//------------------------------//
// 78. Now Ye Reap What Ye Sow (Author SI / TCB-Celestia) 
// Story: Short Shorts 
// by Coranth 
//------------------------------//

"... so, yeah, you've been ponified! Everything's okay now; it's all going to be okay, sweetness and rainbows and all that. Or is it...?"

* * *

"Your first mistake" I intoned softly as I stood in front of Celestia - observing her entrapped within the Quantum Force Field - "was thinking me to be hostile. I'm not; just a bit misanthropic. Don't want friends, don't need them. I would have gladly shared the vast resources and technologies of the Dragon Weyr with you and yours if you'd just treated me kindly--but no. As soon as the word "human" left my lips, you assumed hostility due to outdated beliefs... and then you and your sister cast that damned spell, and turned me into a pony. Do you know what that's like?"

I moved closer to her, peering into her now terrified eyes. She was silent, waiting with bated breath. Turning my gaze from her, I stared into the distance, my body trembling, awash in remembered agony. "I can still feel it, you know..." I murmured, "... in my nightmares. The bones breaking and reforming. The internal organs writhing and twisting. The flesh being reshaped and molded. So painful..." Shaking my head, returning my attention to her, I continued, "With the spell you cast, you desired me to be little more than a simple Earth Pony. The Weyr thought different..."

Lapsing into silence, I looked down at my hooves surrounded by teal-furred fetlocks, then at the rest of my alicorn body; teal fur and wings with brown mane, hazel eyes, legs fitted with standard protoss cybernetic grafts and a horn latticed internally with khaydarin crystal. My cutie mark was, of course, the symbol of the Akilae Tribe. "I could have become your greatest friend, Celestia. I would have given you and your ponies everything. But you ponified me; in doing so you brought about exactly what you feared! You foolish mare. Ponification only changes the body, not the mind within. I am still human. I will always be human. I will adapt to this body and continue on; it's what humans do. I actually have a lot to thank you for - never have I felt better, never have I been stronger - but instead, instead... I think it is time for you to reap what you have sown..."

The gesture of a hoof brought the Holographic Viewscreen to life, displaying the shining city of Canterlot in all its glory--and then... - "My friend... purify Canterlot." - I uttered the words that doomed it. Moments later, the Solar Diarch howled in agony, as the great khaydarin crystal capstone atop the Dragon Weyr discharged itself, releasing its stored energy in the form of an enormous psionic beam, which struck the city and annihilated it. It was there--and then it was little more than absolute ruin... 

Celestia was wilted, broken, jaw dropped, eyes wet with endless tears. Satisfied, I released the force field holding her and then - "You monster, you monster, you monster! All those ponies, you killed them you killedthemall...!" - she was racing towards me, in futile hope of perhaps beating me to death with her bare hooves; so upset was she that she couldn't use her magic. A blast of my latent psionic power knocked her silly, then - "Arrgh!" - I grabbed her painfully by the ear; a sharp smack to her rump got her moving where I wished. I gave her no choice but to follow else I would rip said ear off. "Move!" I snarled. She did.

Deep into the depths of the Weyr I led her, down, down, down, into a specialized area in one of the construct's machine shops. Therein I led her into a room and once inside, she gasped. Wall to wall, towering higher then the pony princess could ever hope to see were stasis cells - hundreds of them - each housing a living pony. "You are in my world now, Princess," I snarled as she looked at them wide-eyed. "Don't believe all you see..." She turned to me, eyes blazing with rage. "I... but... my city's destruction! A trick?" she sputtered.

"Oh, no," I replied, casually, "Canterlot has most definitely been destroyed. Your mistake was believing that the city was full of ponies when it happened. As you can see, that isn't the case..." And it was true - every single resident of  Canterlot, from the youngest colt, to the oldest mare, was here in stasis; even her sister, Luna, was inside a special cell all her own. "As a ruler, you fail, Celestia," I stated coldly. "As such, the Weyr and I are going to take these ponies and your sister; we'll set them up on a brand new planet, rich with resources and opportunity and see how they fare. We shall see if your sister is a better ruler than you."

With that said - even as Celestia now wept bitter tears - I continued, "... And don't worry, there's still plenty of ponies down there for you to rule over. Let's see if you can't do a better job, now, hmm? Maybe you'll learn to clean up your own messes and not rely so heavily on your vaunted Elements of Harmony. Hmm... the ponies of Equestria are the most psychologically broken species to ever develop sentience, and just about every last one of them is due for a break-down at some point in their lives..." I was talking softly to myself, now. 

"There's something in their nature, probably that herd mentality, which makes them prone to fits of fearful panic and wild overreactions." I gazed coldly at the broken Solar Diarch. "Of course, it all might be due to your influence. I want to see if I can correct that; harden them up, have them survive, adapt, mentally evolve as my former species has done. We shall see..." Pulling myself away from these thoughts, I spoke to the Weyr in Khalani. "Recall. Target: Princess Celestia. Destination: Canterlot Ruins." No sooner had the command left my lips than a tear in space-time opened around Celestia and then--a scream escaping her--she fell through it a few meters to land heavily on her side amidst her ruined city, bruised and more than a little disoriented.