//------------------------------// // Return of the Queens // Story: The Music of Ponyville // by GrassAndClouds2 //------------------------------// The alicorns towered head and shoulders above every other pony in the square. The taller of the two had a bright white coat, though this was hard to see due to the tongues of fire jetting out from all over her body. Her wings were titanic, and her horn looked like it could stab through a granite wall. When she took a step forwards, the ground itself seemed to tremble beneath her. "BEHOLD!" she cried. "BEHOLD, YOUR QUEEN HATH RETURNED AT LAST! EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW IN CELEBRATION AS--" "Oh, shut up," hissed the other alicorn. Her coat was black, her mane a strange, twinkly blue, and a sinister fog seemed to sublimate off her body. The wood under her hooves was warping, as if the alicorn’s presence was rotting it. “You're no queen, sister. You are simply insane." Octavia suddenly felt very small and fragile. A small 'eep' escaped her throat, though none of the alicorns seemed to notice it. She took one step backwards and put a hoof around Pageturner, unable to think of anything besides the fact that they were onstage with some sort of monsters. Cadance! Help! she screamed in her thoughts. But Cadance was standing still, trembling, and eyes flicking back and forth between the two alicorns. Octavia had never seen the Princess look like this, and she realized what it meant. Cadance was afraid. Meanwhile, the first alicorn screamed her rage at the other's comments. “SILENCE, WHELP!” The second rolled her eyes. She turned to the crowd. “Yes, bow -- bow to me.” Her eyes twinkled darkly. “That is, if you've any wisdom at all.” The crowd was silent for several moments. The two alicorns glared at each other, and their legs and bodies trembled, as if they wanted nothing more than to leap at each other and begin battle. Octavia took another cautious step backwards. “Who are you?” called out a young-sounding voice -- Scootaloo’s, if Octavia remembered correctly. “I,” boomed the first alicorn, “AM CELESTIA! QUEEN OF ALL EQUESTRIA! THE GREATEST AND--” Her mouth suddenly slammed shut, a tendril of black magic wrapping around it. The second alicorn laughed. “Queen? Once, perhaps, but no longer. You are a fool, sister, and insane, and unfit to rule even the smallest fiefdom.” She turned to the crowd again. “I am Queen Luna Equestris--” “Nightmare Moon!” yelled a pony. “And the other one is Burning Sun! They’re here to kill us!” The crowd screamed. The black magic around Celestia’s mouth vanished in a burst of fire as the alicorn wheeled on her sister. “IMPUDENT WRETCH! ART THOU STILL MAD ENOUGH TO CHALLENGE ME? CORRUPTED, DEPRAVED MARE... THIS TIME, THERE SHALL NOT BE ENOUGH LEFT OF THEE TO SEAL AWAY!” Nightmare Moon laughed, her body seeming to expand as darkness rolled into it. “Strength is not everything, dear sister. You are strong, perhaps, but I am clever. Should we battle again, it will not be I who lies defeated. Submit now, and spare yourself the humiliation--” Burning Sun launched a blast of flame at Nightmare Moon. The alicorn vanished, reappearing a few feet away, and the flame hit the side of the stage and obliterated it in a shower of flame and slag. The ponies in the front row of the audience jumped back, whimpering and crying out in fear. Meanwhile, a wall of fire appeared around the celebration area, cutting off escape. “It’s like the legends!” whimpered Pageturner. Onstage, the two alicorns were trading barbs again. Cadance, horn glowing softly, ran over and extinguished the fire. Octavia helped Pageturner back up a few more steps, until they were almost off the stage. "What legends?" she hissed. "Pageturner, what's going on?" “The two rulers of Equestria, Celestia and Luna, they went mad and battled each other, and they wrecked the whole nation with their war! If Cadance hadn’t sealed them away--” "Seal us away?" Octavia and Pageturner froze. Nightmare Moon glanced back at them, a cruel little smile on her face. Octavia suddenly felt as if she had been frozen in ice; she was unable to move a single muscle, though she struggled frantically. Princess, please! Save us! she thought. “Ah, yes. The commoner has a point.” Nightmare Moon licked her lips. Octavia could not help but notice that her teeth were oddly sharp for a pony. “Our little... substitute.” “USURPER!” boomed Burning Sun. “TRAITOR!” Cadance leapt between them. “Stand down!” she commanded, though her voice trembled with fear. “I have defeated you before, both of you together! I can do it again!” “Oh?” whispered Nightmare Moon. “Then... why haven’t you? Awfully blase of you, isn’t it?” Cadance was sweating. “I will give you a chance to surrender. To--” “SURRENDER?” roared Burning Sun. Flames leapt around her, jumping higher than the paralyzed Octavia could see. “OUTRAGEOUS! THE NATION IS MINE BY RIGHT! I WILL NEVER SURRENDER! NOT TO MINE SISTER, AND ESPECIALLY NOT TO A PATHETIC CONSTRUCT SUCH AS YOURSELF!” If Octavia could have moved, she would have frowned. Construct? What? A few ponies were murmuring at this, and Nightmare Moon’s ears perked up. “Oh, you mean she never told?” She laughed, a harsh chuckle that seemed to drive into Octavia’s ears. The crowd cringed back further. “Why, that’s an interesting little fact. Afraid your subjects weren’t ready for that tidbit, Amore? How odd... I thought they loved you so very, very much.” Cadance backed up a few steps. “They do love me,” she insisted. “That love is what enabled me to use the Elements to seal you both away the first time!” “TREASON!” repeated Burning Sun. “Will you shut up?” snapped Nightmare Moon. “Ah, Amore. How soon we forget. They love me too--” “You lied to your Court and your subjects. You manipulated them, altered their dreams, brainwashed them! That was no real love!” Cadance looked at Burning Sun. “And you -- you simply threatened them into submission! You destroyed all who spoke against you, burned rebellious cities to ash! Neither of you are fit to rule anypony!” Burning Sun continued to fume, but Nightmare Moon just laughed again. “Real love? Strange, I wouldn’t think love based on a complete and utter fabrication is any more real than my... compulsory love.” She waved a hoof vaguely. “Shall I tell your little ponies who you really are?” Cadance took a long breath. “Speak as you wish, Moon. But cease this destructive conflict--” “THERE SHALL BE NO PEACE!” roared Burning Sun. “NOT UNTIL I AM ENSCONCED ON THE THRONE!” She sent another blast of fire at her sister, who threw herself to one side. The fire continued onwards, streaking towards the terrified Octavia, until Cadance's horn glowed again and the fire simply vanished -- along with the paralysis spell. Octavia felt her hooves tremble as she stumbled into Pageturner. "Run!" “HEY!” The three alicorns froze, then turned towards the crowd as one. Octavia wanted to run, but she couldn't shake the feeling that the voice was oddly familiar. Despite herself, she found herself turning and looking over the crowd... and her firm was confirmed. Lyra Heartstrings had climbed up on top of a streetlamp and was preparing to berate the insane demigods. “You think Equestrians will just roll over and let you take over? No way!” Lyra pumped her hoof. “We’ll support Princess Cadance even to the Gates of Tartarus! No matter how desperate, we’ll fight overwhelming odds! And battle invincible foes! And--” Burning Sun roared, and a jet of fire blasted at Lyra. The green mare squeaked, but before the fire reached her, a warm, pink magic enveloped it and the flames vanished into nothingness. Cadance swept out a hoof, using her magic to gently pry Lyra from the lamppost and lower her back on ground level, before she turned back to the alicorns. “She is innocent!” “SHE DEFIES MY RIGHTEOUS RULE!” Nightmare Moon rolled her eyes. “Such commendable passion,” she told Lyra and the rest of the crowd. “Oh, yes, such fervent defense of one’s beloved ruler! Truly, thine compassion for thine fellow pony would be laudable... that is, were it for a pony at all.” Nopony said anything for a moment. Octavia paused, but she couldn’t help herself -- and besides, she had to defend her teacher. “Princess Cadance is a great pony,” she said. Nightmare Moon again looked at her. “The so-called ‘Princess’ Mi Amore Cadenza,” she said, with mocking eyes and biting tone, “is not an alicorn. Neigh, not a pony at all. She is a construct -- a clockwork golem -- built from magic and whatever spare parts the alchemists said they needed.” She chuckled, as if seeing some fond memory in her mind’s eye. “Not exactly my finest work, I must admit..." “A FOOLISH COMPROMISE, FROM A PATHETIC MINISTER.” Burning Sun stomped her hoof, and Cadance was suddenly surrounded by a ring of fire. “WHEN I FIRST REALIZED MINE OBLIGATION, TO RULE ALL EQUESTRIA FOR ALL TIME -- NOT JUST DAY -- MINE SISTER OBJECTED. SHE WOULD NOT GIVE ME MY RIGHTFUL NIGHT, NOR DAWN, NOR DUSK.” “Oh, we bickered endlessly over when exactly each of us took over,” said Nightmare Moon, tone bright, like she was a schoolteacher and the citizenry her class. “Does night begin when the sun begins to set? Reaches the horizon? Goes completely under the world? What if it’s cloudy? What if mine sister was too busy terrorizing some poor village and lowered it a few minutes late -- did I get a credit? Such fighting...” Octavia stared. She told herself that it had to be lies, that these were two monsters who seemed bent on wrecking the world in pointless struggle -- but she knew that, were one of them lying, the other would gladly expose it to show her up. The only reason they would agree on this would be if... If it were true... she thought to herself. “And so our wisest minister, Star Swirl the Bearded, proposed a compromise. We were to create a new alicorn, our junior, to handle the dawn and dusk. We need never again clash directly” Nightmare Moon sniffed. “And that lasted all of one hundred and fifty years... barely an eyeblink to ones such as us. Honestly, in retrospect, I should have just dropped an asteroid on you years before, sister.” “I WILL MOUNT THY HEAD ON CANTERLOT CASTLE!” Octavia looked to Cadance, waiting for her to deny what they had said -- but she said nothing. She just stood there, horn at the ready, but otherwise silent. “Anyway, I think we’re getting off topic.” Nightmare Moon smiled. “Sister. And... golem. I am not without mercy. Kneel to me now, forever abandon regal ambition, and I shall grant you your lives.” Burning Sun extended a hoof, fire blasting out for three full feet in front of her. “NO. KNEEL AND SUBMIT, OR DIE. NEVER AGAIN SHALL PONIES SUFFER THINE MANIPULATIONS AND DECEIT.” “Because burning their homes down is so much better.” Nightmare Moon grinned. “Well then -- oh. I’m sorry, one more thing. Golem, if you plan to make some big show of the Elements, now might be a good time to do it. That is, if you can still wield them?” There was only silence. “Perhaps some other powerful spell? Surely the ‘princess of Equestria’ must know a few tricks for dealing with two interlopers like ourselves?” mocked Nightmare Moon. “I have no magic to stop you. You know that,” said Cadance, quietly. “Precisely what I thought. A mere construct could never hold on to such artifacts, or any magic of significance, for more than a few moments.” Nightmare Moon shook her shoulders, as if limbering up. “Make peace with whatever ponies still love you, golem. When I have executed my sister, I will return to exact my vengeance for your betrayal.” “ABSURD,” said Burning Sun. Her eyes blazed. “THE TRAITOR DIES HERE AND NOW.” Her body glowed, a wall of fire swept at Cadance as Octavia’s heart leapt-- And then cold, black magic was swarming around a choking Burning Sun. The flames fizzled and weakened, though Cadance still had to dodge them, and their remnants still blasted through the back of the stage. And the shops across the street behind the stage, which began to collapse immediately. “Tsk tsk. Shouldn’t take your eye off the target,” said Nightmare Moon. “Now--” With a blast of flame, the magic cloud vanished, and then Burning Sun was charging her sister. Nightmare Moon vanished in a cloud of blue fog, but Burning Sun swept out blasts of fire around herself in expanding spheres. “HIDING IN FEAR SHALT NOT SAVE THEE!” Cadance slipped off the stage in the confusion, sparing only a brief spell to thrust Octavia and Pageturner back into the relative concealment of the backstage area. Octavia immediately dove down and peaked under the curtains, just in time to see Cadance casting a spell and tearing a hole in the flames surrounding the square. Ponies immediately began to stream out in a panic as the two alicorns dueled on stage. “PATHETIC!” roared Burning Sun, and a moment later Octavia saw the white-coated mare smash her sister into the stage so hard that the wood splintered and shattered. Flames ran all over their bodies, and Nightmare Moon hissed in pain. Burning wood fell into the square, setting the closest booths and stands alight. “No, no...” whispered Octavia. “This cannot be happening! Pageturner, you know the legends, how can they be stopped?” “I don’t know them that well! Princess Cadance was supposed to be able to beat them!” Pageturner was sweaty and shaking. “Octavia, they’re going to kill us all!” “No. Princess Cadance will do something. I am certain of it!” said Octavia. “She just... once she thinks of a plan, she will--” “Fool!” Nightmare Moon swept a hoof out, and a thick tendril of magic wrapped around a few ponies who hadn’t quite managed to get out of the square yet. Octavia recognized the farmer Applejack, the Mayor, and the decorator pony Rarity among them. They froze for a moment and then collapsed, and their coats seemed to begin to fade as Octavia watched. “Hah!” Nightmare Moon reared back a hoof and struck Burning Sun in the face, throwing the bigger alicorn off of her. She seemed stronger, Octavia noted, as if she were draining power from the ponies she had ensnared. “Pure strength is nothing! When one knows the subtle magics of mind and body, that is true power!” “No!” Cadance hurried to the fallen ponies, her horn glowing. A pink beam swept out and struck the tendril, severing it. The ponies on the ground gasped for air and twitched a bit, and Cadance helped them get to their feet. Behind them all, as the last of the citizens raced out of the square, Cadance’s Guards began to hurry in. “ENOUGH OF THIS,” bellowed Burning Sun. She rose into the air, eyes glowing bright. “THIS IS THE END, SISTER.” Pageturner screamed and ran out the back exit of the stage, but Octavia couldn’t look away. Her teacher was out there, trying to save everypony, and-- A massive blast of fire swept down at Nightmare Moon, just as a ball of... concentrated darkness, pulsing and somehow malevolent despite being little more than a sphere -- raced to meet it. The two met halfway between the alicorns. The shockwave sent Octavia flying back into the soundbooth, and that was all she knew of the fight. *** “Oww...” Only a few minutes had passed, at least according to the clock that had fallen off the backstage wall and now lay among the rubble. Octavia groaned, putting a hoof to her sore head. She wanted to get into a bed and sleep for about three days. But as her vision cleared, and she saw the rubble and debris of the collapsed ceiling -- and walls, for that matter -- of the backstage area, she recalled why that wasn’t an option. Her teacher was still out there. Octavia had to see if she was alright. She wouldn’t be able to rest until she did so. She rose to her hooves, stumbled for a few steps, then righted herself and made her way to what had once been a curtain and was now ash, smoke, and a few useless threads. Stumbling out onto the stage proper, or at least what was left of it, she looked at the square and saw only devastation in the moonlight. The booths were burned, the lampposts had all been ripped out and thrown down, and even the old trees near the square were toppled. The nearest houses didn’t seem to have fared any better either. At least there were no ponies around. Octavia didn’t see a single corpse or injured pony anywhere in the mess. Her teacher, she thought. Her teacher had protected them and saved them. Just like Octavia had known she would. In fact, she didn’t see the alicorns either. Maybe Princess Cadance had already dealt with them, found some way to seal them up again, while Octavia was sleeping. That could be the case. But then Octavia looked up into the night sky, and saw two forms -- one a bright, fiery white, the other a black void -- streaking away. They seemed to be battling as they moved, crashing into each other and with occasional lights dropping down. Sometimes, when the lights landed, fires sprang up. Other times there was no visible effect, but Octavia doubted that meant much. The cellist managed to pick her way through the rubble -- the dirt now pockmarked with craters, even the cobblestones torn asunder -- and got back out into the streets of Ponyville. Every house was dark; and while she heard a few whispers and clanks from the various houses, ponies seemed to be trying to remain quiet. They were staying at home, huddling with family and waiting for the danger to be over. Octavia sympathized. Her ear twitched as she heard something from down the street. It was too far away to see in the dark, but it was definitely hoofsteps -- her ears never lied. Cadance could be making those hoofsteps, or at least her guards, who could know where she was. It was the best lead she had, so Octavia hurried in that direction. Pageturner? she found herself wondering. Where did you go? Are you back at our room in city hall? She had enjoyed the assistant’s company, but had never longed for her presence like she did now. Still, she was all alone in a dark town, and there were nigh-omnipotent monsters on the loose. It could be... reassuring to have another pony to be with. She wished, suddenly, that she had fled when Pageturner had. But it was too late now, and besides, surely she could just find the assistant after speaking with Cadance. Pageturner had always been urging her to open up to her... well, now she would. Still. That had to wait until after Cadance was located. The steps were drawing nearer, and Octavia picked up her pace. She would, she told herself, see Princess Cadance right around the next corner. She would see her, and Cadance would tell her that everything would be fine, and she already had a plan to deal with the tyrants... But when she rounded the corner, she saw no alicorn. Just a quartet of Guards, headed by their captain, a stallion named Shining Armor whom Octavia had met in passing a few times. “Excuse me,” she said. The Guards wheeled around, swords and spears at the ready, but Armor quickly waved them off. “What is it, Octavia?” “I was wondering where Princess Cadance was,” said Octavia, managing to keep her voice fairly even. “I wanted to talk to her, and--” “The Princess has left Ponyville,” said Armor. Octavia froze. “...What? But--” “She left to follow Burning Sun and Nightmare Moon, and attempt to prevent them from hurting innocent ponies in their feud,” said Armor. “But -- but --” Octavia could not help but sputter. “But they can’t hurt her, right? That was just talk--” “No.” Armor shook his head. “Before leaving, the Princess told us that we are to mobilize the rest of the Guard and follow her. Because they could kill her." His voice was firm and resolute. "And somepony must take on the job of protecting Equestria if she is not available.” Octavia could not bring herself to say anything, but as she looked at the sky, and at the fading lights that were Burning Sun, Nightmare Moon -- and, now that she squinted, a little pink dot that was likely the Princess -- she felt tears coming to her eyes. “No...” she whispered. “Princess...”