Lineage

The three of us eagerly headed towards one of the empty houses before freezing in place, hearing a voice inside our heads that none of us recognised.

“I know what you are here to do and I know that you will succeed,” it said in a female voice. “But I wish to speak to you all before you continue. If not to answer your questions, then to ask for some kind of forgiveness for the sorrow my decisions have caused. Please, come and speak to me in the throne room of the palace. I await the five of you eagerly.”

With that, the voice faded away. I turned to look at Twilight and Cadance, the two of them looking as chilled as I was, Cadance opening her mouth to the answer my question before I even got to ask it.

“Yes, I heard that to. And yes, we’re going to go find her,” she said. “And yes, I’m more than prepared for this to be a trap.”

“Fair enough,” I nodded, looking at Twilight who had gained the same expression I had. “Let’s get moving.”

It was easy to find the palace, it being on the lowest floor and the biggest fucking building in the city, adorned with jewels and precious metals, with all of its secrets locked behind an enormous door. Celestia and Luna were already there, the two of them having arrived much sooner than we did with their key fragments in hand.

“I’m assuming you succeeded?” Celestia asked.

“Indeed we did,” Cadance nodded, throwing her mother the final key fragment. “We ran into what I believe was the first attempt to make a God by these people.”

“What was it?” Luna asked.

“A big pile of dragon parts stitched together and semi-reanimated,” Cadance explained. “It functioned properly, but it had rotted away so much in the time it’d been down here that it couldn’t stand up to a fight anymore, not to mention it being made of pieces and parts that weren’t able to replicate a fully-functioning dragon. Though I must give props to my little angel, Richter for some amazing deductive work.”

“Is that so?” Luna asked. “What did you deduce?”

“The first thing we spotted was a burn trail followed by a clawmark in the black ooze the dragon bled,” I said. “The burn trail was something I’d expect out of a Narrowscale or an Canyon Redback, but the clawmark was from a female Coppermaw.”

“Female Coppermaw’s can’t even breathe rot, nevermind spray Narrowscale-size fire blasts,” Luna said.

“Richter informed us of the same thing,” Cadance nodded.

“Well, it’s good to see you paid attention to some of the things I taught you,” Luna nodded. “It’ll make a few things easier.”

“Bringing us back a little bit,” Celestia interjected. “You mentioned the black ooze, the same thing that Richter said Elisa was leaking, right?”

“Yeah, it seems to be a common thing with the bigger players down here,” I nodded. “But I’m wondering if it’s even caused by the Mother at all. I mean, it seems like the pile-o’-parts dragon we dealt with came before the Mother, right? So is the corruption, the ooze, something that existed before the Highmoore made the Mother?”

“I’m not sure,” Celestia said, turning to Twilight. “Did you manage to analyse it?”

“Not down to its exact make-up, but we do know that it’s organic and that it can be killed,” Twilight answered. “Cadance and I were able to sense that much about it.”

“Maybe the ooze is some kind of symbiotic lifeform?” Luna suggested.

“We’ve seen creatures like that before,” Celestia nodded. “You said that the ooze seemed to give Elisa more strength, right?”

“Yeah, it helped her move faster than before,” I said with a nod. “She could barely before before she exploded herself with it.”

“What exactly did she say about it before she died?” Celestia asked.

“She didn’t really go into detail about it,” I said with a shrug. “She just said something about it being ‘the power they condemned us for to begin with’ or something like that.”

“Forbidden power?” Celestia asked, looking at her younger sister. “That’s usually something the gods don’t like because it’s either a rival or an enemy.”

“They do tend to be selfish like that,” Luna nodded. “So we’re theorising that the black ooze is some kind of empowering, divinely-forbidden, symbiotic lifeform then?”

“We’re guessing it’s that,” Twilight agreed. “But I figure that whoever summoned us here will give us answers.

“Or try to kill us,” I shrugged.

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Luna growled, turning her eyes back to Celestia. “Remember Filathrona?”

“Yes,” Celestia growled. “But she had the decency to offer food, wine, and sex before trying to kill us.”

“Which was retracted by her attacking us mid-coitus and forcing us to battle the demon she turned into whilst completely naked in front of the entire city,” Luna said angrily.

“Are we ashamed of our bodies, Luna?” Celestia asked.

“No, but I wasn’t happy having the entirety of the biggest city on the western continent know exactly what shape I shaved my pubic hair into,” Luna retorted.

“That was back when you shaved it into a horizontal crescent moon, wasn’t it?” Celestia asked.

“Can we focus a little here?” Cadance asked. “I’m more than up for discussing Luna’s pussy-”

“I hate you all,”

“-But I think know really isn’t the time for it,” Cadance finished.

“I agree,” Twilight nodded. “I’m eager to get this over with, here and now.”

“Very well,” Celestia said, forming the key properly and taking a breath. “Be on your guard for fine wine, sourdough bread, and a horsewhip.”

“I’m going to kill you if you don’t stop bringing that up,” Luna stated.

“Whatever you say, Red-Rump,” Celestia giggled as she slotted the key into the keyhole.

“Fuck. You.” Luna snarled. Celestia took a step back, gently kissing her sister on the cheek as Luna elbowed her gently in the ribs, the door unlocking and sliding open in three different, triangular places, splitting the key apart with it as they retracted into the walls. As we looked inside, the beauty of the palace soon died as we were greeted with the same black ooze coating the walls and floors, only this ooze seemed to still be alive, flicking and licking around at the ends of the tendrils it formed into.

“Oh, goodie,” Celestia sighed. “Tentacles.”

“Alright then, group up and someone throw up a shield,” Luna said. We did as instructed with Celestia throwing up a yellow barrier around us as we marched into the palace, the black ooze attempting to penetrate the barrier with sharp stabs, but to no avail. It tried over and over again, summoning larger and larger tentacles until ones the size of tree trunks were smashing against the side in an attempt to break it. Luna then nudged Celestia with her wrist before nodding at one of the thicker ones.

“Think that’d fit inside you, horse-fucker?” she asked in a goading manner.

“I don’t know,” Celestia growled in response. “How about I drop the shield and see who can take it deeper?”

Luna was silent for a second as Celestia stared her down, Luna throwing up her own blue barrier just in case and apologising profusely for offending her.

“Y’know, I’ve experienced a good share of tentacle sex, be it consensual or not,” Cadance said, staring at the ooze-acles pounding the barrier. “But they’ve always been physical objects, or at least solid ones. Plant tentacles, squid and octopus tentacles, Leviathan tentacles, etc. all have really flexible tentacles, but still physical ones. These are just goo that can form together.”

“I’m curious as to whether or not these are all singular tentacles or if they’re all part of one, big-ass monster,” Luna commented.

“Couldn’t be worse than the Leviathan ones, could they?” Cadance asked Luna.

“Wanna explain the story behind that?” I asked.

“I brought Cadance along to watch me deal with a monster contract when she was about nineteen, that monster being a Salt-Water Leviathan. It was a juvenile one, not a big problem, but it ended up managing to get a tentacle around Cadance’s ankle and drag her into the sea. It stuck a tentacle in her mouth, a hollow one that it used to filter oxygen through so she wouldn’t drown while she was down there, and it-”

“-Then proceeded to give me one of the best dickings I’ve ever had in my life,” Cadance interrupted.

“Yes, until you realized that Leviathans are closely related to electric eels and proceeded to run a current through its tentacles,” Luna continued. “You had three of them in you if I remember correctly: one of them was tickling your ovaries, and the other two, one being shoved up your ass with the third being pushed past the breathing tentacle, having tied a knot in your stomach. I don’t think you enjoyed it as much after you were turned into a conductor rod.”

“Not as much,” Cadance shrugged. “Still felt fucking incredible. Though I prefer squid tentacles, if I’m allowed to be picky. What about you girls?”

“I like plant tentacles that can ejaculate,” Twilight answered.

“I prefer a big, thick Direwolf knot,” Luna shrugged.

“I love a huge, musky horsecock,” Celestia confessed.

“I think you guys are weird,” I said in a disturbed tone.

“Oh, don’t feel bad, Richter,” Cadance giggled, pecking me on the cheek. “We all love your cock too.”

I decided to leave it at that before this conversation got any weirder. We continued to walk down the hall before coming to a door with a large, magical barrier covering it.

“Twilight?” Cadance asked.

“On it,” the smaller Alicorn nodded, holding out her hand towards the door, her eyes and palm lighting up a dark purple as she aimed her hand at several areas on the door. “The spell seems to focus on killing organic lifeforms that try to pass through it, all except for the Highmoore.”

“So how do we get through?” Cadance asked.

“Keep our barrier up and just go through it,” Celestia answered. “But I want you two to throw up one of your own that surrounds us directly while we shrink ours down too, just in case this thing has more power than we think it does.”

“Right,” the other two female Alicorn nodded, throwing up barriers that surrounded our bodies. I moved my arms around and found that the barrier tracked me completely, not letting my hand or arm escape it as it moved.

“Wow,” I nodded. “That’s impressive.”

“Thanks,” Cadance and Twilight chimed.

“Alright, move through,” Celestia said, giving us the order to walk forwards. We walked through the doorway and through the barrier only to have Celestia’s barrier shatter immediately and have Luna’s crack loudly, but still remain strong. Celestia hissed loudly in pain, shaking her hand as if she’d burned it on a stove.

“Shit me britches,” she spat through gritted teeth. “I was not expecting that.”

“I’ve spent a long time powering the barrier,” a familiar female voice said. “It keeps my mistakes at bay.”

We turned our heads to look at the voice, seeing another Highmoore, sharing the same colour and illness that Elisa had: blue skin, white hair, and black vein-like scars all over her body. While Elisa was a more athletic body type, this Elf had a much more buxom appearance, her large breasts and wide hips complimented by the thin white dress she wore, stitched with blue fabric with a large, sleek crown sat atop her head, the crown set with a large sapphire that matched her eye colour.

“Greetings, Strangers,” she said, giving us a stiff nod. “My name is Queen Illvana of the Highmoore. The last defense against the Mistake that rests behind me and the bearer of the blame for the destruction of our race. If you wish to question or kill me, I am willing to accept both of those options.”

“I think I’ll start with the same question I ask any dictator that tries to create and control a monster,” Luna said, stepping forwards. “Why?”

“A question I ask myself nearly every day,” she chuckled in a depressed manner, getting up out of her throne with jerky, stiff movements. “A question I thought I had a satisfying answer to, a long time ago…”

“I’m willing to listen,” Luna said.

“We did it out of love,” she said, beginning to pace around the dingy throne room. “We adored our Goddesses so much that we wished to gift them with a new sister, a family member birthed from the loins of our kingdom. But it was not to be, as the creature we made was the result of lies and deceit. False promises from a creature that lurks both in the corpses of my people and in the body of the Goddess we tried to create.”

“The black ooze, right?” I asked.

“Correct, young man,” Illvana nodded. “Though it was not always the sludge you see now. It was once a powerful creature that sought the power of the Goddesses.”

“What was it called?” Celestia asked.

“Ifrit,” she answered. “A creature of fire and anger that sought to overthrow the Goddesses we worshipped. Ifrit was a jealous beast, and she would not rest until she’d claimed divine power.”

“So.. what?” Cadance asked. “You said Ifrit lied to you? How exactly did she lie to you?”

“She promised us a way to gain favour with the Goddesses, while at the same time worming her way into the minds of our greatest sorcerers… into the mind of myself and my children,” Illvana confessed, a look of guilt and regret plastered across her face. “She spoke of a meeting she had with the Mothers, told us of their will to have another member of their family. Convinced of their wishes, of Ifrit’s lie, we listened to her methods of creating the family member, our entire city brainwashed by her whispers into slaving away and sacrificing themselves, giving their life energy to the body of the monster we were crafting.”

“What did you make?” Twilight asked. “What does it look like?”

“The abomination has no comparison, be it with the creatures we once walked among or the ones I see in your mind,” Illvana explained. “The only thing it possesses that I can compare it to is tentacles, but not like those you have seen before. It’s limbs are made of bone that breaks and shatters every time the tentacles are moved. It cannot grip or grasp anything, it cannot walk or move properly. I can hear it cry and scream in a voice that doesn’t belong on this plane.”

“So once the creature, the monster, was created,” Celestia began. “What did Ifrit do?”

“She attempted to steal it from us,” Illvana went on. “It slaughtered those guarding the lifeless husk and imbued itself into her, changing into the black mass you see around you in this city, plunging itself into both the creature and all those that were nearby, myself and the others in this very room.”

“Then how did Ifrit posses the pile of dragon parts?” I asked. “What was the pile of dragon parts?”

“A failed attempt to create a being strong enough to defeat the beast we created,” Illvana stated. “We lead dragons down here through whispers in their dreams and manipulation of those on the service to spread lies of treasure and wealth down here.”

“So that’s what Svea was after,” I said. “Who was doing the luring?”

“Elisa was in charge of bringing the dragons down here,” Illvana answered. “She constantly reached out to the great beasts, lured them here, and slaughtered them, cutting up their most powerful parts and trying to create a beast powerful enough to save us.”

“Then what was with the trials?” I asked. “If you were all so busy trying to save yourselves, why set up three warriors and a monster to test for a hero worthy enough to save you?”

“That was not our idea, young man,” Illvana answered. “We were cursed, the city was cursed, by the Mothers out of anger for our attempt to fashion them a new sibling, they took no pity on us for being tricked, and struck us down with an eternal curse, forcing us to live with our mistake in an undying eternity until a worthy warrior came to save the unworthy. Our attempt to create a dragon powerful enough to slay Ifrit was an attempt to cheat this rule. It seems only right we should’ve failed.”

“The Rejected Mother spoke to me once,” I brought up. “She cobbled together a form made of corpses to speak to me, and to attack us at our resting place. She’s trying to lure people down here to free herself, isn’t she?”

“Yes. Using the same magic Elisa did to attract dragons, she also sang to those on the surface, the rich and the powerful, to come and save her,” Illvana explained.

“That clears up the Baron’s involvement,” I said to my family. “Also explains his hatred of the Mothers. He was totally indoctrinated. The Mother tried to speak to me as well, but must’ve realised she couldn’t control me.”

“And now you are here,” Illvana said with a nod. “You and your family are here to slay her, are you not?”

“Indeed we are,” Celestia nodded. “It is my family’s duty to protect the people of this world, and having a such a threat kept in check by what is nothing more than a door is something we cannot allow. And as such, we shall strike down this creature and free the trapped souls in this domain, be it through death or liberation, they shall rest once we are done.”

“A very proud proclamation,” Illvana nodded, sitting back down on her throne. “I see a lot of myself in you, young lady. I see a lot of my daughter, Charone, too. A proud woman that values safety and family above all else. It is an honourable way to live. But is it enough to save us all?”

“You doubt our ability to kill your monster?” Luna asked.

“Of course I do,” Illvana nodded. “She is a god, you are but mortals… what chance do you have?”

“I think you’ll find that my family and I are more than mere mortals, Illvana,” Celestia said in a determined tone. “And I think you’ll also find that this isn’t the first god we’ve killed together.”

“Such confidence,” Illvana said with a pained smile. “I hope you succeed, for all our sakes. The creature is locked in a vault behind me, sealed away by our Goddesses once their wrath was enacted. It shall open when you will it to, and I pray that you will be able to defeat it. For the good of all those that inhabit this world, I pray you defeat it.”