Tranquus glares at me. She looks ready to tear my throat out, even with those blunt teeth of hers. Her horn lights up in that golden aura. A beam of light is fired at me like an arrow from a bow. I don't have the reaction time to get out of the way. Fortunately, it hits the ground in front of me. Unfortunately, the ground in front of me explodes and sends debris at me.
Out of the debris comes Tranquus. She tackles me to the ground. She beats me with her hooves. She's using the points of her hooves. Her hooves are sharp and strong enough to cut my skin. The hits that don't cause cuts are definitely going to bruise over. Tranquus rears up and kicks me in the side of the head on her way down. I see stars in my eyes. My vision recovers nearly instantly.
I look at Tranquus with a look that would kill if they could. She responds by stomping on my injured knee. Something in my leg breaks. I can feel the bone rip against my muscles. Normally, this much pain would have forced me to drop my form. I hold onto it with an iron grip.
Tranquus walks away casually to the bound Princess Celestia. "Tell me, Princess. How does it feel to know you've been bested by one of your own little ponies?" Tranquus asks. Celestia glares at him. The daggers in her eyes are sharp enough to pierce even diamond. "No answer? Let me ask you something else, then." She pauses. "How does it feel to know that you're going to die alone?"
"You can't kill an alicorn." Celestia says softly. The pure anger in her makes Tranquus take half a step back. Celestia looks at me, as if to say ‘help me.’
Tranquus takes two steps forward. "Don't make me, Princess. I've studied alicorn anatomy for decades. I know more about you that yourself. You fate and all of Equestria rests in my hooves." She floats a small amount of the equistum towards Celestia's mouth. With her reaction, I can tell she's already tasted some of it.
"Tranquus! Stop it!" I shout. "Leave the Princess alone!"
She pulls the equisetum away and turns to me casually. "What, dear changeling, are you going to do to stop me? You can't even stand up anymore."
"I don't need to stand to kill you!"
Tranquus chuckles. "If you could have, you would have. You haven't even tried to." She turns back to Celestia. The Princess moves her head back as far as she can.
"Get away from her, you bitch!"
"Ooh... Such naughty language." Tranquus fake scolds. Celestia locks eyes with me again. To see fear in her eyes... To see fear in a goddess's eyes... It would take all the hope from a pony. As Tranquus said to me before, I'm no pony.
Celestia's head lights up in Tranquus' aura. I watch as her jaw is forced open. I fire a blast of magic towards Tranquus. It misses her and Princess Celestia barely, only hitting the air in between the two. It gets Tranquus' attention.
She looks towards me. "Good point, changeling. If I kill you now, you'll stop interrupting me." She walks over to me. Her horn lights up. She aims the horn at my injured knee. I close my eyes and prepare to lose my leg. I cringe as I feel the pain lessen. "I'm not going to put you out of your misery."
"What are you... Why?" I ask.
"Shut up and stand up." She replies.
I do as she says. I take the chance to cast a strong illumination spell. It's powerful enough that it could briefly blind a pony if she was a few meters away. Tranquus is one of these unfortunate souls.
This opportunity isn't going to happen again. I level my head at her sternum and thrust it forwards. Tranquus rears up slowly. I take the chance to bite her in the leg. She cries out in pain. I close my mouth as much as I can to keep as little blood out of my mouth. The memory of that time three months ago sends a shiver down my spine. I release my grip. I just can't taste blood ever again...
Tranquus' leg buckles. I turn around and buck her in the chin. There's no way that couldn't have broken her jaw. I walk over to her and hover my head next to hers. She has tears in her eyes. I don't feel any pity for this monster. "I'm sorry..." She says with her newly garbled voice. She flinches from just speaking.
"Tranquus, I'm not forgiving you. Not at all. I don't like you. I hate you with all of my heart. I'm not going to kill you, though." She sticks her tongue out at me. I try not to spit in her face.
I walk over to Princess Celestia. She's bound in the same rope her sister was. I drop my form and cut the rope with my teeth. "Where's Luna?" Celestia says as soon as her mouth is free. "Where's my sister?"
"She's safe. I made sure of that." I tell her.
Princess Celestia calms down slightly. Her eyes move to Tranquus. She stands up and takes a step forward. Tranquus tries to crawl back. The Princess is moving too fast for Tranquus, even though she's only walking.
Princess Celestia makes it to Tranquus. She stops trying to escape. "You've committed terrible crimes, Tranquus. You've conspired to murder four Princesses. You've kidnapped three. You've attempted to murder two. Your sentence is death." Celestia says. The anger in her voice would be enough to kill Tranquus by itself.
She drops her strong mare facade. I can sense fear from her. It's relieving. She crawls backwards with speed that would make Rainbow Dash impressed. “W-Wait! Plea' don’ kill 'e! I’m sorry!” I can tell she's struggling to speak with that broken jaw.
“I don’t give a fuck!” Celestia shouts. Her horn lights up. Tranquus' head surrounds itself in Celestia's aura. Tranquus turns to me with the same fear that was in Celestia's eyes only minutes ago.
I watch as Tranquus' skull slowly caves in. Her temples are the first to break. Her jaw comes next, snapping in half at the chin. The sound sends a chill down my spine. Blood starts to pour out of her nose like a dam that was just destroyed. Her panicked face nearly drops as her cheekbones push up. I stare in morbid curiosity as her eyeballs slowly push outwards.
I close my eyes. I can't bear to see this continue. It makes it worse that Princess Celestia is doing this to Tranquus. She's been nothing but a monster, but I feel pity for her. Nopony deserves a death this horrible.
My thoughts end as soon as I hear a loud crack followed piercing scream. I force myself to keep my eyes closed. The scream suddenly ends. I know now that Tranquus is finally dead.
My eyes slowly open. I still can't bear to see the corpse, so I look at Celestia. She turns to me. "Is Fermented Apple open?" She asks. Part of me thinks it was to anypony listening. She sits down and sighs. I take a quick glance at Tranquus' corpse. She's nearly headless. I never thought a pony could have so much blood...
I walk up to Celestia and take the form of Dark Skies. “You killed her…” I say. It’s mostly to remind myself of what just happened. Princess Celestia, goddess of goodness, just killed a pony. She looks shaken up. “You should have let me do it, Princess.”
“That wasn’t a pony.” She replies. She doesn’t even lift her head. “I killed a monster.” She turns to me. “You’re not a monster, Changeling. You’re a pony to me.”
“Thank you, Princess Celestia.” I bow to her, as best I can with this injured leg.
"Please, just call me Celestia." She says. She struggles to stand up. The equisetum must still be in her blood stream. Panic digs into me like a dagger. Tranquus said she had enough to kill an alicorn. She might have been lying, but I still fear Celestia might die from all of it.
"Celestia, are you okay?" I ask.
"I'm alright." She says hastily. "I just need some rest."
That doesn't help my panicked state. "You need somepony with you while you do. That stuff Tranquus fed you was poison." I tell her what it did to the unicorn.
She looks at Tranquus' corpse again. I keep my eyes locked on Celestia. I can't bear to see what happened to her. I don't think I'll be having nightmares of Taş Ihanet tonight. Celestia turns back to me. "Thank you, Changeling. I'm in your debt. If you need anything, let me know."
"Do you think I'll be able to go out in public with my real appearance?" I ask.
Celestia lets out a soft sigh. "As much as I believe you should, I don't think so. My little ponies might not trust you still. I believe the only way they would trust you would be if I informed them of what happened on this day."
"Oh." I say simply. I should have seen that answer coming. I know Celestia's not going to let this information out to the public. She'd be seen as weak. That would practically invite another Tranquus to come.
"To repeat myself, I do wish you could go out in public." She says to me. "You truly deserve that honor."
"Thanks, Celestia." I say. "How do you feel?"
"The worst I've felt in a thousand years." She admits. I half expect her to break down into tears. "How about you?"
I look down at my leg. It's bleeding an incredible amount of blood. I don't know how I didn't feel that before. I look back up to the Princess. "About as good as I look. I know I look like shit."
"I'll have somepony patch you up. Let's clean this up." She says. She's referring to Tranquus. I feel a shiver run down my spine.
I exit the castle hospital after spending three days inside. I haven't had even a second of sleep after cleaning up Tranquus' corpse and disposing of it out of fear of nightmares. Due to the lack of sleep, I feel like I'm about to collapse. The doctor ordered me to get sleep. I don't want to refuse any doctor's orders, so I walk to my room.
I look at my bed. I don't want to go to sleep. I know I'll have nightmares. Whether they'll be of Tranquus or Taş Ihanet, I don't know. I don't want to know. I'll have to sleep eventually. I'll have to have another nightmare eventually. With a sigh, I get into the sheets. My eyes close slowly.
The dream starts off in a dark room, just like my nightmares with Ihanet. I ready my mind for my fate. Ihanet approaches from the darkness. Like before, his throat is ripped and exposes his trachea. "You did this to me."
"Just get it over with." I say to him. "I've had a long week."
"So let it be done." He replies. His voice is deeper and far more guttural this time. The voice is easily the most terrifying I've heard in my entire life.
The image of Ihanet dissipates. Luna steps forward from where he was just standing. She gives me a soft smile. "I can't save you every time."