Fire in the Leaves, Fire in the Mountains

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.