Dissonance: A Hidden World

by Braininthejar

Nightmare Night Bonus Chapter: The Horror

A thousand years earlier...

With a soft pop, the royal sisters appeared in the night sky. There was no flash of light that usually accompanied Celestia’s magic; she purposefully suppressed all the unnecessary effects to hide her presence until it was the time to reveal herself in a suitably impressive fashion.

The alicorn spread her wings, expending a little magic to stay suspended in the air, the Crystal Empire spreading underneath her. The instant she did, she felt something was wrong. Her supernatural senses screamed a cacophony of warnings. The air was filled with alarm spells, their invisible threads forming a complex net around the city. The princess instinctively concealed her aura, hoping that whoever had left it there hadn’t already noticed they had uninvited guests.

“What’s going on?” asked Luna, hanging in the air at Celestia’s side. “Light had said that he succeeded. There shouldn’t be anypony left here to maintain this level of defenses…” She paused, looking down at the city. “What the…”

Celestia followed her sister’s gaze, and her eyes widened in surprise. She had missed it at the first moment, the city being lost in complete darkness, but as her eyes adjusted, she could pick up that something was wrong with how it looked. There were too many angles, too many pointy ends. The central tower had far more spires than Celestia knew it should, a threatening, jagged outline against the night sky.

The two alicorns started to descend, their horns glowing briefly as they enveloped themselves in mantles of protective spells. Going lower they could see the reason behind the city’s altered appearance; a layer of jagged, black crystal was growing all over the place, covering the buildings like a cancerous growth.

Luna’s ear swiveled, catching a noise from below. She turned and saw a line of earth ponies walking slowly between the houses. They picked their way between the buildings in complete darkness, noses to the ground, as if they were following a trail of scent. Luna’s eyes, perfected for use in the dark, could pick the glossy sheen on their coats, a clear indication that they were natives. Instinctively, she reached towards them with her magical senses and gasped in shock.

“These ponies are barely conscious,” she hissed. “There is hardly anything but fear in their minds… I think they are being compelled. They shouldn’t be able to move at all.” She landed on the nearest roof, careful not to slide off the uneven surface, and closed her eyes. Celestia recognised the expression of concentration on her face, and landed beside Luna, ready to defend her from any attack, all the while working her own magic.

Ten seconds later, Luna’s eyes snapped open. She breathed slowly, calming herself down. “There are sleepers here,” she said in a strained whisper, “but nopony dreams. It’s like they’re unconscious. And there are so few of them… There should be twice as many…”

Celestia was crouching down. She looked up at Luna, concern in her eyes. “These black crystals aren’t real. They are a magical construct. It’s like a single spell overgrowing the whole city. There shouldn’t be anypony but us left alive with access to such magic.” She rose and looked towards the ominous silhouette of the central tower. “We need to find out who is behind this… and what he did to Lightbringer.”

“Assuming he doesn’t find us first,” said Luna through her teeth. "If there are any more security spells woven into the crystals, we have probably been found by now.”

As if on cue, the crystal roof under her hooves erupted with phantasmal, purple flames. Two orange and green eyes stared at the Moon Princess from beneath the surface. The alicorn leapt into the air, her horn glowing bright silver as multiple layers of protective spells came alive around her. A second later the crystal roof erupted with spikes, a spire following Luna upwards until it grew into a sizable tower. Low, guttural laughter echoed around the two princesses. The glowing eyes disappeared from the roof and reappeared on the wall of the tower facing the alicorns.

“Who are you!? What have you done here!?” shouted Celestia, her own defensive spells illuminating the night with a bright, golden halo.

The response was more laughter. Then, gradually, a shape emerged from the crystal wall. An armoured, black unicorn stallion covered with a regal cape walked right out of the wall, wisps of purple smoke forming around his hooves as he stepped through the air. Celestia and Luna backed off a bit, watching the stallion warily. Even if they couldn’t taste his aura, it would be obvious that he was no normal pony; his horn was smooth and curved, a weapon made for gouging rather than a tool for wielding magic, his eyes - unpony things with snake-like slits. He smiled, a wide grin showing off sharp fangs. “Oh, come on,” he said in a low growl. “Don’t you recognize me… sister?”

Celestia’s eyes widened in surprise. “Light?” she stammered, the outermost of her defensive spells starting to unravel. “What has happened to you? When we saw the city, we were fearing the worst.”

The stallion stomped his hoof on thin air. Instantly, a horizontal layer of crystal erupted from the wall, providing him with footing. He looked at Celestia, then down at the dark city below. “The worst?” he chuckled. “Worse than me? You thought something here could threaten me? This was the easiest task I ever got. The guards only knew how to parade with their weapons. Do you know they jousted for fun here? No real war for thousands of years. They were so oblivious of their surroundings, the first couple pegasi that wanted to get out just flew outside the sphere and froze to death.”

Luna scowled. “This is not what she's asking about. What’s happened to your body? And what is this crystal construct spell? We both know you can’t do magic, unless…” She hesitated, her explanation trailing off into awkward silence.

Lightbringer looked down onto his armoured chest as if he had seen his body for the first time. “Oh, you mean this? Why, this is something I really wanted to share with you.” He looked at Luna with a smile. “After I removed the Crystal Heart, it turned out the whole city is a giant aura focus. The Heart only regulated the flow. Once I got rid of it, and it could no longer get in the way, the power started flowing into me. All the feelings of the Crystal Empire turned into pure energy. All the fear these pathetic, sheltered fools felt at my sight only granted me more power. And guess what? I’ve been healed.” He beamed at the two alicorns. “My pattern has been suppressed, and now the madness is gone. The power inside me no longer rages out of control. It is a part of me now, melded into me, all at my command. I have been… perfected.”

Luna and Celestia looked at each other nervously. “And the crystals?” asked the Sun princess, waving her hoof around.

“Oh, that?” asked Lightbringer. “Once I purged the archive records as you asked, and killed the scholars, there were some attempts to oppose me. They were laughable of course, the locals are inept at all kinds of conflict, but I couldn’t let them get away with it. The first thing I came up with was to get rid of all the wizards, but I couldn’t just keep killing my subjects forever. So I came up with this.” He stomped his hoof for emphasis. “The spell keeps constant watch over the ponies of the Empire, making sure they don’t get out of line. And since it’s fueled by their fear, it’s pretty much self-sustaining…”

“Wait a moment…” interrupted Luna. “Killing ‘your subjects?' I’ve looked around the city. There are only half the ponies there should be in a place of this size. And I don’t remember feeling any unicorn or a pegasus…”

“Light…” asked Celestia with a frown, “You were only supposed to play a tyrant… How many Empire citizens did you kill?”

Now it was the stallion’s turn to frown. “I was supposed to play a tyrant, so you could ‘liberate’ the Empire from my rule. There is no longer need for that. Every single pony here is under my control. And as for killing, about half of them. And so what? How many ponies did you kill before making your ‘perfect’ Equestria? You had a thousand years for trial and error under Libra's rule. I only had weeks. And I already have a perfect solution. I think I’ve done better than you had.”

“A perfect solution?” asked Luna raising her eyebrow. How is this a ‘perfect solution?’”

Lightbringer smiled again. “Look at this.” He tensed for a moment, a wisp of dark blue dancing on the tip of his horn. In response, the crystal wall behind him lit up, burning orange and green eyes opening on its surface. As she instinctively moved away, Luna saw another flash of orange in the corner of her eye. She turned her head to see many, many more. The whole city was burning with dots of orange light, like a bizarre upside-down image of a night sky.

“You see,” explained Lightbringer. “These crystals, they are me. Nothing within the Crystal Empire escapes my notice. There are no rebels here, no schemes to overthrow me. Your Equestria may seem like a perfect solution, but there are still creatures who remember the past. All it takes is for one of them to realize what you really are. All it takes is for some old dragon to decide he no longer wants to play along, or for some unicorn wizard to learn too much and stumble upon Obsidian, and your ‘perfect’ order will start falling apart like a house of cards. But this…”

His horn flashed again. No, not flashed, Luna decided. The power that erupted from the stallion’s horn shed no light - it was a burst of darkness, bubbling and frothing like a foul, boiling liquid. A split second passed and another burst of blackness appeared; a surprised crystal pony mare was dropped out of thin air onto the ledge.

“Thanks to the power they provide me with, I can control their every action, every thought,” said Lightbringer. As he started speaking, the crystal mare turned around and saw him. Flinching away with a yelp, she stopped at the very edge of the platform. Celestia’s horn flashed as she tried to catch the panicked pony, but a burst from Light’s horn pushed her spell away.

“Stop,” he growled. The crystal mare froze in place, her eyes widening in terror as she met his gaze. Now that Celestia could get a good look at the unfortunate pony, she clearly saw the signs of severe mistreatment; the light blue coat faded from crystalline and sparkly to a dull glossy sheen, the flat mane and bags under eyes, eyes now widened in an expression Celestia had so far only seen in ponies about to die a violent death.

“Now I don’t have to hide who I am, what I am,” continued Lightbringer, walking up to the crystal pony until his nose was almost touching her neck. “It doesn’t matter what they think about me, because at the end of the day, I will be the one to decide what they think. Isn’t it so?”

The mare shook, thick beads of sweat appearing on her fur. Slowly, her jaw unclenched, until she spoke in a harsh whisper, “Yes… master.”

Lightbringer flashed his sisters a wide grin. “See? No need for secrets or conspiracies. No resistance movements to worry about. Everypony is a pawn to move as like. None of those ridiculous problems you struggled with while building your ‘perfect’ world.”

“Like this!?” shouted Celestia, stomping her hoof, a disc of light appearing underneath her to support her weight, her wings no longer flapping but now flared in anger. “This is what you call your perfect solution? A lifetime of mind-numbing terror for everypony but you?”

“This is even worse than that thing Libra tried,” said Luna, landing next to the other princess.

“She had the right idea,” said Light.

“She drove them crazy, unfit to live on their own,” snarled Luna.

Lightbringer turned towards her, and his grin grew even wider. “But you see, this is the whole difference. They are never on their own here. Libra lacked the magic to control all her ponies at once, but here their fear makes me stronger than that. I’m always with them, each of them, every waking moment of their lives.“ He nuzzled the crystal pony’s neck, licking off a single bead of sweat. “In time, they will come to love me with all their hearts, and then the suffering will stop… won’t you, my crystal slave?”

The mare only shook more, her eyes staring forward with frantic intensity. Celestia heard a dripping sound and her nose caught the smell of urine.

Lightbringer’s grin disappeared. Slowly he shook his head from side to side. Then, he leaned closer to the crystal pony’s ear, his horn briefly growing dark blue before fading to boiling black.

“I command you to love me.”

Instantly the shaking stopped. The crystal pony kept staring forward, but her eyes changed, the whites turning vivid green while the irises became bright orange. Then she smiled, slowly, wider and wider, until her expression became a horrible, rictus grin. Her eyes rolled back and Celestia’s enhanced senses caught a smell of blood - there were now small rivulets of red within the beads of sweat on the mare’s coat. The pony’s mouth opened in a strained croak. “I… love… youu… masster…”

“ENOUGH!” Celestia’s voice reverberated across the night sky. With a flash of her horn the crystal pony was snatched off the platform and into the air.

There was a flash of dark blue flame and the mare turned to dust in Celestia’s telekinetic grip, the dark fire consuming her flesh and bone before the Sun princess could register what was happening. The flame returned to Lightbringer’s horn, illuminating his livid face.

“Don’t. Touch. My. Slaves. They. Are. MINE! You hear me!?”

Both alicorns stepped back, their defensive spells reactivated, the two horns burning bright gold and silver.

Celestia was the first to speak. “Lightbringer, snap out of it! I don’t know what this place has done to you, but it has poisoned your mind! We need to…”

“Help me?” asked Lightbringer, his burning anger suddenly replaced with calm curiosity.

The Sun princess hesitated. ”Of course, we do. I have never seen you like this…”

“So, you want the old Lightbringer back,” smiled the stallion. “You prefer Hate, destroyer of Portus.”

Luna gasped. Celestia clenched her jaw, the glimmer of hope in her eyes instantly extinguished. “It wasn’t your fault, Light. It was Discord’s. He was the one who provoked you into rage…”

The stallion sneered. “Yea. I only lost control, again, and turned ablaze the whole city. Thirty thousand ponies, stallion, mare and foal, killed in a single night. It’s still my personal record. A gift I was given out of pity, turned to ash, once again proving that I’m not good at anything but killing.”

“Hey, that’s not fair,” interrupted Luna. “Each of us who wanted a city, got one. You were treated just like everypony else.”

“So fortunate then, that my city didn’t contain anything really important?” growled Lightbringer. “A river port of little value, inflated into a city by the ponies you herded into it from the surrounding lands. No labs for Eve to work in, no heavy industry except your stinking chimneys, no military bases. Nothing but lives was lost when I killed everypony. Some safe haven it was.”

“That’s not true…” said Celestia, but the force she had spoken with was now lost from her voice.

The crystals around Lightbringer darkened and started growing, the thin layer expanding into a spiky terrace as the unicorn walked forward.
“Always the one to screw up, always the destroyer, the killer, a monster among monsters you pretend not to be. A ‘little brother’ you can pity and a force of rage and murder you can unleash on your enemies. And now, when I’ve finally succeeded at something, when I’m finally in control… YOU CAN’T BEAR IT!”

Celestia suppressed the urge to step back. Taking a deep breath, she spoke again. “Light. Please. Calm. Down...”

The unicorn stopped and the crystals ceased growing. He closed his eyes and for a moment just stood there breathing deeply, wisps of blue magic dancing lazily on the edges of his eyelids. Then, before Celestia could think of what to say next, he spoke. “No, not light. Darkness.”

“What?” asked Celestia, momentarily confused.

“King Sombra, ‘King Shadow,' this is the name you chose for me. A monster of darkness existing just so your light could shine all the brighter. That was the plan, wasn’t it? That is why you chose to invade MY Empire at night; to reveal yourself at dawn, to bring light and hope as you free MY slaves, take away MY power and banish ME into darkness, an evil force never to be mentioned again. You are the ‘light bringer’ now… you couldn’t even let me keep my sad excuse of a name…”

Celestia opened her mouth to speak, but realised it would be a futile effort. Shadows gathered around her brother like living creatures, his magic power spiking to levels she had never seen in a single creature. His eyes blazed bright orange, two balefires among thick blackness. Celestia’s aetheral mane was whipped around by a wind suddenly picking up from a gentle breeze to a roaring hurricane. He’s completely lost it, she heard Luna’s panicked voice in her mind before the unicorn spoke again.

“SO, YOU WANT TO BE A CHAMPION OF LIGHT AND HOPE?! A VANQUISHER OF EVIL!? BY ALL MEANS… SHOW ME WHAT YOU’VE GOT!”

Celestia gathered her magic, preparing to shoot a spell through the thick darkness. Sombra was faster, not bothering with a proper spell. What he unleashed instead was a roar of primal rage, a blast of pure destructive force that shattered the improvised tower and slammed into Celestia’s defenses, sending the Sun princess flying like a bullet.

Celestia was hurtling like a meteor through the night sky. The magic binding her body had prevented her brain from turning liquid from the sudden acceleration, but for a moment everything was movement and pain. She vaguely registered a wall of white approaching fast.

Up!

In a flash, the Sun princess teleported. The spell didn’t stop her momentum, but it turned her body around - now she was flying upwards, away from the glacier face she had almost collided with. Finally slowing down, she spread her wings to stop her ascent. Below, something was approaching fast. Lightbringer, or King Sombra as he called himself now, was flying towards her, wings of solid darkness spreading from his sides, an inky black ring spreading in the air in his wake where he broke the sound barrier.

Celestia charged her horn; it glowed blazing gold before unleashing a scorching beam of light. Sombra folded one wing and fell sideways, the spell passing by him and leaving a burning trail on the ground far below. The princess corrected her aim, but the unicorn dodged again, falling in a snaking path, faster and faster.

Then he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

What?

Sombra appeared right above Celestia, his iron-shod front hooves slamming into her barrier. The shield barely holding, the alicorn was sent flying down. She had no time to teleport this time. The glacier cracked in half as she struck it like a bullet, piercing several metres through solid ice before coming to a stop.

The shield popped like a soap bubble. Ignoring the pain of her landing, Celestia focused her magic to teleport again. She landed in the open, snow-covered field, just in time to see another roar hit the place where she had been a moment before, breaking the huge ice blocks apart until the glacier turned into a formless heap. Crouching low as the shock wave rolled over her, the princess focused her power inside her body. A dislocated knee popped back into its proper position.

Celestia restored her protections, and scanned her surroundings. Everything was covered in a cloud of ice dust, but she had no illusions that it would hide her for long. True enough, a second later a long spear of black crystal flew her way. The princess ducked aside and barely managed to deflect the projectile. It embedded itself half way in the ground. Then it started growing, crystal spikes erupting from the ground around Celestia. She took to the sky and rose into clear air - if Sombra knew where she was, she could as well stop hiding and get a clear view.

There he was, hanging in the air, surrounded by swirling darkness. Once again the wind started blowing with hurricane strength, pushing Celestia back as it cleared the ice dust away. “Is that all you can do, sister!? Run and hide!?” he shouted, the magic magnifying his voice to be audible above the wind.

Celestia fired another beam of light, but the unicorn teleported away, fading in and out of existence as the spell tried in vain to hit him. More crystal javelins shot from the cloud around him. Rather than block, Celestia followed her opponent’s example, dodging away with short distance teleports.

Then one of the javelins struck her from behind, penetrating the shields and piercing her right wing. Suppressing a scream of pain, Celestia looked behind her - only to discover that none of the javelins had flown away. They were hanging in the air behind her, forming a rough half sphere. The princess tried to teleport away, only for the shard in her wing to spark with dark magic - the spell fizzled out and the alicorn started falling, unable to support herself in the air with just one wing.

She landed awkwardly, folding her injured wing just enough so she could grab the crystal with her teeth and pull it out. She shut down a part of her nerves to block the searing pain it caused - the javelin seemed to turn red hot when she started struggling with it. Seeing a movement in the corner of her eye, she prepared to dodge. The other crystals fell towards Celestia, but rather than hit her, they embedded themselves in the ground, forming a circle around her. She instantly felt the spell forming between them; a dimensional barrier meant to prevent her from teleporting out.

“Are you having fun playing the hero?” asked Sombra, emerging in a dark cloud from one of the crystals.

“This is not a game!” shouted Celestia, launching a bolt of light at the circle, hoping to disrupt it. Sombra blocked her spell with one of his own, a blast of magic blossoming into a shield of darkness that swallowed the shot. The crystals started growing, splitting and extending into a spiky wall.

“Oh, it isn’t?” asked Sombra with a sneer.”That’s just as well. Because I’m done playing with you.”

He charged forward and Celestia stepped back, bracing herself as she focused her magic. A brilliant blast of golden light struck the approaching unicorn right in the chest plate of his armour. Sombra made no attempt to block or dodge it. The beam split upon hitting its target, thin rays shooting out in all directions.

There was no other effect. Not even a scorch mark on the armor.

“I’ll let you in on a secret,” said Sombra as he slowed down to a leisurely pace, still approaching his target. “You may have missed it in your arrogance, but I’m stronger than you.” Without warning he teleported right next to Celestia, bucking her in the side with his hind legs. She was sent flying like a ragdoll, colliding with the crystal wall, the last of her shields dissolving on impact. Though her pain was blocked, her mind still registered the fact of her ribs snapping. She fell off the wall, shattered pieces of crystal embedded in her fur. Sombra appeared next to her again, grabbing her wing with his teeth and throwing her back to the middle of the circle. Celestia tried to roll back to her hooves and focus some magic, but another kick sent her back onto the ground.

“I’m stronger than any of you,” continued Sombra, stomping on her good wing. A cloud of snow and dust erupted as the appendage was forced several inches into the ground, bending at an unnatural angle. “Stronger than Libra. Stronger than Magic.” He didn’t raise his voice anymore, just speaking in a low growl, but each sentence was punctuated with another hit, another bone breaking. “And you know what?” The unicorn stopped right in front of Celestia, picking up her face with a strand of darkness so that he could look her straight in the eyes. “I don’t think I need you anymore. As long as I have my crystal slaves, I can maintain the air and heat within the Empire. I don’t need the Sun to raise. I don’t need anypony else.”

“What?” That was all Celestia could squeeze out of her damaged lungs, her eyes widening as she started to understand.

“I can’t have you running around, disrupting my rule,” explained Sombra. “The Elements kept trying to seal you, but we both know it never lasts. I think I have a more permanent solution. To return from the dead, you need to possess a body. But I can deny you my slaves. I just need to kill everypony else and you will have no way to come back.”

“You... wouldn’t…” croaked the princess, trying to fight the blood coming up her throat into her mouth.

The unicorn dropped her head, allowing her to slump on the ground. “I wouldn’t? Why? Am I not the monster? The darkness? Am I not... Hate?”

A couple seconds of silence followed. Celestia expected Sombra to start screaming at her again. But when she finally looked up, she saw him standing still as a statue, a mix of horror and fury upon his face. He wasn’t looking at the alicorn at his feet, instead staring into the distance at something only he could see. “No…” he growled “You miserable little thief…” He took into the air, wings of darkness forming at his sides. Celestia was beginning to think she was forgotten entirely, when a black crystal spike descended at her from the air, breaking her spine, and pinning her to the ground.

Sombra disappeared, and for a moment there was nothing but the howling wind. Celestia tried to move, but only her front legs responded, and both of them were broken. She tried to use magic, only to have it fizzle out in a shower of sparks; the cursed spike was disrupting her power. For a moment she considered dying, but rejected the idea. There was no body stronger than this one for her to use. If she let it go, she would forfeit the little chance she still had.

If magic can’t do anything, perhaps pattern will.

As she shifted her focus, the princess felt her surroundings in a different way. She knew she couldn’t affect the crystal directly - even if it wasn’t full of magic, it was not real matter. But there was some matter there she could use. Closing her eyes, she focused on the ground underneath her. Slowly, the earth moved, pushing out the crystal point. Celestia found herself lifted slightly off the ground. The ground underneath her became red with blood, but the spike itself barely budged.

Won’t work like this… I need to try the other way…

She began by focusing her will inside her body. The blood vessels around the spike shrank, cutting off the blood flow. Small secondary hearts inflated and started beating, taking over the pumping of re-routed blood.

I must thank Eve for that when I see her. This is really the best body I’ve ever had…

Then Celestia braced herself, for what it was worth in her current state, and focused downward again. The earth moved like a sucking mouth, pulling the crystal spike in. It made a wet, squelching noise as it moved down through Celestia’s torso, the hard surface grinding against the dislocated vertebrae. Finally, with a soft pop, the horrid projectile got pulled through, disappearing underground.

Now I need to get up.

Celestia returned to using magic, her horn glowing as she focused the spell inside her body. The supernaturally durable structure had its price; the bones and muscles could take blows that would fell a dragon, but they took time to repair. She didn’t have time. What the spell did instead was put everything where it belonged; with a sickening crunch, the broken spine set itself, nerve connections pulled into their proper places. The barrel inflated as all the ribs returned to their intended positions. The limbs straightened and the wounds closed, the magic forcing the blood to stay in the ruptured veins.

The princess wasn’t healed, far from it. If anything, she was now reduced to a puppet made of meat, her spell forcing her body to work for as long as she could sustain it. But for now, that had to be enough. She got up and scanned her surroundings, thinking of what to do next.

It was only then she noticed the raging wind above her. She was too preoccupied to notice earlier and the spiky wall had shielded her from the worst of it, but during the minute it had taken her to free herself, the wind had picked up to a hurricane. As Celestia started thinking whether to try to fly over the edge of the barrier or better to burrow underground, her dilemma disappeared before she could solve it.

With a sound like breaking glass, the crystal barrier shattered into nothingness. Suddenly Celestia found herself struggling against the powerful blizzard. Conjuring a small barrier to protect herself, she looked at the now uncovered landscape. The wind was blowing through the whole plain, but it’s obvious center was the Crystal Empire. Looking in that direction, Celestia instantly noticed that the barrier around the city had dissolved. The central tower was a blazing pillar of blue flame, illuminating everything for miles around, even despite the swirling snow. Celestia could see the city change as the black crystals shattered and disappeared, their magic absorbed back towards the tower.

What’s going on?

The pillar grew brighter, Celestia’s magical senses blinded by the released power. Only her eyes, designed to serve a self-proclaimed Sun Princess, allowed her to keep observing the phenomenon. The light kept growing brighter, until it looked like the tower was consumed in a pillar of lightning. Then, suddenly the light disappeared, and with it, the entire city. Celestia was caught off guard and barely stopped herself from being pulled off her hooves as the direction of the wind was changed by a powerful implosion. Where a huge city once stood, only a giant pillar of swirling snow remained now.

You’re alive!

The voice sounded in Celestia’s head just as Princess Luna appeared next to her. The Moon Princess was covered in deep cuts and her coat bore signs of nasty burns. She kept speaking using only her mind, saving the mouth for breathing.

I tried to disconnect him. He left me behind when I didn’t get up after the first blast. But the spell holds too fast. I tried to destroy the tower, but he found me before I could finish.

What happened to the city? asked Celestia.

As if to answer her, another blast of wind came from the spot where the Empire had stood, blowing the swirling snow and dust away. For a moment the air was clear, and the night silent, the two dots of angry orange far in the distance the only disruption in the sudden deathly calm.

The sisters didn’t need to communicate this time. Two combat barriers sprung into existence at the exact same second. A blot of darkness erupted in the air in front of them as Sombra crossed the distance with a teleport jump.

He was still unharmed, but his mane was disheveled and his eyes wild. He was grinning madly, his oversized fangs glistening in the moonlight.

“There…” he growled. “No more sneaking. No more trying to steal MY empire from me. You can’t get to it now. Now I can kill you, then everypony else… you will never be a threat again.”

Celestia chanced a look at Luna. The Moon princes was preparing to fight. Celestia started thinking of how they could do anything to Sombra, when suddenly it hit her. He was still stronger than either of them, but the feeling of overwhelming power was gone. Whatever the unicorn had done must have drained much of his reserves. Thanks to his insanity, they now had a chance.

Smirking to herself, Celestia extended the reach of her pattern. The effect slid along the ground, affecting the snowflakes in its wake, a transmutation thin as a hair and spreading at incredible speed. The ice crystals shifted and aligned, creating a giant, mirror-like surface.

Luna already knew that strategy. She strained, but her horn didn’t glow. Instead the air around her turned ablaze, blinding arcs of lightning snaking through the air. For a second the night became brighter than day.

A blast of magic lashed towards the two alicorns, but they weren’t there anymore. Celestia recognised the spell - the black flame Lightbringer projected whenever the monster inside him took over.

I was right. He is blinded, and too angry to use his magic to find us. He’s not used to sensing with magic...

Sombra was still in the same spot, the lightning storm Luna had conjured dancing around his protective barriers. He was roaring, squeezing his eyes shut.

Celestia saw her own barrier light up. Suddenly, the mirror surface was gone, the swirling snow turned into a haze of steam. Instinctively the princess held her breath. Her protection stopped the worst of the attack, but the air inside her bubble would still burn her lungs if she inhaled it.

We need a plan to break through his defenses, she heard Luna’s thoughts inside her head.

Celestia’s mind searched through centuries of memories. Remember Scarrag?

A brief ‘nod’ registered in her mind. Celestia turned her barrier into a cone, the next blast of black flame splitting on its tip, engulfing and devouring everything around her, the earth turning into glass-like slag from the heat. Celestia moved away with a short teleport before the flames could go out. She had to stay away from anything that was on fire.

Now, help me, she projected towards Luna, as she focused her pattern, the power spreading wide around her. Instantly she felt another power helping her, accelerating the process. The steam filling the air was simultaneously subjected to Luna’s lightning control abilities and Celestia’s command of matter. The Sun princess pushed her powers to the limit, spreading the effect as far as she could, the gas yielding to her command, falling apart into its base components. Suddenly the air became clear. For a moment Sombra could see both his enemies perfectly. He was about to burn them both, when he realized the alicorns were in the process of teleporting away. Sombra tried to follow suit, but he was a split second too late. Everything disappeared in a giant, blue fireball.

Luna was the first to return to battle. Rising high above the devastated battlefield, she spotted her target. Lightning rained from the clear night sky. A second later, Celestia returned too. Sombra had summoned a new barrier to protect himself and was now launching bolts of black fire into the sky. The Sun princess reached towards the air around the unicorn’s bubble and commanded its components to rearrange. She couldn’t reach past the defences, but she didn’t need to. The barrier stopped heat, impact and magic, but was not airtight. A moment later, Sombra found himself breathing acid.

Any second now...

And there he was, teleporting into close combat. Celestia dodged the first, frenzied blow and retaliated, conjuring blazing blades at the tips of her front hooves. Sombra backed off and breathed black fire, but Celestia’s barrier spell split the flame before it could eat through it. Then Luna charged in from the side. Sombra saw her charge and dropped a few feet, using her own speed to slice her open with his horn; she phased through it like a ghost. Sombra turned and shifted his shields just in time to stop the real Luna, as she tried to ram a lightning-charged horn into his side.

A tendril of shadow shot from Sombra’s body, catching Luna by surprise and piercing her shield. It snaked and split into several points, which stabbed through the Moon princess’ torso. Celestia charged in and swung her fire blades downwards, cutting the tendril off just as it was about to burst into black flame. Luna fell away, struggling to get rid of the points embedded into her.

Sombra turned to lash out at Celestia in turn. She dodged out of the way of his hooves, letting the momentum carry him past her, exposing his side. Then his wing slashed at her, the darkness solidifying into a curved blade. Sparks flew as the Sun princess barely blocked the blow by shrinking her barrier to focus it on her forehooves. She was pushed back by the impact.

It’s imbued with that black flame of his. My reconstruction matrix can’t replace missing parts. If he burns through me…

Her train of thought was disrupted as Sombra roared again. The blast sent Celestia flying down. She barely had the time to shield herself as she struck the ice. It took her a second to free herself and another to recover her senses. She was back at the glacier, some distance from her previous point of impact, having struck it at an angle. Fortunately Sombra’s blast got to it a split second before her; Hitting loose blocks of ice wasn’t nearly as bad as hitting a solid wall would have been. She leapt up from the hole between ice blocks and onto the top of the pile, her eyes scanning the sky.

There he is!

King Sombra was diving down to finish Celestia off, his dark aura billowing behind him like an oversized cloak. Arcs of black magic erupted from his body in all directions; he wouldn’t let her teleport away this time. His mouth opened wide, a point of deepest black growing between his pointy teeth.

Just a bit closer…

Celestia began charging a spell, her horn glowing brighter and brighter. She released her attack a moment before Sombra would, a ball of light flying in his direction before exploding into a blinding flash.

The unicorn barely squinted. After all that had been thrown at him, he was more than ready for such an attack. He stopped to release his own spell, one that would finally destroy the Sun princess.

He barely registered as Luna fell past him, a hair-thin line of blindingly bright lightning extending from her horn. He paused in surprise as his fire spell fizzled out harmlessly. Then, with horrible slowness, his head slid off his shoulders.

***

Luna landed gracefully, flying slightly aside as the headless, armoured body crashed to the ground next to her. She looked up at the crumbled glacier towards her sister. “Are you okay?”

Celestia flew down to meet her. She was smirking, but her whole body was tense and she had reflexively restored her shields. “It worked,” she said.

“Yes,” answered Luna. “I wasn’t sure, until he got fooled by my illusion. He’s used to using his momentum sense during battle, but with his pattern suppressed, it was gone and he was new to using magic. I could fool him. Now, let’s hope he will be back to his senses when…”

A black crystal spike shot from the ground, impaling through her wing. In an instant, the dead body beside her disintegrated into inky blackness. The ground shook, and a loud growl sounded around the two alicorns.

“FOOOLS! I… AM… BEYOND FLESH!”

Celestia blasted the crystal, freeing Luna for the moment, but more and more spikes started shooting from the ground around them. The Shadows swirled and coalesced, a giant angry face forming among them.

Not able to fly off at the moment, Luna lashed with her lightning around herself, shattering all the spikes that tried to trap her. “He’s just like Discord!” she shouted to her sister.

Celestia was already in the air, shooting golden beams of light at the approaching shadows. She had to stay on the move to avoid the tendrils trying to grab her. “He’s weakening!” she shouted back. “We need to keep pressing him!” She shot a beam straight at the face, but the shadow slid out of the way, like a bubble of oil flowing on water.

Just then a shadow tendril slid past Luna’s defences, grazing her foreleg. She rolled aside and finally took to the air, her magic having reconstructed her damaged wing. She gazed down at the leg and saw pieces of crystal growing around the wound. Pieces that started to expand, growing up her leg and quickly forming a hardening, spiky shell.

“Get this off me!” screamed Luna, flailing frantically. Celestia tried to cast a spell against the crystals, but found herself too preoccupied, dodging Sombra’s attacks while trying to aim.

Those tendrils are much weaker. Perhaps I don’t need to aim at all…

Her aura expanded in a ball of golden light, shadow pushed back by its presence. The cast on Luna’s leg shattered and disappeared, and the cloud of darkness that now constituted Sombra’s body, though largely unhurt, was forced back.

Luna wasted no time, focusing the power in her horn before charging right in, using the opening that her sister’s spell had given her. She stabbed through the mass of shadows and kept going forward, until the tip of her horn struck ice, the darkness wrapping around her.

Celestia watched in confusion as lines of silver light shot out of the mass, piercing through the shadow and wrapping themselves around the surrounding ice blocks, tracing arcane sigils through their surface. The Sun princess’ eyes widened as she recognised the symbols.

“What are you doing!?” she screamed in fear.

The ice blocks started shifting, the magic pulling the sigils together into a multi-layered pattern of glowing silver. Sombra gave an inarticulate roar of blind fury.

“We’re on our last legs and he won’t die!” shouted Luna, struggling against the shadow that started wrapping tighter around her. “We won’t make it! We have to seal him!” She screamed as the tendrils hardened into claws, raking against her protections and cutting into flesh. “Help me!”

Celestia kept staring in horror. “There has to be another way…”

“NOW!” screamed Luna, struggling to maintain the spell as shards of black crystal erupted from her body. Dark magic arced around her wings and back and already she was beginning to falter.

Celestia closed her eyes and her aura expanded once again, enveloping the Moon princess and pushing the curse off her body before it could penetrate too deep. The shadows pulled back; they kept struggling against the light, but the magical construct started sucking them in. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as the three combatants focused solely on the struggle. There was no strategy anymore, just pushing until the enemy gave in, the giant ice blocks piling higher and higher and the darkness shrinking bit by bit.

Finally, with the final scream of defiance turning into a short gasp, the fanged muzzle of Sombra disappeared under the pile. The ice had formed a solid wall, as if the glacier face had never been shattered; only a careful observation would reveal silvery lines marking the multiple layers of the binding spell. The wind died down and a terrible silence fell. Drawing a breath, Celestia realised that both her and Luna had been screaming through the whole experience.

***
Princess Luna stepped back from the glacier on shaky legs. Her body was torn and bruised, only staying upright thanks to the spell forcing its correct shape. Her blue coat was covered in scorch marks where the black flames licked it and more from Celestia’s not too subtle rescue when the crystals threatened to envelop her. Even though her neural system was partially disconnected, she still felt a burning sensation where the tendrils had raked her, their touch as damaging to the spirit as it was to the body. She closed her eyes and took a slow, deep breath, casting a spell that started the slow reconstruction of her body.

It was only then she realised how silent it was. Turning around, she found Celestia slumped on her haunches, her eyes staring forward without focus.

“Hey, are you alright?” she asked, walking closer to the white alicorn. Celestia turned her face towards her, but her eyes didn’t seem to see Luna.

“We sealed him,” she whispered. “He was right. We… I made him a monster. Just like they made us…”

Luna put a hoof on her shoulder, and shook her slightly. “Hey, Celestia, relax. Come on, we’ll get him out of it when we figure out the way to help him.”

Celestia did not rise. All the energy and bravado she had shown during the battle was gone, the horror of what had happened coming to her all at once as the adrenaline rush of the fight passed.

“How?” she asked feebly. “How do you fix it? I made him into… this… All those ponies… the Empire…”

“They aren’t gone for good,” growled Luna. “We just have to figure out where he sent them.”

“Out of our reach,” sighed the Sun princess, her voice breaking. “I only wanted to get them out of that dome… to show them the world I made… but I sent a monster to kill them all…”

“You didn’t know that would happen,” said Luna in a calm, but stern voice. She expected Celestia to keep arguing, but the white alicorn fell silent, just staring towards Sombra’s glacial tomb with empty eyes.

Luna looked down on her, and shook her again. There was no reaction. “Hey, Celestia… Gloria, snap out of it! Get up!” she pleaded, a trace of panic in her voice. As she looked around frantically, trying to find something, anything that could help her, her gaze fell upon the moon in the sky. It was close to setting, just waiting for a nudge in the right direction to leave the sky and make the place for the Sun. It must have been hanging there for some time already.

How long did the battle last?

Luna pulled at Celestia’s head with her telekinesis, pointing her face towards the night sky. “Sis, we are late with the sun and moon. Your loyal subjects are waiting for the new day to rise. Come on, help me, ok? I’m too tired to do it by myself.” She nudged her a couple more times, before finally giving a deep sigh and turning towards the moon. She closed her eyes, and her horn glowed with soft, silver light. She felt a touch of magic coming from the sky as the moon reacted to her nudge. Luna’s face tensed with effort. The moon would not resist her push, but it would only move if prodded strongly enough.

Luna’s ear turned, catching a sound of movement beside her. Princess Celestia had finally stood up and walked up to her, her horn glowing a soft gold light. The Moon Princess felt a second power added to her own. Sighing with relief, she closed her eyes again and let the spell flow through her. Slowly, the moon started to fall towards the horizon, making place for the sun to rise. A single beam of moonlight reached back and touched Luna’s horn.

What?

Luna’s eyes snapped open. There was a beam of moonlight attached to her forehead, a line of magic getting more solid by the second. The moon had never done this before. Startled, Luna turned to look at Celestia. The Sun Princess was still concentrating on the spell, but her face was no longer focused and serene. Instead, she was staring at Luna with burning intensity. Her horn turned from gold to blinding white and the beam of moonlight attached to Luna snaked around her body, solidifying into a silver chain reaching all the way to the sky. Celestia flashed Luna a triumphant grin.

“That’s for my friends, you monster.”

Luna’s eyes widened in surprise, her face becoming an image of panic as she struggled fruitlessly against magical bonds. The voice was the same, but not the pony. That could only mean one thing.

“Aurora!” gasped Luna, a moment before her body lost physical substance and disappeared, a point of silver light flying at impossible speed towards the setting moon.

***

Aurora broke her focus, and relaxed. She turned towards the glacier wall and examined the wards. “That’s four down and two to go,” she said to herself. She then turned towards the east. The sun was rising, its nature pushing it to take the sky vacated by the Moon. The alicorn allowed the first rays of sunlight to touch her muzzle. It was so good to be free again.
Now, finally she could fight back.

She focused her mind, listening for a familiar call. It had to be there somewhere… She extended her senses, squeezing the last bits of magic from her tired body... and there it was, far in the distance, waiting for her, a gemstone that was so much more than a mere gem, a link she had to her fallen comrades. Now she just needed to…

The alicorn was surprised to find herself with her snout in the snow. Blinking, she tried to get up, but her limbs wouldn’t listen. She tried to push herself up using her right front leg and found it bending at an unnatural angle. Then she saw blood. A spot of deep red was quickly growing underneath her body. Bizarrely, she still didn’t feel any pain. But no matter how she struggled, all she achieved was smear more blood over the ground.

No, no, no, this cannot end like this…

She tried to cast a healing spell, hoping to at least stop the bleeding, but there was no more magic her body could draw upon. Not without her focus. Her vision swam and her head slumped onto the ground. She hazily realized that she no longer felt the cold, and worse, she could no longer find the strength to even be scared by the fact.

The last thing her mind registered was the sound of approaching hooves and an all too familiar voice.

“Oh my… goodness… This wasn’t supposed to… hap...pen. Not at all…”

***

Princess Luna flew across the night sky. Part of her mind had the time to understand just what had happened. Aurora must have freed herself in Gloria’s moment of weakness and she used Luna’s connection to the moon to create a sealing spell.

The rest was preoccupied with the sensation of flying faster than should have been possible, the landscape below rushing past in a matter of seconds before the silver chain pulled her into the night sky. There were clouds, then there were stars, then a surreal void between worlds, filled with too many wonders to count or name. Luna felt a rising tension of being pulled into a place that rejected her, as alien to her nature as her soul was to the bodies she inhabited. And still the chain pulled her further, deeper and deeper beyond the reality she knew.

Then she saw it, her destination growing in front of her until it filled her entire world. The Moon.

When viewed from Equestria, it had been a silver disc, pockmarked with meteor craters, a familiar sight unchanging through centuries. Up close…

There were no rocks, no craters. The surface moved and shifted, a patchwork of faces, flat muzzles and white, pupil-less eyes. The creature… the goddess moved through the sky along an invisible route, a sound of hooves echoing where there were no limbs to make it, silvery manes spreading around her in an immaterial halo. All of Luna’s thoughts were lost in a mix of awe and panic, as she made the last, futile effort to struggle free. She fell towards the surface, screaming all the way as one of the mouths opened soundlessly to swallow her whole.

Author's Note:

So, here is the promised Halloween chapter

As always, comments are very welcome.