Original Link:
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The time had come for the rebellion to move out again. Their stay in the oasis of the beast men was much shorter than many would have liked. Yet, this single month they had been here was enough for the rebellion to grow to an impressive army again, now consisting mostly of the beast men. It was a grand and slightly terrifying thing for almost every last one of them to abandon their home and travel into the unknown, not usually leaving their acquainted territories. But since Scorpan was personally partaking in this assault and leading the beast men, it felt more like the biggest adventure their species had ever undertaken. Should this succeed, it would change everything. A chance for all of them to not only help in reclaiming the world, but also making up for their idleness which ended up costing so many lives.

But not only the beast men were in high spirits. Fluttershy recovered well from her final encounter with the spirit. She came to the conclusion to keep living and pushing forward, to prove to Obsidian and herself that she could stand on her own. She now was smiling frequently again and seemed to have become even stronger from the experience. All this positive energy also seemed to affect Celestia, as she completely stopped hanging her head and for the first time in almost a year was showing determination again. A large army, a giant beast man capable of wielding enormous magical power, a unicorn capable of using arcane magic and everyone in solid belief that they will succeed. The conditions could not be better.

At last, the carriages were stocked with food, water, medical supplies and useful items. The rebels were geared up and the weapons sharpened. The sound of a horn filling the oasis finally announced the departure of the rebellion. It was time to return the favor of having experienced The Red Day by making Sombra go through the same thing.

The plan was fully fleshed out. Since it was very likely that the Underworld League would be guarding Sombra, the leadership circle as well as Scorpan and a large mixed troop of heavily armed rebels would be directly involved in taking him down. The entire rest of the rebellion would wait in close proximity to the Crystal Empire, waiting for the tall walls of dark crystal to disappear with Sombra’s fall before giving up their covers and charging inside. As soon as the crystal king would fall, the crystal ponies would be freed and would certainly join the fight straight away. A small group of the most trustworthy rebels were tasked to charge through the battlefield while carrying the Elements of Harmony and the replica of the Element of Magic. They are to aim straight for the Crystal Heart, rejoin it with the elements and send out another blast to eradicate every last demon remaining. Though it was clear that there was probably only one last shot remaining. The replica was heavily cracked by now and would not be able to handle much more before shattering. But should this succeed, not only would the rebellion have its old headquarters back, but they would also deliver a heavy blow to Blueblood’s armies.

From now on, time was the most important aspect to keep in mind. From the moment Sombra would die, everything had to be arranged extremely fast. Reclaiming the Crystal Empire, communicating with other nations and empires, arranging a global counterattack, infiltrating Blueblood’s lines of defence, exploiting weaknesses in his strategies, pushing the demons back, eradicating every cultist standing in the way, assaulting from as many angles as possible, creating a passage to Canterlot Castle and ultimately taking down Blueblood himself. Once Sombra would die, this all had to be done within just a few weeks before he or the demons would find a way to stop them. The calculations made it clear that this was, in fact, possible, just very difficult to pull off fast enough. Should they do it, this would go down in history as the most monumental cooperative task to end a tyranny this world had ever seen. Such glory was particularly thrilling for the various warrior species in the rebellion, further improving the already great mood.

So they left. Thousands of steps at once tossed up dust around them, leaving behind a trail on their passing. Dragons following in the sky, Diamond Dogs underground, Minotaurs to the left, zebras to the right and at the very end marched Scorpan, the living tower of this army. By now, little Amber had adapted well to her new life as a reaper. It seemed like the reaper curse actually helped her overcome her intense fear of ponies and she frequently sought out the leadership circle to help with her predictions. Ahead of them lay a long journey and the young clairvoyant assured them that they would arrive in time. Yet, there would be no time to set up traps or wait to ambush their enemy, especially not with Scorpan’s size. No, they had to fully utilize the element of surprise. A short, yet completely devastating assault, done in less than half an hour. But Amber could not clearly predict the outcome of this battle. Despite being trained and having her skills refined, this still seemed to difficult for her to pinpoint exactly.

But for now, they had to walk. Long, long hours of marching, getting closer to the borders of the giant tumor known as Equestria step by step. Their journey brought them back to the very woods the rebellion was stuck in for what felt like a century. Just this time, they would go around it. Some eyes belonging to the older rebels stared at the twisty woods as they passed, memories filling their minds. Never again would they let themselves get stuck like that.

---

For several weeks, the rebellion was now marching through the lands, trying to avoid open roads and populations as far as possible, killing off any cultist they could find roaming outside of the borders of Equestria, consuming every demon that would threaten to expose their plans. Maud once again proved her usefulness and reliability as she tightly cooperated with the reapers and often found potential enemies even sooner than them. But although she tried her best to be only seen as a support, she still was dangerous. At times, traces of blood could be seen on her face, indicating that she had been feeding on a being they did not know of and could either be a cultist, ideally, or an innocent bystander.

Having to be constantly on the lookout once again was incredibly tiresome to Twilight. She noticed that Scorpan had been keeping an eye on her, looking at her with a worried expression. Eventually, he decided to cast a levitation spell, picking her up and placing her on his hand in order to carry her for some time.

“We are both beings of enormous magical capability. Yet, you look so much more exhausted than I am. I know you have been through a lot, but this still worries me,” he spoke gently.

“Don’t worry too much about it, Scorpan. It’s just that I already had been through enough sneaking and wandering for a lifetime. Hopefully, after this, there will only be two major journeys left: One to the Crystal Empire and the final one back home to Equestria, to take down Blueblood and reclaim my homeland,” Twilight assured.

“I know you have medical issues. I hoped we would have been able to help you more. This is a game changer, after all. We need to be in the best possible condition,” the giant gargoyle whispered, looking away in remorse.

“There is nothing you could do about this. While it might actually be possible to heal me through the use of intense magic, the world really can’t handle this right now. Also, don’t get me wrong. The month in the oasis was great. I really, really needed that break. Yet, it also made me almost forget of the hardships I had to endure previously. Now, the memories are just all too present again,” the purple mare explained.

“I can only imagine how tired you must be from all this fighting. I, as well, have been through a lot of battles, but nothing quite as big as this,” Scorpan commented.

“Honestly, as bad as this may sound, but… I have gotten so used to fighting for my life, it has become a part of me. I hardly even know it any different anymore at this point. This may also sound silly, but what really exhausts me the most is all this wandering. A short conflict during which I mostly rely on my magic, I can handle. But these hours and hours of walking… If only I could at least distract myself with a book. I guess I’m just starting to feel old, because all I’m looking forward to all day long is the moment when we can finally stop and take a rest,” the purple mare mumbled as she laid down.

This seemed to be pretty funny to Scorpan, because he started smiling widely and chuckled a bit.

“You are not that old, Miss Sparkle. Although, I must admit. You will make a fine elderly librarian one day,” he spoke almost teasingly.

“Oh shush, you flatterer! But it’s funny you pointed it out like that. Did you know I used to live in a library?” Twilight replied, making a little gesture with her left front hoof.

“Somehow, that does not surprise me,” Scorpan stated, his voice almost slipping into a laugh and covering his mouth with his free hand.

“I know, I know. I’m easy to ‘read’, am I not?” Twilight commented jokingly with a sly look on her face.

This situation may not have been this funny to all others listening and observing. But it seemed like these two just clicked. After a month of cooperation, they had actually become quite close. Twilight and Scorpan both had the same opinion on many topics, had a similar sense of humor and even shared a very similar sense of moral. This made them work together so well that Scorpan needed a few moments, trying to suppress a laughter before he could speak again.

“Oh, we should have met so much sooner, Miss Sparkle. You are a delight. I surely do hope we stay in close contact after everything is over,” he requested.

“You can bet on that! But don’t get your hopes up. I’m not interested in marrying a being that is a whole lot older than me and is going to outlive me,” Twilight spoke jokingly.

“I guess I deserved a little payback,” the giant gargoyle replied, again chuckling a bit.

Like this, they both kept talking and joking around for the rest of the day, causing even some of the rebels to snicker. This made the time fly by a whole lot faster and the sun soon began to set. Only able to stop for sleep and immediately having to start walking again on the next morning, there was no time to set up tents and fires. Laying down into the grass would have to suffice. This night again, Twilight laid her head down into the greens. The aroma of the grass seemed familiar to her. Having traveled to so many places across the world, she realized that the smell of grass heavily varied depending on where she was. But now, as they were aiming for Sombra, she realized that the grass smelled more and more of home the farther they traveled. It was comforting the weary unicorn, quickly putting her to sleep.

---

The first rays of light woke the purple mare from her slumber. After stretching herself shortly, she found it surprising how well her body could handle constantly sleeping on the ground for weeks, as she was feeling no aches at all. The other members of the leadership circle were already awake, coming together to discuss their progress. Even though they were out in the open, they still made sure to confirm identities whenever someone joined them.

“Gala,” Celestia spoke shortly.

“Chaos,” Twilight replied, still looking a bit sleepy and giving off a big yawn before sitting down and analyzing a map they had spread out in the middle. “Where are we currently?”

“It is rather insane, but we have passed through Equestria’s current borders yesterday. We are about two weeks away from Appleloosa and will soon have to choose which way we go. Do we go west along the Ghastly Gorge, through Everfree Forest and past Cloudsdale? Or should we go east towards Dodge Junction, then north through Foal Mountain and past the Neighagra Falls?” Luna wondered.

“Didn’t we talk about this already? Both routes get us way too close to Canterlot. We need to play it safe if we want to avoid Scorpan from being seen. We need to aim for White Tail Woods, then north through the Unicorn Range and then make a curve around Cloudsdale, intercepting the path between the Crystal Empire and Canterlot,” Twilight stated.

“What about the cover, darling?” Rarity wondered immediately. “How are we supposed to hide Scorpan when we are so exposed in the meadows?”

“The spell, Rarity,” Shining Armor reminded swiftly. “We are going to hide us the same way we hid the oasis.”

“We need to be careful, though. This time, there are far more eyes wandering around. We can’t guarantee that the confusion effect won’t make them accidentally walk right into us this time,” Twilight added.

“Why don’t we just use the tunnels? Even if there aren’t any that lead to our destination, we got enough diamond dogs to bury us through,” Derpy wondered.

“Too dangerous. The cave systems are demon territory. You should know that,” Twilight replied, rubbing her chin in thought.[

“Hmm… what abo-”

Cadence could not finish her sentence. Instead of words, a large splatter of blood left her lips and landed right onto the map. This immediately alerted everyone present, staring at the pink fallen alicorn in shock. Cadence herself had wide open eyes as well while she stared at the puddle in front of her, covering her mouth with her front hooves as more began to run down her face.

Of course, Twilight’s first instinct was to cast a healing spell on her. But just seconds later, Celestia began vomiting blood as well. Applejack followed, then Shining Armor, Fluttershy, Luna, Derpy. All except for Twilight were experiencing sudden and unexplainable heavy bleeding while Twilight engulfed them in her purple magic, trying to stop it. At first, she just acted automatically and kept her feelings in check. But as the spells she put on her friends and family showed no effect, she rapidly fell into panic. Her eyes went wide open in shock and fear while she even used her arcane magic to amplify the healing spells. Did they have a traitor among them? Did someone poison their food or add sharp objects to them? Those were the thoughts rushing through her mind as her head moved around rapidly, trying to keep focus on all members of the circle.

Her magic did not have any effect. Twilight was forced to witness as blood now started to pour out of their eyes and ears as well. They all stared at her, incapable of speaking but begging for help with their glances. They were writhing in agony and fear, realizing that the magic couldn’t even slow the process.

“Somepony! Anypony! Help! Help!” the purple mare shouted in panic.

For the first time in ages, Twilight felt helpless. She kept on casting, walking around in place, trying to focus on all of them. Yet, no matter what she tried, it didn’t work. No rebel came to help. Tears began to roll down her face as they were quickly getting weaker and started to pass out. As their bodies collapsed, it forced even more blood out of them. The entire area all around Twilight became flooded with the blood of her friends while more and more gashes opened in their bodies, letting the blood run freely. She had to watch as her friends crumbled into pieces of flesh and bone, a limitless ocean of blood rapidly rising and engulfing the purple mare. She kicked around wildly. She tried to swim, tried to surface. But it felt like a strong current was only sucking her even further down into the red abyss.

Just when she thought she was about to share the same fate as her friends, Twilight suddenly surfaced again. She emerged from the blood, standing on all four on top of it as if casting a waterwalking spell. She was completely dry, yet still coughing heavily from having almost drowned. Still terrified and confused, she started looking around. Nothing but a completely black sky and the ocean of blood beneath her could be seen anywhere.

“Hello?” she called, shaking in fear.

Her voice echoed through the void, being returned to her with the same volume as it was sent off. Her own message repeated itself several times in her ears, then everything returned to silence.

“Is anypony there?” Twilight called again.

The words echoed back from walls that did not exist, nothing moving anywhere aside of the surface of the blood ocean giving off small ripples from her movements.

“What happened? Where am I?” the purple mare wondered aloud.

“You are now in my realm,” a familiar, sinister female voice responded.

Twilight twitched heavily in fear. As she turned around to look at the source, she was looking at a being she hoped to never see again. A being worse than Blueblood, worse than Despair, even worse than Malice.

A, tall, black equine appearance. Red eyes glowing with more malevolence than any other demon ever could show. A crimson chest plate, hoof guards and helmet. Large black wings. Mane and tail made out of pure red darkness. It was the demon queen herself. Nightmare Moon stood just a few steps away from her.

Immediately, Twilight began to back off slowly. Her eyes wide in disbelief, her body trembling nearly out of control, making every step very unstable. How this could be happening, how anything that had thus far occurred could be happening was beyond her capability to comprehend. She could not even find the moment to start thinking and analyzing what was happening. Her mind was overloaded trying to handle the sheer evil the demon queen was constantly emitting. As Nightmare Moon decided to approach, Twilight suddenly found herself unable to move even one step further. She was frozen in place by fear beyond any description.

“I could have toyed with you longer, gotten more information out of you about the assault you are planning. But what you told me so far was enough confirmation,” Nightmare Moon spoke, her voice dripping with ill intentions.

Twilight was shaking all over, standing in place and watching the demon queen starting to circle around her like a predator circling its prey. But as soon as Twilight processed her words, her ears perked up again and she once more began to look around. Quickly, she calmed down again, finally realizing what was going on.

“This is a dream,” she analyzed.

“A nightmare, to be exact,” Nightmare Moon corrected, constantly keeping an eye on her as she kept on circling. “Being born out of Luna, I adopted her ability to dreamwalk. But my domain is not the realm of sweet dreams. I control the nightmares. For quite some time now, I have been trying to communicate with you. An impressive display to be able to defy my will for such a long time, Twilight Sparkle.”

At last, Twilight regained her composure and confidence after she took a deep breath to calm down. Just now, she realized that she should have noticed that something was off. Why would their friends ask questions they already knew the answers to? But more noticeably: Why would Applejack be with them? She wasn’t even part of the assault team. She was currently being escorted to a safe place along with a few other rebels that were unfit for combat. Twilight’s stance became stable again and she returned a despise-filled look to the demon queen.

“Well, I have defeated you in several ways by now. I won our first encounter, I defeated all the demons you threw at me so far and I even defeated the demon growing inside my own soul,” she responded with a mixed tone of pride and disgust.

“You think so?” Nightmare Moon wondered, finally stopping and looking down on the mare beneath her. “I have been a part of you since the day you were procreated. A tiny fragment of me remains in your soul, no matter what you do. As with all other ponies in this world, I am just waiting for your mind to slip again so I can reach into it once more.”

“If you think a little nightmare like this is enough for me to give in to your curse again, you are badly mistaken. What do you expect to accomplish with this?” Twilight wondered, tracing each and every movement of the evil queen.

Now, Nightmare Moon’s expression changed. A confident and relaxed smile grew on her face as she took several steps away from Twilight, focusing into the void.

“Unlike anypony else, you actually put up quite the fight in denying me. Not even Celestia was as passionate about defeating me for good as you are, plus she spent far too much time trying to forget her own sins to be an actual threat to me. I never bothered trying to speak with her. She is just a big waste of time to me. But you!” the mistress of red shadows spoke, immediately turning around and lowering her face right in front of Twilight’s with a grin that could only be described as utmost psychotic and terrifying. “You, I find interesting. While you were not the first who escaped my grasp and will not be the last, you made a choice like nopony ever before. You felt my touch, felt my insanity. Others turned away, wishing to avoid ever feeling my will being put upon them ever again. Few found this enjoyable and sought to be under my control again, eventually turning to the BloodClaw Cult. But you do neither. You are actively looking for me, but only to reject me again. What a strange addiction you have, Twilight Sparkle. Seeking out the drug you crave only to destroy it immediately after obtaining it. You constantly crave more, unable to ever feel satisfied. Just when you get what you want, you make sure it gets as far away from you again as possible.”

“And you have a very strange… sick way of looking at these things,” Twilight returned confidently, yet having to back away a bit from feeling intense discomfort caused by the evil aura being so close. “But I don’t expect anything else. What would you know about fighting for what is right, good intentions, hope and the will to secure a future for everybody.”

Nightmare Moon rose her head again, looking down on the purple mare with an expression of disgust.

“Justice. You disappoint me if you still believe I know nothing about justice,” she commented in a disenchanted manner.

The demon queen turned her focus away from Twilight. Looking into the void again, she made a small gesture with her right wing. By slowly moving it up, she caused the whole ocean to tremble. Moments later, countless heavy chains thickly coated in rust and dried blood surfaced, continuing to rise straight up into the darkness. Attached on these chains where the disfigured, rotten corpses of countless ponies. Twilight’s eyes went wide with shock once more as she came to realize that she knew many of them. Big Macintosh, Snails, Rainbow Dash, Sweetie Belle, her own parents, Obsidian Shards, Scootaloo, Moondancer, Crystal Blossom… Spike… So many of her long-dead friends were here, she couldn’t even count them all.

“These ponies and many more are which I have taken from you. All fell victim to my fury and far more are yet to come. I am the judge. I am the jury. I am the executioner and I am the crowd, watching as yet another head rolls during my campaign of revenge. You will not stop me, Twilight Sparkle. You are incapable of ever ending my bloodlust. So what is it then, little pony? What keeps you pushing? Why do you insist so much on resisting me when the whole world had learned to give in by now?” the demi-goddess of red darkness wanted to know.

“This…” Twilight started again, needing a moment to recover from the sight presented to her, but then immediately regained a growl in her voice, really having to keep it together now. “This is all you know, don’t you? Torturing and killing is all you ever did. It doesn’t even cross your mind that you are doing far too much damage. Your ‘punishments’ are completely out of proportion, no matter what happened in the past. You just take, take, take.”

“After all this time of fighting against me, you still don’t know anything. Celestia herself confessed the unspeakable sins she had committed over the centuries to you, yet you still refuse to get it,” Nightmare Moon spoke in a strong tone, lowering her head again and letting her eyes glow with an intense evil red. “You are all guilty. Elder and newborn, noble and beggar, cultist and rebel. None of you ever learned your lesson. The more you fight against your punishment, the heavier it becomes. The reason it is so out of proportion is because, by now, you forced me to sentence your whole world to complete destruction hundreds of times over. Still, you don’t stop. You keep fighting, only making the punishment even worse. This is the big mistake Celestia made and now that she stepped down, you are following straight up in her hoofsteps, again not having learned a single thing.”

“Because we have to, you cruel monster! No matter what you think we deserve, we don’t want to die or let our world end! We have to fight you for even the remote chance to stop you! You give us no alternative!” Twilight shouted in anger.

The mistress of red shadows raised her head again, looking down on this puny little creature that dared to shout at her. But her reaction was not one of anger. Instead, she showed a grin.

“Me? It has never been about what I think this world deserves. And here I thought you understood us demons by now. How much more must you witness before you finally come to understand that we are all linked? My children are murderous because I am murderous. And I am murderous because red darkness is murderous. I couldn’t care less about any of you. I have absolutely no opinion or desires on my own. As I said before: I am the judge. I am the jury. I am the executioner. I, as well, just do as I am told. I am the catalyst of the red darkness. Through me, it expresses its feelings and desires. Through me, it exerts its will. I only exist because I am the only way to give a maddened major force a way to express itself. A wild animal, caged up and crazed. Only if it gets what it wants, this war will ever end,” she explained, surprisingly calm.

“But what it wants is the death of all beings! The end of the world! If you are so neutral as you claim, can’t you see this is going way too far?!” Twilight questioned, her voice still filled with rage.

Nightmare Moon began to chuckle a bit at her words. She seemed to relish seeing Twilight in such an emotional state.

“You hate me so much, Twilight Sparkle. You hate me with every fiber of your being. No matter what you pretend to have become over time, no matter how high you think you have risen. Deep down, you are still the same enraged filly. You, of all, should know what it is like to truly hate and to want payback for all the wrongs done to you.”

The purple mare could feel how the intentions of the demon queen suddenly shifted. Even in just a bad dream, Nightmare Moon’s power and mind were so enormous, Twilight felt herself completely overpowered and incapable of resisting. This demon… she was just way, way too strong. Like before, she couldn’t move while the demon queen approached and unfurled her large black wings. Her red aura gathered up more and more around Twilight as she approached, the purple mare’s heart racing out of control and hyperventilating in absolute panic.

“So let me show you. Let me give you but a glimpse of what it is like to be me,” the demon queen announced.

The gathered red aura suddenly launched at the purple mare and she could only close her eyes in response. She didn’t know what to expect when dealing with the most powerful demon that ever existed. She might even be capable of killing Twilight with a nightmare.

But instead of the cold sensation of death, voices filled her. From all around, she could suddenly hear completely incomprehensible speaking. Twilight slowly opened her eyes, but all she could see was red. She couldn’t even see her own hooves when lifted in front of her face or her own body when looking down. Everything was just a red so thick it didn’t allow anything else.

The voices were uncountable. It sounded like millions, if not billions were speaking, whispering, screaming, crying. While listening and looking, Twilight felt an intense headache. It was as if these voices were violently forcing themselves into her brain, trying to force her to understand every single one. Even for her, this was an impossible task that became so mentally exhausting within just the fraction of a second, it caused her physical pain. But the voices didn’t stop, even after she started covering her ears. Much more than before, her mind became completely overloaded as the voices forcefully placed thoughts and images in her head. Visions of cruelty that defied any description. Horrifying depictions, glorifying violence.

It was too much. Too intense, too evil, too wicked. Twilight started screaming in distress and pain. Never had she ever experienced anything like this. Just hearing these voices, these demands… Just seeing these pictures and scenes… This alone made her wish she would just drop dead this very moment. Being physically tortured would be merciful compared to this. Twilight kept on screaming and screaming, her eyes wide open and pupils shrunken.

Finally, it seemed like she was being heard. The voices completely stopped and the pictures vanished, as if they had now become aware of her presence or the fact that she wasn’t Nightmare Moon. Though Twilight could not relish this moment, because they became replaced with a heavy feeling, as if those billions of voices had turned into billions of eyes, crushing her with their stares. This only lasted a few moments before the voices suddenly returned, this time shouting at her with extreme aggression. There were no pictures, no words. Just this all-devouring cry of fury, crushing through Twilight as if trying to tear her very soul into thousands of pieces. She couldn’t even scream anymore this time. Not even that bit of relief was given to her. She just collapsed and started spazzing out. These voices hated her with ineffable intensity. They wanted her dead. They wanted her to die in ways so cruel it would not be conceivably possible to perform. Twilight was convinced that this would be the end of her. Somehow, these screams would be enough to kill her.

Just as she thought she would lose her grip on the world altogether, the red suddenly vanished. Above her towered Nightmare Moon again, staring at Twilight with an expression as if analyzing her.

The voices were gone. The feeling of dying was gone. Still, Twilight could not get up, utter a single word or even think. She was still laying in the blood, shaking in trauma. This was easily the most intense sensation of terror she ever experienced. Now, the expression of the demon queen began to shift. She suddenly seemed sad.

“I was made to handle this. I am the only creature capable of understanding this complete insanity that is the will of red darkness. But tell me, Twilight Sparkle… Do you… Have any idea… what this can do to you? Can you even fathom what kind of burden it is to hear and see this, all the time?” she wondered, almost sounding tired.

Twilight remained unresponsive. She just couldn’t get her body back under control. It was still shaking and completely cramped up, as if she was having a seizure. But her mind gradually cleared, allowing her to hear and understand Nightmare Moon.

This… she couldn’t even put it in words. Such hate, such aggression. She never thought she would ever think this, but Twilight now actually understood what Nightmare Moon was going through. Having experienced the insanity she had to burden for just a few moments was already enough to nearly kill the purple mare. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like to continuously see and hear this over the course of more than one thousand years. As the shaking reduced and Twilight managed to slowly get back up, her expression of repugnance returned.

“This doesn’t change anything. After all you have done to me, to ponykind, to Equestria and the entire world, do you seriously believe I would feel sorry for you? I get now why you act like you do, but it still is wrong. If anything, you just gave me even more reason to stop you. It is true, I hate you. I hate you like nothing else. But I won’t use your methods on you. If violence is not the answer, mercy is. I will end you by ending your suffering. I will purge you by purging the red darkness,” she spoke in determination.

This only caused Nightmare Moon’s face to show disgust and anger towards the purple mare again, raising her head and looking down on her.

“Unbelievable. Not even after showing you the mind of red darkness, you are capable of understanding. You can’t destroy me. You can’t just purge the red darkness. It is half of this bipolar force which together makes up darkness. One half black and regretful, the other red and hateful. You can’t simply destroy half a mind,” the demon queen tried to explain.

“And it seems like you still can’t understand why I must keep fighting. No matter what you show me, I will remain just as determined to achieve my goals as you are,” Twilight responded firmly.

“For once, I need to agree with you, Twilight Sparkle,” Nightmare Moon spoke, then turned around and started walking away. “Neither can I understand you, nor will I ever be able to, it seems. Mutual misunderstanding has always been the root of every war in this world. Conflicting interests, incapable of being resolved peacefully.”

Twilight didn’t even bother to say anything at this point anymore. It seemed like Nightmare Moon was about to leave and the sooner this nightmare was over, the better, she figured. One last time, the demon queen stopped. But she did not turn around anymore. She remained still, staring into the void for several seconds before raising her voice again.

“I had my hopes about you, little pony. I believed you to be very different from all the others, having gained such an open mind and so much wisdom throughout your journeys. But in the end, you are just as hopeless as Celestia… My children know you are coming. I sent the entire remaining Underworld League to protect Sombra. If you think you are any better than this pathetic being you once called your mentor, you will have to prove it to me. Show me that your will is stronger than mine,” she challenged in a sinister tone.

Finally, the demon queen disappeared.

---

Twilight suddenly shoot upright, breathing heavily. She now realized she was sitting on the ground, surrounded by her friends, having worried expressions.

“Oh thank goodness, you are finally awake,” Rarity started immediately. “That must have been one terrible nightmare, darling. You kept crying and screaming the whole time and no matter what we tried, we couldn’t wake you up."

The purple mare was still a bit shaky and breathless as her eyes wandered around. Naturally, after being deceived once before and remembering how she had been put under a terrible illusion once, she had her doubts if what she was seeing was actually real. Relying on her arcane abilities once again, she closed her eyes to pay attention to how the magic flows all around her. Giving it a few seconds of analysis, she could conclude with confidence that she truly was awake now and this was not yet another illusion. As her eyes opened again, she had a very tired, yet serious look on her face.

“That was no ordinary nightmare. The demon queen spoke to me in person and I am very convinced this was more than just a figment of my mind. She knows what we are planning. This battle is going to be much, much harder than we hoped.”