The Ever Changing Moon

by CommanderX5

Nightmare Moon’s Return - Power Struggle

Ghastly Gorge, the home of humongous creatures called Quarray Eels that lived in the many caves dotting the cliffs entangled by dark thorny vines. A perfect home for dangerous monsters, and a less than stellar place for exploration or a peaceful stroll.

This time however it served as a battlefield between four powerful creatures with echoes of ongoing battle, cold wind being a background for their struggle. They ran or flew between two large cliffs, ignoring the darkness of the night as they attacked each other with incredible ferocity.

The fight dragged on as none of the combatants were allowed to use any equipment, servants, or bottles of blood. Even drinking the blood of their foes wasn’t allowed, resulting in a two-hour battle of attrition and will.

The sky was a bejeweled tapestry with a massive pearl as the centerpiece, its light still somewhat visible despite the massive walls of the gorge blocking most of the sky. Each participant fought in their element, seeing through the darkness as if it was day.

Fleur de Lis galloped through what was left of a thorny forest while dodging thorns and shattered wood, her mangled and torn wings hanging limply and her illusory horn had vanished. A blood-stained steel lily was revealed on her flank by the patches of moonlight. Drops of sweat slid down her cheeks and muzzle, her panting steadily.

She looked up at her airborne opponent, Moon Shadow’s younger brother, Cornerstone. She caught a glimpse of his cutie mark, a wooden framework on top of a cornerstone.

I wish I knew more about my opponent outside of him being the mysterious brother of the strongest of the purebloods. Now that I think about it, he was silently living in his brother’s shadow, acting as more of a subordinate than a relative.

As Fleur had expected, Cornerstone summoned a rain of dark crystals that would weaken the flow of her magic through her body, aside from piercing it in multiple locations. He followed it with toxic geysers colored a putrid green-gray shooting from the ground, the very smell of the approaching bath assaulted her improved senses.

Fleur examined her options. If I will heal my wings, I can use them to escape the toxins with only the rain of crystals to deal with. Staying on the ground would force me to overcome two obstacles.

Not yet. My opponent still believes that I am grounded. I can’t waste the element of surprise, she thought as she kept evading the noxious spews beneath her hooves, relying on her agility and speed until she reached two humongous dead worm-like creatures, her ears drooped. Poor creatures. I hope their brethren didn’t get in Moon Shadow’s way.

Not wasting a moment, she crawled under one of the dead beasts, using it as a house-sized umbrella. With little effort, she stood up, lifting the massive weight on her back, while the river of toxic slop was rapidly approaching.

With a surge of strength, she jumped, landing on the second beast with a loud thump, using it as a safe island while the eel on her back shielded her from the rain above. Once the assault weakened, she threw the weight from her back and started climbing, jumping from stone to stone while evading additional projectiles and spells in form of black flame.

As she had hoped for, her opponent got impatient and flew closer, his wings hardened with magic and going for a finishing strike.

Hanging onto the surface of the cliff, Fleur waited and smirked as her eyes flashed red, her wings now healed and spread.

With a push of her hooves and flap of her wings, she backflipped, evading Stone’s attack. “I got you now.”

She followed her opponent, surprising him with outstanding speed and agility as his spells became ineffective because of reduced distance between them. The worse case scenario for a flying spell-caster when he allowed a faster direct-combat expert get dangerously close.

Without hesitation, Fleur grabbed his wing with her foreleg before delivering a punch against his back with her other hoof, sinking it into his flesh and blood.

The moment Stone crashed into sharp stones of the canyon, she delivered a finishing blow. Edge of her foreleg filled with power pierced the area right next to his heart. The pureblood screamed.

As she had expected, her foe had no magic left to recover his wound, more or less keep her away from tearing apart his insides, yet deep in her mind she asked herself why she missed the heart on purpose? Did she wanted her enemy to suffer longer, or was it pity and mercy, not wanting to kill unless necessary.

She retreated her foreleg and turned the stallion around, his bleeding back now lying on the stone and half-closed eyes staring in her own.

“This fight is over for you, yet it doesn’t need to end with your death and more blood on my hooves. Will you accept my mercy and surrender?”

The stallion nodded weakly, but said nothing.

Fleur’s eyes flashed as she commanded blood of her enemy to return into the wound on his back before closing it, her own forehooves now ironically clean of the red stain. “Can you fly?”

The stallion nodded.

Fleur gestured for him to follow her as she flew to search for her second foe, hoping against hope that her husband was still alive after such a long battle. She turned her head to look at her enemy and asked, “You have been silent during our entire fight and didn’t speak a word when your brother brought you here. Would you tell me why?”

“Why should I talk with the enemy?” Stone asked.

Fleur frowned. “We are rivals, not enemies. While I’m still angry at Moon Shadow for sending his subordinates to test our family by using our son as a hostage, we can’t afford to hate each other when we should work in unity.”

“So speaks the mare who mercilessly slaughtered those who foalnapped her son,” Cornerstone responded in annoyed tone. “They didn’t have a choice but to follow orders. Why did they deserved to die and I didn’t?”

Fleur looked away and bit her lip, her eyes closed. While her husband did his best to lead their clan in peace, whenever violence was necessary to solve a problem, she was the first to step in. She had trained her skills and power diligently over the centuries so her husband wouldn’t need to fight and to protect their clan if necessary.

Yet as years passed, she actually started to enjoy fighting. Following the principles of peace and unity her husband tried to spread helped her to keep her violent nature in check, yet if somepony angered her, there was no telling what she would do.

She looked back at her silent companion. “I must admit that I am not the most merciful pureblood, however, I do what I must to help us realize our goal. Killing you won’t bring us any closer to achieving it.” She raised her ears attentively and scanned her surroundings, failing to detect any signs of battle.

“My brother shares your point of view, yet he doesn’t at the same time.”

“What do you mean?” Fleur asked.

“He wants to strengthen and unite our kind. Ally or foe, he doesn’t want to kill those he viewed as worthy,” Stone stated. “Yet, unlike you, he won’t hesitate to take a life in order to realize his dream or kill those he sees as weak. I was already a sacrifice he decided to make.”

Fleur’s eyes widened. “Sacrifice?”

“He’s disappointed in my progress and sees me as a failure, that’s why he sent me to fight you… so I will help him win by buying him time while weakening your power. He expected I would die in this fight.”

Fleur stopped, pointing accusingly at her foe. “And you played along?”

“You don’t know how it feels, living in the shadow of a legend. Seeing disappointment every time he glares at me, never good enough whenever I am following his orders or participating in his trainings.” He lowered his head and sighed. “The banishment of Nightmare Moon was devastating for our race, but losing my mom and dad broke my heart. I couldn’t deal with my grief and it held me back.”

He shook his head. “In this fight, I would either make him proud or die trying. I made my peace.”

Fleur looked at Stone in pity. She knew that Moon Shadow was always demanding when dealing with allies, but from his own family?

“You’re wasting time,” the stallion said, waking Fleur from her thoughts. “Ghastly Gorge is quiet, too quiet. My brother most likely defeated Fancy Pants and is waiting for your arrival. That was his plan all along.”

Fleur nodded, redoubling her efforts. “There’s something I don’t understand,” she said, not bothering to look at her companion. “Moon Shadow was determined to prepare our kind for the return of Nightmare Moon. He even tested Miss Fluttershy, a young pureblood who should have been insignificant on the grand scale, yet he wanted her to be ready to assist in case if our queen would choose the road of peace. Why is he going behind the back of Nightmare Moon now?”

“For two reasons,” Stone responded. “He witnessed the banishment of our queen and the purge Celestia started. All powerful purebloods were killed so they wouldn’t pose a threat, our mother and father included.”

Fleur wilted, her head and ears fallen. She knew that the death of her own parents, as well as the parents of Fancy Pants was Celestia’s doing, but they both decided not to let the past guide them. They understood that the princess did what she had to do to delay another war. Yet some would care only about revenge.

Fleur frowned. He wants revenge against one who killed his parents, yet he didn’t care when his tests led Fluttershy’s parents to their deaths and is ready to sacrifice his own kin. What a hypocrite.

“My brother wants to protect our Queen from being banished again, but far more than that he desires vengeance on Celestia. He sees Nightmare Moon’s hesitation as a weakness that would doom her and our kind, so he decided to take the matters in his own hooves.”

Fleur looked at Stone and nodded. “I understand his motivation now, but why did he use you to distract me?”

Stone facehooved. “You still don’t get it, do you?” He pointed at her and continued firmly, “He knows your potential and sees you as a threat. You’re younger than Moon Shadow and Fancy Pants, so logically you should be far weaker than them, yet, because of your harsh and diligent training alongside drinking blood of athletes, your body was forced take a few years long sleep earlier to adapt to your new power.”

“He… knows?” Fleur asked as her heart beat skyrocketed.

“Yes, he does. You may be only seven centuries old, yet your power can rival a millennium old pureblood.” He flew closer, almost touching Fleur’s muzzle as his eyes half-closed. “You’re more powerful than your husband and your skills surpass even those of Moon Shadow. He knew that he couldn’t beat you and prepared accordingly.”

Fleur was about to ask another question, when her ear perked. She quickly turned towards the source of noise and flew at high speed. She landed on the stone platform as her pupils shrank. In front of her stood Moon Shadow without a scratch, though she could sense that he had spend a good deal of his magic to keep it that way. Next to him on the stone she could see her husband, lying in puddle of his own blood with only tiny bit of magic left to keep him alive, tears streamed down his cheeks as he looked at her in pain.

“F-F-Fleur… d-dear… it s-s-seems that I f-failed…” he struggled to speak, blood was dripping from his nose and mouth with every wet cough.

“You sure took your sweet time,” Moon Shadow spoke before raising his foreleg above Fancy Pants’ back. “I hate to do this to my honorable rival and such a mighty pureblood, however…”

“Wait!” Fleur shouted, pointing at Cornerstone who finally caught up and landed next to her. “I spared your brother, please, let my husband live!”

“Will you surrender and swear your loyalty to me if I do?” Moon Shadow asked.

Fleur raised her foreleg defensively and hesitated. If she played along, thousands of thestrals and many purebloods would end up joining Moon Shadow in his campaign against Equestria.

“Your hesitation is answer enough,” Moon Shadow sighed, his hoof descending towards Fancy Pants’ back.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl for Fleur, Moon Shadow’s hoof piercing through her dear husband’s ribcage in slow motion to crush his heart. She watched in numb horror as Fancy’s face twisted in a rictus of agony, frozen that way as Moon Shadow brought his magically sharpened wing down to remove his head. His precious lifeblood sprayed across them all as his head hit the ground.

Fleur grit her teeth, now overwhelmed by rage. Her only desire being to crush head of her foe with her hooves.

While other purebloods often practiced the use of dark arts for their offense, keeping their physical capabilities on an average level, she was always focusing on improving her body instead; from strength and agility to endurance. Her specialization in close-combat martial arts often left her at a disadvantage whenever she was out-ranged by her foes, yet it let her save more magic to heal wounds, enduring blow after blow while evading the strongest attacks thanks to her speed.

Her fighting style however required careful planning and strong focus, knowing when to defend or evade, patiently waiting for an opening to deliver a powerful blow the moment her enemy lowered his guard. This time however her calm and calculating mind was filled with rage. Instinct took over as she charged at Moon Shadow, ignoring the importance of strategy just to deal as much pain as she could.

Moon Shadow smirked as his eyes flashed. Everything was going according to plan.