Canterlot; One thousand years ago, the night of Nightmare Moon’s banishment…

It is said all of Equestria heard the thunderous roars released through the heavens that night, the power brought forth between these two titans of legend. The Alicorn of the sun, fighting a battle that had once been thought won, a bygone war for the very existence of all things bright and beautiful in the world. And the unholy demon spawned from a place the depths of Tartarus shied, vengeance the force driving her on.

The very roots of the mountain shuddered as they clashed. Fury, hate, and anguish drove these beings into a frenzy of lashing limbs, attacks flashing with ever increasing intensity, reaching speeds no mortal could hope to follow. Trees burned, snow boiled, and rocks shattered into dust that blew away in their wake.

Not since the days of Discord’s rule had the world witnessed such devastation, blows that could lay waste to entire armies gouged the land, rending hills in twain, twisting the wind into cyclones that ripped forests from the soil like so many stocks of wheat before a flail.

Long into the depths of the night did they battle, the duel pushing them to their limits, neither willing to concede to the other. Great shockwaves assaulted the clouds as they came together again, the white city on the mountain long since forgotten as their movements traversed miles in seconds, leaving them weaving around the pillar-like formations of rock that reached for the skies above, the twisted formations towering over the mangled forest that lay to the south.

The Nightmare screamed, more in rage than pain as Celestia landed a devastating blow to her face, hurling the demented creature across the blackened vista, her tumble only being ceased by the mares’ impact with one of the massive pillars. Shaking her head to clear her senses Nightmare raised her gaze, eyes growing wide a moment before a flaming white hot blur slammed into her chest, driving them both through the granite structure and out the other side in a spray of pulverized stone.

Celestia drove her hoof into the Nightmare again, bits of flame igniting within her mane and tail as her rage grew, eyes shining white with power immeasurable. The pair of combatants crashed into the ground, gouging a hundred meter trench through the soft mud before finally skidding to a halt.

Forest animals of all kinds ran for their lives as the ground shook beneath them, the Alicorn of the sun having eyes for none but the being she relentlessly bludgeoned upon, raining down blows continuously with her bare hooves, reacting to nothing else even as the recently destroyed pillar of rock crashed down around them, flattening trees as the pieces imbedded into the forest floor, severing old growth trunks as if they were toothpicks.

“What might be the matter, dear Celestia?” Nightmare sneered, growing tired of the beating and catching the next blow with ease, smirking at the surprised look from the princess. “I have witnessed you deliver blows that crushed mountains, tell me,” her horn glowed and an instant later a house sized chunk of the pillar crashed into the Alicorn from behind, shattering over the mare’s head and sending her tumbling through the trees. “Where then is that warrior? The Alicorn whom bested the mighty Discord in battle, she is the one I seek this night.”

“Perhaps,” Celestia growled in retort, whipping a smear of blood from her cheek. “She merely has not seen fit to grace you with her presence, to sully her good name with your association,” the Alicorn finished with a deep scowl as she slowly rose to her hooves, taking on a more cautious stance after her opponents’ show of strength.

Nightmare let loose a hearty laugh to the sky before inspecting a weeping gash along her foreleg, seemingly unfeeling of the pain that was surely claiming the limb. “Her good name?” The monster replied derisively, fixing the princess before her with eyes that burned with true mirth. “Celestia, you fool. You have failed to realize just how lowly your, ‘good name’, has fallen.”

Celestia’s brow knit with bitter loathing, a contempt she had felt for only one other in all her years, a burning resentment that festered within her heart, verging on becoming the one emotion she tried so hard never to feel. Hate. “Be silent, snake, lest I pull that forked tongue from behind your teeth.”

“Dark words, for one claiming to be born of the light,” hissed the nightmarish fiend, returning its full attention back upon the Alicorn before her, treading closer a few steps as the words left her borrowed throat. “I suppose such actions to be entirely possible however, clearly you have no remorse,” a sickening crack of breaking bone filled the forest air as the Nightmare’s form slowly began to shrink, reverting back to that of the Lunar princess, her skin tearing as dozens of wounds revealed themselves, her wings both hanging limp, broken, and useless at her sides.

Celestia could only look on in horror as the transformation came to an end, her sister’s body slumping to the ground with a silent scream etched onto her face. Blood pooled around the fallen form, the young mare’s chest heaving with the mere effort to breath.

“Take your sister for example, though she is clearly your own flesh and blood, you have beaten her, bloodied her. All in the sake of fighting me, and to what end?” Though the face was once again that of Princess Luna, it was indeed the Nightmare Celestia found residing behind her sister’s eyes, the feral slit pupils fair testament to that. “Surely you must have noticed it by now, Celestia, the way the nobles all whisper behind your back, or perhaps taken notice to the grand armies of the world, coming together in search of the wealth of these lands you have claimed.”

As visibly shaken as she was, nothing could have prepared the Alicorn for what came next. The predatory quality of the eyes vanished, leaving behind the lively orbs her sister had sported. Celestia would have wept with joy, had she not known better. The Nightmare never relinquished a worthy host so easily.

“Please…” The sudden plea, uttered in an unmistakable voice, wrenched at Celestia’s heart. “Please sister, no more, make it stop. Please…”

“You should know, Celestia,” the Nightmare continued, her own demented tone returning to smother that of the princess once again. “There are none who have suffered quite as much as she has, though Luna hides it well, her resentment of you grows daily. It took some digging, but I found it nonetheless.”

Celestia found herself backing away, her concentration shattered as her sister’s body rose to its hooves, wings flexing in unnatural ways as bones moved back into place.

“You should be thanking me, really. The poor girl was in such turmoil when I found her, feeling so alone, abandoned,” Nightmare licked her lips at these words, a manic grin spreading over her stolen face as she advanced. “And the pain, such terrible pain, it’s delicious,”

“Why, sister?” Luna’s Voice asked again, the despair almost too much for Celestia to bear. “Why do they shun my most wondrous night? Why dost thou?”

“You have no idea, do you, how deep her resentment truly goes? How it broke her, to discover that you yourself claimed hers to be the lesser light,” the Nightmare was speaking directly into Celestia’s eyes now, their muzzles nearly touching as she berated her adversary, talking down at her as though she were a mere grub. “I know these things now, Celestia, she has no secrets left kept from me. Her mind was at such odds with itself, it was hardly even a challenge to take her,” she said scathingly, the faintest grin forming as she spotted the look of realization cross the other mare’s face. “All because of you.”

“No, no you are wrong, you are lying!” Celestia shrieked back, nearly stumbling over her own hooves as she continued to back away, the horrid spectacle following relentlessly. “Luna is my sister! She loves me! She loves Equestria!”

One of Luna’s forelegs lashed out, striking the solar princess and driving her to the mossy dirt. “Fool! How blind must you be? Even if I had not survived to return this day, conflict would have arisen between you two, you yourself are the cause behind the hardening of young Luna’s heart, you made her this way! You made her weak,” Nightmare emphasized her words with a swift kick that sent her quarry skidding across the ground. “And now, it is high time that you paid for your transgressions, against all of us.”

Celestia pushed herself back to her hooves, panting heavily as her magical aura flickered. “Never have I done anything to you, you and that deranged monster brought about war and death to a place that had put such things behind it, to ponies who sought better ways!”

“Do not try to shield yourself with such deluded words of self-righteousness. The Alicorns are guilty of trespasses in the past just like everyone else, you are certainly no exception. Time and again you have proven unworthy of the Ancient’s gifts, too long has your race squandered them for personal gain, claiming it their right, their place to stand above all the rest,” Nightmare lectured as she drew closer once again, her power seeming only to increase as she moved.

“It was always our right, to guide and nurture this world, that was the task bequeathed to us by the Forger himself!” Celestia staggered back as a wave of pure magic tore into her from the advancing Nightmare, her words having a clear effect. “Surely you of all ponies would know such history. The Star Order…”

“Knows only what their precious tomes and scrolls have to offer!” Nightmare snarled, another surge of her power knocking her opponent to the dirt. “And tell me, Celestia, heir to such knowledge and lies. Who pray tell, has been responsible for archiving such knowledge? Who is responsible for recording the histories passed down throughout the ages?” Her sneer only deepened as the other mare lowered her head. “In their final days the Order became little more than a cruel joke, Princess, long have they been led astray from that which they had been, a mere shell of what they were always meant to be.”

“That is not true,” Celestia cut in, some of the strength returning to her voice as she struggled to rise. “My father saw fit to restore the Star Order to its true path, he returned them to their former glory and purpose,”

“Your father!” Nightmare said with a seething laugh, effortlessly knocking away Celestia’s attempt at a surprise attack. Catching the follow-up blow she twisted the captured limb, her face contorting in twisted pleasure as the sound of a tearing joint reached her ears. “Terra manipulated them into fulfilling his own efforts to bring about the war he always wanted, he knew the great city would never surrender its secrets to him, Cromithia saw into his heart,” she pushed the leg away, watching her prey collapse without its support. “It saw the darkness within him, Celestia. The King used them like he did anyone else he thought could hasten his goals. The Order, his Paladins, even those loyal to a fault Rustwings fell prey to his manipulations in the end.”

“And Discord? Am I to believe that he succumbed as well?” Celestia shot back, her mane beginning to smoke as the hate flashed behind her eyes once more. “You would have me think my father to blame for the actions of that monster! Your master’s intentions were always that of his own agenda! And I was indeed a fool for ever seeing him in any other light, for thinking him a friend…” her voice trailed off there, the faded intimation of regret hanging in the momentary silence that settled between the two, a silence Nightmare shattered with another laugh.

“Discord? My master?” Nightmare crowed, her sides shaking with the first genuine sounding laughter Celestia had witnessed from the creature, there was a second’s pause that felt nearly companionable, lost forever as the haunting eyes of the pony found Celestia again, their edges hardening with intent. “That cowering lump of impure filth causes us nothing but inconvenience, again you demonstrate your incompetence through your own ignorance. I shall take great pleasure staining the ground where you stand with your blood,” as she spoke Luna’s body was wracked with tremors once again, assuming the nightmarish guise of its invader, growing until it was Celestia’s equal, an aura of dark energy crackling to life. “And with you gone, Celestia, I will burn this pitiful nation of yours to the ground leaving your ponies to flee in fear of what you drove Luna to become! When they do, I shall leave your precious sister to rot in the damnation she feared for so long, she will be alone with her misery, and when she finally breaks, I w-”

A golden blast of magic tore into the Nightmare, ripping her off her hooves and tossing her through the forest, leaving the glowing form of Celestia to rise once more, her mane and tail coming alight with brilliant flames, a pure white light shining from within as a radiance of the purest sunlight shone from her coat.

“You are right in one regard, Nightmare, I have failed this charge I have inherited on many occasions,” her voice echoed as the power welling within her distorted the very atmosphere around her. With the slightest of motions she was upon the still smoking form of her adversary, another blast of sunlight striking the crumpled demon. “What drives me forward even when I fall, is knowing that you aided in causing this inheritance,” she said, turning to give chase as the beast blurred forward with supernatural speed. “You, Discord! You took away everything we had!” A third blast saw the Nightmare hurled into a stand of trees, the hundred year old trunks disintegrated under the barrage. “And I will be DAMNED if I am to lose the last pony that I can call family!” With a final scream she dove through the tattered foliage, landing before the recipient of her hatred as it slowly rose, glaring back at her with trepidation now showing in her eyes. “With the Ancients as my witness, through one method or another, I shall be rid of you this night,” at these booming words, she charged, a blinding light fighting back the darkness.

With an unholy scream the Nightmare hurled its stolen form into the chest of the solar diarch, slamming against her with the force to crush a mountain, the pair blasting their surroundings apart as they drove each other through the air.

The assault was swift, vicious, and brutal in its pure efficiency. A flurry of heavy blows striking with practiced precision, leaving no avenue for defense as they hurtled onward, carving a swath of destruction in their wake as they pushed ever deeper into the Everfree. A Nightmare, and a loving sister.

/ / / / / / / / / / / /

The Dreamscape; Present events…

“I have to say, this was not something I ever expected from you, Luna,” Nightmare said with a quiet growl, the sound fading into the background, melding in with the countless whispers and mumbled words that drifted through the air around them. “After a thousand years together you should have known better than to bring an enemy here.”

“And thou should have known that no enemy of mine shall ever best me in this realm, it is my domain,” Luna said, her reply stoic and strong, mirroring her stance that betrayed no fear. “Only a true master of the dark holds power here, a power I intend with which to exact justice upon you for all your sins.”

“Justice,” Nightmare glowered back, rolling the word around on her tongue as she glanced over herself in the unfamiliar environment, her old body a strangely comforting sight considering how she had given it up because of its frailty. The pitch black fur of her coat seemed distorted here, almost ghostly in the hazy atmosphere that shrouded her senses. “A bold choice of words, don’t you think, Princess?” Her eyes swept over her back, ignoring the closely cropped violet locks of mane in favor of the wings she wished were still there. The now reverted Unicorn clenched her teeth as she finally turned back to her captor, knowing Luna’s sense of honor would keep her from attacking before she was ready. “Try vengeance, it would better suit our situation.”

“Nay,” Luna objected coldly, the energy darkening around her as it responded to the mare’s orders. “As much pleasure as it would undoubtedly grant me to smite thee where you stand and scatter your remains amongst our stars, that is not my way, it is yours. I shall not fall to such dark desires as you have,” she stomped the transparent energy below her, a ripple surging across its inky surface, from the depths rose a weapon that Nightmare recognized all too well, a long slender shaft ending in a wickedly sharp point glinted in the shifting light, a short outwardly curving blade extended from one side the edge glowing a faint powder blue, the opposite side sporting a short serrated hook that angled back towards the user. Luna’s halberd.

The Alicorn could not resist a smile as she hefted the old relic in her magic; she had been most pleased to find that it had survived her absence, tucked away in one of Canterlot’s vaults, its familiar weight reassuring in the face of this monster. “I may not kill you, Nightmare, but in here I can only ever truly harm your mind, and that, holds no sway over me.”

At first it seemed as though Nightmare was at odds with herself, contemplating her options as Luna began to approach her, only to give the other mare pause as she let free a low chuckle, a laugh that fell to a face of complete seriousness. “Magical constructs? How quaint,” she said icily, raising a hoof as a smudge of black appeared beside her. “But, if you insist on semantics, I suppose the least I can do is to humor you,” a dull handle-less blade rose from the murk, the telekinesis weapon floated to its place beside its master, obedient to the end. Eldershade.

Luna arched an eyebrow, scrutinizing the gleaming metal floating beside her enemy, she knew this weapon, knew it to be feared for what it to be capable of. “I would ask how, but then the answer would only be a half truth, something that I already know,” she tensed, bringing her own weapon to bear.

“The answer is rather simple really, you said so yourself actually,” Nightmare said evenly, taking the initiative to close the distance between them with a few short steps. “Only a master of the dark has any power here, which brings me to my question, how do you know so much of what the master has planned? More importantly, who told you?”

/ / / / / / / / / / / /

One year after the Nightmare’s banishment…

The Nightmare snarled silently in the vacuum, her anger wasted on the void around her as she paced, continuing along a path that countless hoof steps had worn into the cold gray stone, her thoughts icy and sterile as the environment around her. For days, for weeks, for months now, she had walked this path, carved it into the waste as she marched.

Cresting a low rise in the terrain she grit her teeth once again, eyes narrowing with a chilled threatening glint, a solemn promise of redemption upon those whom had dared to cross her, and the one being she willingly called, master.

With ever growing rage the Nightmare slammed her borrowed hoof into the crumbled rock, puffs of pulverized dust shooting off into the inky black depths as gravity failed to stall the loosed grains. She shook with a near blinding fury, what little power she could still muster shaking the ground under her hooves as she glared upon the heavenly sphere rising up from the horizon, a constant reminder to her untimely imprisonment. She wanted ever so much to scream, to shout out her lust for all their deaths, to let any who might be listening partake in her inner pain.

A fruitless endeavor, worthless in the extreme, this is what Nightmare had gathered foremost upon her, rather violent, arrival. Even wielding the power of an immortal body, there can be no true contest against the all encompassing void eternal, that which separates all, and yet, binds them together just the same.

She had of course tried, in the beginning she had nearly been the cause of her own demise, slinging what little energy remained within her against this place, draining power that refused to be rekindled, weakening her ever further towards that great abyss. The realization had come much too late, already the princess’s mane had lost its luster, ceasing the ever present flow it gathered from the ethereal wind, her greatest source of strength, rendering her body weak.

And still, even in this harsh, unforgiving place did the true curse of an immortal show its hidden colors. Though she could feel the vacuum freezing her very core, she could never perish. Her lungs burned for the sweet touch of air, yet never could she simply succumb.

It was in this place, possessing more power than Nightmare could have ever imagined, did she find herself truly helpless. Truly afraid of what the future might bring. That was long since forgotten now, pushed back into the darker recesses of her mind, there it would dwell for all eternity if need be. For an immortal never truly forgets.

Nightmare pawed the ground, fresh anger spewing forth as she allowed these memories to surface, if only for a moment. She needed them, needed them to remind her why this was all going to be worth the price in the end, why all her suffering would come to such sweet fruition.

She fondly thought of the promised day to come, the day she would be set free and finally be allowed to set the next portion of the masters’ plan into motion. If only the wait had not required so much of her time, not that it made much difference to her, an immortal. Time was of little consequence to her now; she had all the time she could ever need. What was a thousand years to a being such as her? An immortal. An omnipotent. A god.

The Nightmare shook her head, swiftly clearing it of such thoughts; it would be the height of hubris to consider herself such things, for the time being, that is. The master, the manipulator of old, he was the truest pinnacle of power within this realm. Surly, he was far greater than she. Perhaps, even greater than she could ever hope to become, these powers she now possessed manifested through not but his will alone, a point he had made clear on many more than one occasion.

She shuddered violently at the mere thought, her own obvious limitations fueling her rage as she assaulted the stone ground once more, the force of it little more than a mortal’s outburst. Nightmare cursed her weakness, holding the now throbbing limb to her chest as she closed her eyes tightly, nursing her own pride as she tried to reason with herself for what must have been the thousandth time. Truly, this was her lowliest moment, and she took some comfort in the knowledge that none would ever witness it.

“It’s a sad thing, really,” said a voice somewhere in the back of Nightmare’s skull; it filled her consciousness, drifting in from every conceivable direction at once. “That moment, when somebody realizes just how far they have fallen. My sympathies, I know the feeling, all too well.”

The Nightmare wheeled about, her senses suddenly finding her to be no longer alone; a sole signature had flared to life behind her as if from thin air. She turned, finding the most unusual creature, something she had come to believe to be nothing more than some old mare’s tale.

Before the dark mare stood a rather bizarrely colored newt, standing perhaps six inches in height and wearing a most unnerving smile that showed an array of finely pointed teeth. The diminutive little thing stood a mere few paces away, beady little eyes working over her form with growing indecency. “Nightmare,” he finally said, the voice once more echoing around her mind with ease despite her attempts at keeping him out. He sounded surprisingly formal, almost companionable, despite the slight look of mounting disgust. “I would say that it’s an honor, but, to be quite frank, I really don’t like you.”

Nightmare sputtered to herself, nearly yelling aloud despite the lack of necessary oxygen. Another moment passed silently between the two before she could finally summon the concentration to reply in kind. “You vile wretch! How dare you appear to us in such a way?! We, I demand an explanation!”

“Sorry, peasant,” the newt replied coldly, his gaze hardening into a glare. “But I’m not here to converse with the likes of you, my tight schedule won’t allow for something so frivolous,” he took an advancing step, the motion unsettlingly intimidating given Tillook’s overall stature. “I’m here, for Luna.”

The Nightmare snarled, the action losing what frail amount of ferocity it held as she found herself taking a pace as well, retreating a step in attempt to gain some ground. Her horn flared in a sickly green glow that lit up the desolate landscape in a hellish hue, the look in her eyes growing feral with rage.

“There is no Luna here, demon!” Nightmare spat, her voice cracking as power filled her, “This body is mine! This power is mine! This soul is…” She grit her teeth in pain as the aura that had been surrounding her shattered apart, the energy simply being ripped away as if some great force had wrenched it from its place.

With hardly a thought made in resistance the crippled mare collapsed to the rocky ground, eyes showing fear for the first time since her host had succumbed. “What? What have you done to me?” Nightmare struggled feebly, her senses dazed and confused, finding what little amount of magic left within her to be held fast, bound in place through some unseen force, “What fresh devilry is this? What have you done?!”

“What have I done?” The vexing amphibian parroted, a humorless expression having taken its place among his features as he walked over to look her in the eye, “What I have done is to grant you a taste of the torture you so readily impose upon your victims. What I’ve done, is to show you what you have become, a mere ‘shadow’ of your former self.”

Nightmare could only twitch in rage, her fury powerless against whatever mystical means entrapped her. “What would you know of such things? You are nothing!” She was nearly screaming now, her mind filling with nothing but the deepest of loathing for the visitor. She sneered up at the newt as his face momentarily flashed with curiosity, seeming not to comprehend any meaning from the words. “Oh yes, I know all about the mighty Tillook, master told me well enough, the tyrant seeking dominion over us all, willing to end any who…” She cut off into agonized thrashing, her silent screams going unheard in the void.

“Think I’ve heard about all I care to out of this one,” Tillook murmured, his spindly fingers waving through the air dispelling the magic coursing over the Nightmare’s borrowed form before she could lose consciousness. “Now,” he said, voice barely an audible whisper at the very fringes of her mind. “Make yourself scarce, I have some things the princess will want to hear.”

The Nightmare pushed back against the invading presence within her mind, straining against what felt like unmovable stone, a wall of will that remained in place despite her best efforts. “I shall do no such thing! How dare the likes of you make such a request of me?”

Tillook burst out in hearty laughter, or would have if any sound could have been heard in the cold vacuum that surrounded the two. He then leaned in, moving uncomfortably close, eyes glowing a sickening yellow in the dark. “That, was no request,” he said with steel in his tone, a hand extending to the mares forehead. “Tout à l'heure, bitch,” and with that a single digit made contact with Nightmare’s skull, causing the fiend’s eyes to roll back into their sockets, her head striking the ground a moment later.

/ / / / / / / / / /

Luna shivered, for what seemed like hours she laid still, her mind cold and sluggish as she tried to discern the current situation. As if through a fog memories began to fade back into place, images and voices from long times past, all that she was, and had been flooded back as control returned to her.

Along with the memories, came the sensations, mane, tail, limbs, all accounted for. Then came the cold, not the chill of a winter’s day, nor the icy breath of a frosty night. No, this was a deep numbing, a piercing freeze that found its way to her very core. It filled her empty stomach and lungs, and coursed through her veins. Each beat of her heart sent a new wave of ice through her body.

It was the greatest comfort she could have asked for, a familiar harbor in a sea of uncertainty and confusion. Try as she might, the princess could not quite figure as to why she felt this way, she simply knew it to be so; it was as if a piece of her soul had awoken from a deep slumber.

/ / / / / / / / / / /

Tillook backed off a few paces, his face unreadable as he watched the shuddering form before him, the dark body shrinking down into something much more recognizable, limbs creaking as the bones moved, the transformation receding rapidly leaving behind the pale blue form of Princess Luna. “Faust,” he muttered, fingers balling into fists at the sight of her apparent frailty. “Even worse than I thought.”

With some effort an eyelid slid open on the face of the shaking mare, revealing the darting cyan iris beneath as it searched for the voice that had been more felt than heard. After another moment of frantic searching it landed on the only other living thing present, its cat like appearance slowly reverting to a more normal shape. “You?” Luna finally managed, voice scratchy and raw, the faintest hint of disappointment playing at its edge.

“Heya kid,” Tillook said in soft reply, the faintest hint of a warm smile tugged at the corner of his face. “Sorry if I’m not the one you were hoping for, but you and I need to have a chat…”

Author's Notes:

Alright, so it's finally done, now, don't panic but this is likely to be the final chapter for "this" version of the story. For those of you not already in the know Infinity's End is in the process of being redone, it's getting expanded and polished up and then will be reposted. If interested keep an eye out for our blog post entitled "The Plan" which should be out in the next few days and will explain what's going on and why this last chapter took so dang long. Again, thanks for the support in this endeavor. ~Dollars.

Here's hoping the next one gets out in a shorter time frame!

-Jake