Twilight: On A Rail
“But you… I thought…” Twilight shook her head in disbelief at the black alicorn who was watching her through wide draconic eyes. “…we all thought you were dead. We… we added you to the memorial to those who died.” She was honestly not sure what to feel or think. The visage of Nightmare Moon was that of the wicked mare who vowed to bring night eternal, the evil spirit that haunted foals on Nightmare Night, threatening to eat them if they didn’t leave her gifts of candy. This was the villain of a thousand years, the living representation of Luna gone mad with jealousy, loneliness, and heartache. The Elements had exorcised her like a demon from Luna and thought they’d been rid of her forever… and were relieved.
But it was also the face of the changed mare that had schemed to bring down the Guardian and save Celestia from her own nightmarish self. Hers was one of the first faces Twilight had seen when Trixie had restored her to life, and the fearless general of their desperate plan to disrupt the Guardian’s evil plot and force him to take direct action. And this was the face that, with tears of pain and regret running down the cheeks, had sorrowed at the lost opportunity to be a sister to Luna and Celestia and bid them all farewell. Just as much as she was Equestria’s devil, Nightmare Moon was its hero and Twilight was having trouble deciding how she could possibly wrap her mind around the duality.
Nightmare blinked and smiled a little, reminding Twilight vividly of the way her aunt smiled when she had been frightened of the reaction she might get and was starting to realize that her fears were groundless. “You actually… I was missed? You memorialized me?”
The sight of that smile, the manifest sincerity of Nightmare’s surprise, the real happiness that flickered in her eyes at seeing Twilight, and remembering that the Void dragon had complained of a ‘petulant brat’ that would tear holes in him the way Elli had if the changelings hurt her, settled the question of how she should feel about seeing the black alicorn: she smiled in return. “We did.”
Nightmare’s reaction to this was wholly unexpected: with a few long-legged steps, she crossed the ground between them and Twilight abruptly found herself enfolded in incredibly soft wings, forelegs wrapped around her neck lightly, and a muzzle running gently against hers. The touch, the scent of the black mare was so strangely familiar that Twilight found herself nuzzling back before she remembered that she wasn’t being hugged by Luna; by that time, Nightmare had let her go and taken a step back.
“I am sorry, Twilight,” she said with a shy smile. “I am just… I am very happy that you are safe. Tharalax is a dangerous and fickle beast; even his word, given under pain of annihilation, would mean nothing if the whim seized him.”
“So I gather,” Twilight replied, thinking of how the Void dragon had flown into a rage at the mere mention of Spite’s name. “And… I actually appreciate that. It was a very…” She considered what word to use. “…sincere embrace. I hope it doesn’t hurt you if we’re… cautious? We’ve met two different Nightmare Moons in the last few years and we want to be sure we’re talking to the good one that bid us a tearful farewell six months ago.”
Chrysalis snorted. “All that we’ve told you, all the good she’s done, doesn’t satisfy you?”
Nightmare shook her head. “Chrysalis, I have done wrong to these ponies, and especially to Luna. They are right to ask, and I do not begrudge them their concerns.” She turned to Twilight and her expression was free of anger or offense, just tinged with a touch of sadness. “Although it does hurt to hear family doubt me, or at least a pony I regard as family.”
She leaned down very slightly so her eyes were exactly level with Twilight’s, those turquoise dragon eyes full of the clear and earnest sincerity that normally shone from Applejack’s. “I am still the pony that bid you and Celestia a tearful farewell, Twilight, and I know that you will come to see that. In the meantime…” She smiled and turned her gaze to the still-bowing Maredusa. “Maredusa, I understand you’ve prepared supper for us.”
“Yes, Empresss…”
“I’m not an empress, Maredusa,” the alicorn interrupted her, her tone that of a pony repeating herself for the hundredth time. “Not anymore. Perhaps a thousand years ago I might have still seen myself that way but now… now I’m just Nightmare Moon.”
Maredusa smiled. “Yess, Nightmare. And yess, I have prepared a ssupper for you and all of Thryssa’ss guard.”
“Then let us eat.” Nightmare glanced at Chrysalis. “Chrysalis, I would like their restraints removed, if you will allow it.”
“I will.” Chrysalis fixed them with a stern look. “But only on their oath of courtesy. I will not have my people killed because I showed Celestia’s daughters and their friends a kindness.”
“Ye have it from us, yer Highness,” Elli said instantly. “So long as we are under yer care and your rightful prisoners, we shall harm none of yours ‘less ye should harm one of ours.”
“Aye,” Delphine agreed. “So long as we are under your care and your rightful prisoners, we shall harm none of yours unless ye should harm one of ours.”
“Unless you try to hurt us in some way, Queen Chrysalis, I don’t see any reason why we should become violent towards you or yours,” Twilight said. “Thus far, despite the threats Tharalax made to me, your daughters have been courteous and friendly. Thryssa has told me that you don’t intend to harm me, and that we’ll leave your care in the same condition we entered it. I will not attempt escape or harm anyone that doesn’t try to harm me first.”
“Ditto,” Dawn grinned. “I won’t run away or kick flank, yadda, yadda, yadda, promise and cross my heart and the like.”
“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Pinkamena said with a seriousness that bellied the nonsensical sound of her promise.
“Ah ain’t gonna throw th’ first kick, yer Highness, and Ah ain’t leavin’ without my friends,” Applejack said. “So ya’ll can consider me oathbound like Twi.”
“A lady does not strike the hoof that frees her,” Rarity replied firmly. “Besides, how can I possibly come up with fantastic new dress designs with this ghastly inhibiter? I think… black will be very in, darling, in two to three seasons and I need to prepare.”
Chrysalis laughed at Rarity’s comment. “There’s a first time for everything, it seems; not even in our most ancient history, before ponies hated and feared us, were we ever the inspiration for clothing designs.” She gave a nod and the changeling soldiers trotted over and began helping them out of the restraints. “Your flattering words are appreciated, assassin, but you hardly need to flatter to enter the good graces of me or my people. What you have done already is more valuable than kind words could ever be.”
“Princess Thryssa said something similar,” Twilight said, lighting her horn to check that the inhibiter hadn’t done anything to her magical flow. “What’d Rarity do that you’re so grateful for?”
“She slew a murderer,” Chrysalis replied, showing her fangs. “A hunter of our kind, a mass murderer who would cut down our foals in their cribs and murder their parents when they discovered the flayed corpse. Whether by his assassins or by his own hoof, he was our only and most terrible enemy, and your friend slew him. Although unknowingly, she has done more for the changelings than any pony save Luna and Nightmare.”
Rarity looked at Chrysalis with an expression more appropriate to somepony trapped by a hungry predator than one being warmly thanked. “How could you know that?” She near-whispered. “I… I was so careful…”
“It’s been nearly a century since there weren’t changelings in disguise honeycombed through the entirety of Equestria,” Chrysalis chuckled. “Imitating ponies is very simple and Celestia has had such faith for so long in her decree that she makes no attempt to develop even the most rudimentary measures to see through our guises, even when my people hide in her very court. We do not harm anypony by this, for we desire nothing more than accurate intelligence. When it became apparent that the assassins were dangerous, we replaced several of them with spies.”
“But how’d you…”
Thryssa smiled a little. “Rarity, there are several of my personal guard whose abilities exceed your own, and you were not adjudged the most dangerous one in your group.”
This broke the haunted look and a flicker of offended pride swept over Rarity’s features. “I wasn’t?”
“You’re neither the child of a goddess, nor the Drake sisters,” Thryssa shrugged. “All of our spies warned us of the seemingly limitless ability of Twilight Sparkle and Tharalax warned us of your bodyguards, although he was loathe to admit that they were very dangerous.”
“I suppose that does explain why it was so easy to... um…”
“Slaughter the soldiers that came to capture you?” Thryssa finished. “Please don’t feel any guilt, Rarity; you thought you were defending your life and friends, and that justifies practically anything. But the fact of the matter is that you were subdued in time whereas Twilight Sparkle and the Drake sisters chose to submit instead of being defeated. Well, them and Pinkie but she’s completely harmless.”
Pinkamena grinned. “Element of Laughter, remember? Being threatening and menacing and scary doesn’t make people laugh and have fun.”
“A few dozen changeling soldiers trying to tackle you and ending up in a disgruntled pile, however, is very funny,” Tetti grinned back. “I guess that’s why you can do it.”
“Like I said, Element of Laughter.” The pink party pony dialed her grin down to ‘friendly smile’ and looked towards Chrysalis. “May I ask something, Queen Chrysalis?”
“You may, although I insist that we go to supper first,” Chrysalis replied, turning with Nightmare trailing her and her daughters to either side. “Thryssa’s personal guard exerted themselves to the utmost to capture you without harming you, and they deserve a good meal before I attempt to satisfy your curiousity.”
“Sure thing!” Pinkie beamed. “I could use some food too! Do you have cupcakes?”
><><><
For being a creature that only gained nourishment from eating crystals--including gems—Maredusa had a surprisingly good hoof when it came to making pony and, it would appear, changeling fare; her Number One Assistant abruptly came to mind and Twilight felt a pang of longing for the highly able baby dragon, a baby only in the sense that he was younger than a century. Any pony who’d seen him attending to the library, helping Twilight with a magical experiment, or proving to be a startlingly good sounding board for theories had no illusion that Spike’s small stature concealed a very able mind, and Twilight had no doubt that by the time her friend had left babyhood he’d be more of a colleague than a mere assistant.
Although she’d been out in the way of Appleloosa, Twilight had never had an apple and prickly pear sandwich between lightly roasted paddles of cactus, and it was delicious, sweet and very moist to make up for the arid climate. Maredusa’s daughter, Mara Belle, turned out to have arrived just after they did and mother and daughter shared an overjoyed embrace before Mara came over to meet them. Her coat and lower serpent scales were very similar to her mother’s, perhaps more blue than violet, but she’d pulled her mane back into a ponytail and it was a brilliant orange with streaks of red while her mother’s was a plain (although luxurious and attractive) black. There was also strong hints of a pegasus’ fine-boned features in her face, which given the intensity of Maredusa’s loathing of the pegasus ‘hero’ Rarity had mentioned, brought up all sorts of questions that Twilight decided would be unwise to pursue.
Where Maredusa had a distinctive Canterlot accent, Mara had hints of Manehattan in hers and this seemed to create an instant kinship between her and Rarity: soon, the mares were neglecting their respective meals and chatting animatedly about dresses, fashion, and all the things Twilight would have expected from a gaggle of gossiping high-society ponies at the Grand Galloping Gala, instead of a gorgon and a fashionista in the mythological Maredusa’s underground palace. Smiling at the ease the two very different-looking mares showed with each other, Twilight looked across the table where the three royals and Nightmare were lounging comfortably, Maredusa preferring lounging to sitting for obvious reasons.
After they were settled with Pinkie Pie sitting at her left, she gave the changeling queen a very composed and slightly curious look. “I mean no disrespect, your Highness, but myths speak of a shape-shifting race that feeds off the love of ponies, killing them with heartbreak or the gradual consumption of their very souls.”
“Ah, so we’ve been reduced to myths, have we?” Chrysalis chuckled. “Well, the myth is somewhat wrong and somewhat right. We don’t only feed on pony love and love isn’t the only thing we feed on. For example, the mild trust and love between friends or the deep love of family for one another. Not near as fulfilling and powerful as mother-love or the love between mates, but highly nourishing nonetheless.” She grinned a little at the blankly surprised look from Pinkamena at her forthrightness. “You act as if you’re surprised that I’d be so casual about this.”
Pinkamena sat with this a moment. “I am,” she admitted. “It seems like a fairly unusual thing to just come right out and say, that you eat love.”
“To be more specific, Miss Pie, we feed off the ambient positive energy exuded by the flow of love between individuals,” Tetti explained. “For example, there is strong love between us and our mother, and our mother and us. The connection generates a sort of energy that we can feed off of.”
“There is the low-level love of friends for one another among the other ponies and yourself,” Thryssa said, “as well as the familial love between your two griffin companions. The soldiers who were escorting you enjoyed a fine meal simply by being in your general proximity, especially when you were resolving your issues with Rarity.” She smiled. “Right now, there is the faintest flicker of a budding friendship, or at least a pleasure in one another’s company, between Rarity and Mara Belle which is a form of love. Six tables down and two over, a mated couple who’ve been apart for several months are cuddling while they eat the magnificent fare Maredusa has set out.”
“We tend to stay in large groups like this for just this reason,” Tetti added. “While just one casual friendship is a drop in a bucket, hundreds of them interspaced with the love of mates or of very close friends is a veritable lake of the positive energy from which the entire group can sip at will. As strange and sinister as ‘we eat love’ may sound, it truly is a motivation to remain peaceable and create close and warm friendships with ‘prey’ because the more of these relationships there are, the more vast and durable the supply of love is.”
“We require ordinary nourishment, of course,” Chrysalis said. “A changeling without food and water would die just as surely as a pony would, thus why we’re discussing this over a nourishing and delicious meal. But our nature, with the ease of our shapeshifting and how our chitinous shells are both as strong as iron plate yet as soft and supple as calamine leather, requires that we have a constant source of love energy. We must nourish the magical part of our nature with love energy just as we nourish the physical part with ordinary food.”
Twilight stared in utter fascination. “That’s… incredible!” She exclaimed enthusiastically. “I can’t even imagine how that would work and I’ve certainly never read anything about this phenomenon in any of my books.”
Tetti laughed. “Milady, not even we record all of this in books, and knowledge of it is literally a matter of survival for our race. It’s an instinctive knowledge, passed down from parent to child both with a certain degree of genetic memory and by verbal tradition.”
“Then why would y’all get exiled?” Applejack asked from Twilight’s right and directly across from the armored Thryssa, an arrangement Twilight was sure was anything but coincidence. “Sounds like a bunch o’ ponies who live ta encourage friendship an’ love for their own survival would be just what Equestria needs. Or, hay, any place in the world would prolly love ta have a bunch o’ folks like that.”
“Your attitude is admirable and speaks well of you, Applejack,” Nightmare said with a smile. “But you forget that you are not an ordinary pony. None of the Bearers are, which is why they are Bearers, which is why you can use the Elements of Harmony the way you do. Your experiences, with the diamond dogs, with Steven Magnet, with the zebra shamaness Zecora, with the buffalo outside of Appleloosa, have accustomed you to the unusual and diminished your prejudices. You do not fear unusual things and have come to see that some of those unusual things are not a threat, and some of them are quite attractive.”
Her smile faded. “But consider the typical pony. They have lived in the same social circles, the same situation, often the same town and home for all their lives. The only truly strange thing they ever see are ravening monsters. The only reason the typical pony might not take one look at me and run screaming is that they recognize my appearance from that memorial Twilight spoke of… and the only thing about me that does not look very pony are my eyes.”
“Ah. So ponies didn’t treat y’all right an’ some of ya didn’t take too kindly to it?”
Chrysalis sighed. “It’s… much worse than that. You see, although we feed passively, there is a way for a changeling to use their natural magic to directly transform life energy into love energy and consume it; it kills very swiftly and any creature being ‘induced’ as it’s called is helpless to stop it. That is where the tales of changelings eating pony souls comes from: a combination of certain rogues using induction against ponies under the reasoning that if they can’t have respect they’ll settle for fear, and several of the minor changeling queens ignoring their subjects’ evil in retaliation for the mistreatment ponies had heaped on them.”
“It was a spiral of building fear and hate on both sides that needed to be stopped,” Thryssa said quietly. “As I told you before, we asked the Princesses to intervene long before the problem became serious but while Luna understood our plight and wished alter the laws to protect both pony and changeling, Celestia vehemently opposed changing laws for anything less than a full-blown disaster.”
“And in return, the queens gave her the disaster,” Pinkamena surmised. “They reasoned that if there was a full-blown disaster, Celestia would be forced to act. But her act was exiling the changelings and banishing them to the eastern lands instead of changing the laws to protect both her ponies and the changelings.”
“And I almost feel guilty to admit that I bear her no ill will for the decision,” Chrysalis sighed. “I did before I assumed the crown but now, being responsible for every changeling in the way that Celestia and Luna are responsible for every pony, I admit that I would take extreme measures to save my people if there was a threat among them.”
“As would any good ruler,” Nightmare nodded. “Just the same as a mother would do anything to shelter her children if danger threatened.”
“So the queens… allowed this ‘induction’ to take place?”
“I think they encouraged it, perssonally,” Maredusa commented. “Their attitude sseemed to be ‘if they see uss ass monsters, let uss be monsterss.’ My exile wass for entirely different reasonss: where the changelingss threatened all poniess, I threatened jusst one pony but she wass important enough to exile me when I got jusstice.”
“It wasn’t justice, Mother,” Mara Belle said without looking her way, her serpentine hiss almost nonexistent. “You took revenge and threw it in the face of your enemy’s influential family. What you did was proper and she deserved it, but it was not justice.”
“The one who desstroyed me wass desstroyed,” Maredusa shrugged. “Whatever you call it, it wass only jusst that the desstroyer be desstroyed.”
“It was,” Mara agreed seriously before her expression became more cheery. “I can’t wait for this exile to end, Mother… to think that we might once again enter the Court of the Dual Thrones, resplendent and beautiful, and received with the warmth of the Sun and the affectionate embrace of the Moon… why, it causes me to be positively aflutter!”
“You would have to be properly attired, of course,” Rarity added with the same shine in her eyes she’d had when admiring Maredusa. “Something violet to flatter your mane, perhaps with a few… mmm… yes, an emerald green highlight on a low collar with a few rhinestones in strategic places. I’d use diamonds but it seems so gauche to have a pony wear their food, even when that food is gemstones.”
“A being,” Mara corrected her with a small laugh. “Yes, Miz Rarity, that would be a mild faux pas. Speaking of faux pas, tell me again about that garish abomination you attempted for the Young Fliers Competition.”
Rarity made a tragic swooning motion. “Oh, Mara, please do not speak of it! I’m ever so embarrassed at myself!” At which point, in an appropriately dramatic way, Rarity launched into a detailed description of the bizarre paint-up she’d done of herself with Mara making appropriately-timed noises of pity.
Twilight laughed and looked back at Chrysalis. “Well Queen Chrysalis, as much as you’re wonderfully understanding about the matter, I still wish to apologize on behalf of my mother. I’m sure that she’d find some way to express her regrets if she was here. Equestria would have been better for your people’s presence, I think, and especially Luna as both your daughters and Maredusa have indicated that she maintained a warm friendship with many non-ponies. Perhaps the sure knowledge that she was appreciated would have changed everything; we’ll never know.”
“I, for one, am grateful that Luna stumbled; I’d have never become the mare I am without having spent over a thousand years with a more intimate look into her mind and soul than even her sister can manage,” Nightmare commented, taking a large bite of fresh apple and darting a forked tongue over her lips to sweep the resulting dribble of juice from her lips. “Were I not so much older than she, I’d regard her as a big sister.”
“Older than her?” Twilight looked curiously at the black alicorn. “You mean you’re not a manifestation of her…”
“…insecurities, jealousies, sorrows, emotional pain, loneliness, resentment, anger, and despair?” Nightmare finished. “I am that as well, but the very fact that I can stand here with my own physical form, eating and drinking as any other pony, demonstrates that I am not merely a piece of Luna that broke away and learned how to think on its own.”
“Do you mind if I ask what you are then?”
“Besides an alicorn?”
“Besides an alicorn,” Twilight confirmed.
“That is… a difficult explanation,” Nightmare admitted. “One that is not really appropriate to a public setting.” She looked over at Chrysalis. “Not that I am ashamed or wish to hide anything of import from my faithful allies…”
“I admit that I would prefer to hear more about you,” the changeling queen admitted. “There is no question in my mind but that you’re as faithful an ally, and as steadfast a friend, as you appear to be. But only two years hence, you were a deeply feared villain threatening Night Eternal; six months hence, you were the schemer that helped to bring down the monstrous Guardian and were reported dead and deeply mourned. Now, you are alive and warm and do not smell or taste of being a magical construct.”
“We don’t doubt you, Empress,” Tetti said. “You’ve done everything you’ve promised and with a dedication to peace quite unlike the legends of the villain that seized Princess Luna and drove her to rebellion.”
Nightmare chuckled. “Seize Luna? That is as absurd as ‘changelings eat pony souls’. No pony or monster or thing of the Void could take Luna against her will, nor her sister, nor for that matter a changeling queen.” She paused thoughtfully. “Your Majesty, Twilight, may I beg your indulgence? I will gladly tell my tale, but I think the best setting would be the royal chambers at the capital where we can more easily gather all those who deserve to know: the queen and her daughters, Twilight and Dawn, and their friends and bodyguards.”
Chrysalis smiled broadly. “I merely await your convenience, milady Empress.”
Nightmare sighed deeply. “I am not your empress, Queen Chrysalis.”
The queen fixed her with a dim look. “Of course you’re not. But I’ll continue to call you ‘Empress’ until you stop addressing me by royal titles. I’d ask the same of either Diarch if they had spent these last few months…”
“Few months?” Twilight repeated, gaping at Chrysalis and then Nightmare. “But… we thought… I mean, Spite was certain…”
Nightmare looked at her sharply. “Spite? What do you know of Spite?”
“She appeared a few days ago looking for someone named Lashaal,” Twilight replied. “She caught up with her outside Ponyville, but Lashaal sent something called a klesae after her and it badly injured Rainbow Dash, whom we’d sent to warn Lashaal because we thought she was a wandering unicorn named Lily Shell.”
Nightmare slumped visibly. “Oh buck…”
“You did say that there was a real risk of her attracting the wrong kind of attention,” Chrysalis said sympathetically, patting the mare on the back.
“It is not that at all,” Nightmare closed her eyes and sighed deeply. “Please tell me she lived.”
“Don’t worry, she’s alive,” Twilight assured her, smiling despite herself at the black alicorn’s genuine concern for Rainbow. “Alive enough to accompany Luna, Fluttershy, and Spite herself northwards to track down Lashaal.”
“Lashaal went north, did she…” Nightmare gave Chrysalis a significant look.
Chrysalis grinned toothily, displaying a pair of delicate fangs that for some reason seemed more pretty than threatening. “You did also say she was irrationally single-minded.”
A trace of a smile flickered at the edges of Nightmare’s muzzle. “I did at that, and it seems I was right. The intelligent thing to do would have been to come back for instructions and another focus; fortunately, she did not. If Tharalax’ counterpart in the north was expecting practical help from Lashaal, he will not get it.”
“Big grouchy and shadowy has a buddy in the Provinces?” Dawn frowned. “And we have no way to get word to the four going that way, at least not before they find out themselves.”
“Fear naught, Dawn,” Nightmare assured her. “I spent over a thousand years in that head, brushing up against that soul, watching what Luna can do. And if the wrath of a warrior-goddess is somehow insufficient, Einspithiana will be more than their match.”
“Ah thought her name couldn’t possibly be jus’ ‘Spite’,” Applejack grinned. “That sounds much more like the name of a dragon.”
Nightmare smiled. “Yes, and that is no accident. That malicious thing Tharalax is one kind of Void dragon; Einspithiana is another kind entirely.”
><><><
“Wow,” Dawn commented with a little laugh in her voice as she stretched out on the bench. “I mean, what else could you say to all this? I know we’re here for a really serious reason and all, and it’s a big bat-over-the-head to see Nightmare Moon back in the flesh and giving out ecstatic hugs, but c’mon… when we started out, did we ever imagine that when we went looking for where that creepy-thin Lashaal started out, we’d find Maredusa’s underground palace and a whole kingdom of love-eating insect-ponies? And then end up riding a bird the size of a bucking city to the insect-ponies’ capital?”
“I wouldn’t say a city,” Twilight replied as she glanced out over the edge of the construct, just a bit larger than Applejack’s barn, strapped to the back of said bird. “Seventy lengths one way, two hundred in total wingspan. Immense, larger than any bird I’ve ever seen, but not the size of a city.”
She heard Dawn sigh in exasperation as she trotted over to the front end of the two-story passenger divan to look forward. Emerging from Maredusa’s grotto to find a bird’s head about twice her size looking curiously at her rated as one of the more heart-stopping experiences of her life. The gargantuan bird had then turned and, bowing to Chrysalis, said, his Equestrian heavily distorted by an undertone that sounded all the world like a purring sound, “This one greets the queen of changelings and the mistress of these lands and inquires after her brood.”
“The brood of this one are healthy, wise, and beautiful, and she inquires after the brood of that roc which fishes the deep shores and rules the rocks therein,” Chrysalis had replied, bowing in turn.
The roc had smiled broadly at Chrysalis’ reply. “The brood of this one are healthy, wise, and beautiful. You honor me, Queen Chrysalis, by greeting me in the way of my own, and I am grateful that you have always done so. Where may I convey you?”
The roc (who politely refused to give his name) had come prepared with the astonishingly large structure on his back, secured with chains that had links as thick as Twilight’s leg—which was actually quite small-looking in proportion to the awesome size of the bird carrying it. The inclusion of benches, tables, even a few beds made it clear that he’d commissioned others to build the carrying structure for him specifically for carrying large numbers of pony-sized passengers; Twilight estimated that well over a fifty could fit very comfortably inside. As it was, their party and the two Drake sisters had been given one floor of the structure and the badly wounded the other, with several changeling doctors and nurses tending to them.
As they were preparing to board, Nightmare had approached. “Twilight, may I speak with you a moment?”
“Sure,” Twilight had smiled. “I’ll gather the…”
“I would prefer to speak to you alone,” Nightmare had interrupted, paused, then dipped her ears very slightly. “With your permission, of course.”
Twilight looked askance at her. “Why alone?”
“Because you have good judgment, and can best decide what of what I will tell you is important and necessary to pass along, and what should be kept to yourself,” Nightmare replied evenly. “There is a great deal of truth that I owe you, that I owe your friends and Celestia, and I will convey it. But for now, I need to warn you.”
“Tharalax?” Twilight guessed.
“Do I have your discretion?”
Twilight hesitated a moment, then nodded.
Nightmare dipped her head slightly. “Yes, Tharalax. As you may guess from my fear that he had harmed you despite being under threat of annihilation, I have very little control over what he does. His master pretends that he sent Tharalax to serve me, but he serves only his master; I can only influence him with threats and punishment, and even those cannot always work.”
Twilight furrowed her brow. “You’re afraid he’ll attack us again.”
“I am,” the black alicorn confirmed. “He surely meant to revel in your pain when he sent Thryssa and her personal guard to subdue you by force, and just as surely raged when he realized that Thryssa had no intention of dragging you broken and bleeding to her mother’s throne.” She smirked. “He and his master understand their supposed allies very poorly.”
The smirk was somehow a little comforting, and Twilight mirrored it. “And you do?”
“Naturally,” Nightmare replied. “Luna knew Queen Amaryss, the changeling queen a thousand years ago, and so I knew her as well. Her great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter may be more visionary than Amaryss and wears her mantle with a comfort and ease that Amaryss would envy, but the changelings are the same ponies they have always been.”
Twilight nodded. “So what should we do about Tharalax when he attacks?”
Nightmare quirked a brow, which seemed somehow approving. “When?”
“Well, if you can’t control him and he’s angry that he didn’t have his fun, and he possesses the same ability to teleport massive distances at whim Spite does, what is there to stop him?” Twilight met the turquoise dragon-like eyes of the taller mare. “So when Tharalax attacks, what can we do?”
“You can fight,” Nightmare replied. “And now we come to the second purpose of me wishing to speak to you alone: I wish to offer you certain knowledge I have that will give you an advantage over Tharalax.”
Twilight looked warily at her. “Such as…?”
“Spellwork, of course.” Nightmare smiled. “You are the Bearer of Magic.” The smile faded. “But also a more intricate understanding of what Tharalax is and for that, the magic needed to give you that knowledge is not as… harmless as the teaching of spells. Magically imprinting spells into your mind requires naught but a little magical energy; giving you knowledge, however, requires an equal exchange of the same.”
“What kind of knowledge?”
“It would depend entirely on what is foremost in your thoughts at the time of the spell.” Nightmare shrugged. “It is highly unpredictable magic, except in what it will permit me to give you.”
Twilight considered the black alicorn, weighing her offer carefully. Some part of her mind informed her that agreeing to be alone with Nightmare was foolhardy and was screaming at her that even thinking about this offer was madness. The majority of her mind, the analytical and rational majority, ignored the neurotic side of her and pointed out that everything that Nightmare had done since Twilight had been returned to life was consistent with a truly changed pony; that she came implicitly offering only as much help as Twilight felt comfortable with just cemented this impression. The rational part of her salivated at the chance for knowledge, but just as frankly fretted that if the spell worked as Nightmare described, some very private things could be given to the pony who was still largely a stranger to her.
“Just the spell imprints then,” Nightmare remarked, startling her out of her contemplations.
“Huh?”
“I could see which way your thoughts were going,” the alicorn smiled a little. “And I was going to apologize for suggesting the knowledge transfer; it was rude and presumptuous of me to suggest magic that would reveal your private thoughts to me. But fear naught, Twilight: my spellwork and knowledge combined with your technical excellence will empower you to overwhelm the beast if he dares to show his face.”
“It’s alright,” Twilight assured her with a little smile of her own. “Your suggestion had… merit, objectively speaking. But you are still a virtual stranger to me, even if you have turned over a new leaf and… um…”
“…you are reluctant to have a stranger sifting through your thoughts,” Nightmare finished. “Of course, that ought to have occurred to me before I even asked the question. So, you have business elsewhere and I will not keep you from it any longer. If you will lean forward?”
Twilight leaned forward and Nightmare lit her horn, leaning forward to touch hers to Twilight’s. What followed was a very odd feeling, as if she could feel liquid flowing into her brain although the sensation made no logical sense; she was well aware that the brain couldn’t feel physical sensation and suddenly, the next part of the imprint hit and Twilight felt herself stagger, even as she mentally chided herself for not preparing for the entirely-predictable effect. She felt herself caught by magic that touched her with surprising softness and gentleness and then Nightmare nosing at her with an expression of concern.
“Are you alright, Twilight?” She asked. “I did not… hurt you did I?”
“No,” Twilight steadied herself. “It’s alright, it wasn’t your fault. I should have braced myself for the second stage of an imprinting, after Mom used to do it sometimes when I was unable to grasp something another way.”
“Oh, good.” The black alicorn looked so genuinely relieved that Twilight couldn’t stop herself from smiling broadly at her.
“Thank you,” she said with an earnestness and sincerity that somewhat surprised her. Heh… who ever thought I’d end up sincerely thanking Nightmare Moon for anything? “Was there anything else?”
“Just wishes of good luck and a safe journey.” Nightmare Moon smiled and nosed her lightly before trotting back where Chrysalis had been standing, looking faintly interested and not a little bemused.
Nightmare, Chrysalis, and the two princesses had then bid them a fond farewell and a safe journey as the roc had swept into the air with a grace so smooth and perfect that Twilight wouldn’t have known they’d taken off if she hadn’t been watching through a window.
“She’s certainly right, darling,” Rarity added, beaming from ear to ear. “Such exquisite workmanship! Such creative gem cuts! And what a delightfully refined young mare! Why, I dare say she’d fit right into the upper echelons in Manehattan.”
“Except for the snake part,” Dawn said with a grin.
“Well, yes,” the fashionista admitted. “But that’s part of the exotic appeal! And think of the gorgeous decorative train I could add to a dress for those coils of hers! Why, my dressmaker heart is positively aflutter at the possibilities, darling.”
“I’d like ta know how she’s all square with the fashion world,” Applejack commented. “Ah mean, she’s pretty distinctive-lookin’ an’ as much as Ah hate to admit it, Nightmare’s right: most ponies ain’t very good about seein’ passed little things and findin’ the wonderful pony underneath.”
“Yeah, and she’s got one hay of a good Manehattan accent for someone who’s lived off in the desert her entire life,” Dawn added thoughtfully. “Yanno, her mom seems pretty fond of the changelings. I mean, yeah, they paid her for passage but she sure went out of her way to feed them and shelter them, lots more than a chest of sweets are worth. Maybe…”
“…they used some of their magic to let Mara Belle live in Manehattan for a while and enjoy being accepted into pony society?” Twilight nodded thoughtfully. “I don’t know. It’s hard to credit the idea but at the same time, I’ve never seen a pony race with natural transformation magic. And unless they’re engaging in a very intricate charade…”
“…an they ain’t,” Applejack supplied confidently.
“…that sort of kindness would be second nature for them, especially under the reign of Queen Chrysalis,” Twilight finished.
“Sure makes ya think,” Applejack frowned. “If’n they were anything like this way back when, things must of gotten pretty bad for the Princess to banish ‘em.”
“I wouldn't be so sure about that,” Dawn grimaced. “Mum is the absolute best but the nightmare that got in her head didn't have to dig very hard to find Nightmare Flare. She’s not always been the warm, sweet, adoring Princess all of Equestria loves to pieces, as hard as that is to hear. Like Princess Tetti said, losing Aunt Luna beat her down pretty hard and I’ll bet real bits that it made her rethink who she was and how she did things.”
“Everypony has a bad pony inside them,” Pinkamena commented quietly. “And the better a pony is outside, the stronger the bad pony is inside.”
“That may have been what it once was, Pinkie Pie, but no longer,” Delphine’s pleasantly lilting voice said from where she and her sister were lounging. “Such is the will of the Weaver, that the old balance within need no longer torment th’ good. Though clearly your Princess is bound to the cold wickedness of the Weaver that came before, I dare lay my head as wager that the good o’ yourselves is very much greater than your inner evil.”
Twilight turned to look curiously at the griffiness. “The… Weaver that came before?”
“Aye,” she replied with a nod. “There’s a legend that before th’ current Weaver arose to take upon herself the duties of weaving fates, there was a different Weaver who was a cold, objective creature. Heartless, unmerciful, and obsessed with controlling all things, he fulfilled the duty but all suffered by it, the opposite of the Weaver’s purpose. And so the mysterious Force that made the gods themselves stripped his office from him and gave it to a young mortal named Morgana Fata who still had the idealism of youth and most importantly, a heart.”
“It’s merely a myth, as far as anyone knows,” Serafine added. “At least th’ part about some all-powerful Force that made gods an’ replaced the first Weaver. Morgana ‘erself has said that she knew this first Weaver, an’ th’ scars of his meddling are still found places. One of those places, it’s thought, is in th’ balance Pinkie ‘ere named.”
“The point o’ the myth, Lady Sparkle, is that Light and Dark are needed in equal measure,” Delphine concluded. “The old Weaver represented the utter purity of th’ Light, logic and knowledge and truth untethered from morality, compassion, and the judgment of a good heart. Ta be entirely honest with you, Lady Sparkle, some part of me feared that when we found you we would find someone in the mold of that old Weaver: brilliant lover of knowledge without an ounce of basic goodness.”
“I was heading that way, once,” Twilight admitted. “But then my mentor kicked me out of the library and told me to make friends. And so I met the girls and…” She grinned a little despite herself. “…well, I can’t imagine going back to the uncaring little bookworm in a library, not anymore. That, and Mom wouldn’t let me.”
“The love of friends is powerful indeed,” Delphine smiled. “I would be nothing an’ nowhere without good friends and better family.”
“Surely that’s not true, darling,” Rarity gave the griffiness one of her most winning high-society smiles. “You seem a very accomplished… um…”
“Inquisitor,” Delphine supplied.
The answer visibly caught Rarity off guard. “Inquisitor?”
“Yes,” she smiled proudly. “One of the youngest inducted into the Imperial Order of the Ratnisbonian Inquisition.”
“Yanno, ya mentioned ‘em before when you were tellin’ the story of that invasion,” Applejack said. “Ya got some ‘splainin’ to do after dodgin’ and weavin’ earlier.”
“I’m not the least bit obligated to explain my Order to strangers,” Delphine retorted coolly. “But ye demand it of me, and… that is fair enough, since ye must trust I and my sister with your lives.”
The still-cloaked leoavian stretched before folding her wings and settling onto the bench she and Serafine were seated on. “My order was commissioned to bring all of those that worshiped gods other than th’ Weaver to tribunal, to determine whether they worshiped peacefully and rightly, or whether they were mad an’ bloodthirsty. We were literally those that inquired, and by the grace of the Weaver and the craft of learned and skilled mages, we were sent into the wastes with magical aids that we could not be deceived an’ would be protected while we were about on the Emperor’s errand. Now I myself was not inducted until the First Inquisition was done an’ the Eternal Inquisition was declared, just in time for the Blood Plain. Since that time, it has been the duty of I and my fellows to rove all of Tirror, shining th’ Light of truth over all the land and rendering justice where justice is denied.”
“Sounds hard,” Dawn commented. “So what, you wander around solving the Case of the Missing Banana?”
Delphine fixed her with an uncharacteristic gimlet eye. “More like, the Case of the Missin’ Hand That Took The Missin’ Banana.” She gave Dawn a small grin. “Justice is harsh in Ratnisbon, darl.”
“So I gather,” Dawn commented dryly. “OK, more seriously: are you some kind of circuit judges or something then?”
“More like investigators, really,” Delphine smiled. “For example, early in my service, I was roving through a village near the westernmost mountains…”
While her friends watched and listened to the griffiness with a mix of politeness—Applejack—and genuine interest in what she was saying—Pinkie Pie—Twilight trotted over to the edge of the carrying structure and looked out over it. The sky was cloudless, as skies over deserts always seemed to be, and the sun was even then just barely peeking above the western edge of the horizon and drifting slowly down. Huh. I guess Mom’s taking it slow tonight, she thought as she looked out over the featureless landscape. Where the area around Appleloosa was a scrubland with cacti and sagebrush and other arid plants, these eastern lands seemed utterly barren and almost depressingly stark.
As the sun disappeared, Twilight turned her attention to the rising moon and especially the constellations. As the princess of the night and moon, Luna could arrange the constellations however she pleased and before they’d parted ways, it naturally occurred to both that the stars would be an excellent way for the princess to communicate important things to her niece. As the stars became visible, she expected the beautiful and elaborate—Luna’s intense pride in her sky allowed her to do no less—star-picture of a bell hanging at two hundred twenty-five degrees from the risen moon. What was surprising was the flowing line of a lash right below the moon. Instead of flowing normally, in a graceful up-down-up-under, the last half of the line was entwined with itself. The lash was an indication that they’d cornered Lashaal but Twilight’s instincts told her that the entwined appearance of the lash meant that something unexpected had happened.
Huh, that wasn’t one of the agreed-on symbols. Twilight furrowed her brow at the lash, trying to put together what it could mean. The bell meant that all was well—Twilight suspected her aunt chose it because she wanted the chance to make one with her stars—but an entwined lash? Entwined… joined… things woven together… they found Lashaal but they… joined with her? Allied? No, that’d be absurd… why would they ally with her after she attacked Rainbow and nearly killed her? There must be something… She frowned hard and then remembered an extra detail. Oh! Luna said she'd also infuse a message in magical currents around the constellations, she remembered. So if I just concentrate on my mage-sight I should...
“A half-bit for your thoughts, Lady Sparkle?” Twilight jumped a little as the purr-infused Equestrian rumbled up from below her hooves, the roc carrying them tilting his head so he could look up at her with a single fiercely predatory eye.
“Nothing,” she replied. “Just… looking at the stars.”
“You mean, your aunt’s stars,” he corrected, his tone conveying a smile. “And reading her messages in them.”
“Messages?” Twilight repeated, unable to keep the strained nervous quaver out of her voice.
The roc chuckled. “I would never betray either you or the Night Princess, Lady Sparkle, or the trust of Queen Chrysalis, so you don’t need to pretend.”
“But if you see it…”
“Are your enemies rocs?” He interrupted. “Do they live here, under your mother’s sun and your aunt’s moon? Do they care for the stars, having a history with them?”
“Are they even half as smart as you or Auntie Luna?” Dawn’s voice added as she joined Twilight. “I mean, c’mon sis… you’re mum’s foal but you’re a chip off Auntie Luna’s block. Tharalax is a complete dolt; he didn’t even have a clue about how his own allies would treat you, threatening you with being beaten senseless and dragged off in chains when you ended up without a scratch and having a dinner party with Maredusa, the queen of ‘bout half of Equestria, and bucking Nightmare Moon. Ya really think he’s sharp enough to figure out what the buck a bell and a whip mean?”
“Lash,” Twilight corrected her without thinking. “It’s… um… a lash.”
“Well, then that explains who it’s meant to talk about.” Dawn pointed a hoof up. “So why’s it all twisted on that end?”
“I was trying to figure that out, actually,” Twilight said. “The most straightforward explanation is that they formed an alliance with her but that’d be absurd.”
“Well, why?” Dawn asked. “She’s gotta be reporting to something worse than she is, right? What if she, I dunno, chickened out and decided it’d be easier to betray the whatever rather than help them?”
“Nightmare did say that her using the klesae deprived the one in the north of an asset,” Twilight nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe whoever it is became angry, threatened her, maybe even hurt her…”
“…so she runs into Spite and Auntie Luna and a really pissed-off Dash and thinks, hey, she’s already a loser so why not double-cross someone?” Dawn frowned. “Things have gotta be pretty bucking bad if they’re getting cozy with someone who thrashed Dashie but good.”
“Well, that’s just it.” Twilight pointed to the bell. “Luna and I agreed to use that picture for ‘all is well’. So things can’t be bad.” She grimaced. “I’m missing something…”
“…and I hate missing something,” Dawn finished with a small grin. “I feel your pain, Twi, literally. She might have gotten the Applejack thing wrong but Mum has a pretty good read on your neurotic.”
“Neuroses,” Twilight corrected her. “And I’m not neurotic!”
“Tell that to a pony who doesn’t share your neurotic,” Dawn grinned wider. “Cept unlike you, I’ve got a great escape valve: propositioning AJ.”
“You realize that since we’re up in the air, she could always hog-tie you and hang you over the edge, right?”
“She doesn’t have rope.”
“Sugarcube, Ah always have rope,” Applejack said casually, causing both Twilight and Dawn to jump slightly. “An’ you’d best listen to Twi… Ah do a mean hog-tie, if you recall day two of work.”
“Yeah, I do,” Dawn retorted sourly. “I swear, next time I get some fire, I’m feeding that hat into it.”
“Aw, is Twi’s lil sis still sore about bein’ strung up in a tree for mouthin’ off?” Applejack grinned.
“No, I’m sore about you letting those crazy fillies try to rescue me!”
Applejack actually looked a little ashamed of herself. “Well… ‘least the roofin’ tar came out eventually. Ah still don’t have the slightest notion of how roofin’ tar could be involved in tryin’ to get a mare outta a tree, but those three operate on less logic than Pinkie does.”
“That’s metaphysically impossible,” Twilight informed her friend. “Nopony can operate with less logic than Pinkie.”
“It’s not so much a lack of logic as… special logic,” Pinkamena informed them from where she was standing on the platform that jutted out above the roc’s head. For some reason, the roc didn’t appear to have the same reaction anyone else who’d been exposed to Pinkie’s impossible antics; Twilight suspected that he might not have noticed. “The special logic appears to be thus: if it can amuse others, it’s possible. If not, I have to follow the normal rules.”
Twilight smiled at this. “I didn’t mean…”
“I know,” Pinkie beamed in her trademark physically impossible way. “So’re we having a pow-wow about the bell and lash constellations?”
“Has everyone noticed?” Twilight sighed in exasperation.
“Well, sugarcube, Luna bein’ yer kin sorta gives your friends extra motivation ta care about her night,” Applejack said, patting Twilight on the shoulder. “Didn’t know that funny one was a lash, though… woulda thought a whip mahself.”
Twilight found herself smiling again. “They’re messages from Luna,” she said. “She says that things are going well and that they found Lashaal. Dawn and I were speculating on why Luna chose to twist the end of the lash, though.”
“Easy-peasy!” Pinkie exclaimed. “It’s totally obvious what it means!”
There was a long silence while the other three ponies waited to find out what this obvious meaning might be. “So what’s it mean, Pinkster?” Dawn finally asked.
“It’s wavy,” she said. “Look, if you read the stars this way…” She gestured with her hoof, pointing out the stars in the sequence, “…it’s all zig-zaggy.”
As one, Dawn and Twilight tilted their heads and looked at the stars. “You know, I…”
“…think she’s right,” Twilight finished. “But let’s say it’s supposed to be a lash with a wavering end… what’s it mean?”
“Mebbe… they ain’t decided what she’s about,” Applejack offered. “They think she ain’t as bad as they thought, but they dun yet trust ‘er. So they’re, yanno, waverin’ on the matter.”
Dawn and Twilight looked at one another and Dawn shrugged. “It’s as good as anything,” she said. “Either way ya go, somethin’s up with the bucker that got Dashie.”
“Dawn, language,” Twilight admonished wearily, even as she nodded. “You’re right, though. I just wish we had better information! She sent the ‘all is well’ but…”
“Twi, Luna ain’t hurt, Dash ain’t hurt, Flutters ain’t hurt, an’ breaking her face didn’t do much to Spite so she prolly ain’t hurt,” Applejack interrupted soothingly. “So long as they all ain’t hurt, ya don’t need to worry, OK?”
“Besides, you’ve got much better things to worry about,” Pinkie said. “Like, why stars are disappearing over there.”
“Stars…”
“…disappearin’?” Both Dawn and Applejack turned to see what Pinkie was pointing at and, with a bracing intake of breath, Twilight followed suit a moment later. At first, it wasn’t easy to see what Pinkamena was talking about but with Nightmare’s warning in mind, Twilight called up a spell she’d learned some time ago that the book had called ‘mage-sight’ but functioned more like a combination of binoculars and the very basic magical overlay that let her see the flow and shape of magic in operation. She’d used it several times before, mainly to watch Rainbow Dash showing off, so the magic should have been familiar.
It wasn’t.
Instead, the sensation of the magic felt… odd. Not odd in a bad way, but odd in a familiar unfamiliarity way. Instead of an old spell she’d used many times, it felt like a spell she’d once used and had forgotten, but was just now remembering. It was, the analytical part of her mind informed her, as if the spell had been added to, and she mentally kicked herself for never asking Nightmare precisely what spells she’d given her. One of them, based on the odd feeling of an old and familiar spell, was an altered form of her mage-sight spell and with a slight grimace and another mental kick, she fed her magic into the pattern and let it form.
Everything immediately jumped into sharp clarity and the dim light of the stars became the diffuse gentle light of the sun shining through clouds. Without the cloak of darkness, the oncoming Void dragon stood out like a sore hoof, and Twilight immediately appreciated just how significant an advantage Nightmare had given her. If only I’d taken both… no, mustn’t think that way, need to act now and be annoyed at yourself later, she scolded herself as she exhaled a breath she hadn’t been aware of holding and lit her horn in preparation.
“Ah still don’t see nothin’,” Applejack said in frustration. “Whatcha think… you see anythin’ Dawn or Twi?”
“I think Twilight can see it,” Dawn said, looking askance at her. “And… is planning to fight it.”
“Tharalax,” Twilight said simply, eyes narrowing as she tapped into her bombardment spell somewhat relieved to find that it hadn’t been touched. It was costly, even for a unicorn with her reserves, but she knew that with the sheer volume she could throw with it, the immense Void dragon would find it hard to evade. And what if it’s not him?
She killed the spell as the thought wormed its way into her consciousness and her eyes narrowed again. The only time he got his claws dirty was before Elli and Delphine showed up, that reasonable voice pointed out. After Elli stabbed him, he immediately switched to using pawns. He’s stupid and arrogant, but he has to know she’s still here.
Doubt was apparently all it took; the onrushing visage of the Void dragon melted into the random patterns of magic that indicated an illusion at the precise instant that the ‘floor’ beneath her hooves heaved, tossing all four of the ponies off their feet as the roc gave a strangled squawk, swiftly turning into a ragged choking rattle.
“Aw, hay, he’s attackin’ our ride!” Applejack exclaimed as the floor began to shake with the frighteningly familiar rhythm of convulsions.
Twilight chewed her lip lightly, hesitating. I haven’t even done Dash’s “basics” she thought to herself, even as she stepped towards the platform over the roc’s head. Then again, “the basics” with Dash are pretty much everypony else’s advanced second year of flight school…
“Sis you’re not going to try to fly while you fight him,” Dawn stated bluntly. “Cuz that’d be totally irrational, what with your still-basic skills, and we’ve already fed a magical pony to a monster in the last six months… and you’re not listening to me, are you?”
“I won’t be alone,” Twilight assured her as she stepped onto the platform and felt her gut clench at how far away the ground looked. “That is, if you make sure the Drakes are following me. They’re the only other people with wings on this ride, except for the injured changelings.”
Before Dawn could remonstrate with her any further, Twilight snapped her wings open in the precise motion she’d been practicing at every opportunity with her stunt-flying friend, and sprung off the edge into the oblivion below. Like each time jumping off a cloud with a watchful Rainbow Dash monitoring her from the next cloud over, there was a momentary sensation of freefall; like when she’d finally been able to do it right consistently—a feat requiring just the right set of the wings and just the right arc in the jump—the aerodynamics of her wings and the aural magic that came with the pegasus part of being an alicorn caught her a split-second later, and she gave her wings a flap as she banked to face the Void dragon, her horn glowing anew with the bombardment spell and Nightmare’s mage-sight spell running at full power.
At first, what she was seeing made no rational sense. She could see Tharalax, but his form was almost transparent and appeared to be imposed over the convulsing roc. It was like he was… made of mist and shadow, she finished in her mind with a grimace. The Void dragon seemed entirely occupied with his prey, and was thus none the wiser until one of the ping pong ball sized spheres of magic impacted the edge of the misty outline. Tharalax roared in pain and the mist abruptly coalesced into his head and his fierce amber eyes, teeth bared in a snarl.
“You,” he growled. “Putting an end to you and your little companions is trying my patience, bastard. First the mewling Templar, then that arrogant parasite have stood in my way, but now… now they can do nothing.”
“Yer scorched hide would tend ta disagree, boyo,” Elli said as she launched herself over the side of the shaking platform, with Delphine right behind her. “An’ so would me sword, which is ever so eager ta…”
“Elli,” Delphine interrupted, pointing behind Tharalax’ head.
Elli followed her pointing claw and recoiled, turning away as Tharalax laughed smugly.
“Oh dear… I appear to have troubled your delicate constitution, Templar,” he jeered. “I thought you were supposed to be an army unto yourself, Elizabeth Drake.”
Elli turned back and glared, although her expression was faintly ill. “I don’t need an army ta deal with a two-bit second-stringer. C’mon, Evil… let’s see how ye face up ta a little mortal like me.”
“I think not,” he grinned widely, a malevolent chuckle underlying his words. “I have already won. Behold all that is left of your brave transport.”
As his form behind his head began to dissolve, Twilight’s breath caught in her throat. Previously concealed by the confused blending of the Void dragon’s form with the roc was that where literally a minute ago there was a massive, intelligent, speaking bird, there was now a convulsing mass of exposed organs and shedding feathers as very familiar black luminous energy rapidly dissolved its flesh away. Even in its death throes, the roc was clearly trying to remain aloft but as Tharalax dissipated up to his head, a loud crack signaled one of the dying bird’s wings snapping.
Suddenly, a disconnected dragon’s tail was there, propping the platform up and Tharalax’s grinning face and burning amber eyes floated closer. “From Tharalax, with love,” he sneered. “And now… fall, little ponies…” The tail and the rest of his head exploded into puffs of shadow and mist with one last hissed word.
“Fall!”
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Damn it Twi you should have taken the damn shot and apologized to spite later, if it was her. Now the poor roc got caught in the cross fire and everyone is in danger of the fall.
also Kill tharalax first then worry about the others falling to their deaths. cause if he interrupts your spell and kills ya before you can safely get the falling object to the ground their dead anyway.
also Twi you should fully trust Nightmare now.
3361521 I'm confused. What would someone be apologizing to Spite for?
3361534 I'm assuming Twilight hesitated because she realized she could have mistaken tharalax for spite. and hit her ally instead. so the better Idea though would have been to strike the shadow creature first then apologize if it was the wrong one.
but she didn't not the convoy is in deep water without any air bubbles to buoy them above the surface.
3361553 ...I have no idea what you're talking about... I think you're complimenting me, though.
3361757 Umm,,,, maybe I misread? It was a huge info wall. So that could be it.
Kitsune are my favorite mythological creature btw.
3361571 Okay, what i hope to see is Twilight ripping the void dragon to shreds, then grabbing it's soul and using it as a fuel source for a spell she then uses to save the others before they hit the ground.
Nice to see this updated again
3362074 Too late, he's run away.
3362159 Thanks. It was a long road.
Wow, one cliff-hanger to another with you huh? Hope to see another update again soon!
3362904 Already working on the next one! Lots and lots of Luna, who's taking the torch from Spite because Spite is chillin' in the lair of Moreau at the moment but the story must go on. Next one will be headcanon central as far as Luna/NMM goes. ^_^
3362211 Coward. Fine if he's run for the time beeing then just have twi cast a feather weight spell on the ship and have everyone spread out tarps making a ring of fabric wide enough to keep the tower from tilting and dumping everyone off.
3361823 Yes, you did misread. Despite the kitsunes being residents of a Helle, "Helles" are mere worlds, not the Christian place where sinners go.
3363209 Suggestion noted.
My Feels can't feel my Feels.
Is that bad?
I just Feelsed all over my floor, uhhh it sucks.
MOAR please.
3364011 o.o I'm glad it gave you teh feels. More incoming.
3364053 My brain could not compute and so that beautiful comment was born and...
I WANT MOAR AUNTIE NIGHTMARE!!!
3364997 Oh, you'll get her... even when she's not around, you'll get her. :)
Another great chapter!
3366236 *blushes intensely* Thanks!
3366070 Dawn and Twilight are the Must Have.
3366578 ...the "must have"...?
3366984 Meaning write faster damnit.
3368242 I am. First, you'll have to have some Luna and then some Trixie.
3368276 Please shit out a chapter on the 31st please.
3369469 >.< No.
3369707 Damn, oh well I asked.
3369874 Never, under any circumstances, will I EVER "shit out" a chapter.
3369985 Poor choice of words on my part.
But still Fluttershy says MOAR.
asdfghjkl; Yes an update!
BTW This story deserves more likes!
3411226 Thanks for saying so. :)
Is this story abandoned? :<
3815765 Of course not.
3815765 It's not abandoned but shortly after completing the last chapter, I acquired a very good pre-reader and editor for one of my other stories and I've been making as much use of him as I can, to the exclusion of this. Plus, the next chapter involves switching the perspective to a different character, and presents so many flashback and infodump opportunities that figuring out what to do when is proving immensely time-consuming.
Finally caught up on this story.
4133832 o.o Well, whatcha think?
4134502
Very good, though there are occasional little bouts of exposition that peek out from behind the storytelling that leave a nasty taste on my mouth. Though, with a story that draws upon as much lore and far-reaching fantasy as yours does, that's understandable.
Also, forgive me, but I don't really remember exactly why NMM is so radically different to what she used to be like. Was that ever really explained? Or am I just an idiot who hasn't been paying attention?
4134887 As I've always said, if you see something that leaves a bad taste, call it out. The scene where Twilight rips away 200 square feet of forest to warn off her attackers came from someone complaining about Twilight not getting to be a badass.
Her story hasn't yet been told although in Wanderer D's story "The Empty Room", it has something to do with the lingering influence of the Elements of Harmony. The thing is, NMM's story is many chapters away because I first have to get the Twilight/Dawn/Rarity/Applejack/Pinkie party to the changeling capitol.... which is where Nightmare promised to explain who she is and why she's different. In the next chapter that's scheduled for posting, however, there's some insight into what sort of pony she is through Luna's flashbacks about her.
4135009
Oh, ok :3
4135028 So if you see anything you hate or like or have ideas for, spit 'em out.
This story is great and you should feel great
)
Although, wasn't Twi a minor noble or something like that in TER? Or do I remember wrong? (She seems unused to the title Lady in this story. That wouldn't make sense if she's always had been a noble
A fun thing about the story is that I strongly disliked the "player" POV until you stopped with it, now I kinda miss it a bit...
Oh, when will the hiatus end?
4476501 I don't remember whether Twilight as a minor noble or not in TER although my opinion on the matter is that she's always been ill at ease about being called "lady" although she didn't hear it overly often as the bookworm of the minor nobility. Now that everyone knows she's an heir to the throne, though, she gets the title from EVERYPONY.
The player viewpoint is something I'm seriously considering editing out because it's interesting but seems to serve no purpose. It's only peripherally relevant to anything going on, and I think Spite's explanations do a better job in story. Whatcha think?
I'm slowly building up to ending the hiatus... the Luna-viewpoint chapter coming up is very hard to get right because of what it needs to accomplish.
Finally, if you feel like it, tell me what you like/dislike about any given chapter or story element. I love feedback because it makes my work better.
“Well... I shouldn't be surprised...” Rarity said after a moment. “You don't think that Twilight Sparkle is a normal unicorn, right?”
“Well duh!” Pinkie Pie pipped up. “Of course not, silly! She's the Element of Magic!”
The guards traded glances again. This was new to them.
“What I mean is... you didn't think she was a... common unicorn.”
“Honey, I think Pinkie Pie already pointed out that there is nothing common about Twilight Sparkle.” Applejack said gently. “If anything she is unusual.”
The unicorn whirled around to face away from the group. “Argh! How dense can...” Rarity grumbled and muttered incoherently to herself for a few seconds, then, taking a deep, calming breath and forcing a smile, she turned to face the others again. “Okay, let me spell it out for you... she is a N-o-b-l-e.”
This is a cutout from chapter 2 of the empty room (it's the old version, though; you would probably know if this is changed in the new version...)
is a Lady in this story. Wouldn't she be a princess too if she was the child of 
?
Oh and I've thought about the fact that
And yes, the fact that she doesn't like the title Lady is brought up; +1 point to you.
(in case this doesn't make sense, please refer to the earlier conversation; this is a reply. Kinda-sorta.)
Trixie gulped and shook loose of Big Macintosh's comforting grasp. “The Great and Powerful Trixie will not let you harm Princess Twilight.” She said, stepping shakily between the Nightmare and the purple pegasus. “Sh-she promised Princess Celestia.”
Yay, found this in The empty room.
(this is also a continuation on my earlier comments)
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Yes, I remembered that part of TER.
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How is that a continuation of your earlier comments? Because Trixie called Twilight "Princess"?
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Yes. She is called princess on multiple occasions; so isn't she a princess after all? (she's a lady in this story)
Well, the female child of a king and queen is a princess, so what's the female child of a princess? I thought the title "Lady" would be a safe one for what I was describing.
well. It was a surprisingly warm and sweet chapter. (unless of course you count the ending with the appearance of Tralax.) I knew that Chrysalis would appear sooner or later, but I thought that she would be an interesting and charismatic antagonist, not a cute ally :3
it is a pity that here Nightmare Moon did not tell how she managed to survive and get her own body after the end of the previous story. I wanted to start this chapter as soon as possible because I wanted to get these questions answered.
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All fair.