//------------------------------// // The final battle // Story: The Fall of Twilight, The Birth of Midnight // by Twilight Star //------------------------------// Luna and I were sitting at the table, eating pancakes. Mine had a smile and Luna’s had fruit on the sides and whipped cream on top. While Luna quietly ate her pancake, I had barely touched mine. I didn’t feel like eating. No after what happened to Twilight. I could feel tears come out of my eyes again. Even though Luna said it wasn’t my fault for what happened to Twilight, I still saw myself as guilty. What was I thinking when I wanted to make Twilight an alicorn and retire? Twilight would be together with Spike and her friends if it weren’t my fault and Equestria wouldn’t be in that state.  “Sister, are you okay?” asked Luna, now looking at me. “You didn’t even touch your pancake.”  I looked at Luna, still sad as I wiped the tears away with a hoof. “No, Luna. I’m not well.”  “What happened, Celestia?” asked Luna, now worried.  “I still feel guilty about what happened to Twilight and the state of Equestria,” I replied.  “Sister, I already said. You are not to blame for what happened to Twilight and Equestria,” said Luna.  “But Twilight turned bad because of me.” I pointed to Luna. “Thanks to me, I missed Twilight forever!”  Luna started to think. How could they stop the tyrannical reign of Midnight and bring Twilight back? One thing was certain. She didn’t want to have to kill Midnight, because even though Midnight is mean, Midnight was Twilight after all. And she didn’t want to have to destroy her only best friend. Until Luna started to have an idea and looked at me with a smile. “No, Celestia. You haven’t lost Twilight forever.”  “But Luna, did you forget what I just said? The elements were destroyed and Twilight’s friends died.” I said, now confused as to why Luna said that, but still sad.  “No, Celestia. I didn’t forget what you said to me,” replied Luna. “What I’m trying to say is that if we want to stop the tyrant reign of Midnight and make her go back to Twilight and be a benevolent ruler, we will have to show her that ruling Equestria out of fear is not the best way, that her intentions when she wanted to making her an alicorn was not that she couldn’t die along with her friends and Spike, and that we will be by her side during this difficult time that she was going through.”  I lowered my ears while looking to the side sadly. “I don’t know, Luna. Every feeling of love she felt for me seems to have died a long time ago. ”  “Don’t lose hope, sisters. You’re not going to do all this alone. I will help you bring Twilight back,” said Luna, now with a smile.  I was happy inside that Luna was going to help her. But I was still sad on the outside. “Luna, what if we don’t make it?”  “We will do it, sister,” said Luna as she looked at me with optimism.  “But Luna, Twilight, or also now known as Midnight Sparkle must practically hate me for what I did to her,” I said.  “But that doesn’t mean that inside her I still can’t care about you,” said Luna. “I’m sure if you talk to her, explain your reasons and show that you’re sorry, she’ll be Twilight again.”  I looked sideways thoughtfully as more tears left my eyes. I had to agree. Luna’s idea was a good one, but I don’t know if it would work. Not after what Twilight was feeling about me now. But I think it would be worth a try. I looked back at Luna.  “Okay, Luna. You won. We are now going to Canterlot,” I said.  “Aren’t you going to eat your pancake?” asked Luna, noticing my plate was still full.  “No, Luna. I’m not hungry.”  I took my plate and threw my pancake in a trash can, then Luna and I went to the sink and started washing our dishes in the sink. After two minutes, we finished the housework, dried, put the dishes in the cupboards and left the castle.  Only when we left, we realized that Ponyville was no longer the same, and I say that in the worst sense. Because the color of the sky was no longer blue, but it was a brownish gray. Only beyond that, it was seeing ponies and creatures. They were gray, but they were a light gray shade of hair and the eyes were green, as if they were being controlled by black magic. I kept my mouth open and worried when I saw their eyes. The color of the eyes was the same as that of Sombra! No! Midnight couldn’t have done that! She couldn’t have revived King Sombra!  “Sister, is it my impression that everyone’s eyes are similar to King Sombra?” Luna asked me as she looked at the ponies and creatures that walked the roads.  I looked at Luna, now crying. “It is not your impression, Luna. Everypony’s eyes are the same as King Sombra.”  Luna returned to look at me, now concerned. “You think to which Midnight has Risen Sombra?”  “It seems so! And this is all happening thanks to me!” I put my two front hooves on my eyes while crying. “Equestria is like this and all ponies and creatures are being controlled by King Sombra!” I sat on the floor while crying even more. My tears started to fall to the floor.  Luna was very worried about me. She had never seen me so emotional before. Well, except when I confessed to Luna that I was wrong about her job being easy.  Suddenly, we heard a noise. We looked to the side, saw a purple portal appear and were surprised to see Discord worried about seeing me cry.  “Why are you crying, Celestia?” he asked as he left the portal as he disappeared.  I looked at the floor, still crying. “Discord, I made two terrible mistakes...”  “But what terrible mistakes have you made?” asked Discord, now confused as well.  “Twilight became a tyrant ruler all because I made her alicorn and retired!” That said, I lay on the floor and cover my mouth with my hooves while crying even more.  Discord was concerned about what I said. “What?! Twilight turned evil?! ”  Still crying, I said, “yes. But the main reason is because she was left without her friends and Spike. And now, she hates me.”  Discord was speechless as to what I said. “I ... I didn’t think Twilight would be corrupted by the loss of her friends and Spike.”  “Yes. Worse, I should have known it was going to happen in the future,” I said. “Twilight has always been attached to her friends since she met her, and thanks to my decision to make her alicorn and have retired, she will not be able to die to join them and Equestria is no longer the same.”  Discord was concerned about my last sentence. “Wait. Isn’t Equestria the same anymore?”  I looked at Discord. “Not. There is no more friendship, just tyranny and fear.”  “But it shouldn’t have happened! You said yourself that Twilight was ready to rule Equestria! it was for her to govern benevolently! And don’t tyrant!” Discord desperately denied what I said.  I wiped my tears away with a hoof. “But happened. And Twilight became Midnight Sparkle.”  Discord was confused. “Who’s Midnight Sparkle?”  “It’s the evil side of Twilight,” I replied.  “Does Twilight have an evil side?” Discord was shocked by this revelation. He never imagined that Twilight would have an evil side.  “Yes. And worse, she thinks of herself now as the queen of Equestria since she is ruling alone now,” I replied.  “But it shouldn’t have happened!” Discord denied. “After you and I petrified the Legion of Doom, you told Twilight that she was ready. “Where did we go wrong?” “I think my mistake was deciding to retire too soon...” I said before crying again. “Because of me, Equestria is in this post-apocalyptic state...”  “What? Post-apocalyptic state?” Discord asked, now surprised.  “Yes, Discord. Equestria is like that because of the way Queen Midnight is ruling.” explained Luna while comforting me with a hoof.  Discord still looked incredulous. Post-apocalyptic state? This couldn’t be true.  “... And worse, it looks like King Sombra has been revived again.” finished Luna.  Discord’s jaw dropped. If it weren’t for the laws of physics, his jaw would have dropped to the floor. When he recovered, he said, “Has King Sombra been revived? But how? Who revived him?”  “We don’t know, Discord. The only evidence that shows his return is that all the ponies and creatures are grayer in color with green eyes like Shadow and the sky is brownish gray,” replied Luna.  “Did Sombra take Midnight from the throne and now he is the one who is ruling Equestria?” I asked.  “If he managed to take Midnight off the throne, then that explains why there is no more friendship in Equestria,” said Discord. “Are we going by train or flying?”  “We better get flying,” I replied while wiping the tears away with a hoof.    Sombra and I were sitting on our thrones with evil smiles on their faces. Since we started ruling Equestria together, the fear and tyranny that we were both causing was spreading even further. I was really enjoying being feared by my subjects. I looked at Sombra.  “Sombra.” I started.  Sombra looked at me with a loving smile. “Yes, my queen?”  “How do you feel now that Equestria that we are ruling together?” I asked.  “I’m enjoying. But I can call somepony so it can control the fear,” said King Sombra.  I smiled at the last sentence. Sombra had somepony who could control the fear? But who would it be?  “Really? Who is it?” I asked, curious.  “The Umbrum,” replied Sombra.  “Who are these there?”  “They are my people. They creatures that are now in a port that only I can open with my magic.”  I was excited. Can you imagine how much more fear it could have in Equestria?   “And can you do that now?” I asked.  “Of course.” when Sombra was about to open the Umbrum portal, he was interrupted by the sound of a door opening.  Sombra and I realized that whoever opened the door was one of my royal guards. He looked worried as he approached me and Sombra. As he bowed, he said, “majesties! Celestia, Luna and Discord want to talk to you.”  I smirked when I heard the name “Discord”. So did Luna and Celestia tell Discord about what happened to me? How cute. It is a pity that in the end they will die. I will make them pay, especially Celestia!  “Escort them to the throne room. I want to talk to the three.” I ordered.  The guard bowed before leaving the room and closing the door with magic. I looked at Sombra.  “Sombra, are you ready?” I asked.  “Ready for what, my queen?” asked Sombra, now confused.  “To get revenge on Celestia.”  “Ah yes. I’m ready,” replied Sombra, now with a evil smile.  The door opened. Sombra and I watched Celestia, Luna and Discord enter. I loved Celestia’s reaction to seeing Sombra sitting on a throne beside me. Celestia approached me with concern.  “Twilight! What did you do?” asked Celestia.  “That’s not my name, Celestia. Did you forget by any chance?” I recap Celestia, before smiling. “Oh. It’s true. You still haven’t forgotten what you did to me in the past. ” that said, I started laughing madly. Sombra watched Celestia with a wicked smile on his face.  Celestia and Luna’s ears drooped with what I said. Discord was also saddened, because he felt like this was also his fault, since he was the one who make the test to see if Twilight was ready to rule Equestria.  “Why, Twilight? Why did you resurrect King Sombra?” asked Celestia. She didn’t understand why I did this.  When I stopped laughing, I replied, “I did it because I want to rule with somepony as tyrannical as I am. And besides, every queen needs a king.”  Celestia and Luna couldn’t believe what I was saying to them. It was as if everything I felt for them had died. And what they thought was true. Now I had no more love in my heart, nothing but Celestia’s anger and hatred.  I looked at Discord. “I see that you came with them. Are you trying to get me off my rightful throne?”  Discord was so startled by my sentence that he even took a few steps back while smiling nervously. “I-imagine, Twilight ...”  “Call me Queen Midnight, Discord.” I corrected him.  “Twilight, when we gave you the throne, it was because we believed you were going to be a much better ruler than we are.” explained Luna.  I looked at Luna still with an evil smile. “Did you think so? Well, then you thought wrong! See what happened to your Equestria thanks to your decision. If you hadn’t passed the throne to me, Equestria would still be at peace.”  “But then you won’t have any subjects!” cried Luna as she lifted a front hoof. “And there will be no more cities for them to live in!”  “Subjects? Cities?” I laughed, but it was forced this time. “I don’t care about my subjects or the cities! All I want most as a queen is to be feared by everypony and cause the destruction of Equestria!”  “Please, Twilight. This is not the way! I know you’re upset and mad at me for being guilty of not being able to join Spike and your friends in heaven, but taking your anger out on others isn’t going to be good for you.” explained Celestia.  “I am the ruler of Equestria now, not you! You lost your title a long time ago. Sombra and I decided the fate of Equestria from now on!” I started laughing meanly, Sombra joined me in the laughing.  Celestia felt hopeless. She wanted to stop my tyrannical reign, but at the same time she didn’t want to fight me, even though I was now her enemy.  “Twilight, I know you’re upset and angry at Celestia because she is to blame for you not being able to team up with Spike and your friends in heaven, but taking out your anger on others is not going to be good for you,” said Luna.  Sombra and I stopped laughing and approached Luna. “And what’s wrong, Luna? You did it yourself once in the past, too,” I said.  Luna seemed to lose her strength when I spoke of her past, but she soon recovered and said boldly, “Yes. I have done this in the past. But I managed to forgive myself for what I did. ”  “Did you really forgive yourself?” I asked as I turned my head to the side, but continued to smile wickedly. “Because I think you wanted to retire just so that you no longer had to control the moon so it wouldn’t cause an eclipse, causing and m you become Nightmare Moon.”  Luna could feel tears in her eyes. Celestia approached me.  “Twilight. Stop with that, please. Think of your friends and Spike,” said Celestia. “Imagine the reaction they are having when they see what you have become.”  “I’m not going to stop this, Celestia. I will continue to rule Equestria with an iron hull with King Shadow. And the three of you will not stop me!” I cast a damage spell in the hope of killing the three of them for good and Sombra made gray crystals come out of the ground, but they deflected on the spot. But to my unhappiness, they flew away from all attacks.  Celestia started to cry. She never imagined this would happen. She never imagined that I would want to destroy her.  “What are we going to do, sister?” asked Luna, desperate as she dodged my attacks.  Celestia looked at Luna, started to think of a solution. They had already tried to talk to Twilight, but Twilight refuses to stop being mean. She cried even more. “It looks like we’re going to have to fight it,” she said.  Luna and Discord looked at me with open mouths. “What?!” they cried out in unison in amazement.  “Sister, I can’t fight my best friend!” protested Luna.  “I know that Twilight is your friend, Luna. But if we don’t fight it, Equestria will get even worse than it already is.” explained Celestia.  “I don’t know if I can fight somepony who was close to me, Celestia!” cried Luna.  “Luna, we’re not going to kill her, only when she is on the ground we are going to make her realize that what she is doing is wrong.”  Luna was uncertain. She wanted to stop my reign, but at the same time she didn’t want to have to fight me. “But are you sure we can’t try to talk to her?”  I put my two front hooves on Luna’s chest. “Luna, we’ve already tried to talk to Twilight to stop her. But she is refusing to listen to us. I’m sure that after that, she will have regretted what she did.”  “But what if she is so angry that it results in her not wanting to surrender?” asked Luna, concerned.  “Luna, Twilight has always believed in friendship since she started living in Ponyville. I’m sure that when we defeat Midnight, she will have regretted what she did.” Celeste assured Luna.  Luna smiled. “Yeah. You’re right.”  I cast a great deal of magic on Celestia and Luna, but they cast a spell too. Resulting in the spells colliding. Sombra came to me and helped me. Discord, seeing this, approached the former royal sisters and cast a spell too, but a chaos spell. The two spells were struggling to gain control. While I was making a crazy expression, Sombra was smiling wickedly, Celestia, Luna and Discord were worried about losing to me and Sombra. But to my anger, the magic of Luna, Celestia and Discord was stronger than mine and Sombra. A flash occurred.  “Nooooo!!!” Sombra and I screamed in unison.    Me, Luna and Discord open their eyes. The spell we use has spent a lot of magic on us. We were a little tired. But we got up from the floor. I looked over to where Midnight and Sombra were. And to my surprise, whoever was in Midnight’s place was Twilight with her gold perk, but without the crown. And beside it, there was Sombra, but his horn was no longer red, but it was like a horn of an ordinary unicorn.  Twilight woke up first, put the hoof on her head. “Urgh ... what happened?”  I decided to approach Twilight with a smile. Twilight heard footsteps and looked at where the sound came from. But when she saw me, she felt a great fear to take care of her. She knew she was the ruler of Equestria now, but she feared what i would think of her after what she did.  “Celestia… I…” but I didn’t have time for Twilight to finish speaking because I hugged her while crying with joy when I saw her again.  Twilight was worried about me. “Celestia? You’re crying?”  “Yes. But you don’t have to worry, Twilight. I’m crying with joy to see you again.” I went back to looking at Twilight.  Twilight felt tears in her eyes and hugged me while whimpering. “Celestia. Please forgive me for everything I did as Equestria’s tyrant ruler! I was carried away by my anger, and thanks to me, look at the state that Equestria is now!”  “Twilight, of course I forgave you.” I started to stroke Twilight’s back. “And I’m sure Luna and Discord forgive you, too.”  Luna and Discord approached me and Twilight. Twilight watched them. She looked at the ground with guilt of herself. Luna and Discord hugged Twilight with smiles on their faces.  “Luna, Discord. I’m sorry for ruling tyrannically just because of the death of my friends and Spike,” she said as tears came out of her eyes. “I understand if you two don’t want to forgive me for what I did...”  “Twilight, don’t be like that. Of course, we forgive you,” said Luna.  “It’s true, Twilight. I understand why you was depressed, because I was too depressed with Fluttershy’s death for several years, but I was able to get through it thanks to the other friends of yours who were still alive,” replied Discord with a smile.  “But what about my subjects?” she asked worriedly. “They probably hate me now after all the bad things that I did to them and Equestria. I no longer deserve that title as ruler of Equestria.”  “Twilight, do you remember when Sombra took over Ponyville?” I asked.  “Yes. That was when you and Luna announced their retirement,” Twilight replied. “Why?”  “Do you remember the state that Ponyville was in because of the attack?” asked Luna.  “Yes. All the ponies were under Sombra control, the sky was brownish gray,” replied Twilight. “Why?”  “Because the Ponyville ponies soon cleaned up any mess that Sombra made after the attack,” replied Luna.  “But...” Twilight tried to explain why she wouldn’t be forgiven, but I interrupted her.  “Twilight, why don’t you call a meeting to let them know your subjects that you’re going to rule over Equestria benevolently?” I suggested.  Twilight smiled at my idea, but she had insecurities. “It’s a good idea, Celestia. But I don’t think they’ll want me to rule Equestria after all this…”  “They will, Twilight. They will understand that you were just depressed by the death of your friend and royal advisor.” I guaranteed with a smile.  “Do you really think?” asked Twilight Sparkle, hopefully.  “Yes, Twilight.”  Sombra opened his eyes and stood up. Me, Luna, Discord and Twilight looked and noticed that Sombra was different than before. Twilight approached him with a smile while crying with joy.  “Sombra! You’re alive!” Twilight embraced Sombra.  Sombra was surprised by the hug, but soon smiled and returned the hug. “Of course I am, my queen.”  “My queen?” I, Luna and Discord asked, now surprised by what Sombra said.  Sombra and Twilight looked at them. “Twilight, are you dating Sombra?”  Twilight was nervous. “Hehehe. Yes. Since I relived him.”  Sombra looked at Twilight. “My queen, your shape has changed.”  “Yes, Sombra. Yours too.” Twilight teleported a large mirror in front of Sombra.  Sombra was amazed at his new shape. “How did I get like this?”  “Celestia, Luna and Discord combined their magic to defeat us and make us have our original forms.” Twilight explained to Sombra.  Sombra stopped looking in the mirror and looked at Twilight. “But what about the damage that we cause in Equestria?” asked Sombra.  Twilight took the mirror out of the front and explained, “I’m going to call all of our subjects for a meeting and we will say that we will govern benevolently from now on.”   “But do you think the ponies will forgive us?” asked Sombra, now worried.   “Celestia, Luna and Discord believe so. So let’s trust them,” replied Twilight with a smile.