//------------------------------// // Blumenkranz // Story: D=S-M // by MegatronsPen //------------------------------// Chapter 9: Blumenkranz The flow of time changed for Twilight Sparkle, as did her perception of the world inside of the mangled train carriage. She felt numbly detached from her own body, as if some machiavellian force had taken the helm and thrown her into the backseat, a quiet though unwilling observer to the imminent collision. As soon as Twilight’s vile promise had departed her lips, the horrendous ringing in her ear ceased, leaving the mare to fully absorb the sickening truth of the impossible scene playing out before her very eyes, sharply slapping her straight back into the reality she momentarily rejected. I will not let this happen! Having turned away from the fallen body of her first victim and the dumbstruck pegasus over Applejack’s agonized state, the figure at the window hoisted the crossbow again, the very same that had already buried its payload once inside the body of one of Twilight’s friends. A flash of anger bloomed within Twilight’s chest. This was the boogeyman that had taken away her Celestia. A gryphon. Twilight's pulse quickened, her heart thudding in her ears as the last pieces clicked into place in her mind. Celestia's assassination, Fluttershy's pleading eyes, the bolt impaling itself into the sinews of Applejack's flesh all flashed before her eyes as her mind locked on to its conclusion: It was all their fault. Twilight howled like a mare straight out of Tartarus, laced with every single ounce of detestation for their kind shekept bottled up inside of her, drawing the attention of all onto herself, including the gryphon’s somewhat shaken aim. Before the assailant had a chance to pull the trigger, Twilight Sparkle hurtled herself into the gryphon with as much speed as her hooves and wings could muster. Though perhaps not extraordinary in gryphon terms, the impact was sufficient to knock the wind out of the gryphon, her grasp on the crossbow slipping as she struggled for breath. Looming over the gasping gryphon, Twilight Sparkle summoned a dark aura of fiery purple magic laced with a core of wisping black to pin the gryphon firmly to the ground. At the same time, a second string of magic slithered from the tip of her horn and snatched the fallen crossbow from the ground, hoisting it high above their heads. “D-don’t kill me!” The gryphon spluttered, her alarmed face contorting in horror at the enraged alicorn above her. “I have a family! I was only acting under orders!” “What about my friends?!” Twilight spat, her face roiling with anger. The mere concept of such a villainous creature pleading for its life after attempting to take away that of those she loved overwhelmed Twilight Sparkle, her muzzle drawing tight with rage. “What about my family?!” Her eye widened maniacally, Twilight cracked the butt of the crossbow across the gryphon’s face, at once stunning the feathered fiend and silencing her terrified shriek. The gryphon struggled up against the magical restraints more violently now, realizing that her death was imminent. “You have no right to live!” The second blow crushed the gryphon’s eye socket and subsequently rupturing the eyeball, causing the gory mixture of blood and ocular liquid to ooze out of the ruined gaping socket, the head trauma severe enough to cause the gryphon’s body to slip into a sudden fit of deathly spasms. “You had no right to take them from me!” With each strike Twilight delivered the blows become bloodier as the gryphon’s face had started to break and cave in on itself, the gryphon’s face resembling a soup of bone and an amalgamation of feathers, pulp and blood. “I LOVED HER!” It was only when the body stopped writhing did Twilight toss the broken crossbow aside and marvel at her handiwork with a satisfied, blood-stained grin. She panted, overcome by a strange bout of pleasure that both thrilled and disgusted her. “What’s going on out here, Cl—” Twilight snapped her head over her shoulder at the first sound of the voice, finding a trio of gryphons that had stepped out of the ruined passenger carriage brandishing crossbows of their own. Twilight summoned her magic,encompassing the gryphon that spoke in a glow of black and purple and dragging him towards her. Simultaneously, she ripped his weapon from his grip and knocked another foe out cold with it before the gryphon had a chance to react. The gryphon clawed at the ground desperately as he drew closer to the crazed alicorn, who was seated merrily on the corpse of one his comrades, her face barely recognizable to him in its mutilated state. Twilight Sparkle’s grin only grew wider, amused at his futile attempt to escape his fate and the fertilized seed of panic growing behind his eyes. The final gryphon—another female—although dumbstruck by what she had just witnessed occur, took only a moment to draw up her crossbow to level her aim on Twilight Sparkle’s head. “To Tartarus with orders!” The gryphon screeched before unloading her single shot payload at the alicorn’s head. Without breaking her eye contact from the gryphon she had been dragging towards her, Twilight barely registered the bolt even as it came to a dead stop before her muzzle. The deadly, barbed tip was merely an inch from piercing straight into her skull, right between the eyes. With the bolt contained in her aura, Twilight Sparkle threw it back with such force that the bolt screeched through the air for a full second before being returned to its owner, piercing directly through the gryphon’s neck and finding its home embedded deep in the ruined carriage they had departed from. A few inches away from the dying gryphon, Twilight hoisted the one she had abducted off of the ground and drew his hideous, feathered face close to her own. She stared deep into his eyes, the serpentine gaze of her single remaining eye penetrating the core of his being. Twilight spoke slowly, in a gentle monotone. “Are you afraid?” Frozen in place, the gryphon felt the strangely pleasant sensation of the magic surrounding him become increasingly warmer. He merely shook his head, defiant in the face of the princess. “N-no,” he stammered. “A pity.” Twilight Sparkle lost her smile as with a flick of her horn the gryphon was launched high into the air, the magic around him intensifying in its hue until with a rush and roar of a sickening snap of tendon, muscle and bone, the gryphon was torn into two, his upper torso hurtling one way while the lower half was flung the other. Why was I so afraid of this feeling before? This is glorious. This is how justice is supposed to be served. This energy; this kind of magic... it is dark and cruel and I know it is wrong. But I can use it to make them pay for what they did to me, to you… to my friends! To Celestia! Blood and organs crashed sloppily onto the ground around her, speckling the mare in a shade of blood that covered her from head to hoof, the pieces of the corpse long ignored as she felt something odd about her victory. Her heart felt empty and a strange taste lingered in her mouth. Why do not I feel satisfied? So tunnel visioned on her mission to destroy anything that was a threat, Twilight Sparkle turned her head just enough to glance back towards the wreck that was the royal train carriage, having only just realized why she had snapped in the first place. With the names of her friends playing upon her lips, concern drove her to return to them, though faltered midway upon noting the trembling pegasus and the frightened and almost disappointed expression upon an earth pony’s face, gazing from out of the carriage at her in an eerie silence. They had seen it all. Every bloodsoaked minute of it. A black wave of regret washed over her body, their expressions chilling her heart, making her blood cold and thick. She felt sick in the pit of her stomach as she realized what she had just done—what her friends had witnessed. “I…” Twilight swallowed hard as she stood up, taking a trembling hoofstep towards her friends, “I was just trying to protect—” Blood splattered from Twilight’s lips, cutting her words short as her head was abruptly and violently jarred to one side. With her lip throbbing and swelling almost immediately, she staggered several steps to the side. Whatever hit her, it was moving at such a speed she barely had the time to register what was. Groaning, Twilight shook her head to try and unscramble her senses. W-what was that? Twilight heard the concerned cries of her name filling the air as she noted Rainbow Dash’s attempt to exit the carriage and aid her just within her peripherals, regardless of the despicable and deplorable onslaught Twilight had left in her wake. With a lift of her hoof, Twilight snapped her gaze upon them, causing the cyan mare to give pause. “Don’t, Rainbow Dash, it isn’t safe! Stay with Applejack! Something else is—” Cut short yet again by another strike; though this time from the other side, Twilight retracted back several steps, swaying as she did so. However, unlike the last time, the next attack came soon after and from behind no less, causing her to stagger forward and crash onto her knees. It’s so fast! “I-I won’t be beaten!” Twilight hissed between clenched, bloodied teeth as she forced herself up wearily to her full height, only to find herself staring into the eyes of a taller white mare. N-no… it can’t be! The surprised gasps of her friends in particular did manage to break through to Twilight in her confused and turmoilous state, but nothing else would be able to match the climax of her own despair as she stared at the visage before her with a volatile mixture of betrayal, sorrow and denial. “C-Celestia?” Twilight whispered as tears flowed freely from her eyes, almost sounding pleased to see her as her eyes trailed down from the alicorn’s unusually reddened eyes to the neck jewellery hanging about her neck. “T-that’s the—” “Surprised, my most faithful student? Well, judging by the look on your face and the fact you haven’t turned me into pulp yet pretty much confirms that, now doesn’t it? A very nice display though, Princess Twilight Sparkle. You dispatched my team pretty quickly and quite mercilessly at that. Even if it was a touch melodramatic...” Twilight simply shook her head in disbelief, her words laced with a pain her body could never fully comprehend. “I... don’t understand... y-you died… I-I saw it...” Am I going insane? Is this all dream? It has to be. “Y-you can’t be her!” Twilight cried, “the princess would never do this! Who are you?!” Celestia’s penetrating glare burned fiercely along with the red glow animating from the Alicorn Amulet as she cackled sinisterly down at Twilight Sparkle. “How very perceptive! I expect no less from you, princess.” “How dare you use her image!” Twilight solidified her aggressive stance, though found herself unable to strike with such abandon as she did the gryphons. After all, it was the pristine and beautiful image of her unrequited love standing in her way and despite knowing its an imposter, Twilight could not lift a hoof to harm it. “Drop this illusion, now!” “I think I am at quite an advantage as I am, thank you very much! But if you must know something? You can blame Rainbow Dash—but enough of this! We’ll get into all of that soon, but first...” This has to be a nightmare. The doppelganger of Celestia stamped a hoof to interrupt Twilight before she had a chance to say something. “I’ve always wanted to beat the life out of an alicorn and by the looks of it, you are in no shape to put up that much of a fight...” This can’t be happening! Licking her lips, Celestia grinned sadistically. “And that is exactly the way I like it.” It just can’t be!