With a swing that could cleave the night in two, Luna's blade arced perfectly toward her sister's armored side. Yet to Luna's increasing frustration, her blow was once again blocked by the broadsword that Celestia was swinging far faster than the Princess of the Night remembered her sister ever having moved it. She back-stepped quickly and swung for the ankles, yet again to her surprise Celestia was fast enough to not only raise her hoof out of the way of the strike, but to also slam her hoof down upon the flat side of the blade. With her sister's weapon pinned, a smile flashed across Celestia's face as she hefted the broadsword over her head and swung down with all of her might. The smile turned into a scowl when Luna teleported out of the way, appearing at the other end of the throne room with her weapon as the broadsword shattered the castle floor.
With a grunt, Celestia lifted the sword out of the shattered bricks and rested the flat side of the blade against her back, narrowing her orange-filled eyes as she glared across the room at the dark-clad princess. Luna's catlike eyes returned the gesture before the Princess of the Night let out a bellow and began swinging her blade rapidly, the swings creating small, white crescents that sliced through the sky on their path right for Celestia.
Yet with a smirk, Celestia hoisted her weapon once again and channeled her magic into the blade, emblazing it with red and orange magic. Then, with a roar that drowned out her sister's cry, Celestia swung the broadsword in one, massive arc that created a tidal wave of fire that quickly consumed the crescents in an instant. Luna was more fortunate than her attack and was able to leap into the sky to avoid the all-consuming fire, and she stayed aloft using her wings as the flames destroyed the wall behind her.
"It seems that your time off in the mountains has made you weak, Sister," Celestia spat as she shouldered the broadsword once again, watching as Luna floated down on the other side of the room with caution. "We used to be equals in the arena of combat, but now you can barely hold aloft your weapon, let alone hurt me with it!"
She then put her whole body into her next attack as she swung her blade forward into the stones at her hooves, cracking the floor apart as a blade of fire tore through the stone. Luna created a barrier of magic to protect herself from the flames, yet when the blade struck the barrier her shield was shattered while the force of the impact hurled her backwards.
"And it seems that the time you have spent alone without me in this castle has made your mind go softer than it was!" Luna shrieked in defiance as she struck the castle floor with her own weapon, creating pillars of lunar light that tore through stone as they converged on Celestia. Just like her sister, Celestia created a barrier of magic to protect her from the attack, but when the pillars struck her shield it held strong and shattered the lunar magic.
"If you truly believe that that could hurt me, then it is you who has gone soft," Celestia replied with a dark chuckle as she whipped her head to the side, moving her dark orange mane to the other side of her head. "I have grown stronger since the last time we met, Sister. Oh, how I've become stronger! I am no longer the weak princess that needed to be saved every time a threat showed up in our land! I am now a true queen!"
"And while you quested after that power, you gave Black Adam free roam of the land," Luna snarled in reply, yet her words did not invoke anger in her sister. Instead, all they drew forth from Celestia was an annoyed sigh.
"Still jealous of him after all these years, Luna? I cannot say that I blame you. Any lesser ruler would be jealous of perfection," Celestia said with a very insulting laugh at Luna, who's eyes became slits as she unleashed bolts of magic from her horn. Celestia swung her sword forward and used the side of the blade to deflect the blows, laughing all the while. "He is strong where you are weak! He can make the tough decisions while you struggle just to control your own emotions! And now I am like him! Now I have the power to protect my subjects...and crush anypony who dares to stand against me! Allow me to show you!"
As those words left her mouth, she lifted her broadsword high above her head, creating a pillar of fire that pierced through the roof and shot into the skies. With another high-pitched laugh, Celestia spread her wings and slowly began to ascend through the hole she had created. "Come, Sister, if you dare." Luna snarled in reply as she spread her own wings and launched herself after Celestia, joining her sister on the empty roof to find Celestia looking down across the land. "I am finally the protector that Black Adam is."
"And in turn, you have made yourself even more blind to his evil!" Luna roared with the fury of the night sky as she lunged at Celestia, who quickly spun around swinging her sword. The sound of metal colliding echoed out across the roof as Luna's blade pushed against Celestia's sword, neither refusing to move. "You still do not see the threat that he is! Because of him, much more evil has been unleashed in this land! Think of the End of Days! Think of Ares! All because you refused to see Adam for what he was!"
"And one of those evils has turned out to be my own sister!" Celestia spat in reply before she poured all of her strength into her blade and pushed Luna back with a mighty swing, sending the Princess of the Night crashing into the castle roof a distance away. "How many of my subjects have you sent to their death in trying to get to me?! How many families have been ripped apart because of you?! I am no saint, Sister, but for every drop of blood that is on my hooves there is far more drenching yours! But today I stop the bloodshed! Today," Celestia began menacingly as she lifted the broadsword next to her face and smiled, "the night shall fall to the sun!"
With a mighty flap of her wings Celestia hurled herself forward at Luna, who barely brought her blade up in time to deflect the swing from Celestia's blade that would have taken her head clean off. For a brief moment, as the two sisters stood face to face with their weapons locked, they were able to look into each others' eyes, eyes that told each tale for the other. In Luna's, Celestia could see the desire for revenge and the hatred that consumed her soul, whereas Luna could see the desire for power and the pain of being betrayed by her sister, pain that had turned into hatred.
Then, the two split apart as Luna sent a stream of lunar magic into Celestia's chest plate, snapping the Queen of the Sun back as she tried to steady herself. With a howl to the heavens, Luna lunged forward with her crescent blade outstretched, aiming at the spot on Celestia's armor where the magic had struck her. Yet this time when she got close, Celestia unleashed a burst of solar magic that torched everything that was struck by its light, forcing Luna to fall back as she was consumed by the light. She barely had time to register what had happened before the flat of Celestia's broadsword caught her in the side. With a great deal of magical strength Celestia lifted Luna, who was still on the sword, over her head before swinging her sister back over and hurling her into the stone beneath them. With a laugh, Celestia lifted the broadsword over her head and aimed it right where her sister lay upon the ground, one last deranged laugh escaping her lips as she swung down.
The next thing she knew, however, she was being hurled across the roof by a black pillar of magic that shot out of her sister, nearly throwing her off the roof, had she not had the sense to slam her sword down and use it for an anchor. Yet as she pulled herself to her hooves, she cast a glance across the roof to see that her sister was now changed, changed into a form she remembered all too well. Her coat was black as night, her mane like the cosmos, and her cutie mark was a white crescent moon across a black sky.
"So, you finally choose to reveal who you've become, eh Sister?!" Celestia spat with disdain as Nightmare Moon let out a bellow before hurling herself forward, slamming into Celestia's chest with her shoulder and hurling the two alicorns off of the castle roof down into the garden below. Celestia groaned as she shook her head, only to see a hoof place itself upon her chest, and with a small push Nightmare Moon was able to push Celestia into the dirt while she aimed the crescent blade at her sister's throat.
"Yes. I am stronger than you," Nightmare Moon replied, seeing that unbridled fury in Celestia's eyes as she thrust the blade forward. Yet, it was Moon's turn to be hurled off of Celestia as a column of fire erupted from the alicorn of the sun. Nightmare narrowed her eyes after a moment as the column of fire vanished and revealed her sister, who had also changed like Moon had done. Celestia's white coat was now a blazing orange and her orange mane was now blood red, yet her eyes had changed most of all. They were now solid yellow, a yellow that burned like the power of the sun.
"So, this is what you would have looked like had you turned instead of me," Nightmare Moon snarled with narrowed eyes as she held her crescent blade before her, Celestia remaining silent as she walked towards Moon while dragging her broadsword in the dirt behind her, fire consuming the blade. Moon caught movement out of the corner of her eye and intercepted the incredibly fast attack with her own blade, yet even though she blocked the blow, she still had to dig her hooves into the dirt to keep from being overpowered. Both rulers unleashed their magics upon each other at the same time, creating an explosion of orange and black that hurled the both of them away from each other.
"So what do we call you now, Sis?" Nightmare Moon roared since she was the first to recover, giving her the chance to lunge towards Celestia and slam her skull into Celestia's nose. "How about the Solar Empress?! Seems a fitting name for the Tyrant of the Sun!" Nightmare Moon cackled as she swung her blade forward, only for her weapon to not only be intercepted by the Empress' broadsword, but also to be shattered into pieces by the force of the sun's might. Nightmare backed away as she looked down at her now-shattered blade before she looked back to the advancing fury of the sun tyrant, whose eyes showed that her thousands of years of wisdom and leadership were now lost to the power of absolute fury.
With fury that shook the castle, the Solar Empress swung her blade forward with such force that flames erupted along the ground. Nightmare Moon teleported to the side to avoid the blow, the blow that cleaved the garden in two and sent both halves crashing down into the city below, setting some of the houses on fire as well. Another shriek told Nightmare Moon that the next strike was coming, but this time when the Empress swung her blade forward, Moon unleashed a vortex of magic that could shatter the moon into the broadsword, obliterating it instantly and hurling the Empress backwards.
Despite the loss of her weapon, the Solar Empress' face never changed from the contorted look of wrath as she began to channel all of her solar magic into the horn upon her head, infusing it with the very essence of the sun itself. Nightmare Moon narrowed her eyes at her sister's trick before her eyes went completely white as she fused her lunar magic into her horn, causing it to shine like the full moon while she reached her true power. The very castle shook beneath the pair as they each turned their horns upon each other, while darkness began to cascade off of their bodies. Then, with a roar escaping both of the beings, they unleashed their full magic into each other.
'STOP!'
To the confusion of both the nightmare and the empress, a sphere of silver appeared in the center of the battlefield, consuming both the magical attacks and removing them from reality. The two rulers' eyes narrowed as the sphere vanished and a small mare made of silver took its place, a mare who looked as shattered and broken as the castle around them.
'Please, the both of you need to stop this pointless battle! Can you not see that this wonton destruction and violence is just what the End of Days wish?!' the silver mare begged the two rulers with pain in her voice as her remaining eye looked from Moon to the Empress, yet she only saw fury and jealousy within their faces.
"The End of Days will be erased as soon as I am done ridding the world of this tyrant once and for all!" Nightmare Moon shrieked as she began to charge her magic back up.
'No, that is what the darkness and hatred within you is saying! You are better than this Luna!' the silver mare tried to reason, yet when she looked over at the Solar Empress she found that she was charging up her magic once again, just as her sister was. The silver mare looked desperately from Luna to Celestia before her own eyes shown with power and with a roar of both fury and pain, she unleashed a wave of silver that washed over both of the rulers, dragging them into the silver sphere.
S=H=A=Z=A=M
Celestia and Luna both groaned at the same time as they lifted themselves off of...nothing, as when the both of them looked down all they saw was white, the same white that they saw no matter in which direction they looked. Yet when they looked at each other, their eyes narrowed at the other, yet they were not entirely sure why. Yet, their quick surge of anger turned into confusion when they turned their eyes upon themselves to see that they were no longer what they had become.
"How did this happen?" Luna eventually asked as she looked down at her body before she looked at Celestia. "You were the Solar Empress hardly a minute ago and now you are back to yourself. I was Nightmare Moon and now I am...myself. Mare! What have you done?"
'I have done, what for the past five years has been nearly impossible to do. I have gotten the both of you to meet at the same place at the same time without any of the End of Days to plant falsehoods within you,' the silver mare explained, yet neither of the rulers were able to see her. 'It has taken...far more of my power than I wished, but I have finally erased the darkness that they created within you--be it your hatred for each other or your desire to fight for the throne.'
Celestia and Luna both looked at each other for a moment, still upset, yet neither of them felt the sheer hatred that had driven the pair to nearly killing each other. 'For years, the End of Days have had their spies poison your minds against each other, even if you were not aware of it. For you, Celestia, their agent was Windy Days. For Luna, it was the pony Oracle. But in here, in the center of my creation, their falsehoods cannot touch you. This room reveals who you really are.'
"If you had this power, then why did you not use it before?" Celestia asked the nothingness as her wisdom returned to her. That, along with the recent knowledge that Windy Days betrayed and led to the death of Willow, convinced her that the mare was telling the truth. "Why did you not use this power years ago so that we could see that we were being blinded and consumed by lies?" To both of the rulers' surprise, the mare went quiet for a long time, getting the two of them to believe that she may have vanished before she spoke again.
'Because I was afraid.'
"Afraid of what?"
'To start, of Black Adam. When I first appeared in your room all those years ago, he tried to kill me. I was...terrified of him and fled for my life. That was when...other events forced me to leave my home,' the silver mare explained with pain in her voice before she went silent again for a few more minutes. 'And the other...was because I was afraid of you, Celestia.'
"Why was that?" Celestia asked with confusion.
'Because in your state of mind you were far meaner, far crueler than you usually are. When I saw the hatred that you held towards your own sister, I feared that if I appeared before you again...that one of the only ponies who ever cared for me would turn that loathing onto me.'
Celestia's eyes slightly widened at the mare's words, but then Celestia shook her head and looked around once again. "You say that this room reveals our true selves, but that would mean that it also shows who you really are. Please, reveal yourself."
The mare went silent again before a beam of yellow light beamed down in the center of the white between Celestia and Luna, both of them watching as a filly appeared in the center of the beam of light. She had a yellow coat that shone like the sun and an orange mane that made her head look like it was on fire. But as she turned to look at Celestia, the queen saw a small smile on her face that wiped away any doubt she had left.
"Hi Mom," Sunnysmiles said weakly.
Silence filled the room after that as Celestia looked at Sunnysmiles with no emotion on her face, worrying both Sunny and Luna. Then, Celestia slowly began to walk forward towards the filly, looking down at her once she reached her with eyes that gave nothing away. She then held out a hoof to touch the small filly's smiling face before she finally spoke.
"Is it...really you?" she asked Sunny in a whisper.
"Yeah. It is."
Faster than either Sunny or Luna could process, Celestia dropped to her knees and pulled Sunny into a bear hug, breaking down completely as she began to sob uncontrollably into the filly's shoulder, shaking her whole body. Despite the fact that the two of them had been fighting to the death only a while ago, even Luna couldn't help but smile at the sight of her niece and Celestia holding each other tightly. When Celestia finally had the strength to let go, she looked down at her daughter with tears still streaming down her face.
"All this time you were the silver mare. Radiance did manage to bring you back to life. All these years I've...been trying to destroy my own daughter." Celestia began to sob again as she held Sunnysmiles tightly, giving Luna the opening she had been waiting for to break into the conversation.
"Sunny...I am truly happy to see that you are alive," Luna said with a warm smile before she took on a serious face. "Yet, if you are right in saying that Celestia and I are not to be enemies, which makes much more sense without that...poison in my mind, then we must be prepared for when our true enemy appears. Which, according to Banner, will be soon."
"Yes, but I am afraid that we will not be ready," Sunny said with a worried tone as she tried to break free of Celestia's grasp, only to be pulled in even tighter. "We are still down a champion who can fight against the darkness, and I fear that the six champions that I have may not be able to fight it off alone-"
"Then you will not fight alone. Me and my forces with fight alongside you," Celestia cut in with strength and determination in her voice as she lifted her head to look at her sister. "I can now see clearly, see through the hate that has been clouding my mind, and I will do whatever it takes to fight alongside you. If you want the throne, Luna, it's yours. If you wish to lock me up in a dungeon or banish me to the sun, do so after the battle. But I will do whatever you wish, so that I can support my daughter now."
Luna's mouth thinned as she thought about what Celestia was saying to her, but after a moment of reflection she shook her head and held out a hoof. "We can discuss what to do if we manage to survive this battle. But we will need all of your forces along with the six champions to fight this battle. Will Black Adam...I can't believe I'm saying this...fight alongside us?"
"He will if I ask him to," Celestia said as she finally let go of Sunnysmiles so that she could rise to her hooves, yet the moment she did so she picked up the filly with her magic and placed her upon her back, where she gave her a sad smile. "You...only look like this in here, don't you? Once we return to the real world, you will go back to being the silver mare, won't you?"
"Yes, but I will still be your daughter," Sunny said hopefully as she hugged Celestia. Celestia then met eyes with Luna, the two of them sharing a look for a moment before they both nodded in response to what the other was thinking.
The room vanished in a flash of silver and a moment later Luna and Celestia were standing back in what remained of the Canterlot gardens. Luna lowered her head with shame at what they had done, while Celestia realized that Sunny was missing and was looking around for her.
'Do not worry. I am still with you but in my current state I cannot take on my pony form for very long,' the voice of Sunnysmiles said to them from out of the nothingness, getting a nod from Luna while Celestia sighed sadly. 'I sense that five of the six that I brought here have gathered in the castle along with Spike...and that Black Adam is on his way. Go to them and tell them that we have joined forces. And pray that we are not too late.'
Celestia and Luna nodded to each other as they both turned and ran for the castle, but as they ran by a window, Celestia had to stop because she saw her burning orange mane in her reflection. Her sad eyes looked at her reflection for a moment as she lifted a hoof to her mane, just one of the many reminders of how far she had gone for power. But then, with determined eyes she bolted after Luna, preparing for the battle that was to come.