//------------------------------// // Protection // Story: Prevention // by Mind Matter //------------------------------// Shining didn’t kill Twilight. Shining did knock her unconscious, have the medic heal as much of her as possible, and bring her back to the library. Then he brought both her and her friends up to Canterlot to keep in custody and to explain what in Faust’s name had happened, respectively. Shining may have been holding his little sister’s hoof for as long as he was physically able to. His report to the Princess was as concise as he could make it. Guards involved, citizens involved, suspects, observed crimes, description of events. He wrote by rote, neither able nor willing to devote enough of his mental capacity to try to actually think over what had happened. He made one note, repeating the final line of his incident description in a less detached manner. The description read Immediately after detainment, suspect requested that detaining officer inflict fatal harm upon them. His note read She begged me to kill her. He found himself in one of the ‘abandoned’ apartment wings less than a minute after he’d submitted the report. He couldn’t remember if he’d teleported. The whole of his attention was on the room beyond the reinforced, magic-proofed door in front of him, and the mare held within it. Twilight was sitting on the thinly padded couch that sat in the centre of the room. Said couch was the only piece of furniture in the former apartment; Celestia had designated the entire wing a series of holding rooms, for whenever she needed to keep a pony in her grip and out of a cell; the small chance of Twilight going to a cell had vanished entirely when she woke up during the flight and tried to use the chains around her legs to strangle herself. That little incident had also led to the straight-locked braces on her forelegs, and the two extra iron rings around her horn. Shining felt himself tense as his sister’s eyes shifted from the floor to him, somehow locking on him through the one-way mirror that served as the not-bars to the door of her not-cell. The blood on her face and in her eye was gone, cleaned up by the medic after the latter mare had sealed the stump of Twilight’s wing (why she’d been bleeding like that was something that was still unanswered; rather disturbingly, neither the medic nor Dr. Shelter had been able to find any injuries that might have caused it). As such, there was nothing to distract him from the calm, lifeless look in her eyes. It was a look he’d seen before. He’d been at his fair share of suicide calls. Ones that were talked down. Ones that tried and failed. Ones that succeeded. “You have to kill me” He stepped away from the door, a hiss of a sigh working its way through his teeth. The sound of multiple sets of hoofsteps worked its way up the hall, drawing his attention from his ruminations onto the five mares currently marching towards him. “Applejack.” He said, giving the mare at the head of the pack a nod before greeting the rest in the same manner. “Rainbow Dash. Rarity. Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie.” “Shinin’.” The farmmare responded, a hint of weariness dulling her voice. Her eyes went to the door. “She in there?” Shining nodded. Applejack made a show of glancing around. “And yer th’only guard ‘round here ‘sides those two back up the hall?” “Yes.” Shining replied bluntly. “We’re trying to keep her… condition… under wraps, at least for now. The only ponies who know, other than us and the Princesses, are the two squads that came with me and some of the medical staff.” “So what happens if she decides t’break out? You gonna be able t’deal with her yerself?” “Celestia has wards coating every inch of the room. If she tries to escape, the Princess will know, and the wards themselves should delay her for the half-second it’ll take the Princess to teleport down here.” Shining gave a small snort. “I’m here to make sure she doesn’t try the other kind of escape.” “Oth- oh.” Applejack’s lips thinned. “Damnit, that’s... Faust, she’s yer sister. They couldn’t send anypony else t’do it? One of th’other guards y’brought with you?” “I volunteered.” Shining replied. Applejack’s brow furrowed. “Like you said, she’s my sister. And my older-sibling-senses won’t let me trust her with anypony else.” The farmmare gave a sympathetic snort and a nod, her lips curving into a grin of understanding. “Ah hear that, Shinin’. Don’t mean you can’t have anypony else ‘round here, though. T’help, not replace.” “I’m a familiar face to her. You know as well as I do that she isn’t really… all there, right now. Having guards posted, in- or outside the room, might make her think that we’re threats, or that we think of her as one, both of which we’re trying to avoid.” “An’ gettin’ held against her will in a little room with her legs an’ horn locked won’t do that?” Shining felt a sudden spike of anger, biting down several heated retorts before they could reach his lips. Applejack apparently noticed this, raising a hoof in deference. “Ah know yer doin’ the best y’can, Shinin’. Ah saw what she did t’herself, an’ Ah didn’t mean that y’should let her go. We-“ she gestured to herself and the four ponies with her “-jus’ thought it might be better if she saw some friendly faces.” Shining blinked, his eyes travelling over the assembled mares once more. Each of the Element Bearers was observably exhausted, Applejack and Rainbow the most clearly so, but they were all still holding themselves solidly. “Is the Princess okay with this?” “The Princess said that we were free to visit her whenever we chose to.” Rarity spoke up. “We just happened to choose to visit as soon as we could.” Shining let out a breath. “You don’t have to see her right now, you know. I know Celestia’s offered to put you all up for the night. You could – you should - get some rest, come back tomorrow when you’ve had a chance to recover from everything that’s happened today. She isn’t going anywhere, I can promise you that.” There was a half-second delay before each mare’s eyes narrowed into identical determined stares. Of all of them, Fluttershy was the one to speak up. “We’d like to see her now, please.” Shining nodded, taking a step back to position himself beside (instead of in front of) the door. Applejack and Fluttershy both nodded back at him, the former moving to open the door as the rest crowded around it behind her. He spoke just as Applejack’s hoof fell on the door handle. “Just… be careful with her, okay?” Applejack blinked before giving him another, quicker, nod. Then she pushed the handle down and the door inwards. “TWILIGHT!” Five voices chorused as their owners entered the room. Shining leaned around the doorframe, watching his sister stare with widening eyes at her friends. “Girls?! What are y-uah!” Twilight’s voice cut off with an alarmed cry as she fell off the couch. She’d made to move to the floor, but had apparently forgotten the braces on her forelegs; as she’d tried to stand, they’d stiffly slipped off the side, the resulting lack of support bringing the rest of her with them. Rainbow and Pinkie moved before Shining could react, catching the restrained mare and easing her down onto her hooves rather than her face. She gave them each a nod and mumbled thanks, an easy smile forming on her face as she started speaking with her friends. Shining tried very hard to not notice the dead look in her eyes. Twilight’s friends were not her only visitors that night. Spike had arrived shortly after them, the young dragon barely acknowledging Shining before throwing himself through the doorway and onto the one-winged unicorn inside. His presence seemed to bring some life back to her; at the very least, she spoke of the future like she didn’t intend to die at the earliest opportunity. Shining let himself feel a cautious optimism at that, studiously ignoring the little voice at the back of his head warning him that she was simply lying for Spike’s sake. The seven talked for as long as it took the dragon to lose consciousness, his voice gradually petering into slurred mumbles and his form slowly shifting from having a hold on Twilight to her being the only thing holding him off the floor. Rarity gently caught him when he finally slipped entirely into slumber. His nodding off seemed to signal the rest of them to their own exhaustion, and soon enough they were saying their goodbyes, each mare giving Twilight a promise (and wringing out of her an assurance) that they would see her again the next day. Shining made sure to catch his sister’s eye before closing the door; they stared at each other for a few seconds before she gave him a smile and a nod, her eyes holding what looked very close to happiness for the first time he’d seen them that day. Their parents arrived fifteen minutes after her friends left. They’d already gotten an explanation from the Princesses, of course, but apparently they needed to hear everything again from someone who was a) actually present for at least part of what had gone on and b) their son. Shining explained what had happened as best he could, and wordlessly opened the door when they demanded to see their daughter. Celestia apparently hadn’t denied them that, and he was nowhere near stupid enough to. Twilight was barely able to babble out a ‘Mom’ and a ‘Dad’ before the two reached her. They surrounded her within moments, their hooves wrapping securely around her, her sputtering attempts at speech quieting as they leaned into her. For several seconds the three simply sat where they were, the two holding the one in stillness and silence. Then Twilight broke, falling fully into her parents’ embrace with a soft cry that quickly segued to quiet, shaking sobs. They responded by tightening their hold on her, giving the mare as much physical assurance of their presence (and protection) as they could. Shining could see his father’s mouth moving, and had little doubt that his mother’s was doing the same, both ponies doing the best they could to comfort their daughter. They were still doing so when Shining was relieved. “You may retrieve her, Lieutenant.” Shining Armor let out an anxious breath as the words left Celestia’s lips. Cadance gave him a sympathetic nudge with her wing. He hadn’t gotten any sleep the night before, his mind too full from everything that had occurred in the day; she would have been up alongside him the whole night had it not been for the foal. He gave her as reassuring a grin as he could muster before turning and casting his eyes over the gathered ponies. The two were standing at the base of Celestia’s throne, on the left side of said Princess, while Luna stood to Celestia’s right. Twilight’s friends and parents were also present, gathered in a small knot a short distance away from Shining and the three Princesses. That group was under a rather heavy guard - eight ponies for seven and a dragon. Celestia had wanted to ensure that they were safe. In both senses of the word. A few awkward minutes passed, the silence occasionally broken by a stray whisper from the guarded group or, once, between Celestia and Luna. Shining had chanced a glance at them when he’d heard Luna’s voice; the younger sister held clear concern on her face, while the elder’s was an emotionless mask, her eyes closed and her mouth a thin, flat line that contrasted sharply with her usual graceful smile. Luna had been speaking too softly for Shining to make out the words, but Celestia’s flat reply was easily audible. “Then her dreams are useless to us.” Several heavy knocks issued forth from the doors, echoing through the hall and drawing Shining back to full tension. His magic was forming before Celestia could issue the order, the air in front of the four briefly wavering before returning to apparent normalcy. The Princess gave him a nod before returning her attention to the entrance. “Open the doors. ” Shining’s ear flicked down instinctively, away from Celestia’s sudden use of the Royal Canterlot Voice. The guardsponies at the entrance responded instantly, swiftly dragging the doors open. Twilight Sparkle entered the throne room in silence, her stride small and her steps deliberate. She bore no physical restraints beyond the rings on her horn; Celestia had felt that the platoon of guardsponies surrounding her would serve a sufficient, and arguably less explicitly restrictive, substitute to cuffs and chains. She held her head low, keeping her face (and her eyes) hidden in her mane. The guards marched Twilight forward through the hall, keeping her surrounded until they stopped a few metres from Shining’s barrier. Five of them broke away from the group, moving to join the eight guarding the ‘audience’ of Twilight’s friends and family; fifteen others moved forward to the barrier, spacing themselves out along the sides of the invisible wall, leaving a clear space between Twilight and the Princesses. The remaining five stepped back from their charge, arranging themselves in a half-circle to her back and sides. Twilight’s head stayed down the entire time. Celestia opened her eyes and stepped forward, bringing herself as close to Twilight as Shining’s barrier would allow. The stallion could see her wings twitch, even as she maintained her mask of calm. “You may come forward, Twilight Sparkle.” His sister’s ear twitched. She stayed where she was. “Twilight-“ “I heard you, Celestia.” Twilight’s voice was rough and irreverent. Celestia seemed to stiffen slightly at the tone, and Shining felt his own muscles start to ache from the strain of holding himself still. “And yet you remain where you are.” Celestia said, a statement rather than a question. “I have no reason to move.” Twilight replied, still facing the floor instead of her mentor. “It will be difficult to converse from this distance, Twilight.” “I think we’re doing fine. But if you’re uncomfortable, then by all means, come closer. It’s not like there’s anything stopping you, is there?” Celestia stayed where she was. Shining could hear the smirk in Twilight’s voice. “Thought so.” “If you will not step forth, then at least bear the decency to face those who address you.” Luna intoned, stepping up beside her sister. Twilight stayed still and silent for a few moments before giving an exhausted sigh. “So be it.” She said, lifting her head. She was wearing a similar façade to Celestia, though the resulting appearance was more fatigued than calm. She’d lost the lifeless look in her eyes, but they still held an absent dullness to them, like they weren’t actually seeing what they were looking at. They travelled up from the floor to Luna, seeming to look through the mare, before twitching over to Celestia when the latter alicorn moved. Then all three iron rings on Twilight’s horn went white. Had the room been darker, Shining might have been blinded by the sudden flare of light from Twilight’s horn; as it was, he merely had to squint to keep his eyes on the mare. He heard several shouts of surprise from the audience, and a few of the guardsponies made ready to charge the one-winged unicorn. Twilight bared her teeth and gave a hissing sigh, keeping her eyes locked on her former mentor even as the fur around the rings blackened. Shining saw Cadance step forward in the corner of his vision. “Twilight!” The addressed mare jolted at the voice, the glow of the rings ceasing instantly as her head whipped towards its owner. Cadance stiffened as Twilight’s eyes fell on her, and it only took a moment for Shining to see why. Being husband to the Princess of Love had allowed Shining to pick up on a few things. Not all of her abilities related to romance were based exclusively in her magic; simply through proximity and observation he’d gleaned the ability to see which sets of friends could be potential lovers, the small hints of affection and amorousness between ponies that Cadance often used to inspire proper infatuation. He’d also learned (or, more accurately, been explicitly instructed) that the eyes were the best way to distinguish between friendly affection and romantic adoration. Twilight’s eyes had sharpened, and the love they held was decidedly not in the realm of ‘friendly’. The three of them stayed awkwardly frozen for what felt like hours but couldn’t have been more than a few seconds; then Twilight tore her eyes away, putting her gaze back to the floor with visible effort, and Shining started breathing again before he realized he’d stopped. “Well I guess that answers that question…” Twilight said loudly, before lifting her head again. Her eyes touched on Cadance fleetingly before she sharply turned her head, casting them over her friends and parents behind her. “I’m surprised that you brought them here, Princess.” the mare continued, her eyes dragging back over Cadance and Shining before falling on Celestia. While her horn remained unlit, the same could not be said for the glare she laid on the alicorn. “I didn’t think you’d be cruel enough to force my family to watch my execution.” A few shocked snorts came from the guarded group as Celestia spoke. “You are not to be executed, Twilight-“ “Then you’re even stupider than I thought you were.” “-and they are here at their own request.” The Princess finished, not seeming to have noticed the one-winged unicorn’s insult. She widened her eyes fractionally. “Why do you expect me to harm you, my dear student?” “Because some small part of me has apparently held out in its belief that you aren’t an utter incompetent?” Twilight rolled her eyes as Luna’s narrowed at her, but kept her attention on the elder of the alicorn sisters. “I assaulted you, declared my intent to kill you in front of multiple witnesses, and killed Broken. You know as well as I do that murder’s still a capital offense, even ignoring my actual and intended acts of treason.” Celestia glanced at Shining; the unicorn met her gaze and shook his head. “You didn’t kill Broken Shield, Twilight.” the alicorn stated, returning her attention to her former pupil. Twilight’s glare maintained its heat even as it flattened. “I held him off the ground, by his neck, long past the point that his heart stopped beating. I’m pretty damned sure I killed him.” Shining could see the naked shock on the faces of both his parents and his wife. Twilight raised her hoof and waved it between him and Celestia. “And the whole silent ‘should I lie to her’ look doesn’t work when I see you do it, by the way.” Shining spoke before Celestia could. “We aren’t lying to you, Twily. Broken’s alive.” Twilight only raised an eyebrow at the corroboration, and her voice remained dismissive. “So you managed to revive him? Good for you, I’m sure he’s fully ambulatory and hasn’t suffered any neurological damage from the fifteen minutes his brain was left without oxygen, and his absence from this…whatever it is is entirely his own choice.” Shining didn’t respond, and Twilight snorted. “Besides, assuming he is alive, that still leaves me with treason and conspiracy to commit.” “Actually, it doesn’t.” Shining couldn’t help but gain a small smile at the bafflement on his little sister’s face. “Treason requires you to be acting against the state, not its leaders. It also requires corroborating witnesses… none of whom were willing to step forward.” Twilight’s head whipped around to stare at her friends, none of whom bothered to hide the conspiratorial grins on their faces. “I- you- do you have any-“ The mare choked on her words for a few moments before catching herself. She quickly turned back to Celestia, her glare somewhat more alive and significantly more furious as it fell upon the softly grinning alicorn. “Fine, then. Moving on. I’m here, as you ‘requested’. What in your mother’s name do you want?” The gentle smirk on Celestia’s face faded. She took a moment before responding, her eyes searching Twilight’s face. “…I want to know what happened to you, Twilight.” “After assaulting you, I discovered that I’d been suffering a progressively worsening mental breakdown for some period of time, unintentionally accelerated said breakdown in an attempt to fix it, announced my intent to kill you, assaulted two of my friends for trying to restrain me, attempted effective fratricide, attempted suicide, cut my own wing off, and then attempted suicide again.” Twilight popped her tongue, her glare remaining violent. “I think that covers the major points vis-à-vis ‘what happened to me’.” Celestia’s visage stayed stolid. “That is what has occurred, Twilight. It is not what you have experienced.” Celestia softened herself, letting the edges in her face and her form dull. “Please, Twilight, I want to talk with you. To gain an understanding of what you’ve gone through in the short time since we last met.” Twilight’s glare deepened. “Well, I discovered that the closest thing I have to a mother who isn’t her has been deceiving me my entire life. That stung a bit.” “Twi-“ “No, don’t you dare try to excuse yourself again! They were your lies, you let me believe them, you might not have spoken them but you never spoke against them either! You aren’t fucking innocent in this no matter how much you twist your own words!” Luna and the guards both shifted as Twilight’s voice and gaze grew even hotter. The mare caught the movement and herself, closing her eyes for a few moments and drawing a shuddering breath. “I trusted you more than just about anypony else in this world, Princess. I dedicated my life to you. Idolized you. Worshipped you. Loved you. I hope you know how much it hurt, learning that you aren’t worthy of any of that.” Celestia took in a sharp breath at the words. “I… I cannot say that I do, Twilight; I myself have never been betrayed in such a manner.” Twilight’s eyes flicked to Luna momentarily. The dark alicorn visibly bristled, but remained silent as the unicorn spoke. “So you admit it was a betrayal, then.” “I do. I would not have revealed it had I not realized that I was betraying you, betraying everypony in Equestria, by keeping it secret.” Celestia paused for a moment, her voice softening. “And while I will not pretend to know the pain you felt, I hope that you can believe me when I tell you how sorry I am for causing it.” Twilight blinked, her eyes going wide, and for a few moments Shining saw the filly he’d always known, staring innocent and awestruck at the mare who ruled the sun- -and then her eyes slipped away from the Princess, narrowing in something closer to resignation than anger. “I wish I could, Princess.” There were a few seconds of oppressive silence before Luna quietly cleared her throat. “If you would be willing to speak on what happened in Ponyville, now? From the accounts of your friends and Captain Armor, and from your own summation earlier, your actions and motivations seemed to shift rapidly and wildly between several extremes.” Twilight muttered something unintelligible before turning herself slightly to face Luna. “I’m assuming they told you what I told them? About the voice, Dawn, trying to get rid of her with the Elements? I figured she was trying to do to me what the Nightmare did to you, because the only way for me to process how much I’d started hating Celestia was to convince myself that I was under the influence of an omnicidal madpony.” To her credit, Celestia didn’t flinch at the statement. She leaned towards her sister slightly, enough to catch Twilight’s eye, before speaking. “I believe it’s safe to assume that that wasn’t the case?” Twilight snorted. “Not the way I was thinking. Turns out I was just going insane in probably the exact same way Rising Dawn had: Slowly building resentment and increasingly strained denial of your faults festering in the back of my mind. Faust, learning your little secret with the sun might’ve been what caused her to snap in the first place, that last little push that inspired her to write the Charter. Wouldn’t that be ironic? Your trying to prevent me from becoming Dawn making me become her?” “I did not reveal my folly with the histories and the sun in order to manipulate you, Twilight. As I said before-” The one-winged unicorn interrupted Celestia with a scoff. “Right. You were totally preparing this since long before you learned about Rising Dawn.” She shook her head. “In any case, I’m not sure exactly what the Elements did to me. My best guess is that, since they didn’t have any disharmonizing thing to excise from my mind as they did the Nightmare from Luna’s, the magic simply attacked the most disharmonious thing it could find.” She raised her hoof and tapped her temple, an odd smirk quirking the side of her mouth. “Do you know what that’s like? Some overwhelmingly powerful magic forcing its way into your mind, washing itself over every part of everything that makes you you, smothering all of your thoughts and bending your very soul onto whatever path it desires?” Shining felt himself stiffen, and saw Luna do the same. Twilight simply shrugged. “It feels fantastic, actually. I compared the sensation to fucking your mother, and I can’t say that hindsight has changed my opinion on that particular aspect.” Cadance started choking on the air in her mouth, while most of the others in the room simply stared in shocked silence at the unicorn. Twilight seemed to notice her sister-in-law’s distress, sending a concerned gaze towards the coughing mare for a few seconds before her eyes dragged back to the wide-eyed Princess of the Sun. “Ah, yeah. My guess is the Elements stripped away or severely disabled the parts of my mind that were causing the most conflict with the other parts. You know, like my conscience, what with it fighting with the Dawn voice and all of the other dozens of horrible little impulses telling me to murder you in various horrible ways. And whatever part of my mind let me censor out cussing and less-than-appropriate analogies. And whatever part of my mind let me keep my mood halfway stable, given how quickly mine’s been swinging around.” She shrugged again as Celestia regained her composure. “I… I must admit that I find it hard to believe that the Elements of Harmony could produce such effects, Twilight.” “So do I, but I know they did something to my mind, made me…“ She trailed off somewhat suddenly, her eyes flicking to Cadance before returning to the mare in front of her. “Okay, listen. All I know is that when I came to I literally couldn’t think of any reason not to kill you, and I was very suddenly lacking the little neurotic feelings that made me quintuple-guess literally everything I ever did. So I shared my plans with my friends, because obviously they would agree that you had to die once I explained everything to them, and regardless of what they might claim they did hear me and they did try to stop me. And then Broken showed up just as I tried to kill Rainbow and Applejack-“ “They tackled you and you threw them off. That hardly constitutes attempted murder.” Shining interrupted, amidst the more vulgar retorts of Twilight’s words being shouted by the supposed victims themselves. Twilight rolled her eyes. “Semantics. He appeared, we talked, and then I started trying to kill him because he admitted he knew about the sun, which meant he’d been lying about the sun, which meant he was just as guilty as you, which meant he was just as deserving of death as you. Which is to say not at all, but try convincing me of that. So I chased him to the edge of the Everfree, we fought, he trapped me, I escaped and started strangling him, and then…” she paused, her eyes shifting to Shining. “…and then he showed you something.” He said, recalling her words from the previous day, before continuing to the point he thought she was leading to. “And that’s what made you like this?” She nodded, a heavy breath escaping her as she dragged her gaze across Cadance and back to Celestia. “The Elements of Harmony… they made me very literally single-minded. I used to have to think, to consider what was going on, weigh my options, figure out what to do. Now everything’s just there. It’s just, here’s what happened, here’s the response, and there’s no thought, it just goes from one to the other. I can’t think about things anymore, and whenever I try, whenever I try to see things from a different angle or come up with different ways to solve my problems, it feels like my mind is being torn apart. I can’t filter my own thoughts anymore, there isn’t any way for me to tell whether what I’m doing is rational or insane, so I’m left with my mind telling me that killing you is the only possible response to what you’ve done, and I can’t even conceive of the possibility that I or my friends or anyone could see things another way because I don’t have any thoughts to tell me that other ways exist.” “You mentioned this earlier, in not as many words.” Luna said, her brow furrowed. “What does it have to do with what Broken showed you?” “Because memory spells work by creating a copy of the one pony’s memories - their thoughts, perceptions, and emotions - from the desired time frame and placing that copy into the mind of another.” Twilight gave a short set of manic giggles at the confused stares she was receiving. “Funny thing is, that can really fuck you up if your mind can’t separate your own memories from the ones the spell gives you.” The room was silent as everyone processed Twilight’s words. She seemed content to wait, watching the dawning comprehension - and horror - on her former mentor’s face before she spoke again. “Dawn brought Dazzle back. She brought them together again, let them believe that they were safe, let us be happy for a moment, and then…” She drew in a breath and held it for a moment, her eyes shifting from Celestia to Cadance and settling heavily on the younger alicorn. “I got to feel everything that Broken felt, all the pain and fear and rage at having my daughter stolen from me again. And now every time I look at myself I see the mare who murdered my wife and child, and somehow seeing them right in front of me only makes me hate myself more.” Shining could see Cadance tense at that; she took a half-step towards Twilight before catching herself, and he could feel her trembling as she leaned into him. The one-winged unicorn blinked, her eyes seeming to soften for a moment, before her gaze moved once more onto Celestia. “So I’m sitting here, with one set of memories that should be two, wishing myself dead over murders I’ve not yet committed, not knowing whether I’m going to keep talking to you or start trying to murder you or stop bothering to breathe in the next second, and with only a weak and slipping awareness that this state of affairs isn’t normal. That, Princess, is what I’m ‘going through’.” Twilight paused at that pronouncement, letting her words stand for a few moments before she spoke again. “Now can you please stop dragging this out and just kill me already?” Every eye that had been on Twilight shifted to Celestia. The Princess of the Sun remained still and silent for several seconds before turning to face her sister. Luna met her gaze evenly and gave a grave nod, and the two rulers of Equestria returned their attention to the mare in front of them. Twilight closed her eyes and lowered her head in apparent anticipation of her fate. “Now why in my mother’s name would I do that?” Shining felt himself let out a breath he hadn’t noticed he was holding as Twilight’s head shot upwards. Celestia met her student’s shocked eyes with a gentle gaze and a soft smile. “As my sister stated earlier, Twilight Sparkle, she has no intention of harming you.” Luna had tilted her head, and was giving the sputtering mare a mildly confused look. “This is an interview, not an execution. Your presence here was requested so that you could provide your perspective on certain events, just as your brother and the other Elements of Harmony did.” Twilight raised a hoof to her head, one of her eyes fluttering shut as the other shot between the diarchs. “B-but, but you- I- didn’t you hear me?!” she shouted, a desperation in her voice that made Shining’s heart ache. “You can’t- you-“ Celestia spoke, her voice cutting off Twilight’s fractured protests. “Believe me, Twilight, I’ve heard every word you said. While you may have wished me dead not two days ago, and while you yourself clearly still feel that you are a threat to my life, it is clear to me that you no longer hold such desires-“ “YES I DO!” Twilight shrieked. Everypony in the room froze as she took a panting breath. “I do still want to kill you! I want to kill you, a-and I’m not sure why anypony wouldn’t, I c-can’t think of any reason why anypony wouldn’t!” She made a noise, some odd whining, strangled sob. Shining could see a line of red trickling down around the hoof she still held just beneath her ear. “That’s not normal. I-I remember that that’s not normal, I remember having to think about what to do, what was right and what was wrong. Now I don’t, and I know that’s wrong, I know that that’s wrong and I know that wanting to kill you is wrong but I can’t figure out why.” Twilight took several heavy breaths, her eyes focusing to lock her gaze onto Celestia. “I would have killed you, earlier, if not for the rings on my horn. It would have made me happy to do so, even knowing everything that your death would cause. My mind is convinced that you have to die, and the only thing stopping me from agreeing is the memories of what happens if I do. And those are fighting a losing battle against my knowledge that things can’t go that way, that I could kill you, I could save everyone I love from you, and they wouldn’t have to die like my memories say they do.” Her voice broke in a sob, but her gaze remained solidly on the Princess of the Sun, and she continued before anyone else could speak up. “I plead for your mercy, Celestia, and for the safety of everyone gathered here. Kill me, before I can no longer remember why I shouldn’t kill you.” She closed her eyes and spread her hooves and wing wide almost theatrically, as if welcoming the blow she’d just called upon herself. Celestia stared at the mare in front of her, her expression once more held under a mask of calm. Slowly she turned her head towards Shining, her gaze betraying no emotion as it fell upon him. “Lower the barrier.” Shining blinked, putting his full attention to Celestia. “Princess? Are you-“ “Lower it.” Celestia’s Voice echoed through the room, and there was a brief flash as the invisible shield surrounding the alicorns vanished. The elder alicorn closed her eyes and faced forwards. “All guardsponies present, aside from Captain Shining Armor, are to stand down and disperse. Now.” That final word spurred the guards from their uncertain immobility, and they vacated the room with drilled precision. Only when the doors had closed did the Princess of the Sun move, quickly stepping forwards to stand within bare inches of her trembling student. Twilight’s forelegs had fallen but were still outstretched, and she flinched as Celestia laid her wings upon them. “Twilight Sparkle. My dearest and most faithful student.” The Princess’ voice held an audible warmth, and Shining could see his sister’s form quake with quiet sobs. “Through your words and those of your friends, it is clear that you have suffered greatly in these last few days. You’ve spoken of your supposed crimes as if you were a repentant convict confessing her guilt. You’ve claimed yourself as insane and unable to control your own actions in the same breath as you made it clear that you would die by your own hoof before you’d risk harming those close to you. You call yourself a traitor for desiring my death, and yet you place yourself before me, begging me to take the most drastic of measures to ensure my protection from you. “You are not evil, Twilight. You are not dangerous, nor villainous, nor monstrous. You are a mare whose understanding of the world was shattered by the very pony she trusted most, and whose attempts to return herself to a stable state of mind only served to further disturb her. If there is any blame to be laid for your current condition, it belongs at my hooves and mine alone, for allowing you to place such trust in me, and for allowing you to believe my lies for so long. “Nonetheless, Twilight, I do not believe that you are as lost as you claim to be. Despite your fears and your perceptions, I can see through your words and your actions that you have maintained control of yourself to a far greater degree than you realize. That, and the mere fact that you are capable of recognizing that something is wrong, puts you that much closer to recovery. The effects of the Elements may complicate things, but I have no doubt that they can be accounted for just as Broken’s memories can; it is my belief that, with proper help and the support of those closest to you, you can recover from this terrible state, and you can return to a normal life. “So no, Twilight Sparkle. I will not kill you, not while there is still a chance that I can help you heal from the wounds I so carelessly inflicted upon you. Instead, I ask that you allow us to help you recover, that you give yourself a chance to regain the life you lived less than a week ago.” Twilight’s eyes opened as Celestia leaned in towards her. The alicorn gave the young mare a gentle smile. “Can you do that for me, my faithful student?” Twilight blinked once, twice. Her hooves fell to the ground and her wing folded back to her side as she met Celestia’s gaze. Then she lunged forwards and threw her hooves around her mentor. A long, keening cry issued forth as Celestia wrapped her wings around the younger mare; the sound seemed to cure everyone else of whatever spell had held them still and silent while Celestia was speaking, and within moments Shining saw his parents, Spike, and Twilight’s friends rushing towards Celestia and Twilight. He saw Cadance step forward and felt himself start to move as well, feeling the need to provide whatever comfort he could to his sister, to assure both her and himself that things were going to be okay. He’d barely taken a single step when a lance of light pink magic burst forth from between Celestia’s wings. The lance vanished before Shining could fully register what had happened. He saw a flash of light from beneath Celestia’s wings just as her eyes shot open in shock and pain, and barely a moment later he felt somepony tackle him from behind. Then, less than a second after the lance, just as Luna began to scream, Shining Armor felt himself dragged into a teleportation. Shining hit the ground hard, momentum carrying him down into the stones of the floor of wherever he’d been brought to. His head impacted the floor shortly after his hooves did, and as he was blinking spots out of his vision for a few seconds before he became aware of his surroundings. “You alright, Shiny?” His eyes moved to the voice as he stood, finding his sister sitting in the centre of the cell she’d teleported them to. Trickles of blood were issuing forth from her ear and nostrils, and one of her eyes was starting to tinge pink. “Twilight? Your magic-” he cut off with a grunt, his head throbbing slightly at the noise of his own voice. He heard his sister laugh as a healing spell settled over him. “Yeah, funny thing about memory spells. Turns out that, when your mind can’t separate your own memories from the ones the spell gives you, it's really easy to remember how to do things you’ve never actually done. Like hornless magic.” She seemed to twitch. “Or murder.” Shining gave a grunt in response, feeling his head clear as the healing spell worked through him. Then her words and the events of the last minute caught up to him, and stared wide-eyed at his sister. “Twilight, what in Faust’s name did you do?!” The mare rolled her eyes. “Oh, calm down. I made sure to avoid any organs, major veins or arteries, her esophagus and trachea… I pretty much just gave her a bit-sized hole in her chest and back. An earth pony could survive that, let alone an alicorn.” She clapped her hooves together before standing and walking over to him. “Moving on to more important matters, I need you to kill me. Right now.” Shining stared at Twilight, barely believing his eyes and ears. “Twi, you can’t- No, I’m not going to-” “Why not?!” his sister shouted back at him, her magic suddenly gripping him and pulling him nose-to-nose with her. “I’ve proven myself a madmare in front of multiple witnesses! I baited Celestia into lowering her defences and tried to murder her as soon as she was most vulnerable! I foalnapped you and brought you to a secluded location for unknown ends! You have every justification for killing me in the name of justice or self-defence or whatever you damned-well-please!” She loosed her grip on him, letting him fall back as she brought her hooves to her head. “I don’t want to kill you-“ “Then do it to protect them!” Twilight growled. “Do you think I’m going to stop at Celestia?! That I’ll just let Cadance go after I’ve murdered her aunts and her husband?!” She drew a shuddering breath as a pit formed in Shining’s stomach. “I don’t know how much longer I can control myself. I barely managed to keep from actually killing Celestia, and even now I’m just barely stopping myself from going back to finish her off. You can stop me, right here, right now, before I hurt anypony else. Before I hurt her.” “Twilight-“ “Please, Shining.” Twilight’s voice was wet with unshed tears, but it held a desperate urgency beneath it. “Don’t let me kill her again. You can’t let me kill her again.” Shining felt something shift within himself as she repeated her plea from the previous night; the certainty of his sister’s words settled in his mind and tipped the scales of an argument against himself that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He drew a breath slowly, his gaze locking with Twilight’s as an odd calm settled over him. She saw the look in his eyes, her own widening slightly in realization; then she nodded, a relieved smile appearing on her face as she bowed her head and presented her horn to him. He felt a spell ready in his mind. His horn glowed as he anchored a barrier around the root of Twilight’s horn; with that in place, he could shift and shape the barrier to surround the whole of her brain before he sent enough magic to actually solidify it. Her death would be utterly painless, an instant slip between consciousness and oblivion. “Thank you, big brother.” he heard Twilight whisper. “I’m sorry, Twily.” He heard himself respond. He sent his magic. The barrier appeared. Twilight Sparkle felt nothing.