Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony
aka Twilight’s Kingdom Come: A Seven Deadly Sins Story
by Toratchi888
“You are not serious.” Princess Celestia stared at the hole in the ground. Easily ten long strides across, in the weak dawn’s light it appeared to have infinite depth. It also looked scorched, like a fire had bored straight down. Celestia shivered as she considered it, before turning to the pony beside her. “Are you?”
Standing to Celestia’s left, Princess Luna nodded. “I fear it is so, Sister. We observed Twilight Sparkle by chance just before dawn; she rent the earth, smote it fiercely with her magic.”
The Royal Sisters turned about to face Twilight’s friends and Spike.
“This is perplexing and grave,” Celestia said. “Do any of you know what Twilight might be doing?”
The Mane Six looked between each other, their expressions ranging between confusion and guilt. “Beggin’ yer pardon, Highness,” Applejack said, “but Twilight’s been a little put out ever since… well, that thing with Tirek.”
“Yeah, we nailed him good and sent him packing, but Twilight’s been mopey ever since!” Rainbow Dash put in.
“She seemed happy enough whenever we asked her, but, um, I guess we didn’t want to pry too much,” Fluttershy added, hiding as always behind her mane.
“I knew something wasn’t right when she didn’t have any cake at any of my parties!” Pinkie screeched. “It was chocolate cake, too! NOBODY says no to chocolate!”
“She seemed so dreadful last night,” Rarity pointed out finally. “She wouldn’t talk to us at all…”
Spike simply cried, huddled against Applejack’s flank.
“It is your doing, of course,” thundered a voice from everywhere and nowhere.
The Mane Six sprang back-to-back, searching; Celestia and Luna looked to the west horizon. Eyes narrowed, they say what the others did not: an amorphous black cloud, flitting its way down, as though it had come from the last sliver of the moon on the horizon.
The cloud touched down and, in the blink of an eye—
“NIGHTMARE MOON! RUN FOR YOU LIVES!” Pinkie shouted. She jumped up, but Rainbow Dash and Applejack grabbed her mane and tail in their mouths and pulled her down.
“Charming,” the dark horse deadpanned.
“Thou art not welcome here, villain,” Luna proclaimed, swishing her tail.
“I know. Does it goad you to know you can do aught but welcome me?”
Luna snorted and pawed the ground. “You uncouth black b—”
“Luna! Be civil,” Celestia hissed. Luna snorted again in contempt.
“Nightmare Moon,” Celestia said sternly, “why are you here?”
Nightmare Moon smirked. “Princess Celestia. I know where Twilight has gone. You do too, if you’ll but admit it.”
“…Tartarus,” Celestia murmured. The other ponies gasped. “Why would she go there?” Celestia demanded.
“As I said, it is your doing,” Nightmare Moon replied. “I have observed Twilight much of late. Her friends—” she drew back her lips, revealing her fangs “—have guessed correctly that she is moping because of Lord Tirek. COME NOW, CELESTIA,” she shouted, causing everyone but Celestia to flinch back, “ARE YOU TRULY THIS DENSE?! You put the weight of this nation on your student’s shoulders. For all you ‘tests’, Twilight is untested in the matters of such gravity as Tirek! You gave her the magical power of four alicorns and set her to battle against the whole power of your subjects! ARE YOU MAD?!”
Luna made to spring forward. “Bridle thy tongue, Nightma—”
At a flashing glare from Nightmare Moon, Luna stumbled back. “Shut up,” the Nightmare snapped, before transferring her glare back to Celestia. “You put her on a pedestal, raised her to a lofty height, and then everything was taken away: ultimate power; the physical representation of her Element; her precious Library, HER HOME!”
Nightmare Moon reared up and slammed her forehooves into the ground. “She has gone to Tartarus, to steal Tirek’s knowledge in order to regain what she has lost.”
* * *
Following Nightmare Moon’s pronouncement, the Mane Six and Luna had screamed and clamoured in outrage and denial. Throughout, only Celestia and Nightmare Moon had sat, unmoving, until the other ponies’ anger was spent.
“I shall retrieve Twilight Sparkle,” Nightmare Moon had announced.
“Thou shalt do no such thing!” Luna had retorted, before Celestia had yanked Luna roughly behind her with magic.
“Luna, your scorn for the one who wronged you—Nightmare Moon—is blinding your reason.” Celestia stared Nightmare Moon in the eye. “Why should we trust you?”
Nightmare Moon had leered before replying, “Twilight Sparkle has become an ethereal being in order to bypass Cerberus; of you, only the Princesses might enter Tartarus, and even then, it would hardly be safe. You don’t mind if I risk myself in a reckless displays of power, do you?”
Nightmare Moon turned away. “But there is also this: Twilight Sparkle and her friends defeated me. I want to see if Twilight has matured any since our first encounter, to see if that victory was not simply luck and fate.” She turned back, glaring. “Is that enough?”
The ponies remained silent. “You would risk yourself for Twilight, to see how strong she is?” Celestia reiterated.
Nightmare Moon walked away, towards the hole. “If she is not strong enough right now to avoid the peril of Tirek, you will all suffer on her return. …I shall not allow that.”
* * *
Nightmare Moon opens her eyes. She is an ethereal being, her form and colour merely a suggestion.
I sense old malice. Is this Tirek’s doing?
She casts about, deciphering her surroundings: She is within a vast library. Books are piled high in heaps and mounds, and shelves stretch to the sky and over the horizon.
In the center of the library is a vast circular sorting floor. A purple pony gallops to and fro, yanking books from their shelves with hooves and magic, tearing through them—literally: pages went flying and drifting from the force of her frantic handling—before tossing them aside.
All about her an icy black rain falls; unnoticed by the manic pony, the water seeped up, slowly flooding the library.
Nightmare Moon trots towards the sorting floor, pausing at the edge. “Hello, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Shut up,” Twilight snaps, “I’m reading.”
“Twilight Sparkle, you are ensnared,” Nightmare Moon says, walking forward slowly. Thirty long strides separate the two alicorns, and Nightmare Moon is wary of the malice she feels.
“Yeah, I’m reading! It’s what happens when you have good books!” Twilight retorts, tossing the book and calling up another.
“They do not seem so good to me, if you are so casually throwing them away.”
“I need to find it!” Twilight screeches.
“What do you seek, Twilgiht Sparkle?”
“She wants my power,” replies a deep voice from the void.
“Tirek had it,” Twilight mutters, calling up another book. “Power. That’s what it’s all about, right? Power, power, Princess power…”
“Tirek,” Nightmare Moon speaks to the emptiness, “release Twilight.”
“Ha! Do not presume, little Nightmare,” the voice replies. “Precious Twilight came down here hoping to steal my secrets. What a little glutton for knowledge she is, don’t you think? Knowledge and power; she understands, they are one and the same.
“Well, I might be imprisoned and weak, but I know a trick or two. She wanted in my mind? I let her in, but I showed her only what she wanted to see. My knowledge? Hah. She is a slave to knowledge. Tartarus has granted her vice form; she will drown in it.”
“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” Nightmare Moon shouts. “You disgust me! I thought you a worthy opponent, a challenge to the power of the Nightmare. Now you wallow in forbidden knowledge, sobbing over the past! Pathetic! Perhaps I shall leave you here to drown in your
Twilight springs to her feet, fiery red and black energy flooding her eyes. “Ramash, atluk, ki’il mana raptuk!”
Twilight conjures a great burning lion, which roars and bounds for Nightmare Moon!
Chanting in Ancient Tongues! “Dolquist, menalé, izim ram p’tuk!”
Nightmare Moon conjures the form of a stallion around her; as the lion descends, she wheels about and bucks the lion straight in the face. The stallion and lion explode.
“Twilight Sparkle, come now; I have haunted the night for longer than you can imagine. I too know the tongues of evil; you cannot hope to match—”
A geyser of flame belches from beneath Nightmare Moon; she disappears in a puff of smoke, reappearing off to Twilight’s left.
“Nice try!” Nightmare Moon describes a circle with her horn; it flashes blue, and a flurry of icicles shoot forth. Twilight blasts through them with fingers of lightning; Nightmare Moon conjures a pillar of stone.
“Desist, Twilight! This contest of spells shall avail you not!”
Twilight does not heed; she leaps into the air and emits blasts of pure magic. Nightmare Moon takes wing as well, dodging and wheeling.
“DOST THOU NOT SEE, TWILIGHT SPARKLE, THE DANGER OF THE ALL-CONSUMING QUEST FOR KNOWLEDGE?! LOOK TO YOURSELF, AND CONSIDER WHAT BECAME OF LUNA… OF ME!”
Nightmare Moon spins about, wings outstretched. “TWILIGHT SPARKLE, DO YOU NOT SEE YOU ARE ABANDONING THOSE WHO LOVE YOU?!”
Twilight shrieks and flies straight at Nightmare Moon, a meteoric streak of black and red—
—and impales the Nightmare on her horn.
* * *
“Well, Twilight Sparkle… I know… it was no accident… that you defeated me. Though—” Nightmare Moon smiles wryly “—it seems this time… you were the one… possessed by evil…” She laughs chokingly.
Twilight Sparkle collapses on her haunches, her hooves pressed to her muzzle, her eyes wide with horror. The unnatural black and red aura has left her, and tears gather at the corners of her eyes. The library—the symbol of Twilight’s desire—has gone; the two ponies sit at the gate of Tartarus, Cerberus stepping aside to permit egress, growling all the while.
“N-no… no… don’t die…” Twilight chokes out, “please… please don’t die… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…!”
Nightmare Moon sighs. “It cannot be taken back, Twilight. I foresee long and arduous repentance for what you have done. I wish… I could have saved you sooner… but the fear of those you love kept me away… I hope… you have avoided my fate…
“Perhaps… I shall see you… in your dreams… At least… I can do this for you: when this Nightmare fades… yours will, too…”
The world goes white…
* * *
…and Twilight appeared before her friends. Cradled close in her hooves, the body of a dark alicorn, a black beauty.
Shorn of war-barding, her soul relieved of its burden, the one known as Nightmare Moon lay in repose, her features tranquil, her life and soul fled.
Twilight wailed to the sky.