//------------------------------// // Like a mare Scorned // Story: TiM: Best of Intentions, Worst of Results // by Twidashforever //------------------------------// West Equestria Luna flew at full speed towards Canterlot; she felt the energy release of a very familiar creature being reborn in her world. She would not allow it, not again. Putting on more speed she increased her velocity until Canterlot was at last in view. She stared in horror at the fires raging around the city. She could feel the shadows crawling all over the place. They were familiar to her; she had commanded them for almost a thousand years as the mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon. For now, none of this concerned her, there was no point in striking at the body of the serpent while the head still lived, she needed to kill the source of all this, the one responsible, the one who commanded them. There was only one place someone like that would be in Canterlot; and a quick glance over to the palace confirmed it for her. Canterlot Palace stood in the same place for almost a thousand years. Luna was not present for its construction, but she was well read on its history. An army of ponies had built it for Princess Celestia as a way of giving thanks after she saved them from Nightmare Moon. Celestia could no longer live in their ancient castle; she moved the seat of power from the castle of the Two Pony Sisters to where Canterlot now stood. It has survived more wars than Luna cared to count. Now? Now it was completely destroyed. The view of it would have broken her heart. The castle was a marvel of pony construction. Easily the grandest structure ever produced on Equestria soil. Every facet of it, from the gardens out back, to the tips of the towers was constructed with a true artisans touch. Love was poured into every slab of concrete. Now it was gone. The towers were completely destroyed, the garden sat on fire. The floors had collapsed. Nothing remained of the original design. It could not be rebuilt, only remade. It would have broken Luna’s heart. However, at that moment, another emotion altogether ruled over Luna; Rage. Rage is an interesting emotion. Those under its thrall forget themselves; their only consideration is inflicting violence on those who cause them pain. They lose rational thought, no longer considering the effect of their actions, no longer caring for their own survival or the survival of others. For somepony who is truly under the control of rage, for one that gives themselves over to it, there is not a more dangerous foe in existence. Although, few beings are able to keep it up for long, as most lose the drive after their endurance fails, or they succumb to extreme pain. The sight before Luna caused her to completely give into rage. She no longer cared about the others; she no longer cared about herself. Her entire existence was now dedicated to the destruction of the one who stood on the ruins of the castle. The one who stood over her sister’s prone form. The energy blast slammed into Twilight Night’s flank, knocking the alicorn several feet back, she fell off the ruins and came to a stop in the dirt. There was no precursor, no monolog, and no speech dictating how this new foe would stop her. It was completely by surprise, underhanded, and sneaky. She could respect that. Her new opponent was powerful. The blood flowing down her flank was testament to that. Not even Celestia had hurt her so. Whoever this was, she would need to be on her guard. The next attack came before she even stood up, from the most unexpected angle, it came from the shadow she cast on the ground. The energy blast slammed into her stomach. Launching Twilight Night several hundred hooves in the air. Another wound, more blood spilt. Through her force of will, she extended her wings and caught herself in the air. Arresting her velocity upwards and soon to be downwards. A smile passed her blood stained lips as her enemy was finally revealed. Princess Luna stepped out of her shadow. Glaring angrily at her foe. “Princess Lun…” She never got to finish that sentence. Her intent was to goad Luna into talking, to anger her, to cause her to drop her guard. Twilight Night failed to realize that Luna had no guard; her emotions were all drowned out. Only one remained; Rage. Luna’s horn in her gut taught her that lesson the hard way. Twilight Night spit blood as she was skewered by it. ‘You’re losing to a changeling!’ ‘No, she just caught me by surprise.’ ‘No excuses, take another hit and she will be the least of your concerns.’ 'Understood…’ Having been given her ultimatum, Twilight Night shouted, “Enough!” The alicorn creature teleported herself off Luna’s horn and back to the ruins of the castle, she held a hoof to the wound on her stomach and concentrated on healing herself. However, full healing would have to wait; Twilight Night was forced to raise a shield to counter Luna’s next energy blast. To her horror, the shield almost cracked from the blow. When the energy faded, the Jet-black alicorn dive-bombed at her. She barely had time to counter the black sword that came for her throat. Black blade met purple. Their energy fields collided with each other, each repelling the others. Luna was never the swordsmare that her sister was, however, what she lacked in grace she more than made up for in power. She had no worry of her sword breaking, in that they are evenly matched. Unfortunately, Twilight Night was done playing around. She could not take another hit, not if she wanted to see her master’s plan come to fruition. Twilight Night teleported behind Luna and swung, her blade barely missed Luna’s neck; it only managed to claim a few of her feathers in the swipe. Luna ducked low and kicked back with her hind legs, the move was telegraphed and sloppy. A byproduct of the rage in her heart. Twilight Night easily avoided it, doing so caused the wound in her chest to open up again and she grunted in pain. Luna took advantage of this small opening and swiped for Twilight Night’s neck. She almost lost her head there, almost. A quick teleportation spell caused her to keep it, however, Twilight Night did lose a few strands of her mane. “I grow tired of this game.” “Then die already!” Luna shouted. Luna attempted another charge at Twilight Night. Only to find her path blocked by an energy shield. “No!” She screamed. The shield closed in around her, stopping her from using the shadows to escape, or from teleporting out. Luna began using force to break out. Slamming it with energy blasts from her horn. Twilight Night’s cocky grin faded as she realized the shield was about to break, cracks begin forming on the outside. “I don’t know how you got this powerful, Princess Luna; but it ends, NOW!” Twilight Night tapped into the deeper reserves of power that Twilight had, truly, she could not believe that this mare had that much power. They had just fought Celestia and then Luna and she still had much more power to give. Before Luna could break through the shield, Twilight Night did it for her. She blasted the weakest section with an energy beam. The shield cracked and then exploded from the inside out. The mare trapped inside screamed for all her worth. The dark alicorn landed next to the former Princess. She grinned at the results of her work: Princess Luna, one of the greatest alicorns to ever exist, was lying on the ground, dead. “One more alicorn to defeat.” She turned and walked away. “We are not done yet, monster.” Shock was evident on Twilight Night’s face as she turned around and saw that Luna was still alive; weakened, beaten, bleeding, but still alive. She tried to stand several times, only to fall over, as her legs could no longer carry her weight. “You should have stayed down Luna, you might have lived.” “Survival is not enough.” “It’s a pity you know, had you still the Nightmare in you, this might have been a lot more fun. A shame, oh well, any last words to Twilight before you go? Not that she will ever get it.” “Twilight?” “Oh, I’m hurt; don’t tell me you do not recognize your fellow princess.” Luna stared at the creature before her, realization dawned on Luna’s face as she finally realized just whom she had been fighting all this time. This was Twilight Sparkle, possessed in much the same way she had been all those years ago. This realization granted her newfound strength. In a display of willpower that shocked Twilight Night, Luna conjured her black blade. It was for show, Twilight Night shattered the thing easy enough, and she held her purple blade to Luna’s throat. “It’s over, Princess Luna.” “We don’t think so, monster!” Three Wonderbolts slammed into Twilight Night with all the force they had, breaking several of her ribs in the process. Two more landed next to Luna. She recognized one of them, Firestar, the daughter of Spitfire and the current captain of the Wonderbolts. “C’mon, we're getting you out of here!” “No! We must stay and end this!” “Sorry princess, I have to respectfully disobey that order. You can court-martial me later.” Firestar and her partner picked up the stricken alicorn and carried her away. Luna raged in their hooves, but her strength had left her. Her last sight before finally succumbing to exhaustion was the creature killing off the three Wonderbolts that had sacrificed themselves for her to escape; and the headless corpse of Princess Celestia lying on the top of the ruins of Canterlot Castle. ………………………………… Day never came, Twilight Night took control of the moon, and for now, she refused to lower it. It was her declaration of victory, she accomplished the impossible, she was the new ruler of Equestria. She would lower it eventually, after all, her master would not want a dead world, or if he did, he would want to do it himself. On the outside, she was a mare that savored her victory. The entirety of Canterlot was burning to the ground. Every pony her troops had found was dead. Several undoubtedly survived, running like the vermin they were. On the outside, one could be mistaken for thinking she was basking in the joy of victory. On the inside was a VERY different story. The creature that was only known as ‘The Night’ screamed in agony. Every molecule of its being lit up in unspeakable pain. Twilight would not destroy this being, it had technically not failed. The Celestia-Changeling was dead. However, there was more than one of the foul creatures out there. The second one escaped. Twilight Sparkle stood above the creature’s psychic form, glaring angrily at it. “I let you take charge because you said you could do what needed to be done. And you let another escape!” “Sorry mistress, I did not know there were two.” “Again you come to me with excuses; again you try and justify failure. You have two bucking jobs, return my family to me, and rid Equestria of the changelings. YOU HAVE DONE NEITHER!” The pain started up again, never before had it felt such agony, never before had it felt such pain. The master was cruel, he would snuff out life and a whim, resurrecting it as he saw fit just to repeat the process. This, this was on a completely different level. This creature, this Twilight Sparkle, her torture put his to shame. She knew how to hurt something; she knew how to make it bleed. Her entire attention was directed at it. “One more chance… Please mistress…” In a way of answer the pain stopped. Twilight stepped away from the pathetic form in front of her. She did not want to give it another chance; however, nothing had truly changed; Equestria was still over run in changelings, ponies were still defending them, and though it let one of her foes escape, another was dead, So it technically did not fail. “Twelve hours.” “Mistress?” “As you can’t seem to get the job done with the changelings, you have twelve hours to return at least one of my family members to me. Understand this creature, if one hair on their pelt is out of place, or you fail. This is over; there will be nothing left of you when I'm done.” “I live to serve.” Twilight Night began moving again, she looked up and summon her commanders to her. They had an attack to plan on Manehattan. …………………………………… The Remains of the Everfree Forest The General extended his will over the meager troops under his command. The mistress was summing them again, each attempt threatened to cause him to leave his post and flock to her. He could not; he had another mission to complete. A task he was assigned by the true master. If he failed, if he gave into those instincts, true punishment would be his reward. It was difficult to say the least, every fiber of his being wanted to go and not only did he have to avoid the call, he had to keep his troops avoiding it as well. “General, we're almost at the target.” “Keep me apprised of the situation as it develops.” ‘Soon my lord, soon we will have everything we need. Your solution is brilliant; more power, a stronger conveyor; we will soon have everything we need for your assentation.’ ………………………………………… Outside Manehattan It is said that nothing in the world travels faster than light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws. That saying was once again proven true: Somehow, the news of Canterlot’s destruction beat Shimmering Night and Bright Dawn to Manehattan. Several pegasi flew up and intercepted the pair. Each carrying weapons aimed directly at them. Night was in no mood for pleasantries and calmly bent each blade back around. “I will ignore you pointing weapons at a Princess of Equestria, for now.” Bright Dawn smiled smugly at the looks of horror on the guard’s faces. “We're sorry your grace. We're under orders to stop anypony trying to gain entry to Manehattan.” “What sort of idiot gave that order?” “The Mayor, your grace.” “Consider it revoked, your new orders are as thus: Stop detaining ponies for the first part, when the enemy comes, it will not be in the form of ponies." She glanced up at the moon that still hung in the sky as a way of punctuating that sentence. “Escort me and my husband to the hospital, and tell the Mayor that I will have words with them now.” “At once, your majesty.” Under escort, the two continued their journey to Manehattan hospital. Then the youngest of the guards spoke up. “Is it true what they say?” “Silence!” “No, let him speak.” Night hated secrecy of any kind. If there was some rumor going around it was best to stomp it out now. “They say Canterlot has fallen, that Celestia is dea…” He could not bring himself to finish that sentence. Shimmering Night flew over to the poor colt and laid a hoof over his neck, in a show of compassion and friendship she hugged him. “Listen, we just came from Canterlot, when we left they were both still there. While I cannot vouch for what happened after we left, I will say this. Princess Celestia is one of the toughest ponies alive. It would take a lot to bring her down. Besides, ‘they’ say a lot; how often is it true?” That seemed to calm him down a little; however, Bright Dawn could not help but notice the uncertainty in her posture after she spoke those words. The unspoken question passed between them. ‘Is that why the sun never rose?’ ...... Manehattan hospital “Ataxia if you keep pacing around this room I will have to ask you to leave.” Cadance stated. “Ha, I would like to see you make me.” “YOUNG LADY!” Ataxia shrunk back at that, she knew she had pushed it just a little too far with that comment. “Sorry…” Rarity scoffed at her child, how she had ever raised such a troublemaker would be a mystery worthy of Twilight’s attention. She blamed her husband for this. She would have given him an ear full if he was in the room. However, with the situation as it was, he insisted on staying in his dragon form. This room and hospital was far too small for him to enter. As such, Spike had spent the last two months outside the hospital. Keeping watch for anything that might threaten his sister. One who right now was quickly becoming her own worst enemy. “Aurora, dear, you have to eat something.” “I’m not hungry.” “C’mon, you said the same thing yesterday, and the day before that.” “I wasn’t hungry then either.” “Hey mom, what time is it?” Rarity looked annoyed by the sudden question. She needed to convince Aurora that it was necessary to eat slightly more than once a day. However, she had been completely unsuccessful for the last few days. The poor dear seemed to be on a hunger strike, though for what purpose Rarity could only guess at. “I'm doing something slightly more important right now dear.” “It’s seven thirty.” Cadance spoke. “Morning or Night?” Ataxia asked. “Morning, why do you ask?” “Why is the sun not up yet?” That got everyone's attention; they all went to the window, having just noticed that Celestia failed to raise the sun for the first time since any of them could remember. Something was very wrong indeed. “Whatever's going on, I'm sure that Luna and Celestia are taking care of it. After all, if they needed us they would just send a letter to Spike, right?” A chorus of agreements followed Princess Cadance statement, though no pony in the room seemed fully convinced by it. The uncomfortable silence soon permeated through the whole group as they contemplated alternative reasons why the sun had failed to rise that day. Fortunately, a pony entering the room soon interrupted it. Cadance turned a smile to her son. “Radiant! Did you get them?” Radiant Star grinned at this collection of ponies, they never ceased to raise his spirits, even at his lowest, even after his dad passed on, he felt happy to have such an unusual family. “I sure did! Oatmeal raisin with rainbow chocolate chips, your favorite.” He levitated the bag of cookies over to Aurora. Aurora picked up the bag of cookies with her mouth and threw them into the trashcan. “I hate cookies.” The entire group stared at her in stunned silence. ………………………… Shimmering Night arrived under escort to Manehattan General Hospital; her first sight was of her brother rising up to greet her. “Hey Night, what brings you here this late?” “Spike, it’s after eight.” Spike’s eyes went wide with shock after that announcement. “What do you need me to do?” “Be ready, I have no idea what to expect, but we have to get to Stalliongrad.” “Is it that bad?” “I'm not sure, it might be worse…” “Fifteenth floor, east side, middle room. I’ll keep an eye out.” With that Spike flew off, doing circles above the hospital scanning for any threats he could. Night wasted no time, she quickly flew to the east side of the hospital and through the window, shattering it in the process. “What in the world?!” The shattering glass startled Rarity, however, secretly, she was just happy for something that broke the permeating silence that had been present for the last thirty minutes. “Good, you are all here, we have to get out of here and get to Stalliongrad." “Young lady! That is no way for a princess to behave.” “Rarity, we really do not have the time.” “Rarity, we can discuss proper etiquette later, for now though, Shimmering Night would you care to explain that statement?” Shimmering Night looked gratefully at Princess Cadance; she had forgotten how stubborn Rarity could be at times like this. “I really do not have time to explain everything, and in truth I don't know everything. However, we have to get to Stalliongrad. Yes, it’s that bad, or it could be. I don’t really know, but I don’t want anyone else getting hurt.” She almost cried looking at her sister lying in the bed. Aurora Flash turned away from her sister. For the first time she could remember, she did not want the attention. Seeing her younger sister in such pain, over her. It brought tears to her eyes. “We can’t move her though.” Radiant Star pointed a hoof at Aurora. “The doctors have yet to fully restore her legs. If we try now, she may never walk again.” “Besides, what sort of threat could we not deal with?” Cadance asked. “Twilight Sparkle.” Every mouth in the room dropped at the words Bright Dawn just spoke. He arrived just in time to hear the last question asked. Shimmering Night stared daggers into her husband for dropping that bombshell. “They deserve to know something happened at the castle. Princess Twilight, she, she seemed to be possessed by something, something that caused her to want to kill me. We got out of there as quickly as we could but there is no telling how long we have. You have all seen the sun, or more precisely, the lack of it. Now what that truly means I can only guess at; however, I think it is safe to say that Celestia has at least lost to her. Judging by her actions, she will want her family with her; that means all of us are in danger. She will come for us all.” Waves of energy began pouring off Ataxia; a smile crossed the purple mare's face. “I would like to see her try. I have always wanted a real go at Twilight.” Cadance, Radiant, Night, Dawn, and Aurora all looked at her in shock. The same thought crossed all five of their minds, ‘If those two go at it for real…’ Rarity simply walked towards Ataxia, past all the energy she gave off, raised one hoof, and slapped her across the muzzle. “No daughter of mine will lay one hoof on Twilight.” Ataxia rubbed her muzzle in shock, which was quickly replaced by anger at her mom for hitting her. However, before she could say or do anything, green fire lit up the night sky. Night looked out in horror. “We're too late.” Spike did his damnedest to keep them away from the hospital. He fought tooth, claw, and nail. However, when the defense forces showed up it quickly became a losing battle. Normally he would have been happy for the assistance, not now. Now they were in the way, he could no longer use his most dangerous weapon, his fire. Several waves of the creatures made their way past him and into the hospital, hitting several floors at the same time. Ataxia was in no mood to play around, she fired the first group of the creatures with magical hellfire. “Ataxia stop!” “What?” “You're setting the room on fire!” She watched as Cadance was forced to take time and extinguish the blaze. “Young lady, there is no point in destroying them if we all die in the process.” “It’s not my fault they're so weak.” “They may be weak. But there is a lot of them.” Radiant slaughtered the one he was fighting before turning his attention to the door. Another group was on their way in. “If we can keep them bottlenecked like this they won't stand a chance.” Fate has always been a fickle beast, sometimes granting luck to those who do not deserve it, sometimes to those who do. There is no rhyme or reason to it, as an invention of Chaos; he designed it to be Chaotic. Although there is one sure-fire way to get on its bad side. A wrench he threw into the workings if you will. As the old saying goes, ‘Don’t tempt fate.’ Aurora screamed as her bed was dragged down to the floor below. Her nightmares had come back to haunt her, the same creatures that had made a meal of her were now swarming on top of her. They picked her up and began dragging her to Celestia knows what fate. “AURORA!” Radiant screamed; as he jumped down into the hole after his cousin. This time, when Ataxia fried every one of the Shadowbeings on the floor, nopony complained. As they all jumped down the hole after their missing family member. Radiant took point, he no longer cared to show off, and he no longer gave a shit what the others were doing. This was a family member's life on the line, for him, this was his father’s life on the line. He would not be found wanting, not again. He ran down the hall in a blur, slaughtering every creature that he saw with magical blades he conjured out of air. The rest quickly followed his trail of destruction. Shimmering Night brought up the rear. Shadowbeings are fast, swift, and agile. They sped down the hall, their prey carried between them. However, Radiant Star trained every day of his life to face any challenge. He would not be denied; he caught up to them and slaughtered every single one. “Is she ok?” Cadance asked. Radiant leaned over Aurora’s body, relief flooded his features. “She's fine, just unconscious.” The rest of the group arrived. A chorus of “Oh thank Celestia,” and the like passed between them. It was Bright Dawn that broke the aura of congratulations when he noticed somepony missing. “Where's Night? Where's my wife?” All the way down the hall Shimmering Night screamed as several shadowbeings tried dragging her through the window and out into the sky. “DON’T YOU TOUCH MY WIFE!!” Before anypony could stop him, before anypony could so much as say another word, Bright Dawn sped down the hallway, performing a sonic rainboom to maximize his speed. He slammed into the shadowbeing with such force that they were cut in half. The impact knocked him out as his momentum carried him out into the night sky. The hospital collapsed next. ……………………………………………. The remains of Canterlot ‘It's been twelve hours, let me guess, you have more excuses for your failure.’ ‘No mistress, they are bringing them now.’ Twilight Night looked up at the horde of shadowbeings coming her way. There were pitifully fewer of them then when they left. She would have to do something about that. However, her true attention was on the pony they carried. ‘Is that Bright Dawn?’ ‘Yes mistress, one family member as you asked, mostly untouched.’ ‘Again you try my patience! Did you really think I meant him? Besides, I ordered they be brought back unharmed!’ ‘Sorry mistress. We will do better next time.’ ‘Well, you did bring one back, however, such arrogance cannot go unrewarded, I think I might enjoy this, you won't.” The being only known as ‘The Night’ screamed in agony as its punishment was delivered. Twilight laughed, normally she would never take such enjoyment in another’s suffering. However, normally those who suffered were good; this creature was the lowest of the low. It was nothing more than an admitted force of evil. She had to teach it its place. So why not enjoy it for a little while? Little did she realize that this creature, this ‘Night’, was slowly working its way into ‘other’ areas. Her actions were not fully her own, and little by little it had been corrupting her since she first entered the room all those weeks ago. Twilight Night signaled the shadowbeings to take Bright Dawn and make him comfortable. The shadowbeings snickered to each other; after all, what could be more comfortable than a torture cell? Twilight spent the next week enjoying herself with her new plaything, and before she grew bored of the punishment she actually figured out how to play a song with its screams. Twilight Night looked around and stretched her legs; standing in the same spot for over a week had left quite a cramp in them. Turning around, she saw the work her minions had done. It was quite impressive; they were quickly turning the ruins of Canterlot Castle into a palace fit for a Queen, fit for her. They needed more workers to finish it though, and she would need more soldiers for her army. It was a win-win as far as she was concerned. Twilight Night headed inside the palace to fix that issue immediately as the oddest thing happened. Two drops of liquid struck her on top of the head. Looking up, she saw no rainclouds that could have caused that to happen. “Odd,” She ordered two shadowbeings to investigate and quickly forgot about it. Twilight Night had a mission to complete after all; the master demanded it. “I live to serve.”