Everlight's Chronicles

Chapters

Prologue
The First Arc - Chapter 1: Creation and Development
Chapter 2: Courage and Prejudice.
Chapter 3: Pride and Power
Chapter 4: Wisdom and Promise

Prologue

a forewarning of things to come

For those that have found this book outside of the owner's possession, please return this as quickly as possible to Everlight Helios, living just at the edge of Ponyville.
At least, she lives there at the time of this writing. She will look quite small for a mare of her age, almost as small as a filly.
A white and caramel striped hairdo adorns both her mane and tail and a buttery yellow fur covers most of her small body.
Her hooves are the same shade of white as some of the stripes in her mane and her eyes have a strange colorized pupil, making the entirety of her eyes a unique grey mass of light and dark.
If you cannot find her, then please return this book to the library in that same village of Ponyville and tell them you have found Everlight's Chronicles. They should know what to do with it.

DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF EVERLIGHT HERSELF!!
Consider yourself warned

For those of you that have gotten this book and have gotten permission to read this work, I welcome you to my personal writings of the events that have transpired in the unique passings of life I have had.
Even with my permission to read this, I must still warn that what is written here may insult, appall or even scare some ponies reading my words.
The words that you will read from here on will be everything I've written down about my life. From the days of my birth to the very days I'm living right now. It might be quite confusing at first, somewhat intriguing later on and maybe a bit too sweet in the end, but it is my life and my hope is that you will bear with me through these scriptures.

Having said that, I might just as well tell you the biggest thing you'd need to know about me.

My name is Everlight Helios, these are my Chronicles and I am the first and last rebirthing Alicorn...

Author's Note

Let's see if I actually ever finish this...

This is the start of my own epic telling behind my OC that is called Everlight Helios.

The First Arc - Chapter 1: Creation and Development

The First Arc

Chapter 1

Creation and Development.

In a time long gone to the ponies that live today, there were many kinds of alicorns or winged unicorns for those unfamilair with the term. Wherein most of them could be categorized into three separate tiers, differentiating in physical and magical prowess:
The first and foremost was the God or Goddess tier, the mightiest amongst them, capable of moving celestial bodies, controlling time or whatever else that would present them as Gods towards the normal, everyday pony.
The second tier is the ones they call Forces, these are the ones that have control over a certain part of life, these are the four that control the seasons, the ones that control love, hatred and other emotions.
The third and last tier is called the Unknown, these are the ones that are either too weak in their magic power to be put in one of the other tiers, have such a strange power that nopony can identify it or are literally unknown to anypony.

It's a strange feeling of loneliness that envelops me as I start writing these stories. For it is with remorse that I think back to the time of my very first birthday. The celebrations of a new life being born, the great happiness within my parents, but most of all I think back to when alicorns were with the hundreds, instead of the few. But sadly, the age of alicorns was coming to a close, as I was one of the last alicorns to be born naturally. Not even the wisest of ponies really knew why no alicorns were birthed by a partnership between two of them. Some believed that the world itself was losing its magic.
But that didn't stop my parents! Two of the most respected and loved alicorns had finally birthed an alicorn foal.
My mother, blessed be her soul, she was the sweetest of all and one of the prettiest alicorns out there. I chuckle while writing this, as it is something that any filly would say about their mother, but I actually have proof of her sweetness! For she was called Golden Heart, the name both describing her cutie mark and her own personality.
In everypony she met she tried to find the good and love-able parts, which was also part of her magic power, both finding a pony's beliefs and seeing ways of changing their view of the world. She was what one could call a force of love and good nature towards everypony around her.
My father, known as a simple stallion, was very 'down to earth' according to those acquainted with him. Seeing as his name was Earth Bound, his cutie mark was that of a young sapling tree and his powers included empowering the life coming from the earth beneath his hooves to grow faster, I'm leaning towards the opinion that those ponies were right about him.
His physical appearance looked threatening, his sheer size alone is an indication of threat to most. But when you would get to know him, you would know that he's the most compassionate, funny and loveable stallion you can find.

As I said, the time of alicorns came to a close, not only because the birth numbers were skewed, but there was a war being fought as well. A war for independence, a war for justice and a war for the greater good as well.
A terrible tyrant had made his home on top of the very epicenter of magical energies in the world, the mountainside nowadays mostly known as Canterlot.
But that is of later importance, let us first continue on with my birth and youth.

From the moment I was first born, ponies told me that I was different. Every newborn was put into a harmless magical aptitude test and besides some little light I could shine from my horn, they didn't find anything very special or powerful about me, so they had categorized me into the Unknown category. The one reserved for those that are, quite frankly useless, especially in times of war.

Growing up was... Hard. Being an Unknown mostly meant not knowing where you belong in those times. Ponies weren't spiteful towards me, nor heckling me for being an Unknown, but the kids in my class. Sometimes they were just hurtful, even if they didn't mean to. "I feel sorry for you..." "What CAN you do?" "Show me what you got! Oh... Is that it?" I managed to teach myself to just laugh at it, but I still felt the stings in my heart whenever they said something.
So I mostly kept to myself growing up, I had a few friends, but none of them were really lasting friendships. And I learned two important things growing up. One: while my own magical prowess was easily blown over by a more powerful alicorn, my control over the magical forces of the world itself was never seen so strong before. And two: it did not matter what power I had within me, as long as I did good things with what I had.

My cutie mark depicts a small halo, most known for residing atop the heads of angels. I had gotten it on a particular fateful night. Our class was camping out in a nearby forest. While I didn't have a lot of power, I had the instinct to help ponies whenever I could from the very start. So when a few of my classmates had separated from the group and got lost, I went out and started looking for them, together with the rest of our class of course. It became really dark when the sun went down and the forest around us seemed to grow denser, but I did the one thing I could at the time and shone a light from my horn. After what seemed like ages, I suddenly bumped into my lost classmates, apparently led to my position because of my light. We came back to the camp and everypony as overjoyed, and after hearing what had happened, the ponies started calling me the little saving angel of light. And I knew from that moment on that I wanted to help each and every pony as much as I could, whenever I can. That was the moment I got my little halo, my cutie mark.

I was a quick learner, and my intelligence was above average, so soon enough I came to study the art of magic even faster than most ponies my age. The lessons I had were mostly about the different kinds of magic, how to utilize what is around us and creating spells through a rune circle drawn on the ground. Each and every rune had a different meaning and a different effect on the world around you, and I had to learn them all if I wanted to have at least some power over all the 'normal' alicorns around me.
One thing I also noticed, is that when I reached the size of a young teen filly, I stopped growing. I never grew bigger than a filly, which was quite hard to explain to more ponies than you'd want to know. This was also a source of ridicule, but I laughed at the jokes about my size because I myself found it absurd as well.
After one particular lesson about the essence of an alicorn, I learned that the size of an alicorn's body almost always reflects the magical prowess of that body. So with the low magical power within myself, it was no wonder I was so small all the time.

After years spent on studying and practicing and the like, I had become one of the brightest and most agile outer magic users my school of magic arts had ever seen. Drawing upon the magical flow of power drifting in the air itself felt the same as breathing to me and I had the greatest ease creating new spells from the collection of runes I now knew from Abyrtan to Zylexica.
And it was good that I had finished my education in magic as well because, at that time, the tyrant had forcefully taken the throne and sent out a message to all of ponykind.

"I am Discord and from here on out, I will be your one and only king! You're either with me, or you're against me... Those that oppose me will perish! The choice... Is yours..."
Thus said the self-proclaimed mad king, a creature who named himself Discord.

Author's Note

After what has been ages, I finally started writing for this again.
I wanna continue writing this, but finding the time is hard...

Chapter 2: Courage and Prejudice.

Chapter 2

Courage and Prejudice.

There was one more category of alicorn known in those times. They were known as The Prime Ones. They were the ones who had shaped this world into the form that it is now. There was Helia, the shaper of the forests and the skies; Naltor, the shaper of the rivers and seas; and Eden, the shaper of the earth and the mountains.
After their task of shaping the world was complete, both Helia and Naltor seemed to have disappeared from existence for unknown reasons. But Eden had taken it upon himself to ensure the beauty of the world would remain, so he rose to power and became the King of the Alicorns and ruled through many great and prosperous eons.

A great fear came to me after hearing Discord's telepathic message. I was gathered with some other ponies in my hometown and each of them had a frightened look on their face. "P-p-perish?" One said, "Who was that?" Another asked, "Does this mean... War?" A third added.
Of course, the ponies in my hometown never had been in a fight, nor had any training for that matter. My parents and I had lived at the very edge of the Kingdom, whereas the school of magic arts was right at the center of it. After my education and training was finished, I had decided to move back to my hometown and see in what way I could help the ponies there. A few weeks later, this message was spread telepathically to me, and, as I later found out, every pony in the entire Kingdom.

Within moments, a town meeting was called and the ponies gathered in the town's center. My parents stood at the very center with me by their side, urging ponies to calm down and listen to what they had to say.
"We know you're scared and fear for an age of war, but currently my husband, our child and I are the only alicorns in this town." My mother started.
"We desire peace and we shall keep living in peace, we are far away from the capital, where this message originated from. My wife and I have means of keeping this town hidden from invading ponies, you do not need to worry." My father added.
With the further explanation of their plans, my parents had soon calmed the ponies down. The town was right in the middle of a giant forest, so hiding it would be a simple matter of disguising the town as just another part of the forest. A runic circle was made in the very center of town and soon enough the town was enveloped in an auto-casting illusion spell.

After those few hectic hours, calmness had returned throughout the town, but I still had this feeling of uneasiness. As I sat at home with my parents at the dinner table, there was a complete silence as we were eating. With a growing tension in my stomach, I could hardly get anything down, when suddenly my mother looked at me with a smile.
"You're still worried about the rest of the Kingdom, huh?" She said, following with a soft shake of her head and a little chuckle.
"Always our little saving angel..." My father sighed.
I nodded with a slight blush on my face before looking determined "You've got this place covered, and even though I don't know if I could help in the time to come, I would still like to see if I can help in at least some way!"
My mother showed me a bright smile and nodded "We know honey, and we think you should go and see the princesses in their castle! We will always be here when you need us, but we can't put ourselves into this war like you can, we have to protect the ponies in this town!"
My father sighed deeply and looked at me with some sadness "You'll always be my little girl, but I know when you got your mind set on something, you won't falter. I also know that you're more than capable to protect yourself from any harm, but still, be careful out there, okay?"
I nodded and smiled softly "Thank you both for understanding, I know it must be hard to say goodbye again after I've been back for only a short time, but I have to go... I feel it in my bones that I must help the ponies in need..."
They both nodded in agreement and we had a lovely last dinner together and that night I felt the same fear for what's to come, but a strange excitement for it as well.

The morning after I had packed my bags, gave my parents a last hug and kiss before waving goodbye and setting off on my path to the princesses. By that I mean, I transcribed a spell in a runic circle I created with the light from my horn, creating a portal between my hometown and my destination, The Castle of The Two Sisters.
I knew that the capital, what nowadays is known as Canterlot, but back then was known as just The Capital, would be too dangerous of a place to go since this apparent new King Discord had taken the throne through force and there was a possibility that his followers had overtaken the city and that the princesses wouldn't be there.
My current residence, the little town of Ponyville, didn't even exist back then, it was just a barren land right next to The Capital. And on this land, it was where the Last Battle was fought... But more on that later.

During my years of study, I became acquainted with the princesses themselves, Celestia and Luna. They were born from our great king Eden and our lovely queen Tuila, but sadly, Tuila had to give her life to let Luna be born into this world. But once grown into young mares themselves, they had nothing but love for one another and for their father, who loved them back equally.
They had grown into bright and promising young mares as well, eventually taking part in their father's daily work for the kingdom by accepting the duty of the day and night cycles of the sun and moon respectively.
I became somewhat of a friend to them during the years of my training, but mostly out of an interest from them in how a pony with such a low amount of inner magic could rise so high in the ranks of our school. From that interest came knowledge and from that knowledge came a friendship. After I was done with my training and I went back to my parents, they went back to their current residence in the Castle of the Two Sisters. Which was away from their father, but always close enough to keep an eye on him and for him to keep an eye on them.
So I knew that if I wanted more information on what happened and still be safe from Discord, I would have to go there.

I arrived at some distance from the castle, so as not to invade in this time of crisis and having to explain that I was not some pony that would mean any harm to the Princesses.
As I walked towards the main entrance, through the dense forest that surrounded it, I started to ask myself some questions to prepare for when I would meet the two princesses.
Who was this Discord? What had he done with our king Eden? If he had beaten him, how? Wasn't Eden the strongest alicorn known to ponykind? And also, if he did, how can WE hope to stop him?
My train of thought was broken when I suddenly felt something behind me and I quickly jumped away from whatever it was. It turned out that my instincts saved my life because, only a moment later, something that seemed like a knife flew in and lodged itself into the tree, right where my head would be.
I quickly looked around to see who threw it before noticing that the knife suddenly went up in a smoke. A thick black smoke trailed off from it and seemed to mix itself with the overall shadows of the trees and their leaves. I instantly recognized it as shadow magic, and immediately wondered if Discord had somehow gotten information on the princesses and their castle and had sent an assassin to kill them before they could gather up an army against him.

I took a deep breath, shone my horn with magic and drew in power from the forest around me, creating a shield of light around me to keep myself from harm. I exclaimed to the unknown assailant "You cannot hurt me anymore! Reveal yourself and tell me your intentions!"
I suddenly heard a slow clopping of hooves from behind a nearby tree and soon enough from behind it came a black-furred pony. I quickly analyzed her and saw that she was an alicorn, like me, but about twice my size, a size that would actually be considered 'normal' for a mare my age. Her fur was a deep, dark black and there was something strange about her wings, they seemed to slowly move around a bit while she had them folded, each row somehow moving on their own and not all as one. Her mane and tail were a dark gray from what I could see, just like the tip of her hooves, but what had alarmed me the most was her eyes, a deep and bright, almost glowing red, with just a slit of black which must have been her pupil. She looked at me with those eyes, but it felt like they pierced right through me.
"Well, well, well," the mare said as she slowly walked closer to me "what have we here? It seems like we have a little lost filly in our hooves, huh? Shouldn't you be at home, little one? I'm sure your parents must be worried, heh heh heh..."
"For your information," I quickly replied "I am a lot older than you might think and very capable of taking care of myself AND you! Now tell me who you are and what you're doing here, or else!"
"Or else what?" She said with a smirk "You're gonna hide in your bubble some more? Are you gonna run to your mommy and cry? We don't need weaklings like you where we're going, so get lost before you get hurt!"
I growled, "That's it!" And ran at her as fast as I could, my shield still intact.

She chuckled and summoned another knife seemingly from the shadows and threw it at me, expecting my 'novice' shield to shatter at the very touch of it "You got lucky the fir-" she started, before the knife poofed and fizzled away against the shield "-st time... What the-"
I had reached her and tackled her hard, forcing her to fall on her back as I stood up on top of her chest and summoned a small spear of hard light which I pointed at her neck "Who are you?! Are you in cahoots with that Discord? Are you here to assassinate the princesses?! Tell me now, or I swear to the goddess that I will shove this thing right through your brain and deep fry it!" I had managed to say this all without giving away my intense trembling shock of adrenaline that was shaking me to my very core.
I had never done something like before! I had been in a few training fights, but I had found that combat was not really for me, unless absolutely needed. My frustration at her words must have awakened some primal instincts in me and forced my body to do things that I never expected it could! It was exciting and frightening at the same time. On one hoof, I had taken control of a situation where I was almost certain that it would end badly, on the other, I had done so without really meaning to. I had gained and lost control at the same time.

As she was tackled, the air in her lungs was forced out harshly and she looked at me with big eyes of surprise, suddenly putting her hooves up with a panic in her voice "Woah, Woah, Woah! Calm down, little one, I'm not an enemy I swear! I'm part of Luna's personal guard, sent to scout the area and look for anything suspicious! My name is Tracie, Tracie Abbadon!" She chuckled nervously "Holy crap, you really surprised me there! Hehehe..."
I snarled at her again and poked her neck a little with my spear "How can I trust you? You use shadow magic! What if this is some trick?!"
She looked at me with a raised eyebrow "Hey, I'm the guard here, I should be the one asking you those same questions! And are you saying you don't trust me because I use shadow magic and all dark magic is inherently evil? Because that's just plain rude! Luna, the princess of the moon uses dark magic all the time!"
I gulped a bit and started to fear that maybe she was telling the truth "I-I know that! I was friends with both sisters not too long ago! S-Sorry?" I shook my head and poked her with my spear again "W-wait, no! This could still be a trick to fool me and get close to the princesses!"
Tracie sighed a bit "Then we're a bit stuck here, I'm afraid... Look, you don't seem like a bad kid-"
"I'm not a kid!"
"You don't seem like a bad MARE, with the intention of protecting the princesses, so how about this? You keep that spear pointed at my neck, but let me turn around and get up while you stay on my back. I will walk towards the castle and ask somepony there to confirm my story. If at any point, you feel like you cannot trust me or you need to defend the princesses from me, you can pierce that spear right through my throat, alright?"
I looked at her with some suspicion and thought it over in my head, concluding that it would be best "Well, okay then, but don't try anything sudden or funny, you hear?"

Tracie nodded and soon enough I slowly moved off her chest, she turned over and I climbed up on her back, all the while holding my spear of light very close to her neck. She then got up and started walking towards the castle. Soon enough it came into view and with it, a few guards patrolling the castle as well. Soon enough, I yelled at one of them "Hey! I found this dangerous looking alicorn nearby! Could somepony help?"
As it so happened, one of the closest guards was also part of Luna's guard and looked at us with quite some confusion on his face as he pointed his spear towards them "Uhm, captain? What's that young alicorn doing with that spear against your neck?"
Before I could protest against the 'young' comment again, Tracie chuckled and smirked: "Not to worry, Clyde, just tell the MARE very clearly and exactly what my name is and who I am to you..."
Clyde nodded slowly "Uhm, okay... Your name is Tracie Abbadon, you are the captain of Luna's personal guard, and therefore you are my higher-up, ma'am. But, can I ask why and how a filly is currently upholding what seems to be a powerful shield and a spear of light threateningly against your neck?"
I huffed and at this point had figured that the mare's story was true so I hopped down from her back and fizzed out the shield and spear "For your information-"
"She's not a filly, she is a lot older than you think she is and she is more than capable of taking care of herself AND me, as she clearly showed me!" Tracie took the words from me and ended with a wink towards me and a chuckle to boot.
Dang it, now she started to make me like her as well!

Clyde shook his head and sighed "Okay, that's all fine and dandy, but what's her name? Where did she come from? Why is she here? Have you asked her that yet, captain?"
Tracie chuckled some more "Hahaha, nope! Didn't get the time with the spear in my neck and all that!" She then looked at me expectantly.
I stood there for quite a few moments, the situation only slowly getting to me "U-Uhm... Well... Uhm..."
"Who are you? Where are you from? And why are you here, little one?" Tracie tried to help.
"I'm not little! I'm just vertically impaired!" I yelled out without thinking, getting a laugh from both Clyde and Tracie. I huffed and pouted "My name is Everlight Helios, I came from a small village on the edge of the kingdom, I teleported here using a runic portal and I came here because I heard the telepathic message from this Discord, who claimed himself the new king... Fearing danger in the capital, I thought I'd come here and see if the princesses were here to ask for plans on what to do..."
Both Clyde and Tracie stood there, with a look of wonder. "That's... Impressive! And very smart of you to come here, miss Helios..." Tracie said with a smile on her face "The princesses are actually building an army as a counter-offensive against the... King... Wait, did you say Discord was a new king?"

I nodded "Yeah? I presumed something happened to Eden or he did something to the King... Why? What happened exactly?"
Both Clyde and Tracie looked at each other with worry before Clyde left to patrol the premises some more "I'll leave this one to you, captain..."
Tracie looked at me with what I can only guess was compassion "Everlight... King Eden... He... Something drove him mad! Eden wasn't defeated by this Discord... He IS Discord! We're not certain how, or why it happened; maybe it was a madness for power, maybe the loss of his wife because of his daughters, maybe his duties as a ruler overwhelmed him. Fact is, we don't know, but we do know that we have to stop him, or else he will destroy everything and everypony we know and love!"
This news was somehow an even greater shock than thinking Eden was defeated by Discord. Now, one of the greatest and strongest alicorns that had ever lived had somehow succumbed to madness, and with it, brought chaos and evil to the land.

What would become of the kingdom? How did the princesses react to their own father turning on them like that? I was hesitant for the answers and too scared to ask.
"Let's just introduce you to the princesses, see if your story about you knowing them is true as well!" Tracie calmly continued and started trotting into the castle.
I meekly followed, still wrapping my head around this whole ordeal I now apparently became a part of.

Author's Note

Woah, a second chapter, only a few days after finishing the first and at least twice as long?!
In all seriousness though, I hope everypony is liking the story so far and will keep reading!
My plans for this whole thing are quite big and maybe a bit ambitious, but I actually want to write this whole thing down, cuz I've been keeping it in my head for way too long.
And really, these first two chapters are really only just the start, so be prepared for a LOT more, when I find the time and will to write that is.

Chapter 3: Pride and Power

Chapter 3

Pride and Power.

There were many forms of magic, but only 2 ways of gathering magic power, from within oneself or from the world itself. These 2 different techniques were called 'inner' magic and 'outer' magic, respectively.
When calling upon one's own power, it's a simple matter of thought turned into practice. Think of moving an object and it happens, think of placing yourself in a whole different area and you teleport. If your magic power is proficient that is.
When calling upon the magic of the world around you, one of two things are needed. Either an absorption of that power into a catalyst, most often being the horn of the magic user, or a runic circle, a complex gathering of symbols that describe the spell, the who, what and where of it, so to speak.
When absorbing, it is the same as using one's own power, thought turned to practice. When using a runic circle one needs to know the exact meaning and implication of each rune and its combination with other runes. For teleportation, one would use a simple description like 'me, teleport, 10 feet north' which would translate into 4 runes, Melamber for me, Triantrin for teleport, Sindrakin for 10 feet and Hemlikna for North.

Tracie brought me before the princesses, who were busy speaking with one another about what to do next but who were happy to see me anyways.
"Our little Light has returned, it seems... Good to see you!" Celestia said with a smile.
"Sad to see you in such dire times, little Light." Luna replied.
"Little Light?" Tracie questioned with a little smirk on her face.
"That's a nickname they gave me, and they're the only ones who can say that you hear?" I quickly retorted to Tracie before bowing before the two sisters "It is indeed dire times, Luna... But I am still glad to see the both of you in good health!" I stood up and trotted closer to the table where they were seated "Now, onto more serious matters, what happened and what are we to do?"
"Little Light..." Celestia started before I raised a hoof towards her to stop her and said "This will be too dangerous for you, right? Listen, I know I look small and incapable of doing much, but I took down miss Abbadon over here with relative ease."
"You just surprised me!" Tracie complained.
"That's exactly my point, none of the enemies I've faced during my training ever suspected what I was capable of... And trust me when I say this to you Tracie, that was just a smidgen of the power I'm actually capable of controlling." I continued.
The three of them looked at each other before Celestia nodded "You've proven yourself to be quite the capable fighter and thinker, little Light. I had forgotten how much helping others meant to you. Please, join me as my own second in command, much like Tracie is to my sister."
I nodded and sat down at the table they were all seated and asked once more "Now, again, what happened and what should we do?"

They quickly explained that their father, while knowing that his daughters would live where his wife would die, never really accepted that fact. He had kept these feelings locked away somewhere deep inside his own mind, but as we moved on and went to live in this castle and away from him, the years of solitary ruling got to him. He came in contact with vile magic, dead-set on getting his wife back from the dead, furious at the two sisters for taking her away from him. It culminated in a bizarre transformation, his body becoming more and more like his mind; chaotic and without logic. And thus the creature now known as Discord was created. A mixture of all kinds of creatures put into one.
"Wait, I thought just the size of an alicorn was linked to their magical power?" I asked.
"No, little Light, the very mind and reason of an alicorn are linked to their magical power, and if their body has enough magic, it can transform beyond any normal means... I fear that we have lost our father to this madness, and only Discord remains..." Celestia replied.
"Don't say that! We can still save him! He just... Needs some help finding his way..." Luna quickly said with some panic in her voice.
Celestia sighed and nodded softly "Perhaps, my sister, maybe this new power we have found in the catacombs can help us with that."
"New power?" I queried.
"Yes, the very reason we built this castle in this location, deep down in the ground we found an ancient cavern with a crystalline tree. The tree itself echoes with great magic power, and we found that it responds to things of good nature. Laughter, love, compassion, honesty, all these good virtues of life seem to strengthen it. While anger, crying and pain seem to weaken it." Celestia answered once again.
"We have called it the Tree of Harmony and hope to use its power to bring back our father from his path of darkness." Luna continued.
"But it could also be the power that vanquishes him, right?" Tracie asked with a little concern.
"Yes." Both the sisters answered. "And if that happens, we are willing to accept it." Celestia continued "But let us focus on what will be happening right now."

Within moments of his message to the entire kingdom, he followed it up with a siege of the Capital, everypony that lived there was given the same choice, join him or be eliminated. Many joined his side out of fear for their families and loved ones, others joined to get what they always desired, power, more others joined because they believed that this was still their king and wanted to fight for him.
The two sisters had created a counter-movement against Discord, they called themselves the Protectors of Harmony, and those believing in the good of ponykind and wanting peace back in the land joined their cause.
After this initial meeting, we had decided that the two sisters would try and gather more information on this Tree of Harmony and see if we could utilize its power, all the while me and Tracie would head out there with several groups of the Protectors to free several different villages and cities from Discord's reign. This led to sometimes very fierce battles with the battalions of Discord. And every battle was a loss of life for both sides.

We found that where Celestia and Luna had me and Tracie on their sides as their right-hoof mares, so too did Discord have a particular mare at his side. She was known as the Force of Chaos, and we found that her name was Sheilla Shortfuse. She had what seemed to be a near infinite amount of magical power, drawing from both within herself and the world around her and she used one of the most chaotic and erratic magic known to ponykind, the explosive kind. Her whole body was covered with strange red glowing lines and from it, she could fire what looked like electric shots that would explode on impact. A direct hit would instantly mutilate anypony, and she could fire them in rapid succession.

Years upon years it took, sadly. No side had a claim on victory, whenever we had conquered over one part of the Kingdom, we had to surrender another. Through these years of fighting, me and Tracie had become almost inseparable, I was on the front lines of attack as she would sneak past and surprise them from behind. We had complemented each other's weaknesses and strengthened each other in that way. We came to be known as The Force of Harmony, where one was dark and stealthy, the other was light and direct, working together in harmony.
Every battle against The Force of Chaos, we came to a stalemate, both Sheilla and we were completely drained of our magic at the end of every bout, almost always being the last surviving fighters of those brutal skirmishes. But with each battle, we knew a little more, with each loss, we had gained a little knowledge, with each victory, we came a little closer.

Only after many years of study had the princesses found the essence of what was needed to bring about the fruits of the Tree of Harmony, 6 ever-shining gemstones we called the Elements of Harmony. Laughter, Friendship and Honesty were given to Celestia in the form of a crown, a necklace and a harness. Loyalty, Kindness and Generosity were given to Luna in the same forms.
Armed with these weapons and the last bastion of The Protectors of Harmony, they challenged Discord to a final battle to end the war once and for all. It was set to be on the outskirts of The Capital.
It was there that after many eons the village of Ponyville was founded, and it was there that the Final Battle would take place. Through the endless battles, nearly all the alicorns had lost their lives, together with the unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies fighting with them.

As I had written a few chapters ago, I was the last naturally born alicorn, and this Great War was the main reason for that. And after this Final Battle, only the Princesses remained as the last surviving alicorns.
For it was at this Final Battle, I had found a way to stop the Force of Chaos, and it was through this method that I had lost both Tracie's and my own life.

Chapter 4: Wisdom and Promise

Chapter 4

Wisdom and Promise.

The Great War ended with The Final Battle. It was this war that had ended the life of each and every alicorn within the realm of Equestria, save for a select few that had either survived the battle or had stayed hidden from the war itelf.
After the battle was fought, an agreement was made between the survivors. Ensure that future generations would never fall into darkness again, and keep this complete disregard of ponykind hidden from them as well. None should know about the atrocities that happened in these times.
A strange counterintuitive agreement, but it worked. There was peace in Equestria for several centuries as both sisters reigned magnificently. Soon, a new generation of ponies was born and the princesses made sure that history would never repeat itself.
Until it did. With Luna. Banished. To the moon. But... that is a story for or of another time.

There we stood. On one side of the field we had the Protectors of Harmony, or what was left of them at least, on the other side of the field were the Soldiers of Chaos.
Both armies were simply staring at each other from across the field. As if they were waiting for some sign to tell them to end it once and for all.
The strange creature responsible for everything that happened in the past few decades of war stepped forward and spoke. "Now, now, my little fillies, daddy is quite upset with you, but if you surrender now, I'm sure we can come to a certifiably peaceful compromise!" He said, with a playful grin on his face.
Celestia stepped forward and exclaimed with a booming voice "We are not your little fillies anymore!"
Then Luna did the same and followed up with "We will never surrender! And with the power of Harmony..."
"YOU. WILL. BE. STOPPED!" They both exclaimed simultaneously and with that cry for the attack, the Protectors of Harmony charged forward, ready to fight to the last pony. The Soldiers of Chaos soon followed up with a cry of their own and charged into battle as well.
And then, all hell broke loose on the battlefield.

The night before, we had taken all the information we had on the enemy and gave each and everypony an assigned pony for this battle. They would find their target and end them as quickly as possible before going to help others with theirs. Our numbers and strength were almost even, but we knew that Discord would need to be dealt with by the princesses and the Force of Chaos Sheilla should be dealt with by me and Tracie, the Force of Harmony.
Me and Tracie devised a plan to get Sheilla away from the whole fight since she was the most... Collateral of all our enemies. When that succeeded, we would do anything in our power to stop Sheilla from returning to the battlefield.
And so, as the two armies clashed, we initiated our plan and I tackled Sheilla with Tracie as my shadow. Then, Tracie sucked us into the shadow and we were teleported to a location somewhere in the middle of the Everfree forest.

Sheilla immediately threw me off her with an angered growl, as would be expected when a filly-sized mare trying to keep down an actual mare. After the many battles with her, we had come to know at least some part of how she works. One strange occurrence was that her hair shows her level of anger. Complete green for no anger at all, complete red for an extreme amount of anger.
I landed a few feet away and quickly got up to see another unseen emotion on Sheilla's face, fear. "Where's papa?" She asked, with her hair slowly turning red "What did you do? Where are we? Papa needs me!"
Tracie quickly appeared next to, and with both our faces in a confused expression we asked "Papa?!"
Sheilla nodded with a huff "Yes! Papa Discord! He was the one who made me, duh? He made me from the sweetest cotton candy cloud and the darkest, deepest chocolate he could find!" She then looked a bit off into the distance "At least... That's what he told me..." Her expression suddenly changed to pure anger as her hair started glowing red "Now where is he?!"
Me and Tracie looked at each other with concern "That actually explains a lot." Tracie quipped.
"It doesn't matter... Stick to the plan!" I said to her before speeding off towards Sheilla, charging up my magic with a deep breath. I narrowly escaped the first blast escaping Sheilla's hooves by jumping up and over her with some help of my wings. Tracie quickly followed after me, but evaded to the side, staying on the opposite of my position to Sheilla. The both of us pointed our horns to the ground and with a sudden spark of magic, a runic circle appeared between us, encapsulating Sheilla within its binding spell. Sheilla was forced to lay flat on the ground as the locks of binding formed over her hooves.

Both me and Tracie were focusing all our efforts on keeping this mad pony under control.
"Please," I pleaded "just stay down and nopony needs to get hurt!" Only getting a maniacal laughter from the mare in binding "Nopony needs to get hurt?!" She laughed some more as her entire mane and tail became red and started glowing menacingly "You're gonna be the ones getting hurt after I burst outta here!" With a loud roar of anger, she started to struggle and fight against the binding magic keeping her down.
Both me and Tracie winced at the sudden outburst of power working against us but managed to keep it under control still. "You can't escape, you idiot, it's two against one here!" Said Tracie "Even your power has its limits, you know?!"
This only created more fury within the mad mare. "It does not!" Sheilla roared as her magic seems to get even stronger "My power can reach the strength of even beyond that of GODS! There is no way you two can stop ME!" The binds around her hooves seemed to be weakening, forced by the brute power working against them.
I noticed that my power was fading and soon enough I was forced down with a whin "T-Tracie..." I whimpered "She's getting too strong..." Tracie nodded and seemed to get worked up as well "Yes, indeed, little Light. I think we need to go for plan B..."

Elsewhere, on the main battlefield itself, it seemed that the only beings still left standing were Discord and the Princesses. Neither army was left, either through mutual destruction, or a complete draining of life force, both sides had suffered heavy losses, and now it all came down to this last confrontation.
"Ooh~! Seems like I'm the only one left of my friends." Discord quipped with a grin "Oh, how sad it is to lose friends to a bunch of bad seeds." He shrugged it off "Oh well, I guess the game's over then. Come on, my fillies, time to go home and eat dinner!"
Both Celestia and Luna glared at him with utter disbelief "You think this is a game?!" Luna exclaimed with anger "Ponies lost their lives because of you, hundreds of Alicorns have perished! You almost extinguished our entire species?!" Celestia added with a booming voice "And you still see this as a game?!"
Discord looked somewhat confused at the both of them "Why, yes, of course! I mean, neither of us can kill each other, we're too powerful! I mean, this was all just a fun pass time, fighting each other, while neither of us could actually win in the end! A pointless, mindless fighting, just to keep our minds busy, how else would you go against boredom?"
Celestia shook her head with a deep frown "You are completely insane, and not anywhere close to what our father used to be... This ends, now! Luna!"
They both gathered the power of the Elements of Harmony and with a great explosion of colour, their horns shone their combined magic onto Discord. Slowly, the strange creature turned to stone but not before uttering a last "Oh, bugger..."

At the same time, Sheilla exploded with a mighty fury "PAPA! What happened to papa?! I can't feel him anymore! Let me go! This is your final warning, you pieces of absolute dogsh-" "NOW, Everlight!" Tracie interrupted her. I quickly chanted a spell in an ancient dead and forbidden language, which would roughly translate to:

"With these words, I bind you to me...
With these runes, I banish us three...
From the light into the shadows, from chaos to harmony...

Hear these words, oh power of yore...
And drag us to the land of evermore...
Let there be no strife anymore..."

With a great eruption of magic power, the three of us were enclosed in a vortex. Pure magic power was rushing all around us, with no possibility of escaping anymore.
"What's happening?!" Sheilla exclaimed with a sense of dread rising up. "What did you do?"
Tracie seemed to relax a bit and trot around to my nearly unconscious body to pick it up and gently hold "You see, we were tasked with stopping you, no matter what the cost." She started to explain, as the magical power rushing around started to twist and rotate faster. "We didn't think those binds would keep you down for long, to begin with. But you were such a great threat to ponykind that we deemed it necessary to end you. Since our combined magical power wouldn't be great enough, Everlight looked upon some ancient magic. Magic that would bind souls together and magic that would relinquish one's own soul to the afterlife." She chuckled and waved a hoof around "That is what's happening right now. All three of our souls are linked and Everlight has relinquished her soul to the afterlife, we are to follow her there!"
Sheilla started to worry as the rushing magic grew smaller and smaller. She tried to teleport away, but couldn't; she tried to slam her way out, but couldn't; in fact, none of her magic seemed to work "This is insane! Why would you agree to this?! Why did you need to be linked as well?!"
Tracie smirked a bit and gently nuzzled my head "This little Light can only use that, Light Magic... And this was a combination of Dark and Light Magic. She needed my specific magical power to be able to do what she did. And besides, we've grown quite fond of one another, why wouldn't I help stop an overpowered idiot like you?"
Soon enough, the strange magical power enveloped Tracie and my body "See you on the other side!" Tracie yelled with a chuckle before disappearing into nothingness.
Sheilla roared in fury "NO! This is not the end!" She slammed her hooves against the enclosing magic force "I will not be stopped! This can't be the end! I am invincible!" Soon enough the rushing magic became so small that she could only stand upright with her hooves in the air "This is NOT the last you've seen of me! This, I promise you, Everlight and Tracie!" With a last roar of protest, the magic closed in on her and soon enough seemed to vanish into thin air, leaving nothing but a strange open area in the very center of the Everfree Forest.

After an exact lifetime of 100 years, very young for an alicorn, this is where my life had ended. On my birthday, no less. But as I soon found out, it was but the first of many lives I was born into. You see, there was one aspect of my magic, that I never knew. My soul has the ability to be reborn into a new body. But that will all become clear in the next Arc, for now, this is...

The End
of the first Arc

Author's Note

There, that's the end of the first of many Arcs.
I have plans for many more, don't worry!
Each arc will feature at least 4 chapters.
Hope you guys keep reading!