Fallen

by ElementOfKindness

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Celestia, Sad, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Tragedy
Length: 5580

Equestria has fallen, leaving the immortal Princess Celestia alone with her dark memories.

Celestia's mistake cost her dearly, but cost many others much more. Now she stands alone, looking out over an Equestria ravaged by violence and time, remembering the events that led to the fall of Equestria, and trying to find a reason for hope when it appears all is lost.

Thanks to ProsaurusRex for the cover art and some editing advice.

This is the prologue to the Dawn trilogy. It needs a rewrite and is not required reading, so feel free to skip to the first story: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/41041/Risen

Published 2012-07-19 08:54:02 UTC
Last updated 2012-07-28 03:32:51 UTC

Memories

Celestia stood on her balcony and looked out over her empire of dust, absorbed in painful memories. A thousand years she had wrongly banished her own sister to the moon, and now she had paid for it with ten thousand of her own. Those past years had been filled with loneliness and regret, but it was only recently that she had been able to accept the truth: It was her fault and hers alone.

The sky was a dark red shade; Celestia was unable to raise the Sun or Moon as she had once done and the world was stuck as it was at the time of The Fall. At first it had been colored the many beautiful shades of sunrise, not hinting at the devastation about to occur in the land down below, but over time it had become dull as the world slowly decayed.

She took a last, long look at the waste before her, then turned and slowly walked back inside what was once her castle, now just a hollow ruin, her head bowed and her mind clouded with depressing thoughts.

***

Luna had been complaining of nightmares. That in itself, while unusual, had not been enough to cause Celestia concern. However, when reports began to filter through to her about her sister acting out of character, snapping at guards and other ponies over tiny mistakes and at times being offhandedly cruel, the princess of the day saw the need to talk to Luna.

It was well into the night when Celestia came across her sister. Luna’s back was turned and when the white pony made a noise close behind her, she gave such a start that Celestia took a few steps back. Luna turned with a look of fear on her face, though that quickly turned to a subtle sneer as she gave an odd-sounding snicker. Celestia, unsure whether the snicker was self deprecating or aimed at herself but suspecting the latter, only felt her anxiety increase at this, as she had not seen any of this odd behavior first hand before that point.

“What is troubling you, Luna?”

“Nothing of your concern, sister.” Luna turned her head to the side in a dismissive manner.

“You have not been acting like yourself lately,” Celestia insisted.

“Leave it be,” Luna said. It was clear that she was barely able to keep control of her temper; The look in her eyes was laced with malice as they stared unblinking at the other alicorn. Taken aback, Celestia mumbled an affirmative reply before slowly backing out of the room, hardly able to restrain herself from running once she escaped that terrible gaze.

***

Celestia barely raised her eyes as she passed through an archway and into a great hall. Once the archway had been covered in intricate carvings; once the walls had held brilliant paintings. Now it was a hollowed out husk, barely able to prevent itself from collapsing under its own weight. In the early days the happy memories brought by this place, those of the annual galas and other joyous events held here, were enough to bring a smile to her face. Now, nothing did. She could remember nothing but despair for what had been many years now. She continued on, walking outside towards what had once been a beautiful garden, now just an expanse of dirt and dust, bordered by piles of rocks under fallen masonry.

Not paying attention to where she was walking, Celestia caught a hoof on some rubble and fell awkwardly, landing on her wing. There was an audible snap and she stifled a cry of pain as she felt a bone in her wing break in two. She stood up without bothering to dust herself off, absent mindedly casting a spell, and the bone knit itself back together almost instantaneously. She was still nearly omnipotent, though in a small corner of her mind Celestia wondered why she even bothered anymore. For all her power, she hadn’t saved a single pony from the cataclysm she had caused. Not even one…

***

Something was clearly wrong with Luna, but Celestia had no idea what. She had never come across a condition such as this before, so she resolved to ask her student Twilight Sparkle to look into what may be causing her sister’s strange behavior, quickly writing and sending a letter. She knew Twilight would be awake: she always stayed up late reading some book or scroll and that was exactly the reason Celestia was asking her.

She received a letter back a few hours later; Twilight had indeed been awake and able to find an answer.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Luna sounds to be showing some form of multiple personality disorder. This is commonly caused by misuse of certain powerful magic, or occasionally by intense emotion in magical beings. It will require more than one magician to successfully remove the false personality and return Luna to her normal self.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

The princess sent her another letter immediately.

Twilight, come to Canterlot at once. I need your assistance to restore Luna.

Celestia

***

The princess’ hoof scuffed against the edge of a dirt mound, and she took a few steps back. It was fitting, she thought in feelings more than words, that she should come to this place while thinking of when she first brought Twilight into this tragedy.

Mourning

Twilight had stayed with Celestia after The Fall: as far as either of them knew, they were the last two alive in all of Equestria. With only one working eye and no use of her once brilliant magical skills, her student had been able to do little other than attempt to console Celestia.

“There was nothing you could have done; it’s not your fault,” she had said. But it is, thought the princess.

“I should have realized from the beginning. Instead of saving my sister from this… parasite, I banished her, giving it a thousand years to solidify it’s hold on her. When she returned, it was too late. Your use of the elements of harmony was enough to suppress it for a while, but I now know that is was truly impossible to save her by that time. Slowly it crept back until it again had control of Luna, and then it was too late to save anyone.”

“We still have each other.”

But it was not to be. Twilight grew sick, slowly withering away to nothing. Celestia tried to heal her, but again was unable to make use of her great power, for she herself had inflicted the wound that was causing this sickness. Twilight eventually faded away, dying in her mentor’s arms, giving one last reassuring smile as she closed her eyes.

Celestia buried her herself and placed a great stone over the mound, using her magic to burn an inscription into its surface in beautiful, flowing script.

Here lies

The last pony
to walk this land

At peace at last

My faithful student

Twilight Sparkle

***

The text could no longer be read, but Celestia knew it well. Burying her friend was one of the last coherent things she had been able to complete before falling into millennia of denial as the true weight of what had occurred had hit her. Acceptance had restored her sanity, though her spirit remained as broken as ever. A single tear dropped from her face as she turned away, landing in the dry, cracked earth before her friend's gravestone.

Celestia stumbled on through the same bleak scenery she had seen thousands of times before. Nothing ever changed here: the wind and rain had stopped long ago, after she caused the deaths of all of the pegasus ponies, both directly and indirectly. She walked with her eyes closed, moving aside just in time to avoid memorized obstacles in her path, until she came to a stop, raising her head to look at the hole in the wall before her, and the pieces of it stacked beneath. There was almost no structure left in this part of the castle. It had been here, not five meters from where she stood, where the end had begun.

***

Luna had ran when they came for her. Perhaps the other had been in control, but Celestia knew neither would be willing to undergo the process that Twilight had described to her. After a few minutes of chasing through the castle after her, to the astonished looks of many ponies that they passed by, Twilight was able to create a magical barrier to halt Luna's flight. The princess crashed into it, before lashing out with her hoof and shattering the faintly purple wall. By this time, her pursuers had caught up with her, so she turned to face them, giving up hope of escape.

"Don't do this," Luna pleaded. A pained look came to her face as she struggled with something internally, then her expression changed to one of scorn as she stopped cowering and stood before Celestia and Twilight.

"Luna would not like the results," Luna's mouth said. Celestia gasped. She knew that voice, and she could see from Twilight's paled face that she did too. She knew what had to be done, whatever the cost.

"Twilight?" The purple unicorn nodded as Celestia spoke, a determined look coming across her face. Celestia turned back to her sister's body and together they began the spell. Seeing what was happening, a panicked look came over the dark blue alicorn's face as she realized what was happening.

"No! You mustn't! It will kill uuuus!" The final word was drawn out to a shriek, which Celestia could have sworn carried a little more of Luna's voice in it than the other's. A flash of light came from Luna, followed by a wall of physical force radiating out through much of the castle. Twilight and Celestia being part of the spell were passed over by the force, however Luna herself and many other unfortunate ponies were thrown with lethal force into the solid stone walls that surrounded them. An almost imperceptible dark blur detached itself from Luna while she was in the air and knocked Celestia down. Twilight rushed over to check Luna, but was unable to find a pulse.

The princess of the night was dead.

Twilight turned with sorrowful eyes as her mentor got back onto her hooves, only to stop and stare. The air about the white alicorn was dimmed, as if the light was being absorbed somehow, and the princess' eyes had taken on a turquoise color and a manic glint. They snapped to Twilight's face.

"Power! Yes, she is much stronger than her sister. And easier to control," She finished with a nasty chuckle. Twilight broke out of her stupor, raising another barrier between them and attempting to run, but before she had taken a step energy flashed from what had been Celestia's horn, piercing the barrier and striking the side of Twilight's head. The unicorn fell to the ground, and with her loss of concentration, the barrier dissolved. The alicorn stepped forward and stood over the unconscious Twilight.

"No," she whispered. "You will not use the Elements of Harmony against me again. I will see to that, permanently." The smile on her lips could only be described as twisted.

Flames

Twilight Sparkle awoke to the unblinking turquoise eyes of the being who had once been her mentor. She was still lying where she had fallen. All of a sudden, she became aware of a roaring pain on the side of her head. Reaching up to touch it, she almost hit herself in the face, realizing just in time that she had no depth perception: She was blind in one eye. She started as the alicorn spoke.

"I am going to let you live, Twilight Sparkle." She paused a moment, as if to let it sink in. "After all, it was you who helped to free me of that-" She gestured to Luna "-and gain control of the most powerful being in all of Equestria." She paused another moment as if considering a few options, tapping a hoof on the ground thoughtfully. "I cannot, however, leave you to your own devices. There is no-one around to help you, and you have no wings." She eyed Twilight's horn with a sick smile. "And no magic."

She placed her hoof on Twilight's forehead, and purple energy flowed from the unicorn's horn into her own. Twilight slumped to the ground, unconscious for the second time in as many minutes, and the one who looked like Celestia turned and flew out the hole in the wall, passing over the rubble covering the lower half of Luna's body without a second glance.

***

Yes, she had been much weaker than her sister mentally: Celestia had not had a thousand years to try and struggle against the one who sought to control her mind. She had still seen everything that had transpired, of course. Her conscious had stayed confined in the deepest recesses of her mind, watching events occur through eyes that were not her own. The events that she saw through though eyes were those that chilled her the most.

She turned away from the piled rubble, walking out towards the railings at the edge of the once-garden. From there, she looked out over the city and beyond to the valley below. Somewhere out there was the remains of Ponyville, the first place to fall after Canterlot itself. It had received swift destruction: The spirits of the Elements of Harmony had not been given a chance to try and stop her. She had seen it all, powerless to interfere.

***

The white princess had come roaring down out of the clouds, landing with an audible boom at the beginning of the main road into Ponyville. A visit from Princess Celestia was rare in itself, but having her turn up unannounced and apparently alone was enough to have ponies crowding the streets. The mayor pushed her way to the front of the crowd.

"Princess Celestia! To what do we owe the honor of a visit from your highness?"

The princess had been standing with her head bowed and eyes closed for a few moments but now they snapped open, rage showing in the turquoise orbs. The mayor stepped back, a look of confusion and fear on her face, only to be halted by a solid wall of petrified earth ponies and unicorns.

"Harmony is finished," the alicorn said in a whisper, and energy flashed from her horn, streaking over the heads of the ponies and striking the town hall, rending it in two and setting it ablaze. She took to the skies, more bolts lancing out from her horn and striking buildings, creating an inferno surrounding the town. Dozens of pegasus ponies fly away from the flames, but two forms streaked towards the burning buildings. Loyalty and Kindness could not abandon their friends.

Celestia knew they perished in the flames. While she mourned and the other gave a triumphant grin, Ponyville burned.

"Now, none can stop me."

***

For all her form's ability, some mention of what had occurred managed to beat her to the next settlement the impostor visited. It was odd how fast the news traveled, Celestia reflected as she expanded her gaze to encompass the whole scene before her. Many other villages had been destroyed in this valley. The one wearing her form had come to each of them, expecting ponies to bow down before her.

Instead, she had been greeted with terror and flight. Each village that denied her had suffered the same fate as that of Ponyville, until such was her rage that she didn't even stop to announce herself, only bringing destruction and death before moving on. The sun and moon were forgotten in her bloodlust, the perpetual red sky of early morning alike in shade to that of the lifeblood spilled below.

Celestia turned away from the sad scene laid out before her, entering the building again through a different entrance. Soon she came to what had once been one of the most secure rooms in the castle, now open to anyone, though none but Celestia had seen the interior for millennia. Here the Elements of Harmony had been kept, ready for use in need but only able to be accessed by Celestia herself. Here, a choice had been put before her.

***

"BOW!" she screamed at the group of ponies before her, only to have them flee as all those before them had done. With a screech of rage, she sent bolts of energy after them. Through the haze of anger in her eyes, her aim was poor, and many of the bolts missed. A few, however, hit their targets and they fell, unmoving, to the ground. The alicorn muttered to herself under her breath.

"Perhaps Harmony isn't as worthless as I once believed. It is certainly something these foals seem to require," she said, spitting the last word out with a look of disgust on her face. "I will return soon," she announced in a booming voice, her words carrying through the whole town. "Perhaps, with a little persuasion, you will come to see the way things are now."

She took to the skies again, turning back the way she had come and flying toward Canterlot. As she flew, she sifted through Celestia's memories, the princess offering little more than token resistance as the parasite plunged deeper into her mind. It was more than she should have been able to offer, which caused the other to pause for a moment, before dismissing it. Celestia was clearly gaining strength, but once she had control of the Elements of Harmony-

"Ah," she whispered, a predatory grin appearing on her face. "So that's where you keep them."

Hope

The white alicorn crashed through the front gates to the castle, ignoring the broken bodies of those flung into the unyielding masonry by the spell Celestia and Twilight had performed. There was now a constant nagging at the back of her mind. Celestia had gotten no stronger since the first unexpected show of resistance and the one in control of her body easily crushed her attempts to rebel, but it was worrying that she should need to at all.

She moved at a quick pace, going into a side corridor that lead up to a reinforced door. The door was unguarded; The two royal guards that would normally bar anyone's way were lying in a heap against one of the walls of the corridor. She used Celestia's knowledge to open the door and stepped inside, gazing at the objects that sat upon the pedestal before her.

"The Elements of Harmony."

She reached out, brushing a hoof against one and feeling it's intricate detail for a moment. Then she grasped it more firmly, lifting it up before her horn, and began the spell she had used to steal Twilight's magic. The Element was much harder to drain than a pony, but it no longer had a bond to anypony. The apple-shaped gem set into it showed the Element of Honesty, but Applejack was dead. Slowly, a steady stream of energy flowed from the gemstone into the alicorn's horn, while the edges of the necklace started to change into a grey shade.

When it was done, she dropped the stoned-over necklace to the ground, the fragile object cracking in two pieces next to what had been the gem, now just an ordinary stone. She moved to the next, and continued until all the necklaces lay as broken pieces of stone before her. Then she reached for the tiara, the Element of Magic. This was the one she expected to be the hardest to master, for it's bearer still lived. She wanted Twilight alive: She was sure the pony would come to see things as she did, even if she had to make it happen, and she wanted someone to assist her when she ruled. If someone such as Twilight was shown to be on her side, all resistance would crumble.

Despite her concerns, the Element of Magic offered little resistance. She barely had to touch it with the intent of draining it before the magic burst forth from the gem atop it, shooting into her horn in one quick bolt and staggering the alicorn. She didn't know whether it was the spell, the fact that she already held Twilight's magic, or some other unknown reason that made it so easy, and nor did she care. She held out the stone tiara before her, then dashed it against the ground. The last Element shattered, sending chips of stone flying across the room and impacting against the walls and the alicorn's hooves.

Now, all she had to do was be rid of Celestia, and her power would be absolute. Celestia, however, had noticed something the other had not. The parasite began a spell directed inwards, preparing to flush it's new body of Celestia for good, but something was wrong. She screamed in rage.

"The Elements are not WORKING!!"

***

Hardly anything was left of the Elements besides dust. Five small stones lay in a pile of other tiny pebbles, all that remained of the gemstones set in the necklaces. Of the sixth, there was no sign.

Celestia pushed aside what remained of the door, now almost completely destroyed by the ravages of time, as she stepped into the room. A certain darkness had taken residence here for a long time. It was almost completely gone now, slowly dissipating over time, but Celestia still felt a chill as she entered the space. She disliked coming here, hated the feeling of the oppressive energy on her skin, but she always came anyway. For a time, this place had brought her something that was now foreign to her: Hope. It was a feeling she hadn't felt for millennia now, but this place had been the last to give her any and she still passed by it from time to time.

In this place lay the most vivid memory of all.

***

The alicorn raged and ranted, screaming and kicking at the walls until she bruised her hooves, leaving cracks in the strong stone. She stood there for a time, panting after her exertion, before attempting the spell for the third time. Again nothing happened and again she flew into a rage, blasting the interior of the room with bolts of energy and causing chunks of stone to fall from the ceiling.

Celestia, hiding in the back of her own mind, looked on as if watching through a veil. The veil was made of her pain: She was utterly broken after seeing the vast amount of death brought to Equestria by her own hooves. She felt nothing but despair, but some small part of her knew why the other could not use the Elements. She was not pure of heart, and the Elements could only he harnessed by those with good intentions. She may hold the power, with the spirits of the Elements dead and the objects themselves drained of energy, but without knowing their true nature she could never use them.

Celestia could. She could use them and defeat the parasite, force it from her body. But then... what? There was nothing left, it had all been destroyed already. The parasite thought she would be able to control the ponies of Equestria, but her gaze was clouded by delusion. She had already destroyed most of the land and to make things worse, the celestial bodies had stopped moving. By now the moon should have been high in the night sky, but it was still sunrise from the day before, the mad alicorn completely forgetting her need to move the sun along in her fury.

Celestia had nothing more to live for. She could just submit, fade away until she was no more, and let the parasite win. Or she could fight, win control of herself back from the other, and then... endure eternity. She was the last of the immortal alicorns and any ponies left would eventually die, leaving her alone to mourn her world forever. There would be no rebuilding: Equestria was too far gone. She didn't want to go through that. She didn't want to. The parasite had... won.

All of a sudden, the one in control of Celestia felt a stir in the magic within her.

"YES!" she exclaimed gleefully. "You lose CELESTIA!!" She screamed the last word at the top of her lungs, overcome by insane joy. She began the spell one last time, feeling the Elements feed their energy into it as Celestia began to slowly fade from the back of her consciousness. Crazed laughter echoed from the ceiling.

I lose.

The laughter stopped abruptly as the parasite heard a whisper speak into her mind.

"What!?"

I lose, but you do not win this day.

The voice came back stronger, and the parasite felt a sharp twinge in her mind, as if she was getting a headache. It went away for a moment, then returned tenfold. A hundredfold, the pain searing her mind as she was stripped away, flushed from the body that was not hers. As she began to fade, a scream tore free from her lips.

***

Celestia screamed, an echo of her tormentor's scream ten millennia ago. She raised her head, her voice rebounding off the small space and deafening her as she used it for the first time in her memory. Then she opened her eyes, looking clearly at the world around her, not through a haze of pain as she had been before. After everything that had happened, she had given up. Yes, she had fought, defeated the one who had tried to oppress her, oppress Equestria. But then she had just given up, the same as if she had let the other win.

All this time she had wasted, believing she had nothing left. It hurt, but she did not linger on the thought. She didn't linger because she felt something... a feeling she had all but forgotten.

Hope.

After the vastness of her depression, she almost giggled with joy. Almost. She could not allow herself to believe yet, to believe that some ponies had survived in hiding all these years, able to make a way to live in this barren land so that they could have children and keep the species alive. But as long as there was any chance, it was her duty to make herself known to them. The world was still dangerous, and almost all knowledge that had existed in the past was now lost. All that remained was in Celestia's mind, and much of it she had forgotten. She no longer knew how to raise the sun, even if she had been capable.

She moved to the courtyard in front of the castle as fast as she was able, taking to her wings as soon as she was back in the main section of the castle and stopping just outside the gates. She prepared her magic and, not really knowing what she was doing, cast a spell. It was a powerful one, one that she couldn't have completed had the magical power of the Elements of Harmony not still been with her.

A powerful wind began to roar around her, throwing up dust and sending her mane swirling around her head, and a great beam of light reached up from her horn, extending into the sky, piercing the heavens. The area around her was bathed in white light, that of the pillar banishing the depressing shades made by the meager light of the sunrise. The courtyard looked like it was noon, the single place in the world that had seen the full light of day since The Fall. Most importantly, the pillar was a beacon.

The ponies wouldn't come for a long time. Perhaps they wouldn't come at all. Perhaps there were none, and Celestia was truly alone for eternity, but it didn't matter. For now, she had hope. She would wait, no matter how long it took.

Celestia turned back into the castle and, head held high, continued her long walk.

The End

Epilogue

Author's note:

This is not really intended as a part of the story in Fallen. It's here to set up a sequel I have in mind (As odd as a sequel to this story may sound, I suppose) I simply thought this chapter would fit better attached to the end of Fallen, rather than as the beginning of the next story.

It took a long time, but they made their way across the dangerous, forsaken land towards the great pillar of light, eventually coming to the slopes of the mountain that the once-great city of Canterlot was built on.

She was waiting there when they arrived. At first they took no notice of her, for she was sleeping and the accumulated dirt covering her made it difficult to distinguish her unmoving form from the surrounding landscape. Their hoofsteps soon woke her and for a moment she was confused: she hadn't heard any sounds other than those she made herself in millennia. Then her eyes snapped open, wide with the realization of what the sounds meant.

Celestia whirled around, getting to her hooves and facing the newcomers in one smooth motion. They recoiled at the sudden movement, before pausing to study her. She was clearly not one of the monsters they had feared and hidden from their whole lives. In fact she looked a lot like them, though she was certainly bigger and had wings and a horn. After a moment, they began to make out the original colors of her mane and coat.

A look of terror came over their faces, then they turned and ran. Celestia, shocked, jumped after them.

"Wait!" she tried to yell, but it came out as a whisper. She fell to her knees, looking after the fleeing ponies. They were the first sign of other life she had seen since Twilight had died all those years ago, but they were... terrified of her. The reason hit her like a physical blow. She had defeated the one who had been in control of her body but no-one except Twilight knew that.

Ten thousand years... For ten thousand years the ponies had blamed her for the fall of Equestria and she could only imagine how the legend of her malevolence had grown in that time.

"No!" she shouted as she stood again, her voice distraught. She kicked out at the ground with one of her front hooves and was met with a squeal of terror from just in front of her. Her eyes flicked down and she saw there was another pony lying in front of her, one she hadn't seen at first. It was a tiny white-coated filly, curled up defensively, trying to hide her face from the alicorn in front of her.

Celestia leaned down, nudging the filly with her nose only to be greeted with another scared squeak. She paused, unsure of what to do. After a moment, the filly peeked out from under her hooves, peering up at the alicorn with one eye. Celestia was taken aback by the filly's appearance. She had a long scar across her front leg, continuing up across her face until it reached the edge of her forehead. But the most shocking thing was revealed when Celestia realized the filly was a unicorn. Her tiny hooves shouldn't have been able to cover a horn from the alicorn's gaze, but they didn't have to.

Only a stump remained, the splintered end showing where the rest of it had been broken off, what was left sticking out just past the filly's pale orange hair.

Celestia gasped, dropping down at once to embrace the unfortunate filly. She shied away from Celestia at first, before slowly wrapping her arms around one of Celestia's forelegs, crying softly at the terror she had been experiencing moments ago. Celestia too felt tears well up in her eyes.

They stayed that way for a while, before the filly finally spoke.

"None of th-them even care."

"Care about what?" Celestia asked in a hushed voice.

"Th-they all saw you and ran away. But they l-left me here so you could get me instead of th-them." The filly was trembling. Celestia drew her close.

"It's okay." The filly stopped shaking and began to nuzzle against Celestia's side.

"You're not as bad as they say. They say you killed everyone, and took away the light."

"That... that was... someone pretending to be me. I stopped them, but I was to late to save any ponies. Or so I thought." A deep void had appeared in Celestia's eyes, but she smiled as she looked down at the filly. "What is your name?"

"I... I don't have one."

"Would you like one?" The filly squeaked again, this time with excitement.

"Yes!"

"I would call you Dawn... Shine. Dawnshine." The filly beamed at her, before a frown come across her face.

"Miss, what is... dawn?" The word sounded foreign in her mouth. Celestia giggled a moment.

"Call me me Celestia. Dawn is.. it's..." A mournful look came across her face as she looked at the red sky. How could she possibly describe something like that to one who had never seen the sun?

"I'll show you one day.

"I promise."