Beforeskin

by Vicron

First published 17th of December, 2011

Celestia remembers her father with a shudder as she thinks back to the one being she truly hates

I have lost all motivation for this story and as such it will not go on any further.

Ah, Memories.

Canterlot Castle three years after the recovery of Princess Luna.

Royal duties were honestly the most boring things on the planet in Celestia's opinion. She had to hand one thing to Discord, he knew how to party; watching the aristocrats fend off carnivorous muffins with oversized silverware had been quite hilarious to watch. She sighed, inwardly chastising herself for delighting in the memory of their panic. She turned to her sister who was sitting beside her as she always did those last few hours of the day before Celestia took to her chambers for the rather addictive indulgence of sleeping.

Luna used to give her a hard time over this when they were children, until she herself had tried it and decided that she couldn't do without it either. They were currently in a tax meeting which consisted mostly of living through the mind numbingly boring speeches and then convince the speakers that they had no intention of bleeding the proletariat for more money to give to the upper class.

"Oh!" Luna jumped up suddenly at attention. "May I have a moment alone with Celestia?" Everypony in the room knew this was not a request, she was just being nice. They looked to Celestia who nodded and they quickly filed out of the room. Once they were alone Luna spoke again. "I just realized that I never told you the voice of the armors name. It's name was Taron." Celestia's normally alabaster face turned a pale green. She promptly fainted.

"Not him, Please Faust not him.
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Fun fact about being turned into stone, ponies say when you die your life flashes before your eyes. They're right you see your entire life in that moment only for that moment, but when your turned to stone it gets put on a loop. Discord has been turned to stone twice and he's just plain sick of watching his own life.

"Ug, this bit again." He grumbled watching himself be blasted by Twilight and her friends for the hundredth time. He braced himself for the only memory that truly scared him, his first.

Blackness was his world until he felt something clamp around his neck and lift him up. Discord emerged from the black water sputtering and choking, he was blinded for a moment by his first light.
"Another failure." A deep, measured voice spoke beside him. Discord looked down the clamp around his neck to a purple alicorn holding it with his magic. The current Discord was screaming but the one that had emerged was just staring at it. "I know just what to do wi-" The world froze and Discord relaxed, this had only happened once before. His eyes opened to see a brick wall. Not as nice a view as last time but it was better than the cavern he was born in.

He physically relaxed letting his now aching muscles loosen up.
"Feels good to be free." He was still looking at the wall. "Who was it this time? A cultist, please let it be a cultist." He turned around smiling maliciously, only to be disappointed to the seventh degree. "Oh it's you." He turned his back on the single most beautiful creature he had ever met, not that he would tell her that; anymore... "I didn't know you'd become the gloating type Celestia."

"I'm not." Celestia walked around where he stood so that she could see his face again.
"Then have you finally seen how much more fun my lifestyle is?" He almost grinned but managed to keep his face blank.
"This is an issue that only you and me can know about." Now Discord found himself interested. "He might be back." all color drained from Discord's body.
"If you're messing with me it's not funny." Celestia shook her head. "How? What? Where?" Discord started tying his body into a knot in panic. "Wait!" He straitened himself out. "You said 'might'. Is he or is he not?"
"I'm not sure."
"How can you not be sure?" Discord scratched his head.
"A being has appeared bearing his name."
"How is this a big deal?"
"It appeared through one of his old projects."

"Fine then. how do you expect us to find out?" He crossed his arms.
"A memory dive." Discord glared at Celestia, upset that she would suggest that when he had been watching his memories for the last... however long he was trapped in stone.
"May I ask, which project?"
"Beforeskin."
"In that case my memories are clean. You're the one that got into his stuff all the time. I've been watching my memories for how long now?"
"Three years."
"That's nowhere near as long as last time. I guess your memories are the ones in question."
"Oh, you're not getting out of it that easily I may have been the one getting into his experiments but you were the one stealing them." Discord huffed before he was enveloped in white light.
"No! Wait, I'm not ready!" He tried to get away but in a flash they were both gone.
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"Impatient as always I see." Discord sniffed looking around at the cave Celestia's magic brought upon them. "Uuuuggg, I'd rather spend all eternity trapped in stone than deal with Teron again."
"Keep your eyes peeled for any scraps of paper."
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The memory dive is a quite interesting spell. It takes all of the memory's of the subjects mind and projects them onto the area around them in a third person perspective which is then fed into the mind of the subject at lightning fast speeds although to them everything seems to be happening in real time. Unfortunately this only works in the place where the subject was brought into existence as that spot has a permanent connection with them as it was the spot where they had their first thought. Normally this means that in order to use the spell your mother (or her body) must be present. This can prove gruesome as most that find themselves in need of the spell are very old. A curious fact about the memory dive is that it shows things with perfect accuracy even things the subject did not commit to memory thus it is more like looking though time than looking into a being's mind. Unfortunately when there are two beings using the spell on only one of them the being that the memories belong to experiences them in first person but can still communicate with the other observer almost as if the one remembering has grown a second head from the future.
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Their world was blackness random thoughts could be heard every now and again and things bubbled almost constantly. Footsteps muffled by the black water were suddenly heard and an aura of dark purple magic lit the water outlining a small pink alicorn, Celestia was being born. Drawn out of the water she sputtered and coughed as her little lungs adjusted from the oxygen rich water to the open air she opened her eyes momentarily blinded by the low light of the cave. The future Celestia watching it all from an unexpected viewpoint looked on her father and shuddered seeing the only creature to have ever existed that she truly hated.

"Finally a success, a little bit of myself really was all it took. I'll try adding a feather next time." The young Celestia was deposited on the cave floor still blinking at the creature she would come to know as father. Teron stood taller than future Celestia. He had a dark purple coat and black tail but no mane, the mark on his flank was a double helix. He regarded the filly that had been growing in the black water with cold eyes for a moment before his entire face along with his voice softened and he smiled. "Hello there little one."

.

Little Celestia continued to stare at the purple alicorn, meanwhile future Celestia was growling and Discord was shaking uncontrollably, whether in fear or anger was uncertain.
"Do you understand me?" Little Celestia nodded slowly. "Good that worked. My name is Teron, what's yours?" She slowly looked around the cave, the walls were limestone and perfectly smooth as if they had been pushed out, the floor was dotted by holes filled with more black water and there were four thick pillars of stone connecting the floor to the ceiling.

"So it didn't work." Teron spoke analytically snapping the filly's attention back to him. "Or at least not entirely. Can you speak?" Little Celestia opened her mouth and whinnied quietly. "Well this will complicate things. I guess I'll have to make speech lessons a priority." He smiled bemusedly. "But since you're the only one of this batch I tried the new method with, I guess the rest need to be decommissioned." He motioned to the filly to follow him.

"Brace yourself Dicord." Future Celestia spoke quickly.
"For what?"
"Keep your eyes on me." Teron told little Celestia. As Teron and Celestia left the room the water in the other pits started boiling, prompted by Teron's now glowing horn. A few of the creatures incubating inside ended up being tossed out of their pools as they writhed flesh and bone melting. Little Celestia had her eyes trained on Teron so she hadn't seen the grotesque display. Discord covered his mouth. "So that's what it looks like. I've never melted anypony."

"A curious fact about the birthing water," Teron lectured as they walked past the entryway. "Is that when heated it becomes highly corrosive. But once it cools down it reverts back to the original state, becoming a perfect incubator." There was a callousness to his voice that had not gone unnoticed. A few moments ago they had been surrounded by unseen life but now all that remained were puddles. Younger Celestia was unaware of this but Teron had just demonstrated that he had the power to end her and not enough of a conscience to stop him.
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Little Celestia's first few days were comprised mostly of speech lessons as the incubation chamber required very little maintenance, future Celestia and Discord had very little to do during this period of time except talk with each other.
"What I find hilarious is that you knew how to write but not how to talk." Discord was giggling. "I mean really, what are the odds of that?"
"Ha, ha. You aren't one to talk, just look at all the defects you came out with." Celestia was already sick of him. "Just look at your horns."
"Hey, don't diss the horns. If anything insult my teeth, do you have any idea how hard it is to speak coherently when you have to navigathe arount a sthick in yer' mouth."
"You slurred that on purpose."
"You'd better believe it."

"Father." Little Celestia was always curious about Teron's experiments, what was he working on, what hadn't worked, anything she could ask him. "What happens when things like me don't work out?"
"I'm glad you asked." He walked to the entrance of the cave that served as her classroom, it looked like most of the other area's, the walls and floor were made of smoothed limestone and there was a stalactite here and there, dangling from the ceiling. "Follow me."

Teron lead her through an area that she had yet to explore, the walls started changing colors as they went further down, they flashed any and every color at almost the same time, leading to a tangled disarray of shades that couldn't have been more chaotic if it had started leaking ooze.
"I like this place." Discord quipped. "The color scheme is most enjoyable." As they descended even deeper they started to hear animalistic grunts and roars emanating from the walls, the place almost seemed to breath around them.

Little Celestia stepped closer to Teron, who seemed unbothered by the strangeness of the place.
"Here we are." The world just seemed to cut to black there, as if they were about to step off into a void. Teron did step out seeming to stand in thin air as he walked further. "Come on then." He beckoned little Celestia to follow with a jerk of his head. She stepped out into the blackness, which seemed to only encompass the walls and floor, as she could clearly see Teron. "Be careful not to stray."

"Why is it so dark down here father?" Little Celestia cautiously followed him, mindful of her footing, everything about this room seemed wrong.
"All will become clear, the moment you step through here." Teron gestured to a purple spot on the wall before stepping through himself. Little Celestia ran after him, not wanting to lose track of the only thing that seemed entirely real in this place. The purple spot opened, leading to a pure white room. It was a perfect square if a large one,on the back wall there was a clear case with tubes attaching it to the wall, next to it there was a slab with a single hole in it, seemingly for a Teron's horn. Inside the case was the most interesting, and angry, thing she had ever seen.

"This is Eris. She's what happens when genetic experiments go wrong." The thing in the tank looked like somepony had taken random pieces from several different creatures and slapped them together with no heed for the rules of anatomy or logic. It's head was that of a wolf with purple fur and massive ears, a single horn adorned it, curled like one of the rams Teron had taught her about but it split just before it would make contact with her neck, its neck and body were that of a snake with blue scales, its right arm was that of a pony but the hoof was distended and split to form four claws of bone the base of each dripped blood and pus which blended with the arm's blood red fur, its left arm was impossible to place as it was green, furless and had blades running down the forearm it however had a four fingered hand on this side, its left leg seemed to be that of a giant grey owl while its right seemed to be comprised of three black sticks with a three taloned foot on the end, its tail also seemed to be reptilian but it was less flexible than the rest of its body and was crested by two lines of scales over the top that stuck up at odd angles, it had wings one blue and feathered the other purple and batlike. The strangest thing however was its eyes, they were simply holes in its head yet she got the uncanny feeling that it could see her as its head wobbled around in there.

"Eris, look at your hand, have you been trying to dig your way out again?" It pointed its head at Celestia and cocked it curiously, putting its left hand up to the glass.
"Congratulations Teron, you finally managed to make a creature like yourself." Eris spoke in a decidedly female voice. "I suppose that means you won't have to keep me in here anymore."
"I'm sorry Eris but your energies are still too unstable for me to let you go, the fallout from opening that tube could turn this entire complex into the kind of funhouse this bottom level already is. Poor dear, chaos energy flows from every pore in her body, it's the reason that last room was so strange."

"I know you my dear." Celestia jumped at the sounds in her head. "I've seen you, all that you are, all that you will be, and all that you were.
"Eris, let's see if we can't get those cuts in your palm taken care of."
"Once my brother appears come and get me, I know he won't." Teron placed his horn into hole in the wall and Eris' hand started to glow, mending itself. "Do not trust him."

"I don't know about you, but I don't remember Eris being quite so creepy." Discord whispered, Eris chuckled.
"Yes you do."
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"There was no way that was intended for Teron or little you, she was totally talking to me."
"For the last time, there is no way. This has all already happened, it's just a replay; I repeat there is no way in black water hell she was talking to you." Celestia angrily snapped at Discord for the twelve time in the past hour.
"But didn't she have some sort of future sight that she refused to elaborate on and she was always saying things out of context. It would all make sense, she was talking to future us."
"Discord, Eris was further permeated with chaos magic than you are, it's more likely that she just had some mental disorder that forced her to do that."

"Teron, what happened to Eris' eyes?" It was five days later, Little Celestia had paid further visits to Eris, curious as to the creature's abilities and strange personality.
"Hasn't she told you already?" Teron looked up from the notes he had been studying. Discord was hovering over his shoulder, checking the notes for things concerning Beforeskin. They had found nothing in the week and a half of memories they had sifted through.
"I'm afraid she might get angry with me if I do."

Teron sighed. "Little one, if she's not angry with me, and I'm the one who put her in there, than she's not going to be angry with you for asking about her eyes. Now I need to get back to work, the birthing chamber is almost ready." Little Celestia sighed, with the new creatures in the incubation chambers reaching maturity Teron had very little time for her, it was why she had started personally talking with Eris.

The way down to her chamber was still as creepy as ever, the whitewashed room was a welcome change from the strange area outside it.
"Glad to see you again Celestia."
"Hello Eris, could you remind me why you don't just talk to me again."
"Because when I speak aloud, Teron can hear me and I have the feeling that some of the things have I say he doesn't want you to hear. Now shush child, not so loud." She paused, lifting her head and sniffing. "He's watching, I can smell his magic. Now, you had a question darling."
"Yes," little Celestia brought her volume down considerably, to the point that she was almost whispering. "How did you lose your eyes?"

"I took them out, they were keeping me from seeing."
"Huh?" Little Celestia was understandably confused.
"Let me explain, have you ever tried to cross your eyes." Celestia nodded. "I see not through the light reflecting off of objects, but with the energy things naturally put off, their auras. Crossing that kind of sight with regular sight results in an unintelligible mess, it was like crossing my eyes, I couldn't see anything more than three feet from me. Which unfortunately includes the ground, now I can see everything, from the air as it moves into your lungs, to the flow of time itself. You're going to have to wait a week by the way.
"Until the incubator's done?" Little Celestia pouted.

"No, no; the incubator's going to be done in two days. Teron's going to start the new project in seven days. The last project unfortunately. I wish I could do more to help him." Future Celestia froze as Discord smirked at her.
"Told ya so."

For anyone unable to get the image.