Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kdjyGryIE7MceY1fszlrim8mC-LdqEK8zfg8uS10gL0/edit?usp=sharing

It took a few minutes to stabilize Blueblood again, even with the combined efforts of the leadership circle. As the wounds sealed, the broken bones slipped back into place and the blood stopped flowing, he appeared indifferent. Blueblood just kept lying there, breathing slowly and avoiding eye contact with the rebels. Perhaps he viewed their efforts to heal him not as merciful, but as weakness. From what they had learned about him, that kind of attitude would suit him. Even after they finished and for the few seconds where there was just silence with all staring down at the broken king, he just kept lying there. No glances were gentle ones. None of regret, none of condolence, not even of anger. There was just an atmosphere of disappointment hanging in the dead silent air. Especially Celestia was showing these feelings the most as she focused on his expression more than all the others.

“It is over, Blueblood,” Twilight finally started. “You have lost.”

Contrary to how all thought he would react now, he started smirking again, slowly turning his head to finally look back at the ponies who defeated him.

“You do realize you just doomed the whole world, don’t you?” he questioned.

Immediately, Celestia let out a sigh of deep disappointment and lowered her head. Luna, though, started getting angry again. Even after getting beaten up this badly, he was still showing attitude.

“You just can’t stop,” she commented with a tense face.

“Heh… what can I say, I am a firm believer in my own cause. What kind of ruler would I be if I didn’t practise what I am preaching?” Blueblood explained.

“All that you are now is a defeated one,” Cadence commented immediately, looking down on him.

“And you actually think that this is for the better, hm? You have no idea what you are doing. You just act on your oh so righteous morals, ignoring the consequences. Have you ever even thought of what to do once you reached this point? How do you get the cult to stop doing what it is doing? How do you drive the demons back? How do you regain the trust of the other nations?” the fallen king wanted to know.

“Those are all our next goals. As soon as you give Celestia, Luna and Cadence their powers and immortality back, we can start working on that,” Twilight explained.

Despite being roughed up pretty badly, Blueblood still found the energy to chuckle at these words, immediately making most members of the group get tense and angry again.

“As I thought. You have no ideas or plans. You focused your entire energy on achieving this very moment and now that it has come, you have no idea what to do next. With my defeat, you leave Equestria in a shambles. There will be total anarchy from here on out. Despite how far you all have come, you still are completely naive. Do you honestly think I am willingly giving you these powers back?” he continued.

“We are leaving you no other choice,” Rarity stated coldly.

“By doing what exactly? Imprisoning me until I give in? Trying to use magic to take magic? There is nothing else you can do. With your precious morals, you wouldn’t dare to torture me. You wouldn’t dare to put me under psychological trauma. Sorry for bursting your bubble like that, but you are not getting your immortality back. Unless you can somehow draw it out of a corpse, once the demons are done with me,” Blueblood retorted.

“That is fine as well,” Celestia stated, completely calm. “We all have been debating about this outcome and the three of us have agreed that it still might be for the better. Getting our powers and immortality back is optional. I still will return to the throne and you still will get punished. All that changes now is that Luna and I will have to choose a successor for when the day comes that we die of old age.”

For a moment, the grin on Blueblood’s face vanishes. But just a moment later, he started smirking again and giving his aunt a cocky look.

“At least I managed to do this to you. Now then. What are you waiting for? Be a good little puppet and do what the demons told you to do,” he challenged.

These last words of his reign did not affect anyone in the group anymore. Twilight simply reached for Nightmare’s Eye and started undoing the lock. It cost her a surprising bit of overcoming to even touch that necklace, as the intense dread coming from it forced her to fighting against her instinctive fear. But she would not give him any time to recover and get away. Working as quickly as she could, she finally removed the cursed object form his neck and immediately tossed it aside so she wouldn’t have to touch it anymore.

“It is done, then,” Shining Armor commented.

“Indeed. Now, you have truly done it. All the colossal screw-ups my auntie caused pale in comparison to this atrocity,” Blueblood added.

“Just shut up already,” Fluttershy ordered.

“Go ahead and make me,” Blueblood challenged again, already knowing that none of them would act on these words, only making even cockier. “Oh, what’s that? You can’t? Because it would violate your deal with the demons? Sucks, doesn’t it? You never were in charge of anything that has happened tonight. It all was orchestrated by the demons, just like everything else in the entirety of this war. You would have never made it to me without their help. Now, you will simply have to suffer my words until th-”

All the sudden, eyes widened and pupils shrunk. The rebels started cowering while Blueblood clenched his chest. Completely out of nowhere, an overwhelming sensation of horror filled all of them, so intense that it paralyzed the rebels and made Blueblood feel like suffocating. Immediately after, Slendermane finally decided to leave Shining Armor. Forcing him to throw up a black liquid, the tall, pale demon quickly rose out of it, leaving the stallion feeling too weak to even stand anymore.

“What… You… You were… In there? All this time?” Blueblood commented while gasping for air.

“W-What is g-going on? Why am I sh-sh-shaking so m-much?” Derpy wondered, openly showing that she was completely terrified and confused.

Slendermane stopped before the fallen king, staring down at him with his empty face. He just remained there, as if waiting and guarding. Meanwhile, Blueblood was panicking so much, he managed to turn around, sitting on the ground, his back curved, his head lowered and pressing his left hoof against his chest while supporting his weight on the ground with the other. Twilight and her friends tried to move and fight against this sensation, but it was simply too strong. Wherever it came from, it was the most intense feeling of fear any of them had ever experienced. They could hardly even form the thoughts necessary to speak, stifling any form of impulse they might have.

As the ground started to shake and a massive silhouette appeared in the distance, quickly approaching the mountain, it signalled that the rest of the Underworld League was coming now. But long before Malice even reached the mountain, as if they had been hiding just nearby, Toxica and Despair came walking up the sides. Unaffected by the strange sensation completely disabling everyone else, they both seemed unusually excited. Toxica could barely hold it together, jumping up and down rapidly while grinning from ear to ear. Despair simply gave a devious and victorious look to Twilight.

Not interacting with the rebellion leaders or their king in any other form anymore, all three demons united. Despair pulled a scroll out of the cavity in her chest and unfolded it. After looking on it carefully, the Guillotine of Hope handed out a piece of charcoal to both Slendermane and Toxica, keeping a third piece for herself. The scroll was returned into the heart-shaped hole and the three demons began drawing lines on the ground.

“What is… the meaning… of any of this?” Blueblood wanted to know, still gasping heavily between the words.

While still drawing the lines on the ground, Despair turned around to face her former king, grinning at him sinisterly.

“Just so you know: It is true that the wearer of Nightmare’s Eye cannot be harmed by demons in any way. But it is a complete lie that it also gives you command over us. We were just playing along to give you the illusion of being in charge. You as well, Blueblood, have just been another pawn in our one thousand years old game of chess,” she explained.

This made Blueblood become wide-eyed. He truly believed himself to be in charge. His heavy breathing only became faster now as he also realized that the lines these demons were drawing were going around him, putting him into the center.

The ground started shaking again heavily as Malice began climbing up the side of the mountain. Whatever was happening right now, especially to Blueblood as he was acting as if having an asthma attack, it was quickly getting worse and worse. The lines gradually formed a recognizable pattern. It looked like they were drawing a very large and complex rune around the King of Corruption, but none of them recognized it. Only Luna would have been able to understand what they were doing right now if she hadn’t lost her memory of everything that happened during the first rise of the demons. As Malice reached the top, his huge black skeletal head hovering just above them and the red aura around him overflowing, Despair turned back around to Twilight with the most devious grin she has ever shown.

“18 years ago, the keepers of harmony formed, purifying Princess Luna as their first official act and thus freeing Queen Nightmare Moon from her only weakness,” she started telling.

Twilight could hear her words, but was unable to respond to them. She just kept shaking all over, her mind overloaded with dread.

“9 years ago, the keepers of harmony discovered a prophecy of Nightmare Moon’s second attempt to return. This lead to Obsidian Shards’ death, as he was part of this prophecy,” the shape-shifter demoness continued.

For the first time, Despair stated two of these historic facts in a row. Something was different now. Something was really, really wrong. Again, Twilight struggled to intervene with whatever they were doing, but she couldn’t move a muscle, just like all of her friends.

“8 years ago, Prince Blueblood struck a deal with demon-kind. Thus, the BloodClaw Cult was formed,” Despair kept going.

Twilight’s eyes widened in shock. Only now, she got to understand what these random statements meant. Only now did she realize that they were not lecture, getting more and more into the present, but actually a countdown.

“5 years ago, Prince Blueblood conquered the throne of Equestria, causing the demon war to spread world-wide,” Despair proceeded, still grinning sinisterly.

The rune was complete. The former king of Equestria looked like he was struggling to keep in touch with reality at this point. His eyes randomly became blood-shot and the occasional insane giggle escaped his grin.

“One year ago, the Crystal Empire was taken over by the demons,” Despair continued.

Slendermane and Toxica casually walked back out of the rune, standing next to the Guillotine of Hope now, seemingly waiting for her. Malice as well was staying perfectly still, just awaiting his cue.

“This year, King Blueblood was dethroned, bringing our master plan to its conclusion,” Despair finished.

Without saying a word, she simply shifted her focus to Slendermane. The ancient demon needed no words. He simply nodded and disappeared in the shadow beneath him. This made Toxica extremely excited again. She looked like she was about to explode with joy.

---

No pony had been given the privilege to see what was going on behind the tall walls of the Crystal Empire ever since it had been conquered. That very night, as Twilight and her friends were fighting Blueblood, Sombra forced all the corrupted, mind-controlled crystal ponies to gather around the equally corrupted Crystal Heart. Having been forced to continuously absorb all the negative energy coming from the crystal ponies for an entire year now, it was heavily cracked and glowing maliciously. King Sombra himself was sitting in his throne room, seemingly waiting for something. Suddenly, Slendermane appeared before him. The two demons looked at each other for a brief moment. Then, all the faceless demon did was give him a nod, before sinking back into the ground.

It was the signal Sombra had been waiting for. A grin of pure evil grew on his face as he let his red horn emit dark magic. It instantly affected the crystal ponies, making them cower and letting their eyes glow in green with a purple aura trailing off from them. They became very tense, shaking a bit even, as they showed enormous hate, channeling it all directly into the Crystal Heart.

The magical artifact began to spin faster and faster, glowing intensely in a sick gray. At last, it was going beyond its limits of storing energy. With a massive explosion, it released all the negativity it had gathered into a gigantic gray beam straight into the sky, disintegrating the artifact in the process.

---

Slendermane soon reappeared next to Despair. Moments later, off in the distance, a pillar of pure gray energy shot into the sky. The demons, the rebellion leaders and Blueblood all watched as it rose higher and higher, only to eventually curve down and aim straight for them. While Twilight, her friends and the fallen king had horror written in their expressions, the pure evil joy in Despair’s face outshined any grin or smirk she had ever given off before. She showed complete contentedness as the beam rapidly fell down towards the broken mountain top.

Of all targets present, the beam landed exactly on Blueblood in the middle of the rune. Even through the intense noise this pillar of energy was giving off, his screams of pain could be heard. The blast was rapidly dissolving him, making him float into the air as his body became torn apart from the outside inwards. With the beam still coming down, Malice opened his maw and exhaled an entire ocean worth of red clouds into the beam, which all became absorbed effortlessly. It seemed like he was giving up all the power he had gained over the years, as his skeletal body quickly shrank down in the process, until he was only about twice as tall as an alicorn again. In Blueblood’s last moments, he looked straight at Nightmare’s Eye, reaching out to it. But, of course, the demon artefact was far, far out of his reach. The eye simply stared back and watched him turn into nothingness.

The black charcoal lines began to glow as they reacted with the combined mass gathered on top of the rune, making it give off a dark aura. This caused it all to become combined and shaped into a single, large red orb, which stood still above the rune for a few seconds. Just as the rebels thought it was over, the lines of the rune changed in color, turning intensely red. A fraction of a second later, another huge explosion followed.

Twilight couldn’t see anything anymore. Everything was red. A thick red cloud that wouldn’t even let her see her own hooves before her very eyes. But the blanket slowly lifted up, allowing the group to realize its true size. Spanning across the horizon, the red cloud was covering most of Equestria. As if it had a mind on its own, the red fog started turning, forming a tornado going straight back down in the middle of the rune. Within mere seconds, everything condensed back.

A black hoof reached out of the cloud. Too tall to be a regular pony, too unnatural looking to be of an alicorn. A second followed and now, it became clear what was going on. Twilight instantly started crying in disbelief and desperation, shaking her head slowly.

“No…” was all she could say.

At last, a head rose out of the mist. The black face was partially hidden in a crimson helmet, but still showed eyes burning with a red so intense, it let everything else seem gray in comparison. Toxica’s eyes were wide open and she began to grin so widely, every little detail in her jagged teeth could be seen. Despair as well showed a grin of utter satisfaction at the view presented to her, by both what was forming out of the red darkness as well as the expressions of horror Twilight was showing. Almost simultaneously, all other rebellion leaders let their mouths fall open and their eyes go wide, unwilling to believe what was happening right in front of them.

“No…” Twilight commented again, the tone in her voice even more desperate now.

A step forward followed and a red chest plate was revealed, as well as the entire black torso. Wings sprung open, revealing the hind legs. The rest of the red fog formed into a long mane and tail. The sensation of dread became ten times worse and all of Twilight’s friends were shocked to the bone. She was back.

Nightmare Moon had been tied closely to Maledictum Insania for over a thousand years now. The lifting of the curse would mean the resurrection of the demon queen. But for that to happen, every single of her fragments would need to be gathered. Throughout history, the demons never had a chance to extinct pony-kind and therefore gather the souls necessary to achieve this. So, an alternate plan had to be forged. A plan that took over a thousand years to unfold.

After Malice’s resurrection, he devoured the souls of millions of ponies. While this added to his already tremendous power significantly, it also meant that he was storing two thirds of all fragments of Nightmare Moon inside of him. Of course, with an entire third missing, this would never be enough to bring the demon queen back. So, a substitute was needed, but this would require unspeakable amounts of energy.

Ultimately, the demons found the energy needed in two key components. One of them was King Blueblood. Aside of providing one more fragment of Nightmare Moon in his soul, he carried the powers of three alicorns at once. The other was the Crystal Heart. With Sombra having it corrupted beyond measure, it was capable of storing enough hate and negativity to replace what Nightmare Moon would be missing.

Still, all of this would have never worked if the demon queen would not be able to regain any form of direct grasp onto the world. Therefore, the demons forged Nightmare’s Eye. The reason why no demon could possibly harm a pony wearing it was because, by wearing the necklace, you made your soul a direct offering to Nightmare Moon herself. Only after the necklace is taken off again is the offering made complete and thus allowing Nightmare Moon to directly grasp for the soul presented to her. Without realizing it, Blueblood had been wearing a slave collar that would kill him upon removal all this time himself, just like he used to make his slaves do.

In the end, it was all perfectly timed to work together. As the demon queen was taking a hold on Blueblood’s soul, Malice added most of her fragments and Sombra added the missing negativity into the mix, Blueblood’s stolen powers providing the last missing bit of energy for the reaction.

The final key ingredient to make this plan work was the rune. When the Underworld League searched through the castle ruins in Everfree Forest, they were searching for the rune Luna created more than a thousand years ago. The same rune that originally created Nightmare Moon. This time, with all the right ingredients provided, the rune worked flawlessly. The fragments, the magic of three alicorns, the negative charge of the Crystal Heart, Nightmare’s Eye and the rune. All worked together to make the impossible become possible. Even though Maledictum Insania has not been lifted and there were still countless ponies alive carrying fragments of the demon queen herself in their souls, she could manifest a physical form again. Demon Queen Nightmare Moon has been reborn.

The first demon. The greatest of all. She stood before Twilight’s little group of friends. They still could not believe their eyes. The purple mare herself just sat there, continuously crying as she looked up to the being that had visited her in her dreams not long ago. There she was, in the waking world. Nightmare Moon looked to her sides. Instantly, the members of the Underworld League bowed down before her.

“All hail the demon queen,” they all spoke at the same time.

Twilight still was struggling to believe the scene before her was actually real. This just couldn’t be happening. It just couldn’t. Yet, there she was, glancing over all and everything with an expression of indifference. It was clear now that, never once, she worried this plan might fail. Never once did she have any doubts. She outsmarted all of them. She outdid all of them.

Off in the distance, down in Equestria, the cheering of the cultists was so loud, it could be faintly heard even this far away. They had achieved the ultimate victory. The demon queen was back.

At last, Nightmare Moon’s expression shifted to the most evil and wicked grin ever seen by any pony or reaper. Her head slowly rose up as she started laughing, louder and louder. An intense red aura began to grow around the demon queen, quickly expanding. It accelerated more and more, turning all of Equestria red. Moments later, the neighboring countries also became covered in the same red aura. Then the following. Within less than a minute, the entire world became engulfed by a powerful red. With the demon queen still laughing, the apocalypse began. From the red clouds in the sky, mountain-sized maws came down, opening wide to devour whole landscapes at once. The ground began to tear open all over the place, enormous thin red arms reaching out of them to drag anything they could grab inside. On random spots, gravity seemed to stop existing, letting things fly into the air and simply dissolve like Blueblood did.

Twilight and her friends watched all of this unfold in total terror. Equestria was being ripped apart, whole villages simply ceasing to be. The purple mare still kept her head shaking and crying the entire time. As Nightmare Moon stopped laughing, she quickly turned around to look at her. These eyes of absolute, abysmal evil were focusing right at her. Her demon children grinning wickedly along with her in pure joy. Then, she suddenly teleported away, along with the Underworld League.

The purple mare looked up into the sky. In the clouds, another maw opened widely and came falling down straight towards the mountain. All of her friends simply sat there and looked up, just waiting for it to kill them instantly. But Twilight noticed that, since the demon queen was not directly present anymore, the paralyzing feeling of fear had vanished. One last time, she clenched her eyes shut and allowed her horn to start glowing. A small bright flash could be seen, less than a second before the maw devoured the entire mountain at once.