In her cage, Celestia thought about domains.
She was white, and her sister a dusky blue. Obviously this meant she was Light and her sister was Dark. Day and Night. That she was warm and empathic and her sister was cold and aloof.
Nothing could have been further from the truth.
She thought back to their foalhood. As far ad memory-palaces went, Celestia's was a vast and echoing manor of many rooms. Some corridors lay dark and dusty, others had channels cut over the long years from daily repetition. She thought of parents she could no longer clearly remember. She remembered the great freeze and the abandonment of their ancestral home.
Of the things she remembered the most, she remembered hunger and cold. Clouds that she could not break. Plants that refused her sister's entreaties. She remembered…
Celestia stood on the balcony. Her symbols of office lay upon the ground before her. She breathed in the clean, cold air of Canterlot. She breathed out the dust of unspent years.
There had been no singing tonight. She had merely raised the Moon and left it to its own devices.
The Mare faded, just as she had seen it would. She turned to greet her sister. But, no. Not her sister. The twisted thing she had become.
Tired, aching frame tilted head and prepared to do the needful.
The other glared at her. Set a hoof beneath her chin. Forced her to meet eyes she hadn't seen in ten centuries.
Celestia closed her eyes. In the eyes of the other she had seen the hatred and rage of Nightmare Moon. The deep, yawning sorrow of the forgotten Princess Luna.
The terrified, starving foal Midnight Moon.
“Please. Don't hurt my ponies.”
Nightmare's eyes narrowed. There was no need for words, she was simply passing judgment upon a wretch who had avoided it for a millenium. Chains lashed the emaciated white form before her. With a blink, she was gone.
Magnetic currents stirred her wings. Small wisps, creatures of pure joy, scorched her with their well-meaning contacts. She deserved every ounce of it.
She had turned her sister into a monster. Because of Nightmare Moon, nopony remembered the cold brutality of the Unconquered Sun.
Her wings flared, and she allowed the currents to lift her. Tongues of the purest fire in the universe lapped at her, cleansed her of her long sins. Her hooves met something that might well have been steel, and she was thrown back. As she floated in a sea of plasma, she dreamed.
Princess Luna was the patron of the mad and artistic. Her ponies were the dreamers, the believers, those who looked upon the night with wonder. She guarded the gates of Dream, and many ponies’ happiest moments were spent in her embrace. She was the healer, the lover.
Celestia brought forth the Sun. Any who thought this meant she was warm had never left their fertile valley. They didn't know of the brutal fury of the desert, or the uncaring indifference of the tundra.
Her ponies were the fierce. Those for whom the Fire of life burned brightly. Her hoof was seen in the warlike, the violent. She was the mother of the harsh truth. Her domain was the gates of Death.
Ponies remembered Celestia the Kind. Scholars might recall the War Princess, the Unconquered Sun.
Only one remembered the filly who had lifted the sun through sheer fury where seven unicorns could barely lend horn to the same task.
She regained her strength and flew upward for another assault on the barrier. She felt it in her heart, like a knife. The solar winds bore her aloft, as she examined what she had felt.
Somewhere, a phoenix had blazed herself out.
Twilight's blood ran cold at the shout. She turned, stared into the raging ball of flame that the Town Hall had become. Nothing could have survived that fury. A soft pink hoof rested on her shoulder and muttered something about a library. She couldn't move.
The soundless cacophany washed over them. Windows trembled and shattered. The cobbles of the square ran liquid. And then it was over, and the false dawn was gone. She charged into the inferno, shrugging off her friends. Of what consequence would a little heat be to someone so cold?
She returned, trudging. She shook off a layer of ash and revealed unscorched coat. Her friends gasped, and she couldn't meet Spike's eyes. Curled in one foreleg, held against her chest, she held something that glowed like the setting sun.
Rarity gently unfolded her foreleg, and leaned against her. Helped her hold the broken shards of a pony together. In one second, the Nightmare had been eradicated but Twilight's personal nightmare came true.
“Darling, while I appreciate a nice gemstone as much as the next mare that was simply foolish.”
Twilight held it out for inspection. A star sapphire, perfectly faceted. The light within ebbed and glowed. Spike curled his talons around it and tugged gently. It was a gemstone, but not. Rarity gasped as she realized what it was. Applejack pressed her Stetson to her breast.
A gemstone but something much more important. Something which by rights should be attached to something not quite bone, and never seen outside a pony. Something precious and indestructible.
In her hoof, Twilight held the life of her mother.
“There's nothing else left. No ashes.”
The grieving party made their way back to the library. As good a place as any. They set Twilight down and someone gave her a cup filled to the brim. She sipped at the peppered liquor, watching Spike as he built a blaze in the hearth.
A claw pressed, nestled the star sapphire into the midst of the flames. She watched out the window as a haze collected and lanced off towards the forest. Nightmare had survived that most final assault.
A tome was pressed between her hooves. She glanced up into the smiling face of Pinkie Pie. She took a deep breath and tore another page from Celestia's playbook. She marshalled her thoughts and schooled her expression to a carefully blank mask as she began to read.
“There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. It is said, the last known location of the five elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is located in what is now the Everfree Forest.”
She closed the book and set it aside. She gathered Sunset's jacket around herself and breathed in her scent. She let out a soft breath and downed the rest of the cup. It burned, but that was okay. The warmth spread through her bones.
Twilight called upon the heat that burned in her breast. She begged herself for the resolve to do what must be done. She rose and shuffled towards the door. Five mares followed in her wake.
The journey to the edge of the town was met with total silence. She paused at the edge of the Forest, and thought about the mission ahead. She gently pulled Pinkie back and turned to face the other five.
“I appreciate the offer of help, but I'd like to do this on my own.”
Applejack simply chuckled. “No can do. We're not lettin’ any friend of ours face that spooky forest on her lonesome.”
She was stunned. She barely registered a chirpy voice calling and asking if she was coming. She turned and followed the others into the midst of the forest.
You will pay, Nightmare.
They traveled, ears twitching at every noise. There was a clear path, a trail through the darkness. She cleared her throat and her voice rose, shaking.
“So, none of you have been in here before?”
Five heads shook almost in unison. Rarity gagged at the very thought.
“Heavens no! Look at all this… muck and rot. Simply dreadful.”
Applejack mused. “And it ain't natural. Folks say it don't work the same as Equestria.”
Twilight raised a brow. “What's that supposed to mean?”
Rainbow chuckled darkly from her place somewhere over their heads.
“Nopony knows. You know why? 'cause everypony who's ever come in has never come out!”
They paused at the edge of a ravine. Twilight pawed the ground nervously, and glanced along. None of them noticed the darkness seeping into the ground.
“Maybe we should find another way down. I'm not looking forward to trying to scrabble down all this mess.”
She took a step back, and the earth shuddered beneath her. The narrow spit of land they stood upon crashed down, and they slid towards the edge. She only just barely managed to catch herself on the edge, and Applejack filled her world as she released whatever grip she'd caught and slid towards her.
Strong forelegs caught her own and held her up, as her hindlegs cycled and tried to find purchase.
“Applejack! What do I do?”
She stared into green eyes, and watched as she glanced around. Eyes closed.
“Let go, Twilight.”
Twilight struggled anew, kicking off pebbles as she tried to get back up. “Are you crazy!?”
Applejack shook her head a little bit. “No Ah ain't. Let go an’ push with everything ya got in you.”
Her face split in a broad grin. “What Ah'm tellin ya is the honest truth. Let go and y'all will be safe.”
Twilight closed her eyes as tightly as she could. She could trust Applejack, couldn't she? She mustered all the courage she could, and kicked off from the wall.
She shrieked in terror for about half a second before forelegs caught her. She opened her eyes to the smiling faces of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash gently setting her on the ground.
The smoke vibrated with barely contained fury and rushed on ahead of the party. If a deadfall couldn't kill them, one of the many Everfree predators would be up for the task.