The landscape was gray, the darkened clouds rolled and boiled as the winds moved in a seething tempest of mournful howls. Lightning cascaded over the mountain peaks in flashes of lavender as thunder fired and echoed. The dead plants and cracked soil littered with trees black and gnarled, twisted by hatred and rage as they died. The area corrupted by magic infused with a sorrow so full and terrible it seeped into the world with an intent that everything around must be like the soul that wielded and moved it, cold, dark and broken. The animals gone, the river's dried and the land poisoned as magic itself lashed out in a blind fury.
At the heart of this horrid wasteland was a throne made of bones and memories. Upon its top sat an alicorn, tall and regal with a coat of Royal purple and hair black as pitch. A stripe of faded pink and blue that stretched from her frayed tail to bangs. A stripe that traveled around a horn, wicked and curved. It's tip an angry red as magic bubbled and writhed along its flutes. The once white portions of her cutiemark, the stars that represented her friends and herself a deadly vorpal black. Her form remained still as she looked to the sky. Breathing slow and paced with an unblinking stare turned upward towards a small break in the clouds. What was seen through the faint mist of dark magic that wafted in the winds was a glimpse of stars that twinkled faintly, and a dim sun eclipsed by a shattered moon.
Her mind going back as it often did to a time of joy and hope. A world of possibility and happiness, of love and laughter... Of carefree innocence. But as the memories played they soon turned to the scarred and tragic. Things that wanted to be forgotten but were held in a mind with perfect memory. As she wished it with every beat and every breath. Her mind went back to days long past and to things best left unremembered. As tears began to fall to the dry soil the rain couldn't touch and she released a ragged breath, she closed her eyes.
She wished she could have understood back then the severity of it all. The circumstance and choices that led to her ascension, some semblance of perspective as to what it ment. In a time she was slow to anger and quick to forgive. And trusting, so very trusting. She admitted to herself that the things that she found so fragile and frail now, something that was so freely given back then. She would never want it to change. It was those very faults that enabled her to live, learn, laugh and love. She would never give those things up, not for all the power and riches in the world, not for the world itself. Not for Faust, for the Fates or the... Princesses.
{Flash Back}
"It was you that saw to it that time took them from me. You tore from me all that I cared for and loved, my family, my loved ones, My... friends... The moment you chose me to wear your broken crown they were lost to me. Lost before I had the chance to even meet them. The game over before I knew I WAS PLAYING!"
The alicorn exclaimed as she slowly walked in a circle around the fallen princess. Her voice so loud it rattled the walls. The windows would have shattered if it were not for her arrival. She teleported into the throne room with such ferocity and speed that her teleport was ushered with the sound of a thunderclap that left no glass intact. She stopped with her stance poised for movement, her muscles rigid and narrowed eyes unblinkingly focused on the one in the crater at her hooves.
"I don't understand..How di.." Celestia coughed as silver blood came up instead of air. She attempted to right herself but quickly failed as her mind raced to try to understand why she felt so weak and why it was so hard to see. Using her wings to roll over she then use them to wipe her eyes and had the horrifying realization that it was blood that had been blocking her vision. Its origin was from her horn of which only half remained. Looking from her stained feathers she looked upon the one who had once been her student. She froze in shock at the massive being that stood before her. The lavender alicorns wings were flared in anger and stretched from pillar to pillar, their tips brushing against the walls. She was to Celestia as Celestia was to a normal size pony. Her mane and tail were black, horn curved and eyes wreathed in dark fire. She hadn't seen the aspect of magic for the better part of two centuries but she would need at the very least thousands of years to gain this much power.
"Why, how, what happened to you Twilight?"
"Time." The Princess of friendship stated as she lifted her hoof before it came back down again in less than a blink of an eye. The sound of something resembling a whip crack and the shockwave kicking up dust as a part of marble floor gave way beneath the impact. Raising her hoof once again as blood dripped from its bottom to the floor and particles fell, sparkling in the light of the day. Celestia looked on as the fragments of the other piece of her horn were tossed to the wind. Her heart was gripped with fear, not for herself but for her charges.
"Where are they, what have you done with my guards?"
"Nothing...yet. They're trying to get in as we speak, but right now they face a barrier strong enough that this entire room would be separated from the castle before it would break. There is no sound because of a privacy spell woven into the barrier itself. Spells of anti-magic of varying magnitudes as well as a zone of truth and a dozen others. All so I can know the answers I have come for."
"Why are you doing this? If it was knowledge you were seeking you need have only asked." Celestia couldn't stand anymore, becoming weaker as each moment passed. In her exhausted state she sat on the floor where she was.
"Experience would dictate otherwise, but to answer your questions in order. The reason I could teleport into an anti teleportation zone, one of which you constructed to prevent me from doing so was unwoven as I initiated the teleportation itself." Twilight responded coldly as she began circling once more. Her giant wings folded but her muscles still tightly wound in anticipation of attack.
"My increase in power, ability's and size is thanks to as I said "Time". Constructing a pocket dimension and weaving a portion of my soul Into it enabled me to cast itself and its contents back in time. Never interacting but always observing... always gathering. A spell specifically designed to go back to the advent of the written word and record every instance in every language ever created. Every book, spell, tome and scroll. Words chiseled in stone, cave markings and every branch of magic that was deemed too dangerous to exist was recorded and archived. Every scrap of knowledge ever lost to the sands of time. Sending myself back to intercept that knowledge, I have spent centuries, millennia, eons in study. Sending fragments of myself to the highest planes of magic, I have witnessed the passage of ages and epochs. All in pursuit of the answer to one question. As the aspect of magic it all falls within my purview, including chronomancy. I am after all immortal, all I have now is time."
"You...I can't.." The princess of the sun was struck speechless.
Twilight's horn came alive with magic once more as she glanced to the door. Celestia's bones seemed to lock as her jaw snapped shut. Turning her head back in a scowl. "Please refrain from interrupting, it's rude."
"Because of this I am intimately knowledgeable of how true your truth is. Just the diary entries, letters sent to diplomats and assassins alike. Plots and conspiracies, manipulations that spanned half the globe and many others. I have copies of them all. That in and of itself is proof enough but it doesn't end there, I've watched you. I have personally seen every lie and twisted thing you've ever done. Every act of cruelty all in the name of your own variable definition of what is good and just. Every instance of neglect, every drop of spilled blood, every mask you've ever worn."
"As to the how, the reason you're feeling weak at the moment is because I have isolated spells around the connection you share with the higher planes of magic. The instant of my arrival those spells severed that connection. The barrier around us now is slowing your metabolic rate, limiting the speed of cellular regeneration, synaptic discharges and cardiovascular function. Being a magical creature by nature your body itself is burning through your now limited reserves. Cannibalizing you from the inside out. For all intents and purposes Celestia... You are mortal. I have slowed it somewhat but a mortal with an alicorn's physiology won't live long" The lavender alicorn said through gritted teeth and manic smile.
"Now onto my questions, of which there is only two. Were you at any point and in any varying degree knowledgeable that the aspect in which we embody has a direct correlation to our longevity as alicorns?"
Celestia felt the magic holding her body in place release everything but her hooves.
"Of course the magic and aspect of nature we embody would grant us our lifespan, it's that... "NO!" Twilight screamed as she seethed.
"Your soul has its connection to what you embody, with either the connection gone or what it was anchored to no longer present then the soul can move on to elysium. But if there were say A STAR in the exact same place, comprised of the same magic as where your sun died the instant it had done so then that connection would re-establish itself. As the aspect of magic, my soul instead of moving through the higher planes of magic onto elysium, it is instead held within the realm of magic itself as its connection is either never lost or reforged anew...Believe me I've tried."
"B-but you just said you made me... mortal, h-how could.."
"As you are the aspect of the sun and Luna the moon, Cadence of love, when all is dead and there is no love in the world Cadence will die. When the sun flares and burns to an ember, you would have died. Luna would have perished as your sun flared and consumed her moon! What I'm asking Celestia is that at any point where you aware MAGIC WILL NEVER DIE!?"
It was that moment Celestia had the terrifying realization of what it all meant. Her heart felt as if it was being crushed. Her stomach twisted and heaved into knots that felt like lead. Feeling more sick than she had ever felt in her life she collapsed to the ground, breathing ragged and sharp as tears flowed freely. The pain experienced causing shadows in the corners of her sight as they narrowed in to blackness and back into focus.
"N - n o..." She sobbed and said in a voice barely above a whisper.
Twilight's muzzles snapped to a mockery of a smile as all the rage and hatred seemingly vanished. Her voice coming in a softly insane and chipper tone.
"I already know the answer to my second question but I want to see the words roll from your lips, I want to hear your voice say it out loud. So I can memorize it."
"How long were you planning my Ascension?"
"I-It...wa.." Celestia then heaved what was left of her breakfast that morning onto the floor. She raised her head attempting to ignore the feeling and sent of the blood and bile covering her hooves in front of her.
"Come on princess, your faithful student just wants to learn."
"Always." She said steadily as she rallied her remaining resolve. Committing to speak clearly if only for a moment." I'm so very sorry Twilight. if I..."
The lavender alicorns magic once again flared as Celestia's jaw snapped closed. It felt as if her lips were stitched together. Twilight's magic only manifesting around her muzzle.
"No, no, no, there has never been nor will there ever be a time for apologies. Not after what you have done. You were with me when they died. You watched on from my side silent and stoic, somber and regal. You knew all along as Pinkie and Fluttershy moved into the castle, you knew about our relationship and what was to come. You were there at our wedding... and their funerals. You didn't say a word as I kissed Pinkie for the last time or as I did the same for the last of my friends. With each and every passing, a star in my cutie mark turned black. That is something I know that you could obviously see. As I said goodbye to Fluttershy and the last star was consumed, you should have made the connection. You should have known what would happen as the princess of friendship watched all her friends die. You were aware it would happen eventually but not its consequence. No, if you did I would have been locked away in Tartarus long ago. Sealed away with all the other monsters. Except I'm special right princess? I'm one of the very rare monsters you made with your own two hooves..."
"Well I believe it's that time. I would say it's been fun but I have an aversion to lying. If there's one thing you can take from our conversation is the solace that at least you...can die. As one final gift for the fond memories you've given me, I'll let you reach out and touch a part of the sun one last time."
Twilight's horn glowed a brilliant gold that reflected off of every surface in the throne room. Just above Canterlot a sphere of light flashed into existence, it's colors a mixture of lavender and gold as the light cascaded onto the city. Those within the thriving metropolis looking to the sky in awe and hesitant admiration at the beautiful sight. Arks of white and gold folded in and out of the miniature star.
"Mno mno mno mno mno mno!" Celestia's muffled screams sounding as she frantically tried to speak through locked jaws and pinned lips. Terrified movements, shuttering and sluggish as she attempted to crawl towards Twilight. Pawing at her hooves as she pleaded and cried in silent horror.
"Don't worry princess, I'll be fine... I'll always be fine."
As the aura blinked out from the aspect of magic's horn, everything became white.
