The Powers That Be

It is my considered and scientific opinion that Harmony and Equestria are one.  As Harmony bequeaths its gifts upon ponykind in the form of magic, and flight, and cutie marks, ponies also give back by using their powers to foster and strengthen Harmony between each other.  In all the centuries, Equestria has never healed: the weather hasn’t gone back to controlling itself and the plants haven’t taken over without the guidance of Earth Ponies—and I suspect it’s so that ponykind could have the chance to take part, to contribute to the well-being of the entire world.  It’s a rare and marvelous gift.

Excerpt from The Nature of Harmony: Experimental Theory and Mechanics – Professor Twilight Sparkle, C.E. 2530

Luna awoke, and instantly wished she hadn’t.

Aside from the intense headache from Steel Wing knocking her unconscious, every new sensation and sight brought more and more worry.  The room around her was dark.  She faced a bare and bleak stone ceiling in an equally dismal room, lit only by the few torches scattered around.  Along with the lack of windows or ambient light, the damp air and cloying sense of claustrophobia left her with little doubt that she was somewhere underground.

She was lying in a distinctly uncomfortable position, on her back with her forelegs over her head.  Luna tried to shift her position, only to find her limbs restrained.  She struggled, her eyes going wide as the feeling of cold metal bit into all four of her wrists and the dull clink of steel echoed around the otherwise silent room.  She couldn’t even lever herself up because of the manacle locked around her neck.  A sense of panic rose in the alicorn.  She was trapped underground, chained on a stone slab, captive when nopony would even know she was missing, much less where to begin looking.  She could be anywhere, maybe even outside Equestria entirely, and she would never know.  Luna tried to look around, only to stop as a sharp pain lanced from her head.  Her eyes swiveled up, and she caught a tiny glimpse of the steel band encircling her horn.

Luna groaned in fear, her eyes closing, trying to shut out the oppressively dark stone facing her.  I did this, her mind raged.  I did this to myself, and to Tia.  I’m going to die...  The cobalt-coated pony wanted nothing more than to curl up and bawl like a foal, but even that small mercy was denied her.  She simply lay on the slab, uncomfortably bound, feeling the rush of pain from limbs held at awkward angles for far too long.  Tears began to leak out of the corners of her eyes as a small sob tore from her throat.

Before she could truly descend into an inconsolable wreck, a door opened and closed, the quiet rasp of the hinges almost unbearably loud in the nearly silent room.  Instantly, Luna’s sobs caught in her throat along with her breath, and every muscle in her body tensed in panic.  Unable to look, she was forced to wait, anxiety mounting, as the sharp, offbeat clop of a single hoof came steadily closer, followed by the soft patter of a normal pony’s hooves.

“Hello, my dear.”

Luna shrieked in fright at the face that suddenly appeared above her.  Like a monster out of legend, the draconequus stared down at her, his bright yellow eyes shining malevolently.  His mismatched horns, single curved fang, and amalgamated body all matched the description that Bright Spark had given so long ago, but with a horror that she could never have imagined.

“D-D-D-Discord…” she gasped, trying desperately to hide her fear—and failing utterly.

The face above her brightened, an insane smile spreading from ear to ear.  “Well, I see my fame has preceded me!  That does shorten things.  I do so hate introductions.”  The chaotic creature straightened up, staring melodramatically into nowhere.  “Yes, hello, I’m Discord, omnipotent Lord of Chaos, yada yada yada.  Yes, I wreak chaos for a living.  Yes, I rather enjoy my job, what do you do for a living?”  He sighed and stared down at her again.  “That’s where ponies usually walk away.  Parties are miserable for me.”

Luna’s amusement and fear fought an intense war for her expression, eventually settling for something approximating bewilderment.

“Aaaaanyway, I’m sure you’re wondering why I’ve called you here, yes?”  Luna felt herself nodding unconsciously, at least as much as her restraints would allow.  “Here’s the deal.  I’ve been seeing… well, I guess you could call them visions.  Maybe it was the tacos before bed, maybe it’s just the nigh-omnipotent powers of Chaos allowing me to see beyond the veil of sight to what is yet to come, but I’ve seen many possible futures, and in all of them, I see you.  You and your sister.”

Luna choked down a gasp of surprise.  “I—what sister?”

The draconequus chuckled.  “You’re adorable, you really are.  I know you and your sister are the only pair of alicorn twins ever to be born in Equestria.  And I know that you’re out to make my life very miserable and short,” he growled, his eyes suddenly flaming with a reddish glow.  Luna flinched away from his face, shaking.  “Do you know how hard it was to get Equestria to begin with?”  He stopped halfway into his tirade and put a clawed paw to his chin thoughtfully.  “Okay, actually, it was quite easy.  All I had to do was show up, really.  But do you know how hard it’s been to keep it?”

He huffed, pacing back and forth at the foot of the slab.  “You think it’s simple being a tyrant, I bet.  Thing is, even when you’re a limitless demigod, things never seem to go your way.  Just to keep daily life going, I’ve had to kill countless ponies.  For whatever reason, they never seemed to appreciate my own… special brand of chaos.”  He whirled around to face the alicorn.  “Did you know that killing ponies would break the world?  I sure didn’t.  Now things just aren’t much fun anymore…”

Luna’s mind spun as she tried to follow the dizzying path of Discord’s discourse.  “Wait, break the world?”

“Oh, yes, as it turns out.  Something about Equestria and Harmony being linked, so on and so forth.  If I kill too many ponies, the world starts to break down.  I just got the thing!  I can’t let Equestria break—it’s where I keep all my stuff!”  Discord’s face fell, his expression dejected as he kicked at the floor like a petulant foal.  “Now it’s just pointless.  I can’t do anything I want to.  So, I just sit around and rule things.  It’s horribly boring.  Come to think of it, you and your sister are just about the only fun I’ve had to look forward to in years!”

He let out an evil chuckle that made chills run up Luna’s spine.  “Oh yes, there’s so many things I could do to you.  Have you ever been a carrot?  I could turn you into one!  Or, I could just make you explode!  Or teleport you into space!  But noooooo, no fun for Discord, not anymore.

“That’s why I’ve got my friend Steel here.  He has the fun I can’t have.  Turns out he loves this cruelty thing.”  Discord leaned in conspiratorially.  “Actually, I’m slightly worried about him, but he refuses to attend my therapy sessions.  We always end up with cookies and coffee left over,” he said, spinning an extended claw in a circle next to his head.

Luna could feel her breath getting shaky again as he continued nonchalantly.  “Here’s the deal:  I need to know where your sister is.  You two are trouble for me, even if you don’t succeed.  I’ve got you, and once I have her, I’m afraid you’re both going to have to die.  It’s nothing personal, you see.  Strictly business.”

Discord straightened and raised his paws, a notepad and pencil appearing in turn with soft pops.  “So then, my scared little alicorn.  First chance to make this simple:  Where is your sister?”  Luna stared at him in silence.  “What is her name?”  She remained quiet.  “What is her favorite color?”  Despite raising an eyebrow in confusion, Luna remained as impassive as she could.  Discord sighed unhappily.  “Well, that’s how it’s going to be then, is it?  Don’t say I didn’t give you a chance later on…” he muttered.  “I’m sure you know something useful, and I’d like to know it as well.  Towards that end, I’m going to let my friend Steel here do horribly uncomfortable things to you.  I won’t be participating; this blood-and-guts thing was always his forte rather than mine, but I’m sure that you’ll be awfully hard to shut up by the second day or so.”

Luna shook hard enough that the chains started to rattle against the cold stone as Discord stretched and walked casually away towards the doorway.  “Anyway, you kids have fun!”  The door slammed shut, the boom echoing around the underground structure as Luna bit her lip to keep herself from crying at finding herself alone with a psychopath.

“So, if I remember correctly from your friends at the forest campsite, your name’s Luna, isn’t it?” Steel Wing said softly, his voice deceptively gentle.  The massive black pegasus appeared in the edge of her vision, staring intently at her face as he spoke.  “Ohh, you don’t like it when I mention them, do you?  Shall I tell you a story about them?”

He began to pace around her bound form, tapping his wing feathers along her body as he spoke, a dark smile on his face.  “I’m sure you remember that little one, the colt, I believe it was.”  He tapped the flat of his bladed wings against her bound hoof as he paused.  He turned to stand and leaned on the slab, his forehooves on either side of Luna’s head as he stared down at her.  “It really was a shame that nopony seemed to care about him, but that was that.  I had to slit his throat.  Just.  Across.  Here…” he said softly, the razor edge of his wing tracing across her throat with just enough pressure to break the skin, leaving a thin, slowly beading line of blood across her neck.

Luna gasped, unprepared for such a subtle gesture, wincing at the disproportionate sting of the slight wound.

Steel Wing chuckled at her discomfort.  “All you have to do to stop me is tell me what those insensitive ponies wouldn’t.  But then, of course, you’d miss the rest of the story, and we have so much time left to spend together…”

Celestia was in a panic as she flew, the encroaching night forcing her to fly lower and lower to scan the ground.  She had flown back to the only place she could think Luna would go, the site of the refugee camp, desperate for any sign of her sister.  The campsite had been abandoned, and the ground was still stained with blood and hoofprints.  The majority of the running prints had led off deeper into the woods, but a lone fresh set led off to the west.  The hoofprints were huge—larger than that of any pony she had ever seen.  Trusting to fate, Celestia had taken off west, hoping beyond hope that some new sign would find her eyes.

The entire day had been spent in vain, it seemed.  The tracks had died off soon after they crossed the river, and the ground was far too hard to support new tracks, which had prompted the alicorn to start flying circles.  Her pattern had widened with each one as more and more of her precious daylight slipped away.  With a last burst of optimism, she had taken off due west once again, trying frantically to remember where Bright Spark had said to find the White Tail Woods.

The size of the woods sent her heart sinking into her stomach.  The forest was massive, and searching it could take weeks, if not months—when she knew Luna could be dead in a matter of hours.  With her light fading as quickly as her hopes, Celestia looked up to the violet-streaked sky.

“Harmony, please, please give me a way to find my sister.  Give me some sign…”  Hoping for a miracle, she looked back down to see the same endless swath of green leaves as before.

The sun fell behind the horizon, and Celestia landed awkwardly, her brimming tears blurring the details around her as effectively as the growing darkness.  She fell to the ground, unable to bring herself to think about the consequences of her failure.  As she wiped her hooves across her eyes, she looked up to see a single blue feather, sticking lightly into the ground, turning lazily in the soft breeze.  Celestia’s eyes widened as she gasped.  There was no mistaking where that feather had come from.

“Luna…”

The feather twitched in the slight wind and fell, pointing directly into the forest.  Celestia bowed her head, said a quick prayer of thanks, and jumped up, galloping into the woods as fast as she could manage.  The brush tore at her wings while roots and undergrowth threatened to trip her with almost every step, but she refused to stumble.  Luna was waiting, and there was no way Celestia was going to let her down.  As her chest began to burn with exertion and her breathing became a series of strained gasps, she found herself on the edge of a clearing.

In the center of the clearing sat a small building, constructed roughly out of stone and mud, so small and pitiful it could only practically be referred to as a hut.  Even the rough homesteads she and her sister had grown up in back in the shelter of the valley were orders of magnitude better than this dilapidated structure, and it hadn’t even been built with wood, despite the abundance growing around!  Celestia looked everywhere, almost certain that the building was some sort of trap or ruse, but she was completely alone.  The rounded little dwelling looked so incongruous in the middle of the forest that she hesitated for several minutes before she was able to convince herself to investigate.

After looking around carefully once again, Celestia flapped carefully to glide across the open space, landing silently and pressing herself against the wall.  She froze, sure that the pounding of her heart would be loud enough to alert everypony within a mile, but no sounds came from the building.

Already skittish due to her mission, Celestia stayed well away from the door, peeking her head up to glance in one of the low, asymmetrical windows instead.  Inside, a corridor stretched into the distance, well beyond the bounds of the wall that should have contained it.  The alicorn fell back to her haunches, holding her head with a hoof.  Impossible… she thought, trying to find any sign of the interior architecture along the wall.  Taking a deep breath, she jumped and wedged herself in through the window, falling to her hooves as quietly as possible in the dark stone hallway.

Discord wields Chaos, she remembered.  Anything in this place could be an illusion or a trick.  Putting out of her mind the fact that she was very clearly in an impossible building, Celestia began to sneak down the hallway, exploring her surroundings.  The hallway was a massive square, easily ten or twenty times as large as the external façade.  Every door along the way seemed to open into more hallways, which stretched on in ways that clearly should have brought them together, yet they never did.

Celestia expected to be discovered at any second as she crept along.  I’m never going to get anywhere at this rate, she thought with a frown.  Every last one of these doors could be nothing more than a distraction to get me lost.  The alicorn looked up plaintively at the ceiling.  “Anything?” she whispered into the silence.  Harmony didn’t answer.  Celestia took a deep breath, slightly shaky with adrenaline, and tried to think.

The further forward Celestia wandered, the further the endless building stretched on.  Despite having turned right several times, she hadn’t even come back to the original window she had entered through, which meant she was well and truly lost.  No matter how many steps forward she took, there was no end, no change.  Maybe forward isn’t the way…

Celestia took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and took a few hesitant steps backwards.  Before her fourth step, her rump contacted a surface.  The alicorn spun around, fight-or-flight instincts blazing, to face down a plain wooden door, unlike anything she had come across yet.  The rough portal looked completely out of place in the darkness, and if for no other reason than that, it could only be the way she had to go.  Celestia glanced up and down the hall, gulped nervously, and entered.  It led to a stairway down into a basement, which was dismally lit, even compared to the nighttime hallways she had just come from.  She crept slowly down the stone stairs, carefully placing each hoofstep.  As she came to the bottom, she began to hear the faint sound of a voice.

She glanced down at herself, frowning as she realized that even in the darkness her white coat would be rather easy to pick out.  She considered snuffing out the few torches along the hallway, but that would betray her presence.  Celestia worked her way down the hall, testing doors as she went.  Most opened to empty rooms or didn’t open at all, but inside one there was evidence of a prison.  Chains lay on the floor, and the darkened stains left over on the floor and walls from previous occupation indicated that whichever pony stayed here last hadn’t enjoyed it.

One door opened to reveal a small storage room.  Inside she uncovered what could have charitably been called a blanket, stained with all manner of dirt and filth—and what she sincerely hoped was blood—over Harmony-knew-how-long a time.  Wincing slightly, she threw it over her shoulders and held up her covered hoof against the wall.  Against the darkness of the stone, the mottled shade of the cloth was almost invisible.  Hoping it would be enough, she crept back into the hallway and headed for the last door, coming up short as she heard a voice come from inside.

“Anyway, you kids have fun!” came a disgustingly cheerful voice, followed by the sound of steps approaching the door.  Celestia frantically searched for any hiding spot she could find, choosing to wedge herself into a small recessed alcove in the wall, away from the stairs.  Around the edge of her camouflage, she could see an otherworldly creature exit, shut the door, and head for the stairs, whistling jauntily as he went.

That has to be Discord, she thought, recalling Bright Spark’s description of the hodgepodge creature.  She knew this room had to contain her sister, but Discord hadn’t just been talking to one pony.  So who else was in there?  Before she could creep to the door to investigate, she heard a voice coming from the inside.  One that she couldn’t forget, no matter how much she wanted to.  A voice as menacing as it was smooth and deep.

“So, if I remember correctly from your friends at the forest campsite, your name’s Luna, isn’t it?”

Celestia’s eyes went wide in fear as she realized what was about to take place on the other side of the wall she hid against.  She began to pray, begging that there would be some way to save Luna from what was going to happen, but no answer came.  Her whole body shook as Luna’s first gasp reached her ears.  And the second.  And the third…

She slumped to the ground, pulling the dingy blanket around herself as she fought to remain silent in the face of her sister’s distress.  She knew that charging into the room would doom them both— and maybe the whole of Equestria—and so she sat on the floor and wept, biting the back of her hoof to stay silent as she listened to her little sister suffer.

Luna whimpered, trying to remain brave as she felt her shoulders screaming in protest, bent and strained in ways nature never meant for them to go.  Steel Wing locked the tightened chains in place, pulling her forehooves apart over her head.  “Pff, teleporting you into space?  I’ll give him points for creativity, but such a quick death does lack something visceral,” Steel Wing taunted.  “So, anything to say to me yet?”  With an insane smile, the huge pegasus laid his considerable weight against Luna’s foreleg, forcing her shoulder back beyond the breaking point.

The alicorn screamed in pain as she felt her joint separate with a sickening pop.  All at once, the tension in her shoulder vanished, only to be replaced tenfold by the pain of her dislocated shoulder tearing apart the tendons inside.

“I didn’t quite catch that,” he said, “do speak up.”

Luna began to cry, whimpering as pain and fear overrode her brain.  Her rage, her impotence, and her terror fought inside her, flooding her with emotion.

“You do seem to have remarkable control,” he mused, his back turned to his sobbing captive.  “Either that, or you’re just scrambled from the pain.  Since I can’t seem to tell the difference, I guess we’ll just have to go on until I get something from you.”

He spun around, catching Luna completely off guard.  His hoof connected solidly with her face, splitting her cheek open.  The alicorn let out a grunt and let her head loll, dizzy from the force of the impact.  Blood began to leak from her muzzle, and she could feel a line it running down her cheek to dye her mane.

“Tell me,” he demanded, yanking fiercely back on the chain the bound her horn.  Luna screamed as her head was viciously pulled back by its most sensitive point, forcing her damaged throat against the metal collar that held it down.  Her cries turned into gasping, choking sounds as she fought for breath.

“Tell me!” he yelled, kicking a hoof forcefully against her side.  Luna couldn’t even find the breath to gasp in pain as she felt several of her ribs give way, growing somewhat numb to the all-encompassing pain.  She coughed weakly, feeling something wet splash up from her chest and into her mouth.

“TELL ME!” the crazed pegasus screamed, his bladed wing scything through the air and halting a mere fraction of an inch from Luna’s muzzle.  She stared at the gleaming metal, dazed from her ordeal, confused at the way it just hung above her head.

“… Why?” she asked, barely audible over the subtle pop of the torches.

He stared at her, his eyes narrow.  “What?”

“Why—” she coughed, trying not to choke on the blood in her mouth, “why do y-you d-do this?”

“Because,” he said slowly, his voice barely above a low growl.  “Because you have something I don’t.”  He swiped his wing across Luna’s leg, and she groaned in pain as the blade made a series of small cuts down the length of her thigh.  “Because you have something I should have.  Something I deserve.”  He paused, picking up a blade and carefully considering the knife’s edge.

“… what?”

“Purpose,” he said simply.

“I—I d-d-don’t un—derstand,” she panted weakly.

“Do you see this?” he asked, turning until she could see his flank.  Where there should have been a cutie mark there was instead a mass of scars, faded remnants of horrific wounds.  “This is my purpose now.  This is all there is left to me.”

Luna shuddered, her eyes rolling back into her head.  “What h-happened?”

The pegasus regarded her curiously.  “Why in Equestria would you care?”

She struggled to meet his gaze.  “G-g-gonna d-die anyway…”

His eyes hooded in the dim light.  “I killed a pony.  I tried to save somepony I cared about, and instead, I lost my flight.  I lost my purpose.  Harmony abandoned me!” he screamed, starting to choke the alicorn as his eyes lost focus, staring into the nothingness between the past and the present.  “Do you have any idea what it’s like?  What it’s like to lose yourself?  To have nothing to live for?  It drove me mad.”

Luna fought to breathe with her remaining ability, desperate to stay awake, knowing that if she blacked out she might never wake up again.  As the world began to fade and stars danced at the edges of her sight, Steel Wing released her.  Luna began to cough and gag as her captor screamed in rage, throwing a table against the wall to shatter into pieces.  Her labored breaths became uncomfortably loud in the room as Steel Wing went silent.

“I took my cutie mark off,” he said softly.  “I had nothing… absolutely nothing until Lord Discord arrived.  He gave me a purpose.  After I—”  He stopped, taking a deep breath.  “After I killed my own father for opposing my master, I gave up.  I don’t want a purpose anymore.  I only want to make everypony else feel how bad I felt.  How bad I feel.  How much I don’t want to feel.”

Luna stared blankly at Steel Wing’s back, unable to comprehend what she had just heard.  He turned to face her, his scowl still firmly in place.  “Trust me, alicorn, today was just a taste.  Tomorrow, you’ll be telling me all sorts of things—things you didn’t know you knew, things you’d forgotten while you were still in the womb.”  He put his cold, impassive face right up to hers.  “I promise,” he said, spinning around and stalking out of the room, slamming the door behind him as he left.

For the next few hours, Luna’s body grew more and more numb, whether from blood loss or shock she didn’t know, but she finally gave in and succumbed to the soft emptiness of sleep.  Inside its embrace, she felt herself floating, detached from her pain-wracked body.

Her dismal situation grew distant as she cast her mind out towards home.  Assuming her sense of time was correct, everypony would be asleep, but by now her parents had surely learned to go on without their daughters, without knowing of their fate.  And now they would never know.  Maybe they would be able to hold on to that small thought, the hope that somewhere their fillies would have found a place to be happy, to live out their lives in peace.

She awoke some time later, feeling every last ache in her body coming back, welcoming her from her rest.  She stared at the ceiling, the light from the torches all but gone as they burned down to mere stumps.  Luna’s eyes closed, and for the first time in her life, she began to pray in earnest.  “Harmony, hear me.  I’m going to die—I know that.  Watch over my sister and my family, and if there’s anything you can do, please let my sister hear me, to know what’s in my heart.

“Celestia, I’m sorry…”  Her eyes were oddly dry as she spoke into the darkness, unable to conjure any more tears for her own sake.  “I know I was stupid and foalish and impulsive.  I didn’t trust you—didn’t trust that you had my best interests in mind.  I rushed off without thinking, and now I’m going to pay for it.  Tia, please, just run, get away from all this.  Go somewhere I won’t know about, where he can’t find you.  I won’t be able to last long against Steel Wing tomorrow, and I’d gladly kill myself to keep him from getting to you, if I could.”  Luna’s eyes closed as she put every ounce of her heart into her words.  “I love you so much, Tia.  I hope you can forgive me.”

Luna gasped, her eyes shooting open as her horn lit with the golden aura of her sister’s magical connection.  Emotions flooded her mind in the mental equivalent of a warm and fond embrace, and she began to weep for joy at the sensations of love, peace, and comfort.  The spell they had shared since foalhood—the first spell they had ever learned—was her proof that she had been heard.

In front of her, a dim light came slowly into view, growing brighter to paint the room in the azure gleam of her magical aura, the glows melding and lighting the dismal surroundings warmly.

“I do forgive you, Lu,” she heard a soft, wavering voice say, “and I love you so very much as well.”

Above her, a white coated head came into view, one that was intimately familiar to her.  Luna gaped at the sight, unsure of what to believe until she felt the manacles fall away from her neck and horn.  The younger sibling began to cry in fear and relief as she lay on the table, unable even to curl into a ball for her pain and injuries.  Celestia climbed onto the stone slab to sit at Luna’s side.  She took a deep breath, closed her teary eyes to focus, and lit her horn as she concentrated on her magic.  Luna felt her body enveloped by a field of magic, probing at her injuries as if to judge their severity.  A tingling sensation crawled over her body as Celestia stretched the limits of her healing skills, able to close a few smaller gashes and reduce Luna’s crippling agony to a bearable level of pain.

Luna groaned in relief and curled around her sister as much as she was able, allowing Celestia to enfold her in a gentle embrace.  The two sisters wept together, fear and anger and pain and joy all mingling together as emotions took the place of words.  Luna clung to Celestia’s body for all she was worth, scared to let her go.  “Sh-sh-shouldn’t have come,” she gasped out as sobs wracked her body.

“I had to, Lu,” the older sister said quietly, rubbing Luna’s back with her wing.

“W-w-why?” Luna asked after she had calmed down.  “Why did you come for me?”

“Luna, why wouldn’t I?  You’re my sister; I would never leave you.”

“We n-need to get out of h-h-here.  Steel W-Wing could come back anytime.”

“Him…”  Celestia growled, sudden rage burning in her heart.  “I’m sorry I scolded you for wanting to fight before, Luna, because I understand now.  I promise, I’m going to rip that pegasus apart for what he’s done to you.”

Luna opened her mouth to agree, but stopped.  Something inside her just didn’t make sense.  “He—he’s mad.  He’s hurt…”

“He’s going to—what?”

“I—I don’t know, Tia, I want him to die, but it’s hard to just hate him.  There are things in his past that have made him what he is.  I—I can’t expl—”

Luna cut off as the door opened behind them.  Luna shrieked in fear, cowering low against the slab.  Celestia leapt to her hooves, spreading her wings and taking a defensive stance in front of her sister, baring her teeth in anger.  Her horn glowed ominously, the normally golden hue ominously darkened by her rage.  Between her and Steel Wing, the torches in the room flared brightly, fanned into vibrant light by the force of the magic gathering around her.

The pegasus glanced about, surprised by the effects, but undeterred.  With a scream, Celestia unleashed her power and a single beam of magic lanced out.  The honey-gold light was twisted with darkness, racing towards Steel Wing, who merely braced his hooves and took the blast right in the center of his broad chest.

The light spilled over him, pushing him back a step but simply rolling off his coat like water from a duck’s feathers.  The coruscating magic continued on to hit the far wall with an intense rumble more felt than heard, melting the stone like butter and blowing the door off its hinges with an ear-splitting crash.

Steel Wing straightened up and looked behind himself, nodding appreciatively.  “I admit, alicorn, that was impressive.”

Celestia slumped in shock, her wings falling to lie against the ground.  “I—how…”

He chuckled darkly.  “One of the only perks I’ve found.  Having been abandoned by Harmony, Lord Discord was able to make it so that magic no longer has any effect on me, courtesy of the powers of Chaos.  It’s one of the few things that make living tolerable.”

Luna stared at him, straining to understand her emotions.  “You—you live in constant pain, don’t you?”

“I do,” he said slowly, his eyes narrowed.  “We all do; I just help others realize it.”

Deep inside herself, Luna could feel something rising—a sense of power and calm and tranquility she couldn’t describe.  Her pain fell away from her as she stood on three legs, feeling lighter, as though she were about to float away.  A stirring realization began to form in her mind.  “I…  I don’t hate you…” she muttered.

“What?” both Steel Wing and Celestia said in unison.

“I don’t know why, but I can’t do it.  I can’t hate you.  I’m sorry all that happened to you, Steel Wing.  I really am…”  With her admission, Luna felt the sensation inside her swell to a bursting point.  Her back arched as she gasped and stood to her back hooves, feeling power rushing into her frame like never before.

Celestia gasped and stepped back from her sister, who was beginning to glow with a pure light.  Her eyes began to cloud to total whiteness as her body rose slowly from the floor without the aid of her wings.  Her light blue mane and tail hung straight from her body even as her spread feathers rustled in an unseen and unfelt wind.  Luna made no sign that she felt any pain—even as her wounds dripped blood to the floor underneath her hooves and her foreleg hung uselessly against her side.

Steel Wing broke his transfixed stare and flared his wings, taking a first step to charge the sisters.  Luna’s sightless eyes fixed on him, and he fell to the ground as though bound to it, surrounded by a cold, colorless aura.  His eyes were wide with shock.  “What’s happening?  How are you doing this?  You’re just an alicorn!”

Luna floated just above the ground, her eyes shining brightly in the tomblike room.  “Chaos is nothing before Harmony,” she intoned, her voice carrying despite its low volume.  “I can, and do, forgive what you’ve done against me, Steel Wing.”  She walked over to stand before the bewildered pegasus.  “I can forgive what you’ve done to my sister, and perhaps even what you would have done to us.  But you will still answer for your crimes against others.”

The murderer stared up at her with awe, his eyes almost misty.  “Y-you—  You can free me…”  Luna nodded solemnly.  “Lord Discord refused to let me die…”

“I will free you, Steel Wing,” Luna said, “and know that I will feel the pain you felt.”

Steel Wing straightened as much as he was able, lifting his head to bare his neck to his enemy.  “I’m ready,” he said without a trace of fear in his voice.

Luna nodded, closing her eyes as her horn began to glow a brilliant white.  Steel Wing’s eyes closed as well as the glow mirrored against his forehead.  The points linked as a single shaft of light stretched from Luna’s horn to sink into the pegasus’ head.  Without a sound, the light blinked out and Steel Wing slumped to the side, dead.