//------------------------------// // Memories (Prt.3) Ch.21 // Story: A Time Before // by Blue Turtle //------------------------------// The demon lay lazily askew in it's cave. It didn't want to be bothered. The tall alicorn was tired but could not sleep. Paranoia filled it's thoughts every waking moment. I must stop them from getting here! But what if they plan to kill me!? After all I've done for her! Next time I won't be so lenient. Levier's head will be on my wall next time I see her! The creature hissed. It stood up and the flames of it's body came to life. With that it walked over to it's armor. The golden shell had been sitting in the sun for hours. The creature's horn glowed crimson red and the armor floated over. After a few moments everything but the helmet was on. It was always the helmet that was most difficult to put on. But sooner rather than later it clicked into place. The warm armor felt so nice. And it was much better than sitting in the beautiful sun. Ah yes. Her Sun. The bright sphere in the sky. The polar opposite of the Moon. If it weren't for the Sun everything would be long dead. So they wouldn't kill me. A smirk grew across it's face. They need me to survive this. I could always just turn off the Sun anyways. No matter what they do I will prevail. The creature let out a confident laugh. It danced on it's hooves in excitement. WIth new found confidence it wanted to take off immediately and burn Canterlot to the ground. Turn other kingdoms to ash. All it wanted was to destroy. BUrn the land to nothing but ash. But it'd done enough damage already. It'd be many years before the world would heal; If the tall alicorn was allowed to continue it's path of destruction then what was left might disappear altogether. And Luna wouldn't let that happen. Spark Shower wouldn't let it happen either. Neither would Wing Song or Lily. Nebula stood by them no matter what. From hundreds of feet away they stood and watched it. They'd been watching it for an hour now. "Now." Luna said. Her friends needed nothing else before they sprinted out behind the small hill they hid behind in the dead forest. The creature glared at them through the helmet and it's flames roared with anger. Wind Song backed up. This thing... is Celestia? Nebula reared up on her hindquarters, trying to make herself look bigger than she actually was. The creature laughed. Fear spread across Nebula's face. The Creature reared up and looked almost twice as big. It was terrifying. Nebula put on her brave face and attempted to kick the monster before her. BUt stopped half way through a curled up in agony, screaming in pain. She couldn't even touch Celestia; let alone get close to her. An easy target for the Creature now that the blue unicorn was right in front of her. Just as the creature was about to crush the small mare Luna jumped in front and quickly created a barrier spell. It wouldn't hold forever. "Luna you need to go." Nebula said, holding her hoof on the ground. The burnt skin smelled awful. "No time for that! Spark Shower!" Spark Shower shot down out of the sky and carried Nebula away from the two alicorns. The barrier shattered and Luna jumped back, only inches from the creature's hoof. Luna could feel the heat coming off of it. The creature attempted another strike, Luna just barely dodging again. It struck again this time finally making contact. Luna screamed in pain as the hoof hit her in the neck. Crimson splattered on the ground, while little blue sparks came out of the reforming muscle. Luna glared up at the creature's soulless eyes. It smirked under it's mask. Luna jumped back, a crimson red spell grazing her ears. Wind Song, Lily, Spark Shower were right behind her. She needed to protect them. But what would happen to Tia? Would she come back or be trapped forever within this... this thing? But her friends needed her. She could see their fear. She backed up with her friends, standing next to them. The creature stepped back from it's confident pose. "You... You'd choose them...?" A familiar voice almost said. It was mixed in with the dark demonic voice the creature had. Wind Song swore she saw eyes in the helmet for once. Luna squeezed her eyes shut. I'm sorry sister The elements began to glow brightly and the six ponies rose up. Luna's eyes glowed brightly and a beam of light surrounded the creature. It screamed and roared as it disappeared into the glowing mass. Only the sounds of whirring magic could be heard, trumping all other noise. The Sun quickly rushed down awards across the sky until disappearing. The Moon finally came up. But it wasn't Luna's doing. The six ponies lowered to the ground as the rainbow uncoiled and shot up into the sky. Broken armor laid broken on the ground, only the helmet remained and it had been thrown off. It laid at Lily's hooves. She kicked it away. The grey pegasus next to her sighed sadly. Wind Song extended her wing and pulled him into a hug. Lily gave a mournful look to Nebula. Celestia was their friend. For all they knew she was either dead of a statue. With ash and dust swirling around the it was impossible to tell. But then they heard a cough in the dust cloud. Then another. Immediately Luna's spirits picked up. "Tia?" Luna asked, searching around. She was far too excited to merely sit around and wait for the dust to settle. Just then her sister came into view. The dust stung her eyes but she didn't really care. Luna ran up to hug her sister. Celestia however seemed reluctant. "What's wrong?" Luna asked as another dust cloud swirled around them. "I-I..." Celestia quivered. The lump in her throat stopped her from finishing her sentence. "Tia..." Luna said softly, looking up at her trembling sister. Celestia put her hooves over her head. "I-I... I k-illed so many..." The alicorn barely said. Luna took a moment to think. "But it wasn't you. You never wanted to kill them. Didn't you? You lost control." Luna said, staring deeply into Celestia's eyes. "But it's still me fault! Mother told us not to listen to Aurinko and I did!" The young alicorn's voice raised. Luna looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry... I shouldn't yell. This is my fault. I let you get hurt and some many others... all because I was so selfish." Celestia said, lowering her head to the ground. "If anything that shows me you care." Spark Shower said, coming out from behind Luna while scratching his chin.in deep thought. Celestia blinked. "Yea. You'd be willing to go so far to save someone you care about. Though next time don't turn to ancient demonic beings for help." Lily said, coming through the dust. "Bu-" Celestia tried to say before Nebula shot a glance at her. Celestia swallowed her words. The cool night air wasn't very heavy. Only a few embers were around them now. Nebula lightly touched the burnt skin before wincing in pain. "Allow me." Celestia said, pulling her friend unto her back. Nebula was much heavier than Luna but it was the least she could do. Nebula blinked. Nebula felt a smile pull at her lips. "Aw..." Luna said disappointed. But soon enough she had Wind Song's fluffy pink light blue and purple mane to snuggle up in. Spark Shower wouldn't stop smiling. Finally they were all together again. "Alright. I say we move out before the whole kingdom thinks we all died." Lily said, half joking. Luna nodded and Celestia winced. The very thought of returning ached. "Something wrong Tia?" Luna asked. All on eyes on her, The alicorn and let out a nervous laugh. "No. I'm fine. Just a little nervous..." Celestia said, her eyes slowly moving towards the ground. "Don't worry Tia. I bet we'll come up with something." Spark Shower said optimistically. Nebula nodded. "I suppose we should get going then." Wind Song said in her most elegant voice. Luna giggled on top of the pegasi's shoulders. Lily let out a chuckle and they began the long trek home. It'd taken a few days to finally find Celestia but in mere minute they'd had the real one back. BUt maybe the Celestia they saw was the real Celestia. Lily remembered how often Galaxia or Nebulis would come to check on her. Like they expected if they weren't around her all day everyday for the year something terrible would happen to her. What was Celestia not telling them about alicorns? All she knew was that No.1 They regenerated back from the dead if necessary No.2 They were powerful. Like blow-up-entire-cities-without-batting-an-eye powerful No.3 They were rare. She'd only seen four in her entire life. She hadn't heard of any other alicorns. Ever. That was literally all the knowledge she had. SHe could pour herself over books like Nebula but that would never work for a pony like her. She was an earth pony; Someone who worked with their hooves. Obviously not all earth ponies were like that. But she wasn't one of those. She made candles after all. Or at least that's what she'd been doing with her parents util they... Lily shook her head. She couldn't bare to think about that. She didn't want to think about it. Now she worked in a coffee shop. Coffee was one of those things ponies who either needed or wanted to stay awake. Lily didn't really care for the taste. She thought it was a little overpowering at times. So she'd of course experiment a little bit. Adding in various amounts of milk and sugar. Finally something she could think about. It sounded kind of dumb but why not think about coffee? Not like the others were talking or anything. So yes. She would think about coffee. The smell, the taste, even the cups. Her home was essentially the coffee shop after all. Or as her cousin said The Cafe. She didn't care about the name of the shop though; after all she didn't like spending a whole lot of time there. Her grandparents were nice... but her cousin was almost unbearable. Luscious Mocha wasn't the nicest to Lily. Mocha not only blamed her for their parents' deaths but also for anything and everything that went wrong. We're out of coffee grounds! Maybe you should have, oh I don't know, bought more? Or if Mocha dropped or spilled anything she'd always find a way to blame Lily. The plate fell onto the floor with a loud crash. The customer jumped at the sound. Mocha stood with coffee splattered all over her hooves. She growled at me, yelling and telling me to watch where I was going. I only sighed. I didn't want the customers to feel uncomfortable. After all this was our grandparent's only source of income. With two extra mouths to feed it was the least me and Mocha could do. But she never once complained. She never retorted to Mocha. Now normally she wouldn't let anypony treat her like that. No. She'd never been afraid to tell others they were wrong. But she felt so guilty for having to move into her grandparents' house. They'd been so nice to her and Mocha even though their own children were dead. They never once glared at Lily or Mocha. Even when Mocha would start to yell at her they knew how to calm down her cousin. But when they weren't home Mocha could do whatever she pleased. "Why the heck should you complain? Mrs. I-get-to-play-with-the-princesses!" Mocha barked. "I wasn't complaining! I was asking you for a little help. Lily shouted back. She'd been fed up with Mocha screaming at her all the time. "Sure you did. You just loooove attention! And those two give it to you!" Mocha shouted back. Thankfully the shop had been closed. "They don't just give it me Mocha! I care about them and they care back!" Lily shouted back, stamping her hoof. "Keep telling yourself that. Sooner or later they'll forget you even existed. Can't you see it Lily? They're princesses! And guess what? Now that your oh-so-noble parents are dead they'll toss you out." Mocha's voice took cruel delight in saying. "Shut up! Tia and Luna would never abandon me or Nebula or Spark Shower or Wind Song!" Lily shouted back, but a crack in her voice showed that doubt had begun to creep in. "Wow. You really need work on your grammar." Mocha taunted. Lily's face turned bright red. "Would you just shut up for once!" Lily shouted back, her face still red with anger as well as embarrassment. Lily had never been a really smart pony. She went to school of course--Her parents made her and so did her grandparents when she had the time. Grammar was never one of her strong points. "Yea yea. Big ol' farm gurl can handle 'erself." Mocha snickered. "I am not a farm girl! I'm a gardener for pony's sakes!" Lily shot at Mocha. The creamy colored pony rolled her eyes. "And a candle maker. I get it. You're oh-so-talented." Mocha said with displeasure. "What does that have to do with anything?" Lily said dumbfounded. "Do I need to spell it out for you? You flaunt around showing off how great you are!" Mocha snapped. Lily had never once flaunted. The only time she'd said anything is when she'd tell her grandparents' she was going to meet up with them. It finally dawned on her Mocha always mumbled something at the table. How'd she'd not see that Mocha was jealous? Even envious at times. Lily came to a stop. Lily wasn't very good on picking up how others were feeling. No wonder she'd had never noticed Celestia was slowly drowning in madness. "Idiot".