In the Shadow of the Moon

by DefiantPosition

The Grand Eclipse

Inside the Rainbow Delight, Celestia was having a small break together with Minuette, Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine. They were drinking tea and eating cake while Minuette was telling a joke.

"A new arrival to a prison camp is asked: What were you given 10 years for? For nothing! the new arrival answers. Don't lie to us here! Everypony knows for nothing is 3 years."

The three unicorns broke out in laughter but the former princess remained quit. Is the situation really that bad, is my sister really arresting ponies for the flimsiest of reasons? She wondered before Twinkleshine spoke up.

"Oh I know another one. Nightmare Moon is asked by a reporter wether or not it is true that she collects political jokes, to which Nightmare Moon replies that it is true. When the reporter asks how many she has collected, Nightmare Moon answers, three and a half camps worth."

This time even Celestia can't help but snicker. Suddenly Minuette, Lemon and Twinkleshine stopped laughing and quietly ate their cake or drank their tea like nothing had happened, but the worry on their faces was clearly visible to Celestia. When the alicorn wanted to ask what was going on, she was shushed by Lemon Hearts.

Celestia noticed that Twinkleshine was using her eyes to point at something behind her. At first the former princess didn't see what had gotten her former students so worried but then she saw it. Across the street stood a car with a batpony wearing a trench coat in it. The batpony looked at them for a while before driving off again.

"What was that?" Celestia asked.

Minuette nervously looked around to see if the coast was clear, before bending forward and whispering.
"You have to be really careful around the Night Guard, normally they don't care too much about jokes but you never know. It is better to just keep your head down when they are around."

"Yes." Lemon Hearts chimed in. "I heard that Fancy Pants had to spent a week in jail once for simply bumping into one of them while walking."

Hearing this story almost made Celestia break out in tears, hearing the suffering that her fellow ponies had to go through and the realisation that it was undoubtedly worse than what her friends were telling her. It horrified her. But she also knew that crying wouldn't help their situation, her ponies needed hope and laughter, it was why these dark jokes existed. It is better to cope with the situation with a laugh than with a cry.

Celestia was brought back to reality when the bell of her bakery rang. Three earthpony mares, one with a pale yellow coat and red mane walked, one with a light pink coat and green mane and one with a darker pink coat and yellow mane walked inside carrying several boxes of flowerpots with beautiful flowers in almost every colour imaginable in them.

The former princess easily grabbed all the flowerpots with her magic and distributed them across the room.

"Thank you soo much for bringing these all the way from Ponyville, it adds some much needed colour to my bakery." She levitates a bag of bits and a cardboard box over to the three ponies. "I also baked you this cake free of charge."

The dark pink earthpony whose name Celestia faintly remembered being Lily grabbed the box and opened it, inside was a lovely chocolate cream pie with three cookies on top representing the three flower ponies. Lily couldn't help but smile at the sight of gesture from her former princess.

"It is no problem your highne- I mean Celestia." Lily said while nervously looking around to see if anyone heard her mistake. "Ponyville isn't what it used to be so we don't mind far away deliveries as much as we used to."

Celestia saw the sadness in Lily's eyes when she mentioned Ponyville, so the alicorn decided that this was her chance to spread a little bit of kindness and hope herself.

"You must be exhausted from your long journey, please join me and my friends for a nice cup of tea while you rest." She said with a smile while pointing at the table where Minuette, Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine were sitting.

The flower ponies decided that they didn't want to return to Ponyville just yet and joined Celestia and her friends. Soon afterwards the sound of jokes and laughter filled the room. They went on for hours, sharing jokes and stories and generally having a good time. And of course eating lot's and lot's of cake, or at least Celestia was.

They were having such a good time that they didn't notice that a new guest had entered until the light yellow coated mare called Rose turned completely white like she had seen a ghost. Quick as a flash she dropped on the floor and bowed down, loudly and dramatically exclaiming.

"Long live Nightmare Moon the eternal ruler of the Lunar Empire!"

Suddenly all the laughing stopped and the rest of the ponies present also dropped down, yelling similar exclamations. Celestia who was completely surprised by this turn of events could only slowly turn around in shock. Why would my sister visit me here? She thought to herself. But to her own surprise there her sister was, standing happily in the entrance of her little bakery with a smile similar to that of a filly who had just walked into a sweetshop.

The former princess was very nervous, scared in fact about her sisters sudden, however a thousand years as a ruler also taught her how to control her emotions and she wasn't going to be intimidated by her sister's dark alter ego. She looked to her friends who had all decided to hide behind her and with a serene smile on her face began to calmly speak to them.

"I hate to interrupt our nice get-together, however it seems that my sister wants to discuss something with me and considering that she came all this way to see me, I would hate to make her wait. So how about you all come back another time so we can continue our talk?"

The other ponies didn't need to think twice about this and they quickly said their goodbyes and left, not daring to look Nightmare Moon in the eye as they almost ran past her. After they left, Celestia decided that that the best course of action would be to do nothing and see what her sister wanted. So she simply walked to a nearby table and took a seat while gesturing Nightmare Moon to do the same.

Nightmare Moon happily hopped over and took a seat opposite to her sister. Using her magic she grabbed a cup of tea and several pies from behind the counter and floated them over to her, taking bites out of all of them. Celestia's eyes twitched, seeing her sister float several half eaten pies back behind the counter. But she remained calm, guessing that her sister is doing this to annoy her, the best way to answer would be to remain calm.

"I am guessing you are not here to eat all of my pies?"

"Why do you always think about me in such a negative way, maybe I am here to see how my dear sister is holding on during these hard times. How are you doing by the way?"

"As you can see my little business is doing nicely, I get to do something that I love and I get to see others being happy."

Nightmare Moon's voice suddenly became very bitter.

"I have most certainly noticed that. So now that I know that my dear sister is holding on, let me get to the reason of my visit. I know what you have been up to these last days!" She said while pointing a hoof accusingly at Celestia.

"What are you talking about I have just been running my business like an ordinary pony, just like we agreed to."

"Oh really! and stealing the spotlight and undermining my rule is just a bonus, is that it?"

The queen was getting increasingly angrier and Celestia didn't like it. This was the same kind of reasoning that caused Luna to turn into Nightmare Moon the first time, the feeling that nopony cared about her and that she was stealing the spotlight from her. Nightmare Moon continued her rant.

"I released you from your prison and what do you do? You go prancing around Canterlot like you own the place. Everypony here talks about you and how great you are or how you are so kind. It is disgusting, seeing everypony drool over you while nopony talks about all the things that I have done. I have build stronger country than you ever could and I did it on my own, only Rarity helped me, yet I have not heard a single pony thank me for that. Those ungrate-"

"Maybe instead only caring about power you should spend more time just being nice." Celestia muttered under her breath, but apparently Nightmare Moon had heard it because she was instantly in her face, seething with rage. However she quickly sat back down again and put on that filly like smile again that she had before.

"To help teach you a little lesson about treating your superiors with respect, I will take something away from you every time you try to take something away from me."

If Celestia had to choose she preferred the angry and scowling Nightmare Moon to this happy one.

"By the way Twilight and the other elements send their regards."

The white Alicorn's eyes snapped open. Did her sister manage to capture the remaining Elements of Harmony. Twilight was like a daughter to her and if the elements were captured than there was a good chance that Cadance and her family had also been captured. What would Nightmare Moon do to them, if she was serious about taking something away from her then harming her loved ones would be a good start. Considering the stories she had been hearing, Nightmare Moon would certainly be willing and capable to do so.

"Please don't hurt them, your problem is with me! If you want to hurt me than hurt me but please don't punish others for what I have done!" The former princess pleaded.

The black alicorn meanwhile was taking a considerable amount of pleasure in watching her dear and loving sister squirm. She could see tears form in her eyes and slowly slide down, ruining her make up. Normally Celestia was to most calm and composed pony but now she was reduced to a scared and panicked mess, and Nightmare Moon was enjoying every second of it. She knew her sister well and if Celestia had one weak spot it was that she loved her ponies like a mother. But unfortunately all good thing must come to an end and Nightmare Moon was forced to end her sister's suffering.

"Why would I harm them if they willingly joined me? Yes dear sister your precious student chose me, the elements chose me and I didn't even have to force them. Do you know why? Because I am better than you, where you are weak and indecisive I am strong and willing to make the tough decisions. The element wielders know that Equestria needs a strong leader, Equestria needs me. So with their help I am going to destroy everything you have build I will remove your legacy until nothing but a distant memory remains. You will remain here and watch me and the ones that you called friends replace your weak Equestria with my strong and powerful Lunar Empire."

The former princess was stunned. Had the elements really that easily sided with her sister, was she really that bad of a leader, sure she had made mistakes like when the changelings attacked Canterlot or when Tirek tried to takeover Equestria. But she had always told herself that violence was never the answer and that if she had build Equestria on a foundation of blood it would only lead to more violence down the line. Was she wrong? Was violence the answer after all? NO! she told herself, although she wasn't entirely convinced, because it are always the innocent that are hurt. Maybe if her sister realised that, she would stop this madness.

"You don't need to do this sist-" Celestia tried to interrupt.

"Oh yes I do, you have always outshined me, no longer me and my empire shall rise in front of yours like an eclipse and it shall be your turn to rot in the shadows!"

Not even waiting for a reply, Nightmare Moon walked out of the bakery leaving a stunned Celestia behind.

"Please sister don't do anything you will regret."

Author's Note:

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter.

Have any of you ever been in a situation where you really looked forward to writing a certain moment but when you got there you had no idea what to do with it? Because that is a little bit how I am feeling right now. I was really looking forward to writing this chapter but during the writing I realised that I had already covered most of this in previous chapters.

The jokes in the beginning are based of soviet political jokes.

Comments

[WhitewolfStormrunner]

I wonder if Ol' Idiot Moon has ever heard the Scripture from Proverbs 16:18: "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall"?
Because methinks she's going to get a nasty surprise before this is all over.
Her and Rarity both.

I'm hoping so, anyway.

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapter!

Are Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, and Fluttershy going to see Celestia working at her bakery?

Is Cadence and Shing Armor going to be assisting Rarity while she’s governing The Crystal Empire? What will become of Flurry Heart?

[DefiantPosition]

10463581
That is a very nice quote and it does fit in with Nightmare's personality. I always envisioned Nightmare Moon as being emotionally very twisted because Nightmare Moon is created from Luna's bad emotions, so I always try to portray Nightmare Moon as mentally unstable.

[WhitewolfStormrunner]

10463649 Yes, it is, and yes, it definitely does.
And that's good to know.

[DefiantPosition]

10463610
They are going to meet at some point. As for the other question they will not be major characters, so I might write some small scenes with them but nothing to big (at least how I envision it at the moment)

[shining paladin]

awesome chapter cant wait for the next chapter

[DefiantPosition]

10464000
Thanks I am very glad you keep enjoying this so far

[PonyDragon]

Celestia who was completely surprised by this turn of events could only slowly turn around in shock. Why would my sister visit me here? She thought to herself. But to her own surprise there her sister was, standing happily in the entrance of her little bakery with a smile similar to that of a filly who had just walked into a sweetshop.

: "This will either be very good or very bad..."

Everypony here talks about you and how great you are or how you are so kind. It is disgusting, seeing everypony drool over you while nopony talks about all the things that I have done.

: "Actually, we were talking about you a few times. Unfortunately I can't repeat what exactly had been said because I don't want anyone to become arrested."

The black alicorn meanwhile was taking a considerable amount of pleasure in watching her dear and loving sister squirm. She could see tears form in her eyes and slowly slide down, ruining her make up. Normally Celestia was to most calm and composed pony but now she was reduced to a scared and panicked mess, and Nightmare Moon was enjoying every second of it.

Nightmare Moon: "I really should have taken a camera with me."

"Oh yes I do, you have always outshined me, no longer me and my empire shall rise in front of yours like an eclipse and it shall be your turn to rot in the shadows!"

Nightmare Moon: "I'm going to build my own Equestria! With Blackjack and Hay!"