//------------------------------//
// Part 1: Chapter 18 
// Story: Broken then Healed 2 
// by Tohshi 
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Chapter 18 History aka the past four weeks

I could feel so many more things that I had any right to do.  I could feel the grass in its constant struggle.  I could feel the wisdom of the trees beyond that.  I could feel the potential of Nympha and the joyfulness that ruled her energy.  Luna was different there was a quality to her energy that was beyond my understanding.  But what struck me as most interesting was the angel who had yet to yeild me from her hug.  The spark of life was there and it was so bright and fresh.  I had brought her into life.  Not just a golem that had little thought to it but a living breathing creature whose soul I could feel.  I tried to shut out all the life that was glowing to me but it was hard to push away that beauty.  Still I couldn’t concentrate with it at the forefront like this.  It took all my will but I pushed my magical sight to the side.  It was still there but less so apparent.

“Lilac,” said Luna.  “Oh I couldn’t be more proud of you.”

“You’re an alicorn now,” Nympha said.  “How did that happen?  Also where did that creature that is hugging you come from?  She loves you very much.”

“Uh I am not certain on how I did this but I know that I made her and that is why this all happened I think,” I said.  “It is very exciting and super crazy to know that I made life.  Like not a golem but a real living being.  I’m too young to be a mommy.”

Luna laughed loudly.  Her laugh was hearty and joyful.  When she had finished, she said, “You don’t get a choice in that anymore.  But now is not the time to worry about that.  We must go celebrate.  Equestria could use a pick me up as of right now and a new princess might just do the job.”

“Wait,” I stammered.  “Princess?”

“You didn’t think you could get those wings without getting the crown too, did you?” said Luna.  “Don’t fret for the time being it will be but an honorary title.  I shall not deprive you of your childhood.  But someday the world will call on you to lead.”

“I am not ready for that,” I said.  “What if I make a mistake?  What if I suck at it?  Ponies could die because of my actions.”

“No one is ready when the first get the call,” said Luna.  “I wasn’t and neither was...Twilight.  It will be a role you can grow into though.”

“Don’t worry,” Nympha said.  “I’ll teach you everything I know about ruling.”

Luna laughed again.  She said, “You mean everything I taught you.”

“I know more than what you have taught me,” said Nympha.  “I have the knowledge of my hive.  Some of them were once infiltrators into the government.  They had much knowledge too.”

“I apriecate that both of you are trying to help but this is a bit too much right now,” I said.  Anxiety had been building since they had started to talk about leading a nation and it was nearing its boiling point.  The angel’s presence was helping with a hug and the slow flow of love from Nympha also helped keep it at bay but even still it was hard to keep the break down from happening.

“Of course,” said Luna.  “Brace yourselves, I shall teleport us back to Ponyville.”

It was a pop and we were in the entry way of the Crystal Castle in Ponyville.  I fell to the floor as the angel released her grip on me.  I knew what was coming and stepped out of the way.  My wings flared up with out my wanting and I hopped out of the way of the coming teleportation sickness.

The guards around us jumped to attention with our arivial.  After a second one of them bowwed and then another and soon it was all of them bowing.  They weren’t bowing at Luna though or Nympha but me.  My anxiety shot through the roof and I needed to get out of there.  With out a thought I pulle on my magic.  Again it came easier and stronger than I had intended but it did what I wanted.  With a pop I appeared in my old room.

Jolting upward Annabelle looked at me in the darkness.  Fear was present in her eyes for a moment before it faded.  She struggled with her blanket as she tried to move towards me.  With a final push she sort of jumped off the bed only to go tumbling head first towards the floor.  I grabbed her with my magic before she hit.  Even I was surprised by the speed of that magic and both of us sat there for a moment.  I ran over to her and one hug later we were both sitting on the bed.

“You have wings now,” Annabelle said.  “How did you do that?”

“I sort of made life and somehow that was enough to do this,” I said.  “Honestly I don’t really know.”

“Does that mean your an...alicorn...too?” asked Annabelle.  “We both get to be princesses now.  This is so exciting.  Wait you made life.  Does that mean you’re a mommy now?”

“Hell if I know,” I said.  “I guess that is up to her.  I”ll be what she needs of me.  Well as much as I can be.”

“That is awesome,” said Annabelle.  “Someday I am going to be a mommy, too.  Where is your baby though?”

“Oh she isn’t a baby,” I said.  “I made a full grown angel.  Uh and I sort of just left her in the loby of the Castle.  Where she doesn’t know anyone...I got to go fix that.”

“Take me with,” said Annabelle.  “I want to see the angel.”

“You should be sleeping,” I said.

“I wasn’t sleeping well and now I am way too excited to sleep.  Please can I come?” asked Annabelle.

“Fine,” I said.

I lifted her over to her wheelchair and we headed out of the room.  Annabelle’s wheelchair zoomed off without my help and I noticed her horn lit up with magic.  It was good to see that she had a grasp of it now.  I wish I had been there to help with that.

“Who made you this awesome wheelchair and where did you learn to drive it?”  I asked as I rushed to catch up.

“Twilight did,” Annabelle said.  “She is so awesome though sort of boring too.  Magic she does magic and somehow she makes it boring.  Luna is way cooler for that.”

I giggled for a moment.  Of course she would find Twilight boring.  If I was honest I did too a bit.  I led us towards the Castle entrance and the stairs down.  It accured to me that there wasn’t an elevator and I didn’t know how Annabelle got down by herself if at all.  All the guards on the way though were bowing as I passed.  It was still nerve wracking but less so than just a few minutes ago.  Thankfully we didn’t have to go all the way to run into Luna and the angel.  They had come up the stairs and seemed to be headed our direction.

“Ah there you are,” said Luna.  “Next time try not to run away.”

“Why does she look like Melody?” asked Annabelle.

“I made her and I think that my thoughts of what an angel were like may have drifted to the only other angel I have had in my life,” I said.  “Other than that I don’t know.”

“Well she is really pretty.  Melody would approve,” said Annabelle.

“What are you doing up this late?” asked Luna.  “It is well past your bedtime, Belle.”

“Lilac woke me, and I was having bad dreams and you didn't come chase them away,” Annabelle said.

“Armored Belle.  We both know that you have such bad days when you don't sleep well.  You will have to take a nap today at some point,” said Luna in a very motherly way.

I didn't know that Annabelle had gotten a pony name yet.  It was a bit disappointing to have missed that.  Not that I could do a thing about it now.  I wonder what else I had missed in the last month.

As I was thinking the angel came up to me and picked me up into a hug.  It was weird sitting in someone's arms like a cat was but she was big enough that I fit nearly perfectly.  She was shaking slightly but that faded quickly.  She must have been scared without me.

Twilight came running down the hall she looked winded but her face beamed with her happiness and pride.  She came to a screeching stop in front of the angel and her face scrunched up in a strange mix of wonder and worry.  It was some what marvelous to even see such a mix.  Her horn lit up and I could feel the magic pass through me into the angel.  I really needed to think of a name for her.  The angel wouldn’t work for long.  Twilight’s worry seemed to ease as her eyes shifted from one of worry to that of pure wonder.

“You made new life,” whispered Twilight.  “You created a soul.  Not a copy not a similacrum and not a golem.  No a soul.  I couldn’t even do that.  I’m so proud of you.”

Twilight tried to pick me up in her magic but the angel would not let me go.  I looked up at her face and it was filled with terror.  I didn’t know what I had done wrong when I made her but clearly I had done something.  I reached up to her and stroked her face wiping away her tears that were forming.  I wouldn’t leave her like I just had.  Of course I would create broken people.  After all the broken can only create more broken.

“Why don’t we go somewhere with less eyes on us,” suggested Luna.  “Twilight if you would lead the way to the conference room.  The spare one.”

“Ah yes.  That will work nicely,” Twilight said.  She walked away down the halway and I was baffled by there being confrernce rooms in the castle.  I had been in every room and while there were certainly rooms that could have fit that discription none of them were naned as such.  Still a month had passed with me asleep some things were bound to be different.  It only took the twitch of my wings to remind me of that.

It turned out there was a small room that had been used for book storage that was now a private conference room.  It wasn’t as buisnesslike as I had imagined and instead was almost more like a longue.  The chairs were bigg floofly ones that looked quite comfortable not that I got to find out as the angel flopped down into one of the bigger ones.  She had to shift for a few moments till she found a way to comfortable lay her wings which she wrapped around herself and me.  This was a great view a wall of alabaster feathers.

As it was all I could see I watched her eyes dart back and forth around the room for a second they seemed to brighten with wonder about something only to dart away to another thing and find some new wonder.  But every sound would cause her to jerk slightly and her eyes would do another sweep of the room.  I reached up to her and grabbed her face with my hooves.  Gently I directed her gaze at me.  There was so much fear in her eyes.  I had to do something about that.  What had I left in that mind of hers?

“It is going to be alright,” I whispered to her.  “I’m here and we are going to figure everything out, okay?”

“Everything is just so confusing,” she said.  “I have these images of someone else and there is some love there but so much hurt.  It hurts just thinking them.  But it isn’t my pain.  They aren’t my memories.  I just remember you and the field and everything that follows.  I don’t know how I know how to speak.  Why am I?  Can you make the pain go away?”

Everypony else in the room had gone quiet when she started to speak and it was horendously awkward.  No one but me could answer those questions and I didn’t have great answers.  I hoped she would hate me.  Hat eme for making her.  I needed to think about that more when I make people out of thin air.  What was I thinking?

Pushing aside the guilt, I said, “I made you because I needed an angel at the moment.  I wasn’t really thinking things through.  So the purpose by which I made you has been complete.  So now you are because you are.  Which is really dumb but why is anyone here?”

“I don’t know,” said the angel.  “Is it your memories of her that are running in my head.  That one over there the one with only one wing and the wheelchair.  She reminds me of something but the memories of her are weird and incomplete.  I remember her dying.  I can feel the pain in that.  It is going to swallow me whole.”

“I’m so sorry.  I didn’t mean to pass my pain on to you.  That woman you remember, her name was Melody.  She was my angel and when I made you I was thinking of her.  Of my angel.  Of how she would protect me from the hurt of the world.  It was what I needed in that moment.  In that fight with that demon.  I’m sorry that bled into you.  You don’t desreve to live with my pain.  I don’t know if there is anything that I can do about that.  I don’t know if there is anything that can be done about that and I am not going to risk you trying to fix that.  Sorry that I can’t fix you.”

“So now what?” asked the angel.

“I don’t know,” I said.  “But I know that I won’t abandon you.  Ever.  I made you and I am responsible for you.  Right now my emotions are a bit wonky.  There has been so much that has happened in the last couple hours and I don’t even know how to begin to process that.  First there was waking up and being told I had been asleep for a month.  Followed by crazy gods deciding to end the world or something.  And then there was you and now I have wings and I am a princess now and everything is so confusing right now.  So I don’t know what is going to happen but if you want I will be there with you when we find out.”

“I don’t want you to go away,” said the angel.  “It isn’t the same way you loved her, but I love you.  You make me feel safe somehow.”

“Sorry to interrupt but what was that about mad gods ending the world?” asked Luna.

“Uh so I woke in what might have been some weird dream but I don’t think so because Belle was there, and a bunch of people for lack of a better world had this talk with Discord.  They decided he wasn’t doing his job well enough and that he needed help and so they were going to merge two worlds together or something.”

“Yeah it was better than what that angry fireman wanted.  He was going to kill Discord.  I don’t want my friend to die,” said Belle.  “But the pretty blonde lady stopped that and it was really scary and I think they are going to do something bad.”

“We will have to ask Discord then.  Do you know where he is?” asked Luna.

“He said he had preperations to do and then he disappeared to where ever he goes off to,” I said.

“Well we will just have to trust him,” said Twilight.  “He has more than proven himself as of recent.  If it weren’t for him Canterlot would still be an active volcanoe.”

“Can you guys fill me in on what I missed this last month?” I asked.  “The last I remember was that the fight was still going on.  I haven’t been able to see Canterlot mountain and everypony seems to think I am some sort of hero.  What did you tell them?”

“So lets start with what happened,” said Luna.  “If you would Twilight?  It is a bit hard for me still.”

“Of course,” Twilight said.  “Well after Discord and I did what we could on getting everypony to safety we went back to the fight.  It wasn’t going well and when I interviened again Celestia turned to dark magic to fight us.  It warped her in ways I had not thought possible and if you hadn’t stopped Chrysalis when you did we may not have won that fight.  It turns out that the amulet was a direct connection to Chrysalis and she was subtlely controlling Celestia.  With her gone Celestia well started to come to her senses.  Not before destroying a lot of the mountain.  But evenutally she gain enough control to stop fighting us.  Well she made another rash discion and she banished herself to Sol.  Her parting words were that she needed to be purified and that without the elements this was the only way.”

“Since my Sister’s departure,” Luna chimmed in.  “We have been mostly playing damage control.  As you might expect there was panic when word got out about what had happened.  There are parts of Equestria contemplating sedition right now and it is taking much of our time just to rebuild the government systems that went up in smoke due to the fight.  Not to mention do well by the dead.”

“How many died?” I asked.  “Who died?  Anyone we know?  Did your parrents make it out?  What about Lyra’s?”

“I don’t want to get into the details but not everypony made it out of Canterlot alive.  Lyra’s mom didn’t make it and neither did…” Twilight said before her voice got stuck in her throat.  Luna’s hoof ran up and down Twilight’s back.

“Neither did Night Light,” said Luna.  “Equstria is in shambles and we are just trying to hold the pieces together right now.  It doesn’t help that there have been five major dragon attacks in the last month.  Mostly hot head younglings who don’t remember what I am cappable of.  But it hasn’t helped the situation.”

Twilight was wipping away the tears from her face.  I wanted to comfort her in anyway I could.  I knew it must have been hard on her to loose one of her parrents.  It had been hard when Mom died.  From the thought of it everyone here knew what it was like to lose a parent.

“I’m so sorry,” I said quietly.  “I don’t know what else to say.  I don’t remember anything being all that helpful when my first mom died.”

“It is fine,” Twilight said.  “My friends have been there and as has my Mom.  She is in the castle right now sleeping.  I am just happy we found room for her.  This castle was never meant to be the head of Equestria.  But yeah.  Things are tough but with friendship I will make it through this.”

“You have a much more healthy understanding that I ever did,” Luna said.  “I don’t know how...she did this for so long by herself.  I can’t even imagine what those first years were like.  I am so exhausted from raising the sun everyday even if you take every other night for the Moon, Twilight.”

“Are you kidding me?  You are amazing.  I don’t know how you do it.  The moon alone is nearly too much for me,” Twilight said.

“How long is, uh, she going to be gone for?” I asked.

“I hope less than a thousand years,” Luna said sadly.  “But the thing is that I don’t know.  Sol is a beast and will not let her leave till her job is done.  How long that will take will depend on her.  I hope no longer than a year.”

“It may be much longer than that though if she lets her guilt eat at her,” Twilight said.  “I know that face she had on her when she left.  I know how much she can let her guilt eat at her.”

“It is true.  Sister, has always had a problem with that,” said Luna.  “If she had a fault it was that she let her guilt get the best of her in her alone times.  For someone so strong I don’t understand why it weighed so heavily on her.”


“I think I understand,” I said.  “It is such an insidious thing.  I can’t shake the guilt I have over leaving Earth the way I did.  I can only imagine how much banishing you had to hurt her.  Or watching herself be corupted by Chrysalis.”

“I suspect that you are right,” said Luna.  “If my own guilt is anything to go by.”

“How do we move forward now?” I asked.  “I’m a princess now and from what you have said Equestria needs us all right now.  I won’t run away from this.”


“When do you ever run away from anything?” asked Twilight.  There was a strange mix of anger and pride in her voice.  “I don’t think you have run from anything since coming to Equis.”

“There was some timberwolves once,” I said.

“That you summoned a golem and had smashed to smitheriens,” Twilight said.  “Hhhhuh.  Look I know you want to help but right now you need to focus on your studies and trying to be a kid for as long as you can get away with it.  It might be too late for that but you’re just a foal.  Please let us take on the brunt of this.  If anything right now I need you to be an older sister to Belle.  We just dont’ have time to be there for her right now and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.  I barely have time to even get in magic lessons right now.”

“It is true.  If it weren’t for my general lack of need for sleep there would not be enough hours in the day right now,” Luna said.  “Bon Bon and Lyra have promised to help step up with both you and Armored Belle here but there are things that only you will be able to help her with.”

“Um, sorry to interrupt,” I said. “How did you come up with a pony name for Anna?”

“There is an old ritual that simulates naming dreams,”  Luna said.  “Her name is a bit unusual for a pony especially in the modern era but it seems to fit.”

“I like it,” Armored Belle said.  “Though everyone just calls me Belle most of the time which is fine.  You can still call me Anna if you want though.”

“I’ll adapt to your new name,” I said.  “Speaking of names.  Do you have a name?”

The angel shook her head.  Tears started to flow down her checks once more.  I nuzzled her head with mine trying to avoid poking her with my horn.  She responded by burying her head in my mane.  It was in that moment that I realized how much my mane had grown.  It was nearly to my back.

“Well I made you so it is only right that I name you.  That is if that is alright with you?”  I asked.  The angel only nodded while not removing her face from my mane.  “Hmm.  What about Hope?  Or we could name you after some of the angels from Earth.  Or something ese.  I guess I am not good at this.  Sorry.”

“Why Hope?” she asked quietly.

“Well because that was what you were.  You were my hope.  In many ways the literal manifestation of my hope,” I said.  “And honestly it seems to fit you.”

“I like it,” she said.  “Hope it is.”

“It is a fine name,” said Luna.  “I am sure you will live up to it.”

“Wait does this mean I am a grandmother now?” asked Twilight.