Dusk Falls

by NorrisThePony

Duskfalorizonication (XII)

i

I cleared my throat and faced the dozens of guards before me, many casting quick, instinctive glances at the now motionless surface of the mirror shard, as if expecting the terrible sludge to come tearing through regardless. Hardly any of them had seen it at all, but word of our adventure had circulated rapidly, and now the nature of the eldritch abomination was quite known by all. Five of the ponies were distanced considerably from the rest, three of them had been by my side in the shadowed reaches of the gloomy caverns snaking their way far below the muddy earth we were standing on, and the other two had remained on the other side of the tear we had made, looking alert and attentive even through the jokingly chastising remarks from the other three for not keeping it open for them to immediately escape through.

Nonetheless, they were all safe now, albeit with a friend less and nopony to report to. Indeed, the Royal Guard was in a state of panic and sorrow after news of Solar Flare’s passing had circulated. I had sent a letter to the stallion’s family telling them of his heroic sacrifice, as well as a depressingly similar one to Sky Blossom’s. They had spared the other four of us from a grisly fate, and I had no mind to let that sacrifice go untold. But it was something I would have to formally deal with in due time, presently I was unable and unwilling to focus on anything but the impending doom looming over Equestria.

The Smooze would be unleashed soon, and the grim predictions we carried of being unable to stop it had been proven accurate several hours prior. Magic had been useless, with the exception of the hasty barriers I had erected which had not injured it but had at least driven it back for several seconds. It’s acidic properties would destroy any blunt weapons we used to fight it (several of its mere tendrils had been enough to destroy a blade in seconds) and the blast from our rifles hadn’t done much more than temporarily slow its approach, and had done nothing to harm it at all. And finally, the only thing that had seemed to inflict pain had been the extreme heat of fire.

We had all been nearly killed by a pathetic amount of the stuff, and I had seen so much more of it within the cylindrical cavern. What had chased us through the tunnels represented a miniscule percentage of it, and yet we had been unable to stop it. It's only weakness required further destruction anyways, rendering it an unwelcome option even if it was our only one.

The Smooze was incredibly swift when it gave chase, nearly indestructible, and worst of all; without a mind with which it could be reasoned with, and without any thought of ever ceasing. I’d faced creatures that were unwilling to reason, perhaps, but never one unable to. At least not one with such potential power. I was expected to wage war against a creature I knew nothing about and had less than a week to prepare for.

“Private Fox Trot,” I addressed. Truly, he was the only pony of the gathered guards I’d needed to speak to directly, but it had been easier to simply have them all arrive. “You were with Captain Solar Flare when you delved into the depths, correct?”

He nodded. There had been a hefty bit of explosives unaccounted for from the chariots when I examined them after I was well enough, and I wished to know to what use they had been put. Primitive and admittedly weak as they had been, I was still greatly curious to see how they had affected the Smooze.

“What happened? What did you see?”

“Well, Your Majesty...the path went down some distance, sometimes at a very steep rate that made it a little difficult to safely work our way down, especially with how slippery and smooth the rocks were. When we finally got to the next opening the Smooze was at least fifty feet below us.”

I bristled a little in frustration. Perhaps the most dangerous and possibly catastrophic solution was to engage it unprovoked in a vulnerable location with no defense, and yet it seemed to be the first thing they had chosen to do.

“And you thought throwing explosives at it was a good idea?”

“Well, Captain Flare did. We were just following his orders.”

I instantly felt sorry for leaping onto an accusatory judgement so swiftly. I was weary and tired, and even my attempt to break up the tension with a grin was most likely met with failure.

“I apologize, Private Fox Trot,” I said. “But you did make an attempt to damage it using explosives?”

“We did,” he confirmed. “Good choice of words with ‘attempt.’”

“I figured." The stallion's gaze fell to his hooves at the firmness of my words.

“And what happened next?” I asked.

“Well, nothing. We were using a highly concentrated mix of black powder, and when we lit it and dropped it, it seemed to be consumed by the creature before it had a chance to ignite,” he recounted. “So we tried shortening our fuse so that it would ignite right before it actually fell...uhh...into the creature.”

“Right,” I waved a hoof. While I was trying my best not to be rude, I didn’t necessarily have the patience for unnecessary details. “And still nothing?”

“Correct,” he said, and sighed as if reliving the ensuing disappointment. “When it exploded, the Smooze seemed to dissipate a tiny bit, but it reformed in seconds, good as new.”

“Damn it,” I muttered. “Then it remains more clear to me now than ever before. I need you to begin evacuating Dusk Falls…”

I hesitated a little, contemplating my orders even as I was giving them.

“...and the rest of Eastern Equestria, too.”

When the Smooze were released, I knew that this would be a temporary solution, and one that would be saving lives but not saving the land that would be destroyed. It would keep working its way inland regardless, growing and multiplying as it did, and in weeks my evacuation order would quickly mean nothing. By time it reached Manehattan, it would be a small sea of death, destroying all in its midst. By that time, nothing would matter anyways, and there truly would be nothing I or anypony else could do.

The evacuation order meant nothing, but it was all I could think to do.

“I’m passing similar orders to every guard force along the Eastern Coast, and by dawn tomorrow I want this town emptied, and every other from here to Baltimare ready to be. Understood?”

There was stunned silence, and so I repeated the one-word question in a sharper tone. Quickly they saluted.

"Secondly...the shard-opening is going to be reconstructed, for there are still ponies trapped within. I need volunteers who are willing to go through with me in order to help them."

Another bout of intense silence followed my words. It would seem that after word of our adventure had passed, every ounce of conviction had fled these ponies instantly. I hadn't necessarily wanted to, but with no other choice I ordered twelve guards at random to prepare themselves and accompany me, while I began feeding magic into the motionless crystals. The tear was opened once more, and I withdrew the ever-useful journals and handed one to the young unicorn Private who had opened the tear last time.

"Larkspur, was it?" I asked, although I gave him no time to answer. "Once again, you get to be the lucky stallion who stays outside. Monitor the journal closely, please, and open it the moment you see from us. Otherwise close it the moment we're all through."

We traveled through the tear once more, emerging in the same section as we had before. With many torches and lanterns now, I could see that the walls of the cavern had been scorched by fire, undoubtedly the flames that had sprung up when the last keg of kerosene had been lit. I led, using a torch to light the way, and soon we were back in the crystal room. Still I took the lead, and quickly found that the entire room was empty, and unchanged from the first time I had been there. I could even see the bits of broken crystal from when Fox Trot and I had broken the first pony out. Fox Trot had actually been one of the few ponies to willingly come along, making him the only pony besides myself to have been in the room before.

I approached crystal after crystal, casting the dancing torchlight at the encased ponies within. By and by they looked the same, decomposed but very much alive. Some were worse than others; the first pony had heavy abrasions but they had looked as though they would heal, but many others had exposed bones in addition to the same acidic injuries. Likewise, many others, whose disapperances I had recalled even in my short stay in Dusk Falls, looked perfectly preserved with little signs of injury. I did not know if perhaps some had died and Hydia had disposed of their bodies—this seemed disturbingly possible—but as it stood every pony in the crystal room was still alive, albeit barely in their comatose state.

"What kind of thing does this to ponies?" I heard a guard mumble disgustedly, not to anypony in particular.

"Time," I replied. "Some of these crystals are ancient. They show signs of being...seventy, eighty years. Perhaps older. They've kept the ponies alive for equally as long—in some sort of stasis, I suppose—to keep seeping their energy, but as you can see it isn't without its side-effects."

"Why are they still alive? Wouldn't their magic run out after awhile?"

"It wouldn't completely," I shook my head. Indeed, I could see his point; the cavern was not that big and there was no logical reason to keep ponies alive who no longer provided any magic whatsoever. But still, any magic was useful magic to a creature of insane greed, and in their present comatose state they would continue providing it until their bodies shut down through the actual release of death. That was the reason for the abrasions; the bodies were essentially tearing themselves apart in an effort to keep providing magic.

I'd seen slavery in Sombra's time, and chaos in Discord's. But this was the first time I had seen such wrathless horror and evil, performed with such particularity and yet without a single shred of acknowledgment towards how revoltingly cruel it was.

In my search of the crystal room, I eventually came upon a pony who I had never once before met, but recognized instantly all the same. I could even still see the young colt's surf-board cutiemark despite the beginnings of the time-inflicted injuries setting in. His young eyes were closed in slumber, but he lacked the heartwarming subtle smile of a young filly or colt in sweet dreams with my sister standing guard. He looked empty, locked forever in his own vacant, unconscious limbo.

"I promised I'd help you," I whispered, lethargically dragging my hoof across the cold surface of the crystal dividing me from this young colt who had suffered so much because of all that I had failed to do. "I'm so sorry."

I brought the young colt to the attention of the other guards, requesting they begin with freeing him. The moment they saw that even a young child had not been spared from such a heartless fate, they worked with greater determination and far richer disgust. Even as the crystal chipped away the young colt remained asleep, although I thought for a fleeting moment I could the ghost of life creeping back into his motionless face. It was difficult to tell by the dancing light of my torch. The guards had brought plenty of warm blankets, but the ground looked terribly cold and damp regardless. Instead, I wrapped him in one of the blankets and shook off one of the heavy saddlebags I was carrying and placed him atop my back instead. A few guards grinned and chuckled at the sight of me overseeing such a serious task with a sleeping colt on my back, but I felt nothing but comfort at their warm smiles. We could not turn back time and stop what Hydia had done, but we certainly did not have to let further despair stand where compassion deserved to.

I knew I could not stay with them during the entirety of the procedure, I still had much to do on the surface and not enough time to do it. Still, assuming they did not wander past the crystal room I could not imagine the Smooze accompanying them, which left Hydia as the only concern. But I had my doubts she regularly stayed in the damp catacombs, and if what she had said of watching us on the boardwalk was indeed correct she was more than likely still on the surface. To be sure, I cast a steady barrier on the entranceway, ordered ponies to keep close watch on both tunnel entrances, gave them explicit instructions to flee if they saw or heard anything, and let them get to work on freeing the ponies. This left it possible for me to leave if I so desired, and not have to worry about any terrible harm befalling them.

They would be many hours working, and they had come prepared as such, but no amount of preparation could assist with the overwhelming fear one would possess while working in a cavern that in some dark depths housed something that had sent their own Princess fleeing. I stayed for almost an hour, overlooking and occasionally assisting, but I could not stay for too long with so much to be done above-ground. After awhile, I wrote for Larkspur to open the tear, left the journal with one of the guards, and cantered down the tunnels back to where the exit was already opened, promising refuge from the damp and unpleasant darkness. I did all this still with Dune Shores sleeping comfortably in a bundle of blankets on my back, managing to garner a few more surprised chuckles and smiles when I emerged back onto the surface.

I trotted back into Pink Sunset and into my bedroom. Once there, I peeled away the slightly damp blankets and gently floated Dune onto the soft bed, quickly replacing the itchy and uncomfortable militaristic blankets with the plush and warm ones of my own. It wasn't as though I would be using the bed myself anyways, and with his mother still missing I could think of little else to do for the time being. My mind had wandered towards Indigo Posy for a moment, she certainly would have been more than happy to accommodate him until Dusk Falls was evacuated, but she had already been a target once before. It was a troubling fact that somepony would be more than willing to kill the young colt simply to further enrage me. The safest place he could be was Pink Sunset.

Under the warm, soft blankets he was now sleeping not in the unnaturally still fashion he had been before, but now with a grin only the most beautiful of otherworldly sights could bring about. I closed my blinds to the streaking rain, extinguished the torch as I left the room, and turned back to the more somber matters at hand.

Every several hours, the tear would again be opened, and several of the same terribly damaged ponies were helped through, back into the beautiful cool night air so different from the claustrophobic world their mind had exclusively known for so long. The moment I was back in my living room, I turned to watch them on the lawn of Pink Sunset with a quill and parchment in my grasp. I had already written up and sent the other evacuation reports to every settlement on the map, and promptly received responses indicating they understood, and so the letter I was composing was not to any of them but instead to my sister.

Dear Luna,

The fact that even now you’re ignoring me is interesting. I’m having difficulty believing how childish you are acting in the fact of such a great threat to Equestria.

I don’t care what you said before. Listen to what I’m saying now. I need your help. The Smooze is soon going to be unleashed into Equestria, and we have very little time. I asked you to be ready to be in Dusk Falls as swiftly as you can manage and that request still remains strong. I will release one of our wartime beacons into the sky, and when you see it get to Dusk Falls as fast as you can manage.

The Smooze is every bit what we feared it would be. I’m attaching a written observation from the journal I brought, but I will confirm here that my magic did nothing, nor did explosives or blunt combat. Its innermost flesh is incredibly acidic, and contact with it results in massive injuries almost instantaneously. It killed two of my Royal Guards. I did however meet the witch of ancient lore, Hydia, in the flesh instead of in my dreams. She claims herself some eldritch demon but it seems to me that she has escaped judgement in her realm by fleeing into ours. Her power has been difficult to ascertain because it is a muddled array of every kind, salvaged from creatures she has slain. Remember Queen Elytra of the Changeling Empire? Or the horn you lost? I now know what became of both of them. It is difficult to say how powerful Hydia is, because I was unable to engage her in combat because of injuries sustained by the Smooze. She briefly mentioned there being 'others,' but I had no time to get additional information. It is heavily probable she was bluffing, although so far everything she has confessed to me has been true.

Now, I can do no more than wait for the Smooze to be released, because nothing seems to be able to stop it. Hydia seems to have been waiting for it to be at its strongest and most plentiful, but now that I know of her plans I don’t imagine she shall be waiting anymore. I shudder to think what further levels of horror the creature could have achieved had we not interrupted.

In the meantime, I am evacuating the Crimson Coast and I need you to be ready to assist me here in Dusk Falls, even if it is a battle stacked against us. Come as soon as you see my signal and waste no time getting here. Bring the Elements of Harmony when you do. I dearly hope we can wield them together a second time.

— Celestia

Knowing I was dealing with a witch lurking over the town, certainly adept in magic as the unicorns of Sombra’s army had been, and able to detect messages sent using dragon-fire, I longed more than ever for Luna’s two way journals. I felt almost indignant and angry as I pondered this; how selfish she had been simply to make a statement.

To be safe, I wrote the letter out twice, ripped the documentation of the Smooze from the second journal, and sent one copy of both the letter and the page with dragon-fire. Then, I asked the fastest pegasus guard in Dusk Falls to deliver the same page and letter to Luna in person. It would take many hours of non-stop flight to get to the Everfree Castle, but at least I had a guarantee that Luna would eventually get my letter.

There was no immediate reply from her, and if she had gotten my letter I knew I would have received one, and I decided I would likely have to wait for the pegasus to arrive in order to get a response. I could have cast a long-distance teleportation spell and spoken with Luna directly, but leaving Dusk Falls for any period of time was an unwelcome thought. I regretfully realized that whatever had happened to my first dragon-fire letter had most likely also happened to the ones from the Royal Guard, and Luna quite honestly would not have known about my excursion at all. I thought of the harsh, accusing words I had used in my letter and instantly wished I could have a chance to rewrite it.

All this had been done before dawn, not that when it eventually did break there was any interruption in the darkness. The stormy sky rumbled and continued to rain in a furious torrent, still persisting many hours after I had first risen and repaired my horn, which had been sometime before midnight. The guards had gathered quickly upon my request, and I had high-hopes Luna would know of what was transpiring before I even rose the sun, even with the extra hours it would take for the spry little pegasus guard to deliver it.

With little ease to be done but wait, I shifted the full focus of my thoughts towards thinking of a way of stopping the Smooze with as little collateral damage as possible. Fire became my go-to solution, but it was unfortunately the most destructive. I considered a solar flare, a sudden, quick burst of energy from the sun which would instantaneously decimate even the seemingly impenetrable creature. If kerosene fire had made it scream in pain, then the flames of the sun would most certainly be enough to finally put a stop to it once and for all. But, even a small flare I summoned in one location would burn half of Equestria with the sheer force of its heat. It was still the only solution, unless the Elements ended up actually working.

I had little hope that they would. Whether we could even wield them a second time remained to be seen, but even if we could I did not know to what extent they would function. Even if they could affect the mindless Smooze, they were artifacts created by ponies, using pony-magic, which I already knew was worthless against it.

So I had largely ruled out the Elements of Harmony as an option, leaving me with no other choice but to try burning it with the flames of the sun itself. It would work, but it would destroy too much to be considered a viable solution. An extension of this plan had to be formulated that would allow the flare to be centralized towards one small area; perhaps just Dusk Falls. I would lose the town and the earth below would be razed of all life for centuries to come, but it seemed better than the entire globe facing quite the same fate.

I recalled the barriers we had cast, which had actually managed to keep it back. I could perhaps form one strong enough to last several minutes, and large enough to encapsulate the whole town. In fact, I knew I could, but it came with one terrible side-effect.

I would have to be within the doomed town in order to keep it alight.

Like a fish in a bowl, or a firefly in a jar, I would be trapped within. But so would the Smooze, and when the flare struck it would destroy everything within the fishbowl, but hardly anything beyond. I could evacuate the town, remain within, and when Hydia released the Smooze I could teleport a tiny portion of the sun’s heat towards Dusk Falls. Because of the great distance it would take even for magic to reach the sun, it would take several minutes, enough time for me to cast the barrier around the town and encapsulate myself, Hydia, and the infernal Smooze within. Assuming I survived the Smooze long enough for the flare to strike, everything within would be destroyed, with little collateral damage towards the rest of Equestria.

It was the best solution I had. And certainly not one I would be sharing with Luna until she herself asked. She would by no means approve, even if it remained the only solution we had. Perhaps with a shield strong enough I could survive the flare anyways, although the damage our relationship would sustain if I did was in many ways equally as daunting.

Shaking my head free of thoughts that could wait for the future, I darted to my bookshelf. I found one which detailed the distance to the sun (helpful for tweaking my long-distance teleportation spell) and another which focused on protection spells and shields so that I could perhaps save myself from the blast.

And then a daunting realization crept over me.

Hydia might attempt the same thing, and save a bit of the Smooze with her magic. If she saved even a bit of it, then it would swiftly multiply as it consumed, making the sacrifice of a whole town useless. She could not be allowed to protect the Smooze the way I would protect myself, and I came to the decision that I needed to either get her on the other side of the barrier before I cast it, or else stop her from casting it altogether. The former was a preferable solution, but after what I’d seen of the thing she had created and the innocent ponies she was torturing, to say nothing of the ones she had already killed, the limits of my mercy were pushed to lengths disturbingly evocative of the battle against King Sombra. Luna and I had, quite bluntly, swept down and killed the unicorn while he tried and failed to conjure up a defense.

There was no heroism in what we did that night, nor would there be any in what I would be doing. There was only a necessary task to be carried out. Desperately, and for the sake of every living thing in Equestria, I hoped I would succeed.

ii

I did indeed get a reply from Luna without having to wait too long, although I did not receive it in the form of a letter. Instead, I received it when I decided to afford myself a brief nap after several of my guards vocally told me I looked as though I could use it. Regretfully, I agreed, telling them to wake me if there was so much as a peep of concern. Of course, even an hour later my bed was still in use, and so I had to settle on the mats before my fireplace instead.

In my dreams Luna arrived, a much faster and more efficient means of communication than the flaws the dragon-fire evidently brought about.

My dreaming mind had placed me back in my bedroom in the Everfree, the one I had left behind nine months prior. It was untouched, but then again it was not actually my bedroom to begin with. I was presented with the sensation of bursting into wakefulness, when in actuality I was simply falling into her organized dream. The moment I was acquainted with my surroundings Luna burst in without a pinprick of subtlety, the door exploding open and nearly flying off its hinges.

"Celestia, oh my goodness..." she gasped when she saw me. "What happened to you? You look like you dragged yourself through Tartarus!"

"Hello to you too, sis," I said with weak sarcasm, stumbling out of my long-vacated bed and onto my hooves. "Didn't you get my letter? Or the ones the Royal Guard sent?"

"No," she replied with a sad nod of her head. "I don't know what happened. I received nothing from them. I told you I don't trust dragon-fire."

"Well, you gave me no other choice."

"No," she said again, this time looking at her hooves in shame. "I suppose that is my fault."

"It's all fine now, Luna. So you know?"

"I read your letter," she withdrew it as proof, although it looked slightly imperfect perhaps because it was merely her mind's memory of it. "So, the Elements of Harmony, huh?"

"Do you think they..."

"No, I don't believe they will. Not against that beast," she said somberly, although she was quick to shift into filly-like curiosity. "What did it look like, Celly? Did it look like in the books?"

"Worst. Multiple layers of teeth, acidic flesh, tentacles of every size."

"And Hydia? You actually met her?!"

"Still in her alicorn form, but yes. I'm more worried about the Smooze than her."

"Indeed. What are we to do?"

I hadn't necessarily been looking forward to it, and so it was with minor dread that I told Luna of my plan. She looked on nonspeaking as I explained, occasionally asking a simple question regarding the magic I had yet to research more fully, or else offering some suggestion. When I reached the solar flare, she finally interjected with something beyond a question.

"Its weakness just had to be fire," she said under her breath. Perhaps it was the construct of the dreamscape, or simply her inability to be subtle, but I heard her clearly. "Celestia, I don't like this plan and I doubt you do to, but...I don't quite know what else to do myself. We could try the Elements, and I believe we should, but I don't think they have any chance of working."

"It's been how long since we've used them?" I asked. "A thousand years?"

"Seems like much longer. I never did like using these things. And I don't think they ever liked me."

I voicelessly agreed with a small nod. Using the Elements of Harmony was not a comforting feeling, if our one and only other use of them had been any indication. I'd been quite certain they would not work at all, and I was instead a fool to have placed our lives in some ancient stones, but by some cruel humor the unpleasant feeling of failure they brought with them was actually a prelude to success. They had an oddly sentient aura about them, and I remember getting the impression that I was only being lent their power regretfully, as if had they voice, they would be giving us an antagonizing sigh.

"But more importantly..." Luna cut into my nostalgic thoughts. For a beautiful moment, I thought my plan was actually going to be met with no resistance from her. "We need to be within the barrier for the shield to work, right?"

"I need to be, Luna. We'll receive the same result if you don't put yourself in danger."

"Don't be foolish, sister."

"Luna...if something...terrible happens to both of us...the sun and moon would..."

I trailed off. Luna tilted her head, and looked on expectantly.

"If we both fail to survive the flare...all our work to save Equestria would be for nothing if nopony is left to raise the sun and moon," I explained. "I'm not saying that it will happen...but it's a possibility that we don't need to present."

"...I don't want to let you do this, Celestia," Luna shook her head. "So don't. I approve of your plan, but I wish to help you after you've cast the magic barrier. So please wait until I'm there in order to do so. I'll set out as soon as I awake."

I knew that, despite my insistence otherwise, Luna would not be swayed from her intentions even if she had to go behind my back in order to accomplish them. Eventually, I had no other choice but to sigh and tell her that I would.

"Just...please stay out of sight in Pink Sunset until the time comes. If Dusk Falls' cult sees both of us here, I'm sure they'll release the Smooze instantly," I said. "We'll evacuate the town and then finish this once and for all. Together."

"Fine," Luna sighed. "What about the...ah...others? You mentioned Hydia claimed she was not alone?"

"I don't know what she meant," I said, looking to my hooves. "What do you know of Sombra's third—"

"Sombra's Third Mirror?!" Luna exclaimed. In her excitement, she accidentally knocked over a bottle of perfume balanced atop a rococo vanity. "It's real?"

"Ah, so you're acquainted," I said. It was troubling to know further how much more prepared I could have been if Luna was not only now reinserting herself into the affairs of Dusk Falls. "Yes, Sombra's Mirror. I used it to find where Hydia has been...ah, birthing the Smooze."

"Using a small portion, I presume," Luna nodded her head vigorously. "Naturally it would reroute to the last place it had been used to access if it hadn't enough magical energy to do otherwise."

I stared at her blankly. With a roll of her eyes, she elaborated.

"Smaller shards, naturally, possess less power. The Mirror itself can be twisted as a means of simple teleportation both within our realm and beyond. The small shard you have could teleport a pony anywhere in Equestria easily. A larger shard can open a gateway to...anything, really. Any place, perhaps even any time."

"Hydia's 'others,'" I breathed.

"Remember our talk about fairy tale horrors being more than fairy tale horrors?" Luna recalled. "The Boogey Mare is consistent, Celly. And now we know why."

"Okay. So the Smooze is perhaps a...Plan A?"

"Perhaps," Luna echoed. Even the mere presence of the possibility was enough for us to both be concerned. "Celly, we need to find that Mirror. And then we need to destroy it."

"We would have to damn near tear Dusk Falls apart just to do so," I somberly said. To my surprise, Luna looked up from her sad gaze at her hooves with what, oddly, looked like a smile indicating some wild idea.

"Perhaps somepony else will do the honors," she grinned devilishly. "If we proceed with your plan, then once Dusk Falls is torn apart three things will remain; me, my ever-so-reliant sister, and the Mirror."

While I wished to merely nod and grin at her innocent gibe, the rest of her sentence carried no reassurance that allowed me to do so.

"If the fires of the sun itself will not destroy the Mirror, then how can we hope to?"

"Like this," Luna picked up a chair and promptly hurled it at one of my bedroom's expensive crystal mirrors. It shattered, and just before I yelled at Luna I realized this was not my bedroom at all and really Luna had simply destroyed my mind's vision of it.

"At the end of the day, it's a mirror, Celestia," she said. "Once we peel away all the enchantments protecting it, we destroy it, and then destroy the pieces, and then scatter them into the deepest depths of the sea."

"Whatever you say." I looked down at the shattered bits of my vanity mirror, wondering if it would seriously be that easy. "I hope you're right about this, Luna."

Luna shrugged. "Statistically, I have been."

"Oh, quiet you." I joked. She didn't laugh and neither did I, and we both fell silent for several seconds, until I broke the silence once again.

"I've missed you these past few months, Luna."

"I'm sorry I...stopped writing you," her gaze fell. "I've been a terrible sister."

"You're not terrible," I replied. "We're just both not very good. Between the both of us, it equates to terrible."

She let out a quick laugh, although it sounded more like a snort, and deliberately distracted herself by picking up the broken mirror shards in her magic and dissolving them from the dream entirely. Then, she looked back up at me, no joy nor urgency in her gaze, but instead a pleading expression.

"You will wait for me before you erect the barrier?"

"I will." I nodded.

"Do you promise?" Luna asked, prodding another bottle of perfume on my vanity. It was a childish thing to say and she knew it, but somehow the power of the words between troubled sisters carried through beyond any other conflict.

"I promise, Luna. We'll do this together."

iii

When I awoke, the first thing I was aware of was the sound of movement in the direction of my bedroom. Knowing very well who it was, I stumbled to my hooves in an instant, flinging my blanket about, where it would have landed in my fireplace if my magic had not flared and thrown it in another direction. I nearly had the urge to gallop into the bedroom, but instead I pushed the door open gently and lit a candle with my magic.

Dune Shores was looking at the gradually opening door with wide eyes, looking absolutely terrified, but the moment I pushed the door open further to reveal who I was his fear turned to amazement and confusion.

"Hello!" I greeted with a welcoming tone and warm smile. "You're finally awake! How are you feeling, Dune?"

"Princess Celestia!" he gasped.

"The one and only," I said, and gave a playful, exaggerated bow. The young colt giggled at my lively theatrics and sat up straight, rubbing the last bit of sleep from his eyes and grinning wearily. "Do you want anything, Dune Shores? Water, food, something to read?"

"You know my name?" his eyes lit up in amazement, the rest of my sentences vanishing in his surprise.

"Yes, I do," I said. I knew better than to mention how Morning Glory had told me so much about him and why, especially when I was in no position to guarantee her safety. She was most likely in the crystal room, being freed by the guards, but I did not know for sure. Besides, the young colt had no further questions about how I knew his name, he just seemed contented at the mere idea.

That was not to say that he was not alight with a dozen questions which he wasted no further time barraging me with.

"Was I the real Princess Celestia? Did I actually raise the sun every day? Had I actually moved to Dusk Falls like everypony had said?"

I chuckled, and with a subtle raise of my hoof he fell quiet and watched me with silent intrigue.

"Dune, I've asked you twice now..." I spoke, kindly and firmly, indicating that despite my good spirits I still wished for answers. "Are you quite alright? I do not know how much you remember, but you have endured a great deal."

"I'm...a little hungry," he confessed. "And my wings hurt a bit."

I'd been suspecting as much. The crystal would have been slowly eating away at his pegasus magic, but it would seem it had been done in small increments, undoubtedly due to a longer goal being intended. The thought of this poor colts life being virtually stolen away from him caused me to visibly grimace in disgust, and unfortunately he too saw it. I cleared my throat and promptly turned to leave. I still had no food in my cupboards, and so I instead trotted outside to find a guard who was not busy to relay my instructions.

When I returned, Dune Shores had already risen from bed and was standing on the cold hardwood floor, inspecting the various affairs I had decorated my room with. He looked rather surprised by how ordinary it all was, whatever grandiose visions his curious young mind had conjured of the home Equestria's diarch, it appeared as though those visions had been subverted. He guiltily whipped around when I entered once more, eyes wide in shock as if I had caught him in the act of stealing from a candy store.

"I've sent for some food, it should be here soon." I assured him. My calm demeanor broke his fear immediately and his tensed stance relaxed. "I'm going to be honest with you, Dune, because I believe you deserve it after all you've been through. Once you've finished eating, I think its best that you go with one of my guards to Canterville. Dusk Falls simply isn't a safe place anymore."

There was a small convey heading out before dawn broke, and my best chance to get him to safety was with them. When his food arrived (hay-fries and a milkshake, which I nearly scolded the guard for) I sent him off in one of the large chariots with my warmest smile and plenty of blankets for the cold ride back.

The convey would later arrive at a point far from Dusk Falls with no notable events and with every single pony accounted for.

Once more, I twisted my relaxed thoughts to pressing matters once I no longer had any thing to distract me from doing so. My hasty research into barrier magic revealed that the best way to keep a long-lasting one active would be to use the same type of crystals that we had used to power the tear. Their strong magical properties made them ideal objects for the practice, and it was by no freak of nature that King Sombra had been obsessed with them. The basic principle was that the town was to be surrounded by several of the crystals, and they would then act as a node of sorts to allow my magic to be situated perfectly across the circumference of the shield. They would keep the magic contained so that I did not need to keep casting it after the initial charge, but I would still have to be in the center of them for the spell to work, meaning I still had to find some other way to survive the solar flare. Swiftly, I ordered the crystals to be erected, taking care to note the urgency that the guards could not be seen placing them. I could not risk Hydia nor any of the cultists seeing what I was planning.

The main and obvious downside was that with the crystals in one concrete place, I would have no way of altering the size and placement of the barrier, and so I had to place great focus in where they were placed. I decided the barrier encapsulating a large portion of the ocean would be the priority, with also enough of the town to allow the Smooze to flow inland. Roughly, the magic barrier would cover a total of sixty square kilometers. With the guards set on their task, all there was left to do was wait.

I truly think Luna had done something to shift the normal cycle of day and night when she rose and lowered my sun, because that night seemed to last for an absurdly long length of time. Eventually I grew tired of simply waiting for things to be done, and I decided there was one more question I would like to have answered before Dusk Falls was reduced to ash. I took off into the early morning darkness, first in the direction of Indigo’s small bungalow but with another direction in mind.

“Princess Celestia...” she murmured, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. Suddenly, as if her freshly awakened mind had just stumbled on another thought, she perked up. “Ah! Princess! What happened to you?”

It took me a moment to realize she was speaking about my damaged mane and imperfect horn already starting to heal. The abrasions on my side had healed with speed only alicorn flesh could have achieved, but the other signs of injury were indeed still looming if only as daunting shadows of their former selves.

I had ordered the perimeter of Pink Sunset and by extension the mirror shard to be kept clear of all ponies who were not part of the Royal Guard. I’d completely forgotten Indigo no longer qualified as such.

“I met the Smooze,” I said. “It didn’t go well.”

“No kidding. Are you alright?”

“Fine now, thank you. Would you like to go for a walk with me?” I asked, and gave an enigmatic smile. “To the Mayor’s house?”

“I know that look,” Indigo said, grinning. “Of course I do, I wouldn’t miss it for all the cheese in Prance.”

“Do you still have your armour?” I next asked.

“Yeah. It’s a felony for me to wear it in public now though—”

“The Captain who fired you is dead, Indigo. Until another is appointed, my word is final. And I’m telling you to go put it on, understood?”

She swiftly nodded when she saw that I was not looking to be questioned, and backed into her bungalow to put it on. I detailed what had happened to us as we walked. She listened intently, not asking any questions and keeping her reactions hidden well. In nine months, the sweet, sensitive little pegasus was as stoic as any other guard, but the only difference was she had no reason to be anymore. I realized for the first time how much guilt she was carrying about what had happened to Deepsy and Morning Glory, and it dawned on me how little I had done to help over the months since it had happened.

When I had finished recounting the tale of our excursion, her response was a reflection of the somberness I myself felt.

“So, what are we going to do?”

“I’m going to evacuate the town. Then, I’m going to seal it off and hopefully burn it all with a solar flare.”

If she had been versed enough in magic to know that it wasn’t as easy as I made it sound, she did not say anything regarding it. Instead, she asked a much more daunting question.

“And if that doesn’t work?”

I didn’t respond, although my silence spoke what words had no need to.

Before we trotted up the steps towards Kleos’ mansion, I addressed Indigo once again in a grave tone of voice, bending down slightly so that I could meet her eyes exactly.

“I’m not sure what’s going to happen in there, but I think it would be best if you remained out here.”

She blinked, most likely wondering why I had brought her if I’d intended to go alone, but any objections she’d had were not expressed.

“Okay,” she shrugged. “Good luck, Princess Celestia.”

I made my way up the small number of steps in one stride and knocked on the large door without hesitation. I’d imagined most ponies would probably have been still asleep, and so it was with mild surprise to me that he answered the door after less than a minute. He looked drowsy, but greeted me respectfully with a bow anyways.

“Your Majesty! H...hello!” he said, undoubtedly wondering why in the name of sanity I was bothering him so early in the morning but being too afraid to say so.

“Good morning, Mayor. I apologize for waking you,” As determined as I was for answers, I was not above common courtesy. “I simply want to ask you something.”

He nodded eagerly.

“And I wish for answers. Honest ones,” I dropped my smile and fueled my glare with the anger that I still carried since I had awoken from the excursion. “Not the lies you’ve been spewing to this town, to my sister, and to myself.”

Not surprisingly, he feigned surprise, which I was quick to vocally denounce.

“Please, don’t play stupid,” I said. “Now, if we can proceed...you’ve been Mayor this town for how many years?”

“Th...thirteen…” he said. I carefully noted the uncertainty in his voice, as if it were a question he had been called out on for answering incorrectly sometime in the past.

“And over those years, you’ve noticed nothing in the vein of cultists and conspiracies?” I asked acidly. Before he even had the chance to answer, I made a response to the statement I knew he would have made. “And think very carefully about your response, because I’ve had a trying week and I’m not willing to contend with your lies, understood, Sombra?”

He blinked in complete bewilderment.

“W...what did you just call me?”

I hadn’t even intended to say it. It had simply slipped off my tongue and into my frustrated speech, even if it was something I most certainly would never have said aloud.

“More and more like Luna,” my thoughts echoed, a patronizing and taunting chant. I guiltily drove it back, feeling sickened that I considered being like Luna to be an insult. I truly didn’t, but her quick, presumptuous thoughts and volatile anger were indeed something that was not to be desired.

“Perhaps you should come in,” Kleos eventually said, opening the door wide.

Several minutes of strange silence too foreboding to be called awkward passed, and soon I was sitting directly across the wide table from Kleos, who was in the process of waging war with the cork on a bottle of wine. I sat in silence, simply watching as he struggled to remove it. I very well could have helped, but instead I took pleasure in watching with an expressionless glare.

The cork popped off, and Kleos lifted the bottle into the air with his magic triumphantly, before grinning and taking a swig directly from it. I blinked in surprise, noticing for the first time that he’d brought out a wine glass for himself but not one for me. It was as if during the short distance it had taken to reach his porch he had twisted into a completely exaggerated, twisted parody of his former self.

Even sitting across the table from a potential cultist leader, I’d expected the laws of courtesy and etiquette to reign. Were I alone at Pink Sunset, I would have allowed myself a chuckle at my own foolishness.

Kleos had downed a quarter of the bottle of wine before he had even set it down. I didn’t know whether to feel disgusted or impressed. Instead, I narrowed my eyes and said nothing. The bottle was slammed down onto the table with a loud thud and Kleos lazily wiped his mouth with a hoof.

“Can I ask you a question, Princess?”

“Yes,” I said in a voice that was a reflection of the stoic and emotionless visage I had assumed upon first meeting him.

“Do you regret coming to Dusk Falls?”

“No. I’m glad I did. Who knows how many more ponies would have died if I hadn’t.”

“Yes, you are so righteous, Celestia. So efficient at doing away with evil.”

“Only my friends call me Celestia. I’d like to be called Princess, if you’d please.”

“Especially by you, you murderous swine,” I was inches away from saying out loud.

“I’ll call you whatever the hell I want,” Kleos took a swig from his wine and grinned. I glared back, expression unchanging.

“If that’s the case, then I suppose you’ll be fine if I call you what you are? That is, a pathetic puppet to an evil you can’t possibly comprehend?” As my confrontational tone intensified, I had a vivid recollection of this same conversation I had interrupted months earlier. Would Luna have proceeded to call him Sombra, as I had?

It would seem she had, at another point I had not thus known about, judging from the next thing Kleos said.

“Oh wow. So you really are as batty as your sister, huh? The pony who thinks I’m a unicorn whose been dead for a hundred years?” Kleos let out a haughty, patronizing laugh, and my lips curled into a frown.

“You’re damn right I do,” I said, cutting his laugh short with words like steel. “You’ve been ruling over Dusk Falls for decades. The Mayor has been the same pony, hasn’t it?”

“Are you listening to yourself, Princess? Have you any idea how silly you sound?”

“You either found the mirror shard yourself, or somepony else did,” I proceeded as if I had not heard him. “And a weak Hydia acquainted herself with the closest pony she could find who possessed any sort of authority. You.”

“Alright, pretending your little fairy-tale theory is right, how exactly could I be the same—”

“Because of Hydia,” I cut in. I wrenched the winebottle away from him with my grasp, daintily wiping the end with a napkin and then pouring some in a wineglass I conjured up in my magic.

“She’s been using the life-force of ponies for the Smooze,” I continued. “I’m sure she could spare a little to keep your sorry self alive a few years longer to carry out her goal. And why wouldn’t you continue helping her if it meant immortality? Sacrifice a few dozen ponies a decade, and live for thirty years more. Meanwhile, she’s leeching the rest of the power until she’s strong enough to start killing minotaurs and unicorns and changelings, and you’re too stupid to realize it.”

This time, he was without a snappy response. In fact, I thought I saw traces of fear masterfully disguised.

“Coupled with the promise of some chunk of her Equestria, you were motivated enough—and were in the perfect position—to create a corrupt little suburban hell. A few tourists a year go missing, your cultist residents sweep it under the rug, and nopony even notices. Meanwhile, a witch with considerable power is constructing something that will bring about universal destruction, and you’re sitting there brooding over your own pathetic selfishness.”

I knew that I’d hit the head of the nail precisely, and yet Kleos responded with another one of his infuriatingly calm smiles. But I’d seen it all before. Sometimes even nobles tried it with me. It can really be surprising how much of an upper hand you can get on somepony simply by annoying them and making them incredibly irritated. Kleos wanted me to despise him, and fury and hatred more often than not only leads to clouded judgement and poor decisions. If what Luna had attempted were any indication, any rash decisions on my part might not have decent repercussions. We were still in the same predicament we were before.

As if reading my thoughts, Kleos echoed my sentiment.

“Well, assuming I actually was what you say...I’m not, obviously, but assuming so...what is it you are going to do about it?”

“Don’t test my patience. I promise that with you, it has all but vanished. That’s not a safe place to be standing.”

“That’s not an answer, Celestia,” Kleos pursued, his words eerily evocative of the same ones I had uttered earlier. Behind him the hallway was suddenly plunged into darkness as a torch flickered out. The unicorn rose from his chair, downed the remainder of the red wine, and placed the empty bottle on the table with another slam.

“If I can help it, I’ll spare you, and the rest of the poor ponies you’ve duped into helping you. But if it comes to it...I will end you.”

“You’ll end me?” he chortled. “Are you really too prudish to even be able to threaten me properly?!”

For the first time, I was momentarily left without a response. And then, after a pause of only several seconds, I chuckled and also rose to my feet. Kleos met my glare straight on, without so much as flinching. Instead, he grinned again and spoke;

“Yes, I too find threatening ponies is a lot more effective when you’re not sitting on your fat flank—”

His sentence was abruptly cut off as the bottle and wineglass on the table both exploded. I hadn’t even had to flow any extra magic into my horn, it simply happened as my repressed anger bubbled through my narrowing eyes. A bit of red wine had shot up and stained my white coat, but it was the least of my concerns as I advanced towards Kleos.

At first, the unicorn looked amused by my sudden hostile turn, but genuine surprise instantly flooded his expression as I pushed him against the wall with magic and kept him pinned there with my telekinesis. I then shifted it's focus around his throat, not nearly enough to cut off his flow of air, but definitely enough to prove that I indeed was not going to be sitting on my flank and taking his insults and jibes.

“Listen to me very carefully, Kleos. Not only are you in league with a threat to Equestria, and one I aim to eradicate as soon as I can, but you have the blood of my friends on your hooves. You’ve killed ponies that I liked. Innocent ponies, who have done you no harm. So don’t think me being lenient on killing you is any act of cowardice.”

“It’s a blessing,” I said, releasing him from my grip with a careless push. He fell back against a tall cabinet full of expensive looking silverware, and within I heard a few porcelain dishes shift and shatter. “You don’t deserve an inkling of the mercy I’m giving you. Don’t give me any more reason to withhold it.”

I turned around, leaving Kleos lying in a pile of broken glass and porcelain, wine coating the ceiling and floors and white walls. I imagined his maid would have some questions in the morning, and couldn’t wait for the answers he’d have to invent.

"I know it's you." I thought, and then said it aloud without turning around. “I know its you, Kleos."

“Then why haven’t you done anything yet?” Even after my little presentation, his words still came as taunts.

“Because I can't prove it. And because there are still ponies who need my help. You want a bloodbath, and I don’t. Not in this town. Not where you or Hydia can still harm innocent ponies.” I said, still facing the dark hallway instead of the pony I was addressing

“You’re wrong, Celestia. I don’t want a bloodbath. I want power. And authority.”

“Do you honestly think she would have given it to you? Are you that naive?”

“No. I simply think Equestria could do with a bit of change.”

“And that is why you’re absolutely pathetic.” I said, starting down the dark hall.

“You should’ve let your sister kill me,” Kleos called after me. It was a gross exaggeration of what Luna would have done, but I did not necessarily protest.

“Yes. I should have,” I agreed, and left without another word.

Comments

[Rune Soldier Dan]

Should've pumped him for more information... or done the dirty deed. Hydia has already implicated the mayor, so it'll be surprising if Celestia doesn't arrange for his arrest. Can't afford loose ends running amok at this stage of the game.

At any rate: A plan! A hope! Reconciliation with Luna! And fast-closing time for imminent violence.

[ChaosDX1]

a small part of my mind says that the Nightmare has already taken Luna, and there is no witch. Luna would have gotten the idea of Hilda from the stories Celestia read to her.

The only strong evidence I have to the contrary is that the conspiracy is a century old. I don't think Luna has been quite so distant nor patient for that long.

[PrincessNyx]

By translating Duskfalorizonication, I got that duskfalorizonication=сумерки=dusk.