Pain flared through me as the spell took effect. A partial binding like this was a simple procedure, one that we had cast several times in the past.
But we had never tried to bind this much power before.
I saw the look in her eyes as she channeled the spell, the tears leaking free as she saw my body writhe, knowing it had been my request.
But I also saw something else. I could never unsee it, I was sure. I wouldn’t unsee it.
Never again.
I would never see that come to pass ever again.
”They are marching in from the South, my ladies,” the lieutenant reported, dipping his head in a respectful bow. “There appear to be only five hundred spears.”
“So few?” My sister scoffed. “Surely they do not think they can overcome us with but five hundred.”
“They are a fearsome foe,” I replied. “Five each they are worth. Their size alone gives them advantage over our forces. Underestimate them at your own peril.”
“Sister, we command a force of seven thousand,” Luna whispered. “Hardened battle mages and winged battalions all. Surely they, with no magic or flight, are at the disadvantage.”
I looked down the field at the slowly approaching horde, feeling my jaw tighten.
“But we have emotions, Luna,” I whispered back. “Ponies may quail and flee in fear. The Cerithin will not, not once in the blood lust.”
And it was then that we heard the first distant howling of the horde.
Pain continued to flow through me. My own magic threatening to rip me apart.
“Tia, please,” Luna shouted over the howling wind the spell had began to whip up. “We can still cease this. It was not your fault!”
But it was. I didn’t fight the spell or the blazing fire that tore through me.
Never again.
The beasts stunk. The smell of the monsters was strong even from the middle ranks where the banner waved in the chill breeze.
“Confident bastards,” our standard bearer remarked in his harsh brogue. “No armor and rusty weapons.”
“They tend not to care once their ire is roused,” Luna reprimanded him with a cold tone, her eyes meeting mine. “Fang and claw serve them as well as blade.”
I saw one of her guards shiver, but in fear or anticipation I couldn’t tell. Thestrals do not follow the same body language as Pegasi.
“What are they waiting for?” One of the shieldmares asked, her heavy iron shield hovering in her silver aura.
“The order,” one grizzled old sergeant growled. “Even they have a hierarchy that they can’t break.”
“Then what should we do?” asked the standard bearer.
“Wait and see,” came the reply.
“For what?”
“I have a feeling we will know it when we see it,” I said firmly, silencing the communication as a tall creature stepped forward, tattered rags hanging from its furred body, long arms almost dragging the ground. It’s grey fur was matted with dirt and blood save for where scars stood out starkly. A massive blade was slung down it’s back, looking like no more than an iron bar.
The sound of its roar was enough to cause my wings to twitch and I saw Luna’s ears pin back to her head as she gritted her teeth. The answering howl was just as loud.
Another beast stepped forward and bared its teeth at the one in front, what sounded like a challenge roared out. We had tried to determine what their language was but so far we couldn’t translate it.
The challenge was returned and the two rushed in and began to tear at each other, tooth and claw. I was horrified.
“Hierarchy, you said,” the shieldmare said, her voice sickened.
“Aye,” the sergeant said.
We watched as the two Cerithin tried to kill the other, as growls and roars of excitement began to exhibit from the horde.
“They’re working up a fury as the leadership is challenged,” a thestral rasped. “It is a ritual sacrifice. We have seen this in other creatures.”
“Senseless,” My standard bearer said.
“Effective,” the thestral returned.
When all was said and done, the challenger was lying on the ground, throat torn open by the taller one’s fangs. It threw its head back and roared, bloody muzzle dripping. Then, it reached down and tore the head from the body and hurled it into the horde before turning and racing our lines, followed closely by its kin.
“And so it begins,” I whispered, horn lighting as I gave the first order.
“Forward line! Shields! Pikes forward!”
We watched as they rushed headlong towards our phalanxed pikemen.
”Fall back, reform ranks!” Luna shouted from the air, her armor gleaming in the late day sun. I had deliberately lowered the sun so that it shone from behind us, into their eyes.
I saw the remaining pikers ground their weapons again as a startling few shield-bearers formed up before them. Losses had been heavy in the first sortie, taking most of our front lines while only felling ten of the enemy. From here I could see the ridged foreheads and jagged teeth. My nose was clogged with the smell of blood.
My ponies were dying. Anger boiled in my blood, but I had to remain calm. It would do neither me nor my subjects any good to see me rage about like a madpony.
Magic spells filled the air as mages cast forth fire and ice, acid and lightning, and other forms of spells that we had no reason to have need of. But for each hole blasted open, the scream of an infantry pony would sound out and be silenced suddenly.
My ponies were dying.
The Cerithin had broken through the front ranks and were scattering the defenses like these battle hardened ponies were nothing.
My ponies are dying, and there was nothing I could do.
As I watched the battle turn against us, something inside me snapped.
I lifted into the air and raised the sun a few degrees. Luna looked at my horn blazing with golden light, saw the expression on my face and signaled for a retreat.
I saw my ponies, orderly falling back behind the ridge we had designated for this purpose as I swooped forward. A few slower ponies fell beneath the onslaught of the suddenly unopposed Cerithin.
I landed, threw my wings open, and stood to challenge their advance. The leader, blood dripping from its claws, rushed forward to meet my challenge.
I felt blood splatter across my coat as my hooves crushed its skull. As the body collapsed, I screamed in defiance at the horde.
And then I unleashed the full fury of the sun upon them.
Sol Invictus. The invincible Sun. Unstoppable.
Their fur smoked and then flared into flames, the surrounding area kindling to flame as well.
They were killing my ponies.
They fled, and I advanced. They crumbled to ash, and I advanced. The earth beneath my hooves shriveled to dust. The rocks melted and bubbled around those that still struggled to flee my wrath.
Still I advanced. My mane and tail were wreathed in starfire and my eyes were surely like unto the pits of Tartarus itself.
Sol Invictus.
And then, there was nothing else fleeing. There was nothing else moving. But my wrath was unsated. I felt a burning need to find wherever they had come from and burn them all until I had unleashed upon them the same suffering they had visited upon my subjects.
“Enough, Tia,” Luna whispered, flinging her forelimbs around me in a hug. “It is enough!”
And I looked about, and saw for the first time the devastation I had wreaked. The solar fury winked out immediately as a tear slipped free.
“What have I done?” I whispered.
I visited the wounded the next day and offered condolences for those that had lost friends. Somehow, without meaning to, I found myself drawn to the ridge overlooking the wasteland I created in my wrath. Ash blew in the wind and was whipped around the charred trunks of withered trees. In some places I could see where the soil had been baked into clay and glass. I took a few steps down and felt my hoove connect with something, and a brief dig revealed a twisted and melted bit of Equestrian armor fused with a charred bone. I had to fight to maintain my composure as I turned and asked a burial detail to search for remains. Seeing the destroyed landscape only sought to drive in the reality of what I was capable of. This land would take years to recover, if it even could.
“Are you alright, my lady?” The grizzled standard bearer asked as I returned to the encampment.
“I am no worse for wear, Pennant,” I replied wearily. Referring to him as no more than rank seemed wrong now.
He nodded. As we neared my tent, I hesitated.
“Pennant,” I asked softly.
“Ma’am?”
“Do they fear me?” I was afraid of the answer. I had heard whispers all morning. About the destruction that laid just over yonder, no more than two hundred lengths from camp. The Desolation of the Sunmother. Celestia’s Wrath.
“Some do,” he responded. “After a display such as that, hard not to. But most see you as the protector. The vengeful sun come forth to save them. A wrathful god, some are saying.”
I closed my eyes.
“I see,” I whispered.
“Ma’am, if I may?”
“Go ahead.”
“Forgive my impertinent words, but you needed to do it.” He turned and looked up at me with ice blue eyes. “They tore through our phalanx like it was tissue paper. Our best armor and shield spells couldn’t contend with them. There was no other outcome the didn’t involve more death. We lost two hundred good ponies and maybe only accounted for fifteen of them. We were no match.”
He reached up and put a hoof on my shoulder. “You had no choice.”
“Didn’t I, though?” I said, looking away at the still smoking battlefield.
I stepped into my tent and saw the crown sitting on the table. I lifted it to my head as I shucked the armor off, looking at the singed bits of cloth that held it together. I didn’t want to wear it again I didn’t want to touch it again.
I teleported to Luna’s tent and sat down as she turned from her desk.
“Luna,” I hesitated. “I need you to do something for me.”
She looked like she was about to ask what I meant before understanding dawned.
“You want to limit your power.” Unheard were the questions she surely had. “Are you sure?”
I nodded. “I never want to lose control like that again.”
As the spell ebbed, I stood and shook ash from my body. A simple spell blew the rest away, leaving my coat mostly pristine. The crown on my head, barely a decade old, felt heavier, somehow.
And I walked through the baked landscape, etching the sight into my memory. I had felt the possibility of reveling in the destruction and it had been seductive. If not for Luna, I may have become a monster worse than those we had faced.
I never wanted to chance that. Never again.
