Part 4
A New Day
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SEVERAL HOURS AGO
“Your... mother?” General Sparkle asked, eyeing the filly with suspicion.
The filly nodded, giving a growl. “I need any and all intel you have on King Sombra and his forces.”
“Hold on,” Scootaloo said, stepping in front of the general and between her and the filly. “Why should we do that? For all we know, you’re a spy.”
The filly just stared back at her coldly. “For who, Sombra? Don’t make me sick. After what he’s taken from me, I’d never serve him. I’d sooner take my own life, making sure to bring him down with me.”
“Stellar!” a faint voice called out, sounding annoyed.
All present save the filly blinked, before shaking their heads. That voice had sounded like... the general.
At once they became alert, General Sparkle hurrying forward and moving to stand between the filly and the direction the voice had come.
There was only one logical reason the general’s voice would be heard when she had not be the one speaking.
A speck appeared in the distance, airborne.
“Be ready, soldiers!” the general yelled, holding up her foreleg. “On my signal—”
There was a faint purple flash and the speck was gone, followed a second later by a purple flash right behind them all, in front of the filly, who hadn’t even turned around.
“Stellar, what were you thinking, flying off like that?” a voice that sounded very familiar scolded. “What’s gotten into you? I realize you’re angry at Sombra for killing the princess, but that doesn’t mean you just rush off. Did you even have a plan?”
They all whirled around, ready to attack— but went stiff at the sight before them.
Whereas they had all expected to turn around and see either a Changeling or a double of the general, what they saw was part the latter, but at the same time, something completely different.
True, the mare before them had a lavender coat and a blue mane and tail with a stripe of light-purple through them, and even the same purple six-pointed star for a Cutie Mark... but there were two key differences that made the idea that this was a Changeling a little more confusing.
One, none of the scars the general bore thanks to the war were on this mare. Second, the mare had wings. For all purposes, she looked like an Alicorn. But, why would a Changeling take the appearance of the general, but make her not only have none of her war scars, but also be an Alicorn?
The reasoning behind it made no sense.
As they all came to terms with this, something hopped down from the mare’s back, causing more shock throughout those assembled. It was a dragon, about the same height as the filly, so a baby dragon. It had purple scales and green eyes.
It was now that the mare looked up from scolding the foal, turning her gaze to them. When her and the general’s eyes met, hers widened, before becoming a bit frantic and looked back down to the foal.
“What? But... How is there another me?”
The filly just groaned, before moving her head in a way that said she was rolling her eyes. “Please, Twilight Sparkle. Think. We were not present in this world when it was created. Ergo, we were at the centre of it all when the alteration occurred. We are anomalies, remnants from the previous timeline that were unaffected due to our absence. Surely Celestia’s student could have figured that out?”
The mare glared at the filly. “Nightmare, I was kind of just caught off guard with the whole seeing this realities version of myself when I hadn’t considered that there could be. I’m still reeling from what we’ve learned of this world, not to mention what you told me would happen to Stellar if we’d just left. So forgive me for not being able to focus on so many things at once without missing something simple.”
“What’s going on?!” both the filly and Alicorn-looking pony whom had been referred to as Twilight Sparkle turned to the general, who was glaring at both of them. “Mind explaining what in Celestia’s name is going on? Who are you two? Why did you call that filly Nightmare and Stellar Nova. Who are you?” she pointed a hoof at the Alicorn-looking mare at that. “Just what is going on?!”
The referred to mare glanced at the filly, then back to the general, took a deep breath and sighed. “Okay. It’s a long, very hard to believe story, but we’ll tell you.”
___________________________________________________________
“You’re me, from an alternate timeline, where I became a princess?” the general asks, looking skeptically at Twilight, then at me after everything had been explained. “And she’s a filly version of Nightmare Moon, whom is also Princess Luna’s daughter and the dragon is what would have hatched from the egg during my exam at CSFGU?”
“Well... when you put it like that...” Twilight grins sheepishly, scratching her head with a hoof.
“What you believe is really of no consequence to either of us,” Nightmare says with my mouth as I glare at the lavender unicorn. “We will finish that cowardly unicorn. The fact he uses his own subjects to fight for him, when they need to be controlled by his own magic to do so, is pathetic. If he were a real warrior, they would follow him willingly.”
“No disagreement there,” a lieutenant said, before going silent again when I glanced at him.
“Regardless,” unicorn Twilight says, looking to me. “Your plan is foolhardy at best, and suicidal at worst, foal. Even if you posses the levels of magic you say you do, attacking Sombra head on will only lead to your death.”
“Which is why I need to speak with Princess Celestia,” my Twilight says, standing up and pressing her forelegs. “From what Nightmare has revealed, she and Stellar can hold him off long enough for Celestia and I to prepare the spell she suggested. It was one she used on Sombra when Luna and Celestia first confronted him over a thousand years ago. However, if Celestia and I use it together, we should be able to do what Nightmare could not.”
Unicorn Twilight growls, putting a hoof to her forehead. “Of all the harebrained ideas I’ve ever heard of since this war started, this one is too ludicrous for me to even know where to begin.”
I just shake my head, sensing it’s what Nightmare would do. “Whether you think this plan will work or not matters little to us. Once we have my aunt’s location, we’ll be gone.”
“Like Tartarus you will!” unicorn Twilight growls, standing up and slamming her hooves on the table. “You two are the first Alicorns we’ve seen since Princess Luna’s death. If you think I’m just going to allow you to throw away your lives for some shot at revenge, you’re crazy than you’ve led us to believe. We need stronger fighter if we’re going to win this war, and two new Alicorn might be just what we need to tip the scale in Equestria’s favour. And you think I’m just going to let you fly off with an idea that isn’t a proper strategy and relies mainly on a foal holding her own against a full-grown unicorn stallion? Alicorn Princess or not, you’re still just a foal!”
My Twilight slams her own hoof against the table. “I have been studying magic my whole life. The whole reason I became an Alicorn is because I finished a spell Starswirl the Bearded himself couldn’t. I know this spell will work, Twilight. When Nightmare cast it, she was on her own, using only Luna’s power. But, my magic is connected the Element of Magic and the Tree of Harmony itself and Celestia’s to the sun. It will work. You have to trust us.”
“Or are you willing to throw away a chance at defeating Sombra and ending this war once and for us, just because it sounds like there’s a chance it might not work?” Nightmare asks with my mouth. “Stellar herself has little fighting experience, but I do. I have Luna’s and my own from when I took over her over a thousand years ago. Stellar and I are united in this. We both want revenge on Sombra, her for him taking her mother’s life, I for him daring to even think he has a right to rule my kingdom.”
Unicorn Twilight groans. “Don’t you realize he has what he sees as destiny on his side?”
“If you are referring to the Legend of the Black Pony of War, do not bother,” Nightmare scoffs with my mouth, tossing my head to the side. “He knows nothing of the prophecy. Even Celestia and Luna, not even I ever figured it out. But one thing I can tell you, Sombra is not that pony. He is merely a foal with delusions of greatness who latched onto the fact the pony in the legend has a black coat.”
Several long, tense moments pass, with myself staring down General Twilight Sparkle, whilst my Twilight and Spike both look between us anxiously.
After what feels like hours, the unicorn is the one who breaks eye contact.
“Fine. We’ll give you everything we know. But I wash my hooves of this if you die when your plan fails, and I know it will.”
NOW
I glare down at the unicorn beneath me. His armour has been burned right off, revealing his Cutie Mark as a trio of black crystals, thanks to the spell Twilight and Celestia used and he will be unable to access his magic for a short time. It was how Nightmare had taken him down before. It was more than long enough to end this.
I raise my right hoof, it glowing with my aura. One strike, that’s all it will take. One strike and he’ll have repaid his debt for what he did. Blood for blood.
Suddenly, he smirks. Go ahead,” he says, leaning his neck back. “Finish me, Dark Pony of War.
I hesitate, my eyes narrowing.
“What are you waiting for?” Nightmare uses my mouth to speak. “We don’t have forever. Just end him now! Take our vengeance.”
I close my eyes and gently lower my hoof, my aura fading from around it.
“What are you doing?” Nightmare snarls with my mouth. “He’s just lying there, helpless. You can end it right now. Get revenge for your mother.”
“Mama wouldn’t want me to do that,” I say calmly. When he’d called me the Dark Pony of War, I’d realized what I was doing. I’d let my anger get the better of me, something Mama had always done her best to teach me not to do... and I’d almost taken another pony’s life.
“But it would be so easy!” Nightmare does a combination of a whine and a growl. “He isn’t even fighting back. We could strike him down now, without any resistance.”
I open my eyes, narrowing them at the smirking stallion beneath me. “That’s just it, Nightmare. Doesn’t this seem a little too easy?”
Easy? she asks from inside with disbelief. What part of that fight was at all easy?
“This,” I say, my eyes still narrowed at the dark unicorn. “You said so yourself, Sombra is a stallion with no honour, with soldiers who only obey him because he controls their minds with his Dark Magic. Would a pony like him really take defeat this easily?”
There’s silence for a moment.
You... have a point, she sounds as suspicious as I feel.
“Besides,” I say, my eyes glowing white as I channel my magic, “I refuse to kill an innocent host!”
My horn flashes with my aura, before a beam shoots from it, slamming into Sombra’s chest.
At once Sombra lets out a gut-retching scream of rage and agony and I feel something pulling back against my magic, trying to pull free of my grip.
“TWILIGHT! CELESTIA!” I scream with the Royal Canterlot Voice, focusing as hard as I can on what I’m doing. “I NEED YOUR MAGIC TO FINISH THIS TOO!”
After a few moments of struggling, I feel more magic joining my own from behind.
Focusing harder, I aim for the darkness within the stallion as he screams louder, not even sounding like a pony anymore.
With the aid of Celestia and Twilight’s magic, I could feel the darkness inching out as I pulled.
Nightmare seems to realize what I’m doing, because she starts adding something else to the spell. Whatever it was, it suddenly becomes a lot easier and the darkness starts to slide further out as I pull.
After several long, agonizing minutes, the unicorn lets out a final cry, before slumping, his body going limp. His Cutie Mark has changed from black crystals to red ones.
I don’t focus on that though. My focus is on the shadowy form that looks like the unicorn that is now held within a bubble of mine, Twilight and Celestia’s magic.
“How did I not notice it before?” Nightmare asks, shaking my head. “I should have seen it sooner.”
“Hello, Sombra,” I say coldly to the thing within the bubble of magic.
How? it growls, glaring at me. How could you know?
I scoff, pointing to myself. “I’m only here because of something like you. Something you pretty much created, I might add, back when you and my mother fought over a thousand years ago. When you called me the Dark Pony of War, it finally clicked in my head. The reason you weren’t fighting back is because you wanted me to kill you. You wanted to life of the body you were using to end so you could take mine, the only other black pony who seemed to fit that legend you think is all about you.”
He opens his mouth to shout something, but Nightmare casts a silencing spell on the bubble, so we don’t hear him.
She moves my head to look to Celestia. “Tartarus?”
She nods, her expression grim. “Tartarus.”
There’s another concentration of magic, before the bubbles shines with a bright light. When the light fades, it’s gone.
Silence rains for several long minutes, before it turn to the white Alicorn, smiling. “Thanks, Tia. Couldn’t have done it without... you...”
For some reason the world keels over to the side and goes dark.
___________________________________________________________
I groan, slowly coming to as I open my eyes. I’m lying on a stretcher under a blanket, like those used in medical tents.
“Hey.” I turn my head to see Twilight and Spike sitting there, smiling at me.
I smile back. “Hey. How’d it go?”
Twilight shakes her head. “Stellar and Nightmare, if you’re listening, this goes for you, too, you are just crazy, you know that? Using so much of your magic like that, so quickly?”
I feel a smirk that isn’t mine cross my lips. “If we hadn’t gone all out, we wouldn’t be here talking about this, princess. Any real criticisms you have with our method are kinda gonna fall flat, here.”
“May I come in?”
Twilight turns her head, before her face softens and she nods.
The only other Alicorn I’ve seen since coming to this time where Sombra was waging war on Equestria steps through and comes over, sits down and looks to me with a sad smile.
“So, it’s true? You’re Luna’s daughter? Princess Twilight filled me in whilst you’ve been out.”
I nod, before closing my eyes. “How long was I out?”
“About a week,” Spike says, followed by a sigh. “You had us kinda worried. We couldn’t very well go back with you unconscious and we certainly weren’t going to leave you here.”
“Though she would be cared for and loved,” Celestia pipes in, to which I open my eyes and look to her. “All of Equestria is in your debt, Stellar Nova My subjects would be happy if you chose to stay and govern the night as you mother once did.”
I stare at her for several moments, before struggling to sit up, before shaking my head. “Sorry, Auntie, but... I can’t just abandon my own ponies. Twilight, Spike and I need to go back and stopped Starlight Glimmer from stopping the Rainboom.”
“Still find it hard to believe I actually did something like that.”
Glancing to the entrance, I see several ponies walk in. I recognize them from those I know back home, but Dash, Pinkie and Maud just look so different than I know them, it’s eerie. I can even feel Nightmare feels uneasy about seeing them like this.
Dash walks over to me and looks down at me. “So, where you come from, I make a Sonic Rainboom?”
I chuckle. “More than once.”
Dash scoffs. “And to think, my not doing it caused all this, the war?” She sighs. "Talk about putting the blame on somepony."
Twilight shakes her head. “It’s not your fault, Rainbow Dash. Starlight Glimmer’s the one who stopped you midair, right before the Rainboom would’ve happened. You couldn’t have done anything.”
Dash’s ears fall and she looks away. “If that was meant to make me feel better about this, it didn’t.” She then glares. “That Starlight. Does she even know that she cost the lives of countless innocent ponies, on both sides, just for some petty revenge?!”
Nightmare shakes my head. “Highly doubtful. But, worry not. We’ll make sure she understands the severity of just what she’s done after we stop her.”
“Not for another week, Nightmare,” Twilight looks to us with a firm expression. “Stellar needs time to fully recover and you’re going to let her.”
Nightmare scoffs with my mouth. “Yes, princess. Whatever you say.”
“So, the two of them share a body and can talk out of the same mouth?” Pinkie asks, frowning. It is... both disconcerting and disheartening to here none of the cheer I know Pinkie to have in spares in her voice. “Doesn’t that get confusing to listen to?”
“You have no idea,” Spike slumps in his chair. “We learned what happened to Princess Luna, they went back and forth several times.” He put his hands to his head. “Talk about a headache. Hearing somepony arguing with themself and knowing they’re actually talking to somepony else? Bleah.”
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“Are you certain we cannot convince you to remain?” Cadance asks as they all stand a bit away from the map. “We’d be glad to have you here.”
Twilight, Spike and I shake our heads.
“We can’t, Cadance,” Twilight replies, moving over and nuzzling her sister-in-law. “We need to go back and stop Starlight Glimmer so we can return to the Equestria we know.”
“Been cool knowin’ ya, kid,” Rainbow says, holding her hoof out, which I pump. “Shame ya couldn’t hang around.”
“Twilight,” Applejack says, spending forward. “Ah... Ah can’t thank ya enough. Ya... ya gave us back our home. You gave me hope and ya didn’t disappoint. Thank ya.”
Twilight smiles to the orange mare, before looking to Spike and I, nodding. “Well, let’s go, guys. Time to stop Starlight and get back home.”
We both nod, moving over to the map.
“Safe journey, my little ponies,” Celestia says, looking to me with a sad smile. “And I am glad I got to know you, my dear niece, even if only for a short time.”
I smile back. This Equestria’s not completely out of the dark yet. Even with Cadance and Shining Armour now in charge of the Empire and trying to get everything there back to normal with Malecite’s (the unicorn whom Sombra had been controlling) help as he blamed himself for Sombra’s rising, and the war no longer around, there’s still a lot of work ahead to bring Equestria somewhat back to where it had been before Sombra returned. But we can’t be a part of it.
Twilight figured out whilst I’d been recovering that the reason the map was still here when we first arrived is because it’s connected to the Tree of Harmony. The Tree was sensing something was wrong, which is why the map remained, whilst everything else around it changed. The plan is that we're going to go back a little earlier so we can take Starlight by surprise and stop before she even knows we're there.
We look back at the gathered ponies. Fluttershy and Rarity aren’t here, but Cadance, Celestia, AJ, Big Mac, Dash, Pinkie and Maud and several others have come to see us off.
I look to Twilight and nod. She levitates the spell out of Spike’s bag and casts it. The sphere-like thing that appeared to take us through time before appears above the map.
We call our last goodbyes, before the spell sucks us in, taking us back to the past.
Wait a minute, Nightmare’s voice says from inside as the world becomes the blueish-green light of time energy. The moment the Rainboom happens, I’ll be stuck inside you like before. Aw buck.