The Bill-inning

by EmperorDalek

Chapter 2 (edited and spellchecked version)

Nightmares!

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*A year later*

Luna, with a gentle trot, moved through the hallway interiors of her and her sister’s castle in the Everfree. Most of the guards were asleep and the world was at peace; the only detectable sounds being the silent ambience of the Castle of the Two Sisters. A calm wind blew through the corridors and hallways, but it was a gentle breeze, one that you would enjoy on a really sunny day, but which still keeps your body heat up enough to prevent freezing.

The business of the day had been concluded, all taxes had been addressed, and all visitors to the castle had now had their one hour and had been sent on their back home to Ponyville for the night. Celestia had already teleported off to bed the minute visiting hours were over, but she had decided that she wanted to have a nice time enjoying the quiet and beautiful ambience of the castle at night.

Passing a nearby window, she stopped and turned her head to look out at the moon. She smiled as she saw it, but her smile faded as it became a frown upon her face. She sighed, exhaling a deep breath, her eyes trailed down, and her head turned back, staring down the hall as she continued down its path. On the walls fell a certain shadow, which silently followed her.

With a gentle turn she rounded a corner, her head still held low at the sad truth that filled her mind. She did not like admitting it to herself, but everything had just changed so much in these recent days; the terrible defeat that ended in no songs of victory, the defeat of a powerful evil, and the discovery of a new power having just entered their world was too much for her to bear. She wanted to leave, she wanted to forget, but she had a duty that she could not ignore. Despite what was demanded of her as a ruling Princess of Equestria, she just wanted a small break, a moment to clear her thoughts and just… feel refreshed for once. Was that too much to ask?

Suddenly, before she rounds the corner fully, shadows erupt from the walls, reaching out for her!

"GAH!" she manages to scream!

---

In a different part of the castle, Celestia’s eye shots open, one of her ears perked up as it detected a loud scream echoing from the hallway.

Her body shot up, her eyes wide as they stared at the door at the other end of the room!

"Oh no! That was Luna’s voice!" She exclaimed, throwing the covers off her and rushing to the door! Her horn started to light up, and with a *Pop* she disappeared out of her bedroom, re-appearing in the hallway outside her room. Another ear-piercing shriek sounded down the left corridor! She quickly spun, and started running down the left route!

As quickly as she made her turn down the left corridor, she extended her wings, rising up into the air after a mighty flap. With great beats of her mighty wings she flew down the corridor to help her sister. No one lets out a scream like that unless they are in serious trouble. But just because they are both immortal goddesses their bodies are not, they can still be killed.

Flying through the castle at intense speed, the shockwave in her wake was strong enough to make pictures become unhinged, hanging sideways on the walls, armor sets were knocked over and even the walls had large cracks rip their way through the once-thought to be durable walls.

---

As the screaming finally got loud enough to precisely pinpoint its origin, her horn started to glow with a golden aura of magic, she disappeared shortly casting her teleportation spell. In a few seconds she popped back into reality, appearing in another part of the castle. She quickly got to running the last distance. She rounded a corner, but immediately stopped in place, her jaw dropping, and her eyes growing wide from pure horror.

Out of the walls, black tendrils reached out, wrapping themselves around the limbs, body, and especially the horn of a restrained Luna. Like veins, shadows were moving through the wall, spreading out to other parts of the castle.

Luna's eyes were clenched tight; her face had a frightened but also disgusted look as the black tendrils, while gripping tightly onto her hooves started to move over them, working their way up along her arms and legs. As the tendrils held her in their grasp, a black goo seemed to drip from them, splattering onto the floor where they were absorbed into the ground, and like the blackness in the walls, started to spread out into the rest of the castle. As it passed underneath her hooves, Celestia nervously raised them up, not knowing what would happen if she let them touch her. But instead of doing anything, it moved past her, following the rest of the castle. In very little time the entirety of the castle had been turned to pure black, with the edges being outlined by white. Windows, pictures, tapestries, doors, and even the books, etc. Everything in the castle was turned into a literal black and white version of itself! Just without the filters.

The entire castle started to shake, the torches swapped out the regular flames for white ones, and paintings and tapestries changed into a figure that looked to not have a specific form, merely a shadowy shape. The shadow wore a white cape which was fastened with a red broach. It held a cane with a shadowy arm, wore gloves, and a rather large hat atop its head. In front of its left eye was a monocle. In the many pictures, paintings and tapestries it seemed to be wearing the same clothing, but still had the a certain calm, collective air about it.

Outside the walls, the shaking castle finally managed to crack open, breaking apart from the ground, and rising up into the air. The castle was suspended high above the ground with a large crevice left behind in its former resting place!

Backing away from the nearest window, Celestia directed her eyes towards the black goo that was steadily encasing Luna. Her face frowned, glaring up at her sister in growing rage, her horn having a buildup of magic that she would use to free her sibling from that terrible… whatever it was!

However, when it was discharged from her horn, an arm suddenly seemed to shoot out of the wall and formed a shield in front of Luna, Celestia’s attack did little more than just be deflected off the shield, ricocheting off the walls as she ducks down to avoid being hit by her own attack. It breaks through the glass window, and flies off into the distance. With wide-eyed shock, she watches as the window regenerates itself back to its original state.

She turns her head back, casting a shocked, jaw-dropped stare back at her sister, watching as the blackness completely submerges her entire form in the black goo. "Sister!" Luna cries out in a fearful, screeching voice, before her face is swallowed up.

"Luna!" Celestia calls out, extending her hoof out to her sister, as if she was going to break free and begin reaching for her. But what really happened was that the tendrils that originally bound her, and had been restraining her while also covering her by the goo now retracted into her, separating from the wall. A flash of light erupts, shining so bright that it blinds Celestia, who must raise a hoof up to shield her eyes from the violent light!

When the light dies down it returns to a level that is tolerable enough for her to lower her hoof. The bright light continues to shine for a few more seconds before dying down to the way it had been before the light had begun to shine. However, the figure that greets her already distressed eyes did nothing to help reassure her in the slightest. It was an Alicorn!

The Alicorn’s entire form was black, except for its jaw which was filled with sharp fangs, and completely blank eyes. Its wings were still in the shape of a wing, but was heavily deformed with tendrils in place of feathers. The front hooves were broken with black bones jutting out. The mere sight of it disgusted Celestia so much that her expression said it all.

Taking a step forward, this shadow version of Luna fell down, landing face-first against the floor.
"Oh my! Luna, are you alright?!" Celestia asked with deep concern, and was about to approach her collapsed sister. However, the figure in front of her started to move, lifting its body up from the floor and suspending itself in the air. Luna’s old legs disconnected from her shoulders, dropping to the ground, and dissolving away into a puddle that melted through the floor, dripping the remaining leftovers down onto the far-away ground underneath the castle. New limbs started to grow out, but not the ones that one would expect. A much longer arm grew out, resulting in three spider legs that took the place of her formerly digit-less hooves on the end of her new arms. Tendrils grew from her back, as well as sharp spiky protrusions. Out from her blank eyes, blood began running down her face, dripping from her cheek, and splattering onto the floor, but it too started to burn through the floor, once again the floor resealed itself shut.

She tried to take a step forward, but did not get an inch closer to the small equine in front of her. She turned her head to look back and noticed that her hind legs were not co-operating as they just stood still in place. She growled through gritted teeth, which just sounded like Luna screaming. She raised one of her clawed arms and with a fell slash pierced her own flesh, severing her lower-half from the upper-half! Instead of simply falling down, she was suspended in mid-air while her other severed half exploded into a large mass of black goo that splattered onto the walls and floor, burning them – Again, it all regenerated back.

Gasping, Celestia took to shaking her head in denial at what she was seeing happen to her own sibling! Her jaw was completely dropped.

"L-Luna?" she inquired in horror to her deformed sibling, backing away just as frightened as her voice indicated.

Out from just under her waist, black slime shot out! The slime solidified, re-sharping into the slender, sharp legs of a spider. Gasping at the deformed monstrosity that was her sister, she backed away from it nervously.

"Luna…No!" She said softly to herself, shaking her head in denial at the creature before her. Raising its head with a terrible crunching sound, her deformed sister gazed at her through eyeless holes.

Luna’s jaw dropped, hanging open as it appeared to be letting out a terrible growl at her, but instead of an animalistic growl, it was the voice of Luna screaming in agonizing pain! Moving her left arm, she reached out towards the perfectly normal Alicorn in front of her, its claws opening up to grab her! Before reaching her, Celestia acted on impulse and leaped to the side just as her monstrous sister’s arm instead crashed into the wall, breaking through the floor and wall! Luna retracted her arm, the damage being re-sealed.

Luna's head turned to the side, staring out at the Alicorn in front of her with her bleeding eyes – Her quick movements causing the melting blood from her eyes to splatter onto the floor and the walls, making it all start melting! Her jaw dropped, emitting a hollow moan from it!

That was it! Celestia had to get away from her. This was not the Luna she knew! She was long gone!

She turned to face the other direction, and quickly jumped up into the air, taking to flight! The Luna-creature was already moving its right arm towards her in a slow fashion as it thought that she would not resist! But as it watched the elder sibling fly away, the slime peeled away, revealing real flesh! It extended an arm, then moved the other, and then the other, and the other again, and every time it moved another step its pace quickened, until finally it was finally running after her!

Its terrible howls echoed through the castle, ensuring that its prey never truly escaped the pain of the loss of its sibling. A tearful Celestia hurried down the halls with all the strength her very being could conjure! But no matter how fast she flew or how much she flew in random throughout the nightmarish castle the Luna-creature’s roars were always just as close, and never got anywhere close to fading into the distance!

Out of the castle walls, tendrils shot out at her, but because they could not predict where she was going to go she eluded them by teleporting away! Monstrous chests with sharp legs and teeth on the inside, books that flew through the air with teeth, Ponies made out of actual glass and giant eyeballs with wings, all of these abominations she encountered on top of fleeing from the already monstrous version of her sister!

---

After chasing her through several enlarged hallways, making room for it to move through them, their little game of tag had finally come to a stop. The Luna-creature had led her to the throne room! Or at least something that vaguely resembled a throne room.

At hearing the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps her eyes got wide with horror! The Luna-creature was getting closer! She turned around to look, but when she did she jumped back in panic. Standing right in the doorframe of this throne room, was the Luna-creature!

Celestia gasped, realizing that now that it had her cornered there was no way out of this terrible place! Never mind the Ponies down on the surface. Who knew what had happened to them at this point?!

Luna’s jaw hung open, the steady and continuous moans of a pained Luna being the only sounds to fill the chamber. She stumbled back till she reached the base of a raised, triangular pedestal. Atop the platform stood no one.

Behind the platform was a large, circle-shaped window, and this entire room was completely black, but there were outlines in rainbow colors around them.

She looked around the chamber for any potential means of escape. Unfortunately, she had been so caught up in looking for an escape route that she had completely ignored the creature itself. It gripped its spider-leg claws around her, grabbing tightly as it raised her up towards Luna’s face.

Celestia tried resisting the Luna-creature’s grasp on her as best as she could, but her efforts were like throwing pebbles at a river that had burst its banks!

The Luna-creature held her up in front of its face, fixing its blank bleeding eyes at the normal Alicorn. Its nose trills flared as it breathed, emitting fractions of the blue from Luna’s mane. When Celestia saw this, she averted her eyes, releasing a choked sob at the sight of it for it reminded her that this monstrous deformity was or had been her sister.

Raising its left arm, it touched the tips of two of its claws to the side of Celestia’s head. She soon started to shrink, being reduced down till she was the size of an eye. Luna grinned evilly. Her jaw dropped, exposing thousands of sharp teeth inside a spiraling maw!

Celestia, upon seeing this, started to move frantically, once again trying to get away from her "sister's" grasp. She did manage to free herself, but before she could escape, the Luna-creature shot one of its tendrils, which wrapped around the shrunken sister, restraining her in place.

The tendril moved in front of the creature's mouth, holding the small struggling Alicorn mare in its grasp. Looking down into the maw that awaited her, she could not avoid the motion-stopping horror that was in front of her!

The Luna-creature let out a loud moan as its tendril prepared to swing the miniature pony into its maw, but right before did so Celestia closed her eyes, tightening her face.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, something shot past her, which made the Luna-creature let out a loud howl of pain, dropping miniature Celestia. However, before she could fall into her sister’s maw she suddenly landed on something and she felt herself being pulled back. At which point she finally opened her eyes. She was sitting on a hand. It was obvious that she was up in the air as she had to look down to see the Luna-creature, whose bleeding eyes were now looking up at her.

"Don’t worry, it can’t get you now." A voice said from behind her and she turned her head to look.

Unsurprisingly, her eyes grew wide again, but this time from just plain confusion for the figure that had her in its hand was a one-eyed triangle, which wore a bowtie and a top hat, with arms and legs.

"Hey, how you doin’?" it asked casually, smiling its eye at her.

"Uh…" she stuttered, "fine, I guess?" she shrugged.

"Ah good, I was beginning to worry that I was too late." the triangle said.

The Luna-creature frowned, snarling through its sharp teeth.

"Oh, yeah, sorry. I almost forgot about you", the triangle says.

He extended a hand, pointing his finger towards the monstrous form underneath him.

With rapid turns, Celestia looked back between the Luna-creature and this odd triangle-creature, and she realized all too clearly what he was trying to do. In her panic to save this monstrosity which was still her sister, she suddenly pushed her hooves against him, but lost her balance and fell off his hand, accidentally firing a blast from her horn up at his eye.

"What the -?"

But before he could finish his sentence the beam hit him in the eye.

"Ahhh! My eye!" he screamed, dropping her and instead reaching up to his eye in panic. But she was far from focused on his pain as she soon came to regret her decision in attacking him to save Luna. Watching with wide-eyed horror as the Luna-creature shot its maw open, a tendril shot out from inside the maw, grabbing her, and twirling itself around her. It quickly pulled her back inside and closed its teeth down on her!

In that moment, the dream ended and Celestia's eyes shot open. She quickly sat up in her bed, panting heavily and sweating profusely! In quick succession, her head turned, looking around the room to check if it had all been real as she was breathing heavily. She was so terrified of what she had experienced in the dreamscape that she did not know whether it was over or if the nightmare was still going.

Comments

[Xzaves]

The mini description or whatever it's called says displayed not displaced

[EmperorDalek]

7454665 I done goofed *Shrugs*

[Grankuwaga]

There can never be enough Bill Cipher

[nightmaster0]

Great chapter.

[Discordofchaos]

Bill: lets make a deal Celestia

[Even Evil Has Standards]

7454704
Relax. It's Bill Cipher.