Pilgrimage

Celestia's breath steamed as she led her small family to the tower.  She had lowered the sun and sent him on his way across the other side of the world, and Luna had begun the flight of her charge the moon into the winter sky.  Twilight reigned, and the morning was yet to come.

That day had been full of celebration for the New Year.  She had attended court gatherings and parties,  and had given her last words of wisdom and counsel to her head advisor, Icy Breath, who would steward Equestria in her absence.  She had eaten her favorite chocolate-chocolate cake for the last time for months to come, and met in private with the Princesses and the Elements of Harmony for some light chat and loving farewells.

When the sun set, the Princesses went to their own chambers and donned their traveling gear.  Celestia and Luna provided Twilight with armored knee pads and a traveling horse blanket for the cold and hot days.  Celestia gave Twilight horse-shoes with textured metal traction, similar to what the Princess of the sun and the others would wear. They had given her a list of what to bring, and what not to bring.  Cadance had received similar instruction and gifts on her last Pilgrimage, and had kept them safe.  When they were packed and fully dressed, they met in the main courtyard, and Celestia took them to the tower.

Celestia halted at the squat tower, and they continued to wait until the stars appeared in the sky.  Celestia took a deep breath and absently called upon the sun's own aura to warm her, and she felt his power pulse throughout her veins.  Twilight and Cadance stomped their hooves every so often, unused to remaining in the cold for so long.  Celestia looked upon her family, smiling softly, and was grateful for their company.

She tilted her white head back, examining the constellations directly above Canterlot.  She found a scattered formation of Brunhill the White Stallion, rearing towards the North Star, and turned to the door to draw him across the stone.

In solemn accord they filed up the stairs, hooves tapping against stone and echoing upward, leading them to the Forgetting Helms.  Celestia and Luna came to either side of the box, while Cadance and Twilight stood back a pace, and the sisters crossed their horns with a soft tap.  Celestia felt the power of sun and moon dance across their heads, felt the force of her sister's love and her own intertwine in a magical harmony.

There were no words for the ceremony; the Princesses of sun and moon lifted their horns, and Celestia undid the lock on the chest.  Each Princess lifted their respective helm with their aura and fitted it onto their heads.  Celestia let the golden helm settle behind her ears, and sound became amplified ten times over.  She felt something akin to static dance across her facial fur, and she gazed through the curved openings at her family.

Luna's eyes flashed bright white once as she acknowledged the magical power of her meteorite helm, as did Cadance's and Twilight's.  Celestia tossed her head once, technicolored mane flying, glad to be wearing the pilgrim's helm again.

Celestia checked each of the other alicorns, touching their muzzles and greeting their horns with her own, and when she felt they were ready, she trotted down the stairs and galloped from the tower.  The others thundered after her.  Celestia wound through the streets, up and down ramps and stairs, navigating Canterlot with all the skill of a tracker.  She knew the city like the back of her hoof.  They ignored any ponies still on the streets, who could only stare at the alicorns that appeared as strangers to them.  Celestia snorted as she spotted a launch platform reserved for airships, with two security ponies keeping watch.

Celestia didn't stop for them.  She whipped past them, followed by blue, pink, and purple blurs.  The security ponies cried out as she spread her wings, the feathers fluttering in chill night air.  They didn't recognize the Princesses, of course.  The magic of the helms cast a veil over their minds on sight, and all they saw were four alicorn mares of unknown origin.  Celestia felt her hooves slam against the edge of the platform, and she pushed off.  Moonlight glanced off her alabaster pinions and her helm.  A bright sheen glared across her horn before she fell into the air and swooped to the west.

Air roared around the other alicorns in her wake, and they formed a diamond formation in the air.

"Princess," Twilight called as she took up the right side of the diamond.  Cadance moved to the left, and Luna took the rear. "Where are we stopping first?"

"You will learn the name of each place as we arrive," Celestia replied patiently.  She looked up at the stars, marking the exact path they would need to go. "It will take us a few days flight to reach the first marker."

Celestia drew her eyes downward and sighed.  Below her was her beloved Equestria, each and every pony living in it known by name to her, for such was one of her gifts.  Just as every sun's ray touched the face of every pony in the daytime, so did she see them in her mind's eye, and she loved them all.  They passed over grasslands, rounding the flanks of the mountains, until Canterlot and its companion cities and villages were hidden in their vale.  Celestia breathed in the scents rising from the earth and its inhabitants and loved it all.

They flew most the night without stopping.  Their immortal bodies endured the frosty wind and mists they passed through without complaint.  Celestia could hardly feel any cold, so used to it she had become.  Each pony took turns in the lead position to break the wind for the others, with Luna last.

Celestia sensed a disturbance of feeling in their group, and glanced back at Cadance.  Cadnce had been wide-eyed and trembling for the last three hours, although whenever someone looked directly at her she shook her head and forced her body to be still.

"Cadance, are you well?" Celestia inquired softly.  Her niece shook her head habitually and flapped her wings back into a steady glide.

"I'm...worried, Celeste," Cadance whispered. "What if...he shows up?"

A flash of black and burning white eyes trampled across Celestia's inner eye, and she shivered and bowed her head sadly.

"I surely expect him to cross paths with us."

Cadance began to shake again, and Celestia worried she would get frozen-wing from shock and growing fear if they stayed up for much longer.

"Luna, let's find a spot to rest before I raise the sun once more," Celestia called.  Luna nodded, and all alicorns set to searching the ground as they slowly descended.

Cadance was the first to land, and she shook herself with a low whinny when she came to a halt in the trees.  She laid her ears back into her helm and didn't meet any eyes.  Cadance closed her eyes, trying not to remember the darkness in her first Pilgrimage, but she did anyway.

"Alicorn blood seems to be running thin this generation..."

"Cadance?"

She turned to Twilight Sparkle, who cocked her head and shuffled her wings.  Her good friend, now her little sister through her husband Shining Armor, came and stood at the pink alicorn's shoulder, snow crunching under her hooves.

"I'll be fine," Cadance told her, hoping it was true.

"Maybe we can brew up some tea before sunrise," Twilight suggested. "My body can stand the cold, but having something warm in the belly doesn't hurt either!"

Twilight went to go gather firewood, using her aura to draw out a notebook and quill from her bags.  She planned on taking many notes of the places they passed and stopped at.  Cadance forced herself to relax, lifting a hoof, breathing in, and pushing it out with the used air, and then turned to the elder Princesses.

Celestia and Luna were talking quietly to one another, silhouetted against the setting moon.  Luna stomped her front left hoof and looked at the gazing Cadance, eyes glowing.

Cadance hated standing alone, and so moved to join them.  Luna lowered her horn slightly to brush Cadance's horn for reassurance, and the pink alicorn took it gratefully.  Luna was quiet, sometimes harsh, but she held just as much love for Cadance as Celestia and Twilight despite the relatively short amount of time they had known each other.

"Do you wish us to speak of this thing before sunrise, child?" Luna inquired.  Cadance sighed and tilted her head down once.  Celestia rested a hoof across Cadance's withers, and then all three came to the fire pit Twilight was busy digging up with her hooves.

Twilight moved over rocks with her aura, smiling as she placed them in a perfect circle.  Cadance watched her shoot a magenta-pink spark from her horn, setting the thick logs inside the circle ablaze.  The alicorns began to remove their helms and set them close by, melt snow for a place to lay down, and to pull out food-stuffs from their bags.

"Twilight Sparkle," Celestia began. "Before we continue on our journey, we have something of great importance to discuss."

All eyes turned to the white Princess.

"While on Pilgrimage, there is possibility of a great danger that threatened us when Cadance first went on Pilgrimage, over two hundred years ago," Celestia went on, melting some water and putting it into her metal kettle and waiting for the flames to burn to some embers. "There are many alicorns besides us that go on Pilgrimage, and we will no doubt cross paths with them.  They are ones who mastered new and powerful magics, just as we have.  As you know, Twilight, a new magic is also called an aspect, something that exceeds normal, although brilliant, talent.  There are many aspects that have been discovered by these alicorns, and more yet to come.

"There was one alicorn Prince, part of the third generation of alicorns, created in the three thousandth year after the Mighty Ones changed, who mastered the aspect of electricity.  He was one of a kind, an earth pony who learned to command lightning and power machines.  Such magic in an earth pony was unheard of among ponykind, and is a mysterious and rare talent among them even to this day.  This new magic enabled him to become an alicorn in the Way, just as you did, Twilight."

Cadance seemed to be drawn away as Celestia spoke, drawn into the flames of their little campfire, a portal into memory.

The streets were gloomy, with only the electric lamps to light the rainy path.  Some windows were lit, with shadows moving in them.  Cadance walked slowly, using her aura to keep the directions floating before her dry.

"Where is it?" she wondered under her breath, searching the signs hanging above various doors passing by.

The lights flickered.  Cadance stopped, turning her ears and lashing her tail once.  Water dribbled down her horn.  The lamps simultaneously exploded.  Lights in all the houses and inns suddenly went out.

"What was his name?" Twilight inquired.  Cadance blinked her wide eyes at the flames.

"He calls himself Black Thunder," Luna said, picking up on the story in her alto voice. "He was well-named.  Lightning and thunder are his realm.  He would use lightning to clean the air in storms, and was able to control his aspect to such a degree that he could turn machines on and off within a three-hundred mile radius with just a thought and a spark of his aura."

Some calls broke out through the rainy air as ponies came onto the road to investigate, huddling under coats and umbrellas.  The street patrols stood under the lamp poles in question, and a few tapped the poles with their hooves.  No one had seen lightning hit them.  A couple of ponies wheeled out a generator, taking it down the road to the electric plant to get it running again.

Cadance stayed where she was, summoning more magic to create a ball of light on the tip of her horn.  She squinted as she saw another sphere of light drifting through the air towards her.  It wove back and forth, its body crackling silently with white and blue energy.

It halted in front of her and exploded in a bright flash.  She shrieked and fell back, quickly flaring her wings so she didn't roll on them.  She heard metal groaning as it was ripped apart, followed by a wave of heat and the sound of clicking hooves.  She blinked away the yellow dots floating across her vision, eyes darting behind her Forgetting Helm.  She finally met a black face with glowing white eyes.

"Hello, alicorn."

"They had such machines back in that day..." Twilight pondered, tapping a hoof against her chin.  Her head jerked up. "You mean he's still alive?  Will we meet him?  I would love to ask some questions concerning voltage levels in the engine of the ---"

"You don't want to meet him, Twilight," Cadance finally spoke, her voice almost squeaking.  Twilight twitched her ears back, looking between the other Princesses.

"She is right, unfortunately," Celestia sighed. "Black Thunder became obsessed with his new power.  He used it for good at first, but he let temptation get the better of him, and he began to harass ponies by lighting houses on fire, breaking important machinery, and destroying technology lost even to this day.  His storms would last abnormally long, and no pegasi in the world could control them and fight them lest they were electrocuted.

"Then he did the unthinkable for a Prince.  He began to use lightning to murder his own subjects.  No one really knows why; he had been consumed by his own greed, he had a vendetta...anything is possible.  He never said why.  He was just so angry.

"His little ponies tried to fight back, but they lost quickly.  He laid his entire kingdom to ruin.  He didn't stop there.  He sought out other kingdoms, sought out their Princes and Princesses, all to kill them and destroy what they had built."

"Not the ponies?" Twilight demanded, now gone rigid.

"A kingdom's greatest strength is their alicorn Prince or Princess, if they have one," Cadance said, feeling emotionally exhausted.  She just wanted to sleep and forget the troubles of the past.  "If he could kill their leader, the kingdom would fall apart.  He had no real need to kill their subjects."

"The Mighty Ones, the first alicorns, flew against Black Thunder," Luna canted, waving a hoof in emphasis. "They fought him.  He pretended to lose and begged forgiveness from the Mighty Ones, who stayed their hooves against his life.  He took the opportunity in their dropped guard to attack, calling all the lightning he could muster upon them, and he slew them.  The Old Ones --- gods, some call them --- brought the Mighty Ones into the Way upon their deaths, forever immortal and never to die again, it is said.  Then they punished Black Thunder.  He was cursed to forever wander the world, never to settle or find a home, and he would forever be alone.  No friend or mate would he ever keep.  He had betrayed the Old One's gift to him, to be an alicorn, and thus justice had to be satisfied."

"He is still out there?" Twilight asked, turning her gaze to the moon.  The Princesses nodded.

"He preys on alicorn Pligrims," Celestia concluded. "Even cursed, he is still a killer...we must always stay together, no matter what."

"But if he could kill the Mighty Ones, then why not us?" Twilight said, voice trembling.  She lifted her notebook and quill, but Luna's aura glowed and gently set them back down.  Twilight looked at Luna with a grimace.

"His curse cost him some power.  Though dangerous, lethal, even, more than one alicorn can drive him away.  We will be safe, as long as we stay together."

The black stallion was nearly impossible to discern.  His coat was like obsidian, turning him into a sort of ghost in the rain.  Ponies screamed and ran away from his violent appearance, but he only reserved his attention for Cadance.

"You are the only one of this generation?" he questioned, his voice sliding like a snake's.  He grunted and stomped a hoof near her shoulder, making her cringe.  He bowed his head and snorted snot and steam into her face. "It seems alicorn blood is running thin this generation..."

A roar echoed down the street, and a blast of searing orange-white energy hit the black stallion in the flank.  He coughed at his new wound and raised a shield, deflecting the fiery power as the Princess of the sun leaped into sight.  He turned and met her horn with his.  Their powerful horns grated with a shower of sparks.

Cadance climbed to her feet, knowing she had to do something.  She called upon her aspect, the magic of love, and gathered it into her aura.  As Celestia and the alicorn stallion sparred, she sidled and trampled side to side, trying to get a clear shot.  The older alicorns circled and reared, lunging at one another.  At last Celestia shoved him onto his back, and Cadance cried out as a beam of her own light blue energy rocketed at him.  It enveloped him in a bubble.  He shouted and flailed his legs, getting onto his hooves and shaking himself madly.  He was trying not to feel the warmth and comfort in that spell, a spell Cadance was hoping would calm him down.

Instead his horn glowed bright white, shattering the young alicorn's spell, and he swooped out of sight into the rain.  Cadance breathed hard, tears falling from her eyes.  Celestia limped to her adopted niece and spread her wing over her.  She murmured words of comfort to Cadance the alicorn of love couldn't remember now.  She only saw that monster's eyes and his terrible smile.