//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: For the Mare Who Has Everything // by Justice3442 //------------------------------// For the Mare Who has Everything Chapter 7 >-~Just a bit ago from a different perspective~-< Her thoughts and senses coming back to her like a fiery eruption, Celestia found herself back in the real world. Furthermore, as if she had traveled via a method of fire and explosion, she felt disoriented, hurt, and perhaps even incomplete as if something had been burned away on her trip back… the trouble was Celestia couldn’t exactly identify what had been damaged on her trip back. Still, some things had clearly survived the trip; the dull, familiar ache that had been fleetingly replaced, or perhaps masked, by joy and contentment was with her. Despite its familiarity, the ache seemed all the stronger now that Celestia had briefly been spared this burden. Additionally a fresh feeling of loss quickly intermingled with the existing pain, like a torch being thrown onto a fuel-soaked pile of straw. The duel feelings burned inside Celestia, threatening to consume her whole and leave her a burnt husk of the mare she was. As dire as this situation felt inside her… Celestia knew other things needed her attention right now… if only she could straighten her head long enough to remember what exactly… She pushed past the burning pain to get her bearings. She was standing, her eyes were closed, and she had begun subconsciously using her magic some time ago…   Celestia opened her eyes. Her vision was blurred by small particles of yellow pollen and beyond that, a barrier of her own design. A barrier built to keep the pollen away from other ponies or perhaps in to keep the pollen in and her false reward intact for as long as possible… She neither could remember nor did she practically care which one was the truth. Still, the pollen lingered in the air, taunting Celestia with treasures and a happiness that she wasn’t allowed. Her horn glowed yellow and she moved the barrier with the pouch away from her head. The strings of the pouch wrapped around her neck tighter, briefly cutting off airflow to her body before she applied a little more magical strength and removed the offending item for her personage. The feeling was uncomfortable to say the least, but it hardly compared to the near-unbearable pain loss was currently inflicting on her, still raging uncontrolled in her mind and even throughout her body. She decided to hold the pouch, still encased in her floating barrier, next to her. While the pollen and the barrier removed, her vision had not yet cleared…. It was blurry and unfocused as if her head was still lost in a haze, she caught something of roughly pony shape, if closer to her size and… black. Celestia narrowed her eyes, her vision focusing in an instant onto Queen Chrysalis. The fresh pain inside her she felt seemed to only increase in burning intensity. An intensity she focused into her horn, her magic glowing yellow briefly before turning a fiery orange that she let fly. The brilliant beam of energy blazed through the air before hitting its mark. Celestia noted the pain ebbed ever so slightly as she watched Chrysalis skid across the floor. “Celestia!” Twilight cried excitedly. “You’re back!” Celetia trudged forward, letting each step fall heavily onto the stone floor as she approached Chrysalis. Twilight… Twilight is alive… Through the pain Celestia could somehow feel a sense of relief about this new piece of information. However this came as only a momentary distraction from the task at hoof. She looked down at Chrysalis. The Queen of the Changelings had opened her eyes and was seemingly looking up as best she could at Celestia. As she caught Chrysalis’s gaze, she felt the pain flare up into a towering inferno that felt as if it would burn her from the inside out. Twilight being alive was certainly good, but that fact alone was hardly enough to spare the Changeling Queen her retribution. Celestia pulled back one of her forelegs and let it fly, and fly it did. ‘THWACK!’ Celestia’s forehoof connected solidly into Chrysalis’s center mass and sent her sailing into a wall with a ‘THUMP!’ The flames of pain died down momentarily before flaring back in excruciating intensity. “Take that evildoer!” Twilight exclaimed. ‘Evildoer?’ Celestia again walked towards Chrysalis at a slow deliberate pace. Twilight’s phrase was a bit odd for her to say the least… Still, it was far from the most important matter at the moment. The pain… the pain felt like it was still burning, but also choking her… almost as if it was consuming all the breathable air inside Celestia and filling her with toxic pitch-black smoke.… Celestia wanted it out of her… Needed it out! With another heavy step of her hoof, Celestia reached her foe. The one who had given her that word forged of happiness and lies. Of things she longed for… Of things she could never have. Celestia felt the roiling pressure build up in her to such a degree she thought she might explode. Perhaps… perhaps if she expressed herself in a method outside of violence, she’d finally start to feel better. “Do you know what I’ve lost?!” Celestia yelled out. “Do you have any idea what it’s LIKE?! No… How could you?! HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND, YOU UNLOVING WRETCHED CREATURE?! How dare you?! HOW DARE YOU?! Over a thousand years… OVER A MILLENNIUM SPENT CLAWING FOR TINY BITS OF HAPPINESS THAT COMES SO EASILY TO MY SUBJECTS! CENTURIES LETTING IT ALL GO BECAUSE I HAD RESPONSIBILITIES!” Again, the pain seemed to fade ever so slightly and ever so temporarily before it again besieged Celesta like a wildfire that continued to burn out of control.   “Celestia?!” Twilight called out in concern. “It’s alright now… You’re free…” ‘Free’? Celestia somehow felt even angrier than she already did at the mere suggestion. Her ‘freedom’ was practically insufferable to the prison she had been in. Oh, my dear Twilight Sparkle… if there weren’t someTHING else here more deserving of my ire… “I’m sure we can talk about—” ‘THWACK!’ Twilight was cut off by Celestia kicking Chrysalis across the room again. The pain again receded for a short time, but it wasn’t enough. Celestia turned again, her eyes homing in on Chrysalis. Blasting her had only worked so well and kicking her was likewise insufficient. Expressing herself certainly wasn’t the cure to what ailed Celestia. Would simply terminating Chrysalis make the pain go away…? … Unlikely. As fresh as this burning pain was, it was feeding off of something familiar, a dull ache Celestia had been carrying with her for ever so long. A burden she had shouldered and slowly allowed to increase over her long lifespan… The fire insider her raged, and despite the fact that she’d have expected it to burn away at her ache, somehow that only seemed to increase as if the fire only created a thick, smoldering  tar on top of the weight already up on her back and shoulders… Perhaps it was time to simply release her burden. To finally let go of whatever this encumbrance was that she had fooled herself into thinking was worth the effort to carry around with her for so much of her life. Maybe… maybe if she couldn’t be free in that other world… she could at least be somewhat free here… At once Celestia felt the pain subside, replaced instead with a warmth that wrapped around her, comforted her even. It began to feel as if she herself was the sun, emanating a warmth and light from her very core. But unlike the sun who shared this love with all regardless of their behavior or if they had earned the right to bask in the light, Celestia had control. She could decide who was worthy and who deserved to be banished from the light. She could pick out those who had earned the right to enjoy her love, and banish or destroy all those who were not. Celestia looked down at Chrysalis in contempt. The shapeshifting queen did not deserve to feel this warmth. With a color like burning embers, Celestia’s horn glowed. Chrysalis winced as the same glow constricted around her abdomen, lifting her off the ground. “Celestia! What…?” Twilight said in a perplexed tone. “No…” a female voice uttered quietly. “Sister!” another female voice called out. Cadance and Luna’s voices had joined Twilight. They were both alive and… awestruck? Had Celestia identified their tone correctly? No matter. Alive or not, Chrysalis still needed to pay for her crimes. With another ember glow of Celestia’s horn, she grabbed hold of Chrysalis’s left foreleg and held it out. With a simple thought, she adjusted the grip of her magic 90 degrees. ‘SNAP!’ Chrysalis let out a howl of pain as Celestia released the now broken leg, letting it dangle limply as a green ichor seeped through the cracks in Chrysalis’s exoskeleton. Celestia heard a collection of gasps from the other three mares in the room. Odd… she was expecting cheers if anything… Again, no matter. Chrysalis’s presence and the fact that she was still conscious, let alone breathing, still warranted her full attention. With another ember glow, an aura surrounded Chrysalis’s right back leg. Chrysalis’s eyes shot open wide as the burning pressure was applied elsewhere on her body. “No more, Princess Celestia!  Grant me mercy, I beg of you!” Celestia felt her eyelids tighten. “You, who are without mercy, now plead for it?” Celestia’s voice sounded strange even to her. It sounded deeper, but with an extra, whisper-quiet tone that seemed like it could quickly change to a scream… Like a smoldering fire contained in a closed room, just waiting for a fresh breath of air so it could flare up once more. Again, not really something worth her concern given the present situation. Celestia gave the magic on Chrysalis’s leg a quick twist, and with another ‘SNAP!’ and scream of agony, the amount of working legs Chrysalis possessed dropped to two. Celestia shook her head. “I thought you were made of sterner stuff.” “Sister, no!” Luna cried. Celestia narrowed her eyes. Now that was a response she certainly wasn’t expecting. She looked Chrysalis up and down as she momentarily considered breaking her other legs. Though, given the Changeling Queen’s current state, it was unlikely she would be going to be able to do much in the way of moving. She unceremoniously dropped her to the hard stone floor which elected a squelch of pain from Chrysalis. Celestia turned to shoot a glare at her sister. Luna, Cadance, and Twilight had gathered round one another and stared at Celestia with awestruck expressions… Or perhaps it was terror, or both. Well… one or the other or any combination would do. Celestia took in a deep breath from her nose and let it out, her exhale leaving her nostrils in the form of black wafts of smoke. “Yes, dear sister?” she said in an irritated tone. “Is something the matter?” “Sister… Celestia!” Luna called out in a panicked, pleading tone. “What… What’s happened to you?!” Celestia felt her face tick in irritation. This was hardly the time for a heart-to-heart, but perhaps she could spare some time to put things into perspective for Luna. “I was shown true happiness only to have to burn it away so that I could save you, Twilight, and Cadance, and my—” Celestia gritted her teeth and closed her eyes “—‘subjects’,” she said, practically spitting out the final word like one might spit out a bit of food they discovered was rotten. “THAT is what happened to me.” She turned back towards Chrysalis, a fiery glow, appearing on the fallen changeling’s unbroken back leg as she did. “Now, if you’ll excuse me for a moment…” Chrysalis looked down at her leg in despair and closed her eyes hard in anticipation of what was likely to come next. “Princess Celestia, please stop!” Twilight cried. “I understand you’re angry but you can’t just torture Chrysalis!” Celestia paused and turned as the glow around Chrysalis’s leg abated, electing a relieved sigh from Chrysalis. “I’m sorry,” Celestia said without turning, “but what gave you the impression I was just going to torture Chrysalis?” Chrysalis grimaced hard. “Auntie, please!” Cadance said as she took a step forward. “Let us help you.” Celestia turned and narrowed her eyes at Cadance. “I don’t need any help.” She pursed her lips slightly. “However, if you all want a turn with Chrysalis, I suppose I could leave her intact enough for that,” she said as her slit like eyes made a rotation around the edges of her ocular cavities. The other three mares all exchanged worried, panic-sewn glances. Chrysalis shuddered as she did her best to pull herself into a ball. “Celestia, I’m begging you. Listen to reason!” Luna cried. “I know right now it feels as if you can have anything you want… that you can do anything you want, but you have to stop now before it’s too late!” Celestia’s face tighten into a vexed scowl as she turned to face Luna fully. “Luna, I’ve created the world’s largest and most powerful empire.” She narrowed her eyes. “For the most part, by myself.”  Luna lowered her head as her expression turned sheepish if ever so slightly. “I can do whatever I want!” Celestia said. Her voice began to shift in both volume and an odd sort of intensity, as if changing from something akin to a large brushfire to a full-blown wildfire in the course of a sentence.  “Now would you kindly stop distracting me with this insipidity so I can get on doling out PUNISHMENT to this CRIMINAL OF EQUESTRIA?!” Twilight looked at Celestia in astonishment. “Celestia… Do you… Do you even realize that you’ve changed?!” Luna winced. “I’m afraid she likely has, Twilight.” Celestia turned and tilted her head slightly as if she was suddenly scrutinizing her former student. “Yes Twilight, I did feel the difference.  I did feel my transformation as I shed that burden that has been weighing me down for centuries. I feel…” Celestia paused as her fiery hair and tail continued to lick at the air around her and her body filled the room with a stifling heat. “…at peace. Free, even almost as free as I did…” Celestia trailed off, pausing long enough to lift a back leg, extend it, and let it fall onto Chrysalis. Chrysalis let out a soft moan of pain as Celestia pressed her hoof against Chrysalis’s midsection. She continued, “Almost as free as I did in that world of my desires. It’s as if this was who I was meant to be all along.” Twilight and Cadance cringed. Cadance began to speak, leaning towards Luna, “Is that what—” “Yes,” Luna answered. Twilight craned her neck past Cadance. “So right now she thinks—” “Yes,” Luna answered once more. Twilight and Cadance exchanged panicky glances. Cadance leaned towards Luna once more, “Well, can she be—” “Reasoned with?” Luna suggested. “I do not know,” she answered. “She wasn’t able to reason with me over a millennium ago, but perhaps there was some purpose beyond what I had up until now thought was a foolhardy and tragic transformation all those years ago.” Cadance and Twilight exchanged glances once more before looking towards Luna. “What’s that?” they asked in unison. “I at least know quite well what has happened to my sister… maybe… just maybe I can use that experience to get through to her.” She shook her head. “I’m certainly in no condition to combat her at the moment.” Celestia parted her lips, revealing stone gray teeth that she pressed hard against each other. Red hot cracks, like molten lava poking out from the ground, formed inside her mouth before she closed it with a sizzling hiss. “Are we finally done with this vexing conversation?” She narrowed her eyes. “You’re testing my patience to the limit, though I would still find it displeasurable to punish you for such transgressions. I highly suggest you do not push me further.” Luna stepped forward and shook her head. “Nay, sister. I’m afraid I must parlay with you.” Celestia dropped her eyelids lower. “Another time,” she growled out. “No, Celestia!” Luna said raising her voice. “NOW!” “ANOTHER TIME!” Celestia shouted, the flames from her mane and tale firing out around her. Chrysalis let out a distressed shriek and curled up tighter as the fire momentarily washed over her. Luna took a few more steps forward and continued unflinchingly. “I wish to discuss that fateful day where you were forced to banish me.” Celestia’s ears perked up and her eyes widened. She trotted forward a few steps and allowed her flamethrower like tail to whip over Chrysalis briefly electing a muffled cry of pain from the Changeling Queen. “Your timing is appalling, Sister,” Celestia said, the blazing flames in her voice receding somewhat. “But this is a topic I feel we still have much to talk about. Very well… we shall talk.” Twilight and Cadance let out the breaths neither realized they held. Luna closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She slowly opened her eyes to stare directly into the black slits amidst the red pits that were currently her sister’s eyes. “Yes… let us begin…”