Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Vector to the Heavens

Nightmare Moon's claw-clad hooves slammed against the pole of Luna's halberd, while magic poured from both alicorns' horns in two beams each struggling against the other. They both remained like that for moments, but the longer their struggle stretched on the more apparent it became how Nightmare Moon would come out on top if things continued.

Luna grimaced as she tried to push the other back. She was willing to get reckless with her attacks for the sake of landing actual damage, but she couldn't do so while forced into a clash of that kind. Though she'd managed to inflict a few wounds on Nightmare Moon, all of which had seemingly sealed themselves already, she wished to do more before her inevitable defeat. But while locked into a struggle of that kind she didn't have many options.

She could not simply distance herself from it, not without having Nightmare Moon's assault crash into her. But she couldn't wait it out, not when she was on the clearly losing end of things and the end result would not have been much different than her trying to run away. Her only true option to survive the clash and get another chance at hitting Nightmare Moon was somehow being the winner of their clash. But she was outperformed both magically and physically. Her only hope was to find a way to cheat, and do so quickly.

It wasn't a safe thing to do. Provided she succeeded, anything she might do Nightmare Moon would return in spades. She'd be making it fair game for their duel, and Nightmare Moon would not hesitate to abuse it. That meant whatever she chose to do needed to be good, because she'd only get the time it would buy her to hurt Nightmare Moon as much as possible before it was returned to her. She could have tried to go light on it and hope the retaliation was manageable, but she would have rather gone all in with it.

As her forelegs gave in a little more under the push of Nightmare Moon's claws, as sweat ran down her neck and her head hurt from keeping up a beam of magic that intense meeting its equal so close to her face, she began to divert a small portion of her magic elsewhere. Just the right amount, just enough for her to do what she needed to do quickly enough without taking so much of it she wouldn't be able to resist for long enough. It was a delicate balancing act, but she had the control and familiarity with her own magic necessary to pull it off.

She banked on the way Nightmare Moon was so focused on her, and on the way the clash of their magic beams shone so bright and loud so close to their heads, to ensure the alicorn's attention would not catch what she was attempting to do. A small portal, not unlike the one her halberd had manifested from, began to appear beneath Nightmare Moon's belly, slowly widening and shining a little brighter. A sword's tip emerged from it, pointing towards the alicorn's flesh. Then, after a moment longer of Luna barely holding back against her enemy, it shot upwards into Nightmare Moon's body.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Going by when this scene ends, I assume the stab didn’t work.