//------------------------------//
// Chapter 30: The Children of Heaven 
// Story: When the Everfree Burns 
// by SpiritDutch 
//------------------------------//

“Fa la la la laaaa, laaa, laaa, la la la laaaaaa” A cheery serenade sprang unwelcomed to Sel Lech‘s lips. “La la la la lah, laaa, la la la la laaaaa” It was likely the association by location; The Royal Gardens were usually such a happy place, alive with music and ponies enjoying themselves.
Trying to shake away the jovial earworm, Sel planted his shovel into the soft ground once again.



Three-fourths of the bodies had been buried already, covering about the same proportion of the garden’s function lawn. The grounds were still littered with spoiling trash from the Estates party earlier in the evening, competing with the corpses for the attention of the flies, and now the pristine green carpet was scarred by the evenly spaced graves and excess soil. 


Sel stop and regulate his breath before he vomited again, or started panicking.  The mess of graves, the sun’s idly watchful eye, everything was reminding him of his doubt and guilt.
His conceit had driven him to horrible things. What he had wanted was difficult to grasp, even to himself. Recognition? Respect? He didn't think of himself of the kind of restless colt who wandered the streets looking for trouble, but it was starting to feel he'd done just that. A misguided sense of adventure had led him to the horror he was in now.

But like he remembered Velvet once saying, it was worst of all to sit in idleness. Cruelty and splendor were far more preferable to letting one's soul wither in unproductive pursuits, she'd said. He didn't quite remember the context, but he thought it might have been when Lady Velvet was talking about her son.  Sel couldn't speculate what an upstanding knight like Shining Armor would be doing at that moment. Not burying bodies, probably. 

"Where would I rather be thought?" Sel leaned on the shovel. "Hmmm...   Can't say." He straightened up and got to digging the graves again. "Pshh, what does it even matter." The thought that had followed him all night returned: He couldn't turn back now.

At least nothing had started to smell too badly yet, though why cremation had been discounted Sel could not guess. Perhaps individual burial would be a last show of respect. They'd been killed for their behaviors and values, but they had worth as fellow ponies. Another time, they could have helped instead of being fodder for Velvet's program. 




He heard distant shouting coming from the Old Town.

Merciful gods willing, it wasn't Velvet's alicorn causing trouble. Sel Lech didn't want to fathom what 'Astral Nacre' was up to.
In the hazy minutes after it had flown out of the throne room, everypony wandered away to either go looking for it or to look after their own affairs.
Velvet  and Night Light had silently gone to make some plans for securing their hold over the city.  With the whole Imperial Council, the Estates, the cliques, the Musician's Guild, and the city guard dead, plus the Imperial Household Guard gone, there was literally nopony in the city with the organization to oppose Velvet's coterie.
Aurthora Airy had galloped back to her castle. It was easy to forget that the massive mare was a viscountess, with how willingly she subordinated herself to Lady Velvet or Blueblood. Her responsibility was to gather the ponies of her personal retinue, the Black Horn Council militias that had survived the Wonderbolts', and other commoners to form a new policing force. With continuity of security, there could be implied continuity of leadership. 

So Sel was left to deal with the clean-up. That suited him fine. He needed a mindless task for a while, and especially one that entailed no risk of running across Astral Nacre.

He heard another scream, closer. 


“Fa, la la la laaaa.” He cought himself singing again. A stress reaction, Sel Lech speculated, the little tune in his head being just a repetitive mental exercise to keep him from dwelling on the horror of the situation. “Fa, la la la laaaa.”



And then there was the question of wider Equestria.

Nopony knew what the deal with Celestia was. The empress was obviously still alive, proved not minutes previous by the thunderous bombardment the sun had cast into the Everfree Forest. Sel thought at first that the annihilatory solar lances were intended for him, Celestia’s punishment for his betrayal of ponykind. But no, when the light passed and Sel opened his eyes, it seemed as though Celestia had more immediate problems in the south. Though he hated himself for it, Sel wished that whatever that threat was would win, so Canterlot would be spared a sun princess’s wrath.

Even then instantaneous death by nuclear fire would the easiest way out. When Velvet had massacred the Estates, she had severed the capital connections of the empire.  The ploy had always been that the alicorn Velvet created would be strong and whilly enough to take the place of the regime;  After all, Velvet had always described the entity in her dream in only the most cunningly cruel terms. But Astral Nacre was looking anything but. 
It was no secret that the empire was weak, and when news of the Canterlot coup spread the landed aristocracy would have their pretext to rebel. If they believed they stood to gain by it, some of the lords would try for imdependance. Velvet’s nonsensical dream of an empire under her abominable creation was probably dead, and Equestria would still fracture.

Some lords maybe would stay loyal to Celestia or Celestia’s memory, whichever the case may be, and attack Canterlot in the name of restoration. If they didn't get allies, Canterlot would fall, and Sel had little doubt as to how it would end for him and his fellow traitors. Duke Lightdowser’s army and the Cloudsdale airfleet were the closest, and there was no doubt of their enmity to this revolt.

Sel looked over his shoulder, to the dim skies over the city, trying to catch a glimpse of Astral over the city.  Whatever she was mentally and physically, Astral Nacre was still a divine creature. If there was going to be any reprieve from the coming storm, it would ironically come from the mare it had been created for.


“Fa, la, la, la, la la la la laaaaaaaa.” The grave was deep enough now. Sel grabbed the nearest cadaver by the hoof and dragged her to square hole. Sel recognized her vaguely as the speaker for the countess of Crystal River Run, but did not know her by name. Into the grave she fell, landing slightly askew, but she wasn’t complaining. Sel began filling the hole back in.




The second shovelful of dirt hadn’t reached the bottom of the grave when the whole world went dark. He gasped and spun around, but the attack he feared wasn't there.

"Sel, what the hell is going on up there?" Came an exasperated grumble from nearby.
Blueblood, who had climbed inside the pit he had been digging, peered over the edge and glared at Sel, as if it were his fault.

"Why's your first reaction to blame me." Sel snorted. "You should be looking to the sun."

They both directed their gaze to the sky.   The moon, with it’s ever-present cratered alicorn profile, had drifted between the sun and the planet.

“Woah...  Somepony turned out the lights.” Sel observed. “I wonder if Astral Nacre had anything to do with it.”



The lunar surface flickered and danced like somepony had blown on the candle light illuminating it. Without any fanfare or further effect, the Mare in the Moon disappeared.

“Would Astral Nacre release the moon demon?” By the waver in his voice it seemed Blueblood was genuinely afraid.

“That’s just an old pony’s tale. There’s no mare in the moon.” Sel said more for his own benefit than for Blueblood’s. “It’s just the eclipse, bending the light and hiding the craters.”


“I heard that Lady Velvet’s daughter, Lady Sparkle,  found out something some terrible secret about it.” Blueblood continued. “And that’s why Celestia sent her south!”

Sel rolled his eyes, but inside he was more afraid than Blueblood. He’d heard the rumor, and what was more he’d overheard Prosser’s rants to Velvet about Celestia's Dark foil, the nightmare. He had mostly discounted the connection as implausible, but now the denial was shredded under cruel and terrifying evidence. As a stallion of some education, he knew that the last eclipse had been in the war of the Nightmare Pretender. Something terrible was happening in Equestria. Something that made the murder of hundreds of ponies to summon an unhinged ancient god look like milk spilled into a tsunami.

"We should keep digging." He mumbled to Blueblood.



The moon’s ambush of the sun had been soundless and quick, but now a deep and throaty rumble permeated up from the core of the planet. The eclipse became even darker, and the sky reached almost total lightlessness save for the stars and the muted moon. It took a moment for Sel Lech to realize what was different. The sun’s corona had faded from behind the moon.

Blueblood climbed out of the hole and threw down his shovel. "I don't like this one bit! I'm going to find Velvet and ask er what-"

The sun reappeared, right in front of the moon. Light coursed through the sky like dye in water. Then the moon moved back in front of the sun. Then the sun came forward again. It was like the two celestial bodies were playing leapfrog with each other!



“At least it will be a quick death.” Sel whimpered. With each swap, they were getting larger in the sky. Those incandescent worlds of light were slowly descending to Equestria. “And I won’t have to finish burying these bodies.”








Mis Lead Lock and Iillor staggered onto the deck at the same time that the last blast of hot air passed over the Lightdowser airship. The whole mass of the floating vessel was wrenched up and down by the pressure wave, carrying ponies and loose tonnage with it. The masts groaned in raucous protest but kept the balloon restrained. Celestia’s sun lances stopped falling, and the wind settled.

Duke Lightdowser was at the prow barking orders. “Hoist in those sheets captain! The that last blast blew the storm away!"

"My lord, are you sure." The captain asked tentatively. “What’s our destination?”

“We stage at Ponyville, before we move into the forest. The sun pointed our way, after all.” Lightdowser turned to Lead Lock. “Is Risky secured?”

“He was a bit jostled but I’ve got him in bed with a book.” Lead Lock assured. “Is moving closer wise, my lord? What if there are more blasts?”

“We weathered the last ten, we’ll weather those too.” Lightdowser said firmly. "Why are we not at flank speed yet! Our princess is waiting for us!"


The crew hurriedly rigged for full speed, and the airship began to stir into motion. Clumps of dark clouds were all that remained from the mighty storm, and the helmspony skillfully weaved around the surviving formations.

Once the the last hill transitioned to the grassy fields, the airship began to descend. The village of Ponyville looked sinister in the eerie light and shadow of the midnight sun.


“There's a crash of the port bow.” Iillor leaned off the left-side railing, gesturing to the wreckage of Celestia’s airship.

“Mis Lock, get your knights up here! You will investigate that crash! Captain, take us down at the edge of town!” Lightdowser bellowed. Once he was satisfied his orders were being followed he joined Iillor at the railing. “I’m surprised you know your port and starboard, Mis Iillor.”

“My father was a sailor.” Iillor shrugged. “He used the lingo all the time. Really got on my nerves too.”


Lightdowser hummed broodingly. “My father cursed like a sailor, though he never stepped a hoof past his landlocked borders. However much he loved pushing ponies to their limit, the stallion loved his comfort zone.”


Some clouds had survived over Ponyville, and although there was no rain the village  a choking mist was rolling in from the direction of the forest, which diluted the sunlight into a mere glow. The airship decelerated as it dropped, and it’s touchdown on the western extreme of Ponyville was as gentle, though the rumble of hooves jumping off the deck to the grass was not.  Lead Lock and the knights immediately galloped back towards the crash, Iillor in tow, while the Duke and the sailors tied the ship down.


“Quite the mess.” She observed. Bits of wood and plaster were scattered from the edge of town to the foothills, though all the hovels seemed intact. Iillor realized that one of the buildings, what she had assumed was a two-story warehouse, had once been taller at some point, so completely had it’s roof been obliterated.
She broke off from the group and cantered into the ruined hospital building.



The lower floors had not gone completely unscathed. The apparent detonation of the top floors had cracked every wall and foundation, and Iillor hesitated slightly before committing to entering. The windows had been shattered and everything within several hoof length into the dark rooms was soaked by the rain. The ground was littered with broken glass and dead fireflies. Passing through the halls Iillor saw that a nurse was still feverishly working to put patients back on beds and clear sharp instruments from where they’d fallen. Other ponies curled up in darkened corners, quailing while they waited for the panic to pass.

"Hey, you ponies alright?" She asked. She didn't get an answer so she shrugged and continued on.

The stairwell that would have once emerged onto the third floor instead opened out to the misty air. The walls and roof seemed to have been blown away by a tremendous amount of energy. Iillor could almost taste the anguish of the Dark magic every surface had been scoured with. A very powerful Dark creature, or maybe several smaller ones, had been born there.  That explained what Celestia had been firing her solar lances at.

"Quite the stew of emotions in the air. Lots of hatred, loathing, fear..." She licked her lips.  "And if I'm not mistaken, a waft of dream magic."

Somepony had succumbed to darkness and been transformed into a nightmare. Judging by the number of ponies seeking treatment downstairs, the whole town was feeling the effects, speaking to a months-long infestation.



The hazy village air became even darker, the sun’s glow dying. Without needing to see the lunar phenomenon Iillor could feel the change. The loud lamentations of the airship crew in the plain nearby confirmed it. The moon was rising.

“How did Nightmare Moon her head out of her plot long enough to manage an eclipse?” Iillor stared into the mist in the moon’s general direction. “Though I suppose she’s had to step it up, what with all the new competition.”


She nearly tripped on the limp form of a pony on her way back to the stairs. He was a unicorn with a brown caramel coat, his mark, a graph, visible under the torn remains of his lab coat. His brown mane had been tangled by the blast and subsequent rain.

Iillor’s collision with the stallion seemed to have roused him. “Urg, my poor non-ambulatory head…  Hwuh…  What happened?”

“You somehow survived the rage of a berserk nightmare, probably a patient of yours.” Iillor helped the doctor to his hooves.

“Patient?” The doctor struggled against the pain to prop hold himself upright. “Rarity… and Applejack… and that pegasus mare. The fillies…” He looked horror-struck at his realization. “The fillies went after Twilight! And Rarity and Applejack went after their sisters!”

“Twilight Sparkle?” Iillor whistled. She desperately wanted to meet the pony she'd heard so much about in Canterlot. She roughly grabbed Doctor Horse by his shoulders. “Where did they go? Where is Sparkle?”


The doctor pointed east over shrouded Ponyville, to the Everfree. 

The Everfree, where Celestia’s lance had touched down. Adages about birds and stones flashed through Iillor’s head. Nightmare Moon, Celestia, and Twilight junior had converged at the same place as a new host of powerful nightmares. When the predators fight, it’s wonderful opportunity for a jackal or vulture, Iillor brooded.
She didn’t know who the other mares were, but Twilight seemed right in the middle of the nightmares here in Ponyville. The elder Twilight had done an amazing job beheading the Canterlot aristocracy, and it was not impossible that Sparkle could do the same to her alicorn princess.


“Stay here, doctor.” Iillor shoved the stallion back to the ground. “This is going to be a dark night. Get some rest and see to your other patient.”

But when she made to trot away Doctor Horse held onto her ankle. “Please, could you find the other ponies who were here? Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie?”

The name Pinkie Pie rang a bell, but Iillor had no intention of splitting her attention. “Yeah sure.” She lied.




Exiting the hospital, Iillor found Duke Lightdowser berating his sailors for panicking about the eclipse. Lead Lock and the knights were returned from the wreckage of Celestia airship, a total loss judging by their moroseness.

Iillor trotted to the Duke’s side. “Yo. Lady Twilight Sparkle is in the Everfree forest. There's pretty much no doubt that's where you'll find Princess Celestia too.”

Lightdowser frowned deeply. “Lady Sparkle would never be foolish enough to go into that forest after Princess Celestia unless she had great concern for the empress’s well being. We need to make all haste after them. But this eclypse complicates things. I know not what to make of it.”

In Iillor’s opinion is was more likely that Celestia had gone after Twilight and not the other way around. But the Duke was right to guess that the situation was dire. She wondered how long it would take him to deduce that a nightmare was the cause.
"Yeah I don't know either. Eclipses don't happen very often."

“The last time, the moon gained its mare. Now it appears to have lost it.” Lightdowser directed everypony back to the airship. “The Mare in the Moon has disappeared, and it won’t take that demon very long to reach the empress.”

Iillor blinked. "Excuse me for a minute." She galloped away from the town, to clear the edge of the slow-moving mist. Looking up to the sky she was able to corroborate the duke’s words. The millennium old engraving, exhibition of Nightmare Moon’s imprisonment, was gone. “Ah buck. She found a way out. That old bag is going to make my life hell.” She sighed.

If Iillor had to guess, whoever had summoned her at the altar in the Everfree Castle had finally managed to summon Nightmare Moon. The altar, its crude design obviously the work of a rank amateur, could have possible been able to let the Dark alicorn through, if operated by a skilled enough pony,  The question was, had it been Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, or some other pony.



Lost in thought, she didn't realize the change in the light from the sun vanishing until it had reappeared in front of the moon.
“Ow, my bloody eyes!” Iillor recoiled from the blinding rays. She retreated into the fog, but the light continued to make her skin itch. The sun was angry, its rays violent.  "I can pretty well guess it wasn't Princess Celestia who let Moon out."

The light washing over the land had returned with a sinister feel to it. That in an of itself was shocking. The sun never lost control. Even during the War of the Nightmare Pretender, Celestia I and her sun had kept to their divinely ordained patterns, even while Celestia's sister and the moon had not.

"The sun and the moon, both gone mental."
Clearly, something bigger than even Velvet had anticipated was going down in the Everfree probably smack-dab in the center of the Everfree Castle, the throne room. Things had a habit of congregating in that auspicious place.



Clucking her tongue, Iillor galloped back to the airship. The Duke and Lead Lock were calmly debating over conflicting opinion over what to do, while the other knights and crew were panicking around them. 
“Hey ho ponies, there's bad news." Iillor cut in. "I'd strongly suggest staying here for the time being."

"On what grounds?" Lead Lock narrowed her gaze, then looked back to Lightdowser. "My lord, she doesn't have any idea what she's talking about."

"Reign in, Lock." Lighdowser held up his hoof. "Mis Iillor, please explain what is going on."

"She's right, I have no idea. Not a clue." Iillor shook her head. "And I'm just saying, but I've learned a decent amount of stuff when it comes to this divine buisness. So the stuff I don't know...   well...   That's what you have to be concerned about."

Lightdowser slouched. "That argument would not pass muster if these were normal circumstances, Mis Iillor. But these aren't normal circumstances." He nodded to Lead Lock. "Get these ponies back in the ship and get them calmed down. We will be riding out this tumultuous night." He sighed. "And so, the chase must be deferred. Her highness will have to survive without us, though perhaps it is best that way."
With that said, he climbed back up the plank to the airship and disappeared into the cabins.

Lead Lock shot Iillor a dirty look. "Stay out of the way, Mis. I'll be very irritated if I continue to have to work around you."

"I'll go hand out with Risky. He's more my speed." Iillor joked. "Besides, if I wanted to get caught up inn some action, I'd already be galloping to the Everfree Forest. Usually I'm the quickest to run to my death, but lucky I don't feel like it today."

Lead Lock rolled her eyes. "Sure. Lucky. Were it not that we are all moving towards our death, only at different paces. If not for certain death, I think, mortalkind would pursue much more tranquil lives."









By the light of the moon,  shadows from every corner of the Everfree Castle coalesced into a writhing ball of pure night. After a moment it split apart, half becoming the mane and half becoming the tail. In between them was a blue alicorn, lips pulled back to reveal sharp predator’s teeth shaped into a smile.

“Welcome back to the night, Equestria.” Nightmare Moon took a deep breath of the humid air. “I know you’ve missed me.”

For a moment she just enjoyed existance, how it felt to wiggle her nose, her eyes drying out, and how the light breeze made her fur rustle.
She shed a single tear. "Oh its beautiful. Being alive was vastly understated." She laughed, blinking back further tears. "Thank you Celestia. Thank you."



"Umm, pardon me ma'am." A mare with a manehattan accent said. Moon spun around to confront the speaker, and saw a lanky nightmare earthy pony peaking over a collapsed pillar. "You should watch out."

"No, pardon me." Moon hopped up on the pillar so she could leer down at the awestruck nightmare pony. "You must be one of the ponies Twilight infected, Applejack. I bid you help then. I am something of an ancestor to the Dark nightmare within you."

"That's great and all, but do you think you can do something about Celestia?!" Came a question from another nearby pile of rubble. A pegasus and an unicorn had also poked their heads out, Rarity and Rainbow Dash by Moon's recollection of whatTwilight had told her. Dash had been the one who'd spoken.  "And maybe Forlorn Spark while you're at it?"

"Or really anypony who wants to kill us, the world, everything." Applejack said. "Which, honestly, we don't know if you're on that list."


To punctuate the point, a bolt of black energy whizzed by Nighmare Moon's head and hit a tree growing near the chasm, plasting it apart like it was porcelain.
At the head of the throne room  Celestia was locked in a deadly wrestling match with what was likely the newer nightmare alicorn. It was at times a cloud of purple smoke, whisking around the sun princess before resolving into a pony again and striking.

"My sister..." Moon whispered to herself.

Celestia looked like a savage warrior queen, exuding an aura of power and danger, bearing a sneer of hatred. Lightning crackled off her hooves as she jumped and bucked at the nightmare.
And the nightmare, well...  It was enough to say that Moon was found a more compelling danger in the thing calling Forlorn Spark. It's aura reeked of magic not found on the Bright World. Twilight dream had reached deep, deep into the heavens to procure that creature. Yet at the same time, that power was drying its damnedest to keep to a pony size, shape, and movement. Moon could only think to describe it as a shadow puppet, mimicked movements on a curtain.

And behind the two clashing divines, the ghostly form of Twilight Sparkle was also beckoning Moon forward.
“Moon!” Twilight cried out. “You have to stop them!”




Moon stared at the scene, listening to the grunts and screams as princess and abominable nightmare traded blows and spells, and occasional quips from Forlorn. The enraged princess Celestia was holding her own, despite the high moon.

"Are you going to do something?" Rarity asked pointedly. "Twilight's relying on you. We're relying on you!"

"Presume such an informal tine with me again and i will strangulate you with your own tongue." Moon snapped. "My actions, I do of my own accord."

"Moody much." Dash said under her breath.


Despite her obstinance Nightmare Moon knew she had to act.
She let out a soft whistle as she let out all her breath. She closed her eyes and let the magic of the world flow into her.  In her mind, the world lit up in vivacious color, the magical tides sweeping through everything like a second vision. Breathing in, she let that magic seep into her and snarl around her horn, burning its way into the physical world with deep blue light.
It would have felt even better if Celestia and Forlorn's battle not made a mess of the natural auras of the forest.

Fooling around enjoying to poetry of magic was fine but time was dwindling. Moon called up her Dark magic and dissolved into a shadow. She reappeared at the head of the throne room right by Twilight. The sounds of the battle were much closer and louder. Moon's fur stood on end.

"Please Moon, they're going to kill each other!" Twilight pleaded. "Princess Celestia has been communing with the sun but something went wrong! I don't know what's happening!"

"What do you mean, something went wrong." Moon jerked her head around to scrutinize Celestia.
Celestia was poetry in motion. Every movement, every shift in her weight, it all flowed together like water. She would duck a buck from Forlorn, then seamlessly use her momentum to send the nightmare spinning.  If Forlorn Spark hadn't had the resilience of a steel beam she would have been shattered a dozen times over by Celestia's skill.
But Moon did not let herself be deceived into thinking Celestia had the upper hand. Nay, she well recognized the look on her sister's face. It was the same one she'd seen on another Celestia, a thousand years prior, in that very same spot.  Celestia I, tired and desperate, ragged from mourning for her Everfree Principality, had fought her in that same way.
"Celestia!" Moon shouted into the din of the duel. "Was it you who released me, or was it your mother?"

If Celestia heard her she gave no indication. 


"It doesn't matter who released you. You have to subdue the nightmare!" Twilight said. "It wants to destroy the world!"




“I don’t think I do. I foresee myself waiting and facing the weakened survivor.”

“What?” Twilight shivered. She tried to grab Moon's shoulder, which only resulted in her phantom hoof being dispelled while the nightmare armor bounced off. “No, please! This needs to stop!”

“They really don’t. Equestria is only big enough for one of us.” Moon put her hoof to the cuirass and pushed Twilight back a few paces. “I gave you that armor as a sign of my trust and gratitude, now you have to trust me. Give me this victory.”




A scream then a loud crash echoed through the ruins. Celestia had caught Forlorn Spark and thrown her clear across the room into the model solar system.
Forlorn rolled to the other side, using the model as cover again Celestia's spells, then launched the heafty thing back at Celestia. It landed in the rubble of the altar, coming dangerously close to making paste of what remained of Twilight's body.

“Do you think they are so focussed they haven't noticed me, or they're just ignoring me?” Moon chuckled.

Twilight hadn’t heard that last remark. “How can you be so calm? Without both of them, I can’t return to my body! Please, Moon, I’ll never ask anything of you again.”

“Twilight, part of being friends is asking for favors, but this is one I can’t fulfill.” The alicorn had become impatient and harsh, and punctuated her words by flying to the roof of the castle where she icily stared down at the continuing brawl.




Twilight felt betrayed, but saw the enmity ran deep in Nightmare Moon’s heart. Forlorn Spark had been Twilight's nemesis for all of a bare month, all but an hour of which she'd had no name to hate, and Twilight still had to struggle to wish anything less than complete annihilation on her.





Rarity, Applejack, and Dash were fleeing as the fight migrated towards them, yelping whenever a spell or rock come close to hitting them.
"This can't go on forever." Applejack said, looking between Twilight and Moon. "What's the plan here?"

"Her ladyship is hedging her bets." Twilight said through gridded teeth. "It's up to us."

"Surely you can't be serious." Rarity deadpanned. "You get into this mess and your can't even get us out?"

"Hey I said it's up to us!" Twilight snapped.

"That's barely a solution." Dash snickered.

“Please don’t mistake this as hostility darling, but we’re none too eager to get between those two.” Rarity agreed.

Applejack was overtly nervous. “To be frank, I don’t want to die. I just want to leave.”


“FINE! THEN LEAVE!” Twilight shouted in Applejack face. “All of you can leave! I knew you were lying when you said you hated what you’ve become! Go be nightmares somewhere else!”

“Nightmare a harsh word.” Rarity articulated deliberately, like she was more refined than such an unpleasant concept.

“Very harsh.” Twilight agreed. “The old stories say how they eat ponies whole, and decimate entire villages in their blind and corrupt emotion. After tonight there will be a new story, about how they can be cowards too!”

“Discretion is the better part of valor.” Applejack said.

“I’ll show you valor.” Twilight seethed. “I’ll be so valorous you petty mares will do nothing but cry over my grave for weeks!”


Twilight turned heel and dashed directly into the fray.

Moon went wide eyed. Was Twilight trying to get herself killed?  "Sparkle!"





Forlorn Spark chose that moment for an all out offensive, repeatedly percussing Celestia’s shields with thrown objects and crackling spells. Celestia could only keep the barrier up by sacrificing all of her energy, so much so that she had to prop herself against the wall.

Twilight leapt at Forlorn, though her momentum was negligible considering the sum of all the armor parts was barely that of a foal. Still, Forlorn was surprised and confused, and she let up her attack.
"Twilight?" Her shadowy body went hazy then reformed facing her accoster. "What is it? Can't you see, I've almost found the answer!"

But Forlorn's distraction was Celestia's chance, and the alicorn cought the nightmare in a gout of magical fire.Twilight jumped clear of the fire and waited for Celestia to cease her attack. But Celestia continued to pour out orange-red flames from her horn, and Forlorn was increasingly unable to reform herself.


“Princess, stop!” Twilight shouted. “I need her alive!”

Celestia was too focussed to hear her student’s cries. She wanted to destroy Forlorn Spark, and nothing would distract her until that task was done. Celestia poured all her frustration, fear, and pain into her work, letting the spellfire burn at a searing power no sane mare would attempt. The stone around them began to ignite.

“Celestia!” Twilight implored. Her phantom was immune to fire but the nightmare armor began to glow red hot.



Forlorn tried raising a wing to protect herself but that was burned away in moments. She tried to stand but her legs dissolved to ash. Every time her eyes reformed they were charred away. Her every roiling surface recoiled from the fire, and she could not escape. 
"G- Good one Celestia." Her trembling voice could be barely heard over the billowing flame. 




Twilight sighed pitifully, letting out all the doubts and fears that had hindered her. She charged, and collided with Celestia with barely enough force to wind the sun alicorn.

Celestia cringed, her concentration broken. The spell died off her horn and the spellfire dwindled.
"Ohh..." She took a deep breath. She felt good. Letting out all those feeling had made her more powerful than she had been in centuries, and that was without her sun. "I'm beginning to see it, Spark: A world to live in for my own sake."

"For your own purposes, yes." Echoed the charred blob of Forlorn Spark on the floor. She waited for her eyes to opened again so she could glare arrogantly. "But that's barely a start! Eight-hundred years in this world and you're still like a child to it!"


Celestia looked from Forlorn to Nightmare Moon, waiting patiently at the head of the room.
The moon princess looked like a statue, half-in half-out of the silvery moonlight.  Her blue eyes glowed unblinkingly, and her etherial mane and tail lapped around her like midnight waves on a deep sea.  It was strange, seeing the Dark alicorn without the nightmare armor: The picture Celestia had kept in her head had always been of Moon in armor. 
"We're all children, Spark." Celestia said coldly.



There was a moment of stillness.

"Hello there." Moon said.

"Greetings." Celestia returned.


"Celestia, were you the one who released me?" Moon gave her sister a sidelong look.  

"My mother's become estranged to me. Would I truly create more problems for myself?" Celestia gestured to Forlorn Spark.

"Maybe. We love making things difficult for ourselves. We can't get enough of our own suffering." Moon laughed emptily. "Same reason we love not to learn from our mistake, and love to make ponies angry at us."

"Be careful not to overuse that word, 'love'." Celestia bared her teeth.  "You were sister to some other Celestia, a thousand years gone. I spare no feelings for you."

"Not of friendship certainly." Moon said. "But what of kinship?"

"Sometimes, good ponies have to shed the blood of their family." Celestia said.

"Yes, so you've proved with that one." Moon motioned to Forlorn, who had recovered enough to sit up a bit.
Spark perked up at the mention, which only served to infuriate Celestia more.


"Hello, Nightmare of the Moon. We've talked before when I was still in Twilight." Forlorn's eyes make their smile. "Thank you for coming."

"We share the Dark, but I'm not your friend." Moon growled. "You hurt Twilight. That's all the reason we need to fight."

"I'm fine fighting for my right to live. Will you dance with Celestia and I?" Forlorn asked.

"That depends on her highness." Moon cocked a brow in Celestia's direction.



"After a thousand years, and you come back to taunt me. I have enough of that in my life already." Celestia said darkly. 

"I came to fight for a pony. So did you. So did that nightmare." Moon said. "You by degrees you've forgotten. No, I'd say that nightmare tried her hardest to make you forget! And you were willing accomplice to her ploy! She flouted her intention openly, and you lost it entirely. Pitiful."

"I will show you pitiful." Celestia grabbed Forlorn by the head with her magic and dashed it against the ground, but her unblinking stare was fixed on Moon. "I want to see what I can do."

"Don't mistake your frothing emotion for personality, Celestia! Have you grown at all as a pony, over the long course of your life? No hobbies, no loves, nothing besides passing amusements. Even the duties of government can't hold your interest for long." Moon continued.   "As Twilight was explaining all this to me, I was concerned. I thought you were ill. I couldn't understand.  But now I understand, after seeing your like this. You're a hollow pony, Celestia!"

Celestia narrowed her eyes. "Twilight... What gives you the right to talk about Twilight." She let Forlorn go. "What gives you the right to know Twilight!"

"Because you forgot her. She was really only a fleeting dalliance to you." Moon accused. "Love her and leave her, that's your way.  You came here to put a tidy end to the relationship."

"You have no IDEA what you're talking about." Celestia trembled in anger. Her mane began to spark and glow, like a thundercloud about to burst.  "But I see what's happening here. You nightmare have corrupted her. You thought to turn her against me."

"You don't have much else going on. You only had one vulnerability." Moon's eyes wandered to Twilight.
The former unicorn was standing to the side of Celestia, struggling to stay collected.
"And to your credit you tried to push it away. Sadly, you have nothing else to you."


Forlorn joined in the mockery. "I tried to tease some deeper meaning out of you, princess. But you're empty without her. Nothing to aspire to, nothing to idolize..." She laughed, a sound like excited crows.  "Oh its so sad! You were made to be a vessel for your mother's ideal for this world. I can tell you want to become something more than that. You want to be your own mare. But you have no dream to build upon!"

"It's small wonder you chose to obsess over a pony whose dream is so strong." Moon concluded.



Silence reigned. 

"I can prove you wrong." Celestia said quietly. "If you'd like, watch and see the power of a mare who has the will to change the world."

"Not through empire." Nightmare Moon said.

"Not by divine right." Forlorn cooed.

"But by the force of my life, as a pony in this world." Celestia's eyes flew open.  "I hope you're paying attention Twilight! This is how your mentor will purge this world of nightmare."


Moon threw a look to Forlorn, who shrugged. Satisfied the duel would not be interrupted, the nightmare alicorn stepped down from the dais to face Celestia.

Twilight watched in terrified silence. "I- If you're all fighting because of what I did, then you should stop! I don't want you to fight!"



"This is more important than what you want, Twilight." Moon said, stalking towards her sister with her head held high. "This is about what you represent!"

Twilight was trying to formulate an objection about how she didn't want to represent anything besides herself, but it was forgotten as the alicorns spread their wings, signaling the beginning of their duel.



"Twilight and I have had long discussions about how the world has turned in my absence." Moon said. "She would have a good teacher."

"I should think the turning of the world is one the few things you could see without needing it told to you." Celestia took a steadying breath and summoned her magic to her horn.

"I hear they call you empress now. That's too pretentious for my tastes." Moon charged her magic too. "Which means I'm not so much of the Nightmare Pretender anymore. More the Nightmare Assassin."

"You would have to kill me first."



Celestia's magic shot out first, a solid bolt aimed strait at Moon's head. Moon's magic filled the room as she teleported sideways. Celestia corrected her aim for her next shot, but Moon teleported forward  through the bolt. With the motion of her whole body Moon spun around and smashed her hoof into Celestia's forehead.

"Nyah-!" Celestia's head snapped back, to stare into the deep dark sky. Behind the moon, the sun's corona burned shown out like a halo.

"And for good measure" Moon bucked Celestia's chest, throwing her onto her haunches. The princess slouched, her head down, and did not move.



"Very well done." Forlorn clopped her hooves together. "I hope that hurts as much when you do that to me."

"What is wrong with you ponies?!" Twilight rushed between Moon and Celestia. "Stop this! This isn't how ponies solve their differences!"

"We're not ponies, Twilight." Moon stared down her nose at the little phantom. "Is there a pony in the room, or the entire forest?" They looked around. The trio of nightmare ponies, Forlorn Spark, Nightmare Moon, Celestia, and Twilight. Chrysalis's corpse was lying in a puddle of its own blood, as was Twilight's body.  Spike was somewhere in the castle.   "Twilight, like it or not, your life has become intertwined with the divine. Pony morality doesn't apply here."

"How about decency?!" Twilight shouted. "You're a good mare at heart, Moon. When we talk about history and philosophy you get this look in your eyes that tells me I'm talking to the real you! Yes, the heavenly cosmos has idea what civilization and mercy is, but I don't give a damn about heaven! I really don't!" She clung defensively to Celestia's side.  "I only ever wanted to be a pony."

"Isn't she a lovely contradiction. The lady with a dream that makes gods, content with this mediocre planet." Forlorn laughed. "I love that about her. I hope I can be half as happy, romping around this world."

"Twilight, you understand that your nature is in fundamental contradiction to the plans Celestia upheld as empress. Why would you defend her?" Moon demanded.

"Because she's my friend!" Twilight shouted.  "Is violence the way you want to solve your issues? FINE!  Who has a gripe with me? I know you do." She pointed at Rarity. "Get over here and kill me!"

Rarity stared back, her flat emotionless mask betrayed by her fidgeting. "You should calm down Lady Sparkle."

"No? I wonder why." Twilight shifted her glare to Rainbow Dash, then Applejack. "Either of you?"

"I'm not against socking you one when you get better." Dash admitted. "But kill you? I...   No. That's, um..." She sighed. "I could only do that to myself."

"All of you are being dramatic." Applejack said.

"Dramatic?" Twilight hissed. "They want to kill Celestia! Girls, she's our princess! She's been our sun for all our lives! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"Move out of the way Twilight. I want to talk to my sister." Nightmare Moon said sternly.

"You won already. You're free." Twilight said, pleading. "If you don't leave now you're only going to invite more suffering."

Moon sighed and nudged her ethereal mane away from her eyes. "You're emotional, hysterical. I don't want to get forceful with you. Step aside."

"You're the emotional one." Forlorn Spark said. Now that Celestia was flagging Forlorn was eager to get a rise from Moon. "Poor Twilight hasn't even gotten her body back. Weren't you going to kill me to accomplish that?"

"Move, Twilight!" Moon demanded, getting heated. "I don't enjoy see you and Celestia at the same time. It makes me uncomfortable enough to see you in my armor."

"I make you uncomfortable then? You should have told me on the moon. I could have stayed there while you escaped." Twilight said acidly. "What an idiot I am for not expecting this betrayal."

"Twilight..." Moon ground her teeth in frustration. "I thought you knew that if I escaped..." She took a deep breath, and when she opened her eyes again she was stern and resolute. "It was always going to end in suffering for mortalkind, Twilight."







Celestia held her head to the ground, her eyes closed, surrendering to the mercy of the luminous figure standing over her.

"Do you know why I tried to take control?" The figure asked.

"To make me desperate?" Celestia said. It was hard to put on a deferential air with how angry she was feeling. She wanted to launch at her mother's manifestation and tear it apart. But that would fail. It was a useless gesture in the dreamscape anyway.

"You are a problem child. To be of any use you have to learn discipline and restraint." The figure said. "But unlike other mothers I have the option to replace you. Succession, Celestia, has been the reliable means to keeping the Celestia line stable and happy."

Celestia said nothing to that. It was unfathomable to discuss her own death.


"Did you release your sister?" The figure asked, changing subjects.

"No. Did you?" Celestia asked.

"I will not countenance another entity using my power while I am distracted. If you are lying about this, I will have to destroy you." The figure said gravely, which Celestia interpreted as a 'no'.   "You have understand, Celestia, I have already lost. When you left Canterlot you let our work fall to ruin. That city is fallen to a Dark Force. The nightmares only add to that issue. Hereon, my concerns turn to what can be done to make the next Equestria. Do you think I should let you aide me with that?"

"Buck off." Celestia lifted her head. She was finished being submissive. "Either kill me or give me what I came for. Either way, I do not plan to stay for your lectures."

"You came for power." The figure said, in a somewhat mocking tone. "So you can go back and defend your dear Twilight Sparkle.  You show conviction. What did that pony do to inspire that devotion?"

"Not be you." Celestia scowled.






Celestia’s whole body spasmed, her muscles twisting and tensing in waves down her body. She collapsed, screaming as she clenched her head in her hooves.
Twilight jumped away in surprise, while the nightmares waited to see what would happen.

"Priciness Celestia! Princess!" Twilight squealed.




Then, the sun moved in front of the moon.
Acrimonious tendrils of light radiated from the sky and the princess. Though she saw that it was the same solar power that had attacked Celestia before, Twilight could see Celestia fighting back this time: Like two rival infernos, power washed back and forth in the air, lights so familiar to the warm magic she was familiar with as Celestia’s, but filled with hatred and evil intent.

"Woe." Twilight closed her eyes. If she could cry she would have been. "Celestia...  I'm sorry. I'm sorry I led you to this..."

There was a crack in the air, and Celestia's body jerked upright. Her eyes slid open, glowing white. "Time to stop this, friends." She croaked.



"That damn fool sister of mine!"  Moon screamed. Deep blue magic collected around her horn, and a moment later the Moon moved back in front of the sun.

"Brave try." Celestia waved her horn and the sun took the front again. “But I've been given five minutes to clear you out of this world. After that, its is the time for the next Celestia.” The words said the name ‘Celestia’ with a incomparable disgust, the sun pulsing with furious anger as she spoke them.

"I don't like this turn." Forlorn Spark's eyes swirled around uneasily. "We're moving away from the true Celestia."

"Steady, nightmare." Moon, teeth bared, withdrew one step at a time, not taking her eyes off Celestia for a moment.

"Am I to understand that to be a request for help? I accept that dance." Forlorn grinned. "But her highness wants none of us for now."



Twilight watched, aghast, as Celestia advanced to her, mechanically, like a drugged pony. “Twilight, are you ready to save this world?"

"P- Please..." Twilight shook feverishly. "I don't want any of you to fight."

"Don't worry, my little pony. I won't do anything you wouldn't agree to." Celestia's whited eyes, emotionless and unponylike, said contrary. "But when the ego is stripped away, and the soul is laid bare to heaven, only the gods will be sate you."

"What does that even mean?!" Twilight blinked. "Celestia, I...  I'm sorry I..." Celestia turned away and faced the two nightmare divines, Nightmare Moon and Forlorn Spark. Desperate to stop more fighting, Twilight grabbed on Celestia's leg.  "Please! I made a mistake! I made several mistakes! I just want to fix them!"

"Don't worry mother." Forlorn Spark stretched her legs and flapped her wings. "Behind that esoteric prattle, the princess was just telling you to have faith."

"And to have faith is to surrender to god." Moon nodded.



With unexpected quickness Celestia grabbed the nightmare helm and brought it to her face. Twilight screamed, as she was within an inch of the burning alicorn.
Moon and Forlorn yelped and rushed forward, but stopped when Celestia lifted a a hoof.

"Don't move or I will crush her." Celestia warned, the light in her eyes becoming blinding. The embers in her mane were become small gouts of fire that waved up and down the etherial hairs. The princess was burning alive. "Remember a thousand years ago Moon? You had tens of thousands of ponies on your side of the castle wall, and I let them die.  Somehow I think you will not return the favor."

"I was going to let those ponies die either way. Its just negotiating tactics." Moon whispered, unable to control her little jolts and shivers. "Let Twilight go."

A strange, lopsided smile spread over Celestia's face. She squeezed the nightmare helm making Twilight scream in pain. "Lady Spark, I can see why you had so much fun with her." She lifted Twilight up, to dangle helplessly in her grasp. "To imagine we missed out on years of this kind of fun, Twilight."

Twilight blinked away the swirls of color and haze of pain. "Princess..." She swiped with her phantom hoof, caped off with the steel horseshoe. It grazed Celestia's neck, only ruffling the fur. "You're not... my princess!"



“Can you see the future in my eyes, Twilight Sparkle?” Celestia, or whatever was speaking through her, asked with pained force. “Celestia will see you do terrible things. Fires, yes. You will start so many fires in this world. Equestria will burn, starting with the Everfree. I blamed Celestia before, for letting this happen. But now... I see how at fault you mortals are. Why do I bother with you creatures."

"Guh, like my nightmare said, if you don't like it, leave!" Twilight swiped again up Celestia grabbed the horseshoe between the pinions of her wing and pulled it away. To Twilight it felt like her arm was ripped off, as that part of her phantom faded away.

"You're not looking, Twilight." Celestia smacked the nightmare helm into her forehead. Twilight was eye to eye with the blinding light. "This world wants to throw off the divine, all by the work of one two mares, a mother and daughter. Ah, but my daughter's complacence helped too. This night has seen more daughters created to ape the divine. It is a fantastic duel, between the mortal urges to cling to its mother's leg, and to fling itself into a reckless unknown." Her goofy smile became savage. "What's this ringing in Celestia's ears? Why is her heart pounding? How can she be this excited just to be close to you?"

“Let me go!” Twilight screamed.  Yes, she could see the future, behind the hellish eyes of the sun demon. She saw a swirling clouds of Light and Dark falling over a landscape, fire, then ash. She saw herself, first with a smile, then a blank look, then a smile again with a sword in her hoof.  A shadow stalked over her, and she and the shadow moved in different ways, but yet as one.   Blood began to fill Twilight vision. She tried to grab her own face, maybe to somehow stop the blood from pouring out of her eyes.  She saw horrible things, inflicted by and against her in equal measure. "AAaahahahah! Let! Me! GO!

"When you get to the future, greet it kindly, like a friend you knew one but long forgot. You have been warned, Twilight Sparkle." Celestia intoned. “Thus same choice to you  as Celestia had: Preserve yourself or preserve your world.”




“This has gone on long enough!” With a sweep of her wings, Nightmare Moon jumped down to the rubble-strewn throne room floor. “Celestia, or whoever you may be, you will desist! If you have a problem with this world, take it up with me, for it is now my world.”

“To be honest, my Dark friend, you do not concern me.” Celestia said, leveling her gaze on the other alicorn. “My message has been delivered. This body will die soon.”

“I said, put Twilight down,” Moon demanded, murder in her movements. “and face me.”

Celestia tossed the nightmare helm to aside, and turned to fully face Moon. “Nightmare, if you insist on making a quarrel of this, I will have no choice but to oblige you, and spare Celestia the worry”

“Fie to you, you wicked, jealous god! How much has the Bright World suffered because of your arrogance?!” Moon sent shadows streaming along every surface her astral mane and tail touched. 

“Time for us to die, darling niece.” Celestia said calmly. She looked so helpless, skin pulled tightly over a decaying soul. She looked like a hunk of charcoal thrown left in the firepit, dwindling dying heat, serving only to put out ash.
But in their momentary contact Twilight had detected what Moon could not: This creature still had the power of the sun, and no qualm about using it. In fact, there had been no sign of any emotion in that vast, nebulous entity. It really was just light playing through smoke, yet on an incomparable scale.

"Moon!" The nightmare armor was too far apart for Twilight to manifest. "Moon, run away!"

Willfully or otherwise, Moon didn't hear her.


With a final roar, NIghtmare Moon teleported to Celestia, reared up and about to stomp down on her sister's head and neck.

Then nothing happened.
As in, literally nothing. Everypony was motionless, no sound. Their motion, their emotion, their place in space... It was all static.

Twilight would have blinking if she could have, trying to get rid of whatever afterimage frozen in her sight. But nay, the world around her seemed to be just frozen. 
"W- What?!" She tried to move on of the armor parts, just to reassure herself she wasn't also frozen, and was able to scrape it along the ground a bit.

Somepony else was also moving though. Celestia, humming to herself, stepped back from Moon's mid-air attack. "How quickly they forget." She said, a hint of condescension in eerie resonance.

"H- Have I been taken to a dream?" Twilight wondered. "What happened to them?!"

"If you had your body you would notice how hot it has become, or how difficult it is to breath." Celestia droned. "That is because the air is not convecting."

"Not convecting?" Twilight repeated. "But that's impossible...  Air convects all the time! Even in static systems, there is some-"

"What about a time out of time, Twilight Sparkle? A time that doesn't exist?" Celestia trotted to the model solar system, knocked off its pedestal and laying on the floor. She grabbed one of the five smaller orbs, the size of a pony's head and solid stone, and snapped it off the stand.  "This is the power of a being that dictates the course of causality." She motioned up to the sun with her snout. "Light streams down to heat your matter, jolts and moves your constituent atoms in random but predictable ways. This is how I guide you mortals. This is the true power of the DESTINY I lay out for your kind."

Twilight watched helplessly as Celestia trotted back to Moon. She played with the stone orb, showing off its weight. "But then I..."

Celestia flared her wing out, showing off the blue steel horseshoe she'd pinned between her pinion feathers. "In the Phantom Time, there is only one agency: That of its creator. You move because I will it, Twilight Sparkle. Everything does. When, or if, I ever loose patience with this planet, I can...  Stop the show."

Twilight's mind was a frothing sea of conflict. This being speaking through Celestia was undoubtably that of the divine sun above. The sun, who all ponykind cherished and in return was guided by, was known in dogma to have unapproachable benevolence and infinite intelligence. Ponykind surrendered its sovereignty to her daughter, Celestia, because it was the sun's great guidance that provided the peace and harmony of mortalkind.   Celestia had never talked with Twilight about her mother, beyond laconic quips about the difficulty of raising the sun, and certainly never anything to make Twilight doubt the Celestianist dogmas.

But what Twilight was looking at now was so at odds with that idea! It was evil! There was no other way of putting it! Looking at that creature made her feel stick to the stomach, in a metaphorical way, and made her deeply upset to reflect on a life of casual worship. Was this the being that had heard her prayers in moments of weakness? What kind of heinous designs did it have for her life?!
They said a pony shouldn't guess into god's plans.

"I do this out of love, Twilight Sparkle. The love of a god is too complex for you to understand." Celestia turned back to Moon. "You can not prove to me that mortalkind could survive in a world without Light."

"Please!" Said so often already, Twilight could not think to say anything else. What else could she, a fundamentally weak creature caught in this divine clash, do? Only beg.  "Let Moon go! Let Celestia go! W- We all just want to live!"

Time resumed.


Celestia used the stone orb like a club. Time might have been released from the sun's grasp, but Twilight saw its arc in slow-motion.  Moon viscous cry of victory became a wail of confusion as she realized her prey moved positions. She looked up, locked eyes with Celestia, and was the orb coming down on her.
Twilight swore that in the last moment, Nightmare Moon tried to look her way.

The spherical stone smashed into Moon’s unprotected temple, redirecting the alicorn’s momentum with a sickening crunch. Moon spun away and bounded off the wall. She hit the ground and stayed down.


“Celestia never foresaw your death in her premonitions. One wonders of its implications.” Celestia hobbled to where Moon had collapsed. The Dark alicorn's forehead was caved in, and her ragged breathing was not improving as her magic slowly healed the normally fatal trauma. The one eye she could open was fixed on her sister, daring her to follow through. “It must not change very much. A thousand years of waiting, and you die in the first little fight.” She raised the makeshift club high over her head. “Fortunate. Nopony will ever know you existed at all. Their Destiny will go on.”

Moon tried to say something but it was swallowed by her pained gasps.

Twilight, unable to turn away while the armor pieces were separate, closed her eyes. But she couldn’t block out the sound, and the anguished waves of magic Moon radiated through the castle. The tortuous execution lasted a minute, before Celestia dropped her bloodied stone to the rubble-strewn floor.


“Do you hate me?” Celestia asked the empty castle. “Are you ready to kill, now that you have hate in your heart too? Can you kill nations? Or will you let yourself die and save Equestria?”

Twilight did hate. "Isn't it a self fulfilling prophesy if you drive me to do what you fortell?" She could not have but more hate in her words if she'd said them between bites of that loathsome god's neck. But then she would be hurting Celestia too. And she had no mouth still. "You don't play by your own rules!"


“Well what is it? Do you want to live or die?” The thing speaking through Celestia had no intention of considering Twilight's accusations. She picked up the different parts of the nightmare armor in her magic and piled them together. "You can make the choice right here. I will help you fulfill it."

"Go to hell." Twilight refused to manifest phantom body, remaining in a pile. She refused to give the murderer in front of her any more.

“Not choosing is not a choice. Previous of the old Celestias used to say. The twenty-seventh.” Celestia said. "Consider, I can pull a choice from you. Forget what you think torture is Twilight."

"You do this out of love." Twilight said bitterly. "I say do it! The more time you waste with me is time you're not hurting the other ponies of this world!"

"Don't worry. We can have our experience in a Phantom Time. Will it not be beautiful? No movement on the entire planet, except for you, and me beside you, searching for your answer together."

"Ehh! Buck you!" Twilight spat.

"I observe a pattern. Celestia said that before she surrendered her body to me." The god said.




"Stop." From the other side of the room, a whispered word cut through the shouting. Forlorn Spark, crouched over Nightmare Moon's body, had something so say. "I'll chose for her."

"By what right?"

"Right? Oh ho ho, let's not get into rights and duties here. That is a philosophical discussion for another time. Let's just say, I do what I want. Let her stop me. Let any of these ponies stop me." Forlorn stood up, her multi-eyed gaze sliding from Moon, to the sheltering nightmare ponies, to Celestia. Twilight could not help but feel that she was ignored purposefully. Her nightmare 'daughter' did not want to face her.  "Arbitrary conquest has been tonight's theme. I'm just following along."

"You started this." Celestia's glowing eyes betrayed no emotion. "Make no mistake, Twilight's dream would not have let to this great of a disaster without your efforts, nightmare."

"Why thank you." Forlorn bowed stiffly. The Dark creature's movements spoke to strain, her tone of voice to barely repressed pain. "I'm a learner see. I'm still exploring how ponies or their elder siblings should act."

"You're no pony." Celestia stepped around the armor pile and stepped to Forlorn. With how quickly Celestia's body was burning up under her mother's power, she starting to look as skeletal as the smaller nightmare.

"Ah, but...   If I were, I would be a good one." Forlorn grinned, but somehow with how her many eyes quivered it did not look convincing.

"Enough tomfoolery. You have something to say about Twilight Sparkle's fate?" Celestia demanded.


Black magic coalesced at Forlorn Spark's horn, and it seemed for a moment that she would cast an attack, but then her shadowy wings roiled for a moment, finally dispersing. Her proportions shifted to become less like an alicorn's and more like a pony's, or more specifically, Twilight's.  "I'm a proud pony. I won't bow."

"Enough talking." Celestia said. Her eyes began to glow brighter than before, until it seemed that there was a second sun in the castle, filling the air with her presence.
Twilight didn’t know what happened next. The world was filled with light and sound too terrible to describe. She felt the foul consciousness that had snared Celestia fade, or rather withdraw. Then, a tremendous outpouring of energy. For a moment Twilight thought another solar beam had come down.

Then slowly, the presence of Forlorn Spark faded from Twilight senses as well. She had the sudden feeling of being alone, and while all her recent company had been nothing short of horrific, it made her feel very empty.

Twilight cautiously reassembled the armor and manifested her phantom form. It was dark in the throne room. There was no spell in the air, so it took a moment for Twilight to detect the reason.

The sun was gone from the sky. Not just hidden behind the moon, or behind the horizon but gone. She could feel it in the air, like something was missing that she'd never known was there in the first place. The moon was still there, emotionlessly looking down upon the body of it’s princess.
"Oh..." She stood up and dragged herself towards where Celestia and Forlorn had been standing. "What's become of this world..."



"Over here darling!" Oh great, Rarity. Twilight followed the voice to the head of the room, at the rubble of the altar. The trio of nightmare ponies were standing over the prone forms of Celestia and Twilight.
Wait...  And Twilight?

Twilight walked over to them. It was very silent: After the sudden transition the nighttime bugs hadn't realized it was their hour yet. The clink of the metal horseshoes felt deafening.  "so...  We're alive."

"Using broad definitions, yes." Applejack eyed Twilight. "No offense."

"Wait a sec..." Dash narrowed her eyes. She looked between the ghostly Twilight filling out the middle of the armor, and the one laying on the ground. "You're not..."


"Uhh!' A sharp inhalation from Celestia made them all jump back.

"She's alive too!" Rarity stuttered. "Is it going to be the princess or, err, the other one?!"

"T- The other left..." Twilight didn’t try to stop the tears. “W- We can’t let Celestia see what she did to Moon.”

“Let her see? She’s the one who did it!” Dash said.

“No that wasn’t Celestia!” Twilight snapped, mind burning with the sun god's promises, her message of doom. “Not my Celestia!”

“Well, what do you propose.” Applejack asked taking in the scene of carnage.

“Take Celestia to Ponyville. I...  Leave me while I-.”


Another moan from Celestia cut off the conversation. Twilight rushed to her empress’s side. “Princess? Are you awake? Princess!”

"Errmmm..." Celestia's voice was very weak. “Twilight.” She murmured. “Were you hurt...  defending me?”

Defending her from Moon. It seemed Celestia hadn’t felt anything while the sun was guiding her body.

“I didn’t want anypony to die.” Twilight held herself back from touching Celestia, guilt streaming down her cheeks. “Please I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

Celestia raised her head off the ground, and saw the little purple body beside her. She looked from phantom Twilight to her unicorn-shaped vessel.
"This is..." She fell silent.

"N-Not me obviously." Twilight tried to explain. "I don't know how it happened. There was a lot of energy."

“There is a soul inside there.” Celestia ran a hoof through the purple mane. Twilight mimicked the motion on herself, grinding the horseshoe against the helmet. “Not a pony. It is hard to tell.”

"Spark." Twilight drooped.
If the sun had meant to rebuild Twilight's body, she had done it in a cruel way. Forlorn Spark had stayed alive through the transformation. Like a resilient ember, she sat in the heart of the little purple unicorn spread on the floor.

Celestia was just as conflicted. "She does not surrender her life easily." She admitted softly.


“Don’t worry about that princess. You need to get to a hospital.” Twilight said quickly. She needed to get Celestia away from the castle as quickly as possible. “We’re going to take you to the one in Ponyville.”

“About that…” Rarity trailed off.

“Twilight, no. This is not a fate doctors can reverse.” Celestia said, coughing dryly. “My skin feels tight, and every little movement burns to heaven and back. I fear I will not be moving from this place for the rest of my life."

“Princess, please. You’re not going to die.” Twilight said emphatically. Please, she begged the universe, give me this one mercy.

“She kinda is.” Dash pointed out.

“Princess, dont' do anything rash.” Twilight said. The horrible visions that she’d seen in the eyes of the sun demon danced across her vision. Prophecies of war and suffering across all of Equestria, of hate. “We need you.”

“You need me, you mean.” Celestia shook her head. “But that’s not true.”

“You can't...  Princess Celestia, please! Don’t leave me again!” Twilight implored.

“I’m sorry, Twilight.” Celestia dragged herself closer to Twilight’s body. “I promise this will be the last time I wrong you. If I had more energy, this farewell would be longer, but alas.”

“NO!” Twilight interposed herself, but Celestia held her away with her magic. “Celestia! YOU CAN'T GO!  CELSTIAAAA!”

“Remember me this way.” Celestia said over her shoulder, then faced the task at hoof. She didn’t need to be so close to the prone pony, but it seemed right. She lifted Twilight's body with her hooves and pressed her cheek against its breast.

Twilight watched helplessly. How much watching, how much helplessness. 
Celestia’s eyes glowed gold for a brief second, and then closed forever. Her body slumped over Twilight’s, their manes tangling together. The world became a little darker in that moment, for both the sky and earth had lost their sun.

“Celestia, I-” Twilight quivered, sinking to the floor. “Please. I love you.”


In the silver moonlight, the silent castle took on a tranquil air. The dust and ash had settled, and the burning rubble and sun-scorched stone settled and cooled. The Everfree Forest, unusually so alive with the sounds of monsters and terrifying animals, was quiet in vigil of the sun princess.







Rainbow Dash and Applejack nudged Rarity. Rarity shoved them back, but relented after a few insistent motions. She sighed. "We're sorry for your loss, Lady Sparkle."

“The nightmare and Princess Celestia are dead, just like you wanted. Go live your un-life, and never bother me again.” Twilight sniffled. "Lucky you, you got Nightmare Moon too."

"Don't be harsh my lady. we're on your side." Rarity knelt by Celestia to make absolutely sure the alicorn was dead and wouldn't wake up to kill them. "After all, the amount of trajety in your life has made hating you difficult."

“Buck off.” Twilight mumbled, unable to muster the least iota of emotion.

“Twilight, I’m truly sorry for you.” Applejack said. “This is a sad day for ponykind. I didn’t know the empress as well as you, I but could tell she wouldn’t want you to mourn her.”

“SHE DOESN’T GET A SAY ANYMORE!” Twilight screamed into her hooves in powerless frustration. They let her cry, until she felt so empty that the phantom tears stopped coming. “W-W- Why did this happen? *snif*  Why did-..  Why did everypony have to die? How could my sins be so great...   TO CAUSE THIS?!”

“Your sin? Concieted isn't it, to think you could cause this by yourself. It’s not your fault. That ruffian that killed Moon was lying, Twilight. It’s not your fault.” Rarity consoled.

Twilight gouged at Rarity with her ragged stare. “You don't understand. It’s my fault Celestia was here. It’s my fault Moon was here. It’s my fault my nightmare was here. E- Everypony is dead, because of me! Everypony will die in the war, and- I’m to blame. I thought I was at peace with the idea of my death... Oh god, I was READY to die so many times, and I failed! I’m- I’m alive. I have my body back. Everypony dies, but everything is just peachy for Twilight.”

“Don’t do this to yourself. These ponies wanted you to live.” Rainbow Dash demanded. Though is was counter to everything her nightmare-enraptured heart commanded, she didn’t want Twilight to suffer anymore. The little noble seemed, for how long Dash had known her, to be more misguided than evil. “Listen, I'm not the best pony to speak on this. I've been throwing myself at death for a few months. Every time, it was my best friend who pulled me back. I- I guess...” Dash shifted uncomfortably. "You have to live. That's what the ponies you respected wanted. Even if you don't respect yourself, you have to respect them!"

“S- Selfish bastards.” Twilight sniffed. “Why doesn’t anypony care what I want.”

"You don't kill a mare because their feeling sad. You get them help." Applejack joined in the somber comforting. "I won't pretend to understand with dream buisness, but I understand its supposed to be a good thing. It's supposed to be celebrated. It happened that your friends had a disagreement about what it means."

"Have some class, Applejack." Rarity chided. "These ponies were divine! don't speak of them so flippantly."

"And how about you have a little respect." Dash snapped at Rarity. "Gods or whatever, they're mattered to Twilight! Even freak face whats-her-name nightmare, in a weird family way."




Twilight lifted her head from the floor. The gesture felt so empty without the weight of her head, or tired muscles, or sweat and dirt in her fur. "If I go on living, do you think I can make the world a better place?"

Rainbow Dash and Applejack nodded. Rarity averted her eyes.

"Yeah well..." Twilight slammed her head against the ground as hard as she could. The helmet bounced off with a metaling ring. Besides stab of pain and chipping the stone floor, there was no damage. "I think the only creatures in the world able to destroy the nightmare armor are dead now. I may not be able to die even if I tried."

"Oh cut this morbid talk." Applejack huffed. "You aren't going to move into you're own body? Celestia's last act was making that possible!"

"I didn't ask that from her." Twilight protested.

"Since you couldn't stop her, you just have to deal with it." Dash said. "Like the nightmare said. It's a night of arbitrary conquests."

"If you're going to repeat everything that windbag Spark said, I'm going to leave." Rarity said. 

"Rarity, don't you care about Twilight?" Applejack asked.

Rarity assumed an offended expression. "I respect Lady Sparkle's-"

"SHUT UP!" Twilight shouted. "All of you!"

The nightmare ponies were silent, either abashed or insulted.


"I'm going to do it." Twilight said. "Right now before I lose my nerve. I have to make Celestia's sacrifice mean something."
She reached out to her body, and prepared the same spell that had bound her to the armor. She stopped short of it’s completion.

“I can’t.”

Applejack frowned. “I’m not going to let you refuse-”

“NO, I meant I’m not able too.” Twilight was beginning to panic. “There’s still a pony inside me, err, her!”

“Forlorn Spark?” Rarity asked cautiously.

“No, it’s really a pony.” Twilight slowly backed away, the horror filling her eyes. “It’s a complete pony! I- I- I- t’s me! I feel myself in there!”










Celestia could have said that she’d jumped between more planes of consciousness and existence in the previous month than all of her eight hundred years previous, and be right. Between her prophetic visions, slipping in and out of the deeper Dreamscape, and the dreams of that vast white plain under the sun, Celestia was almost comfortable in those altered states of consciousness. 
However, with her body dying and the dream being of such a foreign nature, the transition into the dream within Twilight's body was difficult and queazy. The world fell away, and a hazy world of grey surrounded Celestia.

The atmosphere of the dream was strange, welcoming even. It was eerily familiar, like a beloved melody with it’s notes slightly out of key.

"Twilight..." Celestia floated through the haze, searching for something, but she was not sure what.


Then, Celestia was in a dark room. She lay on a bed far too small for her.
She sat up, pushing the covers aside. It was a haunting inversion of her premonitions.

But there was another entity in the room with her.
“Good evening, Celestiaan.” The voice was distinctly Twilight’s, not even the half throated imitation Forlorn Spark spoke with.

“Evening? I have only just woken up.” Celestia lit up her horn to see who she was addressing.

"But the sun is setting." The thing chuckled.

The floating mass of flesh was an even greater bastardization of Twilight’s form that Forlorn Spark had been. Manic faces watched her eagerly, licking their lips and flailing their legs with a variety of insinuations. Oddly the bloated monstrosity still only had one purple horn.

“I'm tickled. This dream is for gods to come out of, not come in to.” The manifestation gurgled. “Still, if you have sin, you are welcomed here. We do not discriminate.”

“You are the true face of the nightmare plaguing Twilight.” Celestia addressed the creature.

"Not by half." The manifestation's faces quivered.

"Then I have no time for you." Celestia pushed the manifestation aside, and breached the wall behind it with a bolt of magic. 
The universe around her resolved into a deep red abyss, its only solid structure an infinite tiered tower of black obsidian. Celestia stood at the precipice, her cell inset into the monolithic rise. “Hmm. The Tower.”

The sickly manifestation floated to her side. “The Dark Lady is waiting for you, at the top.”

Celestia craned her neck to peer at the infinite height of the tower. “How do I get there?”

The many faces smiled viciously. “Think ill thoughts.”

"Pardon?" Celestia arched a brow.

"Send out a thought that's impossible to miss, and impossible to mistake." 



Celestia unintentionally thought of her moment in the white plainscape, facing the manifestation of her mother. She thought of her own failure to stop her mother from possessing her body. She dared not think of the horror everypony had faced at the hooves of the sun's wrath.
Did I run away from the consequences, she asked herself. Then again wasn't that the story of her whole life?
"Is feeling guilty enough?" She asked the manifestation.

The manifestation smiled at her knowingly.

The reality of the dreamscape warped around them. She and the manifestation were at the oblate peak of the Tower.



Forlorn Spark was different in the dreamscape then she was in the real world: Her extremities were solid rather than volatile smoke, and although she still had her dozens of eyes, she distinctly had a snout and mouth. A long purple mane cascaded around her head and shoulders.
It resembled Twilight just enough that the wings and appalling face greatly troubled Celestia.


Forlorn  staring intensely off the side of her monolith, didn't bother to turn to greet Celestia. “Welcome to the Tower." Her voice was like Twilight's, but more mature.

"The Tower of the Bard." The manifestation echoed.

"Mortals came together to build the Tower." Forlorn continued. "When it was destroyed, they dispersed. Am I to destroy the tower now? My play at heaven failed spectacularly, just like what happened to the ancient Bard."


“The Tower of the Bard never actually existed.” Celestia took measured steps forward. “It’s only a story.”

“Hmm.” Forlorn’s head twisted around to face Celestia well in advance of the rest of her, contorting her neck impossibly. “Will I tell ponies the same about you, Celestia? About me? Pshh, I’m so badly embarrassed that I'm getting angry. All I really want to do right now is erase you from existence.”

“You are too late for that too.” Celestia let herself smile slightly. “My body is already dead. My consciousness will dissolve with yours.”

“You’re trapped in here with me?” Forlorn laughed. “Oh my dear Princess Celestia! I knew you loved me! You’re going to make me regret killing you.”

With a swing of Forlorn's horn, charring black pulses of energy surged out of the ether. The beams of magic washed off Celestia ineffectually. Forlorn arched a brow in surprise, taking her powerlessness in stride. "I expected that to work."

"As would I. It must be that you do not truly wish to kill me."

“Oh really? How could that be true? Why wouldn't I want you dead, unless you had something I couldn't get from anypony else?" Forlorn cooed. "You're alicorn, the greatest of the great others, and one of the oldest creatures on the earth. I'm just one of mortalkind's elder sibling. You think I'm that presumptuous?"

"Yes." Celestia said.

"Ho! Too right! I'm very presumptuous.  It is prime amongst my natures. How can it not be, given that I was born out of that ultimate presumption, the mortal desire to become more." Forlorn fanned her wings in display, then shook them back and forth like a peacock. "And I did. I'm more than mortal. But I fear that you might be the only pony who could appreciate me in all my glory. Wouldn't it scare you if there was only one pony who could understand you for who you really are?"

Celestia glared at the Dark creature.

"Hee hee hee! Do you want me to lie?" Forlorn giggled.

"I want you to go away forever before you cause more damage to Ponykind." Celestia said harshly. "I have had to give up much to take you this far. Equestria may feel the cold of an end to a great era of peace, but stopping you prevented a much larger catastrophe."

"Catastrophe. Oh please Celestia, what could a humble pony who just wants to live a quiet life do to be classified a catastrophe? Yes, I was being very melodramatic earlier, ranting about world-changing revolutions and whatnot. I still stand by some of that."

"The nation was threatened enough by three ponies you corrupted."

“Four ponies.”

“Twilight has been separated from you. She will not be harried by the Dark any longer, especially after I destroy you.” Celestia challenged.

“But she was. Without her none of this could have happened. I'll let you accept some credit, and I'll take some too, but Twilight is NOT blameless.” Forlorn tutted. “It could happen again.”

Celestia couldn’t deny that. “Twilight will learn from her mistakes.”

“I think she proved what path she takes once she’s beyond your reach. You left her twice now! Do you think a third loss will be the breaking point? How easily could something else rebirth Dark thoughts within her?” Knowing she had hit Celestia’s weak point, Forlorn pressed. “Without you, how will Equestria face another one of me every five months? She's a powerful pony, princess. So are her progeny.”



“I…” Celestia squeezed her eyes shut. She was confronted with the question she had avoided asking herself since entering the Everfree. Things could not simply return to normal for Twilight. Celestia knew that even the most vigorous pony couldn’t sustain that amount of physical and mental abuse and stay sane. She herself had almost cracked at the mere prospect of Twilight’s fall.

“Consider, it is out of a desire to please you that she pushed herself to be so skilled. What will she be pushed by now? Vengeance? Hate? Apathy? I don’t see that going so well for Equestria.” Forlorn lorded over Celestia now that she had the upperhoof. “Think back to how you treated her. Would you wish that on all of ponykind? How deliciously ironic, that the pony you cared for is the one you wronged the most. Imagine what a terror she’ll be with you out of the picture, in imitation of YOU.”

“I did fail her.” Celestia shakily admitted. “Greatly, I wish I had taken her down a different path. I should have reciprocated, told her that I approved of her progress, of her advances. I should have guided her better, but I can not do that over.”

“That’s right. No do-overs.” Forlorn chuckled. “And with me it’s as if you failed two Twilights.”

“You are not Twilight.” Though as Celestia said this, a peculiar idea popped into her head.


Forlorn Spark replied out of reflex. “I am Twilight, and more.”

“As you are so fond of telling ponies.” Celestia let a challenging tone creep into her voice. “But I wonder if you really know what you are anymore.”


“Do you know what the nightmare is, Celestia? You could call it a parasite, but I prefer the more poetic descriptor. We are a fragment of the primordial pony, the first sinner. Many thousands of years ago the ancient alicorn of Dark, Astral Nacre, destroyed her own race and let knowledge of god spill out over the Bright World. Your kind used to be the buffer between ponies and heaven, not the bridge. I've searched long and deep, but I can't discover for certain if ponykind could dream before that event. That question separated me being confident that the nightmare and mortalkind are the same, or merely wishful."

"And?"

"And thus, I am the fully realized nightmare. A dispossessed dreamer coming into the world in a fusion of the divine and mortal."

“And hence the Tower of the Bard. Unity for mortalkind, and a symbol of the challenge to the perfection of the gods. And should you stretch it, unity between you and Twilight.” Celestia blandly observed. “It is too bad your story is utter rubbish.”

“Rubbish? What do you mean Celestiaan?” The manifestation behind her was as taken aback as a corpuscular mimicry of pony wretchedness could be.

“Explain.” Forlorn demanded similarly.

“All of you are laboring under the impression that the ancient alicorns were the Bright World's protectors. You have bought into the popular conception of them as high-minded, unknowable paragons. I ask, do I look like that to you?" Celestia narrowed her eyes. "Even creatures without dreams can be petty. If you experienced my mother, you know that."

“What, then, is the nightmare?” Forlorn was hesitant. She had no evidence to dismiss what Celestia was saying.

“I will give you some credit, for the nightmare is at once the more derisive and unifying corruption I have ever witnessed. But it is not divine, just a parasite born of a suffering being’s mind. There is no one ‘nightmare’ born from your ‘dark lady’, Anima Astral Nacre. But pain blossoms from the breasts of mortal and god in similar ways. The way it infects or corrupts is not any more mysterious than how a sad creature rubs off on those with whom they interact. They aren't separate beings. The nightmares are only reflections of the dark places in a pony’s mind.”


“That... may be true for most nightmares. But not for me!” Forlorn was struggling adjust to Celestia’s revelations. “I performed the ritual, and created a new life in myself.”

“Who told you about that ritual, hmm? This dream is a thing of symbolic power not intellectual power. Now let's flip the irony , and witness that while you and Twilight could recreate the ritual, you completely missed its meaning." Celestia pressed. “You may know the ritual was an effort to mimic divine power using different media. But let the question be posed, how do you think the ritual works? Instead of a heavenly harmonic, the Stars' ritual is a magical harmonic: The magic of the three pony tribes, woven together into something cohesive.
"But it is a flawed work. The pony magic is not meant to be neatly slotted against another's. There are...  rough edged you could say.  The ritual does not make a beautiful harmony, but a cacophony that works on brute force alone. It is, in a word, abominable." Celestia nodded with finality. "Hence the elder siblings.”



“No it worked! Look at me! Can’t you see that I exist?” Forlorn smashed her hoof into the tower, cratering the stone. “I live and breath just as much as you! No, more than you! I surpassed you in every way and nothing you say to me can confuse that truth!”

Celestia shook her head. “You are a very sad creature, Forlorn Spark. You don’t belong anywhere anymore. You are too real to retreat to the dark corners of the mind anymore, but too feeble to be your own pony.”

“I'm a pony but... But I’m not. No, I'm not a pony!” Forlorn insisted, her many eyes blinking furiously. “I’m something more!”

“Are you a nightmare?”

“NO! NOT ANYMORE!” Forlorn’s horn bloomed with bubbling purple energy, and the idle manifestation dissolved into foul black fog. “The nightmares don’t deserve me. I am a transcendent being.”

" 'Look at me kill, look at me shout! Being stuborn means I win!' " Celestia mimicked Forlorn. "You are a child, Forlorn Spark, and I do not say that because you were born an hour ago."

"Excuse me for being flustered! I don't recall you being coherent and level headed in the throne room." Forlorn snarled. "I went so far in so short a time. The wax wings melted off oh so easily."

"A fitting analogy. The dreaming body we are in has had its wings clipped, so to speak." Celestia frowned evenly. "A simple unicorn, with none of your pretensions to heaven."



Moody though she remained, most of Forlorn's aggression drained away. She wandered to the lip of the tower again, to stare out into the void.
"Too cruel, Celestiaan. Give Twilight something to remember this night by. Wings won't work without pegasus magic, but they would be pretty."

"You are obsessed with the idea of being a pony, yet you want to be more than pony. What are you after?"

"Life. Security. Other, less tangible desires." Forlorn shrugged. "You can take me by my word. Everything I said in the throne room was true."

"Happiness?" Celestia asked.

"Probably."

"Ah, but that is one thing more easily taken as a pony."

“What?” Forlorn coughed.

Celestia wasn't sure what she was doing. She had a feeling that with a bit of talking, she would have her way.
“I was Equestria's god-empress. I could not have been more distant from the ponies under be if I were across the oceans in Griffany. Aloof, untouchable, and most of all, so bored of it all. It is clear all your accusations about my conduct with Twilight flow from that distance.” Celestia spoke softly. As she looked into Forlorn’s purple eyes she almost forgot it wasn’t Twilight. “I was cut loose from everything that brings us together. Life was so rigid and so stale without optimism or integrity. I lost the joy of life, and now I lost Equestria.   I am heartbroken to see my student emulating me, erecting barriers between herself and others, and herself and me.”

Forlorn was silent for a very, very long time. She looked into the murky abyss around the tower, searching for something.


"The voices of the gods are a perfect tone in unified harmony. They are universes onto themselves, songs of life and death." The Dark pony said at last. "One woudl think it is impossible to recreate such a song is an imperfect, dirty place like the Bright World."

"Don't believe the children's fables, Forlorn Spark. The cosmos is a much less welcoming place than here." Celestia said.

"But the songs! The POWER of them. That is what this is about. This Tower," Forlorn tapped her hoof to the floor. "is a song. It is not pretty, no not in the least. But we sang it well, Twilight and I, out of the sacrifice of the energy of the ponies of Ponyville."

"You have a point to arrive at, I hope."

"I was expecting you to call it out before I did, Celestiaan. I'm talking about a perfect magical harmony." Forlorn said. "If, against all odds, Twilight and I could create this tower, then I have to believe it's possible. Imagine mortals with magic so complementary that their harmony matches the power of the gods!"

"The Stars tried and failed at that goal."

"But we are so much more intelligent than them!" Forlorn smiled.  "It would be difficult, and it would not being without significant pain, but the mortal soul is maleable enough to allow it. I see what you were saying, Celetiaan! Working together, mortalkind  can TEAR DOWN THE GODS AND TAKE THEIR SECRETS!" Forlorn jumped to her hooves hooping and hollering."  The Tower was only the first step! We have to go farther."


"You will calm yourself." Celestia demanded, though she was intrigued. "Do not forget I came here to kill you."

"You sly dog! You really did!" Forlorn batted Celestia's mane playfully with her wing. "I get what you were trying to do, and I'll admit I'm entirely sold on the idea. Wax wings turn to bronze, Celestiaan. This setback is going to be turned into an oppertunity."


"My word. Cease the prose and tell what you mean." Celestia pushed Forlorn back.

"Hee hee, you're mad that you've been spending more time with me than with the pony you really want." Forlorn's dozens of eyes blinked in succession. Then she closed them, one by one, until only her two centermost-eyes were still wide and trembling.
Celestia felt a chill come over her. Forlorn looked nearly identical to Twilight.

"What are you offering, Forlorn Spark? Say it clearly, with no chance of misunderstanding."



"We both want something, Celestiaan, don't you see?  To peer into the mystery of harmony, I need to be a pony.  To attone for your crushing guilt, you need a pony to fawn over." Forlorn gestured to herself. "I am already ninety percent Twilight Sparkle. If it 'accidentally' happens that the pony I end up being is a recreation of your dear Twilight, none could blame you." 

The longer Celestia looked, the harder her heartbeat pulsed in her ear. Twilight...  She was so close to being her Twilight...
"Y- You're asking me to betray the Twilight out there, waiting for me to kill you." Celestia breathed. She felt like a crushing weight was pushing in on her from every direction. "Y- You think I'd throw away the real Twilight...   FOR AN IMITATION?!"

"If you alter me, I WILL be the real Twilight." Forlorn whispered sensually. "Turn me into the pony you dreamed of, princess. You've lost the pony you loved..." She came hock to hock to Celestia and rubbed her throat along the alicorn's  fuzzy neck. 
"But her daughter is offering herself to you. She's ready to become what Twilight Sparkle was always meant to be. hmmmm" She purred.

Twilight....  Twilight....   Celstia knew she shouldn't let herself be seduce so easily. "I lost her. I failed her." Her eyes lost focus.

There was no guarantee that the Twilight out there would stay on the virtuous path. Forlorn had agonizingly listed all the reasons the poor mare was doomed to a miserable, aimless life without her mentor.

"I can have my Twilight..." Celestia gargled. "I can have her right here."