Humani Victoria

Chapter 5- Old Wounds

"War. War never changes"

                                 - Ron Perlman

"It happened so long ago, few that were there still stand," Celestia began.

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Vimy Ridge, Northern Prance (Northern France), Equestrian outer territory, Tuesday, December the 15th, 4045 A.A, The Battle for Prance

Celestia unlatched her golden helmet and allowed the wretched thing to fall to the ground with a heavy clang. Before sitting down on her haunches as the exhaustion of that day took over her.

The Sun Alicorn sat in a mostly destroyed house of sorts, only pieces of the stone walls remained, the sky was black not with clouds, but with ash and soot of the fires that burned all across the Equestria.

This particular ridge had played host to a particularly long battle between the opposing forces of the Alicorns and the Humans, Celestia was acting as a Commander along side her sister, Luna, and another aligned Alicorn by the name of Nemesis, the cruel Alicorn of Revenge and Spite, why he had been paired with them was beyond her. They three commanded a relatively small force of only a couple thousand unaligned Alicorns, beings who hadn't even found where they fit in the cosmic puzzle that was the Universe, already being forced to fight against the seemingly indefeasible force of the Human war machine.

Not two hours ago Celestia had faced the onslaught of the attacking Humans, along side about one hundred and fifty of her unaligned brothers and sisters. 'Faced' being a subjective term, when fighting the Humans, one rarely even saw one, rather, the only evidence of them actually being there is the small bits of metal that fly through the air and rip into an Alicorn's body, completely destroying the internal organs and muscles. Or of course the flaming balls of fire that constantly rained from the sky when the Humans were attacking.

Celestia's mind jolted back to the present as the smell reached her nostrils, that omnipotent sent of sulphur, ash, and burning flesh that was permanently related to the presence of Humanity. Celestia looked up, towards the rolling hills and fields, perhaps at one time they had been green, but now the earth and soil had been stripped back to the rocks below, in fact they had discovered ancient trenches underneath the earth that they had used to their advantage. There hadn't been anything growing here for thousands of years, in the early days of the war.

Celestia sensed magic in the air and not three seconds later there was a puff of dark smoke and an even darker Alicorn clad in ebony armour appeared. At first Celestia took the newcomer for her sister, but was sadly mistaken

"Hello, dearest Celestia," Nemesis spoke with the smile of a snake "The air is thick with blood and death is it not?" He chuckled a bit, but Celestia had no patience for The Revenge Alicorn

"Begone worm, I am tired from battle, something you cannot boast, sitting comfortably back at the tent, observing the death of millions," Celestia spat, getting a wide smile from Nemesis.

"Peace Celestia, I come on business, your father is here, " Nemesis stated, Celestia jumped out of her sitting position and took Nemesis's gaze in her own.

"Where?!?" She asked urgently.

"Up at the monument, dearest Lulu is already up there-" Nemesis was cut off by Celestia teleported away in a shower of golden light.

Celestia reappeared on top of the white monument, it was a large flat white stone base with two tall white spires engraved with words of some sort, all across the monument, white statues of Humans, both women and men stood. The Alicorns had found it when they first came to the western territories, it was later revealed the obvious; it was built by the Humans, why they didn't just obliterate the thing was beyond Celestia's reasoning.

Immediately Celestia's eyes alighted on the large male Alicorn that was staring at the script on the monument with a strange fondness. He was fairly large and sported a ginger beard and a long mane of the same colour, his mane didn't flow like Celestia's, rather is was suspended in a state of flow, without actually moving.

"Father!" Celestia called, King Solarius turned and smiled as his daughter ran up and embraced him, her pink flowing mane mingling with his ginger beard.

"Celestia," The Alicorn of Existence voice was deep and ancient and brought a sense of peace and calm to his daughter as he gave here a squeeze.

"Why have you come father?" Celestia asked, releasing him.

"First, perhaps you should greet your sister?" Solaruis stepped aside to reveal the Moon Goddess herself.

"Well met sister" Luna said as they embraced "Seems thou let the ridge go to ruin" The Night Alicorn said this teasingly.

"Well it would still be in our grasp if you hadn't given up the shore" Celestia retorted, slipping out of her sisters embrace. How far they had come, to talk about loosing territory in war like it was a joke.

"Now, now you two, perhaps you would be more interested as to why I am here?" The two sisters turned eagerly towards their father.

"Indeed, why hast thou come so far into the field of battle?" Luna asked

Solarius didn't answer at first, rather he smiled and turned back towards the spires, gesturing towards the words carved on the stone.

"Do you read the Human script Celestia?" Solarius asked.

"No father, I never had the cause to learn," Celestia answered, Solarius chuckled.

"You should take the time to learn it my daughter, some of the oldest and wisest texts are written in their script, but no matter, these-" he said gesturing to the words again "-Are names"

"Names?" Luna asked "Names of whom?"

"Humans of course," the King Alicorn stated "Human soldiers to be exact."

"Then we should obliterate this accursed thing from existence! To build such a thing to give murders such an honour, pure madness," Celestia ranted.

"Perhaps, but I have see what is to come, this monument shall stand for several eras to come, until the fires and the darkness take this world," Solaruis mused, then he turned to his daughters "I have come to end this, the fighting, the death, the war, all of it."

The Alicorn sisters exchanged glances.

"How dost thou plan on doing this father?" Luna asked, Solarius answered by activating his white magic and levitating a scroll out from under his wing, Celestia recognized it immediately.

"Father! Do away with that evil thing! It contains the corrupted and perverted magic that the Human's stole!"

"I know what this is, my daughter, and it is the power that the Humans stole that shall be their undoing, this scroll," Solarius gestured to it "was originally designed by the Humans as a last resort weapon, in case the war became to difficult to continue, this scroll would obliterate the Alicorn race."

Luna's eyes widened "Then we must destroy it, surely it is a danger to us!" But Celestia caught on to her fathers words.

"Originally designed?" She asked, her father smiled.

"Yes, but I have altered it, so to speak, it now does the opposite, when activated this scroll shall destroy every single Human in current existence" both sisters gaped.

"Killing an entire species? This is not like you at all father" Luna said worriedly, Solarius smiled grimly

"I have seen the Gears of Time my daughter, and they turn in this direction, all paths lead to this day, the end of Humanity, and me as well."

"W-what?" Celestia asked "What do you mean? And how did you come across this scroll?"

"How I came across it... Well... It's not important, but, because of my tampering the scroll now requires a sacrifice," Solaruis explained "Before, it contained the magical energy necessary to wipe us out but now it needs that energy to be given to it, it needs me."

"Father?!?" Luna asked "You mean to sacrifice yourself?!?"

"No my daughter, I wish simply to end this, I move with what has been decided, the gears, the hourglass, the streams, the orb, they all point to this," Solaruis said.

"So this is truly your fate?" Celestia asked sadly.

"I am afraid so my daughter, you will face much in the years to come, I have seen much, you will be tested, your loyalty, your generosity, your kindness, your honesty, and of course, your sense of humour" Solarius chuckled at the last one "All of these shall be tested, but you must keep true, no matter who-" Solaruis looked at Luna before looking back "Or what, stands in your way"

"Then.... this is goodbye then father, " the emotion caught up with Celestia and tears formed in her eyes.

"Cry not my daughter, you will not be alone, you have your sister, and there will be others, others that can and will understand...." Solarius smiled "And one of them, well help you forgive all that has happened, no one shall die alone, not even me."

"And whom would share your... Sacrifice" Luna was tearing up as well.

"That would be me," a sadistic voice said from behind them, and from a puff of shadow came Nemesis, smiling madly.

"You?" Celestia asked slightly angry "And how could one such as you have the courage to make such a sacrifice?"

"Do not belittle me with your foolish ideals of courage and 'the greater good'" The God of Spite sneered at Celestia "This is my final act of spite, my final revenge" Nemesis's smile widened, showing off sharp teeth "To repay for what those monsters did to me, to restore balance, Humans invented revenge, did you know that? They made me, and now I shall destroy them. Every. Last. One." The Revenge Alicorn laughed madly as Celestia and Luna stared at him in disgust and horror, before Celestia turned back to her father.

"Why give him the satisfaction father? It's a cruel enough what your going to do, but adding him to the mix... It seems wrong."

"While I might agree with you my daughter, I have not the sadistic conviction or dark power that Nemesis does, I require him to do this, and he is eager," Solarius smiled sadly at Celestia "Now... I must be off, tally-ho" And with that, the King Alicorn walked up to the centre of the monument, in-between the two spires, Nemesis following gleefully.

As they reached the centre, Solarius opened the scroll, a golden light enveloped the two Alicorns, tendrils swirling around them, before it slowly began to absorb them, turning their bodies to dust.

"A wise Human once wrote something 'This is how the world ends, not with a bang but with a whimper'" these were the last words of King Solarius before he shut his eyes. Nemesis was not so subtle though, he laughed madly and yelled to the ash-filled air.

"Ah-HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA! they will burn! All of them! Man, women, child, they will all be taken by the Void! They will know no peace, know no asylum, they will left in the dark to go mad! This is my revenge! This is my spite! I am Nemesis, God of-" the Alicorns rant was cut off when the golden light absorbed his head, suddenly a wave of the same golden light blasted past Luna and Celestia and across the ridge.

All across the Earth, Humanity died, not in a flash of fire as so many of them had dreamed, but in a blast of golden light that carried them to their fabled place of rest, wherever that may be.