Princesses of Equestria

Chapter 37: Absolution

The world had died, and it was all her fault.

Equus Nox couldn't see everything from the hill where she stood, but she knew. Oh, goddess, how she knew.

The Crown of Harmony had performed exactly as intended. Her greatest spell, her perfect spell, a Spring Equinox unmatched by any work of magic save for Queen Eponia's, had embraced Equestria in its entirety. Discord's corruption had been purged.

Only there'd never been any corruption.

Until now.

Equus drank it in, drank till her mind threatened to burst. The cracked and barren earth. The gnarled, thorny fields. The polluted lakes. The smog-choked skies. And the sun's hellish eclipse, ugly as the stump of her severed horn.

"It's ruined," Equus whimpered. How could she have ever thought this was paradise? "It's my nightmare ... I made this!"

And then her shadow opened its mouth, and spoke.

"No you didn't," it said. "Don't believe them." Its voice was calm and perfectly reasonable. "Believe in yourself, Armonia." She should do what it said. "They're trying to trick you."  What she herself had said. "They've gotten inside your head." That was her voice. "Use the fear. Force them out." She was thinking this right now. "And make them pay for what they've done." She was ... she wasn't ... what should she do?

A memory returned to her. "The fear is controlling you, but it doesn't define you. Fight it!"

She hadn't listened to Intellectus then. She would now.

Fight it.

"You can't."

Fight it.

"It's the only way."

Fight it!

"The only way to save Eque—"

"I didn't save it! Shut up!" Equus slapped her shadow right in its stupid, patronizing face. Pins and needles ran through her hoof. Something snapped.

Equus staggered back, panting, fatigue filling her veins with liquid lead. Around her, ponies gasped. Equus couldn't blame them. As far as she knew, nopony in Equestria had ever had two shadows before. There was the one beneath her, a dim patch on the dead earth where Equus's body blocked some of the Link's radiance.

And then, there was the other one.

It lay where Equus had left it, a blacker stain on a black land. Though Twilight Sparkle, her friends, and the thousands of freed Equestrians all shone with the Link of Harmony, the darkness did not diminish before their light. Instead it stood, gaining substance with each panicked breath Equus drew, and took a form she knew only too well.

"You'll rule Equestria," said Queen Armonia. "You'll create paradise."

"Stop lying to me!" Equus shouted, and reached for lightning. Even as she did, thirst burned her throat raw. She felt dizzy. When had she last drunk? Or ate? Or slept?

She'd been careless. Relied on the phobomancy too much. Without it, what did she have? Only enough magic to throw sparks in Armonia's eyes, that was what. Still felt satisfying though.

Until Armonia screeched in fury, and began to grow.

"They're the liars!" From the surrounding land phobomantic corruption resonated, and returned to its source. "Make them scream!" Polluted water gave substance to Armonia's flesh. Cracked earth armored her skin. Her eyes were thunder. Her mouth, hellfire. "MAKE THEM FEAR YOU!"