Old Family and Older Wars

by Hope

Chapter 3

“Does Luna know?”

Celestia looked away, and Discord had an immediate expression of discomfort.

“You can’t… You’ll have to tell her,” Twilight said firmly, frowning a little.

“You misunderstand,” Celestia said quickly. “She knows, but… has chosen on many occasions to ignore or willfully misinterpret the situation. She’s made it very very clear that she doesn’t want to know.”

Discord took a few steps away, and Celestia sighed, rubbing her eye with one hoof, before looking to Twilight.

“It’s the same reason she hasn’t dealt with any of this, and stuck to her routine. It’s easier for her if she believes that she’s just my sister, not a part of me. It makes the guilt easier to bear. It’s not right, and I promise to you I will try to work on that with her, I want her to be by my side in this as much as you,” Celestia said, as earnest and plaintive as she could be, considering how tired she felt.

Twilight nodded, and backed off a little.

“Ok. So… the next part of your plan is another meeting with this Khorne?”

Celestia nodded, letting her shoulders relax a little. She hadn’t even realized how defensive she was getting, she would have to be careful not to overreact now that the past was being brought up.

“We will need to meet him together as a show of force, and he will want blood, of course. This means he will contrive some way to prompt us into combat. For this reason I’d like to bring Tempest and Cadance.”

Twilight looked up incredulously. “Cadance?! You’re going to take Cadance into combat?”

“She’s focused on it more than you have, Twilight,” Celestia said with a nervous smile. “Leader of a lone nation with no standing army, she trained with Luna and myself for years to ensure that if the Crystal empire ever did return, she would be able to retake it. I’m glad that we did. That massive shield she powered would have fallen much sooner otherwise.”

Twilight tried to blink away her shock. “So… Tempest and Cadance would go with you. Is there any guarantee that Khorne won’t just kill them?”

“Well, yes,” Discord sighed from where he lay draped over the back of a very annoyed looking guard. “Me. I’m the reason. If Celestia passes the, ahem… ‘spark’ back to me, I can quite effectively cause Mr. Bloody Baron a millennia long headache at the least. At the most… Well, I’ll kill him, probably.”

“That’s not our goal,” Celestia said quickly, frowning at Discord. “Killing Khorne would cause instability we cannot afford at this point.”

“If he actually kills either Tempest of Cadance, I. Will. Kill. Him.”

Discord’s neutral emotionless gaze into Celestia’s eyes made Twilight shudder and look away. Discord had never actually hurt or wanted to kill any pony as far as she knew. It was just games and messing with their sense of self. How quickly would she and her friends have failed if he’d been willing to end one of their lives?

“I’m surprised you care so much,” Celestia finally admitted.

“I have my reasons,” Discord said cryptically, looking away again.

“Well then, let’s begin to gather the troops,” Celestia sighed, as she turned and walked away.

---

“It is too bright,” one of the humans said, scowling.

Malal didn’t even glance up from it’s meditation, as the sun began to set by it’s will.

But as the human huffed and turned back to his hut and the other humans, he twitched and fell over dead.

Malal looked at the body, expression unreadable, conflicted.

“Hah! Hah, I finally got you to move!” Discord shouted. “Pathetic, you meditate for thousands of years, you utter asshole, and now! Now I’ve got you to look up! You’re so bothered!”

“That’s not why I’m upset,” Malal said simply, picking up it’s mask from the ground and waving it at Discord. “I figured out what’s wrong.”

Discord hesitated and looked between the dead body and Malal, a bit baffled. “What… was wrong?”

“I am disgusted by their weakness, while at the same time unwilling to improve them,” Malal said, standing and turning the mask to look at the split black and white halves. “I believe I will need to fix this conflict.”

With a quick movement, the mask was snapped in half, and there stood two figures where there had been one. A figure clothed in darkness and mist, and one draped in white and gold.

Slowly, a new celestial body rose from the horizon. The moon, shedding a soft light on the scene, as blue fire grew from Luna’s hands and she stared into Celestia’s eyes.

They were both vaguely humanoid, but without features besides their coloration and half of a mask on each of their heads.

“That’s disgusting,” Discord said, turning green. “How many itty bitty pieces are we going to break ourselves into, hmm?”

“This many,” Luna said firmly, looking between them. “We’ve reached the end of our own improvement. Now we improve them.”

As she looked towards the humans, Celestia sighed, and moved one hand in a grasping motion, as every human on the planet died.

The other two looked to Celestia, confused.

“I do not like them as they are, and I have no desire to fix them. We will start anew.”

“Just like that?!” Luna shouted, stalking closer to her twin.

“Wait, did you… Why?” Discord said weakly, looking out at the rudimentary town, seeming to take in the horror of the deaths more than the other two. “They… They did such wonderful little things.”

“I’ve made the decision,” Celestia said sternly, stepping back. “We will make new races. We will not allow them to direct or communicate with us, and we will let them grow on their own, instead.”

“Ah, well, I suppose as long as you don’t go around killing them all again, then it’ll be fine. Aren’t you the part of us who obsesses over lost energy?!” Luna continued to shout.

“Yes, and they were a dead end,” Celestia huffed. “Any more investment would have been useless. There’s no point in arguing, it’s done.”

“I see,” Luna said, eyes narrowing. “So you’ve decided that the light shall make all the decisions, and not consult the dark. So be it.”

Comments

[Black Hoof]

This looks good!
Will there be any chance of Cadance training Twilight in combat?

[Hope]

10138085
There could be! Celestia has been grooming Twilight for minimal exposure to the dangers of the world outside of Equestria, not to mention the more dangerous universe beyond. As Twilight takes on more of the leadership of Equestria, that tutoring may become a priority, to prevent assassination or other direct attacks.
A certain level of innocence is required in Twilight for Celestia to feel that she truly has none of the chaos and negative influence Celestia has been fighting to avoid.

[Edguy0009]

I am now tracking this as you definitely have my attention.

[Black Hoof]

10138141
I sure would like to see a scene about this.