The Oldest Legend of Them All
It began with a battle. A battle of two kinds; one high, far up in the sky. Another low on the land, for all to behold.
Story goes that gods of flesh and blood fought in the heavens, while the mortals below fought on the land. Monsters of all forms, creatures of all shapes and sizes, the End of Times they called it where everything was thrown into disorder, everything was thrown into mayhem before suddenly...everything was made right.
Legend has it, the gods were two. From the first battle to the last, two demis, then two deities fought for the world and everything it held.
Both of wing, both of horn, each of strength beyond impossible numbers. They traded blows, each strike as loud as a thunderclap, each use of magic enough to exhaust a hundred unicorns. They were vicious, they were brutal, and they had become bitter enemies. And these very battles were said to have led to the shape and formation of both land and our world.
For days, weeks, they battled as the legend has it. Two powerful beings made flesh and blood fought and fell, rose and quarreled, for days and at the end of it all there had been one victor. One standing, one undefeated champion-- only for a new challenge to start again, and a new battle to take its place.
Then we come to the mortals. Mortals of which there were of all kinds, both the natural and the unnatural. Dragon, Centaur, Dog, Griffon, Pegasus, Unicorn --countless creatures-- some of which are only ever mentioned vaguely in myths of the past. Beings that were concocted by story and imagination were mentioned to have also participated in the conflict against the forces that could only be described as worse than the very bowels of Tartarus itself. Both of which fought against the other. Bodies fell, left and right, some carried away by wind.
Others carried away to be placed in their tombs.
Legend has it, eons ago, a long time ago, before the founding of Equestria, before the Crowning of the Two Sisters, before the age of Chaos that sought to the rise of Discord-- the world was... different.
Vastly different then the one we've come to know.
The problem was it was not just different, oh no, it was abnormal.
This was said to have once been a time where magic did not play as core a function in the world as we know it. A time where no unicorns were tasked with the heavy burden of lifting, rising, easing, and lowering the sun. A time where there was no need for one to pull and tug on the heavy weight that was the moon to open the night or resume the day. A time where there was no need for the pegasi to push the clouds to bring about rain, to clear the skies, where the centaurs of the ancient past had no worries of desert, conflict, and strife before extinction.
This was a time where so much was so different, so much unknown to us...just as our world may be unknown to them.
And so, I say again, legend has it... it began with a battle.
A battle of two kinds. One fought high, up in the sky. One fought below, where the mortals behold.
The first duel began on land. Two demigods, as they are said to have been.
A long time ago, there was a demon. A powerful demon. One who came with the word of greater forces above and was summoned by foolish followers from below. Wings as black as the night, two horns; a twisted concoction of red, twin tails like that of a lion, and eyes of burning green and toxic purple.
They called it Raul.
This demon, Raul, desired one thing. Chaos, destruction, death, ruin, and corruption. It is often hinted that there were possibly greater desires than these of the obvious but as the story goes, Raul aimed for the end of all things.
And apparently...it was not he, it, who brought about the end.
The forces of good, as the story has it were obviously not so willing to allow such an action to go unanswered and so, Raul was challenged. Challenged by one who was chosen by greater forces and thus came to be known as Imperia.
Imperia was an alicorn of might. A mare of fury, pride, and power. Described as a giant among her fellow ponies, the oceanic, large winged, thorn rose Marked mare backed down from no threats. Where she strode, she brought a legion. Kind to the beloved, distant to the unknown, fearless and pugnacious to the enemy, Imperia was often associated to more than might and power. She was the Imperator, the General, the fiercest of her kind and she challenged Raul's growing forces that resided in a open landscape of grassy plains and few trees where civilization couldn't be found for miles and miles.
A landscape of Raul's choosing as it was the demon monger's base where the darkest experiments were held and deepest of sins were entertained.
Times were said, through very few other myths and folktale of the find, to have been different in this strange, abnormal, world that is said to have existed once upon a time in our 'supposed' mythical ancient past now long lost.
There was metal: blades and spears, swords and cutlasses, axes and arrows. And then there was the unique. Weapons that spewed merciless agony upon their foes, fueled by only the concentration of its wielder till a brief recharge was required. Creators of such weapons are depicted as being wielded by apes, monkeys, or ape-ish beings in kind, including the mythical ape-ish goat, Satyr.
Designed as merciless creations of destruction that were created for the swift annihilation of the enemy. Adapted, evolved, and altered for immediate destruction by just the twitch of a claw in manipulating the trigger mechanics, and smaller than a simple cannon for easy transportation.
The Battle of the Ever Plains, as the legend called it, was a ferocious fight between two demigods and their most skilled allies or in other cases, associates.
On the left, Raul rose forth a mass of followers and servants. Some were those that had brought it into the world and thus those that gladly laid down their lives. Followers who believed in a new world, and servants of other realms ripped into existence through the force of aether and commanded to do the bidding of its master while others were horrid creations. Vile creatures.
Harpies, trolls, and sickly creatures of the dark arts, made to do that which they saw as just and right, with no understanding of sympathy or empathy.
Then on the right, Imperia marched a steady beat forward. Head high, jade green eyes burning with a cold, callous intensity that could melt steel into a hot and steamy puddle of ouch. The alicorn amassed her allies, her comrades, and combatants in arms and they stood together in the blackest armor that allowed no light, no surface to glint when the sun touched wherever was visible. They were fewer than Raul's forces... and they charged into the Tartarus that had been brought on to the surface.
For days they fought. Weeks that stretched into a blur of months then years as they cleared abominations sent out to do the bidding of thine masters. First in civilization, then working their way up to the pits of the Ever Plains where Raul's base stood in defiance. The stinging burning sent of sweat, blood, and shite lingered in the air as bodies either evaporated, were pulverized, or carried off to do the unspeakable or do with the honorable. It was bloody, merciless, chaotic and was the end of many lives. Many civilizations fell, many treasured relationships lost in the heat of war, conflict, and agony. It was a horrendous occasion, and a dark time of what is hyperbolic amounts, no doubt.
In the end, Imperia and her most trusted had fought their way to the Ever Plains, then eventually she and a small group made it to the center. A plain of land that was now grains and dirt, littered with the unspeakable ruins that often accompanies the actions of war, while many others fought in the background, Imperia and her most skilled moved onward in the foreground.
One-by-one, new challenges arose. One-by-one, precious lives were lost.
The showdown came with the cost of buying time and the piled corpses of many. These few precious seconds were said to have been used in order that the fight between an eldritch demon of Tartarus; claiming prophetic origins, and a mare of mind-bogging, enraged proportions; owning more than ten war victories under her metaphorical or possibly realistic belt, could be fought with no holds barred.
The ground shook when they faced off with the raw thaumatic pressure their horns emitted from the very force of magical energy they channeled through their bodies and then in a instant they were fighting.
The stories vary greatly in how this fight went about. Some, done more so with gritty graphic detail.
Some depictions say Raul revealed its true form, a writing mass of tentacles or some other monstrosity of the like to unleash its wrath upon the fury of a justly angered alicorn.
Other depictions say the two were evenly matched. Equals in power and might. Magicks of all the schools were used in both offense and defense. Magical enhancements performed through enchantry, a difficult feat for the average unicorn, and powerful curses that were sometimes dodged or sometimes countered with great abjuration spells. The plains, in this fight between two demis, never once lost its vegetative luster, if only sullied by the actions of war.
Mythos says that this battleground known as the Ever Plains was the foundation of what became the Everfree Woods, later the Everfree Forest.
Mythos also says that Raul, a lowly demon, could easily match the might of an alicorn.
Powers were exchanged and the fight raged on. Raul raised the dead, manipulated them as puppets and bid their debilitating, skeletal or decomposing remains to attack.
Imperia was said to counter with equal forces, but by ensnaring the minds of Raul's own living servants and turning the few she could manage on the charging un-dead.
This fight, was one that is said to have changed Imperia in some way or another. Raul performed the darkest of magicks, magicks unknown to mortals, to beings of flesh and blood.
Surprisingly, Imperia was depicted to be skilled in the arts of the black magic. Not as vastly known, but just as deadly.
A stalemate was reached and Raul activated a trap. A last resort method as, perhaps, it knew it had met its match. Although whether this 'trap' could truly be called such remains to be questioned.
When this strange magic was activated the lands on which the battle was fought, the stained landscape was said to have changed in some way. Everything on the battlefield felt this change and then there was as if some unspeakable new presence that weighed in on the very battle before disappearing as if it was never there.
It happened for a moment, only a second, but a opening was found when this sudden development unfolded and the battle came to a quick end when Raul's heart had been grind to paste by the charcoal hooves of Imperia herself.
The dying creature's final words before it's heart was mushed, "Only I can stop what has been set in motion."
Interestingly enough, these words remain the same through every iteration.
The second and last battle took place on both land and sky.
Depicted centuries or decades after, time is difficult to tell, long after the events of the Battle on Ever Plains, a new battle arose.
Whether it was centuries or years after the events of the Ever Plain war is difficult to ascertain. What can be deciphered from various iterations is that some time had indeed passed following the events of that world rocking battle prior.
In place of Raul, was not a villain but an ally. And throughout the many depictions of this former ally, her name can always be translated into one synonymous word; light.
This being, was called Coruscate.
In a time unknown, the battle on the Ever Plains had changed the landscape. It no longer was a large grassy plain of meadows, woods, and distant waters but had become a ominous, gloomy center of attraction to all things corrupt and vile.
Many attempts were made to remove whatever evil curse Raul had laid on these lands to prevent its evil from spreading any further. None of which were effective, some attempts even resulting in death ,or so the lore goes. But oddly enough, the ancient curse cast on these plains never once touched the borders of civilization, nor did its darkness encroach into the distant villages and hamlets not far from its region.
Instead, this unknown curse did something else.
It attracted monsters, was said to curse various critters and bring about their mutations, and it became a place where the Dark Arts could become even stronger.
To protect the world from this central hub of evil, the most powerful of magicians had been called. Skilled wizards of warding and containment spells were called to cast the most powerful of magicks, with constant strengthening enchantments performed daily and refreshed for an unknown period of time to keep everything that was drawn to the forest contained and prevent the outbreak of another dark and gruesome war.
Imperia and Coruscate, who is often depicted as a unicorn prior to the world-ending battle, were said to spend many times investigating the outer regions of the Ever Plains where Raul's lingering magic could still be felt the strongest. With them, guards, defenders, who were occasionally sent into the corrupting valley to cut down the multiplying numbers to prevent an overwhelming in the case the shields made ever broke.
Much time was spent studying the markings of Raul when discovered. Ancient symbols often capable of giving odd geometric proportions if stared at for two long. As if they themselves bent reality itself or confused the viewer who looked for nary more than a second or two.
Neither Coruscate (who was said to be a linguist) or Imperia, who had lived a long life and studied many languages for many treaties and political arrangements, could decipher or pin down from their own past the origin of this language. And what was more, the measures taken to hide and protect it were not just impressive, they were concerning. It was said these giant markings were impossible to see to the naked eye unless one was capable of performing the magicks that grant sight into that which cannot be seen by the normal. And after what is to believed many years of searching, research and study, a discovery was made.
These markings drew power from a source.
That source came from the stars. But not just the stars.
It came from the ground, the plants, the animals, the inhabitants of the world, the sun and moon; these markings drew harmless fractions of energy from their environment, everywhere and everyone.
All while drawing in creatures whose origins were said to have been a mixture of both the known and unknown.
What was worse? Someone or something, communicated with these marks. Beliefs on this range far and wide, from gods to demons, to possibly even beings of another world simply trying to make friendly communication.
There was nothing friendly about what happens next.
An experiment was made. Foolish in retrospect, as there are enough stories to know where this is going, but apparently there were other vague folktales that spoke of life existing on other worlds. A hope of this ancient world, perhaps simply the imagination of others wishing to build upon this legend's tale.
The experiment was conducted, safety measures were taken. And then it began.
It began on the rose colored sunset, during a time where there was no need to magic the sun away to give rise to the moon or vice versa.
Imperia and Coruscate worked together and were backed by a hundred skilled practitioners in the art of warding, containment, and purification.
Surrounding these abjurists, were enchanters, some of alchemical background. All of whom were ready to paralyze the supervisors of this project or other comrades in the scenario something went horribly wrong. And backing the enchanters, were soldiers. Hundreds of soldiers. Each unit hailing from a different nation of different times, each a skilled fighter of honed skill, swift instinct, and merciless fury.
Some of these soldiers were survivors. Survivors from the war on the Ever Plains or descendants of those that had lived to tell the tale. Others were skilled users of dark magic, all of whom were loyal to a organization, government or in some cases, members of Imperia's own units.
The experiment began by honing on to the signature being emitted into the atmosphere and after hours of searching, based on a theory of Imperia's and expounded on by multiple masters of magical theory a connection was made.
The source was found.
Two things happened.
The first instant is unclear. As the legend goes, it is said that when a connection was made and the source found, only the pale gold, nearly white unicorn known as Coruscate and the oceanic blue alicorn known as Imperia, were the ones privy to the conversation despite the mic effect spell they had been using to broadcast their findings.
What was even odder? Not a single soldier there reacted to the looming sense of danger that approached around the corner.
It was as if the connection and broadcasting had created an effect on everyone and everything listening. And from what the story says, the whole world was listening. And then it happened.
Both experienced two very different discoveries.
Imperia, a warrior and diplomat, was reminded of her past. The battles she'd fought, the comrades she'd lost, the caretaker that had taken her in when she'd become an orphan as a foal and then had been killed to make her obedient and submissive to her higher ups. Weakness was not accepted, thus curbed in order to bring strength in those times, and strength was brought in exchange for the rise of growing anxieties. Old anxieties, long forgotten were revived. Her fears; the darker desires of being a queen who did not just bring peace but ruled everything with a iron hoof and made all evil and vile, cower before her very hooves was rekindled.
Imperia was comforted. Years spent being a statue, a rock for many had finally crumbled in the comforting words that told her everything would be okay.
The only words anyone ever wants to hear in their times of need.
She was told that she would never need to bury another friend. That they would help her bring an end to the appearance of these various enemies. And that they would help her achieve her desire to end the suffering.
If only she helped them.
In this conversation that only she could hear, she felt the warmth of a caretaker, a parent she had cherished and long since forgotten as her duties rose, return. Years of restraint, a tipping, drooping pillar now found their own support. A new, powerful comfort that made everything else seem more manageable.
While Coruscate endured the sights of horrors. Words of sweetness whispered into her ears, gentle nudges to convince her that there was no need to restrain her confused, conflicted feelings towards the alicorn she had come to see as a close friend, now something more. Attempts to join Imperia, by her side as her adviser, her most trusted associate, and an attempts to convince her to convince all those in the world waiting for the experiment to end, to join them so that they could work together and bring this constant madness to an end.
Coruscate saw the truth, while Imperia was overwhelmed by rekindled feelings long since repressed.
When the unicorn saw the source of this conversation for what it really was, she trembled. Fear can do many things to a unicorn and one thing, is a surge. She surged and in doing so, many of those watching in the background hesitated, unsure if the experiment was still in the preliminary stages or if something fruitful was being discovered.
Seconds went by, but it might as well have been hours for the silver maned unicorn as she mentally fought to severe the connections.
This, did not please the forces that had used Raul as their envoy. And thus, a punishment was to be delivered.
But Coruscate was saved by the forces of good that once aided the alicorn Imperia.
The two rose into the air, the scent of ozone tickling many nostrils, magical energy crackled from both horns as their individual fields glowed, getting stronger and stronger.
In that moment, the second event happened.
Ascension.
Coruscate was freed from her chains of the dark forces by the harmonics of good, and in turn was given a single duty. A chance to save her friend, and to do this she could not be a simple unicorn of above average levels, no no, she needed power.
And power was what they both were given. Just from completely different sources.
As Coruscate ascended, so too did Imperia, an alicorn who ascended for the second time and this time became something else.
Thus the stage was set, now the scene awaits its turn.
A intermission, if you will.
More of food for thought, something to tickle the mind.
A small story within this legend often says that during the moment of ascension. Right as both Imperia and Coruscate were being remade, being reborn, the two met on a plane of existence.
The steps to godhood as the legend called it.
On this plane, these two friends talked. Both stood on opposing sides, both looking at the other.
Words were exchanged, most kind. But when it came to their views of what was happening, that is where things became bitter.
Imperia, refused to back down. A stubborn sort she was. She believed in the voices, and even then, as she was countered argument after argument by Coruscate, she believed that she had the power to make them obey.
Restraint was a practice she utilized daily. With this newfound power, with what she planned to do, there would be no restraint.
She would rip apart the very world, the bonds that had created the universe and with this new found power even the very forces of nature would bend, kneel, and bow to her will.
There was nothing that could oppose her, so she believed. She was the Imperator. The General. And nothing could stop her, as she was the strongest alicorn to have ever existed.
Coruscate however, with strain in her voice, corrected her once dear friend and partner in study.
There was perhaps, only one that could and would stop the alicorn's rise to power. And Coruscate replied, it was she, Coruscate herself. Who would do everything in her power to stop her friend from doing something her friend would regret.
No sooner had these words been said, did their time together end.
And a new time, begin.
Scorched land and blown away allies, all of whom quickly tried to recover, found a new sight to behold.
Gods. Demis of absolute power, beings standing on the steps of divinity.
In legend, there are other stories. Equines were not the only ones who could ascend but due to their magical connections, they were the most likely to Ascend.
Gods of flesh and blood gracefully descended to touch the ground and both held a presence that felt like the weight of boulders had been placed on another's shoulders unexpectedly.
One oceanic blue alicorn had taken on a darker hue, her mane of red, no longer physical but almost flowing as if they held no form and were much like the waves of a roaring fire made of petals and leaves.
While one alicorn of white, took on a mane of various colors. More than the rainbow it held every spectrum on the underside, while at the top it was as if silver had been polished to perfection and glinted in the sun.
The alicorns stood at a far distance from one another. Yards and yards away, if one could see it that way.
Allies surrounded both on all sides, confusion and caution taking form as the situation was trying to be read. Unicorns prepared their magic, dragon breath grew dangerously warm with the promise of fire. Weapons were raised, left and right. And a voice was yelled to halt, till instruction had been given.
Several seconds passed, a ominous silence only interrupted by the gust of wind that did nothing to the manes of the two new alicorns.
Then, a change was brought.
The dome shaped shield surrounding the Ever Plains flickered. And to every soldier's horror, moments later, monsters flooded the field.
None moved faster than the two alicorns that glared at one another.
In a blink, they were gone. Faster than anything, supernatural in speed, they clashed and when they did, the ground vibrated with the forces of each strike.
Monsters such as hydra, were split in twain by dark blasts of corrupted magic from Imperia's horn. Heads rendered from their necks, flopped to the ground, never to grow again while the bodies of other creatures were transmuted into dust, incapable of regenerating for a greater assault by Coruscate's accurate shots.
Creatures of supernatural speed also filed the ranks of these ever charging monsters from the valleys and they aimed for the two alicorns, joining them in battle in the airs. For a time the two friends worked together. But as their threats became smaller and their soldiers recuperated from their stupor to aid in the battle as reinforcements were called and alerts were made, the two friends turned on one another.
Becoming bitter, bitter enemies.
Blasts of magic slammed into the earth, atoms were disturbed, reactions were made from molecules slamming together and ground shaking smoke erupted into the air. To save their soldiers and civilization from their attacks, the gods went higher, taking their battle to the skies. Away from mortal view, but not completely obscured.
Every blast of magic illuminated the ever darkening clouds that rallied to the call of the Ever Plains.
Three days, fought nights. They fought. Tireless, unlike before, there was no rest this time. The mortals completed their battle before the gods ever did, and by the time they had finished, the gods continued to fight.
Time was meaningless to them now. It was a mere illusion, a concept of those who were governed by time and had not yet exceeded it. Legend has it that Imperia and Coruscate fought all over the world, going as far to outside the very planet. Blow for blow, magic for magic, every magical blast causing some form of minuscule change that would not be seen for thousands of years.
Some depictions said their fights sped up the formation of mountains, brought about the very creation of the Ghastly Gorge which had been a dessert before their great battle.
Other depictions said their fights caused the very creations of new land, while minimizing the destruction of previous.
For three days, and four nights they did battle in the skies, and at the end of it all... Imperia was the winner.
A understandable outcome when one has been an alicorn far longer than another who only recently ascends. Defeated, tired, and beginning to feel the strain from their duel Coruscate yielded, unable to continue.
It is believed a small part of Imperia, the tiniest fraction of good that still remained in her, felt pity for her former friend. And so she spared her life and turned to bring about the change of the lifetime.
She returned to the Ever, avoided all those soldiers that had once been loyal to her guarding its perimeter, then went to the very heart of the plains where the darkest of creatures still lingered.
These creatures trembled upon her presence, and they fled as she drew near.
Shot after shot, she mowed some down till eventually she became bored of this and found the place she was looking for.
Raul's ruins, his castle. To which she went to the top and glared up into the every darkening clouds.
Focusing on the signal, she reconnected with her possible allies or enemies, and they informed her of what to do. She sensed the mana of the world and discovered the truth to their words, in order to prevent the introduction of new creatures, to stop the gateways allowing new monsters in entering their world, she would need to rip open the world and recreate the system.
And true to their word, these dark forces guided her. Pieces of information that she quickly pieced together, then reaching out to the stars, to the sun, to the moon her horn glowed a sickly green flame, her wings of black, inky water spread and she ascended to the skies, carried by an invisible force.
And then she spoke. Words of which come in many forms, none of which have a very clear meaning.
She projected her voice not with magic, but with The Voice. It reached out to the skies, pierced the heavens, invaded space and time...and then the end began.
Many myths say the world became unrecognizable.
Many more say that after, it would never be the same.
The sky showed other worlds, other realities, the opposite reflections of cities that were under it appeared in the sea. Fallen, apocalyptic worlds flickered in and out of sight in the clouds, as if the very fabric of the universe were being molded yet again and all of Equis was the audience to this global show.
Time, truly became an illusion in these moments. There were no seconds, there were no minutes, no hours or days.
Sun and moon span a circle around the world, up and down, down and up. Speeding up until they had become a moving blur. Changing positions, changing shapes. The stars flickered on and off --and in her ears only to her hearing-- Imperia could hear them.
They were almost free.
Their ancient prisons to which they had been cast to, breaking, weakening, fracturing. The worlds that had cast them out had known their rise to power but this time? This time, they would know their order. They promised her a place among them for her service. That they would use Equis to reach other worlds, extend their will there and begin an age of domineering peace to all.
It was everything she had ever dreamed of as a foal, a foal of war, strife, and pain all those centuries before her ascension.
The harmonics however would not allow it.
What they did not realize, was that even then...greater forces than them all; the Dark Force, the Harmonics, the Alicorns, all of them, as legend says, were being pulled by strings.
The world was theirs. The Harmonics of the first generation were the rulers of this plane, and thus only they should be allowed to meddle or aid those that seek it or those they choose to give the Will to. Their descendants however, sought a change, and whispered the ideas of this change into Coruscate's ever slipping awareness.
With new energy, Coruscate regained strength. Revived, she rose and had the power to topple mountains. Stronger than the Dragon Emperors, greater than the fallen prince Grogar, she ascended once more, now a equal of Imperia and then she flew to her destination.
The skies.
A trail of light traced her as she picked sonic speed up and kicked it to the curb to make way. She moved, weightless, and then soon, in less than a blink, was above Imperia who continued to alter the world around her.
Soldiers turned, aimed and fired. Metal of all sorts, magical bolts of elemental variety, balls of fire from all dragons shot at the once beloved alicorn general who had helped them so many times before, now deluded by her own desires to see the harm she was causing.
But it was for not. Not a single thing hit her. For as she chanted, she crafted an impenetrable shield, a shield that only one could stop and Coruscate new what she had to do.
Horn blazing a soft, baby blue, the same color of her eyes now overflowing with pure white magical energy. Coruscate too began a chant of her own, tongues of which she had never studied filled her mind and understanding, and with this knowledge the words flowed like water. This clashed with Imperia's and the two fought a contest of wills.
They struggled against each other. Pushing and shoving.
But Imperia was the Alicorn of Fury. Pride. Strength.
And her anger, gave her power. And it would be the world, the very universe that yielded to her will.
The air vibrated, the ground barely trembled, barely noticeable to anyone but the ant. And then Imperia bellowed in The Voice: You Dare Challenge Me!
It was a voice that toppled buildings.
A voice echoing across time.
The Dark Forces could feel their bonds slowly breaking, slowly giving as the chant neared completion. Soon, they would be free.
In that moment. The unexpected occurred. A lord came to the aid, soaring through his contraption, its kind masters of time, foreseers of what could, should, and shouldn't, a traveler of time and space, who urged in warning of an approaching end of which even the lord himself, could not foresee. Time was running out, and soon everything would be undone.
Coruscate, tears streaming, eyes blazing a furious white heard the voices of the harmonics, the second generation seeking to overrule the first; the young wishing to overthrow the selfish and pompous, they told her what she could do.
Coruscate decided to take their idea and then do something else.
Still chanting, the world a mess, the cosmos in uproar, time and space beginning to buckle under the forces being applied, Coruscate focused all she could into her horn, all while Imperia failed to realize that it was not an attack her friend aimed to perform.
But something much more.
In a final act of friendship, Coruscate barely whispered: "You will always be my friend."
Far up, beyond even time and space; viewers to the destruction of a universe below, beings of great power watched.
And they allowed Coruscate the audience she desired.
A deal was made, Coruscate aimed to do the right thing and restore the balance, but not in the way it once was.
She, would give her life and take Imperia with her in the process while restoring the world.
The Harmonics, the first generation, agreed and through the betrayal of their children were incapable of reading Coruscate's true thoughts or true intentions.
Power of unimaginable levels was raised from all the Harmonics, and Coruscate ascended one final time, this ascension destroying her body and granting her divine form.
Returning to her place in the physical realm of Equis, hovered hundreds of feet above Imperia who could see her along with many others, the two exchanged only a second's glance then, her horn glowed and something happened.
Imperia was split in two.
Two versions of herself. One, smaller, almost younger, the good representation of herself that had been clouded. The second, Imperia, darker. More demonic in feature despite the disguise of an alicorn she wore. Representing darkness, hatred, the thirst for power, the anger, pride, and conceit.
The two Imperia's stunned by this turn of events, looked at one another. And then the chant ended.
But the world did not return to normal. Instead, the collapse was sped up, and everything was nearly destroyed.
The Dark Forces, infuriated by this turn, reached for Imperia trying to touch the two halves, trying to reconnect her to her other half. But it was impossible. The first Harmonics, would not allow it. They fought to distract the Dark Ones, biding time.
Unknown to them all, beings of greater forces watched from beyond the chaos.
The two halves that made Imperia her, had been separated. Cutting her great power in half, splitting her alicorn representations.
The Light Imperia, represented Determination, Passion, and Vigilance. It was called Magna.
The Dark Imperia, represented Fury, Wrath, Pride, and Vengeance. It was called Velox.
Beyond rational reasoning, Darkness tried to fuse with Light. She was granted new power by greater forces and for one second, she almost succeeded in reuniting as one.
But a flash of light stopped all movement. Time froze, and thus Coruscate's power took hold.
With Light, she coaxed the fearful Magna into her forelegs, nuzzled her, and then together...they cast Velox out. Banished to a realm of their making to contain her. Bits of Magna's own very essence used to craft the realm, bits of Coruscate's very own essence used to form the lock.
Then, unable to fix the damage alone, the two became one. And formed a seed, a seed that crashed into the earth, tore apart the castle of Raul in the heart of the Ever, and then grew. That seed sprouted into a crystal tree, and then in the blink of an eye...reality was restored.
World's faded, sun and moon returned, powerful magic took hold restoring the planet and the Dark Forces were pushed back into their cramped prisons. Old evils from previous times, forced back into their banished realms.
But while one problem had been solved, many new ones arose.
The harmonics, promised a restoration of their power were lied to. No longer masters of the world, became furious. Promising vengeance. Vengeance that they would be willing to come down to enact to reclaim the power that was rightfully theirs.
Vengeance they would soon deliver upon the generation that they had birthed.
Swearing, spitting insults from their realm of observation, they swore a return. They too were weak, drained from the battle. But in time, they would return.
Just as the Dark Forces promised to return as well.
Just as Velox cursed her half and Coruscate to damnation, and promised a revenge that would see through regardless of the forces that worked around.
Space and Time, fragile now, would require fixing. Fixing that the lord who had entered Equis from his contraption, promised he could somewhat fix to more stable degrees.
Many lives were changed after this event.
Many more, never the same.
But the most important of all, was the promise made to watch and guide the world in its future. The promise that gave life to a tree.
And thus, the legend ends. Many different interpretations exist.
But this. This, is the oldest one of them all.
Author's Note
The beginning of the Chaosverse. This story is based off a universe I've been building for quite a couple months now. Look out for more stories in the future.
Also, if there are any errors feel free to lemme know.
Hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing.
