//------------------------------//
// [12] Cellun 
// Story: Queen of Storms 
// by Via 
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Cellun





This was Wrath.




Onosecond.

It's the moment of realization. The moment that you realize there's no turning back - the pit of dread like a ball of ice growing in your chest and sinking into your stomach. It's your arms and legs feeling so heavy that you can barely move them as your blood turns to sludge in your veins.

The beam strikes—the water bubbles. There's so much heat pushed into such a small space - it's nearly blinding. It would've been blinding if I was anyone but who I was. Nearby - fish begin to bubble and burn from the inside out as they're exposed to more light, more heat than they ever have been in their entire life in a fraction of a second.

I had aimed at the head. It was meant to be painless. Fast. But under the currents - with the water weighing down on you...it's different. It's harder to aim, harder to orient yourself. Scale was melted into a thin string of atoms. Skin burned away to reveal blood and muscle, which burned and tore as sinew and fat was reduced into nothing more than swirls of ash and blood. Bones broke under infinite power, and a heart beat for its last time.

The blood begins to pool up.

I'm back here again.

It's not the first time. It's not the last time, most likely. The dry, metallic scent stings the inside of my nostrils and burns like a gentle flame that's anything but gentle. I can't help but realize just how dry my mouth and throat feel right now, and my tongue feels heavy and strange in my mouth. It's seared into my brain - how the joints aren't quite bending how they're supposed to, things aren't where they're supposed to be...and worst of all, there's so much blood. My mother's horn is sunken too deep into her skull, and the only noise I hear apart from Luna's soft crying is the dripping of the still-wet blood...and the soft growling of the dragon that stands over her body.

Usually, it's a dragon.
Sometimes it's Tempest.
This time - it's neither.
She's staring back at me. Her horn is glowing. Her maw is dripping. She looks so angry.
This time - it's me.




Fear.

My heart pounds so violently in my chest I feel as if it might burst. My arms and legs are stiff, and I find that I can't quite move them as I take in all of him - his not-quite-euclidean coils and loops. The way he blurs and stains against the fabric of reality, and I find myself disgusted. I can't help but be aware of my body in a way that I never have before. Every cell fills with flame, every drop of blood and every iota of magic I have turns to sludge.

Claws press into my throat. I try to scream. I can't.

The flame strikes—the air bubbles. There's pain - a sharp pain, much sharper than what I'm used to. And everything melts away in a torrent of power. It's a leyline - an artery of the world itself, moving magic so violently that everything else begins to...blur. I'm no stranger to power since my ascension. But this isn't like the power I'm used to. It isn't the warmth that swells up in my chest, the confidence that makes me hang my head high. But this is something else.

It hurts. It's primal - untapped, uncontrolled, unstoppable. My flesh that isn't really flesh begins to burst and reform; my muscles begin to burn, stretch and snap. It hurts. It hurts in a way that I've never felt before. But I have no mouth with which to scream, no voice with which to cry out. Some part of me starts to reach out on instinct - trying to stop all this infinite power.

I feel her. I can't tell if my sister is inches from me or miles from me - in the face of this power, there's no real way to discern distance. But she's there. And I don't care what power there is. Right now - my sister is hurting, and I need to help her.

Hooves that aren't hooves curl around her. I pull all of myself into one and pull all of her into two, and I squeeze so tightly that I feel as if one of us might burst. And my horn begins to glow - 

We come bursting out into reality in a forest - the air hissing, warping, distorting with a pop that's much more violent than what I'm used to. Hurtling through the sky like a meteor, both my wings and Luna's snapping out to steady us. Luna can fly - but I can't. I can't so much as glide. It's because of me - we're a tangle of hooves and limbs, and we can't break away fast enough. Pegasi instincts try to kick in, but my familial instincts override that. 

I right myself and spin around - Luna will land on me, and I'll land on the floor. I'll take the brunt of the force - twigs scratch at the two of us, get stuck in our hair, lash at our cheeks...and a rock digs itself right into my side.

I'm back here again.

But it's different.

It's not the first time. It's not the last time. The dry, metallic scent stings the inside of my nostrils and burns like a gentle flame that's anything but gentle. I can't help but realize just how dry my mouth and throat feel right now, and my tongue feels heavy and strange in my mouth. Her claws are stretched out in a way they're not supposed to be. Her limbs are pulled out in a stretch that's much too long, her eyes are dim, and her mouth is open far too wide. There's a semblance of life in them, but it's beginning to fade, and Tempest can't do much more than a whimper.

Usually, it's a dragon.
Sometimes, it's Tempest.
Last time, it was me.
This time - it's him.

The only noise I hear is his laughter.

My eyes crack open. I see the world through a hazy film - my eyes are wet and dry simultaneously, and the side of my body burns. Luna is pushing at my chest, her soft weeping echoing throughout the darkness of the grove we're in. We're only ever so faintly illuminated by the thinnest cracks of moonlight peaking through the roof of the forest. She can't see the blood, thankfully. But she can smell it. And I can feel it - I landed funny. The rock's pierced my side, drawn too much blood. So much as a twitch causes my wings and hooves to twitch with pain.

"C-Celestia...not you...not - not you." My heart begins to crack.
"Luna?" I wheeze out with a cough. "I'm here, Lulu. I'm here." I can hear her relief. A soft little gasp - the fluttering of her wings as she pushed her face right into the crest of my neck. My coat is more like fluff than hair now, and Lulu's face sinks right into a little poof of white fluff right on my chest. I can faintly see the two of us - blue hair messy and haphazard, my pink mane hard and dry.
"Cellie..." She sobbed brokenly. I curled my arms tightly around her. "Sh-she's...gone, and I thought - I thought you were too..."
"I'm never going to leave you, Luna," I whispered. "I never will. I promise."
"So did she!" Luna cried out. "And - and she's gone!" I couldn't see her move, but I could feel it. Her hoof was prodding, patting at the place where her flower had used to be. Tempest had given her that flower - and she loved it. She constantly adjusted it, checked for it. But evidently - it hadn't come with us in whatever Tempest did to us.

Oh, Luna. My heart. I wish - I wish that I could curl my arms around you and tell you everything was going to be okay and mean it. I wish I could wrap my wings around you and squeeze and shield you from the rest of the world. I wish that we could wake up - and Auntie was there, Starswirl was there, Tempest was there, Discord was gone, and it was all just a bad dream. I wish I could tell you these things and mean it.

I can do half of it, at least.

"She's not, Luna." I lied. And I'm thankful for the darkness - I'm thankful that she can't see my face and how I can't quite find the strength to meet where her eyes are. 

"But - but..."
"She's survived three times. So what's a fourth?"
"...do you really think...do you really think she's...she's safe?" Luna whispered.

My broken heart shattered.
"Yes," I lied.

I wasn't sure who I was lying to.





You'd be surprised how easy it was to sleep with a rock in your side. You'd be less surprised at how much it hurt in the morning as the early dawn's sun began to brush against my face like a familiar friend.

Luna was cuddled up right next to me. The two of us were a mess - covered in grime, scratches, dirt and a rather unhealthy heaping of my own blood. It had dried by now, but a rather large rock had been awkwardly shoved into my side. Surprisingly - maybe just in a state of shock, I couldn't really feel it.

It didn't make looking at it less freaky. I planted my hooves down as I began to hyperventilate - then steadied myself as my sister stirred ever so slightly. I had to be strong. For Luna. I couldn't - I couldn't show her that I was afraid. I couldn't show her how broken I was. I had to be like Starswirl - no. I had to be like Tempest.

With a bloody rip, I tore myself free from the rock and stifled a scream. The rock was completely drenched in my own blood, and a torrent of it began to ooze from my flesh. I stumbled backwards blindly - but slowly, before my very eyes, as the sunlight struck my side...my flesh began to knit back together. Red knots of muscle curled around each other to form thick fibres covered by a thin sheet of skin and a thick fluff coat. The entire process itched more than hurt, and watching it was nauseating.

I didn't have anything to throw up. I found myself leaned over by a tree, dry-heaving as spittle, and what little fluid I did have inside me was forced out of my body. My hoof planted itself into the tree so hard I felt the wood beginning to crack - until I felt a glimmer of something.

I glanced around and finally realized how strange our locale was. Considering it wasn't strange. After that wave had struck, everything had been weird. The ground was fleshy and sweet; the trees wriggled and writhed and tried to hurt us. But here? Everything was normal. Like in one of Tempest's storms - but without the rain that signalled it. And the second the rain stopped...the chaos reclaimed its territory.

We were still in Equestria, though. Just looking at the sky could tell me that. Looking at the sky filled me with some anger - the sun and moon were wrong. They were both in the sky at the same time, moving around in patterns that they weren't supposed to. Moving too fast. It wasn't natural. My horn started to glow- and immediately, I snuffed out the glow and cursed myself as I realized that Discord would undoubtedly be searching for us.

I glanced around our surroundings. Luna slowly began to stir, her back and wings stretching out as she tilted her head up and let out a rather fearsome yawn. Despite myself, I couldn't help but giggle. 

Luna's head turned towards me - and immediately, her eyes widened as she saw my side, covered in blood. Her eyes began to grow wet. "C-Cel-"
"I'm fine, Lulu," I interjected. "I promise. Really." I turned to brandish my freshly-healed coat to her. "It's just itchy." I stuck my tongue out at her but couldn't quite meet her in the eyes.
"Are you sure? It looks bad." She frowned and ran her hoof over my side. I shivered lightly at her touch - her hoof was cold, and it was still a bit sore.
"I'm sure." I insisted. "I don't know where we are, though. We're - we're far. I can't feel him nearby." I couldn't really explain it to Tempest, but I knew Luna understood. Whenever Discord was nearby - I could feel a faint crawling on the back of my neck. Like that feeling you had when someone was watching for you. "However, he's looking for us. I'm sure of it."
"...Cellie...what do we do?" Luna frowned and looked up at me. "Tempest was - she was leading us. She knew what to do."

She did, didn't she? She thought she was just as much of a mess as me. Just as clueless. But at least she had an idea - a direction. She was smart, and what I'd give for her to point me in the right direction right now for the next step.

...Maybe she could, though. I still remembered something she had told Luna and me.

"Harmony," I whispered. "We have to find Harmony." I glanced around the surroundings. And I had an idea of where to start -it was obvious. 

Tempest had sent us here.
Harmony was a tree.
Harmony fought Discord.
We were in a forest.
The forest was safe from Discord's influence, somehow.

"...And I think she's nearby," I said softly.
"How do you know?" Luna tilted her head to the side. She was calmer now - her eyes were still a bit red from crying, she wasn't trembling quite so much. She was just confused. Just lost. Like me.
Oh, Luna.
"Trust me?" I said weakly. I reached out and put a hoof on her shoulder. 
Luna squinted at me with that squint that only children who know when something is up but don't quite know what's up can give. "...Okay." She frowned.

I slowly ran my hoof through her hair, beginning to fix her messy strands of hair. My mother had done it to me, and so I would do it to her. A light amount of pressure, keeping her head steady - keeping her fixed and orderly. Oh, Luna. So lovely. You deserved better than this. Better than me.

My self-pity was interrupted by a slight rustling. My ears perked up, and I turned my head - only to see glimmering chains curl around me and yank me tight around a tree. I let out a frantic gasp as my horn lit up on instinct - but I immediately overpowered that and snuffed the glow out. I started tugging at the slightly translucent chains in an attempt to break them, pushing at the tree and tugging at it. But every movement I made only caused the chains to sink deeper into my flesh until it began to bruise and break. 

The sun only made it worse. My flesh tore and ripped, and blood oozed out - then the sunlight caused it to heal. And rip again. And heal, and rip again. My body writhed as I managed just barely to grip onto the chain that curled around my throat and pull it enough to whisper - "Luna. Run."

Luna said something. I couldn't hear it over the pounding in my ears - the throbbing in my chest as blood oozed from my wounds. Oh god it hurt. It hurt like nothing I had ever felt before - I just wanted to cry and curl up into a ball and hide, but the chains just squeezed tighter and tighter and tighter- and I knew I was going to die.

I cried out for my mother.
My sister answered my cry.

A bolt of brilliant blue magic tore right through the links of the chains. It carved through the tree and only narrowly missed my neck - some bits of my fur falling to the ground. Then, rapid-fire, more magic bolts were fired off: each just as powerful as the last until all the chains were broken.

I fell to the floor, gasping. Oh, Luna. You were supposed to run. You were supposed to run. And he was coming now, wasn't he? My body burned, the wounds still healing but the blood still oozing - and I couldn't help but fall to my knees and curl my wings around her. I squeezed her tightly even as she pushed at me. We were going to die, Luna. It was your fault - but you didn't mean to. I don't blame you. I just blame myself.

At least we would die together.

...

How long had it been?

Seconds? Minutes? Hours? However long it had been, I was still very much alive. And so was my sister - wrapped in my limbs and trembling against me. Discord hadn't come for us. 

I slowly pulled away and rested my forehead against Luna's. "I love you, Luna," I whispered.
Luna looked up at me with wide eyes and at trembling form. "I love you too, Celestia." She murmured just as weakly as me. She meant it - she simply didn't have the energy to express it. We had gone through far too much in a far too little amount of time. We needed - we needed a break.

And just at that moment - the trees seemed to part, and there were hoof-tracks. Much too plentiful and ones that reached far too deep into the forest to have been left by either me or Luna. Ponies had left it. It meant - it meant there were others here. That there were people.

"Lulu," I whispered. "Look." I pointed towards the tracks.

On trembling legs, the two of us walked. I leaned against her just as much as she leaned against me - me for physical support, her for emotional support. Our movements were slow, and blood trailed behind us. Well, more me than her. Slowly, though, I gained my strength back - step by step—movement by movement.

I looked down at her. "How are you feeling?" I asked suddenly. I was worried about her. She had been through so much, and she was so young.  
"Hungry," Luna whined and pushed her face into the side of my chest. "I want - food. Tomato. Or an apple. I want something red."
"Something red?" I arched an eyebrow, and I felt my lips tug into a smile despite the grimness of our situation.
"Mhm." She nodded, staring at me with an intense seriousness - not the slightest hint of humour in her expression. Oh, Luna.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

I heard it before I felt it. I felt it before I saw it - one moment, we were dry. The next, it was just the faintest drizzling of rain - smacking against my nose and oozing off the trees. And as we stepped deeper into the rain, the landscape around us seemed to shift. There were clouds now - with thunder broiling around inside of them, lightning flashing and illuminating us. And it was pouring when it hadn't been just a moment ago.

I recognized this storm.

That was a strange sentence. It wasn't one I ever thought I'd find myself thinking. But - I did. The rain came down so violently, but...it touched everything so gently. Asides from the chaos. There was no mercy for the chaos. It was fierce but gentle. This was a storm - this was one of her storms.

And there was life within her storm. The shifting landscape formed a gravel road that lead up a plateau - and there were buildings on the plateau. But, more than just buildings, there were ponies. At the very least: a hundred. Celestia would find it hard-pressed for there to be any less. My sister and I shifted from a slow trot into a canter and finally into a gallop as the two of us felt our hooves beat against the slick road. Finally, we came to a skidding stop as eyes began to turn to us - the new arrivals. 

They stared at us. Haggard, hungry, gaunt, and exhausted. Their eyes had dark circles under them. Some were covered in scars, bruises, mutations - but all were alive. Their eyes began to run over our fur, our horns, our wings.

You know what to do, some part of me spoke, and I agreed. Luna did the same, much by my side.

We planted my hooves. A wide, open stance - just like the one Tempest used whenever she roared. We pushed down hard, raised our chests and lowered our backs, so we looked taller. We tilted our head up to the sky - to the chaotic, disordered sky. There was so much - so much in us, so much to get out -

We channelled everything defiantly into one glyph.

Cellun.




It wasn't fair.
It was simple subtraction.
A thousand minus ten. I was the ten. He was the thousand. Chaos magic surged into me, breaking away my added boost of magic - until it just got to my very core. Until it got to the Air. Chaos. Light.

I was going to die here, I realized. He was overpowering my hold. I couldn't - I didn't have the energy to teleport away without him following and turning me into a boiling soup of organs. It wasn't fair.

A spell. Some part of me whispered. I wasn't sure if it was Order or me, but I agreed. There was - there had to be some spell. Some spell that could do something. It hurt, it hurt like hell - but there was a soft sigh of resignment as Order took the pain onto his part of my consciousness. Allowing me to focus.

It was strange, watching my body decay. Watching my scales turn to ash and my flesh beginning to burn as webs of order and chaos magic threatened to burst my cells individually. I had milliseconds. No, I had less than that- I needed a spell. I needed to formulate a spell. I needed - I needed a glyph. One glyph.

One glyph. My entire soul. My entire life. My entire magic. My entire mind - most important of all, them. I poured it all, I put everything into one glyph - a surge of something in my chest, a howling filling the air -

Tesrun.

And then oblivion, as Discord killed me.

A voice rings out. Wake.

...Where am I? I open my eyes, but I have no eyes with which to see. There is an endless expanse of mana - but I am adrift in a void. Where am I?

A voice rings out the answer. It is not one voice, but two voices—half feminine, half masculine - half cruel, half kind. But the feminine is masculine; the cruel is kind and vice versa. The word they say echoes through my soul. Oblivion.

And like that, the world comes into focus. My body that isn't my body falls onto the ground. I'm a mass of energy - a web of mystic veins that curl around each other and form the faintest outline of a body. My claws that aren't claws dig into the ground that isn't ground, and my head begins to throb. 

They stand in front of me. Two alicorns. 

One as dark as night - no, darker than the night herself. His coat is pure black, his eyes a chilling white void. His mark is a simple skull, and his wings are made of bone covered in inky flame. His mane is an ethereal mass of souls writhing and wriggling to get free.

The other is brighter than the day herself. Her coat is pure white, but her eyes are a black singularity with a white dot in their centre, a ring of white flames that dance around them. Her mane is much the same, but her wings are made of something strange - they seem to be made of life itself—a wriggling mass of ever-shifting, vibrant nature. 

The essential spirits. Life and Death. The only creatures to surpass Discord, Order, and Harmony. If they so willed it - I would be dead. But no, I was already dead - wasn't I? Discord had killed me.

I spat down at their feet. "Cowards." I hissed out with a venom that I had reserved for Discord as rage overtook me. I brought myself up to my full height - yet found that I was only barely able to look them in the eyes. "Everyone that he has killed is on your hands. You could've stopped him, couldn't you? Whenever you wanted, you could've stopped him. But you haven't. Are you afraid of him? Or do you simply not care? Are you cowards, or are you monsters?"

They speak as one, but two. They speak much the same way Order did. With ideas, concepts, not words. It's overwhelming - and I feel my energy begin to fade with each not-word they speak. But still, I endure.

They could stop Discord. They have chosen not to. Instead, they claim that something else has taken importance over him.

I spat down again. "Aren't you life? What could be more important to you than genocide?"
A single concept sent a chill down my spine. Omnicide. They showed me something - something that I had seen before.

The world was on fire.
The world was burning.
The world was dying, drained of its colour.
The Nexus was ablaze, the ley-lines covered in flames, the mountains and landscape all melted.
I saw great typhoons, hurricanes, storms, tornadoes, and earthquakes tearing the world asunder, oceans of magma nad obsidian shores, and I saw the Nexus condensing in on itself until it was gone-

and at the centre of it all, there was darkness.

Discord had shown me that before. I don't think he had meant to. It had confused me when I thought it what his ideal vision of the world was. But he was free, he had no peers...and he seemed content to turn the land into a chaotic hellscape instead of the hellish oblivion that I had seen. Was this what Life and Death were working against?

They knew what I was thinking. A word in response - not a concept, not a not-word. The first spoken word of Life and Death in aeons.
"Yes."

"...Why am I here?" I stepped backwards. "I can't help."

Life and Death told me something.

They told me that my birth was unspectacular. There was no surge of magic, a celestial event, prophecy or oracle, special visitor or any unique circumstances - and I was the first of eight eggs. They told me that I was the first of eight eggs to hatch,  and as I tore my eggshell apart and felt warmth wash over me, I felt the wind. And the wind felt me.

They told me that I had done something that no mortal had ever done before. That while I had died - I had ascended. At the exact time that I had died, I had become an immortal - and now I stood on uncharted territory. I was neither alive nor dead, neither mortal nor immortal. 

They gave me their offers.

Death offered me peace in death. The Spirit of Order was still bound to my soul, so my death would result in his reconstitution. I could rest - knowing that eventually, Discord would be defeated. I would join my family, my king, my people in the afterlife. The drakons would die with me - but I would get my rest.

Life offered me purpose in life. I would be reconstituted as something new. Something that had never been seen before - more than just a spirit. Something unique. She warned that there was no way of knowing what I would become - but she knew that I would certainly face pain, unlike anything I had experienced before. But I would see Celestia and Luna again - and I would see the world that comes after Discord.

I thought about it.
I thought about Discord. He was defeated either way.
I thought about my family. There was only one way I got to see them again.
I made my choice, and my eyes shut for the last time.



She held out hope at first.

The first days passed slowly. Then, slowly, the people were rallied together by their presence - and despite their young age, they were chosen unilaterally as the leaders. 

With their influence over the heavens, Discord's ability to manipulate the stars was...lessened. Night and day could stretch anywhere from one to twelve hours - but there was always an hour of both, and there were never times when neither shone in the sky.

The weeks came by faster than the days. She was thankful that food was plentiful within the forest. An influx of earth ponies had rallied together to make a communal garden - and food was shared between everyone in equal portions. But some were greedy.

At the end of the first month, Celestia did the hardest thing she had done in her life and sentenced a thief to exile. Such a fate would lead to death, if not worse. There was never a theft again. Her hope began to fade.
At the end of the first month, Luna noticed how coldly the fillies her age looked at her. She felt alone.

At the end of the second month, Celestia noticed that Luna was crying by herself at night. So one night, Celestia cried with her. 
At the end of the second month, Luna wept - for she was alone. But with her sister - she was a little less alone.

At the end of the third month - the storm began to wane.

All of her logic dictated that Tempest must be dead. 
All of her heart dictated that Tempest must be dead.





Four months ago - scale had been pulled into a thin string of atoms. Skin had been peeled away to reveal blood and muscle, which burned and tore as sinew and fat was reduced into nothing more than its component proteins. Her bones broke under infinite power, and her heart beat for the last time.

Life spoke a single word.
"Give."
All of the world responded. 

The Earth offered his strength, so that she may be true.
The Fire offered her heat, so that she may yet live again.
The Water offered his fluidity, so that she may be a creature of change.
The Sky offered her domain, so that she may be free.

The gryphons, who had seen her path even before she took it offered up their eyes, so that she may see.
The dragons, who were the last remnants of her kin, offered up their body, so that she may stay grounded.
The deer, who saw her magic and saw that it was good offered up their horns, so that she may be good.
The ponies, who had feared her so saw that she was pure offered up their heart, so that she may be kind.

She took her wings for her own.

And amidst the stark black void of Discord's accursed night - an alabaster drakon opened her eyes for the first time.