<1,000 years ago>
Morning had arrived. Sunfire woke up and grabbed his clothes. He noticed that Celestia was already up. She had been getting up early a lot lately. He was a little curious about that, but his mind was mostly on the talk he had with Sombra. It had been a few days since that incident, and he had not yet told Celestia what happened. He hoped to simply get past it, especially after the talk with his Lord. He had been told not to trust Sombra at all. This also made Sunfire concerned for Princess Luna. She was still over at the Crystal Empire.
Once Sunfire got his clothes on, he left through a teleport and headed downstairs. Once he arrived downstairs, he saw that Celestia was sitting on her throne, looking a little off. “Everything okay, Celestia?” he questioned as he walked over.
“Oh it's nothing,” she lied.
“Celestia, you look like you’re sick. Do I need to call one of the royal doctors.”
“No, there is no need. I’ll go get some rest once Luna’s letter gets in.”
“You mean it’s not in yet.”
This was strange, usually Luna would send a letter, every morning that she stayed over at the empire. It let Celestia know that everything was doing fine over there.
“It’s okay Celestia. I’m sure she is just a little busy.”
“Maybe you are right. Though I’m also worried because the Moon wasn’t being set when I got up. I had to set it myself.”
This was very strange. Luna would never slack on her duties. However, worries would have to wait as suddenly several guards ran in.
“Guards what's wrong?” Sunfire questioned.
“Sir Sunfire, there has been an attack at Griffinstone.”
“What?!”
“As well as a massive explosion in the dragon lands. And several attacks in the west side of the country as well.”
“What is going on--” Celestia was about to question when she coughed hard. Sunfire ran to her to see what was wrong, when without warning screams could be heard outside.
“What now?”
Another guard ran in, “We have an intrud--” at that moment the guard was cut down as a hooded figure entered the room. Moving like lightning, he raced past all of the other guards and headed straight for the throne.
Sunfire quickly jumped in his way to stop him, yet he heard his lord’s voice stopping him. The unknown pony made his way to Celestia. He quickly aimed a sword at her throat.
At tha, all the guards stopped moving. “Good, now that we’ve got everypony calm, we’ve got some letters!” he shouted.
Celestia’s eyes widened at that voice. She looked directly at him, “No it can’t be.”
“Why, hello cousin,” he smiled. On that, he dropped his hood and revealed himself. His coat was red and shined like a diamond. His long mane was teal, refined, yet seemingly jagged at the bottom. He wore an overly fancy tall collar teal cape covered in frills and spikes. Under the cape he wore dark blue armor.
Standing before all of them was Prince Blood Diamond.
“What are you doing here Blood Diamond?” Celestia questioned.
“We told you, we brought the mail,” he answered as he held out a letter from Luna.
Celestia quickly grabbed it from his hand. At that, he flew away from her and landed in the center of the room. The guards quickly surrounded him. Sunfire got to the front of the group. “Where did you get that from?” he asked while Celestia opened the letter.
“We had one of our spies take it out of the sky as it was being sent.”
“Then why deliver it to us personally?”
“Because we received an invitation as well.”
“Invitation? What invitatio--” Sunfire heard a teleport and turned to see Celestia gone. She left in a rush. He ran quickly to the throne to see what the letter said, not noticing the guards suddenly dropping their weapons and falling to the ground.
Sunfire grabbed the letter and read it. His eyes widened in shock.
******
Dear Princess Celestia,
We of the Crystal Empire, cordially invite you to the crowning of our new queen and the wedding of King Sombra and Princess Luna.
******
As Sunfire finished reading, he quickly took a stance to teleport when suddenly his head ached and he fell to the ground. He looked towards the guards only to see them all laying on the ground dead, stabbed several times with bone knives. Blood Diamond's formed changed. In doing so revealing that this was never Blood Diamond at all, but instead somepony all too familiar.
"What the? You're not Blood Diamond."
"But of course not. Do you really think Blood Diamond would put himself in the middle of his enemy's home," Cult Race stood in place of Blood Diamond, "In fact, the real Blood Diamond is at the Crystal Empire as we speak making his own attack on this wedding. Meanwhile," at that knives flew toward Sunfire just as he put up his guard and summoned his shield. “My true mission is to kill you.”
******
<1,000 years later>
Princess Luna wondered the dreamscape, reliving fond memories with King Sombra. She still loved him, and it was doubtful that even with her immortal life span she would find another that loved her as much as he did. She kept looking through the memories trying her best to not find the bad ones until finally, she woke up. She yawned, and turned in her bed reaching her arms out while being timidly half awake, she almost assumed he would be right there, but he wasn’t.
Luna sighed with slight sadness and got up to set the Moon, as she did every morning. Afterward, she looked at the calendar that was on the wall. As she looked at what day it was, a tear formed in her eye. "It's Our Anniversary, Sombr--," she stopped herself, knowing that he wasn’t there. Apparently, her mind was still half out. "By each other side, for eternity," she remembered, the vows they made to each other on their wedding day.
It soon dawned on her that she was late for the meeting with the ambassadors from Zebrica. She ran through the halls until she reached the throne room where her sister was already talking with the ambassadors. Luna quietly walked in, so as to not disturb the negotiation.
There were four zebra ambassadors covered in black hooded cloaks and a mysterious fifth one that wore a red cloak. As Luna walked to her throne, she couldn't help but notice that the one in red watching her. As she sat on her throne she became annoyed with this one's wandering eye. "What is it?!" At that, the others stop and noticed her.
"Luna, what's wrong?" questioned Celestia.
"Nothing sister," she answered back as she calm down.
Luna took a deep breath and listened to the talk. Meanwhile, the red cloak hooded one kept looking at her. Celestia noticed, and questioned "Do you have something to say, sir...." she tried to say his name, but she didn’t know this one’s name.
"I'm sorry Princess Celestia, this is Baron Malik," the head of the zebras spoke up as he turned, and looked at the baron.
"'innaha liruyatik marratan 'ukhraa, almalikat lawnaan," spoke the baron with an unusual voice.
"What?" she questioned, not noticing that he wasn't actually talking to her, but to Luna the whole time.
"Sorry, he speak only in iimananaan min alzzalam, it is a dead language, even to our kind," said the head zebra.
“That strange, Alicorns have abilities to understand, translate, and speak any language, because our mind translates it for us, it's called the Alicorn Translation Matrix."
"Sorry Princess, but can we get back to the negotiations.”
"Yes, you're right.”
They went back to the negotiations while Luna sat on her throne quietly. She felt uneasy while the one in red continued to watch her.
******
Later Luna and Celestia went to go have breakfast. They sat down at the table as servants brought in breakfast. The meal looked quite good, yet Celestia couldn’t help but notice something was wrong. "Luna, what's going on? You seem sad?" Celestia took a bite of her meal.
"Tia it is today," Luna messed with her food.
"What is today?" Celestia questioned. At that Luna mumbled her words. "I'm sorry, what was that?" Celestia once again questioned. Luna continued to mumble the words, "You're going to have to speak up, Luna."
"IT’s MY ANNIVERSARY!" Luna yelled out, as she stormed out of the room not even finishing her meal.
This caught Celestia off guard. She didn’t realize that day had arrived. Truth be told, he had only been locked away a little over five years ago. And considering Luna spend nearly a millennia with him before realizing, or more or less finally accepting that their relationship could never work, it was no surprise that she reacted the way she did.
******
Luna made her way back to her room when all the sudden the hall went quiet, and out of the shadows Baron Malik appeared, "'innaha liruyatik marratan 'ukhraa, almalikat lawnaan."
"What? My sister said she could not understand you, what makes you think I can?!" Luna shouted in annoyance.
"la'annak bihaja a moment get use to it again," he answered.
"What the? I understood that last part," Luna's jaw went agape at that. Suddenly all his words were coming in clear.
"Oh good, then I will repeat what I said earlier. It is good to see you again, Queen Luna.”
A distinct chill went down her spine as she heard those words. "I have not used that title in years, not since my husband was free," she argued as she backed away from him.
"What is it, Queen Luna? Did you really think that you got away from me." The hood fell down, revealing himself to the demigod of darkness and space himself Grogar.
"No, It can't be you. You can’t be here, you’re gone. Sombra banished you to the dark tundra.” Luna stood her ground despite her heart going cold.
“Well, of course, that couldn’t hold a demigod forever. Now bow.”
Luna looked confused at his words. In fact, she didn’t bow at all. This only annoyed Grogar, as Luna got ready to fight him. However, he had no time for a fight. “Push.” At that Luna found herself flying to the wall. She hit the wall so hard that it knocked her unconscious. Grogar walked over even more annoyed.
“Clearly she never finished her job,” he stood over Luna. He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “Wake up Cassandra.”
At that Luna’s eyes open, but it wasn’t her eyes that could be seen. Instead, Nightmare Moon’s eyes could be seen. “I told you, father, the name is Nightmare now.”
“Like I care. You were supposed to have Luna under your control by now.”
“Well, I almost did. She is very stubborn. I need more time.”
“Time. Time! I am Space, not Time.” Grogar dropped her at that and turned away. “And time is what you have run out of. We can no longer wait.”
“Why?” she questioned as she slowly felt Luna waking up.
“Because plans have changed."
"How so?"
"Just follow my lead and this will be over shortly."
******
Miles outside of Canterlot, Twilight woke up. She got up and spun around. Clearly, she was trying to get her bearings right. Her mind was racing with all Grogar had told her. Was it true? Was he lying? Was his blood flowing through her? Had it been flowing through her from the very beginning? Soon her mind went to the worst possibility. "Had he been watching me from the beginning? Am I being watched in my timeline, possibly by his future self?"
"Oh, I see you met Grogar?"
Twilight jumped at that voice. "'F', I’m glad to see you're okay," she nearly shouted. Standing there was 'F'.
"Why hello Twilight?" he waved his cane around as he walked to her.
"How did you get away from Grogar's soldiers?"
"Tell me have you found Starlight?" he asked, ignoring her question.
"No, I haven't had the chance at finding Star--" suddenly she stopped as she grabbed her head and fell to the ground. Her head ached, filling with all the intel Grogar gave her.
"What is happening?" he questioned.
"It’s Grogar. He has left something in my mind."
"It's intel from him. It will only hurt worse if you fight it. Let it flow."
Hearing the words of 'F' she calmed herself, and let the intel flow. She got up once it stopped and looked at 'F' with great fear in her face.
“What did you see?" he questioned.
"I think I saw who the great evil that you warned me about was? I think it's Grogar."
"Interesting. Grogar is a demigod, so it wouldn't be surprising."
"No, that just not it. He showed me what he has planned for this day. He plans to turn Princess Luna into Nightmare Moon."
Immediately Twilight ran toward Canterlot. However, she was stopped by 'F' as he called to her. "Wait! What about Starlight?"
"Oh come on, 'F'. You said you met Starlight in this timeline, so you will know more than anypony where they might be. If Grogar is the great evil you warned me about I have to stop him first before he finds Starlight and kills her." She resumed running. Soon though she stopped, "Wait, but Nightmare Moon has to happen. It's apart of history."
'F' caught up with her as she stopped. "Well if you know it's going to happen, then no matter what you do, it will become fact. You cannot change what is fact."
"So does that mean Grogar isn't the great evil?"
"What if you are suppose to beat him after he turns Luna?" he pointed out.
"Possibly. But can I really do that? Stand by and let Luna transform. What if I warned Celestia?"
"She wouldn't listen to you in the disguise you're in"
"You're right," she interrupted. "I don't look like an alicorn right now. And even if I told her I was an alicorn how would she believe me?" She hit her head over and over. "Darn it, it feels so wrong, but I have to do something." She resumed her run to Canterlot.
As she ran, she didn’t notice ‘F’ stop for a moment. He coughed up red dust. His left shoulder and it’s stump ached. He grabbed it and held it. “Soon, very soon.”
******
<1,000 years earlier>
A bloody and beaten Sunfire crawled up the stairs to Celestia’s room. In other rooms, he could hear screams of other ponies being killed and ripped apart. He had barely escape Cult Race’s wrath, only to have the rest of the castle citizens suffer in agony as he crawled up the steps.
Soon he arrived at Celestia’s room, where the pathway to the vault was hidden. Though as he reached for the door he could hear the screams getting closer. Cult Race would soon be here.
Sunfire enter the room, hearing his lord’s voice he made his way to the vault. However as he entered the pathway to the vault, he heard Cult Race enter Celestia’s room.
Sunfire entered the vault. He heard the voice getting louder. “Complete the Circle.” He looked to the chest, feeling it's call to him. Hearing the voice continue, “Take the amulet into your hand. Bring it to the chest and release me from this prison.”
Doing as his lord commanded, he took his amulet into his left hand and reached up to the chest, only for his hand to be stabbed by a bone knife that Cult Race had thrown. Sunfire screamed in agony as the bone knife had stuck his hand to the chest.
“So Sunfire, do you really think your lord can save you?” Cult Race walked over. Sunfire struggled, causing the chest to fall to the ground and smash into pieces. Sunfire and Cult Race looked in confusion as the chest was empty. “Well, I guess your lord is not home.”
“How? Where?” Sunfire questioned as he laid there in shock.
“Like it matters. Now you will die.” Cult Race pulled out one of his bone knives and grabbed Sunfire's throat, while Sunfire’s left hand still laid in the shards on the chest with the amulet still in his grasp. “Shall I begin with….. STOP.”
As Cult Race pulled out the Glare, something unexpected happened as the shards of the chest and the amulet glowed. They glowed so brightly that Cult Race actually jumped back and broke the master spell.
Sunfire looked in confusion to this. However, his body filled with agony as the shards and the amulet embedded themselves into his left arm. He lifted his arm as the shards and the amulet glowed brighter and brighter. The shards and the amulet burrowed deep into his flesh, traveling up his arm. This caused him to scream in agony even louder. Eventually, the pain went away, there were no marks left behind.
Everything went silent for a moment. Cult Race looked in confusion of this all until suddenly the room filled with light. The entire top of the Castle ignited in a grand explosion that shook the entire city. The explosion spread across the entire kingdom and seemingly destroyed everything in sight.
******