To Make Amends: ~Luna V. Celestia~

Chapter 2: A Wing and a Prayer

-- Several hours into the battle --

Flashes of light shot arc'd across the sky in a flurry of magic, and feathers, ripped from their place, whipped behind the princesses' air currents, rejected their natural rights to fall to the ground for hours. The moon was the only true source of light as the two clashed in the air for their third straight hour. Both were now bleeding, but Celestia had lost the upper hand early when her sister had gotten a blast directly in her left wing. It hadn't taken Celestia out of combat, but it sure did sting with each wing-beat.

For the moment, they both hovered, regaining their lost breath, staring the other down. Glancing down, they both saw that it seemed to be a stale-mate between their armies. Not that it mattered who won down there, either of the alicorns would have no trouble wiping the ground clear of both armies in less than a minute. No, this war would be over tonight, and whichever sister won would claim the nation as their own.

Suddenly, Celestia charged silently towards Nightmare, and the unexpected motion threw her off. She evaded the blow, but just barely, and her right wing dragged her backwards in the air current, putting her in a tail-spin for a moment. In that moment, Celestia turned, and let loose a flurry of half-a dozen bolts of energy in her direction. Unable to correctly manuver away, two found their mark, painfully singing both Nightmare's left hind-leg, and super-heating her helmet on contact.

Cursing as many things as she could as quickly as she could, she removed the helmet and let it fall to the battle below, later falling on one of her own mages, and knocking him unconscious.

Looking up just in time, she once more dodged a charge from Celestia, only this time she was clever enough to ride the current and dive-bomb directly towards her. When Celestia turned around to charge yet again, she received a hoof traveling at over seventy miles per hour in her muzzle for her troubles, no magical barrier to cushion the blow. Nightmare used the shock value to her advantage, latching onto Celestia, and wrapping her wings around both of them in a binding, vice-like grip, holding them together as they began to plummet to the earth below. Celestia charged a blast, but Nightmare shoved her horn against hers, as they battled in a head-of-war while speeding towards the ground

--

The lack of lightning and magical strikes worried both ground parties, and they began to look up one-by-one. Soon, the entire battlefield was silent, as their princesses accelerated towards the heart of the battlefield faster with each passing second.

A few seconds later, one Lunar stallion had the sense to call out "Run!" before high-tailing it away from the scene, some Solar stallions in tow with them, some Lunar stallions in tow with the other party. One Lunar stallion limped slowly away, a spear sticking out of his leg, and it was clear that he wasn't going to clear the impact zone. Looking up, he shook his head, and said a few quick prayers to Faust before something scooped his legs from beneath him, and he found himself flopping around on the backs of one of his comrades, whom was now booking it from the Goddesses' landing zone.

--

Celestia tried to let loose a teleportation spell, but found, too late, that Nightmare had cast a magic-supression ward on herself, and in her very aura.

"You'll kill us both, you fool!" Celestia cried, though to deaf ears. Nightmare looked on as the ground rushed up to meet them. If she couldn't best Celestia, she was taking her down with her.

"Vivat Noctus, Celestia!" She cried, a tear streaming into the current behind them, and a smile of insanity overcame her, as she cried as passionately as she could; "VIVAT NOCTUS!"

-- Several Minutes Later --

The Lunar stallion stirred. His back leg was no longer sore, just numb. Looking down in a haze, he saw the spear was no longer there, but there was a slight tear in the wound; It had been pulled out. He shifted, and a screech of metal-on-metal rang for his ears. Looking down, he saw a robust pony in golden armor knocked out beneath him... But that meant...

'A solar pony saved me?'

All around the battlefield, stallions Golden and Blue alike arose from their stupors. Some looked angrily at one another, but they all silently agreed that the will and power to fight wasn't there for any of them; This was a fight of the princesses, and the princesses alone now.

--

Sore, tired, hungry, thirsty, things that make for an overall bad day, and Celestia felt them all.

"Luna..." She whispered through the rubble- She wasn't beside her. Blinking the pain away, Celestia pushed a fair-sized boulder off of her, and rose in the middle of a fourty-meter-wide crater, coated in debris and her own blood from various cuts across her body.

"Luna...?" She called, a bit stronger than before, beginning to scan the rubble, her blurred mind failing to recognize any of the shapes as her sister.

"Luna... Luna..." Celestia kept repeating to herself, staggering across the shifting surface of pebbles and rocks. She was here somewhere- There! A bit off to her right something twitched; An armor-clad hoof attached to a dark-blue hoof stuck out from an entire layer of rocks entombing her foe. Without hesitation Celestia summoned magic from sheer willpower, and forced them, with an audible grunt of effort, off of her sister.

Looking down into the small crater within the crater, Celestia's heart dropped; Her side was torn open from a jagged rock still lodged slightly in her, there was a bit of skin missing on her front hooves, and her head was swelling and bleeding with many more cuts than Celestia herself had.

"L- Lu-" She stammered, falling to her knees, siphoning any energy she possibly could forth into a green aura that begun wrapping itself around the battered alicorn. "You're not going to die on me, I swore you wouldn't..." Celestia said. It wasn't a plea, it was a fact. "You are not dying today..."

She had already been sapped of energy, but a severe healing spell had literally drained the Solar princess of every drop she had in her. 'I can't be done...' She thought in a panic. 'I can't be...' Celestia shook her head violently. 'Awake. I have to stay awake.' She thought.

What could she do? There was no sunlight here, and she had no magic left to her... she was on the verge of collapsing, and she felt her eyes closing as she sank lower... 'Something... I need something...'

'No.' She thought. Opening her eyes, she forced herself onto her hooves. 'Say it.' She commanded herself. She remained silent, and shifted a hoof further out to steady herself.

'SAY IT, DAMN ME!' Her mind screamed to her. 'SAY IT OR YOUR SISTER WILL DIE!'

"n-... not..." She took as deep a breath as a collapsed lung allowed, and looked to the heavens, eyes closed in the agony to follow.

"YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DIE TODAY!" She commanded her sister, daring the universe to challenge her finality. With a scream, Celestia summoned every fiber of her being forth into one burst of extreme power, and channeled it into her healing spell. She felt as if her insides were going to burst from the self-inflicted torture, but through a slitted eye she saw the gashes sealing across the Lunar princesses' body quicker than Celestia's eye could follow. Before a few seconds had passed, Celestia did what she knew she had to, and pushed herself over the brink.

"LUNAAAAAA!!" She yelled, the violent tears streaming down her face as she cast her spell, and collapsed, her body violently jerking and contorting in spasms of uncontrollable agony. She tumbled into her Sister's crater, and felt only rock.

'I'm so sorry, Lulu... Please... Please forgive me... I'm so sorry... ' Was all she could pray to her sister, before the icy darkness of agony-ridden sleep grasped her body and mind.