Forgotten Legacy

I stood to the side of the platform where Cadence and Shining Armor’s thrones sat. Twilight flanked the other side with Starlight beside her. Applejack stood by my side. Sunshine had left early in the morning for Ponyville to retrieve our friends from across the mirror based on some as yet to be received explanation from Twilight.

My wings ruffled a bit as we waited. The envoy from this mysterious army had been spotted some moments ago by our gate guards. I tried to stand still and regal, but I didn’t have near the practice as the other two Alicorns in the room. I shifted my weight slowly, trying to be inconspicuous. As I did so, AJ leaned in and whispered.

“You’re as nervous as a long tail cat inna room o’ rockin’ chairs, Sunset,” she said. “Are ya all right?”

I nodded. “I’m just not used to the 'hurry up and wait' part of this job,” I said. I rolled my shoulders a bit, trying to work some of the tension out. “I don’t know how you’re handling it.”

“Ah’m more used to these things than Ah’d like to admit,” she said. “Between the Gala’s and Twilight’s Coronation, Flurry Heart’s Crystalling, all the like, I’ve been to a few stand around parties.” She eyed me for a moment. “Yer worried about Sunshine, ain’t ya?”

I nodded. “Always,” I said. “She’s got the curiosity of your Twilight but none of the learning experiences when it comes to magic.”

The doors at the end of the hall swung open, revealing a number of Crystal Guard surrounding a pair of ponies, one clad in armor, one shrouded in a hooded robe. I frowned at the robed one. Something was off about the gait. Not quite a limp, but not quite a full stride, either.

“Watch the robe,” I whispered before matching Twilight and Cadence in the spreading of our wings. It was a show of power, all bluster but important to the bargaining process.

The pony in armor stepped forward as the guard spread to reveal them, her horn lighting and removing the helm. She had a coal black mane and tail on a drab brown coat. Her green eyes shone with intelligence, but her face showed no emotion. Her companion kept the hood up.

“Princess Cadence, Princess Twilight,” she said in a strong voice, nodding to each in turn, then turning to nod at me. “Princess Sunset. An impressive welcoming committee. It seems a little empty in here for a ceremony of surrender.” She said, glancing around at the empty audience chamber.

“We are not here to discuss surrender,” Cadence said. “But to discuss a way to perhaps come to a peaceful resolution to the issue you have.”

The Unicorn smiled. “And what do you propose?” she asked. “I would be most interested in hearing your offer.”

“We would be willing to listen to any grievance you have and do our best to accommodate your requests,” Cadence began. “We would also offer a conditional pardon for the raising of undead in violation of the rules set down fifteen hundred years ago by the Council of Verneigh.”

The Unicorn smiled, then started to laugh a deep, hearty belly laugh that echoed in the near empty room. It unnerved me, bringing up dim memories of my laugh as the she-demon and Twilight’s as Midnight Sparkle. It was a laugh with no humor, only malice.

“Very well, Princess,” she said as her laugh died down. “I will express my grievance to you, Mi Amore Cadenza, appointed empress of the Crystal Empire, usurper of my father’s realm.” She stepped forward.

I saw Twilight’s mouth drop open in shock, Cadence’s mouth forming into a tight frown. The Unicorn continued.

“I call upon the fact that you sit in what was once my father’s seat, and next to you is the one that took him from me forever after an intolerable banishment in the frozen wastes. I call you hypocrites and usurpers and tyrants all.” Her eyes started to blaze with anger, the first true emotion she had shown.

“I will avenge myself for the death of Sombra, my father,” she said. “And I, Sorla, will take his place in the line of succession.”

Her horn lit and Cadence conjured a shield, deflecting the blast she sent forward. Guards made to arrest her only to be stopped as the robed pony reared up and slammed their hooves down, causing a mantic circle to blaze to life and create a domed shield around them. The crackling energy flung the robes from the pony and I gasped in shock.

The pony that stood there had a jagged crystal were the horn of a Unicorn should have been, and the left foreleg was replaced with a jointed metal prosthesis. All across the mare’s coat were various thaumaturgic circles, drawn in what appeared to be dried blood. She reared up again, holding her hooves to either side and the dome expanded, shoving the guards bodily into the walls. I heard a few sickening crunches in the mix of mail striking walls.

Twilight leaped forward, horn blazing as she tried to blast through the defenses. Her lance of magic struck the shield and spread slightly, making the entirety of the dome flicker. Starlight and I stepped forward and added our own magic to the assault.

The Unicorn’s eyes blazed as her horn flared, and suddenly there were fifteen more ponies in the room.

If you could call them that. Gaunt frames, red eyes, jerky motions, the raised ponies were met by the guards, holding them back semi-successfully. AJ and I leaped forward to aid them, flame lancing forth from my horn as AJ bucked them down. Just as I turned to resume my assault on Sorla, I saw four hazy shapes start to take form, two in front of me and two before AJ. I heard Applejack gasp in shock and I turned to find her gazing at two orange ponies before her, apple related marks on their flanks.

“Mom? Dad?” she whispered, her voice shaking.

“Sunset?” a voice whispered behind me, freezing my blood. “It that you?”

I turned and found myself staring at my parents, hazy and indistinct but very evident.

“Mom…” I stuttered, feeling my wings spread slightly in front of me in a defensive motion I had seen Fluttershy use in the past. “No, you can’t be here.”

“We can be together again, sweetie,” she said, my father’s specter putting his foreleg over her shoulders. I dimly heard similar words being spoken by a pair of Apples to my side. My parents came forward, and a blast of arctic wind accompanied them. My senses snapped back into focus and tears started to flow down my face.

“You aren’t my parents,” I said, stepping back. “My parents are gone, and they would never allow somepony to use them against me.” I lit my horn. “Begone,” I whispered as I tried to remember the banishment charm.

My mother’s foreleg brushed my shoulder, and numbness flooded the limb, causing me to stumble. “It’s ok, little filly,” the ghost said.

“Begone,” I said, pouring mana into my horn. “Return from whence begot you.”

My father leaned forward, his horn angling for mine.

Fear swept through me and anger followed soon after. “Begone!” I screamed, raw magic ripping from my horn and shredding the image of my sire. I sobbed as his image faded like a puff of smoke and turned toward my mother, who was still approaching.

“I’m so sorry, Mom,” I said, charging my horn. “I love you.”

The specter stopped, and for a moment I recognized her warm smile. “Always,” she said just before my magic ripped through her.

I heard sobbing next to me and saw AJ wrapped in embraces by the two ghosts of her parents. Her gaze was going glassy and she was paling visibly as I charged my horn again.

“Forgive me,” I whispered before banishing the forms of her parents. Her eyes shot open as they dissipated and turned towards me. “NO!” she shouted, charging me.

I caught her in an embrace as she reached me, magic dampening the rush and I held her in my forelegs and wings as she collapsed and cried like a young filly. Here was one of the strongest ponies I had ever known, and she was broken completely.

I looked around as I comforted AJ and realized that the pair of Unicorns was gone, a slowly fading thaumaturgic circle where they had stood. Cadence had a nasty looking scorch along her flank. A dazed Twilight was being supported by Starlight while Shining Armor was issuing orders to the guards, cradling his right foreleg against his barrel.

I felt my anger simmer slowly inside. They tried to use my parents against me, made me banish their specters. AJ had fared worse than I, taken in completely by the ghost’s beguilement. I continued to cradle her in my embrace, remembering being held in similar ways by both my mother and Celestia.

“It’s ok, AJ,” I whispered. “We’ll get them. We’ll get them.”

I looked at the scorched floor before the throne. “I’ll get them for both of us.”