Author's Note

Different point of view of the previous chapter seeing how things looked from Celestia's perspective.

Chapter 5

Princess Celestia, Princess of the Sun, could only stare in horror at the cell that held her once prized student. The walls were flaked with what appeared to be dried blood, the ceiling didn’t look much better and the floor was covered it the flakes she assumed fell from the walls. A quick burst of magic cleared all the dried blood from the room.

Her gaze went from the cell to the occupant. Twilight was laying dazed in the center of the room. As far as Celestia could tell she hadn’t moved to acknowledge the opening of the door or the use of magic. Twilight’s hair was a complete mess and her wings were clearly unkempt. Her coat now possessed numerous scars and the clothes she was wearing were mere tatters of cloth barely preserving her modesty. Her skin lay taught over her skeleton and her eyes were sunken in.

Celestia could almost see the moment Twilight became aware of her surroundings from her position but was too slow to stop her from hiding under the bed. It reminded her of when Twilight was a filly and new to the castle.

“Twilight?” she called out. Maybe Twilight didn’t realize who was at the door? Unfortunately all she accomplished was making Twilight curl up further under the bed. She approached and said again “Twilight?” Celestia’s heart was breaking. What had they done to her?

“It’s alright,” Celestia lowered herself so that she could look the younger pony in the eyes “You can come out.”

When Twilight inched forward she tried to reach out for the younger mare but Twilight recoiled. “No, Twilight, it’s okay. You’re safe. It’s okay.”

She could barely keep herself from breaking down and her voice cracked with the effort of trying to stay calm. Clearly, both Luna and herself had been so wrong. Whether Twilight had been guilty or not the punishment inflicted had been too much. She noticed Twilight covering her ears, all the time without sound must have made her sensitive to noise.

Twilight clearly was skittish, maybe putting some distance between them would encourage her to come out. Once she was calm and they could have a conversation and the two of them could leave and Celestia could ask Twilight’s forgiveness for wrongly imprisoning her and being especially cruel to leave her cut off from everyone and everything.

The princess of the sun decided to sit up against the far wall in Twilight’s sight. What was she going to do? She watched the young purple alicorn peek out at her and then pull back when she saw that she was watching. It was like watching a wild animal, uncertain about the creature it had encountered. Slowly, Twilight made her way closer and, after a few false starts, eventually gathered the courage to poke her.

Celestia couldn’t help but smile. It was refreshing to see pieces of the pony she once knew. Then the forsaken princess reached out and touched one of Celestia’s wings as though she’d never seen them before. “Do you like them?” Celestia asked. She noticed the wince Twilight had when she spoke as well as her second time rubbing her ears. This time Celestia made an effort to keep her voice to a soft whisper. “Do your ears hurt?”

Twilight made a show of touching Celestia’s lips and then her own ears. Celestia understood after the second time it happened but Twilight did it a few more times after that. ““Okay,” The eldest princess whispered. “No loud noises.”

“Oh-K-ay.” Twilight forced out in broken equish, her voice barely loud enough to hear and rough from dis-use. Celestia felt a mixture of joy and heartbreak at the sound.

“Oh-K-ay?” Twilight repeated, confused. “Oh-K-ay?”

“Twilight,” Celestia whispered.

It was clear to Celestia now. It wasn’t simply that Twilight was afraid of her or angry with her for being locked up, her mind was fractured. She likely didn’t even remember why she was in her cell or who she was. In Twilight’s current state Celestia would be surprised if it was better than a wild animals. Making up for her mistake would be almost impossible in Twilights current mindset.

“Oh-K-ay?” Twilight whimpered, drawing back anxiously.

“Twilight,” Celestia whispered. “do you remember me?” She needed to know. She needed to fix this. When Twilight didn’t respond Celestia persisted. “I’m Celestia, remember? Celestia.” Twilight titled her head, clearly confused.

“Celestia.” The sun princess said brokenly. Twilight was gone.

“C-el-tia.” Twilight seemed to try to mimic cautiously.

“Yes, Celestia.” The pearl coated mare answered feeling a flicker of hope.

“Cel-es-tia”

Celestia smiled and Twilight appeared to take it as an invitation to repeat her name several more times. She just wanted to hold her former student close and soothe all the hurt away. Instinctively, she reached out to Twilight but as soon as she did Twilight hid back under the bed. Internally she cursed at herself for being so careless. She stared at Twilight as Twilight observed her she noticed when Twilight seemed to go somewhere else for a split second.

“Pr-Pr-in-cess?” Twilight asked.

“Yes?” Celestia answered. Was Twilight remembering?

“Pr-in-cess?”

“Yes, Twilight?”

“Prin-cess.”

“Yes, I’m Princess Celestia, remember?” Celestia was torn. She hadn’t used the word ‘princess’ since she came in so clearly it was a remembered word but she wasn’t sure if Twilight knew what the word really was or meant.

While Celestia tried to figure out what to do next and how to convince Twilight to leave her cell, Twilight seemed to settle down and let out a long yawn. All too soon Twilight was sound asleep under the bed. For Celestia this was the perfect opportunity to move Twilight. She’d be able to move Twilight into a room next to hers and not have to worry about explaining everything to someone who wasn’t really capable of understanding at the moment and staying in the cell would only reinforce her current condition. With that in mind Celestia picked Twilight up and left the cell.