Celestia stood in the still growing pool of crimson liquid, her wounds burning in agony, her mind reeling from the shock of the last few moments. There hadn’t been any other way. If there had been any other possible course of action, any at all, she would have taken it. She began to sob. The next part would be even more difficult.

Twilight Sparkle burst into the room, tossing the heavy wooden doors off their hinges with her magic. Panic in her eyes, she jerked her head around the room searching. Her eyes came to rest at the puddle below the Princess and doubled in size.

“You… you MONSTER!” she shrieked as her horn flared and she charged.

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All of Canterlot’s brightest unicorns were in that tiny laboratory, focusing intensely on the task at hoof. Many of them hadn’t bathed, ate, or slept in days. The stench was incredible, and the ability of all of them to carry on was miraculous. Celestia had given them a summary of the grim prophecy, and assured them of its validity. They had to find a way to save their Princess.

Celestia did not fear for HER life, but the lives of all the ponies she fondly thought of as her children. Without her, Equestria would wither and die. Luna was still not fully recovered, and would not be able to control both the sun and the moon. There would be nopony to help her. The Elements of Harmony would surely be unwilling to assist until they had vanquished the beast responsible, and there was little chance they would even succeed. If it were powerful enough to slay the Element of Magic, what could the others hope to do against it?

She wanted so badly to believe it wasn’t true. That there had been a mistake. But, the Seer had never been wrong. Not once in the thousands of years he had served the royal family of Equestria.

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“Are you certain of this?” Celestia asked, her eyes narrow. She already knew the answer. The Seer was certain. A terrible monster would rise and crush a child in before its mother’s eyes. The terrible creature would destroy one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Celestia would die. The remaining elements would seek revenge on the abomination. This was the truth. The Seer was never wrong.

“Absolutely. I can only warn you that the most powerful unicorn is the key. Without the greatest living mage, the beast cannot come to be.”

The striking white alicorn lowered her gaze. She had a terrible feeling she knew exactly which unicorn the Seer spoke of.

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“Isn’t it amazing Twilight? You’ve got hard proof that you’re amazing! If Trixie ever shows her flank again, you can just bust out that slip of paper and BAM! Instant victory! The numbers don’t lie, she is WAY beneath you.”

“I know, Spike, but still something about all this is making me really uneasy. Why would Princess Celestia even need these numbers? If there’s a magical task that needs to be done, and for whatever reason she can’t do it herself, couldn’t she just ask me to try? Why does she need to have exact measurements of what I’m capable of?”

Spike shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, but I can’t think of any reason this has to be a bad thing. We got to take a trip to Canterlot, and we got proof that you’re the best…” Twilight blushed. “Why can’t this be fun? How about we go get donuts over at Pony Joe’s, huh?”

The lavender unicorn sighed. “Okay Spike, I’ll be over there in a few minutes. I need to go ask some of those researchers a few questions.”

The baby dragon rolled his eyes. “Always with the learning… alright, though. But don’t stick your nose TOO far into their business. We’ve got donuts to eat!”

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Trotting down the streets of Canterlot, the unsettling feeling in the pit of Twilight Sparkle’s stomach continued to grow. The researchers had all been friendly and helpful, many of them deciding to bow and her refer to her as ‘Lady Sparkle’ now that her status had been confirmed, but getting her questions answered didn’t answer her questions. What exactly was going on, and why couldn’t she shake the feeling that something terrible was looming on the horizon?

The door to Pony Joe’s glowed purple and pushed its way open, the bell attached jingling merrily. “Why if it ain’t Twilight Sparkle. What can I do for ya today?”

“I haven’t decided what I want yet. Where’s Spike?”

“Haven’t seen him. He’s in town with you, yeah?”

“Yes, but he said he was heading over here. We were supposed to get a bite to eat.”

“Sorry, Sparky, haven’t seen Spike or any other dragons since the Gala.”

Twilight frowned.

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The little bundle of purple and green scales was practically skipping down the hall, content with the world and eager to reach his destination. He barely paid his surroundings any attention until he thought he heard somepony yelling. Stepping back just a little and pressing his ear to the door, he recognized the voices of the Princesses. Celestia and Luna seemed to be arguing about something, but Spike couldn’t make out any of the words. He pressed himself closer to the door, but was flung aside as the door suddenly swung open. Princess Luna left the room, not quite at a gallop, but not exactly at a leisurely pace. Was she… crying?

Spike peeked his head into the room to see that Princess Celestia was standing in the center. It was quite clear that Celestia was, in fact, crying. Deciding he couldn’t leave her like that, but that it wouldn’t be good if anypony else saw the Princess cry, he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.

“Princess Celestia? The Princess sniffled slightly. “What’s wrong?”

“I am sorry you had to see me like this, Spike. I have had a very… emotionally draining day. Could you please leave me? I’m quite exhausted.”

“Does this have to do with Twilight? She’s been complaining about something being ‘not right’ all day. If something’s wrong, I’d like to know. Maybe I can help!”

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Terrible pain shot through the regal alicorn. Even as a baby, the bite of a dragon was not to be trifled with. He simply wouldn’t listen to reason! It was the only way. Twilight Sparkle was the key to the coming of something horrible. Something that would cause much heartache and plunge Equestria into an age of grief. Neither of the Princesses could propose a viable alternative, and the Seer was silent. But Spike would not listen. He didn’t care about the fate of Equestria. He only cared about the fate of his number-one assistant-haver.

She couldn’t bring herself to physically stop him, but every time she tried to magically sedate him, he found some new reserve of strength to draw from and resumed his attack. She had tried everything non-violent tactic short of teleporting him away, but the fierce little dragon would not be deterred.

Her horn glowing once more, the Princess attempted to sedate Spike one last time. It seemed to work, as his eyelids fluttered and he fell to the floor with a dull thud. Blood began to leak from his ear. No, this was wrong. That was only a simple sedation spell, and he hadn’t hit the floor nearly that hard! He should not be bleeding. Why was he bleeding?

Why had he been able to resist all that magic? Some sort of overdose of magical absorption must have taken place, his body continuing to take the energy out of the spells so he could carry on until he could handle no more. Oh no. No. Nononononono. This wasn’t right, this wasn’t right at all. She had to do something, but what? She couldn’t risk trying to heal him with magic. She had been surprised enough at the way he handled simple spells. Something as complex as healing could have any number of unknown effects.

He moved. Spike began to stir, and started to stand again.

“SPIKE. STOP THIS IMMEDIATELY. YOU ARE GREIVOUSLY WOUNDED AND YOU NEED MEDICAL ATTENTION AT ONCE!”

If he heard her, he made no indication of it. The dragon lunged at her again. She panicked.

Spike hit the floor with a sickening wet crack. She didn’t know what else to do. Any more magic would only have made things worse, and despite his size and lack of experience, the wounds Spike had inflicted were mind-numbingly painful. She had only tried to swat him down to the floor and pin him underhoof, but having so few occasions to use physical force she frequently forgot her strength.

If he hadn’t already been bleeding from the magic, he certainly would be from the second impact with the floor. Why was here so much blood? She had meant only to stop his attacks, nothing more.

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Celestia stood in the still growing pool of crimson liquid, the full weight of her actions finally beginning to settle on her mind. Neither Twilight Sparkle nor Spike moved. There… there really hadn’t been any other way, had there? She was assured, hundreds of times. All the numbers had been triple checked. This was the only sane course of action. So why did it all feel so wrong? How could she live with herself? How could she face Equestria? How could she face LUNA?

She couldn’t. She was already dead inside. She was a monster. With the magic of friendship ripped from them, five ponies were going to watch her burn.