Author's Note

This is the final piece of setting for our stories to begin. Expect to see the First Part of the First Story "Inquisitor" later this week.

Setting 6: Throne of the Twin Sisters

Shining Armor exhaled as he lowered his head and turned around to see the three alicorns behind him. His wife, Cadance registering a pulse every 3 minutes. Her form was barely alive having long since been ripped to pieces and torn asunder. Her rear hooves and cutie mark torn from her body completely cutting angel of his life in half. Her majestic wings nothing more than bit of feather and bone ripped and scattered around the stasis tank she laid in, for so long. He turned his head as he did every minute to the next alicorn princess. Luna whose body was whole except for her head which nearly been severed from its neck, the cut so deep that a thousand unicorns had died from the scream of their princess before it gurgled when the vocal chords were severed.

Luna inhaled and nearly a minute later, exhaled. The throne of the twins, one side white and one side black kept her alive. She was entombed upon the side of the sun while her sister lay upon the side of the moon. The two positions had been switched in order to allow the love of the other to sustain their sibling. Their horns glowed twice a day in unison to turn the galaxy around them, so that Terra could have a night and a day. The one geocentric galaxy in the universe still required the rules to sustain life. Finally when the cold air showed the breath of the moon princess, he moved his head to look through the golden power to Celestia.

The princess of the sun looked withered. The sacred cloth that adorned her face covered the scar she had suffered at the hands of her student, Twilight. A burn so vicious so horrific, that the alicorn's skull was visible beneath the fabric. The blast she had suffered was made of pure chaotic flame straight from the heart of discord himself. And now, as he had done for 10,999 years, 11 months, 29 days, 23 hours, 57 minutes, a single tear rolled down the golden armor of the stalwart stallion sentry. The green rust long since embedded into his helmet; a reminder of his failure to protect them.

The floor beneath him caught the drop of purest tortured love which rolled into the grooves and down the pipes to be used to bless weapons of Empire of Twin Sisters.

Before him, nine hundred screams shot up through the floor and the wiring echoed with electrical energy as nine hundred unicorns, whom had failed their magic testing; were slaughtered. All at once the magic they contained was used to power the throne and directly inject the now tainted energies into the alicorn princess so they could stay alive. Each day, 1 minute before the strike of midnight this happened.

Those nine hundred unicorns came from all across galaxy brought into the chamber beneath their princesses. All the ponies whom had failed to show enough magical aptitude to be useful in Harmony's fight against Chaos had one role to play. Their sacrifice would fuel the princesses as they lay in a state between life and death. Each of them names entombed into slabs of gold to remember their martyrdom in the name of the greater good. They kept the power of the golden throne alive, the alicorns sustained in hopes that one day the damage to their mortal forms could be repaired. Now Shining Armor looked to the empty stasis pod, the one meant for Twilight if she ever needed it. His anger grew, he felt himself wanting to hold down that alicorn as demand answer as he tore her horn from her head. This was his place, this was where he stayed for 11,000 years.

At the strike of midnight as he turned his head to Cadance when something happened. Luna took a breathe 1 minute too early. He snapped his gaze with inpony reflects to her. The princess of night had her eyes opened. Shining Armor didn't know what to do. He had been on his vigil for so long and the three princesses had never moved. What was he to do? The prayers of billions of ponies flowed through their minds, or at least he had assumed they did. Yet here, one of the sister had awoke. She did not move, she did not speak, but her eyes followed as he took that first step towards her withered form.

He felt it now too, the darkness, the abyss itself rising. He knew now why she had awoken and it ate at his soul. He felt his magic wanting to flee his body. He felt his strength drain away, unable to move his power armor even an inch for a long moment. They were coming back. The five of the six whom had betrayed were rising. Did this mean the loyal one might wake up also? It didn't matter there was too much to do now that Luna was awake.

All because that cursed Pink one, whose name should never be spoken by any loyalist; was returning from the edges of the darkness beyond the furthest reaches of the galactic rim.

He forced all the magic he could into a single spell to sanctify the room, a brilliant blaze of rainbow colors shot out, as the energy overpowered the presence and forced it from the holiest of holy chambers.

Luna spoke as the abyssal one's presence was cleansed, “We have to gather, those whom will become our avatars.” Was all she said before the door opened and attends rushed in.