Chapter 14 - Reversion of Expectations
For Whom the Twilight Falls
Chapter 14 - Reversion of Expectations
Midnight screamed, threw things around, broke tables, threw more things, and yet, the stars refused to listen to her. Even her favorite constellation, Scorpius, had betrayed her.
Betrayed you? Twilight taunted, speaking in her mind. No, you betrayed them.
“Shut up!” She screamed, slamming her head into the wall. Twilight went quiet, but at the cost of her throbbing forehead. “What to do, what to do, what to do…”
She couldn’t challenge her enemies directly. If she did so, she’d be giving them chances to prove themselves worthy of the Elements. Already, Kindness had awoken. All that Element needed now was the pony and the receptacle, and Kindness would be ready to face her.
She would need something big.
Something that would wipe out as many of her enemies as possible in one fell strike.
But how?
She looked outside her window at the far distant speck of Ponyville, then her eyes strayed to the dark clouds above Canterlot. Flashing dark clouds. They were ready to storm upon the city, the weather ponies not daring to work at Canterlot anymore.
An idea formed in her mind.
No!
“Yes…” she savored the thought. “They’re going to be in one place. Perfect.”
And her laugh echoed throughout the castle as she began to perfect her plan.
“Why won’t they let us join in?” Celestia complained as she leaned on her sister, looking at the tree that was the Ponyville Library. “We were helping! Hey, even Chryssy’s in there.”
“Well, probably because they’re all world leaders, and we’re not, Celly,” Philomena sighed as she preened herself, perching on Celestia’s back. “We’re just bound to get in their way as they decide what the best plan of action against Midnight is. Remember, she’s one of the—”
“Most powerful alicorns, yadda yadda,” Celestia grumbled. “Whatever. We got numbers!”
“Only alicorn in commission,” Luna corrected. “Princess Sunset lost all her knowledge, Empress Flurry has an inhibitor ring they don’t know how to remove. She has the advantage of age and power. One wrong move, and she’ll wipe us out instantly.”
A sigh from Celestia. “Well, whatevs. Wanna get ice cream? Us kids can’t do anything, anyways.”
Then she had a thought. “Where’d Discord and Sombra go? I thought they were getting the gems we needed. Shouldn’t have taken this long, right? Should we go look for them?”
“No,” Philomena said firmly. “Absolutely not. Mother already banned us from entering the Everfree Forest. And if you don’t want her ratting us out to Princess Sunset about all the rule breaking we did under her tutorship, I can tell you, for one, I’m listening to her.”
“Ugh,” Celestia groaned as she leaned back, causing Philomena to squawk and flail in alarm as she flopped down to her back. The phoenix barely got clear as Celestia lay down. “This is boring!”
“Boring it might be, but we need to stay vigilant,” Luna reminded her sister. “We can’t rest until Midnight is taken care of. Every minute, we’re in danger of her attacking. She already sent the Ursas after us, we can assume that she’ll send more constellations.”
“Mhm. Then back to my first question. Ice cream?” Celestia asked grumpily.
“One of us needs to stay,” Philomena said. “Just in case something happens to the other two so they can tell the rest what we were doing.”
“I’ll stay, in that case,” Celestia sighed. “Grass is comfy anyways. Chocolate ice cream cone, thank you and goodbye.”
Philomena nodded. “We’ll be back before you know it!” She perched on Luna’s back, and the two teleported away towards Ponyville proper.
Celestia closed her eyes as she rested on the hill, her body relaxing into the soft grass as she thought about the events of the past few days. Even though she had complained about the current situation being boring, she knew that what had happened would be the highlight of her life. A mad alicorn taking over Equestria? Exploring the Everfree Forest? She had experienced so many things that she likely would never go through again.
And she was a little saddened by the fact. Sure, she wanted everything to go back to normal, and creatures to not get hurt anymore, but studying eternally didn’t seem like something she wanted to do, unlike her sister. She wanted to do something important for Equestria, something that would put smiles on creatures’ faces.
And right now, she was doing just that. She wanted to help Equestria. To bring about a better dawn for every creature. And what better way than to help defeat the mad alicorn making everyone’s lives miserable?
Then her nose twitched.
That smell…the smell every pegasus would know.
That sharp electrifying scent, the ozone evident.
But this one was strong.
She opened her eyes in alarm to look at the skies. A giant storm was gathering, but not any normal storm.
It was a tornado being gathered by a single figure.
Lightning crackled, even as the alicorn in the spinning tornado gathered more clouds and wind with her magic, the cloud in the middle getting heavier and darker. And right below it? The Ponyville Library.
Midnight’s plan was evident to Celestia. She was going to summon a large lightning bolt to destroy the tree, possibly the largest to be ever summoned, then unleash the tornado to destroy whoever remained. And because of the important meeting that was happening, they had cast a noise canceling spell. None of the occupants would see the lightning bolt coming, even if they looked out the window, for they would assume it was a normal storm.
She rose to her hooves, determined to warn the occupants of the tree.
Then, Midnight was there beside her. Celestia jumped at the appearance of the alicorn, alarm written all over her expression. The alicorn simply smiled and did a shushing motion.
“Let it happen,” she said with a benevolent smile that sickened Celestia. “They are a plague on our world, a disease. If they’re gone, no one will miss them. I will rebuild a better, stronger Equestria.”
“No!” Celestia shouted as she began to run for the tree. “I won’t—”
“You want to make Equestria a better place, don’t you?”
Those words stopped Celestia in her tracks. “What?”
“You want Equestria to smile, right?” Midnight coaxed. “I can do that. Once these bugs are off my land, I can begin to rebuild. And best of all, you’ll be right there. As one of my Princesses. Your sister can join us too, if she wants. I don’t have the strength to raise the sun and moon, along with governing the land all day. You and your sister can help! You could be Sun, your sister Moon. They’re your Marks, aren’t they?”
Celestia hesitated and looked at her flank, where the Sun was.
“Let them fall,” Midnight said soothingly. “Let it happen. Equestria will be all the better for it! I know I made a lot of cruel decisions, but Sunny never told you the full story, did she? Equestria and her turned their backs on me. Neglected me after all I did for them. Look at the history books. You know I’m right. Why else are there gaps?”
“I brought Knowledge to this world,” she said softly. “I arranged the stars, I created books, I lit up the way for the Lost. And what did they do? Abandon me and praise Princess Sunset for everything I did. You can make it right. They won’t feel pain. I promise. Then you and I can begin to rebuild a better Equestria.”
Celestia’s thoughts were racing.
They…abandoned her?
“Just take my hoof,” Midnight offered her silver armored hoof to Celestia. “And I’ll spirit you to Canterlot, along with your sister and phoenix. If you want, I’ll spare even the changeling princess. Just say the word.”
Just…say the word…
“What say you?” Midnight smiled. “Will you join me in creating a better Equestria?”
“No.”
Midnight’s expression twisted. “What did you say?”
“I said no, monster,” Celestia snarled. “Maybe Princess Twilight felt abandoned. But it was her that did all those things for Equestria, not you. She was the one who lit up the darkness for us. You’re just bringing more of it to darken our land. You don’t deserve our love. We do need to apologize for our behavior a thousand years ago, but not to you.”
Midnight’s face was full of hatred. Then the frown lines faded and she giggled madly. “No matter! The storm’s almost done, and you won’t break through my barrier before the lightning bolt unleashes!”
Celestia turned quickly, and to her dismay, there was a glittering barrier between her and the tree.
“Since you denied my proposal, you’ll watch as your friends all die,” Midnight hissed. “And one more thing? I teleported your sister and pet phoenix into that tree. They’ll be too busy figuring out how they got there to figure out what’s going on outside. You’ll be the last of them all. I’ll find you once they fall. And you’ll live forever in my dungeons, knowing you could’ve prevented many, many deaths.”
With a pop of magic, she teleported away, the ghost of a laugh hanging in the wind.
Celestia was at a loss of what to do.
She couldn’t warn the occupants of the tree.
She wasn’t strong enough to stop the storm.
What did it matter that she refused the offer? Her loyalty would be the death of her friends.
Then, an idea came to her.
She couldn’t stop the storm.
But she could be the target of it.
And so she flapped her wings as hard as she could, heading straight for the storm in the skies. Her wings pumped as she flew as fast as she could possibly manage, even as the dark cloud in the middle began to glow. The lightning bolt was coming.
And just as the light flashed and thunder boomed, she reached the airspace above the tree.
Lightning struck her.
Celestia screamed as the electricity flooded into her body, burning her fur, seared through her bones.
She felt the pain, and could do nothing but scream.
Then it was done.
Her wings spasmed, before giving out. Her eyes closed.
And Celestia fell, a smoking pink maned pegasus, dropping down.
She felt gentle claws catch her.
And her eyes creaked open a little and saw the mismatched eyes of the draconequus she had eventually come to know as a friend.
Discord was back.
His eyes were full of anger as he snapped his claws, and the barrier broke apart into cotton candy. Ponies and creatures rushed out the tree at the sound of the breaking barrier, only to gasp and point in horror as Discord slowly floated down with Celestia in his arms.
“CELESTIA!”
Celestia barely heard the cry of her sister as her eyes closed once more.
It was getting painful to breathe.
Her world was getting darker, but she could see light.
She reached for the light.
“NO!” Philomena.
“STAY WITH US, MY STUDENT! AID IS COMING!” Princess Sunset.
“CELLY, NO!” Chrysalis.”NO, PLEASE!”
Then the sounds faded away, the pain blissfully disappearing as Celestia fell into an endless void.
Midnight was back in the tower, watching the faraway clouds glow as their charge was prepared.
The lightning struck, and she threw her head back to laugh.
Then she felt it. A wave of Harmony pulsing through the tower.
It could only mean one thing.
“NO!” she roared as she spun around. One of the Elements was glowing a bright pink.
Loyalty.
“NO!” Even as she spun around to look at the tree again, she knew her plan had failed. The foolhardy pegasus who had refused her offer had stood in her way. “SHE—”
Harmony always prevails, Twilight whispered in her ear. No matter how much you try to put it down, Harmony will always be there. Don’t worry, Midnight. Soon, we’ll be trapped on the moon together again, where you’ll be unable to hurt anyone. They’re coming for you. You just hurt one of their most beloved friends.
Midnight tore her eyes away from the tree, ignoring the voice in her head.
She had to act fast. Armies would be coming for her.
That meant she would need an army of her own.
Stats
Page generated in 0.015 seconds
Total duration
945 users online
1,218,506 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
UPDATEEEEE!
Love the chapter!
You can just taste the dramatic irony. Or that may be the ozone.
Yeah, villainous taunting never goes well in the long run. Midnight's only hurting herself with all her enraged thrashing. Though the question of where she'll get that army likely doesn't have any pleasant answers for anyone involved.
GAH! You can't just drop a cliffhanger like that!
I'm not actually mad, I'm just pretending for dramatic effect.
Great chapter worth the wait
There goes Celestia... Fs in the chat.
thanks for your update! keep it up :3
Ohmygosh what a chapter!!! I hope Tia's okay!
Midnight really is kinda bad at this whole evil overlord thing