//------------------------------//
// 151. Pinkamena by SPark 
// Story: The Sun and the Stars: A Twilestia Prompt Collab 
// by Fuzzyfurvert 
//------------------------------//


by SPark


***



"Twilight?" said Celestia, her tone gentle, stern, and also a little bit out of breath as she raced through the halls beneath the palace.

"Yes, Celestia?"  Twilight was, if anything, panting even harder.  Her hooves rang off of the stone floor, the sound echoed by the brighter, more bell-like tone of Celestia's metal shoes.

"Might I suggest that you strive to change your attitude towards experimental magic?"

"That," huffed Twilight as she ran a little bit faster, "Is probably an excellent suggestion."

"TWILIGHT!"  The vast roar from behind the two fleeing alicorns made the walls shake, sending a rain of dust down around them.

"Although I will point out that everything would have been fine if it weren't for that accident with the noodle factory.  Additionally, the spell was supposed to have worn off of her by now!"

"One should always consider the possibility of things not going according to plan," said Celestia, just before skidding around a corner and nearly colliding with a wall.

Twilight made the same turn only an instant later.  Once she'd gotten her feet back under her and was once more racing down a straight stretch of corridor, she said, "Well how was I supposed to know that she would decide I was out to get her?"  

"I suppose that was hard to predict.  Nevertheless..."  Celestia rounded another corner.  

Twilight behind her had just turned when a knife wrapped in a vividly candy-pink magical aura thudded into the wall just behind her.  She yelped and ran a little bit faster.  "I hope it's not much farther!"

"No, we're almost... ah, here!"  Celestia skidded to a halt before a pair of impressive doors.  She bent her head to insert her horn in the lock.  Twilight nearly ran into her, but stopped just in time. She spun around to face behind them, and raised a defensive shield just in time.

At the end of a long corridor another pony appeared.  She too was tall and lanky; nearly as tall as Celestia.  Her hair, however, fell straight around her head.  Her tail was long and straight too.  She was pink, a dull, greyed-out pink, but her horn glowed with a vivid candy hue.  Hovering around her were several dozen knives of various sorts.  A few shot down the hall to hit Twilight's shield with a thud.

"Come on!" shouted Celestia.  Twilight turned to see that the doors were open.  She raced between them and into the room beyond.

"No!  You will not escape, you traitor!" howled the pink alicorn behind them.  She vanished from the end of the corridor and appeared in front of the doors.  Celestia just managed to slam them in her face.

"Whew."  Celestia dropped to lie panting in the middle of the rune-inscribed floor.  "We made it."

"She can't get in here?" asked Twilight, sitting on her haunches, her chest heaving.  There was a pounding sound coming from the door that suggested that something heavier than mere hooves was beating on it.

"Not before sunrise," was her former mentor's reply.

"So we just have to wait for the sun to come up so that you can change her back?"

"Indeed."  Celestia managed a small smile.  A deep booming sound from the door, followed by a dull roar that went on for some time.  The two alicorns exchanged a concerned look.

"That sounded like..." Twilight trailed off, looking at the door.

"She brought down the corridor.  We're buried."

Twilight sighed. "I guess all we can do now, then, is wait."

Celestia climbed to her feet, removing the crown from her head as she did so.  She slipped off her peytral, and her shoes too, and walked over to Twilight, a rather different smile slowly growing on her face.  When she reached the smaller alicorn, she bent her head and whispered, her breath hot in Twilight's ear.  "That's not all we can do."