Chapter 0: The Beginning of the End
Chaos. Canterlot was in a state of pure chaos. Most of the buildings had crumbled to rubble, fires raged throughout the entire city. Deep fissures has formed in the ground throughout Canterlot. The anguished screams of ponies could be heard from everywhere in the city.
"It's the end of the world!" A panicked unicorn stallion dashed through the streets, trying to get as far away from Canterlot as possible.
"Everypony for themselves!" A pegasus mare yelled as she flew desperately through the thick, acrid smoke, desperate to escape.
"Mommy, please, don't die..." A young unicorn colt looked up at a battered unicorn mare. Her horn had been broken off and lay in splinters on the ground nearby. Numerous cuts and bruises were all over her body. Her breathing was laboured. Tears welled up in the colt's eyes as his mother started grunting.
She looked up at her son, and said "Run." Her eyes shut, and she lay motionless on the ground.
"Mommy? Mommy? MOMMY!" The tears that had welled up started flowing uncontrollably. Suddenly, a large white pegasus stallion, dressed in the armour of the Canterlot Royal Guard flew down to the ground, just in front of the colt.
"Hey, kid! It's too dangerous to stay here. Come with me, I'll take you some place safe!"
Meanwhile, in the royal throne room in Canterlot Castle, most of the ceiling had collapsed and the room was strewn with rubble. Hovering over the throne was a male bipedal creature, unlike anything seen before in Equestria, with what appeared to be a brown mane, and glasses on his face. This creature had been identified in the Canterlot Creature Compendium as a 'human'; thought to be a myth, until recently. In his right hand he held a book with pages turning apparently of their own accord, as if being blown by wind. Furthermore, two elliptical rings of pages were billowing around this human, criss-crossing right in front of him.
Laying in front of him, was a large, alabaster pony, with an image of the Sun adorning her flanks. She had wings, a horn, and the strength of an earth pony. These ponies were known as 'alicorns', a hybrid of the three basic types of pony, and much larger than most of the other ponies. She wore a golden crown, and a badly damaged golden breastplate, with a large, cracked purple jewel at the centre, along with four golden shoes. Her mane had once been pastel-coloured and flowed as if being blown by wind, but now, it was nothing more than a very long, pink mane. Her horn had been blackened and the tip of it lay on the ground at her feet.
Strewn about the throne room were the motionless bodies of many other ponies:
- A cyan pegasus, with a prismatic mane, and a heavily bruised and battered face, was on the floor, just beneath a section of the wall that looked as if it had been hit with a wrecking ball.
- A white unicorn, with a purple mane. Her horn had been broken off violently, and there were bruises all over her body.
- A light pink earth pony, with a dark pink puffy purple mane. Her head was all that was visible, and it was heavily bruised.
- A yellow pegasus, with a light pink mane. All of her legs were skewed at unnatural angles. She had massive bruising all over her body, and large gashes on her chest.
- An orange earth pony, with a blonde mane and tail. The hat she normally wore lay in tatters. A huge pillar, that had recently collapsed, lay on top of her body.
- A dark blue alicorn, with a crescent-shaped moon surrounded by blackness on her flanks. Her mane once flowed with the appearance of a miniature universe inside it, but now it was merely light blue and motionless. Her body was badly scorched.
There were two other ponies in the room, one heavily wounded, and the other paralyzed by strong magic. The heavily wounded pony was a pink alicorn with a purple, pink and yellow mane, along with a crystal heart on her flanks. She was bleeding heavily from numerous piercing wounds that she had suffered.
The one pony that had escaped harm, for now, was a lavender alicorn with a midnight blue mane, which had a streak of purple and a streak of pink. She had a six-pointed pink starburst with small white stars adorning her flanks. However, she could not move, and she struggled with all her might to try to use her magic to break free, but to no avail.
The human suddenly looked at the lavender alicorn, with a chilling glare.
"Now, 'Princess' Twilight Sparkle. You will see the fall of your mentor, along with the fall of everypony you ever cared about, just as I promised. I will not kill you, death would be too merciful for an insolent, defiant fool such as yourself! The ponies of this world will bow down to me and worship me, if those insignificant insects want to live that is. The proper course of action for you would be to cower as I destroy Celestia, and pledge allegiance to me instead. You can rule this world under me, as you know a lot about magic like. Together, we would be great!"
"No Lezard!" Princess Twilight responded, "You may have destroyed nearly all of Equestria, but mark my words, if you kill Celestia, I will make you suffer!"
"You fool! LIGHTNING BOLT!" Arcs of electricity shot out from Lezard's free hand, wracking Twilight Sparkle with intense, almost unbearable pain. A pony that wasn't an alicorn would have been fried in an instant, but Twilight barely managed to hold on.
"In case you've forgotten, I am a GOD!" Lezard bellowed. "Threaten me like that again, and I will destroy you, only to resurrect you and destroy you again, over and over, each death more agonising and painful than the last, in an endless cycle of destruction and pain!"
"ENOUGH!" yelled the still-conscious alabaster alicorn, hacking up blood. "I don't care if you kill me, you'll fail in the end. But mark my words, you will pay dearly for threatening my most faithful student like that." The venom in her voice, and the look from the alicorn's eyes would have caused anypony to drop to their haunches and beg for mercy, but Lezard was no pony, and no mere mage.
"Well, excuuuuuse me, 'Princess' Celestia", but I am the one in charge here. You princesses are nothing but weak fools, spouting nonsense about love and friendship. It's no wonder I defeated you so easily; quite frankly, creatures as weak as you are an affront and do not deserve to exist. Now Celestia, it is time to die."
Princess Celestia was suddenly paralyzed by magic, and her head was forcefully raised skyward by the magic.
"Nothing can stop me now, AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Lezard laughed maniacally, sending a chill down Twilight Sparkle's spine.
A red, pulsating, glowing circle appeared around Lezard's feet, with intricate runes rotating around its centre. Twilight Sparkle sensed an extraordinary amount of magical energy radiating from Lezard Valeth, unlike anything she'd experienced before.
"BOW TO ME! WORSHIP ME! HONOUR MY NAAAAAAAAAME! LEZARD VALETH!" yelled Lezard Valeth, lost in his pleasure at being a god again.
~ Author's note, 'Great magic' spells are special limit-break like nagic attacks in Valkyrie Profile 2 that hit all party members when used by enemies. It involves a hammy incantation, followed by calling out the name of the spell. ~
With a powerful and sombre voice, Lezard carried out the incantation for his 'Great Magic' spell:
"No mercy for the damned."
Suddenly, the skies above Canterlot darkened, and clouds formed, in spite of the absence of pegasi to place them there. The situation in Canterlot degenerated into sheer pandemonium, with ponies panicking more than ever, hiding where they could, praying to Celestia that they would be alright. They were oblivious to what had happened to Celestia, and their hopes were in vain.
Celestia saw large, flaming rocks appear in the sky above her. Her eyes widened in terror as she realised where they were headed; right towards the throne room. Violent, fiery explosions rocked the throne room as the corpses were blown apart and incinerated by the meteors, while Celestia cried out in agony as she was scorched by intense flames from the meteors crashing down around her. Her vision was starting to fade, yet she found her head forced skyward once again.
"No escape from catastrophe!" Lezard's voice had become slightly more dramatic as the worst was yet to come.
Celestia's jaw dropped and she froze. A massive flaming rock, much large than all the other rocks combined, was hurtling right towards her. Once it was directly above her head, it fell right down.
"METEOR SWARM!" yelled Lezard Valeth, finishing the incantation. The meteor came down right on top of Celestia. Twilight heard a shriek, but it was quickly silenced and drowned out by the impact of the meteor.
"NO! PRINCESS CELESTIA!" yelled Twilight. The resulting massive fiery explosion caused a massive shockwave that spread throughout the castle. All of the walls in the throne room came crashing down. The castle, which had already been badly damaged, started collapsing. The guards that were still left tried to flee, but it was far too late. All of them were crushed under the falling rubble, leaving a pile of corpses, broken limbs, and shattered horns strewn throughout the now ruined castle.
As the dust settled, Lezard Valeth was still hovering over the throne. Twilight and the pink alicorn next to her had survived.
"I thought you might use a shield spell of some sort when I was dealing with Celestia, in fact, I had planned for it." stated Lezard. "I am going to give you 24 hours to grovel for mercy, and swear allegiance to me, or I will hunt you down, and you will suffer the same fate as your mentor. In the mean time, I have some business I must take care of."
With that, Lezard disappeared in a flash of blinding white light. Twilight turned to face the dying pink alicorn. "Princess Cadance!" Twilight said, with a very shaky voice. "What can I do now?"
"Listen Twilight. It's too late to save me." Princess Cadance coughed, clearly struggling to speak. "Come closer, I'll tell you what to do." Princess Cadance whispered something into Twilight's ear, and then collapsed, her eyes closing.
Twilight looked around what was left of the throne room, she walked up to what was left of one of her greatest friends, and her mentor, Princess Celestia, and started crying uncontrollably. "No! This can't be happening!" Tears streamed out of her eyes. She looked skyward, the clouds were starting to die down, and the sky was slowly returning to normal.
"No." Twilight blinked.
"No!" Twilight started shaking uncontrollably. She inhaled deeply, and stared straight up.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Author's Note
OK, this is basically a flash-forward near to the end of the story, at the point where all hope seems to be lost, hence why it's chapter 0. I don't give away everything that's happening here just yet, in order to enhance the despair. Basically, Lezard Valeth has gone on a rampage throughout Equestria, laying waste to those who would oppose him, and finding a way to seize godhood again by researching the creatures of Equestria, in particular the alicorns, and stealing the power of 3 of the princesses for himself. Twilight Sparkle is the only princess left that has not had her power stolen from her. Also, I couldn't resist using some of Lezard Valeth's dialogue and hamminess from VP2, it's part of what makes him so awesome! There's also the fact that he's completely and utterly insane 
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This is more of a test to see whether people would like a story of this nature. For those worried about a very bad ending, there's a reason I do not use the 'Tragedy' tag. Also, if a VP fan would like to be a proof-reader, or supply me with a cover image, please let me know.
If you would like to see all the special attacks used in Valkyrie Profile 2: Head on over to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRt7rYJsjUw . Lezard Valeth's Meteor Swarm attack can be seen at about 10 minutes in (and you'll see where I shamelessly stole some hammy dialogue from).
