//------------------------------//
// The Monster Within 
// Story: My Little Pony: Prime 
// by Brony Tom 
//------------------------------//

	Princess Celestia stood stock still before the large bay window overlooking Ponyville proper, casting her soft gaze over the town in contemplation.  A light cough escaped her lungs and a brief shudder wracked her frame, courtesy the noxious Changeling sleeping agent that she had recently inhaled.
Can I even trust that it was a sleeping agent?  I wouldn’t expect her to be so forthcoming with compromising information like she was, there must be more to it than that.  But what?  What could Chrysalis possibly hope to gain from our encounter?
In the streets below her window in the Town Hall, a busy day at the markets was underway, ponies selling all kinds of wares, though heavily biased towards produce and groceries.
I wonder if their food can compare to Canterlot’s cuisine, thought Celestia.  She frowned in an amused fashion at the oddness of the thought.  I know there’s no substitute for good home cooking, but I suppose I was always a bit more comfortable with fancier fare.
Goodness, I must still be quite tired from the meeting to be thinking about such trivial things at a time like this.
I suppose when it comes to food, Luna was always looking for more hearty dishes.
A pained grimace slashed across the Princess’s face at the thought of her sister.  Images from the recent past flashed through her mind; a flash of rage as Luna threw away her crown, the sight of the younger princess storming out of the room.  Celestia had to take a few calming breaths as the most haunting look of all burned itself once more into her eyes.
Why have you betrayed me, Celly? said Luna’s eyes.  Behind all the anger and bitterness, Celestia saw the look of a little filly whose idol of perfection has just slapped her in the face.
She’s right, I know she’s right, thought Celestia, her eyes beginning to water.  But she doesn’t know what Twilight means to me!  She doesn’t know what it’s like to live a thousand years amongst the ponies who just keep dying around you!  Twilight is so much more than that, if only Luna could understand what she means to me.  I- I gave my little Twilight everything-  Celestia paused, her face taking on a steely expression even as she coughed again.  I gave her everything, and I won’t let anything take her away from me.  Not even you, sister.
Celestia levitated out Luna’s dark, yet unimposing crown.  She turned it over a few times, coldly regarding it and its former bearer.
“If you will have no part in my rule, sister, so be it,” whispered the Day Princess.  She felt from deep within herself a stirring, as though a long-forgotten feeling were rising up in her, something a little hazy and hard to read exactly.
The Princess wheezed into her hoof and felt a light spatter of liquid against it.  Surprised, she looked down and examined her hoof, now mottled with the faintest specks of glowing blue.