The Fall of Armonia

"You promised..." moaned Equus Nox, her voice hoarse.

Celestia and Luna drifted closer, still humming with their shared magic, their eyes brilliant white.

At the sight of the beaten, wretched filly before her, Celestia eased her telekinetic hold, freed Equus' forelegs, and prepared a healing spell.

"Poor child-"

"I am not a child!" Equus slapped Celestia right in her stupid, patronizing face.

Celestia's head jerked to the side, and her stupid, patronizing healing spell dispersed. Luna's white pupils-no longer feline slits-narrowed, and her telekinesis virtually paralyzed everything below Equus' throat.

"Verily well, Armonia," Luna spat back. "Thou shalt henceforth accept responsibility for thine actions."

"Responsibility? How dare you say that to me?"

Equus' whisper grew to a shriek, and she thrashed uselessly against Luna's iron grip. "How dare you?! After everything I suffered-"

"Then suffer no longer."

Though one of her nostrils bled, Celestia's expression was merciless. Equus stammered into silence.

For ten years she'd known Celestia. Equus had seen the kind-hearted princess get angry. She'd seen Celestia get furious. She'd seen Celestia beyond furious, the night Discord hurt her. But this...she'd never, ever seen Celestia like this.

It's like she's looking at a cockroach, Equus thought in dawning panic. An ant. A grain of sand. Less. She's looking right *through me.*

Panic became horror.

She's looking at a world where I'm not even there.

When Celestia spoke again, she spoke Equus Nox's doom.

"We hereby revoke your right to the Elements and Crown of Harmony..."

Just like that, Equus' Crown lifted from her head. Six Gemstones detached from its spokes, and surrounded Celestia in a halo.

Impossible, Equus thought blankly. They're my birthright. My-

"...and for the safety of all Equestria, we exile you to the Silent Realm."  Without hesitation, Celestia lowered her horn and cast a spell of greater banishing. Queasy grey energy streamed downward, stopped, and waited under Equus with a trapdoor spider's patience.

"The Silent Realm?!" Equus quavered, sweat beading on her brow. "Y-you wouldn’t-"

A second grey beam followed the first.

"To the world beyond thought and memory." Luna's voice held a hint of regret, but her chant was steady, and her magic unfaltering. Equus started to hyperventilate.

Say something. Say anything!

"Princess Celestia," Equus nearly sobbed. "I-I’m sorry-"

"To the world without despair, hate, or fear," Celestia continued, her chant unbroken.

Miles below, the banishing spells met, and created a whirlpool of static. Within it yawned a maw to infinite emptiness. To a endless, lifeless void. To the Silent Realm.

"Luna! Don't let her-"

"To slumber eternal, and dreams everlasting." Luna raised her voice and opened the portal wide enough to swallow Equus whole.

"Please, Intellectus," she begged to the only person in the world who might still be able to help her. Yet he was so far away. Too far away. He couldn't help her. He couldn't even hear her.

But surely he could see-

Below, Intellectus averted his gaze, unable to watch the appalling spectacle a second longer, unable to do anything except weep into his stone flecked paws.

"Goodbye, Equus Nox," Celestia gestured to Luna, and she let her prisoner fall.

Wind rushed in Equus' ears. This wasn't happening.

Fly!

Her damaged wings dragged at her sides. This couldn't be happening.

Spellcast!

Her broken horn was a lead weight welded to her forehead. Celestia wouldn't have let it happen.

Anything!

But Celestia had made it happen.

She loved me. She promised me the world. She said I was destined for greatness.

A wisp of shadow crawled in Equus' ear, and hissed.

She threw me away like a piece of garbage.

In a sickening instant her face twisted, her eyes became flaming scarlet slits, and she was Equus Nox no more.

"I'll never forgive you!" screamed Armonia, but though the raw hate of it made both her tormentors flinch, they did not, would not, look away.

Still screaming, her cracked horn sparking red, Armonia plunged into the Silent Realm.

At once, the portal snapped shut behind her.

"Nor will I," whispered Princess Celestia.

Her light faded. Her head bowed. Her body shook. Warm wetness ran down her cheeks. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered except what she'd just done to the pony she'd once named her heir. Her student.

Her daughter.

"Dear Princess Celestia, my name is Equus Nox. I’m three years old, and I live in Equinox Flats orphanage."

A young filly's words came to Celestia unbidden.

"My favourite food is rutabagas, which I grow in their greenhouse. I like gardening. Do you like gardening too?"

They made the pain of the battle with Armonia seem like a mild ache by comparison.

"When I grow up, I want to be a princess because then I could fly and use magic. Flying and magic are awesome!"

Like the ghost of an itch.

"I don’t like scary monsters. Or when my rutabagas die. Or being lonely. But if I was a princess, I wouldn't have to be lonely because I’d be with you. Could we be friends?"

Like nothing at all.

"I’d like to be friends with a princess."

Princess Luna glided close, and leaned against Celestia. No more words were exchanged. None were needed. Luna's own tears said enough.

For a second the two siblings stayed that way, drifting together above the world they broke their hearts to save. But only for a second. There was much work to be done.

Celestia and Luna parted, nodded wearily to one another, and cast a new spell. The Crown of Harmony shined bright. The six Elements kindled. Sunlight, moonlight, fire, earth, wind, water and flora united, blossoming into iridescent radiance.

Slowly but surely, the princesses' healing magic revived Intellectus, the frozen statues stranded on a floating island, and the petrified wasteland that Armonia had left behind.

An empty sea stretched on forever. Armonia sunk through its still, noiseless depths. Her color - her very vitality - drained away. Shadows crept over her ears. Crimson embers spat off her horn. Through numb lips, she hissed one last bitter whisper.

"Never forgive you..."

Serpentine eyes slid closed, and Armonia slept.

She shrank, became a speck in the distance.

And then, she was gone.