The Elements of Fate

by jrain91

Chapter 3: Feelings of Loneliness

The air was still tense as the two friends' conversation, many ponies in the crowd knew what was going to happen to their native unicorn and couldn't help but tear up over it. “What you did *cough* was amazing. Stopping the destruction of my hometown like that. I'm proud to have been your friend.” said Shield while his conscience was slowly fading into nothingness.

“Why would you be proud of me? You're on your death bed because I lost focus back there, it's MY fault that you're going to die.” Ice said while crying.

The town ponies started murmuring to themselves “Did you hear that, he said that it's his fault Cerulean is dying. AND he's an alicorn, they're supposed to be extinct. He's probably why that draconicai attacked, he's bad luck!”

“It's not your fault! I distracted you, I was the reason you lost your focus and you know it! So don't blame yourself for this, please. If you do I'll die knowing that a burden as heavy as this is on my best friends' shoulders and I'd hate myself for it.”

Ice started to reply but was cut short by Shield's last words, “But it w...”

“No matter… what any pony... says, don't for…get that you're… a hero to …me … friend.” And with that being said the deep blue unicorn lost conscientiousness and his life force.

The next couple days were busy for the ponies of Neighbraska and for Ice Breeze as well. Cerulean Shield's funeral was the very next day, but a certain alicorn wasn't at the funeral for fear of being overwhelmed by guilt. The following days he helped the rest of the ponies clean up the gigantic mess that Discord had created with his powerful chaos storm. Despite his helpfulness however, he started to feel alienated from the rest of the ponies in town. He could always hear them whispering about him behind his back and they were always staring at him disdain.

This continued for the next month until he had finally had enough of it and shouted from the center of town, “IF THERE'S SOMETHING ALL YOU WANT TO SAY? THEN JUST SAY IT!”

Almost all of the ponies surrounded him and then the mayor said, “Yes, we do have things that we want to say to you. First off, we DO blame you for the death of Cerulean as well as the attack itself. Second, we blame that attack on the fact that you're an alicorn. It was clear that this Discord fellow wanted revenge for his dead race. And lastly, we don't like you and we never truly trusted you, so just LEAVE US ALONE AND GET OUT OF HERE!!”

Ice looked shocked at what the town leader just said to him, but he knew that this was inevitable just like any other place he went. He'd always be hated no matter what town he went to, just for being born an alicorn. It wasn't fair, but he knew that fact didn't matter much to the cold eyes of reality. So he left the once loving city of Neighbraska in light of Discord's attack as well as being exiled by the mayor, so he decided to find a cave and live the rest of his life alone just like he would in any city or town that he would ever go.

Now we are back in present day Autumn, Ice Breeze had found a relatively large cave with various herbs and other food and water sources around it, but the best part of it for him was the clearing right in front of the cave in which he could stargaze every clear night. Discord had been going from town to town as he had used to, but his anger had subsided a lot since he had started. Now instead of destroying or decimating cities he would just go to each one and cause a little “fun” chaos. And for the sisters they had both became wielders of the Elements of Harmony: the strongest magical force in Equestria. Celestia wielded the elements of magic, kindness and laughter. While Luna wielded honesty, generosity and loyalty. One day, Discord decided to visit the royal city of Canterlot. Little did he know that this stop would be his last in a long while! It started out as normal as any other of his chaostops as he had starting naming them.

“Hmm, let's see what I can have fun with here. It's quite a big city and that castle looks absolutely joyous!” So he began to change and manipulate things as he saw fit. Turning buildings upside down, changing ponies' personalities as well as color and turning harmless food into ravenous predators.

One of the royal guardsmen saw all of this taking place and flew to Celestia and Luna's chambers. “Please excuse my intrusion my princesses, but I fear that the city is under siege!”

Both of the princesses jumped up and Luna shouted, “WHO DOTH DARE INVADETH OUR FAIR CITY OF CANTERLOT?”

The guard, his ears still ringing from Luna's “royal” voice, replied, “Umm, yes well it seems to be a draconicai my princess.”

Luna and Celestia both glanced at each other and Celestia asked, “A-are you sure about this?”

“Yes, I am quite positive. He seems to be using chaos magic which as you both know only draconicai can use.” the guard replied swiftly.

“SISTER, WE MUST RUSH TO STOP THINE INTRUDER!” Luna said to Celestia.

The older princess said, "Yes, my sister we shall gather the elements and stop him!” So both princesses gathered their respective elements of harmony and flew to meet the draconicai.

“My, my, what do we have here? Two alicorn sisters? I thought all of you pretties were eradicated along with my race. Oh well, no need to be rude, I am Discord.” said the draconicai with a grin on his face.

“BELIEVE US WHEN WE SAY THAT WE ART SURPRISED BY THINE EXISTENCE AS WELL.” said Luna again in her royal voice.

“Why all the yelling my dear?” Discord replied.

Before Luna could answer, Celestia intervened, “Enough stalling! Quit your devious acts or we will be forced to stop you ourselves.”

“Haha stop ME? ME!? I hold the only chaos magic in the world, I'm unstoppable!” Discord said while chuckling.

Luna stepped up beside her sister and said, “WE WARNED THOU, NOW YOU MUST RECEIVETH THINE PUNISHMENT.” Discord started laughing again until the six elements started to shine with magical brilliance.

“W-what are those?” Discord asked worriedly.

“These are the elements of harmony. The six strongest forces of friendship in our world: generosity, honesty, kindness, laughter, loyalty and magic. And we will use their energy to stop you.” Celestia answered while the two sisters activated their harmonies. Before Discord could say anything else a rainbow-colored beam shot into the sky and landed on and all around him. By the time the blast ended, the fun and chaos-loving draconicai was petrified into what appeared to be a marble statue. The ponies of Canterlot cheered, but it only seemed to be for the older sister. Although Luna helped greatly no pony seemed to acknowledge that. Despite their ignorance however, Luna acknowledged their lack of love and respect for her and this would set into motion her descent into jealousy and rage.

As the following months rolled on, Luna became more and more depressed at the lack of love, adoration and respect that she had been receiving. Though she had done much for the kingdom, it was still Celestia that got all of the attention and love of their royal subjects. And on top of that, all of the ponies in the kingdom and surrounding areas would always go to sleep and disregard Luna's wondrous night, but pranced around joyously in her elder sister's day. Even though she knew that everypony always slept during the night it still upset her knowing that all of her subjects didn't seem to care for all of hard-work that she had put into her beautiful nights.

One night as she sat and kept watch over Canterlot and all the surrounding lands like always she asked herself, “Why doth sister always receive the love and admiration of our fair subjects? Have I not proven myself to be a noble enough princess? What more must I do?” she asked looking up to the sky. Soon enough the day came back around and she watched as all of the ponies came out of their homes to greet the daytime with open hearts. This made her angry as well as jealous of her sister. And although she had tried to talk to Celestia about this, her sister would always brush her off; saying that she was overreacting or that it wasn't true or that she was too busy right then to deal with it. This cycle repeated for the next couple of months until one fateful night a nightmare came to town!

Luna was keeping watch as always on the Canterlot castle balcony, although that night she had been feeling more agitated than usual. Then she heard a voice come from behind her!

“Hello, dear night princess. How are you on this lovely evening?” Luna, shocked turned around rapidly, yet all she saw was a cloud of pitch black smoke with a pair of glowing purple eyes looking back at her.

“WHAT ART THOU?” Luna exclaimed, pushing the smoke back with her voice alone.

“Me? Why I am the answer to your troubles my dearest.” the cloud answered.

“W-what do you mean by that?” Luna asked. “I've been watching you over this past year and I've noticed the growing despair and jealousy in heart.” the cloud replied.

“So what about it?” inquired the dark blue alicorn.

“Well being a being of pure magic, I can help you gain recognition beyond even that of your sister's and that is no bluff!” answered the black smoke.

“And how prey tell would thou do this?” Luna asked.

“By simply integrating with you. As I am not a physical being it should be quite simple to do. All you'd have to do is accept me as part of you and it will happen on its own.” the black smoke replied.

“And how would help me?” Luna asked curiously.

“I could give you magical ability even beyond that of Celestia's! Isn't that what you want? Huh? To gain the love and recognition of all your subjects?” the cloud spoke.

“Well, y-yes that's what I desire more than anything right now, but before I accept you I at least want to know your name.” Luna demanded.

“My full name Nightmare Force, but you may just call me Nightmare. And I promise this will be over quick!” said Nightmare grinning sadistically.

As the two finished their conversation, Luna closed her eyes and imagined Nightmare as being a part of herself. As soon as she did this the black smoke named Nightmare shot right into her chest and though it was painless as the cloud said it would she could feel that something was off. Her rage and jealousy began to consume all her thoughts!

“What's happening to me? I feel so angry! What are you doing to me?” she said as her dark blue fur began to turn pitch black in places.

“Nothing my dearest, just exasperating your vengeful feelings so that you can overthrow your sister like you wanted hahaha!” Nightmare said laughing hysterically.

“NO! I don't want to harm anypony, just get them to notice me! STOP!” Luna shouted as her light blue mane began to turn into a deep translucent midnight blue with what appeared to stars in it.

“No can do deary I'll be control soon hahaha!!” Nightmare laughed maniacally.

Not knowing what to do, Luna teleported herself into Celestia's room. “TIA HELP ME!!” Luna shouted. Celestia woke up surprised by the sudden screaming and gasped as she saw her little sister changing in front of her eyes. Luna's fur had almost fully become black now and her mane and tail had already changed.

“Luna? Is that you? What's happening?” Celestia asked nervously.

“I accepted a black cloud named Nightmare Force into myself in hopes of getting the power for people to notice me. But it's bringing all of my negative thoughts up and amplifying them. I'M LOSING CONTROL!” Luna yelled pleading for help.

“Luna, no! It lied to you, its name isn’t Nightmare Force. It IS a Nightmare Force: a nameless, shapeless magical being who feeds off of resentful feelings and takes over their hosts!” Celestia explained.

Luna, now in pain from her horn and wings growing as well as the battle over psyche that was taking place said, “I DON'T CARE UGH, JUST HELP ME TIA! I DON'T WANNA HURT ANY..” before she could finish her statement her once loving eyes flashed and changed into a dark aqua color with cat-like pupils, signaling the final step in the takeover.

“L-Luna are you ok?” Celestia asked worrying for her sister's safety.

"Luna isn't here any longer dear Celestia. Instead you may call us Nightmare Moon as of now!” Celestia looked absolutely shocked at this development, she had read about Nightmare forces before, but for one to have actually taken control of her sister was unthinkable.

“Let her go now!” Celestia demanded.

“Oh you know that I can't do that. We are one now and we shall finally the recognition we deserve! Let's see how everypony likes our night when it becomes nighttime forever!” Nightmare Moon said triumphantly.

Celestia glared at the nightmarish version of her sister and said, “You can't do that! If the sun never comes out how will the Earth ponies grow all the food needed for life? And what about the joys of daylight's warmth and the rainbows?”

“Oh well, it's their fault, now they will suffer for their negligence!” Celestia began to run towards the Elements of Harmony's case when all of a sudden a blue bolt of magic hit her square in the back. “Oh, I'm sorry. Did that hurt the mighty princess? And in case you haven't noticed you can't use the Harmonies seeing as you only control three of them!” Nightmare Moon exclaimed while smiling widely. Celestia pulled herself up and realized that this was true and decided that the only way to save her country was to get rid of her sister! As Celestia rose, her once bright pink mane and tail changed into a mixture of luminescent pink, cyan, teal and bright green and seemed to gleam like reflected sunlight.

As she turned to face her sister's twisted form she rose in the air and said, “Please forgive me mother, father and most of all you sister.” Her horn glowed extremely brightly and what seemed to be a magical veil wrapped around Nightmare Moon's body.

“What are doing to us?” Nightmare Moon exclaimed.

“I'm banishing you to the Moon so that you can't do any harm, that's what my real sister would want me to do in this situation.”

The veil then fully enveloped Nightmare Moon's body and then she was gone in a matter of seconds, but not before saying, “I WILL get my revenge one day!” After she was gone Celestia looked up to Moon and saw the image of Nightmare Moon's face appear on it. Starting the next day Celestia took on the responsibilities for both princesses and this was how it was for the next thousand years. And after a couple of years after the banishment Celestia returned the Elements of Harmony to the original royal castle in the Everfree Forest.

The night after all this had taken place Ice Breeze saw the new face on the Moon and wondered what had happened for it appear. He had spent almost 3 years in that cave now and had got accustomed to being alone. Because for him it was like he had always been alone except for Genevere and Cerulean Shield. He thought of going back to live with Genevere often, but he knew how much time had passed since he had left and knew that she was either very old or had passed away by then. And he knew that going back to Neighbraska was out of the question, seeing as he'd probably just get exiled again for being different. The days went by slowly as he did the same routine everyday: get up, gather some berries for breakfast or lunch depending on when he awoke, go to the stream for a bath, sit and daydream, then gather dinner and lastly gaze at the stars until he fell asleep again. Needless to say, he was quite bored every day, except while stargazing which still seemed to fascinate him after all these years. Although something about the stars was off somehow now he would think to himself every night.

“They look the same as they used to, but they just don't feel the same as the old days.”he found himself pondering on it every night and speculated that it something to do with the “ Mare in the Moon”.

A couple years passed when one day he awoke to the sound of ponies talking outside his cave. He got up and walked outside quickly for he had not seen any other ponies for at least 5 years now.

He thought to himself hopefully, “Maybe times have changed, maybe they won't hate me for being an alicorn anymore.”

Unlucky for him though, the two ponies he heard talking were a couple of the most hateful ponies you'll ever meet. As he tried to greet them, one of them yelled, “Whoa, look at this freak. Just walking out of a cave looking all ragged AND he's an alicorn no less.” Before Ice Breeze could say anything the other pony picked up a rock and threw it at Ice's face and caused him start bleeding. Immediately Ice ran back into the cave crying at the harsh treatment he had just experienced before even saying anything. The two ponies just laughed at him and continued on their way.

“So I'm still hated no matter what eh? I should have figured that.” So he decided to stay there in the cave for as long as he saw fit and before he knew it a thousand years had passed.

During those thousand years, Celestia vigilantly kept Canterlot as well as the rest of country safe. And remained vigilant in her raising both the sun and the moon every single day. It was hard, but she knew she had to do it for her long lost sister. Nightmare Moon was still stuck in the moon for those lonely thousand years. Each night Celestia would try to visit her by magical telepathy trying to get the old Luna to fight off the Nightmare Force that had taken her over. Despite her efforts, however, she soon realized that her trying was futile as the once peaceful, loving sister she had once knew was apparently gone for good. During the times Celestia wasn't visiting her Nightmare Moon sat inside the moon plotting her escape with the aid of the stars and other celestial objects. Over these thousand years Canterlot had truly become the head city of all of Equestria and many other provinces had sprouted up and a city in the sky named Cloudsdale had become in charge of the weather for Equestria as a whole. Also during this time seven special ponies that would impact the future of Equestria were born, their names were: Mi'amoré Cadenza or Cadence, Applejack, Pinkamena Diane Pie or Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle!

Those thousand years have now passed, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle all have moved to the town called Ponyville. Celestia still keeps a watchful eye over all of Equestria even seeing Cadence who her and Luna had turned into an alicorn and becoming Twilight's teacher. Despite the happiness of these ponies, however, two still remained as scarred and hurt as ever. Ice Breeze was now thinking that he was destined to end his life alone in that cave that he had inhabited for so very long. It had been a whole thousand years of nothing but a lonely, empty and feeble existence. The only comfort he still had were the stars, but even they didn't mean much to him anymore. He had thought many times of ending his life right there by using his earth magic to cause a cave in on himself, but could never bring himself to do it. He still had a tiny little bit of hope left that one day he would not be criticized for him being an alicorn and perhaps find somepony to even love him as more than a friend. Though he admitted that this was probably impossible, since nopony would live as long as him (he still doesn't know about the sisters). This fact alone got him to think that finding love would be impossible for a pony like him.

This continued for a while until one night he had an inspiring dream that led to him leaving his cave and setting out back to the East. “I'm not useless and I will find friends in the next town, I know they're right!” he thought to himself as he trotted off directly on course for Ponyville!

At the same time, the time for the stars to help Nightmare Moon escape had become nigh. Even Celestia herself could feel the presence of the vengeful mare start to grow ever stronger as the days passed on. Finally, one night the stars alined perfectly with moon forming the image of a giant orb and then a dark blue smoke escaped from the orb and made its way down to Equestria. Once back the planet, the smoke to a clear form: the form of Nightmare Moon. The image of the Mare on the Moon then disappeared. Ice breeze noticed this almost instantly and felt the same feeling from stars that he had so long miss except they felt evil somehow now. And looking out her window after sending Celestia a letter, Twilight knew what was coming. The only difference was the age of the mare she was much bigger than when she banished a thousand years ago. Despite that, however, she still had the same pitch black fur, elegantly evil looking translucent blue mane and those evil cat-like aqua eyes.

“Hahaha! I'm finally free! Now it is time for my revenge! Get ready my dear sister and my subjects for the night of your life. For it WILL be FOREVER!!”

The first visit Nightmare Moon made was to her sister before her appearance at the Summer Sun Celebration! But when she arrived at the castle, Celestia was nowhere to be found.

“So she runs from me now is that it? Oh well, her calendar says that this year’s celebration is in Ponyville. I'll just have pay her a visit there then!” she said as galloped out of the castle and towards the peaceful town of Ponyville!