A Bolt of Lightning
By Gallifrey
The Princess of the Sun was bidding farewell to her faithful student, on the doorsteps to her home. She had had a most delightful talk with her over tea and biscuits, and was now preparing for her flight back to Canterlot Castle.
Celestia had dismissed her guards to give her a ride back, preferring to attain some blessed alone time, removing herself from her hectic life for just a short time, where there was nothing. Nothing but her and the simple joy of flying.
But fate wouldn't be allowing that today.
Out of the pegasi's reach, the weather beyond Ponyville had a mind of its own, and the difference it made was suddenly put into stark contrast. When the Princess dismissed her guards, it was a bright and sunny day in Ponyville. What a difference a few miles made. Once the alabaster alicorn was five minutes out of Ponyville, a monstrous thundercloud was lying in between her and her home. The Princess looked up at its looming towers of water and ice, stretching high into the heavens, fingers of dark shadow stretching out beneath it as it smothered the Sun's warming light. She could hear the distant, faded rumble of thunder, rolling across the land.
The alicorn continued on her flight, not at all intimidated by the dark nebulosity that lay in her path. She began to feel the beginning of rain as small drops fell upon her sensitive wings, and her vision in front was a wall of cold grey. Quite a shocking difference to the scene behind her, where the Sun still shone down brightly upon Ponyville.
The thunder had grown altogether louder, and the rain began to fall more and more heavily as the alicorn flew further and further into the storm. Gusts of wind began buffeting her in every direction, the air, chilled, as if the storm was intentionally trying to make the poor pony as uncomfortable as possible. Her world was now enveloped in grey.
Perhaps this was not the best idea, she thought, finally having misgivings. All too late.
She relentlessly continued her journey, the rain falling heavier still, the large drops attacking her wings without mercy, making them waterlogged and causing flying to become all the more strenuous. She gasped at the sudden pain that shot though her side as her left wing seized up in the cold and exhaustion. She had to land. Now.
Spiralling haphazardly towards the sodden ground in a lightly wooded area, she set herself up for landing, the storm having finally defeated her. But it still had one last surprise for her. She came into land, when a white hot agony exploded through her horn. Celestia screamed as the bolt of lightning struck her. The molten pain seared through her mind, and blitzed through her veins, bones and sinews like liquid fire. Her vision went blank and the last thing she remembered was hitting the ground with a sickening crunch and the ungodly pain still tearing through her weak and hollow body.
Celestia woke suddenly from her uneasy sleep.
Aha, it was all a dream, she sighed inwardly. She lay motionless for a little while, eyes shut as she let herself recover from her nightmares. When she eventually opened her eyes was when she first noticed something was rather odd.
Why is it pitch black in here? she mused. She always went to sleep with a night light, she wasn't proud of it but she did, so why was it completely black in her room now?
She could hear the heavy pattering of rain against glass to her side, and through the minimal light that crept in though the square window, she could see the streaking of the water as they fell down, down to meet their fate.
A flash of lightning illuminated her room for the briefest instant, but it wasn't her room... Within the instant of stark contrast and frightening shadows, the Princess noticed several things that were definitely wrong. First, the windows of her bedroom were circular, not square. Another thing that was wrong, she definitely never harboured laboratory equipment in her chambers, the various flasks and pipes were immediately noticeable in the moment they were lit up. And finally, she was not in her bed, that much was certain, only now did she become aware she was on a hard, wooden table.
Starting to feel fairly anxious at these ominous revelations, she attempted to get up, to no avail, she was restrained to the table by a series of straps.
Oh heavens, what's going on?
Panic suddenly in full flow, the alicorn struggled haplessly against her bonds, trying to break free.
A single hoofstep sounded in the dark, and the Princess instantly became motionless, ears strained for the slightest sound, the smallest indication that it wasn't just something toppling over of its own accord, or perhaps a mouse. How she hated mice. She heard the sound again. And again. Somepony was approaching her, friend or foe she had no idea, although she hoped against hope that the new arrival was benign. She heard a sinister giggle that seemed almost familiar to her, though warped into insincerity and cruelty.
Without warning she felt her mouth be wrenched open by a pair of hooves.
Flooded by fear and struggling to break free once again, she couldn't even yell as she felt a sharp needle pierce the inside of her cheek, what was presumably being injected into her, she wasn't sure she wanted to know. As the needle was removed, either by accident or on purpose, the administrator jerked it so that it cut a gash in her cheek. A metallic taste spurted over her tongue, but the will to try and fight was slowly leaving her, her thoughts becoming less coherent. She was dimly aware of a match being struck to her left. She grimly turned her head towards the light, blood trickling out of her mouth, staining her pure coat crimson.
She saw a figure huddled over the light, but could not identify who it could be. The pony levitated the candle it had just lit and started walking back to Celestia, the light behind it, so that it was nothing but a satin silhouette to the Sun Princess.
Another flash of lightning realised Celestia's worst fears. In the moment that the light glared about the room, she saw the face of her captor.
Her faithful student looked down upon her with pitiless eyes. Except she was no longer her faithful student. Twisted and corrupted, that demonic smile that stretched wide across her features, a pale resemblance to the pony Celestia once knew. But resemblance enough to chill her blood and the last flicker of hope to leave her; all within that fraction of a second the lightning bolt provided.
Twilight stood next to her, bearing some kind of terrible instrument. Celestia couldn't tell as she rapidly began to lose conciousness. Vision clouding over, she saw on last glimmer of that terrible smile and after that, she felt only pain, unbearable pain, such as she had never known and she descended into despair.
Celestia woke up to the taste of blood in her mouth. She could hear the mighty quake of thunder roil overhead. She opened a bleary eye, to discover she was surrounded by an open wood, and snout deep in a pool of mud. She lifted her heavy head up, spat the blood out, and looked at herself.
She was in a terrible state. Her head was pounding with such ferocity she felt like throwing up, her feathers were all out of place, mud spattered over a lot of her pristine white coat, and a long, thin, tailing burn mark that ran from the base of her horn, over her face, down under her belly, and running over her left hind leg.
She lay on the ground for a while, the driving rain washing the blood away from her coat, thinking about her terrifying nightmare. She was sure that harrowing face would return to haunt her in times to come.
She heard hoofsteps. Hoofsteps of a diligent and faithful student who had seen the thunderstorm from afar and reasoned that the Princess may have encountered difficulties on her flight home. It was very lucky for Celestia that Twilight had come looking for her, she was in no state to do anything independently right now.
The lavender unicorn gasped in shock upon discovering the fallen alicorn. Twilight gave her an encouraging nuzzle, covered her in warm, dry blankets she conjured from thin air, and began the journey back to Ponyville, away from the bitter and oppressive storm, eventually back to the warm and cosy confines of the purple mare's own soft, downy bed.
