CH72: Equestria at War
While all eyes were on the ancient monster in the lands of the Diamond Dogs, a large group of ponies gathered in a secret spot deep in the whitetail woods.
The remnants of the Bloodmoon cult – merely a hundred ponies in total – had come together in this ancient refuge, hidden deep within the smaller and lesser-known brother of the Everfree. The cultists looked around at each other, some looking rather upset that their numbers had dwindled so dramatically, while others had only a single word branded into their expressions: Revenge.
When finally, the last of their ranks had arrived, the eldest still living member of the cult stepped forward into their midst. It was an elderly mare that looked old enough to be one of the founding members of the cult.
“Silence!” She ordered and when the last bits of chatter died down, she spoke again. “Brothers and sisters that have sworn their lives to our nocturnal queen, I thank you for heeding my call. As you all have likely already realized, our once mighty brotherhood has now been reduced to a mere shadow of its former self.”
The mare paused for a short moment and looked around at her fellow cultists before continuing. “Our brethren were sought out, cornered and slaughtered by the henchponies of the daemonic sun. Only we lucky few managed to survive the massacre.” She said, regretfully lowering and shaking her head.
“HOWEVER!” She then suddenly shouted. “Our survival has not been by accident! No matter which means you have survived by, it was the great Nightmare’s wish that has brought you here! The last one hundred cultists that can still bring about the return of our great mistress, Nightmare Moon!”
“And how are we gonna do that?” One of the cultists asked. “We may be one hundred ponies here, but I doubt that we can do much without our great headmasters.”
“Oh, trust me, young brother. There is still a way. A spell, to be exact, one that only us elders have been entrusted with. This spell will bring forth the immediate awakening of our mistress, however it comes at a cost…” The mare stated.
“And what cost would that be?” the same cultist asked, when the elder didn’t continue.
“The spell needs to be cast by every living cultist at the same time in order to work. If it works, it will then choose the hundred most faithful of its ranks and take their souls as a sacrifice.” The mare concluded.
“Wait… a hundred—that’s every one of us!”
“Indeed, the great Nightmare has chosen exactly one hundred of us to live in order to perform this spell and awaken our mistress. This will be the ultimate sacrifice, but also the perfect revenge for our fallen brethren.” The elder spoke. “We have let our mistress wait far too long, today shall be the day where she finally awakens! FOR THE NIGHT ETERNAL!” The elder shouted, igniting her horn and painting a brightly glowing magic ornament onto the ground.
“For the night eternal!” A few voices from within the crowd could be heard, before the cirle grew a little.
“For the night eternal!” Another group shouted and the circle grew again.
“For the night eternal!” finally the entire rest shouted and the circle grew to cover the whole group.
“Very good, my dear brethren. I am certain that the great Nightmare already holds special places by her side open for us! Now, chant with me!” The elder shouted again, before chanting in an ancient equestrian accent.
When they were done, a bright flash suddenly illuminated the entire forest and when it subsided, where once there were a hundred ponies chanting a spell, only a pile of corpses remained.
From the Royal Palace, one could see a bright flash erupt in the distance. Nopony knew what had happened, until suddenly, loud screams and shouts could be heard from Princess Luna’s bedroom.
Celestia immediately rushed to her sister’s aid. She ran through the palace like a one-mare stampede and slammed through the door to Luna’s bedchambers.
However, the mare that now stood before her no longer was her sister.
Nightmare Moon had just finished her transformation and her slitted pupils were now mustering Celestia like a predator does its prey.
“Hello, dear sister of mine.” Nightmare Moon said in a tone that let the greeting sound more like a ‘Hello, my meal.’
“You’re not my sister!” Celestia hissed. “You’re a monster who wants to take my sister away again! But this time, I’m not going to let that happen!” She shouted, charging her horn for a preemptive attack. However, centuries of promoting peace had left her fighting skills rather lacking.
“You’ve become rather slow, sister of mine.” Nightmare Moon snarked, suddenly popping up right before Celestia and kicking her through the open door and into the wall on the opposite side of the hallway. She tried to get up again, but quickly found a dark purple hoof pressing down on her chest.
“… yes, so it would seem.” Celestia admitted, while fighting back the pain. “So I guess you are going to kill me now, aren’t you?”
Celestia looked at the Nightmare and challenged her to strike the final blow. However, Nightmare Moon only chuckled.
“What’s so funny, you overgrown leech?!” Celestia tried to shout, but due to the hoof on her chest, it came out more as a wheeze.
“Oh, dear sister, do you really think that, after you’ve imprisoned me on the moon for a thousand years, I would grant you the mercy of a quick death? No. I want you to suffer and I know that even the premise of a torturous and mind-bending death would not even scratch your soul. There is however one thing that has been a weakness of yours, ever since we both were born into this world and which I failed to utilize the last time I walked this plane.”
The Nightmare lifted her hoof off of Celestia’s chest and walked over to a window that gave her a beautiful panorama look over Canterlot.
“You know, the ponies of this age have become so fragile and weak. Surely a courtesy of your pacifist policy. However, I think I know how to awaken the blood of their ancestors within them.” Nightmare Moon said, an evil smile forming in her face.
“W-wait, you don’t mean—No. No, you can’t!” Celestia shouted, stumbling forward and trying to hold her sister back. However, there was very little she could do, as the Nightmare suddenly burst through the window and hovered before it.
“This time, I won’t make the same mistake of battleing you again! This time, I shall throw you into misery and conquer Equestria and nopony will stop me!” She shouted and then zoomed off into the distance while laughing madly.
“Noo! Luna, wait! I know you’re still in there! Please! Please hear me!” Celestia shouted, but Nightmare Moon was long out of earshot.
“This is all your fault, you know?” the voice from within her spoke up again. “I could’ve dealt with her, but you didn’t want to unleash my powers.”
“No, I could never set you free! I will never set you free! I –Hnngg!” Celestia suddenly started convulsing on the ground. Her entire body felt like something was terribly wrong, as if there was something foreign writhing in her intestines and eating through her innards.
“Oh, my dear Celestia, you seem to gravely misunderstand your situation… You know, I’m really grateful for that gift that Nightmare made me. You are too weak to fight back. Stop it. It’ll only be more painful that way.”
“No, I will never- AAAAAH!” Celestia screamed in pain, as the transformation began. She felt how her own consciousness faded more and more into the background, as if she was pushed into the back seat by another consciousness, which had been living inside of her for a long time now.
“Aaaah, finally I can actually feel the air passing through my lungs. It really is very uncomfortable to be breathing without feeling it, as you should be experiencing right about now.” Daybreaker chuckled, before looking to her flowing mane, which was now gradually changing from a multicolour pattern into a hissing flame, although only very slowly.
“Sadly, it seems like my transformation doesn’t kick off as quickly as hers did. Though, I suppose that is harldy surprising, given that she had a virtual ton of Energy to feed off, while I have to make do with the bare minimum.” Daybreaker mumbled to herself. “Still, I am quite thankful for that little energy boost she gave me… although for once we agree on one thing: I cannot allow her to conquer Equestria. I am the one who will rule this land and therefore, Nightmare Moon will have to perish.”
Suddenly, a vortex of black smoke formed in front of Daybreaker and before she could make any further move, two Ponies appeared from it. Although one seemed to be stumbling more than actually walking.
Twilight still wasn’t used to Markus’ method of transport yet, but that didn’t matter now as she really only had one thing in mind:
“Princess Celestia, are you—WHOA!” She exclaimed, as she saw Princess Celestia stand before her, though with a few strange discolourations, which seemed to be slowly growing.
“P-Princess? Are you… Are you alright?” Twilight asked tentatively.
“Ah, you must be Twilight Sparkle. Yes, thank you, I am indeed feeling rather well now, although I am not Princess Celestia anymore.” Daybreaker chuckled, causing Twilight to jump a few feet back and adop a defensive stance.
“What did you do to the Princess, you monster?!” She spat.
“Me? Oh, I did barely anything, I assure you and my name is not ‘Monster’. You may call me Daybreaker, If you’d like.”
“I don’t care what your name is! Give Princess Celestia her body back or I will personally rip you to shreds!” Twilight shouted, either not noticing or ignoring that the transformation had now completed and every last trace of Clestia’s former appearance were now gone.
“Twilight, I strongly suggest you tone down a bit. This whole situation gives me a bad feeling and I fully trust my gut.” Markus cautioned from behind Twilight, while keeping his eyes fixed on Daybreaker.
“Tone it down?! This monster has done who knows what to the princess and you tell me to tone it down?! That’s it, I’m going to fight this beast right here and now. Prepare yourself, daemon! I won’t even leave a trace of you when I’m done!” Twilight roared, before charging horn-first towards Daybreaker.
However, Daybreaker seemed very well prepared, as she moved to intercept. Markus was luckily prepared and immediately stepped in and teleported Twilight and himself away, just before Daybreaker unleashed a pre-charged spell that ripped away the part of the Hallway where Twilight and Markus were standing in, as well as half of mount Canterhorn.
They both reappeared on the balcony of Twilight’s Castle, where Twilight immediately went into a tantrum.
“Markus, why did you do this?! I was about to hit her! Why did you teleport us away?!”
“Because of that.” Markus said simply and pointed to Mount Canterhorn in the distance. Twilight looked over and gaped in shock, as she saw a giant, fiery red beam impact the mountain and just melt the top half of it.
“B-But… But…” She stammered, tears collecting in her eyes. “But what now? Princess Luna is Nightmare Moon again and Princess Celestia seems to be corrupted as well…” She sniffled.
“I don’t know. I only know that panicking now doesn’t help in any way. We must stay calm and try to find a way to defeat both of them. We have enough assets here to work with. We have the Everfree, we have Ponyville and we have the Shadow Guard. Don’t worry, Twilight, we will save the princesses.” Markus stated.
Twilight looked up at Markus hopefully and smiled at him through tear-filled eyes. “You know… when you are telling me this, I might just believe it.” She said, before rearing up and giving him a short peck on the lips. “You know, today was really a big mess. I think I’m going to turn in early today.” Twilight said.
“Do that. I think I’m going to stay outside a while longer and wait fro Rainbow to come back.” Markus said.
“Alright, but please don’t stay up too long. I’m sure you’re at least as tired as I am. Good night!” Twilight said, before vanishing into the Castle.
‘Yeah, well I should probably tell her that I don’t need sleep anymore… but first, I’ll have to figure out, how to deal with this mess.’ Markus thought, while he leaned onto the railing and looked to the melted mount Canterhorn. He knew that things were very soon going to become far more complicated than they are now and he knew that he had to take every possible step to prepare for the incoming Hellstorm…
And so, the Equestrian Civil War began.
Before anyone else points it out: The pacing on this chapter feels a bit rushed. That is because it is actually far easier to read than it was to write, which caused my sense of pace to suggest me that the chapter was actually way longer than it came out to be.
Still, I hope it was enjoyable and I see you on the next one. 
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10921627
It may seem like I am opening a new arc, but we're actually far closer to the end than you might think
they just don't know when to quit... at least now they are definitely gone
So is it going to be a three way civil war? HYPE!!
I'm gonna go ahead and say it... The dialog in this one is really bad/cringe given the situation/mood your trying to convey, it feels like they just brushed off the whole situation that happened not 2 seconds ago given how dire two beings capable of controlling celestial objects just fell to corruption.
Also, and I'm guessing English isn't your native language? (which is fine), but just a bit of writing advice your use of the word 'This' is more often better substituted with 'That'
exp; "You know… when you are telling me 'this', I might just believe it."
In the context it would be better written as exp; "You know.. when you tell me 'that', I might just believe it." or if it was more than just Twilight there talking with Markus it would be
exp;"You know.. when you tell 'us' 'that', 'I' might just believe it."
And in the plural context 'I' could be substituted out with 'We' if the one speaking is directly referring to the group.
just something I've noticed throughout your story's dialog, makes it a little hard to read sometimes having improper wording, but we learn as we go so keep on writing friend
10921767
Uhhhhh... I really don't want to disappoint you, but there isn't really goig to be as much in terms of warfare - at least on Markus's part - as you might want to see
10921803
Thanks. Like I mentioned in the notes, the pacing among other things is way off, simply due to the time it took to write this chapter. Between the 'Battle' in the castle and the scene on the balcony stood a whole day, which of course made it feel much longer to me than it actually was.
I know, not an excuse for bad writing, but just so you know how this happened.
10921808
Its okay, just because there is going to be a civik war has ne hype
I hope he meets with the 100 cultists that killed themselves in the afterlife so he can tell them how much they fucked up before delivering judgment on their spirits.