Twilight awoke groggily, pain shooting through her entire right side. Attempting to sit up, she only managed to rolled over. Something heavily pressed down on her, threatening to start crushing her.
She cried out, her shriek a mere squeak. The pressure shifted, cutting off Twilight’s air. Less than a minute later, she faintly heard, “Good. It seems they have given up searching for you…” as her consciousness faded.
Twilight woke again with a start. She was alone this time, but heard what sounded like a battle raging off in the distance.
She groaned as she rolled, kicking her legs out to get to her hooves. She yelped as one never made it underneath her and she just ended up rolling, stopping on her back. ‘Ow. What happened…’
The battle seemed to draw closer, but Twilight could barely hear it over the pain she felt. Looking down in the dim light, she tested her limbs and was unable to move her left foreleg. She pushed herself shakily to her hooves, using her wings to help stabilize on three legs.
Nausea bubbled up, threatening to push her back down to the floor.
A glow shone from the far side of the room, growing brighter and brighter until Twilight’s fight or flight instinct kicked in. ‘Oh sh–’ She thought as her wings kicked hard, straining from disuse as she dodged the light screaming to where she was, before slamming into the far wall. Immediately, the rock face began to glow red, then orange, and melt away like slag.
As she pulled back, she noted it wasn’t a single light, but a stream of golden sunfire. It seemed to track her around the room, lazily following her path and carving through the wall. Twilight slowly hovered away from the light, around a corner to safety. From there, she sat as her chest heaved. Her stomach unable to take the sudden movements anymore, she leaned over and heaved, throwing up only bile.
After a few minutes, she felt up to looking around. It looked like a hollowed out cave. There were other exits from the room, including one going vaguely up.
A pained roar echoed through the room, and the golden beam cut out, leaving a glowing pile of molten rock slowly sliding down from the far side of the room. A crash sounded, and she felt a blast of heat as she was temporarily blinded.
Twilight flailed, scampering away from the heat as best she could, huddling up against the wall.
A voice shouted, vaguely familiar. It echoed around the room, rebounding throughout as Twilight felt like her skull would burst. “What have you done with her?”
Much closer, no more than a dozen paces away, a dragon rumbled, his voice like trying to sand a mountain with a piece of paper. “Like Tartarus you’ll ever find that bitch.”
There was another massive crash sounded against the far wall. Unseen by Twilight, a glow stalked forward into the room. “You will tell me. If not, I will get… unpleasant.”
The dragon groaned, and several thooms sounded, almost like the dragon was standing again. “You can pry it from my dead corpse.”
Softer this time the female voice replied, “That can be arranged.” The telltale sound of a unicorn’s horn powering up jingled to her ears, before she felt heat. She felt like she was on the surface of the sun. Instantly, her throat dried up, and the cry of alarm with it.
She slowly limped away from the heat, as fast as her hooves and wings could carry her. Eventually, she found herself stuck in a corner with the temperature rising.
She laid down, curling up to try and keep the heat from spreading through her as fast. Twilight found her words at last. She croaked softly, “Stop… please.”
Unfortunately, the words were drowned out by the dragon’s massive pained roar.
Several seconds later, the heat faded, leaving Twilight panting like she’d run a marathon during summer, with her winter coat still on.
The air she breathed in smelled… coppery. The dragon groaned, much softer this time. “Now. I will give you one. Last. Chance.” There was the sound of a fleshy hit. “Where. Is. She.”
“Go to Tartarus.”
“So be it.” There was a blast of heat and the sound of magic again. It was far hotter this time, and Twilight was sure her coat was going to combust at the very least. As the temperature increased, her thoughts changed from combustion to incineration.
“Stop… please stop…” She screamed as loud as she could.
Instantly, the heat ceased.
“T… Twilight?”
Twilight whimpered before she heaved, throwing up more bile. She didn’t dare open her eyes as soft hoofsteps made their way to her.
“Twilight?”
“Please… stop. I-I can’t…” Twilight broke down uncontrollably.
A hoof, hot as the sun, laid itself across her back and Twilight screamed. Instantly, it was gone, but Twilight’s sobs gave way to broken crying. She couldn’t spare the tears, but her nose ran.
A soft pssh sounded behind her. The hoof returned, but normal body temperature this time. A second joined it, pulling Twilight against the mare. The body was much, much larger than she was. “Twilight, are you–” The sound of magic reached her ears and Twilight’s stomach fell.
“Stop, please!” She struggled weakly, trying to get away from the mare that nearly incinerated her. “I’m sorry! I don’t know what I did, but I’m sorry!”
The mare let her go, and she scampered away, daring to open her eyes. Everything was blurry, but she limped as fast as she could away.
Hoofsteps sounded just behind her. “Twilight. You have–”
“I said stay away!” She spun, forgetting about her leg and ended up slamming face first into the ground.
The mare was on her in an instant, and Twilight felt magic wrap around her body. While warm, the magic didn’t injure her, and she was lifted to her hooves, but held down. A muzzle gently rested on her head. “Are you injured?”
Resigned to her fate, her ears pinned back as she replied, “I… don’t know. I… can’t feel my left foreleg.”
The muzzle left her head and she was turned around. “O-oh, T-twilight…”
The mare’s voice seemed to crack, before she was pulled against the much larger mare’s barrel. Looking up, her muddy vision didn’t give her much, but she saw stark-white fur clearly, and the mare must have had some kind of orange mane.
She cried out in pain as the mare grabbed ahold of her injured leg. It was twisted several ways, but she only felt pain at the base of her shoulder. “I… I’m sorry T-Twilight. Your leg is too far gone to save…”
She looked up as her vision cleared, meeting the mare’s glowing, orange eyes. Idly, Twilight noted that the orange hair was almost literally a mane of fire. She was wearing a helmet, with a massive ruby inset against the covering for her horn.
“W-who are you?”
“That is not important right now, Twilight.” The mare’s wings shuffled and her ears pinned back. “Your leg has gone necrotic. I need to amputate it. Now.”
“W-what?” She looked down at her leg. The flesh was flaky, black, and she could clearly see her bone as it tore when the mare moved it. She couldn’t feel anything but at her shoulder. She started to panic. “M-my leg!”
The mare lifted Twilight’s chin, nuzzling against it. “I am sorry, Twilight, but I need to get rid of it, before it can spread.” The mare’s horn lit and she looked around quickly. “Blast, nothing…”
“What are–”
Her words were lost as the mare gently pushed Twilight to the floor on her side. Gently, her magic pulled Twilight’s mouth open and held it. The mare’s own foreleg slipped between her jaws, like a dog holding a stick. “I am sorry for this, Twilight.” One eye looked up to the mare, seeing her horn light up.
“This will hurt, Twilight.” Her magic went to work, Twilight felt her body held down with the mare’s leg between her teeth. “Bite. Do not worry for me.”
She thought she had felt pain before, but that was nothing to now. Twilight screamed around the leg in her mouth, involuntarily clamping down around it.
The mare dutifully did her best to ignore Twilight’s screams as she set to work. The leg was set apart, and her magic slowly cut and pulled the necrotized flesh from the fresh at the shoulder. A thin stream of solar fire cauterized the wound, incinerating any remaining leftover necrosis.
Twilight was frantic, uselessly struggling against her bonds. As the heat cauterized her wound, she tried lighting her horn, but found she couldn’t. Her tail lashed behind her, as her pupils were no more than pinpricks. She felt some kind of liquid entering her mouth.
The mare’s work finished, she lifted the leg and set it off to the side. Immediately, she felt Twilight’s teeth tear through her leg and she bled. “I am sorry, Twilight. I had to do that to save you.”
She released Twilight, leaving her leg in place until Twilight spit it out of her own accord. A mouthful of blood followed it, splashing against the leg already turning red of its own accord.
“W-who are you?” Twilight was frantic. “What do you want with me?”
The mare took her helmet off, slowly, with her hooves. “I don’t know if you recognize me, but I am Celestia.”
“No. You’re not! You don’t look like her!” She spat some more blood out. “You don’t act like her! She would never do that to me!” Twilight gestured in the dragon’s direction. “The Celestia I know would never kill a dragon in cold blood.”
“Twilight? I don’t care if you believe me now.” Her magic picked Twilight up, holding her against Celestia’s barrel. “I’m more ecstatic than I have been in more than a year, seeing you alive.” She smiled softly, a face Twilight almost recognized.
“What?” The mare looked over to the dragon, Twilight’s eyes following.
“Xendasdyt, known as the Jealous One.” The mare replied. “It took me the better part of a year to find out it was him.” She looked over the dragon’s corpse, several holes bored through it with solar fire, it wasn’t bleeding, the wounds cauterized by the sheer heat. “The rest of my time after that was dedicated to finding you, and finding you alone.”
“He took you. O-one year, three months, s-six days ago.” Twilight looked back to the mare, and she now saw the Celestia underneath. Tears gently fell from her eyes, slowly sliding down her muzzle to drip between them. Slowly, a very light pink started to return to her fur, and the roots of her mane showed their normal color. Her eyes were no longer slit, but glowed with fire.
“I–”
Celestia shook her head before her horn lit and a canteen floated over to Twilight's mouth. “Drink, slowly. I can see you are severely malnourished. If you had no tears to shed when you cried like that earlier and throwing up, you are severely dehydrated as well. Explanations can wait until after we return.”
Twilight opened her mouth and the canteen poured slowly into her mouth. Over the course of ten minutes, she drank the entire canteen. The liquid tasted like ambrosia. Once it was done, she looked over to her severed leg. The entire thing was black, and no blood poured from it, both from the necrosis and the cauterized cut.
Celestia followed her gaze. “I am sorry, Twilight. I wish I could save it, but it is impossible.”
“What now?” Twilight’s voice was small, and she huddled against Celestia like a lost filly.
“Now? We get you home. I can’t teleport us both, but I can carry us. Are you hungry?”
Twilight nodded, and a single apple floated her way. “Slowly. Small bites. If you are as malnourished as you look, you won’t be able to hold too much, and I don’t want you losing the water you’ve already got by eating too much.
Twilight nodded and went to light her horn, but nothing happened. She leaned against Celestia and felt up to her forehead, finding an inhibitor ring on her horn. Celestia noticed it at the base and gave Twilight a questioning look. Twilight nodded.
Celestia’s muzzle slowly made its way down her horn, her teeth clamping down on the ring. Gently twisting, she unlatched it and pulled it free.
Twilight took the apple in her magic, shakily. Celestia looked over to the dragon as she crushed the inhibitor ring in her teeth, and spat the fragments out at the corpse. Afterward she heard a small crunch and looked to see Twilight following her instructions. She restrained herself from just devouring the most delicious apple she ever had, heeding Celestia’s instructions.
Minutes later, with the apple eaten, Twilight gently stood, using her wings to balance. Celestia stood slowly behind her. “We can get a prosthetic.” She swept around Twilight and nuzzled her cheek. “It won’t be the same, but it will be better than nothing.” Twilight looked up to Celestia’s eyes, seeing her much more normal again, the vibrant violet irises carefully watching her.
Twilight choked up, a hoof making its way to her stump and she flinched. She stumbled softly, Celestia catching her.
“It fills me with so much joy to see you alive.” Celestia’s ears pinned back. “Everypony else had given up, but I refused until I found you. Dead or alive.”
“Even my friends?”
“Reluctantly. I expect them to be ecstatic when you return.”
Twilight’s voice was small. “Celestia?”
“Yes?” She nuzzled against Twilight’s forehead.
“Can… can we rest a bit before heading out?” Twilight yawned. “I… am so tired.”
“Of course.” Celestia gently guided Twilight to the floor, wrapping herself around Twilight.
A soft, “Thank you,” came from Twilight as she succumbed to sleep.
Twilight woke draped in warmth. Looking up, she saw Celestia still cuddling against her. She scooted closer and wrapped her good foreleg around Celestia’s neck hugging her gently.
The older alicorn seemed to stir softly, looking down at Twilight in her forelegs. ‘Thank goodness you are safe now, Twilight.’ She slowly brought her muzzle down to kiss the top Twilight’s head, above her horn.
Twilight squeaked adorably.
“Good morning, Twilight. Are you feeling better?”
“Y-yes, Celestia.”
“Do you feel up for moving out today, or do you want to wait?”
Twilight sat up slowly, leaning on her sole foreleg. “Let’s go home.”
Celestia sat up next to her. “Let’s.”