• Published 29th Aug 2013
  • 2,837 Views, 116 Comments

These Flowers Never Bloom - Cerulean Voice



The Lord of Woe laments his undying existence as the shade guardian of forest Everfree. Here, his tale of creation, love, betrayal and sorrow will be shared: The Chronicles of Woe.

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Maelstrom

With the faces of desertion, far from the grips of time, I have found my home.

That dream, long ago—the one that Starshine had first described to me—lingered in my mind. I should have seen it as a prophecy. I should have been more careful with Luna. No. I should never have blamed her for what happened. She did not decide to be cursed. That wicked spirit of discord was the one responsible.

Vorjhan.

Even to think of his name filled me with disgust. He showed his true colours the day we met him. We were all just too blind to see his intentions. Evil intentions. There was one time, as she returned from a week of adventuring, that Celestia felt compelled to confide some potential dangers to me. The creatures that had plagued my dreams were real. They existed in dark sections of Morrow's forest that no pony had traveled to before, save for Celestia. These creatures thrived in such areas. Horrific, twisted, merged creations of animals that Dimiourgia had created.

Lions crossed with scorpions and bats. Manticore. Lions crossed with eagles. Griffon. Snakes had been combined with chickens. Cockatrice. These particular abominations could turn a creature to stone with a single glare. Not even life forms possessing no sentience were safe. Trees had been crossed with wolves. Timberwolf. Celestia had even seen a gigantic sea serpent, although he, at least, did not appear threatening. It had me incredibly distressed. Why had I been unable to sense any of these muddled "hybrid" creations? Was it Vorjhan's influence that blocked my Earthen abilities?

Celestia elaborated further upon her travels, describing further horrible mutations. There were plants that sought to trap other animals in their newly developed teeth and jaws. Some were simply noxious and would kill if consumed. Others would generate unpredictable ailments for whoever touched them. She'd described a blue flower that she'd accidentally grazed, with the consequence of that leg briefly becoming some other form of hairless appendage with many digits.

There were even other creatures that seemed to not be a combination of already existing animals, but were completely original. Celestia described these as the most terrifying of all: Dragons. Her reports told me they resembled "Large serpents, with enormous bodies and excessively large webbed wings." They had skin much like that of the fish we knew from our stream; a crucially different property being apparent immunity to any blunt impact. They had elongated necks with dangerous-looking spikes all down the length of their spines. But what had even my powerful, self-confident alicorn daughter afraid was their breath. They spewed fire, that which we as a race of equines feared the most. Unrestrained, fire had the power to destroy our meadows, forests and everything in them.

It was because of these revelations that I forbade Celestia from travelling further from home than was necessary. I loved her dearly, so I desired terribly to keep her safe. It seemed silly that I should worry about somepony so powerful, but I refused to take any chances. Especially after she told me that these creatures all appeared to desire flesh rather than fruits.

When I informed Morrow of Celestia’s discoveries, she was disgusted. It was all I could do to convince her not to go gallivanting off into the far reaches of our realm and find Vorjhan herself.

"He's dangerous, Morrow. We cannot confront him. I will not put any of our family at risk."

"Can't you see Ilias? It's because he's dangerous that he must be stopped, or made to see reason. We owe him nothing. The favour he gained from blessing us with Luna, tainted though she may be, pales in comparison to the lives he has otherwise destroyed. Lives he will continue to ruin. He must be stopped!”

"Morrow, the parts of the world that he has twisted are far away from our own. I'm sure he is perfectly fine minding his own business over yonder where he dwells. He poses no threat to us. Let's just leave him alone!"

"I will not stand by idle, with the knowledge that he has tainted my world. It was never his to play with and manipulate. What's to say he won't target us next? We have to talk to him." She would have got up and galloped away then and there, were it not for my next words:

"If you were hurt, or worse, I wouldn't want to live on without you. How would our family feel if you left them behind?"

Morrow's stony gaze softened as she breathed deeply, finally nodding in defeat. “...All right. I get it. Family comes first.” I approached and lovingly nuzzled her, even as I breathed my own sigh of relief. We would not challenge Vorjhan, for we lacked the power to do so. Morrow knew this. It pained me greatly to see her in such a state of turmoil, but less than it would have if something happened to her.

* * * * *

Plunged into darkness by the undertow of the maelstrom.

A day came where I could stand it no longer. Too often had I dreamed of Luna casting the forest into darkness, dreamed of horrific creatures invading our lands to prey upon us... only to realise that it was not Luna herself, but a shade possessing her body. A nightmare. One who would laugh maniacally as the moon went under her control, overtook the sun and never allowed the light of day to reach us again. It was then that I realised Morrow was right. We had to confront Vorjhan.

I did not reach this decision lightly. I will admit that I deeply feared for the herd. Many of them had been born after Vorjhan's brief appearance, and so, they could not understand why we were so grim. Morrow and Celestia comforted the foals and some of the elder ones who could not comprehend our task or why it was necessary. I decided that Luna should remain behind and care for the herd as a surrogate mother, however, she had grown tired of her inability to ease my night terrors. She felt it a personal insult that her image was being manipulated into terrifying me. She promised to give Vorjhan a piece of her mind.

Although I worried for our offspring, in the end I figured that the herd should be able to take care of itself. The pegasi could always flee to the skies, and the unicorns had more than enough magical power to protect themselves. Even the Earth ponies weren't defenseless, for they had proven themselves to be capable of quite vicious kicks. Finally, I entrusted one of our eldest—Star Swirl—with the task of watching over the herd in our absence.

So it came to pass that Morrow, Celestia, Luna and I set out to find Vorjhan and have him answer for the state of the world. I was confident that with our combined power, we would have a chance at making him return the world to a harmonious state.

I could not have been more wrong.