Queen Nightmare Moon

by Makitk

Chapter 7

The double doors to the throne room opened to reveal former Princess Celestia, now Advisor to the Throne of Queen Nightmare Moon, standing in her proudest stance. On either side of her, and directly behind in double rows, were her Royal Guard led by captain Merryweather. Dayponies one and all, their freshly polished armor shining brightly in the light of the sun coming in from the outside.

For this occasion, Nightmare Moon had allowed her sister to put the sun up high in the sky, unchallenged by her moon, and its light was bright enough to give her a massive headache. Even so, she sat high up on her throne, the smaller one removed from where it had been a few steps below. In front of her, on the main floor, stood rows of Nightguard, weapons at the ready, freshly polished armor shining as bright as that on their daypony counterparts outside.

Captain Starstruck took a step forward from where he stood in line on the left side closest to her throne, and turned to face Celestia and her troops with strict military motions, then rammed his spear onto the tiles a few times. The Lunar Unicorn had been among the first to submit to his Queen, and he had been solely responsible for training each of the Nightguard standing with him in the room right now. They were the best troops that could be found among Nightmare Moon's children.

"You are entering the throne room of her Royal Majesty Nightmare Moon, Queen of the Night, Equestria, and all lands found under her Royal Highness' Moon's light!" the Nightguard captain stated in a strong voice, not really helping his Queen's headache.

On Celestia's side, captain Merryweather took two steps into the room, placed her own spear on the floor next to her, but straightened herself again once it lay flat. An Earthpony with a distinguished service record going back years, she had scars to her that went deeper than her skin. Simply her presence was enough to silence even the most rowdy of dayponies, and she was respected by both day- and night-guards.

"Announcing Princess Celestia, former ruler of the land of Equestria, sister to former princess Luna, Advisor to the Throne to Queen Nightmare Moon," the daypony captain spoke in just as loud a voice, and the Queen narrowed her eyes at her sister who stood still as a statue just outside the room.

Celestia just had to slip that old name of hers in there, and it tired Nightmare Moon to hear it. Maybe that would soon be over. After all of this.

"State your business here, Princess Celestia, former ruler of the land of Equestria, sister to the former princess, Advisor to the Throne to Queen Nightmare Moon," captain Starstruck repeated the introduction, and his Queen could not love any stallion more in that brief moment for him knowing just what to leave out.

Captain Merryweather waited for one brief moment, sticking to the etiquette where it concerned these things, and then opened her mouth again. "We have come to officially offer our surrender as guardsponies to the old ruler of this nation and to offer our loyalty to Queen Nightmare Moon, should Her Majesty choose to accept it. We come to deliver our weapons freely, and ask but to be given a fair judgement."

With that, the captain picked up her spear again, and took two steps back to stand next to her Princess again.

"Her Royal Majesty Queen Nightmare Moon will hear your offer of surrender," captain Starstruck stated. "Come forward and be judged."

Nightmare Moon saw her sister take a deep breath before she took a step forward, her daypony guardsponies following as one as the princess strode up to captain Starstruck. Once the last of them had entered the room, the doors were closed behind them and the group was effectively encircled by Nightguard.

Celestia stopped two paces in front of captain Starstruck, then gave a nod aside to captain Merryweather.

The daypony captain strode forward, turned to pass in front of her princess, and then placed her spear on the ground in front of captain Starstruck. Their eyes met for a brief moment, but then she continued on, walking back past the row of Nightguard to the rear of her troops.

Each of the dayponies in Celestia's personal guard followed behind their captain, all twenty of them placing their spears in a neat pile in-between Celestia and Starstruck until each was unarmed. They fell back in formation, and Celestia finally opened her mouth to speak.

"My Queen, I give you our loyalty as former ruler of this land, and hope you will accept me back into my role as advisor to your throne," the former princess spoke, sinking through her forelegs in a deep bow. Her guards fell into a bow as well, and the room fell silent again.

Nightmare Moon looked the room over; twenty of her Nightguard on the left, twenty of her Nightguard on the right, their captain in the dead center between her and the daypony troops. Celestia bowing low in front of her, awaiting her judgement.

She took a breath.

"I accept your surrender," she stated, rising up from her throne. "And I offer you a place among my Nightguard."

She charged her horn and let her moon outside rise until a twilight fell over the room. With it, a cool breeze wafted in and there was a collective shiver of the daypony guards.

"But under only one condition; you and your princess will join us as ponies of the night," Nightmare Moon decided.

Celestia rose up again and looked straight at her. "I accept for me, and my troops. We submit ourselves to your fair ruling."

"Then let it be so," the Queen spoke, releasing her dark magic into the group below.

The transformative process immediately grabbed hold of the twenty dayponies below, Earthpony, Pegasus, and Unicorn all changing to become better suited to living in Nightmare Moon's night. Eyes changed from the many different colours of regular daypony ones to the slitted yellow of the Lunar Ponies they were becoming. Feathers withdrew into the wings they had sat on, tufts appeared on twenty pairs of ears, and coats, manes and tails changed colours to blue and grey-tones.

All of the twenty guards were changing in ways Nightmare Moon had seen before, but Celestia was an Alicorn. The only other Alicorn to have taken to her darkness had been her, the Queen, herself. There was no precedent, no equal. She was the only one her eyes were set upon.

Celestia's long, flowing, rainbow mane was the first to change; the colors darkening until they merged into one, yet continuing to grow darker. Before long her mane was a pit of darkness with a rim of brightness around it, almost as if one was peering into a black hole with an event horizon surrounding it. Her tail changed in a similar fashion, drawing all the light to it and just leaving a knife's edge surrounding the darkest blackness one could imagine; the absence of any kind of light.

Her white coat darkened as well, taking on a blue tone which slowly settled on a tone which was still brighter than that on Luna before her own transformation into Nightmare Moon. Her pink eyes barely changed beyond obtaining slitted pupils, but Luna's had not gone through much of a change either. If not for the gemstone in her right eye socket, Nightmare Moon was staring out of the same color eyes as Luna before her.

There was a sudden spark of magic, and Celestia collapsed with a faint gasp, making captain Starstruck rush forward to check up on her. Nightmare Moon suddenly stood three steps lower before she could catch herself and regain her composure, helped by Starstruck nodding to her to indicate her sister was doing fine.

Merryweather, the magic still working to finalize the changes on her form, also nodded back to her troops who were casting worried glances out of mismatched eyes. Their captain told them it was okay, but the sudden motion had drawn them out of focusing on the changes going through them. A blessing, really; it hurt more than Nightmare Moon wished it did, if she had to believe some of her children.

They had weathered it for her, and saw in each other the pain they had all gone through. It formed a bond between her children which the dayponies could not grasp at until they underwent the same transformation process. She was secretly proud of how well they each bounced back up from it, but could not tell them. Except for Contrail. Contrail knew. But she was a special case.

Celestia opened her slitted eyes and shook her head a moment, her horn still darkening to match her coat. Her head turned to look back at her right flank, where a blue gemstone now sat prominently wedged in her rump where the cutiemark of a sun had been before. It stuck out a little, interrupting the natural flow of her body, and from its points came shooting stars with fading tails shooting sideways.

Nightmare Moon watched as her sister turned her head to look at her left flank, noticing a similar situation there. She carefully extended her wings, and let out a sigh of relief noting she still had feathered ones, even if her feathers were now a pastel blue tone. The former princess turned her head forward again, then tilted it up to set her slitted pink eyes upon Nightmare Moon.

"The Element of Loyalty split in twain," the newly changed Lunar Alicorn spoke in a new voice, and she moved her jaw and ears a bit at hearing herself.

"How do you feel, sister?" Nightmare Moon asked in genuine concern.

"It is... difficult to describe," Celestia started.

Nightmare Moon took a step closer to the group below. "If you are all feeling alright, I would welcome you to my Nightguard. Let your brothers and sisters help you get used to your new forms and get your new armor from the quartermaster."

"Alright, you scamps; let's give our Queen some room," captain Starstruck called out, then motioned to a pair of ponies with his left hoof, and promptly down at the stack of spears on the ground. "Get this moved to the storage rooms on the double."

Captain Merryweather found her voice and turned to her own group again. "You heard him; if you can put one hoof in front of the other without falling over, I want you up and out of this room and into fresh gear A. S. A. P!"

She turned to give a brief nod to Celestia, then one to her Queen. "We will be ready to resume our duties within the hour, my Queen."

Nightmare Moon licked around her lips, then shook her head. "Starstruck, take your new siblings to town tonight. They are all off duty for a day so they can get used to their new forms."

"Yes, my Queen!" captain Starstruck stated with a salute, then turned to Merryweather. "Welcome to the family, 'sister'. I must say; you do look a lot better in blue."

Nightmare Moon watched the troops file out, Merryweather and Starstruck walking out last, and closed the distance to her own sister.

Celestia was still seated on the ground, settling into her own new form. She turned her head this way and that to get a good look down both her flanks, giving Nightmare Moon ample time to take a lazy stroll in a circle around her.

"Can you stand, Celestia?" the Queen asked, moving to stand opposite her sister.

"I believe I can," the other Lunar Alicorn answered with a nod, moving to act on her words.

Nightmare Moon waited until they stood eye-to-eye again, then let out a sigh of relief. "I must admit, I was unsure what would happen."

"I am still unsure what _has_ happened," Celestia stated. "I feel groggy, as if I have only just woken from a slumber."

"It must be the light outside, let me move my moon," the Queen suggested, charging her horn.

"No, it's not your moon," Celestia pondered, looking at the nearest window and charging her own magic.

Nightmare Moon raised an eyebrow as she saw the deep blue light sparking from her sister's horn, but then took a surprised step back as the light around them changed suddenly and completely!

"What.... what did you do?" she asked, as screams of terror could be heard coming from outside.

"You were focusing on the wrong thing, sister," Celestia spoke calmly. "It was not the fact the sun was up in the air that was the problem, but the light it spread."

"What did you do?" Nightmare Moon repeated, feeling a sense of dread come over her.

"I changed the sun to cast a better light," the other Alicorn offered matter-of-factly.

The doors to the throne room opened, and a bewildered Unicorn rushed in. Somewhere in the back of her mind Nightmare Moon realized it was one of the Unicorns from the Magic Academy.

"My Queen! The sun," they cried out! "It's changed into a blue neutron star!"