You just kept giving yourself away. A gift to cherish until piece by piece, you were laid before the roots of time.
"Mother! What are you doing?" Celestia cried to Morrow, hoping to break through the terrible power and rage which coursed through her. "Stop and listen to me! You don't want to do this! Let's just go home. Please!" Celestia’s pleas were doomed to fall on deaf ears. Morrow was already lost. I could feel it. My one great love—mother of our herd—my beautiful Rose... consumed by taint and a lust for power that had manifested itself in the worst possible way. My nightmare was coming true.
This is all my fault.
Vorjhan snapped out of his mild state of shock and smirked at Morrow, as her own twisted version of the forest spread throughout his realm. "Well, this is an interesting development isn't it? You foalish little pony. What hope do you have to defy the will of the greatest creation in all the cosmos' history? You cannot hope to stand against me and succeed. For I am chaos!" As Vorjhan spat his venom-filled words, he swelled once more. He snapped his fingers, clearly taking a shot at Morrow.
Nothing happened.
Confused, Vorjhan tried again.
Nothing happened.
Eyes wide, the creature began—for the first time since his creation—to back down, even whimpering a little. "How can this be? Why can't I warp you into a fish out of water, or even dispel your power? What is going on? Nopony overthrows Discord Embodied. Nopony!!!"
Snap!
Snap!
Snap!
Nothing, nothing, nothing.
Truly fearful now, with Morrow approaching him and her dark power flooding through the castle, Vorjhan retreated. "No, how is this possible? How are you stronger than me? Why can''t I affect you? Tell me why!" Morrow, with a simple grin full of sadistic enjoyment, lowered her newly materialised horn directly at Vorjhan.
"I hereby banish you from this realm, as Dimiourgia did before me! As far as my forest spreads, you will not enter! You shall never again set foot in my world!"
A flash of tremendous corrupt power later and Vorjhan had vanished. I would never see him again, but Morrow was not yet finished. She had hardly begun. Unimaginably dark power continued to flow through her. It was the single most terrifying experience of my life. My lover was truly dead now. Consumed by this cursed, forbidden strength that Dimiourgia had told her never to use. It was in that moment I realised my nature sense had returned. Oh, what a comeback it had made! I was overcome with an enormous sense of fear. I and every single creature in the wood trembled as one. Something was terribly wrong.
"Father!" Celestia's voice called to me desperately as she struggled to stand against the overwhelming flow of power which radiated viciously from Morrow. "Help Mother see reason! She doesn't know what she's doing! Make her come back to her senses and cease this insanity. We're all going to die if she is allowed to continue, you know this! Please, Father!" With tears openly flowing from her eyes, my darling daughter Celestia and her beautiful sister Luna came to me and begged me to stop Morrow's wrath. To rescue our beloved mother and lover from her own insanity.
It was the only thing I could not do for them.
* * * * *
You're not desire: you're just a fucking widow, weaving webs among the woods.
"Girls, your mother is lost. There is no hope for her now. All we can do is contain the havoc she is wreaking. I need you two to stand with me and combine your powers to stop her! There is no other way!"
"But, Father—"
"Please, Father—"
"Girls!" As Celestia and Luna flinched, I steeled myself, before delivering my next words: "Trust me, you cannot imagine the pain I feel right now, making this decision, but unless you want the entire world destroyed, you will aid me in stopping Morrow, right now! Make your choice, and I promise I'll find some way to make the burden easier for you to bear. No matter what the cost."
It was all I could truthfully hope to offer them. No point quince-coating the truth when the very world we knew was at stake. At last, reason began to filter through the minds of my young alicorn daughters. Together, they cried their last tears and stood with me. Morrow turned to us, still consumed by her trance. "Oh? What's this? Trying to stop me? Don't you want us to be a family anymore? To rule this glorious world I'm creating at my side?"
"Morrow, you will not achieve anything here! This world you're creating is corrupt and tainted. It's no better than Vorjhan's, if anything, I can feel that it will be worse! If you will not stop willingly, we will do what we must. For all of Equestria." Morrow seemed to falter at my words for just a moment, her conviction wavering. For the briefest moment, I allowed myself to believe that I had gotten through to my love.
The beam of dark power she shot at me was barely deflected. I found myself rooted to the spot, stunned. She tried to kill me… she just tried to kill me. It had taken Celestia and Luna's combined efforts to repel Morrow’s power. The girls descended, coming to land in front of me from their airborne positions. Luna panted with the effort of repelling her attack, while Celestia braced herself. Morrow had made her choice. There was truly only one option left to us. She had to be stopped.
I let my passive magic drain into the young alicorn sisters, so unfairly made to turn on their own mother. Together, they fired a converging beam of pure light and darkness at Morrow, who responded with her own beam of malice. The beams interlocked for a moment, remaining where they were. Then slowly, slowly, the focal point of the beams began to move in Morrow's direction. Morrow looked nonplussed for a moment, before adding more power to her beam. She was at her limits, unable to shut off the rapidly spreading dark forest and divert its energy. Morrow was now a broken dam, which no plug would ever contain. Our only option: dissipate all the water.
As I continued to filter my own power to my daughters, I could see them straining to match Morrow's phenomenal power output. I could feel it growing stronger. If my girls were at their limits, I knew how this would end.
I made my fateful choice.
I called to the life within the forest, all that remained untainted. I summoned it to me from all corners of the world. The strength that Dimiourgia had bestowed upon me was now put to the ultimate test. Many years earlier, she’d warned me about the consequences of abusing her gifts. I knew what was at stake. But I could not let everything we worked for—all that Rose had created—go to waste. Not after forty years. Too many innocent lives depended on my next move.
Every ounce of strength I possessed. Every fiber of my being. They all left me. The pain was... unimaginable. I could feel myself being literally torn apart as I gave all that I had to my fillies. My two perfect, precious fillies. As I watched their beam overpower Morrow's and slowly begin to disintegrate her, I could feel myself sharing her fate. With a final burst of power and an agonised scream, I gave my heart away.
The last I ever saw of my daughters was their tear-streaked faces, as I put every drop of power within me into them. I could feel the essence of life leaving my body, all of the magical power I possessed departing me. With no life force remaining, all of it donated to my daughters, I obliterated myself, even as their combined power obliterated their mother. With my passing through the physical world, I sent out a wish—a simple wish—to my lady Dimiourgia that I desperately hoped she could answer.
Please let my daughters, all of my offspring and all life contained in this world, forget that Morrow or I ever existed.
I locked myself in the heart of the wood, and threw away the key.