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A Princess' Steed

Chapter Nine

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Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by Chris Silverhoof

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Celestia hummed a tune to herself as she left her chambers in the evening, closing the door gently on her hooves. She'd left a sleepy Kevin sprawled out across the rug laid out in front of the fire, a scroll tucked between his hooves. She doubted it would be all that long before he was conked out for the count, but at least he seemed content to peruse the ideals of alicorn history to amuse himself while she was occupied with the duties of the realm.

Only one duty remained and that was bringing about its conclusion in lowering the sun: an easy enough task for a pony who used to raise and lower both the moon and the sun in beautiful symmetry.

Yet something was amiss. She turned her head from side to side, using the motion to sweep her gaze down the long hallway lined with floor-length windows looking out over Canterlot and only one other door. The door to Luna's private chambers was closed.

She was alone.

"No guards?" She stood stock still, head shooting up. "Where in the heavens have they gone?"

She frowned and shook her head, muscles tense beneath her pale white coat, gleaming with good health.

"They should be here." She spoke aloud, confirming her thoughts. "Why aren't they here?"

The only other door in the corridor swung open and out stepped Luna - not an uncommon sight on an evening, as it was, of course, her due time to rise. Her stride came shorter than usual, a brisk, clipped walk unlike her usual languid stroll that seemed as if the alicorn had somewhere to be and somewhere to be immediately. Celestia frowned and reached out a hoof to her as the princess stopped before the window, looking up at the sun that Celestia was in the process of lowering, halfway down towards the horizon.

"Good evening, sister."

Celestia stiffened. That wasn't her sister's voice. That didn't sound anything like Luna. Her tail pushed down against her hindquarters, the undulations slowed as her nostrils flared, adrenaline pumping. She spread her wings as if to prepare for flight and eyed the blue alicorn up and down, taking in every nuance of her features. She certainly looked like Luna, but there was something about the disdain in her eyes and the tilt of her head that didn't seem quite right, even if she couldn't put her hoof on just why Luna shouldn't be doing those actions.

"Luna?"

Celestia backed off, unable to stir the unease from the pit of her stomach. She shook out the tension from her wings, worry creasing her forehead even as she tried to tell herself that nothing was wrong and she was simply over reacting to Luna's normal moods.

"Luna, you don't seem herself," she probed cautiously, stretching out her neck, though her hooves remained firmly planted in place. "Is there something amiss? You are so rarely awake at this hour."

Laughing, Luna threw her head back, the nebula of her mane whipping around her face.

"Oh, dear sister, I am merely on time for my duties. Or did you think you could take one more duty from me, the duty that makes me who I am, the Princess of the Night?"

"What? No!"

Celestia's jaw dropped.

"Sister, you are clearly not feeling well if you would speak so ill of yourself and of me. If you adjourn to your chambers, I'll have the doctor sent for you right away -"

Luna slammed a hoof into the ground and the door to Celestia's private chambers slammed shut, the lock clicking smoothly closed. One by one, every torch in the hallway went out, the sun slowly lowering as Celestia's horn glowed, relinquishing her hold on the sun as she had done at the end of every day for a thousand years and more. Only, there was no Luna there waiting to raise the moon in her stead, only an alicorn with a muzzle so contorted that she was barely recognisable any longer. On the other side of the bedchamber door, Kevin slammed his shoulder into the barrier, ears back and throat raw from whinnying.

"Sister, wouldn't you like me to leave?" She said, her tone silken smooth and dripping with danger. "Then you would have the sun and the moon and all of Equestria all to yourself. There may be other princesses here, but it is only I that sits on an equal throne to you, ruling over the night as you have done the day."

Luna's eyes narrowed and she bared her teeth like fangs as her horn lit up, drawing up a swirl of blue smoke to encase her from muzzle to hoof. Lifting a wing to block at least some of the sudden gale from tearing around her muzzle, Celestia threw words to the wind that would never be heard as Luna rocked with crazed laughter, swinging her weight from hoof to hoof. The smoke thickened, plumping and pluming with a mind of its own until the alicorn was encased completely.

Shielding her eyes, Celestia peered through the smoke as the moon rose, forcing her sun back into place and covering it completely. She shuddered. Last time there'd been a solar eclipse, there'd been...

No. No, she couldn't think like that. The smoke swirled, slowly clearing as the world outside the castle windows plunged into inky twilight, stars pricking into life one by one in the heavens. At any other time, Celestia would have paused to admire their beauty, yet there was no time when her world seemed set on crumbling about her hooves.

The smoke drifted away from the form of the alicorn.

"Celestia!" Kevin howled from the other side of the door. "Celestia! Let me out! I can help! Can you hear me? Celestia!"

The alicorn trembled as she stared down the figure of Nightmare Moon, stepping forth from where her beloved sister had stood. But the nightmare before her was everything other than her sister in that moment and that moment alone.

Steeling herself, she called magic to her grasp, winding it about her horn, a tightly wound coil anticipating release. Nightmare Moon scoffed and lifted a hoof as if whatever Celestia had to throw at her was a mere tickle - nothing to be threatened by.

"Do you really believe your puny magic will be enough to defeat me?" She cackled, mockery lacing her tone. "There's nothing you can do this time, princess. I am stronger than you and I always will be. Luna was nothing compared to what I am and will be!"

The sun princess closed her ears to the nightmare's words, laying her ears down to her skull as she snarled like a wild beast, bracing herself in a battle stance as strong as any she had thrown in the olden days. For a moment, she wished she still had the Elements of Harmony to assist, but she would have to rely on her own wit and power - yes, it was there, as it always had been - to bring Equestria back to rights. Her horn crackled, magic begging for release.

But something was wrong. Allowing the magic to slip from her grasp, Celestia hesitated. Yes, those were Luna's eyes, but she'd never seen that intent, that certain little crease at the corners, not even when she'd been Nightmare Moon all those years ago.

No, something was very wrong.

"Luna?"

The alicorn cast her a haughty look.

"And yet you still use that name? How quaint of you. I would never have expected the great and glorious Celestia to be so timid in her address of the true Queen of Equestria."

"That's because Luna is still in there somewhere," Celestia probed cautiously, magic ever merely a breath away from her touch, able to be called on at any moment. "You're not the pony you should be, Luna. You're better than this. I know you're there."

Nightmare Moon tossed her head and drew a beam of light to her horn, the reflection glancing daringly off the windows.

"I knew this would be easy, but even I could not have predicted just how easy you would make this for me, Celestia."

The nightmare spat out her name as if it left a foul taste in her mouth.

"And now, you have merely sealed your fate." She smiled, terribly pleasant in the curve of her lips that would have been beautiful if not for the malice behind them. "I do hope you have enjoyed your time ruling Equestria, for this day shall be your last."

The pony that was not her sister lowered her head, pointing her glaringly bright horn at her chest, continuing to draw in power.

"Your very last."

The bolt unleashed itself from her horn with an almighty crack to rival the worst thunderstorm and Celestia leapt to avoid it, taking flight as the blast seared a hole through the wall behind her. The crumbling, smouldering hole yawned and she shuddered from it; that could very easily have been her if she had not jumped in time.

A crash drew her attention, a flick of her eyes away from Nightmare Moon, and then the nightmare was upon her, pummelling and kicking with shocking brutality. Creatures in Equestria able to use magic traditionally fought with magic, yet the other alicorn leaned on her hooves and horn, lashing out and cracking Celestia across the side of the head.

Head ringing, Celestia staggered. Why didn't she just use her magic? Nightmare Moon bored down on her, forcing her back with strikes from her front hooves, clipping a shoulder as the princess hastily threw up a shield, just barely protecting herself in time while she gathered her senses. All unicorns and alicorns utilised their magic to fight - it was their biggest strength in conflict! Yet it was almost as if she didn't want to use magic, didn't want Celestia to see just what her magic was...

Celestia's eyes shot wide and she stared hard into the other alicorn's eyes as her lips curved up in a wicked grin that was so unlike her sister that it may as well have been carved into a statue's muzzle.

"Conceding defeat, princess?" She gloated. "I knew you would not last against me."

Drawing strength back to her sore and battered limbs, Celestia stood up tall and proud.

"Do you see me giving in, nightmare?" She took a deep breath. "Why don't you try your magic? Or are you merely afraid that I will reflect it so easily?"

The alicorn snorted and threw her head high, nostrils flared. But Celestia could not help but notice the extra beat she took, the fraction of a second passing, before words shot back through the air at her like cloaked daggers.

"I need no magic to defeat you! It only shows just how weak you truly are, Celestia!"

The door at the far end of the corridor opened and Celestia spun to halt her subjects a breath too late. Clicking into the frame at the heels of her guards, the door sealed them in and the ponies that had devoted their lives to protecting her and the kingdom lowered their horns, pawing at the ground in readiness for battle. Celestia swept her gaze over them, the other alicorn between her and her charges. Twelve? What good would twelve do against a nightmare?

"Get back, princess!" A guard who she recognised as none other than Shining Armour flung out his foreleg. "We will do our duty for you!"

Her heart went out to them. They wouldn't have stood a chance alone with Nightmare Moon and yet they were still prepared to do anything and everything for the sake of the kingdom. She could never have asked for more loyal subjects: not in any lifetime.

And the thing that was Luna but not Luna stood between her and them. Gritting her teeth, Celestia drew power to her horn, skin tingling as it trembled through her body, more than she'd been forced to call on in many, many years.

She didn't hear the bang of a body against the door behind her as she flung out her magic, a lightning bolt crackling from the tip of her horn. Tightly controlling the spell, she called on the weather elements, sending a thundering, dark cloud to the ceiling where it roiled, threatening with its twisting, seething belly.

Forked lightning lanced down into the floor around Nightmare Moon as the alicorn leapt for safety, wings carrying her from harms way, but Celestia was swift too. She gave chase as the alicorn turned to her guards, a shield up to protect her back from the storm Celestia controlled. The smoke shrouded her once again and the princess braced herself for the deluge of magic that was to come, her own golden shield encasing her form like a bubble as she hovered in mid-air.

"Cloaking yourself now?" Celestia used her wings to balance, chest heaving. "Are you so afraid of revealing yourself that you will not attack?"

She narrowed her eyes at the creature before her, hatred simmering from eyes that held no memory of their foalhood together.

"Or are you afraid to let me see what colour your magic is, sister?"

As the alicorns faced off, Nightmare Moon baring her teeth like a creature of the Everfree forest, the guards charged unbidden and something crashed through the door to Celestia's rear. She could not look - did not dare look - and threw up a dome over the guards in time to prevent Nightmare Moon's spell from hitting, erupted in a pillar of power from the smoke even as it slowly cleared into fainter wisps. Blood red liquid splattered down over the guards, their protective bubble sizzling as they hit. Shining Armour visibly recoiled from the droplets, dropping his head and striking a hoof into the floor. She didn't want to think just what that fluid was.

"Celestia! Celestia, it's not her!"

And Celestia had to look. Throwing energy into her shields, she spun around in mid-air only to see a panting Kevin with scrapes and splinters down his sides, mane tangled and sticking up in all directions. A pegasus filly hovered beside him, her tiny wings seeming far too small to possibly keep her afloat.

Her heart leapt.

As Nightmare Moon locked her gaze on the two new ponies in the scene, Kevin whirled and snapped at the filly. Any pony worth their salt would have understood the gesture and she squeaked, firmly planting herself behind him as she trembled like a filly on her first flight.

"Kevin!" She cried, finding her voice, though it came out as a harsh rasp. "You should have stayed back!"

The stallion shook his mane off his neck and pointed a hoof at Nightmare Moon.

"That is not Luna!"

"Evidently."

The nightmare folded her wings down to her side and advanced, her stride short and choppy. Her eyes gleamed menacingly, yet Kevin held his ground even as Celestia darted between them.

"Stay away from him!"

"Oh, have your feelings actually developed for this sorry excuse of a stallion?" Nightmare Moon cooed. "You should have listened to me. He is not worthy of the attentions of an alicorn, let alone any other in Equestria. An abomination like him should be cast out! Sent back to the dark lands where he belongs!"

Kevin set his jaw and faced her down as Celestia's expression contorted, a shudder rippling through her body.

"Perhaps you would think so, but Luna would never think so. And you are not Luna."

"That's right!" The filly piped up in a high-pitched squeak. "That's not her - not really! Though she sure does look like her."

Celestia whirled on the alicorn and dropped to the ground, legs braced.

"And who is the demon who has impersonated my sister?" She hissed, eyes turning green as purple wisps flared out from her irises. "Where is Luna?" She ground her teeth together. "I knew there was something amiss here..."

The other alicorn rolled her eyes.

"Well, it took you long enough, Celestia, though you still have not uncovered my true identity. Can you not guess from those you have shunned, or is the list too long for you to recall any particular one?"

"Wilda." Kevin said hollowly, answering for her. "It's Wilda. She's been planning this the whole time and she's taken Luna."

Celestia lowered her head, magic fizzling out from her horn. Although the battle had not gone on for that long, exhaustion riddled her body, muscles sore where Wilda's hooves had made contact. Even in the form of Nightmare Moon, the alicorn pony had proven more than adept at controlling her body and she may have been proud of her at any other time. But she could not be proud when the alicorn threatened all of Equestria and those she held dear.

She stared out the windows, muddied with smoke swirls, at Luna's beautiful moon, the image of a pony carved into its face that did not belong there. Celestia choked on words that would not come. She had never belonged there.

Taking a deep breath, Celestia filled her lungs with air, using the inhalation to steady herself as the alicorn stepped forward, hooves lifted unreasonably high. The time that she had always known had come...had indeed arrived. Just like it had with Luna all those many years ago.

And it could not be stopped now that it had begun.

She blinked away tears as Kevin stepped up to her side, head held defiantly high. Leaning into her, he held her up as her legs wavered, threatening to give out. But she had to hold on. It was the only hope her sister had.

"It is the only way," he whispered. "You must do what you believe is right. We are all behind you."

"How did you know what I was thinking?"

"It's written all over your face."

"When everypony sees how you cast out your own sister for a second time, they will shun you like you shunned me, Celestia," Wilda hissed. "It will never be the same again. You shall be but a corpse while your sister is trapped for eternity. And the kingdom shall finally be mine."

"Not while we stand here!"

The guards lined up on the enemy's other side, armour glinting, trapping her. Far from backed into a corner, the alicorn scoffed and readied her next spell, magic crackling as it formed, pulling into her horn as if she was sapping the very energy from the air around her. The guards wavered, weak on their hooves and Kevin cried out as they toppled to the floor, legs splayed and eyes glassy, although their flanks still rose and fall with breath. He trembled, resisting the urge to step away as Celestia stiffened beside him, wings held rigid. The filly who'd been with him was thankfully long gone, but Celestia set her jaw and advanced, eyes blazing.

"You will release Luna," Celestia said, stronger with the grey stallion by her side. "My guards have done nothing to cause you harm in all your time in Equestria. And you shall cause no harm to Equestria and not a single second more grief to her subjects."

Wilda smirked.

"And what, pray tell, makes you think I'm going to do that?"

Celestia's horn glowed, light running down the fine lines encircling her horn. She pushed Kevin back with her wing even as she readied the spell, head lowered and horn aimed at her foe's throat.

"Oh, that was not a request, my dear."

And then the alicorn leapt, wings spread as a ball of energy leapt from her horn. Weaving a net around it, she swung it around her head as if controlling a lasso, like one of the ponies of Appleloosa, and let it fly. The ball sped towards the alicorn who laughed and dodged, flaring her wings in the form of Nightmare Moon to carry her up and away from the perceived threat.

But the trapped ball of magic pulsed, cracks zigzagging across its surface as Celestia flung it to the ceiling and lanced it with a simple beam from her horn. The ball shattered, magical net falling away as if it had never existed, and Wilda screeched as the shards congealed into droplets of something shimmering and green. The viscous splurge of magic clung to her coat, dragging her down with a shocking weight as it spread as if to cover her from head to hoof in a second skin. Kevin neighed, thinking the alicorn caught, but she merely snarled, fangs curling from her lips. Releasing her own spell, she picked up the princess as if she weighed nothing at all and slammed her back into the wall, letting her fall to the floor in a crumpled heap of wings and legs. It was but an instant before Wilda's magic flickered to life around her, cutting off the contact of her body with the air itself so that the princess could only be seen through a sapphire haze as the mass bore down and down and down.

"Celestia!"

Down but far from felled, Celestia whinnied and tried to struggle to her hooves, but Wilda glared and forced her magic down, an indent showing across the princess' back as her coat was flattened to skin and muscle. Wheezing, Celestia's eyes watered and she tried desperately to call magic to her grasp once more as Kevin rushed to her side, only to be forced back.

"I wouldn't try that if I was you, abomination," Wilda warned with a yawn. "You'll make me lose my grip. Wouldn't want your special somepony to die too quickly now, would we? Though she was never all that special after all."

Battering his hooves against the invisible barrier that separated him from Celestia, Kevin screamed a stallion's cry and bucked, hooves cracking into the magic yet leaving not a dent as the alicorn gasped for breath that would not come. Spinning on his hooves, he wheeled, eyes rimmed with white, and raced by, foam from his drooling lips flecking his chest and neck, the instinct to flee gripping him body and soul.

Wilda barely spared him a glance as he darted back and forth down the corridor, finding no escape and charging through the fallen guards. She stood over Celestia, looking down on her work with pride as she applied just a little more pressure with her magic. One of the princess' ribs snapped with a sharp, jarring crack.

"I'll take great pleasure in crushing the breath from your lungs, princess. If you'd been a queen, perhaps I would have let you live. You were never strong enough to defeat me, much less alone. And you'll always be alone."

She reared and grunted as something slammed into her side, a second ball of energy splattered as it exploded against her, the same colour as the first, much larger one that had sought encase her. There was not enough of it left to even consider sealing her body away, but the weight of it hauled her down, neck strained as it weighted her chest. Her grip on her restraining magic wavered.

The princess took a breath.

"What is the meaning of this?" She hissed, ripping it from her coat with her teeth and bursts of burning magic. "You cannot use magic!"

Kevin stared her down.

"I may not be able to use magic, but I_knew that spell," he snapped, teeth clicking together. "It only forms another trap when the first dissipates, just like Twilight told me. Maybe you should have known that too with all your studies." He stomped. "And she is _not alone! Princess!"

Wilda spun, eyes wide as Celestia drove into her, horn barely missing her chest. The alicorn sent her tumbling head over her hooves and her disguise shimmered as she lost hold of it, revealing the alicorn she truly was. Kevin leaned into her shoulder as her chest heaved, barely able to draw a full breath with her cracked rib, though there was nothing but raw determination in her eyes.

"Take your strength from me," he said, hardly thinking about what he was saying. "You can do this... We can do this."

Celestia smiled faintly, eyes fixed on Wilda.

"I knew you were the right pony."

Letting his strength and energy warm her side, Celestia's eyes shone with deadly intent, the irises obscured by magic. Wilda tried to charge, but it was no use as the alicorn's bolstered magic, a shot of silver entwined with rose, wrapped around her like a satin ribbon. It seemed too delicate to be a capture when blood dotted the carpet and the guards looked on in awe, but the magical force swept around her horn and locked her limbs to her body, dropping the alicorn neatly to the floor. Wilda shrieked as her magic faded and the image of the mare in the moon vanished on the night sky behind her.

Celestia jerked back, eyes wide, as a loud thud emanated down the hallway. Although her legs trembled, she staggered around, only barely supported by an equally drained Kevin, whose head hung so low that his nose nearly brushed the scuffed up, ruined carpet.

"Luna!"

Letting her race to her sister's side back in her bed chamber, Kevin sat down heavily, head swimming. Lending his strength to Celestia had left him light-headed, though he would have done it again in a heartbeat. He laid his head down on the floor, letting his body slump forward and onto his side, eyelids drooping heavily as the sound of Luna loudly demanding what had happened reached his ears. He could barely twitch them to catch their hurried conversation before sweet, dreamless sleep claimed him, the battle won and Wilda seething across the corridor, every ounce of magical energy drained from her form. She could do no more than he and it mattered not in the tally up of the battle.

In sleep, he smiled, lips pulling up ever so slightly at the corners. With his princess, all had been set to rights in Equestria and the sun would rise again, the balance of day and night restored.

What pony could have wished for anything more?