The Awesome Spider-Dash: Origins

by Flufux

5) Face the Nightmare, Part 3

A duel is test of skill between two opponents, to see which one would reign supreme in a battle...to the death or otherwise.

...And for the last hour or so, a particularly fierce duel between two near-superhuman women who both hid their faces behind funny-looking masks had taken place at the CelestiaCorp Tower.

At one end of this conflict was the brave new superhero going by the moniker of the Awesome Spider-Girl, a young but tenacious fighter who wouldn't let her lack of experience deter her from doing what she could to keep people safe...while on the other was the dangerous costumed lunatic known to the outside world as the Nightmare Goblin, who, despite her lack of actual superpowers, more than made up for it with her deadly arsenal of Halloween-themed weapons, as well as her devious and clever tactics.

So far, they had shown themselves to be on an almost equal level, with one of them occasionally getting the upper hand over the other, only for that one to take their advantage back through some quick thinking or shear determination...making their fight drag on for quite a while.

In the end though, the Goblin got the upper hand, trapping her opponent under her own weight, and by all accounts was about to win their little feud once and for all.

However, it was at that point that their duel...stopped being a duel.

A third party, one who was mostly unrelated to their conflict, had chosen this moment to step in and take them both out of the fight, and were now holding the two restrained in a way so that neither of them could hurt the other without having to deal with this interloper first.

Said interloper turned out to be yet another woman with superhuman capabilities, this one a scientist though who was wearing a mechanical harness of her own design around her torso that gave her complete control over four long robotic octopus-like tentacles springing from her back with a powerful grasping hand at each end.

One of those arms was currently keeping the Nightmare Goblin pinned to the nearest wall, the villain's attempts to struggle, even with her strength-enhancing suit, barely doing anything to even budge the power of the titanium grip that held her there...while another had coiled up around the Spider-Girl and held her body aloft and all of her limbs restrained...while yet another was anchored heavily into the floor to support the weight of lifting two people simultaneously (otherwise her legs would need to withstand the same pressure as if she was trying to lift them both over her head with just her normal human arms instead, and really, she would need to be a body builder to accomplish that)...and finally, the fourth and final arm was holding onto a steaming cup of freshly brewed coffee that the woman gently brought to her lips and took a small sip out of.

"Well...isn't this quite the surprise?" she commented in a pleasant tone...which was definitely forced and insincere. In fact, she was actually quite furious right now. "Now I have questions, and number one is this: What are you two doing in my lab!?" she asked, only allowing her anger to show at the very end of that sentence.

Spider-Girl and the Nightmare Goblin both met her question with surprised stares, as neither of them really had any clue as to where to even begin answering that query...or if they even should bother for that matter.

'Okay, first a lizard guy, then a creepy shapeshifter, then a wacko in a Halloween-costume, and now...a woman with robo-tentacles? Where do all these guys come from?!' Rainbow justifiably wondered.

Out loud though, all she could say at this point was, "It's...a long story, and...who are you supposed to be?"

The scientist responded to that question with an indignant chuckle, "Heheh, you're asking me who I am? I work here, this is my workspace, and I was just stepping out to get myself a cup of coffee when I see two strangers dressed in carnival costumes blow a hole in my wall, destroy one of my computers, and try to strangle each other to death on my floor. If anyone's earned the right to ask questions here, it's me, not...well...whoever you two are supposed to be."

Despite having the front part of her body tightly pressed up against a wall, the Nightmare Goblin managed to turn her head around to look at the eight-limbed interloper in order to comment, "Oh great, it's Doctor Octopus! Couldn't you have just kept your slimy tentacles out of this one?"

The doctor replied to that remark by tightening the grip her extendable metal hand had on the Goblin, sending a jolt of pain throughout the villain's body. "That's Doctor Starlight Glimmer to you!" she corrected, somehow managing to keep a smile on her face while sounding annoyed. "...and I would appreciate it if you'd answer my question instead of throwing meaningless insults in my face. It's really very counterproductive."

"Grrrrgh...well, if you must know...people call me the Nightmare Goblin, and unless you take these infernal things off of me right now so that I can squash this annoying insect of a person...I will show you exactly why they call me that," she replied, the implied threat very apparent in her tone as well as the look in her eye.

Starlight showed no obvious signs of being intimidated, but she did make sure the grip she had on the Goblin was as tight as it could be...without crushing her spine that is. You could never be too careful with nigh-indestructible titanium arms after all.

"...or you can keep her pinned while you let me go," Spider-Girl was quick to suggest in a hopeful tone. "That way I can make sure this crazy psycho is put in jail where she belongs, and you never have to see us again. Sounds good? Oh, and I'm Spider-Girl by the way."

Starlight gave her a curious look.

Her argument was by most accounts perfectly sound, especially since compared to the far more noticeably unhinged Nightmare Goblin, this Spider-Girl seemed to be a bit less dangerous, so Doctor Glimmer did at least consider it for a second while taking a quick sip of coffee to keep her brain energised. Sleep wasn't really high on her list of priorities at the moment, and this situation was doing nothing to alleviate her dangerously high stress levels.

"Yeah...no, but nice try," Starlight eventually decided however, making sure the grip she had on the Spider-Girl was just as tight as the one she had on the Goblin.

"Oh come on!" Rainbow Dash loudly complained, grunting a bit at the increased pressure on her restraints.

"I'm sorry, but I don't trust you anymore than I trust her, so that's definitely off the table. No, I'm keeping you both right here until you properly explain yourselves."

Being as stubborn as she was though, Dash was certainly not taking 'no' for an answer. "Oh yeah, watch me!" she challenged as she started making a massive effort to push against the robotic tentacle that had ensnared her...but ultimately to no avail.

"Gah! The heck are these things?!" she wondered aloud as she realised that not even her superhuman spider-strength was enough to make the mechanical arm budge enough for her to break free of its grip.

"Hydraulic grasping robotic appendages created by yours truly," Starlight explained matter of factly. "They're made out of solid titanium and are powered by a battery so advanced that explaining how it works would be a colossal waste of time for everybody in this room, so don't even try to overpower them. It won't work. Trust me on this."

An intrigued look briefly showed itself on Starlight's face though as she noticed something interesting about her captive. "Though I do have to admit, the power I have to use to keep you restrained is way more than a person your size should be able to produce. Are you wearing some kind of strength enhancing suit?"

"Nope! Just that buff!" Rainbow replied, not really feeling in the mood to explain the spider-bite that gave her her powers to a complete stranger with the Nightmare Goblin also in the room.

"That's fascinating! I mean...I see..." Starlight mused while taking another sip of coffee, her curiosity piqued, as evidenced by the rather peculiar expression she had on her face for a few seconds afterwards as she considered the possibilities. 'I can't feel any mechanical or hydraulic processes in this... what was her name, Spider-Girl? Yes, this Spider-Girl's suit that could account for the unusually high strength output that she's emitting...meaning her strength must come from somewhere else. She's not even all that muscular by the looks of it, so...wait a minute! If I didn't know better, I'd say I'm dealing with a meta-human of some kind...maybe even one of those that the Maggia created two decades ago? Or at least something similar? Either way, very intriguing.'

Her intrigue over the enigma that was the Spider-Girl very quickly switched to one of suspicion and anger though when she soon after turned her attention back to the Nightmare Goblin. "You on the other hand...you are definitely using a strength enhancing suit, and a very familiar one at that. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say that's one of my designs!"

Despite her rather...uncomfortable position, Nightmare couldn't help but let out a small laugh at that observation. "Hehehaha...I do like to take other people's toys...and you're one of the best toymakers around."

Her ominous statement gave Starlight pause...then she slowly turned her head around to look at the Goblin's crashed glider, recognising it for what it was despite its currently less than impressive state.

'That's a modified version of the military-grade attack glider that Luna commissioned me to build,' she realised, having been rather concerned about its whereabouts ever since it was reported stolen a few weeks ago.

After that, she looked down at the floor where the electrical sword the Goblin had brought into battle had been dropped in her struggle with the Spider-Girl.

'...And that's the non-lethal stun-baton I made...now having been turned into some kind of bladed weapon...also something Luna commissioned me to build.'

In a fit of rage as she realised what all this meant, Doctor Glimmer pushed the villain even further into the wall while suddenly shouting, "You're the one who broke into my lab and stole all my advanced weapon prototypes, aren't you?!"

"Oh no, of course not, that was someone else entirely," the Goblin replied in a very sarcastic tone, her insanity making it easy for her to keep her humour intact while she was currently subjected to immense physical pain. "Let's see, I think their last name was 'shit Sherlock', first name 'no', hehehehahah!"

Starlight narrowed her eyes at her dangerously, "...And what exactly did you use them for?"

"For THIS!" Nightmare exclaimed while she freed one of her arms from the doctor's grip and aimed a finger gun at her.

Rainbow immediately knew what the Goblin was about to do, but being restrained as she currently was, there was nothing she could do to stop it...while Doctor Glimmer was caught completely by surprise when a bright blue beam of plasma shot out of the tip of the Goblin's finger and hit the back of her neck with immense power.

It was anything but a blind shot though, as the Nightmare Goblin had aimed precisely at a small and hardly noticeable piece of machinery that connected the chest harness directly to Starlight's spinal cord, thus allowing her to effortlessly control the four arms with the power of her mind alone.

However, that also made it an obvious weak spot, and when the beam of super-heated plasma connected with it, a surge of immense physical and mental pain shot through Starlight's body like a lightning strike.

The experience could only be described as if her entire nervous system had spontaneously combusted, making her scream at the top of her lungs from shear agony while the arms she was controlling started to flail around wildly in all directions. She fell to her knees and helplessly clasped her hands over the wounded area in a desperate attempt to quell the indescribable pain that was raging through her nerves.

And without any control over her arms, Spider-Girl, the Nightmare Goblin, and even that one cup of coffee she was just drinking from were all tossed away in different directions as the grip she had kept on them were lost to the chaos.

The coffee cup flew into one of the computers, shattered on impact, and splashed steaming hot coffee all over it, making that particular computer sizzle up and crash as the machinery inside began to short-circuit.

Spider-Girl was sent flying into a wall, though with her quick thinking and even quicker reflexes, she managed to grab onto it and attach herself to the surface immediately after she made impact with it.

The Nightmare Goblin was simply dropped on the floor though, landing on her hands and knees, a noticeable buckle now denting the armour around her shoulder where Glimmer had previously grabbed her. She didn't stay that way for long though, and very quickly got back up on her feet and locked eyes with the Spider-Girl over on the other side of the room.

Rainbow tried to run after her and stop her from doing anything else, but soon found herself stuck in her place as Starlight's metal tentacles were still flying around wildly in the space between her and the Goblin, violently slamming into and knocking aside computers, desks or anything else in their reach.

Nightmare noticed this too of course, and promptly used the situation to her own benefit, smirking deviously as she pulled out a pumpkin bomb, activated it, and tossed the object towards the big plasma-generating machine in the middle of the room.

'Oh no you don't!'

Realising how bad it would be if that bomb exploded anywhere near that crazy-looking contraption despite not being too sure what it actually was, Dash immediately leapt after it, hoping to be fast enough to defuse it or at least knock it out of the way before it went off.

Whether or not she was actually fast enough to do so would likely never be answered, for right as she made that jump, one of Glimmer's arms slammed straight into her shoulder so hard that it sent her flying clear across the room and into a corner, now far away from the imminently exploding pumpkin.

The Nightmare Goblin gave her one last glance, let out a quick chuckle and then bolted out of the lab through the nearest exit.

What happened next was nothing short of catastrophe.

When the metal pumpkin detonated, the resulting explosion tore through the glass keeping the generated streams of bright blue energy contained inside the powerful Arc Reactor, releasing it all in a single powerful blast of super-heated plasma and electricity...which, while thankfully not having a big enough blast radius to reach the Spider-Girl in the far corner of the room, instead hit Starlight Glimmer head on.

If she was already in immense pain when the Goblin's plasma blast hit the connector at the back of her neck, then this was somehow even worse than that. The plasma burned and bruised her skin all over her body and tore much of her clothing to shreds, bolts of electricity coursed through her metal arms, feeding back directly into the neural link keeping them attached to her, melting the machinery so that it fused directly to her spine while sending harmful streams of electrical energy throughout her entire nervous system.

It was a truly horrific and traumatic experience...one that likely would affect her for the rest of her life...even though it barely lasted for more than five seconds, after which she collapsed on the floor covered in smoke, with numerous burns all over her body, her clothes all but destroyed, her chest harness now permanently fused to her spine...and on top of it all, the whole experience had also rendered her unconscious...which might have been a mercy, all things considered.

As terrible as all that may seem though...Starlight was still incredibly lucky to have survived all that. If she had stood just a little bit closer to the blast, or if she suffered the electric currents burning through her nerves for a few seconds longer than she did...she would have most likely ended up either burnt to a crisp or completely brain-dead...or both. Either way, fortune clearly smiled on her that day.

Unfortunately, given how much damage the event did to her, both mentally and physically, it was very likely that when, or even if, she wakes up after this...she won't wake up as the same woman she was before it happened to her.

Safe in her own little corner of the ruined lab, Spider-Girl soon enough popped right back up on her feet once the danger had passed, ready to give chase. The Goblin was now attempting to escape and had already gotten a head start, meaning if Rainbow didn't act immediately, her enemy would no doubt escape.

Determined to stop that from happening, she began to run for the door Nightmare had escaped through.

'Okay, that's it, Gobby! You're going down, or so help me my name isn't...'

However...before she could get very far in her chase, something compelled her to stop in her tracks right as she neared the open doorway. It wasn't something physical, but rather a feeling that made her freeze up and abandon the hunt for the Nightmare Goblin.

'But wait...what about..?'

She turned around to look at the fried and electrocuted unconscious body of Starlight Glimmer lying face-first onto the cold metal floor of the heavily damaged room. There was even a small electrical fire caused by the explosion just half a metre or so from the woman's head that seemed to be dangerously close to setting her messy and sizzled hair aflame.

'Right...her. She's hurt...pretty bad...and it's kinda my fault. She needs to go to a hospital, but if I call an ambulance it'd take ages before they get to her...and even longer until she actually reached the hospital...and longer still until she's given proper medical care.'

Rainbow bit her lip and began to pace in place. 'But if I waste time taking her to the hospital, that Goblin will escape and continue doing gosh-knows what. Urgghhh...why does being a hero have to be so complicated?!'

With a sigh, Rainbow Dash made up her mind.

Saving Starlight Glimmer's life was ultimately more important than catching the Nightmare Goblin, she decided. She'd already done quite enough to ruin the villain's evil scheme, and it'd probably take awhile before she tried anything new...and by then, the Spider-Girl would be ready for her. Also, and far more importantly, if she didn't go and help Starlight now, the poor woman could die...and that was something Rainbow couldn't take back.

'With great power, right, mom?'

With a quick spray of webbing, Dash smothered the flame burning next to Glimmer's head, then bent down, pulled the unconscious woman into her arms, and began the long and arduous journey of getting her to the nearest hospital...the doctor's four long and surprisingly heavy metal arms trailing behind her as she went.

Those were definitely going to make the trip way harder than it needed to be. Still, as there was no feasible way to remove them right now, Rainbow just had to live with that.

'Oh boy. Well, at least you're not as heavy as Spike as a lizard was.' she commented to herself as she left the room with the unconscious woman in her grip.

...If only she knew the consequences of what saving this particular person would eventually lead to.

In the meantime, though at another level of the same building, Sunset Shimmer was feeling rather miserable.

In truth, she never really considered herself to be a particularly happy person. While she most of the time managed to hide it under a cool and collected 'tough girl' facade, after what she just went through tonight, the anger and resentment that she'd kept hidden underneath had very quickly boiled up to the surface.

And now...she was angry. Angry at everyone: Chrysalis, the Nightmare Goblin, her toxic parents and their constant petty arguments, even Celestia, and especially at the Spider-Girl. Though mostly...she was angry at herself.

Not really knowing what to do with herself right now, she found refuge in the main hall of the Bio-Labs where she took the first office chair she could find and sat down on it, then opted to let her eyes stare off into nothing while her dark thoughts swirled back and forth in her head.

She sat there motionless for well over an hour, doing nothing but thinking about how much she hated everything and everyone, while also feeling very unmotivated to do anything else. Though she could faintly hear the noises of Spider-Girl's fight with the Nightmare Goblin, as well as the sound of Starlight's Glimmer's experiment going up in smoke awhile later, she didn't pay them any mind.

The outside world didn't really matter to her right now.

...at least until a familiar voice called out to her.

"Sunset!? Thank goodness you're alright!" Twilight Sparkle shouted from the other end of the room, having just entered the premises.

Sunset broke out of her trance ever so slightly to look at her, yet was completely unprepared for Twilight to pull her into a very aggressive and incredibly tight hug as soon as she got within range. Sunset didn't return the hug though, partly because of her bad mood, and partly because her brain hadn't really caught up with what was happening yet.

"When I saw the Goblin drop you, I..." Twilight frantically babbled, sounding very distraught.

"Don't worry, Twilight, I'm fine," Sunset assured...though she really didn't sound like she meant it. "No thanks to that Spider-Girl though..." she then bitterly added under her breath.

A bit surprised to hear her say that, Twilight cocked her head to the side and questioned, "No thanks to...wait, didn't she save you from the fall?"

"Yes..." Sunset replied with barely contained disdain in her voice. "...after that glory-hounding jerk decided to put my life in danger in the first place just to show-off!"

"What?!" Twilight gasped, backing off a step while looking surprised. "How can you say that?"

"I saw how that so-called 'superhero' operated," she answered with the appropriate air-quotes. "We were in real danger back there, and she treated the whole thing like a thrill ride: cracking jokes, acting like she was the greatest thing in the world, and not taking anything seriously! She didn't care about my life, she just wanted to look like a hero."

Twilight didn't know how to respond.

While she of course wanted to be on Spider-Girl's side on this, given that Rainbow Dash was one of her best friends, and one she knew with certainty cared more about saving lives than showing off, the truth of the matter was...she had no way to defend her without revealing her friend's identity and betray her trust, and if she owed Rainbow anything for saving Spike and Sunset's lives, as well as her own, then she couldn't do that...not even for Sunset Shimmer.

So instead, she tried to more objectively argue, "Even if that's the case, she did save you, and me, and Spike...so you got to be grateful for that, right?"

Sunset pulled at her hair and groaned. "You don't get it!" she suddenly snapped, standing up and levelling her eyes at Twilight. "I've seen that attitude before! Sure, she may seem nice and heroic now, but trust me, it's all an act! I know, because that was me!"

"What do you mean 'you'? You never act-"

"You never saw me when I was at my worst!" she interrupted, her voice full of self-loathing. "I was a grade-A bully before I met you; shoving kids into lockers, stealing their lunch money, laughing at every perceived superficial flaw they had, blackmailed, cheated, all of the above! And I did it all while pretending to either be this cool laid-back biker chick for the other 'cool' kids or the sweetest, most studious student ever for the teachers. But it was all a lie. I was never cool, I was never sweet, and I was definitely not half as studious as I pretended to be. Mainly just bullying smarter kids to do my homework for me. The truth is, back then I was nothing more than a pathetic little girl taking out her mommy and daddy issues out on everyone else just to make myself feel better. Every word I said, every single thing I did...it always ended up hurting someone else...almost like I was just spewing venom out my mouth whenever I talked to people."

Twilight could practically feel the rage boiling off of Sunset Shimmer as she spoke. It was a side she'd never seen from her friend before, and it made her uncomfortable. Either way, she still felt a degree of sympathy for what Sunset had gone through and how terrible she obviously felt about it, so Twilight decided to approach her and gently lay a hand on her shoulder.

"Sunset...it's okay. You're not that person anymore."

Sunset replied to that statement with a short humourless laugh. "Heheh...no...I guess I'm not," she agreed, taking a few steps away from Twilight.

Then she turned back to give her friend one last look and reveal, "...But I did see her today. I saw her in that Spider-Girl. I saw the same cocky arrogance, the same smug little tone in her voice, the same...falseness, the same...venom...and that is a reminder I did not want to have."

Then, without another word spoken, and without even so much as another glance in Twilight's direction, Sunset simply left, heading straight for the elevator while keeping a calm yet angry expression on her face.

Twilight let out a sigh and looked down at the floor dejectedly, but decided against trying to argue anymore with her. 'Better to let her cool off first, right?' she thought.

However...what neither of them noticed was that when Sunset Shimmer passed by the large spherical glass cage in the middle of the room, the mysterious black goo-like alien creature inside of it sensed the troubling emotions the girl was dealing with and reached out to touch her...only to be stopped by the glass before it could do so.

While this was going on, the Nightmare Goblin was running as fast as she could towards the nearest exit, not willing to take any chances on whether or not her distraction would keep the Spider-Girl occupied forever.

Additionally, her drawn-out fight with that hero around the building would have no doubt caught someone's attention by now given how many explosions went off during it, so it was only really a matter of time before the police show up to investigate the situation...assuming Celestia hadn't already called them here herself.

What's more, with her glider now being little more than a smoking pile of rubble, her original plan to just fly away if the situation got out of hand was no longer an option, so she'd have to make her escape on foot...from the 78th floor of one of the tallest buildings in the city, which...might be somewhat of an issue.

While she could of course have used this opportunity to try to kill the Spider-Girl or continue their fight, even someone like her knew when to throw in the towel and run to fight another day.

She may have been crazy, but she wasn't stupid.

However, as she desperately ran through the various labs and corridors of the company she and her sister had started, something began to happen to her that gradually slowed down her pace.

It wasn't exhaustion. With as much adrenaline as her body was currently pumping, she could probably run a whole marathon before slowing down...but even still, it was nevertheless becoming harder and harder to keep up her pace and make her escape.

The problem was more psychological than physical. While her body was working fine, something was affecting her brain so much that it was becoming harder and harder for her to stay focused on the task at hand.

Thoughts, feelings and memories were beginning to swirl around in her head like a twister, given her a nauseating feeling of vertigo like nothing she'd ever felt before. The feeling was roughly comparable to having your brain crinkled down and rearranged, your personality torn away from your mind, while someone else brutally forced their will inside your head.

Eventually, it proved too much for her, and she fell to her knees while clenching her gloved hands on her helmeted skull.

"No, no, no, no, not now!" she cursed, her voice conveying as much anger as it conveyed fear.

In truth, there was a very fine line where the Goblin ended and Luna began. And sometimes, no matter how much both sides hated each other and constantly battled for control over their shared body, either one of them could easily switch to the other and back again with little to no warning.

Unfortunately for the Nightmare Goblin, that switch just so happened to come now with a vengeance right at this very inopportune moment, making her scream to the room in defiance at her other half for inconveniencing her like this.

"No, no! Don't you dare! Don't you fucking dare, Luna!" she shouted, all while clawing at her mask in a desperate attempt to rip it off her face. "Leave me alone! I don't need you! I don't want you! This is my body, not yours! No! No! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Then finally, with one decisive pull, the mask was ripped off, and the dreaded Nightmare Goblin was once again banished to furthest recesses of her shattered mind...leaving only the comparatively more innocent Luna behind.

Though as far as awakenings go...this was certainly not the most pleasant.

Without her freaky mask hiding her appearance anymore, the amount of bruising and hardship she'd endured was quite noticeable, with her blue and purple hair having been reduced to a chaotic and unruly mess covered in sweat and blood, a big very visible black eye marred her normally rather fair and pristine skin after the Spider-Girl had kicked her there earlier...and she had a bleeding nose.

The expression on her face was one of horror and guilt, and she couldn't really bring herself to do anything else than just sitting there on her knees in the middle of the corridor with a vacant lifeless stare gazing into the cold hard floor.

It was all over.

She had managed to regain control of her own flesh and blood...but she was far too late.

Under the Nightmare's control, she had not only hurt a lot of people, innocent people who did nothing to deserve her personal scorn, but she had also exposed herself as a murderous psychopath, a monster, to the world. Forever and ever now, everyone would know her as nothing more than an insane lunatic, one who betrayed her own sister for some mad scheme for power, not as the compassionate woman who cared for those in need and went above and beyond to keep corruption out of the company she built.

There was no point in running.

She would not escape, and quite frankly...she really didn't want to.

The Nightmare Goblin may be gone for now, but she would return sooner or later, and when that happens, she'd stain Luna's hands with more blood than what was already on them...and that...was a risk she was not willing to take.

She could hear the angry desperate words of the Goblin whisper in her ears, begging her to let her back in...but Luna wouldn't let her. Nothing was worth letting that demon control her again.

Tears started to well up in her eyes as the haunted memories of what the Nightmare had done with her body began to flood her mind. Every single person she'd killed, every threat she'd made, and all the misery that she'd brought to numerous people. It was all just too much for her to handle.

...and it only got worse when a very familiar voice sternly called out, "Luna!"

At the mention of her name, Luna's blood instantly ran cold, her heart nearly stopped beating, and all of her muscles seized up in fright as she was helpless to do anything but slowly turn her head around to look the person who addressed her by name, no matter how much she'd rather do anything else.

Of course, the voice belonged to none other than her big sister Celestia, now standing at the other end of the room with a harsh scowl in her disappointed eyes while her arms were crossed and unwelcoming.

"Tia?" Luna croaked out, sounding on the verge of breaking into sobs at any moment.

Celestia stared back at her defiantly, not willing to let her love for her sister lessen the severity of this situation. If, at any other time or circumstance, she would have seen Luna in such a sorry state, she would have undoubtedly already run up to her and given her little sister the tightest warmest hug she could manage...but right now, Luna had gone way too far, and Celestia was not ready to forgive her for her crimes quite so easily.

After taking a deep breath to defuse the anger and disappointment that was smouldering inside her, Celestia said, "I was hoping it wouldn't be you under that mask."

"Sister, I-" Luna was about to say, but didn't get a word in before her sibling cut her off with a single raised finger.

"When I heard your voice, I knew I recognised it from somewhere, and when you called me Tia, like we used to do all the time, I was afraid, terrified, of what it would mean...but to see the face of my beloved sister in the clothes of a criminal who killed innocent people, threatened and hurt my students, while also using the very technology we developed to help people in a selfish and immoral quest for power...there are no words for how disappointed I am in you, Luna."

Those words cut into Luna like a knife to the heart, and for every step Celestia took to approach her after saying them, she could feel any ounce of happiness in her life fade away into oblivion.

"Now what do you have to say for yourself?"

At this point, Luna couldn't hold it in anymore. With tears now bursting from her eyes, she fell to the floor and broke down into an incoherent crying mess, not daring to even look her sister in the eye anymore. "I'm sorry, sister! I'm so, so sorry..." she blubbered out between sobs. "I didn't want to hurt them...I really didn't...but she's too strong. I tried to stop her, believe me, I tried so hard to stop her...but I couldn't. Please, Tia...please don't let that demon take me again! Please! I don't want to be a monster!"

Celestia slowly got down on her knees, taking in the bawling pitiful mess that Luna had turned into, and felt a rollercoaster of conflicting feelings of how to proceed in this impossibly complicated situation she had now been forced into. While she should naturally be weary of the words of a confirmed murderer...at the same time, she could tell that Luna wasn't faking the emotions that she was displaying. She had seen crocodile tears before, many times in fact, and this...this was genuine.

Despite her better judgement, Celestia couldn't help but reach her hand out to try and comfort Luna by stroking her hair or some other kind gesture, but stopped herself from doing so at the last second. Instead, she leaned back and asked, "Who's this 'she' you're referring to?"

Luna hesitated, then she slowly turned around and looked up into her sister's harsh eyes with her face filled with shame. "It...all started...twenty years ago..." she began, trying her best to keep her composure this time instead of breaking down into unintelligible sobs once again.

Despite how angry and disappointed she was right now, and justifiably so, Celestia remained silent in order to give her sister her full attention.

"You remember that day he had me kidnapped?" Luna asked, shuddering at the mere mention of that event, as well as the confessions that were about to follow.

Celestia nodded, remembering many sleepless nights as she almost turned the city upside down tirelessly looking for her missing sister.

"Well...there was a lot more that happened that week than I've told you..."