“... what did you say?” Thundralot whispered, her eyes wide open. The doctor lowered his head in dismay before she forced him to look at her. “Tell me again! What. Did. You. Say!”
The doctor sighed as a tear dripped down his face. “Her entire body is failing her. Her organs are rotting, blood is disappearing, even her nerves are shutting down. Eventually, the dark magic will finish her heart or her brain. We’ve slowed it down using modified blood clotting spells and rejuvenation potions, but in three days or less the Princess is going to die. I’m sorry.”
He fell to his stomach and began to weep openly. “I’m so... so sorry...”
Nopony else said anything as the stallion continued to weep, not even Twilight who felt her entire mind shut down from this revelation. Princess Celestia, who she had known all her life, was going to die three days after her sister’s banishment? No, that’s impossible! She lives! She lives! Twilight thought, shaking her head. She closed her eyes and tried to think of the possibilities of what she was witnessing and how this was going to possibly playout.
One: They found something to stop the rotting of the body and Princess Celestia lived.
Two: They used something to delay it until recently in Twilight’s time.
Three: The doctor was lying.
Four: Someone changed the past just as she used the potion and she was now in an alternate timeline again. When she woke up, everything would be different except for her and she would go on some crazy adventure to fix everything.
Granted, that last one seemed quite impossible, but so was the fact that her mentor could be dead in the past but alive in the future. The only other explanation was necromancy, the art of raising the dead, but all tombs, scrolls, books, and more containing that knowledge had been destroyed two thousand years ago. Ever since Grogar the Cruel nearly destroyed the world with his abilities, every nation and race burned any hint of the knowledge of necromancy and put to death anyone who learned even a slight of it. Even Equestrian Law, which had no death penalty for normally any crime, stated that learning such evil magic was the only thing punishable by death.
Yet would we be desperate enough to do it? Thought Twilight.
“You said she will wake up soon?” Nightwish asked, doing his best to keep himself steady, but his wobbling hooves said otherwise.
“In an hour or so,” the doctor replied, getting up and clearing his throat. “We... we’ll let you know when she is ready.”
“Very well, but this is not to be spoken of by anypony,” Nightwish ordered, narrowing his eyes. “If even so much of a whisper of this is released I will have everypony in this room executed by my authority as Archmage.”
The two senior ranked ponies nodded to each other before slowly making their way through the doors where the hospital wing had calmed down from its earlier chaos. While the bodies of the dead still lingered, those who were wounded had been stabilized yet had a limb or two missing. Twilight, too occupied with her thoughts, continued to follow the two out of the room until they were out of the hall. Quickly, they made for another door and entered what looked to be a large closet filled with cleaning supplies. Nightwish than used a warding spell to seal the door in grey colored magic with a silencing rune on it.
“This is the end of Equestria,” Nightwish sighed as he sat down, looking down at his hooves in anger.
“You can’t just say that! We survived without the Princesses before!” Thundralot stated, stomping her hoof. “We just need to rebuild the council, establish the army, and-”
“Thundralot, do you not realize what has just happened?” Nightwish stated before he stood up and glared at her. “One of our Princesses has betrayed us and could be dead while the other one, who was betrayed, is going to die as well. Two ponies who the entire country has loved, adored, and even worshiped as if they were living gods will be no more. They have stood before us and guided us greater than any leader either of our three races have ever known for generations. How will the public react when they learn of what has happened?”
Twilight knew. She had seen first hand what chaos comes when both Princesses are missing or captured. It happened during the chaos vine incident and when Tirek had banished them to Tartarus. After each incident was over she learned of the riots, deaths, chaos, and panic that occured in every city and town. The only reason things hadn’t fallen into utter despair was because she and Cadence were still there.
It had been one of the most trialing times of her life.
“The reason we agreed to have the Princesses rule us is because they share all three traits of our kind. Earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn. The council worked at first, but it eventually started to form political parties, racial lines, and selfish politicians who were only in it for themselves. We have something very few nations will ever attain. Benevolent ageless monarchs who put their people first and themselves second. If that’s not the closest to having a living god to rule and protect you, I don’t know what is,” Nightwish said, shaking his head. “If they were to be removed, we would have to reform the council again which could take years to do. Meanwhile, other nations we’ve managed to hold off like the Griffins, Dragons, and Diamond Dogs could attack us at any moment. Princess Luna was one of the greatest military generals we had, but she’s gone as well from what I can assume. We also would have to sacrifice unicorns again and again every day and night which will cause the unicorn race to revolt or demand more for their greater contributions just like before.
They will demand more power and privilege for their sacrifice which will lead the other two races to argue and then we’d divide again just like before the Great Endless Winter! There would be conflicts, starvations, abandonment, anarchy! Our nation would collapse in less then ten to twenty years by my estimation!”
Thundralot just stare at the panting Nightwish. “T-then why haven’t we prepared for something like this?”
“I don’t know, I guess we were all too arrogant to assume that it would be this way forever,” Nightwish confessed as he shook his head. “If there was another alicorn this could be avoided, but I don’t know how one is made.”
“What about the Pillars?! Surely if we found them-”
“It’s been years since they disappeared and both Princesses declared the six of them dead since they went to stop the Pony of Shadows. Besides, two of them were elderly and would have died of old age by now.”
“Then... then what do we do?” Thundralot asked, her tone reminding Twilight of her friend Fluttershy in her lowest of moments.
Nightwish sighed and nuzzled his friend to help calm her down. “We talk to Princess Celestia... and pray she has a solution.”
****
The waiting for Princess Celestia to awaken was mind numbing. Both Thundralot and Nightwish waited in silence while Twilight continued to think on what she had learned; as well as the possibility of how in the holy name of Harmony was this possible?!
“Princess Celestia can’t die in the past,” Twilight said to herself as she paced down and forth. “It’s impossible. Even Luna isn’t dead, merely banished. I need to think of all the possible outcomes. Think, Twilight, just breathe and think!”
First, she had to look at the problem: Princess Celestia was dying. However, unlike in her time, she knew the reason was because of a dark magic spell from Nightmare Moon. A spell that she had neither heard nor seen before, despite having studied dark magic after the Sombra incident in an attempt to better understand it. She even used it once or twice in desperation, but made sure to not let it consume her. Did Princess Luna know of this all along? She said she didn’t remember everything as Nightmare Moon, but... could that have been a lie?
Did Luna know the reason why Princess Celestia died in her time? If they did manage to find a temporary cure, did Celestia tell Luna or did Luna figure it out on her own? Or was she just ignorant as much as Twilight was. She didn’t want to think that Luna knew she had killed her own sister a thousand years ago and neglected to tell her this during the nationwide search to cure Princess Celestia in present time. No, I refuse to believe it, Twilight shook her head to bid away all doubts. Luna was all but half-dead during the funeral. She mourned her sister like she mourned a part of herself. I refuse to think that Luna is that good of an actor to fake tears for her sister’s death, not when she loved her so much.
She pushed aside the dark idea of regicide to focus on another possible outcome. What if Princess Celestia knew what had hit her, and would tell the others once she woke how to cure her? That’s the most optimistic, but even Celestia didn’t know much about dark magic. That was Luna’s expertice, Twilight thought, wondering if her focus on such corrupting magic helped turn her evil.
Starswirl could know, but he was still trapped with the other Pillars by this point and believed dead. The other races weren’t close to Equestria at this point, so asking aid was out of the question. The Crystal Empire, with its vast magic and knowledge, was still under Sombra’s curse and wouldn’t return for another thousand years. A changeling couldn’t have taken Celestia’s place because when a changeling dies in a transformed state it returned to its original form. And the Celestia of her time was very much dead and unchanged.
Doctor Whooves, the time traveling pony in a blue box, couldn’t have save the day because he never went this far in Equestria’s past according to him and Derpy. Even he couldn’t save future Princess Celestia, stating this was a fixed event and he couldn’t change the timeline. Twilight asked him if he knew she would die all this time and he answered yes, causing her to blast him with magic in anger and refuse to speak to the Time Pony ever again.
Needless to say, Derpy skipped her house when doing her mail delivers soon after.
The more and more Twilight thought about the possibilities of how Celestia survived, the more insane they got. She left nothing out of her realm of theories from time travel, to aliens, to even the gods themselves deciding to let Celestia live. Twilight wouldn’t even be surprised if that savior back in Sunset Shimmer’s home visited Equestria and saved her like he did for others in that Bible book.
Because there was no way, in any shape or form, that Celestia could die in the past and live in the future.
“She’s ready...”
Twilight was knocked out of her thoughts when the doctor from before alerted Thundralot and Nightwish that the princess was awake. Putting her theories to rest for now, she followed the others to hopefully learn the truth behind this entire mystery.
***
The Princess had been moved to her quarters, or what remained of them anyway, where she had been staring at the wall with eyes that held both sorrow and regret. Neither Thundralot or Nightwish said anything first when they saw their ruler laying down in her bed. They kept their eyes on the blackish veins that were spreading across her body with the origin coming from the darkening wound on her chest. If the Princess was in any pain she didn’t show it save for the glace in her eyes, but both suspected this was more directed towards something else besides the wound. Twilight, for the life of her, had never seen the Princess look so distraught even at worst of times. Not when all of the magic in Equestria was nearly taken. Not when Twilight stood on the verge of death after Cozy Glow and Tirek’s near victory four years ago in her time. Not even when Cadence suffered a miscarriage with her second child.
It looked like she had all but given up on life.
“Princess Celestia...” Nightwish finally said, breaking the silence. “I’m glad that-”
“How many are dead?” Princess Celestia asked, her tone void of emotion.
The two ponies in front of her looked at each other before Nightwish sighed, “I’m afraid we’ve lost over half the staff from injuries and death. A good number of them betrayed us at your sister’s coup attempt. We’ve had to execute a few of them just to make sure the others are kept in line.” Nightwish bit his lip but continued forward. “Because of your... condition... we had to activate the backup unicorns. A total number of fifty are dead.”
Thundralot stepped forward and asked, “Princess, what the hay happened? Why did Princess Luna do this? Why did she try to kill you and take over Equestria?! Where is she now?! Is she dead?”
“No, Luna isn’t dead...” Celestia answered as she slowly sat up before closing her eyes. “You saw the figure in the moon that night, correct?” Her ponies nodded. “That is where my sister is. I used the Elements of Harmony to banish her to the moon.”
“Is... is that even possible? Can you even survive on the moon?” Nightwish asked, eyes widened.
“The Elements themselves told me. She will live, but she will be imprisoned for a thousand years. When the thousandth year of this very day comes she will be free once more as Nightmare Moon,” Princess Celestia answered, tears coming down her eyes. “This... all of this... is my fault.”
“Princess, I fail to see how any of this is your fault when Princess Luna decided to betray you,” Nightwish answered.
Celestia looked into his eyes and shook her head. “Because I did not see the pain she was suffering from the ignorance of both myself and our ponies.” The others looked confused before Celestia continued, “I should start from the beginning. Of when this happened all those years ago near the end of our attempts to free the Crystal Empire from the Dark King Sombra. As you know, we took our armies to fight against the Dark King who stood strong, even despite our power, for many months. That was until we finally caught a break near the Cliffs of Diamondshale. Luna lead her forces there for a pincer attack, but she was caught off guard by what lay before her.”
Thundralot held her hoof up, “Wait a minute, wasn’t this the battle that caused mass casualties of civilians?” This made Twilight gasp and turn to Thundralot. She had never heard of such a thing in her books. “Thousands of innocents died, but Princess Luna managed to win a great victory that day, didn’t she?”
“That is both true, and not true,” Princess Celestia sighed, lowering her head. “Sombra was desperate for a win, so he created an armor that allowed him to brainwash non-combatant ponies when he’d started running out of troops. They were under his total command; mares and stallions, young and old... some of which were even the age of fillies and colts.” This made all three ponies drop their jaws. “All of them would fight and die in his name so he would preserve his empire. Truely, there was no sicker sight.” Celestia closed her eyes and rubbed her head. “The brainwashed Sombra soldiers tried to ambush them on both sides, but my sister knew that this was the only chance to save the war campaign so she ordered her soldiers to fight on. They were forced to kill them all, by the time we learned what had happened to them, rumors began to spread and Luna was accused of killing innocent civilians which soon spread back home. I figured such rumors would disappear over time as I was more focused on ending the war.”
Taking a deep breath, Celestia continued, “When we returned home in failure, the rumors didn’t stop. I suggested that Luna make less appearances until the whole thing died down and she decided to focus on restoring our military strength while protecting our borders from raiders and monsters. I focused on rebuilding the spirit of our country, but this would result me in becoming... very popular.”
“Why do you say that this is a bad thing? You are wise, kind, and a great ruler,” Thundralot stated.
“But my sister and I were to rule as equals, not one to favor the other,” Celestia replied. “There is a reason why neither of us took the title of ‘queen’. We agree to rule side by side, equally sharing power, but in the years my sister was away I grew to gain more power and... to my shame I found myself liking the attention.” Twilight sat down next to her weeping mentor who looked at her hooves as if they were stained with blood. “I loved the attention, the cheers, the smiles my ponies saw of me day and night. I became lost to it, and when my sister returned she saw me adored while she was ignored, feared, and even hated.”
“Surely, you can’t be serious! Princess Luna was just as-”
“When is her birthday?”
There was silence between the two as they looked at each other, tried to open their mouths, but froze in silence. Twilight could guess why: they didn’t know.
“Do you remember the Winter Solstice Celebration? Once called the greatest evening ball of the land? Or Night of Spirits in which my sister would lead the nightly prayers to the spirits of our deceased in the afterlife? Or the Dusking of Desire Dreams where ponies would write to Luna every year for a special dream to have for one special night?” Celestia asked and received no answers in return. “Few came to those days with less and less each year. Even I focused on the more added holidays ponies added in my name or during my day while she was ignored more and more. I could have done something...I should have done something!” The shout made all three jump back while those with wings flapping in panic. “Yet, I was blind to my sister’s pain. I told her to just try working harder. Yet even I didn’t see just how much pain she was in... and how Nightmare Moon came to be.”
“Who... who is this Nightmare Moon?” Nightwish asked, scratching his head. “Is she really Princess Luna? A spirit? Or something more?”
“I suspect it is the darker side of my sister’s mind and soul,” Celestia answered. “Alicorn magic is very powerful, but it requires the right mental and spiritual balance to maintain it. Should we slowly lose ourselves to our emotions and fall into darkness we lose control and become... something horrible.”
“So because everypony ignored and even feared Princess Luna, she became a manifestation of their visions of her,” Thundralot reasoned.
“I believe so. Her desire to have an eternal night most likely comes from the fact that her celebrations and nightly duties were not as loved as my day ones,” Princess Celestia theorized wincing as she pressed her hoof against her pulsing wound. “Her anger and hatred for me, for all, was so much... that it seems she was determined to kill me... and has succeeded.”
“... so you know?” Nightwish whispered, lowering his head. “Is there anyway to save you? Equestria will fall with both you and Princess Luna gone.”
Twilight held her breath, hoping to hear the words that her mentor indeed had a way to save herself. Yet to her shock, and horror, Celestia shook her head. “No... I fear that...I am going to d-die soon.”
“Then... all is lost...” Thundralot whispered, closing her eyes as a few tears came down. “Princess, I’m sorry. I failed to protect you... I wish it was me that was dying not you.”
“Thundralot,” Celestia whispered, drawing her closer for a hug. She rested her head on the smaller mare’s mane and nuzzled. “This is my fault. In some ways, I accept this as my punishment. I helped bring this disaster to my family and my ponies.”
“I disagree, but it is pointless now,” Nightwish sighed, shaking his head. “What shall we do to...prepare for your passing? Equestria will need some way to survive without you to lead it.”
Princess Celestia was silent before she slowly closed her eyes. “... No, Nightwish. I will lead Equestria, even in death.” This made everypony’s eyes focused on her. “In the forbidden section, there is a book on the top right shelf of section ‘s’ called Simulacrum. Bring it here.”
Nightwish nodded and left leaving a confused Thundralot and Twilight with the purple alicorn trying to remember if she had ever heard of such a book before. Not ten minutes later did Nightwish return with a black book with a strange white symbol on it. “Princess? What is this book?”
Princess Celestia looked at it for a long time before taking a deep breath. “It is one of the most forbidden alchemy books in the entire world. Created by none-other then Grogar the Cruel.” The shocked looks at her subjects, and Twilight, all but caused her to look down in guilt. “If any other nation, be it ally or enemy, knew we had this book they would come to war with us in a second.”
“How could you keep such a book of necromancers hidden from us all?! This is the type of magic that nearly destroyed the world!” Nightwish shouted in anger.
“This is not a book of necromancy... not fully at least,” Celestia answered, shaking her head. “It is a book on alchemy... specifically, the forbidden alchemy of creating a perfect clone of a living being.”