//------------------------------//
// A Princess' Punishment 
// Story: Those Left Behind 
// by the7Saviors 
//------------------------------//

I don't know what had happened to Cadence, but it seems she didn't remember anything from when she disappeared. 

I got the feeling that even if she did know, she wouldn't have told us anyway. Based on her reaction, whatever had happened must not have been pleasant. There was also the matter of how we found her, or how she found us.

What was that noise, and what did it mean that Cadence suddenly appeared after it?

To be fair, I couldn't really see that well so she could've been lying there the whole time for all I knew, but somehow I doubted it. Either way, Luna and I were relieved she was safe, and Cadence herself seemed happy -- well not happy. None of us were happy -- but she seemed to be feeling better now that she was back with us.

With the addition of Cadence, we resumed searching the city for any sign of Princess Celestia. We made sure to watch for the monster as well, but the longer we searched the more I began to think it had left for good.

I still didn't have a good sense of time right now, but I felt as though we had been searching the city for hours and hadn't once run into that thing since we found Cadence.

Eventually Luna decided to move on from the city and try to make our way to another waypoint via flight.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Princess?" I asked, looking around worriedly, "I know we haven't seen that thing in hours, but I'd rather not risk it showing up again."

"We'll not get anywhere at this rate, Twilight," Luna replied, turning her gaze towards the pitch black sky, "there's been absolutely no hint of its presence. If we're going to escape this city, I believe now is the best chance."

"I think Aunt Luna is right, Twilight," Cadence added, "I haven't seen this thing, but from what you two have told me about it, I don't want to be anywhere near that thing if I can help it," she shook her head, "besides, I don't think Auntie Celestia is here."

"Yeah, but--"

"If you're so worried about the consequences, why not just Teleport us all away from here?" Luna asked pointedly, "I would've done so myself long ago had I my magic to wield."

"It still hasn't returned?" I asked incredulously, "but it's been so long!"

"Indeed," Luna agreed with a grimace, "I fear something -- most likely the demon -- is interfering with my recovery somehow."

"But then..." I turned to my old foalsitter, "you still have your magic right?"

Cadence nodded.

"I still have my regular magic, although my Love Magic still isn't working," she frowned at me thoughfully, "speaking of my Love Magic not working, I think you do know why, or at least have a good guess as to why it isn't."

I winced and turned away with a guilty look.

"I... might have an idea," I admitted quietly, "I didn't want to believe that there were no ponies left, but... deep down, I think I did -- and still do. I believe that with the lack of ponies, your Love Magic weakened to almost nothing, and that combined with the despair you felt when you realized what happened to Shiny..."

"You think my sorrow is what snuffed out the last of my Love Magic," Cadence finished, with a grim frown, "I... can't say that doesn't make sense. When... when I heard about what happened to Canterlot... I was devastated. I'm still devastated."

Luna gave Cadence a sad look and placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder.

"Cadence, I know that--"

"NO, YOU DON'T KNOW!"

Luna yanked her hoof away and leapt back -- her wings flaring out in alarm. My own hackles raised at the sheer amount of rage and despair in Cadence's voice. The look on her face as she rounded on her Aunt sent chills down my spine and I took several steps back from the pink alicorn.

"C-Cadence?" I whispered shakily, "y-you're scaring me..."

Cadence turned to face me and the fury on her face instantly melted away into a look of guilt and confusion.

"Oh... ohmygosh, Twilight, Aunt Luna," she began to tear up again and rushed over to hug me, "I'm... I'm so sorry! I don't... I don't know what that was, I didn't mean it, I swear!"

"It's... it's okay, Cadence," I replied weakly, patting her on the back, "I know you didn't mean it, you're just upset about everything. We all are."

I snuck a glance at Luna over Cadence's shoulder and saw her giving the pink alicorn a wary look as she slowly folded her wings once more. After a moment she addressed me, while keeping her cautious gaze on Cadence.

"Twilight, I believe we all need some time to calm down, if you could please Teleport us out of the city?" 

"I... I don't know if I can," I replied hesitantly as I pulled away from Cadence, "I didn't see how we got here, and with the landscape changed so drastically, I wouldn't know what to visualize."

"Then we fly," Luna responded, spreading her wings once more, "either way we need to leave this city and search elsewhere."

"No wait!" I cried, holding out a hoof, "just... just give me a minute. I don't know what the area around Mount Canterhorn is like, but..." I sighed heavily, filled with dread and disbelief at what I was about to suggest, "if... if I make use of some of the ambient Magic in the air, I could at least get us back to what's left of Ponyville."

"Are you sure you can do it?" Cadence asked, "if it's too difficult--"

"No, it should be fine," I lied, "drawing from the ambient Magic should give me... more than enough power to get us there without any problems."

"Then by all means, please do so," Luna replied, waving a hoof in my direction, "I'd like to find my sister as soon as possible. I have a very bad feeling that I cannot seem to shake and I'm afraid it concerns Celestia."

I nodded in response and with a heavy sigh, I closed my eyes and prepare to reach out for the ambient Magic around me.

I couldn't believe I was doing this.

I didn't want to!

I made plans!

I had a list!

Now here I was, ready to toss all of that out the window along with my misgivings because the idea of running into that monster again filled me with so much cold terror that I couldn't think straight. Even just imagining it literally made me want to retch from the fear and disgust.

So I chose what I felt was the lesser of two evils.

Without further fanfare, I lit my horn and sent out a formless wave of magic, bracing myself for whatever came next. As it turned out, connecting to all the raw unfiltered Magic around me was just as intoxicating as it was before -- if not more so.

For... I don't know how long, I just sat there reveling in the nice warm feelings the Magic gave me. All of my problems and worries grew smaller -- more insignificant as I lost myself in that haze.

I heard somepony or something calling out to me from very, very far away, but I paid them no mind at first. Then I heard something about Teleportation and something in my brain clicked.

I was supposed to take Luna and Cadence... somewhere...

Right, Ponyville.

With the sheer amount of power at my disposal it was hardly a task at all. With only a sliver of thought and absolutely no effort on my part whatsoever, we were all back in front of the destroyed library.

That however, was unimportant.

What was important, was the sudden shift of Magic I felt in the atmosphere immediately upon arrival. The sheer unexpectedness of the sensation was enough to cut through the pleasant fog of Magic clouding my mind and reality came crashing back down around me as my connection to the ambient Magic was severed.

I fell to my knees, shivering uncontrollably and gasping as though I had run ten marathons in a row.

And then I threw up.

In the middle of my retching I could faintly hear Cadence yelling my name and I tried to look up, only to lower my head back to the ground again as another round of vomit erupted from my mouth.

It finally ended about half a minute later and I stumbled backwards onto my haunches. I held my hooves to my head, groaning in pain and misery as I suffered what may have been the worst migraine of my life. 

My whole head throbbed painfully, all the way up to the tip of my horn, but I tried to push that aside as Cadence approached. She reached me and put a foreleg around my withers.

"Twilight!" she cried, "Twilight, are you -- well you're obviously not okay but... oh, Twilight, what happened to you?!" she held my face in her hooves and gently guided it towards her own, forcing me to look into her concerned light purple eyes, "Twilight, talk to me. How do you feel?"

"Terrible," I croaked, "why... why didn't... did Luna--" I fell into a fit of coughing that lasted a full minute before I recovered "--did Luna know about the after effects of using ambient Magic?"

"Don't ask me," Cadence replied as she continued to fret over my health, "I didn't know about any of this until Aunt Celestia explained it earlier," her eyes widened slightly and she turned away from me as she spoke, "and speaking of Aunt Celestia..."

Still rubbing my head from the migraine, I followed Cadence's gaze to the dry empty field left of the treehouse. At first I couldn't tell what was going on. 

Through the darkness and a blurry vision brought on by whatever the ambient Magic had done to me, I could make out a dark frantic and angry sounding blob hovering over a stationary, quiet white blob.

"Wha..." I gently pushed past Cadence and slowly made my way over to the two shapes, "what's going on? Princess Celestia?"

As my vision began to clear, the formless shapes defined themselves and I indeed found myself looking at the Solar Princess. She was sitting relaxed on her haunches with her back towards me.

"Twilight!"

I jumped slightly and looked to my immediate right just in time to see Luna as she grabbed me by the shoulders. Her look was one of both fury and pain -- not unlike what Cadence had shown earlier. Before I could comment or protest, she pulled me closer.

"My... my sister," she growled, "that... demon did something to my sister!"

"L-Luna what are you talking about?" I cried, turning towards the white alicorn fearfully, "wh-what did it do?!"

"LOOK FOR YOURSELF!"

She pushed me in front of my former mentor and the bottom dropped out of my stomach when I saw her face. All I could do for the next few moments was sit there and stare, horrified and confused beyond belief.

The Princess, ruler of Equestria, my mentor, and long time mother figure...

...was completely blind.

Celestia started and looked down in my general direction. 

One of her ears twitched.

"Twilight? Is that you?"

I didn't answer.

"I know I heard your voice, Twilight," Celestia said with a small chuckle, "you'll have to forgive me, my eyesight isn't... quite what it used to be."

As if to give credence to the fact, one of her ears gave another errant twitch. 

I didn't know what to say.

I felt horrible, angry, saddened, fearful, a lot of different emotions, and none of them good. By this point it seemed to be the norm, but this... this was just wrong.

"Twilight?" the white alicorn continued with a frown, "why aren't you saying anything? Is it my eyes?" 

Another twitch.

"I'd give you a hug and tell you everything is going to be okay -- that you don't need to worry about me -- but... well..." she smiled and gestured to her milky white eyes, "I'd have to find you first."

No, this was definitely wrong.

I had to fix this.

Forget my migraine, I had to do something.

"P-Princess, this isn't right," I whispered, "we... we need to... I have to..."

My horn ignited.

Celestia's ear twitched again and her unseeing eyes widened in terror.

"NO!"

She made to grab me and I gave a surprised yelp, scrambling back as my magic cut out.

"Don't!" Celestia cried, missing me completely and falling to the ground at my hooves as a result, "I k-know what you're... you're trying to do, but please... don't," she sniffed and tears began running down her cheeks as she picked herself back up, "it's... it's better this way."

"That is complete foolishness and you know it, sister!" Luna yelled, stomping up to Celestia, "I don't know where you've been or what that demon has done to you, but there is no way in Tartarus you can live like this!"

"You're wrong, sister," Celestia replied quietly, "I'd much rather see nothing than what my... our Kingdom has become. With my little ponies all dead and gone, and the land ruined and desolate, what point is there in retaining my sight? There's nothing left to see anymore."

Luna and I gaped at Celestia, completely dumbstruck by the defeatism rolling off the Princess in waves. I know I was -- and still am -- struggling with this same exact thing, but for Princess Celestia to give up so easily...

"What did that monster do to you?" Luna whispered.

"Nothing I didn't deserve, Luna," Celestia replied with a slow shake of her head and a wan smile, "I failed, and now I'm being punished for that failure."

"I won't accept that."

Luna and I turned just in time to see a bright blue wave of magic rush past us and hit Celestia square in the face. She cried out and stumbled backwards, holding her hooves to her eyes.

"NONONO! DON'T! I... I DON'T WANT TO SEE IT AGAIN! NOT AGAIN!"

She fell over and screamed.

And  screamed...

...and screamed, as she covered her eyes.

I felt sick all over again as I watched the kindest, wisest, and most mature pony I knew scream and cry and roll around in the dirt like a foal throwing a tantrum. I turned to Cadence who stared at Celestia with a grim look on her face as she stepped up next to Luna and I.

"What did you do to her?" I asked worriedly, "is she going to be okay?"

"DON'T TAKE THEM AWAY FROM ME, PLEASE! THEY'RE ALL I HAVE LEFT!"

"A curative spell for her eyesight," Cadence explained, "I don't know what happened to my Aunt, but I can't bear to see her like this."

I nodded in agreement before frowning and turning back to Celestia.

She had stopped screaming.

"Did it work?" Luna asked, taking a tentative step towards the Solar Princess, "sister, are you--"

Celestia laughed.

It started out as a small chuckle and evolved into a series of giggles before turning into full blown laughter. It didn't last long, and after her laughing fit was over she rose to her hooves and let out a heavy sigh of relief.

"Princess?" I asked, desperately pretending the last few seconds hadn't just happened, "Do you... feel better now?"

Her ears flapped a few times and she turned towards the sound of my voice, her faded white eyes staring through, and past me.


"I feel perfectly fine, Twilight."