Chapter 22
Sweet Sauce opened his eyes, and saw another time.
The Castle of the Two Sisters was no longer a ruin of nameless age, moldering in obscurity in a forest overcome by chaos magic. Instead it formed the capital of a great city of Harmony, with thousands of structures packed tightly around it.
He found himself inside a vast laboratory, only one level beneath the surface of the castle. A stairwell led directly into the ceiling of the room above, providing quick access to the kitchens. But this memory had nothing to do with any of the experiments he had conducted there.
He smiled at the familiar smells, the feel of castle stone under his hooves, and the glow of crystal lamps running along the laboratory walls. In the distance, a single figure slaved over a vast spell-diagram, one that wasn't clearly visible to him yet. He knew all of what it said, without needing to see. It was meant to be his life's work, the greatest achievement of ponykind.
Sweet felt the tickle of magic against his mind, and knew exactly what that meant. This illusion was constructed from his own memories—it would not distort the truth, but it also wouldn't omit any of the more painful parts. This would be a harsh but fair judgment, exactly as his oldest sister always delivered.
Sweet glanced to either side, and saw he was not alone. His adopted parents, Vinyl and Octavia, stood not far from him to one side. Celestia and Luna were a little further away, watching events with stiff stoicism. His parents only looked curious—they didn't know just how badly things would go.
Somehow, it was the currently-living ponies that looked out of focus. Sweet could see through them, and would probably have some difficulty if he tried to touch them as well. The ancient stone of his lab remained firm, just as the orange glow of his magic as his old self worked.
It was a towering Alicorn, taller in stature than either of Equestria's diarachs. His horn was shorter and his features more youthful than either of the mature mares, but he was still a stallion.
Without any effort to move, Sweet's vision blurred, and suddenly he was beside the spell-diagram.
This was more than any simple laboratory effort—this spell was carved in steel, with gold poured into the lines. Several glowing crystals surrounded the diagram, each one connected by thaumoconductive wires. At its center the air seemed trapped in a vortex, beyond which no light emerged.
Whenever the little vortex tried to grow larger, lightning arced from one of several crystals, containing it directly at the center. With the spell not yet begun, the construction seemed so... safe. It was a pile of dynamite, waiting to be ignited.
"I don't understand what we're looking at," Octavia said. Her voice echoed and distorted in the lab, seeming out of focus compared to the little scratching of the stallion's quill on a floating pad of paper. "What does this have to do with Sweet Sauce?"
"This is Tellus Mergen," Luna explained. She walked slowly around the circle, a transparent outline that grew increasingly out of focus the further she got. "This was Sweet Sauce."
Sweet's legs shook, and he turned towards the kitchen stairs. Any second now, two ponies would make their way down. He could already hear their hooves on stone. Just don't come. Tell me my experiment is too dangerous. Stop it.
It was too late to warn them now. This was only a memory.
"Okay but like, how?" Vinyl asked. "I know you're a smart kid, but this is an Alicorn. A... prince. Didn't even know those were a thing."
"One was," he whispered. "When I came back to Equestria, I had so little magic to make a body that I... could only manage this. It was worth whatever sacrifice it took to be back in Equestria. I wanted to look like my old self, but I couldn't. That might have taken centuries more."
A pair of older ponies emerged from the steps, looking far grander and more mature than any living Alicorn in Equestria. The mare was taller than Celestia, with a mane like glittering starlight. The stallion dwarfed any in attendance, with a coat like the pockmarked surface of a distant planet, and a short red mane of mixing gasses, like the banded rings of Saturn.
"Tellus,” the stallion said, the first to arrive beside the spell diagram. "Your mother and I have spent the last several hours discussing your proposal. We do not think it would be—"
"Before you answer—" his younger/older self said, dropping the pad of paper he'd been writing with. "I'd like you to consider the potential benefits. At the rate Equestria is expanding, there should be less than a hundred thousand generations before we exhaust the resources of one planet to sustain ourselves, and have to expand. Consider how we could shortcut all those early stages of development if we had populations growing in other realms at the same time.
"We already know populations expand to meet their constraints. So consider a colony sent every year, with an Equus of their own, all linked through portals just like this one. Consider the explosion of art, thaumaturgy, literature, music—"
"It's an amazing idea, Tellus," said Galaxia, resting one leg on his shoulder. "What you're proposing will change everything for Equestria. But that does not mean we need to rush into this. As you say, there is time. Lifetimes beyond our own will pass away. We could devote many generations more to researching this field before we risk any experiment."
She let go, retreating from him. In that moment, Sweet felt the same surge of emotion his older self had. He remembered exactly what it was like to fear the end of his research, silenced before it could reach its true potential.
"Wait!" he said. "I don't actually need both of you to power the spell anymore! I've made some efficiency adjustments to the matrix. You can see here—I just wanted you to see the test, that's all! I can cast the spell myself!"
"Really?" Cosmos circled around to the other side of the diagram, passing directly through the group as he did. His adoptive parents showed no recognition, just stared on as history repeated before their eyes.
The same was not true of his siblings. Celestia watched with a face frozen and emotionless, the same expression she showed to Equestria's Solar Court. The face of a monarch who knew what was about to happen.
Luna had no such restraint. Tears were already streaming down her face, and she quietly wiped them away on the back of her leg. For the three of them, this was more than a memory. They saw the faces of the dead.
"Was it true, what you told them?" Celestia demanded. Her voice echoed just like the others did, tone absolute. "You said you designed the spell for a single caster. Did you tell the truth?"
She would know if he was lying. That would not make his case look any less damning. "No. I knew it might be possible, but I didn't design it that way to start."
His younger self interrupted him, silencing his explanation. "I've already chosen a suitable target," Tellus said, teleporting rapidly around the circle. He pushed each of the crystals onto the diagram one at a time, making the spell glow brighter. As it did, the seed of darkness within expanded in equal measure, pulsing with its own heartbeat.
"Father told you it was too dangerous," Celestia continued. "He told me, before Mother and Father came to confront you. He intended to..." She sniffed. "Create a commission. Study your theories in exhaustive detail, and consider them again in time. You could have had your experiments—you could have achieved whatever mad dream your magic aspired to create, if only you were patient. Do you deny it?"
He shook his head, as tearfully as his sister. "I—I never knew that part. But I know this was my fault. I made a few shortcuts, just to get a demonstration. I wanted to scry a door open—a few seconds at most. Nothing was supposed to happen."
"But it did," Celestia insisted. "I'm sorry you have to witness this, my little ponies. I am sorry my sister is forced to relive it. Yet for the judgment to be fair, you must."
It was as gruesome as Sweet remembered—worse, since this memory constructed the world retroactively, rather than restricted to his own vision at the time. He was powerless to do anything but watch, as his young self made all the same mistakes he'd played over in his head for months before this moment.
"After you banished me, I thought about what I did wrong. Thought that maybe—there were a few variables I could adjust. Better preparations to make, or physical alterations to the diagram. But after the first few years, I gave that up. It was never about whether the spell would work."
But it didn't work this time. The hole expanded, smashing into the crystals he had used to insulate it. What were easily enough to protect such a small opening with three Alicorns were drained dry with just one. The opening in space tore through the ground, devouring stone and spell-diagram alike.
Gravity warped and distorted, causing objects all over the castle to tumble over, and pegasi to crash out of the sky. It didn't reach them in the memory—objects blurred past them, but not fast enough to obscure the moment when Galaxia slipped through the opening, vanishing into the void with one last scream of terror.
Cosmos blasted into Tellus with one strike of his horn, sending him tumbling away from the diagram. Then he turned his power on the runaway singularity, striking into it with the might of a mature, powerful Alicorn.
The singularity collapsed, taking half the lab with it. It ripped a hole in the ceiling, devouring part of the kitchens and the dungeons with it, leaving molten stone dripping from the edges.
A younger Celestia appeared from the top floor, leaning down to stare into the chaos. She found Tellus curled up near the edge of the diagram, weeping incoherently.
"That was not any... easier to witness a second time," Celestia said. Her horn flashed, and memory faded back where it belonged.
It left the group assembled exactly where they had been in Celestia's private dining room—with Sweet Sauce curled up tightly, crying almost exactly as his ancient self had done.
"I deserve my punishment," he said. "I deserve e-everything. If you really... gave me justice, you'd cast that same spell, and throw me in to join them."
He couldn't see the others anymore—could barely hear them through his tears. It was Vinyl's voice who eventually cut through it, standing over him. Her usual confident attitude was gone, replaced with the truer persona Sweet saw backstage, and at home.
"So, uh... Princess. What we just saw—"
"Is taken directly from his memory," Celestia said harshly. "Exactly as he experienced it. I have done nothing to alter what happened. As there are none living who saw the exchange except my brother, we must trust to the reliability of events."
She sniffed, then stood alert. "You must now pronounce judgment. The creature before you is a peerless magical prodigy. Even without a horn of his own, he could easily create spells to kill you and your entire family. He ignored the advice of the scientific community and his own parents, performing dangerous magic anyway.
"He was banished a thousand years to a magicless wasteland, then returned in the form you see before you. If you wish to show him mercy, understand you do so at whatever risk you believe he presents.
"Or admit the danger, and turn him over to me for judgment. He wants it so badly, so I will grant it. An endless, merciful oblivion. The decision is yours."
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interesting
so he paniced about his work being potentialy shut down and did a silly thing... you know this kinda seems like the sort of thing twilight would do
11356267
Yeah, and i hope Celestia will realize that next chapter or something, that would be interesting
...That was kinda underwhelming. Expected him to be more evil. Pay off was not worth the wait.
I mean, yeah, it's horrible, but it's pretty obvious that Celestia is just projecting a ton of hatred onto him for taking away their parents on accident, which reflects worse on her than on him. She's had a thousand years to grieve, and she still gnashes her teeth and wants to kill him? She frames his choice in the worst possible light to influence the 'judgement'? She's the villain.
There's a way to set up and make 'Bitchlestia' compelling, but from what I've read so far, I don't think this will handle it well.
That was it? That was the horrific event that got him banished to another world for centuries? The one that Celestia refuses to forgive him for? The one that makes her think he's an existential threat purely because he's around? I was expecting something along the lines of a reign of terror.
Celestia forgave Luna after Luna deliberately attempted to throw the world into eternal night. Yet she can't forgive Sweet after he accidentally got their parents killed? Not buying it. And then there are lines from the previous chapter like "Every day you ruled with us was another I spent dreading what disaster you would cause next." that imply that he was just apathetic to any harm he caused, and such harm was a frequent occurrence. I could accept lingering animosity, but it's been over a thousand years. Are you really going to let one bad day define someone for eternity? And what happened to make you banish him later? There had to be a period of time in which Sweet ruled Equestria, so what caused Celestia to wake up one day and go, "Y'know what? My brother needs to go."? What made her leap straight to banishment rather than talk it out?
It doesn't help that Cosmos and Galaxia are pretty much just there to be victims. We know next to nothing about them besides they're Celestia's, Luna's, and Sweet's parents, thanks to trying save the event for a surprise, robbing it of a lot of the oomph it needs to work. The dog in John Wick had more personality than they do and I felt sadder when she died.
Not worth the buildup.
ha.....ha.....
Can I add this story to the already large pile of stories that make Celestia an ass to make others look better/sympathetic, or no?
That's it? That can't be all.
If that's really the worst of his crimes, then it looks like 11349318 totally called it.
Honestly, the biggest problem with the flashback is that Tellus was immediately sorry after the accident. If he'd instead gone into denial and obsessed about repeating the experiment in successively more dangerous configurations to try to bring his parents back, then Celestia's concerns about him being an existential threat might've been warranted.
Well, looks like I was wrong. Turns out the story really was heading for a tragic event that's not at all as unforgivable as everyone in the story acts like it is.
I don't think you banished him for a thousand years, Celestia. You lost count. Luna was banished for a thousand years and she was banished after Sweet Sauce was and Luna returned earlier after her thousand-year banishment.
So he had obviously impulsive and thoughtless behaviors. Coupled with his evident penchant for magical experimentation and just enough knowledge and power to run them (though not succeed at them), he was undeniably dangerous.
Dangerous like
Nightmare MoonLuna.The question is not whether he was worse than Luna, it's whether he changed his ways.
Luna learned her lesson; she will never let herself go the way of Nightmare Moon again.
The question is, will Sweet do the same?
Based on his behavior so far, I'm actually not too sure.
Maybe the point of the story up to now has been to show to what lengths he will go to get what he wants, even when seemingly backed into a wall (just like in this memory of the past we saw).
I'm surprised HRH Cellie over here is so quick to be judge, jury and executioner. Not only is it super personal (which makes her a bad judge), the terms of the banishment haven't been established. Was it supposed to be permanent? In that case, he'd technically be violating the terms of his banishment, then again that was over a thousand years ago, presumably laws have changed. Even worse, Luna who's also involved as much as Celestia has been treated like a wallflower for all this mess.
If this doesn't end with Celestia getting the royal dressing-down she so richly deserves, I will have words.
11356375
This, this and this again
I wonder what their parents would think. He made a tragic mistake that resulted in their deaths, but it was something he never intended. And instead of trying to help her younger brother get through the tragic event as a family, she cast him aside and forgot about him.
Yes I'm sure she was in pain too, but I can't imagine how he felt since it was his hand that killed them. Whatever she thought she felt must have been 10 fold for him. I can't get the feeling out of my head that it was more a case of him going against what she told him and not their parents deaths.
She has a serious power trip going on in this AU. Anything that goes against her views would definitely fall under a "must remove immediately" situation.
11356331
Yeah, that's Celestia flat out lying. She threw him in and tossed away the key. She had no intention or method of his return, he just forced it on her.
Turns out Celestia is a Daddy's Girl.
11356331
The Crystal Empire was also gone for more than a millennium. Luna was there when it vanished, and it came back like 2 years after her. I think Tia just uses some generous rounding on these figures.
And yes, Tellus does seem impulsive, and that probably made him dangerous, but this seems way more personal to Celestia than one accident, tragic as it was, can account for.
So Tellus' parents got sucked into a portal and in response Tellus was thrown into a portal? And, having proven that it's possible to work one's way back from being thrown into a portal, and powering it by his singular non-alicorn (human?) self, his punishment is not to search and retrieve his parents but instead to be euthanized?
Seems like a waste of good talent, really.
ok i can conklude this in as so. "celestia what the fuck, you idiotic bitch"
I gotta agree with everyone on this one, that was rather underwhelming. I hope there's more planned in the coming chapters.
11356612
Taking in the previous 21 chapters? Don't hold your breath. This is probably the weakest story Starscribe has written. There's no build up, there's no pay off, there's no dimensional feel to any of the characters. It's been one let down after another and I'm mostly sticking around for the comments at this point.
Welp. That was it. You really messed this one up. Not only is this far more tame then it was built up to be but Celestia is very much still mad about what is literally an accident. Someone even pointed out how he wasn’t immediately banished after this. Why the delayed banishment? Surely he didn’t do anything after or we would have heard about it by now.
Worse still. These parents could still be alive, banished somewhere with no clue how to get back. Well, at least the mother. You made it very unclear what happened to dad. Did he die to the explosion?
There is no way this ends any other way then Sweet Sauce gets let off the hook and Celestia is butt hurt over it.
11356612
I don’t think there is anything else planned. This is what the story was building up to. All that’s left is judgement and maybe spend a few more chapters on a happily ever after
11356375
Giving Celestia a dressing down would be entirely empty.
Luna goes Nightmare Moon, attacks Celestia, tries to take over the country and force eternal night. She comes back from her banishment and gets a "howdy doo, wanna rule together again?".
Tellus makes a mistake, a severe one but definitely a mistake, and Celestia is treating him like he intentionally did some unethical experimentation on children or worse.
It's clear that at this point that Celestia is intentionally being written as terrible to make to make Luna, the forgiving sister, look better while also trying to manipulate us into being sympathetic for Tellus because of how "unfair" Celestia is.
But it's such a clear butchering of her character, one that is an overwhelming cliche within this fanfiction community, that it loses such impact.
It would take an incredible level of subversion of expectations to comeback from this.
Me thinks a lady is being a bit too specific in this statement, and there might be parties present who are bearing a part of the blame.
Going to need to go back and see if he ever directly told Vinyl that part. By that point, he may have mostly given up trying to explain himself.
I mean, swap the pronouns and Celestia could be talking about one of her students.
And yeah, this has nothing to do with justice. This is one sibling holding a grudge against another. It doesn’t matter if it was an accident. He killed her parents. For what is honestly an equally petty reason.
Really, Luna’s the only sibling who’s coming out of this looking even remotely good.
11357711
people change. he looks good now
We all know what's going to happen they're going to forgive him and celestia's just going to have to deal with it
I personally find this to be a pretty believable reveal. I originally thought that probably Sweet Sauce was born a Unicorn and used dark magic to steal the life force of an Earth pony and a Pegasus to become an Alicorn like his sisters, but this works for me as a backstory well enough.
A reckless but honest mistake doesn't have the same weight as other potentials, but if he really loved his parents then I could imagine he could feel this much guilt. Tellus's horn was described as being stumpy along with other signifiers of youth, so it's possible that he's an emotionally imature teenager by immortal standards even if he's a centuries-old magical genius.
Plus, it isn't too far out of character for Celestia to act like this. She canonically is such a control freak that she bets the entire world on her guesses (prophecies) being right multiple times in a row, defaults to millenia-long imprisonments as the first sentence passed, made Twilight immortal without prior knowledge or consent, and forgave Twilight what should be considered multiple felonies of mind-control without any consequence at all.
For as well meaning as she is she's shown to be incredibly self-centered, and trying to give her brother actual death for robbing her of her parents is a very plausible reaction in my opinion.
11359689
Geez, tough crowd.
11362579
A frustrated crowd lol. Don't take it personally.
Wow, Celestia comes out of this looking like a turbo bitch. She effectively sentences her own brother to death for an accident, an accident that her father sacrificed himself to save that very brother from. And then, even more than A THOUSAND YEARS LATER she still wants him dead?