Stillness.
Darkness unto silence in totality. It latched onto the world, unwilling to release the iron grip it had thus maintained. Darkness reigned and it was supreme, but not absolute; the glow from the stars granted an iota of illumination, but the moon remained dark.
Crickets that had once chirped incessantly lay silent. A breeze tickling through leaves and blades of grass morphed into the comatose atmosphere.
Then, even nothingness was not, nor existence. There was no air then, nor the heavens beyond it. What covered it? Where was it? In whose keeping?
Was there then cosmic water, in depths unfathomed?
Soprose.
Claustrophobic.
Suffocating.
... Then came light.
Bright and unblinding, the sun rose from the horizon to bless the land with its warmth and light. It ascended with such grace and majesty that it was impossibly indescribable. Casting its golden rays down onto the surface, a figurine soon took shape within the Castle of the Two Sisters.
The silhouette began to descend, the sun behind them still ascending in the sky without hindrance. The light dimmed around a silver-white alicorn, revealing the solar diarch in the flesh.
Strangely enough for her, the process of raising the sun was effortless and minuscule in difficulty, not at all how it was earlier; during Nightmare Moon’s return, the celestial body of her realm would be unwilling to respond to the calls of her magic, so long as the foreign and hostile entity of the Nightmare was still latching its iron grip onto the other.
As such, she expected the situation to… well, she didn’t really know what to expect—a faux de pas that had revealed itself in a creeping revelation, making Celestia painfully aware only now of all times that she was unprepared for this moment. Something reminiscent of a painful vice tugged at her heart, given her lack of preparation for such a climax.
The pale alicorn, finally standing within the interior of the old Castle of the Two Sisters, inhaled a breath of reassurance with her eyes closed. Upon exhaling, she opened them. At first, she found nothing but gaping mouths and wide eyes.
All of them locked eye contact with her, morbid horror apparent on their features. There were five colorful ponies that were huddling one another while simultaneously hugging a wall. Among them was Twilight Sparkle, who did not look like the Twilight that the pale alicorn remembered. An aura of foreign yet unimaginably pure arcane energy that looked like the night sky had surrounded her, and her physique was… that of an Alicorn.
Celestia was understandably confused. Twilight was separated from the rest of the group, the latter of which was still clustered for protection, a rainbow-maned pegasus standing between the alicorn and her companions as if she was protecting them.
"Twilight." The deity spoke atonally. She could see it in Twilight’s eyes, the essence of Dark Magic taking hold of her. Celestia had seen dark possession of this magnitude only once before when ancient Umbrum before time immemorial once possessed an Earth Pony from the Crystal Empire—a stallion named Sombra.
A stabbing vice pierced Celestia’s heart; A spiked-talon claw that refused to let go. She allowed this to happen to her, to her own pupil of all ponies. Sending her by herself… in hindsight, it was stupidly dangerous for her to send her into the fray without proper information to prepare. How could she have not realized that beforehoof?
Celestia rightfully cursed herself mentally, maintaining a steely facade on the surface of her features.
But Twilight doesn't seem too far gone yet. And with her knowledge of dispelling dark magic, Celestia knew where to start on fixing this mess. Focusing on her student’s well-being, Celestia allowed her magic to scratch a few… itches in Twilight’s mind that needed to be soothed, allowing her to finally think with clarity.
As such, Twilight’s physique was changing in front of everyone’s eyes, Celestia’s dispelling magic finally curing her mind. Her newfound wings also dissipated into thin air, billowing into mist and before vanishing out of sight. Golden auras of magic enveloped her entire being, altering her physical appearance to be reverted to her former state. Lavender replaced Mulberry on her coat; the mane and tail were of the same striped style with their original palette of color.
Just like that, Twilight’s “Ascension” had been reverted.
Upon completion, Twilight stood flabbergasted. Inspecting thoroughly, she found she indeed was reverted to her normal self once again. Her wings were gone, her coat and mane back to their previous pigment of various purples. But yet, she looked just as wide-eyed and paralyzed as before.
Celestia stood still, carefully inspecting the group of ponies in front of her. Each of them dared not to speak a word.
And then Celestia saw finally that their eye contact was not meant to be directed at her.
They peered behind her.
Celestia felt something… ‘pin’ her for lack of a better term, somewhere deep inside like a dart piercing her. She felt her breathing hitch for a moment, holding in a breath she didn’t realize she inhaled. Her muscles tense and stiff, her neck craning around behind her back with dread.
The Alicorn found her whole body soon turning with her head. There she remained as joint-locked as she did before. Everypony that was standing behind her now started to back up, the group now looking at Twilight with the same encompassing dread that had taken hold of everypony. She found herself cornered between an Alicorn and a group of ponies she had just met, the latter looking at her with wide eyes.
Twilight felt like she needed to cry, digging a hole beneath the earth so far deep where nopony could find her to just cradle herself for comfort. Yet she found herself paralyzed, panting as a panic attack was starting to sink its fangs into Twilight’s psyche. She couldn’t look at Celestia and instead peered at the girls with pleading eyes.
None of them were willing to forgive nor forget what they had seen, she could tell. They looked even more terrified than before.
"Girls?" she whimpered, barely a whisper.
No reply. Only confused, contemplating, scared, and angry stares.
"What."
Everypony froze as Celestia finally spoke again for the second time since arriving here. The word was barely even a word at that, spoken as if Celestia was choking on the word and struggling to pry it out of her mouth. Everypony turned to her, all of them terrified of what was to come.
Celestia was on the verge of hyperventilation, her muscles gluing her to the floor she stood on.
"W-What." A whispered stammer escaped her tight throat.
"C-Celestia?" Twilight summoned whatever iota of willpower that was left in her being to speak out.
"What did you do." Those four words did not sound like a question; the tone was too hollow and withered to suggest as such. A phlegm-induced choking sound emitted from her throat as if she was struggling to breathe. Celestia remained petrified.
Twilight on the other hoof felt her soul die upon those four words. Frozen in place, physically unable to move out of a deep-rooted, hoof-pounding terror of what was to come.
"What have you done?" she spoke again, this time a little louder.
Twilight dared to tilt her body to the side, peeking around Celestia’s body in front of her.
And still smoking from the blast that she was struck by laid a motionless body of a Charcoal, Thestral Alicorn. Never once did she move a muscle after the discharge of the spell.
Burned. Singed. Pierced by magic. A hole in her abdomen, cauterized by the intense heat of the blast.
Still and dead.
Celestia finally tilted her head off to the side; barely able to see a part of her features but not her eyes. "What have you done?" She grimaced. A golden aura of energy encompassed her horn.
"I-I… I don’t… S-she…" Twilight felt tears streaming her cheeks, her mind unable to come up with an answer of any kind.
"What have you done!?" Her Canterlot Voice boomed.
Her magic had enveloped Luna’s still body as if she was getting a feel for the being she was ‘holding’ in her grip. Celestia found no warmth, no energy, no emotion, no movement; no life.
Celestia’s stomach was churning and hot, and her limbs aching as they quaked relentlessly. The illumination from her horn only increased tenfold as time passed. Seconds passed agonizingly uneventful, and yet it lasted for what felt like years.
Twilight could see it coming, a discharge was inevitable.
The last thing she remembered before casting a shield spell was the tormented cries of her mentor.
And everything went white.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?"
Two beings stood idly atop a balcony of the Princess's Tower, overseeing the end of all things.
Acclimatization of the persistent heat that had blighted much of the troposphere had allowed Twilight to think in (relative) clarity and sanity. It hadn’t been easy getting to Canterlot by any means since this all began, but she was nothing if not persistent for Celestia… what was left of Celestia anyway.
She was tall. Taller than she was previously before transforming into this. Her frame was naturally bulky, yet sleek in the appendages. Her horn grew in length, along with her wingspan. Everything about her seemed to have changed, even her Cutie Mark. What was once a gentle and caring Princess Celestia, was now replaced by the wrath of a sundered sun.
But upon her dramatic arrival, as she phased into existence, Twilight found herself distraught by her mentor’s radical change in appearance. She could have sworn that the air that was immediately surrounding Celestia was a couple of degrees warmer, which did not help to soothe the already unrelenting firestorm gripping the world by its talons.
It probably had to do something with the fact that she was literally radiating and that she had hair made out of magma.
Yeah. Probably. She thought to herself.
"Twilight." she finally spoke. Bitterness and malice dripping from her voice like thick venom.
"Celestia?" a daring whimper from the unicorn.
"DO NOT SPEAK THAT NAME!"
The shockwave of the Royal Canterlot Voice was always hard to withstand, but this one felt more invigorated and powerful than any usage of the voice before. Twilight could not remain to stand and was toppled backward a couple of meters as the world spun all around her.
Landing painfully against the frame of Celestia’s ruined bed, Twilight struggled to stand on her hooves as she felt something being cork-screwed in all the wrong ways somewhere in her lower back. Apparently, the landing was rougher than she would like.
"You are a foal if you think calling me that name will help you. Celestia is not here."
Twilight didn’t answer, or rather she couldn’t. Her mind was drawing a blank from all of this heat that was still enveloping the air. The scent of carbon and sulfur pervaded her nostrils relentlessly, and the air felt unnaturally thin to breathe. The only reply was a coughing fit from Twilight.
Celestia (or whatever she preferred to be called) chose not to continue her conversation, and instead opted to turn her back on Twilight—not even gracing her with an acknowledging glance. Somehow despite all that had happened, Twilight felt more hurt than she could remember from what happened so far in this bleak Tartarus of a reality.
Twilight looked ahead with blurred vision, still dizzy from the knockback she had endured. Aching all over and struggling to stand, whatever was left of her rational mind was screaming at her that this was suicidal and hopeless.
Yet every option was also like that, so really those thoughts didn’t hold any weight to them. But she still didn’t have a plan on what to do. Whatever was left of Celestia was standing right in front of her, but she didn't even care for her presence enough to hurt Twilight or otherwise.
Twilight knew that she was going to be fighting an uphill battle in this debate; the equivalent of climbing a cliff with hooves and no wings. Extreme in the difficulty slope, and yet despite the very slim possibility of success, the prominent probability that Twilight would fail with losing her life—and therefore losing Equestria as a whole—was discombobulating to her exerted mind.
Yet she knew already. She can’t turn back now, not after all the distance she had traveled. It couldn’t have been for naught. And in reality, she knew had no better choice or any choice for that matter. This was the only way forward.
Against her.
Twilight awoke. Coming to, she couldn’t see anything but the dirt she face-planted against. For a moment, no physical sensation came to her. She felt still in the body, and it refused to respond to her commands. For a few horrifying moments, Twilight thought she was completely paralyzed from the neck down.
Clammy sweat was the first sensation she could feel at all. It clung to her coat and the supple skin beneath it. She could breathe, but it felt beyond weird; it was hollow and lifeless. She could feel the air, but not the lungs that held it.
Heat was the next sensation. It surrounded her uncomfortably, beyond warm, and instead sweltered in the dry, coarse air. It would explain the profuse sweating she was experiencing. The heat, while not particularly unbearable, was agonizingly uncomfortable.
Her ears stood at attention as her hearing finally came to. She could hear a new sound; Flames. A fire uncontrolled. The wind was howling quite loudly too as if it was a Gale.
Finally, another physical sensation came back to her; touch. She could feel her underbelly planted against the grass, her hooves in a tangled mess of limbs. Immediately after re-contacting the nerves in her body, she commanded them to move.
Only to be awarded by an overwhelming stabbing sensation in her abdomen.
Pain. It felt unbearably long and drawn out, any hint of movement only achieved further aggravation. Turning her head along the ground, she got a good look at herself. She was covered in her blood, of which was leaking slowly out of several large gashes that ruined her coat. The cuts were deep enough to leave scars. She could also feel bruises in some parts of her hooves and on her body.
Twilight’s mind reeled. She tried to recollect the closest memory she had. She remembered standing behind Celestia and in front of the girls. A flash of magic from her horn later, and everything became blurry and white.
Her heart suddenly fell to the pit that was her cold stomach as a new memory surfaced. One of her and Nightmare Moon’s altercation. Twilight remembered trying to protect her friends, unleashing every ounce of magic she had left. All on Nightmare Moon. Despair wracked Twilight’s soul. She felt the overwhelming urge to cradle herself and cry.
Turning her head a little to the sky, she finally found the source of the unrelenting heat. A great wildfire was burning a part of the Everfree Forest down. To her, it was shocking in itself to see such an ancient forest being able to burn like this. She would’ve thought it impossible if it wasn’t happening in front of her very eyes. Luckily to her, she landed in the one open spot of the Everfree that had grassland instead of an endless forest. The sky around her seemed to have tinted slightly more orange, and the sun was unnaturally brighter. In her haze, Twilight assumed the color change was directly tied to the fires next to her.
She tried to recollect memories of how she got here, but simply couldn’t. Everything is dark and fuzzy in her mind, and the pain all over her body didn’t help with that. Upon turning a little more with her head, she found the ruins of the old Castle of the Two Sisters… or what was left of it.
The upper tower that held the elements was completely destroyed, blown apart from the upper levels, and left nothing but a smoldering foundation; A fire still raged inside the castle. The blast was large enough to send chunks of flying debris everywhere, which was apparent to Twilight with the number of stray piles of rubble that were embedded into the ground all around her.
The urge to cry was irresistible now. Twilight remembered Nightmare Moon. The girls-
She felt her heart sink to the abyss.
Oh gods! The girls!
A piercing surge of panic overtook her psyche as she tried to will her body to move. Doing so only sent electric fire tingling down her nerves, sending thousands of sharp needles through her nervous system. She made an attempt to will her legs into motion, only to find that they did not respond to any of her commands. She looked down at her lacerated body with contempt.
Screaming at the top of her lungs, Twilight tried to move past the agony. She was rewarded with a few inches of crawling movement from her forehooves, desperate and pathetic. She collapsed mere seconds later, tears staining her cheeks as her nostrils clogged violently with blood and snot.
Her head was throbbing terribly, her vision swam. It threatened to transform into a migraine upon the strain and stress she was undergoing. There, Twilight found herself staring at the ground in despair.
She turned head at the once decrepit and derelict castle of the two sisters. Her companions nowhere to be found. Upon seeing the sight of the burning castle where she once stood, her throat tightened to the diameter of a straw.
She was truly alone.
The forest was mostly engulfed in flames, disintegrating into cinders wherever she looked. Balling herself up with her tail and body, Twilight could only choke on her own words while sobbing.
I failed. I failed. I failed. I failed. I failed. I failed. I failed. I failed.
Timid and weak hoofsteps trotted forward at a sluggish pace. The Lavender unicorn cautiously approached her former mentor, not getting too close to the magma-like tail that billowed in the turbulent wind. No words were shared. And Twilight struggled to fabricate an appropriate dialogue. Both ponies tempted the silence to stay.
Twilight idly looked around. Her eyes drifted back to the Everfree forest as flames licked its tongue along the countryside, eviscerating everything in its wake. Not even embers only soot and ash. Ponyville—or where was Ponyville—had been engulfed as well, leaving no original silhouette of its small skyline to show any hint of longevity from the town. This too was beyond recognition, with many of the structures long since collapsed on their foundation. She couldn’t even see Cloudsdale anymore. The City was all gone.
The sweat on Twilight’s brow was damp, forcing her to wipe her face several times with matted fur. The ambient heat seemed to be past triple digits, and she could feel blisters forming beneath her coat already. It was painful to even think; her head swam with a cold, piercing throb that pulsated agonizingly every second.
Closing her eyes and clutching her head with her forehooves, Twilight felt impossibly claustrophobic. Trapped within her own mortal body’s immediate demands, she was unable to conjure a coherent train of thought.
No Clarity. Only muddied waters. Constantly rippled and churning, like a storm’s tide crashing against a precipice. Uncertainty loomed in an unrelenting presence.
Opening her eyes again, Twilight was shocked to see her former mentor twisting her body to stare down at Twilight, with condescending contempt.
The eyes still glowed with golden orbs. Not even irises and sclera remained; the orbs of light were the sclera and iris.
"They are all suns." The ashen goddess finally spoke, eyes piercing Twilight.
The latter didn't dare to reply. The alicorn continued.
"I learned today that the stars in the sky are nothing more than just balls of heat and gas. Moved by magic, perhaps... If not by other forces. But they are all more or less the same. They are all just like the sun itself. They are all the sun. And the Sun is all of them."
Twilight approached, only by a single step. She couldn't see any stars in the sky. Only molten ash and soot poison the atmosphere.
"Luna had no control over the stars, really. And she never would have, if they are simply the byproduct of stellar dust drifting endlessly over a cold, empty void that for so long I thought was a prison."
Another step.
"Luna was destined to control the moon and her tides. I was destined to control the sun and her warmth. Neither of us was destined for the stars... Only fools would ask for power from the stars."
The alicorn twisted her body, her glowing pupils radiating an omnipotent aura. But beyond that grim glare, her voice was uncharacteristically somber.
"But I never asked for the power of the stars. I never asked for any kind of power, in fact. I never was given a choice from the start, and it cursed me to this life. Me and..."
her head hung low for a brief moment, causing a pause. Upon raising it again, her face was now stern with spite.
"You were a fool to return here. I assumed you perished in my ascension."
Twilight struggled to breathe. Talking was horribly dry and painful in her throat, her tongue cracked as if she was dehydrated. It was entirely possible that she was dehydrated and delirious, but it didn’t particularly matter to Twilight right away.
"Y-you mean the explosion... at the castle of the two sisters?" Twilight wheezed with raspy breaths in between sentences.
"You call it an explosion."
"Well I certainly didn’t see what could classify that lightshow as an ascension."
"Of course you wouldn't. Mere mortals are not expected to understand the work of Divinity."
"You claim yourself to be a Goddess?"
She spoke not as a caring and empathetic mother, but as a hag who ridicules foals for the sake of mirth and entertainment. To hate for the sole purpose of projecting hate onto others, to find catharsis. Twilight couldn’t see anything cathartic about this nightmare.
Spite.
It perversely clung to Twilight’s psyche, even now. She could practically taste the venom dripping from her. Memories of her altercation with Nightmare Moon were flooding back with bitter implications.
"Do you not see? The splendor and majesty before you? The beauty of my light? Did you not hear my soliloquy of how the stars are merely just distant suns? Do you not see what that means?"
"All I see is a Madmare." Twilight spoke, with just as much fear as well as audacity that she could muster.
"All I see is a dying world. There is nothing beautiful about it."
The fiery goddess of the Sun stared down at her former student with derision.
A smile slowly stretched her cheeks, lacking all subtlety to mask her malice.
Twilight felt her body lunge upward against her will, floating effortlessly off the ground. Surrounded in a magical aura, Twilight’s body moved in the direction leading towards the edge. She cried out in pain as the telekinetic magic enveloped her roughly and without care for her wounds.
Heart burrowing through her chest, Twilight’s delirious mind couldn’t think of a rational way to escape this predicament. Fear seized her, her eyes darted around looking for an escape only to find new avenues for her demise. Her legs felt limp and thick like jelly.
She then made the mistake of looking down at her legs, only to find herself standing on absolutely nothing but air. The only thing holding her in place is a thin layer of telekinesis, at the complete mercy of a deranged Alicorn.
Her body twisted around forcefully, and Twilight came face to face with the earth itself.
Everything was lifeless, or soon to be; vaporized into atoms. The Devastation was absolute.
Equestria wasn't just dying; It was suffering.
"You claim that I am a madmare when it is your doing that made me lose all my faith in ponykind. Your newfound 'friends' that you had made? They were quick to abandon you; or, perhaps they've perished, after my ascension? Who is to blame for the needless violence that befell my sister? Was it not them, and instead you?"
Twilight tried struggling against the unrelenting force that held her in place. Although her limbs flailed, she lacked the momentum to move.
"You think that you can hold the blame over my head because of what had happened? Latching it onto me when there was nothing more I could do?!"
Wings flapping, Twilight felt the hot air blast against her body from behind. Hearing the Alicorn take off, her mind momentarily froze when she saw her former mentor floating in front of her. The glowing eyes pierced through Twilight's soul.
Seeing her. Judging her. Looking through her corporeal shell with such ferocity, it would be mistaken her to be frowning in absolute disgust.
Or perhaps she was. It was getting hard to think for Twilight. The heat was impeding her ability to think rationally and logically.
"Do not play such foalish games with me. You are not above consequences just because you are brave enough to confront me. And the consequences are very clear, based on what you did; If you claim to know the whole truth, then enlighten me."
"What… What do I even call you as now?! Because you are clearly not Celestia! The Celestia that everypony knows and loves would never burn the land she rules! This is beyond cruel!"
"Was killing my sister any less cruel?"
"Less cruel?! Is that why you’re doing this!?" Twilight paused for a fast, deep breath. Your sister, Luna; I am so, so, so sorry for what had happened—but you are using her death as an excuse!"
"And what excuse did you have to commit regicide?"
"I HAD NO CHOICE! SHE WAS GOING TO KILL MY FRIENDS! SHE FORCED MY HOOF!"
"YET YOU KILLED HER! IT WAS YOUR CONSCIOUS DECISION TO KILL HER!"
The scream shattered any resolve that was left within Twilight. She had put on a good facade of bravery, but it was too much. The tears began to stream freely.
And she ashamedly felt a hint of dampness coming from her rear legs.
So many arguments. So many points of debate to choose from. And yet all for naught. And all for her death if she can't think straight.
Even now, Twilight could see it in her eyes. This Alicorn, whoever she is, was too far gone. Twilight hoped—pleaded to herself, even—for even the fledgling of a chance to have a peaceful solution. To find a way to amicably end the madness that plagued Equestria.
With the power of hindsight, she was no better off than she was before. She still felt just as hopelessly lost.
She still felt just as powerless and defenseless against such a force of nature. The incarnation of a Solar Flare cursing the world with its presence, seemingly insurmountable.
The only difference between now and before was that she was now dangling thousands of meters in the air completely helpless—again, at the mercy of a deranged alicorn.
Twilight choked as she cried. "I... I'm s-sorry."
Her eyes closed.
This had to be the end.
Twilight didn't know how long she had laid there, only that she laid there for a long time.
The tears had long since run out. She only choked on dry sobs at this point. Still remaining in that same fetal position since she first curled up from what seemed like days ago.
How long had it truly been? Only a few hours perhaps? A whole day?
She felt the air being hot as a summer's day since she began, the raging fires of the Everfree dissipating and spreading away from her as she hunkered in the middle of the open grassland. The temperature, despite the wildfires being so far from her, had continued to rise over the course of time. The sky was blue at first as if it was a normal day. In the few times Twilight willed herself to look up, she saw it morph into different colors.
Lemon. Citrus. Crimson.
It stuck on the latter for the longest time, and it grew hotter. Enough for Twilight to feel her skin starting to develop burns and blisters.
She was somewhat content with that. She felt she deserved to be punished. Punished for killing the returning princess of the night, after being imprisoned for so long.
She thought about what could have been different, and a thousand scenarios came to mind. all of them unpleasant to think about, yet somewhat better than the current reality she lived in. In an endless, repetitive cycle of mental fabrication and deprecation, she felt that the only person to blame was her.
It all fell on her.
The weight of the world was on her shoulders, and she couldn't succeed.
How is anyone supposed to recover from that?
A distant explosion caught her ears, forcing her to lift her head ever so slowly. She couldn't see from where exactly, but something was being blown up.
Was it Celestia?
... Celestia wouldn't do that, would she?
She peered to the sky, only to find a red overcast ceiling of clouds. The sun was nowhere to be seen, though its illumination remained.
And yet, it was wrong. The sky should not look red.
Why hadn't Celestia fixed the sky yet?
It wasn't lost onto Twilight that the death of Luna would have some drastic effect on the Harmony between the two Celestial Bodies, the Moon and the Sun. With the loss of one, the other might surely be thrown into disarray, to put it lightly.
From what Twilight saw, it seemed apocalyptic. The sun grew hotter by the second.
Suffocating dread was soon replaced by a horrific premonition in Twilight's psyche. If the sun continued to grow hotter, Twilight anticipated severe consequences to the delicate biosphere of the planet. And Celestia seemed to have no warrant on stopping it.
Perhaps she couldn't? Something was preventing her, maybe?
But what? And why?
...
Twilight, unwillingly, felt her aching hooves slowly lift herself up off the ground.
Groaning and stretching uncomfortably, she felt blood rush through parts of her body that were still asleep.
The sky remained unchanged. She peered at the mountain ranges in the distance.
Canterlot was there. And so, so far away.
It seemed impossible.
But the alternative would be to continue to lay here until she dropped dead.
... Despite everything, there was still some fight left in the Unicorn.
...
Twilight, reluctantly, opened her eyes.
And found herself still floating off the ground. A deep, plummeting demise still beckoning her below. Her breathing hitched upon seeing how high up she was, thinking for a moment that she had fallen.
The alicorn that held her felt a brief moment of hesitation. And a strange sensation took hold of her. Though her intentions were hostile and she fully intended to drop this pathetic pile of flesh, she felt a twinge of... something, tugging deep within her abdomen.
Her mind demanded, behested even, to give in to the temptation of releasing her. To rid the world of her presence.
Yet something else was screaming at her otherwise. A premonition of sorts, ephemeral and fleeting. Yet she still felt its presence quaking her inside, with resolute determination.
Tears began to pool in the eyes of the Alicorn.
"Hrmph." She grunted, wiping a hoof across her eyes to dry them. "You must be reminding the Celestia inside of something painful." She spoke with annoyance. "She hasn't been this vocal with me since I took over."
Twilight felt her heart skip a beat with those words.
"Took over? W-what do you mean? Then... who even are you, If you're not Celestia?" Twilight dared to ask, dangling over certain death.
The ashen alicorn seemed to have taken the question with a hint of reverence. Because she suddenly struck a tall and intimidating pose while standing completely still.
"Umbrae Nova. As you used to call 'Celestia,' she is now under my will. Technically I am both, but this is merely a corporeal vessel under my command. The reach of my will is infinite, child—I dare say it is beyond your comprehension, but that would be an insult to you. However, you still have a long way from understanding. And you are wasting my time with these frivolous questions!"
"What exactly is so urgent that it demands your immediate attention from everything dying and burning in Equestria!? What exactly do you have left that is so important?!"
"... Did you forget so easily? She sneered. I not only was destined to control the sun, but all of the stars! The very fabric of the aethers is under my command!"
"What does that have to do-"
"SILENCE!"
Twilight made a choking noise in her throat as she couldn't hold back the floodgates anymore. Whimpering and crying, she dangled her hooves helplessly.
"I should drop you here and now for being so impetuous and rude, not to mention you killing my sister."
"I... I know. A-and I-I don't forgive myself f-for it." Twilight pathetically cried between sobs.
She tried to remember why she came here. What was the one thing that she was willing to do for so many others before her time that she failed to realize now?
It was getting so hot she couldn't think straight. In Umbrae Nova's magic, Twilight had no chance at all for escape and was still at her mercy.
Her mind struggled to conjure anything.
"Then why did you struggle all this way from the everfree just to get here? Why did you will the courage to get back up and try to talk to me? Why go all this way, fighting against inevitability just to die at my hooves in the end? Were you hoping for a mercy killing?"
"N-no."
"Have you come to beg for my forgiveness?"
"No! I-I don't even forgive myself!"
"... Come to sow words of pity and sorrow into my heart to free my soul?"
"I... I..."
She had enough. Umbrae Nova was at her wit's end. if she failed to answer even a simple question, she shouldn't be here on this planet any longer. One more chance, she gave her.
The very bones of the earth shook when the ashen goddess spoke.
"ANSWER ME!"
"I DON'T KNOW, OKAY! I DON'T KNOW! I JUST WANTED TO SEE YOU ONE LAST TIME, TO SEE WHAT HAPPENED AND WHY! I WAS ALONE AND I WANTED SOMEPONY TO BE WITH, TO GIVE ME ANSWERS! I'M SORRY!"
Her throat was scratchy and torn after such an episode. She opened her eyes after her episode and found more tears relentlessly streaming down her face.
... And Yet.
She could have sworn that she saw what looked like liquid lava pooling in her former mentor's eyes.
Might it be tears? Or... something else?
"You have nopony now. Your first and final mistake was assuming a companion in me. She stepped forward, each hoof being stomped upon the emphasis of every word uttered. Kin Killers. Deserve. Capital. Punishment."
Each step closer to twilight was also emphasized with a squeeze of her magical grip, suffocating Twilight by the throat. Panic took hold of her, her eyes struggling to blink as they darted incessantly for an exit. But there was none.
No way out. And fate tempting her below.
"Would you like to know the fate that will befall this planet when I am through with you?"
Twilight couldn't answer. Not that she had a choice.
"Because I have control of all of the suns, I will launch a crusade against the other solar bodies of the cosmos. I will evaporate this world first before I move on to vaporize other entire worlds by engulfing them in atomized, helium fire. And when their solar system is dead and gone, I will gladly find new ones to destroy. Space is a very, very big place. I will have my fair share. And I will build a new empire from the ashes where all are loyal only to me."
Twilight's vision began to darken, and her head felt like it was going to explode outward from the lack of circulation.
"And yet, what of you? What would you have, 60 years from now when you are on death's bed? Your lives and the lives of all of the ponies here are mere motes of dust in the cosmos, insignificant in the grand scheme of things!"
Twilight continued to cry through the pain; though the suffocation was unbearable, hearing her former mentor and ruler speaking these horrible repartees hurt her more than it should.
"So answer me this before I release you into oblivion: What do you have now, to warrant your existence? What is so special about this planet of yours, and your life as well, that you would continue to persist?"
Twilight didn't answer right away—or more accurately, couldn't answer right away; Her vocal cords felt torn; her lungs were burning inside due to a lack of oxygen; her eyes were dry and stinging like mad, even with the tears; for a few terrifying seconds, she couldn't speak a single word.
Twilight concluded that it didn't matter at this point. She knew that any coherent thought would prove incalculable and achieve nothing.
She failed at everything, even though she was so close.
So why should she convince her to live?
In her rational mind, she thought of it as suicide.
But in that ephemeral, seemingly frozen moment in time, her rationale was thrown out the window.
She only spoke what felt right.
An iota of willpower remained, and every ounce of it was used.
She rasped with whatever fleeting oxygen remained in her lungs before she would lose consciousness.
"I had you."
"..."
A rush of wind. Something collided.
Just as fast as it happened, it stopped.