The bubble of Twilight's shield burrowed into the ground, inexorably propelled by the strength of Stella's spell even after the alicorn stopped pushing directly against it. From within the shield Twilight used her magic to direct herself forward, digging out the portion of ground directly below Stella, then she pushed herself down again. As she moved through the earth she used her magic to coat and stabilise the tunnels she dug, quickly creating a system of claustrophobic interconnected galleries big enough for a pony to walk through them, but far too steep. She shot out weaker copies of her shield to keep digging, and all along the way she left a series of magical mines and other traps. Then she propelled herself upwards once again and came through below Stella, digging into her hooves.
Stella was quick to reposition herself and twist around to press with her horn against the shield once more. Twilight was expecting it, and was already prepared. Taking advantage of Stella's reaction and the time it took, she let her shield come open around her and flip on itself, forming a bubble around Stella instead. Though Stella was quick to break through it, Twilight still had enough time to teleport her at the bottom of her impromptu tunnel system, and teleport herself somewhere inside it.
Stella looked around, lighting her horn to see through the darkness. Twilight's magic permeated the galleries, and teleportation was an impossibility, not to mention the explosive grid was still present. She tried to send out a ping to map the area, but the energy filling the very walls she was inside of scrambled her signal and returned only useless noise. Walking through them was the only way to actually see what they were like, and though she could force her way out differently Twilight's voice came to stop her before she could smash through the magic holding up the whole structure. "You wouldn't want to run away like that, would you? Unless you're quitting of course."
Stella grit her teeth in sheer frustration and anger. As if Twilight had in any way played fair until then. But she had a point, however small, and more importantly she'd successfully poked Stella's ego. Forcing her way out could be seen as an admission that she wouldn't be able to make it out normally, and there was little Stella could possibly hate more than the notion of her being unable to do something. Twilight thought that was a challenge, but she'd show her. She cast a spell ahead of herself, one that simulated a pony walking through the tunnel she was in, and watched as it triggered the magical explosions set up ahead. She smirked in annoyance. It would be easy.
Twilight, watching Stella while staying hidden, knew that was the case. It didn't matter. It wasn't about making Stella struggle, it was about keeping her occupied. And walking through the tunnels, though easy, would take time. It was all Twilight needed right then.
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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Go, Twilight!
Now that's inventive.
Looking a few chapters back Twilight comments on how amazing Stella's abilities actually are, and in retrospect, though it was easy to overlook due to how distracting her horrible personality is, she really is exceptional, so much so that they would have lost or suffered fatalities multiple times over if it wasn't for her. Without her their ability to avoid fatalities and win in any given confrontation is going to plummet.
Another thing that strikes me is how weird her attitude is compared to her abilities. She constantly thinks about doing things and then comes up with some reason why she isn't going to do them after all, but thinks to herself that she totally could do it if she wanted to but it isn't worth her effort because she's too awesome or whatever, and it sounds like she's just making excuses, but in reality she really could do whatever it was she thought of doing and get away with it. Even taking her complex about Twilight into account and ignoring any thoughts she has directly about Twilight it's really weird. The part where she was searching for Otty was the strangest, at that time she thought to herself specifically how she could find him and even wondered to herself why she wasn't doing it, and then still didn't do it while stomping around Ponyville in a rage because she wasn't finding him.
In retrospect, if I'm recalling correctly, most of her 'I could totally do this but I'm not going to for X reason' thoughts that aren't about hurting Twilight are about killing civilians or finding Otty. It's easy to make the leap to thinking that she has a degree of conscience from this, but her behaviour is generally so vile I'm wary about it. What she did to Chrysalis, physically and mentally torturing her into insanity before doing something probably worse than killing her, was straight up evil, and she spent a long time physically and mentally torturing Starlight for her own entertainment/therapy, and just recently broke Firecracker's wing and implanted a bomb in them. She also entertained herself by imagining tormenting desperate citizens for a chance to escape to Nightmare Moon's world from the Behemoth. She's cruel, sadistic, lacking in empathy, looks at other living beings like bugs and is generally a massive bitch.
However, every time she's had a chance to kill civilians she's not taken it. She could have killed Otty right away instead of escorting him home, and before the soup incident her excuses for not doing so weren't particularly convincing. She also could have killed Otty and Scarlet right away after Scarlet saw her but before she realised that Scarlet couldn't see 'her', still without causing herself many problems. Likewise, she came up with plausible sounding reasons to not kill civilians while using the scale bombs, but she still ultimately didn't kill any of them. The whole 'threatening to blow up 6 cities with ponies trapped inside' business throws a rather large spanner in the works, but even ignoring any possibility of her having something resembling a conscience I'm not convinced that she wasn't going to use magic to make it look like they'd been blown up while not actually killing them, for the simple reason that by the time she'd killed that many ponies her ability to take over from Twilight would have been in jeopardy unless she sealed off the entire country to stop the civilians actually left alive from fleeing, and people would do nothing but wish for Twilight back and negatively compare Stella to her. It'd make more sense to make a big song and dance about how Twilight couldn't protect her poor citizens if she needed to but luckily Stellaria is here to show everyone how incompetent she is and protect them where stupid useless Twilight couldn't.
As far as her reluctance to kill Otty goes, I do think she actually likes him despite his ability to see her and is at least partially self sabotaging in her attempts to kill him, perhaps because he seemed to like her as she was before her coil power activated.
Of course, I could be barking up the wrong tree entirely, and the reason she didn't kill Otty or any civilians is because her behaviour is being constrained by a script that whoever is pulling her strings is having her follow without her knowledge.
The question is, assuming that she isn't not slaughtering ponies left and right for reasons other than being forced not to by a higher power, does this and her reaction to Twilight's offer in chapter 955 before she had her flashback mean that she's theoretically, if not fully redeemable, not irredeemable?
Thinking back on it, it's not like she's ever had a real chance to change until now. The Tree of Harmony killed her before she could even do anything, then she was revived by an unknown party for nefarious reasons, then she was hanging around Chrysalis-which was her own fault, but still didn't help-then she was functionally on her own apart from her sessions with Starlight. In addition, the Tree of Harmony is a higher power that's supposed to be basically above reproach, and if more ponies knew about it and more time had passed it'd probably become something like a deity to pony society. Being rejected and killed by such a thing less than a day after being born must be particularly unhelpful for her ability to change for the better.
Within minutes of Twilight making her offer she was seriously wavering despite everything, and only stopped when she had a flashback to the Tree of Harmony killing her and whatever the other thing was. It does seem hopeful that if they could restrain her and block her access to magic and her coil they'd be able to get through to her, at least enough to stop her from rampaging around and hurting people, especially since they do genuinely have a lot to thank her for despite her repeatedly assaulting them and threatening their lives. In addition, she's useful from a purely utilitarian perspective as well, losing her permanently would be as big a blow as losing Sunburst ability wise and the information she has is valuable as well.
Of course that's easier said than done given her magic and her coil. Twilight herself has said that most ways they could deal with people are out with Stella, and the chapters set in the future show that she didn't come around and if she's imprisoned she either isn't talking or can't talk. If the usual ways are out, perhaps they could turn her to stone somehow without the Elements, although they'd have to seal the statue away carefully given how Chrysalis got free (why didn't they move Tirek and Cozy somewhere they could keep an eye on them after they saw that Chrysalis was out anyway?), or maybe the puzzle stallion could trap her inside one of his puzzle tunnels/rooms if that's a thing he can do, or him and the alleged future Twilight could boot her into the future the way he was so they have time to figure out a way to deal with her. If she's salvageable then it's time that they really need, both to figure out how to restrain her safely or get her to stand down and then to try and fix her mind.
I can't believe I actually feel bad enough for her to write all of this out despite how loathsome she's behaved ever since she appeared.