Of Law and Betrayal
Consequences
Celestia walked up and down in her private chambers. Sleep had not found her this night, she was too worried. Luna still hadn't returned from the lower dungeon. She was hesitant to go there again, worried that Luna was still... she shook her head to clear her thoughts. All Luna did was uphold the laws of old, it was nothing personal.
"Then why did she enjoy it so much, she tortured the poor soul for days..." No... "You know its true, you saw her horn, it was removed at least a day before we arrived, Luna was so giddy to begin that she couldn't even make a smooth cu...** "SHUT UP!" she shouted inside her head, her eyes were closed and her breath was hurried. All that was left was silence, her whole body was trembling.
This whole ordeal was to much for her, she promised herself that she will erase Twilight's pain but all she wanted right now was to forget everything and move on. A lone tear fell to the ground as her face contorted into a painful expression. She used an ancient breathing technique to calm herself, she could not let her emotions overpower the need for justice.
She was about to preform her duty of raising the sun when she heard a knock. She gave ordered to not be disturbed so she hoped it was Luna wanting to talk about... Twilight. She adjusted her body to look regal while sitting and put on a "neutral mask" to hide her inner conflict.
"Enter" she said evenly, inside she was nervous, flashes of Luna using the scalpel with a even, almost blissful expression were plaguing her... She swallowed to not let the bile rise. It felt like eternity until the door finally opened. When it did she unconsciously let out a sigh. But her body tensed when she was the worried expression on Chancellor Fancypantses face.
He was a long time Chancellor for the Princess and a master of facial expressions and for him to be clearly distressed it had to be something important.
"I apologize Your Highness, but we have a slight... issue that requires your attention" At this point the nervousness was evident in his pose, his hoof fidgeting around .
At this Celestia felt a shiver run down her spine, she suppressed the urge to bolt up, instead she put on her best motherly smile to reassure him "Whatever could be wrong dear Fancypants?"
The stallion swallowed and she saw his eyes betrayed fear. "Its... the moon your highness, it's still high in the sky even though it should have been crossing the horizon by now. And we can't seem find Princess Luna anywhere and some of the staff claims they saw a figure moving about in the shadows..."
Celestia's eyes widened for a second, enough to terrify the already fearful stallion, but she quickly got her wits about her. "I'm sure my sister just fell asleep on some cloud while enjoying the night and forgot to lower the moon." that was a big fat lie, as the sensation of the sun wanting to rise kept informing her. "I will personally look into it, are there any 'issues' brought on by this prolonged night?"
Fancypants let out a sigh of relieve. He bowed and smiled up at the Princess of the Sun "Thank you m'lady, and luckily no one besides the night staff of the castle noticed it, for now."
With a final bow he left the princesses chambers. Celestia's mind was racing with different thoughts and emotions.
Is she still "playing" with Twilight's body?
How dare she, i should...
What CAN I do, she was found guilty of treason and traitors are not buried, their bodies are left to rot...
Luna's Night court had made a great effort of demonizing Twilight over the weeks of her trial and incarceration. From spreading vicious rumors to officially blaming her for things linked to natural disasters that occurred in the past. Everything was done to turn the people against their once noble hero, to prevent any public uproars and open rebellions. Suddenly Celestia started trembling again and her legs almost gave out, her rump sitting on the carpet the only thing keeping her somewhat steady.
That witch, it WAS personal! anger was swelling up inside her, how could she have been so blind. Then she realized she simply did not want to see the truth. Such punishment was usually reserved for ones who were enemies, not loyal servants who made a mistake.She always found a certain satisfaction in the power she held over the lives of mortals. While Twilight deserved punishment, it was not this weeks long torture. From the mental one while sitting alone in a cell to the actually one. She deserved a quick death, beheading with a sword, as should have been her right.
The anger finally boiled over and she received the courage to confront Luna about it. Sitting up slowly her horn lit up, first she lowered the Moon, it took some more effort then the Sun but she doubted she would let Luna time to lower it herself once she goes there. Then finally she nudged the Sun to rise, being her element it was much easier, with the Moon she had to force it like a mother has to force a disobedient child.
Leaving her chambers she made way to the lower dungeon,approaching the lower staircase she began to have doubts "What would be the point of chiding Luna, it will not revert what has happened, it will not bring back Twilight..."
As soon as she started descending she perked her ears to listen closely, hoping in vain to hear something, anything. She knew it was futile, she was certain that the deed had been done and all she could do now was move on towards her goal and... see what is happening. Pushing open the old oaken door she slowly made her way through the middle of the three corridors present. What greeter her were the empty cells from yesterday, but the doors of the last one at the end were closed this time. She hesitated for a moment before approaching and opening the door. What she saw was an dark empty cell, confused she formed a small ball of light that she levitated towards the middle of the Cell. The bloodstained table where she expected to see Twilight was empty. As she intensified the light she started scanning the room.
Hey eyes widened as she found her sisters form, lying in one corner of the room with her face planted on the hard stone. Worried Celestia approached.
"Luna? Luna dear, wake up. What did you to Twilight?" With no reaction coming from the dark blue mare Celestia approached and did something that under different circumstances would be silly, she poked the midnight blue Alicorn. Again no reaction, this time she gently lifted her with her telekinesis, and quickly shrieked from shock dropping her in the process.
Luna's eyes were empty and her tongue was lolling to the side. Dried blood was present on her mouth and something was stick out of her chest. Upon closer inspection Celestia realized what it was... it was the horn Luna wore as a necklace yesterday, Twilight's horn. But she saw no blood coming from that wound.
Celestia was numb, she did not want to believe that her sister was dead, she refused to acknowledge it. This must be some cruel prank from Luna, her pranks were usually in bad taste but this time she went to far. Celestia turned around to not look at the body, that is when she noticed that the light was illuminating something on the rear wall of the cell, something was roughly carved into the stone. something that was not there yesterday, or so she thought.
Approaching it she gasped, it was written in a language she knew all too well, the language of the beings who were sealed in Tartarus. A scowl formed as she she read the inscription. It was mirrored and had to be read from the bottom to top. Silently she read it as finally tears freely streamed down her muzzle...
I am alive because that one is dead
I exist because I have the will to do so
Letting out an enraged scream she smashed the table to pieces and let down a torrent of white flames upon it, her eyes started glowing intensely, with the color of the sun while her pupils turned black and cat-like, her mane was set ablaze by a red flame and her coat slowly turned from white to the color of ash.
Nopony could hear the shout of Celestia's agony and fury, nopony could see the whole room burning in a white blaze.
Then it all stopped and silence returned to the dungeon...
The Unveiling
Slowly limping through the darkness, Twilight Sparkle was trying her best to stay conscious and ignore the pain. Then she made the mistake of looking at her swollen right foreleg, she cringed noticing the swelling happening just above her fetlock. She tried to keep her focus on finding out where she was. Looking up at the sky she saw Cloudsdale and put it roughly north west. She was too weak and too tired to recall images from the "Detailed Atlas of Central Equestria", her memory was too blurry for that.
Shaking her head she looked around, finally noticing something, she slowly walked up to one of the old oak trees. As she hobbled around it and found something helpful she smiled.
"Judging from growth of the Polytrichum commune and the relative positions of Cloudsdale and Canterlot, I should be.... somewhere north of Ponyville."
At the thought of her hometown her head dropped, she couldn't go back there, not now and probably never again. 'Celestia knows' what lies that witch told the ponies of Equestria, and she did not want to drag her friends into this.
She decided to take a break in the shade, she certainly was worn out from running and all the injuries. Slowly lowering herself to the ground she gingerly places the injured foreleg on the ground to better examine it.
Sitting in the shade of the great oak trees she tried to recall what happened back in the dungeon after she passed out, but all she could remember was her waking up lying next to that... Monster. Her first reaction was trying to jump backwards, trying, because of the pain that she then felt in her foreleg, it certainly wasn't there before her talk with Celestia.
Thinking about the Princess just brought out the anger in her, she was probably angry at herself more then the Princess. It was foalish of her to even consider that Celestia came there to save her. If she really wanted to do that she would have done so before that monster...
She shook her, "Keep your focus Twilight, you need to decide what to do next"
Still, thinking back to the last night, after the initial shock it took her a few moments to realize that the princess hadn't moved at all, and that there was a red puddle under her. Moving around the body Twilight faced the princess and saw the blank expression on her face, her tongue lolling out. Something was sticking out of her chest, aghast Twilight saw that it was her own horn that pierced the chest. She saw that the door was ajar and she quickly opened it and ran.
Slowly navigating through the empty corridors Twilight tried to remain in the shadows, the wretched moon illuminating parts of the hallways through the windows. Luckily the Window Arches themselves provide a good cover to sneak below. A few times she had to pass between covers, a few times she had to hide to avoid detection by some of the castle night staff.