For the Good of Equestria: Shadows

by brokenimage321

1: Nightmare Moon

Corky, the unicorn chef who mysteriously disappeared during the previous section, suddenly arrives with a tray of snacks. Celestia, famished, tears into them, while Corky gets a quick recap from the others. He reveals he's actually terrified of Celestia, which is why he was stalling.

Celestia overhears Corky asking the others about her story, and asks him to speak up. Corky nervously asks her what it's like to move the sun and the moon, and Celestia actually smiles. She reveals that's actually an old misconception: she doesn't move the sun and the moon like everyone thinks she does. Instead, her responsibility is to keep their inherent magics going, and make sure nothing goes wrong (i.e., she "refuels" the sun and checks the cruise control, rather than actually driving it). She can move them directly if she wants, but she's only had to do so once--and that was when...

Celestia goes quiet, then, slowly, resumes her story.

[Excerpt: Introduction]

When Luna returned home from the Crystal Empire, things rapidly fell apart. The Equestrian Alliance, already on somewhat-shaky ground, begins to break up: from their perspective, they sent soldiers to help with a low-risk military engagement, mostly just posturing. However, they were ambushed by an enemy they weren't prepared for, and, when the fighting got tough, Celestia fled the battlefield. Further, when the enemy disappeared, which indicated they weren't that much of a trheat to begin with, the Equestrian forces had to mount a dangerous rescue mission to the middle of a desolate, snowy valley to save Celestia, which cost even more lives.

Even worse, Celestia's relationship with Luna is rapidly deteriorating. Luna, always passionate, for both good and ill, is still angry with Celestia for what she did to Sombra. True, Celestia was right--Sombra was bad news--but Luna, even though she knows his love wasn't genuine, still loves him in return (to say nothing of the fact that she's carrying his child). Further, Luna finds that she's been away from home for so long that she's no longer as important to Equestrian politics as she once was, which leaves her feeling powerless. Luna becomes increasingly cold to Celestia, eventually, after the birth of Mi Amore Cadenza, cutting her off entirely.

Over the course of the summer, when court is located at the Castle of the Two Sisters, things fall almost completely apart.

[Excerpt: "The Hard Summer"]

Celestia, like the rest of the palace, begins to call Mi Amore Cadenza simply "Cadance." Luna dislikes the name, and makes her displeasure known, but Celestia interacts with her so infrequently that she continues to do it anyways.

Celestia wakes up on the morning of the fall equinox--the day they're due to return to Canterlot--to find it still dark. She soon realizes that there's an eclipse happening, one she hadn't planned for, which makes her deeply uneasy. Celestia goes to find Luna to see if she knows what's going on--and realizes, to her horror, that Luna has secretly been studying forbidden, soul-cankering black magics, especially "Tantimancy"--fear-magic. Celestia realizes that Luna has created the eclipse intentionally: tantimancy, which draws its power from the moon, is more powerful on the equinox, and more powerful during an eclipse--and by combining the two, she's supercharged her own already-formidable magical power.

Celestia confronts Luna, and Luna snaps. Celestia has done so much to injure her already, and has so much political and magical power that, Luna says, she had to take this drastic step. And, now that she has all the power she needs, Luna is going to have her revenge. Celestia begs her to reconsider, pleading with her to "Think of your daughter," but Luna replies, with an evil laugh, that "I AM."

[Excerpt: "Think of your daughter"]

Luna begins to transform into a dark, evil shape, and Celestia flees. She tries to get the few remaining ponies to evacuate the palace, but, before she can, Luna, as Nightmare Moon, begins to destroy the castle. Celestia successfully hides from her, then goes looking for a way to escape--before she remembers the Tree of Harmony.

Celestia makes her way down to the tree-cavern, where she reveals that, after they had finished using the Elements of Harmony to defeat Discord, they had returned them to the Tree. She also reveals that this is where they buried the remainder of their own group of Bearers--here, with the Elements they'd fought so hard to obtain.

Celestia pleads to the Tree to help her again, with no apparent effect. Just as she's about to leave, the star-shaped design on the trunk of the tree folds open, and something heavy drops out. Celestia's eyes widen.

Celestia emerges back into the castle, and finds many of her friends screaming in fear, often trying to drown themselves or claw out their own eyes. These, Celestia puts down as gently as she can. She makes her way back to the throne room, where Nightmare Moon is waiting. Nightmare Moon comments on the armor Celestia is wearing--golden, with a closed-face helm, decorated with six shining stones. Celestia realizes that Nightmare Moon doesn't recognize the Elements of Harmony, meaning, whoever she is, she isn't Luna--not anymore, at least. Celestia explains that the Elements are the power of Equestria itself--when the world is in danger, the Tree will surrender the Elements to help put an end to the threat. That is, they're not peace-makers--they're war-enders. Nightmare Moon scoffs at her explanation, and they fight.

Celestia, with the power of the Elements, withstands Nightmare Moon, then uses their power to banish her. As she does, she has a series of flashbacks to good times she had with Luna. She tries to stop the process, but the rainbow of magic fires from her armor before she can. Celestia and Nightmare Moon both scream in pain--Nightmare Moon, as the magic of Harmony slams into her, Celestia, as the magic arcs through her own body, turning her mane from pink to blue, and green, and purple.

The magic fades, and Celestia stands there, gasping. In the sudden silence, baby Cadance, somewhere in the castle, begins to cry. At the sound, Celestia freezes, then asks aloud "What have I done?"

Instantly, the elements turn to stone and fall off her body. Celestia, shaken, uses her Alicorn Magic to move the moon, and is shocked beyond words when she sees her sisters' face burned into it. Wordlessly, she collects the wailing Cadance from where Luna had hidden her, then leaves the palace. She refuses to answer the survivors' questions, and leads them silently back to Canterlot.