Nightmare Moon drifted from total unconsciousness to delirium. Moments from the fight drifted back to her. Mainly, the last moment, when Jadis caught in her hand a lightning bolt Nightmare Moon had hurled over her shoulder, and directed it into Nightmare Moon's back.

Jadis grinned widely. "Oh, excellent. I love it when you come to for this. Your helplessness is so much more sweet when you can appreciate it yourself."

She brandished a serrated knife, and reached forward with her other hand. She seized Nightmare Moon's horn. Like all the other times, she tried to struggle, but nothing happened.

Jadis slashed with the knife, the huge motion producing a tiny nick on her neck, the twenty-second in a neat line. Then she pulled the princess's horn back, opening the cut wider. Blood welled out, and she began licking it up.

Eventually, she was done. Her bloodstained face came into view. "Delicious as always, my pet. So much to drain, and so very much time to do it in."

Then she scraped a paste off of a leaf into her prisoner's lips. Nightmare Moon's vision went dark.

All right. Wait a minute for her to go. It's full moon. My best chance to make it. Next time, I'll be way too weak. She felt the moon beating down on her body, pouring in strength, like a watering can into a vast desert. It wasn't much, but it was enough to reach out to the stone of cold fire.

And she had nowhere near the strength needed to wield it. Despair filled her, and she could not reach through enough of it to find the fire. Everything was meaningless. Conquest was meaningless. Equestria was meaningless. The balance of night and day was meaningless. Revenge was meaningless. Love was meaningless. Embarrassment was meaningless. Pride was meaningless.

One constant remained - for good or for ill, the one everything had always been about - "Oh, sister..."

She was in a strange palace courtyard, on the ground. Celestia was on a bench above her, also looking ill. Elephants, including two in crowns, and an elderly female human, were sitting about as well. It was evening, and the stars were beginning to come out.

Celestia picked up her head. "Luna?"

She didn't care.

Celestia said, "Look at the stars. Can't you feel them humming?"

She complied without intending to. She had loved the night, once. This moon bore the mark she'd placed.

Celestia went on, "These stars are suns in their own right. The moon rises in daytime. Here, our domains include each other."

More seriously: "You need to know when you are, don't you?"

She closed her eyes, and Celestia felt what she felt.

Celestia murmured, "You need more than the date! I'm weak, sister, but I will do what I can."

Luna's head began to clear, and she began to see again - and she could move more than her eyes.

With this strength, I can break free. But what then? I do need that date, too. And there she is, in the world with this moon! They know these things! Luna started, "When..." - She made sure she said it only to Celestia, not Jadis as well - "When did Tycho crater form?"

Celestia repeated this out loud for the benefit of the elephants, who could not see her hallucinations. One in a red and white suit whipped out a pad of some sort and began tapping at it. His answer was indistinct, but Celestia relayed, "One hundred and eight million years."

Luna reached out to the planets around Celestia, found six, and memorized their locations. "Thank you."

The courtyard collapsed as Celestia fell below delirium and Luna rose out of it. She stood up, shakily, and hobbled away as quietly as she could. One hundred and eight, less how far we've come is... ten and a half million years. I can work out the precise date from the planets once I'm vaguely close. And Omar thought that would be a problem!

She paused. Omar... She felt no echo, not even from the other world. Gone. The emptiness she felt about that took its place next to the rest of the emptiness that was only slowly draining away.

Feeling stronger, she spread her wings and flew. Even if Jadis could track her, she could not catch up.

Author's Note

When I cut the frame tale, this chapter went from rather long to extremely short. It was one of the few things not from Omar's point of view, so I dropped it.

But it really belongs here, and I think it makes the last third more comprehensible. In particular starting with Imp Imp Imp.