"Speech."

"Thoughts."

"ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE!"

Celestia was frozen in place, processing exactly what she had just heard from Shining Armour. "Which statue did you just say was missing?" Celestia asked the Captain of the Royal Guard, hoping that she misheard him.

Shinning Armour held a stern expression as he repeated his report, "The statue of Vetrix, Corrupter of Cutiemarks, is missing, with a general sweep of the area surrounding the pedestal having thin shards of stone scattered around." He repeated seriously, watching as Princess Celestia was beginning to panic, before schooling her features and requesting for him to return to his duties. Shining Armour saluted to her before turning around and walking out the door of her throne room.

The moment the doors closed behind him, Celestia teleported out of the throne room and reappeared in her little sister's bedroom, and promptly shook Luna like a maraca, waking her up very quickly.

Luna was having a pleasant self-induced nightmare before waking up to Tia shaking her awake like a hollowed out gourd filled with a handful of beads, and promptly began using the royal Canterlot voice, "SISTER, IF THOU DOESN'T CEASE SHAKING US, WE WILL GIVE THEE NIGHTMARES FOR WEEKS!", her voice capable of being heard by everypony in Canterlot.

The instant Celestia knew her sister was was awake, she dropped Luna and shut her mouth with her magic, "Luna, Vetrix is back and is likely biding his time until he is powerful enough to cause a disaster of unprecedented scale unless we find him and try to beg for forgiveness for my rash actions!", Celestia said rapidly, making Luna stare at her with a raised eyebrow, causing Celestia to release her magical hold on her sister's mouth.

Now able to use her mouth again, she said, "Sister, we told thou back then that sealing him away was a bad idea.", her tone was blunt at her past self's intuition has once again been proven right.

Celestia groaned at her sister's words, "I know, I was young, paranoid and inexcusably rash back then. I was so certain that his power was dangerous, that I didn't stop to think about what he had been using his powers for up until that point." She said, remembering how an entire alliance made up of ponies who he helped before his imprisonment sprung up and took his statue from under her nose, conspiring to free him, but never being able to break the seal the Elements of Harmony placed on him, leading to generation after generation going from simply revering Vetrix as a trusted friend, to full on worshiping him as a God. She eventually located them a few centuries ago, and managed to talk most of them out of worshiping Vetrix, the most fanatical of his self proclaimed followers running away and going into hiding, never to be seen or heard from again.

Luna sighed, "Sister, the past is past, the only thing thou can do is make up for thou past mistakes." She said calmly, nuzzling her sister. Celestia reciprocated, but she couldn't shake this feeling in her gut that told her that Vetrix wasn't going to be forgiving of her past actions, regardless of how much she has changed since then.

Meanwhile, little did the two sisters know, a single royal guard was eavesdropping on the conversation, but this guard wasn't like the others, in fact, he wasn't an actual guard at all. Believing he had heard enough, he walked away, pondering what to do with this information he had gained...

After Blan (Blossom Manor) put on a little show for us while ~~it~~ He cooked us scrambled eggs on toast, I walked into the dining room and sat at the head of the table, with Ice Blossom sitting on the chair to my left. I watched in amusement as Blan set up the table by making the knives and forks literally dance onto the table and lay in front of us. The plates of scrambled eggs on toast danced over moments later, Ice Blossom's plate yodeling as it approached, whilst mine sung RULE BRITANNIA! Ahem. Pardon me, had a relapse there.

Regardless, the plates ceased singing as soon as they were in front of us, to which we both said, "Thank you, Blan." before digging in, Ice Blossom foregoing the use of cutlery and just shoving her face into it, which I really should've expected. The foal lived alone and was definitely an orphan, so of course she lacked any table manners. I whistled to get her attention, causing her to pause mid bite, "Ice Blossom, the food isn't going anywhere, so please slow down before you get a stomach ache." I said calmly, deciding that Blan could teach her at least passable table manners over time,instead of trying to do so myself. A small blush dusted Ice Blossom's cheeks as she muttered a "sorry...", her mouth still full of eggs and toast, causing me to nearly cringe at the sight, though I successfully prevented myself from doing so. I offered a reassuring smile, " It's alright, you never had to eat with restraint before, I assume at least, so your actions are perfectly understandable, but do try to avoid inhaling your food next time." I said calmly, using my knife and fork to cut off a piece of egg and pop it into my mouth, my first taste of anything in centuries. Despite having the urge to cry, I successfully kept my features neutral, not wanting to cry in front of a little filly who was clearly having the best day ever.

Once we finished our lunch, the plates and cutlery danced off the table and into the kitchen out of sight. I clasped my hands together and rested my chin on them, "So, Ice Blossom, is it alright if I stay here for a while?" I asked her calmly, to which she gave me a confused look, so I clarified, "This is still your home, Ice Blossom, you decide on who can stay and who can't.", I stated calmly, understanding blooming in her eyes, before saying, "You can stay, I don't want to be alone again...", she trailed off as she looked nervously at me. I offered her a reassuring smile while nodding, "Very well then, I'll be living here until further notice, you're still in charge though." I said calmly, my chair sliding back(courtesy of Blan), allowing me to stand up.

I spent the rest of the day playing harmless games with Ice Blossom, which doubled as an exercise to remaster control my motor functions, as I may be able to walk, but running was a different story. You may judge, but keep in mind that I was trapped in stone for who knows how long, so I have to practice everything beyond the most basic stuff all over again. It sucked, but there wasn't much I could do for now, much less get my revenge on Celestia and her Sister. Oh yeah, you read that right, I have every intention of getting revenge on Sunbutt and Moonbutt, but my main aim was revenge on Sunbutt, as she was the one who I clearly remembered calling me an abomination and convincing her sister to use the Elements of Harmony on me, leading to all this happening. I couldn't remember much outside of how to use my powers, that I had built a city to call my own(the whereabouts of which were also lost to me, though I doubt the city still exists at this point.) and that a cult had formed around my statue many centuries ago, but I didn't care about my lost memories at this point, as a phrase I remembered from where I came from(wherever that is) said, no point in crying over spilled milk. It was an interesting phrase, the origin of which was also wholly lost on me, but since that one phrase was all I could really remember from my homeland, I held onto it's meaning with everything I had, the only thing stopping me from going completely insane in my prison.

Before you ask, yes, I have indeed gone partially insane, a fact I was well aware of, having every intention of hiding my insanity from everyone except those who deserve to face said insanity, such as Celestia. I didn't want to drag those unrelated to my torment into unparalleled suffering, as that would only make others seek vengeance on me, as oftentimes one's enemies will have someone who cares about them enough to seek revenge on you for what one has done to said enemies. This mainly meant that I couldn't just march on into Canterlot castle and beat up the two celestial bitches, I would have to ruin their reputation, make their precious little ponies hate them to the point that their ponies will at least turn a blind eye when I finally deal them their punishments properly, and subject #1 on the list of ponies I needed to hate the Princesses, was Ice Blossom. Don't get me wrong, I had every intention of letting her live her life how she wants, the only thing I wanted from her was for her to hate Celestia at least one-one billionth of the hate I felt for the diarch.

First things first though, I needed to learn as much as I could about the modern history of the diarchy, as the keys to victory can often be found in the past. Little did I know, my little use of my chaos magic earlier when creating Blan had caused many artistic depictions of my crest to glow the same pinkish-red light my crest did, alerting the fragmented cults devoted to me, in one way or another, that something was up, meaning that soon, I would be getting some fanatical visitors...

Author's Note

Yep, Vetrix is going to play the long game here, expect some form of shenanigans here and there in the future, but only in some chapter.

Until the next chapter, peace ✌️