Celestia woke up in the astral plane.
Her astral plane. Not the Queen’s.
Why was she here? Was she dreaming?
“Oh, you definitely aren’t dreaming,” her voice came to her. She didn’t even have to think to know that it was the Queen.
“What game are you playing?”
“Several,” the Queen said, materializing inches from Celestia’s face. “You, your sister, my sister, the Elements, Daylight, the nation, the neighboring nation, the Sweeties…”
Celestia scowled, finding it more than a little irksome that her counterpart was slightly taller than her. “Let me rephrase the question. What is your game? Why?”
“The million bit question,” the Queen said, beginning to circle Celestia. “Why am I doing this? Everything about me appears to be a contradiction, does it not? I have a smile on my face and know my subjects deeply, and yet I berate them endlessly, twisting them into eternally loving me. I have all the power in the universe to lay waste to my enemies, and yet I don’t, instead drawing out conflicts and making deliberate ‘mistakes’. I kill, maim, and destroy, leaving just the right number alive so the Underground will never fully collapse. I scorch the earth far more than I need to, but I don’t flash burn everything. I could crush the Griffons or the dragons, but I let them stick around, and even let your precious student use my sun to secure a victory.” She teleported next to Celestia’s ear. “I wonder, what am I doing?”
“If I didn’t know better I would say you are insane.”
“How can I not be?”
“I may not know you, but I know myself. And I have seen the traits of madness in others.” Celestia’s expression darkened. “You merely want to appear mad.”
“And why would that be?”
“Because it amuses you.”
“Reading me like a book, I see. Maybe you can answer your own question.” She hissed in Celestia’s ear. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” Celestia admitted. “I have several ideas.”
“The crystal Sweetie thinks I want to lose. Is that one of them?”
“...No.”
The Queen chuckled—a noise that was far too innocent for her. “Hadn’t even thought of it? Then you haven’t really dug out the full ream of possibilities, have you?”
“Perhaps. But in the end, it does not matter,” Celestia fixed her counterpart with a glare. “You are doing this by choice. And whatever your final goals are, they matter not. You will pay for your crimes.”
“And what if I am doing this all for some higher purpose? One that you cannot see?”
“I’m willing to take that risk.”
The Queen laughed. “And there it is! The way you are me!”
“I am not you. I have my sister.”
“Not here, you don’t.”
“What have you done to her?”
“Returned her home. She’s in your Canterlot Castle right now, presumably screaming her lungs out at the guard to fix Brainy Bright’s machine. They won’t be able to.”
“She will find something eventually. As will the Merodi.”
“And I could be long gone by then.” The Queen waved a hoof in the air. “Jumping to another universe in flight…”
“You won’t do that.”
“No, I won’t.” The Queen’s unending smile seemed like a brutal cut across her face. “And how do you know that?”
“...I could have been you.”
“Stop with the caveats. You are me. The moment you let yourself free to taste what an abuse of power feels like, you will not be able to stop yourself.”
“Then it’s a good thing I’ll never do that.”
“Not so long as I am recent in your memory. But one, two millenia down the line? Who’s to say something won’t catch you by surprise? Nopony is static, it is only a matter of time before they change to something their other self can only barely recognize.”
“Are you saying that’s happening to you?”
“Do you think it has?”
Celestia frowned. “I think you’re bored. You had almost conquered your entire world and there was nothing beyond it, so you were dragging it out as long as you coud. And then I arrived, and everything changed.”
“Your arrival changed nothing, it was foretold. The Sweeties are another story, perhaps related to the one with a silver tongue.” For the slightest moment, the eternal smile faltered. “My only mistake was thinking their ship would be easy to destroy.”
“A mistake? Not so perfect after all?”
“I have not thought I was perfect for, oh, about three centuries,” the Queen said. “Has my sister given you outdated information? She has a tendency to do that. How was she, by the way?”
“...Distant. Ambivalent. Determined.”
“Good to hear.”
“But you know this already.”
“Naturally. Why do you think I brought you to your astral plane?” She raised her hoof, bringing forth a memory of Twilight Sparkle arriving in Ponyville for the first time, not sure what to make of Pinkie Pie. “You prepare her here.”
“You do the same?”
“Oh, yes, Daylight is an absolute treat and I adore every step I bring her along. She might even overthrow me one day, isn’t that something?”
“So you do want to lose?”
“Do I?”
Celestia wanted to scream, but she knew—she knew so well—how she loved being cryptic to her ponies for their benefit. The mare before her was that aspect taken out of control.
The Queen leaned in close. “I’m sure you see the potential.”
“I… did,” Celestia admitted. “In both her and this place.”
“Why limit it? Why not use this plane to watch all your little ponies at all times, helping them toward whatever goal you see fit? You certainly disagree with my world, but you can make your own. A place of perfection. A place of harmony. All by your hoof. Luna’s as well, if you should so wish.”
“Never. They have their right to free will and choice.”
“A right? Why is that a right? Who said so? You? You can take that back whenever you want.”
“I’m not God.”
“You’re the closest thing.”
“There are things above us. If you have learned one thing from the invasion, you should have learned that.”
“The Tower?” the Queen thought about this for a moment. “From what I took from Celia, it has no will. No mind. It is a machine.”
Celestia had no idea what she was talking about, but the Queen didn’t have to know that. “There are vast nations who make us look like flies.”
“With vastly differing ideologies and values! In an ultimate sense, there is no agreement!”
“Our knowledge is imperfect, clearly. We must not dare to think ourselves worthy of such power.”
“True, true,” the Queen admitted. “But the unworthy get and use power all the time, so worthiness isn’t exactly a criteria of function, is it?”
“That doesn’t make it right.”
“I feel as though we are going in circles.”
Celestia nodded. “Have you had your fun yet? Satisfied your curiosity about me?”
“Not by a long shot,” the Queen admitted. “There is so much I could do to you… I could turn you into me…”
“Never.”
“Given a few hundred years?”
Celestia paused.
“It might not even take that long, if you think about it. I could start with an offer. Say, leaving my world behind and giving it to you, free of charge or further fighting. Wouldn’t that be nice? You and the Merodi could fix it right up!”
“The catch?”
“There is no catch. Do you want it?”
Celestia looked at her in shock.
“Wondering if I’m actually insane?”
“Everything is a mind game to you, isn’t it?”
“Isn’t it for you?”
Celestia twitched. “It’s not a game to me! It means something!”
“Really? Really? All the building ponies up only to let them succeed at the last possible minute, all the plans designed to bring your student to the ascension, the plans you have for Discord? None of that is a game? There are many simpler, kinder ways to accomplish the same things. Admit it. You enjoy a little fun here and there.”
Celestia had lost her strong stature at this point. “I…”
“Admit it.”
“I DO!” Celestia shouted, unleashing an angry beam of energy. “I could be better, but I’m not! I’m not perfect! I need ponies around me to keep me in line! I need everypony to keep me from being you!”
“And there it is. I am the unchecked Celestia. The true Celestia. The Queen.” She put a falsely comforting hoof on Celestia. “You’re just a limited shadow.”
Celestia was crying now. “I… It’s better to be limited.”
“Why do you hurt yourself so?” the Queen asked. “You could just be yourself. It would be so liberating. You’d have no more strain, no more fretting. You wouldn’t go through a single day without a smile on your face. Stop limiting yourself! Let yourself free!”
“N-no…” Celestia whimpered.
“Give it time,” the Queen said. “You’ll come around.” Her smile faltered ever so slightly. “If only there really were time…” She created a portal and stepped through.
Celestia didn’t even try to leave the astral plane.
~~~
The light cleared.
Twilight, Burgerbelle, Suzie, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Cinder, Spike, and Celia were still there.
And so was Daylight.
The Queen and Diane were gone.
“W… what did you do!?” Daylight shouted.
“Your Queen’s up to something,” Suzie said, aiming her gun at Daylight.
“Yes… She must be taking care of your Princesses!” Daylight said, coming to a conclusion. “Which means she has left me to face you!”
“...Think you’re maybe a little outnumbered?” Spike asked.
Twilight brimmed with the energy of the Element of Magic. “Daylight, surrender.”
“No!” Daylight screamed, eyes flashing orange. She blasted Suzie’s dimensional device out of her hand, ruining any chance of calling for help now that the Queen wasn’t here. “This is her test! To prove I am worthy to take my place alongside her!” Rims of fire appeared on the edges of her ears and her eyes blazed with fire.
“Hey!” Cinder shouted, indignant. “Isn’t tha-”
“She has given me permission to use the very sun against you,” Daylight interrupted. “I WILL NOT LET HER DOWN!” An immense burst of magical energy shot out from her, knocking everyone but Twilight herself over. She used her magic to keep Spike firmly planted on her back.
Burgerbelle and Cinder rushed to Twilight’s sides, accompanied quickly by Rainbow and Applejack. Suzie held back to defend the others who weren’t the best at direct combat, aiming her gun at Daylight’s head.
“Just give up,” Cinder said, lighting herself on fire. “There’s too many of us and only one of you.”
“Who said there was only one?” Daylight asked, her mouth curling up into a smile. She teleported her Spike into the room, growing him as large as she still could—and he still didn’t touch the ceiling of the vast throne room.
The little Spike whimpered. “Uh… Twilight?”
“No, Spike, we don’t need to put you in danger,” Twilight asserted, teleporting him behind Suzie. “We can take them.”
Giant Spike unleashed an immense torrent of flame that would have rendered the entire throne room to ashes, but Cinder absorbed all the fire and sent it at Daylight. She, in turn, absorbed Cinder’s fire and launched it back at the unicorn. This would have gone on for some time had Twilight not intervened, interrupting Daylight’s game with a beam to the face. Burgerbelle followed it up with a blue stop sign to her stomach while Rainbow tackle-threw her into Applejack.
The hind legs of the Apple Family were some of the strongest forces nature had to offer. Daylight’s jaw cracked easily from the impact with the full force buck. “Ghhh…” she groaned, mane sparking with the embers of the sun. With a carefully guided pulse, she pushed Rainbow, Applejack, and Burgerbelle away like flies. Spike would have crushed the dazed allies, but Suzie swooped in—zapping Spike in the foot with the PAIN setting. He howled, falling backward.
Daylight saw her opportunity. The weaker ones were unguarded, giving her ample opportunity to take care of them once and for all. She unleashed a death spell, ready to rid herself of those defenseless, infuriating whelps.
The Element of Kindness would have none of that. Fluttershy’s artifact flashed, deflecting the death spell harmlessly into a nearby rock.
“No. No more,” Fluttershy said, voice cold as ice.
Suzie drove her weapon into the base of big-Spike’s skull, sending so much pain directly into his brain that he lost control—but his body would not let him lose consciousness with Daylight still augmenting it with her magic.
“SPIKE!” Daylight shouted, raging through the pain. “KILL THEM!”
“He’s busy,” Twilight said, blasting Daylight with a beam from the Element of Magic. “And so are you.”
Daylight realized how outnumbered she really was. Twilight easily matched her in strength with the Element of Magic on her head, and the others were more than enough to beat Spike “NO!” She shouted, tears streaking down her face in stark defiance of her flaming eyes. “I must prove I-”
Twilight punched her counterpart in the face right on her broken jawline. She howled in pain and slumped to the ground, losing all control of her magic. The big-Spike reverted to his normal, miniscule size. He looked… empty.
Twilight walked up to Daylight and put a careful hoof on the mare’s neck.
“...N-no…” Daylight whimpered, tears seeping out of her closed eyelids. “I failed… My Queen, I’m nothing but a failure… I…”
Twilight’s features softened. “...She’s just as much a puppet as the rest of them. Killing her does nothing.”
“...What are we going to do with her then?” Applejack asked.
“Crack her horn,” Suzie suggested. “We can fix that later if she earns it.”
Twilight nodded. Breaking a horn was perhaps the most painful thing that could be done to a unicorn, but they couldn’t risk Daylight trying to kill them. “I’m sorry.”
“I failed…” Daylight repeated. “I failed…” She wasn’t hearing anything outside her own head.
Twilight took a breath, summoning a large, flat magical construct. She aimed it at Daylight’s horn.
“You really should just kill her.”
Everyone gasped in surprise at the Queen’s sudden presence—the mindless Diane sitting on her back.
“H-how could you say that!?” Twilight shouted. “She is your student!”
“But you are right…” the Queen said, delicately stroking Daylight’s whimpering form. “She’s just a puppet like all of them.”
“Quite the puppet show you have here,” Suzie growled. “Fighting itself left and right, in danger of destabilizing by your decrees…”
“Trying to get information out of me, hmm?” the Queen cocked her head condescendingly. “My little human, if it were possible to do that, do you not think Celia would have done so in our previous conversations?”
Suzie frowned.
“You have the power to defeat me, Suzie,” the Queen said matter-of-factly. “The question is do you want to gamble that many lives away on the motivation of a mare you don’t understand?”
Suzie fired her gun several times into the Queen’s face, to no effect. But she didn’t summon U-Catastrophe. She wouldn’t dare.
“And with that, you lose,” the Queen declared. “Your elements are divided, your princesses are gone, and your secret weapon is too dangerous.”
“There’s still the Matriarch,” Twilight said. “He’s here.”
The Queen looked knowingly at Suzie. “Oh, I don’t think he’ll be a problem. Will he, Captain?”
“...Suzie…” Celia wheezed. “What did you do?”
Suzie ground her teeth. “The Merodi will kill you.”
“I will see if I can’t move this entire world by then,” the Queen said. “They’ll find nothing of you besides a neighboring world with a panicking Luna and a broken Celestia.”
“What did you do to them!?” Twilight demanded.
“I had a talk,” the Queen giggled. “And now I-”
“SCREW THIS!” Cinder shouted, tackling Diane off of the Queen’s back. The pink pony struggled, attempting to keep Cinder from cutting her collar off with the power of the sun.
The Queen lit her horn—and once again everything went white.
~~~
That unicorn had an energy, the Queen had to admit. One she couldn’t quite account for. She had not seen Cinder going for Diane until it had already happened.
Instead of feeling anger or resentment, the Queen was nothing more than curious.
She was clearly special. Daylight had said her mind wasn’t quite the same as all the other ponies, and there were lots of other things just slightly off about her.
The Queen’s current theory was that this was the Tower’s doing, but even she had to admit she knew nothing about the structure beyond the vague ramblings Daylight had spouted in her neurosis.
The Queen was almost disappointed she wouldn’t get to take Daylight all the way to the end of her path… She had been looking forward to the inevitable betrayal ever since the mare was born. A unicorn that could be shaped into the perfect opponent, unlike the weak Underground, the misguided dragons, and the boring griffons…
But she wouldn’t let this deter her. Unexpected did not mean bad, after all. This may have been even better than her plans for Daylight.
She juggled the essences of the ponies bound to the Elements of Harmony. She had them all, captured, separated… She could just destroy them all and be done with it. But where was the fun in that?
She appeared to Applejack first.
“Finally decided to show yerself?” Applejack asked, not fazed in the slightest by the murky miasma she was sitting in. “Gonna kill me?”
“No. I’m going to take your Element.”
“Pretty sure it likes me better than you.”
“Oh, it does, most definitely. And if I didn’t have the means to physically separate you, it would stay affixed to you no matter what I did. But there’s something simple here, Applejack…” She tore the Element of Honesty into another universe, severing its connection to the earth pony completely. “Your Sweeties have given me the means to get around that.”
“We ain’t done yet.”
“Oh, I know! I’m counting on it!” She shifted elsewhere, this time to Fluttershy.
Fluttershy’s response was to try to snap the Queen’s neck. The Queen’s response to this was to break Fluttershy’s spine. “Such a bundle of anger… unbecoming for the Element of Kindness... “
Fluttershy tried to get up, but her body refused to move. “I… You… You killed him!”
“Did I? Or did Redsky? Or did he escape?” She laughed, severing Kindness’ connection to her. “You’ll never know, Fluttershy. Just like you lived in that cottage for years thinking he was dead, now you will sit here, maybe right, maybe wrong, suffering.”
“I… have had… enough of your suffering!”
“You’re still talking. You’ve got room for more.”
Rainbow was next. She too tried to attack. She too received a broken bone for her effort—a wing, in her case.
“Loyalty…” the Queen said, severing the Element. “You give out your trust too easily, Rainbow. Your ‘friends’ have only gotten you killed.”
“Shut the hell up,” Rainbow grunted.
“I speak the truth.”
“Yeah, so? At least I die doing something right.”
“Annoyingly, you are too simple to get any enjoyment out of…” She shifted to Rarity. “Now here’s something unexpected. Generosity. A high society unicorn.”
Rarity screamed and backed away from the Queen, tears trailing from her eyes.
“All the others have met me with defiance or strength,” the Queen said, severing Generosity’s connection. “You were a sniveling wreck. Clearly the weakest among them.” She chuckled. “You should consider returning to me after all this is over. I can put you back on the righteous path of magic.”
Rarity could only cry in response.
The Queen shifted to Diane next—not surprised to see that Cinder had somehow latched herself onto the mare’s essence. The collar Diane had wore most of her life was nowhere to be seen—only the Element of Laughter remained.
Cinder took a defensive stance between the Queen and Diane. “Leave her alone.”
“Diane, give me the Element of Laughter,” the Queen ordered.
Diane looked from her Queen, to Cinder, to her Queen again. “...No.”
What is it about this unicorn and causing the unexpected? She turned to glare at Cinder—smile faltering. “What have you done to her?”
“I was her friend,” Cinder said. “That’s it.”
“A simple conversation does not undo years of mental conditioning…” The Queen leaned in, narrowing her eyes at Cinder. “What is it about you that makes ponies like you?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
The Queen’s smile returned full force. “You don’t even know yourself.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t need to know, I just need to stand by Pinkie here. You can’t do anyth-”
The Queen severed the connection to Laughter with ease. “Just because I asked her for it doesn’t mean I couldn't have just taken it.”
“What is wrong with you!?” Cinder shouted. “Why don’t you just wipe us all off the face of the planet and get it over with!?”
The Queen cackled. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
Despite herself, Pinkie chuckled. “...Sorry Cinder, she got you good.”
Cinder twitched. “So what now?”
“Goodbye,” the Queen said, stepping into the place of the last Element—Twilight Sparkle.
She glared at the Queen defiantly, the element on her head glowing profusely.
“The strongest Element…” the Queen began. “The one that binds all the others together… The one that can stand on its own… And the one that controls.”
“I am not in the mood for your mind games,” Twilight growled, unleashing a beam of magic energy from the Element.
“Nopony ever is.” The Queen teleported behind Twilight and kicked her to the ground. “But that’s never stopped me before!”
“I won’t give in,” Twilight said, standing back up. “I’ve suffered too much to give in now.”
“You all seem to think I need you to give in, or something…” The Queen shook her head. “I can take the Element of Magic whenever I want.”
Twilight knew she was telling the truth. She frowned. “You really are a monster.”
“Isn’t it curious, knowing your teacher is me?”
“And I’m Daylight Sparkle. I’m also a shut in pony with no friends. And I’m an alicorn that, apparently, leads Merodi Universalis.” She looked at the Queen impassively. “We’re all Twilight Sparkle. But we’re all different ponies, in a way. I can’t hold Celestia accountable for things she has the potential to do, and I can't ignore what you’re doing just because you’re her.”
“She has built you up where she has failed to build herself.”
“You are the one that did this to me,” Twilight accused. “You only have yourself to blame for what I’ve become.”
The Queen laughed. “You get it! Ah, that fills me with such delight.” She severed Magic from Twilight. “You’ll be much better than Daylight.”
“I will never bow to you.”
“They all say that.”
And then Celestia returned to her world, appearing in the sky. She dumped all the ponies she’d held in her ethereal grasp back into her throne room—far enough away they wouldn’t be able to do anything to her.
She summoned the six Elements of Harmony to her, placing Magic in the center and allowing the other five to spin around her rapidly, creating a sphere of spectral energy around her form. Last time she had done this, she had miscalculated—rendering the Elements inert by overexerting them on Luna. Now she knew better—knew so much better. The Elements had to be used selectively, and in conjunction with other powers, to reach their full potential.
To start, she moved the sun directly overhead. The oppressive heat evaporated the blood from the streets and instantly burned all ponies who were outside, and would soon cook those hiding within their homes. Sure, they were her subjects, but they were just as expendable as everything else, and everything was coming to a head one way or another already. Might as well overdo it a little.
The dragon Matriarch saw her and roared with the power of ancients. He held out the Rock of Ages in one claw, using his own magic to manipulate the temporal powers within.
“Y O U R_S U N_W I L L_S E T_B Y_M Y_C L A W!”
He was older than she was, and he was definitely strong enough to take her out if he really could manipulate the Rock of Ages.
That was, if the Queen didn’t have the Elements of Harmony. He was easily a force of chaos and darkness, the Elements would have no trouble whatsoever defeating him. When she shot him with the rainbows of harmony, she had expected him to become a statue or be banished to the sun.
Not to be completely and utterly annihilated, disintegrating into dust along with the Rock of Ages.
The Queen laughed. “Thank you, Suzie.”
She began methodically calling fire from the heavens down on the dragons. All of them. Those on her side and otherwise. The race would be endangered at the end of the hour if she had anything to say about it.
~~~
Suzie looked around the throne room. She seemed unharmed. “Everyone okay?”
“Everyone except Daylight,” Cinder observed, looking at the mare crying in her fetal position.
“I’m not okay,” Fluttershy said meekly. “She broke my back…”
“She took the Elements!” Twilight shouted, tapping her head frantically. “All she had to do was move them to another universe!”
“She left us alive,” Applejack said. “We can take them from her. ...Right?”
“Right!” Pinkie said, bouncing into the middle of them all. “Name’s Pinkamena Diane Pie, haven’t been called Pinkie in forever, but now sounds like as good of a time as any! Let’s get her!”
“Good work, Cinder,” Suzie said, prompting the unicorn to beam at her. “Now… we just need to get to Celestia…”
Rainbow grunted. “I’d go out there and get her, but my wings ar-”
“She’s returned the sun…” Daylight moaned. “We’ve failed her… She’s burning the city… It’s all my fault…” Her Spike walked up to her and nuzzled her wordlessly.
“She’s burning the entire city…” Cinder repeated, aghast. “We… We have to do something!”
“I don’t think we can go outside…” Applejack said, haunted.
“I can,” Burgerbelle said, suddenly in a hazmat suit.
“We need all six of us out there,” Rainbow countered. “And two of us are pretty banged up!”
“I… I can’t move the sun, not with her here,” Twilight said, biting her lip. “She’d just wrestle control of it back… We need Celestia, or Luna, or…”
“Raven!” Rainbow shouted. “She’s still at the mountain, she could do it!”
“We have no way to get there and tell her to do anything! And I don’t think she’s strong enough to fight her sister!”
“And the Princesses are in another universe…” Suzie grunted. “There’s got to be something…”
“Brainy Bright…” Daylight wheezed.
“What was that?” twilight asked.
“Brainy Bright…” Daylight repeated, every word coming with pain shooting through her jaw. “He’s built dimensional arches. They… might work anyway.”
“Where is he?” Twilight demanded.
Daylight looked at her, eyes flashing with anger for a moment. She refused to speak.
“Daylight, if you don’t tell us where he is, she is going to kill all of us. You included! Wouldn’t you like to live!?”
Daylight froze for a moment. Then, with a pained wince that came from the depths of her soul, she nodded.
“Yay!” Pinkie cheered. “That’s all six! We’ve got a perfect set!”
Daylight groaned as Twilight helped her up. “Just point to where Brainy Bright is.”
Daylight sluggishly gestured down.
“Stand back everyone!” Suzie declared, aiming her weapon at the ground. “This is going to get a little explosive.”
The ground crumbled to dust with a single shot from Suzie’s weapon, revealing a room deep within the earth. At the far end were two curved pillars making a partial arc. Numerous magic consoles were littered around the walls, plugged into each other with crystalline matrices.
“This looks a lot like Corona’s prototype…” Suzie commented.
There was one pony here—a terrified, shivering Brainy Bright.
Twilight levitated everyone into the hole one by one, turning to the scientist as she did so. “...Hello, Brainy Bright.”
“D-don’t kill me…”
“I have no intention of doing that,” Twilight said. “Can you connect us to our Equestria?”
“Y-yes, b-but the Queen-”
“Is melting this entire city to slag. Do it now.”
“She’ll notice and close it…”
“I’m hoping we don’t need that long.”
“I’m going to the other side,” Suzie said. “If I’m in another universe, I might be able to call for help if I can find the right magician. Rest of you, stay here.”
Twilight nodded in agreement. Brainy Bright ran to the controls and flicked all the switches on quickly. The arches hummed to life and cut through reality, tearing a window to another world. Suzie wasted no time—jumping in the same instant Twilight sent out the strongest psychic message she could muster.
CELESTIA! LUNA! COME, NOW!
Luna wasted no time teleporting to their side. “Twilight, you opened a portal! Well done!”
“Where’s Celestia?” Twilight demanded.
“...I thought she was still here with you…”
“The Queen said she put you in the same world…”
“We may have to fight without her,” Luna said, spreading her wings. “Prepare for that possibility, Twilight Sparkle.”
~~~
The Queen knew her opponents were not truly defeated, not even in the sun so oppressive as this. The dragons may have been easy pickings with the sun so close at hand, but there were a few individuals she was expecting some difficulty from…
The first was currently creating a wretched, dusty creature out of dried blood and bones. Somewhere deep within the wretched snake of gore and darkness was none other than Nira herself, Sweetie of darkness. Tendrils of blood were impossible to maintain in the immense solar heat, so she had to create physical claws from the fallen. Luckily for Nira, the Queen was excellent at providing corpses for the dark unicorn to use.
“Look at you, throwing aside all taboo just for the sake of a chance!” The Queen dove out of the way of a massive curdling claw, deflecting several arrows made of dark bone with her brilliant magic in the process. “You are a mare after my own heart, Nira! Too bad that makes you weak in the eyes of harmony!” She pushed the Elements in front of her and activated them with a simple instruction—reduce the darkness. Nothing fancy, nothing that would tax them, just something that would weaken Nira enough so a solar beam could disintegrate her.
“HARMONY INTERCEPT!” Seren shouted, flying into the air and catching the rainbow energy in her scepter. “KARMA REFLECT: OVERDRIVE!” The rainbows sailed right back at Celestia, but naturally the Elements around her spared her the indignity of being defeated by her own attack.
Seren was a powerful mage vested in complex magic circles whose power ran off friends and family. The Elements would do nothing against her. But the sun…
Seren had to put all her energy into creating a shield that would take the full force of a solar laser. Given the amount of energy she was putting off and the pitch of her screams, she was having immense difficulty merely surviving.
And then ‘Raven’ moved the sun.
The Queen rolled her eyes. Such a disappointing, useless gesture. That mare had no power, she had been reduced to little more than a child. The Queen easily moved the sun back in place without a-
‘Raven’ appeared out of nowhere and drove her horn straight into the Queen’s side, drawing blood.
“I am not foolish, sister.”
The Queen chuckled. “You are. Just not in the obvious way.” All it took was the Element of Magic and ‘Raven’ was thrown to the ground, using most of her power to keep from cooking in the oppressive power of the sun.
“MY TURN!” Luna shouted, appearing in a teleportation of dark power. She grabbed hold of the sun like she would the moon and pushed it away.
They opened the portal. The Queen allowed her control of the sun to slip for a moment so she could sever the connection to the other world, but then she fought Luna for it.
“You are not attuned to this celestial body,” the Queen said, firing a solar beam at Nira to deter her from attacking. “It is mine, and it will always be mine. You must spend too much of your power fighting its own heat to take it away from me!”
Luna’s horn burst into flames and she fell to the ground near her counterpart.
The sun returned to its position, baking the entire land like all of it was the Queen’s oven.
“Come on! Anything else!?” the Queen shouted.
~~~
CELESTIA! LUNA! COME, NOW!
Celestia heard it loud and clear.
Twilight had some kind of desperate plan. She’d managed to open a portal between the Equestrias. Celestia even knew exactly where the portal was located. She could teleport right there and be part of whatever Twilight had come up with.
Why wasn’t she going?
Why was she still sitting here, in the astral plane, feeling sorry for herself?
She should go… face…
...Herself.
No. She couldn’t face herself. She was too strong. She knew her too well. She… She…
What was Celestia even thinking about anymore? She didn’t know. She didn’t know anything. How had she ever thought she knew what was best for her ponies? She was just one of them, one of them who had lived far, far too long and would snap one day. It was only a matter of time…
But it wasn’t her this time, was it?
Whatever Twilight was doing wasn’t her plan. It was Twilight’s plan. If she returned, she wouldn’t be leading the charge… she would be following a purple unicorn who had been through far too much. Who had killed thousands in the name of harmony. Who was still fighting despite everything seeming hopeless.
Celestia didn’t need to lead. Perhaps she shouldn’t lead…
But she could follow.
She stood tall, wiped her eyes, and teleported away.
The portal between worlds closed the instant she appeared on the other side.
“Celestia!” Twilight called, beaming.
“What do I need to do, Twilight?” Celestia asked—making no effort to hide her tear-stained eyes. She registered the presence of Daylight and Brainy Bright, but decided not to question it. This was Twilight’s plan, not hers.
“The sun is above Everfree City, killing everyone. You need to move it away from the planet! Luna is already out there but it’s not working!”
“Of course.” She teleported outside, struck by the heat of the sun. It was so close it filled half the sky and evaporated all water.
“Ah, you’ve returned!” the Queen declared. “What’s your game now? Have y-”
“It isn’t my game,” Celestia interrupted. “This is Twilight’s game. I am simply following her orders.”
Celestia didn’t even check to see if that gave the Queen pause—she pushed with all her might on the sun, moving it away.
The Queen laughed gleefully. “And so it ends in tug of war? So be it!” She pulled much harder than Celestia ever could have, threatening to ram the sun into the planet and cause an apocalypse.
“Sister!” Luna called, pushing the sun with her power as well. “You are weakened!”
“But I do not stand alone!” Celestia called, grinning in Luna’s direction.
‘Raven’ stood up at Luna’s side. “You’re outnumbered, sister!”
Three alicorns pushed on the sun, forcing it further from the surface of Equis.
“Yes!” the Queen cheered. “Yes! Push with all your might!” She pulled at the sun even harder, tapping into the power of the Elements to enhance her own magic. “Give it your all!”
Celestia winced—the sun was moving closer again. If three of them couldn’t do it…”
“ASTROMECHANICAL SHIFT!” Seren shouted, firing a beam of her own magic at the sun, pushing it up ever so slightly.
“Look at how you inspire them!” the Queen shouted, grin far larger than it had ever been before. “See the hope you place in their minds! And yet, you know it means nothing! You don’t have the hope they do!”
“YES WE DO!” Luna shouted at the top of her lungs. “WE HAVE HOPE THAT GOOD WILL PREVAIL, WHETHER IT IS THROUGH US OR NOT!”
And then two others joined the tug of war. Deep beneath the palace, standing in front of a useless portal, two purple unicorns touched the sun and pushed together.
The sun moved away… away… away… further away than it had been in centuries.
A vein popped above the Queen’s eternal grin. “Careful!”
“Careful?” Luna shouted.
‘Raven’ stopped pushing in an instant. “We need to stop before i-”
It was too late. The sun had taken too much strain.
It exploded.
Unlike a real star, which would have instantly vaporized the world upon exploding, the sun of the eternal day went out like an immense firework, sending balls of fire in every direction. Some would burn through the atmosphere for a few seconds before burning up, while others would streak into the cosmic expanse and fizzle out into nothing.
It was as if a switch had been turned off. The planet that had known nothing but endless day for a millenium was suddenly plunged into pitch darkness. The entire planet felt a chill run across its surface.
And then the stars came out. Slowly, but surely, providing the smallest bit of light to the world, giving the slightest highlights to the world in darkness. The city that had been burning moments before fell dead silent.
The only bright light that remained was the Queen herself, surrounded by the Elements.
Her smile hadn’t faltered in the slightest. “Now look what you’ve done…”
Twilight didn’t give her the chance to monologue. She teleported on top of her, six ponies in tow: Rainbow, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack, and Daylight.
The Elements didn’t need any further prompting. They affixed themselves around the mare’s necks and glowed with their Harmonious energy once again.
“LIGHT HER UP!” Twilight ordered.
Nopony hesitated—not even Daylight.
But she would remember the look her Queen gave her just before the light engulfed her.
It was the only honest smile of pride the Queen had ever given her student.
She would be haunted by that knowledge for the rest of her days.
The Queen didn’t even attempt to fight the harmonious light as it engulfed her and shoved her into the ground, draining her of all power. They couldn’t seal her in the sun—there was no sun—and she was too close to the Elements themselves to be petrified.
But she could be stripped of everything. She was reduced to a size barely larger than Twilight and deposited on the cold ground below like worthless trash.
With a grunt, the diminutive white alicorn with a pink mane stood up—and fixed Celestia with a serene smile.
Celestia could only frown in response.
“...Harmony with oneself…” Twilight said as she and the Elements of Harmony landed behind the once-Queen. “You were truly sure of everything you did, never doubted yourself. Always Honest, Loyal, Generous, Laughing, and Kind… to every aspect of yourself and no others. I don’t know how you did it, but you did.”
“It is the life of no regrets,” the once-Queen said, smile unwavering. “All of you will walk away from this with confusion in your souls and trauma in your minds. I will not, no matter what you do to me.”
“Your death is certain,” ‘Raven’ spat.
“That is not for us to decide,” Luna said. “We are too close to her. We are blinded. As are those who she has puppeted for so, so long, preparing them to be bitter in this moment.” She turned to Twilight. “...I will defer to your judgement.”
“As do I,” Celestia said.
Twilight looked from Luna to Celestia—and nodded, understanding. She stepped away from her friends and looked the once-Queen in the eye. “All the crimes done on this world—done by all those you had manipulated to serve your ends—fall on you. You were not coerced into doing this, and you have never expressed remorse at any point.” Twilight set her jaw. “Do you have anything to say to change my mind?”
“If you let me live, I’ll tell you why,” she said, smiling. “I will tell you what I had hoped to accomplish, if I actually accomplished it… everything. Every action I ever took regarding you, my ponies, Daylight, my sister, the Nightmare… all of it will be laid bare to you. But you will have to let me live to know the answers to your burning questions.”
Twilight stared at her. “...Even in death, you want to put doubt in our minds?”
“The life of no regrets, Twilight Sparkle.”
“...I have no need to know your motives. Not anymore. Nothing could excuse this.” She created a magical sword using the Element of Magic. “Any last words?”
The small, innocent looking alicorn shook her head.
Her smile didn't waver even as the sword was plunged into her chest. She stood perfectly still for the longest time, staring right into Twilight’s soul.
And then she keeled over, dead.
Twilight did not shed a single tear over her. “...Find one of the Sweeties. They’re going to need to move the planet.”
Nopony would ever know what Queen Celestia truly wanted.
~~~
It took less than twenty-four hours for the Merodi to move the planet to another universe where it could orbit a calm, yellow, main-sequence star under the natural law of gravity instead of some alicorn. Applejack may have complained about a lot of things about what the Merodi were going to do, but that wasn’t one of them.
The Aid Division began organizing rebuilding efforts. Applejack was set up as interim ruler while everything was rebuilt and the day-night cycle was reintroduced to the world. They had no moon—but they had a new sun that didn’t burn their very lives away.
The discussions about what the new government should look like were not going to be resolved anytime soon. It’d be months before they settled on anything, and until then, the Aid Division was taking care of them. And regardless of what Applejack ended up going with, the planet would become green again.
Luna refused to even be considered for ruler of the new world. She said she needed to be with Celestia—neither one of them was meant to rule alone. Their Equestria had been without them for weeks, and the two of them needed to stabilize what had been set awry when Brainy Bright pulled his stunt.
Brainy Bright himself was sent off to the Merodi Research division instead of some sort of jail, where his intellect could be put to good use.
The Griffon Kingdom flourished, and the old Matriarch took hold of her dragons once again. She found, almost inexplicably, that the dragon population stopped growing almost entirely. It was as if a switch had flipped in their entire society the moment the black monstrosity had been vaporized.
The first thing Twilight Sparkle had tried to do was go home. It… didn’t go that well.
“Why do you spend so much time here?” Daylight asked her one day as they walked through a reconstructed area of Everfree City.
Twilight sighed. “My home… doesn’t feel like home anymore.”
Daylight raised an eyebrow.
“None of them can understand why I did the things that I did. All of them but Applejack say they do. But I know they’re lying. They try to be friends… but they’re also scared.” She looked into the distance at the setting sun. “...It was like how I treated Rainbow after I saw her kill a pony. Except unending, awkward, and painful for everypony.”
Daylight didn’t know what to say to this. She didn’t know what to say to a lot of things these days. She was honestly just around to keep the remaining Secret Police from trying to blow everything up out of some misguided attempt at revenge.
“I feel like Brainy Bright took my friends from me,” Twilight said suddenly. “It definitely wasn’t what he wanted, but it’s what he did. He tossed us into Tartarus and… we were changed.” She paused. “Celestia and Luna are issuing more reforms to Canterlot government, putting checks and balances on their power. The Merodi aren’t even pushing it—they would have accepted us as we were before—but the Princesses aren’t taking any chances.”
“So he got what he wanted?”
“No,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “He wanted a world without authority. And that just… doesn’t exist.” She hoofed at the ground, grimacing. “I keep telling myself this is worth it. I sacrificed my happiness for this entire world. But… it’s hard.”
“At least you have some idea what it all meant for you. What was the point of my life?”
“...I can’t answer that.”
“Nopony can.”
They were silent once again.
“You two need to stop frowning!” Pinkie—Daylight’s Pinkie—said, appearing out of nowhere, her jester-bells jingling. “Tell you what, I’m going to throw a little show tonight, and I’m told my special guests are going to be quite the treat! Discord and Trixie Lulamoon of Equis Vitis, live!”
Daylight grunted. “Pinkie, ponies hate me. I don’t go to public things.”
“You’re my personal guest, they can all shut it,” Pinkie declared. “Plus, I think Fluttershy’s warming up to you ever since you did that ‘crying apology self-loathing’ thing in front of Big Mac. C’mon, you know you want to come! Cinder told me it’ll be THE BEST!”
“...Fine.”
Twilight allowed herself to smile. It wasn’t like she had no friends, after all…
~~~
“There was a war. I didn’t see it,” Cinder mused from her bed in Swip. “I think it’s probably good I didn’t see it.”
Rarity was trying not to hyperventilate at the revelation that her sister had been a prisoner of war.
“I mean, I fought Daylight, but I was pretty focused in that… I didn’t get to see any of the dragons, Nira’s blood monsters, anything. ...I did see her though. I saw a lot of her.” Cinder shivered. “She may have been the most evil thing I have ever seen.”
“I can’t even begin to imagine. A pony that would cause such horror by… by choice!”
“You tell Twilight to watch over Celestia and Luna, okay?”
“I will. Mark my words, I will…”
“Rarity?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you think I’m… okay?”
“Dear, you’re definitely not okay, you’re in mortal danger every few days!”
“I meant… mentally speaking.” Cinder put a hoof to her chin. “Everyone tells me I’ve been taking everything rather well. In stride. That I’m recovering from everything a little too quickly…”
“What does Sweetaloo have to say?”
“She says I’m an odd case. She’s never seen anyone take all this in stride before, but she’s also never dealt with anyone facing such ‘subsequent scaling encounters’ before.” Cinder scratched her ears. “Sometimes I wonder about myself, you know?”
“Well, I think that’s a good sign.” Rarity smiled. “It means you’re watching yourself, making sure you are okay. It might even be why you’re able to handle things so well, you’re able to see it for what it is and not hide from it.”
“Heh. Guess maybe I was serious when I said I was done hiding.” Her ears twitched involuntarily.
“I think you’re growing up into a great professional hero.” Rarity beamed. “I’m scared for you—all the time—but I see you talk about it, and hear about the things you do… I couldn’t be more proud.”
“You’re the best sister ever.”
“You better believe it! I’m risking a heart attack every afternoon just by letting you be out there! Appreciate me!”
Sweetie laughed. “I do, don’t worry about it. I-” there was a knock at the door. “Come in!”
Celia walked in, a soft smile on her face. “Hello, Cinder.”
“Hi Celia! How are you doin-”
Celia pulled Cinder into a hug. “...Thank you for being there. It meant a lot more to me than I was able to express.”
“I… Uh… Rarity, do you mind if I call you back?”
Rarity looked at Celia with uncertainty. “Wh… yes, yes, of course, it’s fine.”
“Bye!”
The call ended leaving Rarity alone in her room, staring at a blank screen.
She frowned.