Only the Broken, Only the Cursed (please read blog post)

by DougtheLoremaster


Chapter 19- The Creation of Twilight "Luna" Sparkle

Twilight watched as Tyrant Celestia sat as still as a statue on the golden skulls that was the Throne of Nightmares, addressing a messenger that had just run in. Her face was expressionless and her tone was flat.
“Report. Now.”
“The Crystal Empire has fallen as predicted, Your Majesty.”
“Casualties?”
“240...Including the Princess and Prince, along with their foal.”
Celestia’s eyes flashed dangerously.
“What did you just say?”
“Prince Shining Armor and his wife, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, along with an unidentified foal of their creation was...Urgh!”
Celestia angrily shouted at the messenger, who could no longer hear, having been reduced to ashes amidst the scorching blaze that had suddenly engulfed the throne room.
“Why weren’t they forewarned as per my instructions? Captain, get in here!”
A pony dressed in full armor, specifically made by Celestia herself to be heat-proof up to temperatures of the sun’s surface itself, came running in through the door. However strong the armor was, it began to crack as Celestia glared daggers at the unfortunate mare. Wincing, the Captain of the Royal Guard saluted, her armor beginning to drip as the tempered metal began to melt amidst the roaring firestorm.
“Ma’am!”
“Captain, would you like to tell me why exactly my nephew-in-law; Shining Armor, and my lovely Niece were declared slain in the raid that befell the Crystal Empire, one hour ago? Why were my instructions not carried out?”
The Captain couldn’t help but be in fearful awe of the Tyrant’s unbridled power. Likewise, Twilight watching mirrored her thoughts.
“Mom was never this strong! Even at her worst, she was nothing like this. All this from mere glaring? Astounding!”
However, the Captain was quick to answer as more of her special armor dripped onto the indestructible stone floor and hissed.
“Ma’am! Reports indicate our messenger did in fact give the message!”
Instantly, the flames vanished as Celestia’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Is that so? Be a dear and call them here now. I wish to speak to this messenger.”
Her armor having been reduced to her helmet, half her breastplate, and a single hindleg of leggings, the mare ignored the scarred and burned flesh on her body, pulling out the walkie-talkie and pressing the call button.
“Gilda, come in Gilda.”
“Captain?”
The voice on the other end was still partly asleep and sounded completely out of it. As Celestia sat stone-faced once more, the Captain roared to her subordinate.
“Your flank. Throne room. The Demon wants you.”
The effect was instantaneous. As Celestia cracked a partial smile at the nickname, through the doorway raced a completely sobered Griffon, shivering as the Tyrant turned her gaze on her.
“Name and rank.”
“Gilda, Messenger Griffon, Ma’am.”
“You delivered my message to the Crystal Empire?”
“Ma’am, yes ma’am. Leave the Crystal Empire. The Tyrant has issued an evacuation command. An invasion is imminent. A fight you cannot win.”
“Tell me exactly what response you were given.”
Gulping, Gilda told Celestia what she had been told.
“We will not! This is our home and we will defend it with our last breath. Let them come.”
Celestia raised her wing. Closing her eyes, the Captain of the Royal Guard braced for oblivion, but surprisingly no heat came. Opening her eyes, she saw a plume of fire jettison out of the nearby window, perfectly aimed. Sighing, Celestia nodded as she folded her wing once more.
“So be it, both of you are dismissed. Those fools chose their path. Head to the medical…”
With a crackle, the walkie-talkie still in the Captain’s hooves buzzed to life.
“Come in, Captain Come in!”
As Celestia raised an eyebrow, the Captain slowly held it to her ear and her face grew white as a sheet. Sweat furrowed on her brow as she whispered to Gilda.
“Hallway, now.”
Celestia frowned.
“This better be good to interrupt me, Captain.”
Gilda bolted for the hallway as the Captain gave her report.
“Ma’am, it’s been an honor to serve you these past 30 years.”
Celestia paused before she asked.
“What’s going on, Captain Spitfire?”
“Ma’am, Ponyville is under attack. Princess Velvet and her Husband called it in before we...lost...contact..with them.”
Celestia was halfway to the stained glass window by the time the report finished, the only window large enough for her to fit through. Under her hooves, the indestructible stone rapidly dissolved amidst the intense heat, but there was no firestorm. The look in Celestia’s eyes wasn’t rage. They watered and were dilated. Twilight knew that look she had seen it on the face of many of her victims in training. It was fear. As both Twilight and the Captain watched, Celestia wordlessly leaped through the solid two-inch-thick, shatter-resistant glass, and as it disintegrated, spread her wings of flame and flew towards Ponyville.
Both watched as she flew so fast the very air caught fire in her Daybreaker form, a feat Twilight had never before witnessed. Twilight had witnessed her blast half the world into nothingness, but she suspected from what she just witnessed, that the Tyrant had only used but a fraction of her destructive power to do so. If she really was this strong what happened? The Tyrant she knew was powerful indeed, but unable to fly and seemed to be in constant pain from an injury of her past. What could have crippled Celestia, that she changed so much?

***

Standing behind Twilight, Clover leaned down and gently nuzzled her, whispering.
“As you watch these events unfold, think about the answer to this question. If you had so much as a glimmer of hope to undo what can’t be undone, to repair what can’t be fixed, to get back what’s gone forever, just how far would you be willing to go; what would you sacrifice to make the impossible, possible?”
Twilight was dumbfounded by the tone of severity in Clover’s gentle words. Silently, she watched the night she died, in an attempt to understand the events that had played out.

***

Celestia’s hooves touched down without a sound next to a destroyed building. The jumble of broken and split planks was all that remained of the Sparkle Homestead. Celestia stood there, staring at the remains of her daughter’s house in silence. A single tear appeared in her eyes before the sound of a weak cough reached her ears.
Frantically, Celestia tore through the pile, flinging away board after board, desperately searching, hope suddenly glinting in her eyes. Whatever hope she had, however, left her completely as she uncovered the torn and bloodied form of her daughter.
The Unicorn’s breathing was weak, labored. Her eyes slowly rolled up to look at her mother, staring silently down at her. The ribcage of Velvet had been punctured and Celestia immediately noticed the seal around her soul; forged by Celestia and Discord had been cracked and Velvet’s lovingly crafted soul, now slowly trickled out. Her daughter’s existence was coming to an end.
She spoke to her mother, calling her by a name she never used. Velvet’s words were strained and forced as if being spoken with the last of her energy.
“M-mommy, I’m...so sorry. I couldn’t stop them. They...took her. They took Twilight. Please, I’m begging you...save…”
Twilight watched as Velvet’s head lolled to the side and her words trailed into a deep, raspy, gurgle before her eyes went dim. Celestia stood there, silent before reaching out her hoof and closing her daughter’s eyelids. She whispered lovingly to the still mare.
“Mommy is proud of you, Velvet. You did your best. I couldn’t ask for more. Rest now, I’ll handle things from here.”
Tears fell like rain down her muzzle, dripping onto the cracked earth. Her eyes hooded over. There was no fire, there was no anger. Celestia felt like somepony had taken her heart and ground it beneath their hooves. It hurt so much, an agony as she had never known. And then, she felt nothing. No, not nothing. She felt too much.
Twilight watched as Celestia stood still, twitching as she struggled to control herself. She’s trying to prevent an outburst. After a few seconds a soul-shattering scream pierced the air.
“Celestia! Please, save me!”
Twilight’s eyes went wide as she watched, she knew that voice. It was her own. The scream caused Celestia to move faster than even Rainbow Dash had; one moment, Celestia was next to the wreckage, and the next, she stood within a crowd, watching the town square fountain. The fountain where a mutilated Twilight hung, strung up against the masonry with barbed wire. 
Her body was truly horrific to behold, and viewing it made Twilight instinctively feel the scars running across her barrel with her hoof. Even with her tolerance of lethal levels of pain, Twilight felt sick seeing her body in such a state. And even worse, she was still screaming for Celestia.
“Celestia, please help me!”
Celestia took a step forward, as the cultist next to Twilight held a ceremonial knife high preparing to strike the final blow. And that’s when he spoke his last words.
“You think that Demon can save you? She wouldn’t even save her own daughter! Do you think she is some all-powerful Goddess? That if you pray hard enough, that uncaring Nightmare, will just suddenly help you? Ha! I’ll prove to you what a false idol she is!
Tyrant Celestia, if you truly are the immortal deity they proclaim you to be, strike me down and free this filly right now. Where’s your God..”
Celestia silently stepped through the crowd as she opened her mouth and from it, a booming voice issued forth; sounding throughout the valley.
“You wish for me to save her, and end you here and now?”
As the cultists gathered at the fountain shakily turned in shock at the voice, Celestia’s body burst into flame, her eyes glinted with malice.
“Your prayer…”
Her horn glowed and the sky above twisted, becoming bright red, moments before balls of fire rained down from the heavens.
“Has been answered, you little fool.”
Twilight felt it was so surreal; there she sat, watching her life ebb away. Like Velvet, her soul seal had been broken. Unlike Velvet, however, the soul, though mostly gone, still had a single solitary shred clinging to the jagged edge of the crack. Celestia blinked, it was almost as if it refused to leave the seal. She smiled sadly.
“You are most certainly my stubborn daughter’s foal.”
“You...came.”
Celestia nodded and pushed back Twilight’s mane with her hoof. Twilight gave a small smile.
“I knew you would. I...knew...you...wou...”
“Twilight stay with me. Don’t you dare close your eyes. That’s an order!”
Twilight’s eyes fluttered weakly. One of them had burst from torture, but the other one flickered. Her iris was growing dull and she weakly uttered.
“I’m sorry...Grandma...I love y-y..you.”
Her eyes fell shut as the last shred of her soul left the seal. Celestia acted quickly, before the shred faded she quickly wrapped her magic around it, capturing the last vestige of Twilight Sparkle. Meanwhile, her body finally lay still, as Twilight stared, dumbfounded at her past self. Did I just..perish?
Twilight wasn’t sure what to make of what she had just seen. Her past self very clearly was lost. And yet here she was, alive in a world where she was created as dead. What was going on?
She wasn’t given long to process it before the scene changed and she found herself in a strange stone room, looking down at her own mangled corpse laying on a familiar-looking sparkling black stone table. Around the table stood three creatures; two of which Twilight recognized, Celestia and Discord. The third, however, was like nothing she had seen before; a strange insectoid equine. The black body had holes scattered throughout and aside from it being a female, Twilight could only notice those strange glowing green eyes. Who is that?
Clover’s laughter was heard behind her.
“That would be our daughter; Chrysalis. Queen of the Changelings.”
Changelings? Hm… That sounded familiar to her, but she couldn’t quite place it. She decided not to dwell on it. Instead, she decided to focus on the scene itself. Before Chrysalis and Discord floated scraps of souls. Celestia addressed both.
“Thank you Discord, and you as well Chrysalis.”
Discord merely laughed while Chrysalis spoke to Celestia; her voice a strangely distorted one, yet somehow very clearly feminine. 
“Think nothing of it, my Sister-in-Law. That’s what family is for.”
Celestia gave a brief smile before her horn glowed with her signature golden magic. It glowed brightly before fading entirely and Celestia looked at Discord.
“8 years?”
Looking slightly uncomfortable, he answered her.
“Yes. When you bond your soul to hers, it will slowly drain out of you and into her. In 8 years your magic will vanish and you will cease to exist if you go through with this.”
Celestia merely gave a chuckle.
“My existence was forfeit long ago, dear. What about you? Will you survive?”
Chrysalis shook her head before answering.
“Both you and my brother will be making this sacrifice. Once done, this cannot be undone.”
Twilight watched, mystified, as Celestia smiled at her corpse.
“So be it. She will be reborn.”
Her horn glowed a bright golden, as Discord held her hoof with his talon. An explosion burst from both and strands of glowing obsidian entwined with a golden light connected the two to the corpse. Discord turned to look into Celestia’s eyes before gently kissing her.
“See you on the other side, my little Celly.”
From within Discord floated out his internal organs, reshaping and restructuring to be laid within the corpse. Twilight watched as Discord’s body simply disintegrated. Meanwhile, Chrysalis’s own stag beetle-like horn glowed, forcing the golden magic of Celestia to connect and weave throughout the soul shards. 
The shards had been gathered from the remains of various souls, belonging to Applejack, Rarity, Twilight, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie, as well as Luna of the Realm of the Living. The golden magic of Celestia connected and bound the souls together stitching them to one another to form a perfect orb.
Twilight watched as the golden glow fiercely glowed, and slowly the soul orb was lowered into the now repaired corpse that was her. Slowly, the Twilight of the past’s eyes flicked open.
“M-mom? Why are you crying?”