Luna landed ten steps in front of Pepper, Nightmare Moon by her side, Antares one step back and to the right of the queen, and Swift to the right of the major. The army, meanwhile, was standing as a single unit behind the one they pretended to serve.
Pepper observed Nightmare Moon for a moment before turning her attention to Luna. "What is the Princess of the moon doing so far from Canterlot this early night? Do you not have any bad dreams to chase away, Luna?"
"Insofar as you are responsible for many, especially mine, I have come to end your life, so that I can dream again and again of your last gurgling while you drown in your own blood. At the same time, I would finish pacifying the region of the extant vermin, since the mare to whom I have entrusted this duty is incapable of doing so," Luna said, taking a brief reproving look at Nightmare Moon.
The latter preferred to look away when she felt Luna's eyes resting on her, clearly nervous, not knowing how to turn the situation to her advantage with Pepper standing right there in front of them.
Pepper laughed wryly. "I have already pacified the area, behind me are the only three changelings left. I was planning to eat the soul of one of them, but your hooves on my plate bother me. You want me dead? Let the taller black mare take care of them, you and I have a friendly duel to finish."
At the mention of this duel, lightning struck the ground less than a dozens metres away as Luna's gaze darkened. "I will inflict on you the humiliating defeat you should have received. Nightmare Moon, make sure that the changelings are dead by the time I finish with her," ordered the Princess of the Night, moving eastward with Pepper while keeping an eye on her and remaining at a safe distance.
A two-eyed storm started spitting lightning bolts.
Nightmare Moon now knew that Pepper was on her side, as she knew the human through interactions with Luna. The proposal she had just made was too perfect to just be a fluke. And if the fight weakened Luna enough, it would greatly facilitate her attempt to take possession of her alter ego.
When the two duellists were too far away to hear anything, Chrysalis approached Nightmare Moon. "What is she doing there?" she asked, while Aglowing Shell jumping into her friend's forelegs, happy to nest in her embrace and scared by the thunderbolts.
Nightmare Moon was relieved that the child was fine, but the mother's question caused her to release a quick and heavy exhalation out of her nostrils out of frustration. "Blame Bitter Truth. A guard came to peddle the words of the oracle to her in the middle of the morning, one thing leading to another, now you have the result before your eyes. And you won't have to rely on Twilight Sparkle. She doesn't consider your lives important enough to defy Luna's will."
With wide eyes, these words engraved themselves in Aglowing's mind. With her heart once again shaken by powerful feelings, Aglowing’s horn briefly crackled with energy.
Chrysalis rubbed her cheek against her daughter's to calm her down while reflecting on what had just been said. "Pretty sure he would approach her himself, not through a proxy." She turned her gaze to Pepper in the distance. "What's this about the duel?" she asked, watching Nightmare Moon.
Pepper concentrated on her shapeshifting magic, and once she finished visualising what she needed, a golden halo ran through her body from her horn to her hind hooves. The first thing to change was Pepper’s torso, shifting to become humanoid while maintaining her wings, immediately followed by her pushing on her hind legs to reposition them to allow her to walk like a biped. After that, her forelegs, transforming into fur covered arms and began warming up the muscles of her fingers as soon as they appeared, stopping once she was content that everything was working properly.
"During her first stay six months ago, Luna wanted to test Pepper’s combat skills. At first, it was supposed to be a mock fight to pass the time, nothing very serious," explained Nightmare Moon.
Chrysalis turned her eyes to Nightmare Moon, amused. "How bad did it get?"
Nightmare Moon was split between enjoyment and annoyance just thinking about it. "Celestia had to separate them, and forbid them from fighting each other in the future. Canterlot Castle would have been left in ruins without her intervention."
"Pepper? Why this hybrid form? Why not become totally human?" asked Gamine.
"Because the laws of this universe do not so easily allow such," Pepper replied. "Not impossible," she continued, summoning her katana into the palm of her right hand. "But it would require that I continuously infuse every cell of my body with the magic that allows me to travel from one reality to another to maintain my true form. Certainly I would be able to fight at my full potential, but it would be worse than burning a candle at both ends," she explained before facing Luna. "This body is currently a good compromise to allow me to fight as I usually do while dealing with the laws imposed on me. Now shut up."
The two eyes of the storm merged, the meteorological phenomena was now a cage for the two opponents.
Luna, with her legs bent, kept her wings pressed against her sides to provide the smallest surface area for an attack. Using telekinesis, the princess drew her rapier. It was a work of art, forged with Cloudichalcum, the bell guard finely carved to represent a starry night with the princess' Cutie Mark sitting in the middle of the stars. It would have been customary for her to greet her opponent, but tonight she had no respect for the one facing her.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
With the back of her left hand on the handle, as if she was presenting a gift in the palm of her hand, Pepper moved forward slowly, calculating each of her steps as she circled Luna, looking for an opening that didn't come.
But unlike her, Luna did not have the patience to wait for the right moment, and based on the first skirmish, Luna knew that a frontal attack would inevitably be countered. So she opted for a sudden teleportation behind the regicide's back and went for the head.
Pepper did not expect Luna to use such a technique, and it was only out of pure reflex when she saw the alicorn disappear that she rolled to the side. However, she did not come out unscathed, the rapier cut the string that had been holding her mane in a heavy braid until now.
Luna lowered her guard for a moment as she contemplated the result.
Pepper would have preferred it remain a secret, but if it could give her an advantage over Luna, she might as well seize it. She shook her head from left to right to get her mane to start rippling as her magical power began to make it wave, like a river of blood. "A gift from your late sister, do you like it?" she asked with a sly smile.
Utilising her Canterlot voice, Luna unleashed all of the air in her lungs out of rage in a deafening scream, and in return, the storm unleashed an equal frenzy upon the land, discharging a heavy rain of lightning bolts down in a cacophony of explosions. Unconcerned about the consequences, Luna threw herself into a flurry of successive attacks. Her sole desire was to inflict a thousand cuts upon Pepper’s body. Her resolve was to induce so much suffering that Pepper would beg for a quick death. To Luna’s irritation though, Pepper simply lept out of her reach, just enough to encourage her to try her luck once again.
As Luna was so focused on taking revenge, Pepper noticed an opening, and immediately switched to the counter-offensive. With a movement of her arm and wrist, she caught and parried Luna's last attack, adding another chip to the edge of her rusty, pockmarked blade, before following up by moving to execute an overhead strike. While the katana was completely caked in rust and appeared to be only one or two counters away from breaking in half, it was still sharp enough to claim another life.
Luna, caught off guard, and with her eyes focused on the blade, felt like an attempt to raise her guard would be too slow to make it in time.
However, the blow never came, Pepper was fighting another battle, one to keep control of her body.
Gamine couldn't stay inactive, she was restraining the body’s arms to prevent Pepper from delivering a deadly blow. "What are you doing?!" The guardian shouted in shock.
"I am protecting the changelings!" Pepper barked back.
"I never asked you to kill Luna! There have been enough deaths!"
"What?!” Pepper tried to get away, but was unsuccessful. “Let go of me, you stupid fool! Now is not the time to-"
The storm vanished as Luna seized the opportunity to claim victory with a swift thrust.
Monster and Guardian in unison screamed out in pain as they both felt most of Luna’s rapier sink into Pepper’s chest. Gamine gave up control of the body to Pepper, unable to bear such physical suffering. Pepper, meanwhile, fell on her rump, her breathing unsteady, with each exhalation being a weak cough that brought with it just that little bit of blood.
Luna’s rapier was still lodged through the regicide's chest. The princess enjoyed the view for a moment, she knew that with a compromised lung, it was only a matter of minutes before Pepper died, drowned in the same crimson liquid within her that she so eagerly took from others. Like a cat who caught her prey, she used her magic to pull back and twist her blade with the slowest pace she could muster, simply for the sadistic pleasure of inflicting the most suffering, watching Pepper in pain for the longest time possible, engraving it into her memory. When the point of her blade was extricated, a large sheaf of blood spurt onto her face. "If memory serves, ‘Vae Victis’, Pepper," she said after using Pepper’s white coat to wipe the blood from her rapier. "And I'm going to enjoy every second you have left to ensure you suffer before you draw your last breath."
By removing her blade, Luna had deliberately aggravated the internal bleeding, it was no longer a matter of minutes, and Pepper knew it. Bringing her hands to the wound to try to stem the flow of blood, Pepper attempted to warp away, but without success. The fits of bloody coughing prevented her from concentrating, and her eyelids were becoming heavier and heavier. "Gamine, help me reach and break the prism in the pillow of my hideout."
"I can't do it! The pain is too much," whined the guardian.
Pepper felt too weak to fight any longer. She felt the end coming. "What were you saying this morning? Power must be used to protect others? If you do not do something..." She couldn't hold on, her eyes were closing slowly. "... the changelings will also die because of you. In the end, you are not up to your mother's lessons, she died for... nothing," she whispered as she disappeared from Gamine’s sight.
Luna raised an eyebrow, somewhat disappointed by the ease with which the mare in front of her had let herself die.
Time dilated as Gamine’s humiliation burned her to her core. Humiliated to be pointed out that she was failing at her self given duty. Infuriated that it was pointed out by the one who killed her mentor. Despite the pain, and with great difficulty, she took control of the dying body, refusing to let Pepper have the last word, and fought back. She gasped for fresh air as she regained consciousness, greatly startling Luna, and after only a few seconds, the guardian had warped herself to the hideout.
"Honestly Pepper, I've known less stubborn cockroaches," Luna said as she teleported to the two sisters' castle with a smile on her face. But that same smile quickly disappeared when she found herself alone in front of the ruins. She turned around, once, twice, looking for the slightest drop of blood, but to her shock, her prey had vanished under her nose. "Very well! Die alone in total indifference, no one will regret you!" She said before teleporting to the Badlands, far from suspecting that the fugitive was only twenty metres below her hooves.
Gasping for breath, and spitting blood with each exhalation, Gamine dragged herself to the bed, grabbed the pillow, and searched it for the prism Pepper had hidden there. As soon as she got her hands on it, she broke it, and the spell contained within instantly teleported her out of Equestria, unceremoniously dropping her in front of a bonfire.
She found herself on a large half-spherical surface made of stone slabs, in the centre of which was a recess where the flames of a fire oscillating between opal and jade were dancing.