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// Doesn't Exist 
// Story: Broken: Magic 
// by Knackerman 
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      Fleur de Lis was in her usual cafe. Today was an exciting day for her and it showed, the elegant pony positively glowed. Monsieur De Luxe had asked her out to dinner, requesting specifically that she dress for the 'occasion'. This was no rare occurrence in and of itself, it was just that normally when her good friend asked such of her she knew ahead of time that they would be going to some fund raiser or meeting an important business partner. Not today. Today Mr. Fancy Pants had gone to great lengths to keep her in the dark about his plans and, though it might be silly, she couldn't help but think that he might be ready to make something more of their friendship. She was giddy at the very thought of it. She could hardly contain herself as she sipped her mocha, its indulgent decadence lost on her as her mind filled with idle fancies far more sumptuous.
It would take something truly significant to shake her from her fantasies. When the entire cafe began to shake, she did not notice. Part of her may have thought she was merely  trembling with excitement. When the shock wave came that shattered the cafe's front window and sent the clients screaming into the streets, however, she couldn't help but be torn from her day dreams. Chunks of debris began to fall from the ceiling as the quake continued. While earthquakes were one natural disaster that the weather ponies hadn’t yet found a way to master, they were rare here in the big city. Fleur left her still steaming coffee and rushed out to join the others in the street. Inside a high rise was no place to be at a time like this.
Yet once she had joined the rest of the bewildered citizens of Canterlot, all was still. Indeed it seemed that only the buildings themselves were shaking. Even so, a continuous booming, like mighty peals of thunder continued to echo from the direction of the Palace. Even from this distance one could see a huge plume of smoke rising into the air to blot out the sky. Filled with strange lightning flashes, it grew to hang over the entire town. That was when Fleur heard the voices, as though they emanated from the gloomy smog, angry and full of pain, screams. It was the sound of pure agony. That was enough to send the crowd into a fresh panic. Some ducked back inside of the still quivering buildings, others took to their hooves, running down the nearest road that lead out of town.
Fleur found herself frozen, unsure of what to do as a torrent of ponies flowed around her elegant form. She saw that the crowd was trampling over itself in their panic. She was about to raise her voice, to call for calm, when something warm and wet splashed against her muzzle. Perhaps responding to some subconscious impulse, her tongue darted out to clean the liquid dribbling down her face. It was warm and salty, a little coppery. The taste of chocolate flavored coffee was still fresh in her mouth, contrasting well with the new taste on the tip of her tongue. Her eyes widened in realizations as more warm, wet droplets began to fall on the town like rain. Blood. Fresh and hot began to patter over the already frenzied crowd. Pegasi that had already taken to the sky to avoid the stampede below suddenly wished that they hadn’t. One by one, Fleur watched in horror as they were struck from the sky, not by the unnatural lightning but rather by what fell along with the crimson rain. Bits and pieces of flesh tumbled from the heavens above, splattering the city ponies and staining their finery. Wet pieces of pony smashed windows and burst open where they struck the ground, sending jagged shards of bone shrapnel flying, impaling those who were still scrambling to find shelter. The sorry gobs of flesh were still clad in bits and pieces of badly dented armor. They were the Royal Guard, yet even the largest chunks looked as if they had been put through a shredder.
A young private's head, helmet still strapped on tight, burst like a melon at Fleur's hooves, splattering her dress with gray matter and bits of skull as well as even more blood. A wave of sickness crashed inside her and her gorge threatened to rise. Another crack like thunder, sharper than before, echoed from Canterlot Palace high on the mountain side. It was clear where all the horror was coming from, a steady geyser of crimson gushed from near the palace, painting the white walls a hellish red. A howling wind swept up suddenly, lifting those who were still alive along with the scattered chunks of the already dead. Fleur watched on, unbelieving, as the buildings around her began to crumble and fall. All of Canterlot was falling around her, the dead and the dying crushed beneath mortar and stone as great hunks were ripped from the sides of the buildings and sent streaming towards the palace. Fleur had no idea what was happening, truly, but she knew that Monsieur had waited too long to propose when her favorite Cafe toppled frighteningly, falling straight toward her.
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Derpy Hooves flew around in a panic. The explosion had come from the special cell-block deep beneath Canterlot Palace. The crystals down there had unique properties that were meant to prevent the use of all but the most basic of magic. They were supposed to short out any powerful spell work and leach magical ability from the unlucky prisoners over time. For such a powerful explosion to come from down there, either somepony had snuck in explosives, or they were dealing with something far more powerful than any of them could imagine. Dust hung like a choking fog by the time the grey pegasus made it to the scene. She could hear the sounds of battle in the distance, screened by the grey haze, but her main concern was Project Harmony. Celestia probably wouldn’t be banishing her to the moon, but there were worse punishments if something should happen to the wielders of the Elements of Harmony.
She worked her way through the rubble, digging through half collapsed passageways. She thought she could hear voices from deeper inside. “You okay Rainbow Dash?” she called. “Applejack? Pinkie Pie? Can you hear me!?” The muffled voices seemed to rise in volume as if in response, but she couldn’t be sure. Shouldering aside a boulder taller than she was, she at last made it into the sub chambers where the prisoners had been kept.
It was bad. Derpy was no expert, but she’d been involved in enough demolition projects over her career that she could tell the ceiling was going to give way any moment. “Derpy Hooves! Oh great, on top of everything else!” This from Rainbow Dash, her left wing trapped under a particularly large hunk of crystal. The others seemed okay, though Applejack’s legs were similarly stuck and both Fluttershy and Rarity were out cold. Derpy had to work fast.
“What are you guys doin down here?” None of them knew she was working for Celestia, and none of them needed to. As far as they were concerned her association with the palace was purely professional. “I think we need to go, it’s dangerous.” Derpy helped Rainbow Dash free her wing and together the two pegasi drug Applejack from beneath her pile of rubble. As they worked her loose, the farm pony screamed. It was worse than Derpy had thought. Both of Applejack's legs had been broken, only the pressure from the crystal shards had kept her from feeling the pain before, pain so great she passed out almost immediately. This wasn’t going to be easy.\
“So now what? How do we get out of here?” Pinkie Pie seemed unnervingly calm, given the situation. She already had the unconscious Rarity draped over her back.
“Now we’ve gotta go. Follow me, I think I know the way out!” With Dash’s help, Derpy draped the injured Applejack across her back. Dash herself went back for her friend Fluttershy. Together the three began climbing a flight of stairs that listed to the left and right, shaking horribly from whatever was going on above. Derpy had noted who was not present and the thought chilled her to the bone. She had a terrible, growing feeling that she knew exactly what was going on and who was responsible. The horse apples had seriously hit the windmill.
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Every window in the palace shattered at once as a scream of pain and hatred echoed across the sky. It was pandemonium as guards rushed back and forth, unable to find the source of the attack that was shaking the very foundations of Canterlot. One by one, those Guards outside the Palace walls were whisked into the air as if by invisible hands. Their screams of surprise turned quickly to wails of agony and terror. It was no better for those who remained as massive hunks of stone and glass that had once been buildings fell to crush them and smashed violently into the side of the palace itself. The sky literally was falling, and it showed no signs of stopping. Old outer walls and parts of the castle that had stood for centuries crumbled into so much dust and mortar. The Day Guard surrounded Celestia within the throne room, but only she was calm in the face of this unknowable horror. How could her guards protect her from a force of nature? It was almost a relief when the great double doors exploded, burning in a flame so hot that they scattered into the air as a fine mist of dust and ash before they could hit the ground. A few actually smiled as the unicorn strode into the throne room. Here at last was something they could attack. They should have run. A shower of glass and stone roared through the vacant windows, pelting the unwary and pulverizing those who didn’t get out of the way of the larger chunks in time, a tsunami of glass and stone sweeping through the room. The unicorn stood tall, the wave splitting itself around her body.
Twilight Sparkle, her entire body seeming on the verge of bursting apart with raw magic, turned baleful eyes upon those who would stand between her and her prize. Those who had not fallen to her initial attack came quickly, and in force. Those in the first wave crumpled under her gaze just as quickly, their armor shrunk about their bodies, crushing their bones and squeezing out their flesh like so much jelly. While those behind them were more cautious, their hesitation did not prove to be anymore of a boon than their compatriots haste. One nod from Twilight's and they were raised as one into the air. As they struggled to escape from an invisible vice like grip, they were twisted at painful, unnatural angles. Like a child's toy or some sad marionette, each were broken, one by one.  They were wrung out like damp dish rags and tossed, still screaming, through the Palaces remaining stained glass windows. After that the earth ponies and pegasi finally retreated, leaving this fight to the unicorn heavy assault group.
It became a true war of magics then, both cunning and cruel, as the guards tried to bring the mad mare to her knees through subtly where mere brute force had failed. Great beasts and illusions rose like a heat haze from a burning desert, filling the throne room. A ripple spread through the world, as though all of reality were but a puddle into which a careless child had thrown a stone. One by one, these conjured beasts and spells of great power melted away as a single purple crystal ripped through the malicious magics and rendered their spells useless. Twilight had discerned what her crystal prison had been meant for. A cage for her magics, to drain her and keep her weak. But Celestia had been expecting a mere spark of magic, and what was leaking from Twilight’s fractured horn was now oh, so much more. A ring of the purple crystals rotated around her in a wide orbit, shielding her from the Day Guards worst. What spells she could not destroy, she bent against the Royal Guardians, adding her own twist to their spellwork to make them doubly deadly. A satisfied sneer twisted her features as each fell to a unique fate that had been meant for her. Their screams and moans were justice. The crunching of their bones sweet music to the beast that raged in her heart.
When the haze of magical smoke at last dissipated, the throne room was painted in shades of crimson, splattered from floor to ceiling. Twilight Sparkle herself seemed to float over it all hooves only lightly touching the floor, body thrumming with barely contained madness and completely unchained magic. Of course Celestia still stood, the Princess of all Equestria and Steward of the Sun wore a look of grim determination, an aura as bright and burning as the day star engulfed her form. Eldritch energy slithered from the wounds of Celestia’s former student like grasping tentacles, ripping up the tiled floor and sending a wave of monstrous power screaming through reality, erasing everything in its path. The spell slammed into Celestia, and for a moment it appeared as though she had been completely consumed. Tears streamed from Twilight's eyes as she laughed long and loud, her mind completely snapped. She had just killed the one pony who could have explained it all, made it all better again. Yet as the spell dissipated, a glow like the dawn suffused the throne room. Celestia stood as calmly as before, a shield of magic crackling briefly around her form before it faded away.
"Monster, you shall not harm a single hair upon the head of our beloved Princess!" The Captain of the Day Guard stood valiantly by his rulers side. Clearly the shield had been his work. Another ant wriggled before the mad unicorns vision. Just one more to squash before she could finally take her revenge. Energy surged behind Twilight’s eyes as tears of blood seeped from their bulging sockets and her open wounds.
Yet before a second onslaught could be unleashed, Celestia’s voice rang out clear as day, “TWILIGHT SPARKLE, CEASE THIS MADNESS AT ONCE AND KNEEL BEFORE YOUR PRINCESS!” The command must have touched her in a place buried deep within, for even in her insanity Twilight Sparkle found herself on her knees, head bowed low. She barely had enough willpower to raise her eyes and watch as the Mare of the Morning glided smoothly over blood slicked marble towards her. “Look at you. Pathetic, filthy, thing. Look at the carnage you have wreaked! Look at the mess you’ve made of my beautiful palace!” Celestia fairly steamed, “I should send you to the dark side of the moon to shiver and freeze for a thousand years!”
“Is that what you do with all your subjects that don’t do as you please?” asked Twilight, fighting the last vestiges of her programming. Slowly, she rose from her knees, each inch an excruciating exertion of will power. The crystals orbiting her moved close, gathering into a rough helm that covered her head but left her bisected horn exposed. It seemed to help her concentrate as some of the madness left her eyes. “Do you banish them beyond space and time? Hide them away in some dank, desolate crevice?  Consign them to a living death inside a padded room?” With a last effort that seemed to make all her wounds burst afresh, she stood. “Imprison them in stone!?” Twilight’s eyes blazed as a fresh torrent of power exploded from her broken horn, bringing the already weakened ceiling crumbling down on their heads. In a matter of moments all was buried under a mountain of rubble as the throne room imploded. Twilight stood atop the pile, a rictus of pain and pleasure distorting her features. “How does it feel Celestia? To be buried alive in cold stone? Does it feel like justice?” she whispered, laughing madly.
Twilight’s laughter was short lived, however, as an orb of violet light rose from the rubble. Celestia and the Captain of her guards glared down at Twilight Sparkle. “Is that what you think this is about? Justice?" The disdain in Celestia's voice matched the look of disgust on her face. "Twilight, I thought better of you.” With a scream of frustration, Celestia’s former student unleashed another stream of chaotic magic lashing towards her former mentor - Yet Celestia only chuckled. “You can do that all day you horrid little defect, but so long as your brother shields me, your magic is useless.” The onslaught abruptly ceased.
“My...my brother? I don’t have a-” a look of pure confusion dimmed the madness in Twilight’s eyes further. “I don’t have a brother. I’m an only child!”
“Oh come now Twilight, I made you forget what a failure you are at magic, you don’t think I couldn’t make you forget your family?” Celestia genuinely seemed amused by the look on Twilight’s face. “Do you even remember your mother? Your father? Their names? I was the only parent you knew or loved for the bulk of your life. Why should it surprise you that I’d keep somepony like your brother close to me in the event you ever broke loose from the chains I wrapped around your pretty little mind?” Twilight stared, disbelieving. “He’s much stronger than you by the way. I was thinking about perhaps bringing him into the royal family. After all, I can’t hold the fact that his sister is a psychotic murderer against him when he has served me so loyally.”
Princess Celestia draped herself possessively over the stallion she named Twilight’s brother. For his part he arched his back and moaned suggestively as his liege touched him in ways both intimate and profane.  Memories blossomed and died behind Twilight’s eyes. A reshuffling of her private world occurred as a past long buried suddenly exploded in her mind. Shining Armor. His name was Shining Armor. A calm descended upon her, far more deadly than her rage could have ever been. “Get your hooves off my brother.”
“Or what?" Mocked Celestia. "You’ll kill a few more useless guards? Destroy more of my palace? Go right ahead.You’re falling apart Twilight, both physically and mentally. It’s only a matter of time before the spark of magic you’ve fanned into a raging flame is extinguished for good.” The Princess bit Shining Armor’s ear, causing his concentration to lapse for but a moment. “When that fading ember dies, you will be at my mercy. So rage on Twilight, murder your friends and loved ones to your hearts content. I will rebuild my kingdom on their ashes and yours.”
The attack was as sudden as it was unpredictable. The fused crystal crown leapt from Twilight's brow and slammed into her brothers face, piercing his shield and his helm in one shot. He was not dead, but he fell unconscious to the rubble below. Celestia was suddenly without her protection. To her credit, she did not hesitate. Celestia revealed how she had won her throne as she sent a blazing beam of pure light roaring towards Twilight Sparkle. Without the crystals to shield her, Twilight could do nothing to protect herself but rig a hastily crafted protection spell. It couldn't withstand magics perfected over the course of a millennium. As the delicate spell matrix evaporated, Twilight howled in pain, her flesh felt as though she were bathed in fire. A heat more intense than she had ever known, a pain sharper and deeper than she had ever felt, though her flesh did not scorch her wounds bubbled and steamed. She fell to her knees, bleating horribly like a wounded lamb. Celestia hit her again, spreading her wings wide as she climbed into the air to position herself over her former student. Twilight writhed in agony like an ant under a magnifying glass, part of her wanting to beg for death. But that was not the part that was in control.
Squirming out from under the glare of Celestia's spell, Twilight rolled over the sizzling stones. And then she was gone. In a puff of magic she was atop another pile of rubble, panting like a dog. Celestia turned quickly, aiming another beam to smite her, only to watch as Twilight vanished again. Faster now, recovering as best she could as she went, Twilight appeared and disappeared around Celestia. She was teleporting here and there around the monarch as she furiously tried to catch Twilight with her solar beam, but the spell had to hit her in order to have any effect. Disoriented, the princess began firing randomly, hoping to catch the mad unicorn when she next appeared, never noticing that she now floated high above her. A shower of sparks gushed from Twilight Sparkles horn, falling like a comet from the smoke choked heavens. The ball of raw magic smashed into Celestia, sending her tumbling to the ground below. The roles were reversed now as Twilight pummeled her former teacher with spell after spell, sending a shower of sparks and stones raining down on the monarch. Wounds appeared on Celestia's alabaster flesh like beautiful roses, blooming and growing to cover her body. With a smile that seemed as though it would remove the top of Twilight's head, the unicorn lifted the mangled remains of Celestia's throne. It was fitting that the seat of power would be the death of the one who had abused it.
Before the final blow could be struck, Twilight found herself smashed from the air by a bolt of dark, star flecked lightning. Princess Luna, awakened from one of the few towers that were still standing, had come to her sisters aid. The torrent of moon bolts that fell upon Twilight Sparkle stunned her, causing her entire body to flex and jerk uncontrollably. When the assault finally ceased, Twilight cracked open her blood shot eyes to stare up at the stern visage of the Princesses of the realm. United, there was no force that could defeat them. Even so, Twilight launched one last spell, almost lazily. It bounced off an invisible wall harmlessly. Shining Armor was awake once more, his shield spell erected once again to protect his liege. Twilight was well and truly outmatched.
“Why?” muttered Twilight through broken teeth.
“Excuse me?” asked Celestia. Though bright red blood leaked from several abrasions, she seemed to bare up under her wounds much better than the shattered Twilight. Even as she watched, Celestia's wounds began to heal, the flesh knitting as if the injuries had never existed.
“Just tell me why.” Tears, real tears this time rather than bloody ones, were streaming from Twilight Sparkle's eyes. Their crystal purity washing away the blood and dirt that stained her face. “Why did you do this to me? To my friends? Just tell me WHY!?”
“Because of me.” The voice thrummed through the earth, through the sky, through Twilight's chest. From the little unicorn's shattered horn another burst of sparks showered, followed by a column of smoke rising from the ruin on her forehead. A pillar of choking darkness rose from the dying fragments forming a rough outline. Glowing crimson eyes opened wide as the being took shape. A lion’s paw, an eagle's claw, a dragon’s tail, a bat wing, and a pegasus wing were all there in a pell mell mess, disparate parts coming together to make one terrible whole. It was at last crowned with curling mismatched horns above a face that leered down over all. “Did you miss me Celestia? I missed you.” Discord. He loomed over them all, larger than life. He was really here. Twilight wasn’t dreaming, she wasn’t hallucinating. She wasn't crazy! Discord, the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony was here! So how was it that joy that filled her heart instead of terror? Why did his laugh fill her with such hope?
Celestia and Luna, for their part, seemed to be fully in the grips of terror, rich and pure.“You?! Impossible! They defeated you - You’re a statue in my garden!”
“Did they? Oh my, were you there Celestia? Did you watch as my body petrified? Did you see my last, desperate struggle for freedom? Or did you send a troop of brainwashed girl scouts to do your dirty work?” Discord smiled mirthlessly. “Did you really think that they would defeat me so easily? It took your greatest sorcerers the better part of a hundred years to craft my downfall and even then they could not wield it! That six broken little ponies could master their power in but a day is ridiculous. Did you think I wouldn’t recognize what you had done to them? Celestia, it’s one thing to enslave the population of an entire nation and call it freedom, it’s quite another to use my own tricks and think I couldn’t turn them to my advantage. You lost as soon as the Elements of Harmony were in my grasp.” Discord leaned down and poked Shining Armor’s impenetrable shield with a single talon. It popped like a soap bubble.
“So what then fiend? Thou played dead!?”
“Bingo!” Discord 'boop'ed Luna on the nose. “I don’t turn ponies into stone, but transforming myself is another matter. The Elements of Harmony were powerful enough to undo my improvements to Ponyville, but your little troupe of zombies could never hope to truly defeat my glorious self!” Discord flew into the air, absurdly tiny wings beating majestically before he lounged on a low hanging cloud of smoke and ash. “But I knew better than to let them try again. So while you thought me imprisoned, I used my time wisely." He smiled, showing a mouth full of fangs as he leaned back contentedly. "You’ve been a very naughty girl Celestia. Very busy too. It took me months to unravel all your spells and enchantments, but now here we are at long last!”
“I still don’t understand. Discord, what’s going on? Why am I, why is she-why are we like this?” Twilight almost wailed, her horn was almost completely gone now. As it crumbled away, so did the rest of her magic. The raw power that had ripped through her body seemed to be receding, leaving gashes all over her form.
“Poor, sweet Twilight, a pawn used by both sides in our little game of chess." Discord left his cloud to hover over the pony in question. "You were the easiest of your friends to manipulate, you know. So dedicated to order and perfection. You were a tool crafted too well. It was so easy to expose you for what you really are. All it took was a little creative scheduling on your calendar.” The Spirit of Disharmony couldn’t help but laugh. “Though making the sun tick across the sky like the hand of a clock was an inspired touch on my part I thought. Pity you seemed to be the only pony to take notice.” He turned from Twilight back to the cowering princess, “Honestly Celestia, if you weren’t so paranoid about your pet project, this might have all been avoided. Did you really need weekly progress reports? You were the key to Twilight's corruption. You made her so dedicated to you that she couldn’t help but fail you in one way or another. Exposing that obsession was all it took to start the rest of the dominoes falling one by one. Of course, everything in the universe naturally moves towards chaos, it was inevitable, I suppose. How droll.”
“So you are responsible for me...my friends...everything...falling apart!?” asked Twilight, not sure what to believe anymore.
“No my dear, I’m responsible for freeing you!” exulted Discord as he picked Twilight up in a swift hug before plopping her back down on her posterior. “No more having to bother with all that tedious studying. No more having to suffer through the pretense of friendships you don’t understand. No more having to live a lie. You’re free to be exactly the kind of pony you’ve always known yourself to be at heart.” He smiled, his grin full of sharp teeth and his eyes full of the kind of sanity you arrive at far beyond the shores of madness. “Most importantly, no more having to obey Celestia and her sweet sister Luna. Equestria will be freed, and the only thing that shall reign is pure chaos!”
“Never Discord!” shouted Shining Armor. “The Princess may no longer be able to use the Elements of Harmony against you, but that does not mean that she is without protectors!  She has had thousands of years to prepare for your return!”
“Oh, spare me the barking of your little dog Celestia,” the draconequus yawned, already bored. “If you had a back up plan of some kind you would’ve already sprung it. Now, be a dear and answer your dear student. She’s come an awful long way and broken a great many rules to have her questions answered. I’m afraid she might not trust them from me. Perform well enough and I might even let you pick the flavor of gelatin I turn you into.”
Celestia grit her teeth, clearly loath to obey, but at the same time too fearful to oppose Discord's command. She licked lips suddenly gone dry. When it seemed as though she might try to remain silent after all, Discord gestured with but a single claw. The motion by itself was enough to compel the Mare of the Morning's mouth to speak the truth, each word torn from her mind as though from a the purse of a greedy miser. “Wh-when Luna and I had our falling out, the spell that I used to banish her broke our bond with the Elements of Harmony. I feared then that Discord would break loose from his prison, but the Elements were strong enough that the seal only weakened. I knew then that it would only be a matter of time before I would have to deal with him again, this time alone if I didn't do something. I also knew that when my sister returned only the Elements would have a chance of stopping what she had become.”
As Celestia continued to speak she seemed to warm to the subject. Though it might have been against her will, it was almost a relief to reveal these long held secrets. Only a handful of ponies had known about what she said next, out of necessity. That didn’t mean she wasn’t proud of her cunning. “I knew that it would take a bond of powerful friendship to unlock the Elements true power, for this was the secret that allowed Luna and myself to harness their strength to begin with. At first I tried in vain to find such a friendship naturally, scouring Equestria over hundreds of years to try and find somepony or some group of ponies that had the kind of special bond I had shared with my sister. I thought I had come close many times, but the Elements remained inert. Friendship by itself wasn’t enough. There needed to be a truly dire need, as well as a spark...” Celestia looked into Twilight’s eyes. “A spark of magic.”
Discord couldn’t help but chuckle to himself at some private joke. Celestia flinched, but when it was clear he wasn’t about to say anything, she continued. “So I resolved if I couldn’t find such a friendship, I would forge one instead. One that I could use at the required time. As I’m sure you’ve already deduced Twilight, you and your friends were chosen because you represented the exact opposite of the Elements of Harmony. Each of you were broken in some way before I found you. Using the ancient technology of pre-Equestrian pegasi mixed with the spell work of unicorns from the same era, I was able to duplicate an effect similar to one of Discords powers. But instead of corrupting you, I made you pure! What you might so foalishly think of as brainwashing, I knew to be valuable re-education. Without it you never could have played the heroes that defeated my sister. At least you were good enough for that, even if you failed at your ultimate purpose.”
“Is this really true sister?” Luna’s eyes were fierce, even as her tears glistened at their corners. "What you did to Twilight and her friends, did you do that to me also?” Darkness flowed like liquid silk from her mane, engulfing her body in a form terrible and majestic at the same time. Celestia backed slowly away from her sister. She had seen this change before. Nightmare Moon was reborn before their eyes. “I thought the nightmares were just that. That I was dreaming about your cruelty, your arrogance, your drive to dominate and control all around you. But they weren’t nightmares, were they? They were the truth. They were why I tried to overthrow you to begin with. You’re the reason why we lost our connection to the Elements of Harmony. You’re the reason Discord is free! But you wouldn’t allow me to remember! Twilight, I’m so sorry I ever doubted you!” Body crackling with dark lightning, the Mare in the Moon strode toward her cowering sister.
“No! You’ve got it all wrong!” From over a pile of rubble, a troupe of bloody and dirt stained ponies emerged. It was Twilight Sparkles friends. And Derpy Hooves. “She was so afraid. You have no idea how alone she was with no one to love her, no one to know the real her! Please, don’t judge her so harshly. I was the one that told her about the Pegasus Device. It’s my fault if it’s any ponies.” Twilight Sparkle and Nightmare Moon turned on the grey filly as one, a pure white glow exuding from Luna's eyes as she was seized by a spasm of power and rage. Discord merely chuckled all the more.
“No! No, listen. We’re not your enemies!" begged the little grey pegasus. "Twilight, I’ve been keeping an eye on you and your friends since we were both little fillies. I know it’s hard to believe. You probably never noticed me in the background of your lives, but believe me it was never my intention, or Celestia’s, to really harm any of you. It was just a job for me at first...a way to test a process I hoped would get my mother back. If what Celestia did to you worked then maybe, just maybe, it could work for her. But the longer it went on the more I began to care. I wanted Rainbow Dash to become a Wonderbolt and Fluttershy to come out of her shell. I truly wanted Rarity to become a famous dress maker and the family business to go well for Applejack. I wanted Pinkie Pie to keep smiling and you to find friendship even as you tried your hardest to master your magic. I wanted you all to have the lives you never could have had otherwise, even if they weren't truly meant for you. I wanted Celestia to help you make your dreams come true!" Nightmare Moon seemed to hesitate as fresh tears came to Twilight's eyes. Somewhere along the way things had become terribly complicated. "In a weird kind of way, I always saw myself as your guardian angel. I know it may not have seemed like that, but you have to believe me. We’re not your enemies. He is! Discord is the real villain here!”
“Ya should listen to her Twi. This whole mess doesn’t make a lick of sense, but if Ah know one thing, Ah know Discord is bad news.” said Applejack, still draped over Derpy's back.
“I don’t know what to believe, Twilight.” said Pinkie Pie, looking sadly at her hooves. “But I believe Derpy when she says she thought of herself as our friend. You others might not have noticed her, but I did. Whenever she was around us, she always seemed to be smiling...even when there weren't fresh muffins.”
“Heck, I remember her from back at flight camp, don’t you Fluttershy?” added Rainbow Dash.
“Yes... She was always nice to me. You two were the only friends I had back then.”
Rarity, for her part didn’t seem as sure as the others. “I’m afraid I’m dreadfully lost Twilight. It sounds like Celestia wronged us horribly, but she did have good reasons, and it seems like it worked out well enough for us. Two wrongs do not make a right, but I don't even know where to begin to try and resolve this. What do you think we should do?”
“I-I don’t know,” murmured Twilight as she brought her hooves up around her head. “I just don’t know. I’ve d-d-done so many bad things. I-I-I ripped so many ponies apart just to get here and I don't even remember why! It hurts s-s-so bad. My head. My head feels like its going to tear itself apart.” It was true, as the rage had drained steadily from Twilight Sparkle she had begun to look worse and worse. Magic had been what had kept her going, and now all that remained within was nothingness. The void yawned hungrily inside. She barely had any horn left. There was a strange pulsing sensation coming from her that seemed to stretch out into the world around her. "I wish...I s-s-still had the book. It could tell me what to do, what comes next..."
By this point, however, Discord was laughing so hard that everypony couldn’t help but look at him instead. High above them all he seemed doubled over in laughter. "What comes next! Oh, if only you knew! You should've read ahead Twilight!"
“What’s so funny?” demanded Celestia.
Discord managed to gasp between gusts of laughter. “What-what’s the opposite of a spark Celestia? What’s the true opposite?” He laughed louder. But not loud enough to cover up the thin hissing sound coming from Twilight’s head. The last of her horn crumbled to ash. The cracks in Twilight’s skin spread. Not just through her body, but from her body and out into the world around her. The cracks moved through the ground, through the air, over her friends and foes alike. They even spread through Discord, who giggled all the more.
“Oh.”
“What?”
“An explosion. The opposite of a spark is an explo-”
Twilight Sparkle’s head literally split in half as something older than magic erupted from her mind. The cracks ripped her friends to shreds in a single burst. Discord was still laughing as each of his mismatched parts were liberated from his body. Nightmare Moon and Celestia only had time enough to embrace one another before they shared his fate. So fast, so loud, so bright. Not even shadows would be left behind by a blast that made the birth of stars seem like but a fleeting glimmer on the cosmic scale. In one burst, everything, everypony, all of Equestria ceased to exist.

All returned to nothing.