Umbrae Nova

by Mr Unidentified

Ascension

Author's Note:

Ablaze, and yet tame.
Fading like a candle's flame.
Even so, all will burn.

Keep... moving!

Charred Corinthian Columns stood tall to the ceiling, a violet unicorn limps across the ceramic tile floor. Dry panting echoed off the walls, its appearance cracked and washed in color. The stained glass windows in the throne room were fragmented beyond recognition, and revealed a rusty sky;

Twilight could only assume through her swimming mind that the atmosphere was consistently getting warmer, slowly killing the planet should it continue to increase.

Just... keep moving!

Tendrils of pain licked her lower body of what was akin to cold coals searing her abdomen with each trudging step. She had to wipe sweat from her brow multiple times during her agonizingly slow canter, further accentuating her physical exertion. There were cuts and scrapes all over her body. Her right forehoof especially was weak and pressuring it with weight was agonizing to maintain.

There's no time to lose. Just. Keep. Moving!

Adrenaline kept her moving forward. The unrelenting drive to see her former mentor and to find out what happened protected her mental well-being. Combined with the desperation of the situation, Twilight had one intense motivator to keep going.

The throne room was noticeably vacant. No Guards, no Servants, no Princesses. Her heart painfully throbbed, hot coals seared the bottom of her lungs.

Nopony but a battered, fledgling Unicorn.

She didn’t know what to make out of this. Trying to think logically in a situation such as this would only achieve insane delusions, nausea wracking her stomach. It was impossible to materialize a rational hypothesis to this madness.

She trudged across the damaged hallways, stopping just short of the grand staircases that lead to the single throne of Celestia. Just behind that was the doorway leading towards Celestia's bed chambers. There were black splotches of explosive residue painting the central handles of the door, permanently damaging the door with burns. Celestia seemed to have relinquished any and all aspects of restraint and control with her magical abilities.

Twilight wasn’t sure she should still be calling her Celestia at this point. Whatever was happening to Equestria, this was something that her mentor would never allow to happen. This was something else entirely.

But as insane as it sounded, she couldn’t blame Celestia entirely. It was too much; Nopony could remain sane after what had happened.

Not even alicorn Princesses.

---

The day arrived just as Celestia had predicted it. And yet, she could still hardly believe it.

Celestia had one-thousand years to prepare for this day, and she had not been idle. She knew the Elements of Harmony would be the only line of defense that she had against the corrupt nature of Nightmare Moon, thus she leaned heavily into that advantage.

Planning, calculating, hypothesizing, predicting, analyzing, experimenting, meditating; all of the preparation in the world could not hinder one simple truth that Celestia was reluctant to accept:

She was still afraid. And in her situation, who wouldn’t be?

More than anything, all that Celestia wanted was to be reunited with her younger sister; to be ruling alongside each other as Diarchs rather than a sole ruler.

Peace of mind, one that could only be achieved when Luna returns to her former self.

Many moons before this fateful day, Celestia steeled herself assuredly that her plan was just and good. That it would end the right way. And she would finally see her sister again—her true sister.

The plan of action for freeing Luna would be heavily reliant on not only the elements but also her prized pupil. She knew that Twilight would be erudite and proactive enough in her studies to learn the legend of Nightmare Moon on her own accord. She will pique her own curiosity enough for her look into Predictions and Prophecies before Nightmare Moon’s return. It was guaranteed.

Afterward, it would be a matter of feigning ignorance. She would be sending Twilight to Ponyville to finish the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. But more importantly, to “make new friends”—those were the instructions Twilight was given after being told to stop reading “dusty old books.”

At least that’s what Twilight would interpret. The real reason she was sent there was to encounter Nightmare Moon first hoof upon her return. And once Twilight discovers the prophecy of Nightmare Moon to be true, she will backtrack her steps and inevitably discover the existence of the Elements of Harmony.

The discovery of which will inspire her and her newfound companions to retrieve the elements, further proving their testament that they are truly worthy of being the bearers of the elements. If there was one thing Celestia could reliably count on, it would be her pupil’s determination to succeed and to make her mentor proud.

Yet despite this crumb of comfort, she was undoubtedly terrified of what was to come. And it is because of one key variable to this grand plan of hers that could unhinge everything she has toiled to achieve:

The Elements of Harmony.

To retrieve and activate the elements to their former glory would be no small feat for 6 ponies whose pasts had just met. Even if one of them was her own pupil, there were still many trials to be faced before they even got close to the elements. Celestia knew she was sending them into the everfree, thus into danger.

And Celestia knew that Nightmare Moon would attempt to stop them along the way.

Direct confrontation was off the table.

Painful memories began to flood Celestia’s mind; she vividly remembers the night of the banishment more than she would like. The unrelenting force of Nightmare Moon’s attacks that night was forever seared into her mind—the measure of hate and malice seemingly immeasurable.

That hate would no doubt return in full force against Twilight and her friends. And maybe it was weak of her to admit, but she did not wish to face Nightmare Moon a second time alone.

If she was to risk direct intervention with Nightmare Moon… it would almost certainly end badly. And so, Celestia’s hooves were metaphorically tied.

She had been dreading the day of sending Twilight away for so many reasons, and not because of her foolish belief that she would not make any friends. She was confident in her pupil; she had to be.

She was dreading what would come afterward.

The last time the Elements of Harmony were used, Nightmare Moon was banished to the moon. To wield it with only her own magic limited the elements’ potential, hence the harsh and unfair punishment that Celestia had to bestow upon her sister. Even when she and Luna wielded them simultaneously, it was only barely enough to save their realm from a seemingly unstoppable adversary prior to the banishment.

But never before had the elements been used by six separate users before. It was theorized by Starswirl the Bearded that if each of the six elements of Harmony were to be respectfully wielded by six ponies that naturally inherited those traits, it would ultimately unlock their full potential to do good.

But this theory had never been tested in a direct altercation like so, in all of its records surviving countless millennia of overcoming foes. Yet before Twilight could properly utilize the elements, five must be activated for the spark of the sixth to be revealed. And such a task required unwavering cooperation among Twilight’s companions.

And it was there and then, pacing in front of her throne that Celestia was struck with an epiphany.

For all the time either Luna or Celestia wielded the Elements, it was used in a manner that enforced hard power onto their enemies; Subjugation, Exile, Banishment, or Petrification—punishments that Celestia did not want to enforce on her sister after a thousand years of exile.

It would be Twilight's responsibility, and the responsibility of her newfound companions, to restore and use the elements in a manner of soft power, rather than hard power. Doing so would be simple: Twilight had no earthly idea how to properly wield the magical properties infused within the elements, but she didn't need to. The Elements would do most of the work for her when the time came.

All that Twilight and her friends had to do was persevere and believe they would succeed. Otherwise, there's no point.

Celestia had faith in Twilight for finding suitable bearers for the elements. In truth, it was not challenging to find ponies suitable for being the bearers of the elements, especially for a pony as astute and shrewd as Twilight Sparkle. If Twilight received instructions from Celestia, she would carry through regardless of her grudges and trials that might hold her back. She would always charge with her problems head-on.

And it wasn’t that Twilight was incapable of making friends, it would just be somewhat hindering to her given her reclusive nature. The difficulties would come after their union was formed.

In conclusion to her epiphany, It was risky. Very risky in more ways than one, but every worry she had possibly conceived a thousand years prior had been challenged by some fabricated rebuttal within Celestia’s mind. And they were not just mere mental apparatuses created out of wishful thinking. They had sound logic hooked around them.

… But that thought, that one epiphany. It was the one thing she could have never dared to inquire at any point in her one-thousand years of planning for this night. And she dared not to imagine it in her mind with any surrounding logic because it lacked just that. Regardless of it being a valid theory, to even conjure such a thought would be madness—never mind the fact it was impossible to plan ahead for nearly a millennia prior.

And yet she thought of it still.

"What if Twilight fails?"

---

Smoke obscured her vision and her lungs as Twilight found herself forcefully teleported away from her companions. Coughing and gathering her breath, she found herself in a different place entirely. A used-to-be grandiose hall, withered and decayed from the floor up to the roof. Large gashes of erosion and time could be seen on the floors and the walls. Only mossy remnants of the foundation remained.

And standing in front of a weathered fixed-frame window atop a platform stood Nightmare Moon herself. Her condescending chuckle reverberated across what remained of the ancient hallway, the elements orbiting around her within her magic. The night sky was still unchanged, and much of the ceilings and walls revealed the stars and the moon.

Paralyzed in awesome fear, Twilight had finally interpreted the perilous situation she was in. Being teleported forcefully into a one-on-one altercation with Nightmare Moon—with the only known objects on the face of the planet able to stop her standing right beneath her—was an egregiously bad position to be in.

She needed a plan, now.

Nightmare Moon seemed content with just standing her ground as if she was expecting no fight to come at all—that the unicorn would just give in to her fears and submit.

Twilight opted to challenge misconception, lowering her body in a combative stance and scraping her front hooves on the floor. With a grimace, her body was leaning and ready to pounce.

"... You’re kidding." Nightmare moon jested, her voice booming across the halls. Then the words turned bitter. "You’re kidding, right?"

Twilight didn’t bother with a reply, dashing to a sprint towards her opponent. The Lavender glow of Twilight’s horn was growing brighter as she got closer.

Nightmare Moon had her stance lowered to meet her head-on with a charge of her own.

She paused.

… Is she charging me?... What is she thinking?

Nightmare Moon, instead of charging Twilight, opted instead to stand her ground. With each step that Twilight galloped, her horn festered with overlapping auras of arcane energy.

Nightmare Moon frowned. Contrary to charging Twilight's head on herself, she stepped down from the platform a couple of steps and lowered her posture to a defensive stance, ready to pounce at a moment's notice. Her horn began to glow as well.

Twilight could feel her stomach sink to the abyss.

She didn’t fall for it!

Time seemed to slow down as the Lavender Unicorn improvised. In her immediate hindsight, it was a presumptuous idea to assume that Nightmare Moon would be fooled by a foalish cantrip of teleportation. Or perhaps her tricks weren’t necessarily tricky enough for an alicorn waiting for revenge after 1000 years in exile.

Both were logically sound, and they did not bode well.

At about 5 meters distance from each other, Twilight closed her eyes and concentrated. In a flash of whitish-pink light, she blipped out of existence.

Nightmare Moon allowed herself to smirk as she caught the unicorn in her trap, like a fly in a web. She made a swift 180-turn behind her towards the platform, fully expecting the spell to transport her directly atop the elements.

Instead, she heard the spell rematerialize the unicorn above her.

Nightmare Moon barely looked up in time to see Twilight tackle her to the floor with her body weight. A blast of energy from Nightmare Moon’s horn barely missed the unicorn by just a few inches as they collapsed atop each other.

The two rolled on the floor in a tangled mess of appendages, Nightmare Moon skidding away from her merely a hoof’s length away. With the alicorn distracted and her magic inactive for a few precious seconds, Twilight charged her horn once more to fire a beam of energy.

Powerful enough for the alicorn to be sent flying backward towards one of the broken walls, crying in pain upon impact. But not enough to knock her down for the count, by any means. Dust and soot billowed wildly around the alicorn upon impact

Twilight Kneeled down on the platform, groaning as the world around her spun. Feeling light-headed, she still charged her horn.

"Just one spark," she mumbled herself. "Come on, come on!"

Twilight could feel her energy envelope the artifacts, channeling some of her magic into it to trigger… something. Any kind of magical reaction was a welcome sight at this point, and she was running out of options.

Something suddenly tugged at her horn, as if something was pulling on it from behind. For a brief moment, she opened her eyes just in time to see a narrow beam of Nightmare’s magic speeding towards her from the side. With no hope of deflection or evasion, she felt a hot, plasma-infused impact on her abdomen—with her soaring through the air with the dumbfound elegance of a ragdoll as she landed roughly onto the floor.

Scrapes and small cuts paint Twilight’s body, causing her to wince upon contact.

Twilight tried to stand up, only to suddenly feel herself being slammed down onto her stomach by an unknown force. With the wind knocked out of her, she struggled to breathe for a few seconds before gasping loudly for precious oxygen.

The azure wisp of energy billowed violently onto the platform once more to reveal Nightmare Moon, a little scratched but none the worse for wear.

"Not good enough!" Nightmare Moon sneered.

Twilight grimaced as she tried to stand up again, only to feel that very familiar force push her back to the floor as she struggled to breathe.

Then something caught Twilight's ear, causing them to flick at attention. A new sound.

The sound of something humming, like an arcane machine powering up.

Both figures stopped and stared at the platform with wide eyes.

The five elements were still surrounded by that same magical glow from Twilight’s horn.

Both Mares reacted simultaneously.

This is it! This must be the spark!

"No, NO!" Nightmare Moon stepped back a few steps, a very familiar fear clamping the essence of her being. She felt herself back up into the mechanism designed for holding the elements, finding herself with nowhere to flee. In her fear, Nightmare Moon was paralyzed of what was to come.

That was until the elements ceased humming, and the hall grew silent once more.

"What!? But-but, where’s the sixth element?!" Twilight stammered, flabbergasted in what she was witnessing.

Before Twilight could do anything else, Nightmare Moon reared on her hind legs with a cackle to raise her forehooves as high as she could. She had them charged by the magic of her horn, sparks of lightning cracking along the floor around her like a plasma ball—before crashing them down onto the platform with magically enhanced might.

The sound.

The shattering still reverberated in her mind.

Twilight felt as if her soul left her body.

The elements were shattered; fragmented; destroyed.

She tried to stand up again. And, again, Nightmare Moon kept her pinned to the floor with her newfound energy. For a moment, Twilight lay motionless.

Time felt slow once more. Twilight could only watch the ground in spite, hearing the arrogant cackles of her opponents behind her. that laugh pierced through her mind as if echoing in her own thoughts, making it impossible to think a rational thought.

There and then, Twilight felt… something. She didn't quite know what it was, but could only describe it; a form of energy she was not familiar with, in all her years of training to channel magic. It felt intoxicatingly numb, goosebumps plaguing her appendages as she felt what was an equivalent of an electric fire tingling her entire being. A valve that was on the verge of explosion; a tight sphincter of pressure, ever-expanding without end.

And all of it projected towards her, the midnight black alicorn. She turned to scowl at her.

Yet as she tried to stand up one last time to cope with her manic sensation, the magical grasp of Nightmare Moon slammed her to the ground with more force than the last.

She cackled, relishing her victory and in her chance to toy with her defeated opponent.

"You little foal! Thinking you can defeat me?!"

Unbeknownst to Twilight, the lavender glow of her magic enveloped her horn. As the intensity of her opponents' magic grew, so too did her own. A surreal sensation coursed her veins. Twilight suddenly felt her blood physically boil as her scowl intensified.

A tipping point was about to be reached, and she was getting closer to release. Her thoughts were garbled and foggy beyond recognition. She couldn't think, she could only feel. And she felt more than angry; she was seething with white-hot rage.

She was at the boiling point.

All it took was one more push over the precipice.

"Now, you will never see your precious princess or your sun! The Night! Will last! FOREVER!"

That did it.

Nightmare Moon barely had time to react to the spontaneous shockwave of energy repulsing everything in its wake. Expanding outward across the entirety of the hall, Nightmare Moon is being shielded from the blast by a protective sphere of her magic.

Standing on the platform, she had only para seconds to spare before the shield resonated—steadfast against the sudden repulsion of energy. Nightmare Moon expensed a large margin of her arcane energy to maintain this form, something she had not grown accustomed to yet being away for so long.

Her horn never ceased glowing, even after the initial repulse of her blast; finally dying down now as a gust of wind whirled into a visible but very brief twister in the air. Nightmare remained steadfast, sensing the wrath and deep-rooted vexation within Twilight’s being.

Twilight on the other hoof had become… something else.

Umbral energy had encompassed her entire being, billowing gently from her body like nebulae in motion. Ethereal wisps resonated from where her mane and tail should be, now a darker shade of mulberry—of which was longer in length. Her coat was no longer Lavender but accentuating, if not mimicking the hue of her mane and tail. Her horn surged with unfathomable energy from a fledgling unicorn... or so she thought until Twilight unfurled her thestral wings.

An Alicorn.

Of all the things Nightmare Moon had planned and expected for tonight, witnessing an alicorn being manifested in front of her eyes was not one of them. It certainly was the biggest surprise of the night, to be sure. But despite the sudden ascension, she did not seem that much different in size from her unicorn form. Nightmare internally suspected the transformation also must have taken a great physical toll on her.

Yet she did not see it.

Nightmare Moon stood her ground, her scowl fighting back against Twilight’s energy. The latter's horn never ceased glowing, even after the initial repulse of her blast; the raw encompassing energy that had surrounded Twilight seemed to be empowering her in some way. The initial shockwave died down to a strong gust of wind. Nightmare Moon remained steadfast, immediately sensing the wrath and vexation within Twilight’s being.

Yet she did not see it.

Nightmare Moon expected some kind of reaction from the empowered alicorn, only to find her seemingly comatose in a standing posture. Nightmare assumed that whatever physical and mental exertion that Twilight must be suffering to maintain this form must be taking its toll.

Yet she did not see it.

When Twilight finally opened her eyes, she saw the world differently. Nightmare Moon saw amethyst green sclera and crimson irises, and she couldn't help but grimace. For the first time in moons immemorable, Nightmare Moon felt dreadful of what was to come.

Twilight felt the corners of her lips twitch upward into a forced smile. A single tear escapes her eyes.