//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: Luna 
// Story: Spacebound Equestria 
// by TheMajorTechie 
//------------------------------//

	After sneakily planting a false physical hologram of herself in her own place, Celestia silently but quickly flew off towards the last remaining fort that remained open and accessible. She had already alerted everypony about the evacuation, except for them. She landed on the smooth metal surface of the fort's bunker, sending sparks everywhere from the metal-against-metal contact of her shoes on the steel.

"General Dash," She knocked on the bunker door. "I need to speak to you, please." The door slowly creaked open. To her surprise, it was never locked in the first place. She poked her head in through the crack in the doorway, taking a look inside. She gasped and took a step back, hitting her head on the door. After seeing the utter destruction inside, she wasn't going to take any chances to guess what had happened. "Sombra..." She uttered, "He's here." She made a mad dash for the fort's entrance, forgetting that she could simply fly away. As she got closer to the fort's doors, she was suddenly stopped by a massive wall that she had somehow never noticed rise out of the ground. She looked upwards, and saw Sombra.

He opened his mouth, and hissed, "Hello, Celestia... it's been a while, hasn't it... I know your plans, Princess. You're thinking that you can simply blast off, leave Equestria forever, and float away peacefully. You know that won't work, don't you? This... game of ours, simply a game of battleship. You and I, moving around forces, it's all just a game. A game of power and domination, and I'm on the winning side! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Celestia jumped back. She saw now, it was a trap. She had been lured in by Sombra, and captured in the very fort that she had helped build. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see General Dash struggling in a heavy padlocked chain, tied to a pole. Sombra saw her eyeing  the mare. "Oh, so you finally found the bait, haven't you." He streaked across the sky in his shadow form, covering the little sky that was visible with his own smoky mass. "Well now that you have, you win never see the open sky ever again.

In the swirling darkness, Celestia lit her horn. "I surrender!" She yelled. "Sombra, please, if there is even the tiniest bit of kindness in you, I BEG of you to not hurt any of my subjects. In return," Celestia kneeled down, bowing her head. She spoke in a soft tone. "I will surrender myself to your power." As she said her final words of defeat, Sombra swirled down, right at Celestia. She shut her eyes, a tear running down her face.

Celestia's face suddenly relaxed. She smiled sadly, and whispered into the darkness around her, "I'm sorry, my little ponies. I can not live to protect you. I will no longer be there for you, for I have done all I have to offer. Please, forgive me." Sombra was closing in now. It would be any second now before he finally reaches her, and she would for the first and final time, succumb to the darkness of death. Suddenly, a dark-blue streak sliced through the shadows.

Reacting to the sudden light now shining through, Celestia opened her eyes, and looked upwards. "Luna?" She squinted. Far up in the air, an alicorn who appeared to be her sister was now fighting off what Celestia had believed would put an end to her. "Luna, LUNA! LUNA!!!" She was now yelling at the top of her lungs, and took flight, joining her sister in combat. In a matter of seconds, she finally reached Luna. "Oh, Luna, how I've missed you!" She hugged Luna, ignoring the fact that her sister was still attempting to hold off the evil king.

"Uh, sister," Luna said, "I do believe that you should let go of me, before we both fall on our heads."

Celestia released Luna from her hold. "Sorry about that." She teleported both herself and her sister back to the gathering area where the ship was unveiled. "Anyways, how did you manage to both get back from the moon, and become uncorrupted?" As she asked this, she bucked the "physical hologram" off to the side. Upon contact with the ground, it exploded into a cloud of steam, which disappeared promptly.

Luna blinked. "I-I don't even know. All I know is that I felt this... pull on me, and all of a sudden, I reappeared down here on Equestria, my mind completely free, and the next thing I know, I see this dark cloud over a fort, and I went over to investigate. I guess it could have something to do with family ties?"

Celestia turned towards the audience she had attracted. "To all ponies that once thought of my sister as a corrupted jerk who tried to create eternal darkness, she stands here now, with her own free will restored. From this day on, she will not be known as Nightmare Moon, but as my fellow sister and co-ruler, Luna." The crowd silenced for a moment, and then erupted into cheers. Celestia turned back to Luna. "Thank you for saving me, sister. I owe you everything."

Luna snorted. "Heh, just give me cake every day for the next thousand years and I'll be happy."

Celestia rolled her eye, and jokingly replied, "Say that again and you're going back to the moon."

Luna laughed at the remark. She knew that Celestia was only kidding, and so was she. "I'm just glad to be back with you, sister. And to be back with all the wonderful ponies here today that have seen my true sel--"

A distant roar echoed through the streets, followed by a loud rumble of the ground.