Celestia did not land. It was rather hard to land with one broken wing and another with a spear of stone rammed through it. Still, somehow, the solar diarch managed to make even a brute force crash landing look almost graceful.
The alicorn lay in the dirt for a precious few seconds, just enjoying the sensation of drawing air into her lungs. Still, she had things to attend to—things like the red centaur that loomed over her now. She pushed herself up to her feet. The fight had gone on long enough that even her legs were trembling with exertion, her immaculate white coat mussed and foaming.
“The scholar. The night sky. The purest love. Only you remain, Celestia.” His voice was rough and grating, like having your ears dragged over gravel. “The jester has fled. I’ll hunt him down, eventually. But for now? You. You’ve lost, day star.” Tirek chuckled low in his throat as he walked closer towards her. With the power of three alicorns, he stood well over twice her size.
Where she was battered, favoring one leg, with numerous cuts leaking golden blood that hissed as it hit the ground—the dust and dirt it fell on fusing to glass—he was almost untouched. Bar one or two scratches, only one of which showed the red of blood, he looked unscathed.
“You locked me away, day star, for a thousand years. And then your student put me back in Tartarus for five hundred more.” He growled as he stopped, clenching and unclenching his hands, a wide smile curling his lips into a sadistic mask. “When I’ve sucked the magic from you, Celestia, you go where I was. You, your sister, the pink one. You three can rot amidst the sulphur and flame.”
She looked up at him, and still she managed to look regal. “And what of Twilight?” She asked, and by her tone it might have been tea in her study instead of amidst pitched battle.
His smile twisted further, and he sneered at her. “I’ve had a long time to think of my revenge, day star. Your punishment, for locking me away? You rot, knowing exactly what happens to your student. Hers, for thwarting me?” He laughed again, and the sound was truly vile. “She gets to be my little pet. And I will visit such torments on her while I suck this land dry of magic.”
Celestia closed her eyes, a pained expression on her face. “…So be it.” The solar diarch said softly, sounding strangely sad. “The fight ends now.”
He picked her up by the barrel, his hand curling most of the way around her. She felt ribs crunch, but did not cry out, even as her blood hissed and burned his skin—he ignored the pain. “Yes, it is.” He sneered. “Don’t worry. She won’t die. Though she might wish it.” He brought her up to eye level. “Any last words before I send you to Tartarous?”
She opened her eyes then, and were he not already convinced of his victory, Tirek might have noticed the strange glow that burned behind them. “Yes. The first words my mother ever taught me. Would you like to hear them, Tirek?”
His sneer twisted into a rictus of pain as he tried to drop her, but it was too late. “What are you doing?”
“My first words…” She smiled and spoke then for the third time since she had been created.
“Let there be light.”
The alicorn of the sun let loose a sigh that was consumed by the roar of solar fire expanding outward. For a few brief seconds, a second sun shone on Equestria, before the plasma began to draw back, slowly shrinking until it coalesced into an equine form.
Celestia ex Solaris, Unconquered Sun, shook her pristine mane and flexed her perfect wings, hovering above a sea of molten slag. An exertion of will sped up the natural process, and she set down once it had cooled. She looked out and saw the streaks as three mantles of power went back to where they belonged. Around her stretched a glittering bowl of glass, reflecting her sun’s rays back into the sky in a display that would blind many, despite its beauty. She shook her head and sighed once more. In a few years, it would crack and shatter into a jagged desert. After that, life might—slowly—return to it.
She could not see even the ash of her enemy. It was gone, atomized, along with any chance of…but no matter.
She turned away and leapt up, snapping her wings back. She needed to check on her friends and family.
The strange machine beside the hospital bed went "Beep".
A dark blue alicorn stepped into the private room, slipping herself into a chair beside the bed, and it's contents, as she did most every evening.
The strange machine went "Beep".
She sighed softly, one surprisingly soft hoof stroking the thinned, straw colored mane.
A quiet, pained voice said, "...Why did you have to grow old? Why would you ever do something so....silly. "
The odd machine...what was it again? Ah..heart monitor. Such strange wonders, in this new age...
It went "beep".
"...My sister tried to warn, me I think." Said the dark alicorn quietly. "With her...stories. I thought her but bragging, speaking of her....lovers. Paramours. I think she was trying to warn me in her....own way. "
She smiled slightly, curling her neck to lightly nuzzle against a faded scarlet coat. "Or maybe she was...she sounded so happy, in those stories. Maybe...trying to tell me how...wonderful it would be. And it was...so so wonderful. " She giggled, softly. "I still remember the shocked faces when I had you escort me to the Gala...oh...so many nobles, with the monocles dangling. Their princess with...well. They didn't expect someone like you."
She shifted the chair, so she could lay her head against his chest, still smiling at the memories as her horn bobbed from his slow, steady breathing.
"Especially someone so...direct. Ahh...you bucked that officious little baron from...I forget. Manehatten? I think. Bucked him right off the balcony when he sneered, and called me "The Nightmare Princess". She sighed. "The gardeners kept getting the giggles before they could pull him out of that rosebush...."
The machine went beep.
One leg came up, draping over his stomach, as she resisted the urge to curl up next to him. Not enough room on the bed...she'd have to fix that, she thought. Get him a custom bed so she could at least lie next to him....
Her horn stopped bobbing.
"I love you..." She whispered softly, smiling. "I haven't loved anyone this much in...so long. I--" She paused, eyes widening for a fracture of a second.
The strange machine was silent. It had been for a short time. As if it had been waiting for her to notice, a long, flat, whining note filled the air.
Princess Luna curled up against him--face buried in his still warm coat as she began to sob softly.
Author's Note
An older piece I intended on expanding. It's not great, but it's still a piece I'm fond of.