Fable Of Creation

Rain.

Celestia hadn't felt or seen rain in what felt like decades. and still, here it was, pitter-pattering on her back. The young alicorn looked around, trying to understand where she was.

She was in what looked to be a clearing of sorts, surrounded by foliage and trees of all shapes, colors, seasons, and species. Random animals scurried back and forth in a blur, predator and prey living in peace and hiding in the trees and caves to stay away from the downpour. Yet what truly caught celestias eye was the massive structure infront of her. It was a massive tree, absolutely gigantic. Its trunk and bark were made from pure blue-ish purple crystal and extended up into the heavens like a beacon in the night, its crystallized pink leaves blowing in the wind like windchimes.

The alicorn finally noticed the small detail of someone standing before the tree. It was a large centaur, yet it was dwarfed by the sheer vastness of the forest and large crystal tree. He looked to be picking away at the trees trunk, trying to dig out what looked like a corpse. The corpse of her mother.

Celestia screamed out in rage and grief, yet she made no sound. She struggled, trying to beckon forth her magic, but it didnt respond. She looked down upon her body and realized she was only semi-corporeal, a tiny opaque golden outline. She turned her ‘head’ back up and saw the centaur sink his filthy claws into her mother, dragging out her corpse and splaying her on the ground. The tree above them dimmed, as if wounded. A terrible shriek emanated from the forest around them, the predatory animals surrounding the male who was only grinning ear to ear. His double horns glowed a horrible, unholy blood orange color and every ‘threat’ lurched forward, their mouths opening.

Celestia watched in horror as the vitality and magic was sapped from every single being, turning them all into husks before even that melted to ash. The centaur himself cackled, growing a few inches taller. He said something, but she couldnt hear over the sound of the rain.

He leaned down and grabbed the charred, hairless corpse. It lacked eyes, but had stumps where her horn and wings used to be. He picked her up, and slung her over his shoulder like a mere rag. “Remember my name, foal.” the filly suddenly heard in a deep, gravelly voice that spoke of the doom and destruction of her world. He turned around and looked at her in the eye, his single eye glowing orange while the other lacked an eye at all, half of his face missing entirely, only the skull showing. “For I am tirek.”

Celestia screamed in terror. She could distantly feel her real body kicking and crying, but in this world all she could do was scream.

And then, the scenery faded. Celestias screams dulled then cut out, replaced by sobbing and shaking. She opened her eyes again, and this time she was inside a lab. She could tell this still wasnt the real world, as the filly couldnt feel her limbs or magic. Still, she observed.

The area was well-lit by cool electrical lights attached to the ceiling, the entire place being a stark and sterile white. Infront of the incorporeal alicorn was a massive metal tube with a glass casing, the entire thing filled with some strange green liquid. The filly had to suppress another scream as she gazed upon her mothers remains. The skin hung limply, flesh and organs floating around it in a heap. It looked like the bones were removed. She could feel her real body hurling and throwing up in disgust, but still she persevered. The centaur came from somewhere behind her, and circled the ghost filly.

“Ah, I see youre here again, spectator.” he spoke in that horrible, rancid voice of his. “ ‘the goddess’ doesnt seem so high and mighty when shes nothing but a pile of organs and flesh, does she?” he cackled at his own joke, a wheezing gasping sound.

Celestia finally got a good look at her tormentor. Before, she couldnt see due to the darkness of the forest coupled with the rain, but now she could see every detail.

He had twin twisted black horns covered in gold, with black hair and fur with a chestplate to match. His upper half was a deadly blood-red, but the bottom horse half was pure darkness. He had a tail like one of those cartoon villains from the stories shed read. He looked like the literal incarnation of a devil, hades himself.

This wasnt just a regular centaur. No, this was far worse. Shed heard of him during her trip to the country of minos. This was exiled former lord tirek. Hes single handedly the reason his country went to ruin. The scar on his face was imparted upon him by his father before his exile, as punishment for his dark deeds. The male had used cursed knowledge, dark magic. Necromancy. Hed summoned legions to conquer entire continents, but was eventually bested by a mysterious pink alicorn with wings and a horn of crystal. Celestias eyes widened at the correlation between him and her long forgotten sister. Still, this was irrelevant. She brushed it off and looked back at the dark necromancer as he circled around the contained gore.

“Your mothers corpse will birth me a fine soldier, someone to fulfill the dreams I cannot. Her bones are worthless, so I sold them to a certain draconequus.” as if sensing her confusion, he smiled a yellow-toothed smile at her incorporeal form. “I doubt he could make much use off of mere bones, but what some insane god of chaos does is none of my business. Regardless, your mothers corpse wielded far more potent fruit than I couldve imagined.” he explained, finishing his circle around the tube and finally standing before the alicorn.

“You see, her magic didnt die with her. No, she left these behind.”

A rune glowed infront of the necromancer, and five multi-colored gems appeared.

“I like to call them the crystals of creation, or the god keys. But my dear draconequus client decided to throw a little piece of information my way,” he grunted and mumbled some obscenities behind his claw. He looked back and regained his toothy grin.

“These five gems contain power so great, they could rewrite the universe. IF they were complete.” he grunted, this time in barely contained anger. “There's two missing, the most important of all, inherited by the crystal alicorn. The other, i'm not so sure. So, I'm going to create a child from the rotting cadaver of your mother, then ill force it to fight its own kin, earning me both the gem AND the head of that wretched ‘goddess’. Wont that be fun?” he said, getting far too close to her ‘face’ for comfort. He extended his tongue and licked entire side of his skeleton half, disgust roiling down celestias back at the display.

“Ill become the god of this world, and everything I've ever wanted will be mine. And you, my little spectator, will get to watch my rise to glory.” he cackled madly, the sound of his howling laughter echoing across the barren sterile room. There were very few things in this world that were BORN evil, and tirek was first among them all.

Celestia could feel herself crying again as she was dragged away and out of the scene, her spirit settling back into her body at the library.

The alicorn looked around to the concerned faces of her friends and family, and yet their voices were so distant. All she could hear were her own shallow breaths and a heartache she could not comprehend. Infront of the filly lay the now dormant ashes of the book shed touched. There was gonna be alot of work ahead.

Months passed like minutes, and minutes melted into months. And still, the white alicorn filly strived to achieve her goal.

She wasnt concerned with only raising the sun, Now she wanted revenge on the one that had desecrated her mothers tomb and defiled her body, selling her bones like cheap scrap. No, celestia wanted justice. And above all, she wanted to know why her mother died, and to save her long lost sister. There was also the matter of what happened to the good creatures that inhabited her old empire, but she left that in the backburner.

Instead, she was still working out a few kinks, like the matter of raising the sun. And then there was the issue of her sister. Initially, celestia wanted to just leave luna here. Shed remain safe forever in the care of twilight and her assistants, but that plan went out of the window when they realized celestia and luna were still growing.

Due to her alicorn physiology, the space-time time-space mumbo jumbo of alternate dimensions didnt affect her. And evidently, it didnt affect the now significantly grown luna.

Alicorns mature far earlier than normal ponies, growing to scale with their magic rather than any physical attribute. Luna, having been one of the first born alicorns in the world, was far greater than other lesser alicorns that roamed the world, and so she grew to be almost the same age as celestia over the course of the time they spent here.

This is where the issue arises.

Due to how alicorns work, if they didnt connect to an aspect of the world, theyd stop growing. Theyd be trapped as an ageless but vulnerable foal within the world. Celestia couldnt leave her sister here, to stagnate and never grow beyond what she is right now.

A loud crash alerted celestia, making the now grown mare cringe. Goddesses above, if luna burned another wing of the library she was gonna have a conniption.

“LUNA!” celestia called out, looking up from the book she was reading, “unicornias generational spark” by oracle finale. She bookmarked the page she was reading and tossed the book into her ‘reading’ pile. She got up and spread her large swan-like wings, her wingspan had grown dramatically over time. With a flap and a burst of air, she was off- away from her favorite alcove and into whatever counted as air here.

The alicorn skillfully flew through the columns of bookshelves and winding staircases, finally reaching the source of the sound.

There, in a heap, was luna. The filly was now the same size celestia was when shed arrived her, but in celestias opinion, luna was far cuter. She had big sparkling teal eyes that went from slits to the most convincing twin pool puppydog eyes, fluffy little bat wings, and all the mannerisms youd expect from a cat. Or in her case, a bat. Still, as adorable as her little sister, she also had more than her fair share of trouble. Over time, luna had grown to be a capable and intelligent young filly, able to hold entire complex conversations by the time she was half celestias ‘age’. Still, the white mares heart ached when she saw the young filly. She looked so much like her mother it stung any time she looked at her. Regardless, as capable and smart as her sister was, she was also causing alot of ruckus and mischief.

Another explosion sounded out behind the pile of books, the blue foal sticking her head in like an ostrich. Celestia jumped from the explosion, but steadied herself and shook her head.

“Luna, dear. Come out of your book fort and tell me what you did this time.” celestia cooed, trying her hardest to seem not as angry as she really was. Which was a little difficult, as the golden parts of her mane were flickering with sunfire

Luna peeked out of her little fort and smiled sheepishly at her older sister, trying her best to not seem guilty and failing miserably.

“H..hi celestia” she said, looking everywhere but into her sisters eyes.

“Luna.”

“Yes?”

“What did you do.”

“I may have mixed chemistry and magi-”

Another explosion resounded behind the wide-eyed filly, and Celestia sighed in exasperation.