//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Hybrid Breakdown // by Kyuubi325 //------------------------------// A deafening crack echoed through the ruined streets of Canterlot; Celestia struggled to breathe as she felt her student go limp on her grasp. Gasping, the princess slowly opened her eyes, looking down at the burnt face of her former student, her neck bent at an odd angle, that manic smile covering her face. Reaching out a shaking hoof, she closed the remaining eye before slowly looking up, where she saw the elderly mare and her daughter shaking in the corner of the ruined home. A long scorch mark trailing the wall, just stopping short of the two mares who remained in frozen shock. Before the princess could say, a word guard stallions flooded the area. The greying commander hesitantly approaching her. "Princess, we have begun to reestablish order, and rescue operations are underway…." "…I….I…. Excellent…." She struggled to form words. "What are your orders, princess?… we can't contain this… the whole city saw you two fighting… and the spells could be seen for miles…." He glanced at the two mares in the corner. "…. Institute marshal law… there's going to be a lot of panicked ponies… we can't afford to lose control now…." Her throat felt so dry. "What about… her?…." He motioned to the motionless student that lay in the princesses' forehooves. She stared at her students remaining glazed over eye; even in death, that madness seemed to stay. "…Place her in the royal mortuary…." Celestia placed her back down, her hooves shaking as she worked herself into a standing position. "And…. Them?…" The captain motioned to the survivors. "Place them under the care of Tendermane…." She began to trip away woodenly with a thousand-yard stare. The captain could only not his head, seeing he was unlikely to get much else out of the princess. Turning his attention back to the two catatonic mares, just as he began to trot closer, a bright flash and heat of teleportation was felt behind him. And more importantly, on the view of the two mares who started to scream in terror, reliving the horror again in their minds, making his job much harder. ——————————————————————— The princess stumbled through the castle's hallways, occasionally dodging rubble the was strewn through the grounds. The shattered stain glass, crumbled marble, and broken walls went unnoticed as she robotically made her way through, only focused on her destination. Even the corpses of the servants and guards went unnoticed by the shell-shocked mare as she approached the royal infirmary. Countless rows of injured ponies lined the chamber, some even having to lay on the floor. She paid them no mind as she approached the large doors, pressing her way inside, seeing Doctor Caduceus, she cleared her throat. "O-oh Princess, my apologies… I'm a bit overwhelmed with the patients…." He quickly bowed his head. "I understand… but I must know… did Nightlight survive?…." Her voice was horse and dry. "M-miraculously yes… I had to attach a bellows to him… but he's alive…." He seemed to want to say more. "Speak…." She glanced down at him. "Princess… what happened to him?… when he arrived in my care, he looked like an elementary colts dissection project…." Despite what was all around him, that seemed to terrify him the most. "Do unto others…." Celestia mumbled under her breath, pushing past him. "P-Princess, wait! He needs to res-"One look at the princesses face caused him to lose all color and silence his protest. Turning her head back to the door, she pushed her way inside, the stench of vinegar and bile filling her nose. Locking the door behind her, she approached the veiled hospital bed, the soft creaks of the magical bellows reaching her ears. She stopped just short of touching the Mosquito netting, gazing down at the bandaged stallion below. Faint tinges of red just peaking out of the stark white cloth which encapsulated him like a mummy. "Nightlight?…" Her voice was monotone as she watched the stallion stir. His eyes just barely opening. Just as the bellows began their downstroke, he spoke. "P-Princess?…" it was scarcely a whimper out of his lips. "Twilight said some things…." She looked deathly serious at him. "T-Twilight? P-Princess, please tell me…." He was cut off as the bellows began to refill, only continuing when they pumped the air into him. "M-My filly is alright…." "She's dead…." She gazed away from him, staring blankly at the nearby wall. "N-no… I-it can't be… she's just…." He gasped, waiting for the air to fill his lungs. "C-confused…" "There's no mistaking it… she died in my hooves…." She slowly looked back down. "Tell me… when I found you strapped to that desk… with her looming over you… what did she mean by… Do unto others?…." "W-we had an… argument… I-it just got a little… h-heated!" He gasped before moaning in pain, just talking, causing the pain wrenching his body to worsen. "An argument about what?… what happened down there?" She pressed down on the bellows stopping it for a moment. Pushing her head through the netting until she was nearly faced to face with him. "Lie to me… and your daughter and the hundreds of ponies she killed won't be the only things on my conscience." Celestia rarely saw fear in the eyes of her subjects, even fewer that she had caused. The stallion's pupils shrunk to pinpricks as he gasped weakly for air. Releasing the bellows, she allowed him to breathe once more. "T-the vivisections…" He struggled to gasp out. "You mean dissections…." Her stomach began to twist. "N-no, I don't…." He wheezed out. "You… operated on living subjects?… that wasn't what we agreed too… but as long as you used anesth-" "We didn't…." She took a step back. "W-what?.. why in the name of Faust would you operate on conscious subjects!" She struggled to control her volume glancing at the door behind her. Thankfully it seemed no pony had heard her outburst. "T-the shortages… we couldn't stop… our work… and living subjects are more valuable… for research…." Hearing that made the princess feel sick to her stomach. "The results pushed our understanding of biology ahead d-decades…." "Results?… what… what kind of results could you find in living conscious subjects that you couldn't find in unconscious or, for Faust sakes, dead ones?!" She said in a just short of screaming. "…we were running out of options and ideas… we used anesthesia at first… but as years went on shipments became increasingly rare until… well… we hadn't gotten a new shipment in months … we scarcely had enough to treat a toothache… let alone put a creature under…." The bellows made it painfully slow, which only seemed to twist the knife in the princesses heart further. "So… we… stopped using them…. You said we had to explore every avenue… I-I followed your orders to the letter…." "H-how many died…." She stared into his eyes. "I lost count after 30… some died on the table… others from infection… some just… killed themselves rather than go through it again…." "I was told they were returned to their homelands safely…." The princess said quietly. "W-we did… but sometimes… it was just… there remains…" He avoided eye contact. "The furnace…" She said in realization. "Y-yes… healing magic doesn't work on… the dead… so cremation was the only option to maintain secrecy…." He gasped and groaned. "With… all the disasters in Equestria… I-it wasn't hard to come up with cover stories… p-placing them among the obituary's…." "I have one final question… your honesty is not asked of… it's commanded from you…." She began to harden her heart. "Y-yes, Princess…." "Can you fix the hybridization problem?…" She said it, her eyes burrowing into his. "I-I… c-can… I…" Tears began to leak out of his bloodshot eyes. "I-I can't even save my own daughter! I can't! T-this it's beyond me! It beyond all my colleagues." He gasped and choked on his own breath. "I-I was studying the breeding populations of puckwudgies before all this! T-then you say you need my expertise to save all of Equestria?! I-I'm n-not a hero, I-I'm just a stallion who applied for the easiest research grant!…." The tears soaked the bandages around his eyes. "W-we're racing in a marathon a-against extinction, but we were late and don't even have a map of the course! T-the gaps in our knowledge are too great! I-I thought we could fill them in time… b-but the more we learned t-the more we realized we were missing!…." She watched the stallion break down into painful sobs, his body shuttering from the pain. At that point, the hollowness in her heart began to re-emerge; she felt so cold. "I see… Then I see no point in trial…." She pressed her hoof down on the bellows. The stallion's eyes widened as he struggled to breathe. "Y-you p-promised… y-you…." "I didn't say I wouldn't kill you for telling the truth…." She forced herself to watch as he began to convulse on the bed, the red stains on his bandages only becoming more visible as he tore open his stitches… but as quickly as it started, it ended. It took less than a minute before he passed. Raising her hoof from the bellows, she allowed it to rise again. "I'll make sure your wife is comfortable…." Turning her back to the dead pony, she left him alone. ——————————————————————— Her walk through the ruined grand halls of her palace was a blur; even the moans of the injured and dying didn't seem to reach her. Entering the sitting room, she glanced around; it was so eerie, the palace was crumbling around her, a massive hole was blasted through the day courts floors… and yet this place remained as untouched as ever. Turning her attention back to the shelf, she opened the hidden passage and began her descent into the bowels of her city. As the gate slid out of her way, she was greeted with numerous ponies in smocks working to clean the grizzly scene. While they worked by lantern light, the sun had just begun to shine through the gaping hole in the ceiling. She didn't bother to ask about their progress instead of turning into the dungeons. However, before she even approached Giffords cell, she turned down another hallway, reaching a heavy wooden door. Pausing, she stared at it before carefully pushing it open, revealing a massive furnace on the far side. The iron behemoths grate even now glowed with an off orange color, as the enchantments kept it lit, even after the battle had shaken the city. Slipping in, she glanced at a rusted metal gurney near the large grate. Pushing it out of the way, she grasped the handle with her magic and slowly opened it. The flames just leaking out, almost looking like the tongues of a hungry beast. For the briefest moment, she swore she could see a charred skull peaking through the flames, staring at her with empty sockets. Slamming it shut, she clutched her chest, attempting to calm herself. Closing her eyes once again, she steadied herself, exiting the room and making her way back to the dungeons. Opening her eyes, she first saw Gifford sitting in his cell, his usually stern gaze covered by an improvised veil, while solemnly ringing a pair of spoons like a bell. Under the fabric covering his face, she could just make out his beak moving in silent prayer. He didn't seem to acknowledge her as she passed, too focused on his ritual. Skystreak seemed as comatose as he was before… but tears seemed to leak from his eyes. While maintaining the blank look that disturbed her to her core. Even the Diamond dogs seemed to be mourning bizarrely, staking loose stones in their cells to precarious heights before clasping their paws together and preying. Enraptured with repeating the process, though, for what reason, she couldn't hope to understand. Reaching the vault, she opened the door; it seemed to have remained unlocked during all this madness. For a brief moment, she feared he had escaped, but as she pressed her way in, she saw him in his enclosure. Resting at his table as he sipped from a crystal glass with a look melancholy. Approaching the enclosure, she ripped it open, grabbed his robes with her magic, and roughly pulled him from his seat. Levitating him before her, he showed little response as he held his glass, which only made her blood boil. Before anything could be said, her hoof flew to his chest… and gore flew out his back. Roaring, she threw him down to the floors watching his gasp and croak as maroon substance poured from his chest and back. Looking down, she stared at her foreleg, the pristine fur stained with his vitriol. For a moment, she seemed horrified… before rage overtook her; screaming, she straddled the man and began to see red. Her tarnished golden slippers tore flesh and smashed bone. The creature's face steadily caved in as her herculean strength destroyed in his face. Only once it was reduced to grisly mess on the Zebra can rug did she stop, shaking as she looked up from his corpse. Her gaze stops at the nearby mirror, seeing her barrel and face covered in vermillion. She just froze, seemingly incapable of processing what she saw. It was hard to know how long she sat like that, but she eventually looked back down at her victim. Bits of bone and flesh slowly rolling from their resting places as they began to resemble like a twisted jigsaw puzzle. Pulling herself from his body, she sat just to the left of him, watching bits of grey matter reconnect. Before bits of skull began to cover it, fusing back together. Soon the flesh started to stretch back over, having a deathly pale hue. Glancing back down at his chest, his heart slowly grow back. Watching in morbid fascination as it reassembled and grew before her eyes. Thump…. Thump….. thump… she watched it twitch as it began to pump once again. Slowly his eyes opened, grey glazed over irises having replaced his once emerald eyes. "You done?…" his voice hoarse but lacking emotion. "I-it's that all you have to say?… I killed you…." She looked down at him, devastation covering her face. "You know… your little pony's opened me up so many times… I died on the table over and over… only to be dragged back from the abyss, again and again. At this point… it's lost all meaning to me…." Coughing, he turned his head over to her. "Tell me… can you even imagine waking up… watching aliens pull out your heart and lungs… holding them before your face while they talked shop… teasing you like lab rat… do you know that kind of humiliation… that dehumanization?" "Ponies died because of you, innocent ponies!" She yelled, unable to control herself, the stress from everything weighing her down. "That… wasn't my intention… or my fault." He glanced at the shattered glass, the rich wine lost in the fibers of the carpets. "Your intention?…" "I won't deny, I wanted to kill your scholars… with all they've done… can you say they didn't deserve it?" He stared up at the ceiling. "Looking at you… you killed someone today, didn't you… from the ruckus I heard... I can guess who…." "She's dead because of your actions…." She snorted. "She was always a hairs breath from madness… the moment she walked in here… I saw how close she was to the cliff. I didn't even push her; I just refused to let her play the blame game…." "The blame game?… that's what you call it?…." She looked sickened by how he could be so callous. "She blamed me for what happened to her friendships; when she poisoned them for you, she began her own destruction long before I met her…." He looked back to his killer. "Heh… I was right… you asked her, didn't you?…" "The elements have a lot of sway… ponies were hesitant to go to fertility clinics." She exhaled tiredly, but the bitter taste makes her ill. "You knew she would never refuse, and she would dog her friends into submission. Did you even think of the potential consequences? A mare doesn't get to that point unless they already had issues, her friends kept her grounded, but did you consider what happens when she was inevitably alone? How much did you make her sacrifice… for you." He slowly sat up, his spine cracking unnaturally, still unfinished healing properly. "You expect me to believe the great savior you needed just showed up at your doorstep? That the ponies needed to power the elements just happened to all be in a podunk town a few decades ago was barely on the map?" Celestia looked at the far wall. "I did it for my country and my ponies." "How many times do you have to say that before it loses meaning, when it stops being an excuse and becomes just a reflex?" She didn't respond, instead changing the subject. "If I let you go… what would you do?" Unaffected by the change, he looked back at her. "Go with the dogs… there's nothing here for me but death…." "You were determined to kill those who wronged you… how do I know you won't come back for me?" "I told you the answer to that." He looked annoyed. "How can I trust that? Is that truly the only reason? My suffering?" She pressed. He shook his head gazed up at the ceiling. "I did promise Luna, she's turned her back on you, but you're still her sister. She doesn't want you dead, even if she can't stand to look at you." "You expect me to believe she has so much sway with you?" "Who do you think comforted me during my first years of isolation? When they poked and prodded me like a guinea pig, and when you denied me my mortality?" He struggled to his feet. "You took my humanity… who else could ever hope to understand what it's like to not even be considered a person? That's the one thing I have left, someone who understands…." "What would letting you go accomplish?" "For you, not much… maybe one less enemy, but you've already dug your grave. You don't have enough non-ponies to hold hostage; even then, they say it's a war to get their people back. But we both know what this is… what it really is." He gave her a look that reminded her of a blood-sucking banker. "What is this really, then?" The emptiness returned to her like a tide. "The biggest land grab in history… what all those nations need, you have in spades. Arable land, freshwater, minerals, trade routes, infrastructure, magical artifacts, the list goes on." He stretched out his arms. "They feared your power, but now they know you're on borrowed time. They can't afford to wait for you all to perish when so many others desperately need it. Anyone who hesitates risks losing out on a real future." "A future built on the corpses of my ponies…." She sounded disgusted. "Your little scholars were happy to build it on the corpses of others; the history of empires follows that pattern. But it's always different when the empire finds itself being added to mortar while another ascends." He stared back. "Put as much makeup on it as you like. Equestria isn't any different. All you can hope is enough is found to justify adding it to the history books." Celestia seemed to be in deep thought before trotting away. Leaving Aaron behind her as he limped back to his painting, peering at it. Sighing, he grasped his palette and got back to work, slowly pouring a bit more white onto it. Before he began to dip his brush into the paint starting to make small strokes onto the canvas. ——————————————————————— Celestia stepped to her balcony and looked over Canterlot. The city was in ruins from her student's rampage; just how many had died, she couldn't be certain. But it seemed the death toll only rose by the hour as they dug her subjects from the rubble. A sickening stench of death reached even to grand overlook. No doubt it would remain for quite some time, which did little to lighten the increasingly dark mood. Shaking her head, she stepped away from the balcony, making her way back to her desk, seeing the ancient desk crushed under diplomatic pouches. Equestria's Embassies worldwide were forced to close under the best of circumstances; under the worst… they had to evacuate. Approaching the desk, she stared at the broken seals; she had read over all of them. These final reports all signaled to one thing, the very thing she feared… war. Using her magic, she swept them aside, pulling out fresh parchment and ink she began to write. Millennia of practice allowed her to finish it within moments, despite the seriousness of the contents. Rolling it closed, she stamped hot wax onto the paper, lifting it carefully in her magic rang the service bell. Waiting a few moments, she eventually heard the heavy hoofsteps of a guard. "This is a high priority message to the Kingdoms Diamondia and Fluoritia… send our fastest scout." "B-but Princess! They're preparing for invasion!" The guard was obviously concerned. Celestia stared down at him; she knew why he was so apprehensive. While many rattled their swords and paced the borders, they were the first and only to actually kill ponies so far. Their cannons brought fear to many, but for as long as even she could remember, they had always pointed them at each other. "Which is why this message is of vital importance." She steeled her eyes. "I… yes Princess, I'll give it to Pound Cake; he's our best flier…." He bowed his head, quickly taking the scroll into his mouth and retreating from her presence. "What hath I wrought…." She looked at the ruins of her capital, the fires had been put out, but the smoke had yet to clear. Mixing the old smog of the city, only further tarnishing what was once the center of the world.