//------------------------------// // 108. Magic Duel - Epilogue // Story: Blaze the Pony Tale // by Wolven5 //------------------------------// The ravens flew in all directions but some of them converged and flew to Canterlot Castle, going straight for a tower invisible to all but those who knew of its existence. Into the window and down a great height they flapped and crashed onto the stony floor of a dismal chamber, the feathers spreading, the birds twitching as though they were dying… when the feathers massed and took shape, a pony groaning in pain as he rose out of the feathers naked of his cloak and equipment except for a strange cloth tightened uncomfortably around his barrel and crawled towards his sanctuary. I'm out of practice... he thought to himself. Shapeshifting was a difficult art of magic but taking on multiple forms like a flock of birds was a level possible only to the most tested practitioners and even then it could be very taxing. But it had been necessary – he could not afford to leave behind another mystic signature, which he would have had he teleported to escape instead. He hadn’t counted on his target identifying him in such a way. A mystic signature was basically the magical equivalent of what creatures like minotaurs called a fingerprint. Each one was unique and could be used to identify the source. Groaning he pulled his way up to his desk, pondering as he knew his task had become all the more difficult. “I take it something went wrong?” He growled and whirled around to see Princess Celestia, and harrumphed at her presence. “Hmm, quite the contrary. He’s exceeded my expectations – I was completely satisfied, he broke free of a powerful mind-control, defied his controller, destroyed a dangerous relic, but he surprised me… I’d known it would happen, I went to the trouble of using a cloaking spell, he wasn’t even trying! And still… he sensed my presence and pinpointed my location. “ “This is a dangerous game you’re playing,” Celestia reminded him with a disapproving look, “These ponies could have been seriously hurt, I was all but compelled to step in and put an end to Trixie’s madness!” “And you would’ve undone centuries, if not a millenia’s worth of work,” the shadowed pony reminded her. “And you would not dare… that is if you care about the well-being of this nation’s future.” “I am warning you…” Celestia narrowed her eyes, “Your methods are becoming more and more disturbing, and if you step out of line-” The sound of a whiplash cleaved the air as Celestia felt something ensnare her neck and she was thrown and pinned against the wall, the shadowed pony instantly in her face, his eyes glowing a harsh white as he growled, “Do not think for a moment, Celestia, that you have any power over me!!!” Celestia looked and realized… what was ensnaring her throat was this pony’s leonine tail, magically lengthened and tightening its hold painfully on her. “Gone is the time you could keep me under your leash…” the pony reminded her, “I am not that same confused and lost colt you once knew, and you'd be foolish to underestimate my powers! You, who played with my life, forced me to hide from the world, away from all those I love and care for, forcing me to give up my little brother, you who are the reason my parents are no longer here, that my brother never even knew them!!” Celestia felt the familiar shame return and the pony’s blinding eyes shedding tears just made the guilt worse as he released her and turned away. “I did not ask you to do what you did…” he snarled in heartbreak. “But I won’t deny in some ways I am glad you did so… Yet all of this I have suffered, the loneliness, the plotting from the shadows…” Celestia couldn’t help shedding tears of her own, the memories mocking her, the loathing she felt for herself and from this pony, her ward, her nephew. “But I have come to understand the necessity of it all,” he continued. “The hopes of reuniting with them, to be with my little brother again, to feel her in my arms… These hopes are all I have to keep me going, however alone and miserable I feel.” He glared at Celestia over his shoulder, “You entrusted to me this task, and I will carry it out as I see fit!” “And any attempt to stand in your way would serve no purpose,” Celestia gathered. “None whatsoever…” the pony confirmed in an ominous whisper as he moved to his four-poster bed. “Now get out… I’ve had a long day…” Seeing him crawl under the covers and bare his back at her, Celestia obliged and left the chamber without a word. But as she closed the door behind her, she couldn’t help but sob in shame that all of this was a constant torment for her little pony, the lies, the secrets, the plotting, they made her feel unclean despite knowing what it would mean for her agent’s task to fail. So very often she felt the crown upon her head become heavy with the burden of ruling and protecting this kingdom, and it was only worse that there were times that the methods to do so went against her heart. All she could do was pray the day all of this could end would come soon. She left Canterlot to meet with the Saddle Arabian delegates and escort them to Ponyville. Upon arrival, she found Twilight and everypony else keeping out the locals from the library because they were protecting Trixie. She had absolutely no memory of anything she’d done since the amulet had been forced upon her. Celestia managed to calm everypony down, “examine” Trixie, and claim she’d been bewitched by somepony else, not just the amulet, and that accursed thing was no more. With Celestia’s encouragement, the entertainment went on, and the delegates were impressed when Twilight’s show of levitating animals was enhanced by magical fireworks, courtesy of a remorseful Trixie even though she wasn’t truly at fault. She'd even assisted Twilight in undoing all the spells she'd cast in her bewitched madness (much to Pinkie Pie's relief). But by the end of it all, Celestia knew she had stood idle as all of Ponyville had been terrorized by a maddened unicorn who was not the one truly at fault, that one of her little ponies had almost become a murderer, and she had to question her self, Am I doing the right thing…?