CHAPTER FOUR

When Luna finally found her sister, the moon was dipping over the underworld's night sky. Celestia stood gazing across the land from a marble balcony, the wind blowing her mane majestically behind her.

"I have been searching for you, Celestia..." Luna began nervously, stepping beside her sister.

"Perhaps not hard enough. I have not been hiding."

"You have been ignoring me...and I do not blame you. I am truly sorry for what must become of Twilight Sparkle."

Celestia continued to stare straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge Luna's guilty face.

"Those are words, Luna, with no actual merit to them, because words cannot possibly justify what you have done."

"I know." Luna murmured, wishing in vain that Celestia would at least look at her. It was times like these that the loving gaze of her sister was the only thing that could possibly help the former Princess of the Night through whatever trial she was going through. "I did what had to be done...or, at least...what I thought had to be done..."

"You thought wrong. What possibly possessed you to think that murder was the solution?"

Following Celestia's gaze, Luna stared at the setting moon, uncontrolled by alicorn magic and instead descending by itself, pulled by a magic even the Royal Sisters did not quite comprehend.

"Your rule over Equestria were the brightest, happiest days known to ponykind. Peace and tranquility ruled alongside you...."

Celestia scoffed loudly. "Alongside us."

"This peace is all you have know, Celestia. You have never had to reign over what I have."

"Whose fault is that?" Celestia said bitterly, looking down at her hooves. "I am shocked that you are still trying to justify what you have done."

"A single pony life is a small price to pay for the protection of two entire worlds." Luna replied steadily. "If only I'd have known she'd risen again, I could have prevented all this. What a lapse of ignorance on my part."

"Well, I at least can disagree with that." Celestia said. "By all means she should have stayed dead. It defies all logic."

"Bested by my former student." Luna mused. "My power has dropped considerably since my days as Nightmare Moon. While I'm thankful the Elements freed me from her grasp, the damage they have inflicted on me is most troublesome."

"The Elements of Harmony might be successful in restoring peace, but they bear no mercy to their targets. If only they answered to you and not its six new bearers, that pain might have been inflicted on a mare who deserved it." Celestia muttered in anger and a sort of bitter helplessness. Try as she might, nothing Luna had done had brought the Elements to her aid, instead they answered to an Element of Magic who had long returned to her own realm and thus was incapable of wielding them for good. Had they mistaken Nightmare Twilight for their old bearer, or was her pure evil energy enough to override their nature as they did with Luna a thousand years ago?

"I fear her malicious intentions may be driven by a greater form of insanity." Celestia eventually said.

"As do I." Luna admitted. "But what other choice did I have but to comply with her demands and hope to all that is sacred she kept to her terms?"

"A wild assumption."

"And without the Elements of Harmony, and every inch of Equestria burning, it's the only hope we have left."

Fluttershy jumped up in delight when she saw Twilight Sparkle's eyes slowly open, signalling the end of her communicative slumber.

"You're awake! Thank goodness!" Fluttershy blushed slightly, as Twilight rose slowly to her feet, allowing her eyes to adjust to the almost complete darkness within the tower. "I was...I was scared you wouldn't...like last time."

"Fluttershy..." Twilight mouthed, the words coming out at a much lower volume then she intended.

"Is something wrong, Twilight?" Instantly concerned, Fluttershy took a step forward, her eyes bright with care and compassion.

As Twilight contemplated that heartbreaking expression, she weighed the consequences of telling Fluttershy just what had really happened, and what she ultimately had to do. Her whole life, Fluttershy had known nothing but darkness and oppression, and yet she somehow got by based on the little hope ponies like Twilight Sparkle could offer. And now, she had to look into this poor ponies eyes and tell her that there was no hope anymore, that everypony who ever mattered to her was either dead or would have to die, and there was nothing left except whatever Nightmare Twilight decided for the world she cared not for.

"Fluttershy..." Twilight repeated, feeling her throat dry up, fighting desperately to force the words out. "I'm...I have to..."

"FLUTTERSHY OF PONYVILLE!" A voice suddenly roared from outside the tower, so alien and yet so familiar. Fluttershy jumped up immediately, as did Twilight, as she was confronted by a massively amplified, twisted version of her own voice.

"It's Nightmare Twilight!" Fluttershy whispered frantically, every muscle in her body shaking in fear.

"Of all the ponies in Equestria..." Nightmare Twilight continued. "I would NEVER have expected YOU to be the last light to go out."

Twilight Sparkle looked on helplessly as Fluttershy's eyes grew wide with shock. Outside, Nightmare Twilight continued her merciless vocal assault.

"It truly is poetic justice, I suppose, that Luna's little magical mistake is the last surviving pony of all the Elements of Harmony!" Nightmare Twilight cackled viciously, her laughs echoing across the empty fields for miles. "You shall serve as one last reminder of just how pathetic the reign of the royal Princesses truly was."

Fluttershy spread her wings, looking at them with guilt, seeing herself as the freak her friends had tried to convince her she wasn't.

"Fluttershy, I'm going to take care of this, alright? Everything is going to be fine...just..." Twilight Sparkle paused, making sure Nightmare Twilight could not see them within the tower. "You need to get to the Mirror Pool no matter what, alright? Don't worry about me."

Fluttershy's eyes grew wide, and she instinctively grabbed Twilight in a sorrowful final embrace.

"No! Don't go out there! She'll kill you!"

"Fluttershy!" Twilight begged. "Just listen to me, alright? I promise everything will be fine."

Twilight had never been a good liar, and she knew Fluttershy could see it. Crying as quietly as she possibly could, Fluttershy squeezed her last surviving friend harder.

"Please don't go.." She wept.

"I have to. I'm sorry...you need to make it to the Mirror Pool as soon as  you can. Goodbye."

Without giving Fluttershy any longer to object, Twilight teleported out of the tower and into the wide open field. Directly ahead of where she had teleported, Nightmare Twilight stood tall and proud, still laughing furiously, although she halted as soon as her feeble unicorn counterpart appeared in front of her. Nightmare Twilight's mane was a dark hue of purple and red, which sparkled like stardust and blew wildly, as if being guided by a hurricane wind affecting only her. Her wings were unfurled and jet-black like the rest of her slender body, and she easily dwarfed Twilight Sparkle in size.

"Well well well..." Nightmare Twilight began, successfully hiding the undignified surprise from her voice. "And here I was expecting a mere pegasus...I have quite literally torn this world apart looking for you, Twilight Sparkle."

"How disappointing, then, that I'm turning myself in. Looks like you wasted your time."  

"Your words suggest you do not fear death..." The third princess proclaimed. "And yet your tone leads me to believe you are utterly terrified."

"Think what you want. I'm not scared of you." Twilight gulped and narrowed her gaze, feeling all the hatred and anger flow from her heart and into her fiery glare. "Kill me and get it over with, if that's what you want."

To Twilight's surprise, Nightmare Twilight simply responded with more laughter.

"Correction!" She screamed, soaring into the air triumphantly. "That is what YOU want! To die as a hero! Because, by your 'Sweet Celestia,' that is what you see yourself as!"

Confused, but still infuriated, Twilight Sparkle simply watched, as her evil counterpart came back to earth, the ground beneath her trembling as she landed.

"Yes. You see yourself as a hero." The Third Princess continued. "And you choose to be blissfully unaware of what you truly are. A murderer. You see yourself dying honorably, in one final, loyal sacrifice to save this world. Am I not correct?"

Twilight refused to satisfy her with a response, but she knew that any denial on her part would be a lie.

"I know you quite well, Twilight Sparkle, even if this is only our second encounter. I know how much you rely on helping everypony, saving them from the forces you deem are evil. So then you must ask yourself; why would I grace you with the luxury of a heroic death? After all, killing you will NEVER bring back my Equestria...or my great and wise mentor. It would simply end your life quickly and painlessly." Nightmare Twilight formed a vicious smile, revealing sharp, fang like teeth. "No. You do not deserve that at all. You deserve much worse."

Nightmare Twilight began pacing towards her adversary, and it took the best of Twilight's courage to not back away. Soon, the two were facing each other, the tiny unicorn staring into the cold, merciless eyes of the alicorn towering above her.

"I intend to destroy this world, and kill everypony in it. That much was always a given. And you shall watch, you and your pathetic pegasus friend, staring on as all of Equestria burns...as every single pony life burns away with it." Nightmare Twilight's grin intensified, and she brought a hoof to Twilight's neck, before lifting the unicorn into the air. Twilight fought for breath, while trying her best to avoid Nightmare Twilight's icy glare of hatred. "You will not die as a hero, but as a worthless waste of life who failed to save so many others."

With a simple, careless swipe of her hoof, Twilight was sent flying, colliding hard against the cold stone tower. A sharp snapping sound followed, but it was with relief that she noticed it was not her back. As she tried to bring herself to her feet, she felt an intense pain in her right forehoof, and came crashing back to the ground.

"Goodbye, my little pony." Nightmare Twilight sneered, unfurling her wings and returning to the air, her horn glowing with magic.

"Please..." Twilight croaked, coughing up blood. "Nightmare Moon wouldn't want this. She loved her subjects"

Nightmare Twilight landed in front of her injured enemy, looking down at the fallen unicorn with an expression of complete satisfaction. She had waited a very long time for this moment to arrive, and she was amazed by how perfectly it had all turned out.

"You may have heard..." She cooed softly, her words distinctly familiar. "Nightmare Moon isn't around."

Satisfied with her victim's fate, Nightmare Twilight tore back into the sky, hovering miles above the earth. She raised both her forehooves into the air triumphantly, her horn glowing with magic of a murky, purplish hue. In an instant, all the stars in the sky had vanished, the sun and moon following. Still, Equestria was illuminated by sunlight, and Twilight remembered something Celestia had once told her, about how the sunlight she felt had taken several minutes just to reach her. The sky empty, Nightmare Twilight turned her magic on the world beneath her. The ground shifted, trees falling over and soil spreading upwards in a thick grey cloud. A brilliant flash exploded from Nightmare Twilight's horn, the purple light darting through the sky in both directions, illuminating all of Equestria for a brief second. Unbeknownst to Twilight Sparkle, a wave of literal nothingness tore across the land, starting from some point far in the distance and spreading away in both distances. Buildings, wildlife, and ponies alike were all consumed by the black wave, disappearing into oblivion.

Her work apparently completed, Nightmare Twilight ceased the flow of her magic, and began flying at a great speed away, before exploding into light herself. When the blinding light had dimmed, Twilight Sparkle saw that the alicorn was gone, leaving behind her thousands of years of history and millions of innocent pony lives, mothers and fathers comforting their fillies and colts while the black wave approached.

"Twilight!" Fluttershy cried out, landing in front of her friend and immediately assessing the damage. "Are you all right?"

"Broken hoof, and broken rib, I think." Twilight said, her voice a raspy gasp. "She did it...Equestria is ending...I failed..."

Fluttershy looked to the horizon, the tops of distant burning trees still visible. The wave had not yet reached their side of the world. "We..we need to get to the Mirror Pool then. We'll think of a way to fix this where we're safe."

"Go!" Twilight screamed, wincing in pain. "Look at me, Fluttershy. I'm not making it anywhere. Go while you can!"

"I'm not going, Twilight. Come on, get up...please, get up!" Fluttershy was knelling in front of Twilight Sparkle, helping her to stand, while trying her best to avoid touching her broken hoof.

Standing on three wobbling legs, Twilight Sparkle looked from the grim expression of the pegasus next to her, to the black wave now tearing over the trees of the Everfree Forest, consuming the Mirror Pool and by extension, any further hope for escape. Beyond the wave lay absolutely nothing, simply an ocean of black, with the world apparently dropping off into this void as if it had always been this way. The black wave was spreading towards them at great speeds, the end of the final two ponies less than a minute away.

Next Chapter: A Recurring Night (V) Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 60 Minutes