"So...you coming?" I asked Celestia as I made my way towards the front gate of the castle. "I'd appreciate it if you did."

Celestia carefully maneuvered the steps down from her tower, her metal shoes clicking against the well kept stonework. "I- Able slow down please! I can't fly in here and I can't really--"

I kept on down the stairs, each foot sideways and leaving me at a breakneck pace down the steps. "I'm trying to change his mind- Sam's mind, my mind, you know what I mean." I ran my hand along the spiral corridor as I raced past a few other levels and straight towards the ground floor. "I mean, I might be going, but this guy can do so much if I just convince him. I want him to see Silver Spoon first though. I mean, that's the purest thing I've had a hand in."

"What does that- oh damn it!" Celestia yelped, a soft tinny clang rattling past me as a golden shoe carted down the stairs. "I told you to slow down!"

I stopped, staring down the flight of spiral stairs as her shoe flew down the steps. "Uh...tch, that's way funnier than it should be." Something about watching her shoe spiral into the unknown below was rather funny, and getting to watch her hobble around with one golden shoe would be a joy of its own.

Celestia let out a sharp grunt, "You're such an ass...now move, I need to go find that." She squeezed past me, jamming me against the wall. Eventually I felt myself starting to drag along the wall. "Able, I said move!"

"I fucking can't!" I yelled, trying to squirm free. "I swear to god I get control for an hour and I'm stuck on a damn wall!"

Celestia continued to try and move past, smearing me against the wall. "Able, this isn't a joke! Those are real gold and I need--"

I dug my heels against the stone steps, my face pressed against the white stucco coated walls. "Well sorry, I don't remember your ass being this fat, or this fucking thing being so narrow!"

Eventually we stopped moving completely, jammed in place in the stairs. "Alright this is ridiculous!" she shouted, flaring her wings out and slapping me in the back of the head. "Come on!"

I just pushed off enough to breath and waited. "God damn it.... I mean- this would be hilarious, and a bit...well, I'm basically crushed by your milky white ass, but I had things to do today...."

Celestia lowered her head, letting her back legs go limp. "Shit, you know none of this would have happened if you hadn't tried to come back!" she snapped, stomping her foreleg. "Able, you just had to be greedy!"

"Oh what, you don't want to see me now!?" I tried to step down and get free but I was as wedged as I could possibly get. "I came back to see you! To try and reconnect with you, with Silver Spoon, with Cheerilee--"

"Aha, so you do like her!" Celestia snapped, "You know I always--"

"Are you serious!? Like, for real, are you serious right now? You want to bring up old relationships with a dead man?!"

Celestia huffed angrily, "Well it's not like I made you leave when you came back through the first time! You said you had to leave, and you did! And then I find out you're friends with- with one of my subjects...and the next thing I hear you're dying."

"I sent you letters!" I snapped, "I always--"

"But they were never about you and I!" Celestia tapped her foreleg on the stone, "I mean, the last suitor I had.... Th- Cadance's...grandfather? Either grandfather or great grandfather, he always wrote me letters, good ones!"

I slowly felt myself slipping free, forced to push against the rough stucco wall. "Well sorry I'm not like some other- wait...grandfather. You had his kids!?"

Celestia scoffed, "I've had, a lot, of children."

"Don't fucking get sassy with me you bitch!" I snapped, "God damn, now is not the time for you to act normal! Now is the time to act like the fucking, holier than thou, princess you usually do!"

"Holier than thou," she mocked, backside slowly squeezing me down, "I'm like a mother to my subjects! And I tried to be--"

"Then you were out of character around me! Why could that be? Did I fluster you, did I scare--"

"Able shut up!" Celestia snapped, "This can--"

"No you started this, I said I'd end it, but you kept it going, so let's go!" I shouted, my words rapid fire and a bit angry. "How about we start with you changing from, oh I'm a delicate pretty princess motherly type, to, oh...hi...., to, oh, yeah I murdered some people, I get what it's like--"

"Able, just shut up!" she yelled again, "I really--"

"Do you do this each time you find someone? Spill your guts on the murdering? Hope they stick it ou--"

"Able, I'm gonna throw you down the stairs if you don't stop!" She screamed, kicking her back legs out and setting me free.

"Holy shit no no no!" I yelled, my footing lost and started tumbling down the steps. "Ach- Jesus- fuck- ow- bitch!" I hit a step hard and started tumbling, covering the back of my neck and tucking up. "Fucking, son of a bitch!" I yelped, the stone steps unforgiving as I rolled down each and every one.

"I didn't mean it!" Celestia yelped, chasing after me, trying to grab me with her magic. "Come on- almost- stupid bucking shoes!" Before long three more circular shoes started cartwheeling past me. "This is not--" She stopped as I felt my coat yank me back, leaving me splayed out on the steps. Before long Celestia's face was hovering over me, "Are you alright?"

I laid my head back against the steps, "Well I'm fine. Sam's gonna be screaming when he comes back to, but I'm fine--"

"-ine-- Ooooooooooooooooow!!"

"-oooow!!" I yelped, not actually wanting to yell, "A-ha, haha...." I groaned, "I knew he'd leave me dealing with this." I felt hazy, not only from my trip down the stairs but from the constant switching. "Alright...to Silver Spoons!" I shouted, lifting my arm up. "...I might need some help!"

Celestia hovered over me, her face contorted rather brutally into one of shame. "Able I'm really sorry...I didn't think you'd--"

I started laughing, "Oh now you're sorry. Not five minutes ago you were yelling at me for even knowing Cheerilee!" I snapped, "I mean really...do I bother you that much...?"

I felt myself lift off the stone and rest gently across Celestia's back. "Able...it's not like that. And I mean, it's not just you." She started sauntering down the stairs. "It happens with a lot of the ponies- well...ponies, griffons...a donkey.... It happens with most of them. I just...I get attached and--"

"Oh but I'm different apparently...I mean--"

Celestia let out a rough cough, "You're the first one to come back...and the first one I- second one I told about the war...."

I let out a short grunt, "I'm guessing it was--"

"She was a thestral...a bat pony...." Celestia's voice was dour, low, barely above a mumble. "I told her just before she passed."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Fuck the people you nearly killed...that's rich, that's fucking rich."

"Why!?" Celestia snapped, skipping the ground floor and continuing down, "You were so kind when you were leaving, you were so calm, so happy--"

"I wasn't happy at all!" I screamed, slowly sliding off her and onto my feet. "I was dying! I thought I was done, it was either be calm or be angry! And I was- I had to think about someone besides me." I rubbed my mouth, my body still slightly bruised from my tumble, "I had to think about Silver, and I didn't want her seeing me angry when I died. And Cheerilee...she had found some other guy, she was happy...I was happy- and now I'm here, back with the mare I hurt, the person I made the most mistakes with! How do you want me to act!?"

Celestia turned to face me, "So what...you care about Cheerilee, some teacher from Ponyville, and some kid, more than me!?"

I glared at her. "How nice to call your, beloved subject, just some teacher and a kid!"

"Shut up, I'm aloud to be loved too!" Celestia snapped, taking a step towards me, "Twilight loves me.... My subjects love me...you--"

"What? I what? What were you going to say? Because what we had was physical--"

"It didn't have to be!" Celestia screamed, stepping up to me, "But you left!"

"So what, I came back damn it! And you've already made up your mind about killing me, so I don't think it's gonna go much fucking further!" I stared at Celestia, fire burning my gut as she lowered her head, "Go on, say somethi--" I was cut off as Celestia took a few steps up, jamming her head into the crook of my shoulder.

"Just shut up please." Celestia mumbled, "You don't even know what this is like for me...." She took another step up, forcing me to sit back on a step and cradle her head. "Just stop yelling at me.... I just- it's easier to be mad at you, for when I have to...you know. But it doesn't mean your yelling doesn't hurt."

I took a deep breath and tried to think of what to say next. "Well I mean- Celestia you're in charge...this is part--"

"I never chose this!" Celestia yelped, burying her head into my shoulder, "I never asked to be an alicorn, I never asked to lead a country, I never asked to be immortal or to meet you!" She took a deep breath and turned her head sideways, "And you left...like they all do. But you left before...then you- you came back just to say goodbye...no one else ever did." She nuzzled my chest with the tip of her muzzle, "They either left...or they stayed with me to the end. But you...I hate you so much, because you keep coming back!" She snapped, jumping upright and forcing me back against the stairs. "I can't deal with this Able, die or not, leave or stay, but you can't keep toying with me, it's not fair!"

I grabbed onto her chest piece, "It's not like I wanted to leave the first time! But I- what I did...I didn't want to hurt you...and I knew I would have."

Celestia took a deep breath, "We could have worked it out! Or you should have just left, you should have just left me alone for good! You walking away didn't help anything."

I held onto her head as she pushed me into the steps. "You never came down to visit...you never seemed--"

"You'd moved on!" She snapped, jamming me against the steps hard, "You were with Cheerilee, and I--"

"I was never with Cheerilee, she was my friend!" I forced Celestia back and looked around the dull stairwell. "Did you really think I was with her?"

"How was I--"

"Alright you want this again!? Let's go!" I wrapped my arm around her, "You're just going to hurt yourself when you have to kill me, but if you want it, let's go!" I forced myself upright, holding her head in place and rocking gently left to right, "You want this to happen...I- on the train...." I mumbled, "I need to see her too...so--"

Celestia started walking past me, dragging me back up the stairs. "Just shut up until we get there.... I'm so sick of this stupid stairwell."

I held on as the back of my feet bopped against the steps, "Wait...what about your shoes?"

"What about them...?" Next Chapter: Hotel Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 10 Minutes