"Let go of me Trixie!" Screamed Twilight through tears. "I have to help him!"
Trixie had tackled the flailing Alicorn, and was now struggling to to keep her in place. "No! You can't go down there!" She began to use her magic, trying desperately to keep Twilight in place. "Think about what's at stake! If you blow our cover now, than you destroy any we have chance of saving Luna!"
"I can't let Spike die! Not for me!"
"If you go down there, everyone is going to die because of you!" Trixie screamed at Twilight. "We need to stay patient! I'm certain she'll change back again!"
"No, she won't!" Screamed Twilight. "She never turned in the first place! She just changed her appearance to trick Celestia, and now Discord's been rendered useless after promising to protect him!"
Twilight used her hind leg to try kick Trixie off of her, but the royal blue unicorn held fast. "Don't make me have to stop you, Twilight, because if it means preventing you from ruining the last chance we have at salvation, then I'll do it!" Her voice was sad and desperate. "Use your head! If you go down there and try to save Spike, what will you gain? Are you even a strong enough flyer to pull it off in time?"
Twilight continued to struggle underneath Trixie.
"Don't let his sacrifice be in vain! The best thing you can do for him now, is to make sure that the mare who did this gets what she truly deserves, and the only way we can do that is by waiting!"
Twilight stopped struggling and laid her head down in the cloud. Millions of things were racing through her mind at light speed. No matter what her maternal instant told her, she couldn't deny that Trixie was right. Every fiber in her being told her to go save Spike, but at what cost? By rescuing him, she would alert Nightmare to her location, and quite possibly her plan, and who's to say she wouldn't chase them and kill them both afterwards?
Trixie and Twilight were counting on Nightmare Moon to turn back into Luna, that way they could use the Mind Smear Mixture to erase Nightmare Moon as she existed as a memory. They couldn't be sure that the potion would delete Nightmare herself, and even if it did, libraries of information stored inside of the princess's head could be forgotten along with her. Not only that, they couldn't even be certain that Nightmare would allow Luna to reassume control. They were hoping that perhaps she would use it as a tactic to torture Celestia, and even that turned out to be a dead end.
The moment Nightmare began to "change", Twilight was skeptical. There was no reason for her to have lost control. However, against all suspicions, Twilight dove from the cloud anyway. With a bottle of Mind Smear in her magical grasp, she began rocketing down to the overlook that Luna and Celestia had done battle upon. Luckily, she became aware of Luna's ruse before she touched down, and with shaky wings and much physical strain, she struggled to regain the altitude she had lost, attempting to fly back up to her cloud. In her scurry, she almost lost the potion, but managed to make it back to the lookout, undetected and unhurt.
Now she sat idle as her little Spike was falling to his death. It was a hard truth she had to face, and in her mind, she still couldn't justify it. Nonetheless, she made no move to jump over the cloud.
She instead hung her head over Trixie's shoulder, who silently mourned Spike's imminent passing as hot liquid began to fall silently from Twilight's eyes.
o.0.O== Meanwhile ==O.0.o
Dying was an experience that Spike wished he would never have to face. He always imagined it as a chaotic, loud, and incomprehensible horror that came and destroyed all life, but much to his surprise, it was calm and peaceful, and eerily silent. He wasn't sure what had happened, but he looked around and saw nothing. He couldn't breathe, but he figured that didn't matter. Wherever he was, it felt like he was sliding through syrup, as it was difficult to move his arms and legs, and turning his head proved to be a challenge.
"So this is the afterlife?" Thought Spike who opened his mouth to breathe out of habit, but instead inhaled some of the liquid, which caused him to gag and choke. He put his claws to his neck as he coughed out all of the air in his lungs, removing the thick liquid from his throat as well.
He felt his chest burning, begging for him to breathe, but Spike couldn't understand why. He was most certainly dead, he could have never survived a fall that large...
What the hell was going on? Why did he feel the urge to inhale? Why were his lungs burning like fire, demanding breaths of cool oxygen, when they received only the thick, viscous... chocolate tasting liquid? Spike began to flail around slowly, and felt himself being propelled through the muck. He slowly became lightheaded as he burned away the little energy he had left, before his head broke the surface, and he was greeted with cool air all around him
He coughed and sputtered for oxygen, greedily sucking as much as he could into his small lungs, his eyes squinted shut as he splashed about the liquid he found himself swimming in. As he slowly peeked past a wall of muck that covered him from head to toe, he saw that he had landed in a large wooden swimming pool filled with a mysterious brown liquid. He stopped flailing about and began to simply kick his legs to keep himself afloat, when out of curiosity, he licked his lips, licking the brown liquid that covered his face with his long, winding tongue, when his eyes widened with surprise.
"Pudding?" Said Spike confusedly.
o.0.O== Meanwhile ==O.0.o
Celestia watched as the moon approached. It was difficult to tell, but it had certainly gotten larger since Nightmare sent it falling toward the earth, around 15 minutes ago. She had been fastened to the ground by metal shackles, magically set in place by Nightmare, who was peeking over the edge of the cliff.
"Hahahaha!" She bellowed out as she looked at Spike's dead, lifeless body laying in a large pool of blood. "Serves you right dragon!"
Celestia closed her eyes, sadness washing over her. She was there as Spike hatched from his egg, and even though he lived with Twilight from birth, she couldn't help but feel a looming wave of despair. The world was ending, Nightmare Moon had destroyed three cities, killed hundreds of innocent ponies, and Celestia had lost her horn. The princess of the sun had failed to stop her sister, Discord's arrogance had caused him to be incapacitated, and Twilight was nowhere to be found.
Celestia used her right hoof to wipe a tear from her eye. She put it back against the ground, before she realized what happened. Her hoof was free. She looked over, certain that it hadn't been loose a minute ago, when her gaze fell upon a brown parasprite with mismatched wings. It was casually chewing as it smirked at Celestia.
The princess knew who it was immediately, and had to stop herself from screaming out his name.
"Discord!" She whispered excitedly to the parasprite, who put one of it's tiny legs to lips. The little parasprite then flew to her other fettered fetlocks and bit off the shackles. "I never thought I'd be this happy to see you," She said as she got to her feet
"Thought you could escape, did you?" Yelled Nightmare Moon through a deranged smile. Nightmare flared her horn purple and a large, glowing, hot pink wheel was ejected from her horn. It curved through the air before it touched the ground and began hurtling towards the two at a rapid speed.
The parasprite opened it's mouth, and a barfed out a multicolored ball, which expanded to become the spirit of chaos. "Pesadilla de la Luna! divertido encontrarte aquí!" He spouted theatrically before he grabbed the pink wheel as it blasted toward him, spun it around, and put it on his head like a sombrero. He then began to Samba by himself.
"What?". Exclaimed a bewildered Nightmare Moon. "What are you- why did..." She fumbled for the right words but none came for a few confused seconds. "How did you get out of that statue?" She finally managed,
Discord rolled his eyes mid dance. "Please, Nightmare Moon, you don't think I would be so stupid as to fall for that trick a third time?" He then grabbed the statue of himself and began to dance with it.
Nightmare Moon forced a devious grin on her face. "I still killed your cocky little partner,"
"who, Spike? Ha!" Discord threw his hands in the air as he did a quick foxtrot towards Nightmare. "He's anything but dead, in fact, he's a living, breathing hero."
Nightmare was unfazed. "I watched him fall! He hit the ground like a stone and he hasn't moved since! He's as dead as you will be in a few moments.
"Is he really? Are you sure?"
"Yes! I saw the bod-". Nightmare Moon suddenly had a stupid look on her face. She then walked slowly back over to the cliff and peeked over. Instead of Spike's lifeless, gory corpse, she instead saw a big wooden sign with "guess again," written in red paint.
Discord let out a long laugh. "Silly Nightmare, I can make you see whatever I want you to see! Spike is down there somewhere, probably bragging about how he slapped you like you were his playmare". He dipped the statue and continued dancing. "I wouldn't be surprised if he came back up for seconds,"
Nightmare growled at Discord. "I'll slay you where you stand, Draconeqqus"
"Bite me,". Said the dancing spirit with a smile, as he spun his statue away.
Nightmare Moon stomped her hooves and screamed with rage. Two purple pillars of energy exploded from her horn, bending and winding their way towards Discord. The spirit of chaos opened his hands and grabbed hold of the two beams, and with a laugh, he began to spin his body. Nightmare Moon's eyes widened with surprise as she was lifted off the ground, and swung around like a small foal on the end of a jump rope.
Discord bent his legs as if we're doing an Olympic hammer throw, and spun Nightmare Moon through the air, before throwing her over the side of the mountain in a black, flailing blur. She tumbled gracelessly through the air before she spread her wings and zoomed back to the mountain. She landed in a gallop, charging furiously at the Draconeqqus, who took a step forward and braced himself.
Just as Nightmare Moon made contact with him, Discord warped out of existence, leaving a brick wall in the shape of his silhouette. Nightmare crashed into the mass of stone and mortar head first, and with a yelp, she fell to the ground.
Celestia opened her eyes wide. Something rather curious happened as Nightmare hit her skull against the wall. There was a pulse of light that radiated through Nightmare's body, leaving spots of navy interspersed within her jet black coat, reminiscent of...
"Luna". Muttered Celestia under her breath. Perhaps if they could land a blow hard enough on her head, then Luna could regain control! But then what? Nightmare could just hijack her body again, and they would be right back where they started. Perhaps Discord could perform a memory hex on Luna and erase Nightmare Moon from her conscious. In fact, that was perfect! How did she neglect to recognize this before?
She was so lost in thought that she didn't notice Nightmare Moon as she was hurled at her with a wooden trebuchet that Discord conjured from the earth. She managed to duck just in time, catching a short glimpse of Nightmare's furious face as she soared by and disappeared over the side of the cliff
"Discord!" Yelled Celestia. "You have to hit her head! Aim for her head!"
The large mismatched figure looked over at the princess. "Hit her head? Like this..." He conjured an egg and violently cracked it in his claw.
"No Discord, Don't kill her! Just enough to turn her back! She will lose control with a hard enough hit to the head!"
"Got it,". Said discord, as the egg put itself back together in his hand.
Suddenly, Nightmare Moon came tearing back over the side of the cliff, her horn ablaze as hundreds of multicolored projectiles whistled through the air at Discord.
"I choose the red pill,". Said discord as sunglasses appeared over his eyes. He then bent his body backwards, spinning his arms as the bullets flew over him and crashed in the mountainside behind him.
Nightmare Moon stopped the magical fusillade and began to pant. "Why won't you die?" She said as she tried to continue the magical bullet storm, but her horn sparked out and she lost her balance. Suddenly, there was a look of horror plastered to her face as she feared the worst. She stood back up, gritted her teeth and tried to force herself to continue firing, but only one small magical projectile was shot from her horn, and Discord caught it mid flight, with a pair of chopsticks.
"All out of magic." He stated seductively as he folded his arms across his chest. Luna was gasping for breath, sweat pouring down her face and dripping off of her muzzle. Her body was out of magic, and Discord had barely been touched.
"Tell me Nightmare,". Said the Draconeqqus, "How do you like your eggs?" He then launched the egg he had been holding at Nightmare, which exploded against her head, sending her tumbling limply to the ground. When the smoke from the explosion cleared, a navy blue Alicorn was visible, lying in an awkward position, wounds and bruises covering her body.
Celestia rushed over to her fallen sister and examined her. "Discord, come quick!" The Draconeqqus casually walked over.
"Please don't rush me, princess, I've been doing all of the work for the past ten minutes. Let me work my calves,". Celestia looked back at the stubborn spirit of chaos with a livid face, only to see Discord in ill fitting sweatpants doing yoga on a purple mat.
"I need you to wipe Luna's memory! Nightmare Moon is still in there, which means she can still come back out, and we can end this disaster now if we wipe Nightmare from her mind completely!"
"Where are your manners princess? Say please."
Celestia was beginning to get desperate. "Please Discord! Please!" She blurted out angrily, as she turned to Luna, only to find the moon princess's eyes fluttering wearily.
"look out beloooooooow!" Screamed a familiar voice from above them
Celestia looked up just in time to have an inexperienced purple flyer crash into her, sending her rolling backwards.
"Twilight!" Exclaimed Celestia,
"No time!". Said the Alicorn frantically as she uncorked a bottle she had been holding.
"Where have you been?" Said Celestia a hint of irritation in her voice.
"What?" Said Twilight as she reeled her head around, noticing the tone in Celestia's voice.
"Where have you been all this time?"
"Trixie and I had a plan!" Exclaimed Twilight proudly as she galloped over to Luna, "We had this potion that erases memories, and I'm not nearly advanced enough to perform a mind wiping spell on somepony who's lived as long as Luna has, so I figured if Nightmare Moon turned back into Luna, we could use the potion to make sure she never came back!"
Twilight uncorked the bottle with her magic without even looking at it.
Suddenly, Celestia's face turned grave and urgent. "Twilight! Stop! Get out of there, quickly!"
"What, why?" Said Twilight quickly, as she poured the liquid down Luna's throat.
Celestia put her hoof to her mouth as her eyes widened with fear.
"Big mistake,". Said a sinister voice behind Twilight. The purple Alicorn turned around to see an empty bottle of potion against Nightmare's lips, who was now experiencing the vast mind expansion that Trixie's potion provided. Her eyes began to narrow with focus, and her horn began to glow, filled with newfound power.
Black thunder exploded from Nightmares horn, as the ground beneath her feet cracked. Legendary power began to pulse through her body as she simply stood there and felt it flow through her. Her horn flashed a bright white as an explosion erupted from the spot Nightmare stood upon, sending Celestia, Twilight and Discord hurtling off the mountain.