When the Everfree Burns

by SpiritDutch

Chapter 28: Meet the New Gods, Same as the Old Gods

The howl of wind and groan of wood was getting louder by the minute. What a storm, Sharphoof Lightdowser thought, the likes of which heaven would only ever send as a challenge for a pony seeking their destiny.

“My lord, if we get any closer to that storm we’ll be torn apart.” His airship captain said nervously.

Lightdowser paced around the deck, eyeing everything the crew was doing and forcing the much shorter captain to scurry to keep up with him. He didn't know the first thing about airships but he hoped his presence would inspire the airsailors to do their best. “Did Celestia’s captain tell her the same thing I wonder?”

“Celestia’s ship is far sturdier than this one, my lord.” The captain admitted. "And she probably had pegasi to steady the storm.

Lightdowser scowled at the black clouds ahead. "I come all this way to be denied at the last stretch. Isn't this so familiar."

"My lord..." The captain tugged at his collar nervously. "The storm will pass."

"But in how long? Will the chance have slipped away?" Lightdowser asked nopony in particular. "I left Canterlot for this. What the empress is chasing is worthy of my desire as well."

The captain sighed. "Should I take us in then?" He asked in trepidation.

Lightdowser eyed him, as if judging him craven.

"I- Is that a yes my lord?" The captain coughed. Why were the best paying nobles always the strangest?

"Haruph." Lightdowser turned away. "Hold us to a safe distance."

"Yes my lord." The captain breathed a sigh of relief.

Sweeping away from the side, Lightdowser made for his cabin at the rear of the ship. He looked up at the sun, arisen in midnight, and thought about how it must feel to hold that kind of power under his hoof. Did it feel any different from acting a levitation spell, or was it more like ordering a loyal retainer into an impossible battle?

He slipped inside the cabin, where one of his knights was waiting for him. "The way is blocked then."
Mis Lead Lock, his senior seneschal, was a deep grey unicorn with a silvery mane. Her narrow blue eyes gave her the look of being constantly peering at something far away. Age had begun to introduce more streaks of grey to her mane and tale, which she usually hid behind the visor of her helmet. Indeed she was a pony used to conflict, but she had traded that to be her lord's glorified secretary.

"Our princess eludes us." Lightdowser's voice remained even as he trotted to the desk shoved into the corner of the tight space. He pulled a bottle from a drawer and took a small sip. "Hmm, I do like this Canter honey ale you bought in the capital. Quality lubricant for more defeats to come, shoved one after another down my throat."

"You punish yourself too much Sharphoof." Lead Lock shifted on her hooves. "This nation will not be improved by resigning yourself to defeat."

"Yes I know." Lightdowser bit. "I get capricious when faced with hard walls like this."

"Then why do you try anything?" Lead Lock chuckled.

"Why indeed." Lightdowser put the ale back in his desk. "You have something to tell me, or where you loitering in my cabin for the villainous fun of it?"

"Ahem, yes. Illustrious Valor has been acting strangely." Lead Lock reported.

The black earth pony had been immediately thrown in the airship's small brig once they had cast off from Canterlot. Lightdowser did not want Velvet's agent walking freely, even if she had been the one to suggest going after Celestia.

"A cry for attention." Lightdowser rolled his eyes.

"More interesting that that."

“I will hold you to that claim. I suppose since we’re not going anywhere anyway, I might as well see her.” Sharphoof grumbled, following her down into the the hold. The airship creaked around them. At the front of the musty and dark space, where the creaks of the ship were amplified tenfold, was a cell. The black earth pony mare was pouting.

“This dress was brand new. Now look at it!” She held up a torn and tattered lace skirt. "Who's going to pay for a new dress."

“You weren't wearing a dress when you came onboard." Lightdowser said.

"Zero sum dress." Lead Lock grunted.

Rolling his eyes, Sharphoof trotted to the front bars of the cell. “I still can offer apologies on the dress, but you understand I was pressed for time when we left Canterlot.”

“And now we aren't moving. Something to do with the wiping wind I hear through the hull, a storm maybe?” Valor smirked. “Kinda a case of hurry up and wait, hmm?”

"This inactivity is the price of haste. Better to be here for an hour than arriving an hour from now." Sharphoof sat down facing her. They two stared at each other sizing, judging the opponent's pose and expression. "So Mis Valor-"

"Call me Iillor, please."

"Very well, Iillor then." Lightdowser let a slim smile display his amusement. "Let us not cloud this discussion with deceit. To begin with I must know if this was all a ploy to draw me away from Canterlot?"

"Nah. I just wanted somepony to take me south." Iillor said. "No real reason for getting you to take me, other than you were open to being convinced."

"Impertinent commoner! My lord, let me throw her off the ship." Lead Lock growled.

"I'm in this cell to humor you mis." Iilor said cooly.

"Patience Lock, there's more talking yet to do." Lightdowser glanced back at his knight.

"Then I'm killing her. She's a spy anyway." Lead Lock continuing to stare at Iillor, like a rabid cougar. "You know I won't stand uppity commoners my lord."

"Geeze. Is killing anypony who bothers you something you mountain unicorns do often?" Iillor arched a brow.

"I'm from Vanhoover. In those wild forests, the commoners treat their protectors with respect. If they don't it is at their own peril." Lead Lock said proudly. "Once we're on firm ground I'll show you what I mean, mudpony."

"Something to look forward to." Iillor leaned back on the cell's dirty cot, a silly smile spreading over her face. "And you, lord duke? Duel a lot?"

"I've not the time nor the willingness. Such things are best left to whose who live by the sword." Lightdowser settled into a more comfortable position. "I win most of my battles by being one of the most important dukes in Equestria. With that kind of station, all to few stand against me."

"I don't like winning. It sets a bad precedent. I'm fantastically happy half-assing my way through this world." Iillor yawned. "Really, nothing gets me off like failing."

"The mark of a pony who is afraid to judge herself against others." Lightdowser narrowed his gaze. "Do you make no account of yourself?"

"I have no deep ties to this world. I have the liberty of picking and choosing who I am responsible to." Iiilor said. "I have no place in your system or lords, ladies, and serfs."

Lightdowser digested this. "Society rejected you, and you reject it."

"I am fundamentally outside society's ability to understand." Iillor countered.

Lightdowser rose to his hooves. "May I come in?"

"In the cell? Well sure." Iillor smirked. "I'm already on the cot, after all."

Lightdowser's frown deepened. "Lock, your sword please."

Lead Lock grinned as she held out her modest arming sword, which Lord Lightdowser took in his magic. He unlocked and stepped into the cell, to stand over the reposed earth pony. "Do you think the world will celebrate your conviction to your arrogance?"

Iillor scoffed. "You're kidding right? Are you trying to draw me into a philosophical argument?"

"Forgive me. In my mind, I must be substituting you for Lady Velvet." Lightdowser grunted.
He whipped down the sword, cutting straight through Iillor's torso and the cot underneath to embed in the wood of the hull.

Iillor looked down at the enormous gash in her side. Her organs and tissues reconnected themselves and her black hide knitted back together, much to Lead Lock's shock and Lightdowser's stern amusement. "That hurt you know." She sounded offended.

"So it is true." Lightdowser yanked the arming sword out and tossed it behind him. "And earth pony who can do magic like never seen."

"Technically correct." Iillor shrugged.

"Fascinating." Lightdowser knelt by the earth pony and rubbed his hoof over the rehealed flesh. "What a find you are. However did Lady Velvet get so lucky?"

"Dunno."

"What is more, how did she keep you?" Lightdowser straitened up. "Lady Velvet attracted quite the odd ensemble of ponies to her. In common, they shared only an abstract desire to improve the world. How did you fit in among such a cast?"

"Because I liked her." Iillor shrugged.

Lightdowser snorted in mild amusement. "More simple than I expected, and more forthright."

"I'm not complicated. If you're looking for a broad with depth, you should have ignored me and stayed in Canterlot. Lady Velvet would have shown you sights like you couldn't even understand."

"As tempting as that sounds, Celestia's goals appeal to me more." Lightdowser shook his head.

"For what, the sake of their simplicity? Boy, you have no idea what you're messing with." Iillor chuckled. "And no, before you ask, I don't know for sure either. Again, if you wanted that deeper understanding you're craving you should have stuck with Lady Velvet."

Lightdowser stepped out of the cell, but he did not close it behind him. His brow was subtly knitted betraying his deep thought. he focussed on Iillor, but she was not the object of his thoughts. "Clearly..." He said after a while. "I am to be constrained by ignorance. So be it. I do not need more information to act on my dream. However I would wish that my son not be so constrained."

"Say that again more strait forward." Iillor arched a brow.

The duke hesitated before he spoke. “I need a tutor for my son, Risky.”

“Uhhh, is it still me you[re talking to? The last time I saw the inside of a classroom it was because I killed the mayor. Don't ask how those two things are connected.” Iillor rolled into a sitting position.

"I would not ask you to cover any math or rhetoric clearly. I ask you to share your understanding of magic with him." Sharphoof said.

“I got that. But it's pretty obvious I'm not teacher material.” Iilor clarified. "As you can see, I'm kinda a jackass."

“My distaste at your character is slightly overcome by my optimism. And… possibly by my curiosity as well.” Sharphoof admitted. "Show me more."

"You mean like this?" Iillor dissolved into black mist and reappeared on the other side of the bars of the cell. "Or like this?" A gleaming horn of black ivory coalesced on her head. "Or something as simple as this?" Lead Lock's fallen arming sword hovered up to her cushioned by a cloud of darkness.

"My lord, I get the feeling we're being played for a fool by a Pan or an Eris." Lead Lock muttered.

"I'm not a god by any stretch. Heck I'm not even an elder sibling. I just..." Iillor shimmied her shoulders as she sought the right words. "Uh... Yeah I don't like this kind of self reflection. Can we get back to talking about teaching and stuff?"

"Mis, I would be content maintaining a separation between us." Sharphoof said. "Indeed I would hardly care if you continued pursuing Lady Velvet's goals so long as they do not harm us."

"Are you offering any pay?"

"Taking you south should be pay enough." Lead Lock said forcefully, trying to reassert herself in the fact of Iillor's strangeness.

"Nah, I told you to leave, and that saved your lives. That makes us even right now." Iillor argued. "I'm not going to ask for much, just some leeway when it comes to what we find with Celestia. It'll all depend."

"I loath making open ended promises." Lord Lightdowser frowned. "You must be reasonable with your demands, Mis Iillor."

"Yeah yeah! I'm feeling this. I'm going to be a teacher!" Iillor giggled. "Hey if you do me a little favor I'll start right bucking now. Tell me I'm pretty."

"Sharphoof!" Lead Lock exclaimed aghast.

"Calm down Lock. I’m long since divorced, and it does no harm.” Lightdowser turned away and trotted for the stairs back up to the main deck. “You are actually very pretty, for an earth pony.” With that he climbed out of the hold.

Iillor was grinning like a guilty filly. Lead Lock was not nearly so amused. "And again I clean up the messes my lord makes." She glared angrily.

"Don't be jealous. Thirty is a bit on the old side for me. Divorcee with a kid, nah." Iillor kept her goofy smile. "He is cute though. Did you ever meet Shining Armor while you were in Canterlot? That's more my type."

"Debased mare, I'm not going to gossip with you." Lead Lock's nose twitched in displeasure. "You're capable of understanding yes?"

"Yeah." Iillor sighed, slightly disappointed that was all the rise she was going to get out of the knight.

"Then right this way m'lady." Lead Lock started on the way to the middecks.

Iillor followed close behind. "Call me Iillor, not m'lady. I renounced all ties with the monarchy quite a long time ago."

"What kinds of ties were those?" Lead Lock asked, vacantly curious.

"The more revealing answer would be 'what kind of monarchy' " Iillor joked. "It wasn't one anypony should bother to know about."

"Sure." Lead Lock grunted.

They arrived at one of the larger middeck cabins. The airship's rocking had diminished and the wind was somewhat quieter, as it had backed off the storm.

"So, right in here?" Iillor asked.

"If you harm Master Risky, it doesn't matter what you are, I'm still killing you." Lead Lock bared her teeth. "You got that?"

"See if I don't beat you to it." Iillor winked, then ducked into the little room.

Risky Sharphoof was reading a sizeable book at the single seat table by the room’s round window. He glanced up only long enough to see who his visitor was. "Hello." His voice was a higher pitched version of his father's. "Are you my tutor?"

"Woah, Velvet said you were small for your age, but you're like tiny." Iilor appraised.

Risky just stared at her.

"Eeeh, bit of a sore spot? Sorry." Iillor giggled nervously. She didn't want to hurt the colt's feelings. "To answer your question, yes, I'm supposed to be your tutor. Never thought I'd be saying that this morning."

Carefull, slowly, Risky closed his book. "You're a friend of Lady Velvet too? I met her when my father met with her in Canterlot. She's the pony who invited him."

"Yup. Me and Velvet were working together."

"With magic? What were you working on?"

"Aren't you the nosey one?" Iillor teased. Risky looked mortified. "I was joking." She quickly said.

Risky slowly unwound from his anxious seize. "Oh. Mis Lock tells me jokes sometimes. My daddy doesn't usually like foreigners, but he likes her."

"Foreigner? I can't place her accent."

Confusion flashed across Risky's face. "Huh? Oh... She's from Talltail. Sorry. A lot of ponies at the castle call anypony not from the mountain foreigners."

"Ah yeah. She did mention something like that." Iillor nodded. "You must not get many visitors to the mountains then."

"Nuh uh. My daddy owns Evening Keep. The commoner ponies call in Evenin Kee. Commoner ponies have lots of funny names for things. It's way high up, but not like Canterlot. It's in a crag surrounded by mountains. Noponies visit, or leave."

"Sounds lonely."

"Yes. It is." Risky had a very distant look in his eye. "I don't think anypony likes it there. Mis Lock wasn't born in the mountains but even though she lived with us for years, she can't be at home there. The commoner ponies don't really like it, mostly because of my daddy is really mean sometimes. I'm... I don't like it either. My daddy is the only pony who isn't lonely. I think he talks to the mountains, and they're his friends."

"Huh." Iillor grunted. "He talks to the mountains? And to think I wrote the guy off as just another sociopath politician."

If Risky cared that his father was being spoken ill of, he buried it under his sullen frown. "Um, what is your name Mis?"

"Illustrious Valor, but my friends call me Iillor."

"Wow. If I had a name like Illustrious Valor, I'd say it all the time. Much better name than 'Risky' ."

Iillor shrugged. "Don't knock yourself, Risky's nice. But yeah, 'Illustrious Valor does have a grandness, an epicness, that makes it cool. But it fit my father better than me. I guess you could be happy you're not Sharphoof Junior."

A wry smile threatened to show on Risky's face. "My daddy is fine. I think you're projecting."

Iillor was taken aback for several seconds, before shifting to a lighthearted scowl. "That's cheeky, sir. I'm surprised a little colt like you can throw around words like projecting."

"It may not be my super special talent, but Mis Lock says I have a gift for understanding ponies. I'm… usually not good with ponies though, like talking with them, or doing anything." Risky nibbled his lip. "I make my tutors upset at me. My daddy probably didn't tell you that."

"Hey, it's pretty hard to upset me."

"Then you'll show me?" Risky said, hesitation covering a barely contained excitement.

"Show you what?" Iillor teased.

"The magic. That's what you're going to teach me, right?" Risky said. "Daddy's really worried I'll never learn any magic. That's why I've had lots of teachers, and why they all get mad at me. But you're like me!"

"An earth pony, you mean." Iillor's smile flattened. "You say that like its bad."

Risky pouted. "I mean... It is when I wanna do magic."

Iillor plopped down on Risky's tiny bed as she explained. "I don't do unicorn magic. That takes concentration, talent, and spells. I don't have the attention span for any of that, and kinda missing other things too." She pointed to her head, and lack of horn. "What I do need nothing like that stuff. A simpleton could do it. I just takes understanding."

"Understanding of what?"

Iillor voice was low, conspiratorial. "An understanding that should come quite easily for you. It's everything that separates you from ponykind, and it’s power is the crack between. Just know what makes you imperfect, and embrace it. Know your failings, and use them to twist the failings in the world around you."

---

And at the heart of ponykind's dreams, the weight of their sin was indeed crushing down on them, harder and harder, until legs failed and spines shattered. And those who resigned themselves to the death of the dream reveled in the suffering, for the death of the old was not only expected, but necessary for their new paradigm.
Death. Death. Sel Lech's hooves were stained with blood, and though it burned he pushed himself to bathe in it more. It was what he expected from himself. He slowly slid his sword back in its sheath, waiting for the throbbing behind his temple to subside, and looked around.

The floor of Celestia’s throne room was so appallingly covered with blood that it was the dry areas that stood out starkly. The bodies of the noble speakers were piled against the walls high enough that one of the glass windows had cracked from their weight. Not even in the most horrendous of nightmare could the remaining ponies have imagined a slaughter like they had just committed.

Twilight Velvet strode around, using her magic to create dry patches or cover them up. Gradually, a pattern was emerging, a bizarre and twisting ring of lines that hurt to look at.
"Yes. Very nice." She nodded. "Evocative, isn't it Seacrest?"

Seacrest sat slumped on the first step up to the throne dais, his eyes vacant. "Lady Velvet... How does it work?" He murmured to the ground. "How can you expect peace, when you've sent so many souls away with this as their last sight?"

"When the cost of peace is too great, there is war. When the cost of war is too great, there is peace. When to cost is too much, one can chose at whim." Velvet put the finishing touches on her arcane etching, and with a grin of grim satisfaction, turned to face the throne. How perfect it all looked: A court of the mutilated, overseen by the throne forsaken by its empress. There could not have been a more fitting artwork to commemorate ponykind's re-nascence, a bloody liberation from the tranquil but oppressive womb of alicorn domination. They would be fetal no longer.
"Tell me honestly, do you think any of these ponies deserved to exist in the new world?" She asked the room. "They were thieves. I did not, could not, respect their existance. They did not strive for the sake of a dream, but instead for a depraved and animalistic sense of power over their fellow pony. They were like... covetous infants. You can not reason with them, for their minds are just too undeveloped to understand you in any meaning full way." Her grim smile stiffened. "We refuse to let their ideology poison the new world. They have been strangled in the cradle."

The room had no answer for her. Not a peep. The mutinous sun shone murkily through the now blood-spattered glass, reminding them that there was still a world out there. Maybe that world did not reflect Twilight Velvet's retelling of it. Maybe it did. None of them had the courage to check for themselves.
Not Sel Lech, Foaly Flux, Molar, Hauseway, Rain Gnash, Fleetfoot, or Seacrest.
For Night Light, standing by Velvet's side, his was a bravery not to check. For perhaps everything they'd done was for nothing, should the cosmos not turn like they required.

"What ruthlessness." Rain Gnash could barely control her throat. "How could god let us do this? Isn't she watching, guiding us?"

"Said the mare who ordered the Wonderbolts to attack striking factory workers. Did god guide you to that decision? Does our covenant with her necessitate union-busting. Oh Gnash, you should know better than anypony here that what we're doing is just and necessary." Velvet strode towards the throne, taking careful steps over the pattern she had made in the blood. "Here at the end of her suzerainty over Equestria, it becomes less about whether god will let us, and more if she will anything to stop us. Presently, signs point towards no."

"But Velvet..." Hauseway was trembling. "We've tolerated this because we made ourselves trust that your dream was one worth realizing. H- How can we sustain that? How!" He cradled his head, smearing blood across it. "This is a nightmare. These ponies... I knew them. They were my friends! What have I done..."

Velvet slowly climbed the stairs up to the throne. With her magic she grabbed Seacrest by the collar and dragged him with with her. She set the limp stallion on the throne. "Did you not feel these reservations when we were disemboweling the city guard? You're weak, captain."

Night Light was a few steps behind her. In his magic he carried the black lacquered Blackhorn Armor, it's straps loosened and dangling like a mishapen jellyfish ready to wrap itself around its prey.
Night Light gripped Seacrest head as she forced the armor onto the prince's body. "The ancient lords of Canterlot used to wear this armor, even before they had the name of Blackhorn. They called it the Black Lord, not only for its color but for its soul."

"It does not matter that you don't share that Blackhorn blood. The armor will allow you to play prince all the same. Just as you always wanted." Velvet snugged the straps, making them tight. "Can you feel its heartbeat, hear its whisper? No... The Black Lord died long ago, and this is its hollowed carapace alone. But even the shell of what it was, it can do amazing things."

"What is this theater?" Fleetfoot muttered, watching the affair. She glanced over to Foaly Flux, the late arrival, who had brought the armor with him. "Admiral, what's going on?"

"Velvet's put somepony on the throne, and I highly doubt its Seacrest." Gnash said. She looked into the empty eyes of shocked faces on the bodies with intact heads. "Is this the price of usurpation? Could none of this have been accomplished without the sacrifice of these ponies?"

"The sacrifice is ours too. We've stained our souls black." Fleetfoot said. "I'm starting to wish I fled with Spitfire."

"And I'm starting to wish I fled with Lightdowser." Gnash mumbled. "But at the same time, maybe we belong it this pit of psychopaths."

At the other side of the room, Molar was carrying the last few bodies and shoving them on the pile. His robe was soaked to the knee withe blood on the floor, and more on his back from the hauling.

Foaly Flux watched silently. He didn't really care about the operatics at the head of the room. "What a final act, huh?"

Molar shrugged the last body onto the pile, then turned to face Foaly. He was inexpressive besides a small frown.

"Any of these sods could have been me, them I. Doesn't it make one wonder why some of us are alive and some of us aren't?" Foaly asked. "Some ponies go out early for their obvious dumbass-ery, arrogance, or hubris. I'll shed a single lonely tear for that lot. Can't count the number of times I tried to join their ranks."

Molar continued to stare in silence.

"I'm too old to act like a young fool anymore. I'm left alive. Alive and wondering. How did death pass me by, when it swung so low to collect everypony around me?" Foaly's voice dropped to a chocked whisper. "My parents, brothers, and sisters. Only a few days ago, my nephews too. Now..." He gestured around the room. "Was joining this inexorable force called death the only way to lift the pain in my chest? Why isn't it working yet? Why do I still feel so empty?"
He shook his head. "Do you think I'm depressed?"

Molar shrugged.

"I have no sense of fulfillment. I've done some goofy things back in the day. But how acidly I hate myself when I think back on them and laugh. I have nopony to laugh with. They're gone. All gone. Meanwhile my blood stays bound up in this body, yearning to get spattered against some dirty cobblestone, to no avail."
He looked back to Rain Gnash. "Is it fitting that its come back to blood now? Blood of the wellborn nobles, an inch thick underhoof. The blood of the princess, running too thin in our hearts. And ours... Our strange blood..." He looked at his own hoof, like he was examining the vessels and coursing blood under the skin. "How did you feel when you learned? I felt weird in my own skin, more than usual. I don't even have a shape or name to attach to the space thing that met my maw of how many generations back. Just an idea... The idea of the other." He looked up to Molar again. "You came to Canterlot to look for change. Got it in spade didn't you. How does it feel to be so unponylike? Does it match our unponylike blood?"

Molar had no answer.

"Ooch, I don't suppose it matter much. The blood is going to get out soon." Foaly licked his lips. "And the other will too. Here's hoping, my mute friend, there's a smidge of overlap between us going and her coming, so for a blink we can see a sight of god. Maybe it will make hell the more comfortable."

Did they detect that their time was running out? The words came fast and passionate; Last, desperate exclamations into the strange midnight, an affirmation of existance.
“If this all falls apart... I can at least be satisfied I got rid of these pissant speakers.” Hausseway muttered to himself. He spit at the ground. “No, they weren’t my friends. No... Buck them. I’m glad they’re dead. The Estates stuck their noses into everything, interrupting royal guard business all the time.”

Sel Lech continued to wipe along his sword with a cloth. Though the blade itself had been returned to a pristine shine, the stain he tried to wipe away was of a psychological nature.
“I never had the pleasure of their interference. Then again I’ve only had the captaincy for half a month.” Sel said, mind distant. “But like Lady Velvet was saying, are they who you are really angry at?”

“Don’t presume to know me, Sabonord.” Hauseway stuck his nose up. “You’re time in Lady Velvet’s circle is not going to stack well against my experience and acumen. If you want to keep your place in the future administration, I suggest you be more humble.”

“As you say sir.” Sel said noncommittally.

“Didn’t you grow up jumping from court to court, begging for scraps to survive on?” Hausseway arched a brow.

“Something like that.” Sel said. In the eyes of a high and mighty noble a well-to-do courtier might as well be a starving dog, even a courtier with a noble ancestry.

“Didn’t you hate them, resent them for being so much better off than you?” Hausseway grinned. “Did cutting these presumptuous lords make you happy?”

“I don’t hate anyone.” Sel said, flipping his sword over to inspect the other side. “I’d get jealous, sure, but at the end of each day I saw that despite the castles and money, they were a pony just like me with their own troubles and concerns. Now they have no concerns. I never had to deal with ponies wanting me dead before I met Lady Velvet.”

“Don’t be grim.” Hausseway chuckled in an uneven, uncertain way, like it was what he thought was expected of him. “With Lady Velvet we’re going to get everything we want and need. No more barganing. I should be happy, ha ha... Happy, yes.”

Sel flipped his sword over again. His face in the reflection was splattered with blood and guts, his mane and fur dirty with flakes of bone and tissue. He made an experimental effort to wipe it away, and just spread it further. What god could sanction this? With his worship, would the night grow darker or brighter?
“Happiness and hope will keep you alive, Captain.” He muttered under his breath. He wasn’t sure if he spoke of Hausseway, or himself.

“I’m starting to collect the pieces of the story.” Rain Gnash was whispering, her eyes following Velvet’s motions as she made the Blackhorn armor snug over Seacrest’s body. “Fleetfoot, the math behind all this is starting to make sense.”

“Not to me.” Fleetfoot whimpered. “If you’ve figured out why we did this, are you going to let me know?”

“I wouldn’t because its too uncomfortable, you think?” Gnash turned her sharp eyes back to her Wonderbolt. “I... I might not. Absolute fact and truth has brought us here. But I can’t believe Equestria has all been a lie to this point. If everything is a lie, how do we communicate meaningfully? The only way to advance would be to erase any medium that can support lies. And that means... It’s as Lady Velvet says: We can’t let more than one dream guide ponykind.”

“Then this project is to make the dream real?” Fleetfoot frowned.

“To manifest it. To elevate it. To... bring it into the real world of ponykind.” Gnash worked out the logical thread in her mind. “Fleetfoot this does not bode well. I’m begining to worry less about Cloudsdale’s representation, and more its survival.”

And the late arrivals. The doors of the throne room creaked open.
“HelloOOoo?! Anypony here? Canterlot's streets are as quiet as the grave and abandoned as my love life. And the castle too? Where is everypony?” Blueblood rounded the corner and stalked agitatedly into the throne room, Aurthora Airy a step behind. As their faces twisted into revulsion manifest, it was clear they were not expecting the veritable dadaist gorehouse the the hall had become.
“Oh lord and ladies above...” Blueblood gasped for air. “Y- you’ve killed the Speakers! You killed them all!”

“Not quite. Duke Flux is still with us.” Velvet made the last adjustments to Seacrest’s armor, then turned towards the room at large. “A shame you were missing, but all in all you didn’t mess too much Blueblood, Aurthora. Actually I should say you’re timing was great.”

Blueblood’s trembling gaze flicked from Velvet to Flux. The duke shrugged. “But my lady...” Blueblood took a reluctant step forward. “These were my friends, my allies! Why, Aurthra and I are now the only ponies of the Black Horn Council left!”

“You didn’t have us out on the goose chase so you could dispose of them without us interfering, did you?” Aurthra asked bluntly. The large mare was holding herself together better than Blueblood but was clearly also severely shaken. “My lady, this feels like a severe betrayal of our trust.”

Velvet nodded. “I understand. Have you anything else to say?”

Blueblood shivered. “This is very upsetting Lady Velvet. I... I lodge my strong objections to this act.”

“Noted.” Velvet looked around the room. “Is that all?”

Blueblood and Aurthra looked at each other, then back up to the throne. “Um, yes, my lady.” Blueblood whimpered. “We will take our places now.” They shuffled to the side of the room and waited awkwardly for further orders.

“With that, we’re all here.” Night Light said, looking to Velvet. “Any reason to delay?”

“Just a one.” Velvet said. “The ingredients are gathered. We can start the show once we pull in the full audience.”
With a flourish she whipped her dress off, revealing the dagger strapped around her barrel. Sel Lech and Molar recognized it, but to the others it was a shocking and odd sight: A serrated and cruel blade, designed to maximum inflict pain.

“That dagger has teeth!” Rain Gnash squinted. “The reports said the city guard captain Barley Bale died to a toothed knife.”

“This blade was made for killing ponies. It drew sustenance from their souls and passed it along to its owner. It’s a cruel thing, with a cruel creator.” Velvet nodded to Night Light, who drew the dagger out with a hoof and passed it to hers.
“The gods are here, the nobles are here, so who are we missing?” She tapped her hoof in a show of deep thought. “Ah hah, big sister is missing! How can we forget our good old elder siblings.”

“Elder siblings...” Hauseway looked out of it. His eyes kept darting to the dagger, like he was wondering if it really was the one that had killed Barley Bale. It was far to late to stop Plenty Song getting framed, but his pensive look betrayed that he was debating if getting a hold of that horrible blade could undue some of the fallout from that episode. “Elder siblings?” Finally he looked Velvet in the eye. “You’re an only child Lady Velvet.”

“I mean montalkind’s elder siblings. Abusive and callous family, they are. They forgot their roots and sulk in this worlds deepest recesses.” Velvet’s brow creased. “They need to straighten up, even if that means dragging them upright and slapping them a few times.” She twirled the dagger around with her hoof. “Would you like to do the honors, Captain Hauseway?”

“I what?” Hauseway blanched. He blinked rapidly, wondering if Velvet was reading his thoughts.

“Calm, captain. I was just asking a question.” Velvet placated. “We won’t have to endure this much longer. This is literally the second to last step, an embellishment. It’s not necessary, but it would make me feel better.”

“I- If you say so my lady.” Hauseway mumbled, climbing the first few steps up to her. “This would not be so, umm, unpleasant if we knew the way ahead.”

“I understand how you feel.” Velvet nodded. “It’s alright. Captain, for a thousand years ponykind has been blind. Because of the intolerable blindness of the sun hanging over us, we could not see the deep sky overhead, and thus were blind to heaven, the gods, and the path forward. Ironic, isn’t it. Being ruled by an alicorn made us unable to recognize what the divine even is.”
She held out the dagger for Hauseway to take. “But there are those who have lived with eyes unclouded, but refused to help their fellow up. Don’t you think greed and arrogance like that needs to be punished?”

Hauseway stared at the dagger. Had Velvet personally driven it into Barley Bale’s flesh, or had she ordered an underling to do the deed. He’d never been stabbed before. He wondered how it felt.

“Isn’t it your job to punish evildoers, Hauseway? You catch a thief, you lop off their nose.” Velvet leaned forward to whisper in his ear. “Rapists, murderer, and frauds all meet the final humility of death. But not the Stars. They deserve to be confronted at every turn for their crimes. Don’t you agree? Won’t you help?”

“I can’t watch this. I’ll come back after.” Night Light let out a gravely sigh. He cantered down the stairs and trotted the length of the throne room to the exit. Foaly Flux followed his nephew with his eyes, then after a second followed him out, the strange sword he’d brought with him tucked under his armpit.

“I...” Hauseway let out a shaky sigh, looking Velvet in the eye. His better senses were telling him to run out after Night Light and big the pony to protect him from Velvet.
But for what? Did he have any future to look forward to if he turned his back on Velvet. What he heard in her ideals, of rigid control over the masses, appealed to him. Hold his head the right way, spout the right ideological keywords, and a there would be a seat at the table for him.
But Velvet’s eyes... they terrified him on a fundamental level. He could see deep things, colliding universes, burning things... “Lady Velvet. I can trust you, right?”

“With everything, for everything. Since the moment at the gatehouse when you tried to kill me.” Velvet smirked. “It’s no big thing, picking up a little stylet. No big thing, Captain Hauseway. Good luck.”

“Yes... Right as always, my lady. Why even hesitated heh heh... It’s for the sake of ponykind.” The captain chuckled nervously.He lit his horn. “Thank you, lady-”
As soon as his magic touched the wicked knife, Hausseway’s eyes whited out and his mouth dropped open. He staggered, moaning emptily for a moment, until the magic from his horn changed from the cherry red of his eyes and mane to a depthless pink like scoured skin.

“The shit is going on?” Rain Gnash and Fleetfoot recoiled. Behind them, Sel Lech had his eyes averted.

“Eeeuuuurrrgh... Canterlot again... Velveeet.” Hausseway’s mouth moved, and a foreign voice sounded out from it. “Velvet.” He said again, clearer, but much different from his normal cadence. Something else was speaking through him. “You’ve been sending for me a lot the past month.And another stallion too? Pah. The mares are much more comfortable to work through.”

“Take comfort this is the last update, Shale.” Velvet laughed.

“Then the tribute will stop coming in.”

“Afraid so. Enjoy this one. He’s the last you’ll get.” Velvet confirmed. “In fact, how about you throw me something. Some compensation for having Phyte driven out of Canterlot perhaps? This wasn’t supposed to be a one sided relationship after all.”

The room was tense and confused. The two pegasi were aghast and unsure what was happening. Sel Lech, Blueblood, and Aurthora were shifting uncomfortably; They knew Velvet had been using the sacrifice dagger, most notably with Barley Bale, but had never seen it before.

“Don’t get uppity, pony. I have given you plenty of information and spell equations. Besides this is hardly the time. Are you aware what’s happening in the sky?”

“Fully.” Velvet grunted. “I’ve had a hoof in causing it.”

“Don’t joke. This is grave. Whatever magical happenings have pushed the sun pack into the sky is sending ripples all over Equestria. They are obvious even here where I am.” Hausseway’s possessed body, controlled by Shale, said. “Give me the truth, pony.”

“You deride me, call me a pony like I’m meant to be ashamed of it. I tell you I would have to be far more caustic to call you Star. Soulless, dreamless monstrosity.” Velvet sneered.

Hauseway’s face twisted up. “You pulled me here just to insult me? What are you planning, Velvet?”

“That’s Lady Velvet to you. Even Star must abide by honorifics. You wouldn’t call our Princess just ‘Celestia’, would you?” Velvet said grandiosely. “And truly in this moment, one could see that I deserve it more than she.”

“What?” Shale twisted Hausseway’s neck unnaturally to take full scope of the desecrated space. “Dooo these eyes deceive me, or is this Canterlot Castle? Ho, in the stories I read of this vaunted space, the stacks of mutilated bodies never featured prominently.” His eyes refocused on Velvet. “ENOUGH. Tell me what has happened here!”

“You agreed give your patronage because I would shake things up between Phyte and Celestia. I’ve done that and more. This whole nation is going to have its relationship with their princess changed forever.” Velvet intoned. “Now I think it’s your turn to uphold your end of the bargain. Shale, you’re going to help me with my interpretation of the Star’s ritual. I’m going to upend this nation.”

A shiver passed through the room at that word, ritual. Simply hearing it felt like getting blasted with moist, dank air, that bogged the senses and repulsed the mind. The ritual. Who could say it and not feel like they had committed a grave sacrilege?

“You’ve been using me.” Shale deduced. Hausseway’s pupilless gaze was supremely unpleasant to look at. “Is this to be where you preform it? You arrogant mare. You really think you can control the ritual alone?”

“Alone? There are seven ponies here, and numbers are the inborn strength of mortalkind. In unison, we’re a match for any alicorn.” Velvet raised her hoof, grasping at something intangible.
“A princess, an empress, a sun to look up to... Those are all symbols for faithless ponies! You can’t have faith in what’s comfortable and convenient. Faith is submission to something so powerful you can not even dare presume to grasp its power.” She lowed her hoof, a look harder than steel overtaking her. “That’s how, with the ponies behind me, I will build a dream big enough for all ponykind to have no choice but to have faith in! No more empty liturgy and phony mysticism! I’m going to build god right here!”

“I’ve torn down god’s secrets, and ponies will do it again some day. But not you.” Shale growled angrily.

“If not me, my dream will be inherited. Ponykind’s destiny can be put off, maybe for a decade or two, but not forever.” Velvet sneered.

“What’s happened to Hauseway?” Gnash breathed. She loathed the captain, but destroying him in such a way was beyond her most cruel desires. “Fleetfoot, grab one of the arquebuses.”
The Wonderbolt obliged, pulling the weapon from the hooves of a nearby gruadspony’s corpse. Blueblood and Aurthora took guns for themselves as well.

“Then why have you even brought me here? What fool brings her enemy home just to rant at them?” Shale compelled Hauseway’s body to stamp its hooves. Velvet wondered if the Star on the other side of the connection was making the same gesture. “Are you going to sweet talk me, or lambast me, to sway me to your side?”

“Hmm, nothing so diplomatic. I brought you here to revel in how pitiful you are. It’s been a thousand years since you last dreamed, Star. You don’t understand a single thing.” Velvet laughed disdainfully. “It’s amusing to think that your grasp at eternity a millennium ago, the greatest stride mortalkind has ever taken, robbed you of all ability to strive for further and grander things.
“That was always the real dilemma. I could preform the ritual at any time and loose my mortality and become one of the elder siblings of mortalkind. Yes, that was always the easy part. But then would I be better than a soulless Star, selling out her species for power? No, I must create a beackon that all can look to, intrinsically understand, and accept. The dream must take on a life of its own.”

Shale scoffed, somewhere between amusement and horrified disbelief. One would think that living for a thousand years would take the edge of such a surprise, but the Star’s reaction betrayed that she knew Velvet’s was not the garden variety megalomania.
“You are something else..”

“I’m better than you.” Velvet grinned.

“Something that gives you the right to be the one to control the mortals? The Stars have known for a thousand years that the mass of mortalkind fosters the best conditions for its own advancement. The strong and smart rise. The weak will be devoured.”

“I know the kind of depraved creatures who talk like that.” Velvet’s gloating visage became as stern as steel. “They’re the talking point of the cushy and privileged who’ve never known how deep mortal suffering can be. ‘Why lift your hoof in anger when you can’t use it to beat your foe down into the earth? Why dare kiss in you’re unwilling to throw yourself into the deepest passions?’ BULLSHIT. You’re kind are who I’m setting out to destroy with this dream. Ye gods, ye Stars, ye inbred noble wanks! I’m going to destroy you all.”
Eyes alight, Velvet slowly climbed her way back up the dais to stand beside the throne. Shale craned Hauseway’s possessed body up to look at her. “My dream runs in my blood, and I’m going to share it with ponykind. The weak will become strong. The strong will strive for everything the limp Celestiaan empire has denied them. I won’t be restrained like you Stars were. I’m going to build a heaven right here.”

The possessed Hausseway began to tremble, in Shale’s fury or fear it was hard to tell. The croaking voice did not make it clearer. “Your actions are going to attract beings capable of far deeper hate than I, Twilight Velvet. Eventual failure of your project is inevitable.”

“Oh doing I know. I was originally panning to give this speech to Celestia, but she’s seen fit to galavant in the south. But look, I have her mother in the audience.” Velvet nodded towards the window, and the bleary-hour sun outside. “I’ve said this time and again: I respect the gods, just not their right to rule over us. In fact, one could say that I have a patron in the stars, who helped birth this whole plan within my mind.”

“What is she saying?” Rain Gnash was growing more confused by Velvet and Shale’s shop talk the longer it went on.

The throne room door swung open, and Night Light came a trotting up the hall again, Flux a few steps behind. Lord Light paused by Gnash, so she noticed that Flux's strange sword he was balancing against his shoulder.
“She’s saying she’s a little dizzy right now. After this she’s going to go lie down.” He shifted on his hooves, letting the sword slip off its shoulders to hold out it front of him like a fencing foil. “Twilight, please, there are limits to vanity. You’ve drawn this out long enough.”

Hauseway’s head twisted around unnaturally. “That sword!” Then back to Velvet, or rather the pony on the throne behind Velvet. Seacrest, pinned to the seat by the weight on the Blackhorn armor, stared fearfully back at her. “And that is the Black Lord! Why...” Then back to the sword again.
His whited out eyes swept the throne room again, as Shale took in details she had not payed attention to before. “Ahh, this is no coven of heretics who you’ve brought together for your ritual.” She gestured wildly with the dagger. “You’re all pawns, can you not see?! This pony is using you because of your blood!”

“And you're a pawn of fate, Star scum.” Velvet scoffed. "Just shoot her."

To his credit Blueblood was the first to react. He raised the arquebus he'd pilfered and pulled the trigger, but the arquebus only sputtered briefly. He started fiddling with it furiously to get it to work. “What? Gods damn it!”

“This isn't over Velvet, unless you die!” Shale howled. “May your plans, your dreams, and your god all rot!” She took a firmer hold of her sacrificial dagger, and lashed out at the ponies around her. Velvet pulled them away forcefully, leaving only herself in Shale/Hausseway’s range.

They circled, and Velvet spoke. “You know the name of my god, Shale. Oh you know it so intimately. How it tastes and smells. Dare you say it wish me?" She purred. "Anima, Astral Nacre."

Astral Nacre. The well enough learned could instantly translate the name, but that little stymied the uncontrollable chill that followed the very thought of it. What class of thing could have such a name? It felt so horrible, so unquestionable, that one could not help but wonder if the name flowed from the meaning or the other way around.

Shale's fury only deepened. "To say that name with anything but the deepest contempt is a sin I will punish mortally!"

"Astral once told you that the elder ones don’t simply die. They fade, disperse, and spread out over everything we touch. It is the curse of having the blood of the gods. It would be impossible to reform her, so thin is she. So I create her anew, and this time it shall be done properly.” Velvet continued to mock, her words light, yet crushingly impactful. "She's the dream, you see. A god, born of and born for the united soul of mortalkind. A god to carry it forward, and defend it against heaven.

“...” Shale's eye bulged. "You're mad. You're mad! Velvet do not tell me this is actually what you believe. Do NOT trifle with Astral .

“Astral yearns to return from ignominious oblivion.” Velvet said. "Come on now Shale. Aren't you happy? You and Astral were real pals in the old days."

Hauseway's body tensed up the launched forward, striking back and forth with the sacrifice dagger. Velvet danced backwards, then behind the throne, as the possessed pony advanced. Seacrest on the throne screamed and tried to curl up to avoid the reckless blade, but Shale was too focussed on Velvet to pay him heed.
Velvet skittered all the way around the throne until Shale was higher on the stairs. The purple mare steady back down towards her husband while Shale advanced on her.

“I’ve had a MILLENNIUM of thinking about what I would have said to Astral if she still walked among us. I screamed at the sky. I burned her in effigy.” Unable to contain Shale’s fury, Hausseway’s body was beginning to shake under the magical pressure. “It all came back to remembering what I thought we had, what she threw away in her blind luuust, blind nostalgia, for power. She used us. We Stars are cursed, because of her!”

“So doesn't it seem that fighting for the benefit of ponykind will be penitence for her?” Velvet’s mouth drew into a smirk. “If ever you want to meet her in person again, for old times sake, come on down to Canterlot. Our door will be open, even for Stars.”

“WWWRRRRRAAAA!!” Shale galloped down the stairs, slashed madly back and forth with her dagger. The possessed stallion proved unaffected by Velvet’s magical retaliation, so she had to turn and run to keep out of the path of the blade.

"No ma'am." Night Light interposed himself between the mares. With a sharp clang he met the dagger with the sword, knocking it back but not out of Hauseway's magical grip. "Time for you to leave, Mis Shale."

"You'll die pony!" The dagger flew around like a stick on the end of a rope, and Night Light was hard pressed to keep it away from his face. Shale was ferocious and single minded, determined to get at the mare behind him.

"Velvet was wrong to taunt you, now calm down." Night Light grunted in strain. His sword was a blur, trying to block the rapid thrusts and swipes with adequately. But Shale was speeding up, and the sacrifice dagger was coming closer and closer to his face. Soon he was backing too, step by step. Were the other ponies were too astounded or terrified to lift a hoof? He could not spare a second to check. "Leave that pony. Leave!"

"Astral will never live again, especially not as a tool of ponykind!" Shale screeched.

As was sure to happen sooner or later in the inch-deep blood, Night Light slipped. He landed hard on his barrel, knocking the wind out of him. Shale howled in delight: There was nothing between her and Velvet. Hauseawy's body wound up again and jumped.

Night Light rolled onto his back and thrust up. Like a campfire skewer through a tomato, his sword effortlessly pierced Hauseway's chest below the left shoulder, making the possessed pony convulse in mid jump and collapse into one of the corpse piles.

"Velvet! Velvet! Don't do it!" The Star screamed deafeningly. Hauseway's body strained against the agony of the sword in its side, managing to get into a sitting position. "You ponies, you must stop her! Stop her! Don't let her build her alicorn! She mustn't revive Astral Nacre. Please! PLEASE!"

In the next moment, a shot from Aurthora’s arquebus blew away an unpleasant majority of Hausseway’s face. Shale’s magic faded, and a dagger and a body joined the others in the pile.

Drip drip drip of blood from every surface. Night Light's hard breathing. Velvet's arrogant giggle. Those were the only sounds.
What hell. What utter hell. And they all wanted to to be there.

“Congratulations, my lady. Another Star tussled.” Sel Lech's tone was indecipherable. He helped Night Light to his hooves. "Was it worth it?"

"Don't ask that." Night Light sighed, wringing the blood from his mane. "Sel... decide for yourself."

Sel Lech glanced over to the last Captain Hauseway, laying on a bed of the dead Speakers and city guards, many of which he'd helped dispatch. The captain was going to get ground up in Velvet's machinations eventually. Did he deserve it?
Sel swallowed his bile. He had to believe yes. Otherwise, madness.

“Somepony could have told me the guns were sabotaged.” Blueblood mewled.

“Not telling you things was working perfectly up to now, and it still is.” Velvet brushed herself off. “Ahh, that felt great. That ass Shale will be feeling the sting of that humilition for years.”

"Humiliation?" Rain Gnash uttered. "Humiliation?! Lady Velvet, you're dream represents an escape from that kind of petty politics."

"And that... that thing, it was very adamant about stopping your plan." Fleetfoot agreed. "Not just angry, but desperate."

"Who is Astral Nacre? Who was Shale? What was the point?" Gnash pressed. "Come on Velvet, what the buck is going on?! I thought I understood but you're not following your own plan!"

"Shale is a Star." Velvet informed, stepping around to the base of the dais again.

Gnash hissed in frustration. "I got that from context. What's she matter? What's she do?! Just talk to me!"

“Shale was resistant to magical obliteration. I don’t believe you are.” Velvet returned acidly, mostly ignoring the admiral as she began to reorient the symbols on the ground that had been upset in the altercation.

“You... you’re not even going to pretend to be friendly anymore I see.” Rain Gnash sucked in a breath. She looked around, very aware at being at once outnumbered and outclassed. Sel Lech, Blueblood, and Aurthora were all looking at her.
“Velvet, this isn't even the end, is it. My blood has to be spilled to.”

“I won’t challenge your intelligence by lying to you further.” Velvet glanced up at the pegasi. "All the ideology you've heard so far, I truly do believe that. With all my heart, I know that mortalkind deserves to rule its own destiny, and that unity under one dream is the only way to accomplish that.
"But as you've been putting together yourself, there is a paradox inherent in that. The very same power that gives the unified dream its strength, bestows a certain kind of divinity. For deep, deep in the Dreamscape lies force of inapproachable Will, a god like we can not possibly understand. Distilled down to its bare essence, dreams are Dark, and the Dark is divine in its own way."

"Shale said you're going to make another alicorn." Gnash swallowed.

"It's a process: Blood sacrifice, magic ciphering, draining the energy from your living body.” Velvet nudged her mane out of her eyes. "Steel your souls, everypony. We begin now. The ritual will make you more."

Before anypony could react, a surge of light coursed off her horn, a fire to challenge the sun. Everypony in the room was gripped by her telekenisis, non resisted. Things were ariving at their conclusion. There was no avoiding the results of their actions.
Velvet's magic dragged them all to their designated position. Molar, Foaly Flux, and Rain Gnash went the extremes of the blood circle on the floor, Seacrest still pinned to the throne, and Velvet floated herself into the center. Night Light, Sel, and Fleetfoot were pushed to the back of the room, to watch helplessly as it ritual occurred. Celestia’s sun in the windows wasn’t enough to break the fastidious cold starting to emanate from every corner of the room. In every heart, the presence of a blooming evil let itself be known.
A sound like song began to fill the air.

---

Concurrently a different pony was also singing along. The timber rose and fell in indescribable ways, resonating fearfully. Yet for all its beauty if one were to close their eyes and listen, it would evoke mental images of grinding metal heard under a deep and churning ocean. But focus on the harmony, de-emphasize the melody, it sounded like nothing more than a bell. In time to the thrums of magic whirling around the Everfree Castle throne room, the piercing clang rolled forth.
Celestia thought of the bells of Canterlot, and how they had rung out the night of Fancy Pant's murder. What did it mean that only one bell was warranted now.

“Nightmare Moon was a powerful vessel, but utterly lacking in many ways. She was headstrong, too proud, too easily led astray by her vendettas. She had no deep convictions despite claims otherwise. She was not suited for this.”

Celestia shielded her eyes from the black nova of energy tearing the air apart. Twilight was in there somewhere, though what still remained as Twilight was becoming frightfully little.

The nightmare’s voiceless words surged from the storm and surrounded the princess's mind, ravishing her with fear and dread. It sounded so similar to her student.
"The idea of Twilight Sparkle however, is truly perfect. A little mare, powerful but so unsure of herself and her place in the world. With the Dark, she can be refined to a razor edge. She was a dangerous dreamer wasn't she. You recognized it too but punished her for it instead of celebrating it."

Twilight, Celestia mouthed. She felt an urge to shout back into the magical maelstrom, some half-hearted defense of her actions or insult, but had not the energy or will for it. She just wanted to cry or run away.
But she held herself in place. She had to be strong and face the fear, or Twilight would be utterly lost.

“Celestia, did you come here because like me you beleive ponykind has lost what has made it special? Virtues, lost. Their integrity, their honor and loyalty, and their magic has atrophied. Ponies no longer respect each other, no longer love each other. They have lost their veneration for their gods, for you.” The voice taunted. "We can change that. Oh yes, can we ever."

Something large collided with Celestia, knocking her off her hooves. It was the unconscious form of the nightmare pegasus, tossed with enough force to render the nightmare pony unconscious. Celestia regained her footing quickly enough to see the other two pushed out of the raging magical typhoon as well.

Then everything was calm.

The rain had ended, and a giant hole in the clouds above had been formed just large enough to hold the castle ruin. The errant sun had dipped to just high enough in the sky to release it’s rays on the tops of the crumbled towers.

And before Celestia, her foe.
The nightmare had completed it’s apotheosis. Like a wrinkled shawl, a sheet of pure black shaded and obscured her face. The rest of it’s body, no larger than Twilight’s, was uncovered with it’s coat of midnight purple. It rippled like waves on a pond and undulated like a rat down the gullet of a snake. It’s wings, tail, and even limbs were as nebulous as mist at times, but as defined and horrendously sharp as scythes at others. The only proof anything besides oblivion existed under it’s shawl was a long horn and a dozen predatory eyes, arranged like the teeth in smile of a dragon.

In the shadow of this blasphemous parody of an alicorn, lying crumpled on the wet stone floor, was Twilight Sparkle’s body. Celestia could not tell if she was still breathing, but the nightmare’s emergence from her had not been pretty, leaving her as broken as the cocoon of a butterfly.

The shadowy thing stretched, its 'limbs' elongating unnaturally. It's many eyes swirled around to take everything in anew. "Ah. I exist. This is a good day. A grand day. I did not even begin to understand. Feeling existance through Twilight did so understand how this feels. Life... Is nice. "

Ceelstia's throat tightened. She felt bile threatening to escape.

"That was an impressive attack with the sunbeam. Good try." The blasphemous thing said. “I doubted you had it in you. Although, it may be that you attacked not in spite of, but BECAUSE of Twilight. You found the willpower to destroy her so utterly, when other ponies would have gotten a mild squashing. For perhaps the first time, you made the hard choice, to relieve Twilight of her suffering. I congratulate you. How do you feel after that, princess?

"Y- You..." Celestia swallowed and tried again. Was this a joke? “What are you?"

"You really wouldn't understand. I'm more familiar to mortals, you see. You have to lack something before you can understand the yearning for more." The nightmarish thing ran a hoof through its etherial mane, making eddies in the shadowy haze. "No matter where you are, or who you are, a mortal will feel an insatiable drive to push onward. That's the side effect of having a dream, or maybe its the raison d'être. We had this discussion with Nightmare Moon, and these three little ponies two." The creature cocked its head. "Do you dream, Celestia? Can you understand what we are?"

Celestia took a deep breath. "You vaguely have a head, body, legs, and a tail." She let out the breath and resolved into a stern mask. "I see what you are."

"A mare at the top of her tower."

"A thing that should not exist." Celestia corrected harshly.

"That's not nice! That's saying Twilight shouldn't exist!" The nightmare hovered backwards on its cushion of shadow. It leaned down to Twilight limp body, its hoof a hears breadth from touching its former host. "Maybe that's what you actually believe, but I doubt it."

"Get your hooves away from her. You have hurt her enough.” Celestia growled, finally able to tear her eyes away from the mutilated form of her student to face the nightmare again. “You want to fight me!"

“Yes.” The nightmare said simply, straightening up. “I don’t have to though. I’ve already won. Not just this foray either, but the war. You can't recover, but by all means attack me if it makes you feel better. Then we can talk like we used to.”

The nightmare's curt, informative style was Twilight to a tee. It's tone was childlike. Celestia ached with the recognition. She felt like she was swimming in a fog. She didn't know where to turn, where to look. "I..."

"Do you want to kill me? S- Should I want to kill you?" The nightmare asked, genuinely puzzled. Gradually though, it's many trembling eyes narrowed in contempt. "Twilight was terrified of what you would think of us. She fretted, thinking you would execute her without a second thought. Your thoughts... I can feel the truth behind her fears."

Celestia stared at her.

The nightmare nickered in displeasure. "You would deny me life. If I leave you alive you're going to try to stop me. I'll never be able to sleep without worrying you'll try to kill me."

"Twilight... was ill. You're just a monster." Celestia confirmed coldly.

The nightmare tutted, flapping its misty wings in aggravation. "Twilight was one thing: Right about you!" It churred. "There can be no coexistence between us. One of our lives necessarily precludes the other. Therefore I have to destroy you to protect my own life."

“You may try. You may even succeed. But my sun will still stand in the sky, burning away your corruption.” Celestia could see that the three weaker nightmares beginning to stir. Stalling for time wasn’t going to save her.

“That's true. That’s a problem I’m going to have to remedy, if I want to live.” The doleful nightmare sighed. “The greatest inconvenience of Moon’s disobedience is that her moon cannot be made to block the sun. She is untouchably distant, safe. The same cannot be be said of you.”

“Was this your plan then? Manifest into my world, corrupt my ponies, and bemoan the hardships of the path of evil?” Celestia was having a harder and harder time keeping herself upright. Nothing felt right. Nothing made sense. The place at the back of her mind where she'd always found the comforting presence of her mother sun was inflamed. Thoughts of death and thoughts of struggle collided together over and over in her head.

“Princess, I am not the manifestation of the nightmare. I am the realization. All the petty and palsied nightmares who came before would have affrighted themselves with my memory. That Moon came close to defeating you forever, and I can seal your extinction.”

“You admitted you can't kill the sun.” Celestia countered.

The black trio of unwitting nightmares were getting up, looking exhausted and confused.
"My head..." Dash groaned. "I'm gunna puke."
"So that's the ritual." Rarity squeezed her eyes closed. "How wonderful, how awful."
"My head's scrambled." Applejack's posh Manehattanite accent was slipping back into country drawl. "The things I saw..."

"Hey ho, you survived? Color me surprised." The realized nightmare said. "I wasn't holding back at all. The nightmare infection must have insulated you against the erosion of your psyches."

"Don't except thanks." Rarity retreated towards Celestia, a clear indication of who she feared more. The other two followed suite.

"I don't expect anything, really, except for you to stay out of the way." The nightmare's many eyes trembled in annoyance. "I won't molest you further, out of respect for Twilight, but don't try to fight unless it's death you want." The monster had gone from innocent and childlike to murderous in no time at all.

"If you really respect Twilight you would end yourself." Celestia shot. Were the three nightmare ponies on her side? Odd, but the princess wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Such hypocrisy. You are making me angry, when by all rights it should be you who is angry.” The realized nightmare tisked. "I'm going to make you break, princess. If I hurt you enough even the sun will feel it."

“That doesn’t sound ominous at all.” Dash whispered.

"You can't drive away the sun without killing the entire world. She belongs here, you do not." Celestia said. With a shiver she continued. "If you want my life I can give you that, if you swear to go no farther."

The nightmare slowly spread her wings and the room darkened.
"Look at this from my point of view, princess. If I were purely rational, I would have much more to gain from a sunless, dying planet than one full of life. When all is dead, there's nopony who can hurt you. Surely you came to the same conclusion at some point. If you wanted to stay alive so bad, you should have followed through on that thought. Certainly if Twilight never existed you wouldn't be in this predicament."

"Silence!" Celestia demanded hoarsely, eyes flying open. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

“Do you, my princess?! Light is vision. Light is the affirmation, the proof and vindication of existence, and Destiny! Can it really be that all those things can only come from the sun? NO! There's inner light too, but I won't predent to understand it. That's somepony else's dream. Twilight dream, my dream, is just Dark." The nightmare said gravely. "In the Dark you can’t been seen or distinguished. When all ponies are atrophied and powerless, the world resolves into Dark, into Will. It is the natural conclusion of all things, that darkness will overcome and smother us. The within that mire the ones with the Will and the dream to be more rise to the top." The monster pointed an accusing hoof at Celestia. "By all rights this world should be in the midst of such turmoil right now! The souls of ponykind are so weak, empty of dreams, and their inner Light is ingrown and malformed. The cause of this, and the reason this sick state of affairs has persist so long, is you, Celestia! You and your sun have kept it alive artificially! This world is long past due its time in the Dark."

Celestia did not flinch from the condemnation. "At this point, such a think would destroy mortalkind. You don't deny a sick pony their medicine."

"Ponies can't think for themselves! The accept empty words in their hearts instead of letting their dreams flourish. The world has grown addicted to your sun!" The nightmare spit.

"Take an addict of their vice and it will kill them." Rarity spoke out.

"Addicts can be weaned. It's not my place to improve this world though. I'm not a high-minded firebrand. I'm just explaining all the reasons the princess here is a hypocrite." The nightmare sneered, which for its formless face was conveyed by hissing sounds and forming strange patterns from its eyes. "Why do I have to adapt to your world, Celestia? When I'm stronger, younger, more powerful, you should be adapting to mine."

“That's why nightmares will never win! The sun won't leave but neither will your wretched kind adapt! All you do is twist ponies into your own image.” By the end of her sentence, Celestia voice had lost it’s volume, the energy to yell failing her. "W- Who are you? Who am I fighting against?

The nightmare’s smile, that brutally curving scythe of eyes, sharpened in a beam of sadistic glee. “I'm just a pony who wants to live in this world."

"You're no pony." Celestia said with venom. Maybe she did want this fight, for the honor of her fallen student. If she could just muster up the energy. "You're not Twilight!"

"She and I would both agree, I'm her and more. We want to live. That's all I fight for. Its adaptation or death is fine, so long as this world is fit to live in.” She ignited her horn, throwing purple light to every corner of the throne room. "Come, Celestia... The life of your world is on the line!"

---

The mutilation of Twilight Sparkle’s body had translated foully into Nightmare Moon’s lunar dream scape. The dark princess hovered over the agonized unicorn with a semblance of concern, struggling to conceive of how a healing spell could be adapted through a dream.

“She- she’s tearing me apart!” Twilight yelled through gritted teeth. “Damn it all, it’s like I’m giving birth through my skull!”

“That’s a fair comparison to what is actually happening to you. The ritual isn’t very pretty.” Moon said.

“Not helping.” Twilight moaned, beating the sides of her head with her hooves. It didn't amount to much other than an odd sensation: She was in a dream with unclear rules.

“Then, um… Perhaps you could divorce your mind from your body further, clear away the sensory inputs.” Nightmare offered.

“Sure I’ll BUCKING SEPARATE MY BODY AND SOUL!” Screamed Twilight. “That’s something I learned in school anyway!”

Nightmare huffed. “You get awfully sarcastic when you’re in existential pain.”

“Buck- urg, buck, you, Moon.”

Moon wrinkled her nose. The alicorn was genuinely trying to sympathize. “Yes, yes, but maybe if you, hmm..." She gestured. "If you moved your consciousness, yes, more fully into this dream?”

"W- What?"

"I'm alive here, well past the obliteration of my body, because I let my conscious mind free of the dead body." Moon explained. "You could do the same. "

Twilight grunted in pained exasperation. "Give up my b- body?" A shiver ran through her. As long as she was feeling the pain and the agony of her body down on the earth, it reaffirmed her connection to it, her ownership. If she surrendered that, she would be conceding everything to her nightmare. "I- I couldn't. She'd win."

"She? You give your enemy that much?" Moon grimaced. "You trouble me with your illogical romanticization, Twilight. If you don't give up your body you'll die."

"Y- Yeah? I'm troubling you?" Twilight dropped one of her hooves from her head so she could glare up at the taller mare. "Don't talk about thinks you know nothing about, Moon." Her voice was unexpectedly sharp. "You've been an orphan for a thousand years. You're blind to my pride! I have pride as a mortal, and having a body is obviously part of that."

"And you are ignorant, willfully I might add, to the true nature of your dream. Your pride is at odds with your fate." Moon retorted. "Because the nightmare seized upon your dream of accention, you have to either surrender everything you were, or copy her path in the hopes of usurping her."

"Gibberish. Nonsense. What you're telling me has less meaning than random jumbles of words." Twilight closed her eyes again and rode out the waves of existential pain flowing up and down her nerves. When she focussed on it, she could almost feel the way her physical body was moving its limbs and weaving its magic. There was a very odd sensation on her back as well, like a phantom limb. "And what if I did give up my body? That wouldn't kill me? Not like there's a soulless but pristine bodies just laying around for me to rent.”

“Think about your nightmare. She inhabited your body alongside you.”

Between waves of anguish, Twilight deciphered Moon’s meaning. “Are you suggesting…”

“Yes. And if I have your consent, I could try to do it.” Nightmare Moon nodded. "Twilight. Please understand. If you remain in contact with the nightmare much longer it, or she, will kill you with the pain. Before we can begin to plan a counterattack, you have to be lucid and objective." The alicorn straightened up, resolute. "My heart is with you Twilight Sparkle! I've lost the world too. I know the pain of loosing my home and everything that brought me joy. I we are to make a return you have to survive! Twilight! Please trust me Twilight!"

Twilight whimpered. What if this all was all an elaborate trick to get her out of her body, so that the nightmare could dominate it uncontested. What if Moon proved to be worse, or in league with the nightmare, and would exact unspeakable torture on Twilight once she was taken.
All of these silly excuses for hesitation evaporated when the next onslaught of pain hit her. The fear of death was real.
“J- J- Just e- end it!”

The world around Twilight shimmered imperceptibly. Immediately, she felt the pain fall away, and the grey lunar world around her brightened considerably. But at the same time, it was very, very dark, cast in shadow. The feel of the place had changed from distorted to startlingly real, and Twilight received the impression she was no longer in a dream.

With a start, she realized that her consciousness was devoid of form or representation now. Her dreaming body had turned into a ghastly shade, like a haunting ghost. The shift into physicality had taken away everything that wasn’t real, and so Twilight simply existed as a point of consciousness on the surface of that vast stellar body. The Moon was juncture between dream and reality, and she was a struggling dreamer given respite. Indeed, there was a subtle feeling of comfort about her surroundings, as though this was a safe place.

She looked up. Nightmare Moon had kept her shape, in the spectral space it had held in Twilight’s dreams. The transparent princess panted from the exertion of moving a soul undamaged across thousands of kilometers.
But she'd done it. Twilight was on the moon now, not just dreaming of it.

“I have overcome the other's tenacious grasp on you, and tied you here.” Nightmare Moon boasted halfheartedly. “The principle is not unlike dreamwalking, a power I exercised when I was at my prime. Only on a much larger scale, and in reverse. It's not the first time I have used it that way. Another pony long ago..." Moon slumped a bit. "Never mind. How do you feel."

Twilight looked back at Equestria, and the slow progress of the sun’s light across it’s continents. For the foreseeable future, that Bright world had been lost to her.

“This is it huh.” Twilight whispered. “I've lost my dream to the other. For the rest of my life, I’ll exist only as a dream inside the moon princess.”

“I’m very sorry Twilight.” Nightmare Moon was unsure how much physical contact would be appropriate in offering comfort, but resolved to wrap a hoof protectively around Twilight. “The nightmare has damned us both to an eternal prison.”

They sat there, unmoving, for a very long time.

“Even without the nightmare within you weakened, I can feel your heart coming through.” Twilight said.

Nightmare closed her eyes and lay her head against Twilight. “I was wondering why everything felt to sore. I’m losing what made me powerful, what made me more.”

“Yeah, but what made me more declared total independence from me, took my body in the divorce, and I feel better than I ever did with her.” Twilight joked weakly.
In truth, she felt as though there was a gaping hole in her gut, through which the wind of eternity whistled as it passed. Everything she had ever done was gone. She was effectively dead. Her nightmare, the other, had taken her place.

More time without speech passed.

“It’s going to be a problem, now that my chance at escape has been pulled away. You were my chance.” Nightmare Moon said. “The army I was gathering, a host of ten-thousand moon denizens, is not just going to disperse. It takes power and force to keep so many in line, and only with the promise of a return to Equestria did I ever have a chance at managing them.”

“What could the do to you? You’re the moon.” Twilight asked.

“They trust me. Why, I do not know. If I spurned them, would they be angered? At the worst they could destroy my castles and start killing each other. It would hurt, but I would survive.” Nightmare mused. “Or they will wait expectantly, until they starve. I must tell them of my failure. I’d lose their respect and trust for a few generations, and my authority over my own surface would diminish. Eventually though, they will come back to me.”

“If they trust you, you could disperse them diplomatically.” Twilight proposed.

“I don’t have anything to bribe them with.”

“Not bribe, just an apology.”

Moon scoffed. “I would rather have my every temple defaced than apologize to them. They are mine forever. Fleeting anger would change nothing about my control over them.”

“It’s just a thought.” Twilight said, and went silent. There was still pride and arrogance in Nightmare Moon, but softened. How did it feel to have total control over another being, as Moon did over the moon denizens? She could not imagine a situation where she could find out in a moral way. Having absolute power rang in Twilight's mind as depriving others of power.
Was that so bad? She was in her current situation from a lack of power, of control over herself and others. Rarity, Applejack, and that pegasus Dash for one. They'd distracted her and gotten in her way! Spike too, in a different way. Her caring for him made her vulnerable. If Twilight could redo everything she mused she would immediately take every measure to make sure nopony could ever keep her from living peacefully. "Like Chrysalis..." She mumbled to herself.

"Pardon." Moon arched her neck around to look at Twilight.

"Nothing." Twilight said. "Just thinking."
She would not be resigned to idle thought alone: Twilight’s newfound tranquility let her focus on plans of escape. There was no way she was going to let the events down below pass without her. She had to be there for Spike and Celestia! She had to protect them from what she knew her nightmare was capable of. Being alive and possibly releasing Moon were important too.
Approaching the question of escape was not easy: Twilight wasn't sure where to even begin. She was on another world, with little clue to its workings. Plus the window of opportunity at the nightmare’s transformation had slammed shut, and there was little chance another would open. Whatever could be done had to be able to be executed with her nightmare able to resist her fully.

While she mulled, the edges of Twilight’s consciousness explored her new home. Kilometer after kilometer of indescript expenses, marred by craters, plateaus, rifts, and mountains. Here and there other consciousness brushed against her, tickling somewhat. Small and isolated villages of the moon’s native inhabitants, all immured by nightmares like the three nightmare ponies. In several spots the terrain had been twisted into unnatural spiraling towers, the basework for castles and fortifications as large as several Canterlots.

Finally, after when felt like days of searching, Twilight felt a little part of Nightmare Moon distant from the rest of her. The armor, those blue horseshoes, cuirass, and helm, containing the smallest sliver of Moon’s soul.

“I’ve never been a… whatever I am.” Twilight broke the silence. “What are the rules. How do I operate.”

“I mentioned another pony guest. The mare Illustrious Valor was unusually gifted in the ways of the Dark, and came to the moon two hundred years ago. She had opened a channel to the heavens through some artifact, and when she was killed she arrived here. I did not interact with her much. She was just another inhabitant.” Nightmare Moon said. “Based on how Valor was bounded, you may move however you could conceive yourself moving. I must warn you against anything overtly hostile.”

“I can’t just tear a small part of the moon away from you?” Twilight joked.

“I very much doubt you could succeed, even without me actively resisting you.” Moon was more amused than irascible. “I couldn’t even guess how you would do such a thing.”

Twilight pursed her lips as she pieced together a plan. "One of the first nights we were pulled together, you asked me if I'd seen a pony with black fur."

"Impeccable memory, Twilight."

"You were asking about Illustrious Valor." Twilight closed one eye. "She escaped the moon shortly before we met."

"I stopped feeling her consciousness. She either died or left. The only direction off is not the earth though." Moon pointed towards the infinite starscape all around them. "I consider her escape to to the earth unlikely. I asked just in case."

"I think she did get to the earth." Twilight asserted. "And I think that because the altar was meant to be a conduit to you! The changeling, Chrysalis, knew it was reaching out towards heaven, but didn't know it wasn't reaching for her 'Dark Lady', whoever that is."

Moon's expression darkened at the mention of 'Dark Lady'. "Go on."

“Let's assume the altar was made to connect dreamers together, like it did us. Suppose before it found you up there, it found Illustrious Valor. Valor got connected to somepony down on the earth!"

"Who?"

"The altar's creator? A passing creature? Her ancient dead body? Who knows." Twilight shook her head. "And it hardly matters anyway. The point is Illustrious Valor escaped through the magic in that altar. AND, that altar was nothing more than your armor and some fancy binding magic. The armor by itself would act almost the same.”

Nightmare Moon could see where Twilight was going. “Illustrious Valor was three parts nightmare to one part pony. Even with that going for her, I doubt she manifested without a vessel of some manner.”

“And so my question about tearing a part of you away.” Twilight said.

“What?” Moon scowled in confusion. “Do you mean… My armor?”

“Exactly.” Twilight said, though with a hint of caution. She didn't want to offend Moon. “There’s a little spell I know to do it as well, with the magic I retained here. If I could guide your magic to help me I... Ahem, well, I need your permission and help.”

It was a long time before Nightmare spoke again.

“Do you know what that armor is?” She asked.

“I read a book about how it represents one of the best classical uses of magic in ironworking. Then, while I was touching it, it felt like it had a mind of its own.” Twilight said. “So, I have no idea.”

“How significant would you guess it is, that it holds a part of my soul inside of it? A little or a lot? Your book was not wrong. That set was forged through magic, my magic. I put my heart and soul into it, and I mean that very literally.” Nightmare stared wistfully at Equestria as if she could see the armor of which she spoke. “I wasn’t a nightmare then, just a young mare committed to a war on her sister, to take her deserved place in the hearts of ponykind. Sometimes I think that if there’s anything of my old self left, it’s in that ancient plate.”

Twilight shook her head. “There is so much of you that remained, and it’s not in some old armor. She’s right here.” She placed a hoof on Moon’s breast.

The dark alicorn was as close to tears as Twilight had ever seen. Her hesitance was forgotten as she embraced Twilight. “I didn’t want to be the monster Twilight. I didn’t want to fall into darkness.” She sighed. "Could I even have dared to back away from the precipice I drove myself to? No, I don't think it could have ended any other way, unless I fought harder and won. This...." She ruffled the black fur of her neck. "Is the logical conclusion of what I was."

“It’s ok, Moon. I don’t think you're a monster. It's not kind of magic you use, but the content of your soul and the vitue of your actions.” Twilight whispered softly. “You will remember who you once were. You will remember your name. After that, nothing in all the universe could keep you imprisoned here.”

Nightmare shuddered. “I- I think you’re right. Sometimes I think death is the only way to make me cleansed of darkness. It's not as true as I thought.” She pulled away gently. “I will be resolute. If I am a new mare, then the terms of my imprisonment would not apply."

"Metaphorically speaking." Twilight agreed.

"There are many many metaphors for freedom. I think of a bird in flight, with all the world below her and only heaven above. Amusingly, that could well describe us right now.” Moon faced Twilight again. “Freedom. It’s close. So close. Twilight, what kind of spell will let you take possession of my armor?”

“It’s complicated.” Twilight averted her eyes. It was not going to be pleasant to explain. “I trusted you with my soul. I hope you can trust me with yours. If I have your permiss-"

“You have it.” Nightmare interrupted.

“It’s, um, not that simple.” Twilight sighed. “I should explained to you what this spell is. I learned it because the of the nightmare's urges.”

Nightmare Moon sucked in a sharp breath. “It’s that kind of spell then.”

“A torture spell, meant to break off pieces of the victim’s mind until they go insane.” Twilight said quietly. “It was in a book I read while in a nightmare fugue. It's just... Thinking about it, I think my nightmare was using the spell on me when she took control. It could have been she was trying to separate me from her, before you just took me out of my body." Twilight shook her head. "Not sure what to make of that."

"Ignore her motive unless you want to confront uncomfortable truths, Twilight." Moon said wearily. "Just tell me more about the spell."

"Uh... You saw how I was screaming, right? I can promise you, pain cannot even begin to describe it.” Twilight laughed nervously. "There's no elegant way of doing it. It's breaking a piece off of you, and you'll feel it like loosing a leg or your horn."

“I’ve hurt you before Twilight.” Moon said. “I made you die in horrible way in the altar dream. It’s time for me to have my just desserts.”

“Don’t go along with me out of any feelings of guilt or pity!” Twilight commanded. “I want to know if you mean this.”

Moon closed her eyes. “That armor represents so much to me, Twilight. But in a way, I think I have outgrown it. It’s time for you to have it, and not for any reason other than because I want you to have it. It’s my gift, because you deserve this.”

Twilight nodded, moving away from Moon. She called up what magic she could and found it was immediately augmented by more from Moon. She started to prepare the spell. Timing was critical, for she need to be entirely within the armor before the severing finished. Calling on Moon’s magic would be increasingly difficult as the alicorn’s torment grew.

"I wish I'd payed more attention in metal magic class." Twilight joked, running over the spell pattern in her head before she committed.

"Not amusing, Twilight." Moon grunted, screwing her eyes closed.

"Hee hee, yeah... I always pay attention in class." Twilight cleared her throat and began focussing her magic.
A month ago, what would she have thought of the many lines she was now crossing. Cavorting with Dark creatures and confessing them friends. Murdering another living creature like Chrysalis. Now using a forbidden torture spell to purposefully break another pony's mind.
Was it all forgivable given the circumstance, or should she have just accepted death to keep herself clean of those sins.
“I’m starting now.” She whispered to Moon. "Please forgive me."

Moon smiled, talking to herself. “Freedom is close. Just think of Equestria. I think… of… Equestria. A bird... in flight.”

---

Forbidden spells, death, evil, but not for a selfish reason. That was the way others justified their own sins.
A year ago it was, in the cold months of a evening's waining light, Velvet and Night Light had walked the path through the Royal Gardens by the lake, their hooves crunching in the thin snow. More was falling around them, lightly, like a shimmering shower of shooting stars.

"It's unconscionable." Night Light said under his breath. A scarf around his neck was a break from his usual nakedness. "You're projected death tolls are completely unreasonable!"

"You don't change the world without a few deaths, Night Light." Twilight Velvet, though she wore a thicker dress than usual, was still pressing her body against her husband's for warmth. "In the long term, think about how many ponies we're saving from pointless, empty lives under this vapid regime. Better dead than dreamless."

"And it just so happens your ambition is the one that deserves to be the one to which all ponies will aspire." Night Light said flatly. "I don't know Velvet... If I'm being honest with you, this rings in my ear as another half-thought-out plan to give you an excuse to throw some magic around. If you want to throw down that much, join the army."

"Noble ladies do not join armies, Night Light." Velvet huffed. "Besides, this time it's different."

Night Light restrained the urge to roll his eyes. He focussed on the lone swan in the lake as it grazed the water. "How?"

"Because I hear her again."

Night Light stopped in his tracks. "A- Astral? You hear Astral?"

Velvet hummed an affirmation. "Not loud, but loud enough."

Night Light stood still as his mind raced. Only in the darkest hours of the night was his wife's strange 'other' ever mentioned. He could attest it was not a figment of her imagination, or schizophrenia, or anything else: He'd pressed his head against her side once and heard twisted things that were not meant to be heard, and that he wished he could forget. His wife was a cursed mare from a cursed lineage, but they loved each other and he would do anything to make her happy.
"And..." He said in a low tone. "Does Astral share your altruistic ideals?"

"Unclear." Velvet said. "But it doesn't matter what she wants. She can't stop us from making the world a better place in the process of recreating her."

"But what comes after?" Night Light asked.

Velvet gave him a last nuzzle then pulled away. "Let's not stop in one place. My hooves get cold." She turned and continued along the lakeside path.

"Velvet." Night Light followed her, raising his voice. "What comes afterwards? Do you think you can create an alicorn with no consequences?"

"What do the consequences matter if my intentions are pure." Velvet laughed. "If we run around worrying about every single consequence we would get no work done. No, Night Light, we have to believe that with a firm heart and purity of our ideals, the world we want will come to pass. We will have to accept the consequences as they come."

Night Light shook his head. Part of him wanted to go home, now that the walk was soured with Velvet's politics talk, but he could not well leave her walking alone in the snow. So he followed. "I hope you're right. Just maybe, an alicorn borne out of the dreams of ponykind will be a god worth worshiping."

It was time to test the purity of their ideals, and their strength against the bitter consequences.

As the ritual spell drew more and more of her magic, Twilight Velvet’s eyes began radiating blinding white light. Purple ribbons arced off her horn and wrapped around her four victims. She was lifted slowly off the ground, the blood and viscera around her caught in weightlessness as well.

The weaving magical tendrils, as spectral and brilliant as Celestia’s mane, encircled the ritual pattern on the floor. Around Foaly Flux, encasing his body and plunging into his mouth. Through Rain Gnash, binding her wings and streaming through her eyes. About Molar, pulling at his hooves and piercing into his ears. Towards Seacrest, infusing into the black armor which held him against the throne, and diffusing into his body.

Arcane, blasphemous words poured from Velvet’s mouth, coursing through the magic and into the four ponies around her. Against their every desire and sane thought, they answered back, the magic of them warping the ritual by their peculiarities.

Moment by moment, the tortured frames of Flux, Molar, and Gnash dwindled. Velvet hacked at their souls, using the power they inherited through blood to empower the spell. Death reached out at them, and Velvet repeatedly beat him away, keeping her prey alive to power that transcendent essay.

Seacrest received the unbounded magic with writhing terror, every passing second abusing him with more energy. Behind his eyes, in the very structure of his soul, Velvet was crafting the monstrosity, the great and vaunted god, which his poor mind was even now being consumed by. He felt simultaneously filled to the brim and a withered husk.

Velvet blazing eyes surpassed the sun, brightening hundredfold. The ponies around her not transfixed by the abominable ritual, shied away to protect their sight. Even though their eyelids and sheltering hooves, the unclean light burned at their retinas. But eventually, the light died away.

Hearing and sight returned. Everypony braced themselves and opened their eyes, preying for strength to assess the aftermath.

The bore witness. Foaly Flux was completely gone, and every trace of him evaporated with him. He was the lucky one.
Only parts of Molar’s pathwork body seemed to have been used up, leaving chunks of him standing. Everything original to his body, it seemed, was gone, but it was several seconds before the lifeless corpse, slightly less than half intact, succumbed to gravity.
Rain Gnash was by some miracle still alive. Her right leg and left forehoof, her right wing, half of her left wings, a good deal of her torso fat and muscle, her ears, her left eye, and most of her muzzle was gone. But still, the rapid rise and fall of her chest drew Fleetfoot to her side.

“Admiral! Can you hear me?” Fleetfoot cried. She knelt in the blood but did not dare touch Rain for how much skin was missing. "Rain Gnash! Please, answer me!"

Night Light attention was on his wife. She floated softly back to the ground, struggling to regulate her breathing. As soon as she touched down, she collapsed. But a pair of hooves interposed themselves between her and the ground.

“I have you.” Night Light whispered. “You're safe. You survived.”

“Did I do it?” Velvet whispered weakly back. “Is she there?”

Night Light cradled his wife gently as he raised his eyes to see what had become of Seacrest.

The thing on the throne stared back, unblinking.

It would take an infinite amount of wishful thinking to call it an alicorn, or even a pony. It’s proportions bordered on the obscene, looking for all the world like a pile of bones bound in sinew and given life. It’s legs alone were twice Night Light’s height, and at the top of it’s horn the creature could have looked down at three Celestias. It’s snout, like the rest of it, was long and sharp, with no sign of a mouth. Two pure black orbs and two slender swiveling ears were the only indication it was alive, and not just a meat statue.

“You... did something.” Night Light told Velvet.

A bubbling feeling, but like a lack of breath or squeezing pressure, made itself felt in everypony's throat. It was accompanied by a soundless thought, unwelcome and unnatural, that could be understood without voice.
"Something wonderful." The thought proclaimed.

Night Light froze, his eyes focussed on the thing on the throne. By the reaction of the other ponies around him, they felt it as well.

“Astral.” Velvet breathed. "Let me see her."

"Velvet... Be very careful." Night Light slowly helped his wife to her hooves. "We have no idea what it is."

The thing on the throne squirmed, making those still able to walk scramble backwards. The red flesh wobbled, then separated, reforming until it had the outline of Celestia resting daintily on her seat. But it was still a mass of red muscle and beige tendon, and the alicorn-like shape only reinforced that. It's head jerked around, taking in the room with its beady black eyes.

"Astral." Velvet cleared her throat. Even if she were not several meters lower on the stairs, she would have had to crane her neck to look at the thing she'd created. "Say your name Astral."

The meat thing focussed its attention on her, both its ears swiveling forward.

"Say something again. Come on." Velvet coxed the thing to come closer. "Can't sit up there all day."

The thing's flesh contorted, and the shape that corresponded to its front hoof raised up. With a slow motion it imitated Velvet's gesturing.

"Good gods Velvet. We're manufactured a mare, but its a idiot." Night Light sighed anxiously, rubbing his scraggly chin. Was this the end result of so much carnage? There had to be more. "Please get it to do something before I throw myself out a window."

Velvet didn't bother lambasting her husband for his rudeness. She climbed up the stair until she was standing right below the throne. The creature leaned back so it didn't have to look down on her as much. "Few dreams are important enough to have a name. You're special little thing though. You're a fundamentally divine thought, so strong you can come to life." Velvet said. "So say your name. Say Astral."

The thing sifted its flesh around, becoming more proportional to Velvet's body, but still easily quadruple her size. Still it had a mess of thin flesh tendrils in the place of its mane and tail. It stood up on the throne. "Aaaaaa-" The uncomfortable mental intrusion surged into everypony's head again. "A- Astral."

"Very good!" Velvet beamed. "Astral Nacre."

"Astral Nacre." Through its mental communication, the sinewy thing's emotions were communicated perfectly. It was in awe, it was afraid, but more of all it felt hungry. It was a dog hoping to get a treat from Velvet, or perhaps a fledgling squawking so its mother would regurgitate it a meal. "Astral Nacre."

"Bravo." Velvet stomped her hooves, a smile spreading on her face. "You can do better than that though. I don't raise slackers. There's about a century of memory swimming around in that head of yours. Communicate abstractly, Astral Nacre."

The thing she called Astral Nacre did not blink. Not at all.

"You can read my mind, can't you Astral? You were up there for a while so surely you have some familiarity." Velvet's smile grew. "So say what I'm thinking right now. Easy language practice. Worry about the meaning later.

The unwelcome voice started out slow. ”My mother Velvet has brought a new life into this world for the third time.” As it went on, it added the intonations, the emphasis, and the pauses where they were lacking, until the words being spoken into everypony's heads was like a facsimile of a pony voice. It was mostly feminine, and much like Velvet's voice, but different too. It was hauntingly melodic, and hummed on the vowels.
“I'm Astral Nacre. I am more perfect than I have ever been. Everything, the waiting, the apprehension, the pain, has been worth it for this moment. ”

Then the thing called Astral stepped down from the throne and turned a full circle displaying its body for the ponies below her, a revolting sight. It was like watching a flayed pony.

“Ho gods, its awful. Is it a mare?” Sel Lech let his thought escape him. “Oh Celestia, it’s looking at me!”

Astral was indeed looking at him. It took a purposeful step forward, but apparently ignorant of stairs, tumbled off the dais and rolled all the way down in a flurry of limbs and fleshy tendrils until it splashed into the bloody floor pool.
"Uwww." Its unspoken voice uttered a facsimile of a grunt of pain.

Velvet chuckled and shook her head. "Maybe I shouldn't be having children at my age. Old mares beget misdeveloped foals."

"I hope you're laughing to ease the pain and not because you find this funny." Night Light said.

"Relax. You're worrying about nothing." Velvet consoled him. The eyed the throne. There wasn't much remaining of Seacrest expect a bloody smear on the cushion. The Blackhorn Armor had been tossed away into the corner during the transformation, so Velvet scooped it up and folded it neatly. "Things could have gone much worse. I gave us a half chance of being exploded by either the alicorn or the ritual."

One pony not feeling better about the situation was Fleetfoot. She was whimpering and pleading over Rain Gnash, the latter still bleeding terribly from her missing parts. "oh no oh no." The Wonderbolt tore at her hair in panic. "She needs help! Please!"

"Rain Gnash survived." Velvet arched a brow. "But what's this?"

The 'this' in this case was the Astral thing, picking itself up. The alicorn was focussed on Gnash and Fleetfoot, and once on its hooves it stalked towards them. The place where it'd lain and at every hoofstep, the blood pool was gone, absorbed into the monster.

"Oh great." Night Light massaged his temple. "It's going to eat them."

"Let's get a closer look." Velvet grabbed his shoulder.

Velvet and Night Light descended to ground level. Sel galloped up to them. "My Lady, is it under your control?" He asked nervously.

"Nope. Isn't this exciting?!" Velvet was giddy. "Come on. Closer!"

Fleetfoot's whimpers trailed off as she noticed the huge creature casting a shadow over her and her admiral. She stared, uncomprehending. "W- w- What?"

Astral Nacre shifted shape again, returning to alicorn-like proportions. Her inexpressive beady eyes betrayed nothing, but the little head motions showed how she went from looking at Fleetfoot, to Gnash, then back to Fleet.
"Hhhhgggggg" It's thoughts gurgled.

Fleetfoot hunched herself over Gnash protectively. Her eyes were desperate, begging the other three ponies in the room to intervene.

"Hggg Hggg heeEEeehhh!" Astral made strange sounds like a machine straining against itself, or how Velvet assessed, a stutterer trying to force out a word. "Hee hghhEEEeee!"
It took a step closer to Fleet, close enough to kick the pegasus.

"Use your words, Astral." Velvet urged her creation. "Use your mind, not mine now. Create the meaning, then the words to convey it!"

After a tense moment of silence, Astral lowered her head a bit. Her fleshy mane of tendrils cascaded around her elongated face like a mop. "Heeh." She said at Fleetfoot again. "Hee haaa hiii hiii hIE hie hie hi."

"Just say hello, Astral." Velvet giggled.

"Hello." Astral mimicked. "Hello. Hello." It lifted its head and lowered it again, like some manner of animal signal. "Hello, Fleetfoot. Hello, Rain Gnash."

"Buck me, it can talk." Sel Lech said. Velvet just smiled triumphantly.

"Hello, Fleetfoot. You... need... my help?" Astral was taking the words slow again. "You need my help? I can help you."

Fleetfoot shrank away from Astral. "Please, don't hurt her!"

“Don’t worry.” Astral soothed, calming words at odds with the invasive nature of her speech. “I want to help.”

“D- Don’t let h- her die.” Fleetfoot managed to say.

“I am... I'm a god of life, not death. Of course I’ll save her!” Astral bobbed her head up and down.
Magic didn’t so much coalesce at her horn as ooze form it, snaking out to Gnash’s body. The unconscious pegasus moaned in pain as magical fire cauterized her wounds. After it was over her breathing slowed to an even pant.

“You… I don’t... Could you heal her?” Fleetfoot asked pitifully.

“ ... Regrow her? Don't know.... More to learn... before that.... Like this.” Astral flicked her tendril tail around, seeming enjoying the way it slapped again her own flesh from the momentum. The moment's amusement over, she refocussed on Fleetfoot. "She's lost parts of her."

Fleetfoot opened her mouth put struggled with the words. "Y- yeah."

"I think... I know where they went. Somewhere here." Astral's leg curved up like a noddle and probed the muscle of her own torso. "I can't give them back. I..." Astral cocked her head. "You want her alive, a lot?"

"Y- Yes!" Fleetfoot said. "Please save her! The Admiral was trying to do the right thing a- and-" She sniffled. "It's my duty to save her. I should have stopped her! B- But she was trying to do what was right for us. I- I-"

"Hmm... No more talking." Astral commanded. Her horn began to ooze magic again.

Fleetfoot began to scream in pain. Then a moment later, both she and Rain Gnash disappeared in a flash of light.

"What happened?" Night Light blinked.

"Oh, uh..." Astral clumsily walked over to Velvet. “I tried to help Rain Gnash. Then I sent them back to Cloudsdale, I think.”

Blueblood and Aurthora, who had been happy to stay at the back of the room, slowly approached. "Lady Velvet, you really did it." Blueblood said. "It look weird, but it's an alicorn. No mistaking it."

"Are you talking about me?" Astral twisted her head around to assess the two unicorns. "I'm a what?"

"An alicorn. A god." Aurthora said. "You called yourself one too. A god of life, you said. You're a divine entity!"

The form Astral's body undulated slightly, her way of fidgeting in discomfort. "I said that?" She looked back at Velvet. "I'm a... A god?"

"Hey, don't worry about it. Doesn't much matter what you are, as long as you're happy with what you are. But I'm just putting it out there that calling you a god serves my agenda well." Velvet said with a smirk.

Astral undulated more. "I... I am a god then?"

"Don't let it go to your head." Night Light said flatly. "Welcome to the Bright World your majesty. I hope you're ready for life as the object of somepony else's hopes and dreams, because it will get old quick."

"Oh hush." Velvet admonished playfully. "Let's enjoy the moment."

The moment, steeped with cruel intentions draped by the facade of selflessness. Among the hundreds of bodies piled high in the throne room were the late Jet Set, Hausseway, and Molar. Seacrest and Foaly Flux had vanished from the world, their entireties consumed by the god Velvet created.
Velvet's ritual was the end of the Empire of Equestria. The new Equestria of Velvet was one with a fleshy monstrosity on its banner, which had been birthed from sheer force of will and the sacrificing of others. It was a gluttonous, overwhelmingly powerful, and ignorant thing, whose first moments were met with empty encouragement and resigned mockery.
It was horrendous. It was at once the best and worst ponykind had to offer.

But what Velvet was searching for in the eyes of her creation, any semblance of pony compassion or joy, was absent. It could think and act like a pony did, but Velvet could not feel the heart of another being. A stab of anxiety struck her heart: Hadn't she manufactured the alicorn with nothing but the flesh and magic of ponykind? Why did her Astral less of a pony that Celestia?
"How do you feel?" She asked.

Astral's soulless pinprick eyes shifted to her. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Velvet narrowed her eyes. "There's nothing you want, or want to do?"

"And as a god... What am I supposed to do?" Astral Nacre asked.

"Command us mortals." Blueblood proposed.

”Commands? So... I don’t know. I command, err whatever it is that mortals do. Eat breakfast, perhaps? Pursue dental hygiene? Sorry, really, but I don't want to. Yeah, I don't really want to be bogged down with all that.” Astral took a step back. "I want to leave. Does that mean I command you to let me leave?" She turned away and, with a pulse of magic, Astral shattered one of the room's monumental stained glass windows. In the midnight sun, the cascade of glass was like a winter afternoon's shimmering snowfall, seen from beside a lake. A lukewarm breeze rushed into the throne room, making tiny ripples on the remaining shallow pools of blood.
"I won't go farther than the city walls. I have to learn some things. Bye- bye." With a sound like rope rubbing against itself, Astral's wings unfurled. They were spindly constructions of muscle of bone, abjectly un-aerodynamic. But with a few flaps, Astral proved alicorn magic made up for that. She lept out the window, and soared into the air on her impossible wings. Out, over Canterlot she flew, before descending like a vulture into the maze of the Inner City.

“I did it. Should I have?” Velvet clenched her jaw. She leaned again her husband, letting him take some of her weight. The exhaustion of so long awake, and the exertion of the ritual were catching up to her. Ignored for hours, the stink of death in her nose was begining to sting. “Night Light... There's a chance history doesn't view this moment fondly. Am... Am I wrong to wonder, did we did the right thing?”

Night Light accepted Velvet, holding her close. “Is the voice bothering you anymore?”

Velvet sighed. “N- No.”

Night Light cooed. “Then everything is going to be fine.”

Comments

[SpiritDutch]

I hope it will all work out. There are people who like a feel bad story, but not me. Yet I find myself writing one. I really want the characters I like to be happy. I don't want them to suffer or cry. What kind of a sick, demented person would make the characters suffer?
Does it make you feel good to toy around with a life like that? Sure its not a real life, but you're hurting the idea of a person. Does the power please you? You like hurting those you don't like, huh? or even those you do like, huh? Is this your way of showing affection? Hmm, you'd like to hurt me, wouldn't you. It wouldn't be in malice, just your way of showing you care. Perhaps its the only way you can.

[DarknessLilly]

very interesting path you are taking so far i wonder how this will all work out? can not wait for the next chapter. ^_^

[SpiritDutch]

5134600 I'm curious what path you though it would take. I'm just doing whatever makes the most sense to me.

[DarknessLilly]

5134611 not sure at this point. i know what i want or maybe need but not what you will do. ^_^
lets just say i hope for a happy ending but by no means will i stop reading or even hate your story if i do not get what i want. i am an adult i know you can not always get what you want. plus i do not wish to dictate what another person can and will create.

[TyroidMary]

5134429 That's too bad.
It's a bit weird how much you mix ponies having their plans realized and being foiled. I guess it's not unrealistic (the best laid plans of mice and men, and all that), but definitely a little bit jarring. Also I'd recommend you delete your authors note and reveal that in the story.

[StormyVenture]

Wow. So um, Twilight Velvet destroyed Equestria just to get Astral Nacre out of her head?

[SpiritDutch]

5242819 Hoo Boy! I came back to a lot of comments! I thought I'd weirded you out and you stopped reading. I guess I'll address everything here.
Firstly of all I'd like to offer my apologies that I'm rewriting slower than you can read. As of this comment I've only just done chapter 13. I hope to increase quality by a minimum of a fifth and greatly decrease the amount of errors and plotholes I make by introducing things arbitrarily in the later chapters.

Also, I think you might want a comedy and/or random tag to go with your collection thus far.

I think that would be greatly misrepresenting this fic. It's funny in places but not quite enough to justify that.

Was there a reason for Gilda to be so wantonly murderous and for Dash to be so unconcerned, or what?

Gilda's more than slightly crazy, and murderous as well. Rainbow Dash doesn't want to estrange her only friend.
However I will admit that Rainbow and Gilda's odyssey (what I've written and what I have not yet reached), is more contrived and arbitrary parts. It's a whistle-stop tour of the world so I can flex my worldbuilding muscle or something like that, and to show how everything is before the big conflicts. It also lacks a bit because my most traumatizing live events aren't really comparable to murdering hundreds of kids, so I can't get into Rainbow's mind. It definitely something I'll be come back to over and over as I hammer out the details.

=> Author Notes: Err what?

I'm doing this thing with the author's notes (Only done with the rewritten chapters right now) where it's an extension of the story. A character I have not yet introduced is writing the chapters as a serialized historical fiction. He's talking about the real life charachters and how they relate to the ones in his story.

If this is meant to be a crossover, isn't there a tag for that. Also, It think there's a certain similarity to Game of Thrones at times.

I was inspired by Game of Thrones, but it's not quite a crossover. I'll wait until Shining Armor is King in the North fighting Gilda Greyjoy and Pinkie Pie of house Lannister.

Wow, that's pretty hardcore horrible stuff there. Apparently the "god" of life and the alicorn from him was the only nice guy around. Not that it did him any good in the end.

That's only what Velvet told Molar/Seacrest. She has a reason to lie to him.

Wow. So um, Twilight Velvet destroyed Equestria just to get Astral Nacre out of her head?

fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/058/0/7/twilight_velvet_by_ninjamissendk-d4qzl2o.png "What have I done?!" No, actually she's pretty unrepentant.

[SpiritDutch]

GOOD NEWS. Act One revision is now complete. There are some things I'd like to add, but otherwise I hope to never touch that part of the story again.

Bad news, It took a long time. There's some parts I'm not happy with but I'm not going back.

[TheCommunistDog]

Before anypony could react, a surge of light coursed off her horn, a fire to challenge the sun. Everypony in the room was gripped by her telekenisis, non resisted. Things were ariving at their conclusion. There was no avoiding the results of their actions. Velvet's magic dragged them all to their designated position. Molar, Foaly Flux, and Rain Gnash went the extremes of the blood circle on the floor, Seacrest still pinned to the throne, and Velvet floated herself into the center. Night Light, Sel, and Fleetfoot were pushed to the back of the room, to watch helplessly as it ritual occurred. Celestia’s sun in the windows wasn’t enough to break the fastidious cold starting to emanate from every corner of the room. In every heart, the presence of a blooming evil let itself be known. A sound like song began to fill the air.

fuck those idiots did it....they just doomed them all.