Darkest of Nights

by KrisProwler

Civil War (WIP)

The negations between Equestria and the griffons dominated the news circulating through the country. The remaining clans were united in their fear of the terrible, dark ponies that had so easily obliterated the late aggressive clan that had assaulted Equestria, as well as further reprisal from Princess Luna. However, their loose association to one another made negotiations virtually impossible. With little choice left, Celestia herself left for the griffon's territory, far to the east across the sea.

Celestia, together with the chiefs of the griffon clans, were forced to iron out the clans' many differences before any progress could be made with the ponies. Though she was loathe to do so, Celestia relied heavily on their fear of her sister in order to force the griffon clans to compromise. Even so, it took months for the clans to come together enough unite under the banner of the newly-formed Griffon Kingdom. Once this came to pass, the new griffon king quickly signed a nonaggression treaty with Equestria, ending any further threat to either race.

In Celestia's absence, many ponies turned to Selene and Princess Luna for leadership. However, the night princess's public appearances continued to dwindle until eventually she too was gone from the public eye. Unrest in the country continued to escalate as news broke of mass disappearances of foals from various parts of the country. While the victims were almost exclusively orphans or otherwise vagrants, the troubling reports, along with the fact that neither princess was available to personally address the situation, began to stir rumors of the princesses abandoning Equestria.

A few weeks after Luna turned away from the public, squadrons of the Lunar Guard were sent to various cities across Equestria. The added security was welcomed by many, but at the same time, ponies were unsettled by the frightful appearance of the Lunar Guard ponies. The arrival of the Lunar Guard was received particularly poorly in Trottingham, which had been the most victimized by the rash of disappearances. The city already housed the third largest Royal Guard station behind Canterlot and Stalliongard Keep, and yet the guard had done nothing to prevent the foalnappings.

When Celestia finally returned from the Griffon Kingdom, she found that tensions had risen to the point of bursting. The council had been able to do little to nothing to calm the ponies, and in some places across the country riots had actually broken out. Celestia was forced to dedicate her every waking moment to attempting to restore order to her country; so consumed by her task was she that she failed to notice that there had been no word from Luna or Selene at all. Though taking, Celestia's efforts were successful in calming the hearts and minds of her subjects, and things were finally beginning to return to normal in her kingdom.

That is, until one morning when she awoke to find the moon still high in the sky...

* * *

Celestia stared up at the starry night sky from the balcony of her room in Canterlot Castle. Above her the moon hung prominently, surrounded by the entrancing sea of stars. Their patterns were intricate and some seemed to sparkle in the cool light of the moon. Luna had truly outdone herself with this wondrous display.

However, the sun princess found little joy in the sight herself. Sister, what are you doing? The moon should have been lowered almost an hour ago...

Celestia continued to watch the sky for several minutes, waiting expectantly for the moon to begin its descent; the moon, however, continued to shine it's dim light upon the land, showing no sign of relenting it's place in the sky. Beneath her, Celestia became aware of voices; the ponies of the city were beginning to stir and, finding that the moon still hung in the sky, were beginning to voice their confusion.

Finally, the sun princess allowed herself a long, belabored sigh. Whatever Luna was doing that day, it seemed she had forgotten her duty to lower the moon and so it now fell to her sister to both lower the moon and raise her sun. Celestia allowed herself a moment to calm her emotions before drawing her magic into focus. Celestia's horn glowed a brilliant gold, the strength of the aura intensifying with the amount of magic the princess was calling to bare. Below her, ponies began to notice the intense light and turned their attention to her in awe of her raw power. Finally, the moon too was encased in the golden aura of the sun princess's power.

Then, suddenly, her connection to the moon was forcefully severed; its surface glowed a light blue for a moment before returning to normal.

For a moment, Celestia simply stared blankly ahead, so completely stunned was she by what had just occurred. Then she gathered herself and tried again. Again, the moment her aura reached the moon, it was repelled by the cyan aura.

What treachery is this?! Luna, what have you done...? The reality of the situation finally dawning upon her, Celestia's expression twisted into a scowl.

The sound of two massive doors violently slamming open could be heard echoing through the nearly deserted castle corridors. At the far end of the corridor, just outside of the throne room, a single Royal Guard pegasus ran to meet her princess, concern written clearly upon her features.

"Princess, what is going on? Why has Princess Luna-"

"Captain Highwind," the princess curtly interrupted, not even favoring the mare with a glance as she gave her order. "Prepare a troop transport and my personal guard. We're leaving for Selene. Now."

The guard captain stopped in her tracks, momentarily taken aback by the unusually cold response from the sun princess, but in short order she collected herself and ran down the corridor towards the guard barracks to deliver her princess's orders.

* * *

Celestia landed on the outskirts of the city. She had not seen Selene since the night she had flown out to confront her sister about her sudden disappearance, and she was shocked to find that in less than a year the tiny homes and shops had grown into a sprawling city, possibly the equal of Canterlot or Trottingham.

As she waited for her guard to catch up to her, the princess's eyes scanned the city before her. She noted several of the twisted Lunar Guard she had read reports of during the griffon negotiations. She had doubted the rumors when she first heard them, but here before her eyes, were the very real dark ponies that had terrorized the predatory beasts. Their coats were a uniform dusky grey, and they all had feral-seeming slit pupils and tufted ears. Darting above the rooftops, she saw several pegasi; their wings, rather than the familiar feathery wings that all pegasi had, had been transformed into leathery bat-like wings. The unicorns had their horns lengthened and they now ended in lethal-looking points.

Celestia recoiled in slight horror at the reality of the abominations before her before she made another realization. Besides the Lunar Guard, the streets of the city were completely barren. Something about that seemed very wrong for a city that size.

"Princess," Captain Highwind's voice came from behind, "your guard stands ready." Celestia turned to find that the troop transport had landed behind her and the guards inside, along with the pegasi that had ferried the transport itself, had formed ranks behind her and were at attention.

Celestia paused for a moment before she spoke to her assembled guards. "You know your orders. We are here to meet with my sister and put an end to this madness." Celestia gestured up at the moon, which continued to hang in what should have been the daytime sky. "Keep in mind though that Selene is still our ally. Do not act in violence unless there is no other choice."

Her guards saluted her, though their expressions were grim; everypony seemed to be having the same premonition, that something terrible was about to happen here. The group started down the road towards the ancient castle. The Lunar Guard ponies lining the streets largely ignored the group; their attention focused on their drills or whatever task they were assigned. Besides the noise of the Lunar Guard going about their business, the city was deathly quiet; the princess's guards all held their weapons close and even Celestia found herself growing increasingly unnerved as they reached the ornate bridge to the castle.

In short order they entered the castle and made their way up to the throne room. Like the city below, the castle appeared deserted. The night-themed décor seemed darker than she remembered from her first visit, and the murals now depicted a strange, black pony wearing armor.

The princess suddenly found her eyes drawn to the far corner of the room where two ponies clad in heavy black cloaks stood, their faces shielded from view. What? When did they- Her thoughts were interrupted when the two Blackguard suddenly dropped to a bow, though they did not appear to be acknowledging her. A moment later, a dense fog began to form around a point in front of the two Blackguard, seemingly from nowhere. within seconds, the cloud had spread to all corners of the throne room, choking out what little light that naturally illuminated the space; even illumination spells were useless against the billowing cloud. Then suddenly the fog vanished as though it had never been.

Directly in front of the two Blackguard, wings open and horn aglow with an azure light, now stood an alicorn, though not one that Celestia immediately recognized. The pony before her was darker than her sister, her fur was nearly black; she also was much taller than Luna, as she stood eye-to-eye with the sun princess. Her eyes, while the same color as her sisters, had closed into cat-like slits and her teeth were jagged and fanged. She wore several pieces of light blue plate armor which only served to make the mare appear more menacing. The alicorn staring at Celestia was so alien that she began to doubt her own eyes until...

"... L-Luna? Is that you?" Celestia balked. There, on the dark alicorn's flank, while it had changed from its natural black to a dark, pale blue, was unmistakably her little sister's cutie mark. Instantly the anger that had been building in the sun princess vanished, replaced by concern and revulsion. "Luna, what have you done to yourself?"

"I have been reborn," Luna responded; even her voice sounded harsher and more sinister somehow. "I have ascended to the height of my potential. And I owe it all to you, sister."

Celestia stared at her sister in confusion. "What do you mean? What could I have done to cause you to become... this?"

"There is no sense in denying your guilt, Princess. We both know the truth now."

"What truth? What are you talking about Luna?"

The dark alicorn threw her head back, her laughter echoing through the empty corridors. "Very well then, since you refuse to acknowledge it, I will tell you of your failings myself. I know that you were jealous of me, dear sister, and now I understand why. You knew, as I do now, that one day I would grow to surpass you. You knew that in the end there would be only one true ruler of Equestria. That is why you hid me away, determined to deny me the chance to grow even as I suffered in silence under your grand shadow."

"Luna, this is ridiculous! I would never..." Celestia said in defense, but Luna quickly held up a hoof to silence her.

"Enough! I have no time for your lies anymore; I am the one in control now." Luna's eyes scanned the group before her, noting that Celestia's guards had all reached for their weapons reflexively at her outburst. Behind her, Specter and Nightshade had not moved from their silent vigil, but she could tell each was preparing for what was to come. A wicked grin crossed her features as she continued. "You have denied my rise to prominence long enough with your bitter treachery! Now the moon shall reign supreme over this world!"

"Luna, this has gone too far; whatever grievance you may have with me, your current actions threaten countless lives. Please sister, just lower the moon and we can talk, princess to princess-"

"You will call me 'Empress' from this moment forward... And you may consider this the Selene Empire's official declaration of war!"

Without any further warning, Luna lowered her head slightly and unleashed a beam of energy from her horn straight at Celestia. The princess, caught off guard, was barely able to avoid the beam by launching herself into the air; behind her, her guards desperately threw themselves to the sides of the room. One of her guards was unfortunate enough to not react in time; the attack struck him dead on and as it passed through him, his body suddenly erupted into intense blue flames. The poor stallion wasn't even able to scream as the flames consumed him, armor and all, leaving no trace of the grizzly scene behind once it was over.

The remaining guards drew their weapons and advanced on the empress, only to be confronted by the two Blackguard commanders; each unicorn held a sword and a dagger in their invisible magic as they moved to engage the guards. Luna paid the guards little mind however, her attention focused on Celestia above her. Luna launched herself into the air after her sister; as she did, a sphere of energy the same shade of cyan as her aura materialized and took on the shape of a longsword. The magic-forged weapon flew out from her side towards Celestia even as Luna began forming a second attack spell.

The aura blade flew directly towards the sun princess, directed by the empress's will; then, moments before the blade found its target, it reflected off of a golden sphere of energy surrounding the princess. Celestia's shield spell repelled the aura blade's repeated strikes against it while the princess began her own simple spell. Moments later, as the blade once again connected with Celestia's shield, the shield's glow intensified, knocking the magic weapon wildly away before it faded into nothing.

With a moment's rest from the assault, Celestia called out to Luna. "Sister, please! I don't want to fight you; please just stop this!"

The empress's expression remained cold and focused, and just as her sister finished her plea Luna unleashed another attack. Too close to dodge it, Celestia was forced to pour more of her power into the shield. The cyan sphere hit home but was stopped by the magic barrier; unfortunately for Celestia, the moment it struck the sphere exploded, the force of the blast launching the princess across the throne room until she crashed into the far wall above the massive entryway.

Celestia was barely able to shake off the shock from the explosion, catching herself just before she began to plummet to the floor below, before she saw another of the deadly spheres headed towards her even as the empress flew to close the distance between them. Having seen that blocking the attack was ineffectual, Celestia brought her horn to life once again. Just as the attack would have disappeared in a blinding white flash. An instant later, she reappeared on the other side of the room, directly over the twin thrones.

A strangled cry drew the princess's attention. She looked below and gasped in horror as she saw Highwind had been driven into the wall, a pair of swords impaled in her chest while a small dagger pressed itself deeper into the pegasus's neck. Moments later the two Blackguard pulled their weapons free in their invisible aura, leaving the mare to slide down the length of the wall before finally slumping over in a heap on the ground, completely motionless. The rest of the Royal Guards had fared no better; Celestia saw dozens of bodies lying around the room, many lying in growing pools of their own blood while others were horrifically burned. One pony in particular was completely mangled, her body twisted and disfigured as though the poor pony had been crushed between a pair of invisible walls...

In barely a minute, the two Blackguard had slaughtered her entire entourage.

Celestia was wrenched back to her present situation by a surge of magic. Luna, having somehow managed to negate the attack before it stuck the wall where she had just been, had wheeled around and was now flying at the princess, another magic sword at her side. Luna fired a beam from her horn as she approached; at the closing distance, Celestia had little choice but to shield herself again. The beam struck the shield and was absorbed into it, the effect causing the magic sphere to become opaque and obscuring Celestia's view for a moment. When the shield cleared, she found Luna had come to a stop but the aura blade that had been at her continued to fly towards her. Celestia braced herself to enchant her shield to repel the attack once again, and fired another charge into the shield just before the sword connected with it...

... And passed right through it into the princess's chest.

In the complete shock of the moment, Celestia lost focus on her magic and her wings seized. She quickly fell from the towering roof of the room, crashing awkwardly off the top of what had once been her throne before hitting the ground and tumbling down the staircase. She finally came to rest facedown at the bottom of the stairs next to the charred remains of one of her guards.

Then it hurt.

All at once the shock waned and her body assaulted her with sensations of pain from the various points on her body she'd struck during the fall and the jagged wound. From her prone position, Celestia glanced down at herself. The blade itself had dissipated at some point after she fell, and now the hole was open and blood rapidly seeped forth, beginning to pool beneath her and stain her pure white coat. The strike had missed her vitals, barely, but at the rate at which she was bleeding she feared it may yet prove to be a mortal wound. She began to attempt a healing spell but the pain was so intense that she couldn't focus enough to spark her magic at all...

Moments later, two more magic weapons pierced her unfurled wings, easily shattering the sensitive bones. Celestia let out an agonized shriek as the pain redoubled; her senses blurred so intensely that she thought she was about to black out. Through the fog, the princess became faintly aware of her sister striding over to where she had fallen, laughing.

"Ha ha ha ha! You are weak, Princess, just like all who live under your sun! Very soon, all creatures in this world shall bow to the moon!" The empress sneered at her sister, even as her horn sparked to life and her eyes became bathed in a white glow. "But you, my dear, will not see this come to pass... because you die here and now!"

Celestia once again attempted to bring her magic to bare, hoping to think of something, anything, to escape the monstrous alicorn before her; but again she was unable to focus through the blinding pain. No! Lulu, please, don't do this...!

"You are the one who dies this night, monster!" Luna's sneer twisted into a scowl as she turned around to find the captain of the Royal Guard, Highwind, staring her down. The wounds in her chest and throat continued to pump precious blood onto the floor; it was a wonder that the mare was still alive. Yet there she stood, defiantly clutching a sword in her mouth before she leapt from her unsteady legs into the air. Specter and Nightshade began to move to intercept the pegasus, but stopped at the empress's silent command; such determination to make war with Empress Luna must be rewarded personally...

Celestia watched the scene playing out before her seemingly in slow-motion. Luna dismissed the spell she had been preparing for her sister even as the pegasus closed the distance between them, and the princess could sense no further magic around her sister. Closer and closer Highwind came to Luna, to certain death; her determination never wavered as she charged the alicorn. Just as the stalwart captain came close enough to strike at the empress, she felt Luna's magic again; in that instant, Celestia could swear the pegasus had cast her princess a final, pleading glance...

The space around the pegasus erupted in intense blue explosion, engulfing the mare completely. When the smoke from the blast finally cleared, there was no trace of the captain, save for the trail of blood she had left along the floor during her valiant charge and a few singed feathers floating listlessly towards the ground.

"Such is the fate of anypony foalish enough to stand against Empress Luna..." The empress grinned, her wicked teeth glistening in the cool light of her moon. Her triumph was all but assured now; all that remained was to extinguish the sun princess permanently. She began the spell she intended to end Celestia with as she turned back to the beaten princess...

Luna's eyes returned to normal as the spell died on the end of her horn; for a long moment, the empress simply stared ahead as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing, or rather what she wasn't seeing. Princess Celestia, as helpless and broken as she had been, was nowhere to be found...

* * *

Miles away, somewhere in the surrounding forest, a blast of white light heralded the sudden arrival of a wounded, bloodied alicorn. Celestia immediately slumped to the ground the moment her hooves hit the ground, her body heavy with pain and exhaustion. She continued to light her horn despite the pain; her golden aura surrounded her chest and wings, stopping the wounds from bleeding. It was by no means a solution, but it would have to do; there wouldn't be enough time to cast a true healing spell on herself while she was still this close to Selene. There was no telling how quickly Luna or the Blackguard would find her true magic trail and she was still quite vulnerable.

Her thoughts drifted back to the sacrifice her captain had made for her moments before. Highwind's brazen attack on Luna had drawn the attention of the empress and the two Blackguard, leaving her forgotten on the floor. Even as she watched the scene playing out, she had continued to attempt to focus herself enough to use her magic. She finally succeeded, just as Luna's spell had immolated guard pegasus. Though it was too late to do anything for the brave mare, her sacrifice would still aid her princess. Celestia had captured dozens of the captain's feathers in her magic and teleported each of them randomly out into forest surrounding the city before teleporting herself as far as she could manage. Her efforts would buy her enough time to make her escape, or so she hoped. Captain Highwind, thank you... and please, forgive me...

Celestia's thoughts were interrupted by laughter booming around her, amplified by powerful magic. "Yes... Run, dear sister!" Luna's voice, so amplified, seemed to be coming from everywhere. "Run and hide from the inevitable! Your time is at an end; it is only a matter of time now before your pitiful life is as well! The reign of the sun has ended! The nighttime has begun!" The empress's laughter continued to echo around her, the malice in her sister's voice chilling Celestia to her core.

Lulu... why? What has happened to you...?

Author's Note:

Part 3 of 4... sort of...

So, you can see where this is going right...? Lots of Celestia drama comin' at'cha.

Anyway, I don't actually write in a straight line when I'm working on something of this scale (or ever, really), so this is only roughly a third of what I actually have planned for this chapter. Still, it's been a while so I figured I should maybe post something to, you know, let people know I'm still alive... Eh, whatever, I'll fix it in post.