Lullaby for a Princess

Chapter Nineteen: The Night

Luna awoke in her own bed. What...happened? Was it all...a dream? As she wondered this, a voice cane from a dark corner of the room, making Luna feel cold. "It wasn't a dream. It was real. And now, so am I." Out from the shadows stepped Luna's Nightmare, no longer a figment of her imagination. The monster was here, and she was all too real. Luna shrank back a little. "But I beat you last night...you have no hold on me...." But Luna couldn't even convince herself. "I am a good mare. I am a good mare!" Her voice was growing higher pitched by the second. "Of course we are. But they don't know that. Come, let me show you what we can do...." Images flashed before Luna's eyes: ponies rejoicing in her light. Celebrations held at night. Happy faces. Ponies bowing to her. Midnight Winter was alive. And Celestia was there the whole time.
"We...we can do that?"
"Yes."
"I shall do whatever it takes."
----------------------------
Luna flew slowly and silently over Equestria, landing at the Palace of the Two Sisters. The palace had been built as a sort of vacation home for Celestia and Luna, but barely used. The Nightmare had said to go there, and Luna would find a tool for use in he Plan. Walking the ornate hallways, Luna sang. And then she saw it. Upon a pedastal; a gleaming silver helmet. Luna levitated it. :

No mercy for the guilty;
Bring down their lying sun.

Blood so silver black by night;
Upon their faces pale light.

Cruel Moon, bring the end....
The dawn will never rise again.

Luna looked at her reflection in a nearby window. Her image was new and strange. But....she kind of liked it. It was an image that was sure to gain the respect she desired so much.
------------------------
As Luna flew back to Canterlot, something was happening in the night sky. Next to the bright crescent moon, a single star began to move. In a slow, barely noticeable motion, it was turning. If ponies had been able to see that little star up closer, they might have seen the blue face of a young mare appearing. Soon the whole mare appeared in the star, and began to walk through space to the moon beside her. This mare was barely recognizable to those ponies living in Equestria then, mainly because she had died long before they were born. For this was Midnight Winter, awakened by the events now happening in Canterlot.
--------------------------
Celestia was calmly brushing her freshly-dyed mane for the Summer Sun Celebration when a courier came in with a note bearing Luna's seal:

The True Princess of Equestria summons you to a battle. Come alone to the throne room. We shall see whom is the lesser light!
Long Shall Darkness Reign!
-Luna

Celestia stared at the parchment. Battle? Lesser light? What in Equestria... Then she noticed the moonlight coming through the window. It all snapped into place. Long shall darkness reign! She's going to make the night last forever! Celestia was beginning to breathe harder. Then she looked out at the sleeping town beneath her window. My subjects or my sister. That is what it has come to? Very well. Equestria will fade without the sun. I cannot leave them now. Luna has gone mad. I must stop her

I must stop my own sister.
I must save my subjects.
I must make this night end.
-------------------------
Celestia stepped quietly onto a balcony of the Canterlot palace. Not the one readied in gold and drapery, but one hidden from the crowd. She raised the sun quickly, and flew fast to her armory. She was about to enter, when a strange change began in the light. Turning, Celestia gaped at the event transporting in the sky. The moon was moving over the sun, during a time when the sun should be the only thing in the sky. This was a different challenge. The scared, confused speech of the crowd in her ears, Celestia made her decision. No armor. This had to happen now.