Original LinK:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tvjQ4voPhO7adPw7NBP19UgPxNdDEKo-gUzPWYP3zrc/edit

The first thing the citizens of Everfree noticed was that strange dark spots appeared on the moon. Then, the de manis started to retreat, along with the red darkness. But their confusion swiftly replaced with cheer as they saw that the moon slowly began to wander towards the horizon. As the first sunbeams fell across Equestria, the ponies busted out in celebration and many could not hold back their tears of joy and relief. While they were very weak all the time, the knowledge that the worst was over now fueled them with enough strength and hope to actually start jumping and dancing around.

Though their celebration was intermitted when Celestia teleported back to the city. The subjects were shocked to see her injured like this and immediately began to treat her wounds. But demi-goddesses are hard to finish off. Just a few hours later, due to a combination of the most advanced medical care of that time and powerful healing spells, the princess of the sun was able to stand and walk again. Yet, Celestia could obviously not go straight back to her duties. A few days of physical and mental recovery were necessary. This could easily be arranged, since the full scale of destruction in Equestria yet had to be determined first before the government could even think of starting to rebuild.

As the first day after Nightmare Moon’s era of blood slowly came to an end, the subjects began to panic again. Naturally, after all they had been through, they became terrified of the night. So, at least for now, Celestia agreed to dramatically extend daytime in the entire land. The festival of Nightmare Moon’s defeat and the sun’s return would go on for three full days. That was about as much as Celestia could risk to keep the sun up, before it would start causing drought in the land.

The festivity of the sun’s victory would slowly turn into the famous Summer Sun Celebration over the years.

---

It was the middle of the second day after Nightmare Moon’s fall. The ponies of Equestria had once more proven their hardiness. Most of them were recovering very quickly. Music and glee filled Everfree like never before in its entire history. Yet, Celestia was not participating.

She was up in the castle, standing on the balcony where Luna once used to stand every night and watched her subjects celebrate. So many happy faces. So much joy. It almost felt like they already forgot the horrors they had been through.

Celestia’s injuries were healing up quickly. Most of her bandages were no longer soaking through with blood already and she could walk just fine. Whenever one of her subjects looked up to the balcony, Celestia smiled back. But the truth was that the demi-goddess of light was not happy.

She missed her sister. She felt deep guilt over what she had done. The seal which kept both Nightmare Moon and Luna bound to the moon was permanent. Celestia would never see her sister again.

It was a very unworthy end for Luna in her opinion. All she ever wanted was company. She just did not want to be forgotten and now, it was like she never even existed.

After a while, Celestia could not endure standing on the balcony anymore and faking her smile down to the ponies who never even knew she had a sister. She turned around and slowly went back inside the castle, hanging her head. So many terrible things had happened. So much had changed. But of all events, the most recent ones were the ones most stuck in Celestia’s mind.

“Equestria! I curse you with my madness!”

This line just would not leave her head. She saw what had happened. She saw how the red darkness ripped a part of Nightmare Moon away and dragged it out of the elements’ beam. Was she really that powerful? Did a part of her truly escape from being sealed to the moon? If so, what consequences would this bring?

Before Celestia could think any further, she heard multiple hooves clattering towards her throne room. A large troop of royal guards came marching in, surrounding an almost equally large number of captives.

“Your highness. We were able to arrest the reapers,” one of the guards spoke.

“All of them?” Celestia wondered.

“Yes. They surrendered to us and showed no attempt to fight back,” the guard replied.

“How many are there in total?” the bright demi-goddess asked.

“Eighty-seven, your highness,” the guard answered.

Celestia nodded and made a gesture to tell them that they should make space. The guards obeyed immediately and opened up the front row to give the bright demi-goddess direct sight on the reapers.

She slowly stepped towards them, her expression full of despise. Cursed traitorous ponies. They served Nightmare Moon just because they were too afraid of her. They prefered to kill others because they were too scared of dieing themselves.

The cloaks covered most of their bodies and faces, but they showed no expression. Their focus was lowered to the ground and it seemed like they lost any kind of motivation to do anything at all.

“Frankly, I do not know what to do with you. For your crimes, you deserve an immediate execution. Yet, I do not have the knowledge how to achieve this,” Celestia spoke with anger and disgust in her voice.

“It is impossible now. We will never be able to find rest,” one of the reapers suddenly started speaking.

The voice came from the middle of the group. The fact that it dared to speak to the princess of the sun without her permission angered her. But she held her emotions back as far as she could.

“You! The one who spoke to me! Step forth!” Celestia ordered.

The reapers made space and allowed one of them to come in front of Celestia. It was a silvery gray pegasus stallion with a dark gray mane.

“What is your name?” the bright demi-goddess wondered.

“Silverstream,” the reaper answered.

“Very well. Silverstream. Tell me more,” Celestia ordered.

“When Nightmare Moon cursed us, she claimed our mortality. She and her children were the only ones capable of ending our lives. Now that our mistress is gone, the purpose of our existence has become obsolete,” the gray stallion explained.

“I would like to doubt that you can not be executed. I succeeded in defeating your mistress, so I will succeed in defeating you as well,” the princess of the sun spoke sharply.

“You can try. We will not resist. Without a mistress, we have no one to serve anymore and no reason to exist,” Silverstream replied.

Celestia’s eyes narrowed. If she wouldn’t know better, she could bet that the reapers seemed to be depressed over the fact that they lost their mistress. But she knew they were heartless killers with no emotions. No, Celestia shared no sympathy for these monsters.

“I have more important affairs to deal with currently, so you will have to wait for your execution. Guards! Bring them to the dungeon!” she ordered.

“Yes, your highness!” the royal guards replied and started walking away along with the reapers.

Celestia tracked the reapers until they went out of her line of sight with anger filled eyes. Directly after the last royal guard had left, she sighed and tried to resume her thoughts.

As much as she would have liked to resolve this problem quickly, she really needed to think about the meaning of Nightmare Moon’s final words first. After what she had seen, she could not allow herself to be careless. The wicked mare of darkness pulled off many tricks to gain advantages. She somehow managed to learn curse magic from King Sombra, although he was sealed beneath the ice for hundreds of years already. She manipulated ponies and cursed them to gain more warriors for her war. Now, if a part of her could escape, then it was clear this would have a purpose, too. Where should she search and how?

Celestia knew that, soon, a time would come in which she would be extremely busy again. The reconstruction of Equestria would once more take up most of her attention and she would barely be able to even leave the castle. She also could not send any of her subjects to investigate the matter. Even though Nightmare Moon was gone, the de manis weren’t. They might have retreated, but they were still roaming in the shadows.

The population of Equestria had reduced so much that all remaining ponies fit into a single city. So, for now, she needed to put most of her attention on preventing the extinction of her subjects. Standards once more would need to be overthrown for the sakes of the land.

---

The princess of the sun didn’t know how long she had been thinking and planning already, since the sun did not move. But according to the city clocktower, at least 6 hours had passed.

By now, the music had stopped and it became a lot calmer in the city again. It seemed like the hyper mood of the ponies over the fact that they survived had made space to the realization of what had happened in the last weeks.

For a little while, the memories were pushed away. But now, they returned multiple times worse to the subjects.

Every now and then, a worried citizen came to Celestia, reporting that the other subjects started behaving strangely. Though Celestia thought she knew what their behavior meant. To her, it sounded like trauma. The ponies became nervous and anxious, easy to provoke and paranoid. It reminded her of how the ponies were acting the first few weeks after Luna and she had rescued Equestria. But soon, Celestia once more had to face that she misjudged the situation.

Another subject came storming in the throne room, crying and screaming. This reaction was by far the most intense she had seen yet, so Celestia put her notes aside and focused the approaching mare with a worried expression.

“What is it, my subject?” the bright demi-goddess wondered.

The mare could not reply immediately. She kept on nervously jumping in place and hyperventilating. After several seconds, she finally started speaking.

“She killed her!” the mare shouted.

Celestia’s expression turned into one of of shock.

“Who? What happened?” she wondered.

“Watermelons! She killed Honeydew!” the mare shouted in desperation, unable to gain control over her breath and tears.

The princess of the sun could hardly believe what she just heard. Murder? A pony killing another pony? Aside of Nightmare Moon’s kills while she took over Luna and subtracting the reapers’ murders due to the fact that they are no ponies anymore, the last time that happened was more than a thousand years ago, while the pegasi were still warriors.

Celestia needed to see it with her own eyes. She ordered two royal guards to accompany her and they followed the mare back to the house where she had seen the kill happen.

---

It was a small wooden house at the edge of the city. Nearby was a mixed fruit farm, which offered apple trees, peach trees and various types of melon plants. The farmland belonged to the house owners.

Strange giggling could be heard from inside. The mare who brought Celestia here did not dare to come any closer. She knew that the murderer was still inside. So, Celestia and her two guards entered on their own.

The sight presented to them was shocking. The purple and green mare was sitting on the floor, covered in blood and grinning widely with blood-shot eyes while holding a blood-wetted knife in her right front leg. Next to her was an orange mare, laying in a large puddle of blood. Although she was dead, she still had an expression of shock on her face, as if she never expected something like this to happen.

Watermelons’ eyes were glued to the ceiling, giving the impression of complete blankness. It were her eyes which shocked Celestia the most. This expression... this scene... it was so much like when she uncovered Nightmare Moon.

The guards carefully approached the mare from both sides. As one of them tried to take the blade out of her hoof, the insane mare suddenly began to laugh and swung the blade around wildly.

Celestia stopped her before she could do any more harm than already caused. She tore the knife out of her grip using a teleportation spell and placed it on a table next to her. As soon as the blade was out of the game, the guards could easily immobilize the mare.

“Why? Why did you do this?” the bright demi-goddess asked, trying to understand what was going on.

“Oh, I had to! She was so annoying! Always bragging about how much better her melons were compared to mine! I needed to shut her up!” Watermelons replied, her tone completely manic.

It was official now. This was the first case of a pony murdering another pony in the history of Equestria. Celestia couldn’t understand this. Why was this happening? Why now that all the horrible things were over?

As the princess of the sun stared at Watermelons’ face, she suddenly started seeing Nightmare Moon in her. It was now that Celestia noticed that there was a strange sensation about this insane mare. It was very close to that of the wicked mare of darkness.

All the sudden, realization kicked in. Celestia remembered Nightmare Moon’s summoning, just before she was sealed away. She threatened that she would continue to exist in the souls of those she despises the most. Then, Celestia remembered the two crimson red words floating in the air, which appeared as Nightmare Moon summoned.

Maledictum Insania. In the native language of Equestria, this meant ‘The Curse of Madness’.

Celestia understood now. Nightmare Moon sacrificed herself to speak a curse over Equestria that would cause its subjects to fall to insanity. This mare in front of the bright demi-goddess, struggling against the grip of the royal guards, was the first victim of this curse. Many more were yet to follow.

While the guards took her away, Celestia stood in place, paralyzed over the realization. Watermelons got dragged to the Everfree dungeon. On her way there, she kept on laughing and shouting all the time.

“My watermelons are the best in all of Equestria! There is no denying it! Mine are the best and if you say otherwise, I’m gonna kill you! You hear me? I’m gonna kill you!”