Waking Night

by CrowMagnon

Part 8 - The Setting of the Sun

Canterlot is falling down
Falling down
Falling down
Canterlot is falling down
My fair princess

Princess Celestia slowly lifted and turned her head as she looked herself over in the mirror. She had counted carefully, and there were indeed even more wrinkles in her face than last year. Her mane, which she could still remember waving lustrously in the breeze, regardless of the presence or absence of any actual wind, was now in the hooves of a mare whose sole job was to keep the faded pastel strands from hanging limply down her face and neck. Somehow, miraculously, the manestylist managed to work her brittle hair into what she was assured was a fashionable style without any of it simply falling off of her frail, ancient head.

Ancient... Yes, what other word could describe Equestria's ruler? A mare who had been elderly longer than any other pony in Equestria had been alive, and only grew moreso every time she pulled the sun up from its place of respite beyond the horizon.

And yet, despite that, she could still remember the strength and vitality of her youth so vividly that it almost came as a surprise each morning when she struggled to lift herself out of bed and bring the dawn, or the resistance she had to fight through each night when it came time to raise the moon and stars in her sister's stead.

As she looked at her reflection, a memory of the beautiful mare she had once been briefly superimposed itself over the withered reality. She shut her eyes and shook her head slightly to clear it of the image. Whether it was her mind attempting to see herself as the immortal being that she had been intended to be, or simple nostalgic yearning for days long ago when her body didn't ache every waking moment and she had so much more possibility before her, neither would change the reality of what was.

Princess Celestia was very, very old. The brilliant flame of her life had dwindled to a candle's last dying flickers, but she could still spend Waking Night with her subjects until the time came to pass the torch.

She thanked her manestylist for her work, then allowed her hoofmaidens to clothe her in a loose dress and shawl which did go some way toward obscuring just how frail she truly appeared. This was not her day, after all, and she had no desire to distract her little ponies by worrying them with concerns for her health.

Once she was dressed, Celestia's personal guard arrived for the evening arrived and escorted her to the balcony she used for public addresses. So many of her beloved subjects were milling about in the streets below, though there were pegasi and balloonists hovering closer to her level as well. Pirates and witches, robots and zombies, she took a moment to simply watch them enjoy their holiday before members of her honor guard down below blew trumpets to draw everypony's attention toward them while a crier gestured up toward the palace.

"Fillies and gentlecolts! Here to open tonight's Waking Night festivities, is the ruler of Equestria! Warden of the day and regent of the night! The protector of harmony and imprisoner of Eclipse! I give you... Princess Celestia!"

Raucous cheers broke out as the ponies looked upward to their princess. Celestia smiled and lifted a hoof to wave down to them. After about half a minute, things settled down enough that Celestia softly cleared her throat, then took in a deep breath. As she spoke to the crowd below, a minor spell amplified and projected her voice so that all could hear her.

"My little ponies, I thank you all for coming this Waking Night to honor my beloved sister."

She paused for a moment as thousands of ponies once again stomped in applause. She took the opportunity to close her eyes and let her mind briefly drift back to better nights, spent watching her dark, beautiful sister dance between the stars and cavort with the creatures of the night. Too quickly, the applause died down and she returned to the present to address the crowd.

"One thousand years ago, Princess Luna was taken from us by the fiend, Eclipse. Though she is lost to us, trapped in an eternal dream, tonight we celebrate the banishment of Eclipse. We clothe ourselves in the image of dreams and nightmares. We raise our voices in revelry in the hopes that she will hear us, and be drawn back into the waking realm."

This drew even louder cheers and applause from the costumed ponies below. A sea of different times, cultures and identities, all gathered together. Most were just there for the party, really, but Celestia didn't blame any of them for it. How could she, when she was the only pony alive who had actually known her sister outside of ancient legends and bedtime stories?

No, as long as Luna's memory would live on in some form or fashion, Celestia felt no regrets.

"No regrets! No hesitation! No mercy," Moonshadow told the assembled vamponies. She stood at the mouth of the cavern which was the only way in or out of her subterranean lair, standing just shy of the edge where the evening sun's light shone. "Centuries of struggle against the sun's oppression end tonight! These past two hundred years, we've allowed the ponies of Equestria to walk around with stupid grins on their sun-loving faces, thinking that they were rid of us!

"Well, I say 'no more!' Now is our time! We have a plan, we have the forces, and we have allies to bring us the victory we've fought and died for! Tonight, the moon's shadow falls upon Equestria, and Celestia's withered corpse will soon follow suit! Now, on this night, while they cavort like idiots and worship their precious 'princess of the night', we fly and seize our kingdom of night eternal! Now... are you with me?!"

"Like we have a choice?" one of the bat-winged thralls retorted, even as he and the rest of Moonshadow's army stomped in applause.

The ancient pegasus's crimson eyes narrowed into a glare at the one who had spoken, and she pointed a hoof at him. "You... Once this is over, you're in charge of cleaning up after the prey for the next fifty years. Until then, you're my personal meatshield. Understood?"

"Yes, Lady Moonshadow," the thrall replied immediately, grimacing at the prospect.

Moonshadow gave a fang-filled grin and pointed to two of the larger thralls. "Good! Now then, you and you, you'll be carrying Mesmer and Blue Rose. Now... we fly!"

With that, she spread her wings dramatically, but it was not simply for effect. Wisps of cloud began forming around her wings, swiftly growing thicker and thicker until it looked as though she were clad in darkness itself. Moments later, she gave a powerful flap of her wings, releasing the cloud to billow forth into a rapidly expanding mass of deepest blackness which spilled out into the light.

With Moonshadow's sinister laughter leading the way, shielded from the sun's rays by the inky cloud, the batponies spread their own wings and took flight.

Sunset Shimmer took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She was thirsty. She was always thirsty, but no matter how parched her throat felt, she just couldn't bring herself to open that bottle that the princess had left behind.

She would save it until afterward, she told herself. What she was about to do was too important to do with any distractions or intoxications whatsoever. The princess was depending on her. Everypony was depending on her. She had to tell Celestia...

Wait, tell her what? Celestia had just been there, wishing her success. All that was left was to activate her spell, and then everything would be fine.

Sunset shook her head and pushed away the nagging feeling that there was something she was supposed to do. She had everything she needed right there. All around her, the spell was scrawled out on every flat surface in the room. A three-dimensional magical array that would harness a power greater than any mortal pony ever had in Equestria's history. In front of her, a long parchment scroll full of notes and transcription spells which would compress the magical formulae and bind them into the blank tome set up to her right.

Once that was done, she would have a spellbook which would allow her to repeat the spell whenever she desired. But, as she could only do that after first activating the array step by step, she pooled her magic and carefully focused it into several focal points on the walls and ceiling.

As much as spellcraft was a science, with its equations and geometries, it was just as much an art. As her magic flowed through the array, becoming shaped and amplified by the spell, it opened up senses that could hardly be described, even by a mare of her considerable education. Transcending thought or language, Sunset's consciousness opened itself to the magic. She became one with the magic.

The world of matter and physical law seemed to fall away as her very concept of self threatened to be overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the magic she sought to grasp hold of. There was no reality but pure sensation and possibility, and if not for the array that was burned into her memory and painted on the room around her, the entity that was Sunset Shimmer might well have ceased to exist.

Instead, she held onto the array. Formula gave shape to intention, imagination gave context to power, and when the magic ran its course through the spell that she had created, her senses blossomed far, far beyond the walls of the small stone room holding her physical body.

She was the magic. Something far greater and more real than any mere pony, but the spell allowed her to control that power without being annihilated by it. All she had to do was reach out with her magic, and she could feel beyond the earthen bonds of Harmonia's soil. Her very self brushed against the burning ball of fire and magic that was the sun, then traced along the mystical roads which the celestial bodies followed in their course across the sky.

Like her namesake, Sunset's magic moved over the horizon, over the edge of Harmonia to the place where night laid down to rest during the day. With her spell, she could feel the moon waiting there. Her magic was drawn to it. She felt that, if she wanted to, she could even grasp it.

And that is exactly what she did.

Celestia's eyes widened. She gasped for air and brought a hoof up to her chest, placing it over the thousand-year old scar over her heart. Two of her guards, Body Tackle and Flash Sentry, immediately stepped forward, asking if she was alright. Celestia could barely hear them, though. Their voices were dulled to her ears.

For a moment... just a moment... it had felt like somepony's hoof had touched her heart. No, not her heart, but the sun that she was bonded to. Somepony other than her had touched her sun, and then just slipped away. What shocked her even more than that, though, was the frightfully nostalgic feeling that brief touch had left her with.

Sunset...? Could it really be...? That was the thought that came to mind before realizing that her guards were fretting over her.

Celestia shook her head and pulled herself back into the present, but her unease only deepened along with that of the crowd below when she looked out across the city and saw a sight that chilled the very blood in her veins.

Arcing up from its resting place beyond the horizon, the moon was rising up toward her sun. Confused murmurs rose up from the ponies below, but for Celestia to see her sister's moon seemingly rising of its own accord until the very edge of it began to pass in front of the sun, it filled her with nothing less than utter horror.

"No... no! Everypony, leave the streets! Evacuate immediately," she called out, her amplified voice booming down to everypony. Cries of panic began to rise up. First from individual ponies here and there, but the fear spread like a virus.

Were she in a more stable frame of mind, herself, Celestia would have done more to calm her subjects and guide them to safety. Instead, she clenched her teeth and reached out with her magic to push the celestial bodies apart. When her magic touched the moon, always stubborn without Luna, she felt another power already holding onto it and pushing it into the path of her sun.

"No... stop... you don't know what you're doing..." she groaned, regardless of whether or not the weilder of that magic could hear her. Focusing all of her strength and will into her magic, Celestia pushed back. She pushed and strained against the moon's current course, forcing it to slow to a stop before more than a sliver of it could overlap her sun. And then, with a might that belied her aged appearance, she gradually began to overpower the opposing spell and separate them once again.

She could feel the spell that had taken hold of the moon react like a living thing. Surprised at first, the magic swiftly renewed its efforts against the force that she was exerting. But while the spellcaster was powerful, and had constructed a miraculous spell, Celestia had guided the moon for a thousand years, and been bonded to the sun itself for centuries before that. She seized upon her momentary advantage and used that momentum to slowly--agonizingly slowly--increase the distance between them.

But her success was built upon the focus of her will, and could only continue for as long as she maintained it. While she struggled, perspiration dripping down her face, she hoped to hear her subjects calm. Instead, screams of terror swelled in the distance and only drew closer.

The instant that she saw why, the light of her horn died, and she lost her grip on the moon.

Moonshadow's cloud filled the streets of Canterlot like a flood of darkness. Those that weren't frozen in terror screamed and did their best to flee. Some attempted to carry their friends or children away from the swiftly encroaching wall of doom, but many of these were the first to be swallowed up by the black vapors.

Lady Moonshadow smirked as she and her forces flew along the streets of Equestria's capital. It had been centuries since she had last seen the city up close, but while many details were different, the general layout was much the same as it had been back then. The guardsponies who had flown up to intercept them certainly hadn't seen much improvement over the centuries, either. No matter how well trained, there was little that armored pegasi could do when plunged into absolute darkness. Especially when that very darkness was no hindrance for a small army of vamponies trained to use their hooves and fangs to their fullest advantage.

She glanced up through her cloud as she flew. While her underlings struck and bit at every pony who got caught up in the darkness, feeding the panic with their screams, she could see the sun attempting to shine its baleful light down on her.

She could just as easily see the moon beside it, as could Mesmer Eyes and Blue Rose. The unicorn grimaced as he was held aloft by the thestral assigned to carry him and called out to her, "I thought Sunset was supposed to have summoned Eclipse by now! In case you haven't noticed, they're moving away from each other! When Celestia sees us coming, she'll cut through us like butter!"

Moonshadow smirked at her subordinate. Casually, as if she were out for a relaxing morning fly instead of spearheading an attack on Equestria's capital, she explained, "All accounted for in the plan, Mesmer. As brilliant and motivated as Sunset may be, Celestia's been juggling the sun and moon for a thousand years now. Of course she'll be able to push back."

Off to the side, Blue Rose giggled as Mesmer's eyes bugged out in fear. "That's not what you said earlier!"

"Because I knew you would whine about it. But it's because she's pushing back that we have to press the attack. As long as she's struggling against Sunset, she's defenseless against us! And if she lets go to deal with us..."

As if on cue, the moon shuddered in the sky and swiftly resumed its course toward the sun. This time, instead of merely overlapping slightly, it placed itself entirely between Equestria and the sun, casting its shadow like a vast curtain being drawn across the entire realm. Soon after, this was followed by a loud crack of thunder from the clear sky, and a deep, menacing laughter that seemed to echo from everywhere at once.

Moonshadow's lips curled back into a sinister fanged grin as she allowed her cloud of darkness to disperse. Despite the sun overhead, Eclipse's shadow continued to shield her and her forces from its rays. She let out a laugh of her own and mused, "Speak of the devil."

A moment.

That was all it took.

Just one moment of weakness could shatter the world.

For Celestia, this was her second.

It was the laughter that froze the blood in her veins. That same dark laughter that slithered into her ears, mocking her for her failures, just as it had a thousand years ago. It drowned out all other sounds and dragged her back to the sight of a formless shadow hovering over her sister's limp body. The moment that fear had overwhelmed determination, and severed her from Kindness.

Not like this...! Not like this, her mind shrieked, but even her own thoughts were all but drowned out by the pounding of her heart. As a result, she was only barely aware of the shouting of her guards, but as they surrounded her and began to usher her back inside, she knew that she had to warn them. To order them to do what had to be done for the sake of all Harmonia.

Gathering herself, she tried to tell them, "No... Guards, to arms! Eclipse is coming! You must be prepared to--"

But before she could finish, a shadow was cast upon her. She and her guards immediately turned to face it and found a purple-clad pony balanced upon the railing of her balcony.

The pony didn't say anything. She just glanced over the guards before focusing on Celestia herself.

A moment.

That was all it took.

Just one moment where the mysterious masked pony stood there, her cape fluttering in the wind while shadowed sun sillhouetted her. A moment where the light glinted off of the golden blade of Moonshadow's Fang, its handle held tightly in her mouth.

That was all she needed to take the measure of the guards before leaping toward them.

Mare-Do-Well rushed straight toward the princess, hooves clopping against the carpeted marble floor as she seemed to completely disregard her security. As the guards got into formation around her, though, they swiftly discovered that nothing could be further from the truth.

Taking note of the powerfully-built unicorn stallion taking point, she thought, Body Tackle. He'll be the first to act, using his magic to intercept me. Signature spell... He lowered his horn at her and charged his magic into it. Then, in the blink of an eye, his body was completely surrounded by a magical aura as he shot toward her like a cannonball!

... A personal shield combined with a powerful burst of kinetic energy! Even as she was thinking it, her body was in motion. The very instant that Body Tackle activated his spell, she was leaping up into the air to flip over him. Nigh-invulnerable while he's charging, but his shield drops for a few seconds between charges.

Indeed, after passing under the evasive mare, Body Tackle stopped himself immediately so that he wouldn't be pitched over the edge of the balcony. Before he could turn to face Mare-Do-Well again, he felt a sharp, debilitating impact against the backs of his knees that sent him halfway to the floor.

Ice Arrow will be next to react, Mare-Do-Well thought as she rolled to the side just in time to avoid getting hit by a projectile of the same name. The arrow struck the ground where her hooves had been, and the floor surrounding the point of impact was swiftly coated in ice. Three-time Friendship Games medalist. Quick on the draw, and mobile.

Once she finished her roll, Mare-Do-Well glanced up to see the frosty blue pegasus hovering above her and aiming another arrow straight down. Very mobile, she thought as she grabbed the edge of her cape and threw it up to snag the end of Ice Arrow's bow. She managed to yank it just before Ice Arrow let her shot fly, which caused it to fly wide and straight toward the only earth pony in the room.

Instead of trying to dodge the shot, the earth pony reared back and pulled back his hoof, then sent it swinging to intercept the arrow. Hoof and arrow collided perfectly, but rather than the guard having to deal with a frozen leg, the arrow shattered and fell inertly to the floor.

While Ice Arrow started sputtering an apology and readied another shot, Mare-Do-Well was already on the move toward the other two guards. Steel Hoof. Close-combat specialist. Skilled in channeling earth pony magic into his hooves for powerful strikes. Strong magic resistance, too. Don't bother trying to shield yourself, he'll just smash right through it.

Nevertheless, she kept running straight toward him until she was forced to duck under another powerful swing. Again and again he tried to strike her, but she dodged as if she could anticipate every move, simultaneously using the earth pony as an equine shield to keep Ice Arrow from shooting at her.

Can't keep this up indefinitely, she thought as she avoided or redirected Steel Hoof's attacks. One solid hit is all it'll take to finish me. Magic resistance means a direct attack spell won't be very effective. Regardless, she charged up a spell under her hat, using it to hide the color of her aura until she was ready to cast.

The instant she was, Mare-Do-Well lifted up her hat and shot a white ball of magic at Steel Hoof. He reflexively took a swing at the spell to counter it, but right before his punch could connect, it exploded into a shower of blindingly bright sparks that threw him and Ice Arrow both off balance.

Indirect effects are the only types of spells effective against him, Mare-Do-Well summarized to herself as she capitalized on that momentary distraction to sweep his legs out from under him. While the other ponies were still recovering from the flash, she used her magic to wrap a length of carpet around Steel Hoof, then swing him around and around like a sling before hurling him up at Ice Arrow.

As the two ponies collided in mid-air and tumbled together to the floor, Mare-Do-Well turned toward the last of the guards, who was steadfastly standing between her and Celestia, brandishing a spear at her while he tried to see through the spots floating in front of his eyes. ... Flash Sentry. Strength, agility, weapon proficiency and combat instinct, all above average. I can take him down, but I don't know if I have the time to do it without compromising my identity.

He's a good soldier. A good pony. He deserves better than this, she thought to herself as she rushed him. He reacted by bracing himself and taking a wide swing of his spear to compensate for his impaired sight.

He could barely see the flash of magic in front of him when it went off. Only feel his spear passing through thin air as Mare-Do-Well simply vanished. He could hear the pop of displaced air behind him when she reappeared, though, and he desperately tried to swing himself and his spear around to stop her. She was still running, though, and her momentum carried her straight out of his range and into Princess Celestia.

Mare-Do-Well clenched her teeth around the dagger in her mouth, gripping it tightly as its blade sank into the princess's breast.

Even when her knees began shaking and grew so weak that a faint breeze would have knocked her to the ground, she held on.

Even with her cheek pressed up against the princess's chest, feeling the ancient monarch shudder and struggle to breathe while the enchanted blade fulfilled its terrible purpose and began leeching the very magic from her body, Mare-Do-Well held on.

Even when she felt her own body heaving with nausea, wanting nothing more than to get away as the golden dagger grew warmer from drawing out more and more of the princess's life force, she held on.

And when Celestia, withering and fading, leaned down to whisper into her ear, she held on just long enough to hear the words, "Ever... free... protect... Luna........."

It was only when Celestia's body collapsed lifelessly to the ground that she pulled back, covered in the blood of Equestria's ruler.