CHAPTER FIVE

Twilight watched helplessly as the end of Equestria came bounding towards her, engulfing everything in its all destructive wave. The pony who always had a plan, always thought things through, and would always do anything in her power to help those around her, simply watched through watering eyes as the world crumbled around her.

"O...okay, so, no Mirror Pool..." Fluttershy was saying, trying not to panic. "Now what, Twilight?"

"I don't know."

"You always know! You always get us out of situations like this!"

"Not this time." Twilight said bluntly, taking a few weak steps forward, facing the destruction ripping towards her, closing her eyes in anticipation for the wave that would overtake her in a minute's time."There's no way out of this one, Fluttershy. I'm sorry."

"But..." Fluttershy was stuttering, but somehow still not crying. Twilight hoped that she would never get the chance, it would be a shame for her final moments to be spent in sorrow. "What about Nightmare Twilight?"

"What do you mean?" Twilight said, bitterly. She could not exactly tell why, but in that moment, she wanted to yell at Fluttershy...to express her anger and guilt to the only pony around her. Every word that Fluttershy spoke only infuriated her more.

"I mean...she disappeared, right? Well, where did she go?" Fluttershy pointed in the distance to where Nightmare Twilight had flown off. "There HAS to be a way out."

Twilight sighed and looked where Fluttershy was pointed. At first glance, it was just an ordinary patch of starless sky, a point hanging above earth that would soon be gone. But the more she focused, the more she could swear there was something else there, an imperfection in the skin of the sky...a tiny lavender fissure in the lifeless sea of black.

"Oh, Celestia!" Twilight screamed, forgetting about her broken rib and wincing. "Fluttershy, you genius! Let's go!"

Twilight darted forward, running as swiftly as she could; a hideously uncoordinated, three legged limp. Fluttershy was beside her in an instant, offering to help her run. Behind them, the black wave was approaching, only a mile or two from Ponyville, and several from the stone tower they had left behind. Ahead, the fissure hung over the sky, but there was another black wave coming at them from that side as well.

"I can teleport further if its just me!" Twilight screamed, ignoring the pain in her chest. "You keep flying on ahead! This is our last chance!"  

Fluttershy obeyed without question, leaving Twilight behind and becoming airborne. She flapped her bat-wings furiously, and in a few seconds she had left Twilight behind. As she flew, she cast a quick glimpse backwards, and screamed frantically back at Twilight.

"Ponyville is gone! The wave is...its at least three miles away from us, and closing fast!"  

Twilight suddenly disappeared from her sight, and a loud bang in front of her alerted of Twilight's first teleportation. Twilight was limping with a pain-filled scowl, trying her best not to pass out and allow herself to be overtaken by the quickly approaching limbo. With surprise, she noted that the wave was making noise, a barely audible humming noise, like hooves on a wine glass. If it weren't the siren for incoming death, it would have sounded quite beautiful. The sound grew in intensity, in both volume and pitch, until Twilight was sure it was directly behind her. Teleporting again, she allowed herself a quick glance backwards and realized that it, in fact, was.

"We're almost there, Fluttershy!"  

And, indeed, they were, the fissure lay above them, easily within teleporting range, if she could only clear the gap to the spot directly beneath it. The wave was converging closely from both sides, the entirety of Equestria now consisting of a small space of less than two square miles.

"Now, Fluttershy! Here we go!"

Twilight charged her magic as she ran, trying not to be distracted by the drop off into nothing only a few feet behind her. As the world finally came to an end, Twilight teleported herself and Fluttershy upwards, directly through the fissure. In an instant, the fissure itself disappeared, and Equestria was nothing more than a distant memory that no pony lived to speak of.

Princess Celestia flung the large double doors in front of her open with her magic, satisfied by the loud slam that echoed through the ethereal castle. Luna sat slouched on her throne, spinning a globe idly with her magic. She did not bother to look up when she heard Celestia enter.

"There she is...the beloved Princess Luna!" Celestia bellowed, her furious voice finally earning a glance from the Princess of the Night. "How does it feel to know that you have brought about the destruction of an entire world?"

"I never would have imagined she would have gone to such lengths. What motivation could she possibly have for her actions?"

"I assume you mean Twilight Sparkle."

"Who else?" Luna threw her hooves up in the air, and the globe fell from her magical grasp and hit the ground with a resolute slam. "Why would she do this? My protegee as Nightmare Moon...I could have sworn I taught her better."

"Apparently not." Celestia irritably replied, turning away. "I suppose this is it then. We've failed to save Equestria."

"I wouldn't be so sure." Luna said, her voice neither one of defeat, nor optimism. "The Element of Kindness isn't here. Nor is Twilight Sparkle."

"They escaped?!" Celestia started, her eyes wide in surprise as she whipped back around. "How?"

Immediately after escaping the end of the world, Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy were greeted to the sensation of falling. Her mind still buzzing furiously, it took Twilight a moment to realize that she was falling, from quite a significant height. Beneath her, the ground was approaching rapidly, the hard dirt speeding towards her looking far from welcoming. Moments before impact, Twilight felt a hoof grab her own, and she and Fluttershy both lay on the dirt softly. Fluttershy was breathing heavily, her wings drooping against her shaking body.

"I...I've never flown that fast before..." She muttered, exhausted. "Are you alright? I didn't hurt you?"

"Of course you didn't." Twilight replied, bringing herself into a more comfortable sitting position, cradling her left hoof as if it were a newborn filly. "Thank you for catching me. That could had been a lot worse."

"What was going on there, Twi?" Fluttershy panted.

"Umm...well, that was the end of the world."

"Oh...my."

"Yeah."

Fluttershy looked into the night sky, her eyes wide, looking utterly bewildered. "So, where are we now then?"

"Not sure...I think...maybe this is my Equestria?"  

It looked somewhat like Equestria, although it was much colder and there was significantly less life. The few trees were leafless, their spider-like branches stretching into a starry sky. Around them, the same desolate field stretched for miles, but unlike before, the field was dirt instead of grass, and the freezing night air directly contrasted the balmy heat of the flames. Suddenly, Fluttershy noticed something on the horizon and pointed, her voice an excited shrill.

"It's Ponyville! I know where we are!" Ponyville was sprawled at the tip of her hoof, divided from them by several miles and tall electric fence. Two guard towers were stationed on either side of the town, one facing the distant Canterlot mountains, and the other the dark woods of the Everfree Forest.

"I do, too..." Twilight said. "This is Nightmare Moon's time, right?"  

Fluttershy let out an overjoyed giggle. "I never would have thought I'd be happy to be back here!"

"I wouldn't get your hopes up yet..." Twilight warned. "This could just be a little reflection Nightmare Twilight left behind. Its probably not even an actual place, and more of a psychological echo."

Twilight laid down onto her back, taking care not to touch her broken hoof. Fluttershy was pacing back and forth, obviously still bursting with questions, but trying her best to avoid bombarding Twilight with them. Eventually, she lost the incentive to hold back.

"What Nightmare Twilight said back there, about me being the last of the Elements...what does that mean?"

Twilight winced, wishing in vain that Fluttershy could have asked any other question. She deserved to know the truth, even if Twilight knew she most likely could not handle it.

"Well, maybe you should sit down. Its...its quite a bit to take in."

"O...okay."

When she was seated comfortably across from her, Twilight sat up herself. Fluttershy's expression shifted from extreme confusion to bitter anticipation as she looked into the sorrowful face of her friend.

"She meant the Elements of Harmony...you, Rainbow, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack. And me, I guess." Twilight closed her eyes, not wanting to see Fluttershy's reaction to her next words. "They're dead, Fluttershy."

"No." Fluttershy denied, and Twilight opened her eyes to see her shaking her head. "No they aren't. Luna would have told me."

"She...she lied to you."

"She wouldn't do that!" Fluttershy said angrily, rising to her feet. "Why would she?"

"I'm so sorry. Nightmare Twilight killed them when she attacked Ponyville. Luna didn't want you to loose hope, so she lied."

"No." Fluttershy repeated, whispering the word again and again to herself.

"I know. I know how you feel. But if this really is Nightmare Moon's Equestria...we might just have a second chance. We might be able to change all this around." Twilight rose to her feet, doing her best to ignore the pain, and stepped beside Fluttershy. "We can't focus on what happened back there, alright? It won't help."

"You...you really think we went back in time?"

"I really hope we did."

"Why would Nightmare Twilight leave that crack open then?"

"She probably doesn't know she did. I guess she just assumed it would close by itself. Anyway, she couldn't have closed it. Look." Twilight pointed upwards where they had fallen, where the sky was empty of any perfection. "It's only on one side. Which means we can't go back. Not that there's anything to go back to."

Fluttershy nodded in somber agreement, shuddering as she recalled the hectic final dash away from the end of the world.

A dim light illuminated a small radius around the two ponies as Twilight began casting magic on herself. She grimaced as she felt the rib inside of her shifting, and Fluttershy looked on with pity. Within seconds, Twilight was breathing hard, resisting the urge to cry out in pain. Ponyville was some distance away, but she still did not wish to draw attention towards their presence. She squeezed her eyes shut and pushed her good hoof into the ground hard. After nearly a minute of pain, Twilight gasped in relief as she felt the broken bone finally return to normal. She repeated the process with her hoof, and thankfully it took much less time to heal.

"That...that wasn't very fun..." Twilight admitted as she sat up. Fluttershy quickly rushed to her side, bringing a hoof to Twilight's broken one but hesitating.

"Go ahead." Twilight assured her. Fluttershy poked the hoof lightly, and smiled when Twilight did not wince in pain.

"You're really good with magic." She laughed, and Twilight blushed.

"Nah. It wasn't that bad. Basic healing magic."

Standing now, Twilight brought her formerly broken hoof back onto the ground, slowly adding more and more pressure to it, until she was standing normally. While it wasn't completely painless, it was certainly better than what it had been before. She walked back and forth a few times to make sure she would be able to run if they were in a dangerous situation, and then turned to face Ponyville in the distance. Fluttershy stood beside her, and the two mares stood staring at the town in the distance, flickering candle lights the only other source of luminance other than the majestic moon and stars above them.  As they stood staring, a sudden, loud shrieking split into the night, and they both jumped up in fright. Fluttershy seemed to recognize the noise immediately.

"The Ponyville sirens! Have they seen us?"

After watching for a long time, they failed to see anypony actually leave Ponyville, but it looked like there was quite the commotion within. Whatever the reason for the siren was, it was not them. With nothing else to go on, the two mares began trotting towards the town, both remembering the dangerous dystopian settlement that lied ahead.

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