I was weaving through the trees trying to come up with some sort of plan on my way to the sister's castle. I knew I couldn't follow the path of true timeline Nightmare, mainly because I would probably die and that Luna was an actual separate character in this universe. So that limited my options to nada as well as made me wonder where I came from, I mean in the show I was technically created by Luna. Was that the same here? Or am I like Sombra and was just trying to take over Equestria. 'Oh Faust, I just hope the Sister's castle is run down and has the elements. After that I can figure out what to do,' as luck would have it though, after blazing through the underbrush, I came upon a massive manticore.

I am not exaggerating.

It was literally big enough to eat a small car and its tail could give a zenomorph a run for its money. I of course didn't want to die, so I tried to sneak by, but of Faust-damn course, the creature instantly noticed me. I panicked as it charged toward me and I instinctively raised my arms as its massive paw came crashing onto my head.

...

'Ahem, CRASHING onto my head.'

....

'Huh?' I slowly opened my eyes and looked at the manticore and saw it swinging its paw back and forth through my NON-SOLID BODY.

"I'm a bloody idiot." I muttered as I facepalmed, now ignoring the manticore frenzied paw swipes. I prepared myself to leave, but before I could a devious idea popped into my head.

'Doesn't Nightmare Moon have the ability of possession?' I thought evilly as I looked over at my brand new test subject.

'Guess I'll find out.'

I was crashing through the forest in my newly "acquired" body.

To be honest, possession is like driving a car that you are not familiar with. You feel like the seat's to big, and there's a annoying squeak whenever you hit a speed bump. Tap the accelerator and you immediately go flying forward, floor the brakes and you preform a Tokyo drift, and it doesn't help that I'm looking through my host's eyes like a windshield

'Either way, I got used to it,' I muse as I continued sprinting through the Everfree.

When I finally made it to the bridge before the castle, I was happily greeted with the reliving sight of the decaying castle. "Thank Faust something's stayed the same," I sighed, but it came out like "Grow li awo red!"

I forgot to add, as well with the ability of possession, you inherit the abilities of your host, both physical and mental. Meaning, I am driving the car while being the car, so by inhabiting a manticore I gain incredible strength, increased endurance, and a powerful sense of smell. However, I have little ability to cast magic, poor flight, and can't speak. So it's basically a give and take.

I decided this would be a safe spot to discard my body, so I peeled myself from my fleshy abode, and in doing so the manticore collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. Curious, I checked it to make sure it was alright; it had a few scratches and mange here and there, but besides that, it was breathing and looked overall okay.

So I opened my wings and flew across the ravine (There was no way in Tartarus I was going to cross that rickety fucking bridge) and once I made it across I destroyed the ropes holding it to this side.

Hoping to buy me some time, I divided myself into three ponies: two shadowbolts and one regular alicorn.

"Damn. Just a little more." I grunted as I forced myself to make a third shadow bolt, in return, decreasing my height.

"All right. You-guys know what to do" I gasped at my three constructs, they nodded as they dispersed into the night.

'Now for those elements' I decided as I staggered up to the castle gates. Once inside I tried to make my way to the throne room, 'Please be in there. Please be in there' I pleaded as I made my way through the rotten door ways. Instead of elements however, I was met with a completely different surprise.

"So you made it, creature."

Luna stood in all her glory, blue plate armor covering her whole body, giving her the appearance of a knight alongside the long rapier she held in one hand. A ivory crescent moon was engraved into her breastplate, reminding me of a coat of arms, while her rapier seemed to sport two blades, one built from the handle while the other extended past it. A helmet (which seemed to be built into her regalia) rested on her head as she glowered down at me.

I silently swallowed. I was not prepared for this. I mean, sure, I have a thousand years of magic practice under my belt, but when it comes to physical technique I don't know squat diddily. So while I might have looked calm on the outside I was internally panicking.

Taking my silence as confusion Luna decided to explain how she got here.

"You truly think you would have been able to hide here?" She scoffed, "I knew where you were going the moment you crossed into this Tartarus-damned forest". She then looked me over some more.

Taking this as an opportunity to stall I spoke up.

"Well, for all your foresight you seem to have poorly kept your castle in check." I replied as I motioned to the state of decay around us.

Luna's glare softened as she chuckled, "Things have changed since you have been around shadow of mine," her expression went cold, "However I think the time for talk is over. Prepare to die Nightmare."

I would have replied but one thing stuck out to me, her words shadow of mine. So I am still part of Luna?

Either way, while I continued assessing the information Luna took my silence as acceptance and charged.

'So if I am really part of her then I- Holy shiitake Jesus pumpkin!' I leapt out of the way of her blade only to have her advance upon me.

Making a split second decision, I summoned two short swords and parried her sideways slash. On impact I could feel the kinetic energy travel down my arms to my legs which ended up cracking the floor. Deciding front line fighting wasn't my forte I rolled to the right as Luna tried to kick me.

Now having some distance, I focused crackling energy through my horn and launched a javelin of magic at her.

She barely even twitched, as she lit her horn and blocked it with a barrier.

"Is that truly the best you got Nightmare?" She scoffed as she sent six magic bolts at me.

Rolling again to the right, I picked up a rusted shield and deflected her last bolt. I had no battle plan whatsoever, I needed to get out of here. 'Screw the elements I don't want to die!' I mentally screamed as Luna began to relentlessly hammer the poor shield I was using for cover.

Before my shield could completely buckle, I got a completely insane idea. So insane that it just might get me out of here in one piece. Executing it however, was going to be a bit of a problem.

I tossed my shield at Luna, it flew like a tortured frisbee until she smacked it out of the air with her sword. Taking my cue, I ran forward casting as many spells around me as my mana pool allowed. Lighting arched, flames flared, and jagged ice flew towards Luna, catching her off guard.

By the time she cast a magic barrier, her armor sported quite a few burn marks, and any area that wasn't covered with armor was covered in scratches. Now caught her full attention, I flew up towards the ceiling and cocooned myself in magic.

As I caught her looking up at me with a hint of confusion, I chuckled and finished the spell.

And dove down.

Slamming full force into a magical barrier isn't the smartest thing I've ever done, but judging by the spiderweb of cracks, it isn't the stupidest either. Rearing back, I saw Luna begin to realize what I was doing. As I went down a second time, I braced myself for what she may do; before I hit the barrier she dissipated it and thrusted her sword towards my heart.

With no time to change my course I could only pour more magic into my armor as I flew forward. As Luna's sword began pass through my magic armor I realized I had made a slight mistake.

Luna's sword could negate magic.

With my gathered momentum, her sword pierced through my armor, and I kept going forward until I reached the handle. Coughing up blood, I looked up at Luna, her glare now gone and looking down at me with a pitying smile.

"You fought hard Nightmare, now rest-"

Before she could finish, I grabbed her hand and gave her a bloodied smile.

"Got you."

With that, I plunged into her form.

Panic. Anger. Surprise. These emotions surged around me as I continued towards Luna's core. Usually, the core is in the head so I decided to make my way up there.
Crawling forward I began to feel Luna's panic increasing, but I continued up her arm and up to her neck. Now she was trying to pull me off with magic, which would be a great strategy, if I wasn't under her skin. Suddenly, feeling unbridled pain, I looked up and realized Luna was using her own sword to try to cut me off of her.

'This woman's crazy,' I thought and picked up my pace.

'Might as well be a moving target.'

Finally, I made it to her jaw. Now that I was in the head area, I could merge with the mindscape.

'This would be so much easier if I had just grabbed her horn,' I sighed as I made my way through.

Now in the safety of the mindscape I looked around, maps of constellations floated in one area as the vaults of memories floated in another. To no surprise Luna's head was full of star stuff, so I ignored the thought of exploring and made my way to the center of it all. "The Core"

It's actually just a orb that floats in the middle of the mindscape, however when I approached Luna's core, it was covered in a bluish armor.

"Well someone's been practicing on enclosing their mind." I grumbled as I looked for any weak points. Sadly, the whole sphere was completely covered.

Deciding I was going to have to remove that armor if I wanted to get anywhere, I stretched myself into a blanket-like shape, and wrapped myself around the sphere. With controled pressure, I constricted around the orb.

I needed to be careful, mainly because I was just trying to crush the armor, not the orb. I am not in the mood to deal with a brain dead Luna. After Faust knows how long, the armor began to warp leaving gaps into the orb, releasing I slinked into the orb.

Now in the car, I began tearing Luna out of the drivers seat, her physical body thrashed around the throne room as we fought. After I managed to gag her with a mental seat belt, I forcefully dragged her into the backseat; now with no one in control, Luna's body went limp and dropped to the ground.

Luna's screaming and cursing at me was muffled as I was strapped her down in the backseat like a whiny toddler. With her completely secured I hopped into the driver's seat and buckled myself in.

Luna's eyes opened.

"Testing, one, two, three. Alpha control do we have liftoff? Yes, we have liftoff," I smiled as I heard Luna's voice come out of "my" mouth.

Slowly beginning to stand, I looked over myself, Luna had really done a number on her body, her armor was worse for wear. She was bleeding in several areas including her mouth where I think she bit her cheek. I felt a bit of pain but not too much, being a shadow parasite has its perks, but as I began to walk forward the main 6 burst into the throne room.

"Princess Luna!" Twilight ran up to me. I gave a weak chuckle as she helped support me.

"You alright princess?" Rainbow asked as she supported my other side.

"I'm fine Rainbow. Nightmare and I had a duel," the main 6 looked at the destroyed throne room in awe.

"Well I recon ya'll both did each other a whali'pin" Applejack whistled, and I nodded as I coughed out a glob of blood.

'Internal bleeding, great.' The main six looked at me in concern, and Rarity turned a bit green when she noticed the amount of blood leaking from my injuries. "W-what happened," Fluttershy stuttered as she took account of my many injuries.

I smiled and held up my blood covered sword.

"I won."

The girls escorted me back to town, luckily the sun was just coming up, so I was able to regain my shadow bolts without them noticing. Either way, when we made it to Ponyville we were met with a small platoon of Canterlot soldiers, taking notice of my injuries one of the medics immediately patched me up and a squad of the soldiers escorted me to Canterlot.

It's actually quite a beautiful city, with it being on the mountain the sunrise looked exceptionally beautiful. The air was quite fresh too, and to be quite honest it was exactly like the show (except for the anthro ponies). As well, Luna has finally tired herself out. She had been screaming at me the entire way to Canterlot, but for now we had made it to the royal infirmary and I think we where getting somewhere.

'Consume mine own tail thee w'rthless abomination of darkness and perturbed valor!'

'Cometh at me bro! I wreck'd thee liketh a scrubeth and did own thee liketh a boss!'

'Thee w're lucky and did hide behind thy cowardice. Hadst we combated on equal groun i wouldst has't defeat'd thee!'

Oh did I forget to mention I think in ye Olden in Luna's mind. As well, the doctors examined us, removed our armor, and reapplied some bandages as well as gave us a room where they told me that I would be bedridden for a least a week or two.

However, waiting around was boring so I prodded Luna a bit and that's how we got to where we are now. Before I retort some more, a new character walked into our room.

"Lulu are you awake?"

Celestia herself, was quietly peeking into my room.

Taking a shot in the dark, I decided to answer.

"Yes, Tia, I'm awake. You don't need to sneak yourself in," with that she blushed and walked up to the cot the doctors had set me in. Now with a better view, I examined her.

She was taller than Luna (with a light amount of chub), and was wearing a cream colored dress with a gold embroidery sash draped over her left shoulder. She had a gold and silver bracelet on her right wrist, and of course her show regalia which was her crown and a dainty necklace which displayed her cutie mark with a jewel in the middle. Her fur was moderately short, but seemed more fluffy by her shoulders, and her rainbow mane seemed quite hypnotizing as it swayed in a non-existent breeze. Over all, she looked the part of a caring benevolent goddess and a huggable pony-person. 10/10 would hug.

Hugs however would have to wait, as Tia pulled up a chair beside me she sighed and ruffled my mane.

"What you did was incredibly reckless Lulu. You nearly gave me a heart attack, running off in your armor and confronting Nightmare alone. Do you know what could have happened?"

'Yeah Lulu, thee couldst has't been possess'd by a dark spawn and trapped in the backeth of thy mind. Oh waiteth.'

'Hold thine tongue Nightmare, mine actions do not condone thee to chastise me!'

Steeling myself from doing an eye roll, I returned to listening to Celestia's lecture.

"-as well, never use that stun spell ever again. It took me over an hour to override it."

'Thee stunn'd thy owneth sist'r?'

'I didn't wanteth h'r to be involv'd in our duel.'

Flattening my ears I did Luna's apologizing for her.

"I'm sorry Tia, I only wanted to protect you." I mumbled and Celestia sighed as she took my hand, after a bit of silence I wondered if I said the wrong thing.

"How'd it feel?"

"Huh?"

"Killing Nightmare. How did it feel." Her voice was soft, but I could tell she wanted a straight answer.

I swallowed, "It was a bit like adrenaline," Celestia gave me her full attention, "It was a bit of a rush when I saw her impaled on my sword."

Celestia tilted her head, "But?"

"I just feel empty," I looked at the ground for emphasis. Heck, I felt tears in my eyes. Damn, I was good!

Celestia was silent for a moment and brought me into a hug. "I will always be here if you need me Lulu," she whispered as I felt something wet on my shoulder.

'Is thy sist'r crying already? This is going to beest easi'r than i bethought.'

Luna gave no reply and I mentally shrugged as I nuzzled Celestia and gave her a weak smile.

"I'll be fine Tia, don't you have some duties you should be attending to," Celestia's face scrunched up as I gave her a shit-eating grin.

"You are part of the blame for that," she grunted and I giggled.

Yes, yes I was.

It had been at least a week after that encounter and by the Stars I was bored. During the first few days I had quite a few visitors, the main six, a few loyal guards, and even donut Joe whom gave us some donuts on the house. As well we had been getting a ton of 'get well' letters and even quite a few gift baskets and bouquets, the poor doctors had to clean out my room 3 times and even then I still had a considerable amount of loot. I was actually impressed by how many ponies loved Luna, I made sure all the gift baskets were put in our room. When I get out of this hospital I might make a mental note to write a plot load of thank you letters.

However after the first three days a plague worse than any other struck. Boredom's reign held strong as I tried using any distraction to combat it. Even banter with Luna seemed dull, as well I was able to nullify Luna's dream walking magic, so I won't have to worry about Celestia coming for my ass anytime soon.

Speaking of Celestia, she visits randomly from time to time, probably using any free time she has to visit us. Once we even brushed each other's hair before one of the guards notified Celestia that she had a meeting in a few minutes. However, one of the doctors had just walked in, 'Healthy Habit' I think is the stallions name. I guess he was here to give me another checkup but to my surprise he had a few nurses following behind him with a few clipboards.

"Your majesty, your last checkup has proven you capable enough to leave the infirmary. Sign these forms and we'll see you on your way ma'am."

'By the stars i has't nev'r hath heard a sentence that beautiful.'

Luna was giving me the silent treatment, so I just focused on the questions Habit was asking me, and after a few notes I found myself walking as a free mare out of the infirmary.

First, I needed to head to our my room. Not wanting to look like an idiot aimlessly wandering the castle halls I had already extracted this information from my host's memories.

Take a left here, turn right there, and past four doors till you see the ugly vase. Yes there was an ugly vase, and damn!

'I knoweth not wherefore celestia keeps this monstrous thing.'

'I begeth thy pardon! yond is mine own fav'rite vase!'

I couldn't reply, I was trying so hard to not gag at the sight of this ghastly thing. It was hideous, blues and silver mixed with bright oranges and yellows. Not to mention this thing was slightly lopsided with (for some reason) neon green handles. Giving an inward shudder I gave 'The Vase' a wide berth as I made my way around it.

Finally making it to my room, I closed the doors behind me and examined the room. It was huge (of course) with dark blue and indigo covering the walls. There was a miniature army of Gift Baskets in the left corner of my room which surrounded a dark oak wardrobe. A maple desk in the left corner with hundreds of star charts tacked above it, and a circular bed with a moon themed headboard laid in the middle. I also had a balcony which made me kind of nervous because there was another less secure entrance to my room (like anyone would try to assassinate me), but I do enjoy a bit of fresh air so I opened the doors and set a magic alarm in case anything tried to get in. Turning around I saw a side room, which lead to a nice looking bathroom. Large gilded mirror, big ass bathtub, and a large shower (Enough said). I was tired after my first day out so I decided to skip the shower and jump immediately into bed.

It felt like I was sinking into heaven, and in no time I was out like a light.

Author's Notes:

Critic commentary is always welcome.

PS: Happy birthday Legion55