These Flowers Never Bloom

by Cerulean Voice

The Well

The whispers, they follow me. Can you hear it? Can you hear it?

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea...

Our last brush with real danger came from a startled timberwolf pack. We happened upon them accidentally, taking refuge under a wide royal oak as it unexpectedly began to snow—then rain, then hail—all repeating in a random pattern. The wolves were fearsome in appearance, but a swift kick from Luna shattered one to pieces. The others backed down, although they still held us in their sights.

"We shall not be easy prey for the likes of you foul creatures. Begone!" Luna bellowed in her ear-shatteringly loud voice. The timberwolves appeared to consider flight, until the alpha wolf howled a defiant challenge. Undaunted by my daughter's battle cry, it lunged for her throat, just in time to cop a face-full of concentrated light; Celestia had mastered the art of solar absorption, demonstrating on her clueless victim. With their pack leader smashed to smithereens, the others finally took the hint and retreated, but not before the leader began reforming. We elected to flee before they could change their collective minds.

Thank Dimiourgia for my daughters—Morrow and I would never have made it if not for them. Even with this small but crucial victory, my fear at the thought of our mission objective only increased, while Morrow simply grew more furious. Her eyes blazed with a fire I had never seen before. There was cold fury in that glance. She could have defeated a cockatrice in a staring match on her own at that point, I believe. Not that I was about to let her take the opportunity.

We came to a stream, a churning, frothing torrent that seemed impassable. Once again I thanked Dimiourgia for Celestia and Luna, who were more than able to carry us over on their backs. When we arrived at an enormous chasm, though, we found we could not utilise the same strategy. Some mysterious force prevented Celly and Luna from breaching the gap. Looking at the bridge, we had no choice. An enchantment of that caliber could only mean that we were close to Vorjhan's poisoned realm. Gritted determination crossed my face as I declared that we cross.

With Celestia taking point, and Luna bringing up the vanguard, we crossed in single file across the rickety bridge connecting the two cliff-faces. Surprisingly, it held all of our weight and gave no sign of strain. I could only assume it was enchanted as well. No sooner had we stepped off the end of the bridge than a deafening ringing sound filled our ears. It was piercing in the worst possible sense. Having no choice but to ignore it, we all pressed on. We soon encountered a magnificent castle of stone and wood before us, that materialised into existence only as we approached it. Twisted stone gargoyles guarded the entrance and I didn't put it past them to spring to life and threaten us. They remained mercifully passive though, so we entered the long hall with a collective deep breath.

* * * * *

This darkness is far too familiar, it's pulling me down. I want out; let me out!

"Welcome, my little ponies. Welcome to my domain of discord!" Vorjhan rolled out a red carpet from where his tongue should have been that came to rest at our hooves. "To what do I owe this magnificent pleasure? It has been a very long time. How are you, Ilias? And you, dear Rose? Oh silly me, that's not your name anymore." Vorjhan chuckled at his own joke, missing the flash of anger behind my eyes. "Ah, I can see you brought your beautiful daughters along on your little vacation. Hello, Celestia! You're looking lovely as always. I've seen you around but you never stopped in to pay me a visit." Vorjhan pouted a little, his lips leaving his face to briefly touch Celestia's muzzle before returning. To her immense credit, she never recoiled from the disgusting act.

"Oh? And who is this dark, gorgeous young thing? Your, or should I say, my little daughter? Princess of the Night, Luna? So glad to finally meet you, dearest!" He moved to kiss Luna, but she was not as tolerant as Celestia. She disappeared in a flash and reappeared next to Morrow, glaring at him with eyes of pure distrust.

"Oh come now, don't be that way, sweetheart," Vorjhan crooned. "I mean no offense. But, if you insist. I can at least pretend to be civil in the presence of royalty. For a little while." Another chuckle escaped him.

"It has indeed been a while, Vorjhan." I stepped forward and addressed the creature of chaos. "First and foremost, I'd like to thank you for the blessing you bestowed upon us. Our Luna is most precious, and you granted not only my wish, but my darling Celestia's as well. We've never been happier as a family since she was born, and for that, I truly do thank you." I gave a slight bow of respect to him, seemingly catching him off-guard.

"Why, it was my absolute pleasure, Ilias!" he declared, returning the bow rather extravagantly. "After all, it was your daughter who released me from that accursed mirror pool after Dimiourgia imprisoned me there. Did you know that I was her very first creation? A prototype, one might call me. She gave me the power to create anything, do anything, even be anything I wanted. She thought it would be fun. I admit, it was for a long time; until she started placing rules upon me, what I could and couldn't do. She insisted that a lot of the things I did didn't make sense. I failed to see any problem. I never did like rules, they're so boring to abide by. Chaos is a wonderful thing, what fun is there in making sense?"

"So she imprisoned you when you failed to listen? That does sound pretty harsh." I sympathised with him for the barest of moments, before I remembered: "Until you consider the fact that you began creating animals and plants that try to eat each other! What kind of cruelty is that? To have an animal suffer an unnatural and premature, painful death, simply at the whim of another who wished to extend its flavor palette?”

Vorjhan's eyebrow raised above his head, floating in mid-air. "Oh? You have a problem with spicing up the world a little, Ilias?"

"I do when it comes at the cost of innocent lives and the horrific fusion of creatures that creates things never supposed to exist!" I took a deep breath and calmed down before proceeding. "It's great to have the power to do anything that you want, but that doesn't mean that you should. Please, Vorjhan, return the animals to their natural state. Return their appetites so that they desire plants, not each other."

Vorjhan sighed audibly and fixed a disapproving gaze upon me. "I'm disappointed in you, Ilias. I had thought you possessed a more open mind than Dimiourgia, to be more understanding. I see now it is not so. Well, let me show you what I had to endure these countless millennia, before Dimiourgia decided to create an inferior being like yourself to replace me!" His eyes glowed and a finger snap later, I found myself drowning in an endless ocean of pitch-dark water—an ocean of emptiness. I panicked. Every movement I made was a struggle to ascend to a surface that never appeared any closer. My lungs burned. My eyes lost all vision. My legs began to grow numb. Pressure caved in on me to the point where I would have welcomed death, anything but this terrible, burning, weighty existence.

The well, so dark and cold.

Comments

[The Princess Rarity]

Not gonna lie, this chapter made me shake and shiver a little.

[JustAnotherTimeLord]

Hmm this makes me almost sad for the Pinkie clones.

[PaulAsaran]

I was expecting to be horrified, but I'm not.

...curious.

I guess that will come later. For now, I'm pleased to see that Vorjhan exists for a reason other than to just be there. I was okay with him existing to just exist, but making him pre-date Ilias and Marrow due to Faust's (oh, excuse me, Dimiourgia's) fallacy is a welcome improvement. It's interesting to note that this reminds me of the creation story of StarCraft and, specifically, how the Zerg were originally created to be the perfect race but ultimately destroyed their own God-like creators.

Now I wonder how long Ilias will be trapped in the Mirror Pool.