Nightmare Sun sat upon her golden throne with a bored expression and staring off into space, her masters were set to arrive soon and then they would reward her taking control of all the remaining humans left on Earth, of course there was still Maria Santiago who insisted on being a thorn in her side, while still human the annoying woman still was part witch and could not be infected by Nightmare Sun's lovely beasts.
It had been surprising what Celestia had kept locked up in her head so much deadly knowledge that Nightmare Sun could give to her dark masters, and this body truly was an upgrade from that cursed Major and her brat of a sister, Immortal, Powerful and with so much knowledge on forbidden magic!

Nightmare Sun was roused from her thoughts by a large explosion, frowning she reached out with her magic to see what had caused it.
She felt a strong surge of magic belonging to Luna, she was not surprised to see a large furry dragon fighting her army of Lycans, after all her hounds had reported that three intruders had made it into her fort, which ment that this was a distraction to draw away her forces.
Let them have their way, Nightmare Thought unconcerned and sent her two Guards to join their fellows rushing towards the prison, I will only crush them when they get here.

Nightmare didn't have to wait long as the doors were blown off their hinges and landed at the foot of Nightmare's throne, two figures stepped through, one Human, the other Equestrian. Nightmare Sun sneered at the human as her eyes fell upon the black wolf ears and tail, it was the Brat herself.
The equestrian Nightmare recognised from Celestia's memories as Princess Twilight Sparkle and The dark mare felt her jaw twitch with slight worry, She knew that the other alicorn was more powerful in the magic department then Her but where Twilight had only a short time to master her new power, Nightmare had thousands of years of Celestia's experience to fall back on.

*NO TWILIGHT YOU MUST RUN, YOU AREN'T A MATCH FOR HER*

Oh quite down the pompous windbag she can't hear you

Letting her worry die down Nightmare got her her hooves and watched the two approach "Well Well Well, what do we have here?" Nightmare said in a mocking tone "Two insects waiting to be stomped under hoof"

"Yea well we will see about that!" the Brat said as she gathered the shadows around her and created her black scythe "Why don't you come down from your high horse and face us"

"Princess please!" Twilight pleaded "You can still stop this, just let us have that artifact and we can help you!"

Nightmare reached out and patted the artifact affectionately on its golden podium "And why would I do that?" Nightmare said smugly as she descended the steps of her throne "How about a counter offer? You get down on your knees and I will make your death quick..... Well except you Brat, your death will be slow and painful"

"Well at least she's honest" the Brat muttered to Twilight who ignored her and continued to watch Nightmare "Celestia I know your still In there, please let us help you"

Nightmare Sun laughed in the purple mare's face "oh she can hear you alright.... But there's jack all she can do about it" Nightmare told them "This is not the first body I have taken over, out of the three of us I have taken of one other person here" she flashed a toothy grin as she saw a look of horror and anger fall on the Brat's face "You've realised haven't you? Perhaps your not as dimwitted as I thought"

Pure fiery rage filled the Brat's golden eyes "Witch" she snarled savagely "why aren't you dead"
Nightmare Sun looked at the brat with faked hurt "Why I'm hurt Brat, you'd think after everything we've been through you would be glad to see your old friend"
"Your no friend of mine Witch" the Brat growled "and don't dodge the question Witch!"

Nightmare pouted "Ohhh Spoil Sport, if you must know I took over the essence of the Tank within dear old Applejack, when you 'killed' me I mearly took over that lesser essence and escaped to my dear trophy here" Nightmare patted the artifact again "All I had to do was wait for another host to take over and then I could take my revenge against you and your sister, I couldn't have asked for a better host with dear old Celestia here"

*I hope you rot it tartarus you deamon!*

Nightmare ignored the outburst and instead focused on the reactions of the two before her, both were visibly furious.
"How dare you.... How. Dare. YOU!" the purple alicorn shouted.
"Sorry about this" The brat said to Nightmare confusing her.
"Sorry for what?"
*She wasn't talking to you.*
While Celestia's voice had her distracted both her opponents sent thick tendrils of shadows into Nightmare Sun knocking her back into a wall cratering it.

The two didn't hesitate as they charged sending a barrage of shadows and bolts of magic at Nightmare, the corrupt mare was hit by three of four before she teleported out of the way and gritted her teeth, she was going to tear these two into shreds.
Charging Nightmare fired off powerful golden magic blasts at the two simultaneously, Twilight reacted by putting up a shield around herself while The Brat used her shadows to bat away Nightmare's attacks. Realising that she needed to surprize them if she was to win Nightmare summoned a fog that engulfed the room and obstructing view to all but herself.

"Shit where is she?!" Right behind you, Nightmare thought savagely as she snuck up behind the Brat and spun around and bucked her in the back hard, Nightmare would have paralysed the girl if she had not noticed Nightmare and used her shadows to protect herself. Still though she was sent flying into Twilight who was sent sprawling on the ground.
Twilight got up a second later and charged a spell that summoned a gust of wind that blew away Nightmare Sun's fog."Enough tricks Nightmare, fight us fair or not at all!"

"Tut tut tut Twilight, don't you know?" Nightmare Teleported right into Twilight's face and punched her "There's no thing as playing dirty in a fight!"

"I couldn't agree more!" Nightmare cried out in pain as she felt the Brat's Scythe cut into her side where her armour didn't protect before being knocked aside by a hard shadow strike.
Nightmare was sent crashing into some crates that she had neglected to remove sending splinters and wood everywhere.

Nightmare groaned in both pain and annoyance as she saw both Twilight and the Brat throwing odd canisters at her while covering their faces. Before Nightmare could question this she was both blinded and defended by a loud BANG and a bright flash, screaming in more pain and rage she thrashed around.

It was then she felt her.... Trying to sneak by while she was incapacitated, concentrating Nightmare wretched her up and smashed her hard against the wall three times then let her drop.

Maria Santiago hit the ground like a dead weight.

____________________________________________________________________
Twilight watched as Maria was taken off her feet and slammed into the wall before flopping to the ground like a rock, Lucy was already racing over to her screaming her name, Twilight reached their fallen comrade first by teleporting.
Maria didn't look to be in a good way, her leg and arm was bent and twisted in a way that no limbs should ever be twisted she her breathing was laboured and shallow. Lucy skidded to a stop and lifted Maria's head up "Maria! Come on don't die on me sis!"

Maria grimaced and opened her eyes to slits to look at her younger sister "H-Hey.... l-little sis.... Looks like I-I screwed up huh? "
"Don't speak like that, it'll be alright you'll see, once we fix all this then you'll be good as new" Lucy said.
"Heh, d-don't make a girl a promise... You know you can't keep..."

"Awwww! How touching..." They looked back to see Nightmare Sun getting up with two spectral gold blades floating infront of her "What are you going to do now hmmm? Kiss? Tell each other how much you believe in one another?"

Twilight felt her hatred for the being that that taken over her former teacher's body growing by the second and she could physically see Lucy shaking with rage.

"D-Do me a favor.... Kick. Her. Ass" Lucy nodded and lay her sister down and stood up, the knuckles of her hand holding her scythe bone white as she marched towards the monster who had made her life a living nightmare.

"Ohhh are you angry now?" Nightmare asked in a mocking voice as Twilight joined Lucy preparing her shards to fly at the dark goddess, She would apologies to Celestia when she was free but right now this Bitch needed to die.

When she was halfway to Nightmare Lucy let out a savage scream and raced at Nightmare who simply crossed her blades to defend herself. Not having any of that shit Twilight sent her shards in a whipping motion and forced Nightmare's left sword down leaving her only one blade to block with. Lucy took this chance and launched herself into the air by using the shadows as a springboard and bringing her scythe down intending to take tear through the mare's armour and to tear into the flesh, Nightmare saw this and struck the scythe hard and made the now savage Wolf-girl miss and roll balc onto her feet.
Twilight using this as a distraction cast a few ballistic spells at Nightmare and sent a few tendrils of shadows as well but all were blocked as Nightmare put up a golden directional shield to defend herself. Nightmare dropped her shield and sent her own spells at Twilight who had to raise a shield and then dodge out of the way when it collapsed five hits later, Nightmare then brought her blades down to sever Lucy's head but met only dead air as the girl had launched herself into the air again and landed on Nightmare's back digging in the spear end of her Scythe onto the mare through armour and flesh.
Nightmare screamed and tried to dislodge the girl from her back but to no avail as Lucy pulled her particle Magnum and set it to kill, Twilight knew that an alicorn like Celestia, Especially since she had been corrupted by Witch into Nightmare Sun, could withstand about maybe 12 shots from a P-Magnum set to kill and so did Lucy who shot Nightmare in the back 5 times. Twilight took this opportunity to fire off magic blasts into Nightmare's chest while she thrashed and screamed.

Eventually Nightmare managed to get Lucy off her back and Lucy used her shadows to cushion her landing and meet us with Twilight. Now Nightmare was not just angry but it looked like she had lost what little sanity she had to begin with as she began to radiate pure corrupt magic.
"Why....... Won't...... DIE!!!!"

Both Twilight and Lucy were driven to their knees by a massive shockwave of uncontrolled magic as Nightmare started to lose control of her power as the area around her was turned into a maelstrom of un-bridled magic. Both Twilight and Lucy were in great pain by this but though this they both heard a both extremely ancient and powerful voice of Kosh in their minds.

*Use the roses... Use them... NOW*

Twilight who was in too much pain to argue reached inside herself to find her connection to her Crimson Rose and was surprised to find how similar to her connection to the Element of Magic had been, just like the Element of Magic Twilight could feel Lucy doing the same and decided to take the lead, tapping into both roses and felt the power building up through both roses, surprisingly the power didn't feel dark or cold, but instead like a war summers day in the warmth of the sunshine. Twilight didn't really need to do anything else after that... She just needed to focuse on the two Roses intended target.

Around the necks of both girls the roses flowed hot white and a brigtht beam of white light surged out of the Crimson Rose and flew towards Nightmare who's eyes dilated in fear as the white light washed over her..... It was over in seconds.

When the light and the maelstrom subsided slaying completely without a mark on her was Princess Celestia. Twilight quickly rushed over to to her former mentor to see if she was alrigth.

Twilight gasped when she got a good look at her, she was now below Twilight in height standing a hoof below her and where her mane and tail had once been a flowing rainbow of colours, it now was just plain pink. But this all paled in comparison to Celestia's most notable change.

Celestia's eyes cracked open slowly as she looked up at Twilight, smiling weakly the Princess tried to rise but nearly fell back down and would have have hit her head had it not been for Twilight who catches her before.
"Twilight.... I am once again.... In your debt.... My former student"

"Celestia.... Your horn! It's gone!" Twilight exclaimed as she pointed at Celestia's forehead, sure enough where a horn should have sat proudly there was now just empty space.
Celestia reached up a hoof shakily and felt for herself, her eyes widened as she confirmed.
"Oh no!"
"It's Ok Celestia we'll fix this, i-" Celestia shook her head to show Twilight That she had mistaken what she ment "Witch left me just before the roses power struck us nd she took my magic to her new host!"

"MARIA!"

Twilight's head snapped back to where the fallen woman had been laying to find her standing perfectly even though it should have been imposable with the injury's she had sustained, Twilight's confusion was turned to horror as she saw a white horn protruding from Maria's head and that her eyes were glowing in a harsh menacing red.

"Well this is a development" the sickening voice of Witch emerged form Maria's mouth "It seems we have come full circle my dear Brat"

Twilight got to her hooves and prepared to use the Crimson Roses power again.
"Uh Uh Uhhhhh If I see one of you charging up one for that attack again then I will incinerate poor Maria here" Witch said menacingly "It doesn't matter to me if She dies... I'll just find another host to take over"

"Twilight... Don't" Twilight looked to see Lucy dismissing her scythe and P-Magnum "She's not bluffing" Twilight contemplated if Lucy had was thinking of a plan or some way to trick Witch into giving them time to use the Roses. But a look into her eyes showed that she had no such ideas, sighing Twilight did the same with her shards and dismissed them.

"Good, Now your going to all just stand there while I- LIKE HELL!" Twilight and Lucy looked at the Witch in shock, that outburst hadn't been in Witch's voice.
Composing herself again Witch started again "While I Ki- What! Why can't I move!"
"Because I'm In control now Bitch" Maria's voice came from her mouth.
"No.. No this is my body now!"
"Like hell it is, who do you think I am!"

Maria's face suddenly contorted on pain and she dropped to her knees, when her eyes opened again they were Maria's normal Ruby red eyes.
"Gagh! I... Can't... Hold her for long... Lucy GAGH!!" Maria's face grimaces in pain again "Y-You have to.... F-finish this...."

"Ok, we'll do what we did to Celestia!" Lucy said.

"NO!" Maria's answer shocked everyone in the room "I-If you do that... s-s-she'll only get away again... This has to end with me!"

"Maria.. What are you saying Celestia asked as she shakily got to her hooves.

"I'm saying- " Maria looked at Lucy "Lucy I want youn to put a hole through my head.... k-kill us both!"

Lucy shook her head violently "No I won't do that, I wont lose another sister!" she looked to Twilight and Celestia "Isn't there a way to kill Witch without killing Maria?"
"Possibly..." Twilight said "But it would take too long to research"
"And I don't think I can hold GAGH!! For much longer!" Maria looked at Lucy with pleading eyes "Please Lucy, I don't want to have to ask you.... This but the AHHHH! T-The need of the many.... Out way the needs of the few... Or the one..."

Lucy was in tears now, her sister was asking her to kill her only sister... Twilight didn't envy the poor girl.

"What do you think your doing!" Witch cried "You'll kill us both!"

"Oh Karma, thou a ar cruel Bitch" Maria said half amused, half in pain before turning her attention back to Lucy "Look sis,Earth and Equestria have been good to me... Time to return the favor... Don't deny me this..."

Lucy nodded slowly as she slowly reached down and picked up her gun and walked over to Maria, she pressed the muzzle of the gun onto Maria's forehead just below her new horn, all the while Maria kept a brave and forgiving face as she stared her sister in the eyes.

"I love you" was the last thing she said as her eyes flashed red as Witch Screamed "NOOOOOOOOO!"

BLAM
With that heart wrenching sound it was over, Major Maria Santiago, was dead, and so too was the daemon known as Witch.

Twilight watched as the gun fell from Lucy hand as she slid to her knees and wept over the body of another dead sister.
Twilight slowed the girl her time to grieve and walked over to the artifact that still sat upon it's pedestal, she still had one more thing to doe before she could grive.

Twilight looked the object over, it looked like an over sized stone key with a large indent of a rose, An Idea striking her Twilight took off her Crimson Rose and placed it into the indent, for a moment nothing happened and Twilight feared that maybe Witch had somehow broken the artifact.

But seconds later the rook was engulfed in white as a large white wave spread outwords through the fort all the equestrian to Luna and Solar Flare who were still fighting the Lycanthropes, as the wave passed through the lycanthropes they were instantly returned to their human and pony selves (With cloths thankfully) leaving both equestrians surprized.

The wave didn't stop there as it shattered the barrier around the fort and spread out across the planet returning Infected to their original selves, after years of being in the throws of the infection billions of people looked up at the rising sun with human eyes for the first time in a very long time.

Up in the Foxfire's Med-bay Applejack and rest of the marines infected by the Lycanthrope virus found themselves back to normal to the surprise of the doctor.
The same happened on the Deadalus l.

Back down on the surface the light had dissipated giving back Twilight's robbed sight.

"Foxfire to Princess Twilight, Solar Flare, Santiago is anyone reading me" Twilight turned on her earwig radio and answered Princess Twilight Sparkle here"

"Did you manage to activate the artifact, all infected life signs on the Earth have changes to Human, same for the Lycanthropes, I'm glad to report that Ms Applejack has recovered to"

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief before returning to the business at hand "We managed to activate the artifact, Princess Celestia has been purged aswel... I am sad to report that air force Major Maria Santiago... Has been killed in action"

The line went silent as everyone on the line tried to make sense of this new information.
"Twilight... What happened?" Luna'a voice came over the radio.

Twilight sighed "The Witch that took over both Lucy and Maria was the one who corrupted Celestia, Me and Lucy forced her out but she stole Celestia's horn and magic and took over Maria-" Twilight licked her lips which she noticed were really dry "Maria was able to control herself and trap Witch within her.... And then she sacrificed herself so that Witch wouldn't take over someone else and use the stolen magic to harm anyone else" Twilight left out that it was Lucy who shot Maria at her own request, that would only prompt questions for the poor girl and right now, Celestia was trying to calm down the weeping girl.

"R-Roger that Princess.... We'll inform Colonel Carter and General O'Neill of the situation, advise you return to the White Star"

"Not yet Colonel" Lucy said over her radio as she dried her tears away.

"Lucy...."

"I want to give her a proper send off first" Lucy told everyone.

Nobody Disagreed.

Author's Note

A writers worst nightmare... Killing off a main character. But it had to be done.
thanks to those who have stuck with me so long with this. We've only got one chapter left now and I will have it out by the end of the weekend.

once again, thankyou for reading!