It had started out as small disappearances, a pony or two going missing in the night… Soon, their bodies would be recovered, drained of their magic and missing their cutie marks. Later ponies would disappear and never be found again… Rumors spread, whispers of timberwolves, changelings, or some new chimeric monster found deep within the woods, but the number of attacks would continue to rise regardless of how many monsters were slain by the guards. The whispers reached Canterlot Castle, and soon the guard came out in force to find the nest of monsters harming the diarchy’s ponies… All that happened, in the end, were entire teams of guards going missing, occasionally a survivor would crawl out of the forests and swamps, driven insane by something unknown. Now, Canterlot was burning. The horde of creatures, once pony now something else, mutants made of both the natural and unnatural, chimera composed of countless animals, even griffon, hippogriff, and changeling, rock or wood made animate.

Atop a shambling mountain of flesh and bone was a caprine figure, dressed in deep and dark blue robes, bearing a bell across his neck mounted like a brooch that held his cape to his back. “Celestia!” He shouted, “I know you are up there, are you, at last, going to face me, or do you want to send more of your so-called guardians to their deaths!” The horde of mutants, chimera, and golems charged around their leader’s living tower, rushing to break down the gates to the castle courtyard…

KROOHNG! KROOHNG! KROOHNG! That sound, like some off-tune bell, rang through Canterlot as the legions of monsters bashed themselves against the gate, some slapping themselves against the heavy golden doors until they sprayed their own blood across it, the creatures mindlessly following the command of their king.

The guards rushed to the gate, pressing their bodies against it in the hope that they can lessen the damage the wave of impacts was causing. Obviously to no avail… Row upon row of soldiers, clad in armor, carrying spears, halberds, and poleaxes in their mouths trembled with each blow. “We’re going to die, you know that?” Asked a guard commander to his subordinate.

“If it is to protect the Princesses, and delay that monster’s advance, so be it”

“I’m impressed everyone is keeping their cool in a time like this…” The captain replied, “You all were so damn lazy, just trotting around the castle like that, I was sure the first time some tiny disaster came around you would all go running.”

“There was never any threat to Equestria back then, not really, but now we must do what we can, and if my life can save another then I will give it.”

“I see we’re on the same page…”

The gate warped, the gold buckling under the strain, sending a few of the guards, those who had their bodies against the metal, flying. One more hit and the gate would fall. Grogar sent that last hit in himself, as a wave of telekinetic force shattered the hinges and sent the gate falling down, crushing a few unfortunate ponies standing too close, but at least their deaths were relatively painless.

The horde came through into the courtyard. Claws, fangs, stingers, hooves, pincers, tongues, limbs, horns, and anything the creatures had that could be used as a weapon rammed into the wall of shields just beyond. A few of the more logical guards ran, the devoted ones stood their ground and faced their deaths. Grogar marched down from his tower, his horns sending out waves of malignant magic that turned flesh to stone, blood to ice, bone to mud, and brain to wood. Many were caught in the blast, the lucky ones being petrified, turned to statues of rock or metal… The unlucky screamed in pain as their body twisted and changed in unnatural ways, most dying from the shock, or the daggers of their own comrades to be granted release from the dark magic, the others rising to join the horde of monsters.

Up in the castle, the doors to the throne room were opened as a unicorn, wounded, having been hit by a magical blade earlier in the battle, ran to address the diarchs standing over their thrones. “Princesses!” She shouted, “Grogar has breached the courtyard, your guard is holding him but not for long.”

Luna was fuming with barely contained fury while Celestia kept a mask of professional calm. “I see… Have all the civilians been evacuated?”

“As many as we could save, yes,” The guard mare said, the wound on her side, even behind the magical bandages, was growing worse, the color of rusted iron starting to stain her fur, the mare wincing as bits of powdered metal fell from her side. She was dying, but she could still deliver her report before she fell.

Luna could keep her quite only so long, “I should have been out there from the start, then we could have saved everypony!”

“Luna,” Celestia replied, “The guards would have joined you anyway, and we had not yet known the strength of Grogar’s legion,” the solar princess turned back to her guard, “Very well, now that as much of the peasantry that could be saved have been saved, send word to all remaining Canterlot guards, both Day and Night, to retreat to the north.

“It is going to be my last order,” The guard mare said bitterly, “I hope this last command of mine is not in vain,” She finished, bowing with visible pain before being helped up the stairs by a unicorn comrade of her’s, to the balcony to deliver her orders across the city.

Celestia, alone next to her sister in the throne room, sighed and allowed her expression to turn dour. “If we had the elements of harmony…”

“The Crystal Empire will hold out, I am certain.”

“Sister, we do not know if the Element Bearers have reached it yet, Cadence should have sent word…”

“We must hope that they have made it safely to the Empire, if we lose that hope then Equestria, and quite possibly the world is doomed.”

The two were silent for a moment, “I wonder how Grogar became so powerful, did he steal the magic of Discord?”

“I doubt this is it,” Celestia said, “Grogar is a master of biomancy, and Discord is a master of transmutation… But not even Discord could mutate creatures in this way, furthermore, neither Discord nor Grogar’s magic can kill a pony outright by turning flesh to stone or sand, this must be some new kind of spellcraft, made with the magic of the Changeling and Cockatrice I would guess.”

“There are myths of Zebra who were skilled in all kinds of dark arts, but while I would not be surprised to hear that they have powerful necromancers or mind-controllers in their lands, I have never heard of a zebra potion that could permanently alter a creature in such horrifying and destructive ways…”

“It matters not where his power came from, what matters is that we stop him… And this time, I have no intent of banishment or petrification for this monster, he will receive a far worse fate for his crimes!” Celestia’s voice had turned angry, her face twisted into a snarl, something Luna had only seen from her once before, a small part of the dark blue alicorn was scared, both for her sister and for herself.

As instructed, the guards started to fall back, but many still stood their ground in the courtyard, they were quickly killed. Once there were no more ponies to harm, save for the dead, dying, and those who would be better off dead than alive, the Princesses opened the castle doors. “Grogar!” Celestia shouted from the precipice of the castle, she stood before the horde, Luna at her side.

“Ah, Princess, come out to face me have you, how many of your soldiers have I had to murder to get your attent-” He was not able to finish his sentence before Celestia’s mouth opened, she did not shout, or roar, or even say a word, the only sound came from the howling wind as she let loose a torrent of flame, hotter than a volcano’s magma. The monsters were turned to ash in an instant, explosively vaporizing. The golden gate of the courtyard flashed to liquid, the stonework began to drip and run like muddy water. The flame was so bright it drowned out the world beyond in shadow, and any wood or paint burst into acrid smoke casting the sky momentarily in blackness.

Celestia closed her mouth before the castle itself could feel the heat, the courtyard was now more reminiscent of a volcanic caldera, lava flowing from the stairs and down into the city below. Grogar was still standing atop a small pillar of ice, the beast he rode having dissolved into steam and smoke. His horns glowed, keeping up the field of magic that turned the steam rising around him into cold mist. “I see, let us begin then.”

Black shafts of magic raced from Luna as she took to the air, each striking the ground and causing an explosion as the blasts sprayed hot magma into the air. Each strike would have torn a normal creature to shreds, but a shield of radiant spellwork guarded Grogar against each arcane lance. Luna’s spell strikes continued, and to some effect, as the magic ripped small holes in Grogar’s shield, but as quickly as they were produced they were sealed.

Celestia let lose a burst of golden magic, the beam of heat making the air around it flash with incandescence, yet it just fractured upon impact with the intricate magical shield Grogar had erected, the beam wasn’t deflected but rather broken into smaller streams that went around the goat. A dozen small explosions followed as the beam fragments hit the ground or some distant building. “So straightforward, you realize I have enough power to rival both of you at this point…” Grogar taunted.

Luna rushed in with unexpected speed, a pop of silvery blue light teleporting in a long silver sword, the blade, moving with enough force to cut clean through an adult dragon, managed to puncture Grogar’s shield, but only barely, the tip of the sword still a hooffull of centimeters away from his neck. For a moment the goat paused, then the magic tightened and Luna’s sword was cleaved in two, the mare dodging out of the way as the goat summoned forth a large stone spike from the molten pool below.

A half dozen orbs of lava were levitated up from the pool below and Grogar sent them flying, the ponies moving out of the way to leave the magma to harden mid-air and shatter against the castle walls, making cracked dents in the stonework. Celestia returned fire with a fusillade of fireballs, Grogar dodged, knowing his shield wasn’t completely invincible after Luna’s attack. A fireball splashed off the goat’s magical barrier, causing the arcane runes moving around its surface to seemingly dissolve, but they were quickly recast before the shield could fall. Luna moved in, lancing out with more midnight-black magical strikes, obviously to no real effect, but every strike deprived the goat of a portion of his magical ability.

A slash of black magic missed and continued onward, Luna pausing for a moment to dispel it before the magic could hit a nearby tower, almost causing it to collapse. “Be careful princesses, you wouldn’t want to harm your own subjects, you can leave that to me.”

Luna lunged forward and started striking the goat’s shield with her hooves, each strike making a short-lived distortion in the magic. The goat showed some signs of actual strain at this but quickly retaliated with a bolt of twisted energy. Luna was struck in the chest and the magic began turning her fur and skin to hard silver. While she had never had the time to study the spell beforehand, a spell was still a spell, and with a pulse of obscenely powerful spellcraft, the magic was reversed, although the brute-force method took more energy than Luna cared to admit, however.

Celestia, enraged by the attempt at her sister’s life, lunged downward, her mane and tail turning slightly orange and starting to whip around like flame as she poured her magical power into a physical strike, slamming into Grogar’s shield from above with way more than enough force to shatter the point of a diamond across every square millimeter of her hooves. The goat was flung deep into the magma crater and into the rock below, the mountain shaking beneath the onslaught of power. The splash of molten stone that flew up into the sky from such a strike could be seen even from Ponyville, as if Canterlot had become a volcano, the magma cooling as it entered the air and forming a dust cloud that settled over the city. Celestia rose from the crater and with her magic caused the courtyard to flash once again into incandescence, liquifying to fill back up the hole in the earth that she had caused, Grogar’s shield shattered. But before he could be buried under the flow of molten liquid, with his remaining strength, the goat teleported from the pit and landed atop Celestia as she hovered in the air, sending the two spiraling down into the courtyard. Luna lunged forward and caught her sister, and with a buck sent the goat flying over the side of Canterlot Mountain, the sound of bones breaking under hoof echoing from the city’s heights.

The two flew down to one of Canterlot’s terraces, the lava fall from the courtyard above had created a few odd-looking mounds of mixed gold and marble. Grogar lay on the ground, still alive, but wounded. Celestia could barely fly, having exhausted most of her magic with that final assault, Luna held her, wobbly but still in a state to fight if Grogar showed more stamina than was expected of the old goat.

“What should we do with him, sister?’ Luna asked, already knowing the answer, and it was the answer she wanted to hear.

Grogar struggled to his hooves, making some uneasy movements, bloody hooves going around in circles on the ground first before he staggered upright. “What, going to banish me, I will just come back someday, perhaps you won’t even be around then.”

“Luna,” Celestia replied, tone colder than normal, “Kill him.”

Grogar was taken aback, “You wouldn’t.”

“You killed many, many ponies, it is a shame I can only kill you once,” Luna replied. Luna stepped forward, horn glowing, “I want to break every bone in your body and have you die of shock, but my sister would not appreciate that, so I’ll be merciful, and make your death so quick you will not have time to feel pain… It is far better than you deserve.”

Luna’s horn glowed, a shadowy spear forming in the air next to her, “If you have any last words then say them, you have to the count of three…One… Two… Thre-”

Luna’s spear slashed outward, right at that moment the goat stepped to the side, the spear only slashing his neck rather than cutting it clean through, below the goat, where he had tried to get his hooves up, was an intricate mesh of magical runes. Celestia’s eyes went wide, “Luna!” She shouted and rushed forward to pull her sister out of the way. The moment a drop of Grogar’s blood touched the runes, they lit up with crimson magic… And in a flash, all three of them vanished, with that final pop the city was silent, save for the crackle of fire.

It was cold, wind was rushing across Celestia’s face, burying her eyes under her mane, it was quite dark, but she was still alive, she was sure of that. Even a foal quickly develops that sense of gravity that lets them know when they’re falling from the sky. Her wings folded out reflexively, and the rush of air as she slowed pulled her mane back, allowing her to see where she was…

Color, lots of color, a giant scatter of many colors of lights across a dark landscape, like a billion unicorns casting spells at once. The lights came from giant dark towers that rose from the ground like trees in a forest. She looked around and found Luna falling next to her, she too had her wings out but had been entranced by the sight of the glowing forest of rectangular structures below them. Grogar was falling, blood pouring from his neck… Seems he wasn’t as fast in that last dodge as he would have liked to imagine.

Celestia woke up from the impressive sight and folded her wings back, picking up speed and flying next to Luna, the rushing wind almost drowned out all other sounds, so Celestia prodded her sister with a jab of telekinesis, catching her attention. They both folded their wings out, slowing down enough to talk while gliding to the ground. “Where are we, what was that spell?”

“Teleportation of some kind I imagine, either trying to escape or banish us, regardless it seems we all got caught in it,” Celestia replied.

“Where is Grogar?”

“It would be cruel to just let him fall, but between all the magic we exhausted we can barely fly, and I think he is already dead anyway, he tried to evade your strike at the last moment but the goat wasn’t as nimble as he thought, or perhaps he didn’t care if he lived or died as long as he got us, regardless, we cannot worry about that now… We need to find somewhere to land, Luna, your eyes are better than mine in the dark.”

“We could land in the glittering towers?”

“We do not yet know what they are, we should land out in the wilderness and rest first, if they are dangerous then we will require our magic, or at least working wings…”

“I see your point… I see deserts, as well as an ocean, with the glittering towers to… The north I think, I would use magic or the stars to find out, but I can see no stars in this sky with all the light from the towers.”

They continued gliding for several minutes, Luna leading the way, as they approached a flat stretch of wilderness. They landed on gravely ground covered in sand that made their coats itch, but at least they could rest their wings. “The ground is hard, and there are some kind of spines in the dirt which hurt my hooves, but all in all it is better than a lot of other places we could have ended up, such as deep underground or near an active volcano,” Luna said, “I will take first watch, you should rest…”

Celestia clearly wanted to protest but simply laid down on the dirt. Luna turned her head upward, the stars were barely visible, but the moon clearly was… They were not on Equus, that much was clear, the moon was different, it looked smaller and despite being a crescent she could see small lights she at first thought were stars on its dark parts. She felt a magical connection with it… It wasn’t strong, she couldn’t even move the moon a meter just yet, but she still felt its weight in her mind, it was physically smaller than Equus’ moon, but not by much, the size difference was clearly due to distance. As an astronomer she stared long into the night sky, entranced by such a familiar yet alien sight, as the stars were dim and the moon alien.

Author's Note

Just finished my first playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077, and honestly, much better than all the negative press it got at launch made me suspect it was going to be... Felt a bit like Fallout 4, as in a kina lowsy RPG, but a good shooter and decently fun game overall, plus while the ending was somewhat obvious in hindsight, in the moment it hit me like a truck. Regardless, give it a solid 7 or 8 out of 10.
I also kinda got bored of the other fandoms I was in, so I'm back in the MLP fandom, at least for now, until I find something else to get invested in.

(Edit, 22/9/2022): I'm back in writing fanfics, and I wanted to continue this one after watching the Cyberpunk anime. Note that as of the time of writing this the other chapters are not yet rewritten and so there will be some major differences in the story that will be ironed out later.