I skittered across the snow, my world a tunnel-vision of wind nearly strong enough to sweep me off my feet. For all I knew, I was fleeing straight into the storm—into nothing but unbroken night and snow—but to stop would be to…
I felt like throwing up again. What would Sombra do to me? I could still feel him, in my mind, as he had been on the deck of the Last Recluse. I wondered if that terrifying palimpsest would ever truly fade.
Still, his voice screaming behind me wasn’t right. Even with the images of hanging limbs and perfectly arranged organs, he didn’t sound any different from the stallion I had spent the last four months falling in love with. He wasn’t screaming at me in anger, he was pleading with me to please stop.
I continued to run, nearly sobbing with indignation and shame. I could see shadows ahead, and soon they formed into the familiar outline of the tents of the Crystal Ponies. The layout of the settlement was still familiar to me even in the whiteout, and soon I was upon Luna’s tent. Sombra’s urgent calling ebbed and flowed as the wind tossed it about, but it’s mere presence at least gave me solace. If he knew where I was, he wouldn’t have to call.
I burst into Luna’s small, sparsely furnished tent without ceremony, the urgent rustling enough to jolt her from her sleep immediately.
Sleep hadn’t had enough time to leave her as she focused on the intruder before her, and whatever peaceful dream she’d been having bled into sheer horror at the sight of me.
I hadn’t even considered it, but instantly I felt the full force of Luna’s terror upon me.
Here was her sister, awaking her in the dead of night, covered head to hooves in blood.
“We need to go,” I said simply.
“What did you…” Luna whispered. She was simply gawking, still in a trance, and so without thinking I snarled back.
“Follow me!” I ordered, and didn’t wait for any more objections. Back into the whiteout I led us, across the snow, to the Sisyphys waiting patiently in the distance. The storm, viscious as it was, had broken to an oasis of clarity. I knew Sombra could see us now if he looked, but I figured I had enough of a start to get the Sisyphys aloft in time regardless.
I was wrong. In a flash of light, he was before me, and I nearly screamed as I felt his telekinesis surround me.
Panic brought action, and this time I wasn’t falling to him so easily. My horn ignited, an unfocused flare of raw energy. Sombra was knocked back, a sound like glass shattering ringing out as the shockwave from my magic directed upon him tore through his own hastily constructed barrier.
The wave was great—far greater than I’d ever intended, but it had been so long since I’d tapped into my mana pool. Nonetheless, the pulse of my magic flare had dazed Sombra, but I felt my blood curdle in horror when the two Crystal Ponies beside fell like leaves onto the snow, blood spooling from their skulls.
Sombra stared, from them to me, and then when he next moved I ignited my horn again, this time with more control, sending him tumbling back once again.
I didn’t wait for him to rise again. I turned back to the Sisyphys, but Luna did not follow.
She stood, as she had in Trance, her hooves rooted in the ice and tears welling in her eyes.
“Luna!” I hissed. Truthfully, I was horrified for her, but whatever was going through her was something we could talk over in safety. All of it. I’d tell her everything. None of the sentimental truth she’d been spewing, and none of the survivalist lies I’d been hiding behind. We’d talk as the gods-damned sisters we were.
"What did you do now?" Luna spat angrily. "Huh? Now why do we have to keep running? Who did you have to kill in order to make that happen? What are you, Celestia?”
“Luna, please listen to me. I’m your sister. I’m your older sister, and you need to—”
“Stop it. You’re not any of those things,” Luna said. “You're a murderer. A monster. That's all you've done, since we first left home!”
I nearly gaped. Just where the hell was this all coming from?! Was this something Sombra had ingrained into my sister?
Or was this something she'd always thought, and been too afraid of me to say?
I was heartbroken, and Sombra was already stirring in the snow, but a strange sense of anger at Luna’s arrogance crept upon me. “You don't know what you're talking about.”
“The Roses. Willow's friend. The pirates. The Crystal Ponies. The guards in Pillory.”
“None of those ponies gave me a choice, Luna. I've been doing what I had to do to do in order to survive.”
“Well, if all you can do for Erisia is 'survive', maybe you shouldn't at all.”
"Sombra tried to... to..." Tears welled in my eyes as I looked over at him, hardly able to believe just what Sombra had tried to do to me. "Luna, the Crystal Ponies are cannibals. I saw it, and I—"
"I don’t care," Luna said simply. "Sombra already explained it all to me. He told me everything, because he knew you’d act like this if you found out. He said this would all happen, and I shouldn't listen to y—"
I didn't think, and before I had even realized my hoof had moved, I had already delivered a stinging strike to Luna's skull with the back of my hoof.
For a moment, there was silence, save for the howling wind. The storm had shifted again, and it as just Luna and I, lost in white. If Sombra had risen, he was watching, likely knowing any action would have him back where he had fallen. I wasn’t going to be taken by surprise again, Luna’s horrible look of fear aside.
“I don't know why I...” I whispered. “Luna, I'm so sor—”
“Shut up,” she said softly. She jerked her head towards the Sisyphys. “Keep running, Tia. But I’m not following you anymore.”
“Luna, you're not staying here. Believe me, please. They're animals. They'll—”
“Then order me to follow,” Luna cut in. “Threaten me or hurt me or do whatever it is you have to do to get your way, like you always do. But the next time we land, I'm running away from you. The next time you turn around and I have a good enough chance, I'm making a break for it. The only way you'll keep me close to you now is if you force me to stay.”
“Luna, don't be ridiculous! We're sisters! I don't want to force you—”
“What does that matter?” Luna replied. “When has that ever mattered? I used to think you were a good pony, but that's just because I never knew you anyways. But now I do.”
“You haven't seen Erisia like I have, Lun—”
“Oh, I don't want to hear this again. ‘I haven't seen Erisia.’ ‘There are no good ponies.’ ‘We need to take care of ourselves because nopony else will.’ You've said this so many times, because you think it makes it okay to hurt and kill whoever you please.”
"Luna, everything I've done was to keep you safe!"
"I don't feel safe!" Luna screamed back. "I'm more afraid of you than anypony else in Erisia, Celestia! You're the one I want to get away from, not Sombra!”
I opened my mouth to retort, but I couldn't think of anything to say.
So instead, I outstretched a wing to embrace Luna.
She shoved it away, backing across the snow, her eyes wide with fear like a spooked feline.
“No,” she said. "Do you know what I think?”
Sombra had risen, stepping beside Luna, still staring at me with that heartbreak in his eyes, even with blood dripping from a gash on his temple.
Luna did not look perturbed. In fact, she looked comforted by him.
Didn't she know?
Would she ever believe me, anyways?
"I think you like it. All of the senseless killing.”
“That's not true.”
“Isn't it?” Luna sneered. “'They deserve this.' Isn't that what you said to me, when the Roses died?”
“I didn't… Luna, I was—”
“You never really cared,” Luna continued. “You were sorry because I was mad at you. Not because you thought it was wrong. So… deep down, you're no better than the guards or Discord or the pirates or anypony else you think deserves to die.”
“Fine!” I didn't want to start sobbing, not when Sombra was watching, too, but my eyes had begun to water all the same. “I'm a monster! I deserve to die, too! Is that what you want me to say? But Luna… I don't want to be that. I want to change.”
“Well, I think Mom and Dad were right about you, Celestia. Discord's gotten to you like he has everypony else, and it really is too late. I never should have went with you in the first place."
"Then let's go home, Luna. Back to Cyclosa. I'll take us there, and we'll find a way to remove our wings and we'll just—"
"Stop it," Luna cut me off. Then she jerked her head towards the Sisyphys. “Stop killing and hurting and lying, and just go.”
Sombra gave a small nod.
“I can't stop you from ruining your destiny,” he said. “But I'll be damned if I'm going to let you drag her down with you.”
“We're sisters,” I said again, my voice breaking on the whispered words. “Luna… this can't all have been for nothing.”
“You wanted to get your sister to safety. You have. Whatever job you thought you had… it's over now.”
I backed up by a single step, the single step taking me miles away from Luna’s unwavering form. She looked like a mare finally defeated, and I knew that whatever I could say or do, it would never truly matter enough.
The snowstorm was still breaking, but I knew the opening was temporary. Turning my tail to Sombra and Luna, I took off towards the Sisyphys at a sprint.