• Published 10th Jul 2011
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The Empty Room - Wanderer D



An ancient enemy; a family secret; a plot to overthrow the Princesses...

  • ...
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Chapter 7 (Original)

The Empty Room

Chapter 7

By Wanderer D

Luna and the others arrived to the hall where Celestia had been mourning the loss of her daughter and her student. The four guards left to guard the entrance, a pair of pegasi and a pair of earth ponies had not even known what hit them.

One moment they were turning to face them, the next they were nothing but scorched skeletons crumbling onto the burning hall. Had Luna not sensed the magic buildup, her shield would have not come up in time to protect the remaining Elements of Harmony and the Wonderbolt from sharing the guards’ fate.

From the smoldering hall two figures trotted out calmly, drawing gasps from the group. Celestia herself was imposing. Her coat wasn't a simple white... it seemed to be made out of white flames... depending on her movements traces of yellow or orange seemed to flash around her, making it look like the flames were constantly licking her body. Her wings shone with searing light, her mane was the blue-white of a new star, her horn was wickedly sharp... Her Regalia had changed into a platinum white, with an orange opal in the middle. Also made of platinum, her crown had morphed into a half helm, much like the one that Nightmare Moon had originally worn, increasingly larger spikes ran from the tip of her snout to just before her horn... but even then, although she looked mightier and harsher than before, it was her companion that drew the attention of the ponies accompanying Luna.

“T-twilight?” Applejack asked, eyes wide.

Their friend stood next to the Princess... changed. Her light purple coat was now darker by a few shades, her purple mane had darkened to almost black, and the lighter light on it had been replaced by a deep red. Her horn extended from a scar on her forehead, twice as long as before, and sharper. Her hoofs were pitch black, her cutie mark remained almost the same... except that it looked... malevolent. The normally straight edges of her mark had been replaced by wavy curves that reminded the ponies of blades, her irises were a swirl of red and lavender.

She smiled, tiny fangs making her look even more feral. “That's me alright, Applejack.”

“B-but it can't be you...” Rainbow Dash stammered. “You died!”

“I got better.” Twilight answered, trotting up to the pegasus and whispering in her ear. “Much, better.”

The pegasus shivered as her ear twitched from the feel of her friend's breath on it, as much as the feeling of Twilight's coat against hers.

“Twilight Spark.” Celestia said to her, looking down just slightly. “Don't you have something to tell your friends?”

“Spark?” Rarity asked. “But...”

“Sparkle was okay,” Twilight interrupted. “for a filly... but I am a full grown mare now, as you can see. A better name seemed... appropriate.”

Applejack shook her head slowly, tears welling up in her eyes as she stepped up and hugged her friend. “Sugarcube, you can call yourself Twilight Pastel for all I care... It's good to have you back.”

She felt Twilight hug her back and she closed her eyes. Her friend was back. Changed, true, but back. It was then that she felt Twilight's tongue on her neck.

Her eyes snapped open and she pulled away, staring in shock at her friend. “Twilight!”

“What?” the librarian asked. “You know you've always wanted that, Applejack... I'm not afraid to go all the way now.”

“Twilight.” Celestia's voice was laden with power.

“Yes, Mistress.” Twilight said, her smile disappearing as she faced her friends. Her eyes sparkled with mischief when Applejack wouldn't meet her gaze. “I welcome you all to the new rule of Queen Nightmare Flare. As loyal subjects that you are, you are all welcome to take your rightful places at our side...”

“Nightmare Flare?!” Luna growled. “What type of magic did you delve into sister?” her eyes, which had never drifted from the Princess-now-Queen, settled on Twilight. “Was your student really worth destroying all you have built?”

A blast of energy slammed Luna against the far wall. Nightmare Flare calmly walked up to her. “Do you even have to ask?” her voice was cold. “I lost a filly once, I'm not losing another one!”

“How many times, sister?” Luna asked, her voice barely a ragged whisper despite her shock at how much her sister had loved Twilight Sparkle. “How many times did we remind each other that death had to remain an absolute, despite our love for our friends and subjects? How many times during centuries... millennia even, did we swallow our tears and thought of those alive first, before our selfishness could corrupt us?”

Nightmare Flare sniffed in contempt. “You are one to talk, sister. But, I am not corrupt. If I were, would I be offering you your rightful title as Queen of the Night?”

Luna was taken aback. “What?”

“I don't care for more power, I have all I need, but I do care about balance. Join me. Rule the Night Eternal as I rule the Endless Day. They can exist at the same time. We can be the Goddesses that we truly are and rule and care for our subjects personally without worrying about mindless celestial bodies.”

“I...” Luna shook her head. “That is the purpose of our existence! To bring balance to each other, to limit our power to the benefit of those that...”

“Please.” Nightmare Flare growled. “I fed you that crap long enough.” her eyes narrowed. “I see that I was mistaken... it is not you that I need. I need my real sister. The real Queen of the Night.” she took a menacing step towards Luna, who struggled to get up.

“Y-you don't mean...” the black alicorn gasped.

“Yes.” Nightmare Flare grinned. Her horn alight once more. “I need you, my sister... to be my equal! I need Nightmare Moon!”

Nightmare Flare's eyes shone with an inner light as her horn's glow increased. Luna gasped as she felt familiar trails of energy course through her body.

“B-but... that's impossible! The Elements of Harmony...”

“Did nothing more than contain your true nature, as I foolishly expected them to, sister.” the former Celestia answered. “I see now the error of my ways, and that you were the wiser of the both of us.”

“No!” Luna struggled, vaguely aware of the remaining Elements raising their voices and attempting to get past Twilight. “You did the right thing! You've been blinded by grief, sister! Don't do this!”

She gasped as the energy tried to force its way through her towards her center. She closed her eyes and braced herself, her soul fighting the enchantment every inch as it made its way inevitably to that... core that she knew shouldn't be there anymore. She couldn't pay attention to the physical world as this battle continued. Her world became bathed in soft moonlight.

An alicorn made of flames was diving down towards the edge of her subconscious and she charged it, batting it away. The flame-mare turned around, charging towards her, horn trailing energy behind it.

They clashed, sending waves of energy flashing around them. Luna struggled with all her considerable might, but her sister's avatar slowly pushed her back into the dark subconscious... and once there... she shuddered.

Inch by inch she was pushed back. For every flare of energy she mustered, her sister would imbue more power into her attack... and Luna was considerably out of shape for a battle like this. She had not recuperated completely from the Elements freeing her of Nightmare Moon.

She had already crossed the threshold into the subconscious, pushed back farther still as the avatar pressed her back and further back in. She could feel the area where the dark 'core' had been so long ago, and to her horror found that it was not completely gone... diminished, yes, but not gone.

“Don't give up!” a blue orb of light shouted with Rainbow Dash's voice. “You can win, Luna!” the blue orb settled over her right wing.

“That's right! Don't let the flaming-baddie-Mcmeanniepants win!” Pinkie-Orb said, showering her in pink light.

“Aren't you alicorns supposed to represent all of us? Then you're part Earth Pony too! No self-respecting Earth Pony will be pushed back by a unicorn!” An orange light, strong and vibrant said to her right, with a whispered “No offense, Rarity.” follow-up.

“None taken dear.” A white light orb said to her left. “We unicorns do have more stylish ways of dealing with ruffians.” the white orb hovered around the avatar for a second before returning to Luna's side. “But she does have a point, Luna. You do represent us all! Even more so than your sister at this point!”

“Um...” a yellow orb of light, at times as big as the others, at times smaller floated up to her left wing. “We are all here for you... if... if you want, that is, Luna.”

“W-what happened to 'Princess'?” Luna half joked, almost buckling under the pressure.

“What?!” Rainbow-orb bopped up and down. “After all we went through when we met we should have been speaking on first-name-basis since Everfree Forest!”

“Although it wouldn't have been proper to do so in front of others...” Rarity-orb said.

“So what?” Applejack-orb asked. “If we're her friends we can talk to her however we want!”

“You... think of me as a friend?” Luna asked, touched and honestly flattered.

“Of course we do, sugarcube.” Applejack-orb said. “Why do you think we're here right now?”

“But weren't you outside?”

“Um... I guess you could say our thoughts have always been with you? … maybe? I-if you like, that is... never mind...”

“I'm more confused as to why we can talk this much in the middle of the fight!” Rarity-orb said. “It's not normal!”

“Yes... that is strange.” Luna agreed. Despite the fact that she was still struggling to hold her sister's avatar back, there had been no sudden influx of power to push her back, in fact the avatar seemed to be staring at something.

“That's because talking is a free action!” Pinkie-Orb giggled.

Luna blinked, and for a moment the orbs around her seemed to do the same. “No... it's something else...”

“It's me.” another voice said. Luna's eyes widened comically at the purple orb of light that floated between her and the avatar.

“Twilight Sparkle?!”

o.0.o

The five ponies from Ponyville looked in horror as the twisted Princess Celestia battled Princess Luna. Both alicorns were covered in auras of energy that pressed against each other. Nightmare Flare had a fierce smile as her eyes blazed with energy, her form towering over the cringing Luna, who had closed her eyes and and was frowning in deep concentration.

“This is not good.” Applejack muttered.

“We have to stop them!” Rarity said.

“But how?!” Spitfire asked.

“We've done it before!” Rainbow Dash said, turning her eyes towards Twilight and drawing a startled gasp from Spitfire. “We stopped Nightmare Moon once, we can do it again!”

“You stopped Nightmare Moon?!” the Wonderbolt looked incredulously at the other ponies in the room.

“It was supposed to be a secret!” Applejack growled. “But we don't have much of a choice now.” she looked back towards the others. Rarity and Pinkie Pie nodded resolutely. Fluttershy also nodded, although a bit hesitantly. Applejack's eyes slowly turned towards the last Element. “Will you help us, Twilight?”

The unicorn looked thoughtfully from one pony to the next. “No.”

“What?!” Rainbow Dash shouted, flying to stand nose to nose with Twilight Spark. “What do you mean 'no'? You know perfectly well that-”

“That I would still be dead if she hadn't awakened?” Twilight Spark's eyes were stone-cold. The pegasus, suddenly feeling very unsure wanted to look away from her, but she was held fast in place by that stare. “You want me to betray my teacher and mentor?”

“I...” Rainbow Dash faltered.

Suddenly she found herself shoved out of the way. She released a breath she didn't know she had been holding and looked up to see Fluttershy of all ponies returning a Stare at Twilight Spark.

“Don't you DARE use the Stare on your friends! What are you thinking! You know this is wrong Twilight Sparkle! You and I talked once about the power of the Stare!”

Twilight Spark was first surprised, then confused. “We did?”

Fluttershy blinked as she looked deep into the unicorn's eyes. “We did. Don't you remember?”

Twilight Spark stepped back. “I... I...” she looked really confused and for a second... scared. But then anger returned in full. “So what if we talked about it?! I don't care! I will not betray my Queen!”

Her horn fired up and a wave of energy threw all ponies flying. “You will not stop Nightmare Moon from coming back!

“We'll have to stop her too!” Applejack said, jumping to her hoofs quickly.

“But... we won't have all six Elements of Harmony...” Rarity said, as her horn created a shield that blocked the skeleton Twilight had levitated and thrown their way.

“We'll have to try! Maybe we can cleanse Twilight first! It's bound to be easier than cleansing Celestia without the Element of Magic!” the Earth Pony retorted, a golden choker decorated with an apple made out of ruby appearing around her neck. Similar chokers, each matching the cutie marks of the other ponies appeared as they all stood and faced Twilight Spark.

Auras of their respective colors formed around them, their backlash dispersing every spell Twilight threw at them. The panicking unicorn starting to throw bigger objects at them to no avail.

Their auras suddenly extended and enveloped the unicorn, who gasped in pain as the multicolored light destroyed her defenses.

“We're doing it!” Fluttershy cheered as the light formed a familiar rainbow wall around the transformed unicorn.

Suddenly a hoof hit her in the face, sending her sprawling and breaking her concentration. Before the others could react, a back kick almost dropped Rarity right then and there, Pinkie Pie was barely able to dodge a follow up. Their assailant then tackled Rainbow Dash to the floor.

Their attack shattered and Twilight Spark wasted no time in casting a spell that had Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie on their bellies, as if a huge weight had suddenly dropped on them. Fluttershy looked up from her prone position, head reeling to stare at their attacker.

“S-Spitfire!” Rainbow Dash growled, trying unsuccessfully to raise her head more than enough to turn it towards the other pegasus. “What the hay are you doing!”

The pegasus smiled. “I'm protecting my Queen, of course.” from within her wings she drew out a small silver chain with an amulet on it. “It is the sacred duty of the Council of Nightmares to bring both sisters to their full power.”

“But... it doesn't make sense!” Rainbow Dash said, the hurt and betrayal in her voice obvious to all around.

“Don't worry Dash.” Spitfire said leaning close to the angry pegasus' ear. “You'll understand soon enough.”

Twilight Spark, horn glowing and enlarging her spell to cover Fluttershy, approached Spitfire. “You serve Queen Nightmare Flare then?”

“And Queen Nightmare Moon.” the red-maned pegasus nodded. “With all my being.”

Twilight Spark smiled. “Good. Then...”

“At last!” Nightmare Flare's voice was victorious. The five ponies on the floor turned to look in horror as Luna was surrounded by a dark blue energy. The transformed Queen stepped back as her sister, seemingly unconscious, floated up to hover in front of her. Slowly the energy formed a familiar shape.

Fluttershy closed her eyes and whimpered. Rarity and Pinkie Pie shared worried glances.

“Oh no...” Applejack groaned, barely even able to see what was happening past Twilight's hooves.

Rainbow Dash didn't say anything, bitter tears welling in her eyes.

Nightmare Moon slowly stood up as Nightmare Flare stepped back to allow her some space. The dark alicorn opened her eyes and turned them towards the Elements of Harmony.

o.0.o

After an awkward discussion about what had happened to her at the Guardian's maws, Trixie had allowed Big Macintosh to pull her wagon. Although she could have carried on, it was starting to tax her magic, and she had noticed that she had started to lose opacity.

“You rest,” the strong pony had said in a kind but firm tone. “I'm used to pulling, and you'll need your strength once we reach Canterlot.”

Trixie had nodded with a grateful and shy smile, but upon remembering that he could not see her had sighed and used her flash powder to write: THANK YOU. I REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR HELP, BIG MACINTOSH.

The stallion blushed, a pleased smile adorning his face as he simply nodded.

The comfortable silence and steadfast companionship had calmed Trixie a bit and she had finally asked herself the question that she had avoided since she had been exposed as a liar by Twilight Sparkle and her friends.

She had blamed the whole thing on her. Even the fact that the Ursa Minor had attacked the town, when it had really been the two colts fans she had egged on about her greatness. And really, what had she done the last few years with her life? She had gone from city to city, town to town antagonizing the locals if they questioned her. Her repertoire was impressive enough, but she had decided to... embellish it with added bravado and the stories became more extravagant as time went past.

The fact that she could defend herself from and defeat multiple opponents by doing things 'better' than them gave credibility to her claims to more gullible ponies.

But if she was truly honest with herself, she had not really done anything better than the other ponies. She had just taken advantage of their exploits which usually left them a bit winded, as would often happen when excitable ponies tried to make a show of their skills.

Had she flown better than that blue pegasus with the ridiculous rainbow hair? No. She had just used her illusion skills to use the rainbow she had created with her skills against her.

Perhaps she could claim that she had done better than the farmer mare with rope-tricks, but again, that would depend on what was being judged. Had she attempted to pull the same trick physically, well, she would have been as effective at that as the Earth Pony would have been at trying her hoof at magic.

And what of the musician in Fillydelphia? Or that gunslinger in Appleloosa?

She sighed. She had done so much to escape from the ghosts of her past. She had ran away from home and dropped out of school to forge her own way; find herself. She had wanted to prove to her father that she was perfectly capable of achieving much in her life, even surpass him, without the comforts of a life where everything was given to her. And in the end she had failed miserably, she had been pathetic enough to ask her father for help not expecting anything but scorn... and the bastard had actually bought her a new stage wagon. There had been a letter too, but it remained unopened.

“Way to leave the ghosts of the past behind, Great and Powerful Trixie.” she muttered.

She looked down at Big Mac, faithfully helping her despite her reputation in Ponyville. She wished she could walk next to him and talk without the impersonal and draining spells to create words of fire. She wished she could just forget about the whole thing and cuddle with him and tell him all of her secrets, good and bad... because she knew he wouldn't hate her or think less of her. Being a ghost sucked. Being a ghost looking back on her life and finding that it was less than adequate sucked a- she felt something.

She tried to clear her mind. Underneath her the wagon creaked and the wheels crushed twigs, pebbles scraped under the weight of the wagon. Big Macintosh's steady pace echoed in the empty night. What had she felt?

Her attention turned towards Canterlot. There... no. It wasn't Canterlot exactly... it was under it.

BIG MACINTOSH... PLEASE TURN RIGHT HERE TOWARDS THE PATH.

Big Mac looked at the small path that Trixie had pointed out. It seemed old. And it was clearly not the way to go to get to Canterlot, in fact, from what he could see under the moonlight, it went straight into the cliff under the castle.

Without a word he started down the old path. Trixie probably knew something he didn't.

Trixie smiled. Truly smiled and if the world could have seen her, she wouldn't have cared. Despite all her failings, her attitude problems, her current situation... Big Macintosh's company and -dare she say it?- friendship had made her realize what she had been missing all this time.

It hadn't been staring at her in the face all this time, but it had popped up to pull at her hat and she had ignored it time and again.

But she had found it. And she would never let go.

o.0.o End Chapter 7 o.0.o