Magpie watched as Luna faced Nightmare down. This was the moment all her efforts might become meaningless. If the princess turned against Moonrise now, there was nothing any of them could do to stop her.
“The Luna I know wouldn’t listen to it!” Magpie shouted. She ignored its furious anger, focused on her like a magnifying glass. It could focus all its attention on her and it wouldn’t be able to capture her body again. “You fought injustice your whole life! You know what Nightmare will bring to Moonrise!”
Something appeared beside her, and Magpie had only seconds to react as a blade came swinging down for her. She turned the flat of her dagger towards it, catching the blow as best she could. It battered her down into the rock anyway. Her limbs squealed in protest, hissing like glass about to shatter in the cold.
She screamed in pain, fighting back against the attack. This was Haybale, the Voidseeker she hadn’t yet seen. But even as she retreated, she kept yelling. “Don’t listen to it!”
“I am no slave,” the princess said, her voice low and dangerous. “I’ve lived that life for too many centuries. All this time you’ve wanted the same thing for Moonrise. Why does life offend you so much? Why can’t you leave the ponies alone?”
The Voidseekers descended on her. Magpie saw the glitter of swords in the distance, and the faint movement of cultists as they began working feverishly on something near a support column. But she couldn’t waste much of her attention for them, because Haybale came for her again.
He tossed the sword aside and lunged. Her dagger sunk into his shoulder without effect, and he just kept coming. He wrenched her off her hooves, flinging her backward.
Magpie spread her wings, but it was no good. She smashed into the stands. An explosion of pain spread from her lower body, so intense that her whole world went white. She flopped limply on the ground, dimly aware of the broken glass where one of her hindlegs had been. Jagged pieces glowed faintly blue for a moment, then went dark as Haybale approached.
She was numb to the distant fighting now. Flashes of magic went up from the stage, and Luna soared through the air, pursued by all three remaining Voidseekers. But Magpie couldn’t help her anymore. She moaned, blinking water from her eyes. She still felt like she had all her limbs, how could it be so… missing?
“You were such a fool to sacrifice your strength like that,” Haybale said from beside her. He bent down, casually kicking. She caught the blow as best she could, curling inward to spread the impact. Her chest still crunched, sending her tumbling down the stands. Each new impact threatened to shatter her, filling her mind with pain. What was she doing here? Why was she fighting?
Magpie was on the ground floor again, beside several pallets of bricks and sacks of cement. How had she gotten here?
“This should be your moment of glory,” Haybale went on. “You stole your way here through a life of nothing. You survived the banishment from Equestria. You lasted centuries. But you renounce your power now?”
“Nightmare… banished me,” she croaked. “I didn’t choose to leave. Didn’t… need me anymore.”
The stone rumbled in the distance, as flashes of Luna’s power went off like large explosives. Hopefully the princess was winning, because Magpie would be of no help to her now. At least I’m distracting one. It’s three on one, not four.
“Is that what you tell yourself?” Haybale vanished for a moment, leaving her moaning on the ground. Maybe he would leave her there to finally die, missing a leg and leaking magic. But no, he reappeared a moment later, with a sledgehammer balanced over his shoulder. The knife was still stuck there, but apparently he didn’t care.
“Boss wants this to hurt,” he said. “Apparently you’re not that different from what you used to be. If I break you, the little bits get to be in agony for all eternity. Sounds fair for a traitor, don’t you think?”
BANG! The report of a shotgun echoed through the air around her, sharp enough that even Magpie’s eyes finally focused again. Solar Wind stood just behind Haybale. The gun jerked violently as she fired, clattering to the ground.
“Someone else wants to die,” Haybale said, turning on Solar Wind. “Shame I don’t have the power Nightmare does. But I think I’ll make do.”
Solar Wind backed away, eyes wide with horror as Haybale bore down on her. She spread her wings to fly, but he caught her from the air with a faint hiss of smoke in a shadowstep. He smashed her into the ground, yanking out a few feathers in his teeth.
Pain crushed Magpie to the ground. It would be so easy to close her eyes and give up. Silver wouldn’t. He’d fight until they broke him into a million pieces.
Magpie lurched forward, gripping the shotgun in both hooves. She spread her wings, lifting herself up into the air and balancing on her single back leg.
She pumped the shotgun, then fired into Haybale’s back. Black slime splattered from his body as he slipped off Solar Wind.
“STAY DOWN!” Magpie pumped the gun, ejecting another steaming shell. Haybale started to hiss and smoke, then BANG! His shadowstep failed, and he slid another few feet away, crawling backward from her.
BANG! Seven. BANG! Six. Magpie aimed for the head this time, lowered the gun right up against his face. BANG! Five, four, three. She kept firing until his body stopped twitching, until the shotgun clicked empty.
Solar Wind staggered to her hooves, bits of broken camera coming away from the straps on her neck. “Bats aren’t supposed to be that dangerous,” she said, pressing one claw to a bloody patch of missing feathers on her wing. She inhaled sharply, eyes finally settling on Magpie’s back leg. “Stars above, Magpie. You’re broke.”
Magpie nodded weakly, settling back down on her three good legs. She kept one wing spread for balance, though she still wobbled. Haybale was right about one thing—she wasn’t that different from the Voidseekers after all. She had lost a leg, and she could still fight. She thought about asking Solar Wind where she’d got her claws on a riot gun down here—but thought better of it. There were more important things to worry about right now. “Where’s the princess? She still needs us.”
“You,” Solar Wind corrected. She looked briefly towards Haybale’s body, then shivered and looked away. “You can rub my nose in it all you want. Your princess is real, great. I’m in over my head. Besides, they bucked up my camera.”
A burning meteor came crashing down from the center of the cavern, aiming straight for the arena. Magpie’s eyes narrowed, and somehow she could see the princess’s form faintly visible in those flames. Three little shapes followed, keeping their distance as Luna struck the ground. The whole cavern shook under the impact. Magpie wobbled, catching herself in a low hover as the tremor passed. Chunks of stone broke from the ceiling, falling like lethal rain.
I can’t fight that. Magpie watched Solar Wind retreat, and nearly joined her. But the smoke cleared, and the princess emerged from the flames. She crouched low, little wounds weeping blood from her legs and torso. How long could she keep fighting?”
Something yanked Magpie right out of the air, slamming her to the ground. She crunched again, and nearly shattered at the impact. Light leaked from a dozen different cracks, and her concentration fractured.
Moments later, something tossed her contemptuously down onto a cavern floor scorched and burned. She tried to stand, and found the princess nearby. She held out a hoof, helping Magpie to her hooves. For all the good it did.
“Stay there, Princess,” said Silent Prayer. Half a dozen undead surrounded them on all sides, along with two Voidseekers. Silent gestured with her spear. “Look there. See the death of Moonrise with your own eyes. This is the price of your betrayal.”
She slipped through the edge of the crowd, smiling sweetly down at the bleeding princess. “Have no fear, little Luna. I’ve taken your nightmares away once before. When the pain is unbearable, you will find obedience isn’t so much to ask.” She pointed, and Magpie looked.
A pair of heavy lifters had parked beside a massive steel spire, one running all the way from the floor to cavern ceiling. Cultists had piled at least two-dozen barrels beside it, and Magpie didn’t need much imagination to guess what they might be. The “EXCAVATIONS” printed on the trucks made their contents obvious.
“Taking down Moonrise won’t… kill everyone,” Luna hissed. “Even if that support does bring the ceiling down on us. My ponies have airlocks. They’ll keep fighting you.”
Silent laughed, her voice twisting so high that Magpie thought she might shatter all over again. She winced, ears pressing flat to her head. Or one did. The other had broken without her noticing. “You don’t know what’s above us, Luna? You lorded your ancestry over your subjects for so long without ever bothering to understand what they built?”
She lowered her voice, eyes a set of dark pits. But while it might be a mystery to Luna, Magpie knew. There was only one thing in all Moonrise heavy enough to require so much structural support.
“Princess, that support holds up the heat core.” If it fell, it wouldn’t just come crashing down on a dozen levels of Moonrise, but tear out half their life-support systems on its way down. Silver’s up there.
She gestured, and Calamity lifted out of the masses, carrying an extra-long torch in his mouth. He flew like any Voidseeker did with a flame, sideways, so that even the tiniest embers would stay away. Such small sources of heat probably couldn’t kill one of them. But they’d all seen Voidseekers burn to death.
Cultists fled from the edge, moving back towards them. Do you really think you’re going to live through this, stupid? Nightmare doesn’t care about you! It only used you because you were stupid enough to listen!
“Ponies aren’t going to be slaves to you,” Luna hissed. “My sister beat us once, she’ll do it again.”
Calamity landed near the edge of the barrels, vanishing briefly behind the truck. Maybe I’ll die in the explosion. We won’t be apart for long, Silver.
“Mighty empires have crumbled. Civilizations vast enough to make everything you have ever experienced fade to insignificance. Bloody gears crushed billions between them. You think I’m frightened of your sister? She doesn’t understand what I am, and neither do you.” Silent Prayer advanced on Luna. The princess swung, but even her magic was too slow now. Silent caught it against her own sword, smashing so hard into the metal that the blade shattered
“You were always the weakest part of our arrangement. I will excise your ability to fail.”
Penumbra’s mind reeled at the memories—her own corpse rotting as the sun moved slowly overhead, freezing and burning her. She felt no pain, yet lived in an agony no mortal creature could comprehend.
Someone moved in windswept regolith, their steps echoing as they had no right to. There was no air out here, no heat. But that didn’t matter. Penumbra was dead—she couldn’t turn to watch them, couldn’t see who had come for her.
They sat down just beside her, and rested one hoof on her shoulder. She knew his touch. How many times had she felt it?
“We did well,” Cinereous Gale said. His voice echoed and stretched, yet she heard it clearly. “Thank you, Penumbra. You’ve protected them for so long.”
She would’ve wept, if only she was alive enough to do so. Her face felt wet anyway, but that was probably her body rotting again. “I would be down there protecting them now,” she whispered back. “But Nightmare would use me against the princess. I still depend on it. I don’t have the freedom to choose like you do.”
The weight lifted from her shoulder. Far away, the sun was fading down the horizon. It cast long shadows in the broken mining equipment, stretching closer and closer to her.
“That was never true,” said the dead. “Every one of them acts like we’re children at the mercy of a power we can’t comprehend, but we’re not. You already chose.”
Penumbra woke in the starlight, the last vestiges of death fading from her. She jerked upright, shaking away the dust. Her eyes scanned the mining road around her, but she found nopony. No unicorns here to deceive her with strange spells, or the dead ponies she had loved. She was alone.
But while she might not have any other creatures beside her, she could feel something below her, growing every moment. Nightmare’s attention on their world was as powerful as it had been on the night of their banishment. The entity had poured every ounce of itself into winning this.
She could still flee. She was nothing to this being, and the moon was vast. She could get to safety if she wanted, and leave Moonrise to its fate.
She imagined a shadowy outline in the distance, watching her. An elderly stallion, still strong enough to wear full armor. Of course it wasn’t him. Penumbra’s night vision was perfect, and as she focused on it she could see it for the pile of rubble she was really looking at.
She reached down, unsheathing her sword in her mouth. Penumbra unfocused her mind, drifting in the half-formed state until she touched another distant shadow. She crossed in a flash, reappearing in an upper promenade of Moonrise.
The passage was deserted, red emergency lights glowing off to either side. She made her way to a window, glancing down at the depths of Moonrise far below.
Then she vanished again, reappearing behind a cargo truck. Calamity advanced on a trail of oil, torch clutched in his mouth. He was so focused on that danger he didn’t see her coming.
She sliced at his back leg, severing the tendon and dropping him to the ground. While he was still spinning to react, she cut through the torch, kicking it back around and retreating in a flash of smoke as it landed on his back.
Calamity screamed in agony, his wails stretching as his body vanished in a column of dark smoke.
With his death, the pressure against Penumbra’s mind grew suddenly more intense. A set of eyes that had long forgotten her now saw her clearly. Penumbra, you’ve been gone for so long. Why would you murder your brothers and sisters? Your family only wants what’s best for you.
Years ago, the force of that will against her mind would’ve frozen her completely. It whispered for her to drop the sword. She would wait, and in a moment she would remember whose side she was on.
She didn’t stop this time. Instead, Nightmare’s attention was all the warning she needed. The shadows parted, and she caught Rosemary coming at her from behind, with a wide swing from a mace. It would break her back, leave her completely helpless for the rest of the fight.
Penumbra dodged, then sliced cleanly through Rosemary’s wing. Flesh and bone parted for her as the other Voidseeker spun, lashing out wildly with her weapon. Penumbra stabbed through her neck, then tossed her sword and the struggling Rosemary to join the bonfire.
Penumbra dodged behind the truck, until the shadows had swallowed her too. She let her mind lose focus again, reaching across to the arena and the crowd gathered near the edge of the stands.
Nightmare’s hatred hit her like a cave ceiling, a wave of loathing so intense that she dropped to her knees. For a moment she was frozen completely, as she saw herself through its alien eyes. She was a traitor of the worst kind, the greatest possible disappointment. She was the reason that organic life was so below contempt. She had been such a useful tool once, and now she couldn’t even perform a simple task.
“NO!” Penumbra rose, but didn’t try to shadowstep again. Nightmare’s magic was too direct a conduit—she couldn’t invite it any closer.
So she flew instead, flying straight for her princess. There was no chance she’d make it in time.
Silent Prayer lunged for her with a dagger, and Penumbra could only watch.
Magpie lunged, and the blade caught in her wing. The limb shattered, but the metal underneath tangled in the weapon, tearing it from Silent’s grip.
Penumbra smashed into Silent a second later, her hooves impacting squarely in her face. They both went tumbling, rolling away through a half-dozen creatures. A crowd of corpses, surging with Nightmare’s power.
She heard the report of a distant firearm as she rolled, catching herself in a crouch. She was ready when Silent’s dagger came for her neck. But even if she was fast enough to shield her face, the blade sunk deep into her back, spraying the rotting ichor within.
“Submit!” ordered the Nightmare. Penumbra’s legs rebelled, her reactions slowing. Silent ripped her dagger out of Penumbra’s back, jamming it straight for her face.
Princess Luna smashed it aside with the stump of a broken sword. “Penumbra isn’t yours anymore!” the princess screamed, beating Silent back with blow after blow. “Neither is Equestria! Neither am I!”
Penumbra ignored her pain, as she had ignored it so many times before. She drew her own dagger from her belt, attacking Silent from the other side.
Silent Prayer fought like the eclipse, catching Luna’s blows one moment before rolling to shove Penumbra the next.
Penumbra went flying, landing beside the last of the fallen undead. She lifted the spear it had been carrying, scanning only a moment for whoever had done it. Luna couldn’t wait—if she died here, it was all for nothing.
Luna sunk her sword in Silent’s chest, shoving it up and through with all her magical might.
The bat stood still, letting her do it—then when she was close, she smashed her hooves down on the little Alicorn, battering her. One wing snapped, and the pain dropped her like a puppet.
“You’re mine,” Nightmare said. Black slime oozed from Silent’s mouth, but she didn’t care. It wouldn’t kill her. “You swore to me forever, Luna.”
Tears streamed from the princess’s face, and she reached vainly for help. Her horn sparked, but nothing happened.
Penumbra struck with the spear, straight through Silent’s leg and into the stone beneath. She twitched, spinning with her remaining three for Penumbra. “And you, traitor? You think an eternity of pain isn’t waiting for you?”
She retreated a step, just out of reach. The spear caught Silent up short, tearing at her leg. But she jerked to a stop, hesitating just a moment.
Penumbra yanked Luna’s sword from her chest, then swung it upward in a wide arc. Flesh parted, and Silent’s head thumped to the ground beside them.
Luna stumbled to her hooves, breathing heavily. It was obviously a fight for her to remain conscious. But she was an Alicorn, stronger than any common creature. She rested one leg on Penumbra’s bleeding shoulder, eyes fixed on Silent Prayer’s corpse.
“Th-that’s… that’s it. Nightmare’s servants are gone. Moonrise is free.”
Kill her. Kill her. Kill her. Kill her. Kill her. Kill her.
Penumbra’s mind was washed away in a supernova of commands. Every thought, every memory—none of it mattered. Her whole life would mean nothing if she couldn’t follow this one command.
Luna’s bloody sword was in her mouth. The princess was right there, unsuspecting. She’d spent her whole life trusting Penumbra, that she’d forgotten where her power came from.
The sword shook in Penumbra’s grasp.
You’re nothing, Penumbra! You died nine hundred years ago, when you crossed through the Hvergelmir! Your life is mine!
Luna’s eyes widened, settling on Penumbra. “Oh, your shoulder. Let’s try to get the Constable’s attention. He can summon an ambulance for us.”
Drums thrummed in her head, and all the world faded from view. Only the princess remained, her unprotected neck so close.
Pay the tithe you owe, Penumbra. Atone for your failures, and you live.
She felt the rot returning. Her wings shook, the pain of centuries rushing in around her. Every wound she’d ever suffered in the Nightmare’s service—stabs and cuts and crushing and poisonings. A thousand deaths threatened to smother her.
Penumbra let go of the sword. It tumbled from her mouth, clattering to the stone at her hooves. “Not… all Nightmare’s servants,” she said. “There is… one.”
A will far larger than her own crushed down on her, but Penumbra fought. Instead of lunging for the princess, her body twitched uselessly to one side, then another. The princess dodged her easily, even as she lashed and kicked and struggled.
I won’t serve you! she screamed, defiant. Moonrise is my home! You can’t have it!
Then I have you. Her limbs stopped moving. Her wings collapsed, and rot flowed across her body. Submit to me now, Penumbra, or die.
She watched the princess retreat, her vision going dark and hazy. She could keep fighting, but for how much longer? “Fire,” she croaked, reaching weakly towards Luna with one feeble hoof. “Now.”
The Alicorn was badly beaten, bleeding from many wounds. But through her fleeing vision, Penumbra saw her turn. Her horn glowed, and a bit of burning wood settled down onto the ground beside her. “No, Penumbra! Please!”
There’s no other way. The Nightmare would never let her go, despite its threats. She was its last instrument on the moon, maybe its last vessel in the entire system.
Penumbra reached out with one leg, letting the flames embrace her.
It should’ve been agonizing. She’d seen Voidseekers burning before, heard their horrific screams. Penumbra felt only the warmth of the sun sweeping over her body, a dim memory lost to countless lifetimes.
Then she slept.