Kyndal’s voice woke Gamine in a jolt. Breathless, sweating, she looked around, trying to figure out if the shadow that hunted her down during the night was real, or just a product of her guilt from failing Kyndal when she needed her the most.

Pepper was not to be outdone, as she went through her own nightmares. For both, the torture stopped only when the sun was risen. The regicide remained silent as she looked at Gamine, crying from the grief she had to go through.

Gamine was physically weakened for the rest of the morning. She stayed in an improvised bed made of hay, covered by a sheet Pepper took from the ruins of the castle of the two sisters along with a pillow.

Each time she slipped back into the sweet land of dreams, nightmares were eager to greet both of them, with Gamine waking up again in a jolt, catching her breath.

“Something is wrong. Luna must have put a spell on me. Which also affects you since you possess my body. Better try to rest without sleep, or you will not be able to meet Luna tonight,” Pepper assumed.

“She can do that?” asked Gamine, astonished.

“She used to -literally- walk in my dreams back then, and manipulated them according to her own desire at my expense.”

“Is she some kind of tyrant?” worried Gamine.

“No, it was just payback for my pranks back then.” Pepper shrugged.

It was past noon. The unicorn left the hideout, going through the Everfree forest to eat fruits and berries, following Pepper’s guidance. But the eerie feeling she woke up with outweighed her hunger. Restlessly coming back and forth, this erratic feeling remained on her mind for the rest of the day.

With a slow pace, Gamine managed to go through the afternoon. She started to talk with a more formal tone on Pepper’s advice for the impersonation to work, but this was only proposed after Gamine failed to command Pepper to go speak to Luna herself. She bluntly admitted she would prefer to warp away if she was the one in control.

One hour before the sunset, Pepper used her magic to warp to Canterlot Castle. Using her knowledge, Gamine slipped through the surveillance and went to the observatory tower.

Reynaud, the personal butler of the princess of the Sun, was there to offer a mug of coffee.

Gamine was a bit shocked to be expected, but Pepper suggested to just accept the mug and ask the butler to deliver a message to Luna. So she did.

And he agreed to deliver the message.

Gamine sat, still following Pepper’s guidance, with her rump propped up on the railing of the highest tower of Canterlot Castle. Far below, the excitement in the streets of the southern part of the capital faded in the late afternoon. She looked southward in the distance, thinking. The early autumn day was cooled by a light breeze tugging on her mane and tail.

The coffee lifted the veil on her mind. It wasn’t just any feeling. It was a call.

This is why we guardians fight for, little one.>

Awakening to this ability she was using for the very first time, an orange mist emanated from her eyes as gaze and heart in unison wandered towards the horizon, trying to pinpoint the exact location of this call.

“Focus on that feeling and see what is going on,” suggested Pepper, in order to avoid the confrontation.

“I must first meet Celestia’s sister. Luna has a right to know what you have done." The mare's ears rose imperceptibly. From inside the tower, she could hear the sound of hooves climbing the marble stairs at a slow pace. To her, those hooves sounded like a hammer sealing a coffin. Nail after nail after nail.

Pepper, powerless, did not appreciate the turn of events. "I am warning you, Gamine. I do not like the way this is going. If you do not leave this instant, I will do it myself if the occasion arises," she said.

Luna stopped as she reached the top of the tower. Her gaze lingered on the pony sitting on the railing for a moment. There was only one pony she knew who sat in such a way. The realisation quickly swept away any doubts she might have had. The princess walked closer to the railing, her magic grabbing the unicorn in front of her, forcing her to turn around and face her. The blue glow grew in intensity, pulling her off the railing and then slamming her back against it. Luna held her there, her back pressed against the stone wall.

The mug was not so lucky. It slipped out of the mare's hooves and fell, spilling the rest of the coffee before breaking into pieces.

"Thus, Reynaud was right," Luna said, wings spread out and eyes fixed on the unicorn. The Princess of the Night stood regally, though her voice betrayed a storm raging behind her calm demeanour. "When my sister's butler told me in private before my meeting with Sir Adamantium, Lady Storm, and Lady Shawarma that you were on this balcony, waiting for me, I was sure the old stallion had gone senile. But then I recalled that this is how you do things, Pepper.” Her eyes glowed for a moment as she lowered her voice. “Between listening to three leeches and an alleged criminal, it was fairly easy for me to choose whom I would like to grant the last audience of the day." The Alicorn of the Night scrutinised the unicorn before lifting her by the neck, dangling her over the void.

Gamine struggled to breathe as she was strangled by Luna’s magic.

"Kill her," whispered a dark, pernicious voice in the vehement mind of the alicorn.

"Even after two months among us, you are still not able to eat your soup properly. I suppose you enjoyed last night. Your sweet dreams honoured your return to Equestria,” Luna said. “I'm going to give you one last chance to answer this simple question, Pepper: What did you do to Celestia?"

"I have already answered that question. Her sister is no more!" Pepper spat to Gamine’s mind.

Gamine’s legs kicked and strained, trying to reach the edge of the balcony to support her own weight.

"What is the matter with you? You are usually so quick to speak. Did you lose your voice?" mocked Luna, her head bowed with malicious pleasure at the sight

.

"What are you waiting for? Kill her!" a voice in Luna’s mind hissed, its dark tone trying to stir up resentment once more and turn it into blind hatred.

Luna paid the voice no heed. Instead, she brought the mare close enough that she could rest her hooves on the edge of the balcony.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Gamine coughed as the pressure left her throat. "As it has been said already,” she told Luna, “your sister is no longer."

Luna blew through her nostrils. "I heard you, filth! Yesterday I read a letter from Twilight telling me that she had seen you at the castle ruins where you used to hang out, and that the aura of your magic was no longer the same. I thought my sister's disappearance had given her hallucinations! But I saw it with my own eyes. She is right. So I will ask one last time: What did you do to her?"

Despite her unwillingness to go into details, she complied. The unicorn closed her eyes and concentrated. Her horn lit up with a golden glow, leaving the princess speechless, for the sun responded and submitted to her, sinking down quietly to the horizon. "Her soul was consumed in order to appropriate the power that was hers."

Luna reflexively raised the moon in response to the setting of the sun.

Gamine avoided her gaze, remaining silent in a desperate attempt not to provoke the Princess of the Night.

Luna’s magic concentrated on Gamine's neck, lifting her up by it before throwing her flat on the railing.

Gamine panted breathlessly as she looked at Luna in horror.

The little voice in Luna’s head greeted this revelation with anger and regret.

The princess found it hard to believe what she had just heard. She stepped back, lowering her ears, tears beginning to flow as she shook her head. It had only been three years since she’d been reunited with her sister. The confession shattered her hopes of seeing Celestia again one day. The rage in her heart made her whole being boil with such hatred that her gaze became that of a Nightmare in the span of two blinks of her eyes. It took great effort not to succumb to it. "You never showed any respect to our rank. But I thought it was because you were not an Equestrian. Your familiarity had something refreshing about it, and that was why Celestia became fond of you. You spent your time making her laugh a lot at my expense. Did what you experienced in Equestria these two months not matter to you?"

Pepper’s thoughts wandered through her memories of that time. Equestria was a breath of fresh air for her, the first in her life. "Tell her those were the best two months of my life, Gamine."

But the guardian refused to repeat those words. She simply shook her head before looking Luna in the eyes. With the most detached tone and a mocking smile, she answered: "Not in the slightest."

In her anger, Luna again hit the one she thought was Pepper against the railing. Luna's magic then stretched to encompass the unicorn’s muzzle.

"She is at your mercy! What do you need more than that, pitiful filly?! KILL HER!" yelled the voice.

"Enough!" ordered Luna, reducing the voice that haunted her mind to silence. She focused her attention on the mare, a sly smile on her face. "Pepper, my friend... Believe me, when I'm done with you, you will never leave Equestria again." Luna tried to throw the unicorn down on the railing once more, but the mare suddenly vanished.

The alicorn turned her cyan gaze toward the ruins of the castle on the horizon, well aware this was the first place where Pepper would seek safety. Her two-toned mane, night blue and amethyst, floated by itself, pulsating with the magic inherent to alicorns. Tears fell from eyes full of cold anger.

"Why? Just why?! She was there, the source of all of ponies’ bad dreams! You could have ... you should have ...!" barked the voice in the alicorn’s head.

"We have an agreement, you and I: You promised to make all those I will name suffer in exchange for your freedom," Luna recalled, thinking of the one who was walking the dark corners of her heart. "Pepper is now your number one priority."

"A thousand years ago, you were only a puny filly, unable to do what had to be done to make the night revered. Even today, you proved your incompetence to act as required by the situation and by your status," the voice told her coldly. "I do not understand how you could still have any restraint about the fate of this regicide, who took your precious, beloved sister from you. Forever," the voice added, sounding perplexed.

"How could you? You've never had any friends," Luna whispered, a little mocking smile on her lips dying immediately. "Now that I know what fate befell my late sister, be assured that my friendship towards Pepper will soon enough turn to ashes."

The voice was stung into silence. Then, a black cloud began billowing out from Luna's regalia and gathering together above her head. The clouds writhed and stretched, taking the form of Nightmare Moon standing in the air, two heads higher than Luna's. She looked down at the Alicorn of the Night, eyes like galaxies swirling with condescension. "You forget who you're talking to, little princess.” Her ethereal body, looking like a condensation of constellations, only allowed her to communicate telepathically with the lunar mare.

“And you forget," Luna replied, "how much you rely on my power, and on the Tantabus that I created, which you are using right now. You need me, so stop trying to control my actions. Otherwise, I'll make you go back to the prison from which I freed you," replied Luna, slamming the sabaton of her right front hoof on the stone floor to mark the end of this oratory joust.

A short moment of silence settled in. Then, Luna resumed. "It's been a long day. I'm going to go and pray to the stars in front of my sister's memorial before going to sleep. Since Pepper seems to want to stay, make sure she still has sweet dreams. It would also be good if you finally finish slaying the changelings at the same time," she said, pricking her dark alter ego again. "It has been going on for three months. Since Pepper has returned, would it be too much to ask that by tomorrow morning I learn the definitive eradication of those creeping vermin? By the stars! You have the Tantabus as your own body, and the Lunar Guard! What else do you need? The Badlands are not the largest of the regions in terms of area," she cursed, as she jumped over the railing to fly to the city's gardens.

Now alone on the terrace, without disturbing the silence of the night she cherished so much, she metamorphosed into a simple black cloud, which split into four. The three new, smaller pieces opened a hole to the dream plane to rush into it. The cloud from which they came sewed the fabric of reality together behind it before heading south.

Far away to the south of the Everfree forest was the old castle of the two sisters, an outdated memory of a bygone era. Just as a photograph left outside decays into unrecognizability, so too did the elements ravage the ancient stronghold.

Gamine reappeared under a tree and collapsed to the ground, not far from the main entrance to the castle, which had been toppled on Pepper's second day in this world six months ago. In tears, the unicorn struggled to catch her breath, the searing pain making her hunch over.

Despite the distance, Pepper could still feel Luna's gaze fixed on her. "Has this been according to your expectations, Gamine? The higher your expectations are, the harder you shall fall."

"Why did you warp us here, Pepper? I had the situation under control."

The unicorn heard the sound of air blowing through nostrils, like a disdainful laugh, in her mind. "You were warned. Your will had weakened, so I acted. Now that you have done what you wanted to do, head south. The more distance between us and her, the more peace of mind I shall have."

Gamine didn’t answer, simply using her magic. A halo ran through her body from the tip of her horn to the base of her hooves, making a pair of wings appear as she straightened up. She went to the river next to the ruins, where she used her telekinesis—which took the form of ethereal hands at the end of her hooves—to collect water and spray her face several times before wiping it off. The water was almost freezing, but it served to drive her fatigue away for a while.

"One question, though: Why did you not repeat my answer to Luna?"

Gamine looked at her reflection in the water. Pepper, her eyes devoid of sensitivity and compassion, was staring back at her, mimicking the position in which Gamine was standing. "Celestia died because of you. I have no doubt when I say you ruined Equestria's harmony just to get a little more power. And you want me to say that this stay has been the best thing that ever happened to you? Has this really been the case? Have you considered stopping your hunt? Have you considered the idea of settling down, enjoying this daily life with your friends? No! You had to give in to your thirst for power over and over again! But hear me, monster. I will make sure that you will never devour anyone ever again."

The monster did not blink once during this tirade. Instead, it gave a cold look to the one who had control of the body. A look that said she never, not even for a moment, regretted any of her actions. She did not try to argue, accepting this astute observation with icy indifference. "Fine."

With that subject off the table, the false alicorn began to gallop, jumping and spreading her wings to fly south, away from the furious Princess of the Night.

When Nightmare Moon arrived one hour later at the ruins of the castle, she quickly searched for Pepper, creating a few more clones to scan the surroundings. They came back to her clueless. Luna being at Canterlot, her mind was now out of reach. So was Nightmare Moon’s, allowing her to let loose her thoughts as looked at the situation with a small grin on her lips, amused by Luna's illusions.