Creating the Universe
By Pascal
"It wasn't even Trixie's fault!" Trixie protested. "She tricked me! I didn't know what she was doing!"
"Already the hoof pointing begins. I am disappointed," Celestia said, looking down at two ponies who lay in chains before Her. They stood on Trixie's stage, which would give the crowd an excellent view of Her perfect justice.
Sweetie Belle cried and called for Rarity, while Trixie was trying her best to shift the blame onto the little filly.
"Stop!" a mare yelled.
The crowd parted as Rarity sprinted toward the stage, pursued by Celestia's Imperial guards. They tackled her to the ground and quickly cuffed her.
"Wait, let her come up here," Twilight Sparkle barked.
Rarity was yanked roughly into the air by Twilight's telekinetic grip and levitated onto the stage.
"Do you defy our Lady's infallible justice, wicked sinner?" Twilight asked.
"Please don't kill my sister!" Rarity pleaded. "She's only a child! She thought it was just a harmless prank!"
"Hey! What about Trixie? Trixie is a victim of circumstance!" Trixie yelled, but nobody paid her any mind.
"Fear not, my little ponies. I shall not kill the little filly, nor the entertainer," Celestia said. "For I am infinitely good."
"Oh, thank you, Celestia!" Rarity cried. "You are truly splendid and merciful, oh-"
"Therefore," Celestia continued, interrupting Rarity's praise. "Any act against my holy person is an act of infinite evil. Justice dictates that killing them would not be a sufficient punishment. They must be made to suffer forever."
Celestia's horn glowed, and a magical portal opened in the air. A horrible smell emanated from it, and the ponies could see a hazy, featureless landscape of brown muck that stretched into the horizon
"I was going to make a world of pure fire to burn them forever," Celestia said. "But then I decided that fire is too good for them. They don't deserve to spend an eternity with something so powerful and beautiful. Therefore, I have created a whole dimension which is nothing but bodily waste where they shall live, immortal, for the rest of eternity."
"Celestia, please! She's just a filly!" Rarity begged.
"Justice is blind, little pony," Celestia replied smoothly. "An evil act has been committed, and there must be a punishment."
"Then punish me in her place, oh great Goddess, I beg you!" Rarity cried, prostrating herself before the divine princess.
"No," Celestia answered. "Your task shall be to tell all your friends about what happens to those depraved sinners who seek to defy my holy perfection."
"No! Please! I'm sorry! It was just a joke!" Sweetie Belle howled as she and Trixie were levitated toward the portal.
"Celestia's devine justice is perfect!" Twilight Sparkle announced. "Remember this day well, wicked sinners, and be thankful that She, in Her infinite benevolence, has not decided to destroy your village, for Celestia shall not be mocked, and if your devotion to Her should ever wane, you may someday find yourself in their place!"
***
Sweetie Belle stumbled and collapsed into the swamp. Her legs were thin and emaciated from starvation, but her belly was bloated with worms. Ticks and maggots crawled through what was left of her mane, and her eyes were almost swollen shut from infection. Most of her fur had fallen away long ago, exposing her pink hide, which was covered in open sores that weeped sickly yellow pus.
"N-no!" Trixie choked. "You have to keep moving! There has to be some way out! There . . . there has to…"
Trixie was overcome by a coughing fit. She hacked up a gigantic glob of black phlegm filled with parasites onto the swampy ground.
Neither of them were recognizable as ponies anymore. The days of trudging through the filthy swamp had turned them into wretched masses of sickness. Each day they degenerated more and more as parasites and bacteria multiplied in their bodies, but there was no release. They had tried to take their own lives in every way they could think of, but their efforts were no more effective than the diseases that would have killed normal ponies long ago. They were immortal.
Sweetie Belle cried feebly as she lay in the muck.
"Even if there was a way out, we wouldn't be able to see it. I give up. Just leave me here."
"I don't want to be alone!" Trixie begged, nudging the little filly forward with her snout, which had been mercifully plugged with mucous by the sickness.
Sweetie Belle didn't move. She just lay in the puddle of filth.
Trixie slumped down beside her, holding the little filly close to her chest.
"She'll come back for us," Trixie said, stroking Sweetie Belle's head. "She won't leave us here forever. She'll come back."
Trixie started describing how this was nothing more than a prison sentence, and that Celestia would eventually return to set them free. She talked for hours, and the story changed constantly. First, it was Celestia releasing them, then it was about the Equestrians rising up to overthrow their wicked Goddess.
After a few days, Sweetie Belle joined in. They made stories of ponies living far away in an imaginary world. At first it was simple. There was Star Song the bard, and her best friend Dazzle the magician, who lived in the quaint little town of Ponyville with their friends. They chatted, had tea, made friends, got married, had children, grew old, and finally were laid to rest. Then, there were the stories of their children, and their children's children, and there were the stories of other ponies. Some were tragic, and some comical. Some exciting, and some quiet. Some focussed on the movements of great empires, while others were about the personal struggles of single ponies.
Towering fungus trees grew around Trixie and Sweetie Belle as they told their stories to each other, but they were lost in their fantasies and forgot the world around them.
The stories grew more elaborate as time went on. They began to tell tales of daring heroes and wicked tyrants. There was Forthright, mighty knight of Canterlot, and his lover, Dream Weaver the legendary sorceress.
The Ancient Ones, cruel, fallen kings from forgotten times, rose from their cold tombs to rule the world once more. Forthright and Dream Weaver embarked on many quests, meeting friends and outwitting enemies at every turn, facing great peril but always thwarting the Ancient Ones' evil schemes.
They were heroes, exalted by millions, loved by all.
"Trixie, I love you," Sweetie Belle mumbled, breaking fantasy for the first time in eons.
"I love you too, Sweetie Belle," Trixie replied.
"Do not stop, great ones," said a third voice.
Trixie and Sweetie Belle jumped. They pried their infected eyes opened and looked blearily around them.
They were surrounded by a ring of large, pony-sized worms, which lay expectantly, staring at them with reverent eyes.
"Who are you?" Trixie croaked.
"We are your students, wise Princess Trixie," answered the worm who had spoken. "I am the mayor of Wormville. We come every day to bask in the glory of your visions."
"How long have you been doing this?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"I have listened to you for my whole life," the worm answered. "My tribe has lived around you for generations, protecting you from the violent barbarians and beasts of the swamp, for you gave life to us, and gifted us with the secrets of language."
"They must have evolved from the parasites in our intestines," Sweetie Belle said in awe. "We must have been here for millions of years!"
"Why are we here?" Trixie asked.
"I don't remember," Sweetie confessed. "It's been so long."
"We apologize for interrupting your meditation, Princesses," the mayor of Wormville said, humbly backing away. "We hope you will forgive us for breaking your eternal meditations and still bless us before the battle."
"Battle? What battle?" Trixie asked.
"Chief Bloodshed, lord of the swamp barbarians, has sent emissaries to our village. They have told us to surrender and become their slaves, or they will destroy us once and for all."
Trixie and Sweetie Belle exchanged a quick glance.
"I think I know why we're here, Trixie."
***
Chief Bloodshed was a worm of considerable size. He rode up to the gates of the village on a gigantic swamp beetle the size of a house, which towered over the worms, and was followed by twenty of his most fearsome warriors.
"I have offered to grant you mercy and let you serve me, but you have foolishly chosen to defy me!" he roared. "My generosity has reached its end! I will kill you all and cook your eggs for a feast!"
Trixie, Sweetie Belle, and the mayor crouched behind a barrel, observing the attackers.
"All is lost!" cried the mayor. "The giant beetle is a beast of unstoppable destruction! We cannot hope to defeat the barbarians! They will kill us all!"
"Trixie, this is just like that time when Forthright and Dream Weaver were attacked by that giant alligator," Sweetie whispered.
"Yes, I remember," Trixie replied. "Let's do what they did. Don't worry, worms. We have a plan."
Sweetie and Trixie lurched their diseased bodies out of cover and faced down the barbarian king.
"This viliage is under the protection of the Great and Powerful Trixie and Sweetie Belle, who is also Great and Powerful! Leave if you value your worthless hide, savage!" Trixie shouted.
"So these are the so called 'goddesses' of the village!" Bloodshed sneered. "You don't look like much to me!"
"If you doubt our powers, Chief Bloodshed, then we shall demonstrate them to you. We shall fight your beast!" Sweetie replied.
Bloodshed laughed.
"Very well then! Let all see the might of my giant beetle!"
Bloodshed urged his mount forward, and with one giant bite, it swallowed Trixie and Sweetie Belle whole.
"Ha!" Bloodshed shouted. "Where are your Princesses now? They have fallen, just like the rest of your pitiful viliage will!"
Once inside the beast, Trixie and Sweetie Belle began stabbing it ruthlessly with their horns.
The beetle roared with pain and fell, sending Chief Bloodshed flying. He landed ungracefully in a pool of mud as Trixie and Sweetie strode triumphantly from the beetle's mouth.
"We're immortal," they announced. "Still want to fight?"
Bloodshed and his men fled screaming into the swampy forest.
***
The swamp barbarians were soon conquered, and Trixie and Sweetie Belle's empire grew quickly.
They deposed the wicked Spider Lords from their thrones, and freed thousands of slaves that had toiled in their nightmarish labyrinths. They lead a party of brave worms to slay the great centipede of Death Mountain which had terrorized the roly-poly bugs of the valley for generations. They ended the centuries-long war between the wasps and the flies of the East, negotiating a peace that would last forever. All flocked to the Princesses' banner, and soon the whole world was united under them. There followed a golden age of peace and prosperity for all living things.
After years of study and experimentation, Trixie learned to harness the power of the sun, and used its warmth to bless the world's agriculture with unheard of bounty, and Sweetie created the moon and stars to bring wonder and beauty to the night.
"Trixie," Princess Sweetie Belle said one sunny day in the gorgeous capital city of Cancerlot. "I've been wracking my brain, and I can't seem to remember where we came from. Do you remember?"
"I think we've always been here, Sweetie," Princess Trixie replied. "We are goddesses, after all. Obviously we created the universe."
