It’d been four years since Twilight had abandoned her post, so it was of no surprise when the sun did not rise in dawn.
Canterlot palace echoed with whispers of revolution.
Nightmare had appeared before Celestia with armour donned, reptilian eyes and Cutiemark all changed back to the old ways. Her moon was suitably waxing and stationary, sitting at its zenith. Celestia followed how the mithril altered the outline of her sister, her neck broader, legs slenderer; wings more pronounced. She said to her, ‘I think it’s time you stepped down, dearest Tia.’ After several seconds of stern consideration, Celestia wrapped her arms around Nightmare’s neck and kissed her passionately. She stroked her nape as though she were touching skin, not metal, and their tongues snaked as though they’d been intimate forever. And who knows, maybe they had. Nightmare Moon didn’t resist in the slightest.
‘I trust you. You’ve got the look of a murderer in your eyes; I can’t stop you, so I’ll trust you instead. I’ll trust with all my soul. Whatever happens, I swear to you, I will be by your side. What are you going to bring our little ponies?’
‘A nation where we don’t rule, sister. A nation where ponies will choose who to represent them wherever it leads them: To famine and war, to prosperity and longevity, to freethinking or to control. The epoch of our diarchy is over, Tia. Democracy will rise. Come, let me show you my conviction.’
Luna called a guard inside. The entirely innocent stallion thought he was going to be court martialed if he was being personally summoned to the presence of both princesses. Nightmare Moon ruthlessly slit his throat instead.
Twilight was already making preparations to travel to Canterlot palace. She’d been offered a flying pig as transport, and she’d sensibly refused it. What confused her most was not the jarring of the celestial cycle, it was that neither of the princesses had contacted her in one way or another. If either Celestia or Luna had fallen ill, or in any other reasonable situation she could conceive, she would have been told. They hadn’t dismissed her completely, had they? As she gathered the energy she needed for such a long-distance teleportation, Discord was quiet except for some occasional incoherent mumbling. Only when Twilight was about to leave did he interrupt her, insisting there was something she needed to know. The mare couldn’t imagine what could be just so important, but let him do so nonetheless.
Discord told Twilight everything - her dreams, Nightmare Moon and how he’d broken free, which was in almost exactly the same way as he’d done before. Which is to say, he’d escaped because chaos was spurting and harmony was not. It effectively paralysed her. She was deeply rattled by both the concept and the possibility that her actions and thoughts being manipulated in no way she could sense nor control. She could have sworn that she did want to leave the palace and even royalty for a while. No matter what Twilight did, it would be under the guise that it may be a lie. Was this doubt her own? We’re her ambitions truly hers? Would she have had these motivations otherwise? Was this, in itself a pulling of some evil heartstrings, so that she did Discord’s will? Twilight had believed she’d learned to trust him, but now she realised she hadn’t, and perhaps rightly so. Was she herself anymore?
The cessation of the planets and stars made ponies believe time had stopped. It was, by definition, the movement of the sun that determined what was a day and what was a night. Though it was done so by alicorns, who were ultimately ponies, wasn’t there some cosmic force they answered to? They feared abandonment of a kind, that their princess no longer cared for them, as well as the death of the crops and the death of themselves. Because the ponies of Equestria had never known the sisters to act, or to be, or to say maliciousness in any way, there was rampant hysteria when there was nopony who could tell them why the moon was at an eternal apex. The foals wailed as the guardians cried for the looting of their homes and what to them seemed to be the end of the world.
It was Discord who spurred Twilight into action, with ulterior motives in mind, inexorably. All he wanted was the destruction of the harmonious elements, the pandemonium that rose as a consequence was merely a bonus. It’s hard to blame an immortal whose motive was to secure his existence outside of stone. Discord argued Twilight had no choice but to act on what she thought was right; this was not the time for apathy or inaction. While he was successful in convincing her, she acted with great reluctance. Twilight was painfully aware however she acted, she was the ignoble bitch. The only difference between her action and her paralysis was the acceptance of her status.
The three alicorns and Discord met in Canterlot for the final time. They faced off in the middle of the city, with Twilight and Discord and the sisters on opposite sides. Smoke rose from the buildings still standing, windows smashed, doors broken and deserted. A few faithful lunatics hadn’t fled, who were now urgently knocking on a magical barrier Nightmare had erected. The sky was black and blue with nightly ash. Twilight, steeled for combat, barked at Discord to gather stragglers and take them somewhere safe. He gleefully refused! He cared for Twilight, but he cared for the unfolding snafu more. Witnessing her rapidly waning alternatives, she called out to Celestia to help her end to this lunacy. Celestia couldn’t match her gaze, glancing downwards, seeing nothing but the cobbled ground instead. It appeared the born alicorn was about to utter, but Nightmare promptly grabbed her muzzle and kissed her, leaning toward the taller mare. Twilight experienced severe difficulty in not charging at Nightmare instantly, screaming in fury and jealousy. It was an irrevocable betrayal on the most primitive level. Nightmare Moon temporarily pulled back, glinted at Twilight, and said ‘She’s mine, bitch.’
That was it. Twilight’s discipline shattered. She didn’t ask what Nightmare wanted and she didn’t question Celestia’s slavish role in this. The red haze was too strong. For somepony who claimed to not have anything against Twilight Sparkle, Nightmare Moon was taking great pleasure from provoking her.
Nightmare shoved her lover aside as soon as she saw the glow of Twilight’s horn and quickly removed her armour, not expecting to survive a hit. Twilight blinked out of existence and had her wing striking at Nightmare’s neck instantaneously, which was barely avoided. Most physical attacks were rare between magically adept ponies, as under normal circumstances, a teleportation could always be responded to with another before the first completed, making it nearly impossible to predict where the opponent(s) would be. But Twilight had feinted a far more powerful spell by having her horn radiate for several seconds as opposed to less than one, catching Nightmare off guard. Nightmare took to the sky and scattered projectiles of massively varying devastation, forcing Twilight to avoid them with a much greater margin than she would otherwise. And she did, for a while, before Twilight summoned a giant astral hammer, simultaneously shielding and striking.
Their struggle had already wrecked several structures and scorched the ground, sending the few ponies who were still in Canterlot, fleeing. What was left was more reminiscent of a war than a brawl. Celestia watched on from under a shield, unmoving, terrified and torn. Discord meanwhile eagerly lapped in the deadly fireworks.
The fight became progressively scrappier and the pacing more erratic.There were spurts of multiple, complex spells, then things elapsed into a few rudimentary blobs of explosive magic, before being ramped up again.
Nightmare dropped a sword from the sky at Twilight, who was now airborne. She predicted Twilight would dodge horizontally, so Nightmare took flight herself, hoping to catch Twilight moving toward her, unprepared. Twilight waited and watched, counting the half-seconds she had until the metal impaled her and didn’t move before she had to. She didn’t get long; Nightmare and the sword met her at the same time. To Nightmare, Twilight did three things at once, swerving left, swung the sword in her mouth and shackled her wings. For the lavender alicorn, it was only one. Nightmare Moon blocked the sword and plummeted. Twilight’s hoof and entire magical might was on her horn before she’d hit the ground.
Twilight poised the sword above Nightmare’s chest. She asked her where she’d learned her aerial maneuvers; Twilight said it was from a friend called Rainbow Dash.
‘What do you want, Nightmare?’
‘A democracy, Twilight. A beautiful, glorious democracy.’
‘You think you can salvage a democracy from this?’
‘No, but you can.’
‘They’ll destroy themselves if I do.’
Apparently the only reason she’d bothered to stop the celestial cycle was to get Twilight’s attention. Nightmare asked for death and warned she’d continue the fight if left alive.
‘Do it, coward, you’ll only be killing a pony.’
Twilight drove blade to flesh with a terrible thunk.
She collapsed from exhaustion, and felt no tears roll down her cheek into the warm crimson pool under her. Who's the murderer now, Twilight? You are, that’s all you are. That’s what you wanted, that’s how you did it and that’s how it went. You’re no better than her, Twilight you never were. She just showed it to you. So you’ve done it. Are you happy? Did it feel good? Is Celestia pleased? Would Spike be proud? Will your dead friends accept you? Do you love who you are? They’ll kill you too, once they hear. They’ll hang you by the horn and watch it get yanked out of your skull. Celestia will be there, smiling. Everypony will be there, smiling. So will Owlicious. He won’t be smiling. And so will Cadence. And so will Shining Armour. They’ll be smiling. You’ll be okay, Twilight, but don’t smile. You didn’t enjoy this.
Celestia dully peered at Luna’s body. She remembered having a promise to keep, what was it? She couldn’t think of it now. She ripped the sword out of the corpse and considered it. Its shine was lost in the dripping blood; she kept it lusterless. It was only as she lay dying, she remembered the promise. She’d kept it.
A phoenix cawed in the distance.