Equestria Has Fallen

by ward282

Canterlot Falls

Twilight Sparkle slept restlessly in the fillys' room. She tossed and turned but she could never get comfy. Now she was alone with her thoughts, they crept up on her out of nowhere. Her brother was turned to stone, her mother and father were among the fallen at Canterlot, her mentor had been killed saving her and her friends were scattered. She felt like a leaf in autumn, everypony had left her and she was still there on the tree. She looked at the bookshelves beside her. The books all had a thick film of dust on them, some where were for little ponies while others were more factual and scientific. The ponies who had owned this house before had been pegasi, Twilight could only base this fact on the amount of pegasi related books that the shelves had on them. The books dealt with the history of pegasi, how to learn to fly and behaviour of pegasi, Twilight picked up a book with her magic and set it beside her.
"Know Your Wings: A Pegasi Guide to Growing Up" The book looked interesting yet would also help Twilight get off to sleep. The book itself was aimed at teenage pegasi, she imagined Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy reading the same book years ago. She smiled at that thought, followed by a tear rolling down her face. "Rainbow Dash....reading."

She'd been reading for about an hour but Twilight was so engrossed in the book time was irrelevant. She read all about how pegasi wings grew into larger wings, mares grew larger wings first followed by colts. She remembered when she was growing up and how her horn would hurt for days on end. She was so embarrassed when she asked Princess Celestia about it. She'd give anything for that moment now, to be with her mentor, her family and her friends.

She pressed on with the book and read into the behavioural side of pegasi, how wings were considered a private part and preening a private act. Twilight blushed while she read about wing-boners, but was then intrigued by how different positions symbolized different emotions. A pegasi would splay their wings fully and bend their forelegs to show dominance or aggression, she blushed some more when she read about when a pegasi was feeling "intimate" or in love their wings would go fully erect but remain straight in line with the body. She read further and learned how pegasi could lock their wings to glide and conserve energy and could also lock their wings to their body when frightened or nervous. She'd seen Fluttershy lock her wings into her when she was nervous. As Twilight read into the next chapter she started to drift off into sleep, she remembered reading that pegasi would protect those they cared about by draping a wing over them and then she was fell into the book and snored loudly.

---

She was in a forest, one she did not recognise. Something seemed off but Twilight couldn't put her hoof on it. She was surrounded by trees, but as she looked at the trees she saw they were bare. She looked to the ground, there were brown and yellow leaves everywhere. Was it Autumn? No it couldn't be Twilight reasoned, if it wasn't Autumn then why were there leaves on the ground. She moved forward and felt the crunch as the leaves disintegrate under her hoof. Then something caught her eye, in the distance she saw a white stallion gallop past.

"Hey wait!" she cried and galloped towards the stallion.

She passed the trees where she'd seen the stallion but he wasn't there. Twilight looked up to see if she could her bearings, above her were more trees but these were in full bloom, she noted that the smaller trees were bare and lifeless.

"Hey Twily" a voice called from behind her.

She saw Shining Armour and galloped towards him, but there was a noise and then "BOOM!" The ground near Shining Armour exploded and Shining Armour galloped off.

"Shiny!" Twilight called and gave chase.

She reached the newly formed crater to see a changling rise from it. Twilight skidded to a halt and fell on her haunches, she staggered to get back as the changling stood above her. As she studied the changlings' face, it was no changling. It was an abomination. The abomination snarled at her and she tried to right herself. The abomination moved quickly, far faster than the ones she actually met. She fired a concussive spell at the abomination who was knocked slightly and then snarled at her bearing its fangs. Then she saw it; the face.

Her mothers' face was one that Twilight could never forget, but there it was in front of her and Twilight tried her hardest to believe it wasn't so. It couldn't be right, this thing couldn't be her mother, but it was. Twilight tried to summon another spell, but her magic refused, she couldn't hurt her mother. The abomination didn't care for Twilights' inner thoughts, it snarled again and lunged at Twilight. She shrieked and rolled to the side and stood up, she took off into a gallop, the abomination giving chase. Twilight tried to remember her teleportation spell, but nothing was coming to her. She passed more dead trees, only focussing on heading in the one direction. Somewhere in front of her the sun was low and shining through the trees, she headed straight for the sun, using at as a reference to escape this forest. As she ran further towards the sun, the trees became more numerous and gnarled. The trees were trying to stop her as she looked for a clear path she saw the bodies of ponies. The trees had grown around the bodies, thankfully she couldn't see their faces.

Twilight found a small opening under some thorny roots and just as well as the abomination had closed the gap between the two of them. Twilight forced herself through and felt a pain form on her horn. She touched it "blood" she took off again at the same pace as before. As she avoided trees she began to make out the faces of the ponies within them. She saw Spikes' claw in one. Applejacks' hat on another, but the worst one was located in a clearing.

Princess Celestias' corpse stood in the centre of the clearing, she was standing on her hind legs in a striking poise with her wings fully flared. There were roots all around the ground and Twilight carefully stepped over them. She approached Celestias' cold body and a tingle ran along her spine. "No...no,no,no,no,no this can't be it" she screamed internally. Her breathing quickened and she couldn't keep her legs still, they were restless and she had to move them. Her mentor remained exactly in the same pose and said nothing. Tears began to run down Twilights' face, she crept further up to her mentor as if Celestia would somehow see her. "This can't be it, this can't be how it ends. Why did you do it? Why save me and not yourself?" Twilight thought to herself. She reached up with her right forehoof and touched Celestias' body. It was like ice.

"Why me! Why send me forward in time! We could have defeated her together!" Twilight shouted, her anger had been welling up all day.

"Yes why indeed," a raspy voice said from the tree-line.

A dark tall figure crept out from the shadows; Queen Chrysalis looked older than Twilight remembered. Her matte black metallic skin seemed greyer.

"Why would the two sisters scatter their salvation to all corners of Equestria and then scatter their bearers forward in time?" the Queen moved closer towards Twilight.

Twilight acted on instinct she fired a spell at the changling Queen who merely vanished.

"You'll have to do better than that" the voice came from behind.

Twilight turned sharply to look directly behind her; there she was. She fired another spell, again Queen Chrysalis disappeared.

"Over here" Chrysalis taunted.

Twilight turned right and fired again. Again, she disappeared and reappeared somewhere else.

"Nope" Chrysalis smile as yet another spell from Twilight passed through her.

This time multiple Queen Chrysalis's appeared, they surrounded Twilight and Princess Celestia. Twilight looked around, there was maybe ten or twenty Queens. Twilight screamed in anger and fired fire spells all around the circle. The trees ignited and the ring of fire caused all the Queens to disappear.

"Boo!" Celestia said

Twilight jumped and fell on the floor. Celestia turned to face Twilight and struck her hooves at the ground. There was a deafening boom as this happened and the ground cracked beneath Celestias' hooves. Twilight quickly righted herself and with a clatter of hooves she galloped into the dense tree-line. She barely noticed the flames licking her body as she jumped into the wooded area.

She ran again as fast as she could, she ignored her injuries and the pain they caused her. She ducked left and then right; avoiding the trees in her path. Then came a blinding light and a deafening rumble. The trees to her right were engrossed in a blinding white light before completely disappearing, the ground left in their wake was concave in shape and scorched. Celestia was trying to kill her. Twilight could see the edge of the forest ran even faster, she changed direction even more as more beams of white light destroyed all her surroundings.

She was nearly there at the edge of the forest when she was tackled by an abomination. It hissed and bared its teeth as it had Twilight pinned to the ground. She fired a spell from her horn, knocking the abomination back. More abominations surrounded her and Twilight tried desperately to run, but they were all around her. She turned one way; blocked. Another; blocked again. One jumped on her hind quarters and she was pulled to the ground. She screamed as the abominations closed her line of escape. She saw the teeth they bared and waited for them to bite her. She closed her eyes and wished for help.

---

She awoke in her library. She was standing in the middle of the room looking at the bookcases. She looked around the room, it was exactly the way it had been left when she had left for Canterlot. Blue sky and bright sunlight filled the windows all around the tree. It was like she'd never left, everything was where it should be.

"Spike?" she called hopefully.

There was no reply. Twilight wondered over to the front door. She gripped the door handle in her magic.

"I wouldn't do that, if one was you" Twilight turned ready to fire a beam.

Princess Luna stood before her. Nothing had changed about her, not in her appearance or the way she spoke. None of this concerned Twilight at that present moment. She broke down. The lavender unicorn cowered on the floor and cried, she made herself small like a new-born filly and stroked her tail. Luna walked over to Twilight and placed a hoof on her mane and stroked it. Twilight let go of herself and hugged Lunas' legs.

"There, there" was all she said.

It was all Twilight needed. She held on tightly for a few minutes until the crying subsided. Twilight knew Luna was able to enter ponies dreams, she'd about it before Lunas' return as Nightmare Moon.

"Why didn't you come the night before?" was all Twilight thought.

"Queen Chrysalis keeps me prisoner, somepony has to raise the moon and the sun" Luna replied.

"You can read my thoughts?" Twilight said

"Yes, only in the realm of the night, my powers grow stronger able to see into ponies minds."

"Why am I here?"

"This is your inner sanctum, a place where you feel safe. If you had opened that door you would be back in that nightmare."

"Can't you stop it?" Twilight asked hoping to never relive this dream again.

"No, I cannot Queen Chrysalis has scarred so many ponies that every night is a nightmare. The longer I spend in the dreamscape the weaker I become. With my sister not here, I only eat when they give me food, I am weak Twilight." Princess Luna looked away.

"But you rescued me? You have enough strength to save me why not other ponies?"

"Twilight Sparkle, without proper rest and food my powers grow weak I cannot save everypony." Luna turned and picked up a book off the shelf.

Lunas' face turned red and the book fell from her magic. Twilight picked it up and looked at the cover, she took went red and placed the book back into the shelf. Every book Twilight had ever read was in here, including the books she didn't want anypony to find out about.

"There is no need to blush Twilight Sparkle, everypony has at some point read adult fiction to get them to sleep."

Twilights' cheeks burned furiously as if someone had lit a fire in both her cheeks. There was no point in lying to someone who could see into her dreams.

"I have seen worse, ponies frequently fantasise about me while they sleep, including my own Royal Vanguard" Luna said while rolling her eyes.

"Don't your bat-ponies sleep during the day?"

"Not all, but we digress Twilight Sparkle. I have visited Cadence earlier to inform her of our next move on Queen Chrysalis. In the next week you will be leaving Trottingham to find the Elements of Harmony. Sadly I do not where they are or how long it will take."

"Who will I be taking?"

"Twilight Sparkle you misunderstand" Twilight looked perplexed, "Thunderer will be leading the outfit, not you."

"Why?"

"You have been gone two years, a lot has changed Thunderer is best suited to lead this mission. He has been looking for a way of forgiveness for a long time now" Luna said half to herself.

"Forgiveness"

"That is a story for another time, when you get to know the ponies you will soon call friends" Luna said smiling.

"Can you just answer me one thing first" Luna nodded, "why send my friends and I forward in time?"

There was a pause before Luna answered.

"The spell was untested, it was more complicated that the one you used to go back in time for a few seconds. We had to scatter you and if we scattered you through time then we would have a fighting chance against Queen Chrysalis. She grows weaker without love from ponies so does her army, but she aligned herself with Discord and King Sombra."

"King Sombra?" Twilight asked, the name rang a bell somewhere.

"Another time Twilight Sparkle, dawn approaches. You can reunite your friends as easily as you did before Nightmare Moon, Celestia and I have faith in you to find your friends and the Elements of Harmony."

"I won't let you down, but there is something I need to see."

"Yes" Luna replied.

"I know Canterlot was destroyed, I need to see it."

"Why? It will only cause more pain" Luna replied sternly.

"I need to see it for myself before I see it when I go looking for the Elements."

Luna paused to think on this. She raised her hoof and stamped the ground.

---

It was evening and somepony pushed her. Twilight stood up but she didn't want to stand, somepony else was doing this. The wind picked up and Twilight felt her mane blow but it felt heavier. The sun was setting on the hill behind Canterlot.

Oh Celestia!

Canterlot stood smouldering on the cliff side, some of the larger towers had toppled and large plumes of smoke filled the sky.

"Why do this!"

The voice came from somewhere deep within Twilight, her mouth had moved to voice the words but these words were not hers, they were; Lunas. Queen Chrysalis stared at her.

"Because you and your sister created this and now you must watch it burn"

She felt a hoof under her muzzle and was forced to look at the castle.

"Is he ready?" the Queen shouted at someone on her right.

"And who better to destroy your home than one of your very own subjects who thought to betray you and Equestrias' darkest hour."

She heard a scream of pain from beside her but she could not see who it was, a horrid smell filled her nostrils. The burning smell was sickening and the screams of pain chilled Twilight to her very core, she wanted to cover her ears but couldn't move. There was a deafening boom and something fast moved through the dusk towards Canterlot.

The explosion caused the whole castle to move suddenly. Twilight watched as her former room began to topple down the cliff. She watched as what was left of the tall towers toppled. In the distance more explosions could be heard and the outer city wall broke apart from the castle and fell down the cliff. She watched as the rest of the city fell down with it.

Noooooooooo! Twilight screamed.

---

Twilight bolted upright. She was barely aware she was screaming. Two ponies entered the room, one mare one stallion. The two ponies were trying to speak to her but she paid no attention. She could feel her body go cold as the pegasus mare used a wing to touch her horn. She felt a jolt of electricity run down her spines, horns on unicorns very very private places. The wing tip brushed her forehead and the remained there, the pegasus exchanged words with the earth pony stallion who ran out of the room. Twilight could feel sweat run down her brow and then; she simply fell to the side.