Of Gods and Tomes

Nightmare Moon screamed in rage and anguish as the multicoloured light from the Elements of Harmony engulfed her, lifting her off the floor. Celestia's horn glowed brighter and brighter in concentration as tears streamed down her face. "I love you." She choked out, lifting her sister higher and higher. The light surrounded Nightmare Moon in a sphere of rainbows, which soon crashed through the ceiling of the throne room sending falling chunks of the roof down onto Celestia. Slabs of stone weighing many tons glanced off the goddess's form like so many pebbles, her horn glowing ever brighter as she raised her sister against her will. "I'm sorry." She whispered, and completed the spell. Nightmare Moon rocketed into the night sky towards the moon, her dark figure silhouetted by the rainbows surrounding her. Soon she was just a speck of light, racing across the sky towards the Moon. The speck finally reached its destination, and for an instant the night was gone as the Moon lit up with a thousand colours. As they faded and the Moon revealed a new face, the image of Nightmare Moon carved across its visible hemisphere for all to see.

Celestia collapsed onto the floor of the ruined hall, sobbing desperately. As she laid her head down on the rubble strewn marble floor, the Elements of Harmony embedded in her necklace glowed briefly and popped themselves out of their sockets. They shattered as they hit the floor, sending multicolored fragments everywhere. Celestia barely noticed in her sorrow, though it seemed to send her into a fit of louder crying. "Damn that book!" She cried, rolling onto her side and closing her eyes.

Some time later she heard large wings flapping and she opened her eyes. Another alicorn stood above her, looking down with eyes that were far more sorrowful than her own. Great black tears welled from his dark eyes and dripped to the floor, evaporating almost instantly but leaving behind permanent black stains. "We had no choice Celestia." He said, his deep voice cracking with sorrow. "The book corrupted her soul." The black flames of his mane licked slowly back and forth over his pale grey coat, highlighting the pony skull cutie mark on his flank. Tears continued to fall from his face as her turned his attention to the shattered Elements. "Their power was changed from containing her for just a short time. Indeed, had we not moved as quickly we might not have been able to stop her." His horn glowed, and the shards collected themselves into piles of each colour of the rainbow. The shards glowed, and chunks of marble skittered across the floor and molded themselves around the piles, sealing them together in spheres of rock. "I'm afraid the Elements will no longer respond to the will of a god. It will take the power of a mortal's love to use them again." The spheres floated up and across the room, landing on the empty orrery-like stand where the Elements were normally kept.

Celestia stood up slowly, wiping some of the tears from her face. "But the Elements are the only thing that can affect a god's soul! What will we do Obitus?" She burst into tears again, and he pulled her into an embrace with both his wings and his forelegs, nuzzling her tenderly. "I can't go on for eternity without my sister." she sobbed into his shoulder.

"And I cannot go on without the love of my life Celestia. But we must. Without us the cycle of night and day will end, and so will the cycle of life and death. We simply have wait until a mortal is born that has the will and the power to reawaken the Elements." Tears continued to flow from his eyes, momentarily staining Celestia's brilliant white coat before fading away. His voice grew stronger and more resolute. "Yes, we will have to wait. But there is something we can do right now that will help us feel better."

Celestia looked up at him. "Yes." Her voice grew stronger too, becoming harsh with rage. "We can send that book back to whatever evil dimension it came from."

They broke their embrace and turned together to face the thrones at the end of the hall, where a large black tome rested on Princess Luna's throne. They approached it together, horns glowing in preparation to unleash destructive forces not seen on Equestria since the time of creation. It lay there seemingly innocuous, but it was absorbing the light emitted by their horns. It's title was inscribed deeply into its animal skin binding in some otherworldly language, only Luna had deciphered it's meaning and learned to read it's words.

In unison they roared, their rage shaking the very foundations of the earth. Twin beams of light speared out from their horns, blasting all before them into incoherent plasma. The thrones were vaporized, as was the wall behind them, and the valley floor behind it. A great chasm was ripped into the ground, destroying the road leading to the castle and obliterating a village that had been evacuated earlier during the fight with Nightmare Moon. Ponies for hundreds of miles cowered in fear as the world shook and the angry screams of gods echoed through the air.

Finally Celestia and Obitus stopped throwing energy at the book. It floated in the air, unharmed by a barrage that could have torn the crust off the planet had it continued. It drifted slowly down to rest on the floor, which was still soft and liquid in places from the heat. The two gods stared at the book, rage contorting their faces. "AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!" Celestia yelled, and brought a hoof down onto it in rage. The floor cracked all around them and more of the castle fell to the ground as the book was pressed six inches into solid marble. "This thing deifies the laws of our reality! Is there nothing that will destroy it?" She cried, collapsing to the floor again in tears. "I can't even take vengeance upon the thing which caused all this." She looked up at Obitus, who still stared at the book with eyes that could kill a mortal.

"No. It must be because it is from another dimension." He hung his head low in defeat, an emotion never before felt by a god. Suddenly he stood up straight and looked through the collapsed ceiling at the Moon. "No, we cannot destroy it." He said in a strong voice. "But we can put it somewhere that it will never be a problem again." He ripped the book out of the stone floor with his hoof and then levitated it with his horn. "Come with me. Even now it saps my strength, you may need to carry it for me after a while."

"Where can we put it that none shall ever find it, Obitus?" Celestia asked, her tone hopeful.

"Where none but us can go. Come!" With a bound they took to the air, rapidly accelerating up and away. Cones of super compressed air formed around them, soon breaking and expanding out in a circle of multicoloured light as they broke the sound barrier. They flew west, reaching Draconia within minutes. Obitus veered towards a mountain with smoke billowing from its top and lava pouring down its side, Celestia close behind him. He paused above the rim of the volcano, preparing himself. "Are you ready?" He asked. Celestia nodded, and they plunged downward. The lava rippled in great waves as they struck it faster than the speed of a shout, it's heat and power warming them. They flew down and down through the lava, it's viscosity becoming thinner and thinner as they deeper and it grew hotter. They followed the massive main vent of the volcano down and into the mantle of the planet, leaving the crust and the living world far behind. Deeper they plunged, past the mantle and it's many layers, until finally they reached the ball of nickel-iron that made up the core of the world. Celestia took the book from Obitus, and from his horn lit another stream of pure energy. It ripped a hole in the core, and Celestia cast the book into the hole with all her strength. The core shook and rang like a bell when the book struck it. Far above, every volcano in the world erupted simultaneously. Obitus and Celestia focused their wills together, and before them the hole sealed itself up and the core compressed by just a tiny fraction; forever sealing the book away.

Celestia and Obitus emerged from the volcano days later, the sun shining down as they shook the molten rock from their manes. Celestia's crown and other jewelry had melted away in the heat, leaving nothing behind. Obitus looked forlornly up at the Moon, faintly visible in the brightness of the day. "What limits are on her, Celestia?" He asked.

"Her powers are restrained to nearly nothing, just enough to allow her to survive up there." She grimaced. "Even if we retrieved her from her prison, her power will be contained forever. Only the Elements can return her to godhood now." She pawed at the ground in thought. "What did you mean when you said only a mortal's love could use the Elements now?"

"The elements helped our ancestors create this system out of stellar material. They have limitless power, but are not weapons. They are tools of creation and unity. Using them to restrain a god has changed them; whatever created them didn't want us using them against each other. So now their power can only be wielded by a mortal, and to ensure that mortal cannot abuse the power it must be used out of love. When we find a mortal that can use them I don't foresee that healing your sister will be hard to do, considering that it is an act of love."

"Then why were the Elements unchanged after our battle with Discord a century ago?"

"Discord was not the same kind of god we are. He was a god of chaos, a creature of the great void; the Elements are here to create systems from that chaos. So in effect, Discord was a natural enemy of the Elements."

"Obitus, how is it that you know things that I do not?"

"We each have our spheres of influence and responsibility, Celestia. You are the Princess of the Sun and summer, your sister is the Princess of the Moon and winter. I am the Prince of Death and reincarnation. I assume that I know these things because I may have to judge the soul of a mortal who has wielded the Elements, and I cannot accurately judge a soul when I am ignorant of the power it wielded." He laid down on the solid stone of the volcano, it's coolness soothing after days basking in the heat and pressure of the planetary interior. "You know that we only know some things because we must know them, not because we learned them. It's just the way we are." He laid his head down on the rock. "I fear that you must rule alone for the time being. I'm slipping away, for a time." He closed his eyes slowly. "This volcano will erupt once more and then go extinct. I think I will sleep here for an age or two. The book sapped much of my strength." He yawned, mouth opening wide and revealing sharp teeth.

Celestia laid next to him for a moment, extending a friendly wing over him. "Yes, you did carry it much longer than I. But what of your duties? How will ponies souls find their way back to this plane for rebirth without you? The Sun and Moon can progress without me for a short time, but not for an entire age. You cannot abandon what you are here for."

"The lesser aspect of my power can guide souls while I'm asleep. And you know that I haven't had to judge a soul in eons; ours are a good people now, pure. You know what the signs of an evil soul are, you can awaken me easily if I'm required. Once I have recovered, I will rule and you can sleep." His voice grew softer and softer. "Wake me when you need me, Celestia. But if you find a wielder... " His voice died to a whisper. "Send Luna to wake me."

Celestia stood up and walked to the edge of the rim, preparing to leave now that Obitus was asleep. She crouched to jump into the air, but Obitus's faint voice held her fast."Celestia" He whispered "You must forget." She nodded to herself. A gods will was reality, and if they willed themselves to forget something then it was forgotten. So she took off from the volcano, and willed herself to forget where the book was.