Twilight, Mare of Power

by Banops

Celestia's Conflict Pt 1

I had a friend indeed. A friend only I could see. She made waiting out the night bearable. So I thanked her for not hating me. Especially after I used her.

Then I had a headache. Only it was incurable by conventional means. My headache had become the bane of my existence. The sad news was that my headache was also my friend, my faithful student, my very own filly. I was almost unwilling to admit to myself that she wasn’t even my actual daughter. I sure loved her as one (I mean I do understand that I’m supposed to be the mother of all ponies but she’s sort of been the closest thing to my own daughter.)

Every second of the hours I had spent after that… what ever it was… had stolen my precious student’s body, had been hell in Equestria. Having a second conscience had proven to be the most pain I had ever experienced. It was a pain that went all the way to my very soul.

I couldn’t place the pain she caused me. Maybe, I thought, it was as if my very essence opened up a tub of ice cream then ate the entire container in one bite. So she was a similar feeling to a brain freeze but still not quite.

Or possibly she was like having a sinus infection. As if there was some sort of pressure built up behind my face, pressure that threatened to burst my face open, pressure that threatened to pop my eyes out of their sockets.

There were other side effects to having my friend with me like this. My nose bled, my ears bled, my eyes were constantly watering, although I had done my fair share of crying, especially with the pain I had been in. My mane, which I thought was a strange side effect, had stopped flowing, and actually just fell limp by my face.

So as I paced around the castle for hours and hours, trying to think of what to do and of what had happened, I spoke, in my head, to my friend Twilight Sparkle. We both agreed that she needed her body back. And above all else we needed to stop the being that had possessed her body.

The amount of magical power it was capable of using had astonished me when I first saw it. I couldn’t understand why it hadn’t crushed me, but it made its intension clear from our first encounter. It planned on, not waging war with us, but exterminating us, and I wasn’t about to underestimate its power.

Shining Armor had a warrant for the arrest of Twilight’s possessed body.

Thinking about that reminded me of how only hours ago, I had to tell Shining Armor what was going on. Being the captain of the Royal Guard, he was responsible for handling any and every transgression of this magnitude; he had helped when Chrysalis threatened my people. So I thought he wouldn’t take the news about his sister well.

My mind jumped back a few hours, remembering how the conversation went.

***

Luna and I crept down a long, narrow hallway at what must have been one in the morning. At the end of the hall there was a door, the door that lead to Cadence and Armor’s sleeping quarters. Luna stayed glued to me the whole walk, pressed to me like my shadow. She kept whispering questions like, “What aren’t you telling me?” “Where were you before this?” and “What has Twilight done?”

As we reached the door, I turned my head to face my sister. “I will explain, sister, but we must bring Shining into it as well so just be patient.” I said in a hushed voice. The thought of telling them what had happened made my stomach churn, but it didn’t look as if I had much choice. And on top of my guilty conscience, I had the conscience of twilight crammed in my skull too. I felt her sense of betrayal, and then I felt her understanding. It was as if she knew that I had used her, but at the same time understood and forgave me.

That idea brought up another unsettling thought, maybe she could read my mind, see my memories, know things that only I knew. I certainly could read hers or at least her emotion, as I hadn’t really spent time testing our situation.

I turned my head to the heavy wooden door that separated us from the slumbering Captain and Princess. Although from the sound of it, they weren’t asleep. I could here voices from the other side. At least I wouldn’t be waking them up.

I extended a forehoof and gently knocked on the door, shifting nervously in place. I felt a cold sweat break out on my forehead and my headache was getting worse. All the stress was making me feel sick to my stomach, which was a bit out of character for me, but I was finding it increasingly hard to maintain a sense of control.

I heard some shuffling around from behind the door followed by the voice of Shining Armor. He muttered something at first, which I didn’t pick up, than he called out to the knocking sound, “Yes… who is it?” I sensed a bit of irritation in his voice.

I leaned closer to the door and spoke to where the couple on the other side could just understand me, “Its Celestia and Luna…” I took a short pause to gather my thoughts. I was about to say more but then Shining spoke again.

“Oh. Its you.” He said losing the sound of irritation. There was another pause and I could hear more movement from behind the door. Then he continued sounding as sincere as he could, “Come in, the door isn’t locked.”

I held my breath for a second, and put my forehoof on the door handle. I let out the breath, trying to prepare myself for what I had to say, and then shouldered the door open.

On the other side of the door lay the married ponies, bodies mostly hidden under the covers of their royalty-sized bed. Both of them were awake, though my niece didn’t seem to notice our intrusion much. Shining Armor had scooted to the back end of his bed so that he sat propped up against it’s backing. Cadence lay next to him, eyes only half open, a foreleg wrapped around her husband, and her face half buried in his chest. They looked… peaceful. This made it even harder to talk to them, to be the barer of bad news. I hated to ruin this intimate moment of theirs.

I must have been zoned out for second. Luna nudged me and gestured to the couple laying in the bed. “Well?” Luna whispered to me.

Oh yeah, the reason I had come here.

I cleared my throat, and then spoke to the stallion that sat up in bed, “Shining Armor I need to speak to you, now, its urgent.”

“Anything you need Princess, what is it?” He responded sounding serious. He didn’t move from the bed.

“Could you please step out here with us. Its about your sister.” At the mention of his sister, he perked up.

“Twilight? What’s wrong, did something happen?” He still didn’t get out of bed, but when his questions were met with silence and grim looks, he scrambled to get up, letting his wife’s hoof slide off his chest and onto the bed. She reached out for him as he got up from the bed and put on a playfully sad face. Shining armor then turned towards his wife and whispered to her. “It’s ok, I’ll be right back.” He said softly to her, and then he brushed back her mane and planted a kiss on her forehead. Shining Armor made his way over towards us. As he approached he noticed my battered face. He started to ask, “Princess, your face what hap…?” but I cut him off.

“I will explain, follow me into the hallway.” I said to him.

The three of us walked hurriedly into the hallway.

Once we were out in the hallway and the door was shut, I took a step back, nervously, from the two ponies I was with. I looked at both of them, with a look of distaste and discomfort, a look that reflected how I felt about what I had done.

“Well?” prodded Luna

I took a deep breath, looking at both the ponies I was about to disappoint.

“I…” I started choking up. My throat grew sore with the anticipation. In the back of my head, I could hear a voice, Twilights voice, pushing me onwards, trying to coax me into telling the truth.

But I didn’t want to. How could I tell them the truth? The truth was hard enough on me as it was.

“I… I messed up. Armor, I messed up.”

And then I told them everything. I told them about my secret lab, my plans to ‘make Equestria a better place.’ Then I told them about what happened to twilight, how her body was stolen. I told them how it was my fault, how I should never have done this.

By the end of my explanation my eyes were closed and fresh tears had found their way on to my already tear stained face. I couldn’t bear to look at their faces. I was sure they would have been mortified by what I had told them.

For several seconds I was met with silence and I slowly opened my eyes to gauge their reactions.

Luna stared at me, her mouth slightly open, completely speechless. Despite all the build up to my story, she couldn’t seem to believe what I had said.

Shining on the other hoof stared at the ground, not saying anything. He maintained a look of contemplation. Or anger, I couldn’t tell. He was Twi’s brother and I felt it necessary to comfort him. I took a step towards him and put a hoof on his back.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…” my voice trailed off and he looked into my eyes. His expression changed. A faint but fake smile curved up on his lips and he spoke to me.

“You act as if Twilight were dead.” He said with a quivery voice. He didn’t follow up with anything else so I tried to speak again.

“Yes, of course, well we need to find her um…” I couldn’t think of a more appropriate word than ‘body.’

He shook my hoof off his back and began to walk in the other direction.

“Yes, Princess, I know.” He said coldly, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a job to do…” he gave a pause and then added even colder “In Celestia I trust.” He dropped his half smile, then turned around and walked away from us, not towards his bedroom. He was leaving, I knew, to go fix my mess. He said he had a job to do, and a job is what he was doing.

After Luna and I watched him leave, Luna turned to me, a look of disappointment on her face. She came close to me and raised her hoof as if she were going to slap me.

Ah here it came, she was going to give me what I deserved. No I deserved more. Being hit by my sister surely wasn’t enough to pay the price for what I did. I braced for her hoof to come crashing into my face. I closed my eyes again and looked away.

But she didn’t hit me. Instead, she lowered her hoof onto my back and brought me in to a hug.

Then, Luna whispered to me, “It’ll be alright sister, we can fix this…” and after a second of silence she added, “I guess we’re even now.”

What could she have meant by that? Was she referencing her bout as Nightmare Moon or something?

***

It was about five in the evening and I still hadn’t gotten any sleep. This whole time I had been pacing frantically around the hallways. I couldn’t take my mind off the problems I had been facing, not even for a minute.

Luna, my sister, she was so sweet. She offered to perform the sun rising ritual for me. I accepted her offer, not without hesitation.

Eventually, one of my guards approached me levitating a message. He gave me a rolled piece of parchment, which was sealed with some string. After I thanked the guard for giving me the message and sent him on his way, I ripped the string off the paper and unrolled it.

The message read:

"Dear our most blessed Princess Celestia,

We are contacting you to inform you of the capture of the criminal TWILIGHT SPARKLE."

I skipped through most of the letter. Where did it say she was, who was holding her now?

Then I looked at the bottom of the scroll.

"Forever in your service, Ponyville"

She had already been captured?! A sense of relief washed over me and I could feel the feeling in Twilights consciousness as well.

Well, I had many questions for this Lucy, as it called itself.

But I wondered how it was captured so quickly. It was the most powerful magical creature I had ever encountered.

Well I guess I’d never know unless I’d visit Ponyville.

Ponyville? The irony was not lost on me.

Hold on Twi I’ll get your body back.

Comments

[Banops]

Well I did plan on this chapter being much longer, but due to class taking up my time, I decided to release this chapter in two parts so that I can finish the second one.

And I find this to be my most implausible chapter so far. I... really don't know how someone (or somepony) might react in these situations.

Anyways I hope you enjoy(ed) it.

[Lamaar]

I really enjoy this story, but the sometimes-off punctuation make it read really weird. I would fave if you found an editor.

[Banops]

1184486 Hey I'm glad you like my story.

I am still new to the FiM Fiction community so I haven't really found someone to edit for me yet. But I do understand the need for one since no matter how many times I reread my own story, errors pop up.

[Fallen Knight]

I really hope Twi gets her body back.

[Wing Dancer]

Cadance was off character. For one, she seemed totally oblivious to Celestia's state. Then, at the mention of Twilight, she kept ignoring. What kind of a loving foalsitter is she?

Plus, I imagine, even in the 'state' they were in, Shining wouldn't be so disrespectful as to not stand at full attention(unintentional pun ) in the presence of his superior. From what I gather he isn't roaylty, and thus still should respect her in any given way.

Other than that, waiting for next chapter

[Banops]

1192390
Alright, I will work on these problems for future chapters.

Next chapter will have less variables in it so I should be able to spit out something more interesting and believable.

As always, its great to have your input!