The sudden flash of light, and crackle that accompanied Nightfall's appearance, tore through the night air. Had anypony been near, they would not have missed her arrival if they tried. Despite being secure in the knowledge that the others could not, nor would they, follow her, she did not teleport directly to her destination, choosing instead to teleport just outside of the Everfree Forest, far away from the castle she had previously occupied.
The battle with Princess Luna had been hard fought, the alicorn was stronger than she originally expected. 'She only moves the moon here...' Nightfall frowned, then lit her horn and turned around. The first thing she saw, a tree, wasn't a tree much longer. She lashed out with her magic, the tree didn't stand a chance against the fallen alicorn's wrath. The tree exploded into a fine spray of blunt splinters, each thrown about in various directions.
Nightfall paused as splinters rained down upon her, then inhaled deeply after the rain had subsided. 'I should not have done that.' she noted, realizing her loss of control. Nightfall sighed, and closed her eyes. She let her head droop, the exertion of her previous engagement finally catching up to her as the adrenaline rush wore off. She did not move for several minutes, allowing the calm night air, free from any taint, to help her regain control.
She opened her eyes, then surveyed the damage she had done. All that remained of the poor tree was a shattered stump, 'An improvement.' she thought with a smile, 'But an unnecessary waste of my power.' She turned her head skywards, and her eyes fell upon the moon, which was just starting to fall from it's apex. The sight was symbolic of what had happened, and what was to come.
She turned her attention to her recent acquisition, lit her horn, and withdrew the Elements of Harmony from her pocket dimension. Her lips slowly pulled into a wicked smile, teeth showing, at the sight of the now inert crystals. The only weapon that could truly pose a threat to her. The weapon Eclipse in her foalishness had given her.
Yet another mistake Eclipse had made. She scowled, noting how it could be applied equally well to herself.
She turned her attention to something more curious, the fact the Elements weren't reacting to her holding them. Nightfall pondered the development, wondering what it could mean, all the while keeping the knowledge that they were watching her, just as she was watching them, in mind.
She looked at each of the elements in turn, Honesty, Laughter, Generosity, Kindness, Loyalty...
And Magic.
Her eyes settled on the final element. Her former element. The one which abandoned her. She scowled, with the intention of causing the crystal discomfort, foalish as it was. Seconds passed, it seemed that the crystal was matching her gaze, and boring into her soul, judging her, reminding her of what had transpired... Despite the fact these six gems were not present when it had happened...
She averted her gaze from the Element of Magic, and channeled more magic into her horn, then deposited the Elements back into her pocket dimension, unable to stand their presence any longer. It would also make it easier to transport them.
She turned around to face Ponyville. The small rural village where she had some of her happiest days... She scowled further, and forced the memories away, condemning them for reminding her of what had been, and what had been lost.
A flash of light accompanied the appearance of several ponies in the Canterlot Castle Throne Room, the group looked as if they had seen better days, and not all of them were moving. Eleven ponies left to rescue Eclipse, capture Nightfall and Starlight Glimmer, and twelve returned, having succeeded with at least one of their goals. It had been costly, of the eleven ponies sent, only seven were still breathing.
The wave of darkness flowing over Eclipse dissipated, and she immediately collapsed to the floor, having been weakened significantly by both spells. She had lost consciousness after casting the teleportation spell on all of them, fortunately after finishing the spell.
Princess Luna was the first to react to the completion of the spell, she turned to two of the surviving guards, "Find a doctor immediately. Bring him here at once. You go and find my sister, inform her that we have returned... And that I must speak with her at once." she grimaced, not looking forwards to that conversation.
She turned to Rainbow who was torn between attempting to aid Twilight and Eclipse, she frowned, "Rainbow, I believe it would be best if you would go and find the rest of your friends... Either my sister or I will call for you when we are ready..."
"They're... They're going to be okay, right? I can't just leave them if they're-"
Luna shook her head, "Rainbow, there is nothing you can do for either of them... I am unsure of what Eclipse did to herself, but-"
Rainbow ruffled her wings, "She used her life to fuel the spell to bring us here..."
Luna's eyes widened slightly, "That would explain the dark magic..." She shook her head, then lit her horn and examined Eclipse. The dark magic had taken it's toll, but had not tainted her. Luna frowned, "How do you know what she did?"
"She did it once before..." Rainbow paused, "She had no choice..." she added slightly defensively.
"I am not condemning her actions, Rainbow..."
"Sorry, Princess Luna..."
"That is alright..." Luna looked at Rainbow, her expression was heavy, faltering from the events of the night. "You really should go, Rainbow... Your friends need to know," she paused, noting Rainbow was starting to shake slightly, "and you could use some rest..." She thought about saying more, but decided not to when Rainbow weakly nodded.
"Yeah... I should tell them... Better it comes from me than some guard, heh?" Despite her efforts to hide it, she was starting to suffer from exhaustion.
Luna nodded once.
"What happened?" Starlight asked.
"Princess Luna happened." Nightfall snapped back at the unicorn. "Needless to say things did not go entirely as planned..." agitation seeped into her voice. Tolerating that unicorn was hard. If she didn't need Starlight for her plan... There wouldn't be a Starlight Glimmer.
"Great." Starlight huffed. "Now what's your brilliant plan for getting things back on track?"
"Eclipse overextended herself and made a mistake. The only real threat to me has been taken out of the picture-"
"So she's dead then." Starlight surmised.
"Eclipse was never a threat to m-" Starlight narrowed her eyes. Nightfall blinked, and paused to collect herself. "Eclipse was never a threat." She shook her head, "But that does not matter. I believe I drained Luna quite a bit, it will take her some time to recover." she smirked.
Starlight smiled, "So that's why you..."
"Yes." Nightfall strode over to the map, she put a hoof upon it and gently slid it along as she walked towards Twilight's throne. Her throne. "Luna always was a more competent fighter than Celestia. I saw it with my own eyes... Celestia only defeated Nightmare Moon because she wielded the Elements of Harmony."
"No matter," Nightfall continued, "with Princess Luna weakened, tapping into my reserve will give me enough power to distract them long enough for you to take care of them. And then..." Nightfall smiled. Both of them imagined what would happen next, but their imaginations were very different. Where Starlight saw a world where everypony was equal, Nightfall saw a world devoid of the misery of life.
"And what of the Elements of Harmony? What if they try to use those against us?" Starlight asked.
"I said I had taken care of them. Eclipse tried to harness their power with Twilight's help. Without the other five. It did not end well for them." Nightfall answered with a predatory smirk.
"Luna, are you all right?" Celestia asked in a voice filled with concern as she rushed through the doors. Luna turned her head away from the window and towards her sister and grimaced.
"I... Am fine." she stated simply, then stood up as her sister approached. Celestia leaned down to nuzzle her younger sister's neck, Luna returned the action with a nuzzle of her own.
Celestia pulled back after a few seconds, "What happened?"
"As I am sure you have deduced, things did not go according to plan." Luna monotoned. "Nightfall was a worthy adversary..." she shook her head.
Celestia grimaced, "It's not surprising, considering that she is Twilight..." Celestia paused, remembering the state Twilight was in. "What happened to Twilight, Luna? And Eclipse?"
"They were both injured injured in our encounter with Nightfall..." Luna shook her head, "Twilight had the Elements of Harmony with her. She attempted to use them with Eclipse to strike at Nightfall."
Celestia face betrayed no emotion, becoming cold almost immediately. "It didn't work." her question came more as a statement. Luna shook her head.
"Eclipse took the Elements some time ago to keep them safe, or so she says." Luna added.
Celestia raised an eyebrow, "I thought you trusted her?"
"I do, but I do not believe that is the entire reason she took them... But now Nightfall has them."
Celestia grimaced. "Then how will we purify her?"
"I do not know, sister..." Luna trailed off in thought.
Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes, confusion struck her as she looked around the unfamiliar surroundings. It took her several seconds to process all the sensory information she was assaulted with... The beeping noise coming from her right side... The words flowing through the air... The pink pony filling her vision... The tan unicorn wearing a white coat, with a stethoscope... A bright light being shined in her eyes, to which she closed her eyes in response...
And just like that she remembered what happened, her eyes opened once more. "Uggh..." she groaned. She attempted to lift her head.
The tan pony rushed over to her, "Please don't move, Princess." the pony's dull monotone stood out in her mind.
Twilight complied, and rested her head back on the pillow. Now that she thought about it, she felt off...
"Twilight?" Rarity called, Twilight glanced towards the white unicorn. She was smiling wearily...
"H... Hey..." Twilight glanced around, performing a head count, of her friends, only Rainbow and Eclipse were missing. "Where are-" The heart rate monitor's beeping increased in response to a spike in Twilight's heart rate... She forced herself to sit up, fighting through the woozieness and fighting against the doctor's wishes. She jerked her head around, looking for her two missing friends, fearing the worst... An action that caused a sharp pain in her head.
She took that as a sign to take it slow.
"Twilight?" Fluttershy's voice was filled with worry, the timid pegasus was concerned over her friend's sudden change in demeanor.
"Rainbow and Eclipse, where are they? Are they okay? What happened?"
"Princess, you need to take it easy... You hit your head pretty hard... I'm quite frankly surprised you're awake now... Princess Celestia was by earlier, she used some spell on you... It seems to have had it's desired effect..."
"To answer your questions, Twilight... They're okay, Rainbow left a few minutes ago, she didn't say what for." Rarity shook her head, and sighed.
"We were kinda hoping you could tell us what happened." Applejack stated, "Princess Celestia wasn't very forthcoming with answers... I'm not sure she had many, to tell the truth."
Twilight sighed and lowered her head back down onto the pillow, "It's a long story... Has Princess Luna been by?"
Applejack shook her head, "Afraid not, sugarcube."
Twilight grimaced.
"Ah, If I may interject, Princess... Your alicorn physiology seems to have a greatly accelerated healing rate for this particular type of injury... A few days, tops, and you should be back to normal." the doctor said, voice betraying no emotion whatsoever.
"This particular type of injury?" Twilight asked with confusion.
"Oh yes, I forgot you did not know. You hit your head, lost consciousness, lost a lot of blood, and had a minor dark magic infection." he listed off without the barest hint of emotion. His voice did nothing to help Twilight's headache.
"Wait, dark magic infection? What? How did that happen?" Twilight asked, concerned that the dark magic could have taken hold of her so easily.
"I asked Princess Celestia about that particular fact. She was not forthcoming about information regarding it." he stated.
"It's gone now though, right?" Twilight asked.
"Yes. It is gone. I believe Princess Celestia had something to do with that."
Twilight sighed, "That's a relief..."
Eclipse stared off into the starry night sky, looking at nothing in particular. Her mind was in turmoil, going over what had happened, and suffering the aftereffects of multiple spells. Her chaotic thoughts fought for dominance, despite the internal chaos of her mind, the night was peaceful. With no sound to distract her, and the chill of the mountain air being dulled by past experiences, she was lost in thought, unable to focus on anything else.
Yet a single thought cut through the chaotic storm of thoughts, 'You failed again!'
She clenched her eyes shut as her thoughts began to align with the condemning thought against her, rebelling from her control. She failed, again. Failed. First Cadance, then Celestia, then Equestria, then everypony all over again. She had doomed them.
All because she tried to save them.
History seemed to repeat itself, despite outside influences. 'What's the point... I...'
She opened her eyes, she halfway jumped at how distorted everything looked, only to realize she was starting to cry. She brought a hoof to wipe her eyes, and swallowed back the growing guilt. She hung her head dejectedly, and sighed.
She lit her horn, and retrieved two items from her pocket dimension, the book she had taken from the Forbidden Archive being one of the items. She held it within her magical grasp, and stared at it. Several seconds passed, each one caused despair to gain a stronger hold in her mind. She closed her eyes, "I guess this is useless now." she chuckled to herself, the laugh turning into sobs of despair.
She looked at the book longingly, desperate for a way to fix things, but knowing no way would come. She channeled more magic into her horn, and formed a barrier around the book, then poured more magic into the barrier and compressed it. Gradually, the book became smaller. After several seconds, the book was no longer recognizable as such, rather it was a dense sphere.
She raged with her magic, forcing the sphere to condense even further, resulting in a sphere roughly the size of the tip one of Spike's claws. The super dense sphere at this point held considerable mass in a small area, something not recommendable. She inhaled deeply, and compressed it further, until it was barely the size of a pin tip.
She ignited it with her magic, and the sphere evaporated instantly.
Part of her immediately regret destroying the book, partially because she had not looked at it, and partially due to the lost knowledge. Another part of her regretted it because it represented another failure, the failure to fix everything. Her entire reason for coming back had been destroyed because of losing the Elements.
Nightfall had the Elements of Harmony, and Starlight Glimmer was on her side, and what did they have?
Eclipse glanced towards the dagger she held in her magic, and grit her teeth. She gently lowered the dagger to the floor, and set it down.
She had doomed them all, and only a miracle would fix it. She certainly couldn't do it, and the Elements of Harmony were in Nightfall's possession. The princesses... They couldn't defeat both Nightfall and Starlight in battle...
She came back to fix things, and instead only made things worse. Anything she had fixed was rendered moot by the fact it would have been different had she not traveled back through time.
She shut her eyes tightly. "So it was all for nothing, then. I... I failed everypony... Again. I..." She shook her head and lit her horn, then picked up the dagger.
There was a knock on the main door. She grimaced as she heard the door open, realizing she left the balcony door open. She quickly glanced at the knife, then extended a wing far enough out for her to hide the blade between her wing and body. Once the blade was in place, she pressed it against her body tightly, ensuring it would not fall out.
"Eclipse?"
She recognized the voice, 'Rainbow Dash.' She lowered her head and closed her eyes, "Ye-" she swallowed, and took a second to compose herself, "Yes?"
"You... Okay? You sound... Off." Rainbow sat down beside Eclipse, the same side she was hiding the dagger.
Eclipse considered lying, "I... No. I am not okay. I..." She shook her head more vigorously than she intended, then turned towards Rainbow. "I screwed up again," she spoke lightly, "Big surprise!" she chuckled emptily.
"Uh... Twilight?"
Eclipse closed her eyes at the sound of her name, and looked downwards.
"Look, it's not your fault-"
"It is. It is, it is... IT IS!" she inhaled deeply, attempting to calm down, then looked Rainbow in the eye, "You're not the one who destroyed Equestria, nor doomed it a second time because you tried to fix things. You don't know what a thousand years of isolation is like! You don't..." Feeling tears build up, she closed her eyes, and looked away.
"Twilight..." Rainbow sighed. "We'll beat her, I promise." she solemnly swore.
Eclipse shook her head, "We can't. She's already won, she has the Elements, she has Starlight Glimmer, she-"
"Doesn't have friends like us." Rainbow boldly interjected.
"Friends..." Eclipse snorted. "Friendship." She turned to Rainbow, her expression took on a seriousness that could rival Fluttershy's stare, "I outlived all of you. You all died, and I couldn't move on."
Rainbow swallowed back growing fear from Eclipse's display, but put on a brave face for her friend. "You uh... You sound like Nightfall there... Twilight..."
Eclipse closed her eyes, and turned away, regretting her actions. "Sorry..." She laid down, and buried her head in her hooves. "You all died. All of you. It... I... You're all going to die again- and much sooner this time, all because I failed."
"You sound like you're giving up... Come on Twilight, where's that determination that you have! You know, the determination to protect your friends, or to prove yourself to Princess Celestia!" Eclipse cringed, and Rainbow sighed at the sight.
"I am giving up." Eclipse stated flatly.
"Why?" Rainbow asked, voice taking a softer tone.
"Because it doesn't matter. I tried to fix things, but the spell doesn't want things fixed... I... I honestly thought that I could fix everything with Discord's help... I know he wanted to fix things... Otherwise he wouldn't have given me the spell..."
"Didn't you mention that when that emotion spell thingy wore off you'd be something like this?" Rainbow hoped to distract Eclipse, and cheer her up, thinking that perhaps a reminder could make her realize she wasn't exactly herself right now.
Eclipse smiled weakly beneath her hooves, "I... Yes. Thanks for reminding me... I had forgot."
"No problem, what're friends for, right?" Rainbow lightly punched Eclipse's back with a hoof.
"Doesn't change how I feel, though." Eclipse admitted.
"Look, Twilight. We're here for you if you need us. All of us, really. I promised to be there for you, and just because we're even now doesn't mean I'm going to forget my promise." Rainbow smiled.
Eclipse slowly sat up, then turned to Rainbow, "How exactly do you figure we're even? I saved your life, you were just along for the ride when you came to my rescue."
Rainbow looked at her blankly, "I was there, wasn't I?"
Eclipse smiled, "Yeah... You were." She rubbed her head with a hoof. "Look... I... When I first returned, I had a plan to use the..." Eclipse shook her head and sighed, not expecting her to understand. "Never mind..."
"What?" Rainbow asked.
"It's nothing."
"Then why did you mention it?"
She turned away from Rainbow, "Because I'm a coward." she admitted. "I couldn't handle your deaths... I was hoping to prevent them this time around, but I can't do it without the Elements... I lost the Elements because I tried to stop Nightfall. I..." She trailed off, unable to bring herself to say the words.
"You tried to stop her though, that's what counts." Rainbow countered.
"It's not though. If she wins, everything dies. You, me, Twilight, Luna..." She couldn't complete the list if she wanted to, it would be too painful for her.
"Twilight." Rainbow spoke firmly, causing Eclipse to look her in the eyes, "We will beat her. How many times am I going to have to tell you that?"
"You can't know that." Eclipse replied bitterly.
"We always beat the bad guys, Twilight. Maybe not the first time, but we always, always beat them."
"There's a first time for everything." Eclipse stated quietly.
"Okay, Twilight, you're really depressed right now, the spell must be affecting you really badly... You should go see a therapist or something, like, seriously."
"I don't think there are any therapists with experience dealing with patients who destroyed the world."
"Maybe ask Princess Luna?" Rainbow smugly suggested.
Eclipse blinked and raised hoof to massage her temple.
"I'm serious, Twilight." Rainbow continued.
Eclipse grimaced, "I suppose she would have experience dealing with that sort of thing... I wished my Luna would have helped me... Instead she..." Eclipse shook her head, not wanting to remember.
Seeing Eclipse on the verge of tears again, Rainbow sighed, and walked in front of her, "Twilight, look at me." Eclipse obliged. "We all hurt when you hurt, it hurts seeing you in so much pain..." Despite Rainbow's attempts to retain her brash composure, it was starting to slip away, the exhaustion she felt and the mood Eclipse was doing nothing to help. "You are the one who keeps us together, heck, you brought us all together! If it wasn't for you, Nightmare Moon would have won! It would be eternal night right now!"
"I'm not her though." Eclipse weakly stated.
"So what if you're a little older, you're still her!"
Eclipse said nothing in reply, instead she looked down at her hooves. Rainbow, not knowing what else to do, stepped forwards and wrapped her arms around Eclipse, embracing her in a hug. Eclipse, having not expected this, was surprised. "Twilight-"
Clink
The sound of metal hitting the floor affected them each different ways, Rainbow, having no idea the source of the sound, turned towards it. Eclipse, knowing the source of the sound, closed her eyes as tight as she could. Eclipse pulled Rainbow in closer and hugged her tighter, hoping to distract her, but knowing it would not last forever.
Rainbow looked around for the source of the sound, due to the darkness, it took her several seconds before she identified anything out of place. Her eyes followed the displaced item, glancing over the blade, and then the hilt. It took her several seconds to realize what the item was.
Their entire conversation replayed in Rainbow's mind almost instantly, her expression fell. "Twilight..."
Eclipse hugged her tighter, "Rainbow, please... You can't tell them that..." she didn't finish her sentence.
"You... You can't. Promise me you won't, and I won't tell them." Rainbow's voice had taken an air of seriousness.
Eclipse nodded vigorously.
"If that spell's downsides are that bad..." Rainbow grimaced. "How long until they wear off?"
"Up to twelve more hours..." Eclipse sighed.
"You uh... Want me to stay here and keep you company?" Rainbow offered. Despite her exhaustion, Eclipse was suffering, she wouldn't be keeping her promise if she left her alone in this state.
"You..." Eclipse closed her mouth. 'You are concerned for me, not just because of... -That-...' Eclipse smiled, "I would like that." Eclipse slowly let go of Rainbow, who reluctantly pulled back.
Rainbow nodded towards the balcony door, "Princesses first." she smirked.
Eclipse glanced at the knife on the floor forlornly, then lit her horn, Rainbow's gaze turned cautious as she levitated the knife. Eclipse shook her head and teleported the knife away, then walked inside, Rainbow following close behind. Eclipse paused at the doorway and watched the sky for a few seconds, then closed the door.