My Little Descent into Madness(Rp Game)

by DVNO

Intro: When a God Shrugs

Love and tranquility.

Heroes triumphing over evil.

The light beating back the dark.

That’s not this tale.

This tale is a chronicle of the fourth generation of Equestria.

Specifically, The end of the fourth generation.

This is a tale of the breaking point.

This is a tale of gray deception.

This is a tale of the sun’s death.

This is the Ending.

My Little Descent into Madness

A Dwarf Fortress community game

“Do you find me sadistic?” Princess Celestia uttered softly.

“Your Grace?” Captain Shining Armor murmured slowly, raising his darkened, sorrowful eyes up slightly.

“When I executed your sister, in such a painful manner, so publicly, did it colour your impression of me as sadistic?” Celestia asked emotionlessly, her eyes concentrated on the the orange flames licking at her hearth, the only source of light in her entire study.

“May I speak candidly, Your Grace?” Shining Armor asked from his post at the door, eyes straight forward.

“You May.”

“Without repercussions to me or my wife?”

“Of course.”

His pained eyes narrowed angrily “During my climb from town guardsman to captain, I saw a lot of crime. profiled a lot of criminals. They usually came in two breeds. Ponies who did things out of desperation, who regret their actions, who feel some remorse, and ponies like you. Ponies who can snuff out their own foal without a second thought. Ponies dead inside. What you did ... to the pony you treated like a daughter ... You are not a Princess, you are nothing to admire, you are not even an equestrian being, your Grace ..."

He paused, trying to stay composed.

“Yes, You come off as sadistic, as cruel, as a monster. And someway, somehow, I will avenge her death.”

Celestia rotated her red wine around in a circle slowly, eyes transfixed on the dancing flames.

"My, my, threatening to kill me. Those are some bold words. I wish you luck in that endeavor, Shining Armor. I genuinely do. She deserves to be avenged. So perfect... If only, Oh if only I weren’t immortal. Invulnerable. I see everything. I hear everything. So many voices. Every pin drop. Every cry of passion. Every curse of my name. Every intimate secret. So many ponies crying to the heavens for my help. So many invalids I must spoon-feed. So much expected of me. You couldn't even comprehend such an overtaxing extra sense, I don’t expect you to. I'm just illustrating It's kind of hard to slit my throat when I can hear the dagger unsheathe a mile away, and my skin would break the blade. Do try to think out of the box."

"So many voices...” Celestia restated wistfully.

Her face contorts into an embittered scowl.

“Sometimes ... sometimes I want to set the world alight, So for a moment, just a moment, I can have a second of peace.”

She closes her eyes and a sad, sad little smile appears.

“How did I become this? I cannot even remember when I haven’t been lending a helping hoof to the less fortunate ... Did you know I performed my first miracle when I was only twelve? That was a thousand years ago ... literally. A thousand and twenty three years ago. I’m getting old, Shining Armor. I’ve lost my passion for this job a long time ago.” She paused and took a hard gulp of wine.

“Do you care? Of course not. You take it for granted as surely as the sunrise. Because If I stopped, If I decided I’ve given more than any sane mare would, what would you do? You would cry out I’ve forsaken you,You’d call me a monster.”

She snorted with detest.

“And now I'm the monster anyway. Do you honestly think I would- If there was any other way- It was the hardest choice I have ever made. While I can never tell you the reason, I promise you it was necessary. But it doesn't matter, does it? I’m cruel. All that goodwill is thrown out the window. Your lofty position? All the past times I saved you, and the the rest of Equestria? Cementing your marriage? Doesn't matter. I am cruel and sadistic. That’s the part I can’t process. How can you be so unforgiving of someone who’s given so much. You set the world on my shoulders to bear alone, and crucify me when I've finally shrugged; And I am the monster."

A long silence.

“... Then maybe you should take a hiatus if you feel that way, Princess. A nice long one. In fact, Why come back at all? Tyrant? I’m sure we can live on without you. Go, be free, and free us from your madness in the process!” Shining Armor spattered with vitriol.

Celestia winced in pain.

He could have said anything.

Anything but that six letter word.

Tyrant.

That one pierced straight through her.

“You are released from my service, Shining Armor. As if you could possibly understand.” Celestia replied curtly through pursed lips.

“Your Grace-”

“What do you know about making hard decisions?” She hissed. “ Nothing. You are a coltscout with a toy stick pretending to be a knight. So ‘noble’... You’ve never defended a goddamned thing you glorified servant. I protect Equestria from the unspeakable, not you. And you think you are so morally ‘above me’, as if I give a damn about your approval. As if you wouldn't do the exact same in my hooves. Don't judge me. Don't you dare judge me.”

Shining Armor was about to open his mouth again, decided against it. Was it worth it? He ripped the tabard bearing Celestia’s cutie mark off of his shoulders almost gladly and left the princess to her demons. He trotted to take his leave, and closed the heavy, muraled doors behind himself with a long creak.

The princess exhaled sharply. It was quiet now. The room was silent, The skycastle was silent, Equestria was silent. Her actions had left the land in shock. No one had the will or composure to utter a word yet.

Then, an echo in the darkness. a shrill, faint whisper from a corner of her empire.

‘...I can’t believe it...’

‘...did you hear the news?...”

‘...that can’t be true...’

" So, the rein of 'Tyrant Celestia' has begun..." Celestia murmured to herself.

The rumors spread with a faster and faster momentum, spreading like a wildfire.

‘...No, that’s impossible...’

‘...Not twilight, not our princess...’

‘...She’s finally snapped...’

‘...That has to be a lie...’

Celestia tried so valiantly to keep control of herself at all times. Candles, books, quills, chairs, and silverware started to levitate from their dust covered nooks as she tried to keep her emotionally fueled magic in check.

The pooling lake of uncertainty turned into a raging river of anger in a heartbeat.

‘...How could she...’

‘...How dare you question the princess....’

‘...If she’ll turn on her, then who is safe...’

‘...the monster...’

‘...how can you say that...’

‘...grab the rope, grab the torches...’

Celestia turned her head. The harder she fought it, the more her eyes welled. She must maintain control. A goddess, In a world seemingly constructed out of of glass, had no other option. If she wished them silent, she could accidentally mute her subjects permanently. If she wished them gone, She could turn Equestria into a lifeless void. If she wished to disappear, she could erase herself from time entirely.

“Don’t You dare cry, You pathetic foal.” Celestia murmured with disgust.

‘...Celestia’s a monster...’

‘...Celestia must’ve had a good reason...’

‘...Celestia can’t be trusted...’

‘...Celestia must face justice...’

‘...Celestia is in the right...’

‘...Celestia has to hang...’

Her eyes turn illuminate, the floating furniture in the room blasts apart, the silverware melts into molten slag. She dropped the lead weighing on her heart, and a single tear ran down her cheek. Equestria was blanketed by an unscheduled drizzle of rain.

She looked up to a portrait of her father above the hearth. A simple white stallion of simple means, with a smudge of black coal on his cheek. His never ending work in the mines stole him from daughters, stole him from his wife. He worked himself into an early grave.

“What have I done?” Celestia asked her father. “ All I wanted, All I ever wanted- I just wanted to make a world you would be proud of. A World where foal’s didn't have to bury their fathers. A kinder world. I promised I’d make things right. My mandates ... The controlled climate ... The Mark/Work placement system ... The fixed economy ... Planned housing for the population ... I thought I made a world where the common ponies could live as royalty. I thought I made a perfectly balanced utopia. I thought I made a completely harmonious society.” Celestia recoiled in horror.

“But, I made such a crucial error in judgement. Without conflict in a ponies life, what’s the point of even living it? Why do anything if you are handed a utopia? Why strive? Ponies with high education? Why bother when apple farming yields just as much of an economic reward? I've taught them freedom and absolute excess in life is to be valued above all, but not the dedication or the strength to earn it. Hate. Violence. War. We have no such words for these things in our language. I thought they did not need them. Thanks to me, they know nothing of the startlingly large world they live in. They know not the silver tongued politics of elves, nor the ingenuity of dwarves, nor the insatiable white-hot blades of the Orcs. Oh, but our neighbors know these words well. They linger just on the edge of the Everfree, hungry. The ponies are not yet ready. They live carelessly off my bits, unable to stand for themselves . . . Unable to stand among the other races of the world. . . I foolishly thought I alone was enough to protect them. . . But whose to protect them . . . from me? My perfect utopia is going to kill them. The experiment has failed on every level. It's all a shakily sustained house of cards, with a gilded, neon bright polish. It'll collapse on them all; Hard. And Twilight knew it better than anypony. She was right. She was right about everything.”

Celestia looked back at the flames angrily.

“I’ve failed. I’ve failed everything I have set out out to accomplish, Failed everyone I’ve set to protect; And I’ve killed the only pony that I know could get it right. ”

“C-Celestia?” A familial, concerned voice called out tentatively.

Luna. The only other pony that can truly understand her. The only other being that can withstand the long march to the end of time with her. The only one she could honestly trust.

“Tell me it’s not true! Tell me this is some cruel trick of Discord’s!” She exclaimed.

The look in Celestia’s defeated eyes told her an entire story.

“Why?” Luna exhaled.

“Oh, Luna-” she wrapped her hooves around her sister.

“I- I-” Celestia muttered.

“You tell me why.” Luna demanded.

“I Made a mistake.” Celestia said, another tear welling in her eye. “I put an end to the lie. I-I told Twilight what the elements of harmony really were. I told her they were magical items, That capture souls, And that I drain the life of the souls inside. I told her these souls were the real source of our power. That, while they were powered, there would be us, thus harmony. That when they deplete, they need more souls. I told her that she and her friends were the next to sustain it. I told her what she truly was to me: Food.”

“Gods, why?” Luna asked, her eyes wide as moons.

“I ... I wanted to Trade places with her.” Celestia replied.

“You what?”

“I wanted to be sacrificed as the element of magic instead, so she could become the ruler Equestria deserved.”

“And how did she react when she found out the truth?”

“I warned her I’d only offer it once, That she could have it all, That the Equestria needed her to do this. That this was the purpose I was grooming her for all along. That I couldn't have ponies who knew this little secret of how I stay immortal walking around. She declined as politely as possible. I begged, I pleaded. She refused me. She said the price of her friends was too high. I threatened her that, if she didn’t take the reins of this damn empire out of my hooves, I’d publicly execute her. I lost my civility and temperament. She- she was my most faithful student, unable to take the leap of faith I had been so meticulously preparing her for. She looked horrified, Then - She turned her back and walked away from me, told me she was going to warn her friends, and dared me to stop her. I - I . . .” She closed her eyes with a pained sorrowful remorse as she recalled the memory.

' Twilight, you're a clever girl. Did you really think I would keep tabs on you and your friends, I treat you like my flesh and blood, I invest myself in you, because the ruler of Equestria needed a 'bestest friend' to talk with now and then?'

Twilight struck her with a broken, disenfranchised stare that burned into her soul.

'You know, for a second. Yeah. Yeah, I kinda did.'

“I. . .” Celestia said with a similar stare. " I . . . need to make this right." She pulled out the book containing the elements of harmony from her study shelf.

“Now?” She watched as the Elements flickered violently, running out of soul “Now it’s up to me to make things right again.” she spat, distraught over every word in that sentence.

" 'Make This right'?" Luna over-enunciated bitterly " You can't just murder a beloved pony in cold blood and make things 'Right'." She countered.

"Luna..."

The wheels in Luna's head started turning "Maybe... Just maybe... If we grease the right hooves we can keep this quiet ... Spin this so Twilight looks like an enemy to the empire...."

"Luna..."

" - We - We - Why did you make it a public execution? why? Why not be a little more discreet? How can I twist the facts if a pony saw it with his own eyes? They will have to be dealt with. Along with Shining Armor ... but then ponies will come looking for them as well ..."

"Luna ... Please ..."

“We can still soultrap the others, we can find another proficient magician. As long as we keep you Immortal, you'll still be in power. Not exactly be loved, but we can make this right...”

“Not this time.” Celestia sighed.

The Elements of Harmony flickered out, and turned to stone.

“What do you mean ‘not this time?’”

“I’m staying mortal, Luna.”

Luna laughed nervously “ No you’re not! You can’t do that to me! I can’t rule a kingdom alone...”

The stone elements pulsed slowly, waiting for substance. With a simple little destruction spell she cracked them. The stones hissed at this sudden betrayal and recoiled their gifts, the pact with their host broken.

Celestia’s mane, as beautiful as the northern lights, faded to raven black. Her immaculate skin sagged and faded. She tasted the sluggish limitations of mortality once more; A rendezvous with fateful friend she could delay for only so long.

“I can’t live an eternity with the blood on my hooves, Luna. I want to die.”

“You don’t mean that!”

“All my... My borrowed time has caused nothing but pain and misery ... I have to make it right..."

“Please don’t do this to yourself! you’re not Irredeemable! you still have so much good work to still do!” Luna reassured her.

“Do not deny me this! I want to die the heroine!" She cried, voice cracking.

"You are going to kill me!”

“I will never! How dare you ask such a thing out of me!” Luna shouted, shocked at sister.

“Oh, Nightmare Moon. Who’s asking?” Celestia's eye finally flicked up, and a perverse little grin twisted up into the deepest corner of her mouth.

Luna realized instantly what her sister was about to do. “Please, don’t. I never want to be her again. Don’t turn me into her! If you have any compassion left in your heart, do not do it!”

With a whisk of her horn, Celestia unbound the darkness within her sister. “One final battle of good and evil. That’s how the story must end! Not as a failure! Not as a murderer of my faithful student! Not as a tyrannical monster! It must end!” Celestia demanded.

~ Two hundred and fifty years later ~

A Red Unicorn snapped back to life with a gasp. Black. Pitch black. He felt like he was being suffocated. Helmet. He quickly unstrapped the bent-in steel helmet collapsed around his head and threw it off.

He gasped around some more, trying to get his bearings.

He witnessed the majesty of the Everfree Badlands. A dying land not yet dead, with patches of coarse grey grass-tussocks. On the skyline, the clouds and the shafts of the skyscrapers against them were turning brown, like an old painting in oil, the color of a faded masterpiece. Long streaks of grime ran down the unnatural honeycomb skyscrapers protruding from the ground. Trenches fanned out from these structures like ripples of water cascading out from the impact of a stone. Down in the trenches and mud of the no man’s land below, where the final battle for Equestria had raged, thousands and thousands of elven, goblin, dwarven, human, orc, dragon, sergal and pony corpses littered the landscape, baking in a sun that was frozen in the exact same midday sky since Celestia had died.

Nothing about this county sized graveyard irked him more than its silence.

The miasma made Surefire dry heave, making him look down, almost making him vomit. Then, He saw a severed horn on the ground. That finished the job. The broken-off horn unnerved him to his very core.

“I..I couldn't even imagine losing such an essential, utilitarian tool as magic. The poor, poor bastard who lost it...” He said, raking his hoof through his mess of a mane.

His hoof came back down, caked with blood. He started to realize, horrified, whose horn it was. He couldn't even begin to process it, not here, not now. Not the wide open. He needed to find some gauze and get moving. Food. Water. Shelter. Those were next. Look for some sort of search party and find the rest of the Celestial Imperial Army, maybe?

He salvaged whatever he thought looked useful into a sack and looked around. there were skyscrapers in front of him and two skyscrapers were slowly drilling their way to the earth's surface behind him. They were Changeling hives. Not a place he would like to visit. Left or right it was. He flipped a mental coin and took a walk leftish.

Diary Entry #1

My name is Captain Surefire, former officer for the Lunar Confederacy. Now ... I don’t know what I am now. A survivor, maybe? My god, I’m only thirty, and somehow I’m the most authoritative one here. I’ve somehow become the sage one. I remember what we’re fighting for, at least. That’s more than I can say for these fresh faces around me. I guess there's a high chance I’m going to die out here, So let me set the record straight for any archaeologists who find this on my person. I remember a time when there was no fighting. I remember a time when I knew the taste of something other than blood in my mouth. I remember a time when all equestrians stood united and proud under a single banner. We were a proud, strong race, once. If anything, remember that about us. We weren't always like this. How did it all start? Celestia. It all started with Celestia. Celestia, an overambitious alicorn with godlike power, tried to make everlasting harmony a reality. Under her Iron hoof, we felt so secure. All of Equestria was at peace, and the world was fair. As long we never asked how Celestia became so powerful, never asked what happened to the ponies with a dissenting opinion from those of her perfect empire, we grew fat and content. That was, of course until the day her sister, Luna, betrayed her. When Luna, Now royally calling herself Nightmare Moon, called for a new regime? For a time of change in the status quo? Not much convincing was necessary from the mad god. The kindling was set ablaze. Just like that, open civil war between those still loyal to the old Celestial Empire and the new self proclaimed Lunar Confederacy, split our land in two. Just like that, the harmony died.

The empire, while suffering from an unending power struggle in leadership, still outnumbered us twenty to one. Defeat after defeat drove the Lunar Confederacy to desperation, drove us to play with magic we didn’t fully understand. We were driven to the crevices of the world, where only the darkest magical tomes and most diabolical creatures lived. While Nightmare Moon liked what she found,The Lunar Confederacy had seen enough. The Confederacy splintered apart. Nightmare Moon didn't care much. She had new pets to play with. when we limped back to the Empire, We never signed anything official, hell, we never even let the wounds heal. The two factions just had to lean on each others backs to keep new threats from overwhelming them. When Celestia died, every nation that she kept at bay decided they wanted a piece of Equestria for themselves. Nightmare Moon created the Nightmare, a Transparent magical spore that, when it’s inhaled, starts... Talking to the victim. Becomes a voice in the back of their head, starts telling them to do things, it eventually drags ponies into the dark jaws of the Chrysalis and the Changelings. Turns them into twisted evil parodies of their former selves, The Taken. She saw It as “Liberating” them, Unleashing the true potential inside, whether they wanted it unleashed or not. We tried to fight the nightmare we created ... the nightmare’s been winning. I’m a survivor of the battle of Tipping Point, the largest offensive the remainder equestrian race ever launched against Nightmare Moon. The battle’s over. I’d like to know who won, but I’ve only found six other ponies, they know about as much as I do. We are going to to make an encampment, rally any other survivors, and wait for further orders.

~ Surefire
Royal Celestial Army

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