Part 1: Chapter 10
I stumbled around the bend of the tall evergreen bush. A pedestal adorned with Strange letters and markings sat in a four way intersection. The pedestal looked as if it once held some large statue but no longer did so. The whole area felt off suddenly. I looked back down the path I had just taken looking for signs of Nympha who was surely trying to find me by now. She had so much energy and could run much faster than I now that she towered over me by half a foot.
I panted trying to regain my breath before heading off again when the strangeness of this place took an upturn. The fur on my back stood up on end.
“Hello puff ball,” said a deep baritone voice. I turned quickly to gain a look at this new comer. The jumble of forms that sat before me could only belong to one creature. “Did you miss me?”
“Only the slightest,” I said quietly. “What honnor brings you to bug me?”
“You wound me. I mean we are practically best buds,” Discord stated. He laughed for a moment. “Or you could say bath buds.”
My previous encounter with Discord came to mind. Taking a bath with a draconequus was not the most pleasant of situations. A rain cloud appeared above me and a set of brushes started to scrub away at my fur for a moment. I grimaced at Discord. The rain and brushes disappeared my fur returning to its slightly damp with sweat state.
“Yes we are clearly best of buds,” I said. “Don’t you normally hang out with Fluttershy or something. Surely she would love a visit from you.”
“Eh, Fluttershy is currently down with a cold and I am being the nice lord of chaos and letting her rest for a few days,” Discord said. “Besides Canterlot seems like the place to be now. And you’re part of the reason why.”
“And why would that be?” I asked. I tried to keep my voice respectful even with my growing frustration. I didn’t want to end up a statue on the pedestal or one of the flowers.
“I can count the number of ponies that will be around long enough to be worth my time on one paw and you are one of them. And further still you have just the best special talent,” Discord stated. “After all what brings more chaos than life itself.”
The flowers around us started dancing and frolicing as a small little diddy played in the air. Each had a smiling face save one who sat in the corner and stared in horror as they all were forced to dance.
“Okay so that just means I am going to have to deal with you periodically stopping by to mess with me for the rest of eternity?”
“Or something like that. But that isn’t the point today since you seem to care oh so much about what the point of things are. Must be a part of your age,” said Discord. His head leaned upside down from above me as he rested on my back weighing almost nothing.
“Yep my weird halfway nine halfway twenty years of age. Oh god I am just the weirdest little thing to you, aren’t I?”
“Don’t think too highly of yourself there short stuff,” Discord scoffed. “I clearly have you beat in weirdness.”
“I wouldn’t even dream of trying to compete with you on that one,” I stated dryly. “So again for what do I owe this pleasure?”
“Oh nothing much I just wanted to meet with you and Nympha and make your day a bit easier. You seem so tired why don’t I take your place for a while and entertain the young queen?” Discord asked.
“You want to play with Nympha?” I asked. This seemed more absurd than the cloud of cotton candy Discord was munching on.
“Of course,” Discord triumphantly stated. “I get two new long term friends today.”
“Why are you suddenly concerned with making friends? I thought the Lord of Chaos was fine with having just one friend,” I stated.
Discord wrung the cotton candy cloud out over his waiting mouth. A shower of chocolate milk came out of the cloud filling his ever increasing mouth. WIth a large swallow that distorted his whole body he smiled at me but for a moment the mask left him.
“I just recently did some thinking and this seems like a good time to get some plans for the future,” Discord stated somberly.
It hit me harder than a brick. He knew Fluttershy would die at some point and wanted friends who would stick around past that, for a long time. I was going to out live nearly everyone I knew. A tear ran down my check. Discord gently wiped the tear away.
“I understand,” I said sadly. “You are welcome to play with us anytime.”
“Splendid,” Discord exclaimed. Fireworks erupted from his back spiraling outward till the exploded into flowers and other wonderful shapes. The noise made me jump and I fought off another panic attack.
“Right no loud noises with you,” Discord stated. “Sorry I forgot.”
Nympha came sputtering around the corner. A look of concern grew on her face as she saw me. I had fallen to the ground. My breathing raced out of control and my heart matched with increased speed. A blurr edged its way around my vision. Nympha’s warmth came again, chasing the demons away.
I stood back up the familiar tint of magenta covering my vision. In front of me stood Nympha staring down the Lord of Chaos. She said, “No hurt Lilac. Bad pony.”
Discord only laughed. Nympha launched herself into the air striking at Discord. She only connected with air as Discord’s body wove out of the way. Discord caught Nympha mid air
“Now, now, no need for that,” Discord stated. He spun her mid air to face him. A bouquet of flowers appeared in Discord’s hand and he proffered them to Nympha. “Here let’s be friends.”
“You bad pony, no friends,” stated Nympha.
“It’s alright Nympha,” I started. “He didn’t mean to hurt me. Just was a bit over exuberant.”
“If say so,” Nympha said. She grabbed the flowers in her mouth and gave Discord a stink eye.
We rode slides made of trees and fought off giant sharks that swam through the ground. Nympha got eaten once but managed to beat the shark from the inside. As we were conducting an orchestra of peones a bright light descended upon us in rapid fashion. Celestia glowing brighter than the sun came crashing into the maze landing on the pedestal cracking it. She was wearing the amulet from Chrysalis.
“Discord, what have I told you about messing with my garden? Do you want to go back on this,” Celestia said as she slammed her hoof down on the pedestal leaving more cracks.
“Only having a bit of fun with the kids,” Discord explained. “Besides this is easy to clean up.”
The garden had been thoroughly torn to shreds by our play. Mostly by the sharks. Discord snapped his fingers and all was right again. Nympha was taking shelter behind Discord barely peeking out at the dimming Celestia.
“Now come on Celestia you’re scaring children. That is my job,” Discord stated.
“Hmph,” Celestia stated. She took off leaving with a large gust. “Don’t mess with my garden again.”
With Celestia gone, Discord turned to us and said, “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the hay this morning. But probably best not to press the issue.”
With a snap the three of us found ourselves next to the entrance of the garden. Lyra and Bon Bon sat on a bench enjoying the bright sun. Both seemed surprised by our sudden appearance and possibly more so by Discord’s.
“We play with Discord,” Nympha said energetically. “Fun, no bad.”
“That’s good, I think,” Lyra stated. She still eyed Discord warily.
“Toodles,” Discord stated. WIth a slight flash of light he winked out of existence.
“More play?” Nympha asked me
“Not yet,” Twilight stated as she walked out of the castle into the gardens. “Lilac has some practice to do first.”
“Really. Now,” I groaned.
“Don’t worry we will keep Nympha busy,” Lyra stated. She motioned Nympha up over to her.
“Okay fine,” I grumbled. I gathered my energy and focused on the spot in front of Twilight. I formed the spell matrix and let me teleport take hold. Pop. I landed just a few inches above the ground landing with a small thud. I felt drained by the small distance traveled.
“Great job,” Twilight stated exuberantly. “Since you are doing so well on Teleporting why don’t we work on something else. How about shield spells?”
“I suck at shield spells,” I exclaimed. “Can we work on something else? Like maybe my come to life spell? I want to know what all I can do with it.”
“Well fine we can work on that but first you should skim the introduction to this,” Twilight stated. She teleported a book to her and levitated it towards me. “This is a book written by the last golem master who graced Canterlot’s halls. He wrote about his craft for future generations to follow in his footsteps, a few have tried but most don’t go far in this field. He is the foundation for our prosthetic limbs, though none are as good as the ones he made himself. I think it will help you learn what you might be able to do with your talents.”
“Okay I’ll give it a read,” I stated. “Have you already read it?”
“Only really just skimmed it is all,” Twilight stated. “Still has some practical uses I want to try out.”
I nodded and flipped to the first page of the book. It was entitled The Manual of Movements. The introduction was finely printed and looked to have been made by hand.
Artificial life has always been the lofty goal of the fine art of golem making. Sadly the soul is always out of grasp of a non-necromancer, as it should be. Still Golems can come to act as close to life as is possible without a soul. More importantly golem making has a number of more practical uses than that lofty goal. Replacing the limbs of an amputee. More efficient flying machines. Automating repetitive tasks. All of these are possible with Facticius Vitathuergy.
I could make Annabelle new legs and maybe a wing as well. Hopefully others had paved the way forward for me. I looked up to Twilight who was staring at me seemingly waiting for me to come to get to this point.
“Has anyone made working fake legs?” I asked. “Or wings?”
“There is a custom made set for a long dead noble that are eighty percent functional but that is the best ever made,” Twilight explained. “And no one ever got wings down. You could be the first.”
“I need to do that for Annabelle,” I stated. “At least I can make one person whole again.”
I used my magic to trim a large section of the grass and gathered it all into an orb. I poured my magic into an idea and kept at it till I was nearly exhausted. Then when I had poured as much as I dared I released the spell. The blades of grass wove together as a wing took shape. The wing started to flap but as the spell completed it’s work the blades started to wilt and fade. The wing fell gently to the ground and I to my knees.
I panted to catch my breath. My hearing was nothing but a buzz and the world around me grew blurry. I pulled my center together and gathered what mana I had left spreading it across my form. My hearing returned. I could tell it had gone quiet.
“Are you alright?” Twilight was asking worriedly. “How many times do I have to tell you stop pushing so much of your mana into spells.”
“Sorry,” I stammered. “I just needed to know where I was. I’ll be fine.”
“You’ll get there with time. You really need to stop pushing yourself to be ready now. There is plenty of time to grow,” stated Twilight. “With that said that was an impressive first try. You really need to get better at making matrixes this may have lasted with one.”
“I just have a hard time coming up with them. You are way better at that than I am,” I complained. I still felt winded. I sat up on my haunches. “I need to know more about wings.”
“Yes you do. That looks more like a bird wing than a pegasus wing.”
“How do they work? That is pegasus wings?”
“They channel ather mana through the feathers to allow for flight with their smaller wings.”
“Do you have any idea how to replicate that?”
“A few but they all would be too heavy for flight. Maybe with a titanium matrix grid. Or cloudstone.”
“Hmm. So much to do still,” I stated. “I wish I could pick this stuff up faster. I always feel so limited.”
“And I think that is because you are comparing yourself to me,” Twilight stated. “Which you shouldn’t. I am the Alicorn of Magic. Of course I am one of the best at magic. You shouldn’t hold yourself to my standards. You are plenty powerful in your own right.”
“I don’t feel good enough.”
“And that is the depression speaking. You are enough. Now enough moping and let’s have some family time before I get torn away to do some other meaningless task by the Princess again.”
We headed over to where Lyra and Bon Bon were sitting with Nympha sandwiched between themselves. The bench was too full with the three of them but none of the occupants seemed to mind the squeeze. Nympha in particular seemed content as her eyes were lazily half closed and she had a big goofy smile on her face.
Twilight summoned a blanket and spread it out on the grass. She stated, “I be right back with lunch.”
Twilight disappeared with a pop and flash of light. I settled down on the blanket and enjoyed the warm sun. It was almost too hot today again. After a bit I closed my eyes to the bright sun which stung a bit.
Lyra asked, “Did you over do it again in magic practice?”
“Maybe,” I stated coyly.
“Twilight is right that you need to learn to not over do it so much,” Lyra said. Her voice was both commanding and sad at the same time. “You have so much potential please don’t squander it because you can’t be patient.”
“Sorry,” I stated quietly. “I’ll try to keep it in mind next time.”
“That’s all I can ask for,” Lyra replied quietly. “The weather is unseasonably nice today.”
Twilight returned with a large pop and a couple of plates floating in her grasp. She laid the plates out in the center of the blanket. Each contained some food item; vegetables, fruit or sandwiches. Twilight stated, “Lunch is served.”
We all dug into the meal. The sandwiches were a variety of flower and cheese, with a mix of types of breads. I selected a cheese one and munched away. The sun’s brightness was the only damper on this otherwise peaceful meal.
“So you have any plans for the rest of the day?” Twilight asked Lyra and Bon Bon. “I have some work to do after this. But doesn’t mean you guys can’t have fun. Maybe a visit to the museum or library?”
“That would be interesting. What do you girls think?” Lyra asked.
“The museum was interesting and fun last time we went. It would be fun to go with you, Lyra,” I stated.
“Museum?” Nympha asked. She looked at me for an answer.
“It’s a place with lots of paintings and statues that depict history,” I explained. “It is a quiet place for looking at pretty things.”
“Oh, so no fun,” Nympha stated matter of factually. “We just play, okay?”
“Maybe the rest of us don’t have the energy to play all day,” Bon Bon explained to Nympha. “But we’ll get some playing in before the end of the day.”
“I have a solution to that, be right back,” Twilight stated. She dashed over to the castle entrance and poked her head inside. She returned with a guard in tow. The guard looked scampy for a castle guard. “This here is Gilded Lance. He is a new recruit. He’ll be Nympha’s play partner for a while.”
“Huray,” Nympha shouted. She stuffed the rest of her sandwich into her mouth swallowing it whole. “We play now?”
“Um, yes, of course,” Gilded Lance stated nervously. “What ever the Princess wants.”
“We play tag you’re it,” Nympha shouted as she bursted off down the path further into the garden. Gilded Lance followed as quickly as he could with his armor.
“Is it alright to get a guard to do that?” Lyra asked. “Wasn’t he busy, I don’t know, guarding things?”
“They always station new recruits at the garden and Shining likes to give them weird orders to keep them on their toes. Besides I am a princess and that has some perks, such as being able to order the guards around.” Twilight explained.
“It is easy to forget that you being a princess does mean more than a shiny pair of wings and a castle,” Lyra stated.
“And I like it that way. If everypony started acting stuffy around me like they do with Celestia I think I would go mad,” Twilight stated.
“Well let’s hope that never happens then,” Bon Bon laughed.
I leaned up against Twilight and the heat took me gently to sleep. I woke shaking plesant dreams from my head. Twilight was shaking me awake. I looked up to see her holding a message in her magic and her looking down at me. Concern tinted her eyes.
“Annabelle has woken,” Twilight stated.
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That is what I've been waiting for. I wonder how Annabelle will react to her almost-brother-turned-pony-sister.
Eh. I kind of wonder if the Venom suit of Spiderman fame might have been a type of golem. It wouldn't have had a problem replacing a missing leg or wing. I think.?
Ah, personal growth for Discord, huh? Rather painful one at that.
I think I missed something or forgot it. Why is Lilac going to live forever again?
7434909 Sombra's soul binding. It was never said directly that it made Lilac immortal, but the implications were there. It ties ones life-force to their mana supply, it was said to have made Sombra immortal and it made him unkillable when he had enough mana stored up.
I don't want to sound rude, but wasn't Annabelle's wings fine? If I remember correctly the doctor said there was only superficial damage to the wings. Only her hooved limbs were amputated.
It's good to see this one updating again!
Well, someone make artifical wing for Rainbow Dash in "Cutie Remark" so creation of fully functional limbs are possible.
7578673 I would rather you just left then. I am Trans so I write about Trans characters. If you can't respect that then go away.
7580455
While I don't like the fact that it exists, I have NO PROBLEM with trans AS PEOPLE. Really, it's a minor note for me, and I'm still gonna read as it's a pretty good fic you got going.
... in retrospect, it was stupid of me to comment that at all...
but on the bright side, it was handled really well!
Aside from your grammar and spelling issues (which are easily fixed by having and editor or two go over each chapter after you have completed it) that are likely in part from an autocorrect and are just general mistakes that everyone makes, you've done a fantastic job going so far with this story.
I eagerly await the next chapter, ravenous for more of Lilac and her growing family <3
Oh come one not a cliffhanger. I need my fix
So I read the first story of this series and all caught up on this one, I'm really enjoying this story keep up the good work
please update
is it dead Jim?
8249182
You ever step away from something for so long that when you come back you are like "OMG gonna get back into this" but then you start it up and your like "I can't remember what I was thinking deciding to do it this way". Yeah I feel that way with this story. I love it but I have written enough outside of this that it sort of feels like this needs a rewrite and I don't really know where to start on that. So is it dead? I don't know. I do want to write 50K in July and this has been tugging at my heartstrings for a while.
8252360
I do know the feeling. I hope you remember what you had planned to do then.
8253089
Oh I remember my plans. It was more a god my writing sucks sort of thing.
8258445
Better than mine, best I can do is crap out a poem/ rhyme in a couple of minutes and they tend to be crappy.
Ha! You should see the Science and Technology Museum, if you want to have fun!
How strange... Was Celestia always so aggressiv against Discord?
Or is that Neckless cursed?