Chapter 11: Fading Light

Every city in Equestria was in a state of shock as they received the news. Headlines like, ‘Hundreds of ponies dead.’, ‘Dangerous criminals terrorizing Equestria.’ and many, many more changed the public mood to panic.

Many were unsure what to do now, most just locked themselves into their houses and only came out when it was absolutely necessary. Smaller town especially looked like ghost cities. The Nightmare of Canterlot wasn’t even two days ago. Every last pony in Equestria now knew the name of Twilight Sparkle.

On the other hoof, the entirety of her land had witnessed Celestia’s first defeat in over a thousand years. The fact that those who inflicted her this reputational wound were her sister and her student made it even worse. It was horrible for her, even though they captured the bat pony, it still felt like her Harmony was threatened. Over three hundred of her soldiers dead, nearly twice as much permanently injured.

Anger, pure unadulterated anger. The last time she felt like this the entire kingdom fell into a horrific and brutal war. It was the time she had to banish her sister…

Exhaustion… Exhaustion, and for most of them satisfaction were the two primary emotions of the rebellion leaders. They showed Celestia what power they had. Together with the bat ponies they cheered and celebrated that night. Everypony was happy, well, all but one… Pinkie Pie sat apart from all the others. Her hair still straight, her coat still duller than usual and her aura wasn’t quite as energetic.

She still felt incredibly guilty for the ponies she killed, she just lost it on the battlefield. She had wanted to protect her friends…

Suddenly somepony touched her shoulder, the pink mare twitched at the unsuspected physical contact. It was one of her best friends, Twilight Sparkle. “Hey Pinkie, are you alright?”

Pinkie looked at her friend and her look was also concerning, bandages covering her flank where Morning Blaze had hit her and many little scrapes and scratches all over her body. “Y-yes, Twilight, I-Im fine. You look far worse then me, look at your flank! It’s covered in bandages!”

“Oh, this? Nah, it’s fine. Just a little burn, that’s all. Back to my initial question, you seem so… off to me.”

It was no use hiding the truth from her friends, they had to trust each other, “Well, I… I just feel so guilty about everything.”

“You mean about the guards? They knew the risk of their job, Pinkie. I’ve talked about this topic time and time again with Rarity. You have to abandon this feeling of guilt, because something like that will happen again, it’s inevitable. Now more than ever, we started a war against the Sun Princess, her allies won’t just do nothing. After we recover I’m going to Manehattan again. I have to talk with Capone, now that so many ponies are so insecure, we can get new members even easier.”

Without replying to her speech, the pink mare nodded. Twilight was right, that would happen again, but could she really get over the guilt of taking someone's life?

“Twilight… What exactly is your plan? What do you hope to achieve with all of this?”

“Why, making Celestia pay of course, she used me and her sister as simple tools, maybe she will feel the pain if we make her as helpless as we were. And after we are done with that, the government of this country will get some drastic changes.”

Her friend only wanted the best for them, that’s what she hoped at least.

At the other side of the giant rectangular table, Rarity told a group of curious bat ponies about the battle. Well, about how fabulous her magic was and a little showcase as she crystallized a small flower from outside. Many of the bat ponies were upset that they couldn’t help them and about what happened to Silver.

They all had no idea if he survived or where he was. He could be dead, brainwashed, captured, it was frustrating to know that they couldn’t help him.

Twilight hadn’t seen Luna on the celebration, she was used to see the blue alicorn at a distance, never warming up to a conversation, never laughing… except when the Nightmare tried to take over. The lavender mare couldn’t really find any rest that night, so she decided to look at the plans in their command room.

Right before she was about to enter, the lavender mare heard quiet scribbling noises, coming out of the room. Twilight guessed that it must have been the princess, so she slowly opened the door.

“Princess Luna?”

Luna sat on a big comfy chair next to the command table with the big map of Equestria on it. Several smaller maps and little figures that should represent soldiers were sprawled across the round furniture. “You don’t have to call me princess, Twilight. The title is worthless to me.”

“What are you doing in here so late?”

“It isn’t late, the sun should have risen three hours ago,” the lunar demi-goddess replied. She arranged a large group of figures around the area of Canterlot, as well as in several other major cities, it looked exactly like the events not even two days ago.

“That doesn’t answer my question, Luna. We are the foundation of this rebellion, it rises and falls alongside us. We don’t have to trust each other, trust is for fools, but we mutually benefit each other and that...that is a solid foundation for this to work.”

The former princess looked at her ‘partner’ and stated, “Well spoken, I was trying to analyze our mistakes and how to avoid them, should it come to something like that again.”

“I see… A lot of things could have gone better, maybe Silver would still be with us if we had a better plan.”

“Indeed, but let bygones be bygones. We have more important matters to handle,” Luna explained. They had to be prepared in case Celestia had enough of the ‘rabbit chase’.

“Yes, that’s why I’m going to Manehattan in a few hours. Capone knows a lot more about the citizens of Equestria than we do, and we have to make sure that nopony wants Celestia as a princess anymore, I have several options in development which I will share in due time.”

Luna gazed into her eyes, scanning for signs of doubt. For Twilight it felt like her partner pierced through her very soul, “We’ll talk when you are back. There are some things we need to take care of as soon as possible.”

“Alright.”

Two hours later, before anypony was even awake, Twilight was already trotting towards Capone’s dock. She had to be careful at any given time, not only did the vast majority of Equestria’s citizens know her face, but even the most dangerous soldiers of Celestia were constantly chasing her.

Fortunately Twilight had the nifty ability to travel with the shadows. So the entire journey went without a hitch. By now the tall and sturdy guard at the entrance knew her and let the lavender unicorn in without hesitation.

At the back end of the hall, always smoking a cigar, sat Capone, dangerous mercenary, high class smuggler and her ally. “I imagined that you would come back, sooner or later. Quite the show you gave us, Miss Sparkle.”

“I’m not here for fun, Capone. I need some updates, how is the situation in Equestria right now? You have your spies, mercenaries, whatever you want to call them, all over the land.”

He blew a cloud of smoke into and answered her in a serious tone, “... Chaotic, to say at least. The ponies of this land are uncertain, easily manipulated, if that’s what you are aiming for. The smaller cities especially are in a bad position right now, for example Ponyville, over seventy percent of the locals fled or retreated towards the south of Equestria. The others? Guards, many guards, every town has nearly doubled their numbers of Celestia’s soldiers, only a small percentage are citizens who are quite angry at the princess. If my sources are correct they are currently captured in the big town hall, for interrogation. Apparently for some havoc they caused.”

“Good… very good,” Twilight replied, already thinking about possible ways to take advantage of that. “I’ll need a small group of your mercenaries, about twenty or so. They should hide around the city for the next few days, ready to attack, especially around the barracks the guards live.”

“Everything you need ‘Deathbringer’,” Capone said in a mocking tone. The lavender unicorn stopped for a moment.

“What did you call me?”

“Ah, so you haven’t seen your new wanted poster yet.” He handed it over to the curious unicorn.

Her bounty had risen up to a astonishing amount of money, over one million bits, and she got herself a nickname, Twilight ‘Deathbringer’ Sparkle. “I guess this has been distributed to all cities in the land, right?”

The stallion nodded and stated, “Every last pony of Equestria now knows you as ‘The Deathbringer’, a bit over-dramatic if you ask me, but I presume your ‘plan’ in Ponyville will reinforce that fear of the residents.”

“Let’s just say we will finally get a real headquarter…”

Horrifying, that was the only word that came even close to describing the last few days. Informing the families of the fallen, the stacks of paperwork, the reputational damage constantly coming from her subjects. Celestia went through hell yet again in those last few days.

Today she made an unannounced visit to the Canterlot Hospital, to say that it was crowded was an understatement. Hundreds upon hundreds of injured soldiers littered the temporary beds of the big, white halls. The one responsible for this, her wronged student, known throughout the land as the ‘Deathbringer’.

One nurse informed her about the state Rainbow Dash was in, and it was not looking good. Many internal injuries and organ damages, it wasn’t likely she would wake up, ever again. The second cause why she was there laid in a clean white bed, bandages covering his bright, yellow fur. Although he was still alive, the stallion looked pretty depressed.

“How are you feeling today, Dawn Comet?” The princess asked in a gentle, yet polite manner.

“What an honor to be visited by the princess herself.” Dawn lifted his head as far as his bandages allowed him to. “Honestly? Not good, it’s not the physical injuries that hurt, I can take quite a few hits, rather what happened in the castle.”

“Because Nightmare Moon bested you? Dawn, she is the most dangerous—”

He interrupted her angrily, “No! Princess… I… I am one of your elite soldiers. I am trained to fight with criminals, Nightmare Moon is no exception… and yet… I lost. You had to fight her, because I wasn’t strong enough.”

She shook her head slowly and explained, “You were, and still are one of my best soldiers. The only ponies other than… Twilight Sparkle and me, who would have been able to defeat her, have long since deceased. I will not lie, the situation is not in our favor. I had hoped to defeat her with the help of my student and the Elements of Harmony, but Nightmare Moon guards them closely at all times, I am sure of that.”

“Your student… the most promising young unicorn of this era, turned into an instrument of death and destruction. Princess…” He broke out into a coughing fit, it took him several minutes before Dawn could continue, “Don’t you think that transformation was a little… extreme?”

“Explain yourself, Dawn.”

“It’s just… she seemed so cruel, so full of hatred for everything that was related… to you. A change like that is created after years of anger, not weeks… it was almost unnatural how cold she was.”

“I knew her better than almost anypony else, general. You don’t have to tell me how much my student lost her way…” It hurt, Twilight was still very dear to Celestia. Deep inside her, she clinged at the idea that her once so smart and innocent little student would simply return, like nothing ever happened.

“I didn’t mean it like that. I’m truly sorry, princess.” Dawn could see that the loss of her personal protege still hurt. “I just think that… maybe, Nightmare Moon has something to do with it. What if she is controlling your student? I’m sure this evil creature knows a spell for that.”

How could she have been so stupid?! Why hadn’t she thought about it earlier? She had to visit Morning Blaze again. “This might be a possibility… Anyways, I’m fairly busy today, so I will leave you now. Please don’t think a second longer that it was your fault, Dawn. It wasn’t, and I will gladly welcome you back, after you have recovered.”

Since the incident at the Castle, Morning Blaze had stayed at home, the behaviour of her student really worried the yellow mare. At first she thought that it was some kind of ‘phase’ Twilight was going through, eventually it would just stop, but after Blaze had seen the lavender mare slaughter dozens of innocent ponies…

Three quick knocks at her door suddenly interrupted her train of thought, “I’m coming!”

As the curious mare opened her wooden door, the creaking hinges revealed Princess Celestia in all her glory, standing right before her. Blaze immediately bowed and said, “Greetings, your Highness. What are you—”

Celestia quickly talked over her, “No time for formalities, Morning Blaze. I have to ask you something, regarding Twilight.”

The yellow mare’s facial expression changed from surprised to dead serious, “What is it, Celestia?”

“You have trained her for more than a year, seeing her almost every day. Did you get, at any point last year, a feeling that Twilight was talking to herself? Or maybe closing her eyes for a longer period of time? Even a sudden change of opinion could be important.”

Morning raised a hoof to her chin, “Hmm… Now that I think about it… Yes, she did all of those things at some point, but every time I tried to talk about it, Twilight just pushed me away.”

“Oh no...”

“What is going on? What is happening to her?”

“She is cursed… Tainted by an extremely powerful, ancient being… The Nightmare.”

“Nightmare… like in Nightmare Moon?!” Blaze gasped. How could something like that happen to her lovely, innocent student?

“Yes, all the signs point to that… The Nightmare is a sentient being, created by Nightmare Moon, it gave her power, but at the cost of her sanity. If it finds another powerful unicorn it tries to taint it too, infesting the victim with a tiny splinter of itself. It feeds off of magical energy and we both know that Twilight has tons of it. Now it drained her enough to take control…”

“I-is there a way to stop it?” the yellow mare asked, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear an honest answer.

“The only known way to purify the victim, is to use the Elements of Harmony. The problem is that Nightmare Moon has stolen them long ago… and they need to be used by six special ponies, the Elements choose the bearer, not the other way around. I might have an idea which ponies are fit for that role, but one of them is in a coma, another one missing, one deeply traumatized and the other three are in an alliance with Nightmare Moon…”

“Please don’t tell me that you are talking about these five mares from Ponyville and Twilight… You have only seen them once, how could you possibly know that?!”

“Their aura. I could feel it as they all were present. They might not know it, but they all are predestined for that role. We need to gather them, capturing them if we must, but time is of the essence. If we wait longer to act, they’ll start attacking smaller cities after a while even larger ones, and soon all of Equestria. All of us have seen what only four of them could do… A whole army though…”

Blaze took a moment to process this new, crazy information, “So… There are a number of problems I am sure you are aware of…”

“Yes, we still know nothing about Fluttershy’s whereabouts, it is not certain if Rainbow Dash will survive her injuries and not even I can take Twilight in a magical duel, at least while the Nightmare is still controlling her.”

“What are we going to do…”

“Develop an extraordinary plan, Blaze. I am not the ruler of this land because of my pretty face… Specter sent me a letter, his preparations are complete and his archmages are positioned all over Equestria…Our chance to get some insider information about them. Also we are not alone, Equestria has many strong allies that will aid us without a doubt.”

“I sure hope this works, princess. We both want Twilight back in one piece.”

Celestia nodded in agreement. The next few weeks would be horrible, but together it could work.

Twilight’s stay in Manehattan went rather successful. Most of Capone’s mercenaries were already in position and she already had a plan for attack. It wouldn’t be difficult, not at all, any of the four leaders could do it on their own, but it was safer this way.

Her partners were already gathered in the main hall, waiting for her return. As the rift closed, the lavender unicorn was greeted warmly by them, even Pinkie… she looked much better today.

Rarity sat next to her and spoke up first, “Well? How did it go, darling? Any new important information?”

“The entirety of Equestria calls me ‘The Deathbringer’ now and I have a plan for getting us a new headquarter.”

Half an hour later, Twilight had explained every little, intricate detail of how to conquer Ponyville… Even Pinkie knew that this was not without a risk, Celestia would do anything she could to retake the city.

“Twilight…” Luna started. “Are you sure this is the best way to approach the situation?”

“Of course it is! We’ll get a new base, some new rebels and best of all, starting to destroy Celestia’s system. It is too late to stop now anyway, if any of you want to come along, feel free to, but leave the killing to me...”

Everypony was surprised about Twilight’s sudden shift in behaviour, conquering a whole city? Hopefully that would end up well.

All of them came along, after some more discussion. The walk to the city took them a while because they had to open the portal out of reach for the guards. Several miles were behind them already, all of the bat ponies had remarkable stamina, but Rarity was starting to get exhausted.

“Darling… I’m not an athlete... “

“You get your rest now, Rarity, because we are already there.” Twilight was right, the small group reached the outskirts of Ponyville. Only a good dozen meters away from the newly built barracks. About ten, big, green military tents organized in a neat line. On some of the rooves nearby, the lavender mare could already spot some of Capone’s ‘workers’. Also, right before the barracks, built out of steel bars and iron, was a giant, cuboidal cage, used to ‘house’ the so called ‘criminals’. There were around thirty of them, looking quite angry at the tents.

Since it was already pretty late, most of the guards sat inside their tents, playing cards or drinking. Twilight guessed that their superior was either not around or not very strict. The only thing she needed to do now, was to give them a signal. The lavender mare crawled through the high grass just outside the tent, drawing her weapon.

Instead of destroying it with her sword, she lit it on fire, that would certainly be a symbol they would understand. As the horrifying screams of agony started from inside the flaming inferno, the other rebels attacked, exclaiming various warcries in languages the student didn’t understand.

She joined in, cutting through the guards outside like paper, scattering their dismembered, bloody bodies over the grassy field outside the small town. It was mind numbingly easy, the ‘battle’ was over in minutes, all the tents were either on fire, burning the dead bodies with them, or totally destroyed. Those weren’t real guards, they were recruits at best.

After the bloodshed had ended, all of Capone’s gangsters vanished as quickly as they came, assuring her to inform their boss. Twilight calmly walked over to the big cage, “Step back if you don’t want to be cut into pieces…”

Three strikes in rapid succession was all it took, the entire front of the cube was scattered on the smoldering remains of the barracks, as simple metal scrap. She stepped inside the mess of metal bars and blocked the exit for the rebels, “So, you all are the rebels that caused so much trouble in Ponyville?”

She laughed shortly as the dangerous mare saw their unsure faces, “Good, the first step into the right direction. As I see it, you all have two options… either you try to crawl back to Celestia in which case I have to brutally murder you, or you all join me and Princess Luna and help to end the tyranny of the deceiving alicorn.”

Nothing happened for a few seconds, they looked around in uncertainty. Was she serious? Ending Celestia’s reign?

One pony out of the crowd started to laugh, Twilight couldn’t see the source, but it was certainly a male voice, “The Deathbringer wants to tell us something about freedom.”

Nervous mumbling started to emanate from the larger group, words that repeated themselves over and over were Deathbringer and Twilight Sparkle.

Suddenly the mysterious stallion spoke up again, “What other possibility do we have? I don’t think any of us wants to return to Celestia. Follow the wind, let’s see where famous Twilight Sparkle will lead us.”

More nervous mumbling, as Twilight was about to speak up, one by one started to kneel before her. She exclaimed firmly, “Are you all ready to join me? To leave Celestia behind and to do everything that is necessary to end her reign?!”

“Yes, General Sparkle!” They all said in unison.

“Good, very good.” The notorious mare began to laugh maniacally, it had an uncanny similarity to Luna’s laugh, maybe the Nightmare was really getting to her. She stopped abruptly and noticed the strange satisfaction that came with this evil laughter, “Every last one of you will help the three other leaders of our rebellion to change the entire inner city from a lowly town to a top tier stronghold! Laziness won’t be tolerated. Almost everything we need, you can find within the city, cannons, tools, materials, weapons…”

Everyone left the destroyed cage and met up with Luna, Pinkie and Rarity, well… almost everyone. A beige unicorn with a tied up, blonde ponytail, a rather short tail and a white lotus as his cutie mark, sat cross legged on the floor. Strapped to his back, with some kind of cord, was a one and a half meter long, heavily decorated sword sheath, not just any sword, but an exotic katana. Not many of those were used anymore, at least that was what her brother had told Twilight.

His ice blue eyes gazed into her own, it was like he tried to pierce through the lavender mare’s soul, with just a mere thought. As he spoke up, a smooth, masculine voice came out, “So, Deathbringer or would you prefer ‘General Sparkle’, you are now the rebel’s leader. Wondrous what can happen to ponies in the span of a short year, from the beacon of light, the protector of Harmony, to the legendary Deathbringer, the Reaver of Souls, like some superstitious locals started to call you.”

“Do I… Do I know you? Your voice seems familiar, and that sword…” It took her a moment, but then it hit her like a truck. “Of course, how could I have missed it?! You are Silent Flare! You were captain of Celestia’s third division, before Eclipse replaced you. They called you the ‘silent storm’. I’ve seen you a couple of times around the castle.”

“Sweet memories… but yes, Celestia kicked me out, well… condemned me to a lifelong exile because ‘apparently’, slaughtering an entire village that housed a few criminals was ‘not ethically justifiable’. Her dungeons weren’t really all that pleasant, but painfully insecure. I summon storms that can eradicate entire countries and my wind blades can each compare to the very best Equestria has to offer, why would some iron bars stop me?”

Twilight laughed again, this time it took her slightly longer to stop, it just felt so… good, “I think you’ll like it in our team. I have a question though, if you are using magical wind blades that are ‘the best’, why bother on carrying around a real sword all the time?”

“Oh, I know they can’t compare to your sword, ‘General’, I’ve seen what it is capable of, but they are sufficient for my fighting style and answering the second one is simple.” Flare drew the sword out of the sheath, it’s black steel slightly curved. The single-edged blade’s hardening line had the appearance of a saw, or sharp teeth, having a very distinctive pattern at the edge’s ending. “This is made out of gryphonian steel, very rare and very hard to acquire, but in return, gives the blade near unbreakability and makes it extremely keen towards enchantments. In combination with various elemental Infusions, it makes a great catalyst for the occasional bloodlust.”

“Then why sit in this cage, waiting to be brought back to Celestia and why would you help us?”

“Why should I bother? It’s not that Celestia could imprison me anytime soon, if I cared, I could have been her top general, but I’drather be underestimated than the other way around. Regarding your second question, why not? You have power, Twilight Sparkle, I respect that. Also, you finally got some fresh air into this boring land, I can’t stand decades of peace, war is my purpose, the only thing I'm good at and it shall be my grave when the time comes.”

“Well spoken,” Twilight looked at their new ally lazily, he was just another tool in her plan. “Then let’s get to work, we won’t have much time before Celestia notices our little victory here.”

The orange earth pony mare hated hospitals… All those injured people, unable to move, sometimes screaming in pain. Applejack wished she could help them… help all of them, but that was not why she visited the gruelling place, the mare wanted to be certain. She hadn’t dared to visit a certain pegasus since the incident.

After a few minutes talking with a nice nurse, she was finally able to find the blue pegasus’ bed. Her walking speed slowed down more and more, ever since Twilight likely killed one of her best friends and made the other disappear, Applejack’s thoughts had been filled with guilt, horrible, horrible guilt. She could’ve done something, not just standing around, listening to the lavender mare’s taunts and watching her slaughter all those innocent ponies.

She reached her destination, sitting down on a small chair, next to the blue pegasus, “Rainbow…” Nothing more came out of her mouth, it was near impossible to hold back her tears, as she saw in what state RD was in.

Nearly her entire body was covered in bandages… bloody bandages. Not a single spot was not bruised or horribly scarred where her coat could actually be seen. Many different tubes were connecting the bold mare with complex machines AJ didn’t recognize. A little box was projecting some weird lines, only later she realized that it was her friend’s heartbeat, slow and weak, just like the orange mare herself…

Suddenly a rough, male voice spoke to her from the side, “H-hey… you’re that farm pony from Ponyville, that was present in the Nightmare of Canterlot… right?”

Applejack turned her head, tear streaks visible under her eyes, “Yeah, do ah know ya?”

“Heh… Probably not,” It was a yellow unicorn, apparently much older than her, also covered in bandages, “I’m Dawn Comet, General of Celestia’s Royal Army on duty…”

“You were the fella fightin’ against Nightmare Moon, right?” The country mare replied, another innocent pony, hurt because of her friend’s actions.

“Fighting... “ He gave a small, sad chuckle, “More like losing… I couldn’t slow her down for more than a minute, because of that, hundreds of ponies died or are in the process of dying, look at your friend over there. I’ve heard the doctors talk, it wasn’t sounding very good, a perfect example of what Nightmare Moon’s legion is capable off…”

As Dawn didn’t get any kind of response he continued, “Pinkamena Diane Pie only killed a few, the fashionista… dozens, Nightmare moon? Almost twice as much, but worst of all was the Deathbringer… Twilight Sparkle. She alone killed more than any of them combined, hundreds… Listen to me girl! You have to stop her, this isn’t natural, nopony can be that cruel, merciless and cold…”

“Ah… Ah can’t… Even… Even if that’s true… How could Ah kill another friend? We lost Fluttershy, it isn’t sure if RD is ever gonna be okay, Ah can’t lose them too…” Applejack broke down into tears, sobbing into her hooves, her stetson tilted over her eyes, so that nopony could see her… like this.

The old stallion wasn’t sure what he could do to make her feel better, nothing he had to say about these… criminals was helpful in any way right now. So he just stayed quiet, Dawn would put an end to this… somehow.

“Oh princess… this will be a lot harder than any of us could’ve ever imagined,” He thought to himself. The real fight had not even started yet.