The cold mountain air blew in through the opening to the blue sky as the princess and the witch stared each other down, flakes of ice and snow fluttering on the wind, neither of the two even flinched when the cold flakes hit their faces, a burning fire in their locked eyes.
The silence was finally broken by Mysteeri letting out a feral roar as she charged forward, pistols summoned to her hands. Celestia wasted no time in unleashing a barrage of glowing yellow swords at her, scattering rocks and debris where they hit as her dark foe dashed and weaved between them.
The air cracked as gunfire rang out, only for the bullets to be met with a barrier of magic. Mysteeri frowned and jammed her foot into the ground. She was sent flying into the air and flipping over Celestia, pistols aimed directly at the princess. Celestia snorted and bucked the witch into a wall, scattering rocks and debris as she smashed into it.
Mysteeri was quick to bounce back, emerging from the dust with a flaming aura of pink around her shoulders and guns aimed in a dramatic pose towards Celestia. The princess turned to her, summoning another set of swords by her sides. With her focused frown still on her face, Mysteeri crossed her guns atop one another before releasing a storm of bullets towards Celestia. She responded in kind by launching volley after volley at the witch, their attacks meeting perfectly between them with sparks of magic flying all over as they collided, scattering rocks and dust into the air.
The cloud was parted by a flash of black as Mysteeri charged through it, her fist charged with crackling purple energy, yet her attack merely bounced off the princess with a pulsing white light, the energy that sparked around her fist vanishing into the air.
Mysteeri let out a confused grunt as she bounced back, Celestia taking a few steps forward, wings outspread. The witch was quick to summon her gun back to her hand, blasting holes in Celestia’s wings in an instant.
Celestia, however, simply hummed in silent annoyance as sunlight gathered around her, healing the bullet wounds in an instant.
“What the fuck…?” Mysteeri’s eyes went wide, gun slowly lowering.
Castle of Friendship, some time earlier
“TWILIGHT!” Starburst yelled, pounding on the golden doors “TWILIGHT OPEN UP! IT’S AN EMERGENCY!”
The power behind her hoof only served to send her lurching forward once Twilight opened the door with a purple glow. Starburst looked to her friend, to which the alicorn immediately noticed the urgency of the situation “What’s wrong? Did you run all the way here? Where’s Mysteeri?”
“She’s missing, yes I did and…” Starburst paused, letting out an exhausted wheeze “…she’s missing.”
“Oh no.” Twilight’s ears folded down “Do you know where she went?”
“No.” Starburst shook her head “I would have called Luna, if I could reach her, but Mysteeri has the bell she gave us…”
“And her condition? How is it?” Twilight asked, putting her hoof on Starburst’s back “Breathe, Starburst.”
The unicorn lowered her head as she gasped for breath, slowly raising it as she gathered herself “OK…OK…It’s just, well, I woke up this morning and when I went to check on her, she was just…gone.”
Twilight hummed, putting a hoof to her chin “You don’t think the Royal Guard found her and managed to take her away in the night?”
Starburst shook her head “I would have known. Nothing was out of place, Mysteeri would definitely have started a fight.”
Twilight tilted her head slightly as she nodded “That’s her alright.”
“I barely remember it, I was so tired, but last night when we got home from our, er, trip, I guess, when Luna told us Celestia knows-“
“Celestia knows?” Twilight couldn’t help but interrupt out of shock “No, no…how?”
“I don’t know.” Starburst shook her head “But Mysteeri said she was…going somewhere. Alone. I just can’t recall where.”
Twilight hummed as she nodded once more “Perhaps we should ask around, see if anyone’s seen her.”
“We should.”
Canterlot Mountains
“AUGH!” Mysteeri yelled out as she slammed into a wall, guns clattering to the floor beneath her before she fell down between them.
Celestia had barely moved, barely reacted to any parts of her assault, yet she kept her eyes on Mysteeri the whole time. Even in spite of Mysteeri’s attacks, her expression never budged. Always so still. Always so calm.
God, did it make Mysteeri’s blood boil.
The few hits she landed, the few ones that pierced that barrier, gone in an instant.
Struggling to her feet once more, gripping onto the outlying rocks around her.
“Well?” Celestia’s voice echoed through the cavern “Have you changed your mind?”
The guns rattled on the floor before shooting up to Mysteeri’s hands, once again being aimed at the ruler.
Celestia shook her head “Very well.” Her eyes glanced to the pegasus features that had grown on her opponent, her tail flicked, and her wings twitched, clearly trying to open further than they were actually able.
Mysteeri released another battle cry as she charged for the princess once more, only to turn to a black blur as she dashed behind Celestia, once again igniting her arms with a pink flame. Her attempt to sweep Celestia’s feet out from under her was met with a magical sword deflecting her blow, yet Celestia still looked forward.
A roaring flame burst out from Mysteeri as she landed a mighty blow, yet it only served to once again bounce off Celestia’s barrier. Finally, the princess turned to face her, a quizzical look on her face.
“This don’t make any sense…” Mysteeri grumbled, her voice shifting to something much less composed. Her eyes glanced around the room until the spotted the large opening to the outside sky. It was just barely visible, but snow coated the rim of the opening. Celestia followed her gaze, yet by the time she laid eyes on the opening, the witch was already leaping off of jutted out platform-like rocks. She was quick to pursue, the two combatants quickly meeting on the snow covered peak only meters away from the opening. Celestia looked around at the clear blue sky, then to the witch, who was looking down to the floor, scanning it with her eyes.
She landed on a spot by Celestia’s feet, her eyes slowly rising up Celestia’s body until they once again made direct eye contact.
The slight shuffle of Mysteeri’s foot was met with an onslaught of magic in an instant, swords, explosions, and kinetic blasts forced the witch to dance around the attacks, yet even with her agility many of the attacks still hit her, searing black wounds into her body, blood slowly creeping down her body.
Once the assault finally stopped, Mysteeri was once again met with Celestia standing perfectly still, staring at her.
Judging her.
Looking to her hand, the witch now found herself covered in strings of her rich red blood, snarling at the sight.
The moment Celestia heard the snow crunch under Mysteeri’s feet once more, another assault of magic was sent her opponent’s way. Yet this time, Mysteeri began charging for Celestia, baring the full brunt of anything that hit her as she ignited herself with a pink blaze. A shot from her gun blasted open a wall of magic Celestia formed before her, eyes locking once more as Mysteeri shot into the air with the fire swirling around her fist. Celestia braced as she came rocketing back down.
…Only for Mysteeri to miss completely, instead slamming her fist into the snow. The whole mountain rumbled in response. Celestia’s realisation dawned faster than she could even blink as the snow suddenly shot into the air around them, forming a perfect blanket to block out the sun from the duel. Before she could even look down to Mysteeri, she was sent reeling by an incredible blow to the side of her face, then another to the opposite side, barely seeing Mysteeri’s fist coming in at such incredible speed.
As she staggered back, Mysteeri raised her leg straight up before slamming it down onto Celestia’s head. The princess was on the floor in an instant, Mysteeri’s hoof placed firmly on her horn. The blanket of snow above them seemed to remain suspended in the air, almost as if…this was all happening so fast that it hadn’t even started falling yet.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a mechanical click, the barrel of one of Mysteeri’s pistols aimed right at her.
“I win.” Mysteeri wheezed, shoulders rising and falling with her heavy breaths.
Celestia tried to move, only for Mysteeri to place more weight on her horn “…So you have.” She simply responded, glancing past the witch’s face to the snow above.
“So, then.” Mysteeri began, “You gonna leave me alone to do my thing?”
“And leave the balance of these two worlds in disarray? No, I can’t do that.” Celestia replied, feeling slithers of sunlight appear on her coat as the snow above began to part.
Mysteeri frowned, finger ready on the trigger “Well, I haven’t seen anything bad happening that I could put down to a balance being disturbed. Besides these damn wings, but if you’re not gonna-“ As she began to remotely squeeze her pistol’s trigger, she was hit by a heavy, freezing blanket of ice and snow.
And then, another sensation filled her now freezing body. Her hands went numb, pistols dropping to the floor. She staggered back, only able to watch in horror as her hands slowly formed into hooves, the sensation slowly turning to a numbness through her whole body, even her face felt like it wasn’t even there.
The moment she looked up from her new hooves, she was met with an incredible blast of yellow magic that sent her crashing into a snowbank, which crumbled around her.
Celestia was already back on her feet, the snow falling off her perfectly. She stepped forward toward the crumbled snowbank, only for her hooves to step on something solid…and quite oddly shaped. Looking down, she saw her hooves had landed on a pair of golden bracelets resting upon the snow.
Sound itself suddenly vanished from the area, as the snowbank Mysteeri had crashed into suddenly exploded to reveal a flame covered, jet black pegasus with white forelegs…and a lack of golden bracelets, eyes glowing white as a storm raged around them. Large wings, a wild mane and tail and a rose running down her left flank…Celestia could only stare in shock and awe at the raging pegasus as lightning silently crackled around the mountaintop.
Celestia planted her hooves firmly in the dirt as even steam began to appear around the pegasus as the blood itself boiled off of her until finally, she leapt into the air with an otherworldly screech. All the other sounds instantly came rushing back as a tremendous pink and black explosion tore through the entire mountaintop, consuming both the snow covered peak and the caverns below in an instant.
Celestia was blinded as the blast enveloped her, no magic would withstand the brunt of such sheer, unrestrained power.
Ponyville
The thunderous crack of an explosion instantly caught the entire town’s attention. Every pony looked up to the distant peak of Canterlot’s mountains to see the incredibly vibrant explosion of power tear through the once sharp top.
A cold chill washed over a few ponies as the sound from the village was slowly drained, a rushing wind replacing it.
“GET DOWN!” Twilight screamed out as loud as her voice would go, only for herself and Starburst to be swept off their feet by a deafening shockwave that rocked the entire village to its core, as if the earth itself was about to split open.
Her vision a blur, Twilight could only hear the muffled yell of somepony as her hearing slowly returned a few moments later.
“-light! Twilight!” She heard.
“TWILIGHT!” Starburst finally screamed “Come on, get up!”
Twilight grunted as she stood up, looking around the area “Is…is everyone OK?”
“Some damage, but we can’t worry about that right now. We need to get to the top of that mountain.” Starburst said with a determined look in her eye.
“I…” Twilight hesitated, looking around to the panicking ponies around her “I can’t, I need to help get everything under control.”
“You worry about this place!” Gael suddenly swooped in with a rush of wind “I’ll get Starburst up there!”
Twilight sighed out in relief as Starburst wordlessly formed a magical tether between herself and Gael “Thank you, Gael. Now go! Quickly!”
Desecrated Mountaintop
Mysteeri gasped for breath as the cavern crumbled around her, rocks crashing into the floor with tremendous slams, kicking up dust everywhere. The ground was scorched, the smell of ash filling the air as embers kicked up from the charred rocks.
Something about her body, it felt…different. Changed.
She didn’t care.
As the smoke cleared, she saw the chestpiece Celestia wore laying upon the ground, a relieved smile forming on her face before a figure emerged behind it, her smile being replaced with pure dread.
Finally, her legs gave out, the witch barely producing a bell in her mouth before she fell, tossing it to the side. It let out an echoing chime, which soon faded.
“No…not here…” Mysteeri groaned as her eyes shut, her limp body hitting the ground with a thud.
Silence fell on Celestia as the dust parted, looking to the fallen pegasus with an odd aching in her heart. Yet, she pushed it aside and lit her horn with a sparkling gold, launching a spark of bright magic to the pegasus. However as it left her horn, an gust of wind blew through the exposed cavern, a shadow streaking through the sky above.
With a flash of blue light, Starburst dropped from the sky itself with her horn projecting a sparkling blue blade, slicing the spark of magic in two in one swift motion, landing perfectly between Celestia and the fallen pegasus.
The magic faded into the air, leaving Celestia to simply stare in surprise at the unicorn.
“Hey, what happened to being quiet?” Starburst asked, not looking behind her “Mysteeri?” she continued, upon not receiving an answer “Hey, come on, you’re awful quiet.”
“You should look behind you.” Celestia said to the unicorn.
The moonlit sword faded from Starburst’s horn, the unicorn slowly turning around…and seeing the bloody, beaten and unconscious body of a black pegasus.
“MYSTEERI!” Starburst shrieked out, rushing over to her side “No, no, no, no! No! Please no!” She pressed her nose against the transformed witch’s side “Come on, get up!”
Her only response was a slight wheeze and twitching eyelids.
“No…” Starburst murmured, tears forming in her eyes “Mysteeri…” She choked on her own breath “Please get up…” Once again, the air was silent, save for Starburst’s desperate, pained gasps as she tried anything to get a response from the pegasus.
“Miss Nova.” Celestia finally spoke, her voice as soft as she could make it “I’m sorry-“
“You.” Starburst’s voice instantly filled with vitriol once the princess spoke “You did this.” She rose to her feet, magical energy swarming around her as tears ran down her cheeks “You. Did. This.”
Celestia didn’t reply, simply readying herself.
“Grandma was right about you. I should have known.” The magic coalesced back into the great blue sword from before, Starburst’s whole body shaking. Before Celestia could even reply, Starburst released a feral screech as she charged for the ruler of the sun, the sword sparking with pure magic power.
Mere feet before she reached the princess, a blue bolt of lightning erupted between them, scattering loose pebbles and kicking up yet more dust. Both ponies felt something pushing against their chests as the light faded, revealing two magical claws coming from the source.
Princess Luna stood between them.