Twilight Falls
Oddly enough, Fluttershy hadn’t been too scared these past days. Sure, there was that deep, existential dread of the hangman’s noose looming in her future, but deep down she knew that couldn’t be too soon. For all of Equestria’s hatred for her, she knew they needed her alive. The Elements needed her to be complete, and the Elements were Equestria’s final hope for anything short of total defeat in the war against humanity.
Rather, she had felt plenty of other emotions these past few days. Rage, frustration, despair, helplessness, disappointment, and of course plenty of hatred for the white sun bitch responsible for it all. But fear? Fear had slid into the back seat.
Until a few hours ago, when she had been dragged to another cell to find Martin, chained and beaten but alive, being held. Celestia had stood there and described in exquisite detail just what would happen to him if Fluttershy didn’t use her Element as needed. Not in front of the others, of course, the cowardly bitch had an image to maintain after all. But she had lifted up a single bottle of that thousand-times-damned potion, holding it up as she described just what this prototype concoction would do to him.
It was too much. The thought of losing him like that…of seeing her beloved turned into a freakish, half-Newfoal abomination, was too much.
She’d said yes, even as he shook his head frantically: the only thing he could do with his hands bound and the mouth of the bottle covering his lips. The look of despair in his eyes as she was led from the cell was more than she’d had to bear before, even more than the beating she received from Applejack, or the emotional turmoil she’d experienced with Rarity, or the apocalyptic realization of what must have become of the other creatures of Equus in the years since they left.
Now they walked, flanked by guards, along the path leading down from the mountains, towards the ethereal shimmer in the skies above. Martin was left back in the dungeons, extra insurance to keep her obedient. A single word from Celestia and his torture would begin, broadcast directly to her. Rainbow Dash would likely hold her down, keeping her from even escaping his cries, and Fluttershy knew she’d do it without hesitation. Dash hadn’t said this, but she’d surmised as much. The mare walked beside her now. It was funny just fifteen years ago, that would’ve been a comfort. Now, it was a reminder of just how alone she was.
“Aww,” Pinkie said, bouncing alongside her. “What’s gotcha down, Flutters?”
Fluttershy’s teeth clenched, any patience for the mare’s ongoing delusions having evaporated with the sight of Martin in chains. “Pinkie…not now.”
Pinkie stopped bouncing, and Fluttershy noticed none of the other mares spoke up for her. Rarity even averted her eyes. Apparently, for all the bad blood between them, Pinkie’s continued denial of reality was getting on all their nerves. “S-sorry, Flutters, I j-just thought we should be enjoying this now that we’re all together again. I-I mean, isn’t that what’s—”
“Pinkie, I am being coerced into propping up a tyrant who has long lost any semblance of the harmony she once represented,” Fluttershy hissed. “So I would appreciate it if—”
Before she could even continue, Applejack had stopped. Fluttershy at least had time to brace before a hind hoof lashed out, slamming into her jaw. She swooned with the hit, landing gracelessly on her flank. White-hot pain surged up her face, her brain reeling with the blow. As her vision cleared, a burst of lilac appeared in front of her.
“We need her conscious to use her Element,” Twilight hissed, standing between the two. “Did you forget that!?”
“She was badmouthin’ the princess!” Applejack roared defiantly.
“This is about a little bit more than you and your anger issues.” Twilight growled dangerously, and…and there was something in that growl. Fluttershy couldn’t quite put her hoof on it, but it sounded…emotional? Dangerous?
“She is right, Applejack.” Apparently, it was the princess’s turn to weigh in. She had paused in her trot to turn on the small group, glaring at the orange mare. “Whatever issues we may have with Fluttershy are far outweighed by what we’re doing here. Try to keep that in mind, no matter what yon traitor says to irk you.”
Applejack kept her glare on Fluttershy, her muzzle twitching in barely-contained disgust. But Fluttershy returned the glare, even as she pressed herself back up to her hooves. After a moment, Applejack blinked. She turned away, pulling her Stetson down low over her face. “Sorry ‘bout that, Princess. Won’t happen again.”
“See to it that it doesn’t.” Celestia said, and the group resumed its trudge along the path in silence, just in time to reach a large, stone platform. There they sat: the Elements glittering in all their magical glory, still looking like they had the day Fluttershy had first seen them in that ruined castle in the woods. Her stomach twisted seeing them. They still sparkled with the purity and glory she had seen on that fateful night which brought them all together. To have a group like this handling them…she half expected the things to tarnish in their grasps, corrupted by the darkness brought into their hearts by years of hardship and war.
Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, it didn’t happen. Each mare picked up their respective Element and secured them around their necks. Only Fluttershy hesitated, as if waiting to make sure the other Elements didn’t simply explode upon contact with their respective Bearers.
“Fluttershy.” Celestia stated.
She turned to find the princess glaring at her, eyes narrowed.
“Remember why we’re here, and what will happen if you refuse.”
Despite her shivering hooves, Fluttershy glared right back. A part of her would have loved to throw the thing down and spit at the princess’s hooves, but then…Martin…
A hoof laid itself gently on her shoulder, and she turned to find Twilight smiling at her, the Element of Magic already fastened securely around her neck. “It’ll all work out Flutters, you’ll see.” She insisted, smiling reassuringly, eyes big and dumb and empty of the horrifying realizing she’d had not even a day before. Still it was almost enough to make Fluttershy think this really was the old days, make her slip back into that terrified persona she used to hold, make her think this was just another big, scary adventure, but that she could push through with the help of her friends.
Then Fluttershy realized the others were staring at her, Applejack and Rainbow Dash glaring like she was something gross they had just stepped on, and were only waiting to find a hose to rinse her down a gutter. She sighed and, finally, locked her Element around her throat.
Celestia nodded, turning up to the sky, facing the Equestrian border. “Oh Elements, we call upon thee! Equestria faces her most desperate hour yet, against a foe most evil and devious! Now we cast ourselves upon thine power once more! Save us, in our time of need!”
A rousing cheer of “Here, here’s” rose up from the soldiers around them. Fluttershy flinched on hearing them, but she let out a breath, and her glare reappeared. “You’re insane if you seriously think this will work,” she hissed at the back of Celestia’s head.
Celestia whipped around at her, eyes narrowing. Fluttershy glared back, even as those eyes promised she would be dealt with later. Later, when the Heavens had been moved and the armies of man were in flames and the Earth was hers. Fluttershy could already see the bitch looking forward to it.
The six mares climbed onto the platform, all arranged at their own point in the circle. Each closed their eyes, and after a moment, Fluttershy did the same. And she waited. And she waited. For a moment, she actually thought she could feel that sudden hum of power, that burst of magic flowing forth from her heart and into her Element. But then it faded, just as she suspected it would, not even a glimmer of what she had felt those other times the Elements were used so many years ago.
After a few minutes, her eyes opened again, to the scowling form of Celestia glaring upon her. The pegasus just shook her head. “I told you this wouldn’t wor—”
Even as she started to say it, there was a hum, and suddenly a light filled the air. The others all gasped, watching as the Six all rose into the air in a sudden burst of power. Fluttershy’s head reeled: how did this work!? Did their Friendship really matter at all!?
“Ha…HAHAHAHA!” Rainbow Dash laughed frantically.
“I knew it would work again! I knew we’d be saved!” Rarity cackled.
No, wait…
Something was wrong…
She felt hoisted up by the Element, not the other way around. And why was everything being subsumed by a purple glow? Before, each of their Elements had glowed in their own way, the six Elements taking up an equal part of the tapestry. Now, it was all…Twilight?
She craned her head up, gazing up to see a glow around Twilight’s horn. Her Element hummed fiercely, eclipsing the others as the magic built, flowing into and out of each of the Elements, building and cycling up higher and higher, until Fluttershy had to avert her eyes from the Element of Magic.
“S-something’s wrong!” She shouted. “It’s different now!”
If anypony heard her, they ignored her, which came as no surprise. Hers were the words of a traitor now. Why should they pay her any mind when they were on the edge of victory? She closed her eyes again, whimpering as she dangled with the others. The magic built, the hum rising to a sudden crescendo, and then, a discharge…
A gasp. A blast of sudden heat. And she dropped. Unlike the other times when they were eased to the ground, the six all fell unceremoniously, as if the magic had simply disappeared. Her head whirled as she shook it to try and clear her thoughts. Her vision wavered in and out as she opened her eyes to try and get her bearings.
Rarity was the first to scream.
Fluttershy’s eyes bolted open at the sound, and she had to suppress a cry herself. Celestia lay at the edge of the platform, her body pristine as always, but her mane had apparently vanished. When Fluttershy’s wide, horrified gaze followed her form up that swan-like neck, she realized it wasn’t just her mane gone. Everything from her jaw up was gone, only her lower teeth remaining in a mass of scorched meat and blackened coat. Blood shot out of the stump of her neck as her body gave its final death twitches.
The sheer horror of the sight, the absolute absurdity…she didn’t want to believe it at first. She didn’t even have time to process it before Rainbow Dash tackled her.
“You bitch!” Rainbow’s hoof lashed out, beating at her cheek, her nose, anywhere she could reach. “You did this, didn’t you!? It wasn’t enough to betray us, you had to kill our last shot, didn’t you!?”
“No…please…” Fluttershy whimpered as hooves crashed against her body. Suddenly, more hooves grasped her, and for a second she thought she was being saved, but then they simply pinned her to the ground. She looked up into the uncaring eyes of Celestia’s guards, now holding her as the pegasus snarled.
“Fluttershy the Traitor,” the guard captain spat as Dash loomed. “You’re under arrest for regicide.”
“Wait…no…” the whimper squeaked past Fluttershy’s lips. “I-I don’t know what happened! Please! I didn’t do this!”
Nopony listened, of course. They never had before, why would they start now?
Rainbow Dash, the only pegasus that had believed in any sort of potential in her when they were fillies, the one pegasus who’s act of selflessness in her defense had brought them all together, flashed a sick grin. “I’m gonna enjoy this,” she whispered, rearing back on her hooves.
“Rainbow!” Twilight finally spat, her magic wrenching the pegasus’s grip back. “Leave her be. She’s not the one who killed Celestia.”
“Oh yeah!?” Rainbow suddenly turned on Twilight, apparently forgetting about Fluttershy to glare right into her eyes, teeth clenched. “And just how do you know that!?”
“It’s simple, you stupid, brainwashed jock.” Twilight said, her voice still holding that strange, casual nonchalance, even as her words cut deep into the other mares’ ears. And there was that grin again. What the hell was that smile? Why did it make Fluttershy’s stomach twist, even while she was being saved? “Because I did.”
The entire group went silent. Even the guards pinning Fluttershy whipped around to face her. Twilight simply looked around the group with that strange, nonchalant little smile.
“Princess Twilight Sparkle,” a guardsmare stepped forward, leaving Fluttershy’s side. “Are you admitting to killing Princess Celestia?”
Twilight let in a small breath. “In fact, yes I am.”
“That…no, that makes no sense…” Applejack finally rose. “Y-ya loved her. Ya loved her like a mother. She was yer teacher…how couldja…”
“It was quite easy, actually.” Twilight responded, shrugging. “Originally, she wanted to make a true affair of things: do it all in a stadium, get a big crowd going, but I knew I wouldn’t have a chance in hell of getting the drop on her then. So I convinced her this isolated little spot was the best place to make the attempt at using the Elements. Even then, things were uncertain: I thought I might have to wait a little while yet for my chance, but I knew I made the right choice when I started to feel the magic from my Element. It was too easy, I simply redirected it. Celestia even had her back turned. I couldn’t have asked for a better shot if she was wearing a bullseye on her head.”
Applejack’s head just kept shaking back and forth, eyes wide. “Nah, you…ya couldn’t, you…nah…” she whispered.
The guards, however, simply stepped forward. Despite the cold, business-like air trained into them, their hooves shook, and their armor rattled. “Princess Twilight Sparkle,” the commander announced. “You are under arrest for regicide. Please put your hooves behind your head so we can…”
There was a glow from Twilight’s horn, and the Commander’s eyes widened in pure horror. “Mov—” she had time to scream before her own spear leapt from her hooves, swiveled around, and skewered her throat, pinning her to the ground like a butterfly on a corkboard.
“Oh Cel—” another guard started before another magical hum sounded, his helmet lifting from his ears. He whirled around, looked desperately to Fluttershy, and there was a loud squelch. Blood trickled from his nostrils. His eyes went blank, then rolled back. Something gray oozed from an ear. It took her a second to realize she was watching his brain ooze out of his skull, having been crushed and pureed by sheer force of telekinesis.
As she watched the stallion drop, a few more cries sounded out. Her gaze remained on the dead body, because as horrifying as watching somepony’s brain ooze out of their skull was, it couldn’t be nearly as bad as whatever new horror waited behind her.
When she finally turned around, two more guardstallions lay dead: one’s neck almost chopped through with his own battleaxe, the other’s head twisted completely around. Twilight advanced on a third, a unicorn whose magic lashed out, trying desperately to land a blow on her body but only watching her magic fizzle against a lilac shield. It was like watching an ant resist the hoof about to grind it into the pavement.
“Really? Magic against the Element of Magic!?” Twilight guffawed, and that laugh...dear sweet Celestia, that laugh...it was a bit like the laugh she’d let out during the Smarty Pants incident, except more ragged, more desperate, less like her old friend and more like something you would hear from the maximum security wing of an insane asylum. When it finally ended, lilac eyes honed in on the hapless unicorn. “Points for not attempting a physical attack like the other idiots, in any other situation this might have been a smart move.”
The shield suddenly vanished, and just as the guardsmare reached for Twilight with their magic, Twilight’s magic responded, lilac beams overpowering pale blue. It wasn’t even a contest. It was like watching a filly trying to beat Big Mac in a hoof wrestling competition. Twilight overpowered the guardsmare with almost casual ease, and when it reached the guardsmare’s horn, she invaded it like an infecting parasite. “N-no…” the mare had time to get out before her eyes bulged. Blood oozed from the base of her horn, rolling down her cheeks. When the lilac magic retreated a few seconds later, the unicorn dropped like a children’s toy, leaving a bloody smear on the rock where her face hit.
One guard remained. He looked up to Twilight as her gaze shifted from the dead unicorn to him. His weapon left his hooves as he took a few shivering steps back. “Oh...Celestia, please, don’t…”
The blank, dumb madness in Twilight’s eyes was instantly subsumed by rage. “Don’t you say her bucking name!” She howled, diving towards him, only to be stopped by a blue streak slamming into her side. Rainbow tackled her to the ground, wrapping her hooves around the berserk princess, trying to pull her into a headlock.
“Apple!” She screeched. There was a desperation and fear there that Fluttershy wished to never hear again, even after everything, even after the hatred and the loathing and the war, Fluttershy really hoped Rainbow wouldn’t ever sound like that again.
She was about to get her wish.
A lasso sailed through the air, landing around Twilight’s neck. Applejack pulled desperately, hauling back on it with everything she had. It wasn’t nearly enough. The rope vanished in a burst of purple magic, only to instantly rematerialize around her own neck.
“Wha--” she managed to get out before it hauled back on her throat, trailing up the trunk of a tree and tying itself off in a hangman’s noose. “GACK!” She choked out, hooves clawing desperately at the ropes while her hindlegs kicked in the air.
“Applejack!” Rainbow shrieked, taking her eyes off Twilight. In a flash, the princess teleported out of her grasp, appearing again a few feet in front of her. Stumbling, Rainbow looked down at her now-empty hooves, then back up at her.
Twilight grinned. Her horn glowed.
“Oh Cel--”
It was like a giant, invisible hoof slammed into her head. Something stomped into the back of her skull and slammed the Element of Loyalty face-first into the ground like the invisible hand of God himself. In a single blow, Rainbow Dash’s head was transformed into a multicolored smear on the rock, her brains bursting out all over Twilight. Fluttershy heard a thud, and turned to find that Rarity had fainted. Honestly, it was kind of strange that she hadn’t done so sooner.
Twilight stood amidst the blood and gore that used to be her friends, her shoulders heaving, her eyes holding the look of a rabid bear. Fluttershy’s voice remained silent, terrified that even the slightest sound would bring this horrifying creature’s wrath down upon her. Behind Twilight, Applejack still kicked and struggled against the noose, though a lot slower than she had just moments before.
And then Twilight turned on the remaining guard. He gasped, backing away from the gore-soaked alicorn as she gazed at him from beneath a matted, frayed mane covered in blood. “Go home.” She hissed, her voice a dangerous, flat hiss. “Go home, hug your family, and take off your armor. If you try to warn the others back at the dungeon, I will kill you and everypony you’ve ever loved.”
The guard gazed at her, shivering. When a few seconds passed and he was still alive, he turned back down the path they’d taken and ran, his hooves clopping as he galloped away.
“Twilight…” Pinkie’s voice was a quiet whisper as she stepped towards the Alicorn. Fluttershy wanted to hold up a hoof, wanted to tell her to stop, to not antagonize the beast before them; but her hooves and wings remained stubbornly at her side, her voice silent. “Wh-why?”
“Why?” Twilight chortled. There was that laugh again, that horrible, insane laugh. “Of course you don’t know, Pinkie. Of course you of all mares don’t know. You’ve been living in a desperate illusion for so long, why stop now?”
In a tornado of purple feathers, Twilight advanced on them.
“Because she lied, Pinkie. She lied about why we came here, she lied about why we’re fighting, and she lied to me!” Twilight’s voice at that last bit was almost as frayed as her mane had become. She took a step back, and absurdly, pressed a blood-spattered hoof to her chest, mimicking the old calming technique she’d practiced her whole life. It seemed to work: at the very least, when her eyes opened again, they didn’t hold that insane rabidness anymore. “She lied to me, Pinkie. About everything. She lied with every breath she took.”
“Oh my God,” Fluttershy gasped despite herself, her muteness apparently abating. “You remember! You broke her memory charm!”
“Yep!” Twilight sang, prancing closer to the group. They couldn’t help but flinch back as she neared, leveling a hoof on Fluttershy. Gorge rose in Fluttershy’s throat when she realized the bottom of that hoof had a bit of skull embedded in it. “Points for Flutters! See, Spike came to me and told me everything! Didn’t wanna believe him of course, like the stupid bucking idiot I am, but after he died, I didn’t really have a choice now, did I? Just had to scour my brain for memory-erasing charms, and there it was, clear as day!”
“Wait…” Fluttershy choked. “S-Spike’s dead!?”
At that, Twilight faltered. The manic smile on her face faded into a dull, lifeless, slack-jawed look, like somepony engrossed in a magazine. The familiar spark in her eyes faded away, the color draining from her gaze. “Sassy Saddles, too. Had it all setup to look like a human bombing, some new horror for me to discover once we were done here.” She tried to say it plainly, like she might be talking about the pegasi plans for the weather later that week, but the crack in her voice and the way her sentence ended with a little hitch at the end betrayed her.
The tears finally began to fall, much to Fluttershy’s relief. She wasn’t gone after all, not fully.
“Two birds, one stone. It was brilliant, really.” Twilight choked. “She could harden my resolve and self-righteousness against the humans while covering up the murder of my only friend in the whole wide world, all at the same time.”
“I-I’m your friend, aren’t I, Twi-Twi?” Pinkie asked with a nervous grin.
Twilight reared on her, that rabid, dumb rage rising again, like molten lava in the middle of a volcanic eruption. Oh God, why did you say anything, Pinkie? Fluttershy lamented.
“Friends?” The laugh started again, beginning in the back of her throat and building from there. “Friends!? You really think we’re still friends!?”
A violet hoof lashed out, hauling a now struggling, terrified Pinkie off her legs. The pink mare whimpered, her whole body kicking, but the glow of Twilight’s magic held firm. Twilight hoisted her up overhead, gazing dispassionately, like she was holding a scared rabbit instead of one of her best friends in the entire world.
“You are so disappointing.” She sighed, shaking her head like a parent finding out their kid had slacked off a little too much this semester and gotten a few D’s.
There was a sudden blur, and Pinkie was now staring down at Fluttershy. Yet her body faced the other way. It took both mares a moment to realize Pinkie’s head had been twisted completely around, her neck shattered with a series of crushing pops, like a plastic bottle in a car crusher. Then Pinkie’s eyes rolled up. Her jaw went slack as her body went limp. Twilight dropped her, letting her body crash unceremoniously to the ground. It still held that same terror in its face.
“At least now you’ll be genuine.” Twilight mumbled, bemused. “No more lies, no more covering up the pain.”
Fluttershy shivered, her muzzle screwing up, her wings quivering. She thought about flying away, but knew that would be totally worthless. Twilight would pluck her out of the air and tear her to shreds without a thought. She shivered again as the psychotic mare turned to her, face now caked in the blood of their former friends. The passionless, utterly-dead look Twilight held nearly sent her into conniptions. It wasn’t the most terrifying moment she could think of, not even now, but it was still awfully darned close.
“M-m-my turn?” She whimpered; eyes closed. She thought she had been braced for death during these past few weeks. The terrifying insanity in Twilight’s eyes proved just how wrong she was.
Twilight tilted her head curiously. “Why, whatever do you mean, Flutters?”
“It’s my turn now, i-isn’t it?” She swallowed. “You killed everypony else, now it’s my turn to die, r-right?”
Twilight blinked, then giggled. It wasn’t a nice giggle. It was just a little too high-pitched, a little too unhinged. “Oh Fluttershy, why would I kill you? You did everything in your power to take on the sun-bitch, and now they’re all dead. Her and the stupid, insipid little children who supported her.”
Except Rarity, Fluttershy started, but kept her lips shut. With Twilight the way she was, she could have honestly forgotten about Rarity, and that might be the only thing keeping the unicorn alive now. “S-so…I can leave?”
Twilight nodded, her smile almost resembling the old Twilight, if it wasn’t for the blood caked into her coat. “I’ll even do you one better: I’ll make sure you get to see your precious Martin again, safe and sound.”
“R-really!?” Despite the terror, Fluttershy felt hope blossom in her heart.
Twilight nodded again, adding a little shrug. “I could use a little bit of time before the last hurrah anyway, I’ll make sure nopony lays a single hoof on him.”
That gave Fluttershy pause. “The…last hurrah?”
Twilight waved dismissively. “Oh, you know: the last little thing, just where I make all the rest pay.”
“The…rest?”
Twilight advanced upon her, giving Fluttershy a full view of that unhinged, insane glint in her eyes: a view that would haunt her until her dying days. “Every single simpering, sniveling, hoof-licking cretin who supported her over the years. Everyone that groveled at her hooves and allowed her to reach this point in exchange for a shred of power. Humanity wasn’t the one that deserved to end, Fluttershy, it was us. We who traded our souls and dignity to a hateful god in exchange for a little bit of safety. We who remained so technologically backwards so we could continue to remain safe in her wings. All. The. Rest.”
The shiver returned to Fluttershy’s body. Tears leaked from her eyes. “Oh God…Twilight, oh God, please…”
“So, y’know: nothing for you to worry your pretty little head about, Flutters!” Twilight patted her mane. Her touch felt like a manticore’s paw, ready to flex and turn somepony’s face into ribbons. “For now, just sleep, and let Twi-Twi handle the rest.”
There was that hum of magic again, and Fluttershy could feel a heavy blanket of tiredness draping over her entire body. Already, her body begged for rest, and she swayed just standing up. Her knees wanted to buckle and dump her on the ground just so she could sleep sooner. But she fought it. She had to. If what Twilight was implying was true…
“T-Twi—” she managed to get out before she finally collapsed on her side.
“Shhhh…” the purple mare that had once been one of Fluttershy’s closest friends in the world raised a hoof to her lips. “Sleep now, Flutters. You earned it.”
And so, Fluttershy was lulled into sleep, nearly cradled into it, as her head was turned so she wouldn’t suffocate, all carefully arranged by Equestria’s final judgment.
When she came to, Fluttershy wished desperately for the last few days to be a nightmare. She begged and pleaded for whoever was listening that she would wake up in the small house on the outskirts of Cary, for Martin to be beside her, and to have little more than a temper tantrum from one of the orphans to worry about for the day. Sadly, she woke up to the same gray skies her eyes had closed to. She sat up when she heard sniffling nonetheless, gazing up in shock when she saw Rarity sitting at the edge of the stone platform, wiping at her face.
“R-Rarity?” She asked, and the alabaster unicorn whipped around in place.
“O-oh, right…” she sniffled, wiping at her muzzle as she turned back around. “Of course she spared you.”
Ignoring the derogatory tone, Fluttershy followed Rarity’s gaze. “What are you…” she started, then trailed off. Applejack still hung from the tree, a hoof caught under the rope, as if she was still clawing at it. Fluttershy bolted to her hooves without thinking, passing Rarity as she galloped over the platform, but ambling to a stop as she saw why Rarity hadn’t bothered taking their former friend down. Applejack’s face had taken on a blue hue, tinted by her orange coat. Her eyes remained wide and bulging, a fly buzzing around her face. A light breeze made her tail bob slightly. She wasn’t just dead; she was long dead.
Fluttershy stared, eventually taking a seat beside Rarity. Her breath came long and heavy. Tears started to brim in her eyes. “Oh…oh no…”
“What are you so sad about?” Rarity sniffled. “Now your precious monkeys are going to win, every mare who could’ve changed things is dead and we can all suck monkey dick like you.”
If Fluttershy hadn’t been in total shock, she might have gone on the attack again, just like that day back in her cell. As things were, she was silent for a whole minute before turning her wide, haunted gaze on the former Element of Generosity. “Do you want to know why she did it?”
“Oh…the war, of course, it…” Rarity sniffled, shaking her head. “…it must have gotten to her.”
“You and I both know that isn’t true.”
Rarity only sniffled, but she didn’t object.
“Rarity, what do you think happened back home? On Equis?”
The unicorn turned to face her fully, face twisted as if Fluttershy had asked if she thought Earth ponies went to heaven when they died. “What’s that have to do with—”
“They’re dead, Rarity. Every single creature who wasn’t in Equestria when Celestia teleported us to Earth is now dead.” Fluttershy got the words out in a rush, suddenly not caring about sparing any blow.
Rarity’s eyes widened, her jaw working up and down.
“Think about it: the princesses were the only force back home that could raise and lower the sun and moon. With them here on Earth, who’s been doing that?” She shook her head. “That means it’s been 18 years since the sun and moon have moved back home.”
A breath rushed in through Rarity’s clenched teeth. “But…but that means…”
“The yaks. The Seaquestrians. The changelings. Right now, one side of the planet has been scorched by an unending day, and the other side has frozen under eternal night…” she shook her head. “It’d be even worse than if Nightmare Moon had won. Every creature that didn’t come with us is certainly dead by now. It means Spike is…was the last dragon.”
A look of absolute horror overcame Rarity’s features as she turned to face her. “W-was?”
Fluttershy’s vision doubled as she blinked away tears. “I told him once I figured it all out. He came to me in private after Pinkie, wanted to talk about Twilight. About…a lot of things.” She let out a shivering breath. “He was distraught. I told him about a Resistance mare in Canterlot he could contact. I…think he was done with Celestia when he realized he was the last.”
“Why…you? Wh-why didn’t he go to Twilight?”
“Twilight was firmly under Celestia’s hoof, Rarity. We both know that. In fact, she figured this all out with me, and immediately went to confront Celestia.” She shook her head long and sadly, mane bobbing slightly. “All she got was a memory erasure spell for her efforts.”
Rarity put the pieces together quickly. “Spike, he…didn’t get to contact that Resistance pony, did he?”
Fluttershy bit her lip and looked away. “I shouldn’t have told him…I should have told him to just bury this…but Celestia said she had a way to make me do what she wanted, and I was afraid. I thought humanity needed to be warned so they could figure something out…”
Rarity’s hooves lashed out, shoving Fluttershy off the edge of the platform. Fluttershy sprawled out, blinking in surprise at her former friend as fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. But Rarity didn’t advance, just hovered over her. “That’s it!?” She hissed. “Spikey-Wikey is dead because you wanted to warn your precious humans!?”
Finally, the anger blossomed in her chest. Fluttershy’s teeth clenched. She rose to her hooves, and there must have been something in her eyes because the self-righteous glare ran from Rarity’s visage as she shrank back. “Your Spikey-Wikey is dead because of that evil cunt.” She growled. “That evil bitch you personally helped prop up! You supported her in everything she did, you helped her every step of the way! At least I had the courage to walk away when I realized things had gone wrong! At least I didn’t delude myself into believing wiping out a sentient race was the right thing to do! But you, all of you, just kept carrying along like nothing was wrong, and now look where we are!”
Fluttershy seized Rarity’s shoulders, squeezing with a strength neither of them knew she had.
“Is it finally getting through to you, you self-righteous bitch!? What else did the sun-whore need to do before you realized you were supporting a monster!? How many families did she need to destroy!? How many cities did she have to burn!? How many of her own citizens needed to get marched off in chains!? When were you gonna realize we were following a tyrant into our own destruction!?”
At that, she gave one final shove, and Rarity stumbled back, tripping over the platform. Fluttershy sat there, seeing her friend hit the ground, watching her look up in shock.
“I’m just glad your husband and son aren’t around to see what we became.” Fluttershy spat. Then she turned, starting down the path away from the gathering of rocks. At this point, she didn’t care what happened to Rarity. She could stay up there and cry about her losses until the end of time for all it mattered. Right now, she just wanted to see her Martin again.
She had just made it back to the path when the humming started in her ear.
She paused, perked that ear, turned her head towards it. At its base, there was tone and inflection. She was reminded of the football games Martin had taken her to, when they were still far off and couldn’t make out what was being said, just some muffled sounds from the loudspeakers that she could tell were voices. Except now, she could tell whose voice that was…
“Twilight…” she whispered, and she whirled around on Rarity, galloping back to her. The unicorn had taken to sitting in the middle of the circle of stones, away from the bodies, when Fluttershy galloped up. She barely looked up in acknowledgement as Fluttershy approached, apparently not having the energy to tilt her head up. “What is that!?”
Rarity wiped at her massive eyes, mascara trailing down her cheeks. “What is what?”
“That voice. What is that!?” Fluttershy gasped, an edge of desperation entering her tone.
“That? It’s just the wind through the rocks, you—”
Before she could finish that sentence, Fluttershy hoisted her off the ground, holding her by the shoulders. “Shut up and listen!” She hissed. “What is that!?”
Rarity paused finally, her head rolling to the side, and then she froze. Her eyes widened. “Twilight…”
“Oh…oh dear God…” that was it. That was the big question they’d been too wrapped up in their own shock to answer. What had happened to the deranged princess after she finished murdering everypony around them? “C-can you amplify it?”
“I-I can try…” Rarity’s horn ignited, her magic morphing and forming itself into a megaphone of its own. It was shaky: the fearful quiver in Rarity’s hooves at Twilight’s voice kept her from forming magic with her usual elegance, but both mares were too wrapped up in their own panic to notice. Finally, it formed, and the voice emanating from it was definitely Twilight’s, albeit a bit muffled.
“I-I don’t know which way to point it!” Rarity gasped, the megaphone swiveling around randomly, frantically. “Her v-voice is still too quiet to tell where its coming from!”
Her gaze sinking to the rocks, Fluttershy’s thoughts went wild, trying desperately to figure out where the madmare had gone. Where would she go at this point? What was she trying to—
It occurred to her that she knew exactly what Twilight was going to do. She’d said it herself.
“Which way…is Canterlot from here?” She asked.
Rarity turned on her, eyes widening, and then the megaphone angled itself up a purple mountain in the chain around them. Fluttershy realized she could see the top of parapets just over its summit, the castle just on the other side. A click emanated from the megaphone, and suddenly all was clear.
“…of stupid, pathetic children cowering at her hooves, trading their every thought for security under her wings…”
Rarity’s eyes widened. Fluttershy gasped.
“What is she doing?” Rarity whimpered.
“G-giving her final speech…” Fluttershy moaned.
“She couldn’t…she wouldn’t!”
“I-I would agree with you, but…” Fluttershy’s gaze traveled back to the circle of stone, back to the bodies now rotting in a neat circle around them. Rarity’s jaw dropped as the horrible realization dawned. The pair gazed at eachother with dawning horror, and that gaze was the only thing that saved their eyesight.
The initial blinding flash filled the sky, overshadowing the sun in its brilliance. A second later, a rumbling growl sounded, and the pair looked up, clinging to eachother, holding one another to have something to hold onto as the waves of heat washed over their bodies. A mushroom cloud punched up into the sky, and as if there could be any doubt of its origin, tints of feral, purple magic flashed all along its length.
“No…nononononono, no…” Rarity sobbed, in denial, of course. Fluttershy couldn’t speak. Could only watch as one mare’s insane dreams for two worlds came to their final, cataclysmic conclusion.
Some time later, the pair stumbled along the last of the path back to the dungeons. Neither said a word on their way. Neither knew what was waiting for them. They just knew it was better than standing around, waiting for the cloud of ash and dust that used to be Canterlot to dissipate.
A vague awareness settled on Fluttershy that she was still technically deep in enemy territory, but then she remembered what Twilight had said: promising she and Martin would be reunited, safe and sound. She prayed to God that it was so…and that whatever else that entailed wouldn’t be too bad.
Neither mare should have been surprised by the pile of bodies stacked like cordwood outside the dungeon: royal guards, turned into more butchered leftovers. Even with the horrors she’d seen of the war, Fluttershy couldn’t help the gasp that left her mouth. It was like something in the cheesiest, most gratuitous horror movie she’d seen before the war: the bodies simply piled up, the ground around them red with pony blood. Spears, swords, and arrows poked out, like a horrifying pincushion. She saw a single face near the bottom of the pile, jutting out between some other stallion’s hooves with a look of wide-eyed terror, a mouth pinned open by a spear that jutted out from under the chin…
She twisted herself, closing her eyes. She didn’t want to see anymore.
“Oh Celestia…” Rarity whispered, and Fluttershy could hear her breath ratcheting up, hyperventilating. “Oh…Celestia and Luna…do…do you see that one’s teeth? Why are they cracked…why are they…”
Turning fully on her, Fluttershy covered Rarity’s eyes with a hoof. “Don’t look. There’s nothing to see,” she whispered shakily. “It’s just…more.”
Rarity seemed to understand, thankfully, and turned away as they continued on into the dungeon.
Of course, it didn’t get any easier inside, as it became clear that the pile they’d found was only the guards from the front door. The walls were coated in blood, painted with it, as if Twilight had simply walked in and detonated a few magical bombs. Maybe that’s just what she did. Here, they found a hoof. There, a horn was embedded in the wall. The horror, the pain, didn’t stop, wouldn’t stop. They made their way slowly, clinging to each other like drowning mares, trying to avoid stepping on anything that had once been a pony and finding it nearly impossible.
Then, they heard the tears from somewhere down below. A mare’s sobs.
Fluttershy’s first instinct was to rush forward, but a hoof stopped her.
“What if it’s a trap?” Rarity asked.
“T-Twilight said me and Martin could be together again…”
Rarity let out a breath. “At this point, do you think we can trust anything that came out of her mouth?”
Fluttershy looked down the hall, saw a spatter of blood drip down from the ceiling, and bit her lip. Still, with shaking hooves, she stepped forward. “Martin could be down there…he’s…all that’s left.”
She stepped into the darkness. After awhile, her heart bloomed as Rarity stepped forward to join her.
“Thank you…”
Rarity said nothing, just continued onward.
They rounded a corner, and Fluttershy gasped, falling back. The sobbing came from a guardsmare who stood at attention, spear in hoof, armor rising and falling with her choked-off sobs. Fluttershy jammed a hoof in her mouth, cursing her noise. Rarity took point this time, stepping forward. “Miss?” She asked, easing her way through the halls.
The mare whirled around, helmet low on her face. “Wh-who’s there?” She gasped. “Oh Celestia…just kill me, please, end this, please…”
“We…don’t want to hurt you…” Rarity said, creeping forward as Fluttershy eased herself back onto her hooves. “We just…why are you crying?”
The mare breathed heavily, sniffling, wiping at her muzzle with her free hoof. “You’re not…you’re not her, thank Celestia,” she moaned. “She said…she said I had to stand here. I had to. You see that, right? I had to, until her friend showed up.”
It didn’t take a genius to figure out who she was talking about. Rarity crept ever closer.
“She said…I could live…” the mare looked up, and the last living Element Bearers gasped, seeing the burnt sockets where her eyes should have been. “If I stood guard…if I was a good mare…she said she wouldn’t do it to my parents too.”
“Oh…Oh Jesus God…” Fluttershy whispered.
“Celestia forgive me!” The mare wailed, dropping to her knees, clawing at the burnt skin around her sockets. “What was I supposed to do!? She said she’d do it to everypony I loved! I had to! I had to stand guard! I had to! Oh Celestia and Luna above…please forgive me…”
Despite herself, Fluttershy embraced the guard as she sobbed, her mind broken by the agony she’d been put through. She shared a look with Rarity, who shook her head for a second before suddenly twisting and puking all over the floor.
The halls beyond the gaping metal doors leading deeper underground weren’t any better. Bloody hoofprints and scorchmarks from magic spells covered every surface that wasn’t bathed in pony blood. Fluttershy kept her eyes on the ceiling, which wasn’t entirely untouched but was still a lot better than the actual puddles of blood pooling on the floor. This…this was Twilight? When had she grown so powerful? So…vicious? Was it the war? Surely, something this horrible couldn’t have existed before…
But then, time had taught her a lot of things weren’t as they seemed before the war. Celestia was the overbearing parent for them all, crushing the nation to her bosom with almost desperate ferocity. And Twilight…lonely little Twilight, who spent so many of her formative years under the wings of someone so overbearing, stifled more than an already-restrained country…what had she really learned from her friendship lessons?
Finally, she looked up, and she heard splashing from inside one of the cells.
“P-please go in there,” the mare said, now cradled in Rarity’s grasp. “Please, somepony’s in trouble! I couldn’t…couldn’t…”
“F-Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy gasped. “Martin!”
“Oh God, Sweetie! Oh God!” Martin screamed. “Th-the deadbolt! She just left the deadbolt in place!”
Rocketing up to the door, Fluttershy threw it open, dashing inside. “Martin, I—”
She cut off instantly. Martin’s emaciated, abused form didn’t surprise her this time, but she was surprised to find him free of the shackles, the skin of his wrists rubbed raw where the metal had been. On top of that, she found him kneeling in a small pool of blood, his hands around another guardsmare’s throat. The mare craned her head towards Fluttershy, her eyes blazed, and she started to say something, but as her head shifted a spurt of blood shot up between Martin’s fingers, choking her off.
“A bandage, please!” He screamed. “I already tried my shirt, but it wasn’t enough! It soaked through! The other mare said she couldn’t leave her post no matter what I said! Please! I’m losing her!”
Without thinking, Fluttershy turned, barreled out the door. She spent several panic-filled minutes searching for a first aid kit, and finally came across a guard post with one. A suspiciously-clean guard post, as if it had been avoided to offer a clear path to the kit, but she spent no time thinking about that as she galloped back to the cell, where Rarity and the sobbing mare now watched as Martin kept the pressure on the guardsmare’s throat.
Fluttershy dropped the kit beside him, moving Martin’s fingers out of the way. The moment he let go, another spurt of blood jetted up, but being a field medic Fluttershy was able to tamp it down, wrestle it back under control, and within seconds, clamp the gushing artery and bandage her up. The mare swooned, hovering on unconsciousness.
Martin fell back, breathing hard, blood soaking the tattered remnants of his pants. Fluttershy joined him, falling to his side. After a moment, his arm draped over her shoulders.
“Sweetheart…” she whispered carefully. “Do you know what happened here?”
After a moment of huffing and puffing, he shook his head. “There were explosions, some screams…then the door flew open and your old friend…the purple one…she came in, holding this one. She unlocked my shackles, then slit her throat, told me she’d die if I didn’t keep pressure on.”
She gazed down at the guardsmare, who seemed to be resting peacefully if not for the massive amount of blood caked into her coat. Then, she blinked. “Isn’t she…the captain?”
Martin paused, gazed over her. “Oh…I suppose so,” he shrugged. “You know, she broke my nose during one of my beatings down here.”
Fluttershy hitched in a breath, waited. Martin did nothing else. He didn’t go to remove the bandage, he didn’t go to slap her, he didn’t even flick her ear. He just sat there, in a small pool of blood, embracing his beloved. After awhile, she slowly turned, returning the hug, her wings curling around him as her hooves straddled his chest. She kissed him on one grime-covered cheek.
“I love you,” she whispered.
He squeezed her back. “I love you too,” he replied, the pair embracing eachother as they sat above the unconscious mare.
---20 years later---
I officially forgave Rarity after the first wave of UN forces made it to us, Fluttershy wrote, lost in her own little world as her hooves raced over the specialized pony keyboard. I’d forgiven her well before that, but saying it officially in the back of that Stryker coming off the mountain was cathartic, to say the least. We were sisters again, forced together by a shared trauma. It’s kind of hard to keep the hatchet unburied when the other pony is the only one in the whole wide world who fully grasps the true horror of that day, who also stared into the mouth of madness and saw their own death in the shape of an old friend.
She sighed, leaned back in her seat. A bit dramatic, maybe…definitely something to look at again in the second draft. Her eyes drifted upwards, to the Pulitzer on the wall, the signed copy of the letter from the UN Secretary General thanking her for her service, and most importantly of all, to the picture of herself and Martin on their wedding day: he in his tux, her in that custom-made wedding dress. She allowed herself a small smile to reminisce on the brightness and love of that day before returning to what was proving to be the most difficult task of her writing career: In the end, I suppose everything worked out. With its administrative core destroyed and most of its military hierarchy wiped out, Equestria surrendered in short--
She paused. Looked over what she wrote. Then, highlighted it all and hit the backspace.
The destruction of Canterlot precluded the end of the war. While some disorganized resistance remained, there really wasn’t an Equestria anymore, not with the loss of so much--
A tear landed on her hoof. She paused in her writing long enough to wipe it away, and hitched in a breath before highlighting everything and hitting backspace again. “Okay…” she whimpered. “No more fake niceties. It’s an autobiography, not a textbook, Fluttershy...”
She took a few moments. She breathed, got a glass of water from the kitchen, returned after a few sips. Finally, she started to write.
I still don’t know what to think of her: Twilight Sparkle. She sniffled, tried to tell herself she wasn’t crying, not after all these years, but crying anyway. I get why everypony hates her; almost as much as Celestia herself, even. She killed so many ponies that day, murdered so many innocents, so many who wouldn’t have raised a hoof against any of us. She was an absolute monster in the end...but that monster might have also saved lives, including my own.
She paused, her hooves lowering to the side, not really believing she just wrote that. She was tempted to go for the backspace again, but instead kept going.
Twilight might have shortened the war with her actions. I like to think, on some level, that’s what she was really trying to do. That under the madness and horror, there was a gentler, more logical side trying to guide the monster’s actions to something better, something that had a chance of preserving some good. The madness brought on by the death of her oldest and dearest friend could have led her to just sail around Equestria, raining hellfire down upon the heads of any random pony she came across. Instead, the madness had a strategy. By destroying Canterlot, she killed everypony responsible for keeping the war going. She decapitated Equestria before the UN’s invasion. Who knows how many would have died if the invasion had been undertaken as planned and Equestria’s military apparatus was still intact? Plus, it’s obvious she still thought of me as a friend, even in the end. That she went out of her way to help me in her own, horrible way was a testament to that. Does this excuse her actions? No, of course not. It doesn’t change the fact that she became little more than a mass-shooter, a terrorist with the power of a goddess, and she used that power to commit unspeakable crimes against ponykind.
Maybe this is all just the ramblings of an old mare who misses her friends, and is trying to view them through rose-colored glasses. I’ll be the first to admit I have my biases. But Twilight Sparkle was nothing short of a friend to me, even during that terrible day, and maybe I like to think that bit saved her soul. I like to think that part of her is waiting for me in Heaven, along with the good parts of the rest of them, and that we’ll all meet again when I pass on.
Fluttershy sipped her water with trembling hooves. That...was a bit rambling. It was gonna need a lot of editing to cut it down. But damn if it wasn’t the truth.
She hit Save and shut down the word processor. That was enough writing for now. She picked up her water and carried it with her into the hallway, past the photos of foals and children, all together, all taken in by herself and Martin over the years, all smiling together in each of them. But as soon as she passed them and was left with nothing but the trek down the hallway and her own thoughts, her smile faded, and she gazed down at the water glass, suddenly wishing for something stiffer.
Twilight Sparkle was a name almost as synonymous with atrocity as Celestia’s. While her actions hadn’t directly guided a couple of planets onto a collision course as Celestia’s had, her insane ravings and the newspaper photos showing the crater where Canterlot had once stood had come to define the end of the war. Humanity had expected a fight, and instead found a people devastated and fragmented within a single day of blood and terror.
And yet…
Sleep now, Flutters. You earned it.
She let out a long, shivering breath, suddenly wishing Martin hadn’t gone to the store right when she started writing today, suddenly wishing someone was here and that she wasn’t alone in this big house. She scoffed at herself. “All these years,” she whispered in a voice that wavered and cracked. “All these years and I still get scared if I’m left alone too long…ridiculous…”
The doorbell rang, and she gasped with what she convinced herself wasn’t relief as she dashed for it. A slightly-wrinkled visage, complete with a thin smile and perfectly-coiffed mane, greeted her. “Rarity...” Fluttershy gasped in relief, having to support herself with the doorframe.
Rarity’s eyebrows rose, but she quickly regained her composure, smiling with eyes that had lost some of their luster to the years, but still sparkled atop makeup applied with the sure hoof of an expert. “Darling, I’m quite glad to see you too! Though from your reaction, I hope I haven’t forgotten a birthday.”
For a second, Fluttershy considered lying, saying she was watching one of those soap operas Rarity was always recommending and it just got to a sad part. But she realized that wouldn’t work. They’d told enough lies, to themselves and to eachother all those years ago, no point in starting up again.
“I was writing today…” Fluttershy sniffled.
“Oh? Your autobiography?”
With a nod and a wipe at a teary eye, she took a breath. “It was about that day.”
There was a moment of silence, and then Rarity swept her up into a badly-needed hug. “I would ask if you had any wine in the house, but I don’t think my AA sponsor would approve. Especially since I just earned my ten-year token.”
“I-I have sugarcubes?”
“Perfect.”
And with that, Rarity ushered her inside, shutting the door behind them. And they would cry together in the shared tragedy that had brought them together again when it seemed nothing could. And they would laugh in sharing memories, both old and new. And they would distract each other with counting new wrinkles and spots where their coats were growing faded. And Martin would return and join in. And they would all share something that was nearly destroyed two decades earlier.