Fire in the Leaves, Fire in the Mountains

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.