The sky above Equestria was filled with starlight. Countless pinpricks shone in the blackness like brilliant opals. They hung over Canterlot like a shroud of jewels, stitched with countless designs: here a star-tipped wand, there a spool of thread, a musical clef over the rightmost tower of the castle, a trio of diamonds just above.
Despite the implications, Discord couldn't help but pause to admire the artistry involved. Thousands upon thousands of constellations spun and danced through the night overhead. As he watched, a new group of stars, these ones depicting a shield with wings like a bat's, winked into existence below the trio of diamonds.
And, in the center of it all, bathing all of Equestria in a milky-white glow, was the shining crescent of the moon.
He shook himself and hurried on.
The castle had been sealed, of course, but simple things like the laws of reality had never gotten in his way before. Most magic just rolled off of his hide like water off... well, water off of anything he wanted water to roll off of. The protection spell on the castle was strong, but not unbreakable, and it wasn't targeted at him anyway. He moved past it without even really thinking about it.
There were a few bodies in the entrance hall. Fewer than he had expected, all things considered. Most of them were guards. Perhaps they had managed to evacuate the non-military personnel before it was too late. Not that it really mattered; there was another spell around the city itself. No one got in or out until somepony managed to get through that - and, during a Canterlot night, the thing they were running from was as close to omnipresent as it was possible to be.
He stepped neatly over a bat-winged Lunar Guard stallion who had fallen in such a way as to block the staircase, noting with mild interest the shield-shaped cutie mark on the corpse's flank. The victim had been just another rank-and-file guardspony, if his armor was anything to go by. Not that it had made any difference in the end. The Captain of the Guard lay just as still a few yards away.
The mare he was looking for was waiting in the throne room. He knew that she was waiting because she lifted her head the moment he entered, despite the fact that he had not used the door. Or any other mundane entrance, for that matter.
Nightmare Moon's lips curled into a smile. "Discord," she said jovially. "We were wondering when you would arrive."
The chimera peeled himself off of one of the tapestries, where he had been masquerading as Fluttershy in the act of feeding a particularly insufferable-looking white rabbit. A moment later, he looked more like his usual self, but in a rather flatter state.
"Luna." He returned the grin and the pleasant tone, apparently without any sign of sarcasm. "Back to whole Royal Voice routine, I notice. Does this mean you'll need two chairs at the table now?"
The night-black alicorn just shook her head. She didn't make any movement towards stepping out of the throne she currently occupied. It had been Celestia's throne. Her own, rather smaller, dedicated seat was nothing but a heap of rubble and ashes now.
"We have re-adopted our speech patterns in recognition of the weight of today's events, Discord," she said. She was still smiling. "Tonight is a night of mourning for all of Equestia, after all. We must set an example to our subjects. Formality must be observed."
He recognized that expression. The smile was still present, yes, but there was nothing behind it.
He still managed to hold her gaze without any slip in his own expression, of course, and he kept his bright tone as he asked, "So how far are you planning on taking this, then?"
She spread her wings. The darkness seemed to deepen around her.
"All the way, Discord. We are finishing this tonight. We have been delayed for over a millenium. We will wait no longer."
He pursed his lips and tapped on his chin with one finger, looking thoughtful. "I did notice that the moon looked a bit larger than it usually does," he said, with the air of one trying to remember a trivial detail from a conversation by the water cooler that morning. He cocked an eyebrow towards her. "Been putting on a bit of weight lately?"
She snorted and folded her wings again. Around them, at the edges of vision, the shadows seemed to come alive. Strange, unnatural shapes danced in the dark.
"We do not care to be mocked during the moment of our triumph," she said, her voice losing its friendliness. In its place came the same icy, dangerous hollowness of her smile. "You would do well to realize our power."
"Mock? Me? Never." Discord huffed and turned away, his face a perfect mask of injured innocence. "I was asking entirely out of concern for your health. I have noticed some changes in you lately, you know. You don't eat with the rest of the nobility, you don't speak to anyone, you've turned ominously black and gained unfathomable power... It's enough to make me wonder if you might be catching something."
Now she sneered at him, openly disdainful. "More jokes, worm? Is this what you look like when accepting your fate, or is this just your addled mind producing meaningless babble out of sheer terror?" Her eyes flashed. "Or perhaps you still think that you can face me."
Discord laughed. "Fate? Now you're the one trying to provoke me, Princess." He wagged one stubby finger at her. "I am chaos incarnate. Fate looks at me and gets all cross-eyed." A pause. "Just like everypony else, really."
Luna's eyes narrowed. "Then you do think that you can face us. We had not taken you for a fool."
Another laugh, and this one was genuine. It went on for a long time, and had him doubled over and clutching at his knees for support by the time it was through. Eventually, he straightened up and wiped a few tears out of his eyes before breaking into a wide grin.
"Oh, please," he said. "Luna. I am nothing if not a fool."
Nightmare Moon drew herself up and glared at him down the length of her muzzle. Her horn began to swirl with arcane power. It was like watching the opposite of a light switching on. She seemed to draw in light rather than emit it - and any that touched her was utterly consumed.
"Then try," she snarled. "We have tolerated your existence this long because you have not taken action against us, but make no mistake - you are strong, but we are your equal. And here-" she spread her wings still further, and the throne room sank into near-complete blackness "-we are in our element."
Discord sighed. "I would," he said, a wistful note entering his voice. "I really, really would. But, you see, I've never been much of a fan of violence. Chaos, yes. Killing, no. Even I have standards, you see. Besides, this seems like more of a family matter."
He snapped his fingers, and the stone of the castle groaned as it opened up above him, exposing a tunnel to the night sky. "And anyway, you've made a complete mess of things up there," he added. "Moons flying every which way. Somepony could get hurt."
She stared. Slowly, the magic swirling around her horn began to fade.
Another snap, and suddenly he was wearing the black apron of a housemaid, complete with a feather duster clutched in his lion's paw. "Tia will throw a fit if this mess is still around when she gets back," he said brightly. "I suppose I shall have to take it upon myself to clean up after you. Do try not to make any more messes about the castle whilst I am away!" He gave her a cheery wave. "Ta-ta!"
There was the sensation of space folding in on itself, and he vanished. The hole that he had left in the ceiling began to close as Nightmare Moon stared up at it.
After a while, she snorted and lowered her gaze.
The night blanketed Equestria, and she was the night. With her expanded senses, she reached out and into the city. There were ponies at every gate out of Canterlot, trying to fight their way past her spell. She could see the panicked flares of their minds as clearly as any light. Casually, as if the action was no more important to her than swatting an insect, she began to snuff them out.
In the skies above Equestria, Discord soared upward, as fast as thought. Ahead of him, the shining crescent of the moon grew larger by the moment.
"Dizzy, you can't just leave them."
He grit his teeth. No matter how often he told himself that it was just his own fractured mind producing it, Fluttershy's voice always cut through him like a knife. He kept his eyes focused directly ahead, on the approaching moon. He didn't dare look to the side. He knew that he would see her there if he did, and he couldn't afford the distraction.
For once in his eternal existence, every drop of Discord's limited reserves of concentration was focused on the task at hand.
"Ponies are dying. You can save them. Didn't you learn anything from me?"
Despite himself, fighting the words every step of the way, he hissed, "Of course I did."
"Then why are you leaving them? Why are you leaving her? She needs you as much as they do. You can still help her."
"Nopony can help her." The moon filled almost a full quarter of his vision now. He could make out its impossible bulk against the blackness of the space beyond. The atmosphere around him was growing thinner with each passing moment. "And she doesn't want to be helped."
"That doesn't mean you shouldn't try."
"I can't be there and stop this at the same time."
"If you just reached out to her-"
"No," he said sharply. "Some things can't be healed. And even if they could, I'm not the one to do it."
She was saying something else, now. He ignored her. Below, Nightmare Moon was toying with the handful of ponies who were still trapped within Canterlot, but she was only awaiting the final act. The real threat was there, above, hanging over the landscape like the blade of a celestial guillotine.
He stopped. Behind him, he knew, the planet was hanging in space, a jewel even more beautiful than the stars on all sides. He didn't bother to look. He had seen it before. What was important was the moon.
It was still growing visibly larger, though he had stopped moving towards it. Part of him marveled at the sheer amount of raw magical power that would have been required to pull it so far out of its natural place, and at such speed. In her desperation, Luna had found reserves of strength that he wasn't certain even he could match.
He tried anyway.
If this had been any other task, he would have tried for something flashy. Carving the moon into a likeness of his own grinning mug was a good start. Perhaps he would have added a hat of some sort, to complete the effect. But this wasn't an easy thing to do, even for one as powerful as the Lord of Chaos. He didn't dare to expend any of his reserves on comedy.
The only outward sign of the titanic forces being mustered was the fact that any light passing between Discord and the moon was twisted and warped. The twinkling stars became dizzying blazes of every color in the rainbow, refracting upon themselves over and over until they were finally expelled from the vortex of warped space. A thousand, nearly invisible threads of light spread out over the skies of Equestria, the only sign of the battle taking place.
Discord felt no physical strain. Unicorns focused their magic through their horns, and thus, their power was limited by how much raw energy their horn could channel. He, on the other hand, had no physical form in any real sense. Oh, he had a body, but Discord himself was as close to being raw magic as anything could ever be. His chimeric form was just the way that magic made itself known in the crude three dimensions that most ponies spent their lives in. The only limit to his power was how much of himself he was willing to expend.
Ahead of him, the moon was slowing, but it was still moving forward. It was still going to strike Equestria. Meanwhile, he was at his absolute limit. Any more, and he would never fully recover. It might even destroy him.
In his mind's eye, he saw Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy watching him across the gulf of years.
He kept pushing.
The sensation of her protection spells breaking was only a minor twinge in the back of Nightmare Moon's mind. It hardly registered now. They were paltry things compared to the magic that she was capable of now. Even as she turned her attention towards the approaching magical signatures of her fellow princesses, she reached out and ripped a handful of other minds out of existence. Above, another set of constellations winked into being.
She opened her eyes and smiled once again.
Celestia was standing on the other end of the throne room, breathing hard. The white alicorn had tears in her eyes, and her body shook from mingled sorrow, fear, and anger, but when she spoke, it was with the same calm determination that Luna had come to despise.
"Sister, you must stop this."
Nightmare Moon heaved a theatrical sigh. "Really?" she said, her voice dripping spite from each syllable. "We have already come this far, and you believe that we can be talked down?"
"You are still my sister," Celestia said, taking a step forward. "You are still Luna. We can still-"
"Fix this?" Nightmare Moon smiled a bit wider and stepped off of the throne. "Fix us, you mean? No. You cannot wield the Elements of Harmony any longer, sister dear. Even your precious Twilight Sparkle, the student you groomed for decades, cannot do that. The Elements have moved on. They have selected other bearers, and they are not here. Even if they were, they could not stop me now. Some things never heal."
She spread her wings, and again the darkness flared around them, leaving Celestia as a beacon amidst impenetrable night on all sides. For a moment, her own eyes were visible, but then they sank into the gloom, leaving the elder sister to stare wildly about, searching for any sign of her opponent.
Nightmare Moon's voice didn't fade. It seemed to whisper in from all sides, as if the dark itself were speaking. "Besides," she purred, "even if you could 'save' me, even if you could force all of this down once more, it wouldn't change things. Before, they feared me for a thousand years for a few moment's battle with you. Now, I have slaughtered them by the dozen. By the score, sister. The streets of Canterlot run red beneath my stars. They are still dying, and you cannot bring them back. Even your precious student, for all her magic, cannot protect them all. No matter how hard she tries."
Celestia spun on the spot. Her horn was shining now, as bright as the sun, but the beam of light she conjured still barely made it a yard into the shadows before being swallowed up. "Why, Luna?" She was sobbing openly now, but her voice was still steady. "Why would you do this to them? They did nothing to you! If I hurt you, then take me! They are innocent!"
"Some of them are," came the answer. "Others... no. I know the dreams of every pony in Equestria, sister. I know them all. Every one of them, I know as well as I know myself. I see the innocent and the monsters alike, and I do not discriminate. In less than an hour, they will all be dead."
There was a surge of light as Celestia fired a beam of concentrated magic into the smog. There was no real target. It was a desperate act, taken because she saw no other real option. All it accomplished was that the night opened up for just a moment, let her attack pass through, and closed in once more.
There was a laugh. It was high and cruel, and echoed around the throne room for several seconds. "You could not stop it now even if you could strike me, sister," said the voice from the darkness. "I have called the moon. All of Equestria ends tonight."
Celestia's blood ran cold. This time, she couldn't keep her voice from breaking. "So that's it?" she screamed. "You would kill all of them, just because of some perceived injury from me?"
"Idiot." The word whistled out of the darkness like a javelin, and a thick tendril of the inky blackness whipped out at the same moment, striking Celestia's right wing. It burned like ice. "The great Princess Celestia, wisest and most beloved pony in Equestria," the voice continued. Now it was mocking her, every word dripping with bitter anger that had long since turned to poison. "You always knew how best to handle everything. You always ruled with such kindness. Where was your renowned empathy, sister, when it could have helped me?"
Another lash, and Celestia's right hind leg buckled as everything below her first joint went numb. She collapsed to the stone and cried out, but Nightmare Moon's voice continued.
"For all your pretty words, for all your grace and poise, you never understood me," she hissed. "Never. You wanted somepony to stand at your side and bear the weight of years with you. You wanted it to be me."
The night swirled around her, and for a moment, Celestia was certain that she was about to die, but the attack never came. Instead, the darkness split and pulled apart, revealing Nightmare Moon seated upon the throne once again, glaring icily at her.
"You wanted it to be me," she said again. "I needed it to be you."
Celestia tried to raise herself to her hooves again, but her leg was still uncontrollable, and her wing hung limply at her side. She was forced to lie there and stare, panting.
"You told me that you would always be there for me," the black alicorn said coldly. "But that was a lie. You never saw my pain until it was too late to heal. You told me that nopony would ever replace me, but that was a lie. You found Twilight Sparkle, and she became closer to you than I could ever hope to be. You told me that we would rule Equestria side-by-side, but that was a lie. You were loved and showered in adoration, while I was cast aside and unwanted."
Her wings flared out, and again the darkness crept in, but this time it left enough light that Celestia could just make out her sister's silhouette.
"I hated you for it," she whispered. "Oh, how I hated you. I hated you, my sister, and because of it, I grew to hate myself even more. But even that does not begin to encompass all of this. Because, you see, I did hate you."
She stepped off the throne once again, wings still outspread, and began to walk towards Celestia. "But that was not the worst of the lies," she said, apparently addressing the air in general now. She wasn't looking at her sister. "The worst of them was telling me that we could do something that mattered. Do you know what I have discovered, in all the years that have passed?"
Celestia raised her head. "Luna, please..."
"None of it mattered!" The shout echoed around the cavernous hall. Nightmare Moon stamped hard on the stone with one hoof, splintering it beneath her metal armor. "All those ponies that we built Equestria for, all of those that I took on this burden to save, are dead and buried. So are their grandchildren, and their grandchildren's grandchildren, and on and on for more than a thousand years. They. Did not. Matter."
She tossed her head, raving now, not screaming at Celestia but at the universe in general. "They lived out their lives, and I lived alongside them. I knew them, each and every one, better than they knew themselves. I was as close to them as I could possibly have been, and I loved them, Celestia. But each of them was only a handful of years, and I am eternal. I watched them all die. Now, nopony even remembers that they existed. The ponies living outside this castle? In a hundred years, they will all be forgotten. None of them matters."
"So your solution," Celestia whispered quietly, "is to kill them all?"
"What difference does it make?" snapped Nightmare Moon. Her head swung around to glare down at Celestia once more. "They will all die eventually. Every one of them will be forgotten. This way, I at least end them on my terms."
She turned away and began to walk towards the throne again. "As I said, Celestia," she continued, her voice becoming calmer and more even, "I hated you. I do not hate you any longer. Now, I simply do not care."
Once again, Nightmare Moon settled onto the throne and smiled.
Celestia lay on the floor, fighting to control any part of her body. She could feel the emotions rising up within her, flooding her mind with anger, sorrow, fear, and a dozen other sensations in great waves. Her mind was trying to wrestle away from her, to succumb to despair. She would not let it.
After a few seconds, she managed to get herself upright using only her three good legs, but she kept her eyes downcast as she said, "You'll die, too."
"And?"
Celestia shut her eyes. There was too much behind that one syllable for her to be able to come up with a proper response. No, not too much. Too little. She could hear the emptiness behind the veneer of anger.
Slowly, she raised her head and set her jaw. "Then there really is only one end to this," she said quietly.
"At last," said Nightmare Moon, as the dark closed in once more, "we understand one another."
The streets of Canterlot were dark, too dark to be natural, and odd shapes danced at the edge of Twilight Sparkle's vision. Combined with the fog of mingled panic and exhaustion that filled her mind, she could barely make out anything of the city around her.
She was vaguely conscious that there were bodies everywhere, but she blocked them from her consciousness. Ignore them. They could not be helped. Focus on the living. Throw your senses out like a net, trawl the city streets for signs of magical flare-ups. Find the ones who could still be saved.
Her horn flashed again, and she found herself by one of the city's outer walls. All of the ponies she had helped were beginning to run together. It was getting difficult to tell any of them apart. Was this family the same one that she had pulled out of the restaurant on Mane Street a few minutes before? It was hard to tell. The young colt looked similar, at least. The moment's reflection almost caused her to delay too long, and the shadows around the family reared up and lunged forward like claws.
She blasted them apart, ignoring the alternating shouts of appreciation and pleas for instructions, and teleported away again.
The spell that had been keeping anypony from evacuating the city had been broken. The ones she saved had a chance, at least, but she had no time to stay and shepherd them individually. For every potentially victim that she saved from an attack, four more were dragged down. She couldn't stop for a moment. Every second she wasted was another grave filled.
But even she couldn't look away when the walls of Castle Canterlot exploded outward in a flare of light. The princess of magic gaped openly at the sky as two figures spiraled through it, climbing rapidly. Even at this distance, they were unmistakeable as Princesses Celestia and Luna - or, at least, Princess Celestia and what had been her sister.
Celestia was visible as an angelic figure, as bright as the sun, surrounded by a halo of light that unleashed volley after volley of piercing sunbeams at her opponent. By contrast, Nightmare Moon was only visible as a spot that no light could illuminate. She blotted out the stars as she moved, and those of Celestia's attacks that came close to her vanished into the cloud of thick smog that she seemed to trail behind her.
The two of them were circling one another, constantly ducking and weaving around the barrage of magical attacks, searching for an opening and fighting for altitude. As Twilight watched, a ray of light finally managed to pierce the veil around Nightmare Moon, and she heard a scream of rage and pain echo over the city. It was followed by a sudden, sharp dimming of the light surrounding Celestia, and the white alicorn dipped sharply for a moment, as if she were going to crash.
As her mentor steadied herself above, Twilight spread her wings and took flight after them. All thought of the shadows in the streets left her mind. Celestia needed her. Nightmare Moon had to be stopped.
The light around Celestia flared again, and the elder sister powered upward, rising like a rocket towards the stars overhead. Nightmare Moon's magic swiped at her, missing by a hair's breadth each time. Twilight found herself letting out a breath that she didn't know she had been holding as her teacher emerged from the cloud of darkness unscathed.
She reached down, searching for the well of magic within her, and found it waiting. She had exerted herself powerfully on the city streets, but in her desperation, she found reserves of energy she didn't know she had. The first blast of magic that she threw at the black alicorn was powerful enough to have torn masonry apart.
At the last moment, Nightmare Moon twisted aside. How she still had enough concentration left to detect and avoid an attack from an entirely new front while simultaneously fighting against Celestia, Twilight never knew.
The counterattack came whistling around before she could be ready for it. She had been so desperate to come to Celestia's aid that she had neglected to watch for assaults on her own person, and the series of blows caught her on the right side. It felt as though she had been doused in acid. The dark was so cold that it burned.
She felt herself lurch to the side, thrown off course by the strike, and begin falling. She flapped harder, focusing on arresting her plummet, and hoped that Nightmare Moon was too focused on Celestia to attack again. Even Twilight couldn't defend herself in free fall. Not when it felt as though her entire body was made of ice.
Until then, the battle had been entirely silent apart from the crackling of magic as it seared the air. There were no words exchanged between the combatants. There was no time. Talking took away concentration that could be focused on attack or defense.
As she finally managed to steady her fall, though, Twilight heard Celestia scream "No!"
There was a flare of light close by. When the purple spots cleared from her vision, Twilight spun in the air to see Celestia hovering between herself and Nightmare Moon. The light around her was weaker now, dangerously so, and her wingbeats came in labored, heaving spurts rather than automatically. She had protected Twilight from the second attack, and she had paid the price for it.
The white alicorn only spared a glance to her student before flying off again. There was no time for anything else, but that look said everything that needed to be said anyway.
This ends here, or not at all.
Twilight had fought before, when Queen Chrysalis had attempted to invade Canterlot all those years ago. She had stood together with her friends and battled against a horde of changelings.
The terror that she had felt then was nothing compared to what she felt during the battle against Nightmare Moon. Down in the streets, with her friends at her side, she had been frightened, but she had also been confident in their ability to overcome any odds so long as they stood together. She had also suspected that the changelings would want them alive if possible.
The enemy that she was facing now did not want her alive. There could be no truce here, and there would be no rescue. There would not be a spell to save her if she failed.
If she failed, there would not be anything that could save Equestria.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl, stretching the scant seconds of the battle out to an eternity. She knew that she had only been airborne for a few moments, that every movement she or her fellow fliers made was happening in the blink of an eye, but it felt as if she had been fighting forever. As she spun away from one of the scything tendrils and returned fire with her own magic, it seemed as though she were moving through treacle.
At the same time, things were happening far too fast. Nightmare Moon was quick, impossibly so, and her attacks seemed to emerge from nowhere, as if the darkness itself were her weapon. Twilight pushed her body to its limit, twisting away at the last possible moment and still, somehow, finding time to return fire.
Magic crackled and lashed through the air around the three alicorns, warped by their wills. They were the epicenter of a thunderous storm of magic now, surrounded by a cloud of violet lightning, blinding light, and ice-cold blackness. Nightmare Moon hung in the center of it, immovable and unbreakable, her attacks crashing through the air like tidal waves as she tried to find her targets. Celestia hardly seemed to exist in comparison, a tiny firefly weaving desperately to avoid being swatted from the sky. Her spells seemed feeble, and though they often connected, they were simply absorbed by the night. She seemed so frail beside the hurricane of power that was Nightmare Moon.
Twilight circled the dark alicorn in tandem with Celestia. Concepts like gravity and direction became almost meaningless in the dance. She wasn't sure whether she was flying up or down at any given moment, but she knew it didn't matter. All that mattered was the battle.
She swung around, fired another blast of purple lightning into the darkness. When she heard Nightmare Moon scream in response, she stopped for just a moment.
It was a moment too long. The blow caught her on the underbelly this time, sent her spinning away and made her scream as her bones turned to ice. When she managed to stop herself and look back to the battle, what she saw made her feel that the attack had reached her heart as well.
Her spell had punched a hole in whatever defensive spells Luna was weaving around herself. A spider-web of cracks hung in the air around the point of impact, pulsing with arcane energies. And, speeding towards that opening like an arrow, was Celestia.
The flare of light from the impact blinded Twilight completely, and the force of the blast threw her from the sky.
Nightmare Moon awoke in the streets of Canterlot. She was sprawled awkwardly over one of the stone curbs on a main street. Which it was, she couldn't tell and didn't particularly care. Pain clouded what parts of her mind could still conjure up the energy to wonder about such things.
With some effort, she managed to lift her head and look around. She was surrounded by the results of her work. Even from her low vantage point, she could see the bodies around her. Part of her, the tiny, insignificant piece that still felt anything other than emptiness, wanted to laugh and revel in her triumph.
She didn't. Instead, she stared around, expression blank, and waited until she heard hoofsteps approaching.
Her neck protested as she turned to look at the source of the sound. She couldn't have moved the rest of her body if she wanted to. Her forelegs felt too weak to lift, and there was no sensation from her hind legs at all. Even moving her head, she knew, was more than she could really manage, but she did it anyway. It wasn't as if it mattered.
The one approaching her was Twilight Sparkle. The lavender alicorn was walking slowly, in uneven steps that kept her on the verge of collapse, but she was upright. Behind her, there was an unmoving white shape.
Finally, Twilight drew up to her. Neither of them said anything. Neither of their expressions betrayed any sort of emotion. They simply stared.
Behind Twilight's eyes, Nightmare Moon could see an emptiness as vast as the one in her own.
After a while, she lifted her gaze to the sky overhead. The constellations she had placed there were still present, but the moon was unmistakably receding.
She couldn't quite bring herself to care.
When the violet flash came, bringing with it a night more complete than any she could have created, she welcomed it with open arms.
Now the sun and the moon hung over Equestria. Beneath them, Twilight Sparkle stood on the balcony of Celestia's tower, staring up at the sky.
There were hoofsteps behind her. She didn't bother to turn and look. She knew that there was only one other pony who would enter Castle Canterlot.
"I know what you've been doing," came the quiet, tired voice.
"I knew you'd find it eventually," she answered, still not turning to face the speaker.
"Is this what you think Celestia would have wanted for you?" The hoofsteps came closer, left the staircase and entered the room leading onto the balcony. "Letting Equestria fall into ruin? Abusing your power to - to -" there was a moment where the speaker clearly couldn't bring themselves to say something "-try and recreate something you lost?"
"What Celestia would have wanted doesn't matter," Twilight said, shutting her eyes. "Celestia isn't here. None of them are. Even you aren't here, really."
"Yes, I am, Twilight," said the voice. It sounded faintly musical, even through the exhaustion. It was just that its music was a funeral dirge. "I'm here. And I still love you."
"No." Twilight shook her head. "I failed you. You needed me, and I failed. I saw what Sombra did to you. And I can't use the Elements of Harmony. I tried, but they've left me." She let out a long, slow breath. "I'm so tired, Cadence."
Slowly, the princess of love lowered herself onto the stone beside Twilight and draped a wing over her barrel. She looked almost skeletal, and her horn looked off, pitted and twisted. Even her eyes were the wrong color, an unnatural mix of greens and reds and purples. But she pulled her friend close all the same.
"You didn't fail me," she whispered. "You saved me. Even if you couldn't undo all the damage, you saved me. And I'm here for you. But you have to stop this. Equestria needs its princess back, not a madmare who cares for nothing but recreating the past."
Twilight couldn't stop the brief hitching of her breath, or the sudden swell of tears that leaked out from beneath her closed eyelids. After a moment, she whispered, "I need the princess back, too."
"No, you don't," said Cadence, her voice growing sharper now. "You're strong, Twilight. You've always been strong. And now, you need to show it. You have to be the ruler Equestria needs. Nopony else can do it."
"I can't." It came out as a choked sob, and Twilight twisted away from Cadence, looking pained. She stood and moved to the far side of the balcony, swaying slightly with each step. "I can't, Cadence. I'm not strong. Not strong enough for that. This... I'm doing all I can do. It's not pretty. I don't like it. But I have to."
Cadence sighed and shut her eyes. "You're sure about this?"
Twilight nodded.
"You won't stop?"
A shake of her head, this time, and a murmured, "I can't."
Cadence took a deep breath. When her eyes opened again, they flickered with a sickly inner light, and her horn shone with a yellow aura the same hue as a fresh bruise.
"Then I'm sorry about this, Twilight," she said.
Before the lavender alicorn could react, there was a flare of light from Cadence's horn. When it faded, she was alone on the balcony, staring up at the moon.
And, in the darkened entrance hall of Castle Canterlot, Discord's film flickered to a stop.