Equine Fall

by ModMCdl

Sunset

---
"How am I supposed to believe that there’s a heaven and a hell when all I see now is hell?"
-Aaron B. Powell
---
Sunset
Twilight's Palace

The light of the setting sun washed over Equestria for the first time in many years. The castle halls were once again alive. Aides and scholars rushed about, but none of them got in the way of Nurse Golden Hoof. She weaved her way through the crowd of ponies, her destination just ahead. To her left, a maid almost tripped trying to light once of the wall sconces as darkness began to flood the hallway. At her destination, she pushed open the doors to the sanctum and stepped inside.

Countless books lay sprawled open across the large table in the center of the room. The archmages of Equestria were fruitlessly flipping through tome after tome of magic, only to turn up with nothing. Or, Nurse Golden Hoof assumed that. In all honesty, she didn't have the faintest clue as to what the unicorns were doing.

Princess Twilight Sparkle sat at her chair at the head of the table, flipping through a book of her own, albeit a bit more slowly. Whatever it was, it must have been more interesting than what the others were flipping through. Either that, or she was just not as panicked as the rest of them.

"Uh, Princess Twilight, your highness," Golden Hoof said, bowing. "I think there is something you should come and see..." the nurse trailed off as Twilight raised a single hoof, silencing her. "Your highness?"

"Nurse Golden Hoof," the lavender alicorn began, raising her head to look her in the eyes. "I would like to apologize for my treatment of you, and the rest of the medical staff here over the past few weeks. You see, I haven't quite been myself lately, and I'm deeply sorry for any distress I have caused you." Twilight smiled softly, her face showing that her words were true, and she very much regretted what she had done.

Golden Hoof nodded quickly. "That's all well and good, your highness, and I of course forgive you, but you must come quickly." The nurse turned, and beckoned the alicorn to follow her.

Twilight blinked at the immediate return to her frantic state. "It's only the end of the world, why is everypony going mad?" she mumbled before following the nurse out of the room. It was a far longer journey through the halls back to the infirmary than Twilight ever remembered it to be, probably due to the commotion in the halls. After going for so long without the darkness of night, there were quite a few preparations to be done. However, the two eventually wove their way through the commotion and made it to the medical wing of the castle.

Golden Hoof quickly closed the door behind the pair, and the noise in the corridor was shut off, leaving the two ponies in the silence of the medical ward. "That's much better," sighed the nurse as she leaned against the door. "I don't much care for the the hubbub that's currently happening."

Twilight nodded with a look of understanding. "The world can get pretty hectic at times, I suppose. Now, what was so urgent down here that it required my immediate attention"?

With no more hesitation, Golden Hoof left the support of the giant oak door, and continued down the hallway. "It's Princess Luna, your majesty," she said, the mention of the princess immediately capturing Twilight's attention. "She's no longer in a coma."

"Oh my gosh!" said Twilight, refraining herself from hopping up and down on all fours. "She's awake? And she's okay?"

The nurse paused at the door to Luna's room before looking back up at the lavender alicorn with a look on her face that Twilight could only describe as uncertain. "Well, she's still unconscious, but ever since the announcement, her vitals have risen to the point where it's almost like she's just sleeping." With that, she opened the door, and beckoned for Twilight to step inside. The alicorn promptly obliged.

Luna lay on her bed just as she had for the past month, her face calm and her breathing steady. Another nurse stood beside the bed, scratching down the readings from the various thaumaturgical devices onto her clipboard. Twilight approached the other side of the bed, sitting up on the tiled floor so she was eye level with the dormant princess. "How is she?" she asked.

The nurse in the room with her smiled with an optimistic grin. "She's definitely doing much better. We're almost certain she'll wake up soon, and with little permanent damage," she replied. "Don't worry, Princess Twilight. Alicorns are tough. It takes a lot to drag them down."

Twilight chuckled at the comment. "Believe me, I know." Noting the nurses wings, she thought back to the time she shared with Dash in Elysium. "You pegasi are pretty sturdy as well."

The nurse smiled kindly at the comment. "I'm all done here, so I'll leave you to be." With that comment, she left the room, leaving Twilight alone with the sleeping Luna.

With a sigh, Twilight stood and crossed the room to look out the window as the last rays of the setting sun finally slipped below the horizon. The sky was a beautiful shade of dark purple, the last shade before the night's comforting blanket of blackness.

"Crepuscularity," came a raspy voice behind her.

Twilight spun around quickly, only to find Luna looking at her with the eyes of somepony waking up from a long nap. "Luna..." she breathed, relief evident in her voice.

"Crepuscularity," Luna repeated, her voice a little clearer. "It's referring to the time of day. It means Twilight."

The lavender alicorn smiled as she sat back down next to the bed. "I know what it means, Luna."

Somepony had already taken the time to light a candle in this room, so that they weren't shrouded in complete darkness. The two ponies took a moment to just look at each other. Neither had seen each other in such a long time, and they had not been able to enjoy each other's company much with all of the chaos occuring in the second plane.

A single tear rolled down Twilight's cheek as she nuzzled into Luna's side. "I missed you so much," she mumbled into the navy fur. "Equestria feels so empty without you and Celestia. When the war was over, I was lost. I- I didn't know what to do." A comforting hoof weakly draped itself across Twilight's shoulders as she softly cried. "And then, I found you again... and then... I didn't t-think you would m- make it..." Twilight trailed off as more tears came.

"Hush now, Twilight," Luna said softly. "You no longer need face this crisis alone. You have me, you have Rainbow. We will help you."

The two ponies stayed there unmoving for a few moments, Twilight crying softly while Luna did her best to comfort her. It was eventually Twilight who spoke again. "I'm just so tired," the lavender alicorn admitted, wiping the tears from her eyes as she pulled her muzzle out from Luna's side. "So very tired of working so hard to come up with the answer, and then finding no solution. I haven't slept in days, and when I do sleep, I do a horrible job of... that..." She shook her head. "My life is turning into hell. Somehow, I find it hard to accept that it wasn't that already." Both her and Luna shared a weak chuckle at the dark humor.

"I am the princess of dreams, my dear Twilight," Luna said softly. "I can aid your attempts at slumber now." The lavender pony at her side was already dozing off. The reassurance that the lunar princess was going to be alright was akin to a massive weight being lifted from the young princess' shoulders.

With little argument, Twilight clumsily climbed into the bed next to Luna, and curled up against her soft fur as Luna lit her horn and magically lulled her to sleep. As she began to snore softly, Luna gently extended a wing over her, and used her magic to press the call nurse button by her bed.

Golden Hoof responded almost immediately, a look of pleasant surprise overtaking her face at seeing Princess Luna awake. Luna hushed her quickly, motioning to the sleeping princess at her side. "Go and inform Rainbow Dash that I am awake, and Twilight is with me," she whispered. Golden nodded and quietly slipped back outside.

Luna turned to look back down at the sleeping Twilight Sparkle beside her. "Rest now, Twilight. There is a long journey ahead of us."

---

When Twilight woke up, she was very disoriented. She did not recall much from before she fell asleep, aside from Nurse Golden Hoof bringing her down to see Luna. And then, Luna woke up... Luna woke up!

Twilight blearily opened her eyes, the candle lit room coming into focus around her. She was laying in a hospital bed, the same room that Luna was in. However a quick scan of her surroundings revealed that the princess was no longer here. All of the monitoring equipment for her health was missing from the room, replaced by a single cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane.

"Rainbow?" Twilight called out to her dozing marefriend.

The pegasus stirred, and opened up her eyes. "Twi!" she said, brightening up as soon as she saw the purple alicorn. "You're finally awake!" She leaned in, crushing the alicorn in a hug. "Luna said you might be out for a while, but I didn't know how long that would be!"

Detaching herself from the pegasus's death grip, Twilight rubbed her muzzle, trying to get the last bits of sleep out of her. "And how long was it, exactly?"

There was a brief pause before Dash answered. "Oh, about seventeen hours or so." That woke Twilight up.

"Seventeen hours!" she cried, throwing the blankets off. "I've got to check in with the mages, see if anything has turned up." She hopped out of bed and headed for the door.

Rainbow chased after her. "Woah, Twi! Calm down for a second, will ya'?"

"No time Dash!" Twilight said. "Walk and talk. What happened while I was asleep?"

Dash shrugged as the took off into the air, hovering alongside Twilight. "I dunno. As soon as I got the the medical ward, Luna left. She told me to tell you that the 'coming of night' or whatever gave her a whole ton of strength, and that she would go and talk to some ponies about magic stuff."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Very specific, Rainbow. Thanks." The pegasus stuck her tongue out at her as she followed Twilight through the castle. "Real mature, too." Twilight couldn't help but smile. It was good to have a little bit of the old days back in her life.

Before long, the two were back at the meeting room, Twilight pushing open the doors and stepping inside. Rainbow closely followed. Inside the room were the archmages of course, but new to the scene was Princess Luna, sitting where Twilight normally sat, a pile of books beside her.

"Twilight!" Luna called out upon seeing the alicorn enter the room. "You've awoken at last I see!"

The lavender alicorn smiled. "No thanks to your sleeping magic," she replied with a smile.

Luna laughed lightly. "It was a well-deserved rest. It looks as though the nap did you wonders." Twilight could only nod in thanks. "While you were resting," the night princess continued. "I discussed our current predicament with your archmages. They offer their sincerest apologies at their previous ignorance."

The elder scholar from before stood from his seat at the table and cleared his throat. "It was not our direct intention to discredit you, your highness," he said. "We apologize profusely for not trusting you."

Twilight nodded at the act. "I forgive you, archmage. It is good that you are questioning me, rather than just following blindly," she said. "But I would suggest looking into all evidence on a topic, rather than casting it aside as outrageous." Nodding, the archmage sat back down.

The alicorn turned back to Luna. "So what should our next course of action be?" she asked, taking a seat at the table across from her.

Luna sighed, leaning forward in her seat. "Considering the fact that power over the celestial order has been returned to the control of the plane itself, I fear we do not have much time to take action," she said grimly. "Soon, this world will begin to collapse as well." She pointed to the window. "My power and my strength have greatly improved with the coming the night, however, as I mentioned to the mages earlier, my connection to the magic plane has been completely lost."

Twilight furrowed her brow. Now that Luna mentioned it, her magic wasn't working. She looked at the princess, her eyes growing wide with panic. "My magic-"

"You magic is lost, Twilight," Luna interrupted. "Hopefully temporarily. We need to give time for the arcane auras to pool in this plane. The first plane may well have been destroyed, and if so, the second is soon to follow. The raw magic will need a place to go, and it will most likely begin to collect in this plane," she explained. "But when it does, that is the sign that our world has begun to decay."

Everypony in the room was silent. It was Rainbow who finally spoke up. "So what's our best bet?"

Twilight nodded, looking at Luna. "Yeah, what should we do?"

"We must traverse to the next plane," the princess replied. "Our best bet is to outrun it. From there, we can then move on to the fifth, and the final plane. The plane of Revelation, the residence of the gods."

"You are going to just... abandon this world?" one of the mages asked. "You're going to go on without us, and leave us here to be consumed into oblivion?"

Luna looked at him, her eyes hardened. "Endless night has already set upon this world. There is no way to reverse it. In a few days time, all of your crops will have died. The temperatures will have dropped significantly, and the weather of the frozen north will sweep down to consume the rest of Equestria in the days after that." Nopony dared to interrupt her. "And even before those things occur, darkness brings out the fear in ponies. This world is already lost."

The weight of her words set upon the room in a heavy silence.

"I guess that's that, then," said Twilight solemnly.

Luna nodded. "We must travel to the fourth plane, the human world."

Rainbow looked between the two of them, confused. "But how? Twilight used the mirror to travel there, but it was destroyed with her castle."

Twilight looked up at her. "You forget, Dash. There is another way to that world." The pegasus looked at her, cocking an ear as she tried to think about what other ways a pony could get there.

It was Luna who finished what Twilight couldn't bring herself to say, "The original mirror still remains, Rainbow Dash. We must travel to the Ruins of the Crystal Empire."

Author's Note:

Surprise.

Figured I'd push through and at least get this out there, it was almost done anyways.

No, TwiLuna will not be shipped in this TwiDash fic. I'm just under the general impression that ponies are always this cuddly with their close friends, and everyone needs a good shoulder -er... tummy to cry on sometimes.

Comments

[Quantum Logic]

This is definitely an interesting story, can't wait to see the end. Also with the long time between when it started and now improvements in your writing are very clear. The first few chapters have a lot of errors and now there aren't really any.