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Princess Twilight Sparkle opens her eyes slowly, her body feeling numb. She coughs weakly as she wipes the sleep dust from her eyes, looking around groggily as she takes in her surroundings from the comfortable chaise lounge that she has awoken in.

Deep blue cushions edged with silver are arranged beneath her, presumably to try and make her comfortable as a cool breeze drifts across her skin from the open windows. Outside, Twilight can see a tapestry of stars already taking shape as the chill breath of the night kisses her cheek.

I must have been out for longer than I thought… did I bump my head? She looks around the room, her eyes adjusting to the pale light of the moon as it streams through the window. Twilight frowns faintly, trying to place the location. As her eyes adjust, she picks up more details, the bookcases built into the walls, the high pillared ceiling, the massive wooden desk with its big chair behind it. Twilight sits up, her feet sinking down into thick black carpet. She tilts her head, confusion imprinted upon her face.

Wait a minute, this is Princess Celestia’s study, Twilight thinks. At least, it appears to be Princess Celestia’s study. However, there are differences, some subtle, others less so. There is no fireplace for one thing, and where the radiant sun-in-glory banner is proudly displayed in Celestia’s office, a different standard hangs. Here, the banner hanging behind the chair is a bright silver crescent moon upon a lavender field. Instead of Celestia’s sceptre of office, a long ebon staff sits upon a shelf, the silvery orb built into the head of the rod casting a strange ethereal glow over the scene.

“Welcome back, Princess, you have been gone for quite a while.” A deep melodious voice drifts from the balcony and Twilight shudders as an icy hand closes around her heart. Twilight hasn’t heard that voice in a very long time, but the events of that long night had etched themselves indelibly into her memory. Twilight’s eyes snap toward a flicker of movement in the doorway out onto the balcony, and her breath catches in her throat as an impossibly tall figure crosses the threshold into the room. The floor creaks subtly beneath the figure’s weight as Nightmare Moon’s booted foot settles upon the carpeted floor.

The Princess of Darkness strides into the room, her elaborately decorated silver armour gleaming in the moonlight. A fog of absolute terror follows in her wake, a fog that grips Twilight’s senses. Her heartbeat thunders in her ears and the world around her fades as she stares in transfixed horror at the approaching Daemonic presence. Sigils and runes flicker along the edge of her armour and the temperature of the room drops like a stone. A jet black cloak flows behind her like smoke, and her right gauntlet confidently hefts a titanic war-hammer that Twilight recognizes from her arcane study books. The Umbra, the Hammer of the Daemon’s Promise.

Its handle is three feet of solid black steel, with black leather strips wrapped around the grip to give the wielder some purchase. The hammer’s warhead is a block of stone as black as night, and its reverse tapers into a long wicked looking spike. Scratches pit the hammer, and strange sigils have been carved into the stone. Twilight can feel raw magic crackling in the air like lightning.

For a heart-stopping moment, there is absolute silence. The ancient and terrible daemon and the demigoddess gaze at each other. The thoughts racing through that ancient and infinitely malevolent mind are unknowable. Nightmare Moon’s milky pale face gives no clue as to her emotions and those bright burning eyes are fixed and narrowed. The Princess of Darkness tilts her head slightly, the clicking of armour hanging in the silence of the study like a slap. For what feels like an eternity, there is stillness. Twilight does not even dare to breathe... After a moment or a millenium, Nightmare Moon’s gauntleted hand reaches languidly out through the ether. The grip on the hammer tightens with a rasp. Twilight’s face screws up against the coming blow. She can almost hear the sweep of displaced air as the hammer is drawn back...

Battered leather brushes gently across Twilight’s cheek.

The princess squeaks in surprise.

Her gauntlets are icy to the touch; the caress of the Daemon sends a chill down Twilight’s spine. The usurper’s hand slips away from her cheek. Twilight blinks in absolute surprise, followed by a surge of relief. A breath tremulously hisses out of Twilight’s lungs as she suddenly remembers to breathe, and the fog around her mind starts to lift slightly.

“Welcome to my little refuge,” the ageless spirit of the night intones warmly, pursing her lips after a moment and gazing coolly at Twilight whilst the young princess makes an admittedly feeble attempt to raise a shield as her faculties return. However as her hands remain locked to her sides, Twilight’s eyes widen and her mouth turns dry as she realizes she is rooted to the spot, unable to move. Nightmare Moon’s lips curl upward into a vicious smile, revealing those sharp unnaturally pointed teeth.

“Tut tut, that will never do.” Nightmare Moon’s mellifluous voice is gentle, as if this whole thing is some great joke. Her lips thin into a satisfied smile. “Now, Princess. I thought you would know the rules of my… alter ego’s dream conferences by now. You can’t do anything unless I let you, and you have to do what I make you.” Nightmare Moon slides her gauntleted hand down Twilight’s neck to her shoulder in a soft caress, and Twilight shivers at the touch, feeling aeons of sorcerous power rippling just beneath the mail and plate of the ancient Daemon. Nightmare Moon’s touch is as cold as the void between the stars, and many times more powerful. Twilight can feel those fingers even now prying her mind open.

“With that in mind,” Nightmare Moon says, her voice stiffening, “kneel.” The power of Nightmare Moon’s voice pulses through Twilight with a tremor, and she feels her knees bend. She feels herself drop forward. She tries to resist but her legs seem to move with a will of their own, and so her head sinks, looking down to the carpet. Nightmare Moon’s voice contains a note of command Twilight has never heard any sorcerer use, that particular incantation being many shades of unethical and illegal in Celestia’s Equestria.

“That’s better… I could get used to this,” Nightmare Moon’s tone brightens, and she turns her back on Twilight, her robe flapping faintly. “Now I want you to listen and listen well, for I shall only say this once.” Nightmare Moon’s magic suddenly twists and Twilight is yanked to her feet once more by the force of Nightmare Moon’s incantation. Blue vapour swirls around Twilight, and already she can feel the world flickering faintly. A scowl crosses the visage of the Daemon.

“It would be much easier without interruptions,” she growls. A flicker of concentration passes across her face and the environment becomes more solid, more real somehow. Twilight blinks as a startling realization strikes her.

“I’m dreaming,” she says, and Nightmare Moon’s frown deepens.

“You always were a clever little squirt. Yes you are dreaming, for now anyway.” Nightmare Moon almost sounds a little put out by this. “Anyway, I come now with a message to you, and it would be in your best interest to trust me.”

Twilight narrows her eyes into a faint scowl.

“Sure,” Twilight snorts sarcastically, “a creature that has attempted to subjugate my country by co-opting one of its rulers and forcing her to attempt to kill her sister, a creature that then tried to kill me and my closest friends. Why wouldn't I trust you?”

“Because I see more than your mortal mind could even begin to comprehend,” Nightmare Moon says coolly. “Locked away in my prison, which you put me into I might add, I see more than any mortal, even more than the lonely gods that stalk our plane… and I can tell you that you are both right and wrong at once. The conclusions that you’ve drawn about the Khan Problem are good, but some of the base assumptions that you’ve made are slightly off.”

“What?” Twilight’s brows knit in confusion whilst tremors pulse through the carpet. Her gaze shifts as her eyes are drawn to faint pink streaks starting to fleck the sky. Nightmare Moon scowls at the window as Twilight sees the ripples of light begin to blossom across the firmament.

“We do not have long, but I must tell you this. Events are now moving down a path which cannot be reset. The politics of the nineteenth century are over and done… the wolves have marked out their territory. All that’s left is to fight over what’s left. We are a lone wolf, and the packs are circling.”

“We? Who are ‘we’?” Twilight’s tone is skeptical and the ancient daemon nods coolly.

“Equestria of course, my sister’s favoured student. I’m no less a proud Imperial citizen than you are. I will rule Equestria eventually. I do not wish to rule a client state or a republic.” Nightmare Moon’s tone is poisonous, and the floorboards shudder under their feet, books beginning to spill from the bookshelves. Another powerful pulse of energy crackles through Nightmare Moon’s study. She frowns as the pink light in the sky brightens and a golden glow suffuses the sky in the east.

“Now. Listen closely because I doubt I can maintain this. The Khans are the problem, it is true, but the United Federation are the only other superpower besides us. It is clear to anyone with eyes that the Khans and the Equestrians are spoiling for a fight. It is also clear that the Khans represent a danger to everyone around them. Why then, are the United Federation giving them money and guns?”

Twilight tilts her head for a moment, but as another gut-wrenching pulse of magic punches through the room, cracks creeping across windows and drapes starting to tear, Nightmare Moon’s magical grip falters and she tumbles to the ground.
“The United Federation…” Twilight frowns, before scowling and shaking her head. “This is ridiculous, I’m not going to listen to this!” Twilight scrabbles to her feet as the arch-daemon’s scowl becomes a snarl. Magical tendrils extend once more toward the younger princess but this time Twilight summons her own strength, the space between them pulses and the tendrils are smashed away, rending and carving through the carpet and into the floor beneath.

Nightmare Moon’s eyes flare, and the destruction around them is suddenly muffled to a dull roar as the Princess of Darkness exerts her power to still the gathering storm. Fragments of glass and chunks of stone are halted in their flight, locking into sudden stillness. Absolute silence hangs between the two for a moment. Twilight’s eyes narrow, her brow furrowing and fists clenched. Nightmare Moon sighs, as though faced with a particularly disappointing student. She starts to pace around Twilight like a wolf circling prey, the young sorceress turning with her like a boxer to keep her eyes on the Daemon.

“Tell me, Twilight, why the Khanate has not too long ago signed a nonaggression pact with the United Federation? Tell me why the Khans have been moving troops off their eastern borders to come face us? Tell me why the United Federation has offered a statement ‘condemning’ Equestrian heavy-handedness in sending a peace envoy?"

“I had hoped Princess Celestia’s protege would understand. Clearly I was mistaken.” Nightmare Moon extends Umbra toward Twilight, pointing it squarely at her face, Nightmare Moon’s angry eyes glaring over the warhead. “Very well.” The Daemon’s tone lowers dangerously. “On your own head be it.” A final gut-wrenching pulse of force rips through the room, books erupting into white clouds like shot birds, and bookcases splintering and splitting with a sound like cracking ribs. Walls shatter like plates, sending both sorceress and Daemon tumbling to their knees. Twilight claws her way to standing as shrapnel flies past her, deflected away by the strange logic of the dream, but then the floor writhes like the sea in a storm, tossing Twilight into the air, knifelike fragments of wood and glass flying past her.

Suddenly Twilight feels herself descending, falling through the floor and plummeting into an un-ending sea of light. The inexorable grip of gravity pulls her downwards, and her eyes drift closed.

Next Chapter: Chapter 4: Judgement Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 31 Minutes