//------------------------------// // A Vengeful Ruler's Fury. A Loving Princess' Sorrow. // Story: Libero // by Discombobulated Soul //------------------------------// The solid stone floor cracked slightly under the force of her hooves' stomps as she attempted to discreetly vent some of her anger. The alicorn proudly strode down the hallway, head held high, face set in impassive stone, and equipped in her finest regalia as she headed toward the most anticipated meeting she'd had in centuries. Celestia was not normally a violent mare by any means. In fact, the last time she had wanted to pound a stallions' face in this badly was when King Sombra had sneered over her prone, defeated form all those years ago. Luckily, that venture had turned out victoriously, as she hoped the current one would as well. Broken Barrier. Of all ponies, it just had to be him. Her hoofsteps increased in their power ever so slightly, and at this point it was a niggling worry at the far back of her mind that she'd damage her finest gold-alloy horseshoes. She paid that particular concern no attention, far more focused on the much bigger ones currently dominating her millennia-old brain. I can only hope that the Bearer of Kindness was able to help him, and offer what assistance I can. Poor soul. Celestia shook her head clear of those thoughts, needing to focus on the upcoming interrogation and not the tragic events that warranted it. She had not seen a case such as this since before her rule and as a filly, when the laws were still being figured out and savage tribalism was still an occurrence, though thankfully not a common one. Even then, she could not recall anything close to this severity. And she still hadn't received the full story yet. Celestia abruptly stopped in front of a row of bars blocking a small room from connecting to the hallway. This section of the castle had once been the dungeons, but Equestria had seen so little crime for the past decades that she had long since repurposed the cells. Luckily, her paranoia insisted she leave one as it was, and so they had a perfect place to put the first abuser the nation had seen in centuries. The dungeon cell was rather simple; a pile of straw as a bed and a heavily outdated chamber pot were the only decorations. Despite this, however, the room was the single most heavily enchanted one in the city. Runic symbols covered the walls like mystical wallpaper, nullifying any mana usage within several paces of the door. This was not an issue for Celestia, who unlocked the door with her primal arcane magic and stepped inside with the lone occupant, not bothering to close it afterwards. The unicorn stallion was a dull army green with a beige mane, and his sole restraint was a simple band around his sharpened horn. Celestia had not seen such a vicious horn on any other pony since Starswirl The Bearded's time, when ponies as a whole were much more ferocious and had not been succored on peace as they were now. Perhaps that should have been my first clue. I find it so hard to believe he was able to betray my trust like this, and right under my muzzle, as well. Maybe I have gone soft. Her stony gaze, if possible, hardened further. But no longer. The prisoner spoke first. "Why, hello, Celestia. My my, It has been quite a while, has it not?" He addressed her while still facing the wall, limiting her ability to get a read on his thoughts. Her bloodshot magenta eyes narrowed against the back of his ruffled head. "I refuse to dance around the point this time, criminal. And you will address me by my title and my title only. Now tell me," she took powerful, menacing steps toward his prone form, her curiosity outmatched only by her anger, "Why?" The stallion only chuckled dryly, then coughed as his lack of water to drink caught up. "Oh, Celestia. You've never once intimidated me, so your efforts are futile." He slowly turned around to meet her gaze, mouth locked in a self-satisfied smirk. "I know you'd never hurt one of your precious little ponies, you're far too sof-" He was interrupted by a golden horseshoe impacting his jaw with not-insubstantial force and sent flying into the nearby stone wall. Celestia inspected her hoofwear as the unicorn collapsed in a rapidly-blinking heap, too shocked to be in pain. The alloy seemed to be dented slightly, but that was a small price to pay for such a satisfying release of her frustrations. "You're right, for the most part, prisoner." Celestia stated, indifferently placing her hoof back on the floor. "But I feel no hesitation to injure those who would dare bring harm upon those little ponies. A group you seemed to have joined quite a while ago. So now my question is," she aggressively lifted the stallion in her magic and brought his swelling face inches from her enraged countenance, "Why." The statement was more of a demand than a question, and the prisoner's false mirth seemed to have fled his visage completely. He sighed heavily through his bleeding mouth and returned her grave expression with one of equal seriousness. "I had no choice, princess." He practically spat out the word. "Not that I expect you to understand. You could never comprehend the sacrifices I've made." He didn't so much as blink in surprise when she abruptly dropped him to the floor, all the while expertly holding back indignant bursts of outrage from such incorrect words. "Then, by all means, educate me." She remained standing as the green unicorn began to pace the room. "I discovered the colt at a young age by accident. His pure power was sending waves across reality, it was impossible to miss. Surely you must have felt them?" There were little forces on the planet that could do such things, and even less that could sense such disturbances. But, Celesta did recall feeling quite a few ripples right around the time he was speaking of. She had assumed it was the stars readying themselves to free her sister, but perhaps she'd been mistaken. It was clearly not the only misjudgment she'd made back then. "You must understand, princess. When I took the child in, his magic was completely uncontrollable. He was no older than two, I couldn't just tell him not to cast spells anymore!" Her eyes narrowed slightly and one of her eyebrows took the slightest twitch up. "Impossible, foals don't regain the ability to use their mana until they're at least eight years old." She stated resolutely, quite fed up already with this traitorous pony and his pitiful excuses. "But he was different!" Insisted the criminal. "Come now, there have been several recorded instances of children retaining their magic through foalhood! This is the same." He had stopped his pacing in favor of looking at her, his lifeless grey eyes searching for something that could not be found on her face. "Even in your own lifetime, these were cases." He seemed the slightest bit disappointed, though it really was more of an inconvenienced expression. "But I digress, the point is, the colt's power was simply too great to do anything else with. I had to make his stupid two-year-old brain understand that using it was not okay. Otherwise, we'd all be dead." Celestia blinked a long, drawn out blink. "So, why continue the suffering? Couldn't you just teach him not to use it and be done? Why bother with years of training?" The prisoner scoffed. "Something tells me you don't understand the true reaches of this pony's power. His barriers are unbreakable, princess. Unbreakable. If he ever decided to go messing around randomly, that was something that needed to be accounted for." Celestia's eyebrow rose further, though its deviation from its neutral position remained imperceptible. "By repeatedly assaulting the child?" The stallion shook his head. "No, by teaching him how to properly use his magic, so that it doesn't destroy the universe when he does. It all makes sense! I'm not a monster, Celestia!" The princess would have guffawed if she wasn't so filled with disgust and disdain for the filth in front of her. "No, Broken, you are very much a monster. The worst one I think I've ever seen in my whole life." Her seething rage began to seep out, slowly at first, but then growing in intensity with every syllable she spoke. "Not only did you foalnap a colt at two years old. Not only did you proceed to traumatize him so thoroughly that he can't so much as attend a social gathering without fleeing from some perceived danger. Not only did you re-capture him to subject him to your twisted will once more. Nay, not only did you do all this and so much more from right. Under. My muzzle, but you." She stomped her hoof with such great force in front of him that the reinforced stone floor cracked and her pristine enchanted gold alloy shoes shattered into tiny pieces. "You managed to fool me for years. You had me thinking you were a chivalrous, loyal royal guard. You fooled me so thoroughly into thinking you were anything other than a scrap of mange and grime that I made you my right hoof, Ex-Guard Captain Broken Barrier." She wanted to do horrible things to that smirk on his face. Not since she had faced Sombra had she had such vivid thoughts about just what she could do to inflict the most physical pain possible. Since then, however, she'd also learned that violence solves nothing. So she merely stared into his lifeless eyes, right into his empty, violent soul, and stated: "There are so many things I could do to you right now. I've half a mind to inflict half the pain you've wrought on poor Darkest. But I'm not you. I'm more than you'll ever be, Broken Barrier. So I'm going to walk away and just leave you to rot in here and reflect on your choices. Maybe you'll come across other ways you could possibly have educated a young, impressionable foal to not actively destroy the universe." And she did just that, fed up completely and more disappointed in her own self than she'd been since she let her sister down and was forced to banish her to the icy confines of the moon. She stopped in her tracks when she heard a resurgence of the chuckling from earlier, though this time it had more mirth. "Oh, you're so much better than me, princess. You would never have stooped so low as to defend magic itself by any means necessary. You would have found some other, more ethical solution. Answer me this, princess. If it came down to magic itself or one precious subject, what would you choose?" Celestia refused to humor the filth with an answer, instead continuing her return back to ponies who were genuinely worth her time, closing the cell door behind her. Still, all throughout the journey an invasive, unwelcome, ugly thought bounced around her head. It refused to leave, demanding she hear it over and over again. By the time she re-entered the her palace proper, she still had not found an answer. Maybe he's right? The princess sighed explosively, shaking her head in denial. That's nonsense, he must have been lying. He lied about the supposed unbreakable nature of the barriers, for Shining told me in person he witnessed Broken shatter one. Celestia's gaze ventured upward as she mindlessly travelled through the castle, having memorized it years ago and thus able to navigate while deep in pondering. Really, I can't help but feel this is my fault. I should have read the signs, interacted with the foal better while I had the chance. She walked on, back to her royal chambers, ignoring the concerned looks from the various staff she passed. Celestia even failed to nod at the guards who opened the doors for her, instead simply stepping inside and heading straight for her paperwork desk, whose surface was only adorned by a single letter. The princess began reading the transcript from the top, but her attention was quickly drawn to one of the last paragraphs. Actually, there was something I wanted your advice about, princess. I don't know how reliable the information we get from Pinkie's Pinkie Sense is, but she seemed pretty certain that he badly needed our help. And not in the 'friendship and hugs' way, either. Fluttershy says that there's definitely something 'going on' with him, whatever that means. Personally, I sincerely doubt that there's some sort of big problem. The colt strikes me as perhaps overly polite, but that's really it. Still, I've learned not to completely disregard the opinions of my friends, so I decided to get your council. Do you think that we should start asking him some deeper questions, like the kind I've read about in psychology books? None of us want to make him uncomfortable, but what happens if, against all odds, it turns out something is wrong? What should we do then? Celestia stopped reading then, sighing heavily and resting her graceful head next to the letter. Her first thought upon reading that section was to observe the colt herself, and with the Gala coming up so soon, she had foolishly invited him back to Canterlot. There was so much I should have done earlier. The princess squeezed her eyes shut, grimacing in regret and shame. I could tell immediately that something was not right the second I entered that shop. And all I could think to do when he looked at me like that was try to comfort him, which was the one thing that sent him running. Celestia sighed explosively, attempting to force down the lump in her throat and failing miserably. Much like she had at so much else, recently. Of course I sent out the guard as soon as he left, but that was too little, too late. The mighty alicorn Princess Celestia gave one pitiful sniff, her powerful empathetic personality coming back to bite her once again. Now look at me, sitting here powerless to do anything but send my Elements Of Harmony at the problem like I did for my poor sister. An idea formed in the princess' head, and her horn lit in a gorgeous golden glow before she teleported straight to her sister's chambers in another section of the castle. Luna was awake, likely having risen early so as not to miss her duty in lowering the moon, which was something she would have to do soon. She jumped slightly at the sudden sound of her sister's entrance and whirled to face her, relaxing when she took in the countenance of her coruler. "Greetings, sister. For what cause hath you...." Celestia's sister paused when she took in the white alicorn's badly-hidden distraught expression and barely held-back tears. "Oh, sister! Who hath distressed thee so thoroughly!" Luna leapt forward, the concerned expression on her face quickly overtaken by an angry, defensive one. "We shalt ensure that the culprit pays a most lamentable price for their transgressions!" Celestia smiled despite herself as she waved a hoof at her younger sister in a calming gesture. "N-no thank you, Luna. I have c-come here to ask something else of you, though." The sun princess choked back a sob, her desperation growing as she observed her sister sit down and point her ears attentively. " Please, Luna. I ask you to observe his dreams. You spend so much time ensuring the peaceful rest of our little ponies. Can you focus your efforts on him?" Luna's countenance softened significantly and she stepped forward to pull Celestia into a caring embrace. "Oh, sister, we know exactly what hast brought on this sadness plaguing thee now. Thou art feeling helpless, yes?" Celestia nodded, unable to either come up with a reason to deceive her coruler or resist the much-needed comfort. Luna chuckled once, sounding both empathetically sad and lightly chiding at the same time. "Sister, thou feelest thine subject's pain far too powerfully." Both alicorns squeezed each other at the same time, though neither gesture was for the same reason. "Celestia, thou must needs know that we hath already attempted to enter the colt's dream-scape, and found it neigh impossible. Powerful spellwork blocks the way, layered repeatedly over many years." Celestia blinked in shock at this before shaking her head slightly to clear it of its misplaced confusion. Why should I be surprised? It was Broken who did this, and he always did carefully think out any and all possible contingencies. It was one of the things that impressed me so much about him. "Luna, I know you can find a way to bypass such things. Could you please keep trying? If not for Darkest, then for me?" Luna sighed heavily before releasing her sister to look her in the eyes. "Sister, we are almost offended that thou suggesteth we would not attempt to help this foal with all our capacity. We will do such a thing, for thee and for young Darkest, whether thou asketh us or not." Seeing Celestia's magenta eyes well with grateful tears, Luna sighed once more before once again pulling the two into a ferocious hug that would utterly shatter any non-alicorn's bones into pieces. "There, there, Celestia. We canst only trust in the most capable town of Ponyville and the Elements of Harmony now. We are certain that they shall assist the colt in ways that we cannot." Celestia only nodded once more, having given up on holding the tears back and thus weeping openly, though she still paid due heed to Luna's comforting words. "Dost thou recall how Ponyville held back Nightmare Moon's armies all by itself, just by teamwork alone? Truly, there is no better place for Darkest to live, and no six ponies better suited to begin his healing. Truly, we thi-" Luna was interrupted when they both felt a sizable ripple throughout reality, originating from the direction of the Royal Gardens. Soon after, a chaotic cackle echoed impossibly throughout the entire city, causing the rulers to freeze in recognition. "Discord!" They shouted in unison, turning to each other with dread in their eyes. "Quick, Luna! We must gather the guard, and send for the Elements!" Celestia urged, speedily wiping her face and charging her horn with arcane energy. Her years of rule came into play and she was instantly able to shift into focus, saving her sorrow for later. Luna nodded once and teleported away, presumably to give orders to Captain Armor. The remaining alicorn strode out onto her sister's balcony, scanning the distant hilltops for signs of chaotic contamination. There! Celestia's gaze landed on a suspiciously checkerboarded mound of dirt, not a mile from Ponyville proper. He must be heading to them! The princess hurriedly put the finishing touches on her summons and sent it off to Spike before charging her horn with a teleportation spell. It's time to engage our plan. Hopefully Twilight remembers what we talked about. I only wish we had more time before he broke free. Regardless, It's time to initiate the plan. Let's hope Ponyville can synergize like they did with Nightmare Moon enough to make it through this. It all depends on them.