Faithless

by Cytotoxin

One and Only

Faithless.

In all fairness, it was more then a little fun. More then a little, indeed. Who`d know physical pleasure could be so... well, pleasurable? She glanced to the side, looking over the pink fluffy mane jutting from the covers next to her. Pinkie Pie. Do you even comprehend what you`ve just been doing? Beyond the obvious, that is? Oh, you`re certainly quite an experienced mare with practical side of things, but theoretical?... Did it ever occur to you that you`re cheating on princess Celestia? With her, ahem, faithful student, even?

Twilight looked upwards. Soon, the suppression field around the room would dissipate, letting out all the thoughts, feelings, pleasures Pinkie had currently bottled in her head. She planned for this, planned studiously and bitterly. After all, it was something she was good at. Studying. Observing. Learning. Planning. Doing, if it came to that. She had her doubts when she found out, of course. To think that Celestia would take Pinkie Pie of all ponies as her royal concubine?... But the reality disagreed. Pinkie Pie was permitted the access to the celestial body... no pun intended. Leaving her, Twilight, to watch.

She sighed, and reached out for the nighttable, pulling her saddlebag open and pulling out a cigar. A habit she picked only recently, it was of immense calming effect on her mind - and Twilight knew she needed to be rational. Pinkie wouldn`t mind. She knew Twilight smoked... and made many many many bad puns about how smokin` unicorn was. More importantly, Pinkie was accustomed enough to the smell of tobacco smoke that it wouldn`t interrupt her sleep. Still... Reaching out with magic, Twilight pushed the window open, letting in the cool morning breeze. It was less then hour before sunrise, a perfect time to settle some old scores.

With nearly inaudible pop, the field burst, emotions, dreams, smells surging out of the room in a huge wave. She wondered idly if Celestia would be bowled over by the wave or merely staggered. Or would be totally unphased. She had the habit of doing that. A louder pop sent the show rolling. Twilight smirked slightly as she saw the flash of teleportation. All according to the plan. She could see the shock and anger written all over Celestia`s face, could see the tears and she relished in successful betrayal. Alicorn`s horn flashed... And Pinkie Pie disappeared. Judging by Celestia`s gasp, it was not what she expected at all.

"She`s exactly where you wanted to send me." - offered Twilight, cloud of smoke wafting out of her mouth along with raspy voice - "Hope you can create an air bubble on the moon within a minute." Apparently, Celestia could. Still, Twilight just sat on the bed, puffing on her cigar. She was well aware that by now Celestia had poked around the magic field of the room and found the truths.

""...What have you done, Twilight? WHY?" - alicorn offered incredulously, taking a step closer to the bed. Purple mare smiled. It was not a nice smile. "I`ve cast The Mirror on myself. And yes, I`m well aware of the price tag that spells comes with." - she replied, taking another drag on the cigar - "And I`ll pay gladly."

- Why did you do this, Twilight? Why would you betray me like that?

- Tit for tat, princess. Tit for tat. One can subsist on faith for only so long. Eventually, even the hope runs out, and the love turns to hatred.

- But why!?

- You still, don`t see, do you? Years upon years. I`ve had my faith in you. I believed you were testing me, helping me to improve. To be worthy of you. And then... you pick Pinkie over me. That hurt, Celestia. I`ve tried to make peace with it. I`ve thought that maybe it`s just a passing fad. But no, it was solid. I`ve thought that maybe you wouldn`t limit yourself to just one... But no again, you made it painfully obvious nopony else needs to apply.

- Twilight... I never expected of you to become my concubine. I could never ask that of you.

- AND THAT`S PRECISELY WHY. If you wouldn`t have me, no matter what concessions I made?... I had someone who`s yours instead.

- ...You... Just because she`s my... Twilight, you`ve gone insane.

- Astute observation. I`ve been going insane for years, Celestia. You never noticed. Or perhaps you did, but couldn`t be bothered to give me something I could hold on to. If Pinkie Pie was the only thing I could find some matter of solace in, just how far gone I am?... Clearly, beyond recovery.

- Twilight, please. Let go of The Mirror. I can help you. It`s not too late.

- After I forced your hoof like that? After you stormed in here, fully intending to send me to the moon? I don`t think it`s going to work.

- I apologise, I was acting rashly! I had no idea it was something like that...

- And that`s why I will say no. Because you had no idea. Or could not be bothered to address it. You are immortal. You could`ve humored my affection. It`s not like you`ll ever run out of time. It`s not like I would`ve lasted all that long either. Not with all the magic experiments I`ve undertook on your request. Were you even aware I had just a few years left to live even if I were to never cast another spell from now on anyways?

- I`m sorry, I didn`t know!

- Pinkie did, though. Which is why we`re where we are now. Because she is willing to brave your rage to try and give me some peace. If I had more time? If I had any control over love? I`d love her. I`d fall in the love with her the moment I met her and I`d never let her go. Because she could see. But alas, I`m not in control. I have to love you. And hate you for never noticing.

- Twilight, I never wanted you to... to hate me. I didn`t know my tryst with Pinkie would hurt you so badly. It all started so silly I never had the reason to pause and think just how serious things became between me and her.

- Do believe me, I`m well aware of that. I`ve tried to let you know how I feel about it. I`ve tried to work around it, too. I even sent you a treatise on it. How it was customary for you to have numerous lovers, how your students invariably were your lovers at one point or another. How indicative of a trend it were. And let me tell you, your reply left me smitten. Shattered to pieces, even. It`s not every day your beloved tells you "Haha, don`t be silly, of course I`m not going to be your lover." Really puts things in perspective.

- Wait so... so that`s what it was about!? I thought you were worried you HAVE to.

- And never paused to think I might WANT TO? I`m not the most secretive pony in the world. Anyone with ears and eyes could tell what exactly I feel about you. For crying out loud, Pinkie Pie came to ME. ME! Asking if it`s OK if she continues sleeping with you.

- So why didn`t you tell her not to do it?

- On what grounds? If Pinkie knew, what doubt there could be you knew as well? No, it was the final proof that you just don`t want me. So what choice did I have, really?

- Oh Twilight... I`m so sorry. But, I swear... I had no idea you felt this way about me. I never noticed. Please, let go of The Mirror. There`s a lot we need to... to fix.

- The first thing you need to do is to recover Pinkie. If I`m not mistaken, you`ve used the Binary Banishment? Why don`t you use it on me again to set the things in motion?

- ...Fine, but as soon as Pinkie is here, I want you to drop The Mirror.

- Very well.

Sighing, Celestia rubbed the wetness off her cheek as she prepared to recast banishment spell. She was vaguely aware she`s been crying, but her mind was mostly in a state of shock. Had Twilight been in love with her all that time? Had she really been so blind to miss that? Did she cause Twilight to try and use spell that destroys one`s body in order to work? Madness. Pure madness. She tossed the banishment spell at Twilight, expecting The Mirror to bounce it right onto Pinkie. Instead, Twilight... vanished.

Twilight grinned. Moon. She dropped The Mirror just before Celestia cast her spell. She managed to hide it from Celestia, but her body was mostly gaseous by the time she arrived to the moon, more then half-way to becoming ghost. Amusingly enough, Pinkie Pie was still right in front of her. Twilight couldn`t help but giggle as she seeped into the air bubble, surrounding Pinkie Pie in a lavender mist.

"..T-twilight?" - offered party pony nervously as the mist started seeping through her coat. "Shh... It`s alright, Pinkie. Now I can be with you, forever." - she couldn`t even tell where did the voice of Twilight Sparkle came from. Air swirling, she felt herself hurled though the space, ending up sprawled in front of Celestia, coughing and hacking. "Hahhh... Oh, no, that party wasn`t fun at all." - pink mare moaned, looking up. Celestia looked relieved but also very sad. "Pinkie Pie... Oh, I am so glad you`re OK. Did you happen to see Twilight Sparkle up there?" - she offered, leaning down to pick up and hug the pony.

Pinkie sneezed, her head jerking violently as the horn suddenly popped out of her forehead. "Twilight? Yep, sure did! I think she`s a part of me now!" - she offered cheerfully, looking at Celestia. Day princess backed away a little, her eyes taking in the changes. She was Pinkie Pie, of course, but... but with unicorn horn. And just a bit darker coat that had almost a lilac sheen. She was Pinkie... but she was also Twilight now. Letting out a nervous chuckle, Celestia looked up, in the eyes of mare she would have to love from then on.

Comments

[Gabriel LaVedier]

Wow. Interesting love triangle. And a very unique resolution. Frankly, I'm curious about this "Mirror" spell that Twilight was using.

[Cytotoxin]

1154468

Exactly what it says on the tin. It reflects all magic - any magic. When used without a specific target, as Celestia thought, it just reflects magic into nothingness, along with dispersing the mirror user there as well. Twilight subverts this by explicitly pointing Pinkie as the target of mirroring, so both Celestia`s spells and Twilight`s "bleedoff" seep right into Pinkie.

[Gabriel LaVedier]

1154493

Ahhh, clever. And this way, Twilight can be with Pinkie forever. That's kind of sweet. and with Celestia, since in this reality she loves Celestia too. So, it all has a somewhat happy ending.

[Cytotoxin]

1154511

Not so happy for Celestia.

As Twilight mentioned, she is too far gone to actually comprehend better, and Pinkie Pie does not even operate on the laws of logic per ce. Celestia, on other hand? She`s stuck with twice the insanity now. And all the magic prowess of Twilight and reality-breaking of Pinkie crammed into one pony. Oh, and let`s also not forget Celestia would feel guilty and very unsettled about what had became of her student AND of her lover - resulting pony may identify herself as Pinkie Pie, but in truth she`s neither.

[Gabriel LaVedier]

1154555

Ahh, yes. Twilight Did mention she had gone insane. And that kind of controlled insanity of cold calculation. Now Celestia has lost everyhting. and in a strange way... she deserves it. Depending on which view you take, she either broke Twilight's heart, or she, by existing and being so attractive, kept Twilight from a real relationship with Pinkie (Both by enrapturing Twilight and by taking Pinkie for herself.) Then again, in a certain sense, it was all of those things. This IS a very complex take of emotions.

[Cytotoxin]

1154655

The lost everything is open for debate. It`s possible that what remains of Pinkie can be enough to entice Celestia enough to be at peace with what remains of Twilight in the fusion.

[Gabriel LaVedier]

1154690

There is that, too. But things have certainly changed completely.

[PineapplePizza]

A pony with Pinkie's personality and Twilight's powers?
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I can't see why Celestia is disappointed with this turn of events.

[Cytotoxin]

1170772

More like, shocked.

The idea is to showcase that Celestia is still just a pony, regardless of her divine powers - and just as capable of overlooking the important things as anypony else.

[YetAnotherBrony]

Not bad. Certainly not boring =D.

The main problem with this story is we don't see Twilight progress toward insanity at all. Thus when we see the cigar wielding insane pony whom we are told as Twilight, bs detectors start immediately going off.

Other then that the only problems I can see are small things like using too many lists. I understand this temptation, but list should be used sparingly as they aren't nearly as effective as they feel like they are when writing. Also there are some sentences that are convey no new information. For example, "In all fairness, it was more then a little fun. More then a little, indeed." Again while I understand the temptation there is no need for "More then a little, indeed." As a side note should that then be than? Idk. I'm no expert.

Interesting concept anyway, and the resolution is more than a little interesting. It just feels like this story would need to be much longer to really work.

Again sorry that the one fic of mine you happened to stumble upon was an experiment.

[Cytotoxin]

1271130

Tit for tat.

The thing is, we all know that for Twilight it`s only a few short steps from sanity to gibbering lunacy. And Celestia HAS to be well aware of it, given that she had to personally intervene in Lesson Zero. Yet, she takes no steps to curb Twilight`s tendencies towards insanity - a simple inquiry would`ve revealed more then enough to figure things out.

So, either Celestia is intentionally letting Twilight become increasingly mentally unstable, or she does not notice what`s going on. I wanted to use the second version of it. It`s usually the people closest to us we are clueless about, and it would fit for Celestia to be utterly unaware of what goes on Twilight`s mind.

[YetAnotherBrony]

1273168

Tit for tat? Not at all. That implies two things neither of which are true. Firstly it implies that that particular story I cared much about. Secondly it implies criticism implies one doesn't like what they read. No, this was enjoyable. I was just bored and decided to look into the stories of a random commenter.

That said, I see what your saying but beg to differ. Lesson zero does reveal a certain amount of instability in Twilight's character. However that is one episode out of fifty two. Further it is implied that time passes between episodes and she is likely pretty sane between them. Yes she did temporarily go a bit insane, but it was temporary, and even still it wasn't nearly as insane as she is here.

I'm not sure she is nearly as unstable as this suggests. On this point though I imagine we'll have to agree to disagree. Regardless of whether or not it is evident, seeing it progress would make this more enjoyable.

[Cytotoxin]

1274517

I`m not saying Twilight is constantly careening on the edge of insanity - but she treads that much closer to the edge then most other ponies in the show. Think about it. If she was driven to cast a Want It, Need It spell just to create something to report to Celestia about... If she cared that much about Celestia`s opinion that the merest hint of disappointment tosses her straight over the edge?

It`s not the only situation, either. Look how she lapses into insanity briefly at the end of Swarm of the Century. Face expressions are often more indicative then words said, and when she proclaims her plan to build an exact replica of Ponyville within five minutes, she looks positively deranged.

Now, let`s assume that Twilight is in love with Celestia - and Celestia fails to comprehend or even take notice. Would it be too far for Twilight to spiral into calculated lunacy? Putting all of her considerable intellect into devising a way to be with Celestia somehow, anyhow?

But I do not want to show how she treks into madness. This story has a bigger point, after all. No, the reader is supposed to be slapped in the face with Twilight`s madness just like Celestia was. Out of the blue, yet logical in hindsight.

[TheWanderingPikachuPony]

Read this kinda some time ago, but now re-read it. Very... confusing, but I see what you were going for, reading the comments. Definitely have to say you pulled it off well, even if the way you wrote the ponies speaking and some lines were a bit confusing. Twilight definitely went mad not getting Celestia's love, just cause she thought Twilight didn't want it or felt pressured to give it, in accordance with her past students being lovers as well, apparently? Though I love the adorkable unicorn more than any other pony in the show, I have to agree she does have her moments where can be weird or crazy. dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Twilight_Sparkle_lolface.png Nice read for what it was, even if not quite my cup of tea; but hey, I read it since am up for reading maybe anything if sounds enticing enough.

[Cytotoxin]

1620485

Heh.

Actually, deciding if Twilight is really insane or not is up to reader. From one point, she certainly pulls off some crazy stuff, from other - she does it in calculated, measured, almost rational way.

[Hurgusburgus]

Well, this was quite something.

[KiraFan05]

One of my favorite movies of all time is Seven. It's so interesting to see how some of the characters in that movie are felled not by the villain, but by themselves.

Gods, this isn't Seven.

Understand, this is just my personal feelings on it, but I hated it. Twilight's entire drive in this story is a farce. She doesn't love Celestia. She desires her. Huge difference. Not to mention all she needed to do was just tell Celestia how she felt. You had who knows how long to just sit down with her and let her know, instead of this subtle, indirect shit she tried. In the end, though, all she did was hurt someone who's only crime was not noticing her rather subtle hints of interest. I honestly hope Celestia finds a way to get her out of Pinkie, and leaves that selfish bitch to rot.

[Cytotoxin]

5841609

I did mention more then once that this version of Twilight is NOT exactly of sound mind, didn`t I? It stands to reason you`d find her reasons to be asinine. If anything, I`d be worried if you thought this Twilight has any rationale to her decision... And I`d recommend anyone who does to seek professional help.