Redo's and Reckonings: Lost and Found

by Pinnacle Adventures

Chapter 4: Morbid Mortality

Redos and Reckonings: Lost and Found

Chapter 4

The day of the first meeting.

Celestia approached from the east and Sombra from the west. Their eyes locked and never wavered. Coming closer and closer still till their snouts almost touched. Just glaring and hating one another until…

Grrrrrrrrr-
Gruuuuu-

They tried to hold their gazes until Luna and Shady quartz walked up next to them and offered daisy sandwiches. Their eyes danced on the food until they just growled inwardly and ate while shooting daggers at each other between mouthfuls. Consuming bite after bite until their stomachs stopped protesting. They shot looks at their subordinates and it was either Bully or Zippy who knocked first I don’t recall. When they opened the door they got a surprise.

“Zecorro?”

The zebra witch doctor of some renown from the everfree looked stern and quite upset with the duo who knocked on the door. He strode past them and eyed the two once gods that seemed concerned with his approach.

“Which of you two forced the wishes upon her.”

THey looked toward one another, then back to the zebra.

Celestia spoke first, “She offered, there was no forced wish upon any party.”

“And you took that advantage of her, this newborn star. Unsure of her own powers, unsure of her own abilities or the taxes that SELFISH CORRUPTIVE WISHES bring upon herself. Now you have sickened her. She fights for her very existence right now and you have taken that which was once pure and mired it in doubt and fear and hatred and every emotion you thought you had overcome in your own divinity. I should unleash tartarus upon the two of you but that would only upset her more. I would tell you to go, go and never see her again but you have already somehow won her heart… she wishes to speak with you. But dare you even utter a wish to her and I shall cast you out into the spirit realm. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?”

There was no great boom of power to his voice like that which Ellana had, but the pure righteous anger in his tone was enough to cower the once gods now mortals to their core. They nodded in agreement, all six of them, and they were brought inside in single file.

Dusk closed the door behind them as they went down the hall to the largest room the meager residence held. Within was a bed, upon which lay a harshly breathing Ellana who seemed to barely be clinging to life.

Zecorro spoke first, “You speak short and you speak quick, the longer she is around you insufferable dolts the worse she will get. Anypony who has nothing to say leaves now.”

Luna, Shady, Bully, and Zippy all left without a word, but the two once gods remained.

“Mom?... Dad?…”

They looked at Zecorro as her words barely came with a burbling cough of black ooze into a bucket.

“Her mind is clouded, had Dusk not sought me out she would have been snuffed two days ago. I shall spare you the worst of it but before she lost her mind she bade me to bring you two to her. DO not try to speak the truth to her now, this illusion she willingly cast on herself is her soul’s body armor from the fear you put into her.”

Celestia spoke first, “Yes… honey? What is it?”

Ellana breathed heavily, “I’m sorry… sorry i yelled at you and dad at the hospital… I can’t remember what I said but I remember the looks on your faces.” She was crying black tears of anguish, “I didn’t mean it. I’m so sorry I didn't mean it, I didn't mean to say you’re not my parents. I was just so crazy I thought I was a god like the princesses, I thought I could end the war with a flick of my wrist.”

“But you can!” King Sombra spoke up, to the annoyed glare of Zecorro, “Y-you can my dear all you have to do is help the war effort like you wanted to. Just… work together and it will all be over… some day.”

“Dad please, you sound just as insane as I am… don’t tell me you went off your meds too?”

Zecorro kept his glare on the king of shadows for a time as Sombra was struck silent when he saw the opened eyes of Ellana gazing at him. Black as pitch and filled with a pain and fear he knew far too well.

“I-I’m sorry my dear. I didn't mean to… please just get better my sweet, do not let your fear consume you.”

There was a gasp of pain from Celestia, a shout of anguish past her lips as a hoof went to her lips and she said, “I’m sorry Lawdly i can’t… I can’t see our daughter like this, not after what we did to her, i can’t i just CAN’T!”

Celestia fled from the room in an instant, had she the power she would have translocated herself into deep space so she could wail and scream at what she had done to another being, but as it was the living room with her sister to hold her was all she could get.

Sombra didn’t know what to do. He just stood there looking at Ellana in utter disbelief. How did a mythical wishing star become so corrupt, how could he have done something so vile and evil to a being that was purity incarnate. He started gasping and fighting back tears, gritting his teeth as hatred filled him. He watched as Zecorro fed her some disgusting looking concoction that Ellana had to choke down before she vomited up more of that foul smelling misery. He knew what it was, he hated it, he had been at war with the drug cartel that produced that vile substance and now he had inadvertently aided its production. That hatred turned inward and he proclaimed.

“I’ll find the ones who did this to you my sweet,” Zecorro looked at him but Sombra didn’t care, “The ones who convinced you to take that awful drug and I'll bring them to justice i swear it!” He rounded onto Zecorro, “YOu make sure she can stand again or i swear i’m coming back with the full might of my armies, do you understand me!?”

Zecorro looked placid, but ultimately sincerely happy, “I understand my lord, now please, she needs her rest.”

Sombra’s breathing was heavy and angry, but he ultimately left the room and into the living room to confront Celestia about what they had done to something that should have been simple and easy. While they argued Dusk cast a spell of silencing over the room and Zecorro whispered to him as Ellana fell into another deep fever dream filled slumber.

“That went better than i expected.”

“I know. I thought Ellana was mad when she said she needed to make one last wish before the darkness grasped her completely.”

“I doubted her, but I think it will work.” They both looked at the slumbering star that was fighting for her life, “We just have to maintain the illusion else she dies.”

“Speaking of maintaining it, stay with her, I need to drill it home on what we must do now.”

Zecorro nodded and went back to the bedside manner that Ellana required.

Dusk went into the living room, a shouting match of shouting matches taking place as things were being thrown about the room by magic and hoof.

“WHAT I DID!? YOU’RE THE BASTARD THAT WISHED FOR THAT CONCUBINE OF YOURS INTO THIS!”

“OH!? AND YOUR THE ONE THAT SUGGESTED WE CONTROL HER MORE AND HAVE OUR ADVISORS FUCKING BABYSIT HER LIKE SHE WAS A THREAT!!! YOU UNDERSTAND NOTHING YOU VILE BITCH!!!”

Dusk witnessed the two once gods fighting with curse words and hatred. Dusk flared his horn to a triple layer glow and cast a spell of stillness and silence, “ENOUGH!” He shouted as the aura blasted outwards onto the scene, freezing it solid in time.

“The two of you have done enough to her. I thought to entertain the idea that the two of you could still have what you wanted but it's obvious you are not worthy of it in the slightest.” His face grimaced as he felt his own wish fading in his mind but truly it was selfish as well, “The wish is off and it’s not coming back! Now all you get to hope for is that fate makes you gods again! If you are even that lucky! Now I'm going to explain this plainly. She still expects that new home, she still expects Zippy and Bully, her good friends she thinks they are, to come live with us. But you two DO NOT show your faces at ALL until she wants to see you. Do you understand me? We know your mortal, we know we can STOP YOU if we need to and we WILL if you PUSH US. So you’re going to live your lives, THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU’VE DONE, and LEAVE HER ALONE. She’s powerless now, you understand me. You literally stripped her of her powers with your vileness, not metaphorically, or poetically, or in any other way. She is no longer a star. That blackness leaking out of her? It's her power, corrupted, coming out. She’s becoming mortal, and it's going to kill her if we’re not careful.” Dusk had tears in his eyes, “SO if you give a FUCK about anypony but yourselves you won’t show your faces around here again.” Dusk huffed a few times and looked at King Sombra, “I can’t believe I was afraid of you,” then he looked toward Celestia, “And I can’t believe I worshiped you.”

He threw out an accusatory hoof to the door as he faded his spell over them, “Now go… all of you. GO and don’t you dare come back! We killed somepony, we killed a star, something good and pure, and she is never coming back because of all of us!”

There was silence, pure silence, and they left. Celestia in tears and Sombra fuming with burning anger. Dusk slamming the door shut behind them and locking it tight, as he cried openly into his hooves. “All we wanted was for the war to be over… that ALL I WANTED GODS DAMMIT!”

“Dusk.” He looked over his shoulder in fear as Zecorro looked at him warmly.

“It will be fine… her fever is breaking.”

“Oh sweet celesti-... Oh sweet stars above, thank you Zecorro.”

“But there is something you must know.”

Dusk felt a shudder of fear in his spine, but he asked at any rate, “What is that my friend?”

“Some of her power has survived, but it's… cancerous, in nature. If she starts granting wishes again it could grow and… it will kill her, but not just her. It will annihilate the memory of her from every mind she has ever touched. She will not return to the sky with the other stars; she will be gone completely, utterly… and the wish she grants might be the most terrible one conceivable. Dusk… I was not the one to summon her, you were, the original idea was yours, so you make the call… Do we dispel her now, remove her now before she can cause any harm or… or do we risk everything for one being’s happiness.”

Dusk was struck cold, he wasn’t sure, he didn’t know. He thought about everything he could, his mind racing faster than light. Then he felt a pang of warmth in his heart as he thought of every warm smile she had given him over the week they had been together, from the time of her first hayburger to the moments he held onto her when she was at her most sick.

“We take the chance… she earned that much. The war is not over but it's halted so long as the driving forces are mortal. I feel something Zecorro, something I haven't felt in years… Hope… Hope that maybe Equestria can finally have its due peace.”

Zecorro smiled, “Then we shall try, but only we may know about her powers remaining. Watch her, and maybe, just maybe, the corruption will wither, but if she is going to end reality with a foolish wish we must stop her.” He placed a vile of pitch blackness into his hoof, “We must be prepared.”

END OF CHAPTER 4