The Ashlands

Imagine, just as Twilight, Starlight, and Spike leave the timeline and disappear, they just barely miss Solar Flare patrolling the wastelands of what was once her kingdom when she spots the flash of light coming from where they left. The infernal mare finds no living being where that flash of light came from, but she sees the table, an old map of Equestria now covered in ash and turmoil. But something seemed familiar. She had seen this map before, she recognized the remnants of the spells used on it. But where? It had been some time since Canterlot had fallen to the might of Nightmare Star. The memories were clouded by the flames of her wrath, but she recalled the time when she was standing above the horrified faces of her little ponies. When her dear young sister had pleaded for her to come to her senses, only to scream a distant name as Nightmare Star forever banished her to the moon once more, but she was never to return this time, for the empress had used her awakened godly powers to banish her sister and her precious moon, her precious, pathetic night, away from the world of Equestria, from the boundaries of the cosmos, from existence, into the one thing that the darkness she represented had feared above all else. The Sun. Though she was thousands of miles away from her, Nightmare Star could hear Luna’s agonized screams the moment she entered the Sun’s blazing and painful embrace, like whispers echoing in the smolders she rained down upon Equestria.

Luna.

Luna was her name. The name of what was once her younger sister, the one who had attempted to usurp the throne once centuries ago. That throne belonged to only one pony, and that pony was—

Celestia!

Nightmare Star’s eyes widened. The everglowing flame that was her mane blazed furiously in the deathly silence. That voice! That was Luna’s. Realization hit the mare and the flames died down as she continued to stare at the map. No, Luna was no more. She never was, never will be. It was just a memory, a very distant, yet haunting memory.

Celestia!

Nightmare Star turned her head sharply, looking over her shoulder, her eyes narrowed.

Princess Celestia! Have mercy!

The memories of ponies screaming for her forgiveness, offering anything to extinguish her fury. They were crawling back to her, flooding her mind like a viscous wildfire.

Princess Celestia, why are you doing this?

Princess Celestia, please! They’re innocent! Don’t let them burn!

Princess, what is going on?

Celestia, these ponies have suffered long enough. They had just come to term with overcoming Sombra’s darkness, do not make them go through another cataclysm!

Rage filled her soul, fueling her magic with a crimson red aura. With a swift swish of her horn, the map exploded, splitting in two. The smooth fur on the back of her neck bristled. The flames she emitted burnt larger into a horrific bone white.

No.

She was not Celestia. She will never again be Princess Celestia! She has and always will be Nightmare Star! Sole empress of the Solar Empire, ruler—no, Goddess of the Sun and all that its light touched. Every acre of land, every mare and stallion, every elder and child, everything that lived and breathed, every stone and brick. It all belonged to her, and to her alone!

And to be sure of it, she had rightfully claimed it all, and be rid of all challengers she had mistakenly banished or imprisoned.

Luna and her precious night, forever oblivion by the Brightest Star’s might.

That childish Draconequis, Discord, returned to stone, then pieces, then ash in the wind that burned in her presence.

Chrysalis of the Changelings, a false queen, nothing but vermin to be exterminated within their own hive in a never-ending inferno.

Tirek and all the other prisoners of Tartarus, freed from their chains only to be sentenced to die by the empress’ hooves, before the underworld itself became a land of nothingness, just like everything else.

Sombra’s remains would be cremated along with his shadows, never to return to the living.

Cadence and her heir, it was but an ill omen of her rule that had to be purified by her sacred fire.

Starswirl and his legion, forever remaining in the abyss as their relics and all that remained of their legacies, incinerated. All relics. All heirs.

All of them, mistakes that were rectified.

No more challengers.

No more Elements of Harmony.

No Honesty, but that of the Sun’s truth.

No Kindness, or the mercy that came with it.

No Generosity, for the world was hers.

No Laughter, only screams that were silenced long ago.

No Loyalty, but to that of the one true goddess of this world.

No Magic, for the one who held it was the last to fall to Nightmare Star.

Twilight……..