Sunset Shimmer was flying through the air when she came up with a plan that could be deemed as madness itself. A plan so crazy that it should have been able to succeed. A gentle grin grew upon her face while the wall came only closer to her. A wall that probably would have broken a couple dozen of her bones if she didn’t executed the plan she had, fast.
The demoness charged her horn quick and managed to conjure a portal for herself. One big enough to swallow her whole. One moment she could have been seen while the next she had just vanished from the face of the land. Just like that had she been swallowed by another realm that was far away from anything.
Nightmare Moon would have only watched over the events as they were happening and noticed how the portal closed. A deep growl was then released through her throat as she thought that her prey had been taken off.
She almost would have deemed Sunset Shimmer a coward when the demoness had just vanished out of reality. But the scents of the magic told a different story. They spoke of her having only gone momentarily. The eyes of the devil turned from left to right while she curled her fingers up on a hand. The hand was then raised and a black orb was formed.
Another spell was being prepared by the devil herself for her return. A devil who wanted to know where exactly the demoness had hidden herself. She wanted to know exactly where the creature had gone off to. Her eyes went from left to right once more, all while they kept on spying on everything. A growl was once more released by the throat as she did a step to the right.
Her hoofsteps were light, as if she didn’t wanted to disturb some kind of ancient creature that had laid vastly asleep beneath the floor. The dark orb in the palm of her hand only became bigger and only seemed to have been contained by the fingers of the unicorn.
“This wretched body too, she’s a powerful unicorn, but I need more volume to spread my wings. Literally,” whispered Nightmare Moon to herself before she turned around. Even with her tyrant attire on, the devil couldn’t have felt herself fully at home in the body that was Twilight’s. The lack of wings certainly had to be a major deal about the fact.
Not to mention the little fact that she couldn’t turn into her gaseous state of being. She could do that though, but that meant that the soothsayer would have regained her body and Nightmare Moon had to leave it. Whether or not Twilight would have allowed the devil to take her over a second time remained to be guessed.
Though she probably wouldn’t have as the soul of the unicorn was vast asleep inside of its cage. Even though it was inside of a little cage, it could still clean and rebuild the gaps that had been made inside of her skull. Which meant that the barrier through which Moon had entered would have been blocked off.
No, she had to accept the facts as they were and just live on to the best of her abilities for as long as was needed. The idea to create wings of darkness naturally followed suit. But those would only have been for show and not for actual flight.
The devil herself had seemingly gotten out of the frying pan and straight into the fires. The fires of the demoness she had not only taunted, but also created so very long ago. A deep huff of annoyance crawled out of her as she kept on looking around.
An attack was imminent, that much she knew. But when it would have gotten to her was a question that still needed answering. Nightmare Moon stuck out her other arm and coiled her fingers in such a manner that it would have been able to get a hold on something.
Among the grayness of the time distortion did she had to try and get the staff back. Whether she liked to admit it or not, the sheer amount of dragon smoke processed into it made it an excellent weapon of choice. The chance was naturally there that Sunset Shimmer had discovered that fact as well. Which could have been the reason of why it was thrown out of the battle.
“Come to me once more!” Nightmare Moon bellowed in her own tone mixed with Twilight’s. The devil wanted the staff back before Sunset Shimmer would have returned. But no matter how hard she called for the staff, it didn’t came to her. It just remained on its spot somewhere on the outside world.
Perhaps it too had gotten stuck within the time distortion? Nightmare Moon wouldn’t have been too surprised if it was though. Which in return led to another growl being given off by her. The eyes narrowed themselves while she glanced to the hand that wanted to call upon the staff. She just stared at the empty palm for a moment or two.
Then there was the natural realization that went through her like a massive boulder. She wasn’t truly Twilight Sparkle. “Hmpf, figures,” the devil muttered in a calm tone. She had the powers in the world ready at her disposal, but she couldn’t use them to their fullest potential. She was still blocked by the natural body of Twilight and therefore its limitations.
She had taken over the unicorn but didn’t became like her. Which meant that any of her possessions wouldn’t have answered to her. Nightmare Moon had worked herself in a small little trap that she didn’t noticed before. A groan was given off by the entity as she then just shook her head. “Forget it, we’ll do this the old fashioned way,” she then growled up to herself.
The eyes turned back to the wall through which Sunset had disappeared before they glanced once more through the room. It almost seemed as if she tried to catch the magical scent. The scent that was weakly given off in order to figure out just where the mare would reappear once more.
The devil herself was cautious because of the fact that the demoness had been gone for far too long. Which meant that the spell wasn’t some kind of teleportation one. No, the spell must have been a portal one and she was still wandering through one. The answer was a little bit obvious given the fact that Sunset vanished through a portal to begin with.
But the devil was of course ancient of age. She was almost as old as time itself. A myth that was often said about her by those who knew of her existence. Whether the fact actually happened to be true or not was not known by anyone alive. Yet with her age did came a certain degree of wisdom. A wisdom that allowed her to have collected a ton, and truly a ton of different kinds of manners to cast the same spell.
There must have been hundreds, probably thousands of manners through the same spell could have been cast. All just slightly different in order to compensate for the casting unicorn, or alicorn. The jagged teeth of the devil were revealed once more as she looked firmly to her right and left. Any moment could the demoness have returned to her. Any moment she could be facing some kind of grand secret army that had been built up.
Silence had taken over the throne room for almost five whole and agonizing minutes. Just five simple minutes had passed by for the feelings of Nightmare Moon. There was no way that she could have actually checked it given how everything just remained standing still. The nostrils of the unicorn went wide with every inhale she took.
She was sniffing. The devil sniffed the air for anything to have gotten her way. The eyes of the unicorn went constantly in different directions. An attack was close, she could smell the concentration of arcane getting bigger and bigger. If she could have only exactly pinpointed to where the attack would happen.
“Smart, very smart indeed,” the devil spoke before her left eye gave off a little twitch. She had to blink but didn’t allow it. There was a rather serious reason behind the fact of why she didn’t blink. As well as a simple one. A lot could have happened during one blink, an attack being one of those things.
One blink was all that it could have taken for Sunset to reappear and knock her out. Nightmare Moon had taken over a mortal body. And mortals could die or be broken just so easily. Once again it was a little problem that she to work her way around. But then again, she hadn’t expected that the job would have been that hard to begin with. She had expected that Twilight was powerful enough to bring down Sunset like that.
The truth of the matter happened to be a little bit different and a lot more complicated. For being the self-proclaimed devil of the lands of Equestria, she still overlooked quite the couple of rather obvious facts.
The scents of magic only seemed to have gotten stronger and stronger in her nose. All the way up to the point where she realized the facts. “Clever, indeed,” whispered Nightmare Moon moments before she glanced down to the floor. The answers upon her questions could have been found right there. And they were answers where she wasn’t looking forward to.
It was there that the two finally saw each other again. The two dark entities looked once again in each other’s eyes. There was however, one massive problem that made the devil charge her magic even further. She stood still in the physical realm while Sunset Shimmer arose from the ground. But she came forth out of a different realm. A realm where not many had treated before, under whom Nightmare Moon herself. Many answers were given straight away as she almost wanted to shout them up.
The demoness came forth from the stones themselves. The stones seemed to be acting like some kind of mirror that through which she rose up. Her hand was covered in flames as Moon just froze upon her spot. Despite her age had she rarely witnessed such a sight.
Though standing still there only worked to the devil’s own disadvantage. The stone beneath her hooves just shattered and the flaming first of Sunset managed to find a way to Twilight’s chin. The devil was knocked straight up into the air, followed by the demoness who still flew forwards.
The ceiling was the next location for the two of them. They tangled up with one another while punches and kicks were given. The massive amounts of dark magic that Nightmare Moon had collected in her hand acted as a giant boxing glove. Every punch that was dealt with that hand just filled the demoness with horrors.
Yet Sunset was too stubborn on seeing the destruction of the devil that she looked through the fears, if they even had an effect to begin with. The sheer amount of willpower that she had within her almost seemed to have surpassed the magical amounts of Nightmare Moon.
For the moment had the demoness who ran away from the devil, seemed to have been a bit more powerful than the actual devil of Equestria itself. A truly awesome moment for Sunset Shimmer and she quickly realized the fact for herself.
Kicks and punches were both given and received by the two mares. The talons of the demoness scratched over the body of Twilight, which had Nightmare screaming out in pain. The cuts ran deep and the bleeding became violent. Their motions almost went faster than light and they acted both on utter adrenaline and other substances that their brains made.
Good it couldn’t have been for either of them. Twilight’s body had a breaking point and so did Sunset’s. But they had to keep on fighting. Nightmare Moon wasn’t known for the battles that she had lost. She became feared because of the manners in which she had won many of them. There would have been any kind of difference from that, in the moment that they were in.
The two mares continued to rise towards the very ceiling. More and more did their both give and receive pain from the other. The levels that they were standing up to were just abnormal for any normal being. Naturally were they far from normal while they both lashed out to give another punch.
There was only a slight problem. The fists that were traveling through the air were the burning one from Sunset and the black magic filled one from Nightmare. So far during their battle hadn’t those two collided yet. The change in that fact was about to come quicker than they would have dared to hope.
With a massive collision had it happened. The two fists of the mares crashed against one another. Fire began to mix with dark magic as dark magic began to mix with fire. That was the way how their pact had been made all those years ago. It could have been seen as the breaking of the contract, but Nightmare Moon never did such a thing.
Instead of initiating the ritual did the mares just look at their fists and each other. The ceiling had gotten closer and closer to them. Something had to happen or they both would come to a horrible standstill just like that.
The fists began to tremble under the amounts of power that were exchanged between the two of them. One moment or the other would the trouble have really been hitting the fans. And perhaps the biggest explosion that the castle had ever seen would have happened.
Neither of the mares knew what it would have looked if something like a building was destroyed as time stood still. But they both thought about it for a split second. Even though they had a growing hatred to one another, they couldn’t have done that. It was their fight, nopony else needed to know what was going on between the pair of them.
The fight was theirs and theirs alone. The two beings looked one another in the eyes and nodded to the other. Only one solution had to be applied to the matter and Sunset knew exactly which one it was.
With their fists still ready to be blown up, she charged up her horn quickly and performed the spell that she was almost required to do. The ceiling creeped up to them both before they just vanished away. One moment they were almost crashing against the stone ceiling and risking to blow up the castle with their powers, the next they were just gone. Vanished out of the realm of existence.
But everything that once had gone must had to come back.
~~~~
A deep gasp for air was being released as the blankets were thrust upwards. The body of the mare dropped itself out of bed in a clumsy manner and the first thing it met was the rock solid and stone cold floor. A deep groan of pain was released through the throat before a mulberry skinned hand rubbed through the purple and pink toned hair.
The body then rose itself back up from the ground and just sat down upon the bed. Both of the hands were brought to the face and gave it a good rub. The mare had to make certain that there was nothing broken or possibly worse.
“Oh Twilight, what have you done to yourself?” the mare mumbled before the hands were removed. And there she just sat for the moment in time. In her pajamas, like she had woken up any day of the week. Twilight Sparkle just sat there as a sigh went through her nose. The unicorn shook her head a little bit from side to side in the hope to get everything straight away.
“W-What happened?” she mumbled to herself just before had a look around. From the things that she could see, it seemed like she had returned to the place where she belonged. Her very own room in the castle of Canterlot.
A couple of blinks were made by the unicorn as she tried to recollect her memory. Only to end up in a gentle laughter. “Oh that’s right, the students had done that of course. Hmhmhm, how could I have forgotten that?” she spoke to herself before she turned around.
Behind her stood the window with the curtains shut tight. Yet there were still shimmers of light that managed to make their way through them. So with a gentle charge of her horn did Twilight opened them up and allowed herself to be coated within the majestic light that entered her room. For perhaps the first time in a very, very long time could she properly enjoy the morning sun.
After the way she was woken up, Twilight did thought that she deserved it. So all the rights were naturally with her.
The unicorn had done her morning routine and changed her attire for something a little bit more fitting. The traditional soothsayer’s attire was worn by her as she left her bedroom. With a gentle pace she then walked into the direction of most likely the library. The hands were placed behind her back as she sunk deep into thoughts.
The unicorn passed countless of guards that were standing on their usual spots as they kept their duty. She didn’t spoke a word to a single one as there was a rather complex, magical matter going through her mind. Not that it mattered much as the guards were silent any way. It almost felt like they were statues.
Not the normal kind of statues that they were as they just stood still. But that day it felt as if all of them were replaced with actual statues. Statues that were made out of nothing but stone or wax. A shudder was given off by Twilight as she sunk back in her thoughts. The sooner she happened to be the library, the better it would have been for her. At least that was what she thought.
Twilight’s pace quickened just a little bit while she continued upon her way to the library of Canterlot Castle. The one place where she could have discovered the answers that she needed. The unicorn had sunk too deep into thought to notice anything along the way.
Which resulted in her almost like a machine to open up the doors of the gigantic library. Without a second thought she just entered it just like that. Though only once the doors had fallen shut was she brought back to the world as it was.
The eyes turned over to the desk where the clerk usually would have been sitting. But they saw nopony there. That fact alone caused her to raise an eyebrow. “Hmm, nopony here? Maybe he’s finally gotten sick. No, he would always show up long before anypony is awake,” mumbled Twilight to herself before she gave a little shrug.
Wherever the clerk had been gone off to, wasn’t much she could be concerned of. Her own matters were the troubles that needed to keep her busy. Her eyes looked around the library and she noticed that there weren’t any other anthronies inside of it. Twilight was the one and only being within the wall of the massive library.
Normally there always was folk walking around and about. But somehow, there just seemed to have been her. Both the excitement and the happiness of the unicorn were going out of control. Finally she had access to everything she needed at once. One of her life’s long dreams seemed to have been getting true at last.
Book after book after book was being collected about the arcane arts while the scrolls were conjured up as well. The unicorn levitated them all over to the table that stood the nearest by the doors. So if there was anypony coming in –or even the clerk– they knew that Twilight was present and could talk to her.
Not to mention the fact that she had the best light on that table. The mare dropped her body in the chair and had a look around. Perhaps somepony had entered while she was away? From right to left did they went, but they didn’t notice anything.
Twilight nodded gently to herself before she focused her attention upon the skeletons. It was a sight that still managed to amaze her. That those three skeletons were found in that perfect formation. A unicorn, a pegasus and what was dubbed as an ‘earth pony.’ Words had spoken of the fact that those creatures could have been their ancestors.
A theory that was shunned by the whole of the land for natural reasons, but Twilight was one of the few who actually noticed the similarities between the two species. She also knew the fact that every legends houses a core of truth. The stories surrounding three skeletons were almost too good to be true.
An old ponytale told to foals whenever they would go to bed. Yet that thought raised the question. Perhaps the question of questions. “Why is a mare, called a mare?” she mumbled moments before she looked at her own hand for a moment. Thoughts began to cross her mind before she shook her head. There were other matters that required her attention a little bit more.
So the mare opened one of the books and began to read through it. Her eyes went from left to right as certain words were written in a different manner. One of her eyebrows rose up as she tried to make sense out of them. Which was done in a way of pointing them out, and saying them aloud. “Darkness, surrounds, you. Nothing, is, real… run. Run!”
Twilight didn’t understood a single thing from the words that were written differently in the book. She blinked a couple of times with her eyes in the hope to get everything out of it. But once she opened her eyes again was all that she could see complete and utter darkness. The fires of the chandeliers had just gone out for no reason.
“What on earth are we having now?!” the mare exclaimed. The library didn’t carry any windows for reasons unknown though. But the darkness that began to surround her made the mare feel truly uncomfortable. “Run, just run Twilight. Run!” And as quick as lighting did the mare managed to get out of her chair. She rushed over to the door and opened it with great haste. The haunting feelings were crawling up her entire spine. She didn’t even look what laid behind the door.
As long as she was out of the darkened library would she have found everything alright. With three quick steps she managed to get through the opening and shut the door behind her. A surprisingly loud thud echoed in her ears as she looked around.
~~~~
A deep sounding poof filled the air as the two fighting entities reappeared into the plane of existence. Time still stood motionless when the two mares reappeared. But they were at least at a location where they could have been fighting to their hearts content.
The powers that were surging through their fists couldn’t be contained for much longer. Giving it up wasn’t really an option either. The two beings wanted the other dead. So the only thing that could have been done in order to break it. Which was to just take the impact of the coming explosion in full force.
Both of the dark beings braced themselves for the explosion of arcane which happened only mere seconds after they had reappeared in the realm of existence. A massive outburst of arcane energy was more than enough to separate the two of them.
Nightmare Twilight was flung to one way side of the battlefield, while Sunset Shimmer was hurled into the other. Neither of them had something that could have helped them to come to a standstill. Which meant that they had to take the full force of the floor as well. Neither of them really knew where they had landed, except that it was hard.
Their bodies skidded a little bit over the surface and the scrapes appeared all over their bodies. The burning sensation they felt couldn’t really be compared by anything other than just pain. The hands laid bare, the knees laid bare and the groans filled the silent air. Luckily were none of their vital organs harmed during it.
Even with the pain had the two mares continue their fight, but not without first looking to one another. Both Nightmare Moon and Sunset Shimmer looked firmly to one another as they gritted their teeth.
Yet their attention was captured by something else. Something that was both equally as beautiful as well as terrifying. Something about it all didn’t make sense to begin with, but they were both terrified of it.
Right in the middle of their way was it levitated. A column that was made out of both dark magic and fire magic circling around one another. Neither mares knew how it was created and what purpose it served. Though they were having some ideas how it came in existence. They both rose back up on their hooves and watched over it.
“Unbelievable, both our magics seemed to be,” the devil spoke while she was mystified by it. Her eyes focused themselves a little bit more upon it before they shifted back to Sunset.
“Seemed to be in perfect sync,” the demoness added. It didn’t make sense to either of them. How could both of their magics have been equally powerful? Never had such a thing happened before in either of their lives.
“Could it be that..?” Nightmare Moon whispered to herself. She then coiled one of her hands up into a first. The eyes continued to glance over it as if it was some kind of magical artifact. Though those same pair of eyes sooner or later would have turned up to spot Sunset Shimmer. “Their magic is equally powerful?”
The statement was one that seemed to have been a little bit far-fetched, but one that could have been true nonetheless. Both Sunset and Twilight did have a massive history together. Which meant that anything could have been possible at that point.
Finally was the time given to the pair of them to see where exactly they had landed. The devil and the demoness looked both around on their spots and caught familiar looking landmarks. They weren’t too far from their original collection, thankfully. If Nightmare Moon didn’t know any better, they happened to be right on top of the ceiling they otherwise would have crashed into.
She had to hand it over to Sunset in silence, she knew how to perform a teleportation spell. But both of the mares were bruised, beaten up and almost at the end of their stamina. Yet the two of them would still be able to fight until their hearts content. They were on a safe spot where they could have been doing so. The time was there to finish what they started.
Not to mention the fact that the scenery almost seemed to have been too perfect for the two titans. With the time that stood still, the mares were granted one final touch upon it all. They literally watched a rainstorm had crawled over the castle and had dropped the first drops. Drops of rain just hung in the air, waiting in patience to make the journey further down.
Nightmare Moon and Sunset Shimmer had a look around and they couldn’t really believe it. Time itself had come to a standstill through the whole of the land. Whatever force would have been powerful enough to do such a thing, they must have made it very, very angry.
The magic of time was a complex one that required years and years of study. And even after that one had to speak of luck that it could freeze just one room. Let alone the whole land and the world for that measure.
Behind the castle there was a flash of lightning that seemed to have been nearly hitting the ground. It’s long, tentacle like appendages travelled both far and wide. The flash was massive and probably still electric –even within the time distortion. The two of them both got the same idea of throwing the other right into it.
Their little moment of peace had been gone. They were back in the stances that told the other the war would have continued. Both Sunset Shimmer and Nightmare Moon were ready to once again call upon their powers and battle it out once and for all.
“Give it up!” Nightmare Moon spoke when the two mares began to circle around one another. They were both ready to fly literally at each other’s throat at any minute. The talons of Sunset where sharpened as the spells were prepared by Nightmare Moon. She still had to give some form of payback to the demoness for the trick played earlier.
“I will never give up what’s rightfully mine!” Sunset snarled back while she clacked two talons together. The way it seemed to be done was to indicate the seconds passing by as if they were nothing.
“Rightfully yours?! Oh please, don’t make me laugh! I own you, you belong to me and me alone! Your essence, the very thing that you are, only belongs to me. Everything you have, is because of a direct gift from me!” Nightmare Moon bellowed towards her. Though she was having more than enough of the games that were being played.
The devil wanted action and she wanted to see Sunset burn. The body of Twilight was capable of great arcane feats for sure, which was exactly the thing that was called upon. Within her hand it had appeared once more. A black orb that held firm in place by the fingers while one last grin was given. “So foolish, enjoy the eternal storage in the deepest pit of Tartarus! I hope you enjoyed the rays of sunlight you saw earlier this evening, for they be the last you’ll ever see.”
And then it erupted once again. The massive blast was released by Nightmare Moon and the dark magic was hurled towards the demoness. A demoness who flapped with her wings a couple of times and jumped up into the air. Whether it was intentional or not, she had just evaded the blast all together. Whatever the effect would have been to her if it had hit it remained unknown. But Sunset didn’t wanted to know it either.
All that she knew for certain was that the battle for her life had erupted once more. Nightmare Moon’s cause to get the essence of Sunset back and Sunset’s cause to hold said essence had been fired up again. Nothing would have stopped either two of them from finishing the other off. Perhaps the interval of a third party would have been able to give the decisive blow to the matters as they were?