True Nightmare

[Grimdark]

It started like any other night’s sleep. There was a black haze in which she couldn’t focus on any one thought. Slowly and without her notice, the sounds of the real world began to fade away. Soon she was left with nothing, in a world of her own mind...

Princess Celestia blinked open her eyes. She was in a numb daze while the world slowly came into focus. To her right was a wide, empty space, and to her left, a checkered marble. But that wasn’t right.

Celestia sat up straight, recognizing the marble as the floor. She blinked a few more times, trying to push past the haze over her vision. The lighting didn’t help. The sun was resting at the horizon and shone a rich orange hue through the castle’s windows. The gaps between windows on the wall cast long, dark shadows. If it weren’t for the slight movement in one of the near shadows, Celestia would’ve missed the figure bent over and whimpering.

And the seemingly glowing crescent on the pony’s flank made it all too clear.

“Luna? What’s wrong, sister?” asked Celestia. She gasped. It wasn’t the voice she was used to that she spoke with. Her tone was lighter, yet unrefined.

Princess Luna stopped her crying with a short sniffle. She lifted her head and stared blankly ahead, in the opposite direction as her sister.

“Night is falling,” she muttered.

Celestia stood up on all fours. Again, it wasn’t quite right. How was the floor still so close? How was she still no taller than her sister, who was still seated?

“What’s going on?” she asked firmly. It somehow lacked the effect that she was expecting.

The rays of light from the sun began to dim. Luna ducked her head again.

“Goodnight,” she said.

“Answer me, sister! Please!” Celestia demanded.

Luna suddenly gasped. She arched her back and made a throaty sound, like she was choking.

“Luna!” Celestia tried to reach out, but could barely lift her hoof.

Her sister continued to convulse in the same manner. A sharp crack broke the routine, and was quickly followed by another, and another. Her legs began to visibly distort. A pointed bone spiked through her thigh, spattering blood onto the marble.

Celestia’s eyes widened. She quivered in place, but otherwise was completely immobilized.

What magic could possibly do this... she thought with a shudder.

Another sickening, wet snap echoed in the chamber. Luna’s wings had fully extended to her sides. Well, the bones did. Blue feathers stained with a dark red dripped from the bones, smacking hard against the floor.

“Sister!” Celestia cried out desperately. As much as she fought it, her hooves remained glued to the ground, her wings to her sides.

More crackling resounded from Luna. Her legs snapped back into an erect position, and slowly the odd extra segments locked in place, acting as extensions. The only problem became her skin. It was much too small now. All at once, the skin on her legs stretched taut, then ripped apart around the knees. One of the pieces on her back leg whipped up from the motion, splashing blood into Celestia’s eyes.

She winced. She still couldn’t brush it out of her eyes, so all she could do was try to blink it away. It struck her strangely though. The blood was ice-cold.

Blood dripped freely from her sister’s torn body. A puddle was beginning to flow out from underneath her. A new rain joined the substance, barely illuminated by the angle of the sun. First it was one or two, but soon tens, hundreds, maybe thousands of hairs drifted down from Luna. Some were even caught by the blood drippings and fell that much faster. What was left underneath was a smooth, jet black skin that seemed to absorb the light from the air around her.

Celestia’s entire body quivered. She tried to speak, but could barely move even her tongue.

Just as the sun passed below the edge of the horizon, a dim grayish-blue light cast from the far side of Luna. The glow appeared at the base of her mostly-shed tail, at the base of her wings, where the bloody feathers still hung limp, and presumably where her mane once was. One at a time, each glow extended. The wings shaped out like those of a dragon, complete with another painful-looking distortion of the bone within. Her tail and mane were each enveloped in a flowing field of deep blue dotted with stars. From the silhouette cast by the mane, Celestia saw Luna raise her head slowly and silently.

“L-luna...” whimpered Celestia. The simple word grated at her throat like she had swallowed a box of nails.

Sharply, the silhouette’s head snapped to the right. A wild, glowing-cyan eye glared at Celestia. An eye complete with the “slit” pupil of a serpent. Silently the image before Celestia rotated to face her. Both eyes held the same predatorial intensity that never lost their lock on the Princess.

“What’s happened—”

In a flash, the silence was replaced by a piercing screech. The afterimage of her bloody, mangled sister lingered in Celestia’s vision. And behind it, those eyes, blood-red and dripping.

Just as quickly, the silence was back, accompanied by a crushing, complete darkness.

In the next moment her mind could identify, Celestia felt air rushing past her body; she was evidently falling. She tried to move her wings, but her entire body was limp still, except for her neck. She tried to peer around in the blackness that filled the space. Not even her own hooves were visible through this.

Moving her head held another unfortunate consequence; she felt the air flow around her, and soon a sense of vertigo as she spiraled in her descent.

Then she simply smashed into another marble floor with a crunch. The feeling was back throughout her body, but it was far from welcome. Her legs should’ve all been broken, if not shattered from that fall, and yet through some cruel mercy she could still move them.

“Such is the alicorn’s curse.”

Celestia gasped. The voice was that of her sister, and it sounded close by.

“Luna!? Sister! Where are you?”

A few quick flashes of light illuminated the room for an instant. Somehow they had gotten to a far corner of the castle, in some hallway Celestia could barely recognize. She thought she saw rows of guards stationed at attention at each pillar along the hall, but it was too brief of a flash to be sure.

The voice from earlier chuckled. Only this time it wasn’t just Luna’s voice. There was another, deeper voice that joined in faintly.

“Why yes, ‘sister’ indeed.” There it was again, two voices in unison. “I wonder if the all-mighty Celestia has any idea what’s even going on...”

“I’m right here, sister! Please, talk to me!”

A distant thunderclap resounded across the sky.

“Oh, so that’s how it works,” said the voices. “The second Celestia is scared, that’s when she turns to little Princess Luna.”

“Whatever sorcery this is, sister, I’m sure we—”

“Do not refer to us as a ‘we’!!” On the final word, lightning flashed again, revealing the mutilated form that Luna had been reduced to standing immediately in front of Celestia. Those eyes, once more, pierced right through the Princess. The thunderclap was loud, quick, and close this time.

Celestia jumped back.

“Release her, demon!” she demanded of the darkness. The only response she received was a deep-rooted laughter.

“You don’t get it, do you?”

“Whatever dark hold you have over my sister—”

“Wake up!” the voices screamed, accompanied by another lightning strike. The sheer volume shook Celestia to her core. “There is nothing holding me captive here. Nothing, well, except perhaps you.”

“What do you mean!? And who else is with you?”

“Are you really so blind!?” Luna’s mane and eyes glowed in the darkness once more. The mane formed into a tendril of magic and slowly stretched out toward Celestia. Celestia stared warily, but was too slow. It snapped as a biting snake tight around her neck. Luna’s eyes widened.

“It’s your fault that the ponies of Equestria are only active during the day. It’s your fault that they’ve learned to abandon and fear the night. It’s your fault that I’ve been reduced to this, what everypony expects of the night!”

Celestia’s eyes quivered. A tear rolled over her eyelid and sizzled on the magic gripping her neck. Luna laughed heartily.

“And for that, I thank you.”

Celestia blinked in surprise. Luna tossed her sister to the floor. With her legs still injured, Celestia was suddenly wracked with pain.

“Without you pushing me to the limits of desperation and jealousy, I never would’ve discovered just how well this form of darkness suits me.” The light from her mane faded.

“Please, Luna,” Celestia choked. A warm, metallic taste seeped into her mouth. “You don’t have to do this.” Luna merely scoffed.

“Oh, please,” her voice whispered directly into her sister’s ear. “Stop calling me by that childish name.”

“But you—”

“You still don’t get it. Pathetic.” Celestia felt a sharp kick to her stomach. She coughed up more blood, and spat up even more so that she could clear a path to breathe.

Luna’s wings, mane, and tail pulsed with a glow, showing through the inky darkness that she was slowly and silently drifting away from Celestia.

“You’re the one who’s held captive, sister,” said Luna. “Now do your best to remember this, my name: Nightmare Moon.”

Celestia fought through her pain as she pushed herself upright. She wobbled onto her hooves, then tried to jump after her sister.

Another crack of lightning, and the world around her froze in time. Still in midair in front of her, she saw one of the castle’s guards. His expression was as neutral as ever. The stark contrast between this and his messily carved body was almost sickeningly comical. His body was covered in jagged slashes. His rear leg was torn off and lay beneath him. And, of course, his torso was ripped in half, with what innards were to be had strewn haphazardly amongst the rest of him.

It was too much to look at, and yet Celestia found it impossible to physically shut her eyes completely. Even as she tried to look away, she found the other guards to have met a similar fate. Various parts, halves, and blood puddles “decorated” the castle’s hall. One of them had his helmet caved into his shattered skull.

Luna- or rather Nightmare’s dual-voice began to laugh again. Slowly and quietly at first, and as it escalated, she raised her head, laughing with her whole body. Clearly she could break the rules of this faux reality freely. She eased her laughter and turned to Celestia, smirking. Tendrils of magic drew out from her mane. Their color began to deepen after some point. The two or three tendrils split at their ends into at least eight smaller points each, covered in bloody, serrated edges. She swiveled these tantalizingly, then enjoyed another hearty laugh. Her sister’s eyes streamed with tears, the only other thing seemingly capable of breaking the freeze of time.

Forgive me my failures, Celestia thought. Forgive me my loyal guard. And forgive me Luna, for missing this curse before it finally manifested as this monstrosity.

The macabre view faded into darkness once again. Celestia felt her legs and wings numb over. She blinked in the nothingness.

“But I do have more to show you, sister.” Nightmare was back. This time, Luna’s normal voice had disappeared, leaving the new and unfamiliar tone.

“Luna is my sister,” Celestia growled through a hoarse throat. “You, Nightmare Moon, will never be.”

The space around them slowly faded into view. The air swirled around Celestia, whipping her mane against it’s natural flow. Looking around, she saw the sky was covered in black stormclouds, but there was no rain. The horizon was tinged with the color of an open fire. Beneath her, as apparently she was flying high above the land, she could see a small country village. It appeared to be abandoned. Nightmare swooped in front of her to grab her attention.

“We’re not so different as you think,” she said.

Celestia glared at her. She tried to lunge for Nightmare, but once more she could only move from the neck up. Nightmare chortled in response.

“Unbelievable. You still don’t get how powerless you are here.” She shook her head.

A scream came from the ground. Nightmare glanced casually towards the source. Celestia couldn’t help her curiosity, and followed the glance.

“What’s happening?” she solemnly asked.

“It’s a nightly routine now. Everypony in Equestria is kept rather well aware of our rule now.”

“Our rule!?” Celestia exclaimed. Once more Nightmare scoffed.

“Why, of course.”

“I’d never stand to allow a... a monster like you—”

“I’m the monster!?” Nightmare bared her teeth- fangs, rather, at Celestia. In her sudden rage, a jagged bolt of lightning fired down from the clouds behind her.

“No!!”

Celestia gasped and looked back toward the village. A large char mark was burned into the ground just outside the door to a simple barn. Celestia squinted; she could see the shapes of two ponies. One was a mare, bent over the other, a stallion, who was covered in the same ashes as the ground around them. He was motionless.

Nightmare Moon hovered next to her sister.

“Not as fun as I prefer, but it certainly makes for a dramatic entrance.” She laughed under her breath in a deep tone. “But that’s beside the point.”

“Y-you... you’d just kill a citizen of Equestria for ‘fun’!?”

“But of course.” Nightmare glanced directly into Celestia’s eyes. “I think it’s about time I show you why they’re so scared down there.”

Before Celestia could respond, the world around her began to fade again.

Celestia’s vision returned suddenly this time. She studied her surroundings again. The lighting was poor, but the same as the sky from the last ‘episode’. She was inside the attic of a rickety wooden farmhouse. The only other things in the room were an empty bookshelf, a bed frame with a torn-up mattress, and a whimpering mare curled up on the floor.

The Princess tried to say “It’s okay, don’t be scared.” She tried even to say “Hello” and it failed. It took her a moment for the sensation she was feeling to sink in.

Her mouth was melted together into a flat, solid snout.

She tried to move, but not even her neck would work this time. Only her eyes were in her control.

“Comfortable?” Nightmare whispered into her ear. Celestia would have been shaking if she could move.

“P-please... I-I...” the mare in the corner pleaded. Nightmare snickered.

“You see, ‘Princess’ Celestia, there is a lot we do have in common.”

Celestia felt her hooves lift on their own. Her body slowly walked itself toward the corner. The mare’s panicked breathing picked up.

“We share many of the same powers, and many of the same responsibilities. If we didn’t do our jobs, life as these pitiful ponies know it would simply come to an end.”

“Wh-why...” the mare whimpered. She began to cry profusely.

I’m sorry...

“But why do we, alicorns with the power to move the Sun and the Moon, to control the Day and the Night, have to answer to them?”

Because it has always been our duty. To maintain harmony—

“We have the power to make the demands. We have the power to have whatever kind of world we want.”

A crack echoed in the attic from behind Celestia.

“And so, after truly testing how far I can go beyond our standard boundaries, I’ve come to this discovery.”

Celestia felt her back arch and her neck bend down toward the floor. The feeling slowly returned across her body. It was instantly nauseating. Her legs were contorted into odd shapes, and she could feel splintered bones grinding against each other, just with no pain. Her wings snapped to attention; suddenly they felt cold, except around their bases.

“To be perfectly honest, sister, I have no doubt that you’ll like the killing too. It just suits us. It’s in our nature.”

The distortion of Celestia’s form continued hastily. Her legs were just re-forming as her coat shed. A pile of bloody hair spread beneath her. Her neck rose again, and she saw her reflection mirrored in the terrified mare’s eyes.

Celestia herself had those same eyes. Those same, animalistic, hateful eyes. Only hers, as was her slowly-forming magical mane, were a deep red.

“Now, Celestia, it is your turn.”

Dark red tendrils of magic flowed around her towards the mare. The mare covered her head and shut her eyes desperately. The tendrils wrapped around her, then they pulled her in, raising her in the air before Celestia.

The Princess tried desperately to shut her eyes, but had no control over even her own eyelids.

“Trust me. I know you better than you think.” Nightmare was once again whispering, disturbingly trying for a comforting tone.

Forgive me... Celestia thought. She could feel the tears in her own eyes being held back forcibly.

The tendrils gripped, then sharpened. It was slow, and deliberate. And most of all, cruel. The mare screamed between sobs as the magical blades dug into her, then pulled away from each other. Celestia couldn’t avert her eyes enough. The strength of the magic made the pony seem about as tough as gelatin. She was peeled into two pieces not unlike a wad of gum; at least she died with her eyes closed. Celestia nearly vomited in her mouth when the “pieces” dripped out from either half.

“Embrace this feeling, sister.”

This can’t be real...

The tendrils dropped what was left of their victim, then receded to Celestia’s mane. The room faded to darkness, then Nightmare Moon faded into view in front of her.

“The power, their fear, the blood...”

And you sicken me...

“You know it’s what you want.”

I’d never wish this for my people.

“Join me, Celestia. Embrace this future, and embrace what we truly are.”

This ‘future’ is nothing but a nightmare.

“Celestia... Sister? Celestia...”

The voice was hazy. And just vaguely familiar.

“Sister, wake up...”

“Luna?” Celestia asked. The dark numbness gave way to a sudden clarity. Her body was... hers. Everything about it was hers, and hers alone.

She opened her eyes slowly. Even in her drowsiness it was clear that the blue figure before her was her sister.

“Are you alright, sister?” Luna’s voice carried genuine concern.

“Y-yes,” Celestia hesitated.

Luna smiled warmly.

“Well you had best get ready. The sun must rise soon.”

Celestia nodded passively. Nothing had changed. Her sister was still Luna. Equestria was still the same. There was still a daytime, a time for hope and happiness.

“I’ll be ready in a minute,” Celestia whispered.

“Then I’ll leave you to it. I believe it is my turn to get some sleep.” Luna smiled cheerfully and turned for the door.

“Embrace this future...”

The words echoed in Celestia’s mind. Was it really just a dream?

“Oh, um, Luna!”

“Yes sister?” Luna turned to Celestia. She blinked once.

Suddenly every moment of the nightmare came rushing back to Celestia at once. The images locked on on in particular: the first moment when she had turned around, as Nightmare Moon.

All Celestia could see were those serpentine eyes, the bloodstained tendrils, and the jet black skin.

“... have you ever considered starting a Nighttime festival?”

Luna snickered to herself.

“Oh, why start now?” she answered. “Now don’t you have a job to do?” Luna winked at her sister before trotting out of the room.

Celestia sighed.

I may already be too late...

The rest of Nightmare’s final words played clearly in her mind: “...and embrace what we truly are.”

Princess Celestia rose from her bed. She swooped to the ground and stood with regal dignity.

I am not what you are, Nightmare. And Luna is no monster either. I know this, deep in my heart I know this.

She stepped over to the window. Outside, the moonlight cast beautifully across the forest.

I will never become that which I have seen this night. I will always be loyal to my people, and I will always be loyal to my sister. No figment of nightmares can change that.

Celestia adjusted her focus to see her own reflection. It was as it should be. No blood, no tendrils, no bones. Just the alicorn sun Princess that all of Equestria revered with a warm heart.

Except a shadow passed over her face. A brief glimmer of the purest black.

“That— of course, I should get to the raising of the sun.”

For a small moment, every sound dimmed to nothing around her. Everything, except for one lingering voice in her head...

“Just wait.”