Fire in the Leaves, Fire in the Mountains

Chapters

Chapter 1: Vistors
Chapter 2: Visions
Chapter 4: Revelations and Reunions
Chapter 5: Reckoning
Reckoning Part 2
Chapter 6: Fire and Shadow
Intermission in Pink
Chapter 7: The Way of All Flesh
Chapter 3: Shadows and Sojurns

Chapter 1: Vistors

"That's right, Twilight, you're getting it! Just push a little ha-OOMPH!" Twilight flew backwards into Luna as the spell rebounded, leaving a sprawled mess of purple and midnight blue in the corner. Luna untangled herself, and sighed.

For the last few weeks, Celestia has delegated the task of instructing Twilight with her studies to Luna; viewing this as both an excellent learning opportunity for them both. Luna had always been the more studious of the two sisters, and although Twilight was quite enthusiastic to learn anything new, Luna was less enthused.

"Ughh..." Twilight gurgled. Luna helped the little purple unicorn up on her hooves. "Princess...what happened?" Luna smiled at Twilight as she looked down at her.

"Thy efforts were too hasty, as was the problem last time. After gathering thine magic within yourself, thou doth not simply release it. It is most important that you retain what you have gathered, focus it, and WHILE releasing it into the proper form, gather the magic as it is released, keeping the quantity the same." Luna winced as she mentally scolded herself for not correcting her speech.

Twilight stared at the scorched outline of the practice dummy against the wall. This was utterly different than anything she had learned before and she was having to relearn most of her own habits with spell casting to accommodate. That, and her own magic was being drained significantly simply from containment and focus. "Luna, when your sister told me I'd be learning Alicorn magic, I had no idea it would be this...strenuous. How can you possibly do something like this every day?"

Luna gave Twilight a look of mock annoyance. "Thou-you are used to process and repetition, twilight. Alicorn magic is no different, only more patience, control, and magic is required in exercising it. Doth- Do you remember using thy elements of Harmony? The principle is much the same; acting as conduit rather than caster."

She smiled as she watched Twilight's face scrunch up in concentration as she prepared the spell again. "Remember...patience, and equilibrium." Twilight shut her eyes, and relaxed slightly. Small sparks of green rose up from the ground underneath her, and after a few minutes, a small green fire had formed a circle around her. Twilight opened her eyes, which were glowing white, and her horn let out a crackling bolt of indigo towards one of the few remaining practice dummies.

Upon reaching it, a sudden green flash erupted from it, and in its place...was a statue of Twilight.

"a-HA!" Twilight exclaimed, and looked at Luna triumphantly. Luna smiled. "Very good; that's the first successful transfiguration you have done after learning learning theory. Now you have applied it. What, then, can you tell me is the advantage of this method of the normal way you already know?"

Twilight frowned in confusion, staring at the statue. "...I don't know." Luna smiled again. "Try changing it back." Twilight focused, and a magenta bolt of her own magic reached out and zapped the statue. Nothing happened, and after a few seconds, she gasped in realization.

"It...it's permanent!"

"Precisely! Normal transfiguration only lasts for a fixed amount of time before the spell decays and the original snaps back into existence. Do you notice anything else?" Twilight looked down. There was a small crater underneath the statue which had caused it to sink into the ground somewhat.

"It...utilized the surrounding matter to compensate for extra density! But that-" "THAT, Twilight, is why it's permanent. Normally, magic converts energy into extra mass, which is why you can conjure items from seeming nothingness, or how a certain dragon can become full-grown and snap back without eating anything new." Twilight winced a little as she remembered Spike's transformation.

"So...what does transfiguration have to do with moving the sun or the moon?" Luna rolled her eyes and giggled, which made Twilight sit down and pout. "You see...my sister and I move the moon and sun across the sky across the entire world. When it comes to its setting or rising, we are pushing or pulling it across the rest of the world. If we did not do this, their orbits would deteriorate and crash into the ground." Twilight nodded, and urged her to continue. "Many, many unicorns would be able to do this on their own, but it takes only myself and my sister to move them. This is not because we are collectively more powerful than all of you."

Twilights eyes widened massively as the revelation began to take hold. "So you mean...any one of us..." Luna smiled. "No, Twilight. Only a few of you have ever been capable of commanding the Core magic as we do. Most normal unicorns would have passed out from the exertion of maintaining focus, or died trying to do so. My sister and I...despite our practice, are gifted with more fortitude, and more in the way of magic and stamina." Twilight nodded, and looked at Luna just a little bit differently than before. "And you, Twilight, are gifted enough to have an abundance of both. All you need to learn is the patience and stubbornness to exercise them. I believe we are finished for today." Twilight grinned weakly as she wobbled to her feet. "Thanks again, princess. I know how hard it is for you to be awake during the day."

Luna yawned, and looked back at Twilight with tired eyes. "Just be glad we are in a good mood today, little one. I had not expected to be the royal fall-breaker for thee during thy lessons." Twilight smiled sheepishly. "I'll...uh...work on that. See you tomorrow!" Luna watched the purple mare take off, seeing her slow down as she reached the exit to the gardens into canterlot proper.

I am glad, sister, that she is the one who saved me.

Twilight Sparkle exited Canterlot Castle feeling fresh and renewed. Though it took a lot out of her, her personal lessons with Luna had been an opportunity she would never forget, and never stop appreciating.

She smiled inside as the noontime sun shone through the autumn leaves above her, and remarked to herself on how beautiful Equestria looked around fall, with the blazing reds and oranges of the trees around her giving the feeling of magic and impermanence.

Everypony around who saw the changing of colors in the flora around them always had held a quiet regard and appreciation for the beauty of fall, and even though Nightmare Night had already passed, fall celebrations were right around the corner. A lot of ponies from Equestria and beyond, worked on massive floats to go down main street in conjunction with the ENORMOUS amount of partying that goes on for several days to celebrate the beauty and lovely colors autumn graces ponies everywhere with. All ponies everywhere, no matter where the lived or what they did, felt the wondrous tingle in the air as the breeze swept down from the north mountains, and hoofball started in full swing.

She chuckled to herself. Not everypony can be so relaxed and appreciative about the fall, she thought to herself. Rarity’s probably having an “absolutely DREADFUL” time deciding what to wear, and how to tailor dresses for the coming celebrations. Applejack was probably a bit annoyed at having to rake up all the leaves on her farm, although it was doubtful she’d be as bothered by her problems as Rarity. I think I’ll pay Rarity a visit after picking up some apple fritters from Sugar Cube Corner, she could probably use a break from filling all those orders. She smiled to herself and made her way on over to shop, wondering what Pinkie Pie might be doing to prepare for the coming festivities.

A loud crash reached her ears as she trotted up to the door of her friend’s place of employment, and curiously she walked up to the door and looked inside. To her horror, she saw Pinkie Pie sprawled onto the floor after having fallen off a ladder, in the process of pinning up fall-themed decorations for the store. “PINKIE PIE!” she yelled, rushing into the store, rushing to her friend’s side.

Pinkie looked up with a dazed expression, and shook her head from being stunned. “Oh hi Twilight! I was just pinning up some streamers when I felt my Pinkie sense a-tinglin’! Course, I forgot what it meant since when I twitch-a-twitch atop of a ladder, well...it never really ends well?” her friend said happily, still wall-eyed. “Are you okay?” she asked with concern in her voice, looking the pink mare over for any injuries. “Of course I am, silly-filly! It’s not the first ladder I’ve fallen off of, and it’s certainly not gonna be the last!” Wobbling to her feet, she smiled at her friend, putting Twilight’s heart at ease. “So, watcha doin’ here, Twilight?” she asked, cocking her head to the side after her wandering left eye unsettlingly moved back into place.

“OH. Oh I stopped by to pick up some apple fritters on my way over to Rarity’s, I, uh, was going to see if she needed some help preparing for the fall celebrations, and if she had time to relax after working as hard as she’s probably been doing.” Pinkie Pie hopped on over behind the counter, looking for the apple pastries. “Here you go! Two bits for two fritters.” she said pointing to the delicious pastries, as she put them in a bag. Twilight opened up her saddlebag, and dropped two bits on the counter, thanked Pinkie, and trotted on out of the store with a smile on her face and a bag of some of the best-smelling apple fritters in Ponyville held in her mouth.

She made her way on over to Rarity’s, remarking on how well everything had been going for the past few weeks since Nightmare Night, and how relaxed the pace of things had become. She smiled when she remembered how hectic Rarity made things for herself around this time of year, and imagined what sights would await her as she met with her favorite unicorn friend.

Off in the distance he heard the wind chimes, greeting the new world with a discordant harmony with beauty only the wind could bring. The hot air still rushed down off the mountains from the volcanoes that had formed the land he now walked upon, and the new grass had filled the vast expanse of barren lands that the lava floes had formed long ago. He smiled at the golden fields of wheat that stretched before him, and peered out across the horizon, to the ocean’s shore where the sun was beginning to rise for the first time. Though creating life was a difficult process indeed, he stood proud in the morning of the world, where all things protean and wonderful emerged under his watchful gaze, seeking the life and form that he granted them from their lifelessness and chaos that they held from the void they came from. He had brought order and vitality from chaos and transience, and was proud at the change he had wrought. He heard a voice on the wind, crying out something insignificant. He tended to the tree he had made in a forest of many, nurturing its roots to dig into the fresh soils beneath them, filling his lungs with the scent of the new earth beneath and before him. The smell of morning dew and the song of his fowls reached him, and he closed his eyes in bliss.

The voice on the wind was louder now, more insistent, stirring him from his reverie. He ignored it once again, content to listen to the birds sing and watch the morning sun cast its glorious light across the plains and beyond, and all the animals of his land sing in-“GRANDFATHER!” the voice yelled loudly now, almost screaming into his ears. He looked around for the source of it, confused. “GRANDFATHER!” the voice yelled pleadingly, as he continued to search, losing sight of the dawn as he raced to the sound of the voice.

His eyes suddenly snapped awake, in an instant forgetting where he was or who was holding him. He woke violently and stood up, nearly knocking over the tree he had been sleeping on after hitting his head on it. Everything that had happened in the past year rushing back to him all at once, in a maelstrom of terrible memory that dwarfed the sudden pain he felt all across his body. “GRANDFATHER!” his granddaughter Liira-Sa cried, looking up at him with a shocked and concerned expression. He remembered his injuries, and stumbled in pain, wincing at the burns that covered a large portion of his back and flank.

“It’s alright Liira; I was just dreaming.” He looked at the vast, ancient forest that stood tall around him, and remembered them as they were in their infancy. How wild and untamed it had become, filled with all manner of creatures; full of malediction and darkness. He looked down, and helped his beloved granddaughter up, feeling the weight of his years and his crown. Cursing himself for his carelessness, he had taken some comfort in the killing of the dragon that had come across them in their sleep, and was pleased that the fool had decided to wake them before talking. The beast never stood a chance against the Emperor of Gal’Karii, and he remembered fondly the confused expression the dragon held in his eyes before they exploded out in gouts of flame, consumed by the inner fire he made spill out from the dragon’s core.

Liira, not having seen war or death as young as she was, was horrified at the spectacle, and cried in her grandfather’s embrace for several hours before falling asleep. Despite his injuries, he carried her for some time under the light of Luna’s moon, finally succumbing to exhaustion himself. He had grievous injuries from fending off the dragons to allow his family and their friends time to escape, and had commanded the remaining pegasi not under his brother’s control to flee for their lives, find shelter, and wait for his return. He sighed, wondering when it was that he would be able to return, and if it would be within his grandaughter’s lifetime.

He smiled to himself, remembering that even though she was a unicorn, his blood flowed through her veins, and even though she wasn’t a true immortal like himself, she would live for an extremely long time compared to other magic-users, especially her fellow unicorns. He sometimes lamented not giving her the gift of flight as per his son’s request, being that he greatly enjoyed flying, whether it be by himself or with those he cared about.

He reminded himself that he had a destination to reach, and that as much as he enjoyed remembering the past, he had to focus on the present. “Liira-ka, we must be going. We cannot linger on our way to our destination, and though my constitution and condition would warrant it, we cannot rest. Come.” He nudged her gently with his nose, his long grey hair brushing over her. Their golden eyes met, hers pleading for her grandfather to stay and heal his injuries more before they set out again. He smiled. “You look so much like your grandmother, Liira. If only…” he became lost in the memory of her, before snapping out of it from hearing a giggle from her. “Silly grandfather; wanting to leave in a hurry then holding us both up with your reminiscing. You need so stop being so old and remember your granddaughter has been around for several hundred years already, and is no green filly herself. Come on, we need to make it to Canterlot before sundown, and we’re not going to do it with your head up in the clouds.” He chuckled to himself as the started down the path outside of the forest, looking far off into the distance from the hill they were on, he noticed the nice little cottage owned by a curious yellow Pegasus, who seemed intently focused on the birds she was singing with.

“Oh my dear Twilight is was the MOST. HORRIBLE. THING. I had an old order on a rich client from Manehattan, Golden Globe I think his name was, and I could NOT find his outfit ANYWHERE!” Twilight looked around the mess of the boutique, and saw not a single thing in the shop that wasn’t upturned in a violent fashion, as if a storm (or Rainbow Dash) had torn wildly through here. “And then without warning, I receive a letter TODAY that he needs his suit prepped and ready for a charity ball he’s attending next week, and that he’s coming tomorrow to pick it up. Darling, you MUST HELP ME FIND IT!” Rarity’s delicate white hooves clung to her friend dramatically, all the while staring up at her with the most desperate, pleading sapphire eyes anypony had probably ever seen. She chuckled, noticing Opalescence trying to break free of pile of fabrics tangled around her. “Of course I’ll help you, Rarity! What are friends for?” Rarity swung her arms around her friend in a dramatic embrace. “Oh Twilight dear, you are simply the best friend ANYpony could have.”

After rummaging around for a few hours, they finally emerged victorious from the Boutique’s storage basement, finding the lost suit hung up amongst a number of different back orders and forgotten dresses that had overflowed the white unicorn’s staggeringly massive wardrobe. After filing the necessary papers and putting the suit up on a rack in the front, they both collapsed on her bed, and remembering the apple fritters she had placed on the nightstand, Twilight picked the bag up and placed it next to her friend, who had her hoof on her forehead from the exhaustive searching she had done all day. “My dear is that…are those apple fritters?” Rarity sniffed the air and greedily opened the bag, her eyes widening upon recognizing the contents. “Oh darling, you shouldn’t have! I have enough pastries here to…to…” she gave way to her own exhaustion at maintaining her composure, and greedily stuffed an apple fritter into her face from the bag, so completely out of character that Twilight reeled back on her hooves in laughter at her friend’s sudden break in her all-important façade. Still laughing, she looked up to see Rarity glaring angrily at her with half a fritter sticking out of her mouth, fuming with embarrassment. After stifling a laugh of her own, she offered Twilight the bag, and they promptly began to eat, and began sipping the tea that Rarity had prepared earlier for them after seeing that her friend had been kind enough to bring treats.

They sat and laughed while talking about news and the changes fall had brought all around; Rarity gossiped loudly at who was seeing who, what this mare and that mare were wearing to such and such occasion, strange clients she’d had this week. Twilight talked about the new magic she had been working on with Princess Celestia, as Rarity listened in rapt attention at her describing the spells she had learned from the new form.

“Firstly, you have to ground yourself very strongly on the earth below your hooves. Then, feeling the earth beneath your hooves, the Princess said to focus very strongly on the earth deep below her, and use a seeking spell to look for a magic…apart.”

Rarity cocked her head, puzzled. “Apart from what, darling?”

“Apart from…yourself and other living things. She said it was called Core, and that all magic ponies and other creatures possess comes from it, and that in the past Alicorns were non-magical, and it was only after discovering this earth magic that they were able to use magic.” Rarity’s eyes widened in surprise at this revelation as she continued. “All magic unicorns and alicorns carry comes from this; over a long period of time and usage, Core magic became a part of them, and altered their biology and health. Alicorns no longer became sick, or passed on from old age. The grew taller and stronger, and their command over magic increased to such a degree that they could control elements of the earth itself, and the stars and moons as well as the planets. Even though they had been moving of their own accord long before then, they could now fix the time of day, how hot it was going to be, whether a meteor shower was going to happen that night, or whether or not it rained that day. It’s what gave them control of the elements of nature, Rarity!” Her friend looked back at her, utterly stunned.

“Do you mean to tell me that you’re…studying magic…that only the Princesses have been able to use?” Twilight nodded, smiling. “My dear, that’s…astounding! To think, a UNICORN exercising the powers of a goddess, I dare not think…” she shuddered and then laughed, puzzling Twilight. “Oh my dear, I should not think any differently of you for this, Even if you gain immortality and I do not, you are still one of my dearest friends, and no matter what you learn will not change how I see you.” She lay over to Twilight, embracing the lavender pony in a warm, gentle hug. She smiled, to herself. I hope you never change, Rarity…

Far off in the distance, near Everfree Forest, a certain yellow Pegasus was finishing up her chores, and remarking upon the glorious sunset that spread all kinds of colors across the sky. Her turquoise eyes stared longingly into the distance, and wondered if she should spend some time with Rainbow Dash now that she was done with everything for the day. “Oh dear, she’s probably busy racing or doing something important up in Cloudsdale, If I went I’d just be a bother to her. Maybe I’ll just make dinner and see if Angel needs-“ an audible crack sounded off in the forest, and with a muffled exclamation of surprise, she looked out over the rock she was hiding behind to see what it was that was coming her way.

To her astonishment, she saw two of the strangest looking ponies she had ever seen. The smaller one was a unicorn wearing some elaborate white apparel, and had the deepest, darkest, and most luxurious shade of red fur she had ever seen on anypony. She had a white mane, despite looking so young, and had the most gorgeous golden eyes she had ever seen on any creature before. The hair on her upper mane was held tight by a beautiful obsidian brooch, and she carried herself with the grace and strength one would expect from royalty. She then gasped as she saw the other pony coming out of the woods. Like the other, smaller mare he had the same odd hair color and deep, red coat, but he stood several times taller than her, even taller than Celestia. He was a massive alicorn with very large wings, and it was only when he stumbled that she noticed that he was severely injured, with very serious burns and scarring being covered up by his robe and outfit.

Immediately, her shyness melted away to compassion, and she came out from hiding behind the rock, flying up to the two strange ponies. “Um…excuse me, I couldn’t help but notice that you’re injured, and, um, I have a cottage over here and I can help since I take care of animals, and-”

“I would like that very much, thank you for your hospitality.” She gulped as the alicorn spoke, his deep voice rumbling through her, with an air of authority and weight that she didn’t think was possible. Noticing her discomfort, the young unicorn with him smiled to her. “We won’t be a bother, we’re just passing through on our way to Canterlot.” The strange unicorn spoke with a very odd foreign accent she had never heard before, and with a start she realized her pupils were a deep golden color as well as her irises, and were barely noticeable. “Oh! Okay that’s alright. I don’t know if you like animals, I take care of them because I live out here, and I love them so very much. I’m too shy to live in town, so –oh, sorry, I forgot; come inside, let me look at your wound.”

The three awkwardly shambled on into Fluttershy’s cottage, the large alicorn having to dip his head and knees down to come in through the door as he was so tall. He winced and gasped, collapsing into the smaller unicorn, who was just barely holding him up. “OHMYGOODNESSHOLDON!!!” Fluttershy yelled and went as fast as she could over to her medical supplies, picking up as many bandages, salves, and other medicine she could find for burns and fatigue she could carry in her mouth and wings. Angel carried the rest over to the living room. “Here; here come over to the bedroom, there’s nowhere here where you can lay down comfortably.”

She very carefully, with the help of the unicorn, helped move the massive alicorn stallion over to her bed, and gently set him down. As she reached to take the robe and clothes off, the red unicorn stopped her, saying that she’d do it, and slowly took his robe and dressings off. It was only now that Fluttershy noticed the large crown bracelets adorning the massive alicorn’s feet and legs that had been covered by his robe, and felt her jaw drop at the stunning beauty of the jewelry. A large onyx gem sat atop each bracelet, with numerous smaller sapphires and rubies adorning it in an intricate pattern that was enhanced with the delicate artistry on the silver. She realized that the bracelets were very much like upside-down crowns, and she began to realize how important this particular alicorn might be. After looking up from each of the bracelet/crowns, she gasped as she saw the true extent of his injuries; he had been horribly burned on the side facing them, and she could see nothing but charred, cracked flesh where his cutie mark should be.

With his permission and her insistence, she was allowed to tend to his horrible burns, applying salves to ease the pain and encourage healing, painkillers to further numb the pain, and bandages to keep his skin from being further exposed. “How in Celestia’s name did this happen? Who or what did this horrible, horrible thing to you?” she said, her quiet voice full of concern and confusion. His companion gave him a nervous look, at which he said, “Go ahead Liira, you can tell her. We have nothing to hide from one who has offered such help and hospitality given so freely with a kind and open heart.”

Liira visibly relaxed, and bit her lip before speaking. “He was attacked by dragons, along with the rest of us.” Fluttershy gasped and understood immediately how an alicorn as powerful as this one obviously was could be injured so severely. “We… he was banished from our home after his brother staged a coup and overthrew him with the help of the dragons we’d been at war with for so long. He…Grandfather…stood up against all the dragons himself after everyone else in the royal family was ordered to leave, and he…he bought them the time they needed to for… most… of them escape to safety, along with everyone else. They destroyed half the city fighting him after…after…” the little unicorn broke down in tears, and came over to embrace her. “There, there; you’re safe. His wounds aren’t fatal, and I’m sure he’ll heal up if he’s given enough rest. Everything will be okay, you needn’t worry.” Liira sobbed into the kind embrace of this strange savior from a strange land, and they both realized how far from home they all both were…

He stood overlooking a bluff. The hot wind still blew down east from the mountain range, and off in the distance he could see the reds and oranges of liquid fire being reflected off the clouds. He looked down into the pasture and smiled. I’ve been waiting a long time for this, he mused to himself. Down several hundred feet below, a great valley stretched out before him, lush with all forms of plants and animals; a herd of creatures stood grazing upon the field, and as happy as he was at how well his work had turned out, something was missing. There, peering at the four-legged creatures that were not very much unlike himself, he saw into the eyes of one…and felt his heart break. Failure, he thought to himself. The gaze returned to him was little more than the blank stare of an animal; a beast that had no more soul than the trees and the rock upon which he stood. He spat at the ground in disgust, and watched bemused as flowers burst forth from the hard, unyielding rock in bright, vibrant life. Everything he had made, all of this world he had designed, and he still could find nothing, no one to sate his loneliness, to comfort him and converse about anything, ANYTHING new.

He wanted, as odd as it sounded in his mind, someone to disagree with him about something. As old as he already was, he never could remember where he came from, or who or what came before. He had just…woken up in that terrible, barren place. There were people back then, odd beings with humorously mismatched limbs and appendages, and an equally asinine sense of reality. He had spent time with them, and as playful as they were, they were an anathema to him. They thrived on a lack of order, reigning chaos and destruction on a world devoid of any life or beauty. They avoided the laws that governed the natural world as a stream both avoids and follows consistency. Yet for all their freedom, they had no reference other than the games they played with each other for complex thought, empathy, or anything remotely resembling curiosity. They lived in utter discord and disharmony, and as interested as they were in him, they could not find anything resembling a common ground. They were not animals, for like him they never needed to eat or drink, never became injured, and never became old. He supposed that they were a remnant of an era far preceding his, and decided to have nothing more to do with them. They celebrated his departure with building a statue of him, and covering it with paint and a rock hat.

Shaking himself from his reverie, he walked down off the bluff towards the sea. He walked up to the waves, and remembered just how much he enjoyed the sand beneath his hooves. He stared out across the vast ocean, into its timeless depths to the dark creatures that lived in the darkest cradles of the sea. One of the few creatures he never dared meet or even let notice of his existence was the Leviathan. He knew not of any other name to call it; it was an ageless creature that had been there long before him, and as far as he could tell, was larger that the horizon would allow his normal sight to take in. He suspected that though there was once life, this monstrosity had laid waste to the entire world, and the only creatures that had escaped the chaos embodied it themselves.

Suddenly, he felt eyes on him. He quickly turned around, and there, not ten feet behind him, was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. The mare looked at him quizzically, and had his breath taken away at once by her eyes. He saw in their endless sapphire depths stars, and upon looking up from them he saw she had an ebon mane, which flowed unnaturally slowly in the ocean breeze. In this too, he saw the sparkling of stars. She smiled and began to walk toward him, her hooves not even disturbing the sand beneath her. He saw then that unlikher mane, her fur was some protean color; an unknown and strange thing that seemed to persist in shadow, and could not be identified. He realized he had been staring at her, and he quickly turned away from her gaze, embarrassed. He felt a soft touch against his cheek, and gasped as he felt-

*Crash* He awoke with a start at the loud sound, and remembered where he was. He looked around, and saw Liira peacefully dozing on a chair next to him. Smiling, he got up and looked around for the compassionate yellow Pegasus who had so graciously granted them room and board.

Rainbow Dash been practicing maneuvers in the sky near the Everfree forest most of the afternoon when she was startled to see Fluttershy flying very fast across the treetops, carrying in her mouth a long list, and a satchel on her. She was so startled, she had forgotten to brake, and plowed right into the pink-haired Pegasus, sending them in a blur of yellow, blue back over the treetops towards her cottage. After briefly losing consciousness, she got up, shook the dirt off of her fur, and looked to see where Fluttershy was. The yellow unicorn was lying down in the dirt, her head wobbling around from being stunned. She shook her head, and recognizing who she had run into, quickly began picking up her things and apologizing.

“Ohmygoodness Rainbow Dash I’m so sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going I was so focused on the list of herbs I needed to get from Zecora’s for healing up that poor pony who came in yesterday out of the forest; his burns are still-” She stopped as Rainbow Dash put her hoof on her mouth. “Don’t worry about it; I shoulda been paying more attention to where I was going. Who’s this pony patient you’re treating? What’s this about burns?” Fluttershy stammered for a moment, and finally found her words. “H-He’s a red alicorn who just walked out of the forest. He had horrible burns all over his side, and his granddaughter-” “YOU HAVE AN ALICORN AT YOUR HOUSE??!!!” Rainbow Dash yelled loud enough for practically the whole of Equestria to hear. Fluttershy cleared her throat and continued. “His granddaughter is an unicorn, although she’s nowhere near as big as he was. H-He’s taller than Princess C-Celestia, and he’s got these odd crown-bracelet things on, and lots of white clothing. I think he’s some kind of royalty. I was going to tell the princess about him after I made sure he was stable…” She trailed off and looked at the ground.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Foreign Royalty visiting Equestria? An alicorn, no less. The only alicorns she had ever seen were the two princesses, and considering how large Equestria was, they must have traveled quite a long way indeed. “Hey Fluttershy,” she said, suddenly having an idea. “Why don’t you go to Zecora’s and get and get all the medicine and stuff you need, while I go tell Celestia about your visitors? I’m sure she’d want to hear about this as soon as possible.” Fluttershy paused, and quickly nodded picking up her things. “I-I’ll be back as soon as I can. You’ll tell the princess that he’s hurt and they’re both very nice…won’t you?” she looked up at her with pleading eyes. “Of course, I will. I’ll be back here in no time, bye!” Fluttershy watched her friend blast off, leaving a long rainbow trail towards Canterlot. She smiled to herself and began her trek back to Zecora’s.

Up, high in the castle, Princess Celestia had finished her morning duties. With nopony to see this afternoon, she was having tea with her sister, giggling about ponies they had met on their lunch in Ponyville and her sister’s awkwardness about handling all the positive attention she was receiving now that ponies had warmed up to her after Nightmare Night. “Oh Tia, how can you even THINK that??! Of course that big red stallion is attractive, but he’s an Earth Pony! How much fun could he be if-” Abruptly, there was a loud rapping on the glass window to the balcony, and the Princess of the Sun looked up, and was astounded to see a frantic Rainbow Dash, waiting to be let in.

“Tia, isn’t that-”

“Yes, yes it is,” She walked over to the glass doors, with a measure of curiosity. “Although I can’t possibly imagine why she’d be here by herself.” Celestia’s horn glowed softly, and the door unlocked itself. “Rainbow Dash, whatever has brought you here? It’s a pleasure to see you again, but this is an awfully sudden visit. Is something wrong?” The rainbow-tailed Pegasus took a moment to catch her breath, after what apparently had been an awful rush to reach the princess. She cleared her throat, and spoke, “Fluttershy is…treating an injured alicorn...who came out of the Everfree forest. She said...he was burned pretty badly...and that he had a granddaughter or something...along who was a lot smaller than him. She’s picking up medical supplies from Zecora’s...but she probably wanted you there as soon as possible so you can help ...and identify him. GUH!” Both the princesses’ jaws dropped in utter shock, paying no heed to Rainbow Dash as she flopped over on the floor, exhausted. An alicorn? Here? Who could they possibly be, and why would they possibly need journey to this far if he was injured?

“Did…did you see what they looked like?” Princess Luna tentatively asked behind her. “No,” Rainbow Dash said regretfully, having finally caught her breath. “But she did say he was red. Do you know anything about them?” Celestia looked back at Luna, and Luna only gave her a worried expression and shook her head. “Well, I must see these newcomers at once! They are almost certainly royalty, and I would not be a very good princess if I did not offer them help and hospitality. Come, sister! We will inform the guards of this new development, and set out to see our new guests at once!” Her sister excitedly nodded and ran off to inform the captain of the guard of the situation. It had been…so LONG since either of them had had the company of another alicorn aside from each other, and even back when their mother were around, there were no true alicorns outside her sister and her mother that she knew of, with the exception of their aunt and missing father. She was extremely anxious to meet their new guests, and resolved to have a large banquet to welcome them here once this mysterious alicorn had recovered from his burns. She walked out to the balcony with Rainbow Dash, and immediately teleported to Fluttershy’s cottage.

Liira had woken up from her nap to see Grandfather smiling down at her with his usual kind face. She was glad that he was able to walk again, and they went into the kitchen to find something to eat. There upon the tables was a basket of delicious apples, which they both devoured hungrily, as they had only had a few plants that they found were edible along the way through the forest. They heard a loud SNAP outside, and immediately recognized it as an incoming teleportation spell.

Leaving his apple half-eaten, her grandfather immediately went outside to investigate.

After briefly re-orienting herself, Celestia recognized the cottage, and was about to ask Rainbow Dash if she knew anything more about their guests, when the front door opened.

There, in front of her, was the strangest pony she had ever seen. He was definitely an alicorn from the wings and horn, but he had the oddest appearance. Deep, golden eyes without pupils stared at her appraisingly, and a thick, white and grey mane covered the other half of his face. He had a deep, dark, red coat, and wore what had to be regal attire. Unlike the necklace and golden shoes she wore, this alicorn had a cape of the purest white she had ever seen, and clothing with beautiful gold patterns interlaced with the same white fabric. She looked down to his legs, and the silver crowns, which adorned his legs like bracelets, immediately caught her attention. Each looked to be upside down, and held in their center a black gem darker than any onyx she had seen. An amazing level of craftsmanship and detail had gone into them, and made her jewelry look plain by comparison. He stood about a head taller than her, not counting his unusually sharp horn, and despite his leaning on the doorway for support.

“So,” he said in an impossibly deep yet comforting voice. “It is you now that rules the throne. It has been so long since I have visited this land. Tell me, how are your daughters doing? It has been so long since your father and I spoke, that I was worried that he didn’t remember me…” He trailed off as he looked at her with a calm, reassured stare. Celestia sputtered. “I-I think you have me mistaken for someone else! I don't have any children, and-” Suddenly, Celestia was struck with a vision of her mother, the former Queen of the Sun, and Ruler of Equestria. She had been told often how much they looked alike, and with a start she realized how old this alicorn must be to know her…her grandfather.

She could only remember her mother, and had never knew her father, let alone her grandfather before him. “I am Celestia. I have ruled Equestria for the past several thousand years, and I have never heard of you, never seen anyone like you. Granted, I have not seen another alicorn other than my sister and mother, but you must be ancient to have known my grandfather…” The red alicorn gave her a confused expression, then a dawning realization spread across his face, which then was replaced with a melancholic look of regret. “I apologize; you look so much like your mother, child, that I could not tell the two of you apart. This much should be expected, for it has been an age since I last visited this realm. Tell me, you mentioned-” There was a snap next to her, and Luna appeared, agape at the new visitors. “Ah, I presume this to be your sister? Judging by your marking and color, I believe you must be Luna. I have spent many nights appreciating the maker of the new night, as have my people.” Luna shook herself out of her amazement and quickly blushed, hiding behind her sister’s massive flank. “Oh dear, thank you. I’ve never had someone really say that to me, and well, um…” the blue alicorn buried her face in her sister’s wings in embarrassment.

Celestia chuckled, and looked back to her new visitors. “Now, I believe a small yellow Pegasus who we are all fond of here has been taking care of you. May I see your wounds? My sister and I know a number of healing spells that may help you recover.” “Certainly,” said the red alicorn. “I am but a guest here, and as you have not rejected my need for sanctuary, I appreciate any hospitality you may have to offer.” They all walked into Fluttershy’s cottage, and upon reaching the bed, he removed his cape, and the two princesses gasped in astonishment at the severity of his burns. “Oh dear, you weren’t exaggerating when you said he was badly burned…” Celestia said quietly to Rainbow Dash, who was still gaping in awe at the alicorn. Luna had covered her mouth in shock, and had a single tear roll down her cheek. “W-who…what did this terrible thing to you?” the night princess asked in both shock and indignation. Celestia, however, already knew. “How did a dragon manage to hurt you this badly?” She calmly asked. “It was not a single one.” He stated matter-of-factly. “They had overrun the city and palace after the coup, and I fought them as best I could to allow my people and family to evacuate. Their…king, I guess you could call him, did this to me, as his fire was the only one strong enough to break through my barriers. He is the emperor and father of all dragons, Azjhaarus. He was the one who killed my brother, and under whose wing my kingdom is now shrouded.”

Luna yelped in surprise, and stood shaking. “You…you KNOW him? He’s REAL??!!” Celestia looked at her sister, confused. "Who is this Azjhaarus you speak of? What is he to illicit such fear in you, sister, and destruction in this foreigner's land?” She asked her sister. Their guest replied. “He is an ancient; a creature that inhabited this world through both its destruction and its birth. His wings, his flesh and his rule dwarfs mountains, blot out your sun, and obscure hope. He is vast in all respects, and I have been at war with him these past fifty millennia over mineral rights to my kingdom.”

Celestia felt herself sit down.

Fifty centuries?? Nopony could be that old. Her mother had passed into the beyond just after the sisters’ first several thousand years of life, and she had been only twenty-two thousand years of age. For this pony to have known her grandfather, for him to have been battling this creature for so long and not be overrun...he had to be beyond ancient. He was an archaic remnant of a bygone era, before Discord, before Equestria…how old could he possibly be? She looked up at him with a new fear in her eyes, and posed the question that had been on all their minds up until now.

“What is your name, and how long have you been around?”

The alicorn’s kind smile fell, and he suddenly looked as old as he seemed, with a distant expression that belied countless eons of memory. “My name…is Fen-ka Shal. And my age…how old I am? I do not know. I have been around since this world was barren, and I brought life and beauty to it. I have watched the landscape change beyond all recognition, and watched the earth move and change across many eras and areas. If you would reference it to how long the war has been going on, hmm…” Everyone except the smaller alicorn sat in stunned amazement. Fen-ka Shal was a name they had never heard, and if he was who he claimed he was, then he was the fabled king of kings her mother had told them about in their bed time stories. This…entity… was the progenitor of all ponies, and was old beyond reckoning. “Ah yes, I think I have this figured out. You see, I never celebrated my birthday, so I just lost track of time as it passed my by. I believe…if you account for the standard calendar…that I am approximately two and a half billion of your years old.”

Fluttershy had been trying to find Zecora’s place for quite awhile now, and as the sun was beginning to approach the horizon, she had to find her way fast, or risk spending the night in the Everfree forest. She frantically searched for the big tree that was Zecora’s, and realized how hopelessly lost she was. Suddenly, she spotted the cave where spike had found that dragon. It was a landmark above the canopy, and with some hard bearing on her directions, she recognized where she was, and how to get to Zecora’s. As she sped down to the tree that housed the Zebra, she noticed a little smoke coming out of the tree-chimney, and set upon the ground.

Peering inside, she saw Zecora performing some odd ritual near a large cauldron filled with a deep indigo brew. Fluttershy knocked hesitantly, hoping she wasn’t interrupting anything important. Zecora stopped what she was doing, and upon seeing Fluttershy’s face, smiled generously before opening the door. “Kind Fluttershy, whose hair is pink. You have come for my help, I think?” Nodding at the odd Zebra’s rhyming question, she gave Zecora a list of all the herbs and medicines she needed. “Powerful healing potions are these; do not think this will be a breeze. What creature has come under your care, for whom my medicine I must spare?” Fluttershy mumbled something. “Speak up, dear Pegasus friend of mine; everpony knows your voice is fine.” With a slight blush, Fluttershy spoke clearly for Zecora to hear. “H-he’s a big red alicorn. He has terrible burns, and he’s quite fatigued.” Zecora’s eye shot up at this proclamation. She might have well said that the sky had turned green and Twilight didn’t like reading. “An alicorn, you say? His majesty has come this day!” She gleefully went back to her brew, and performed some sort of praying motion before looking back up. “Your medicine you shall receive, for in him we shall always believe!” Fluttershy looked a little confused, and nodded slowly.

Back at the cottage, there had been a good minute and a half of shocked silence before someone finally spoke up. “That…that’s impossible.” Celestia said, sounding quite a bit like her star pupil. “There…there is nothing on this earth that old, and there never could be. How could you possibly be…” She trailed off, staring in awe at the stallion who stood before her. Luna spoke up. “History tells us that alicorns and unicorns gained their powers and form over thousands of years through use of Core magic. If you are as old as you say you are…than perhaps there’s quite a lot of history that we’re missing. How would you account for that?” The red alicorn stared at Luna, sporting that maddeningly enigmatic smile. “It’s quite simple, shepherd of the moon.” He paused, and Celestia had to stifle a giggle at the archaic title he addressed Luna with, making the dark blue unicorn blush heavily. “I designed this world. Every stalk, stem, leaf, feather, scale, and hair, every mountain and valley, is all my creation.”

Fluttershy had begun her flight back home, flying over the emerald treetops of Everfree forest, her medicine tucked securely in her satchel. She liked Luna’s night, despite how scary it was at times, but that was just her own fear of the dark speaking to her. She noticed a strange green glow far off into the distance, past the horizon. As interesting as the phenomenon was to her, it was certainly much too far off to investigate, and it was probably a natural occuranc-FLASH! Fluttershy gasped, her wings clamping shut to her sides, and managed to hold onto the top of a tree as she watched the entire horizon flare up with the bright green light, and just as abruptly as it had appeared, it was gone.

I DEFINITELY have to ask Twilight about that. I’ve never seen anything or heard anything like that, and it most certainly isn’t natural. Shakily, she released the tree, and started her flight back to her cottage.

There was a loud cacophony of braying, questions, and laughter particularly from one blue Pegasus. Everyone was asking the giant red alicorn questions all at once, and his smile rapidly turned into a frown. His head snapped to the side, noticing something that surprised him, and after his attention returned to the clamor before him, he nonchalantly lifted his hoof a few inches off the ground, then dropped it.

It felt like a very brief and very powerful earthquake had struck, and the whole house shuddered from the impact. Abruptly, there was silence, and his noncommittal expression did not change. “Look at me.” He said simply. His face body began to glow with red light, lifting him off the floor.

Outside of the cottage, Angel was looking for some tasty evening treats, when he saw a strange, ruby light glare out of all the windows. Curious, he bounced over to one of the windows, but when he got there, the glow had subsided. Looking at the mushrooms he had picked up and started snacking on, he shook his head and threw the mushrooms in the bushes. He decided that he really needed to hit the carrots hard after that, so he bounded on over to Carrot Top’s carrot patch to see what delicacies lay in store for him.

The room was dead silent. The alicorn had transfigured himself into something…else. Everypony there felt the immense ocean of magic that was barely contained by the glowing red aura Fen-ka Shal had blazed with, and they knew for a fact now that he certainly wasn’t a pretender, and was powerful beyond reckoning. This did not satisfy Celestia, however.

“Granted, you are an alicorn, and granted, you are very powerful. Quite a bit more than myself, I might add.” The glow ebbed back into his skin, and he looked like a normal alicorn again, if alicorns could be considered normal. “Despite how that…felt, it is still not enough proof for you to claim to be the creator of all things. I am old for a reason, and time gas taught me not to take what presents itself to me at face value. You must give me some reason not to doubt you. “ Fen-ka Shal smiled, and walked up to Celestia, with Luna tensing up behind her. “Truth is not a thing lightly seen through the eyes of others, or whispered by their lips. I will show you what you need to know, through my memories. He bent down, and touched his horn with hers. Immediately, she felt a massive wave of magic flood through her, and immediately she began falling. Suddenly, she was standing upon solid ground, and with a growing sense of dread, she realized she was in one of his memories. “Watch, child and see…”

Chapter 2: Visions

Celestia blinked. She stood upon a low mountain, eyes squinting in the bright noon day sun. This was like no memory spell she had ever experienced, let alone cast. She could smell the air, and before her on the mountain, small, winged reptilian creatures made their nest upon jagged rocks. Walking closer, she noticed they were all brilliantly colored, had broad, leathery wings with an astonishing variety of colors and markings. They had strange, intelligent eyes that blazed bright blue, silver, orange and other colors. Some had as few as two horns, or as many as five. Though they had many attributes that were different, all had metallic, reflective scales covering their triangular heads and went down to their tails. They look a bit like wyverns, Celestia thought to herself. But the wings...the colors are all different. These must be some forgotten ancestor of them. They are...lovely. Suddenly, the whole colony bolted from the nest, and in a shifting mass of sparkling, blazing glory and color, they swirled past her; a living mass of veritable transmogrification, and she reveled in its glory. As it passed, she noticed strange plants and creatures with her on the mountain slope. Nothing in the scenery looked like anything she recognized, and while some of the flora and fauna look similar to what she was used to, it seemed...far more primitive. With a start the flock came back around her, roaring in a mass of wings and chattering, and she turned with it, as they obscured her view. The flock cleared, leaving Celestia standing on a cliff dropping off almost as severely as her jaw. The sight that lay before her took her breath away, as she struggled to recognize the enormity of the spectacle before her.

A massive canyon, larger than anything she had ever seen, stretched out into the horizon, to her left and right. Down before her, a massive white citadel larger than any single thing she had ever seen soared mightily into the sky, filling her vision and its bulk a physical presence in her mind that dropped her to the ground in sheer awe. It dominated the skyline of a similarly massive city by an inordinate percentage, and Celestia could not catch her breath, as the structure that appeared before her could simply not exist. The castle was carved seemingly out of the same piece of a white stone more beautiful and pure than any material she had ever seen; it stretched into the sky, piercing the clouds and continued up until the sky began to obscure it. It sloped down at the base, and spread out in three directions like sharp petals on an inverted flower; it was the most beautiful building she had ever seen, and made her castle look like a shanty by comparison. She noted several titanic domed structures and sharp, gorgeous sloping spires placed about the massive city beneath her, and the intricate network of walkways and bridges that extended many layers below her. Everywhere, ponies of every color walked and played, talked and haggled. It was a city vibrant and alive beyond all belief, and she was completely overwhelmed by the sight.

Then, after recovering from her initial shock, she recognized the distinct difference in the sun, as well as the air. The light was…brighter somehow, and the air was clearer that it had ever been in her long memory. She noticed with a start that almost all of the ponies she could see walking about were unicorns. Occasionally, she would see a Pegasus or two flying around, delivering messages or policing the streets. She did not see any earth ponies. She recognized a central causeway, and after testing her wings, she flew down to it, taking in the clamor of the street vendors and strange machines that populated the great walkway, and promptly shouted and fell over when an orange unicorn stallion simply walked right though her.

"That’s right, this is a memory he’s showing me." She said to herself, picking herself up off the ground with a severe blush. “I wonder where or when this is…” She walked down the causeway, marveling at the huge population of this metropolis, and the vibrant hubbub of the afternoon market. She had, on many occasions prior to Luna's insurrection, gone out into the streets under the disguise as a common unicorn mare, getting the feel and mood of her kingdom, hearing whispers and rumors. But here she was, in a city more grand than anything she had ever come close to conceiving of, and in a time more ancient than her or her mother's sun.

Her reverie was abruptly interrupted by the sounding of a loud, long horn and drums that sounded more like a zebra battle call than the announcing of regality. She looked around, and saw all the ponies around her groveling down on the ground, after clearing a path down the center of the street. She turned and saw Fen-ka Shal, and two other alicorns walking down the street, flanked by what could only be their royal guard, although they wore strange black masks that did not allow them to see.

She was shocked to see the alicorns next to him; the one on his right was a massive, white stallion with green and white hair. He absolutely glowed, and with a start she realized that not only did he have three horns, but his wings were artificial, and mechanical creations at that. He was adorned with the same leg crowns, but had emeralds inset on them, and wore mostly dark evergreen and gold This differed greatly from the clothes of much of the citizens around her, who were clothed either in bright whites, golds, and oranges or deep black, blue, or purple. Two of the three of his horns soared up behind his main unicorn horn in a regal manner, which was complimented by the angry look on his face..

The alicorn to his left was a true alicorn, and obviously female. She had a very sad look on her face, and with a start she realized she could see stars in her eyes and mane. She could not place, or even focus on the color of her fur, as its existence seemed to shift almost before her eyes. She had deep black robes and clothing to match her attitude, it seemed, and felt a hollowness and stillness around her. She gasped in horror as she saw earth ponies who were obviously slaves behind them, with determined smiles and grimaces on their face as they carried a large ark behind them; it was solid gold, and must have weighed an enormous amount. Despite being large enough only to fit a filly inside, its beautiful craftsmanship and fantastic fractal designs, runes and busts made it seem quite a bit larger, if only from seeming more important.

She was immediately drawn to the three alicorns in the front, and fell in step with the large green one on the right, blushing a little at how…uncomfortably attractive he was.

As she walked along the street, she saw the same thing with the citizens everywhere. The vast majority of citizens here were unicorns from what she could see, and many of the pegusi and earth ponies were either working directly for the crown, or, in the case of most of the earth ponies, servants or slaves to the unicorns. She looked back at Fen-ka Shal’s entourage, and was struck at how unchanged he looked, with the exception of his lack of injury. His deep red fur rustled in the wind, and Celestia's attention again returned to his mysterious companion.

She seemed to have a distracted and somewhat forlorn look on her face, although she did not seem pained. Unlike the others, she actually wore a crown, and with a start she recognized that the basic design was quite a bit like Luna's only a bit larger, but made from the same ebony metal. She was remarkably tall; she was taller than Fen-ka Shal, but she very slight and elegant. Her leg crowns and royal shoes were crafted from the same ebony as the crown, and she marveled at how lovely it looked on her, despite the color. The only who had ever been able to work with ebony apart from her sister was their father, and he had left while Luna was still an infant. She blinked again, and turned her attentions to the strange stallion to the right of Fen-ka Shal, who was the largest of the group by quite a large percentage.

The green pony next to her, despite his inherent beauty and grace, was a massively muscular stallion, and had a palpable tension in his muscles, and a face that held barely concealed rage and disgust. She gulped and looked at the red alicorn. He looked content, and was talking to the mare to his left about something she couldn’t hear. She was staring off into the distance, and looked like she barely had any interest in anything at all. She looked so sad, and with a start she realized the green alicorn was probably angry at Fen-ka Shal for neglecting the mare’s feelings. She looked ahead, and gasped as she saw what was obviously some kind of ceremonial altar.

What held her surprise was the sheer magnitude of this structure, and the great number of magical runes and spell territories inscribed almost everywhere upon it. It was roughly the size of her own castle with many steps leading up to the summit, and while the looming citadel in the distance was far more imposing, she still was not used to the scale of construction evidenced in this city. She turned her attentions back to the procession.

As the earth ponies carrying the ark walked around the three alicorns, the white alicorn raised it off their backs with his magic as if it weighed nothing, and placed it upon the center of the pedestal. Immediately, the runes activated, and she saw the alicorn dip his head down, his green and white hair obscuring his face as he pointed his horn at the ark. With a colossal burst of white light, she saw the effects of the heat the magic he was using on the ponies surrounding him. One of the poor unfortunate earth ponies had not gotten far away enough from the altar, and was instantly incinerated by the sheer amount of power it was giving off. With growing horror, she watched the magic extend outward, enveloping the alicorns and the entire altar around them. As the light subsided, Celestia blinked and saw the magic flowing outward from the now illuminated ark, which had become as bright as the sun, thrumming like a heart with a deep pulse. She saw it spread out into every building she could see, and was amazed to see the…the POWER that flowed through everything now. She felt life all around her, and slowly, she turned to look at the strange stallion with the green hair.

He had become blazingly bright now, his radiance a fiery green sun in the shape of a pony. She had never felt so much…LIFE from anything, and to her surprise, his vitality and presence reached out and touched the ashes of the fallen earth pony. Slowly, he walked towards the pile of cinders, and his light reached into the dark pile. He breathed, and from his breath came a wind, and that wind came upon the ashes, sweeping it slowly up into the shape of a pony.

Before her eyes, the ash became flesh, and the reddish pony with green eyes blinked, and gasped as its soul once again became attached to its body. He stared up at his savior, and fell to his knees, weeping. The green-haired stallion smiled warmly, stroking the poor unfortunate’s hair, and whispered something into his ear. The pony got up, and quickly galloped off into the crowd, to the hysterical embrace of his family. Celestia felt the weight of the situation hit hard upon her heart as she saw the earth pony’s wife, a purple unicorn who bore a striking resemblance her beloved student, wail and cry into the embrace of her husband. She gasped as she felt tears stream down her face, and felt a tenderness she hadn’t felt since Luna had returned to her.

Fen-ka Shal smiled, and walked up to the green stallion. “Brother”, he intoned playfully, “Must you always make such a show for our events? I know you could’ve waited for that one to get out in time, but you went ahead anyway knowing he could brought back. Do you enjoy your power so much that would reinforce your godhood in the eyes of our people?” The green stallion simply smiled slyly at him, turned his head and walked back the way he came. The female alicorn came up to Fen-ka Shal. Now smiling from the display, she turned to him, and with the most beautiful voice Celestia had ever heard in her life, spoke to him.

“Perhaps, dear, you don’t get out and have fun as often as our beloved Tahl-va Shal. It was him that, should you have forgotten, brought true life to your creation, and gave all these wonderful children of ours their souls.” Fen-ka Shal snorted, and looked away, looking slightly put off at his mate’s musing. “Despite his power, he has little sense of duty to our creation. He loves them, yes, but this…fun he has; it is something pointless. He walks out from the castle amongst the commoners, consistently advocates abolition of the caste system, and…and he actually fathered children with that mare. Granted, it was through his blood that we have earth ponies and true alicorns, and as thankful as I am for that, having…other magic users has always felt wrong to me. They are taught spells, runes, history, the sciences and the arts, and even trained in combat arts. But seeing ponies so like us be afflicted with mortality…it is too much to bear for me sometimes. Their lives are so SHORT, Velae; I look here and see a child, look away, and when I see them again they are old and infirm. I cannot hold their hoof along the way, and when I’ve known them long enough to begin to understand them, and even like them, they are on their deathbed, and you become responsible for reuniting them with the void. It’s painful to get involved, I don’t see how he does it.”

“Patience, my love. Ancient as we are, our hearts are no greater or less than theirs, today’s display was evidence enough of that. They laugh, love, and create just as you or I do, only they do it every day, and on an admittedly smaller scale. Though our waking and our sleeping matches several of their generations, it is nothing too small to take the time to be friends with one. I will love you all the same.” The red alicorn looked abashed, and nuzzled his mate, as they walked back the way they came. Celestia followed them, hearing whispers of their conversation. They sleep for centuries on end? She thought to herself. Does this mean that as I get older, I’ll sleep longer? Who will raise the sun and the moon when Luna and I fall into that cycle? Perhaps our station protects us from that occurring; I cannot possibly see the days and nights becoming longer, and the sun here does seem to be progressing normally... As a maelstrom of questions raced through her head, she stopped in her tracks as she saw where their destination was.

Much closer now, the huge citadel that had pierced the clouds had filled the entirety of Celestia’s vision. What appeared to be a massive wall was only part of the structure she could see, and the sloping elegance of its halls extended outward in an organic fashion that was breathtaking in its magnificence and size. Everything here was in a scale that dwarfed Canterlot, her castle, and even the lands that Ponyville and all of her subjects resided in. Doors easily half a mile high opened with a deep rumbling, and her jaw dropped as she was confronted with the interior of this massive citadel.

Open, vast, and with light streaming in from the setting sun from the west through the fantastic arrangement of stained-glass windows, the entire central column was hollow, and as she stared upward into the seemingly endless reaches of the tower, she saw clouds, pierced only by a radiant, pure white light. Inside was an entire city unto itself. Shops, upscale homes for alicorns and unnicorns, and numerous restaurants and market venues spread out concentrically from the center hill, where the alicorn couple was going. As they got closer, she saw a breathtakingly beautiful palace, carved from what had to be entirely lapis lazuli. It seemed delicate to the point of fragility, carved with petals and vines, leaves and beautiful winged creatures. Within its swirling, lovely, slopes she saw that it was adorned with gemstones of every shape, color, and size in wondrous and fantastic patterns. As they passed through the central gates leading into the palace grounds, what she had mistaken for crystal she recognized was actually a solid diamond wall, with ruby gates, crackling with arcane power from vastly powerful protection spells.

Around them, Celestia noticed beautiful statues akin to her garden, but carved from solid emerald. Lush, vibrant plants bearing fruits and berries hun from windows, and from several of this, the highest coming far above from the outer wall of the citadel high above, pooled into several places, with shorelines covered by a strange blood-red grass. She saw on the shoreline in a lake off to her right a tree with a beating heart, pumping blood into the grass below and its branches above. She found it strange and disturbing that such a thing should reside in a place of such wonder and beauty. She caught up to Fen-ka Shal and his friends, and noticed they were greeted by numerous other alicorns who were, to Celestia’s reckoning, obviously part of the royal family.

They came out into an open-aired throne room, Celestia noticing the a very distinct line drawn around it where the pillars ended. She stopped as she saw the three thrones in the center, which faced each other. Each throne was utterly different but staggeringly beautiful. The first was seating Tahl-va Shal, who held a bored expression on his face. It was made entirely of plants, whose vines, branches, and flowers all weaved intricate patterns of obvious mathematical precision and complexity. The second was a high throne carved entirely out of a single ruby stone, and was carved in such a way that the designs on the throne were all fractal, and radiated out from a single point. The third throne was made of what looked like solid obsidian. It was decorated with, to Celestia’s horror, bones and scales of infant dragons and ponies. Massive wing bones flared up behind it to enshrine the whole macabre display, and she watched with wonder anew at Velae as she sat upon her throne, wondering with fear what this alicorn’s power was.

“Shall we begin?” asked Tahl-va Shal, startling Celestia out of her imaginings. Fen-ka Shal replied, speaking in a dismissive tone. “Certainly, brother. You may raise us this time.” Celestia felt a shuddering under her hooves, and with a start realized the thrones were all situated upon a platform, which glowed with runes that activated at Tahl-va Shal’s magic. The platform raised itself up out over the palace, and began to pick up speed. Celestia saw the buildings below her become increasingly smaller. They then hit the cloud layer, and her vision was obscured. When it cleared, she gasped at the bright white light that shone above them; pure white rather than the warm yellow of the sun. Vast arches and extensive causeways and balconies came into view from the walls of the citadel, and abruptly the platform slowed, until they had reached the source of the light. Behind a massive crystal iris, a diamond larger than a mountain floated several dozen kilometers above the top of the tower, with the stars of space framing it. Fen-ka Shal muttered some incantation, and the iris opened, spewing atmosphere out into the cold void of space.

The platform rose through the iris, which abruptly snapped shut behind them, and with a sense of awe, she saw the curvature of the earth and the sun in all its blazing glory She could see all of the city now, splayed out above them. With a start, she could recognize that they were on a continent far to the west of the mainland of Equestria, slightly to the north of the Crystal Empire. This land had always been obscured from her and Luna's vision, and in the gulf between the continents, she could recognize the Seapony archipelagos and was startled when she realized just how much closer the continent of Equestria was than it should have been. They must be very far back in time indeed to account for that much continental drift.

Celestia's attentions were drawn back to the looming crystal above her, and as she felt the platform slow down, she took in the brilliance of the titanic gem, and noticed it rippling like the surface of a silver pond. The diamond itself was like a miniature sun, and as the platform came to meet it, the crystal itself enveloped them. It was saturated with magic so powerful, it felt like it could be swum through, or drunk. The three alicorns basked in the warmth and opulence of pure, raw magic, and began to weave a complicated spell. Celestia watched as they each became transfigured by their element, as she was when she raised the sun in the morning.

Fen-ka Shal radiated an aura of creation; of infinite possibilities and infinite form. She saw him truly as he was for the first time; as an architect and inventor of all forms that were, are, or will ever be He held dominion over imagination, logic, and consciousness. In the same ocean of brilliant red light he had shown her earlier in Fluttershy's cottage, she saw it amplified and refined. She could see the threads of pure power plucking the tune of an incomprehensible song; a harp song on the strings of creation.

Tahl’va Shal exploded in a hurricane of magic and energy; and with a gasp she realized this being had the power to create life and command itself; to bring souls to what would otherwise be automations; animals with programming and without hearts and souls. He blazed like a green sun with the very essence of life itself, and of protean magic that was the root of all magicks, the Core; his vast power the very opposite of lifelessness and void. She recognized his dominion over life and its proliferation, and of magic and souls. She felt his power pulse with the rhythm of creation; of the world beneath them and all its inhabitants.

Velae’s transfiguration was far more subtle, but just as impressive as the others. She felt an agelessness and void surround her, and watched as the temperature around her dropped far below anything she thought was possible. The very air around her froze solid, and fell down as a powder and fine mist to the ground. A sphere of blackness engulfed her, and with a cold twinge in her heart, she realized this pony was in charge of the relentless march of time and the oblivion of death. She felt their contentment, meditating on their elements as she does when she has time alone with her sun. Slowly, the image began to blur and fade, and she was beginning to shift to another memory, and an older one at that.

Her eyes focused, and before her was a small herd of ponies, peacefully grazing. She stood overlooking a bluff, and craned her neck over the edge to see a little better. What had to be a sheer drop over several kilometers ended in a pile of broken stone and rubble. Peering out across the distance, she saw another line of sheer cliffs similar to hers, and she realized she was overlooking a massive glacial valley now forgotten to time. Her attention now entirely focused on the ponies that lay below, she was startled by a bemused snort behind her, and she quickly turned around to see Fen-ka Shal and Tahl-va Shal. “It’s truly frustrating,” the red alicorn spoke to his tall companion. “No matter what I try or create, it always gives me a blank, dead stare and runs off to fulfill whatever instincts it has. I cannot create a creature to converse with, that learns, or that I can even communicate with on the basest of levels. They are all empty creations, bereft of any soul or spark of intelligence. I have failed in my endeavours.” The dejected-looking alicorn greeted with the laughter of his companion, whom he looked at with confusion. “Brother,” Tahl-va Shal stated jovially, “You are far too hard on yourself. What you are missing is not magic, some genetic coding, or chemical imbalances. You can create, certainly; you are a far better artist and designer than I can ever hope to be. However, there is something that you should give, rather than mold." The green alicorn spread his artificial wings wide, and for the first time, Celestia saw that the wings, while made of metal and some odd green material, actually went into his flesh, and connected with muscle tissue like a real wing. Both alicorns flew down towards the herd of ponies, and Celestia, knowing that she could hear and see them from quite a ways away due to her divine senses, stood on the bluff and watched the two gods fly down into the valley towards the herd.

As they alighted upon a boulder, one of the stallions in the herd let out a loud whinny, and the herd began to get agitated at the presence of the new, odd creatures in their midst. Tahl-va Shal bowed his head slightly, and closed his eyes in concentration. Slowly, little green lights began to gather off his horns, and into a green sphere of light that shone like her sun. A slight breeze was blowing towards it in all directions, and suddenly a bright column of solid green light erupted from his horn, encompassing himself and the entire herd around him. She heard (as well as felt) a massive shockwave hit her, knocking her off her hooves. The sound was the loudest thing she had ever heard in her long life by an unimaginably large percent, and if she was physically here, she would’ve collapsed upon the ground, screaming in pain as her ears bled. Forests were flattened as the visible shockwave spread out throughout the valley, causing a number of avalanches in its wake.

The massive column of emerald light pierced into the heavens and radiated a power beyond all perception and belief. She realized this raw torrent of energy she felt from the pillar of light was his actual soul made manifest through some fantastic and arcane magic. The light began to fade, and as it petered out over the alicorns, she was stunned to see the brutish, primitive ponies that were grazing replaced by a herd of unicorns, all colored differently, each gasping in wonderment at the world around them as they tasted awareness and consciousness for the first time.

“PONIES OF THE HERD, KNEEL BEFORE THY NEW GODS, THY NEW FATHERS, THY NEW KINGS!!!” The powerful voice that came from the green-haired alicorn made her royal canterlot voice sound like a whisper in comparison. It boomed out across the valley, and in fear and reverence, all the unicorns bowed before the two alicorns. “WE HATH GIVEN THOU THE GIFT OF LIFE, THE BREATH OF CREATION! THINE BIRTHRIGHT IS THAT OF MAGIC, AND THAT OF MAGIC’S VITALITY! THOU ARE THE FIRST OF MANY, AND FROM US, CHILDREN, SHALL THEE PARTAKETH OF KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM, AND THE JOY OF LIFE! COME, ALL! RISE AND EMBRACE THY PURPOSE, PONIES OF THE HERD!!!” Now I know why Luna likes using that voice, even if she claims it’s just for “tradition”. Celestia thought to herself. It sounds so…powerful, and sends a clear message of who’s in charge. I wonder when I stopped speaking like that…

Celestia’s thoughts trailed off, and she barely noticed that she was fading out into a new memory, even older than this.

She stood at the edge of a vast crater, whose center was filled with a vast sea of churning lava, and the air was choked with noxious volcanic gasses, nearly blotting out the sun, and casting a menacing orange-red glow to the glowing caldera. Celestia reeled back, almost falling into the lava head-first. She steadied her crown, and looked about. There, about twenty feet away, Fen-ka Shal stood with Velae, who looked far more intimidating that she did in the first memory. The once amorphous coat was a black so deep that it swallowed all the light, and her eyes shone with a sea of stars, horizontal slits being mirrored by the disk of the galaxy. She now stood a head taller than her companion, and was gigantic in comparison to Celestia.

“I honestly do not understand what this is designed to accomplish.” The red alicorn stated with worry and despair, overlooking the destruction with a pained expression. “I don’t understand what destruction has to do with the act of creation, or the reverse of that. All you have done is send a large rock from space hurtling at this planet, devastating the surface. If you thought my creations are-were good, I am utterly at a loss as to why you would see them all destroyed.”

Fen-ka Shal said this with a weight of sadness that made Celestia feel an intense wave of sympathy for the alicorn. She had seen meteor craters before, but never witnessed a large impact, let alone one of this scale.

Velae smiled, and nuzzled Fen-ka Shal, visibly relaxing him. “My beloved.” Celestia sat down immediately, feeling her composure and heart melt. It was as if the entire universe had spoken, and all of the cosmos had reverberated with the voice of this one deity. A deep, harrowing feeling of love and beauty grew up through the endless depths of Celestia’s heart, blooming into a flower of such inconceivable and incontrovertible tenderness that Celestia choked on her own sobs and wept openly. “Do not be afraid. There cannot be new life without the passing of the old, and thus there cannot be new form without the discarding of old form. Creation is meant to change, not to be a fixed manifestation that cannot move with the passage of time. The very soul of art is bittersweet, for in time all things come to ash. You and I are no exception to this, although our lives are like that of the stars with their length.”

Fen-ka Shal shifted uncomfortably, processing this. “Then what is the joy in creating something, only to see it lost? Why can I not have something forever to love, to cherish for eternity? What is the point of creating something if I cannot connect with it long enough to appreciate it?”

Velae moved closer, and planted a kiss on the red alicorn's mouth, full of unspoken passion, and an eternity of matrimony. They held the kiss until the sun had set, and the only light remaining came from the lava sea behind them. They let go of each other, slowly, and nuzzled each other. The ebon alicorn spoke into her love’s ear, saying only four words.

“My love is forever.”

Chapter 4: Revelations and Reunions

“This is a very beautiful palace you two have here,” Fen-ka Shal remarked as he looked at the beautiful stained-glass windows in the throne room. “It has a very…comfortable feel to it. I can see why your people love you as much as they do, given how much time you spend tending to their needs.” The two alicorns had entered the Royal Palace the day after, as Fen-ka Shal had recovered enough of his health during the previous night and day to visit the palace of his hosts. Celestia walked alongside him, looking bashfully up at him while listening to him talk. The servants and nobles in the palace gawked at the newcomer, and whispered quietly to each other at seeing what had to be foreign royalty visiting. Celestia smiled, and looked at the window showing the Elements defeating Nightmare Moon. “Yes, we’ve had a long tradition of making time for personal appeals from anyone in the kingdom, regardless of where they’re from. I tend to make more time for my people outside of Canterlot, though.” She stifled a giggle, and the red alicorn looked down at her quizzically. “You take time for all of them, regardless of where they’re from? Even the poor, the farmers, and the slaves?”

Celestia snapped out of her light mood immediately, remembering how significant the cultural divide between their ancient kingdoms was. “Equestria has never, and will never practice slavery. Every one of our ponies comes to know their place in life through their mark, and because we have not had a war in…a thousand years exactly,” She winced as she remembered Luna. “There has been almost no crime, a very high standard of living for all ponies, and what anarchists do crop up are immediately rooted out by the local populace. Though we do rule with the right to decree what we please, we long ago made a decree that we would never take advantage of the livelihood of other ponies for our own ends, or on our own whims.” Fen-ka Shal blinked in genuine surprise, and looked past Celestia to see one of the Palace servants working happily away at cleaning the floors. Smiling, he turned back to the Princesses and said with a joking tone, “I hope your food is as wonderful as the company you keep, then.”

Applejack was busy. Applebucking had just finished up, and she had taking time away from her friends for a long while to take care of the business of filling orders for apples, brokering new deals with potential clients to supply apples to, and as always, giving Sugar Cube Corner its usual discount. Though she didn’t spend much time with pinkie pie as exclusively as she did with Rainbow Dash, she did enjoy the hyperactive pink mare’s wonderful parties, especially after a long day’s work. She smiled absentmindedly at the thought of the last party pinkie had thrown for all of them, when she felt a shiver go down her spine. Though normally not the superstitious sort, Applejack had a healthy respect for the unknown, and for gut feelings, as indirect as they might be compared to the Pinke Sense. She looked in the direction of the Everfree forest, and saw a number of smaller animals fleeing from the brush, scattering out and running for the hills, as it were. Puzzled over the new development, she thought to herself, Ah definitely need to visit Fluttershy ‘bout them critters when ah have the time today. Don’t seem right or natural them woodland folk would just get up and high tail it outta their homes like that. Don’t bode well in the least… She shook her head, banishing the uneasy feeling, and landed a solid kick on an apple tree that brought down with a yelp a familiar rainbow-maned Pegasus who’d been dozing the entire day up until now.

Twilight awoke with a yawn, and yelped in pain upon rolling over. Instead of the fluffy pillow she’d been expecting, a hard rock had painfully bumped up against her horn, bringing her to full attention of her surroundings. Luna still sleeping beside her, and was snoring rather loudly, much to Twilight’s amusement. The dark blue alicorn was rolled over on her back, and had her tongue hanging out in a manner that definitely didn’t suit royalty. The snoring subsided for a bit, and Twilight watched with open amazement and embarrassment as Luna giggled and begun to talk in her sleep. “Oh Celly, you shouldn’t have! I’m perfectly capable of asking someone for a date, you know. He must be so confused, a farm pony like that…Why don’t you-“ as much as Twilight was curious about who the moon princess was dreaming about, her embarrassment at listening into such a personal fantasy made her reach over, and gently nudge the princess awake. “Oh Celly stop you-Whathuhwhere??!...” Luna blinked, and kicked suddenly in a panic, looking around where she was. When she saw Twilight looking at her, she blushed heavily, and turned away from the now laughing purple unicorn.

“Oh Luna, I never knew you were such a weird sleeper; for the Princess of the Night, you sure-ohoh wow!” Twilight was rolling with laughter, and even though it looked like she was trying to contain herself to bring back some manner of decorum, it had failed miserably. Luna, now composed, looked off in the distance towards their destination with a deep curiosity of what lay in store for them. Misty foothills stood before barely visible mountains, and beyond that lay both the direction of the phenomenon, and Fen-ka Shal’s fallen kingdom. She had no idea what to expect, since even though Luna had taken through a very long-distance teleport, they were still within the very large borders of equestria, and not many people including herself had ventured out into the unknown.

“Princess?” Luna came back from her thoughts, and looked back to the smiling unicorn her sister so adored. Though she had her sister’s love, and had been freed by the bonds of Nightmare Moon, she still felt a small twinge of jealousy at how…close this little mare was to her sister. She immediately put it away into the corner of her mind when she kept dark thoughts, and smiled. “Princess…what are we going to do for breakfa-erm, for lunch?” The worried unicorn looked around at the unfamiliar forest around them, not seeing much in the way of immediate nourishment. Luna suppressed a giggle, and after focusing power into her horn for a brief second, a platter of delicious, syrupy waffles for each of them, and some apple juice in a silver goblet with sapphires adorned on it appeared before each of them. “…WOW I gotta learn that one!” Twilight levitated the fork and knife that Luna had brought along, and dug greedily into the delicious waffles, almost choking on a large piece. “Well, if you MUST know, I teleported the silverware, plates, and goblets from the castle; made the waffles by properly combining them en-route, and the apple juice is more of a cider, since it’s just SO much easier to scramble apples mid-transit into a drink…” Twilight gagged and spat out some apple seeds, giving the Moon Princess a look halfway between a glare, and child-like wonderment. They held their gaze for a moment, before bursting out laughing at each other.

Spike yawned loudly, and stretched out in his basket before rolling loudly. Suddenly, he jumped up out of bed, and ran to the kitchen. “Oh no I overslept! Twilight will be furious with me now that I-” The dragon stopped short in the kitchen, and realized something was off. Everything was in the same place it was last night, which meant Twilight hadn’t woken up yet. He tottered up the stairs, and saw an empty bed, with the window open. Scratching his head, he noticed a small note on her pillow.

Spike, something big came up that I have to investigate. Might not be back for awhile, gone with Princess Luna. You’re in charge until I get back.

Spike continued to be confused for a few seconds over contemplating what could possibly have gotten Twilight out of bed in the middle of the night, but immediately swelled with pride as he realized that he had not only the entire library to himself, but that Twilight hadn’t assigned him any chores to do while she was gone. He marched downstairs, and after getting a fancy hat and a few choice gems he’d been saving for awhile, marched out the door to Carousel Boutique, determined to spend the whole day with the most beautiful unicorn in the world…

Celestia looked up from her lunch nervously. Fen-ka Shal had been eating the food very slowly, and all the while looking off into the distance somewhere. She was terribly worried that he was bored, or that he didn’t like the food prepared.

“Is the food to your liking?” She asked light-heartedly, trying not to worry about the answer.

“Oh yes, it’s something I’ve never really tasted before. I stopped eating good food after Velae left, and considering that I’m the one who cooks for her and my brother, I probably let it go for awhile. It’s probably why he went out to eat so often…”

Celestia blinked.

“You cook your own food?” She asked in amazement.

“But of course. I make everything; magic, music, plays, plants, machines, toys. I spend most of my time tinkering with things, including architecture for new building projects.”

Celestia blinked again.

“You said you build…toys and machines? What kind of things do you make?”

Fen-ka Shal smiled, and looked up, thinking briefly.

“Well, there’s one in particular I think you might enjoy. It’s a sailing ship, but it uses special crystalline fabrics imbued with a fairly powerful set of spells. The sails transfer energy from the sun down the masts, and beneath the decks, there are large focusing crystals that transfer that energy into telekinesis energy, which guides the ship in the direction the captain dictates with his or her mind. I’d been long fascinated with getting flightless ponies into the air, as you might have remembered from seeing the memories of my brother, but something less…permanent was in order with the unicorns of my court.”

Celestia paused as she listened in rapt attention to the wonderful device he was describing. A ship that sailed on the light of her sun…she could not imagine a more wonderful vessel to carry her ponies around on the skies; it seemed a much better alternative to pegusi carting around grounded ponies in chariots, and it running on the sun…the thought sent shivers of joy through her.

“After the war started, we found that we could augment unicorn’s power with the same energy from the sun. Massive sails poured power into specially trained unicorn mages that flew off to battle the dragons, and we could easily defend against their attacks by not only redirecting their fire, but also using an Absorption spell to fuel their magic. Eventually, I was able to design massive sky-dreadnaughts, which used permanent enchantments to stay aloft, and focused all the energy of the sun towards focused beam lasers, which used all the energy from the sun directed towards-” He stopped abruptly. Celestia was staring at him with an expression of shocked confusion, and sadness. She was crying openly.

“Why…did you have to kill them? Was there anything that…” She trailed off, as she looked lost in her own sadness and confusion.

“They attacked us. They had grown very numerous, and they had no room left outside of our territory to expand to, and wealth to hoard. The attacked suddenly from the north slope, and burned dozens of homes, incinerating many of my children before we realized what was happening. We had never been at war. We had been secluded far off into the mountains to the north, in a valley unreachable by any pony from the outside. When I came to the site of the attack…I saw children. They were on fire, and running out of a house. I stepped forward to snuff out the flames, but…they died. Right in front of me.”

Celestia noticed her attention and thoughts melding with the conversation, as Fen-ka Shal slowly slipped into the High Speech.

“I looked at them for a long time. I had never seen anypony murdered before by a dragon. I had seen plenty of unfortunate accidents, and I have seen the old pass on. But I had never, in my long, long life, seen one of my children murdered by those vile lizards.” Celestia’s vision shifted to the white city, and the many homes on the outskirts. There, she saw the charred corpses of dozens, if not hundreds of ponies lying around. She saw a trembling red leg, adorned with silver crowns, hesitantly touch the body of…what had to be a dead filly. It crumbled into ash beneath his touch, and hear a loud gasp escape his mouth. Her vision blurred slightly as he began to cry, and off in the distance she heard a roar from a dragon. He looked up, and saw a massive black dragon winding about in the sky, torching the houses. He looked past it to see a cloud of them, all further off and flying towards his city. Her vision grew red around the edges, and trembled in a terrifying rage. A roar so vast and frightening that frightened Celestia to panic came from Fen-ka Shal, and she watched, now beside him, as he scratched his hoof on the cobblestones, and aimed his horn at the sky towards the dragon that was still raining death and destruction upon the homes surrounding them.

A single, bright point of white light appeared on top of his horn. With a high-pitched shrieking sound like hooves on a chalkboard, a powerful, thin beam of light burst forth from his horn, and neatly cleaved the dragon in two. Fen-ka Shal flapped his wings, and soared into the sky; facing the dragons that dared attack his home. With a roar, multiple beams of white light poured forth from his horn into the fray, and with horror Celestia watched dragons…and parts of them…fall out of the sky like leaves from a waning autumn tree. The lights danced between the now-scattered cluster of attacking dragons, and cut them to bits with a surgical precision that was terrible beyond any sense of horror she had felt. She watched sickened, as the last of the dragons was diced up, and its head flopped down noisily on the ground. Fen-ka Shal walked up to it, looking it in the eye, with a look of rage and disgust in his eyes that defied all description, all comprehension. He picked it up with his telekinesis, staring at its dead eyes, face to face.

“They will all die. Every last one of them.”

The vision abruptly ended, and Celestia promptly vomited all the food that she had consumed onto the floor. After stumbling to her feet, she looked at the red alicorn, who had his head turned away, and his eyes closed.

“…I am sorry.” He said simply.

Celestia wiped the vomit off the side of her mouth, and gave him a venomous look, which softened into a stony expression.

“I will not judge you, for it is certainly not my place to do so, especially after what you witnessed.” Her face fell into a sad reverie. “I’m not sure if I would’ve reacted any differently if I had witnessed something similar. I am…very close to my ponies, especially my beloved student. But your…wrath…I’m not sure what to make of…”

He looked back at her, and up into her eyes. “I have been at war with them for a long time. Longer than you have been alive, and so long I had lost the years to the passage of time. I hate them. They may think and speak, they may have souls, and they may love and cherish life and the simple things as we all do, but I hate them. I hate them so much that I want to see every. Last. One. Dead.”

Celestia walked up to him, with a confused expression on her face.

“How could you hate an entire race for the actions of a few? Is every dragon so bad that they have to have their lives ended because of your wrath?” She asked him, bearing a concerned look.

“Yes.” He deadpanned, earning a shocked expression from Celesia.

“They killed so many of us. And he…He took Velae from me.”

Celestia stared, wide-eyed at this admission, listening without anything else in the whole of her existence aware to her.

“Azjhaarus. She went out to face him alone in an attempt to end the war. She was so powerful, and so skilled in…ending things. The void, oblivion, all these were things that constituted my Velae, and with everything that I made, she understood it, and found a way to make it better through its ending, and its changing.” Celestia sat down next to him. She stared into his distant, golden eyes, and watched as a single, glowing green tear escaped from his eye. A golden tear fell from hers as his voice cracked, and he held his eyes shut to keep the torrent of grief within him at bay.

“She was Death, as far as we all saw her, and Oblivion as surely as it could be personified. We could think of nopony better to send to him to vanquish him, but…she never came back. I called out to her, sought her out high and low, far and wide. She was gone. I couldn’t sense her anywhere. Azjhaarus did not say that he killed her, but he says nothing unless directly addressed. I lost myself to my grief, while my brother ran the kingdom in my stead.”

Celestia now had her wing over him, and looked at him with love and pity for this king that had come to her only so recently. She had loved, yes. She had raised families, watched her husbands grow old and die, and kept her sister's children close to her over the long, long millennia as the nobility. Blueblood himself was a noble, although his comical arrogance did not endear him as family to her. They lived a fair bit longer than most unicorns, but their mortality all caught up with them in the end. They all passed on, and Celestia had long since hardened herself to grief, and assured herself that they would be happier at peace, and not having to worry about the future any more.

But to have…been truly married to someone, to have spent…an eternity with them, and never stopped loving them…it was inconceivable that he would be anything but completely devastated over losing his only love in life, his mate. Granted, he did have Liira with him, and that probably was a powerful emotional support for him, but…to have spent an eternity with someone…and then to just lose them like that…

Celestia encircled him in her wings in a hug, which he returned. “She said her love was forever…but she’s gone.” He looked up to her with a hollow expression in his eyes.

“Her love is forever because it is with you. It is with all those who have known her love, and will last as long as they live to keep her memory alive.” He sighed deeply, and buried his head in her long, flowing mane, and her head upon the base of his crown, behind his horn. She breathed in his scent deeply, and became lost in the comfortable smells of his timelessness, and smiled comfortably.

Suddenly the door opened abruptly, and a bloodied guard stood panting in the entryway. Celestia immediately broke her embrace from the red alicorn, and blushing angrily, stated vehemently, “Report.”

The battered Pegasus looked up at her, and said the four words she had always dreaded hearing.

“We are under attack.”

A shadow crept through the gardens, wilting flowers, and turning leaves dead and grey, as they littered the ground in its passing. A magenta light burned through the ebon depths of the shadow, and reached out to the guards that were quaking in fear before it. The guards’ eyes went blank, and they abruptly collapsed as their life left them, and began to shrivel into ash and bones, as the darkness passed beside them.

Reaching a clearing in the enchanted maze, the shadow’s maw split wide into a grin whose dark depths held a malice and thirst that split the very fabric of reality around it into void, and left a black scar in the air behind it. A statue of a curious chimera stood on a pedestal, with a strange expression of surprise and terror on its face. A crack appeared on its surface.

By any other name, the dark may abide,

But through His name all light be tossed aside

He is the Anathema, the Dark King

He is Emptiness, the Fearful Thing

Out of the Void he comes to us,

Terror, death, and fear follow him thus

No people he may call home,

Forever the darkness he must roam

Across time, across space

Across the endless void they chase

He is the hunted, the banished

The one from whom souls become famished

In the arc of Oblivion, his dark reign

Begets the end of all, innocence dare not feign

For from the Void, he comes for us

Nothing dead, you will trust

In the stillness, he is there

No living thing can prepare

He is Luvaeis, he is not Divine.

He is the darkness behind all time.

Chapter 5: Reckoning

It waited. It had waited for so long now, a few more seconds would be nothing compared to the aeons it had been imprisoned. The cracks on the statue of the fearful chimera radiated out from a central point on its chest, and grew until reaching every point on the statue until- FLASH a bright light shone out from the cracks suddenly, and in its place...nothing. The blackness cast its sight around the pedestal, looking for any trace of Discord, when it...felt...a tap on its shoulder. Turning around, it saw the draconequus staring at it with its tongue sticking out, and its eyeballs literally popping out of its skill, face twisted in a hilarious grin. Luvaeis let out a laugh that cracked the stone around them, and brought the ivy covering the walls around them to ash. Discord put his eyes back in their sockets, and smiled at his old friend.

"Ohohohoho! Of ALL the things I'd thought I'd see after getting out of that awful statue, YOU were the last person I'd expect to see, let alone free me; dearest, darkest friend of mine." Discord's lithe serpentine body twisted up in the sky, to look at the surroundings outside the maze. "Oh dear. It really hasn't been that long at all. I doubt Celestia or her little hooved minions have changed much, especially a certain Twilight Sparkle." He giggled again and looked back to the looming black, shifting black mass behind him, noticing the scarlet gem casting its light upon him. "It's true, don't you know?" The draconequus sat down upon a wall, stroking his beard, looking at his friend with an annoyed expression. "Despite actually being a nice, good natured spirit of chaos this time around, NOpony liked what I did with the place, shame on them. Our dear Celestia had the elements of harmony embodied in nice, fragile, corruptible mortal ponies; two unicorns, two pegusi, and two donkies. I mean earth ponies." Luvaeis smiled again, this time moving towards the castle, walls crumbling to dust before him. His grin was so wide and so terrible, it audibly tore through the space and air around him as he walked, leaving long, black scars in his wake, distorting the light around them. Discord went off towards Ponyville. "I always liked that smile of yours..."

Luna felt her ear and eye twitch suddenly, feeling something out of place. She looked back in the direction of Canterlot, suddenly feeling very homesick. They'd been flying most of the day now, and were within site of the mountains they had noticed the strange phenomena, and while Luna wasn't particularly tired, her sister's prized pupil was exhausted, panting heavily to stay aloft. Luna swooped down to meet her. "Let's rest for a bit. I have an idea that should get us there faster that I think you'll like." Twilight gave Luna a weary smile, and after dipping into the treeline to land, almost gracefully slammed headlong into a tree limb, dropping the purple unicorn to the ground, her head rolling. Luna immediately alighted down on the ground, checking to see if Twilight was hurt. The purple unicorn stared back at her, walleyed and her head still rolling. "Princess," she warbled out, "Please stop the forest, I want to get off..." Luna suppressed a guffaw, and gently helped the unicorn up against a tree, and stabilized her inner ear with an afterthought. Twilight shook her head, and blinked at Luna, confused and slightly embarrased. "Hehehe. I guess I need to work on my landings." She smiled and nervously scratched her head, looking down at the ground. Luna giggled a little bit, and smiled down at Twilight. "You actually did better than I did my first time." Luna said, earning open-mouthed surprise from the purple unicorn at her feet. "Granted, your wings are magical so they're easier to use, but the first time I tried flying, I tripped...actually tripped in midair, over my own hooves, tumbled down, and got my horn stuck in a tree. Celly wouldn't stop laughing, and she brought it up for the next hundred years or so whenever she wanted to tease me..." Luna looked down, and saw Twilight magically keeping her jaw shut to keep from bursting out laughing. Luna gave her a mock glare, and ruffled Twilight's mane affectionately with her hoof. Twilight calmed down, but was still smiling. "So," she intoned quizzically,"What's this idea of yours?"

Luna looked up at the sky. "I can teleport things extremely far; I was thinking that since we can see the mountains now, I'd have a good idea of where we should end up if I transported us both there. What do you think?" Twilight stared up at Luna, amazed. She always found it difficult to transport herself long distances; she ended up with a broken leg and passed out when she was snowed in one day, and teleported herself out of the library to Sweet Apple Acres to visit Applejack...and ended up thirty feet up in the air, landing very hard on the snow, breaking her left leg. Applejack was understanding enough, but staying with her for a few weeks while she mended was...uncomfortable. She wasn't used to being so far away from her books, and even though Spike had a few brought to her in her absence, it simply wasn't the same as having an entire library at your disposal. The country cooking all made the stay worth it, though.

Twilight smiled. "I definitely think it'll be a lot faster than flying or walking. Have you teleported that far before?" Luna smirked. "I teleported myself off the moon, you know. I think that's pretty far, don't you?" Twilight blinked. Nightmare Moon was extremely powerful, and although Luna was no longer possessed by the vile spirit, she wondered how much of her power she still held. Luna, noticing Twilight's uncertain expression, nuzzled the little unicorn. "If you had any doubts, you'd best dispel them now, Twilight Sparkle" "WHATOHNOWAITDON-" The two disappeared in a flash of blue light, and off in the distance, far towards the mountains, you could swear you could almost hear a pony screaming as it fell through the air.

Celestia was in full gallop, running out of the castle towards the direction of the maze where Discord was kept now. After clearing a second flight of stairs, she yelped as she felt herself slipping on the rug covering the hard stone, and panicked as she felt herself falling. Strong hooves caught her, and she looked up to see Fen-ka Shal, slowly beating his wings in the air, holding her. "You must be calm and collected in a crisis. You must not rush into danger, and consider the factors before engaging an adversary. Slow down." He gently smiled at her, and her back at him, blushing. She steadied to her feet, and cantered down the stairs, and out to the garden.

Rarity had been having a dreadful day. She couldn't find anything she needed, was low on gems, and her back-orders were stacking up. She grumbled as she threaded a needle through one of her newest dresses, and suddenly tore a giant hole in it when the door slammed open, earning a shriek of surprise from the pale unicorn. "RARITYOHMYGOSHYOUWOULDN'TBELIEVEWHATHAPPENEDTOMEYESTERDAY!!!!"

Rainbow Dash had burst through the door, a huge smile on her face and her wings flapping away happily. "RAINBOW DASH!" Rarity screeched, "KNOCK FIRST!!!!" The happy rainbow pegasus' smile turned upside down, and looked in horror at her friend glaring at her, livid with rage. She noticed the large tear in the fabric next to her, and grinned sheepishly. "I-" "GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!" Rainbow Dash gasped as she was lifted up off her hooves, and forcibly thrown out of the boutique, landing on her rear, looking back in stunned amazement. She was on the dirt, with a small cloud of dust around her, and held her disbelief until a maple leaf fell on her head, obscuring her vision. She shook it off, grumbled something about a crazy drama queen, and shot off into the sky towards Cloudsdale.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!" Twilight screamed as she fell through the sky towards the sharp peaks below. It was every falling dream she ever had, every nightmare of flying and falling to the earth, all rolled into one. Suddenly, a dark blue light enveloped her, and she was stationary in the sky, blinking as a goose flew in front of her, giving her a look of confusion before honking and flying on. Luna swooped down out of the clouds, and giggled. "THAT WASN'T FUNNY!" Twilight yelled at Luna while laughing herself. Catching their breath, they both flew down, out of the clouds, towards a small river. The mountains towered over them now, reaching up several miles around them into the clouds. the river cut a winding path through the peaks, and after Luna plopped Twilight on her back, they flew just over the stream.

Luna's hooves dipped into the cool river, as she flew on with Twilight on her back. This water is so clear and lovely, She thought to herself, I wonder what this place looks like at night, it must be gorgeous... She lifted her hoof out of the water, rising herself and Twilight higher over the river. It was still morning, and the sun shone down between the peaks, the rising sound of the air joining with the screeching of a few mountain shrikes. Luna heard Twilight gasp as they rounded a bend and were greeted with a glorious sight. The narrow chasm that the river had cut through the mountains opened up to a huge valley, inundated by a lake that was as clear as crystal. Luna could see the peaks slope down into the lake sharply, and disappear into its sapphire depths. She had never seen anything so BLUE before. The sun reflected off of the ripples over the lake to the east where it was rising, shimmering bright golden petals of light off its clear surface. They heard a crane as it called out to its brothers and sisters, flying across the waterline, snapping up a small fish in its beak from the water. A tiny island rose out from the blue depths out of the water, and was covered with a rocky outcropping of ruins, and a cave. Luna landed gracefully on a flat surface that was obviously carved from the bright granite around them, and felt Twilight hop off her back next to her.

"This place is amazing..." Twilight said as she gawked at the shambled ruins around them. Large pillars, easily forty or fifty feet tall by her estimation, loomed as silent monoliths over them, casting a shadow from the rising sun. They were covered with all sorts of runes, obviously magical in nature but far too faded to tell what their original form or purpose was. A cave rose from the rock, and had neatly carved stairs leading down into it. Between them and the cave, an altar rose in a short step pyramid about three dozen feet or so, covered in the same runes. Six large emeralds were raised up on small posts in the center, and caught the light of the morning sun. Thin lines of green light connected them as they glowed faintly, trapping the light of the sun and spreading it amongst themselves evenly. Twilight and Luna trotted down from the landing pad towards the altar, curious. They could now see a barrier in front of the cave, glowing a faint emerald light like the bands of magic connecting the six gems. A seventh emerald stood behind the barrier, much larger, and hung from the ceiling of the cave entrance. "Well, this is certainly interesting." Luna stated with obvious curiosity. "This is a very advanced shielding spell; it uses the light of the sun and moon to power a barrier to keep people from entering the cave. I'd guess that the only way to break it is to sever the connection between the gems." Twilight nodded and levitated one of the many rocks from the crumbling structures around them, and placed it between two of the emeralds on the altar, immediately causing them to dim. The light from the barrier was snapped up into the emerald, and a stone barrier slammed down further back in the cave, blocking the path. Twilight gulped, and lifted the rock blocking the connection up. Immediately, the barrier snapped back on, and the stone barrier behind it lifted back up. "Very smart security measure." Luna remarked. "You'd have to have more than one person with you to properly clear the path of both barriers, and even then you'd have to leave someone behind to pick it up. Try leaving the stone in there for a bit longer this time, but let's move a little further back. I have a hunch about this." Twilight did as she was asked, and after stepping down off the altar with Luna, after a minute or two, metal spikes shot abruptly up from the perimeter of the steps on the pyramid.

"Oh my...whoever made this obviously didn't want any non-magic users inside." Luna stated, sounding concerned. "How do you figure that? Couldn't a couple of pegusi or dragons come in? They can both fly here, and all they'd have to do is leave one of their own behind to watch the entrance. The spikes wouldn't do much if they were in the air, either." Twilight said, confused. "You didn't notice the second thing that went up?" Luna queried. Twilight looked around, and saw with horror as clear barrier of magic go up around and over the altar, constricting itself over pyramid, and finally coming down over the rock that had broken the connection into oblivion as it winked out of existence. "That's...that's horrible! What if a bird or something had just decided to sit or roost on the altar? It'd be killed!" Twilight looked at where the rock had disappeared, aghast. "I did say it was a security measure, and a good one at that." Luna stated matter-of-factly. "The spell relies on the sun and moon for power, and I doubt that even during a new moon or a cloudy day it would disappear, since it probably stores a fair amount of energy in that larger emerald at the cave mouth as a magic capacitor. Spells like these last literally forever; as long as the gems are intact, the spell continues, and will keep working as long as the sun and the moon still shine." Twilight looked at the large gem at the cave mouth, which was still glowing despite the barrier being gone. "So...whatever's down there...is probably very important. Whatever made that huge burst of core magic is probably down there, and it's probably being guarded by the security mechanism." Luna nodded at Twilight's assessment. "So only somepony who could fly or teleport all the way here on their own, lift a rock with magic and put it between the emeralds on the altar, go behind where the barrier would be, and wait for the rock to be crushed, which wouldn't solve anything since they'd be crushed by the first barrier." Twilight looked back to the still-glowing gem at the cave mouth, and noticed that the green barrier was still there, albeit further back, and moving up against the wall of the stone wall that had snapped down. The gem blinked when it reached the wall, and after the secondary barrier was brought back up, the barrier snapped back to its original position.

"So, either somepony who knew how the system worked, and where it was, could properly get through or...an alicorn." Twilight blinked at the cave entrance, wondering how many unfortunate creatures had died trying to get through. Luna trotted up to the cave entrance. "Twilight, come over here." Twilight blinked again and did as she was told, walking up to Luna, starting to understand what she might have in mind. Luna lifted up a rock with her telekinesis, and placed it neatly between the emeralds. Abruptly, the magical barrier coming from the emerald at the mouth of the cave snapped off. Luna pulled twilight into the cave just as the stone wall slammed down a few meters in front of them. Luna pulled the rock off from the altar immediately, and flung it to the side. Twilight yelped as the barrier snapped back on, shaving a bit of her tail off. "Sorry about that, I guess I should've pulled you in closer." Luna grinned sheepishly, and they both watched as the stone barrier lifted back up, leaving a winding stairway going down into the dark. Twilight gulped. "I guess this is where we go and see what's down there." Luna lit her horn with a soft, white lunar glow, and they descended down the staircase.

Celestia had reached the garden with Fen-ka Shal, walking cautiously into the open. No sooner had they reached the mouth of the maze, then Fen-ka shal shouted "GET DOWN!!!" and Celestia felt herself being shoved violently off to the side by magic. A thick column of black lightning had erupted through the walls of one of the maze, leaving a smoking hole in its place. Celestia looked back to see Fen-ka Shal encased in a crackling web of...extremely dark magic. He had erected a barrier around himself, and had his brow furrowed in concentration. What in the world is going on here? The Princess of the Sun thought to herself. THAT certainly wasn't Discord's magic, it's far too malevolent and powerful. Fen-ka Shal had eyes closed in concentration, and suddenly Celestia heard his voice in her head. RUN. Celestia looked confused and scared, and heard a soft crunch as something hit hard dirt. She slowly looked towards the direction of the maze, and saw, standing in the hole made by the previous attack, some...thing stood over the body of one of her fallen guard. Celestia backed up slowly, as she took in the horrible blackness that stood over Light Hooves, the personal guard she had known for over a dozen years, now broken and bleeding. A single, wicked red light glared through the darkness, and Celestia felt all confidence leave her as her legs began to shake. In the back of her mind, she remembered Luna telling her about this...thing somewhere, but the only thing in her mind right now was a loud, overwhelming fear that would have sent her fleeing in panic has she not been in this monstrosity's gaze. "W-w-w-what is it that you want here? Why have you killed my people? Why have you come to my kingdom?" She stammered this out, and watched in horror as the creature...smiled. Its wicked grin was an emptiness that defied description, and Celestia choked with fear as it reached up around the entire front and sides of its head in a distorted mockery of a smile. It then swung its head down, its gaping maw swallowing the corpse of her former guard whole. She broke and ran.

Luna and Twilight had be descending the stairs for what seemed like hours. They didn't know how deep they were, but they were guessing that it was very, very far underground. The stalactites that had marked the beginning of the cave had not continued past this few minute or so walking, upon which the two had noticed the ceiling become less of a cave, and opened up into a vaulted ceiling, which continued as the walked further down the spiral stairs. Luna looked nonchalant as ever, and her light was added by Twilight's own as they descended past any light from the surface. After what seemed like an eternity, they began to see a green glow coming from further down to their destination. The kept walking, and suddenly, without warning, the path stopped. a wall appeared before them, with a network of glowing green emeralds arranged in a curious pattern. A large emerald on the top was not glowing, and had several strange runes under it. "I'm not quite sure what this is." Luna said curiously, with her head cocked to the side. "It definitely isn't the end of the line, so it must be a...lock of some kind. I recognize some of these runes; I think I'm supposed to open it with magic. Hold on." Luna pointed her horn into a small hole in the emerald at the bottom, until it fit. Twilight kept her light on, fearful of it going dark. Suddenly, Luna cried out, as a massive amount of magic was dumped into the crystal. The runes around the wall began to brighten, as well as the gems inset on it, when suddenly all the light from them cut off. Luna popped her horn out of the hole, panting. "Not...enough...magic...guh!" She lay there for several minutes, panting in exertion, with twilight huddled near her. Finally, Luna had recovered enough of herself to stand back on her own hooves, and turned to Twilight.

"This is an incredibly powerful lock; I still have a lot of my magic to grow into, and to recover from Nightmare Moon. I think...with you helping me, it should be enough. Do you know how accept a siphoning conduit?" Twilight nodded. Siphoning conduits were used by multiple unicorns together, to pool their magic together, and have one unicorn (or alicorn in this case) project far more magic than he or she would normally be capable of into a particular spell. The Elements of Harmony did this with her and her friends when all the elements together were activated, and it was through this that the enormously powerful purifying magic of the Elements got their power. She'd done a lot more research on them since the last time they'd been used on Discord, and found that the elements were each individual catalysts for the Core magic of the earth; they drew up into themselves an enormous amount of energy, converted it through the emotional catalysts of each of the six bearers, and then finally into her as the Element of Magic, which she then transfigured all the power from the other six elements into a huge torrent of energy, which took the form of a rainbow. It was only through her immense magical capacity that she was able to channel the elements; focusing them was not something she did consciously; they just went after whatever was in disharmony closest to her and her friends.

She set up the siphoning spell; and an invisible conduit appeared between her and Luna. Luna put her horn in the hole in the wall a second time, and this time poured everything she had into it. Twilight's eyes suddenly blazed brightly with magic, and her mane and tail began to float upwards in defiance of gravity. She poured as much of her potent magic into Luna through the conduit as she could, and felt herself getting steadily weaker, albeit slowly. The runes and the gems were blazing a bright green now, and suddenly the whole wall disappeared. They peered through the void into a vast cavern that opened up around them. Mighty pillars of stone formed over aeons of stalactites and stalagmites forming soared up around them, hundreds of meters tall. The ceiling had its share of dips and curves, as well as the occasional outcropping of large stalactites clustered around some of the pillars, or those that had yet to form. Luna sent a pulse of light off into the darkness; a faux moon to brighten the gloom. They both gasped. The cavern stretched out for kilometers in every direction, and off in the distance, they noticed some ruins akin to the ones on the surface. A faint green light flickered from somewhere inside, and the pair set off in the direction of it, Twilight using her own magic wings to fly this time.

Celestia was galloping blindly, in a zigzag motion to avoid getting hit by the shards of obsidian that were being shot towards her. She looked back, and screamed as she saw a huge, black serpent, massive compared to even the castle next to it, making its way towards her, and spitting blackness that that turned into sharp missile shards of volcanic glass, screaming after her. She poured all of her formidable magic into her wings, and burst into the air at an incredible speed, determined to keep this menace confined near the castle grounds, and not anywhere closer to the populated areas of Canterlot. The princess of the sun was a bolt of lightning, weaving in and out of a maelstrom of shards that now erupted from the black thing's gaping maw. She saw that it now stretched back into the maze, and saw Fen-ka Shal fighting his way, slowly, out of the imprisonment spell erected around him. Hurry she pleaded to him in her mind. I'm not sure how much longer I can last she said as she felt a shard nick her flank, leaving a painful gash along her side. She grimaced, and flew up between the sun.

Reckoning Part 2

This cavern must be at least several hundreds of millions of years old, Twilight Sparkle thought to herself. It would take...years to explore this place. I hope Luna lets them name it after me. Hmm... She pondered the thought of bringing back an expedition here someday, when they had the time. Luna and Twilight had been flying for the good part of about half an hour, and much more of the ruins had come into view. It was built like a small city, with walls on the outside and smaller buildings that looked like houses and shops inside. Roads formed spokes to the inside of the city, which had been built into the massive, looming cave wall. The flickering green light they had seen earlier was far brighter now, and came from inside what looked like a temple complex that rose from the center of the city, and made its way back into the wall. Curious, the princess and the librarian alighted upon a raised portion in what looked like a courtyard. To their right, the cave wall stretched up into the darkness. To their left, the courtyard met with the rest of the temple, and it was up in a rather large marble tower that the light came from. Both Luna and Twilight felt the energy coming from the light was the same explosion of power they had felt a few nights ago, and went into the complex.

Adorned on the walls were beautiful mosaics of unicorns, and of two mighty alicorns; one with three horns, green eyes that were inset with emeralds, green-streaked hair, and strange wings. The other alicorn, looked a bit like Luna. She, because from the long, flowing hair she could be nothing else, was a black alicorn with diamonds inset all over her mane, and many of them clustered around her eyes. Beneath the gaze of the green alicorn, plants grew, ponies frolicked, and from his breath came...foals. Little fillies and colts were shown growing, living, learning, making families of their own, becoming old. As Luna and Twilight saw this, walking around the room that the mosaic wrapped around, they saw the old ponies arranged in a funeral, with their family praying to them. The next depiction showed the black alicorn, appearing to welcome all the ponies into her arms. "Amazing..." Luna stated after breathing for the first time after coming inside. "To think my sister saw these two with our guest...I wonder what they looked like in real life." Twilight was peering at the crystals that made up the mosaic. "These crystals are all high-quality precious gems. Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds...everything. If Rarity were here with us, I'd have to pry her off of the walls..." she suppressed a light chuckle with her hoof. "Oh, look at this!" Luna exclaimed.

Twilight turned towards Luna, and saw a second room, adorned with a vast, sweeping mural of a city skyline. Vast, ivory towers and domes rose up across the cityscape, and countless causeways and roads connected various buildings, all in many levels deep. "This must be Fen-ka Shal's city, Gal'Karii. It's...it's gorgeous. No wonder Celly believed him after seeing this; I can't imagine what it would be like to live there." Twilight stared up in awe at the civilization depicted. "Millions of years of history, sustained growth, and peace. Luna...our entire history might be there. Everything that ever was, millions of years of sciences and magic...Luna, if this city fell...all of it could be lost. We have to help him take it back!" Luna was about to say something, when she felt a prickling on the back of her neck and mane like she was being watched. She turned around, and there behind her was...a pony. It, or he as she could now tell, was an ancient looking unicorn, with what looked like a monk's robe and hood on. He had deep, bright green eyes with no pupils, and smiled warmly at them. "Hello, my name's Ahdos. I'm the keeper of the temple here, as well as what's left of the city. What brings you to these parts, Princess of the Moon, and eh...what's your name, little filly?" The old monk peered at Twilight, trying to see something through or on her that wasn't readily apparent. "You've got a might bit of power you have; no surprise a sorceress like you'd be with her majesty here. Yeppers." Twilight gawked, befuddled at the fact than anything, let along somepony, could be living here. "How...how do you know who I am?" Luna asked tentatively. The old unicorn laughed. "Well, you've got wispy blue hair with some stars in it, you're dark blue, and you've got that thar moon stamped on yer highnesses flank, if you do pardon my observation. That and you're an alicorn, so I figger yer most likely in charge of movin' yonder moon I haven't seen these many years. How are things up on the surface, by the way?" Luna had the good grace to blush before answering. "I've grown up in Equestria, under my mother and older sister. Might you know of any of them? Their names are Solaris and Celestia; I never knew my father, and I grew up mostly with my sister after my mother passed away." The old monk blinked his green eyes. "Passed away, did she? Nary an alicorn I've seen on their deathbed, live as long as they do. Shan't be from old age, I'd gather." Luna slowly nodded. "Hmf. Don't know you or yer sister. Been down here my whole life. Stayed behind when everyone else left for the surface. Now, since you're here, you'd best come up here with me. I believe I have what you're looking for." As the old unicorn slowly shuffled back to the steps leading up to the tower, Luna looked at Twilight with a bemused expression on her face. Twilight shrugged, and followed the monk. Luna smiled and did the same.

Celestia lay on the ground, panting with exertion. The blackness now loomed over her, blocking out her sun with its endless ebon depths. She had snapped a wing after getting hit, and the pain had grounded her. She looked up into the single, scarlet eye that shone through her feeble defenses, through her body, through her soul. She quivered in fear, and for the first time in a thousand years, she felt truly terrified for her life. "I don't want to die, I don't want to die, oh please oh please don't kill me..." She shut her eyes, hooves covering them. She was cowering in a broken mass of feathers and quivering fur waiting for the inevitable, when she heard a grunt from the dark interloper, and a massive explosion off to her right. She peeked under her hooves, and saw Fen-ka Shal, facing the darkness and it facing him. "Luvaeis." He said, Celestia remembering the name of her tormentor at last. "You have no business here, and certainly no right to terrorize my host, or murder her guards. I will break you if you fight me, and kill you if you try to leave. Leave her alone, and fight me."

The blackness that was Luvaeis shrunk, and finally formed into the body of an alicorn. Bones long since having the flesh rotted off them lay bare, and what was little more than a skeleton stood before Celestia. Its head was turned towards the red alicorn king, and little more than an empty eye socket stared as her. Celestia shivered as a now-familiar darkness seeped out of the cracks in the bones, enveloping the skeleton in darkness, and in the form of a pitch-black pony with only one eye, and a mane that flowed out of its head onto the ground, like ink pouring out. It smiled, and pointed at him, then back at itself.

Fen-ka Shal snorted, and scratched the ground with his hoof in anticipation. "I should have ended you when I first saw you, abomination. But somehow my curiosity got the best of me, and I imprisoned you instead of obliterating that evil gem. I'll never forget your desecration of my son's body, and now your being here has given me the chance to avenge him."

The black thing through back its head and laughed; a horrible sound that threw Celestia into fit, her ears bleeding and foam coming out of her mouth. It stopped, and she wiped the foam from her mouth, her ears still ringing, her vision a little unstable. Luvaeis exploded outward into a new form; Celestia was swept aside, and when the movement had abated, she gasped. A vast black dragon was wrapped around her castle, and its single, glaring red eye was a long, narrow horizontal slit that eyed its prey with palpable malice. It flared its wings, blocking out the sun, and that was when Celestia abandoned all hope of living through this.

Luna and Twilight followed Ahdos up the stairs, and up into the top of the tower, which opened up into a large bedchamber. Twilight blinked to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. There, hovering over the bed, was the alicorn from the mosaic. He was encased in a shell of magic, possibly a barrier of some kind. It reminded her of a cocoon. Out from it sprung a green flame that did not burn the bed, or emit any kind of heat, despite the flame coming out of it like a miniature sun. "He's so weak now. I don't know what it is about the temple topside, but I felt him, oh yes did he come with a mighty blast that shook this very cavern with its force and rattle my old bones. I went topside to check it out, and I found him, burnt to a crisp, unconscious. Before my very eyes, his flesh was healing itself; the burns fading away, new skin and fur spreading over his injuries. He had lost an entire leg, and I saw the whole cloppin' thing grow back. He's Tahl-va Shal, the brother of that alicorn you were exclamaitin' about and sayin' you'd help him take back his city. Is it true that he was really overthrown?" Luna nodded, still staring agape at the alicorn hovering in front of them. "Tis a shame," the monk said "I was really hoping to visit the white city someday. I hear they have the best brothels there." Luna and Twilight looked at him, aghast. "What? A colt's gotta get out and have some fun, even at my age. Don't you dare look at me like that, missy. I've been here myself longer than you've been alive, and then some." Twilight looked at the strange unicorn, with a mixture of disgust and confusion. Luna, on the other hoof, was rolling on the floor with laughter. "Oh goodness; for an old lecherous colt you certainly know how to make a princess laugh." Luna got up off the floor, still laughing. "MMmmm. But please, do tell us what he's doing here. Last I heard, He'd been killed after the coup. What happened?" Adhos nodded. "Yep, he was dead when I found him. It was only when he breathed suddenly, that he actually got himself back to life, alicorn that he is. He screamed something awful when he realized how badly hurt he was, and lay there for a good few hours as he healed himself up. I gave him some of the water I'd brought along, which he took. It took him awhile to heal up sure, but when he was done, he stood right as rain on his feet. He asked me who I was, and I told him I'm the abbot charged with looking after the temple. He recognized me after that, which I was sure thankful for since he's got a righteously scary stare, he does. Anyway, I brought him back down here myself, and he's been like this ever since. I think he's been trying to recover his magic."

Luna looked at Tahl-va Shal in awe. THIS was weak?? She exclaimed to herself. Tahl-va Shal was far more powerful than herself and Twilight combined, and much stronger than she had ever felt from her sister. She walked around to the side to see his face up close, and marveled at how...odd he looked. He had a long horn like Celly, certainly, but it was half again the length of her sister's horn. Behind it, raised up two unfamiliar curved horns, looking a bit like some kind of crown, even though she knew that they were actual horns. His wings, while obviously artificial, were repairing some scorch marks, and Luna watched in amazement as the metal wings...healed. She then looked at his face, which was smiling. He looked like he was having a good dream. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, causing Luna to jump back in surprise. The massive green alicorn stallion blinked, yawned, and dissolved his bubble, landing upon the bed. Luna cautiously approached him. The massive alicorn dwarfed luna in size, much as Fen-ka Shal had, but only so much more so. He was on his side, looking at her with a bemused expression.

"Well, are you going to sit their gawking, or help me up? My whole body's still healing, you know." Luna yelped as he spoke. He had a deep, silky voice that made her melt a little bit inside. Blushing a little bit, she helped him off his bed, one giant hoof at a time. He yawned, and a shiver ran through his body as he stretched. "I thought you couldn't stand?.." Luna asked curiously. "Oh no, I'm fine actually. It's just been such a long time since getting a hug from a pretty young alicorn princess. What's your name, little lady?" Luna's face flushed red in embarrassment, and she hoofed the ground, nervously.

"...It's Luna. I raise the moon." Tahl-va smiled down at the blue princess before him. "How lovely. You must be directly descended from Velae; she always had two offspring; mostly daughters, although occasionally she had the errant black colt who made the most glorious of nights. So, little Luna, what brings you down here?" Luna looked back at him, trying to form words. Twilight cleared her throat. "We came down here to see what the huge flare of core magic was. Apparently, it was you. Care to tell us what happened?" Twilight asked this in a calm manner, not the least bit intimidated by the alicorn's giant size, or strange magic.

Tahl-va Shal looked at her, surprised. "Well, after sending my brother away to find himself again after Velae left, he decided to return, and take sole rulership away from me. He said that since Velae was gone, he now ruled the whole kingdom, and that I should be ready to step aside. I refused of course; he was still a wreck from losing her, and wasn't in his right mind enough to lead our entire nation in war. So, after us fighting about it, the dragons caught wind of our squabbles and moved in with a full force invasion, with Ajzhaarus at the front. Now, I don't know how much either of you know about him but...he's a big guy. He covered almost our entire city with his wings, and latched himself onto the Tower of Dainieer, as we call it. It's sort of like your Canterlot, only inside the castle." Luna blinked. "So, while he was off helping to evacuate the city and taking down the other dragons, I fought Azjhaarus." Luna was now staring directly at the large alicorn stallion, her attention entirely focused on his story. "I fought him in the skies, and as I wore down, he kept blasting flame. It englufed a good portion of the city I'm afraid, and though I was eventually able to turn it back on him, he blasted about a third of the city barren, and into ashes. Once my brother saw what happened, he joined me, and together we tried to beat him back. We hurt him, definitely, but...there was so much fire..." he trailed off, looking at his still-healing wings. "He burned us. His flame is so corrosive to magic and matter, that despite us erecting a barrier to ward off his flame, even with our combined power it eventually crumbled. I was immediately engulfed in flames, and saw him falling to the ground, smoking and flaming along the way like the sun. I thought HE died, and I'm guessing with the extent of my injuries after waking up, I did die like he thought I did." Luna looked at him, confused. "See, because I am the source of all life, the manifestation of magic, I am truly immortal; Fen-ka Shal and, unfortunately Velae as far as I know, are mortal in the sense that their lives can be snuffed out by another. They have an almost limitless lifespan, but once the sun goes out, and everything in this world is engulfed in its last fire, he will die, along with everything else that still lives." Luna's face fell into a sad expression.

"SO with that said, how can I help you?" Tahl-va Shal turned to look at Luna directly. "Well, we have your brother with us at our home; he's recovering from his wounds, and we were wondering if you're feeling well enough to travel with us." Luna looked off to the side, still blushing. "Well, I certainly wouldn't be against it, but I do need to rest for a bit. I still have a lot of magic to recover, if you wouldn't mind staying with me here." Luna blinked again. "I'd...I'd like that. Twilight, what do you think?" Luna turned to twilight, who was looking around the room. "Sure thing princess; I'll be busy exploring the temple and the city; there's a lot of history here, and I'd like to take a look around." Ahdos had snuck up behind the purple unicorn. "You know, having lived here for so long, I know a lot about this place. Would you like me to guide you?" he asked, still staring at Twilight's flank. Twilight saw this, and bucked the old monk to the ground. Sniffing, and pointing her nose in the air, she said with no lack of venom, "I believe I can find my OWN way around, thank you very much." She walked down the stairs, nose in the air. "Well, that was certainly amusing." Tahl-va Shal remarked. "I wonder if-" Luna's ears were greeted with the sound of twilight falling down the stairs, thumping along with the occasional exclamation of pain and indignity. When the sound stopped, she heard a "I'm ok!" wafting up through the stairwell.

"You have quite the friend there. She not only has a high affinity for magic, but she's particularly adept at making us all smile. Tell me, is she your student?"

"No, she's my sister's. I'm giving her some lessons when she's not available, so I guess...in a way I am her teacher, although I haven't really thought of it that way."

"I remember training quite a few alicorns and unicorns in my day. I never had a personal pupil other than those from my own lineage, but they're family, so I don't believe they count." Luna snickered. "So, what would you like to know about me?" she said.

A huge crash reverberated throughout the halls, as Celestia was blown through several walls by the attack, her fur now scarred with burns. They were fighting Luvaeis together, but it was going badly. She wasn't able to take to the skies; although she was able to mend her wing with her magic, it still wasn't strong enough to use in the kind of aerial maneuvers she had been doing earlier. She picked herself up from the rubble, and noticed she had ended up in the kitchen of all places. The cooks were staring at their princess in muted horror, while one of the servants working there, helped Celestia to her feet. They were all about to burst forth with questions and concern, when she put a hoof up to silence them. She sniffed at the air.

"Keep cooking that soup, it smells delicious. I want to be able to have it for dinner after I'm done with this. Carry on." The cooks watched as the Princess of the Sun walked out of the gaping hole that now replaced a cabinet. As she walked out of the room, the head chef, an arrogant master cook from Prance, yelled loudly with a thick accent, "WEEL JOU HEARD HERR! GEET A MOVE ON! I haav no TIME to dally avec zees imcompitants! CHOP CHOP!" All the cooks began feverishly working on dinner, carrying on like nothing had happened.

Fen-ka Shal was flying. The dragon that Luvaeis had transformed into was surprisingly agile, and he had to fly very quickly to avoid the flames. He flipped himself around, mid-air, and pointed his horn at the black wyrm that was barreling towards him. "Eat this, you glutton." He fired a thin, bright burst of white light that screeched through the air, impacting heavily against the dragon's hide. It screeched its same unnatural cry of rage, and righted itself in its path. Fen-ka Shal wasn't there any more. The dragon screeched again, looking around in the sky and ground for its quarry. "Up here, you dreary thing." The black dragon looked to the direction of the voice, and stared straight into the bright sun. Peering at what was occluding it, its solitary eye widened and it flew to the right, just in time to avoid a massive beam of light that shot out from the red alicorn's horn, blasting into the earth forming a deep, smoking hole. He flew back down to the ground, where Celestia had emerged from the hole in her castle where she had been forcibly thrown by Luvaeis. Fen-ka Shal now burned a bright red glow, and his eyes shone forth with his magic welling up to be used. Celestia stood across from him, staring at him. I'm so glad he's feeling better. I definitely wouldn't have been able to take that...thing on by myself with him laid up The Princess of the Sun looked back to the huge dragon that was now barrelling towards them out of the sky.

"Let's do this."

Twilight was bored. All she could find in the houses were some broken pottery, a few more murals of the families that lived there. She got excited when she entered a library, and was giddy with excitement when she found all the books in it intact. She opened one up, and breathed in its smell. It wasn't aged a bit, and with a little tickling on her face as she brought it to her face, she felt it protected by very strong preservation wards. She'd wager that books like these could withstand a fire easily, although she had no desire to test such a horrible experiment. She opened it up, and was immediately disappointed. The letters in the book were all runes in some forgotten language, and she couldn't make hooves or tails of it. The letters descended vertically, and Twilight Sparkle doubted she could understand the language herself even if she tried. Remembering the little alicorn Luna had mentioned that accompanied Fen-ka Shal, she smiled and snapped up some of the books that looked big and interesting. She put them in her magic satchel that she had carried along with her filled with supplies; it had a virtually unlimited amount of space, and she had only to summon what she needed from it to be there. She could have fit spike and his basket comfortably in it, if she only know what was on the other side of the spell. After picking out what she guessed to be a set of encyclopedias, filled with lovely pictures, she moved on to the fiction section. A table covered with small books and magazines lay in the center of the library, and Twilight walked up to it, curious. She opened one of the books, and yelled loudly in surprise and dropped it. She sat on the floor and stared at it in revulsion.That perverted old monk...no wonder he acted like that around me. These books are filled with...all kinds of smut. Oh Celestia help me; i want to burn them all so badly, but I shouldn't...

Luna was sitting on the bed with the large colt, listening to him talk about old magic and eldritch creatures. "You see, windigos have always been around; they're a remnant of the era before this world became what it was. There are a few species of creatures left over from that era of pre-history, including the draconequi. Now, the draconequus-" Luna stopped him short. "You mean to tell me...that Discord, a draconequus my sister and I fought on multiple occasions, is older than this world as we know it?" Tahl-va Shal dropped his smile, suddenly serious.

"You've MET a draconequus? Here? In this present day?"

"Yes; he's a terrible foe we can only defeat with the elements of harmony; but we can only imprison him, we lack the power to truly banish or destroy him."

"His kind are supposed to be extinct. They were supposed to have all died out long, long ago. When we first founded our kingdom so long ago, we were at war with them. They hated how we had changed the world into something coherent and predictable, and we spent the longest time fighting them. They're incredibly difficult to kill, since their existence obeys no laws at all. The only one who was ever to effectively fight them was Velae; she was able to turn them to ash, killing them. They didn't like that. They tried bringing back their dead kin, but couldn't. I wouldn't let them."

"The fact that one of them is around means that there could be more..."

"They are hard to kill. With Velae gone, I don't think any of us would have the power to destroy them. What are these elements of harmony you mentioned earlier? Are they some kind of talismans?"

"Yes, in a way. They affix to a host who contains the necessary catalyzing agents in their souls, often exhibited as positive traits like loyalty, kindness, generosity, honesty, and joy. Or laughter, depending on who you ask."

"Interesting. And you say you can disable this Discord by using the elements?"

"Yes, they also work on alicorns, as well."

"What? Explain this to me."

"Well you see, a long time ago, almost exactly a thousand years, I had become...something else. Some terribly envious and wrathful part of myself had emerged from ponies loving my sister for her sun, and sleeping through the night of my moon. When Celestia used them, I was banished to the moon."

"YOU went to the MOON? Well, if you don't mind my saying, that's a...very obvious irony. In all my long years I have seen that big, beautiful orb hanging in the sky, giving wonderful light to my kingdom with the stars. What was it like there?"

"...cold, empty and barren. I drew a lot of art on there, though; I wrote...oh my goodness I wrote for almost a thousand years. I remember the entire surface being covered with my writing, and even though the surface had changed with my face in it, for people to remember, I didn't know that until I got out. It was so lonely up there; I'm glad I have my sister again."

"I think the part of yourself that you're referring to is a curse, I'm afraid. Every generation of alicorn that raises the moon and is subject to it."

"...What?"

"I'm saying it's a natural thing that happens through no fault of your own. Every generation of Moon and Sun Shepherds go to war against each other, or outright murder their sibling. It all started when we first delegated the operation of the larger things of this world to our children. Fen-ka Shal and Velae had two children, which were the first true alicorns to be born. They named them Adi and Riizus. They were both boys, and called me Uncle Fence for as long as I can remember..."

Luna stifled her laughter. "So, what happened?"

"Well, as they grew older, they were always trying to beat each other in some competition. Whether it was making the sky prettier, winning sport competitions, or hunting our enemies, they were always trying to prove who was better than the other."

"Sounds familiar..."

"Adi rose the sun every day. He actually ended up bigger than I was when he was fully grown, can you believe it? Anyway, he was...extremely intelligent. He invented all kinds of new and fancy mathematics with his father, and it was him that gave me an improved set of wings for my yearly celebration of earth magic. The old ones had to be replaced manually which was, literally and figuratively, a pain."

Luna winced as she imagined somepony pulling her wings off of her.

"Regardless; he designed the Tower of Dainieer, and and within several hundred years, he had built it along with a great number of the buildings in our city. He was a master architect like his father before him, and my goodness did they build."

"What about Riizus?"

"Riizus was a personal favorite of mine. He was incredibly gifted at spellcasting like his mother, but he had a peculiar creativity about him like his father, although not quite as open and loud as his brother's was." He snorted

"But he was an immensely powerful magic caster, and came up with almost all the spells you and your unicorns use today; he had his own personal school for teaching gifted unicorns, and had the most gorgeous sky you'd ever seen! I'll have to show you my memory of it sometime, it was truly amazing."

Luna nodded, wanting him to go on.

"Anyway, as the years wore on, we noticed, my brother and I, that two schools of thought had formed, and two very influential cults, let by his sons. The Cult of the Moon followed Riizus, and extolled his art and magic; performing great feats during the festivals, and making priceless works of art and powerful magic amongst the unicorns who joined them, mostly for the magic that they offered to teach.

"The Cult of the Sun was an entirely different story. They were made up of pegusi, as well as unicorns. They focused almost entirely on the sciences, and formed a high-talent worker caste for much of our population."

"What about Earth Ponies?"

"Earth ponies have always done all the the physical labor for us; they are servants to unicorn families, and they grow very close. Unicorns provide the finances for their living, as well as food and shelter. In turn, Earth ponies help keep up the unicorn families' estates and affairs, and are all personally bonded to each other. Earth pony children grow up with unicorn children of their master's families, and they all stay together for life.

"But back to the cult of the Sun and Moon. For a long time, they worked together in harmony and general peace, and we had a very, very long golden age where very little changed other than new technologies and new magic. Adi and Riizus each had thousands of children, mostly unicorns, but a few of them new alicorns. Almost all of their children grew up in each of the cults, and gradually, their animosity towards their rival cults grew, reflecting in no small part the fierce competitiveness of the two brothers.

"One fateful day, however, something happened that would change our society for aeons to come. Two of their children, both alicorns mind you, murdered each other, in cold blood."

"What? Why, what did they do? What happened?"

"Apparently, the wife and longtime mate of one of them, the lunar mare I believe, had been caught with the other alicorn. Their affair had been going on for...decades, if not centuries, and it was only when he wandered into the palace, where a Cult of the Moon meeting was taking place.

"For some reason, he had wanted to see me about something, and was shocked to see his wife, who had supposedly been out on a business errand, lounging about in the loving embrace of another stallion. This, as you can well imagine, made him absolutely livid, and he burst into the halls that the meeting was being held, screaming at the other alicorn who, regrettably, was never told in all the time he'd been with her that she was married to this guy. Now, as you can well imagine, there was a horrible fight that nearly tore down the entire palace, and Adi and Riizus came to investigate the commotion. At the exact moment they arrived, they were greeted with the most terrible sight imagineable. Savvh, the mare who had taken on two stallions as mates, watched in horror from a corner as the two people she loved most in the world impaled each other with their horns through the neck and head. There was blood everywhere as you might expect from neck and head wounds, and with horror that only a few of us who've lost loved ones can fathom, the two brothers watched as their children killed each other, and fell to the ground, both bleeding to death, and the one that got gored in the noggin already out.

"Now, you'd think this would bring them together. You think they'd come to me, I'd revive them both, we'd sit down and have a long talk, but noooooo...they had to go and argue. Everyone started pointing hooves at each other; cultists of the Sun had come into the meeting to see what the commotion was about, and a fight broke out. We don't know who started it, but very soon more ponies were killing each other, and Savvh; the most beautiful mortal alicorn I had ever laid my eyes on, impaled herself on a pike in front of our castle out of grief. Adi and Riizus had never seen anything like this. And in an instant, their long-standing hatred and bitterness towards each other boiled over, rather than simmered down, and they began attacking each other.

"Velae, my brother and I were preoccupied with our meditation, so we didn't sense what was going on at first. Velae was the first to sense that something was amiss, and we all headed back down to the palace. We...were not prepared for what we were about to see.

"There was...so much blood, everywhere; on the windows, all over the floor, and splattered on the walls. We looked on in horror as my nephews, and their children, threw all of their formidable powers at each other. They had both become twisted, evil versions of their former selves, and attacked each other with a fury that I have never seen to this day. Velae called out in anguish to her children, and moved between them. They...they both hurt her trying to get to each other, and in that moment, we saw Velae as we never wished to see her.

"Her power is that over death, as mine is over life, and time as my brother's is over timelessness. A blackness enveloped the three of them, and we felt very fabric of space and time shift around us. A tear appeared above the three of them, who were all now fighting to kill each other, and from that tear came a stone. It looked like a ruby to my eyes, but it was...dark. Velae and Riizus killed Adi in their blind wrath, and then Riizus lashed out at Velae with the entirety of his magic and power, which was terrifying to behold. But Velae...stole the power from Adi's body, and turned the magic back on her son. It hit him full on, and he cried out as every bone in his body was broken, and he fell to the earth with a resounding finality that only a losing battle against the Queen of Death can bring.

"Then, looking up, I saw the gem flare up with a red light that I swear made my blood run cold. As my brother ran to his dying sons in the agony of his grief, and Velae collapsed from exhaustion, I saw it descend upon the still-breathing body of Riizus. It...grew into him. His body twitched violently, throwing his father off of him, and...a coldness descended upon us all. The air itself froze solid, and we gasped for breath as it fell around us. What was Riizus was something...else. It grinned wickedly at us, my brother and I, and held his son's body together like a puppet. It laughed a terrible sound that I will never forget...and disappeared into the crack in space that it came from."

Luna sat quaking on the bedsheets, and uttered only a single word.

"Luvaeis."

Tahl-va Shal looked back at Luna with surprise.

"You KNOW it?" he exclaimed with incredulity.

"I saw it...in a book. It frightened me more than anything I can remember..." Luna curled up into a scared little blue ball, and Tahl-va Shal embraced her.

"Well, I've got everything I need, and I oh-" Twilight Sparkle stopped in her tracks as she saw her princess and her new...friend...in a very personal moment. Luna immediately broke the embrace, and hopped off the bed.

"You have everything you need, Twilight?" Luna asked, shyly with her face turned away from the purple unicorn.

"Yes, I do. As nice as it is to meet you, sir, I think I've overstayed my welcome. Luna, would you mind teleporting me back?" "But Twilight I-" "PLEASE would you mind teleporting me back?" Luna sighed, and looked to the lecherous monk that was staring up Twilight's flank from the stairwell. "All right, but we'll be back. Soon. Be sure to tell me sister who this is, where we found hi-" "Yes I know Princess. Now teleport me back to Celestia." Luna blushed an even deeper shade of crimson, and with a glow of her horn, the purple unicorn flashed out of existence.

"Will she be back?" Tahl-va Shal asked Luna.

"I don't know. Are you coming back with us?"

The giant stallion furrowed his brow in thought.

"I'm not sure if my brother would like me there, but...it beats staying around here with Adhos." Luna watched as the old monk made his way out of the temple from the tower, and went into what appeared to be a library.

Celestia was exhausted. She had broken another wing, and was covered with gashes from Luvaeis attacking her. Fen-ka Shal still stood like he did the moment he came out to fight, but was panting heavily. Luvaeis was now in the form of a grotesque, bloated spider, with only a single, blazing red eye. It had fired barrage after barrage of flechettes at her and her companion, and they had responded with powerful beams of light and Celestia belching a massive plume of fire(an attack she vowed she'd never do for its complete lack of class, but fighting for her life like she was, who cares), engulfing the blackness as it shrieked to escape, morphing to a smaller, faster wolf. It changed again into a scorpion, and snapped at Celestia, almost slicing her in half. Its shaped blurred briefly, and it turned into a mantis. Fen-ka Shal jumped into the fray, and in a blur of motion too fast for Celestia's eyes to follow, they danced in and out of each other in a whirlwind of destruction. They disengaged, and Celestia watched in fear as she saw Fen-ka Shal bleeding heavily from multiple wounds, his blood pooling on the ground. Then, to her horror, she heard the snapping of a teleportation spell, which could only mean...

"PRINCESS! WHAT'S HAPPENING? YOU'RE HURT!!!!"

Twilight was fixated entirely on her beloved mentor, oblivious to the danger around her.

"TWILIGHT IT'S NOT SAFE!!! RU-"

Her warning was cut short. A black bolt of obsidian had lanced in from her left, and with utter disbelief at what she was seeing, she saw Twilight Sparkle stop, look down at her side. The projectile had flown clean through the little pony, and with a gasp, she saw blood start to flow out of the wound. She looked to Celestia, helpless.

Time seemed to slow down for Celestia. She didn't hear anything, and only saw Twilight looking at her, afraid and pleading for help. Her maternal instincts welled up inside her, and was about to teleport to her, and pull her out, when a second projectile hit the unicorn straight through the head. Twilight Sparkle's eyes rolled back, and she fell to the ground with a sickening thud.

Fen-ka Shal looked on in horror. Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's personal student she had spoken to him as nothing less as her own adopted daughter, lay dead in front of Celestia. The white alicorn was staring at her body, and calmly walked over to it. She nudged it with her hoof.

"Twilight, it's time to wake up now. You can't fool your Teacher, sleepyhead. C'mon, get up." Twilight didn't respond.

"Twilight, please, you're scaring me, get up. get up. get up. GET UP DAMN YOU GET UP!!!!" She was shaking violently, and began to cry hot tears, which evaporated before they hit the ground. Celestia covered Twilight, her whole body shaking violently with sobs.

A slow, rising laugh was heard. It dripped with sadism only the most disturbed of ponies and creatures could ever understand, and cackled with evil that nothing short of the Void itself could hope to match in its cruelty.

Suddenly, it stopped. The ground was shaking, and the sun had begun to turn red.

I'm so cold, help me mother

I can't, I'm dead

I'm so alone, everyone is gone. Help me sister

I can't, you banished me, and I hate you

Why does everyone have to go away?

Where is my shining sun to guide me?

I'm gone, you stupid filly. You chased me away.

Whywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhywhy

WHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHY

I'm still here.

Who are you?

Don't you know me? I'm you

You don't sound like me

Your sister thought the same thing, but that doesn't really matter now, does it?

...no it doesn't. nothing matters

what are you going to do about it?

....BURN IT ALL

ALL of it? Everything?

YES. EVERYTHING BURNS

YOU

Fen-ka Shal took a step back. Luvaeis looked on, malevolent as ever.

YOU MURDERED MY BABY

The dark abomination grinned a wicked smile as it saw Celestia getting up, her hair covering her face, and her voice resounding loudly in their heads.

YOU MURDERED A CHILD I LOVED, A FILLY I RAISED LIKE MY OWN.

The blackness swirled around itself, in predatory anticipation.

YOU MURDERED MY BABY. YOU KILLED THE ONLY THING IN THE WORLD I TRULY, UNCONDITIONALLY LOVED

The blackness was spreading down into the earth, killing the grass and anything that lived underneath it, spreading like ink spilt on the ground

YOU MURDERED HER, AND I WILL BURN YOU ALIVE. I WILL MAKE YOU FEEL PAIN, I WILL MAKE YOU HURT. I WILL KILL YOU, AND IF YOU WON'T DIE, I WILL SEND YOU TO THE SUN TO BURN FOR ALL ETERNITY

Celestia's mane caught fire, and blazed with the fury of the now blood-red sun.

She raised her face up. Her eyes were crying blood, and they were violet slits, reptilian looking. Her coat was on fire now, and distorted the air around it with an intense heat that singed Fen-ka Shal's hair, and caused him to take another step back. The creature before him was no longer Celestia. It had become taller, and blazed like an inferno with incalculable, berserk rage.

The last thing he saw was fire, then blackness.

Chapter 6: Fire and Shadow

Luna felt a sharp, burning pain in her chest. She gasped and collapsed on the floor of the tower, earning a concerned look from Tahl-va Shal, who walked up to her. "What's wrong? Heartburn? I've got something for that around here, lemme check-"

"NO!" Luna exclaimed loudly. "Something is HORRIBLY wrong back at home; my sister is in danger!" She struggled to stand up, and fell over onto the huge alicorn, who held her up with the green glow of his magic. "I...I need to go. I'd like you to come with me, since I've never felt anything this...bad before. I don't know what I'll be getting myself into." The green-haired alicorn nodded, looking amused. "I'll come along, but first there's a few things I need to pack." He turned around, and began filling a satchel with...odd trinkets. "What are those, if you don't mind my asking?" Luna asked quizzically, peering around him to see what he was putting inside his bag.

"They're talismans, like your Harmonious Elements things, only a fair bit older. This place is an old retreat of mine, and the temple in particular is why I ended up here." He continued stuffing odds and ends into the seemingly bottomless bag, Luna's eye catching a necklace covered with glowing sapphires before it went into the satchel. "I don't remember what a lot of these things do, which is why I'm taking all of them. The temple here is very, very old, and Adhos is as old as everything else here. He's grown old, sure, but he won't die of old age. Pity he was the only one who volunteered to watch this place; everypony else was too smart for the job, despite the promise of immortality..." Luna's eyes widened again as she saw what looked like a pendant with a crescent moon, glowing with the light of the moon. "Um...that last thing you're holding..." Tahl-va Shal stopped, and held up the pendant in front of her. "What, this old thing? It's Velae's; she gave it to Riizus when he was old enough to move the moon. I'm not quite sure how it works, but at the very least, it should help you do your job of rolling that big orb across the sky better." Luna smiled at the jovial attitude of her new friend, as he draped the pendent around her neck. Immediately, she felt something...familiar stir inside her. She was about to take it off, when she realized what she was feeling. It WAS all the...inordinate amount of power she felt when she was Nightmare Moon, but...none of the hatred, none of the envy. She smiled as she felt herself grow a little taller, and her coat and mane darken; the mane in particular turning into the black of the night, rather than the blue hair she had grown accustomed to.

"Oh goodness; you've had a growth spurt! And look at that lovely mane; it suits you a lot better. What do you think?" Luna blinked and looked down at her body. She was Celestia's height and build now, and appeared a bit more like her big sister; her wings were a fair bit larger, and her tail flowed as a slowly waving, black length of night sky filled with stars. "I'm not sure..." She wobbled slightly on her new feet, getting used to her new height. "I feel a good bit more confident, and I have a lot more magic at my disposal. I like it. But we really should get going. Are you all packed?" Tahl-va Shal slung the satchel over his massive back, and winced as a few items in the bag loudly clinked together. "Seems like it. I think I remember the new Palace you two built after your mother passed away. Mind if I take us there?" Luna gave him an odd look. "I don't see why not. How-" a green flame abruptly flared up beneath them both, and the last thing she saw before being sucked into it was the large alicorn stallion's wild grin at her surprise.

Something was seriously wrong with the sky. Fluttershy poked her head out the window, looking at the red sun. Many of the animals around her cottage had fled back into the forest in a sudden panic, and as much as she wanted to go out and help them, she was afraid to go outside. Liira, who had requested to stay with yellow pegasus, stopped chomping down on the apple she was eating, walked up to the window, peering out at the sky. "I don't believe I've seen this before. Interesting." The little red alicorn levitated the apple in front of her, taking another bite out of it before swallowing. "I guess this means something's wrong with your sun princess. I wonder if we should go check it out, or stay here." Fluttershy looked nervously at the looming red sun, and shrunk back down. "It's probably very dangerous. I doubt that there's anything we can do to help..." Liira shrugged, and went back to the bedroom for a nap. Whatever happens will happen she thought to herself contentedly. She uttered a soft squeak of surprise as she felt Fluttershy nuzzle up next to her in bed, holding her tightly. She really gets this scared all the time? I guess it makes sense that she's want her own cottage out here. Wow, is she soft... The little red alicorn snuggled up against her friend, and promptly fell asleep.

Applejack was looking at the sky in disbelief. It was all a bright, foreboding blood-red color, and the sun was casting its ominous glow across her orchard. Big Mac, looking as red as ever, walked up next to his sister, staring at the sky. "Don't think that Sun up yonder is right, ain't it?" Applejack frowned. "Ah never in all mah days ever seen anything 'tall like it. It worries me some, but this here farm ain't in any immediate danger, it seems. You feelin' anythin' unsorts?" Big Mac opened his mouth to respond, and closed it. Applejack waited for his response for several moments. "...Nnnnope." Applejack shrugged, and went back to work with her brother.

Rarity looked up. Something felt...off. She felt a slight unease, and hearing a crash downstairs from Sweetie Belle looking around for a dress to wear in the storage basement. She winced, and continued sewing; meticulously focused on the task at hand. She did not notice that the sun was red, or that it had begun to rain chocolate milk from cotton candy clouds, which now filled the sky over Ponyville. It would look ominous to any outsider, if not for being utterly rediculous.

Rainbow Dash yawned, and turned over in her cloud bed. She lazily opened an eye to the bright world around her, and realizing...the blue was gone. She jumped out of bed, staring at the red sky. "What they hay..." She remarked with utter disbelief at the change her sky had taken on. She felt drip on her mane. It came down onto her face, where she tasted it. Chocolate milk? That means...oh no. She felt a tap on her shoulder, and turned around to see the haphazard face of Discord staring back at her, his face stretched out into an outrageously huge grin, and one of his eyes popping out at her. "Wha-wha-WHAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUGGGHHH!!!!!" Rainbow Dash screamed in surprise, and fell out of the cloud she was resting upon. Discord laughed heartily, and with a smirk, snapped his fingers. Rainbow dash watched in horror as her wings disappeared suddenly, and as her mind gave in to sheer, complete panic, she saw the odd chimera wave at her on her way down with his lion's paw.

Pinkie Pie was confused. Normally, the sky didn't change random colors, and clouds didn't pour...CHOCOLATE RAIN???? She bounced happily up and down, drinking up the chocolate rain, and a gigantic goose flew down low over Sugar Cube corner, rattling the windows. Discord was back! She didn't know if this was a good or a bad thing, since she liked what he did with the free drinks and candy, but not so much with her friends. She paused to consider the complexities of the situation. A gigantic geyser of punch erupted near her, and after drinking her fill, and swimming in it for a few minutes, she decided that she didn't care what happened as long as the punch and chocolate milk kept flowing. She was in heaven...

Spike yawned. His "date" with Rarity was nice yesterday, but she had left early to get back to work. The dinner was nice, and he was so excited that he had actually experienced going out to dinner with her, that he didn't care that she left early, especially after giving him a quick peck on the cheek. He looked up out of Twilight's bed. He walked absentmindedly to the foot of the bed, and blinked at the red light that was streaming through the window, and the red sun glaring down through the leaves. He looked down and saw ducks with cleats chasing hapless ponies around the street, and yawned again. He was obviously dreaming, and the best thing he could do right now was to pretend he was going back to sleep. He cuddled up in Twilight's bed, wondering when she'd get back.

A light flared brightly in the distance. Celestia couldn’t make out its source, but she had no interest in it, or anything right now. She was in her dark place, sobbing at the loss of the little mare she had raised from fillyhood, and couldn’t think about anything other than the…emptiness inside. It was…worse than when Luna had turned on her, and had been sealed away for so long. She knew her sister would come back, one way or another but this…this sudden, traumatic killing. She had always had the mares and stallions she had grown close to over the years fade away peacefully with age. Never in her long years had she felt like an adoptive mother to any of her students. Never even with Cadance had she felt such a connection. There was something so…fundamental missing now, like when her mother had died when her and Luna were so young. But despite the vast ocean of despair that had engulfed her, there was still a light far, far away. And…rage. It felt distorted, disconnected from who she was, a vile thing apart. She could only mourn in the ocean of tears she found herself lost in, and slowly sank deeper into the waters that had immersed her. I’m so sorry, Twilight. I’m so sorry, so sorry,sosorrysosorryohnowhathaveIdone…Celestia closed her eyes again, her tears mixing with the water around her. The light faded slowly, as she felt the weight of her feelings crushing her into the depths. An endless void lay beneath her, and from that void came a most unnatural red light, shining with pleasure as it watched the white alicorn slowly sink into the depths towards it.

The Royal Palace was on fire. Everything was on fire, as Fen-ka Shal blinked, and looked around. He was covered in painful burns, but he was able to stand. His blood loss had stopped when the fire had cauterized his wounds. The once green gardens near the castle were little more than scorched earth now, and the glorious maze that had been maintained by generations of servents of the sun and moon had been reduced to little more than charcoal and a few bits of red-hot stone. His personal shield hadn’t failed him, and as feeble as it was against direct magical attacks, it was particularly useful against malevolent forces that wielded the elements against him. He remembered Celestia, and looked back beyond the mountains. A massive firestorm was raging beyond the peaks, and his eyes widened as he saw the flames lick up past the peaks into the clouds. Pegusi were fleeing for their lives, and he could…taste the rage and insanity that lay in that inferno. He got up, and winced in pain as all his injuries caught up to him. I think I’ll rest here for a bit… he promptly slipped back into unconsciousness.

Back behind the mountains, a miniature sun had surrounded what was once Celestia. A burning mare who was the personification of wrath had gathered most of the power of the sun within her, and blazed like the star she had shepherded across the sky for so long. The red sun was not colder, but lacked the magic that it had been filled with for so long, and was little more than a fusion reaction sputtering along. A hurricane of fire swept every bit of air, rock, and anything once living towards her, and with a cry of fury more harrowing than anything any mortal mind could conceive of, a massive gout of flame rushed towards the blackness that opposed it, and swept it clean.

A small figure could be seen being thrown forcibly from the blast, a black thing of no discernable shape that could find no foothold to stop its careening into the mountains behind it. A loud crash signaled its almost simultaneous entrance and exit through a large peak, the force of the impact leveling the mountain into little more than rubble. As it flew at supersonic speeds, cutting a swath of destruction through the mountain range, it at last reached the deserts that lay beyond the Canterlot mountain ranges, and plowed headlong into the vast dunes. A smoking ruin surrounded by pale green glass emerged, and shook the ash and molten glass encasing it off. It was in the shape of a one-eyed wolf, and growled as it saw the sky filling with plumes of fire coming down towards it.

Luna and Tahl-va Shal blinked into existence near the castle after appearing in a flare of bright green flame, and for a brief moment, Luna thought she had been teleported to the sun. A choking fire engulfed them, and with a snort of his nostrils, her large stallion companion blew away the fire surrounding them. “What…what happened here? Did Tia-“ Luna’s attention was immediately diverted to two bodies on the ground. One, which was remarkably unscathed by the fire around them, was…purple. “…Oh no. Oh no oh nononononono…” Luna tentatively walked up to Twilight Sparkle, who was lying on the ground at an unnatural angle. She choked when she saw her gaping head wound, and her blank eyes, staring into nothing. The princess of the night suddenly felt very small. She had sent Twilight to her death; whether she knew it at the time was pointless, she was dead. Luna began sobbing quietly, when she felt a cool breeze wash over her, and a very large hoof placed on her shoulder. “Don’t cry, little Luna. There is always a path to be forged ahead, and those who fall along the side are never lost.” He knelt down beside Celestia’s protégé, and closed his eyes. A gentle green light enveloped the unicorn.

A vast chasm stood before the Sun Princess. It was a void torn into the very fabric of reality, torn by the vile abomination that now stood at the other side. It had become a horrid monstrosity of a thousand waving tentacles and a thousand gnashing mouths, hungry for the rage, the fire that now made up everything that she was. It dwarfed her and the landscape around her in every respect, and it was growing by the second, being fed by the void between them and the dark magic of her wrath. Nothing mattered any more other than her fire. She smiled, and lit the sands ablaze; stars began to fall out of the sky into the pit of the Void, making a night sky where there should be none.

Discord was laughing. The blue Pegasus he had frightened so badly was careening towards the ground, her wings turned ducks that were attached to her, and biting at her mane as she screamed in sheer terror. He snapped his fingers the moment before she hit the ground, and bounced up back in to the sky. As tempted as he was to bounce on the terra-not-so-firma, he had a lovely time awaiting him harassing the other Element Bearers. He smiled and remembered the pink one who had such a fondness for his work. Ohhhh there was SO much chaos to be had…

Twilight Sparkle blinked. She was on a road that was lit by green lamps, twisting through…nothing. She peered out into the gloom, and saw some flashes of an implacable storm. There were definitely some…things out there, but they were too far off to see. She looked again at the path she was on. It was very, very old cobblestone, and the path itself seemed to stretch off before here in any number of directions, branching off into the ether with little regard to physics, or any known form of magic. “What is this place?” She asked aloud. She couldn’t remember how she got here. She looked back, seeing a very ornate shut door, made of ebony, with an amethyst doorknob and jewels studded on it. She blinked again. She tried opening the door, but it was locked. Sighing in frustration, she decided the only way to go was forward, and had taken a few steps before she realized something was…off. She looked down on her side, and saw a gaping wound on either side of her stomach. “GAH!!!” she exclaimed loudly. Why didn’t it hurt, what-

With a creeping sense of horror, she realized that while she was holding her head in astonishment, she also felt something…else. On the sides of her head, in front of her ears there was…a hole. She rifled through her carrying sack for a mirror, and she saw what could only be utterly impossible. She could see-oh dear Celestia-clean through her head. What is this? What happened? Am I- oh no. Am I dead? THINK Twilight, what happened before you got here? She closed her eyes, and remembered…Celestia. She was giving her the most terrified look she had ever seen on her mentor, and she was battered and hurt badly like she had been fighting. She remembered…getting hit? But that was only on the side and…oh no. I guess I really am dead. The purple unicorn thought to herself with no suppressing of gloom. Oh well. There looks like there’s plenty here to explore…

Twilight had been walking for a very long time. Time had no real meaning here, it seemed. Whenever she had come across a fork in the road, she always flipped a bit, and chosen a side before it landed, determining which side she should take. She came up to another fork in the road, where she was confronted with…Tahl-va Shal. He had a large bag slung over his back, and was looking at her with that amused expression he always had. “Well, fancy meeting you here.” Twilight stuttered, looking for words that wouldn’t come. “Oh don’t worry, I’m not dead like your lonesomeness here. It took awhile to find you, though. Did you know that Velae and I built this road?” Twilight looked around. The path was much clearer now, and she could see just how many different routes it took, and how many wild directions it veered off into. “She built most of it with her magic, but I designed the routes, if you can believe that. What do you think?” Twilight gave the larger stallion a souring glare. “I think you need to include a map. This place is ridiculous.” Tahl-va Shal let out a deep, hoarse laugh. “Well, what would be the fun in that? Besides, you shouldn’t talk to you guide in such a tone. You know I’m here to bring you back, right?” Twilight looked at him in confusion. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m kind of dead right now, and I have a big, nasty hole going clear through my head.” He smiled. “Well, of course you do. That tends to happen when you get shot in the head. Why do you think it should matter with bringing you back?” Twilight blinked. She imagined herself confronting her friends with her terrible wounds, with them running away at the sight of her. Spike would be screaming about zombie ponies, Celestia wouldn’t talk to her again, she-“Oh no; is Celestia ok? What happened?” He lost his smile.

“She saw you go down, right as she was going to get you out of there, I’m guessing. She’s not herself, and on a bit of a rampage, to say the least. I pity whatever it is that took you down, because it’s bearing the full brunt of her wrath.” Twilight blinked. She’d never seen her mentor truly angry before, and she couldn’t even imagine what Celestia would be like. She shuddered at the thought. “Well, I sure hope you know where we’re going, because I’m not exactly the best pony to ask for directions without a map, hehehe…”

Luna was staring. Twilight’s wounds had already healed, but she hadn’t woken up yet. She knew nothing about necromancy, and whatever magic he was using was certainly no healing spell. It was almost as if Tahl-va Shal was…turning back time around Twilight, the wounds closing up almost instantaneously. Although it wasn’t visible, she could feel an enormous amount of magical energy being drawn up around him through his hooves from the earth, and felt it being poured into a…locater spell. Odd. Luna looked at the other figure on the ground, and felt her heart stop. Fen-ka Shal was laying on the ground, obviously collapsed. She started breathing again when she noticed that he wasn’t dead, only passed out. As she walked closer to him, she could see he was still smoking from burns that covered his entire body, and were obviously very painful. She focused on a healing spell she remembered, and felt a huge fountain of magic well up inside her. She watched as his skin began to heal back to its normal state, and fill in with dark red fur. She blinked again as she realized just how little magic it took her to complete the spell.

Fen-ka Shal blinked. He wasn’t quite sure what he was seeing. What could only be Velae stood in front of him, looking down at him with an expression of concerned. “What-” started to say, but was cut off as he saw who was behind her. His brother was focused on Twilight Sparkle, and was using his resurrection spell to bring her back to the living world. “Are you feeling any better?” He recognized that voice. It was Luna, not Velae who stood above him, and he looked her in the eye as he got up. “Yes, thank you. As glad as I am to see you…I’m more than a little surprised to see my brother. For all intents and purposes, I thought him dead. What happened?” Luna looked back, blushing more than a little bit. “It’s a bit of a long story…”

Celestia blinked. The light above her had grown. It was something wholly tangible now, and it felt familiar and inviting somehow. What is that she thought to herself. She flapped her wings, and realized that she was submerged. Panicking about being underwater, she realized she didn’t have to breathe, and her mind began to wake to where she was. Is this in my mind? What’s that light? Celestia looked up at the light, which seemed just above the surface, although she was far down in the water. She looked below her, and shuddered as she felt the endless depths that she had begun to mindlessly sink into in her grief. She closed her eyes, remembering Twilight. I’m certainly not going to help avenge her here, I must compose myself and come back. Celestia’s eyes snapped wide open as something powerful grabbed ahold of her leg. She looked down, and saw a tentacle of shadow wrapped around her left back leg, and numerous others reaching up out of the depths. She screamed in the water, and tried desperately to ascend to the surface, but to no avail. Her heart stopped as a red light flared from the depths, and she heard a dark voice whisper softly in her head, violating her consciousness.

Your soul is become mine

Your mind

Engulfed with thy own flame

Your grief maketh you insane

Child of the Light

Try as you might

You cannot win

Against my sin

Submit thy last shard

Thy hidden card

The last of you that remains

Submit thy grace

To my eternal embrace

And mourn no more

From thy broken core

Celestia felt every part of her body go numb with a coldness she had never felt in her long life. I’m dying she thought with a sudden certainty. He’s come to claim me and-

NO!!!

Celestia’s mind rocked at the massive voice that came from the light far above. It sounded like-

NO I WILL NEVER GIVE YOU WANT YOU WANT, YOU VILE, DISGUSTING ABOMINATION!!!

She was now fixated on the voice from the light above, whose fury was burning the waters of her grief away.

YOU KILLED HER!!! YOU KILLED MY LITTLE TWILIGHT, AND I WILL MAKE YOU BURN!!!!

The water around her was bubbling, and with a blast of fire from above, her prison was broken. She opened her eyes, and saw herself engulfed in flame, all her magic unleashed. She felt for the first time in what felt like a lifetime true, unadulterated wrath, and was consumed with rage at the vile blackness before her. She literally burned with the fury she felt, and saw the chasm before her. It was filled with stars.

Twilight blinked. Immediately, she sat up with a piercing scream, and felt her leg snap under a violent muscle spasm, and felt her vision blur as she felt herself choking from her throat constricting on itself. She felt a massive wave of coldness throughout her body, and she was twitching violently. “WOAH easy there! I don’t want to get you bring you back a second time; by the STARS girl you have some magic in you!” Her horn was blazing with a violet flame, and she remembered where she was. Gradually, she felt warmth come into her body, and gasped for air when she could breathe again. She was still shivering violently, but it was more from the cold than anything else. She saw what was probably, in her fuzzy vision, Luna looking over her with concern. She looked to her left and right and saw the two alicorn brothers staring down at her. Tahl-va Shal was laughing, and she felt his magic still flowing into her, warming her from the inside.

“Bringing somepony back to life is especially difficult if they died traumatically, and especially if they’re a magic user. When all that magic leaves the body suddenly, a lot of internal tissue is damaged, and begins to decay rapidly. You see, unicorns need magic to live; the moment it leaves them, their cells shut down immediately, as the chemical processes inherent in-” Luna shushed him loudly, and Twilight blinked again as she saw her princess looked less…blue. She looked older somehow, and had a black mane full of stars. “How are you feeling, Twilight?” Twilight gurgled something that was supposed to be a witty response, and convulsed violently in a fit of coughing.

“Well, she’s certainly alive, that’s for sure.” Twilight heard the fuzzy red and white pony-shaped blob next to her say. “Brother, you powers of observation never cease to astound me. How did you come to the wild conclusion that she, after spending about an hour or so on my resurrection ritual, that she was actually alive again? How anyone could possibly be so smart I don’t even-” he was interrupted by Luna rolling on the ground laughing loudly, and saw Fen-ka Shal turn his head away in embarrassed frustration. “…To think I’d forgotten about your rapier wit. I must be getting old…”

Celestia saw Luvaeis as a blackness that covered the entirety of the horizon. From the blackness came every form of gnashing maw, grasping limb, and waving tentacle. A sickeningly foul chorus of ten thousand mouths screamed in pure bloodlust and hunger, and she felt her anger deepen as it stretched itself up into the sky, blotting out her sun. The shadow had curbed her flames, and she felt it was leaching magic from her. She smiled. You should never have moved between the sun and I. I wish Twilight was here to see this...**

Celestia closed her eyes, and gathered her magic into herself, no longer spilling out into a voracious flame. The black mass drew closer, and stopped. Celestia was glowing a soft golden light, which its shadow could not reach or influence. The sky darkened yet again, and he saw behind him the sun was changing. It was now blazing a furious magenta, tongues of flame licking out at the surrounding space. He looked back in alarm at Celestia, who was now blazing as bright as the sun behind him. She opened her eyes, and stared straight through him, towards the sun. Wind was now blowing furiously towards her in a maelstrom, and he saw the green light of magic being brought out of the surrounding environment, and crackling around her. Too late, the infinite blackness realized what was happening, and in an instant, a vast pyre of green and golden flame burst forth from the ground surrounding Celestia. It poured into the white alicorn into her legs, and she opened her mouth. From it came a hurricane of magic; a beam of pure white light surrounded by every color imaginable crackling around it as a fierce, violent lightning, forking out into the ground, and closing the chasm that he had opened up with his power. The beam ripped right through him, and the impact of the massive amount of magic that Celestia was putting out shattered the bones of the skeleton that the red gem had imbedded itself in. The blackness cried out in agony for the first time in its existence, and the ferocity of its cry shattered the fragile sandstone bluffs surrounding them into rubble. The light connected with the sun, which blazed anew with a white light, and brought the sky back to a familiar blue. The vast blackness that had engulfed much of the visible horizon in front of Celestia was gone, and a small black speck was hurtling towards the ground, a small red light gleaming from it. Celestia shut her mouth, and collapsed with exhaustion. The moment the darkness hit the ground, a massive shockwave spread out, blasting sand outward in a sphere. Red light exploded out from what was now only a skull, and leapt into the sky. A scream of utter outrage and malevolence made Celestia’s blood run cold. She’d hurt him, but he was angry now.

Luna felt the ground shake. She stared back towards the mountains, and watched in horror as she saw a pyre of red light reach up into the sky, bathing her and her companions with its sinister crimson glow. “…That can’t be good.” She heard Tahl-va Shal say behind her. She heard Twilight go through another coughing fit. In the mountains, she felt magic so malicious, so completely murderous and insane, that she sat down in shock and fear. It was a palpable thing that she could taste in the air, and she felt her fur stand on end as the massive plume of magic tingle through her body as something electric. It…whatever it was…was seriously, unimaginably ANGRY.

Intermission in Pink

Discord was laughing. He had never, in his long years, felt so good about himself at that particular moment. Above him in the sky, a flock of giant muffins with wings were chasing a confused mailmare with a lazy eye around, and beneath him a drunk magenta pony was rolling on the ground, screaming from the pain of alcohol poisoning that she seemingly could not die from. Across the way, a colt with an hourglass on his flank was being tormented by a mare who had stolen his voice; he was repeating what she said without any control, and a look of sheer terror on his face.

Discord swooped down out of the clouds, paying notice to a flock of ducks that were trampling a small orange pegasus filly with their cleats, closing his eyes and letting in the sweet sound of screams of pain and terror wash over him. He really had been to soft on them last time; the little ponies deserved nothing less than the eternity of torment he had given them before the royal sisters turned him into a statue, and he was a fool if he could think he could earn their-ohhhohohoho what's THIS? he said to himself.

Pinkie Pie, one of those insufferable element-bearers that had sealed him away, was doing laps in a lake of chocolate milk that had formed near her candy shop. She seemed to be completely oblivious to the suffering of the ponies around her, which in itself was surprising, but far more so considering the idiotic company she kept. Curious, he moved into closer to take a look. One of the Cakes, the couple that owned the shop that the pink element holder lived in, was barely staying afloat in the lake, and from her obvious thrashing about, she couldn't swim. Her husband, a lanky colt with what had to be his little spawns clustered around his legs, looked on in horror as she thrashed about wildly in the lake. He was shouting at her, and trying to remove his feet from the thick, sticky taffy that held his hooves fast.

He gawked openly, and his eyes widened visibly as he realized the happy element-bearer could actually hear and probably see what was going on, but was completely ignoring the distress of her pseudo-adoptive family members. He swooped down to investigate as the pink pony was shooting chocolate milk out of her mouth in a fountain.

"Ohoho WOW! This is certainly a surprise, Ms. Pie. Don't you see the Cakes over there?" The familiar voice of Discord wafted over into Pinkie's blissful state, as she was swimming around without a care in the world. "Yep!" she answered, full of the usual joy that characterized that particular response. "Don't you feel like helping them? I don't think Mrs. Cake can tread milk for much longer." Pinkie turned off to the side, seeing Mrs. Cake barely staying afloat now, screaming at her husband in terror. "Nope!" Discord visibly gaped at her, with an expression of genuine confusion and amazement on his face. "Well, why on earth not? Don't you care about them?" Pinkie appeared to ponder this, floating on her back with her legs crossed. She snorted and burst out laughing, only intensifying the mystified expression on the draconiquus' face. "It doesn't matter anymore, silly! You should know that better out of everyone!" As she stared up at him with her bright, sapphire blue eyes, Discord felt something inside him well up he hadn't felt in a long time: warm familiarity and friendship.

As ironic as it seemed, this pink pony, in her demented state, actually understood him better than any of the ponies he had ever met had. "Why doesn't it matter?" He asked curiously. Pinkie threw back her head, grinning; her cotton-candy hair soaking in the chocolate milk. "At first I was worried about my friends, but after I thought about it for a bit swimming around here for awhile, I realized that even though I like them, the cakes, and everypony here, it doesn't matter. What's the point of trying to make everypony smile and be happy, have a good time if they all die in the end? That's silly. The princesses and creatures like you, Discord, never have to die, and they can have all the fun they want. What matters is that everybody should have a good time on their own or with fun people, and be happy up until they die. I don't want to worry about making my friends happy or giving a smile to anyone else anymore. I just want to laugh and be happy as long as I can. Keep the chocolate milk rain coming if you can, please!"

In a flash, he understood that this, single, odd pink earth pony had realized eons of his work, and understood what the finality and pointlessness of mortality entailed. She alone out of every living thing he had encountered after becoming the last one of his kind finally UNDERSTOOD him, and the value of utter, selfish animal hedonism. Although she probably wasn't the type to devolve into subsentience, never to speak or listen again and have her soul decay as his...darker friend desired...she could be a companion to him. Discord smiled, and drifted down next to her, floaties appearing on his limbs, tail, and horns, with a rubber duck appearing next to him, going off with dark intent towards the now drowning Mrs. Cake. "You and me? We'll go far together. How would you feel about becoming immortal in exchange for helping me...stir up a little chaos?" Pinkie looked over at him, a glazed expression on her face with an unnatural smile that couldn't be healthy. She threw back her head and laughed wildly, and Discord smiled himself as he heard the Cakes scream in pain and dispair as Mrs. Cake encountered the duck. A loud slapping sound was heard as they gave each other a high five.

Chapter 7: The Way of All Flesh

Cadence coughed. The fired had destroyed most of the royal palace, and Shining Armor had rallied what troops remained to help evacuate survivors. She had seen her aunt take to the skies against the hideous dark interloper, and her new companion had fought valiantly against it, but with little success. From her vantage point in the tower, she watched, helplessly as the titanic shapeshifting creature broke her sister's wing, and more importantly, her resolve. Her mother had not returned yet, and although her sister was truly mighty, she was not infallible, as evidenced in her battle against the changeling queen. Cadence herself was very young by alicorn standards, and knew that if she tried to join the fray, she would be torn to pieces. So she watched on through her window as the terrible battle unfolded on one end near canterlot, and across her room, through another window, she could see the untempered schism of Discord's madness unfold upon the hapless citizens of ponyville. The last time Discord had gotten out was bad enough; he'd imprisoned her mother and her aunt in a kaleidiscopic dimension of utter madness, and it was only through their own phenomenal resolve, and her mother's dark blue embrace that she and her mother had managed to stay sane. She never knew if Celestia was there with them, and she didn't want to ask what she went through. Her particular room and section of the castle had been spared the raging inferno that Celestia had become after seeing Twilight Sparkle so tragically struck down. She closed her eyes, and began sobbing again. She was so young, mother; why did she have to die so suddenly?

Cadence sobbed in quiet anguish. She understood why her mother had not been present for the majority of her wedding. As much as she knew she loved her, she understood that with the incident leading up to the death of her father and her mother's transfiguration into Nightmare Moon, and her subsequent banishment, Luna had never known her daughter outside of her being an infant, as much as she intended on raising Cadence herself. Her childhood (and extremely rapid growth to maturity, which is awkward for any pony, alicorn or otherwise), was spent with Celestia as her stepmother, and despite her assurances that her mother loved her very much, she had always resented Celestia for banishing her mother, however unintentional. Celestia herself, although she never talked about it, was, according to her mother after the wedding, as barren as the face of the moon. Her mother, before the reception, had pulled her aside to talk with her privately. As much as she had wanted to attend the wedding, she simply wasn't ready to face the fact her daughter was getting married, after barely even getting to know her, which was hard enough. Cadence's initial resentment to her mother's reticence to meet, talk, or spend any time intimately at all catching up, bonding, all the thing she'd expect her real mother to do, had been absent. She had developed from confusion into dispair, and then into resentment, which had eventually allowed the powerful queen of the changelings to catch her off guard one night and imprison her. Celestia's heart softened and broke down for her mother being genuinely overwhelmed with the world, with her family, and with finally being freed from the enslavement to her darker self she had been unable to free herself from.

As Cadence watched the battle make its way into the mountains, and the terrible destruction of her aunt driven mad by grief, her thoughts drifted to empathy of what kind of a toll time had exacted on her mother and her aunt. Celestia told her, when she old enough to understand of course, that losing her husband, the late Prince Agravis, had pushed into madness after letting the jealousy of her sister that she had kept bottled up for so long stew inside. When her mother had returned, the Elements of Harmony had shown what was in Celestia's heart to Nightmare moon, and the thousand years of regret and lamenting her sister had gone through, and how dearly she truly loved her sister. That love had broken her psychological imprisonment, and obliterated the magical parasite that had been born of her mother's cold hatred of her sister. When it came to the wedding, Luna could do nothing but dispair for her late husband, and the years lost with her daughter. She surmised it was this distress and all the stress of the royal wedding, the threats made against the crown, that had made her obsessively meticulous aunt blind to the threat from within, and the emotional distraction of luna, the wedding party, compounded with her own softness from years of being the benevolent monarch, and not the terrifying Avatar of the Sun her now long-dead enemies had known her to be.

Luna's heartfelt apology and reconciliation prior to the reception had given her a glimpse into the power she wielded with her husband, and the untapped potential she had as an alicorn. Her love she felt every day seeing Shining armor was put to shame in her mother's uncontrollable sobbing as she wept for joy for her daughter, and moreover how powerful she was to become as a future ruler of equestria. Cadence had a gift was more valuable than even the raising of the moon and sun; the ability to bring people together in harmony. Her mother told her this and more, and as she lay her her embrace, having her hair stroked, feeling her cold, silver tears fall onto her face, she finally understood how much her mother loved her; and she knew, that even when her husband passed away from the inevitable march of old age, her mother would love her so strongly as to give all of eternity to her in a love so all-encompassing, that she would never truly understand it until she had children of her own.

Cadence shook out of her reverie as she saw her mother and an especially large...and strange looking, to say the least...colt burst into view through a green flame erupting from the ground. Her mother cried out as she saw Twilight, and ran over to the lavender unicorn's body, sobbing on the ground. Cadence fought back tears unsuccessfully, and watched as the truly gigantic colt made his way over to the body. After whispering something into her mother's ear and placing his hoof on her shoulder, Cadence watched in amazement as she saw the strange colt close his eyes, and brought Twilight back from the dead. Who is he that he wields such *POWER*??? she asked herself with incredulity, not quite sure what she was seeing. She retreated from her telescope, and blinked several times after sitting down to consider what she had seen. Celestia's companion, while he seemed immensely powerful in combat and in general magic casting, did become severely injured after her sister's sudden titanic burst of power, and seemed to be unconscious, as he had gotten up briefly, then collapsed again. Getting up again, she stopped in her tracks as she suddenly took in all the devastation her sister had caused. The sky was still blood-red for whatever reason involving Celestia's transfiguration, but despite this she could still easily see that where there was once a picturesque mountain range obscuring her view of the horizon beyond her window, a significant portion of it had been leveled. Instead of the morning sun, the horrific blackness had begun to cover a significant portion of the horizon in her view, and she gulped as she saw the inferno that was Celestia go out and become replaced by a dull, golden glimmer.

Twilight Sparkle stumbled up upon shaky footing, and looked off into the distance. A red light had blazed into existence towards where her mentor was fighting, and she sensed the rage and utterly sickening evil that came from the vast plume of magic that had erupted. Something...strange...stirred deep inside her. She looked over at Luna, and saw her looking back, astonishingly, at Cadence, who had emerged from the castle and flown down to see them. As she alighted upon the ground, Cadence was about to say something when Luna put up a hoof and silenced her. Luna turned to Twilight with a look of such fierce intensity, such uncharacteristic resoluteness that Twilight promptly sat down in awe at a Princess who she now saw truly for the first time. Thousands of years of loss, pain, and fierce, determined love and the will to fight to any lengths to preserve that love was etched in her face and overwhelming stare.

"The Elements are fractured. Discord has brought his chaos to divide us and Luvaeis has brought his malevolence to end us, and bring all that we know to die. There is something that can be done to save all of us, to defeat both of them in an instant, but I need you to bring back my sister, and I need you to know how much you love her. A moment will come soon when each of us will stand on the precipice of losing who we hold most dear to us, and in that single, paramount moment a decision will be made by each of the Element holders. They will choose between the finality of their own darkness, or the love that makes them whole, and defines each and every one of us. In that single, crucial moment, they will realize their full potential as an element bearer, and the power that will be wielded by all of you, and all of us, will be enough to destroy this menace once and for all. Go to my sister now."

Twilight blinked, and in a moment understood. Cadence's power in expelling the Changelings, the way the elements had affected Nightmare Moon and Discord each time they were used.

Fluttershy was terrified. Discord had obviously returned from his imprisonment, and hordes of rabbits with unnaturally long legs, and ferocious squads of large ducks with cleats stomped about around. The sun had stayed its unnatural red color, and gave everything a far more sinister tint that the otherwise whimsical scene would normally permit. Liira was still sleeping soundly, and despite the occasional explosion in the distance, and gigantic birds making low-flying passes at her cottage, rattling the cottage, she was snoring peacefully. Fluttershy squeaked as she heard a loud knocking on her door, and immediately hid under the covers. "FLUTTERSHY HELP ME! PLEASE OPEN THE DOOR!!!" She heard a panicked Rainbow Dash outside, yelling very loudly. "PLEASE! THEY'RE COMING! HURRYYYY!!!!" Fluttershy swallowed her fear, and forced the resolve she had taught herself to surface. She galloped over to the door, and opened it, expecting her friend to bowl her over. Hearing or feeling nothing, she opened her eyes and looked around. She didn't like what she saw.

To her horror, Rainbow Dash had a lot of her once multi-chromatic mane chewed away, as well as a good portion of her fur, and some of her flesh. She was screaming and thrashing wildly at a number of sharp-toothed chickens that had been chewing on her, and dodging her kicks to bite very painfully. Rainbow Dash looked at her friend, pleadingly. "HELP ME PLEASE OH GOD IT HURTS SO MUCH!!!" Fighting the urge to pass out, she again steeled herself. "HEY!!!" she yelled loudly, with her best Stare face on. The chickens immediately stopped biting Rainbow Dash, and looked at her.

"YOU LEAVE MY FRIEND ALONE, YOU BAD, BAD BIRDS!!! HOW DARE YOU ATTACK SOMEPONY LIKE THAT! YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES!!!" Fluttershy felt something...unpleasant and angry well up inside her. She had felt something similar when she'd stared down the Cockatrice, but this was...different. "YOU'RE HORRIBLE, ATTACKING SOMEPONY LIKE THAT, YOU SHOULDN'T BE HERE AT ALL, TERRIBLE, DISGUSTING THINGS!!!" She was shrieking now, and she felt her rage come up through her normally calm, kind heart. It felt as if a dam inside her was breaking, an unbearable pressure was mounting. This isn't right...they did something wrong, but look at what you're doing! you're hurting them, please stop! A part of her was wailing in the distance, and she saw the chickens bleeding out of their eyes, ears and mouths, staring at her with a blank, terrified expression that transcended any fear she had ever felt. "YOU SHOULD JUST GO AWAY, YOU HORRIBLE, AWFUL THINGS! YOU SHOULD DIE FOR WHAT YOU DID! I WANT YOU DEAD YOU SHOULD SUFFER AND DIE!!! DIE!!!!!" She couldn't believe what she was saying.

She didn't want them to die despite what they'd done to her best friend, and she was horrified that she couldn't control her rage.

A red haze began to cloud the corners of her vision, worse than anything she had experienced before, and in a small, sliver of understanding, she recognized the chickens that had attacked her friend were her pets, Patricia and Annette, that she had helped raise ever since she settled here with Angel. She saw the horror and terror in their eyes as they cried tears of blood, and suddenly, the dam inside her broke. She stumbled as she felt a torrent of black magic, a malevolence that she had kept kept contained in a small, dark corner of her heart burst free, along with all the horrible memories of her childhood that she had forced herself to forget. Fluttershy was crying black tears from black eyes, and watched helplessly as the weight of her suffering physically ripped apart the animals she had called her friends. The blackness pooled about her, and she wailed in a mix of dispair and rage. She looked at Rainbow Dash. Her friend was no longer panicked, and instead of the revulsion, confusion ro disbelief she was expecting she saw...compassion. She saw in her gaze a clear, utter understanding of every moment of pain she had gone through in her life, of her abuse by her parents and peers, her other friends or lovers that had come and gone, and left their indelible blackness on her soul that she had hidden away.

Kill her.

NO OH GOD NO PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS

The blackness that was now pouring out of her eyes and mouth, pooling on the ground like so much ink was speaking in her head, whispering its wrath and malevolence

KILL HER NOW. THEY ALL DESERVE TO DIE. EVERY SINGLE CREATURE ON THIS ROTTEN EARTH THAT YOU HAVE MET IN YOUR ROTTEN EXISTENCE DESERVES TO PERISH IN AGONY.

NOT RAINBOW! SHE'S NEVER HURT ME, SHE LOVES ME! SHE-

YOU WILL KILL HER!!! YOU WILL REND THE FLESH FROM HER BODY AND EAT IT!!! YOU WILL DO THIS OR I WILL MURDER EVERYTHING YOU LOVE AND BRING IT BACK JUST TO HURT IT AGAIN! DO IT NOW

NO I WILL NOT!

WHY??? WHY WON'T YOU KILL HER YOU STUPID, USELESS MARE???

BECAUSE I LOVE HER!!!!

The world exploded in light, and she saw Rainbow Dash, holding her tight and telling her that everything was going to be all right. She gasped as she felt the darkness she had held inside her for so long become purged in blaze of magic that dwarfed anything she had ever felt before. Her butterfly necklace, the Element of Kindness, seared into existence around her neck, and she gasped as she felt the whole of existence open up before her heart, and the immense weight of the knowledge of every bearer of the element of kindness stretching back past the very origin of their world. At the end of the line, past the countless faces of ponies, she saw the ebon form of a titanic mare rise, and greet her gaze. She felt the weight of infinity upon her mind, and in the instant it became too much to bear, that the unbearable enormity of what was thrust upon her with her purging became too much, it was lifted from her. She opened her eyes, and saw Rainbow Dash staring back at her, her hair a dazzling display of lights and colors, spreading out like rainbows across a thousand worlds. Her fur sparkled like sapphire waters, and in an instant, when she opened her eyes and saw her, she could see her as nothing else other than the ethreal goddess before her, and her necklace with the element of loyalty blazing a bright red.

A low rumbling reverberated throughout the desert, and Celestia watched in terror as cracks appeared beneath the ground, sand pouring down into deep chasms. A violent, head-splitting shriek of outrage shattered what few mountains and bluffs surrounded them, and slowly, Celestia looked up into the glaring red light that spilled out across the desert and sky, blotting out her sun.

A blazing crimson eye appeared above her, crackling with red lightning, and the black chasm surrounding it seemed to suck the very color out of the sky, as well as the air rushing into the void where it led to. Wearily, Celestia tried unsuccessfully to regain her footing and collapsed on the sand beneath her. That last attack had left her completely spent; she could barely even move.

She rested her head down upon the sand, waiting for the inevitable. So this is how I die...

Chapter 3: Shadows and Sojurns

In her mind and through the void, Celestia heard the alicorn’s deep voice rumble through her. “This last memory is not my own. It was given to me by Velae before she left. It is the oldest memory of any living being that I know of, including myself, as that it was before my time. I am entrusting this to you because of your station as Shepherd of the Sun, and of the importance it has for all alicorns, as few left of us as there are."

Celestia’s sight had faded out of the embarrassingly personal memory Fen-ka Shal had provided her, and suddenly snapped into focus in the form of an utterly barren craggy landscape. Harsh winds and sand blew all about her, and she was immediately struck with how…empty everything felt. Something felt off about the light; perhaps Velae saw things differently than her or Fen-ka Shal considering how old she was. She looked up and gasped as she saw a moon that covered about a quarter of the sky, and was rising above the horizon. When is this? How far back has he gone to, and what-oh no. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE SUN??? Celestia gaped in horror as she saw what had to be a green sun, blazing high in the sky. It was a fair bit larger than her sun, and was obscured by an unnatural eclipse. Celestia stared in wonderment at the great green plumes of fire leapt the edge of the black disk, in a display far more active than anything she had ever seen from her familiar yellow orb. She peered into the black depths of the eclipse and shuddered as she…felt something shift inside it. Some THING was obscuring the sun, and the green fire surrounding it was…actually magic. She looked around the barren landscape, and realized how thin the atmosphere was, as she could see stars despite it being fantastically bright from the obscured sun. She felt a tugging feeling, and turned around to see Velae.

Velae was far more than large; she was colossal. The mare was now a titanic figure that stood several hundreds of meters tall, and stood several kilometers back behind her staring at the sun. Her coat was covered with more stars than she had ever seen in Luna’s night. Her wings were covered in vast nebulae, stunningly beautiful things she had only glimpsed a few times while looking through her sister’s telescope, and spread out to her sides with a wingspan of what had to be over a kilometer in length. Her horn was a pyre of blackness darker than the deepest night, and suddenly lit up the horizon in a brilliant blue light. A vast column of energy spiked through the sky, towards the sun.

After a few minutes, she felt the ground shudder suddenly, and the light from the sun dim. Gradually, whatever had been blotting out the sun uncoiled itself, and something…beyond all comprehension…slid directly down into the black of space. The sun was blazing with a green fire that looked…similar to Tahl-va Shal’s transfiguration. The light from Velae continued to spill into the sun, and gradually the fire began to coalesce into a single, bright emerald-green point. The pillar of blue light abruptly went out, and night fell over the dunes. The green star sparkled feverishly as it began to fall to the earth, and Celestia’s attention was caught by a bright light forming where the green sun had been. She recognized it as a teleportation spell, albeit one that was forming very slowly.

Suddenly, there was a blinding light, and as it faded, Her sun appeared. My sun is…foreign? I never knew it was one of the many stars in the sky, until it was chosen thusly by Velae. I wonder what- Her thoughts were interrupted as the glare had begun to subside, and what looked like an awfully large, fiery shockwave was expanding out from the new sun. As it drew nearer, Celestia saw Velae throw up a barrier, and grimaced for what was coming. When it hit, Celestia saw the entire sky burn, and panicked with everything around her turning into a raging inferno. She calmed herself as she realized she didn’t feel her fur burning off and her flesh being turned into charcoal, and reminded herself that this was just a memory, albeit a vivid one. The fire raged for hours, until finally the sky had burned itself out, and where there was once sand beneath her feet, there was still-glowing molten glass everywhere she looked. Celestia looked back, and saw an exhausted Velae, noticeably smaller now, panting with exertion. She gathered herself, and paused. There was a loud rumbling all around, and Celestia stared around in shock as the molten glass lifted up around her in bubbles, everywhere.

Many kilometers beneath her, hard rock lay, and she was both astounded and delighted at the beautiful spectacle around her. Suddenly, the globes began to glow with the blue light of Velae’s magic, and exploded violently out in a hurricane of force and wind. Immediately Celestia recognized the transmutation spell, as she now realized that Velae had turned glass into…air. Well, there’s one thing I can show Luna when I get back. The white alicorn chuckled at her imagining her sister’s reaction of her turning a wine glass into oxygen and nitrogen. The sky suddenly became a familiar blue, and she watched a small sea form beneath her, from the hydrogen in the rocks being transmuted into water with the oxygen in the air. Clouds began to form, and through them pierced a still twinkling green point of light, setting upon the sea and descending into the depths. A mighty green flash erupted beneath the waves, and Celestia stared slack-jawed at Velae, who was becoming increasingly smaller, and exerting an enormous amount of willpower over containing the magic from below, and watched as fissures appeared in the land, racing across the earth opening up chasms into the depths of the earth. Everything shone green, and emeralds, rubies, and other precious gems began to grow near the fissures, under the catalyzing influence of what had to be core magic.

The light began to shake the earth more violently, and with a roar Celestia saw Velae reclaim massive amounts of the magic, light streaming out of the fissures directly towards the alicorn. With with a blinding light and a loud crack. Celestia blinked and saw two creatures, lying on the ground unconscious. The first was Velae, now as large as she had been in the previous vision. The second was…Tahl-va Shal. He was an infant unicorn, with a small shock of green hair as his mane, and his tail was a fluffy white long tuft of hair, barely half a foot long. He had no wings, of course, and Velae was twitching, and her nose, eyes, and ears were bleeding. She coughed up blood, and her eyes fluttered open.

She took one look at the sleeping colt beside her, and picked him up gently in her arms, rocking him.

“My love is forever.”

Suddenly Celestia was back in her own body, back in her own time, back in the Equestria she new and in a room filled with people she felt she hadn’t seen in a lifetime. Fen-ka Shal had broken the link, and was staring at her from no more than a few inches away, their noses touching. Celestia reared back, screamed, and promptly lost her balance and fell on top of her sister.

Her head was still spinning, when she was brought back to her senses by her sister. “Oof, Celly! I can barely breathe, get your fat, sunny flank off my chest, you’re hurting me!” Celestia immediately rolled off her sister in embarrassment, only to see Rainbow Dash, doubled over in laughter at her sister’s words. Brushing herself off, she got up from the undignified mess she was on the floor, and looked up around the room. After silencing the blue Pegasus with an angry glare, she looked back at the red alicorn with wonderment. “I…I’m sorry about what I said before about you. You are indeed very, very old, and there is much you can teach us. I will prepare you the guest room in the castle myself, and we will have a banquet celebrating your deciding to stay with us.”

Fen-ka Shal opened his mouth to thank her, when they abruptly heard the front door open and close behind them. Fluttershy stumbled in, a nervous mess. “Ohmygoodness I’m so sorry I’m late! I was flying back from Zecora’s, and there was this big green flash, and then I got lost an-“ Celestia put up a hoof to stop Fluttershy guilty string of apologies, and smiled. Fluttershy then calmed down, and looked around to see everyone in the room. “Oh here’s your medicine!” she exclaimed, rummaging around in her pack, bringing forth a pouch filled with a small pot of orange healing potion.

Liira came over to her, and she handed the jar to her, blushing as the small alicorn gave her a hug. Liira walked over, and as she began applying the medicine to Fen-ka Shal’s burns, Celestia and Luna turned to each other and began talking.

“Well Celly, what did he show you? Come on, fess up.” Luna looked up at her sister, with an inquisitive look on her face, smirking slightly. “Oh it was the most amazing thing EVER, Luna!” Celestia exclaimed lightly, her front hooves knocking together with glee as they sat facing each other. “It was so much more than a simple memory spell; It felt like I was THERE, walking around among ancient ponies, seeing the sky fall and burn, seeing…so much HISTORY! He and his companions are simply AMAZING ponies, and I can’t wait to hear all the things he has in store to tell us!” Luna smiled and gave a confused expression of acceptance to her sister’s adulations, albeit still with that quizzical eye. “I’ll hold the questions about what you saw for later, but for now we have to think about what to tell everyone.” Celestia blinked and imagined the hushed whispers behind alicorns’ backs, talking about family members coming in to overthrow the queen, a strange male alicorn “shacking up” with the princesses, oh the scandel… She shook the silly image out her mind, and looked her sister in the eye.

“We need to make sure everyone understands that we are not related, and that he’s a royal guest of honor, who will be staying with us for an indefinite period of time. We can have Twilight and the other elements near them to show them around, and although I don’t have any reason to doubt either of them, it’d be good to keep the Elements of Harmony near them in case something from…wherever war he left decides to meet up with him again.” Luna nodded gravely, looking at the red alicorn and his granddaughter out of the corner of her eye. “I agree it’s necessary to protect him, but we know nothing about the dragons he’s been at war with other than Azjhaarus. He’s been at war with him for fifty millennia, Tia! If that…creature is anywhere near as powerful as the legends tell…” Luna trailed off, and Celestia spoke again. “Sister, what DO the legends tell? I haven’t read anything about this awful legend, and I’ve read quite a few books while you were gone, as well as before. “ Luna looked down, then up at her sister, with obvious worry on her face.

“Azjhaarus is the king of dragons as he said, but…he’s more than that. He’s been around since the beginning, and before that or so they say. The book I read was awhile before you banished me, and it’s probably dust by now. It had…pictures of ancient creatures, mythical gods and titans of legend categorized in an old language that mother taught us to write in and speak in amongst each other, but only with each other.” Celestia remembered the her mother lecturing them on the “High Tongue” and the “Low Tongue”, the two languages used in Equestria. The High tongue required magic to speak, and formed a direct telepathic link with whoever was using it, and hearing it. It was used among only alicorns and a few unicorns because of how taxing it was to use; it was the most intimate form of conversation imaginable, as it linked memories, scents, feelings, emotions, and sounds all into its speech to convey as closely as possible what the speaker was thinking and feeling, and what they remembered. Very few unicorns had ever been able to master it, and Celestia had always thought her faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, would be the first person she could talk to using the speech in over a thousand years. She and Luna were still settling into being sisters again, and they probably weren’t ready to talk again like that for at least another half century or so.

Luna continued. “The book was so old and worn already, that I thought nobody would miss a ratty old thing like that from the archives. I read it to help me with my studies, and since it only responded to magic, I figured it was more than enough practice.” She paused as Celestia looked at her, confused. “When I say it responded only to magic…it was a weird book Celly. It had…these gorgeous pages made out of a crystal lattice, and when you used it as an illumination, it filled the whole room with color! You could see the creatures moving around on the pages on the wall as they were projected on it, and…well it’s probably gone now. Anyway, Azjhaarus was one of a few pictures in that book that scared me so badly I had to stay with mother for the night. She-“ Luna was rudely interrupted by Celestia’s giggling, and gave her sister a death glare that would fell a lesser mare. “Sorry sister, do go on.” Luna rolled her eyes and continued. “Anyway, it showed this…this giant serpent, wrapped around the world, holding the sun and the moon in its grasp. It showed it walking over mountains as somepony would over an anthill, and how it had created dragons as its children to help it find all the gems and gold in the world. The book said that once all the gems in the world had been gathered by dragons, he would bring his children back to him, and use the gems to eat the world and its magic. I saw it…I saw it burn the earth with a green fire, and breathe in the ashes. He…It swallowed the sun, and ate the moon in a single bite! Oh Celly…it was horrible…” Luna teared up and hugged her sister, shivering.

“What was the other thing that frightened you so badly?” Celestia asked her little sister. Luna froze, and backed away from her sister, sitting back where she had been. A hollow look filled her eyes, and immediately Celestia became concerned, as she had only seen her sister like this before Nightmare Moon had overtaken her. “The second thing…was called Luvaeis. I don’t know where the name comes from, since the book explicitly stated that it never called itself that, or even spoke. It was the mummified corpse of an old alicorn, possessed by a single, dark magenta crystal that shone out of its eye socket like a star. Wherever it walked, plants wilted, died and turned to ash. Animals lost their souls, and shriveled up into charcoal. It wanders between the void between voids, and comes to steal the lives of…truly evil ponies. The book said ‘Luvaeis of the Black Path; He seeketh the souls of the wicked, tearing life from all surrounding His presence. His Judgement comes to sate His appetite. Though the wicked he may come for, none stand in his path; be they unicorn or Holy Alicorn, His Shadow bringeth Oblivion absolute. He commandeth Void and Death as thy Holy Majesties command the sun, moon, waters and air. He is the worst creature that may exist, and thou that speaketh His name shall be shunned, for It bringeth the Fires and the Plague, and death of all forms. He is the Curse of Curses; He commandeth the Shadow and the Wretched Ones, the Leviathan and Gatekeeper. He is End without beginning, and Lord of the Void, Emperor of Oblivion. Do not cross Him, o bringer He is of the Ten Thousand Deaths.’ And then it…it would look right at you, and you’d feel this…chill in your heart. Like you’d never love or be happy again, and you should just kill yourself or give up…” Luna retreated into herself, and began shaking; she curled herself into a blue ball and half-scooted half-rolled on over to her sister.

Celestia swooped her wings around her beloved sister, encircling her in warmth and soft, feathery love. Behind them, Fen-ka Shal had listened to their conversation, wondering how a book from his library had made its way into these alicorn sisters as long ago as it did. Perhaps her grandfather…had been closer to him than he had remembered. Time indeed told no lies, only speculating on the broken bits of his memory did. He smiled as he felt the relief flowing through him from the potion, and wondered what these strange ponies had in store for him.

Twilight Sparkle had woken up suddenly at the sudden discharge of magic in the distance, and recognized it immediately as a massive surge of core magic, flaring up out of the earth. She scrambled out of bed, falling down on the cold wooden floor as she stumbled herself groggily to the window. A green light was fading off in the distance, and although the initial shock of the magic was strong, she remembered how…natural core magic felt, and thought that most unicorns wouldn’t pay any mind to this, chalking it up to indigestion or an odd dream. The flash was definitely magical in origin, and the enormous amount of magic released was larger than anything she had ever felt around Celestia or Luna during her training. Hearing Spike snoring downstairs, she readied a few provisions, and concocted a flight spell, setting off in the direction of the strange phenomenon, her curiousity overwhelming her.

Off in the distance, Luna felt the purple unicorn moving out underneath her night sky, and paused from her discussion with her sister. Earlier, all her attention was focused on the memory-link Fen-ka Shal was performing with her sister, making sure that nothing awry was going on. She had failed to notice a massive spike in Core magic off to the east, and realized that the other alicorns, with the exception of Celly, all noticed it. She was amused that Twilight had picked up enough of her teaching to truly recognize the spike for what it was, and worried about the little lavender unicorn’s safety. “Luna? What’s wrong?” Her sister looked at her quizzically. “Our student,” Luna stated with deadpan enthusiasm, “Has decided to take a late night trip to a faraway land. You do feel that…surge, don’t you?” Celestia calmed herself for a minute, closing her eyes to focus. With a snapped she opened them, her pupils tiny and an expression of horror on her face. “Luna, you have to go after her immediately. With everything that I’ve learned, there’s no telling what she could be getting herself into. I’ll handle things here and look after our guests. Please, hurry! We don’t know how far she’s already gotten…” Luna gave a quick nod, then teleported herself high up into the sky, scanning for a certain flying unicorn.

Rarity woke up, feeling disturbed by something. She took a quick look around, seeing nothing out of place. Curious… the white unicorn thought to herself. Something…implacable was off, but she was too tired, and still a little woozy from the wine she had drunk with Twilight the previous night. Remembering her throbbing head, she yawned, and hugging Opulescence, she curled back up into bed, the warmth and comfort bringing her to sleep almost immediately.

Twilight had been flapping her faux wings for a while now, when she noticed the dark outline of Princess Luna swooping down to meet her. “Princess! I saw-” “Yes Twilight, I saw it too. I’m going with you, this could be very important, and my sister and I certainly wouldn’t want anything to happen to you. Going out on a whim like this at this hour is extremely foalish. Now, hurry up.” Smiling sheepishly, Twilight flew behind the Night Princess, wondering what could possibly be in store for them.

Off in the distance, Deep in the everfree forest, a certain Zebra had holed herself up in her hut, and had placed a powerful set of wards guarding her home. She had finished brewing the special warding paint, and was chanting some arcane protection rituals. She shuddered slightly as she felt the darkness creeping about outside her hut. A huge number of creatures in the forest had been woken up to the violent flaring up of earth magic off to the east, and they were all extremely angry about having their sleep disturbed, and of the presence of such a powerful spike of magic. She furrowed her brows, the indigo runes and spell containment lines surrounding her hut pulsing a soft indigo. In addition to warding her property from unfriendly intruders and magics, the spell provided a very direct connection with earth magic, as well as a heightened sensitivity to all magic and life. Shaman magic, unlike Unicorn or alicorn magic, relied on tapping in on the unique life magic of plants and animals, and using them in conjunction with earth magic, or “Core” magic as the alicorns called it.

She had been away from her homeland for a very long time to escape the wars, and was glad she was in the company of ponies who valued her for who she was, not the power she held as a high priestess. She felt a slight anger rising as she remembered the throngs of zebra warriors visiting her temple, asking for her blessing before battle, asking for her to capture their soul for a time so that they could fight as zombiis without being afraid of dying, or asking to enchant them or their weapons to let them…kill. That’s all that it had ever been about. The killing of enemy tribes. Zebras never had the high and mighty alicorns ruling over them, except one that had been so kind as to give them any sense of peace. He was the Ancient Arbiter, the Red King. His rule had lasted over their land for a mere thousand years, but in its time he taught Zebras technology, written language, and an astounding amount of magic that had unified them under a common school of thought, and common tongue.

It has been so long ago that only priests such as herself still held the old traditions, and commanded the old magics. She was one of the elder high priestessess of her land, and had been given the gift of life eternal by Him, treasuring every day still like it would be her last. While His coming to Equestria was unexpected, it certainly wasn’t unwelcome, and she was determined to understand the reason for visiting them after so long. She was, strangely enough, an older creature than many alicorns, and had developed her curious style of speech to keep her mortal mind from going mad over all the years. She smiled to herself, thinking, There is something about learning, it should be said; not knowing is the only thing to dread…

Far across the horizon, over the western mountains of Canterlot, and in the cold reaches of the highest mountain, an evil more ancient than the all the stars in the sky awoke from a long slumber. Its single eye flared a bright, unnatural scarlet out of its skull, which was as barren and cold as the magical ice its body had been imprisoned in. A creeping darkness bled out of the alicorn bones, and seeped through the ice, cracking it unnaturally in right angles in an intricate angular pattern. The magic in the runes on the ice had finally subsided over the millennia to the point where their magic could be undone by him even in his weakened state, and after an age, he was free at long last. The jewel in his right eye that possessed the body he was in crackled loudly with a violet light, and struck upon the mountain beneath him, causing an avalanche. He stretched his massive bone wings, and watched as they were engulfed in shadow, spreading out gloriously to the length of that almost to a dragon's wingspan. His bones were covered in the darkest shade of ebony that absorbed all light around it, and smiled maliciously as he felt all the life that had grown in the world since had last walked amongst the living. His grin became a wolfish, distorted thing as he sensed how few alicorns were left in the world now, and with the dragons in force, he would have no trouble at all eating the life of this world at his leisure.

The windigos swirled about him, eager at the promise of chaos, despair, and death that his spirit craved. He was somewhat irked that there were no true draconoqui left, and the one called Discord had been once again been the victim of his own insanity and been locked away in stone. Luvaeis’ barren skull stretched ghoulishly in a smile as he felt the weakness of Fen-ka Shal, and the absence of his companions. Azjhaarus had done wonderfully with overthrowing them, and he had only to free Discord to bring the world under his will. With a great swooping of his wings, he set off in the direction of Canterlot to free his friend. He missed his lunatic sense of humor, and couldn’t wait to have someone to talk to again. It would be glorious, and his bones twitched in anticipation as he imagined himself bathing in the blood of fillies and alicorns. How he missed the taste of their blood in his mouth…