Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/136ZTOzqsoEIKHGXWhYe3iWcHiZKi8yg27RBE4389_T4/edit

After Nightmare Moon returned, she continued her plan of flying straight towards Everfree City on a slow pace. Despite Celestia’s attack on her, nothing changed in the sinister queen’s behaviour. The only thing that did change now was that she started planning more in advance.

The bargain with King Sombra made her think. It would take a very long time for his seal to break, but it certainly would. A great disaster was coming in distant future and no creature besides her knew of this. Although her main motive was to give darkness a swift relief of its rage, she kept herself the options open in case this would not be possible.

The queen of the de manis was very powerful, but she was not unconquerable. At least as long as she still depended on Luna’s body and soul. Should something happen to the dark demi-goddess, Nightmare Moon needed to make sure that this would not mean her own end and thus the end of darkness’ attempt to get revenge.

She wanted to leave a mark. A permanent damage on the whole land not even Celestia would be able to undo. This is why she required the ability to create curses. But she would wait for her plan until the last second. Her main objective was to destroy the world as quickly as possible and not letting darkness wait centuries over centuries to finally find justice. But even for that, the power of curses would become very useful.

The queen of the de manis reached another village. As the ponies spotted her up in the night sky, they instantly broke out in panic. By now, every pony in the entire land knew of her cruelty and insatiable hunger for pony flesh.

Nightmare Moon had little interest to occupy herself with this place for too long, but she had to kill the ponies and display her power. For what she aimed to do, the ponies needed to fear her as much as possible.

Still levitating in the air, she cast a dark spell. Heavy dark greenish clouds appeared above the village and soon, they started to rain down on the ponies. As the green drops landed on the ground, they instantly evaporated with a fizzing noise, corroding everything they touched.

The acid storm quickly got worse and worse. The ponies screamed in agony as their skin and flesh melted off their bodies. Not even their houses provided them a lot of protection. In just a matter of moments, they too became dissolved by the powerful acid.

After just a minute, Nightmare Moon could stop the storm. Several ponies already died, but a majority was at a desperate and agonizing battle with death, rolling around in the acid puddles and rapidly dissolving. Only three ponies were lucky enough to avoid getting showered by acid and had only minor cauterizations, but in return stared at the dying ponies in dread.

It were these ponies the wicked mare of darkness was interested in. She caught a purple pegasus stallion by magic and levitated him over to her. The pony struggled, flapping his wings and desperately trying to escape. But as he was just in front of the sinister queen, he decided to stop and just wait for her to kill him.

Nightmare Moon grinned as she stared at the pony shaking all over and awaiting his death. This was exactly the kind of pony she needed. One so terrified of her, it would do everything just to survive. The wicked mare’s face became serious again as she made him an offer.

“I will give you a choice, pony,” Nightmare Moon started. “You can either die a gruesome death right here and now, or you will submit to me.”

The stallion’s eyes slowly opened again, but he kept shaking violently.

“I-I submit! I submit! I will do whatever you say! Just, please, don’t kill me!” he whimpered.

“Will you abandon Celestia?” the queen of the de manis asked while grinning again.

“Y-yes!” the stallion replied.

“Will you serve me and do my bidding?” Nightmare Moon asked again.

“Yes! Everything! Everything you say!” the stallion answered.

“Then, from now on, you shall be my property,” the evil queen finished.

A dark aura formed around her horn, which she then shot down on the ground beneath the captured pony. The acid moved aside to make space for a strange slimy black liquid that steamed in a black fog.

Nightmare Moon lowered the pony to the liquid. Again, it struggled and flapped its wings, hoping in vain to escape. The black smoke grabbed the stallion’s hind legs as they came in reach and pulled him closer and closer. Finally he found himself engulfed by the black liquid and sunk into the ground. But just moments later, he raised his front hooves out of the slime and crawled outside.

The black slime quickly soaked into the stallion, leaving only the last bit stuck to his body, which then shaped into a cloak. The stallion suddenly became strangely calm. He did not even shake anymore and as he opened his eyes again and saw his reflection in a nearby window, he realized that his eyes had become thoroughly black.

The stallion inspected his body and cloak for a moment. Then he turned around to Nightmare Moon.

“What... what have you done with me?” he asked carefully.

“I have turned you into my personal bringer of death. Your body, soul and your very mortality belong to me now. From this moment forth, you shall act as my battle slave,” Nightmare Moon replied.

“I see...” the stallion replied and bowed down before her. “What is your bidding, my mistress?”

“Go and seek out Celestia’s warriors. Bring death to them,” the queen of the de manis ordered.

“But... how will I be able to defeat them?” the cursed stallion wondered, surprised that suddenly, the idea of murdering other ponies did not bother him anymore.

“Do not worry about your own life. It shall not end before I say so. No matter how much you get injured, you will always recover. But be warned, my reaper. Do not dare to disobey me, or you shall die a thousand agonizing deaths,” the wicked mare of darkness threatened.

“As... you wish,” the stallion replied and lifted into the air.

Nightmare Moon started laughing again. This worked out way better than she expected. Even though she reduced his emotions dramatically to make him a more ruthless and effective killer, he still feared her so much that he would not possibly dare to displease her.

The evil queen’s eyes wandered across the village again. Next to all ponies were dead and heavily disfigured by now. Only two ponies still stood there, shaking all over and staring at her. Nightmare Moon grinned at them sinisterly.

“And what may your choice be? The acid rain or slavery?” she wondered.

---

“The troops are doing everything they can, Princess! These de manis are extremely tough enemies!” one of the royal guards spoke.

“What have you learned of them so far?” Celestia asked.

“They seem to be highly intelligent. It feels like they sometimes know we are planning assaults on them and set up a counter plan. Also, we completely failed to kill even a single one of them so far,” the guard replied.

“You can not kill them? Why not?” the bright demi-goddess wondered.

“We have no idea! Our spears, swords and daggers hit them, but they leave absolutely no visible damage! Not even the enchanted ones!” the guard stated.

“There just has to be a way! We must stop them!” Celestia insisted.

“We are trying our best, but it’s getting harder and harder to keep the major cities protected! It feels like there are more de manis coming from the red darkness with every hour that passes!” the guard explained.

“You are doing a great job. Without you, Equestria would be overrun already. Please, just try to buy me as much time as possible,” the princess of the sun requested.

“Yes, your highness!” the stallion replied and ran back outside.

Celestia stepped in front of one of the many windows in her throne room and gazed out in the distance with a worried expression on her face. The red darkness had almost reached Everfree. In just the last 24 hours, she got reports of 16 more towns being destroyed. Who knows how many more had fallen already and simply did not get reported because nopony survived to tell the tale? One thing was clear, though: the pony population remaining in Equestria was slowly approaching a critical minimum.

Since there is no such thing as a military in Equestria, Celestia depended on ponies volunteering to fight for her. But the reputation of the de manis, especially that of Nightmare Moon, was speaking for itself. A majority of the ponies were extremely afraid of them by now. So it was very difficult for the bright demi-goddess to find enough guards to effectively protect the land.

She herself made it her responsibility to protect Everfree. Although she did this task nearly completely on her own, she was very successful in repelling monsters and de manis. After all, she was a mighty demi-goddess. But it seemed like there was something about her magic that impressed de manis more than the magic of an average unicorn. So far, she figured that it would be her light magic, since de manis are creatures of darkness. But now that she heard that the weapons she enchanted with light spells had no effect on them, she needed to rethink.

Things were looking very bad. Monsters were running loose all over the land. De manis were reproducing at a terrifying speed. More and more ponies were dying. Desperation and fear were eating on the already very weak population. If Celestia would not find a way to take out Nightmare Moon soon, it would be too late.

The princess of the sun was brought out of her thoughts by the clattering of hooves approaching her from behind. As she turned around, she saw a blue mare, wearing a black cloak. The hood was pulled up, preventing Celestia from seeing her face. But what she could see was that her focus was lowered to the ground and that she had a strange expression.

In the past weeks, Celestia had nearly only seen desperate faces. Not a single one of her subjects was doing even decent anymore. This one mare, though, had a very neutral expression. So neutral that it in fact actually seemed cold.

“What can I do for you, my subject?” the bright demi-goddess wondered.

The mare came to a halt closely in front of Celestia. She did not reply immediately, but rather took several seconds as if she was hesitant.

“I’m sorry...” she finally spoke.

“Sorry for what?” Celestia wondered.

“For this,” the blue mare replied.

Suddenly, a black scythe appeared out of nowhere, which she grabbed with her mouth and swung at Celestia.

The bright demi-goddess could react just in time to summon a shield of light to block off the attack.

“What in the name of all good things are you doing?!” Celestia shouted in disbelief.

The mare did not reply. Instead, she pulled off a maneuver to get around the shield and struck again. The demi-goddess of light could teleport herself to safety, but just as she returned her focus to the cloaked mare, she had run right in front of her again.

Using a levitation spell, Celestia stopped the mare and lifted her into the air, out reach for the scythe to hit her.

“Why are you doing this?!” The princess of the sun asked.

“Because I must obey Mistress Nightmare Moon,” the cloaked mare replied calmly.

Celestia was about to to shout out in disbelief of what she just heard when something unexpected happened. The mare she held captive midair suddenly turned into a black cloud, capable of escaping Celestia’s magic.

The demi-goddess quickly found herself surrounded by the fog, having it come ever closer. Black teeth formed in the mass and aimed to ram into Celestia from all directions.

At this moment, the princess of the sun used a strong light spell to blast the cloud away. The mass quickly gathered together and formed back into the cloaked mare. Before she could react, Celestia launched another spell on her. Strong chains of light shot out of her horn and tied the cloaked mare to the ground.

The demi-goddess of light panted a bit. Not in exhaustion, but in shock. The strikes of this mare were close. If she had been just a little bit slower, she would be dead now.

Celestia carefully approached the cloaked mare, making sure that she was unable to escape again. Indeed, after just a short struggle, the mare came to understand that she had been defeated and stopped moving. Then, she felt a hoof on her head, pulling the hood of her cloak back.

The bright demi-goddess looked at the mare in shock and stepped back again. Those eyes... they were not of a pony. Black, dull and deep as the darkest night.

“What are you?” Celestia wondered.

“Mistress Nightmare Moon named us reapers,” the mare replied.

“Reapers... this magic... I have sensed it before,” the bright demi-goddess started talking to herself. “Could it be? How? How can Nightmare Moon know curse magic?”

The reaper mare just remained silent and laying on the ground, completely motionless. Celestia knew she would not get any information from her. Whatever Nightmare Moon had done to this mare, she now was definitely no longer a pony and served her loyally. Yet another kind of threat had appeared.

The door to Celestia’s throne room opened again and the same royal guard she had been talking to just minutes ago came rushing in.

“Your highness! The outposts are under attack!” he shouted.

“Which ones?” the princess of the sun asked.

“All of them!” the guard replied.

Celestia’s eyes went wide open. How can this even be possible? How could the situation have changed so rapidly?

“Are they being attacked by-” she wanted to ask, turning her head over to the cloaked mare when she realized that she was gone.

For just a moment, Celestia was distracted enough for the reaper mare to break loose from the light chains. As she turned her head back to the royal guard, it was already too late. She had sliced her scythe through his neck, too fast for him to even react.

The cloaked mare instantly turned around to Celestia, trying to strike her again. But now, the demi-goddess of light was enraged. Her eyes turned white and she gathered her magic, creating a single but very powerful bolt of pure arcane magic. After she launched it at the reaper mare, the bolt gave off a strong purple explosion, shooting the reaper mare against a wall.

Celestia’s eyes became normal again. The strike was lethal. The cloaked mare stopped breathing and showed no signs of life anymore.

This cursed mare was not an experienced fighter. Her movements were clumsy and unprofessional. But she was very fast and strong in return, not to mention that she could turn herself into a black fog. With enemies like that, it was clear that the time Celestia had left was even much shorter than she imagined.

The bright demi-goddess was about to leave to give out new orders, continuously throwing distrusting glances at the dead mare. She was unsure what to expect of these reapers and as the mare started moving again after not even a minute, her suspicion became confirmed.

Shocked to see that she survived such a powerful attack, Celestia used a banisher spell to launch her out of the castle and Everfree City.

“What kind of monster are those reapers? How can it be that I could not defeat her?” she asked herself. “No mortal creature is capable of surviving a strike of arcane magic! If not even that could kill a reaper, nothing can! They are unstoppable!”

Celestia felt how panic spread through her body. Nightmare Moon would definitely create a whole legion of reapers. The war was as good as decided. No matter what, the bright demi-goddess had to somehow find a way to destroy the de manis very, very soon.

The princess of the sun cast a teleportation spell that brought her far outside of Everfree. Her last hope to turn this war around was by capturing a de manis to perform research on it.