Empire of the Sun

Chrysalis’ back shattered into millions of pieces, instantly numbing the pain in protection. She managed to feel the ground snap up upon impact, throwing up rocks and tar into the air at high speeds. Vision blurring into shades of purple and yellow, she stared blankly up at the form above her.

Sirius A’s horn was glowing nonstop of a levitation spell, and it wasn't until an hour passed by since he started, that the effect of whatever he was levitating became obvious. The Sun was becoming brighter, tinting the world in yellow-orange hue. The temperature was slowly baking the world in a gradual heat increase.

Somehow, Sirius A was getting more powerful. More of his white coat was burning away, revealing his skeleton even further, which was now being stained darker shades of brown. His mane had ignited into a raging blue fire, matching the intensity of his crystals, that were flickering quickly, now.

The heat was so intense, the bubble surrounding the Canterlot Castle had evaporated, freeing the stone curse on everypony inside.

Chrysalis was stunned for a good moment, long enough to witness Princess Luna jet up behind him, wings expanded fully to stop her sudden ascension, and launch another full attack blast. It flashed upon impact, but it did not harm him.

A charged attack started to develop on his horn, and a “head’s up!” from Shining Armor gave Luna enough time to put up a force field.

The blast from Shining’s horn projected to Cadence’s horn who was racing towards Luna. The Princess of Love managed to reinforce Luna’s shield with the support of Shining’s magic just before the impact. Sirius’ attack made contact with the shield, flashing in a bright explosion, but thankfully, the shield remained unharmed.

“Thanks, dear,” Cadence called down below, as Luna flew somewhere out of sight.

A bearded unicorn came into Chrysalis’ sight, “Queen Chrysalis, do you need assistance?”

She shook her head and stood up, muscles screaming, unable to feel her wings.

The most High Unicorns of Equestria in their starry robes surrounded her, and for a second it was amusing to see how short they were compared to her.

“Where have you guys been?” she muttered, unhappy.

“We’ve been communicating with the Cloudsdale and other kingdoms for the past hour. The entire planet is feeling the effects of this battle,” the one who offered help said, looking at the intense exchanges between the Princesses and Sirius.

“The Windigoes, not seen for centuries, have gathered in the Night on the other side of the Earth, unable to make a blizzard in the heat,” one other commented, “but those Kingdoms are coming here, anyway.”

“It was reported that the Dragons and the Gryphons will be arriving from the Western skies,” another said, pointing to the empty Western sky, “The Cloudsdale Pegasai will be arriving from the North,” he pointed the Northern Sky now.

Chrysalis shook her head, “How are entire armies supposed to fight one pony? This is not a war, this is not a battle, this is a fight.”

“We cannot deny anypony’s help,” the original unicorn said, “As unfortunate it may see—”

“Watch out!” Shining Armor’s voice caught their attention to a raging fireball shooting towards them. Chrysalis and the unicorns’ horns lit up at the same time, making a protective bubble that took the impact.

When it cleared, they went back to talking.

“As I was saying, it's unfortunate we do not have a bigger enemy to fight, but, his strength cannot remain forever,” the gray unicorn pushed up his glasses.

Chrysalis stared back at the battle

The Equestrian and Crystal Royal Army were lined up in their own groups, waiting for their command.

The commander would shout, “Wait!”, hold for an opening, and then thrust his hoof down and shout, “Fire!” The Celestian Royal guards fired simultaneously at Sirius in many bright yellow beams. After dodging an attack from a Princess, he set up a shield that blocked them all, and continued his maneuvers.

“We have to stop him from at least moving the Sun,” Chrysalis said, “to buy us more time.”

“What do you think we’re here for?” one of the unicorn wizards responded. Her eyes widened, “I thought you were here to fight!”

They shook their heads, “We are to stop, or at least slow the progression of the Sun coming closer. That is what our Princess Luna has commanded of us.”

“We need more firepower… our strength must grow as his does,” Chrysalis said, “And I have an idea.”

“Well if you need us,” the one with the glasses said, “We will be preoccupied. Do not disturb us. Sun moving is very difficult for us, even together.”

“I do need you,” she said, “And you're not gonna like it.”

“We you told that information so you could understand what it is happening, not so you could command us,” his voice became sharp, “Our Princess is our leader, not you.”

“It's funny you mentioned Luna,” Chrysalis said, ignoring his protest completely, “And it's great you guys can move the Sun… there's a much easier job for you that will have a great effect than attempting to undo what Sirius is doing.” She smiled a twisted smile,

“We must raise the stakes as he does.”

It took them a minute to figure it out.

Then their eyes became wide, “You cannot possibly mean—”

“Dare I say this place is going to be an even worse nightmare if you don't,” she hissed, “Let’s get this party started.” They looked among each other nervously.

“I bet you're feeling pretty stupid for killing Sombra the way you did,” she said, rising into the air, “I would say let’s release the big guy below, but that might actually work.”

One of them didn't get it.

“Wait, so then let's do it!” The one with the glasses shook his head wildly, “Tierk with that kind of power would be unstoppable… we’re better off handling this without him.”

Chrysalis let out her terrible, double laugh and kept rising, “Make that Moon blacker than the blackest night of every terror you've ever had, combined.” With that, she called her changelings.

They let out a green blast that shot straight into the air, but curved down toward him, and wrapped around his body, restricting his movement.

“What?” he looked confused, restricted by every changeling in her army.

“FIRE!” came the first command.

“FIRE!” came the second command.

“FIRE!” came the third command.

The lights were beautiful, between a mix of sickly green, crystal blue and solar yellow.

With renewed strength and a fresh scheme, the Queen of the Changelings shook off the burn her wings were beginning to feel and charged Sirius A head on.

***

“I'm assuming you're from the place he is currently terrorizing,” the “Saviour” asked her.

“If it is Sirius you refer to, then yes,” Celestia said cautiously.

The alicorn’s eyes drifted to her cutie mark.

“You are their ruler,” she noticed, “A yellow sun. One, or two?”

Celestia stared at the burning bright pair of blue Suns, and then back down, “One. The One.”

The Saviour nodded, “He's going to destroy the planet, you know.”

Celestia grit her teeth, “I gathered.”

The Saviour sat down, very unconcerned, “He's mad,” she said, making a circle motion with her hoof beside her head, “He was pretty crazy before he was Sirius, too.”

That spiked her interest, “He was not born like that?”

“No m’am,” she shook her head, “As far as his appearance is concerned.” She took a deep breath, staring out of one of the broken windows at the far, barren landscape, “But it wasn't the Cataclomn crystals that drove him to act like that… that was always the pony he was. The Crystals gave him the power act on his will. Once he did, there was no turning back. It didn't matter if he regretted it afterward, or was apologetic for it.

One planet wasn't enough to fill the void.”

The Sun princess became very still, a relaxing calm settling in her as she heard “The Savior” speak.

“It will never be enough. No matter how well or frequently he parades his power, he must, act on it… let his rage consume him. Let his hate condone the little good in him. Sirius A, is a pony who has a thirst for power,” she said, “Supernova Sirius is the destroyer of worlds, end of civilization, and bringer of Destruction.”

Immediately, despite not knowing the pony before her, she connected the one thing they had in common: Supernova Sirius.

“Why did he deceive us?” she asked, not expecting her to know, “He made so much effort to appear normal. What was the point?”

The Alicorn laughed, which sparked a bit of irritation.

“He tries. He tries to stay away from it. He tries to hide, to fight… but no avail. No matter how far he thinks he can get away from it, he’ll always fall right back down. It's consuming. Can you will away a disease? Can you mentally fight a poison?”

“It's still in his head.”

“It's in his heart. This is why he does not stop,” she got serious, “No more than you can give up your Sun raising. The role you took on is yours, to you, and to everypony. The role he took on is his, to him, and to everypony else.” Celestia remained silent. How could she deny a claim like that?

“My name is Lindous,” she said, out of nowhere, “The Saviour. I kept this planet as far away from the double Suns of death as I could. Sirius managed to destroy all my years of effort.” She walked to Celestia’s side, horn glowing, and leaned on her. Lindous was a very small Alicorn. She was no bigger than Twilight, so her leaning added almost no extra weight. “Have you heard of something called Telereceiver magic?” That was unexpected.

“Actually yes,” she managed to respond.

“Do you know where your homeworld is in the sky?”

She didn't. She used to know the stars, but she wound up forgetting them, meaning there was no way she could figure it out now; the Halotten Sky would be different. Celestia could already hear Rising Star’s voice in her ears about this.

“No… I can't figure it out.”

“That's a shame,” she said, “Maybe they can help you figure it out.” She pointed to an empty space. Celestia frowned, for a second wondering if Lindous was the one who was actually insane.

“Who?”

In response to her question, there was a flash of teleportation in that exact spot.

“Okay, now, we need to find her quickly to—” a sentence was cut short as an entire party of ponies stopped dead.

There was a moment of silence as eyes locked.

“Lindous?!” a pony looking exactly like Sirius exclaimed.

“Sirius?!” Celestia gasped.

“Celestia!” Twilight cheered.

“Discord!” Discord butt in with his own name.

“Event Horizon!” Horizon followed, “The Draconequis Spirit of Des—”

“You're okay!” Twilight rushed forward and hugged her former mentor, and the other Elements of Harmony followed.

“What's swingin’, B?” Lindous oddly said.

“Where have you been this entire time?!” the Sirius looking pony asked, looking frantic.

“Can somepony please explain what's going on?!” Rainbow Dash interrupted.

Lindous stepped up, “Hush! All of you! Gee,” she rolled her eyes as everypony gave her a look of surprise.

“For starters, I want to—” she leaned over to Celestia and whispered, “What's your name, again?” She told her.

“Right, for starters,” she raised her voice, “Celestia, I want you to meet Sirius B.” He controls the second sun, then, she immediately thought.

“My name is Lindous, and I will be your guide today.” There were a few chuckles, but Sirius silenced everypony,

“Lindous, what happened? Why did you abandon me, and where have you been this entire time??” Sirius stomped his hoof and lowered his head down to hers, glaring.

“First of all, Shiny,” she called him, “I didn't abandon you. You act like I'm the mom who left you on some nut job’s doorstep.”

“Okay, but—”

“Second of all,” she continued, giving him a solid glare, “I got called… by the Jabb cloud. That's where I've been.”

Sirius stopped, giving her a blank stare.

“What?”

Discord’s head popped in between the two of them, and squished them together in a hug,

“Oh, what a lovely reunion!” he exclaimed, “We have the Damsel,” he pointed to Celestia, who shot a glare at him immediately,“The Tag-Along,” he shifted to Event Horizon, “The Brave Heroine,” he turned to Twilight, “and our Reverse Nightmare Moon and Mysterious Witch,” he bumped Sirius B and Lindous in that order.

“Wait, what about us?!” Pinkie Pie demanded, scrunching her snout in anger.

Discord looked at the remaining ponies, “Oh and you guys came along, too,” he waved his lion paw dismissively.

“Gee,” Rarity mumbled, “Thanks.”

“And what,” Sirius B’s voice changed completely into Discord's, “might you be?!” Everypony gasped as Sirius’ eyes swirled yellow and his pupils turned into two red circles.

“I haven't gotten the slightest idea,” Sirius mocked him, looking up at the Draconequus’ head, still in his sarcastic hug with Lindous.

Discord dropped him, completely freaked out, and everypony else laughed, literally at his face.

“How are you even doing that?!” The Spirit of Chaos looked wildly at him.

“Oh I think you know,” Sirius’ voice became dark and dramatic, just like the spirit’s, “... Discord.”

“This is so accurate,” Rainbow Dash threw herself on the floor with Pinkie Pie in hysterics.

Twilight and Celestia could only hold their laughs back for so long, before joining each other in a party of laugher as well.

Rarity and Applejack seemed to be on the same side of something for once, being both equally annoyed at the situation.

Discord angrily took the abuse with a permanent glare on his face, which only made Lindous crack up herself.

Sirius changed his eyes back to his original, and returned to his normal voice, “Cataclomn Crystal,” he answered his question, “It's good for stuff besides Cataclomn B, too, you know.”

It took a solid ten minutes before everypony was back to being serious again.

“Okay, so,” Twilight looked at Lindous, “what do we do? We need to get back and save our planet.”

“Right,” she nodded in response, “Does anypony here have the spell he used to get out of this terrible place?”

“Twilight does,” Rarity nodded.

Horizon scratched his head and looked towards Lindous, “How do you know he used a spell?”

“He used the Jabb cloud to fuel all the power he needed,” Lindous said, “Me, being trapped inside it, knew this.”

Celestia and Twilight immediately looked at each other.

“He used the Cloud,” Twilight said.

“Not the Crystals,” she nodded.

“How'd he teleport you here, then?”

“He used the Cloud,” Lindous chimed in their brief exchanges.

“What? I thought the Jabb cloud had disappeared!” Celestia frowned.

“Yeah, like just disappeared, like an hour ago,” Lindous said, informatively, “I was just freed.”

“What? Well then why did the Jabb cloud disappear at all?!” Sirius was starting to sound frustrated.

“The Suns,” Celestia naturally responded, getting stares.

“What?” she got both Lindous’ and Sirius’ to ask at the same time.

“The Suns have stopped orbiting each other,” she said, looking up at them, “They're frozen in their places. The movement was keeping this Jabb cloud active. When they stopped, it disappeared.”

Lindous frowned, “How do you know it stopped?”

“Is everypony here forgetting, I raise my own Sun?” she huffed, becoming irritated, “I know what it's supposed to look like! They're stopped right now.”

“Why do we need this Jabb cloud?” Applejack whispered to Rarity.

“To get back home,” Rarity responded.

“Okay, well we need to get them moving again. I guess Sirius kept them both going while he was here, and then when he left, they took a few weeks to stop,” Lindous concluded.

“You know there aren't any external forces that rotate binary stars, right?” Twilight said, a look of disbelief on her face, “Their gravity keeps them both spinning around each other, or one around the other.”

“Are you forgetting that our Sun rises and falls whenever our leader feels like it?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight gave her a long look.

“... fair enough.”

“Okay, but who’s going to get the Cataclomn stars moving again?” Lindous redirected the conversation, “We only have one Sirius!”

“Are you… serious?!” Celestia exclaimed, stomping her hoof, unbelieving of what she was hearing..

“No, he's Sirius,” she pointed at Sirius B, “Come on, princess, pay attention!”

Smiles began to rip on ponies’ faces.

“No, Lindous,” Celestia put her hoof to her face, “I mean, are you serious?”

“Yes I'm serious, but he is Sirius.”

Before Celestia managed to vaporize Lindous with a deadly spell, Sirius Minor laughed, “Celestia you can help me with the Cataclomn stars; I'm glad we happen to have a pony who moves her own star for a living.”

It took a few minutes, but finally Sirius B and Celestia faced each other, all other ponies standing back. The stallion took a deep breath.

“Let's do this.”

Their horns glowed at the same time, blue and yellow. Sirius’ Cataclomn Crystal lit up especially, flickering greatly as if it was starting up for the first time.

“I haven't done this in a WHILE,” he noted, while both him and Celestia struggled.

Celestia straight up gasped, her muscles spazzed as her body shook and eyes went wide.

“Cataclomn A…” She said, struggling, “Is HUGE!” Her magic broke immediately, her spell, shattering. Sirius let go of his, and stopped, holding up Celestia’s head with his hoof, “Are you okay?”

She caught her breath for a few seconds.

“Cataclomn A is much bigger than the Sun I raise. I can't move it at all!” She lifted her head.

“Well that's disappointing,” Sirius said, “But neither entirely shocking, nor is it impossible to fix…” he said, breaking away from his spot.

She frowned, “Where are you going?”

He was heading in the direction of the abandoned observatory, “I'll be right back, stay there.”

The rest of the party looked confused but Celestia shrugged.

“What should we do in the meantime?”

***

Lindous’ horn glowed as she projected the images in the air.

The ponies had sat down, watching a live feed from earth using telereceiver magic. Thanks to Twilight’s solid knowledge on the stars, she was able to pinpoint where their home was in the sky, giving them information on what was happening.

Pinkie Pie snacked on popcorn as a war raged in the images.

Dragons and Pegasai filled the orange red skies in a massive combined army, as countless unicorn horns blasted many different colors towards a single point.

Sirius A was practically completely on fire, a blue, bright fire.

Earth Ponies and Griphons marched in orderly fashion towards a completely desolated Canterlot.

A few figures dashed and blurred around it. Though one looked like a formless, blue black energy, that was only seen temporarily as the black shadow of the moon got blacker and blacker.

“They turned her into Nightmare Moon,” Celestia grumbled, “How much do you want to bet it was Chrysalis’ idea?”

“I'm 137% sure it was Chrysalis’ idea,” Twilight muttered in response.

The fight went on, continuing until Sirius finally came back with a chest on his… back.

“What do you have there?” Celestia noticed and stood back up. Lindous turned off the feed and everypony looked at him.

The chest slid off his back and thumped on the rocky, hard, hot ground.

“Something you might be very excited about, or not thrilled with at all,” he responded, sweating.

“It's so hard to move on this planet, I don't know why he did that!” he complained, catching his breath, horn glowing.

The lock on it glowed, and everypony gathered around curiously.

Lindous frowned, “I don't even know what's in there.”

“It's Sirius A’s silver armor,” he said, opening it up, “On days it would be especially hot, he would wear it to reflects the Suns’ light more. It comes with its own Cataclomn Crystals and everything.” Blue light did beam from it, like shiny, bright treasure.

“You want me to put that on…?” Celestia said, getting wide eyed. She had felt the energy of him being in the observatory, with his wicked schemes and harsh curses. Now she was expected to wear his armor.

“No! I will not!”

“What?” Twilight asked, “Why?!”

“So then let Twi do it,” Applejack suggested.

Sirius shook his head, “It is far too big to fit her. The only pony here who can do this,” he levitated the chest plate to her with seven glowing Cataclomn crystals on it, “Is you.”

Celestia took a long look at it, recalling the war happening in her own home. She turned to him and sighed, “I don't really have much of a choice.”

“Alright, so then let's pick up where we left off.”