When Nightmare Moon returned, she wasn’t prepared for the sight in front of her. The magic array brought her back to Equestria in front of the entrance to her old castle.
To her surprise, it was well maintained, but devoid of life. Nothing from the fight with Celestia was visible anymore.
Don’t get me wrong, she was delighted about this, but she wondered who would do such a thing.
Then she heard somepony clear their throat behind her.
Turning around, she saw a purple unicorn with a runic circle on her flank, accompanied by Chrysalis, who was in a new form Nightmare had never seen before:
“What do you want?” Nightmare hissed; anger clear in her voice.
“My name is Twilight Sparkle, head mage of the council of harmony. I was assigned the task to look over the last prophecy of the old times.”
“‘Old times’?”
“The time of the living legends. This is the year 1000 A.D, after the decay.” Seeing the questioning look on her face, she continued.
“You are the last of the old legends we knew of would return. There may still be the pony of shadows, but the spell used to seal it will last forever, unless it is purposely broken.”
The nightmare was taken aback, and a bit of Luna showed through in her next question.
“Then tell us, what happened to Discord? Sombra? Tirek? The other inhabitants of tartarus?”
“Discord and Sombra are dead. The council decided that they deserved this, as they committed unspeakable crimes against ponykind. Meanwhile, the security on the gates to tartarus was increased. None of the creatures there will be able to leave, including Tirek and the others.”
“And yet you still approach me, knowing of me and my power. Don’t you fear me? Don’t you know what I will do as soon I got every useful information from you?”
Twilight shook her head.
“No. The legends say that you are dangerous in battle, but your magic is not able to create a scenario like what happened a millennium ago, and we know you would never use dark magic. Therefore, we didn’t need to disable you the moment you arrived here.”
Nightmare Moon could only shake her head at this. Old legends? Did Celestia disguise herself and ruled as a line of people, as a noble? Or did she write them down and watched how it played out? She knew for certain that her magic was as strong as Celestias, maybe even stronger. Did Celestia fear her?
“You know nothing about my magic! From this day on – “Nightmare stopped as she felt something she thought would never feel again. The rays of the morning sun. Did she forget to block the movement of the celestial objects?
Unbeknownst to her, Twilight and Chrysalis shared a knowing look.
Completely focused on the task on hoof, Nightmare tried to grab the sun with her magic and force her back below the horizon and discovered she couldn’t move the sun. Then she would use the moon to block that wretched thing!
But as her grip on the sun was severed, so was her grip on the moon. But when she tried to rearrange the stars and form them back in the pattern they used to be, she couldn’t.
“Tell me, Twilight Sparkle – “ these words were more hissed than spoken “- why can’t I use celestial magic anymore? Answer me!”
Calmly, Twilight looked at the sky.
“That is simple. Nightmare Moon, can you tell me the trajectory of the sun in relation to equus?”
“It rotates around it, but – why is it so far away?”
“It is since a few centuries this way, at least. Equus now rotates around the sun, which is no more held by any magic small or near to equus, and this caused it to be disconnected from magic. Similar with the moon, its bounds with celestial magic were shattered.”
“Why would you do such a thing? That isn’t how the world should work!” the nightmare nearly screamed, fear slowly creeping in its voice.
“Well, Celestia had something to do with it,” Chrysalis spoke up for the first time. “After all, I was the only other biologically immortal being on the planet when she created this,” she said and pulled a small orb, as big as a small apple, from the bag lying on a tree.
Nightmare didn’t know what it was, but a scanning spell revealed it to be a simple magic archive. This didn’t show her what it contained, however.
The pony and changeling in front of her didn’t act hostile towards her until now, and she could feel Celestia’s magic on the orb. She pulled it closer with her magic and touched it with her horn.
“Is that you?” I heard the voice of Celestia ask.
I found myself unable to speak or move, even though it was a recording.
My perspective was from a unicorn standing near her, levitating a few scrolls and picking up one Celestia finished a moment after I arrived.
“Maybe you wonder why I did this, all of this.”
The unicorn looked over the last scroll and I found it to be a prophecy about my return from the moon, as well as a note that I wouldn’t be able to use celestial magic anymore.
“This is the best form of order. Even though many of us are immortal, we can still die. Through the breaking of the celestial magic in something that regulates itself, the cycles of day and night are no longer bound to the planet, and it is now impossible to change it.”
She walked over to the window.
“But when you ask the obvious question – why did you do this – I can’t give you a good answer. The best I can say is that I just gave up. There was no reason to continue.”
A sigh, then she lifted her crown from her head and looked at it, turning it in her forehooves.
It no longer shimmered like it did on her head.
“After I realized I couldn’t go through the years while staying sane from all the losses – the pillars sacrificing themselves to seal the pony of shadows, clover’s mishap that teleported her to another dimension, the banishment of my own sister – I looked what I could do instead of ruling this land for a millennium alone.”
She walked in the garden, stopping in front of Discords statue.
“Maybe you have already guessed it, but this is not the castle of the two sisters, but a new one built on the nearby mountain. We have a better military and magical position here.”
Then she stopped in front of the stoned former god of chaos, Discord.
“Discord was not evil, but he couldn’t see what his actions did to those around him. That’s why we trapped him in stone.”
After that, she walked over to a round, empty statue base.
“However, the spell to transform a living being in a statue has a little flaw in it: It can’t be reversed. Only the elements can add a timer spell to it, but they’ve become inactive, and turned to stone themselves.”
She then stepped on the base and sat down, searching for a comfortable position.
“Equestria can run without me, it had before Discord, and it will again. This garden will be a memorial to the old times, look over there.”
The unicorn turned her head and saw a statue of Discord.
“This is not the real Discord, but a replica. HIS statue was already destroyed, as he posed too big a threat. All the other statues in this garden have never had a living ‘original’; all but one.”
When the unicorn turned her head back to Celestia, she was already nearly fully transformed into a statue. The last thing that changed was her horn, cancelling the recording spell as a result; it was the last thing the recording showed.
Nightmare jerked back, and you could see patches of blue appear on her black fur as she screamed. Luna’s sorrow and love for her sister showed, and even the Nightmare felt bad for what happened.
To be transformed into stone forever is something even Nightmare wouldn’t wish on her worst enemies, as she was one of the few who knew that you would stay conscious. She could feel Discord on the moon, and the only difference between the spells that transformed him and Celestia was that the one Celestia cast won’t reverse itself.
In this moment, Nightmare Moon has her ultimate victory and defeat. She could move neither forward nor backward, she could not change anything.
She had won. But at what price?
Author's Note
Thanks to 8bitmadness for editing this chapter!
Reformed chrysalis art here - not sure if it’s the original though.
This is the cover art and the picture of the statue later in the story.
