The day was nice, the sun was shining, birds were chirping, foals were playing. The day couldn't be more perfect... for them. The Day Court was in full swing as I waited in line for my turn before the Princess, I was just biding the last of my time looking out the window as the school children played outside.
I smiled, yes, I smiled at their innocents. They had their whole lives ahead of them, while I was almost at the end of mine. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, taking in the Summer breeze. Warmth danced across my fur, the smell of flowers floated in the open window, laughter rolled through the air. The patron behind me nudged me, breaking the tranquil moment.
I cleared my throat and straightened my tuxedo, re-centered my wedding band on my horn. I nodded to the guards beside the doors, signaling them that I was ready. The doors opened to the opulent throne room, the recently added Lunar throne sat next to the Solar one, offsetting the color scheme a little, but they tried to play well together.
I slowly walked over to the center of the room, taking it all in. The high ceiling was painted with a sun and moon motif with ponies holding hands along the edges of the two. There were a few guards posted by the base of the throne, dressed in their ceremonial garb. Light glinted off the silver of their helmets, I blinked, trying to clear my eyes.
A beautiful voice rang down from atop the Throne, "Hello my little pony, what could I do for you today?" she smiled and shifted in her seat.
Her honeyed words grated on my ears as I stood there. "I-I want to tell you a story." I held my anger back, knowing that if I misspoke early, I would be thrown out.
Surprise flashed across her face quickly before her stoic mask calmed it again. "Oh? And what kind story would you tell me?" she leaned forward and placed her hand under her chin, curiosity glinting in her eyes.
"It's a story of love and loss, just a story to tell. One of my own making." I shrugged. "It began on a day much like this one, but much like today, it hides the worst in the shadows and in the light. A father and his mare were out, playing with their daughter, peacefully unaware of the darkness that was coming. W-they were just minding our business when a contingent of guards came into the town. Nothing seemed to be out of place, they were royal guards after all, they were here to protect us, so we continued to play. Guards began breaking off and going throughout the town and rounding up the local ponies. Nothing seemed wrong, they were probably just trying to evacuate us from some rampaging monster that had come too close to the town again. We followed. The guards were corralling us in the town square, probably just getting us ready for the coming hike. Then... then we hear what their saying. 'By the Might of the Sun, Celestia Sol Infurnus, you have all been found guilty of performing dark magics and are hereby sentenced to death!'. I couldn't believe my ears, I thought he was joking. Then I heard the screams. It started around the sides of the square and began to get closer and closer to us, I held them close, trying to keep them from hearing those sounds, Ponies were being killed without mercy. Everypony began to get frantic, there was no joke, we were being slaughtered for no apparent reason. Nopony in that town could have had that big a secret without any of us not finding out."
Celestia was beginning to get a little flustered, she sifted and fluffed her wings. "Go on."
"When the panic started, Ponies began to try and get away. Cries of outrage were suffused with the anguished Screams of the dying. My family and I were next to a building so I began making us a way to get through it. I blasted a small hole, just big enough to crawl through, and ushered them into the house. I told them to hide and that I would see if there was a way for us to escape. I-I should have brought them with me. A guard had noticed us go into the house and was waiting for one of us to open the door." tears were streaming down my muzzle silver glinting in the light. "I-I can't tell you the rest because I swore never to tell you where we are, just know this princess." I pulled out a dagger, not a very flashy one, it was a simple piece of iron. The guards tensed and reached for their swords and readied their magics. "You shall drowned in our tears, the Bane will come again. Silver shall be your prison. Light, your enemy, darkness shall never flourish again." I stabbed my chest, the pain was non-existent due to the silver flowing through my veins, put there by a potion. "You will pay for your wrongs."
The world was in perfect clarity, the surprised look on everypony here. Celestia was the best one out them all, she had leaned forward and had raised a hand, magic already flowing through her. worry was etched into her face as if never to be removed. Time resumed and I began to slowly feel weaker, watching in rapt fascination as the silver color spread across my chest. "I-i have h-heard from others th-that yo-you actually personally s-sought out their p-pun-nishments, t-tell me... Is it t-true?"
She sat there a moment, smoothing out her composure. "I have only dealt with ones who have ever broken the law. I never harmed an innocent pony."
I smiled. "Y-you th-think your se-self ab-bove us. y-you will..." silver clouded my eyes as I felt my live finally giving the spell the last of my body over to the process. I raised a hand, pointing at her weekly. Darkness fell and I floated into oblivion.
Author's Note
missive from the desk of Stolen Soul
we were experimented on at the drop of a hat to further an Alicorns dreams of grandeur. we suffered due to the needs of a prince. we suffered back then as we suffer now, by our ruler. the name of the alicorn who had taken us was Chance fate, he was the one who started the Banes project. if the creature he had captured ever gets put back together, it shall raze the alicorns with his wrath.
Void Et Un Kaienum
500 B.R.S.
The magi walked around the clearing, the stars had guided him to this place the days before, telling him of its' importance. A great disturbance was coming and this was going to be the place where he could stop it. With his staff at the ready, he waited. The disturbance was slowly growing, no, it was simply not there at all. A perfect void was forming.
What he didn't know was that a being was hiding off in the bushes, holding a spell creating the void. The Koyuktuk smiled and shattered the void sphere, causing an implosion of matter and magic. The magi, not expecting this, was flung along with debris towards the absence. Taking advantage of the distracted pony, the creature teleported to where the void had been. As the magi looked up to view the damage, he spotted the creature. The two were staring each other down, sizing up the danger both posed.
The winged creature looked on the magi and was disappointed, he was clearly a low level magician, the magi on the other hoof, was confused. It was clearly a chimera, possibly a cousin to the jester, but possibly a lesser one. Then the winged beast smiled at him. Oh, by the sun and moon, the pitiful orb he saw earlier was nothing compared to the void in those eyes. Pure void, unchecked power and ancient cunning that could send a seasoned nightmare hunter running, poured, No flowed like an endless sea.
The beast stared at him, wondering what was wrong with him. The alicorn magi clearly was a nice little fellow, what was wrong with him?
The feathers intertwined with the fox fur reminded him of the Crystal Empires' ravens fore some reason, and he knew that the fox-bird was not to be trifled with. He could use that power to bring the rest of the alicorns down for a change, no longer would he be the runt of the herd, he would be king! he just needed to find a way for him to control the beast. perchance it had to follow some sort of rules like the rest of the Aetierch dwelling feral gods, random as they may be. He had to risk it!
'Perhaps this was a bad idea,' the creature thought, 'it doesn't seem like he is one for talking to to get some information about this strange place.' the creature bolted across the meadow, trying to reach the forest before the winged-unicorn could possibly do anything. In a flash of light, it collided with a barrier of magic, it was simple, but the rules forbade him from ever being able to escape a non-life threatening trap. It clawed, trying to wear it down fast enpough to escape before capture, the rules forbade the use of magic and strength.
'this thing could kill me easily, yet it holds back... the rules for this one must be of equivalent exchange or something of similar restrictions.' the magi smiled and walked over, taking his time in getting the beast. As he picked it up, the beast calmed down drastically. Now compleatly submisive, unlike the scared little thing he had witnesed just moments ago. 'Yes, it shall do nicely. Perchance I could use its magic to strengthen my own!'
three months later
The only thing that kept the test subjects in line was the promis to see their loved ones. Few of them survived the experiments, those who did were far stronger than he had initialy expected. He was also running out of material to make them with, the beast was small and had yielded too little material. The last few were promissing enough, they were going to be the best ones to date! He had less to worry about them getting out of line than other alicorns finding out about his reserch, they were getting closer to his camp every search. The last thing he needed was another of the Eternal Kingdom to be here, but thankfuly he had a solution for the last few who had managed to get to the camp, the were put in the pit for the Banes to practice on. Oh, the ground in the pit was soaked with ichor, they had been more than a success than he had thought they would be! Their ichor drenched bodies littered the pit, limbs strewn about carelessly, it could almost be mistaken for a foul pit for how rotten it smelled. Those alicorns had barely lasted a few seconds in the pit.
Those few subjects who survived followed his every whim, no order not followed. he was, for once in his life, in controll of his own little world! this shall mark the beginning of his reign, those who don't bow to him shall be crushed with his Banes. His time has come thanks to the stars, without them, he would have never found that creature. Thanks to that creature, he had a direct link to the deadliest power of all, Void. This, power, this force predates all other forces, even chaos falls to its might! 'I shall be the new king of these lands.' he thought, 'Nopony shall be able to stop me. I shall claim my birthright!'
we suffered in the pens he put us in, the only time any of us were taken out of them were for the experiments. there were only five of us left, the rest had been selected or had died from the strain, their cries of agony could be heard every night. the Prince Fate had told us that we had been personaly selected for the task of helping protect the Eternal Kingdom from danger. all of us were just regular ponies who had been in servitude before coming here. the gold he had paid for us was average, but he had promised a better place to live. we had been lied to to further his plans to take over the kingdom, he had told the last of us that after he had made sure we couldn't escape. the few times we ever saw another alicorn enter the camps, they had been subdued and brought into the pit. they never came back out. one thing is for sure though, we will have our time, he shall regret ever taking us like this. s.s.
