Celestia had no idea what had happened, only that it had been the most monstrous hing to ever happen in her entire life. Turning her head she looked at the Everfree Forest, the forest that she had once called home. Now a shifting monstrous thing that had taken everything from her. And to think that it had been their own fault for their current situation.

After she had stopped crying and recovered her composure after the final clash with her sister and banishing her and the unknown stallion to the moon, she had spotted something highly important. The blasts of magic she and her sister had been firing had caused damages to the city, the more important being the rune engraved wall surrounding it. Parts of the wall was melted, other parts torn apart or even vaporized, it would take weeks to repair it on her own.

But with the Everfree Forest on fire, it would be impossible to do that. The flames were fueling the growth of the corrupted forest and if she did not do something then the entire town and its citizens would all be swallowed by the corrupted forest. She had to make a decision, the second hardest decision in her life. She had to abandon her home.

With her magic she broadcasted her voice across the town, and called for all ponies to gather whatever they could and join her at the eastern wall, the last retaining intact part of the town wall. Then she ordered the guards to gather up wagons, carts, and whatever kind of cargo bearing object they could find. It was a wild and chaotic couple of hours, and the state of the moon was not helping with the panic.

Upon the surface of the Moon was something going. It had started mere minutes after the banishment of Nightmare Moon. The entire surface was shifting and turning with black and green shapes, it was like an army of black and green phantoms was crawling all over the surface of the moon, fighting each other. The ponies of Equestria were delirious in fear and many cried out in despair of the Nightmare breaking free from the moon, but they kept gathering their belongings and whatever supplies they could, and in an unorderly wave moved towards the Eastern Wall. Even as their fear made their hearts and souls tremble.

Princess Celestia had her entire armour on, wielding a pair of pole axes, around here where the guard ponies, at least half of them pulling or pushing some kind of cart, wagon or similar, all of which was holding supplies and other things. She had then ordered them all to follow her and to not stop moving, if anyone fell, she would try to retrieve them personally. But any pony who had difficulty moving in a rapid phase, would need to be put on carts or carried.

She then aimed her horn at the eastern gate and with a powerful flash of intense heat, she fire a lance of brilliant golden plasma and seared a massive trench into the forest. Celestia then leaped forward, followed by her guards and her citizens. It could not be described as a wave of people seeking freedom, it was more like a wave of frightened people trying to stay alive. The forest was swift to swallow the scorched earth so she had to take to the sky and blast apart the forest in front and at the rear to keep her ponies safe. This repeated for almost two hours of rapid marching until the outlines of the forest could finally be spotted and the ponies ran out into the open fields of the unknown land they ha been sealed away from for over a century, only a bare hundred or so had been old enough to remember the time when they had not been sealed within the Everfree Forest.

At that point Celestia crashed into the ground, her stamina utterly spent, having fought her corrupted sister, using the Elements of Harmony to banish her and then to continuously blast a path to get her citizens to safety. She staggered herself upright once more, and looked back as the forest swallowed up the path to what had once been her home, ears lowered in sorrow. Even as she and her ponies wandered away from the forest she would keep glancing back at the forest, longing for times long since gone.

Meanwhile had the shadowy fragments of the moon stopped shifting and instead had taken on a solid black mass was slowly taking shape upon the left side of the moon. At first the ponies feared it to be the nightmare or something falling towards the moon. But then something, possibly even more terrifying then the Nightmare getting free, happened. Out of the black oily mass emerged a giant eyeball. Its massive shape blinked once and twice before it shifted and turned before focusing its iris as it looked straight down at the planet below. It seemed to quiver as it looked upon the planet before bursting apart like a cream filled pastry, only it did not erupt in white cream, but in green fire. The flames lit the entire shadowy mass into a sea of black and green flames. The ponies had been started and did not want to stop moving, not until the forest behind them was far out of their sight. The burning moon above them looking like a monster gleefully smirking down upon them.

Celestia had been stunned by the burning phantom taking shape on the left side of the moon and could only imagine it represented the Nightmare or the unknown alicorn stallion. But for what reason it would take on the shape of a black mass burning with green fires was unknown to her. It was terrifying even to her however.

When the refugees had wandered for the entire night, intent on leaving the horrible forest behind them as far a possible. Then they came upon a lake by a large mountain, the marching had been swift and relentless, many were exhausted to the point of collapsing. The fresh water soothed many throats, legs and bodies. Celestia knew many of her ponies did not want to stop, but she could not just wander further off beyond their old border. The lands outside of the town were an unknown, the ponies had been isolated for over a century, they could not just wander off into dangerous unknown territory.

So she made a decision and along with some architects, began the plan to construct a new town by the mountain. Its name would be, Canterlot. She would have to use her magic to aid in the construction, just like she had when the Castle of the Royal Sisters had been raised. Only it would take much more time now that she was without her sister. Her heart clenched at the reminder of her sister's banishment but she didn't show it, she could not show weakness when the situation was so dire.

Upon the moon the stallion woke up from his forced dream, his mind was a fog of pain and dizziness. As his nausea cleared and the pain faded, he spotted something incredibly offsetting. The sand lands of the moon, was burning in green and black fire, the sand beneath him was not melting and the flames held no heat. Yet... somehow the intense power of the flames compelled to him, these were no harmless illusions. Yet they did not feel dangerous.

The now named Maleficus Victoria rose up from his spot among the burning sand and began to move through the burning landscape. As he wandered down the sand dunes he felt something within him, knowledge he had never had seemed to emerge as he thought and pondered. Was it an after effect of devouring the Nightmare in his mindscape? Or something else?

He would have to take the time to figure this out, however that would have to wait until he could find a spot on the moon that was not a burning desert.

Wandering past the burning wasteland he tried to gain some sort of order to the strange headache he was experiencing. The memories and knowledge were all a big scrambled mess. But he could sense a few of them more then others.

*Just what did I do when I ate the Nightmare? I mean. I know I killed it and in essence 'ate' it in my mind. But... did that seriously let me devour its very memories? Its knowledge? How does that make any freaking sense!?* As he pondered that he spotted something up ahead through the flames. *Is that the edge of this massive field of fires?*

Running forward he found himself breaching the dark flames and out at the bright white sand land of the moon once more, which he felt much more content with then the big field of dark fire. Wandering further away from the fire Maleficus tried to figure out a way for him to cast magic, he WAS an alicorn, it should not be all that difficult for him to at least fire a burst of pure mana right?

Finding a decent sized piece of moon rock Maleficus shifted his segmented horn until it was pointed at the rock. He then tried to focus, to go on the sensations and memories he had been trying to sort out. *Okay let's see here... if what I can sort out of those mangled memories are correct then I do this and-* A bright flash and a soundless explosion erupted from where he was standing, the alicorn found his hind legs and flank buried into the side of a crater, his entire body shaking from the aftershock.

*Oookay... this is going to be more difficult then I had imagined it.* Pulling himself out of the sand the stallion moved back to the spot he had tried to cast magic, the spot he had been standing was scorched black while the rock he had been aiming at was unharmed. Trying a different approach Maleficus tried to mentally aim at the rock instead, focusing on it with his eye sight, while trying to fire a blast of magic at it.

The result was a bit better, the energy beam came out. Sadly enough it was more light a very bright flash of light then anything else. But at least he didn't hurt himself and it was a step in the right direction. *Okay better get to practice, not like I got much else to do here.*

The earth cracked and splintered as the solid marble beneath its rough surface soared up through it. As a solid twenty meter tall, thirty meter long and thirty meter wide block of marble floated out of the soil. Leaving a large square shaped hole behind. Then a blade of golden energy lashed out, cutting through the block like butter. It repeated this movement several times until the block was cut up into fifteen pieces of two meter thick, twenty meter tall and thirty meter wide pieces of marble.

Then with precise movements the individual blocks floated out before being put together with several already place blocks, adding a total of four hundred and fifty meters to the town wall of the growing city of Canterlot. Princess Celestia brushed out flecks of sweat from her brow and drank from a flask of water as she inspected her work, her body dressed in golden armour in case of dangers. All around her ponies were working on buildings, towers and foundations. The mountain was decently rich in minerals, marble and ore, it was a very good spot for extracting materials and also for making a foundation for the city.

She had spent the last week cutting out a large plateau out of the side of the mountain, it would make a solid foundation for the town. Walking over to the stone wall she had put up she checked for cracks or weak points, using her magic to seal up the damages. Taking a glance at the one thousand, three hundred and fifty meter of wall she had constructed in the last hour made her feel good about herself. This was far more satisfying effort then being an overrated secretary.

Even if her duties to raise and lower the moon were her only 'royal duties' at the moment, did she realize that once ponies got settled down, they would start up the whole 'line up and ask the princess' thing again. She had to figure out a way to at least divert the flow to somewhere else. But for the moment she would just enjoy the effort of hard labour alongside her ponies. At the speed they were constructing she was certain the town would be ready within the next three weeks.

There was however a bit of a snag, the food was not going to last forever, they needed to make new fields to grow more food. she had sent out several groups of scouts to check for decent fertile grounds. But in the mean time were the ponies making some fields by the river side for some fast growing flowers, clovers, herbs and mushrooms to keep up the food stocks. "We hope the fields are doing well... by the stars We could really use a cupcake or just some cookies right this very moment."

Time went by as the two Alicorns did their best to recover from their ordeals. Maleficus would spend hours casting magic, trying to use the fragmented memories and knowledge of the Nightmare to learn how to do more complex things then telekinesis or pure mana projectiles. He would find himself thinking of food and water from time to time, but his newly made physiology did not seem to require much sustenance, if any at all. Or it was something involving the magic that sent him to the moon in the first place.

He would need to find a way to at least send a message to the planet... whatever its name was. Equestria was just the name of the country of the ponies not the entire planet. For now he would just call it The Planet, not like there was any other planet in this solar system that he cared about at the moment. If he could find a way to even send himself to the planet would be most wonderful, but for that to work he would have to figure out the fragments of the Nightmare and from there develop his own spells, hopefully the 'Intent', 'Imagination' and 'Magical Power' theory was in effect, would explain a lot if it was.

Celestia on the other hand, or hoof, would spend the most of her time in the following month to carve out blocks of marble to add to the city. With no real need for courts would most Nobles put in some efforts to construct the city, but mostly focused on building their own, overly extravagant houses/manors. The city would need to be built into different districts, one for the ground level by the lake as a harbour and storage area, another mostly for housings, one for the markets, shops and workshops, and two for the academies and military grounds.

At the center would the castle be built, it would not be to make the castle too complex or large, not as things were at the moment. The design would be simple yet elegant, it would be enlarged and decorate further later. A central square keep with two tall circular towers sticking out of its left and right sides. It would be surrounded with a tall circle shaped castle wall with six watch towers connected by lanes and ramparts to the walls and the central keep.

The castle would have to be the largest building in the city, if the ponies were attacked would it be crucial for them to have a way to put the citizens in safety in such a case.

The castle would not be finished until another month however. The city would be completed before that, but it would be a lot of empty space so that there could be expansion inside the city before it was enlarged. But until the castle was completed would the city's town hall be used for court.

Time went by as the city began to grow at an impressive rate. It would be finished within the following thirty days, with the castle following up with another month of work. Even as the Burning Moon was raised and lowered the ponies began to feel less and less skittish about it. Sure they were still bloody bucking terrified of it, but it was easier to ignore now after things had settled down. Celestia had to get back to Court, but even the bad news of the Court being brought back on, was not going to make her less happy about the bakeries of the city being opened for the first time and pastries became available again. She was only happy that she could slow down court opening until the bakeries managed to start producing their goods again.

While the month had finished, would the ponies now need to work hard to recover and restore order and law to their subjects. Guards would have to be recruited, guilds opened, teachers made available for schools and more and more. As the city of Canterlot pulled through its first winter and spring began again, had seven months gone by since its construction had been decided and the first foundation had been made. The ponies were recovering and returning to their everyday lives. Yet that would soon change.

While on the Moon had Maleficus managed to get some headway through the several months of self studying and learning. He would not say that it had been swift or easy... it had been fucking awful, like being in high school during the exams without any ends of the tests. His efforts ha paid off however, he could use all of the basic abilities of a unicorn's magic. He had developed and refined some of the spells he had in the Nightmare's fragments.

One very important thing that he had made however was 'The Interface', a holographic magical computer of sorts. It was more like a big collection of holographic screens he could manipulate either with magic or his hooves. The functions of the screens were mostly basic and simple. He had made it to act as a computer for him. Yet it was more then just a computer feature, its screens helped him develop his magic far faster then just physically casting magic while trying to figure out the missing bits of the Nightmare's fragmented essence.

The screens that made up the Interface acted as a medium for his magic, each of the screen where made from his own magic, hardened into a solid light like form. He had discovered how to make them by accident when he tried to cast magic through the sand, he had originally wanted to make glass or at least earthbend the sand, but instead he made the sand particles and his magic combine into a sort of malleable solid light mass.

Maleficus had no real idea why the sand of the moon reacted as it did, possibly because it is, well. MOON sand. Could be that this had never been discovered before. He doubted anyone had even attempted this before.

When the magic had been combined with the moon sand and he no longer channeled his magic through it, were the screens no longer connected to his magic and instead a form of magical crystallization. Which he discovered could act as magical mediums, or foci, for his spells and magical developments. He could use them for casting and developing such refined and complex spells that would have taken years to develop. It also helped that he was more used to working through a computer interface then hands on building, it made the progress smoother.

The screens let him focus his magic through them, and with his experience with computers, and the fact that he designed the Interface to act like an old style computer, made it possible for him to use the screens like wands. The data he entered into the screens helped him develop the purpose of the magic and then with some channeling, he made the effect possible. This would also limit his ability to use those magical powers without the Interface, but with steady practice once he got the feeling for the spells down, would put an end to that. But it would take weeks of developing and testing the spells in the first place to make it possible to start practicing with them.

What he developed with this holographic medium was a collection of spells he would need to visit the planet. He had not managed to discover a way to get his physical body down to the world. Instead he had decided to try another way to do so. He had managed to discover how to use the shadowy mass that covered his body while he entered the ponies' town in the wild forest. It was a form of... darkness or shadow, given physical form whenever his body moved through a field of magic, it was some kind of reaction by his body to cover it in the dark mass whenever i went through a magical field. It covered his boy like a shroud when it was raw and unrefined, making him hard to spot or see, sort of like making him shrouded from mortal sight.

Refining it had let him literally become a shadow, it made him visible as a 2 dimensional shadow on surfaces, but it let him move like a ghost. While this did not help him get to the planet, it gave him an idea how to indirectly get to the planet. It took some efforts, and a lot of side projects. But seven months after he got sent to the moon, an three months since he started trying to get back to the planet, he managed to get some progress.

Seven screens adjusted themselves on top of one another, each tuning wide and round, making a sort of tower of plates. The screens shifted and adjusted themselves, then a square screen directly beneath the tower of plate shaped screens, revealed an image of the planet. Using his Interface's screens like a telescope he could view the planet below, not directly to the surface but to about cloud level.

And that was all he needed. Raising his horn towards the telescope Maleficus adjusted the position so that it was pointed at a landmass, he then took aim and cast his spell.

What he was doing was simple. He was using the telescope not only as a scope, but as some kind of focus gun, a wand in the shape of a gun in short. The alicorn summoned forth his magic, and fired it through the lenses. A bright beam of energy flew through the lenses, each time it passed through them ,it doubled in size, until it shoot out in the shape of a massive blast of crimson energy, the spell would need to be boosted for it to even get to the planet's surface without sizzling out like a badly made firework. The massive spell matrix fell down towards the planet's surface, it was a bit of hit and miss since he had no real idea on which part of the planet he had come from, but he knew at least which continent he had been on.

As the spell flew through the atmosphere its shape shrunk as the energy maintaining its shape, purpose and speed, fought against the planet's own magical field, thus making it look like a fading falling star. But it had enough power to hit the ground, after all, Maleficus had tested this way of casting his spell towards the planet, one lens at a time after each failure until he hit pay dirt, literally.

The spell struck the surface of the planet, not making a sound as its purpose was not destruction, and through the Interface Maleficus watched as one of the screens grew fuzzy until the sight of a wide desert came to his sight. He had managed to send a probe slash reconnaissance in the shape of a spell used for giving the caster an adjustable view of a location down to the planet, sort of similar to the Eye of Evil spell from Dungeon Keeper 2, and could now see at the planet's level. This was step one. Now he would send in more probes, their design was basic, only one purpose for each of the spells, but it would fit with his work.

One by one the Interface boosted his spells as he cast the through it. Spells flew down towards the planet, glittering like twinkling star dust as their massive shapes shrunk within the atmosphere. Not all of them were aimed at the planet's surface but at the atmosphere itself.

These were spells cast not as a pure magical structure, but was actually fired with a mixture of Moon Sand, as to make it take the shape of a sphere of light. These spheres each contained two lens screens, view transmitter spell and ha the possibility of being remote controlled once he figured out how to network the things more efficiently.

In essence he was creating a sort of network of spy satellites. They were all crude and unrefined, but they would do their purpose for what he wanted to achieve. Using the satellites to view the ground he cast the visual probe spells at the locations with signs of civilization near a forested area. He discovered seven new species before one of visual probes came down to a spot near the ponies' new home.

On the screen he could clearly see a big city built out of marble and granite. It looked as if it had been carved out of the mountain, it most likely had been considering the crazy magic of the ponies. It might not have been obvious at first sight that this was the ponies' home. But the two dozen statues of regular ponies, unicorns, pegasi, and three alicorns, located on each side of the road towards the drawbridge was kind of a clincher. The test were working as they had on the moon. Now he just needed to do the most complex part.

He intended to send his own mind, consciousness, soul or whatever you want to call it, to the planet below. Well not literally sending his consciousness. But a way for him to connect his consciousness to the planet from the moon.

By sending a mass of shadow, with his mind linked to it, to the planet's surface. He would do just that. Like a sort of neural linked shadow drone. While he could have just made it linked to the visual screens of the Interface, would it not be something he'd like. He wanted to experience the world, even if through a secondary medium, rather then just viewing it from a screen. That was the reason it had taken three months, even with the Interface, to develop these spells, they were highly complex. But the fragments of the nightmare had given him the knowledge on how to do it. And now was the moment of truth, to cast his first Shadow Capsule, and hopefully not mess it up.

Closing his eyes and focusing Maleficus cast the spell he had spent the last three weeks testing. And a sudden surge of black light flooded his senses before the world turned all sparkly and white. Then the intense brightness made way for the sight of waving grass and the dark night sky, with the sight of a moon burning with a monstrous flame on its left side. "Yessss! It worked" The shadow hissed out as it whooped for joy at its success.

So much work! So much effort! And it finally paid of! It was almost worth the hardships he went through to achieve it. *Oh gods just thinking about how it failed the first time I tried it out just makes me feel all... eugh!*

Maleficus summoned the black mass onto his body, his entire body becoming shrouded in darkness. Shifting the mass off his body took a bit of effort, but once he figured out how to feel the difference between the black mass and his own hide he could grasp it with his magic and pull it off. A black blob of shifting mass levitated off his body, holding it out he moved it to the ground a few dozen feet away from him and let it go. The black mass remained at the spot and then Maleficus cast out his second spell, a Mind Link spell.

The spell struck the black blob. But... instead of just hitting the shadowy mass, he also struck the glittering moon sand that had landed on top of it. This was unfortunate since the spell was not filtered and instead of just possessing the shadowy mass was he also possessing several thousands of sand grains. The feedback he received caused him an infernal headache, not to mention a powerful nausea that caused him to discover that yet, gravity on the moon is lighter and liquids go farther then normal when spat. But that still won't prevent you from hitting yourself when puking out several galleons worth of stomach acid and water.

*Note to self, include a filter on the next spell.* Maleficus groaned to himself as he clutched his head as he laid on his side on the sand dune.

Shaking its intangible head clear the shadow focused its attention towards the walled city and began to slither across the ground towards the city. The shape of the shadow was at first just a shapeless blob, but soon it had taken the shape of an pegasus. The head part of the shadow had a pair of glowing red eyes, while its forehead, had a third eye, which glowed green. Its purpose clear the shadow moved towards Canterlot, unknowing of what its presence would cause for the planet's future, even more so then it already had.

Within a sparely decorated throne room stood a white alicorn by the window, looking at the frightening sight of the burning moon. The Princess of the Sun hummed something to herself as she watched the moon. She had lowered the sun and raised the moon just a few moments ago, and found herself watching the moon with solemn eyes.

The Sun Court had stopped for the day and Celestia had managed just fine. There were no over inflated number of ponies seeking an audience with her so far. But that did not mean that she did not spend several hours sitting on that giant well cushioned throne of hers to speak with her subjects.

But she wanted to do something different today, she was not eager to do anything involving the court or research. She needed some kind of physical activity. Taking a glance at the courtyard Celestia noticed the leftover equipment of the newly restored Day Guard. *Yes! Why didst We not consider this option before!?*

Feeling like hitting herself for her stupidity Celestia trotted down to the courtyard with high purpose, not to hit herself but to hit a target. Once outside she took a deep breath of the fresh night air and closed her eyes. After around two minutes she walked over to the equipment. There were several different types of dummies, targets and training equipment.

But the equipment was made for regular ponies and not for an alicorn like herself. She would need to summon her own gear for the Sun guard's regular gear was just too fragile when wielded by her.

Her horn lit up in a golden light and then through a flare of golden energy, she materialized her golden full plate armour onto her body. A recent technique she and her sister developed together after Starswirl's death, as to not lose time during an emergency because of their need to put on their gear. It had been their last project together, around fifteen years ago, before her sister completely stopped talking to her and she got too much overworked to find the time to spare.

Calling forth a pole axe from her personal armory, Celestia spun the golden sun designed weapon within her golden aura of magic. Then she swung it at one of the dummies, the reinforced wood and straw giving no resistance to the powerful weapon as it split the pony shaped dummy clean in half from head to groin.

Standing up on her hind legs Celestia started kicking and punching the air, going through the Earth Pony physical fighting style taught to her by one of her mother's retainers during their fight against Discord. It was called the Heavy Stomp Style and involved powerful kicks of various shape and forms, along with high jumps and light but fast punches, its signature technique was a powerful stomp in a diagonal angle at the ground, it was not just crushing but if the hoof was aligned in a certain way, or covered with military grade horseshoes, was it able to pierce as well.

After a few repeated jabs, kicks and jumps Celestia switched style.

Other then the Heavy Stomp she knew the Pegasus physical fighting style called Piercing Dance. It was based upon an old, pre-unification even, mating dance of the Pegasi. This physical fighting style involved swift movements, heavy utilization of the wings and the rear legs, with the front legs acting as guards.

Swirling her body in a clockwise motion, Celestia swung her wings in a downward arch, she then spun and buck kicked her hind legs, after that she leaped back with her front legs and repeated this, alternating between down and upward wing swings, different angles of buck kicks and different directions to which she leaped away with her forelegs.

Then the third style came into play, the Unicorn's had few physical fighting styles, but the most basic of them was called the Tearing Charge. Unicorn fighting styles were far more vicious then earth or pegasus ponies' combat styles. They were from the time that unicorns fought not only other ponies or even predators, it came from when they fought one another for dominance over herds or mates. It was mostly focused on powerful lunges, aiming the horn to stab or slash at the face of the opponent, smashing and ripping with the forelegs while prancing. And then came the most vicious of the ways of attack, biting, aiming for face, throat or neck, a unicorn would bite down and rip out chunks of flesh. Unicorns and pegasus could both digest meat, yet only the unicorns would actually eat meat of mammals unlike pegasi which kept to a strict aquatic diet.

Celestia knew this style by heart, it was the style her mother had taught her after all. She stood up on her hind legs, flailed her front hooves in a vicious swirl of dangerous movements, for her invisible opponent. Then came the horn down as she lowered her front ,making a stab before lunging forward, then she opened her mouth and began to make sharp biting movements, careful to keep her mouth and cheek as far away as her teeth as possible. One of the reasons why unicorns do not practice this style too often is because more often then not, one would bit off pieces of their own mouth or tongue by mistake if not careful.

As she finished her warm up Celestia summoned a flask of water before pouring it over her sweaty head, making her cloud like hair to fall flat as the manifestation magic ended when in contact with the liquid.

Then a black shape appeared near the corner of the courtyard and a male voice spoke up, startling her enough to maker her lose concentration and drop the bottle she had been levitating.

"Greetings Princess Celestia. I come, bearing words for you and your ears only."

Celestia turned around as soon as she got back her bearing and pointed her poleaxe at the dark shape by the corner. “Who art there!? Show thyself!”

“Peace Celestia, I am not here to bring harm to anyone.”

Hesitatingly Celestia lowered her poleaxe. She did not want to trust the shadow creature, but she did not want to give it a reason to attack her, she knew nothing about it. “...Very well. We shalt let thee speak creature.”

”Thank your Princess. Now let me first start with saying... that I am sorry. I am so, sorry for the pain I have caused. I know I do not deserve forgiveness, nor will I ask for it. All I can do is say that I regret everything that I have unintentionally caused to you and your land. If I could, I would make it so that it never had happened.” Celestia felt unease fill her, as the shadow creature seemed to lower itself in a... bow like fashion? It was hard to tell, but she was certain that the creature was showing some kind of remorseful sign of submission, but it was hard to tell.

She decided to confront him further and spoke up. “What do thou speak of creature? We hath never meet nor seen thee before. What disaster could thou hath caused that would bring our attention?”

“Yes you have...See that is the thing Celestia... You have seen it happen, you have experienced it and you have endured it. For one hundred years has disasters come and gone. The Fall of Green Star, the Rise of Stallion of Torment, the Fall of Starswirl... the Fall of Luna, the Rise and Fall of Nightmare Moon and the Exile from Everfree. And yes, I admit it, that I AM the cause of those disasters. And no words can describe the shame I feel for causing all this. Not consciously or intentionally... yet I still am the unwitting cause of all this.”

“My name is Maleficus Victoria... known to you as the Stallion of Torment... and as the Green Star of Disaster.”

Celestia took several steps back from the shadow, her eyes widened in shock and horror at the concept of the Stallion of Torment being both the Green Star, and a sentient being at that, and not a manifestation of pained spirits taking the shape of a rotten horror as a side effect of the Green Star's impact. It was a He, a sentient being, who had caused all that destruction and death, and then been brought to life through it, as a rotten burning mockery of life. She felt a bit ill at that.

”Surprised? I would be too. You see, I was not originally a pony, no, I was another kind of being. But then someone offered me a wager, that someone was your mother Laura Faust, when I meet her in my home realm.”

"Mother?! Mother is alive!?" Celeista asked in a startled voice. Relief filled her as she heard of her mother still being alive. Yet a twinge of... anger was starting to rise within her. Why was her mother not here?

“Your mother is alive, that much I know, but I do not know where she may be. You see, when we made that wager... we were drunk. And when I won the wager, we were both still very much drunk. And from what I have discovered is alcohol the most dangerous substance to have consumed before using magic.”

Celestia physically felt like someone had punched her in the nose at those words, her body wincing as if taking a blow in reality. Drunk and wager, when involving magical creatures, especially alicorns, was not a good thing. She almost felt physically ill as the shadow creature kept talking.

“I do not know if it was the alcohol or my unique nature coming in conflict with your mother’s power. But when she ascended me into an Alicorn... something went wrong. I can remember a flash of light and then searing pain spreading through out my body before everything goes dark. I cannot remember much after that. I only recovered to a proper state just hours before I tried to stop Luna’s rampage. But I remember some bits, most of it involving the scent of burning flesh, the sensation of fire in my skull, my body burning inside out and the constant screaming. Gods the screams.”

Watching the shadow creature Celestia was uncertain how to feel. The creatures seemed to be in pain, yet, yet, she could not help the rising, swelling sensation of anger rising within her. And even as she tried to keep herself calm and serne, as the creature kept talking, she felt more of her anger rise. Like a swelling tide before the giant wave.

Shaking her head she tried to keep the rising anger down and tried to ask soemthing ,anything, that could remedy this rising unsteady sensation of rage inside her. "H-how couldst mother hath been intoxicated? She-she always told Us and Our sister of the dangers of alcoholic beverages." The shadow's answer, would not help.

“Yes your mother was drunk, and so was I, we were both feeling down and drinking to forget our sorrows. So we were both at fault for making a wager and going through with it in our state. I can only assume that after whatever she did went wrong she sent me to this world somehow, and in doing so, caused me to appear in the upper sky as the Green Star. It was my body falling down towards the ground that was burning green, I can only assume that my body broke in the atmosphere and then reassembled itself because of my alicorn physiology. But my body had a bad reaction to this world somehow, and causing me to burn in green fire. I can only assume that I somehow adapted after so many years going by.”

Celestia frowned and shouted out at the creature. "How dare thou blame mine Mother! Mother wouldst never hath done anything wrong! Mother wouldst never hath done magic while intoxicated willingly! This be thou fault!" That caused a reaction from the creature calling itself Maleficus and the shadow responded to her shout, with an outright roar of anger.

“DO NOT PUT THE BLAME ONLY ON ME CELESTIA! I HAVE SUFFERED AS WELL FOR THE MISTAKE CAUSED BY ME AND YOUR MOTHER’S ACTIONS! ONE HUNDRED YEARS! A! CENTURY! A WHOLE FUCKING CENTURY! OF BURNING AGONY! BROKEN MEMORIES! NEEDLESS DEATH AND DESTRUCTION! MEANINGLESS SUFFERING AND PAIN! FRAGMENTS OF CONSTANT ANGUISH TORMENTING ME! I-I-I-I HURT! PAINGAGONYITBURNSMYGODITBURNSTURNITOUTITHURTSITBURNSHURTSBURNSITHURTSMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPITBURNSSTOPSTOPITMAKEITSTOP!” In mid rant Maleficus started screeching put frantic rambling. Memories of his time as the Stallion of Torment suddenly surged through him and sent him into a wild panic. All that could be describe was that he was going through complete and utter agony as he tried to block out the memories that suddenly surfaced during his ranting.

On the moon the black alicorn had fallen to the ground and was frantically turning and tumbling around as if trying to cover his body in sand, as if trying to put out an invisible fire. His forelegs constantly rubbing his head, trying to stop the painful sensation of his head boiling.

Celestia stepped back as the black shape seemed to twist and spasm as if in physical agony, the shape seemed to tear himself apart, taking on the shape of a twisting mass of tearing claws, mouths, fires, eyes and tendrils. In his state he had begun to prattle out incomprehensible gibberish as his mind went through a feedback of pain from latent memories. His panic and gibberish like screams continued for a good while before suddenly he fell silent, only his laboured, heavy, breathing giving away that he was still there. “By our sun.” Was all she could say as she watched the shape recover from his panic attack.

“Ah! Ah! Ah! Okay... I am okay... I am fine... Aaaaah.... huuuuu... Okay...” Seemingly taking a deep breath the shadow manifestation seemed to calm down. Yet Celestia was not calm at all. The opposite even. Something had obviously snapped within her, the anger boiling over inside and now all she could feel was anger and despair. "Thou will pay for thy crimes creature! We shalt put thy head on a pike!"

The shadow creature just stared at her, reaaaally stared at her. making her feel a bit awkward, if still furious. Before finally shrugging and seemingly crossing its forelegs. "Okay. Fuck it. I don't care anymore. I have spent an unknown amount of time on that dust ball of a moon trying to find a way to talk to you, to apologies, to inform you that the creature possessing your sister is dead and even tell you that your mother is trying to get back home. And THIS is what you do? Sentence me to Death? I accept that you are angry at me but to put a death sentence on me for something that is not my fault alone, and for something I had no direct control over? That is absolutely fucking stupid."

Celestia glared at the creature, her mane flowing in the wind, sparks flowing from her horn. "Silence! We shalt put an end to thy evil presence! We shalt take vengeance for mine sister, our mother's honour and our kingdom!"

The Shadow creature seemingly face hoofed before grumbling then he spoke up in a frustrated voice. "Don't you get it? I don't care. I am not going to do anything. And there is nothing you can do to threaten me about it. I. Am. Stuck. On. The. Moon. You cannot reach me, let alone carry out your stupid sentence."

Infuriated rage filled Celestia at the words bearing down upon her and through a fit of inspired anger, she decided to prove the creature wrong. Through six swirling vortexes, emerged the glowing gemstones that made up the Elements of Harmony. The shadow creature named Maleficus, did not seem impressed, at all.

"Oh what are those going to do? Make me feel pretty or something? I am not even physically here. This is just manifestation through a miasma made of magic and shadows."

"Silence! We shalt have Our vengeance! We shalt have thy head! Through Our Will and the power of the Elements of Harmony! Thou Shalt Be Bound! We Shalt Call Thee Down Upon The Soil Of Our World! Thou Shalt Be Brought To Justice! We Art Celestial Radiance! Princess Of Equestria! Our Will Be Done!" Her voice rang across like the echoing clang of church bells, the elements glowed and shone upon the dark creature, who did not as much as flinch. Celestia panted as she felt a sense of satisfaction, it was done, the creature would be bound to appear upon the soil of the world.

"Okay... so what exactly was that meant to do?"

Was the monotone voice of shadow creature. Celestia gave a smirk and pointed her hoof at the creature who called himself Maleficus. "Thou hath been bound creature! Thy body and soul shalt be forced upon the soil of this world and thus We shalt have Justice!"

"...Are you serious? That's your grand plan? To FORCE me to physically manifest on this planet?" Maleficus was flabbergasted, this was just down right ridiculous. What kind of fool did she think he was? Was those Gemstones some kind of OP Game Changes Weapon or something? Should he file a complain say, Element Marbles of Order too OP, Plz Nerf?

At that point, he had, had enough and his shadow seemed to twitch and shift as he started canceling the spell. "You know what? Fuck you. Fuck your bull shit gem stones. I. Am. Not. Doing. This. Bull. Shit. You and your pretty little marbles can bugger off cause I am not going to dance to your flute because of your tantrum."

The six gemstones shone as he tried to stop his spell and he felt a sudden surge of static shook run through his entire body, forcing him to keep the spell going. He howled in agony, the princess smirking at the sight of the creature in pain, feeling satisfaction that the creature was already paying for his crimes. "Aaaaargh!!! Fuck! What the hell!? Did those things just fucking hurt me!? Are you actually using slave magic or something with those things!? I thought those were the Elements of Harmony not fucking Elements of Slavery!"

Celestia frowned at his offensive verbal assault upon the ancient gem stones she had used to save Equestria along with her sister. It felt insulting and down right infuriating to have the source of her anguish and sorrow for the past century call these sacred relics the Elements of Slavery. "Shut thy mouth monster! These are the Elements of Harmony! They bring order and justice! Thy shalt not escape Our wrath!"

The shadow looked upon her, the two silently looked upon one another, even as the voices of the Elements Spoke into their minds.

Then Maleficus' voice poke up as he looked upon the Princess of the Moon, horror settling into his soul and mind as he progressed what was happening. "...You are seriously going through with this aren't you? You and your pretty rocks are going to wage war on me? DO you even know what that means? For you? For your kind?"

"We shalt defeat thee! We shalt judge thee! We shalt execute theee! It shalt be done in the Grand Glory of War!" Celestia shouted out, her heart was beating with her anger, excitement was filling her, she would ride the tide of war once more. For a just cause just like in the past. But not against the foul Chaos Lord, but against a far more weaker foe! It shall be glorious.

Maleficus had other thoughts on this matter. He was in fact, horrified at this, and was feeling like he wanted to smack his bloody head until it cracked with what he was hearing. He shouted out at the princess, trying to stop the madness that had affected her. For it could not be anything else but madness in his eyes. The Madness of Rage. "No! YOU! DO! NOT! KNOW! WAR! War is nothing glorious! War is nothing grand! War is blood, death, destruction and sorrow!"

"Do not do this Celestia, hurt me if you must! But do not start a war over this. Please do not do this. You have no idea what this will do!" If Celestia had not bee as afflicted by anger and battlelust as she was, she might have been taken aback by the shadow's frantic begging. Yet she was not. Instead she was only given more fuel to her inner fire, and she responded, with a Declaration of War.

A golden poleaxe was flung down and pierced the ground the shadow was manifested upon, even as it begged her to not start a war she glared at him and shouted, her mane and tail bursting out into golden flames as her anger rose. "THOU BROKE MINE SISTER! NOW WE SHALT BREAK THEE!" The two stared at one another, yet the unspoken demand from Celestia was clear. Turn yourself in. Or wage war.

"...No I will not turn myself in. I am a living breathing being. I have never intentionally hurt anyone, nor have I been able to even make proper decisions to even make myself guilty of anything. So NO, if I have to pick between an unfair judgement or war? I will pick war." The shadow form of Maleficus rose up from the soil, taking on the shape of an alicorn shaped gas cloud. His burning eyes stared into Celestia's. There was no turning back now. The two Alicorns stared down upon one another, eyes glaring, not backing down. "I will not back down. I will not retreat. I will not surrender. I will fight for my rights. I will not let myself be treated like a form of scapegoat for your anger. I will fight and I will win. and I will do so, by not taking a single life of your subjects. Just to prove a point, I will not kill a single one of your subjects. Let's see how well you can handle someone whose kind took over their entire world. My kind did not as much WAGE wars Princess, as we MADE wars. And guess what? We still do."

"All bets are off Princess. May the best War Lord win." The shadow then dispatched like gas, leaving Celestia in her anger. The white princess turned off her burning mane and dislodged her poleaxe from the ground and marched towards her throne room. She needed to gather her officers and heralds. Troops had to be gathered, trained and armed. The ponies were going to war.

Author's Notes:

Staadnauthursil: Okay this one was a bit of work. The last dialogue between Celestia and Maleficus was very frustrating and hard to write. But I tried to my best and I will just have to be satisfied I finished it before the end of June. Hopefully you guys will appreciate the effort I made. But this chapter is not all that much action, but no worries, the battles will start soon.

Pinkie: Wohooo! Another chapter! Great work Staady!

Staadnauthursil: Thank you Pinkie, but please, not so loud. I am trying to relax.

Pinkie: Ookie Dookie Lookie!