History Repeats

by SaddlesoapOpera

Before Sunrise

Princess Celestia soared between the spires of Canterlot like a blazing comet, heading for the Royal Palace and the dark inferno that was her sister. She rose up to hover ten yards from the dark Alicorn and then called out to her:

“LUNA! Sister... what are you doing?”

Luna turned her turquoise gaze toward Celestia, squinting against the light of the Princess’s fiery aura.

“Is it not clear, Sister?” she asked. “I am doing what I am meant to do. What I was always meant to do.” She spread her wings wide, unleashing a hail of dark-purple gouts of arcane fire on the ground below.

Celestia winced at the eldritch display. “That’s not true! It’s that Ram! He’s lying to you! Like he lied to-”

Luna cut her off. “Sombra was a FOOL! He murdered Grogar before he’d learned even HALF of what that Ram had to teach! But I listened, Celestia. Oh, I did.” She narrowed her eyes. “His shade whispered to me in the dark... showed me such... such...” A look of mingled horror and nostalgia passed over Luna’s features. A wistful memory of cherished tortures.

Celestia’s flames flared brighter as she stomped on the empty air. “Luna, stop! Please! Dragons and Grogar and this... this Smooze... are ravaging Equestria! I need...” Her voice softened. “... I need your help. I need you by my side.”

It was Luna’s turn to stomp the air. “You need me in your SHADOW! Hidden behind the glare of your precious light! Reminding everypony of your greatness!”

“ENOUGH!” Celestia’s voice shook the Palace’s outer walls. “You KNOW that isn’t true!”

Luna scowled. “Oh do I? Am I behaving badly? Do I seem like a madpony? Or perhaps... a lunatic?” She flapped closer to Celestia as she spoke, and her dark, smoky aura intensified. “Maybe none of this is real, Sister. Maybe you’re simply suffering through an ugly Night-Mare!”

The bitterness in her sister’s words brought tears to Celestia’s eyes. “Luna...”

Luna shuddered in silent fury for a moment, and then charged in midair to close the remaining distance. She swung downward with her horn but Celestia moved to parry with her own, casting off magical sparks.

“You let them make a HOLIDAY to honour their FEAR of me!” Luna snarled as she pressed the attack. “You made me a MONSTER!”

Celestia flapped her wings to brace herself before shoving back. She squinted as more sparks rained down from their clashing horns. “They fear NIGHTMARE MOON, sister! Not you!”

Luna folded her wings and pulled up her legs, squeezing into a ball, and then spread out wide as she unleashed a nova of dark magical energy. “I AM NIGHTMARE MOON!”

Celestia tumbled down in the wake of the blast; her gold-shod hooves dug molten furrows into the flagstones as she skidded to a halt at ground-level. She looked up in sorrow at the dark figure descending toward her like a bird of prey. In the distance, the roars and crashes of the remaining Dragons’ depredations could still be heard. Time was running out.

“Luna...” Celestia whispered. “I’m sorry.”

The Princess of the Dawn’s aura flared until she disappeared behind its white-hot corona. She cried out in rage and took off to meet her sister’s charge.

The sky was purple-black and studded with dim white stars, and the ground was an endless field of moody grey.

No...

Lightning Dust splashed up from the seas of unconsciousness with a strangled, breathless cry; the only mercy in the pain she felt was knowing that it meant she was still alive. She managed to suck in a few small, wheezing gasps as she took stock of her situation.

She was dangling upside down in a tree, with bark pressed into her back and the glistening expanse of the Smooze staring up at her from below. She touched a front hoof to her brow; it came back bloody. It hurt to breathe - suggesting she’d cracked at least one rib - and miscellaneous cuts and bruises covered her pale-green hide. But more than any of that, there was the other pain. The king of its kind. The searing, wrenching blaze that was squeezing sweat out of her brow and smearing her thoughts into chaotic jumbles. The agony she was scared to her core to face.

She strained to lift her head and look at its source, but a wave of nausea forced her to sag back into her suspended pose after only a brief glance. Her tear-blurred gaze fell on the tree-trunk, the Smooze... and the long, narrow, wooden boat moored at its base.

“Wh-What...?” Dust’s voice was a hoarse croak.

An answer came from close by her: a rustling in the branches. Something large was there with her. One of the smaller Dragons, perhaps? She was probably about to be devoured, helpless and weak and a traitor to her kind.

“N-No...” Dust groaned through teeth gritted against her pain. “Please... n-not like this...”

Suddenly, a hooded and masked figure leaned down into her view.

Dust jerked in shock, and then cried out as her movement sent pain shooting through her body.

The long, curving, beaked mask was painted in garish orange and red, like a tropical bird’s bill. Its wide eye-holes were covered by smoked glass, glossy and inscrutable. A faint scent of sharp, spicy herbs wafted down from the thing with each muffled breath from its wearer.

“Get... get away...!” Dust waved a shaking hoof in a feeble resistance, her blows little more than gentle pats on the thick brown cloth of the stranger’s robes.

The stranger reached out and pressed an ash-grey hoof to Dust’s lips. “Uss-uss... Wewe ni salama.”  The voice was deep but feminine, and though the words were meaningless, the tone was soothing and calm.

“I don’t... understand...” Just speaking this much was making Dust lightheaded.

Without another word, the figure pulled back and turned to stoop and examine Dust’s most painful injury. She sighed with concern.

Dust bit her lip to keep it from quivering; it was real. She couldn’t deny it any longer. Somepony else had seen it. She pulled herself upward once more to take another look at the awful reality.

A jagged, leafless, broken branch had pierced through the meat of her right wing, leaving her impaled like a bug under glass. Teal down and feathers stuck to the bloodied wooden stake like macabre decorations.

The stranger slowly shook her masked head and then picked up Dust’s body in a tight embrace.

Dust’s eyes widened. “W-Wait!” She stifled a shriek as she felt her wing shift. “S-Stop! Don’t!”

The masked stranger turned to look Dust in the eye.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “but I must assert... this is REALLY going to hurt!”

She jerked upward.

Dust’s scream lasted until merciful blackness claimed her once more.

Megan was no stranger to running.

The swift, steady pace she kept as she raced through the rubble-strewn, smoke-hazed streets of Canterlot with Apple Bloom in her arms was the same one she’d keep on the treadmill at the gym. And on the early-morning streets, with nothing but sweepers and garbage trucks for company. And in her nightmares, pursued by monstrosities that had no business existing.

Pursued, like she was now.

“DON’T STOP!” Applejack cried out between gasping breaths. “HE’S GAININ’ ON US!”

The thundering impacts of the raging Dragon’s footfalls as it gave chase made the ground tremble underneath them. The thing kept one eye-studded wing raised high and staring at them, while the other, dislocated and useless, draped over its side like a matador’s cape.

Megan heard the dull roar of vast lungs taking in breath.

“Turn here!” she shouted, and threw herself down a sidestreet.

Applejack followed, and then a corridor of flames scoured the street they’d just vacated.

Apple Bloom squinted against the brightness of the blast and cringed in Megan’s arms. “A-Applejack!”

Applejack galloped up and briefly touched her nose to her sister’s. “It’s awright, Apple Bloom,” Applejack panted, “It’s gonna... it’s gonna be awright.”

The Earth Pony shared a quick glance with Megan, and the two were off again. The Dragon’s snaking, Smooze-slicked body soon squeezed into the alley after them.

Megan held the foal she carried tight, feeling the warmth of her yellow hide and the rattling cadence of her little pounding heart.

She’s as small as Ember was...

Megan’s expression hardened into a stony dam against a growing flood of emotion. She ran faster.

The Dragon behind them unleashed a wet, throaty roar; it was dragging itself forward in full-body lunges, too cramped by the walls at its sides to properly run. But every lunge covered as much ground as a dozen strides from its prey.

“There!” Applejack shouted. “That way!”

Megan followed her down a still-narrower alleyway, tight enough that they had to run one after another instead of side by side. They turned one last corner, pushed past an unlocked wrought-iron gate, and found themselves in a terrace with a central fountain depicting Princess Celestia taking flight in polished white marble.

The Dragon was at the mouth of the narrow alley in seconds, pressing its eye-covered wing against the gap like a curtain. It sent in a gout of flame, but the fire only spread far enough to lick at the iron gate. It roared in frustration.

Megan and Applejack stood in silence as the echoes of that roar faded, and no new sounds rose up over the background din of the invasion.

“Is... is it gone?” Applejack asked.

“I think so,” Megan replied. She gently set Apple Bloom down on the white flagstones and then headed over to the fountain to dunk her face in its pool and drink from one of its trickling spouts.

Behind her, Apple Bloom trembled as the terror of the past few moments finally caught up with her.

“Applejack...” she whimpered. “Wh-Why’s this h-happening?” Tears welled up in her huge orange eyes. “What did we do? M-Missus Cake said it wasn’t our fault, but... but then...” Her shoulders shook.

Megan wiped her dripping mouth with a hand. She turned to face the sisters.

Applejack trotted over, sat down,  and pulled her sister into a hug.

“Oh, lil’ sis,” she whispered. “It ain’t your fault. It ain’t anypony’s except the m-monsters doin’ it.”

Apple Bloom buried her face in Applejack’s shoulder. “I’m s-sorry! I’m tryin’ ta be brave, jus’ like you. I r-really am!”

Applejack held her tighter. “Aww, you are! You’re bein’ so brave!” She swallowed down the lump in her throat. “B-Big Mac an’ Granny Smith would be so proud o’ you...”

Megan turned away and covered her mouth with a hand. She struggled to keep the flood at bay, refusing to break down when she was needed. Not again. She stepped away from the Ponies and the fountain, took a few deep breaths through her nose, and willed herself to calm down. Feeling something like stability wrap around her in a paper-thin shell, she turned back to face Applejack and Apple Bloom.

And the world exploded.

The Dragon had struck the outside of the mansion with its entire body, tackling the marble-brick structure in a sundering blow. The building collapsed inward, and the entire inside wall tumbled down in a white avalanche.

Time seemed to slow down, and Megan watched each shattered brick spin through the air toward the two Ponies.  In that moment, stolen between ticks of the clock, Megan saw Applejack’s face cycle from shock, to decision, to a small and bittersweet smile.

Megan was halfway to lunging for the two Ponies when Apple Bloom sailed backward and struck her in the chest with the full force of Applejack’s lightning-fast kick. Megan’s back hit the iron fence as the wall hit the ground. The fountain shattered, releasing a geyser that rained down on the piled rubble. For a time, the falling water was the only thing moving in the terrace.

As her head cleared, Megan focused on the spot where she’d stood; her eyes widened.

A length of blonde tail peeked out from under the massive pile of broken stone, soaking up the spray from the ruined fountain.

Twilight Sparkle half-galloped and half-flew through the lightless ruins of Tambelon, finding her way by the glow of her horn and straining to stay ahead of the rampaging beast that was once her adorable assistant. His every pounding stride send shockwaves through the ground, and Twilight could feel the furnace-like heat of his breath in sharp contrast to the chilly air. His serpentine tail was wrapped around the glowing orbs he’d gathered, and their pale light behind him cast long shadows that reached out for Twilight.

Twilight’s hooves skidded on the gravel-strewn street when a dead-end wall surged into view at the forward limit of her light; she pumped her wings and ran up the wall, only for Spike to follow by digging his talons into the ancient bricks.

“Spike!” she gasped once she’d reached the narrow walkway on top of the wall. “This isn’t you! You’ve got to fight it! P-Please!”

It was some sort of barricade or city wall, long since abandoned. The shadowy hints of buildings on either side looked identical from Twilight’s vantage point. The whole construction shuddered when Spike cleared the last of the wall and leaped up onto the walkway. The little Dragon was now easily thrice Twilight’s height. His long-necked, lanky-limbed body perched awkwardly on the narrow space. His baleful green eyes met Twilight’s. He growled.

Twilight backed away slowly. “It’s the dark magic, Spike!” she pleaded. “It’s so strong here, I know! But you have to fight! I need you with me! I can’t face all of this and you as well!”

She continued backing away, racking her brain for a spell to use. Spike was too heavy to pick up and hold back magically for long, teleporting was apparently useless, and any other means of dealing with such a large beast could put his life in danger.

Spike snarled, and green embers flickered in the smoke that streamed from his mouth and nose.

“SPIKE!” Twilight braced against the stone walkway and stared the Dragon down. “Don’t do this! What… what would Rarity say?”

A glimmer of recognition shone in the Dragon’s emerald eyes, but then pain pinched his features. He growled louder.

Twilight’s pupils shrank as she remembered what Spike’s last memory of Rarity would have been: her elegant friend, standing in horror and splattered with Smooze, out of Spike’s reach while Twilight held him back-

“Oh, shoot…”

Twilight turned and galloped for her life, racing forward as if propelled by the anguished, bellowing roar sounding behind her.

At the same time, on the vast expanse of the Smooze-covered plains at the base of Canterlot Mountain, Pinkie Pie slogged through the purple sludge as quickly as she could. The rope slung around her shoulders bit deep as she dragged Rarity, Fluttershy, and Discord behind her, but it wasn’t their bulk she saw behind her.

“Twilight, RUN!” she wailed. “He’s not gonna listen!”

The shout and flash of pink motes next to Twilight in Tambelon almost made her lose her hoofing; she took to the air for a few paces before landing and galloping once more.

“P-Pinkie… I need help!” Twilight gasped as she ran. “Where are you?”

Pinkie’s hooves slipped and skidded as the path inclined, but she pushed on to begin the ascent to Canterlot.

“I’m... right... here, Twilight!” she breathed. “Don’t worry! I’m not… going… anywhere!”

Spurred on by Pinkie’s resolve, Twilight pushed on faster and put more distance between herself and her enraged assistant. She dived over a low wall, only to tumble down the rocky slope on the other side.

On Canterlot Mountain, Pinkie slipped off her hooves and slid back down into the Smooze with a wet splatter.

“Oh, my…” said the glowing Fluttershy-orb clutched in Spike’s coiling tail. “Please stop! You’re going to get hurt!”

“You don’t have to do this…” added the Rarity-orb.

Spike paused at the sound of their voices, but his recent memories brought only torment. He shook his head and gritted his jagged teeth.

Twilight staggered back to her hooves, shaking her head. “Pinkie…?” The stir of pink motes had disappeared, but then it flashed back at Twilight’s side.

“I’m all right!” groaned Pinkie as she began the uphill climb anew. “Don’t worry about me! I’m super… duper… looper!”

With a burst of effort, Pinkie charged up the path and pulled her three companions out of the ocean of Smooze. Tendrils of the stuff reached after them and the thick coating on their hides seethed and squeezed, but the farther Pinkie dragged herself up the mountain, the less strength the liquid had. The tendrils soon poured back down to rejoin the mass below, and the muck covering them quieted.

“Just keep going!” Pinkie gasped in a small measure of pained triumph. “It’ll be okay, you’ll see!”

A growl echoed in Tambelon’s stagnant air, and Twilight knew her time was up. She spread her wings and took off on long, flight-assisted leaps into the chilling dark with Spike in hot pursuit.

Lightning Dust awoke to the soft sounds of singing in a language she didn’t know and the sharp scent of herbs she didn’t recognize. She opened her eyes, squinting against the glare of scattered candles, and met the gaze of the bird-beaked mask she’d seen before. But now the thing was hanging from a ceiling beam with several others in a cozy wooden hovel - and its wearer was standing next to the long table upon which Dust was lying on her back.

The brush-maned, black-and-grey-striped mare was putting the finishing touches on a wrap of medicine-soaked bandages around Dust’s wounded wing. The pain that had sickened the Pegasus before had diminished to a dull and throbbing ache.

“Please relax and do keep still,” the mare said softly. “I swear I bear no ill-will.”

Dust inhaled to reply, but then winced at a sharp pain in her chest; her ribs were bandaged as well, but the injuries hadn’t mended. She stifled a cough, and tried again in a weak whisper.

“Wh-Who… are you?”

“I’m Zecora.” She smiled. “Now I’ve said my name; perhaps you’d like to do the same?”

Dust frowned and looked away, focusing on the skull-like features of one of the wooden masks.

“I... I’m a weather wrangler and a Wonderbolts trainee. Or, I used to be. Now I’m… now I’m nopony. Just a nopony who caused all this, and who wasn’t good enough to fix it.”

A further twinge of pain from Dust’s ribs choked her attempt at a self-pitying sigh into a hoarse squeak.

Zecora sighed in Dust’s place, and hung her head in ostentatious dismay.

“How lonely shall my evening be… nopony’s come to visit me.”

Dust turned her head and narrowed her eyes at the strange striped mare.

“Why is everything you say in rhyme?”

Zecora offered a pleasant smile. “Mimi kujifunza lugha yako kutoka mashairi.”

“...I have no idea what you just said.”

“I’ll explain in safer times,” Zecora replied with a shrug and a coy sidelong glance. “For now, nopony hates my rhymes!”

Dust’s frown deepened. She slowly struggled her way onto her side, facing Zecora.

“Cut that out! It’s not funny!”

Zecora met her patient’s gaze and offered a sympathetic smile.

“Very well, I’ll end the game… if you’ll tell me your real name.”

Dust sagged until her chin drooped over the edge of the table.

“Okay… fine. You win. My name is Lightning Dust. And that awful muck out there is wrecking everything because of me.”

Zecora’s mild expression hardened, and she spoke gravely.

“Dark magic’s what left the country Smoozed - not a Pegasus who’s bumped and bruised.”

Dust tensed, and then wrenched upward to prop herself up once more. Her eyes shone.

“NO! It’s my fault! I helped him! I helped the monster who did this! I brought him things he needed, and he even used p-part of me to finish the spell!” Dust’s bandaged leg twitched at a twinge of pain from her poorly-healed gash. She whispered the awful words:

“...Blood from a traitor to her kin.”

Zecora stared into Dust’s shining eyes and rested a firm hoof on her shoulder. Her tone became derisive. Dripping with scorn.

“And how’d this foul traitor come to fall? Fighting against us, one and all?”

A flicker of righteous anger speared through Dust’s misery; she scowled.

“NO! Never! I got hurt fighting DRAGONS to keep Cloudsdale safe!”

Zecora maintained her stare, her sea-green eyes as cool as Dust’s were blazing. “You sought to turn the battle’s tide, in flight with allies - side by side?”

“Yes! I’d do ANYTHING to protect my home! To protect Equestria! If I was strong enough, I’d kick that bony Ram’s tail! I’d drag him all the way back to TARTARUS for what he did!”

Zecora stared at Lightning Dust for a long moment, listening to the Pegasus’s laboured panting.

“Hmm. We have different thoughts in mind... about how traitor is defined.”

Dust worked her mouth, but no words came out.

Zecora offered a motherly smile, and gave Dust a gentle kiss on her forehead.

“Do your best to rest, my friend. Your story hasn’t reached its end.”

The Pegasus returned Zecora’s smile with a small one of her own, and let her head settle on her folded front legs.

Princess Celestia’s glowing wings sliced through the stone pillars flanking a stained-glass window depicting the original banishment of King Sombra as her blazing-hot body melted the coloured mosaic into a rainbow shower that beaded and dripped off her hide. She tumbled to a landing in the castle’s great hall, and small fires spread out from her Orichalcum-shod hooves.

Nightmare Moon followed her into the chamber and alighted, her own magic-soaked body leaving patches of dusky flame on the rug with each step.

Celestia met Nightmare Moon’s gaze with sad resolve.

“Is this really what you wanted?” she asked. “Do you feel good, the way you are now? Spreading fear and destruction, instead of helping keep Equestria safe? Is this what I kept you from, when I was young and arrogant and you were ignored?”

The black Alicorn stomped, leaving a hoof-shaped puddle of molten stone in the floor.

“You are STILL arrogant!” she barked. “Lecturing me, even when the Elements have left you! Even when you know my magic could tear you apart!”

Celestia narrowed her eyes.

“Then why hasn’t it?”

Nightmare Moon gritted her jagged teeth, and her ethereal mane and tail blazed like dark bonfires.

“TEST ME NOT, SISTER!”

Celestia slowly took a few strides toward her sister, keeping her eyes locked on hers all the while.

“I know you’re still in there, Luna,” she said softly. “I know the Pony who stood with me… who fought with me, who endured the trials and found the Tree with me… I see her. And I see her pain.”

Nightmare Moon took a step back, partly shrouded by plumes of smoke rising up from the smouldering carpeting.

“You know nothing of pain!” she spat. “Where was your pain when our subjects hailed you as a mighty champion for defeating me?”

Celestia’s eyes shone. Her head lowered.

“It was with me the whole time, Luna. Hidden behind a mask, where nopony could soothe it. With every cheer, I heard your screams. With every festival, I saw your struggles. I lived through failing you a thousand times over.”

For a moment, Luna’s eyes looked upon her sun-bright sister, and followed the short path of a tear as it boiled away on her magic-heated hide. But then she squeezed her eyes tightly shut, and Nightmare Moon opened them.

“Words! Empty words! You’d say ANYTHING to convince me to behave!”

She turned and took to the air, burning through the thick stone of the hall’s upper wall as if shoving aside a heavy curtain.

“If our subjects pain you so, then let me free you of them!”

Celestia spread her wings in a flash of embers and gave chase.

“Luna! Wait!”

The Princess was swift as daylight, but Nightmare Moon was as fast as the dark that always waited for it. She reached a point above the tallest towers, and shouted down at the chaos below:

“Dragons and Smooze and Neighcromancers are not punishment enough!” she bellowed. “Face your fears in shadow, Equestria! For now the blackest fright descends! Begin, the night that never ends!”

Nightmare Moon’s horn was sheathed in darkness, and the sun collapsed into the horizon. The moon slowly slithered up into the dimming sky to replace it.

Celestia’s lips parted in horror. “Luna… no!”

At the same in Tambelon, Twilight Sparkle felt a rumble under her galloping hooves, and a ripple of darker night streaked across the empty sky. In its wake, the familiar constellations of Equestria twinkled into being. The silvery moon made the ruined buildings cast long, grasping shadows.

“S-Spike!” Twilight gasped to the beast rampaging after her. “Do you see it? The sky’s changed! Something happened!”

Spike’s only answer was a fiery roar.

Twilight ran faster, pushing to stay ahead of the Dragon behind her as she prepared a teleportation spell. Calculations raced through her mind, changing on the fly with every hoofbeat.

“Pinkie!” Twilight shouted. “Are you still here? I’m going to try to get us out, but Spike might not get better right away! I need you to be ready with some help! Can you do that?”

The swarm of pink sparks following Twilight began to speak, but the words were lost as if coming from a great distance. A moment later, the Pinkie-motes were gone.

“I really hope you heard that…” Twilight said to herself, and ignited her horn. A bonfire of purple-red magic spread wide ahead of her, and she galloped into it. The energy remained as she vanished, and Spike charged right into it as well.

In Canterlot, Celestia and Nightmare Moon stared each other down in the courtyard in front of the castle. Both were panting from the amount of magic they’d already expended. The thought of that exertion drew Celestia’s attention to a rise in the stink of the purple filth surrounding the mountain. She focused on a moonlit shadow between two towers… and the shadow squirmed.

“Luna!” Celestia cried out. “This can’t go on! We’ve used so much magic that the Smooze the Dragons brought with them is spreading! The capital will end up COVERED if we don’t stop!”

“And why should I care?” Nightmare Moon sneered. “The Smooze smites the worthy, not the wicked! And there is nothing worthy within me! NOTHING!”

The bitter cry had revealed more ache than the dark Alicorn had planned; she flapped her wings to perch upon a low stone wall and look down on her sister.

“Luna…” Celestia met her gaze, standing firm even though she dimmed her radiant aura.

Before either Alicorn could speak more, a reddish flash erupted and Twilight Sparkle lunged into being between them. She tumbled head over tail and rolled up against a stone staircase before righting herself and laying eyes on Celestia.

“Princess! We need to get out of here! NOW!”

“And run where?” Nightmare Moon interrupted. “You’ve no refuge left from me!”

Twilight turned to face the dark Princess.

“No! You don’t understand! He’s-”

“I CARE NOT!” Nightmare Moon thundered. “Neither you, nor my sister, can stop me this time! You shall suffer, as I suffered, and I shall rule the ruins of all you hold dear! Equestria is mine! MINE, do you hear me? M-”

“MINE!”

A huge, dark-purple, serpentine Dragon leaped from red-glowing nowhere and tackled Nightmare Moon, settling on top of her and wrapping both front paws around her slender neck.

Twilight and Celestia drew back in shock.

“...A-Applejack…?”

Megan set Apple Bloom’s senseless body down on a clear patch of ground and then staggered over to the pile of white-marble debris. The light seemed to drain from the sky with every step she took, until it was nightfall when she reached the fallen wall.

“Applejack! Applejack, can you hear me? Say something!”

Megan dug at the rubble with her bare hands, pushing aside gravel and lifting away larger jagged stones. She exposed a hoof. And then uncovered a bruised, dusty, apple-marked flank. She pulled away still more rubble, but then she froze. The red-stained stone in her hands slipped free and tumbled down the pile.

“Applejack… n-no…”

Megan’s vision blurred, mercifully distorting the ghastly sight before her. She squinted against the stinging tears, streaking masonry dust on her cheeks as she wiped her eyes with the heels of her palms.

“Please… you can’t… you can’t be- Oh, Gawd, don’t do this to me…”

Suddenly dizzy, Megan fell to her hands and knees. For the first time since Applejack had headbutted some perspective into her, Megan wished she was back in the city.

“You’re the last one left! D-Don’t do this! Don’t leave m-me alone!”

For a time, the Earth Pony remained motionless. But then, as the moon rose up in the blackening sky, the rubble shifted, and Applejack let out a wet cough that turned the stone under her chin pink.

Megan’s eyes widened.

“Applejack! You’re…?”

The elation of the moment soured in only a few heartbeats as Megan more fully grasped the situation. Applejack had survived that. She was living through it right now. Feeling it.

“Don’t move!” Megan blurted. “Stay still, Applejack! Just… just keep breathing! I’ll find somebody! I’ll get help!”

Megan reached out to try and do something - anything - but she drew back her hand at the first contact with the Earth Pony’s ruined chest as if Applejack had been burning-hot.

Megan turned and lurched to her feet, cupping her hands around her mouth and crying out:

“HELP! WE NEED HELP HERE! SOMEONE CALL A DOCTOR! NOW!”

Apple Bloom stirred as the echoes of Megan’s shouts faded.

“Whuh…? What’s goin’ on? Why’s it so dark? What time is it?”

Applejack’s one visible ear twitched; she wheezed. “...l-lil’ sis…?” The effort of speaking made her cough again.

Apple Bloom turned to face the sound of her sister’s voice, but Megan pounced on her and scooped her up, hiding her in her arms.

“NO! Don’t look!”

Apple Bloom wriggled in Megan’s grip.

“Hay! Lemme go! Applejack sounds hurt! I gotta help her!”

Megan gripped Apple Bloom by her shoulders and jerked her up to stare into her eyes.

“Apple Bloom, no. Please. It’s bad. I… I don’t want you to… to see…”

To see your sister this way as your last memory of her.

The little foal was stronger than she looked, however, and she managed to squirm her way out of Megan’s hands. She dropped to the wet flagstones and scampered over to her fallen sister.

“...Oh, sweet Celestia!”

Applejack forced a lopsided smile, the effort squeezing a tear from her one unblackened eye.

“It’s… n-not so bad, Apple Bloom…” she wheezed. “B-But I might hafta take… a lil’ time off workin’... on th’farm…” She panted after speaking, unable to catch her breath. Her visible eye unfocused, becoming glassy.

Apple Bloom’s huge eyes grew wider; she shuddered. No Apple volunteered to skip farm-work. Even when Big Mac had cracked three ribs trying to settle a bet he’d made with his sister, Granny Smith had had to ORDER him to take it easy. And Applejack herself had stayed up for days soon after that to pick up the slack.

There was only one thing that could make an Apple quit working.

“N-No… Applejack, no!” She stepped closer, putting a front hoof on her big sister’s. “Ya can’t! Not like this!” Apple Bloom’s expression turned from anguish to inspiration. “I’ll… I’ll mess everythin’ up! I ain’t ready! There’s so much ya gotta teach me still!”

Applejack’s ear twitched. Her good eye focused on Apple Bloom once more. “...Hhh?”

Apple Bloom swallowed down the lump in her throat. “Y-Yeah! Like… uh… ya gotta tell me how many pecks in a bushel! I already forgot!”

Applejack’s head drooped; her gaze went hazy again.

Apple Bloom shoved her shoulder, her voice turning to a fierce bark:

“HAY! No nappin’! H-How many pecks, Applejack?”

Applejack stirred, but stared at nothing.

“....F-Four…”

Apple Bloom nodded, her lower lip trembling.

“Okay… but… but what about tendin’ Zap-Apples? Which way does the bunny-hop go - clockwise or counter?”

Megan stood watching the pony-child fight against the inevitable; she felt every word stab her heart. Unable to bear the sight, she turned and staggered over to the wrought-iron fence and fell to her knees with her hands gripping the metal. It was still warm from the Dragon’s fire. She squeezed the bars tightly, the tension spreading to her whole body.

Just then, a hoarse, squeaky voice called out from the mound of rubble that had been the side of the mansion:

“Did somepony... call for help?”

A Smooze-soaked pink Earth Pony crawled into view, pulling other victims behind her with rope.

“...Cause there’s a knocked-out Dragon back there, and he might need help, too!”

Megan turned, stood, and stared. For a moment, even her grief and horror were pushed aside by the impossible sight.

“How… how are you moving? You’ve been Smoozed!”

“Oh, wow!” Pinkie Pie said as she stumbled her way over the jagged debris. “The Megan’s here! She’s really here! Thank Celestia! It’s all gonna be okay!” Fluttershy, Rarity, and the long, serpentine body of Discord slid over the peak of the rubble and tumbled down after her.

Megan shook her head to clear it.

“What…? No! I’m the one who CALLED for help! Applejack’s hurt! BAD! If we don’t do something, she…” Further words failed her.

Pinkie Pie’s pale blue eyes focused on the frightful scene just past Megan; she gasped loudly.

“Oh no! Oh no-no-no-no! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to get in the way!” Pinkie politely shuffled back, giving Megan room. She looked at her, at Applejack, and back again, as if expecting to witness wonders.

Megan frowned. “Are you nuts? You think I can just…? LOOK AT HER! What am I supposed to do? I can’t just WISH her better! I’m not some fairy-tale hero!”

Pinkie tilted her head in confusion.

“...Of course you are! You’re The Megan! When things got super-duper bad in the old stories, you’re the one who always saved the day! ALWAYS-ALWAYS!”

The discussion had drawn Apple Bloom’s attention; she turned to look up at Megan.

“Can ya…? Can ya save her, Megan? Oh, please! Please help! Ya just gottta!”

Megan slowly backed away from the Earth Ponies. A cold sweat broke out on her skin.

“I don’t… I mean, I can’t! The Rainbow of Light, it…” Her hand strayed to the heart-shaped locket around her neck. “...It’s gone. It left me. Because I failed you.” She hung her head. “I’m sorry.”

Apple Bloom slowly shook her head. “B-But… if ya don’t help…” Tears shone in her eyes.

Megan hugged herself, pulling in tightly. Wishing she could disappear. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

“YOU CAN’T GIVE UP! NOT EVER!” Pinkie shouted. Megan and Apple Bloom cringed at her outburst. “When I get scared, I just remember my Granny Pie’s song!” Pinkie’s voice softened; she stared down at the damp stone under her hooves. “But when things get… when I feel… wrong… inside.. I remember what you said! Though darkness now may shroud your eyes… the Sun is surely going to rise! You didn’t give up! Not EVER! And so I didn’t either!”

Pinkie looked up into Megan’s eyes; her pale eyes shone amid the purple filth covering her face. She spoke firmly, as if stating a fundamental fact - as certain as an adult, but as stubborn as a child.

“You can’t give up, Megan. Applejack needs you.”

Megan stared down at the Smooze-covered Pony in shock. The locket grew warm in her grasp.

“I… I really did say something like that. But that was…! You all remembered what I said for over a thousand years?”

Pinkie offered a weak smile. “It’s really good advice.”

Megan took a slow, deep breath. She kept her head down as she softly said:

“Both of you get back. I don’t know about this, but if something does happen… it’s gonna be big.”

Apple Bloom nodded shakily, pausing only to give her crippled sister a quick hug before racing over to stand next to Pinkie a few paces away.

Megan slowly approached Applejack and sank to her knees before her. She kept one hand on the locket and gently stroked the wheezing Pony’s mane with the other.

“Applejack… can you hear me?”

The Earth Pony’s ear shifted and her breath rasped a little louder, but she said nothing.

“I’ve got an idea, but it’s pretty crazy. And I don’t know if it’s even possible. But after all we’ve been through… I’ve got to try. Just hold on a little longer, okay? Just… just hold on.”

Megan got to her feet and back up a pace or two. She gripped the locket in both hands and bowed her head in reverence.

“Okay, look…” she whispered to the empty air, “I know I messed up. All these Ponies have treated me like a hero since I was a little girl, and I did my best, I really did. But I messed up. And if that means I don’t deserve to be whatever they think I am - if that means I don’t deserve to be here at all - then I’ll live with that. But right now, one of them needs you. She’s… she’s gonna die if you don’t come back. She’s got a family. And friends. And they need her. And they love her. So if you won’t come back for me, p-please… come back for them.”

Megan squeezed the locket in her hands and pressed her forehead to them. For a long moment, the only sound was the splashing from the ruined fountain. And then, from close by and far away, a swirling, jingling peal rose up in the silence. And Megan felt a pulse of glowing warmth wash out between her fingers.

She gasped, letting the locket drop in surprise. It hung around her neck and glowed with inner light, as heavy and thrumming as a second heart. Just the way she remembered it.

“Holy-! Damn… you didn’t leave me at all, did you?”

Megan picked up the locket and held it before her eyes, looking at it like a long-lost friend returned. The jagged emotional edges of pain and guilt she’d menaced Grogar with welded back together into something smooth and strong and sure.

“It was ME who got lost!”

Nearby, Pinkie Pie and Apple Bloom watched in silent awe, not quite daring to truly hope, for fear of breaking the spell of the moment.

Megan gave a resolute nod, and stood firmly before her fallen friend. She took the locket off her neck and held it in both hands to point it at Applejack.

“Okay, Applejack,” she said, “here goes. Ever since that little gnome gave me this locket, and I saw that Demon use that spell on you back when I first came here… I’ve wondered what would happen if I did this. Well, now it’s my only chance to save you - so I really hope it does something good…”

Megan slowly pulled open the locket, and a blaze of multicoloured radiance grew between the open halves. The rainbow orb swelled until it was larger than Megan’s head, and bright enough to cast the whole shattered courtyard in multihued streaks. Megan fixed her stance, inhaled deeply, and shouted:

“Behold… THE POWER OF LIGHT!”

The rainbow exploded out of the locket with enough force to make Megan’s shoes skid on the wet stone. The thing thundered down onto Applejack and then poured out in all directions, becoming bright enough to lose its colours in blinding white. Megan and Pinkie Pie and Apple Bloom squinted, were silhouetted, and were lost.

A timeless and heedless moment passed, and then Megan came to her senses on her side on the wet stone. She opened her eyes, and turned to focus on a nearby orange glow.

Her jaw dropped.