plunged into her side and with her final breath, she screamed in pain. Her body exploded into a shadowy cloud as her scream echoed through the ruins of the great city. A cloud that then faded, vanishing into nothing, leaving Midnight Star standing alone before the statue.

She grinned wickedly as she looked up at the stone sculpture. It was an odd thing; depicting a creature with a long sinuous body, that was seemingly made up of random animal parts.

“Well, now that she's out of the way. It's your turn, Discord,” she said to the inanimate draconequus. “I could leave you like this, but I know that, eventually, you would escape.” She cocked her head again. “I also know that simply breaking you won't kill you. It's very hard to kill a spirit being after all. I don't even know if you can actually die in a traditional sense.”

She smiled. “Luckily I know just what to do... after all, even you can't survive when your soul is completely erased from this plane of existence.”

With that her horn glowed brightly as she cast a spell. A spell of her own design and requiring incredible power. Power that was at her disposal. She poured more and more of her magic into the spell, drawing on the chaos of her tortured soul as well as her own extraordinary power. The aura around her horn grew brighter and brighter, sparks flying everywhere as a similar aura engulfed the Discord statue.

She began to laugh manically as she continued using her magic to bend the world to her will. The aura around the Statue grew darker becoming a black void. Then that void began to collapse, growing smaller and smaller by the second. The statue was crushed as the void continued constricting around it. Lightning arched from the edges of the void. It was a tear in the fabric of the universe itself. If left uncontrolled, the tear would expand and the universe itself would unravel. Midnight wasn't worried. Her magic was more than enough to maintain the rift.

Discord would be gone, gone for good.

The void continued to collapse. More and more lightning flashed out from the edges as the tear fought her control, trying to expand again. But she forced the tear to close and with one final flash of lightning the spirit of chaos was gone.

Midnight's laughter continued to echo across the ruined city. After over a thousand years, Discord's rule of Equestria had finally come to an end.

Once the lightning had calmed down a lone pegasus stared in awe at the unicorn standing among the ruins. He'd stayed behind when most of the rest of those remaining in Canterlot had run at the start of the battle. He'd witnessed some of it, seen the strange unicorn that had challenged Nightmare Moon and Discord; witnessed the death blow of Nightmare Moon, and the erasing of Discord.

He could hardly believe it. After a thousand years Equestria was free. Just who was this unicorn? Who was this great hero?

Flying in closer he saw her standing in front of the small crater where the statue of Discord had been, laughing.

Her coat was a deep purple. Her mane and tail a dark indigo that was almost black with red and purple stripes. Both were rather ragged looking. And her cutie mark, he saw, was a black six pointed star with five red stars surrounding it.

She was still laughing oddly, but she seemed completely uninjured. He shook his head in disbelief. She'd just fought the two most powerful beings known to ponydom and come away without even a scratch!

“You did it,” he said excitedly as he stopped to hover nearby. “You've saved us! Equestria is finally free!”

The unicorn looked up at him.

“I can't believe it! After a thousand years! Discord and Nightmare Moon's rule is finally at an end!” There were tears in his eyes. It was a day to remember. Maybe now Equestria could return to being the paradise that legend said it had once been.

She snorted. “All good things end,” she said and her horn lit up.

The pegasus felt himself slammed painfully to the ground and gasped as he was held there by her magic. He found himself looking up at her surprised while she looked down at him as if he were an insect. Fear began to creep into his heart as he looked into her eyes. There was no happiness there, no mercy. Only anger, hatred, pain, and bitterness were in those eyes.

She leaned in close to him, making him shrink back in fear.She's insane, he realized as he was forced to look directly into her eyes.

“Spread the word,” she said softly in a voice that sent a shiver down his spine. “These... happy times are at an end. From now on, all must bow before their Empress: Midnight Star.”

With that she used her magic to throw him into the air. He tumbled completely out of control for some distance before he finally managed to straiten out. Then, as if all the demons of Tartarus were after him, he flew, as fast as his wings could carry him.

In a distant land, a young dragoness raised her head. It was happening, just as she'd foreseen. She could feel it, magic was beginning to fracture. The stress was growing too great; the imbalance had gone too far. The world had a few years at most before magic would fail completely. The time had finally come.

Rising to her feet, she turned away from the ledge in front of the cave where she'd made her home and went back inside. She'd been preparing for this for most of her life. She'd traveled the world, learning all she could from all different nations, all different races. She'd even spent some time learning from the elusive changelings, though their magic was difficult to duplicate.

She shifted her feathered wings remembering her time with the changelings as she went deeper into her cave. The changeling hive, though cave-like, was always so humid inside, which was how they liked it. Herself; she preferred dry caves. Hers was small for a dragon's lair, but she was small herself, barely larger than the average pony. She'd never grow larger. She knew that now.

The cave was also very bare. She didn't have a hoard, and in fact she kept only a very few personal possessions. One of those she levitated with her magic as she walked through her sleeping chamber; a set of bags not unlike the saddle bags ponies often used. Hers however were made to fit just in front of her wings so they wouldn't interfere with flight.

She took the bags with her, deeper into the cave, beyond the parts she had made into her home. The cave became narrow and winding. In some places she could barely squeeze through, and others she had to crawl under a low hanging ceiling. Finally she reached a small chamber. It was a natural chamber of the cave, or so it appeared. Only she knew the secrets it held.

Positioning herself in the center of the chamber, she cast a spell she'd developed herself long ago after a great deal of trial and error. An array of glowing golden lines lit up across the floor of the chamber as spells long dormant were brought back to life by the trigger spell she had cast. They continued to spread until nearly the entire floor was covered. At last several segments of the floor around her fell away forming a staircase spiraling downward into a darkness that was soon dispelled as light enchantments activated.

She took the stairs down without hesitation. The chamber they led to was small; she had carved it out with her magic some time before to safeguard the greatest treasure she had ever acquired. A pedestal stood toward one end of the chamber and resting on it were five large gems; red, blue, pink, purple, and orange in color.

She smiled seeing them. They had been taken from the land of Equestria long ago, when the banishment of the solar princess had been prophesied over a millenia before. The last time she had seen them they had looked like nothing more than gray stones. Now... now they had awakened.

“You've sensed it as well?” She asked the gems softly as she reached out and gently caressed one of them. “The world is in danger. We must act before it's too late.” She levitated the gems and brought them to her forehead, closing her eyes. “Guide me, please, lead me to your bearers,” she prayed softly, then placed the gems in her bags.

The chamber sealed itself behind her as she left, making her way back through the cave. She paused only once in her chambers to collect a couple of her other possessions that she added to her bags. Then she left the cave that she had called home for most of her life. She knew that she wouldn't be returning; she didn't care. The world needed her and she would answer the call. It was the destiny she had chosen for herself, her one remaining purpose in life, and she would not fail.