My Dearest Sister

It was a moon-lit day.

It was unnatural.

It would bring ruin to an entire world left unchecked.

So why couldn’t she bring herself to do anything about it?

She was the bringer of the sun, the shining daylight that rose every morning and set every evening. Countless lives depended on her faithful duties, depended on her guidance and wisdom, depended upon her presence as a shining beacon to turn to. As someone gifted and endowed with talent and ability such as hers, innumerous lives sought her out for leadership. Why, she had become something like a crutch. For surely a being such as she was infallible in judgment, of wisdom and guidance?

She snorted in bitter amusement at the thought as she stared at a flickering magical flame. They danced in her vision as they bathed her divine form in a dark orange glow. The miniature inferno flashed across her amethyst eyes, the image of the flames of the campfire reflected as if twin suns were within them. It illuminated her body, her fur a brilliant pure white and her chromatic hair billowing ethereally in an absent breeze. She could feel the heat cover her in a warmth alien to the cold ambiance of her surrounding environment, bringing her a measure of comfort as she lay on dirt floor.

She turned her head to gaze into a reflection of herself upon the wall close to her, mirror-like crystals covering all but the ground she was currently laying in. She saw her image; fore hoof playing with a small stone as her limb gingerly tossed and turned it in her idling. A magical flame surrounded by a small encirclement of rocks sat right in front of her, both of them lining up closely parallel to the glass-like substance. Further off into the image lay a miniscule stream of water that flowed widely and gently down the wall to pool among a small bed of gravel and soft sand. The only sign of an exit or entrance was a small portion of the wall that disharmoniously blended, jagged cracked edges contrasting against the rest of the smooth mirrors.

She lowered her view to look at the pebble that she moved to and fro in small movements on the dirt floor; one of many that varied in size and shape that lay at the edges of her current dwelling. It distracted her mind from the air. Stale and dam, it provided no comfort to the majestic figure sitting idly. It struck the fur of her naked body, free of any adornment or dress. Her golden regalia laying to her rear against the wall, its gold and gems lackluster compared to her divine beauty of the one who wore them. A blank expression adorned her brilliance as she continued nudging the tarnished stone, staring and contemplating.

The dead silence that permeated the air broke as she sneezed rather undignified at the irritating particles in the air. Her lips creased into a small sad smile. Though it had been centuries, it was still dusty as always.

Her hoof stopped playing with the rock as she sensed a tingling of magic in the air besides irritating dust particles. She frowned.

It was time.

She tossed the stone into the fire, growing brighter for a second as the spell lit fire properties dissolved the material to fuel the flame.

The next moment, a black purple flash darker than night flash filled her eyes as she stared unwaveringly up and forward, her blank expression unchanging. Another moment more and the night itself, a seemingly embodiment of the stars and the cosmos appeared in her vision. It was as if a window to the night sky stood in front of her, opposite side of the flaming heat that raged before her. The ethereal cloud in her gaze, condensed, shifting to a more familiar sight. It had been a thousand years since she had encountered the dead black coat, the emerald draconic eyes, the ethereal starry mane and the adorned regalia opposite to her own.

It was her sister, visage mildly surprised though otherwise emotionless.

They’re eyes met boring into one another for several moments.

The menacing alicorn broke the silence, huffing. “Of all the places you’d be.” She stared at the white form sitting in front of her. “You still surprise me dear sister.” The venom she laced in those final words could have killed an Usra Major. She raised a scrutinizing eyebrow. “Why?” An onyx-armored fore hoof gestured around her. “To be here of all places, surely, you of all ponies should have an explanation.” Her silted eyes narrowed slightly into her sister’s still blank gaze. “And I’m rather curious.”

The obsidian alicorn sat mirroring the ivory goddess, opposite the roaring flame. It illuminated both of them in the small refuge. If Celestia was surprised by the act of one she had recalled bearing malice and anger that knew no bounds, she hid it with the weight of centuries of practice. They stared at one another in silence for minutes, one expecting an answer and another not intent on giving one.

For the goddess, imprisonment on the Moon for a thousand years had not been kind, but it had taught the dark mare patience. Yet, she was not intent on staying here for however long it took; she had ambitions to be achieved after all.

She broke the silence with a small amused laugh, which its peeved underlying tone betrayed it. “Here I thought you couldn’t surprise me anymore. Yet, I return, find you absent and then I had a thought. Maybe... Just maybe you’d be here. ”

She continued on. “Why, it’s as if you planned it, letting me run loose while you scurried off and hid away.” The draconic eyed goddess chuckled mirthlessly, as if in on a little joke. “I had thought you would have put up more of a fight, sister.” She snarled. “Of all the things I expected upon my advent, I did not once expect you to be cowering in this nasty little cave!”

The arbalester alicorn listened silently.

“And once again I have to question why.”

The dark alicorn stared patiently enough as one created from hate and jealousy would allow. Their eyes bored into one another.

“I know it’s not from your lack of the elements.

“I know it’s not from any lack of strength. If you’re trying to delude me, you’ve done a poor job.

“And I know, especially, it’s not from some grand master plan you’ve concocted.”

Nightmare Moon snorted derisively. “If you’re pinning your hopes of defeating me with mere children, then you’ve already lost.” Two emerald silted eyes scrutinized blank violet orbs, sharp silts lengthening and narrowing in anticipation of an answer.

The unarmored alicorn gaze broke, head turned towards the side to the ground, unwilling to answer. The silence infuriated the armored mare, though she took satisfaction in the slight frown tugging at her sister’s lips.

“Then if you’re so willing to sit here and do nothing, then perhaps you wouldn’t mind if I snapped your student’s precious little neck?” whispered Nightmare Moon malevolently. She chuckled again maliciously. “It was quite obvious; anyone could sense the traces of your magic all over her, I say you must care for her.” She could see Celestia twitch ever so slightly. “Why, it’s evident you’ve spent so much time with that student of yours, I dare say…” Nightmare Moon stared straight into the bringer of the day. “I dare say you even love her.”

No response, but she knew she was hitting close to the mare’s heart.

“Why, the screams as I flay her alive will be so lovely, the screams as she screams and yells your name over and over again!" The evil alicorn smiled cruelly. “Oh the satisfaction I’ll enjoy, it’ll be so delightful to see how horrified she’ll be when she sees herself, oozing out from her naked flesh. I hope she won’t fall unconscious when I slice off her flesh, bit by bit, piece by piece. I’m going to fry them, have her smell her own cooking fat and meat, have her see it roasting over a flame right in front of her. Then I’ll feed it to her. Oh, I wonder if she’ll vomit all over herself from how delicious it will taste!”

A deep sinister laugh echoed across the walls.

The malicious creature could see her sister tremble before her. Her lips tugged into a small dark grin at the result. The cobalt armored alicorn raised a hoof to her chin while she tilted her head up, as if making a mockery of a great idea come to mind. She smiled wickedly. “Oh, and what better thing to do than bring her here, so that I can show it to you in the flesh.”

The shaking grew, coming to a peak.

The sinister alicorn swept her front hoof in front of her “And best of all, you’ll have the best seat in this lovely home. I’ll make sure her entrails are displayed nice and fine for your viewing pleasure. Oh, it’ll be such wonderful fu—”

The lips parted.

A whispered escaped.

“That’s enough.”

Nightmare Moon stopped her fantasizing, her bait having been latched onto, listening intently. Celestia’s head turned to face the Nightmare. Her lavender eyes full of heaviness, tiredness and desperation as she peered into her sister’s demonic eyes. She couldn’t hold herself back any longer. Her voice came out quiet and hoarse. “You asked a question before. You ask why? Why am I here, why let my subjects be left helpless before you?” She looked at the form of her corrupted sister, sadness and pleading evident flowing out of her. “All I want is my sister back.”

“What?” muttered the shocked onyx alicorn.

The ivory mare continued, straining to speak, her words came pained and heavy. “It’s not that I don’t believe that you’d win. I’m not pinning my hopes on those student or those children.” Her violet eyes sagged further, marring the beautiful visage that usually adorned her face. “I know that in the end you will fall.”

Nightmare Moon roared. “Preposterous! As if those mere foa—”

Celestia cut her off, vigor filling her once passive face. “You know as well as I do what I mean!”

Nightmare Moon stared silently.

“Don’t you deny it or ignore it! You know as well as I do what will happen. Call it fate or whatever you may fancy, one way or another the Elements of Harmony will win. Even if you snap my student’s neck, murder those children, it may be this night or a thousand years from now, but you will lose. It will happen.”

Celestia gave a bitter laugh. “Elements of Harmony? If that is what you call the things that calcified Discord to stone, our childhood friend turned mad; caused my sister to be left imprisoned on the Moon for a thousand years. What a farce.” She gazed regretfully into Nightmare Moon’s eyes.

“We were desperate, weren’t we? To rely on things we knew nothing about in the hopes that it would solve our problems, things that sought us out and now seek those little ponies up above. Even now, those children are mere pawns to forces inherent to this world, as we were once were.”

The white alicorn stood, stepping gingerly towards the dark form of her sister, circling around the small campfire to her. The pleading evident in her eyes, she stood closely eye to eye to the shadowy figure. Wordless, the obsidian mare did nothing but glare back.

“So please Moon.” whispered Celestia. “Don’t take her away from me.” She gripped the imitating form in a tight embrace, forelimbs wrapping around armor and neck, head caressing cheek. “Don’t go. Don’t take away the sister who I love more than anything in this world. The one who fought with me against Discord, the one who suffered with me every pain and hardship I endured.”

The dark alicorn stood paralyzed. She gripped with shock at the act, draconic eyes wide.

Amethyst orbs grew slightly blurred, wet from unformed tears. “What will happen if you face the elements this time, I do not know. But it cannot be good.”

An eerie quiet took the air for what felt like an eternity to both mares, both unmoving.

The turquoise eyed mare face cracked, eyes growing wild, a spiteful and seething anger forming on her once shocked appearance. Recoiling, she abruptly broke the show of affection, retreating several steps. She chuckled, the odd mixture of false amusement and hate on her features giving her a maniacal aura. Her face looked as if filled with all the madness in the world. The radiant mare stood unmoving, worried as the dark emotions plaguing her sister returned.

“You dare say you care for me?” whispered the ebony mare dangerously. “You ignored us, even ridiculed us. I didn’t yearn for much; even just a single night would have sufficed. A single night during the day so that once, just once, they’d have seen what I dedicated my life too. But you couldn’t even give me that.”

Nightmare Moon stepped forward, driving her head into the gap that separated hers and her sisters. She peered into those eyes that infuriated her, eyes that showed as if they cared! She trembled and shook with rage, utter hate.

“I can stomach the fact that you defeated me—but to say that you care!? You care!?!

“You definitely cared enough for your precious subjects!

“Cared enough to use those damned jewels on me, even after what happened to Discord!

“Cared enough for them to imprison me in the Moon!

“Cared enough to DAMN ME to a hellish existence in that life forsaken rock!”

She raised a hoof up to her forehead, trying to calm herself, insanity bursting out of her face as Celestia cringed back.

“And now!”—the obsidian mare laughed sardonically—“Now you have the gall, the sheer audacity to beg before me to return to you what you had FORSAKEN AND DESTROYED!”

“Things have changed Moon! I… They… You don’t have to do this anymore! They no longer fear the night as th—”

“THEN I’LL MAKE THEM FEAR IT AGAIN!”

The vengeful goddess screamed, rage enough to melt the mountain around them. She shifted to and fro wildly, unsure whether to strangle the alicorn in front of her. She turned to the crystal that mirrored her form on the wall, her visage of pure anger reflected back to her. She roared as she smashed her fore hoof into the crystalline wall to her side, howling as the fragile material broke into a thousand jagged pieces, letting lose a dissonant screech. They flew across the tiny expanse of the room, landing on the cool-dirt floor as they let loose a flurry of cuts on the two sisters. Pain unregistered, the small wounds closed up before they had bled.

The enraged-silted eyed alicorn stared, eyes wide with utter contempt at her sister, who watched with a resigned expression of sadness and shame. Her dark form breathed heavily, chest heaving up and down as she calmed. Her lips tugged into a frown, tiredness growing on her face as the fiery heat within her died down.

She let out a bitter chuckle, voice cracking. “Did it really take you a thousand years for you to care? Did it take a thousand years for you to believe that maybe I wasn’t corrupted by an evil that turned me rabid? That maybe… Maybe this is me? The one you see before you and not some malevolent demon?”

She stood quiet for a moment to peer into the depths of her sister’s eyes whose tears began to form on her soft orbs. “All those years—I nearly went insane on that desolate rock because of you. Only the hatred I had for you kept me sane.”

The chromatic haired alicorn could barely find the strength to speak as she gazed heartbroken upon her sister. “Lun—”

The dark alicorn hissed. “Don’t!” She grimaced, turning her head away. “Don’t… I can’t bear to hear that—especially from you.”

The quiet that filled the expanse for several moments between them was deafening.

It was Nightmare Moon who spoke, her head continuing to stare off at the broken form of the crystalline wall, her voice quiet and icy. “Rest assured, the heads of those children will continue to rest on their shoulders.”

If Celestia was surprised, she did not show it, though her eyes sparkled with hope through their wetness.

“I’ll do it, if only to prove you wrong. To prove that those things are nothing; they’re nothing but a bunch of jewels.”

One moment more, a familiar flashed against the white alicorn’s eyes once more, and the space where her sister had resided was left empty.

She had gone.

Celestia stared at the empty space where her sister occupied before, unable to speak and unable to move. She knew where her sister headed to, where she was right now. A flick of magic and she would be beside her again, able to once more see her sister even if draconic-emerald eyes greeted her instead of round cyan.

Yet, she felt paralyzed. She loved her little ponies; she even loved her student as if she were a daughter. She loved Esquestria. But she knew that deep down; she loved her sister more than anything else. Dare she say it? Dare she say that if face with the choice between her sister and eternal night versus the world, that she’d choose the one that would damn them all? Even knowing what would happen?

She chuckled bitterly. Moon was right. It had taken her a thousand years to care. A thousand years too late.

What was she to do? Stand by her sister and strike down her beloved pupil? Perhaps save her dear sister from the elements for a time? Purposefully assist in the bringing of the end of the day when she was the rightful guardian of the sun? She couldn’t possibly do that… She couldn’t…

She was scared. Scared of what she might do. Twilight Sparkle, bless the young gifted mare; she loved her as a mother could. Her sweet adorable face, her mind always so eager to learn, she practically considered her a daughter. It frightened her that she might harm her; that she might crush her head in her hooves, slit her throat and watch as she choked to death, eyes full of hurt and betrayal. She knew it was inevitable. She had once fought against her sister, every blow and every strike against her struck one against her heart and soul. It nearly killed her. She couldn’t possibly do it again. It would be too much. If she were to leave now… If she were to go… She would… She’d do it…

She could feel her tears flow down her eyes as she fell to the cold floor, uncaring as she ungracefully flopped with a resounding thud on the dirty surface.

What could she do but be at the whims of the Elements?

Burdened and heavy, she gently rested her eye on her forelegs, the soft glow of the flame disappearing from her view as she closed her eyes, her tears continuing to fall to the ground. She felt the warmth of her sister’s body, her chest rising and falling gently, her form draped under her wing as they both basked in the warm glow. She heard the soft graceful breaths, tired and pain filled, appreciative of the respite away from Discord’s concept of fun. She remembered herself, cradling her sister as she soothed away the hurt, singing the lullaby to her that their departed mother had sung to them as they both drifted off to sleep.

She felt the coldness of a thousand years alone.