~*2008, 20th Moon*~
It had been a week since her capture. Princess Celestia had managed to fall asleep in the dank, dark cell. She was being kept in a secret underground dungeon specifically suited for holding Equestria's most dangerous captives. In her cell room, she was bound to the center of the room by an assortment of chains that gave her just enough length to walk around in a small circle. However, the extra walking didn't provide her with any advantages.
At the moment, she lacked her noble appearance. Her horn had been surgically removed in order to disable her natural ability to access magic. From her luxurious multi-colored mane and matching tail of pink, green, and blue to her once spotless white coat, she was covered in random patches of dirt from the cell's floor and her own bodily wastes. Even her sun cutie mark had seemed slightly dull. She had been parted with her crown, royal necklace, and even her shoes.
"Princess Celestia!"
A mare's loud, teasing voice accompanied by giggling could be heard off in the distance. Both belonged to her captor: Princess Twilight Sparkle. Celestia's large purple eyes perked up upon hearing her voice.
Standing by a nearby torch, Twilight Sparkle appears within Celestia's view. This was not the pony known by all in the far past. Her general appearance has been altered by continuous use of dark magic. Her coat had its natural purple color and her mane & tail had its usual dark indigo color with streaks of purple and pink, but her eyes were obviously unusual and unnatural. The sclera of her eyes glowed a bright green, her irises were blood red, and her pupils both black and snake-like. Like King Sombra, a slight smokey trail of purple emanated from her eyes. The colors in her coat, tail, and mane were all a darker shade than they used to be. The pink star of her cutie mark seemed to be a bit pointier than the princess remembered. Instead of the good ol' birthday suit, she wore a dark purple cloak. She wore a black, melancholy crown with a small amethyst star in the middle. On her hooves, she wore black flat strapped shoes. Her horn had become similar to Nightmare Moon's horn: very long and very pointed. She was much smaller than Celestia in stature, but far more powerful than she ever was. The young princess looked far more like a witch than a mage who had served the princesses well.
Princess Celestia began to rise to her hooves to meet her captor. Upon closer notice, Twilight had a bag on her side. She used her telekinesis magic to manipulate a key, pulling it from her bag and unlocking the door to the cell. She slides the door open and steps inside.
"Huh. You look funny without your horn," Twilight remarked, turning her head to the side. She took off her bag and set it on the ground. Then, she turned to look into the princess's eyes.
"As you should already know, you are what's called a special interest prisoner," Twilight informed her. "That means you won't be getting a trial. Nor will you even get to stretch your wings." She smirked as she started to stretch her own. For such a small pony, Twilight had quite a large wingspan. It was slightly shorter than Celestia's.
"We've got Princess Luna down here, too. The two of you won't ever leave here alive." Celestia reacted to that with a gaping expression.
"Don't even think that you'll be able to escape by getting help from your old dungeon master. I've already cleared the dungeon of everypony that could help and replaced them with my people."
Celestia sighed mentally. Even though she knew full well that her student wouldn't be stupid enough not to remove the old staff and replace it with ponies she trusted.
"Nice dungeon, by the way. And thanks for giving it to me! But... let's not talk about that anymore. I've brought some things to cheer you up." She tapped the bag she brought in with a hoof.
"Would you like to see what I have here in my bag?" she asks the princess, obviously trying to pique her interest. She doesn't answer, but keeps her eyes fixed on the bag. Twilight didn't seem to be looking for one, seeing as how she immediately started pulling objects from it with her magic. Objects that Celestia identified as tools for torture.
"Today, I have... let's see here," she started, looking at each item. Then she floated each of them in front of Celestia one by one, making sure to mention their names. A Saddle Arabian tickler, which was a tool with a sharp set of curved spikes used to tear off flesh and break bones. A razor-sharp hinny knife. A wooden buffalo club, both made and used by the buffalo that roamed in the wild west. It wasn't a torture tool, but anypony hit with it would regret it. A manticore poker, a sharp metal pole used by poachers to drain the stamina of manticores by making its blood spurt out.
"Oh! And then there's this baby here."
She floated a small red ball made of some odd expanding material. It had many holes in it. Twilight floated it towards Celestia. She knew exactly what it was.
"The gryphons called it a breath taker. The stallion I got it from said it stays lodged in the victim's throat by spikes and it uses their own breathing against them."
To those who knew of it, it was more psychologically terrifying than it was painful, but that didn't stop it from scaring anypony out of their mind.
She floated the object back to her, caressing it with her face. "This baby here is what I'll be using to finish you off."
The princess watched in absolute horror as Twilight made light of her fate.
"Now, Twilight," she started, her worry extremely apparent, "before you do anything hasty, you should---"
"We're going to have lots of fun together!" she suddenly yelled very enthusiastically. With the exception of the breath taker, she floated every item out in front of Celestia, bringing one at a time back to her view to examine them a bit.
"Now, which one would you like me to use first?" Twilight asked as a twisted smile formed on her face.
Celestia immediately began backing away from her as far as she could.
"T-Twilight!" she pleaded urgently, "P-Please, don't do this!"
"Awww, how cute!" Twilight exclaimed. "That's so cute! You're actually stuttering right now! I didn't think princesses made mistakes!"
"P-P-Please!!" she yelled, seemingly trying her best to convince her, "You don't have to do this to me!"
Twilight seemed deeply affected by the words she spoke. She had been suppressing a deep hatred for Celestia up until that point. Out of surprise, she had dropped every single item she had floating in the air. She picked up one of them again using her magic: the buffalo club.
"Just for that, I'm gonna beat the shit out of you."
She walked towards Celestia slowly, club in her magic's grasp. She manipulated her chains with a spell to restrict her movement to an even greater minimum, making her unable to defend herself. Celestia was terrified!
"TWILIGHT!!" she screamed loudly, "D---"
WHACK.
At that point, Twilight struck her in the face. She moved to strike her wherever she could: her sides and back but mainly her face, as Celestia scrambles as much as she can to minimize the damage, to no avail. Twilight's fierce grunts of exertion and Celestia's cries of pain echoed across the dungeon walls. It was all anypony there could have heard.
~*2008, 25th Moon*~
Princess Celestia wasn't looking so hot now. If it wasn't for her large size, one would take one look at her and immediately eliminate the possibility of nobility. Her face was very badly beaten, having had long sense swollen over. One of her wings was badly butchered. She had many wounds inflicted to her sides, which Twilight had personally cleaned and sealed up herself to avoid killing her too early. Her once luxurious mane and tail, what little remained, was in terrible condition. Additionally, Celestia was also suffering from sleep deprivation and a lack of food and water. Twilight had ordered that Celestia received no food or water. To make sure that she didn't accidentally kill her, Twilight had her hooked up to several apparatuses to monitor her health. She would receive only that which was absolutely necessary to avoid death.
Twilight was visiting Celestia again that day. As usual, she fished for her key, unlocked the cell door, slid it open, and stepped inside.
"Hi, Princess!" she exclaimed exuberantly.
Celestia on the other hoof was nowhere near as exuberant. "Hello, Twilight," she managed to cough out with a very weak voice. She didn't even bother to hold her head up; it would take too much energy.
Twilight found her weakened state amusing.
"Awwww. You don't look so good!" she said, taunting the princess.
She looked at the various apparatuses Celestia was hooked up to, monitoring their output.
"Hmmm," she said, looking them over. "Your vitals seem to be... uh. Something. And you don't look like you're dead yet."
"Seen.. better... days," Celestia replied weakly.
"I have to say, Princess, I am absolutely impressed by your resilience."
Celestia didn't notice, but Twilight had a different bag with her today.
"Would you like some water?" Twilight asked her. "How about a nice bowl of soup."
Apparently, she had more energy than she let on. Celestia immediately tried to sit up. The prospect of being fed made her mouth water visibly. She tries to hide it, but doesn't do a very good job.
"Yes, please," she said with a bit more strength.
Sure enough, Twilight had a small cauldron of warm soup. She floated it from her bag along with a mug. She poured it about halfway full of soup.
"Mmmmm," she exclaimed dreamily, "Doesn't that smell... just great?"
Celestia nodded, shaking a little, but definitely happy. Twilight floated the mug over to her. Without warning, Celestia greedily gulped down as much of the mug as she can before Twilight yanked it back. She laughed, thoroughly amused. She'd never seen the princess behave this way before.
"How unbecoming!" she exclaimed happily. "Eating like a rabid dog. No more soup for you!"
An expression of pure shock appeared on Celestia's face.
"I'm starving!" she whined loudly, despite her weakness.
"Gosh, did you even taste that crap you just swallowed?" Twilight asked, ignoring her plea. "It wasn't exactly good."
"I'm begging you," Celestia spoke urgently, "don't let me die like this!!" She was quite lively for somepony who was supposed to be starving.
"Oh, don't be such a baby about it!" Twilight snapped. "It's your own fault for wolfing it down so uncouthly. You should have savored it."
Celestia was breathing heavily, crying softly. "I'm going to die this way."
"I'll make you a deal," Twilight told her. "If you show me that you can behave like a proper lady, I'll think about feeding you again."
She started to pour the soup out in the corner, far out of Celestia's reach. Much to her dismay.
"Until then, you're not getting a single drop."
She donned her bag and put the cauldron and mug back into it and left, locking the door behind her.
~*2008 30th Moon*~
Twilight Sparkle's dark mage minions are in Celestia's cell, disabling the apparatuses and hauling them out of the dungeon. Twilight herself wasn't far behind. She steps into the cell and stares at Celestia.
"Greetings, Princess!" said Celestia, doing a small curtsy.
Twilight doesn't answer back. Instead, she pulls out the same cauldron, lifting the top off of it and setting it just outside of her reach. The scent would be sure to drive Celestia crazy, she thought. As if in a cartoon setting, Celestia immediately starts to drool but does a much better job at hiding it this time.
"Princess, may I have some soup, please?" she asks.
Twilight looks at her for a moment.
"Yes, Princess, you may."
She pulls a shoe off of one of her front hooves and pours the soup into her hoof, presenting it to Celestia. She delicately licks it off.
"I've learned quite a bit about you, Celestia."
She continued to pour soup into her hoof for Celestia to lick as she talked.
"Do you mind if I call you just Celestia? Ha, of course you don't. You're licking my hoof."
Celestia didn't seem affected, though she was patiently listening.
"You're very physically tough. When I beat you with that club, I had the impression that I was hurting myself more than you. You're quite magically gifted and intelligent, even more so than myself I hate to admit." Twilight rolled her eyes.
"Despite all that, you're a princess only in title. You are nothing more than a sneaky opportunist and a disgusting coward. You're very weak emotionally. You are a sociopath that will do almost anything if it means getting what you want, regardless of who you hurt in the process!" that last line, Twilight practically hurled it at her.
"The only thing that separates you from common thugs is that you've learned how to keep the stink off of your name. But no, that's not even the worst part about you. I'd have to say the worst part is that not even once since you've been locked up have you ever thought to ask me about how Princess Luna is doing."
Celestia stopped licking momentarily.
"It made me a little suspicious. It seemed like you somehow knew she was just fine without me having to say anything about her. But I've given you plenty of opportunities to ask. You simply don't care about your little sister as much as you wanted everypony to think. You are a sociopath after all."
Celestia continued again.
"And last but certainly not least, your stool smells really awful. It's like a pig pen in here!"
She showed an expression of shame as Twilight spoke about her faults, but continued to lick her hoof. Her lack of a reaction was starting to anger Twilight. She used her magic to strike her in the face with the cauldron.
"NO!!" Celestia yelled loudly. She quickly darted to the ground, trying to lap up the soup that mixed with the dirt.
Twilight contemplated emptying the cauldron in her face, but she thought that Celestia would probably like that. It also wouldn't give her the satisfaction that she wanted.
"How could you even have an appetite after hearing me say those things about you?!" she growled. But then she quelled her anger. It was wasted on her.
Instead, she lay the cauldron in front of Celestia and then took hold of the breath taker in the corner.
"Well, Princess, I've played with you long enough," Twilight told her, wiping Celestia's saliva off her hoof and onto her cape. "It's been fun."
Celestia lapped up the soup slowly. Twilight put her shoe back on.
"That disgusting soup is your last meal, so hurry up and finish it. I want you to lick it all up before I send you off to the afterlife."
Upon hearing that, Celestia stopped eating immediately and looked at Twilight in horror, unlike that which she's seen on her face before. Twilight simply stared back. Celestia turned her attention back towards the soup again. Her primal urges were telling her to dive head-first into it and swallow every last drop. She licked greedily for a few seconds, only to stop and cry. She seemed to have formed the understanding that she was literally drinking herself closer to death.
Shortly afterwards, Celestia stopped drinking the soup altogether. She shut her eyes tightly and cried miserably.
"I don't want to die!"
Twilight was completely unaffected. Even though this was what she originally had hoped to see in Celestia, she felt more annoyed than anything else. She didn't take any pleasure in this.
"You lack that choice," she informed her. "You're going to finish that bowl of soup and then you're gonna die by my hoof. Accept that."
"Princess, please, don't kill me." she pleaded, trying to do so quietly.
Twilight sighed. "I'm gonna kill you no matter what you do. Now finish that soup."
"I can't!" she shrieked.
Twilight just stared at her blankly. Celestia stared back, tears running down her cheek.
"If you don't finish eating, I'll just kill you right now."
"TWILIGHT!! I'll do ANYTHING. ANYTHING!! Please, let me LIVE!!"
"So, you're not going to finish it then? Is that what you're trying to tell me?"
"Twilight!!" Celestia had descended into full-blown crying now.
"This is really pathetic," said Twilight, apparently very bored.
Celestia licks a little of the soup. There was about a pint left. Using some odd sort of calculation, she figures it would take her less than 86 seconds to finish if she ate normally and that less than 160 would anger Twilight. Twilight had essentially made her count down to her doom. About 140 seconds later, she finishes the soup off.
Twilight clapped her hooves happily. "You're done! That's great."
Then, she floated the breath taker up to her face.
"Now open your mouth."
Whether she did it consciously or subconsciously, Celestia shut her mouth tightly. Twilight notices and is immediately angered.
"Look! If you won't open up, I'll force it open!"
Tears streamed endlessly from Celestia's face. She starts making a weird nervous crying sound. Twilight took this as defiance. Using her telekinesis, she took hold of Celestia's head and pried her jaws open, then she shoved the small ball-shaped device down her throat with her hoof. Celestia tries to cough the ball up, but because of how the tool is designed, she's completely unable to. The spikes keep it lodged perfectly in her throat growing larger as she tries to breathe, until eventually it's larger than her throat. She struggles to breathe and soon drops to the floor. Twilight sits and watches as she suffers. Though she's not really interested in seeing her die, she feels compelled to watch. As much as she could, Celestia thrashes and coughs, even taking deep breaths, but nothing works . Not even three minutes later, she collapses completely and ceases making movements of any kind. Twilight takes this as her cue to leave. She exits the cell, not bothering to lock it this time.
~*5 days later*~
Twilight had done some thinking over the weekend. She realized that she'd only visited Princess Luna three times since her imprisonment. She'd been far more invested in the other princess. Luna never said or did anything interesting. She started to wonder if torture would change that. Despite being imprisoned, Luna had yet to lose any bit of her pride. Deciding that she'd be her next victim, she went back to Celestia's cell to retrieve her tools. As she walked in, she noticed her body was still there.
"The dungeon master isn't doing his job," she growled silently. Maybe he'll be her next victim if he continued with this poor performance.
After gathering her tools, she was about to take her leave when she remembered that the breath taker was still inside of Celestia's body. Upon closer examination, she realized that there was absolutely no smell of rotting flesh. Weird, she thought to herself. Reluctantly, she reached inside the mouth of the body to pull it out, being mindful of the spikes. Once she could feel where it was, she could deactivate it and lift the corpse so that the mouth is pointed to the ground. It popped out rather easily, covered with saliva and blood which hadn't fully caked over yet.
Disgusting, Twilight thought as she retrieved the ball. I should have these things washed.
Without warning, the body was shocked to life. It took a breath so monstrously deep that anypony who imitated it would probably damage their throat. It was a continuous series of heavy breathing and coughing up caked-over blood. Twilight bucked so hard that she almost bashed herself into the wall. She sat on the ground. She was unable to tear herself from such an extraordinary scene: the corpse of Celestia reviving itself.
"What...?!" she yelled out of confusion.
Celestia was too busy trying to regain a steady oxygen supply to answer her. Most likely, she probably didn't even realize that she was being asked one.
"You're alive! But... that doesn't make any sense! You're supposed to be DEAD!!"
The body started to thrash around, getting the extremities flowing with blood. She kicked the cauldron a few feet away from Twilight, who screamed and suspended herself in the top corner of the cell using magic. This behavior continued for a few minutes and then stopped just as suddenly as it started. Celestia lay with her eyes open, scanning the room. She was breathing as if she'd just finished a half mile sprint.
"Damn," she said simply. "I was hoping I'd be in the ocean."
"How the hay are you still alive?!" Twilight demanded to know as she dropped down from the corner.
Celestia changed her position on the ground, attempting to sit up.
"I see my faithful student doesn't fully comprehend the word immortal."
Twilight was slightly confused. "What...?"
"Twilight Sparkle, recite definitions for the word immortal," Celestia commanded.
Reflexively, she answered her old mentor. "Not liable to perish or decay. Exempt from death. Not mortal. Undying."
Twilight's eyes widened.
Celestia nodded. "That's correct. I am unable to die."
"But that's just a baseless rumor!" she shot back. "There's nothing that confirmed your life was ever in any danger!"
"Twilight. Judging by the blood I've coughed up, I'd say your toy was blocking my airway for more than a few days. If the word immortal doesn't apply, then I'd love to hear what word does."
"That's. HORSESHIT!" she yelled again, obviously frustrated. She didn't want to accept it. "No, it must've been defective somehow. It didn't work like it was supposed to. You should definitely be dead right now!"
"Not only is it the truth, Twilight Sparkle, it's absurdly obvious. Even the slightest bit of Equestrian history should have taught you that I've been alive for over 2000 years. A more specialized focus would have told you that there have been plenty of attempts on my life."
"I just assumed you were ageless. Not... unkillable!" Twilight argued back.
"And whatever gave you that idea?" she asked. Though it was more of a rhetorical question. She guessed that whatever answer Twilight could have given hadn't gone through meticulous scrutiny.
"I am a goddess. If I could die, all of Equestria would have easily become the gryphon's territory. Ponykind would still be starving to death and tussling with each other for food, water, and land."
She rolled her eyes and smiled. "You really should be studying history more, Twilight, seeing as how you've decided to declare yourself grand ruler of Equestria."
Twilight suddenly stomped a hoof into the ground.
"You're still my prisoner. You can't break those chains. Nopony is coming here to save you, it's impossible. And now that I know you can't die, I won't have to be so careful anymore." She took hold of the hinny knife with her magic.
"So this doesn't really change anything!"
"Oh?" Celestia responded. "I think it changes plenty. If you were wrong about my immortality, what else were you wrong about? Have you given that some thought yet?" She sighed.
"I swear. This is so unlike you! When did you become such a sloppy thinker?"
Twilight sank the knife through Celestia's left eye.
"Twilight, the dark magic is clouding your judgement," Celestia told her as the blood shot from her eye and ran down her face.
Twilight had an awfully confused expression on her face. She pulled the knife from her eye and stabbed her in the flank.
"See, this is what I'm talking about," Celestia started, her disappointment very apparent. "You've adopted the belief that I will become submissive to you if you hurt me or threaten to, but that's simply not the case. Why do you think that? Tell me, what basis do you have? And where is your reasonable suspicion regarding that basis?"
Twilight looked into her eyes silently and stabs her again in the side and twisting the blade, finding no apparent reaction.
"That doesn't hurt you?" she asked.
"Of course it hurts me . I'm conscious."
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Then why aren't you reacting to it?"
"Hmmm," said Celestia, who actually seemed to be contemplating the answer to the question. "Well, I'd have to say the short answer is because I don't care."
Twilight had heard a saying from one of her favorite wiseponies, Star Swirl the Bearded. There are answers to questions that leave you more confused than whence you stared. Despite those being his words, it was a saying she vehemently disagreed with. In her eyes, Star Swirl the Bearded had many flaws, just as any other pony did. As far as she was concerned, anypony who thought that simply lacked the understanding of why it was the right answer; one first needed to examine what they knew in order to make sense of any new information. Afterwards, if necessary, to discover new details. It's from this thinking that she knew what her next course of action was. She floated the knife away and dropped it by her bag.
"What have we been doing these past few months?"
Celestia's eyes widened, a happy expression appearing on her face. She clapped her hooves together in excitement, making an odd utterance of happiness. "You've just had your first intelligent thought!"
Twilight stared at her blankly.
"Oh, right, mustn't get too carried away," Celestia replied, regaining her composure after noticing Twilight's annoyance.
"I was playing pretend so that you'd think you killed me and let me go. Nopony seems to think I can't be killed. Worked for me plenty of times in the past." She sighed. "Now I know you won't fall for it anymore."
Celestia grinned. "Did you enjoy my performance?"
Twilight was very confused and absolutely speechless. She didn't know what to feel. She thought she had killed Celestia, somepony she used to admire and respect. Somepony that she still had admiration for, even up until her death, even though she considered her to be an enemy. She thought she had killed her, and now she's talking again as if nothing had ever happened. She was even being her old friendly self.
Celestia started to laugh, which just made Twilight completely uncomfortable.
"I think I get it now!" she exclaimed excitedly. "Did you think that this was the first time I've ever been imprisoned and tortured before? Oh, no, no, no, no, no! You should have seen the things the gryphons did to me back before Equestria was founded. They were nasty little savages back then, always going on about fire and sex. They killed me by pouring molten lava into my stomach. Can you believe it? Just raping and killing me wasn't enough for them. I had to be a sacrifice. Though I have to say, that is by far one of the most painful ways to go out."
Twilight cringed inwardly. Just the image of a sadistic male gryphon towering over her with his... gryphonhood freely sticking out was enough to make her mentally surrender. Seeing the molten lava would have driven her insane, especially if she had to experience it more than once.
"Oh, but they could never top Mother," she began to explain. " She did every single one called mother shouldn't. Why, if I could write a definitive list of all the things a mother should never do to her offspring, she would've been able to say that she completed it. Every day, she would hurt me in ways I was unable to comprehend. Something as simple as nuzzling with me or combing my mane made me wish that I could die. I tried killing myself repeatedly, but..."
and she took a second to laugh humbly.
"Well, I can't die, you know? And I couldn't figure out a way to keep myself dead for very long. Somehow, no matter how well I hid it, every single time I tried to kill myself, she'd always find out about it. Then she'd do things to me that were a thousand times worse than anything else had she done previously. She'd smack me with her hoof and tell me that I was being a stupid child, that I need to grow up quickly, and immortals do not perish, so get used to it, and you mustn't cower. When I behaved in ways that she did not like, she'd tell me repeatedly that she would never let me go and then she'd bring in the war stallions."
Twilight just stayed silent as she spoke, taking it all in. The unrealness of what was taking place held the pacing.
"One day, I asked her, Mother, why must I suffer? What sins hath I committed, whom hath I harmed, what burdens hath I brought forth and inflicted upon anypony that makest me an insufferable wretch? She looked down at me, wearing the scowl she usually wore upon her face. I don't remember her speech, but I remember the tail end. Thou art immortal and life is pain, ergo thou wilt suffer eternally."
"I didn't like nor understand the answer she gave me, so I rephrased my question. When will I be free? This question apparently didn't require a speech. When you become strong. Naturally, my next question came without thinking. When will I become strong? She raised her voice at me, more than she was accustomed to doing. When you stop asking questions!"
"From there, it was obvious: you'll no longer ask questions when you have the answers." Celestia sighed and shook her head.
"I can't believe how I was back then. Looking back on that, I'm sure that she was trying to tell me that I needed to try and escape, but I just couldn't pick up on that. I was so thick-headed that she felt the need to personally teach me something that life innately teaches us all of us. Nothing is true, everything is permitted." She shook her head and looked downwards.
"But before I realized it, 315 years had passed in the blink of an eye. By the time I finally escaped, everypony I had ever known was already dead."
Twilight was on the verge of tears. Her attempt to hide it was so ineffective that it was pathetic. Celestia noticed, of course; anypony would. But whether or not she cared or even if she wanted Twilight to feel that way was a mystery. A wave of guilt hit Twilight. She felt the urge to hug Celestia, the pony she had tortured for months and even planned to kill. She knew that was the one thing she could never do. Not now, not ever. She held her head down, crying her heart out for the princess, who seemed completely indifferent to both her present situation and her past.
Celestia smiled warmly. "Twilight, I understood since the first day you visited me here that you came only to try and understand who I am. You wanted to try to understand what kind of pony would have sacrificed the life of Shining Armor."
Almost as an instinct, Twilight reflexively started to cast a spell of a dark nature. One that would have caused the both of them great agony. She growled viciously.
"DON'T SAY HIS NAME!!" she screamed viciously, pointing her horn at Celestia as purple bubbles began to form and dance around her horn.
"Twilight."
Celestia had spoken so lightly that it was almost a whisper.
"Did it make you feel good when you thought you had killed me? Did you feel that your brother had been avenged? I don't think so."
Twilight was still very angry.
"You're not a killer. King Sombra is a killer. Princess Luna is a killer. Your brother was a defender. And you are a problem solver. Just like I am. No amount of dark magic corruption will ever change that about you. You didn't feel anything as you watched me die, and that frustrates you. You expected the pain of his death to dissipate with mine, but that's not how things work."
Twilight ceased casting as she took in her words, still crying.
"The pain of others brings you pain, Twilight. The pain you feel will never go away. It will burden you for as long as you live."
Twilight dropped to the cell floor, crying a new batch of tears. That was the last thing she wanted to hear.
"Now you should understand. It is not I who is weak, Twilight Sparkle. It is you."
"I was there!!" she screamed angrily. "You didn't have to use him, you should have used me instead!!"
Celestia raised an eyebrow. "Yes, you were applicable material for the spell. But If I had used you, Equestria would lack a strong problem solver."
Twilight stomped wildly out of frustration.
"Is Equestria the only thing you care about?!"
"Yes," came a swift reply from Celestia.
She answered so quickly that Twilight had thought it had to be a joke. However, a cursory glance lead Twilight to a much deeper realization. While she definitely possessed a sense of humor, Celestia wasn't one to make jokes herself. Twilight had always thought that Celestia's pet phrase for her, my faithful student, was an endearing term given to her due to some sort of special connection the two of them had. Twilight was starting to realize that she didn't have the slightest clue who this mare was, aside from the most basic trait of her being: manipulation. Twilight had once speculated that nothing that ever happened around Celestia was pure chance. She briefly considered the possibility that she had been planning for something like this ever since she first noticed her as a filly. From a young age, she had probably been grooming her both to play a key role in the betterment of Equestria and in ending her life. She had always admired Celestia deeply and had been instilled with a great love for Equestria because of her. When presented with the possibility that she was being manipulated since even before she knew what manipulation was and the complete absence of evidence to the contrary, her eyes widened in realization: that had to be precisely what Celestia had done.
"You are so unbelievably manipulative," Twilight said with complete sincerity.
Of course, she'd always thought that of Celestia. But this is the first time she's ever dared to say it aloud. Along with the next sentence that left her mouth.
"And I still want to be exactly like you."
Celestia nodded.
An expression of hostility like never before appeared on Twilight's face. Clear as day, her feelings towards Celestia were revealed to her. As calmly as possible and without expressing a shred of hatred, she looked into the alicorn princess's eyes and stated how she felt about her.
"I hate you."
She felt as if she had been carrying a wagon load of heavy rocks all her life and only just now removed the harness.
"I'll give you the death you're looking for, Celestia," she told her simply.
"I have no doubt you will, my most faithful student."
"I'll also promise you this: before I find a way to kill you, I'm going to find a way to hurt you. And I swear on Shining Armor's grave, it will suck worse than anything anyone has ever done to you."
Celestia shot her a grin that seemed incredibly out of character for her, one that would've made the devil empty his bowels.
"I look forward to it, Twilight."
