Celestia's wounds were healing much slower than she hoped. Ten days had passed since Princess Twilight had brought a knife to her skin for twelve consecutive, hellish hours, and she still had to be careful of how she slept. One wrong twist, and the wounds marking her body reopened painfully, leaking blood onto the floor. Those ten days were not easy on the former princess. She had no visitors, other than Princess Twilight and Queen Luna. Sometimes they came to draw blood, and sometimes they came to mock and humiliate her. More often than not, however, they came to torture her.
Celestia still could not get past her torturers. It was all unbearably strange to her. Not only was she being hurt constantly, but she was being hurt by two of her favorite ponies alive; Her little sister and her protege, two ponies who she could never dream of harming, and who she thought would never harm her.
Sadly, they were indeed harming Celestia. Even when not beating her with clubs, or slicing her stomach with knives, Celestia was in constant threat of death. She would get little water only every few days, and what she did get was dirty and warm. As for food, if you could call it that, was given to Celestia even less than water. Celestia thought back to her days in the castle of Canterlot, of the feasts she so often took for granted. What she wouldn't give for just a taste of her head chef's favorite dishes; The delicious carrot soup, the fresh salad, the mind-blowing pasta dishes. It was of these lovely meals that Celestia was thinking of when Princess Twilight arrived with her dinner.
Twilight pushed open the door with a tray in her hands. The tray held a blob of cold, grey goop. The unintelligible ooze clattered to the floor, and Twilight pushed it forward with her hoof. The slime fell just to Celestia's left, but the former princess ignored it. All of her focus was given to Twilight.
"I've been thinking," said Celestia. "And I've decided to forgive you."
"Forgive me? I must say that I had originally hoped for your forgiveness." said Twilight. "I hope you are not offended when I say that I do not return the sentiment."
"I've started piecing together what happened. Would you like to hear what I've come up with?" asked Celestia.
"I do not fraternize with my prisoners." said Twilight.
"Ah, but you are no less a prisoner than I." said Celestia. "Just humor me. What are the negative consequences to listening?"
"I might grow so angry that I stop caring how much Luna needs you alive." stated Twilight, eyeing Celestia evilly. "On second thought, go on. Make me angry."
"Judging on how you react whenever they're mentioned, I assume your friends are dead." said Celestia. "Which is odd."
"Why is that odd? It's been a thousand years. They should've been long dead anyway." said Twilight, although she knew it wasn't true.
"The box. The Rainbow Power that helped you defeat Tirek would have given them immortality like ours." said Celestia ."The only thing that would be able to kill them is something that was specifically designed to kill an alicorn, or if your friendship ended. The latter is unlikely, given how much you still care about them and the strength of your friendship, so let's say it was the former."
"Congratulations. You've said what is obvious." shot Twilight.
"So, let's see. They died a while ago, but you're still bitter. That means you feel some manner of responsibility for it." continued Celestia. "They were murdered, but indirectly. This is obvious because of your hatred. It's intense, but also undirected. You want to blame me, but you're still not sure if it was because of me. Still, you don't care. That means that you're pretty confident that I am to blame, and even if I'm not, I still have a lot to be hated for."
"Well reasoned. I hope you realise that every minute I sit here is a half-hour with the knife." said Twilight.
"We've established that it was an indirect murder. Indirect, specifically made to kill alicorns, and something you feel like you could've stopped." pondered Celestia. "The disease. Whatever it is, it is responsible, at least partly, for your friends' death. Speaking of the disease, I have a few theories on that as well. When you and Luna transferred me, you gave me a mask to protect me from the contagion. Luna had one as well, but you did not. You are immune, somehow. That eliminates the possibility of using me to find a cure."
"By what logic?' asked Twilight. "I'm not saying you're wrong, but how do you reason that out?"
"I assumed you were using my blood to find a cure for the disease, as I heard from your child." explained Celestia. "But, if I needed the mask, that means I am not immune. If I am not immune, nopony would assume I held the secret of the cure. Yet, they don't take your blood, which leads me to believe that your blood has too much complex magic in it to decipher."
"Is that all you've deduced?" asked Twilight scathingly. She turned to leave when Celestia opened her mouth one last time.
"Which brings me to the subject of your bloodline. That child, the symbol on his left eye, I know it from somewhere." said Celestia.
"Correct. Now drop it." ordered Twilight.
"It's… Flash Sentry's Cutie Mark, yes?"
"Shut up. Shut the hell up, Celestia." said Twilight, her voice lowering.
"Hm… He looked quite a bit like Flash, and he referred to you as mother. You and Flash had children?" asked Celestia. "But that doesn't work. If it's really been a thousand years, then Flash and his children, and their children and so on, should be long dead. He shouldn't look anything like Flash, yet he looked exactly the same."
"If you say his name again, I will delay your water to next week." whispered Princess Twilight.
"But that proves that both the child and Flash mean something to you. When I was talking about your friends, you only threatened to hurt me. When I speak Flash's name, you threaten to kill me. Sounds like love to me, which loops back to the original theory that you had children with Flash. Alicorns do not typically have children, but assuming they did, the child would be just as immortal as it's parent, apparently."
"If you don't shut up, I will start removing your teeth." threatened Twilight.
"You truly hate me and hold me responsible for whatever it is I've done." noted Celestia. Her food was growing even colder, and was becoming more gelatinous and viscous.
"Yes. I do." agreed Twilight.
"Is that what Flash would have wanted?" asked Celestia. She felt something grip in her mouth, her top-right incisor. She felt her tooth pull down painfully, a small drip of blood trailing from the root. Suddenly, the tooth yanked and Celestia's mind exploded into sharp, lasting pain. Blood began to drip from her mouth and onto the floor as she gasped and cried. Her bloody tooth, surrounded by purple light, landed in Twilight's palm.
"Next time, it will be your tongue, and I will shove it down your throat!" shouted Twilight.
"You were like a daughter to me! The daughter I never had." said Celestia. Twilight spun on her heel and grabbed her prisoner by the neck. She landed a punch in her stomach, then her face before responding.
"And you were a mother to me. The mother I always needed." said Twilight. She yanked another tooth with her magic, Celestia screaming in pain.
"Look in your heart." begged Celestia. Her mouth was filling with blood, "This doesn't feel right, does it?" Twilight dropped the teeth to the floor, and turned to show her prisoner her back.
"No. It doesn't feel right." admitted Twilight. "But, then of course, it didn't feel right to bury Rarity. It didn't feel right to decide it was time to pull the plug on Rainbow Dash. It didn't feel right to tell Fluttershy that it would be okay when we both knew that she would die that night. It didn't feel right to pick through piles of corpses to identify Applejack's mangled, nearly unrecognizable body. And it certainly didn't feel right to cut Pinkie's hanged body from the ceiling fan."
"I'm sorry." said Celestia. "I truly am. Whatever I did, I apologize profusely."
"Don't you get it? Apologies won't bring them back. It won't bring back Aj or Rarity, or Dashie or Pinkie or Fluttershy!" shouted the princess. "It won't bring back Trixie or Sunset or Cadence or Shiny! It won't bring back Flash! You asked me if this felt right, and I could honestly say no. Nothing about this feels right! This is as far away from 'right' as feasibly possible. The closest thing to feeling 'right', as you so eloquently put it, is when I am sticking a sharp blade under your skin!"
Princess Twilight kicked her prisoner in the face once before huffing out of the room. Celestia took the attack boldly, ignoring any pain she was feeling. She turned her head and spat a mouthful of blood onto the floor. With much difficulty, she leaned to the side and began to messily gobble her meal.
That was a good session, Celestia thought as she choked down her disgusting meal. I've learned some things, filled in some holes. I'll have to figure out more from Luna.
When Celestia finished her meager breakfast, which would also be her lunch and dinner, she tried to sit herself comfortably. It'd been so long since she felt her hands, suspended high above her head. The only feeling in her arm was pain from the six cracks in her arm. Her bones attempted to heal themselves over the days, but Princess Twilight never allowed it to get to comfortable. When Celestia was in as little pain as possible, she closed her eyes. Her stance on sleep had changed dramatically since she arrived; The rest she originally shunned, she now embraced. Celestia learned that she could ignore her pain if she slept, so sleep she did. Within a minute, she was quietly snoring in her cell.
Queen Luna watched her prisoner sleep. She had been generous enough to let her rest for a few hours. While Celestia dozed, Luna walked through the plane of her sister's dreams. She picked out the relevant information, and decided that Celestia would attempt to reverse the interrogation. Luna stepped in front of her prisoner with her horn faintly growing. After much effort, a heavy cinder block appeared in front of her, barely held by Luna's levitation spell. With a sick smile, Luna released the block over Celestia's leg. The heavy hunk of concrete cracked Celestia's shin and yanked her from her sleep.
"Son of a-" cried Celestia. She reached for her leg, the chain keeping her hands above her head. The stone stood atop of the fragments of her right leg, which was beginning to bruise.
"Celestia." said Luna. She pushed her hoof down on the cinderblock, causing more sharp pain to go through Celestia.
"What?! What do you want?!" growled Celestia. For the first time since her imprisonment, Celestia grew angry. She couldn't explain why; Maybe it was because of the last battle they had, and how unwilling Celestia was to hurt her sister. Now, Luna took joy in Celestia's pain.
"That's no way to speak to your queen." said Luna. She ground her hoof into the stone, twisting even more agony through her sister. "I'm going to be honest with you. Ever since I returned from the moon, part of me hoped for this."
"This is unfair, Luna! How could you do this to your own sister?" asked Celestia.
"The same way you banished me from my home." said the Queen simply.
"I had no choice! I was protecting Equestria!" shouted Celestia.
"As was I! I was protecting it from you, Celestia! I did not start this fight, but I would be a liar if I said I didn't enjoy it." said Luna. She brought her hoof down on the block again. "This is justice! Finally, the great, the just, the insane Celestia falls! This is how things were meant to be, Tia! Even Mother thought so. When you weren't around, she would call me 'Queen'. Did you know that? You may have been Daddy's little Princess, but I was Mother's Queen Luna."
"Mother would be sick if she saw what you've become!" spat Celestia. "She is turning in her grave!"
"All because of you. You've made me into this. All of this, the death on the surface, the pain down here, all is because of you." said Luna. "I find it amusing that you think you have the right to be angry with me."
"Considering that you're torturing me for something I can't even remember doing, I think that my anger is justified." said Celestia. She made the mistake of twisting her right leg, a million shards of glass running through her veins.
"Do you remember when we were kids? When Daddy had us practice together?" asked Luna. "You used to beat me every single time, without even trying. And every time, I'd get so mad. Yet you never once showed any emotion, nothing but boredom. You always had a disgusting condescendence. Like you were above it all. But look at you now; I am the one who is above it all. You are trash, if even that. Few remember you, and those who do hate you."
"You can't possibly still be upset because Father liked me better." said Celestia. Luna stomped on the block again, and a thin shard of pain struck Celestia. "You know it's true. I couldn't help that I was his favorite."
"All of that dignity and pride. All of the respect you earned. All of it gone. You finally fell from your high seat, and showed your true colors." laughed Luna grimly. She heaved the stone up with her levitation. "You showed us cruelty." Luna dropped the stone, then raised it up again. "You showed us evil." The stone fell yet again. "You showed us hatred!" Luna slammed the cinderblock down again. Celestia swore loudly out of pain, tears flowing from the corners of her bloodshot eyes.
"For the record, I do not hate you." said Celestia through gritted teeth.
"I was not referring to any hatred you have within you." puffed Luna. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and took her leave. As Luna's hooves clacked against the cold stone floor, Celestia cried loudly in agony.
"At least move the damned cinder block!" she shouted, although she knew that nopony who cared could hear her. Tears dripped down her cheeks, leaving trails of clean down her dirty, dusty, greasy face. Celestia absolutely trembled, gasping in breaths between heavy sobs. Pain was becoming the norm for Celestia, her only companions being Sleep and Agony. She cried for twenty minutes before she got used to the pain in her leg. When she did, she closed her eyes to meet with Sleep. Before she could do much more than flutter her eyelids closed, she felt sharp pain across her torso. She ripped her eyes open and gawked at the red leaking down from her breasts, stomach, and legs. Her wounds had reopened yet again.