When the Everfree Burns

by SpiritDutch

Chapter 26: The Esoteric and Apocryphal

Celestia stood at the prow of her airship as it sailed through the evening skies.

Despite multiple assurances from the navigator that it was a straight shot from Canterlot to Ponyville, a thunderous ball of dark cldouds had rolled up the Dneighper River valley and covered the land. It was like a wall, menacing Celestia and her airship from going any further.

The princess counted the flashes of lightning from deeper in the storm. Was someone or something trying to stop her?

"This is a strong craft, but that's quite the storm." The airship captain, a middle aged pegasus mare, trotted up to the bow. "We could enter, but we'd need to take it slow with a pegasus van." The pegasus vanguard would mitigate some but not all of the wind around the ship. It was understood that it would still be very difficult going: Airships were notoriously vulnerable in storms.

"Do it." Celestia nodded.

"As you will commander." The captain bowed, then turned to bellow at the crew. "Get those sails reefed! Helmspony, take us in!"

Like a trepidatious filly getting into cold water, the regal airship slowly approached the roiling bank of dark clouds. The wind got stronger, buffeting them around, though fascinatingly Celestia's mane was unaffected by the gusts.
Right at the edge of the storm, the wind became too strong, canceling out their forward progress.

"Pegasi launch!" The captain ordered.
A squadron of pegasi jumped from the rigging and took up positions just in advance of the airship. Just by their presence the wind began to diverge around them, giving the ship easier passage.

Then, like a acorn being dropped into a deep dark ocean, the airship penetrated the storm.

For the first few seconds it was only cold and dark, punctuated by flashes of lightening from deeper in the clouds. Then, they hit rain. It was a torrential downpour, instantly soaking everypony.

Quite the struggle, Celestia thought to herself. What was it for? Why was she doing this, when she could simply have flown to Ponyville?
She didn't have any answers for herself. Whenever she tried to dwell on it, a muted feeling of numbness in her chest was all that could be drawn out.

They descended to a lower altitude, where the leafy canopy of an apple orchard could barely be seen through dark and rain. Celestia thought back to the last time she had been in the area, when Ponyville had been known by a different, more sinister-sounding name. There had been no apple trees, rather the valley had been blanketed in verdant forest, save for a little patch of houses.

And soon, houses could be seen, as the airship swooped over the outskirts of Ponyville. The pegasi vanguard guided them to an open field, wide and flat enough to land on.

The captain came running up to the bow again. "Commander, our landing block was broken in the wind. We need time to put on another."

"Take your time, but be wary of the cost." Celestia nodded.
The captain galloped off and Celestia was left to her own thoughts again.

It was so close now, so overwhelming. The sleepy village below was overflowing with fear, paranoia, and nightmares. It was impossible to distinguish anypony through the thick miasmatic haze of evil, but Celestia held out hope. Hope that Twilight was fine, alert, and ready to fend off the Dark.

Ready to fight. Celestia sighed. It was wrong. None of it should have happened. How had it even come to this?
If she had been more honest with herself, she would have acknowledged that the situation had only become so dire due to her own negligence. But Celestia firmly, unshakably believed it was not her fault. Whose then?

Celestia had had the entire trip to contemplate things. She had been grasping at answers, only have them slip away.

She thought about the yellow mare, cloaked in black, in her chambers. Celestia heard that arrogant voice, deriding her for being afraid of her own dreams.
Yes... The mare had been right. All the things that made Celestia life worth living had been cracking over the centuries. The dream of Equestria was broken beyond the ability to heal. Celestia only had one thing she could believe in, and that was the foolish wish that she could find fulfillment in the presence of a minuscule mortal that she inexplicably cared for.

"Twilight..." Celestia whispered into the wind. "What would you say to my silliness?"

---

The empress thought back to the very first time she met Twilight.
It had been a beautiful day, and the skies over Canterlot were streaked with feathery clouds. Celestia didn't remember the schedule the day, but she had been spending that morning in the park around the Unicorn School, talking to students and teachers. Back then she'd been active in Canterlot society, especially with the Unicorn School and the University.
She felt it before she saw or heard it. A ripple of magic, distant but deafening, Something significant happened in the direction of Cloudsdale. It was a few moments of silence, as all the students and teachers around Celestia felt it too. Nopony was sure what was happening.

But who felt it strongest, and who did realize what was happening, was soon revealed. For as a strange cascade of rainbow color filled the skies above, the whole Unicorn School was rocked by what seemed to be a nearby detonation. Everypony began to scream and run around.
Celestia remembered calmly rising to her hooves, but then everything got hazy. She remembered a ball of light or... not quite light... where the lecture hall tower had stood. Time seemed to slow down as she approached the ball of light, for whatever thing had created it was competing with the sun's own imposition of causality and continuity.
What fantastic power, Celestia had marveled. She had been too busy admiring the magic to really wonder what was causing it.
Stepping into the sphere of light, the shockwave bubble contracted and the chunks of stone and earth flew back into position, as she literally stepped back in time. She was in the threshold of the lecture room, watching a little purple filly in the throes of agony. She looked out the window, where the rainbow light from the direction of Cloudsdale was spreading in their direction. Apparently the little filly had reacted very, very badly to whatever had caused the rainbow magic.
Then the blast of magic, blooming off the filly's horn to engulf the room. When it faded, Celestia was seeing a few seconds previous again.

Celestia wasn't too sure how time was flowing outside the explosion, but it seemed it had been snarled around the filly. She took a step closer.
The little filly couldn't have been older than 6, maybe 7. She didn't have her mark yet. Standing off to the side were two familiar faces: Twilight Velvet and Night Light. They looked concerned, but practically serene compared to the panicking school admittance officers watching from the seats.

Celestia nodded, things coming together for her. She had vaguely remembered Twilight Velvet and Night Light's auspicious marriage happening, though she hadn't attended. She'd also remembered news of the lucky couple having a colt, then a filly a few years later.

"Hello." Celestia knelt by the convulsing filly. Can you hear me? You're not alone."

The filly, shaking under the uncontrollable power of the magic, whimpered something unintelligable.

"Is this your first time taking an entrance test?" Celestia asked softly.

The filly made an 'uh huh' sound.

"You're pretty scared right now, and that's natural, but you have to get your magic under control." Celestia said. "Take a deep breath. Can you do that for me?"

She filly shook her head in the negative. Her horn was burning brighter, and the rainbow light outside the window was getting brighter. There was going to be another explosion.

"Why not?" Celestia asked.

"T- The..." The filly whimpered. "The screams..." She finally took her head of her hooves. The fur of her cheeks was damp with tears.

It was not lightly that Celestia intruded on other ponies' minds, but it was likely everypony in the room was going to become completely detached from causality unless she calmed the filly down somehow. So she gently reached out with a hoof and held the filly's head.
She saw hundreds of desperate faces, young pegasi, lost and confused, caught up in a maelstrom of rainbow color. They looked to each other, then to the older ponies watching over them, as the rainbow light gradually erased their bodies. Then they all began to scream, utterly terrified, as they realized what was happening.
Celestia withdrew her shaking hoof. A sonic rainboom had just consumed the Cloud Creche, and the little purple filly was like a lightening rod for the anguished echos rippling out from the event.

"Don't be scared." Celestia comforted as best she could think to, but as she had never been that personable or maternal with anypony it felt awkward. "They're not going to hurt you. They were afraid, but they're at peace now."

The filly buried her head in her hooves again. "No they're not."

Celestia didn't remember how the conversation went from there, but it lasted a long time, through several repetitions of that snarled segment of time, until little Twilight Sparkle finally calmed down enough. The exhausted filly let Celestia pick her up as the Sun's light finally reasserted itself and the bubble of magic dissolved.
Unfortunately the examination tower was still blasted apart. Celestia, Twilight Sparkle's parents, and the admittance officers. reappeared in a crater in the ground.

"You're a very powerful filly, but that means you will be placed under more careful scrutiny and pressure here." Celestia passed Twilight back to her confused and dazed parents. "But succeed, and Equestria will have a place for you. It is for the talented to rise above the circumstances of their birth based on their merit."

Twilight had passed out, but as soon as they realized what was going on Velvet and Night Light began profusely thanking and apologizing to Celestia. Celestia hadn't been listening. She was feeling a joy, and a kind of satisfaction she could not explain. Twilight Sparkle was abhorrently powerful, and in Celestia's experience that only produced bad ponies, who invariably destroyed themselves delving too deep into the secrets of pony and divine nature. But maybe, having caught on right at the beginning, she could stear that power in a good way, and forge a good pony.
That had been her hope at the time, her dream.

Had she betrayed that dream, by sending Twilight away to Ponyville? Was Twilight ready?
Or had that one-sided covenant been broken when she let Twilight leave for the University?

Most importantly, was it all broken past her ability to repair?

Because in Twilight, Celestia saw something. The answers, to a lifelong fear so deep within pony psychology that it had taken years before Celestia understood what it was. She was not, after all, born to understand ponykind, merely lead them.
Yet understanding the fear inside her didn’t help, or perhaps even made it worse. Was it unbecoming of a Princess to fear the inevitable, common, overwhelming fact?

Fear of death haunted Celestia like a shadow.

On the longest day of the year, many centuries ago, Celestia opened her eyes for the first time. She awoke fully formed in the body of the sun princess, able to speak, able to walk and think, but devoid of memories, personality, maturity. She awoke in a castle, the ruler of an empire.

The first months were torture, learning what the world was while leading a nation. The diminutive normal ponies told her about the succession, about the lineage of Celestias who came in with one Summer Sun and left with the next. The mother sun did not want her daughters staying over long, they joked.
Child in an empress's body, Celestia had struggled to feel out the world around her. Immediately she felt the presence of the sun in her mind, guiding her gentely but firmly. The ponies under her were less patient, patronizing as they followed her to make sure her explorations did not cause any gaffes for the regime. “Oh these Celestias.” They laughed. “Always so funny to see them learn.”

Like many ponies in emotional adolescence, Celestia took issue with the ridicule. She did not like to be compared to the previous Celestia. The lords protested, citing all the work they’d had to cover while this new Celestia found her bearings, same as every year. But this Celestia was not placated. Indeed she was very annoyed, and was unfamiliar with the unquantifiable power under her control.
So, her first experience with death was that of her own fiery holocaust which consumed Canterlot castle, purging the offending advisors. For the first few minutes she had laughed childishly at making the bothersome ponies go away, which slowly devoled into wall-shattering sobs at the profound loneliness she had just caused for herself.

Equestria at large was not sure what happened. When things began to fell into place the ponies were angry, but patient. Though this Celestia might have offended them, it would only be a year before she left and Celestia took her place. A new regency was established for the last few months before Celestia could begin taking care of herself.

Only, Celestia had been overcome by a most bizarre affliction. In her tantrum where she’d murdered hundreds of ponies she couldn’t have understood the consequences of her actions. A month later she wandered her way into a sick house, and bore witness to the stages of decay and death that mortality inflicted upon ponykind. It was then that the horror of her murderous act, of her solar fire burning away the flesh and fat of her screaming advisors, dawned on her. It frightened her immensely. It frightened her more than anything had any right to frighten a nigh-immortal god alicorn. It could, the Celestia standing on the prow of her airship could admit in reflection, be called obsession.

But the ponies around the young Celestia spoke about death as a necessary nuisance, cynical bureaucrats that they were. They comforted Celestia that the closest she would come to death was the succession, where she would return to her mother sun to make way for the next Celestia.
But death for normal ponies, as the princess learned, was finality. Awful, awful finality. She couldn't help but wonder if she too would be embraced by that finality.

So a year later when her time came to rise back to her mother in the skies above, Celestia flew into the air past what anypony could see, hovered for a moment, returned back to the podium. That was the only 'succession' she was going to offer ponykind or her mother.
On official documents, the number ticked up.

She did so for the next nine hundred years. nearly a hundred sucessions that ponies thought took place was the same Celestia putting on a show.
The alicorn ponies knew as Celestia the 179th was not, in fact, the 179th, but the 99th.

As the years wore on the started alternating years she pretended to succeed, then let the gaps grow to five and ten years. The documented term of Celestia the 178th lasted thirty years. The term of Celestia the 179th had lasted two hundred.

At first, longevity was unimaginably pleasing for Celestia. She read and explored, teaching herself more than the previous 97 Celestias combined. She rediscovered ancient history. She flew over the oceans, and learned the ways of the griffins and zebras. She found aged and terrible things in the heart of the Mountain, relics from Celestia I. Truly, save that great progenitor, first of the sun princesses, this Celestia was the greatest of them all.

But eight-hundred years was a long time. The Celestia was getting tired of fear, tired of fighting off death. Tired, the key word, began to define so much of the last century. Life, the greatest and most defiant fight against death, began to seem pointless and repetitive. Every pony innovation and every pony discovery in exploration bounced off her. Living had lost it’s color.

And then two interesting somethings happened that fought against the creeping apathy.

In the far north, in a village on the crystal river, a pink pegasus unlocked the magical power of emotion and love. By some marvelous accident she underwent a transformation into an alicorn. When meditating on the immense question that provoked, Celestia could only draw a certain unclear message from the formless thoughts of her mother sun: BEHOLD THE LOVE OF THE GODS.
Celestia suddenly had an adopted niece. Routine at the castle was immediately broken, and the sun princess’s heart recovered a bit of it’s energy each day.

Inevitabely, other creatures were intereegued by the new alicorn, and Celestia’s encountered in those devious magician's, the Stars. Phyte, lounging as she did under Canterlot, was not hard to find and conquer again. However it came to light that the other Stars were getting up to odd and intriguing things

Prismia was languishing somewhere near Crystal Crossing, with the much more dangerous Shale. The others had dispersed of died over the centuries. The most treacherous of them all, the fallen alicorn Astral Nacre, disappeared without a trace. For the first time in decades, fresh ideas coursed through Celestia’s brain.

Then the afore-thought encounter with Twilight Sparkle.

It took time for Celestia’s mind to reawaken, but as the life seeped back into her she created a plan.
Ideas, dreams, and ponies could die. Celestia could not, would not. If progress and the attainment of a great dream required sacrifice, Celestia could think of no great offering than the htousand year old dream of Equestria itself. Yes, the Equestria was her sacrifice for the furthering of the most compelling of all mortalkind's desires.

"This rain, has made me thoughtful, hasn't it." Celestia whispered to herself. She felt cold, a very rare feeling for her. Fate willing she would never have to feel cold again once she had her hooves around Twilight Sparkle.

---

Elsewhere, in another space, less powerful ponies were sacrificing things far more dear to them for the attainment of their dreams.
Chasmic tears were forming in the fabric of the dreamscape. On the top of the eternally tall tower, the three corrupted ponies and the Nightmare stared at each other in silence. They awaited their escape back into the waking world, where the fulfillment of their twisted agendas was just beyond grasp.
Soon, they agreed with haughty, tired, and angry glances. They thought they were ready to do what nightmares did. it was very quiet not that the manifestations were gone.

After a while the silence, one of them spoke.
“Why a tower?” The coal coated earth pony nightmare with the withed apple mark asked.

"The pegasus understands." The ponylike figure of the dream said, it's featureless body shifting to face the nightmare Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, do explain.” The smooth black unicorn nightmare with the blue diamonds said. “I know you’d love to spell it out us simple pon-, nightmares.”

The figure shook its head. "No."

"Arrogant little thing, aren't you." The nightmare of Rarity scoffed.

"He/she/it is hinting at me, you know." The nightmare or Rainbow Dash said.

"Yes but I want to hear it from her." Rarity pouted.

"You won't." The figure assured.

Rainbow Dash cut in. "My friend... former friend..." She paused. "The griffin I heard the story from left out details."

"Don't feel bad about that. You already know you're not explaining for their sake." The Dark figure said, amused. "You do it for you own sense of worth. Explain however you want."

"Um, alright then." Dash cleared her throat, slightly emboldened. "We are on the Tower of the Bard."

"Is that supposed to mean something to us?" The nightmare of Applejack arched a brow.

“It is from the mythology of the Bard, a pony tribe in northern Sahella. It says all the world was unified in one species and herd, industrious and powerful. But there was something they knew was missing. So they built a tower into the sky, tall enough to wave at the sun as she passed by. The gods were displeased by this, and destroyed the tower and the city the Bard had built under it. Destroyed by the god powers, ponies transformed into monsters, resolving into the griffins, zebras, hippogryphs, and camels, and other species.”

"That was more correct than I expected from you." The figure praised.

“It all sounds like Xenophobic garbage. What difference is there between me and any other creature. None, save that I am more powerful and beautiful.” Rarity said disdainfully.

“Xenophobic? Even mistranslated as the pegasus made it, you should have been able to pick out the theme.” The figure said mockingly, shaking its head back and forth.

“When I get out of here we’ll see who condescends to who!” Rarity shot up, glaring fiercely. Rainbow and Applejack warily got to their hooves too.

"Don't get upset. It will sour the parting. Which..."

As if to pierce the tension, the black streak of color the black void of the sky sky ripped wider. Splashes of space began to evaporate from existence as the dreamscape cried out. It was ready to disburse its guests back into their own bodies.

“Say hello to Celestia for me.” A teethy gaping smile clacked along the Dark figure's face.
As Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash's conciousness of the tower faded, they saw more and more eyes open up around them, in the sky, on the floor, and on every inch of the the figure's body. “And tell the princess I will be there soon.”

---

But other creatures, more malevolent still than even a nightmare, were waiting.

Unlike her slow and gradual fade, Twilight’s reintroduction to consciousness was sudden and brutal. With a sharp crack, the nightmare magic of the armor pieces dumped her on rough hewn cobblestone.

“Urghh.” Twilight groaned, letting the rain sizzle on her scorched horn. As she shifted to her hooves she noticed right away that the steel blue artifacts had attached to her during transit. The horseshoe had found its way to her right forehoof, and the oversized cuirass was now buckled around her chest. She was now wearing the oversized nightmare armor, and it fit about as comically well as a filly trying on their parent's clothes. Twilight kept it on since it didn't hinder her movement too much.

To be walking the Everfree Castle in an uncontrolled storm, this time in real life and not just in a dream. The place seemed so much more haunting to Twilight, seeing it through her own eyes. The scale of the ruins, collapsed buttresses like cracked ribs poking into the sky, had never fully translated. Twilight shivered, and it was not because of the rain.
Standing there for real felt... chilling. It was like she was trespassing on the sacred ground of a Dark heaven. It didn't really make sense, and Twilight preffered it that way.

"I'm here to save myself, not to delve into secrets." Twilight told herself.

Something the dream had communicated well was the castle layout, and Twilight could tell instantly where she was. She took a step forward, then another, took a breath, then broke into a trot. She negotiated the familiar halls and courtyards she had never been in before, until she was at the threshold of the throne room.
It was real. The lost throne, that had graced her dream with a private and elusive sort of wisdom, was available to any and all who searched for it. And indeed, something had. There was an interloper.

"Hello?" Twilight called out at barely above a whisper, droned out by the rain. "Who's there?"

Muttering, chanting, buzzing. It was difficult to tell what the sound was over the rain. A dark figure rose and fell over the altar at the head of the room, making ritualistic gestures that filled Twilight’s mind with unwelcome thoughts. It was like something out of one of the lethal tomes from Canterlot that she had read.

Stepping slowly around the model solar system at the throne room’s entrance, Twilight approached in full sight of the creature. It stopped moving, twisted its head around, and watched Twilight carefully. When she came within twenty hooves of the raised thrones, the nightmare armor Twilight wore dug into her consciousness with icy teeth, getting excited by the proximity to the other pieces sealed into the altar.

“You're not who I was expecting. Who?” Twilight asked the creature.

“Chrysalis.” The thing answered, it’s voice smooth and feminine but definitely not pony. It had an almost vibrational quality. Somehow it remained dark and indistinct despite the radiant glow of the altar it stood over. “I bring darkness. This is my altar. Do you like it?”

"You made it?" Twilight asked. The creature did not sound entirely sane.

"It's mine." The thing said with more insistence.

“Are you a nightmare?”

“A nightmare? Ha ha ha!” The thing who called herself Chrysalis chuckled. “The ignorant may call me that, but I am not a nightmare.”

This Chrysalis claimed to be something dangerous enough to be equated to a nightmare, and that gave Twilight pause. But what was it? “Come out where I can see you.” She demanded.

“That goes against me nature, I’m sad to say. I don’t like to be seen.” Chrysalis scoffed.

“Shy?” Twilight asked. The pain in Twilight’s head was growing. The armor was getting impatient to be reunited.

“Oh no, not as such.” A slight flutter was heard as Chrysalis moved around the altar. “I don’t want to scare you.”

“I doubt too many things could scare me anymore.” Twilight fought the uncertainly she felt begin to creep into her. She hadn't come looking for a fight. “You’re none of them.”

“Ha haa.” Chrysalis buzzed. “I’m all of them.”

Twilight’s eyes, adjusted to the darkness of the room, were blinded by the column of magic that encapsulated the creature before her. At first she thought it was dragon fire, but this green flame translated it’s caster’s shape, not it’s location.
When the air cleared, Nightmare Moon was looking down at Twilight with seething rage.

Twilight teleported backwards out of strike range, though it was unusually difficult this time. Nightmare’s scowl broke, and she chuckled. “Understand me now?”

Twilight dropped the barrier spell she’d been preparing. “A changeling. You’re a changeling.”

“As I said,” Chrysalis wearing the form of Nightmare Moon repeated. “I’m all that you fear.”

“Oh, you must have my mistaken for somepony else then.” Twilight cleared her throat. “How do you know what Nightmare Moon looks like though? That's just like her.”

“That's..." Chrysalis's face contorted in confusions. "How do you know? And why aren't you afraid.”

“You’re so full of it.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Now please get out of the way. You're in the way and I don't want to fight you.”

“Why would you want to fight me? Do you think knowing what I am disarms my magic?” Chrysalis sounded amused, but her expression became strained. "You want to destroy my altar, don't you. I won't allow it."

“I need to access it. I won't destroy it if I don't have to.” Twilight eyed the altar in question, glowing a faint blue. “Come on. You're not really going to try to stop me. I can hardly feel your aura. I bet you're nearly dead from hunger.”

“You're dismissing me. I don't like that. I’m more than just a changeling, Twilight. I don’t scare you because we’ve only just met. I’m being nice, ha ha.” Hearing Nightmare Moon’s manic laugh every night for a month, Twilight found the malicious giggle the face now expressed very creepy.

“You know my name huh. You've been in Ponyville.” Twilight narrowed her eyes. "Did you put the the horseshoe in Rarity's house?"

“Who? What horseshoe?” Chrysalis asked sourly. “Don't try to confuse me! Of course I was in Ponyville, every once and a while. Mostly to make sure nopony was coming back for my altar."

"Oh come on. Do you even know who made it?” Twilight growled, taking a step forward. “You don't belong here, and you have no idea what it's for.”

“Of course I know what it is!" Chrysalis was getting properly angry. "Communion with the Dark Lady. Can't you see how it glows? Her ladyship's presence is so close. I..." Her charade visage wavered, and she glanced back at the altar several times. "You can't have it. I know how much you want it, but you can't. No no no, this is my for my dream only."

"We can work something out-"

"You thought you were being clever, sending your little pet dragon in ahead of you. Thought you could distract me and sneak by my unnoticed. No chance. I can make you fear in ways other than just showing you a nightmare.” Chrysalis's visage of Nightmare Moon was engulfed by green flame. The new shape the changeling assumed was of much smaller stature.

“No no no.” Twilight whispered, eyes widening. “What have you done to Spike?!”

Spike’s voice was perfectly imitated and twisted into an arrogant yawn. “He's resting all comfortable somewhere in the castle. I did you a favor, plucking him out of the rainy Everfree, all alone and lost. Your irresponsible, aren't you Twilight.”

“Let him go.” Twilight struggled to keep the pain and anger out of her voice.

“If you leave and promise to never come back, I'll release him after a few days. I won't touch a scale on his head. That's fair, right. Hmm... Almost too fair. You leave that with me too.” Chrysalis pointed to the armor on Twilight chest. “With that, I'll hear the Dark Lady even clearer! Oh oh, that makes me giddy."

“That's not going to happen.” Twilight said, barely keeping herself together. If it didn't mean certain death, she would leave, but as it was the nightmare was going to overwhelm her in less than a day. Then there was the problem of Celestia's imminent arrival. All of that was worth suffering to get Spike back. Only... Twilight had to believe she could save both herself and Spike. If she gave up hope the nightmare could consume her all the sooner. "I can't leave without seeing that altar, nor with Spike in my hooves."

“The noblepony is making empty threats methinks. Leave while your baby still gets his life. But if you fight me…” The visage ofSpike drew a clawed finger across his throat. “Shhhiiiich! I will put him in the same grave as I put you.”

“I’ll.. I…” Twilight took a deep breath. “I have a confession to make. I was lying earlier too.” Twilight’s face was changing. Her sorrowful sulk turned into a barred grimace. Her ears laid back, reducing her profile. As fury overwhelmed her the blackness of her pupils grew out until her eyes were as dark as her hate. “I DO want to fight you.”

---

Since Twilight and the fillies had left, Dorctor Horse was left in the hospital with not much to do. His three patients, Rarity, Applejack, and the unknown blue pegasus, were still laying inertly in their beds. He wished the nurse Redheart would get over her ailment soon so he wasn't the only pony doing shifts.

"Good good is this boring." He yawned, shifting position in his padded chair. It had to be getting close to ten or eleven, and the rain outside sounded like it was not going to let up any time soon. "I'm gunna call it a night."

He stood up, but noticed out of the corner of his eye that Rarity's horn was sparking and glowing faintly.

"Huh?" He frowned. Strange magical discharge was so-far an unseen symptom of the plague. He trotted over to Rarity and listened at her barrel with his stethoscope.

To his shock her heartbeat was strong and extreemely fast. He wouldn't have expected that from a pony after a sprint race.
He yanked his stethoscope away from sleeping pony's barrel. After a second of confusion, he lay his head against her side, confirming what he'd heard.

“That can’t be right! That’s way too fast!”

Faster and faster Rarity’s heart raced. Almost hard enough to shake her body in its bindings. The soft glow from the room's firefly lantern began to dim, as the little bugs fell dead to the bottom of the jar.
Then, her heartbeat began to slow, back to what was normal for a sleeping pony.

“That can't be healthy.” Doctor Horse nibbled his bottom lip.

Rarity’s eyes fluttered.

---

"I'm profusely sorry about how long it's taking. Things weren't well maintained and... I have no excuses. " The airship captain bowed. "But we should be putting down within moments."

Celestia declined to say anything. She wasn't even listening. The dark aura hanging over Ponyville was beginning to recede, and she couldn't guess what that could mean.

The captain looked up from her prostrated position. "Commander?" When a response was still not forthcoming she raised her voice to be heard over the rain. "Princess?"

"If we are going to land... Do so immediately." Celestia glanced down at the captain. "We're about to hit some turbu-"

A shockwave slammed into the airship, sweeping every pony and every thing off the deck. The hull twisted, and the masts shattered under the torsion. The perforated balloon was partially carried away as the shockwave rolled over the hills. Within moments the prow had disintegrated into splinters. Ponies and timber came crashing down. The hard landing folded the upper decks of the airship into the lower ones, crushing anypony remaining inside.

From a hundred meters away at the edge of Ponyville, three darkened figures twice as tall as a normal pony shared satisfied looks before turning their back and galloping in the direction of the Everfree forest.

Celestia was tossed fifty hooves’ lengths away from the wreckage. The shreds of her dress did nothing to protect the dozens of cuts and bruises on her skin from the violent rain. Very slowly though, the red was washed away and replaced by white skin and fur as Celestia’s magic healed her.

The princess rolled herself upright. The rain-soaked field was alive with the pained screams of the surviving crew of the airship. But that was not her her concern. The shockwave had been laced with darkness and magic. The nightmare in Ponyville was starting to manifest physically. Pushing herself of the ground, Celestia flew above the storm clouds and circled around Ponyville, trying to get a read on the auras of the Dark creatures somewhere below. She wondered for a moment why it was so dark, even above the oppressive weather. She looked into the sky.
There was no sun, and there was no moon. Only stars, twinkling dimly but intensely. But one in particular the brightest.
In the reflection of Celestia’s eye, it grew so large and dazzling that it personated a second sun, and burned greater still. Then it collapsed, consuming blackness wrenching apart the stars around it. The sky was marred by fallen stars.

The blinked, and the strange vision ended. Celestia was still on the grass, dirty and surrounded by the dead and dying.

"This rain really has made me thoughtful." She rolled into a sitting position. For real this time, she jumped into the air and hovered over the town.
Three blips of malignant energy, like sunken pits that her magic could not feel, who moved quickly south and east into the Everfree Forest. Now that the nightmare aura had faded, Celestia was much more concerned what she did not feel.

Twilight was not in Ponyville.

Casting about desperately, Celestia brushed against a pulse of energy emanating from somewhere deep within the Everfree. It was recognizable, but barely so. Twilight must have been using a tremendous amount of magic to be able to be felt so far away. The only optimitic thought

Sweeping her wings powerfully, Celestia danced along the cloudtops behind the trio of nightmares. Still flagging from the exertion of healing herself she knew she wouldn’t be able to catch them, but she wouldn’t be be far behind them arriving at the Everfree Castle.

---

If she had been thinking clearly, Twilight would have been more reluctant to use her repeater of heating and electrical spells, massively boosted into attacks, for they were as dangerous to herself as to Chrysalis. The jets of fire she summoned turned the relentless rain into superheated steam, and the arcs of electricity arced randomly and almost burned her own tail.
But Twilight did not care that much. Aggravated beyond logic, she cast randomly into the steam, hoping to tag the changeling. It was exhilarating and empowering using so much magic, letting her destructive instinct run wild. The nightare in the back of her mind urged her on.

As soon as the assault began Chyrysalis jumped away and transformed again. With the incredible agility of her new zebra form, she careened and somersaulted over Twilight’s spells, but made no attacks of her own. In the low visibility Twilight sent out spells blindly in the direction of the changeling's feint aura, but there was no real chance of getting a solid hit. Occasionally Twilight would hear a grunt or squeal when she got close with her lightning or steam, but Chrysalis was enterally silent otherwise.

“Now I know how Nightmare Moon felt when she was hunting me.” Twilight grumbled. The entire throne room was steamy now, with the rain very slowly washing it away.

“Was Moon dying inside, eaten gradually by the corruption inside her heart and mind?” Chrysalis’s mocking question echoed off the stone. “Would you ever have won by just waiting? Because I will. The light is gone from your eyes, and very soon it will be gone from your soul. I won’t have to lay a single hoof on you. Hee hehe hee!"

“You’re making it very easy for you to justify killing you.” Twilight howled, charging her horn. With short bursts of kinetic magic she cleared the area around her of steam.

Chrysalis buzzed delightedly from somewhere in the shadows. “Aww, you sound so cute saying that. Death, like a petite little mare like you has any idea what that entails. I'll show you though."

“I’m medically trained. I’ve seen death, the dying, the living.” Twilight began to advance on where she thought her adversary might be. “I’ve seen one convert into the other.”

“But changing one back…” Chrysalis’s tone turned contemplative. “That is a right reserved to the gods. It's something I yearn to earn, by listening closely to the Dark Lady's voice.”

Twilight snorted. “Isn't it great that I get saddled with the haunting nightmares, spending every night with Nightmare Moon, when you were so much closer and much more willing."

“Y- You idiot! You mock the Dark Lady by comparing her to the petty alicorn pretender!” Twilight dodged a chunk of rock that sailed out from her right. She responded with a bolt of lightening into the shadows. Again she dazed herself with the crashing thunder, but Twilight saw movement in the brief light.
Chrysalis continued. "Infuriatingly ignorantly little pony. You disrespect the Dark Lady with your existance. I'm going to enjoy torturing your pet dragon to death."

Twilight's blood boiled. "Keep digging that hole for yourself."

"You should be on your knees begging that I may reuse your worthless hide after I kill you. Who knows, I may give your corpse over to Master, once he is returned to us."

“Master?” Twilight licked her lips. A proper noun, not a title... Twilight remembered Nightmare Moon mentioning something by that name. "You're lucky he's not here or I'd have to discipline him too."

“You squeak like a filly when you say that! Just darling.” Chrysalis voice echoed from behind her. “If I had known how amusing you ponies were I would have taking one of you sooner, for amusement. Then again your stupidity is annoying enough I will be happy to leave this place.”

"Show yourself and I'll alleviate you of the annoyance.” Twilight mumbled.
She took a calming breath. Chrysalis was toying with her, but not from a position of strength. It was clear that the changeling didn't have the power to face her flat out. If she could she would, because under the mocking and madness, Twilight could tell Chrysalis was desperate. She kept moving positions, but was sticking close to the altar.

With a clearer head, Twilight saw change of tactics was necessary. As long as Chrysalis kept her angry and off balance Twilight would never win.
She used fire and electricity as a medium of attack, but that was not her talent. Magic was her talent, and the lethal tomes had told her about death in terms of magic. If Twilight wanted to cause death, there were ways. Oh yes, there were ways.

“Except... I don't have to see you” Twilight closed her eyes. “If only I focus a little harder...”

Like when Celestia had first taught her, Twilight felt the magic of the world. As the ebb of energy passed through her, she read the places it had been and the forms it had taken. With far greater clarity and detail than her vision, the world around her drew itself in her mind.

At the far end of the room, slinking behind the cracked stub of the sun throne, was a spindly insectoid monster. The black and teal chitin outlined a shape not unlike an emaciated alicorn, but for the serrated horn, asperous legs, and perforated translucent wings. Membranes hung off her in the places a mane and tail would have been, gouged and torn.

Destroying this thing would be a mercy.

"Tell me Twilight, does your current murderous compulsions feel normal? You're a sick little pony." Chrysalis's voice was not coming from the direction she was in at all. The clever bug was using magic to project her voice. "Don't you care about what is right, Twilight. Let me save the rest of the herd from you. It's the right thing to do."

Twilight reopened her eyes. Her head was hurting more than ever before, but grim concentration drove her now. "The best debaters say stick to one strong argument instead of weakening your point with multiple weak arguments." Under her magical will, the remaining steam cleared away. “There’s no hiding anymore, changeling. I've got your pattern. Give me an honest honor duel, like we do in Canterlot."

“Revealed, am I. But alas, not so fast. I can see in your eyes, little Twilight, that the Dark is too much for your little pony mind.” Chrysalis buzzed. She was still in zebra form, but as she approached the center of the room green magic reshaped her into her propper changeling queen shape. “You don’t need to stay with ponies, Twilight. They are devious, deceitful creatures. Let the nightmare change you, join you to the Dark Lady's will.” Chrysalis cocked her head. “I feel a certain connection to you. Kinship maybe. Can you feel it?”

Twilight widened her stance, battle ready. “Buck off. The connection I am about to feel is your innards around my hoof. And that’s no lie. Get ready.”

Twilight’s movement’s were fast. In a flash of magic, she teleported above Chrysalis and in the same moment scoured the stone beneath her with fire. Chrysalis barely avoided the flames by propelling herself forward with her wings.

Turning quickly, Chrysalis sent a lance of green magic into the air towards Twilight. Twilight teleported again, onto one of the surviving columns at the edge of the room. With the advantage of hight, she waited for Chrysalis to make the next move.

“Being a changeling queen is a right earned through the blood of the competition. It is a right I have. I obey only the gods now.” Chrysalis walked the length of the throne room, eyeing Twilight cautiously. “You're a powerful whelp, with no experience.”

“I agree. You’re my first practice target.” Twilight followed up her words with a barrage of kinetic spells. The most that missed punched out chunks of the wall behind Chrysalis. The one that hit flattened the changeling to the ground. Chrysalis, groaned, tried to move, then slumped.
“Gotchya.” Twilight cackled.

After several seconds of no movement, Twilight teleported to the altar. It glowed with a hazy blue light tempting her. Twilight reached out to touch it.
That proved to be a mistake, as the nightmare armor pieces assaulted her mind with renewed vigor. Twilight seized then collapsed, her every thought preoccupied by the tremendous pain and pressure exerted against her being.

"Oh shhhh-" She strained to move her jaw. Her head was a battleground between her own thoughts, her nightmare, and the armor. Every thought was torn away, shredded in the mental mealstrom. "GgGgGHhhhhh." She fought with all her might to keep conscious.

“I should have mentioned that changelings dislike this kind of direct confrontation. Cloak and dagger has always been our style. You fell for the oldest trick in the book.” Chrysalis was above her now. "But why does it reach out to you, and not me? Yes I feel..." The changeling pressed her chitinous head to the cold metal of the cuirass. "The dream is calling to you, repeating your name. It wants you to bring you closer to her. How... infuriating."

Struggling somewhat, the insectoid queen lifted Twilight with her green magic and placed her atop the altar. The cuirass dug into Twilight’s skin, yearning for unification with it’s other fragments beneath her. Her teeth were clenched so hard they threatened to shatter. The pain was unreal, omnipresent and she was losing conscious fast.

A flash of green, and Chrysalis had returned to form of an indistinct haze that she had been when Twilight first entered the castle “The cloak.” A sickening snap echoed through the room. Chrysalis levitated a cracked and jagged piece of chitin, a part of her back that had caved under Twilight kinetic spell. “The dagger."
Chrysalis paused, admiring Twilight's agony. "I'm jealous. I'm very jealous.

It is a shame that I’ll have to sacrifice you now. I really did like you.”

She drew the dangerously sharp shard up, ready to strike.

“That’s enough now darling.” A smooth, lubricous voice washed over the room at the volume of a whisper.

Twilight could barely manage to sense new arrivals in the throne room. They were dark and terrible things, powerful yes, but conflicted.

“You… nightmare... wherefore have you come here, and how?!” Chrysalis, immensely confused, stepped between the altar and the newcomers. "W- What kind of trickery is this."

“I've kicked a lot of changeling flank, and that was before.” A quick and haughty voice said.

“We are something more now.” Finished a measured manehattan accent. "It's not for you that we were elevated."

Chrysalis digested those words. “Could it be that the Dark Lady has sent you to me. H- Has she finally answered my prayers!”

“Do excuse us darling, but we don’t know you.” The smooth voice said. “I doubt the Dark Lady does either.”

“W- What? I’ve listened to her for months, protected her altar!” Chrysalis yelled. “I deserve, nay, I DEMAND her attention!”

A slight hiss from the altar under her was the only indication anything changed, but at the same time, everything was felt different. The horrible pain was gone. Gasping for air, Twilight let a dribble of magic sooth her frayed nerves. To her confusion, the battle in her head had ceased.
She opened her eyes. She now was laying on a small pile of rubble, the grainy stone that had once been the altar. Attached to Twilight’s hooves were three steel blue horseshoes, completing the set. An ornamental helm of the same effulgent metal rested on the ground nose to nose with her. The form and scrolling designs etched into the blue metal were distinctly late-classical. It was beautiful, in a way Twilight couldn't have described with ten years and a thesaurus. She wanted to embrace it, fawn over it. It was, in a word divinely made.

“You were the one all along, connected my dreams to the moon.” Twilight whispered to the helmet. "I almost forgive you, but I can't while my soul is still in jeopardy. First thing first though..."
She turned to face the confrontation brewing in the center of the throne room. She saw the new arrivals. Three massive ponies, their coats and manes shades of black and grey, faced off against the defiant form of Chrysalis. They really were nightmares incarnated, as Chrysalis has said.

The one speaking was a towering unicorn. “You don’t sacrifice others to gain the dark lady’s favor. You sacrifice yourself.”

“Down yourself in your sin.” The earth pony agreed.

“You toss yourself to the dogs.” The pegasus approved.

“Do you have any idea who I am?” Chrysalis screeched. “I spread corruption across Chitin for a century, in solitary worship of the darkness! One soul is a pittance for the millions I’ve brought into misery. The Dark Lady surely understands that!"

Together at last, Nightmare Moon’s armor was calm, apathetic to Twilight’s soul it had so voraciously attacked only moments before. If anything it seemed to be giving back, as Twilight felt rejuvenation and relief like she’d only felt after hunting a pony. She felt brooding, invisible yet massive at the same time. She clicked her teeth to make sure they hadn’t transformed into fangs like she imagined. Nightmare Moon’s soul power felt lethal in her hooves. She picked the helm up, flipped it around, and slid it over her head.
Thoughts surged through her head, telling her she deserved the power she felt, and how her anger and wrath were forces of her own justice. It was not arrogance to exercise that power, just respect for what fate and skill had delivered to her.
Twilight vowed to the armor to keep an open mind.

“Actually… I do know who you are.” The grayscale pegasus stepped around her larger compatriots. “Chrysalis. We met, on a foggy morning in Neighjing. Do you remember the fight?”

Twilight looked from nightmare to nightmare. Her stomach churned in a battle between guilty queasiness and the combative nightmare energies coursing through her. The corrupted ponies were unmistakable. Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash. It was not hard to find the common thread.

“I remember.” Dash was smiling. “The whole city was at the gates of the viceroy's compound. He told us mercenaries to fight them off while he fled. That sorry sod got himself stabbed in the back. But when the changelings overran us, they weren’t out for blood or treasures, but that little amulet Gilda stole.” Dash stared intensely at the queen. “It was because of you. You wanted the amulet.”

“You have the amulet? Do you have any idea…” Chrysalis seemed at a loss. “Please you must give it to me. With the Dark Lady’s power and the amulet I can release Master from it’s curse!”

Rarity chuckled. “Are you daft? The Dark Lady doesn't care about you. She doesn't care about any of us. Heaven isn't going to come to you, changeling. You have to reach for it. Honestly, you call yourself a Dark creature? Ours is not a philosophy of charity. You stole the alter, but all you have did was sit on it! For shame. For shame."

“I- I have earned her attention a hundred times over!” Chrysalis yelled.

“Apparently not” Dash teased.

“I was uncompromising, in the name of the darkness! I... It..." Chrysalis started stuttering and babbeling, her eyes darting around the room. "I-
It’s time darkness payed me back. I was… uncompromising.”

Applejack threw a snide look to her comrades. “Payback is coming, friend. Accept it in peace.”

Chrysalis was confused.
“What ar- Kkhhaaaa!”
The queen’s rattling scream whistled through the sudden blockage in her neck. She clawed at were her throat had been, eyes wide with terror but no way to express it.

Twilight took a step back, her horn sliding out of Chrysalis with the grating of chitin on ivory lubricated by the changeling’s blood. What gore had stuck was washed by the rain.

Chrysalis fell forward, her newest hole spilling her life out, diluting the rainwater pools on the throne room floor. Facedown she gargled into the ground, her lungs struggling for their last breaths. For a long minute she fought to stay alive, writhing weakly. She managed to turned her head enough to look back at her executioner, eyes pleading for mercy.

"This is for Spike. Goodbye."
Taking pity, Twilight crushed her heart with her magic. Chrysalis’s body ended it’s convulsions to rest in dilapidation.

The rain pattered on.

Twilight breathed slowly. The crumpled changeling queen had looked pathetic in life, and death did her no favors. Her horn still tingled from the feeling of the stab, cracking chitin and tearing flesh, punching all the way through to the other side. While Twilight’s emotions refused to register anything, she knew that visceral kill would never be forgotten. But on another level she felt satisfied, for all that hate had been vindicated.
But the longer she looked, the more that satisfaction washed out of her. Twilight had acted on impulse, and on anger. Spike's captor, and possibly his murderer, was dead. Her truest friend was lost, while she herself was loosing herself to the nightmare more every moment. There was no way, Twilight thought, that she would get out of this alive and sane, not with three nightmares staring her down. There was no way she’d get to say goodbye.

"I don't know if I have enough time to contact Nightmare Moon and learn the ritual." Twilight mumbled to herself. "Why didn't I do it while the Changeling and the nightmares were distracted? Stupid... I've sealed my own fate haven't I..."

“Lady Sparkle. You're looking just amazing in that armor. A bit oversized though.” The nightmare of Rarity acted like the execution moments before had never happened. “The nightmare has drawn us to you.”

Silent, Twilight took a step back for every step the nightmares took forward.

“The nightmare thinks you have the right tools to learn heaven's secrets. All very esoteric stuff. I'm not sure why she hasn't consumed you yet, honestly.” Rarity continued, letting a little acid in her words. "What makes you so special, hmm? Why do you get to break the rules and still take all the rewards? That changeling was right to be frustrated with you."

Backed up to where the altar had stood, Twilight stopped retreating. The nightmares kept their distance.

“You must know what the nightmare wants from you, sharing headspace with it and all. It's not too much, is it?"

"No, I don't get a clear message. I wouldn't even believe it was sentient, if you weren't telling me so." Twilight said quietly. "It's a beast, amoral and hungry. It just wants me to eat and kill."

Rarity puffed her cheeks in annoyance. "No no, It wants you to actualize the tower. It needs you to reach up into heaven and tear out its secrets."

"They don't teach that in school." Twilight replied coldly.

"Then ask your friend on the Moon." Rarity said.

“I've been the nightmare's tool long enough. If I'm going to die I can at least make you you are to be its, and my, last victims." Twilight frowned. "I'll fight you if I have to."

“You want to fight more?” Rarity purred. “Though your actions towards your friends has been less than friendly, surely you wouldn’t fight us.”

"You can't deny this is your fault we're like this." Applejack concurred.

"If you didn't want to deal with us, you should have just killed us." Dash agreed. "If you're gunna hurt a mare, do it so bad they can't hurt you back."

“It was the nightmare that drove me to it all in the first place!” Twilight’s yell was bolstered by the cold rage Moon’s armor stirred within her. “Do I look like the kind of pony who is happy doing this, causing suffering? Think I came to Ponyville wanting it to end like this?!"

Rarity pursed her lips. "You look the part right now."

Twilight felt a chill, and a tingle on her horn like the changeling blood hadn't fully washed away.

"If you didn't have the guts for this, you wouldn't have made it this far." Rarity went on. "This nightmarish affair has entranced you, hasn't it?"

"I don't have to answer that." Twilight hissed. "I'm the victim here."

"Did you enjoy killing that changeling?" Applejack asked.

"Did you enjoy how a dream tasted?" Dash nodded.

"Or even now, as you bear that nightmare alicorn's armor, you can't help but feel comfortable in the presence of the Dark." Rarity grinned. "You like it. Admit it, you like what the Dark has given you."

"It stuffs my head with feelings I can't control. Good feelings, that I wouldn't mind feeling again. All the same, it's going to kill me if I let it." Twilight grimaced. "You talk about my nightmare like its some high-minded dreamer. It's not. It wants my body and soul. Once it has me, it will turn on you and destroy you."

The ponies-turned-nightmares were given pause.

Twilight feeling more confident that the nightmares would not attack her, took a few steps forward. She looked up at them, shielding her eyes from the rain with a hoof. "You came here ready to coerce me, didn't you. Now you're having second thoughts about acting out my nightmare's urges."

"It would be unwise to underestimate it." Rarity rumbled. "You haven't seen her dream. You haven't seen the Tower. She won't be undone by our petty treachery."

"She really is something else entirely. A pony apart." Applejack said.

"Nightmares are nothing more than parasitic dreams. Like what I'm talking to, you're not really the ponies I knew. You're muddied reflections of them." Twilight narrowed her eyes. "I don't even need magic to tell how haphazardly converted. The nightmare didn't eat you. It was slapped on you like a coat of paint."

Rarity shook her head. "Don't mistake us, Twilight. We are the way we are because this is the form she had us take."

Twilight's brow knotted. That went against everything Nightmare Moon had told her about the nightmare. Nightmares ate the dreamers and used their bodies, like it was trying to do to her! The facts she had built her plans on were being stripped away. "Then when I talk, I am talking at least in part to the pony underneath. Why? You should be dead."

"You should be too. I wouldn't question it. By this point, we are both in a mess greater than we can understand." Rarity said. Twilight detected a hint of reverence in her tone.

"I reject that notion." Twilight scowled. "From the very beginning this has been a game of information. The more I tear into the secrets of the nature and mechanics of the nightmare, the closer I've gotten to finding the perfect cure. I'm close, really close. There's only one thing in the way and its you."

"How?" Applejack asked.

"You're going to try to stop me." Twilight hissed.

"Well... Our actual purpose is unclear." Rarity hesitated. "What the nightmare wants from you is something known only to you and her."

"And I've been saying that's not true! It's not sapient! It doesn't want anything, besides in an animalistic sense." Twilight said exasperated. "It's a parasite, gods damn it. Any intelligence it has comes from me! My dream!"

The three nightmares turned stone-faced. They glanced between each other.
"That means..." Dash mumbled.

"Yeah, don't act surprised. Anything you nightmares want is an extension of the pony underneath." Twilight grumbled.

"No not that." Applejack grimaced. "Your dream... Your dream is what the nightmare has been building in."

"And the Tower is your dream. Twilight Sparkle has been the one all along." Rarity licked her teeth, a distant look in her eyes. "I don't understand. The Dark is... The nightmare is..."

"You're talking nonsense." Twilight shook her head. "But as long as you're having this identity crisis, are you going to let me reach out to Nightmare Moon and put an end to this horrible night?"

The sullen nightmares had no answer.

"So you're just going to soak up this rain while I work? Fine by me." Twilight turned her back on them.

"Wait." Rainbow Dash coughed. "We will cooperate."

"Cooperate." Applejack nodded along. "Like the dark figure said."

"It's staring to make sense." Rarity agreed with her fellows. "We have to help you Twilight Sparkle. However there are some inescapable truths, and something we need from you in return."

"Once I figure it out for myself turning you three back should be no problem." Twilight consoled.

"Something more immediate." Applejack said gravely. "Because as we've been talking, something has been coming this way."

"And if there's no quick and easy solution to this, we need your help." Dash said.

"Get to the point!" Twilight barked. Negotiating with the nightmares was going to take more time than fighting them would have! They lobbed the talking stick around the room like it was a council meeting!

"As we awoke in Ponyville, in this form, there was an airship hovering over the village. We attacked it, and left." Rarity said evasively, like she was afraid of Twilight's punishment. "We had no way of knowing. She was hiding her aura."

Twilight's heart sank as she realized who they were talking about. "All you did was alert her to your presence."

"Yup." Dash sighed. "It's why you need your help. With that armor, you might just have enough power to help us survive against Princess Celestia."

"Even if I didn't feel guilty for putting you in the situation, I would stand by you." Twilight sighed, closing her eyes. The armor around her was feeling colder and colder. Fate had it out for her. Every possible impediment to salvation was hurtling her way.

How had it come to this? Twilight had naively thought she could have cured herself by the time Celestia arrived, so she could present her pretty face and play ignorant about the Dark happenings in Ponyville. With Celestia heading her way, there was no chance she wan't going to be caught red-hoofed. The punishment for her heresy would be swift and brutal.
Could she resist the princess? Could she even withstand a single disappointed look, before her heart gave out and she presented herself prostrated and crying to her highness's justice? Not that it would save any of them them from the fire. Nothing on the Bright World could stand up to an alicorn.

"Because once the princess realizes what I've done, everypony in Ponyville is dead anyway." Twilight said softly. She was equally horrible and equally tainted to the nightmares standing before her. How ironic that months battling against the nightmare would end with them struggling alongside her against her revered princess. "I hope you're able to stand up to her more than you did to me. If not get ready, ready to see powers beyond our mortal comprehension."

Comments

[DarknessLilly]

another very well written chapter.