"Can anypony hear me? What is this place?"
The translator rendered the voice sweeter and softer than Nightmare Moon's. It also lacked the night princess's eternal undercurrent of boiling anger and bitter resentment. I lowered the device's output volume so as not to give away my hiding place.
A point of light ignited in the center of the room, confirming my suspicions: It was the newly-made statue of her sister that was speaking. Its stone horn glowed a golden yellow and I could clearly see the dark hole of its mouth move as it walked in a small circle, taking in its surroundings.
"So cold here..." it subvocalized, "and I feel heavy and light all at once. Is this a dream?"
A more familiar voice chuckled from the darkness. "A nightmare."
To its original's credit, the simulacrum did not cry out or flinch, but swiftly turned in the direction of the voice. A globe of light floated from its horn and rose to the ceiling, illuminating the arena with a radiance like daylight. Even so, I couldn't see Nightmare Moon anywhere, and apparently neither did the statue. It quickly turned one direction, then another, scanning the room.
I dearly wished the cart under which I was hiding had not been painted bright red. It stuck out like the proverbial broken digit in the room of gray and white stone.
However, before its blank eyes fell on me, Nightmare Moon spoke again from behind one of the pillars on the far side of the chamber. "Do you recognize me, your highness? Do you know where you are now?"
The simulacrum's eyes widened, but it said nothing.
"Of course you've forgotten, haven't you? Who could blame you? It's been such a long time." Nightmare Moon continued, her voice dripping scorn. I saw a black figure steal between the columns behind the fake Celestia's back.
The stone pony appeared shocked, but continued to keep mum.
"Well? Nothing to say?" Nightmare Moon snapped impatiently. "Go on, tell me how this was necessary for the greater good! Say how much you love me! See if I fall for it again." She stepped from behind another pillar and into the light, staring directly into the statue's face, sapphire eyes blazing with hatred.
Clearly anguished, the false princess lowered her gaze and her head until the tip of her stone horn nearly touched the floor. "Luna... I—," she choked.
Nightmare Moon reared. "That is NOT MY NAME!" she screamed, shaking the room. As soon as her front hooves struck the floor, she launched herself toward the stone Celestia, horn glowing like a brand and leveled to stab.
The statue of her sister just stood there, head down, not even trying to prepare for the charge. Were not Nightmare Moon's target made of rock and dust, I would have covered my eyes rather than see the gruesome aftermath.
It was a good thing I didn't. At the last moment, Celestia's head shot back up. Her long horn caught the attacker right in the pit of her left front leg and launched the enraged pony in an arc through the air. She struck one of the room's pillars and bounced off, leaving a frightening spiderweb of cracks in the stone. Just before she crashed into the floor, Nightmare Moon opened her wings, righting herself and softening her landing.
"Sister, you don't need to go through with this!" the stone Celestia pleaded. "Everything can go back to the way it was if you'll just—"
"The way it was?!" Nightmare Moon screeched, snorting and pawing the ground. "I'd rather die, and I'd much rather kill you all!" She charged again.
This time her target tossed her gray head, throwing that prodigious mane out before her to obstruct Nightmare Moon's vision. The attacker took the bait. As she charged blindly through, the stone pony sidestepped and kicked the night princess as she thundered by, knocking her through another pillar halfway across the room.
I scooted forward to see if the ceiling had been damaged, but other than a few cascades of dust, the roof remained stable.
"Agh..." The pony groaned, lifting herself from the debris and back onto her feet. "Always got another trick hidden in that giant tangle, don't you?"
Celestia looked on Nightmare Moon with pity in her eyes. "Sister, I'm begging you. If not for me, for your own sake: stop this! I don't want to have to hurt you any more."
"You arrogant, condescending nag!" Nightmare Moon shouted back. "You think you can go easy on me? You think you can knock me around until I give up?"
Instead of replying, the image of Celestia tried to cast a spell. Her horn glowed again and she began to shimmer and fade out of existence. The light around the stone spike suddenly vanished with a pop and she instantly returned to opacity. The living statue blinked in surprise. "How are you blocking my teleportation?"
Nightmare Moon sneered and lowered her voice. "There's no escape from this place; you saw to that. You locked me up here to rot forever. How fitting that you're now stuck here too. Conquer or die, princess!"
"No, I'd never... that's not true!" Celestia insisted, more wounded by the accusation than any of Nightmare Moon's attacks. "I didn't abandon you, my sister. One day, when you're well again, we'll rule Equestria as we were meant to; side-by-side. I swear it!"
"As we were meant to!" Nightmare Moon repeated in a mocking, nasal falsetto. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don't want to 'share' a throne with you?" As she spoke, her hair seemed to stretch and grow behind her until it was a swirling vortex of stars. "And don't pretend your own wishes are the same as what's meant to be. I know the prophecy as well as you. My night will be supreme!"
The stone pony took a step back and began casting another spell. "And what of our subjects? Surely you know—"
She was cut off by a roar of thunder. A bolt of lightning flew at her from the swirling vortex above Nightmare Moon. I was temporarily blinded and deafened by its report. When my senses returned, The simulacrum was still standing defiantly, surrounded by a transparent bubble of golden light.
"Oh, I know exactly what I'm doing, sister dear." Nightmare Moon said, releasing blast after blast of electricity into Celestia's defenses. "Once I've done for you, I'll give them what they've got coming!"
The golden dome shuddered, buckled, then shattered into shards and sparks beneath the unrelenting assault. The statue that had sheltered beneath it reeled back, stunned. Arcs of electricity crawled up and down Celestia's form, leaving scars of fused glass in their wake.
Nightmare Moon slowly advanced on the copy of her sister. "Why don't you fight back?" she asked, fury giving way to incomprehension. "You have the power. If you don't stop me, I'll kill you, and then I'll kill everypony else. Don't you even care?!"
Celestia flopped into a couched posture beside a pillar and stared at the ground. "I can't do it! I exiled you because I can't do it!" she sighed. "Sister, I'm so tired. All those years... I thought I could help you; that maybe time would heal you; or that I'd find a way to save you from this once and for all, but..."
The dark princess impatiently waved the rest of the comment away. "It didn't. You can't. There is nothing to heal. All you can do is fight. Fight me and I'll grant you a swifter end than you deserve."
The damaged statue refused to rise.
This certainly wasn't what I'd been expecting to see when she said she'd give form to the memories of her most hated adversary. She too seemed uncertain and confused by the stone pony's refusal to cooperate. Perhaps her hatred of the true Celestia was misplaced, her memories embellished? But she'd said this thing was her memories given form and motion. Why wasn't this one behaving as she expected?
As I pondered this, something pressed against my side. I yelped, sprung up and knocked my helmet against the bottom of the cart. It was only the little statue again. It huddled next to me, watching the scene unfold with the dismal, anxious look it tended to wear around Nightmare Moon. I scooted sideways to give it room, but it moved closer to lean against me again, and spread a small wing across my back. It seemed comforted by my presence, but I felt as though I was half-buried by a chilly landslide.
While this was happening, Celestia had raised a toe to her eye, and she seemed slightly confused when it found no tears there to daub. "If I do as you wish, will you spare our subjects?" she asked.
Recognizing my own suggestion echoed in the mouth of the statue, Nightmare Moon shot me the briefest sidelong glare.
"After a manner of speaking. My only request is that you get off your rump and fight back with all your force. The only way to save them is to kill me."
"Kill my sister?" Celestia shook her gray head as if unable to conceive of the idea. "No, never! I love you, Luna. I never meant to hurt you. Please, just let go of your grudges, abandon this plan and I'll make it up to you! I'll do anything!"
Nightmare Moon gasped, then drew back with a guarded expression. "This is a trick. You won't fool me again."
"It's no trick," Celestia desperately insisted. "Take the throne! Rule night and day both as I have! Lock me in a dungeon just as long as you've been waiting here! Just stop all this! Stop poisoning your mind with hatred, stop letting jealousy eat you, stop destroying yourself!"
The princess of the night actually wavered, warring within. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Had Nightmare Moon forgotten she was dealing with a statue, a figment of her own mind with no powers but what she'd given it? Beside me, the little statue leaned forward. I was certain its eyes would be shining with hope were they not made of dull, unreflecting dust.
"You were happy, once," the stone pony said. "Things weren't perfect, but you were happy. You told me so. If you kill me and go through with all this, it won't make you happy again. Everypony, everything on our world will die and turn to dust, and you'll be alone in the night, no different from here." She scraped a hoof through the thin layer of sand that coated the floor. "This isn't your prison, sister. The real prison is within," she tapped the hoof to her breast, "and you can walk out of it whenever you choose. But if you don't, you'll just make new prisons for yourself wherever you go, even to ends of the universe."
Nightmare Moon took a single step forward, wide-eyed and shaking with tension. "You'll let me rule? You'll give me complete control? They'll thank me for the day?"
"And the night, as they ought," the fake Celestia said, looking up from the floor to meet the pony's eyes.
"How do I know you'll keep your word?"
"You don't have to believe me; you can punish or exile me however you like. I know you can rule our ponies justly."
As it had back in the crater, something once again broke within Nightmare Moon's anima. She stumbled toward the statue, gaping and trying to come to grips with what she'd just heard. "I... I guess this is acceptable? It's just... I never expected you'd be willing to..." She shook her head. "Have I been lying to myself all this time?" Suddenly, she broke into a gallop, tears streaming from her eyes. "Oh...oh Tia! I acc—"
Celestia's expression changed from desperate sincerity to mocking hatred as if with the flick of a switch. With a motion almost faster than my eyes could follow, She swung her head just as Nightmare Moon threw herself forward to embrace her. The glowing stone horn struck the dark pony full across the face and knocked her to the ground, dazed. Before she could rise, Celestia leaped up on her hind legs and motioned again with her shining horn like a conductor's baton. The pillar she'd been lying beside took on the horn's golden glow, cracked, and toppled down on Nightmare Moon as she tried to stand. There was a crash and a pathetic squeak.
With a roar like a hundred waterfalls, the unsupported half of the arena's ceiling collapsed, burying the pony beneath what must have been, even in that slight gravity, hundreds of tons of jagged, broken stone. Sunlight shone in from the gaping hole above Nightmare Moon's impromptu cairn, but a transparent golden roof of magic power still trapped the air within the dome.
The stone Celestia sank back onto all fours and shook her head sadly. "Stupid horse."
She turned and walked right up to the trolley, until all I could see were her legs like four pillars and the trailing ends of her mane and tail. I didn't dare move or even breathe.
"Come out, little one." she said sweetly, then called me by name, my real name. "We have things we need to discuss."
The words weren't coming through my translator; she was speaking to me in my native tongue.