The citizens of Canterlot were being gathered in the town square for a mandatory rally. The ponies were reluctant to leave their homes since they were afraid from the coup yesterday, but they were too intimidated by the mind controlled soldiers to resist. They stood in the plaza, nervously looking to one another and at the soldiers that were herding them in the plaza. The pegasi guards, which were now no more than mindless watchdogs, stood by the exits to make sure that no pony attempted to leave.
Usurper-King Blueblood appeared on the palace balcony that overlooked the crowd of frightened ponies. Princess Celestia used this balcony only special occasions when she needed to address her subjects. She used it more frequently back when Canterlot was still new and most of the kingdom’s population was dwelling in it. Now, with the press available and the population dispersed around the kingdom, it was starting to become obsolete. However, the blond maned unicorn wanted to send a message.
“Citizens of Unicornia,” he called out to the crowd, not quite able to match the Royal Canterlot Voice. “Today marks the end of an old age and dawn of a new era, an era that shall restore the natural order, an era where the unicorns shall take the rightful place and lead this kingdom to prosperity!” The only ones in the crowd to cheer were the unicorns that have been brainwashed to support the false king.
Blueblood nodded to one of his guards and stood aside as the soldiers led Princess Celestia, Prince Shining Armor, and the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony to the balcony. The crowd started to murmur in confusion as they saw their heroes standing before them.
“To mark the dawn of this new era,” Blueblood continued. “I shall execute the symbols of oppression of the previous age!” The captive audience gasped in alarm at the terrible declaration. “However, I am not without mercy. If the Elements of Harmony will submit to me and accept me as their rightful king, I shall spare them.”
The mentioned six mares only glared at the contemptuous stallion. He walked up to Twilight Sparkle, who was trying to stop herself from lashing out at him. “So, Twilight Sparkle, what do you say? I could always use an intelligent pony such as you in my court.”
“You killed my son,” she growl in hatred. “I will never join you!” Blueblood motioned to the two guards beside her, and they pushed her along to stand next to her brother and Princess Celestia. Next, he stood before Fluttershy.
“How about it, you don’t want to suffer the same, awful fate that awaits them, do you?” He was certain he could make the timid, yellow pegasus cry and beg for mercy at his hooves. Instead, she stood her ground, unflinching at his threat.
“I will never join somepony as evil as you!” she yelled, surprising him with her sudden ferocity. He quickly recovered and had her placed with the other ponies that were condemned to die. He stood before Rainbow Dash next.
“I could use somepony as tough and brave as you. I could even make you a commander of your own squadron,” he bribed.
“You’re crazy if you think that I’d betray my friends!” she shouted, insulted that he would think that bribing the Element of Loyalty would work. As she joined the others, he made his way to Pinkie Pie.
“So, what…” He was cut off by a pie to the face.
“Does that answer your question?” the pink mare asked. He wiped the pie off his face as she was dragged away. He wondered where she even got the pie from as he headed to Applejack.
“Don’t waste your breath,” she said as he opened his mouth to speak and then made her way to her friends. That left Rarity remaining with the self-proclaimed king. He had purposely saved her for last.
“Ah, Lady Rarity, I could use a mare whose beautiful could match my own as my queen,” he grinned, hoping to appeal to her vanity. It would gain him more support to have one of the Element Bearers at his side. Besides, she would make the perfect trophy wife as soon as he brainwashed her.
“I will never stand by you,” she screamed. “You foul, revolting, disgusting, treacherous, idiotic, brainless,…” As she continued her barrage of insults, he gritted his teeth in anger. He raised his hoof and struck her across the face. His backhoof had knocked the white mare to the ground.
“Rarity!” her friends shouted as they saw her assaulted. They tried to rush in to help her, but the soldiers restrained them. Rarity’s head spun as she laid on the ground. She looked up at Blueblood, her vision fighting to come back into focus. He stood glaring over her fallen form.
“I guess I’ll start with you,” he said with pure malice. Instead of finishing them off quickly, he decided to make them suffer first. He wanted them to beg for death before he gave it to them. This would make more of an impression on his new subjects, and it would allow him to take out his anger on the mare that was lying before him.
He raised his hoof to strike her again. As he prepared to hit her, something large with purple scales swooped down and placed itself between the king and the mare. Blueblood couldn’t react in time and had already brought his hoof down. The purple scaled being caught the stallion’s foreleg in its mouth. Everypony gasped in surprised at what they saw; it was Spike. He had become a teenage dragon. Though he wasn’t yet the size of Garble or his cohorts, he was a little larger than Big Macintosh. Before Blueblood or any of his soldiers could take action, the dragon bit down onto the usurper’s fetlock and cannon with a bite force that could shatter diamonds. Blueblood howled in agony as the bones in his foreleg were crushed into powder by the dragon’s maw. Spike released Blueblood, who backed away, clutching his crippled leg. The soldier attempted to charge the dragon, but Spike breathed emerald fire at the ground, halting their attack.
“Spike?” Rarity whispered as she looked up at her savior, shocked that he was alive.
“Spike!” Twilight cried out with tears of joy in eyes.
“You creature!” roared Blueblood. “For this, Luna will die!”
“No!” Princess Celestia shouted as Blueblood’s eyes glowed green and red with a purple aura emitting from them, dark magic flowing from his horn. Blueblood’s smirked with triumph as she saw the white alicorn’s despair, but his smirk vanished when he felt nothing. Triumph was replaced with confusion and panic, for he could no longer sense the trap that was supposed to be surrounding Princess Luna. Celestia noticed his panic and realized that his trap had somehow failed. She rose from the balcony, her horn glowing with a golden light. Bolts of magic shot her horn, striking the guards that surrounded the eight ponies. She restrained herself, only rendering them unconscious, for she knew that they were not to blame for their actions.
Seeing his soldiers easily defeated by the angry solar princess, Blueblood and his remaining soldiers fled back into the palace. The crowd cheered for their princess and the guards that were in the plaza rushed the balcony. Shining Armor, the mane six, and Spike took defensive positions, ready to face the advancing guards. Shining Armor created a magical barrier, which the speeding pegasi slammed into, knocking them out cold. The unicorn guards stopped running and began to blast at the shield with their magic. There was a flash of light and guards turned around to see that the mane six and Spike were standing behind them. Catching them off guard, Twilight and Rarity started to launch bolts of magic at the unicorns as Applejack bucked a few in the head. Two guards tried to shoot Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy out of the air, but the pegasi avoided their attacks.
“Hello,” a cheery voice said to them. They looked down from the sky straight into the business end of Pinkie’s party cannon. “Say hello to my little friend.” One guard was blown away by a blast of confetti and streamers while Rainbow Dash slammed into the other while he was distracted. Spike formed his claw into a fist and uppercutted a unicorn, sending him flying. Fluttershy landed in front of the few remaining guards. They charged their horns to attack, but they found themselves caught in the “Stare.”
“How dare you!” Fluttershy reprimanded them. “Attacking the princess and betraying your country! What would your mothers think!?” The spell that was controlling the soldiers was losing to power of the yellow pegasus’s stare. They were being compelled to attack, but could not resist the power that this mare seemed to possess. “Now, you are going to sit there and think about what you have done!”
That was the last that the spell could stand and it broke. The soldiers sat on their haunches and shouted, “Yes ma’am!”
Princess Celestia used her magic to free the minds of the defeated guards. As she finished her spell, the sky began to grow dark. Everypony looked to the sky and saw the moon beginning to cover the face of the sun. The moon eclipsed the sun, leaving a white ring of light in a darkened sky.
“Oh no,” Celestia whispered in dread, knowing what this meant. “We must get inside, quickly!”
Blueblood and his remaining soldiers barricaded themselves inside the throne room. Blueblood sat in the middle of the room, nursing his crushed limb as he desperately thought of what he should do. As he thought, the lighting in the room dimmed and a windstorm generated from nowhere. He looked around the room in confusion and saw a vortex of starry magic hovering over the throne. The vortex ceased and a black alicorn with a living mane of night sky and wearing armor saw standing atop of the dais. Blueblood stood in terror as the alicorn looked loathingly down at him.
“Perish!” the Mare in the Moon roared as she unleashed her fury in a blast of magic.
Eight ponies and a dragon raced down the halls of the palace.
“Where do you think he’s hiding?” asked Rainbow Dash as she flew above the others.
“I’m not sure. Maybe he used a secret passage out of the castle,” guessed Shining Armor.
“Maybe we could ask those guys,” suggested Pinkie Pie, pointing to the guards that just ran around the corner and were heading right at them. They prepared themselves for a fight, but then they noticed that the guards were in a panic.
“Your Highness!” the led guard called to Celestia. As they approached, she could tell that they were no longer under a spell. “In the throne room! It’s…it’s…”
Celestia didn’t wait for him to finish. She hurried to the throne with the others following her. They entered the chamber and froze at what they saw. Nightmare Moon saw sitting upon the throne and what was left of Blueblood was off to the side of the room. Some of the mane six nearly lost the contents of their stomachs when they saw the remains, but Princess Celestia’s gazed was fixed upon her sister.
“Oh Luna,” Celestia said in dismay.
“Welcome to my castle,” replied Nightmare Moon in a cold tone. She slowly descended the dais to stand before the group.
“The Elements of Harmony!” Twilight said, thinking of using them against the dark alicorn. “We need to get…” She started to run towards with other Bearers, but the doors slammed shut.
“None of you are going anywhere,” Nightmare Moon said darkly. The group looked to Celestia to see if she had a plan. The elder sister calmly walked forward the younger.
“Princess Celestia,” Twilight said to her teacher. “What are we going to do?”
“It will be alright,” reassured her teacher in a soothing voice. “Everypony stand back. I will handle this.”
Nightmare Moon laughed at her sisters words. “You really think that you can defeat me? Ha! You will pay for what you did to me. I swear you will all pay. All of Equestria will pay.”
“No Luna, this ends here.” As Celestia spoke, she was completely calm. There was no hint of anger or aggression in her voice. “Please stop this, sister.”
“You are no longer worthy to call me that!” she yelled in the Royal Canterlot Voice. The force of her voice nearly knocked the others over, but Celestia stood unfazed. “You made me suffer in that frozen Tartarus for a thousand years! You further mocked me by using my own moon to serve as my prison! When I returned, you dared to act as everything was alright between us! How could you possibly think that!? You don’t think I know how everypony thought of me when I returned!? They still hated me! They looked upon me with scorn and fear. They thought that I should have never been release from my exile. They thought I was monster! You only gave me back my responsibilities to try to keep the peace between us. There was never peace between us. You always claimed that we were meant to rule together, but I know the truth.”
“We are meant to rule together.”
“No, you were meant to rule. I was always the lesser sister. The ponies of Equestria would fawn over you and worship you. They only came to you with their petitions and their praises. I was only there to be a convenience for you; to be a steward over what others have forsaken. I gave them all I had; my love, my dedication, my devotion. What did they ever give me; their indifference, their ingratitude, their hatred. I was shunned from the light and forced into the darkness. Things haven’t change. They will never change. Now, it’s time for everypony to suffer as I have suffered, and you will watch. You will watch as they lose all hope, and finally, you will know my pain.”
The two alicorns stood face to face, their eyes locked. A moment of silence passed as they stared each other down. Finally, Celestia raised her hooves and brought them down onto her sister’s neck. Nightmare Moon flinched at the movement. She had expected Celestia to attack, but she didn’t expect that she would strike first or try to strangle her. Nightmare Moon prepared to fight off the assault and retaliate, but the choking sensation never came. Nightmare Moon looked in confusion at Celestia as she realized that she was being hugged by her elder sister. What surprised everyone in the room was that Celestia was crying.
“I know your pain,” Celestia said softly, her tears staining her sister’s neck. “Believe me, I know. I had to suffer the curse of immortality without the only one who I shared it with. I was constantly surrounded by ponies, but I was so alone. I wept for years after you were gone. It pained me to see how little our subjects cared for you. I tried to do everything to help them see you as I did. It pained me every day to raise and lower the moon in your absence. Every time I looked up at the moon and saw your image upon it, I was reminded of my failure to save you.”
“W-what…” Nightmare Moon was paralyzed with confusion. She expected a grand conflict, but what she found was her sister mourning for her.
“Even when you returned, I could sense your pain. I knew you felt like that everypony was judging you, but the truth is that they love you. But you kept your pain to yourself, not letting anyone in. I tried to help you, but you always claimed that you were fine. I knew how you still blamed yourself. The truth is that I have never blamed you. I still don’t.” Celestia released her sister from her embrace, and the two stood there, looking at each other.
“I…I…”Nightmare Moon stammered. Conflicting emotions surged through her. She wanted to believe that her sister was deceiving her, but her words were soothing to her.
“You never deserved all the pain and hatred that was placed upon you. I want to help you, but need to let me help you.”
“You…you’re trying to trick me!” Nightmare Moon stood back into threating stance, her horn glowing menacingly. “You’re just trying to get me to drop my guard!”
“No Luna,” Celestia reassured. “I’m trying to help you. You’ve held on to your pain for so long that you haven’t allowed yourself to heal.” Nightmare Moon remained in a combat stance, but her eyes started fill with tears. “Let it go.”
“I…I can’t…I don’t want to…”
“Let it go. It will be alright. Don’t worry; your big sister is here for you.”
“…Tia…”
“That’s right, let it go.”
The black alicorn was enveloped in a light. Her body shrunk to its proper size and the armor disappeared. When the light faded, her coat had returned to its natural dark blue color and her eyes where normal again. Luna was shaking and tears were running down her face.
“Tia…I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean it!” Luna sobbed as she fell into her sister’s embrace again.
“Ssshhh…” her sister soothingly hushed her as she comfortingly stroked Luna’s mane. “It’s okay, Lulu, it wasn’t your fault. Everything will be okay.”
As the two sisters embraced each other, the eight ponies and dragon stood by, watching. Realizing that the conflict was over, the ponies turned to Spike.
“Spike!” Rarity exclaimed as she threw her forelegs around his neck, standing on her hind legs to reach him. “You’re alive, and you’ve grown!”
“Yeah, turns out I was going through a growth spurt,” he explained.
“Looking good, big guy,” complimented Rainbow Dash.
“How did you survive the fall?” asked Shining Armor.
“Wings,” answered Spike, flapping his large wings a little.
“But they were so small,” exclaimed Fluttershy.
“Yeah, you could barely get airborne the other day without getting tired,” added Pinkie Pie.
“Well, when you’re failing to your doom, you tend to put everything you’ve got into surviving,” he explained.
“How’d you get so big?” asked Applejack, looking at his larger frame.
“I found a cave filled with gems underneath the bridge.”
“Spike.” He turned to see Twilight Sparkle walking up to him. She stopped in front of him, staring into his eyes.
“Twilight.” Before he could say more, she began crying and she wrapped her forelegs around his neck. He returned the hug.
“I thought you were dead…” she sobbed into his shoulder.
“I’m okay,” he tried to comfort her, but she continued to cry.
“Princess Celestia told me that you were my son, and then I thought I lost you.”
“What?”
“Your egg, it turns out that you were never supposed to hatch, but I gave life to you. You’re my son…my baby boy…” She started to cry again. The news stunned him, but he embraced it with all of his heart.
“I’m home, Mama,” he said to her, beginning to cry a little himself. Their friends watch as the mother and son hugged each other, crying along with them, happy for their reunion.
After they all had share tears of joy, they left the throne room. Princess Luna walked alongside her sister, Princess Celestia’s wing pulling her into the white alicorn’s side. The two alicorns stopped at Blueblood’s body. Beside it was King Sombra’s horn, dark crystals had grown out of it like a seed sprouting roots. Celestia frown at it and then blasted it into oblivion. Twilight Sparkle and Rarity were both nuzzling against Spike as they followed the princesses. Pinkie Pie bounced after them as Fluttershy and Applejack trotted beside her, and Rainbow Dash flew overhead.
With the demise of Blueblood, the spell that had been placed on certain ponies had been lifted. Thus the day long reign of King Blueblood had ended and he laid on the floor forgotten, unloved, and unmourned.