To Chase The Shadows of Redemption

Celestia sped off to the side again to avoid another dark lance, one that decimated another building behind her. The Everfree castle was not far off, and the rest of the surrounding city had taken its place for the continued conflict of the sister's.

Their beautiful capital city in the Everfree was now burning. Countless buildings had already caved in. Where had it all gone wrong? Not ten minutes ago they had been arguing, and now the world wept because of their inadequacy.

Her focus, which had constantly been teetering towards making sure her ponies were okay, cost her.

Nightmare Moon slammed into her in a tackle, something Celestia hadn't been expecting at all.

She was sent flying down and towards the ground, and she had tried to tuck her body inward to prevent her head and neck from getting hit and knocking her out prematurely. Her body, however, was forced through several buildings by the sheer force Nightmare Moon had slammed into her with.

With any luck, she had avoided major injury, and she struggled for a moment to orientate herself and get back into it.

Standing up, she felt several things piercing her body from the landing. Good. Nothing she couldn't heal when she pushed herself to it.

But when she was examining herself, she saw it. Rather, she saw what she had ended up crashing through. The gory remains under where she had ended up splattered all over the ground underneath her. She saw part of a leg from a small pony sticking out, from some filly or colt, and threw up.

How many ponies had her sister already killed fighting without concern for their lives? She had crossed a terrible threshold... Celestia was unsure if she'd ever be able to come back from it....

Feeling her sister approaching, she wiped her mouth to get ready.

"Luna! You have to stop this! How many ponies have to perish before you wake up from this Nightmare?!"

Nightmare moon was hovering over her now.

"You still doubt us, even after all of this. We see that you've already healed. Good enough for that at least. Well, sister, since you continue to mock us by holding back we will have to force your hoof into taking us a little more seriously."

"Luna what are you..."

Nightmare Moon's horn lit up, and the beacon of light which represented the sheer aura output grew massive. Whatever She was casting, it wasn't going to be pleasant.

Then, the light disappeared. Only the cold expression of Nightmare Moon against the backdrop of the darkened sky behind her remained. She was eerily still and calm.

"Tell us, sister, at what point of our subjects cries for help dying out will you start using everything you have? We tire of this warm up."

In the backdrop behind her, coming through the clouds, an orange tint took to the sky above Nightmare Moon's head from the angle Celestia saw her below.

"Luna, you know I can't do this! I'm begging you! Look! I was wrong! I can give you everything you were asking! Just come back to me and—"

Her words stopped as the meteor shattered in the sky and passed the clouds. It was approaching so quickly that both alicorns had to teleport out of the way of its path of destruction. When Celestia reappeared high in the sky she heard the thunderous and ear-splitting sound of it decimating everything on the ground that each shattered piece hit. The scale... how much of the Everfree had that destroyed? Most of the capital must've been destroyed.

"Luna... how... how many hundreds or thousands ponies did you just..."

Tears of indignation flared in her heart and soul. This injustice could never stand, even if it came from her beloved sister. She mentally slapped herself for not truly waking up until things had escalated this far. Since when did it being one life or a thousand matter? It was an insult to the sanctity and dignity of life.

The battle soon resumed, as Celestia maneuvered her way slowly to the resting place of the Elements of Harmony while fighting as earnestly as possible to prevent her intentions from being obvious. She had no idea if they would help her, but it was the best she could think of right now.

The sky shook with light trying to not be consumed by the darkness. A scintillating symphony of opposite natures meeting to deny each-others existence. Whether they wanted to or not.

Celestia burst from the throne room into the airspace above while flying to retreat from the hundred beams of magic that had been let loose on her. Already, lightly armoured pegasi took the the skies to prepare for battle.

There was a small part of her that couldn't believe what was happening. There was a much larger one that screamed at her to destroy these traitors for hiding her sister from her.

Unable to dodge all of their attacks, she created a shield bubble around her. The impacts from a dozen or so bashed her brain to the side inside her skull as she dealt with the backlash of holding it together. It held.

After gaining some distance, she once again saw the pegasi. They were doing large circles around her like ravens would circle carrion. Pathetic. She had dealt with the tactics of griffins for months now, they would be useless against her. It was the unicorns who gave her pause. She hadn't fought against a fellow pony with magic in the same way since... Luna.

What she saw next blew her expectations she didnt know she had. One of the unicorns was creating magical platforms, essentially stairs, into the skies. All of the unicorns poured up the makeshift metaphorical ladder even as it disappeared behind them. Ridiculous! Celestia's superior sight honed in, and she saw it was the same older unicorn who had the courage to actually speak up earlier. He cast without releasing the spell while on the move. Quite impressive indeed.

What happened next shook Celestia to her core. Each pony, from the group that had been stacked together, split apart and started and started walking on individual platforms that appeared as they all diverged. How many individual continuously changing parts to this spell could that singular unicorn manage? It was madness! For a unicorn, that is.

Each unicorn ran through the sky as though it was the ground while Celestia maintained her hover. They were at differing heights all around her, above and below, and some on the same level of altitude. It was a truly bizarre sight. She'd soon be attacked by them again....

There was a small aspect of herself that grinned at all of this. Mortals, who she had taken care of for millennium like small fillies, now sought to what, usurp her? How laughable. They could get creative all they like, she would crush them.

A magical hammer appeared above her and swung down, but it met nothing. Celestia had let them start things again, but she would finish them.

Celestia flew, and beams, shards of ice, gusts of wind, and other arcane evocation launched upon her at every turn and swing of her undulating flight. She also dodged soaring pegasi using their bodies as torpedoes with their weapons in front of them. Her eyes remained on that singular unicorn who hadn't stopped casting since they took to the skies. How long could he keep it up for? She didn't care to find out. Ruin everything for them immediately, there was no need to entertain this.

Calculating his movement path, she gathered her magic for a simple beam to intercept him. The beam flared and just when she thought it'd hit its mark, numerous magical shields appeared to protect him, and by the time she had pushed her magic harder to break through he was already gone and the shields were being released anyway.

So everypony here was going to protect him, then? Fascinating.

Continuing to dodge and weave through the skies, she circled back to switch up her tactics. Lets see how picking up the pace will do.

Charging her horn with far more power than before, she prepared a special surprise of lightning that should hit enough of them when it was released. She doubted they'd be able to protect themselves that way. The magic was both too fast and it was not like they could pull the same trick of protecting each other in those circumstances.

As the lightning came out and forked, Celestia slowed her movement. What she had failed to notice, was the temporary ceasing of the platforms. Unicorns fell. And in the middle of figuring out what was going on, a giant magical battering ram shot into her side and sent her sprawling through the air and falling towards the ground. She cringed hard as the blunt trauma trashed her left wing and damaged the entire left side. As she started to slow her chaotic tumble, she saw that they had already rebuilt the platforms again. They hadn't fallen far before it was back. That one unicorn must've done it....

But this wasn't to be the end of it, the pegasi, who had been biding their time mostly came swooping in as a group and hit her either bare hooved or with weapons. She covered her vitals with her hooves and by that point and a group of them slammed into her and threw her towards the ground, or in this case on the buildings of Canterlot. Several weapons were embedded in her as they did it.

Groaning and getting up twenty seconds later, she realized that her body had gone through a building and down from the second floor to ground level, leaving a gaping hole. She quickly pulled the weapons out and cast them to the side with her magical grip.

Celestia cursed herself. She had been trying to think logically to fight them so far. Yet she fell for such drivel. It wasn't lost on her how slowly she was healing, and how lacking her magic had felt against her own ponies. She was processing far too slowly, that would've never even came close to hitting her before in the past. She was sure she had dodged worse even recently, in the war.

Were they even her ponies anymore? She didn't know. All she was sure on was how surprised she was at how weak she felt now.

They were giving her time it seemed. Only a few bones broken... not a problem normally....

And she hated it. It boiled inside of her, and she found herself repeating the thought over and over again over for her weakness and loss of focus. It wasnt just that either, her reaction speed felt dampened. How far had she fallen already? She couldn't reconcile these mortals being able to do anything against her, and yet they had. It didn't matter how stretched thin she was after pushing herself for so long... it still bothered her. Had she unknowingly lowered her status down into to their domain by injuring herself?

She had been fighting to save Luna... that was right, so why did she seem to be enjoying this fight despite her frustrations? She felt alive. But it was not enough, she desired victory and domination.

In the end - it didn't matter.

Searching for anything, something, in her moment of weakness, she remembered that feeling. Her soul may have been injured and preventing her from properly recovering and outputting magic, but this was something she could rely on. Yes... it was her only move forward if she wanted victory. It had to be done. It was an addicting feeling when it brought her out of the depths of weakness.

The dark inner flames came back anew, like an old friend. It felt so good as well, and she felt herself healing, far faster than before. This was something she could rely on. She was not weak. From deep within the wellspring of her existence a metamorphosis was slowly taking place. The flames grew all across her body, mixed with dark lines and a cloud that veiled over her consciousness once again. Her wing was already back and ready for usage, she realized. Her spirit hit a celestial crescendo inside of her, and she was going to keep it dancing until it hit the zenith. The fabric of her being would be rewritten into something stronger. So good it felt, that she began to forget that her soul was damaged at all. Her physical features were slowly changing as well, which she was vaguely aware of at this point. She would never be able to come close the peak of her powers, but it didn't matter to her right now. This was enough of a recovery in strength to salvage the situation. It had to be.

Celestia took to the skies like a pheonix reborn, ready for round two to be entirely one-sided.

Soon enough... Canterlot was burning. Within those flames, the menace of darkness lurked underneath.