Suddenly, more so even than it had taken form, the darkness was reduced to tatters. The oppressive, all-consuming void was torn to shreds, leaving Celestia to watch as strips of ethereal darkness fell apart all around her, fading into nothingness like scattered ashes on a breeze.

It took a moment for the Solar Princess’s eyes to readjust. The figures before her were blurry, but their posture was unsurprising. One stood triumphant, the other, a crumpled heap at her feet.

She was almost disappointed. Twilight had assured her that Starlight was a mage well beyond that of most mortals. She would have loved to have seen what little fight she could have mustered. Still, the mere moments it took to seal her defeat gave the impression there was little to be missed.

Yet as the pair came into focus, it became clear that something was off.

The standing figure was far too small to be her sister, and the one sprawled beneath was far larger than she had expected.

As sound began to return, she could vaguely make out words being spoken.

“I apologise for my behaviour.” Cooed a familiar voice, too low to be Starlight’s. “Can you ever forgive me?”

“Of course, Luna. That’s what friends do.”

As things finally came fully into focus Celestia, horrified, saw clearly what lay before her.

It was not her sister that stood triumphant over a supine Starlight, but the opposite. Luna, returned to her usual form, lay sprawled along the floor, arms wrapped around Starlight’s leg, her head nuzzling against the mortal’s thigh.

“There is one thing that you can do for me though…”

Her wide, almost uncomprehending eyes narrowed, and Celestia rose to her feet.

“Anything!”

The roles had changed, she was no longer a spectator, and this was no longer an execution, she knew now this was to be a battle.

“Anything for you!”

Her attention turned first to her surroundings. She could sense no magic, save for the remnants of their recent foray into the dark. Whatever was happening, it was not an illusion, nor a spell that could be easily undone. The woman fawning at Starlight’s feet appeared to truly be her sister. How it had happened was unimportant. There was too little time, and too many possibilities, all that mattered was that it was her new reality.

Starlight had made a grievous error. She had forfeited the element of surprise for some cheap theatrics. Perhaps she had gotten it in her mind that Celestia’s recent track record somehow meant she was not to be taken seriously. That gods and monsters taking advantage of lucky circumstance had done anything to diminish her status or call into question her abilities.

Another disappointment.

The only thing that Twilight had praised more than Starlight’s magic had been her mind. How could she have been so naïve? Celestia wondered. How could she turn over her throne to someone who could be fooled so easily?

“Anything you desire!”

Her fingers slid below the lip of the table. Even together, she knew they would be of little threat to her. She was older, the true ruler of the realm, her power was unmatched. Her only concern was to minimise collateral damage, and the easiest way to do that was to finish things quickly. A single stroke of her arm sent the marble slab careening across the room as if it were a toy.

“Protect me.”

The shadow of it, as it flipped its way through the air, fell upon Starlight, who didn’t seem to pay it even a passing thought. Instead, the enormous white slab, and the pastries and dishes with it, were ensconced in deep, blue aura, hovering in midflight before lowering themselves back to the ground and arranging themselves perfectly at Star’s side as if they had never even been disturbed.

“You know Celestia…” she smarmed, reaching across and taking a cupcake in hand. “I’m not sure that throwing food is appropriate for someone of your status. I’m just glad that your replacement is of more even temperament.”

The chairs were next. One taken in either hand and catapulted over, followed by the third, pitched straight ahead like a cannonball.

The first two projectiles met identical fates to the one that had preceded them. Plucked from the air by magic that Celestia now recognised as Luna’s and laid perfectly in place. The third made it closer to its target, but froze just the same, floating gingerly behind Starlight as her sister took one step back, then slid it beneath her.

“Thank you, Luna.” She said, placing a hand on one of the Lunar Princess', now resting on her shoulders.

“My pleasure, Starlight.” the princess replied, her fingers beginning to knead Starlight's back, leaving Celestia to sneer as the mortal melted backward.

“I could forgive throwing food-“ She took the cherry from atop her cupcake, holding it above her open mouth and dropping it in. “-but these are antiques. I don’t think Twilight would appreciate it if her new furniture came scraped or chipped, do you?”

The elder princess growled under her breath, but calmed herself quickly, refusing to let anger seep into her voice. “What have you done?”

“I’m glad you asked.” She called back, pointing with her free hand to the chair nearest her. “Why don’t you come over, take a seat, and we can discuss it?”

Mocking her. The insect was mocking her…

The Princess took a moment to consider her options, Starlight’s head, positioned just in front of Luna’s thigh, made for a poor choice of target. Her heart, however…

“I’ve actually been dying to tell-“

Searing white light materialised between the two in an instant, Strands of sunlight woven together into a solid chord with little more than a thought, becoming a beam, a spear, that should have run her through before she could know it had happened.

Instead, it vanished.

In the fraction of a second it took to meet its target, swallowed whole by a single black mark, a void, that hung between them like a puncture in the air itself, disappearing the light, and then itself, as if neither had been conjured at all.

“If you’re going to keep interrupting, we’re never going to be able to talk, Celestia.”

“We have nothing to discuss, filth.”

She merely smiled in return. “I disagree.”

She was taunting her. Trying to bait her into acting rashly. Perhaps that was how she had done... whatever it was that she had done. Luna had been careless, emotional, as was her nature. Celestia knew better.

Her golden aura took hold of the air surrounding the two of them.

Luna was proving a larger inconvenience that she had initially guessed, but hurting her was still a remote possibility. Dealing with Starlight would put an end to this, and Luna was far more durable, besides.

The air around them burst into a vortex of red and orange flames. An inferno that twisted and contorted the air with unbearable heat. As the flames climbed higher Celestia’s focus was drawn away from their base and towards their apex.

Another black spot.

A hole no bigger than a pinprick, so small in fact that it could hardly be seen at all were it not for the sound that accompanied it. The crackle of flames was soon challenged by the sucking of air, the fire drawn upward towards it, the flames stretching until they came apart and were devoured.

Celestia clenched her fist and gritted her teeth, redoubling her focus, the flames turning bright white, only for the pinprick to expand.

Soon, despite her best efforts, the flames had subsided entirely, and all that remained of their presence was a black ring, scorched into the snow-white marble beneath.

She looked on at them, undisturbed, the princess’ hands still kneading the mortals shoulders, eyes upon her, as if nothing had happened. A midnight-blue aura sparkling around them that began to melt away revealing the same immaculate tile below their feet.

The princess took one deep breath, and then another. This was not how this was mean to go. That Luna could so easily protect herself from her magic was a surprise all its own, but that she could do so for Starlight as well was beyond belief.

They were taking advantage of her compassion, she knew. They thought that she would hold back and leave them some sort of opening.

They thought that she was weak.

They were wrong.

Celestia was a princess. A goddess. She would do what was necessary, just as she always had. If that meant moving beyond restraint, she would, but she would first be certain it was necessary.

"Luna, what is it that you think you're doing?" She asked, her voice steady, as if speaking to a child.

"She's just protecting her friend, Celestia. Surely you can-"

"I would not waste my breath asking you, mortal. My sister can speak for herself."

"Starlight is right, sister." Luna replied, not even bothering to look up from her ministrations. "Starlight is always right."

Another deep breath. "She is not right, and she is not your friend. She betrayed you, do you not remember?"

"A misunderstanding." She tutted, still focused on massaging Starlight's shoulders. "Starlight Glimmer is my closest friend. I trust her more than anyone. I must do as she says."

Starlight's eyes met Celestia's that hideous smirk still on her lips, her hands over her head, running up the pale white skin of Luna’s thighs. "That's very good, Luna." She purred.

“You are my sister; do you not trust me more?” She inveighed, one final time.

"Starlight Glimmer is my closest friend. I trust her more than anyone. I must do as she says."

“You’re wasting your time. There’s nothing you can do to turn my friend against me. Isn’t that right, Luna?”

The princess nodded along, an empty smile splayed across her face.

“In fact, why don’t we show her just how close we really are?”

Luna moved so quickly it seemed almost to take Starlight by surprise. The woman, nearly twice her partner’s size, went down to her haunches, arms coiling around her like snakes, binding her to the chair,

Luna-“ She giggled, as soft pink lips met her own, hands sinking into her, forcefully, but gently.

“Luna, we-“ Another kiss, but deeper, her hold turning tighter, her hands moving from the woman’s, one slithering between her thighs, the other beneath her tank top and under her bra.

“Luna, stop! I think she gets the point!” Star finally managed to force out as the princess once more pulled apart, giving her friend the chance to breathe.

With a sheepish grin Luna returned to her former position, looking reluctant as she did, while Celestia looked on in abject revulsion. “Am I right, Celestia? Or do you need a more thorough demonstration?”

“All you have demonstrated is that you are as depraved as you are overconfident.”

“Well…”Her hands returned to Luna’s once more on her shoulders, and stroking along them, and, as if sending some sort of secret signal, the princess bent down again, leaving another long, lingering kiss on her lips, before returning to full height. “I can’t exactly argue with you there. But this is getting us nowhere. We have much to discuss, and precious little time, so I would appreciate it if you would calm down, take a seat, and speak with me.”

Celestia’s heel slammed against the floor, the tile beneath her heel shattering and exploding outward. “Listen here, whelp! I am offering you one final chance to spare yourself a lifetime of torment. You will undo whatever you have done, this instant, you will surrender, and you will do so with the knowledge that the rest of your life will be spent in an Equestrian prison, rather than the depths of Tartarus.“

Starlight snickered. “You really still think you’re in control here, don’t you?”

“I am Princes Celestia, ruler of all Equestria, Avatar of the sun! I am always in control! I -“

“Starlight says: take one step forward.”

“I- I…” Celestia stood still for a moment, briefly finding herself feeling lost. She looked down at her feet, then over her shoulder, and saw the tile, practically reduced to dust, one step behind her. “What just-?”

“Starlight says: take one step forward.”

She saw it this time. Her left foot first, toes painted gold, wrapped by a sparkling sandal, stretching out in one long stride before her, planting itself firmly, soon followed by the rest of her.

“Now it’s your turn to listen, Celestia. You and I are going to have a nice, civil chat about the future of this kingdom. We will discuss my place in it, and we will discuss yours, and once we are done, we will go our separate ways, and get ready for the coronation. No hissy fit, no matter how severe, is going to change that. Do you understand?”

“Why, you-“ Celestia’s right arm rose before her, her index finger pointed squarely at Starlight. Her full focus turned to a point barely a millimetre ahead of the tip of her nail, a space suddenly occupied by a tiny spark. Air swirled from around her, the spark growing larger than smaller, as if it were breathing, expanding and compressing, over and over, becoming brighter and more intense with each passing cycle.

Starlight raised a hand above her head. A snap of her fingers seemed to draw Luna’s attention, quickly returning to devouring the woman before her, albeit with slightly more restraint. Her lips went up and down Star’s neck, one hands returning to their previous positions. She made a show of it, her hand on the back of Luna’s neck, her lips on her cheek, all the while one teal eye peering out at her from the corner.

If she thought that draping Luna over herself would afford her even the faintest bit of protection, she was sorely mistaken. Luna would recover. The gap between what could harm her and what could harm Starlight remained a gaping chasm. Besides, putting her trust in someone like that, allowing herself to be tricked, to be controlled, perhaps this would be an opportunity to learn from her mistakes.

“Starlight says-“

She loosed the tiny ball of light. “Silence!” It screamed towards its target, ripping the air apart until it met its mark and exploded into an enormous flashpoint, smoke billowing out behind the place of impact, the force rattling windows, and shaking the ground.

“-take two steps forward!” The voice chirped from beyond the veil of smoke, and once again, Celestia watched in disbelief as her body complied. She meant to resist, or at least to focus, to get some sense of what sort of trickery was at play, but she couldn’t. Before she had even understood the words, she was already closer, nearly halfway from where she had begun. She sensed no magic at play beyond the barrier that had already begun to disintegrate, no illusions, no manipulations, merely spoken words that seemed to move her without reason.

“You’re wasting your time, Celestia.”

Luna’s face was once again buried in the crook of Starlight’s neck, her hands still slithering over her, as if she hadn’t even noticed the blast. Starlight’s hand, ran through her hair, a wicked smile accompanying eyes that flashed with delight as Celestia bit into her lower lip.

“You’re not going to figure it out, and you’re not going to win. You have nothing to threaten me with. Nothing that I can’t counter.”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed. “I have everything with which to threaten you.” She hissed as pools of green overtook them, her pupils soon entirely submerged. “Everything under the sun.”

She felt the cold grip of an ethereal hand on her heart. The soul sucking chill of dark magic within her. Hideous whispers that spoke to her in ancient tongues, nearly forgotten but now fresh in her mind, ignored as best she was able.

The gold of her aura turned pitch black, encircling the ground around Starlight. Enormous shards of black crystal soon emerged from beneath it, sharpened like blades and converging upon her.

A shield of magic took shape and brushed the initial volley off course, just barely missing their intended targets. Celestia watched as the midnight blue colour of the barrier turned to the same pitch black as the shards it had deflected, solidifying and falling to the floor, and sprouting new crystalline branches to join those that had already been formed.

Wisps of purple mist began to form at the corners of the princess’ eyes, the grip upon her soul growing tighter, the whispers growing louder.

Each shard birthed several more, splintering out in all directions, climbing atop one another live strands of ivy. The smug smile of her adversary soon vanished behind the points of her horrific creation, doing nothing to slow their efforts, even as the structure grew ever taller and ever bleaker, stretching upward until it’s peak neared the ceiling.

Celestia’s hand reached for her chest, feeling as if her soul was being ripped from her body, the tower continuing to expand, new spikes stabbing themselves into its core.

She staggered slightly, feeling uneasy on her feet. She felt horribly ill, as if a part of her had been ripped from her body, but there was no time to dwell. Darkness had begun to creep from beneath her pillar, spreading along the floor like some horrible disease, stopped only with one final bit of a focus, and another attendant wave of nausea with it.

Her sister, still somewhere within the hideous spire before her, remained a matter of concern. She would have suffered some harm, no doubt, and even with Starlight taken care of, she could still-

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud crack that broke the silence.

A single fracture had formed along the spire’s midline, small at first, but growing. Soon it was a cleavage, and then a fissure, growing taller and spreading wider, like veins across the structure, each expansion accompanied by a sound almost like a shriek as it continued to come apart, until, all at once, the entirety of the enclosure collapsed.

At its centre, Starlight sat, unphased, another cupcake, half eaten, in hand, that same smug smirk on her lips. Behind her, Luna stood, eyes filled with ghastly green colour, purple mist emanating from their edges.

As shards rained down around them, the Lunar Princess stretched one arm over her head, sweeping a circle above them that turned the crystals to dust before they touched the ground.

“Wow! Dark magic? I’m honoured that you would be willing to use something so dangerous and difficult against a ‘lowly mortal’ like me.”

Celestia looked from Starlight to her sister and back again. There wasn’t a scratch to be found on either of them. Luna wasn’t even supposed to be capable of using dark magic, she had never been taught, and yet somehow, she had managed to protect them both and dispel her own.

“I know how embarrassing this must be for you, Celestia, so I’m going to give you one more chance to surrender before I cut to the end of this little game.”

“To you?” She spat, her fists clenched, her teeth barred. “I would rather-“

“Hold that thought.” She interrupted, raising one finger, then pointing it in front of her. “Starlight says: come her, now.”

Celestia saw the world shift around her, one foot going before the other, bringing her one step closer to her enemy.

“Stop!” muttered, as much to herself as to Starlight. “Stop this at once!”

Another step forward.

“I will not allow myself to be-“

Then another.

“- to be ordered around by some-“

Closer.

“-pathetic-“

Closer.

“-arrogant-“

Until finally…

“-MORTAL!”

She stopped.

“Well, Celestia, if that’s true, then you have an awfully strange way of showing it.”

Celestia brought an arm over her head and made to flatten the girl, to slam her with such force that she would either turn to dust or plummet through the floor.

“Starlight says: freeze.”

Yet before she could begin the downswing, she found her arm fixed in place, her entire body unresponsive.

“Hmmmm. An interesting look for a statue, but I’m not much for the whole ‘vengeful god’ look. What do you think, Luna? Should we have her try something else?”

“I think that whatever you choose will be perfect, Starlight.” She replied, not even sparing Celestia a glance. Her own sister, standing there, watching her be defied, humiliated, and doing nothing. Encouraging it in fact.

She felt emotions, long since buried beginning to dredge themselves into being, a heat spreading throughout her body. Rage, not anger, but true, divine rage. A fury that, in times long since past, had scorched the land before her, razed villages to dust, and flattened recalcitrant armies.

“Well said! How about something a bit more provocative? Starlight says: strike a sexy pose!”

“I WILL DO NO SUCH THING!” She barked, her voice echoing off the walls, shaking some of the decorations loose. Even as she protested, however, she felt herself bending forward, her eyes coming level with Starlight’s, a hand – one of her own hands – reaching up behind her head and plating itself there, the other sliding beneath the top of her dress, and cradling her breasts as if to present them for inspection.

“I feel like I’m getting mixed messages here.”

What had been only heat had become something more. It now felt and had spread like wildfire. She had done her best to kill such emotions. She had seen what they had done to her sister, first hand.

“Your words and your expression say ‘I’m going to wring your neck.’, but your body says ‘Take me! I’m yours!’.”

But Luna had been weak. She had been a slave to her emotions. First to her envy, and now to her love. She had allowed herself to lose control.

“So, which is it, Celestia? Should I get up and take what’s mine?”

She was better than her sister. She always had been.

“If you lay so much as one of your repellent fingers upon me, your punishment will grow ten-fold.”

She closed her eyes and focused. The inferno within her raged, but she would keep control.

“Well, let’s test that theory then, shall we?”

She reopened her eyes and saw Starlight falter, mid step towards her, saw their reflection in hers, and knew there was no going back.

The diaphanous streaks of rainbow hair that normally concealed one from view had burst into a frenzy of orange flame that burned brightly atop her head.

Her newly opened eyes were the same bright orange shade, wrapped by pitch black sclera and centred around slitted pupils.

The smile was gone from Starlight’s lips as she took one step away, and then another, shrinking backward as Celestia began to grow. She struggled against unwilling limbs, but found they could be forced into compliance as she drew herself back to full height. Every centimetre of her body seemed to resist, but her will was greater than any trick.

“Feeling a bit regretful, perhaps?” She asked, barring her fangs like daggers. “Perhaps, wishing to surrender, yourself?”

Starlight gulped hard and backed herself into her chair falling backward into it.

Celestia followed her downward, her clawed hands on the arm rests, almost nose to nose. “I would offer to let you avoid the humiliation, but I would be lying, mortal.”

“You think I’m scared of you?” She asked, a faint but unmistakable quaver still within her voice.

“I know you are.” She hissed, her forked tongue darting out from between her lips. “Because, as stupid as you are for challenging me, you were smart enough to fool my sister, to bind me with whatever trick it was that gave you the idea that you were in control. That means you must be smart enough to know that you are completely outmatched.”

“You’re not as powerful as you think you are Celestia. If I wanted to, I could have you bow at my feet this instant.”

The princess ablaze, looked from the woman before her then to her sister, still standing a step behind, evincing, for the first time, some kind of awareness.

“That sounds like a wager, whelp.” Celestia forced herself back upright, still meeting resistance among her limbs, but beating it back. She put forward one hand, her palm flat towards Starlight. “Do it then.” She taunted. “Because if you don’t, the only thing left of you in that chair will be your ashes.”

Celestia watched as Starlight turned in her seat, her eyes Meeting Luna’s, exchanging a look, then returning to meet her own. “Starlight sa-“

The room flooded with light. An all-consuming brilliance that would erase everything it touched, leaving nowhere to hide, shining with such intensity that it left even its caster blind. As the light faded away Celestia could only listen but heard exactly what she had wanted.

All around her, near perfect silence, save for the sizzle of plastic melting and the crackle of paper burning. She felt her hair fall along her shoulders again, once more coming over her eye. As her vision began to return she caught sight of her bangs, duller, but once again their usual prismatic hue that lent colour to the ill-defined shapes in front of her.

She would wait a few moments more for her sense to return, then set about finding her sister, no doubt worse for the wear. Once she was well again, they would need to have a long-

“Looks like you lost.”

Celestia felt a hand upon her chest, slipping beneath one of the straps of her top and palming one of her breasts. She swung wildly before her, seeking to crush whatever it was that had laid a hand upon her, but found nothing but empty air.

“A little closer than that, Celestia.”

Her vision still returning she could now see herself, a long black streak running up from her heel, along her leg, terminating in a hand shaped blotch sitting upon her chest.

“What have you-“

The thin black streak retreated beneath her, then stretched outward again, slowly adding a third dimension as it grew from the ground until it resembled a black sheet draped over a pair of ill-formed objects. Soon, it began to melt away, the blackness dripping off of them like paint, revealing Starlight and Luna beneath, looking just as they had before she had struck.

Celestia made to take another swing-

“Oh Loooooo-naaaaaaa!”

But in an instant, she was stopped. A crushing weight had come upon her, invisible, but as real as if the entire castle were upon her shoulders. Down on one knee she could raise her head just high enough to see Star leering down at her.

By force of will she managed to force herself upward.

“More weeeeeight!”

Only to collapse twice as quickly, falling to her hands and knees.

In one last attempt she delved deep within herself, no longer concerned with control she would take whatever power she could manage to draw out. The tile beneath her hands began to glow red as the heat from her body erupted like a volcano. She felt the fangs begin to take shape again, her eyes-

“Uh, uh uh. Starlight says: no more magic.”

Suddenly the heat was gone, vanished completely from her, as if she had imagined every shift and transformation. The air around her seemed to grow in weight with each passing second, until she felt her forehead pressed against the floor.

“I’d say that looks like bowing to me.”

“How did you-“

“Oh, so now you’re interested in what I have to say? Well maybe I don’t want to tell you anymore.” The voice above her was dripping in arrogance, moving from in front of her to her side. It was joined shortly after by a hand, running the length of her bare back, leaving crawling skin in its wake. “Let’s just say, I was pretty sure you didn’t keep close count of how many people you kept under your heel.”

The hand moved its way up to the top of her head, taking her hair in hand and pulling it upward. “Don’t feel too badly though, even if Luna hadn’t figured that out it wouldn’t have mattered.”

Her eyes, now mostly adjusted, looked upon the chair in which Star had been sitting, and the other furniture to match, immaculate white in a sea of black scorch marks. “Always best to have a couple backup plans after all.”

“You didn’t do this.” She spat from between gritted teeth. “You can’t do this to me.”

“Well, not alone, but with the magic of friendship-“

“Luna isn’t this strong. This is some kind of trick.” Celestia saw Starlight make a motion with her hand, the weight vanishing shortly after.

“Starlight says: freeze after every order. Starlight says: stand up.”

It was the eagerness with which her body seemed to betray her that unsettled Celestia most. Not just that she was on her feet before she knew it, but that her hands were fixed at her sides, that her back was perfectly straight, not just that she seemed to obey, but that she seemed to obey with an eye to perfection.

“You have no idea what she’s capable of.” Starlight whispered. “You think you’re so superior.”

She felt Starlight’s hand on her stomach but saw nothing, her eyes locked straight ahead, well above where even the top of the mage’s curls would be. “You underestimate everyone. Friends, and especially foes… and no matter how many times it costs you, you never seem to learn.” Her stomach turned under her touch, but all of her efforts amounted to nothing. “You underestimated Luna. You underestimated me...”

She saw Luna directly ahead, a chair in hand, planting it directly opposite Starlight’s own. She turned and took it, leaning back with legs crossed, her finger pointed at the one across. “Starlight says: sit down.”

Celestia’s body followed along, tracing the path Starlight had taken and coming to a stop before the chair opposite her. Her knees gave way and her body sank backward, falling perfectly upon the seat prepared for her, her back straight and her hands clasped and folded in her lap.

“But worst of all, you underestimated Twilight.”

Celestia sneered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I do know how this goes. This is the part where you tell me everything that you’re planning-“

“Planned.” She interrupted. “We’re at the end, Celestia, not the beginning.”

Luna passed a cup of tea to Starlight, who took it in hand with a smile, receiving a demure nod in reply. “There are no twists to come, no clever ways out, and Twilight won’t be coming to rescue you.”

“I’ve seen hundreds of pretenders and villains like you come and go. What makes you think you’ll be any different?”

“I’m so glad you asked.” She replied, taking a long sip from her cup. “Let me explain…”

Author's Note

Question: Why would magic fire create smoke or leave scorch marks when those are both products of incomplete combustion?

Answer: 🖕

Yes, I know that this version of Celestia doesn’t exactly square with the version that spends most of her time being instantly captured and neutralised… I don’t really have an end to that statement, I just thought this would be more interesting.

Sorry again about the relative lack of lewdness – I solemnly swear that every subsequent chapter is extremely hypno-lewd-centric. We’re ‘almost’ there!