Together Forever

by Snake Staff


Confrontation

Celestia

When I hear the scream from the library, I suspect what has happened. When my niece’s guards come to prematurely break up the ball, my theories are confirmed and dashed at the same time. I play the role of a good guest, allowing them to remove me from the palace without any undue fuss or raised voices. As the guards escort me back to the lovely little villa I’ve maintained as something of a vacation home here, they mention an assassination attempt on royalty, and that the princess was in a towering rage. What they do not mention is conspicuous by its absence: the death of their prince. In my experience, one should always assume a pony is alive until proven otherwise.

The guards apologetically inform me that we guests are not to be permitted exit from our domiciles until after the crisis has been dealt, on personal orders of Princess Cadence. I thank them politely for their efforts, fully acknowledging the irony of such, and ask them if they would mind staying away from my home for the next few hours. When they seem reluctant, I resort to suggestion spells. Slightly crude, perhaps, but I’d prefer no interference. These next few hours may, if my suspicions prove correct, be rather messy.

I only have a few servants here, most simply local ponies I employ to do basic upkeep and housework while I’m away. I don’t need to fawned over half as much as some of my more sycophantic ponies back at Canterlot assume. I hunt down the head of my small staff here, a young pegasus mare by the name of Silver Wind. She’s asleep in her bed when I find her, but a gentle shake fixes that.

“Huh… Wha…” she rubs her eyes. “Oh! Princess!” She jumps out with panic-tinged promptness and bows at my hooves. “How may I serve you?”

“You may rise,” I intone, waiting for her to do so before speaking further. “Now, I have a very important task for you. Can I trust you to manage it for me?”

“Of course, your majesty! Anything you want.” She’s an eager servant, which is always helpful if occasionally tiresome.

“I want you to collect my entire villa staff,” I say. “And get them out of here. Everypony needs to leave this home as quickly as they can. Tell everypony I do not want them anywhere near this place. Do not come back until I come for you personally. And do not ask questions.”

“I,” she bites her tongue, clearly resisting the urge to question the strange order. “Yes, your majesty.”

I nod approvingly. “Good. Make haste now. I want to be alone in this place before five minutes have passed.”

She bows. “Of course, your highness.” With that, Silver Wind turns and scurries off to round up my employees.

Not having to do it personally will save me a bit of time. I give this situation decent odds of devolving into magical combat in short order, and I well remember what happened the last time an alicorn faced an alicorn in a building. Cadence is no Nightmare Moon, but then again this villa is no Castle of the Two Sisters.

Since my existing evidence does not point to Shining Armor being dead, I must assume he is alive. Therefore, I place a good probability on Cadence seeking the perpetrators as quickly and viciously as possible. I don’t have long, I think. I should know if Lady Rose Quartz keeps her word when faced with my niece’s wrath – probably not – and if she does give up my identity my niece will almost certainly come here to kill me.

There is still a small possibility that Cadence will kill the lady before prying answers from her or else simply not detect anything on Shining at all, but the way things seem to be going I’m not going to press my luck. I don’t what’s gone wrong, but I will be ready if I need to do battle. I double-check my wards. Like all my homes since my failure with Luna all those years ago, this one contains certain magics to advantage me in a fight.

When I’m certain that all my spells are in place, I check for my servants. They’re gone. Good, that means I should be able to deal with whatever comes in private. I pour myself a cup of cold tea from a pitcher in the refrigerator – marvelous invention, we really should have thought of it sooner – and sit back in my own waiting room to, well, wait. I’ll give it a few hours, and if nothing happens then it should be reasonably safe to invite my staff back-

Ah, there it is. My geas is going off. The good lady must have broken and blurted something she swore not to, then. She’ll find herself missing a considerable chunk of her memory, and likely be executed shortly afterwards. I’d like to pop in to help, but honestly Lady Rose is almost certainly beyond my power to save. So I add another name to the long list of creatures whose deaths I’ve caused. It’s to be another prick on my conscience, then.

Besides, to intervene wherever Cadence and Lady Rose are would just invite an alicorn duel in the city streets. I don’t want the inevitable casualties of such a thing, or the bad publicity.

My niece and I will settle this here.


It doesn’t take long for her to show up. Two minutes and thirteen seconds after I feel my geas being triggered, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza appears in the center of my rather elaborate imported Purrsian rug – and the runic circle carefully engraved on the floor underneath. I hardly need to be an alicorn myself to know that she’s enraged: the glowing eyes, extending wings, and frantically swaying mane make that obvious to anypony.

Well, that and the fact that she’s carrying a limp body with her.

CELESTIA!” she screams at me in the Royal Canterlot Voice.

“Yes?”

Cadence roars incoherently as she flings the body she’s holding at my head. I arrest the unguided missile’s momentum easily enough. I take a quick glance at it, just enough to confirm what I already knew: this is Lady Rose Quartz, and she’s dead. And it’s my fault. I suppress a stab of guilt. I got her killed. Even if she wasn’t a particularly good pony by any stretch of the imagination, she would never have done this without my prodding. Perhaps I’m slipping in my old age.

I set the body gently aside. When this is over, I promise I’ll bury her and honor my commitments to her offspring. It’s the least I can do.

“I take it that you are here to kill me, niece?” I ask. It’s a formality, really, but I’d really rather not do what I’m about to do. But, unlike last time this sort of thing happened, I’m not going to shrink from battle.

She gives me a predatory smile. “Just like you tried to do to him, Auntie dearest.

I rise from where I have been sitting, on a rather pleasant sofa close to my fireplace and elevated above the sunken central pit where my niece stands atop my rug. “Are you sure you wish to do this? We can still talk like civilized ponies, you know. Even after all this you are still my-”

SHUT THE BUCK UP AND FIGHT ME YOU DOUBLE CROSSING WITCH!” she shouts, loudly enough to rattle the room around us.

“Very well then.” I state firmly even as I activate my first surprise.

Four runes, carved into my waiting room walls and parked behind artwork and furniture alike unleash four simultaneous strikes of lightning straight through their cover and into the pink alicorn. Cadence shrieks with agony as several hundred thousand volts of electricity course throughout her body. On anypony else, using all four of these would be a lethal degree of overkill. On an alicorn of her age, though, it’s not enough.

My rug, tapestries, and a cabinet are on fire, but my niece only looks scorched. She does what any enraged alicorn would do and meets aggression with aggression. A lance of blue magic emerges from her horn and flings itself at my heart. My table and couch leap from the floor to intercept it, exploding violently and showering the room in fluff and splinters of wood.

I take several steps backwards, towards my door. My niece conjures dozens of lethally sharp daggers out of nothing, flinging them at me with wild abandon as she advances. A golden bubble wraps itself around me, and the blades clatter off harmlessly. I didn’t even have to do anything – my jewelry isn’t just ceremonial anymore. A flaming hunk of cabinet tears itself from the wall to rush at my face, only explode into sparks and splinters on contact with my barrier.

So far, Princess Cadence has been struck by a great deal of lightning and cast several spells. I have taken a few steps backwards. You can see where this is going?

My niece screams with frustration and conjures another spear of blue magic to fling at me. I vanish in a flash, and the spell blows a chunk out of the wall instead. Not as much as you would think, though – I reinforced these walls myself. I reappear within the doorway itself. Crystal shards clatter off my coat, but they aren’t dangerous to the likes of me.

Cadence growls and vanishes as well, appearing again directly in front of my face. Quick as a flash, she levels her horn lets off a beam of magic wide enough to envelope the whole hallway in front of her, scorching tens of thousands of bits of precious artwork from the walls, incinerating the long, lush carpet, blowing out the door on the other end of the hall, and making a tremendous explosion inside my private library. But I’m not there.

My golden telekinetic aura lifts my niece from the ground and flings her straight into my fireplace – and another trap. A vicious jet of scorching blue flame comes out of the back, engulfing my niece completely. The screaming is horrible, and for a moment I want nothing more than to pull her out and hug her like I did when she was a filly herself. But I harden my heart to her suffering. She’s brought it on herself.

She reappears behind me this time, and I hit the ceiling hard in her magical grip. It cracks under the force, but doesn’t break. Good, this needs to stay indoors.

I teleport once again, this time reappearing some distance down the ruined hallway, by a half-melted door. I blast it open and vanish inside with a mocking smile on my face. My interior garden, with dozens of potted plants surrounding a fountain under a nigh-transparent roof, awaits me.

GET BACK HERE AND FIGHT, YOU COWARD!” I hear my niece scream. I don’t reply.

Seconds pass. I hear the sound of hoofsteps. Cadence appears by the door. I let loose a beam of golden magic right at her. It… passes through, and my niece wavers and vanishes. An illusion.

Something impacts hard on my side, and I hit the wall hard headfirst hard enough to crack it and daze even me.

I blink. Cadence is across the room. She looks horrible, with her beautiful multicolored mane burnt down to almost nothing, her coat scorched and even burnt all the way off in some areas, and her golden regalia half-melted and fused with her coat in patches. But she’s wearing a triumphant expression as her horn charges up another beam.

Then a branch wraps itself around the horn.

I grin as Cadence is yanked from her hooves and tossed into the fountain by a suddenly gigantic plant golem pulling itself from the shattered remains of its former pot. A half dozen others have joined it, and they advance on her. My niece growls and pushes back onto her hooves, now dripping wet in addition to everything else. She fails to notice the water rapidly taking shape underneath her.

Dozens of watery tentacles spring out from my fountain, wrapping themselves about the pink alicorn’s torso, neck, hooves, legs, wings, muzzle, and horn. She struggles and flails in their grip, but my golems are on her. They punch, kick, and pound my niece with dozens of assorted wooden limbs. I can see her legs starting to buckle under the strain. Just a little more…

ENOUGH!” she roars. A pink bubble takes shape at the end of her horn, then fills out more faster than thought. My golems, my enchanted water, my exquisite crystal fountain, my plants, and everything else in the room are blown to pieces by the sheer force of the spell. Dust and pieces of crystal, wood, and leaves rain down throughout the garden.

But I’m not there either.

I materialize in the doorway in a burst of golden light. Cadence stares at me, breathing heavily. “Awww, what’s the matter?” I ask in a mockingly singsong tone. “Are you feeling bad? Does little Cady want to take a break?” I don’t particularly enjoy brandying insults with a pony I love, but the more mindlessly aggressive she gets the more quickly I can end this.

My niece just growls at me like some feral beast.

“Give it up, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,” I say, my voice becoming deadly serious. “You can’t win here. Now I suggest that-”

She disappears yet again in a flash of blue reappearing directly in front of me with her back to me. Then she double-kicks me right in the chin.

I go flying off my hooves and smash my head into the opposite wall in the hallway outside. Or, more accurately, I smash my head straight through said wall. Damn, that hurts.

A blue aura surrounds my body as I’m yanked right back out and pulled back into the ruined garden room. Cadence smashes me against the ceiling, then floor, then ceiling, then floor again while I’m too dazed to conjure a counterspell. I’m going to have one hell of a headache when this is over.

Cadence slams me down directly in front of her, a wild smile covering her lovely face. Her horn glows a bright blue. Mine lights up with gold. She unleashes another beam of destructive magic at me. I do the same right back at her.

Blue and gold meet in the air between we two alicorn princesses. Cadence grits her teeth and pushes down hard against me, channeling all her fury towards my destruction. I narrow my eyes and call on the deep reserves of magic I have inside me. For a moment, time seems to freeze. The two beams are locked in place, both pushing against the other with all their might but neither making any headway.

Then, suddenly, it’s over.

Gold pushes through blue faster than blinking. My niece goes flying straight through a wall, her body pulverizing a long dining table on the other side. I teleport into yet another ruined room, grabbing my niece in my own telekinesis. She hits the ceiling, then floor, then ceiling again. I hold her still at point blank range and let loose with a burst of golden lightning.

Cadence screams and writhes as magical electricity permeates her body. The sheer heat of it melts the last of her jewelry, globes of molten gold hitting the carpet or fusing with her pink coat. Her muscles twitch and spasm wildly as her nerves go haywire. I harden my heart to her wails and press the assault for several more seconds.

Finally, when she’s on the verge of losing consciousness, I stop. Her scorched, smoking body tumbles to the floor in a heap as I release my magical grip on it. She moans weakly, unable to even open her eyes.

I place a hoof on her chest. Firmly, but not enough to cause more damage. “Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,” I say in my best commanding tone. “You are beaten. But I, Princess Celestia, Sol Invictus, will show you mercy.” I withdraw my hoof. “In spite of your deeds, I am still willing to talk to…”

Cadence’s eyes crack open and she… grins at me? That makes no sense, she’s on the verge of passing out from her injuries, she surely can’t mean to continue-

My eyes dart to her horn. It’s glowing pink.

I realize what she’s doing. I have to-

Feelings wash over me as my body is enveloped in a pink glow. What in Tartarus am I doing?! This is my niece! My little Cady! The alicorn I’ve been proud to nurture and call family since the day she ascended!

A pink-colored hoof connects with my face. I tumble over onto my back.

I remember the day I first saw the shocked pink pegasus in that otherworldly realm. I remember calming her fears and explaining what she had done.

Another hoof drives deep into my stomach, knocking the wind out of me, for all that I don’t technically need it.

I remember when I first suggested she take up foalsitting to spend some time away from the palace. I remember her telling me stories all about sweet little Twilight Sparkle and her wonderful big brother Shining Armor.

My limp form is seized in wavering blue telekinesis and hurled forcefully through the dining room door, snapping the exquisitely-carved crystal in two.

I remember when Cadence first blushingly confided in me a “little crush” on one of my Royal Guard recruits. I remember smiling when she told me who it was.

Twin pink hooves impact on my chest again. I think I can feel a rib cracking.

I remember watching from an upstairs window when Shining Armor arrived to take Cadence out on their first date. I remember fondly giggling with my niece when she told me how adorably, earnestly awkward the colt was.

I’m lifted by magic again and thrown back down the hall, into the waiting room where this whole fight began. Most everything not made of crystal is on fire now.

I remember the day Cadence came to me with such wide smile on her face that I was seriously worried she might hurt herself. I remember her describing his proposal.

A pink alicorn appears above me, a blue glow about her horn. I’m blasted with a magical beam, and I smash into burning furniture. The fire doesn’t hurt me.

I remember the utter failure I felt when I was sealed in Chrysalis’ green cocoon. I remember the profound sense of pride and joy I felt when the two of them blasted the bug queen and her minions beyond the horizon together.

I’m seized again by the maniacally grinning pink alicorn and thrown into the ceiling. I see flecks of crystal coming off from it.

I remember seeing the look in her eyes when I performed their ceremony. I remember the proud tears and giant smile on her face during Twilight’s coronation.

My aching slams down onto the floor, where the pink alicorn waits to punch me in the face with her hoof. This hurts, I don’t think I can do this too much longer.

I remember-

No.

I remember-

No.

I… remember…

NO!

I scream with rage as I throw off the love magic. I am Princess Celestia. Daughter to King Solaris and Queen Gaia. Sister to Princess Luna. Diarch of Equestria. Sol Invictus. Sun Incarnate. Protector of the Realm.

And I will not be controlled by an immature, self-centered witch of an alicorn. Not even if she’s family.

My eyes glow white with sheer magical power. My wings spread wide, long white feathers seeming to grow pointed. My mane’s multicolored rainbow hue disappears under fiery blaze of the sun. The air around me shimmers with heat, the fires in the room springing up twice as high under my power.

Cadence’s grin vanishes. The alicorn of love, for the first time in a very long time, looks fearful. She should be.

A burst of golden flame envelopes my niece. She screams pitifully, giving voice to her suffering as she experiences hereto unimagined depths of pain. The flame merely takes the opportunity to invade her mouth, burning her inside as well as out. She writhes and flails, lashing out with what magic she has left, but it’s no good. I have her now, and she is going nowhere until I say so.

It couldn’t have lasted more than ten seconds. She wouldn’t have survived longer than that. But to me, it feels like an eternity.

I drop my char-broiled niece onto the tile at my hooves. Her lovely pink coat, except in very small patches, has been burned away. Her mane is completely gone. Her jewelry has melted off of her skin altogether. And her skin, normally a pale pink, is now a deep charcoal black. She’s smoking all over, and smells of burnt hair.

Cadence gives the faintest of moans. It’s all she can manage.

I let my righteous anger fade, my eyes and mane losing their glow. I tuck my wings back into resting position. My face, just moments before that of a wrathful sun goddess, becomes one of a tired old mare. I pause to catch my breath, more out of instinct than need.

You,” I pick Cadence up gently in my golden magic. “Are going to sit down and have a talk with Auntie.”