My Little pony Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series Origins Part 4
Princess Celestia
Optional-Canon
"Princess Celestia!"
I saw this coming.
"You're joking! You have to be joking! This is a joke right? I'm dreaming right? This is just a nightmare yes?" She looked so small.
I hung my head towards her. "I told you you would be saying goodbye to foalhood Twilight Sparkle. You are the one who asked for all of the truth. You are now the only pony alive besides myself and my sister to know this."
Twilight looked like I had crushed her heart. "P-princess! Please! You couldn't have!"
"I thought they would remove the hatred in pony's hearts. I thought they would turn it into love. I thought they would cool the hot tempers that reigned. I thought when they were done there would not be a dark cloud in the heart of any pony in Ponyland. I thought, I ASSUMED! And the ponies I loved so badly, the ponies I wanted to save so badly, were the ones to pay for it Twilight Sparkle."
Her lip quivered. "This isn't a dream or a nightmare is it?"
"I am truly sorry my loyal and faithful student, it is not."
"And?"
"And what?"
"And am I sworn to silence?"
"This knowledge is yours to do with as you please Twilight," I said simply.
She held her hooves to her head, she almost wailed in the night. "I can't! I can't tell anypony this! It would kill them! It would kill you!"
"Only My Parents have ever been completely perfect Twilight Sparkle. I am the perfect day, I am not a perfect spirit. Not since I first experienced emotions the way you do."
"Teacher, Princess, I, I, I love you. But, but-"
"But it's horrible to learn something like this."
Twilight slumped. "Yes."
"Then you know precisely how I felt when I awoke Twilight Sparkle."
++++
I awoke. I knew instantly my dreams had not been dreams. I knew what was going on. I knew what was happening. But I was clueless as to why. I also realized I had been sleeping for far longer than I had intended. Had I really slept for that long? Years? Possibly decades? I also sensed that the world had grown far colder than it should have.
I teleported to my reflections. I found them among a battlefield both sides now a collection of frozen dead bodies.
"What are you doing?!"
"All hate must be eliminated. All hate must be as if it never existed." The icy winds covered the armies with snow.
"Not this way!"
"This is the only way."
"That's not true!"
"Incorrect."
"I order you to stop!"
"All orders must be carried out. Will stop once previous order has been carried out. Eliminate all hatred. All hate must be as if it never existed. Hatred's source must be terminated. Primary hot areas of hate must be eliminated first."
"I ORDERED YOU TO STOP!" I blasted them with enough heat to thaw every body in sight instantly. They merely reformed. And began to freeze over the place again. My fireballs rained down on them until I turned the icy place of death into an inferno. My fires merely froze over.
Finally I teleported them into the heart of an active volcano. The volcano then ever so slowly began to cool down from the inside. They would not be destroyed. I teleported to every town they had touched hoping to find survivors. I found none. "What have they done? What have they done-?!"
A rogue Alicorn, with no home to call my own, and a creature of disharmony, I departed once again from that world.
I shouldn't have been surprised at who I ran into first. It was like he had been waiting for him.
Looking back at it, I don't recall ever seeing him so genuinely enraged before, not the immature frustration I normally saw akin to a child who's batteries on their toy had run out.
I barely noticed the centers of his eyes were no longer even sized. He had gotten larger since I had last seen him too. But he was the size of an ant as far as I was concerned and my hooves felt the need to do some stomping.
"DISCORD! What have you done-?! Do you feel proud of yourself? Trying to sentence my world to a slow freezing death in mockery of what I wanted? When did you do it? When did you insert that little trick into them when I wasn't looking? Was it when you took my hoof you lowly-"
"SHUT UP BEOTCH!"
I was stunned silent. That was the first time I remember him ever cussing at me before, or anypony.
"I DIDN'T TAMPER WITH ANYTHING! I THOUGHT YOU FINALLY UNDERSTOOD! I THOUGHT YOU FINALLY SAW EVERYTHING FOR THE STUCK-UP NONSENSE MASS OF RULES IT IS! Tell me how much you laughed at me as your sister was punching me full of holes while I was holding down the fort FOR YOU! I thought you were going to stir things up! Make things interesting! I thought you were going to do something that would ruin this boring Status Quo once and for all! Instead you bring about your stupid perfect frozen order to everything instead! WELL I'M NOT LAUGHING!"
His voice suddenly turned charming and polite so fast it was scary. It was hard to tell which tone was a façade, which was real. If they both were one or the other. Even now I don't know.
"Oh and thanks for coming back and saving my butt. Oh and your sister's too, really showing the power of friendship there," he said, sarcasim sneaking into his tone. "I guess neither of us meant anything to you after all. You really are like My Mother. Well guess what?" He gave a smile I pray you never saw when he was freed.
"You think I played rough before? As one of my old playmates would say, you ain't seen nothing yet! You're going to see how nasty I am when I'm TRYING! ... Thank you Celestia. Thank you Celly. Thanks 'Tia. You really woke me up from the fantasy I was living. I finally truly understand everything." He applauded me as he spoke that last part, each clap with a different sound.
"Trust me Celsetia, I will see you around!" He then burst out laughing, but it wasn't the warped laugh he used for his 'practical jokes' that weren't so practical to the innocents who got in the way. This reminded me a little of the sound a rabid hyena might make.
I couldn't sense where he teleported away to. I didn't care. He was nothing. All the mistakes of my life rolled up into one long snake shaped jackass.
I had been used. And I no longer cared what happened. I had nothing left. And only one place to go.
I tore through Entropy's domain like a flaming fireball, leaving a line path of melted ice and half incinerated shadows in my wake. A black-ice-construct that was a new addition to the welcome wagon lasted less than a millisecond again me.
I landed so hard and fast in her inner domain I left a smoking impact crater. My divine rage was a fire that burned away at her icy presence.
I climbed out and shouted.
"ENTROPY! ARE YOU ARE AFRAID TO FACE ME?!"
The entire world shook. And she rose, this time her entire head, and her long body rose, like a tower whose shadow stretched for miles.
"ENTROPY DOES NOT FEAR YOU."
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE REFLECTIONS? THEY'RE BRINGING DEATH TO THE WORLD NOT SALVATION! IS THIS YOUR IDEA OF A JOKE?! WHAT OTHER ORDERS DID YOU GIVE THEM?"
"I gave them only one order. To obey all that you commanded and to follow through without failure." It actually startled me that she'd lowered her tone for once.
"YOU'RE LYING!" I declared. I stated. About her. To her face.
I had done the one thing that for Entropy only equaled death. But she spared me. Because I had done what had thought to be impossible even by her husband and children. I made her laugh. And I pray none from my best friend to my worst enemy ever has to hear that sound!
"I DO NOT LIE. AN ALICORN STANDS BEFORE ME WITH THE FOOLISHNESS OF A MORTAL BLAMING A HIGHER BEING FOR THEIR OWN FAILURES."
"LIAR! WHOSE REALLY RESPONSIBLE! WHOSE BEHIND THIS? Discord? Havoc? Luna?"
She just chuckled this time, and it was still enough to drive any sane pony mad with nightmares.
"YOU WILL BE SHOWN."
And one by one, eight mirrors in a circle rose out of the black ice/rock/dirt around me.
"Behold, the one who brought a frozen end to the world you love so dear."
And in each mirror, in each reflection, my reflection stared in and horror and shock back at me.
"No."
"YES. THIS IS THE ONE TO BLAME. NEVER HAVE I SEEN SO FOOLISH A CREATURE IN MY REIGN.
I COMMANDED HER REFLECTIONS TO ONLY OBEY HER COMMANDS. AND SO THEY DID ACROSS THE LANDS.
NO MORE AND NO LESS. IN HER IGNORANCE AND IMMATURITY SHE GAVE THEM A COMMAND TO END ALL HATRED. BUT HATRED MY DEAR IS BORN OF DIFFERENCES. IT IS BORN OF CHOICES. IT IS BORN OF THE ABILITY TO FEEL. THE ABILITY TO FEEL AND EXPRESS HATRED IS BORN OF LIFE! AND THERE ARE THOSE EVEN AMONG YOUR OWN KIND WHO BELIEVE IT IS NOT A SIN TO HATE THAT WHICH IS EVIL!
YOU DID NOT ASK FOR THEM TO MAKE IT SO THEY DID NOT NEED TO HATE OR FIGHT. NOR A WORLD WHERE THEY WOULD NOT HAVE TO. NOR TO MAKE PONIES BETTER THAN HATRED.
YOU TOLD THEM TO MAKE IT AS IF HATE HAD NEVER EXISTED ON THAT WORLD AND TO BE IMPOSSIBLE TO RISE AGAIN.
WHAT THEY DO IS NOT THE EASY WAY TO OBEY YOUR COMMAND. IT IS THE ONLY WAY.
I TOLD YOU THEY WOULD FOLLOW ANY COMMAND WITHOUT REST UNTIL IT WAS FULFILLED.
YOU ASSUMED THEY WERE LIKE MY OFFSPRING, BUT THEY ARE NOTHINGNESS INCARNATE, BORN FROM MY BEING, WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO GIVE THEM ANYTHING TO CONNECT TO AT ALL, THEN CARRY IT OUT. THEY HAD NO FREEWILL OUTSIDE WHAT YOU COMMANDED THEM
YOU WISH TO SEE WHO HAS BROUGHT THE FROZEN DEATH TO THE WORLD YOU LOVE? LOOK NO FURTHER THAN IN MY MIRRORS. MY LITTLE ALICORN."
"THIS IS THE WORLD YOUR CHOICES HAVE MADE YOU CANNOT DENY!"
I did it. I did it all. I asked Entropy for create the Windigos for me and I released them on Equestria against the wishes of my family and fought against my family to see it done. Mother and Father, what had I done?
I curled up and cried. I wanted to cease to exist then and there.
"NOT EVEN MY CHILDREN HAD EVER MADE ME LAUGH. SO ENTROPY SHALL GRANT YOU A GIFT."
The circle of mirrors interconnected and disconnected from the ground, folded up, and fell in front of me.
"TAKE THIS SO YOU MAY REFLECT ON YOUR FOALISHNESS FOREVER."
I wanted it all to end. I wanted everything to end. I want I to just go away.
Only one thread caught me from falling completely.
I had wronged my family. And I deserved punishment from them.
I took the mirrors with me. Yes, Twilight, those mirrors in the corner there. Yes I have kept them. I've kept them as a reminder that reckless good intentions can and do backfire.
I returned home. This time with my head and wings down, my horn touching the floor.
My own brothers and sisters pounced on me the moment I entered, I was a rogue Alicorn after all. I didn't resist. At all. "The shackles aren't necessary, I don't plan to run away."
"It is the way things are done 'Tia." Justitia said simply. However, I think just how miserable my voice was shocked even her.
"I hope you're happy with yourself," Pensilis said, his signature cut noose around his neck as he pulled me along.
"If this was a joke it wasn't funny Celestia," Puerilis commented, a uncharacteristic frown on his face.
Sooner than later I was brought before both my parents.
Abbatissa was there already of course, she spent the most time with Mother, she never grew tired of listening to Her, learning from Her, to get to know Her in every possible way. In her own way she resembled Mother more than I did. When she saw me, she closed her eyes and looked away until the very tip of Mother's wing redirected her face at me.
"YOU WILL NOT TURN YOUR EYES AWAY FROM A MEMBER OF YOUR FAMILY BEFORE SHE IS JUDGED," Mother said to her.
What are My Parents like?
They Exist. There is no more precise and direct way to put it. It's like I was just a fantasy in the face of a real pony in their presence. Mother Is the Perfect Existence or said another way the Perfect Empathy. Father Is The Perfect Reality or looked at another way the Perfect Wisdom.
Mother was white. Father was black. Neither were wicked or cruel. Nor were they indifferent or cold. To look at them, was to look at a window into a whole reality unto themselves. When their wings opened, they stretched from one end of the Their domain to the other. Their wings touching and overlapped was true divinity. My Mother's horn and my Father's were each circled by set of tiny horns that reminded me almost of a crown.
Father was logical and rational, but there was nothing machine like about him, nor was he rigid or callous. No sapient life, or potentially sapient life, was insignificant to My Father. To know Him, is to know you are.
Countless Stars shined within My Father, endless possibilities, to look at you him, to be within him, you'd have never been so free.
My mother, oh My Mother, she was wonderful, she was simply beautiful, there is no way to describe the light that shined from her in a term you can comprehend Twilight other than LIFE. I know you ponies like to think of the spirit world as the land of the dead, but spirits have a life all their own!
Oh, I didn't mean to cry. I, I'm sorry Twilight, it's just been so long since I've seen Them.
Effectively all my siblings were in attendance, in a semi-circle around me. The other twins, Princeps (my brother) & Imperatrix (my sister), look at me at if they couldn't bring themselves to believe that their fellow twins had fallen so far.
Even Eremo had broken his self imposed seclusion to witness my judgement, as was typical, I couldn't even read his expression. He didn't even have any of his beloved books/archives/tablets with him. If I wasn't already resigned, it might have made me nervous.
Judicium bowed to My Parents, knowing that this judgement went even above him, and stood on one side of me as Justitia stood on the other. The two looked at each other grimly. It was Judicium who had comforted Justitia after her dreadful battle with Morning Star.
All here: nine brothers and seven sisters. Wait, seven?
"Where is Luna?" I dared to ask. I didn't want that part of my dreams to be real. I didn't want to believe I had another thorn in my crown.
Cadence sighed and with her magic floated in front of me a diapered Alicorn, the foal looked at me with innocent eyes and babbled, "T-ia'celly."
My eyes watered. I did this to her.
"I request the same punishment."
"NO./No."
Said both My Parents.
"CELESTIA. WHY HAVE YOU COME BACK HERE?"
"I thought I was wiser than you all. I thought I saw the world more clearly. I am not. I didn't. I am a fool."
"SO YOU ARE FINALLY WISE."
"Whose Is to Blame For What Has Fallen The Ponies From the Shades Of Entropy?"
"I am."
"AS A WISE PONY. WHAT DO YOU FEEL IS PROPER PUNISHMENT?"
"Oblivion. Reabsorption. The final nothingness."
"You Request A Coward's Punishment."
I shivered and sobbed. "I'm sorry..."
"YOU ARE SENTENCED TO LIVE. FOREVER. WITH THE MEMORIES OF WHAT YOU'VE DONE NEVER TO FADE."
"Yes mother."
"Until Luna Is A Grown Mare. Anything That Becomes Of Her Or She Does Also Weighs On Your Shoulders."
"Yes father."
The restraints fell off me.
"Father...may I request one more punishment for myself?"
"What Is It You Feel You Deserve?"
"Since the life of Star-Catcher never happened. I wish to become a mortal once again...so I may suffer as those I've hurt are suffering..."
"ONCE MORE YOU SHOW THE WISDOM YOU HAVE GAINED, MORE SO THAN MANY. THERE ARE FEW WHO ARE WILLING TO TAKE THE SUFFERING THEY'VE CAUSED OTHERS UPON THEMSELVES AS RETRIBUTION. SO BE IT."
"One Last Thing Before You Leave Us For Another Lifetime."
"Yes Father?"
"You Have Indeed Suffered From Something Which No Other Alicorn Has. That Is Not Your Fault. But Acting On That Pain Without Thinking Of The Consequences Is. You Grew A Little, But Mistook It For Knowing Far More. There Is Little More Dangerous For One With Power To Assume. Make Certain You Learn From Your Mistake. Make Certain You Learn From Your Mistake."
"I will, Father."
And so Star-Catcher walked Ponyland 'again' for the first time, this time as an Earth Pony. I went through life hating and blaming the Unicorns and Pegasi for the famine and winter that now plagued us. I cursed the pegasi for living above us like they were better than us. I cursed the unicorns for acting high and mighty and staying warm in their castles while we froze out in the elements growing their food.
Life was drudgery under the watchful eyes of pegasi and the haughty attitudes of unicorns. The ever increasing cold reflected our building loathing to our overlords.
We were a nameless family in a nameless town, just struggling to get bye, the unnatural winter making already hard work impossible. Life was bitter but every Earth Pony supported each other like legs on a table, and I took strength from that.
We stubbornly worked our fields even as seemingly nature itself tried to destroy us, we'd prove we weren't so easily broken as to surrender to despair. We weren't separate ponies out for glory or riches, we were a community, a fellowship, a family that went beyond blood. They'd die for me and I'd die for them.
And I witnessed those I loved die around me one by one, by a killer that had no body to slay, slowly freezing to death in front of me,leaving me alone, cursing the ones who were responsible.
I buried my family alone. Because I was the only one left. The dirt more like rock as I dug shallow graves.
I didn't know why I was taken last. Except perhaps as proof of some unseen great pony in the sky's sadism.
I no longer cared about dying, I had nothing left, I only hoped whatever took me came for the tyrants next who had left us out to freeze rather than lift a horn or a wing to help us.
I felt the ice close around me, but I no longer cared...Everypony I loved was dead. I spent my last moments of that life screaming to the sky, cursing whatever entity, pony, or force had caused this...Twilight, freezing to death was slow and painful...but not nearly as painful as remembering when I'd returned to my true state of being that the one I'd shouted profanities and curses about my entire life...was me...
And I was a filly of an Alicorn again, my pink mane falling around me as I the fell on the floor/My Parents reflection/the ground. I keep shivering even after Mortis carried me home on his back. My brothers and sisters all silently parted ways for me as I was carried to the heart of the world/throne room/My Parents' Place.
Little Luna silently reached out for me from her spot with Venus and Cadence.
Motis gently laid me on my My Mother's back without a world. Father nuzzled me.
Mother hugged me. "MY LITTLE PONY." She whispered as she wrapped her wings of forever around me. "IT'S ALRIGHT. YOU'RE HOME."
And I just stayed that way, not moving an inch, I didn't want to, not thinking a thought other than my love for Her, not feeling anything but Her warmth, letting the icy cold that lingered in me from the magic of the very things I had let loose on the world be washed away. There was only Her. I had returned to Her. She loved me. And I loved Her. I floated in her radiance.
Then I dreamed.
++++
"So the unicorns have decided they don't need us anymore? COME AND GET ME YOU MONSTER!"
"I don't know how the Pegasi made you but I'm coming for them as soon as I'm done with you!"
"Abominations! I won't let my family be hurt by some tool of freaks!"
"YOU'RE ALL INSANE! WE PEGASI ARE DYING FROM THIS ICE TOO!"
"My wings! Help! I can't fly!"
"Monster Earth Ponies! I knew you all hated civilization!"
"Mommy! The Earth Pony Ghosts wanna eat me!"
"Stay away from my grandchildren!"
"Did I escape that crazy dragon just to die here instead?!"
"I can't feel my horn!"
And they all ended in the cold then the dark.
++++
I awoke screaming from my nightmares, still in my mother's wings and embrace, and she melted my fears and night terrors away and I rested again.
When I was strong enough, I visited my family who I had buried in the never ending winter in the world of spirits. I lost track of how long I spent there, saying I was sorry, wish I could something, anything for them.
Did we declare your world a lost cause? Did we abandon you? Did we decide to simply let you all die through no fault of your own? Did we chose to simply start again?
Twilight Sparkle! I am very very very disappointed in you! We have always been alongside you! I have always been along side you! Even when you couldn't see me!
I love all of you! Haven't-haven't-you realized that yet? You're-You are all precious to me! You are all unique to me!
Mother is many things both beautiful and terrible but heartless has never been one of them!
The draconequi could not effect them, since the Windigos were born from a LACK of something, the undoing of something, rather than the presence of something or an action. They would obey only me, they'd even ignore their Mother, and only when their programmed objective was complete! And maybe since they were technically bound to my fate She could not call them back to Her?
And in case you forgot Mother had told Havoc that if the world began to break down again that we'd intervene remember? And it was unanimously voted among the Draconequi that a frozen world with NOTHING that could be defined as life reigned and nothing changed was as good as dead.
Pandemonium told me that Discord stalked about like a child who'd woken up to find his toy box taken away. He had actually begged His Father to let us help more. I hate to admit it, but I did feel guilty for leaving him to the wolves after he'd come to my aid and blamed him for the mistakes I had made.
It was rather surprising really, there was this one world where the ponies died off, but their mechanical creations were still alive and running and Strife insisted that they be allowed to continue since by that point these clockwork ponies thought and felt and had different ideas and conflicts.
It was surprised when Strife of all Concepts fought among us that un-life and machine-life be recognized as another living aspect of Mother. She even came to my Mother in her realm to beseech it to be so.
And if we were willing, to protect to the bitter end the existence of MACHINES that had gained the power to feel! Don't you think we do everything to save you from your own hated and from my stupidity-?!
You can accuse My Family of many things my loyal good stupid faithful student, but callous with your lives will never be one of them!
Oh, let me put these flowers out, don't worry, I own a Phoenix as a pet, most everything in here is fireproof anyway.
...It's alright Twilight, you can come out from under the bed. I, I'll forgive you...And you're not a stupid pony, you're a very bright one who just happened to overstep her bounds without realizing it. There now. Much better.
Did we give you the fire of friendship that Clover, Pansy and Cookie used to dispel the Windigos?
Yes. Several thousand years before the First Age when we made you more than dumb animals and we gave you the power to see there was more beyond mere survival! There was more to die for than just your own bloodline. That beauty didn't have to be just about attracting a mate. When LOVE became the meaning behind unions rather the continuation of the species. THAT is when we gave it to you ... my little pony. And you came to meet all our expectations and more.
I am so proud of all of you.
Entropy declared any life given sapience would ultimately destroy themselves. Heheh. I think the fact Mother continues to prove Her wrong is the only thing to ever get under her icy skin! And that's one thing I am NOT afraid to state about her!
Havoc is intelligent and shrewd, but stubborn, he still wouldn't let us interact directly. I think he might have wanted a dead world of perfect order just to rub our noses in it. His personal strawpony parody of what My Family represented.
Strife madly began trying to get you to destroy each other, her hoping being that if only one race of pony remained you would be too tired to turn on each other and the Windigos would leave you be.
She considered going the other direction and creating monsters to drive the ponies together against a common foe. Despite being conflict incarnate, Strife understood the value of working as a group for survival, thus why wolves, ants, bees, and all kinds of animals rely on it for survival. But she told me that if the Windigo's could not accomplish that, even her deadliest creations couldn't do it.
Destruction wanted me to cause a super-nova to destroy them figuring life could evolve again in a million years after I burnt the planet to a cinder.
Cadence and the uncharacteristically motivated Anarchy, in the most bitter alliance I've ever seen, began guiding the lives of three ponies to make them signs of tolerance and then understanding and finally acceptance among their kind. Even before the Windigos Cadence hated such a caricature of polyphony and Anarchy loathed a frozen world with no life and no choices.
But Private Pansy didn't have the strength of will to enact social change. Smart Cookie wanted to guide rather than lead. And Clover had no interest in starting a palace revolution against the family who her departed master had served faithfully.
Mother remained strangely calm about the entire ordeal.
Rota Fortuna saw the only way the ponies themselves would have for the Windigos to be gone would be for the ponies to let go of their hatred, to being chemically unable to feel the emotion, then destroy every record of it having existed in their history. And the ponies of the three tribes had hardened their hearts to this.
But as I began to sink into depression at the thought my mistake could not be fixed and I'd doomed an innocent people to extinction, Mother's voice called out.
"DO NOT YET LOSE YOUR HOPE. CELESTIA, CONCEPT OF THE SUN, YOU WITNESSED PERSONALLY WHAT OUR CREATIONS DID WHEN ALL SEEMED HOPELESS, AND YET NOW YOU LOSE FAITH IN THEM?"
I have never known Mother to be wrong. Twilight, remember that when my friends they fought Strife, they had no idea what the Rainbow Light even was. But they were still able to call upon its power even with it broken and scattered to realize their paradise. And we left Strife forever with a stone paw.
We were only children who had done nothing our whole lives but play in our sugar coated paradise. But In that darkest hour, we became something more. We matured. Star-Catcher's dawn couldn't come, but we wouldn't let your world turn pitch black.
When Clover, Pansy, and Smart Cookie failed to convince others of the shallowness of racism or they were all just different races of the same species, we chose focus our efforts on helping Patch recover the Rainbow of Light.
Because she was driven out of love for a friend, not hatred for anypony, she was nearly invisible to the Windigos, but even with Puerillis sublimely guiding her, she was only on her fourth piece at the time things had turned critical.
There was no way she could collect all seven before the world fell forever into a grip of ice.
Despite Anarchy and Cadence's best efforts, Clover, Pansy, and Smart Cookie showed no signs they would be your deliverance...
And then the three of them together called down Mother Herself.
My Mother is Her power, Her power is my Mother. There is no difference between them.
This was your darkest hour my little pony.
And just as light deepens the darkness, darkness brightens the light.
Three hearts, who barely knew each other, who had been told all their lives the other two were evil by default, accept each other into their hearts even at what they thought was the end.
And this called down a single yoctogram of My Mother. Through what we had all given you at the beginning.
No, Twilight, none can force Mother to do anything. No 'commands' Her power. She comes to none unless She consciously consents to it.
If She wished for mortals to have something, She held it out in Her hoof, but you had to do your part to pick it up.
They earned that fragment of Mother's presence. I assure you, channeling My Mother is a near impossible feat even for an Alicorn, let alone a trio of mortal ponies. We were every bit as surprised as they were.
No She did not force Herself on them, She has only been roused to do that once in eternity, and that was terrifying indeed, and with more than, forgive me for saying so, 'merely one world' at stake. It was the threshold when Her intervention would not bring worse collateral damage than what had to be stopped. Discord's rule of insanity was chaos incarnate but at least it was life!
Believe me when I say either of My Parents being roused forth signals that 'darkest hour' is an understatement.
Their own acceptance and love, using the gift of friendship to its highest potential possible, undid the protective locks and opened the door and called out to Her. Unconditional acceptance of blood enemies after having just met in the face of death? This could do nothing but draw Her attention. And into your world.
If my Mother could manifest in the mortal world, the Fire of Friendship would be Her.
And that microscopic fragment of Her was more than enough to effectively incinerate, no, TO FILL THE NOTHING that the Windigos were.
As many things as I've told you that I hope you never see, that moment is one I sincerely wish you could. One flicker of light from three little ponies filled the entire darkness. It was as brilliant as my sun!
When I sensed it I danced like an drunken idiot and carried little Luna on my back, laughing like I was a toddler myself! I brought thousands of suns to life and I skipped around creating an entire field of sun flowers right in my room!
I heard Imperatrix and Princeps cheering and dancing together. Venus already dictating love poems about the event. I don't know what Rota Fortuna was thinking behind her smile. Cadence sang. Abbatissa was already hugging mother. Eremo and Judicium were busy writing down notes. Leo Fortis did get drunk. Galaxia got Pensilis dance. Puerilis wouldn't stop laughing and tickled Mortis. Justitia took off her helmet and just peacefully gazed at the little world with Turris and Currus.
Even with the world saved, Puerillis never stopped invisibly guiding Patch on her quest until she had restored the Rainbow of Light and rejoined her friends. I think he might have actually brought their spirits to brief enjoy the celebration before they moved onto paradise.
I fell down and rolled around like a puppy! My tears of joy wouldn't stop. Our little ponies were free. Luna giggled and clapped at me. Stars danced around her. I hugged her, wrapped my wings around her, and I wouldn't let go!
And at the that exact same moment in the Sea of Darkness.
++++
"YEEEEEAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!"
Entropy for the first time in Her existence knew what pain was.
We heard her screams as a distant echo in our domain... It haunted my dreams for three thousand years.
She thrashed about and grabbed her forelimb where the stinging horrid pain of existence, of friendship, of LIFE stabbed through her, sending waves of chaos and darkness big enough to drown entire worlds as she writhed. The Windigos were a piece of her after all. Of course she'd feel pain at their effective 'destruction' if it can be called that.
Discordance, Disruption/Mass Destruction/Disaster, Dispute/Strife, Desire/Pandora/Pandemonium, Disorder/Anarchy and all clutched her guts and fell on their side screaming in pain, as one half their being had been born from their Mother.
And Havoc beheld this done upon His wife and His children.
Havoc is terrible indeed, his opinion of his children range from tools, to a part of Him, to his most important treasures in the universe besides seeing it gripped in endless tide of madness.
But ... this much could be said for Him. He couldn't react less when His spawn got themselves into trouble, it amused Him when He saw their schemes backfire or be thwarted or just fall apart on their own. And He likely laughed with my Mother when She proved the contrary to Entropy on Entropy's statement on life.
But any first strike harm done upon any of them, He considered by default to be a injury upon Himself. And any injury upon Himself, brought up, such a horrid, terrible, frightening rage, that it was only Mother's presence that protected your entire world from shuddering from it.
"FAUNA LUSTER!!!"
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Twilight Sparkle, my loyal and faithful student. In that moment, Entropy was refuted. Shared pain was lessened and shared joy was increased. My loyal and faithful student, Entropy allows nothing to refute Her. But in that moment, for one moment, for one single instant, friendship had. It was an insult to Her, a vulgar offense to Her very being. The level at which it derogated Her was incomprehensible.
Even as I celebrated your freedom and reconciliation back into the cultural identity of fellowship I had loved in all the Ages, this new beginning of the Forth Age, Entropy demanded restitution. And Havoc, wanted revenge.
Father and Mother, the only two other beings in all of existence who COULD defy Havoc and Entropy, told Them that while I had released the Windigo, it had been Entropy's choice to give them to me, She had not been forced, not that I was capable of forcing Her to do anything. Entropy had gambled and released a piece of Her being into the mortal unversed.
The idea of being harmed had been completely alien to Entropy until that moment, She couldn't comprehend the idea of them being destroyed before.
My Parents said that the ponies had no idea that they'd harmed Entropy by doing so, and had not even intended to do such, and thusly didn't deserve to be punished for an act they were ignorant of and incapable of repeating.
Their Parents retorted that ignorance of a crime did not lessen it. And so They made their indemnification known.
Then Havoc and Entropy, for the first time in Their long existence, had been utterly rebuked by My Parents.
The moment my Parents rejected their demands that your world be absorbed into her reality, and every pony alive be made into shadow of existence denizens of her domain, there was only one outcome.
So did Our Parents fight against Their Parents? Is the universe still here? Then no, they did not.
The Elders can cast their shadows into their world, like you can cast your shadow on a wall, except theirs can interact more readily. I am sorry to have to get into these mechanical details again. One way to think of it is that your reality is not, ahem, 'real' enough for them to interact with directly, like you'd have trouble interacting with a pony on paper. Or to put it more simply, there is no mortal-vessel or gateway large enough for them to enter through. You can not fit an entire universe inside one pony.
(Oh Twilight Sparkle, it pains me to see these limits practically built into you.)
But for the rest of us. The rest of our families. What was going to happen, could only happen. Not after Havoc and Entropy had made their demands, and My Parents refused them.
Even when Pandora offered the more reasonable demand that only Clover, Pansy, and Smart Cookie be offer up in exchange for the three lost Windigos, nothing changed.
Justitia offered another more reasonable offer of Havoc and Entropy taking the three most horrid, selfish, wicked, ponies in all of creation instead, an exchange of three black souls for three innocent ones. Havoc and Entropy would hear none of it.
I think Havoc always wanted a war. And I think Entropy might have designed things just so Her children and my family would destroy one another from the beginning.
Strife deep down I think was delighted to take part in Ragnarök, even if she was delighted at the turn around the ponies had pulled. Destruction thought this would bring such ruin his need would never haunt him again, I don't blame him. Anarchy thought the whole thing was stupid and would have sat back and watched 'the show', but blood is thicker than water.
Pandemonium was confused and scared, destruction among the gods would make epic poetry, but how she write after? She was dragged into every battle. Discord was terrified.
You're that surprised Twilight Sparkle?
Discord is a bully my loyal and faithful student, and war meant he'd have to face against those who were as powerful or more powerful than him, in a way he couldn't control, a bully's worst nightmare. But Havoc would have none of his children take the sidelines, Havoc was certain he'd find his nitch or be sent back to His Mother. Unfortunately, Discord did, he was very creative on prisoners of war.
My family? While some did not object to it, none of them encouraged it. So yes, the gods went to war over a bunch of tiny ponies. Consider how diverse life is, and how vast creation is, I'd have to agree with Puerilis' laughter at the absurdity of it. We had existed in a delicate balance for billions of years, and all it took was one instant for all to come crashing down. Puerilis said he got the joke but didn't think much of the punchline.
As I said, I personally believe that Havoc sought the war for a long time, he just had an excuse.
This was only one thing Twilight Sparkle. And that was war.
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"So...a whole war was our fault?"
I quickly shake my head, putting a comforting wing around her. "Twilight Sparkle, would you like to blame ponies long dead for it? Or Discord and Luna for helping? Or Entropy for giving me the Windigos in the first place? Havoc for demanding tribute for their loss? Or my brothers for not being able to stop me? Or myself for engaging in such an childish scheme to begin with? There is plenty of blame to go around. Who you blame for something, doesn't change a thing."
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No Twilight Sparkle. I shall not share with you the details of that war. Not to any of your friends. Not now. Not ever.
Pray you never have to experience real war Twilight Sparkle.
You think you know what it is to behold war in its full horror?
You think your ordeals have made you able to look at war's real face?
Apple pies? Water balloons? You play the games of children!
I've kept you all as far away from the devils of war as possible! You know it is horrid. You know it is an evil that must not be allowed to rise! You know it is terrible. That is enough. Be glad we made peace with the Griffins long ago and that conflict is behind us.
When my guards were curbing the panic from Nightmare Moon's return, most ponies were shocked to learn Equestria even has weapons! Yes Twilight we do.
You think you know what war is? Two sides with no reconciliation with force as their only tool left?
Not all wars end in five minutes and a peaceful resolution Twilight! Nor do they end in a spectacular finale where everything is said and done then life moves on.
Imagine two perfectly rational and reasonable ponies who had made the conscious decision to kill each other. There is nothing wrong with them: No sickness, no heat of the moment, no evil influence. They simply have made the decision to bring death to the other: be it over honor, land, or property, or opposite truths, or simply because the other is in the way.
You can't can you?
I made you so. Perhaps I have spoiled you, my little ponies, too much.
If I gave you the full truth of war Twilight Sparkle, in your heart you would be separate from everypony else until the end of your days. And that is a weight I simply will not put on your shoulders.
Having been taught all your life that killing is wrong, but suddenly having no choice but to do so unless you wish to see those you love be made slaves or corpses!
In the heat of a battle, thinking the world around you had gone completely wrong, that everything is about to end in a twisting whirlpool of madness.
Working along side those you thought you'd be fighting against next, in opposition against those who you thought would be your new allies.
Seeing the war already lost for your enemy but the war not yet won for you, and your enemy wanting you to pay in blood for every last hoof step you take.
I will not.
Twilight, you and your friends are true heroes, you have earned a place in history along side the greatest heroes who dwelled in Dream Castle. You have defeated Nightmares and saved millions untold from suffering. I have the utmost respect for you six for all you've done, you have my eternal gratitude for saving my sister...But I pray to My Parents your conflict with Discord is the closest to war you ever come.
Havoc released Morning Star from his confinement so he could add to His family's numbers and led them against an enemy Morning Star knew perfectly. All His children chaffed under this. Morning Star, as I said, was a fallen Alicorn, the only one in history. He was born to be the greatest of us, and he was. He was so great he chased self-deluded fantasies of ruling over Havoc and Entropy, and Mother and Father like they were common servants. While he believed he was in the right, he was no less ruthless than Discord became.
Discord learned a lot about the power of words from him, Morning Star was a master. From him Discord learned how to use words to twist the hearts of ponies, or BREAK their hearts, their wills, their very minds, with just a handful of word, with just one or two sentences.
The hordes of shadows that inhabited Entropy's reality congealed and combined into a single massive Nightmare. He/she/it was given the name Nightmare Legion.
Havoc granting all his children a tiny fraction of His own self, in other words, His own power, to further make up for their smaller numbers.
Strife called upon her three children she once had with Mortis:
Bellum, Fames, and Pestilentia, to fight along side her.
"So you would chose your mother over your father?"
"Sorry father." They apologized. "She asked us first."
"You are not the ones destined to defeat me." Was all Mortis had to say. Mortis and his foals never fought each other, there were plenty of other targets.
Their addition made the war last much longer, and made it that much more terrible. Those three, they truly inherited traits from both their parents.
Havoc created an Aspect of Himself, so a part of Himself could be on the front line, as Puerilis discovered.
While there were over three times as many Alicorns as there were Draconequi, these additions made our numbers effectively even.
Turris never left his post at the gates to Mother and Father's domain. None got past him.
The Draconequi called upon every favor and contract and debt owed to them. Strife unleashed herself like never before in what she engineered. Morning Star reveled in leading them against his own family.
Any member of my family that could take part did take part. Not every member of my family were warriors or soldiers, but the ones who were ... they actually scared me during that war. I had never seen Justitia so ... no Twilight, you don't want to know.
"You are the Perfect Justice. I am the Perfect Being created by Mother. You know you want to be along my side sister," Morning Star whispered to Justitia as they clashed.
"The only thing you've ever been is the Perfect Failure and the Perfect Disappointment." She told him before she used the same technique she used on Discord and Luna. Only this time she showed no mercy.
My sister Venus, the Perfect Love, rarely was able to bring herself to take part except when pressed into a corner and it was clear members of her family would fall if she didn't. I have never seen her in such pain.
Every member of both families played their role.
The Heavens trembled as we fought.
Strife never grew to hate the war, ever. She knew nothing spurred technological progress among civilizations like a war could. But nothing has ever agitated her more than a deadlock, and this made her more coldly ruthless as her irritation grew.
"Isn't it grand what I've managed to do?" Discord asked me when the two exhausted sides lay almost in ruin.
"You've done nothing!" I snarled. But the look in his eyes... I had seen that look in only one other person, it was same horrid sickening gaze as Morning Star's.
"Nothing you say 'Tia? If I hadn't saved your butt, you'd have gotten your plot kicked in by your own relatives, and been dragged down kicking and screaming before Lulu worked up the nerve to help you. And NONE OF THIS would have happened! Isn't this a GRAND project the two of us have created? It's greater than any of our old work I'd say! Next time the elder gods are looking for new guys to fill in the seats, I'm putting 'Reduce Alicorn Population By eighty percent' on my resume! Let's see Kratos beat that! And if he does, I suppose I can add the reduction in my own species' population to it."
My eyes went wide with horror as I looked at him as I took a trots steps back in terror. "Y-you...you planned this?"
Discord looked at me in mock shock and raised a paw to his chest, " I planned this Celestia? I thought we planned this! I mean it all fit so perfectly! You thought you wanted to be the only Alicorn! No one telling me, or you what's wrong and what's right! I didn't think you had the guts to take things this far, oh you, this is brilliant! You are truly a master manipulator, Celly, using the guise of helping ponies to create such a beautiful masterpiece of chaos!" The last word dripped with venom.
I felt sick. "Discord...This isn't chaos, it's wrong! This isn't some kind of game! We've thrown the universe into disharmony!"
He just grinned. "Even better! Disharmony has a much better ring to it, don't you think?"
That was when Currus ran him over with his scythed chariot.
I had never heard Pandora roar until that moment. "Discord! GET OUT OF MY WAY!" She smashed through Currus' war chariot and saved her brother. She broke through Leo and Justitia to take him back to Her Father's domain, she was a bleeding mess as she carried his two halves.
As Pandora fled, he turned his head back towards me, grinned, and gave me a thumbs up. "We did it 'Tia."
Twilight, once upon a time I kept telling myself he wasn't all bad, I kept telling myself he could change, I kept telling myself that maybe he'd turn out for the better. I never talked to My Parents about how he only got worse and worse. After being hit over the head with the brick a hundred times, the brick finally broke.
Twilight. Imagine a somepony you've know all your life, someone who you at least once cared about, one who, even after you ran away after seeing his darkside, showed up when you thought you needed him most, and was hurt because of you.
Then him happily gloating about the destruction of your families to your face and telling you how you must have wanted it too!
"Extinct." Strife deadpanned as she dove a stone claw into my brain and I didn't even care. Or would have if she wasn't then blasted several thousand miles away by one of my sisters.
I can't remember who save me, but she then said, "Don't believe his lies Celestia. You've never been like him." I was too numb to respond until she hugged me.
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Twilight hugged me, for a moment working up the bravery to try and comfort me. She retreated quickly, but looked up at me with concerned eyes. She hugged me. I had confessed that I had delivered Entropy's spawn to her people's doorstep and she had hugged me when she saw I was hurt.
"Thank you, Twilight..." I reply, giving her a small smile.
"My, my pleasure, Princess." Twilight tumbled over her words.
I wrapped my wings around her like a mother pegasus, or Alicorn, would her child. She didn't flinch. She didn't turn away, she didn't look at me like I was somepony she didn't even know. She only leaned against me accepted my grace. "No my student, Twilight Sparkle. My pleasure. And Twilight Sparkle."
"Yes Princess?"
"I am delighted , to be your teacher."