//------------------------------// // Chapter 40: Rebirth // Story: Eternal Night // by Lucaro //------------------------------// Other than the sounds of the chaos ensuing outside, all had fallen silent in the palace. Nothing could be heard, save for the thumping of their hooves on the stairs. Cepheus, Persei, and Candle were racing up flight after flight of steps. There was an explosion that rocked the palace and all the lights went out. They continued, guided by the golden brilliance of the Elements. Cepheus led the way through the darkness, the last beacon of hope for Equestria wrapped around his belly. “We must hurry!” he shouted. “The infected will be upon us very soon!” They climbed up the last flight of steps and arrived at the pinnacle of the palace. These were the private royal quarters. This is where they would find Nightmare Moon. “Oblivion shall fall…” Nightmare Moon’s whispering came down the hallway. “All shall come to an end.” Cepheus swallowed, looking down at the very end of the corridor. There was a door at the end. It was very ornate in comparison to the other doors and had two crescent moons on each side. It was slightly open, and a faint violet light filtered through. Cepheus crept towards the door, trying to prepare himself for whatever awaited him inside. “I think that’s Nightmare Moon’s bedroom,” he whispered. Persei and Candle nodded, following him silently. There was a tinkle of glass from within and they all froze. Nightmare Moon’s silhouette could be seen dancing wildly from within the room, a frenzied chanting permeating the silence. “She’s gone mad,” Persei whispered. “She was mad to begin with,” he replied. Cepheus strained to hear the Empress’ disturbing rave. The words were blurring together in what seemed to be the verses of some long forgotten language. Was this part of some kind of ritual she was conducting? Cepheus drew close to the door and Nightmare Moon’s shadow suddenly faced the door. “Intruders!” she screeched. In a blink of an eye, everything was plunged into darkness. Cepheus felt as though he had gone blind, but it wasn’t that. A damp, heavy blackness had shrouded them. The Elements of Harmony were dimmed to a faint glow, the darkness seeming to absorb light. “Everypony stay close,” he whispered, feeling Candle’s presence behind him. Cepheus felt the bedroom door in front of him and he gently pushed it open. The door creaked ominously as it swung open. They stepped inside, groping their way through the darkness. From somewhere around them, the sound of Nightmare Moon’s sinister laughter could be heard. Cepheus shivered, suddenly cold. He froze when he felt somepony breathing against his ear. “Where did you get that shiny trinket?” Nightmare Moon whispered. “It’s been a thousand years since I saw it.” Cepheus flipped around to face her, but there was no one there. There was only more laughter. The air around them began to whip around, as if something was constantly darting back and forth. Candle screamed, and Cepheus cried out. “Candle!” “Cepheus, help me!” she screamed. He galloped towards the origin of the voice, but only crashed into a wall. Disoriented from the impact, he fell over. The darkness cleared and Nightmare Moon stood against the other wall. She was grinning ferociously. Persei stood defiantly in front of her, shielding his terrified wife. “Back off, you psycho!” Nightmare Moon bared her razor sharp teeth, her jade eyes glowing. “I am thousands of years old, you wench. What makes you think you can come in here and challenge me?” Nightmare Moon lunged forward and Cepheus took wing. He uncoiled the Elements and prepared to strike her. She saw him flying towards with her and then suddenly dissolved into a dozen shadowy tendrils. Cepheus landed on the ground, watching the tendrils slither on the ground like snakes. They all swarmed Persei and she screamed, the tendrils lashing out at her. Candle screamed and tried to stomp on them, but they were too quick. Every time they struck them, a large cut would appear. Persei screamed, her hooves covered in the large vertical cuts. Her horn began to glow and the room ignited with flame. Cepheus grabbed and Candle and flew up to the roof, avoiding the tidal wave of fire. There was a terrible screaming from Nightmare Moon and there was a giant rupture. Darkness quenched the flame and spread out in every direction, like a splash of ink. Cepheus was blinded as the darkness consumed him. There was the sound of the roof shattering overhead and debris rained down on him. Cepheus was knocked out of the air, and Candle screamed as they both plummeted to the ground. He hit the ground hard, a flash of white pain engulfing him. He blinked, his mind threatening to go unconscious. He slowly stood back up, seeing that the roof was gone. The only light was from the fires that were consuming Canterlot. The screams of the Night Guards and the infected ponies clashing rang throughout the darkness, cocooning him in a haunting cacophony. Nightmare Moon was standing in the center of the room, staring at him with a deadly intensity. Cepheus blinked and Persei grabbed his hoof. “Use the Elements of Harmony already!” He nodded and held the Elements of Harmony. They began to shine with a brilliant light and Nightmare Moon shouted. “No! Nooo!” The light faded, and Cepheus stared at Nightmare Moon. She was cowering, but seemed otherwise unharmed. After a moment of nothing happening, she looked up. “What?” Cepheus looked at the Elements of Harmony. They had disappeared from his hoof. He couldn’t understand what just happened. Nightmare Moon began to laugh. “That was it!?” she mocked. “A little flash?” Cepheus felt a sudden tightness in his chest and he collapsed. Persei also collapsed somewhere behind him. “What’s going on?” he whispered, weakly. He looked behind him and saw that his cutie mark had disappeared. How…? Nightmare Moon approached him, putting her hoof down on his chest. “It was a noble effort. I’ll give you that.” “Leave him be,” a mare’s powerful voice commanded. Cepheus gasped. “Could it be?” Candle trotted up to him, but she looked very different. Her eyes had become purple, her skin had paled, and there were rainbow streaks in her brown hair. “Luna!” Nightmare Moon backed off of Cepheus, her eyes wide with shock. “It can’t be!” Candle held herself up like royalty, even talking like a princess. “It’s been a thousand years, sister.” She tossed her hair, surveying her surroundings. “I expected better out of you.” Nightmare Moon shook her head vehemently. “It can’t be you! You’re inside that mare’s body!” Candle rolled her eyes. “This body is under my possession. Even now, I am contained inside this mare’s womb.” My wife is pregnant with Celestia? Cepheus thought, amazed that somepony he loved so dearly was carrying a goddess inside her. Nightmare Moon couldn’t believe this. “You have no wings, you have no horn… how?!” Six gems descended from the roof, shining with energy. “But I do have these,” Candle said. “Please!” Nightmare Moon said, preparing to fly. “Spare me!” “This is a thousand years overdue,” she said, and six beams of energy shot out from each gem. They all intersected, creating a ball of pure magical energy. Nightmare Moon screamed. “Sister, noooo!” The ball of magic flew towards her, striking her right in the chest. She was thrown against the remnants of the wall, collapsing at its base. Cepheus and Persei groaned at the same time. It felt as if the life force was being drained out of him. Was this a result of Celestia’s appearance? He didn’t know how much more of this he could take…. Candle, Celestia possessed, trotted over to where Nightmare Moon had fallen. She leaned down and whispered in her ear. “I am so sorry…” she said, and Nightmare Moon’s eyes went wide. “I should have been a better sister to you.” Nightmare Moon blinked, looking back up at her sister. “You’re not angry with me?” Candle shook her head. “I was initially enraged. As I lay dying, I swore that I would have my vengeance. But as time passed, watching you beat yourself up for what you did, regretting, crying out, and wishing you could undo all the harm you had done… I realized that this tragedy was as much my fault as it was yours.” Nightmare Moon stared at her sister, tears falling from her eyes. “For a thousand years I have grieved, imagining you wreaking your vengeance and me submitting myself to your torment. But to hear this now…” Nightmare Moon cast off her helmet, her blue mane spilling out. “In my jealous fervor, I had forgotten how much you meant to me. How much I needed you…” she cried out, sobbing. “I love you, Celestia! Please forgive me!” Candle smiled, kissing her sister’s forehead. “You are forgiven, and I hope you can come to forgive me as well. I was so blinded by all the praise and adoration of my subjects that I forgot the pony most important to me – you.” Cepheus grinned, seeing the two sisters making amends after a thousand years of struggle. The Elements had laid their hearts bare to each other, genuine love flowing between them once again. He wanted to watch the two alicorn sisters nuzzling each other, but his vision was growing blurry. “I’m so tired…” he muttered. He looked over at Persei and saw that she was in a similar state. I’ve never felt such exhaustion in my life…. Candle had backed away from the restored Luna, and something was happening to her. She tensed up, and her stomach began to swell. Movement could be seen inside her womb and Candle cried out. She collapsed, screaming. What’s going on? Cepheus thought, wishing there was some way he could help. After a moment of screaming and intense pain, something pink arose from underneath her collapsed body. It was the mane of a filly. The newborn foal stepped out towards Luna, covered in blood and placental fluids. She began to change again. With every step she took towards her sister, she grew larger and more mature. When she could finally meet her sister face to face, she had become an adult. Celestia’s beautiful rainbow flowed out, her grand height giving her the elder appearance of the two sisters. Her cutie mark began to glow, a bright and beautiful sun: a hybrid of Cepheus and Persei’s cutie mark. Leaning forward with her slender white horn outward, she and Luna faced the dark horizon. “Together,” Celestia said, nuzzling Luna. “Together,” Luna reiterated. Cepheus used his last reserve of energy to crawl to his wife. She looked at him, her weary grin akin to that of a mother who had just given birth. Candle’s grin quickly faded, realizing that something was wrong. “Cepheus?” she said, stroking his mane. “What’s happening to you?” Cepheus looked behind him, surveying himself. What appeared to be tiny beads of light were rising from his body and dissipating in the air. He looked at his worried wife and then to Persei. She was going through a similar transformation. Parts of her body were growing incandescent, glowing light yellow with heat and then progressing to orange as the heat spread. Cepheus looked over himself again, realizing that the beads of light were growing larger. He looked at Candle again, her face becoming increasingly concerned. He knew what was happening, what the end result of this was going to be, but he wanted to be happy with his wife for as long as he could. He smiled, nuzzling her gently. “I will always love you,” he whispered. There were tears in Candle’s eyes. “Please…” she begged. “Stay here with me…” she began to stammer. “I…I… need you!” He smiled sadly. “Nothing has to end, my love.” He saw that something was happening on the horizon and he was captivated by it. Candle looked over as well, sniffing. Below them in the ancient ballroom, Sirius stared out the bay window in wonder. There was a golden sliver on the horizon, the sky turning a beautiful pink and red as it became bigger. Outside on the streets, everypony was looking up in awe as the sky brightened. The inky black void was turning into a deep azure, and then to a light blue. All over Equestria, the survivors of the plague beheld the blue sky. A glassy, golden sphere of light had risen up from the horizon, finally ending the thousand year night. Cepheus held his wife’s hoof as the light of dawn washed over them. “It’s so warm,” he whispered in awe. “It’s so bright,” Candle said, equally awed. Celestia and Luna’s horns stopped glowing and they both stared at the horizon in satisfaction. Celestia turned to Luna. “The high UV output of the sun should fry the smallpox virus. The virus had adapted to darkness and cold weather, but that’s all changed now.” “Equestria has been saved,” Candle whispered, the sunlight reflecting in her brown eyes in the most beautiful way. “And it was all thanks to you, Cepheus.” She looked over at him and her joy turned into one of surprise, then grief. “Cepheus!” His body was almost gone, hundreds of orbs of light ascending into the air. He smiled at her, kissing her. “I will always be with you,” he whispered. “Wherever there is light, I shall be there. Wherever there is hope and healing, I will be there. You may even see me now and then….” “No!” she shouted. “I want you here with me!” Candle began to wail in grief. She looked at Luna and Celestia, her eyes pleading. “Please help him!” she sobbed. “Please….” Celestia shook her head. “I am sorry. A price was to be paid for bringing me back.” Luna trotted over to Persei, her body having gone from a yellow heat into a deep red. It was like she was a star that was on the verge of burning out forever. “Their sacrifice shall not be forgotten.” Sirius wandered into Luna’s ruined bedroom, seeing that the roof had been blown off. He looked to where Cepheus and Persei were fading away and rushed to them. “What’s going on!?” Luna put a hoof on his shoulder and she looked sadly into his eyes. “All angels must return to heaven when their time comes.” Cepheus’ general figure was dissolves into an amorphous mass of bright light. Persei was burning out, the deep red turning black and vanishing. Sirius began to cry. “You can’t go now! You can’t just fix me and then leave forever!” Candle stared at what was left of her husband as the rest of his body was turned into the orbs of light, ascending into the sky and dissipating. Only a deep red outline of Persei’s body remained as she too faded away into nothingness. Candle held Sirius as they both grieved their loss. Luna gently tapped her on the shoulder, pointing up at the morning sky. In the fading orange glow of the sky, there were two new stars. They twinkled once, as if they knew that the ponies who loved them were looking up at them. “Your husband and sister-in-law were heroes.” Celestia nodded, appearing on Candle’s other side. “The world shall now be able to recover. I will ensure that Cepheus and Persei will never be forgotten.” Candle looked up at the stars, and somewhere beyond the wall, Dusty was looking up at them as well. “I’ll miss you,” she whispered. “I’ll miss you both.” She hugged Sirius again, and he wiped the tears from her eyes. She looked up at him. Through his tears, there was a sad grin on his face. “Cepheus and Persei were light and warmth. Now that Equestria has finally gotten the sun back, it was presumed that they would not be needed anymore.” He looked up at the two stars. “I hope they’re happy up there in the heavens.” “We’ll meet again someday,” Candle whispered. “Someday,” Luna and Celestia whispered, everypony staring up at the brilliant morning sky.