When the Everfree Burns

by SpiritDutch

Chapter 36: Guise of Sanctity

Glori, to her credit, remained resolute until Ancepanox was nearly upon her. At the last second she dove backwards, braving the spreading fire rather than the grinning black alicorn. Losing a bead on her intended target, Ancepanox collided with Ripple Wreath, sending him tumbling after Glori. The countess looked back at her apprentice, hesitated for a moment, and galloped away as fast as she could.
Wreath tried to get up, but an armored hoof to the side of his wolf helmet sent him sprawling, unconscious.

...

...

A throbbing head and the smell of ash greeted Ripple Wreath when he awoke. The world around him was silent and dark, and it took him several moments to realize that the slats in his visor had been crumpled by the force of Ancepanox’s buck. Struggling with the ache of his limbs, he sat upright and pushed off the snarling bascinet.

Wreath was an average pony, if a bit effeminate looking. His short pink mane was in sharp contrast to his grey coat that blended with his bed of ash. His red eyes often gave ponies a fright when seen through the helmet, when otherwise the softness of his features often made him the target of ridicule. His mark, a broken circle of holly hedges, was still slightly scorched by the fire he’d been pushed through.

His eyes watered from the smoke in the air as he looked around. The camp around him was flattened and razed, columns of acrid smoke still wafting off the burning tents and coal carts. There were no screams, nor any sound at all except for the rustle of torn tents and ripped banners. In the night and the smoke, it was difficult to tell if any of the crumpled forms he saw were alive or dead.

It was only when he heard the subtle crunch of ash behind him did he realize that one of the alicorns was still there. By the time he turned to face her it was too late. Purple magic closed around his head and Ripple Wreath was pulled into the air.

“You’re alive,” Ancepanox observed. Her fur and hair were further blackened by soot and ash, and there was a strange distance in her eyes. “Contrary to my expectations.” She prodded him in the side with a hoof. "Tougher than you look."

“You-” Wreath coughed out the ash in his lungs.

“Go on.” Ancepanox hummed. "Say what you want to say."

“My- my helmet.” Wreath could not see the crumpled wolf head below him, but knew the alicorn holding him could. “She does the talking.”

“It was very beautiful. It still is, somewhat, if you past its flaws.” Ancepanox lifted and inspected the silver helm, letting her grip on Wreath slacken. “Your name was Ripple Wreath, right? I know of your family. The wolf motif was passed down from one of your ancestors.”

Ripple Wreath tried to nod in the affirmative, and though his head was still in Ancepanox’s vice-like magic it seemed the message got through.

“They say Lady Ripple Wake, the riverpony wolf, was devoted servant to Celestia in her time. Courage in numbers, says the wolf’s philosophy.” Ancepanox dropped the helm unceremoniously, and refocused her attention on Wreath. “You are alone now, sir knight. But so am I."

"No, neither of us are alone." Wreath coughed.

Ancepanox chuckled, relaxing her grasp. "I suppose not. Sir, can you show courage at a time like this?"

Wreath didn't understand what she meant. “May- May I ask you a question?” Wreath squirmed in Astral’s grasp, expecting the death blow at any moment.

“A very brave request. Good.” Ancepanox nodded. “Ask away, sir.”

“You killed everypony?”

“Every-pony. Two words, a designation of size: infinite, and a designation of species: pony. I did not kill everypony.” Droned Ancepanox. “One-hundred-forty-four knights and soldiers are dead by my hooves.”
She dropped Wreath and he fell flat on his back. “That's a lot. That's more than some villages. That's more than some ponies meet in their entire life. Isn't that... quite something." She shook the ash off her cape. "A day ago, I would have cried to contemplate killing one. I expect it won't be long now before the horror of what I've done catches up to me. Not yet though. At the same time, I earnestly do not wish to have it be one-hundred-forty-five.”

Daring to look around, Wreath saw more clearly how badly mutilated the bodies he was were. He had to look away before he vomited. "Their faces." He said at a whisper.

“I know. They're looking at me." Ancepanox stepped back, giving Wreath his space. "Their eyes are following me. Odd. I didn't intend for that." She let out a contrite sigh. “I did not need to kill them. The army was scattered and disorganized, and Astral would have gladly chased them back to Prancia herself. I could have returned to Ponyville, saved my friend, receded from the world. And yet here I am, talking to you. I feel I have to, as though I'm obligated to explain myself. Odd. Very odd.”

Wreath mind forbade him from coming to terms with his situation. He just wanted to be anywhere else. Anywhere but under the hoof of a malevolent creature that had just killed hundreds of his compatriots.
“Please don't kill me.” Was all eh could think to say. "I- I don't want to look like them. Please don't kill me."

Brow furrowed, Ancepanox cleared the ground around her and sat. “I won't.”

Wreath shakily looked up from the ground. "T- Thank you."

"Is not murdering somepony really an act worthy of thanks?"

“I was sworn to Lady Sabonord. Her enemies were mine. It is within your rights to kill me.” Wreath explained quietly.

“Rights? What damn stupid pony says that I have that right? Celestia? Pshaw!” Ancepanox scoffed. “I killed her! What are her rights now? We can redefine what situation gives us what rights. Perhaps enemies will have the right only to forgive and be forgiven."

“Lady Glori was not-”

“I let Glori go.” Ancepanox gestured to the north, towards Prancia. “I have never seen a unicorn run so fast." Her impish smile faded. "If ponykind is to redefine itself away from accepting violence and murder, ponies like her would need to be purged. Somehow, I allowed myself to destroy a hundred others, but not she who most deserved it. Ah... but maybe I shouldn't stray into thoughts of deserving or not deserving death. Murder for pleasure is less of a moral quandary."

Wreath rubbed his eyes, feeling mixed emotions at his mentor's survival. "Why did you let her go?"

"Truth be told, I don't know. To keep a hold of myself? To stop my slide ? One explanation is as good as the other."

“Your slide?”

Ancepanox sighed deeply. “I'm cursed. I fear I have some kind of nightmare inside me that welled up and swallowed up my mind. Fire can flicker and fade, but Dark only grows stronger with time. My curse will always be there, surging forth whenever I’m weak. I thought I was through with it. I... I really did think I got away.” She chuckled morosely. “I should have known better. The Dark, that disgusting ooze that threatens to fill my veins, will never be purged.”

“My lady I do not understand. Why do you mean?” Wreath questioned.

“You can't blame me for what I've done. It was the nightmare curse. ” Ancepanox said pointedly. “You let me talk, and don't make me upset, and it won't overwhelm me again.”

Wreath blinked. “A- Are you joking with me?”

“The nightmare turns good ponies in to the worst perversions of their minds. Do you think any sane pony could do what I just did?” Ancepanox was suddenly angry, then, after a contorted expression of realization, calmed. "Actually, ponies could do what I did. Glori, could have. From what I saw of her she was a coherent, sane, and evil pony. Fully evil. Yes... Ponies can do foul things. They’re fickle and disgusting! In your time of need, they WILL abandon you. Glori left you and every other pony here to die at my hooves! I begin to understand what Nightmare Moon taught me: No two ponies think of themselves as gods and clash over petty things!” She let out a long sigh. “I did ask you to show courage. Good job.”

The alicorn before Wreath was trying to be amenable, he could tell, but there were many hangups about her. Firstly the way she moved reminded him at every moment like a feral dog about to tear him apart; Indeed she was more wolf than he was. Then there was her odd apology, couched in her insistence that she was blameless. He was not sure she was all there, mentally, and was not convinced she would stand by her promise to let him live. "Thank you, my lady."

Ancepanox shook her head. “These are selfish tears, pay no heed. I am simply sad by what I am becoming: A monster.”

“You let me live.” Wreath reminded. “You let Glori go.”

“Don’t thank me yet. And as for Glori, she did not get off so easy. Heh heh heh. I already killed anything she could dare to care about: Her pride, her host, and…”Ancepanox laid a hoof across her snout, as if no wipe away the tears, but instead fell into a dark snicker. “her apprentice.”

Wreath was confused at first. "Pardon, my lady?"

Ancepanox glanced away. "I said, Glori isn't getting off easy when I've killed her apprentice."

Wreath's blood ran cold. "I won't beg, but spare me please and I will-”

“One-hundred-forty-four, killed, consumed, devoured. I cannot even begin to describe how good they felt, how alive their souls made me feel.” The black alicorn shivered. "Do you know where we are? Did you mind register the inconsistencies?"

Wreath tried to look around again.

Ancepanox lit her horn up, and shoved Wreath onto his back. As he sunk into the ash, he felt the bloom of alien magic in this hear. “I wasn’t sure what to expect in your dream. I'm new to them. What causes dream to imitate life?" She licked her lips. "Out there, you're as limp as rope, but in here you're lucid. The mind retreats on itself, but I won't let you get away. Sorry to say I need you here, under my hoof, and struggling. Well, I don't need you struggling, but that makes it more interesting." Her horn blazed with magic.

Wreath could feel inside him now, like snakes writhing inside his head, and screamed. “No! NOOO! Make it stop!” The presence began trashing, hungrily feeding on his fear and mournful sadness. It was going to devour him.

“This is exquisite. What a terrible shame this moment was shared under such unfortunate circumstances.” Ancepanox watched him, as he spasmed and dry heaved, suffering the effects of his mind being overtaken by her magic. “If you haven’t caught on, you're dream. You took a hit on the head. On the one hoof, you're lucky you weren't up and running while I had my blood up. On the other hoof you could not be roused. There was irreparable damage to your brain and spinal cord.”
She paced around him slowly. “I don’t know enough healing magic to save you, Sir Wreath. However, there was a force within me that would secure your hold over life more tenaciously than any other. I speak of course of the nightmare, who upon nesting in a pony, will protect its host against all but the fatalist of wounds.” She stopped pacing to watch him for a moment. “I’m sorry, but this was the only option, this or death.”

The dreamscape they were in began to crack, sections of the sky and earth falling away as Wreath lost the ability to care about the illusion. The hills and camp dissolved into ash, until all that was left was Wreath, his alicorn tormentor, and the encroaching nightmares reaching out for him at the corners of his vision. Horrible things, warped and perverted pony forms, shifting and changing like smoke as they clawed at him.

Wreath received invasive visions of what his eyes had seen while he had laid limp in the waking world. He could feel now the snap and crunch his bones had made as Ancepanox had trampled him. Then she’d quickly moved on to begin the wholesale slaughter of Glori’s camp.
He remembered lying in the dirt, consciousness ebbing, as hundreds of other ponies were cut down around him. The dark he’d felt then was very different from what he was feeling now, numb while this was cold, patient while this was voracious. He was spared the spreading fires, but was slowly covered by drifting ash before the black alicorn rediscovered him.
“P- p- please kill me.” Wreath whimpered.

“I could. I’m feeling much better now that some of the pressure has been relieved. I could sanitize you like a tissue I sneezed into, burn down the asylum to make the insanity just go away.” Ancepanox smiled sadly. “But truly, I want you to live. You will not be truly transformed, only tainted as I was. Be pure and you can still like a normal and fulfilling life. I said courage would spare you, and this is what I meant.”

“I- I- I-”

“Again, I’m sorry, but there’s not much left to say. Good night, sir Wreath.”

Ancepanox was forced out of the dream back into her waiting body. With a shudder she reasserted control over the flesh fused to her steel armor. The body blinked away the dryness that had settled over its eyes in her absence.

Ancepanox looked down at the inert body of Ripple Wreath. Nightmare Moon had said that her own nightmare had been weakened by corrupting Twilight Sparkle, and now Ancepanox understood exactly what she had meant. She felt cleansed, purged of the vile feelings and acerbic thoughts. Was it the same?

The camp was as it was in Wreath’s dream, burnt and ashen. The only difference was Astral Nacre, prowling at the opposite end of the camp, pulling inert ponies to one of the smoldering bonfires doting the landscape.
When the monstrous alicorn saw that Ancepanox had returned to the realm of the living, she abandoned that task and galloped over.

“That’s close enough.” Ancepanox raised her saber defensively.

Astral stopped a safe distance away, the tendrils of her mane thrashing in excitement. "Don't be a stranger. We were back to back just an hour ago, tearing this place apart."

"That doesn't change anything. Peace has returned. It's time to save ponies instead of hurt them, and fight monsters instead of embrace them."

"... Am I to gather you are denouncing the act you just participated in? And act sanctimonious at the same time?" Astral fidgeted. "I saw the look in your eyes, because I was watching carefully. You loved it."

Ancepanox scowled. "That was the nightmare, not me."

"Really? Or do you say that for other reasons besides fact. I don't judge. I'm only here to observe and learn, and thus I learn that a measure of lying is healthy for those who must make weighty decisions."

"Go away." Ancepanox bit.

"Lady Ancepanox, do you really believe that absolute mania I saw out of you, as we pushed these souls into the ash, was all the nightmare and none of you?" Astral teased. "Are you that weak of mind?"

"You won't provoke me."

"No?"

"No." Ancepanox said resolutely. She looked over the burning ash pile that had been Glori's camp. More crematory bonfires had been lit during her time in the dream. "I won't have you gawk over me any longer. If I can't force you to leave, then I must then not be a spectacle."

"You are set on misunderstanding me, my Lady. I yearn to learn from your actions. No hostility intended."

"Not a hard misunderstanding to make, considering what a monster you are. Your words in the throne room would convince a pony you were trying to rend them." Ancepanox scowled. "Because that was what you were trying to do."

“Why would you assume that? I’ve been nothing courteous, after that initial misunderstanding.” Astral defended. “For the duration of your trance I left you and that pony there unmolested.”

“Because you were too busy killing.” Ancepanox accused. Though they were at the edge of her telekinetic reach, she managed to draw in the bodies Astral had been dragging. They were mangled, the flesh cut nearly to ribbons by magical lacerations. “Look at this gratuitous carnage! I don’t have to make assumptions about you. You lie, but don’t even try to hide the truth. I’d say you were stupid, but it is far more likely that you just don’t care.”

Astral weathered the abuse with surprising composure, though perhaps it was the featurelessness of her face that muted the visible effect of the stinging words. She did not however like Ancepanox hanging the mutilated body in her face, and she batted it aside with a wing. “My lady, you did that."

"Again you lie." Ancepanox stuck her nose up.

"Ah, I admit I don't know which of us did this." Astral sniffed the corpse. "My lady, why should I care about these ponies? You wish me not to lie, but the only way to profess I care is if I lie! You are already at odds with me. Best I watch you from a distance than twist myself up to try to please you."

Ancepanox let the corpse fall to the ground. "Good. Glad we've puzzled that out. Now, unless it's to say goodbye, there is nothing I want to hear from you."

"What if, you talk, and I listen?"

"Fine. If it will shut you up." Ancepanox turned back to Ripple Wreath. “Hum, hum. As far as I can tell, you can think only for death and destruction. While I shamefully partook of destruction..." She checked Wreath vital signs. He was breathing slowly, though the movement behind his eyelids was feverish. "I'm going to work to make it better."

Astral held her hoof up.

Ancepanox sighed. "Make it quick."

Astral wasn't taking the hint. "You are making things better by reviving these pitiful ponies?"

"Yes."

"You care too much about mortals, my Lady. You fuss about killing them, or letting them live, when really it doesn't matter either way. I thought an enlightened creature like you would realize them.” Astral strutted around to get a better look at what Ancepanox was doing with Wreath. “How now? Put that down so I can talk to you.”

“And I told you to shut up or go away.” Ancepanox pressed her head against Wreath’s chest, listening to the wild fluctuations of his heartbeat. Ignoring him to chat with Astral had almost cost her patient his life. “Tell me, how would you feel if I considered this pony my equal?”

Astral psychically-vocalized in an approximation of a snort. “It is evident you are misguided. It bares repeating.”

“Misguided. Very on point there.” Ancepanox stood back up. "Not in the way you imagine though."

“Explain what you are doing. Give insight into your misguided-ness.” Astral pestered. She nudged Wreath with a hoof. “Some magic is at work here." Her voice dipped into a agitated growl. "Ancepanox, what are your intentions with this pony?"

"I have been trying to explain. You must not be observing as closely as you thought." Anceapnox sniffed.

"You have been rambling about life! What am I to understand?!" Astral said. "No, nay, this is not life. You are changing this pony."

"Watch this." Ancepanox bowed down, until her nose was almost touching Ripple Wreath’s. She exhaled, and a wire of blue magic escaped into the air. It wound through the air to Wreath, squirming through the gaps in his teeth and forcing itself down his throat. The two alicorn’s listened to the crick and crack of his vertebra repairing. "Is this life?"

Astral's beady eyes twitched. "That was... dream magic?"

“Yup, that's what they call it. He was going to die. It was a long shot, but the accelerated healing of the nightmare curse has saved him.” Ancepanox noted. She picked up the wolf helm and tucked it against Wreath leg. “Taking notes?”

“No! You are trying my patience, my lady! What are you trying to prove?” Astral pushed Wreath slightly with her hoof again. "Are you teasing me?"

"No."

"You actually care about this pony? You actually give them them consideration? You have never met them before!"

“If there is one thing I would actually like to teach you, it would be empathy.” Ancepanox said sharply, but every time she glanced to Wreath her expression softened. "Let me in on a little secret, Astral Nacre. I am more pony than alicorn, mentally. Their suffering is mine, and I don't think I'll ever forgive myself for what happened here. This pony... Well, I shared my curse with him. But I don't really know what to think about any of this anymore. I'm fairly lost." She laughed emptily. "What have I done? It's not my fault. It can't be my fault. I'm here, and I can't change that. Or... I think I'm here. I see things around me, but how much of this is real? What madness all this is. What madness. I'm just drifting forward..."

Astral just looked at her.

Ancepanox trudged away, sending up little eddies of ash at her hooffall. "Is somepony doing this to me? What's making me feel this way. It's got to be the nightmare..." She looked down at Wreath. "If it's not, what did I just do to him? If not... what's wrong with me?"

Astral continued to watch mutely.

"I wasn't supposed to be this, do this... any of this. I should have gone back by now. Why did I come here? Did I really think- What did I think I was going to accomplish?" Ancepanox scooped up a hooffull of ash and rubbed it on her face. She accidentally inhaled some and wheezed. Her eyes began to water. "This is so messed up. This is so, so messed up. I just killed ponies. HUNDREDS OF PONIES. A- A- And it was easy. SO easy. And... it felt so good." She laugh-cried. "Destiny really was setting me up for more torture by letting me live."

Astral mimicked by dusting herself with some ash but could not guess the significance of it. "I don't get you."

"Yeah, you wouldn't... I told you to FUCK OFF!" Ancepanox wheeled around and screamed at the monsterous alicorn, tears streaming from her ash-reddened eyes. "I’m not pretending right now! You disgusting overgrown bicep!” Acepanox spit in disgust. “You’re trash! You’re awful! How did Celestia not foresee your coming as she did the nightmare's? But I don’t blame her. Who would have guessed that you could take pure schizophrenia and extrude it into the shape of an alicorn princess? Not Celestia, because on some level she believed everypony was capable of good. You are a villain! You disgust me! You're not even trying to show consternation for what happened here!”

“That is a rather mean thing to say, Lady Ancepanox.” Astral cocked her head.

“Go away! Kill yourself! Get out of my sight and out of this world!" Ancepanox screeched.

"Are you upset by me? My lady, why? It seems that there are many things you have a gripe with many things, and I am one of them. But I am getting all the abuse. That is unfair." Astral's beady eyes stared unblinkingly. "Just because Lady Velvet was venting at me does not give you license to."

"Oh yeah? You big baby! You think you're a god but you squawk and roll over when somepony actually confronts you.""

Astral's tendrils thrashed in agitation but her voice was still calm. "You think me unreasonable, but you should free yourself of emotion before you so accuse me. There were problems in this world before me. There will, it agonizes me to suggest it, be problems for some time yet."

Ancepanox's jaw trembled, and she pulled away. "Tshh. I'm talking to a brick wall... doing it just to make myself feel better. And yes, I'm venting my problems, pointlessly. It's helpless frustration. It used to be light here in Equestria... But I think this night was looming under the surface the whole time. Not literal night, but Dark. Corruption. Things weren't alright. Things aren't alright. You... You're just a manifestation of them. Equestria failed Twilight Velvet, I think. You're the result." She sighed. "And everything you do... It's just the insane playfulness of the child of Equestria. You are a reach for 'perfection', but perverted, misplaced, misaligned. Yeah. That's what a child of Equestria would hope for."

"Should I be insulted?" Astral asked.

"If you want to be. Equestria failed me too. I'm sure there's plenty of names you could call me. Murderer, for one." Anceapnox sighed. "It's too much to dare comprehend. The problems with Equestia I'd always ignored, there before I existed, monumental, impossible to confront. How do you deal with that?"

"You don't because it is unimportant. I still don't understand why you care for ponies and their contrivanced idea of 'Equestria'." Astral said.

"It means something to them. It meant something... It doesn't matter. You don't matter. I don't matter." Anceapnox struggled for words. "Do dreams matter? I destroyed so many of them here tonight... BUCK! I yearn for mindless mania instead of this, this, hole in my chest. Shit." She let out a rattling sigh. "Spike… what am I going to tell spike?"

"Spike?" Astral querried.

"Nothing. Never mind." Ancepanox said. "You're actually right. I'm too emotional right now. This isn't how Nightmare Moon or Celestia would act. I'm going to get an even head now. Right now. No more mania. No more malaise. I'm going to start taking things rationally." She squeezed her eyes shut, full face cringing, then relaxed. “I’m calm. I’m calm.”

"You are calm." Astral nodded.

"I am. No more antagonism or irritation. This is a happy place." Ancepanox said. "To function, ponies have to pretend away the problems of the world. Just you and me here now. Oh and Sir Wreath here, but ignore him."

"Okay."

"Everything I said before, pretend that never happened. We're starting fresh." Ancepanox cleared her throat. "Hello. It's nice to meet you."

"What did you and Lady Velvet say after I left?" Astral asked.

"You're not good at this 'starting fresh' thing."

"Please answer the question."

Ancepanox shrugged. "Random, pointless talk. Yes we talked about you, but nothing very specific."

Astral's beady eyes did not betray if she believed at all what the other alicorn was claiming. "Do you like Lady Velvet?"

"I don't see myself challenging her anytime soon, though I don't approve of her actions. Her agenda of fracturing the empire could only lead to more slaughter But neither of us are fans of your work. She may be vicious, but you're feral."

"Because neither of you understand."

"Au contraire, you yourself admitted you need me to show or teach you. Show you what? How to be an alicorn?" Ancepanox's stroked her chin. "You're not so far gone... Perhaps you can be made to be a better creature."

"I am as good as I can be barring a few very small things I have yet to learn." Astral huffed.

“Do you not understand me? You want to learn, I want to shape you behavior.” Ancepanox snorted. “Unless, you don't think you'd profit by a continued relationship. Indeed I think any partnership I make with you will probably accelerate the destruction of ponykind.”

"Is that... A joke? Ah, I think it is!" Astral couldn’t smile, but the tissue around her eyes jiggled in humor. “Ha! It is a funny joke! He he! You are so strange, Lady Ancepanox. You go from hating me to wishing cooperation. Contradiction, juxtaposition. Funny!"

“I'm not joking. I'm offering you a partnership.”

“Say it as serious as you like my lady. I won't take the bait.” Astral’s mane of snake-like tendrils undulated slowly as she shifted her sitting position. “I am quite new to jokes. Begin another and I will laugh-”

“You just don’t take a hint, do you.”Ancepanox sighed. At least Astral was being civil. "Listen, you've been saying you want to learn something, so why don't you be a little less vague so I don't have to keep guessing. What do you want to learn?"

Astral clopped her hooves, imagining she was hearing the lead-up to a joke. "I don't know. Tell me."

Anceapnox pinched her nose. "Listen, you utter moron, TELL ME WHY HAVE YOU'VE BEEN FOLLOWING ME."

Astral was silent for a while. “I want to learn how to be powerful with magic, as is becoming of a god.”

“Magic kindergarten is every day at eight, in Canterlot Castle north wing. Have your mother pack you a lunch.” Ancepanox shot.

“I considered that.” Astral was hesitating for the first time Ancepanox had seen. “You may have realized I lack control as well.”

“That’s a vast understatement.” Ancepanox agreed.

“I know I can get dangerous at times, and you are likely the best sorcerer alive now that Celestia is dead... What other teacher could handle a student who can do this.” Astral’s horn oozed magic, and she released it into the air as a crackling wave of energy, like she’d used in the throne room. The spell was unpatterned and tempestuous, dissipating in the air as a rain of lightning .“I can’t control it. I recognize that I destroy everypony I touch. It is not out of concern for others I ask, but for my own path to greater perfection. My dear lady, I need your help.”

Perhaps it was the sudden show of respect, or the unexpected logic of Astral’s proposal, but Ancepanox found herself considering the proposal. The beast may not have been so blind as she seemed, and if Ancepanox somehow could minimize the damage Astral caused, things would work out for the better.

What was far more likely was that Astral was lying. The monster obviously didn’t care, maybe even couldn’t care, about the lives of ponies. What meaning did control and boundaries have to a mare who didn’t recognize a pony’s right to live ‘imperfectly’ ?

“How do I square that against the fact you want to destroy me?” Ancepanox asked cautiously.

Astral’s tone returned to confidence. She knew what she was offering. “I find you beautiful but so misled. I attacked you out of ignorance. More time to together may warm me to your flaws."

"Uh huh. Likewise." Anceapnox squinted. "Just for the record, is there any magic you think you could do better than me, that I could learn from you?"

Anceapnox weaved her head about in thought. "Since my manifestation I have been drawn to the manipulation of pony flesh."

Ancepanox's heart skipped a beat. She wondered hopefully, Could it really be? “Body manipulation?"

“Do you have somepony you want changed? If I become talented enough, I will act at your direction. I swear it.” Astral said. “I am a god of life, after all.”

The possibilities of such a power swam over Ancepanox’s mind: Casting away Nightmare Moon’s body and rebecombing Twilight Sparkle, returning the alicorn body to the pristine beauty, or creating something new as a synthesis of the purity that Twilight Sparkle had been and the experience Ancepanox had and would have. It was more than she could have ever realistically hoped for.
“You introduced yourself by trying to kill me, and just helped me in the massacre of two-hundred ponies. You disgust me, and you yearn for my flesh. We are both immense dangers to Equestria, to each other, and to ourselves.” Ancepanox listed. “I was the same way with my first teacher.”

“You seem sympathetic to my explanation that all the hostility against you was a misunderstanding, no?” Astral laughed impishly. “Other 'bad' behavior can be redirected.”

“Perhaps, Lady Nacre. If we both approach each other in good faith I think we can travel down this road of self-discovery and improvement together.” Ancepanox was feeling on the back hoof, but she knew she had bargaining power so long as she exploited it. “Let me ask forthrightly if you be anything other than a liar and villain, if I asked it of you?”

“If that’s what it takes, I promise myself to you. Student to Master, supplanting all my other obligations!” Astral swore. “It’s what’s necessary to be more perfect”

"Do you forsee any situation you change your behavior without being asked?"

Astral was tellingly silent to that question.

“Uh huh.” Ancepanox licked her lips. “There are rules and qualifications.”

“As with any relationship.” Astral nodded.

“Don’t get comfortable with that word, student.” Ancepanox assumed a condescending tone. “First, I unfortunately have to return to using that most crass of farewells, as the circomstances require: Buck off."

"Excuse me?" Astral stood up, her tendrils thrashing angrily at the affront.

"I can't do anything for you before this infernal night is over. I promise I am not abandoning the pact we just made, but there are creatures in dire situations whom I am obligated to help." Ancepanox explained. "Thus I leave you for now, but I will return with greater understanding and control."

"No! Take me with you!" Astral chittered. "I- I have to learn now!"

"Calm down. You’ll have a homework assignment while I’m gone, and a note to take home to mommy.”

“O- Oh. Will it help me? I’m ready to learn!” Astral leaned forward. While she was still Anceapnox's match for height, her new posture was decidedly subservient, twisting to look up at the nightmare alicorn with her beady eyes.

“It will be a test in self control responsibility, and respect!” It was customary for students in the Canterlot Unicorn school to receive pets, to show they had the attention span to commit to its wellbeing. Spike had been both a blessing and a curse for Twilight, for while he had been the dearest companion she’d had, dragons, as needy sentient beings, required much more care than owls and cats. Twilight recognized that Celestia had put that burden on her to test if she could endure the full weight of her lessons. Every second she wasted with Astral was a betrayal of that responsibility.
“Ripple Wreath is your ward now! Keep him alive, help him to adjust to his new life as an abomination, take him for walks and keep him fed. Do that to my satisfaction, and I will teach you all that I know.”

“My dear lady, you can’t really mean that! Don't make me!” Astral looked panickedly between Ancepanox and the limp earth pony knight in the ash between them. “I wouldn’t know where to start! I'm not the right god to dwell on a lowly pony!”

“So learn it. I’m going to save Spike. See you later, Lady Astral.“
Looking up at the sky, Ancepanox silently thanked fortune that no wind had dispersed the smoke of the coal and corpse fires. There was an unbroken trail of grey halfway to the Dneighper, where it would be easy to find stray cumulous clouds. She cast the cloudwalking and teleportation spells in quick succession, leaving Astral’s torrent of whining far behind.

---

The fleeting moonlight of the endless night was having an unusual effect on the monsters of the Everfree. All around the castle ruins Applejack could hear the howls, screeches, and roars of timberwolves and manticores and other unnamable chimeric oddities. The more ponylike of the forest’s horrors, the two nightmare afflicted, remained wide awake while Rarity and the fillies slept.

"How long's it been now? Ten hours since Twilight left? Feels longer." Applejack muttered to herself, roaming through the shadow at the forest's edge. "I hope nothing bad's happened to her. She's a capable mare, but it's a very dark night... and I don't know how much longer we can just wait around."

Applejack walked the edge of the crescent ravine that blocked the castle’s eastern approach. It was thirty hooves across, but far far deeper, it’s bottom concealed by mist and darkness. The rickety rope bridge, which somepony had installed to cross it, had been torn apart in the storm and solar blasts.
Applejack kicked a rock over the edge, and after several seconds she heard an echoing splash. The rain had flooded the ravine, but she had no way to get to it.

"We've run out of puddles to drink from in the castle. We need that water... Darn."

Dash was lounging against one of the intact buttresses of the castle near the throne room, looking contemplatively into a distant horizon. She had grown more and more inert over the hours, until she wasn't moving or saying anything at all unprompted.
She heard the vegitative crunch of Applejack's approach and shifted to face her. "Hey." She said simply.

“Hey. How're you feeling?" Applejack asked.

"Getting a stomach ache from the grass. Good otherwise." Dash reported.

"You got a minute?”

“I dunno. I’d have to check my schedule.” Dash picked up a piece of bark and stared at it intensely before tossing it away. “Looks like I’m open for the next bajillion years.”

“Ya don’t have’ta be mean about it.” Applejack grumbled, leading Dash back towards the ravine.

“I’m just pissed off. I've got nothing to think about but the future.” Dash sighed. “The future I don't have.”

“Y’all’re angry at Rarity, or me?” Applejack assessed.

“Bucking good for her! No, she’s, like, whatever! ” Dash floundered. “It’s just, I’m stronger than I was, but I can’t do anything as Rainbow Dash anymore. I’ll be Dash, the nightmare. I’ve lost the awesomeness.”

“Twilight and Rarity proved the curse can be undone. We just have’ta wait, and like y’all said, we’ve got nothin but time.” Applejack said.

“And where's Twilight's gone? I told you, you shouldn't have trusted her so easy.” Dash grumbled. “I about ready to bolt. I'm sick of snacking on grass.”

“Do what you want, Mis Dash, but clearly you've stuck around this long because you think you have something to gain by it.” They reached the ravine. “Listen, as long as you’re here do you figure you could help us out? Rarity and the fillies need water.”

Dash looked skyward briefly. “If there were rainclouds I’d be able to use them, but since that storm the sky’s have been clear as far as your village.”

Applejack passed Dash an ancient bowl she had found in the dilapidated castle kitchens. “Down in the ravine, I mean. Can you fly down there and scoop some up?”

Dash nodded. “Sure, fine. Be back in a flash.”

The dark blue pegasus nightmare flapped into the air and descended into the chasm. She disappeared into the mist, the sound of the flap of her wings dwindling into silence.

Applejack waited patiently, but began to feel nervous after a minute of stillness. “Mis Dash?” She called down into the ravine. “Dash! Is everything okay down there?” Still nothing. "This isn't funny! You listenin to me?!"

A filly’s scream sounded out from the castle. Applejack whirled around looking for signs of danger. She saw no monsters, but the screams kept coming, louder this time.

“Dash! You get up here!” Applejack called out, but with no response she galloped back to where she’d left the three fillies.

She reached the alcove as the fillies were scrambling out, tripping over each other in their fearful haste. They took one look at Applejack and stopped dead, still wailing in terror. Applejack raced past them to face what had woken them.

The black alicorn was standing over the pile of ash that had been the campfire, looking tired. Since Applejack had last seen her, Twilight had gained enough control over her wings to keep them from dragging. She had found a sabre somewhere, and tucked it in the loop of her cape.
“Holding down the fort, Mis Applejack?” The alicorn asked.

“Well ‘nough, I suppose.” Applejack took a deep breath to slow her racing heart. “You’ve been gone a while. Didn’t find what y’all were looking for in Ponyville?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, I had to search farther afield, in Canterlot. Where’s that pegasus, Dash? I will need her help.”

“Out by that ravine.” Applejack said. “Why? What’s the problem?””

"Long story. I have to go deeper into the forest and need a pegasus's help." Trotting out to the ravine, Twilight almost tripped over the cowering fillies. They had fallen silent, but were obviously still terrified.
“Oh, yes. You three…:”

Scootaloo was hiding under her hooves, eyes squeezed closed. Applejack was glancing between Applejack and the alicorn in confusion. Sweetie Belle had her eyes locked on Twilight.

The alicorn crouched. “I never properly apologized for feeding off you last week at the cuteceañera. That was wrong of me. And earlier tonight, when I used you in my blasphemous ritual, that was my bad too.” She lowered her gaze. "There's a lot I've done wrong. I can't fix it by just appologizing. I might not ever be able to fix what I've done..." She trailed off into silence.

The fillies responded by burying their head further in their hooves.

Twilight nibbled her lip. “Listen, I can understand that you’re scared. This is a stressful situation and we need to all be on the same page. Sweetie Belle."

Sweetie Belle blinked.

“Sweetie, I’m sorry. I don’t know if I would have had the will to bring Rarity back to life, if not for your crying. I’m sorry I led your sister down a path of darkness.” The sincerity Twilight felt helped to wash away some of tension she’d built up in Canterlot. She offered a weak smile. “Your sister too Apple Bloom, but I’m still working on her.” She paused at Scootaloo. “Um, I don’t know your name, but you have my sincerest apologies as well.”

Applejack interjected anxiously. “Twilight... Nice sentiment, but you ain't helpin the situation. Take a step back."

“Well... I... ” Twilight cleared her throat, straightened up, and stepping around the fillies. She resumed her trot to the ravine, and Applejack followed her. “Um, when we have time I need to talk to you about some things, like my name. And where is Rarity?”

“You didn't see her? I thought she was sleepin by the fillies. I dunno where she coulda gone off to.” Applejack scratched her head. “Ya know she un-nightmared, right?”

“It makes sense. Her soul is quarantined in her body, away from her soul.” Twilight nudged her black cape with her wing. “This is the first proven cure to the nightmare. Now we just have to find a way to replicate the results without having to kill the subject.”

“Wait, y’all aren’t cured?” Applejack asked with concern and confusion.

“Like I said, we can talk when we have time.” They reached the ravine, and Twilight leaned precariously over its edge. “Dash! Mis Dash! Hmmm... Applejack, what is she doing down there?”

“She went down to get water. Now I think she's just sulking.”

“No, something’s wrong.” Twilight mumbled to herself. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she could feel it. It was very difficult to detect Dash’s aura.“You stay here, I’ll check it out.”

“Don’t hurt yourself.” Applejack drawled.

Making sure that the cloudwalking spell was dispelled, Twilight teleported halfway down the chasm. She punctured the mist and landed solidly on her hooves in ankle high water.
Immediately, her mind was nearly overwhelmed by conflicting auras. With her in the ravine were two forces: One of intense darkness, a nightmare-like hole her magic could not touch. One of blinding yet intangible and unseen light, flooding the world around her in oppressive amounts of power.

“Mis Dash!” Twilight yelled, slugging though the pitch blackness. “Mis Dash, where are-”

Her hoof collided with something soft. Remembering to use her own magic, Twilight cast as much light as she could, which still only illuminated a hoof’s length in the very dense mist. It was Dash, face up in the water. The pegasus had probably been overcome by the unexpected energies that permeated the crack.

Grabbing a hold of Dash, Twilight teleported back up to Applejack. The earth pony reeled from the flash, but was at Dash’s side as soon as she saw.

“Yeesh. What’s happening down there?”

“I don’t know. Magic, wild and untamed.” Twilight panted. She took a moment to restore order to her mind, almost in shock from the dualistic chaos she’d left. “A magical convergence point of some kind, but larger than I've ever heard of one being. And, it was nearly impossible to detect because of opposed energies existing in balance... just fascinating! I wish I had time to study it." She cleared her throat. "I think the center of the Everfree is down there.”

“The castle is the center of the Everfree.” Applejack corrected.

Twilight contemplated that. “And the center of the center is down that hole. I don’t know what it is, but I think it’s important.”

“Twilight, have you been letting yourself get sidetracked?” Applejack asked. " Thought you were looking for a way to find Spike."

Twilight froze in place. "Among other things." She said, strained. "It's why I have to go into the forest. It's why I needed Dash. I found a tracking spell, and all the way back here it was taunting me of promises of a dragon. He's out there, Applejack, somewhere in the mire."

"Are you gunna let yourself get distracted any longer?!" Applejack, injecting a bit of aggression in her question. "Magic anomalies don't come before family, Twi!

“No of course not.” Twilight half chuckled, half sobbed. “Oh Applejack,I- I should have taken you with me. Maybe If you'd been there I wouldn't have-”

"Wouldn't have what?"

Twilight gulped, eyes darting away. "Wouldn't have gotten so distracted."

“That’s just the kind of pony you are sugercube. Stop piling things on your plate.” Applejack urged. “Dash is out of commission. Just go get him, right now.”

Twilight danced from hoof to hoof in anxiety. “See, that’s what a nightmare would do. They rush into things blindly, fueled by emotion. My emotions might be well intentioned, by there are strong, and they get twisted so, so easily. I had a plan, and it required Dash. Don’t you understand that I need to wait for her? I need somepony to watch me.”

“No, you don’t.” Applejack repeated emphatically. “When family’s involved, ya gotta do what feels right. Twilight, I’m speaking from experience here. I used to try to justify myself by sayin it was gunna be the best thing for us in the long run, but it cost me my brother. Twilight, if you take any longer you might well lose Spike.”

“But at least let me check on Forlorn-”

Applejack stamped her hoof. “No buts now! Just go!”

Twilight glanced towards the Everfree Castle, then, seeming to to make up her mind she teleported across the ravine and galloped along it southward. Applejack watched her until she disappeared into the treeline, the returned to checking over Dash.
She sighed deeply. She heard the feint whispering of the fillies behind her. "Why did the ponies around me have to turn out so weird? Huh. I'm gettin to think it's the world that's weird, and we ponies're just catching up."

Comments

[TyroidMary]

I was not expecting anything like what happened. I thought Astral would be a pointless mcguffin, but if she's a continuing character I'm SO hype. I made a mistake doubting you author guy.
I think I can tell what you're planning between Twilight 1 and Twilight 2, and it's going to be so horribly awesome.

I've just got to ask, are Ancepanox and Twilight 1 different ponies, or different parts of what Twilight is?

[StormyVenture]

5364508
I'm a bit confused. I could have sworn it was Ancepanox that went off to save Spike. This "Twilight" is acting strange, so I'm really curious as to who is who.

[SpiritDutch]

5364508
5364726

I must be presenting it badly.

Ancepanox and Twilight 1 are the same mind and body, but they get used in alternation depending on how she conceptualizes her actions.
Ancepanox is, by several metrics, a bad pony. Her predisposition towards anger and action, in imitation of Nightmare Moon, made her very susceptible to the 'darkness' within her. She remorselessly condems Ripple Wreath to a cursed life for convinience's sake, and blames Astral for it. And when she was setting down rules with Astral, she didn't care than she was dissecting ponies, only that her mistake gets taken care of, far away so it doesn't get reminded of it.
The Twilight side of her is basically a purer form of the original Twilight, because she compartmentalized so much of herself in Ancepanox. Twilight is still flawed and erratic, but cares about others more.

Then there's Forlorn Spark/Twilight 2. Her POV is set in the future of Twilight 1, and in the main chronology she's still passed out on the castle floor (or is she?). She's receiving morbid memories and flashes from something, but is a very pure version of Twilight otherwise (Kinda like cannon Twilight), because of what Celestia did to her.

If need be I'll copy-paste this in the author's notes. I'm sorry for being a crappy author guys.

[StormyVenture]

5364793
I guess I feel like it's confusing to refer to her by two different names and to have a second character using the same name (Twilight). I would prefer it if you just called her Ancepanox everywhere (for Twilight 1) and refer to the other as Forlorn Spark (Twilight 2) anytime there is any narration or internal thoughts (i.e. to indicate who she is, even if she doesn't call herself that), except when someone else refers to her that knows her as Twilight, like Applejack.

If they (Ancepanox/Twilight 1) are meant to be competing and alternate personalities (i.e. either one or the other is in control) rather than a deception/masquerade that Twilight is using when dealing with Astral/most ponies that's supported by/panders to her darker feelings then you may need to do some work yet. As it stands, Ancepanox feels an elaborate deception of sorts that feels natural due to her nightmarish nature. It's not hard for her to be that way, but at times (like when she's dealing with her friends) she exercises a great deal of restraint.

---

As it stands I see Twilight2 as what could have been if Twilight hadn't discovered and succumbed to that ritual. That is, significantly more naive than Twilight1, but also at risk at some level. Does she even realize that her Celestia is gone? I was under the impression that she'd ended up back in Ponyville somehow.

[SpiritDutch]

5366827 You are pretty on point here.

The problem is I have a weird hybrid of POV and narration; Twilight is thinking of herself as Ancepanox and so the narration refers to her as such, Forlorn Spark thinks she's Twilight and so the narration refers to her as such, Forlorn Spark thinks she's talking to Nightmare Moon in the hospital so the narration refers to her as such.

I think I'll go back and change how I introduce the divergence of the characters, so it's clear who is who, and at what time. I relish in a certain level of ambiguity, but if people are getting legitimately confused it's bad.

[StormyVenture]

5367734
Urgh. The most confusing part off the top of my head was her (?) arrival back to where the others were in the forest where it was initially unclear whether the "Twilight" talking was Ancepanox or Twilight2.

How is Twilight2 = Forlorn Spark anyway? What exactly happened to make her not evil? How can you mold a nightmare into a different pony?