//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: The Begining of a Nightmare 
// by speedboy3 
//------------------------------//

	The normal quiet of the country side of equestria was shattered by the sounds of a titanic battle of good vs. evil.  two ponies, alicorns to be exact, one white and one blue, could be seen fighting a creature made of all sorts of animal parts.  Only one creature in that time was known to posses such a bizare appearance.  The ruler of chaos himself. Discord.  The two alicorns fought to free all ponies from his rule, and bring harmony to the land.  Discord of course, wouldn't stand for any kind of harmony, so he fought against them.
Behind the alicorns, resting in grass somehow not scorched in the slightest by the fireballs being flung back and forth, six sphearical objects rested.  They were the recently discovered Elements of Harmony, The only objects that ponies had discovered that could defeat Discord.  Sensing these objects, Discord was doing everything in his power to stop either pony from using them against him.  Everytime one of the ponies saw an opening, Discord would focus his attacks on the Elements themselves, so in order to protect them, one or both alicorns would have to stop what they were doing to cast protection spells.
"Celestia!" said the blue alicorn to the white one, "we can't keep this up all day!"
"I know, Luna." said Celestia, despair coating her voice.  "I'm running out of options here."
Luna thought for a moment, then decided on a startagy that would probably result in her losing her life.  It's not my life that's important, but the lives of the ponies I'm trying to rescue. Luna reminded herself.  She gazed at her sister, and smiled a sad little smile.
"Tia," Luna said, "whatever happens, know that I love you as any sister would, and if this fails, please defeat Discord.  Do it for everypony that can't." Luna prepared herself for death.
Celestia tried to comprehend what her sister was saying.  "Luna, what are you..."  She never finished her question, as Luna had already launched herself at Discord. Discord couldn't beive his eyes, here was an alicorn, the rarest species of ponies, just flying up to him asking to be attacked.
"Do you really expect to do anything young Luna?"  he asked with an impish grin.  Luna ignored the jibe, focusing her energy on a spell that required perfect timing in order to execute.  As she aproached the King of Chaos, Discord unleased a massive barrage of attacks, everything from fireballs to exploding glsses of chocolate milk.  Luna expertly doged every attack while at the same time, prepared her spell.  When she was only about ten feet away from Discord, she unleased the spell.
The spell was in retrospect, a very simple spell.  It fired a burst of pure magic, sharpened to a point, basicaly a magic arrow.  It fired directly at Discord's chest.  Discord, was expecting this and simply moved out of the way.  He was however too slow to avoid the magic completly, and it sliced off a portion of one of his spikes on his tail.
Discord howled in pain, and stared at his now ruined spike.
"You will pay for that dearly you annoying little pony!" His rage temporarily blinding him to anything but the blue alicorn in front of him.  His pain and anger was contracted into one intense ball of magic that he fired point blank at Luna.  Luna's horn glowed briefly before she disapeared in the light of Discord's spell.  As the spell ended, Celestia witnessed a sight that still horrifies her to this day.  She saw her one and only sister colapse onto the dirt before her.  She was silent, the only sound was Discord's laughter.
A hatred for Discord rose up in Celestia at that moment.  She had never thought that a pony could expirence this level of hate, but she felt it now, and that hate bolstered her courage to face this chaotic and unpredictable foe.  Luna's sacrafice had given her the distraction she needed to use the Elements of Harmony.  Her horn flared up, and the objects behind her began glowing.  As Celestia's magic began to intensify, the objects began to spin.  A spark began to grow in the middle as the Elements began to rotate even faster.
Discord stopped laughing and looked, first at Celestia, then at the Elements.  A double helix rainbow shot out from the Elements, and when straight for Discord.  Discord couldn't move, his legs refused to work as a fear he had never expirenced before welled up inside of him.  The rainbow struck Discord, and he expirenced pain, a pain unlike anything he had felt before.  Stone began to encase his legs, then it began to move up to his torso, then his mid-body, and finally his arms and head.  Discord screamed an unearthly scream as he felt his body being encased in stone, and then it was over.
A silence, one unlike anything heard before, pervaded the meadow.  On one side stood a hunched white alicorn, exaustion taking its toll.  On the other side side was Discord, his mouth etched in an eternal scream, and a prone pony laying on the ground.  When Celestia saw her sister, she forgot her fatigue, and ran over to Luna's body.
Celestia wept.  She wept for her fallen sister, and how she was too young to deserve this fate, but she also wept in knowing that she could have stopped Luna from attempting such a desparate act of bravery.
Suddenly, as Celestia gave up hope, Luna stirred.  She opened her eyes to a sister, teary eyed and in disbelief.
"Luna?'  Celestia was in shock.  "you're alive?"
"It would seem so." Luna answered hoarsely.  "I was able to put up a sheild before Discord attacked, but it drained my energy and I lost consciousness."  Luna slowly stood up and assesed the battlefield.  "I would guess you took advantage of my distraction and used the Elements."
"Yes I did, but please don't scare me like that again."  Celestia was weak with relief.  Their hard journy was finally over, and they were victorious.
"I'll try to warn you next time." Luna smiled weakly.  "Now, let's go home and spread the glorious news that Discord is no more!"
As the pair of alicorns departed from the meadow, the spike piece, forgotten by both Luna and Celestia, began to spin.  The spike evaporated into a cloud of smoke, and began to hastily follow the departing sisters.  Nearing the two, the spike-turned-smoke made a beeline for Luna's head.
Luna felt something like a gust of wind hit the back of her head.  She stopped and turned back to the meadow, with Discord still standing in his pose, but she didn't feel or see anything else.  Celestia looked back as well.
"What's wrong?"  She asked, preparing herself for more fighting.
"Nothing," Luna said, a sense of unease filled her.  "Nothing, let's get away from this place."