Crash and Burn

     "AAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHH!" The guards flinched noticeably as Empress Bellatrix Lulamoon The First screeched in anger, melting the messenger into a not so pretty puddle of goo for bringing not so pretty news with a single magical beam.

     According to him, the outlook to the west of Atheria(the newly renamed area that covered a vast amount of land) wasn't pretty. Nightmare Moon had risen from the ashes of Equestria and left, taking in anypony who fled Trixie's empire and leaving them a choice: join her or die painfully. Not very good options.

    Anyway, Nightmare Empire was growing rather large off of refugees from the conquest of Equestria two months ago as well as some ponies that Nightmare found that had been turned to stone-two thousand of them in total-and used a powerful spell to turn the cockatrice's statuary garden pieces into living, flesh-and-blood ponies. She stumbled upon several other groves like that one-the Everfree was full of those little demon chickens-and used the spell time and time again to bring in more people for her own empire.

    King Sombra had managed to make himself solid again, and so took over the Crystal Empire, enslaving all the crystal ponies again. Other than that, little was known abut the outside world to her little ponies.

   She herself was already struggling with a decision: give Twilight to King Sombra to have him marry her and have a lifelong peace with the Empire(guess who suggested it. It certainly wasn't her.)or kill the pathetic little 'princess' herself and risk war with the Crystal King.

    Deciding, finally, she sent a pegasus messenger to the Empire to give him her answer, and had the purple alicorn chained heavily with several magic-negating rings in numerous positions on her body, including on her horn and neck, as well as around all four hooves. Besides the anti-magic apparatus, she wore a thick collar, like a shackle necklace, with five chains attatched to it. Her hooves were in shackles as well, but each hoof only had three chains restraining it by a tight and rather uncomfortabe shackle.

    The whining lavender bundle was then caged and put on a chariot, whose destination was the Crystal Empire. Peace it was, for the two countries. Peace it was.....

** ** ** ** ** ** **

    She slipped the horseshoes off her aching blue hooves and sat down on the edge of her large bed. It was draped with silks and covered with pillows. All the sheets and pillows were blue, with her cutiemark hoof-embroidered on each of them. She honestly never thought she would say this, but being rich and powerful was getting annoying. Her cutiemark was everywhere: banners, balloons, carved into wood products, watermarked on each sheet of the average parchment pad, etc.

    Neighola had even come up with a color called 'Bellatrix Blue' which was the exact shade of her coat. It was, unsurprisingly, the most popular color and sales for sets with it in them skyrocketed for the Neighola company ponies.

    They loved it. She didn't. She had no idea why, but she just didn't like the constant attention, constant praise, or the fact that she had to battle Nightmare Moon personally. If both of them survived their duel after the timer went off, war would start, shattering families and dividing the two kingdoms into different factions. There would probably be riots if she had to start the drafting process, bringing thousands of ponies into her army.

    And as much as she told herself it wasn't real, she felt a tremor of fear go through her whenever she thought about the duel. She might die. She might start a war. She might kill the Nightmare. All of them had an equal chance of happening.

   That was the scary part. There was a fifty/fifty chance on her survival or her death. And on that happy note, she plunked herself onto the pillows and fell asleep almost instantly.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

  She fell, gasping for air as her coat matted with the blood that poured from the gash on her throat. Nightmare Moon gave her a fanged smile, raising her sword, preparing to end their duel.

   It slammed down with a sickening crack right where she'd been a millisecond earlier. She rolled and let fear take over, giving the monster in front of her a set of quick swipes that drew blood that looked like liquid moonlight. She rolled, sliced parried. Sliced, parried, rolled. She performed a backflip, shredding Nightmare's ears on her way over her target.

    A few minutes later, Trixie stood at a standoff with Nightmare, their blades crossed. They spat insults at each other as they tried desperately to uncheck their blades. However, pushing forward wasn't the best idea when trying to accomplish an ending to their standoff. A pop of power from both ponies at the same time sent both of them flying backwards, then falling.....

** ** ** ** ** ** **

   She fell out of bed with a jaw rattling thump, effectively ending the dream. Today was the day. And in two hours, she would most likely be dead.

** ** ** ** ** ** **

      The crowd cheered as their empress paraded down the cobblestone streets toward the set place for the duel. Her armor, the very same set she had worn during the seige of Canterlot. She'd had in strengthened and repaired, polished so it shone.

      Her opponent was easily taller than her, but in the blue body armor the only things you could see were her horn and wings protruding from her helmet and backplate. She gave a cold laugh and picked up a sword with her magic, watching like a predator watches prey as Bellatrix picked her way through the crowds and took up her daggers.

   Metal hit metal, again and again. Whirling, striking, rolling, ducking, parrying, the two were a whirlwind of blue and black and metal clanging. They shouted mild curses at each other(hey, foals were present,)as they went back and forth for a half hour......and hour......two hours.....

    Finally, they stopped. Empress Trixie sat down, her chest heaving, as she watched her opponent fall, blood staining the earth around her. She grasped at the dagger that impaled her side with her magic, but her magic was fading too fast to be used. She took several shuddering breaths, each growing shallower and shorter.

    Then she was still, glazed dragon eyes staring at nothing.....for all eternity. Atheria exploded with cheers, and sveral windows shattered in the immediate area as guards escorted their empress back to her castle for a bath, some medical treatment, and a nice, long, refreshing victory nap. And lunch.