Chapter 1

Everfree Castle… Hoo boy, Everfree Castle. I wasn’t there the first time the girls went, but I saw something in their eyes when they got back. Too much death. They were happy then, but that place broke them eventually. I handled Twilight, and Pinkie found her friend, Dash and AJ found comfort in each other, even Rarity found comfort in Sweetie Belle.
Fluttershy didn’t, and I suppose that should have been the first hint she was hiding a few things…
-Spike of House Sparkle, Guardian of the Vaults

The group of fourteen ponies stood on the edge of the cliff, looking across the mist-filled chasm at the crumbling ancient castle opposite their position. Despite its age, and what they had seen the rest of the week previous, Castle Everfree was easily one of the creepiest buildings that they had ever seen in their lives.

Torn, faded banners emblazoned with the sun and moon, were visible... Though only through collapsed walls. It seemed as though the entire outside of the castle had been drowned in flames at some point in the distant past, scorching everything but the solid stone walls themselves to cinders. Massive stained-glass windows had been shattered, their images lost forever, but the glass still at the edges had been sanded smooth by age and wind.

One of the towers adjacent to the main dining hall had collapsed, flattening an eighth of the castle underneath it, yet retaining enough structural integrity that it survived the fall, leaving the rooms of the tower angled sideways in the wake of the dining halls' untimely destruction. The great iron doors of the front entrance had been reclaimed by moisture and vines, and had been pulled down to rust before the doorway, which, with its own iron fixtures, resembling a bleeding, infected wound more than anything architectural. The stone bridge that was meant to cross the chasm had had some unknown calamity befall it, and now it was simply absent, presumably now consisting solely of a pile of bleached rubble sitting underneath the mist below.

"It's a bit of a fixer-upper." Stated the pudgy pink pony, who was standing near the center of the group, attempting to lighten the atmosphere of dread that had slowly been accumulating as they trekked through the forest for the past week.

A sky-blue Pegasus, with wings bruised and battered and the rest of her even moreso, sighed. "Pinkie?"

"Yes, Dashie?" The pink pony had fared a bit better, though one of her saddle-bags of supplies had been completely lost and the other was a hair away from being completely empty. Her repurposed pink skating ensemble was even looking a bit ragged at the edges.

"Time and a place, alright? Not now." Without waiting for an answer, she pointed across the chasm. "Twilight? That looks like a rope bridge. Not nearly as old as the rest of the place, but definitely in pieces. I'm gonna see if I can't find the rest and fix it for you ground-pounders."

"I see it, but Rainbow, don't... Dammit." The purple unicorn watched as Dash glided over to the chasm's opposite side, and the mist seemed to close behind her. A yellow Pegasus, wearing a scarf wrapped around her so much it may as well have been called a toga by now, turned to her.

"If you'd like, I could probably go after her, Twilight."

Twilight tilted her head back and clenched her eyes shut, exhaling a cloud of vapor into the frigid air. She wore a simple coat, that extended back into a long, plain skirt, though it had been torn during the past week of trudging through the Everfree forest. “No. No, but thank you, Fluttershy. That’s what I have guards for.”

“Okay,” Fluttershy said, shrinking back alongside a white unicorn, who was visibly shivering. It wasn’t hard to see why; her once-fancy evening dress had been brutally disassembled by the mare herself, and used to patch up everypony’s own clothes at some point or another. Fluttershy delicately spread a wing out around Rarity, forgoing appearances simply to keep her friend warm.

Applejack, an orange earth pony, had nearly the opposite problem. She had brought an article of clothing borrowed hastily from her grandmother—a wool shawl—and it had proven laughably ineffective several days in. A good portion of Rarity’s dress had gone into making it weather-worthy, paired with Applejack’s stetson. The mare in question, however, couldn’t stop toying with it.

With a cough, a sturdy-looking sage green stallion with a chin one usually saw on the heroes of penny dreadfuls moved to Twilight’s side. He wore a bright red officer’s uniform, and a wool undershirt under that, and then had a set of rippling muscles underneath all of that. “Ma’am? Would you like me to send Lieutenant Iron Feather after Miss Dash?”

Twilight glanced back at him, weighing the pros and cons within milliseconds. “Not yet, Major Gilded Blade. But instruct your troops to listen for sounds of conflict. Then they can freely assist.”

The Major nodded, turning to face his troops. “All of you get that?” A chorus of “Ayes,” followed from the guards, who had taken up defensive positions around the herd, and were watching the tree line.

With that settled, and with nothing left to do but wait, Twilight’s thoughts settled on the Major. She could be forgiven, after all, for making contingency plans in the event that their primary plan—stop Nightmare Moon, and bring back Celestia, and by extension, the sun—failed miserably.

He was, she decided, a desirable breeding partner in the event that they could escape. Leaned a bit far towards strength as opposed to Intelligence, in her opinion, but she’d always had a predilection towards military stallions. Likely due to some freudian reason involving her brother, however little she wished to dwell on the fact. Of course, it was possible she’d misjudged him, as he was from a noble family of Swordsponies, and he’d graduated at the top of his class… She’d have to look into it, she decided.

Her thoughts were interrupted as Dash re-appeared, holding the end of the rope bridge in shaky hooves. “Dash? Are you alright?”

The pegasus paused as her hooves tried to tie a knot around a wooden stake, only for the knot to unravel. Applejack stepped in for her, as Dash hovered nervously, looking back along the rope length.

Gritting her teeth, she simply stated, “Giant fake bee illusion. Afraid of bees. Wasn’t gonna leave you all in the dust. Don’t wanna talk about it.”

Below her, Applejack finished tying off the bridge, and motioned for Dash to hover lower. As soon as she did, both Pinkie and Applejack gave her a hug, and Rainbow finally landed, clinging to Applejack as she began to obsessively preen. "It's all right, sugarcube, the bees ain't real."

A sky blue down feather stuck to her muzzle as she glanced up. It shook in sync with her breathing and her words. "Yeah, well... Yeah."

Pinkie poked her own muzzle. "You got a little something-"

Dash inhaled, sucking the feather up her nose by accident, before sneezing it back out.

"Yep! You got it!"

The Major snorted. "The bridge is stable, miss Dash?"

Dismissively, Rainbow waved a hoof at the ropes. "If you call a centuries-old rope bridge that's already collapsed once 'stable."

The Major sighed, and turned to his squad. "Right. Squad, double up with the civilians. In case it snaps, I want each Pegasus to be catching Somepony. Understand? We'll go in groups of four, considering Miss Moray's nervous deposition."

Fluttershy nodded. "Thank you."

The first group set out, consisting of Gilded Wing accompanying Twilight, Rainbow accompanying Applejack, Fluttershy quietly behind Rarity, and another Guard Pegasus, named Iron Feather, leading Pinkie Pie. Providing overwatch from above was Jet Pinion, the team's 'Mullet', or Markspony, with a Cloudsdale Needle Rifle braced against her shoulder.

The first group passed across the bridge without incident, and glanced around as Iron Feather and Gilded Wing flew back through the mist to assist the others across. This side of the bridge had been fortified, presumably before its destruction, with a pair of square stone watchtowers. Grooves for a door that didn't exist were cut into the sides facing each other, while only a few stones remained of the cobble path leading up the short hill to the castle. Jet silently fluttered atop the left tower to watch from there, as the right tower had half-collapsed into the chasm.

"So, Twilight, we got a plan for once we get inside? Or are we just gonna wing it?"

Twilight glared at Dash, and her freshly-preened wings. "Ha ha. Yes, I have a plan. I told you girls about the Elements of Harmony?" They all nodded.

Pointing with her hoof at the castle, Twilight continued, "Well, Princess Celestia didn't have them in Canterlot. I think she may have just left them here."

Rarity quirked an eyebrow. "May have, my dear?"

Twilight paused, her tail flicking from side to side. "Look, I..." Her gaze passed across the five ponies before her, each as travel-weary and bedraggled as the last. The night had not been kind. Only Pinkie wore a smile, and it was clearly a tired one.

She gulped. "If I'm wrong... We may not come back. And it may be too late to save Celestia, even if we somehow succeed..."

Applejack gently whapped her with her hat. "Lan'sakes, quit talkin' like we're already doomed! We're still walkin' and we're still talkin', ain't we? Now lesgo, afore the whole danged world freezes over!”

Twilight sighed. “Good.” She turned to the guards, who were approaching across the bridge. “Major. I assume you have a plan for storming the castle?"

Every pony, whether guard or civilian, looked expectantly at the Major. "Of course," he replied. "You mentioned that once we arrived, we should try and locate the Elements of Harmony. Any plan beyond that? Any idea how they work?"

Her ears drooped. “No. All we have is the prophecy.”

“In that case, stay in formation. We’ve been slacking on the way here, because we’ve just had to deal with crazed wildlife, but now we’re facing a real military threat. Simple unit cohesion should give them at least a little pause.”

“Got it. We’ll be safe behind your boys.”

With a sigh, the Major nodded again. “Very well. That being said, what point of entry takes your fancy?”

Twilight turned back to the castle, evaluating the myriad of entrances and exits. “I’d say… I’d say Nightmare Moon clearly knows we’re coming, if she’s not watching us now. We’ll go right in the front door, so if we have to fall back we’ll know it’s clear. It should be the easiest way in and out.”

The Major glanced at the rusty frame himself. “Not what I would’ve picked, Ma’am, but I can see your point.” He whistled, and his troops fell into formation around the herd once more.

Moving into the entrance hall, both the guards and Twilight kept their heads on a swivel. The guards, watching for threats in every shadow, and Twilight, mentally trying to catalogue every archaeological item of interest. It was a quickly-growing list, and so far included nearly everything in sight, from the bricks (ancient Equestrian masonry styles) to the tapestries (probably lost works of art).

However, the hundreds of years left unattended had taken their toll on the castle's exterior, and when that began to crumble and collapse, it began taking bites out of the interior as well. Even the stability and preservation spells, laid carefully over nearly any government building since before this castle was built, had began to fold in on themselves. The carpet, once a glorious red from Saddle Arabia, had been rained and snowed on for a millenium, and barely existed as a grey trail past most of the rubble. The wooden supports holding up the ceiling had termites, and those that hadn’t collapsed outright were sitting at a distressingly skewed angle, considering the sheer weight of the shingles sitting atop them.

Twilight clicked her tongue, and the Major followed her gaze. “This may have been a mistake.” She whispered, afraid that speaking too loudly might bring the roof down on their heads.

“Unlike the bridge, this has stayed up for a long, long time,” The Major said, speaking quietly beside himself. “When this room falls, we’ll have plenty of warning.”

A creak from above preceded a shower of wood dust, which landed on Pinkie. Her eyes screwed up as she tried desperately not to sneeze. She failed.

“Achoo!”

Everypony cringed, dropping to their knees and watching the ceiling for signs of structural damage. In their heads, they knew a sneeze wouldn’t do much… But it was Pinkie they were talking about.

Blinking, Pinkie said, “Guys? No twitchy tail. I think we’re good.” While this just earned a confused look from Twilight and her guards, everypony else breathed a sigh of relief. Shrugging, they continued onwards, entering the main hall.

The room was a full two stories tall, and then some. Twin grand staircases wound their way up to the second floor on either side, while rotting doors adorned every wall. A pile of rubble from the collapsed second floor balcony blocked both doors into the grand library, much to Twilight's annoyance. To the right was the dining room, and while the doorway seemed intact, a piano had been shoved on front of the door. Straight ahead, a pair of wooden doors leading to the ancient throne room had simply rotted away, leaving this as the obvious choice. Nopony wanted to risk the stairs upwards being unstable.

Passing into the throne room, Twilight's hooves began tapping in excitement. She was actually going to see Princess Celestia's old throne! She glanced around at her friends, and her guards... Who all seemed to be staring at her. "Sorry. Excited."

The throne room was plain, or perhaps everything nonessential had disappeared over a millennium. Thirty metres long, and fifteen across, with a carpet running along the centre to the thrones themselves. The gold one on the left was clearly Celestia's, but Twilight was slightly confused by the silver one on the right. It had a crescent moon inscribed on it... Had Nightmare Moon added her own? But... Then, why did it look so old, and why was Celestia's still standing?

As they stepped further into the room, there was a grinding, mechanical noise, and the floor in the centre opened up. From below came a metal pedestal of some description, which had six more attached at various points, each holding a metal sphere. These could only be the Elements of Harmony.

"Well, shucks!" Applejack chuckled. "That weren't no problem at all!"

A voice spoke, like a whisper on the wind, but the source was right behind Twilight. "Step into my parlour, said the spider to the fly..." She spun around, but couldn't see anything but the vaguest hint of a shadow... Yet there was nothing to cast a shadow on that spot, and it was gone as soon as she tried to focus on it.

Pinkie had clearly seen it too, as well as the Major, but she was the first to speak. "Twilight? Can Nightmare Moon turn invisible?"

"Pinkie, true invisibility is impossible--no known spell can bend light like that, and even if Somepony could, they'd be blind, because the light wouldn't reach their retinas-" Twilight was interrupted by a large pony brushing up against her side, and the voice again.

"Six little ponies, and eight of Celestia's tin soldiers... I wonder what you were hoping to find." And then the contact was lost, though Twilight stayed frozen on the spot. "She's invisible. How is she doing that?"

Behind her, the Major twitched the same way Twilight had. "Perhaps you thought I would just allow you to stroll into my home, and retrieve your little toys?" The invisible mare slithered around the Major's other side. "Perhaps you thought Celestia would simply be tied up somewhere, and you could rescue her upon your exit?"

Somehow, Twilight found her voice. "Where... Where is Princess Celestia?"

And then the mare was standing before Twilight, lifting her chin with a hoof. "She is no longer among the living... But nor is she among the dead. She floats in the void between, our void, and there she shall stay until we have had our fun... And paid her back for the last thousand years." The hoof fell away.

"We're going to stop you." Twilight even surprised herself with the conviction in her voice.

"WRONG." And then Major Gilded Blade... Simply didn't have a head anymore. His neck simply ended in a stump, which started squirted blood as his body slowly realized it was dead. Around him, her friends screamed, while the other seven guards dropped into combat positions.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something flying straight for her face, and she caught it with her magic on instinct. Bringing it closer for inspection revealed that it was the Major's decapitated head, still twitching spasmodically as he saw her. She grimaced--Twilight was suddenly very happy Spike had stayed in Ponyville.

Twilight focused, feeling her fear fade. She needed the Elements of Harmony. With a snap, she blinked to the pedestals, shoving the metal spheres as quickly as she could into her own saddle-bags. Yet, as soon as she did this and turned around, ancient instincts made her realize her mistake--she'd left the safety of the herd.

Before her, Nightmare Moon decloaked in all her terrible glory, and holding a pristine blade made of the same purple material as her armour. But that didn't scare her. What scared her was the grin.

"Purple foal..." She began to approach Twilight as Batponies dove in through the ceiling, descending onto her guards. "Who are you? Too powerful, too determined, to be just another pony... Celestia's pet, perhaps?"

Her own eyes betrayed Twilight, and the Nightmare took a step towards her. Even her taking a step looked wrong; puppet-like, as though the puppeteer knew how ponies normally moved, but simply didn't care if it looked like that, only if the hoof reached the same spot. Shakily, Twilight took a step back, clutching the now-still head of Major Blade to her chest, unconcerned with the blood it was still leaking.

The Nightmare's horn lit, and everything else faded out of focus. "I see I have new questions to ask of Celestia. Until then... You shall be timeless." The horn flashed, and all Twilight Sparkle knew was the Void.

Chapter 2

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Chapter 2

Snowflakes are like ponies. They’re all different, but get enough of them together, and you can move mountains.
-Commander Hurricane, of Pegasopolis

Twilight woke up shivering. She tried drawing her hooves in, curling into the fetal position, but it was largely ineffectual simply because of just how cold it was.

Eventually, her eyes blinked open, and she looked around. She was back in the throne room, but it appeared even more dilapidated than it had been before, with the roof itself beginning to warp from a great weight on top of it. The hole through which the Batponies had descended onto her guards was wider, and more ragged around the edges, where tiny avalanches of snow slid through occasionally, aided by the snowflakes drifting inside. The opulent rug had finally decayed into nothingness, leaving bare stone below save in the corners of the room. Princess Celestia’s throne had been knocked over now, but so had the smaller, blue throne beside it.

In the doorway, something caught her eye—a silhouette, framed by the sunlight shining into the entrance hall. The sun by itself seemed a miracle; it had been absent so long now that she had almost forgotten how blindingly bright it could be, after so long in the darkness.

The silhouette itself was a curiosity. It looked bipedal, but hulking, like a minotaur but smaller. Much smaller, with almost the same proportions as a pony, but limbs in all the wrong places. Twilight was suddenly overcome with the desire to see this creature in detail, examine it in the light, and she stepped towards the silhouette.

With each step, the sunlight got brighter, and the shadow became more indistinct. Desperate to reach it before she was blinded, Twilight spurred herself into a gallop towards the doorway, where the brightness finally overcame her vision, until she was running blindly into the light.

Inevitably, she tripped on something, and fell, still blinded, into a snowdrift. Pulling her head out, she found the desire to find the creature was gone, leaving in it’s wake only confusion.

She had entered the entrance hall now, which seemed in even worse condition than the throne room. A full third of the ceiling here had crumbled, and a massive snowdrift—which she was now lying in—had covered most of the floor. Rot had finished the balcony, and the ruins encircled the room, blocking off any of the doors not already blocked by snow. The only doors left open were those leading to the throne room, and one in the far corner, which seemed to lead up a tower.

Pulling herself out of the snow and shaking herself off, she made for the latter. Inside, a tight stone spiral staircase led up sharply, and Twilight regretted wearing her long pleated skirt. Yet, as much as it kept catching her legs, it was one of the few things protecting her from the cold of the castle, even if it wasn’t doing the greatest job.

Peeking out arrow-slits on the walls, Twilight realized what the tower was—it had once been a watch-tower for Castle Everfree, keeping watch on the surrounding forest and lake, warning the rest of the castle in the case of hostile forces and rampaging wild-life. Now, however, it was crumbling, whistling with the wind and only getting colder as she climbed higher.

Towards the top of the stairs, snow began building on each step in greater amounts. Twilight soon found the source; a room at the top had a door leading outside, and this had been left open. Shutting it with her magic, Twilight blew the majority of the powder down the stairs, mostly clearing the room. It had been living quarters for the tower guards long before. Everything but their beds, a table in the centre, and, thankfully, a stove, had been eroded away by time.

The stove was quickly cleared of frozen debris, and Twilight found a small stack of logs nearby, only to growl in frustration—they were, of course, too soggy to burn. As she contemplated various ways to dry them, something creaked above her, and the ceiling released a small shower of dust.

Something was on the floor above her. Something alive.

Twilight moved to the door, took a deep breath, and pulled it open, toughing out the cold wind and powder blowing through her exposed fur. She couldn’t be outside too long, as she didn’t have enough layers to survive this temperature for more than half an hour.

Outside, the original stone staircase leading further up the tower had crumbled, and been replaced with a metal catwalk. Twilight stepped onto it, and almost immediately regretted it—without boots, the cold metal shot needles of cold straight through her hooves, her frogs sticking to it. Pulling them off stung, and Twilight was distinctly reminded of winter in Canterlot, where foals would stick their tongues to lamp-posts for fun.

Then, she looked out through the blizzard, and her mind stopped.

Equestria was just… gone. All of it. The forest that stymied her and her friends wasn’t even sticks any more, just a snowy, endless plain. The mountains remained, but she didn’t recognize the shapes, not even the Canterhorn. There was no smoke in the distance from Ponyville, and she couldn’t spot Fillydelphia’s smokestacks through the blizzard, like she usually could. It was all covered by the snow, or just… gone.

Numb from the cold, or perhaps from the discovery, Twilight trudged up the metal catwalk to the top of the tower. It was an iron door, rusted around the edges, but the lock and hinges were clear. Thus, when she tried the handle and it didn’t open, it only meant one thing; somepony had locked the door on the other side. After a moment, she knocked three times.

It didn’t open, but she managed to hear the lock ‘clunk’ over the wind. Surprised, she pushed it open, and entered the darkened room, wreathed in snow from the outside. Against the wind, she managed to shut the door behind herself, fully immersing herself in the darkness.

There was a terrifying moment of silence, in which Twilight was blind, and yet knew something was in the room with her. When that something spoke, she jumped.

“The last pony on Arcadia sat alone in a room.”

Twilight blinked, and then finished the quote. “There was a knock at the door.”

The other pony’s voice was gravelly, but female. It seemingly hadn’t spoken in years, and the words were unfamiliar, but it spoke with a hint of regality. It was not unlike Princess Celestia’s, but it just… wasn’t, in some way that Twilight could not put her hoof on.

“That’s a Brown Quill story.” She added, dumbly.

“It is.” A shadow shifted almost imperceptibly in the darkness. “I’ve had… quite a lot of time to read. That was one of my favorites. So short, and yet it gave me much hope.” Another shift of black on black, against the barely-visible gaps in the shutters. “What other literature would the ghost like to discuss?”

Twilight paused. “Ghost? Why do you call me that?”

“Because, Twilight Sparkle, I killed you.”

At this, one of the shutters clattered open, and Twilight was nearly blinded by the sunlight’s sudden return. Another silhouette sat in front of the cleared window, but it was still too dark to be Celestia. With a start, she dropped into a combat stance, and charged her horn, realizing the magic came to her incredibly fast. “Nightmare Moon.” She hissed.

The shadow only chuckled. “No, not any more. It was satisfied with it’s work, and released me.” With barely a flicker from her horn, the rest of the shutters began clattering open, allowing more light inside. The room, and its inhabitant, was revealed.

Had Princess Celestia been dyed blue, she would have been a dead ringer for this mare. Aside from a few notable differences in cutie mark and various alternative colours, she was nearly identical. A sentence from her old story-book came back to Twilight, and the whole mess clicked. “You… You’re Princess Celestia’s sister, aren’t you? Princess… Uh…”

“Luna Selena, yes.” She sat on the bare stone floor, barely lifting her head off it to look at Twilight. In fact, the whole room was bare, with Luna and a small, rotting crate of books being the only things inside it, save Twilight herself.

Awkwardly, Twilight stated, “Well… Uh… I came here to stop you?”

Luna chuckled mirthlessly. “Yes. Yes you did, and you failed. A thousand years ago.”

“What?”

Luna spoke slowly, as if to a child, an annoyance. “One thousand years ago, I came back from the dead, because the Nightmare remade me. She seized full control, and we captured my sister, then shrouded the planet in shadow. Then, I watched the planet die around me.” Her voice cracked, and it all began flowing out, a string of confessions of terrible things. “Trottingham crumbled under my hooves! I stalked the tunnels of Край Мира as a spectre of death! I drove all of Griffonia into madness and suicide!”

Then, she was finished, and lay her head back down onto the stone floor. “I had become unto death, destroyer of Arcadia, and I hated every second of it.”

Twilight blinked. “You… killed everypony?”

Luna shrugged. “Some died by my hoof alone. Others, pneumonia. The cold took the rest. They’re all dead now—it matters little to me how it happened.” With a sad sigh, she gazed out into the blizzard. “Not even my beautiful Thestrals could survive this new ice age. I held the last, saw the betrayal in her tiny eyes, and felt her go as cold as her mother and father before her. When she died, all that was left on Arcadia was myself, and the ghosts.”

Tentatively, Twilight approached. “How long have you been alone?”

Luna watched her, her vision moving lethargically, as if too sad—or too tired—to even move her eyes quickly. “All other life on Arcadia was extinguished after four too-short years.” She closed her eyes, and her voice became more of a whimper. “I cannot even die. There is too much background magic, too much life, from long-dead creatures, in the air, and any injury heals too quickly. It shall be many millennia more before the Nightmare absorbs the rest from the aether.”

Twilight had closed the distance, and stood beside the prostate Alicorn. “So, that was her endgame… Well, for what it’s worth-” She sat beside the taller mare, and hugged her. “I forgive you.”

She was not prepared for just how cold the Princess was—stars above, it was as if she had no body heat of her own whatsoever!—but she kept her hooves wrapped her nonetheless, and this seemed to be warming her up. Yet, Twilight’s own heat seemed to shock Luna the most. “Thou- You are no ghost! You are no trick of my warped, ancient mind! But how can this be! How can you live yet!”

She paused, and slowly put a freezing hoof around Twilight, returning the hug for the first time in several thousand years. “And… and how can you possibly forgive me?”

“Because that’s what friends do.” Replied Twilight. In that moment, she had a flash of inspiration, and some of the puzzle pieces fell into place in regards to the Nightmare. Her only obstacle was time itself, now.

The hug had made her face the wall almost opposite the door, and this left Twilight unable to see Luna’s face as she muttered to herself. “I still do not understand, how did you move through time as easily as floating downriver? Only one creature I know of could do it with such ease, and he-” She cut herself off, stiffening, with Twilight in her grip. “Border World.”

“And so the Sspark realizes her… significance.” The voice was unnatural, even just to listen to. The accents were on the wrong syllables, it started and stopped at unusual points, and was frequently interrupted by clicking, hissing, and what may or may not have been severely belaboured breathing. Whispers were audible around the edges of the voice, like the dead were speaking through it not quite in unison, and finally, Twilight realised the voice had not only been heard through her ears… but through her mind as well.

She tried to turn, just to see what could possibly exist and how it could make such an unsettling noise through speech alone, but Luna held her rigid. “Nay, Ghost. He is not a welcome sight, for either of us.”

Twilight stared at Luna’s withers, and the unblemished moon that was her cutie mark. “What is he? Or… it?”

Luna’s head didn’t move. “A mentor, one I sought out personally. Tell me, Teacher, why have you found me now? When I could not find you, I assumed you had died in the interim. Will Solus Celestia reappear as well, or will she remain deceased?”

“This One goes where,” the statement was interrupted by a throaty, unnatural click, “and when, it is… needed.”

“So, you have abandoned me?” Luna said, seemingly on the verge of tears.

“THis is a -click- a possible future, an alternative possibility.” It made a new noise, a shuddery sort of croak, followed by a distinctly alien trill. “The Spark needed to see what wouldsd occur shouldsd she fail.”

Luna gave Twilight another squeeze, like a tiny foal’s security blanket. “She has already failed.”

“In this line. -trill- Not the next.”

Tensing, Luna asked, “You’re going to prevent any of this from happening?” She glanced back at Twilight, who was finally able to see the concern on her face. “What would happen to me?”

There was a pause, before the creature—Border World, that was… it’s name—spoke again. “This One is… Unsure. -click- Perhaps the Luna wouldsd continue as she had before. -click- Perhaps the Luna wouldsd simply cease to exist. -trill- This One’s view is obscured -wheeze- and cares little to entertain thoughts purely theoretical.”

Luna slumped, but didn’t release her grip on Twilight. To the contrary, it seemed to tighten, as if afraid to let her go. The latter felt the need to say something, before the grip got too tight. “Luna, I-”

“Twilight.” She interrupted. “Before you make a promise you cannot keep, know this: I have spent the last two thousand years regretting a single action. I said to myself a million and one times that if I could take it all back, return things to the way they were before, I would in a heartbeat, yet I knew that such things were impossible for me. They are not impossible for you. Do not make an action you will regret, and fix what you can… For I cannot.”

Twilight’s heart fell. “But…” She suddenly felt like a filly again, being coddled by Celestia. They were so obviously sisters, now that Twilight looked at her again. “But… You won’t remember me…”

“I will not.” Luna agreed. “But it shall still be me. So, be a good friend, so that when I reach this age again and Equestria yet lives, I remember you still.” She folded an ice-encrusted wing over Twilight, and released what had at some point graduated into a death grip. Now, Twilight could move, if she so wanted to, or she could stay as long as long as she liked.

Border World’s voice came, and sounded slightly annoyed. “The Spark shall have to look upon -wheeze- This Oone eventually.”

Luna sighed. "Yes. But give her some time." She rested her head atop Twilight's. The latter realized they were both crying, but neither wanted to point it out. "I wish so that coming back with you was an option, Twilight, but I know not what havoc t'would wreak 'pon reality." Her gaze turned to a window, and the perpetual snowstorm raging outside. "And live or die, I have yet to complete my penance."

After some time, Twilight grit her teeth. "I-" Her breath caught in her throat, and she gave a choked cough. "I'm ready to see Border World."

"Are you sure?" Twilight nodded. Luna sighed. "Then turn around."

The first thing Twilight noticed was the horn. All Unicorns had a focusing crystal in their skulls, formed as their mother's magic flowed through their wombs, and this gave them the ability to wield magic. Size corresponded to magical strength. But a sheath of Alicorn ensconced it, kept the sharp gem from piercing the womb, and protecting it from damage after birth.

Border World had no such sheath.

It had been chipped away, broken off, leaving the delicate, orange, and glowing crystal in his (it's?) head fully exposed. There had been rumours at the academy, of course, of ancient wizards, even Starswirl the Bearded himself, performing such acts of self-mutilation to allow access to even more magical strength. But Twilight had written them off as fiction, because the very thought made her flesh crawl and her horn ache.

Secondly, Border World was bipedal, and yet clearly should not have been. His legs, where they joined his body, were twisted and warped, having healed wrong after something had broken them very badly. Whether either had been intentional or was unknown to Twilight.

Finally, his neck, and by extension, his head. The former wasn't too bad, if one was to ignore the strange angle it jutted out of his shoulders at, the permenant bloating, and the boils that covered it. The whites of his eyes had been stained blue by Moonglow addiction, and his eyes were cat-like, but that at least, could be explained by his original species being that of a batpony. He seemed to be their equivalent to Unicorns, as he lacked the wings typical to them.

His mouth was- Celestia's crown, his mouth! His lower jaw had been broken down the middle, and both halves now moved independantly, with jagged, broken teeth dripping saliva as he breathed, because he could no longer close his mouth properly. His tongue simply wasn't there, and neither was the floor of his mouth. Whatever had not gone with the jawbone had been surgically removed.

Twilight suddenly realized she was screaming, loudly and shrilly. She cut herself off, clamping a hoof over her mouth. This prompted the creature to smile and speak, which started the horror show all over again. "The Spark haas not defecated herself." He clicked his jawbones together. "She is sstronger than most. A pity. The event would have vbeen entertwining."

"Teacher!" Luna swept Twilight back into her wings, shielding her eyes. "Apologies, Twilight. He is a rude old stallion when he is at his best, and a cranky old mare when he is at his worst."

The darkness was starsent to Twilight, who muttered, "But how... How is something like that still alive?"

Luna patted her head. "I wish I knew, myself. All I can tell you is that he was already ancient before I sought him out. I know not how one so twisted lives."

Twilight peeked from between Luna's feathers at Border World, who nodded. "Magic (he paused as one of the bulges on his neck inflated, then deflated with a wheeze) has destroyed This One, but magic has madit whole."

Twilight closed her eyes. "And you can get me home?"

"This One has retreived The Spark -trill- from the void itself. There is nowhere The Nightmare can send The Spark that This One -wheeze- cannot retrieve her. Nor -click- would This One do the same. It is an easy jaunt back."

Twilight took a deep breath before forcing her gaze onto Border World. "Do it."

The creature had kept his forehooves held to his chest like a praying mantis for as long as Twilight had seen him, but now he separated them as if expecting a hug. He held out one of his hooves—correction, one of his horribly mangled hooves-turned-claws—towards her. Twilight jerkily put her hoof into his, still unprepared.

Border World tilted his head. "This One musr bear the physical weight of The aSpark through the Transverse, as well as the metaphysical."

"What do you- Eek!" In a single, fluid motion, Border World yanked her up and into his forehooves, cradling her like a calf in a minotaur's arms. This put her face far too close to his own for her liking, after shocking her with his strength—after all, he was no physically larger than Twilight, simply configured differently. Yet, even standing as wrongly as he was, he was bearing her weight without any difficulty.

Then, she came to realize how much she was repulsed by Border World's flesh. It was utterly lacking in fur, leaving unnaturally-rubbery Batpony hooves holding her up. "The Spark would do well to -wheeze- cease her struggling, and close her eyes. This one has no compunction against dropping her currently."

She glanced one last time at Luna. "Parting is such sweet sorrow."

"Spear Shaker?" The millenia-old pony chuckled. "Appropriate, though not in context. I am no Romeo."

With no further warning, Border World began making a droning noise that set Twilight's horn and teeth on edge, while swaying forward and backward. Twilight spoke over it one last time: "Goodbye, Luna."

"Fare thee well, Twilight." The world seemed to go oily in Twilight's vision as Luna began crying once more, as though she was moving through an oil painting. Then she closed her eyes.

Chapter 3

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Chapter 3

The Elements of Harmony… They’re mysterious, I’ll say that now. Sometimes they seal our enemies in stone, sometimes they kill them dead, and sometimes they don’t work at all. But the one thing you can know about them for sure? If you’ve got friends, they’ll work for you. Take that lesson to heart.
-Princess Celestia, 1206 years before Lunar Return, in a conversation with King Neptune

"The Spark maay open her eyes now."

Twilight did so, and found herself in the throne room once more. Struggling out of Border World's grip, she landed in a puddle of blood. She shrieked, stumbling back, before stepping on something that went squish under her hoof. Border World chuckled as Twilight stood stock-still, afraid to see who she just stepped in.

His laughter was like a pony drowning in their own blood. "Hegh-hehh-hah. The Spark's friends are here, or will be in furtue, save The Seer. She is in the -chitter- Library. The Bullet shall ask of The Spark's whereabouts. Prepare a lie, which The Gryphon shall knowmas such."

Twilight exhaled as she moved her hind leg, hoping it would escape the squishyness. It did not. "What if I... Ugh... What if I tell the truth?"

"The Spark may speak of suxhc at her leisure. But for the events yet to occur, it is betternthey belbelieve The Spark speaks untruth than madñeßs. They will assume she has a good reason for doing so." He paused as his air-sack inflated and deflated. "Soon, The Mask shall arrive with six of his kin. He shall aid the Elements, and The Nightmare shall be repressed. The Daylight shall be freed."

Twilight nodded as Border World began humming and swaying again, before a thought struck her. "Wait!"

His humming continued, but his ears twitched towards her.

"Can you take me back to Luna sometime? Not now, but... Can I visit?"

He began to fade from reality, but he managed to both speak and hum. "Find This One first. Then, we shall both see." His humming didn't quite fade as he did, instead simply settling into the background creaking of the castle. As the afterimage of Border World faded, a pink blur appeared in the corner of Twilight's vision. "Twily!"

She staggered as a familiar, chubby pink pony slammed into and wrapped herself around her.
"Omigoshyou'reokaywethoughtBlackSnootyateyouorkilledorkilledandateyouordidotherhorriblethingsandandwecan'tfindFluttersandAJgothurtandmostofyourguardsaredead-" Was as far as she got before she clammed up, just silently hugging her.

Twilight blinked, working everything Pinkie said through, before returning the hug. "Uh... Hi, Pinkie. It's okay. I'm okay, you're okay. Applejack's okay?"

Pinkie nodded, whispering now. "For now. But Luna's not. Black Snooty's never been this violent before."

Before Twilight could ask what she meant, Dash glided into the room, her eyes lighting up when she saw Twilight. Rarity and Applejack trotted in after her, with AJ limping and one of her hind legs bandaged. Rarity was helping her walk, and keeping an eye on the bandage (made with yet another strip from her dress) which had already soaked through with bloood.

Dash landed next to Twilight, and almost looked like she was about to hug her for a moment, before deciding against it. "Hey, Twi. Glad you're back, we could use the backup. I've taken command, but I think Flutters is trapped in the Library. Thought you were too, 'cause... Well, it's a library."

"Trapped?" Twilight asked.

"Just that debris we saw earlier. The surviving guards are trying to shift it now."

Twilight brightened slightly as Pinkie stepped away, looking slightly green. "Well, should be foal's play to do that. Is something wrong, Pinkie?"

"You're standing- urp... In a stallion." Twilight blinked and glanced down, only to find that Pinkie Pie was, unfortunately, correct. She suddenly felt a little sick herself. Outwardly, however, all that changed is that she stepped out of the guard's chest cavity, and her sudden development of an eye twitch. "Right! Okay! Let's all go to the Library where there are some of my family's guards that are very definitely not dead. That alright with everypony? Yes? Great!"

Without waiting for a response, Twilight set a brisk trot to the door, leaving faint bloody hoofsteps behind her. Dash hovered over them as she followed behind her. "So.. Where'd you go, anyway? You just disappeared right in front of us."

Twilight gulped. "I, uh, I don't remember. I just woke up there a minute or so ago." This earned her a funny look from Applejack, but she didn't press the issue. Dash shrugged, and darted ahead. They stepped over a blood trail, which Rarity paused at. "That wasn't there before..."

Pinkie bounced over the trail, and Twilight got her attention. "So, Dash has been playing leader? How's that been going?"

"Oh! It's been great! Me and her and AJ all got cornered in a dungeon, and AJ got swiped by a Batpony, and then dash smashed his head in with a brick and growled at the other to scare him off, and then AJ got pissy at Dash for murdering one of the Batponies, and then the guards came down and we all went up here and started going around in circles until we went back down and found Rarity in a non-lethal pit trap." Motor-mouthed a slightly manic Pinkie. "So really, it's been going amazing!"

Twilight nodded. "And you never checked the Library?"

"Nopies! Dashie said it was too lame for Flutters to be hanging around in." They arrived at said Library in short order, and Twilight let the conversation drop in order to focus on the barricade, and the guards trying to shift it.

"Corporal Pinion, Corporal Cleavage! Good to see you got out okay." The two guards turned to her, saluting. Mineral had a few cuts across his uniform and a bad slash across his muzzle, but Jet looked unharmed.

"Ma'am," The latter started. "Likewise."

Mineral tilted his head back at the blocked door. "Mind lending your horn to this door?"

In actuality, it only looked impassable; Fluttershy had presumably entered through one of the larger gaps, between the fallen beam and the floor. Moving the fallen beam caused a distressing creaking noise, but nothing else, and they entered the Library.

It was easily the height of the throne room, with two balconies at equal heights leading around the walls, and massive bookshelves reaching all the way up to the ceiling. It extended for at least twice the length of the entrance hall, but was in noticeably better condition—in fact, the worst damage Twilight could see was a couple of bookshelves that had collapsed, lying at wild angles against the walls. The books seemed in better condition than the walls around them. If not for that and a layer of dust to rival the deserts of Saddle Arabia, it would almost seem that time itself had stopped only for this room.

Yet, as much as Twilight wanted to stay and read every word in this room, a set of hoofprints in the dust led deeper into the shelves. Fluttershy had seemed to be making a perfect beeline towards... Something. The only time the tracks changed direction was when the path was blocked.

Finally, she turned a corner and practically ran right into Fluttershy. "Whoa! Hey, there you are! What'd you find?"

Fluttershy was holding a off-white disc in her hooves, decorated with markings and bits of metal bolted to it. She glanced down at it, as if unsure it was still there. "I... I don't know. I found it between some books here... It called to me."

Curious, Twilight reached a hoof to to examine it, but Fluttershy yanked it to her breast shockingly fast. As soon as she realized this, she looked at the disc again, before holding it out for Twilight to examine. "Sorry. Just... Please don't touch it."

Twilight nodded, clearly keeping her hooves back as she leaned closer. "I think... Hm."

"Mind sharing with the rest of us, Darling?" Rarity asked from behind her.

Twilight tilted her head, following the shape of the markings with her eyes—they kept shifting, for some reason—as she explained. "I think it's an old good luck charm, but I've only ever heard of it being done in the north, with walrus bones..."

Fluttershy blanched. "W... Walrus b-bones...?"

Twilight shook her head. "Yes, but what's this one doing this far south... And why's it carved from Dragonbone?"

Dash snorted. "Serves whatever dragon it came from right." Applejack whapped the back of Rainbow's head with her stetson, before she flipped it back on her head. "Ow! What the hay?"

"Y'all dunno the Dragon what that came from, and ain't no reason ta speak ill o' the dead. Coulda been the nicest Dragon what ever was."

Twilight nodded. "Yeah. Don't show this to Spike." Once again, she was reminded just how much she missed her little brother. But this rune was so interesting! She could've sworn it was whispering to her-

A yellow hoof appeared between her eyes and the rune, breaking it's hypnotic hold. She shook her head as blood pounded in her ears. The noise was annoying, and she snapped at Fluttershy slightly, "What? What is it?"

Fluttershy recoiled, pulling the rune back to her breast. "N... Nothing. You said this was a good luck charm... And we could all use a little luck. I'll keep this safe." She slid the disc into the folds of her scarf, pressed against her heart. "What now?"

Pinkie threw a hoof around Rarity's barrel. "Rares spotted something out there, didn't ya? Huh?"

Rarity grimaced. "Yes, that blood trail. Fresh, unfortunately. It led to that corner tower."

Shrugging, Applejack turned and started limping back to the door. "Well, reckon we oughta follow it then. Ain't hardly any good reason fer somepony ta be draggin' a body 'round, not now, not ever."

They followed her, Fluttershy quickly catching up to the injured mare and wrapping a wing around her. "Applekack? What happened to you?"

"Jes' wasn't fast enough to dodge one o' them Bats. Means I gotta work a little harder once it heals." Dash hovered above them. "Hey, Flutters, could I... You know...."

"Of course you can, Dash." She pulled away, and Dash dropped in between them, wrapping her own wing around AJ, who pulled away slightly. "Ah don't need Somepony ta help me walk."

Rainbow growled at AJ. "Come on, don't be like this. You're limping, and very definitely uncool. Lemme help."

Applejack shrugged off Rainbow's wing as they approached the blood trail, and the staircase it was plastered upwards on. "We'll talk about it later, Rainbow. Sometime when you got a little less red on ya then anything else."

Twilight took the lead as they went up the stairs, Rainbow falling to the back of the line, behind Applejack. The blood trail actually began to peter out as they continued upwards, but it pointed them in the right direction. A doorway let out into a large, circular room a few stories short of the tower's top, which Twilight instantly recognized as an observatory. "Hang on, this looks interesting."

The massive opening in the dome above was left gaping wide open, as Celestia had removed it when she had begun construction of Canterlot Castle. It was entirely possible that the gargantuan telescope mounted in the Royal Observatory, which Twilight had used to stargaze with Celestia many times before, had originated from here. On the floor, a massive conjuration circle had been carved. It was coated in multiple places with wax, with dusts of various types, with caked salt, even likely some blood, but it's edges were not dulled by time. Thankfully, it lay dormant.

Rarity glanced around the room. "It's very aesthetically pleasing, but there's nopony here. Shall we continue upwards?"

Twilight nodded, and they retreated back into the staircase. As the eight ponies approached the top of the tower, Twilight was suddenly struck by déjà vu. There was no snow this time, and in comparison, the cold of the night wasn't half as bad, but the feeling remained.

A chewing sound, accompanied by the sound of tearing flesh, made itself evident. The eight glanced at each other nervously, and Twilight pushed open a door that led into the tower barracks.

The room was just as it had been before, or would be. Several beds, a stove for heat, but with a new addition in the centre—The Nightmare herself, crouching over a bloodstained corpse. She had discarded her helmet, and it sat on the floor beside her. With a start, Twilight recognized the visible, though pale, colour of the fur.

It was Major Gilded Wing's headless body.

Suddenly, Nightmare Moon's head snapped up, dragging a length of his intestine from his belly, and stared directly at Twilight. The Nightmare was unchanged from when Twilight had seen her last, save for the barely-visible sheen of The Major's blood and vitreous fluids coating the end of her muzzle and face. With a twist of her head, his guts tore, spattering reddish-yellow fluid across the carpet in the direction of Twilight and her entourage.

Still staring into Twilight's eyes, she swallowed, slowly and deliberately. "You escaped the void." Her lips curled with a hiss. "How?"

"Because we're here to save Celestia, and stop your reign of terror. We didn't come all the way here just to be deterred now." She turned her head to her friends, but kept an eye on Nightmare Moon. "Girls, the Elements, they're in my bags. Open them and take them out."

Rarity paled. "Darling... Why do you have a severed head in here?"

Nightmare Moon made no movement to stop them, simply narrowing her eyes as each of the mares grabbed a metal sphere at random. "It would seem that in my absence, Celestia has taught naught but Zealotry. You run so carefree into danger, for the honour of a creature that may already be dead?"

Dash flared her wings, and tilted forward in a combat stance. "Like we're just gonna let you up and conquer Equestria!"

Nightmare Moon lifted her helmet from the floor beside her, slotting it on over her horn and clicking it into place. "This rebellion is dangerous. I must end it, and killing you six will not cease rebellion elsewhere. But were Celestia to die by my hoof before you..." A shroud of darkness, flowing from her mane and tail, began swirling around her.

"No!" Twilight's horn sparked with electromagical discharge as she chain-casted, first Blinking into the shroud, and then snapping the Nightmare with a Disruption cantrip. The darkness fell away, and they both found themselves in the Observatory.

Nightmare Moon staggered, her Transversal interrupted, and snarled at her. "Insolent purple foal! You know not what you could have done! We may both have appeared inside a wall, or kilometers belowground!"

She regained her balance, and they began pacing around each other, pacing around the magic circle, like vultures. "It would have been worth it to end this insanity, Luna."

Nightmare Moon's eyes flashed with anger. "How do you know that name?"

Twilight spoke measuredly, without speed. "I saw the future. A thousand years from now, you will regret this day. Every moment."

"You mean the puppet will regret it." Nightmare Moon copied her, but spoke with a growl of anger. "I regret nothing. I am the Void. And my power is limitless."

Twilight could see the shadows of her approaching friends, hear their shouts, and she just needed to delay Nightmare Moon a little longer. "And yet you haven't killed me. I staggered you with a foal's cantrip."

Long fangs were bared as the growling intensified. "Silence."

Twilight continued, unbidden. "I don't think you're as powerful as you think you are."

"Be silent, damn you."

"And if Luna's fighting you as well..."

"I. Said. SILENCE."

"Then perhaps you never will be."

Something in Nightmare Moon’s eyes snapped, and flared her wings as tendrils of pure darkness began crawling through the room. She hissed like a demon, "I shall break your legs, your horn, and your spine, and I shall slaughter your 'friends' like pigs before cooking, then eating them as such! I shall force you to partake in their flesh alongside myself, and I shall rip out your eyelids so you can only watch!

"Celestia shall be executed before you, and I shall force you to drink every drop of her blood! I shall keep you alive and sane as your world crumbles around you, and then and only then, will I grant you the sweet mercy of death!" With a final shriek, she howled, "And it shall be as screaming firewood to warm my hearth!” Her horn ignited in cold fire, and the darkness coalesced into a single tendril, which swept downwards at Twilight with death as it’s intention.

She barely managed to get her brother’s shield spell activated in time, and she didn’t have nearly the strength he could muster. THere was a sound, like a glass globe being shattered, and the Thaumatic backlash from the spell blew through Twilight’s horn, sending a jagged crack running from the base to the tip. In an instant, Twilight’s vision went white as unimaginable pain shot through every fibre of her being.

She had broken a leg once, as a foal. Celestia had seen that she got the best surgeon in Canterlot to aid her inside of an hour, but that single moment, where her leg snapped and Twilight couldn’t do anything but scream, had been the second worst moment of her entire life (With the first having been the snake.)

This was worse.

Her horn’s crystalline core was wired directly into her brain, and now, even the slightest breeze on the subdermal layer sent daggers directly into her skull not millimetres away.

Her vision returned—when had she ended up on the floor?—just in time to see Dash slam at full speed into Nightmare Moon’s breastplate, staggering her backward half a step. Unfortunately, the impact was harder on Dash herself, and it knocked her silly, leaving her to The Nightmare’s mercy… Of which it had none.

Rainbow was plucked off the floor by a tendril of darkness, and brought face to face with Nightmare Moon’s sneering muzzle. “Like your wings, little bird?”

Dash’s eyes focused in an instant. “No! Please, anything else, but don’t touch the wings, don’t touch the- aaaaigggh!” With a surprisingly shrilly scream, she jerked in Nightmare Moon’s grip, her wings twisting and bending and cracking in all manner of horrible ways, accompanied by a similarly-horrible symphony of snapping bones. Then, with little more than a shrug, she was tossed away like a wishbone, landing in front of Twilight.

She coughed blood towards the mare, and caught Twilight’s eyes, before looking away. “S-sorry, Twi -koff- Twilight… I wasn’t awesome enough…”

Twilight tried to extend her hoof to comfort Dash, before finding them non-responsive. When she turned her head, she found that it was because they were bent very, very wrongly. With a quiet, “Oh,” she decided she should probably keep an eye on Nightmare Moon instead.

The Nightmare in question stood unchallenged a few metres away, until, in the blink of an eye, Fluttershy was just… There. Even Dash had been visible when she struck at supersonic speeds, but it was as if Fluttershy had stopped time just to approach, and time had resumed as soon as she got on Nightmare Moon’s back, with her hooves around her throat.

As she began trying to choke the living embodiment of fear into unconsciousness, Applejack galloped to Rainbow Dash, and tried to haul her to her hooves. But Dash just wouldn’t move—it seemed she had lost all will to live. Undaunted, AJ simply pulled Dash onto her back, and turned to Twilight. A white hoof appeared in her vision, and a green corona of magic lifted her into the air with all the care Rarity could muster. Her face was the image of concern. “Twilight? Can you hear me?”

Why did Rarity sound like she was underwater? Still, she nodded, or tried to, and her vision blurred as Rarity carried her safely away from Nightmare Moon. The creature was flapping her wings, bucking her hooves, swiping at her with tendrils of darkness, anything to try and forcibly remove Fluttershy from around her neck, but the previously-timid mare stubbornly made all her attempts fruitless simply by clinging tightly.

Twilight lost sight of her as Rarity carried her behind a fallen table closer to the door, and placed her back against it. The wood felt uneven, or perhaps that was her spine. Beside her, a blur of pink focused itself into Pinkie Pie.

“Pinkie! Darling, puh-lease tell me your first aid skills can help Twilight!” As Applejack brought Dash into the cover, she glanced at them both, paling as she saw their injuries. “Maybe! But the first rule of first aid is ‘Don’t move an injured pony!”

Dash slid off Applejack’s back like a sack of potatoes, and AJ struggled to get her upright before trying to get her attention. Dash was still breathing, as ragged as it was, but she seemed to have acquired a thousand yard stare on the way back. Sighing, Applejack turned to Pinkie, “Pinks, either we woulda got ‘em to safety or Nightmare Moon woulda stomped ‘em dead, and ah know which ah prefer.”

She turned back to Dash, and muttered, “Ta hay with it…” Before kissing Dash. This finally seemed to get her attention, and she practically wrapped herself around AJ, uttering the same sentence over and over, though it was gibberish to Twilight.

Pinkie Pie, however, was shaking with rage by now, and leapt atop the table’s edge to shout at Nightmare Moon, “You’re a bad pony, Black Snooty, and we’re gonna get you!” She dodged a chunk of thrown masonry, and landed back next to Twilight with a ‘sproing’.

Twilight’s vision wandered, and focused on the entrance to the Observatory, where Corporals Pinion and Cleavage were defending the door from a dozen of so Batponies. Jet had her rifle, and she was firing as fast and as accurately as she could into the melee, where Cleavage had drawn his blade and stolen a fallen Batpony’s bladed gauntlet. Amazingly, they were holding their own, and were likely the only things standing between Twilight’s… The rest of Twilight’s friends, because after the last week, they surely had earned that title, and a squadron of Thestrals.

Pinkie guided Twilight’s vision back to her with her hooves, and stared straight into Twilight’s eyes. “Twily? Look at me, Twily.” She blinked, and Pinkie took that as confirmation, and held up a metal sphere, with an octagon pressed into it. “You gotta tell us how to use these, Twily. We can’t win without these.”

“Darling, I don’t quite believe she’s lucid-”

“Shpark.” This was more of a cough than a statement, and it was followed by a surprising amount of blood. Pinkie ignored it, focusing fully on Twilight. “She just spoke! Run that one by me again, Twily, come on…”

Twilight tried, with all her might, to form the right syllables on her tongue before letting them be taken by the flow of blood by her mouth. “Sh-spark… of Freeee-”

“Spark! That’s right, now the rest, Spark of Friendsh-”

A bright light, brighter than anything Twilight had ever seen, instantly filled the room. She flopped her head back to look, and it was a truly awesome sight. An orange flare, so bright it was painful to look at directly, had dropped into the room through the gap where the telescope had been. With an ear-rending shriek, it smashed into Nightmare Moon and swept past her, taking Fluttershy into the light as The Nightmare hissed in pain.

It left a trail of flame in the air as it banked over the table, and dropped Fluttershy next to them, completely unharmed. Finally, the flare dimmed just enough to look at, and landed on the edge of the table. “Ph… Philomena?”

Indeed, it seemed to be just what Pinkie guessed; Princess Celestia’s prized phoenix, elegant and dangerous as never before, and judging by the way the air rippled off her wings, she was pissed. Nevertheless, she gave the six a chirp, before turning back to Nightmare Moon and swelling to eight times her size, and letting a Mother Roc’s hunting shriek.

In it’s echo, they could hear the buzzing rumble of Airship engines, and a golden dirigible appeared, framed by the open shutters of the Observatory’s dome. Seven ponies, wearing black peacoats and golden, scowling masks, rappelled through the same gap, landing just before Nightmare Moon as one. A pegasus, who seemed to be in charge, began barking out orders. “Overseers! Formation! Shield-bearers in front, full power! Brothers Leg and Shot, draw and prepare to fire on the abominations! Sister Invocation, crank that music-box and let the tones of Order calm the turbulence of the void!”

Three bulky Unicorns stepped forward, and the lead of the triforce growled, “She shall not cross our meridian.” Their horns lit with magic, and a glowing golden shield spread across the width of the room, isolating Nightmare Moon from everypony else. Two more stallions, wearing saddle-mounted crank-guns, turned and aimed at the cluster of Batponies by the door, where Cleavage had disappeared under the onslaught of bat-winged reinforcements.

Finally, a mare in the back, wearing yet another mask, used her hoof to crank a music-box on her back, and the effect was both strange and immediate. The air around her distorted, and all sound except the dirge of the box was warped, including Nightmare Moon’s howl of pain as she dug in her hooves against the onslaught. The leader turned to the table, with the six mares hiding behind it, and shouted over the noise, “Fillies and Gentlecolts, the Overseers have arrived!”

Nightmare Moon hissed, taking a step against the sheer force of the sound, and the Leader spun back around to face her, pulling a grenade from his belt. “Back, Demon!” It flew right at her, and the blast threw her against the far wall, while the shield protected the Overseers. This angered the Batponies, and they lost interest in the remaining Corporal Pinion, flying straight at the Overseers with the crank-guns.

“Weapons free!” Was the last thing Twilight heard before the whirring of the crank-guns, the gunshots thereof, and the screams of the Batponies drowned everything else out, save that horrible dirge from the music-box. Twilight flopped her head away with the last of her will, and spotted Fluttershy, who was cowering out of sight from the rest of her friends, her ears bleeding.

Pinkie spotted Twilight moving, and shook her again, sprinkling the pink mare with specks of red. Over the gunfire, she shouted, “Now’s the time! Twilight! Spark of what?”

Darkness began closing in on Twilight, her vision going black at the edges. She simply no longer had the energy to move. She couldn’t breathe. She barely had the energy to wheeze out, “I… am… the sp-spark…”

It all made sense now. Everything Border World had said, everything Celestia had taught her, it all made sense, and it was all leading up to this moment.

She could see everything.

She was going to save Luna. She was going to save them all. And she was going to save her friends.

Her vision tightened to the Octagon on the metal sphere in front of her, tunnel vision separating her from her friends, who were shouting something. Maybe it was about Spike? She wanted to see him again, before she… before she… left.

But it was going to be okay.

Everything was going to be just fine.

With a few final wheezes, she managed to say, “You’re...all...really...good…”

The last word couldn’t come. Her mind was going blank; and her vision before that, with spots crawling across it like malignant ants.

“F...Friends…” The last word slipped out, echoing in the void around her paired with an exhale. Twilight Sparkle did not inhale. The last thing she saw was a bright flash, and then she was gone.

Chapter 4

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Chapter 4

Restrict the Wandering Gaze that looks hither and yonder for some flashing thing that easily catches a pony’s fancy in one moment, but brings calamity in the next. For the eyes are never tired of seeing, nor are they quick to spot illusion. A pony whose gaze is corrupted is like a warped mirror that has traded beauty for ugliness and ugliness for beauty. Instead, fix your eyes to what is edifying and what is pure, and then you will be able to recognize the profane monuments of Discord.
-First Stricture of Seven, of the Overseers

Energy flowed through her. Every single vein was full to bursting, every follicle on her coat stood on end, every molecule of her body was energized. Twilight Sparkle had been dead for an eternity, but now…

...Now she was ALIVE.

Her eyes shot open as every colour in the electromagnetic spectrum blew through them like a full speed locomotive, as every wound, every scratch, every scar knitted itself back together as though it had never been touched, leaving her unblemished. Her horn exploded, and then rebuilt itself, and the magic flew through her with an even greater intensity now!

Her spine felt like it was unkinking itself as her legs painlessly reassembled themselves, popping back into their rightful places, and then she could feel her hooves and the energy flowing through her frogs, and it all felt wonderful!

She glanced down, and saw that her friends could all feel it too, this energy that made her feel like she could do anything and everything, and her gaze moved to the end of the room through a frozen tableau of death and metal.

A blue filly lay there, like a discarded puppet, coated in black goo. The filly was beautiful, but would be even moreso without all that goop on her, so Twilight reached across the entirety of the room, and picked her up, holding the filly in her hooves. She began pulling the goo off her like a suit, but even with her limitless power, it remained steadfastly stuck to the filly’s fur.

The filly opened her eyes, and Twilight saw they were like the moon, and that she had a mane like the sky, and she knew that she needed to separate her from the goo, which had grown a screaming, horrible face of it’s own, and placed over the filly’s own. She pulled harder, but it wasn’t enough, until something landed on her back. Even more power flew through Twilight as wings of fire extended from behind her, encircling the room, and she finally had enough to remove the goo.

It wasn’t a perfect separation—spots of purest black were still attached to the Filly—but it was enough. The goo screamed, trying to reconnect, but it would never get that far. Twilight felt a claw extend from her hoof, the claw of a Phoenix, and she used it to crush the goo into nothingness.

In an instant, Twilight knew her job was done, and she felt the floor beneath her hooves as the energy from her galvanization faded, though not completely. Something bounced off her chest as the Leader of the Overseers slapped their crank-guns down. “I said, cease fire, dammit! That’s Sparkle you’re shooting at!”

Twilight still felt amazing, her mane settling back onto her unblemished fur, and she felt a miniscule weight on her head. She tilted to let it slide off, but it ignored gravity, so she simply plucked it off her head herself.

“It” turned out to be an Electrum Tiara, decadently decorated with her cutie mark, a six-pointed star built into it as a gem set into the crown. Glancing out at her friends revealed they had all gotten similar adornments, though as necklaces as opposed to tiaras. Their cutie marks were proudly displayed on them as well, the gems within reflecting the colour of their eyes, which were all sparkling.

From the first moment Dash’s hooves set down on the carpet of the Observatory, she spun, and wrapped Applejack in an incredibly tight wing-hug—with, Twilight noted, her perfectly-healed wings, which seemed to be in even better condition than they had been before. All she could see of Applejack was her stetson sitting on top of Rainbow’s wings and her hindlegs poking out of the bottom.

Nearby, Fluttershy had retrieved the rune from earlier to glance at it, and slid it back into the folds of her scarf as soon as Twilight saw it. She smiled, trotting towards her. “Guess it really was good luck, huh?”

Suddenly, she was blindsided by Pinkie, who practically tackled her with the force of her hug. “Whoo! How’s it feel to come back from the dead, Twilight?”

She grinned, for the first time in about a week, and replied, “Really, really, good! Uh…” She paused. “I… Died?”

Pinkie’s face screwed up. “Yeah… Blood everywhere, broken everything, real messed up. But you’re better now! They even cleaned up all the blood!”

Twilight blinked. “They?”

“The Elements of Harmony, silly! Or if you ask Rarity, the Elements of fabulousness. All I know is, using ‘em felt better than sex!” There was a horrified shout of “Pinkie!” from Rarity’s direction, and the former grinned. “Whoops! Gotta go talk at Rarity some more! You should go talk to that Overseer person, before they arrest Luna!”

“What?” Twilight spun around to find Pinkie was wholly, and unfortunately, correct. The Overseers had advanced on Luna, and she galloped to her aid. Luna herself seemed shell-shocked, but the Zealots had hauled her into a sitting position before placing a magelock on her horn and cuffing her hooves together. Twilight reached the group as the Lead Overseer read a long, long scroll.

“...Mass murder, inciting rebellion, numerous heretical acts too multifarious to be described here, assassination of Princess Celestia, destruction of public property, cannibalism, seven counts of disruption of the day/night cycle, trespassing, escape from imprisionment, and flying in a no-fly zone. The accused shall be interred for a period of no more than one week before judgement by parliament, and...uh…” He paused, but only briefly. “Well, I suppose whoever’s got the throne now. Everything you say is being recorded, and can (and will) be used against you in your hearing. Resistance will result in a stricter-”

“Hey! Let her go!” The Overseer turned to look at Twilight, giving her her first good look at his golden mask. It was a single piece of metal, looked like gold but probably wasn’t, and she couldn’t see his eyes or mouth, being that they were both shielded by enchanted glass. “Ah, Dame Sparkle. I regret we could not have arrived sooner to support your own troops. We’ll recover what we can for their families. You were saying something?”

Thrown off-guard, Twilight verbally stumbled. “Uh… Right! You can’t arrest her, she’s done nothing wrong!”

The Overseer did not respond to this, and she got the distinct impression he was staring at her. He slowly and deliberately looked over the scroll he was holding with his armoured wing, before looking back at her. “One moment, Dame Sparkle. This mask is air-tight, and muffles sound a little…”

Using one of his hooves, he pressed the release catch, and the mask clicked loose with a hiss of compressed air. Underneath The Mask, the Overseer was a dusty orange stallion with a blue mane, pressed flat by his helmet. He was also surprisingly handsome, with strong features, and a piercing gaze that scanned her for signs of danger.

Briefly, Twilight wondered about all the times she’d seen an Overseer patrolling the halls of Canterlot castle, and wondered how many times it had been him, under his Mask.

Attaching the mask to his belt, he held out a hoof, and kissed hers when she took it. “Brother Flash Sentry, Ma’am. Now that I can hear you, run that by me again? Because it sounded a whole lot like you said this mare was innocent, and I know I couldn’t have heard that right.”

Twilight frowned. “That’s absolutely correct. Let her go.”

“Maybe.” Flash tilted his head. “First we need to check something. Sister Invocation!”

Behind him, the Overseer with the music-box on her back turned away from glaring at Luna, and faced Flash. “Brother Sentry?”

“I require the use of the True Sight Device.” She nodded, passing him a cylinder with several multi-coloured gems scattered across it, which Flash held with his wing.

“What is-” “One moment.” Flash pressed a button, and two arms popped out of the sides of the device, beeping with greater intensity when it was pointed at Twilight. Blinking, Flash shut it off, passing it back to Overseer Invocation. “Strange… Same energy as Celestia, but stronger… Anyway, you’re clear. Tell me again what it is you desire, and I shall tell you why it cannot be.”

“Let. Luna. Go.” Twilight hissed, done with the handsome stallion’s antics.

He grinned a grin that less-polite ponies would have called “shit-eating” and stated, “I’m sorry, miss, but you don’t have the authority to do that.”

“I do.” In an instant, all seven Overseers dropped to their knees, facing something behind Twilight. She turned, and saw only a blood-stained white neck. She followed it up to the head, and her eyes widened.

“P-Princess!” Instead of bowing, she instead opted to hug her lifelong mentor, earning a shocked hiss from the Overseers, and a pained one from Celestia. “Twilight!” She gasped. “Mind the leg!”

Horrified, Twilight pulled away, and examined Celestia’s left foreleg, which was hanging limply from the knee down. “Sorry, Princess. I didn’t know it was broken.” In fact, Celestia was practically covered in blood in various states of coagulation, numerous scratches, wounds, and… what appeared to be bites? Carefully, she hugged Celestia’s right foreleg, and the Alicorn lowered her head to nuzzle her lovingly, before glaring at the still-bowing Overseers.

“Brother Sentry. I believe you were telling my student she didn’t have the authority to do something?” The stallion stood back up, and his Overseers followed. “Apologies, Mother. But this mare-”

“Is my sister.” She finished for him. “Drop the charges.”

They glared at each other for only a moment, before Flash sighed. “Brothers Lambda and Deflection, remove Nightmare Moon’s bindings.” A moment later, he followed this with, “You know the Parliament’s going to have a damn fit about this.”

“I know. I just don’t care.” Flash stood aside, and Luna’s eyes flicked towards Celestia, then down at the floor. Celestia tried to sit, but her lone foreleg shook, and Twilight ducked under her shoulder to help her. As soon as she was sitting comfortably on the floor, she leaned towards her sister. “Luna?”

The blue Alicorn’s horn sparked briefly, and she hissed with pain, prompting all of the Overseers to twitch for their weapons, but nothing came of it. Tentatively, like a spooked animal, she stepped out of the loosened shackles, moving with glacial slowness towards Celestia. She stopped a metre away from Celestia, examining Twilight, who suddenly felt distinctly uncomfortable supporting Celestia. She ducked away, and Luna watched her step back.

“Lulu?” The mare’s head snapped to Celestia, who held out a hoof. “Lulu… It’s alright. I forgive you.” At this, the tiny blue Alicorn, no taller than Twilight herself, sniffled, and the dams broke. It progressed into open sobbing as she cleared the last metre in an instant, and Celestia wrapped one of her wings around her. (The other seemed to be lacking quite a lot of feathers.)

For the first time in a millenium, Luna spoke instead of the Nightmare, and Twilight thought she had a beautiful voice. “I… I am… Sorry… So sorry, dearest sister.... I knew not what havoc the Void wouldst wreak upon mineself… I never should have dared…” She trailed off into simple sobbing, and Celestia nuzzled her.

“sh-sh-sh, I know, it’s all right. Everything’s going to be just fine.” Her gaze met Twilight’s, who stood a short distance away, afraid to appraoch. “My dearest Twilight, my best and brightest student, you… you have done the impossible…” She choked up, and forced it back for a moment, “I thought my sister… lost to the Nightmare… That I had killed her, so long ago… But you have brought her back to me, alive and whole.” She closed her eyes. “I… I regret to say this… But the student has surpassed the teacher, and I have never been happier. If I may ask, how long was Equestria without The Sunlight?”

“A week, give or take a few hours.”

Celestia chewed her lip, doing mental calculations as Luna sobbed against her breast. “One week… Exemplary. There shall be some side effects, but the planet shall heal.”

Pinkie appeared from nowhere, startling the Overseers, and prompted Celestia, “Side effects?”

Celestia examined the pink pony. “Yes. A week without sun, on the longest day of the year... It shall be a cold year, with several to follow, but it will heal.” She paused. “You remind me of somepony. Have we met?”

“Nyet!” Celestia shook her head, and turned back to Twilight, glancing at the rest of her approaching friends. “Ah, but of course my faithful student could not have achieved this feat alone, even with a squad of Overseers. I expect to learn of all of you in detail, my little ponies, but for now… Twilight?”

The mare snapped to attention.

“You already had limitless resources at your disposal as my student, but now… I am prepared to give you whatever you desire, save the throne itself. Speak, and it shall be so… Yet, know that anything I could give you might never quite repay what you have done for me and my sister today.”

Twilight looked at all of her friends once again: Rainbow Dash, so loyal she would take a bullet for her; Pinkie Pie, able to cheer up any situation; Rarity, who would give up everything she owned to make her friends happy; Applejack, tough, dependable, honest; and Fluttershy, the single kindest pony she had ever met. And Twilight completed them.

She turned back to Princess Celestia, and smiled. “You sent me to Ponyville to find friends, and I did. But…” She paused, and all of her friends leaned towards her, anxious to hear what she’d do.

“...I think more field research is required, if you catch my drift.”

Pinkie fired a popper, the last of her confetti, and shouted, “She’s staying!” Celestia smiled as they all came together in a group hug, and Twilight sheepishly continued, “Well, it’d be rude to ask all of you to move up to Canterlot for me, and I’d miss you girls, and I was already staying in the library-”

Celestia chuckled, nuzzling Luna again. “You’ve already convinced me, Twilight! I’ll have your belongings brought to you within the week.” She turned back to the Overseers, who had begun sweeping the room. “Brother Sentry?”

The Overseer snapped to attention, and bowed, spreading his wings, as Celestia’s voice hardened. “Have your Overseers sweep the castle. Dislodge any Nightwatch you can find, non-lethally if you can. See if you can sneak a tracker gem onto one, I will not allow a potentially-hostile settlement of Thestrals to reside within our borders unchecked. Keep an eye out for survivors among House Sparkle’s Guard. Recover what you can.”

The stern mask of the war-goddess faded, replaced with a motherly tone. “And for Faust’s sake, Flash, put your damn mask back on. I trained you better than that.”

As the Overseers galloped away, she brought her head back down alongside Luna’s. Her little sister whispered, “They are different than I recall.”

“Yes, yes they are. Honour has been replaced with pride. I don’t like it either, but many have changed since you were here last.” She paused. “Lulu, I seem to be unable to reach my beloved star; ‘tis a veil over it that reeks of the void. Do you still have control over that?”

A moment passed as Luna’s horn glowed, and she nodded. “The veil hath been stricken from existence. One of many remnants of The Nightmare we shall scorch from the planet.”

Celestia smiled. “Have you enough power to help me raise the sun?”

“...Mayhaps.”

Princess Sol Celestia smiled, and closed her eyes, the picture of serenity. “Then we shall bring the day together, Lulu.”

Both their horns glowed, together, and the new day dawned through the windows, spreading across Twilight’s face, and those of her friends.

The Last Stand of Twilight Sparkle's Personal Guard

by Type_Writer

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4