Imbalanced

by Nameless Narrator

Hope Dies Last: Outplayed

Two weeks earlier.

Princess Celestia enjoys Sundays as much as anypony, probably more because the usual influx of politicians, guild leaders and other important figures weakens to almost manageable state. Thankfully, today there was only a small amount of matters requiring her personal attention and those were dealt with swiftly. The solar princess takes a deep breath and enjoys the sweetness of a cup of tea brought to her by one of the servants.

Celestia is worried. Void's unchecked presence and Scream's refusal to cooperate are bad enough but her hope is that Scream will see things her way eventually and stop blocking her attempts to find the aspect of death. At least she believes it's Scream's doing, nopony else would be bold enough to go against her.

Still, the visit to the dream dimension was somewhat enlightening in revealing fake Twilight's goals and while Scream's obsession with Void hasn't changed, her influence over the world is bare at best and she's never been the power hungry type.

Unfortunately for Celestia, there is nopony else to turn to for help, aside from her sister of course, and according to Luna's story about enemy Twilight that might not be enough. She once again regrets the lack of time. When Magnus, the last alicorn of magic faded away, she cultivated her student to be able to take his place eventually but the hopes of having centuries to teach her proved a failure.

Everything is just a guesswork to her right now and the only real problem is Void. With him out of the way, she might have enough resources to deal with whatever threat the mirror world presents. Another cup of tea disappears while she's thinking.

A gust of wind blows through the throne room and an unpleasantly familiar purple unicorn wearing brown robe steps out of what looks like a rift in space.

"Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student."

Had her real student been there, she would have been shaking in dread due to the coldness of Celestia's voice when she says Twilight's favorite greeting. The unicorn Twilight however just smiles sadly.

"It's been a while since I heard that. How are you, queen Celestia?"

"Princess Celestia will suffice and while I'm curious about my Twilight's potential, there is nothing for you here."

"And here was poor me thinking that we could be friends again."

"You attacked my sister and my student, the only reason you are still standing is because I'm opposed to hurting Twilight."

Twilight stares at Celestia with her bleeding eyesockets.

"The only reason I'm still standing is because you have no idea whether you can actually take me."

"You certainly have an overactive imagination just like Twilight."

"Don't compare me to the marshmellow you've created. You have no idea what I had to do to be here today."

"And you are still too young to understand the difference between us and the true potential of my student. Especially if you have to use that," says Celestia and points at the Alicorn amulet on Twilight's neck.

"Having to do all the things you wanted me to do alone and without the Element of Magic was painful and I had to accept help from elsewhere."

"That just means you are too different from my Twilight, she did find help in her friends."

The patronizing approach annoys the unicorn but the bitter joy of seeing her mentor once again is enough to stop her from snapping. Twilight sighs at the memory of her beloved teacher becoming the wreck she is now in her world. The brown-robed unicorn has got a reason for being here today though.

"Fine, then you don't have to be opposed to hurting me," she taunts Celestia.

The white alicorn hesitantly stands up from the throne the act of which makes the small unicorn shiver at seeing the menacing size and stern expression.

Twilight fought against her Celestia alongside king Sombra and has pretty good idea about the extent of her power, at least the extent of Celestia's power from a world controlled by evil Elements. This side's soft Celestia was expected to be weaker. A red and black beam strikes the white princess causing exactly zero damage by being absorbed into a shimmering gold barrier.

Celestia however has no desire to play around and her horn blazes, ready to end things. A crest of the sun depicted on her cutie mark appears below Twilight and the scorching heat accompanied by blinding light bursts upwards leaving black marks on the ceiling.

"I am sorry, my dear student."

"Oh don't be like that, I'm still here," says Twilight with a small smile.

From the showing of power she now knows she's a better mage than Celestia. Not in terms of power, nowhere close, but faster and capable of more technical magic. The Neighcronomicon and the Alicorn amulet are there to balance the power difference.

The protective barrier appears again when Twilight's spell takes the form of a glowing red cage which begins shrinking and fails to stop it. When the princess focuses and pours more energy into the shield, Neighcronomicon opens mid-air, glowing brightly, and dissolves the shield causing a pained shriek from the princess when the feedback of released energy burns her inside.

Hearing the scream, several guards enter the throne room and take Celestia's side. Twilight puts her equipment aside. Overusing the artefacts would only mean her enemies would be prepared for them next time. She fakes an exhausted look and sits down.

A golden barrier appears around her, imprisoning the unicorn inside. Celestia looks outside as if she heard something.

"Keep her here and call my sister, I must take care of something that can't wait."

With that she teleports behind the magical barriers around the throne room and begins flying towards the place she felt Void's power being used a short while ago.

Minutes later, Luna is roused from sleep by two extremely uneasy guards. Her bodyguard has got a day off so she has to rely on the normals. After few unsuccessful attempts at explaining the situation, she ignores the guards and rushes to the throne room to find out the state of things herself.

Seeing the attacker from Nightmare Night imprisoned by her sister's barrier is enough to wake her up completely.

"What are you doing here?" asks Luna.

"Nightmare Moon, It has surprised me before that Celestia kept you alive after your loss to the Elements."

"We are princess Luna. Nightmare Moon exists no longer."

Twilight raises both her eyebrows at the difference between both worlds. Luna is a much more dangerous enemy than Celestia thanks to not having her inhibitions and she actually has no idea about the extent of Luna's power.

"Interesting. How are you getting on with Celestia?" she asks innocently.

"We will be asking the questions here."

"So uptight. You're definitely worse than her."

Luna ignores her remark. Scream did fortunately give her something to ask about.

"Why do you want the Element of Magic?"

Twilight is surprised yet again but she just lies down on the floor and pretends to relax.

"Let's wait for your sister with that. I think I underestimated her a little," says Twilight and gestures to the glow around her.

Luna turns to one of the guards.

"Where did my sister go?"

The guard explains.

"I don't know. She just suddenly left and told us to call your highness and guard Twilight Sparkle here. What's going on?"

"This isn't Twilight Sparkle-"

"WROOOONG!" interrupts Twilight causing Luna to roll her eyes.

"Just don't listen to anything she says and stop her from leaving at all costs. Also, send somepony to contact Twilight Sparkle in Ponyville."

Luna is worried about her sister's absence. There is only one thing that could have happened to make Celestia leave the intruder here. Summoning her powers, she leaves for Void's location protected by her anti-scrying magic.

"Well that worked out better than expected," says Twilight aloud when she's sure both princesses are away. Time is ticking now.

"What?" asks the closest royal guard.

"This," says Twilight as an explanation and summons her book again.

Immediately, the royal guards begin glowing from their respective protection spells and preparing their weapons. Twilight isn't unnerved by the sight of ten spears aimed straight at her and just smiles pleasantly.

In the next second the barrier disappears and along with it the magical glow around the guards. With the clutter of weapons falling on the ground and screams of ponies affected by the feedback pains, Twilight leaves the throne room unopposed and sets on the way to the castle vault.

The security is a joke. Twilight knows the state of affairs though as before Sombra's coming to power it used to be very similar in her world. Now, however, any guards failing in the same way as the ones in the throne room would have faced a painful death in the Apple family arena. She visited that place few times for fun but was still sad at seeing what's become of her friend Applejack, now the bearer of the Element of Destruction.

The vault is completely unguarded as there is no greater protection than princess Celestia's magic itself and the ancient locking mechanism. It's time to find out whether Scream's plan will continue without a hitch or not. The help of the golden alicorn after Twilight's failure in the Crystal Empire was unexpected but even now it's the only thing keeping her alive since she's so useful to king Sombra. An irresistible sniffle comes out as she remembers Shining Armor's heroic, but ultimately pointless, sacrifice to save princess Cadence.

Time to find out whether the magic combination lock works the same way as the one in her castle. Twilight inserts her horn into the hole in the middle of the vault door and begins weaving the magic pattern neccessary to open it.

The lock clicks and the fragmented door opens, revealing a chest with six pieces of jewellery. Scream warned her about trying to use more than one Element so she doesn't even bother checking out the ones without her cutie mark. With her target in her hooves, she doesn't waste energy on ending the travelling spell prematurely and just sits down, dripping nervous sweat.

---

Princess Celestia arrives at the temple hosting the Cult of Luna with the remains of Void's magic hanging in the air. Unfortunately it's empty. Did they fool her? After using magic to scan the area, she finds out there are only few batponies somewhere in the basement. The trail is cold.

When she returns to the throne room, she finds only a group of shivering guards on the floor. Despite distinct lack of her sister and Twilight Sparkle, she manages to suppress the urge to begin shouting Luna's name blindly. She examines the guards and identifies the same magic which was used against her earlier.

With the events of Nightmare Night, she decided it would be best to keep the Elements safe and separated from their bearers to keep them out of danger. She realizes her mistake now but only puzzlement remains when she reads what's written on a small piece of paper in the unlocked vault.

"Hide the rest as well as possible. This one will undo your failure," is the message.

---

Luna returns to the castle after talking to Void and Choking Darkness with her head full. Despite Scream's paranoia, Luna now believes the only way to move forward is to share her knowledge with her sister.

Void has never been a good liar and while it's much more difficult to read other alicorns, she didn't feel anything wrong during her visit at Choking's place. What bothers Luna more is that she probably should have unleashed her full destructive power in Ponyville and sacrificed few villagers to wipe out the threat once and for all.

Hesitantly, she decides that a united front is their only chance and visits Celestia's chambers. She knocks on the door covered with sun symbols and carvings much similar to her own in a way with two royal guards standing in front of it.

"Come in," comes from inside.

Worried, she takes a breath to bolster her courage and immediately gets the breath knocked out of her when Celestia rushes to her and gives her a bear hug.

"Huh?" reacts Luna.

"Thank heavens you're all right. I thought Twilight did something to you."

Luna is still slightly confused but the embrace of her sister is warming and calming.

"I'm sorry I left her only with the guards but I had something important to take care of."

That pokes Celestia's attention.

"What could that be?"

Luna sighs, she didn't realize how worried Celestia was and doesn't want to bother her any more. Perhaps it can wait.

"Can we leave it for tomorrow?"

"Fine, but don't make me worry like that again."

"It was important, you will see."

"You and your secrets," smiles Celestia.

"As I said, you will see. Just free up your schedule for tomorrow, you have a story to hear."

"I will."

"By the way, where did that Twilight go?"

"She stole the Element of Magic and disappeared."

"WHAAAT?"

"Tomorrow, tomorrow," says Celestia with a mysterious smile. She has a distinct impression that things aren't what they seem. Perhaps Luna's disappearance will give her an important clue.

"Alright. Good night, sister."

"Good night, Luna."

Even with everything working out somehow, Luna is scared. Tomorrow she will lead Celestia to Void in hope of creating at least a temporary alliance. If by any chance it fails, she might have to face her toughest challenge yet - the wrath of her sister.