Chapter 7

Graphic violence in this chapter. Not hardcore gore or anything, but extremely squeamish ponies may want to duck out on this chapter.

Also, starts in Celestia’s POV.

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"Go." I said to Twilight, charging a teleport spell. I looked only at Nightmare, searching her teal eyes for any trace of the lust or empathy that was there a few minutes ago. Unsurprisingly, and to my horror, I saw the Nightmare Moon of old there. The same one that would have killed the Elements without regret or a second thought.

"GO!"

I flashed out of this world and reappeared a few yards behind where Nightmare Moon was standing. I should have reappeared behind Nightmare Moon, rather than being bull rushed by a cloud of stars as I landed, but this plan did not exactly start off on the best hoof to begin with.

I hit the ground with my side, immediately rolling and springing to my hooves. There was a small gash on my left shoulder where I impacted the ground, but nothing serious. I blocked the pain from my mind, trying to think of my next move when she struck.

Nightmare was about twenty feet away, still in her cloud form, which was as much a handicap as it was an advantage; she was almost impossible to hit while in an unsolid form, but she could only navigate by touch, rendering her almost useless.

Unless somepony was navigating for her via telepathy.

The cloud charged again, zigzagging across the ground as fast as lightning. I had little time to react, unprepared for an offensive strike and caught off guard, but the weak barrier I instinctively conjured deflected her away upon contact.

She rebounded into the sky, rising a few yards above me and splitting into three separate entities. The clouds took shape, forming the three members of the Shadowbolts; Ixion, Arion and Gyth. She had used this tactic a thousand years ago, using three, weaker ponies to divide my attention and wear me down over time.

"Looks like the saying about old dogs is true." I taunted, trying to check on Twilight without giving our plan away. She was doing worse than I had hoped, but better than I feared; Twilight was talking to Luna, I assume trying to get through the spell with words while teleporting around my sister, dodging the bolts and arcs of magic aimed at her. It was a good strategy for a short battle, but if Twilight didn't act soon, she would wear herself out and be wide open for attack. "You always use the same tricks."

The male Shadowbolts on the end laughed in unison, but Gyth, the female and leader in the center just, smirked. She alone turned into a cloud of stars, breaking into three more entities, who then solidified into more Shadowbolts. The males did the same, breaking into three more entities, and suddenly there were nine Shadowbolts in total; Three Gyths, three Arions and three Ixions, all encircling me from above and all poised for attack.

Well, that's new.

While it was true that each individual was now weaker than Twilight and slower than Rainbow Dash, that still left nine moderately powerful pegasi with the ability to perform magic surrounding me. Nightmare was adapting to the situation perfectly; I was already tired from other activities, I had to watch over Twilight, and I had to focus on nine attackers at once.

I could flee - I was certainly fast enough to outrun them- but that left Twilight alone. I could fight - normally I was more than powerful enough- but I was already drained from earlier. Giving up meant death. Begging would only amuse her. Surrendering would more than likely be rejected, but even if she accepted it she would make me kill my student. Any way you looked at it, somepony died.

Not Twilight.

Without so much as a second of hesitation, all eight of them charged me simultaneously, dive-bombing at racing speeds. I shot straight up in the same instant, through the empty center, and was immediately slammed on the left wing by the ninth Shadowbolt. The one who had floated, invisible against the sky, in a cloud of mist above the group.

Stars and trees crossed my vision as the world spiraled around me. I was spinning from losing a wing, and the earth was all too eager to meet me again. Just as I landed another Shadowbolt kicked me in the chest, sending me sliding across the loose dirt as the world become out of focus. The wound on my side flared with pain as the dirt and loose stones tore at it, ripping it open. My injured wing was pinned under me, and as my body crushed it it racked my mind with agony.

The Shadowbolts descended on me like vultures. They were relentless, kicking and biting and stomping on me while I was down. One raked my horn with their teeth, scratching it and making my body convulse. Two more tore feathers from my right wing as the others beat me without mercy. Teeth pulled on my tail and mane, hooves stepped on my face, and I couldn't do a damn thing about it.

After an eternity, it stopped. There was almost absolute silence in the forest. The only thing I could hear was my own ragged breathing. Everything was black. One eye was swollen, and the other was pressed into the ground. With every breath, I felt ribs creak and crack, and one threatened to puncture my skin. My hind legs were numb, as was my left wing; My spine was broken, and so were the tendons and nerves connecting my wing. Everything else was on fire. How much longer would I have to endure this hell?

"Nightmare..." I choked out. Blood went with the words, the copper taste staining my tongue.

"Going to beg, Celestia?" Her voice was odd. Not cold, biting at you like a winter night, but...broken.

Like me.

I tried moving my front right leg, placing the bottom of my hoof on the ground, but I only succeeded in stretching the skin far enough to let the bone poke through my coat. A small cry escaped me as a flower of blood blossomed on my coat. I heard laughter from behind me.

"You...you foal..." She tried putting venom on the last word. Her voice cracked as she said it, and her laughs sounded different after. Higher pitched.

Not laughter...sobs...

"Nightmare..."

As the world faded away in swirls of purple and black, I could hear her calling me from far away...

"...celestia...!...Celestia!"

...twilight...

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Twilight’s POV

Luna was incredibly fast. It was all I could do to dodge her attacks while maintaining my constant flow of magic and focusing on where I would land next. The second I landed, her head would snap towards me and her horn would try to skewer me with lightning. She seemed distracted, however, pausing for a split second every time I jumped to glance at Celestia and Nightmare. Even so, it never presented an opening, as she was just too quick for me to be able to close the distance in time.

"Luna! I'm Twilight!" If she heard me, she didn't care for what I had to say. That armor made her look like the Reaper itself, and her blazing, indigo eyes proved that she had the power to bring death just as easily. "Twilight Sparkle!"

As I disappeared for the seventh time, an arc of lightning came within millimeters of my ear, singing the fur and burning the sensitive skin to a raw red. I appeared above her withers, landing on her back and tackling her. She wrestled beneath me, trying to buck me off like a bull.

So this is what Applejack puts up with everyday.

I wrapped myself around her torso, clinging on to her neck while trying to shout her down. "Luna! You have to fight the spell! Remember Nightmare Night? Remember Pip?" This had an effect on her; She stopped suddenly, and my momentum took me over her and onto the dirt. I landed on my back to her right, and saw her face; Confused, conflicted between obeying the spell and remembering her small friend, the little Earth Pony who had dressed as a pirate on Luna's first Nightmare Night.

The power in her eyes and horn flickered briefly, and I could see her eyelid twitching as she struggled against her own mind. Her brows furrowed, and her head was bowed, presenting an opportunity for me.

My chance, I thought. I could free her now. I rolled, jumping to my hooves and made contact with her horn; Not with my horn, but the side of my face. Luna thrust her head up as I leapt towards her, catching me on the left cheek with her still-charged horn. She had lost the battle. Nightmare was in full control of her.

I couldn't see the damage, but I could definitely feel it. It was like the left side of my face had caught fire, leaving a burnt streak of flesh behind. I wasn't bleeding, because the lightning had cauterized the wound on contact. Lucky me.

I looked up at her from my back. She had her front hooves on either side of my shoulders, and her onyx-clad head was right over my scarred one. Her burning eyes were difficult to look at, bright enough to reduce the rest of her form to a silhouette. There was only murder in those eyes.

I was right. She was the Reaper.

"I love her!" I screamed at her, pushing my nose against hers. "Your sister! I am in love with Celestia!" I don't know why I said it. The anger at Nightmare and the pain in my face and the joy of Celestia kissing me all mixed around inside me along with all the other feelings tonight had brought, swirling and blending together and exploding out of me and in Death's face.

"I am in love with Princess Celestia of Equestria! And she is in love with me!" There was a ball of fire inside me, burning away everything but anger. Death retreated a little, and the glare diminished slightly. I pressed forward, propped up on elbows, and I was the attacker now. "If you want to take that away, kill me! If you want to rip that love away from us, kill me! Let Nightmare Moon kill Celestia!"

A visible step backwards. I could make out the colors of the fur beneath the armor; a beautiful midnight blue, caked in ugly brown dirt. The glow of murder was slipping out of her eyes, the natural light blue replacing it.

"So do it, Luna." I was sitting now, and she was backpedaling faster with every word. She shook her head as the spell tried to reassert itself, but I never gave it the chance. "Destroy your life, and kill us." The fire was almost gone, as seeing Luna -the real Luna, not Nightmare's puppet- on the defensive was saddening.

She was scrambling to get away, and her wings flared reflexively. If I went forward with my attack, she might take off, and that would lead to a victory for Nightmare. "Luna, please, I want to help." I changed tactics, trying to calm her down, but she was already too afraid. She shut her eyes tight, and the glow of her horn faded as she flapped her wings. If i didn't act now, I would never get the chance to.

I bounded forward, and our horns touched as she rose a foot into the air. I located Nightmare's presence immediately, a seething mass of parasitic magic covering about half of her mind. It was thinning out as she resisted its effects, and I guessed it was feeding off Luna's obedience. So all I had to do was push her in the right direction, and Luna would do the rest.

I summoned my magic, feeding it through me and into Luna. Because I was drawing the magic through Luna's mind, this opened a direct connection between us, and our souls mixed together; I was Luna, and she was Twilight, but we were both ourselves at the same time. Her fear -our fear- was erased gently, wiped away as I gave her more magic. She drew her strength from me, using me as a crutch as we purged Nightmare. I could feel Princess Luna returning, slowly gaining control of her body back, and experienced her emotions during the process; her joy, and her despair, and her exhaustion.

We finished after a short time, but we held the connection after. We explored each other's mind and soul, building a deeper connection with each other than a mother and her foal. I took a part of her with me, and left a part of myself with her when we broke away. No matter what happened from this moment on, Luna and I would always be connected. Though our minds were no longer connected, I could still feel her, I could sense her, and I knew she felt me.

A pitiful, heartbreaking cry broke the silence between us. We both turned towards the sound, and I almost died from the sight. Celestia was on the ground, bloodied and beaten with Nightmare Moon standing over her. Her right eye was bloated, there were dozens of scratches, cuts and scrapes across her coat, and her horn was chipped near the tip. Her left hind leg was bent at a gut-wrenching angle, her wing was missing most of its feathers, but the most horrifying thing I have ever seen was the tip of her rib protruding from her side.

I don't remember moving. Time was non-existent. I was at her side suddenly, calling her name. Holding her face up with a hoof, tapping her shoulder with another.

"Nightmare..."

Luna was there, trying to fix the injuries she could see through the tears; she repaired the leg, popping it back into place, erased most of the flesh wounds, and tried to mend the rib. When Celestia groaned and shuddered from the bone being manipulated, Luna sank to the ground. It was too much for her to handle in such a short amount of time, so she coped with it by falling asleep.

I touched my horn to the bone, mending it as quickly as possible. I almost followed Luna to the ground when Celestia screamed. I couldn't sedate her; What if she never woke up? It was over quickly, but her breathing erratic afterwards. I reduced the swelling in her eye with the last of my magic, but it wasn't enough to calm her down. Her wing was pinned under her, probably causing a majority of the pain.

"Luna! I need help, PLEASE!" I pleaded with her, but she was too far gone to hear me. I couldn't roll Celestia by myself. My magic was dried up, and I was too worn down to carry a rabbit. "I-I can't do this alone!"

Celestia cried out again, and I felt her entire body shake. Turning, I saw Nightmare's horn touching her flank, sending a steady stream of magic into her.

"Nightmare!" I thought I was going to kill her. How dare she touch Celestia after what she did? Only one problem with my plan; I was about to pass out. The day's stress and sex and emotions finally caught up with me, buckling my knees and forcing me to the ground. My eyes wouldn't open, but I wasn't sure I wanted them to.

It's over. I can't do anything. My body was at its breaking point, and as I shivered on the cold earth, I knew what Nightmare would do to us.

Suddenly, I was in the air. I could hear Celestia groaning with pain as she was rolled onto her stomach, exposing her wing. I began to feel a little better. I stopped shaking as much, and I felt a little bit of magic flow into me. I opened my eyes, finding Nightmare's turquoise ones staring into mine.

She saw my silent plea for an explanation, and set me down next to her. Up close, I could see that she had been crying, but I was left on my own to guess before she spoke.

"You are not the only one who loves her, Twilight."

What?! The fire was back, eating away at me from the inside out, threatening to erupt out at Nightmare at any second. How the hell could she possibly say that to me?

"I need your help. We have to fix her wing, as well as the gash on her shoulder." I ripped my eyes away from Nightmare's to see what she was talking about; I wish I hadn't. I really wish I had passed out on the ground before, so I wouldn't have to see this.

The gash she was talking about covered Celestia's entire left side - from her neck down to her flank. It must have been as wide as my leg. It was filthy, with dirt and pebbles invading it, and it was clearly the source of Celestia's pain. Blood seeped from the wound, turning the entire left side of the once pristine white coat a dark red.

Her wing looked like a crinkled up piece of tin foil. Her feathers were sticking out everywhere, and the delicate structure inside the wing was shattered. The wing hung limp off her body. I had to turn away from it as bile flooded my throat.

"She has already lost a tremendous amount of blood, so we must focus on the gash first, but if we do not repair her wing within the next two minutes, it will have to be amputated. The circulation has been cut off." Nightmare spoke in a voice that didn't fit her. It was small, hollow almost, standing in stark contrast to her normal tone. It was not an act; It was a representation of her mental state. This more than anything let me know I could trust her...for now.

Time to come back to life. If I didn't help, Celestia lost a wing. That was unacceptable. I was sure the punishment would be much worse than Magic Kindergarten.

"I'll stop the bleeding as much as I can, you start on her wing." I was already going to work as Nightmare lifted the wing out of the way, thanking myself that I had watched Fluttershy perform surgery on some of her animals. I did not have enough magic to cauterize the entire wound, but I could conjure some sterile thread and needles. Some of the larger ferns near the edge of the clearing could be used to soak up some of the blood, making stitches a viable solution. Thank you, Zecora.

It took a few seconds to get the ferns, but once I applied them almost all the blood was gone in a second. I blocked out everything except the gash and Nightmare; If I listened to Celestia screaming again I would die.

I used a little of my remaining magic to clear away most of the dirt and pebbles, allowing me to start stitching. I knew the theory, but I just didn't have the experience necessary to do something like this on such a bad wound. I looked for places that blood was seeping out of, and shut them with a zigzag line of thread. After a minute, half the wound was closed, and the blood loss looked significantly less threatening.

I looked up at Nightmare, who was still working on the wing. It looked much better, being much straighter with more aligned feathers, and now she was concentrating on the base. It looked fine on the surface, maybe a little bloody, but then again so was half of Celestia’s body. I knew it was what was inside that was the problem. There had to be torn blood vessels and shattered bones if the circulation had been cut off.

“Go to her. As soon as she regains feeling in this wing the pain will be unbearable. She’s too unstable to be knocked out, but do what you can to lessen it for her.” Nightmare looked shaken and hesitant, not wanting to bring even more pain to Celestia, and I wasn’t helping by staring at her. “Twilight, you need to be there for her.” She was right. I nodded to her once, moving to lay down next to Celestia’s head. Her breathing was more stable now, coming in deeper, longer breaths. Her eyes opened as she felt me lean my head against hers, and I could feel her relax a little.

“Twilight...” She breathed, pressing against me weakly. “My wing is still damaged.” I looked back, seeing that Nightmare had finished mending the limb in question. There was only a few seconds left before the pain arrived, and I could tell Celestia knew this as her breathing became faster. “Hold me.” She asked, closing her eyes and trying to steel herself. I lifted her head with magic, laying on my back under her. I placed her down on my chest, holding her with my front legs as she tensed herself for the pain. I felt like I should say something, but the words I was looking for evaded me. Her right hoof came up and took hold of mine as the pins-and-needles feeling hit.

I still have nightmares about the screams. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I wake up making the same sound Celestia was making. I see her face; teeth clenched, brows furrowed, streaks of tears running down onto me. I feel her body convulsing and spasming as the fresh blood enters her wing, the stale blood being pumped back to her heart, and remember the feeling of her hoof as it squeezed mine, and I feel like I never really left that clearing.

It was over after a few minutes. Celestia was breathing heavily, accompanying every exhale with a low grunt. Her hoof relaxed, releasing mine, and her face relaxed gradually. After a few moments, her breathing slowed and she opened her eyes. We just watched each other, silently taking each other in, alone in our thoughts for the longest time. She smiled -not hungrily, like earlier- but a genuine smile, the same one she gave me when I learned a new spell when I was a filly. Her head raised, and she held the side of my face with her hoof, stroking my scar gently. My hooves were still around her neck, and I pulled her down gently as I closed my eyes.

We moved forward in unison, embracing for the second time that night. Her mane fell around me, closing us in our little bubble, away from the world as we kissed. It was different from the first time, as Celestia didn’t press forward aggressively, taking control like she did before. She let me come to her at my pace. I felt like I was floating, lost in my own perfect world, my senses dominated by the pony above me. Her hair smelled like cool rain on a hot day, and sand on the shore of the ocean, and of a dozen other things. I could taste her lips, being as perfect as a blooming flower in spring, and feel them pressing against mine in harmony. Her coat felt warm and smooth, softer than the finest silk in Canterlot, and I ran my hooves up and down her neck, relishing the feeling.

We slowly broke apart, each going back for more every time the other moved away. I looked up at her, seeing the face of the pony that meant more to me than any collection of books or scrolls. She looked down on me, still stroking the scar on my cheek, and I found the words I had been searching for.

“I love you, Celestia.”

Author's Note

This is morbidly embarrassing to look back on. Dear god...