I shouldn’t have been so trusting of them, Celestia thought as she wandered the crystal caves.
Just as Luna had feared, Celestia was indeed planning on draining Twilight of the magic she received through ascension and was searching for the crystals that would do the job. In hindsight, Celestia thought maybe it would’ve been smarter to locate a few veins before trapping Twilight. Then again, she hadn’t a clue how much time there was before Twilight and Luna enacted their plan upon her, so she figured trapping Twilight first was the best course of action after all.
C’mon, c’mon, where are those veins? Celestia continued musing to herself. It shouldn’t be taking this long to find at least a few.
Due to the special crystal’s ability to drain magic, mining for them back when the crystal caves were still in use was next to impossible. With unicorns so accustomed to using their magic to extract precious metals and gems from the earth, and the crystals being fully resistant to telekinesis, veins of them went ignored throughout the caves’ entire mining history. Knowing that, Celestia was surprised at how much difficulty she was having locating just one vein.
C’mon, c’mon . . . YES, finally!
She rounded a corner to find just what she was looking for. Embedded in the stone wall was a single long vein of the special crystal, differentiated from the rest for its brown coloring. With her objective in sight, Celestia set to work. She summoned a giant sledgehammer to her side and enveloped it in her magic. Casting a magic barrier around herself next, she lifted the sledgehammer up to the rocks surrounding the vein and struck it with all her might.
The sledgehammer shattered the rock like it was ceramic, large chunks of it ricocheted off her shield and struck the ground in front of Celestia. Smiling, she proceeded to do this repeatedly until the crystal vein was fully exposed and easily removable. Celestia proceeded to strike at the crystal next, lighter so as to not shatter it into many pieces. She dealt a moderate blow to the crystal, managing to break off a large chunk of it.
After returning the sledgehammer from whence it came, Celestia used her hooves to fully remove the crystal from the wall. She next summoned a coil of rope and used her magic to wrap it tightly around the crystal slab’s entire length. While she couldn’t use her magic to move the crystal itself, she could carry the rope holding it. That way, it wouldn’t be a hassle to transport the crystal back to Twilight.
Upon finishing, Celestia held the package aloft in her magic and turned around to head back the way she came, only to be confronted by a familiar, and most unwelcome face.
“Hello, Celly,” Discord said, floating lazily in the air, blocking her exit. “How are you this fine evening?”
Celestia sighed in exasperation. The last thing she wanted was complications to her plan, especially if said complications involved Discord.
“What do you want, Discord?” she asked.
“Oh Tia,” he replied, gingerly inspecting his talons, “you should know that all I’ve ever wanted is somepony that accepts me for who I am.” He smiled wryly. “That, and to get under your skin whenever doing so would be productive.” He snapped his talon, which turned the rope holding Celestia’s crystal slab into a giant earth worm.
The earth worm, being so slimy, wasn’t able to support the crystal slab and dropped it. Celestia dived to save the crystal, just barely managing to grasp it with her hooves before it hit the cave floor and shattered. Panting heavily, Celestia carefully set the slab onto the floor and glared at Discord.
“I don’t have time for your games, Discord.” She took a menacing step forward. “Undo your magic and step out of my way or I won’t hesitate to use, this.” Casting yet another summoning spell, Celestia made appear a golden hilt with a blinding white blade; emblazoned on the hilt was her solar sun Cutie Mark.
She gave Discord another glare, one that clearly conveyed how deadly serious the sun princess was in her claims.
Discord’s eyes widened and he was left speechless. Luna had told him that Celestia was letting her paranoia get the best of her, but for the sun princess to threaten him with physical violence indicated her condition went beyond simple paranoia and into true madness.
All at once, the full gravity of the situation dawned on Discord, and he narrowed his eyes at the mad alicorn before him.
“Tia, I spent an entire millennium encased in stone, so I know what I’m talking about when I say you’ve gone crazy.” He furrowed his brows when Celestia merely snorted in response. He continued. “And while I normally do enjoy seeing you and your little ponies get all bent out of shape over trivial matters, you’ve taken it farther than what I can condone.”
“Trivial matters? Discord, my very life is at stake!” She seemed to stare off into space for a moment before refocusing her gaze onto Discord. “If Luna put you up to this, tell me if she revealed what she and Twilight’s plans for me entail.”
Discord stared back for a moment. “Plans?”
Celestia furrowed her brows. “Of course she wouldn’t tell you. Luna plans to strike me down and instigate Twilight as my replacement. I’m stripping Twilight of her power so she is unable to control my sun afterwards.”
Discord listened intently, soaking in every word that came from Celestia’s mouth and processing it all in his age old brain. After mulling it over for a moment, the draconequus gave his two bits on the matter.
“You’re wrong.”
Celestia’s eye twitched. “What did you say!?”
“You heard me, Tia.” Discord crossed his arms and gave her a half-lidded stare. “The idea of Sparkplug and Lulu looking to overthrow you is the most ludicrous thing ever spoken by you. I may not know them as intimately as you, but I know they’ve no motive to dethrone you. I don’t know what led you to believe they were staging a coup, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that such beliefs are false as can be.”
Discord took a moment to scratch behind an ear with his talon before finishing his assessment. “Until you let go of those delusions, Celestia, you’re not leaving this chamber.”
Silence followed. It permeated the air of the chamber around them so greatly that a pin could drop from several meters away and it wouldn’t be any less audible than if a stampede of cows rushed through the cavern right in front of them. Discord waited patiently for Celestia’s response hoping, despite it going against everything he stood for, that she’d see reason.
After a few moments, she finally gave it. “Out of my way, Discord.”
Discord sighed. “No, Tia.”
“Then you leave me with no choice.” Using her magic, Celestia lifted the sword and got into a battle-ready stance.
“Very well, I’ll play your little game.” Discord snapped his talon, to which a double sided ax, completely black and red around the trims, appeared in his paw.
For a while, the two just stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move; the tension mounting every second that passed where neither of them did. Eventually, Celestia attacked first. She flapped her wings to go up and came down with a slash of her sword, to which Discord casually stepped aside out of her way.
Celestia quickly spun around and swung her sword at Discord’s head, but the draconequus brought up his battle ax and easily blocked her attack. With a mighty shove he forced Celestia back a few yards, to which she hobbled on her hooves for a moment before righting herself and returning her angered gaze to him.
Looking right back into her own, Discord noted her eyes seemed blanker than they were a minute ago. He mentally shrugged and spoke to her. “Celestia, look at what you're doing. You’ve deluded yourself into thinking your sister and protégé are out to get you, and now you’re looking to take away Twilight’s newfound purpose which you gave her.” He shook his head. “Disgraceful, that’s what you are.”
“It’s for the greater good, Discord; you wouldn’t know such a thing.”
Discord’s eyes went wide. “For the greater good!? Celestia, what you're doing is wrong! You're killing your own student inside! I thought she was like a daughter to you!?”
“. . . She is no daughter of mine.”
It was then that Discord realized the mad alicorn’s eyes had indeed changed. Her eyes had gradually glazed over during their brief skirmish, and now they were like a lifeless doll’s eyes.
She’s gone, Discord realized. For the first time in his extended life, the draconequus felt true fear.
Before more could be said, Celestia shot her sword at Discord like an arrow with her magic. The draconequus easily side-stepped it, but was unable to react in time to Celestia herself when she flew straight at him following it, hoof-outstretched and scowl plastered across her face. She connected with Discord’s forehead, sending the draconequus straight back into the crystal wall where he made an imprint in his shape before falling facedown onto the cavern floor. .
Celestia looked down at him. “This is what happens when you get in my way, Discord. I never wanted to do that, but you made me.”
She walked back to the crystal slab, the earthworm wriggling nearby. Celestia picked the worm up in her magic and tossed it farther back into the caverns in the opposite direction from where she held Twilight captive. She then obtained a second rope using another summoning spell. The mad alicorn quickly wrapped it around the crystal slab like she did the first time and held it aloft in her magic.
She turned to the exit and made way to Twilight, completely oblivious to the flash and sound of a teleportation behind her.
Luna galloped hard through the crystal caverns, panting with exertion as she pushed her legs past what she once thought were her limits. She would’ve used her wings, but with all the erratic crystal formations it was safer to remain grounded. Despite having earth pony strength, the dark blue alicorn’s legs buckled quite frequently with all the running she was doing. Every time this happened she would need to stop, catch a breath, and rest for a bit before continuing her search for Twilight.
With how huge and maze-like the crystal caverns were, odds of finding an unconscious, captive lavender alicorn would be dismal to some. Fortunately, Luna could recall the general area in which Twilight was from her visit to the dreamscape, making it that much easier to locate her.
Tia will be apologizing to Twilight for quite some time after this has passed. Perhaps she should seek some counsel to quell her over paran-
Luna was brought out of her musings when she finally reached near where Twilight should be. Darting her head every which way, Luna spotted Twilight’s unconscious form reflected in the crystal atop a ledge just to her left. She took off with her wings and quickly landed onto the ledge just a few meters from Twilight.
A crystal restraint was wrapped around Twilight’s barrel, pinning her against the crystal wall behind her. What Luna recognized as a magic suppressant was wrapped around Twilight’s horn, something that was commonplace prior to her banishment a thousand years ago but apparently not so much nowadays. Luna quickly scuffled over to Twilight, ready to set her free when a voice from the right froze her in place.
“Back off, Lulu.”
Luna turned to see Celestia standing in the entrance to the chamber, a scowl on her face and a rope carrying the special crystal in her magic. The solar alicorn charged her horn with magic and pointed it at her younger sister.
“I said, back off.”
Luna could only stare wide eyed at her sister, threatening her like so as if she had turned back into Nightmare Moon. It wasn’t until a soft moan from Twilight’s sleeping self that Luna snapped back to her senses.
“What happened to Discord?” she asked.
Celestia snorted. “I’m amazed he bothered to help you with your plans. But in doing so he got in my way to which I ‘corrected’ him, as I will do to you two.”
“Sister, please listen to me,” Luna pleaded. “Twilight and I mean you no harm. We-AHH!”
Luna was interrupted by Celestia firing off her magic beam at her. The blue alicorn dodged to the right with only a second to spare, landing dangerously close to the edge.
“I warned you, sister,” Celestia growled. She began making way toward Twilight.
“Tia! Stop!” Luna cried, and charged her sister.
Celestia didn’t even bat an eyelash as she put up a magic barrier around both her and Twilight. Luna hit the barrier hard and fell onto her back on the cavern floor. Celestia shook her head with disgust and turned back to Twilight. Lifting the wrapped up crystal with her magic, she aligned it so that the sharpest point was aligned with Twilight’s chest.
Recovering from her crash, Luna looked into the barrier to see Celestia poised to use the crystal. Eyes wide, Luna tried breaking down the barrier with her own magic, but Celestia’s proved too strong to overpower. Luna then tried bucking the barrier to break it, but her hind legs proved no more capable than her magic.
All the while, Celestia watched her sister’s pathetic attempts with amusement. When it looked like Luna’s hind legs had enough, Celestia spoke.
“It’s no use, Lulu.” Celestia returned her gaze to Twilight. “I will not be cast down by traitors like you.”
“We are not traitors!” Luna cried, tears now streaming down her face.
“SILENCE!”
Celestia had enough by this point. Without a second thought, she used her magic to shoot the crystal straight at Twilight. The sharp end of the crystal plunged into Twilight’s chest, eliciting a small grunt from the lavender alicorn. The crystal sank in a few centimeters, just to the left of Twilight’s heart. A small bit of blood oozed from the wound, running down Twilight’s body and dripping onto the floor.
Luna barely had enough time to be shocked when the crystal’s special property began to take effect. Magic coursing through Twilight’s body was sucked like a magnet to the point of impact and absorbed into the crystal; the color of it changing from light brown to the same shade of magenta red as Twilight’s aura. All the while the crystal took effect Twilight herself remained unconscious, though she did gasp and moan every few seconds in response to it.
Luna watched the entire thing, traumatized, while more tears flowed from her eyes in an ever increasing torrent. Celestia, on the other hoof, had an ever growing smirk. She giggled once, then again, and finally a third time before she burst out in maniacal laughter as she pounded the floor with her front hooves in apparent celebration of her deed. Eventually, she calmed down enough to speak to Luna, who now looked downcast, silently weeping.
“It’s over, sister,” Celestia said, her words dripping with venom. “Your and Twilight’s plans have failed.”
Luna looked up into her sister’s maddened gaze. “You are right, Celestia; our plans have failed.”
Celestia was about to respond when Luna continued. “But we never intended to cast you down from rule.”
Looking downcast again, Luna finished her confession. “We intended to make true your deepest desire.”