• Published 9th Dec 2012
  • 6,454 Views, 382 Comments

Succession - Helrael



Twilight awakens in a world beset by eternal night, caused by the death of Princess Celestia and Luna and the destruction of the Canterlot palace. Can Twilight bring back the sun, save Equestria, and bring history's most vicious murderer to just

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1 - The End

Succession

Chapter 1 – The End


Warmth. Light. Safety. Celestia.

A hearth crackling with burning wood. The mentor’s serene voice. Sweet laughter.

Darkness. Cold. Danger.

“You… when did you..?”

Fear.

“You disappoint, Celestia…”



Celestia. Pain. Bones snapping. Breathing, but no air to breathe. Unbearable agony. Gasping. Grunting. Screaming.

“NO! It’s impossible!”

Celestia screaming.

“Step aside.”

Blackness. Freezing. Burning. Pain!

Searing, numbing pain! Red and black. Blindness. Pain! Unrelenting pain! Flesh burning, skin ripping. Screaming. Coldness flowing through the blood, ripping at lungs, heart, brain and mind. Ice and fire everywhere. Dying. Not dying.



Pain!

“Farewell.”

The sun blazing brightly at night. Inside the palace? Beautiful and terrible. Dying. Heat, horrible heat. Light, blinding light.

Pain! Boiling flesh, coat on fire. Masonry melting and cracking. Glass shattering. Light becomes darkness. Deafening noise, Celestia screaming. Agony. Cold, burning agony. Death.

Pure power and fire rips at the skin. Hurtling. Flying. Falling. Bricks and stone. Bones snapping. Pain! Unbelievable pain!

Screaming.

Stone breaking apart. Marble collapsing. Fires burning. Echo of Celestia. Ruin and destruction. Smoke and sulfur. Dry air. Burning air.

Boiling flesh, hide on fire, unrelenting heat. Merciless. Heart and mind in icy clutches, squeezing and ripping and tearing. Ruthless.

Blood. Drowning. Coughing. Screaming without sound.



Panic and screaming. Terror. Smoke and fire. Fear. Approaching hooves.

“By Celestia, this one’s breathing!”

“Get her outta here!”

“But how did she..?”

“Now!”

Pain! Screaming. Ribs on fire. Leg blazing. White-hot needles pressing against skin.

“Argh! She’s white-hot!”

“You’re hurting her! Let me!”

Magic. Floating. Pain!

Shadows.

Darkness.

Blackness.

Oblivion.


“Twilight?” The voice was faint and distorted, barely hearable. It echoed in her mind. She could not see anything; she could barely hear anything except a loud ringing noise in her ears. The noise became more pronounced as Twilight started to gain consciousness. The unicorn tried opening her mouth, but her lips had dried together. Her mouth was dry as a bone, and she tried licking at her chops with a parched tongue.

“Girls!” The voice yelled. This time Twilight could hear it more clearly. “I think she’s waking up!” It was one of her friends speaking. Rainbow Dash?

Feeling returned to Twilight’s body, and with it came unbearable pain. She felt as if somepony had spent several hours stabbing her with burning needles all over her body. As she became more conscious, it even felt as if the needles had been left in her skin. She had been burnt by something, but she did not remember what. The pain kept building as Twilight became more and more aware of herself and her surroundings. As far as she could tell, she was lying in a bed.

After peaking for a few seconds, the ringing in her ears finally began to subside, and the lavender unicorn heard the sound of many hooves approaching. The pain all over her skin kept intensifying, and every time Twilight thought the pain could be no worse, the waves of nauseating heat that rolled through her every nerve escalated. She felt sick. Her stomach convulsed painfully, but Twilight could only cough up small amounts of foamy spittle. Her sense of taste returned to her, and she realized she must have thrown up several times while she was asleep. The inside of her throat was burning with the pain of hundreds of tiny cuts, the metallic tang of blood was everywhere in her mouth, and she could clearly make out the sharp taste of gastric acid.

Her stomach convulsed again. The pain kept growing. She tried opening her mouth and winced as her lips cracked in several places, tearing some of the skin apart.

“Um, I think we should get her some water…” a barely audible voice suggested. Fluttershy?

Seconds later, a glass was held roughly against Twilight’s sensitive broken lips and cold water filled her mouth. No drink had ever seemed to taste as good as that one sip. With a painful effort, she swallowed the sweet water and felt the liquid run down her throat, lessening the pain she felt there significantly. The unicorn wet her lips, renewing the taste of blood she had already begun to grow accustomed to.

But the pain kept building. It was horrible! Twilight had never known one could feel such pain and live. She tried screaming, but her vocal cords seemed to have been too badly damaged, her cry of pain becoming no more than a muffled squeak. Her stomach convulsed yet again.

She tried opening her eyes, but quickly shut them again. The world outside her mind was blindingly white.

The glass was pressed against her lips again, and Twilight drank greedily.

“Twilight, dear? Can you hear me?”

Twilight inclined her head a fraction of an inch in affirmation. Her neck exploded in unimaginable pain. She screamed, but only a quiet and rough hiss exited her lips and her throat was once again set on fire. She opened her eyes again and shut them. The brightness was still unbearable. She felt like dying. Anything but the pain she felt now.

The pain at the base of her neck didn’t go away, but kept growing just as the other pains in her body, only more intense. Her neck seemed to be in an awful state, but she had no idea what was wrong with it. It was not broken, but it did not feel like any of the burns either. She moved her consciousness from the extreme agony in her neck and toward her left foreleg, trying to focus on one type of pain at a time. She wiggled it slightly, and pulses of fire ran through her body. As far as she could feel however, the leg was burned as badly as the rest of her, nothing more.

She tried moving her right foreleg, but found the task very hard and extremely painful. As far as she could tell, it was suspended in a sling. Definitely broken. She found her left hind leg encased in a plaster cast. Also broken. The bones in her right hind leg and left foreleg seemed unbroken, but the skin there seemed to be in a worse state than she could currently bring herself to think about.

“How’re ya feeling?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Twilight realized she had been wincing from the pain of exploring the various fractures in her body. She relaxed her facial muscles, which took away some of the pain. She took a deep breath to try to calm herself, but as her lungs expanded, she made the painful discovery that quite a few of her ribs were broken. She coughed violently, which only served to increase the agony. Her stomach convulsed again, and water dribbled out of her mouth.

The glass was pressed against her mouth again, and Twilight dutifully drank.

She opened her eyes again, and caught a glimpse of Dash’s multicolored mane before being forced to shut her eyes against the brightness of whatever room she was lying in.

“Darn lights are too bright,” Applejack grumbled as if reading her mind. How many of her friends were present? A moment later, Twilight felt something heavy being put on her head: The apple farmer’s stetson.

Twilight tried once again to open her eyes and found it much easier with the shade the hat provided. After a few seconds of blinking, her eyes adjusted to the light. To her right, Rainbow Dash lowered her head so that the unicorn could see her beneath the brim of the stetson.

“Gave us a pretty bad scare there, Twi,” she said, smiling warmly.

The unicorn didn’t reply, but tried instead to focus on the cyan rainbow-maned pegasus, her blurry vision eventually clarifying. Rainbow Dash looked tired. Not physically, but something about her posture suggested to Twilight that the pegasus had been going through some tough times since they had last met. But as far as she knew, only two weeks had passed since the fast flier had last visited Ponyville. What could have happened to make her fiercest friend look so hopeless?

Despite the unicorn’s best efforts at focusing, however, the pegasus before her still looked very fuzzy, meaning her vision must have been damaged along with the rest of her body. It seemed to be healing rapidly, though, and so Twilight decided that she had quite a few more important concerns to address before she worried about the quality of her eyesight. She took her eyes off the Element of Loyalty and smiled weakly at the other ponies around her.

Applejack stood next to Rainbow Dash. The orange farmer’s blonde hair had not been bound up in its usual pony tail, and it looked as if she had spent the last few days bucking every single apple tree in one of her fields. All in all, she looked as tired as the pegasus, except the earth pony seemed physically exhausted as well.

Rarity stood on Twilight’s left. The Element of Generosity looked far from her usual self. Her usually pristine mane was unkempt, seemingly untouched for days. Twilight frowned slightly at her unicorn friend’s very odd behavior, but she decided that her throat was in no condition to be asking any questions right now, and so decided to let her gaze wander once more.

Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness, stood next Rarity. The yellow pegasus had the most worried look of Twilight’s friends so far; her eyes were brimming with tears that had already dampened most of her face. Twilight realized that with the cast and burns all over, she must be looking like a complete mess. She looked like somepony in desperate need of Fluttershy’s care.

The lavender unicorn began to take in her surroundings. She quickly realized that she was in some sort of hospital. She was lying in a wide bed, covered by a warm cyan blanket. The only parts of her body sticking out from under the blanket were her head and her right foreleg, which was suspended in a sling. The unicorn wiggled the limb experimentally and reconfirmed that it was indeed broken. As she grimaced at the sight of her burned-beyond-recognition foreleg, Twilight was unsure of whether she wanted to see the state the rest of her body was in. Leaning against the foot of the bed was Pinkie Pie, who was flashing the hospitalized unicorn an optimistic smile. During their friendship, Twilight had only seen the pink pony without a smile three times. No matter what, it seemed Pinkie Pie could always find the bright side of things and make those around her see it as well. But something about Ponyville’s top party pony told the unicorn that something truly terrible had happened. Her smile seemed genuine enough, but the pony’s usually frizzy and vibrant mane seemed to have deflated slightly, something Twilight knew almost only ever happened when her pink friend was very unhappy or bothered by something.

Behind the party pony, Twilight could see a white wall and a sink. To her right was a dark window and to her left an open door. She could hear the sounds of nurses and doctors pacing quickly up and down the hall outside.

Twilight tried speaking, but ended up croaking out indecipherable sounds. Her voice seemed to be returning now, but not as quickly as the she would have wanted.

She returned her gaze to her foreleg to study the severity of her burns, trying her best not to panic. Every inch of her skin was covered in unhealthy-looking splotches of red and nearly black, and the leg seemed to have been burned clean of any fur. In fact, Twilight was unable to see any fur at all on the parts of her body not covered by the blanket. Curiosity overcame the unicorn, and her horn sparked to life. Her magic seemed to function properly as her covers were soon enveloped in a bright magenta aura. But then again, her horn felt strange. It was burned like the rest of her body, but there was something else, something the unicorn could not identify. She would have to find out later. Right now, she needed to find out how bad of a shape the rest of her body was in. Upon seeing her horn glowing, Rarity raised her hoof wordlessly as if to stop her, but then backed away from the bed along with the others as Twilight threw off the blanket, revealing what was underneath.

There was not a single tuft of fur to be seen from the tip of her horn to the bottom of her hooves. Even her beautiful tail had been reduced to a pathetic furless appendage. Her skin was pink, but mottled with red and black burns all over. She had severe scrapes on her right side and all the way down her back, where her skin had almost been peeled off. The skin on the rest of her body had cracked in several places, and some sort of liquid had been oozing out of the wounds before coagulating.

Wincing with the pain of movement, Twilight lifted her left forehoof to the back of her head and found that her mane had burned away as well. She gasped sharply as she touched one of the places where her skin had cracked.

She whimpered slightly, and tears started running down her cheeks. What had happened? How had she been burned so thoroughly? How had she even survived? It had been only yesterday Rarity had dragged her along to the spa for a full makeover, sparing no expenses in the pursuit of making the librarian look as ‘presentable’ as possible. She had been ready… ready to go to Canterlot.

Realization dawned on her. She was in Canterlot. This was the Canterlot hospital. What were her friends doing here? Had they all come to visit her? What had happened to make them all so worried?

Twilight summoned the blanket again and covered herself up. The soft blanket grated painfully across her sensitive burns and fresh lances of pain were driven into her body, but she was starting to freeze. Straining her mind, the unicorn fought to recall what had brought her here.

“Twilight? Are you alright, dear?” Rarity asked with concern as the burnt unicorn’s brow creased in concentration.

“Does she look even remotely alright?” the cyan pegasus countered pointedly, but Twilight ignored her as she delved into her memories.

Celestia. The princess had had something important to tell Twilight. She had received a letter from her mentor, summoning her to Canterlot, and she had left only a few hours later, travelling by train. The letter... No, the letter had been extremely vague; it hadn’t told her anything of importance. She had left for Canterlot and she recalled walking through the streets of her old home city. She had met her brother and Cadance, visiting for some reason Twilight had failed to ask them about. She remembered seeing Celestia, and the two had entered into the princess’ private study.

Her memories became hazy after that. She was sure she had been with Celestia until well after dusk. They had been talking, but Twilight could no longer remember what the princess had wanted to say, why she had been summoned to Canterlot on such short notice.

Try as she might, that was as far as her memories would take her.

“Well, she is awake. As far as I am concerned, that is at least preferable over some comatose...”

Twilight groaned in frustration, interrupting the white unicorn’s argument. The pain all over her body was no longer escalating, but the burning waves of agony kept pulsing through her body with nauseating intensity. “He… Ho… How… long?” she managed to half gasp in a hoarse voice. Her throat was still burning. She summoned her magical powers and brought the glass of water at her side to her lips.

“How long you’ve been unconscious?” Rainbow Dash inquired, and Twilight nodded, wincing as her neck exploded in agony once again. The unicorn exhaled sharply, but her friends failed to notice. “Five or six days, I think.” The pegasus frowned, and the hospitalized unicorn saw a hint of sadness in her eyes. “It’s… it’s getting hard to tell…”

Twilight’s brow furrowed as she removed the empty glass from her lips. “Hard... to tell?” she asked in a very sore voice. “What’s that... mean?" She coughed violently, causing her lungs and everything around them to explode in pain. “What happened?” she asked after a long pause.

“We… we were hoping you could tell us,” Rarity admitted. Tears came to the white unicorn’s eyes. Beside her, Fluttershy suddenly burst into tears and ran out the door. Pinkie’s smile had vanished completely, and she looked uneasily at her hooves.

“Ah’m not sure we should tell ya, sugarcube,” Applejack tried, but Twilight shook her head.

The unicorn quickly regretted the motion as another massive wave of agony washed over her. She bit down hard on the blanket to muffle her screams. The glass of water floating next to her was shattered in her tightened telekinetic grip and Rarity jumped back in surprise. “I… need to know,” Twilight gasped after recovering from the pain.

The orange pony sighed and cast a glance at the others, who either nodded hesitantly or shrugged. “Alright, Ah guess. But ya ain’t gonna like it.” Applejack took a deep breath. "Ya sure?" she asked, hoping for a no. Twilight gave the pony a hard stare, and the farmer's eyes started watering along with the others'. “Honey, Celestia... she's dead.”


…Horrible heat, blinding light. Celestia screaming in agony. Dying. The intense light blinds her and a deafening noise assaults her ears. Masonry breaks apart and glass shatters. Death. Hurtling through the air. Falling. Crashing. Bones snapping. Fire everywhere…

“She’s back again, folks!” Applejack called out, and Twilight heard a nurse make a shushing sound as she passed by the room. “Oh uh, sorry ma’am,” the farmer apologized in a quieter voice.

As the unicorn returned to her senses for the second time, waves of pain tore through her nerves once again, and she whimpered weakly. This time, however, the pain was only the lesser of two evils. While she slept, she had had that terrible nightmare. One that seemed horribly real yet was unbelievable. As she recalled the dreadful and chaotic mess of images and impressions, she realized she had seen it all before. Had it been a dream then?

She had been with her. She had been sitting together with Celestia in the princess’ private study, discussing what Twilight had recently learned of friendship and magic. But something had happened. Something awful had happened.

“What… what happened?” Twilight groaned. Her voice had already improved considerably, but it was still hoarse. She must have fainted after Applejack, the Element of Honesty, had said something that could not possibly be true. Celestia was dead.

“Ya fainted,” Applejack stated, confirming the unicorn’s suspicions, but not answering the question she had really been asking. The farmer was wearing her stetson again, but the light in the room had become easier for Twilight to bear. “Ah told ya you weren’t ready for such bad news.”

Celestia had died... They must be mistaken.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” the burnt unicorn complained. “Celestia is more than a thousand years old! She’s immortal, she can’t... she can't just die!”

“Every one of us thought the exact same thing,” the orange pony replied with a downcast gaze. “None of us could believe it.”

She didn’t just die. There was something else.

“Farewell.”

In her dreams, there had been an intruder in the princess’ study. One who was not welcome. But Twilight could remember no face, no body. Only darkness and fear. She could remember the words the intruder had spoken, but not its voice. Somepony had been there. Somepony had done it. Somepony had killed Celestia. That made no sense either. Nopony could kill Celestia. Nopony would kill Celestia.

“She’s not dead,” Twilight stated dryly.

“I’m sorry, Twilight,” Rarity said as she appeared by her unicorn friend’s side. Her three other friends appeared shortly afterwards. “But Applejack is right. The terrible news is all over Equestria.”

“She’s not dead.”

“We… we all saw it…” Fluttershy muttered sadly.

“Twi,” Dash pleaded with her friend. “You’re not making this any easier. The sun’s disappeared. We haven’t seen it since the explosion six days ago.”

“What? What happened!? What explosion?”

Heat, horrible heat. Celestia screaming, dying. Masonry melting and breaking.

“The explosion you survived!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed impatiently, gesturing at the unicorn’s crippled body.

“Miss Dash?” Twilight and her friends looked toward the door to see a nurse peering in from the hall. The unicorn still found it slightly unsettling that complete strangers knew their names. But the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony had become famous over the last few years. And Rainbow was more than the Element of Loyalty. For the past one and a half year, the pegasus had also been known as the most talented flier in the Wonderbolts. Everypony knew the pegasus’ name and she had obviously been enjoying it sorely. “You’ll have to lower your voice,” the nurse told the Wonderbolt. “Many of our patients are sleeping.”

“Uh, sure,” the pegasus said, a slightly annoyed look on her face for having been interrupted. “Sorry.” The nurse nodded her head and and shut the door. Everypony turned back to Twilight again.

“The palace is gone!” Rainbow Dash continued in a quieter voice. “Don’t you remember anything? You’re the only one who made it out of there alive! What happened?”

“Now settle down, Rainbow,” Applejack reprimanded her friend. “Twi’s obviously been through some terrible business! Don’t you make it worse! We're all grieving for Celestia, but Twi must be taking this harder than all of us combined. Heck, the princess was like a second mother to her!”

The rainbow-maned pegasus frowned, but then sighed and hung her head. “Sorry, Twilight. It’s just… hard. After all these years… Celestia’s… gone.”

“She’s not dead,” Twilight repeated and Rainbow gave a frustrated groan before storming off into the hallway outside the room.

The other ponies around the injured unicorn shuffled their hooves awkwardly, but Twilight ignored the pegasus’ outburst. She needed to know what had really happened. She needed to know where Celestia had gone. She needed to know what was going on outside. She needed to get out of the hospital.

Twilight’s horn started glowing. The magic still felt strange, but it had definitely not weakened. The blanket was thrown off the bed, and the sling that held Twilight’s right foreleg was detached from where it was suspended, hanging instead from Twilight’s magical grip.

“Rarity, can you help me adjust this sling?” Twilight grunted with pain as she scooted her hindquarters toward the right side of the bed. Her skin felt unbelievably tight, as if it might rip at any moment and her various wounds felt like they were bleeding freely. She breathed heavily a few times before continuing the motion.

“Twilight, wait! Whatever are you doing!?” Rarity protested, but as Twilight inched closer to the edge of the bed, the sling was enveloped in a sky blue aura nonetheless. The fabric shortened in length and was expertly draped around the burnt unicorn’s neck. The injured unicorn winced and whimpered as the fabric passed over the extremely sore spot at the base of her neck, but fortunately, the sling was fastened a few inches below the odd wound. “You are in no condition whatsoever to be out of your bed!” the unicorn scolded her friend. “I don’t want to force you, but...”

Twilight’s broken bones screamed in protest as she gingerly crept off the hospital bed to stand on the cold marble floor. Her right foreleg was held in a slightly comfortable position by the adjusted sling, and her ribs hurt a lot less than they had when she had first awakened, though every breath she took still pained her greatly. Her broken hind leg was in screaming agony, forcing her to lift the leg a few inches off the ground, lessening the pain, but also forcing her to balance herself on only two hooves.

She was about to topple over when Applejack leaned her body against Twilight for support. The unicorn gasped with the pain of the pony against her ribs and raw skin, but she supposed it was better than hitting the floor.

“Good thing Ah ain’t afraid o’ forcin’ ya then!” Applejack said angrily as she supported the unicorn, but at the same time tried herding her onto the bed again. “Twi, what in tarnation d’you think yer doin’?”

“I’m going to the palace,” Twilight said with determination. “I’m gonna find Celestia.” She hobbled forward on her two hooves, but Applejack barred her way with an extended foreleg.

“Darn it, Twilight! There ain’t nothin’ you can do!” the farmer insisted, but Twilight ignored her, stubbornly pressing weakly against the earth pony’s strong legs. “Listen ta me, Twi! Git back in bed right now! Ya got two broken legs fer Pete’s sake!”

“No!” was Twilight’s only reply. She clenched her eyes against the pain as she started pushing harder against Applejack. “I need to find the princess!”

“The princess is dead!” Applejack sighed angrily. “Ah hate ta say it, but Ah doubt there’s anything left ta see of ‘er!”

Twilight struggled on for a few seconds before finally relaxing, slumping against the orange pony once again. “I... I’m sorry, AJ... But I just can’t believe it. I refuse to believe it. It doesn’t matter how many of you tell me or many times you tell me; until I’ve seen it for myself, I can’t believe she’s dead. Celestia being dead is... it’s an impossibility.”

“Ah know it is,” Applejack said, calming down as the unicorn’s struggles subsided. “But it happened anyways. We were in the same situation as you just a few days ago. We all thought it was impossible. But the sun’s gone, Twi. The palace’s gone. We got officials sayin’ that the princesses are dead. That they found Celestia’s body.”

A shiver went down Twilight’s spine, and she started leaning even more heavily against the farmer. “A body? Wh-where? Did you see it?”

“They say it’s in the palace. Ground zero, they called it.” The pony sighed. “But no, we ain’t seen nothin’ for ourselves. The whole palace’s been shut down tight. Even after we told ‘em who we were, the guards still wouldn’t let us in.”

Twilight was silent for a moment, thinking on what her friend had said. “What if you’re wrong?” she suggested, and Applejack gave an exasperated sigh. “What if everypony is wrong? Nopony knew the princess like I did. I have to go see her!” The unicorn renewed her struggle to get past her friend.

“Oh yeah?” The orange pony lifted an eyebrow. “How’re ya gonna get all the way over there? You can hardly walk and Ah sure as hay ain’t gonna help ya. None of us are. So, git back in bed!”

Twilight looked across the bed and gave the yellow pegasus a pleading stare. “Fluttershy? Can’t you help me?”

“Well, I don’t... Maybe I...”

“No, Fluttershy!” Applejack ordered the pegasus sternly. “Twi’s stayin’!”

“Oh, okay.” The pegasus gave the injured unicorn a look of compassion. “Sorry, Twilight.”

Twilight sighed. “Rarity?” she tried, but the white unicorn shook her head. “Pinkie?” The usually cheerful pony was silent, her forehooves resting on the foot of the bed again as she stared at them sadly. Her fluffy mane had decomposed even more since the first time Twilight had seen her. “Pinkie?” Twilight repeated, but again the pony showed no signs of hearing her. “Ugh, fine!” She gave the farmer an annoyed glare as she tried herding her back into bed again. “This would have been easier with your help, but I’m perfectly capable of going on my own!”

Twilight’s horn flared, and the unicorn vanished in a bright flash. Applejack yelped as the fur that had been in contact with her friend became slightly singed from the sudden release of energy.

The farmer rushed to the door and opened it, spotting Twilight as she materialized only twenty feet down the corridor to her left. “Hey! That was uncalled for!” the farmer shouted at the unicorn.

“I’m going, Applejack,” Twilight said. Her horn glowed, and a magenta force field materialized between her and the farmer.

“Twilight!” Applejack groaned in frustration. She put her weight against the magical barrier, but it was unyielding. She could only watch helplessly as the unicorn began limping away on only two hooves. The farmer looked to her side as Rarity came to stand in front of the wall as well. “Can’t ya do something ‘bout her?” Applejack asked the white unicorn desperately.

“Maybe,” Rarity replied without much conviction. “But... I won’t.”

“But...” the earth pony was at a loss for words. “She’s got two broken legs and who knows how many broken ribs! She can’t just walk outta the hospital like that!”

“She needs to see her, Applejack,” Rarity replied, looking at the injured unicorn limping away pathetically. “I doubt she’ll stop until she knows for sure.”

While Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie came to join them, the orange pony sighed in defeat. Suddenly, the wall against her hooves disappeared and Applejack fell onto all fours. Near the end of the hall, Twilight had fallen onto her side and was gasping with pain. The earth pony and unicorn came to her aid quickly and helped her back on her hooves.

Applejack shook her head in surrender. “Ya ain’t stoppin’ till you seen her, huh?” She sighed again. “Guess Ah might as well tag along then. Make sure you don’t get in any trouble.”

Twilight smiled weakly. “Thanks.”

Applejack positioned herself so that the unicorn could lean against her, and the two started walking slowly toward the end of the corridor while Rarity joined the others in an effort to cheer them up.

The five ponies entered into another corridor and started following the exit markers leading left down the hallway. There were large extravagant windows lining the wall to her right, suggesting that she was in one of the more luxurious wings of the hospital. Outside, it was still night or it had become night again. Twilight did not know for how long she had been unconscious this time, and she was not sure if she wanted to know. She tried looking out the windows, but could only see featureless blackness because of the sharp lights within the hospital.

Behind Twilight, Rarity struck up an idle conversation with Fluttershy, trying to calm the pegasus’ nerves. Pinkie Pie was trailing behind all of them; her head hanging so low the pink mane was touching the floor.

“What happened to Pinkie Pie?” Twilight whispered to Applejack.

“She felt it,” the farmer explained. “That pinkie sense of hers went bananas and she knew exactly what was about to happen just a few minutes before. She was mightily distraught and kept cryin’ and screamin’. We... we couldn’t believe her at first, but then... then there was that explosion and the moon just... stopped moving…”

“Wait, the moon? Wh-where is Luna? What happened to her?” Twilight inquired.

“Nopony’s seen her. At least not what I’ve heard of. Ah reckon she’s as gone as Celestia.”

“She can’t be dead,” Twilight stated. “I mean, I doubt Celestia’s dead, but if the sun really has disappeared... I don’t know… Something has probably happened to her... But the moon’s still here. Luna can only be alive.”

“It’s hard to say, really,” Applejack tried arguing. “Celestia used ta move the moon around way before the six of us became friends. Perhaps Luna lost her, I dunno, connection with the moon? That’s what Rarity’s thinkin’ anyways.” The friends kept walking for a few more seconds, slowly making their way to the exit. Rarity and Fluttershy’s conversation had quickly died down and Twilight was pondering Applejacks argument. “Besides,” the orange farmer continued. “Fact remains that with Celestia’s death…”

“Her possible death,” Twilight insisted, but was otherwise quiet.

Applejack rolled her eyes. “…with Celestia’s possible death, Equestria has more need of Princess Luna than ever, and she ain’t here.”

“Hmm…” was all Twilight could reply. There was so much for her to consider, and she didn’t have nearly enough information.

The five friends exited the corridor and entered into the main lobby of the hospital. The lobby of the Canterlot Hospital was two or three stories high and almost ridiculously exuberant, not unlike the majority of buildings in the capital. The ponies stood on the ground floor, vaulted ceilings stretching out more than twenty feet above them, and large glowing crystal chandeliers lit up the scene of wretchedness before the five friends.

The hospital’s reception area was flooded with ponies. Many wounded sat or lay on the chairs lining the walls of the lobby, and even more were lying scattered around the floor. Some wore bloodied bandages around their heads, some around their legs. A few unfortunate ponies had only bandage-wrapped stumps in place of their limbs.

The air in the whole lobby was thick with calamity and suffering, and Twilight realized that the explosion at the palace had been far worse than she had at first assumed. In the lobby alone there were almost a hundred ponies in need of medical attention. The five friends found themselves at the far end of the lobby, and they started slowly weaving their way through the throng of bloodied and injured ponies.

“Can’t help but wish there was at least one doctor out here,” Applejack commented as she stepped over a sleeping or unconscious stallion. “He might be able to talk some sense into ya.”

Twilight looked around worriedly. “Now that you mention it, where are the doctors? All of these ponies are in desperate need of help!”

“There ain’t no vacancy in the hospital,” Applejack explained. “A whole bunch of ponies have been hurt, but there are only so many here to treat ‘em. I reckon they’re all in some other part of the hospital, tending to the really seriously wounded.”

“Exactly how large was that explosion?” Twilight asked of Applejack, wincing as the two passed a pegasus missing half of his left hind leg.

“Well ‘cept the rubble strewn all over Canterlot, there ain’t nothin’ left of the royal palace the way I hear it. An’ when Ah say nothin’, Ah mean there’s a huge smokin’ crater where the palace used ta be.” Tears once again came to the farmer’s eyes as the unpleasant memories returned to her. “We all saw it, too. All the way from Ponyville. We were arguin’ with Pinkie, tryin’ ta make sense of her premonitions, when we noticed a bright light comin’ from the direction of Canterlot. A huge column o’ fire appeared where the palace oughta be. I saw the flames break through a layer of clouds! It was unbelievable! Then something what sounded like thunder could be heard loud and clear, and poor Pinkie started cryin’ her heart out.”

“This doesn’t make any sense,” the unicorn complained again. “I-I was in the palace, wasn't I? I must have been right at the center of that explosion, yet... here I am.”

“When we came here about two days ago, we met a doctor who was checking up on you,” the orange pony said as they passed a unicorn crying over her broken horn. “You were in a right sorry state after that explosion ‘ccording to him. Barely had any skin left on your body. The paramedics an’ palace guards had to magick you to the hospital because you were scaldin’ly hot. That’s why you haven’t been put in bandages; they just started burning up every time they touched you. ‘Twas only yesterday they was able to put your leg in that cast and your foreleg in the sling.” Applejack paused for a moment as they walked. Twilight’s limping pace was slowly quickening, and the ponies had almost reached the exit of the hospital. “I dunno what happened to ya, Twi, but it sure ain’t natural. Most of your skin grew back in those few days you were asleep and you can almost stand on your own now. Nopony in the palace survived that explosion. Not a trace of ‘em has been found, ‘cept Celestia, of course. How did you live through all that?”

“That’s what I’m going to find out…” the unicorn promised herself and the farmer as she passed through the open doors of the hospital to the dark world outside.


The moon shone faintly in the night sky above the five ponies as they exited the large Canterlot hospital. Twilight was unable to tell whether the heavenly lights had dimmed because of Luna’s grief or because of the smoke rising from the area around the Canterlot palace. From where she stood, she was unable to see the palace because of the tall houses surrounding the hospital, so the unicorn went left, heading toward the Princess Road which would lead her straight to the royal palace.

Twilight was slowly regaining her lost sense of balance, walking more confidently on her two unbroken legs, although she still leaned heavily against Applejack. As they walked, the injured unicorn gaze in awed silence at the massive amounts of destruction all over the city. Huge chunks of white or brightly colored marble from the palace had plowed deep tracks through the streets and houses, several buildings were on fire, and half of the windows Twilight saw had been shattered completely. Ponies by the side of the streets were busy erecting small lantern posts to help light the dark city. Even more ponies were simply wandering the streets aimlessly, looking in dumpsters or trash cans for food. From the state of things, Twilight would have guessed that the blast had occurred only yesterday, but according to her friends, it had happened more than five or six days ago. She shuddered at the thought of how things must have initially been.

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?” Rainbow Dash’s voice cried out indignantly at Twilight. The pegasus swooped down from above and hovered in front of the unicorn. “What are you doing out of bed? You've got two broken legs!”

“We’re going to see Celestia.”

Applejack only shrugged, signalling to Rainbow Dash that she might as well give up on convincing the unicorn.

The pegasus groaned in frustration but let Twilight pass by her. “The palace grounds have been sealed off, ya know. There are guards everywhere, and I don’t think they’re letting anypony in. The Element of Loyalty wasn’t allowed in, anyway.”

“What about the most talented flier in the Wonderbolts?” Twilight asked with a slight smile despite the circumstances.

“Nopony,” Dash repeated sullenly. “Only those helping with the investigation or whatever.”

“Well, I’m the princess’ most faithful student, and I’m the Element of Magic,” the limping unicorn reasoned. “That has to count for something.”


“No,” the guard answered flatly.

The six friends were standing at the drawbridge which provided the only access to the palace grounds. The wall around the palace gate had survived the explosion, but had suffered major damages. The tall walls that surrounded the palace grounds had cracked in several places, and whole sections of the masonry had crumbled. One segment had even been demolished by a fallen tower, almost damming up the moat which would usually stream out into one of the waterfalls that plummeted from the city.

At the far end of the drawbridge, the gatehouse seemed to have endured the blast. Large chunks of its marble exterior were missing, but the gate itself was intact, allowing access to anypony... if they could get past the guards.

The drawbridge was wide enough for four ponies to walk across side by side, but currently, ten royal guards were blocking the way entirely. The guard in front was scowling at Twilight.

Above the ponies, low-hanging clouds brimming with pegasus guards protected the entire perimeter from the air.

“I beg your pardon?” Rarity exclaimed, jumping to her unicorn friend’s aid. “In case you should have failed to notice, we are the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and every one of us is a very close friend of the princesses.”

“The princesses are dead,” the lead guard replied mechanically. “Investigations are being made as to the cause and possible perpetrator of this event. Until such investigations have been finished, no extraneous ponies are permitted to enter the palace grounds, no matter their rank or position.”

“Who gave that order?” Twilight asked critically.

The guard’s eyes narrowed as he looked back at the injured unicorn. “That is none of your concern. Leave these premises." He eyed her burnt skin. "Why aren’t you being treated for those burns? You should be in a hospital.”

Twilight scowled at the guard, and a dangerous gleam shone in her eyes. The air around her horn began shimmering. Applejack opened her mouth to protest at the guard, but the unicorn spoke instead. “As the protégée of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and the Bearer of the Element of Magic, cornerstone of the Elements of Harmony and Heroine of Equestria, I am ordering you to stand down!”

The furless unicorn, who was leaning against her friend, was hardly imposing, but the look she gave the guard and the undertone in her words caused him to step back nonetheless, intimidated by the impressive powers known to be wielded by the Element of Magic. The guards behind him shuffled slightly forward, taking a defensive stance.

“I am the only survivor of the explosion you are investigating,” the unicorn proceeded to reason. “Stand aside and let me in.”

There was a moment where Twilight thought she had succeeded in her persuasion, but the guard regained his composure and stood fast again. “I’m sorry, Twilight Sparkle. But I can’t let anypony through.”

After a moment of hesitation, the unicorn’s horn flared brightly and the ten guards flinched. When they looked toward her again, Twilight was no longer standing among her five friends.

She reappeared at the other end of the drawbridge and started limping quickly through the gates. Four unicorn guards in golden armor appeared from behind the marble arch, stepping forward while exerting their magic upon the injured unicorn in an attempt to restrain her.

The Element of Magic's powers swatted them aside easily, and the guards were thrown into the open palace gates with enough force to stun them momentarily. Exclamations of surprise and anger came from behind her, and Twilight knew that the ten guards must have seen her by now.

Ignoring the searing and agonizing jolts of pain reverberating throughout her entire body, Twilight started running. The cast on her hind leg was bothersome and every time she touched down with the leg she screamed in agony, but adrenaline and purpose kept her going.

After passing through the open gates, Twilight followed the cobblestone path left across a short marble bridge that led across a small scenic creek, the palace gardens stretching out before her. Most of the vegetation was gone, replaced by thick clouds of smoke and fire that was somehow still burning after six days. Looking through the dark fog and skeletons of trees that remained, the unicorn could still not see the palace. Behind her, the guards’ shouts were growing louder. They were gaining on her, but only slowly. She could also hear the shouts of her friends, some encouraging her to run faster while some wanted her to stop for her own safety.

She cleared the bridge and soon passed into the burning palace gardens. Everything around her was smoking badly, and Twilight's visibility was greatly reduced. She sprinted past the remnants of the palace hedge maze and the Canterlot Sculpture Garden as well as numerous other parts of the vast palace grounds, running blindly as the pain in her leg numbed her mind to the point of not being able to focus on anything but finding her mentor.

After what seemed an eternity, Twilight finally reached the royal palace, or what was left of it. As Applejack had said, most of the walls had been blown apart and scattered across Canterlot. The walls that hadn’t had been melted completely, solidifying again in great heaps and slabs of marble. Some parts of the palace ruins were still slightly aglow with heat.

Twilight went left and skirted the palace remnants, finding a path to the epicenter of the blast. Unlike the rest of the site, there were no remains of the palace whatsoever within the immediate area of the center of the explosion. In fact, Twilight could make out a large ball-shaped volume of space in which everything had been either completely vaporized or liquified, leaving a deep depression in the ground.

In the center of that crater, Twilight saw a white and pink shape.

Celestia screaming. Dying.

No.

“No,” Twilight muttered to herself. Tears started streaming down her face. She shook her head in disbelief, not even registering the pain in her neck that would usually paralyze her.

Stationed around the depression were scores of royal guards, and as they caught sight of the injured unicorn, they charged, seeking to apprehend her.

“No!” Once again, Twilight ignored her leg as she started dashing toward the the immobile white form and the rows of guards approaching her.

One of the guards cried out a warning at the intruder, but Twilight’s horn flared again, and she teleported herself behind the ranks of guards. The unicorn lost her footing as she materialized on the hot surface of the crater, and she tumbled down the decline to the center of the depression where the white form lay. With a whimper of pain, Twilight crawled the rest of the way to the large pony in front of her, trying her best to ignore the unbearable heat that still pervaded the pit and the unbelievable agony pulsing through her mangled and abused legs. As she approached the body, Twilight noticed that the pony did indeed have a horn and a pair of wings. As much as she hated admitting it, the lifeless alicorn in front of her was without a doubt her old mentor. But she could not possibly be dead.

“Princess? Princess Celestia?” Twilight sobbed. The princess’ eyes were closed, and her sides were still. Her mane and tail had lost its strange ethereality and had become the pink strands of hair she had usually been depicted with in the histories. Her coat seemed gray in comparison to the brilliance that usually surrounded her.

Twilight put her hoof under the princess’ head and lifted it so that it was facing her. The muscles were stiff and the coat was much colder than the blistering heat of Twilight’s surroundings. The unicorn touched horns with her mentor, but she felt nothing. No warmth, no magic, no life. “Celestia!” Twilight wailed and hugged the corpse around its neck, crying into the pink mane.

She sat in that position for a long time, thinking only of Celestia and not of the guards that had come to a halt around her, her friends who had managed to enter the palace grounds, or the overwhelming pain of her broken legs. Tears streamed freely into the dead princess’ mane as the student kept sobbing.

Celestia was dead. The princess of Equestria, the alicorn who raised and lowered the sun, the mare who had once defeated both Discord and Nightmare Moon, the one who had lived for more than a thousand years. Dead. Even now, seeing and feeling the corpse of her beloved mentor, Twilight could not make herself believe it was possible. Celestia was practically a goddess, she could not die. She must be in a coma or something similar. Why had Twilight survived where Celestia had not?

A faint pulse against her skin brought Twilight out of her grief. She lifted her head from the princess' mane. The pulse had been different from the pain she was ignoring. She had felt something coming from Celestia's body. A warmth. Some sort of spark.

The unicorn’s hopes returned. Her mentor had survived! It was exactly as she had suspected. Twilight squealed in excitement as she felt another pulse from the princess. The tip of the unicorn’s horn tingled slightly. Celestia’s coat started slowly shining, her entire body glimmered, and the guards gasped in shock. Twilight’s friends, who had just arrived, made exclamations of surprise at the sight.

The student touched horns with her mentor again, and she felt the familiar exchange of energy the two always shared.

Celestia’s body shone even brighter, and a nonexistent wind rippled through her mane and tail, restoring them to life. The light emitted by the princess changed from white to the pastel colors of her usual mane, enveloping Twilight in a warm, multichromatic halo.

The unicorn hugged Celestia even tighter, ignoring her screaming bones, and increased the flow of magic she poured into the alicorn. In response, even more magic surged into Twilight. The student smiled and closed her eyes against the princess’ mane. Everything was going to be alright. Celestia would return. She would bring back the sun. She would explain exactly what had happened, and they would find the one responsible for all of this.

But then the unicorn’s hooves suddenly held nothing, and she fell forward into the space where Celestia had once been. Twilight opened her eyes. Celestia’s glow was rapidly fading away, and the body was sagging unnaturally. She backed away from her mentor's body and watched in horror as it turned into a multitude of small bright sparkles the color of Celestia’s mane. Within only seconds, the entire body had decomposed into a large pile of sparkling dust.

Twilight was speechless while others around her cried out in anguish. Before she could react, another nonexistent wind swept away the glowing dust. The sparkles whirled around the unicorn for a moment before dissolving into nothingness, leaving Twilight sitting alone in a dimly glowing hole amidst the ruins of the palace.

The warmth that had possessed the injured unicorn turned to ice. She tried standing, but collapsed again as she started shaking uncontrollably. She tried fighting back her tears, but started sobbing violently. The pain that had momentarily been kept at bay returned in full force, bringing merciless agony and waves of fire throughout every nerve in her body, adding to the torment of her heart that felt as if on the verge of bursting. She threw her head back and screamed her frustration and pain at the dark skies, hoping for some answer, but none came. The night sky was dark. The moon was barely visible.

She screamed until her voice broke and she once again tasted blood in her mouth. The pain, both physical and emotional, became too much for the unicorn to bear. All became dark and sweet oblivion enveloped her mind.