Chapter VII: Never Mind How High The Cost May Grow
Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.
- Job 9:6
Canterlot, Equestria
The woman had returned to Princess Celestia's throne room, noting that the shattered doors had not yet been repaired or even moved out of the way, dressed in black now. Celestia stood on her throne as the woman halted just beyond the doorway, right in front of the flagstones still scorched. She looked around at the shattered windows, the holes in roof and walls, and then to the throne where the Princess still proudly reigned.
'This is your last chance, Celestia,' she said. 'I am dreadfully sorry that I have to do this, and I wish it had never come to this. Surrender to the terms I have sent or you will only cause more innocents to suffer for the sake of your pride. God makes no mistakes, but Equestria has suffered for many of yours.'
'I will not surrender to these attacks,' the alicorn replied. 'I am the morning and the evening star, and I will not be spoken to by a filthy human!'
'Celestia,' she said. 'You must-'
'I have had ENOUGH OF THIS PRATTLE! I will not SURRENDER! THE CONVERSION WILL NOT END! I WILL NEVER BE JUDGED BY SUCH A WITLESS, STUPID, DIRTY, DISGUSTING, WRETCHED HUMAN FREAK!'
The woman began to simmer with barely-contained rage.
'No human, pony, pegasus, unicorn or alicorn calls me a freak. So be it. Celestia, you just lost your last chance to save Equestria the consequences of your actions. There will be no appeal or clemency now. So comes my seventh chastisement. The LORD makes the earth itself destroy your castle, your cities and towns. He has sent fire and locusts, but now he begins the final punishments!'
She struck her staff heavily on the ground. Suddenly, Canterlot began to shake, the roof collapsed as the woman casually walked out of the castle.
~*~
Equestria
The earth of Equestria began to rebel. Before long, it was rolling and rippling like a storm-tossed sea. Acres of ruined farmland fell into chasms. Avalanches swept forests and villages away before them. From Cloudsdale the pegasi saw the devastation at the truly immense scale it was taking place in. Cavern systems caved in, obliterating the Diamond Dogs and causing whole stretches of land to collapse into massive sinkholes. The changelings with their Queen Chrysalis were utterly wiped out in the mighty earthquake.
Canterlot fell in on itself like a child's sandcastle as the earth continued to shake. Rivers burst their banks and changed their courses. Rockslides fell down mountain-slopes. Animals in Everfree Forest poured out as the quakes struck it over and over again.
All Equestria was trembling in fear.
~*~
Manehattan
The city of Manehattan was disintegrating around Steffy. Ponies were running out of the city in a massive rush, which she had joined. The Mayor's Office had been flooded by the river, skyscrapers were falling down like match-sticks and whole blocks were collapsing, being swallowed by the earth. Debris rained, hitting the streets like the burning hail from before. A newfoal had miraculously managed to avoid the falling debris and buildings, but many other ponies had not.
Steffy had trusted Celestia at first, but now she didn't. The only thing left to do was find safety, which was said to be in Appleoosa.
~*~
Edge of Equestria
The outside world didn't feel a single tremor for the six complete hours the massive earthquake lasted. And now...it looked like the Barrier, the massive dome of energy which marked the limit of Equestria's growth, had weakened quite drastically in that time. Radiation readings were down 75 percent now on all parts of the Barrier - perhaps soon humanity could get a group into Equestria to get rid of the Princess.
~*~
Ruins of Canterlot
The unicorns had been working hard for almost three days digging for survivors. Many in Canterlot had been killed instantly when it collapsed, but Kathy the unicorn, still doggedly loyal to Celestia, was leading the effort in searching for survivors. It was early morning when they hauled the Princess herself out of the rubble. She was in a state of almost total exhaustion, and looked heavily weakened by what had happened. Her outside injuries were soon healed, but she retained a curious lethargy which none of them could explain.
It was hoped that this was the climax of the whole affair.
Again, this version of Celestia seem really off to me, given the fact that she flies into a frothing, lunatic fury the second this human protagonist says anything to her.
"I am the morning and the evening star"
Nice touch.
728794 And again, the response you shall receive is that such is what she was in The Conversion Bureau. For this to be a truly good Take That to The Conversion Bureau, she at the very least had to be portrayed the same way she was in The Conversion Bureau.
The fuck... What did any of them have to do with Celestia? They were wiped out cause Celestia didn't give in? What a dick move.
I think that at the beginning of this plague, the DDs and the changelings would have survived as they were in no transgressions of the Lord. Unless of course the DDs were mining for Celestia and the Changelings were working for her. I think you should edit that part, but otherwise this is a brilliant story.
3563614
The Diamond Dogs would have attacked human towns and cities, kidnapping and pillaging before disappearing again. We humans would have had a difficult time fighting them underground without simply caving things in on them. Otherwise we'd end up killing their human slaves. Likely our solution would have been sending tiny robots to scout the tunnels, locate the slaves, and then dig straight in, Gears of War style.
The Changelings would have been a similar enemy. God likely would have simply decided to kill two birds with one earthquake.
Besides, God probably has a very different perspective of death than we do.
I can only imagine this is what happening to their city!
Skip to 1:04.
[Youtube=MhzZu0tII3s]
6189763 hell needed more demons so God gave his child some changelings to aid in punishing the many sinners going there.
Ah, and there we have it. Good old fashioned barbarism. I mean, there's nothing morally objectionable about wiping out entire species without warning, who had literally nothing to do with the crime committed, right? That's not something a psychopath would do.
A fairly entertaining story, but one should think of the morality of what's supposed to be the ultimate embodiment of "Good."
8295709
I agree with you,
God wouldn't like them die,
Most likely its that for some unseen concidence, they survive, like maybe the Chnagelings were relocating via air, and the earthquake just happened mid-fligjt
2552520
I'm surprised Lucifer didn't appeared then to have 'words' with Celestia for daring to steal his title...
8295709
God's morality in the real world is questionable, what are you talking about--
He is barbaric. After all. He is god.
9088196
"A god is a God. Why should The God worry himself before trivialities and meaningless creatures? He is god, and with great power comes a thorough lack of humanity."
9088196
You speak as if morals are anything more than a human social construct
11010113
I'm inclined to agree. The most of the morals we keep to this day is due to the morals of the Bible. Otherwise we'd still allow blood sports such as Gladiatory arenas to exist.