//------------------------------//
// She lives 
// Story: Cutiemark Crusaders 10k: The fourth deity 
// by The Psychopath 
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Celestia was locked in a dungeon cell under the city. It was currently staffed by the same changelings that had made it, and it stank. Bad. A moldy odor mixed with moss and swamp water permeated the air like a mist of toxic gas. Everything in this 'dungeon' was made with a bizarre black substance that had been dried and solidified. While lots of it had been ground down, there was still evidence of the sliminess it once exhibited thanks to the large globs of 'liquid' frozen in place along the bars and walls.

Scootaloo stared at Celestia from the other side of the bars, and she had been doing so for quite a while now. Celestia, meanwhile, had been busy enjoying her newfound freedom after so long; even IF she only had a sliver of her original magic left.

Finally, the Empress heaved a long sigh, breaking the silence. "This 'Abstract' is making things difficult. First, he splits Pinkamena in two, and then he drains you of your magic and 'frees' you. Your existence is proving problematic. Everypony wants me to kill you. To hang you outside and leave your corpse as a reminder of the past deeds."

"Then why didn't you just let that crystal thing kill me? That would've made things easier, don't you think?" Celestia said.

Scootaloo ground her teeth. "The prospect was oh so tempting, I assure you."

"Then why didn't you let him?"

There was another moment of silence brought by hesitation and doubt. "Because I couldn't let him. I was so happy to see you back, even under this form...but...then my rage set in again. The two conflicted with each other."

"So you had me brought here until you could figure out what to do with me?"

Scootaloo let out a laugh. "I see you're still as astute as ever."

Celestia chuckled. "Might I remind you that, despite my 'disheveled' appeared -For lack of a better term-, I was still ruler of Equestria for a thousand years, if not more?"

"Perhaps it's because of that and the 'benevolent' past you gave us that won't let me kill you."

"You know very well that my actions weren't of own will."

Scootaloo looked at the former princess with wide eyes filled with anger. "That DOESN'T excuse what happened. Everypony thought you were the strongest among us. EVERYpony thought you could handle Sombra, and then you betray us all."

"A 'thought' is not reality, my little pony," Celestia said with remorse. "I also thought I could handle him. Had I known what he had done..."

"But you didn't, and THIS is what became of that!" 

Scootaloo gestured to the whole of the dungeon, rotating in place as she did so, but Celestia knew she was gesturing to more than the murky confines she was relegated to.

"I'm just a pony, Scootaloo, I couldn't--"

"Oh, don't give me that. You managed to keep the tribes united, and then life became the standard  with everypony together. Back then you knew what you were doing." The empress approached Celestia with tightened eyes and a low-tone, raspy voice. "What changed now? What changed THEN?" When Celestia tried to speak but couldn't say anything, Scootaloo blew out air, crossed her forelegs, and turned her back to the alicorn. "You could have demonstrated some form of free will. You all could have. Instead, we have you in a changeling dungeon and Pinkamena in a psych ward." The mare uncrossed her arms and dropped her head. "No. Instead, everything is--"

A violent explosion rocked the dungeon and threw the two ponies onto the floor. 

"What was that?" Celestia slurred.

Scootaloo ran through the tunnels and quite literally punched her way through the thick, protective seal the changelings had built over the entrance to see everyone in the streets looking and pointing to something behind her. Turning around, the mare saw that the palace was emitting huge clouds of black smoke from one of its sides. Upon closer inspection, the mare could see enormous, pastel colored crystals of enormous size and width were jutting out. She furrowed her eyebrows.

"Abstract." She spread her wings. "When I get my hooves on him I'll--"

The empress was thrown off her hooves by a blur smashing right in front of her and destroying the tiles on the floor.

"HI THERE! WHO ARE YOU? THE EMPRESS? THAT'S GREAT!"

It was another crystallion...of sorts? It wasn't a stallion, but a mare, and a shockingly familiar looking one, too. She had a mouth devoid of teeth, and her eyes were better simulacrums than Abstract's. While they were indeed still black, they possessed a deep blue color for their iris. Her mane and tail were still made of crystal, but still 'flowed' in a sense that they appeared to shift once every two seconds like an old 'blocky' game that used to exist before the emergence of the 'three powers'. Her mane tail were also gifted with colors as opposed to the rest of her black body, and were composed of a shifting assortment of hot pink, lavender, and dark purple. She was disturbingly excited, hyper, and happy.

"What's your name? Mine is Iviesta Poravon."

"Wha--"

"Oh! What's that?!" 

The crystallion...mare throw Scootaloo casually to the side. The pony would have gone through a house had several civilians and soldiers not caught her, but they still impacted the wall with tremendous force.

"Wh-what is that?" one of the same soldiers stuttered after regaining his senses.

"I...I don't know," Scootaloo responded.

The hyper-active crystallion mare was quite literally hopping around, almost destroying whatever she touched and throwing people left and right with her tremendous strength. Sweetie Belle was the first to arrive with her armor activated. 

"What's going on? I heard an explosion then saw a blur rush towards the gates," she said to Scootaloo.

The Empress pointed to the crystal pony as her only response.

"What? What is that?" Sweetie Belle wondered aloud. 

A gleam of light almost blinded her briefly, and the source came from the crystals jutting out of the palace. With some magic, she managed to create a good focus point in front of her eyes. The gleam had come from Abstract standing on one of the large pillars.

"Abstract," Sweetie grumbled in her mind.

Apple Bloom rushed in via a jetpack, but before she could and, Iviesta tackled her with a mid-air jump and ripped the pack off her back. She sat down and rolled the construct over and under. She even shook it next to her 'ears' to try and figure out what was inside.

"What? Leggo of that!" Apple Bloom shouted.

"Why? What's in it? Is it more tiny ponies? Oh!" Iviesta bounced. "Are they pedaling, making it fly?" She looked into the exhaust ports of the pack and yelled into it. "Come out tiny ponies!"

While everyone stared, baffled, Abstract flew down to see the crystallion mare. Iviesta immediately noticed him and threw the pack back at Apple Bloom's face, knocking her out.

"Hey, dad!" Iviesta cheered. She lowered herself like a dog and 'wagged' her tail happily.

"DAD?!" the crowd shouted.

"Yes. This is Iviesta Poravon."

"Is there a reason why she looks like Celestia?" Scootaloo shouted.

"Yes. I used her magic to create this as I am not endowed with the same ability my ilk had for crystaxual reproduction. That being said, I did not expect alicorn magic to cause such a...mutation."

"He's infertile?" Sweetie whispered into Scootaloo's ear.

"That explains why he hasn't made more of them since coming here. What in the Abyss is 'Crystaxual reproduction'?"

Sweetie shrugged.

"I think she killed Apple Bloom!" one of the civilians shouted.

Abstract's eyes glowed bright for just a moment. "She's knocked out. Not dead."

"So this is what you've been doing in your room, cooped up? Creating your progeny?" one of the guards shouted. "We never asked you to create more of your kind!"

Iviesta cheerfully hopped and skipped in front of her dad and looked at the pony with a wide, almost warm smile. Then she swiped him across the grounds, leaving him to skid next to the massive doors. 

"Silly ponies shouldn't speak to their superiors like that," she stated with the same cheeriness.

Seeing her face and that 'warm' smile coupled with her behavior and the fact that Abstract had not budged or reacted to the event made something tick in everyone's mind. Abstract displayed a form of self control, perhaps from millennia of learning, but this crystallion...mare? She was not the same. She was unhinged. Undaunted. Unbowed. And worst of all, she had an uncanny resemblance to Celestia. 

"I have determined this test to be a success." Abstract announced. "I will repair my room and then depart for the dark forest in search of that black magic I had sensed from there."

"You're going to make another of those things?" a civilian shouted.

"Uhuu," Iviesta laughed. A massive spear of crystal grew above her and pointed at the source of the question, but Abstract destroyed it before it could be used. "But dad, he questioned you!"

"That is called 'free will'. It will not impede my full plans. Let them talk, and learn to not be so impulsive. If you followed those said impulses, you would kill everyone here." Abstract's 'eye' glowed sharply and angrily towards the crystallion mare. "Don't let the still 'fresh' pony magics inside you take over. You're a crystallion, despite your different, physical appearance."

"Y-yes, dad," Iviesta sighed.

"Now come help me fix our room."

"Y-yes. Whatever you say."

Seeing the two walk away was a terrifying sight. A creature capable of creating spells that mess with minds and making a new crystallion from alicorn magic. What was next?

One of the guards helping Empress Scootaloo back onto her hooves couldn't help but sharing her thoughts. "Can you believe that? It's frikkin' crazy!" she exclaimed. "What's next, a second one?"

"I wouldn't put that one too far off," Sweetie whispered. "He made that one from Celestia's magic, and then he said that he was going to the Dark Forest of Everfree to get the source of the dark magic there. I think he's trying to get Nightmare Luna's magic to make a second one of those...things."

Apple Bloom groaned painfully. "What happened? Where's the creepy crystal thing?"