When the Everfree Burns

by SpiritDutch

Chapter 49: MOONBREAKER

Author's Note:

As promised, another recommended listening.

The Gadfly Suite: Finale

"Arise, my foe. This battle decides nothing for they many mortals, but to us, it is everything!"
With a sweep of her mammoth wings, the Dark Lady rose into the sky. Against the backdrop of infinite space, her form could only be discerned by the absence of stars.
“None left to be said. We need not bother with terms.” The Dark Lady’s voice infiltrated Ancepanox’s mind with its crescendoing resonance. “To the victor goes all spoils.”

Ancepanox did not reply. She matched the Dark Lady’s ascent, until their eyes were on an equal level.

“Your struggle has been admirable. You have been sifting through the remnants of my work and the echoes of my actions. How heartening is it, to know a thousand years later what I did still mattered." The Dark Lady turned her primary head this way and that, alternating which of her indigo eyes was watching the black nightmare. “Myriadess, Agana, my two sodden daughters, are now a part of you. The Nightmare of the Moon was a creature of my design too, after a fashion. You are a consequence of my actions. I adore that. I adore you. However..." Her psychic voice dipping into the dissonant ranged, shrill clammors and clangs that flayed the ears and mind. "Do not expect mercy because of this love. It is in the divine nature of us both to fight and die to dominate."

A crack of light formed across the Dark Lady’s face. It widened, until the hint of her hundreds of her teeth could be seen. But the gash was far from what could be called a mouth, for it opened to reveal a pit of cilia and slavering tentacles. The god threw back her head and a blaring shriek roiled up from the hole.

“EEEEHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

Ancepanox was not dirterred. She flapped her wings and charged forward through the air. The Dark Lady lashed at her with her tendrils, but could do nothing to slow the Nightmare.
They collided. To the naked eye, it appeared to be the black alicorn tackling the grey alicorn. But between the plains of physicality and dreamstate, it was the clash of monumental gods, beating and hacking away at each other with claw, horn, and spell.
The dozen heads latched on to Ancepanox all across her body and twisted and pulled in an attempt to tear her apart. A lance of purple energy from the nightmare’s horn severed most of them, and a rending kick sent the other in retreat.

“You’re calm under pressure. More than can be said of most nightmares.” The Dark Lady noted.

Celestia disengaged from the melee, hopping backwards and leaving Ancepanox to control the tower. But the shimmer of magic surrounding the floating castle faded. With a last croon of protest, the thousands of tons of stone began to plummet towards the Mare Incognitum. Down below, the moon denizens waited for their princess, apathetic to their fate.

Ancepanox croaked in panic, her mind racing to think to avoid the imminent catastrophy. But the Dark Lady took advantage of her momentary distraction, smacking her in the barrel with a bolt of magic. Ancepanox was knocked away the tower, but recovered quickly, but in those passing moments the mass of the castle had gained enormous inertal power
Without time to lose, Ancepanox did the foolhardy, and called up every ounce of her magic power, and seized the castle in her telekinetic clutches. Every muscle in her body spasmed in sympathy for the colossal burden her horn was bearing. Within seconds a brilliant corona of energy began to burn around her, and the layers of enamel of her horn began to evaporate. Yet the castle slowed.

"I can't let you do that, Ancepanox." Celestia chuckled. above her, the Dark Lady threw back her head again and let out another thunderous psychic howl.

“YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEAAAAA”

The dark god teleported forward in a burst of dark energy, One of her clawed wings shot forward, wrapping Ancepanox in its feather grasp. WIth her spell interrupted, the magic at Ancepanox’s horn went unrestrained, and bloomed into a burning explosion of purple and black. The Dark Lady quickly withdrew the burned wing, and her tendrils convulsed in sympathetic pain.

Ancepanox, dazed and damaged from the blowout, retreated to a safe distance cradling her head. In those seconds the castle fell another fifty meters, and was mere moments from crushing the creatures below.

Celestia glanced down at the impending impact. "Too late Celestiaan. You wasted your effort."

Tempted though she was to shoot of a witty retort, Ancepanox had no time. Focusing her dreamwalking power was less difficult on the moon than within the dreamscape proper, but to use it on any large scale was still an exponential use of magical power. Oh moon give me more, she demanded, or this invader will conquer us. Did the moon view Ancepanox more favorably for her years of life living in her pale light? By all accounts Anima Astral Nacre had trod under the night sky for thousands of years, and was of the moon's own kin besides. But despite those doubts the moon was forthcoming, and Ancepanox felt her needs fulfilled and her spell was cast.
A ripple of distortion exploded out from the bed of the Mare Incognitum, curling and consuming the fabric of the moon like an event horizon. The Cosmic Eye expanded to a hundred meter diameter to cover every one of the thoudands of moon denizens, then retracted instantaneously.

The black castle smashed into the ground at no great speed, but with such tremendous force that debris was hurled hundreds of meters in every direction. With almost surreal sloth, the castle pancaked, sending up a huge cloud of grey dust. As everything settled only a pile of rubble was left.

Ancepanox cast the next part of the spell. Thousands of shadowy spheres speared all across the landscape, dumped the moon denizens back onto the lunar surface

Ancepanox descended at a controlled pace, and landed on the stone mound that remained of the castle. The dazed moon denizens payed her no mind at first. But one by one, the shadowy creatures overcame their confusion and noticed the glowing black alicorn in their midst. They approached cautiously, buzzing and humming in their strange way. There was a great variance between them, despite the hazy of dark that ensconced their details: Some seemed like quadruped mammals with great crests, some like bipedal reptiles with thick flat tails, some as biped insects with thick fuzz, or a marvelous mix and match of any of those features. How many races had the moon had before the nightmare energy had subsumed them into homogeneity.

"Why are you ignoring me, Celestiaan? Do you find me less interesting than these things?" Celestia and the parasitic god sprouting off her descended down to the other side of the rubble pile.

Ancepanox, through great struggle with her altered vocal chords, choked out a reply. "You have nothing to offer me, or anypony else on my planet."

"Do you treat elderly ponies with that kind of disrespect? They lived their lives, sweated and toiled to create the world you live in. Do you demand they prove their worth when they rest on their stoop?" The Dark Lady asked. "Do you want to kill old ponies?"

"Your logic game is boring. You aren't entitled to me or my planet. We were only ever a means to an end for you to return to the stars." Ancepanox rebutted roughly. "Who did you care about?! Who did you care for?"

The Dark Lady's bright eyes glowed brighter, as her taloned wings clawed at the ground. The moon denizens, blind to the god attached to the grey alicorn, recoiled at the inexplicable disturbances. "I had meaningful friends and deep loves across millennia. I drank, gambled, bickered, and brawled your ancestors in the icy lands of the old unicorns. You have the blood of the lords of Bright, don't you? That means you share my blood as well!"

"Me and a million other ponies, living and dead. What has it done for us?" Ancepanox asked. It was strange to have more than two eyes... but she appreciated the total awareness the luminous eyes that had appeared across her body granted. It allowed her to see the way the terrified moon creatures looked from her to Celestia, then back to her, looking for which would tell them what to do. "I salute you for a life well lived while you were living it, but we don't care. You've come around like the worst kind of leaching relative, entitled as you are."

"Are you not going to give your weary elder succor?" Celestia asked, stalking back and forth.

Ancepanox lost control of her voice again, but her multitudinous eyes shown out in utter contempt for the otherworldly alicorn. She spread and angled her wings in a pegasus taunt. The message was clear: If something is owed, come and collect it!

The Dark Lady obliged, embracing the ground in preparation of continuing the duel on the hoof. The mass of tendrils smacked into the rubble, and the unfathomable equine neck and head following, their impact making a meaty crunch. The Dark Lady’s constituent material dissolved and reformed her upright.

“Of course not. You will not be surprised when that elder cracks you open. Your undoing has been of your own creation.” The Dark Lady said, her melodious voice peaking into shrieks and peals.

Ancepanox crouched, digging her back hooves into the rubble and tensing up her hindlegs. She lowered her head and held her horn before her like a spear. She spread her wings, preparing for another charge.

“You tried that maneuver. Again? Arrogance is unbecoming of an alicorn.” The Dark Lady held out her tendrils, ready to catch the nightmare an wring her into oblivion.

But instead of charging, Ancepanox hopped backwards, conjuring a Cosmic Eye and dissapeering into it, reappearing above the Dark Lady. She plunged downward, goring the god's primary head with her horn and beating it to the ground with her hooves. Then, she teleported back.

YEEEEYEEAAAAAAAAA
The scream of pain that issued forth from The Dark Lady felt loud enough to turn the rock to gravel. The too-near moon denizens clutched their various ears, the scream intruding into their already clouded minds. Celestia and the god atop her thrashed together, surprised and irate at having given first blood.
Ancepanox, galloping to a safer distance, let the psychic squeal roll over her. Her eyes flashed with triumphal eagerness, for the Dark Lady was still limited in many ways. Victory WAS possible.

Then, as if to refute her the Dark Lady unleashed another squeal, but of magic instead of sound. The bloom of raw energy caught Ancepanox off guard as it knocked into her, searing away most of her fur and dispersing her ethereal mane and tail. She was tossed a hundred meters from the rubble pile, and skidded for another dozen across the Mare Incognitum. Before she could even regain her bearings, the land around her began to shake. A spike of obsidian erupted from the dust, impaling her through the stomach.

"Oh..." Ancepanox groaned, tracing where her burned skin met the stone impaling her. "... ouch." Okay, so maybe she'd underestimated her opponent a little bit.

The unholy chorus like the squealing pipes and flutes rolled across the plain, as the Dark Lady taunted her. “Do you want to go on living, little Celestiaan? Clear the way for me, and I may yet let you exist!”

Ancepanox tried lifting herself off the obsidian splinter, but another rock spike surged forth and pinned her wing. Her horn sparked weakly, teleporting her onto clear soil even farther away from her foe. But the Dark Lady would not give her a reprieve. A glint of magic in the air was all the warning Ancepanox had before a shard of magic flew past her head, dispersing part of her vaporous mane again. She cast a shield in time to block more shards whistling through the clear moon air.

Ancepanox sucked in her breaths, trying to quell the surging anger inside herself. She entered into fights in control and with a plan, but inevitably the bestial rage lurking at the edge of her mind swelled and took control. But wasn't it also true that losing self-control was what had carried her to victory, against Myriadess, against Rarity, against Agana... so, what good was control?
Not yet, Ancepanox told herself. She was hurting, but not in imminent threat of defeat. She could go through the procedure of a 'normal' magic duel for a little while longer.

When the Dark Lady's cast her next salvo of magical shards, she observed with a rumble of glee that it shattered through Ancepanox's shield. However that immediately turned to displeasure when the dust cleared and the nightmare alicorn was nowhere to be seen. Celestia and the god atop her narrowed their eyes and tensed, anticipating surprise attack- Celestia turned her head to scan one way, the Dark Lady and her many heads in all the others. But Ancepanox was not standing out, especially since the Mare Incognitum was still populated by thousands of confused and wandering moon denizens.

"Is hiding the best you can do? You're better than this." Celestia chided. "Are you going to force my hoof?"

The Dark Lady's smaller heads, sprouting up from that tangled web of tendrils around her protruding torso, began to elongate and snake away from her body. The smaller heads, each the size of a pony, mostly featureless black silhouettes with those same burning indigo eyes, weaved in and around the moon denizens, nudging them, biting them. Still blind to the Dark Lady's presence, the moon denizens yipped and chirped at the invisible things molesting them, and began to run away from the grey alicorn in larger herds.

"When I lived alongside Wintertide and his kin, I was master of your planet, needed nothing, wanted for nothing. I took great pleasure in enforcing the Aeava's confinement. What a silly race Wintertide and his kind are, unique among the alicorns for how self-sacrificing they are! That is why they lost and were exiled onto the Bright World."
The Dark Lady's voice thrummed rhythmically, gutturally, like a rumble in the bones of everyone nearby.
"Yet while I gloated over him, Wintertide returned to me unconditional love. What a lowly worm, I thought, which is why I loosed upon him every wild passion and desire. We created fantastic things, neurotic and formidable. What a shame it is most of those childeren are lost now, but they were worthy sacrifices for attempting the next leap of the evolution of the alicorn races."

One of the moon denizens still lingering nearby felt a chill on their spine. It looked up from its idle preoccupation, trying to find what had touched it. The chill came again, and then a small glow of purple light from the clear air before it. The haze of shadow around the moon denizen's body flickered, relieving for the briefest moment something of the animal underneath- It looked semi-lupine, with a long snout that rumpled at some indecipherable stench. When the haze returned the creature scampered away, and the black tendril snaked its way to the next one, trying to sniff out Ancepanox.

"I speak of the energy of Harmony, little Celestiaan. It is a power to match and surpass any and every form of energy used by both mortal and god. In its theory it is laughably simple. In its execution it is sublime. I know for I have tasted it. I willingly destroyed everything I cared for and which cared for me, to experience Harmony for even the briefest of moments... I know now that I went about it the wrong way. Synthesis is a project of equal construction, not equal destruction."
The Dark Lady's lecture continued. How often was it that the prideful alicorns spoke of something that mattered? From her hiding spot Ancepanox listened keenly, enamored but resolute.
"When the force of Harmony I had created destroyed the home of the ancient alicorns and all their kind, I found myself a helpless refugee on the Bright World, in the same situation I had mocked Wintertide for. You would think I would use my mortal stranding as a learning experience, to discover gaps in my personality and my power, and perhaps in time to return to Harmony with a heart ready to wield it appropriately. Alas I am not that adaptable. I did on the earth much the same as I did in heaven: Lie, fight, wrench, and above all, scheme. Let it not be said that behavior goes unrewarded, for I am in heaven again, having learned no lesson."

Celestia was getting impatient with the search. She rolled her shoulders and wiggled the stumps of her wings, trying to scratch the insufferable itch of the dark god sprouting out of her back. Her little agitated movements were in contrast to the sweeping lethargy of the Dark Lady, who was starting to notice her host was perhaps not entirely under her control. Time to act.

"Hmm... This is taking to long." The Dark Lady finally pronounced. Her snaking accessory heads were withdrawn back into the tendrils like noodles being sucked out of a bowl. One of her vast taloned wings reached out, curling under one of the few remaining moon denizens in range and dragging it back to herself.

The moon denizen, a smaller specimen with two legs and vestigial wings, let out an alarmed sequence of clicks, pings, and trills. All the remaining creatures ran to safer distances.

“These wretched beasts... They were mortal once. I know not what to think of them. They have been remade so thoroughly by the Dark they would not survive without it. Are they my kin? Yours?” The Dark Lady mused, leaning down to bring her primary head face to face with the panicked moon denizen. Her burning indigo eyes dwarfed the creature's whole body!
“Do you feel empathy for them, nightmare?”

The Dark Lady and speared the moon denizen through the head with a talon. A chorus of lamentation rose up from the others. The Dark Lady’s shadowy horn emitted a shimmer of dark magic, and another of the creatures exploded into dust.
But there was still no reaction from Ancepanox. Had the nightmare alicorn run away? No, the Dark Lady was certain her foe was nearby, watching and waiting.

"When it comes time to lead, how much will you sacrifice against what you ask your followers to sacrifice? The line will be difficult for you, as it often is for ponies." The Dark Lady turned her attention on the three nightmare ponies, scaling down the bluff. She slowly extended an intertwined clump of tendrils over them.

The course of the battle above and on the Mare Incognitum was making Applejack tremble in anxiety. Ancepanox looked like she was taking a lot of hits against the grey alicorn Celestia, and not getting many in. But she began to wonder if she could trust her senses when the duel began to make less sense. It looked for a moment like Ancpeanox was striking way to far in in advance of Celestia, and then several of the moon denizens died with Celestia neither moving or using her magic.

“Somethin ain’t right.” Applejack muttered.

Rarity, who was just glad to have gotten past the most damaged part of the path down the bluff. She kept looking back and forth from the blasted stump of the castle still above them on the top of the hill, and the pile of stone that Celestia had dropped. What a shame to ruin such a perfectly good example of gothic architecture. "Hmm? What?"

"I can feel it in my gut... or maybe in my brain." Ancepanox said. Since Rarity had not been up to it, the nightmare earth pony was now carrying Luna and Twilight Sparkle both. "There's an evil in the air."

Rainbow Dash, eyes still glued to the duelists (though Ancpenaox had disappeared), voiced her concern. "I get that feeling too, but I don't know what it is." To Rainbow's shock, Celestia turned and looked up the bluff right at her, locking her into a stare. "Gah! We've been noticed."

Rarity stopped in place, looking where Dash was pointing. "Darling, she's over a kilometer away."

"Let's see if you can 'darling' me when spell blasts your flank off at the speed of light." Dash whispered, keeping up the staring contest with Celestia. "But its strange... Why isn't she moving?"

"Whatever. We're nearly at the bottom." Rarity harrumphed.

Applejack was about to respond when she heard a whisper at behind her.

‘Applejack, kneel.’

“Whah?” Applejack spun around, trying to catch the unexpected speaker, but the only thing behind her was the sheer drop off the narrow path. “Girls, I think-"
When Applejack turned back around, her heart stopped. Dash was on her stomach, eyes rolled back and foaming at the mouth. Rarity was tensed, her eyes darting around in search of an elusive something.

‘Applejack, kneel.’

“Rarity… There’s a voice in my head.” Applejack whispered fearfully. She took another look at Dash, who had apparently been overwhelmed by the mysterious force.

“I hear it. I hear it. It wants my obedience.” Rarity hissed through clenched teeth. "It's my sovereign. I've known her all my life... She wants me to show my loyalty!"

‘Applejack, KNEEL!”

The source revealed itself in front of Applejack. From out of the empty air, the lids drew back on a dozen purple eyes. Applejack could feel the roiling power behind them, piercing into her. A cold force assaulted her mind and tore into her psyche. Applejack tried to turn away but the vision was still there, right in front of her! The horrible purple eyes were inside her head!
Her limbs became heavy and she couldn't move anymore. "N- Nani?" She gargled. Without the coordination to hold herself up anymore, Applejack collapsed into the same position as Rainbow Dash, flat in the dirt. Her two passengers, Luna and Twilight, rolled off to either side- One of them made a whining sound, a sign they could be finally waking up.

Rarity tried to scream in terror, but the air stuck in her throat. Awful and otherworldly visions refused to go away, and though Rarity resisting with every iota of her willpower a cold power draped over her body and overwhelmed her. She could feel that intrusive voice, even closer, like it was just beside her and whispering into her ear.
"Sorry Rarity. Keep your head down or she'll kill you."

It was Ancepanox doing this! Rarity's bottled rage almost boiled over explosively but the overwhelming coldness grew more oppressive, and she fell onto her side in the dust, trembling and fighting against the force controlling her.

Celestia and the Dark Lady watched the nightmare ponies fall in kowtow. "They are supplicating themselves before me, even though they can not see me. How delightful." The Dark Lady observed. "I may keep them around. Companions are never unwelcome, especially those subjugated."

But her original idea, to threaten the lives of the nightmare ponies to force Ancepanox out of her hiding spot, was still in effect. If the ponies were offering themselves up willingly then she could get in close without a fight, and make the executions even more theatrical to provoke that perfidious Ancepanox!

The Dark Lady curled her wings around Celestia, encapsulating them both in shadow. They popped out of existance, reappearing on the side of the bluff next to the nightmare ponies. The compacted dust and stone under the path groaned under the combined weight of alicorn and god.

"If I destroy you in one fell swoop, what will be left for Ancepanox to care about? What will drive her forward? I want to torture her, not kill her... so it will not do to kill you all." The Dark Lady addressed the prone ponies. "Wait a moment-"
Up close it was obvious that they were not kneeling or kowtowing. Twilight Sparkle and Luna were still out cold, and Applejack, Dash, and Rarity were limp and spasming, their eyes rolled back in their head!

“AHA!” The cry of victory boomed from the top of the bluff. Ancepanox dispelled her invisibility spell, showing she was several hundred meters higher on the partially collapsed switchback.

Celestia and the Dark Lady looked up, the former with anger, the second with the same grand lethargy. "The high ground does you no good, princess! Did you forget we can fly?" Celestia barked out.

Ancepanox reared up and stomped the plateau, sending a shockwave all the way down to the Mare Incognitum. For several moments there was no effect, but then the seismic groan of splitting rock sound out of deep within the bluff.

The Dark Lady tried to jump away but was too late. The entire cliff face erupted outwards, an under Ancepanox’s magical guidance the rockslide collapsed directly onto they grey alicorn et al.

For Rarity, with her face pressed against the ground and her body out of her control, the rain of boulders was infinitely more terrifying than the ones before. None of the rocks came close, but still her soul shrieked and wailed. Ancepanox had betrayed her meagre trust.
Beside her, she heard a nauseous moan from Luna. The origional moon princess was waking up.

Ancepanox watched Celestia disappear under the rock fall. Dark tendrils and the snaking secondary heads of the Dark Lady batted away some of the cascade, but Ancepanox cast another bolt of magic into the bluff face, blasting the whole things outwards onto them. But in a blast of light, Celestia launched away from the hill, streaming blood and magical discharge, to land back near the rubble pile in the Mare Incognitum. Ancepanox was impressed the Dark Lady hadn't blow herself up using that much energy with so many rocks flying through the air to disrupt her magic patterns.

Ancepanox teleported down to where her foe was. The Dark Lady was spasming in pain, trying to recover from the hits and burns. Her main head, mostly reformed from the attack, turned and stared at her with its indigo eyes. “That was a good hit, Celestiaan. Were that I had my full power I would destroy this blasted rock in hail to you.”

The multitude of tendrils coming from her center began to undulate and quiver with even greater urgency, while the two wings and four long legs clutched the rubble around her. All her form seemed to strain against itself, until each tendril cracked and split.
The air was filled with an inaudible whine, like a mental mosquito that strained the mind to swat. In every passing moment in grew louder and louder. As further cracks formed in the mass of tendrils, the Dark Lady’s howl joined in.

YEEEEEEEAAAAEEEEEEEEE

Another blast of abhorrent power surged out of the ancient god. It carried with it streaks of indigo magic and black blood. Ancepanox shielded herself, and still she could feel the radiant power of pure Dark eating at her skin. When it passed all passed, it became more clear.

The Dark Lady’s body, no longer imprisoned within the mass of tendrils, was like nothing Ancepanox could have expected. The dozen necks, and legs, and wings were all disappeared into a tangle of writhing flesh, loosely tied up like a wicker doll. Visible within the cavity were hundreds more small heads, twisting and fighting to get out of their living confinement and peering out with beady indigo eyes.

“I am finding Celestia INADEQUATE for my purposes. You may get your wish after all, and witness her destruction.” More and more of the Dark Lady pushed out of the confines of the void, entwining her host into the weave of her breast. “However, you will not get by without being taught a lesson. You have offended me grievously. Not since my time with Clover and have I felt such a deep NEED to defeat somepony. Ironically, my foe at that time was Celestia. I destroyed her life any everypony she loved. These centuries later, that wound did her in. Alas... I will be content kicking you around a little bit."

Ancepanox prepared herself. There would be no more running and hiding. The Dark Lady was powerful, but she had obvious physical, magical, and mental limitations in her present form. Ancepanox would have to exploit them to win.
She cleared her mind, and spread her consciousness across the hill and plain. The moon denizens, numbering at slightly less than ten-thousand, all felt a cold presence push at their mind. Controlling the minds of Applejack, Rarity, and Dash was easy enough, and Ancepanox’s new prey seemed easier even at such a vast scale.

‘March for me’

For the moon denizens, the psychic presence in their head was unfamiliar but not altogether strange. Their princess, Luna, beaconed and ordered them the same way.
At Ancepanox's will, the moon creatures moved. Slowly at first, then faster as they regained a semblance of organization. They were not stupid creatures by any means, but their habit to servitude was too ingrained for them to resist. Besides this new voice was familiar; It was easy for the creatures to obey.

The moonscape rumble and shook with every synchronized step of the moon beings. They marched in rings surrounding the hill of broken stone, moving clockwise and counterclockwise in alternation, circumscribing it with a moving tapestry of shadowy bodies. Their crack of their hooffall rocked very bones of the planetoid.

Atop the rubble pile, Ancepanox faced off against the Dark Lady. "You know..." She croaked. "Neither of us really wants this. We would both rather be fighting Celestia right now."

"That may be true, but that's not what is happening." The Dark Lady said grimly, her melodious voice dipping into lower chords of regretful but resolute tones. "Celestia is mine now. This is a fitting end to her tale as any."

"No, there's one even more fitting: Me banishing you and putting an end to her." Ancepanox chuckled gruffly. She cast an eye to the rings of marching moon denizens, an informal ring for the match that was about to resume. "That's why you won't be so bitter about losing. You recognize the poetry of it all. Let's do it!"

EEEEEYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAA

The Dark Lady released another wave of crackling dark magic, and Ancepanox once again defended herself with a shield. As soon as it passed, the nightmare alicorn charged forward. The Dark Lady’s indigo magic arced from her horn to the ground but her aim was imprecise. The sparks danced along the ground, and so too did the Ancepanox around the sparks and towards her foe.

Ancepanox put all her momentum into a punch, which connected with one of the Dark Lady's long spindly legs. It snapped off completely; The ancient alicorn’s body had the consistency of sand, and seemingly evaporated under the attack. Ancepanox dodged a downward strike from another of the legs, and bucked it in half. But as easily as they came apart, new limbs pushed their way out of the teeming abdomen.

The Dark Lady smacked the nightmare back with a wing, then let loose yet another wave of dark magic. This time, Ancepanox teleported past the deadly attack, and fired a spell point blank into the ancient alicorn’s neck. She was rewarded with a spray of black blood and a retaliatory spell into her flank that seared away a patch of her skin and muscle. She teleported behind the Dark Lady, but could not get off another spell before she was forced to run from another bolt of indigo magic.

However no distance was safe, for a spike of obsidian pushed out of the earth and rubble to block her way. Ancepanox was stalled just long enough for a shard of magic to catch her through the back of the head. She gasped in pain as her left side was burned away, and she lost sight in many of her peripheral eyes.
She encased herself in a shield to protect against more attacks, but the Dark Lady was hanging back. The glow around her eyes had changed from indigo to an ever-changing rainbow of hues, and the magic around her horn had shifted to bright purple.

"I can see your brain stem through that hole in your head. It is remarkable you are still standing." The Dark Lady rumbled, her voice running up and down the octaves, pitch changed wildly between words. "You are lucky your soul is in that armor, not in that body."

"Nggg." Ancepanox gurgled, nursing the missing side of her head with a hoof. She watched the magic course around the Dark Lady's horn in an ever-expanding corona, fluctuating in time with the rainbow in her eyes. Was the Dark Lady casting the ritual?! Ancepanox could recognized the magical pattern but she could not be sure. "Do better, my lady." She mocked weakly.

The Dark Lady Ignored her, concentrating more on the spell she was charging. The unusual magic pulsed, causing Celestia to howl in pain from within her prison of twisted and tangled legs and heads.

Ancepanox froze. Was Celestia... still conscious? The host would not have been pained unless the body still had some alienation from the Dark Lady. That meant Celestia was still partially alive in there somehow. The analogies to a parasite, and a mind controlling one at that, were perhaps more acurate than Ancepanox first realized. Now that she was pushing her body further into the moonscape, the Dark Lady didn't have to directly control Celestia's body anymore.
Maybe that was the key to victory. Nothing else had worked so far.

Heedless to Ancepanox's scrutiny and plotting, the Dark Lady kept pouring power into her ritual. More secondary heads pulsed out the mass that formed her torso, dozens of them, distending her frame to grotesque proportion. A cluster of the heads elongated and wound themselves into a braid, becoming another rudimentary limb. The Dark Lady's pony-like head and wings were looking more and more out of place on the horrendous body by the moment.
"Lower your shield, little Celestiaan. There is nothing to gain by defensive play." The Dark Lady mocked. Since her horn was occupied, the dark god used her new braid-limbs to bash against Ancepanox's shield spell with frenzied violence. The purple dome cracked, and then shattered. Ancepanox tried to cast another shield but she was too slow, and the Dark Lady smacked her chest with an indigo tentacle at whip-like speeds. Where the tentacle hit the cuirass it bounced off, but Ancpenaox's black fur and flesh was around her right leg was ripped away. The leg sailed off. The grievous tear in Ancepanox's side dripped back blood.

Ancepanox said something garbled by her own phlegm, before she crumpled into the dust. Her manifestation on the moonscape wavered, becoming hazy and slightly indistinct. As her psychic presence receded the synchronized march of the moon denizens became chaotic.

The Dark Lady observed the collapsed alicorn for several long moments. When she was satisfied Ancepanox was down for the count, she dispelled the spell she was casting: If Ancepanox was defeated she didn't need to pull more of her body into the moon.

"You exceeded my expectations, Lady Ancepanox." The Dark Lady lurched forward, looming over her defeated enemy, scanning with her many indigo eyes. It really did seem like Ancepanox was knocked out. "Do not resent your pedigree. I do not mean as a descended of nobles, or of gods, or of unicorns. I mean as a mortal. There is no shame in it. In this universe, mortality is something that can be overcome through strength of magic and power of will. I did it, and so have you. In that respect we are equal."

Some of the Dark Lady's limbs snaked forward, pushing down on Ancepanox's chest, pinning her to the rubble. She lowered her head down, coming face to face with the smaller entity.
How fascinating the dark lady's 'skin' was up close. It was like liquid mercury, but darker than black, so that the faintest reflections of the stars above and the moon below could be seen. But were they reflections? Maybe they were visions of something else, things contained within the Dark Lady. How many stars and planets did she contain within herself? What churning cosmic patterns of moving solar systems, streaking comets, colliding asteroids, and random stellar radiation spontaneously gave birth to the vast yet inconsequential being known as Anima Astral Nacre?

"But in the end you are barely even an alicorn, while I am I queen among Deava and gods." The dark god ruminated. "In the centuries to come, you will chase me, seeking to banish me. Year after year you will get more powerful, until you have the strength to match my manifestation. When that moment comes, I will have to abandon my vacation on the Bright World, until I gather the wherewithal to return in force. Know this, little alicorn, it will be a million-million years before you grow enough to face of against we gods of the void on our own turf."

From behind her, at the base of the bluff, the Dark Lady heard a pained yell. Her secondary heads turned to the unexpected sound: One of the nightmare ponies, Rainbow Dash, was clutching at her head, shouting into the air. A quick glance confirmed the other nightmare ponies were still higher on the bluff with Twilight and Luna. What was Rainbow Dash doing?

"Is that fool pony going to attack me? What a twisted sense of loyalty you ponies have. She will have to wait that trillion years, just like you." The Dark Lady mused.

Then, even more unexpected than Dash's yelling, Ancepanox spoke up. "Nope. She was just rebooting me." The nightmare alicorn said soft out of the remaining half of her mouth. With what little strength she could muster, she curled her body and grabbed the Dark Lady leg. The skin deformed like rubber. "And if you don't mind, me and her will take our victory NOW."

The Dark Lady was about to launch into mocking laughter, but as she tried to shift positions, she discovered the leg Ancpenaox had touched had become insensate. "Cheep tricks won't win you..." To the Dark Lady's confusion and shock, the numb limb dissolved away. “What is this now?” She tried to retreat but the ailing leg gave out, and she fell forward into the nightmare’s clutches.

Ancepanox latched onto her neck and face. The Dark Lady roared as she tried to pull away, but every moment had her feeling weaker and weaker in the nightmare’s hold.
“You walked right into this one.” Ancepanox growled, her eyes molten fire for the Dark power she was subsuming. “Now I am going to devour you, because that’s what nightmares do.”

The Dark Lady’s realization that Ancepanox was using Agana’s magic, infuriated and terrified the ancient god. The magic fizzled from her horn and she could not gather enough power to cast even a single spell. A sense of impending doom overwhelmed her: Ancepanox was going to win, and become an even more powerful opponent.

---

Luna cracked her eyes open. If only she had an eternity to process the confusion and heartbreak, like after the Siege of the Everfree. She remembered Celestia attacking her with the sabre, but that had not been the reason she'd collapsed. Some other force was at work...
She could move again but chose not to, instead letting herself remain limp on the hard rock path. Luna's heart ached for Celestia. Her sister was so close yet so far, and dangerously close to losing herself to her madness. She would suffer, but not forever; Luna herself was a testament that the fact that there was respite and life after such a trauma. That was, if the situation hadn't deteriorated while she was passed out.

In front of her has a pony’s flank which, like the rest of the pony, was flat on the ground. Like Luna, the other pony seemed to be in her position by choice. From the wings and greyscale of her mane, it was the nightmare earth pony Applejack. Judging by the dust around them, Applejack had pulled her from the castle, away from Celestia and whatever had caused her to collapse.

“Are you alright?” Luna asked.

Applejack lifted her head up to see who was talking. Her nose was scuffed, but she was otherwise healthy. “I am. Tryin to keep a low profile up here.”

A scream of frustration interrupted Luna’s response. Rarity, who had also been prostrate, jumped up and began pacing the ledge. “I'm not. I'm very not alright. What misery and pain! I could wring that harlot's neck!"

Applejack hissed. "Keep your damn head down or we'll get attacked again."

"AND WHO ATTACKED US?" Rarity fumed. "That witch! That damn witch! She used MIND CONTROL on us! Ordering us around is one thing, but this violates all sense of trust.”

Applejack followed Rarity with her eyes. Below them in the Mare Incognitum, the moon denizens were beginning their march. "And what does that change exactly? You were gunna fight her anyway."

Rarity looked like she was about to scream again. “How can you be so cavalier about this? She has manipulated us, controlled us without our consent. You should side with me over this offense!”

“And chances are she’s gunna do it again. Messin with ponies’ head is just what nightmares do.” Applejack mused grimly. "Furthermore I don't get why you draw the line here. She literally killed ya, and you forgave her. Maybe you'll forgive her for this too and get offended by the next thing."

"And?" Rarity asked, teeth bared.

Applejack sighed and sat up. How pitiful that the same gripes had resurfaced, even now at the climax of the night. It seemed the moon was not as skilled at dispelling the worries and weights of the waking world as it claimed. "Rarity, I'm not gunna side with you. The best I can do is not get in your way, and that only if Ancepanox doesn't control me to fight you with. That's already a lot, considering you still want to kill me."

Rarity absorbed Applejack's words in furious silence. She would find a way to spite Ancepanox before the night ended. Applejack too.
But what about the other ponies? Rarity's eyes turned to Luna, still laying against the cliff face trying to get her bearings. Here was the alicorn who she had once regarded as a god, made utterly inconsequential.

“Princess, I don’t think we were introduced. I am Rarity.” Rarity offered her hoof, which Luna cautiously took. She helped the moon princess onto her hooves, then pulled her into a hug. She whispered into her ear, so that Applejack would not hear. “This is a critical moment. Help me save your sister, while there is still time.”

---

The Dark Lady yanked herself back, trying to leverage with her wings. This time Ancepanox let her go, releasing her grasp and falling back into the dust.

“Well done indeed. I have seen cornered animals ferociously scare away the hunter. I have seen master generals snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Never have I seen a pony win total victory after being so soundly defeated." The Dark Lady was suffering badly from having her Dark power siphoned away. Her appendages began to dissipate and her secondary heads withered and dissolved one by one. She could hardly hold herself upright or keep her wings from dragging. "What a master stroke, Ancepanox, hiding your stolen skill until the final moment. You truly deserve the title of Nightmare of the Moon."

“What can I say? I’m a usurper.” Ancepanox slowly followed the retreating larger alicorn. With her magic renewed from what she'd stolen, her horrible wounds were encased in shadowy magic and began to slowly regenerate. She levitated her severed leg to fit it back into place. "I'll admit, I was a bit taken in by that sappy speech. I almost wanted to give you the win, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I have conquered the moon and the dreamscape. With your defeat, I will have conquered the past. All that will remain is the future.”

“You vastly underestimate the past.” The Dark Lady coughed, her melodious voice becoming clashing and crashing chords that lost all sense of harmony. She was ailing. “The past is deep, strange... You may go and see it but it will not change for you. There is much about your own planet you need to discover before you rise to challenge we gods of the cosmos."

"I know that. I don't really want to do any of that challenging right now, even if I don't plan on waiting your million-million years to get around to it." Ancepanox laughed. "Lest we forget, I came here to kill Celestia. That's all I want. Then... the future."

More than anyone else, the Dark Lady could appreciate the sick irony of the nightmare’s ambition. “Do you plan to rule your world?"

Ancepanox thought on that a moment. “I don't know yet. I feel flush with the thrill of the fight. Tomorrow or the day after, I might find meaning in new discoveries. I could meet ancient creatures and find lost things, like that mysterious force of Harmony. When will it begin to wear thin? Will all pleasurable things become mundane?"

The Dark Lady felt sorry for the smaller alicorn. "For you, I expect the onset of your immortal misery will come sooner than anyone would expect."

Ancepanox cast her eyes down. "Yes... I suppose so. Just knowing what infinite grey awaits me, even grayer than this dustball of a moon, is enough to fill me with a very mortal dread. I wonder, is that the greatest difference between alicorn and mortal?"

"Haa haa." The Dark Lady wheezed. "Consider this, oh Nightmare of the Moon: The entity called Forlorn Spark reached the same level as you did. Perhaps even farther, since she was alive and you are a soul in some armor. Yet at the first opportunity she abandoned the alicorn power she'd created and went back to being a little purple pony." Despite her abject weakness, the Dark Lady's words menaced. "You should think deeply on that, Ancepanox. What purpose do you have to live, and can you live for that purpose."

"Poisonous words. They will hurt me far longer than your magic did." Ancepanox allowed herself a slim, triumphal grin. "Goodbye, Anima Astral Nacre. I'll think of you every time I talk to the one who bears your name down on the Bright World."

The silver crack of the Dark Lady’s mouth split her head again. But not to howl as times before, but to smile. “Until next time, Celestiaan. And there WILL be a next time, for as long as there are ponies to sin, they shall call out to the Dark Lady.”

The dark silhouette sagged. The grinning mouth became downturned, the indigo eyes were covered by drooping lids, and taunt skin wrinkled and slackened. The Dark Lady’s form melted into sand, and that sand was carried into the sky by a gust of wind. Within moments, the horrendous bloated body was so much ash, drifting away on imperceptible magical currents.
Anima Astral Nacre was banished back into the depths of the cosmos.

Celestia, released from the Dark Lady's body, dropped to the ground. She didn't stir.

With the Dark Lady defeated, Ancepanox released back all the power the moon had invested in her. Her form shifted back to its normal, losing the added size and godly visage. She ran a hoof through her mane to make sure it was solid again; It still glowed though.
"Goodness gracious." Ancepanox sighed, then laughed with a silly little smile on her face. "I can't believe it did it. Celestia I have you now. I had to beat back the neighborhood street animals, but the treat is mine."

“Get away from her!” Barked a voice from behind.

Ancepanox turned around, to see Luna and Rarity pushing through the rings of moon denizens toward her. Luna looked scared but determined. Rarity was grinning fiendishly.

"Oh great." Ancepanox laughed to herself again, but this time it was out of regretful frustration. She had enjoyed a triumphal victory. Now she was going to experience a tragic one.
“Stay away from Celestia. The Dark Lady may still have tricks up her sleeve.” Ancepanox ordered. But once Luna was out of the crowd of moon denizens she galloped straight for her sister. Ancepanox was forced to teleport in Luna's way to block her. “Hey, back it off. Didn’t you hear me?”

Luna shook her head emphatically. “Yes, I heard some of what you said, but that is my sister! I can't be deterred.”

“Listen, that’s-” Ancepanox glanced over her shoulder.

There was still no trace of the indigo eyes, nor the giant black wings, nor the six legs, or any other sign of the Dark Lady. Just to make sure, Ancepanox closed her eyes, but still nothing unseen was revealed. There was only Celestia, greyed, beaten, and bruised, face down on rubble.

Ancepanox turned back, unsure of herself. What was it that she had just battled? Literally none of the other creatures on the planet had seen it, maybe not even Celestia. The only evidence was the damage to the battlefield and the few dead moon denizens.
There was no use trying to explain. The narrative of fighting Celestia worked as well as fighting the Dark Lady. Ancepanox opened her eyes. Luna looked at her plaintively, trustingly.

For all her attention to detail, Luna did not notice that her trust was one-sided. Ancepanox's stare in return to hers was narrow, cynical, and calculating.
“Luna, I know you’re upset. You were in a terrible state when we found you, and heavens knows what she did to you!”

That drew a contemptuous scoff from Rarity. “And you seemed more concerned about your own revenge than helping her, my lady.”

“Lady Rarity now is not the time to be derisive. I only wish to see my sister!” Luna pleaded.

‘First look is free, sister.’ Ancepanox almost grinned at that impious thought. She looked back at Celestia again.
Luna joined her in observation. Tears beaded at the corners of her eyes but she quickly wiped them away. “Gods… I don’t know how she did what she did to me. I breaks me just to see her like this.”

“She’s not herself, and might never be again.” Ancepanox offered a comforting hoof. “I know I should have waited until you awakened, but she was out of control.”

Luna turned away, unable to stand it any longer. “I-" She had to pause to gather herself. "You did the right thing.”

“For herself!” Rarity spat. “This is her plan, to usher you and Celestia out, and herself in! Luna you can't trust her.”

"Really Rarity?" Ancepanox cocked a brow at the nightmare unicorn. So, Rarity had decided she didn't want to wait to resume hostilities. Fine, but Ancepanox had bigger fish to fry. “If I really wanted supremacy, there would have been faster ways to do it than this. I've been very careful, Luna.”

“You take joy dominating others whenever you can. Even with insular pettiness, like tricking us and toying with our heads!” Rarity continued.

“I resent that accusation!” Ancepanox shouted back. She loved the accusation. Rarity was playing into her designs perfectly.

"Hey, cut it out y'all!" Applejack, Twilight Sparkle still on her back, was helping Rainbow Dash navigate through the crowd of moon denizens to where everypony else was standing. "We don't celebrate a victory by immediately bickering."

"Oh, don't we?" Rainbow Dash mumbled. The nightmare pegasus was not looking well. She had a difficult time focusing her eyes and her steps were uncoordinated, hence Applejack's assistance. "We could all get behind fighting the big foe. Now that we won we can't decide how to divy up the spoils."

"My sister is NOT spoils." Luna spat.

"And I did basically all the work." Ancepanox remarked. "Though I do appreciate you lending me your head again Dash. That came in handy for the surprise attack."

"Don't mention it. Just be more gentle next time." Dash groaned, fighting off a wave of nausea.

Applejack sighed and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "Okay, can somepony tell me what the heck is going on?"

"I have defeated Celestia. Now these two want to let her go." Ancepanox's gaze flicked over to Luna and Rarity.

“WHAT?!” Luna gasped. “My dear friend you have gravely misunderstood me!”

“She absolutely can’t be let off.” Dash mumbled from under her hoof. "We all agreed Celestia needed to die. Don't get distracted by these naysayers."

"How senselessly cruel! That is my sister you are speaking of." Luna shot back. The dire situation was dawning on the moon princess.

“I don’t disagree ‘bout not letting Celestia off, but we don’t need’ta kill her either.” Applejack contributed. “She's beat. Why not let her stay here where she can’t hurt nopony?”

“Yes coming and retrieving Twilight Sparkle was a goal onto itself, and yes I could possibly forgive Celestia for her crimes thereby. However, Celestia is never going to stop being a threat while she's here, on the edge of the cosmos." Ancepanox warned cryptically. “A moment of weakness, and nefarious forces from the stars will overwhelm her. And that's assuming she reforms herself! If she makes willing covenants with the things out there, it would be even worse!"

"Do you know something I don't, my friend?" Luna asked sharply.

"I don't know how you went a thousand years without facing at least one incursion by a cosmic entity. You don't seem to believe me, so nevermind." Ancepanox said, equally as sharp. "I still not going to let you off for your hypocracies, Luna. You were willing to do what was necessary before, and now you're not.

“Nightmare, you have put words into my mouth. I am beginning to see Lady Rarity’s side of things. ” Luna scowled. “And I will never, EVER, stand to see you kill my sister!”

“This is actually getting a bit comical. You think you’re beating me, but you’ll only let a bigger monster survive.”

Rarity laughed disdainfully. "Is it up to you to decide? What earned you the right to decide her fate?"

"Well believe it or not, there was a prophecy about 'fate'. You don't know it, but Luna might. An acquaintance of hers now dead spoke it." Ancepanox chuckled sinisterly. “But if you don't believe in meritocracy, and you don't believe in prophecy, there is a way to chose our path. A VOTE, for Celestia’s death!”

“Vote?!” Luna barked. “You nightmares have no right to my sister!”

“You think we are unfit judges? But aren’t all of us here complicit in sinful excesses of different sorts? Some may be justified, but sin is still sin.” Ancepanox sneered. It felt good to show the true nastiness she was feeling. “And you think, somehow, the judge must be pure. Tisk.”

Everypony could see Luna doing the mental math. Dash and Ancepanox would push one way, Rarity and Luna another. Applejack would be the deciding vote.
“Very well then. Everypony here, every one of us excluding my loyal subjects, shall vote to determine my sister’s fate.” Luna said solemnly. "Gods preserve us... Five ponies deciding how to treat the sovereign of millions..."

“And so it shall be done, in good faith.” Ancepanox grinned. “I vote for EXECUTION!”

“Seconded!” Dash thundered hoarsely, ignoring her nausea to stomp her hoof in acclaim. “Death to Celestia!”

“Amnesty!” Rarity called out. She knew that Celestia had to die, but she could not let herself roll over to the fiendish Ancepanox. Once the nightmare alicorn was dealt with, Celestia and Luna would be easily done away with. “She may have not been the princess I worship, but nor shall she be the one I kill.”

“Seconded.” Luna said softly.

Everypony turned to Applejack, who was staring into space in search of answers. The nightmare earth pony gnawing on her lip for almost a minute before she answered. “I third. For amnesty.”

Luna visibly relaxed, taking in another labored sigh. “It is decided then. She shall-”

“wait!” A pained cry came forth.

Everypony looked in amazement as Celestia, grey, broken, and bloody, propped herself up on a jagged chunk of rubble. Her eyes, still bleeding pure darkness, were pained. Her existence was perpetual torment, and everypony wondered how such a contradiction had been able to exist, let alone fight. What misery.
“please, kill me! I can not bear this. I deserve to die. I NEED to die.”

Luna gagged, then doubled over, covering her mouth with a hoof to keep herself from retching. Even when she’d recovered from the shock, she had to look away from the dying alicorn. “Sister please don’t say that!”

“if I may have a last wish, it is that you do not leave me here, to be seen by any pony who could still believe in what I fought for. somepony… somepony has…” Celestia was slumping again. “somepony has to believe, in equestria.” She fell on her face and closed her eyes. Her breaths came weak, uneven.

Ancepanox shook her head and chuckled grimly. "For the second time since this Eternal Night fell, the sun princess is on death's door. You cheated it last time Celestia. I respect that you know when the game is up." She waggled a brow at Luna. "It's a tie then."

Rarity jumped up to her, screaming. “How dare you take advantage of this! Celestia does not count!”

“Why not?” Applejack, of all ponies, cut in. “Who’d do a better job of judgin a pony then themselves?”

“Are you changing your vote?” Dash asked.

“No, but I ain’t gunna let a vote go uncounted. Luna said everypony here. Celestia’s right here!” Applejack pointed.

“My sister is sick! How can you count an ill pony’s vote?”

“We’re all bucking sick!”

“Seconded!

The group descended into shouting and shoving, as the nightmares and alicorns tried to have their point heard by nopony in particular. Dash leapt on Applejack and tried wrestling her to the ground. Ancepanox argued with Luna and Rarity at the same time, delighting in infuriating them with gross exaggerations and lies.

Nopony noticed that Twilight Sparkle, laid to the side, had awoken.
The little pony scanned the crowd of moon denizens, and then the five ponies brawling. She didn't recognize any of them.
"Who..." She looked at her hooves, marveling at the normal ways they moved. "I'm... Twilight Sparkle."

"None other." Came the pained reply.
Twilight looked to the voice. Celestia. Yes, that was a pony she recognized. On unsteady hooves Twilight stood, and like a toddler walking for the first time she clambered over the piles of rubble. Easy strides for the tall nightmares was exhausting for the diminutive unicorn, but her determination would not be overcome by mere stone.

She put a hoof to Celestia’s forehead. The alicorn’s eyes fluttered. “Twilight… What do you remeber?”

“... you." Twilight whispered. "What happened to us?"

"You've come and gone. I pray... you're here to stay." Celestia mumbled, trying to pull herself closer to the unicorn. "It's over for me. Somepony may try to bring me back... but it won't work. There will be no Celestia after this, expect in the memories."

:Shhhh. Don’t worry anymore.” Twilight whispered, nuzzling her cheek against Celestia's. “I believe in what you fought for. I remember Equestria.”

Celestia’s tears, unstained by the corrupting filth that pervaded the rest of her, shimmered crystalline as they rolled off her cheek onto the dusty brick. “Ancepanox will have her way with you... She will release my Sun back into the waking world. She may steal your dream. But you will always have this moment... Twilight... Please remember me when the time is right."

Twilight smiled sadly. “I will.” She sniffled a bit, tearing up herself. "I forgive you princess."

Celestia closed her eyes again, too overjoyed for her weak body to handle. “M- Make it quick.”

Twilight hugged Celestias head, and jerked.

The sound, the crunch of a pony’s neck breaking, echoed across the Mare Incognitum. It was instantly recognizable to Dash, who immediately released Applejack and jumped to her hooves, and to Ancepanox, who began laughing to herself, and to Luna, who gargled in horror as she realized what had been done.

“CELESTIA!” The moon princess wailed, fixing her eyes on the small purple perpetrator. "Wha- What have you done?" She shivered, weak at the knees. "She's... gone."

Twilight released Celestia’s head and stood up. “I vote execution.”

“I-” Luna’s mind screeched to a halt. There was no peace, or serenity, or forgiveness anymore. She had set all of that aside for Celestia. Now there was only room for hatred. She shook her head, her shivers turning into a shaking rage. “I will never forgive this.”

Indigo magic sparked to life at Luna’s horn, energized by her outpouring of emotion. Dark intent clouded her senses, until all that she could see before her, flaunting and laughing, was the black nightmare that had haunted her for a millennium.

“I should never have trusted you. Now DIE.” Luna cast instinctively, and her magic formed into a javelin of lightning. At her will the incorporeal shaft shot off towards Twilight with cackling lethality.

With a deafening teleport, Ancepanox interposed herself. The lightning javolin struck her in the torso, burning a hole to the bone. Ancepanox took the hit unflinchingly.
“This is it, Luna. This is the end of the two original Celestiaan. I loved you..." She sighed and shook her head. "Goodbye."

Luna, unhearing and uncaring, released another magical javelin. Ancepanox caught it in her hoof and slung it back.

The spear hit Luna right between her eyes. The moon princess died instantly.

Rarity watched Luna’s body fall over. Ancepanox had won again.

“Why did you do it this time?” Ancepanox asked. The dark alicorn stepped over to Luna, shifting the moon princess into a more dignified pose.

Rarity laughed bitterly. “Inconveniencing you was its own reward. This is only the first step for your destruction.”

"If I told you to learn how to forgive, it would be hypocritical of me. Yet Hypocrisy isn't the worst thing in the world anymore." Ancepanox said emptily. Took a step back from Luna and glanced to Twilight Sparkle. The little unicorn, her purpose served, had fallen back asleep. "Terror, pain, misery... These things are many times as horrible as hypocrisy, yet in their scale they seem too daunting. Is that why we forgive those horrors, but leap at hypocrisy?"

"What are you even talking about?" Applejack interjected with a hiss. A dour mood had a hold of the earth pony, for her princess had just died.

Ancepanox shrugged. "I don't know. It was just something that was on my mind."

"I think we know why." Rainbow Dash remarked. She waved a hoof towards the two princesses: Celestia and Luna, daughters of the sun and moon, incomparable figures of history. They lay dead. What fact of their lives would be remembered the most? Their smiles? Their idle passions? Their little fears that drove them forward?
Two princess lay dead. The Nightmare of the Moon stood over them, grim as the grey lunar landscape. Terror, pain, misery... What would the future historians seize upon to describe this moment? Not those things.

That was it then.

“What now?” Rarity asked.

The ten-thousand moon denizens, standing stock still by their princess’s order, shifted their expectant gazes from Luna to the nightmare alicorn above her.

Ancepanox looked up to the starry expanse around them. How small it was. But it mattered. Millions of souls that lived and died, that experienced those pains of existance, depended on that tiny slice of existance, sandwiched between the Stars and the soil. Hopefully she would find a way to matter too.
The Nightmare of the Moon brushed her hair away from her eyes. “Next, life.”

Comments

[FBEMF]

This. I am positively partially okay with this.

[TyroidMary]

Luna really got btfo there. Not a single thing went right for her.

[Xaldon Ajide]

6471112 Ultimately Rarity killed Celestia and Luna. If she hadn't said there was a chance that Celestia could have been saved, then Anciponax wouldn't have had to kill luna and wake Twilight forcing the young impressional avatar of her previous life to kill her former mentor.

Ultimately I'm saying F*** you Rarity.

[TyroidMary]

6472589 F*** Rarity for sure, but I don't think Ancepanox was going to let the sisters live anyway. And considering that everyone is literally insane, it could have been much messier. Maybe Rarity being tactless and cutting through the lies was the best possible outcome.

[Xaldon Ajide]

6472791 Doubt it, there are much easier means to accomplish what Twilight did, if she truely wished to take out both sisters.