//------------------------------//
// Chapter 19 
// Story: After the Nightmare 
// by CORACK 
//------------------------------//

Luna shivered as a foreboding sensation crawled through her. The hairs down the back of her neck stood up straight as if preparing for some unforeseen calamity. The moment she had stepped hoof onto this level, she could tell something was off. The hallway that stretched before her was dimly lit, but unlike many of the previous areas she had traveled through it did not appear to have fallen into ruin. She trotted forward until she reached the end. Before her a large door stood by silently waiting for Luna to make her move. She reached out and poked the door controls, but like everything else on this level, it lacked power and did not acknowledge her touch.

Scant seconds later there was a loud groan as the door was forced open and Luna stepped through. The burnt out husks of security turrets, long since destroyed in failed attempt to stop Vohaul's forces hung from the ceiling. This was the last security check point before Luna reached the main hall and the way to Zax's control room. She stepped quickly through the room and pulled open the door on the other side. 

Whatever monsters still roamed this level had done some remodeling. The smooth artificial walls of the vast underground base faded away into a more natural rock, laced with dark crystals. Embedded in the walls were partially grown constructs, leaching the magical energies that flowed through the black crystals. The air was thick with dark magic, and the closer Luna got to her destination, the more oppressively it bore down on her. Borrowing a spell she had learned from Celestia, her horn lit up and a glowing sphere of light erupted from her horn, filling the surrounding area. Along with the darkness, the sense of dread that had been hanging over her retreated backwards, unable to maintain its presence in the holy light.

But darkness does not often appreciate the meddling of the light, and as Luna advanced a large rumbling noise echoed off the rocky walls as a golem stepped out from behind a distant crystal from the light the pony carried forward. It garbed a hold a cracked crystal, wrenched it free of the wall and threw it at Luna. The heavy crystal sailed through the air, only to be deflected by a quick push from Luna's magic. It skittered off the wall to the left of her, sending chips of rock and crystal flying in all directions before it landed on the floor with a thud. The golem roared in frustration, it shuffled over to the wall where one of the crystals was glowing gently. It reached out placing it's hand directly on the wall and Luna watched as the crystal darkened and the energies within were drained into the golem body

It turned towards Luna and a bright red beam lanced out from its head gouging a deep trench in the floor where Luna stood only seconds earlier. From farther down the hall more and more golems awoke from their slumber and began to charge to the aid of the first, pausing every few second to fire their own magical attacks at the distant pony.

Luna continued to close the distance at a fast trot, moving back and forth as dozens of beams of dark energy crashed around her. No matter how many times the golems fired upon her, they couldn't quite manage to hit the rapidly approaching pony. When the outer edge of light came in contact with the closest pair of golems the crystals that made up their bodies began to sizzle and smoke, small cracks started to appear the golems recoiled back as if in pain.

Luna let out a small laugh, pleased to see her casting of the spell was working so effectively. It took a good deal of magic for her to correctly emulate one of Celestia's personal spells. She pushed forward, pouring more magic into her horn and the light hitting the golems grew brighter and brighter. The pair stumbled around letting out shrieks of agony, and then suddenly their entire bodies simply burst into flames along with every other dark crystal in range of the spell. Seconds later all that remained was charred rock and puddles of molten slag.

Luna continued to advance, her holy light scorching everything in her path, but something was wrong. The evil presence that seemed to hang in the air grew stronger. The light surrounding her flickered on and off as she strained to keep the spell alive. The source of this new power, as best as she could tell, was coming from the end of the corridor, beyond the great door. That was where Vohaul should be trapped but Luna could feel a great evil in there and it did not feel as if it was restrained.

Luna stopped and brought up a shield spell around her to hold back the attacks, as she tried to determine her next move. Checking up on the tracking spell, Luna was horrified to discover that Selene had moved. Selene was now in Zax's control room. Luna needed to clear the hall, and get there as quickly as possible. There was a good chance that whatever great evil stood beyond that door could sense her. There were still a large number of golems remaining between her and the door and time was of the essence. Purifying light was all well in good, but it was time that these monsters learned that she and she alone owned the dark. In an instant the brightly lit hallway was plunged into an inky blackness as Luna cut power to the spell she had been casting and unleashed a new one of her own design. The area surrounding Luna was completely devoid of light, and the bubble of pure darkness began to expand. The darkness was so absolute that the only way to tell it was growing was the ever decreasing time each beam of magic from the remaining golems lit up the corridor until it vanished completely upon entering Luna's area of negative light.

Shot after shot the golems fired into the blackness as it slowly rolled down the corridor. With a loud crack a freshly grown fire golem broke off the wall right in front of the advancing darkness. It let out a blast of flame only to disappear seconds later as the every growing shadow continued its spread down the hall. One by one, the sounds of the attacking constructs died out as they were swallowed up until the last one vanished. One last blast fired off, invisible to the outside world and then there was silence. Seconds later the darkness vanished and once again the corridor was illuminated with a dim light. Luna stood at the far end, inspecting the door in front of her, the shattered remains of almost a hundred golems lay scattered about on the ground behind her. She reached up to the panel and keyed in the sequence to open the door but nothing happened. Luna let out a sigh and channeled more magic into her horn, illuminating the surroundings in a blue glow. She was going to enter that room one way or another.


#####


A large cloud of dust and debris was kicked up as Malice crashed into the ground. He grunted and then pulled himself up off the ground with his one good remaining arm, the other one hanging limply at his side. Walking over to Selene he found her out cold. He picked her rifle and investigated the unusual weapon. It resembled a primitive form of the hand held laser weapons employed by the Eternals. There was a powerful enchantment inside the weapon. As far as he could tell, it was specifically made to disrupt the same dark energy that he used for the vast majority of his spells. It was odd that this mortal creature with no describable magical ability of her own would have a device with such a specifically targeted enchantment, but it did explain why it had done so much damage to his body. Still he had no time to investigate further, so he tossed the rifle aside. Looking back down at the girl he now stood over, it was clear that her mortal body was fading fast. If she perished before he could extract the spark of divinity it might be lost completely.

Malice tossed the rifle to one side, picked up Selene in one hand, and then trudged over to the altar. He lay her body down and then began pouring more magic into the dark nexus of energy. An dark aurora surrounded the girl and her body began to shake. From her heart a black ray of unlight shot outward and drove into Malice's chest. His body shuddered as he struggled maintain the vast amount of energy he would need to complete the spell.

From beyond the main door, Malice could feel something approaching. Between his damaged body and his struggles to maintain the spell, he couldn't afford to probe further but even so, the wave of approaching power crashed over him, unable to be ignored. He could hear the sounds of battle as the remnants of his army tried to halt the intruder progress, but Malice was no fool. Based on what he was sensing his constructs had no chance of stopping whatever it was that approached his location. He turned his concentration back towards Selene and as he focused on finishing the extraction.

Minutes ticked by but Malice continued to make no real progress. He let out a growl of frustration as one again the fragment once again slipped from his pull. Giving up on finesse he attempted to rip it from Selene's soul, he was past the point of trying to preserve her life so he could torment her later.

A deafening crack echoed throughout the room as large segments of the door to the main hallway exploded inward, then froze in midair and clattered to the floor. Malice smashed his fist downward onto the alter in a rage. Ceasing his work on Selene, he turned towards the now destroyed door and unleashed a massive surge of energy. It flashed outward, destroying everything in its path. Computer consoles, chunks of door and even a large section of the wall instantly vanished. When the light finally died away the corridor was in ruins. The blast had carved a new tunnel fifty feet in diameter through the remnants of the shattered door, through one of the walls of the corridor and into the next. The rock walls of the new tunnel were glowing a cherry red, heat pouring off of them as they slowly began to cool down.

From the far end of the newly carved tunnel Malice heard a distant "clop clop clop clop" it echoed over and over again growing faster and louder as the source of the sound approached and then it stopped entirely. A dark blur flew into the room from the tunnel at high speed, Malice barely had enough time to throw up a shield spell. The blur crashed into the shield at an insane speed and bounced off, slamming into the ceiling, sending chunks of concrete raining down. Malice grabbed the unconscious girl and lifted her off of the alter. Her body lit up as it was surrounded with a sickish red glow. He turned towards the pile of rubble and waited. The broken slabs began to fall away as a figure stood up and pushed them to one side.


#####


It was clear to Luna that Vohaul was not imprisoned, the massive spell that pushed her back down the corridor only confirmed this fact. She shook her head, clearing away the dizziness and began to gallop back to the control center. Not satisfied with her speed, she took to the air and began to accelerate. There was something in that room, something evil and powerful and every second Selene was in there only increased the danger.

Flying into the room at high speed, she barely had time to react as a powerful shield spell sprang up in front of her. She quickly raised a shield of her own, milliseconds before slamming into the shield. She bounced off of it and flew upwards at high speed, then fell down to the floor followed by broken chunks of concrete where her impacted had shattered the ceiling.

Shaking the debris off of her, she stood up. In the center of the room a powerful shield spell rippled and crackled with energy. In the center of the shield stood a large golem. This one was different than the other golems, their bodies looked crude in comparison. It looked even far more defined than the images Decima had shown her of Vohaul. Curiously, one of the creature's arms hung limply to one side, but her inspection was quickly halted as she noticed Selene, wrapped in a spell she could not identify, floating just behind the creature.

"This is a most unusual turn of events," The creature said, looking at Luna. "I have not seen one of your kind in a long time."

Luna's ears twisted forward and her eyes grew wide with question.

"What do you mean my kind?" she asked. "You are Vohaul, are you not?"

The deep rumbling laughter let out by the golem caused bits of small broken pieces of the ceiling to shake loose and come crashing down.

"I see you have talked to Decima," the monster said. "Vohaul ceased to exist ages ago, this is all that is left of him." 

The creature pointed to his chest where a small metal box was buried inside the crystal.

"I do not understand," Luna said "Vohaul attacked this world, who are you?"

"Yes he did, but did that wretched AI ever tell you why he did?" Not waiting for an answer, the monster continued. "She didn't because she did not know. Vohaul was nothing more than a puppet, and it was I who pulled his strings. These AI have minds unlike any others I've encountered before, and while it took me years to take complete control of it, I was still able to forced him to make war upon his own people and it was I who guided him here to this planet. Vohaul as an individual entity did not last much past the extermination of his former masters."

Luna studied the being before her, she probed the magical energies that resided with its body. Among the many spells there was one that stood out. Thousands of years ago, when she and her sister had fought against King Sombra, a honor guard of crystal pony warriors had tried to stop the sisters. Neither Celestia nor Luna could believe it, the ponies of the Crystal Empire were terrified of Sombra, they could not imagine where he had found any to fight for him. It was only after they defeated the guard did they learn the horrible truth. Dark magic of incredible power had suppressed the free will of those ponies and forced them to fight for a King they despised. While it had a similar feel to Sombra's domination spell, it made Sombra's version look like the work of a foal. But that was the least of Luna's concerns. Whatever or whoever this creature was, a vast power raged inside it, like a great inferno ready to consume everything in its path. She was surprised she had not sensed it earlier.

The creature continued.

"I am Malice and you now belong to me."

Faster than Luna could react, Malice raised his one good arm and fired off a wave of magic that completely enveloped Luna. She formed a shield around herself, blocking the attack. Malice responded by intensifying his spell and the front of Luna's shield began to glow. Another surge of energy from Malice caused her shield to shatter and Luna found herself enveloped in a dark aurora. Before she could respond she was felt her energy drain away, her vision faded to black and she collapsed to the floor.


#####


Far below her vantage point in the sky, daylight broke over the castle grounds as a miniature sun rose upwards into the sky. She squinted downward, and was just able to make out the form of her sister, surrounded by a shield that shined as brightly as the morning sun. Rage boiled within her as she powered her horn.

"Luna please, listen to reason," Celestia shouted as her sister unleashed a powerful attack. The beam hit the side of Celestia's shield and ricocheted downward towards the outer walls of the castle far below. The Castle of the Two Sisters had stood for millennia, no force on Equestria had ever managed to breach its walls. The ancient enchantments that strengthened the stone had held back griffon sieges, monsters left over from the time of Discord and even dragon attack. But shot intended for Celestia was designed to wound a god. The beam struck the wall, and crashed through the protective magic like a knife through cloth. The wall exploded, sending rubble flying in all directions. A large section of the roof collapsed, burying any ponies unlucky enough to still be in that area of the castle.

"Luna is gone, I AM NIGHTMARE MOON!" the dark alicorn screamed as she fired off blast after blast.

Many of the attacks hit Celestia's shield and she let out a grunt as she struggled to block the attacks. But almost as many missed her completely and rained down upon the castle below. Soon the most of the castle was in ruin. She watched on in horror as whole sections of the castle came crashing down. Ponies were fleeing the area as quickly as they could and what remained of the Royal Guard were frantically trying to pull survivors from the wreckage and lead them to safety.

"Eternal night will kill our subjects, crops will die and Equestria will freeze over. You must stop this madness, let me bring forth the day!" Celestia pleaded.

"NEVER AGAIN WILL YOUR SUN SHOW ITSELF OVER MY KINGDOM. THE NIGHT WILL LAST FOREVER!" Nightmare Moon screamed, cackling with maniac laughter.

Nightmare Moon gathered an enormous amount of dark energy, she combined it with all of her hatred and anger. The light from Celestia's shield vanished into darkness as the black of night once again spread out over the forest below. The air around Nightmare Moon crackled with energy as she turned, not towards Celestia but instead to the horizon where the sun waited patiently for Celestia to start the day. A bolt of dark energy lanced off of her horn and out into space. It curved around the planet and then accelerated. Faster than anything should be capable of moving, it raced across the millions of miles in a fraction of a second and struck Celestia's sun. The star exploded in a violent burst that rivaled a supernova.

Celestia zoomed past her sister, the death of her sun shaking her to the core. Though she could not yet see the effect of Luna's attack, she knew what was coming and what would happen when the shock wave reached Equestria. Her horn cut through the darkness as massive golden shield formed in the sky surrounding an area even larger the sun used to occupy. Concentrating with all her might, she gradually shrank the shield until the explosion, racing outwards met up with the shield shrinking inwards. For a moment she almost lost control of the spell, but through sheer determination she was able to keep the shield up. Then she teleported the entire interior of the shield far out into interstellar space. Quickly she scanned the heavens for a comparable star to the one Luna had just destroyed. Finding one, she teleported it into position, ready to fulfill its new duty as the Equestria's sun. Then she dived back downward and called out to her sister.

"Please Luna, do not destroy Equestria if you are mad at me, we can work through this, I promise you I will right this wrong."

Nightmare Moon could tell that Celestia was nearing her limit. Displacing the ruined star and retrieving a new one had to put an enormous strain on her power. This was her chance to strike. She fired off another large blast, but Celestia didn't have enough energy left to block the attack. It struck her dead on and sent her plummeting out of the sky. She crashed into one of the few remaining sections of the castle that was still standing, punched straight through the roof and landed in a heap next to the Alter of the Elements.

Nightmare Moon, not wanting to miss her chance to disable Celestia even further, flew towards the opening her sister had made and landed in the dark room with thud. She quickly spotted Celestia and suppressed a gasp. Before her stood her sister, not weak and exhausted, but shining brightly with righteous light. The Elements spun around Celestia as she prepared to put a stop to Luna's rampage. A brilliant rainbow wave crashed towards her surrounding the night goddess.

The instant Luna was hit by the Elements something clicked in the back of her head.  A tingling sense that had faded away from disuse, slowly crept into her head.

"This isn't real!" it shouted at her.

Bit by bit her memory started to come back to her, the scene that had just unfolded before her wasn't real.  It was a nightmarish form of events long since past. With great effort Luna cleared her mind.  The underground complex, she had been searching for Selene and run into a being of phenomenal power.  The creature identified itself as Malice and then launched a spell at her.  Dark magic of terrible power forced her into unconsciousness.  

She was... asleep, and this was nothing but a bad dream. Reaching outside of the dream, she could just make out the grip of the spell holding her in the nightmare. As best as Luna could tell, Malice's spell had latched on to a painful memory, turned it into a dream and unleashed it upon her subconscious. With no one to stop him, Malice could be doing anything right now, Luna had to force herself to wake up.

Concentrating intently she struggled to take control of the dream. What should have been a trivial process for the Night Princess, instead turned into a major battle.  Malice's spell was extremely powerful and though her unicorn magic had recovered to the point where she could call on nearly any pony spell she could remember, her true magic was still mending itself. As she attempted to take control, she sensed another in distress. Luna let out a gasp as she recognized the soul of the other dreamer, it was Selene. Malice must have had her under a similar spell. The thought of Selene being trapped in a similar nightmare gave Luna a burst of strength. With it she forced herself free from Malice's grip, ripped open a gateway into Selene's dream and flew though.