Very slowly, the oppressive silence lifted.
The wall of the antechamber, which had absorbed the rest of Ancepanox’s magical attack after it had disintigrated the stone pyre, turned into black ash. It began to sag as it was infiltrated by moisture from the surrounding bog, and the surrounding masonry started to crumble.
The black light faded from Ancepanox’s eyes. It took several long seconds for her to recognize her surroundings. Somewhere in the pile of wet ash that had once been the pyre-shaped sarcophagus, was the slag and particulate remains of what had once been Myriadess, the Scarlet Flame.
Ancepanox regarded what she'd done in silence. She smoothed out her fur and mane as best she could, a little motion as she similarly worked to assuage the tempest of emotions she felt inside.
Deciding that she had no reason to linger, she turned her back on the ash and began a slow climb up the bile of bones to the exit chasm.
"Did I just do that?" Ancepanox asked herself, jumping up to the lip of the old cistern-shaped hole.
She had just killed another creature, an old god this time. She had been relatively clear of mind, and she did not regret it.
"Yup. I'm a good pony." She whispered to herself, watching the covern below her all but collapse. The soggy island built around Myriadess's prison fell in, erasing all evidence from the outside except for the disturbed soil. An anonymous grave, for the one forgotten by history for a thousand years.
Perhaps Myriadess really had believed what she had been spouting. Perhaps she was just trying to manipulate Ancepanox. Maybe those tales had been true or they had been lies.
It didn't really matter in the end, did it. "I had no choice. She wouldn't tell me what I needed to know." Ancepanox uttered, pushing through the underbrush back into the marshy waters around the isle, not heading in any particular direction other than away.
Perhaps Light and Dark really were how Myriadess had described them. So what? Did arduous histories of dead gods matter one little bit? Did 'the Giver' or some other long dead bumblefuck have the keys to Ancepanox's salvation? Of course not! Myriadess had practically misled her, making big promises and not following through! Ancepanox knew she was justified, she just wasn't sure how to phrase it yet.
Ancepanox didn't even bother casting the spell to stay above the water, willingly trudging through the murky swamp, aimless. Were there any other lost gods hidden in ancient stashes somewhere in the Everfree? They would have all different stories, all different soapy tales about why their archaic ideologies were right and Ancepanox should become champion of their side.
The thought os someone trying to coerce or trick Ancepanox into believing something was one she was more and more annoyed by. She would not set herself up for another loss like she had experienced with Celestia. She would not let herself be wounded ever, ever again.
She had given up her name, willingly, to pursue Myriadess's siren call. She did not regret that either, for it was an act necessary for other reasons. But it would be the absolute last time she would ever give up anything because someone wanted it from her.
"So I'll keep searching, to find out what happened to me. I'll make absolutely certain I never again suffer like I did." She inspected her reflection in the dark water, shown by moonlight. "Light, Dark, whatever... It doesn't matter to me. Not really. I just want to ensure I'm protected." After a few seconds of thought she added. "And so too for the ones I love."
Yes, that was the justification she'd been searching for: Exerting herself against Myriadess, destroying her, had been done in the name of ensuring safety. It didn't matter she'd been greatly pleasured by it, that tapping her inner fire had brought her an awful joy, sickly saccharine, at seeing the destruction she could bring. There was no shame to be exhilarated when killing, and indeed it was good and honorable to be so, when protecting oneself and ones dearest.
Ancepanox looked forward to tapping that feeling again for some future triumph over a crushed foe.
But, and Ancepanox was now sidetracked by this intrusive question, where did that feeling actually come from? Myriadess had accused her and Twilight Sparkle of being 'Dark', evil, and whatnot. So did her feelings stem from the nightmare, or her own mind?
Ancepanox reflected on this a while, and in the end decided it mattered very little. One some level, she realized that it should have alarmed her much more, but she rationalized her decision by telling herself she would begin to worry if she did something truly bad.
"I'm not a bad pony." Ancepanox promised her reflection. "On average, I'm a fairly good pony, you'll find. I look forward to doing more good things in the future!"
The question remained though, what to do now?
On reflection, it had been stupid to let Rarity harangue her into leaving, even if the mare had legitimate grievances. If the ponies she'd wronged held it against her, Ancepanox should not run away, but work to do better and make up for what she'd done. Desperation, denialism, and hysteria was not the right way to respond. She was a student, after all! She could, and would, get control of herself.
After all, that was all she could get control of. Everything else in existence, mortal and god, were essentially chaotic and unknowable, and had to be fought. Yes, if Ancepanox was ever to be safe, she had to inoculate herself against the chaos of the world.
"I'm a mare. I'm a noble. I'm a viscountess. I'm a student. I'm a..." She straightened up, looking north where the Everfree Castle waited for her to return. She turned that direction and resumed her sloshing trot through the bog water. "I'm an adventurer. I'm a pioneer. I'm a general. I'm a dreamer, I'm a dream-breaker." She hummed, trying to think of more. "I'm a good pony. I'm on my own. I'm a defender, I'm a god-killer. I'm an... an alicorn?"
She was not so sure of that last one, yet.
So yes, she was going back to Everfree Castle, for all the reasons she'd thought of. She would make sure the Nightmare ponies were doing okay, and reassure them she was still looking for their cure. If indeed the strange magical effluence in the crescent chasm was the Harmony Myriadess had spoken of, Ancepanox would make sure nopony else got to close: If Dash woke up and realized what it was, that would be its own problem. Otherwise, it was just a geographical feature, coincidental, because Ancepanox refused to subscribe to Myriadess's worldview of Light vs Dark.
Perhaps it was time to face her fear, and hear what the Tower was from the mare who'd dreamt it: Twilight Sparkle. The dream, she was certain, would show her the way to the deeper mysteries, and finally found out why a cursed fate had befallen her.
The Everfree Castle was completely swallowed by mist, black and consuming all moonlight, now beginning to billow out into the surrounding forest driving fearful animals before it. The longer it lingered, the thicker and colder the fog became. The halls of the castle might have well have existed at the center of the planet for all the light they were getting.
A burst of purple light and static in one of the outer courtyards disrupted the chokehold of the mist. Ancepanox compleated her teleportation spell and popped back into creation.
The fog touched her skin, and she felt a jolt. She threw up her magical barrier again, pushing the mist away. (t took a minute to make sure she was actually back in the castle, and she hadn't teleported into the crescent gulch.
"Again with the mist. What is it with magic manifesting as mist tonight?" Ancepanox mumbled. She let her barrier fade just a it and reached through it, to feel the magic pervading the area.
Rapturous hatred, sadistic glee, and suffering washed through her for a fraction of a second, before she jerked her hoof back.
A pony was responsible for this, no doubt about it.
"Consarn it." She sighed. "Wasn't gone that long. Who did this?"
She prowled the south edge of the ruins for a while, and found nopony. The little annex where the campfire had been was quite, the fire dead.
"As still as the grave." Ancepanox mumbled. "Hello?! Anypony here, like, at all?!"
Coming into the throne room off the courtyard, Ancepanox view was half obscured from the fractured model solar system, so with a bound she alighted on the largest grey stone orb of the sun.
The throne room had been completely redecorated in the short time she’d been gone, and not in a good way. In the dark haze, it looked like a full showing of the royal court: Taking the place of the lords and ladies of the castle were empty armor sets on their racks, mossy statues, hideous gargoyle, and propped up paintings, pulled from all over the castle. A narrow path was left open through the crowd up the center, all the way to the raised throne dais. At the head of the room were the Castle’s most important ponies.
The late Celestia in her dented royal regalia was laid on her shattered throne of gold, looking as though she’d simply fallen asleep while holding court. She was attended attended by her hoofmaiden, Twilight Sparkle, unconscious beside her.
On her right was the vacant moon throne, still destroyed, waiting for it’s princess to claim it. Watching over it from the bodyguard's spot were the glazed-over eyes of Chrysalis, the vigilant stance she had been posed in undermined by her startled death mask.
"Holy..." Ancepanox blinked. "I think I know who did this."
A sound drew her attention. The nightmare pony Rainbow Dash was gagged and restrained by a web of fabric that held her against the wall to the left of the throne. She’d managed to tear away some of the more decayed fabric around her left hindleg, but she was left kicking into empty air in her constant struggle to free herself.
Draped limply over the rubble of the nightmare altar, at the edge of the dais, was Applejack, her fore and hind hooves tied and stretched apart like a ritual sacrifice. Cuts and lacerations criss-crossed her body, making patterns of red across her corrupted orange-grey fur. All her muscles were lax and her eyes were unfocused; Ancepanox could only guess at how long she’d been tortured.
And kneeling above Applejack, slowly licking along the bleeding wounds, was Rarity. She was shaking, either in exhaustion from the toil of moving the elaborate scene into place, or in exhilaration from her sadistic affections. The black moon tapestry hung off her neck like a scarf, keeping the darkness in her body connected to her soul.
“Can you feel it? The building gravitas.” Rarity was whispering to Applejack. “So, so good of her to join us at last.”
Ancepanox jumped off the stone orb. She cantered deliberately up the hall, and saw that all the statues, paintings, and armor subtly bow to her under the effect of Rarity’s magic.
When she reached the edge of the royal dais, the Rarity looked up from her task, to face her and the court. The nightmare unicorn pulled at Applejack’s bonds, levitating the unconscious earth pony to a tapestry hook next to Dash and hanging her there.
“You’re back far faster than I anticipated. I haven’t finished playing yet. Heh heh heh.” Rarity giggled softly. She had a mania behind her eyes, and there was a warble in her seductive whisper as she addressed the gathering of inanimate objects, deceased, and corrupted ponies. The gallery of stone, metal, and canvas onlookers turned to face the front. “I welcome you back all the same, Lady Sparkle.”
“You tricked me.” Ancepanox said angrily. “I see it in your eyes. You’re not Rarity at all. You’re pure nightmare.”
“The most pure, thanks in no small part to your help. Rarity's soul is sequestered in this fabric, serving only to feed me while I reign in her body. No conflict, no balance, only nightmare.” Nightmare Rarity curtsied. “I must admit, I was largely playing it by ear, but predicting you was easy. You don’t stray far from what you know, do you?”
“Was it really so bad to just ride along in Rarity’s body? Did you really need to be in control?”
Rarity burst out laughing. “Asked the mare who selfishly used the ritual to make herself into an alicorn! Oh ho ho, but you had good intentions? As if!” Her smile became a frown. “This is the question I heard so clearly, pounding through my head: What is a dream without a dreamer? The answer, I decided, is NOTHING. I would go to any length, kill anypony, to keep myself from feeling that again. Just like you did, Twilight. ”
The black alicorn let out a pained breath. “Don’t call me Twilight.”
“But darling, why not? Are you afraid to dirty your name with your new life?” Rarity inquired mockingly.
“Because it belongs to her.” Ancepanox looked past Rarity to the unconscious purple unicorn, laying limply against Celestia’s old throne. “I had my chance with it, and now it’s her turn. She deserves a chance, without my burdens.”
“How positively… selfless of you.” Rarity cooed. “And utterly out of character for your cynical nature, Sparkle. You just want to hide from the consequences of what you've done."
“I will face the consequences, but not as Twilight Sparkle!” The black alicorn felt the urge to charge the nightmare, but suppressed it. “My name is Ancepanox.”
“And mine is..." The unicorn tapped her chin with her hoof. "Why don't you just call me Rarity, for simplicity's sake. I won't burden everypony with ridiculous labels like 'Forlorn Spark' or 'Ancepanox', just because I had a change of mood. I'm not a coward!” Rarity laughed. “You want hide behind your names, so it can absorb all the grim things and you can escape to the new name. I am nightmare, but still I will carry the name of Rarity, for it is by her sins that I am given life. Do not deny the same is true of you!”
“Just-” Ancepanox paused. Rarity’s words were hitting her hard, vindicating all the little self-doubts she’d pushed away for the sake of her sanity. A certain part of her incited to violence, demanding she silence any impudent tongue, and she was having a harder and harder time ignoring it. She could see herself evaporating that unicorn like she had Myriadess's pyre.
"Your criticisms are valid, Rarity, but I deny them. Don’t think of me as a continuation of Twilight. Think of me as my own mare.”
“Then who are you? What is your past, your heritage?!” Rarity challenged. “Without Twilight, it would be impossible to understand you. No, I can not forget Twilight."
"You can and should. I don't even have my old dream anymore." Ancepanox promised.
"Oh come on, my lady, you know there's more to the pony than their dream. You didn't even know about the true nature of the Dreamscape before you met Nightmare Moon." Rarity flashed a devious grin. "You still share many things with Twilight. Such as her Dark, by which all the nightmares here were given life."
Ancepanox felt a knot in her throat. “How... How did you find out?”
“That you were the cause of all this and not Nightmare Moon? Rarity knew all along. She knew for a fact that the magic hunting us was made by a mortal and not the princess. The dream, the Tower... Only a mortal could have brought us there. Yes, if Nightmare Moon was responsible, we would have been dead on the first hunt." Rarity stood up and paced back and forth in front of the thrones. "All of us realized it on some level. It was obvious, and you should have seen it too. It was so very clearly you!" She kicked a chunk of the broken nightmare altar across the room. "It's astonishing when you think about it, and a little infuriating. Rarity would have murdered a pony to have the potential Twilight Sparkle did. Still, she and I are not positioned to take advantage anyway. We have a Dark heritage to empower us on our quest, same as you.
“I will acknowledge that darkness, but I will not accept it.” Ancepanox growled.
“Ha!” Rarity laughed derisively. “You are a foal who hates the idea of growing up! Pardon my Prench my lady, but you are a bucking idiot! Do you not realize what you are yet? Your whole life, you have lived with a purpose, denied until now. A dreamer, with the Tower as their dream! Can there be any clearer sign?"
"Don't read so much into things. Not everything is a sign." Ancepanox said, detecting in Rarity's words the opposite assertion as Myriadess had made.
"Said the mare who stole the nightmare alicorn's body!" Rarity shouted in excitement. "You were made for a darker purpose, dreamer. You killed Celestia! You killed Nightmare Moon! We should be wondering if you're a pony or a god!"
“Of course I’m a pony!” Ancepanox balked.
“It’s such a shame too.” Rarity nibbled her lip playfully. “Tell me about the death you've rought! Excite me! Entice me! Let me know how they bled. Confess to me what you yearn for: To kill! To destroy! There is no higher calling for the Dark than to hunt and consume the dreamers of this world.”
Ancepanox wondered if her killing Myriadess, what she pompously considered a great act of rebellion, was just another step in some larger, unknown destiny that Rarity was now scratching out. She would have killed Myriadess for nothing.
The only question, burning heinously in Ancepanox's mind was this: What was the Tower, and where had it come from.
“Your assertion is meaningless. Not just wrong, but meaningless. I left old dreams behind, and the new one is NOT Dark. It's ordered, and beautiful, and something I chose. I have every reason to believe that the future is in my hooves, untethered to the past." Ancepanox said. "I am who I choose to be. And you can be who you choose to be.”
"That's so trite. I'll ask you forthrightly: Do you consider yourself responsible for the sins you've committed?" Rarity asked, sharply.
Ancepanox looked past Rarity to the obsidian moon throne. She could only look at Chrysalis’s grotesque corpse for a moment before she had to look away. “I refuse to involve myself in your games. Sin, propriety, and any other accusation you can throw at me, its all meaningless spooks. I have greater truths to search for.”
Rarity's shoulders slumped, and a scowl overcame her features. "I see. You think you're above it all." She fidgeted, making the tapestry draped over her back flutter; On Ancepanox it sat like a cape, on Rarity like a princely robe. "My lady, we're going to butt heads over this. I don't think you respect us. I don't think you recognize my right to exist."
“Conceited nightmare. What makes you think I give a damn about you?” Ancepanox shouted agrily, then paused. “This court and audience you’ve made… And that broken blue throne? Did you mean that for me, or for yourself?
“That’s the first sensible question of the night! Rejoice! Or DIE!” Rarity smashed her hoof against the ground in a sudden outburst of anger. The mania in her eyes grew wilder. “Yes, Yes! Nightmare Moon is dead! Let's suss out who among us will replace her."
“If there's one thing I've learned tonight, it's that I shouldn't care about thrones, especially alicorn's thrones. Besides it's all jagged and doesn't look very comfortable.” Ancepanox said. Her gaze shifted to Twilight Sparkle. While she wanted to leave, she didn’t have the courage to turn her back on that sleeping face. “Don't get caught up on the symbols of the past. They're dead. Rarity, you can come with me. There’s so much we could discover out there, together.”
“What a wonderful idea! Let's go and victimize the world under continuously changing alias, discovering new and exciting ways to dodge the consequences of our actions. Let's be cowards together! Let's be little snots, little bucking weasels together." Rarity mocked acidly. "Let us go off and be in our own little world, conceited, uncaring, disconnected. I've never wanted anything more than to be a bucking worm eating shit and telling myself how intelligent I am."
That was the last straw.
Ancepanox’s annoyance and anger had been steadily building over the conversation, try as she might to suppress it. Rarity's nightmare wanted something from her she could not morally provide, and was a real bitch besides. But there was an iching truth to the accusations, that Ancepanox really was being foolish, and she knew it.
She'd hunted Ponyville, she'd perforated that changeling Chrysalis, she'd indirectly caused Celestia and Moon's deaths, she'd massacred Glori's camp, and she'd killed Myriadess. How much could she actually explain away those acts? How could she distance herself from it?
She knew she was trying to enforce a lie. She was a monster. She was evil. She was not a good pony, and being detached and aloof from her crimes did not make them go away. If she was being honest with herself...
Ancepanox looked into Rarity's eyes, and let out a growl from deep in her chest. If she was being honest with herself, she felt the pride, anger, and hatred. It invigorated her, fueled her. Yes, Ancepanox was more than a persona now, but not to hide from the sins of Twilight Sparkle. Ancepanox rejoiced in sin like Twilight never could.. She was alive.
“What do you think I should be doing? Fighting, dominating, hunting?" Ancepanox snarled, drawing herself up to her full height. "I can be really nasty when I want to be, nightmare."
"Good! Embrace it, my lady! You know its not the trickery of some curse. This is what you WANT!" Rarity cried out. "Show me how much you want it. Please!"
"If you want your nightmare, you shall have her. Your corpse will be me cushion on that jagged throne.” Ancepanox spaced her legs out pulled as much energy to herself as she could. Her eyes began to emit sickly black light as darkness filled every corner of her being. She began to tremble.
“Go farther than you ever have before. Then we can have our battle, for the heir to the Moon! I'm not a warrior but I promise to give you a good battle, my lady.” Rarity laughed triumphantly, readying herself. “A l'attaque!”
They loosed their attacks. The enshadowed throne room was lit up like a dying star as unicorn and alicorn cast spell after spell.
The burning tendrils of Darkness found purchase in the dark fog, and a thousand radiant fangs of concentrated hatred jumped and arced through the black air. Ancepanox's spells flashed out as quick, sharp beams that sliced and pierced the air. Rarity let loose a hail of raw magic that more than made up for her lack of skill with sheer output. The magical annihilated each other where they met in the air, making deafening crackles and flashes, and tore out even more of the surrounding stone of the throne room.
Ancepanox stood fast, refusing to flinch as she hellacious energy Rarity was casting began to overwhelm her careful attacks. Rarity's bolts began to blast apart the statues to either side of her, and thinking quickly Ancepanox cast an unaimed beam and a shield at the same time. But the shield did not cover herself, but rather Twilight and Celestia's bodies as her wild counterattack cooked everything around Rarity; That left her body unguarded, and Rarity's attacks finally began to catch her, slashing across her black fur in rivulets that sent searing pain strait along her nerves.
There was a lull. Ancepanox was left breathing heavily, her vision returning only slowly after the blinding exchange.
"Goooodness. You're really, really angry." She wheezed. "But so am I." She embraced the pain, letting it power her. Every chunk of flesh that was burned away was immediately healed with a shimmer of dark purple magic. Like the nightmare's regeneration, she noted.
She was beginning to understand the Dark and its place within her. It could be a powerful asset.
Rarity, amidst the sizzling rubble of the dais, was laughing. "You nearly got me darling." She was holding up her dark tapestry, apparently having used it and its intricate wards as a shield against Ancepanox's largest blast. "If you had done any less rigorous a job protecting Rarity's binding, she and I would be but ash." She re-tied the tapestry around her neck. "Again."
Ancepanox, eyes narrowed, charged forward.
Rarity’s mane and tail unwound from its luscious curl, encapsulating her and dissolving into the mist. She reappeared on the other side of the room. "A physical engagement? Come on my lady, we are more civilized- Wah ha ha!!" Her negging was replaced by a shriek as the dark alicorn raked the wall with a another beam. The unicorn watched her fur and flesh sizzle before she evaporated herself into mist again. The wall behind her was practically evaporated by Ancepanox's sustained attacks.
"Was that it? Was that all you had in you?" Ancepanox roared, advancing on the empty dais. “Who’s the coward now?! I'll tear this castle brick by brick if I have to.”
Rarity appeared in the air above her and tackled her to the ground. Ancepanox tried shielding herself from the trampling with her wings, but the thin bones were pulverized under the assault. Rarity retreated back and smoothed out her mane with her magic. Her coat was smoking from the hits she’d taken.
“The pain drives us forward, makes us more.” She winced. “Oh but darling, darling! You've burnt off my tail!”
“P- Pathetic.” Ancepanox snarled, rising to her hooves. With a sickly grind, her wing bones pulled back into place. “I'm a bucking alicorn and you're gunna have to do way more to put a dent in me."
The alicorn dove forward, trying to impale Rarity on her horn. Rarity jumped to the side, but was caught as Ancepanox threw her head from side to side wildly. She tried running, but was slashed twice more on her side. Blood began seeping from the cuts. “My coat! My perfect coat!”
Ancepanox grinned. “Let me taste it!” She jumped toward Rarity, but the unicorn disappeared into shadows again. “That is quite the clever power you’ve learned, but it won’t save you.” She blasted at the corners of the room with spells, trying to find where her opponent had gone. “Rarity! Come out so I can finish you!”
But there was no answer. She stopped, and listened to the absolute silence.
The throne room had been devastated. In a few short seconds of hate, Rarity and Ancepanox had massively outdone the damage Celestia and Forlorn Spark had wrought. The assemblage of miscellanea that had comprised the pretend court had been scattered, broken, or melted. The back wall behind the thrones had been all but evaporated, with what little remained threatening to collapse.
Ancepanox took a deep breath to clear her head. Rage had once again led her to victory.
“You can't touch me. I'm a queen. I kill princesses. Bide your time as much as you want." Ancepanox addressed the empty aid boastfully. “We both know I’ll win.”
She waited for a few more minutes, just to make sure it was safe. The black mist was thinning out, and soft moonlight was beginning to barely pierce through. Whatever force within Rarity that had spread itself out so much had been assuaged, or perhaps suppressed.
Satisfied with the continuing silence, Ancepanox cautiously approached Dash and Applejack.
She removed Dash’s gag. “Are you alright?”
“I’ve been better.” Dash croaked, then after swallowing to wet her throat, continued. “Let me down, eh?”
Ancepanox nodded, slashing through the bonds with her magic. Dash fell to the ground, groaning as she stretched her sore muscles. “And Applejack-”
“I know.” The black alicorn brought Applejack down more gently, carefully cutting and undoing the fabric around the nightmare earth pony’s hooves. “She’ll heal, but it will be slower without energy.”
“Damn, that fight was nasty. Call me crazy, but compared to that Forlorn Spark and Celestia were holding back.” Unable to stay standing, Dash sat and leaned against the wall. "We missed each other earlier. Glad to see you're, well, alive."
"Yeah you were passed out when I left for Canterlot, and passed out when I got back. Funny how things work." Ancepanox nodded. "You heard everything Rarity and I said."
Dash looked the dark alicorn up and down. "I had my doubts Sparkle, but you pulled through. But um..." She didn't like the slightly wild looks she was getting. "Are you okay? It looked like you got pinged pretty bad."
"Never better." Ancepanox said. "I just what to know what's going on around here? Did something set Rarity off?"
“Not that I know of. She's gone completely nuts, talking all about how she is going to make Ponyville a nightmare paradise again. She thought you were going to help her kill all the ponies.”
“As you can see, just the opposite is true.”
Dash arched a brow. "Is it?"
"It is." Ancepanox rumbled. “Enough yapping. Where are the young ones? Rarity may try something with them.”
I…” Dash looked crestfallen. “I was going to evacuate them, but I messed up. I tried to clear the fog and Rarity used it to grab me.”
“That’s it! Of course!” Ancepanox’s eye lit up in realization. Just like in Myriadess’s antechamber, the black fog permeating the castle was the manifestation of dark emotion. It it could be absorbed in the same way. "Don't stand too close."
She closed her eyes, letting Rarity’s hatred flow into her. Hatred of perceived injustices, hatred of those born with fortune, hatred of inconvenience; It was every little peeve of the white unicorn blow up to vast proportion. Ancepanox felt like she might throw up.
"Urgg, I'm not, ooh, metabolizing as well this time. But..."
Anecpanox placed a hoof each for Dash and Applejack, letting Rarity’s pain flow out of herself and into them. She could feel their greedy nightmares metabolize it, using the emotion to repair their hosts. The concept of emotion as energy and currency, so foreign to the pony mentality, was beginning to feel normal for her.
“That was unpleasant." She opened her eyes. Most of Applejack’s cuts had healed, and Dash was breathing normally again. "That should last you for a while. Doing well?"
Dash had her eyes closed, trying to keep the influx of dark emotion from taking over her mind.
“Rainbow Dash?” Ancepanox nudged her. “Doing okay?
Dash opened her eyes slowly. “Fine, I’m fine. I thought I was going to wig out for a second there, but I got it.”
“Good. Now go find the fillies and Spike. Did you meet Spike, my dragon? Just get them out of here. Can you do that?”
“Yeah you can count on me.” Dash saluted. “What are you gunna do? Will you be good on your own?”
Ancepanox cracked a smile. It felt amazingly refreshing to have someone care, even offhandedly. “For the first time in a while, I feel free."
"Uh, I meant against Rarity."
"Oh, yes I can take her for sure, barring something unforeseen." Ancepanox winked.
“Then what?” Dash asked, concerned.
“I don’t want to hurt Rarity, I really don’t. She’s not herself. But if worst comes to worst I won’t hold back.” Ancepanox shrugged. She gently pulled Twilight Sparkleup to her, checking her for damage. Thankfully Rarity had not touched her. "Don't let her accusations confuse you. I'm not here to hurt anypony unless I have to.
“I think I believe you.” Dash tentatively offered a consoling hoof around the black alicorn’s shoulder. "Maybe I'm making a bad call here, but I've seen friends go crazy from smaller amounts of power." She cleared her throat. "But that stuff about thrones and stuff, and Nightmare Moon..."
"Nonsense."
"If you say so. it sounded like you thought there was something more important. Some big mystery."
Ancepanox squinted, chosing her words carefully. "I don't want to go into it too much. But, ahem..." She made a little motion up towards the silver moon above. "If certain old entity is to believed, there's larger powers looming over us than Celestia and Nightmare Moon ever where. All of this might have been orchestrated."
“Orchestrated?" Dash asked, voice dipping in worried recognition. "You mean the ancient alicorns, don't you."
“Anima Astral Nacre, is who I mean." Ancepanox nodded. "And another ancient alicorn named Myriadess told me."
Dash did not look as surprised as Ancepanox expected. "Oh, yeah, I heard a lot about A.A.N. in Chitin." She motioned to the dead changeling. "The black queens worshiped her or something."
"I'm beginning to think some ponies too." Ancepanox grunted. "She was here a thousand years ago, and a lot of the crap happening now is just the continuation of those old grudges. We're going to hearing a lot about Astral in the future, because there's one up in heaven, and one over in Canterlot."
"Damn, really?" Dash rubbed her chin. "Heavy stuff dude. Sounds like we have a lot to talk about later, if we survive. Out of curiosity, where's that other one, Myrides? I'm guessing she's one of those metal spheres?"
"Was. Myriadess tried to manipulate me and I destroyed her." Ancepanox reported. "I suspect she was wanted me to procure a mortal to hitch a ride on. Apparently, that's how Anima Astral Nacre survived the death of the alicorns. She hid in pony's dreams through a line of her mortal progeny. She'd still be around today in somepony's head if she hadn't returned to the cosmos years ago." She shrugged. "Then again, lots of other things would be different too, so that neither here nor there."
“So, like, she transferred herself through her descendants? Wow. I hate to keep going back to it but we saw a way lamer version of that in Chitin. Didn't end so well for him though.” Dash chortled darkly. “Man, if Celestia and Nightmare Moon had thought of that, they'd still be alive wouldn't they.”
Dash galloped off into the castle. Several minutes later she could be seen flying above the castle with a precious cargo of three fillies and a baby dragon.
Ancepanox did not notice.
She was aghast.
Celestia… Nightmare Moon…
Celestia particularly...
She would have thought about it, because she'd know from history.
Entering and becoming a part of a pony’s lineage… It was all dreams, anyway. A creature could survive their death by sheltering in another’s dream.
She looked to Twilight Sparkle, then to Celestia.
Then back to Twilight Sparkle.