Chapter 0: Prelude

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Disclaimer – I own none of the cannon characters, settings, or locations contained herein. All ownership credit goes to Hasbro/Lauren Faust respectively.
Chapter 0: Prelude

Another day was finished in Equestria. As the sun dipped below the western horizon, the dark night sky crept from the slowly rising moon like ink diffusing through water. Once the sky was dark save for the waning moon, the stars slowly began twinkling to life with a slow pulse, not unlike that of a heartbeat. Now that the night had asserted itself, the lesser creatures of Equestria sought their roosts and warrens to rest for the night as their nocturnal cousins began to wake up. The less sentient animals across Equestria could not understand why, but recently the nights had a different feel about them, somehow more natural than could be remembered before.

In Ponyville, street lamps began to glow and ponies wandered homewards from their days activities. Several couples sat in parks and open spaces as the waking fireflies and bright stars made for a romantic setting. The farmers of the community were already to bed, in order to rise early again the next morning. Businesses and restaurants slowed down and flipped signs in their windows from ‘OPEN’ to ‘CLOSED’. As was typical in smaller communities there was little in the way of activity beyond sunset. One of the only residents still active after dark was the student of Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle. She had stayed up almost every night since the defeat of Nightmare Moon to eagerly catalogue the differences in the night sky brought forth by Princess Luna.

Manehattan began the shift from the rowdy hustle and bustle of the daytime working ponies to the rowdy hustle and bustle of the night life ponies. The casual observer would only note that the median age of the ponies in the streets seemed to drop by a fair bit. Living up to its reputation as the city that never slept meant that the shift was more or less seamless as bars and night clubs became active and most retail business shut down. Police presence increased to maintain the peace amidst the throngs of party ponies. For some reason the nights after the return of Princess Luna had been far more lively, even if many were as yet unaware of her existence. The noise and excitement from the revelry of night life would continue unabated until the next transition at sunrise, an endless cycle that was city life.

High on the mountainside capitol of Canterlot, the difference in nightly activities was sharply divided along economic lines. The common pony in search of something fun for the night had a wide variety of bars and clubs to choose from, each ranging from sedate and intimate to chaotic and crowded in nature. The nobles and elite attended small gatherings of either charities or the Canterlot classic ‘I’m so rich check out what I just bought’ parties. The royal palace itself was mostly quiet save for the patrolling of the solar guard throughout the grounds or the trudge of the odd late night worker here and there. The return of Princess Luna would prompt a more robust level of activity in the castle, but only once she was ready to hold her night court and be seen in public. As yet, very few ponies outside of Celestia, a few royal guards, and the royal physician had actually seen the reclusive night princess.

At the top of the northern tower Princess Celestia sat in her office, sorting out the remainder of the various royal petitions and law drafts that needed her attention. Not a week after the eventful night of the summer sun celebration Luna had been granted stewardship of the moon and night sky. Those politicians in the know about her return had grumbled a bit, but were swiftly silenced by Celestia's adamant refusal to withhold what was essentially Luna's birthright. As Celestia took a minute to stare out her window at the beautiful night sky her heart sang with the joy of witnessing another masterpiece created by her sister. For a thousand years she had bumbled her way through the nightly transition, constantly reminded of her sisters imprisonment with each raising of the moon, the dark visage of Luna on its surface seeming to stare down at her with nothing but accusation and hate. Recalling their tearful reunion, and the joy of once again embracing her sister, Celestia turned back to finish her paperwork with renewed energy before she retired for the night.

In the southernmost tower of the royal palace, the solar guards of the recently reinforced night shift stood silent vigil over the newly occupied 'lunar' wing of the castle. Their orders were explicit, and issued directly from the Sun Princess herself. The newly returned Princess Luna, younger sister to Celestia, was to be kept under the tightest of anti-assassination level security. Nopony dared to approach the outer doors of the wing unless they had officially approved royal business sanctioned with express permission from Celestia herself. Any others that even crossed the space in front of the doors were sent packing with a glare from four sets of eyes that promised a painful trip to the maximum security wing of the Canterlot city jail. The only time that the doors were opened to permit somepony within was for food, tea service, or the head royal librarian with specifically requested books for Princess Luna.

For several weeks since her return, Luna had only left her wing of the castle to either visit or have a meal with her sister. Each time she went out of her bed chambers or her atelier she was flanked by no less than three massive solar guards. After complaining to her sister over the stifling treatment after the second night, the guards were instructed to at least let her be in any nonpublic room alone. Luna had also taken to placing magical wards on the rooms she went into that made them soundproofed and unable to be opened from the outside without a massive amount of alicorn grade force. Though the guards had reported the development to Celestia, she dismissed their concerns by stating that her sister had always been more secretive and that her privacy should be respected. Privacy that Luna was currently both grateful for and suffering because of.

At the moment, Luna was within her atelier, as had become her habit after waking and getting prepared for the night. With the door soundproofed and sealed, none of the guards in the hall could see the current state she was in. The large, mostly empty room echoed with the cries and whimpers of pain coming from her collapsed form in the middle of the room. She had fallen to her side and could only manage to twitch her limbs occasionally. Her horn glowed like heated metal and gave off a steady stream of dark smoke that rose sinuously to the clear glass ceiling. The small pool of blood on the ground beneath her head was fed from the slow, crimson streams coming from her eyes, nose, and ears. Overall she had the appearance of a pony that had been savaged by a manticore and left for dead. With blood mixed tears streaming down her face the only thing she could be thankful for was that the moon was once again risen and her ordeal for the night was over. Had anypony seen her in this state she had no doubt the castle would have been instantly locked down in search for an assailant.

Every night since she began to raise the moon once more, the once effortless task had become increasingly difficult. At first it had given her a mere headache, which in days had become full mental and physical fatigue. Now she was experiencing pain beyond belief across her whole body, and needing to use enough force to almost cause herself a brain aneurism. She knew full well that the forces being exerted on her small frame were going to kill her after much longer. Her pride however, had thus far prevented her from asking her sister to retake the reigns of the night. Any revelation of what a debilitating impact it was having on her would send Celestia into a full blown, hyper protective, meltdown. If she had already forced this many guards around her, it was obvious that anything off kilter would send her over the edge.

After a few hours, the pain wracking her body had subsided to the point where she could haul herself into a sitting position, albeit leaned heavily against a book laden table. The bleeding had stopped and she carefully wiped her face clear of the evidence of what she had been through. Though she still felt as though she could vomit from the pain, Luna brought herself under control. Tonight was the final night she needed to finish her research. She looked across the room to the massively complex spell seal that she had created by herself, based on the collected works of magical research from the past thousand years. As she dragged herself to sit in front of a massive tome her resolve for her next set of actions was strengthened. As was typical for her long nights of research she began to mumble to herself while she shifted between reading and adding to or altering her spell seal. An outside observer would suspect she was somewhat unbalanced as she continued to chatter and argue with seemingly thin air.

When the dawn approached, Luna looked down at the completed spell seal with satisfaction. Using and understanding the mechanics of spell symbology was something only an alicorn could handle. Turning and looking at the ceiling with a grimace on her face, Luna settled herself as best she could and prepared to lower the moon. Luckily this was the easy part of caretaking the night. With her horn aglow, the moon began to duck beneath the horizon while the sky gradually grew brighter. By the time the moon was completely set, Luna was lying on the floor again, tongue hanging from her muzzle while she panted, and sweat practically dripping from her body. After taking a few minutes to make herself somewhat presentable she headed to the door. Upon opening it all of the guards snapped to attention and awaited her movement. Walking escorted, back to her bedchambers Luna went over her plan for the coming evening again in her head. Tonight had been the final night of her suffering. Regardless of the outcome of her next moves, the path of her fate would be determined come the next night.

Chapter 1: Advent

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Disclaimer – I own none of the cannon characters, settings, or locations contained herein. All ownership credit goes to Hasbro/Lauren Faust respectively.
Chapter 1: Advent

The last tip of the sun barely reached over the western mountains as most of Canterlot began shutting down at the end of its day. In the castle however it was merely a process of downshifting to the slower pace of the night operations. Freshly on shift solar guards marched out to relieve their counterparts in perfectly orchestrated movement patterns. The official business of the day throne had been halted until tomorrow. Most all non-essential castle staff was already on their way home leaving the castle largely quiet compared to the busy day.

Celestia had retired to her chambers for the evening, having her sister back meant that she could now enjoy her time after her daily royal duties for the first time since her sister’s incarceration. She smiled and gave a contented sigh as she sat reading a book her student Twilight had excitedly mentioned to her some time back. As happy as she was to enjoy this downtime, the back of her mind was restless with worry over Luna’s lack of progress meeting much less befriending any new ponies. Luna had refused most outside contact, cloistering herself up into the southern wing of the castle that she had requisitioned as her own. It had been a little over a month since Luna had returned, and yet even Celestia had not seen her more than a hoof-full of times, and even less lately. She silently resolved to get to the bottom of the problem proactively this time, she would not let her sister go into another depression and sink into bitterness again. She would not lose her sister again, especially not after she had just been restored to her.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

The sound of an armored hoof on her door drew her focus from both the book and her introspection as one of her guards sought her attention.

“Yes?” She called out, “Is something the matter?”

The door opened just enough for the armored head of one of her guards to poke through.

“Apologies for the disturbance your majesty, but Princess Luna has arrived seeking an audience with you.”

Blinking in momentary confusion at the formality of the request, she then laughed softly at how her sister still adhered to rigid tradition after all this time. She had likely marched straight up to the doors and demanded that she be announced. Counting her blessings that some things never change despite the wear of time, she closed her book and levitated it over to a table. She really would have to try to teach her sister to relax a bit, especially around the castle staff. Looking back at the guard she nodded her head.

“Of course, please send her in.” She bade the guard who nodded and disappeared as both doors began to open.

In cantered her little sister, her nose in the air, and an aura of regality about her, despite her diminutive blue frame being smaller than the guards who held the doors for her before closing them as she passed the threshold. Once the doors had closed behind her, Luna sat down just out of hoofs reach from Celestia. Sitting close like this the difference in size between the sisters was all the more clear, almost looking more like a mother and her foal rather than sisters.

“Is there something you wanted to talk about before you begin the night shift sister?” Celestia began.

“Indeed sister, we have come upon a discovery recently for which we wish to employ thy counsel and assistance with.”

“Of course, I am never too busy to help my little sister.” At this Celestia moved in to nuzzle her sister, only to have Luna lean back out of her reach, prompting a confused look on Celestia's face.

“Yes… we are glad thou hast agreed to aid us.” Luna said looking upward at her sister.

"Please follow us to our wing of the castle.” Luna then rose to her hooves and began walking back to the double doors, pausing to look back at Celestia's concerned face.

“Lulu, what is this all about?”

“Please sister, all shall be explained when we arrive at our atelier.”

A long walk in complete silence brought both alicorns to the other side of the castle that held both Luna’s quarters and her commandeered research and study areas. Luna occasionally glanced at the six royal guard stallions that had accompanied them, trailing a respectful distance behind. When they reached their destination before a heavy, iron banded wooden door, Luna turned and addressed Celestia in her formal public tone.

“Sister, what lies beyond is for our eyes only. Instruct thy guards to remain outside until we emerge once more.”

At hearing this, the guards as one looked to Celestia with immediate concern regarding the mysterious nature of the situation. Their eyes begged her to not comply and let them in with the two to ensure her safety. Celestia looked back to Luna and saw only her typical impassive public face. Sighing she gave her guards a smile and pointed to the hallway with a fore hoof.

“Please remain here and await my return.” She told them gently.

Ever professional, the guards did not balk or question, they simply moved to take positions surrounding the door. Luna nodded once and led her sister into the chamber beyond the heavy door. Unseen by the guards, as soon as the door latched shut, a previously placed spell seal within the door frame activated that both sealed and soundproofed the door. Celestia noticed but said nothing, assuring herself that Luna merely desired to discuss some sensitive personal matter without the possibility of any unwanted interruptions.

Luna's atelier was large, two stories high with an enchanted glass ceiling that opaqued in the daylight but now offered a slowly clearing view of the dusk sky. Save for a desk stacked with books, a wide mirror that nearly spanned half the length of one of the side walls and a scattering of a few sitting cushions the room was mostly empty. Drawings of advanced magical sigils took up a good portion of the remaining walls, each painstakingly crafted and surrounded by notes on their expected behavior and interactions with other sigils. Most noticeable however was the large and very complex looking magical seal that had been drawn onto a good portion of the floor. Circular in nature as most were; it was filled with concentric and at times overlapping smaller circles with various runes in ancient equestrian throughout the whole structure. As Celestia began trying to decipher the seals purpose Luna interrupted her.

“Sister, wouldst thou raise the moon?” Her face bore a pained look as if asking this had caused her physical harm. The look was not lost on Celestia as she responded.

“Luna, I thought you wanted to do that yourself. The task of raising the moon is your right, and I have no business interloping on it.”

“Yes…” Luna hesitated “”But we- I need all of mine strength to show you what I have brought you here for.”

Celestia sensed that there was something wrong with the whole setup before her. Luna would never let her raise the moon if she was able to do so herself. The large spell seal on the floor had an unknown but likely powerful effect given the size and complexity of the thing. And yet Luna sat before her with an unyielding poker face.

“Sister, can’t we just talk about whatever problems you are having? If you remember I promised on your first day back that I would be more open with you in whatever we faced.”

“And that is indeed my intent dear sister. We shall clear the air between us.”

Luna looked up into the eyes of her elder sister before walking into the magical seal on the floor. When she reached the center of the array she turned to face her sister once more before looking pointedly out of the glass ceiling to where to moon should be rising. Sighing deeply, Celestia’s horn began to glow with her typical brilliant gold aura while she bowed her head and focused on the moon just beyond the horizon. Once the waning crescent had broken over the skyline and she was sure it was on the correct path she washed the sky in purplish blue darkness and brought out a few of the brighter stars. Her task complete Celestia shut down her magic and lifted her head to see her sister giving her a sad half smile.

“Thank you Tia” Luna said as Celestia’s heart warmed with the use of her childhood nickname.

“Now sister, I shall tell you what has been ailing me of late. You cannot have failed to notice my obsession with advanced and theoretical magical theory. As well, my recent habit of sequestering myself away here in my atelier. Doubtless you have wanted to share more time with me and for that I am sorry.”

Celestia nodded and moved to sit on one of the cushions outside of the magical seal.

“I noticed mine affliction shortly after being reunited with you and returning to this castle. You were eager to return to me my heavenly duties and thus reaffirm my royal status as ward of the night. But after naught but a few nights of raising the moon and appointing the stars in the sky I began to feel drained as never before. Initially I rationalized the fatigue away as being a result of imprisonment for a thousand years."

At the mention of Luna's imprisonment, Celestia found that she could not look her sister in the eye for a moment. Shame at the result of her actions taking hold of her confidence. The lack of anger and only a passing hint of resentment in Luna's words gave Celestia hope.

"But weeks passed with no improvement in my strength. Indeed, it did seem that raising and lowering the moon and stars was getting both more difficult and more harmful a task to perform. It was then that I realized that I was no longer recovering my magical energy as I used to, no matter how much rest I had.”

Celestia bore a confused look on her face but was otherwise silent as Luna continued.

“Through much soul searching and personal inflection, I have come to understand that the very part of the alicorn soul responsible for large scale mana generation had been separated from me by the Elements of Harmony when they struck out against me. Though my power has not abandoned me entirely, for I can still sense it buried and locked deep within myself. At this point, although I indeed have the magical potential of an alicorn, I can only recover my magic like a normal unicorn. With each energy expenditure on the moon and stars, I am slowly degrading my reserves, permanently it would seem.”

The navy alicorn stopped as Celestia looked sick to her stomach with this revelation. And yet she pleads with her sister using the best of her understanding.

“Luna, the Elements would cause no such harm! They purged the corruption of Nightmare Moon from you and nothing else, they purified and restored you!”

Luna bristled at her sisters lack of understanding concerning the Elements and barked out her terse reply before she had time to think it over.

“Oh, the Elements are plenty capable of harm dear sister. I found it QUITE harmful being sealed within our own moon for a thousand years.” Luna retorted spitefully.

“I didn’t know that they-” Celestia tried to explain herself only to be cut off.

“Using the Elements was unpredictable when it was just the two of us fighting Discord. And clearly you fared no better trying to use them all on your own. Then giving them to six young fillies? Anything could have happened at that point.”

Luna noted the devastated silence from her sister. With a sigh, she released all of the anger and resentment she noticed was building within her. She knew that continuing this vein of conversation would only result in more emotionally charged arguments and accusations. That would solve nothing. She looked up at her sister once she was level headed and calm again.

“You are partially correct sister. The Elements did indeed try to purge Nightmare Moon from my being. But they could not know the exact structure and nature of what bound us together. Exactly how Nightmare Moon came to be and how we were tied as one is a secret that only I know. Therefore, while the elements succeeded, they also failed.”

“Luna, why didn’t you tell me any of this before? Did… did you not trust that I would help you?”

Luna smiled sadly as she shook her head.

“Do not worry sister, had I thought that I could not find the answer I sought, you would have been the first pony to know.”

Visibly steeling herself, Luna continued.

“Now, before I proceed to show you my findings, we must exchange an oath.”

“Why would we-”

“I give you my word that at no time shall you or anypony else be in any danger during this procedure. Nor are the effects permanent in nature. And now I require your word that no matter what you may see you will remain calm and under control. Do you accept?”

After a painfully silent period in which Celestia tried to glean any information out of Luna’s impassive face, she relented with a nod of her head.

“I trust you Luna, I give you my word that I won’t overreact no matter what.”

Nodding back to her sister Luna began to channel her magic into her horn. As she focused her horn glowed brighter while the etchings of the magic seal on the ground seemed to lift up slightly and glow with an ethereal light. As the circles and runes began to rotate within the floating seal like a giant clockwork mechanism, a point of darkness appeared above Luna’s horn. As the small point gathered the shadows of the room to itself, the orb ignited with an otherworldly black fire. After another moment of burning just above Luna, the burning black orb fell upon her brow and engulfed her body quickly.

It was a titanic struggle of will, but Celestia remained seated and did not move to intervene. Her mind raced wildly with dreadful thoughts of what Luna was experiencing. She wanted so badly to interrupt whatever it was that her sister was doing to herself with this spell. The more rational part of her mind told her that to interrupt such obviously powerful yet delicately crafted magic would not be a good idea. Though it was plain to see that her body was visibly straining with the effort of not trying to intervene in any way.

Black fire spread from Luna’s body in the middle of the magic seal and raced to the edges where it was contained by the lines of the circle. The dark fire seemed to extinguish the light around it rather than give it off. As Celestia sat rooted to her spot in equal parts morbid fascination and abject fear, the dark blaze in the middle solidified somewhat into a vaguely equine shape as the sound of heavy chains being dragged began to echo throughout the room. Six brilliant and uniquely colored heavy linked chains materialized and wound themselves around the dark mass in circle’s center. Celestia’s eyes shrunk to mere pinpricks as the creature bound in the glowing chains became more focused.

“Luna, no…” She whispered, rising to her hooves and taking a step backward.

Two deep aqua colored eyes opened, revealing draconic pupils. A thin smile appeared on the dark mare’s muzzle, revealing predatory sharpened teeth. Slowly and shakily the dark mare rose to her hooves in a cacophony of rattling chains. Celestia was now frozen mid backpedal in fear, her mind a terrified blank.

“Good evening Celestia,” Nightmare Moon crooned, “It would seem we need to talk...”

Chapter 2: Revelation

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Disclaimer – I own none of the cannon characters, settings, or locations contained herein. All ownership credit goes to Hasbro/Lauren Faust respectively.

Chapter 2: Revelation

Celestia slowly backed away from the bound and chained figure of Nightmare Moon before her. The six chains glowed brightly, each with a different hue of the rainbow and binding a different part of her body before seeming to sink back down into the active magical seal beneath her. Yet Celestia took no notice whatsoever of Nightmare’s shackled state, instead only seeing her most dreaded foe before her. The very same foe that had enslaved her sister, nearly destroyed both her and Equestria, and finally forced her to banish both Nightmare and her own sister to the moon.

“You… you MONSTER!” Celestia spat, her face twisted into an enraged snarl. She began charging her horn with arcane solar magic.

“What have you done to Luna? I will NOT allow you to take her from me again!”

“Calm down Celestia. What are you going on about?” Nightmare Moon asked as her wobbling hind legs gave out and she fell to sit on her haunches with a rattle of chains.

“Give me my sister back!” Celestia cried, continuing to build power into her horn. She flared her wings and crouched into a fighting stance.

Nightmare tilted her head to the side and sighed deeply, giving Celestia a confused and exasperated look.

“In case you failed to notice princess, you can see her right over-”

“GIVE HER BACK!” Celestia shrieked, launching her attack at the dark alicorn.

As Nightmare immediately began to struggle against the chains in wide eyed horror of the impending and unavoidable attack, time seemed to slow around them. Celestia caught movement in her peripheral vision and flicked her eyes to the perceived threat only to catch sight of the large mirror in the room. Her heart nearly stopped as she saw Luna in the mirrors reflection where Nightmare should have been, her small fore hooves beating uselessly against the other side of the mirror as she shook her head frantically.

The beam of destructive solar magic slammed into the desperately struggling Nightmare Moon, throwing her to the ground with a sharp scream. She would have probably been thrown clear through the next three walls had the chains around her not halted her progress with a horrendous metal on metal screech. All of the energy behind the initial concussive force was immediately absorbed into the glowing chains and converted to crackling, arcing electricity. The electricity coursed through Nightmare’s fallen body, causing her to spasm and seize violently. Soon the air in the chamber began to fill with the sickening smell of burning hair and seared flesh as the chains heated up. Nightmare continued to scream for several torturous moments until the energy in the chains had subsided.

Celestia galloped across the room, ignoring the shuddering and smoking form of Nightmare. She was confident that Nightmare would take a minute getting up from her attack, giving her precious time to attempt to free her sister from the mirror prison. She skidded to a halt before the mirror that contained Luna and pressed her fore hooves against the surface.

“LUNA! LUNA! Can you hear me!?” Celestia plead desperately with the mirror image of her sister.

Tears were streaming down Luna’s face as she turned and fixed Celestia with an utterly soul crushing glare. Seeing this, Celestia backed up slightly as Luna began gesticulating wildly between Celestia and the downed Nightmare while she appeared to be screaming at her sister, although no sound was produced through the mirror. Celestia was lost until she began reading the words on her sister’s muzzle as she repeated one phase over and again. After a moment it dawned on Celestia that Luna was repeating the words, ‘You swore’. Recalling her oath before the start of the spell, Celestia’s heart sank lower than she could have believed. Although they had not put any stakes on it, an oath taken by an alicorn was not to be broken, ever. Inexplicably, Luna seemed to be fine with Nightmare being out there, while the idea made Celestia's head swim.

Once Luna saw the look of comprehension take on her sister’s face she then pointed to her horn, then to Celestia, shook her head and then gestured towards the still prone Nightmare Moon. After repeating the action a few more times Celestia understood the meaning once again, she was not to attack Nightmare again. Nodding to her sister, Celestia steeled herself and turned to gaze at the dark alicorn lying on the floor. Seeing minimal movement, and none that appeared threatening in the least, she got to her hooves and began to slowly walk to the clearly injured Nightmare. Once within a dozen paces she stopped as she heard barely audible whispers coming from Nightmare’s mouth.

“L...Lu…Lu-na. Y-You saaaid she w-wouldn-n’t hurt m-m-me… ” Nightmare then began to whimper softly in clearly extreme amounts of pain.

Celestia could not help feel like she was walking straight into an elaborate trap as she approached the fallen Nightmare. Her wings flared and lighting her horn to prepare as powerful a shielding spell as she could. Any second she expected Nightmare to leap to her hooves and blast her with corrosive dark energy, or sink her horrific fangs into her neck. Memories of her last encounter with Nightmare Moon coursed through her mind at dizzying speed. The last time they had been this close to each other the situation had been reversed. Celestia had been lying on the cold floor, broken and bleeding, just before summoning the Elements and banishing Nightmare and Luna to the moon.

As Nightmare looked up she noticed Celestia approaching her, wings outstretched, horn lit, and wearing a grim face. This sight caused Nightmare to cringe and close her eyes, bracing herself as best she could for the expected follow up attack.

“N-no… Luna h-help me…” The once mighty dark mare whimpered helplessly from her prone position.

Nightmare could not even protect herself as her shackled limbs still refused any commands. After several moments of silence and no pain went by, Nightmare slowly opened one of her eyes to look up at Celestia. She had folded her wings back down and undone the magic she had been preparing, and now moved to stand apprehensively before her. The movement caused Nightmare to cringe again involuntarily but otherwise keep still and silent.

Celestia looked back to the mirror to see her sister nodding her head and then pointing at the two of them, urging her to continue this course of action. Her memories screamed at her not to get any closer to the dark mare before her, but her love for her sister fought back and made her press forward. With a titanic force of will, she stopped next to Nightmare and lowered herself onto her haunches, all limbs tensioned like springs. After another moment of hesitant silence, Celestia finally spoke to Nightmare with a clipped, but no longer enraged tone of voice.

“Nightmare Moon… I never envisioned myself saying this to you of all ponies… but I… I am sorry, for attacking you unprovoked.”

The look on Celestia’s face suggested that apologizing to Nightmare for anything left a deeply bitter taste in her mouth. For her part, Nightmare looked up at Celestia and understood that as weak as she already looked right now, sneering and haughtiness would fool no one. Being who she was, she instead opted for the blunt trauma of venting her anger.

“A-as well you s-should be witch! Did you e-even stop to consider if a-attacking me would hurt Luna as w-well?”

How Celestia managed to visibly blanch under a white coat was anyponys guess. But the weight of Nightmare’s words must have hit the right spot, for that is just what she did. Beneath her, Nightmare was beginning to regain most of her motor control. Along with her physical self control, Nightmare found her temper flaring, tamping down her pain with righteous indignation.

“I would never-“

“And yet you just did! Without a second thought to breaking the oath you had just given her! How responsible is the mighty Celestia when her word clearly means so little?”

Nightmare hissed in both pain and anger as she managed to raise her head from the floor to glare at the white alicorn. Her glistening fangs and draconic eyes gave her an intimidating aura despite her clearly debased position. Celestia sat in silence for a moment before looking at Nightmare again and none too gracefully attempted to shift the conversation from her guilty actions.

“Enough Nightmare, I said I was sorry for attacking you, you can choose to take it for what it is worth or not. Now what of my sister? Why and how did you imprison her within that mirror?”

“Imprison? After all we have been through, why would I…” Nightmare’s statement drifted off as she surveyed the scene before her and the recalled the actions that it had resulted in.

“Ah, now I get it. I suppose this does not look good from another perspective.” Celestia slowly nodded at this.

“Explain yourself Nightmare. I am willing to listen for Luna’s sake, but don’t you dare test my patience.”

“Well isn’t that a pleasant change of attitude.” Nightmare snidely muttered mostly to herself before turning her head to look at the mirror and continue what seemed to be a private dialogue with Luna.

“Yes, yes, fine, I said I would try... But she attacked me... No, but… I can’t help it if her royal fat flank has trust issues!”

Celestia raised an eyebrow at Nightmare’s monologue and decided to get her attention before she was lost completely in her own private world. She had no time for the ramblings of a mad mare.

“EH-HEM…”

With a start Nightmare snapped back into the present situation and looked at Celestia’s un-amused expression.

“Right, I guess you want to know about dear Luna. First off, she is just fine, we merely… switched places for a while. With the aid of this spell we created, and the light of the moon, she has receded within our mind while I am once again in the physical realm. The mirror that you can see her in over there? It is affected by this same spell, projecting the image of her consciousness onto it once the summoning spell activates.”

“And how does my sister come back?”

“Once the spell is ended we will switch again. She will likely be exhausted, but no worse for the wear.”

Celestia let out a sigh of relief once she looked back to the mirror and saw Luna confirming Nightmare’s words with a nod of her head. It seemed that her earlier attack had not harmed Luna after all.

“Now a question for you Celestia, what do you know of the relationship between Luna and I?”

Celestia gave Nightmare a hard look and responded without hesitation.

“I may not know exactly how you came to be, but I do know what you are responsible for. You corrupted my sister, poisoning her mind with false thoughts, turning her against me. When she was finally broken by your deceit you possessed her body and tried to disrupt the rhythm of day and night. In the end you fought against me and lost to the power of the Elements of Harmony.”

“Hmmm. A tenuous grasp of the basics at best I suppose. Very well then, allow me to enlighten you as to just what Luna and I represent to each other.”

With a strained grunt and a clatter of chains, Nightmare shifted from her side to lay down on her belly. Taking a moment to catch her breath and collect her thoughts, she stared down at her hooves. This would not be easy, and the rational side of her knew that Celestia would be hard to convince of anything. Gritting her sharpened teeth and taking a deep breath, Nightmare looked into Celestia’s eyes as she began.

“The simple way of stating it is that we are two minds in one body. Naturally our situation is a bit more complicated than that though. More properly, we are differing facets of the same mind in one body. I embody most of Luna’s strongest emotions and subconscious desires. I am her confidence and the expression of the apogee of her power.”

“How do you mean ‘differing facets’?” Celestia interjected.

“Hmmm. It is difficult to explain to one who has never experienced it. Our thoughts are shared and we can tell what the other is feeling or experiencing through our intrinsic link. We are somewhat like twins in that our opinions rarely differ, although I am more confident and impulsive in how I deal with things. Because of this, Luna listened to me when she was hurt and alone before our imprisonment.”

“And whose idea was all this?” Celestia asked, indicating the spell seal.

“It was both of ours actually, but for different reasons. Luna only wants to try to save me, and I want to see her restored to her rightful immortal glory. In Luna’s perfect scenario both events would occur.”

Celestia sat and contemplated what the strangely amicable Nightmare had been revealing to her. Could she really be so altruistic as to want the best for Luna? That didn’t fit in with what she knew of Nightmare Moon. Then again, she had only really interacted with her while in combat for about an hour or so a thousand years ago. Deciding she still needed time to decide if she trusted the dark mare, Celestia opted to prod for more information.

“Indeed. Now tell me, when did you first take residence in my sister’s mind?”

“Perhaps some background first, since I am sure you must have forgotten the fundamentals after so long. When an immortal magic user begins to realize their power, there is a common experience that they all go through without exception. I am speaking of the introspective journey into one’s own subconscious realm. It is here that they gain an understanding of the nature of their magic and the power potential that they have. For Luna the resulting effects of her actions during this journey created me.”

Waiting for the expected outburst of denial or confusion from Celestia, Nightmare paused in her explanation for a moment. Seeing Celestia carefully studying her, yet not interrupting she chose to continue.

“When Luna looked within herself she beheld the infinite darkness that was the source of her power and strength. While some see a beautiful aurora or others a village turned upside down and inside out, Luna only saw herself, alone in the darkness, with no concept of the potential it held. For a filly at that developmental level, even with her affinity for darkness, she reacted quite naturally. She panicked. In her desperation to escape the darkness she rejected it, putting up mental barriers and partitions to keep the darkness at bay. You must remember this from when she was a little filly. Did she not have a rather large setback as she should have ascended to her role?”

Celestia sat in silence as she searched her memory, and sure enough Nightmare’s words rang true. Just as Luna had reached the age of about one hundred fifty years old and she was preparing to take on the responsibilities of the night, she had seemingly shut down magically. Their father and mother had done all that they could to encourage her to embrace her power, but for the next fifty years it seemed as though the moon was beyond her grasp. Yet, one day, out of the blue seemingly, Luna had changed. She had taken hold of her power with a vengeance, and was given the reigns of the night from her father to make it her own.

“Yes, father began to wonder if she was sick.” She slowly admitted.

“When a magic user of immortal caliber denies their own essence and attempts to cut it off from themselves it does tend to have adverse effects. However for Luna, she did not cut all of her power source off, merely dividing it into both a majority and paltry remainder set. The remainder of what she had still had part of the divine spark to it and allowed her to remain immortal. Eventually as the reserve she was left with grew and developed, she in turn began to develop normally once more. The next time she peered within herself, her barriers were in place and she was not afraid.”

Nightmare paused to let Celestia absorb the information. She knew that with Celestia’s lack of trust for her, she would be mentally cross checking everything she said against her own memory of their childhood. As Nightmare waited and caught her breath, she attempted to gauge the white alicorn’s acceptance of what she was being told. It looked like she was grudgingly going along with the history lesson, perhaps miracles did occur.

“After her first contact with her essence an imprint was formed, but when she abruptly broke contact before the process completed and attempted to seal her power, what she ended up creating was more or less an egg. This egg contained most of her power and a chunk of some of her personality traits.”

“Are you saying that… you are the result of what happened to Luna as a filly? I don’t believe that for a second. You are a demon! A foreign spirit that has latched onto my sister against her will!”

“Settle yourself Celestia. How else would I know the intimate details of her life? Look to Luna if you doubt my words. She can hear you through me, so go ahead and ask away.”

Celestia rose to all fours and turned her head to look at the mirror that Luna stood within. Luna looked at her and pressed a single fore hoof to the mirrors surface and slowly nodded her head, her wings hanging limply at her sides. Celestia beheld the exhausted look in her sister’s eyes and turned back to Nightmare.

“What is wrong with her?”

“Hmmm, she is reaching her limit for the night it seems, and I tire of explaining myself to you. Step outside the circle and we will switch places again. You likely have much to discuss together anyway.”

Eager to have her sister returned and her old antagonist gone once more, Celestia needed no further encouragement to quickly trot outside the circle borders. With what looked to be a colossal effort, Nightmare rose to a sitting position with a rattle of chains. Her eyes were closed and she was gasping for breath, but she focused a small amount of power into her horn. As she did, Luna disappeared from the mirror and the seal on the floor began to slow down its rotations. With a final grunt of effort Nightmare was swallowed by the black fire that appeared around her hooves.
As Celestia watched the dark mass reduced in size, the chains around it went taut and dragged the dark form under the surface of the seal like it was a giant quick sand pit. Once the chains were gone, all of the light was suddenly stolen from the room for a moment as the seal stopped rotating. With a thoroughly anticlimactic POOF the lights slowly returned to reveal Luna where Nightmare had been not but a minute before.

Celestia galloped to her sister’s side as Luna’s shaky legs gave out in complete physical exhaustion. Scooping Luna up in her forelimbs, Celestia immediately began to nuzzle her sister furiously, attempting to ease away any pain. Luna cracked an eye half open, weakly nuzzling her sister back and spoke in barely a whispers volume.

“Sister… so tired…”

“Of course sister, I will carry you back to my room. You need to rest.”

Celestia levitated her sister onto her back only to feel Luna begin to struggle weakly before her movements slowed and her breathing pattern went slow and steady. Turning her head and angling an ear towards her sister she heard Luna murmur softly before falling into sleep.

“Noooo… Tia, iz ‘mbarass… ing…”

Smiling softly and using her wings to keep her sister comfortably positioned Celestia slowly made her way to the door. Undoing the wards on the door she stepped out into the hall and was greeted by a puzzled look from the waiting guards. The confusion in their eyes was evident as they glanced between the passed out night princess on her back and Celestia.

“Gentlecolts, please have tea sent to my chambers for my sister and I.”

Snapping into action one of the guards saluted and peeled away, marching towards the kitchen area. Celestia looked back to see her sister sleeping peacefully on her back and then began towards her own room, the remaining guards falling in behind her. As she walked on in more or less auto pilot mode, her thoughts were divided between her peacefully slumbering sister and the shackled monster she knew was somewhere within. Something had to be done, and soon, but what?

Chapter 3: Confirmation

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Disclaimer – I own none of the cannon characters, settings, or locations contained herein. All ownership credit goes to Hasbro/Lauren Faust respectively.

Chapter 3: Confirmation

An unknown amount of time later, Luna stirred in her sleep and regained consciousness with a slowly increasing pace. As she opened her eyes and extended her senses she could feel that it was late in the night, perhaps naught but a few hours until the dawn was to begin. Raising her head she took stock of her surroundings and immediately recognized that she was not in her own chambers, but her sister's. Specifically, she was tucked into her sister's large, rounded, and pure white bed. Said sister had noticed the movement from the bed and was now approaching Luna with a relieved smile on her face.

“Luna you are finally awake! I was starting to think you would sleep the whole night away. Are you feeling any better?”

“Aye Tia, we art as hale as can be expected…”

Silence reigned between the two alicorns they both regarded each other. Thoughts of the night’s events and the implications behind them were raging through the divide. In Celestia's corner were apprehension and anxiousness, that her sister was not well and Nightmare Moon was still with her. For Luna's part there was fear and fatigue, she needed her sister to trust both her and Nightmare before it was too late. When Luna saw the dam of her sister's will about to burst with the questions held within, she decided to preempt her.

“Tia, I know that thou must have many questions for me, but first and foremost thou must understand, and believe me when I tell you, that Nightmare Moon is not evil.”

Before Celestia could refute the claim, a sudden rumble emanated from the young alicorn’s stomach. With her ears splayed back and a dark red shade tinting her face, Luna smiled shyly. This prompted Celestia to smile and raise an eyebrow at her sister.

“Perhaps we can continue this after a certain young alicorn has had something to eat. Hmmm?” Celestia teased gently.

“I-Indeed sister.”

Climbing from Celestia’s bed, Luna joined her sister at a small table that had been laid out with various foodstuffs upon request. Luna hungrily loaded a plate with various fruits and pastries until a small mountain had formed before her. For her part Celestia merely selected a muffin and sipped her tea. In a matter more befitting a young colt than a cultured princess, Luna tore into her food as though she had not eaten in weeks. When the barrage of crumbs and fruit peels finally began to subside, Celestia sat levitating her half eaten muffin, completely slack jawed. After sighing and fluffing her wings in satisfaction Luna noticed her sister's staring.

“What? We were quite hungry. Besides food consumption is the most efficient method of restoring any of mine magic reserves these days…”

“Ok then. Perhaps a bit more table manners next time Lulu.” Celestia teased gently.

Both sisters lapsed into silence again. Neither was sure of how to brooch the topic they both knew weighed upon the other. Finally, Celestia broke first and came straight out with her foremost pressing concern.

“So, it is true then, what Nightmare Moon said earlier?”

“Aye sister, the Elements of Harmony seem to have performed a more thorough version of what I did by myself all those many years ago as a filly.”

“Why did she not simply get swept away from you and purified? It makes no sense why the Elements would spare a mare such as her!”

“Tia, please, you must understand. Nightmare Moon is not strictly evil, no more so than you or I. Before my imprisonment, I was bitter and saddened by the apathy that ponies displayed for my night. Nightmare felt my pain, sympathized, and advised me to take the love that I felt I deserved by force. We both made our choices, and we had a thousand years to reflect on them. Did you not forgive me for making the same bad decision?”

“Luna, that’s not fair…”

“Sister, there is something else you should know. The Elements were not quite so merciful as you make them out to be. The binds of Harmony that entrap her are slowly growing tighter and will soon drag her down unto oblivion. Should she be allowed to fall, my control over the night would fall with her… as well as my divine spark.”

“Luna, no…”

“Yes Tia, to lose Nightmare would mean I would become no different than a mortal pony. I would have the same lifespan and vulnerabilities as any of your subjects, an alicorn without the immortality or power.”

Celestia now saw clearly now that leaving Nightmare to her fate, however deserving she felt it was, could not happen. Looking at her sister, she saw the fatigue in every fiber of her being. She was fading into mortality, and the harder that she fought and searched for a way to rescue Nightmare, the faster she would succumb. Resolve strengthened in her heart, she would not lose her sister again, even if it meant saving her enemy. She would rather watch Equestria itself crumble and burn to the ground around her before she lost her sister!

“Luna, it is almost time to raise the sun, but I promise you we will get through this. We will come up with a plan of restoring your divinity. Is there anything I can do before I have to go?” Celestia said with a pleading look.

Luna looked up at her sister while thinking. After a moment her face suddenly transitioned from one of sudden inspiration to utter doubt and embarrassment. Rubbing her left foreleg with her right, she could not look at her sister directly while replying.

“Well there is one thing… but I know thou shalt not like it. May I appropriate some of thy magical reserve? I have not dared to attempt it for fear thy guards and servants would begin to fear me… even more…”

Celestia steeled herself for the worst and would not let her resolve to help waver.

“Lulu, I will do whatever I can to help you, no matter what.”

“Thank thee sister.” Luna said with a genuine smile.

Luna stood before her sister and motioned for her to bring herself down to the smaller princess’ level. Luna craned her head forwards and brought her horn to rest in contact with Celestia’s about halfway up each. Celestia blushed at the contact, as nopony had touched her horn in the past few centuries. Although between unicorn family members it was more an expression of familial bond and love than anything intimate.

“Now be still a moment, this shan’t hurt… I think…”

“Dark Siphon...” Luna muttered as her horn flared up with dark energy.

Celestia felt her entire body go tingly like a limb that had fallen asleep as the aura of Luna’s power enveloped her own horn. The sensation that followed could only be described being tossed into a vat of ice water and not being able to breath. Just as she was about to lose it and cry out, Luna cut off her spell, leaving Celestia to slump over on her side. For her part Luna had closed her eyes as she licked her lips.

“Hmmm, lemony… Oh dear! Tia! Did I overdo the spell!?” Luna now had a panicked look on her face.

“I-I’ll be fine. Just give m-me a moment to make the r-room stop spinning…” Celestia moaned as her eyes spun in opposing circles.

“Art thou certain?”

“Y-yes, see? Back on my h-hooves already.”

Celestia tried to reassure her sister as she rose to her fore hooves in a sitting position. The illusion was broken somewhat as it was easy to see she had her wings pressed to the ground for stability. Luna could tell she was just trying to make her feel better about accidently draining so much of her magic.

“Now, I bet you are still tired hmmm? Why don’t you get some rest for the day. Oh, and please tell one of the guards to step inside on your way.”

“V-very well then, Tia, I bid thee good day. Ah, and before I forget, please meet me in my atelier after you retire this coming eve.”

As Luna cantered out of the room and out of sight Celestia shivered across her whole body and held a hoof to her head.

“Just as well I was thinking about a diet soon, breakfast does not seem appealing anymore.”

With a polite knock on her door a guard poked his head in.

“Your majesty, you summoned?”

“Yes. Please inform the court that I shall be running a bit late this morning.”

“Princess, are you feeling ill? Shall I send for the royal physician?”

“No no, I am fine, just a late night up doing some sisterly bonding.”

“Understood, your majesty. I shall inform the court of the delay at once.”

As the guard withdrew from the doorway, Celestia couldn’t help but feel as though it was going to be a long day. What Luna had planned for that night, she could only guess at, although Nightmare’s involvement seemed inevitable. The day had to begin before anything else would come to pass, and since the urge to vomit was now slowly subsiding, she figured she may as well get on with it.

--- Later that same day ---

Fatigue always made anypony cranky. If the fatigued pony just happened to be the alicorn Princess of the sun, then the normal beatific smile on her face was but a paper thin veneer. The last petitioner of the day just happened to be the closest pony besides Nightmare Moon in the last thousand years to making her snap. The unicorn noble simply would not stop prattling on about tax rate reductions for the richest of Canterlot.

As her patience waned, Celestia began to entertain thoughts of using the solar version of Luna’s magic siphoning spell. She needed a recharge and could not afford to fall asleep on the throne, despite being very close. There were only two things stopping her from attempting the spell on the stallion. Firstly, she was fairly certain that leaping up, glide tackling the noble-stallion, pressing their horns together, and forcefully consuming his magic in front of a busy throne room would take no less than four centuries to fade from pony memory. Secondly, she did not know of the solar magic equivalent to Luna’s siphon spell.

With a protracted mental sigh, Celestia’s mind once again entered the present situation, only to notice the stallion gearing up for another long winded diatribe into why the nobles deserved the tax break and all the good they would supposedly do with the spared income. It was then that inspiration struck her and her smile suddenly became a bit more real, and a lot more mischievous.

“And that is why, your Majesty, as I will outline through the next ten examples, the overall tax rate on those making a million bits or more must be lowered to no more than ten percent.”

“Thank you for that informative presentation, Duke Penny Pincher. But I am afraid the matter of tax rates and laws are not handled by me.”

The stallion stood somewhat dumbstruck for a moment before responding.

“Your Majesty, what pony other than you could possibly have greater wisdom or authority on this matter?”

“Not anypony greater, but certainly equal. Did you know that the tax code we use today is the same as the original design adopted back during the founding of the Equestrian government? Everypony from the richest to poorest pays the same flat rate of 15 percent. I am fairly certain that my sister said she designed the system that way so that every pony was held equally accountable according to their means.”

“Your… Sister…” The sea green pony turned a noticeable shade more pale.

“Indeed. It seems to me that matters of tax law should be taken up in the Night Court, which is held by the tax law architect, Princess Luna.”

“The Night Court? What is that?”

“I will have to ask her when she intends to start her court again, it is taking her some time to adjust to modern customs.”

“Your Majesty, surely you could just-”

“I shall inform her at the switch this evening that the nobility wishes to discuss a tax matter with her. Now if there is nothing further you wish to discuss, I believe that will conclude the business of the Day Court.”

Summoning as much bravado as he could scrape together, the Duke bowed low and turned to leave the throne room. Celestia herself felt so happy she almost did a little jig after descending the throne. If the Duke was greedy and or stubborn enough, Luna would have a grand kick off her Night Court, where she would certainly strike his ridiculous notion down with a passion! Yet if his fear took hold then his ridiculous ideas would still die!

With a radiant and genuine smile that spread to every subject she encountered, Celestia made her way to her royal apartments to attend to the paperwork that was waiting in her office. Magical fatigue would just have to be ignored for now, nothing so simple would keep her from her duties. Besides, if worse came to worse, she could simply take a direct, supercharge from the sun itself. Although seeing the sun flare up and send a pillar of fire to slam into and be absorbed by their princess would likely incite some form of panic.

Only a few hours of paperwork until dinner time and then Luna would be awake so she could see her again. She was eager to hear if her sister had any ideas on how to solve her problem with Nightmare Moon. Ideally, she could get her sister back and rid the world of Nightmare’s corruptive existence. As firmly as she wanted that scenario to pan out, a small voice in the back of her mind told her that wouldn’t be happening.

Now in her office and sitting behind her desk, Celestia marveled for perhaps the billionth time at how much could stack up over the course of a day. Not unselfishly, her thoughts drifted towards the urgency of revitalizing her sister so she could help spread the load. Sighing once more, Celestia picked up her quill pen and centering the first petition before herself she prepared to get to it. Unfortunately she never got that far. As her head hit the desk next to her dropped pen, the only sound remaining in the office was the soft sound of her snoring peacefully.

--- Concurrently on the other side of the castle ---

High in the Lunar royal apartments, the princess herself had not actually rested more than taking a short nap after she returned from her visit with Celestia. After siphoning off a large portion of magic from her sister she felt well enough to skip any meaningful sleep beyond a short nap in favor of research. And the results certainly showed throughout her atelier. Including last night’s spell seal, now two of the walls and even the ceiling were also marked out with additional and no less complicated seals. Luna herself stood to the side and traced over the diagrams with her eyes, seeking any flaws or miscalculations.

“What do you think? Will it work?”

Seems like it. I would boost the conversion rate of the step up magi-transformers in the support seals. You may have gotten a boost from Celestia, but you still can’t risk depletion.

“I know. I still feel somewhat remorseful for taking so much magic from her.”

I don’t. That expression on her face as she attempted to hold back the vomit was excellent!

“You know we need her cooperation, and thy antagonistic behavior is not helping.”

I started out nice just like I promised. She was the one that attacked me. I demand retribution for what she did to me!

“Hmmm. Very well then. I have the perfect plan for thy reparations.”

…I don’t like that you are hiding your thoughts about that.

“I promise it shall be unpleasant for her.”

…seeing as I have little choice it will have to do. Now, the augmented seal is done and we have nothing further to prepare. I insist that we get some rest so we can be at full power for this evenings coming activities.

“I am not tired Nightmare, and I am not a little filly that can be ordered around as such either!”

Really? You look like a little filly to me. All tiny and powder blue, cute as a button I say!

“I am not! Cease thy accusations immediately! I am staying awake!”

And now I hear the whining of a little filly. How did that old saying go? Ah yes, If it looks like a filly and whines like a filly, it must be a little filly!

“Hmph! I shall begin ignoring thy mindless prattle. There is work yet to be done.”

You leave me with no choice then. Either you go and get some rest before the moon needs to be raised, or I will tell Celestia that you sleep with your abacus still.

“Thou wouldst not dare…”

Try me little filly. I know we are working with a time limit, but I will not let fatigue ruin anything after how much work you have put into this. There is no point in it if you fall apart before the goal can be realized.

“…Fine. But I am not going simply because you said to.”

With a final pouting sigh, Luna turned and began to trot into the hallway towards her bedroom. Entering the darkened hallway, she saw the solar guards posted at regular intervals up to the door leading out of the area she had taken over. Pointedly ignoring the guards, she marched into her pitch dark bedchambers and began removing her regalia. Though it should not have bothered her so much, the presence of her sister’s solar guard in her hall was one of a few things that needed changing once her power was fully restored.

As she lay down and settled into her bed, Luna had visions of everything she would do once she was merged with Nightmare once again. She would start by renovating her section of the castle to properly fit the night. The solar guards that watched her every move would be replaced with her newly reformed and beloved Shadow Sentinel guards. Her Night Court would convene, and she would be given the same authority as her sister. All of her dreams were within hooves reach, all she needed to do was break the binds of Harmony. Lying on her back under her bed sheets, Luna had a nagging doubt that prevented her from fading to sleep.

“Nightmare?”

Yes Luna?

“Thou shalt never… abandon me… right?”

Sleep now Luna. We will always be together, one way or another.

In the back of her mind Nightmare watched and waited until Luna was well asleep before whispering softly in her mind.

You will have these things Luna, as is due to you by right of royalty. You will be loved and respected as you have always deserved. Though you may want us to always be together, I suspect the binds of harmony will not allow for that. Rest easy knowing that I am ready and willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to see as many of your dreams fulfilled as possible.

Chapter 4: Breakout Plan

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Disclaimer – I own none of the cannon characters, settings, or locations contained herein. All ownership credit goes to Hasbro/Lauren Faust respectively.
Chapter 4: Breakout Plan

A timid knock awoke Celestia with a start from her place face down on her desk. Bolting upright on her sitting pillow and silently berating herself for falling asleep at her desk, Celestia saw that indeed, she had not managed to clear any of the paperwork on her desk. With a petition plastered to the side of her face Celestia looked to the doorway to see one of her attendants torn between falling down laughing and begging forgiveness for waking her. As she calmly brushed to overly affectionate document off of her face, she was informed that dinner was ready whenever she was. When questioned if her sister was already up and waiting the attendant was not certain.

As nightfall approached, Celestia began the long walk to the Lunar wing of the royal castle. Luna had skipped dinner with her sister, instead ordering that her meal be sent to her atelier instead. As this was actually common practice lately, Celestia tried not to feel slighted that she had been dodged. Besides, she knew that Luna was expecting her visit anyway. Before making the final turn to Luna’s hall, Celestia stopped in front a large window to take in the setting sun and calm her nerves. Knowing that another visit with Nightmare Moon was waiting had her on edge, despite what her sister claimed about the dark mare’s intent. How could she simply buck one thousand years of hard held beliefs in the course of a few nights? With a resigned sigh, she turned away and rounded the final corner.

A pair of solar guards bowed and magically opened a large set of doors as she approached. Turning into her sisters section of the castle, Celestia was plunged into an environment far dimmer than the rest of the castle. Luna had ordered all of the windows covered in heavy, dark blue, light blocking curtains. The only illumination in this section of the castle was provided by the ornate candelabras and chandeliers hung at intervals along the main hall. The only decorations that depicted the sun were those that also depicted the moon as well. Celestia was aware that anypony that wasn’t nocturnal may find the perpetual feeling of night in this section of the castle unnerving. A small smile graced her lips as she realized that in some small way Nightmare had attained her eternal night, if only in one wing of the castle.

Arriving at the same heavy door into Luna’s atelier, the pair of guards flanking it saluted her before one used a hind hoof to rap on the door several times. Celestia pushed the door open after waiting a minute and felt the same wards from the night before activate as the door was closed behind her. She now understood the precautions her sister had taken, if anypony were to see or hear Nightmare Moon within the castle it would likely end with panicked guards and possibly rioting townsfolk. Standing at a lectern to the side of the room, Luna had her nose buried in a heavy tome, only glancing up momentarily to flash a smile at her sister.

“Good evening sister, the moon again if thou wouldst not mind.” Luna waved a hoof at her sister without looking back up.

Celestia took a moment to examine the way that the spell seal had grown and evolved to cover a fair amount of the room since last she had seen it. Now clear as to why her sister had skipped their evening meal together she had to chuckle lightly to herself. It was like looking at a mirror image of her student Twilight Sparkle. Completely focused, and unwilling to spare any attention to outside factors until she found what she sought. Celestia briefly imagined that the two would likely get along wonderfully if Luna could get over both her current predicament as well as her social awkwardness.

Luna closed her book and strode towards a section of the growing magical seal with a piece of etching chalk floating next to her. As the rhythmic sound of scraping chalk on the floor began, Celestia looked toward to deepening purple sky that the sun had now all but abandoned. Focusing her magic, she nudged the sun beneath the western horizon and turned to face the east. Focusing harder to connect with the celestial body she was not as attuned to, she leaned back on her haunches and raised her forelegs skyward. As the moon crested the horizon, darkness spread from it in a uniform wave to cover the sky, the stars twinkling mutely in the spread.

Lowering her forelegs to the ground to sit normally, Celestia looked upwards through the glass ceiling with a frown. Luna cantered up to stand next to her sister after finishing the additions to her seal.

“I never could get the night sky to look quite right… something always seems off whenever I do it.”

“Be not concerned dear sister, it appears well enough to sleep under. It needs not be special so long as it fulfills its purpose right?”

“You may be surprised Lulu. The ponies of this era are different from those that did not give a second thought to the night in eras past. There are several societies and research teams that actively study the night sky to further their understanding of it, as well as many like my student, Twilight Sparkle, who study the night sky as a relaxing past time.”

Luna simply raised an eyebrow and shook her head slowly.

“There is clearly much that I need to adapt to if the ponies of this age take such interest in the night sky. I shall have to make the effort to see the truth of thy words for myself once this mess is behind us. Now let us begin.”

“Lulu, this looks different.” Celestia observed, indicating at the expanded spell seal, “Will you be able to handle whatever this one does in your condition?”

“Worry not dear sister, I am still quite charged from the energy thou hast so generously given me this previous morn. Although, I suppose I should explain a few things about the additions to the spell before we begin.”

Nodding, Celestia sat on a cushion and prepared to listen to her sister’s research.

“The first seal thou witnessed me use yesternight was designed via the collaboration of Nightmare and I. It was designed to take hold of a consciousness without form and swap it with one’s own body for a time. In our case, Nightmare was the target and our current body was swapped for hers.”

Luna paused to make sure that her sister had no pressing concerns to interrupt her with. Seeing her neutral expression Luna decided to press on with her lecture.

“We have augmented the original diagram with our newly developed magi-transformers, which will take our input and ramp it up to a higher level with the aid of natural ambient magic in the atmosphere. The seal that thou can see on the north wall is a mirroring seal within a containment seal. It is binding the first and third seal together while suspending the output within the matrix created by the total array.”

Celestia nodded along with Luna’s explanation although it was slipping further and further from her grasp of understanding as Luna went along. High level diagramed magic was never her strong suit. Although it lacked in raw power, she tended to stick to the common pony method of magic via thought and force of will. Only alicorns could use diagram magic, as the symbols used and the energies drawn upon were only understood by them.

“The third seal is what we believe thou shall enjoy the most sister. It will allow both Nightmare and I to be present for a short while. It has the reverse function of the first seal, but instead of shifting the physical body, it takes the subverted consciousness and provides a projected image of their body along with the sound of their voice! No more soundless mirrors!”

At this point Luna was standing tall and beaming a happy smile, thoroughly satisfied with the genius of her research. Celestia merely sat and stared with a perfectly glazed over look. When lacking an immediate response of impressed praise from her sister, Luna looked at her and frowned.

“I gather thou didst not understand any of that?”

“No no no, I understood Lulu! It was very clever of you to think of something like this!” Celestia hurriedly tried to reassure her sister with very poorly disguised panic written on her face.

“…hmph! Thou hast clearly not advanced thy understanding of the ancient magic in the past thousand years.”

With her nose up in wounded pride, Luna cantered into the magical seal on the floor just like the previous night. Stepping into the center of the array, she sat on her haunches and faced her sister. After receiving a nod from Celestia, she began to channel energy into her horn and fed it slowly into the newly expanded array. The now glowing seals lifted slightly off the ground and glowed faintly, the symbols and diagrams beginning to rotate like a clockwork mechanism.

As before, the shadows in the chamber gathered to a point above Luna’s horn and ignited with dark fire. This time as the fire engulfed Luna’s body and the light continued to fade, the second and third seals began to shimmer a bit brighter. The dark mass in the center grew in size while an isolated section of the array developed a blue haze above it. Rising up from the darkness beneath the main seal the six glowing chains of Harmony stretched forth and wound tightly around Nightmare as she took form from the fire. The blue haze that had formed to the side took equine form and resolved itself into what appeared to be Luna sitting as she had been before with her eyes closed and head raised.

As Nightmare's physical body formed, Celestia took the time to notice several things that she did not in her initial panic the last time. Most obvious now were the glowing chains that bound her body, sharply in contrast to her pitch black coat. A light blue chain was wound around her midsection, binding her wings to her body. Pink and Yellow chains restrained her fore legs, while white and orange links bound her hind legs. Finally, a purple restraint looped around her neck before snaking out to a small ring around the base of her horn. Each chain met and attached to a large, golden harness settled round the base of her neck. Continuing from their attachment point around the harness, each chain sunk back down into the darkness beneath the spell seal.

Celestia also noticed that Nightmare wore no armor, revealing her sleek and toned solid black body. As the dark fire cleared Nightmare opened her teal, draconic eyes and glanced to her side to see Luna looking back at her with a grin. Nightmare smiled kindly in return and moved to stand closer to Luna. The chains binding her body went taut after only a few paces and she looked back to where they sank into the seal with a frown. As Luna closed the distance to stand beside her, Nightmare sat on her haunches to ease the burden of her shackles.

“It would appear our calculations were correct, how is the virtualization responsiveness?”

“Tis not bad, output delay is well within the expected values. And it would appear that the visual feedback and vocal output is working splendidly. How is the mental echo suppression?”

“Perfect. I can’t hear any overlap at all.”

“Huzzah! It would appear we are exactly as brilliant as we suspected!”

At the sound of a throat being cleared behind them both mares turned from their conversation to see Celestia standing by impatiently. With a scowl, Nightmare shuffled in place to turn and face the white alicorn. For her part Celestia moved into the circle to stand nearer to her sister.

"Celestia."

"Nightmare."

"Not planning to attack a bound and wounded mare again are you?"

"Don't give me a reason and I won't."

"Why you evil, self-centered-"

"ENOUGH!" Luna interjected focefully, "The both of you are making things needlessly difficult! No progress shall be made amidst thy pointless bickering."

"Luna, I said I would try to be open minded, but you can't expect me to make peace with one of my greatest enemies at the drop of a hat." Celestia defended resolutely.

"I can, you will, and we will all move on. Unless of course you don't love me enough to make the effort..."

"Luna you wouldn't..."

"Don’t you love me enough to try big sister?"

Luna sniffled a bit and looked up at Celestia with wide shimmering eyes. The power of that look sent Celestia into a tailspin. There could be no resistance against such a guilt inducing gaze, though she still felt the need to complain about it.

"Luna that is not fair!"

Nightmare sat back and listened gleefully as Celestia caved in to the overwhelming force that was Luna's guilt trip. Her wide smile a testament to how much she enjoyed seeing the almighty Celestia bent to Luna's will. Perhaps they should have employed the irresistible force of Luna’s guilt trip those thousand years ago! If there was one thing Luna knew about her sister it was where and how to hit her weak points. What Nightmare overheard next however, immediately traded her joy for pure horror.

"You shall prove thy intentions by giving Nightmare a big, friendly hug, and an apology for your first interaction. Nightmare, you shall also attempt to make amends for our actions a thousand years ago."

"You can't be serious!" both Nightmare and Celestia exclaimed in unison.

The two larger alicorns turned to face each other with a glare. Suddenly, Nightmare was giving that same fanged grin that made the instinctual side of Celestia uneasy.

"Oh Luna, you know I would give big sister Celly a hug, but these chains do restrict my movements oh so much. I can't use my wings and my fore legs only move so far, see?"

Nightmare made a show of rattling the chains binding her wings and lifting her fore hooves to show the chains shackling her two limbs close to the ground. Her wide smile betrayed her relief at having seemingly outsmarted Luna's good will plan. Her mirth was destined to fade again as Luna calmly countered her.

“Thy mobility shall not be a hindrance. Celestia is free to embrace thee, and thou to accept it.”

With a stricken look, Nightmare once again turned to look at Celestia. Both had a slightly queasy look as they prepared themselves for the inevitable. They both subconsciously knew that they had bigger concerns to address, and that this was simply a stepping stone across the river of mistrust and towards the path of cooperation. Both however, also knew that this was yet another masterfully executed tactic from Luna's sharp mind. Luna's plan being that in their shared discomfort towards this experience perhaps some bonds may yet form. With a dour look, Nightmare was the first to acquiesce.

"Well played Luna. Celestia let us get this over with and move on, there is much to do."

Nodding her head slowly, Celestia moved forward until she stood directly before Nightmare. Before closing the distance, she looked over at Luna searchingly. Luna waved a fore hoof, indicating her forward.

"For my sisters sake and nothing else. Don't try anything funny." Celestia whispered to Nightmare with a serious stare.

"Maybe on our next date princess." Nightmare flashed her sharp smile with a waggle of her eyebrows.

Finally moving forward after a hesitating step, Celestia intertwined her neck with Nightmare. All the while she made sure not to make too much contact with the chains as they seemed to give off a static electricity effect where she came in contact with them. She started a bit when she felt Nightmare lean closer and the fangs protruding from her muzzle brush her neck slightly. After holding their position for a short while, Celestia disengaged and stepped back.

"There, can you forgive me for attacking you Nightmare?"

With a painfully stretched silence, Nightmare regarded the mare before her. Looking to Luna who bore a hope filled look in her eyes, Nightmare finally sighed and bowed her head.

"Though your attack was easily one of the more painful things I have experienced in my time, I can see the sincerity in your request. I forgive you Celestia, and seek your forgiveness for the actions that resulted from my ill conceived counsel so long ago. I wish nopony harm, I only want to help Luna."

"Then that makes two of us. You have my forgiveness just as my sister has. Prove your intentions by your actions, and gain my trust." Celestia confirmed with a small smile.

Stepping back between the lunar alicorns, Celestia settled herself to begin planning for the safety of her sister. She had already formed an idea herself about how to fix the situation and was eager to present it to her sister. As the elder sister she always had a plan for everything, leading most ponies to believe her to be all knowing, a false portrayal that she was loath to relinquish for the fear it induced in those that would do her country wrong.

"Tia, let us hear your thoughts first, as you undoubtedly already have an idea."

"Indeed I do. I propose we call forth the bearers of Harmony once more and through the power of the Elements, undo what they have done. We can guide their actions with close instruction and their feelings should sway the Elements to work as we need them to."

With a proud smile, Celestia sat back and waited for the anticipated agreement from her sister. After a minute passed by an not a single word was uttered, she looked to her sister and Nightmare to see looks of blank shock.

"She must be kidding right? That was supposed to be funny right?" Nightmare deadpanned.

"Sister, I think that perhaps that is one of the worst plans I have ever heard." Luna shook her head slowly.

Now indignant at the outright rejection of her plan Celestia pressed the other two for an explanation.

"And just what is wrong with my idea? If the Elements formed this lock, then surely they should also form the key to undoing it as well." She exclaimed with an indignant huff.

"So by that logic, could it not also be said that since they formed the lock and chains they could not complete the process with another pass?" Luna rebutted her sister with a raised eyebrow.

"Seems to me like dear Celestia relies entirely too much on the Elements to solve her problems." Nightmare jabbed with a snarky smile.

"Ok then smartypants, what is your idea?"

"We have two ideas naturally. Neither of which involve nearly so much catastrophic risk." Nightmare explained with a triumphant smile.

Luna gave her sister a sympathetic look and attempted to smooth things over between Nightmare and her sister. Just because they were talking didn't mean that they couldn't develop animosity over a few carelessly placed and poorly received words. Not to mention that if she didn't step in and provide some mediation, the two would just dig their hooves in and not get anywhere.

“Be at ease sister, Nightmare does not often temper her tongue as she should, but she means no real harm. There are two options as I see it. I already know you will outright reject the first without a second thought.”

“And what would that be?”

“We shall invite our brother, Terra, to the castle, that he may lend us his strength. Between the three of us I believe that we can break the chains of Harmony without needing to reach the limits of our power.”

“Well, you guessed right. I refuse to cooperate with him, much less allow him in my castle.”

“OUR castle sister… you are clearly still being childish about that whole incident so many thousands of years ago.”

“I don't care what his reasons were, trying to make a mortal pony immortal is not something that can be taken lightly. Not to mention his radical views on the governance of nature and politics, now what is our second option?”

With a sad frown Luna realized that the broken bond between her elder sister and brother had not mended in a thousand years time. She no longer cared what he had done and had disagreed with her sister when she had cast him out of their former home in Everfree Castle. Silently she resolved to at least attempt to find him and renew their family relationship on her part once this was over.

“Very well then, the second option will be much more intensive on you and I, and has the slight chance of inciting a panic amongst the populace. That being said, the second option as I see it would be to harness both our power sources at their peak by causing a solar eclipse. Harnessing such power would allow Nightmare to channel much more strength than usual through our link, that I might be able to help you break her bonds.”

“Luna, it has been over fifteen hundred years since we last performed an eclipse together. And the last one in recorded history was when Nightmare tried to block the sun from rising. Although I can see how it would help you can Nightmare not help us herself?”

"Neigh sister, the binds of Harmony prevent her from using all but the most basic flickers of magic. Most of what she can do is to send me a slow trickle of power through our link."

"Much as I would love to help out in getting Luna restored, not even an eclipse would allow me to break out from within. What we suggest is to apply accelerated corrosion and stress on the chains while they are physically present. While it is a neat trick to be able to summon me from Luna's mind, our true objective was to make the chains binding me physical so that we could work against them."

Nightmare stood by to allow Celestia to process their plan. It was important that the two lunar alicorns stood unified in their plan, should any dissonance be detected Celestia would surely sweep in and propose anything that did not involve such dramatic actions involving her baby sister.

"What we propose sister is to use the differing polarity effects of our natural energy signatures to pass waves of alternating energy over the entire array of chains. In so doing we shall be able to wear down their magic and break them as one would any other material."

"Like bending a paper clip back and forth until it snaps then." Celestia's eyes lit up with her realization.

"Aye sister, provided this 'paper clip' thou speakest of is a metallic object." Luna questioned her sister with a tilt of her head.

"Yes Lulu, sorry for using an example you are unfamiliar with. Your plan sounds surprisingly simple for such a problem." Celestia smiled lightly.

"But the best solutions are always the most simple dear sister!" Luna exclaimed happily.

Both sisters looked over with a start as they heard a groan and a loud rattle of chains next to them. Nightmare had collapsed to her belly under the weight of her burden and was panting slightly. Luna rushed to hear side although there was not much she could do since she had no physical presence. Celestia joined her sister and attempted to make sure that Nightmare was not suffering too much.

"The hour grows late upon our plight sister. Now is the time for action, how soon dost thou think an eclipse can be arranged?"

“I will make the announcement tomorrow at court. I will give the populace two days to make arrangements, and to try to prevent any undo panic at such a rare event. In the mean time I would appreciate it if you would get some rest for yourself, if we are to do this then we will need all the strength you can muster. Nightmare, can you hold out in the meantime?”

"Do not underestimate my power Celestia. If you need two more days to make your preparations, then I will endure. These damned chains will not defeat me quite yet." Nightmare wheezed out between deep breaths.

With a concerned look, Celestia bid her sister to begin the shutdown of her spell. There was much to be done and accounted for in the following days, and everything needed to be just perfect for this all to be pulled off. Nightmare seemed genuine in her sentiments, and that was something Celestia could appreciated despite her sharp wit. Their plan, while simple, seemed like the best option available. Stubborn pride would not allow her to reach out to her brother for help, and that meant that this process would likely require all of her available power and then some. In her mind, a great mental checklist was being drawn up. After all, it had been a thousand years since she or anypony else had experienced an eclipse.

Chapter 5: Darkest Day

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Disclaimer – I own none of the cannon characters, settings, or locations contained herein. All ownership credit goes to Hasbro/Lauren Faust respectively.
Chapter 5: Darkest Day

Celestia had made the announcement of the upcoming solar eclipse the day after the decision was made on their course of action. The only changeup however, was that she had insisted that her sister join her on the throne when she made her proclamation. Luna had taken plenty of convincing to partake in perhaps the largest public appearance that she had been a part of since her return. She had resisted vehemently, stating that appearing in her current diminutive form would not be fitting for her station. After nearly two hours of reassuring her that nopony would think any less of her, and agreeing that she did not have to say anything, had Luna begrudgingly agreed. Luna had however sat so still the entire time that some ponies in attendance had wondered if she was merely a blue statue next to her sister.

Afterward, Luna had spent the two days of preparation in research and development, putting the necessary finishing touches and modifications on her spell seal. With the final additions she would be able to cast magic despite not having a physical body. Nightmare’s energy would be transferred to her will across their intrinsic link and she would direct it into her half of the decay and corruption spell that her sister would be helping her with. She had siphoned her sister’s magic once more and spent the two days without using any magic so that she would have the greatest amount possible to start with. While she did indeed feel more charged than she had at any point since her return, she was still far short of what would be necessary. Even with the power granted by the eclipse she would still be the weak link in the process.

As both the sun and moon rose into the sky that morning, ponies all across Equestria scrambled to complete their preparations for the VERY impromptu solar eclipse celebration. Party planners nationwide were on the verge of mental breakdown trying to plan for an event that had not occurred in the last thousand years. Everything had to be perfect in record breaking time, celebrating the very symbol of the royal sister’s unity and Luna's unofficial return to public view. Astronomers of all types from amateur to professional were outfitting their telescopes to view the almost unheard of celestial event. Despite the early panic the event had induced, assurances had been taken to heart that this was the utmost expression of the two sister’s unity and not a sign of impending doom.

High on the topmost peak of Mount Canterlot, the two sisters were preparing a very different event. Neither sister would be in attendance at any party, or be making any appearance in public today. The plausible explanation given was that performing a solar eclipse was such a special and private affair between the two sisters that none were allowed to join them. Even the normal attachment of royal guards was stationed at the bottom of the narrow pathway that wound up to the mountain top and had been forbidden from ascending. Currently both sisters were within the sanctuary at the peak, possibly the most private place in all of Equestria, none but the royal family was allowed within its walls.

Luna had taught her sister exactly how to transcribe the magical seal that would guide their ritual and Celestia worked diligently to ensure that everything was as it needed to be. No variables were unaccounted for in Luna’s design, the end product was as much a work of beauty and art as any painting or sculpture. After summoning the bound Nightmare Moon into the physical realm once again, they would both focus their respective celestial energies into the six locks, hopefully surpassing them in strength and shattering the errant spell of Harmony. Once freed, the continuous connection between Nightmare and Luna would act as a beacon and bring the two of them together like a magnet. If fate would have it, Celestia prayed to the higher powers that their minds would merge and her sister would no longer be fractioned.

Celestia knew full well the overwhelming power that the elements could bring to bear. That power had cast the nearly omnipotent Nightmare Moon down the first time, as well as placed her in a thousand year strong sealed prison on the moon no less. The doubt in the back of her mind berated her for not calling on her brother for additional support, fearing the elements could backlash if the sisters failed. Her pride however, would not allow it, convincing her that she could handle anything. In the confliction, Celestia simply made up her mind that she would have to go all out, unleashing the full force and fury of her power. She had decided long ago, after imprisoning her sister in the moon, that there could be nothing worse than eternal life without anypony who could relate to it with you.

As the sun and moon neared each other overhead, the sisters finished their respective parts of the seal. Celestia sat back on her haunches and closed her eyes to focus her thoughts on the imminent task. Luna spread her wings and hovered about the room, triple checking all of the runes and diagrams in the massive spell seal. She could not afford a mistake at this juncture. One misplaced rune could cause the whole array to spiral out of control and trigger a magical meltdown of colossal proportions. After all, what could be worse than losing her chance to regain immortality AND leveling half of Mount Canterlot in the same day? Everything had to be perfect.

All of Equestria waited with its breath held as the edges of the sun and moon touched. In the sanctuary atop Mount Canterlot, Celestia began to feel like her coat had static electricity running through it. As soon as she was certain that the two celestial bodies were in alignment she joined her sister as she activated the spell seal. By now, summoning Nightmare Moon from within Luna had become routine enough that she hardly batted an eye as the familiar effects of the spell took place. The lights dimmed, and the black fire spread from Luna before gathering a dozen paces before her. The glowing chains of Harmony surged forth from the dark abyss as Nightmare’s body began to take form. Unlike that last summoning where Luna had been present and vocal but intangible, the new augmentations to her spell allowed her enough of a physical presence to cast her magic. She demonstrated her ability by telekinetically picking up the piece of etching chalk next to her and flicking it across the room.

Celestia could see the defiance in Nightmare’s eyes as she attempted to stand, only to fall back to her belly under the weight of the chains binding her. There was not much time remaining for Nightmare if her struggle was any indication. Looking to Luna, there was only apprehension written on her face, as the sheer magnitude of what they were going to attempt was daunting. The chains could not be broken with a conventional, brute force magical attack. It had already been demonstrated in their first encounter that the chains would absorb and redistribute attack energy. They would have to be corroded and swept away at exactly the same time and rate to prevent the chains from absorbing and reflecting the magic. If Celestia and Luna did not channel their power at the same rate the imbalance would cause a reflection. If the two sisters could not balance themselves then they would not likely get another chance as Nightmare appeared to be out of time. There was no room for error.

As the moon moved halfway over the sun, Celestia felt her power beginning to flare. Nightmare even perked up as she felt the energy surge created by the nearly complete eclipse. Luna stood by and prepared to monitor the magical regulation arrays. Finally, with an almost painfully slow drawl the eclipse completed and the moon was positioned perfectly before the sun, the bright corona flaring out dramatically from the pitch black visage of the moon. Celestia reared up on her hind legs, wings spread wide and threw her head back as she seized both celestial bodies in her magical grasp. If there was any effort to control both the sun and moon at the same time and command them to stop in the sky, she showed no trace of it. Luna nodded her head and looked between her sister and Nightmare who still lay on the floor.

“Now sister, let us begin. Nightmare? How art thou holding up?”

Nightmare did not bother to respond to Luna’s query beyond an affirmative grunt indicating them to proceed. Through their fragile bond, Luna sensed only resolution and determination, as well as a relatively massive influx of power, like a lake being funneled through a drinking straw. Nightmare was doing her level best to ignore the crushing weight of the shackles and feed all the power that she could to Luna. Once Luna was sure that the power flow between them was stable, she directed her sister to stand before nightmare next to her.

Celestia lit her horn and let her power flow towards Nightmare, the warm and gentle but insistent pull of the sun being the signature of her power. Simultaneously, Luna lit her horn and released her magic towards Nightmare, the cool and gently comforting push of the moon intertwining with the solar power. As they increased their power output Luna kept careful watch over the regulator arrays, making sure that both sides kept even and giving instructions to back off or increase output as required. The chains began to hum and course with spiraling helixes of white and black magic as Luna and Celestia settled in sync with each other. If the interaction was causing Nightmare pain, she was masking it well with a face of immense concentration.

Once they reached the point at which Luna had predicted the chains would begin to degrade, she called out to level off power output and maintain. However, as they leveled off a low keening sound began to issue from the chains. Luna watched in horror as the power levels began to drop off sharply, causing her to cry out to her sister to increase output. It was all for naught however, as Celestia flared her magic too quickly and imbalanced the spell. When Luna tried to compensate she found no hope of matching her sister’s power and the spell began to spiral out of control.

There was no rescuing it. White fire burst from the spell seal, tearing it apart, as black fire rushed outwards from Nightmare’s position in the center. Both streams quickly engulfed the building and raced upwards to form a shifting, spherical barrier of black and white fire around the entire sanctuary. From anywhere that Mount Canterlot was visible the shifting anomaly could be seen but was assumed to be a part of the ceremony. Fearful for the safety of their rulers, the guards at the base of the sanctuary attempted to ascend and help their rulers, only to be pushed back by titanic waves of magical energy. Within the sanctuary, Celestia raised a wing in an attempt to shield her eyes from the blinding energy pouring out of the broken spell seal. There was no time to flee as Nightmare suddenly released a pained shriek and the entire world went dark. Celestia was knocked off of her hooves and rendered unconscious by a tidal wave of magical energy. Next to her the image of Luna flickered briefly before fading out completely.

What could have been hours or even days later it seemed, Celestia slowly regained her senses just as Luna was coming to. Immediately she could sense that Luna had her physical body in this place instead of the hollow image that her spell had given her before. Scanning around herself visually, she could see that they were no longer in the sanctuary. She stood in what appeared to be a large temple that she had never seen before. High walls surrounded the courtyard she stood in and six pillars extended at even intervals around the circular enclosure. The stone floor beneath them was covered in softly pulsing ancient alicornic runes. Overhead, the sun and moon were still in eclipse position, giving off a dim twilight effect to the atmosphere. Small motes of sparkling magic swirled through the air around them, like dandelion seeds on on a nonexistent breeze. The entire effect brought across a sense of truly ancient beauty, but there was also the unmistakable undercurrent of staggering amounts of power in the area.

Looking closer at the pillars around the exterior of the open air temple, Celestia could recognize some of the runes that described their purpose. They were each inscribed with a large, pulsing rune about midway up that differentiated them into the six virtues of the Elements of Harmony. Each pillar had a trail of energy extending from its peak, down around the identification rune, and finally to the floor. From there the energy ran to the center of the room where a raised platform stood. She could tell that there was something on the central altar, although she could not clearly identify it due to the dim light and obscuring glow of the energy that met there.

As Luna regained her senses, she first saw her sister looking pensively at the sky overhead. Soon however her attention was drawn to the center of the courtyard where the raised platform sat. Straining her naturally more night oriented vision she could just make out Nightmare Moon on the platform. Nightmare did not look conscious, as she was laid out on her belly with her head down, still bound and chained, although it could now be seen that the chains were anchored to the energy lines that come from the pillars. With a shout of relief, Luna began to gallop towards Nightmare with Celestia in close pursuit. As they both approached closer, neither realized that the six pillars surrounding the courtyard had begun to glow with the same colors as the energy trails that lead to Nightmare’s shackles.

Within two dozen paces of the platform, the pillars suddenly surged with power and shot forth beams of multicolored light that converged overhead, swirled together, and then descended to intercept their advance. As the light faded, a unicorn stepped forth from it, turned away from the princesses. The unicorn that stood before them was a young purple mare with a strait cut mane and tail of darker purple, offset with a pink stripe.

“Twilight Sparkle? What are you doing here my faithful student?” Celestia asked, genuinely confused.

Upon closer inspection, she could see something was off about the mare that stood before her. The general look was correct for Twilight, but there was something off kilter about the pony that Celestia could not place. Everything seemed correct until the pony turned toward them and opened their eyes. Her eyes were a blank white, with no pupils, and glowing with raw power. There was no cutie mark on her flank either. With a voice that sounded like her student, and yet multiple other ponies speaking as one, the mare spoke.

“Former bearers. Step no closer unless you wish to share the fate of the bound one.” The mare warned, taking a firm stance before them.

Chapter 6: Judgement

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Disclaimer – I own none of the cannon characters, settings, or locations contained herein. All ownership credit goes to Hasbro/Lauren Faust respectively.
Chapter 6: Judgment

Celestia was frozen in place perhaps a dozen paces before the Twilight Sparkle doppelganger. Had whatever this being was just threatened her? Looking to her side she saw an enraged Luna about to launch herself at the unicorn before them. Much to her relief though, Luna simply snorted and began to dig a fore hoof at the ground with her wings spread threateningly. What Luna said next however could not be considered diplomatic in any sense or fashion.

“Identify thyself fiend, and explain thy reason for blocking from us our objective whilst thou threaten our safety.”

“We are the spirits of Harmony, and we reserve the right to pass sentence upon those that have been submitted to our judgment.”

“Thou art responsible for Nightmare’s imprisonment?”

“We have bound her using our power, and though she resists with all her might, our binds are slowly removing her from the soul of the night bringer. The burden of her sins will be the weight that drags her unto the eternal abyss. She will never again disrupt the balance we protect.”

“What do you mean by ‘those submitted to your judgment’? To my knowledge my sister and Nightmare have already served a thousand year sentence for their transgressions. To submit them to further punishment would just be cruelty for the sake of cruelty.”

Behind the scion of Harmony, Nightmare Moon stirred as she regained consciousness. Slowly raising her head she first took note of her position on the raised altar. The chains binding her seemed to have increased in weight and she knew that she had no chance of standing any longer. Hear heart raced in fear as she realized that she almost looked like a sacrifice in her position. Before her, she noticed both Luna and Celestia standing in front of a small purple mare. Luna stood lightly on her hooves with her wings spread, clearly agitated with the purple mare and ready to attack. Even Celestia seemed ready for a fight, although she was clearly trying to be the diplomatic one as was expected.

“It would appear that the dark one has awakened.” The purple mare observed without ever turning to look at Nightmare.

“Nightmare! Art thou unharmed!?” Luna yelled frantically, straining to approach her.

“I am as well as can be expected dear Luna. I take it the spell failed?” Nightmare shakily replied.

Celestia was relieved that Nightmare had not yet been defeated, there was still a chance to restore her sister as long as Nightmare was alive. Using her calmest tone of voice she attempted to ease the anxiety she knew Nightmare must have been feeling after waking up in her circumstance.

“Indeed Nightmare. The Elements must have caught on to our plan and pulled us into wherever we are now. Please hold on a little longer, we will negotiate with this being to secure your release.”

“There will be no negotiation. You hold nothing with which you could offer for any leniency in the dark one’s judgment.” The purple mare informed, slowly shaking her head.

“Thy actions are inharmonious at best, and downright evil at worst. We have already formed the perfect plan for her peaceful coexistence with us once we free her from thy clutches!” Luna angrily snorted.

“This is nothing like the harmony that I know and teach my ponies.” Celestia added, “Love, tolerance, and forgiveness of those who seek it bring about the harmony that keeps Equestria stable.”

“Those are indeed bright markers toward the path of harmony. Perhaps if our bearers had wielded us with the very virtues that you claim to teach your subjects, we may have reached a different verdict.” The Elements looked toward the shocked Celestia.

“Enough of this farce! Thy words lead us in circular patterns of thought. I shall bring about balance within myself once I merge with Nightmare and we continue as we once were.”

“The one you call Nightmare Moon is herself an imbalance in the inner harmony of the night. To house two consciousnesses within one frame is inharmonious towards the norm and must be cured. It is our judgment that she be removed from the vessel of the night permanently.”

“Art thou condemning this mare for her own manner of birth? Something she had no control over? Twas my own cowardice that begat her existence, and she shall not be made to suffer for my weakness.” Luna growled her response, thoroughly offended.

“Please, that cannot be allowed to happen. Surely you can see that she holds within her my sister’s divinity. Without that my sister will perish as a mortal pony over the course of years.” Celestia pleaded with the pony before her.

“We never said that the dark one was the only one being punished. Is the loss of immortality not a fair penance for the imbalance she has wrought? Why should one be gifted with everlasting life after making the decision to potentially kill all life upon this planet through everlasting night?”

“You must understand, she is all that I have, we both suffered for a thousand years while she was imprisoned within the moon. We were forced into isolation as time passed around us, there is no point to immortality if you have no one that can help you bear it.”

“You speak as though you are alone day bringer. Is there not another immortal blood relative of yours upon your planet? One that you have cast from your heart and have yet to speak with to this very day? You are quick to paint yourself as a victim when you have the power to mend what is broken within your ability.”

Celestia stiffened in shock, she had no reply to the accusation. She knew in her heart of hearts that she should have mended relations with her brother long ago. Her pride and stubborn nature had not allowed her to follow the path of healing she knew she should take. While Celestia sat stunned by the remarks of the purple mare, Luna was beginning to lose her patience. She could feel the remainder of the power intended for the corruption spell within her, and although Nightmare was clearly struggling she was still feeding her power across their link. Luna began to plan her attack. She would need time to execute it, as well as the proper opening. She needed to keep the mare talking and get Celestia in on her plan.

“Thou art truly heartless if thou intend to destroy Nightmare after she has already suffered and atoned for her crimes.” Luna commented snidely.

“Our justice is blind to the ethics of your society night bringer. We merely rule according to the guidance of our wielders and what best promotes harmony in the world. When our current bearers summoned our power against you and your alter ego we cared not for any plan you may have had, but instead judged according to your potential for further harm and disruption.”

Luna had moved slowly to her sister’s side as Harmony spoke. She leaned in as if to comfortingly nuzzle her shell-shocked sister and craned her head upwards to briefly make contact between their horns. With what she prayed was a barely visible flicker of magic, Luna opened up a telepathic link to her sister. If they were to plan an attack to free Nightmare and escape their present situation then close coordination was going to be integral. Celestia started as if slapped awake when her sister’s voice cut into her mind.

Sister, rouse thyself, our action is needed if we are to free Nightmare from this mockery of justice.

Celestia stood by silently with Luna by her side. She could tell that Luna wanted her assistance in attacking the mare before them, although she could already guess that such an action would not likely work out well for them. Could Luna not feel the power radiating from the conjured form in front of them? How could they hope to defeat the very Elements of Harmony in direct combat? Even Luna and Nightmare together at full capacity were no match for them.

Luna, do not be foolish. Even together we stand no chance against the Elements. You know I am with you, but if we attack then we will both be put down with ease.

If we cannot beat them directly then perhaps deception should be our strategy. Perhaps thou might distract their attention long enough for me to approach Nightmare and see what aid I can offer?

Celestia still felt the power of the eclipse overhead supercharging her magic and strength. Perhaps if she caused enough of a scene Luna could get to Nightmare, but then what? How were they even supposed to escape from this place? She doubted very much that they could simply trot out and return home. Something told her that they were all here until the Elements were done with them and sent them back.

Luna, that might work, but what is your plan for getting out of here? Not to mention that as soon as you reach Nightmare then the Elements attention will undoubtedly be focused solely on you.

Then that is the point at which thou shall have your advantage sister. If their attention is focused on keeping me from Nightmare then you will be free to press your advantage and subdue them.

Celestia frowned, she did not like this plan. Their chances at success were infinitesimally small, and she could not help but remember the Elements previous warning about joining Nightmare in her punishment. Could it be that the Elements would really destroy both her and Luna for resisting them?

Luna what will you do if you manage to reach Nightmare? Our corruption spell takes both of us and a fair amount of time that we no longer have.

Think positive sister. I propose that we focus our power into a single precision strike. Let us break a single bind of the Elements and tip the battle unto our favor.

I thought they all had to be unmade together or they would react against their captive.

There is certainly a significant risk of that happening sister. Once the system has become imbalanced there is no predicting what will happen. That is why I suggest that we free Nightmare’s magic by shattering the inhibitor ring on her horn. If we can do that then perhaps she can wield enough power to stave off any negative after effects.

Celestia could not see any other way of altering the situation. The Elements seemed dead set on their course of action, and nothing she had said to them had waivered their dedication. Though it carried enormous risk, she had resolved soon after this whole chain of events had began to do whatever it took to restore her sister. If that whatever happened to involve pitting herself in combat against a force more ancient and powerful than herself, then so be it. She would unleash all of her fury against the closed minded spirits.

In thy own time sister, I will wait upon thy opening move before making my approach.

Looking skyward at the eclipse and closing her eyes, Celestia slowly inhaled before flaring her wings and soaking into herself the power of the heavens. When she opened her eyes to look at the scion before her, she adopted a resolute face. Wisps of raw, golden power began to stream off of her body and a brilliant orb of solar energy formed over her back and between her wings. When she finally spoke she had invoked the old Royal Canterlot Voice.

“ELEMENTS OF HARMONY. YOU HAVE FAILED TO SEE REASON, AND RESERVE NO ROOM FOR COMPASSION OR UNDRESTANDING IN YOUR ACTONS. YOU FORCE ME NOW TO BRING VIOLENCE AGAINST YOU IN ORDER TO SWAY YOUR DECISION.”

“Your power is great day bringer, but it will not be enough to force us to your will. Your arrogance will cost you dearly if you attempt to free our prisoner.” The Elements calmly stated, still not having moved at all.

Celestia widened her stance and braced herself, continuing to ramp up her overtly flashy and dramatic power display. The solar energy orb she had summoned cast a blinding light from behind her and made looking towards her difficult. She could not sense when it had happened, but she could tell that Luna had left her side. Once the Elements were firmly distracted with her sister’s artful display, Luna had used one of Nightmares favorite spells and shifted her body into a small, nimble mass of dark magic. She then melded with the shadows and let herself be swept aside by the light Celestia produced. She had drifted completely around the courtyard and was now on the approach to the altar.

Tia, on my command I want you to fire the most potent magical burst you can just above Nightmare’s position.

Understood, ready when you are.

“Are you going to attack or are you just hoping we will back down day bringer?” The Elements tilted their head in a gesture of confusion.

Rearing up on her hind legs and spreading her wings, Celestia made her move. The sphere of energy above her back spread itself until it resembled a second set of feathered wings, overlaid against her own natural wings. The solar wings pulsed before sending the shimmering, golden feathers of energy scattering above and behind her. The feathers then lanced upwards and soared in a trajectory that brought them above the purple mare’s head. A brilliant white bubble shield was erected above the altar as the Elements immediately recognized that the attack was not meant to hit them. As the feathers began streaming down towards the shield they seemed to blink out of existence just before impacting it.

“What is the meaning of this? Where is the night bringer?” the Elements questioned as they finally shifted their form to observe the altar.

Standing to Nightmare’s side was Princess Luna, a smug grin on her face as her horn glowed. Her brow was beaded with sweat as whatever spell she was holding was clearly quite taxing in her weakened condition. Yet she still managed to sound quite condescending as she revealed her plan to the Elements.

“Thou art both foolish and predictable. Mine sister has always possessed the natural ability to draw the eye of others, which allowed me to slip through your sight unnoticed. We both know that attacking thou as we are would be pointless, but the same will not be true once I free Nightmare!”

“Night bringer, do not deceive yourself into thinking you can single hoofedly free our captive. Step down from the altar immediately before we lose our patience.”

“Thou art correct, I alone cannot hope to free Nightmare. That is why I have borrowed my generous sister’s magic that she sent me. Hold thyself still Nightmare, as this shall likely hurt quite a bit.”

Luna’s horn shone with another layer of power as she gritted her teeth. A rift tore open directly above Nightmare and began flashing as the energy feathers that Celestia had launched earlier were compressed into a stream of pure white energy. Luna had hastily scribbled a magical seal on the surface of the altar and now activated it with a stomp of her right fore hoof. Celestia’s attack energy was converted into pure light, laced with her magical signature, two thirds of which was drained away and converted into dark energy bearing Luna’s signature. The conversion process was inefficient, and only output half of what she took in, but that was what she had planned on all along. Now the ring on Nightmare’s horn was being bombarded by alternating waves of perfectly balanced dark and light energy, like a focused version of their original corruption spell.

Sensing Luna’s plan, the Elements leapt into action and bounded towards the altar to stop her. With a great flap of her majestic wings, Celestia lifted off and glided over their head before slamming back into the ground before them. Flaring her wings and lowering her horn, she met the charge of the smaller unicorn head on as they locked horns. With a tremendous burst of energy, Celestia was sent flying backwards to slam into the base of the altar. The Elements were not unfazed by the collision, as they were also sent sliding backwards, though still standing on all four hooves. Recovering herself, Celestia got back on all fours and bounded forward from her impact point to see the smaller mare merely standing there.

“Your devotion to your sister is admirable indeed day bringer. Yet, we cannot allow you to alter our verdict simply because you think we are in the wrong. It seems that it is time we stepped up our efforts.”

The six pillars surrounding the courtyard pulsed with a rainbow of energy that matched the glow of the smaller unicorn’s own horn. Celestia watched in amazement as the small unicorn began to grow before her eyes. Her legs stretched and drew her to an equal stature with Celestia. Her frame filled in with muscle and broad wings grew from her sides. Where Celestia’s mane shifted with the colors of the aurora, the feathers of the new alicorn’s wings cascaded with the colors of the rainbow. A cutie mark appeared on her flank, a circular formation of six gems, each a different color of the rainbow. Finally, a large harness appeared around her neck, similar to Celestia’s in design, but far heavier. Upon the harness six gems phased into existence and were set into it, pulsing slowly with an inner light.

“We are Harmony, and we will not allow you to free our captive. Back down immediately and you will be spared, both of you.” The Elements spoke with the same multi-toned voice.

“I fight for my sister, and I fight against the perversion of the ideals of harmony you are representing.” Celestia responded, “You are wrong and we will prove it to you.”

Celestia stood strong and raised the most powerful barrier she could summon to protect her and her sister. She had to give Luna the most time possible to break free Nightmare’s magic. Harmony looked at Celestia and slowly shook her head. The gems embedded in her harness began to glow with an inner light as she prepared herself to subdue the two upstart alicorns.

“We shall prove our might and our conviction to you and your sister day bringer. Do not say you were not warned when this is over.”

“Are you going to attack or are you just hoping I will back down?” Celestia taunted with a smirk.

The alicorn avatar of Harmony spread her wings and hopped into the air to hover several feet above the ground. Fixing Celestia with an emotionless stare she proceeded to begin her attack.

“Honesty, to lay bare the threat potential of the dark one’s nature according to her past behavior.”

The orange gem around her harness shot forth a beam of correspondingly colored energy that slammed into Celestia’s barrier, causing her knees to wobble. She gritted her teeth and stood firm before bolstering her barrier as best she could.

“Kindness, to offer the night bringer a mind not shared with another, and an existence of her own before she passes.”

Pale yellow light joined the orange and shattered Celestia’s barrier, bringing its shards to crash to the ground. Celestia staggered before catching her balance again and began charging power into her horn. If barriers were ineffective then she would have to press her attack.

“Loyalty, to stand firm in our resolution. Never straying from our charge to protect and preserve life on this planet.”

A sky blue beam of light raced towards Celestia who dodged it with a juke to the side and began charging forward. The blue beam suddenly arced backwards and corkscrewed before exploding overhead and raining down on Celestia. Each point exploded in a brilliant flash as they hit both her and the area around her. As the light faded, Celestia was dragging herself from a crater made by the blasts.

“Laughter, to dispel the arrogance of those who seek to undo the works we have wrought.”

A barrier appeared around the scion of Harmony as Celestia sent an enormous wave of destructive magic at it. The energy swirled around the outside of the barrier before being gathered above it and exploding into a rainbow of sparkles which fell harmlessly to the ground.

“Generosity, to offer a quick, dignified, and painless end to those whom our power is brought against.”

Celestia had closed the distance and glided forward in an attempt to tackle the mare before her. Harmony dodged her tackle and spun around under Celestia’s reach as she rose to her hind hooves. Landing a solid fore hoof punch into Celestia’s gut, Harmony teleported to the side and raised her hind legs to deliver a massive buck to Celestia’s unprotected side. Launched sideways and rolling along the ground after she hit, Celestia staggered to her hooves as she struggled to regain her lost breath.

“Magic, to bind our ideals together, and give us the strength to enforce them.”

Harmony fired a heavy, prismatic beam at Celestia, which was countered with her own golden beam of power. Desperate to not be beaten, Celestia undid all of the stops on her power and put forth her full will into countering Harmony’s attack. What happened next however was unexpected. Harmony’s beam split into six parts, two of which deflected Celestia’s beam into the air. Two more beams slammed into her and knocked her to the ground once more, cutting off her magic. The remaining two spiraled up before descending on her and created a magical webbing, pinning her to the ground.

As Celestia struggled weakly under the webbing, Harmony calmly began to walk towards the altar. The time spent dealing with Celestia had been enough however, for not a few paces from the altar a ringing snap was heard, followed by a wave of dark energy. Luna stood on wobbly legs as she leered at Harmony.

“Thou art too late fiend! Nightmare’s magic is free and now we shall show you our true power!”

Without speaking a word, Harmony snatched Luna up in her magic and brought the thrashing princess before her. Prismatic light formed from her harness and settled into a shimmering ring around Luna’s neck. A line of energy stretched back to the still prone Celestia before snapping the flailing Luna back towards her sister like it was made of rubber. Once back on the ground Luna found that she was tethered to the ground like a dog. Pointedly looking at the small, struggling princess for another moment, Harmony then turned her attention to the now partially free Nightmare Moon.

“Dark one, your companions have fought gallantly to free you, but have failed. Should you surrender yourself peacefully we will overlook their transgressions.”

“Please, do not hurt them. I feared that this was inevitable for me, but I will accept my fate if you spare them. But please, may I have a last request? May I say a few final words of goodbye to my friends?” Nightmare spoke while gazing sadly at Luna.

“Truly, a noble end for one with a history as colorful as yours has been. Very well, prepare yourself.” Harmony spoke with a nod to her prisoner.

Harmony's horn began to glow as the pillars around the courtyard pulsed with energy, emitting a low hum. Nightmare looked on helplessly as the chains around her grew tighter and heavier. She knew that her end was at hoof, and that there was no avoiding it any longer. She reached deep within herself and focused her power on a reserve that she had been building up since the beginning of the eclipse. Cutting her power flow to Luna, she began to channel all of the power that she could possibly wield into her next action. She had to be precise and she had to be fast, the Elements were mere moments away from their final condemnation.

“My little Luna, please listen. I have always wanted the greatest of things for you. My deepest desire has always been for you to achieve the same status and recognition as your sister. But it seems that I shall not be able to see you to that end.”

“Nightmare, no! Do not give in! You promised you would never leave me alone!” Luna shrieked hysterically through her pouring tears.

“I am so sorry Luna, but I think we both knew that things might turn out this way. Fate has never looked kindly upon me in all of my existence thus far, and it seems that even in the end, some things never change. Take this, my final gift, and remember me kindly dear Luna.” Nightmare trailed off, just barely heard above the roar of the Element's power.

Turning her eyes, as her head was now immobilized by the fiercely glowing chains, she fixed her gaze on Celestia. Though Celestia had expected contempt or anger towards her, she saw neither in Nightmare’s somehow soft draconic gaze. What she saw instead was a mixture of acceptance and hope. The dark mare knew she was finally at her end and that there was no further point in struggling.

“Celestia. Please look after my little Luna. She is shy and insecure, and she needs your help. She needs her big sister there by her side. To help her become strong, to find her voice, and to help her realize her potential. Please promise me you will be there for her when nopony else is.”

“Of course Nightmare, you have my solemn word.” Celestia spoke through her tears, “I will always be there for my sister, no matter what.”

Nightmare smiled softly at this and closed her eyes as a single tear fell forth. Having said her next to final words she focused inwardly on the core of her soul. There, in the very center, she saw the divine spark that belonged to Luna. There it sat, a single bright point, not unlike a star in the night sky, surrounded by a field of truly intense darkness. The very essence of the Night Princess. The key to her immortality and divine power. She saw the energy lines connecting to it like flowing strands of mane underwater. She identified the one that was different from all of the others and traced it to the connection she shared with Luna. Working quickly she began to cut all of the ties connected to herself, a feeling akin to slashing oneself with a blade repeatedly. The only connections that she left were the one to her own magic, and the one to Luna.

She felt as though all of the power she had surging through her body would rip her apart at the seams if she held it for much longer. The chains binding her had begun to crackle and spark threateningly as the massive field of magic she wielded surrounded her body in a dark aura. They stung at her flesh and tore at her mind, but she would not be distracted from her goal. As she felt her spell reach critical mass, she turned her eyes once more to the weeping and violently shuddering form of Luna next to her sister.

“Luna, take this my final gift, and live the life you deserve. Goodbye, my little Princess.”

With a final grunt, Nightmare closed her eyes and gave direction to her spell. She cut the remaining tie to the divine spark resting in her soul. The spark rushed forward, like an arrow released from a bow, tearing away from Nightmare and surging forth from her body like a dark missile. The energy containing the spark traveled along the remnants of the severed line between Nightmare and Luna, following its conductive path. Luna’s eyes widened and she froze in place as she felt the connection break and the dark energy rush at her. Neither Luna nor Celestia had time to react as the darkness overtook her and wrapped her in its energy.

Before them, Nightmare gave a final sad smile as the last of her strength left her body. The weight of the chains bore down on her and there was nothing left to resist the power of the Elements. The chains went taut and lifter her body above the altar, encountering not even the slightest resistance from her slack body. The six pillars around the temple pulsed with power, which they fed directly into the chains binding Nightmare. It was then that the Elements spoke once more.

“Nightmare Moon, you stand guilty of attempting to disrupt the harmony of this world a second time. The arbiters of day and night have testified on your behalf, and risked their lives for your sake. However, our judgment had been made from the moment our power was called forth.”

“Please spare her, I beg of you! She has atoned for her crimes!” Celestia shouted from her protective position standing over the darkness shrouded Luna.

“Our judgment is final and her current existence shall be undone. However, Nightmare Moon, we cannot overlook your acts of kindness in your final moments and wish you better fortune in your next incarnation. Day bringer, take your sister and be gone from our sanctum.”

The anchor points on the pillars snapped free as one, and the loose lines of chain whipped forth at blinding speed to wrap around Nightmare’s body completely. Nothing of the doomed mare was left visible under the mass of glowing rainbow colored chains. They seethed around her like live things and produced a low hum as they began to cascade their light across the entire courtyard. Celestia squinted her eyes against the light before covering them with a wing as the thrum of power invaded all of her senses. Falling to the ground and wrapping her sister protectively in her fore hooves, Celestia could do nothing against the massive waves of energy buffeting her. In the instant the cacophony of noise peaked she faded from consciousness.

----- some time later -----

As the sound of her own soft breathing became recognizable to her, Celestia opened her eyes to find herself back in the sanctuary atop Mount Canterlot. Her first coherent thought was of concern for her sister. Her fears were allayed as she saw a dark, pony shaped shadow several paces away from her. Rising shakily to her hooves, she made her way over to the dark form as quickly as she could. As she approached, the darkness seemed to dissolve from the pony on the floor, leaving Celestia awestruck at what lay before her.

Snoring softly as though not a thing had happened was none other than Princess Luna. But not in a form that Celestia had ever seen her in before. She was not the small blue filly with a light blue normal haired mane and tail. She was not the large, ebony coated mare with free flowing stars for her mane and tail. She was a cross between both of her former appearances.

She was still smaller than Celestia, but far taller than any normal pony. Her long, sleek legs led to a trim and toned body that was proportioned in such a way as to give Celestia an echo of envy toward her youth. Her mane and tail were similar to how Nightmare’s had been, a shifting collection of stars moving softly in the same solar winds that played with Celestia’s own mane. Her face had lost the roundness of a filly and now bore the sharp distinction of an adult alicorn. Her wings had grown with her and rested at her sides. A longer, sharper horn protruded from her mane. Dark, navy blue defined her coat except for the large black splotch that covered her flanks and was itself topped with a crescent moon on either side.

Closing the distance to stand beside her sister, Celestia nudged Luna’s shoulder gently with a fore hoof. When this did not elicit a response stronger than her sister rolling onto her back and continuing to sleep, Celestia sat back on her haunches and softly cleared her throat before speaking.

“Lulu, my dear sister, please wake up.”

At the sound of her sister’s voice and another nudge on the shoulder, Luna’s eyes slowly fluttered open. Instantly she bolted upright and began frantically looking about her surroundings.

“Nightmare!? Nightmare!? Please, where art thou!?” Luna’s older, more refined voice was laced with anxiety.

Stopping to look at the piles of rubble that had fallen to the floor during the failure of her magical seal Luna saw no trace of her alter ego. Closing her eyes and focusing inward she attempted to trace out their normal connection only to find no presence anywhere within her mind except her own. Focusing deeper, she then saw exactly what Nightmare had given her before her fall. She saw in her mind’s eye the brilliant point of starlight surrounded by the cool, comforting darkness of the night. Her divine spark once more rested within her soul.

Opening her now watering eyes once more, she looked towards her sister before bounding to her in a single leap. Nearly toppling Celestia with her newfound mass, she huddled before her sister as the tears began to flow free. Celestia wrapped her sister in both fore hooves and wings as the smaller alicorn wailed in lament.

“S-s-sister! She is g-gone! I c-cannot f-feel her anymooooore!” Luna bawled helplessly against her sister’s chest.

“Lulu, she truly gave everything she could for you. She was loyal until the end.” Celestia tried to comfort her sister as she felt tears of her own begin to form.

They both sat and cried in each other’s embrace until Luna had no tears left to give. Sensing her sisters growing acceptance of the circumstances, Celestia folded her wings back down to her sides and gently raised her sister’s chin with a fore hoof to look her in the eye. She was struck, by the fact that the eyes she saw were the darker shade of teal like Nightmare’s had been, but had the normal pupils of a pony. Luna’s eyes glowed slightly in the dim light, an obvious indicator of her superior night vision. Celestia smiled softly and proceeded to comfort her sister with her words.

“Luna, Nightmare gave the final measure of her being to return to you your immortality. I can sense it within you as plain as I can see the changes in your form. She proved all of her devotion in the end and should be remembered as a hero for what she has done. I can no longer find myself thinking darkly on her memory, but instead find admiration for her when I look at you.”

“Tia…”

“Though she may be gone from us, remember her fondly dear sister. Let not her passing be forever marked in sadness. Instead, over time, allow her memory to be a joyous one, filled with inspiration at the possibility of anypony to overcome what they once were.”

Luna slowly nodded her head and wiped at her eyes with a fore leg. Composing herself with few final sniffles, she looked up at her sister and smiled weakly. Celestia returned the gesture with a soft nuzzle and picked herself up to stand tall. Using her internal clock Celestia noted that during what seemed like at least a few hours during their time in the pocket world of Harmony’s Sanctum, not a minute had passed in Equestria. Indeed it seemed as though they had spent the most amount of time comforting each other’s grief. With a smile she turned to her sister with an idea.

“Lulu, would you help me with the eclipse? I believe I have had enough of it for some time and our ponies may panic if it lasts too long.”

“But I… Yes of course Tia. I shall once more handle the moon and stars. Nightmare would have wanted it that way…”

Each of the sisters focused their power and separated the two celestial bodies overhead. Luna reversed the direction of the moon and set it to wait beyond the eastern horizon as usual. Celestia moved the sun further west and made sure it was on its proper course before letting go of it. Agreeing that they would have to clean up the sanctuary at some point, they both exited and began their way down the mountain.

Waiting at the bottom was a full platoon of royal guards, whose faces all broke into relief as soon as they saw Celestia round the final corner. The lieutenant in charge approached immediately and bowed before her. What Celestia could not have expected however was what happened when Luna came up behind her to stand by her side.

“Your Majesty we are so glad you are ok, we feared the worst when… we… saw… who is that?” He trailed off and was now staring at Luna, along with just about every other stallion in the forward ranks.

Luna shied away from the attention behind her flowing mane. Celestia had not taken into account Luna’s new appearance. She looked significantly more like Nightmare Moon than she had when the guards had last seen her. They were all aware of what Nightmare looked like, and a few were even suspicious that she would change into the dark mare again. Suddenly, Celestia had a potential disaster before her hooves as she feared the whole platoon charging forward to subdue Luna. What she heard next, although it was only whispers, surprised her far more than anything else in her so far crazy day had.

“Dude, she is SO hot.”

“Sweet Celestia, I’ve never seen a more perfect mare.”

“Stars above, nothing else even comes close!”

"Oh, I really hope they can't read minds, I would be so fired!"

“EH-HEM. Gentlecolts, surely you all remember my sister, Princess Luna? Our ceremony today has empowered her with her royal status and as such she has undergone a… makeover, so to say.” Celestia cleared her throat as she explained.

Looking out over her troops she saw every eye fixed on her sister, in a few she recognized outright longing and she saw a few already scheming on how to get themselves put on night duty to be closer to her sister. Looking to her side she saw her sister’s face had gone bright red in embarrassment of all of the amorous attention. Not being used to much attention at all and then suddenly commanding the undivided attention of practically an entire herd of stallions had flustered her to say the least. Though it may have been enjoyable to see her sister muddle her way through such a situation, they really did have things to do.

“Gentlecolts, it is impolite to stare at somepony while drooling.” She chided softly, causing her sister’s face to go even further red.

Coming to his senses first, the lieutenant shook her head clear and snapped his stallions into parting ranks to allow the two alicorns to pass by. As they moved forward, Luna stayed close to her sister’s side until they had reached Celestia’s chambers. Upon entering, Luna breathed a sigh of relief as Celestia tossed a touch of envy to the winds with a muffled laugh hidden behind a fore hoof. Fixing her sister with a glare, Luna eventually giggled a bit herself.

“Tia, will it always be like this? I did not want THAT much attention.”

“Lulu, you mean you didn’t like having the undivided attention of so many brave and strong stallions” She teased softly.

“No no! I liked it! I mean, no I … wait, I…” Luna trailed off in embarrassment as her sister softly laughed again.

Moving towards her bed and motioning Luna to follow her Celestia sat down with a deeply tired sigh. Though they sat next to each other on Celestia’s bed in silence for a few minutes, Luna was the first one to break it.

“Sister, what shall I do? I miss Nightmare so much already.”

“Luna, you will heal over time. In the interim, stretch yourself to achieve the goals that she had for you, that is what she would have wanted.”

“Yes, I believe thou art correct, I shall honor her memory by earning the love and respect of our ponies.”

“And you will not be alone in this dear sister. You will have family there to help you along at every step.”

“Sister, art thou implying…”

“Yes sister, I believe that I shall draft a letter to our brother, Terra. He has gone and founded his own country, quite far away. I will extend an invitation to him and an offering of reconciliation. His daughter, Mi Amore Cadenza, has journeyed here several times in the past and she is a bright young mare. I am sure she could convince her father to come if he had any reservations.”

“Tia, that is so wonderful! Thank you! Thank You!” Luna shouted, leaning in to give her big sister a hug.

“I promised Nightmare that I would do whatever it took to raise you up Lulu, and I will honor my promise to her.” Celestia said with a smile, “Now, I can see you are tired, and you will likely have a long busy night ahead of you fending the stallions off. Let us rest now sister, Equestria can handle itself for a while.”

Dimming the chamber lights with her magic and drawing the curtains, Celestia brought her sister into a warm embrace in her fore hooves. Holding her tightly and listening as the sound of her breathing became steady and slow, Celestia closed her eyes silently and gave her thanks to Nightmare Moon for restoring her sister to her. Though her end had been one of tragedy, Celestia prayed that Nightmare had made it into the eternal fields of the afterlife, where she could find peace at last.

--------------------------------------
Author’s Note:
I took some extra time to make this one flow the way I thought it should. I will have one final chapter of indeterminate length after this one to tie up all the loose ends as well as a revelation, and possibly set up a sequel, not sure yet about that. Stay tuned and thanks for reading thus far!

-Dracolord85

Chapter 7: Reunion

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Disclaimer – I own none of the cannon characters, settings, or locations contained herein. All ownership credit goes to Hasbro/Lauren Faust respectively.
Chapter 7: Reunion

Several weeks had passed since the fall of Nightmare Moon, and the rise of Luna to her place on the dual throne of Equestria. Though she was still grief stricken in private, Luna managed to put on a brave face while she was in public view. It of course helped that her sister was always on hoof to lend her support, which she appreciated to no end. Luna found that she was able to stave off the sadness somewhat if she kept herself busy during the nights. This turned out not to be difficult, as she had discovered there was stacks of planning and work ahead of her just in achieving the basic changes to her wing of the castle. What truly drove her forward however was the desire to not see Nightmare’s sacrifice go to waste.

Though there were many ponies that desired to meet with her after news of her transformation and return to power had spread, Luna herself was more comfortable easing slowly back into the social view. As much as she desired their love and admiration, the thought of being surrounded by so many ponies was truly terrifying. In contrast, her embarrassment over the attention she began to receive when walking the halls slowly subsided until she was left with a warm feeling each time even so much as a simple bow or hello was issued to her. Slowly, the ponies of the castle were getting to know what had once been the mysterious and unseen Princess of the Night. She even began to find amusement in the squabbling she overheard when guards would fight over who would get one of the increasingly coveted posts on her shift.

True to her word, Celestia had sent a letter inviting their brother and niece to Canterlot Castle. Luna had insisted on being brought up to speed with what her brother had been doing since his exile, and was eager to learn of her newfound niece. Much to her shock, she was told that the seemingly all knowing Celestia did not know altogether much about what had happened with her brother or what he was currently up to. Apparently, Terra had traveled northwest to areas beyond the mountains at Equestria’s border, and had eventually created a home for himself. His presence became known and eventually as more creatures of just about every race gathered to his new home, it had become a village, then a city, until at last they had such a population as to declare themselves a new nation, the sovereign state of Titania. Celestia had recognized its independence, although she had never formed any political ties to the new nation.

Perhaps more intriguing yet were the reports that Celestia had received though secondhand stories from those that had travelled to or from Titania. Terra had only issued one decree for his citizens to follow, and that was that they were not to use their talents to influence the natural world around them. Pegasi and griffons did not influence the weather, and earth ponies and diamond dogs did not bend plant or soil to their own ends. Rather, all citizens of Titania were encouraged to ignore the typical racial job typecasting and stretch themselves to find a calling that made them happy and benefitted their nation as a whole. Thus, with no concern for micro managing nature, they had progressed to a level of scientific and cultural advancement not seen in any other nation. Even their form of government was different. After the establishment of their nation, Terra had refused to be treated as royalty, instead he was installed a permanent figurehead authority who exercised little power. Representatives were elected at regular intervals to positions of authority, where they would conduct the business of government and then step down after their term.

Apparently, the only diplomatic envoy from Titania had been Terra’s daughter, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. She had expressed a desire to see the world and visit the aunts that she had never met before. Thus, she was welcomed to Equestria as family by Celestia, although the two never discussed her father since Cadenza knew he was a sore subject for the elder princess. She had been staying in Equestria about a decade before she had been asked by Celestia to watch her new student Twilight Sparkle when she was too busy to attend to her lessons. This was also how the young princess had met Twilight’s older brother and new recruit to the royal guards, Shining Armor. From what Celestia could gather without directly asking her, Cadenza had developed deeper feelings for the fresh guard than either was willing to admit. All in all, the young princess sounded like a charming young alicorn that Luna could not wait to get acquainted with.

Although being brought up to speed with her family and the world around her was fascinating, Luna had recently taken to spending part of her nights alone in the sanctuary above Mount Canterlot. Celestia knew that Luna still needed her space and time to mourn the loss of Nightmare in private, and so said nothing about it. Luna spent her time in the sanctuary indulging in memories of the past spent with Nightmare, and when feeling more productive, cleaning up some of the damage that her failed spell had caused. It was during one such night of restoration that all hell seemed to break loose.

Clearing away a pile of rubble with her magic and restoring the pieces of what had been a statue of a truly ancient elder alicorn spirit, Luna worked mechanically and slowly. After restoring most of the larger chunks of stone, she noticed a glimmer in the remains. Confused she trotted up to the loose stones and cleared them away to reveal a diamond about the size of her hoof. Focusing her powerful night vision in the dim sanctuary, she saw that while most diamonds were usually somewhat white in color, this stone was onyx black and perfectly cut. Sitting on her haunches before it, she grasped the stone in her hooves and lifted it from the debris around it. What she saw next took her breath away for a moment before she launched into action and went careening down the mountain side back to the castle.

With her guards struggling valiantly to keep up with the focused night princess, she wove her way through the castle at breakneck speed towards her sister’s quarters. Once there she scattered the two posted guards and practically blew the doors off the hinges as she barged in with unrestrained force. The explosion of noise caused her sister to spring awake in a panic, only to get her limbs tangled in the bed sheets and fall off the side of her bed with an undignified squawking yelp. As Luna waited, practically bouncing on her hooves, Celestia untangled herself and leveled an irritated glare at her sister.

“Luna, what is the meaning of this!? You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

“Sister! I was in the sanctuary just shortly ago and thou shall never guess what I found!”

“Please Luna, go slowly, I am not quite together yet.” Celestia sighed as she attempted to clear the sleep from her mind.

“I was restoring one of the statues near the back. It had fallen into a pile of rubble during the failure of mine spell. Once near completion, something reflected in the moonlight and drew my attention, look!”

From Luna’s nebulous mane, a large gem floated forth, before being grasped in several strands like a dragon’s talon and held before Celestia. It was abnormally large for a gem and pitch black in color, which was also odd. The facets had lines of light blue energy tracing slowly along their edges. Stranger still was the image encased within the stone, a white half moon, resting on a patch of gray clouds underneath it. Reaching forth with a hoof to touch the stone, Celestia froze when she made contact. She felt a massive amount of energy from within the stone, energy that was both cool and comforting, but had a clear edge beneath it that spoke of an opposite nature as well. Withdrawing her hoof she looked at her eager sister while she decided what to tell her.

“Tia, dost thou know what this is? It clearly does not belong to the statue I found it with, and I have never seen something like it before. Hast thou?”

“Yes… Maybe… Look, Luna, I don’t want to get your hopes up. I have an idea, and I may have seen one example of something like this in the distant past. I hesitate to say anything without really knowing for sure.” Celestia cautiously explained.

“Please Tia! I must know, I have suspicions from my contact with the stone. Surely thou felt similar energies when physical contact was made? What is this thing?”

“…Terra would know…” Celestia ventured.

---- Several Days Later ----

Luna had waited patiently, if not anxiously for the arrival of her brother in Canterlot. She had kept the strange stone within her mane at all times since she found it. Luna could swear that she almost felt the presence of Nightmare Moon when she held the gem in her hooves, but it was different. Her sister had refused to say any more about the strange jewel, although it was clear that she had her suspicions about it. However, her wait was now over, for today her brother and niece were expected to arrive at the castle.

Everything had been prepared with the utmost attention to detail and the entire castle glimmered in the bright sunlight even more than usual. Luna had spent her previous night resting so that she was fully awake and alert in the middle of the day, today was too important to adhere to her nocturnal patterns. Not but ten minutes ago, the guard bells had been rung as the entourage from Titania approached the outer gates of the castle town. A small crowd had formed initially but soon kept a distance as the Titanians were cleared into the city by a very nervous looking royal guard.

Drawing a large and completely enclosed heavy iron carriage was an adult dragoness, her green scales shining brightly as she cleared the path before them with her very presence. In the air just above the dragon and carriage combo, a platoon mixed with armor clad griffons and pegasi kept close watch of everything around them. Trailing behind the carriage was another company of earth ponies, unicorns, and diamond dogs, more heavily armored and scanning for any threats in the streets. They made their way towards the castle, led by a group of royal guards that could not help but shoot the occasional glance at the dragon following them closely.

As the carriage came to a stop in the central air chariot hanger, the Titanian guards formed up around the vehicle. A unicorn stepped up to the double door and opened half of it wide using his magic. Stepping down immediately was a young pink alicorn mare that could be none other than Princess Cadence. She smiled as she noticed Celestia and her eyes lit up with excitement as she saw the dark alicorn standing beside her, but she did not move from where she stood yet. The same unicorn as before opened the other door to widen the carriage entry, while something inside caused the entire carriage to shift and rock. As Cadence started to look back into the carriage expectantly, Terra emerged.

To every pony present it seemed as though a boulder had emerged from the carriage. To say he was solidly built was an understatement. Though not fat in any way, his stature looked as though none could move him if he didn’t want to. His coat was a dark, brownish gray color, similar to a piece of slate stone. He had the typical long, sharp horn and broad wings of an alicorn. His mid length mane and tail were not like the drifting form of the two sisters, the deep blue hair seemed to flow straight downwards like rushing water, even being mixed with streaks of white every so often to complete the effect. On his flank was an image of a strong oak tree, representing his power over the earth, and all things born from it. He stood just taller than Celestia, though nopony was sure if this meant Celestia was tall or Terra was short. His strong, deep brown eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly as his gaze met Celestia’s, but softened when he looked down to see Cadence nuzzling his shoulder. Straightening himself, Terra strode forth to meet his sisters.

As he approached, Luna noticed that he wore no regalia like they did. The only accessory on him was a simple laurel crown made of actual twigs, and it was clear he did not wear it regularly as his ears kept flicking every time the crown brushed them. Terra stopped within reach of his siblings and regarded Celestia for a moment.

“Greetings Celestia, it has been quite some time, and welcome back to you dear Luna.” He spoke in his deep rumbling voice, nodding towards Celestia and smiling warmly at Luna.

“Terra, I-” Celestia began, only to get cut off as Luna launched herself at the stallion.

Slamming into Terra only proved his solidity, as Luna felt like she had tried to tackle a brick wall. Shaking her head clear of the stars in her vision, she reared up and wrapped her fore legs around his neck in a tight embrace. Somewhat surprised for a moment, Terra responded by lifting a single massive fore hoof and hugging his little sister back, gently. Celestia sat where she was, somewhat awkwardly, as the tension between her and Terra did not yet allow that kind of interaction. Still, she had to smile a bit, as the scene reminded her of her and Luna embracing in their old castle after her return. As the hug ended, Terra gestured to his side where Cadence patiently sat.

“Luna, may I present my daughter, Mi Amore Cadenza.”

“Ah, well met niece. It brings us joy to know our family carries on so well.”

“Please just call me Cadence, I am so happy to finally meet you Aunt Luna!” She beamed as Luna sat back and spread her forelegs to welcome her niece into a hug as well.

“Indeed, but it would seem thou art somewhat eager to join in the company of mine sister’s guard captain, Sir Armor, as well.” Luna gave her niece a knowing look.

“W-What? But I didn’t even… When did you…” Cadence flustered as her face went crimson.

“Mine eyes see everything in the darkest of night, there is little that a pony can hide from me.” Luna smiled like a cat with a trapped mouse.

“Indeed, I am eager to meet Sir Armor, as well. Especially as this is the first I have heard of him.” Terra looked towards his daughter with a raised eyebrow.

“I was going to tell you about us during the trip daddy, honest.” Cadence mumbled as she scuffed a hoof along the marble floor.

“Go ahead dear; you can meet up with us later. Just make sure to bring the good captain to dinner with you, alright?” Celestia interjected thoughtfully.

Getting the nod from her father, Cadence trotted off to go find her captain. Though she knew her father was fairly easy going about most things she still felt nervous about introducing them in a situation she was forced into. Watching until Cadence turned the corner the three alicorn siblings sat in silence for a moment before Celestia spoke once more.

“Shall we adjourn to a more comfortable location?”

“Very well, seeing as it is your castle, lead the way.” Terra nodded.

“Lord Terra! Shall we accompany you?” One of his griffon guards spoke up.

“I don’t want to bore any of you with watching a closed door. Go hang out around the castle town, just don’t cause any trouble.” Terra informed, casually dismissing his guards to their own devices.

After a sharp salute from every Titanian creature present, they all broke up and began forming exploration groups. Most of them were set to gather souvenirs for family waiting on them back home. Luna looked a little shocked that he was so informal with his soldiers, but in the end it only served to confirm what she had been told about his lack of care for assuming authority with his people. Taking the activity as their cue, the alicorns turned to the castle doors and began their walk.

Though the trip to the nearest lounge room that Celestia steered them towards was not long, the silence that was observed was somewhat unnerving. Every member of castle staff that they ran across either gaped in awe or shied away from the presence of the new alicorn. Terra himself didn’t really mind since he had never cared very much what others thought of him. Terra finally broke the silence after they entered a sitting room and closed the door.

“Alright Celestia, what is this about? As happy as I am to see Luna healthy and with us again I am confused by your invitation. You have not said a word to me for so very long and then out of the blue you send me a personal invite to your castle with only vague explanation.”

“Terra, I- I just want to start out with saying I am sorry. I was stubborn and foolish to be that way for so long. I want us to be a family again.”

“Oh? And just what brought that revelation on?”

“Having Luna’s life threatened before me was enough to make me understand your reasons behind your actions all those years ago.” Celestia closed her eyes and bowed her head.

“Explain.” Terra slowly nodded.

Thus, over the next few hours the sisters traded turns with each other recounting the events of the past few weeks and their confrontation with the Spirits of Harmony. Luna was particularly keen to shore up Nightmare Moon’s heroic image as the martyr. Though skeptical at first, it all made enough sense in the end to the stallion. Celestia had never been very good at lying, and though one of Luna’s specialties was misdirection he could feel that the two were being completely honest in what they were telling him. Towards the end Celestia had detected a hint of impatience in Luna’s voice, that coupled with the way she had began to shuffle her hooves a bit prompted her to sigh before turning to her little sister.

“Luna dear, I know you are burning to ask Terra your question, so go ahead. Just please promise that you will accept whatever he tells you, even if it is not what you want to hear.”

Turning to Terra, Luna proceeded to remove a large black gem from the null space contained in her mane. Terra cocked his head to the side in confusion and stepped towards his youngest sister slowly. Luna formed an ethereal talon from her mane and used it to hold the gem towards her brother. Sitting on his haunches before her, Terra slowly, and reverently, took the gem in his fore hooves after receiving a nod from her.

“Luna, where did you get this?”

“I was cleaning up the sanctuary on the mountain top a few nights ago, upon restoring the statue of one of our ancestors, this gem reflected the moonlight and caught mine attention. Tis not within the norm for gems of any kind, that much I know. It appears to have that image sealed within it of the moon and clouds, and the energy that radiates along the facets is most strange. What’s more, upon picking it up I felt the most incredible feeling that reminded me of Nightmare Moon.”

Seeing Terra absorbed in examining the stone before him Luna continued.

“Brother, Tia said she had suspicions of what it was but would most vehemently not tell me. She said thou wouldst know, doth thou? Tis not a natural thing this gem, and it was not in the sanctuary before our confrontation with Harmony.” Luna finished as Terra set the gem down before her.

Rising from the plush rug that he sat on to walk over to one of the large windows, he sat in silent contemplation of what he should do. He knew what the gem was, although he had not seen one in a very long time. He could certainly tell Luna what the stone was, but what if she could not accept what it meant? What would be the repercussions of what she would certainly ask for once he told her? There would be no going back once he told her, and yet it would likely be safer if he offered his assistance. Hearing a commotion from the grounds below, he noticed several of Celestia’s pegasus guards shouting in indignation and frustration as they noticed that the dragoness, Jade Fang, of his entourage had wrapped herself around one of the higher castle spires and proceeded to nap in the sun. Seeing the commotion something out of the norm caused in the high strung guard made up his mind for him, this castle needed some shaking up.

As the silence stretched on, Celestia began to fear that they had angered their brother by showing him the gem. Just as she was about to voice her concerns, Terra turned back to face them, his face calm and reserved as usual. Returning to stand before Luna and looking her straight in the eye, he picked up the gem in his magical grasp and held it between them.

“Luna, your sister has seen one of these gems once before. The last time she saw one was immediately after I bound the soul of my dying honor guard and best friend into a gem similar to this one. For that act I was banished from Equestria and labeled as a heretic.”

“Terra I-” Celestia began.

“And for that I could not be more grateful.” Terra cut her off while stunning both of his sisters.

“For in my expulsion, I found more friends to ease my pain. I founded a whole new nation, and stepped aside to allow them to become the great power that they are today. But I digress; the Soul Gem that I created was wrought from a mortal pony. Though I infused it with as much magic as I could then wield, a pony that was made mortal cannot be made immortal. The gem I created lasted another four hundred years before its light gave out and my loyal friend passed on.”

“Brother, I am so sorry.” Luna said as she bowed her head in sympathy.

“Don’t be dear Luna, for although he passed, we had plenty of extra time to come to terms with his future. Now, this gem here is nothing like the one that I created in my younger days. From what I can see, the structure is perfect, and there is no decay in energy. Somepony’s soul is in this gem, and they will never fade.”

Luna looked awestruck as she gently took the Soul Gem in her magic and looked reverently at it. Whatever was in the gem would not die, and it would be around as long as she was. If things got better between her brother and sister, she may regain her family as well as a new friend who would never leave her throughout the long years. Eagerly, she looked to her brother with her most pressing question.

“Brother, can you tell who resides within the gem? I must know!”

“Not quite little sister. In this state, the best you can hope for are vague impressions and emotions if you connect to it psychically. Which is why after I created my first Soul Gem, I worked out a way of building a vessel through which the soul could communicate and interact with the world around it. It ends up being something akin to a golem, an artificial body that the soul is put in command of. And because I already know what you will ask next, yes, I can build one of these golems. But, only with the blessing of your sister.”

Luna turned to Celestia with watering eyes about to spill over with the joy of what she had just been told. There was really no way to tell her no, it would both crush their newly repaired relationship as sisters, and dash any hopes of reconciling with her brother. Far simpler was the fact that she had no desire to say no, so she smiled as she spoke to both of her siblings.

“Terra, I want things to be better between us all. You will have my full support in whatever you need to bring about the creation of a body for this creature. Please, just promise that we can at least try to bring our family back together.”

“I can promise that I will try to put the past behind me, but you may have a hard time of trying to improve your image amongst the citizens of my country. Since our founding they have spread stories of you as the uncaring tyrant who cast her own brother from her sight for trying to save his friend. To that end it may be best if Luna were to lead the bridge building process between our countries.” Terra said with a nod in Luna’s direction.

“I do regret my actions brother, all the more as I have time to reflect on them, but I understand the reaction your citizens have embraced. Perhaps letting Luna lead the way will be for the best. After all, what better way could there be to reintroduce her to the world at large than spearheading a major political bonding?” Celestia agreed with a sad yet hopeful look in her eyes as she turned to Luna.

Though she was excited about finding out who, or what was within the Soul Gem, Luna felt some anxiety over being put in charge of forming relations with Titania. If she were dealing directly with her brother, that would have been easy enough, but Terra did not run the government of his country. She would need to relate directly with the ponies that were in charge and convince them through diplomacy that allying with Equestria was beneficial for all involved. More pressing right now however was Terra’s agreement to help her with the Soul Gem.

“It is agreed then. Brother, join me in my atelier. There we shall have all of the space and resources necessary for the construction of thy creation. I must make haste to prepare for thy procedure, but please do not tarry long!” Luna proceeded to rush out of the room after volunteering her hall, leaving Terra and Celestia alone.

“…Terra, were you serious about what you said earlier? About being forced out of Equestria?” Celestia asked hesitantly.

“Yes Celestia I was. Though I raged against your arrogance at first, the years have taught me temperance and forgiveness. Well, the years and raising a filly I guess.” He chuckled a bit before continuing, “Point is, I forgave you long ago, and was waiting for you to drop your animosity.”

“The past will be the past brother, but the future is still ours to shape. You don’t know how much this means to me.” Celestia said with a genuine smile.

The two sibling moved close and Celestia crossed her neck with Terra’s in a gentle hug, one that he reciprocated by extending a massive wing over his sister. They held their embrace for a moment, simply enjoying the feeling of being in each other’s good graces. Eventually they parted, and Celestia took the opportunity to address the foremost question remaining in her mind.

“Terra, you held the Soul Gem that Luna found. What did you sense of it? Was it Nightmare Moon?”

“I can’t be sure, but the energy in the crystal did feel the same as hers.” He cautioned.

“How could it be her? I was there with Luna when the Elements destroyed her.”

“Perhaps, dear sister, you do not understand the nature of sacrifice. It never goes unrewarded, and the selfless sacrifice given for the sake of others is weighted heaviest of all.”

“You don’t think the Elements…” She trailed off with confusion in her voice.

“You know the saying sister, ‘Never say never’. Now, if you would show me to Luna’s workshop before she comes back here and attempts to drag me out, that would be appreciated.”

---- Two weeks later ---

Both Terra and Luna had worked tirelessly to assemble the necessary materials to construct a golem capable of supporting the Soul Gem Luna had found. Celestia was not able to help as much, but did make sure that anything they requested was brought to them as quick as possible. Beyond that, she ran the day to day government so that Luna could focus on her own task. The whole of Luna’s atelier had been transformed to resemble a mix between a chemical production facility and a small scale power plant. The current formula for Terra’s golem was a vast mixture of chemicals and materials that had resulted in a small blob of amorphous goo. Terra had explained that with this formula, the Soul Gem would determine the shape of body that best fit it when it was combined with the strange mixture.

Now they were ready to finally wrap their work up and see just what the mysterious crystal held. In the center of the room was a large tank of water that held the raw golem within it. Suspended above the tank and connected to a remote release was the Soul Gem. The entire hall had been cleared of guards and servant s in precaution, and the only remaining beings were the three siblings. The late afternoon sunlight did not pierce the blocked windows, and the magical blue fire lanterns lent a momentous sense to what they were about to attempt.

Celestia sat clear and watched as her sibling moved about, calling out to each other as they triple checked all of their systems. Finally, they were ready and all three moved to a shielded observation platform on the opposite side of the room. Standing before a control console, Terra slowly pushed a small lever forward to gradually increase the energy being supplied to the suspension tank. Luna called out energy readings and monitored safety devices as he did. Once they were at full capacity the room buzzed and crackled with the sound of electrical and magical energy being fed into the tank. Luna checked her instruments a final time and shouted to her brother over the cacophony of sound.

“Terra, we are within the green zone, release the Soul Gem when thou art ready!”

Terra nodded his understanding as Celestia moved forward and wrapped her sister in a wing. Lifting a lid protected button, Terra smashed it down and cut the power to the suspension filed holding the Soul Gem over the tank. Time seemed to slow, and the noise became a distant background hum as the gem dropped to the tank. Cutting cleanly into the water without so much as a drop of splash, the gem sank and made contact with the shifting mass of white beneath it.

The entire tank promptly exploded as the entire supply of water was instantly vaporized and all the power available was sucked into the raw golem. All of the mage lights went out at the same time and the entire chamber was plunged into darkness as the deafening sound of a hurricane filled the room. Everything went quiet as suddenly as it had all exploded. Blue flashes lit the smoky chamber as small arcs of electricity came from the center of the room before dying down. The two grown alicorns had huddled protectively around Luna even though their shield had held up to the abuse. Sensing it was over; Terra magically opened a few of the windows to clear the steam and smoke.

As the smoke cleared, there was no indication that the process had worked at all. The reaction had been so energetic that Terra was unsure if the Soul Gem had accepted its new host before things had spiraled out of control. Finally clearing enough to see somewhat, the alicorns were greeted with a blank white equine form at the bottom of the empty containment tank. Though it was dim in the chamber with only a few small windows having been opened, the shape in the center of the tank seemed to be that of a large foal, a foal with a horn and wings. There was no indication of movement from the foal, and things looked pretty bad from the platform. Thinking that the soul had rejected the body, Terra turned to his sister to attempt to console her when she gasped and began to gesticulate toward the tank.

“Brother, Sister, observe, what is happeneing!?”

As Terra and Celestia snapped their attention to the ruined tank once more they were greeted with a black wave of fire consuming the synthetic pony they had created. Where the fire had traced over, the coat was left pitch black, but not burned at all. A mane and tail of silvery gray hair grew on the pony as the dark fire spread to cover the flank of their creation. Once done, the image of a full moon over grey clouds that had been inside the crystal was emblazoned on the pony’s flank. There was a power radiating from the pony that could be none other than an alicorn, and although it was not clear to Terra, Luna knew exactly what this power felt like. She had instantly escaped the shielded platform and was by the pony’s side, raising its head slightly as she spoke in a quavering, near whisper.

“Nightmare?...”

“Luna?...” A frail voice responded as teal, draconic eyes slowly opened.

THE END

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Authors Note.

Ok, that took way longer than I intended to get up and published. I could not find a structure that I was happy with, but I reckon this one is ok. I left it open for a follow up story if the desire should strike me, but I have no immediate plans for it. My thanks to you, the reader, for reading my first swing at a fan fiction story. Any post game criticism or comments are welcome and I hope you enjoyed it!

-dracolord85

A Return to Form

by dracolord85

Chapter 0: Prelude

Chapter 1: Advent

Chapter 2: Revelation

Chapter 3: Confirmation

Chapter 4: Breakout Plan

Chapter 5: Darkest Day

Chapter 6: Judgement

Chapter 7: Reunion