24 - Centrifugal Forced
Ch. 24 - Centrifugal Forced
??? Years Ago
“YOU OWE ME DISCORD. YOU OWE ME!”
Present Day
“So this Discord is the avatar of chaos?”
“Precisely,” Celestia nodded. “Today, he's reformed his evil ways...thanks mostly to our own Fluttershy...”
“Oh, it was nothing,” Fluttershy said softly, blushing. She turned her face away.
Adorable, Painwheel thought on impulse, staring wide-eyed at the Pegasus.
“...but a thousand years ago, Discord was very much the malevolent spirit of disorder,” Celestia continued. “With his great power, it was easy for him to conquer Equestria and warp it in his own senseless image. Luna and I were powerless to stop him.”
“So that's when ya'll got the Elements of Harmony, right Princess?” Applejack said.
“Really powerful magical items,” Fluttershy whispered in Painwheel's ear. The latter nodded, deciding that explanation would suffice.
“Eventually yes,” Celestia said, “but not right away. We didn't even know the Elements existed at the time. As such, we scoured the land, looking for aid. At first, we tried to find the great wizards of Equestria, but, save for Starswirl the Bearded, none remained that were not engulfed by the chaos or driven mad, or both. And Starswirl the Bearded was too busy using his magic to protect his laboratory from Discord's magic to be able to aid us.
“From there, we traveled far North, to the Crystal Empire, where Discord's influence was weak.” Celestia shook her head sadly. “But when we arrived, we found not a idyllic place, but one of tyranny. King Sombra had by that time succumbed to dark magic-induced megalomania, and became the iron-hoofed master atop of kingdom of crystal slaves. We asked anyway, but Sombra considered the troubles of Equestria not his problem, and demanded we leave him forever.” Celestia sighed, looking forlornly into the middle distance.
“Princess?” Twilight asked, eyebrow raised.
“Is something the matter, your majesty?” Rarity said, leaning forward.
“What?” Celestia started, returning from miles away. “Oh, it's nothing...we vowed that, once Equestria was free from Discord, we would return and free the Crystal Ponies.
“From there, we had troubles. We traveled to Zebrica, the Griffin kingdoms, and Saddle Arabia, looking for somepony – anypony or otherwise – who could aid us. One Griffin noble...the Earl of St. Feathersburg, as I recall...offered to rally his armies to retake Equestria, but we declined. Military might had little power against chaos incarnate.
“...any finally, sitting in Saddle Arabia, almost without hope...the subject of the Skull Heart came up...”
Many Years Ago
“WHAT IS THY WISH?”
Celestia stepped forward, looking the flaming heart-skull right in the glowing eye sockets. A shudder ran through her back, seeing it for the first time in so, so long.
“Would...that I couldst wish for the resolution of our blight,” Celestia said, measuring her words with great care. “Would it be so easy that I wish away the mad Draconiquous that rules Equestria. That the chaos tyrant be banished or defeated, or that we possessed the might to topple him.” She looked backwards, motioning to Luna. “My dearest sister would have it thus; have an end of Discord.”
Luna sighed, then shut her eyes, hanging her head.
The white alicorn turned back to the Skull Heart. “Yet...this cannot be so.”
“OH?”
“Verily yes,” Celestia said. “We knowest thy tricks, Skull Heart, thy bitter wage. Thy price for a wish so selfish. Wouldst we not trade one tyrant for another? A King of Chaos for a Queen of the Dead?”
“SURELY THOU SEEKEST SOMETHING, SAGELING, ELSE THOU WOULDST NOT APPEAR HERE. DOST THOU HAVE A DIFFERENT WISH? OR DOST THOU THINKEST THOU WOULD SLAY ME?”
“A wish I have, Skull Heart,” Celestia said, stretching up taller. “But before that, a declaration.”
“SPEAK IT THEN, SAGELING.”
“We...” Celestia swallowed hard. She paused, taking a few deep breaths. Behind her, Luna shuffled on her feet, agitated. But the dark blue alicorn stood firm again. It relieved Celestia. “...I...forgive thee, Skull Heart.”
“...WHAT?”
“I forgive thee for what thou hast done,” Celestia continued, looking resolutely at the artifact. “Our parents, whom we loved, perished in their involvement with thee. For this, I have every cause to hate thee.
“But mine hatred is petty, and ultimately useless,” Celestia continued, cracking a smile for the first time. “It is in thy nature to deal so, just as it is the nature of Discord to sow chaos where he may. I even see the logic by which thou punishes the selfish, though I loath its results. What I want, and what I need, are different fundamentally. In order to have what I need, I must giveth up what I desire...and let go of mine hatred.
“I forgive thee, Skull Heart. And I wish thou to leave.”
…
…
…
“WHAT!?”
Celestia spread her wings, reaching deep within herself. Drew in a great quantity of breath, releasing it in the great, sagely Alicorn Voice, “Skull Heart! In my name, Celestia, I wish thee banished!”
“NO!”
“I wish thee to leave this world, and darken it no more!” She reared up, casting her command upon the cursed item.
“I COULD GIVE THEE ANYTHING! THOU WOULDST WASTE A WISH UPON THIS?”
The wind blew around, kicking up dust everywhere. The flames of the Skull Heart whipped about, as did Celestia's pastel colored hair. He eyes glowed golden bright. “For the good of Equestria, and all living things upon the face of this planet, and all who dwell among the stars and the circles of heaven!”
“NO! PLEASE STOP! DO NOT DO THIS TO ME! I BEG THEE!”
“I WISH THEE GONE, SKULL HEART, NEVER TO RETURN!”
“NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!”
The Skull Heart's blue flames flared up, expanding into an enchanted inferno. The two alicorns staggered back, retreating from the circle of stones.
“CURSE THEE, PONYKIND! CURSE THEE!”
The conflagration contracted suddenly, as the Skull Heart launched into the sky like a rocket. It flew higher and higher, leaving a trail of fire and smoke in its wake. A great cloud of dust spilled out from the launch point, forcing the alicorns to take flight over it.
As they flapped in place, high above the dust, they watched the fireball retreat to the sky. The overcast sky opened above the artifact as it exploded. The great blue sky shone over the dark blue flames, a hundred meters wide. Finally, a bright rainbow erupted from the center, sucking the flames rapidly into it.
In mere seconds, all of the Skull Heart disappeared, leaving not but a clear heavenly roof.
“Has that done it, sister?” Luna called over the rushing winds.
“There is no manner of knowing certainly,” Celestia said, eyes still locked on the sky. After a moment, she sighed, then turned around. She starting flying back.
Luna hurried to follow. “Now what, Celestia? The Skull Heart was our only lead. How wilt we stop Discord now?”
“I don't know, Luna,” Celestia said. She set her sights towards home. “We must simply find another way.”
Present Day
“RRRAAAGH!”
Painwheel jumped up, seizing Princess Celestia by the neck and lifting her off the ground.
“Land sakes!”
“Oh my goodness!”
“Great Heavens!”
“Painwheel!” Twilight shouted, jumping to her hooves. “What do you think you're...?”
“YOU!”
Princess Celestia stared wide-eyed at the human, choking slightly.
“You did it!” Painwheel growled, enraged. “It was you!”
“Ugh...gulp...” Celestia sputtered. A royal hoof touched the wrist of the grasping hand, seeking instinctively for leverage.
“Painwheel! Stop!” Twilight yelled, stepping forward.
The Buar Drive came to life, spinning rapidly and whipping to and fro. The entire group of ponies backed off fearfully.
“She's gone mad, again!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“She's not mad, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said, cowering in the corner. “She's just angry...really, really angry.” A shiver went down the pegasi's spine.
Painwheel released a harsh, guttural growl, her blades stopping. Her eyes, black and red, bored into the alicorn diarch. “Because of you...because of you!” Painwheel barked, lifting the Princess even higher. “My world...everyone who suffered...how I suffered! It was you all along! Because of your wish, the Skullgirls came to my world!”
“Painwheel please!” Rarity screamed, tears running down her face.
“Painwheel, we don't know that for sure!” Twilight said, minding the glittering pinwheel blades and swayed in the library's light. “There might be a million worlds out there with a million Skull Hearts! There's no reasons to think-”
“N-no.”
The room fell silent. Even Painwheel paused, surprised.
Princess Celestia pulled on the human's arm, writhing in her grip. She met Painwheel's eyes with a serious expression. “I make no...ugh...excuses. That my wish...had merely s-sloughed off Equestria's problem on another innocent world was a possibility I knew all too well. But perchance...given the weight of the decision...what would you have a princess do?”
Painwheel scowled, but she remained unsure. “What?”
“Twilight is right...there was no way of knowing...if there were other worlds the Skull Heart would find upon leaving Equestria,” Celestia continued, planting her back feet on the ground and standing. She allowed the human to continued holding her. “Now, it is obvious...what would happen...but hindsight is meaningless to one trapped at the moment of decision, when the weight of responsibility is one her shoulders. I feared that the Skull Heart...would attach itself to another world...but I had my own to consider.
“As we traveled to where the Skull Heart lay, Luna and I...guh...found perhaps a dozen ponies traveling too...refugees from Equestria...seeking the old country...” She gulped, shifting beneath the weary fingers so as to relieve her pained neck. “They all...knew the old stories...that the Skull Heart could grant any wish. Were we to leave the Skull Heart where it lay, somepony else might have called upon it...
“Given the urgency of the moment, the possibility of some unknown third party getting the Skull Heart, and no way of knowing if banishing it would inflict the Skull Heart on another world...” Celestia stared down at Painwheel, locking eyes. “...would you have the strength to choose, as I did...and choose the only right thing you were sure of?”
Painwheel's fingers released the straining neck. She watched the alicorn settle on her haunches again, that snow-white neck displaying not a single actual bruise.
The human fell to her knees, a guilty, horrified look on her face. She clasped her hands over it. Would I choose the right thing? She gasped, shuddering. No, she thought, because I had the chance, and wanted nothing more than to destroy.
Approaching slowly, Celestia placed a hoof gently on Painwheel's shoulder. “Regardless, I'm deeply sorry for what I did,” she said, cooing away the small sobs issuing from the tortured human. “You and your world suffered horribly, for which I am likely to blame. For this, no mere apology can ever be enough.”
“Princess Celestia...” Twilight said nearby, frowning. The others couldn't find anything to say.
For a while Painwheel allowed that subtle contact of hoof to shoulder. Eventually, she rose to her feet, eyes downcast. “I'm...tired...” she mumbled, trudging out of the circle of cushions. Nopony in the group made to follow her.
When she reached the basement, she found Spike downstairs. He hastily fussed with a bed laid out in the middle of the room. “Oh! Painwheel! I've got the spare bed...almost made up,” he said, eyes darting across the disheveled bedspread.
“That's okay...” Painwheel muttered, descending the stairs. “It's fine how it is...I'm just...so tired...” Her feet ached – not that much of her body didn't ache all the time – and she shuffled towards the bed.
“...alright...” Spike said, passing her on the way out, handing her a pillow as he did. “Goodnight, Painwheel!”
Painwheel barely moaned a response as she collapsed on the mattress, face-first. The Buar Drive clattered to the floor, settling propped against the side of the bed.
Upstairs, the group meeting began to dissolve.
“Ugh...ow...hey Fluts, mind if I crash at your place for the night?” Rainbow Dash asked, limping across the room. “Docs said I shouldn't fly for a while. Not that I couldn't, of course...ugh...but you know how those doctors can be...”
“Of course you can stay with me, Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy said, smiling softly. “I'll have Angel Bunny make up the guest bed. I can even make my special oat pancakes for breakfast!”
Nearby, Rarity helped Applejack to the door. She didn't even mind how messy it made her. She'd already resigned herself to needing a full spa appointment the next day anyway. “Applebloom is staying at my home, Applejack, ever since they came in telling me about all this...terrible...disgusting undead business.” She shuddered, sticking out her tongue. “She, Sweetie, and Scootaloo are staying for the night. Don't need anypony, especially fillies, waltzing about at night. Nor seeing the kind of mess that Pain...that got made...”
“Sure, sure, that's fine,” Applejack said, trying not to grunt in pain. Ever since Painwheel showed up, the farmpony became considerably more cognizant of how good she had it, even working the farm. She supposed even what she felt at the moment was chump change by comparison. “Though Ah'd prefer to see her myself before the night's over.”
“I know that feeling,” Rarity chimed, smiling.
Deeper in the library's main room, Twilight was about to have a final word with Princess Celestia. However, a pink party pony popped up behind her.
“Hey Twilight, can I ask you something really quick?” Pinkie Pie said.
“Huh? Sure, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said, taken aback, “what is it?”
“I'm gonna be needing parchment tomorrow,” Pinkie Pie explained, “but I'm sure I don't have enough. Can I borrow some of yours?” She smiled wide in that manner only a pleading Pinkie Pie could.
“Oh? Parchment?” Twilight said, still bewildered. “Yeah, that's fine. There's some in a basket upstairs next to the desk.” She pointed topwards, to the loft where she usually slept, and where she kept her main work desk. “What for, exactly?”
“You'll see!” Pinkie Pie said, forelegs already loaded with a half-dozen rolls of parchment. “Tomorrow! You'll see tomorrow! Bye!” She dashed off, a very sly smile on her face.
Twilight Sparkle gaped, then shook her head. Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie. Returning her attention to the matter at hand, she said, “Princess? Might I have a word?”
“Certainly, Twilight,” Princess Celestia said, finishing off the last drops of tea from her bowl. “You're a Princess yourself. You may always speak to me.”
“With what you said, princess, earlier...” Twilight began, padding the wooden floor nervously, “...do you really think...you were...I mean...that the Skull Heart you banished was the same that ravaged Painwheel's world?”
“I can see this bothers you immensely,” Celestia said, sadly. “You've experienced what Painwheel has, and know the kind of fear such a creature presented to her people.”
Twilight nodded.
“...there is a certain risk that one must always endure, when one is in a position of authority...or responsibility,” Celestia said, stepping closer to Twilight. “You will learn this more as you grow into your role as Princess, but sometimes we make decisions that, by every measure, are completely moral, just, and rational...that turn out to be the wrong choice later on. Or that have unintended, unforeseen consequences. Truly, I do not know if they are the same Skull Heart...
“What I do know is that we cannot become paralyzed with fear, my dearest former student,” Celestia continued, raising her head and looking at the ceiling. “The future, even for those with certain edges on what might occur, is always mysterious. Always open to the unexpected, or the unexpectable. We're limited, even you and I, and have only our principles, our reason, and the wise council of friends to inform our decisions. To make a choice, and it turn out badly in the end, is not a mortal – or immortal – sin. To do nothing for fear of doing wrong is a terrible waste. It helps nothing and nopony. Do you understand?”
“I think so, Princess,” Twilight said, smiling. Considering a few thoughts, she said, “I think the Skull Heart was never in Equestria to begin with, at least when Painwheel arrived. She felt something tug at her when she entered our world, and the Skull Heart was gone from her.”
The Day diarch considered this, nodding. “My wish was strong, I think. 'Leave, and never return'. It might have left Painwheel in order not to violate that rule.” It troubled her that Painwheel apparently carried the Skull Heart in her, but perhaps that explained that feeling she got whenever the human was near.
“But if the Skull Heart was denied entry into our world,” Twilight wondered aloud, “where did it go? And how did it get to Painwheel's world in the first place?”
“Hmm...these are very good questions, Twilight,” Celestia hummed, tapping her chin thoughtfully.
Outside
“Oi!”
A black gloved hand reached out and plucked the flaming heart-skull from the superuniversal void. The Skull Heart betrayed no expression, but seemed to blaze brighter at the familiar touch.
“There you are, Skully!” The woman with the glasses, clad in lingerie and little else, held the Skull Heart to her face. The great mouths on the sides of her torso hummed softly, one licking its chops. “We've been looking everywhere for you. Hey sister! I found it!”
The woman in a habit, with a literal hour glass figure, drifted over. “Good to hear,” she said, facing towards the Skull Heart without showing an eye.
“Skully was right where you said he was,” the other said, holding their prize aloft. “You were smart to check the same place we found him last time.” She tapped her head with a finger, grinning. “We should head back home, tell Mother we got our number one tool back.”
“Someone else is here,” the hourglass woman said, facing over her sister's shoulder.
“Huh?” the mouth woman said, looking over her shoulder as well. “Well this is a surprise. Haven't seen you around here, handsome. Come here often?”
The figure only smiled, bright white teeth peeking behind a sandy complexion and bristling facial hair. “Not often, I suppose,” he chanted, “though more all the times. I've got business with this world, seems fit for crimes, against nature, and man, and more besides. But most of all...”
Arms spread out wide. “...P. Rose sees fit to drop dope rhymes.”
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I hate you, I hate you and I love you. You must write more.
FIRST COMMENT! on chapter 24.
.......I feel like celestia got off a little too lightly...but whatever
4929375 It was a long day. No one was in the mood for a rage beating or elaborate dressing down.
4927806 All writers are, if they are good, at least a little sadistic. In fact, writing is the only profession where making someone miserable is not only accepted, but encouraged by the majority of people.
Venus and Aeon? Ooough (shivers). A whole bunch of shit is about to go down ain't it? Anywho, this chapter definitely shed alot of light on things I was confused about. Also it made be rather giddy, but a question must be answered. If the skullgirls` blood no longer exists in painwheel why are her eyes still red? But that is only a small quandary if any. I must know how do you feel about the character Eliza thats about to come out?
4968172 Painwheel's Skullgirl blood doesn't count as the Skull Heart, only a residual byproduct of it. She's basically the most Skullgirl-y thing in Equestria, and the most there will ever likely be.
I kind of like Eliza. She kind of fits with the Golden Age of Hollywood theme, when it comes to those old Egyptian period piece films, like The Ten Commandments. Eliza brings a different cultural style to the game, and I appreciate that. Personally, I would have preferred to have a different character win that contest, like Umbrella or Annie, but Eliza is fine. I guess.
4970521
You have no idea how badly I wanted Marie to win out that time instead of Eliza. Screw a Skarlet clone, we need the canon story!
What a waste of a wish. Given no limitations, it would be just as easy to wish that it was destroyed. Or to prevent skullgirling, wish the henceforth it would have no influence anywhere.