Celestia sat upon her throne, looking blankly at the stain glass windows in her throne room. Her eyes fell upon one which depicted the elements of harmony defeating Nightmare Moon and restoring Luna back to her kind self. She stared at it, transfixed, but then looked away hurriedly, she wanted nothing to do with her those accursed elements, they had taken too much from her, she couldn't bear their sight. She could faintly hear a slight murmuring, as if someone was talking. She ignored this, and allowed thought to engulf her mind. I wish I destroyed those things, at least with Luna banished, no one had to die! Her brain rattled with anger, as it had for many months. The speaking got louder, and the princess did her best to drown it out, she had no interest in what it had to say. Those blasted necklaces! They ruined everything, I wish that little bastard had simply stayed a depressed filly on pissant farm! She could feel herself seething with rage, this whole year had too much, she was almost relieved it was to come to an end soon.
The sound of hoofs retreating down to the entrance echoed throughout the hall. She felt a hoof on her left shoulder. She looked over to see her sister, Luna, looking at her worriedly,"Sister, that was the head of the guard, she's been here a half an hour." Celestia sighed,"Just send her in already." Luna nodded, and motioned for one of the guards to go tell the colt who had just left of the princess's orders. He nodded and hurriedly trotted to the exit, throwing the door open. "I can see her, if you want, I know how you detest her presence, no one would think less of you, none of us want that…that lunatic within a mile of our personage." Celestia shook her head,"I've never let anyone else make my decisions for me,I don't intend to start, besides, next time we see her face, it'll be rolling on the ground, next to her." Luna nodded,"You've been very strong through all this, I know the loss of life hit you hardest." Celestia looked at her solemnly,"There was nothing strong about it, I can't let myself mourn like the rest of you, or reel in disgust, I must do what I've always done, look after this land, during the good and the bad."
The sound of the door opening broke them of their intentions for further conversation. If that hadn't the sound of chains rattling would of, as well as how they sounded dragging on the floor. Dragging them was a mare. She was average height., and looked like she hadn't eaten in a a good amount of time. She sported a pink coat, and a darker pink mane, which was pin straight, and fell down her face like a waterfall, parted by her ear on one side. She had sky blue eyes, that looked around the room with incredible speed, darting from one sight to the next. Her face was contorted into a smile, a sickly smile, it lacked any joy, or other emotions associated with the facial expression. It, as well as her eye, portrayed something else. Sadness, and madness, and pain, and hunger, it mixed together, and it made her look like a caged beast in a zoo.
She approached the throne with four guards, two on either side of her. They all wanted desperately to flee, they knew what she had done. The ones furthermost back looked at her flank in morbid fixation. Where her cutie mare would have been, was a sickening display of scars, jagged lines in her flesh which had taken desecrated her cutie mark. In these lines, something was written, a small little sentence. She had lived by this. The fallen and died looking at it. The royal guard had burned into their memory. "Life Is A Party!" was carved their, it stuck out because it was so profoundly carved, It would had been carved over and over, she had divulged, to make sure she could always look at it.
She shuffled forward rather aimlessly. It was really more of a bounce, she half jumped forward, this strange pink mare. She seemed to revel in the fear that radiated of the guards and permeated every orifice of their minds. As she bounced, she shot a look over to the guard closest to her face, who happened to be looking the other way. She bounce her head towards him, and as he leaped from her, the entire escort besides him reacted in a way befitting that which would be acceptable when dealing with a rabid lion, one who hadn't been fed recently. They all pulled on her chains, dragging her to the ground, and gave her a sharp look, each and every one of them. She in the meantime was giggling uncontrollably. She looked at one, and made a biting motion with her head, and went into a hysterical laughing. They all jumped a little at this, and one muttered something to himself, something rather inaudible.
The sisters watched in a shared disgust. Loathing radiated from them, everyone could feel it. They stared at her with looks of malice, as the escort veritably dragged her, she was barely able to stifle her laughter, as she was practically tossed in front of the sisters. Celestia grimaced, as the mare, who was on her knees, as the guards had literally forced her to kneel, got to her feet, and beamed upward. The princess forced her mouth to open,as Luna passed her a scroll, which when opened had the title,"Pinkamena Diane Pie." scrolled in elegant letters, she spewed out the unavoidable words like bile. "Pinkamena Diane Pie." she began before being interrupted by the shackled mare . "Hiya princess, how've you been?" her voice was rather ragged, and course, like she had been using it to payed no mind,"You have been convicted of 15 counts of murder, 15 counts of torture, 15 counts of abduction, 15 counts of corpse desecration, 3 accounts of escaping from federal prison, 5 counts of assault, 2 counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and 1 count of lying before a federal judge, for this you have been sentenced to death, which is to be carried out exactly a year after you were sentenced, this is your final appeal."
The mare began laughing again, and Luna rolled her eyes, and leaned into her sister's ear, whispering,"She's always like this sister, she's a madmare, and from the reports of the resident psychologist, is incapable of defending her own case, let us stop wasting time reading the charges and just have her executed tomorrow, I can make the necessary arrangements within the next several hours." Celestia sighed,"We would be no better than her, she has the right to plead her case, we have the right to send her to death once she has been given this ."Luna scoffed,"If you want to listen to a lunatic then be my guest, have somepony fetch me for the verdict." with that the youngest of the two sisters trotted off up the to her quarters. "Ooooh, hey princess, I got a game, I call, why is Luna sad! You wanna go first!" Celestia held back the urge to say something of a less than polite nature, she wanted to just get this over with,"Pinkamena, you have been summoned here to plead against your sentencing, make your plea." Pinkie looked at the stained glass window to her right, it depicted Discord being reverted back to stone, with the elements around him,she sighed, as nostalgia filled her mind,"I wonder how the girls are doing." Celestia looked over to where Luna had left, she was right she doesn't give a damn."Do you have a plea?"
The former party pony shook her head,"Of course not, I have no defense Tia." the final word rolled off her tongue with a certain malice. Celestia's face was a mix of suppressed surprise at the informal way she was addressed and growing annoyance at the situation,"It would help your case if you simply gave a formal confession, or a reason for these crimes."
The pink mare laughed at this,"Crimes? Your ancient Tia, can't you appreciate what they are? I made their decrepit flesh into art." The alicorn motioned for the guards to alert the carriage it was to make a return trip soon, and turned back to the killer in front of her. There was something different about her. Her posture was more aggressive,that was the first thing to notice. Her head was positioned upward, and she starred at the princess with a look of intense satisfaction, her face was contorted into a smirk unbefitting her. If you looked behind those blue eyes, you could see her mind at work, her demeanour was abhorrently more conceivable as a sadist of the highest caliber then when she first burst in the doors.
It was unnerving to Celestia, beyond description, it disturbed and perplexed her. They said she was a madmare, perhaps this is an insanity induced shift in mindset, they say it can happen to freaks like this. The thought comforted her, but she still had a tinge of fear in the back of her mind. It was like those chains were not there, like she was toying with her, and ready to pounce at any second. "You're wasting time, either plead a case or get to writing you will." Pinkie fell into a fit of laughter, slumping unto the ground, and rolling in her own madness, causing the chains to clank together, the sound was most agonizing to the ears. Celestia sighed,"Pinkie, we have a plea bargain worked out, we know you had a partner." Pinkie got to her feet, surprise plastered to her face,"What?" the alicorn looked at her,"If you tell us who it was, we will revoke the verdict, you will be allowed to live until you die of old age." Pinkie starred back at the ancient equine,"You wanna know my partner, here allow me to enlighten you Tia."
There was a sense of both apprehension and excitement in the room. If she really had a partner, the lives of innocent civilians were on the line, and the families of the fallen deserved closure. The guard force had taken the worst blow from this entire ordeal, they were deemed incompetent, catching this mystery killer would be redemption. Celestia herself was hoping she would have remained silent, she didn't want to see the equine who committed these atrocities to pony kind, why should she want to see the one who would help. To be frank, the claim she made was a lie, it was not but a theory, and now, the very idea she had so desperately hoped was not but a theory seemed as if it were to be fact.
The pink mare looked around, gauging the spectacle, like a showpony does before a big finale, she seemed to get satisfaction, as eyes followed hers, and as she beamed at the rest of the room, it was like she was silently laughing at them, as if she was howling with joy at the reaction to her words. She opened her mouth, and took at deep breath, and exhaling before speaking,"He is the one under your bed at night, the thing within the shadows, that moves for just a moment, and freezes, so that all you know of him is the corner of your vision, he is the whisper that isn't said, and the one who snatches your foals and fillies, and hides them, so that they are forever lost to you, he is me, and am him!" she fell to the floor laughing like the mamare she was, and Celestia rolled her eyes,"Your gibberish is not appreciated, you will be executed within the week, on the day of your sentencing, as was the sentence, you will be held in the prison you are accustomed to for the rest of your days, the fine that is to be paid for a legal will and testament is still in place, and you will have to meet it within two days of your execution, we are done here." Celestia go up from her throne, and begin walking to the stairway leading to her chambers, the sound of rattling chains behind her.
A servant made his way towards the princess, and used his magic to unfurl a long scroll,"Princess, you still have several more meetings, ponies are expecting you to be there." Celestia shot a look at him like daggers,"Then tell them I will meet them tomorrow, damn it! I should have the right to a moment of respite." He nodded feverently, noticeably shaken with the princess's rage, something in which no one had truly been acquainted with in this world. He and the alicorn parted ways, and she ascended the stairs, passing through a large corridor upon her arrival at their top, and finally to a pair of doors at the end. The one on the left barred a replica of her cutie mark, the right Luna's, and she opened the former.
The room she had entered into was large, to put it simply. It had walls lined with bookcases, filled with volumes of great variety, from poetry to history, drama to comedies. A large bed sat in the center of the room, with a luxurious bed spread coloured a pale white. At the back of the room was a balcony, which allowed one to gaze upon the splendor of Canterlot. She threw herself unto the aforementioned bed, and would lay sprawled across it for several hours, trying desperately to achieve the blissful salvation from this world that is sleep, to no avail. By the time she could bare this attempt at rest for no longer it was long past the time in which her sister had raised the moon, and dropped the sun beyond the horizon. More and more Luna threw this orb out of the horizon, and more and more it came up late.
Celestia arose from her hellish state of mock relaxation, and found herself on her hooves, walking to the balcony. She reached the edge, and stood over it, looking at the night sky. The stars fascinated the mare. In all her years, she had never had the time to truly find out what they were, except that they were. That was it, they just were. Perhaps Luna knew, though honestly Celestia and her sister never had many conversations of any kind, and asking her anything to do with the sky, or the moon, upset her, to varying extents. She wasn't whole, was what the ancient goddess of sun thought, she had been alone for a thousand years, she was never expected to be the same, but she was so different, it upset her sister, saddened her.
The night sky allowed the alicorn to pour unto it her sorrow, as tears did fall out of her eyes, and clung to her face, as if even an expression of her agony was to pity her. I've let my people down! I've let the elements down, and I let the families down! I am no better than that… that thing that was dragged into my castle today. She sobbed for a moment or two, and remembered how she had been so blind. Shining Armour said it was most likely an increase in Timber Wolve aggression. It was feasible, after all, they were considered the cause of about ten deaths and disappearances per a year, and they could be blamed for more if one pack was ousted from their territory or the like, which was not uncommon. She shook her head, I couldn't have known, this hasn't happened since Shenitar HalfHearted, I, need something to clear my head, perhaps a walk around the castle will do me a little good.
With that thought she walked back into her chambers, and then proceeded to exit the room, now being within the confines of her familiar corridor. She strode down this hallway, went down the stairs, and eventually found herself in the subterranean level of the castle, the kitchen. It was a massive and cluttered space, filled with an assortment of different culinary tools and machines. She strode to the left corner, and opened up the storage device that was backed into this corner. Within was an assortment of what would be considered desserts. They were all on separate shelves, and she could feel the cold air blasting out of the now opened orifice of this monstrously large storage vessel. It was powered by a powerful alchemy ingredient called, "Windigo Extract". It was a clear blue liquid that was colder than frozen over hell, and flowed like a thick molasses when poured, it was commonly found within certain rocks.
That was why there were rock farms you see, you could make a living if you quarried enough of stones containing it. Most establishments that served food in Equestria used them to power their storage units, so as to keep their food from rotting. She looked at these shelves, searching for something that struck her fancy. Her eyes landed upon a small chocolate cake, and she used her magic to levitate it to her. She took this cake to a small table in the center, and pulled a chair to her.
She bothered not with forks, rather shoving simply bringing it up to her face, and taking bites, chewing like a starved Timber Wolf on a fresh kill, and swallowing it without much regard to whether or not it was fully chewed. She was voracious when she found herself depressed. She finished it in no more than a good 15 minutes, and found her stomach less than pleased with her gourging. She found that she felt better, even if not by much, and she retreated to her chambers, and fell unto her bed, and fell into a rather restless sleep, a dreamless, black slumber.