//------------------------------//
// Chapter 44: The Many Memories 
// Story: When the Everfree Burns 
// by SpiritDutch 
//------------------------------//

“What’s our vector on that cargo ship?” The captain of the Slashing Dancer requested.

“Five knots at negative fifteen degrees. We’ll be upon them in one-fifty seconds, mark.” The navigator calculated.


At the corner of the bridge, peering out of the front viewport with his binoculars, the spotter saw the last heave of the Feather Slicer before it's balloon imploded and it dropped into the dark valley.
“Captain... I...  I should have told you earlier, but the Helbark exploded. The Feather Slicer just lost buoyancy." The spotter confessed nervously. “The surviving fleet is westbound at full sail. Please break off this chase and get us out of here.”

“I know there were a few fires, but the Helbark could not have just exploded.” The captain asked, incredulous.

“It did! Captain, I don't know for such, but I think it was an alicorn!” The spotter gibbered, drawing the eyes of all the ponies on the small bridge. “Captain please! That last order from Feather Slicer was a retreat order! We've got to get out of here!"

The captain tapped her hoof on the arm of her chair. "Okay... um... I know it's not easy for you to hear this-"


“I'm sane! Here, look for yourself!” The spotter jabbed the binoculars in the captain's direction. "They're all dead. We're all dead! Oh gods, oh gods." She fell into fearful little mutters.

“Urm…” The tactical officer roused from his nap, opening an eye. “I’d have to agree with Lens, captain. I think retreat is advisable.”

“My cousin in the admiralty didn’t promote me to captain to turn tail at the first sign of trouble.” The captain pursed her lips.

“First sign? FIRST SIGN?!” The spotter took a deep breath. “Captain, I know you’re remarkably tolerant when it comes to we crew expressing ourselves, but I’m afraid that the hull couldn’t handle my honest opinion right now.”

“Oh, alright.” The captain pouted. “After we get this cargo airship, that is. How about it lads? We'll split the spoils!”

There was mild agreement among the bridge crew and a few encouraged shouts from the oars. The spotter sunk to his stomach cowering against unseen forces.

“Good choice captain.” The tactical officer said before dozing off again. Nobody could blame him for wishing to sleep through the drama.







Sunset Shimmer sat at the back of her commandeered cargo airship, enjoying the view of Canterlot. Her hometown was like a glittering jewel under the night sky, all the more beautiful for how long she’d been gone. Celestia’s royal city was a bastion of culture and civilization, and Sunset loved her princess all the more for creating a monument to ponykind that would surely last a thousand years.
She was also enjoying the strange light show playing out over the valley, as the Cloudsdale airships burned, sunk, or exploded. She wasn't entirely sure what was happening but she could guess.


There was a tap on Sunset’s shoulder. It was one of the four pony experiments they’d brought along to help crew the airship, a yellow unicorn stallion in an ill-fitting grey robe.

“BbbBleeh.” The drone drooled slightly as he tried to speak. A look of sad frustration came over him as he wrestled to get his mind to work. It seemed he was one of the batch who’d retained most their grey matter, but still.
“What is it?” Sunset queried. “Does Mis Theory need me?”

The drone nodded eagerly. “Bleh bleh bleh!”

“Message received.” Sunset threw out a mock salute. The drone beamed with pride, happy to successfully communicate however trivial.


Sunset stood up, adjusted the armor she wore, and trotted into the tiny bridge of the airship, a modest little wooden closet towards the front of the hull. The forward window looked out over the Dneighper River valley below them, to and the Unicorn Range in the far far distance. It all looked very stark and severe in the monotone moonlight.

Entanglement Theory was steering the bulky craft, attended by another of the experiments, a unicorn mare. If she heard the clack of Sunset’s hoofsteps or the rustle of the armor, she did not show it.

“Things going alright here?” When she did not receive an answer, Sunset decided to kick back in an empty chair. “Kinda cozy in here, huh Twi?”

“Code names only Dances-on-Graves.” Entanglement Theory said curtly, refusing to look at Sunset.

Sunset shrugged. "Sorry, I know you're worried. But I just get annoyed by it, so use my name if it's the same to you. I'm not afraid of somepony hearing it."

"It's not some pony I'm concerned about." Entanglement Theory grunted.


Sunset was getting irked by the cold shoulder she was getting from her accomplice. Something was not right. "You know, I think we should spare a bit more of the language center in the next batch of lobotomies.”

“Yeah, you do that.”

“Hey, you called me here, so don’t get upset at me.” Sunset crossed her hooves.

“I need you to stop wandering off. Stay here in case I need your strength or magic for something." Entanglement Theory kept looking forward, glowering. "You need to quit waiting for me to ask you to help, and be proactive."

"Are you leaving because I'm not being 'proactive'." Sunset scoffed.

"No I'm leaving because this realm is dangerous, and no place for me. I have to go home." Entanglement Theory spit back. "I seriously considered leaving before we cast the projection."

Sunset tried not to let Theory’s combative tone get to her. "Twi, I feel like you're dumping this at a bad time. You could have brought this up last month when the gate opened. You could have brought this up a year ago when we started the experiments. You could have brought this up five years ago, when we chose to go down this path!"  Sunset sighed and brought her town back to something conversational.  "All I was trying to say was, if we ever decide to start cutting just for fun, we leave them with some brain, you know?"

Entanglement Theory closed her eyes for a few seconds, let out a sigh, and stepped back from the wheel. One of the yellow-robed experiment ponies stepped in to take her place.
"Sunset, if you want to experiment recreationally, I'm not going to be there. I'm done after this, Sunset, done. Get it through your head." She fidgeted with her spectacles. "Go find Phyte if you want a playmate. Go back to Canterlot and cavort with Velvet's alicorn! It's our sequence and our discipline that's kept us safe. You and me...  we were partners in science, not..." She jabbed her hoof at the experiment pony at the navigator second. "Not this!" Then the experiment pony at the wheel. "Not this!" Then the pony waiting at the door. "Or this!"


Sunset slowly, deliberately, pushed the Blackhorn helmet off and set in her lap. She leaned forward. "You sound like you're having a crisis of conscious, Twi." She said coldly.

"Of course not. I know better than that. I know what we did was necessary." Entanglement Theory said with sincerity. "Every step we took, every new discovery, you know I was pushing as hard as I could. I'm not squeemish. I have no moral hangups. But-"

"But?" Sunset arched a brow.

"But this world isn't like mine. It used to be we were the most dangerous power couple in the world, and we knew it. Here you're a competitor, and it's gotten to your head." Entanglement Theory pushed back the hood of her robe, revealing her face and horn. Her long purple mane was tied behind her head to keep it from getting in the way. Her eyes were covered, as always, with a pair of thin glasses, magically enchanted with a reflecting gleam to hide her eyes.
"Sunset, it might not make sense right now, but after the projection, and after I leave, you need to pull back from the excesses. Stop experimenting, don't retread old ground on the sequence. Let the end be the end."


Sunset sent from defensive to confused. "What's with this change of heart? Why stop the experiments?"

"Because we're done. The projection is the last step of the sequence. This ISN'T a change of heart." Entanglement Theory said. "Sunset, tell me, are you actually going to want to pointless experiments after the fulfillment of all your aspirations?"

Sunset sat back in the chair and was silent for a while, thinking.  "Twi, it used to be our aspirations. Did something change?"


Entanglement Theory turned away. The experiment pony yielded the wheel to her, as she resumed steering the airship. "Not really. I'm a product of my world, I guess. The old mantras have stuck with me. One especially, since the gate openned, and especially after that business with Agana I can say that with absolute confidence, that I have not been able to get out of my head." The purple mare pushed her glasses back up her nose. "Some truths are best left unknown."


“Something's wrong. If you can’t tell me-” Sunset said. It felt like she was talking to a stranger, and a brick wall. A stranger brick wall. “Twilight, what’s happened to you? I just don’t understand why you’ve gotten so distant…”

“Code-names only.” Entanglement Theory ignored her question. “That's all I summoned you for.”

“Then I guess we're done here.” Sunset rose from her chair and left the cabin. 

Entanglement Theory watched her friend trot back to her spot at the stern. Sunset Shimmer was always looking at the past, always looking behind. Even when she was advancing the limits of mortal knowledge, it was with a mind to old glories or nostalgic revivals.
That was why Entanglement Theory was terrified Sunset would tread old ground.



The purple mare let out a shaky sigh. She needed advice.
Steeling herself Entanglement Theory shook her head until her glasses fell into her hoof.

Dark shadows filled the bridge, and when her eyes adjusted she saw she was among additional company.
Ghosts of the past, her discarded experiments of weeks, months, and years past, stood around her: From the early messy vivisections to the most recent lobotomies, they crowded the small space, wearing eager grins that stretched from ear to ear, or the nearest equivalent if their ears were missing or replaced.

"Hello again." Entanglement Theory whispered to the ghosts. When the opaque barrier between realities was made transparent, all sorts of horrible things revealed themselves. Entanglement Theory cradled her glasses, tempted to put them back on immediately and forgo the advice she was seeking.

Thankfully she did not have to wait long. There was a slight rustle, and suddenly there was another creature amongst the ghosts.  She was a griffin, standing between Entanglement Theory and the forward window. She was short, with black fur and bronze feathers. She wore the top half of a rok’s beak as a tribal mask, concealing all of her face save two eyes of grey, quite unlike the slitted eyes of a griffin.


“You’re doing very well, otherworlder.” The she-griffin cooed, echoed by hushed giggles among the ghosts.

“Shut up. You have no idea how this makes me feel.” Entanglement Theory spat halfheartedly. She rubbed one of the dirty lenses against her robe. "Sunset is... being Sunset. She's going to get in trouble once I leave, I just know it."

“I know you want me to protect her, but that's far beyond my power. At this stage I can barely project myself to you. How do you expect me to bat away the arrayed powers of the cosmos?” The griffin snickered morosely. “Besides I don't really want to. Sunset Shimmer is the prodigal daughter of Light. We Stars are Dark."

"I'm not asking you to help her ideological vision. Just keep her from repeating my mistakes and sharing my fate." Entanglement Theory pleaded. "Please. You were mortal once. You understand how much it hurts to be tormented by the gods!  Once I go back home I'll have ways of curing myself, but not Sunset. If she retreads old ground she'll never be able to say her own name again." She shivered.

The griffin was not moved. "Then she will suffer."

“Black Bell...  I don't really like you. In fact I think I rather hate you. Every time I take off these accursed glasses, there you are along with every other reminder of my sins." Entanglement Theory's eye roamed the room, looking into the face of each of the ghosts. She remembered all of them, how tough their flesh had been, how much they'd bled, the color of their organs...  Not things anyone usually thought about when mentioning qualities of a friend, but Entanglement Theory had been living that life for years. She could hardly look at another living creature anymore within wondering how they'd look cut open.
"But Black Bell, I need you. I had you wrong before, because I don't think you project yourself here just to harass me. I think you want to help, somehow."

The griffin named Black Bell grinned, her grey eyes twinkling sinisterly. "What can I say, otherworlder. I'm a teacher."

"Then how do I keep Sunset from preforming more experiments from the sequence and bringing down the divine attention on herself?" Entanglement Theory asked. 

Black Bell thought for a moment, drumming her talons against the floor. "Keep her occupied. You think she will retread old ground because once she accomplishes her dream, she will have no positive goals. You must give her something to do." Before Entanglement Theory could answer, the griffin made a quick addendum. "And I can't help in this regard. I have my own plans. Advice is free, but everything more is billable." 


Entanglement Theory held her glasses to the light, checking to see if she’d gotten all the smudges. "But how can I do that once I leave? I know what you're thinking, and I won't sabotage the projection. I just won't! It's too important to me, her, and the world!"

"Then Mis Sunset Shimmer should get used to using code names forever." Black Bell said. "Ahh, outworlder, the time we spend together is fun, but it's running out. I feel something is closing in on us." She cocked her head upwards, focussing on something through the ceiling of the small cabin. "Put those glasses back on, outworlder."

"Just one more question, Black Bell." Entanglement Theory said hurriedly. "I- I'm ashamed to admit it, but I do have my doubts. If Sunset and I suceed, and the projection goes as planned, will this world become a better place?"


Black Bell looked appraisingly at the ghosts and yet living experiment ponies about her.  To what end had so many pony lives been sacrificed? If the ends did not justify the means, how could the perpetrator live with themself?
"That will depend entirely on Sunset. Your vindication relies on her. Hmm, is that why you want to save her?" Black Bell snickered. "Auf Wiedersehen, outworlder."

"Sayonara, manuke." Entanglement Theory put her glasses back on. The bridge was back to how it had been, with the three experiment ponies at their stations, nopony else, and silence.


But to Sunset Shimmer, peeking through small porthole at the back of the cabin, it appeared that Entanglement Theory was just mumbling to herself while cleaning her glasses.
"She never takes those things off anymore." Sunset huffed, slumping down with her back against the cabin.  She wasn't sure if she was mad at Entanglement Theory or herself: Theory was always the voice of reason, but she was explaining herself uncharacteristically little since the Eternal Night fell, jumping at shadows and acting defensive over every question.
But this latest thing about not experimenting anymore was just too much.  if there was one thing Sunset hated more than anything else it was constraining herself in other ponies' rules.

"Despite what she says, she does have doubts." Sunset growled. "We're so close. Literally minutes away to the greatest leap into the unknown...   And she's right to be worried."

For a solid minute, Sunset just stared into the dark sky. Years and years of working together on their project, knowing out steps of their experimental sequence. Of course it was intimidating for that lifestyle to come to an end. Entanglement Theory woudl go home, and while that didn't mean permanent separation, losing the endless workdays side by side would be jarring, even lonely.

"Buck me. I'm no good at goodbyes." Sunset sighed. "Never have been..."


“Bleh!”  The yellow stallion announced urgently.

Sunset looked up from the ground. The experiment pony was dancing in place.

"Oh cute, you're doing a little jig.” Sunset faked a thin smile. “I don't know lad...  Twi thinks of the ponies we've had to sacrifice in the name of progress as dead as soon as we choose them. For my part, it gives me pleasure to think you're still a pony, kinda."

The stallion was not interested in her pondering. “Bluhbledleh!” He said more loudly.

“Or maybe you're not ponies. Take away your ability to communicate, and you're just lumps of flesh.” Sunset said with sigh, rolling on her side. "That's what the experiments is all about: Learning to communicate in ways we never knew possible. And becoming more than lumps of-"

“Ppphhh!” The drone kicked at her leg. “Phhbleh bleh!”


“Buck off retard! ” Sunset said with sudden ferocity. She sat up and  pushed him away with her magic. “I'll throw you off the bucking side if you lay another hoof on me!"

Not that he had her undivided attention, the stallion was frantically pointing to two objects above them.
Framed against the night sky was a small scout skiff.
But above that was a pony-like shape, larger than a pegasus, with strange wings  that let the moonlight through.

“Uh oh." Sunset groaned.  The getaway from Canterlot had not been as clean as she'd thought. Both blockade and blockade-breaker were after her. "No way we can outrun a patrol airship. Buck! There's NO WAY we can outrun Twilight Velvet's alicorn brat. BUCK!"

She scrambled to her hooves and snugged the Blackhorn armor back on, hitting the helmet around her horn, and then took a deep breath. She was either going to have either a very exciting or terrifying time, hopefully both.

She half-turned to the yellow stallion. “Go tell Twi that-” She cut herself off.. “Nevermind, just get buckled down. Things are going to get interesting.”







Aurthora Airy having a hard time staying awake. Reading page after page of the impressive documentation of Phyte’s macabre surgeries was mentally and physically exhausting, but necessary to trying to learn more.

"Sir Prosser, have you seen any references to a 'sequence' in any of the material you've read?" Aurthora asked. She looked around. Prosser was asleep on the floor. "Oh nevermind then."


Phyte's journal had claimed her recent experimental breakthroughs had come curtesy of the two mysterious ponies who had emerged from the dark depths of the Vacuous Arcanum. Phyte had been ignorant to their true identity, and obviously Aurthora was no better clued in by just reading her guesses. Phyte was on the run and her guild destroyed, but the two ponies were probably still out there: Where had Entanglement Theory and Dances-on-Graves come from, and where had they gotten their knowledge.

"I see references to the sequence everywhere. "Aurthora said to herself. "Perhaps..." She shuffled through the pile of notes on particular procedures, their intentions, and their outcome. With reluctance, she got reading.

Immediately, Aurthora could tell most of Phyte's notes were paraphrasing some other work, presumably the book Dances-on-Graves had given her.  However, the notes were just detailed enough that Aurthora could make the connections despite her ignorance of the subject.


The Sequence was a very specific progression of knowledge. Each step build on the last, and was both impossible and madness-inducing without it.   It began like a religious induction, with the first few steps involving meditation, mantras, and symbol internalization.
Then came the hard swerve into the grotesque, the experiments on ponies. It began with pointless amputations, then to careful studies of ponies’ conscious state under various stresses, to the kinds of slaughterhouse carnage that still lay on the stone slabs at the lab’s edge.  Far from being an end onto itself, the wanton butchering of ponies' bodies was unlocking some kind of esoteric secret to the experimenters.   Aurthora was dazed by the jargon, but could deduce the purpose of the depravities was to reduce a pony to its base components, to better examine and understand them.
The ultimate culmination of the sequence was not mentioned: Phyte hadn't gotten that far.


"What an unholy mess." Aurthora mumbled to herself. She sat back in her chair. "Did Lady Twilight Velvet do something similar to learn the secrets?"


Aurthora kept thinking about how she was the worst pony for such academic examinations, but the so called Sequence was so visibly horrible on the face of she rejected the idea there was something she was missing. Phyte was a monster, a blight on Ponykind and Canterlot. It made sense her intentions would be bad.

But the two ponies...  
What was it all building towards? What was the point of it?


Aurthora went back to the notes of the last experiments Phyte had conducted, just days before her hideout under the Musician's Guild was raided.
The writing became more repetitive and distracted, like her journal during those days. Most interestingly, the references to the Sequence had stopped. Phyte had gone off the rails and was just doing whatever.

Aurthora poured over the page. She couldn't believe what she was reading.
Wings on unicorns, horns of pegasi, and both on earth ponies…   Phyte was trying to put together an alicorn. What an abomination Aurthora could barely imagine! A mishmash of organs and body parts did not an alicorn make! An alicorn was holy, an alicorn was sacrosanct!

"Could this be the point of the Sequence?" Aurthora whispered fearfully. Random thoughts coalesced in her head. The path of greater and greater understanding of ponykind, culminating in an apotheosis...   It sounded an awfully lot like the ritual.
"Did Lady Twilight Velvet do something similar to learn her secrets? Have I been part of her sequence this whole time?"

She dare not ponder it. She dare not consider it. Velvet's escalating violence inside Canterlot, perpetrated by that gremlin of a pony, Iillor...   had it been something else?!  The massacre of the Musician/s Guild, the battle between the Blackhorn mob and the Wonderbolts, the massacre of the Estates...  Escalating violence all planned by Velvet, all leading to the creation of Velvet's Astral Nacre.


Aurthora's eyes raced to the bottom of the page. She had to know that Phyte had failed, and never produced a working alicorn. She had to have that piece of mind, that Phyte's work and Velvets were different.


There, in big bold letters.


Fancy Pants, Unicorn


Under that.


He survived. Might retain use of magic. Otherwise a failure. Waste of time.



Aurthora tapped her hoof, staring into nothing. Iillor had killed Fancy Pants. In fact one could say it was his death that had started Velvet's star on the rise.
And hadn't Prosser said half of his body had disappeared from the morgue, which was why his funeral was months delayed?

She looked over to the sleeping earth pony. She stood up, trotted over to him, and began nudging him. "Sir Prosser. Sir Prosser."

"Emmm." Prosser groaned and yawned. "Done with your reading? Can we head to the surface yet?"

"Almost." Aurthora leaned over him. "Sir, why was Fancy Pants' funeral delayed so long?"

Prosser sat up and scratched his stomach. "I dunno. I wasn't on Velvet's payroll when she stole it. She just most of it back, miraculously lacking any decay, and told me to make something up."

"She gave most of it back..." Aurthora's eyes wandered to the stone slabs and the mutilated old corpses laid upon them. "So... So...  Velvet did much the same thing as all this." She paced around the lab. "Right under our nose. Right under our nose. BUCK!" She  kicked at a shelf, sending it crashing to the ground. the flasks and delicate divises scattered and broke. "What the hell have I been working towards!"

Prosser watched her tantrum. "How could you not know what you were getting into? Grow up, Lady Airy! You don't build gods without cracking a few eggs! A hell of a lot more eggs than the Estates, or any other you're thinking of. Take that number in your head and multiply it by a thousand, or by a million! That's who we need to sacrifice." Prosser's doughy face was not build for his serious words. "This isn't over by a long shot, Lady Aurthora. Do you think Velvet is pushing us into a Civil War for the benefit of Canterlot?   There's always a higher goal, always a dream to fulfill."
He snatched a flash of an unknown liquid off one of the few cabnets not kicked over, and pilled it on the table. All the notes Aurthora had been reading curled and disolved.  "We're working for Canterlot, ponykind, and this entire planet. That was never going to come without costs."

Aurthora slumped. "I always knew deep down...  I didn't want to believe it, because her cause was just. I didn't beleive my intuition."

"Is the cause still just? Aren't we still working to make ponykind a species of gods and kings? We're not selfish Stars. We're ponies with stout hearts and good intentions." Prosser arched a brow. "Come on, Lady Airy. You're bent out of shape. Nap with me a while. You'll wake up knowing these feeling will pass. It's all a big goof, huh? Can't you not help but laugh? I sure can't! Haa haa haa! Haaaa ha ha haa ha!"









So close but so far, in the total darkness of the Vacuous Arcanum, more pain. More suffering. More hatred. The Eternal Night was reaching its darkest flow, and showed no signs of ebb.

Ripple Wreath's body may have been undergoing a transformation, so terrible to be incomprehensible to him, but he did even dare try. A jolly little melody sparked in his head, a little classical violin tune.  It was cheery and jovial, and perhaps it so consumed his mind to distract his conscious from an existential torture that would have otherwise driven him insane.
“Fa la la la laa, la, la, la la la laaaa…”


His already tattered skin disintegrated in a spray of blood and black energy, and the flesh underneath swelled to accommodate the infusion of Dark power. His bones cracked and healed a hundred-thousand times, until the raw magic disintegrated them completely, binding the organs and sinew to the framework of pure Dark will that now coursed through him.  His form and features shifted unceasingly under the abuse of the uncontrolled aspect of change, until Wreath battled away distraction and reasserted his will over his own body. For a few seconds he was just a haze of flesh and magic, before he remembered his hate and settled into a form.


A massive, haggard, demonic wolf stood in the bloody footprints of his former self.  His messy tangled fur was already soaked with sweat and viscera, and the mad eyes that stared out with black radiance promised more of such dousings. His labored breaths came out as stormy jets of steam, and his lean frame shuddered with an eagerness for immediate, brutal action. 

"WOW" He tried to say, but it just came out as an unintelligible scream. "I'M SURE CHOMPING AT THE BIT FOR SOME ACTION"

With no to-do, he leapt forward.
The statue golems, confused, had gathered in close. The monsterous wolf-nightmare tackled the nearest unsuspecting golem to the ground.  The statue's ancient and solid stone, which should have been impervious to any attack, was rippled like so much paper under one-Wreath’s mighty claws.
The statue shrieked in panic, an awful scraping sound, but was silenced as the wolf snapped it’s hoof off. The body immediately froze solid, but the stone hoof continued to struggle until the platinum plaque that had borne the depicted’s name and legacy was snapped in Wreath’s maw.


The other statues backed away, shocked beyond words at the ferocity of the new creature.

"What happened to that pony?!” The statue of Tomorrow Hope whimpered, watching as the rock comrade she’d stood beside for a thousand of years was obliterated. “It’s a nightmare! How can we fight a nightmare?!”

“The Dark Lady is testing us. She sends her chosen to strain our defense of her Deava.” The statue of Lector said calmly. “There are a hundred of us. There is no reason to-”

The statue of Argo Blackhorn galloped in, head held low for a ram-like charge. The wolf, still occupied in the pointless fracturing of its first victim, took the blow to the side. In any mortal creature, his ribs and organs would have been pulped, but Argo’s statue only succeeded in knocking Wreath over. With the wolf on its back, all four clawed paws were available to tear apart the foolish golem.  Argo fell to the ground as a collection of pebbles.

The statue of Lector felt a pang of loss. Death, having eluded the cursed and bound ponies of Agana’s statue garden, had been found at last.
One did not stand in silence for a thousand years, sentient but imprisoned, without contemplating one's escape. Myriadess dreamed of letting free her ideological vision back into the world, and Agana forever dreamed of the day she would kill Celestia and be released. Ponies and other creatures the world over raged against cruel circumstance bounding them in. So too the statues.
The statues were horrified of the destruction, for they had the minds of ponies. But they had lasted too long for pony minds to bear, and sought escape however they could. It was with a grim joy that the statue of Lector realized that something had finally come to destroy them.

The golem stepped forward. "We were created to stop the Suzerain of Sin from being released. That means we must continue to oppose you." He said, his grinding stone voice booming out. "You will have no choice but kill us all."


The nightmare wolf  dissolved and reformed upright, ready to fight on. "NO PAWS IN THE VIOLENCE, NO MERCY" He gargled, before charging.



The statues offered a pitiful, half-hearted resistance, just enough to satisfy the spells that bound them to their eternal task. Once by one, the platinum seals that bound their souls were rent and shattered by the wolf. Their last moments were not peaceful, but it would not bother them after they found the rest which had long awaited them.

The statue of Tomorrow Hope was one of the last golems to throw herself in Wreath’s path.   The wolf launched itself onto her back and tore at her neck, sending boulder-sized chunks of rock flying in every direction.
"Ave Celestia! Ave Celestia! Ave Celestia!” She screamed, until her head was gnawed off.


Just a few hundred meters away, Agana had again turned out the real world to concentrate on her psychic attack. This time there was absolutely nothing between her and the heaving monstrosity that had willed itself back to life to kill her.







Rainbow Dash, like most pegasus, had a instinctual fear of having her wings covered, bound, or otherwise constricted. Her adventures in Chitin had accentuated those fears.  Now she found herself in that unenviable position, lashed, tied from hoof to wing with vines, to a tree at the edge of the campfire’s light. And it was voluntary.

“You fillies sure know how to tie a knot.” Dash complimented, squirming in her best attempt to escape.

“Comes in handy on a farm.” Apple Bloom said, double checking that all the vines were secure. “From time to time.”

“I tried crocheting once. It didn’t really work out, but I invented some pretty complex tangles.” Sweetie Belle boasted.

“I was in the coltscouts.” Scootaloo admitted, blushing slightly. “But don’t tell anypony!”

“Why? That’s super cool!” Dash during her youth she’d always wished had more opportunity for adventure. Now she was caught up in it constantly, in the worst possible way. “Kudos to your dad for being open minded.”

“Actually it was my mom’s idea.” Scootaloo coughed.

“Her mom’s weird.” Apple Bloom recalled.

“Like, super weird.” Sweetie Belle agreed, then quickly backpedaled upon seeing the hurt look on Scootaloo’s face. “B- But not in a bad way. She... eccentric!”

“Thanks a lot girls.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Back to the job at hoof, I’d say you’re pretty much stuck Mis Dash.” 

“Then I won’t be able to hurt you.” Dash nodded. “And remember, if there’s any kind of trouble, just run away. I’ll be the easier target, and no predator could resist this prime cut anyway?” Dash wiggled her eyebrows.

“You’re funny Mis Dash.” Apple Bloom giggled. “Don’t kill y’all’s self doin this thing. Twilight Sparkle ain’t worth it.”

‘Kill yourself’. Dash was struck by the morbidity of it all, of fillies being shoved into a world full of pain and death. Just like she was.  “Y- Yeah…”



‘Ready, Rainbow?’ Ancepanox’s query jolted her to attention.

‘Yeah I'm tied to a tree right now. Kinda nervous, but I'm ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.’ 

‘Thank you, Rainbow Dash. You're putting your trust in me and I can not overstate my indebtedness. Breath in breathe in. You’ll know when to breath out.’ 



Before Dash had the chance to ask what that meant, the forest, the campfire, and the the curious fillies melted away before her eyes. Color and concept, space and time, consciousness and imagination all exploded over her vision in splashes and streaks of light and dark. Memories and perception became one. Her mother, Gilda the griffin, and a fire-eyed Celestia were before her now.

“Woah, you don’t look so good.” Gilda idly scratched her beach with a talon. “Did we tie the knots too tight?”

“Maybe the transfer-thingy started.” Her mother guessed.

“Anypony else getting cold?” Celestia asked, her fire mane curling up into the sky and vengeful light pouring out from her eyes. “No? Whatever, I’m going back to the campfire.”

Dash gurgled. "Woah, bad trip." The preportions of everything around her stretched and shrank absurdly, until she saw only grey. Numbness saturated Rainbow’s entire body and unbearable static filled her mind. The static moved, forming into ponies. Six ponies, two of each tribe, in a circle. They were holding hooves, singing. ‘Let it be done. Let Light and Dark be one. Let our gods be be remade into this world.’



“Dash! Rainbow Dash!” Ancepanox yelled. 
“What?!” Dash yelled back, in the same haggard voice. Wait...


‘Success.’ Ancepanox thought smugly.
To go back into Twilight Sparkle's dream, she would have to open herself to Agana's psychic attacks again. Exploring the bonds between herself and the other ponies had given her an idea:  Ancepanox would pull Rainbow Dash's consciousness into her body, and Agana's attack, seeking to paralyze the alicorn, would instead be acting against Dash's body tied up by the campfire. Ancepanox would remain free to finish the fight. The only way Ancepanox knew how to do that was draw Rainbow Dash's conscious mind closer to her own in mimicry of the Nightmare Altar, with the side effect of of bringing the two minds into a much closer bond. 


“Ohmygosh this is too weird!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed through Ancepanox’s body. Like Twilight ad done the first time, Dash tried to move and toppled the black alicorn over.  “I’m you! Are you me now? Sparkle, you bastard, did you steal my body?”

‘Calm down Dash, I’m here too. I'm just lending you my body. You still have yours, but it's about to be in a lot of pain.’

“Oh yeah, this is…” Dash tried to stand the black alicorn body up, causing it to fall onto it’s side. Her head swam with nausea, and she felt a newfound sympathy for what Twilight had suffered loosing her body and having to take another. "Ooff, this is hard. Don't make a habit of this.”

‘I'm really not planning to. I wouldn't do this to us if there was any other way I promise.’ Ancepanox thought. ‘This body’s new for me too you know, and I’d rather not be kicked out so soon after moving in.’

Dash rolled the body into a sitting position, with the legs curled under the body. She looked the body over. “Your wings are in terrible shape. Have you been dragging them through the dirt or something?”

‘Something like that. I can’t use them at all, since I still have my unicorn soul. Huh, I wonder if you could?’ Ancepanox imagined making the transfer permanent, and forging a more fully functional alicorn out of herself and Rainbow Dash. They would be a dark terror, with a wild pegasus soul driving the wings and a powerful unicorn soul using her magic. Furthermore if Applejack could supply be the earth pony magic-

“Yo, tone down the freak factor. I can still hear your thoughts.” Dash pulled the alicorn’s face up into a fleeting smile.

‘It’s just a stress fantasy.’

“Yeah yeah…  Hold up, is that Rarity?” Rarity was still prostrate on the ground, eyes burning with hatred for the alicorn standing above her.

‘Don’t worry about her. She's can't block out Agana like I have.' Ancepanox started explaining. 'Listen, I have to jump into a dream but nothing bad should happen. With you here, this body should be insulated from Agana's psychic attack.'

“Uh what? You're leaving me in here?”

‘Obviously not permanently! I’ve got to go back into Twilight's dream. Just, take care of my body. And especially take care of the armor, because that’s still where my soul is tethered. Okay?’

"Take care against what? Take care against WHAT? Sparkle just hang on a second..."
Dash got the sense that she was talking to herself.

Ancepanox had already gone silent, for she had immersed herself in the dreamscape.







Scale had never been an obstacle in the dreams Ancepanox had visited to date. They had been very straightforward, with everything close together and within a permissible tolerance of size and appearance to their real world counterparts. In fact, the dreams she’d been walking bordered on the mundane compared to some surreal nightmares she’d experienced in her life.

The dream she returned to, once the breathtaking Tower that stood resolute in the empty void, was changed. Twilight's dream was breaking under the climactic war between Celestia and Agana.
The Tower of the Bard was shattering again, shaking apart under the polar forces stressing it, its fragments falling through the infinite void in perpetuity. The sun was weaving wildly in the sky, changing the way the shadows played through the sprinkles of dust and debris. Up in the sky the strange sun still shown out, but it was not alone anymore: Agana had summoned a miasma of creeping darkness that reached out to seize the errant star. Darting through the void, the sun was keeping ahead of the splotch.


Much like her mother star, Celestia was flying haphazardly to escape her foe, weaving around the chunks of broken tower at speeds Ancepanox had never seen before. Behind the alicorn were a cloud of shadows, screaming blobs with pony faces, which clawed and shrieked through the air as they methodically drove down the sun princess, more feral and insane than any other nightmare Ancepanox had seen before.  Every so often, Celestia shot a spell behind her, Parthian style, into the monstrous faces of the shadow shades chasing her.

Ancepanox felt her stomach churn. She felt a deep connection to that place. Though she'd never consciously known it, the Tower had been her dream all her life.  Seeing it rent upset her.
Agana, the cause of the ruptures, remained absent. Ancepanox guessed the dark blot in the sky, strobed with its own corrupting radiance, was some kind of link between the Tower and the strange space of darkness Agana had taunted her in. The shadow shades were like an invading force, swarming out of Agana's realm and into the dream.

Ancepanox felt like she was over the deep end of it now. Her dreamscape delvings were mere play compared to Agana's depth of lore. It made her feel more than a little afraid, and a lot angry.



“Terrible, that it should come to this.” Ancepanox heard a familiar voice behind her say.

Sitting cross legged at the center of tower fragment was the dreamer herself, Twilight Sparkle. Or perhaps it was Forlorn Spark, for the dreamer was something of a mix between the fully realized nightmare she had been, and the unicorn she was becoming.  She had had Twilight Sparkle’s pudgy unicorn body, but enshadowed, with her dozen violet eyes taking in the entire apocalyptic scene at once.

"It's you..." Ancepanox stared at the smaller dreamer for a long while, tuning out the chaos around them. "I was here before. I hoped I'd see you."

"I was in a strange state. I was not fully conscious yet. My soul had been disassembled, not fully reassembled." Twilight said softly.

"And why are you here now? Look at this place! Those two assholes are completely destroying this dream! You should be in terrible pain right now. " Ancepanox was trying to be gentle with the pony but her gravelly voice was not suited for it. "I guess I'm asking, why chose this moment to manifest?"

"The Tower was broken before. It will be whole again before long, I promise. That's what separates this tower from the one in the real world." Twilight said.  She was supremely unnerving to look at. At certain moments she was fluid of form, more like the suggestion of a pony. At other moments, the shadows around her thinned, and she looked Twilight Sparkle with slightly darker fur and ten too many eyes.  "I am manifested because the Tower is broken. I do not fully understand it. Before we separated, we were never able to walk our own dreams."

"Celestia believes you and I were Light and Dark. I think we are Dream and Dreamer." Ancepanox said. "And we went our separate ways, after you outgrew me. Now you're so much smaller. What's the implication?"

"Iterative change vs revolutionary change? Your guess is as good as mine." Twilight mused. "Despite change, the dream remains. It won't change permanently. Can you see into my feelings, like I can yours? None of this bothers me, and it shouldn't bother you. We're above this."

"I refuse to take this as a matter of course. This is Celestia and Agana's fault, and they think their stupid magic ideologies justify this conflict.” Ancepanox took a seat beside the smaller creature. It was clear how they talked to each other how two two personas had split off from each other in so quick a time, just on little mannerisms and pronunciations. "I came here to stop them."

"That's fine by me, but only if you are doing it for yourself, not for my sake." Twilight said.

"What?" Ancepanox blinked. "I'm here to protect you. If my only worry was my own skin, there's a thousand different directions I could fly to get away."

"That's not what I mean." Twilight said. "I want you to admit your very personal reasons for coming back, then I will give you permission."

"Permission? Where do you get off?!" Ancepanox barked. "Look at this bullshit! Look at what they've done to you! They deserve..." But seeing the impassive look Twilight was giving her, Ancepanox trailed off. "Look, what do you want me to say? You're me. You were me. My self defense instinct..." She fell silent again. Twilight wanted the truth from her, and would accept no alternatives.
"Yes. I'm angry. Agana is just outright hostile. Celestia has done everything possible to piss me off. Not to draw false equivalence, but..." She sighed.

“You feel lost. You feel the two forms of magic you've been told about, Light and Dark, ring hollow to you."

"It's divine mumbo-jumbo! It has no substance for us ponies!"

"You're angry at the gods. I know you have caustic grudges: You feel you've been abandoned and spited. That doesn't mean you have to hate everything divine. That will only drive you mad considering your form." Twilight paused. "Don't let angst drive your actions. Celestia still cares for you, in a way."

Ancepanox remained silent.

Twilight hung her head. "Okay, that was a lie. But consider this from her perspective. You manifest here, reeking of Dark magic and taking the form of her fallen sister. She doesn't have to dig that deep to identify you with everything she loathes, everything she fears..." Twilight let a silence hang, the only sound being Celestia's battle with Agana's shadow shades.  "If she knew the truth, of what happened to her sister, she would kill you."

"She would try. Her resentment means nothing to me." Ancepanox growled.

"Yes it does. You're not a steely, stoic pillar. You're an emotional being with needs. And so am I..." Twilight sighed. "Which is why your fear of me pains you."

"I fear you? I feel a lot of things towards you, but I'm not sure fear is one of them." Ancepanox stood up. "Celestia said a lot of nonsense last time. I don't know what you were, what I was, and which one of us is the original, and frankly I don't care. I don't need to define myself in relation to you. I'm getting comfortable with myself."

"But you're not yet. That's why you wish the ideologies of Light or Dark had answers for you. Your frustration is borne of yearning. I know what you want: Purpose." Twilight said firmly. "Without the empire and Celestia, what do you have? The only voices you've heard that gives a purpose to for mortal suffering are Forlorn Spark and Twilight Velvet, and both of them have their own ideologies of apotheosis and abandonment of mortality."
Twilight shifted a bit. "I can't say it's impossible you will become semi-divine as well. You should be mentally prepared for that. If you are adamant on having purpose as a mortal, it will cause you pain."



Ancepanox was wordless for a long while. "You're wrong about me, Twilight Sparkle." She turned away from the pony.  "Remember what Nightmare Moon told us, about the ancient philosophies of the Avatars cult? Every pony was a reflection of the god of their special talent. Well, I am god. You are my reflection." She spread her wings. "And my purpose as god is to do as all other gods seem to do: Squabble, rage, and kill.

"Ahh...  I see. Yes I was wrong about you. You were set on abandoning mortality from the beginning." Twilight murmured. "My lady, it should have been you who took the Dream of the Tower, and I who would have to make their own."

"You'll find out why even that is wrong."  Ancepanox cast her eyes up, to Celestia’s desperate flight. The shades were starting to overwhelm the princess. If Ancepanox did nothing Celestia would likely be destroyed. “Keep safe Twilight. I'll see you..." She sighed. "I'll see you when I see you."


"You too," Twilight nodded. "Lady Moon."









“Wraaah!” The experiment pony in the seat beside Entanglement Theory cried out, pointing frantically out the window.

“I see it.” Entanglement Theory grimaced. A small scout airship was tailing them, closing the distance fast. “Go cut 5 kilos of ballast.”

She reached over and snapped the lever controlling the pitch control surfaces into an even steeper climbing configuration.



Right outside,  Sunset was tracking the scout airship, readying a spell to bring it down, when the hull beneath her hooves lurched upwards. "Whoa whoa whoa! Coo it Twi!"   The cargo airship pitched up, tilting the whole deck substantially. Sunset tried to grab onto something but lost her footing and fell forwards. Her head smacked against the deck and the spell she was preparing misfired, streaking off the side of the ship and burning trail of sunlight behind. 







“Magical attack incoming!” The Slashing Dancer’s spotter screeched.

“Then take evasive action, eh?” The captain ordered.

“I’m not even sure they were aiming at us.” The tactical officer yawned.

Everypony braced as the airship banked sharply.









Entanglement Theory glanced over her shoulder to see the sunlight lance dissipate into the clouds.  “Damn it Sunset! If you were going to show your hand the least you could do is not miss!”  She turned back to the wheel, thinking frantically.  “Okay, change of plans. I’m taking us to, well, as high as we can go!" She motioned to the experiment ponies. "Cast off ALL ballast. As soon as we start leveling out I want all the equipment moved to the deck! Hopefully Sunset will have cleared our tail by then.”


She needed generous amount of space and no disturbances if she had any hope of pulling off the last step and completing the Sequence. Failure would be very unpleasant.








“Urg.” Sunset groaned. Everything felt hazy around her, but she could feel a great turmoil from somewhere far distant. When she spoke, it felt more like somepony else, and that she was simply watching. “Oh damn. I hit my head so hard I'm having an out of body experience!" 

“It’s difficult to tell from this far away.” A nearby stallion said. “It looks like, well, a rainbow.”
No, something else was going on. Sunset was no longer on the airship. She was in a vision, or a memory, as an observer. Sunset grew gravely concerned. Whenever she's had similar experiences before, she'd be out of it for days, too disoriented to even walk.

Resigned, she took in her surroundings. She was in the highest tower of the Solar Monastery on the Mountain, high above Canterlot. Beside her was Manered, the young brother in charge of tracking the sun’s day to day movements.
Sunset's dread grew. She knew what memory this was, for she'd revisited many times in fevered nightmares just like this one.  It was a day a decade gone, that had set her life down the path of ruin.



“Isn’t that the direction of Cloudsdale?” Manered asked, pointed to something in the extreme distance, just above the horizon.

It looked to Sunset like a little pinprick of light, but it must have been a truly massive explosion to be visible from Canterlot so many hundreds of kilometers away. Sunset felt a storm of static in the back of her head: At the time she had been confused, but she knew it to be the tormented wails of the victims of the attack.

“Stargazing is canceled for today Brother Manered. I have to alert the princess.” Sunset could feel herself say. She summoned her magic and teleported down to Canterlot.

She reappeared in a patch of grass, scaring several froliking fillies. She was in the central courtyard of Celestia’s Unicorn School, where she’d have the best chance of finding Celestia in the mid-morning hours. 

She heard the clack of metal horseshoes on stone, and a second later spotted her empress galloping out from one of the adjacent halls and ran to meet her.

“I felt it too.” Celestia panted breathlessly, her normal airs and formality abandoned.  A gaggle of court attendants were tripping after her in confusion.

“I saw it.” Sunset said gravely. “Cloudsdale’s been attacked. Huge explosion.”


Celestia did not immediately respond, and Sunset could see that the sun princess was focussing on something only she could perceive. “It wasn’t an attack. Not a normal one at least.”

“What then?” Sunset asked.

“Something impossible. A Rainboom, no, a Sonic Rainboom.” Celestia uttered nervously. “Those arts have been lost since before I was born.”

“Nationalist or labor terrorism? Does Canterlot have something to fear?” Sunset babbled. “Whoever cast that Rainboom surely blew themselves up doing it!”

Celestia shook her head. “We can't focus on that right now. The aura is getting stronger. Right now, we should be-"



The sky was filled with a thousand colors, radiating in amazing rainbow rings from the northwest. All of Canterlot shook, at first from the Rainboom’s energy, and then from the panic of the ponies.
An utterly indescribable energy filled the air. The static Sunset had felt in her head was not all around them: Strange  shimmers of light fell across Canterlot like snow. Sunset, awestruck, watched the rainbow color in the sky slowly fade.
"So this is the power of a Rainboom." She gurgled. "I'll never make fun of a pegasus again."



Then more explosions. Sunset was blasted off her hooves by an incredible burst of force and magic from somewhere right nearby, maybe even inside the Unicorn School. When Sunset regained lucidity, her ears were ringing and everything from the moment of the explosion was still burning in after image in her eyes.
"Princess Celestia!" She coughed. "Princess!" Every time she opened her eyes it burned.

For the second time that day, Sunset's mind was flooded with unwelcome magic, but this time it was very personal and very strong.  The burst had carried the brunt of a pony’s emotions. fearful, confused, and alarmed.  The Rainboom, which was even now dispelling into the sky’s natural blue, had set somepony off: It was known to happen rarely, that undertrained unicorns would just explode in times of extreme stress, but never so violently as this.

“Princess Celestia!” She couldn’t even hear herself yelling. She could feel floating embers swirling around her. “Princess!”


She couldn’t tell how long she wandered blind, but when Sunset's vision returned she found herself where she needed to be.

The magical explosion had left a crater in the middle of the unicorn school. The entire examination tower, a stately structure where candidate students were tested, was just gone. Gone. There was no trace of it.  
Sunset stumbled over the ridge of the crater and slid down to the bottom. There was Princess Celestia, standing by a blue stallion and a mare Sunset recognized as the lector Twilight Velvet.  Between the adults, a small prurple filly, who at that moment was confused, dazed, and wondrously enthralled by Celestia's presence.


"What is even happening today." Sunset sat down, exhausted and aching. She stared at the purple filly
Celestia was talking to the filly, slowly and deliberately. The filly had been the one to cause the second explosion.

Sunset laid back, facing the sky. Her mind was numb from the duel assaults she'd suffered, and she guessed every unicorn in Canterlot was feeling the same.

Celestia was before her now. She looked happier than Sunset could ever recall her looking, a lively joy that defied the grave accidents.  “Sunset? Are you okay?"

Sunset sat up. "I'm sorry princess..." She looked past Celestia, where the purple filly was being congratulated by her overjoyed parents. "Where is the teacher that administered that filly's test?"

"Don't worry about that now-"

"Princess, the Rainboom..." Sunset staggered to her hooves. She rubbed her forehead, trying to gather the mind to carry out her duties as Élève Premier.  "We have to get back to the castle, organize a mission to Cloudsdale."

Celestia, still cheery, flicked her tail in a sign of disapproval of the interruption. "Sunset, there's going to be plenty of time to greave and rebuild. Come on." She guestured Sunset forward. "I want you to meet my new imperial protegee!"

"Imperial...  protege?" Sunset rubbed her eyes. "Princess, there are whole political processes to go through to select the protege. Besides I really thing we should be focussing on-"

Celestia laughed. "Sunset, eyes up here. That's right, listen. I have a new student, Sunset, and that's very important to me. So come along, please, and introduce yourself." Celestia trotted back towards the happu filly and parants. "Come meet little Twilight Sparkle."



The dream shattered apart. Sunset was back on the cargo airship, laying uncomfortably where she’d fallen, with a dent in the deck where her head and helmet had hit it.
"Ah geeze." Sunset sat up. She felt like she was going to vomit. She hated the memories.


A shadow fell across the deck, blocking the moonlight. It was a large shadow, of a creature with a horn, wings, and a huge gravity-defying mane. Sunset stood up and turned to face the visitor.

Astral Nacre towered above her. The alicorn’s nearly skeletal face displayed a mad euphoria and her beady eyes roamed Sunset’s body in gleeful appreciation of her power. Astral Nacre's mane and tail of beastly snake-like flesh-hair coiled and uncoiled in agitation and anticipation, and her bone wings were flared in grand style.

“Amazing. I feel as though I've met you before, in a previous life. Why do I detect the spark of the sun inside you?” Astral Nacre crowed, reaching out at her.  “If you shall not tell me, I will have a merry time pulling you apart to find out."







Visions...  Unwelcome visions...  Celestia saw light and color, but no form.
She had been fighting Agana's minions. Had they overwhelmed and killed her? Was this death?

No, but it was hell.
Celestia heard her name being called.

“Sister! Sister, we must hurry!”

Celestia opened her eyes. She was kneeling before a pewter chalice, in a great marble hall lined with imposing pillars. Her left foreleg was outstretched, and a steady trickle of of blood fell from a lengthwise cut on her hoof into the chalice.

“Not yet Luna.” She felt herself saying. She sounded so stern and confident, more than she’d ever been before that she could remember.  “The old gods are patient, and so too shall we be.”



It was memory, that she was reliving! Celestia wished she had control so she could bare her face to the sky and curse the sun, for tormenting her again with the sins of past selves, past eras, past identities... Celestia tried to break the grasp the vision had on her, so she could return to the fight with Agana. However she could not escape it.
But for a fleeting moment, Celestia sensed another entity in the tangle of memories, which she would have sworn was Sunset Shimmer! The sun was relishing to inflict vindictive suffering on anypony it could, and no ponies did it have more bond with than Celestia and Sunset Shimmer.
Alas for the moment Celestia would have to ride out the memory and pray she could return to Twilight Sparkle's dream



Drip drip drip. The pewter chalice filled with blood from Celestia's cut leg, until it was one drop from overflowing. Celestia healed her self-inflicted wound with a spell, and withdrew her hoof.
She looked over her shoulder, and saw that her sister was carefully checking over the hippogryph guards, checking for signs of life. They had been hacked apart, their wounds cauterized by extreme heat. The alicorn sisters had been diligent in clearing the grand sandstone temple they were in, making absolutely sure that they would not be interrupted.

Celestia's eyes lingered on her sister. The moon alicorn was a deep blue with a sparkling ethereal starscape mane, so pure looking in her graceful movements, so humble and chaste from every angle. Her eyes met Celestia’s, and their blue orbs conveyed a hidden turmoil that could never have been conveyed by words.

But the Celestia of the past did not see that pain. “Come, Luna. The Fires of the Gryph will recognize their peers.”

Luna’s slight hesitation was the only sign of reluctance, for she followed as Celestia bade without objection. She kneeled beside her sister and waited for further instruction.

Celestia tapped her hoof against the the pewter chalice. “Wintertide, Pale Flame, Lord of Light, hear my name. I am Celestia, Daughter of the Sun, Champion of the Light, Cleanser of Darkness! This blood is proof of my divine descent.” Celestia intoned. “Wintertide, I come to beseech you, in need of your guidance and your blessing.”


For a while there was no sound.


“Hmm…”  Came a intangible voice in Celestia's mind. It rumbled like the eruption of a volcano, but was as quiet as a whisper through a wall. “Celestia… I knoweth not of thee…”

Celestia’s blood offering jumped from the chalice and reshaped itself. Wintertide, the Lord of Light, had lost a certain subtlety about his presence, for he personified himself as a white hippogryph mare as tall as Luna. The wet sheen of its bloody composition could not be hidden, and so every ripple and deformation in his shape was exaggeration in the flickering candlelight.

“Thou hast contrived titles aplenty to thy name, yet I wonder if thou art truly worthy of any.” Wintertide strutted up the colonnade, constantly keeping one eye on Celestia. “Wherefore hast thou come, spawn of sun?”


Celestia could feel herself blush in anger at the insults, but she proceeded as she’d planned. “My sister and I hope to create a nation for the ponies of the continent of Equestria. We wish to know your insights on the matter.”

"I mean not this temple. I speak of the Bright World, on which thou trot."

"To defeat a great evil that was posed to overtake all of mortalkind." Celestia explained. "Anima Astral Nacre, your former wife, had set machinations in place to reclaim her divinity and consume this planet." 


“Therefor thee descend to rule, instead of mine lady Anima Astral Nacre. Pray tell would thou beest a just and fair queen?” WIntertide seemed only tangentially interested in Celestia, focussed mostly on inspecting his surroundings and the imposing sarcophagi that lined the hall.

“I would be. So would my sister.” Celestia nodded.

“Would thee respect thy subjects and treat all folk equally?”

“I would treat them respectfully, according to their virtues.”

“How dost thou define virtue, Lady Celesia?”


“What?” Celestia blinked.

“Virtue, I ask. What is the limit of moral decorum to thee?” Wintertide asked. “What, for example, hath thy sister done to earn thine ire?”


Celestia could feel her sister’s shock and confusion. “What do you mean by that?! How dare you!”

“How darest I? Lady Celestia, I durst combat the forces of darkness at which hour it meanteth something.” Wintertide snickered. “Mine lady Astral wast of a dark nature, but I didst not hold it against mine lief mistress. The lady betrayed me, but I still care for Anima Astral Nacre most dearly. We were kindred. Not so with thou, even betwitx thou and thine sister.  Thou art too ruthless, a tyrant lording above all. ”

Celestia was rankled. “Why you-  you-”

“Yes?” Wintertide cocked his head. His deepset eyes held a wisdom that recognised blustering and posturing. He’d seen many like Celestia before, beings unworthy of his time.

“Haruph. You’ve lied enough! Begone, old god.” Celestia said coldly. With a swish of her horn, she boiled the blood emissary into red vapor, ending Wintertide’s message.
She stepped back from the altar. Wintertide was still watching, surely, for his aura permeated to the very roots of the temple.   Celestia felt deeply unsatisfied, her confidence shaken. She'd come with full expectation of being hailed and congratulated by Wintertide.  Wasn't she the inheritor of his legacy, the upholder of Light in the world?


“Shall we destroy his tomb?” Luna offered quietly. Celestia could feel how she was attempting to sooth out Celestia's displeasure.

Celestia shook her head. “No. No, we may have need of him later. He will remain here, imprisoned in glory by the hippogryphs."  She turned and eyed the wall: sets of vaulted recesses ran along every side, and within the recesses were large stone sarcophagi. One in particular stood out to Celestia.
It was richly decorated, imitating a roaring pyre with twisting spikes of sparkling red jewels. Engraved into the side was a scene of court life, of kneeling griffins and ponies paying homage to a regal hippogryph lord. The name written along it’s edge, in the Maredian script, read ‘MYRIADESS’.

Luna read the name too. "This is the oracle we heard of."

Celestia snorted. "Let us ask this ancient thing for a prophesy. If we are pleased, perhaps we will be satisfied. If not..."



The memory wavered, faded, then finally dissolved away.  Celestia was morose as the visage of her long lost sister dwindled from her sight.
Celestia was back in Twilight Sparkle's dream. She was laying on one fragments of the tower, swirling around in the void. The only reason the screaming shadow shades weren't gnawing on her was a dome of shielding magic, sustained by Ancepanox.

“Princess, are you alright?” The black alicorn asked.

Celestia squeezed her eyes shut, hoping to be able to catch a last glimpse of her sister. But the image of that soft blue mare had already faded, in her mind’s eye as in real life.

“Celestia? Come on, give me a sign.” Ancepanox laid a hoof on her shoulder. “You're not going to pass out are you? Because I don't know how that would work in here.”

“No. I'm awake. But I'm not alright." Celestia cocked her head up, trying to spy her mother sun through the cloud of shadow shades. She wondered bitterly if the sun was trying to get her killed by distracting her with the memory. She knew she should have been wiser than to insult the pony keeping her alive, but she was feeling a lot like the Celestia in the memory, impetuous and angry. "You came back. I thought you would be wise enough to stay away, but you must really want to rub it in.”


Ancepanox arched a brow. “You’re not making any sense. I'm helping you.”  

"Isn't it suspicious that you disappear from the dream right at Agana renews her attack? I have been holding out for hours against these Dark monsters! Now you show up, right as I was vulnerable? What are you playing at?” Celestia asked accusingly. “Did you make a separate peace with that detestable Agana?!"

“Hey, I thought we had an understanding. We were playing nice.” Ancepanox squinted. “I have things to worry about in the waking world too. It's dangerous up there, and I have ponies to protect; Not just you, but friends and allies, old and new." She sighed. "Yes, I was pissed off and hostile last time, because I was afraid. I'm not anymore."
Ancepanox pointed to the shades surrounding them, kept away only by the purple bubble of her magic. “Look at them. Can you hear what they’re thinking? Those were ponies once. I can feel the echoes of their terror. Agana ate their souls. I may not agree with you about everything, but she has to be stopped, and to that end I'm your ally."

"It's all very high-minded, isn't it. You swoop in and save me." Celestia said harshly.  "Let the monsters take my life! You would be happier that way, wouldn't you, since you went on so long about how I didn't belong here?!"  She didn't really mean it. She thought about all the times in her life she’d been faced with death. The prospect of nonexistence, of death, still terrified her beyond reason.
But Celestia wanted to argue, if not to suss out Ancepanox's motives, then to buy time to recuperate. "Tell me why I should go on living. What is my purpose, in your eyes?"

Ancepanox pulled Celestia up, trying to get her to stand. “I think you believe some stupid things but I never stopped wanting you to live. You meant everything to me, and even if you wronged me, consigning you to suffer will not satisfy me."


Celestia detected a deadly double meaning behind those words. Perhaps it was her imagination, but she saw a telltale tremble in Ancepanox's earnest smile.  "You would let me squat here forever?"

"I accept that it's not up to me." Ancepanox's voice grew rougher. "You have no idea how depressed I was when I thought you had died, even when I knew you'd betrayed me. Everything you ever touched has been ruined, but I remember you as a wise, compassionate leader. You were... You were my friend." She shook her head. "None of that matters now. My buisness with you is to the end of defeating Agana."

Celestia pushed herself to her hooves with the black alicorn's help.
"You compliment and insult me in the same breath."  It felt so wrong, negotiating with Ancepanox. Every passing moment, Celestia was more and more repulsed by her, and it was obvious why: She could not escape the feeling that she was talking to the lost remnants of her sister, Nightmare Moon.  She had to hold back her impulse to shout, cry, and embrace the dark alicorn. "You say it isn't up to you, but you don't respect my wants."


Ancepanox slapped her former mentor with the back of her hoof. Celestia could hardly feel the sting of the strike across her cheek; It reminded her of another time she’d been struck like that. “I'm not talking about it being your choice, you self-important git! I mean Twilight.  She wants you to live! You owe her everything and I'm going to enforce that debt, Celestia. You'll stay alive as long as she wishes."

Celestia was going to argue more but saw that Ancepanox was deadly serious. She cradled her cheek, feeling it burn.
The idea of being held accountable...  It terrified her. She'd lived her whole life comfortable in her superiority over everything around her. Acting justly and morally was just a curtesy. She wanted to believe that everypony would agree with her choices, but what if they didn't?
The fear and insecurities were piling on. "Does she have plans for me?" Celestia whispered. "Am I to be subject to her whims?"

"You really don't get it, do you. You only think in terms of hierarchal relationships. You think Twilight and I want to get one over on you. I'm the angry one, not her. She just wants peace." Seeing that Celestia still did not understand, Ancepanox paused to think.
"Princess, let's talk about...  Purpose." She said softly. "You were my purpose for years and years. I am just uncovering my own. But what about Twilight Sparkle?"

"What about her?" Celestia asked without looking up.

"Finding purpose, and all the highs and lows that entails, is uniquely mortal. Have you designed a higher calling for Twilight? Have you stolen her the pleasure of discovery?"


“I had plans for you, yes.” Celestia said emptily.

Ancepanox narrowed her gaze. Celestia was answering a question she had not asked. She had the feeling she was encroaching on the biggest secret so far. “You had plans for me when I was your student?”

“I don't wish to talk about it. My ambitions failed, discredited. I should look to you for purpose now, or Twilight should you deem it." Celestia said with a hint of irony.

Ancepanox scowled. "Tell me what you had in store for me."

"Why do I feel like I'm being set up for retribution? Oh well. Here I go." Celestia sighed. "From the first moment I met you, to after you left me, I had a dream for you.”

Ancepanox stared incredulously.

"Twilight, it was not always easy. I knew my dream would burden you, but not more than you could handle. I chose you because your strength was fearsome from a young age you could handle the responsibilities. Then when we fell out, I grew even more sure that you were the right choice."
Celestia licked her lips. "But there was a corollary to my hopes and dreams. I feared the necessary sacrifice I would have to make to see it all through.  Death, Twilight. You remind me of death. Every time I saw you, coming in to see me so willing to learn, I saw only the specter of long deferred, yet inevitable, mortality.”

“So you let yourself be scared of a filly. Is this why you were talking about killing yourself?” Ancepanox spat.

“You misunderstand...  I was scared of the future. My dream, inherited from the greatest of my predecessors, was closely intertwined with death and a pony like you." Celestia said ominously. "More than that I can not say. It would just distract us."


Ancepanox tapped her hoof. Neither of them spoke, so the screams and moans of the shadow shades was constant and uninterrupted.

Celestia sighed. "You don't believe me."

Ancepanox curled her lip, trying to keep down her anger. "Celestia, if you don't tell me the truth... I'm going to grind you into dust far before I get around to Agana."

"Oh you will?" Celestia's mood swung immediately back to fearful and antagonistic. "My lady, you make many threats."



Watching the two alicorns across the void, sitting on her own chunk of the fractured Tower, Twilight Sparkle waited.  It was sadly predictable that Ancepanox would get sucked back into arguing after saying she wouldn't: She had an instinctual expectance of respect that she wasn't getting from Celestia.

Twilight cocked her head up to search for the Sun high above her in the infinite void of the dream. Distance and size were convoluted in the dream, so a million kilometer wide star could nestle comfortable against the sky, and Twilight could have reached up and touched it if she focused hard enough.
Twilight got the impression the Sun was toying with the dark miasma chasing after it. In the scheme of things, the Sun was a billion billion times more powerful than anything Agana could conjure, even within the Dreamscape where the former was weak and the latter strong.  The only reason the conflict was happening was because the Sun allowed it, right?
But then again that had always been true of every mortal conflict under the sun.

"You'd allow Celestia to die?" Twilight asked the Sun, but she received the feeling back that the Sun was apathetic.  "Shouldn't you be helping Ancepanox? She's the only one that can release you from this dream." Twilight asked, but again the Sun indicated only apathy.
"Do you have any plan at all? I can feel you trying to reach outside the dream..." Twilight reflected somberly. "Is it true, that you have connections to other ponies besides Celestia?"

The implications were staggering. Twilight could not imagine any normal pony being able to survive the Sun's attention. But if it was a pony, and that pony was acting on behalf of the Sun...

Twilight looked back to Celestia, sustaining another dressing down from Ancepanox. How long were they going to bicker for? Twilight needed something else to focus on or she'd go mad from frustration. This intrigue with the Sun promised to be that necessary distraction.

"Can you show me? May I please know who out there is in communion with you?" Twilight asked the Sun. "I'm going to forget anyway. Celestia and Ancepanox would both purge my memories of this Eternal Night should they win, and if Agana wins I will be dead. Please just show me how a pony could possibly reach you."

There was a slight waver in the air as the Sun obliged her. Twilight popped out the dream.









Sunset Shimmer bucked open the doors of the princess’s private chambers. “Celestia! What is the meaning of this!” 

“Oh hello Sunset.” Celestia, seated in her comfy chair, looked up from her reading. “Perhaps if you tell me what you refer to, I could explain better.”


“I’m obviously talking about you putting your new protege on all your advisory councils!” Sunset spat. “I didn’t get my seat until I was Élève Premier!”

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle is still a filly, and I don’t need or expect her to attend meetings until she’s older.” Celestia turned back to her book.

“And yet, she’s on the council minutes. What kind of message does that send?” Sunset tapped her hoof angrily. “Because to some ponies, it looks like you’re mocking the institutions of the imperial government. How will I look when all a detractor has to do is point out I sit on a council that has a filly on its rolls?”

“Sunset, I am setting out to teach Twilight everything she needs to know for her future. Shortsighted ponies can believe what they may. This is important to me.” Celestia said flippantly.


“And what, are you going to start putting some other incompetent upstarts on the council? Some commoners perhaps?” Sunset asked acidly.

“Do you think Twilight is incompetent?” Celestia’s tone turned cold.

“If an Imperial Council pony who hasn’t the tiniest idea of Equestrian policy and politics counts as incompetent, I suppose I am.” Sunset stuck out her chin defiantly.

“Sunset, I don’t care for you tone and I have to ask for you to leave..” Celestia glared, locked in a staring contest with her First Student. “This discussion is over.”

“This one maybe, but you won’t stop here.” Sunset stood her ground.


Very slowly, Celestia got to her hooves. She towered over Sunset, and did not even bother to step forward to project her intimidating presence. “Lady Shimmer, you audience is ended. You should have noted when I said this is important to me. I'll brook no second-guessing in this instance"

“This is how it is then. Fine! But I know, princess.” Sunset backed out the door, slowly closing it behind her. “Yes, I know what you’re planning!”

"That's highly unlikely." Celestia called after her. "See you tomorrow at court, Sunset."




Twilight was mute as she watched the memory warp and dissolve.
Sunset Shimmer...  There was a pony she hadn't thought about in a long time. She had always remembered Sunset Shimmer as a polite mare, up to the point she'd been exiled as a traitor: One day she was there, the next gone. If the memory took place after Twilight had been taken under Celestia's wing, and before Sunset's exile, the memory she'd seen was about ten years old.

"Is Sunset Shimmer the pony in communion with the Sun?"  Twilight wondered. Seeing Celestia and Sunset argue stirred recollections of the times she'd fought with Celestia, culminating in her leaving for the university. But Sunset had apperently been bitter about being replace by Twilight, and Twilight had been bitter about curtailed freedoms.
But if Sunset Shimmer was the pony who entered communion with the Sun, did it mean Sunset was back?

Before Twilight could ponder the implications, the next memory began to solidify around her.




Sunset Shimmer was in the Canterlot Castle library, pulling down books and setting them on her cart. She pulled an old looking tome off, inspected it's spine and set it with the rest.
Sunset pulled the cart to a reading table and sat down.

"Let's get a good look at you."
The old tome she'd found had a plain cover and no labeling, save a tag attacked on the spine: Elements of Harmony: Volume II of VI, Loyalty and Devotion
"Didn't I see another one of these in Celestia's rooms?" Sunset pondered. She opened up to a random page. "... I think... I think this is what I'm looking for."

It was not text, but art that filled out the pages of the strange old book. Intersecting circles, geometric shapes, lines, and symbols were arranged in nonsensical but strangely alluring ways.

Sunset lowered the book. She stood up and looked around, making sure she was the only pony in the library. She sat down and crouched over the tome, flipping back to the first page. It was more shapes and lines, and though Sunset stared long and hard, she could discern no pattern.

"This is older than the castle. It might even be older than Princess Celestia. This is ancient lore. Jackpot." Sunset hummed. "If only I could translate."


The dream wavered, and time passed. Sunset scurried between her reading table and the book stacks of the library. Shadows grew long, night fell, Sunset became sluggish with tiredness and frustration. The patterns and shapes remained elusive.

At last Sunset leaned back in her chair, pinching her nose, planning her next move.
"No good. There's a mental gap here, not a knowledge gap...   I need some piece of lore I don't have yet." She sucked in a breath.  "I need the first volume. Which means..." She glanced to a nearby clock. It was nearly midnight.


The memory shifted as it followed Sunset Shimmer through the halls of Canterlot Castle. She climbed back up to the top of the keep, to the door of Celestia's chambers. Two IHG knights stood guard flanked the doors.

"Evening gentleponies." Sunset bowed. "Is the empress in?"

"Lady Sunset, the princess is sleeping, but she gave orders that you be admitted at any time." The senior knight said. "She has been expecting your apology since last week's...  disagreement."

Sunset smiled awkwardly. "Thanks boys. It's been stressful. I'm glad she still trusts me."


The knights let her open the door and slip inside.
Celestia's private quarters were tiny for a sovereign of her stature, but still large enough that Sunset didn't have to be too quiet if she didn't want to be heard. Sunset thought she remembered seeing the other volume of Elements of Harmony  in the sitting room, but ten minutes of quiet prowling turned up nothing of the sort.
Sunset considered her options: Leave and wait until the morning when Celestia would hopefully leave her bedchamber, or go in right away and tip-toe around the sleeping princess.


Sunset sat in one of the parlor chairs, rooted by indecision. She wasn't committed to the idea of subverting Celestia's wishes; She just wanted to understand better, and her glances into the second volume of Elements of Harmony had promised spectacular knowledge yet out of reach. But if Sunset stepped wrong, and drew Celestia's ire without the understanding to defend her decisions, the consequences could be disastrous.

Sunset was about to commit to leaving, when a strange sound reached her ears. Something was scraping along the ground in the other room. Sunset jumped up in a panic, afraid Celestia was about to turn the corner and find her lurking. She was about to cast a silent teleport when the scraping stopped.
Sunset held her breath, in the throes of paralyzing panic, when something did indeed round the corner: A plain-covered tome the same dimensions as the one in the library. The book slid across the ground in little bursts, moved by a mystical power that danced furtively around its closed pages. The book slid right to Sunset, the flipped over, so she culd see it had a label like the other, reading Elements of Harmony: Volume I of VI, MAGIC AND POWER.

"Who are you?" Sunset dared to whisper, trembling. She had the distinct impression she'd just been chosen by something far more intimidating than Princess Celestia.


The tome began to levitate under its own power. It hovered just under Sunset's nose, flipping open to the first page. The pattern etched into the paper with ink echoed in Sunset's mind as far more than shapes or geometry.

She heard a voice, right between her ears. "Your god requires something of you, Sunset Shimmer."



The memory abruptly melted before Twilight saw any more.  The haze between scenes was intolerable, for Twilight was curious and repulsed at the same time. She'd forget all of it unless she confided in Ancepanox or Celestia.
But something kept her there: No coercion, for the Sun had no great power over her. Twilight wanted to see more, for she grimly suspected that the conclusion to the memories she was being shown would reveal the reason for the secrecy.

So Twilight willingly reentered the memory in time to see the next begin.




It was the Canterlot Castle throne room, a normal day at the court. Celestia was sitting back in her throne, her retainers handling the attendees.
There was a foreboding look on the princess's face. Her court kept glancing to her, wondering to themselves if she had returned to the uncooperative melancholy of previous years.

Sunset Shimmer stepped into the throne room.
Immediately the lazy mood changed into one of tension. Sunset had a severe look about her; The Élève Premier never wore the kind of utilitarian vestments she was wearing at that moment, a saddlebag filled with notes, or the shiny timepiece hanging from a chain on her chest. She looked like a guard officer. Added to that was her expression, pure determination.

"Lady Shimmer, we've been looking for you since council this morning." Vizier Lightdowser remarked, twirling his mustache.

Sunset looked from him to Celestia, but said nothing.

"Lady Shimmer?" Vizier Lightdowser asked, concerned. "Is something wrong?"


The other activities in the court ground to a halt, as everypony stopped to look at Sunset, standing silently in the middle of the room.

Princess Celestia leaned forward in her throne, solemn. "Sunset...  This is it, isn't it."

Sunset took off her saddlebags and set them aside. "Yes, Princess. Last week I was wrong. I really didn't know what your plans were."


Celestia stood up from her throne and stepped down the steps to the ground level. "And you do now?" A cloud of inevitability hung around her words, as though she was expecting that moment. "Will you act?"

"Oh yesss princess." Sunset said with a mirthless laugh. "It's what I've been asked to do by those above."


To the shock of the onlookers, Celestia charged at Sunset, intent on trampling the smaller pony. Sunset surrounded herself in a shield of magic just in time, but the force of Celestia's impact sent her sliding backwards, stopping right next to her saddlebag. Sunset quickly pulled the two plain old tomes from the bag with her magic.

"It has to be this way. Submit to DESTINY, princess." Sunset said firmly. "I'm on the right side of history."

Celestia stood stoically. She knew she couldn't stop what Sunset was about to do.

Sunset recited something unintelligible under her breath, her eyes darting frantically between the two books. She squeezed her eyes shut and said the last words in a pained hiss.

And so the throne room turned grey, and all movement stopped.
All life and color had been stolen away by mystic means. Ponies were frozen in their shock, their panic, their confusion. A dropped coin hovered just above the ground.

"It is as I feared." Celestia looked to her right and left. "You've come to usurp me. Well, students before have tried."

"No princess. No." Sunset Shimmer opened her eyes and set the tomes back in her saddlebag. She was gasping from the strain of what she'd just done. "I'm going to put you back on that throne. I'll make sure you stay there."



"Phantom Time." Twilight whispered under her breath. She recognized the grey pallor and the unmoving time, from the battle in the Everfree Castle throne room. This was the Sun's power, which had so climactically destroyed both Nightmare Moon and Forlorn Spark. Twilight felt pangs of pain, in remembered agony from the Sun's attack being used on her.
And Twilight instantly knew why she could not tell Ancepanox of the memories.



"Yes, princess, your patron told me what you're planning with Twilight Sparkle." Sunset Shimmer said. "I won't let you die, Celestia."

"Watch your tone, Sunset." Celestia said.

"Tone? TONE?! This is more important than that!" Sunset shouted. "We won't let you kill yourself!"
Sunset yelped in pain, and a ball of yellow energy coalesced above her horn. 

Celestia sighed. "You think I didn't plan for this kind of thing, Sunset? She may be giving you power, but it will not avail you."

Heedless of this warning, Sunset let the power gather above her. Despite the Phantom Time an unnerving light began to shine through the windows, and flashes like lightning began to build outside.
With a wail, Sunset let loose her attack. The sphere of burning yellow magic streaked towards Celestia, crashing into her silently. The alicorn clenched her eyes in discomfort, but when the yellow magic dissipated not a hair was misplaced.

Sunset gurgled. "How?!"

"You have a long way to go if you are going to hurt me with solar magic." Celestia said, shaking little sparkle residues from her fur. "Any help my mother sun promised you is meaningless. You're on your own in this, Sunset."


The battle was brief. Despite her passion, Sunset Shimmer was batted around like a doll by Celestia's magic, barely forming her spells before she was struck again. Flecks of spittle and torn scraps of Sunset's shirt hung in the air, frozen in time like everything else.

"Submit, my dear." Celestia said distantly.

Sunset staggered to her saddlebag. She pulled one of the old tomes out. Before she could open it Celestia jumped at her and kicked the book away.  Elements of Harmony: Volume I of VI sailed through the stained glass window before its inertia was swallowed by the Phantom Time.

"You've been had. The Sun lied to you, both about my intentions and hers." Celestia had a pained look. "Sunset, please, I don't want to lose you. Stop this madness." She stepped close, almost touching Sunset.

"Not until YOU stop YOUR madness!" Sunset barked. "Because I don't want to lose you!"

"Sunset-"

Celestia's appeal was interrupted by a quick slap, then a push. The alicorn let herself stagger backwards. Sunset grabbed her saddlebag and scampered farther.  "You know you can't trust me. From now on I'll be watched every moment, kept far away from real power." Sunset said, trembling. "What will you do if I try to spread the truth? Will you have me killed?"

Celestia cradled her cheek. She looked calm, but her blinks betrayed how close to tears she was. "You're so close to understanding, but not quite there. We can talk this out."

"Not likely. We're at odds over this at a fundamental level." Sunset chewed her lip. "I can't let this go. I'm sorry princess, but my conscience and duty demand I continue this fight." She paused, hesitant and afraid. "If not in this world, than in another."

For the first time that day, Celestia showed signs of alarm. "Sunset don't try it." She said sharply. "If you try to take the Sun's power with you into the Dream-"

"I have her consent. She understands victory wouldn't come right away..." Sunset hissed. "And so do I."
Sunset yelped again, and closed her eyes to concentrate on an unknown spell. Color began to return to the world; Everything suspended fell to the floor. Elements of Harmony: Volume I of VI continued its arc through the air, landing somewhere far below in the streets.

"Sunset you won't-" Celestia galloped to stop Sunset, but instead of stopping the unnerving light pouring through the window, the end of the Phantom Time only made it brighter. It became swelteringly hot in the throne room in an instant. "Confound it! You'll kill them all!"
Celestia's horn flared to light and the heat in the room abated. The court, now released from Phantom Time, scrambled about in confusion. After a few moments, the light went back to normal.

But Sunset was gone. Only her saddlebag with some notes and one of the old tomes remained.




Twilight had nothing to say, as the memory dissolved away and she was deposited back into her own dream, but she had much to think on. The Sun's antipathy against Celestia did not make any more sense than it did before, but it was evidently a longstanding condition.  Twilight had to consider the possibility that everything that was happening was part of somepony's plan, and not a happenstance of fate.
Most of all Twilight was glad she would forget it all and be unburdened from the grave knowledge she had glimpsed over Sunset's shoulder in those ancient books.









Sunset’s leg slipped into open air. She’d backed up too far and was now right at the edge of the airship. Astral Nacre, dominating the back of the deck, made another lazy swipe at her. Sunset had to retreat sideways to keep from getting hit: Astral's slow movements still had the power to strip the top layer off the wooden decking.

“Yes, you are something quite interesting.” Astral regarded her like a slavering beast, pinprick eyes unblinking and unmoving. “You were in the throne room, with Ancepanox just before I arrived.”

“I was.” Sunset confirmed.

“And that armor you wear…” Astral shuddered in remembrance.  “I was born wearing it. It looked better drenched in blood.”

“But I’m guessing you didn’t chase me this far to ask for it back.”


“You’re a clever mare.” Astral backed off slightly, giving Sunset more space. “You have so much magic, I can see it steaming off your hide. Bright Magic, Celestia’s magic…  No, Sun's magic.  Tell me how this can be.”

“You could ask any pony but I and learn the truth.” Sunset replanted her leg on the hull. The wind was fierce at the high altitude.

“But not you?”

“I made a promise I tell wouldn't until its burden is lifted.” Sunset said stiffly.


“Burden? BURDEN? How can you describe such magnificent power as a burden? I'd kill to be so blazingly bright. I want that kind of power.” Astral quaked with anticipation. “Alas you mean in a more metaphorical sense. You wield power for a purpose...  But I want it too badly. I must rip it out of you if I am to have it.”

“It's a fight then?” Sunset sighed. Her nausea and lightheadedness was not getting any better. For the first time in a while, Sunset was facing a battle she wasn't sure she would win. Added to that, Sunset outright did not want to fight an alicorn.
Sunset's best hope was to bluff and get Astral Nacre to leave.  “Recently Equestria’s been filled johnny-come-lately usurpers and villains. So many negative examples of how to act in this civilized society…   But me, I was the first.  I’m a betrayer to end all betrayers. Not just a traitor. THE Traitor.”

"The Traitor? That tickles my memories." Astral Nacre purred. "Yess. Tell me more about misbehaving."


"Oh you bet." Sunset was making a gamble, summoning her magic while she was so nauseous, but decided it was necessary. She let a trickle of magic up her horn, and it burned in tempestuous rebellion against the night. Yellow and red light stained the standoff, as Astral took wary a step back, and Sunset a tired step forward. “Sometimes I come looking for trouble, often I make trouble. Right now I have other things waiting for me. Leave. Carry my apologies to Lady Velvet.”

“Why would I go just when things are getting interesting?” Astral arched a fleshy eyebrow. Her psychic presence was growing more wild, unraveling, losing her sanity to bloodlust. Everything in the alicorn's movements spoke of a growing need to see the Traitors insides become outsides. “I’m starved for engaging conversation. All those pegasi just wouldn’t STOP SCREAMING!”


Bluffing had not worked. Astral Nacre was not afraid. “I’m warning you. Provoking me isn’t smart."

"I'm not here to be smart. Nor for fun. Nor because my Lady asked me to." Astral flaged a wing towards the fires far far below on the valley floor, the wreckages of airships. "I'm here for the sake of Destiny.  Yes, I can feel something pounding in your heart, or floating around your soul.  I saw the sun only for a moment, but it said something profound and forgotten to me..." Her psychic voice wavered, growing severe.  "No words are going to come between me and my desires. You feel the same. Therefore, we fight."


"Goddamn it, if you can see the aura of Destiny around me, you must know why I can't give it to you!” Sunset was starting to feel the cold nip of the wind through her fur; The airship had ascended to a height well above the level of the city Canterlot. They were now nearly even with the peaks of the unicorn fange far ahead of them, with only the tip of the Mountain yet higher. “Leave! I don't want the contest!"

“Don't be such a prude. I got enough of that from spoilsport Ancepanox! Fight! Fight!" Astral slavered. Her writhing flesh tensed up, readying for combat. "Ooh, I’ve yet to see a proper fire. Piles of bodies, burned to ash, are poor mirrors of holy blazes. I'm a Dark thing, but the Light draws me just as much, like a midnight moth: The moon is my guide but the torch intoxicates me.  So come on now! Burn something! Make a good show! There’s just not enough fire in the world.”



Sunset's response was swallowed by a sudden swell of the pain and nausea in her head. She staggered sideways, catching herself on the railing to keep from falling over. The corona of magic on her horn evaporated away.
It felt like somebody was raking through her head with a comb. Painful flashes of memories danced at the corners of her vision. Somepony was in her head again, probably the Sun, to relish in her past pains.

Perhaps Astral Nacre could detect what was happening in Sunset's head. The alicorn lazily kicked at her again, this time catching against the Blackhorn armor and bouncing Sunset against the cabin. Sunset stumbled backwards, too nauseated to move. "Haaa ha ha! Let it out, let it out!" She gleefully cackled.

"What's going on out there Sunset?!" Entanglement Theory yelled through one of the cabin windows.

"I'm repelling boarders." Sunset groaned, crawling backwards from Astral.  She was regretting summoning her magic if this was how she was repaid.

"Give me your fire. Gimme gimme gimme." Astral Nacre croaked. "Ancepanox will be so impressed."



Sunset's eyes fluttered closed. She couldn't tell up from down, left from right. She would be defeated by her own mind.

And then...  She saw something. A pony in a dream. Amidst the falling ruins of a fractured tower, Twilight Sparkle. Sunset now recognized who had been mining her memories, with the Sun's help.
"Ahh... you were at Celestia's side at the end." Sunset murmured. "So...  Celestia's dream came to fruition..."
Clenching her teeth, Sunset pushed herself to her hooves. She was not going to be beat to the finish line by a whelp like Twilight Sparkle. Sunset would see her plans through, even if it meant fighting an alicorn.

"Get up! Up up up!" Astral screeched jubilantly. "Give me fire!" The alicorn's tendril mane lashed out, coming down forcefully.

Sunset was forced to relocate with a split-second teleport to the nose of the airship. She heard wood and metal snap where she'd been standing moments before.
Sunset blinked away the post-teleportation daze and took a deep breath. "Listen here you damn Sun, I championed you when no one else would. You've toyed with me for years. It's time for you to live up to our bargain and subdue an alicorn with me!"


“Show fire! God demands it!” Astral clambered over the loose equipment covering the deck, relentlessly following her. “Fire Fire Fire! Bleed Bleed Bleed!”  With a shrill screech, the beastly alicorn began to gather black energy at the tip of her horn.

With Astral Nacre going wild, Sunset was not confident the cargo airship would survive a fight.
"Twi! Finish the sequence, no matter what! I'll hold up my end, trust me!"

"Code names only, Dances-on-Graves!" Entanglement Theory shouted back.

Taking a deep breath, Sunset dove off the front of the deck into open air.







“Unicorn incoming!” The spotter yelled.

“A bloody what?” The tactical officer perked up.

The Slashing Dancer was knocked off course as two impacts, one small and one big, resonated through the deck.







Sunset had landed a little too hard. The nausea and buzz in her brain returned. She tried to sit up but a physical pain shot through her legs and chest.
"Get out of my head already!" Sunset shouted into the rushing wind. She took off the Blackhorn helm and rubbed her forehead.

Somewhere nearby, screams and laughs echoed through wood. Astral had followed her down to the skiff as planned, and was attacking the crew ponies.

“By the stars, I've got it in a bad way.”
Sunset bared her teeth. She was playing a dangerous game: Restraining the boiling solar power within her, something she'd successfully done for ten long years, did not come without a lot of focus, drive, and self-certainty.  Thanks to the Sun's meddling she was lacking two of those. She was a dizzy mess.
But Sunset Shimmer was utterly determined. She had been the unquestioned master of the Sun's power, even if it was but a tiny fraction. She had survived in a hostile world for far longer than almost anypony before had, and returned to tell about it. Sunset Shimmer was not going to be defeated just because of a few gods tripping her up.
A sphere of yellow energy bloomed above her, like a luminous halo of deadly power. Sunset's broken bones and weakness faded away.
“Try to undermine me again, oh holy Sun, and I'll be pissed.” Sunset stood up. Though it went counter to her deepest beliefs, Sunset would have to rough up an alicorn if she was to see her plans though. "It's in your name I kick ass, praise be, amen."

She put the Blackhorn helmet back on and went searching for Astral Nacre.









Gods against mortals...  Spin the wheels of fate enough times, and one time in a million the mortals might prevail. Sunset against Astral Nacre, Ancepanox against Celestia, Ripple Wreath against Agana...   Had the wheel spun enough to reach that tick among millions that brought mortals their victory?

That was the question that haunted Agana as she waited, in tortuous suspense, while sounds of battle ehcoed through the Vacuous Arcanum.  Ripple Wreath, or whatever monstrous thing he had become, was obliterating the last of the statue golems. Agana could not help but feel a grim satisfaction in the golems' destruction, for they were another symbol of her imprisonment, but they were also her last line of defense against harm.

With great reluctance, Agana weaned the amount of attention and energy she focussed into her psychic attack on Twilight Sparkle's dream. If she was going to defend herself against Wreath's barbarous ferocity, she would need her strength.
Infuriatingly, the plundering creeper vine that held her against the stone column was still not giving her any slack!  The vines binding her hindleg were still oozing ichor from Ripple Wreath’s first attack, but the primitive intelligence of the creeper only knew how to hold her, ignorant of the fact it would be purposeless if she died because it restrained her.

Agana cursed the dogmatic instructions of her original jailor. If only she had a little slack, she could be confident in her self defense.


“Little pony, can you hear me? I commend your will to survive.” Agana whispered into the dark. “Even more, I applaud your will to dominate. However you could use some restraint next time, for it seems you’ve left too little of the golems to reign over.”


She head the click of claws on stone. The wolf was drawing near.
Agana felt a rare chill. It had been a long long time since she'd been threatened by anything. It filled her with an odd excitement. She decided to triage her power use even more, and completely eased off her psychic attacks against Ancepanox, and by extension, her coterie of corrupted ponies.

"I already made a generous offer to your master. She is not yet wise enough to accept." Agana said. "Dark beings like us can be powerful together."

The wolf stepped closer, lips pulled back into a feral snarl. It was covered in stone dust and its own dried blood. It made an abortive attempts at verbal speech. He finally responded psychically, his mental voice a perverse mockery of his pony voice. “Said she who tried and failed to kill me."

“I am impressed. Telepathy does not come easily to earth ponies. The Dark blesses body and mind, and you have use of all of her forms.” Agana appraised. “I think you have surpassed your progenitor. You could overthrow her with my help.”

“End this idle tongue waggling.” Wreath growled. “Make your peace!”

“If you really think that Ancepanox is the best you deserve, then fight me, and we will let the Dark decide our fates.” Agana shrugged as much as her bindings would allow. “But consider the other paths. Why defy me, when you can join me? And this time, I speak of alliance, not subsumption.”

“You did not offer me the courtesy before.” Wreath advanced until he was nearly at the base of the rock column that held the massive peacock alicorn.

Agana’s forced grin broke, and she clacked her beak angrily. “I am she who is of the Dark Lady herself! I am the Suzerain of Sin, knower of all things! For a thousand years, I have culled the weak, paltry, and unworthy! And you presume to question me?”


Wreath watched her in silence. He saw her alien eyes, which should have been dilated for the darkness, shrink to a line. Her breast heaved with shallow breaths, and her limbs were straining against the vines more than before.  He witnessed her fear with relish.








Being in the body of an alicorn was much more boring than Rainbow Dash had anticipated, but that was more to do with having to stay. Really, all she’d had to do was pretend to not see Rarity sending death-glares her way.
Dash inspected the fleshy seam where the armor and alicorn met. It freaked her out a bit: The body was technically still dead, right? It had no soul, and were merely puppetted by the soul in the armor.  So now here was Dash, a visitor in Ancepanox's body, controlling the armor, controlling the body.  Dash didn't like it, and the sooner she got our the better.


Abruptly, a jolt of energy passed through her head..  “Ah!”   She felt immensely dizzy, but at the same time she could think more clearly.
“Guess I must be getting used to it.” Dash said. At the back of her head, where she had a vague awareness of her own body, the persistent buzz she'd been dealing with faded.


There was movement out of the corner of Dash’s eye. She turned to see Rarity rising to her hooves. 

"What!" Dash squawked.

Rarity was breathing hard, her body hardly able to contain how angry she was. One leg at a time, she pulled herself to her full height. Sparks of magic danced around her horn.
"You imbecile, cutting yourself off from weakness." She seethed.

It dawned on Dash that the jolt she'd felt was Agana, ending the psychic attacks that had kept them paralyzed.
And now Dash had to face down the vengeful nightmare unicorn in an unfamiliar body. “Oh buck.”







"No, I want the truth! I Know! Your evasive BULLSHIT isn't going to cut it anymore!"
The spirit of cooperation between Celestia and Ancepanox had, once again, dissolved into shouting.

"And I'm telling you it doesn't matter right now!" Celestia stomped her hoof. "Do you want to be distracted by old, inconsequential things, or do you want to fight off Agana?"


"I can do both. I can do anything I need to. What possible thing could throw me off, after everything else I've gone through. You're the distracted one, not me! You're the weak one, not me." Ancepanox paced like a caged animal shouting and whispering in alternation. "If the next words out of your mouth aren't  ' I'm sorry, here's the truth of the matter',  I'm going to get violent. I really will."

Celestia scoffed. "How self-centered are you!-  HURK."

Ancepanox jumped at Celestia, pushing her on the ground and pressing her hoof against her neck. The sun princess offered no resistance, staring into the distance.


“I want the truth. I'm willing to kill for the truth! You still want to lie to me?” Ancepanox dared. “Go on! It's the only power you'll ever hold over me again, those little figments of falsehood you've spouted your whole life.”

“Twilight, I didn’t lie.” Celestia said, a broken hollowness to her labored words.

“You’re so full of shit, I wouldn’t even doubt that you believe what you’re saying. You’re just flopping around like a fish on land, gasping, promising anything if I’d just throw you back in the water. Do you grant wishes too?” Ancepanox mocked. “In your eyes, I can see so many emotions, and you can’t decide which one to feel.”

“Don’t you feel the same way?” Celestia asked, earning another quarter inch of hoof ground into her neck.


"Just who the hell do you think I am? I'll do anything to save myself, or anypony I care to protect.” Ancepanox shouted. "Look at me, Celestia! Do I look like a pony to be messed around with?"

Celestia stopped trying to avoid looking at Ancepanox. She stared into the dark alicorn's eyes. "No. You look like the most reviled demon in history, ravager of armies and killer of gods."

Far from being taken aback by this accusation, Ancepanox growled in pleasure.  “I’ve always been searching for answers, but NO LONGER. I’m going to make answers. I’m going to make my path, my future, my will, my destiny, my gods…  It’s everything I needed, and I only had to lose everything to realize it.”
She lifted her leg a little, giving Celestia more air. “You could have done the same. Yes, you had many opportunities to remake yourself, and all you decided to do was die.  You might think of yourself as a martyr: You used your last breath to chisel Forlorn Spark into the pony you could never be. But all I see is cowardice!”   She hoisted Celestia up, bringing her so they were nose to nose.  “You couldn’t change. You couldn’t progress, evolve, or move on. You're stuck going back to what you know. Do you see any way of getting out of this miserable death?”



Celestia sighed, leaning back. "That's a lot to answer all at once."

"It's really not that hard." Ancepanox rumbled. "How are you going to keep me from erasing everything you've ever worked for?"


“I can't” Celestia said evenly. “Not even if I was still alive.”

“Do you see any way to save Twilight Sparkle, with me in charge?”

“N- No.” Celestia choked slightly. “I’ve cost another project her future.”


Ancepanox slammed Celestia against the ground again, looming over her with wild eyes. “PROJECT?! Gods damn you, Celestia!”

“Twilight please-” Celestia’s plea was cut off by a kick to her side and a headbutt in the nose.

“You killed the first Twilight, and the second. The third is mutilated, " Ancepanox trembled. "Celestia, I really want to kill you. I really, really want to kill you. I don’t care WHAT you did to Agana, I deserve this more than her!”

“Twilight… I never meant any of this to happen.” Celestia could deal with the physical pain, but her heart felt like it was shattering over and over again. “I...  Twilight...   I gave up everything for you."

"Yeah you will." Anceapnox cackled, licking her lips. Dark magic began to crackle around her horn.

"My dream, Twilight, I-" Ancepanox squeezed her eyes closed.
She was going to have to tell the truth.
It hurt a lot.
She didn't want to be honest. She shame was too great.
But she had to do it, because she refused to fight back, and without her Twilight was doomed. 
"I was going to destroy all alicorn-kind, including myself. I was going to give Equestria to you."



Ancepanox slouched.
She looked up, and saw Twilight still sitting on her lone chunk of tower, watching and waiting. That lonesome pony looked burdened, but calm. They locked eyes.
Twilight's brow creased in thought, but after a long moment, she shook her head.

Anceapnox stepped back from Celestia, letting the white alicorn stand.
"You were going to give me Equestria."

"It was a fitful, scattered ambition, poorly built...  poorly executed." Celestia mumbled, face burning with shame. "But I never gave it up. I lived every day with...  painful determination to see it through." She swiveled her head, trying to spot Twilight, but could not. "That is why I came to Ponyville, when everything and everyone told me not to."

Ancepanox wanted to shout Celestia down again, but Celestia was for once totally honest.
But she was not heartened by the truth. It only made her more sickened, of how her princess viewed Twilight Sparkle as an object for her ambitions and manipulations.  Celestia had never respected Twilight, or acknowledged her as a mare with agency.
"Bucking alicorns." She growled under her breath. "You should have done it, destroyed them and yourself."

"My lady... please." Celestia's eyes yearned for forgiveness.



However much she wanted to lash out at Celestia, Ancepanox had to abide by her word. Celestia had told the truth. "So that it's then. I should feel liberated."



"Twilight...  Ancepanox..." Celestia mumbled. She knew what she really wanted to call the dark alicorn. Her eyes went unfocussed. “Luna, please. I messed up before. I can make things right if-"

"Hey, who are you talking to?" Ancepanox asked.

Luna was lost, Celestia knew. Nightmare Moon lived. She cradled her head, trying to get her thoughts in order.
"Show me a memory." Celestia murmured under her breath, not to Ancepanox, but to the other god within the dream. "I want to see her again. I want to see her face...  Not to compare, but to remember."
High high above, her Sun listened.



And then Celestia was there again, reliving a past she'd never experienced, seeing through the eyes of a pony a hundred years her predecessor.
Celestia the First ached. Hours of battle and abuse had left her bruised and exhausted. The rain coming through the holes in the roof felt soothing on her fur.

The dark alicorn was before her.
Nightmare Moon.

Celestia yearned to say something, but it was only a memory. Nightmare Moon sat in a solitary patch of grass, silently watching the rain beat out the fires burning in the other parts of the Everfree Castle.  She was slouched, relaxed even, her muscles slackened and her armor sitting at her side.  She deserved it. She’d won.

Celestia pulled herself out of the mound of rubble where Moon had tossed her, collapsing on the slippery stone pavers.  There she lay, too tired to even stand, her ethereal mane pooled around her like mist.
“You did it” Celestia said, spitting out blood. "You triumphed."

“Yes I have” Moon nodded, cupping hooffulls of water then letting it fall. “Ah, it's just us again, alone."

"No, Luna." Celestia gurgled. "It's just you. Finish this and kill me."

Nightmare Moon shook her head. "What’s the point?”

“Kill me.” Celestia ordered again. “Let my blood spill while it still rains enough to wash it from our castle.

“Don’t you think it’s too late to care about that now?” Moon paused, listening to the sizzle of dying embers. “It's gone. Everfree is done for. We can live without the castle, like we did before all this.”

“The first time we talk in... in nigh on a year of war, and you act like nothing has happened." Celestia pulled herself forward with one hoof, closer to Moon. Her mind was a tornado conflicting thoughts, muddying the antipathy and simmering hate that she’d let build over the siege. “Something HAS happened, Luna. You've obliterated everything we worked for. You committed to destruction, succeeded, and yet pull back from it."


“We all make mistakes. We mess up in big ways, ruin our lives and the lives of others. Along the way, maybe we learn a lesson or two.” Moon looked her sister in the eye, smiling sadly. Her starscape mane, covering in droplets, looked especially brilliant. “Our dream has come to a close, and now it’s time to wake up. ”

“How...  How can you say that!” Celestia croaked. “You have to carry on our work! Your power is unmatched, you- You could conquer them all and none could resist you!” She pounded the soil with her broken hoof. "This planet is yours to unify. The watchword would be yours not mine, but it would be whole...  and that was what mattered!

“It’s over, Celestia. Self-sabotage is a valid end to it.”

“Equestria can’t die with me!”

“Sister, Everfree and any hope for a unified Equestria is dead. I won't try to explain why I did it, but I did. I don’t want you to die too. I want you to live.” Moon sighed. She tried to look Celestia in the eye, but her sisters look of betrayal was more than she could bear. “I can see we both have a lot to think about.”

“This is outrageous. I can't even put into words...  Sister, what was the point of this! I..." Celestia shouted into the ground.
The sun princess slowly got up. She didn't care not to act-nonthreatening anymore.  "Why? I thought I understood the reason for your rebellion, but everything I thought has been cast into a mire of doubt.  Was all of this just to spite me?"


“Perhaps. Do my reasons matter now that I won?” Moon asked, then shied slightly.
The moon princess's temper was growing worse with every passing hour; She could feel the rage she’d used to defeat her sister still roiling just under her skin, ready to come forth and destroy at her command. There was no permanent catharsis, no escape from virulent hatred.
But Nightmare Moon could ensure that no mortals would be harmed next time the alicorns fought, by denying alicorns any dominion of mortalkind.
“Wintertide was right, Celestia. We are not built to lead.”

"Luna!" Celestia kicked through a puddle. "Don't do this!"

Moon turned her back on her sister, and tried to catch a glimpse of the sun through the clouds. “We both have a lot to learn.”


Celestia disagreed. 
The sun princess had learned a very different lesson than her sister: Sharing power led to treachery, betrayal, heartbreak. "I won't let my dream of a united Equestria die." She whispered.

"Then I might have to beat you down again." Nightmare Moon shrugged, laying back in the grass and enjoying the soft rain. "I'm happy. For the first time in my life, everything feels okay." She closed her eyes. "I beat you Celestia. You're never going to forget that."

Celestia knew what she had to do. "Sister...  You're right. I will never forget this moment. However many years it may be until your next attack, and the memories of your victory will be there."

Moon nodded knowingly. "Do what you will. I won. My dominance is fated."

Celestia closed her eyes and reached out to her secret weapon of last resort.
Below the castle, in vaults Celestia had dug herself to maintain secrecy, an ancient thing came to life. It was not flesh, but stone, and though it was animated it did not move.

"Where will you celebrate your victory?" Celestia asked with a throaty growl. She felt the ancient powers gather, waiting for a target.

"This time of the month, when the sun so gently peaks above the horizon, is the most lovely phase of the moon." Nightmare Moon said. "My moon...  it's so peaceful there. Come away with me, Celestia. I'll show you what I've been fighting for."

It was with a grave sense of failure that Celestia the First unleashed the Elements of Harmony on her reclined sister. Light, light, so much light danced and swirled and blinded.




Celestia sucked in a painful breath. The memory had ended.  Afterimages of curling magical eddies and the blinding light did not fade for several second.

When she regained her vision, Celestia was faced with the present: Anceapnox

"You won...  Your dominance is fated..." Celestia murmured.

Ancepanox was waiting on something, the answer to some question. "What are you going to do now, Celestia? Without your secret, what are you going to do?"

"Luna..."  Celestia the Hundredth only understood her sister as a concept: She'd never met her before Nightmare Moon descended from the moon, only having seen her in figments of memories of the past life. But those memories were SO powerful, SO compelling...  Celestia could not help but yearn for that lost sister.
And despite her conscious awareness it was happening, Celestia felt herself grafting that yearning on the mare she knew very well, standing right in front of her. Ancepanox did not have nearly the depth of character Celestia imagined Luna having, nor the same love of justice and logic...  But she had the face, the magic, and the attitude.
"Sister I-" Celestia began. No! When she looked into Ancepanox's eyes, she saw unequivocally that a mortal soul was there. A mortal playing dress up as a god. Celestia cradled her head again.
"What do you want me to do?" She whispered.

Ancepanox seemed intrigued by the offer. "Will you die for us? For me and for Twilight?"

Death, death...  Twilight Sparkle had reminded Celestia of death.
Death. Destruction of the alicorns. Sucession, not to the next Celestia, but to a pony.
Pony, Twilight Sparkle, death.


"Will you die for us? Will you die for us?"

Celestia put pressure on her head, trying to regain control of her thoughts.
Death. She was dead. She was dying. Alicorns did not belong in dreams, especially not alicorns of Light and Destiny like Celestia. She was going to come apart.

Light light, blinding light. Death death death death.


"Sister..." Celestia croaked. "Have you ever heard of something called the Elements of Harmony?"

Anceapnox did not grace the question with attention. She had no truck with Celestia until she recieved her answer.


Will you, the last Celestia, die for the sake of the ponies who usurped you?
Celestia looked high in the sky of the dreamscape.  "What should I do?" She asked her Sun.  "What can I do?"

To her numb shock, her Sun answered.
You should try to kill them, the intrusive thought said.
Celestia averted her eyes from the void above.


"You look ready to answer now." Ancepanox said.

Celestia rose to the dark alicorn's level. "I am, sister." She put her hoof over her heart.  “I won’t let Equestria die.”