One Last Night
The sun was being lowered, and it was once again time for my evening duty of raising the glorious moon, a symbol of my power and deity. Despite my love for my sister, I felt a fire in me that withered when the sun was lifted, yet engulfed my heart when I hoisted the lunar mass above her precious element. I felt my superiority, in a cosmic way, when I saw the light disappear. It was my time. Night time. The way the earth illuminates under the pale light brings a soothing sensation to the mind. It calms the soul. The energy that the day brings fuels hatred, spite, and the energy to do wrong. The ponies love it. They bask in her light. All of these thoughts are what once transformed me into a creature of unfathomable power: Nightmare Moon. I feel the regret and sorrow that period brought me every night. I sit alone and stare out at the stars, occasionally whisking them across the astral plane, or forming figures in the void with them to appease my imagination, suppressing the depressing thoughts that linger in me. Yes, I did wrong. I know my actions were wrong. But was I wrong? Does my sister truly deserve her role? Clearly, one pony is capable of both responsibilities, the sun and moon, because she did it. I could as well if I were presented the opportunity. Or what if there was no day and night? All would be well even still. Perhaps she was in the wrong. Perhaps taking the glory for herself and leaving me to solitude each night was wrong. Maybe she's afraid of me. Maybe she knows what I can do, but hides behind her veil of pride and praise. Perhaps something should be done to break her charade.
I couldn't help but feel some remorse for having such thoughts, but something felt right about it all. Something clicked. At first, all I meant to do was ask Twilight what she thought of the matter, with her being the most knowledgeable in the subject of friendship. But the fuel would not allow such civil conversation. I was brought to deception, and I utilized my engraved skill. "Twilight, I'll be straightforward with you. We both know there is an imbalance in the royalty ranks of Equestria."
"What do you mean? All four of us are princesses, what inequality could there possibly be?"
"Foolish child. Look around us. Look at the sky. What do you see? You see the moon, high above the heavens, declaring my praises. Hours ago, you saw the sun shining life into every creature. My sister and I are clearly not on your tier. What are you the keeper of? A castle? A map? Such petty interests."
"Excuse me? Why are you here, just to insult me? I'm doing everything I can, and I'm still new to this! Who do you think you are to just-"
"Quiet, foal! I haven't come JUST to degrade you, as you say. Obviously some part of you KNOWS what I've said is true. Of course, if what I've said is true, then surely you see the imbalance in the leadership roles we possess."
"What are you saying, Luna? We all have different roles, but that doesn't make us less important! It was this jealousy that spawned-"
"Nightmare Moon. I am aware. But you see, Twilight, this simply isn't the same. This isn't just about me. This now involves you. My sister bestowed you with a wonderful coronation, and what for? Equestria has existed for a very long time, and has done so withOUT a Princess of Friendship. Do you think Celestia gave you this role because the world NEEDS it? Or perhaps it was for her own gratification, knowing that she is above yet another head of royalty."
"Luna, stop this. It's not true. Celestia would never do such a thing!"
"Oh? Then why is your place grounded in Ponyville, one of the least known towns in all of our land? Think back to your entrance exam. You were only brought in because of immense magic power. She thought you might overthrow her in your adult years, so she took you in to control you. You're on a leash, child. The moment she knew it was safe to set you free, she forced a position of responsibility on you to push you away. She has never cared for you. You were a pawn."
"That can't be true. There's just no way... I refuse to... to..."
"I understand it may be difficult to grasp, dear, I was once in your position. But what if I told you there was a way to change it all?"
"... What do you mean?"
"Let's say there was no goddess of the sun. One pony could, with an alicorn's magic, do the duty of raising and lowering both the sun and moon. Imagine how it would feel to be the leader of the alicorns, Twilight. Controller of the one who powers love. Ruler of her who controls the day and night. Ruler of ALL of Equestria."
"You want to control everything, don't you?"
"Oh, no, Twilight. I quite enjoy my solitary evenings beneath the stars. I was thinking... you could fill the role."
I felt her freeze with my statement. I could see, in her eyes, all of the scenarios playing out. I first felt her terror. Then her confidence. And of course, not too far behind, was the spark. A different kind of spark. She finally saw clearly what I had told her. She was most certainly imagining her potential power. It could all be as she once had. Only better. I then felt what I had come for all along: I felt her disdain for my sister. She felt a thousand years of imprisonment in an instant. I knew I had her in my control. There was no turning back.
"What did you have in mind?" she growled. Her knees were slightly bent, and her internal rage was quite evident. Now was a better time than any to put my plans into motion.
"Oh, Twilight. There is no need for preparation. With Cadance so far away, it will be two ponies against one. We will take her from the throne with force. We will request that all others leave us to speak with Celestia privately, and from there... we will destroy her."
I turned to the doorway to make my leave with my recruit, but heard no hoofsteps behind me. I had expected this. It was only a verification to me that my assumptions were correct. She was configuring her silent plot to kill me when we were finished. I allowed her to think for just a moment longer before stamping my hoof on the floor, and she quickly came back to reality and began trotting along with a devious intention written on her face.
We took flight toward Canterlot without any exchange of words, and the vibe only tightened as we flew side by side. Twilight was completely glowing with bitterness. It was almost as if she had once thought of all of this before. I had begun to question her motives. Had she gone to Celestia before I spoke with her? Had they ever spoken of this before? Was there some way that they were both somehow cooperating to gang up on me? I could not be sure, but everything had gone as planned up to this point, and even if it were true, I would be a dead pony anyway, as I had exposed my (mostly) true desires to Twilight. All that was left to do is trust in her for just a moment and claim my rightful place as the one true princess. Equestria's ONLY princess. Princess Luna: Goddess.
As we approached the castle, Twilight seemed on edge. There is no purpose in trying to reason with a broken mind, so I left her to her nerves. I felt the familiar motions of scaling the staircase, but this time with a different importance. I would never again walk into the throne room to my sister on her perch. This would be the last time. The rest of eternity would be mine to conform to any destination I choose. I felt my adrenaline leaking and my eyes opened wide for a moment from the initial shock. I had felt it all before. Would all of this cause me to transform into Nightmare Moon once again? I wasn't sure. But there was one way to find out. We had now come to the door leading to the chambers. I must admit, that even I had begun to feel a tad nervous. But this was no place for feelings. I motioned for Twilight to open the door, to which she flinched in surprise. "Go on." I assured her. I felt one last rush in my head and the door swung open.
"I want everypony to leave the castle grounds at once! I wish to see my sister in complete privacy!" I shouted in the loudest royal Canterlot voice I could muster without shaking. I could sense the threshold of my nervousness, and I didn't want to reveal myself by showing it. In a panic, the day's last delegates quickly left the room. They were probably already heading out, anyway, considering the time.
"Luna! Is everything all right?" Celestia inquired. The way she organized her sentences had always bothered me, putting them in a way that set her at the solution to all of life's woes.
"I haven't had a moment of peace with you in some time, sister." I barked at her. With the other ponies gone, I had no further reason to hold back. I saw her eyes fill with recognizable despair and her mouth opened slightly. She quickly swung her head to look at my accomplice.
"Twilight!" she gasped, looking at the sorry expression on the purple pony.
I quickly interjected to prevent meaningful words. "I believe young Twilight here has something she would like to tell you." I peeked over to see tears in Twilight's eyes. She knew now that she could not retract her decision, yet she still retained hope that words could resolve our conflict. Of course, the foolish friend-making pony she is, it was instinct for her.
"Princess Celestia... You lied to me, didn't you? You were afraid of me all this time, weren't you?"
"Twilight, what are you talking-"
"Spare me your words! I should have known not to trust a selfish pony like you. I'm disappointed that I didn't see it sooner. You've made a fool out of me. A tool out of me." She stopped on a stammer in her words, and she slammed back her tears like a pint of cider. I watched as her pupils inflated, and her muscles tightened in preparation for war. "You're going to regret it all!"
In a violet streak, she lunged toward my weak-minded sibling. I knew she would not fight back. She, too, was a foolish friend-making pony. Celestia leapt from her seat as a plume of energy tore it to shreds, tossing slivers of crystal all about the room. Twilight tucked her wings back and rebounded from the wall, hurdling toward her teacher through the blanket of dust. She pinned the sun-raiser to the ground and charged her horn, which was dripping with concentrated magic energy.
"Twilight! I will not fight you!" she screeched as her assailant's eyes glowed intensely white.
"I've heard that line before," the young princess snarled back. She tilted up her head, ready to deal the final blow, but wavered just a moment too long as a beam of light bursted from Celestia's horn, tearing through her skull. The build-up of Twilight's energy was released into entropy at the instant of her death, causing a violent array of magic and flames to scatter through the castle, singeing my mane and feathers as I tried to shield myself from the blow. I was tossed back into a pillar, landing face down onto the floor on top of a few crystal shards which I hastily pulled from my chest and legs. I rose to my hooves and ran to the western windows to check Twilight's condition. The top-right half of her head and her right wing were completely missing, the flesh totally cauterized by the heat of the blast. I took a step back out of a puddle of blood and whipped my head back to look at my sister, who was struggling to hold up her own weight. I had done it. One down, two to go.
I galloped over to Celestia's blackened body. The fur on her stomach and neck was completely gone, and her face had been painfully disfigured, yet she was still identifiable. "It's a shame that you survived. You're going to wish you were dead." The echoes of hooves stopped me, and I moved to face the door just in time to see several ponies run in beneath the fog. Before they could speak, I shot out a razor pulse from my horn and split them all in two. The end was near, and I would have no distractions. "Nopony can save you, dearest sister. Far too long now, I have sat beneath you. After my imprisonment, I thought I had changed. I believed that I was in the wrong. But no, my regrets were misplaced. Your inconsideration has been the true problem all along. However could I have missed it?" I threw a hoof down beside her head and she winced at my force. "Look in my eyes!" I grabbed her jaw with my magic and thrust her face toward mine. She looked up at me and I saw nothing but fear in her gaze. She felt no remorse for her actions. Her intention all along was to be the sole ruler of Equestria, playing this whole thing as a game under the guise of mutual authority. "I knew you were a coward. That is why you cast me away. My imprisonment was a desperate last attempt for you to maintain your throne. Well, now that your most important Element of Harmony is dead by your own hoof, how will you stop me now?" I raised her above my head and powered my magic with my wrath. I took hold of her four appendages by the ends and started to twist them in fury. At the first pop of a knee, she bellowed in torment, and my lust felt its first taste of serenity. I listen to the bones shattering over her tortured shrieks, and it all brought ecstasy to my heart. I tossed her flaccid body through the stained glass window into the eastern courtyard and flew down to watch her hit the surface. She tumbled a few yards, her limbs flailing about as she gasped for air in an attempt to scream. Her descent from the throne room took her breath away, and watching her fail to shout in agony, I confirmed my success by dragging her through the hidden cellar door. Each step she bounded, her barely living body wheezed in an effort to obtain oxygen. At the base of the staircase, I brought her into the wine closet and threw her against the back wall. Her head was bleeding quite badly, so I took a moment to heal her a little bit. "I need you alive, dear sister. My final endeavors will be much easier with your help." I fixed some poorly constructed shackles to the bricks around her liquefied ankles and watched only for a moment as she writhed, dangling from her unstructured legs. Once the moment had fully set it, I touched my horn to hers, as she was now no spiritual match for me in her dazed state. I began to extract her magic and I watched as her flowing mane began to slow down and darken. "Don't worry, I won't take all of it. By the time you have regenerated enough energy to free yourself, I will be back to leech from you again. In a matter of days I will have sapped enough magic from you that Cadance will not stand a chance against me. Soon you will know what it is like to live in the shadow of your sister's rule." I lifted her head one last time to get a good look at her new identity. She wouldn't look directly at me since she was too busy squirming at the pain in her burnt and broken body. She was too weak to scream anymore, and simply whimpered to my delight. I let her hang and I walked back to the base of the staircase, slamming the closet door on my way out. Some time in the dark would give her time to reflect on her poor choices.
Here in the present day, I've become the ruler of slaves. With Cadance out of the way (which was a breeze with my magical helper) I am free to control anything, anywhere. I had initially tried to be kind to the ponies of the earth, but they resented me for the rumors they heard of Twilight and Celestia's disappearances. Though I left no living witnesses, the doubt and unanswered questions were enough to leave the ponies wondering about me and my intentions. They certainly aren't as stupid as they seem. As for the crystal ponies, I was unable to encounter Cadance in solitude, and the entire town witness her massacre. I had no choice but to begin slavery there to keep the word from getting out. It's quite the pickle I've gotten myself into, but I've finally done it, haven't I? I am the sole leader of Equestria. The most powerful being in existence. I have everything I could ever want. Even still, I find myself tying a noose. I wonder what all of the ponies will do without a princess to depend on. Without the Elements to protect them. At least I will go down in history for being the Queen at one point. Even if it was just for a short while. I came. I saw. I conquered. And I have no regrets.