If you don't like gore: scroll down until you see this marker once more.

The wooden door at the top of the stairs creaked open, yellow light flooding the concrete cell Celestia was in. She tried to stand up, but her injuries prevented her from completing the action. Celestia felt her heart beating faster, fear causing her front hooves to shake; she didn't want the three stallions to come back down, she knew they would only hurt her more. The metal cell door opened as the three stallions walking inside. Celestia tried to back away from them, but once more the wall behind her stopped her retreat. The white stallion set the same plate of food as before in front of her, Celestia's eyes meeting with his, hate burning through her vision.

"Well, come on. You've got to eat, we don't want you to get hungry," The stallion said with a malicious grin.

Celestia tried to reach out with her hoof, but the intense pain from the action caused her to recoil back.

"Oh no, does your leg hurt?" Asked the Light blue Stallion, who stood a few feet to the left of the White Stallion.

Celestia responded by not moving. The white stallion stepped over to Celestia, wrapping his front leg around her neck.

"N-no! Please, let me go! I-I'm sorry!" She cried, tears of fear welling up in her eyes as the stallion dragged her over to the barred metal door of the cell.

Celestia screamed in pain as the stallion slammed his hoof down on her bloody, broken leg, the shock of the impact causing her to stop struggling. The stallion levitated Celestia's back right leg off the concrete floor, forcefully placing it between the bars in the same fashion he had done before. Celestia quickly pulled her back leg out from the bars, painfully dragging herself along the floor in an attempt to get away from the door. The white stallion dragged Celestia back to the door with his magic, instead of putting her back leg in between the bars again he deployed the sharp blade attached to the back of his shoe.

"W-wait! No, no, I'm sorry f-for trying to get away!" Celestia screamed, raising her shaking front hooves in an attempt to shield herself.

The stallion swung the blade through the air, slicing along the lower segments of Celestia's front legs. Dark red blood began flowing from the nearly inch deep cuts. Celestia sat completely still while she stared at the cuts, unable to scream as shock and pain took over her body. She began to feel light-headed, the room getting blurry as shock began to set in. Before the stallion could inflict another wound, Celestia blacked out, her head and legs falling limp on the floor.

Celestia slowly opened her eyes, the intense physical pain of her wounds making her groan loudly as she regained consciousness. The room was dimly lit by the small candle in the corner, providing just enough light for her to see. She slowly moved her head up off the floor, looking around the nearly empty room. Her eyes were drawn to the spot of the floor in which she was lying.

Her own dried blood covered most of the floor, including several places near the barred door of the cell. Celestia shakily lifted her left front leg off the floor, examining the wound. Tears began to drip from her cheeks, the physical pain and the fear of being tortured more beginning to take over her mind. Nearly every part of her body burned with pain.

Her face, stomach, wing and both of her front and back legs. Celestia painfully rolled over, the second her left wing touched the floor it sent a spike of pain shooting through her nerves. Celestia rolled onto her right side, scared to try and more again. At this point she was half sobbing, her breathing becoming shaky. The sound of the wooden door at the top of the stairs opening creaked loudly through the cell.

"Go away, just leave me alone!" Celestia screamed at the three ponies coming down the stairs.

"If we left you alone I'm sure you'd shrivel up from starvation." The voice of the white stallion said, a plate of food and a cup of water becoming visible in the dim candle light.

The three ponies entered through the barred cell door, the white stallion setting down the plate of food and water in front of Celestia. Celestia maintained her previous resolute and didn't touch the food, despite the growl in her stomach.

"Remember what happen last time you didn't eat?" The white stallion said, stomping his hoof on the floor to deploy the blade concealed by his shoe.

Celestia immediately reached for the plate, her bloody hoof shakily sliding the plate of food across to her. She began eating the rice and bread on the plate, occasionally looking up at the white stallion. It seemed that the white stallion was the only one that hurt her. The pony with the glasses didn't do much, and the light blue stallion had only helped the white stallion break her leg. Why was the white stallion the only one that hurt her?

Numerous questions mounted themselves in Celestia's mind as she ate the repulsive sustenance that kept her alive. She remembered back to when Star Yield told of this... Aura, something Celestia had been curious about. From what she could tell, it was a spell of some sort that Luna had created in order to rally ponies for this insane plan she had devised. Every single time Celestia thought of her sister, rage filled her heart. Why would she have this done to her?

From the time she had returned from the moon and had Nightmare Moon removed from her mind, she had been fine. The first time she hadn't been this violent, Luna's intentions previously had been to take Equestria and banish Celestia to a far away land, not have her tortured.

"So, how was your nap?" The white stallion said, interrupting Celestia's chain of thought.

"I assume you're speaking about how I blacked out after you cut my legs open." Celestia snarled in return.

"Yes, I am. You've been out for nearly 5 hours. I suppose your body needed the rest, you do have a big month planned ahead."

"Torturing me counts as plans?" Celestia asked sarcastically after swallowing a bite of rice.

"Considering how fun it is, yes."

"Y-you think torturing me is fun? You really are sick in the head..." Celestia said in a disgusted tone of voice.

"You're very good at hurting yourself, Princess." The White Stallion spat, stepping over to Celestia and bringing his blade down on her right shoulder.

Celestia screamed loudly, her body making a jerking motion from the excruciating pain from the wound. She tried to move away from the stallion, but any movement she made was countered by the blade in her flesh shifting, causing more pain. Celestia stopped moving as best she could, her back legs still slightly kicking as her body tried to escape from the pain. The White Stallion slowly began to twist the blade in Celestia's leg, the length of the blade splitting her wound open and causing more blood to seep from her flesh.

"S-stop! P-please... please stop!" Celestia screamed, tears of pain dripping down her cheeks.

"Give me one reason to stop." The white stallion said as he knelt down to meet Celestia at eye level.

Celestia whimpered in response.

"Alright, leave her alone. If you keep stabbing her she'll either bleed out or die of starvation, seeing as how you won't let her eat." The pony with the glasses said, causing the white stallion to look over at him.

Several agonizing seconds later the white stallion pulled his blade from Celestia's leg, dark red blood flowing from the deep wound in her shoulder. She frantically moved away from the white stallion, a trail of blood dripping down Celestia's leg and onto the floor as she moved. She had begun to feel both light-headed and dizzy from blood loss, the room spinning and blurring as her brain struggled to function from the lack of oxygen.

Celestia found herself backed into the corner of the room, and despite being blocked by the corner her back legs continued to push as her mind's only directive was to get away from the pony that caused all of the pain. The white stallion's horn lit up, the plate of food and the glass of water became surrounded by his magic as the objects levitated off of the floor. The food and water gently came to a rest a short distance from Celestia, her eyes darted from the food to the white stallion.

"Come on, eat up. I won't hurt you anymore if you eat all of it." The white stallion said in a condescending tone.

"Yes you will. I know you will," Celestia said, not moving an inch towards the food.

"No, I won't. Look," Said the white stallion as he stepped across the room and picked up the food and water with his magic, suspending it in the air in front of Celestia.

"See? Just take the food and eat, after all, today IS your funeral."

Celestia's eyes widened in fear.

"W-wha...? What do you mean? are you going to kill me?" She asked in a soft voice, blood loss had begun to take its effect.

"No, you idiot. Did you actually think that we wouldn't fake your death? Your end is far off, but; for the rest of Equestria, today marks a new era. Our true leader shall take over the throne and bring all of Equestria to..." The stallion paused as he noticed Celestia starting to wobble from side to side, blood still dripping from a few of her wounds.

At first, the white stallion thought that Celestia was falling asleep, but it became apparent that she was passing out from blood loss. After a few seconds of Celestia's eyes fluttering, she fell over sideways onto the concrete floor of the cell, her mouth hanging open as she lost consciousness.

"Go upstairs and get one of the medical bags." The pony with the glasses said in an annoyed tone as he walked over to Celestia.

The light blue stallion ran out of the cell and up the stairs while the pony with the glasses tried to move Celestia's large, heavy, limp body.

"What are you trying to do?" The white stallion asked.

"We need to lie her down flat so blood can flow to her brain." The pony with the glasses returned.

After a moment, the pony with the glasses had successfully laid Celestia flat on her back. The light blue stallion trotted down the wooden stairs with a large olive-drab medical bag on his back, once he was at the bottom of the stairs he dropped the bag on the floor. The pony with the glasses opened the bag, pulling out a number of medical items and began to tend to the wound on Celestia's leg.

"Uuuuhhg... g-get... away..." Celestia mumbled as she started to regain consciousness, her head lifting off the floor to look at the three ponies.

"Shut up and lay back down, you'll black out again if you don't." The pony with the glasses said as he pushed Celestia's head back down.

Celestia continued to groan as the pony with the glasses patched up the wound on her shoulder. After he had finished wrapping her leg wound he held a plastic water bottle up to her mouth with his hoof, water dribbling down Celestia's cheeks and chin as she drank. The pony with the glasses refilled the glass of water with the rest of the bottle's contents before putting the empty vessel on the floor. After placing the medical supplies back into the bag, the pony with the glasses walked out of the cell and up the wooden steps of the basement.

Before leaving the cell, the white stallion blew out the candle in the corner, leaving the room completely pitch black. Celestia watched as the white stallion walked up the stairs and through the wooden door at the top.

"H-how do you sleep at night?" Celestia asked quietly.

The light blue stallion, who had not yet made it to the top of the steps, paused. The only thing Celestia could see was the stallion's glowing azure eyes.

"Comfortably."

The light blue stallion gave a maniacal chuckle and continued up the stairs.

"Do me a favor, don't stab her again for a while." The pony with the glasses said as he used a cloth to wipe the blood from his hooves.

"Oh yes, you get queasy around blood. Funny you decided to become a doctor." Taunted the white stallion.

"My issue with blood started after I finished medical school, thank you. As for the not stabbing her part... just beat her for the next few days. If you keep inflicting bodily harm she could easily die of blood loss."

"Understood, hooves only."

The white stallion went into the kitchen of the small house and opened one of the cabinets.

"Anypony getting hungry?" He asked.

"I'm fine for the moment," The light-blue stallion responded.

"I guess I could go for a sandwich or something."

End of the nasty bits

Twilight Sparkle walked out of her room in Canterlot Castle, the chilly air of the halls causing her to shiver momentarily. She hadn't realized that it was almost 11:00 in the morning, seeing as how the sun had not risen in four days it was hard to tell if it was day or night. Twilight instantly noticed the lack of sound in the castle halls, as well as the lack of ponies. Normally in this particular wing of the castle there were many different ponies moving from place to place, but at the time the hall was occupied only by Twilight and several Royal Guards.

"Twilight Sparkle, good morning." Princess Luna said as she rounded the corner, Cloud Drop following close behind.

"Good morning." Twilight returned.

"Have you been doing well lately? I do wish you could have been here on different terms, Mrs. Sparkle," Luna said in a sad tone.

"I've been doing good, I guess. It's hard, you know... just getting up in the morning."

"I understand fully what you are experiencing, but we all have a job to do," Responded Luna as she walked away, Twilight and Cloud Drop followed behind.

"You're aware of what day it is, right Ms. Sparkle?" Cloud Drop asked as the three walked.

"Wha-? Yeah, it's Sunday, and please, just call me Twilight."

"You are correct on the day but incorrect on the occasion. Today is Princess Celestia's funeral."

"It is? I thought it was tomorrow! It's so hard to tell what day it is, I'm not even sure what time it is," Twilight exclaimed.

"Apologies on that subject, I am still attempting to raise the sun," Luna said.

"Also, Mrs. Sparkle, Luna has requested that I give you some instructions for your stay, so when the time is right I need to go over a few things with you," Cloud Drop intervened.

Twilight responded with a nod. Cloud Drop had a strange demeanor to him, his eye patch contributed to that significantly. Twilight could remember back to when she was a young filly, the first time she had met him was when he had become Princess Celestia's personal assistant and military advisor. She didn't exactly understand why she felt that Cloud Drop had something to do with Celestia's death, it seemed ridiculous, but she had a gut feeling that he had something to do with it.

Twilight heard a sniffle come from Luna, she looked up to see Luna wipe her eyes on her shoulder. The trio was soon at the closed doors of the Ceremonies Hall, a place where (normally) happy events took place, but on this Red Letter day, the event was anything but happy. Luna let out a sigh before she opened the door, her head dropping downwards as she rested her hoof on the door.

"P-please, give me a moment. This has been a... a difficult several days." Luna sniffled.

"Take all the time you need, Princess." Cloud Drop said.

It became apparent that Luna had been holding back tears from the time they had started walking. Luna silently wept as her emotions began to overwhelm her. She stepped away from Twilight and Cloud Drop, turning from them and leaning against the wall next to the door. Her small cries had turned to loud sobs, her breathing stuttered every few seconds as she struggled to keep her emotions under control. Cloud Drop stepped over to Luna, placing his hoof over her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

Twilight saw Cloud Drop lean his head down and whisper something to Luna, a few seconds later she lifted up her head and gave a small nod. Luna took a second to compose herself before pushing open the two large doors to the Ceremonies Hall. The hall was decorated in a rather formal way, there were no balloons, banners, streamers or other decorations. The only true decorations were four enormous tapestries on the walls, each of the silky black rectangles had a large, white sun at its center. Standing underneath each of the tapestries was a Royal Guard.

Each of the Guards were adorned with a unique set of glossy black armor, despite the rather dim lighting of the hall, the armor still gleamed as if it was in direct sunlight. Along with their unique sets of armor, each guard had an extravagantly crafted sword mounted at their side, it's sharp blade engraved with fine, decorative carvings. The very end of the Ceremonies Hall was easily visible from the point at which the trio had entered from, a long black carpet lead from the two doors to the very end of the hall, to either side of the carpet was the guest seating area. At the end of the Ceremonies Hall was a white, glossy podium, at either side of the podium was a large wreath of flowers and a portrait of Princess Celestia. Just behind the podium stood an elevated position with three large thrones.

The platform had an extravagant banner running along its perimeter, on the left side of the platform was a staircase with a small red carpet draped over it. One thing stood out to both Luna and Twilight, not only was Celestia's throne among the three large chairs, but it was at the center of them. To the left of all this was an unusually large, dark stained wood casket. The trio walked down the black carpet, each step echoing softly in the quiet Ceremonies Hall. After reaching the end of the hall, Luna walked up the steps of the platform to her throne and sat down. Twilight took her seat next to Celestia's throne, the emptiness of the large chair only serving as a reminder to what happen only 4 days ago. Cloud Drop, who had no place to sit, stood rigidly next to Luna's throne.

"Why does Celestia's throne have to be here? Couldn't they have gotten rid of it?"
Twilight said, not happy with the fact that she had to sit next to a reminder that her best friend was gone.

"No!" Luna responded loudly, her exclamation caught the attention of the small amount of the guests in the relatively quiet hall.

The Princess momentarily looked up and surveyed the few guests before returning her gaze to Twilight.

"I would rather sit next to my sister's empty throne than have there be no throne at all. Cloud Drop suggested for me to forget about my sister, as it would lessen the emotional pain I feel. I spent a thousand years in the moon, and she did not forget about me for a single minute. Completely erasing her from my mind and this castle is NOT how I wish to honor her."
Luna explained.

Twilight's rebuttal was to face towards the seating area and not say anything more.

"Your Highness, when I said to forget about Celestia, I didn't mean to erase her memory completely, I meant to forget about the fact that she's gone. When I lost my parents I found the best way to deal with it was to just image they were on a long vacation, and that maybe one day she'd come back."

Luna gave Cloud Drop a quizzical look.

"Why did you say 'she' when you were addressing your parents?" She asked.

"Excuse me, your highness?" Cloud returned.

"You said 'she' when addressing your parents."

"I... I don't think I did, I remember saying 'they'."

"You miss Celestia, don't you?" Luna asked quietly.

"How could I not." Cloud Drop spoke, not losing his stoic manner.

Twilight stared at Cloud Drop for several seconds before turning back towards the end of the Ceremonies Hall. She had been skeptical of Cloud Drop, but all of the evidence she had seen so far contradicted the few theories she had.

The sound of the Ceremonies Hall doors opening made both Twilight and Luna look up to see two ponies enter, four Royal guards escorting them inside. The stallion on the left was significantly taller than the four guards he walked with and the pony next to him, who Luna soon realized was Andrei. Andrei was wearing a black dress coat and a dark green scarf, both articles of clothing contrasted his naturally white fur and his light brown mane and tail. The stallion next to him was wearing similar clothing, but the black coat he wore complemented his dark brown fur and black mane. As the two got closer, Luna started to realize that the tall, brown stallion had two different colored eyes.

"Who is this stallion next to Andrei?" Luna asked.

"That would be Mikhail Khrushchev, the President of Stalliongrad. It's good to see him here, he and Celestia were very good friends." Cloud Drop responded.

Luna stood up from her throne and stepped off of the platform the thrones rested upon, Cloud Drop following her as she went to greet Mikhail.

"Princess Luna, I wish we could have met under different circumstances," Mikhail said as he held out his hoof.

Luna shook hooves with Mikhail, both of them exchanging a smile. She was surprised how well Mikhail spoke Equestrian, his speech still held an eastern accent, but he spoke Equestrian as well as any native speaker. The other outstanding fact of his appearance was his differently colored iris'.

"You have heterochromia iridium, do you not?" Luna asked in a curious tone.

"Y-yes, I do. Not many ponies I meet know the name of the condition." Mikhail responded.

"I have only read about this condition, but I have never seen a pony with it! One orange and one blue, how beautiful." Luna exclaimed as she investigated Mikhail's eyes.

"Well thank you, I get it often. Celestia always joked that it helped me win the election."

Luna seemed to loose her happy demeanor after the mention of her sister.

"I am deeply sorry for your loss. I... didn't take the news well. Things have... been very different lately." Mikhail said.

"I should agree with your statement. It has been... difficult... to say the least."

"Have you been holding up well? I mean no offense, but you don't look well." Mikhail commented as they began walking down the center of the Ceremonies Hall.

"I will not lie, I have not been doing well at all. I have not been sleeping well, either." Luna responded in a low voice.

"Well, I wish the best of luck to you. Having to take over an entire nation must be difficult. I must ask, why has the sun not risen?"

"I... well, I cannot raise it yet. It takes a while before one can learn to control Celestial bodies, and the Sun is the only one I do not know how to control. Your citizens do not require any aid at this time, do they?" The Princess asked.

"No, I've had to tell many of them that I don't know why the sun went away, but I haven't had any pony complain about the cold. The masses of Stalliongrad are fairly used to the cold."

"That is good to hear."

"Well, I'll go find a seat, it seems most of the guests haven't arrived yet." Mikhail said as he looked around the relatively empty seating area.

Mikhail split off from Luna and Cloud Drop, taking a seat on one of the white folding chairs in the seating area. Andrei gave a small frown before doing the same.

"Последнее, что Селестия сказала мне увидимся завтра. Я никогда не видел ее снова."
(The last thing Celestia said to me was 'see you tomorrow'. I never did see her again.) Andrei said after sitting down next to Mikhail.

"Это такая ужасная вещь она ушла. Так много знаний и жизнь для одного пони, чтобы иметь. Я просто надеюсь, что она не пострадала в ее последние минуты."
(It is such a horrible thing she's gone. So much knowledge and life for a single pony to have. I just hope she did not suffer in her final moments.) Mikhail responded in a low voice.

"Замкнутый шкатулка никогда не является хорошей вещью."
(A closed casket is never a good thing.) Andrei said.

It had been around 10 minutes before the majority of the guests began to arrive through the large doors of the Ceremonies Hall. The group of guests was an extremely diverse group, most of the ponies that were attending came from every part of Equestria. The one thing that made them all alike was the unanimous feeling of loss, and a duty to pay final respects to the pony that had protected Equestria and it's surrounding countries from danger, a pony that had for long brought light to a once dark land. Luna watched as the numerous ponies seated themselves, the once empty seating areas soon filling with hundreds of ponies.

She was glad that so many ponies from so many different parts of Equestria had gathered to mourn the loss of her sister, it showed just how caring many of them were. It took a while before the last guests arrived, most of the final guests to enter were Dignitaries or Diplomats from various countries around Equestria and abroad.

For normal events, it was typical for Diplomats, Royalty, and Dignitaries to have designated seats, these seats usually had the advantage of a better view of said events. For the funeral of Princess Celestia, a better view did not exist. Twilight looked up to see five ponies she knew very well enter the hall, each one of them dressed in formal black attire. Twilight stood up from her throne and walked down the steps of the platform to greet her friends.

"Hi, Twilight," Fluttershy said, being the first one to speak up.

"Hey. I'm glad that you all could make it." Twilight responded in a mundane tone.

"Oh, we wouldn't miss it for the world, darling." Rarity said, her usual extravagance worn by sorrow.

"That's right. Ah don't think we'd even be your friends if we wouldn't have shown." Applejack exclaimed.

"Is Princess Luna doing okay? She doesn't look okay." Pinkie Pie asked in a sad tone.

Ever since the group received the news of Princess Celestia's passing they had been down-trodden, but it seemed that Pinkie Pie was the hardest hit (Twilight being an exception).

"No, she really isn't. No pony around here is." Twilight responded.

Princess Luna looked up momentarily to make eye contact with Pinkie. Even at the distance the group was from the platform it was easy to tell that Luna had tears in her eyes. A few seconds after looking at Pinkie Pie she turned her head away from the group, trying her best to cover her face with her hoof. Pinkie continued to watch as Luna's tears turned into a violent sob, the faint sound her her cries echoing throughout the mostly quiet Ceremonies Hall. Pinkie Pie mumbled something, her mumble catching the attention of the group.

"Did you say something, Pinkie?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"This sucks," Pinkie repeated, tears of her own starting to well up in her eyes.

Rainbow gave a sigh.

"This does suck. This is the worst day of my life. You know, I'm with you Twilight, there's no way that Celestia is actually gone." She said.

"Can we talk about this another time?" Twilight said in a slightly annoyed manner.

Rainbow didn't respond.

"Alright, well... I guess we'll go find ourselves some seats. Do try to not let this bother you too much, darling." Rarity said.

"I've been trying. It's hard to not let it hurt."

With Twilight's words Rarity split off from the group, the rest of them following except for Fluttershy.

"Just remember the good times we've had with the Princess. T-That's what I've been doing." Fluttershy said as her voice began to crack near the end of her sentence.

Twilight gave a nod before turning and walking back to the platform.

Author's Notes:

I've spent more time than I'd like to admit trying to fix any grammar and spelling errors in this long story... but I know there still are some. If you spot one, please notify me