The Conversion Bureau: Tortured Soul

by The REAL Mister Pkmn

The First Meeting

970 ANM, Canterlot, Equestria

Celestia stared longingly at the moon from her veranda, at the imprint that her sister had left upon it so long ago. She had wondered for centuries if her solution had been the right one. She had wondered if that so-called prophesy had any merit to it. She supposed that she had thirty years left to wait, but the nights had felt longer as of late even though they truly weren’t. She sighed as she looked to a book that she’d been perusing for the last while: a book on portals to other realities. There had been days when she’d debated using the book’s magic, but tonight she really would. She set up the rune circle with care, and shook her head to clear away distracting thoughts as she focused her magic on powering the spell to bridge realities. The golden magic arced through the air as she slowly levitated off the floor. The rune circle spun underneath her as a portal started to open in front of her. It may have been working, but she kept her calm until the portal stabilized. She chanced a look through the portal, and what she saw confused her immensely. It certainly wasn’t anything remotely near what she’d seen in Equestria. Through the portal, she could see a large city. The closest comparison she could make was to Manehattan, but this city was far larger, and was more advanced in technological terms by at least a hundred years. She hesitated for a moment before her curiosity as to what this city had in store won out, and Celestia went through the portal.

As soon as she stepped though, she heard the clanging of the steel of weapons, and the sound of… small cannons? She shook her head, deciding to not worry about that. As she drew closer, she saw that many of the buildings were made of fine metal, but they all bore extensive damage. These impressive structures that tore at the sky were somehow still standing, even with the holes torn right into their sides. Some of the buildings even had pieces of their framework missing, yet they did not fall to the earth. As she drew yet closer still, she found an army of strange bipedal creatures. They looked somewhat like Minotaurs, but they had no fur or horns. They had flatter faces on oval-shaped heads, and legs with only one joint in the middle, and a more oval-like portution at the bottoms. There were at least a million of them, all clad in strangely colored gear fighting a small army of a few thousand ponies, and the ponies were losing. Badly. They could not cope with the brute power of the strange hand-cannons that the creatures had, let alone the other powerful items that Celestia couldn’t even begin to think of how to properly describe, even with the power of magic. Why was this happening? How long had this war been going? What were these strange creatures? As she was about to go onto the battlefield to stop this nonsense, she looked to the center of the battle, and her jaw dropped as she stepped back. There was a strange alteration to these creatures, due to its… unique features. Clad in gray platinum armor, it towered over its fellow creatures at an impressive height of 19’11”. Its legs were like tree trunks, supporting his frame. One half of its skin was pure white, like snow. The other half was pitch black, like an onyx stone. This one somehow looked old, young, and everything in between all at once. The portion of this one that concerned her the most was a dark gray box-shaped locket that was around its neck. It was painted with her Cutie Mark, but it was being pierced by a bloody blade. In its right … paw was a blade, the very same one from the picture on his locket: it looked regal, and to be made of a glass-like metallic substance. However, when it struck the weapon of its opponent, it did not break, chip, or even scuff. Speaking of his opponent, that was the most surprising thing about the whole scene. It was her, or rather, another Celestia; most likely the one from this reality. Her weapon of choice was a warhammer, and flames licked around its edges. She could hardly believe what she was seeing. What was this alteration to these creatures? Why was it fighting another Celestia? What exactly was going on here? And what was with that wall of pink light encroaching and destroying everything it touched?

Celestia broke herself out of her thoughts as the ponies started to throw vials full of purple liquid at the creatures. The creatures scattered, presumably knowing full well what that liquid would do to them should it strike. So, the creatures used evasive maneuvers to not get hit by the strange purple liquid, causing the other Celestia no end of anger. However, the unique creature didn’t avoid the vials, opting to instead just shrug off the fluid like it was a mild irritant, and kept fighting with full vigor. This irked the other Celestia even more, and she charged up her hammer with magic for an attack, but this was her final mistake. The unique creature struck with a swift motion that was almost too quick to see, and the other Celestia cried out as its sword pierced her heart. As the other Celestia died, the wall of light started… retreating, and as it did, all the structures touched by it were rebuilt. As she noticed this, Celestia saw the unique creature look in her direction through its unruly rainbow colored hair. She was locked in place at its hate-filled gaze for what had seemed like forever. Those amber eyes spoke of great suffering and anger, somehow gained over several millennia of living. And all of those millennia of anger was now being leveled at her. The other Celestia broke into ashes as her death wail ended, and the wall of light was no more. The ponies surrendered, and the creatures turned to the odd one, and one of them addressed it. “Sir! What should we do with the ponies?”

It spoke with grace and power as it turned its gaze to the soldier who spoke, maintaining complete authority even as it sheathed its sword. “Spare their lives. We will be lenient to them, to show the extent of our humanity.”

One of the soldiers spoke out against this idea, however. “But Your Majesty sir Tortured! They attacked us! Destroyed our property! Tried to force us into a form not our own! Shouldn’t we be more harsh towards them?”

Said soldier felt squeamish as the now named “Tortured” spoke to him. “No. That would make us no better than that monster, Celestia. We must show that we are willing to forgive, to offer redemption.” He turned to one of his commanders. “Ensure that they are treated fairly. Offer them a choice. They can repair the damage done to our fair city, or be given other community service options. I have other important business to attend to.” Finally regaining her composure, Celestia backed away to get back to the portal, but was stopped by Tortured just shy of reaching the portal. He smirked, clearly enjoying himself. “So another Celestia decides to stop by…” He shook his head as he chuckled ruefully. “I must admit, this is quite surprising. In my mightily long journey through countless realities, constantly being molded into becoming the Tortured Soul, never before has this happened. You have my regards, but…” He sighed as he pointed his sword in her direction, and his eyes bore a fierce gaze. “Any last words, you foul monster?”

Stepping back, Celestia took a deep breath before replying. “I have a small request, actually…” Tortured raised an eyebrow, and motioned for her to continue. “This will require you letting me go back to my universe. If, in the Earth of my reality, I can prove to you that I’m not a monster, I win my life. If I can’t, you can deal with me as you please.”

Regarding her for a moment, Tortured sneered. “Do you think that I haven’t made such a wager before with other Celestias? None have succeeded before, and neither will you!” Tortured smirked as he lowered his sword. “However, I can’t resist a good wager. I can’t wait for your ultimate failure. However, how am I to know that I’ve entered your reality?”

Celestia blinked at that, but smiled gently. “When we meet, the password I’ll give you will be… Torn Heart.”

As Celestia went through the portal, she couldn’t help but feel that she’d somehow met Tortured somewhere before…

Author's Note:

Here it is, at long last! My TCB fic that isn't a crossover! It took longer than expected, but here's the first chapter. It was originally going to be from the perspective of "Tortured Soul" for the majority of the first chapter, but I decided to give main narrator status to the Good Celestia- for this chapter, at least. If you liked/disliked/faved, please tell me why below!

Comments

[hmaf43]

ladies and gentlemen, this shit is real.

recommend all readers to drink koolaid before reading.