14. Surge
“I think they both are… Umm.. what was the word again?” Celestia seemed to think for a moment. “I think they are both dead, Mr. Atlas.”
A cold shiver ran down Atlas’ back as he stared blankly at the little filly in front of him.
“Come again?” He asked, not wanting to believe the incredibly despondent and seemingly unaffected filly before him.
“I think they’re dead,” Celestia repeated herself. “But, it’s okay. I can see them everyday.”
Atlas’ thoughts came to a grinding halt as he processed Celestia’s sentence. Whatever she meant by that, Atlas couldn’t picture anything outside of the grotesquely morbid or downright heart wrenching; maybe even both. Pictures of rainbows and cupcakes flashed through his mind, but he immediately banished those absurd thoughts. He sure hoped he wasn’t about to find two bodies somewhere, possibly in the room he hadn’t checked yet.
“What do you mean by, ‘you can see them everyday?” Atlas asked cautiously.
“Oh, I can show you,” Celestia said with a jarringly naive smile on her face.
This whole situation was taking an unlikely turn, and Atlas forgot to pull the brakes beforehand, so now it was hurtling down a cliff towards certain doom. But he was in for it now, and he couldn’t just leave these two poor fillies like this.
“Alright, sure,” Atlas submitted to his fate. “Why not?”
“They’re in the garden! Follow me!” Celestia said excitedly while rushing out of the room.
“Hold on a second!” Atlas called after her causing her to stop and turn around. “What about your sister? Are we just gonna leave her here?”
“Oh, she’ll be fine,” Celestia said. “She’s actually really quiet most of the time, so leaving her alone for a little bit isn’t a big deal.”
“Alright, if you say so…” Atlas said, starting to follow Celestia while shooting one last look at the dark blue filly in the crib.
Celestia lead him back through the hallway and through the living room to the kitchen. He hadn’t been in here yet, but aside from quite a few more astonishing paintings, it looked just like someone would expect a more old timey kitchen to look like. Another door seemed to lead out to the back of the house, where the aforementioned garden was most likely located. As expected, Celestia opened the door by jumping up at the handle, which was incredibly cute, and dashed outside.
Atlas followed close behind, a bit of trepidation growing with every step he took. Any second now he’d see something he really rather not.
“There they are,” Celestia said, pointing ahead towards a patch of flowers that were constantly changing colors. “They look so peaceful.”
Atlas’ eyes followed the direction of Celestia’s hoof until they came to rest on what he assumed was his oldest friend in this world, Vibrant Colors. He stared at her unmoving form for a few seconds before letting out a sigh of relief.
“Hey Celestia?” Atlas asked, his happiness somewhat creeping into his voice.
“Yes?”
“Define for me, the word: death, if you would, please.”
“Daddy told me that when something stops moving completely it means that it’s dead,” Celestia said and beamed at Atlas, since she was sure that she’d gotten the answer right.
Apparently Celestia’s father had wanted to dodge the topic and gave Celestia a few half-assed answers.
“Well, your father is not wrong,” Atlas chuckled. “But in this particular case, the word you’re looking for, is: ‘petrified’.”
“Petrified?” Celestia repeated the word cutely. “What does that mean?”
“It means that something has frozen in place, commonly associated with being turned into stone,” Atlas explained patiently.
And indeed, amidst the patch of flowers were two ponies that had ceased all movement. Thankfully, not to the fact that they were dead, but simply having been turned to stone. Which meant this situation might actually be salvageable. If this was caused by Discord's magic running wild, reversing it would be a simple matter, if not, he’d first have to find the cause and work from there.
“What does ‘associated’ mean?” Celestia asked with a tilted head.
“It means that something is connected to something else,” Atlas explained. “Alright, my turn. Can you tell me when this happened?”
Atlas waved towards the two stone-cold ponies in front of them, one seemingly afraid while the other was glaring at something in the distance.
“I think… two days ago?” Celestia said, her child mind hard at work trying to discern how much time had passed. “Yeah, that seems right. It’s hard to tell, since the sun and the moon are being funny.”
“Yes, they definitely are,” Atlas chuckled, and just as if to prove a point it suddenly shifted to night-time. “Can you tell me any more?”
“Well, we were all outside eating,” Celestia started to recount from memory. “Mommy wanted to try and capture the changing colors of the flowers, since she thought they were beautiful and daddy was playing with me while watching over Luna.”
Looking at the somewhat chaotic flowers, Atlas had to agree that they indeed make for quite the aesthetic addition to the otherwise quaint garden. True to the little fillys story, a toppled canvas was close to the statue of Vibrant.
“All of a sudden daddy got really nervous and told me to take Luna inside,” Celestia continued. “There was some weird chicken running around in the bushes over there,” Celestia pointed towards a couple of bushes in the distance. Close to what seemed to be a small forest. “I only caught a glimpse of it, but it seemed more like a lizard than a chicken. It seemed interesting, but daddy told me to go inside immediately, so I did. I heard him cast some spells behind me, but I just took Luna inside as fast as I could. When I closed the door and looked back outside through the window, they were like this.”
Celestia ended her story by once again pointing towards her motionless parents. The nonchalant way in which she did so clued Atlas off to the fact that she most likely had no idea what was actually happening.
“It’s been kind of boring with them like this,” Celestia said. “I hope they start moving again soon.”
That statement was the final nail in the coffin. Celestia had no clue what being petrified nor being dead meant, which was why she wasn’t sad. In her mind, her parents were probably just playing some sort of game or pulling a prank on her.
“Well, I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to make them move again fairly soon,” Atlas stated confidently. “Your parents were attacked by a cockatrice, and the way to turn them back to normal is rather simple, but might take some time.”
“Really?” Celestia asked. “You can turn them back to normal?”
“Sure can,” Atlas replied happily.
“Oh thank you Mr. Atlas!”
Celestia zoomed over to Atlas’ leg and started hugging it something fierce, melting his heart. True to his word turning back somepony petrified by a cockatrice was rather simple. The only problem was that the actual cockatrice who did the petrifying needed to be present. Hopefully the forest where it came from was its territory and it hadn’t left, or otherwise it could be somewhat problematic or even impossible to track down.
Suddenly, a loud crash could be heard from inside the house, causing the two of them to wheel around and stare into the direction it came from.
“Luna!” Celestia instantly shouted and bolted for the kitchen door.
Atlas wasn’t too far behind and almost barreled over the table in the living room. Celestia had said that it wouldn’t be an issue to leave Luna alone for a little bit, but apparently that didn’t hold true. If something had happened to her, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself for being so careless.
Well, he could probably just heal any injuries she inflicted upon herself, but that wasn’t the point.
A strange glow seemed to emanate from the children's room and Luna could be heard crying loudly, already breaking Atlas’ heart just from hearing the pained squeals. Celestia turned the corner into the room first, followed a split second later by Atlas.
“Luna! Luna! What’s wrong?” Celestia shouted in a panic at seeing her sister.
Atlas took in what was happening as fast as he could, the brightly glowing and floating Luna tipping him off to what was happening.
“Aww, heck,” Atlas said, reacting to minimize the damage Luna’s magical surge would have.
He immediately yanked Celestia away from Luna, maybe a bit more harshly than he would have liked, but time was of the essence now. Once the dazed and confused Celestia was next to him, he threw up a shield before casting several spells that were meant to keep the wild mana in the area under control. Much to his misfortune, his efforts were too little too late, as he noticed the mana reaching a boiling point.
In a last ditch effort, he shot a spell directly at Luna that would protect her from the brunt of what was about to happen.
“Close your eyes Celestia! It’s about to get really bright!” Atlas shouted while pressing his eyes shut.
The command came at the right time, and he really hoped that Celestia had followed it, since in the next second a huge mana explosion lit up the whole room. Due to his shield, they weren’t hurt at all, but he still worried for Luna, who could be heard sniffling once the noise settled down somewhat.
Atlas opened his eyes and immediately zeroed in on the little blue foal, now lying on the ground in front of them. He let out a sigh of relief and dropped his shield once he saw that Luna seemed to be fine aside from needing a warm hug. What worried him slightly more was the fact that now half of the house was apparently completely missing.
Celestia rushed over to her sister, fussing over her and checking for any obvious injuries while Atlas turned around to take in the damage.
Most of the house was actually completely missing, a testament to the power of the mana explosion that just took place. He knew that Celestia and Luna were supposed to be powerful, but this was just ridiculous. The amount of mana needed to pull something like this off was abnormally high for what a foal was supposed to have.
Some pieces of the house were still raining down in the near vicinity and Atlas absentmindedly summoned a blanket shield above them to protect them from accidental injuries. While surveying the surroundings, he caught a glimpse of the color-changing flowers in the garden, making him come to a standstill.
“Oh no…”
He slowly started trotting towards the garden, now unobstructed by any pony-made structures.
“Please, not like this…”
A few seconds later he stood next to the two petrified ponies, or at least, what was left. The yet unnamed father was mostly intact, albeit his head was missing and apparently nowhere closeby. In turn, Vibrant Colors’ statue was neatly broken apart into different pieces. The legs were scattered amongst the flowers, while the tail and the upper body were thrown closer towards the bushes. The head was resting happily on the half finished painting on the ground, making for quite a morbid sight as Atlas remembered what he had read in a book about cockatrices.
There are three ways of un-petrifying a pony that was attacked by a cockatrice. The first, and easiest, is to simply kill the cockatrice responsible for the deed. The second one, which is a bit harder, would be to somehow convince the cockatrice to turn the ponies back by itself. The third, which is not recommended, is to break the statue that was created in the petrification process.
This usually results in heavy injury, or in some cases, death. A pony can remain in a petrified state for about six days without facing any repercussions, so options one or two are heavily recommended, unless impossible.
Atlas looked on in morbid curiosity, as Vibrant’s head was slowly regaining some of it’s color, just as every other part that was strewn about.
“Ahh, fuck...”
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Sister of the year right here ladies and gentlemen, then again it is Celestia.
Ahh fuck indeed.
Rest in pieces...
Why, why would you do such a thing
Well . . . . at least she'll die relatively quickly? Small comfort really . . . .
How does it feel Luna? To have been a factor in your parents' death? To be fair, I can see this setting up to Luna's fall into darkness.
8490500
Except discord... So I picture the head just starts screaming
This is what happens when u leave it sister alone learn from it
Lol you kill off so many of Atlas's friends that this isn't even surprising anymore. I wouldn't be too surprised to have that apple waiter pony show up later so you can kill him off later.
I'm sorry. I wasn't aware this was Game of Thrones...
...Carry on.
Well... I guess if Atlas could reassemble them perfectly fast enough things might work out...
*remembers the Celestia interlude before*
shit.
A summary of my life at this moment.
I see you're using George's preferred method of getting rid of extraneous characters...
i.imgur.com/ADBTaLw.jpg
O_O
WHY!? YOU GAVE US HOPE AND CRUSHED IT IN ONE CHAPTER YOU EVIL BASTARD!
8490639
DITTO *ANGRY-MASKING-CRYING HORSES NOISES*
i suppose the third method made sense, petrification is like a full body enchantment, breaking the object breaks the magics weave
Why?
*Whispers*
'What the fuck...'
...
Orthoros, you better make another chapter soon and explain this...
Just... what... the fuck...
That... well that was kinda fucked up. Was thinken they'd reunite then something would happen to them latter...
MEANWHILE ON THE DIVINE ENTERTAINMENT DISCORD...
i.imgur.com/1X6mWmG.png
She better fucking make it,
Let me reiterate: 8456969
derpicdn.net/img/2016/5/23/1160866/medium.gif
WHHHHHHHHY
You better quickly find a way to fuse the stone pieces together before mother and father become brain dead.
8490809
Cheeky fucks playing with my emotions like this
Oh. You. Absolute. Sadistic. Fucker.
Making us think Vibrant (and hubby) is dead for weeks, getting our hopes up upon seeing she's just petrified, defusing things with cute and naive filly Celestia, then instantly dashing them in an absurdly brutal fashion by blowing them into tiny pieces, leaving us with not only them unknowingly dead at the horn of their daughter, but completely dismembered and rapidly returning to flesh (with all the horrors, gore, and mental trauma associated with fresh completely dismembered parental/best friends corpses.) Fucking hells man, that is some twisted shit. G.R.R. Martin is plainly your idol give how brutally you just screwed your characters, and made your readers hopeful and happy before promptly cutting their smiling heads off and taking a dump down their necks.
What the fuck? Did you have to murder them so brutally? That was... Just no words. Thats Horifying
... *ANGRY NEIGH!* HMMMMMMMMM!
WHY DO YOU BREAK MY HOPE!?!*ANGRY DRUNK NOISE!*....um
oops
jk its chaos magic so shell just be a pile of hopping body parts xddd
well shit . . .
8490481
bet that was what celestia said right before luna went all nightmare moon as well.
Fuck you Murphy... that was a dick move and you know it...
I get what you were going for, but it really just seemed kinda mean spirited. Bringing them kinda back only to fully kill them is very much a sort of "Down low too slow" moment. No real entertainment, as you could have easily gotten the same end result without a convenient and contrived magic surge, as well as an "on screen" character death that lost a lot of its meaning and impact by having it be like this. The way it could have been, with them dying to another cause, could easily help set in a sense of hopelessness and as if it was caused by his negligence. This way it's just "Oh. Fuck you too then I guess."
But that is my opinion and I dunno what went through your head while making it and you're the author so fuckin whatever.
He's gonna prioritize Vibrant. Get her nice and bound together before her statue un-petrifies. The husband gets ignored for the most part, as Atlas has never met the guy.
Please be right. Please. Vibrant doesn't deserve this.
I have read this since his journey started.
Dick move.
Going with the assumption that Atlas will fail to restore Vibrant and her husband, we now have yet another possible reason as to why a disconnect between Celestia and Luna might occur. Celestia, if she figures out that her sisters surge shattered her parents, might be immature enough to blame Luna for it at this point.
I still don't have a full scope for the stage of Celestia's mental development. By the fact that she ran to Luna after the surge ended, I can only hope she knows that Luna isn't to blame for the damage caused by it.
Two different possibilities. Hopefully the first one is incorrect.
Me this chapter:
Nooo, vibrant is dead D:
Oh she's alive, we can save her yayy!
...
Fuck
Stop killing your goddamn characters in bullshit ways you fucking twat! Seriously at this point it’s a complete lack of creativity.
well shit in a hand basket, i don't know if this can get any worse.
8491979
Your tears are delicious haha
All in all, I still love this story and I am eager to see what happens next.
I frown at this potential sad ending, please may there be a twist to this implied deadly ending. Though I do understand that the parents will likely have to die or disappear, given that Celestia and Luna call Atlas "Daddy". Unless... Vibrant is saved but the farther isnt. That would be an awesome twist.
8491365
Could not be more true.
8491979
>implying I was creative at some point
oh gods
Hope he has some mortar nearby.
8492562
You are such a twat. And you know it.
Well, shit. That's bound to put a helluva damper on the siblings relationship. Because it will be a loooong time before Celly gets mature enough to understand what happened... Or stops blaming herself for leaving Luna alone