Celestia sat in a dark room. It was night time and she was performing a dangerous ritual. Sitting within a ring of candles as she magically drew symbols around herself. The only light sources were the candles and her magic and the air smelled of various incense the candles burned. Her concentration did not waver, nor did the rhythm in which she drew the symbols. It had been a long time since she had done this, yet she knew the method by heart.
As she completed the last symbol, the fires of the candles went out and the symbols; previously golden; turned a deep crimson. She did not move, nor did she become alarmed at this, or the symbols as they began to spin on their own accord in a circle. Her being the center point. As they spun around her, they began collapsing in toward her before they engulfed her and her vision turned completely black.
She felt weightless, yet felt as if gravity had increased tenfold. She couldn't breath, yet she inhaled and exhaled. She felt no heat or cold, and heard silence, yet heard the loudest sound there could be. She saw only darkness, yet was blinded by its radiance. She felt a heavy weight in her stomach and tilted her head slightly.
You come here, Celestia of Equestria, and exist in my nonexistence. Why have you come. she heard nothing whisper, yet boom from everywhere, yet nowhere.
"I exist in your nonexistence to make a barter with you." She replied with her mouth, yet only speaking within her mind. There was a pause.
What do you wish me to give you, for I have everything for the right trade. she sighed the airless non-existence and replied to nothing.
"I know that you have watched Equestria since its very creation, and know the danger my former pupil, Twilight Sparkle, has been in. I simply ask for a means of protection for her." Nothing thought with it's blank, non-existent mind for a moment, yet took an eternity.
You ask for something great, Celestia, but is not impossible. What would you give me of yours in return for this? She thought for a moment.
“I would give you a century of my life.” She replied. For an eternal moment, nothing happened. Then, she felt something leave her. She smiled knowing that the barter had been made.
It will be done. another eternal pause, Is there anything else? she shook her head without moving. Then I dismiss you from my nonexistence. Nothing finished without stopping. Suddenly, the candles flared to life as Celestia’s vision returned and she saw the dark room around her. She dropped into a laying position in exhaustion and breathed heavily. ‘It was done.’ Nothing had said. All she had to do now was wait...
A skeletal hand appeared in the nonexistence with a clenched fist; holding something within its grasp. The hand moved to a massive oval chess board with hundreds of trillions of tile spaces. It was a three-dimensional map of the entirety of Equis. The hand unclenching to reveal a sword of intricate design and power. It tossed it a ways into the black whiteness before catching it within the pointer finger and thumb. It tossed the sword toward the room in Canterlot that Celestia resided in. As the sword got closer to the board, it shrunk down to be ten hooves long before becoming apart of the board. The hand disappeared into the nonexistence and nothing chuckled a shriek of sadness while looking blindly at a translucent castle of proportions unimaginable to mortal beings.
Your move, pantheon of Equis.
Celestia awoke on the floor of her room with the memories of last night fresh in her mind. She stood up with a little trouble before looking at a clock that hung on the wall opposite of her large bed. It was almost time to raise the sun with her sister, Luna. She estimated that she had enough time to get a quick bite to eat.
The entirety of Equis, their planet, had varying levels of ambient magic that fluctuated a few degrees every now and then. Except in places such as the Everfree forest near the town of Ponyville. Celestia felt a small space of ambient magic disappear and be replaced by nonexistence. Her eyes widened and whipped around to see a patch of pitch-black whiteness that made her brain buzz as she looked at it. Her entire body felt like it was being burned and frozen at the same time, her eyes itched, and she tasted blood in her mouth.
The walls began melting in her peripherals and everything became greyscale. All at once though, everything returned to normal with a booming crack and Celestia's legs felt weak. She shook her head and looked back to where the patch of nothingness had been, and saw a glint of light from the area below the place it had been. She looked down at the floor to see a large silver, two tone purple, and pink sword. She lit her horn with her magic and attempted to grasp the blade with a telekinesis spell, yet ultimately failed. Sighing, she walked over to the blade and picked it up with a single hoof.
Pony forehooves had a small telekinetic field that was as strong as their magic., and allowed them to lift things they would would be able to lift with their mouths. Celestia examined the blade and her eyebrows raised in shock at the skill and materials the blade was made from. It's non-blade end had a tetragonal Crystal made of pink quartz. It's handle was made of a material she could not recognize and spiraled like a unicorns horn. It was lavender in color. The handle led into a large pink quartz, six-pointed star, that looked to her like the element of magic and her former student's cutimark. Two light purple wings spread from the sides of the Crystal hilt and had small blades of matching color acting as long feathers. A sharp blade of silver sprung outward from the top of the crystal and grew thinner and curved in some parts, and straight and perpendicular in others. The sides were wicked sharp to her and she was only observing it. She felt it with her magical sense and dropped the blade in shock. She felt a consciousness within the sword and magical matrices too numerous to count infused with it.
Before the blade hit the ground, it caught itself and hovered there an inch off the ground before turning the blade tip to face Celestia. She froze; thinking it was going to shoot foreword and plunge into her being; but it just hovered there...
After an incident where she and her sister had to fight a dark tyrant who could cause one to see horrid nightmares, she spent years building up an immunity to involuntary telepathy. So she felt something prod the mental barrier, but not do anything else. The blade spun clockwise before she felt the prod again. Stronger this time. The blade spun two times and she felt a prod that sent a sharp pain through her mind. She winced before hesitantly lowering the barrier.
'Celestia, is that your name?' she felt a genderless voice in her head ask. She magically sensed the location of the telepathic source and opened her eyes to see the sword glowing within her mind's eye. She nodded.
"Yes, I am Celestia." She replied. Her shock and hesitancy were lost as curiosity took over her actions. "Who and what are you?" It spun counterclockwise twice, then clockwise three times before relying,
'I am known as Xë¤oæß. But I know you cannot pronounce that, so call me Xeros.' the now name Xeros replied, 'as for what I am, it is quite obvious that I am a sword.' she felt the deadpan through the telepathic channel and frowned.
"I know that, but what are you." Xeros thought for a moment before replying,
'You made a deal with nothing to gain a guardian for your previous student, so here I am, sent by nothing,
Into this existence.' Celestia blinked once... then twice, before looking Xeros over.
"I wasn't quite expecting something like you." Celestia said. Xeros' laughter echoed in her head,
'No one ever does expect one like me.' he said before rotating twice. ' So where is Twilight Sparkle?' Celestia frowned and hesitated. 'You hesitate? If I am to be her guardian, should I not be at her side?' Celestia nodded; assuring herself that the being in front of her was sent by nothing, and by bargain, could not harm Twilight.
"She lives in a crystal castle in the small town of Ponyville directly northeast of here a ways. Do you know what she looks like?" The sword spun a few degrees one way before spinning twice that distance in the other; imitating a shake of the head. "Well, she is a lavender Alicorn with a dark purple mane and tail with a single pink streak running through each. In fact, the crystal at your center is her base cutimark." The sword spun once before tilting up and down; imitating a nod. It turned toward a room in the window, which was open; the curtains that were draped over them fluttered in a slight breeze, and began to float toward it.
"Keep her safe, Xeros." She said firmly. It tilted back to face her slightly.
'I plan to.' It replied before leaving the room through the window, and floating into the sky, blade first. She watched Xeros disappear from sight and sighed heavily, before realizing that she would be late to raise the sun had she not hurry. She rushed to her nightstand that stood next to her bed, and put on her regalia before hurrying out of the room.
Author's Note
Well, here this is at 10: 58 pm. Tell me what you think.
P.s. 1) Xeros is pronounced "zee-air-us"
2) "nothing" is not the name of a character.
3) "Xë¤oæß" is my own character along with "nothing."
