You did it to yourself

The End of The Beginning

The purple ‘pony’ coughed.

It was a heaving sort of thing, without purpose, just instinctive wet coughing. An already congealed red liquid sprayed from it’s lips against the marble floor as the pony continued coughing, bracing itself with it’s front legs.

It wasn’t really much of a pony, but then, it wasn’t much of anything else. It had the features of a pony, but it was twice the height of a normal pony and had large red growths sprouting from it’s skull. The skin and coat around them was torn and agitated, and the telltale signs of an aging infection were present.

The red growths weighed heavily on it’s neck as the ‘pony’ gave one last bent heave upon the polished floor. The 'pony' gave the fluid an irritated glance before bringing it's head up.

Dozens of faces look at her with abject, shocked horror from the large crowd in front of her. The same sort of horror one would display if a bear were to suddenly burst through a nearby window. Fitting actually, because that would describe the same amount of danger they were currently in.

The ‘pony’ grinned.

The final fleeting motes of light left over from long range teleportation finally dispersed into the tense air as the pony took a step forward. The resulting click echoed through the near silent room, only interrupted by the occasional nervous swallow.

She took another step, and then another. Soon, she had worked up a decent rhythm, slowly stalking forwards. Her hips and shoulders swayed with a sort of confidence one could only achieve if they had nothing to lose, yet nothing to gain.

She carelessly bobbed her head from side to side, humming a happy little tune as she lapped the thinning liquid from her upwardly twisted lips. Not quite a grin, but not much of anything else. A few braver stallions in the crowd began to step forward to block her path, but she brushed them aside with a challenging glare and a dark grin.

Giving a particularly familiar looking audience member a mocking nod, the pony finally looked towards her target. Her target looked back at her from upon its throne. A tired old alicorn, withered from stress and age. She grinned wider this time, eyes sparkling as they widened.

Some of the more plucky guards made a motion to surround her as she cleared the crowd in front of the throne's dais steps. A predatory grin broke their courage, and a slight feint to the side broke their formation.  

Her target sighed, hanging it’s head.

The ‘pony’ cleared its throat, “...greetings, dear regent of the ‘Eternal’ Sun,” it rasped quietly, bowing so lowly it’s single natural horn scraped against the pristine floor. As she rose again, her target looked even more sullen, giving her prompt to smirk viciously.

“What, nothing to say this time?” She crooned mockingly, slowly sashaying her way up to the first step with her tail swishing from side to side, teasing the terrified guards, just because she could. The Princess didn't respond, nor did she make eye-contact, merely hiding herself behind her once lustrous mane and forcing her eyes shut.

The ‘pony’ slammed her hoof against the first marble step, cracking it in a fine spider-web pattern. “At least have the decency to look me in the eye, Sun-butt,” she hissed as she pushed her way up to the next step.

Reluctantly, the Princess drug her dulled gaze to meet the abomination’s eyes. There wasn’t any need for this, she was sure. The Princess had lost a very long time ago. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t have a little fun with it again.

She lept up to the next step as the one she’d broken crumbled away under her weight.  

The weak guards tried to look intimidating from their place near the bottom of the stairs to the throne, but ventured no further. She cast them a sidelong glance and flicked her tail again with a grin before turning back to her target.

She was only a short few steps away, but she’d leave those for later. The anticipation would make it well worth it, of that she was certain.

“I don’t suppose you have anything to say for yourself, do you Princess?” The ‘pony’ whispered softly as she leaned closer. Her target narrowed it’s eyes, but remained silent. The pony scoffed softly and stalked ever closer, stopping when she was nearly against the Princess.

“Come on, just a retort or insult, or something of the like. I know you have plenty of the latter just for me,” she whispered into her target’s ear, just barely audible over the deafening silence of the room. The ear flicked against her cold breath.  

Her target ground it’s teeth in an uncharacteristic show of restraint, refusing to respond more than was necessary. The ‘pony’ clicked her tongue and took a step back with a small smirk, rolling her eyes as the Princess looked away again.

“You’re not sorry, are you dear? Because that’d be downright absurd.” She mocked as she began to circle the throne. When she reached the back of the glorified chair, she leaned around it to place her head beside her target’s ear again. “You’re never sorry. You’re always right, because you. Are. Perfect.”

That almost got a rise, she could see. Her target’s ears twitched back, but only slightly. She was the only one who could have noticed it, even from this angle. “I think you are, actually,” she murmured as she continued her slow circle around the throne, making a show of looking for something on the dark stone walls.

The Princess’ mouth began to open, but firmly clicked shut after a moment as the ‘pony’ perked one ear up to listen. Snorting in disgust, she stopped at the side of the throne to face the still silent crowd with a bored glare.

“Shall I come back later..." she sang dramatically before propping herself up against the armrest and rubbing suggestively against Celestia's shoulder. "...perhaps in a decade or so, when your food supplies begin to really dwindle? I know you can’t keep running forever. Every rabbit needs to sleep,” she mocked, baring her teeth in a macabre sort of representation of a grin at a terrified looking pegasus that was backing away. The Princess remained silent as the stone of the walls and floor, just as cracked and weathered, but still holding strong.

“...The problem with the turtle is that it never wanted to race in the first place.” The ‘pony’ mumbled nearly silently, just for her target to hear. No need to de-villainize herself in full view of the audience, that'd break the illusion.

The Princess was silent for a moment before mumbling something inaudible against her teeth. The pony that wasn't cocked an ear towards her target. “What was that? You’re going to have to speak up!” she called obnoxiously , a clear invitation to make sure everypony present heard what her target said.

“...did it to yourself...” her target finally mumbled a little louder, with an obvious strain in it’s voice as it turned to look at her. The ‘pony’ raised an eyebrow, and began to walk down the steps to leave before her target cleared it’s throat to catch her attention one last time.

“You did it to yourself, Twilight.”

With a deafening thundercrack and a flashy shower of sparks, the ‘pony’ was gone.