Twilight stood there stunned. She was on the verge of tears. How could she be the one to cause her harm? She was out getting her medication. There was no way she could have hurt Sunset. Yet, the girl on the ground was certain and watched her with an untrusting eye.

She stabbed me.

Twilight stood before her in utter speechlessness. Celestia helped Sunset to her feet and glanced at the both of them.

"Lets get inside and get you warmed up first before we proceed..."

As Sunset dried off and tended to her wounds, Twilight and Celestia waited in the back living room and huddled around the fireplace. It was clear that it was Celestia's fault for not watching over her. From the cuts they saw on Sunset's shoulder and hand, the assailant meant for Sunset to be hurt. They were deep and cut quite cleanly with a practiced hand. They weren't jagged cuts from somebody who was fumbling around.

The fire crackled in the fireplace and the two of them communicated silently through their eyes. They knew something was up...Celestia was the first to speak.

"I'm sorry, Twilight. I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

The girl nodded slowly.

"I-I know. But you really shouldn't have kept yourself locked up in that room knowing Sunset was here feeling unwell." Twilight was too worn out to yell, but the anger in her voice was evident. None of this was making her feel better. First, Sunset was getting sick and she tried everything to heal her. But nothing worked. Now Sunset is hurt and refuses to see either one of them.

Worst of all, Sunset says it was Twilight who had done it.

Celestia could see that she was going through all these things in her mind and sighed.

"There's...something I need to tell you."

Twilight looked up at Celestia and waited for her to continue. The woman swallowed guiltily and looked down at her hands. She didn't want to tell her this but she needed to.

"The reason why Sunset is...sick..is because of me."

Twilight stared at her.

What?

"Princess Celestia, that doesn't make any sense. You weren't ever sick to begin--"

"I poisoned her," Celestia interrupted.

Everything went cold inside the room, even the fire seemed to have died down and chilled its warmth. Twilight looked into Celestia's eyes. They were bone chillingly stern, not a bit of laughter in them saying 'I'm just kidding'. Her voice had been a bullet that slammed into her chest. It held utmost seriousness in her tone. Nothing about anything was funny or silly in the slightest.

"You...what..?" Twilight whispered.

Celestia stared her in the eyes. "I poisoned Sunset Shimmer."

Another bullet hit her.

"B-But...how? Why?? Are you just making this all up because this isn't funny," Twilight said as her voice went from disbelief to panic.

"To tell you the whole truth, Sunset was poisoned before we came back here," Celestia told her. She looked into the flickering flames. "The dark magic in that vial in the artifact chamber. The magic Sunset herself created to corrupt the crown. That's the poison."

Twilight's mind was jumbled. none of this was connecting. Celestia herself seemed to be trying to dodge around telling her the whole story.

"T-Tell me. How did you...poison her with her own magic?" Twilight barely said. She was shaking and didn't understand what was going on.

"The dark magic she had placed in the crown I had removed. It's so destructive that it nearly rid your crown of its pure magic. Because there was no way to remove the shard without Sunset dying I decided that attacking it with poison would do the trick. Starswirl the Bearded once theorized that whatever happened to one shard happened to all fragments. By poisoning the pieces I had in the artifact chamber, the dark magic took root in Sunset's as well..."

Celestia drew in a long, shaky breath before continuing.

"It wouldn't destroy the magic in the jewel, just corrupt it. Since Sunset has a deep connection to you and truly and honestly is trying to be good, the dark magic is hurting her instead of turning her evil. It was never given to her to harm her, don't get me wrong. It was to corrupt the jewel so I can remove its power and place it back into the vial."

Twilight was just sitting there feeling numb.

"You're the one who caused Sunset this pain..."

Celestia said nothing.

The girl looked up at her with watery eyes and dashed upstairs. Leaving Celestia to stare into the fire, knowing that her life lit up in flames.