//------------------------------// // Conclusion // Story: Nightmares Over Equestria // by Ignimbrite //------------------------------// "Please... you wouldn't..." Solaria, for the first time in her life, backed away slowly. "Why shall we not? The life within this gem is not thine own, but was robbed unjustly from another." "But taking it wouldn't do any good. It wouldn't bring him back. It wouldn't bring anypony back." "But it would be just." "Is there anything I can do to convince you not to break that crystal?" Celestia and Luna both looked at her. Then Celestia marched up to her face, holding the crystal just out of reach. When she finally spoke, her voice was quiet, not like a whisper, but rather like the calm of the air under the looming threat of a storm. "Mercy." Solaria looked up to her daughter. "What you ask is called mercy. You called it weakness, right?" She waited for Solaria to respond, but when no response came, she continued. "You tried to kill my sister and me. You tried to enslave my little ponies. You tried to kill my pupil, whom I love like a daughter." She looked Solaria straight in the eye. "Do you deserve mercy?" There was a pitiful irony to Celestia's question. Back in the old days, Solaria would ask the same questions of her subjects whenever they stood accused before her. Like her subjects, there was but one answer she could honestly give. "No" Celestia reached out with her hoof and lifted her mother's hanging head so that she could look into her eyes. Solaria looked into eyes of several millennia's worth of anger and grief. Celestia then released her and turned around. "You shall receive it." Applejack held the crystal in her hooves while standing on the highest rung of a stepladder. On the other side of the room, Solaria sat, a suppression ring over her horn. She wouldn't dare attack Applejack. If she succeeded, Applejack would drop the crystal, and it would break on the floor. If she failed, nothing could stop the mare from deliberately dropping the crystal to the same effect. If it broke... She shuddered. If that crystal broke, she would not just die. She would feel the death of every pony that had been used to charge it. The Princesses had finally managed to separate the two versions of Fluttershy from each other and to determine which one was which. It didn't help that not even the two Fluttershys could remember which one was which. Thankfully, one of them remembered who she was and was kind enough to turn herself in as soon as she did. She apologized, of course, to the other one. All that remained was finding out what had happened to most of the royal guards. The ones out on the streets of Canterlot would be easy enough to track down, but the palace guards seemed to have disappeared without a trace shortly after they had all escaped the room where the port trap was. The best solution left was for everypony to split up. Applejack and Rainbow Dash remained behind, guarding the tied up doppelgängers and nobles. The rest paired up and took various corridors to find the missing guards. The only one not in the search party or on guard duty, was Pinkie, who had mysteriously vanished around the same time as the palace guards. Twilight and her mentor took the eastern part of the palace. Besides the utility of being able to take turns magically scanning the rooms, it was an opportunity for them to catch up without having to send letters back and forth. Turning the corner, they heard what sounded like dance music coming from the barracks. Celestia nudged open the door with her magic, and they both looked inside. All the missing guards were passing around plates of cake, visiting, and otherwise milling around. At the very back of the room, a mare sat behind a giant DJ table wearing an enormous pair of headphones. "Pinkie? What is the meaning of this?" "Hi Celestia! I was out looking for those crystal thingies, but then I ran into a bunch of the your guards, only they were real meanies this time. I tried saying hi to them, but they just wanted to arrest me, so then I tried to sing a song to cheer them up, and then they tried to kill me, and then I found out it was Silver Spear's birthday..." The stallion to whom she pointed blew his paper noisemaker most unenthusiastically, his mood contrasting greatly with Pinkie's mood, the music, and the party hat just behind his horn. "...and so I had to throw him a birthday party!" "I... see... And how did you break them out of their brainwashing?" One of the guards looked at her. "Oh, we're still brainwashed, ma'am, and we'll probably try to arrest or kill you two as soon as the party is over. We'd do it now, but that pony is extremely..." -Pinkie Pie was now bouncing up and down directly behind him, a huge grin plastered across her face- "...convincing." He leaned over to Celestia and whispered in her ear. "Please help." Celestia called out to the room. "So, none of you can leave this party?" As a variety of responses in the affirmative filtered back, she continued, "and you're all still brainwashed?" They all nodded. She turned to Pinkie, who was now bouncing in the middle of the room. "Pinkie, don't let this party end until I tell you so. Okay?" Pinkie stood on her hind legs and saluted, then disappeared into the crowd, inexplicably reappearing behind the DJ table. "Twilight, would you help me find out what kind of spells were used to brainwash them?" "Of course." Celestia thanked her, then stepped into the barracks, heading directly towards the table by the wall. "What are you doing?" Celestia looked back to her student. "My sister and I just fought the reanimated remains of our own mother, you burst into flames a moment ago and told me just in the hallway that it wasn't your first time, my best guards are all brainwashed into wanting to arrest and kill me, and they are all at this very moment being held hostage at a birthday party." She sighed and turned back around. "I'm getting some cake." The brainwashing spell had finally been removed from all the guards, and all the ponies involved sat silently in the great hall. By one side sat the alternates, some of whom discussed their circumstances with each other, some of whom glared silently at the guards, and one of whom was bound to a furniture dolly and given two extra guards to monitor her personally. In a corner on the other side lay the former nobles, stripped of their titles. In the farthest corner lay Solaria, her ring replaced with a new one that was sealed so that it could not be removed without the authority of both princesses. "Why?" Celestia and Luna turned around to the quiet voice. "You are literally holding my life in your hooves, and you refuse to take it. Why?" Celestia took a step forward, but Luna stopped her, shaking her head. She then stepped forward herself. "Nopony who is offered mercy deserves it, mother. If thou deserved to not be punished for thine actions, thy lack of punishment would instead be justice. "I was offered mercy once. As soon as I was released from my prison, I tried to enact the very evil that had sent me there in the first place. By all rights, I should have been sent back to the moon again. Instead, I was given mercy. "'Twas mercy that saved me, mother. My sister and I offer it to thee in hope that it would save thee as well. "We love thee, mother... "I love thee."