My name is Twilight Sparkle and it has been 10 years since I failed to gather the elements of harmony and Nightmare Moon enveloped the world in everlasting night. That day I lost everything, my mentor, my home, my family and my little brother. She spared me because she found my failure funny. While she enslaved all of Equestria I was left to wallow in my powerlessness as I tried to fix my mistake. After 4 years of searching for an answer I stumbled into the newly returned Crystal Empire and with it my solution.
When I arrived at the Crystal Empire I found ponies that had lost all hope of being free from their dictator. As I looked upon these ponies it reminded me of all of those under Nightmare Moon’s rule and I vowed to not make the same mistake again. In the royal library I found mention of a crystal heart that was said to have the power to defeat King Sombra whose power had been getting stronger as his shadows had started consuming the outer edges of the empire. I searched and searched for the heart as Sombra’s power got stronger and stronger moving towards the palace faster and faster.
I finally found the heart as Sombra’s magic was quickly enveloping the palace. As I frantically ran towards the heart his black magic tendrils slithered across the room towards the heart and I. In a panic I reached out my magic to grab the heart away from him but I was not fast enough. We touched the heart at the same time and as the three magics touched I felt them start to blend together and fight for control. I pushed all of my power into the mix trying desperately to overpower the other two forces but, it was a losing battle as both of the magics I was so desperately trying to fight were centuries old. In a last ditch attempt to not lose I tried to take the other powers into myself; looking back now it was probably the worst move and I am lucky to have survived.
As the sheer power of the two century’s old magics swirled inside of me tearing my mind and body apart at the same time a single thought crept into my head. I failed everyone again. That thought enraged me. My magic built on the feeling of pure hatred and anger of that thought and it exploded enveloping the other two and taking them into me as I started to think of Nightmare Moon laughing at my failure again. The sheer power that rushed into my body as my emotions overwhelmed Sombra’s taking in more and more of his power. I could feel him try to pull away in fear of being devoured by this rage and hatred that dwarfed his own but I wouldn’t let him. As I took in all of his power that I possibly could my body started to change to compensate for the excess magic. My body and horn started to grow to the size of an Alicorns; it was excruciatingly painful as my bones elongated and my muscles tore apart and rewove themselves somewhere in the middle of the transformation I passed out.
When I woke the crystal heart was gone and lying across the room from me was the stallion I recognized as Sombra. I felt strange, I was taller and I could feel so much magic coursing through my body too much in fact as quite a bit of it seemed to be leaking out of the corner of my eyes. It didn’t hurt it just felt strange to have so much power that it radiated out of your body. After examining myself and noticing that my horn was radiating a crimson light I turned my attention to Sombra. His horn was cracked in multiple places and glowing a soft red. He was still breathing but it was soft. I used my magic to lift him off the ground and bring him to me and I saw that my magical aura had been changed it was now black as night with small wisps leaking from it like smoke. As I brought him closer he woke and he looked at me with eyes full of fear, he began to beg for mercy. This stallion that had enslaved an entire kingdom, who had tortured and worked hundreds of ponies to death, was begging me for mercy. With one thought I ended his life, just one thought. I couldn’t find it in myself to find any regret for what I had done; I just left him there to go see to the Empire.
It took me nearly a year after that to convince the crystal ponies that I wasn’t the reincarnation of Sombra and that I did have his power but I wasn’t anything like him. After that first year I was able to get them to work with me to bring the empire back to its former glory. I was honestly surprised how long it took Nightmare Moon to realize we were back but as soon as she did, she sent messengers to try to bully us into being her slaves. We were able to sate her with petty trinkets and other valuables as it was hard for her people to get through the frozen north to get to us, making it near impossible for her to take us by force. I spent the next 6 years practicing my new magic that, I found out, allowed me to control and manipulate shadows. I found that the darker the shadow the more power I had over it. As I started to master my new powers I started to work with the crystal ponies to make a plan to take Equestria back from Nightmare Moon. That plan starts tomorrow as the day I’ve waited for so long has arrived and I feel nothing. No apprehension, no fear, no excitement, no nothing just the thought that I am approaching the most important moment in my life. As I sit here writing this I am trying not to look back on all of the things that I have done those that I have lost because I know in my heart that they…. No this is not the time, I must go prepare for tomorrow this all ends.
This is it; I’ve finally come back to Canterlot. As I walk towards the palace I feel empty as this is no longer the place that I had so many fond memories, not anymore now it’s just the stage for my last meeting with Nightmare Moon. To disguise myself I’ve put on a large robe that covers most of my body and I am crouching low to the ground to hide my height, it is awkward but I will need the element of surprise to make my plan work. I pull my robe closer to me as approach the gates the guards open them as they were expecting me, one of them escorts me to the throne room. As we walk in Nightmare Moon laughs and drones on about how it was inevitable it is for the crystal empire to surrender to her might. I smile and remove my robe standing at my full height while simultaneously firing a quick spell at her. The look of surprise that passes over her face is priceless as the bolt hits her in the neck making her head hit the back of her throne. I don’t dare stop to enjoy the look of rage pass across her face. As she realizes what was happening, I just summon the shadows to form a pair of wings on my back and quickly take to the air to avoid her retaliation bolt. I quickly dodge her next few attacks in the air as the shots get more and more powerful with every one I dodge. when the attacks start to get too hard for me to dodge I quickly throw myself out the window. As I clear the window I immediately throw myself to the ground just in time for the entire wall to explode behind me. I quickly dart towards the garden as Nightmare Moon chases me shooting off more shots. As I reach the garden I Fire up my magic and use the shadows from the trees and bushes to assault her. Using the shadows I impede her movement by lashing out at her legs and using them to deflect the magic. This tactic only works for a short time before she takes to the air to rain magic bolts down on me. I use my shadows to defend myself as I shape other shadows to resemble shadow ponies and throw them at her making her have to go on the defensive and eliminate them as I shape more and more. This went on for a while until I was able to hit her with one of my shadows, she cried out in frustration and created a large magic shield to keep my shadows away as she began to charge a large attack to finish the fight. I kept my shadows nipping at the shield waiting for what I knew was coming, what I was waiting for. She dropped her shield and released the magic stored in her horn into a giant ball that gave off a blinding amount of light. As she did this I dropped control of my shadows letting them dissipate in her overwhelming light. As she laughed at her perceived victory I use my magic to reach out to grab the large shadows that she was creating with her light. Unfortunately for her she realized too late that she was quickly being surrounded by my shadows and as she released the magic to try and end it, I had completed my plan and quickly start to make the ball of shadows I had surrounded her in, absorbing her magic. I kept making the orb smaller and smaller until it could only support her form and barely anything else and as I brought it over to me I heard the muffled sound of her beg for mercy. I then shrank the orb down to the size of a hoofball and sent it as deep into the ground as I could.
As I released the spell I sent a burst of magic into the air signaling my crystal ponies that I have succeeded and to come in and free the prisoners. My head is pounding so much after using a lot of my magic to defeat Nightmare Moon but I can’t rest as I still need to do one last thing before I am done. I fly to a nearby hill and start charging all the magic I have in my body into my horn and then using everything that I can muster, I grabbed the sun and started to raise it. I feel the power in my body start to leave me as the sun starts to rise over the horizon but I keep going. I feel blood start to run from my nose and ears as it ascended into the sky but I keep going. I feel my horn start to crack as it reaches the sky for the first time in 10 years but I keep going. As I move the sun behind the moon turning the sky red my horn explodes knocking me to the ground. As I lay there, my entire body goes numb and as I waited for the darkness to take me for the last time I thought about Celestia. I finally fixed the mistake I made all those years ago at first I was doing it just for my own pride and then it was for revenge finally I did it to save all of the ponies that you loved so much. In the end however I became something that you would never approve of, I became a murderer. I killed and yet throughout your reign you never killed anypony you at most banished them away until you could find a way to save them from themselves. I couldn’t be as strong as you I couldn’t forgive them the way you would. I let my emotions take hold of me and I killed two ponies one of them was the sister that you loved so much. I’m sorry.
