It only took a moment for the twin sisters to taste the powerful magic lacing the air as they stepped out of nothingness and into the bright sunshine warming Ponyville. The reek of the spell was almost impossibly potent, and Luna began coughing as it’s stench filled her lungs. More accustomed to controlling her responses, Princess Celestia’s nostrils simply flared wide as she inhaled.
Beside the pair, Valiant was gasping as her stomach churned. She was not quite as sensitive to the delicate natural balance of magic the way the alicorn’s were, but she was very sensitive for a unicorn. The cloying reek of unnatural magic was something that was making even the stoic and magically inert earth ponies of the town nervous.
“Sister?” Luna gasped, lungs empty from her violent hacking and wheezing. Her throat burned when the malignant air struck it, but biology demanded that she breath, and so she choked down a deep lungful. Her hoof came up to massage her throat, and she began to breathe shallowly, evenly, desensitizing herself to the wrongness of the magic. After several minutes, both alicorns were able to breath normally, with only the slight stinging pain of a migraine building, but for the moment suppressed.
Captain Valiant suffered far more than either of her charges, her body simply not as resilient and controlled as that of the alicorn’s. Though she was no longer coughing and struggling to simply breathe, her gasping inhalations were both painful, and sporadic. She wasn’t able to cope as well as the Princesses either, lacking their earth pony resilience and strength. It took her longer to straighten, and even then the burning pain of her gasps was almost unbearable.
It wasn’t unbearable though, and after shaking her head violently from side to side to rid herself of the mental haze her fit had left her in, she looked over at the two mares. They were both standing close together, and both were looking out over the body of the armored unicorn. Their wide eyes were fixed on the forest behind Valiant, and after a moment, she followed their gaze.
When she gasped, she didn’t even notice the pain that burned in her lungs.
The Everfree was... dead. There was no other word for it. A blanket of emotionless grey clouds hovered placidly above the forest, seeming to have collected around some giant, invisible dome. There was no flicker of lightning within the dull shapes, and even though she only had a laypony’s understanding of the way the weather patrol operated, she knew enough to know that so many dark clouds, so close together, would be creating the flicked sparks of ‘heat lightning’, lightning that arced from cloud to cloud, never touching the ground. Heat lightning would have illuminated the hulks though, sending a brilliant blue-white flash through the grey material.
There were no flashes. The clouds were simply resting there, as though whatever life they had had been drained away. Now, lacking the will to move despite the winds urging, they waited for their destruction.
The forest below the clouds was no more active. Every one of the pine trees, which the guard remembered from their recent trip to have been lush and green, if dark and foreboding, were now a uniform grey. Even the color of their dead needles had been siphoned away, leaving only the husk of the once vibrant life to disintegrate. And the forest seemed... separated. Like the trees were part of some other world, visible, but untouchable.
The wind, Valiant realized. The town was touched by a light breeze, stirring the warm air all around them. But the trees in the Everfree were utterly motionless. Not even the dead needles hanging from the branches of the once mighty pines moved with the wind.
“Mother...”
Valiant’s head whipped around, staring incredulously at the Princess. Had Celestia just... Yes. She had just whispered the word. The pain, the loss in her voice made Valiant shiver, suddenly terrified. Even when they had entered that hell within the Forest, the old castle crumbling where it stood, the Princess had not seemed afraid. She was angry, furious both at the blatant destruction that the pile of feathered corpses represented, and at herself for not having forseen the cause.
Valiant knew that something had happened to change the Princess. She had noticed it at once when the young unicorn, the Princess’s protege had left. She had darted into the room, feeling the ripple of teleportation magic in use, and had seen the flash as Twilight Sparkle disappeared. Since that day, Princess Celestia had been distracted, withdrawn, and... in anypony less noble, Valiant would have called her behavior foalish. She had acted like a school filly who had been rejected by her first love, going about her duties with an apathy Valiant had never seen before.
Then they had gone to the castle, and rescued the purple unicorns soul, or essence, or whatever. Luna had explained what happened to Valiant, but the guard was still unsure what exactly they brought back from that vile fortress.
When they had returned though, and Celestia had crafted a body for her beloved student, there had been a flash of such joy on the ancient face that Valiant had felt her heart soar. The Princess had been happy, truly happy, for the first time in so long.
Now this. It was almost more than the soldier could bear. Hearing that pain again, amplified into something with the length and breadth of the ocean, tore at her heart. She loved Princess Celestia. Not as a lover, there was never any hint at a visceral attraction to the alicorn, though Valiant wouldn’t deny her beauty. No, what she had was more pure than that. It was the simple, selfless love for her dearest friend. She would do anything for the Princess, to see her smile again. There would be hell to pay, if she had any say in the matter. Whoever, no, whatever had caused the Princess so much pain over the last months would suffer at Valiant’s hooves.
“Sister!”
Luna repeated herself, more forcefully this time. Rudely, she moved forward, and shoved her counterpart hard with her shoulder. Celestia’s trance broke as she stumbled, catching herself with a grace that was more habit than anything, and righted herself. It took a moment longer for her eyes to refocus though. They finally lost that far away, heartbroken sheen though, and the pupils sharpened as her head snapped around.
Valiant felt like cheering. That was the Princess she knew, the one she had sworn herself to. The mare who was kind, wise, and most of all, wickedly intelligent. Her gaze sharpened in that moment, and Valiant had seen a conviction just like her own there, before the Princess had looked up. A cold, clear fury at the source of her pain, and the determined intellect she had called forth to bring an end to her pain.
“Luna, it’s her.”
“I know, sister. I... I remember the feel of her magic.” Luna nodded towards the forest. “That tastes of her power as well, but it isn’t her working. I think... Celestia, do you think that Twilight bound her magic into a spell? That she could use Acshina to fuel a spell?”
“I know she is powerful enough to bind her magic to a spell. Twilight is more powerful than you are Luna. She could do it. But...”
“But she would have to be mad.” Valiant murmured. Both Princesses’ heads turned, Luna’s with reluctant agreement, but Celestia’s with a fierce denial. Valiant shook her head. “If this Acshina is as powerful as you say, then using her magic to power a spell is dangerous. If there is the slighest flaw, she would break free, and Twilight would have to weaken her prison to drain her magic. That is... madness.”
Celestia looked sharply at the unicorn. “Twilight isn’t mad. She’s confident in her ability, she is capable, and she is eccentric. She can do it, and she is careful. She would make certain that if Acshina broke free, she would be destroyed.
“Luna, does that barrier not strike you as strange?” Celestia’s eyes narrowed, shifting to look at the forest.
“Acshina’s power,” Celestia prompted, hearing nothing from her sister. “None of it is flowing out of the forest. It’s... Oh. Oh Light.”
“What is it, Tia?” Luna asked sharply. Her sister was never one to indulge in casual blasphemies. If she was invoking the Light... Then, Luna heard what her sister had said, and her eyes widened. “That ward, the one surrounding the Castle?”
Celestia nodded her head, still fixated on the silent forest. Her brow was knitted as she looked out over the gentle slopes of the hills leading to the forest, trying to unravel the tangle of magic surrounding the trees.
While the Princess was staring at the forest though, Valiant had recovered herself enough to recall her duties, and quickly scanned the area. They had appeared along a small dirt road leading out of the town, to the large apple orchard nearby she thought, and they seemed to be alone. There were some small flecks moving about the town, ponies going about their business, but none were approaching them. The only other things that moved beyond the stir of the leaves in the wind, were two dots running towards the town from the opposite side of Ponyville.
The white one fell, tumbling, before being hauled to its hooves by the orange one beside it, and taking off once more. They seemed to be in a panic, and from this distance, they couldn’t have been foals playing a game.
“Princess!” Valiant yelped, seeing an arcing crackle of black lightning spark down from behind the hill to two ponies were sprinting away from. There was a mild boom as the lightning struck, and a cloud of smoke billowed up, shrouding whatever was happening. Five guesses where Twilight Sparkle was though.
Both alicorns looked over at the guard captains shout, in time to see the cloud boil for an instant, before being drawn back down into whatever conflict was going on behind the hill. They stared hard at the hill, until the movement of the two ponies on the hill drew their attention.
“That can’t... Sister, are they the-”
“Yes,” Celestia cut her sister off, nodding curtly. Letting a trickle of magic flow through her horn, the ancient mare compressed the air before her, molding it into a smooth lens. Making some minor adjustments to the lens and its angle, she quickly brought the two ponies into focus.
Valiant gasped when she saw them. She recognized both ponies, how could she not? They were two of the Elements of Harmony, and they had saved the Princess when Valiant had failed her. Rarity and Applejack, she thought, but she wasn’t sure of any of their names except Twilight’s.
“Well,” She commented drily. “At least now we know where everypony is.”
Twilight avoided another bolt of sable electricity, and this time landed with her hooves under her. Before her adversary could take aim once more, Twilight flooded her horn with magic, and the dust cloud thrown into the air by the narrowly dodged attack came flying back at the black pony. It tore at the mare’s body as the dust and sand and dirt came flying back down from where they had been thrown.
With a sudden, creative flourish, Twilight set the dust cloud spinning about Acshina. While not nearly as deadly as the black energy being hurled at her constantly, Twilight’s cloud was both painful, and more importantly, obscuring. It gave the flagging mare a moment to breath.
The spell warding the borders of the Everfree were severely limiting the energy that Acshina could send into her vessel, but the energy was never ending. If Twilight didn’t change the situation soon, she would find herself growing more and more exhausted from her magical exertions. After that, it would only take a second’s hesitation to find herself eating one of those black bolts. Either she could risk death by fighting while she could barely stand, or she could risk her entire plan, everything she had spent months orchestrating and tap into the power humming through the crystal caverns beneath her hooves.
She gritted her teeth, letting her upper body fall forward into a light crouch. Before her, the power Twilight had sensed gathering erupted in a torrent of black light, and a vortex appeared within the dust cloud. It spun faster and faster, and soon the inverted cone had gathered all of the small shards of rock and smoke at its apex. Then the whirlwind shifted, folding up upon itself, compressing the minutia it had collected.
Rather than form a loose ball of painful, but essentially harmless flotsam, the particulates began to glow red, then orange, then a bright white. The molten rocks quickly fashioned themselves into a long, pointed shape, and the black mare revealed as the maelstrom died away grinned evilly at Twilight.
With a grunt, she hurled the spear, and tendrils of black power trailed behind it, twisting and writhing as it flew. Ready for the attack, and with the violet magic already wavering about her horn, Twilight vanished. Being trapped in a mystic prison for centuries hadn’t dulled the dark power’s mind though. She had been watching Twilight as the mare shifted and dodged attack after attack, only taking the offensive when she had successfully circumvented Acshina’s own.
She had also found that, now that the damnable unicorn was tiring, her teleportations had begun to follow a pattern, ending about three quarters of the way directly across from where she started. It was a good strategy, because completing the semicircle would quickly become an obvious ploy, and one that could be exploited. However, the last several attacks had been dodged in the same manner, and Acshina was growing confident she could anticipate the mare’s reappearance. So as the unicorn’s eyes shut in momentary concentration, she whirled, and loosed another bolt of energy, just as Twilight appeared.
Twilight only had time to open her eyes before the energy slammed into her, piercing the hastily constructed shield she threw up in its path as though passing through air. The contact sent Twilight flying, bouncing painfully off of the sloping hill once more. With a grin of delighted triumph twisting the madmare’s mouth, she sent bolt after bolt after the small body. Each attack sent another burst of agony through Twilight, and forced her to repeat her bouncing flight away from the black mare.
A final attack hit Twilight in midair, and her limp form fell behind the grassy hill, finally spared the bloody onslaught. The attack sent pain rippling along her spine, and she felt something make a sickening crunch when she landed. She lay there for a moment, struggling to reclaim the breath that had been knocked out of her. She couldn’t keep taking punishment like this, there was a limit to how much she could withstand before something truly irrevocable happened.
“Celestia-” She gasped, struggling to her hooves. Her words were cut off by a cough, and a fine spray of blood misted the grass before her.
Broken ribs. The thought echoed through her mind, calm and detached. Twilight latched onto that, letting the sense of chilly serenity fill her once more, washing away the niggling emotions. You need to find a healer soon, or the holes they tore in your lung will be impossible to repair. You can still use that power. If you die, then there is nothing that it will ever be good for. Better to be set back years than to die.
Suddenly, Twilight’s heart gave a painful throb. The thought of going years without seeing the Princess again...
“I’d rather die.” She grunted, taking a shallow breath. “So hurry up, you stupid mare.”
Her eyes flicked up to the crest of the hill, where a burst of black light signaled Acshina’s reappearance. Twilight couldn’t afford to attack, not as weakened as she was. The assault would drain the last of her strength, and if she died, then the town behind her would fall as well.
The evil pony tossed her head back, and laughed. It sent a shiver through Twilight, recognizing the voice of Nightmare Moon returned.
“You see?” The creature screamed. “You never stood a chance. You’ve weakened me, you filthy pony. You’ve all but severed my power, and you STILL CAN’T WIN!”
“You haven’t noticed?” Twilight grinned, before coughing again. “I haven’t been fighting you.”
“You’re afraid to attack me, as you should be. I could crush you like an insect, and you know it.” The black mare threw her head back, and another spear of power shot into the clouds overhead. The thin grey blanket covering the sky began to spin slowly, darkening as more and more clouds were pulled into the thunderhead.
“Or I’ve been stalling.” Twilight’s grin became something fierce, like a cat that has spotted a particularly fat mouse.
The black mare’s face went blank for a moment, quickly running through and discarding idea after idea. Then she laughed again. “Hardly. You cannot trick me, Twilight Sparkle. I’ve shared your mind since you were a foal.”
“Oh?” Twilight whispered, feeling the long awaited pulse of warm power echo from the town. “You forgot my teacher.”
Celestia had taken a moment to bring them all to the fleeing mares on the hillside, and then taken them back to the farm on the other side of town. She had fretted every moment, but her duty was to her subjects. She had to make sure they were safe first, then she could find the monster attacking her student.
It had taken several long, heart pounding moments to get any coherent information from the panicked Elements. When she had finally gotten a gasping explanation that somepony was attacking Twilight, and that it had been disguised as their friend until recently, Celestia’s blood had nearly frozen. When they had finally caught their breath, and told her what the vile creature had done to them all, and Fluttershy especially, the frozen blood had become a pulsing fire that burned through her veins.
She hadn’t waited for any more explanation from the pair, and her horn had erupted with power. She had transported all four ponies with her, appearing with a muffled boom on the dusty ground surrounding the Apple family’s barn. Their arrival sent a cloud of dust into the air, but Celestia wasn’t paying attention.
Looking back towards the hill near Fluttershy’s cabin, she could see a column of clouds beginning to swirl and boil. Shadowy energy sparkled and crackled through the clouds, and she could just make out a black form far in the distance. Adjusting her aim at the last instant before her spell activated, she directed her power to send her to the crest of the hill as well.
She was going to end this villain, and she was going to do so with the utmost pleasure.
The choking veil of power washed over her again as she appeared on the hilltop, but vastly more concentrated now. Behind her she heard a pair of bodies fall to the ground, and knew that Valiant had succumbed to the miasma, and that her sister was little better. Concern for the pair of them abruptly took a backseat to rage. A black head less than a dozen paces away tilted back in a laugh, and an arc of lightning struck the ground near the base of the hill.
Rage filled Celestia, hearing a scream in the fading echo of the lightning strike. She knew Twilight’s voice, even raised in that agonized tone, and the thought of this moster harming her student, her beloved little Twilight.
It took Celestia a moment to return to herself, lost in the pain of that cry. When she did finally come back though, the rage was gone. As swiftly as closing a valve on a faucet, the burning fury left her, replaced by a frozen determination. Without taking her impassive eyes from the cackling mare, screaming something about being unstoppable, Celestia opened herself to the sun high above.
Then, as the primal energy of that heavenly orb burned its way through her body, Celestia’s eyes opened. The lavender eyes were gone, replaced by a flickering, golden fire. Locking her gaze upon the mare gathering energy to once again attack her precious student, Celestia released the pent up rage, the burning agony and the unstoppable fury of the sun.
In that last instant, Acshina whirled, feeling the sudden rush of power. Her reptilian eyes, the eyes she had given Nightmare Moon when she had corrupted her sister, widened in sudden fear.
The heavens parted above the monster, and she, and the hill she had been standing upon, disintegrated. The fury of the sun lashed out, channeled into a tight beam of holy fire, immolating everything in its path, be it cloud, dirt, or demonic goddess. Celestia glared into that brilliant light, wings flared out behind her. She watched as her enemy, the creature that had caused so much suffering, burned before her, silhouetting her white body like an avenging angel wreathed in righteous flames.
“Stay in hell this time.” She growled, and the light faded.