Tempus Nox
This can’t be happening. Please dear gods above, please don’t let this be true. The thought has been in my head for quite some time, but I still won't give up on the chance that my prayers will be heard. I evade another burst of magical energy, letting it crash into the wall before me. I can hear her behind me, slowly but definitely catching up. I rush through the hole and take a sharp left turn, the moon giving enough light to let me see and make sure to avoid any pieces of the stone lying around. I can hear her shouting behind me.
“‘Tis useless, you can not escape us!” Her voice booms loud enough to make my ears hurt despite the distance between un and it sounds as if there actually are several ponies behind me. But there aren’t. There’s only one pony chasing after me, one pony set on ending me. And it’s my fault. My fault that she’s pouring her all into killing me. And I know that sooner or later, she will reach me. And then it will all be over. All the things that we achieved in these long years together will have been for nothing, it will be destroyed and forgotten. All because of my ignorance.
“Please! Stop this madness! This is a problem we can solve! Together!,” I shout, still hoping that I can calm her down. But I know that it’s too late. It’s too late to save her and everypony else. Too late to talk. Too late to listen. I hear another blast coming from behind me and jump to my right evading the blast. Once that I touch the ground again I realise it wasn’t the smartest course of action; my hole body still aches from hit I took before and I almost topple over.
Over my panic, evading her blasts and my self-loathing, I’ve completely lost my orientation and find myself face to face with a wall. It’s too late to turn, so I light up my horn, close my eyes and run straight into the wall. But instead of being stopped, I continue to run and can feel the wall around me. I open my eyes again, and leave the wall almost instantly again, the golden glow that covered my body fading away. I stop and allow myself to breath for a moment, but make sure to make as little noise as possible.
Her hoofsteps have disappeared. Did I lose her? Not a second after I finish the thought, the wall in front of me gets torn apart by magic, stone pieces of all sizes bursting in my direction. For a moment, time seems to stop and despite the flying stones and the dust that the explosion created, I can see her face perfectly and I know she can see mine. Her mouth is formed to a grin, her wolf-like teeth showing. Her eyes are no better, the reptilian slits glaring directly into my own eyes. I can’t say how I’m looking right now, but I’m sure that to an outsider, it would be pretty clear who the stronger pony is.
My body stiffens and, in panic, I fire a magic blast of my own. She seems surprised, fails to avoid and is hit directly in the chest. She falls over, quite obviously hurt. My mind screams to me to make sure she’s okay, to see if I can help her, but my body refuses to move a single meter. Then she begins standing up again and I finally regain control over my body. I start running again, the rational part of my mind having beat the emotional one.
Shortly after she’s on her hooves again, chasing me, shooting me, yelling at me. And I’m not sure for just how long I will be able to hold on. I am running now, but for how long can I continue to run and let her hunt me, tearing down whatever dares to try and stop her? Can I allow her to leave these grounds and let her rage overcome all of Equestria? The answer to that is obvious, there is nopony else responsible for this than me, so nopony else should suffer for it. But how? How can I make sure to stop her from going on a rampage through Equestria after she’s done with me?
Pictures of what would happen fill my mind. Equestria in flames. Ponies running and getting slaughtered. She wouldn’t let anyone who doesn’t want her ideals live. Ponies living under an iron rule. I can’t allow that to happen.
The answer to the question is as obvious as the last one, though it hurts a lot more.
Kill her.
I instantly try to suppress the thought, but it’s fruitless. It’s holding onto my mind like a parasite. I need to kill her. She can’t be stopped otherwise.
Tears start forming in my eyes. I try to think of something else, anything to stop her. But there’s nothing. Anything I come up with ends with either her dying or everypony suffering. So I make decision. For everypony.
I take another turn and stop.I am standing in front of one of the castle’s walls, we must’ve run in a half-circle of sorts. I turn around and start preparing myself, begin to harbor my power. I can hear her steps coming closer, she’s still galloping. I start crying, the tears obscuring my vision. But it doesn’t matter. This spell will kill her, there is no escape from it. If nothing else, it will be quick.
She’s coming closer. I apologize to her and make a prayer in my mind, no words will leave my mouth. Then she comes around the corner.
She sees me standing tall yet crying, she sees that I’ve prepared to counter. The shock is written all over her. She slams her hoofs into the ground and screeches to a stop.
This is it. I must do this. For the good of everypony. So... why can’t I?
It’s funny really. Here I stand, knowing that I must do this to save everypony. And I simply can’t. I can’t release the spell. I’m too selfish. How could I have been foolish enough to think that I could kill the pony who was once my sister?
She realizes it almost as soon as I do. Her face goes from shocked to victorious in a second. Then she lets loose her own magic.
The blast shots me straight through the towers wall. I crash down to the ground and slide a little bit. I don’t even bother to get up again, I know that it’s over. I know that I failed. All that I can do is look to the hole in the wall and watch as she slowly steps through, her laughter filling the room. I decide to look around, I at least want to know in what part of my castle I’ll die.
We’re in the throne room again. Did we really run around the whole castle since she started hunting me? I’ve been blasted right through the space between our thrones, where Lu- Nightmare Moon now stands. The room is damaged; several of the banners are destroyed and there’s a giant hole in the roof.
I have pretty much given up hope by now. I begin to turn my head to face Nightmare Moon again. Then though, out of the corner of my eye, I see a podium and my eyes linger on it. My eyes widen as I realize what is standing over there.
This could be it! I gather any power that I have left.
“So Celestia, telleth us how it feels to know that thou have failed? We have to admit, we enjoyed ourselves whilst chasing thou through the gardens.”. She steps down on the stairs and I slowly get up, my legs can barely carry me. “We would like to thank you for making this last effort of you as futile as it was. But alas,” she readies her horn, “All good things must come to an end. Now Celestia... SLEEP FOREVER!”. With those words she rears up and fires a magical blast of immense power at me. I teleport through the room in the same moment.
I appear over at the podium of the Elements of Harmony and almost instantly lose my balance. It becomes really hard to even stand by now. Nightmare Moon looks at the spot where I was not seconds before, smiling slightly. Good. She doesn’t know I’m over here. I slowly start channeling my magic into the Elements. They begin lighting up one after another.
Nightmare Moon is walking up the stairs again, then suddenly stops and turns towards me. She must’ve seen the glow. I can read what is happening on her face, she’s torn between confusion, anger and angst. She lets loose another blast accompanied by another scream but it’s too late. The Elements unleash their power power clash with her beam, destroying it instantly. Nightmare Moon cries out as she is engulfed in the Elements’ beam and slowly fades away. All the while there are two thoughts in my mind, battling for dominance; Stop her, Don’t kill her, Stop her, Don’t kill her, Stop her, Don’t kill her, Stop her, Don’t kill her, Stop her, Don’t kill her. Then I pass out.