“What are we going to do with him, Sister?” Luna asked softly.
The two of them walked the halls, a heavily-guarded Wire Strip being escorted in front of them towards some new maximum-security cells deep into the Canterlot mountain. The two refused to let him out of their sight during such a transfer.
“Multiple nations have already demanded his execution. The Last Light Organization was the first to submit the extradition papers.”
“Oooh. Toxic’s project?” Wire Strip asked far too calmly. The unicorn hadn’t said anything until now. “His brother was quite a fun chess piece to use.”
“…pardon?” Luna asked, waving a wing towards the guards to slow down.
“Come now, you’re the strategist. Who do you think came up with the idea to use Pick as bait for Toxic? Give me a bit of credit,” Wire huffed, clearly a bit put out. The casual manner in which he spoke about the attack was unnerving to even the two Sisters.
“So, Toxic’s brother, and finally Toxic. You are a vile creature indeed,” Luna huffed.
“Oh, you flatter me,” Wire chuckled with a yawn. “Where are we going, I wonder? Any cell in Equestria beats the Gryphon Empire, not that I’ll be there long.”
“An escape plan already?” Celestia asked, the cocky unicorn laughing.
“Hardly. I’ve been a vessel for a Shadow Creature. Do you know how many more of those things would love to have some time in this plane? Maybe a collection of them when it happens again. You can’t shield against Limbo magic very well,” Wire explained, “a willing, previous host shows up like a giant lighthouse in a calm night. Plenty of takers.”
The pony bared his fangs with a grin towards the two Sisters, his eyes wide and eager.
“This game was fun, but the next will be even better!” he proclaimed. “Maybe I’ll be the host to a dozen of them!”
“We could just kill you,” Luna growled, but the threat made Wire laugh.
“Under what law?” he asked with a smirk. “The pure Princesses of Equestria murdering a captive prisoner under mere threats? Oh, that’d be juicy indeed.”
“You’ve broken enough laws to warrant an execution. You know this,” Celestia said, her tone now cautious. Wire was playing at something, even if it was in a prideful lashing out.
“Oh, I know that. But that takes time. And by then, the Shadows will sense when their vessel is in danger,” Wire said, sharp teeth still bared in a grin. “It takes ages to pass a budget. How long to draft an execution order for a prisoner in the spotless land of Equestria?”
Luna and Celestia shared a brief look, but it was enough. Wire was right, after all. Short of royal intervention, it was a long, drawn-out process (unlike the Gryphon Empire, for better or worse.) Which wasn’t to say they couldn’t execute him promptly; but the political ramifications were hardly cut and dry.
“I think I’ll go after moon-flanks first,” Wire said, sitting down as he now had an audience of both the Guards and the Princesses.
“Pardon me?” Luna growled, promptly summoning a glowing sword.
“Not you specifically, but your lover. Commander Shifting? It’d be a shame if he died on your wedding day. Or perhaps soon after.”
Luna let out a soft snicker, the sword vanishing as she tossed her head.
“He has fought more fearsome creatures than you,” she said with a smirk. “That would make for quite a reception, no? Fighting shadows and a washed-up unicorn? Shifting would give your fangs to me on a necklace as a honeymoon gift. I’m almost tempted to let you try.”
Clearly miffed at the response, Wire then turned his gaze towards Celestia.
“Then perhaps the sun?” he mused.
“Hardly. Nacreous would beat your head in without a second thought,” she said. And yet Wire picked up on something in her voice, something that egged him on.
“Oh, not on your wedding day of course,” he mused. “No, this would be simpler.”
Luna was the first to notice the temperature spike for a nanosecond. The Lunar Princess could almost see how the following events were going to play out. Should she stop it?
Could she? The answer was a likely ‘no.’
“I’ll be back in however long it takes. I do hope no later than your honeymoon,” Wire mused. His eyes then narrowed, locking onto Celestia’s.
“I can’t wait to see your face,” he whispered with a sadistic eagerness. “When you realize your lover is dead.”
Luna immediately took a few steps back, the guards picking up the hint and doing so as well. Wire seemed quite amused, looking at Celestia eagerly. He seemed more curious than anything, his wellbeing an afterthought despite the Alicorn having a deadpan expression.
“Oooh? I wonder, would you kill me over words?” he mused, “over threats alone? The Shadow King knew you, and so I know all about you. You’re not the type to do that,” Wire sighed, shrugging with a lackadaisical grin as he continued, soaking up every interaction.
“And you know I’m right. It may take a year, a dozen, a hundred, but eventually you’ll have nobody to blame but yourself. When you wake up after I slip a knife through his heart,” the stallion cackled. “Don’t believe me? Oh, you will. When the first thing you see in the morning is his dead, soulless-”
*CRACK!*
It happened faster than a lightning strike. The guards blinked, their vision whited out by the surge of power. All that was left was the ringing in their ears and a horrible, warped scream that echoed through the tunnels.
In that brief thunderclap, Luna had watched as a solar flare had wrapped around Celestia, her regalia melting off as fangs jutted from her mouth. Red pupils locking onto Wire as a beam of raw plasma burned through the mountain above them as if it was wet paper. The unicorn had been burned away atom by atom underneath shields that blocked Limbo and the mortal realm alike. He only had time for a horrible, agonizing scream as the Unicorn’s eyes finally shone with pure fear at his miscalculation. Celestia’s mouth had warped into a sneer, eyes wide with a feral, almost sadistic rage as solar flares spun through her mane.
Celestia had only said three words.
“I believe you!”
All that was left now was a golden slag and a molten, bubbling circle of white-hot stone. Nopony said anything, not for a few long minutes. The flames guttering out across her mane and body, Celestia took a few deep breaths. On seeing her sister’s sides shiver, Luna walked over and spread a wing over her sister as the golden regalia reformed on her body.
“There was no court or laws severe enough to judge him,” she whispered, “you know he was right. We couldn’t have held him, not forever. How many thousands have died? How many more would have died when he escaped? He was not speaking idle threats, and Discord would have done the same thing, was going to do the same thing.”
Celestia nodded, her head shaking back and forth.
“Thank you, Sister,” she whispered, taking a deep breath. “I’ll deal with this in time, but you are right. I just didn’t…” the mare shook her head.
“Let’s go home, Luna. It’s over.”
It was only later, when Luna had sought out her sister to bid her well before going to bed, that Luna saw the true toll the past few days had taken on the Princess. Cradled in Nacreous’s arms, the hippogriff held Celestia close in one of the private gardens, the alicorn crying into his feathers.
The Emperor hadn’t said anything, a simple, knowing look passing between himself and Luna. The younger sister left them alone, a soft sigh leaving her lips as she meandered the halls.
“You did the right thing, Sister. He wasn’t lying,” she whispered to herself. In time, Celestia would understand. But Wire’s threats piled onto what had happened with Toxic had clearly been too much. Failures like that were a heavy weight indeed. Thankfully, she had someone at her side who wasn’t about to let the mare sink into a darker frame of mind.
I’m glad that you’re letting yourself be weak, Celly. You’ve certainly denied it long enough.
On entering the nearly-deserted command center of the castle, it was her Fiancé who waved at her.
“That’s it then. It’s over?” Commander Shifting Sands asked.
Giving him a hug with a wing, Luna nodded firmly.
“It’s over.”
The tired stallion blew out a breath in relief.
“One chapter of life closes…another opens. I wonder what this one will hold,” he mused.
Giving him a rather heated kiss, Luna couldn’t help but smirk at seeing her stallion blush.
“I’d say it’s going to be full of adventures.”
Their gazes drifted over to the monitors a few of which were monitoring the Last Light Organization’s Island.
“Both for us, and for a few other creatures too,” Shifting added softly.
That comment earned him another kiss, not that Luna needed a reason to.