There was a thunderous snap, and then Luna and her island were floating in a vast orange sky. Nightmare Moon was gone, and she was alone again. No ground could be seen anywhere, only various black clouds formed into the shapes of sneering, laughing faces. In a thousand jeering voices, all ones she recognized from as far back as her childhood, the clouds continued Discord’s tirades.

“No one will ever love you as much as they love me.”

“You’re a coward.”

“You’re worthless.”

Luna no longer cared about keeping Discord from seeing her tears, especially now that the change in environment resulted in a renewed supply of air. Her body automatically gasped for it, the indignity of it making her even angrier, which in turn made the sobs come harder. It did not take long, however, for the anger to turn within. Any enemy she could have turned her wrath toward was simply too far away.

Falling down on the grass, Luna tried to cover her ears with her forelegs, but that only made the taunts louder.

“I looked up to you, and you let me down.”

“You’re a disappointment.”

“I can never trust you again.”

Her spell of protection began to falter. Sparks of energy flew off of her horn as its glow subsided. The shield shrank even further, allowing the clouds to get closer. They pressed on the border with their twisted, mocking faces and shouted their abuse at her.

An ancient warrior’s instinct reminded Luna to focus on and correct her breathing. She possessed little conscious desire to do so, but she nonetheless found herself deliberately concentrating on each inhalation and exhalation. She tried to think only of the sensation of the air passing through her mouth, filling her lungs for a count of three, and then flowing back out through her nostrils. Luna was just about to close her eyes to collect herself further when she noticed that the sky was moving.

Everything was passing upwards; her island was falling. She peered over the edge and saw that a vast, green sea was rapidly rushing up to meet her.

The breathing exercise prevented her from panicking. Luna began to beat her wings in an attempt to fight the heavy press of gravity on her. Discord, wherever he actually was, must have noticed, as that force of gravity instantly increased massively. Her wings were not strong enough to overcome the now-enormous weight, nor could her legs even lift her body up.

Luna’s instincts took over again. Instead of continuing to struggle, she let the tension flow out of her muscles, loosening her body up for the coming impact.

Platina reappeared several yards away, gasping for breath and calling her floating sigils back to her. She had them face out in all directions, her eyes warily scanning every possible angle of approach.

“Platina,” a soft whisper said, “you’re wasting time. Please take a moment to think.”

She whirled around in time to see a pony-shaped shadow… stepping out of Platina’s own shadow.

“About time you showed up,” Platina said hoarsely. “Help me out here.”

As Willowleaf separated her rotten body from Platina’s shadow, a part of the shadow came along with her, forming a dark, billowing robe to cover herself.

“As I said, that’s a waste of time,” Willowleaf said gently. She glanced at Lyra and the rest of the soldiers with them as they were battered around by Discord’s invisible magic. “Luna is his goal. Your desire to fight this spirit is just your ego doing your thinking for you.”

“Are you suggesting I let this creature try to usurp our position?” asked Platina, scoffing. “It is a threat to us.”

“Maybe so,” Willowleaf said, “but it’s out of our hooves now. He has Luna in a different plane. I have sent her a… vision of sorts that should help, but the rest is up to her. Now we’re just going to get in the way.”

“Hmph.” Platina turned away in time to direct her attack spells toward a snake-like tendril of cotton candy that was trying to wrap around a group of five soldiers. The explosions showered their coats with even more blood. Their wide eyes stared at her for a moment, then turned back to the multi-front battle happening all around them.

“I am serious, Platina.” Willowleaf stepped closer, and Platina instinctively took a step back at the sight and smell of her body. “No matter who wins, the forced dispersion of this much magical energy at once could very well obliterate the entire area. For miles, at least.”

Platina said nothing. Instead, she took note of where Captain Lyra painted her magical mark, and sent several of her floating, bloody disks of magic to aid the barrage. Most of it was directed near soldiers that were being pinned down or tossed around like ragdolls by Discord’s unseen hands. Laughter echoed in the clearing… though the ponies were making progress again. More trapped soldiers tumbled out of new spaces cleared.

“Please,” Willowleaf continued. She patted Platina's shoulder with one hoof, everything around the it gone except the bones, the hoof itself, and the pitch-black energy holding it all together. “I know we’ve had our differences, but you’re still a… a valued colleague. I don’t want to lose you over something like this.”

Platina’s face was set in a hard line, her jaw clenched as she was forced to direct her spells to multiple different locations. “Luna is much less useful to us without her army,” she said. “I’m going to get as many as I can out of this mess, and then we're going to destroy this spirit. You underestimate me, as always, if you think I haven't thought of how to contain the dispersion. So you can help, or not. I don’t care.”

Willowleaf gazed silently at her companion for a few long moments, then shook her head and began to melt into her shadow.

Luna felt much of her body break as she crashed into the ocean. Her defensive spell was still active and lessened some of the impact, but she still slammed into the surface hard enough to completely shatter the patch of earth that had been brought along with her when Discord’s assault first began. Alone with only a much-diminished bubble around her, Luna sank into the green sea.

Her first thought was how warm the water was; it was hotter than the air she had just fallen through, and hotter than her own body. Next, she wondered if she should even bother trying to swim out. Experience showed that Discord could keep this magic up for a long time. Luna’s will, however, was rapidly crumbling. There had been too much to process, in too short a time. Her desire to disappear was now stronger than ever.

Luna sank deeper, her eyes staring up at the quickly dimming orange light above.

“What now?” she asked the dying light.

Just then, Luna felt herself brush up against something behind her. She turned her body to look, but the water was too dark to make out anything but a vague shadow.

“What the heck?” A burbling voice came to her through the water. It sounded like a mare, and one that was distantly familiar. “Watch where you’re… Oh, no.” The figure laughed bitterly. “Are you serious? It’s not enough for you to ruin my life? Now you have to ruin my afterlife too?!”

As Luna’s eyes adjusted further to the darkness, the shape resolved into a black-maned mare with a white coat… with a fish’s tail replacing the lower half of her body.

Luna stared at Thin Mint, who swam just outside the magic shield and glared intensely. “This is not possible,” Luna declared. “None hath seen the dead before.”

“Go away,” Thin Mint said. She crossed her forelegs over her chest. “This is my ocean.”

Luna looked from side to side. “I would point out that thou art the one blessed with gills, whereas I am trapped within this shield.”

“I don’t care!” Thin Mint tried to shove Luna’s bubble away, to no avail. “This is my spot!”

“Would that I could,” Luna said. “I am not sure that I can find my path back at this juncture.”

Thin Mint scoffed through her gills, which resulted in a strange bubbling sound all around them. “Are you dead too, then?” she asked, leaning her head closer and squinting.

Luna looked down at her body, and at that moment she remembered that she should have run out of air several minutes ago. She was still breathing, but that could simply be instinct. “I… I suppose I must be,” she whispered.

“Great,” Thin Mint said. “So you decided to come here, of all places. Why?”

“I was not aware that I had a choice in the matter,” Luna replied. “Perhaps it is because of the overwhelming guilt I have always felt over thy fate.”

“Spare me your crap!” Thin Mint pounded a hoof on Luna’s barrier. “You never cared about me! If you do feel guilty, it’s only because you didn’t get enough of what you wanted. All my research, and I... I mean, it still wasn’t enough for you.”

Luna regarded this pony whom she had wronged so much, her heart threatening to burst as she recalled how innocent and eager Thin Mint had once looked, that day she first came to Luna’s Academy as a young foal. Luna wondered what had possessed her past self to stop fighting alone, to take on companions and to teach students. Celestia could have taught them everything she knew and more. Luna was redundant at her best, an active harm to the world at her worst, and the proof was right before her, admonishing her for her vain excuses. She knew this, but the excuses kept coming anyway.

“That is not true,” Luna protested as she reached out a hoof toward her former student’s hoof. “‘Twas not thy research I valued, but thy spirit. Breaking it is among my deepest regrets.”

Thin Mint looked Luna up and down. “You… you’ve changed. The Princess I knew wouldn’t have thought up a lie like that, at least. What’s your angle?”

“I have no ‘angle.’” Luna stared down into the dark water below. “It seems that my struggles are at an end, so there is no reason for falsehoods any longer. In truth, there never was. I should have always been forthright with thee. Half-truths are not the way of the Element of Honesty.”

The artificial sea pony sighed, a gesture that filled the water around them with bubbles and more distorted sound. Several minutes of silence followed as the two of them stared at each other, Luna drifting slowly down, and Thin Mint treading water at level with her.

“As long as we’re talking honestly, then,” Thin Mint finally said, “you should know I’ve told half-truths too. When I… when I died, I said I hated you…”

“I remember,” said Luna, hope surging in her heart for the first time since this all began.

“Well, I do.” The hope drained as quickly as it came. “More accurately, I despise you. I always wondered what my life would have been if I had never met you. Maybe I could have started a family, or maybe I could have created some spells ponies will actually remember me for, or I could have just lived a quiet little existence and died peacefully. Regardless, I can see no way it wouldn’t have been vastly improved. Yet even so… I guess that isn’t everything I feel.”

Luna waited for her to continue, but she was simply staring down at the abyss they were floating toward. “What else is there?” Luna prompted.

The pause continued for a few more moments, then Thin Mint answered quietly. “Admiration, respect, concern. I do wonder how much of it is brainwashing, but it’s there regardless. I guess it can’t be all brainwashing, because even before I knew you, I saw that you took in ponies who were… maybe not the highest exemplars of friendship or morality. You gave ponies from the shadows a chance, instead of letting them live in darkness, forgotten. You understood them, understood us. I’m grateful for that, even if it was a trick to turn us into your pawns.”

Luna felt more warm tears flowing down her cheeks. She did not bother wiping them away. “If that is true, then… canst thou ever forgive me?”

“No,” Thin Mint said with a firmness that broke Luna’s heart yet again. But then her student forced a small smile. “No, I can’t forgive you. But there can possibly be… understanding.”

Luna smiled too, closing her eyes as her whole body shook with sobs.

Once the tears passed, she opened her eyes, squinted at Thin Mint, then whispered again, “I suppose now is when thou ask me to lower my shield for an embrace, Discord?”

“Oh, come on,” Thin Mint said, throwing her hooves up in the water. “I looked at all your memories of Thin Mint, and I recreated her exactly as you saw her last. That essentially makes me her, Luna. That means I can absolve you of all your so-called sins against her. All it takes is one hug, and you’ll be right as rain.”

“Thou art not her,” Luna said, placing the small remaining kernel of light she had just found within herself into her spell. “But aye, that does make thee enough like her to offer… something.” The white energy crackled as it came rushing out of her horn, expanding her barrier at an explosive rate. Not just Thin Mint’s body, but the entire ocean was pushed away in seconds, leaving Luna hovering in the middle of a white void, her eyes glowing along with her horn. “I thank thee for the reminder of what little strength I do possess.”

Discord’s true form, face full of rage, was flying straight toward her from a great distance away. He was inside the expanded anti-chaos shield, which was causing pieces of his body to constantly dissolve and disappear. He was constantly reforming them as well, resulting in a trail of Discord pieces cluttering the empty whiteness that now surrounded them. “Luna,” he called out, “why are you bothering with all this? You have nothing left to fight for. It’s over!”

“‘Tis not over!” Luna shouted. She began to beat her wings so that she was flying directly toward Discord. “Thou art correct; I do indeed have nothing left. I know that I shall likely never be close to the ones I love again. There is too much pain there, too much regret and animosity. But I shall always have memories of calmer times, when we could laugh freely. I had the good fortune to attend the spa with Twilight Sparkle, to meditate with Zecora, to share pranks with Celestia… and to learn the world’s secrets with Thin Mint. I must carry those memories forward, as they are good and true. They must not be forgotten.”

The distance between them was still large, but it was rapidly closing as they both gained speed.

“Really? That’s it?” Discord produced a series of confetti bombs to throw at her. Luna ignored them completely, letting the explosions singe her flesh and the confetti shrapnel pierce her body. She regenerated quickly enough. “Memories are what you’re clinging to? Give me a break. You’ll never get to make new ones like that again, and over the centuries even the strongest of them will fade away. You’ll be all alone, a sad old mare sitting on a useless throne in a dying land. Assuming, of course, that I’m not ruling it instead.”

The two of them were now only dozens of yards apart. Luna kicked out with her foreleg using all the momentum her wings could gather. Discord saw the physical attack coming this time, and so he vanished just before it could connect. Luna also saw it coming, so before she had even finished the kick, she was preparing a teleportation spell. With a flash of moonlight, she reappeared behind his new location, then drove both of her rear legs into his back.

Discord went flying down into the empty whiteness. Instead of falling forever in it, however, he came to a sudden stop with the sound of bones breaking, and glass cracking. Cracks started to form in the entire space. Luna helped them along with another kick, causing the universe to shatter and fall away in countless pieces of nothingness.

When they disappeared, Luna hovered, wings flapping, above the enormous forest of cotton candy Discord had created. In the center of it, however, was a crater, where his bleeding body lied. Snarling, Discord forced himself to rise up, popping his limbs back into place where necessary. He prepared to snap his fingers again.

“If thy desire is truly to rule,” Luna yelled down to him, “then come and take my crown!”

Author's Notes:

One more part left! Thanks again to the usual suspects, and thanks for reading!