A pair of dark, malevolent eyes glared sharply at the tall, angelic mare across from her, a mouthful of sharp fangs bared at her. Her coat was almost entirely black, save for the section around her rear legs and lower back, where her crescent moon cutie mark was emblazoned in a glowing white light, a trace of blue barely visible. A tall horn, black as the darkest night erupted from her forehead, and a long, gleaming silver blade was held aloft by her magical aura. The Ex-Princess, now Queen Nightmare Moon was hovering only a few meters off of the ground, which was littered with the still forms of her former army. Arrival.

Hovering across from her, her body and golden armor enveloped in an almost blindingly white aura, was her sister, Queen Celestia. The elder alicorn gazed steadily at her, her eyes full of pain and remorse, which was met by only anger and loathing.

“You think you have won, dear sister?” Nightmare Moon asked with a hiss. “Just because our army lies defeated and our ritual spell thwarted, it does not mean that we are done! On the contrary, we are just beginning!”

“Luna, please, stop this madness!” The elder sister begged, her voice near to its breaking point with grief. “You’re accomplishing nothing by these actions! The ponies of Equestria fear and despise you now far more than they ever did before, please sister, there is still time for you to turn back!”

Nightmare Moon laughed, but this was no laugh of joy, nor happiness, nor even of joviality. No, instead this laugh was full of nothing but bitterness and hate. Celestia flinched at the awful sound.

“And whose fault is that, dearest sister?” the dark alicorn growled. “Who is the most beautiful of all ponies? Who is the one that all of our subjects would rather see? Who is the one that is not feared for her attempts to help them sleep easier at night?”

“Luna... that’s not fair and you know it!” Celestia exclaimed. “They fear you because you’re attempting to bring about eternal night!”

“WRONG!” Nightmare roared as she charged her horn for another assault. “THEY FEAR US BECAUSE OF YOU!” She released the terrifyingly powerful blast of energy at her sister, intending to kill her once and for all.

Celestia’s horn glowed a bright white, and suddenly, she was enveloped by a shield of harmonious energy that blocked the dark mare’s attack. The white alicorn then charged through the air towards Nightmare, her horn glowing brightly as it reflected off of the flowing rainbow of her mane. Nightmare charged forward as well, her own horn seemingly sucking her sister's light from the air as she readied it for another blast.

They met in the center of the clearing and both alicorns unleashed the ferocious energy that they carried. In a tremendous explosion of white and blue light, Nightmare was thrown backwards through the air, corkscrewing into the ground. Her sword landed beside her, embedding itself in the ground before magically returning to its place in the scabbard at her side.

Celestia strode forwards slowly and powerfully, a set of six gems hovering in the air around her head. “Luna, I know that you’re in there somewhere,” she said softly. “Hopefully the Elements can release you from this parasite’s dark hold.”

Nightmare blearily looked up at Celestia, hatred and anger seething in her eyes. “We are Luna,” she replied at a low growl. “You are just too blind to see us, blind like all the others!”

The white alicorn’s face softened for half a second, but then hardened, and without further hesitation she unleashed the powers of the Elements of Harmony on the struggling form of her sister.

The swirling rainbow of harmonic energy streaked through the air and struck Nightmare in the chest, flowing around her like a swarm of bizarrely colored bees. What followed could only be described as the single most painful experience in Nightmare’s existence, as the Forces of Harmony seemed to eat at her very being. When the pain finally subdued, Nightmare stood stock still, her coat still black.

Celestia stared in shock. Not only was the Nightmare still in control of her sister, which should have been inconceivable at this point, but the fact that she was still standing was nothing short of... of impossible!

“Sister?” Celestia asked slowly. “Are you in there, Lulu?”

The mare across from her focused her attention on Celestia once more, and her to the elder mare’s horror, the eyes were still full of hate.

“You tried to stop us with the Elements sister? US? The ones who have always had the strongest connection to them?!” Nightmare shouted. “We who first discovered them in that temple so long ago, we who first dubbed that they were our tools with which to fight the foul Draconequus Discord?!” She continued, walking forward, her rage allowing her to ignore the immense pain coursing through her entire body.

Celestia began to backpedal away from her sister. The Elements had been her trump card, and now that they had failed...

“For this- this insult- I will kill you, sister!” Nightmare Moon shouted, her voice equal parts anger and outrage, even as the black of her coat began to flicker. “I-I will bathe in your blueblood and erase your name from history! I shall-”

She was cut off in mid-sentence by a powerful blast of glowing purple energy that smashed into her ribs, knocking her to the side. The mare recovered and turned to see the defiant form of Clover the Clever standing there, her purple and pink mane swirling with magic.

“Not one more word out of you, monster!” The mare shouted as her horn began to glow even brighter. “I banish you from this realm! I cast you out from this plane! I sentence you to wander!”

As the last word left the mare’s mouth, her horn discharged its energy and a ball of power slammed into Nightmare Moon who suddenly found reality slipping away from her as a great force pushed against her. She struggled against the flow, scrapping with her hooves and flapping with her wings, but it was to no avail. Before she had realized it, Nightmare Moon was falling... seemingly into oblivion itself.

Clover the Clever turned to Celestia who was staring at her in abject shock.

“It had to be done,” the mare said coldly. “We discussed it ahead of time, should the Elements fail then we would banish her.”

Celestia shivered but nodded her head stiffly. “Yes...” without waiting for a response from her dear friend, the alicorn leapt into the air, not wanting Clover to see the tears that ran down from her eyes. Little known to Celestia, Clover’s face was similarly stained.

“I’m...I’m so sorry Luna... so... so... sorry,” the young unicorn said softly before turning away from the spot where the mare had vanished. She and her liege had work to do.

Sarah Summers walked along the unfamiliar cracked concrete, once again going over the events that had gotten her kicked out of her home what seemed like years ago... but was really only a day and a half. The young woman winced at that.

A day and a half since her father had left her to fend for herself in the Vault as the Overseer’s men had come to kill her. A day and a half since she’d been forced to kill said Overseer in order to protect her best friend. A day and A half since her best friend had slapped her across the face and ordered her out of her home.

The woman shuddered slightly at the ghost of pain that flitted across her cheek at the memory of Amata’s outrage. Sarah was still... conflicted about what she had done.

At the time, with Amata tied to a chair and her father standing over her with Officer Mack fingering his police baton with a leery grin on his face, Sarah had reacted with the instincts long ago instilled in her by Officer Gomez, and pulled the trigger launching a salvo of 10mm bullets into both of them.

Sarah shook her head and her black hair wafted across her vision. The woman sighed and took another look at her surroundings, not wanting to get so lost in thought that she would be an easy target for another of the many roving bands of raiders that she’d first heard so much about from Moira.

Damn, that woman can talk for hours... Sarah thought to herself as she remembered her conversation with the perky shopkeeper. Oh well, she was nice enough to give me this armored vault suit for free, she continued to think as she gently put a hand on the armored suit that had already saved her life a few times in her short time in the Wasteland.

The smoothed wooden stock of her hunting rifle lay between her fingers and as she walked along, scanning the surrounding area for any threats. Though the woman had already encountered one or two small groups of the raiders who she’d managed to avoid for the most part, she had the oddest feeling that her trip to the Super Duper Mart was going to be a bit more hazardous.

Of course the first task that she’d completed for Moira hadn’t exactly been fun either. She still wasn’t sure why she’d thought it was a good idea to get irradiated by drinking from the water around the bomb... something about it being the quickest way possible. Her stomach had informed her of how bad an idea that had been when she’d spent the next two hours puking her irradiated guts out into Moira’s toilet as the woman gently massaged her back.

She shook her head again to bring herself back to reality as she checked her Pip-Boy’s map screen. Sarah smiled as she saw that she was closing in on the remains of the Super Duper Mart. She was making better time than she’d thought she would, and barring any problems, she’d be back in Megaton just as the light of the sun began to die.

With that happy thought in mind the woman crested the hill that she’d been walking steadily up and got her first site of the Super Duper Mart. The dilapidated building was in better shape than she’d expected, though she noticed a large hole in the roof near the back. As the woman began to walk down the slope she heard the distinctive sound of gunfire coming from the parking lot.

Sarah’s eyes narrowed and she fell into a crouch, her fingers tightening around her rifle even further. She crept forwards around the side of the building, her eyes scanning back and forth as she approached the parking lot. Once she’d reached the corner of the building she leaned against it, and peeked out around it. To her surprise, she saw two raiders taking potshots at one of the odd floating robots that traveled the Wastes spreading their crappy music with them as they went.

Even more surprising, the robot seemed to be holding its own despite the raiders’ superior firepower. Sarah watched the conflict curiously, the raiders were hiding behind one of the many destroyed cars as the tiny robot assaulted their position with its tiny red laser. The woman let out a single steadying breath and brought her rifle up to her face, then she carefully positioned it so that it was pointing at one of the raider’s heads. Once more drawing on what Gomez had taught her, she made sure that her grip on the rifle was right, that her breathing was even, and that (most importantly) the safety was off.

The bullet exploded out of the barrel and roared straight into the back of the raider’s skull in an explosion of blood. The other raider, who had just finished destroying the eyebot turned to see his dead friend, and spotted Sarah as she ducked back behind the corner.

“I’m going to kill you, bitch!” he shouted at her before bringing his 10mm pistol to bear on the corner and firing several shots. Chips of concrete and mortar fell around Sarah’s head and she hoped desperately that none of the bullets would make it through.

“I really am going to need to ask Moira to pay me more for this type of thing,” Sarah muttered to herself, an unsteady tinge of fear underlying her voice. Even though she had been trained for this type of thing... there was a far cry from shooting at static targets on a shooting range, and shooting at targets who were actually shooting back.

She peeked her head out of cover, and a 10mm round whizzed by, literally inches away from her face.

“Shit!” she yelped as she pulled her head back to safety. She held the hunting rifle to her chest and once again peaked out once it seemed like the raider was reloading, she sighted down the barrel and took a shot. The raider let out a laugh as the round flew wide and Sarah barely had time to pull back into cover before a round slammed into the stone.

“Why did no one think to put iron sights on a fucking hunting rifle?” she asked herself angrily, her voice growing even more frayed thanks to the failure.

“Aww what’s the matter bitch, are you afraid of me?” The raider taunted. “Well that’s good, you should be!”

Sarah growled frustratedly and peaked around the corner again, this time a bullet bounced off her shoulder guard, but she ignored it and focused on her shot. Time seemed to slow as she lined up her rifle’s barrel with his head. Seconds ticked by like hours and she called up VATS to double check her aim, 85%, good enough. She pulled down the trigger, and her shot leapt towards the raider, hitting him in the throat and exiting out the back of his neck.

The woman let out a sigh of relief as the body dropped to the ground and slowly started to regain control of her elevated breathing. Sarah took a last look around the parking lot to make sure that there weren’t any raiders that she’d missed, or who were hiding nearby, and then moved cautiously towards the fallen bodies.

As she reached the first one, the raider who had been shooting at her, her stomach threatened to heave her lunch of snack cakes all over the dead man’s body. Killing... and the body that it left behind was still new to her and the fact that she was responsible for the death of someone caused her to be almost physically ill.

However, she understood that there were some people who deserved to die, and there was no point in not taking what she needed from their bodies. So, while fighting back her revulsion she began to dig through the pockets of the raider’s ratty armor. That done, and a new 10mm pistol in the bag around her left shoulder along with a few more bullets for her belt pouch, she continued onto the next one who had more of the same.

Then Sarah turned to stare at the Super Duper Mart’s entrance.

“Okay... so if there were any raiders in there then they would’ve come out to see what all the shouting was about ... right?” she asked herself, hoping that she was right and that there wasn’t an army of them inside of the store waiting to pounce on her. Sarah let out a slightly nervous chuckle as she approached the door at a crouch and carefully pushed it open.

As she entered the dark space she immediately noted how wrong her assumption had been. There were at least ten raiders patrolling the room, none of whom looked particularly calm.

“Dammit man, what the hell did that?” one of them who was close enough for Sarah to hear asked another.

“I don’t know man, but whatever it was it crashed through the fucking roof!” the other raider exclaimed. “I wonder if its some sort of alien weapon or something, I mean shit doesn’t just fall from the sky!”

“Yeah, that would be fucking awesome, what if it sets things on fire!” the first replied excitedly. “It’s too bad we lost the key to the room, we’ll have to break down the door to get to it!”

“We’d already have the thing if you dipshits hadn’t forgotten the password to that terminal!” A third raider yelled at them. “And shut up about it, Benny and the others will be back soon and they’ve got the extra key!”

Sarah frowned, it seemed that whatever had made that hole in the building was behind a locked door... whatever it was, Sarah decided that she wanted it. But first, there were the raiders to take care of.

She quietly made her way to the nearest checkout aisle and got into cover behind the counter. Then, she brought up her rifle, focused on the nearest raider’s head, and pulled the trigger.

BANG! Luna frowned in her unconsciousness. BANG!

She turned over and attempted to blot out the noise.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Wake up, you fool! a familiar voice shouted within her mind. Luna’s eyes flickered open in surprise at the anger in the voice and what she saw caught her completely off guard.

The first thought that struck her was that she was no longer in the forest clearing, instead she was in a confining metal walled room... in fact, she could see no greenery anywhere in the enclosure. She jumped to her hooves, and then fell flat on her face as her legs buckled beneath her in pain.

Slowly, we’ve just taken a rather painful trip and our body isn’t quite ready for anything fast. Nightmare’s voice spoke within her mind, losing a bit of its earlier bite.

I-what? Where are we? Luna inquired in confusion as she looked around the strange room, taking in the fallen metal shelves, odds and ends scattered around the floor, and the odd... tube that seemed to entrap a bipedal metal construct.

I-I do not know, Nightmare answered, obviously troubled by the fact. However, it seems likely that Clover has cast us out of Equestria… though we are not lost in the infinite void between planes it would seem.

She did what? How? But Clover would never... she is our friend! Luna shouted, her mental voice colored with shock, confusion, rage... and most of all a sense of overwhelming betrayal.

And yet here we are, Nightmare replied pointedly. And the Elements managed to drain us of enough of our magic to render us incapable of holding our true form together.

Luna looked down at herself and saw that instead of the stately black fur that she had become accustomed to of late, she instead saw her childish blue fur. The mare’s eyes widened and she let out a low growl.

“This is Tia’s fault... she turned Clover against us... she’s going to pay for this!”

Keep your voice down, Nightmare hissed. We still don’t know what is making that banging sound and I would rather that whatever creature it is doesn’t find us sprawled on the floor like a day old foal!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The statement was punctuated by another round of loud bangs and Luna nodded her head slowly, seeing the wisdom in her other half’s advice. Carefully and tenderly the mare began to get to her hooves, pain wracking her body with every movement despite the care that she put into each of them.

After several moments of silent, painful struggling she eventually made her way to the door and pushed against it with her hoof. To her annoyance this resulted in nothing.

I believe it is locked, Nightmare commented dryly.

I noticed, Luna replied frustratedly as she attempted to draw enough power into her horn to force the door off of its hinges. Unfortunately, as she did so the nerves in her horn spasmed in protest and Luna let out a quiet shriek of pain.

Be careful! We’re still healing and we do not have much magic left! Nightmare snapped at her, pain filling her voice to a sharp edge.

Luna ground her teeth together at the pain, and released her hold on the door. Instead, a more subtle approach was needed. She turned to the scabbard at her side which had managed to survive the fall through both dimensions and the ceiling unscathed.

With a smile, the first one to grace her face all day, she pulled Day Breaker from its sheath and held the silver blade aloft in the air in front of her. She winced at the pain coming from her protesting horn but ignored it. With a swift stab, the blade stabbed through the center of the door.

“SHIT!”

Author's Notes:

This story was an idea that I've been tossing around inside of my mind for a while now and I'm excited to finally get it out to the public and hear what you guys think!

That being said, there's something I want to address, mainly Luna not speaking in Old English. I know that she should be doing it, but I know that I would be unable to pull it off. So in this situation, it's a case of necessity that Luna isn't using her thees and thous. Hopefully none of you will mind that much, but if you do I'm sorry.

Finally, I already have the next 5 chapters written and are just awaiting looking over by my friend who is acting as an editor so that's good news.

Anyways, I hope you've enjoyed the first chapter of this story, and hope you enjoy the rest as well!

-Ed2481