Another scroll appeared in a silent pop of light, falling slowly onto the sizable pile to her left. She ignored it. They were getting more insistent, arriving several times an hour now. She wondered if she could cast some spell to stop them getting here at all.

She sighed, frozen tears cascading down her cheeks.

Sighing is so damned unsatisfying with no air. Nothing to blow out through your nostrils.

She went back to gazing sadly up at the world, wondering how long she could stay here before giving in. She'd lasted two weeks. She didn't think she could stay another second.

They've got to die. All five of them. It's too risky. They stopped me once, they can stop me again.

She agreed with herself.

And then I can kill everything else. But them first. Too much of a risk to start, if they're alive.

She couldn't remember if she was crying because she'd hurt Fluttershy, or because she hadn't killed her.

"Why don't ya' just go an' GET HER?" Applejack asked, exasperated. Then, she remembered who she was talking to. "Uh, sorry, Princess. Ah just miss ma friend, is all."

"I miss her too, Applejack. But I can't go and get her. I can't go to the moon." Celestia shook her head sadly.

The meeting was taking place in the Ponyville library, as per Celestia's suggestion. It was far more convenient for the two alicorns to travel to the village than it was for the five mortal ponies, and one relatively-mortal dragon, to travel to Canterlot.

"Buh-but you sent Princess Luna there!" Rarity objected, with a nervous glance at the younger alicorn, who was busying herself with pacing around and looking annoyed. "A thousand years ago! And you can raise the sun! And Princess Luna can move the moon and stars! That's more magic than you could possibly need to just go and get her!"

"I used the Elements of Harmony to imprison my sister within the moon." Celestia bowed her head slightly. "And my sister had vast, unimaginable powers available to her when the prison broke, so coming back from the moon was trivial. But remember the special circumstances surrounding each of these events. Twilight Sparkle has powers that dwarf our own, even combined. She has simply taken herself out of our direct reach. Neither Luna nor myself can teleport to the moon. It's too far. We would die in the attempt."

These words were like thunder in the ears of the five ponies and one dragon. The Princesses could do anything, couldn't they?

Apparently not.

"We can send scrolls. We are constantly sending her scrolls. But we cannot go ourselves. Such a thing is beyond us!" Luna stopped her pacing and glared. She looked angry. "Nor can we send a messenger. You are all too large, even the dragon, and even if we could send you, you would perish almost immediately! Twilight Sparkle can survive such a place," Luna snorted, "and so could I. But no mortal creature can."

"Well," Fluttershy put in, "you could always ask me how to get her back."

Two earth ponies, one pegasus pony, one unicorn pony, two immortal alicorns, and one baby dragon looked at the shyest pony any of them had ever met. The determination on the yellow pegasus's face was incredible.

"Do you want her back? Because I want her back."

Celestia bowed her head. "What do you suggest?"

"Princess Luna? I have a question. It's about bringing the night," Fluttershy asked. Luna cocked her head. "What else can you do with the night sky?"

The sun had set. The night had risen. They were ready to try.

"Please remember, my little ponies, that she may not come back, even after this," Celestia said.

Fluttershy simply looked determined. "We have to try. What are we if we don't try to get our friend back?"

Celestia looked at Luna. The younger alicorn nodded back slowly. A hundred members of the Royal Guard were in Ponyville, just in case. They were door-knocking right now, just in case. They had orders that Celestia had never imagined she would have to issue. Just in case.

"Little Sister, if you would please do the honours?"

Luna trotted up the short staircase to the library's large picture-window. The glass panels glowed pale blue, opened, swung outwards. She had a fine view of her magnificent night sky. The other ponies gathered around as she raised her head, closed her eyes, and sent the magic of the night out to all of the infinite heavens.

They looked at the dark silhouette on the face of the gibbous moon.

They waited.

They hoped.

The stars...

Twilight blinked. The stars. The stars were moving.

The constellations swirled and changed, individual points of light and great clusters, all moving, slowly, steadily.

They were bunching together, forming lines, curves, twists... words. They were forming words.

Twilight looked on, stunned, as the entire universe rearranged itself, just for her. They were sending her a message. She wouldn't read the scrolls, so they were moving the very heavens themselves to give her a message.

Fluttershy...

Fluttershy misses me...

After I...

She remembered what she'd done. Her eyes snapped wide, shattering the twin trails of ice on her cheeks.

She remembered what she HADN'T done.

Fluttershy! She's alive! She's still alive!

They can use the Elements!

The enormous image of a weeping alicorn vanished from the face of the moon.

Her hooves touched the wooden floor of the library's large, welcoming ground floor.

A pink-and-yellow blur slammed into her. A pair of front legs wrapped tightly around her neck. She was being ferociously hugged by a crying pegasus. Her vision was completely blocked now by light-pink hair, but she'd briefly caught a glimpse of who else was in the room.

All of her friends.

Excellent.

And the Princesses.

Damn.

"Twilight! Twilight! Oh, thank goodness! I thought you were never coming back! Oh, I've missed you so much! Oh! You're so cold!"

"Fluttershy!" Twilight gasped, hugging back.

I'm so sorry I didn't kill you.

"I'm so sorry I almost killed you! Are you alright? Are you okay? Was anypony else hurt? I'm so sorry! I -"

Soft thumps as all of her other friends joined the hug. Sniffs and sobs. Twilight was crying with sheer joy.

I have you all right here, you can't get away, and now you're all going to die. I'm so happy!

"My friends! My best... My best friends! I... I don't know what I was thinking! You're all here! I'm so happy!"

The hug broke up. Twilight stepped back and looked with trepidation at the beaming pony right in front of her. Fluttershy looked fine. There were a few patches where her coat hadn't quite grown back in. "You're alright! You're okay! I thought you were dead! I... I... I just..."

Fluttershy wiggled her wings, her smile getting wider. The feathers on one were a little fluffier than the other. "I'm just fine! The Princess herself arrived at the spa right after the explosion! There were quite a few burns and a couple of sprains. I was the worst but she regrew my wing just like that! Oh, you were right. I was so hungry! Remember, right after you got your wings?"

Twilight was momentarily distracted by the sight of Luna, standing at the large, round picture window. The midnight-blue Princess stood silently, back to Twilight, eyes closed, horn glowing as she restored the heavens. Below her stood her older sister. She was behind the circle of her chattering friends, smiling down at Twilight. The small alicorn jumped forward and nuzzled her neck. "Celestia! Oh, I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"

Celestia sat back and looked quizzical. "Why are you sorry, Twilight Sparkle? There was no harm done."

I'm sorry you're here and I can't just start slaughtering my friends.

"I'm sorry for running away!" She turned around, to look at all of her best friends. She smiled.

Maybe a fire spell. I could burn them to death.

No, just telekinesis. Easy. Crush them.

Whatever's quick and clean. They don't have to suffer.

But maybe...

Maybe I want them to suffer...

Maybe that would be... Delicious...

"Uh, Twi'?" Her farmer friend was looking at her with the deepest concern. "Y'all right there, sugarcube?"

Twilight seized Applejack and hurled her, at an appreciable fraction of the speed of sound, straight at the wall.

WHAT AM I DOING?! THE PRINCESSES ARE IN THE ROOM!

She teleported Applejack right back to where she had been standing. The orange earth pony fell over with a muffled "Ooof!"

The newest alicorn was standing stock-still, staring at Applejack.

There was absolute silence for a moment, then Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash helped Applejack back to her hooves. She looked windswept, and appeared to be trying not to throw up. Twilight felt a hoof touch her shoulder. Celestia. She could feel the ornamental shoe, see the gleam of gold out of the corner of her eye.

Did I just do that faster than Celestia or Luna could react?

...Excellent.

"Applejack. Are you okay, AJ? Did I hurt you?" Twilight's voice was incredibly calm and soft.

"Ah, uh, woah, my stars. Ah'm okay, Twi'. Dizzier'n a spinnin' top, but Ah'm okay. What jus' happened?"

Twilight closed her eyes briefly. Opening them again, she continued speaking in that cool, calm, collected voice.

"I just picked you up and threw you at the wall. Then I realised what I was doing and teleported you back. If I hadn't caught you in time, you would have hit the wall, and you were moving fast enough to die from the impact. I just tried to kill you, Applejack. I'm so sorry."

I'm so sorry that Celestia and Luna are here. Well, Luna is terrified of me. Might be able to use that... Celestia, though. Hmmm.

There was complete and total silence. Twilight closed her eyes again. She felt Celestia right beside her. She took a deep breath.

At least I can sigh properly again.

She sighed.

Twilight opened her eyes and looked at her friends. She smiled.

"I'm going to kill all of you."

Every single face in the room was beyond shock.

Can't do anything with both Princesses in the room.

So, get rid of them, dummy!

Celestia and Luna shouted in surprise, both igniting their own horns, when they felt Twilight's magic begin to surge. By the time they had noticed, however, they were already far, far too late.

With one almighty shove, Twilight had thrown them both from the library, Luna flying straight through the window she was standing at, and Celestia shattering the front door into matchsticks as she was unceremoniously hurled through it. As Celestia scrambled back to her hooves, glancing quickly around to see that Luna had taken flight and was heading straight back towards the smashed window, an enormous reddish-purple haze erupted in the air before them. Tightly enclosing the library, a vast, undulating, writhing magical bubble had appeared, ostensibly to keep the two royal alicorns from re-entering the tree.

"Twilight! Twilight Sparkle! What are you doing?!" Celestia shouted. What answered her from inside the library almost brought her heart to a stop.

Laughter. Gleeful psychotic laughter, and then, to her dread, screams of terror.

Twilight was rolling on the floor, laughing so hard that tears were streaming down her cheeks. All six of her friends were scrambling to get away. Rainbow Dash had grabbed Applejack, who she was still supporting, and flown straight at the window that Luna had been blasted through, crashing off the inside of the magical barrier with a flash of hot sparks. The rainbow-blue pegasus was trying to struggle back to her feet, while Applejack, who seemed to have caught the full magical recoil from the barrier, was flopping around drunkenly, moaning in pain, while thin trickles of blood began to seep from her ears. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rarity, levitating a crying Spike before her, had fled upstairs, hard on each other's hooves.

This won't do... Oh, this just won't do at all. Everypony needs to have a front-row seat for this.

As her powerful barrier flashed and flickered and hummed under wild attacks from the two alicorns outside, the alicorn inside sat up, wiped her tear-streaked eyes, pointed her horn at the shaken, disorientated Rainbow Dash, and caught her in a small bubble of the same magic that was keeping the two Princesses from spoiling her fun - without the useful little incendiary-contact spell added, of course. She didn't want to burn them to death - at least, not yet. Applejack wasn't going anywhere at the moment. With another blaze of her horn, her four other friends came shrieking and tumbling down the stairs, before each of them were caught in their own personal floating prisons.

They all twisted and writhed in mid-air as the shouts from the Princesses became louder and more insistent. Luna was actually starting to sound hysterical.

Twilight stood up, then left the floor as enough magic started to pour through her that she levitated. Applejack glowed and began to float as well, as Twilight seized her most dependable friend with her magic. The orange earth pony was twitching her limbs feebly, trying to blink her dazed eyes open. There were small dark burns and angry blisters along her forelegs, where she'd smashed right into Twilight's impassible barrier. She cracked an eye open and gazed waveringly back at Twilight, confusion and pain clouding her red-streaked face. One of her ears had stopped bleeding, but the other one let out a new small rivulet as Twilight pivoted her through the air.

Now, where was I?

Smiling pleasantly at Applejack, Twilight clenched her magical fist, feeling and hearing a cascade of satisfying crunches, then hurled the broken pony against the far wall as hard as she could. With an impact that stunned every mortal eardrum in the room, the thick wooden partition cracked, a spray of fine red droplets spattering the wall in a wide ring around the crushed and ruined apple farmer. As the small, broken, bleeding body collapsed onto the floor with a sickly-wet crunchy thud, a torrent of horrified screams and shrieks erupted from her trapped friends. Fluttershy's eyes and mouth were open wide in complete terror. Rarity, also wide-eyed, was clutching at her chest and gasping. Rainbow Dash was screaming, her eyes shut, hooves in her ears. And both Spike and Pinkie Pie were vomiting explosively inside their tiny floating prisons of light.

Let them stew in it. I have a promise to keep first.

The rippling bubble around Fluttershy vanished, and the small yellow pegasus hit the floor. With a yelp of terror, Fluttershy started to bolt for the stairs again, but Twilight caught her. The new Night Mare grabbed her shy friend's wings and wrenched her off the floor and into the air.

Fluttershy screeched in agony - Twilight was purposefully bending and pulling her wing joints the wrong way. Tears of pain and terror were streaming down the madly-twisting pony's face as Twilight drew her close and looked deeply into her eyes.

All Fluttershy saw were two hot white orbs of utter horrific blankness. All she felt was pain so bad it made her sick, overlaid with the most immense terror she'd ever felt in her mostly-terrified life. But she knew. Fluttershy knew. This was different. She'd almost never been in actual danger before, she'd just spent most of her life over-reacting. This was SO different. Twilight had just smashed Applejack, one of her best friends, into a sickening crumpled mess that was now trailing streams of bright-red blood all over the wooden floor.

"Now, Fluttershy, dear," Twilight said in a very quiet, very soothing voice, "I believe I was going to eat your face." Fluttershy screamed and twisted madly. "Oh, don't worry. Don't worry. Plenty of time for that. Which was the wing that I accidentally snapped off you?"

The screams coming through the broken window were bad enough, but from twenty feet in the air, the royal sisters could see inside as well. Celestia felt her heart wrench as Twilight started waving Fluttershy's newly ripped-off wing in front of her streaming eyes. Hot spatters of blood were mixing with Fluttershy's anguished tears.

"Was it this one? No?"

Fluttershy screamed in agony and despair, drowning out the similar cries from Twilight's other friends.

"No matter." A crunching, tearing crack, a chorus of horrified screams. "It had to be one of 'em, right? I got it again. Perfect score. Now," another, louder scream from Fluttershy, "if I work my telekinesis into the skin, right here, just above your ear..." More anguished screams and sobs, then a screech of pure white-hot agony, a horrific ripping sound...

Celestia dropped to the ground like a stone, Luna flapping down to land beside her. "I can't do this. I can't sit here and watch, and hear... I just can't..." More screams from the open window and door. "I'll evacuate the town. Keep trying to get through the barrier!" Celestia took to the air and flew towards the nearest temporary guard post, bellowing orders.

Terrified, Luna leaped back into the air, throwing shards of her most powerful magic against the barrier to no apparent avail, and moved back towards the shattered window. She suddenly gasped in shock.

Twilight Sparkle. Dark smears around her muzzle. Ropes of bloody drool hanging from her slack, laughing mouth. A torn and dripping-red scrap of yellowish hide in her magical grasp. The small lavender alicorn was levitating just inside the empty window-frame, gazing at the Princess of the Night with eyes of fire.

Luna stared for a moment into the terrible, terrible eyes that gazed back at her from only three feet away, from out of her blackest nightmares, then she fell out of the sky, landing awkwardly on her side. She retched, bile screaming hotly up her throat. Thrashing and clambering wildly back to her hooves, shuddering, scrambling backwards, she choked down a mouthful of vomit and took to the air once more. Roaring back into the sky with a look of wild bestial panic on her face, she flew, as fast as she could, away from the library, away from Ponyville.

Away from The Lunacy.

Celestia saw her sister flee. She barked a few more quick orders at the guardsponies.

"Get them all out, fast! Don't let them take any possessions. Tell them their lives are at stake! Hurry!" She whirled away from the shocked golden-armoured pegasi and streaked back to the still-protected library.

Fluttershy wasn't trying to get away any more. She still twitched and softly gasped, but that wouldn't last much longer, as she was losing far too much blood. Twilight turned her attention towards her remaining friends.

My best friends...

This'll be over soon, and then I can just take the world apart.

Yay!

She threw Pinkie Pie, still within her prison, at the wall where Applejack had died. Not fast enough to kill, or even break bones this time. Twilight dropped her magical cage just as Pinkie hit the wall.

Splattered with her own stomach contents, the dazed pony fell full onto the broken, mangled body of her farmer friend. Choking and retching, Pinkie Pie scrambled up, eyes wide with horror, as she slipped and fell over the bloody, spongy mass. Hooves slick with blood and vomit, the pink earth pony tripped, landing on her back, throwing up again at the horrors that were shattering her happy world. She felt something seize her mane, and she was wrenched violently into the air by it.

Pinkie Pie had never felt such physical pain in all her life, but next to the emotional torture she was being subjected to, it was nothing. She was no stranger to misery and sadness, but to have it purposely inflicted upon her by one of her best friends in the whole wide world was too much. This was worse than rape. This was worse than murder. To see her friends dying in torment before her eyes... This was the most horrific torture that could be inflicted upon such a purely joyous spirit as herself, and she found that she couldn't take it. It was like asking an earthworm to comprehend an advanced mathematics problem. Impossible. So far outside her understanding and comprehension.

She passed out from utter emotional overload. Twilight cocked an eyebrow at her droopy pink friend.

Well, I don't really have to torture them to death, I just have to kill them. Even though it's a lot of fun. And my goodness, I do LOVE blood...

Still holding Pinkie aloft, she bent her head down to the ruin of Fluttershy's face. Small trickles of blood were still popping and oozing out of the torn muscles. Closing her eyes briefly, she licked Fluttershy's gruesome cheek. The red-and-yellow pegasus shuddered very slightly.

That tastes SO GOOD.

And there's plenty of blood for the moment. Don't need any more just yet.

Working Pinkie Pie's head carefully from side to side, she managed to dislocate the vertebrae and neatly sever the spinal cord. Tossing the floppy body aside as casually as a discarded tissue, she turned around again to see Spike, Rarity and Rainbow Dash all slumped unconscious themselves.

Frowning, Twilight released them, and they bumped and banged to the floor. Swooping softly towards Rarity, she noticed that the chest of the white unicorn was still.

Not breathing?

Frowning deeper, she picked her up, sending her magic flowing through the unicorn's skin, searching around her organs...

There.

Oh.

Rarity's heart wasn't beating. Perhaps the shock had been too much, and she'd suffered a heart attack? Quite possible.

Probably the sight of all this blood on the floor. So untidy.

Still, gotta make sure she's dead.

With sickening crunches and snaps, Twilight twisted Rarity's head completely around a full circle. Dark blood gushed in a torrent from the dead unicorn's elegant white nose, earning a squeal of delight at this unexpected surprise. Twilight lapped greedily for a moment at Rarity's gore-soaked muzzle, then, as a surge of inspiration hit her, lowered her lips to the red-stained cheek just to the side of Rarity's slack mouth. Running her teeth lightly along the skin for a moment, she became aware of something.

My teeth.

They're sharper than they should be.

They're... pointed?

Opening her mouth wider, she bit into the flesh of Rarity's face. She felt the tissues give way under her teeth, then her new set of dental implements met as she clenched her jaw and tore her face away from the dead unicorn's own. With a slight snapping sound, she found herself chewing deliciously on a mouthful of meat.

And it was oh, SO good.

Twilight swallowed. She was in heaven. Dropping the now assuredly-lifeless body, she bobbed along to her rainbow-maned friend. Yes, Rainbow Dash was breathing. So, this Bearer had just fainted, then. She picked her up.

Rainbow Dash yelled, seeming to come to her senses. She thrashed and spun wildly, fear etched deep all over her face. "Twilight! Twilight! Please! Oh please, oh please! Don't kill me! PLEASE! Oh no, please, PLEASE!" She began to beat her wings furiously in a frantic attempt to break Twilight's telekinetic grip, whipping up a reasonably impressive wind in the enclosed room.

Twilight paused, blinking suddenly. Her gaze wandered away from the struggling, shrieking pegasus and around the horrific sights in the ancient library's large and otherwise welcoming reading room. Pinkie Pie, her neck bent double, lying next to Applejack, a misshapen pile of bloody-orange flesh. Rarity, head twisted backwards, blood flowing slowly now from her nostrils, mouth and cheek, half-opened eyes glazing over. Fluttershy, covered in blood from snout to tail, the torn muscles and shredded ligaments of her face still shaking slightly as the last of her life escaped into the large sticky puddle of congealing red mess in which she lay. Spike, unconscious in a puddle of yellowish vomit, face-down, possibly even drowning in his own sick. Not an Element of Harmony, but still, she had to start on the "normal" folks sometime.

And here, in my grip, Rainbow Dash. The last Element. My friend, my most loyal friend, who taught me how to fly.

"Thanks for teaching me to fly, Rainbow Dash."

The hyperventilating rainbow-topped blur stopped screeching and twisting and looked straight at Twilight Sparkle with tear-filled, bloodshot eyes. "Whuh-what?"

"I really appreciated it! Oh, you're right. You're SO right! No wonder you never use your hooves if you can help it! It's fantastic! I love flying!"

Dash's eyes were flicking rapidly around the room, grief and terror darkening her face. "Oh, no- no, pr-pr-puh- No problem, Tw- Twi. You w-wanna g-go flying n-n-now?"

"No, I'm okay, thanks. But you go right ahead. Here," Twilight offered, dropping her magical barrier and pointing the pegasus at the window, "I'll get you started on your way."

Rainbow Dash found herself hurled through the ruined window at a speed many, many times faster than she had ever traveled in her life. Rainbow-coloured sparks and smoke burst from her feathers as she twisted, screaming, in the incredibly hard and hot air. The pressure and speed were far too great, and she felt one of her wings break with a stab of hot pain, whipping around into the slipstream behind her. With her skin blistering and cracking from the friction of her hypersonic passage, she burst into white-hot flames, flared briefly against the night sky, and screamed no more.

Twilight was about to go and see if Spike had drowned, or if she'd have to put a hoof through his skull for good measure, when she found that she couldn't move.

A thick, sparkling sheath of golden light had encased her. She unconsciously pulled on the spell, in a vain attempt to knock the caster out. The spell thickened, blazed brighter than the day.

She was caught.

Luna was flapping in mid-air, looking back at the distant lights of Ponyville. She had to go back. She had to. Those ponies, her beloved subjects, were being slaughtered by Twilight Sparkle! She couldn't stand it!

She started heading slowly back towards the town, dread and horror in her heart.

She couldn't possibly think of what she would do or how she would help. That magical barrier seemed completely impenetrable. Such a powerful spell! And there was the other problem. Twilight Sparkle would simply have to look at her again, and again, she would flee. She could not face The Lunacy. The fear... The fear was far too great.

Were she to still have the powers of The Night Mare, she might be able to do something. But those powers were gone. Too dark to begin with. And completely gone.

She could get them back...

If she succumbed...

She had no jealousy left in her. Her little ponies loved and enjoyed the night she made. They honoured her with one of their most beloved nights of celebration. Were she to fall to jealousy again... Even if she triumphed, would she not just try, once again, to bring forth eternal night? No. Too dangerous. Far too dangerous. And utterly impossible. She felt not a scrap of jealousy, not over anything.

Fear. She had fear. Fear for The Lunacy. She could fall to her fear, but how would that help? She would be afraid, far too afraid to do anything. She would run. She would probably use her dark powers to run to the moon and hide. But Twilight Sparkle could teleport to the moon unaided. And now... The Lunacy would follow her there, and find her in her terror. She could not fall to her fear.

Was there any hope?

Yes...

She hated The Lunacy. Far more powerful than her fear was her hatred for the thing that had taken her will, had made her overthrow and imprison her sister, had made her bring about her first fruitless attempt at endless night. She hated it. She could face it in hatred. She wouldn't be a risk to Equestria. She hated only The Lunacy.

Did she?

Luna examined her soul as she flew towards Ponyville. Besides The Lunacy, what did she hate?

Nothing. Hate was not in her nature. She was not born to hate. She was born to love, care, guide, rule.

But not to hate. The only hate she felt was for The Lunacy.

She could do this... To save Equestria... She would do this.

Luna released her instinctive alicorn restraint and began examining her darkest emotion. She let it seethe and boil.

Hate.

She hated The Lunacy.

Hated what it was doing to Twilight Sparkle.

Hated what it wanted to do to Equestria.

Hated what it had done to her, most of all.

Luna concentrated very hard on just how much she hated this monster.

Deeper and blacker and colder than the lowest pit of Hell, a hatred to crack the very world rose through her, consumed her.

Transformed her.

The night sky flashed brilliant white to match her unquenchable fury, then the moon and the stars winked out, leaving only a blackness above as profound as the hatred in her heart. Straight ahead, a distant fireball blossomed into the sky. She streaked towards it with the strong, powerful beating of wings as dark as the night around her.

Why didn't I throw Rainbow Dash INTO the barrier? That would have killed her too. Why did I drop it?

Thrashing madly, Twilight caught flashing glimpses of Celestia flitting to each of her friends in turn, bending low over their corpses with horn ablaze. Not one single friend stirred. Celestia finally stood and faced her former student as rivers of golden tears streamed down her sad, regal face.

"Twilight Sparkle..." The horror and sadness within Celestia was as plain as the day itself.

Twilight stopped struggling and smiled up at her former teacher.

Magic, you idiot! You're caught in a magical holding spell! You can't twist your way out of it! USE YOUR MAGIC!

Twilight's horn ignited.

Celestia saw her cage begin to change its magical hue, shifting in blotches from her own light-gold aura into Twilight's deep magenta-red. She threw another holding spell around both the small alicorn and the rapidly-deteriorating snare she'd already hit her with. She felt the immense tug of power as her former student unconsciously tried to empty her of magic. It would strengthen the spell considerably. Even so, it would only hold for moments, but she had to buy time. She whirled and, taking to the air, bolted back through the twisted window-frame. Gazing up at the night sky as she gained altitude, she saw it suddenly flare into a pure, bright, furious white, then extinguish itself into deepest black. She did not pause to wonder why. Hovering high in the air above the library tree, she surveyed the streets of Ponyville. There were still far too many ponies making their way out of the town.

Six pure souls had already died from this madness. The five ponies among them were all special to her, but her heart bled most especially for Spike. She'd raised the little dragon, had trained him in magic, had presented him to Twilight to be her assistant on his fifth birthday. And now, he'd never grow into the magnificent winged beast he was destined to become. Choking to death on his own vomit at the insignificant dragon age of only twelve years old... It made her want to vomit herself. She wouldn't risk as much as a single more life. Summoning her seldom-used Voice, she filled her lungs. She didn't like using it on her subjects, but right now, she had no choice.

"EVERYPONY! THIS IS YOUR PRINCESS! RUN! RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! FLEE! GET AWAY FROM PONYVILLE, NOW! RUN! RUN! DO NOT LOOK BACK! DO NOT LOOK BACK! RUN! RUN! RUN NOW! AS FAST AS -"

The Ponyville Public Library exploded into a gigantic, roiling, violent fireball. Celestia was knocked, tumbling, upwards and slightly to the side. She caught herself and dived for the ground, heart aching for the bodies of the slain that could not now be recovered and buried with dignity.

Vast chunks of flaming tree were falling around her. The nearby shops and houses had been blasted flat. Some of them, too, were starting to burn.

As the enormous fireball began to cool and darken high above, she beat her wings and cautiously approached the fiercely-burning pit where the magnificent old tree had once stood.

Something was rising from the blazing inferno.

Something hotter and brighter than the fire itself.

Its coat was sun-white, its eyes blood-red, its mane and tail were roaring sheets of yellow-orange flame. Two great wings spread wide from its shoulders, the outermost feathers of which curved forwards into long, shimmering sickle-shaped blades. The horn on its forehead was very long, and very sharp, with glittering jagged protrusions every few inches that seemed to follow some half-forgotten ancient pattern of absolute elemental horror and destruction. It had no hooves, the ends of each of its legs flowing smoothly into multiple thickly-crowded bunches of five or six long, jagged, viciously-hooked claws. The marks on its flanks could never be called "cutie marks." Each looked exactly like the world, burning in towering flames. It looked at Celestia with death in its eyes as it rose slowly into the air, blazing arcs of white-blue lightning leaping between it and the surrounding ground and burning houses and shops.

The Thing opened its jaws. Rows and rows of jagged, uneven teeth. A gaping maw of horror. It was smiling at Celestia. A terrible, world-ending smile. It spoke.

"I am Night Mare Flare," came a deep, shadowed voice of absolute murderous destruction. "This world is mine to devour. And YOU," it spat at Celestia, "are standing foolishly in my WAY!"

Night Mare Flare moved. Faster than sight could follow, those hundreds of teeth had closed around Celestia's neck. Spinning and twisting rapidly through the air, the monster released her at high speed, sending her straight towards a collection of dwellings.

Celestia slammed through the side of the quaint town cottage. Before the rubble had even started to fall, she burst up through the still-collapsing roof and seized the Night Mare around its neck with all of her considerable magical might. The monster sucked and pulled at her spell, strengthening it beyond measure. The scattered and broken wreckage of the town began to smoke and flame from the sheer magical force she was exerting. Gasping with the effort required to maintain such an immensely-powerful spell, she managed to choke out "Twilight! Please! Fight it, fight it!"

The whole world twisted as her telekinetic grip was broken as easily as spider-silk. White-hot tendrils of fire snaked around her, crushed her, held her immovable. The monster had her, had her in an obscene parody of a lover's embrace. She felt hot teeth grate her cheek, jagged claws rake along her belly and flanks. Night Mare Flare hissed into her ear. Its voice, harsh and cold as the roots of a mountain, almost stopped her heart.

"Twilight Sparkle is dead. As is Equestria. As are YOU!"

Celestia felt herself flailing through the air, disorienting her. Night Mare Flare was spinning her around, whipping her towards the ground, towards...

"NO! NOOOOOO!!!"

To the accompaniment of shrieks of terror and a vicious, sadistic laugh from Night Mare Flare, Celestia smashed hard into the ground, right in the middle of Mane Street.

The street was crowded with ponies trying to flee.

Dozens of them were knocked through the air in all directions, some smashing into houses with little wet thuds, others flying hundreds of feet before tumbling to the ground.

And there were six or seven of them underneath her, crushed to bloody pulp as she was hurled onto them.

Coat streaming with the blood of her beloved subjects, eyes streaming with tears of horror and disbelief, Celestia found herself wrenched back up off the shattered ground and remains, back up into the air. Her eyes swept over the panicking crowds beneath her. Almost everypony was screaming. Foals were being trampled in the sudden stampede that had resulted. She could see the smashed and broken bodies of those that had hit some of the nearest buildings, most bleeding severely, all with numerous sickeningly-broken bones, quite a few of them obviously dead.

She was held still and helpless in the air as, to a chorus of deafening horrified screaming, Night Mare Flare landed in the middle of the street. The ponies nearest it burst into flame, fell burning to the street, rolled and gasped in agony. Night Mare Flare approached the nearest one, just a young colt, writhing and screaming in pain. It opened its jaws, lowered its head, and picked up the flaming foal.

It looked straight at Celestia as it bit down with apparent glee.

Celestia, held motionless in the air about twenty feet away, started screaming as well.

Sudden vicious lashes of deepest midnight ripped and clawed at the monster. Celestia wrenched herself free from the weakening telekinetic grip, spun, streaked away for an instant, turned back to attack with all her might. Night Mare Flare was flying out of control through the air directly at the town pavilion, away from the panicking members of the public. As she began to wonder how, she felt a large pony materialise out of the air next to her. As she whirled to face it, she heard the newcomer speak in a smooth, silky, confident voice. A voice she hadn't heard for more than ten centuries.

"Please, Big Sister. Allow me."

Night Mare Moon launched herself after the monster with all the power of a thousand years of hatred.

Without stopping to even ask herself how Luna had done it, Celestia wheeled around and fled, as fast as she could, straight towards Canterlot. She was momentarily too shaken to teleport, and thinking about what she was going to do made her even more so.

She had to. She had to do this. She didn't have a choice any more.

Her blood-soaked coat, rapidly drying now in the wind of her passage, attested to that.

Night Mare Moon wrenched the monster from the smoking rubble of the town pavilion and threw it straight up into the sky, racing to meet it head-on. It was disorientated, clearly, from her arrival and her dark magical attacks. She seized it in her magical grip and slung it as fast and as hard as she could straight back down, from hundreds of feet in the air, at the destroyed central building of the town square.

The rubble burst into flames as the blazing alicorn slammed into the middle of the pile. The individual smashed pieces of wood flew high from the impact. No, not because of the impact... They were flying high under telekinetic control.

Night Mare Moon darted rapidly to the side as the flaming pieces of timber shot at her like arrows. They all missed, but they swooped around behind her, angling for another attack. She avoided this as well, and prepared for a third evasion, but the jagged burning missiles weren't coming back at her.

They were flying straight at the hundreds of ponies that were caught on the bridges out of town.

"NO!" Night Mare Moon screamed, searching around desperately for the monster. She couldn't see it. It wasn't anywhere. She turned her attention on the flying rubble, but before she could even think about trying to grab and move it, jagged talons slammed into her back at an enormous speed, carrying her down and forwards towards the ground. Just before she hit, she saw the tons and tons of burning wood crash at high speed into the thickest part of the crowd that was trying to force its way over the bridges.

With an enormous impact, she smashed through the branches of a tree and into a deserted walkway. Tensing to spring back into the air, she found herself already airborne, upside-down, and moving at tremendous speed at the central bridge over the river. She twisted, tried to break the powerful ropes of white fire holding her. The monster on her back was screaming with insane laughter as it rode her all the way down into the very centre of the crowded bridge.

The bridge smashed to rocks and dust. Five or six ponies were killed immediately with the impact, half-a-dozen more burst into screaming pyres as the monster passed them and fell, with Night Mare Moon still underneath it, into the water, and dozens were thrown high and far from the force of the collision itself.

And then, the Thing hit the river.

Night Mare Moon was smashed straight down into the mud of the riverbed from the force of the explosion. Gathering her magic, she vanished into mist which reappeared a hundred feet above the carnage below. Huge billowing clouds of steam obscured much of the scene, but more than a hundred ponies lay in a wide, scattered half-circle on the townward side of the destroyed stone bridge. Most of them were missing quite a bit of skin, almost all of them had missing limbs. A few didn't have heads. The closest ones were all dead, killed by the blistering cloud of steam. A few that had been further away were groaning, moving feebly due to concussion and their horrible burns.

She moved to the side to avoid a falling chunk of stone from the bridge. No... that had been a pony. She watched in horror as the mare smashed face-first onto the path below.

"WHERE ARE YOU?!" she thundered. "WHERE ARE YOU?! I WILL KILL YOU FOR THIS!"

A three-storey house came down on her with the force of an earthquake, smashing her into the ground below, burying her with the dead. She leaped upwards as hard as she could, sending the wreckage flying, and felt blazing ropes of fire seize her about the neck. Struggling to break the hold, she was whirled around, faster and faster, until the flaming grip released her, sending her flying horizontally at enormous speed. She was heading towards...

She was heading straight towards the monster, now wreathed in flames of blazing blue. After flinging her, it must have teleported into her path. She had no time to react, she was moving far too fast. She would collide with it, but she didn't worry too much about that. The Thing would take the full impact. She pointed her horn directly at the middle of its slathering face, wondering if she could perhaps skewer it. Not likely. She couldn't pierce its foul flaming hide. Alicorns were indestructible...

Apparently not.

The Thing wasn't directly in her path, it was just off to the side. As she blasted past it at thousands and thousands of miles per hour, she watched in dim horror as a huge, thick, blazing tendril of its mane of fire reached out, wrapped around her horn, used her speed and direction of movement as a lever, pulled in the other direction as hard as an angry god...

CRACK

"Well?" Celestia asked. "Do you see my point?"

The silky-smooth voice in her head paused slightly before answering. "Yes. Eternal chaos wouldn't be a whole lot of fun on a cold, dead, lifeless ball of ashes. I see your point."

"If you do this for me..." The anguish in Celestia's voice was plain. "If you do this..."

"Yeeeessss?" the voice drawled.

Celestia had no choice. There was no way, absolutely no way, that her sister and herself could stop Night Mare Flare. More and more of her beloved ponies would die. And then, the world would burn, and everything would be dead.

Celestia began to choke.

"A life of eternal chaos is... is infinitely more preferable to... to... than... than the death of this world and everything on it. If you do this for me... I will..." Celestia sniffed briefly.

She closed her eyes. Drew a breath. Exhaled. Then, she re-composed herself.

The Princess of the Sun looked straight at the face of the statue, the glow around her horn growing more steady.

"Don't kill anypony else."

"Oh, Celestia, give me some credit. I never wanted to KILL anyone!" the voice chided. "You can't mess with ponies' heads if they're DEAD! So what are you offering me to go along with this little day-trip out of my prison?"

"Not a day-trip. I couldn't put you back in if you got out anyway."

Once again the voice was silent for a moment. "What's really the deal here?" it asked, suddenly sounding serious. It was probably the only time it had EVER sounded serious.

"If you kill Twilight Sparkle, for the sake of every living thing in this world, I will give you Equestria. Forever."