Stories of the Equestrian Republic

During the first few centuries of the Alicorn Council's rule, many ponies who failed to understand the fact that Celestia had perished during the Second Resurrection, formed together as a cult called the Aurora Illuminatos, roughly translated to the Enlightened Dawn. They believed that Celestia had merely retreated into the sun itself, as though to hibernate and recover from her long, grueling battle. This is also due to the fact they wouldn't hear that Head Councilmare Twilight Sparkle had created the New Sun, as the previous one died with Celestia.

During the Aurora Illuminatos rough and small beginnings, they spent most of their time gathering ancient books and scrolls from the far gone times of the Equestrian Triarchy, and even before that, during the Diarchy. Their library soon grew to be the most extensive and priceless collection of books in Equestrian history, filled to the brim with every hint at Celestia the lore and mythology in every known culture had hidden away.

Approximately three hundred, eighty-three years, seven months and twelve days, "possibly around breakfast on an early morning, I was likely having pancakes"(Twilight Sparkle's exact words in the interview conducted for this book.) later, Twilight Sparkle decided to reach out to the group of now over five hundred ponies. On this day, the idea for the Aurora Custodia, the same group who helped fend off the legions of dark magic tainted unicorns, led by King Sombra, during the events following the Third Resurrection, was drafted. After a year of amendments and changes to the original draft, the group was transferred into the Republic's highest class of mages and council guard.

— Excerpt from *Strange Religious Cults Who Were Surprisingly Important*, pg. 28, Glowheart

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"Princess Twilight?" Whispers, little inklings of the past. Vision returned to me in the hazy ghost of my old bedchambers, a quick eye shift revealed it to be after Spike had grown too large for his basket, and another eye twitch showed that he still hadn't grown out of living in the Castle of Friendship. I remember the days he used to forget his correspondences to Dragon Lord Ember in my room, he was so used to leaving letters here, he did it out of habit.

Then I remembered the voice who called me, "Hello?" I responded, slowly crawling from my bed and reacquainting myself to my smaller form. Even my voice was a teeny, tiny thing. I sounded young, foolish. Like a living bundle of mistakes waiting to happen. But my memory of everything I had done remained intact, save for how I had gotten here. I stumbled clumsily to the door, straining a little to force forgotten muscle memories. Walking had grown alien; a robust and foreign concept.

The room was empty, whoever had called had either not existed at all, or had left soon after doing so. Given the fact I was likely in a lucid dream of sorts, it could be a mixture of both. I slowly made my way into the corridor, walking becoming easier with each step. "Did somepony need me?" I called out into the hall, my voice echoing back to me without response. I frowned and continued to explore, almost losing myself in the memory. A memory—That's it. Something had forced me into a memory. My own failing morals perhaps? Uncertain, but now with more answers, I found a greater confidence in my stride as I traced the breadcrumb trail memories usually lead.

Telling where you're supposed to go in a memory is easy most of the time, where you're not supposed to be is usually blurred and hazy, most of the details unknown and even broader shapes something of a mystery. Using that, I soon found myself in my old living room. Many a night I spent here, getting to know–"Princess Twilight!" I tumbled down, a reoccurring theme for me as of late, as a loud yellow blob flew into me.

"Yes?" Glowheart. Ah, so that's what this is. Did she put me here on purpose? Her skill in psychological tampering magic is rather lax, but this is definitely within her abilities. I couldn't help but smile down at the memory, while I could always remember Glowheart as a gentle, excitable filly with a thirst for random trivia and various magics with little use, seeing her again was truly magnificent.

"You've been sleeping all day!" She whined, allowing me back to my hooves. "And Princess Celestia should be here any minute now!" My breath hitched. Celestia, would I truly get to see her again? After all these years?

Gonnng...

I flinched at the doorbell, almost forgetting I had one way back then. "I'll get it!" Spike, now equal to my height, ran past and into a nearby corridor. I had to sit down, I feared I might lose my hoofing when I saw my teacher again. "Right this way, Princess." I heard Spike say from far away. I closed my eyes, clinching them shut in fear. Fear that when I saw her, I would break down. Could I handle this? Hoofs steps and friendly chuckles walked into the room before stopping

"Twilight?" I was afraid to open my eyes, afraid to see her die again. "Is something wrong?"

I opened my eyes but closed them again in pain, coughing as dirt and debris tried to escape my lungs. I pulled myself slowly, trying to put my hooves between my face and the mud. "Celestia...?" I muttered dumbly, wincing as I opened my right eye; the one that didn't feel like it had a rusty nail in it. Below me, in a puddle of sickly clear and murky red fluid, I saw a torn and mutilated amythest eye staring back up at—mine. In fact, itty bits of purple coat and splinters of bone was scattered around it as well. I stared for a moment before revelation dawned on me like vomit. Wait no, that was just vomit.

I had somehow lost my left eye, well it more just fell out and got messed up a little, it wasn't really lost in the literal sense. A shockwave flowed over me, sliding me and my poor little eye something of five or ten hooves away from where we were. I shifted my gaze up towards where it had came; in the distance was several small mushroom shaped clouds, each a varying color of wrong as they only grew larger and more destructive. Taint Flame, a sort of dark magic that acts like fire only less easy to put it out. Starfield had combined it with an explosive charm, leading to an infinitely expanding cloud of ever-burning hellfire. As apt an analogy for dark magic as any.

Surprisingly, my mane had a flow to it, fluttering in a different breeze than any blowing towards it with a faint violet glow. Either I had retained magic from Glowheart drowning the dark magic out of me, or I had regained some of my magic from my slumber. Either is equally likely, and if the former indeed happened, the latter increased it. I shuddered while pooling magic in my bloody eye socket, the strange feeling of a new eye popping into your socket was like... Imagine a cork from a wine bottle and a bubble popping at the same time inside your skull, but it wasn't painful. It was slimy.

I opened my new eye and looked around again, soon spotting my two friends. Well Glowheart and my ex-friend anyway. I could see even from here, Glowheart had little magic left. Her mane was sagging, almost not flowing at all. Not to mention she looked exhausted. Starfield however... She'd transformed even further, her pony form was gone, only a mere cloud of darkness and physical hatred. "Good morning, Twilight." Or her pony form was right behind me.

I braced in whatever way I could in the half second it took for the force of her hoof, added onto by her magic, to collide with the meager shield I managed to conjure between me and her. While dampening the blow, she shattered it and I found myself sailing through the breeze. It was times like these I took stock of my life, when I would wonder what life might've been like if, instead of becoming an immortal alicorn goddess thing, what if I had stayed a unicorn? What if I had found a nice stallion, settled down and had kids, before being forgotten by those kids and left to die alone after my husband died before me? That would've have been a nice life.

Instead, here I was. Being hunted down by one of my dearest friends, corrupted by dark, filthy magic to forever be damned to hellish, manic and delirious thoughts of hatred and chaos. My life is just a peach tree at this point, because I'm just peachy about my day. "Oof!" I said elegantly as I slammed softly into a cloud of light. I curiously prodded the magic, racking my brain for information about it. "The Aurora Custodia?" I asked uncertainly, looking around in confusion as two strikes of brilliant white light streaked the skies, aiming to strike straight through Starfield.

"Councilmare!" I looked back at the light cloud holding me as it slowly lowered me down near Glowheart. My hooves touched the ground, my gaze shifting to Glowheart as I raised an eyebrow. The cloud twirled, spinning in front of us as it formed into a pony.

Twinkle-Shine!!!

I swear I heard a sound effect as the pony emerged from the cloud, a... mediocre looking stallion who flashed a very embarrassing(for him, not us.) grin towards us. "Fear not, Councilmares, your saviors have arrived." As the final two flares settled aside him and their controllers exited, I knew our fate was sealed. It was General Cornflake and his band of merry misfits—Mothers help us, of anyone to survive this destruction, why couldn't it be a group of rapists or King Sombra himself? Why these three?.

They stood in front of us in a formation likely meant to protect, but it was of pour form. Starfield could've easily overpowered them even before being flooded with concentrated black magic, much less now. Not to mention simply teleporting behind them would negate their entire "defense". Not to mention... "With all due respect, Cornflake, please remove your bare flanks from in front of our faces." ...They weren't exactly leaving anything to the imagination.

They inched instead to our sides, two on mine and Cornflake guarding Glowheart himself. "Who's this dark one, Councilmares? A real nasty one her." Cornflake muttered.

"It's Councilmare Starfield." Glowheart grumbled as  several dozen tendrils the size of houses curled and twitched from the maelstrom around the dark one we were facing. They tore into the landscape like vapid strings of death, tearing apart the bygone lives of countless ponies and other sentient creatures, each aiming and spiraling towards us. I lowered my horn and growled as it pulled a painful amount of magic again, forming a dome of energy around us in time for–I felt screaming in my head, violent, blood curdling screams of torture and pain as the lines of magic skidded against the shield, cracking and shattering layers as I force new ones to replace them. I couldn't hold this up for long. I spotted one of the tendrils start to tunnel and knew what came next from experience.

Forcing more layers of energy into the ground under us, I warped the ground around our hooves to hold us in place as the beam of magic smashed into us from below. It lifted us and my head spun as gravity shifted below us, the other black tentacles swirled and curled up at us. I heard retching and silently hoped whoever it was could keep their lunch. We stopped abruptly, as did our attackers as the high queen of hate herself formed from darkness in front of dome. "Councilmare Starfield, how dare you transgress in such a disgusting manner!" One of Cornflakes pleebs yelled out in what can adequately be described as utter stupidity. "I demand you cease and desist at once!"

Starfield floated there, likely digesting the information he had given her. After some thought, she carefully worded her response by running her tongue across the shield and moaning as it popped and sizzled, blistering and frying from the protective charms naturally laced in one of the layers. Pain, anguish and hate, all key elements that fed to the power of dark magic. Revolting. "This is your fault, Twilight." I glared  as she started whispering to me.

"This is all... Your... Fault." Her glowing red and green eyes closed halfway, giving me something resembling bedroom eyes, but more like something a sadist would do to creep you out. "I love how you get off in the morning. You wake up every day and think to yourself, 'Oh my, I wonder what little filly I'm going to impress myself upon today?'." Well, maybe she was giving me bedroom eyes and she just really sucked at it. "Taking poor, silly fillies under your wing all the time, countless little fillies. Dozens and dozens, every one of them taken to your bedchambers and tutored."

I snorted. "Are you serious?"

"Taking them in there, and forcing them to love you. You are disgusting." She stared at me, her eyes widening in shock at her own words. "You are revolting and horrible and vile..." She whimpered before cackling. "You horse... You taught me to love you; taught me every spell and incantation you knew. I wanted you." She spun and twirled in the sky, rubbing her hoof across the dome despite, or likely because of the burning, searing pain. "No. I want you." She stared and laughed airlessly. "When I break this dome, we both know I can, Twilight, Sweetie, I'm going to kill these four, and keep you. I'm going to lock you away, and crawl inside of you." Her hooves tapped together, "Crack, crick—Snap. Break your rib cage apart and live inside after I gut you open. And we'll be together. Forever. Just like you taught me." Her face contorted to a strange look of warped happiness. "Every night I'll hold your still beating heart to my chest, and every morn I'll kiss it good bye as I shape our paradise in my image."

I furrowed my brow, my concentration wavering simply out of confusion and disbelief at what she had said. "That is the most sick, horrible thing I have ever heard uttered from another pony's mouth." I said, shaking my head slowly. "Not even the worst, most twisted and horrid magic on all of Equuis could distort and change your thoughts into such a filthy state. Were you always this disturbed and confused? Why didn't you come to me? Ask for help?"

Her eye twitched before she snorted and laughed manically. She tried to speak, but simply drifted away into the haze, her disturbed laughter echoing in our heads. I wanted to talk to her more, try to help her. But the tendrils all turned, aimed straight at our hearts. Too long.

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"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned,

Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."

—William Congreve