The spell tangling her Magical core was nothing like Twilight had ever seen. It was all dark cloth stuck in black brambles. She could hardly tell where it started and ended. It was embedded so deeply into her in such a short amount of time, the sheer feat of that alone was enough to impress the dragon. She was only distantly aware of the outside world as she set to work. Each tendril was barbed wire and smoke, nigh impossible to see, and removing it would need to be a meticulous process lest she inadvertently damages herself.
So far, she had nearly removed her ability to see, almost lost feeling in her wings, and taken apart one of the numerous arms of the Dark spell. Twilight metaphorically exhaled through her teeth as she poked and prodded the shining ball of light that was her Magical core. As she slowly extracted more of the foreign Magic, her concentration shattered when she finally managed to blink of her own volition in an hour. Elation made her blood rush in her ears. Then, many things happened at once.
Never before had Twilight been so glad to be tossed around like a ragdoll. One moment the wolves were snapping at her heels and crowding against her, and in the next, a massive shadow descended upon her and the wolves were nowhere to be found. Donnie landed in front of her and with a single swipe of his paw, Twilight went down like a sack of potatoes. She wanted to call it a fight, but that implied she put up some token of resistance before going down.
Even while her consciousness floated somewhere in between, Twilight could still feel the Magic Suppressing band clamped around Donnie’s snout. She wondered what could happen if the metal touched her while she was in this state.
The bigger dragon rumbled a laugh as Twilight's body thrashed and blasted flames. His talons fit around her neck with room to spare and his single eye danced with mirth. He held Twilight like a snake, keeping the most dangerous part of her away from his vulnerable areas. Despite thrashing and squirming like a fish out of water, Twilight's body let out hysterical laughter as her own amusement surfaced. She blinked gratefully and curved her eyes up in a smile, thrilled to be able to do so.
Donnie jumped skyward, shooting through the Everfree trees like nothing. Except he hadn't jumped. Donnie was swimming effortlessly through the night sky without any visible Magic, holding her as her wings spasmed and attempted to fly under her own power. It took her a moment to realize he was taking her back to the castle. Instantly her body contorted in a way that looked and felt impossible, throwing all of her weight in one direction to try and release herself. Her body could not resist the pull to destroy Ponyville.
Twilight let out a frighteningly high-pitched scream, worried she would somehow escape Donnie's iron grip on her. What ended up happening instead was her body wheezing and falling limp in submission when Donnie did nothing more than grumble and tighten his hold.
"Youngling, I am aware I stated that I am not particularly old. However, please refrain from knocking us out of the sky, yes? That would be a terrible greeting to the ground - almost offensive, one could say. We have a guest to welcome to Ponyville."
Twilight’s body screeched, pawing at Donnie’s impenetrable scales like a puppy throwing a tantrum.
“No,” Donnie said sternly, and his voice was immovable bedrock and the low rumble of tectonic plates, “I am unaware of what that alicorn has done to you, but you will behave until I find out.”
“I don’t even know what she did to me!” Twilight yelled in her head as Donnie banked and began the flight back to the castle.
Rainbow Dash cursed the Queen in as many languages as she knew. Which in all honesty, wasn’t that many even if she counted her shoddy Avianian. Briefly, they debated on whether or not to ask Fluttershy in the future how to swear in Avianian. The hippogryph would either be extremely amused, or Rainbow Dash would run the risk of getting chased through Ponyville by her best friend. Either way was a win in any case. It wasn’t often that Fluttershy got worked up enough to race them.
She eyed her two companions. Leaf and Reed tilted their heads in question, their new floppy purple ears flicking up. Privately, the griffon wished they had more time to draw up a more substantial plan. But, plants were already wilting and more firewood had been used up in the past two days than the town would usually use in a month. It wasn’t sustainable.
Her part of the grand plan wasn’t very set in stone either. Their job was literally to create a safe path to the castle, which was incredibly hard to do when an entire swath of the forest had been booby-trapped by something they couldn’t even see.
“Alright, guys. Do you trust me? We’re going to do something stupid.”
“Of course we do!” “We love stupid!” The Timberwolves signed together with wildly wagging tails.
She didn’t deserve companions like her Pack. Rainbow Dash puffed their plume as high as it would go. This would either go really well or blow up spectacularly in their faces. At least Leaf and Reed would be able to be put back together. Her? Not so much. Rainbow Dash was all flesh and feathers, thank you very much.
“Alright, let’s go. When you guys start running, don’t stop and spread out to cover as much ground as possible. I don’t want any flaming fur, do you hear me?” Rainbow Dash said sharply.
“I don’t even think that’s possible anymore,” Reed signed thoughtfully, “We’re like, more Magic than sticks at this point, right?”
“Let’s not find out today,” the griffon snorted, “You guys ready? Go!”
As they ran, the griffon let out an earsplitting roar. She was no dragon, but it echoed from the nearby cliffs. The wolves howled along with them. Her feathers tingled as lightning manifested above her, but she hadn’t earned her name Rainbow Dash by being the slowest flier at Flight Camp.
Lightning singed her fur and made her eyes burn. Thunder echoed in her ears making the dirt under her talons shake. The sounds of hooves, feet, and other extremities echoed through the forest behind them. Nowhere else to go but forward.
“My family will not be leaving until I know my daughter is safe,” Grandmother snapped to the guard at the door.
“Madam Sparkle-”
Spike couldn’t see her face, but he could imagine the blazing look that overtook her face just from the way the guard cringed where he stood.
“That is Lord Sparkle to you, Guard.” Spike jumped at the sharpness hidden behind the words. His ears folded back. Was it his fault that his Uncle wasn’t Lord anymore? “Let me make one thing clear: House Sparkle is staying here in Ponyville until actual concrete crystal clear news is given. Nor do I give a single ponyfeather about Captain Armor’s orders. Please leave. Thank you, good day.”
Spike gulped when his grandmother shut the library door in the guardspony’s face.
“That son of mine has got clouds stuffed into his head. He renounced his title the moment he made it clear he was a threat to Young Spike,” she sniffed as she trotted back to the table.
Spike fidgeted in his seat for a moment before deciding to give voice to the tiny ningling thought in his mind.
“Grandmother, I have a hypothetical question.” He waited for her nod to continue, “If I asked and wanted to, could I… stay in Ponyville? I really like it here…”
Grandmother gave him a hard stare. He knew what he was asking for was very unconventional. Heirs typically didn’t live away from the House estate until they were of age. But as it was, everything about him was already unconventional; what was one more tally to add to the list?
“Do you wish to live among your peers to understand them better, or is this something else, Young Spike?” Grandfather asked, smiling gently.
“I have friends,” he ended up blurting out, “I don’t have friends in Canterlot.”
Grandmother leveled another long neutral look at him. He fought the impulse to shuffle and instead stuck his chin out, tilting his head in challenge. Unbeknownst to him, he was the exact mirror of Twilight when she brought up finding another place to live when she first adopted Spike. He had the same stubborn glint in his eyes, and if Twilight Velvet concentrated hard enough, she could almost see smoke issuing from his muzzle. Spike was his mother’s son, there was no doubt about that.
“This will be something discussed as a family, Young Spike. Your mother must agree and set her own terms as well as myself. You are intelligent enough to know what will happen if this is agreed upon. There will be much to work out. Do you understand?”
That… that wasn’t a no.
“Yes. Thank you, Grandmother, thank you.”
The ponies were coming to her castle. It would be nothing but a fool’s errand. Her drakon would take care of them. Admittedly, her drakon was fairly weak compared to the drakons of old, but the ponies were weaker still. The drakon could rally whatever beasts it thought could destroy her and it would never be enough. Nothing short of the Queen dropping dead or her daughter returning could soothe the prickling rage in her breast.
What she could only assume were pegasi landed on the innermost battlements of the castle. It was a small herd, only about three or four if her senses proved to be correct. She let them wander all the way to the Throne Room before she set aside her work with the Leyline. Her breath stuttered at the sight before her.
Threstrals, four of them, stood in front of her standing proud. Shadow Prancer, Black Thorn, Night Flight, Silent Owl. Nightmare Moon smiled, a quick flash of fangs as she stared each one down. None of them flinched and pride expanded in her chest like a warm embrace. She knew they would have waited for her. Her officers were a loyal, strong lot. The Night Children would live again.
“Welcometh home mine own children.”
By the time Donnie descended toward the castle, Twilight was more or less in control of her own actions. Her wings still spasmed, and occasionally she would need to bite back growls, but overall, it wasn’t awful. In the trees below, torches flickered, and the thud of hooves were audible. Lightning rained down around the perimeter of the castle, and Twilight let her breath hiss out between her teeth.
“Do not fret. The Aerie Prides and the Packs have developed a method of getting us across. We gather at the gates.” Donnie assured her.
He landed amongst several minotaurs who greeted him with cheers and laughter. Twilight twisted her head to smile, but made no move to stand under her own power. She wasn’t sure how much of her control was because of the nullifying metal or her hurried dismantling of the dark Magic.
“The youngin’ give ya a run fer yer bits, Don? Took you a while!”
“Don’t be daft,” Donnie retorted in his flat voice, “Capturing one runaway youngling is a nonissue.”
Another of the minotaurs snorted in amusement, “Yeah, yeah. Bluff all ya want, old geezer. See if ya keep talking when we beat you across.”
“You are challenging a creature of my standing to a race?”
The minotaurs just laughed. Donnie’s mouth curved up in a smile. A timberwolf yipped at them before racing across the trapped landscape, barely dodging the lightning. As a group, the minotaurs and Donnie surged forward to take advantage of the time gap the spell needed to reactivate.
Twilight’s ears rang but she resolutely kept her eyes open. Donnie glided through the air at waist height like a fish through water, a full head in front of the good-natured cursing minotaurs. When the group reached the gates, and Donnie had gracefully descended, he turned with a tooth-filled grin to declare, “Would you look at that? Someone has won first place.”
“Cheater!” one of them gasped through their pants, “Yer supposed be runnin’! Not flyin’!”
“My apologies, that was not a rule I was aware of.”
“When this is all said n’ done with, I demand a rematch!”
Donnie grumbled a laugh in response before turning to face the old castle, “This is it. No room for error. Let’s go.”
Celestia returned to the artificial alicorn’s room. It was almost time to reapply the charm that immobilized it. The door swung inward and Celestia was presented… with an empty room. She blinked. Nothing in Equestria could escape from the enchantments she laid down. A bomb could’ve gone off and the room would’ve remained standing, she made sure of it.
The table the specimen had been on remained spotless. The room was just as immaculate. No signs of struggle or any indication of tampering. She lit her horn and entered, automatically checking the enchantment strings and the sigils. All looked to be well. So where was the damnable thing?
The instant she crossed the threshold, something akin to a boulder smashed into her lit horn. Pain drenched her head and trickled all the way down to her hooves. Her Magic imploded on impact, splashing back and making her vision flicker. A black shadow detached from the ceiling and zoomed over her head through the open door in the small window of opportunity created by her disorientation.
Celestia spun and had an instant to look at the wide-eyed alicorn before it vanished in a shower of starlight. The familiar vacuum of teleportation washed over Celestia a moment later. Silence fell as Celestia got her bearings back. Something ugly and unbefitting a Queen clawed to the surface as she staggered to her hooves. The alicorn allowed herself a faint snarl before wrapping it up neatly to be picked apart later (or not at all).
Why can’t ponies just do as they’re told? It would make life so much simpler.
The thestrals fanned out. The largest, Shadow Prancer bared her fangs, taking point at the head of the formation. Nightmare Moon let a chuckle escape. A thousand years later her hot-headed second in command was the same as ever.
“T wilt cometh as a relief to thee, for the traveling lamp to be-est hence. Our grand queendom shall never seeth the lighteth of day. Cometh, mine own children, and usher in the new age.”
But instead of the excitement and eagerness she was expecting, her children hissed in displeasure. The smallest of the lot, Silent Owl spoke, anger coating his words so thickly they shook as they left his mouth.
“You have damned our families, our home, the world. We starve and fight the cold. You disrupt the way of the wolves, attack our guests, and harm the beings that need the most help. Tell me, what is so grand about your kingdom? By the time you’re finished, you will have nothing but an empire of dust.”
“We expecteth not thee to understand,” she said back stiffly, her elation dashed, “Hast the Queen taken thee from us as well? Everything we doth is for the Night Children. And thee bid us thee don't wanteth?”
Figures. Everything that was once hers is no more. Her daughter, her Guard, her kingdom. All of it was rightfully hers. Had the Night Children forgotten how to cultivate the Night Plants? No one should be starving. And everyone knew the timberwolves in the forest weren’t intelligent enough to communicate, there’s nothing to disrupt about them.
“Attack!”
The thestrals pounced, wings snapping open and fangs clicking together. The half-second beat of hesitation the alicorn made before trying to blast them cost her. Her helmet took the brunt of the first attack. The metal dented inward, sending gong-like vibrations into her skull as she reflexively moved to shove them all off of her.
Claws scored into the metal of her gauntlets, screeching something unholy as they caught and dragged. Fangs ripped out feathers and blunt force made her stagger.
“Mutiny! Treason! Betrayal!” Nightmare Moon howled, “Thy queen hests thee to cease!”
Your Queen commands you to stop!
“You are no Queen of ours,” Black Thorn snarled, drawing a cloven hoof back, “We answer to no one but Lady Applejack. She has done more for us than any one of you feathered fools.”
“Starry Dancer, Shadowy Thorn, Whisper, and Night Owl have gone ahead inside, Applejack,” Rarity reported with a certain grimness.
The earth pony nodded, “Alrigh’ y’all! Let’s get a move on! Best not to leave our friends waitin’!”
The rusted gates of the castle drew long dark shadows as torchlight filtered over them. The old drawbridge creaked. Everyone remained silent as they crossed through the stone threshold. Sir Don arrived, silent as the wind, and deposited the smaller dragon onto the cobblestone. The quiet crowd parted to make room for them.
Applejack kept one eye on the reptiles when she noted the gentle guiding hand on the Taskmaster’s snout. The purple dragon looked… for lack of a better word, shitty. Wide dilated eyes had shrunk to pinpricks, leaving almost no iris. Dust clung thickly on her plated scales and mud coated all four claws. She moved almost jerkily, and her jaw worked for no discernible reason.
Sir Don rumbled comfortingly when Twilight scrabbled for his hold like a lost child, “We are almost there, friends. The thestrals have wrought a brilliant distraction. Let us take this opportunity to take the world’s freedom back.”
The procession made its way to the Throne Room doors. Next to her, Rarity drew a sharp breath, “The doors, they’re warded.”
In what looked like a trance-like state, Twilight Sparkle pressed her claws flat against the wood. The dragon flinched, snarling in pain, but she kept her claws steady. By some unspoken rule, a moment of stillness settled over everyone present. Then the doors blew in. Splinters, bits of jagged wood, and chunks of reinforcing iron shot into the Throne Room.
Nightmare Moon screeched, from rage or fear, Applejack didn’t know. The thestrals faded into nearby shadows, their jobs done. She couldn’t tell if they were injured or not. She hoped not. The alicorn was worse for wear. Her wings were flared and her snarl gave off the impression of a cornered animal.
Applejack reared up and slammed her forehooves into the stone. The tiles shattered on impact and a faultline zigzagged along the floor to the alicorn before spires of rock exploded out to pelt her armor with shrapnel. The minotaurs and timberwolves flooded into the room second. In a matter of moments, each physical exit of the room was blocked off by a heavy being with horns and a growling wolf.
Elsewhere, Applejack knew her Magic Teams were locking down the other parts of the castle and keeping an eye out for whatever the Elements of Harmony were. This was one mission no one could afford to fail.
Several griffons from Aerie Pride Two went down as lightning flashed from the ceiling. In front of her, Nightmare Moon was firing off beams of… Applejack didn’t even know what it was, but all of it was absorbed or deflected by the Taskmaster and Sir Don. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were a strange whirl of blue and pink feathers and lots of confetti.
It all came to a standstill when a bright light appeared above the castle. For a single mad moment, Applejack thought the sun had risen. But the color was wrong, and the stars still twinkled outside when it faded. Another alicorn descended into the room. A swell of emotion rose in Applejack’s chest at the sight. Was she angry? Frustrated? Fearful? Wryly amused? It could’ve been all of those if she was being honest because there was another doggone alicorn to be dealt with.
“CEASE!” The alicorn thundered in a volume that came deceptively from her small frame, “CEASE AT ONCE!”
Nightmare Moon’s head whipped up at the voice. It couldn’t be. Her eyes landed on her precious daughter. Nova had come back to her. Released or otherwise, she didn’t care. Nova had returned to her side.
“Mother! Mine own Queen, alloweth's leaveth this kingdom, leaveth, and never cometh backeth. The Queen shall not be-est ceased. Alloweth's leaveth, Mother, prithee.” Nova pleaded, landing as gracefully as she could.
But that was wrong, wasn’t it? Precious Nova wasn’t graceful. Her beautiful daughter was many things, but doing things with grace was beyond her. This was another trick from the Queen -- it had to be. Turning her own subjects against her was one thing, donning a puppet in the visage of her daughter was another.
“How dareth thee,” she rumbled and her not-daughter froze. “How dareth thee!”
This was not how it was supposed to go. She was supposed to gain freedom, enact her revenge, and take what was rightfully hers. By now, Celestia should’ve been cowering at her hooves, begging for mercy she would never give. By now, her power over Equestria should’ve been solidified, ushering in a new era of the queendom.
But the only thing she had to show for her grand plan was a crumbling castle, a beastly servant that had somehow removed its own collar, and her own subjects storming her home and succeeding. Her teeth gnashed together, grinding and popping to create a noise she was hard-pressed not to flinch away from.
“Mother-”
And, in some distant part of her mind, something quivered and shattered. “Thou. Art. Nay. Daughter. Of. Mine.”
A spell, hot and crackling, wreathed her horn. She flashed her fangs when it jetted toward Not-Nova. How curious it was that she felt almost gleeful watching that scarlet spell fly through the air. Now that was something that was graceful.
Rocks, dirt, and stone blasted her armor. The spell didn’t hit Not-Nova. It had hit a lowly shield of earth that her eyes traced back to the orange earth pony that led the charge into the castle. Not-Nova was nowhere to be found. Someone giggled.
“Someone missed~” a small pink pegasus sing-songed. Not-Nova was behind the much smaller pony.
Another spell, bright blue this time, sailed through the air, but there was a crack of thunder and the pegasus was in a completely different part of the room. They laughed again, “Oopsie! Try again!”
Nightmare Moon howled in rage. Was it not enough the Queen taunted her? The common folk had to mock her as well? Part of a nearby wall crumbled when she missed for the third time. So much of her mind was consumed by her fury that she nearly missed the screech of a griffon.
“Everyone, not needed, out! Secure the rest of this place, we got this! Pinkie needs space! Trust me!”
Not-Nova had vanished again, but she was far more infuriated with the pink ball of feathers, that, wouldn’t, sit, still! The pegasus had the gall to keep laughing and giggling with each miss. The complete lack of fear and utter lack of respect for her standing had her rearing up on her hind legs and crashing back down to encase the entire floor in ice.
“You think ice is going to slow Pinks down?” the griffon called mockingly, “That’ll just make her faster!”
And before her eyes, the pegasus went from a barely trackable blur, into one that materialized and vanished like she had mastered the art of powerless teleportation. She charged her horn to shockwave the entire room, her own disorientation be damned when a curious creature that looked like a pony crossed with a griffon settled their too-large talons on her head.
There was an almost indiscernible pulse of something before the creature spoke in a soft, kind voice, “You look a little tired. How about you sleep?”
Her eyelids drooped and she went boneless, crumpling to the ground with no fanfare. The creature even somewhat caught her so she didn’t end up teeth first onto the tiles. The creature ran their talons through her mane, keeping her limp and pliant. She wanted to screech, thrash, or even get up, but her body wasn’t listening to her maddened mind.
“Lady Rarity, Don,” she heard the drakon slur, “I ask for one more favor. There must be Magic, correct? Give it to me and I will channel it to the best of my ability.”
“There will be no favor to be repaid from this. I, Rarity Belle, freely give my Magic to Taskmaster Twilight Sparkle. Let the Moon, Sun, and Stars know, here stands Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty, Laughter, Kindness, and lastly, Magic.”
“Pinkie Pie, Laughter, for staring in the face of danger and keeping her smile. Applejack, Loyalty, for protecting one that isn’t her own. Rainbow Dash, Honesty, for asking others to trust your judgment in keeping them out of harm's way. Rarity Belle, Generosity, for freely giving second chances. Fluttershy, Kindness, for going out of her way to welcome a stranger. Twilight Sparkle, Magic, for the one that has learned what all these values mean.”
The talons left her mane, but before she could even twitch, fire enveloped her. It did not hurt, and yet she screamed until her voice went hoarse. It did not hurt, and yet she could still feel endless tears slipping past her closed eyelids. It did not hurt, and yet her muscles spasmed, clenching and unclenching with no pattern.
She was Nightmare Moon.
She was a Queen.
She was the Moon.
She was a mother.
She was…
She was… a nobody.
The fire left her and she could breathe again. Her mind was clearer than ever before. A name floated across her thoughts. Luna. But she was not the Moon, not anymore. Her eyes cracked open in time to see the Sun rise.