//------------------------------//
// A Princess' Desperation 
// Story: Those Left Behind 
// by the7Saviors 
//------------------------------//

She was gone.


We lost Cadence.


I lost Cadence.


Whatever this thing was, it had taken my sister from me. I had fallen to my death and felt every bit of pain that came with such a thing, and that still didn't compare to the pain I felt when I saw what Cadence had become.

The pain that I still felt even now.

On top of that, it looked as though the monster had gotten to Luna while I was... distracted. It had done something to her -- shown her some terrible revelation, and it was fairly clear what that revelation had been.

How do I know?

I know because that revelation was the only thing Luna had been able to repeat over and over again. And it only further drove the point home for me each and every time I had to hear it.


They were all gone.


The Lunar Princess had been wide eyed and unresponsive since Celestia had... saved me from whatever Cadence had become. The only thing she would say in her catatonic state was that they were gone, and she said it with such absolute finality that she could've only meant one thing.

Celestia and I had confirmed that Luna had finally regained use of her magic somehow, and it had only been a guess at this point, but I surmised that Luna had entered the Realm of Dreams, and didn't like what she found.

Or rather, what she didn't find.

Through her connection, Luna could sense or locate not just ponies, but every creature capable of dreaming... and every sapient creature had the capability to dream in some fashion or another.

That gave Luna's repeated declaration a terrible weight, a burden that I wish she had kept to herself. We truly were alone on this desolate rock that used to be Equus, and out of the four of us, one of us may as well have been dead.

I'd rather she had died, if I'm being completely honest, but no... now she's just another monster -- just something else out to torment us... torment me. 

And then there was Celestia and Luna.

I... I think I hate them both.

I didn't want to admit it to myself at first, in fact I completely rejected the very notion. Now though -- in this isolated cave in some mountains near the Badlands -- I had nothing to do but ruminate on everything that had happened to me up until this point.

All I could do was lie listlessly in my little dark corner while Celestia tried to look after her broken sister. She didn't even look all that surprised at what had happened.

She just had that same, resigned look that she had been wearing since we found her in Ponyville. She had forgone the blissful ignorance she had shown before, but her lay-down-and-die attitude still remained. I couldn't help but resent her for it, even though I couldn't really blame her anymore.

If Luna meant what I thought she meant, then we had nothing to fight for -- no better tomorrow waiting for us once this was all over. The problem was that for so many years, Celestia had been almost everything to me.

She wasn't just my mentor, she was my idol, my pillar of strength when I felt weak and incompetent, my second mother... and maybe even something more.

But like everything else, that was all gone now.

Now she was just a crippled husk of the Princess she used to be, completely ready to accept her fate at the hooves of whatever was hunting us. She was willing to turn her back on everything, and I had begun to hate her for it without even realizing it.

She was supposed to be stronger than this, yet she broke so easily. If even Princess Celestia, ruler of all Equestria for countless millennia couldn't stay strong in the face of this nightmare, then what chance did somepony like me have?

I wasn't strong like I thought Celestia was.

My friends were what kept me strong, but they were gone too... right along with the one I had realized only too late was the son I never had. Whatever hope Celestia and I had for anything getting better was completely gone now.

But then if that was the case, why did she save me and Luna?

I had spent I don't know how long trying to figure that out. I thought about asking her, but I just... couldn't for some reason. I don't think I wanted to talk to her at all.

And if Luna had been coherent enough to understand me, I honestly don't know what I would've done to the mare. Back when I thought I had the power to finally end this once and for all, I didn't blame her for what she did, but now...

Now I had lost my sister to the monster.

It had wanted me to use all that power so it could steal it away from me. Even now, my listlessness was in big part due to the severe lack of magic in my body at the moment. 

Now I blamed Luna for all of it.

She had goaded me into using ambient Magic, and in doing so, she had played right into that monsters hooves. She had caused me to lose my magic and any hope of defeating that monster, she had caused me to experience what it was like to die, and it was because Cadence had thought I was dead that she turned into... that.

...No.

It wasn't Luna's fault... not really. She had wanted to kill this thing, same as I did, but was powerless to do anything about it. I was the one with all the power. I was the one who had any chance of doing something about all of this, it was me who had decided to actually use the power.

It was unfair of me to blame Luna... but I still did. 

She had been unwittingly trying to set me up for a trap that would've ended up causing the same result had I listened to her earlier and used the power when she first told me to do so.

No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't shake my resentment of either Celestia or Luna. It was most likely because of this that I hadn't even bothered to thank Celestia for saving me or try to find out if Luna was okay.

I knew I should've, and I probably would at some point knowing me, but right now I just couldn't.

And so I laid there in the corner, staring at Celestia and Luna on the opposite end of the cave without really seeing them. I was far too caught up in my own thoughts to notice or care what Celestia was doing.

It wasn't until I heard my name that I finally snapped out of my melancholic reverie. With a bitter frown, I refocused my attention on the white alicorn looking around for me.

"What do you want, Celestia?"

The mare winced at my tone, but sighed, turned to face my general direction, and pressed on nevertheless.

"I... if it means anything, I'm sorry, Twilight," she began morosely, "I'm sorry about... how I've been acting. With everything that's happened..." she turned away from me and her expression became pained, "with whatever happened to Cadence--"

"Stop. Just... don't, Celestia," I interjected, my voice trembling with emotion. I turned to face the wall before speaking again, "I don't want to talk about it, and you don't need to apologize. You were right after all, there's no point in fighting back against whatever that thing is."

I sniffed and wiped away some stray tears that had made it to my eyes.

"Better to just prostrate ourselves before the monster that killed our world and submit to our fate, right?"

"Twilight, I--"

"No!" I cried angrily, whipping back around to face the mare, "it's over, Celestia! There's literally nothing left for us to do! So what if we can't truly die? What does that even matter? After what that monster did to Cadence, she may as well be dead!"

"Twilight--"

"You may be blind now, but I know you heard Luna the same as I did, they're all gone! Everypony... everything is gone, and yet you..." I sniffed again, and this time I didn't bother to stop the tears from falling, "you still saved me and Luna..."

Celestia said nothing as she stared at me with sorrow in her cloudy, grey, unseeing eyes.

"Why?" I asked in a quiet, broken voice, "why did you save us? Why even bother? There's nothing left for any of us, using ambient Magic only made things worse like I knew it would, Cadence is a monster, you're crippled, I'm powerless, and Luna..."

I turned to the midnight blue alicorn who hadn't moved from where she lay. Her eyes were still wide, unfocused, and streamed constant tears. She continued to quietly mumble the same thing to herself over and over again, visibly shuddering and whimpering every so often.

Unable to bear the sight any longer, I turned away and stared at my hooves before addressing Celestia once more.

"Luna can't help us either," I looked up at Celestia with a lost and dismal expression, "so why did you even bother to save any of us? It's not like you have any hope left, so why?"

"Because somepony needs to live, Twilight."

I blinked and opened my mouth to respond, only to find out I didn't know what to say. Celestia continued on regardless.

"I don't care what that demon does to me, but as long as at least you and Luna make it out of this, that's all I need," Celestia sat on her haunches and smiled warmly at me, "your family, your friends, my subjects, and our once beautiful world might be gone now, but as long as somepony remains, that demon hasn't won."

My eyes widened at Celestia's words.

"You... you still think there's a chance?"

My rising hope crashed right back down as Celestia slowly shook her head.

"It's not about there being a 'chance', Twilight," Celestia replied, her smile dropping into a frown as she looked off in a random direction, "it's about spite more than anything. Even if we manage to put an end to this thing, there's nothing waiting for us at the end of the battle."

"But... but then why?" I asked in bewilderment, "if there's nothing left then why would you--"

"I may have accepted my fate, but that doesn't mean I don't want revenge of my own for everything this demon has done to us," Celestia looked back to me with a hard glare, "at the very least, I want you and Luna to survive long enough to see the end of this monstrosity."

She went quiet and turned to her sister. I couldn't see her expression then, but when she turned back to me, her face was set in a resigned frown, "we can't physically die, and I'm fairly sure the monster knows this... so the next time it comes for us, it may try to do to us what it did to Cadence instead."

She trotted closer and reached out a hoof, presumably to rest it on my shoulder reassuringly, but she couldn't quite get it. After a moment of hesitation, I reached out and grabbed her hoof, placing it in my own.

She smiled gratefully, but her smile didn't last and her frown returned as she spoke again.

"I... Twilight, more than anything I at least want you to survive, even if... even if Luna and I don't," she pulled away and stepped back, "Luna and I aren't in any condition to do anything, but you will be once you get your strength back."

My ears perked up at the sudden shift in Celestia's tone. Looking at her I could see several different emotions in her expression -- resignation, fear, worry, and... guilt? 

"Celestia?" I asked, trying and failing to rise to my hooves, "what are you talking about? What can I do?"

"Twilight, I... I didn't want it to come to this, and I hate that I have to send you alone--"

"Send me alone?" I asked in bewilderment, "send me where? To do what?" I shook my head and took a step back, "what are you planning Celestia?"

Celestia sighed and, despite her lack of sight, somehow managed to look me straight in the eye as she explained.

"You -- and you alone -- need to make your way to Tartarus."

I gaped at the Solar Princess.

"I know how utterly insane that sounds, but--"

"Of course it's insane!" I cried, "you expect me to travel all the way to Tartarus on my own? When that... that monster is out there waiting for us?"

"Twilight, listen--"

"No, you listen, Celestia! I don't know why in all of Equus you'd want me to go to that infernal pit, but if you seriously think I'm going to even come close to--"

"WE DON'T HAVE ANY OTHER OPTIONS, TWILIGHT!"

My jaw snapped shut and my ears laid flat against my skull at the sound of Celestia's Royal Canterlot Voice. I backed up another step and my eyes widened at the sight of Celestia's anguished expression.

"I wouldn't be doing this if there was any other way, and I would go in your stead if I could," Celestia continued in a quieter, but no less strained voice, "but I... Luna and I both would only slow you down at this point. You have to go without us."

"But what if that thing comes for you both while I'm gone?" I asked, a hint of desperation in my voice, "and why do I even have to go? What's in Tartarus that could possibly help me? Help us?"

"I do not know the state Tartarus is in right now, but it is a Realm set apart from Equus to some degree," Celestia explained, "so there may still be a chance that something yet lived through the destruction. You alone must travel to the deepest pit of Tartarus and retrieve the power locked away there."

"Power?" I asked, my brows furrowing in bemusement, "what power? What's down there?"

"I... cannot say," Celestia replied, looking away with a guilty expression, "but trust me when I say that once you obtain that power, that demon will not be able to stand in your way."

"There was something like that hidden in Tartarus?" I muttered to myself before glaring at Celestia, "and you didn't say anything? We could've ended this already! That would've spared us all this pain! Cadence..." 

My anger petered out and I hung my head as I thought about my sister-in-law.

"There was a reason I didn't mention this until now, Twilight."

I looked back to Celestia, my glare returning in full force.

"Why, Celestia?" I practically sneered, "what possible reason could you have for keeping the one thing that could've saved my sister a secret?"

Celestia returned my glare with a grave frown.

"The power that resides within the deepest, darkest depths of Tartarus is a cursed thing, Twilight," Celestia intoned, "if you're not prepared to wield it, you may end up just as much a monster as Cadence or the thing that destroyed our world."

I sank to my haunches and stared open mouthed at the Solar Princess. Just like that, all my anger blew away like so much ash in the wind, dread rising up in its place.

She was asking me to possibly become a monster so that I could fight a monster. I didn't know what to think about this, but I could see why Celestia had held back the knowledge until now.

I wondered if I should really go along with this -- wondered what I would lose, wondered what I would gain. But most of all, I wondered if it would really be worth it in the end. It didn't take me very long to answer that question, and I gave Celestia her decision, a look of grim determination crossing my face.


"If it means I can finally kill this thing for what it's done to all of us, I'll do it, Celestia."