//------------------------------//
// A Little Traction 
// Story: Patriarchal/Divine Intervention 
// by Teh dr3am3r 
//------------------------------//

	 A single white alicorn stood high over her dying domain, standing atop the palace astronomy tower with her head pointed at the dark horizon, a suffuse glow shading her pearlescent horn. She reached forth into the abyss beyond the world with a magical arm and groped about for the barrier that held her sun down. The tendrils of magic brushed against the force field and swarmed over it, attempting in vain to obtain a grip on its smooth surface. Finding nothing to grasp, Celestia withdrew the magic and formed it into a long spear of energy. With a grunt she thrust it into the field, only to have the projectile shatter against the resolute blockade. 
Without hesitation the princess formed a long, spiraling point and kissed it against the invisible surface. Pouring all the energy she could muster into the weapon, she forced it to spin, slowly at first, but then faster and faster as her drill picked up speed and momentum in the vacuum of space. When its speed began to make Rainbow Dash seem sluggard, she gently pressed it into the unyielding surface. Nothing happened to the barrier, but Celestia pushed harder, determined to make the sun rise for her subjects and she knew in her heart that she would not, could not, fail. The barrier remained impassive as she pressed her magical drill harder and harder into its surface, issuing a grunt of effort from the stalwart princess. 
As the strength of the drill's tip began to falter, heat making the conjured matter weaken and begin to buckle under the pressure as the shield remained unmarred by the onslaught, Celestia threw out a glancing petition for help in her desperation. The silence screamed in her ears, drowning out everything but the screeching peal of pain as the drill tip fractured and shattered in her grip, leaving its foe without a scratch, and its master with a searing headache and a weak body. Her magic reserves spent, the injured princess collapsed to the stones in defeat, panting madly and allowing her beleaguered eyelids to slide closed over her eyes.
For several minutes she lay there, sweating and shivering, more from her downfall than from the freezing cold that pervaded everything. She eventually stood up, dragging her tired hooves beneath her as she struggled to rise to full stance. Her head hung low and foam crusted the corners of her mouth as her sides expanded and contracted in a hurried effort to obtain enough oxygen to keep her body alive. Lifting her head and opening a sunken eye to the stars above, she poured all her grief and shame into one miserable look of longing for her father to see.
Celestia's neck shuddered and her head dropped quickly as the strength fled from the muscles. She sat on her haunches and rested her chin on her crossed fore legs atop the frigid stones of the observatory balustrade, and gazed sadly at the pricks of light from fires; her subjects doing something, anything to stay warm. She sat like this for an eternity, staring blankly into the night, all of her last and final hopes dashed against the accursed barrier that held down her beloved sun.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" came the familiar voice of her possessed sister, dripping with mocking sarcasm and cruelty. Celestia knew that Nightmare was not ignorant of the pain she caused in her everlasting night, and her jesting countenance about her own evil pleasure sliced through the enervated princess' heart.
She said nothing, too weak to even think of a response.
"An entire world brought to its knees because the one placed over them could not do the one thing entrusted unto her. In a way, this is all your fault. You did not have the strength to even pull the sun over the horizon." the dark mare teased her.
Celestia mustered her flagging strength into one slow question, "Why, Nightmare? Why, hurt everypony, so... much?"
The mare behind her laughed gaily, clearly pleased to have been asked such a question. She remained silent for a while after the chuckle, drawing in a long-awaited monologue. "Chryssy drained me of all joy and happiness when we were young, thousands of years ago. She destroyed my body, but I was not ready to die, so I lived on as a wraith. When I found Luna, abused, rejected, and otherwise hateful, I took great pleasure by inflicting all the misery I had felt over the eons upon everypony. I enjoy being powerful and I don't shirk from doing whatever the buck I want with it."
"Chryssy?"
"My sister, Chrysalis."
"You're related to Chrysalis?"
"And daughter to Discord, yes family heritage and such. So much pointless drawl over who we are related to, as if it even matters."
Celestia shuffled to her hooves, issuing several cracks as her joints popped under pressure. She slowly turned on her sister's modified form and looked deep into feline eyes, wide slits surrounded by icy-blue irises. She pressed her forehead against Nightmare's, making their horns scrape together as their eyes nearly touched from the close contact. Her skin felt like the air did, cold, as if she was a dead body, suddenly animate after all heat had left it. 
"I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth if it means saving the sun. I promise you that. I will never stop hunting you down like the animal you are."
The cold mare pressed back against Celestia, forcing the weakened princess to recoil. "See? You are too weak to resist me. Hatred will always be stronger than love, and your love for your ponies will never conquer me. Your land will die, everypony in it will die, all the world will become as barren as the moon you banished me to for a thousand years. I could just send you there, but I think that to watch everything around you decay into a barren wasteland as you remain, immortal, would be the perfect punishment."
"So you begrudge me banishing you to the moon? Is that why you are doing this?"
Nightmare broke contact with a guffaw of mirth and shook her head, "No, I already explained that. Just that pain that you will feel... hmmmmm... would be the best thing that has ever happened to me. No, I just want to see you lose everything, and when the pain becomes too much for your immortal soul, I will watch as you destroy yourself just to get away from the agony of all the dead around you."
Celestia's shoulders sagged under the weight of Nightmare's prophetic words. She had already despaired, what else could this mare possibly want? 
In a surge of anger and hatred at the cruelty of Nightmare, Celestia fired everything remaining in her at the dark pony.
She sidestepped the blast easily and picked up the broken alicorn in her magic and dangled her drooping body over the edge of the balustrade. Celestia's inside threatened to turn themselves out at the drop below, her entire body suddenly overcome in a wave of vertigo. Nightmare clucked her tongue disapprovingly and let Celestia drop a few feet, allowing a moment of free fall to emphasize her control over the helpless alicorn. Her crown fell off at the motion, tumbling hundreds of feet through the air until it shattered against the streets below. Nightmare raised her captive higher and flung her form back onto the balcony, tossing her like a rag doll.
"Try that again, and I will drop you. Your little ponies will watch in horror as you commit "suicide" and they will despair completely."
Celestia only moaned in pain, pulling weakly at her twisted limbs beneath her fallen torso. 
"Look at you, you're pathetic. Weak. Dear Tia, what happened to you?"
The princess glanced up, hope glimmering in her eyes as she heard the nickname only Luna had for her. She knew in that moment that Luna was still alive, somewhere in Nightmare's mind. Fire filled her eyes and a surge of adrenaline pulsed through ever fiber of her being as she caught hold of that one last hope. "I'm sorry Luna."
With a burst, Celestia kicked out wildly, catching Nightmare on the chin in a nasty uppercut, snapping her head back. The evil mare rose on her wings and kicked Celestia's chest hard with both hind legs, sending the alicorn sprawling. She hopped up as Nightmare charged her horn, and dodged the bolt of energy aimed right at her heart. She ducked her shoulder and rammed her once-sister as hard as she could, sending them both spiraling off the tower. She bit hard into the dark mare's neck, drawing a ribbon of blood and hit her hard in the gut with all her rage and fury at the demon inside her sister. 
With a puff of smoke, her foe vanished from her violent embrace, stunning Celestia momentarily. She flared her wings, but their weakened forms did little to slow her descent. Resolving herself to her fate, she gently closed her eyes and prepared for the inevitable. She waited, and waited, but the impact never came. Opening her eyes, she found herself in her niece's familiar blue glow. She was carefully deposited on the ground as a purple mist darted from the shadow's and materialized as Nightmare Moon. 
Cackling evilly, the dark mare charged her horn. Just as she was about to release her death-blow, a sky-blue bolt of lightning struck her horn, sending the deadly bolt crashing into a wall. Nightmare looked for her assailant and gasped, filling her horn once again with energy. Another bolt of lightning rammed into Nightmare full-force and threw the mare onto the ground. A shadow shifted and Princess Cadence emerged from the darkness, her horn brimming with magic and a determined fire in her eyes. She cast a spell on the stunned mare, but the spell she cast was one Celestia would never, in all her life, would never have guessed. 
Two pieces of a heart formed over Nightmare's head, mirroring cracks lining the inside like a fissure. The two pieces clamped together before seeping into The dark pony's horn. An unearthly scream emanated from the form on the ground, as it suddenly began convulsing and jerking in agony, screeching like a banshee, smashing hooves into the pavement , and thrashing about like a landed fish. Cadence looked on calmly as Celestia watched in shock, stunned that somepony like her niece would torture even something as vile as this. Skin and fur tore off as the figure flailed about on the ground, still bellowing its cry of utter pain. Flesh caught on the cobblestones and tore off with a sickening rip, revealing raw meat beneath as blood gushed from the numerous wounds over the distorted monster. 
Filled with pity, Celestia dragged limp body nearer to Cadence's still form and asked weakly, "What are you doing?"
Cadence answered impassively, her voice near robotic, "Drawing out the poison."
The two continued to watch the writhing pony as it slowly diminished in size, entire chunks of its body tearing off and dissolving on the ground. After several long minutes of screaming and gyrating, a hunched figure lay quietly in the shadows, too dark for Celestia to make out what was left of Nightmare Moon. Cadence calmly walked up to whatever remained as Celestia slid into darkness.


******


A knock sounded at the library door, but the tree's sole inhabitant remained fixed on the floor, not budging an inch from the spot that marked her dreary existence. The knock came again, and still the unicorn did nothing to answer it, staring blankly at the wall. A minute passed, then two, then a voice came from outside the door, "Twilight? Are you there?"
The named pony's head snapped around so quick she might have broken her neck. She knew that voice, so well in fact that only one other was branded upon her brain more. She leaped to her hooves and rocketed up the stairs as her door was unlocked with magic and it began to swing open, allowing the sun's glorious rays to sweep aside the absolute darkness inside. Two alicorns entered, one of a deep midnight blue, and the other of a gentle pink, one with a crescent moon over an appaloosa print, the other a crystal heart adorning their flanks respectively.
The first called again for her lover, but she received no response. Nodding to her niece to stay, she began ascending the steps that led to Twilight's bedroom, her sense of dread escalating with every step. At the threshold, she hesitated before knocking. What if Twilight rejected her? What if she didn't forgive her? She didn't know what she would do if she was rejected. Luna steeled herself as she knocked. She was doing this for Equestria and for poor Tia, not for her relationship with Twily. Silence ensued, and Luna was about to turn when a loud crash came from inside, followed by a stream of whispered curses.
Luna knocked again, "Twily, I know you're in there. Are you all right?"
The silence resumed and Luna gave in, turning from the oaken portal. As she began down the steps, the door behind her creaked and Luna turned to see a filthy, sunken unicorn that looked somewhat like Twilight. She left the door open but turned and reentered her room, sitting on her bed with a huff. Luna walked in tentatively as if walking into a mine-field, closing the door behind her. The darkness fell over the room, and even though Luna could see easily in the dark, she didn't see the unicorn rush forward and pull her into a crushing hug. Luna gasped in surprise and returned the embrace softly, relishing in the sudden warmth.
"I'm so sorry, I should not have snapped at you so-"
"No, I'm sorry," Twilight cut in, "I shouldn't have been so hurt. The King had clearly made you angry and you were just trying to-to..."
She drifted off as Luna let go of her and sat down on the mattress, patting the bed for Twilight to sit. However, while Luna could see perfectly well in the dark, Twilight could see nothing. She stumbled and tripped over Spike's small bed and fell into Luna, who caught her and set her down at her side. The two sat together in silence for a while, before Twilight broke the silence. "So it was all Nightmare Moon again, huh?"
"Indeed. She was tormenting me as I was speaking to Father, making my temper worse. And she also twisted my thoughts and confused my words when I spoke so harshly to you. I never meant to blame you for my pain Twily. I am glad you are in my life and I would have no other."
Twilight nodded slowly and leaned against the princess' shoulder, who wrapped a leg about her and stroked her mane tenderly. The two sat like this for a while, until Twilight asked how she had gotten rid of Nightmare. Luna told her everything, everything from their breakup, to waking next to Tia in the hospital, to raising the sun for her sleeping sister. Twilight listened quietly and intently, drinking in every word her long lost marefriend said like a pony in the desert finding water.
After Luna had finished, Twilight piped up, "So what now?"