CHAPTER NINE

Twilight Sparkle trudged through the snow for what surely must have been a day...it was impossible to have any sense of progress when there existed no means of measuring how long she had even been traveling. Even the moon, which would not have offered any help anyway, was lost in the thick clouds above her. The light was much brighter here than the rest of Equestria, although it was still not much more than a darkling crepuscular light. A growing twilight forever frozen in time, doomed to never fully be night or day.

It was snowing profusely, so much so that any distance further than a few yards was completely obscured. Twilight had heard horror stories from her brother about ponies who blindly wandered into the eternal blizzard, only to get lost in the disorienting blinds of snow. Even the most trained and competent members of his royal guard once had to spend three days waiting for rescue in the cold.

Nearly every thirty seconds, Twilight cast a backwards glance to make sure her tracks were straight, and not curving further from her destination. Even more useful for this purpose, however, was Fluttershy's compass. The shiny glass tool was nothing more than a red needle inside of a half-sphere filled with liquid, but despite its simplicity, Twilight felt she owed her life to the home-made contraption.

In time, the uppermost spires of the Crystal Empire slowly exposed themselves in between powerful gusts of snow. Still several miles away, Twilight couldn't exactly tell whether or not they were the tops of buildings that still stood tall, or the last surviving peaks to an otherwise destroyed city. She certainly hoped the former, but the idea of a city still standing tall in this Equestria seemed quite unlikely.

On and on Twilight trekked, alone through the wind and cold, the Crystal Empire laying in wait for her.

When Fluttershy finally touched down on the trodden earth where she and Twilight had stood only hours before, Trixie had already disappeared. The area of their confrontation was littered with patches of charred dirt, and a strange purple fabric which Fluttershy quickly realized was the tattered remains of Trixie's cape.

Trixie herself, however, was nowhere to be found.

Fluttershy was just about to flop on to the cold earth and rest for the first time since her brief nap in Ponyville, when she noticed something sparkling in the dirt. Curious, she approached the glistening object and prodded it with her right forehoof.

Blood. It was no object that was sparkling, but a small puddle of freshly spilled blood, reflecting the bright overhead moonlight. With horror, Fluttershy concluded that this must be Trixie's blood, undoubtedly spilled not long after she and Twilight left Trixie for dead. Guilt and pity swirled to Fluttershy's psyche, and a sudden spike of dizziness told her she was about to be sick.

Stumbling to the black mirror that was Canterlot Lake, she allowed the contents of her stomach to be hurled into the dark water. After spending the majority of her life starving, Fluttershy knew that it was probably a stupid decision, and as she splashed water onto her grimy face someways down the shore, she felt her stomach growl loudly, as if expressing its own disappointment at her impulsiveness.

"Stupid, stupid Fluttershy..." She scolded herself in a painful groan. "No wonder Twilight didn't want you around."

Over the course of several hours, she was thrown in and out of vivid nightmares as she lay exhausted on the wet grass shore, occasionally rising to exile more from her already empty stomach. In the moments when she was not tormented by her subconscious mind, she was tormented by her own consciousness as she thought back to Trixie, dying alone as she walked away, not even bothering to look back for fear of feeling guilty, as she was now.

Trixie's corpse should have been next to the blood, but it stood to reason that Nightmare Twilight had seen her body and disposed of it out of disgust. Nevertheless, curiosity eventually got the best of Fluttershy, and she rose from the earth, wincing as a sharp pain shot through her neck, which she just now realized she had been laying completely improperly on.

The pool of blood was a few feet in circumference, with a few smaller pools nearby. With a start, Fluttershy realized that she was not looking at smaller pools at all, but a trail...a trail of blood leading in the direction of Ponyville. Fueled by new found excitement, and the possibility of her guilt being unnecessary, Fluttershy took off into the sky, flying over exactly where she had seen the trail leading to.

A short way down the trail, a swiftly moving purple object caught her eye, and she tore down after it. Blowing in the wind carelessly like a tumbleweed was a pointed wizards hard, charred and torn, but unrecognizably Trixie's. Slowing to a hover, Fluttershy reached down and grabbed the hat, grasping it tightly in her hooves and continuing on the trail.

The unicorn magician, herself, she found stumbling across the earth some distance further. Lowering her altitude, Fluttershy tore directly over top Trixie, before swirling back around and landing in the dirt in front of her. Trixie was limping slightly, and her mane was disheveled and spiky, probably due to the lightning magic Twilight had attacked her with. A deep gash running down the side of her body was hastily bandaged with fabric torn from her cape, and through it blood dripped onto the earth.

"You're alive!" Fluttershy screamed, sprinting across the earth towards her.

"Not another step, traitor!" Trixie retorted, instinctively casting a defense shield. "Come to finish the job, have you?"

"J...job...?" Fluttershy asked, confused at first but startled when she realized just what 'job' Trixie was referring to. "No! Of course not! I'm just here to make sure you're alright!"

"I suppose you were the pony who intervened when that cold-blooded tyrant was about to finish me off. As much as I hate to admit it, I believe I owe you my life. Even if you are a back-stabbing renegade."

"I am NOT! And neither is Twilight! We're both on your side!"

"Tell me more, then, about this Alicorn Twilight from the Future. Trixie is really quite amused by that."

"You really wouldn't be, if you saw what she's like. Five months from today, all of Equestria will be destroyed by her, and Twilight and I will barely survive through a fissure in time. We're here to destroy three dark magic artifacts before Nightmare Twilight ever has a chance to use them to rise to power."

"Fascinating." Trixie said flatly, dissolving the magic barrier and taking a cautious step towards Fluttershy. "Then why are you alone...Trixie believes she already knows the answer to that one, though. Dark magic is certainly quite dangerous, especially to unicorns. What did she do to make you flee from her?"

"Nothing! But...she wasn't fully corrupted yet. I went away on my own terms, and she was perfectly okay with it."

Trixie took a few steps closer, and snatched her hat from Fluttershy's hooves. "Again, fascinating. Why did you leave her if she was becoming corrupted by dark magic?"  

"I have the Alicorn Amulet...which is what was making her evil...."

"Oh, naive Fluttershy." Trixie whispered, adjusting the hat atop her burnt and filthy mane. "Dark magic doesn't work like that. Distance isn't a variable at all. If it's chosen her as a host, then it must be destroyed to free her, unless she can fight it off herself. Which is why the help of a close friend would be more than satisfactory. However, Twilight Sparkle, as much as I hate to admit, is an extremely skilled unicorn. I think she should be fine...assuming she doesn't...."

Trailing off, Trixie looked as if she just noticed something and scoffed loudly.

"Oh, why is Trixie even still talking to you! She has much more important things to attend to!"  Finally admitting defeat with trying to straighten the dilapidated wizard hat, Trixie continued hobbling in the direction of Ponyville.

"Wait!" Fluttershy called, trotting after her. "I'm coming with you! I'll help with whatever you're doing!"

"Fluttershy, last time Rainbow Dash sent you to Ponyville, you disappeared for a month and we all formally pronounced you dead. Besides, I do not need your help."

"Okay...but let me come with you anyway. There's somepony I want to see in Ponyville. Somepony very close."

"Fine!" Trixie snapped, throwing her hooves in the air and wincing slightly at the resulting pain from the gash at her side. "You are the last surviving member of The Resistance other than myself, after all. Who is this pony you wish to meet?"

"My daughter. Her name is Summer Sun. She doesn't know me yet, but I need to make sure she's safe."

"My my, you were busy in Ponyville!" Trixie laughed cruelly. "A daughter in less than a month!"

"Obviously she isn't biological." Fluttershy blushed. "Since Nightmare Twilight is here, and if what you said about the dark magic corrupting Twilight is true, then I need to prepare for the chance of us failing. I need to make sure that at least she is safe."

"Trixie understands. Besides, how can I deny the presence of the pony who saved not only my life, but my beloved hat!" Trixie chuckled, tossing the hat into the air with her magic joyfully and allowing it to glide back onto her head.  

Fluttershy allowed herself to laugh, too, more out of relief than humor. Not only was Trixie surprisingly healthy considering how close to death she had been when they left her, but she was also willing to suspend any of her rational doubts and believe the ridiculous explanation Fluttershy had given her.

"Oh, and one more thing, Fluttershy..." Trixie said as they walked.

"Yes?"

"I love your new wings. Quite an interesting style you've given them. Do all pegasi in the future have wings like those?"

Twilight Sparkle gasped in amazement at the sight of the sun as she struggled through the knee deep snow. It was low, barely visible over the distant horizon of white, but nevertheless it was there, casting extremely dim rays of light which cast iridescent patterns across the icy crystals on the ground.

The sun remained in its inconspicuous position as Twilight looked up at the rising peaks of what were once glass buildings, so torn down by centuries of neglect and abuse at the hands of the winds that they were hardly recognizable as pony-built structures. In the occasional patch of exposed glass, the dim rays of the forever-setting sun exploded into a blinding display of orange light like the wick of a candle. While most of the buildings had been pushed down by the stronger of the winds over the course of a millennium, the occasional building jutted into the sky as straight as the day it was erected. Most incredible of all was the Crystal Castle, which stood as a monolith in the center of the frozen remains. One of the four supporting struts had given way over time, so that the castle leaned significantly. The tip of the pointed castle had broken away and lay alone, mostly buried by what must have been fifteen feet of snow. The other spires of the castle were all still attached save for one, which had been lost completely to the snow.

Despite its beauty, it was quite obvious to Twilight that the Crystal Empire was a ghost-town. No pony could possibly survive in the extreme temperatures of eternal twilight in the Equestrian Arctic, and if any other living creature had set up home here, it certainly did not show itself to the lone pony trekking towards the Crystal Castle.

"The Crystal Heart..." Twilight muttered gleefully. "I'm so close...only one more..."

To destroy. She told herself internally, only to shudder at the very thought of doing such a thing. Yes. I'm not going to use them. I'm destroying them.

"But why..." She continued to mutter, ignoring the fact that an alien tone of malice had crept into her voice. "Why so soon...you can use them to eliminate any opposition....then no pony can stand in your way!"

I don't need them to destroy Nightmare Twilight. Twilight asserted to the darkness within her. You've been uttering these things ever since Fluttershy left. I'm not evil and I don't want to become evil.

"How unfortunate for you." The Darkness replied in Twilight's own voice."Because it's already begun. There is no going back now, Twilight Sparkle. You're nothing more than a mental tumor on a changing brain. And soon even that morality will be gone."

It was with a frightening sense of familiarity that Fluttershy looked at Ponyville again. She had spent so much time around this town that it was becoming increasingly difficult to not call it her home...but the very idea of calling such a hellish prison home made her feel like she was going to be sick again.

Nevertheless, it was quite helpful that she knew the layout of Ponyville by heart, especially since Trixie had no idea about any of the customs of a town under Nightmare Moon's control. As the most talented unicorn in The Resistance, her duties had always been focused on keeping the stability of their renegade society, creating magical barriers and devising magical cures to combat the sometimes fatal sicknesses ponies contracted from a diet of Everfree foliage.

Trixie's initial plan had been to teleport into Ponyville, but she immediately reconsidered after hearing what had happened several days prior. Instead, she opted for Fluttershy to simply fly in and shut down the magical barrier, allowing the unlimited use of teleportation, something she repeatedly referred to as 'vital.'

Fluttershy had pestered Trixie for answers on what her 'important business' in Ponyville was, but received the same vague answer every time.

"Liberation, Fluttershy!" Trixie would shout, waving her hooves wildly through the air for emphasis.

Defeated, Fluttershy had simply chosen to accept this as a good enough explanation and go along with Trixie's plans, provided it meant seeing her daughter one more time before Nightmare Twilight finally found her and Twilight. She had pretty much come to think of this as an inevitability. There was only so many times a pony could escape death before it finally caught up, and Fluttershy was fairly certain she had escaped death more times than any average pony ever could. After a lifetime of ignoring the thread that separated her from the end, it was finally time to acknowledge the fact that any second it could be cut.

She didn't like this ideology, but it was too late to ignore it now. She had hoped for Luna or Celestia to save them from Nightmare Twilight, and when they were eliminated as candidates for liberty, her friends took on the duty of carrying the burden of hope. Now, they too were dead, and Twilight Sparkle herself was being devoured slowly by evil. There was a fine line between hope and delusion, and Fluttershy had decided she was done with being delusional, even if the reality was so painful to admit.

"Hey!" Trixie spoke suddenly, pulling Fluttershy back to earth. "You still with us, Fluttershy?"

"Oh, I'm sorry!"

"It's alright. Trixie was simply asking who this 'Nightmare Twilight' truly was, and what happened to Twilight Sparkle to make her betray you in the future."

"Well, um, its sort of complicated, but the short version is, the Twilight Sparkle that you saw with me was a different Twilight altogether. There's two of them, from two different Equestria's."

"I see." Trixie looked deep in thought, and was frowning slightly, as if weighing out the inconsistencies in what she had seen and what Fluttershy was telling her. "And what evidence do you have that this 'Nightmare Twilight' and your own friend are not one and the same?"

"Well...um, none..."

"It is incredibly likely that Nightmare Twilight is simply your own Twilight Sparkle corrupted beyond repair by the dark magic artifacts she initially set out to destroy. One nice, stable time loop. She collects all the artifacts to use against herself and ultimately becomes so corrupted by them that she transforms into the very pony who she sets out to stop, forgetting who she is in the process, of course. Maybe picking up the memories of this worlds Twilight Sparkle and mistaking them for her own. It would explain a great many of inconsistencies in your story; for example, how did Nightmare Twilight know where to find the artifacts in the first place, since Luna would most certainly not tell her where they were."

"That...that can't be true..." Fluttershy denied, shaking her head.

"It is just a theory, of course, but it seems much more likely to me then a pony coming back from the dead, something I know for a fact is impossible."

"Luna did it."

"Luna is an alicorn princess with much more magical power than Twilight Sparkle could ever even dream of having as a simple unicorn. Even at that, from what you've told me, Luna isn't even technically alive, she's only channeling her own previous form. I can say with utmost certainty that it is absolutely impossible for anypony to come back from the dead." Trixie removed her hat and did her best to straighten her mane.

"Okay. You see the guard at that tower?" Trixie asked, and Fluttershy nodded; she had been in this situation once before, crouching outside of Ponyville and waiting for the opportunity to fly into the town. However, the last time, she had been caught...which did not exactly aspire any confidence.

Trixie grinned slightly and pointed at the guard, assuming for some reason that Fluttershy had not seen him. Rising now, Trixie focused on the guard, yawning with his head down, as if waking from a nap. Suddenly, the guard keeled over and dropped to the ground and out of the line of sight of Fluttershy and Trixie.

"Did you just...!" Fluttershy gasped.

"Oh, don't be sentimental. He's only unconscious. As is the other guard." Trixie gave her horn a playful tap and shrugged. "All you have to do now is fly into the guard tower and shut down the magic barrier. Oh, and the proximity siren!"

"But wait..." Fluttershy said, scratching her head in confusion. "Won't I set off the proximity siren by going into Ponyville?"

"Oh, no, there's a delay. As long as you turn it off fast enough, you should be fine. I think...."

Not exactly brimming with confidence, Fluttershy flapped her wings enough to get her airborne, and looked back at Trixie with an expression of terror as she hovered a few feet off the ground. Trixie grinned and made an odd turning motion with one of her hooves, which Fluttershy assumed was to tell her to hurry.

"Go ahead!" Trixie encouraged. "And make sure you come right back here after you turn off the magic barrier so I know its safe."

Soaring as swiftly and silently as possible, Fluttershy cleared the short distance between her hiding place and the tall electric fence, and cringed as she flapped over it and crashed through the glass into the guard tower. Without missing a beat, Fluttershy took in the entirety of the guard tower, which was lit by a hovering magic lamp. Cables ran across the floor, connected to glowing instrument panels, their purpose completely impossible to ascertain. Some of the cables emerged from the back of the panels and hung suspended through the air, connected to the fence and hissing with electricity. Near the center of the panels were three large switches, all unlabeled. In a frenzy, Fluttershy leaped onto the panel and threw each switch. In a second, the humming of the machinery slowed and eventually stopped, and the magic lamp flickered out and fell to the ground, spraying even more broken glass into the room. A few stray sparks exploded from the instrument panels, but for the most part they were completely dead. The visible fluctuations in the wire fueling the electric fence had stopped, and the smell of electricity in the air had vanished.

For the first time in over fifty years, Ponyville was completely undefended.

From her vantage point high above the town of Ponyville, Fluttershy had a clear and unobstructed view of the Southern Guard Tower, and noticed that the lights there had also been turned off. One of the switches she had thrown must have turned of all the electricity to Ponyville, which fortunately included the electric fence.

"This is...too easy..." Fluttershy whispered to herself as she watched the guards near the town square, still blissfully unaware of the fact that an imposter was watching them from their very own battlement.

"So you think. Hello, my little pony." A familiar voice rung out. Fluttershy felt every muscle in her body go limp in terror as Nightmare Twilight stepped over the broken glass wearing a smug and satisfied grin. "You really are persistent, aren't you! You just won't die. I am honestly quite impressed you've managed to drag your pathetic self through so much."

Fluttershy continued to shiver in fright and stared at her hooves, refusing to meet Nightmare Twilight's gaze out of complete hatred and fear. Nightmare Twilight grinned and stepped closer to Fluttershy, extending a hoof and forcing Fluttershy's head upwards, meeting the terrified mares eyes and cackling loudly. Fluttershy tried to squirm away from the ice-cold hoof but found her entire body paralyzed by Nightmare Twilight's magic.

"Believe me, my dear, I don't really want to kill you. You have done me no harm and I really don't like killing ponies I don't have to. If you simply tell me where Twilight Sparkle is and what you two have planned, I might even spare your life."

Fluttershy remained silent, managing to fight Nightmare Twilight's magic enough to squeeze her eyes shut.

"SPEAK TO ME!" Nightmare Twilight screamed, and Fluttershy heard glass shatter. In surprise, she reopened her eyes and did her best to look at Nightmare Twilight directly.

"Please...before you kill me...I have a daughter...I just want her to be safe....please don't hurt her..."

"I won't. And I will let you see her again if you tell me where I can find Twilight Sparkle."

"I can't..." Fluttershy cried, fighting to keep her eyes opened as tears gushed from them. "I just can't. I don't care if you kill me..."

"Do you think I want to?!" Nightmare Twilight was screaming again. "Why do you protect her? She has done nothing for you! She has failed to save this Equestria and she has failed to save the other Elements of Harmony! I can torture you until you tell me her location! I can kill your precious daughter in front of your worthless eyes if you don't tell me what I want to know! Is that what you want? Because I know for a fact that it isn't what I want! So why do you continue to defend her from me when all I want is justice?"

"It's what friends do." Was Fluttershy's simple reply, and she cringed as Nightmare Twilight stepped back in frustration. The sound of magic filled the air and Fluttershy closed her eyes and waited for the end.

"You are a pathetic, bat-winged mistake! How dare you think your sentimentality is honorable? How DARE you think SHE deserves life while I deserve swift and merciless death, AGAIN? Do you know what it is like to wake up buried alive, Fluttershy? Do you know what it is like to fight your way through your own lazily constructed shallow grave, the power of a dead nightmare the only thing keeping you alive? I have slayed alicorns and monsters to rise to who I am now! I have bested death itself! You, on the other hand, will not be so lucky."

One final flash illuminated the remains of the guard tower roof, so bright that Fluttershy saw it clearly even through her closed eyes. When she opened them again, all she saw was light, blinding, white light, as if lightning were striking all around her. She heard rock and wood exploding, she heard glass clinking and shattering, and somewhere a young filly or colt was crying. An odd ringing sound followed suddenly, and quickly dominated all auditory sensation in Fluttershy's scrambled brain.

"Come on, Fluttershy! Get up!" Trixie's voice run out through the ringing. Fluttershy blinked several times, and thought she could make out blotches of darkness in her field of white. "For Celestia's sake, does Trixie have to do EVERYTHING?"

Eventually, Trixie was distinguishable, amongst other things; Ponyville was once again on fire, Nightmare Twilight was soaring into the air towards them. Trixie looked as if she was in the middle of casting magic, but her eyes glowed red and she was wielding a familiar golden amulet.

"Yes, I stole the Amulet from you!" Trixie snapped. "I also just used it to save your life. Sue me."

Nightmare Twilight was approaching swiftly, something Trixie noticed and laughed profoundly at.

"Do your worst, Twilight!" She screamed, and removed the Alicorn Amulet from her neck, shoving it into Fluttershy's hooves. "As for YOU, Trixie would brace herself. Long distance teleportation can be quite...volatile."

Before Fluttershy could even react, she was thrown back into the same blinding void, Trixie's insane laughter cutting off as suddenly as the world she existed in.

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