The Force of the Elements

by LuminousRabbit

The Morning that was night

AN: Luna/Nightmare Moon refers to themself as two people, hence the interesting writing style. I'm also Australian, and as such use Australian spelling. This is a non-profit fan-based novel, please support My Little Pony: Friendship is magic and other official releases.
The Force of the Elements
Chapter one: The morning that was night
At first, when Celestia woke up, she thought it was still night time. The moon was up, and the stars were out. But something was off. She pulled back the covers, slipped out of bed as regally as only a princess could, and took a closer look out the window. It looked just like an ordinary night, but the magic within Celestia said something else. She had to make sure, just in case.
Princess Celestia closed her eyes and concentrated power into her horn to raise the sun. And nothing happened.
Luna, she thought. Her magic was being blocked by a counter-spell, and Celestia knew the cause. Her younger sister had been acting off for weeks. Something was clearly bothering the moon princess, and now she had gone far enough and stopped the sun rising.
Celestia had to do something about it. She opened the door of her bedroom, and, passing the guards stationed at the entrance to her room, reflected at what a lovely un-morning this was. Luna had really outdone herself this night. If only she could do it at the right time. Night-time. Princess Celestia clip-clopped her way to Luna's room, trying not to break into a canter. She needed to talk this over with Luna, and figure out some kind of compromise for whatever situation the sisters had landed in.
Celestia approached Luna's door and knocked.
'Enter,' came the reply. Celestia pulled open the door. Luna was standing in the middle of the room, as if expecting her arrival.
'Hello,' said Celestia. Pause.
'Do you know what time it is?,' Celestia asked. A longer pause.
'Morning,' replied Luna.
'Yes, it is,' Princess Celestia said.
'We know,' said Luna.
'I tried raising the sun, you know,' Luna tilted her head to one side.
'And?'
Some kind of magic interfering. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?'
Quicker than lightning, Luna leaped towards Celestia and pinned her to the ground, clamping one hoof against Celestia's muzzle to stop her from crying out.
'The night will last forever! All the ponies in Equestria relish the daytime, sleep through the beutiful night we bring forth. Well not any more! Everypony will live under our night!' Celestia struggled, and threw Luna away.
'Why do you keep saying "we" and "our"? You're not making any sense, Luna! What demon has possesed you?'
'We are not Luna! We are Nightmare Moon!' yelled Luna, and took off, breaking straight through the window. Shards of glass flew everywhere, and by the time Celestia got to the window, Nightmare Moon was gone.
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Nightmare Moon was having a bad night. They felt sorry for Celestia's death, for it would come to pass soon. The only way they could be defeated was with the cursed Elements of Harmony, and Nightmare Moon knew that Celestia would seek them out as soon as she could. Nightmare Moon, however, had other plans. They had had the foresight to steal the elements. Celestia would have to step over their broken body to recapture the Elements, and by then Celestia would have no use for them, as Nightmare Moon would be dead. It was a lose-lose situation.
Unknown to Celestia, Nightmare Moon had taken two of the Elements, ensuring the tough task of bringing them all together. Nightmare Moon was on the run, but she knew Celestia would catch up eventually. Until then, Nightmare Moon could have their fun. They flew over Equestria, too high to be spotted from the ground.
The cuts from the window were deep, and blood streamed in a trail behind them. Luckily for Nightmare Moon, the blood spread too far by the time it hit the fields, making it extremely hard to track from the ground. The cuts burned from the wind, but it was a good kind of burning, Nightmare Moon reflected. The kind that showed them however twisted they had become, they were still mortal. They flew for about an hour, and then something caught Nightmare Moon's eye. She veered to the left, getting a better view. And there it was.
Manehatten. Nightmare Moon could hardly believe their luck. They swooped down. The cover of darkness made them far harder to see. Just another benefit of eternal night. Even if the palace guards managed to track them down, they could just hide away in the shadows, and pass unnoticed. And the night will be Celestia's downfall. Nightmare Moon clip-clopped their way through the streets of Manehatten. Nobody was out. But occasionally a colt or filly would stumble across their path. The people off Manehatten made a funny sound as they died. Like they were offended anyone would dare.
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Celestia was a mess. Luna was finally snapped. Talking as if there were two of her, she had stolen two of the elements and fled the castle. Celestia lost any pretence of being collected, and galloped straight to the palace guards to inform them of the situation.
The palace guards took immediate action. It was still a mystery to Celestia how they could act witout uttering a single word. There were only a couple Celestia ever heard speaking. They both reported to her. Celestia put double protection on the remaining three elements. The sixth was still to be found, and Celestia had a feeling that Nightmare Moon knew where it was. One of the guards came to her and reported. There was no way they could track Nightmare Moon, apart from a trail of blood that quickly dispersed to barely anything.
'You have to try. It's all we've got,' she told the guard. A parchment appeared in front of her, bearing the Manehatten seal. Nightmare Moon had started. She spoke to some more guards, pegasus ponies, and they swiftly made their way to Manehatten. Celesstia then sent an official warning to the cities and towns of Equestria. Fillydelphia, Ponyville... She checked them all off in her head. Nightmare Moon was in possetion of the elements Loyalty and Honesty. Celestia allowed herself a wry smile, for Nightmare Moon was neither loyal nor honest. Then again, she's not exactly kind, generous, or laughing either, Celestia thought to herself. Celestia had discovered what the sixth element was after an educational experiment, about ten years ago, but the elements had never been brought together. Nobody had ever seen the sixth, but Celestia knew what it was. The five she had were locked away in separate cases in the castle, safe from any unexpected circumstances. Well, until Luna went AWOL.
Celestia was still mortal, and felt the grumbling as her stomach demanded nourishment. She headed down the stairs to the dining room. The dining room was grand. It was technically a banquet room. It was decorated lavishly with tapestries and the windows were stained glass. On the tapestries were pictures of fruit and vegetables, flowers and hay. It was all hand made by ponies with threading cutie marks. They toiled for hours just to make one pattern, and Celestia rewarded them with riches and appreciation. Luna rewarded them with a curt smile.
Celestia could remember the days of their youth, filled with warmth and the love of their parents. And then the task of raising the moon and sun had fallen to the sisters. At first Luna was excited, completing her task with the vigilance and regal air of her father. But after time Luna was regretful. Celestia's mother, and now Celestia got to raise the sun. The ponies liked the sun, playing and laughing. During the night, if they were not sleeping, the tiny colts and fillies cowered in fear of what they couldn't see.
Celestia understood the actions of her younger sister. A waiter colt brought out a dandelion and daffodil sandwich, one of her favourite meals. People thought it strange that a princess like Celestia chose a dish so humble, but sometimes Celestia thought it was the little things in life that mattered the most. Like a sister.
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Nightmare Moon turned around and bucked at the door as hard as they could. It splitered and they entered the inner city Manehatten house. As they worked their way towards the nicer and more expensive houses, the cries of the people as they killed them became more and more silly, until it had Nightmare Moon on the ground holding them in a fit of silent laughter.
It was strange, because when Nightmare Moon felt devoid of empathy, they could still experience laughter and amusement. Other people might call the joke twisted and sick, but Nightmare Moon was all for it.
As they entered the house, Nightmare Moon heard something. A whoosh of pegasus wings. Nightmare Moon poked their head out the house, and looked for some fresh meat. They quickly pulled their head back in the house. Not fresh meat. Palace guards. What were they doing here? Nightmare Moon thought. Of course, Celestia must have sent them. The only ponies that had seen them were dead. Nightmare Moon narrowed their eyes. Somepony must have seen them, and escaped them unnoticed.
They were still fallible, and they hated it. The other part of them, the weaker part, cried out in Nightmare Moon's mind. The Luna half of them was happy, wanted to be brought to justice. Nightmare Moon quickly quashed this unwanted thought. They were no longer Luna, and although a shadow of their past life remained, Nightmare Moon was the stronger and most dominant half.
Their thoughts were cut off by a squeal. Nightmare Moon whirled around, and found themself facing a pink mare with a purple mane. Behind her came another, a little red filly, who had yet to gain a cutie mark. Nightmare Moon smiled. This little filly would die before discovering her purpose in life.
The mare was the the one who had screamed. Nightmare Moon considered killing the mare first, just to shut her up, but decided against it. Nightmare Moon closed their eyes, and their horn glowed with black energy. Shadows curled up, passing through the mare, and surrounded the filly. The mare screamed again, and a fine stallion came down the stairs. 'Honey, what's wro-' he cut off as he saw Nightmare Moon and his precious filly. This was getting better and better. Nightmare Moon loved it when the parents saw their children die. It gave them a deeper sense of satisfaction, seeing the horror and pain on the parent's faces.
'Mummy, what's happening?' asked the filly.
The mare just stared at Nightmare Moon. It was the time. The shadows tightened, and every bone in the filly's body crumbled to dust. The filly was already dead, but Nightmare Moon craved more. They used levitation magic to throw the body of the filly through the window. Shards flew everywhere, and several lacerated the parents, much like the ones that had cut Nightmare Moon earlier in the night.
Nightmare Moon killed the mare slowly while the stallion watched, powerless against her magic. Then they used magic to tear off the stallion's head. Rather than using magic to detect life in the house, they searched physically. There was a tiny colt in a cot upstairs. They condsidered killing him, but there was no pleasure in destroying an orphan nobody cared about. He might die of starvation any way. Instead Nightmare Moon blinded the stallion, and ignoring the screeches, left the house. The screeches of the teeny colt would surely attract attention. So the ponies of Manehatten that still lived survived another 24 hours, as Nightmare Moon disappeared into the darkness.
AN:Yes, school's back in Australia, and that means my production rate will decrease. A lot.

Comments

[KartalTheWriter]

I really like the style. I didn't have trouble getting through it because things kept happening. I don't particularly like the content. Not really into the whole killing town after town thing, but that's not really the point here. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean others won't. That's ALWAYS the case. There's a small part of me that was able to read this, and that's the part you're reaching, so in any case I read it and am now giving you a comment so consider this a success. Good work.