//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: Griffons and Magic and Nightmares, oh my! 
// by bahatumay 
//------------------------------//

	“They grow stronger every hour. They are probably conscripting hundreds as we just sit here!” Luna fumed.

“I still cannot move the sun,” Celestia observed.

“It has been noon for nearly a full day now,” Luna grumbled. “We got lucky when the training camp guards just happened to run into the squad about to attack Fetlockton. The next attack is coming; it's only a matter of where. And we have no idea where to even start fortifying.” She began to pace. “Mass relocation won't work; they'll just pick off the stragglers. We can't keep training; we'll spread our real fighters too thin. We can't keep moving the army; they'll be too exhausted to fight…”

“We will think of something,” Celestia said. 

Luna's left eye twitched. “Something doesn't cut it, sister. Ponies are dying out there. What would you have me do?”

Celestia was silent for a moment. “We can win... we just need to regroup...”

Luna blinked. "Did you learn nothing from the changelings, sister? We are powerful, but unstoppable we are not. That is why… after much thought…" Luna didn't finish her sentence. She merely pulled out a small glass jar filled with liquid darkness. There was no other way to describe what was... dancing? writhing? agonizing? inside.

Celestia blanched. "Luna… is that… the tai̸nt?"

Luna nodded. "Yes. Dark power it may be, but power it is; and power we need."

"Where did you even get that?" Celestia asked, horrified.

Luna smiled darkly. "The tai̸nt seeks out that which it has tainted before. Every couple weeks, I find another tendril hanging on to me. I merely remove it and store it."

"So what are you going to do? Infect yourself again?" Celestia's voice had taken on a light tone, but by the end of her sentence she realized Luna was not joking.

Luna looked at her sister. "Unless thou canst see any other choice?"

"But, Luna...."

Luna smiled weakly. "Thou knowest how to change u... me... back again."

"But why can't I do it?"

Luna slipped back into her old voice again as she snapped, "I told thee, I wish that thou stayest free of it. It never leaves, Celi. Never. I̷t constantly seeks me out. I wish not that for thee."

"But, Luna...."

Luna smiled weakly. "Art thou not out of excuses yet?"

The jar glowed with gold magic as well as blue. "I won't allow it! We will find another way!"

Luna smiled again. "Too late."

Celestia's magic had been re-enforcing the jar, so if her sister had tried to smash it, the surge of magic would have simply dissipated. But Luna didn't surge magic; she merely canceled the enhancing wards that were holding the jar together under such intense pressure. 

The jar shattered, releasing its prisoner. Celestia stepped back in horror as the d̨aŕknȩss leaped at her sister, grabbing hold of one foreleg and slowly spreading, like a fungus. Luna’s expression shifted from triumphant to one of utter regret as the pain of infection overtook her, and she quickly raised a hoof to try and scrape off part of the taint; but her actions just allowed it to spread to her other foreleg. She stared at it in horror at the thick black taint that connected her forelegs until a strand lashed out and wrapped itself around her nose, forcing itself inside. Luna screamed in primal agony, but the darkness was not phased. Completely disregarding Luna’s scrabbling attempts to scrape it off, it crawled up her face, injecting itself into her ears and into her mouth. Luna fell to the ground, her entire body twitching painfully, and screaming her throat raw.

Celestia shook her head. Luna would be crazy? Well, Celestia had some crazy ideas too. You don't stay a princess as long as she had without learning to think quick on your hooves.



*  *  *



With a shudder, Nightmare Moon opened her eyes. Her eyes, now yellow with slitted pupils, took in the room and her new body.

“Yes,” she murmured as she examined her hooves. “I remember this host...”

She sat up and examined her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was the sun. It was high in the sky. It must have been noon. Well, if she had anything to do with it, when the sun set again, it would stay set. Then the griffons would know who truly owned the little ponies... whatever they had tried. 

She raised herself up to her hooves, armorless but still terrifying in her poise and her royal, aloof demeanor... which was quickly replaced by confusion when she saw her sunny counterpart hanging upside down from the roof, blood running down her face, eyes closed, mouth open, unconscious. The rope was tied around her left hind leg, and from the redness and rope burns, it looked as though she had been hanging there for some time.

Nightmare Moon walked up carefully, suspecting a trap. Raising a hoof gingerly, she poked Celestia. 

No response.

She prodded again. No response.

She glared and her horn flared once. Celestia's eyes opened with a snap. She gasped sharply as the reviving spell shot through her body like an electric shock.

"Explain." It was more growled than spoken.

"Y... you...." whispered Celestia.

Nightmare Moon raised her hoof again. "It looks as if you've been through a lot tonight, 'Celi'," she hissed, the nickname becoming soured by her sarcastic tone. "So talk, and maybe I'll let you go with a warning. Stars know it's more than you gave me."

Celestia averted her eyes from the animalistic snarl that contorted her former sister's face. "Well, if you came back to take over Equestria, you certainly picked a good time to do it."

Nightmare Moon's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing. Without a host, the dar̨kn̕e̶ss had no neurological functions; the last thing it remembered were six mares and the Elements of Harmony. But she hadn't had time to rummage through Luna's memories, and she sure as night wasn't going to betray her ignorance to this pale freak that used to call her 'sister'.

"As you may have noticed, it is high noon outside."

"You don't say," hissed Nightmare Moon. "If you don't have anything new to share, maybe we'll see how you like the moon for a thousand years. Maybe two."

"It's the griffons. Using some dark process, they have discovered the use of magic, and they are powerful. They gain their power from the sun. They entrapped me... A diversion…” She chuckled mirthlessly. “ I'm not as young as I used to be. It has been noon for a week. Our ponies... they can't take the heat for so long.... The weak have started dying already."

"I know what happened. And they are soon to be my ponies, 'sister'," whispered Nightmare Moon, sarcasm dripping from the endearing term.

"I have been bound. I cannot move the sun, I cannot do anything." A pause. "I cannot resist you, or your rise to power."

"So, you admit defeat already?"

"Can you not see? I have been defeated!" Celestia howled. Her voice dropped into a low whisper. "If you defeat the griffons, perhaps the right to rule does belong to the younger."

"Younger does not mean weaker, Celi."

"I never said it did."

"Oh, but it has always been implied."

Celestia said nothing, but she closed her eyes and bowed her head again.

Nightmare Moon chuckled darkly as she walked away. "Night makes might, sister."

"For the sake of our ponies, I hope you succeed."

Nightmare Moon froze and her voice took on a dangerous tone. "My ponies,” she growled. “I will not be your lackey." Something occurred to her suddenly. "How are you not free yet?"

Celestia's horn flared, then fizzled. "Magic-reducing silk," she answered, gesturing faintly at the strands of silk tied around her horn. "Alicorn though I be, I cannot break all the rules."

Nightmare Moon nodded, and turned to walk away.

"Good luck, sister," Celestia said.

"Burn in Tartarus," Nightmare Moon growled back before striding purposefully out the door.

She paused, then, smiling brightly (ironic, considering that she's the Mare of the Night), cast a magic barbed net on the room. It pulsed with dark, purple magic, promising a near-fatal shock to anypony foolish enough to try to cross it.

“Enjoy your... 'alone time', Celestia,” Nightmare Moon said, laughing heartily.

She walked out into the hallway and grimaced at the bright sun, bringing up a wing to shield her eyes. Blinking furiously, she reared up and slammed her hooves down, causing thick black clouds to instantly gather over Canterlot. Her eyes adjusted quickly to this darker state, and she stepped forwards to achieve her destiny.