//------------------------------// // Power Corrupts... // Story: Oneirophobia // by Valorousspectre //------------------------------// It was a rare thing, the great castle of Canterlot being attacked. The most recent, evidently, being the Changeling invasion, but stretching back all the way to the dragon wars. Canterlot had stood its ground for centuries, never moving and always remaining stalwart and strong. But even the strongest of stones were susceptible to extreme force, or terrifyingly powerful magic, as the walls of the hospital and Talisman found out as he was flung straight through the wall sectioning off the medical center from the castle passages. The resulting tremor shook the walls of the castle as Twilight Sparkle, the element of magic and potentially the most powerful unicorn on the continent of Equestria, stepped through the wreckage of the wall and a swirling aura of black magicks formed around the bottom of her hooves. The crackle of flickering lightning around her horn as the last magical backlash of the spell she cast settled back into the focal point of her magic and was reabsorbed back into her being. The off white glow of her eyes glared down at the smoking wreck of what was once a wall and she smiled wickedly, two piercingly sharp fangs where her incisors should be. With the dark aura licking at the ground, she glared at the scattering crowd of staff with the same wicked smile and her horn crackled back to life, bursting with swirling magical power. But before it could reach the fleeing crowd of nurses and doctors, a shout caught her attention. She whirled around with a nasty snarl to face the trio of guards that were facing her. One of each species, and the pegasus faltered, a dreaded look on his face. "L-Lady Twilight!?" Without a response, her magic swirled back into life as it shot towards the trio of guards. Without hesitation, the unicorn jumped to the forefront and summoned a bright blue shield to deflect it. The other two guards hid behind the shield, but the pegasus guard's eyes fell. "...We're not going to make it..." Time slowed down to the trio of guards as the black magic shot for them, forming into a bolt of black and purple lightning. The lightning arced towards them. The bolt struck the shield in super slow motion and as the bolt tore through the first layer, then second, third and fourth layer of the shield like they weren't even there. The first layer was designed to spread the power of the impact, the second and third to cushion it and lower the strength behind it, and the final to absorb the magic and use it to reinforce the shield again. but no matter how much power he tried to pour into it, the bolt ripped through it like gossamer. It hit the unicorn and, without even giving him time to scream, the pony was destroyed, disintegrated in an instant. And, since they were so close to him, the other two guards were hit by the backlash and flew, bits and pieces of armour flying away and pieces of guard melting and disintegrating, the smell of burning flesh filling her nose. When the shockwave had finally stopped blowing all the ashes away, Twilight took a deep breath through her nose and grinned darkly. The aura had started to lick at her lower legs as she stalked away. ~*~ The resulting magical shockwave from the powerful spells being thrown around without care woke nearly every pony within the castle, and probably a few unicorns outside of it. Being the most attuned to magic, the unicorns within the castle collapsed if they weren't strong, and winced if they were stronger. But of all the ponies to be shocked, Luna was perhaps the worst. Not, however, because of the magic. Certainly, the sudden residual waves of magic did shock her, and due to her being in the throne room at the time, nearly knocked her right off her throne, but that wasn't the worst shock. Even as she called an emergency stop to the Night court, she was already on her hooves and leaving the place. Unfortunately she had take longer than she'd have liked, walking at a stately pace out of the room. When she did finally get out of the room, she fixed the familiar image of her sister's room in her mind and with a flash she teleported. It took her a moment to shake off the momentary disorientation and look around, the call for her sister dying on her tongue. Celestia was not in bed. Another look around revealed the glass doors to Celestia's balcony were open, though the wind was not blowing. Cautiously, Luna approached the doors. True to her suspicions, Celestia was seated outside at the edge of the balcony, her light pink mane flowing down her shoulders, like she'd never needed to brush it before in her life. "Sister?" Luna inquired cautiously, taking another careful step. For a long moment, Celestia was silent. Just before Luna could try again, the white alicorn sighed. "Yes, Luna?" She replied in a melancholic tone. Luna started. Celestia had never sounded this tired. She'd run a country without Luna's help for a thousand years and had run it in tandem with her for countless centuries before. She'd handled politics, threats to the security of the nation, diplomacy and everything inbetween and had always stood strong and proud, never backing down, never giving in, always willing to sacrifice whatever time or freedoms she had left for the ponies she ruled. She'd faced down Discord with Luna, and even Luna herself when she was consumed by her jealousy, all without hesitation. Even banishing Luna was something she did without hesitation after reason failed. Luna had no doubt she'd have cried about it later, Celestia's love ran far too deeply to simply be abandoned and picked back up whenever she saw it necessary. But now... Her voice felt weighed down, like it was feeling the thousands of years that Celestia had been alive for the first time in its life. It was weary, weak and bereft of the normal warm, powerful something that had made her so adored the land over. Her shoulders were slumped, and her head was held significantly lower than usual. Her wings no longer looked like that of a leader, of a powerful alicorn princess that bent the sun itself to her very will, but that of a filly that hadn't yet learned how proud she was to be of her wings, and how much of a gift they were to her. "Sister," Luna began, alarmed, "There's something happening in the castle, we must-" "It's Twilight," Celestia interrupted quietly. Luna gawked at her, stunned. "Twilight? N-no way, Twilight's... Twilight would never... What?" She stammered out, stunned her sister would make such a damning accusation of her student. Celestia merely sighed and nodded sadly. "Can't you feel it?" Celestia inquired softly, "You've felt Twilight's magic before..." Luna shook her head. "No! No, no, it can't be! I refuse to believe it. It's too... dark. Twilight would never cast such abhorrent magicks." "It is..." Celestia countered, "It's Twilight. Darker or not, I know her magic signature, it's her..." Luna glared at her sister. It wasn't like her to be so negative, especially not for this long or about her own student. For what felt like a century, nothing was said. Luna forced down her irritation as another wave of powerful magical backlash washed over her and, most certainly, her sister. "So?" demanded the dark princess, "What are you going to do about it?" Celestia didn't reply, but a tear did fall from one eye, unseen by her sister. Her sister's ire raised, Luna stomped her hoof down to the floor with a clash of sapphire on marble. "What happened to you sister?" She demanded thunderously, "Why art thou sitting here, feeling sorry for thyself, when thy subjects are in need of thine assistance!?" "Don't raise your voice at me, Luna," Celestia said, a measure of sternness to her tone. Luna refused to back down. "We remember when you would face entire armies on thy own, saying we were too young, or that thy armies would only be harmed in combat! We remember when you would stand before the very avatar of chaos itself and not back down! We remember the day you looked death dead in the eye and scoffed at him! WE remember you facing down US, thy own corrupt sister, and sending us to the moon to protect your little ponies! We remember when you were a proud alicorn princess!" Luna leaned forward to her sister's ear, rage twisting her features from their normal unearthly beautiful appearance, and hissed into it. "What happened to our sister Celestia? I don't remember you being so weak" The room went from somber to freezing and Luna swore later she could almost see the black rage emanating off of her sister. There wasn't much that could get under Celestia's skin, but this seemed to be one of them, and not in the 'hot and bothered' kind of way. A low growl rumbled out of the white monarch's throat as she turned slowly to face her younger sister, who glared adamantly back at the thundercloud like face of her sister. Oh dear... did I push her too far? ~*~ Screams reached the ears of the almost unconscious pony, the sound of thunderclaps and laughter, running hooves and shouts of alarm, laughter and cries of agony. Slowly, two eyes fluttered open and a pair of lung were strained as nostrils sucked in air. Tal's ribs creaked as he breathed in and he started coughing as his beaten lungs tried to take the air in to no avail. He sucked in another breath of air, and this one stayed. Tal looked around, trying to get his bearings. The first thing he noticed was that he was in a pile of rubble. The next was that his left foreleg was under broken debris, and it was throbbing with pain. His entire body was hurting, but this leg was aching, throbbing in time with his heartbeats. Aw... hay. With a pained groan, he rolled over to grasp his leg with his other foreleg and took a deep breath. He winced at simply touching his leg and hissed. Deciding this wouldn't work without help, he took another look around and, muttering a thankyou to Celestia, he grabbed a piece of wooden beam, probably from a bed frame, in his mouth and clamped his teeth around it. Once more, he grabbed his leg and winced, his teeth biting down into the wood and helping at least a little against the pain. He huffed once, took a deep breath, and yanked. an agonised groan rolled out of his throat in time with an alarmed yell. His leg didn't seem to move, but it hurt like hell. Another yank, and another agonized groan, louder this time. This time, the leg budged, scraping against a point or two, a rough spot of stone. He yelped as something in his leg shifted that was never made to shift. Ah... Celestia, Luna and whatever cursed being there is... He was preparing to the next yank, tears in his eyes, when a scream from close by took him by surprise and he yanked involuntarily. With a muffled cry of excruciating pain, his leg jerked free. and curled close to his chest. It didn't take a professional to be able to tell that it was broken. Ugh... Twi... Light... His thoughts slowed as his pain hit his nervous system in an assault on his physical body. Regardless, he forced himself to his hooves, three on the ground and one tucked to his chest. I have to... find... Twilight...