Patriarchal/Divine Intervention

Chapters

Unexpected Returns
Trying to Fix Things, They Only Get Worse
Sweetest Revenge
A Response
A Dying Land
A Little Family Reunion
A Little Traction
The Last Stand
Making Amends

Unexpected Returns

The garden rested behind the imperious walls of the palace, dew-covered grass gently swaying as a soft breeze slipped amongst the blades with liquid dexterity. The animals slept soundly, their heads resting on hooves, paws, and tucked into soft down. There was nothing amiss, nothing out of the ordinary, a guard stood watch, a silent sentinel over the garden that was his to protect. Under Luna's moon, the trees and rosebushes rested, soaking in the thin layer of dew that covered them in the coolness of the night. Fireflies flicked about lazily, casting their small lights out into the night, drawing in potential mates as they boasted their superiority over each other in a frenzied display of light. An owl hooted softly, eying the area below him for a foolish mouse to reveal himself.

The stars shone throughout the deep blue night sky, providing their light in assistance to the moon, ancient points standing watch over all the universe. The wind picked up and the nighttime animals fled an unknown force as the guard looked around for the cause of the disturbance. A shadowy bolt of... lightning jetted from the clear sky and slammed into the ground with a blast of sound that made normal lightning seem subtle. A moment later, a dark pony descended from the stellar abyss via the stream of lightning, landing hard on his massive hooves. His legs flexed, supporting their incredible momentum and weight above them. The bolt vanished and the pony stood up straight, spreading his enormous wings in a voluminous stretch revealing his sheer size. His mane cascaded in a starry waterfall over his shoulders and neck, and his tail billowed and fluctuated like a sheet in the wind setting the small stars over it swirling. The star spangled pony turned his head to look at the onlooking guard upon the wall and promptly set him to sleep.

******

Celestia awoke to the boom of a unique sound she had heard only once in a long forgotten memory. She leaped out of bed and rushed out the door, not caring about her crown and jewelry. She ran like a cheetah, bolting throughout the halls to her sister's throne room in a mad panic, barreling past servants and Luna's administrators. Some got in her way, but a push of her wings and she jumped over their startled faces, never slowing her mindless run. Bursting in, Luna eyed her in a surprised manner, "Tia, this is unexpected. Make yourself-"

"Luna! Never mind the formalities. We have a serious problem!" She babbled out.

Her sister looked at her normally calm and collected sister, ever so cordial and formal, with growing unease. Very few things had ever made her sister act in this manner. "What-"

The main doors to the throne room exploded open, shattering the door-stops and crashing into the walls behind them. A gigantic, dark blue alicorn with shimmering dots lining his coat walked in, ducking his head under the top of the thirty foot high door as his hooves made booming thuds with every step in the stead of the clacking sound normally made by hooves. His explosive entrance set the guards in the room into automatic defensive mode, and they charged him with a discordant array of "For Luna"s and plain battle screams. The intruder calmly raised a gargantuan hoof and the guards promptly collapsed into deep slumber. The alicorn drew in his wings to avoid the columns that lined the room as the sisters prepared themselves for a heck of a fight.

"WHO ART THOU?" bellowed Luna in her royal Canterlot voice, the sound waves almost visible as they left her mouth. The starry alicorn blinked light filled eyes, similar to Twilight Sparkle's eyes in her bursts of magic, and returned the request in a voice that shook the stones of the room, making Luna's infamous voice seem feeble like the squeak of a mouse in comparison.

"Να κόρες ορυχείο δεν ξέρω τον πατέρα τους? Να ξέρουν ότι δεν τους οποίους μιλούν?"

Both princesses gasped as they heard the language they had neither spoken nor heard in millennia, The Ancient Language. Luna understood his question, but knew not how to speak in return. Celestia understood and answered him haltingly.

"Καλή Πατέρα, έχει εδώ και αιώνες από τότε που ήταν τελευταία στη γη, βλέποντας Σελήνη ως ένα πουλάρι. Εκείνη δεν ξέρεις, αλλά θυμάμαι." (Good Father, it has been eons since you were last on the earth, seeing Selene as a foal. She does not know you, but I remember.)

He hummed in his throat for a few seconds, filling the chamber with the sound of thunder.

"Γιατί μιλάτε τη γλώσσα παλιά τόσο άσχημα? Έχετε ξεχάσει τα παλιά τρόπους?"

Celestia proceeded speaking in the old language, "Nay Father, I have not forgotten, only the modern language is different. Thine language is forgotten by all but we who are immortal."

He thought for a moment, drinking in the meaning of her words before responding in the common tongue, "Very well Helia. I will speak thine language for Selene's sake. Know she not our language?"

Holding down her anger at the revelation of their father, Luna spoke up, "I never learned to speak it Father, but I do understand your words."

His massive head turned the slightest degree to look at the moon-princess, "And it is for thee that I am come. Leave us Helia, I have words for thine sister."

Tia hesitantly left, giving Luna a look of worry before leaving the throne room and shutting the door behind her. Luna turned back to her father, suddenly afraid as well as angry, but her sudden fear of him drowned her spite for him in a wave of trepidation. He looked at her for an eternity, never saying anything as his featureless eyes bored into her like gleaming drills.

"Why have you come Father?" she asked after not being able to take the silence anymore.

"Ye knowest why." was his only response. Luna racked her brain for what he spoke of, and at first she had no idea what he was talking about, but after a moment, the realization hit her like a bolt of lightning from a clear sky.

King Cosmos seemed to sense her emotions as her soul began to rebel against him, "Yea, that is why I am come. It is against the ways of all things I made. Lessers may indulge in these vile desires, but not one of our blood, the very blood of creation."

Luna could barely stomach what he was saying. He had come after all these years just to reprimand her on her love life? She had to meet her father only to be punished? Her anger fired like a solar flare, bursting out of her mouth before she could check herself. Tears fell from her eyes as her anger spewed forth into sound from her mouth, "How dare you? How dare you never be there for us! How dare you forgo your duties as a father and then just jump in when I do something you don't like! You were never there for us, never there for mother when she needed you most! You sat back in your stars and let her die, sat back in your abyss as me and Tia fled for our lives and barely survived Discord, defeating him with Mother's remains of all things! You did nothing as Mother suffered, you did nothing for countless years and now you come back all of a sudden to chastise me like a foal? How dare you?!"

Cosmos' voice coiled and hissed like a snake as the stars on his coat swirled and undulated with his rising temper, a temper that had not been roused since before the beginning. "Ye know not what ye say, foal, and thou shalt address me as Father! I have responsibilities and never ye say that I was not there. I watched over ye and thine sister from the days of Chaos, I protected thee both! Helia would never have woken to find Chaos poised over her, ready to strike had I not woken her from her slumber. Ye both would be dead had it not been for mine intervention. Thine mate would'st never have been taken into Helia's tutelage had it not been for mine giving her of her power. The Elements of Harmony would'st never have awakened without mine guidance to her heart. Aphrodite's strength over the one called Chrysalis would have never defeated the Amorphs at her bridal ceremony. Think ye well on thine words before ye speak, foal." He spat out the last word with disdain and slammed his titanic hoof to the ground to emphasize his words, resulting in a web of cracks in the marble floor spreading out across the entirety of the chamber.

Luna sank into her throne from the sheer power of his voice funneled through his tirade. Her head ached from the resonant sound waves that threatened to shatter her skull from the inside.

"Now where dost thine mate reside?"

The moon-princess' thoughts flitted to her partner, still sleeping in Luna's bed, and the king revealed his ability to read her mind, for he left the room through the door that led to Luna's room without a word. She scrambled from her seated position and rushed to keep up with him, growing more and more worried about Twilight's fate with ever step.

******

Celestia felt the ground tremble as she was nearing her room, worrying her about Luna. She turned around and rushed all the way back to her sister's throne room only to find the two of them gone. King Cosmos' voice rang in her head, not bereft of the volume in his actual voice, bidding her "Come." She received a mental picture of Luna's room and after wondering why her father was in there, ran once again through the halls. This time the halls were devoid of anypony, all of them having gone to their rooms. She had no idea how so many, or even one pony, could sleep through the commotion that the king had made.

She shook off the idle thoughts and focused on increasing her speed, pushing with her wings for an extra boost. She rounded the corner panting and sweating in a most undignified manner before catching her breath and cleaning herself up some with a bit of magic.

Her composure regained, she knocked on Luna's door and the oak swung open to reveal a much smaller version of Cosmos, although he still towered over her making her feel like she was back in their cave when he came to see her sister. Tia entered under his starry gaze as her wing brushed his chest. Celestia's mouth dropped like a ton of rocks when she saw Luna and her faithful student sitting together on the bed, Twilight with her head resting on Luna's shoulder. The unicorn quickly broke contact with the princess of the night when noticed and scooted away looking sheepish. The door closed behind her and Cosmos walked into view.

"Did'st ye know of this Helia?"

She could only shake her head in disbelief, not wanting to believe that her own sister who she had taken care of for eons could... take her student like this. Celestia felt like Twilight was the daughter she never had.

"Luna, how could you?"

Luna looked down at her hooves in shame, finding them to be very interesting as she said nothing. Celestia magically slapped her in a surge of anger and disgust and huffed out of the room like a train.

Luna rubbed the spot of impact, the skin smarting and stinging, with a look of utmost grief. Cosmos only looked on the two mares on the bad with those shining eyes of his, not say anything with his mouth, but everything with his demeanor. After what seemed years, he finally left without a word. As the door closed behind him, Twilight scooted back over to Luna who quickly looked away, embarrassed. The unicorn climbed onto the bed and sat behind her marefriend, wrapping her legs around her in a comforting manner. With her hooves she began massaging the princess' back, kneading the tense muscle underneath the skin. They sat like this all throughout the night, basking in each others presence until the rays of dawn came creeping through the window.

The midnight blue alicorn closed Selene's door and walked down the hall, finally letting his emotions get a hold of him. He had come to reprimand his daughter, and he had done so, but now that that was over and his anger had faded, he was unsure of what to do. All of time he had known what to do, never faltered in his task of creating the stars. And though he had watched over his family from his place in the heavens, he was unfamiliar with actually being with them. Memories of his conversation with Selene and her partner still stung him and though he knew he was cruel and unrelenting, he knew that he was right: Mares did not go with mares. It was similar to how he designed magnetism, he had explained, the opposites attracted, the likes repelled. Males with females, not two of the same sex together.

He walked through the hallways until he came out in the garden he had arrived in earlier. Resuming his normal size, the king of the stars laid in the soft grass under the view of his infinite kingdom. His stars glittered in the night sky like they did on his coat, shifting, undulating. Seeing one of his paintings begin to come askew, he quickly corrected Orion by sliding the star, Alnitak, back into position along the belt, forming the star-portrait once again.

The action soothed his rampant emotions, pulling him back into his position of keeping the stars in order, causing supernovas, cleaning up black holes, yet his complete peace eluded him. He didn't understand the attraction his daughter felt for a mare. It wasn't natural, he hadn't designed it to work that way. Another couple of note slept in each others legs in the city at that moment, two music oriented ponies. He had been observing those two when he saw Selene embrace Twilight Sparkle the way a stallion does a mare for the first time. At first he bore the same curiosity as he had with Octavia Philharmonica and Vinyl Scratch, but that curiosity quickly turned to anger when he remembered that this was a work of Chaos. The same-sex attraction had started in the draconequus' vile experimentation's in it's early days, experimentation that the strange creature used to master his power.

The Star-King dwelt on his past regrets under the splendor of his domain. He should have destroyed the abomination before it had been fully propagated, but by the time he made the decision, Chaos had been born. For eons he had to defend his helpless daughters from his malevolent creation. He was forced to watch as his wife succumb to death at the hands of the monster, too occupied in taming an overgrown black hole to step in and stop Chaos before he could do any permanent damage. For the billionth time the king mourned his lost wife, creating another star in her name as he had so many others with his all too limited, even while limitless, power.

Trying to Fix Things, They Only Get Worse

As the rays of the rising sun crept into Luna's room, the princess of the night stepped out onto her balcony overlooking the palace gardens. Twilight had eventually drifted off leaving the alicorn to her musings. Her thoughts centered on her rage at her father and her love for the unicorn in her room. Her eyes spotted her father's colossal figure sprawled in the grass under the trees, animals peeking cautiously from the surrounding brush. His luminescent eyes stared up into the light-streaked sky, gazing at unfathomable entities in unknown places.

Luna's anger spiked momentarily, but plummeted as her weariness struck her in a wave of groggy exhaustion. An old emotion flicked her like a gentle whip in the back of her mind, caressing her emotions like a long-lost friend. She shook her head hard, slapping down the emotion in her fear of it and what it had caused once before.

Her onset of sudden emotions drew the gaze of the languid king below. He slowly moved to his hooves, sending the onlooking animals scattering for cover as he rose to fully reveal his awesome size. At his full height, King Cosmos' head was nearly level with his daughter's high terrace and his glowing eyes affixed her in their shining halo.

"Come Selene, let us speak without the onset of rampant emotions and cross words."

He lifted a wing level with the balustrade and nodded his head to it. Understanding his intent, Luna stepped onto the over sized feathers gingerly, trying not to hurt them or anything with her silvered shoes. She continued towards the joint to where the feathers changed to muscle as his wing flexed softly, pulling in to his side. His form shifted and his size slowly began to diminish as his passenger shifted to accommodate the changing structure underneath her hooves. Luna hopped to the ground when it came near and turned to face the similarly colored pony. The stars on his chest slid about in soft patterns across his shadowy coat, turning their glittering selves with depth in a seemingly impossible manner. His tail flowed in the absent breeze, flashing similar stars in its flowing ripples. Wide wings shifted in their size as the king settled into his new shape.

He spoke first, pulling Luna out of her trance, "How find ye the duties of thine rule, mine daughter?"

"Tedious, but occasionally something exciting happens." She settled onto her rump in a seated position, leaving an awkward silence between them.

He hesitated a moment, his expressionless eyes showing nothing of his thoughts.

"Truly ye know not the ancient language? As I recall, thine mother spoke to thee in the tongue."

"She did, but mostly me and Tia spoke in the common language, only Mother continued, and Tia when spoken to. But other than that I never really learned it."

More silence as the two fidgeted in discomfort.

"I suppose I have explanations to give. Helia know these, I gave them to her when'st I visited thee as a foal."

Luna nodded, saying nothing.

"Very well. I shalt begin with a description of mine duties: As ye know, I am king of the stars. I created them, molded them, defined what thine scientists call physics, and defined how nature functions. Ever since then I have maintained them and kept them in line, I assuage black holes, start supernovas, keep the stars in order, direct nebulae, all these things and more. 'Tis a grueling and time consuming task, not easy by any standards, 'tis what I was doing when thine emotions caught hold of mine gaze, keeping a nebula I call the 'The Blue Snowball' from overtaking a nearby star."

Luna understood that it would be hard to make time for family with a job like that but she couldn't help but feel resentment for the father that she had never known.

"So that's why you never visited us?"

He hummed deep in his chest, more like the purr of a cat than thunder, "Among other things."

"Other things?" she questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Chaos wreaks more of his namesake than you can imagine. His very presence alters the world around him, eliminating gravity or inertia by merely being there."

"Chaos?" It struck Luna how little she knew about the world around her as her father continued to give rise to questions in her.

"Ye and thine sister call him Discord, but I much prefer the name I gave him."

Luna gaped at her father in shock. "You created him?!"

"Aye, after I created the animals, I was curious about what a combination thereof would produce and if it could survive. I never could have foreseen what such a mistake would cause. His chaotic genes defied my laws of genetics and therefore, by logic, his very existence defied existence. The magic of creation was still livid in mine horn at the time and mine thoughts on this turned to reality, giving him the powers he now possesses. It is very complicated and I am not sure if it is even possible to explain in terms ye would understand."

"So you created Discord and gave him his powers? Why would you do that?"

"You don't know what such extreme power does to you, and I made a foalish mistake."

"Why couldn't you destroy him?"

"It occurred to me, but after trying, I realized his being depended on opposites. If you try to destroy him, he gains power. I attempted to create him again, to reverse the equation, but he merely absorbed the clone, defying another of my laws of physics. As far as I know he can only be stunned or frozen as your... mate had done with her friends."

When he said mate in such a hesitant manner, Luna felt that pinprick emotion caress her thoughts like a forbidden lover. She pushed it away again, determined to forget about the entity in her soul.

"Your relationship with Twilight Sparkle is a work of Chaos. He developed the concept of "Filly Fooling" and "Colt Cuddling" in his experimentations that he used to master his power. He-"

The dark emotion changed tactics, instead of snuggling up to Luna, it lashed out and drilled itself into her, firing her rage like one would a cannon. "So this is why you asked me out here! You just wanted me to calm down and get comfortable so you could just lecture me on how wrong me and Twilly are!" She jumped up, screaming in his starry face with all the power her lungs could muster. "You are a sick pony and a horrible father!" she bellowed as she flew to her room and sealed the window, leaving her stunned father in the grass.

She stomped about the room continuing to vent her rage on everything in sight, smashing armoirs and tables in a temper tantrum like a foal as Twilight woke to find the princess running around breaking things. The unicorn jumped out of the bed and grabbed her lover mid-smash.

"What in the hay is going on with you?!"

Luna continued to release her fury heedlessly, "My damn father won't shut up about me and you! If only you weren't here then that bastard would never have come down from his high chair!"

She heard her words a fraction of a section too late, the hurt look on Twilight's face spanking all of her anger into Cosmos' stars. Luna tried to take back the words as Twilight dropped her hoof and walked out the door, the worst expression possible inscribed on her complexion as Luna's worst dreams came true before her very eyes. The door slammed shut behind the unicorn, leaving the horrified princess in a pile of splintered wood as her heart shattered into a hundred million shards. She collapsed on her bed, too miserable to shed tears, crying silent tears as her very soul felt shorn in two.

Cosmos watched the couple shatter as he had wanted, but inside he felt only remorse and grief for both his daughter and for Twilight whom he had guided ever since she was a foal trying in vain to hatch a dragon egg. His victory felt more sour than his grief over his wife. Seeing Selene mourn as he had, though for a very different and worse reason, forced him to remember finding his wife's lifeless body ravaged by Chaos, two twin fillies sprouting in impossible birth. He realized what he had driven his daughter to do, even while unintentional in the moment.

Feeling every part of the horrible father as Selene had labeled him, the star king withdrew his power over the world and ascended into his starry domain in shame.

Tears fell freely, but not as freely as the shards of her heart. Her first love, her first experience of love outside of her books, gone. Her lover, no her ex-lover had thrown her away like a rag-doll. She had never thought that it would ever end, she and Luna just... fit so perfectly. Personalities, hobbies, and... other things, had been perfect for each other. She couldn't remove the feeling of those wings, the gentle caress of her horn... Twilight shuddered at the memory, then again at the grief that overcame her every grievous thought. The unicorn wandered through the halls listlessly, eyes closed, ponies scrambling to avoid her, she didn't care where she ended up. For the first time in her life, she had no words for what she felt. The vast dictionary had no words, no descriptions for the extent of her misery.

She felt a surge of magical power, but she ignored it, too consumed in the cavity in her chest where her heart should have been to care. The unicorn eventually found herself before her room and she slowly entered through the door and began packing her things, there wasn't anything left for her here. As she was dumping her sparse belongings, filtering out the gifts Luna had given her, into her small suitcase, a knock came at the door. She did nothing, pulling out a pretty moonstone the size of an egg she had been given and dropping it onto the chest of drawers among the other presents. The knock came again, and still, she did nothing, just picked up her luggage and opened the door. Her face bumped into a leg and she looked up to see her teacher standing over her.

"Going somewhere?" the familiar voice asked.

Twilight didn't say anything, just dropped her head and walked around Celestia, tears leaping from her eyes like skydivers. Hoofsteps sounded beside her as the princess walked with her. She felt so numb, so comatose and incoherent, all she could hear was those words: "If only you weren't here..." over and over again in her ears. It wasn't until Celestia gently nudged her with a hoof that she snapped out of her reverie.

"What happened Twilight?"

The sunken unicorn only shook her head silently and continued walking.

The princess didn't follow.

Twilight sank into the carriage seat, murmuring for the driver to take her to the train station. He only nodded and the two stallions set off at a brisk trot at his command. A gentle breeze wafted in the carriage windows, doing nothing to pull Twilight out of her comatose shell as the clacking of the hooves outside began to mingle with the sounds of the city as the dawn woke the sprawling metropolis from its slumber. The carriage got caught in rush hour traffic, scooting forward like an inebriated slug as it crawled through the cobblestone streets. After an eternity of mourning, the driver finally announced their arrival at the station. She shuffled out of the carriage slowly, accepting the services of a caddy to carry her small suitcase.

The train arrived on schedule and the morose unicorn slowly walked into her car and dropped into the cushions like a sack of rocks. Her mind finally arrived at a roundabout description as the train rattled along towards Ponyville: She felt like a Pinkamena Pie, devoid of any sort of joy or happiness.

******

Princess Celestia returned to her throne room, wondering at the state Twilight Sparkle was in, she had never in all their years together seen her student in this condition. Of course she had been sad before, but this was beyond that, she looked like the alicorn had felt when she and Luna had come home to find their mother slaughtered by Discord. She was worried for the unicorn, she had only been able to overcome her grief over her mother because of the sudden need to take care of a foal and survive a murderous draconequus, she had grown up quickly. But Twilight had only her friends, and while they were powerful, Celestia worried that they were not quite enough to bring the unicorn out of her stupor.

She felt another surge of power as she was sitting on her throne, but this time it felt different, not the raw strength of Father, but a familiar pulse of magic that she couldn't quite place. She rose from the hard-backed chair on its dais and headed for the gardens where she had felt the magic originate.

Walking amongst the silent trees, she found the spot Father had descended from the skies, a slightly flattened and charred swathe of grass where the bolt of energy impacted the earth. The King himself was nowhere to be found and she assumed that was the source of the energy, his leaving.

Having decided this, she turned back to the palace when she heard a familiar chuckle that sent chills up her spine. She whirled into a familiar, displaced limb and took a step back. Discord's head popped out of nowhere next to hers and a yellow eye stared deep into her own.

"Miss me?"

Sweetest Revenge

The dark entity chuckled softly as her host lashed out at her mate as if on cue. She couldn't take all the credit, but most of it for enraging the princess against her father, anger made anypony rash and thoughtless and Nightmare Moon took full advantage of her grasp on Luna's emotions, turning them against her, curdling her anger in a stew pot of seething fury.

For months since her imprisonment at the hooves of the elements of harmony, she had floated on a sea of nothingness, death. She had laid so peacefully, everything forgotten until a surge of emotion brought her back to life inside the mind of her host. She awoke to find the princess embracing a mare and felt a surge of jealousy and resentment. Here she was bound in this body, being yanked back like a fish on a line from her dead slumber into the body of somepony happy. Happiness was the one thing the spirit hated. She could never have that in life, taken into Father's care alongside Chrysalis, she had been raised in chaos. Like Sissy, she was devoid of any happiness or joy under the cruel reign of Discord and she had learned that love and hatred were the same things, while infinitely different. She had never felt love, and hated all who had experienced and relished in it with a passion that burned like the fires of Tartarus.

As foals, she and Chrysalis constantly fought over Father's attention like canines and felines, until Chrysalis discovered her power to feed on emotions. Exercising her new found power, Sissy destroyed Nightmare, eradicating anything capable of love as well as her life. Nightmare's hatred brought her back into the world as a malevolent spirit, wreaking havoc on anypony's lives she came upon in vile spite. For centuries she drifted on the winds as a shadowy mist, destroying lives in her wake out of complete hatred for the world.

She had chanced upon the moon-princess in the haunting of a house, grief and loathing seething from the delicate princess. Nightmare could care less about whence the emotions came, she barreled into them full force and took over the body of the alicorn. Taking control of the ravaging hatred, she gripped the handle-bars like a bicycle and pushed the vehicle into the upbringing of eternal night, justice for her host, ecstasy for the symbiote. Grief and sadness flooded the land in the eternal night until her host's sister banished the pair to the moon.

For a millennium Nightmare stewed her host's hatred, driving her into insanity so that the symbiotic entity could sit back and watch her monster destroy the happiness of all. Things had worked out better than expected, on the night of her return nopony save one could even remember who she was, and even that one had no idea how to stop her, until the end. Her defeat was an unexpected drawback, the result of her letting her host fight the battles. Most decisions were hesitated upon, and the alicorn was nowhere near as violent as Nightmare herself was, the esper would have butchered the annoying ponies without hesitation. She had barely hung onto the princess' psyche as the strange magic hit her, trying to drive her out, but the effort of holding on had "killed" her immortal spirit, making her comatose until Luna's joy brought her vengeful soul back to life.

Now she relished in her victory, ruining her host's happiness and joy, yanking her into the pits of despair as she so enjoyed doing. Nightmare kissed the walls around Luna's mind, preying on her weak desperation to gain entry. She very early did, but at the last moment, the princess slammed the gates shut. Nightmare tried again and this time was met with more resistance, her quarry more alert than before. Her mind whipped out at the spirit trying to get rid of her, but Nightmare took advantage of the opening and darted in under the defenses.

"Hello again my precious." She cooed tenderly, much like a lover would.

"Get out of my head you bitch." Her host snapped back.

"Ooh touchy touchy. Do you treat everypony this way? No wonder nopony loves you." Nightmare engaged tactics she had mastered over centuries with the alicorn, she knew every weakness in her mind.

"Twily loves me, as does Tia, Cadance, and Twily's friends in Ponyville."

"Not anymore, not after hurting Twilight so. Dear Tia hates you for having sex with her student and Twilight's friends will not forgive you for hurting her like that. Even your own Father hates you for loving a mare, he abandoned you and forsook you."

"Liar!" she protested halfheartedly. The snake had bitten, the venom was flowing through her mind, seizing her emotions and turning them, slowly, painfully, driving every ounce of emotional agony Nightmare could draw.

"You know I am right. I was before, when our dear sister cast you out."

"Sissy forgave me! And she apologized, telling me how much she regretted the decision!" Luna fought back.

Nightmare recoiled as the nickname, her same nickname for Chrysalis, but she brushed it aside and dove back into the fray, or rather argument. "And do you really believe her? Her student was right there and she does have a reputation to consider. Lies are easily made, especially when one is desperate."

Luna shook her physical head, pushing it into the pillows as she fought with everything she had, but the malevolent ghost had her in a vise, tightening her grip with every gentle word.

"We both saw the old Celestia tonight, cruel, abusive, and less of an angel than she would have everypony think. She keeps it hidden behind a facade, but heat the mask and it melts, she is just the same as before. Your sister hates you, she doesn't love you, you were always in her way. She-"

"Shut the buck up! Get the hell out of my head and just shut up!" She screamed both mentally and physically, making the bed shudder under her powerful voice.

"You know I'm right my precious." were the last words Nightmare had for her host as she returned to her silence, but remained in Luna's warring thoughts.

******

Nightmare drifted about Luna's conflicted mind, observing her poison as it flowed over the patterns in her head. Doubts, gnawing worry, self-uncertainty, all the tools that composed Nightmare's deadly brew of hate turned emotions one by one, giving the ghost a sickening pleasure. She arrived at a front of reasoning that held firm, Luna had convinced herself that Celestia truly did love her. Her symbiote wheedled its way into the wall of conviction pushing back the wave of doubt and tried a new tactic, one that the ghost had dealt with in herself numerous times and had experienced its effects personally.

She carefully injected a single thought,"Nopony could love me after all that I have done. Nopony could completely forgive me for that."

If Nightmare had a face she would have smiled, if she had possessed a mouth she would have laughed, the wall crumbled under the weight of the thought. It made all her resolve and determination fade like darkness before the dawn. The analogy gave Nightmare yet another thought to distribute, a familiar one with Luna. She inserted the old thought, "Tia's dawn will always put my moon away. She will always be better than me."

Luna's will gave way with a splash and puff of shadowy smoke as Nightmare rushed into the frail mind of the princess and grabbed hold of her entire body. In the corporeal world, Luna's body vanished in a puff of glittery mist and the smoke settled down into the form Midnight Moon preferred, hard armour over her breast and a silver helmet over her head, interrupted only by a single horn. Her mane billowed like a sheet of smog flapping in the wind, not really a part of her black body. Her tongue rubbed against four razor-sharp fangs that replaced a normal ponies canines and the teeth just behind them, and the lips that covered the pointed teeth stretched into a smile of victory and cruelty.

******

Nightmare floated through the windows of the Celestia's throne room in the form of her swirling mist. The sentient smog settled on the floor and coalesced into the form of the evil incarnation of Luna. Looking around, she saw the room was abandoned and reverted to her living fog.

The fog settled in the gardens and formed their being again. Nightmare spotted Celestia looking about panicked, but the alicorn did not seem to notice her audience.

"Discord! Show yourself!" She called to the empty air.

"No need for me to. Turn around, you have a guest who would very much like to see you."

The sun-princess turned quickly and nearly doubled over when she spotted Nightmare Moon. "Luna, you know I hate that form, it brings back too many memories of... before."

Nightmare reverted back to Luna's actual shape, but held her sour expression on her face, enjoying the charade and the opportunity it gave her to hurt Celestia. "Watch and learn my precious." she whispered softly in her mind to Luna.

Celestia walked closer, looking scared out of her mind. "Luna, Discord is free! We have to get the Elements of Harmony to imprison him again!"

Nightmare looked at the oblivious princess with distaste written plainly across her face. "Including Twilight? I'm sure you will have a hard time with that. I broke up with her, so are you happy now? You ruined the happiness of not one, but two ponies. How does that feel, Angel?" She spat "Angel" as an insult, Celestia's face twisting in displeasure.

"Look, now is not the best time for that, we have to deal with Discord."

"You deal with him. I don't owe you anything." She hissed, turning her back and walking from the garden. Celestia trotted to catch up.

"Look, I'm sorry I overreacted. I just-"

"I don't want your pathetic apologies. Go buck yourself."

Celestia stopped and looked at her in horror, "Why would you say that?"

The impostor chuckled and changed form to the one she preferred, "Just a little family reunion, and I would enjoy seeing my father again."

"Wha-" was all the alicorn could get out before a lion-paw came to rest on Nightmare's shoulder, materializing out of thin air with the remainder of its owner's body.

"Good to see you again too Nightmare. Thought you would never get a hold of Luna, and look how perfect the timing was! It was perfect for a little family get-together!" The draconequus chimed happily.

"What in-"

"Take a good look Celestia, this is what happens when you can't accept your own sister. Family comes first, and I had a much better father than you and poor Luna ever did."

Nightmare Moon filled her horn with magic and slammed the white alicorn against the palace wall with enough force to make the walls crack. The alicorn was knocked unconscious and dropped to the floor with a satisfying thud making Nightmare smile in pleasure. She was enjoying her vengeance, sweet and juicy like the meat she hadn't eaten since she had her own body so many years ago.

"Well Night, you are a lot meaner than you were the last time I saw you."

"If you knew what Sissy did to me then you would understand." Nightmare responded, looking at the prostrate princess before her.

"Hmm, won't ask. C'mon, let's go make some chaos, and while we are at it, maybe we can get little Chryssy to join us. I do hope you don't mind."

"I don't." was her only response as the father and daughter vanished into thin air.

A Response

Celestia awoke with a god-awful headache, the pain throbbing with every pulse of her heart. She opened her eyes and found herself slumped on the floor, her legs twisted at extremely uncomfortable angles under her collapsed body. She rose to her hooves and winced at the pain that shot down her spine, spreading down her legs into every nerve in her being. Her mane did not flow, instead the hairs hung caked in half-dried blood over her dark red neck. She winced again as she turned her head, the stiff hairs on her head pulling as she turned her neck to look at the wall.

The polished marble was webbed in a network of cracks with a splatter of red in the center of the bowed crater in the stone. She hung her head weakly and limped away to her throne room, her agony tearing through her with each and every step. As she walked, she noticed that nopony was around, not even the maids or the night council was up and about. Her entrance to the throne room was greeted only with the sunset shining through the windows, again nopony to be found. Groaning audibly, she turned back again and shuffled all the way through the halls to her room. More than a thousand times she cursed herself for choosing her bedroom to be so far away from the throne room, and for lashing out at Luna so harshly. Normally she could care less about homosexuals, but she did bear a slight prejudicial disgust for those who took others of the same gender and the insult she felt at the revelation of her sister and Twilight, of all ponies, was not insubstantial.

The blood soaked princess barely had the strength to push her way through her bedroom door and shower. The tub was quickly stained red under her hooves from the copious amounts of blood that she washed from her mane and coat. Her fur still retained a reminiscent hue of pink as she toweled herself off and collapsed on her bed.

Celestia snapped awake with the same throbbing body and quickly sat upright. Her internal clock chimed the time to raise the sun as it always did every morning. Out of habit and still half asleep, she stepped out onto her balcony and spread her magical grip towards the sun. Gripping it's gaseous form, she slowly pulled it skywards but was stopped short of the horizon as if walking into a wall. Snapping out of her groggy state of mind, she yanked again, this time more forceful. Again the sun hit an invisible wall that dumbfounded its master for a fraction of a second.

The memories of the previous day struck her like an arrow, searing into her mind and making the injuries she had received bellow in renewed fervor. She grunted as she slammed the sun into the barrier again, and again, she was met with failure. Panic set in as she slammed the sun into its opposition again and again, each thrust draining her more and adding a throbbing horn to the long list of injuries, but she paid her complaining body no mind, heedlessly bashing the solar orb into whatever wall held it captive.

Finally giving in when her horn suddenly gave out and stopped working, she fell to her knees, shaking and sweating in exhaustion. "Dear Cosmos, what have I done?" she whispered, knowing full well that the disregarding night was Midnight Moon's doing and she had been the cause of her return, along with their accosting father who reprimanded Luna and brought the relationship into the light.

The stained pink alicorn did something she had not done in centuries, she bowed her head and prayed to her Father for help. She begged and pleaded with him to return and put things back into good order, but the silence wailed like sirens in the void of the night. She could practically picture him sitting on a throne made of his stars, watching the world slowly decay in its endless night.

The image of her unresponsive father broke the levy that held back Celestia's emotions like a tsunami. She jumped to her hooves, much to their complaint, and started screaming at the sky, bellowing curses and invocations that are better left unsaid at him.

Once she calmed down a bit, she ceased her fit of rage and fumed silently. King Cosmos' voice whispered in the back of her mind only a few words that made her even angrier: "I... cannot Helia. I cannot help thee now. 'Tis too late."

"You could at least try to help you good-for-nothing bastard! You can't just abandon me like this!"

She felt his presence recede from her mind and half expected to see him appear in front of her, ready to help, but he simply withdrew, not offering anything in assistance.

"Fine go sulk and make another star for Momma. That's all you seem to be good for. Oh, and ruining things, you are really good at that." The last sentence she added in spite, just to make him hurt. She turned and left her balcony before the pitch-black sky.

******

Celestia placed her crown on her aching head and teleported to the throne room, not wanting to bother with the walk. She appeared in the center of the library much to her confusion, before she realized that her horn had exhausted its power and was unable to function properly. With a sigh of defeat, she resolved herself to the walk, even longer than the one from her bedroom, limping with every painful step. After an eternity of throbbing... everything, she finally shoved open the doors to her throne room, and was shocked to find it empty.

She quickly became aware that outside, the darkness still reigned, and since most ponies relied on the sun to wake them, everypony still slumbered in their beds. Grumbling to herself, she walked from her throne room, to that of her sister, if night still reigned, then her guards would still be posted there.

Finally Celestia had chanced upon some mysterious stroke of luck, for the guards were there, but fate had decided to be fickle and produced several sleeping pegusi to the princess. She woke them harshly, astonished that they had slept so long and ordered them to go and awaken the day court, "We are in for a long night."

They rushed off, seemingly in a bit more of a rush than normal, perhaps due to her short fuse and grumpy attitude. The white alicorn removed herself and returned to her own throne room to await the council. Time dragged along, scraping its nails across the chalkboard that was her patience, slowly grinding away any "Angelic" as Nightmare had put it, nature that remained in the princess. Her council ponies finally arrived to find a very cross, and extremely short tempered ruler before them.

Several yawned, but quickly shut their mouths with a snap when she glared at them in distaste.

"Gentlecolts, it is with great regret I inform you that Nightmare Moon has returned and has plunged the land into her eternal darkness. I am currently unable to lift the sun and was defeated when I confronted her."

Her statement sparked an explosion of panic, as ponies began jabbering incessant question at her and some straight up running around screaming. Her temper broke and she exploded out of her chair with a thunderous "SILENCE!!"

The ponies instantly came to attention and obeyed her. She began bellowing orders at them as fast as her tongue could keep up with the commands her mind created. She saved her communications manager for last, having a special and crucial task for him.

"Loudmouth, I need the Elements of Harmony and I want them now."

The princess' subjects scattered after receiving their duties and left her alone on the raised dais. She sank back into the hard seat, already exhausted. She called for her doctor so he could treat her wounds, sending a newly arrived guard off to summon him. He returned shortly with the medic in tow and resumed his post as the doctor bowed to Celestia. She waved him on with a hoof and slumped in her chair as she explained to him the extent of her injuries. He nodded knowingly and inspected the back of her head, lifting her mane to reveal the damaged flesh.

Celestia heard his small gasp of surprise and asked how bad it was.

"Princess I need you to come with me to my room, these wounds are very bad and need much, much more attention than I have in my bag. If you will come with me."

She groaned and rose to her sore legs, following him as he requested. As he let her in, he took off his coat and instructed her to lay down on the examining table. She complied as he opened his bag and began setting tools and instruments down on the counter, pulling several bandages and medicines from the cabinets above. The doctor rummaged around in the back of the cabinet and produced a dark brown bottle alongside a syringe.

"I need to put a few stitches in so I will give you a little sedative to help with the pain."

He filled the little syringe with a clear fluid and set the bottle down as Celestia began to protest, nervous around the pointy thing he intended to stab her with.

"Dr. Fine, I don't need a sedative, I can cull the pain with magic."

He chuckled under his breath, "Don't worry the needle won't hurt." He came near with the needle in his magic, making the princess even more worried that he would disobey a direct order.

"I said, no. I don't want a shot."

"Don't worry, sometimes it's just what the doctor ordered."

He made to stick it into her shoulder, but she deflected it with magic,incurring another complaint from her horn. "Doctor, stop."

The needle lunged at her again and again she deflected it to the side, but maintained her grip over the syringe. The pony grunted in effort and pushed against her magic, trying to force the needle into her. Celestia panicked and threw him away into the wall. His head hit the stone hard and he dropped the needle onto the ground. Blinking, he shook his head and looked at his patient horrified.

"Oh dear Celestia no. I'm so sorry, I...I couldn't help it. I just d-don't know what came o-o-over me. I tried to stop but I... Oh God."

Understanding the work of Discord, she forgave him and allowed him to attend to her now that he was no longer under the influence of the draconequus. He promptly refused, full of self loathing for what he had done, or rather tried to do to his princess. She eventually persuaded him, and he treated her very gingerly when her cleaned and bandaged her head, tying her mane into a pony tail before applying the soft gauze. The doctor constantly repeated his apologies over and over again, to which Celestia forgave him repeatedly. When he had finished, he brought her back to the throne room where several ponies awaited her.

"Now try to not use much magic. Your horn is really strained and needs to rest." He advised before leaving, streaming apologies in his wake. Celestia resumed her royal posture, though felt more vulnerable with her head wrapped up in bandages and her mane up, but she walked as regal as she could with a limp and took her place on the throne.

The stream of waiting ponies brought the expected complaints and petitions about the absence of the sun and she gave the same answer about Nightmare Moon over and over again. After hundreds of petitioners, Loudmouth stepped up to her throne and gave his report: "The Elements of Harmony have received your message and are preparing to come to Canterlot Your Majesty."

"Very good."

A Dying Land

The Moon held its unwavering position in the sky, eying the dying land below it with a cruel, merciless glare. The moon had lost all of its beauty and resplendence and now the pale beams of light gave an aura of evil and darkness rather than light. It hung motionless and refused to move for the rising of the sun wreaking havoc on both nature and pony kind. Temperatures plummeted all over Equestria as plants began to wilt under the layer of frost from the cold, ponies slept in and failed to attend work on time, society came to a halt. Even the nightlife had ceased, its denizens exhausted after such a long night, dawn never coming to announce closing time at the clubs and bars. The sky remained dark, despite the prayers of the religious, the complaints of the nobles, the riots of the impatient, all life styles failed and broke apart as the sun continued its absence, giving the ominous foretelling of an eternal night.

Cults sprang up, bowing to the moon, or kneeling before statues of Luna, or some even worshiping Nightmare Moon herself as a godess of vengeance, pleading for mercy in her deistic heart in chants and prayers. Ponies everywhere despaired after the thirty-seventh "day" of the endless night, farmers losing their entire crops, plants everywhere turning to icy decay causing an extreme food shortage. Natural predator populations quickly eliminated their prey species and began dying of starvation themselves. All the world was dying as a royal messenger flew down from the sky and found the six mares that he was looking for.

To each of them he gave a summons, first to a farmer handing out food, then to a weather pony comforting a friend, and finishing with a sulky and brooding librarian before flying off back to Canterlot. The violet librarian slowly opened the letter of summons and pored over the words therein. After she finished, she dropped the note in the trash bin and looked around at her numerous titles and scrolls that lined the walls. The romance shelf lay on the floor in tatters, but its former occupants sat neatly in a large chest on the floor, their keeper would never in all her life, for any reason whatsoever, damage a single page in them, but the shelf the tomes had rested upon lay on the floor in splinters.

Her eyes found the open chest and remained fixed on the open lid for a long time. The unicorn pulled a book from its depths and flipped to the last page.

"And they lived happily ever after." It finished with a happy tone. The reader closed the cover gently and replaced the book, drawing another at random from its gaping maw. Again she flipped to the back page and read the same line again, just in a different story. Replacing and drawing another with increased frustration, this time the librarian opened to the front page where it read: "I write this for my greatest love, Midnight Dew." With a sigh of defeat, she set the book back with its brethren and put her head in her hooves and cried for her love.

Pinkamena shivered from the icy wind as she slowly plodded up to Twilight's door and knocked. There was no response as she had expected, for her magical friend had not come out since she returned before the sun went down for good. She had refused to speak to Pinkie Pie, downright ignoring her party invite and Pinkie herself. She entered through the door at the base of the tree and locked the door after a bewildered purple dragon was sent from his home. Pinkie invited him to bunk with her until the real Twilight came back, but as she never did, the temporary stay turned to a more permanent residence.

The bakery had shut down within a couple of weeks after the moon sat still when its supply of flour had gone, leaving hungry ponies without any way to obtain food other than the public rations. After the bakery had closed and Pinkie and her roommate had to leave, The two carried their possessions to the Apple Farm, the only place in Ponyville that still had a supply of food. They accepted Pinkamena Diane Pie and Spike instead of Pinkie Pie and Spike as new guests. About the table they ate sparingly, an apple or two each day, trying in vain to make the stores last until the sun and warmth returned. The only fortunate thing was that the Apples' hadn't sent their last shipment of fruit on time due to a delay, leaving the storage house brimming with apples, but it wouldn't last long with the hordes of the hungry that came for their ration each day.

Pinkamena knocked one more time, not even bothering to hope for a response, merely trying to stay alive under their last hope. The door remained still and Pinkamena finally turned with sigh of contempt and shuffled off into the freezing night, alone.

The frozen dark soil fell onto the small lump in the ground, falling from the small shovel held by a buttercream pegasus with tear-filled eyes. She stuck a small wooden board into the cold ground with the word, "Angel" inscribed upon its rotted surface instigating further waterfalls from the already tear-soaked mare. A rainbow maned pegasus wrapped a hoof around her best friend and pulled her into a tight hug, the rivers flooding and soaking over into her multicolored mane.

The small rabbit was the last of Fluttershy's numerous animals and pets to die, finally giving out under the complete absence of food and warmth. His owner had begged and begged for an extra ration to keep him alive, even bringing his frail body wrapped in thin blankets to the food line, but was turned down. She gave her own ration to the failing life in her hooves, but he was too weak to do so much as chew. She spoon fed him mashed bits of the apple until it was spent, leaving only the dry stem and reedy leaf for her. He died soon after, for once making real his emote of death, holding a withered stick in his paw as his life sank into oblivion.

Rarity read the summons with widening eyes. She immediately rushed to her armoir and pulled a thick coat to turn away the chilly air of the sunless sky. Sprinting from her boutique, she ran across Ponyville to each of her friends and called them to meet in her office. She was forced to break into the library and abduct a weeping unicorn that somewhat resembled her friend Twilight and literally had to drag her screaming and kicking form to Rarity's home. She had to subdue Twilight with magic to prevent her from tearing off into the night and likely through a wall in the rush to escape.

"You will not mope and brood while Princess Celestia herself calls for us to save Equestria."

"I don't care anymore Rarity. I just don't care."

The fashion unicorn popped Twilight on the nose with a hoof, "Look beyond your own pain Twilight, ponies everywhere are dying. I had to request Dashie to carry Fluttershy all the way here because she is distraught with grief. Angel died today and Fluttershy is in tatters. I don't give a buck what happened in Canterlot so you better snap to!"

Twilight crossed her legs and pouted like a filly, not saying anything more to her captor.

The Elements of Harmony trickled in slowly, looking very much like their counterparts under Discord, besides Fluttershy who wouldn't stop bawling and curled into the fetal position on the floor the moment she was set down. Pinkamena glared sourly at Rarity as Rainbow Dash sat on the floor next to her pegasus friend, placing a comforting hoof over the hysteric. Applejack arrived last, her ribs poking out and looking much skinnier than anypony else.

When Rarity saw her she exclaimed, "AJ! You look so awfully thin! Are you not eating your ration?"

The element of Honesty failed her repute, giving an awfully hidden lie, "Yes'm. It just be all 'ta hard work o' keeping ev'rpony fed an' 'ta cold. Ah use a lot o' mah energy."

Rarity ignored the obvious lie and confronted them about not doing anything about the letter.

"Ah got family ta' take care of, includin' yer sister."

"Does Fluttershy really look like she can even walk to the station? Besides the trains are out of operation."

"Yeah and I'm the element of Laughter. Do I look like I am laughing right now?"

Twilight remained silent as Rarity turned to her, "Well, whats your excuse?"

The unicorn glanced upwards morosely at Rarity's looming face but said nothing, only shuffled about and turned to face the walls with her free hoof.

"Everything will get much, much worse if we don't help Celestia." the fashionist prodded.

"And what has Celestia ever done for me?" came the librarian's quiet voice.

"Mah family come first, even 'fore the princess."

"And I will remain loyal to Fluttershy when she needs me, and that time is now."

And with that, the earth pony and the pegasus carried the crying mare out the door as Twilight sank back into her depression.

"Hey you know what Rarity?" asked Pinkamena in a drab manner.

"What?"

"We should throw a doomsday party." the pink pony spat as she left the two unicorns in the boutique.

A Little Family Reunion

A loud crack broke the silence in a barren canyon, miles from the Equestrian border, resulting in numerous echoes down the length of the towering stone walls pocked with dark caverns and caves. The two intruders of the silence looked about for a greeting, fully expecting a violent welcoming party waiting for them, but their presumptions were disappointed as the silence resumed after the cacophony of echoes receded. The high cliffs peered down at them, adding their ominous presence to the death-glare given by the ever present moon held aloft by one of the pair. The shadowy mare stood next to her distorted father, the only one with a look of apprehension on her face in comparison to the smug look on the draconequus at her side.

"I absolutely love what Chryssy did with the place. It looks so... uninhabitable. Delightful!"

Nightmare shrugged off her insane father and walked deeper into the canyon, eager to be done with this. He followed soon after, talking idly about how beautiful the barren ground and sandy rocks were and about how he planned the make some area of Equestria like this, "Perhaps Ponyville."

Nightmare accidentally let out a sigh of contempt, eliciting a glance from Discord. "Nervous about seeing your dear sister again?"

"No." she responded flatly.

He laughed then, but didn't respond as he glanced at a particularly small cavern. "We have an audience my dear," he said, indicating to the dark hole.

Her cat-like eyes could see through the dark more clearly than in the day, so she spotted a black figure watching from the opening in the wall. The figure turned and vanished deeper into the cavern as Nightmare's eyes found it its form vinishing into darkness that even her eyes could not penetrate.

The duo continued down the rocky aisle, spotting numerous appearances of black forms amongst the shadows as they delved deeper into the crags. After several minutes of the walk, they came upon an abrupt end to the canyon, a sheer wall towering over then rising hundreds of feet into the stale air with a massive cave near the top. Midnight Moon unfurled her wings and took flight as Discord just levitated up the side of the cliff without even using his mismatched wings.

"Lazy geezer." the mare mumbled to herself as she floated above him on her wings. A strong flap lifted her into the lip of the cave and she set down as Discord appeared beside her. Pulling her wings to her side, she looked about the dark cavern. Gooey webs were plastered to the walls, stretching across the ceiling covering every inch of bare rock. The webs congealed over a spire of rock in the shape of a throne in the center of the room. Midnight's eyes detected small movements over the slimy walls and she squinted to get a better view.

"Can't see a thing, how about some light, hmm?" Discord suddenly held aloft a orb of light, throwing its wan glow upon the walls that sent a chill down Midnight's spine. Hundreds of insectoid creatures crawled over the webbing like ants, snarling with venom dripping off bared fangs. Several green eyes glare at the offending lights and took to the air on beetle-like wings. Her gaze was drawn to the throne in the center of the room where Chrysalis sat with the body of an unknown stallion twitching before her throne.

Her serpentine eyes glared at the intruders on her feeding as the mare crouched with a glowing horn, ready for a fight. The one beside her, however, sat back in a fluffy armchair and pulled a box of popcorn from out of nowhere, popping a few kernels into his mouth, looking every bit as relaxed as if he were watching a play.

Chrysalis halted her children and gave her calm, yet preposterous father the mos heated glare she could summon. The changelings gave her hundreds of mental complaints, but they froze on their webs, eying her guests hungrily with desperate eyes. "What do you want Dad?" she asked quickly. The chair and popcorn vanished as her Father rose to his feet.

"Is it really so bad seeing me again Chryssy?"

"You know I hate that nickname, don't call me that."

He walked closerand placed an arm arm around her neck casually, making her children all round tense. "Relax hon, no need to be rude. After all you haven't seen your sister in what, three thousand years?"

Her eyes flicked to Nightmare Moon, her apparent sister.

"Four by my count, and I remember killing her. Besides this one looks nothing like her."

"Because of you I am forced to survive by taking over someponies body. This body you see is that of the Princess Luna."

A pleased expression slid across Chrysalis' face as she heard of her vengeance being exercised by her sister, the one pony she could say she was happy that she had killed. "Well I am glad the royal family is being torn asunder. But what about Princess Cadence? She and her accursed husband are the ones who defeated me."

"I didn't really check to see about her, but my chaotic influence will keep their love from doing anything. Don't worry Chryssy, Cadence is not the reason we have come."

The insectoid mare glared at her father at the mention of her nickname, but said nothing about it. Instead she asked what exactly that reason was.

"Why, Equestria is beginning to die and the only ones who can save it are Celestia and her father. However Cosmos' is out of commission, so we are presenting you with the opportunity to-"

Chrysalis shook her head and cut him off, "You never look but two seconds in front of you Dad. You live for the moment and take no heed of what will come after your "fun". If everypony dies, then there is nothing for my children to feed on. They will all die from lack of nourishment, the lack of ponies to drink from. This stallion happens to be the first I've had in days before you so rudely interrupted me. So what will I do after Equestria is destroyed?"

"You aren't exactly doing so hot out here, girly. You rarely make raids or attacks. You could move into Equestria and form a nest somewhere where ponies are more readily available at the very least. What are you doing out here miles from anything?"

The changeling queen sighed at Discord's ignorance on how her species functioned, even though he had been with her for thousands of years. "My brood requires drones to find somewhere that would work as well as getting back. The border guard is harder to dodge than you might think and drones take a long time to produce, a couple of months each. I am not here because of laziness, but because of the difficulty of moving some two hundred thousand infant and adult changelings without anypony noticing."

"The question is: Will you help us Sissy?"

Chrysalis rose to her hooves and looked at her children lining the walls. A mental command shuffled them into columns and rows across the floor. She turned her green eyes to her family and gave a toothy grin. "As long as you keep the land alive so my minions can feed after we take the throne, then I will help you."

******

Dawn Star stood watch on the wooden wall along the border, swaddled in blankets as his heart pumped rapidly to fend off the cold. His sword sat in its sheath across his lap, further hindering his efforts to keep warm as the freezing steel penetrated the thin layer of fur on his skin. Goosebumps rose with a shiver all along his body as the winds cut through the blankets wrapped over his shoulders, making him even more uncomfortable.

The ever-present moon hung listlessly, bathing the brown grass in a ghostly, ethereal glow as fickle shadows played games on the earth below. An owl perched upon the ramparts, hooting quietly and startling Dawn in the light of the moon. In the stallion's mind, he wished to see his namesake once again, partly to see its gorgeous sunshine he missed so much and also to banish this relentless cold. He watched the horizon, eying the distant cliffs that presented the threat that the wall was built for. He had never seen a changeling before, though his fellows often came to the barracks brimming with tales of fighting and capturing the insectoid ponies and he had heard enough about them to hope that he never would encounter one.

His reasoning was that the others who had seen them always mentioned their ability to feed on emotions such as love. Dawn didn't know exactly what that meant, but because he loved his wife, Rose, he couldn't imagine life without feeling love again.

He was leaning against the guard tower, thinking about Rose and how much he missed her, when he spotted something, a flicker of black against the brown ground, a shadow that moved in a way that shadows did not. Instantly alert, he threw off the thin blankets and strapped his sword to his waist, and was greeted with the stabbing cold that cut through his fur. Again the shadow moved and he ducked down behind a crenelation so that only his eyes peered over the walls, trying to remain unseen. He watched as the shadow stepped into the moonlight and the white beams reflected off of a shiny armor of chitin. Dawn gasped as he saw the figure and dread filled his heart. The changeling's head snapped to the surge of emotion where he was located and leaped into the frozen air, wings buzzing madly like a giant mosquito.

The creature dashed for the wall on his wings as Dawn scampered up a ladder on the side of the tower and grabbed a torch. He made for a large basin with the torch in his grasp but was knocked sprawling onto the stones. The torch rolled away and guttered out on the floor. The changeling dove at Dawn as he scrambled to his hooves and tried to draw his sword. However the steel stuck fast to its sheath, frozen by the night frost to its metal home. Dawn was hit hard by the creature and was pinned to the ground by holey hooves. A shiny black face stared down at him and snarled, baring razor-sharp fangs dripping with venom. With his hind legs, he kicked the changeling hard in its gut, cracking the armor and vaulting it off of him.

He quickly rolled to his feet as his attacker did the same and made a grab for another torch, but was cut short as he was yanked to the ground by his hind leg. Dawn rolled over and punched the changeling directly in the nose. The chitin shattered like porcelain and the nose-bone broke and drove itself into the brain of the changeling with a wet crunch. The lifeless body collapsed to the ground as Dawn jumped to his hooves and threw the torch into the basin.

The metal tub erupted into flames as the oil inside took light, making light and heat erupt from the fire that revealed a cloud of black ponies hovering over the tower. Dawn's last thoughts were that of his beloved wife.

A Little Traction

A single white alicorn stood high over her dying domain, standing atop the palace astronomy tower with her head pointed at the dark horizon, a suffuse glow shading her pearlescent horn. She reached forth into the abyss beyond the world with a magical arm and groped about for the barrier that held her sun down. The tendrils of magic brushed against the force field and swarmed over it, attempting in vain to obtain a grip on its smooth surface. Finding nothing to grasp, Celestia withdrew the magic and formed it into a long spear of energy. With a grunt she thrust it into the field, only to have the projectile shatter against the resolute blockade.

Without hesitation the princess formed a long, spiraling point and kissed it against the invisible surface. Pouring all the energy she could muster into the weapon, she forced it to spin, slowly at first, but then faster and faster as her drill picked up speed and momentum in the vacuum of space. When its speed began to make Rainbow Dash seem sluggard, she gently pressed it into the unyielding surface. Nothing happened to the barrier, but Celestia pushed harder, determined to make the sun rise for her subjects and she knew in her heart that she would not, could not, fail. The barrier remained impassive as she pressed her magical drill harder and harder into its surface, issuing a grunt of effort from the stalwart princess.

As the strength of the drill's tip began to falter, heat making the conjured matter weaken and begin to buckle under the pressure as the shield remained unmarred by the onslaught, Celestia threw out a glancing petition for help in her desperation. The silence screamed in her ears, drowning out everything but the screeching peal of pain as the drill tip fractured and shattered in her grip, leaving its foe without a scratch, and its master with a searing headache and a weak body. Her magic reserves spent, the injured princess collapsed to the stones in defeat, panting madly and allowing her beleaguered eyelids to slide closed over her eyes.

For several minutes she lay there, sweating and shivering, more from her downfall than from the freezing cold that pervaded everything. She eventually stood up, dragging her tired hooves beneath her as she struggled to rise to full stance. Her head hung low and foam crusted the corners of her mouth as her sides expanded and contracted in a hurried effort to obtain enough oxygen to keep her body alive. Lifting her head and opening a sunken eye to the stars above, she poured all her grief and shame into one miserable look of longing for her father to see.

Celestia's neck shuddered and her head dropped quickly as the strength fled from the muscles. She sat on her haunches and rested her chin on her crossed fore legs atop the frigid stones of the observatory balustrade, and gazed sadly at the pricks of light from fires; her subjects doing something, anything to stay warm. She sat like this for an eternity, staring blankly into the night, all of her last and final hopes dashed against the accursed barrier that held down her beloved sun.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" came the familiar voice of her possessed sister, dripping with mocking sarcasm and cruelty. Celestia knew that Nightmare was not ignorant of the pain she caused in her everlasting night, and her jesting countenance about her own evil pleasure sliced through the enervated princess' heart.

She said nothing, too weak to even think of a response.

"An entire world brought to its knees because the one placed over them could not do the one thing entrusted unto her. In a way, this is all your fault. You did not have the strength to even pull the sun over the horizon." the dark mare teased her.

Celestia mustered her flagging strength into one slow question, "Why, Nightmare? Why, hurt everypony, so... much?"

The mare behind her laughed gaily, clearly pleased to have been asked such a question. She remained silent for a while after the chuckle, drawing in a long-awaited monologue. "Chryssy drained me of all joy and happiness when we were young, thousands of years ago. She destroyed my body, but I was not ready to die, so I lived on as a wraith. When I found Luna, abused, rejected, and otherwise hateful, I took great pleasure by inflicting all the misery I had felt over the eons upon everypony. I enjoy being powerful and I don't shirk from doing whatever the buck I want with it."

"Chryssy?"

"My sister, Chrysalis."

"You're related to Chrysalis?"

"And daughter to Discord, yes family heritage and such. So much pointless drawl over who we are related to, as if it even matters."

Celestia shuffled to her hooves, issuing several cracks as her joints popped under pressure. She slowly turned on her sister's modified form and looked deep into feline eyes, wide slits surrounded by icy-blue irises. She pressed her forehead against Nightmare's, making their horns scrape together as their eyes nearly touched from the close contact. Her skin felt like the air did, cold, as if she was a dead body, suddenly animate after all heat had left it.

"I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth if it means saving the sun. I promise you that. I will never stop hunting you down like the animal you are."

The cold mare pressed back against Celestia, forcing the weakened princess to recoil. "See? You are too weak to resist me. Hatred will always be stronger than love, and your love for your ponies will never conquer me. Your land will die, everypony in it will die, all the world will become as barren as the moon you banished me to for a thousand years. I could just send you there, but I think that to watch everything around you decay into a barren wasteland as you remain, immortal, would be the perfect punishment."

"So you begrudge me banishing you to the moon? Is that why you are doing this?"

Nightmare broke contact with a guffaw of mirth and shook her head, "No, I already explained that. Just that pain that you will feel... hmmmmm... would be the best thing that has ever happened to me. No, I just want to see you lose everything, and when the pain becomes too much for your immortal soul, I will watch as you destroy yourself just to get away from the agony of all the dead around you."

Celestia's shoulders sagged under the weight of Nightmare's prophetic words. She had already despaired, what else could this mare possibly want?

In a surge of anger and hatred at the cruelty of Nightmare, Celestia fired everything remaining in her at the dark pony.
She sidestepped the blast easily and picked up the broken alicorn in her magic and dangled her drooping body over the edge of the balustrade. Celestia's inside threatened to turn themselves out at the drop below, her entire body suddenly overcome in a wave of vertigo. Nightmare clucked her tongue disapprovingly and let Celestia drop a few feet, allowing a moment of free fall to emphasize her control over the helpless alicorn. Her crown fell off at the motion, tumbling hundreds of feet through the air until it shattered against the streets below. Nightmare raised her captive higher and flung her form back onto the balcony, tossing her like a rag doll.

"Try that again, and I will drop you. Your little ponies will watch in horror as you commit "suicide" and they will despair completely."

Celestia only moaned in pain, pulling weakly at her twisted limbs beneath her fallen torso.

"Look at you, you're pathetic. Weak. Dear Tia, what happened to you?"

The princess glanced up, hope glimmering in her eyes as she heard the nickname only Luna had for her. She knew in that moment that Luna was still alive, somewhere in Nightmare's mind. Fire filled her eyes and a surge of adrenaline pulsed through ever fiber of her being as she caught hold of that one last hope. "I'm sorry Luna."

With a burst, Celestia kicked out wildly, catching Nightmare on the chin in a nasty uppercut, snapping her head back. The evil mare rose on her wings and kicked Celestia's chest hard with both hind legs, sending the alicorn sprawling. She hopped up as Nightmare charged her horn, and dodged the bolt of energy aimed right at her heart. She ducked her shoulder and rammed her once-sister as hard as she could, sending them both spiraling off the tower. She bit hard into the dark mare's neck, drawing a ribbon of blood and hit her hard in the gut with all her rage and fury at the demon inside her sister.

With a puff of smoke, her foe vanished from her violent embrace, stunning Celestia momentarily. She flared her wings, but their weakened forms did little to slow her descent. Resolving herself to her fate, she gently closed her eyes and prepared for the inevitable. She waited, and waited, but the impact never came. Opening her eyes, she found herself in her niece's familiar blue glow. She was carefully deposited on the ground as a purple mist darted from the shadow's and materialized as Nightmare Moon.

Cackling evilly, the dark mare charged her horn. Just as she was about to release her death-blow, a sky-blue bolt of lightning struck her horn, sending the deadly bolt crashing into a wall. Nightmare looked for her assailant and gasped, filling her horn once again with energy. Another bolt of lightning rammed into Nightmare full-force and threw the mare onto the ground. A shadow shifted and Princess Cadence emerged from the darkness, her horn brimming with magic and a determined fire in her eyes. She cast a spell on the stunned mare, but the spell she cast was one Celestia would never, in all her life, would never have guessed.

Two pieces of a heart formed over Nightmare's head, mirroring cracks lining the inside like a fissure. The two pieces clamped together before seeping into The dark pony's horn. An unearthly scream emanated from the form on the ground, as it suddenly began convulsing and jerking in agony, screeching like a banshee, smashing hooves into the pavement , and thrashing about like a landed fish. Cadence looked on calmly as Celestia watched in shock, stunned that somepony like her niece would torture even something as vile as this. Skin and fur tore off as the figure flailed about on the ground, still bellowing its cry of utter pain. Flesh caught on the cobblestones and tore off with a sickening rip, revealing raw meat beneath as blood gushed from the numerous wounds over the distorted monster.

Filled with pity, Celestia dragged limp body nearer to Cadence's still form and asked weakly, "What are you doing?"

Cadence answered impassively, her voice near robotic, "Drawing out the poison."

The two continued to watch the writhing pony as it slowly diminished in size, entire chunks of its body tearing off and dissolving on the ground. After several long minutes of screaming and gyrating, a hunched figure lay quietly in the shadows, too dark for Celestia to make out what was left of Nightmare Moon. Cadence calmly walked up to whatever remained as Celestia slid into darkness.

******

A knock sounded at the library door, but the tree's sole inhabitant remained fixed on the floor, not budging an inch from the spot that marked her dreary existence. The knock came again, and still the unicorn did nothing to answer it, staring blankly at the wall. A minute passed, then two, then a voice came from outside the door, "Twilight? Are you there?"

The named pony's head snapped around so quick she might have broken her neck. She knew that voice, so well in fact that only one other was branded upon her brain more. She leaped to her hooves and rocketed up the stairs as her door was unlocked with magic and it began to swing open, allowing the sun's glorious rays to sweep aside the absolute darkness inside. Two alicorns entered, one of a deep midnight blue, and the other of a gentle pink, one with a crescent moon over an appaloosa print, the other a crystal heart adorning their flanks respectively.

The first called again for her lover, but she received no response. Nodding to her niece to stay, she began ascending the steps that led to Twilight's bedroom, her sense of dread escalating with every step. At the threshold, she hesitated before knocking. What if Twilight rejected her? What if she didn't forgive her? She didn't know what she would do if she was rejected. Luna steeled herself as she knocked. She was doing this for Equestria and for poor Tia, not for her relationship with Twily. Silence ensued, and Luna was about to turn when a loud crash came from inside, followed by a stream of whispered curses.

Luna knocked again, "Twily, I know you're in there. Are you all right?"

The silence resumed and Luna gave in, turning from the oaken portal. As she began down the steps, the door behind her creaked and Luna turned to see a filthy, sunken unicorn that looked somewhat like Twilight. She left the door open but turned and reentered her room, sitting on her bed with a huff. Luna walked in tentatively as if walking into a mine-field, closing the door behind her. The darkness fell over the room, and even though Luna could see easily in the dark, she didn't see the unicorn rush forward and pull her into a crushing hug. Luna gasped in surprise and returned the embrace softly, relishing in the sudden warmth.

"I'm so sorry, I should not have snapped at you so-"

"No, I'm sorry," Twilight cut in, "I shouldn't have been so hurt. The King had clearly made you angry and you were just trying to-to..."

She drifted off as Luna let go of her and sat down on the mattress, patting the bed for Twilight to sit. However, while Luna could see perfectly well in the dark, Twilight could see nothing. She stumbled and tripped over Spike's small bed and fell into Luna, who caught her and set her down at her side. The two sat together in silence for a while, before Twilight broke the silence. "So it was all Nightmare Moon again, huh?"

"Indeed. She was tormenting me as I was speaking to Father, making my temper worse. And she also twisted my thoughts and confused my words when I spoke so harshly to you. I never meant to blame you for my pain Twily. I am glad you are in my life and I would have no other."

Twilight nodded slowly and leaned against the princess' shoulder, who wrapped a leg about her and stroked her mane tenderly. The two sat like this for a while, until Twilight asked how she had gotten rid of Nightmare. Luna told her everything, everything from their breakup, to waking next to Tia in the hospital, to raising the sun for her sleeping sister. Twilight listened quietly and intently, drinking in every word her long lost marefriend said like a pony in the desert finding water.

After Luna had finished, Twilight piped up, "So what now?"

The Last Stand

Nine mares stood atop a grassy knoll overlooking what used to be Canterlot, gazing on the preposterous layout of the backwards city. Streets of soap filled with gross suds as bright pink rainclouds drenched the city in a deluge of brown precipitation. Over the onlooking ponies, the sun fell out of the sky and was immediately replaced by a backwards crescent moon which followed its predecessor and was replaced thereafter just as quickly, the blink of an eye. Everywhere the ponies looked, Chaos abounded, throwing things out of whack; entire buildings levitated high above the ground, flipped on their heads as ponies went about their day in them as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Celestia stomped her hoof in anger at the havoc wreaked on the city and cringed as a lance of pain shot up her leg. Her mane was pulled into a streaming ponytail over bandages wrapped about her head, hindering, yet at the same time enhancing her regal look. Next to her stood a bouncy pink earth pony, excited by the cotton candy clouds and chocolate rain that was Discords mark. An orange hoof pressed down on her shoulder, its owner telling her to settle down, "We got a job ta do Sugarcube." Pinkie settled down momentarily, but still looked about with giddy delight.

"Don't worry Applejack, we may need her enthusiasm when we confront Discord. Pinkie, do you have your party cannon?" asked Celestia.

"Sure do!" she piped, pulling the device from behind her flank. Cadence eyed her incredulously, having little experience with the impossible randomness of Pinkie Pie.

"How-"

"Don't ask Cadence," interjected Twilight. "That's just Pinkie Pie. In all my years with her I've never figured her out."

"I'm not sure anypony can figure her out." added Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie remained oblivious to the conversation about her as she perched on the cannon like a strange bird, or at least she gave no indication as to noticing them. Celestia continued gazing at her city with growing frustration as Luna stepped to her side, nudging her with a wing. "Let us go Tia, it does us no good watching Discord at play. We had best be off and confront him."

"You mentioned Chrysalis and the changelings, what about them?"

"Defeat Discord and they will flee I am sure. They are vicious, but cowardly. Chrysalis is smart enough to know when the tables are turned against her."

Celestia sighed, and proceeded forward, the remainder of the group following in her hoofsteps. The troupe entered the ridiculous city, eying every shadow that moved, fully expecting a sudden onslaught of changelings. However, the deeper they delved into the city, their fears were disappointed by the complete absence of the amorphous insectoids. Their apprehension remained however, and they remained permanently cautious with the exception of Pinkie who could barely contain herself in sheer excitement.

Upon drawing near the gates, Fluttershy squeaked in terror as they caught sight of gashes in the stones of the gatehouse. Here, before the palace walls, the rotting corpses of dozens of guards and soldiers lay stinking in the sun, filling the air with a foul stench. The gates were shattered, one door torn completely off its hinges and the other marred with a hole torn through the thick wood from the onslaught of hundreds of monstrous creatures. They entered the fallen gate tentatively, Pinkie finally sober as she pushed her cannon from behind.

Discord popped into existence next to Celestia and wrapped a lion paw around her shoulders, smiling joyously. "I left the cleanup for you Little Princess. I thought you might enjoy it." He vanished before anypony could react and reappeared at Twilight's side, toying with her tiara, "The Elements of Magic, I did not foresee the power of these little trinkets the first time, they just looked like lame jewelry to me. But this time, I know better." He vanished as a bolt of energy from Luna sliced through the space his chest used to be. His voice called down at them from above and they spotted him atop the walls, walking along the parapets. Luna shot at him again, only to miss as his form teleported in front of the group. Again charging her horn, the furious alicorn was just about the attack again when a shiny black changeling rammed her and darted off as the princess fell to the ground, hard.

A rope lashed out and wrapped around the fleeing creature, tightening about its torso and yanking it to the ground. Applejack stood over it imperiously, placing a hoof on its gleaming covered head. She began pressing down as Pinkie Pie leaped up and punched AJ in the face. The cowpony fell onto the ground as a ball of confetti blasted the pink pony in the chest, throwing her across the courtyard into a wall. Every eye turned to the cannon and found Pinkie (apparently the real one) reloading it with an angry expression on her face.

A squeal rang out as several Rainbow Dash's ganged up on Fluttershy, closing in about her. "Not again," the real Rainbow Dash groaned as she flew into their midst, kicking and punching the several copies of herself. Chaos broke out as dozens of the creatures assaulted the ponies. The three princesses stood together with several failed doppelgangers of themselves encircling them, lashing out and striking them where they could.

As the nine battled the army, Chrysalis walked up calmly beside Discord, watching her children fight with a sadistic pleasure. "Well Dad, how you doing?"

"Chryssy! Pull up a chair and join me!" He conjured his trademark chair, and pushed a recliner at his daughter, who sat in it alongside him. "Popcorn?" he offered, producing a bucket of the stuff and holding it out to Chrysalis.

"No, these ponies love each other, so I am getting my fill. Especially those two," she said indicating Twilight and Luna as they fought side by side. "Every time one gets in trouble, I get a little bit of those delicious emotions. Did you know they were together?"

"Well their situation is one of my creations, so yes, the signs were obvious to me."

Chrysalis laughed cruelly as they watched the fight, taking sips of both emotion and soda between them. She glanced at Cadence with worry, scared of the alicorn's power when Discord caught her nervous eye. "Don't worry about her. Ever since Cosmos left, I have control of most things here. She can't hurt you."

His words calmed her just so, but she had once underestimated that mare and she had paid the price. She did not want to make that mistake again.

Havoc ensued for several minutes, before the loud "ENOUGH!!" of a stallion rang through the courtyard. A wave of energy slammed into the changeling horde and scattered them, giving the tired mares some rest. Cadence's squeal of delight indicated Shining Armor's entrance as she rushed into his legs in an strong embrace. Shining kissed her cheek lightly and broke the contact, walking up to Twilight. "Room for one more Twily?"

"Yes please," the unicorn gasped between breaths.

Celestia turned to Discord and Chrysalis, now standing with their chairs nowhere to be found. "Now you will face us Discord,and you will be destroyed."

The draconequus chuckled knowingly, "Your little sister knows that I am indestructible. Daddy tried to, once upon a time, and even he couldn't do it. What makes you think you can?"

"I can't. But they can." she replied calmly, indicating the Elements of Harmony.

"Go ahead and try." Discord smiled haughtily, drawing a target over his chest like he had before, still with the same arrogant expression.

The six mares stood together and closed their eyes as Twilight cast the spell she had become intimately familiar with. Their forms rose into the air, Elements glowing as power filled their bodies. They opened their eyes of one mind and poured their magical energies together firing a rainbow-beam from their midst. The ray slammed into Discord, but the draconequus remained standing ,unaffected by the powerful beam of power with a smug expression scrawled across his face. Twilight and her friends dropped to the ground, landing squarely on their hooves as Twilight asked, "Princess, is he-" her question was cut short as she opened her eyes and her expression mimicked those of all the others around her.

Discord sighed, looking at his nails as he hummed a discordant tune aloud. The courtyard remained silent except for his awful lullaby as all looked at him in astonishment. Glancing up, he feigned a look of surprise and exclaimed, "Well I knew I was good looking, but this is kinda awkward. Especially with you looking at me like that Shining." Shining's mouth clamped shut and he glared at the joker with distaste. Discord rose on his mismatched wings and lightning flashed behind him through the pink clouds.

"And now all of you will feel my wrath. Time for you all to die you helpless wretches!" He laughed maniacally as the group below him braced themselves.

Discord's laugh was cut short as a black bolt of lightning exploded from the sky and struck the ground between him and the group of ponies. A single massive figure erupted from the void and slammed into the ground with a starry flash that shattered the stones beneath his gargantuan hooves. "Not if I have anything to do with this." His voice boomed with the power of a supernova and the sheer volume made the cracked cobblestones shudder. The enraged look on his starry face terrified everypony. However Discord remained impassive, smirking at the titanic being that threatened him. Chrysalis however, recoiled at the sight of the god and fled, her army of changelings in tow.

Discord paid his fleeing daughter no mind, "You couldn't destroy me before." he said to the dour Cosmos. "You couldn't stop me from raping and murdering your beloved wife. You were unable to do anything as I stole my daughters from you. Why should I believe that you can do anything to me?"

"Silence, abomination! I will hear no words from thine mouth, Chaos. Thine life is forfeit before all of my worlds!"

"You can't destroy me you idiot." Discord stated angrily, his passive facade cracking under the pressure of the thunderous voice.

Cosmos had known this moment had come, he had dwelt upon it amongst his stars, contemplating his creation and everything that he was. If Discord could not be destroyed as his destroyer lived, then his unnatural law of opposite being would make the reverse face of the coin take on its contrary form. This was the only way to destroy the abomination.

"Then I will create thee." He whispered. Accepting the fatal truth of his actions, Cosmos' huge horn glowed as he unfurled his voluminous wings. The king focused on long forgotten magics, the magics of creation, the magics of his being and funneled them into his horn. Immediately around him the stones repaired themselves, the gates and walls healed, and all around the corpses of the long dead reversed their decay and returned to life. Pure creation in everything that it was emanated from king, pushing new breeds of flowers from the ground, and spawning unheard of creatures in the gardens. His eyes grew brighter, turning into miniature suns as the courtyard filled with his magic. A flash of fear appeared on Discord's face, marring his carefree countenance as he realized what his creator intended to do. A quiet "No" slipped from his mouth in an ominous whisper. A single flap of Cosmos' colossal wings lifted him into the sky and battered all below like a hurricane. In the air his wings fanned out in a magnificent display of feathers that blocked out the sun, throwing his gigantic shadow over the ground like an eclipse.

A small (for Cosmos) orb of energy materialized at the very tip of his horn that shone brighter than the sun, forcing everypony to shield their eyes, all except Discord who could only gaze on with a look of horror on his distorted face. The giant king drew his head back and took a deep breath, setting all the magic in his grasp. With a grunt he thrust his horn at Discord and fired a massive ray of creation magic at Chaos. The beam hit him hard, throwing him to the ground with the force of an asteroid hitting a planet, and drilled into him relentlessly. The victim struggled to his feet under the sheer power that gorged into him, and held up a hand to shield himself from the shaft of tangible creation. At first nothing happened, and a thin smile cracked his lips. But as he watched, his skin slowly turned black like frostbite and crumbled to ash in the wind above him.

The coy smile was replaced with a look of horror as he shook his hand violently, trying in vain to shake off the blight. the afflicted hand slowly crumbled away into nothing and the black shading drifted up the length of his arm. Cosmos drew in another swath of energy, but added his special ingredient to the mixture, the one thing he could give his daughter's to repay them for all of his mistakes. He set down lightly, horn throbbing visibly with magic, and bent down over Discord's flailing body. He rested the tip of his horn against Discords head, making the draconequus stop dead in his tracks.

With a grunt, Cosmos jettisoned all the energy of his being into his fell creation. He could feel his eternal soul rend and tear from the bounds of his body as it tore into the "creating" Chaos. Discords eyes slid closed and with a slow sigh, the light from Cosmos slid into Discord's chest, illuminating his body like a light bulb. He gasped and his eyes shot open,yet nothing happened. Before everypony's eyes, his body imploded with the force of a thousand suns, blasting eveypony off their hooves. Everything after that happened in slow motion. With a groan, Cosmos collapsed to the ground as everypony rose to their feet, issuing a small earthquake that shook the stones beneath him into pieces. The princesses rushed to his massive head as his head struck the earth in a booming thud.

"Are you all right Father?" Celestia questioned.

His voice rasped, slow and pained like an extremely old pony. "Helia, mine beloved Helia. To thee I give the world and its workings. Ye will ensure that the seasons move as they should, preserve mine laws as I have done since The Dawn."

"What are you saying?!" Celestia gasped in panic.

Cosmos, didn't respond to her question, instead he spoke to Luna, "Selene, sweet, tender Selene. Since the stars art seen by night, it is only right that thou art their master. Keep them, and watch over them as I have done."

Luna did not respond as her bewildered sister did, understanding what he was saying, "I will Father."

He slowly wheezed and coughed, making the palace walls tremble. "Forgive me, for I hath failed thee."

The truth and realization finally hit home in Celestia, and for the first time in a thousand years, tears erupted in her eyes, dripping down her muzzle in waterfalls as she spluttered in protest. "No! You can't die on us! You can't just leave us like this, damn you!" she sobbed through rivers of tears. She pressed her head against his massive cheek, begging for him to stay through shuddering sobs.

"I will ne'er leave thee,Helia, for I am in thine heart, forever and always."

"NO. No, no, no, no, no! Please, don't leave me." Celestia begged.

"Be strong Selene," he said around another racking cough that made the castle shake in its foundations. "Be strong for thine sister."

"I will." Luna stated simply. Cosmos nodded and called for Twilight. She drew near tentatively, unsure of how to act before the dying giant.

The king's eyes slowly closed and his breath shuddered as he spoke directly to her. "Twilight Sparkle, forgive me. I give thee my Selene, she is thine if thou shalt have her." Twilight said nothing, her mind reeling as she absorbed his gift. He chuckled like a volcano, reading her mind.

"I go now, to my stars. To rest."

His torso swelled in his final breath and the sigh thereafter was one of complete peace as he passed into death. His body slowly grew translucent and the stars on his coat and mane ceased their eternal undulating as they rose from his body into the sky. Even in the day, the stars shone brilliantly in the heavens, a constellation of the star-king for all time to hold remembrance of. Celestia rushed to Luna who pulled her into a gentle embrace, gazing up at the stars, her stars, as Tia cried into her shoulder. Luna stroked the white alicorn's mane soothingly like a mother, as Celestia had to her countless times before. A single tear fell from the moon princess' eye as she gazed at the picture of her father painted across the sky for all to see.

Making Amends

The Elements of Harmony stood at a distance from the massive body of the dead king with the exception of Twilight, not fully understanding why his burst of power had cost him his life. They murmured amongst themselves, attempting in vain to come to some kind of cohesive conclusion.

"Just too much power for one pony to handle?" suggested Rainbow Dash.

"Something about Discord made the magic rebound?" questioned Rarity.

"Ah reckon it be that he self destructed to keep from hurtin' his girls again. He seemed a might grieved when he returned." came the honest answer from the completely honest mare.

Pinkie Pie said nothing as Fluttershy helped the fallen guards to their feet, demonstrating her own element of kindness. One of the guards asked what happened as Fluttershy cleaned a nasty gash on his throat. "We... um... don't really know." she said faintly. He nodded as she wiped away blood and grime from the opening in his neck. The shy pegasus gave a sudden squeak and stopped attending to him. "You... you should be dead. Y-you were dead. How..."

Her friends could almost see the light bulb flick on over her head as a realization hit her. She dropped the hoofkerchief and leaped into the sky towards Ponyville with a speed that made Dash proud. However her friends assumed expressions of astonishment at her sudden abandonment.

Applejack ordered Dash to grab Twilight, who did so. "What in the hay is going on?"

"Fluttershy jus' took of fer' Ponyville. Whatever it was, she gonna need some friends judgin' from ta' look on 'er face."

Twilight looked back hesitantly at Luna who was still holding her distraught sister next to her brother and Cadence who were helping comfort the sun princess. Turning back to her friends, she began to charge up her horn while telling them to all come near and lay a hoof on her. They complied with wondering looks on their faces, and once the final hoof touched her, Twilight let the magic loose with a loud "POP!" and a flash of light.

The five friends reappeared in the train station disconcertingly, except Twilight who rushed over to a booth and ordered tickets for the train to Ponyville. Exchanging the tickets for the appropriate amount of money, the clerk informed her that the train would arrive in about a hour, then would take yet another to get restocked on coal and water to make the trip. Twilight brought the tickets to her friends and distributed them amongst them.

They eyed her questioningly, but only Rarity actually spoke the question they all wondered at: "Why not just teleport us to town?"

"Takes more energy to get us all there and I'm afraid I don't know if I have enough to sustain the spell. Such an event would kill me."

"So that's what happened to Cosmos." stated Pinkie flatly.

"We can't be too sure of that. King Cosmos had unimaginable power, so I doubt there is a spell that would tax him enough to die from it."

"Then why did he die?" asked Pinkie in a rather annoyed tone. "Why did the "all-powerful" king die?"

"I don't know anymore than you do Pinkie."

"Ah'm sure we will fin' out when we fin' Fluttershy. Ah would bet my hin' legs she figgered it out. That why she rushed off so lickety split."

Pinkie sat down on a bench with a huff. Rarity walked over and sat next to her. "Pinkie dear, whatever has gotten you so worked up?"

"If he just happened to die because of the spell then that means he just died, that he didn't have any purpose for dying! That makes his story miserable and sad! He lived forever just to be hated by the one he cared for the most then just died trying to make things better. No happy ending, no trump card, nothing." She trailed off looking defeated, like she had hoped for a much better ending. Rarity recoiled slightly from her outburst, but remained seated next to her friend.

Pinkie broke the silence with more in her tirade, "Sad endings don't end in laughter. How can you be happy when there is no happy ending?" Her mane steadily lost its spunk as she spoke, until it hung limply over her slumped shoulders.

"Are we supposed to just go on with our lives knowing that the Elements of Harmony failed? That we had to force the King to come down and kill himself just for us? What the buck kind of story is that?"

"Is that why you are so miserable? That the Elements didn't defeat Discord?"

"We failed Rarity. We failed and Discord stood there grinning. Laughing at us. Laughing at... me." Her shoulders sagged even more as her friends struggled to formulate a response for her pessimistic statement, but could think of nothing. They saw Pinkamena had returned after Pinkie Pie had only been around a short while. They sat on the bench together, mute and silent with the sinking feeling of their joy as it drowned in their doubts.

After an eternity, the train finally rumbled its way into the station, letting out several ponies on their way home from work and on errands of business. As the tide of passengers reverted from those leaving to those boarding, the five dejected ponies walked on board and sat in their seats as they waited for their arrival in Ponyvile.

Nopony said anything the entire ride home.

The conductor stuck his head into their compartment, informing them of the train’s imminent arrival in Ponyville. True to his word, the train rumbled into the station and slowed to a stop with a loud screech. The five friend stoically rose from their seats and silently shuffled from the station, glum expressions scrawled across their faces. Pinkie’s rhetoric struck them at their core, forcing their hearts to drop from hope to despair with a few mere words.

Their hooves left the pavement of the station for the dirt of the worn roads that criss-crossed the town like a lattice. Soon the worn roads turned to grass as they neared the edge of Ponyville and headed for their missing friend’s home on the edge of the forests. As the small tree-home came into view, the friends stopped dead in their tracks, mouths agape as they struggled to process the scene before them.

When the friends had left, all of Fluttershy’s pets had either died or fled, but before the five mares critters littered the lawn and fields around her home. Birds sang in the trees gaily, ferrets and otters scampered playfully about whilst numerous rabbits grazed and napped under the sun. Even more startling, was the appearance of Fluttershy herself who was feeding her numerous pets. A small and familiar grumpy rabbit trailed in her wake, snatching pellets and bits of food from the animals when Fluttershy wasn’t looking.

It was Rainbow Dash who was the most stunned, she clearly remembered burying the demanding rabbit and comforting the distraught pegasus who owned him. She could still feel the dead weight of his body as she held him, for Fluttershy had refused to so much as touch the little corpse. Yet the same bunny remained, as alive as ever before Dash’s incredulous gaze. Rainbow Dash shot off with a streak of multicolor and landed heavily before Fluttershy as the rest of the troupe ran down the hill to where the two pegasi stood.

“Fluttershy, what in the hay is going on?!” demanded Rainbow impatiently.

The startled mare embraced her with a crushing hug, giving a happy “Squeee!”

“Oh, Rainbow Dash, I got here like an hour ago and found all my animal friends alive! I realized it when I was cleaning the guard’s wounds, that cut in his throat should have killed him. Cosmos fixed everything! Everything-”

“Whoa, whoa, slow down there Sugarcube. Now start from the beginning an’ tell us what’s goin’ on.”

Fluttershy took a deep breath and released Rainbow Dash from her death grip. After a few moments, she resumed her tale. “There is no possible way that guard could have survived those wounds, so the realization hit me: Whatever magic Cosmos used to destroy Discord, he fixed everything that happened when Discord and Nightmare Moon took over. All the grass was alive, the flowers and vegetables weren’t frozen and dead, everypony that had died because of Discord somehow came back to life. He healed them! That’s why he died: He sacrificed his life so that we could live again!”

It was Pinkie who broke the astonished silence, “So Cosmos gave up his life to save everypony else?”

“Yes!”

Pinkie’s mane bounced back to life like a coiled spring as she leaped into Fluttershy and hugged her, the pair bouncing up and down with glee. The remainder of the friends remained fixated to their spots with their jaws hanging. It made so much sense, and it gave them new hope that they had al but abandoned. Pinkie and Fluttershy let go of each other and Pinkie ran over to her friends.

“You know what his calls for? A party!”

As the day wore on, Fluttershy’s hypothesis proved true again and again. The apple stores were completely replenished, The effects of cold and starvation vanished completely from everypony, and the natural equilibrium had been restored. Everything for everypony settled into the norm with the exception of six friends who returned to the palace at Princess Celestia’s request. They arrived at the palace full of joy and happiness at everything that had happened. However their high spirits were dulled somewhat at the sight of Celestia’s downcast face as she sat on her throne next to Luna. She looked at the new arrivals glumly, the pain of Cosmos’ passing written plainly across her face. Even Pinkie Pie sobered somewhat upon seeing Celestia in such a melancholy state.

“Thank you for coming everypony,” Her voice was the looking glass into her soul, pained and monotonous. “We have made plans for Fa-, King Cosmos’ funeral and we would appreciate your being there. Not many even know who he was so having sompony who actually knows who he is will give it some meaning.” The princess’ shoulders visibly sagged under the weight of her words, and her eyes gazed blankly out the window as she finished her announcement.

Twilight approached her and nuzzled her affectionately. “Princes Celestia, we figured out what the king did.”

“I already know Twilight, I’ve seen his powers before, but ...” She broke into hushed sobs, tears starting to flow from her eyes. Luna sidled closer, pulling her grieving sister into an awkward hug. Twilight returned to her friends as Luna told them about the preparations. “In an hour’s time, we will hold the ceremony. Me and my sister would greatly appreciate it if one of you could make a speech about what it is he did. We understand what happened, but it would be better understood if somepony outside of royalty explained it.”

Twilight looked at Fluttershy and nodded to her. Understanding, the pegasus took a tentative step forward, “Umm, I-I would like to give the speech. That is, i-if that’s okay with you.”

Luna nodded and accepted before leading her teary-eyed sister from the throne room.

Celestia’s sun kissed the horizon, the beloved rays of warmth turning an indescribable array of purples and pinks across the cirrus clouds that grazed the topmost layer of the atmosphere. A few dignitaries stood before a small raised platform that was hastily erected in the palace courtyards. Celestia stood behing the platform, trying futilely to keep herself from breaking down into sobs again. She was more aggrieved about the loss than anypony could understand.

She hadn’t seen her father since she was a filly, yet over the decades that followed her mother’s murder there was never once a time when she did not feel his presence. She knew that neither she nor her little sister would have survived had it not been for him. Luna had always born a resentment for him, she had never met him and couldn’t feel him guide her and Celestia. But her older sister had had many a conversation with their father in dreams, visions, mental conversations that made her seem as if she was taking to herself, for eons she had bonded with Cosmos beyond any patriarchal relationship in all of time. His return, and death had shattered Celestia and she felt like a filly, cradling an indigo infant in her legs as she wept over her butchered mother only this time, there was no struggle to survive as well as the care for an almost new-born foal to steel her nerves and dull her emotions. All she had was her grief, and there was nothing to tranquilize its ravenous hunger.

Again she attempted in vain to quell her misery and teary eyes, and she was met with some success, at least this time her eyes weren’t spraying water like geysers. She looked down at her hooves and struggled to force them to move. They gave in slowly, resisting her all the while as she forced one hoof down after the other, placing them on the next stair with a deliberate forcefulness. As her audience came into view, countless years of practice took hold and her leaden legs finally decided to cooperate. She walked to the forefront of the stand and lifted her voice out into the crowd. “My loyal subjects, I thank you for attending this, the funeral for King Cosmos, King and Lord over all the stars and beyond.” A hushed murmur spread throughout the crowd of ponies, several asking who King Cosmos even was.

The princess ignored them and continued on with her speech, “For more eons than I care to count, King Cosmos has been a father to me, the very best of the best. He was there for me when Mother died, when Discord rose to full power, all throughout my rein in Equestria Father has been there to guide me. You all know that Discord arose once again this past month, but yesterday, King Cosmos descended from his throne in the stars and sacrificed himself in order that Discord, and all Discord has done, be destroyed. Peace and harmony has returned to the world, but at a terrible price.” A lump formed in her throat suddenly, hindering her ability to breath properly as she choked down a sudden surge of tears. She struggled to get out: “And now the element of kindness, Fluttershy, will explain for you what occurred yesterday.”

Fluttershy walked onto the dais as Celestia left it, barely containing her tears. At first, the shy pegasus was terrified of the crowd before her, however small it was, yet as she walked to the edge, she knew in her heart what she wanted to say, “King Cosmos ruled without most of us ponies even knowing about him, yet for a really long time he kept things in order, making sure the seasons changed, kept the stars in order...” She continued on, telling about him and everything he had done. She had spent the day with Twilight and Celestia talking about him and who he was. She told them about his return and about how he left, leaving Discord free rein to spread his chaos over the world and about his sacrifice. She finished with the sentence: “We owe him our lives, and we will forever remember his sacrifice.”

The sun had just slipped past the horizon, and Luna delayed the moon so that Cosmos’ starry figure shone clearly in the night sky. Several heads turned upwards to gaze at the new star-painting printed across the void for all to see. After several minutes Luna rose the moon and declared the funeral’s end. Twilight trotted up to Luna and nuzzled her affectionately. Luna returned the sentiment with a small kiss atop the unicorn’s head before heading over to her sister and sitting down next to her. Twilight and her friends mimicked the princess of the night and settled down next to Celestia. The eight ponies gazed at the stars, watching the small, twinkling lights as they illuminated the gorgeous night sky.