Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

F1N4L3

Luna clenched her teeth as she was sent flying back through the air from the impact. Nightmare Moon was growing impatient. Even while shielding against her blows, the sheer force of them was still enough to send her sailing across the sky as she failed to maintain her position.

And the other alicorn barely left her time to react between each strike. It was no longer a duel, it was the one sided beatdown both of them knew it would eventually have become and Luna could not guess how long she'd actually be able to defend herself before being overwhelmed by her opponent.

But she'd held her for what she hoped had been long enough. With no certainty as to how much more she could last, with the possibility of every incoming blow being the last, she knew it was time to switch to the final part of her duty. She could not ensure to hold Nightmare Moon back any longer, but she could make sure she was as hurt as possible when she freed herself.

She couldn't attack her the same way she had at the start, but neither could Nightmare Moon defend as she had then. That was the whole point of the duel, or at least a huge part of it. Bringing the nature of the dream closer to reality, its abstraction reduced, so that it may be a proper contest of power and not merely a fancy way of wasting time with meaningless tricks.

But that didn't mean Luna couldn't fight back, even against a clearly stronger opponent. As she was being flung backwards one more time, she suddenly forced herself to halt in mid air. She focused on the partial shield she'd put in front of herself to withstand the previous assault, and bent and sharpened it into a point like the front of a ship. She did so in fractions of a second. Then she beat her wings and pushed towards Nightmare Moon, who was rapidly heading towards her for another attack.

Although Nightmare Moon saw her coming, their combined speed meant she was unable to dodge out of the way or otherwise react even though she tried to. Luna's magical blue shield crashed into her and shattered against her skin, and Nightmare Moon hissed as her balance was thrown off and she almost started to plummet.

The two alicorns acted on a timescale so reduced most creatures would have needed to observe a slowed down version of the events to appreciate them properly. Immediately after she'd hit Nightmare Moon, Luna was already firing a blast of energy towards her. Before that could traverse the short span between their two bodies, Nightmare Moon was reacting with her own, and the two beams clashed in the air as Nightmare Moon's body fell just enough to get out of reach of Luna's hooves, then righted itself back into flight.

Both mares let go of their spells at the same time. The residual specks of magic from their clash hadn't dissipated fully and already their horns were alight again and their next attacks coming. Nightmare Moon charged again, her hooves enveloped by long dark claws. Luna was just slightly quicker, or perhaps she predicted the other's plan. An intricately decorated silver halberd manifested at her side through a portal above her shoulder, and in doing so struck Nightmare Moon at the base of her wing before she could reach Luna.

The two were separated again. Luna holding her weapon at her side, Nightmare Moon growling as her horn shone brighter. They stared each other down for less than a moment. Then, both attacked again.