//------------------------------// // the Debate // Story: Six Standard Deviations from the Mean // by ArtichokeLust //------------------------------// Clair and Dom talked with Lyra about passages in her book while BonBon mostly just looked at the trio, feeling happy for them... As they read to each other, the auditorium filled up. Nearly all of ponyville seemed to be in attendance. And while Dom and Clair didn't notice it, Celestia and Luna showed up as well... Pinkie Pie scooted sideways towards Luna until she was brushing up against her. "Yes?" Luna looked down at Pinkie, slightly amused. "...Do you know what was in Clair's chest? All the doctors went crazy after seeing it. One pony acted like he knew what it was, but wouldn't tell anypony!" Pinkie scrunched up her face. Most ponies wouldn't think it of her, but she hated feeling ignorant. Luna looked down at Pinkie with wide eyes, "How many ponies has thy asked about this?" she asked. Pinkie smiled, "Well, I don't know who other ponies asked, but I asked Mayor Mare, Time Turner, Twilight Sparkle, Granny Smith, Cheerilee, Fluttershy, Lance A-lot, and you." Luna frowned, "Please mention this to no other ponies." Pinkie acted out her famous pinkie pie swear. "We put that in them, it would have taken much longer for them to heal without it." ... Without warning, Pinkie Pie hugged Luna. Luna was surprised at first, but went along and patted Pinkie's back with her hoof. "Welcome everypony!" Mayor Mare shouted, signaling the beginning of the debates. "I'm sure you've all heard much about this debate! ...This may be the first time Equestrian laws of such long standing and significance are changed in Ponyville!" She squee'd. Dom and Clair walked back through the hallways of the building until they found their way to the podium in the middle and back. Nobody actually told them where to go, but it seemed fitting... Mayor Mare glared at Dom and Clair behind her, "...Since you all must be so eager to start the debate, let's skip the prologue!" The crowd cheered. Mayor Mare grimaced. "I'll let the defendants start the introductions," Mayor Mare trotted off stage. 'We are defendants, aren't we?' Clair giggled. 'Yeah,' Dom deadpanned, 'for living.' Clair cleared her throat, "I am Clair, a tulpa; an idea given consciousness. Dom likes to believe I was created as the result of his soul being too large and subdividing, but that might just be because he's so narcissistic!" Clair petted Dom's hair. Dom tried to not move his closer to her and smile, but at this point it was a conditioned response. Dom caught himself and looked over the snickering crowd. He cleared his throat, "I'm Dom. I was a roboticist in my last year in college before I suddenly appeared in Equestria, torn away from everything I loved and forced to fight for my life because of some stupid law..." The crowd stopped snickering. Dom looked down at the podium and spoke softly, "...I always wanted to create a machine with consciousness, to invent many things..." He looked up and spoke loudly again, "I had many dreams, but now that I'm here, I don't know if I can finish any of them." ... While they introduced themselves, Lyra walked up to the spot to the right of Dom and Clair and sat. Twilight took the spot to the left of Dom and Clair. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, recently coronated princess..." Twilight wanted to say more, but she felt like she would be boasting, so she sat back down. "I'm Lyra Heartstrings, many of you may have heard my lyre playing, but today," She laughed, "I guess I'll be doing a little bit more than playing music." a small portion of the crowd laughed along with her. "Alright, now--" Mayor Mare started. Suddenly, Celestia swooped down next to Twilight and draped her wing over her. "I don't believe I'll be needing any introductions." She smiled serenely. Just as suddenly, Luna leapt from her balcony and landed next to a startled Lyra. "Then neither shall we." "What is the meaning of this?" Celestia scowled at her sister. "What is the meaning of this?" Luna asked, baffled. "You're participating in a matter that is way too personal for you. We are simply balancing things." Celestia glared at her sister, but settled to just grimace at her, "You are too foolish, Luna..." Mayor Mare cleared her throat, "For today's debate, we will begin with Twilight Sparkle's piece..." Twilight cleared her throat... Lyra took out a notepad and waited... "Dom an Clair may have been nice to you, and they may seem like good humans... but that is simply ridiculous when you look at the statistics." Twilight pulled out a book, "There were approximately one million human arrivals in Equestria after the Gauls, all of which fought against ponies, and needed to be put down." Dom clenched his fists. 'One. Million. Humans!?' "If Dom were somehow nice; somehow different from the other million humans who came here, that would mean he was six standard deviations from the mean. Statistically, the notion is ridiculous." Lyra slammed her hoof down, "I think you're forgetting that the reason humans 'had to be put down' was because of the law that was in effect. Now let's assume that they were not humans entering Equestria, but ponies entering Earth. (the place where humans come from.) What would a pony do if they found out the law stated they should be killed on sight?" "Well," Twilight started, "I--" Celestia draped a wing over her student. "that is not a question you need to answer," She spoke softly. "If I were to go to such a world, I would destroy--" "You wouldn't last two seconds." Dom bellowed. It was like the canterlot voice, but he wasn't yelling. "Humans were not as lucky as you ponies. Our entire world was like the Everfree, and we never had immortal goddesses to watch over us." He glared at Celestia, "So we invented weapons to protect ourselves from nature. But some humans, likely ones like these Gauls you mention--much like Sombra--wanted to use the weapons for nefarious purposes. So we built stronger weapons to stop them..." Lyra looked over to Dom and shook her head frantically. Celestia smirked, "No weaponry could compare to--" "Enough--" Lyra yelled. "You dare interrupt--" Celestia started. "Yes sister," Luna bellowed, "She does." Everypony stared at Lyra in shock. Did she just interrupt a princess and get away with it? Lyra continued unperturbed, "We are not here to discuss whether Celestia, the strongest alicorn,"--Luna rolled her eyes--" can win in a fight with the humans! I'm asking what any of you ponies would do in that situation," She looked over the crowd, "just because Sombra and his minions appeared on Earth..." The crowd muttered amongst itself. "You would fight for your life!" Lyra yelled, "And like every human, you wouldn't win that fight..." Twilight and Celestia glared at Lyra. Twilight stepped forward. "Comparing humans and ponies is a flawed argument in the first place," She said sardonically, "Ponies have culture. They enjoy music"--Celestia's pupils shrank--"and drama, theater, fun, and friendship! Humans don't." Lyra smirked, "Do you know the origin of the Lyre?" She showed off her cutie-mark. "Uh, no...?" Twilight tilted her head. Celestia snarled. "Roughly 2300 years ago, the Gauls invaded. But in their wake they left strange instruments. Grotesque instruments that smelled of death, with strings made from the intestines of slaughtered ponies." Twilight gave Lyra a compassionate frown, but Celestia nearly crushed the wood below her with her hoof. "However, the instrument goes further back than the Gauls; theirs was just a sick adaption." She brought out a few notes, "One of the reasons for the pony-griffon war may have been the use of Lyres during the griffon's meetings with ponies. You see, Lyre's were a much hated instrument back then--if a filly were to get the instrument as their cutie-mark then, they were either exiled or killed in a superstitious attempt to save their city from the humans--and when they saw the griffins using them, they must have freaked." Twilight smirked, "Exactly, the Lyre was a political weapon against us. I never said humans weren't smart." Lyra frowned, "but it doesn't make sense how they would know that would start a war--" "Unless they tested it before hoof," Twilight interrupted. Lyra frowned, "Okay, I see what you're implying... But why would an entire species bent on destroying ponies--a species from a completely separate land--and only ponies, exist?" Twilight had to pause to think about that one. But she found and answer: "They don't exist to destroy only ponies, they exist to destroy everything but themselves, to make more space for them." Lyra deadpanned, "Then why did they save the griffins from famine?" Twilight stuttered. She couldn't answer that question. Celestia stepped forward, "It's not death they desire," she smirked. "Much like Discord, they desire forms of misery. But where Discord only wanted dissonance, they wanted war." Dom spoke up, "You know nothing of the human race, yet you speak as if you do." Dom paused for dramatic effect, "Humans were born of nature, to fight nature. To live, we had to fight, and it was burned into us. But no one wanted suffering." "In the 1900s, there was a race to create a weapon to end all wars. The weapon needed to be powerful enough to destroy large areas instantaneously, so no one would want it to be used. And that weapon was built: A single nuclear bomb has the power to destroy a whole city in an instant, and a nation like Equestria in a few days." The crowd went silent. "You jest," Celestia frowned, "If you had such a weapon, you would have used it against us." Dom pulled his phone out of his pocket and unlocked it. On the background was an edited picture of a nuclear bomb made to look like a clown. Pinkie could be heard laughing in the otherwise tense crowd. "This is a picture of a nuclear bomb being tested on vacant land with the color edited," he pointed to the base, "Ponyville could easily fit underneath that explosion." Pinkie stopped laughing. "Nuclear bombs have only been used once as weapons as a means to end a war with Japan. And they did... It could be argued that many lives were saved due to the use of the bombs... Afterwards, there were protests against the bombs, and Albert Einstein, the physicist who came up with the mathematics behind the bomb, regretted allowing its creation for the rest of his life." Clair grimaced. This was not the history she wanted to tell ponies about. Dom turned off his phone and put it away, "If we wanted to destroy everything, or even just you ponies, we would already have done so." he shook his head, "But--well, at least me and Clair--we just want food, shelter... and some trust would be nice..." Nobody said anything for a while... "Wait," Celestia leaned forward, "You said that picture was edited." Dom turned to Celestia. "How do we know that entire picture wasn't fabricated," Celestia asked. "You won't even believe your eyes?" Dom sighed and shook his head. "That's not an answer," Twilight pointed out. "It's not an answerable question," Dom replied. "You would just assume our skill at lying was infinite while our actual strength was--" He looked at Celestia"--miniscule." Celestia glared back... Lyra cleared her throat, she seemed a bit more nervous now, but it was hard to tell. Clair could guess the reason why... Lyra looked to Luna for reassurance before she started speaking. She needed some good material if she was going to stop Dom from digging himself his own grave. "Humans are known very differently among the griffins," Lyra started, "There, they're revered as heroes for saving Griffins from a great famine. Luckily for them, the griffins met with a different group of humans than we did. They met with the Romans, a group that constantly fended off the Gauls. These Romans gave the griffins the technology and tradition needed to sustain themselves. Some things called farming and irrigation allowed them to take control of a land that was slowly rejecting life. And Aviara was the nation that exported the most new music, stories, and pictures as well as some technologies that most Equestrians have yet to figure out. Aviara far surpasses-- well, everywhere-- in terms of innovation, and..." Lyra stepped closer to Luna, "and when I was there, though I wasn't allowed to see the humans, almost every griffin thanked one human or another for help with their creations. In the bible they gave me--" "Where is this bible?" Celestia asked politely. Lyra's eyes widened, but she stepped forward in challenge, "I don't have to tell you!" Celestia stepped forward and glared down. "I shouldn't have to remind you that reading external religions is forbidden," She said with her still serene voice. "Laws that benefit no one are a sure sign of tyranny," Dom said grumpily. "What are you accusing me of?" Celestia whipped her head to Dom. "I don't know... why don't you come over here and force me to tell you-- without anyone else's permission." Dom glared at her. Clair slapped the back of Dom's head. "Ow..." "Forgive him," Clair apologized, "He's just angry." "Yes," Celestia smirked, "Humans do love that emotion." ... *ding* Mayor Mare walked back on stage shakily and spoke, "Uh... Okay... Does the crowd have any input before we move on to the next round?" Several ponies raised their hooves. "yes?" Applejack walked up on stage. "I don't know about all these fancy laws and the history of humans, but Clair and Dom were nice enough to come over and thank us for spending time with them at the hospital, even though we didn't do it on purpose. In my book, that makes them friends, and we should do our best to help our friends." She turned to Twilight glared. She remembered what she heard from Pinkie, and she didn't believe it at first, but apparently everything was true... "not leave them to die." As Applejack walked offstage, Twilight felt a pain in her heart... Cheerilee trotted up on stage, "Earlier today I discussed mathematics with Dom, as well as a few other subjects, so I can tell you that humans are not the machines Twilight implies them to be." She smiled, "You might find it hard to believe, but I felt a love for learning in Dom even greater than Twilight's..." She frowned, "He has done nothing to harm anypony here in Ponyville, except in self-defense, and I don't want to live in a place where crimes are punished before they're committed." Cheerilee took a moment to glare at Twilight before she walked offstage... Rarity trotted up to the stage. "Did any of you notice the new attire Dom is wearing?" Rarity grinned, "I designed it for Dom. I didn't ask for anything in return, but he generously gave me as much knowledge about human fashion as he could. He told me about formal and casual attire between sexes. I was astonished how similar a lot of it was to our fashion, but the fashion that differed may serve as inspiration for new lines for decades!" Rarity turned to Dom, "I just wanted to say thank you" Rarity ran behind the podium and hugged Dom, "Thank you!" She let go and trotted back to the center of stage and stared at Twilight, hurt "Dom is a generous man despite how we treated him, and he has my gratitude..." She glared at Twilight and tried to hide the tears welling up in her eyes "...even if a former friend of mine doesn't." Twilight held back her tears as she watched Rarity trot off stage. Dom thought he would have trouble holding back some smug grin of satisfaction, but seeing Twilight's friends look at her like that was just... heart-breaking... Dom felt a hand clasp around his wrist. He looked over at Clair. She was just as saddened as he was, but she was also terrified... That's right... if he ever even shunned her, she would slowly vanish from existence. Heck, it nearly happened a few times when he had way too much going on in his life, at least until he let her take over for a while... Lance trotted up onto stage. "I'm Lance A-lot,--" Clair snickered. "--I work as a guard for historians who take on dangerous missions. Though I'm not technically a historian myself, in my line of work, I've come to learn as much as most historians would read from a book first hand..." He frowned, "I know of the atrocities committed by humans, and I know that Clair is not capable of them." Celestia glared at him. "Before I worked as a guard for historians on their crazy journeys, I was a rescue worker. I had to rescue many mares and stallions who were incoherent from fear and shock and... as much as I hate to say it, my friends and I were terrified when we saw Clair. We were informed she didn't have any of the powers that the Gauls that escaped from tartarus had, but that didn't stop us from making the connection... And taking on a single escaped Gaul would be like taking on Discord if Discord was homicidal." Discord grimaced in the crowd at the comparison. He hated death. It was practically the opposite of disharmony... "Needless to say, we were terrified. We huddled together for safety..." Lance looked at Clair for a moment before continuing, "But Clair used the same technique to calm us--Or at least to calm Rosetta--that I used on the terrified ponies when I was a rescue worker." That gave Celestia pause, but she shook her head. Enough study would give Clair knowledge of even that. Like Twilight implied, humans were smart. Dom knew even more mathematics than Cheerilee, a schoolteacher! "That is not how villains act." Lance walked off the stage... Rosetta trotted up, looked at Celestia, then at Clair, then back to the crowd. She looked at Data. "I'm Rosetta Stone. A translator and historian who loves her field work... Compared to me, Lance knows almost nothing about history, but..." She looked down... Suddenly, she glared back at the crowd, "But I don't think this is strictly a matter of history: Clair is not the Gauls. And like it was mentioned before, there may be different groups of humans... I don't know about Dom, but I think we can trust Clair." Dom looked at her bemusedly as she trotted off-stage. Data walked up. "I'm Captain Data Crunch, or as my colleagues like to call me, Captain Crunch--" Clair burst into a fit of laughter. Dom snickered some. "--What?" Data looked back at them. "I love your cereal Captain Crunch..." Clair laughed. "You're a brand of food where we come from." Dom explained. Data turned back around, slightly embarrassed, "Um, anyway..." "I hate to disagree with my colleagues, they've brought up many good points... But humans have used prolonged trickery before." He opened a book and flipped to a few pages. "one hundred years ago, a group of ten or so humans were found by patrolling royal guards and summarily attacked. But this time they had impressive weaponry that enabled them to take out nearly the entire squadron in a matter of seconds. They let the remaining guards surrender peacefully, on terms that they'd be allowed to talk to their leader. After being summoned to the captain of the guard and told about the law, and how it could not be changed, they left peacefully. However, a few years later, there were many successful bombing attempts on Canterlot, and the group of humans were the ones responsible." Data looked back at Dom. "It seems humans have improved in both strength and cunning, and if what Dom says is true, then their improvements have been exponential. They could easily be playing us for fools simply because it suits them better." Dom opened his mouth to protest, but found a golden glow clamping it shut. He looked to Celestia, but her horn wasn't glowing. He looked over to Lyra. She was shaking her head. He let go of his complaint. Pinkie Pie trotted up, "I still haven't thrown a welcome party for Dom and Clair, and I won't let you stop it from happening!" She glared at the crowd, then jumped off-stage... Fluttershy tried to walk up to the stage, but her fear of crowds kept her away... Mayor Mare trotted up from backstage. "I hope you've all said your pieces, because here comes the next round! Twilight Sparkle will be starting us off again..." She walked back out. Twilight walked up. She looked down at her friends and their disapproving faces, "I have to agree with Captain Data Crunch; if humans improve in deceit just as they do in power, they could be deceiving us completely." Some of the crowd started to boo her. She glanced at her friends again, then looked back at Dom and Clair. The only emotion their faces seemed to hold was sadness, for her. "I'm not saying we should cast them out or..." She glanced at Celestia... This was what it came down to now. Celestia or her friends. Celestia or almost every other pony in Ponyville. And despite all her research, she was starting to seriously doubt whether Dom and Clair meant for any of this. She looked away and shook her head. "Well... I also agree with Cheerilee. Dom and Clair have done nothing that couldn't be explained as self-defense. If we were to ignore the laws against humans and think of them as ponies, then Dom and Clair have done nothing wrong yet... And I don't want to live in a place where ponies are punished before they commit crimes either." She smiled at Cheerilee. It seemed somepony liked Minority Report. The crowd started clapping. Celestia stepped in front of Twilight. "I see you've all been deceived by the humans. Indeed they may be more powerful than I ever would have imagined..." She sighed as the crowd looked at her as if they'd been betrayed. "I was there when the Gauls made their second round of pillages. I was but one alicorn in the now lost city of alicorns. Before we knew what was happening, tens or hundreds of humans with horns--horns that we can only presume came from the bodies of defeated unicorns--molded to their heads, used such destructive magic that nopony had a chance!" She cried, "Out of a city with hundreds of alicorns, the only ones to survive were a filly and her foal sister! Luna was too young to remember our parents, but I still remember their screams as they died trying to protect us! I remember the sound of their horns being removed and attached to some human!" Dom noticed Celestia's horn glowing. Both Clair and Dom walked forward, trying to quietly make their way off-stage before Celestia got too angry. It was too late. Floorboards cracked as Celestia gathered as much energy into her horn as possible. Twilight was able to perform magic of the strongest form as a filly when she had a magic rush, and now Celestia, an alicorn who was already far beyond the most advanced of unicorns, was having a magic rush. The magic around her horn nearly appeared solid, and the entire room was brighter than the desert on its sunniest days. Clair teleported over to Luna and shoved her out of the way. "You may have fooled my ponies, but I will not let anypony to go through that!" Celestia fired. The beam passed straight through Dom's heart and through both of Clair's shoulders without resistance. It followed on effortlessly through the walls of Ponyville main hall... Later, ponies would discover a massive crater in the Everfree. Dom and Clair fell to the ground. Celestia could see gaping holes in both of the creatures... It was done... She looked at Clair. Why was Luna holding her up and crying like that? Twilight looked around at the scene in shock as ponies started galloping out of the hall. Did Celestia just-- --No, something wasn't right! Where was Dom!? She suddenly remembered firing a beam of magic straight through Dom earlier that day. She remembered Dom fading in the hospital. He must have learned to fade different regions of his body! "Celestia!" She yelled. Everything seemed so distant to Celestia. She never felt that much rage, and she never released that amount of magic at once... She might have ended up suffering from magic exhaustion after that, but at least the humans were gone... She felt a weight on her back. She heard her treasured student screaming her name... ...Where was Dom? Her realization came too late... *CRACK* She screamed at the mind numbing pain. As soon as Clair showed Dom that Celestia was looking at her and her sister, Dom faded back into Clair, and reappeared on top of Celestia. He held his left hand in front of the tip of her horn, and punched with his right hand with as much power as his adrenaline riddled body would give him. Just a crack!? Those horns were ridiculously tough! Celestia started charging power into her horn again. Dom punched again. This time the horn snapped in half. Raw magic burned part of Dom's arm before he could fade away and reappear next to Clair. The remaining audience stared in shock and horror. Twilight swore she could see a smug grin on Dom as he broke Celestia's horn. "I see," Dom stood up off of the now collapsed Celestia and tossed the horn to Clair, "So it's the strongest who decide the rules here..." Clair stopped playing dead on Luna and caught the horn. With a grimace she begrudgingly walked to the podium, slammed the base of the horn down on it, and snapped the other end off, destroying the thing as much as possible. She didn't look like she shared any of the enthusiasm that Dom practically glowed with. Celestia struggled to stay awake. Luna, Lyra, and Twilight just stared at the scene, completely dumbfounded. The mane six and the historians looked on in shock, had they all been betrayed? Dom started speaking again, "Well," he smiled, "in that case, I'm a fan of justice, and I think anyone who abuses their power should have it taken away from them!" He pointed his finger at her," And she has abused her's constantly!" Dom glared at the remaining ponies, "For thousands of years, a law was in existence stating that any humans that enter Equestria should be killed! Without trial!" He looked at Twilight, then back to Celestia "One! Million! Humans!" He yelled at her, "How many parents have you killed!? How many humans have been put in the exact same position you swore to protect ponies from!?" The crowd stared at him in shock. He walked over to the barely awake Celestia and leaned down so his face was right in front of hers, "You're lucky I'm not a pony, or I would probably have taken this opportunity to kill you." Finally, Luna found her voice, "Y-- You fool! Who will raise the sun?" Dom turned and gave her a confused glance, "You will, or a team of unicorns, or Discord." Celestia looked at her sister, "Is that--" She struggled, "your only complaint?" Twilight screamed and shot another beam of power. This time, Clair didn't have time to react. It hit her right in the shoulder. Luckily, since Twilight wasn't looking, it didn't hit a vital spot. Twilight cried as she fired again and again, but didn't hit anything. "Stop that." She heard Dom directly above her. In fear, she cowered and covered her horn. The remaining ponies shuddered and a few stepped forward to protect Twilight, but Dom walked away from her. Silence followed... After a moments hesitation, Twilight's friends rushed on stage and carried Twilight off. Twilight made to bring Celestia. "Leave her," Luna said. The mane six left. The historians hid but continued watching... Now that almost everypony was gone, Dom fell to his knees, covered his face, and started shuddering. To some viewers, it may have appeared as if he were feeling extreme remorse and disgust for his actions. In reality, he was laughing. Clair stared at him in disgust. Dom couldn't help it. Almost Everypony was gone, why not let himself have this one triumphant laugh? He felt a hoof pin him to the ground. "Your attack may have been born of self-defense, but only a monster laughs at another's pain." Luna's hoof suddenly fell through Dom and made contact with the ground. Dom rolled out from under Luna and picked himself up, "Or a sadist!" He laughed. Luna turned around and picked up Clair with her magic, "Clever trick, your duplication, but I know how it works!" Dom's pupils shrank. Clair struggled to free herself from the magical grasp, but she couldn't budge even an inch. Luna shot two beams from her horn. The beams hit Dom and Clair in exactly the same place on their chests. They both cried out in pain and hit the floor. Luna smirked. This did not go unnoticed by Dom. "Hypocrite." Dom struggled to stand back up. Luna glared and picked him up in her magic, "What did you call us?" She pulled his face down to hers. "You smiled when you hit us," Dom said. Luna blinked, "We most certainly did not!" Dom smirked, "And It's not happiness from other's pain, it's relief. We're finally safe." Luna noticed Clair scrambling for the exit as quickly as she could. It seemed she was smarter than Dom. She picked up both humans and slammed them into the wall beside eachother. "Safe? Did you think we would not punish you after you mutilated our sister? Did you think your silver tongue would let you skip your penance?" Dom smirked, "Not my tongue..." Luna noticed Clair was missing. "You weasel!" Luna picked up Clair with her magic, despite the fact that she was behind a wall, "It seems we must take away another one of your powers!" Blue magic washed over Clair and Dom. They found they could no longer fade away from reality. " We had hopes you were not monsters; we thought perhaps all humans were just as we were... but it seems--at least in your case--we were wrong!" Luna looked at the duo. Now she could decide her verdict without them escaping... As she looked at them, she saw them cowering against the wall away from her, pitifully... ...They were holding hands... Luna glared, but her gaze softened a bit. Perhaps they could have one last chance... "Say thy last words..." Luna said. Dom slumped. He turned to Clair, "I'm sorr--" he apologized, but felt a hand cover his mouth. Clair hugged him. After a moment's hesitation, he hugged her back... ... Realizing she wasn't dead, Clair chanced a glance at Luna. "typical..." Luna sighed. Dom looked back at her too, expectant. Luna looked at the ground, her expression was unreadable. "If we were to say this deed was not also of self-defense, we could not come to our sister's defense for banishing us..." "Consider thy selves lucky..." Luna trotted away from the pair and picked up the now unconscious Celestia. She teleported away in a blue cyclone. Clair and Dom let their muscles go slack and slid against the floor. They breathed out in relief. It'd probably be fine if they just stayed there for a while... Rosetta slowly trotted out of her hiding position and ran onto stage once Luna was gone. She held Clair's head in her hooves, "are you okay?" Clair nodded wearily.