You Too Will Deteriorate

by cleverpun

5. Filled Me with Fantastic Terrors

Twilight opened the door slowly. Her eyes widened as she saw the discolored Celestia sitting at the table.

“H-hello. C-come in,” Celestia said.

“Hello. My name is Twilight Sparkle.”

Celestia smiled. “So, you don’t introduce yourself as P-princess Twilight-t?”

“Not yet, no.”

“And what c-can I do for you, Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight sat down across from the…was she a revenant? A wight? Perhaps she was something that didn’t have a name yet. She scribbled on her notes. Writing “Celestia B” or “Celestia 2” every time looked so awkward, but there was nothing for it.

Twilight looked up from her notes. “I am here to interview you.”

“About w-what?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Celestia laughed. It sounded just like the real Celestia’s laugh, light and musical.

Celestia smiled, and that looked the same too. “I im-magine you and your peers are having trouble coming to t-terms with the situation.”

“It is an unusual occurrence, yes.”

“It doesn’t need to be a difficult c-c-consideration, you know. All I want is to bring the m-m-monster back, so she can atone for all the things she has done. To my w-world and yours.”

“What makes you think she hasn’t already?”

Celestia smiled again. “Well, that r-raises an interesting question, d-doesn’t it? Can one measure p-penance? Can one quantify j-j-justice?”

“Of course we can. We do it all the time when we sentence ponies in court.”

“Yes, that is t-true. But it is a lot s-s-simpler to value a stolen purse or a single dead pony. How can one measure j-j-justice for an entire planet? An entire planet and m-more?”

Twilight flipped through her notes. “Well, if my timeline is correct, based on the information from the both of you, then Luna spent about a thousand years on a lifeless world, all by herself, then she spent another thousand years alone on the moon. Doesn’t that seem like a significant punishment?”

“Yes, it does certainly s-s-sound significant. But t-tell me, Twilight Sssparkle.” Celestia tilted her head to the side. The same way the real Celestia did during so many of their lessons. “If justice can b-be measured, then what are the c-c-consequences of it being mismeasured? If a punishment does not m-m-match the crime, then who sssuffers for it?”

“I suppose that would depend on whether the punishment was too long or too short.”

“Yes, that is a g-good observation. If the punishment is too light, it f-favors the c-criminal. If it is too h-heavy, then it favors the victim. Wh-who, do you think, deserves more consideration?”

“That is a false dichotomy. The criminal and the victim are equally important,” Twilight said.

“Are th-they? You think that a monster that k-k-kills an entire world, is worth the same sort of mmmercy and compassion, as all those they k-killed?” Celestia leaned forward. Her expression stayed the same, calm and neutral, but she placed one hoof on the table. “If a m-monster r-rips out her sister’s heart, you think that the two deserve equal treatment?”

“Everypony can be redeemed,” Twilight said. Her words sounded quieter than she had intended.

“Is th-that so?” Celestia slid her hoof to the side, and blood smeared across the table. “If I tore out your heart right now, what would you d-do with your d-dying breath? Would y-you forgive me? Would you c-curse me? Would you demand r-revenge?”

“That’s an appeal to emotion,” Twilight said. She tried to take her eyes off the smear of blood. It looked dark and granulated, like rust and dirt had been mixed into it. “One can’t know how they would react to something like that.”

“And what if some thing f-forced you back to life afterward? Would your p-perspective have ch-changed? Would you agree with your d-decision from before?” Celestia put her other hoof on the table, and another smear of contaminated blood trailed after it. “Would all your m-morals still be intact, after a monster wearing your sister’s s-skin stole your life away?”

“That’s another appeal to emotion. You can’t base an argument off of logical fallacies.”

Celestia leaned forward further. “You’d be surprised how important emotions become, after one has been betrayed so deeply.” She tapped her chestpiece. “Would you like to see the scar? I could open it up for you. Showw you h-how it looked when that monster ripped my heart out.” The peytral slid sideways. As it moved out of the way, the hairs of Celestia’s coat flicked into place, and flecks of blood decorated their tips.

The door slammed open, guards rushed in. “Is everything alright, Princess? We detected magic being cast.”

“It’s…fine,” Twilight said to the guards. She turned back to the table. She had leaned back in her chair without realizing it. Celestia had returned to a neutral sitting position. The blood on the table had disappeared. Celestia’s barding and coat had returned to normal. Normal for her.

“We were just finishing up.” Twilight gathered up her notes and left her chair.

“I e-e-enjoyed our talk, Twilight Sparkle.” Celestia smiled serenely. “You remind me of m-m-my former students. Academic and optimistic and n-n-naive. It is unfortunate I will never s-s-see them again.”

Twilight said nothing as she left the room.

Comments

[Kusac]

What matter more is the future, not the past. Nightmare moon can pay her penance better by serving Equestria in the new timeline. Celestia B has gone a little bit mad in her quest for vengeance.

There is nothing but death in the old timeline. The Celestia B should stay and heal her soul.

[Norad2]

“We were just finishing up.” Twilight gathered up her notes and left her chair.

One lavender alicorn on the nope train to Screwthatville.

[Heavy Weapons Guy]

7470760 I'm certain you meant ScrewthatIstan

[ClosetKnight]

7471493 you mispelled fuckthatistan

[Laluzi]

Honestly sticking by Nightmare Moon's side; she's broken but healed to an extent, and this Celestia is a much greater mess. But I'm getting the impression that this Celestia wasn't a... clean resurrect, especially given her opinion when she died. Maybe the loss of her heart is symbolic? Though both Celestias show a complete inability to empathize with Nightmare Moon (she did do horrible things, and none of it was entirely justifiable, but neither attempts to see things from her perspective at any point to try and make sense of it.)

[Hallucination]

Pet Sematary/Stephen King bullshit seriously inbound

[jothki]

The alternate Celestia's perspective on justice is interestingly revealing, especially since she herself is a victim.

[StormyVenture]

7473200
I'm going to say that the alternate Celestia here has the problem that she's been suspended in a way. Several thousands years later her wounds are still fresh, to her at least. That's one big problem. Perhaps it hasn't properly occurred to her that if their world is dead, then she'll merely be murdering her sister a couple millennia past the crime and sentencing herself to what might be, potentially, an eternity of solitary misery with no way to heal from it and no purpose other to linger on, alone.

[LeoneHaxor]

It's kinda like Discord stuck Celestia in the microwave.

[GordonFreebrony]

My guess so far is !Celestia ripped out Discords heart and is using it as her own, however the act of doing not only something so against her true nature, but also using such a chaotic deity's heart, who is almost exactly opposite her in most ways, ripped her psyche apart, while the chaos magic infused into her aura and poisoned her magic.

Thus she became obsessed with one goal, and only has bits and pieces of the original pony left intact

[Fallen Black Soul]

7491485 ever watched it follows?

[Fallen Black Soul]

A demented Celestia gives the socialistic Naive Twi a lesson on what and how reality is and how your thoughts on life and people can change. Even giving off that vibe of loathing.

[Skalula7]

7470760
7471493
7472606

[FOXTrot2]

Celestia, the ever truthful and callous.

Scare tactics, and fear.

[Gear_change]

7472606
No, she's on a one way trip to Nopesville, Nope Virginia in Nope Amerinope

[Csquared08]

That went exactly as well as expected.

[Venerable Ro]

Yup, definitely a revenant, her sole purpose for existing is to bring retribution upon her killer.

[Alitaher003]

9612328
Didn't Discord revive her because he was bored?

[Venerable Ro]

10668337
And what could cause more havoc than a vengeful revenant?