Sifting Through The Ashes
Ashes of Canterlot
Twas dark when I awoke and hard to breath. I felt trapped, paralyzed under a great suffocating weight. Where was I? I did not know, but desperately I struggled against the force that kept me bound. It shifted like sand until finally I was able to pull my body free as the loose material fell off of me.
As I rubbed the course material out of my eyes my other senses came back to me more quickly. My ears heard nothing but a forlorn wind that whistled along with the feint crackling of still burning flames, while my nose smelt the smoke, and even more disturbingly the smell of burning flesh which I was all too familiar with.
After all I, Celestia, had burnt a few souls in my day.
When finally my vision returned to me what I was faced with horrified me. I stood in one of the many market squares in Canterlot, a place that should have been lively with tourists and residents alike with the smell of exotic foods in the air. Instead the white stone buildings were stained black with soot, many of the walls had crumbled completely and other bellowed smoke from their windows.
Scattered all throughout the square and the streets were bodies, hundreds of them, piles of corpses. All in some form of burned state, some had only parts of their flesh gone while others were complete blackened husks. A shadow of what a pony should have been with only dark twisted bones and melted flesh staining the street black and red.
What had happened to my city? I had no memory of any event. Had we come under attack once more? In my effort to recall anything it came apparent that I was wearing armour, a golden chestplate and greaves covering my legs. I knew this armour, it was old, and spoke of darker times where war was much more common. Whatever had happened had been a very hard fight, but if I was wearing my armour then it should be... there.
Not two meters to my left was where is lay. A long heavy warhammer, it's head slammed and embedded into the ground. The whole thing was golden, with a sturdy shaft inlaid with red jewels and the head emblazoned with a likeness of my sun. The whole thing glowed with a fiery power. Dawnhammer, my old companion.
With a simple thought Dawnhammer pulled itself from the ground and flew to my side where I rested it across my shoulders, I could waste no time, whatever had done this could still be around. And it would face my fury soon enough.
The horror of it all only worsened as I climbed the hill of Canterlot, blackened bones cracked underneath my hooves causing me to shutter. What disturbed me was how small many of the bones and remains seemed to be... foals. Smaller still in their scorched form, their size was all that differentiated them from what must have been their parents.
I recalled wars waged in ages past, when I and my sister would be the spearpoint of our empire. In my youth I knew not the value of restraint and thought only of the glory of the conquest and not of the terror I wrought. These flames that surrounded me now, the smell of burning flesh, how many times had such dead been brought about by my own actions? Was the occurrence retribution for my sins long past?
The hill levelled out and from here it would be a level path to my palace. More and more corpses lined the streets yet amongst them I saw movement. Two figures stepping carefully through the carnage, looking for survivors? I couldn't tell, they hadn't noticed me yet. Both wore armour so stained with soot I couldn't tell what the colour had been originally. Yet the way the carried themselves along with the spears they held made them look as two of my guardsmen.
They noticed me now, one exclaiming and getting the attention of the other. They stared at me in... Disbelief? And I think, fear. Why would they fear me? Wasn't I their holy protector? I gave my best smile, warm and welcoming, trying to make them feel safe while taking a step forward.
Immediately they tensed and brandished their weapons, I was abashed, and I admit offended. Why? Treason from my guardsmen? They must have still been reeling from whatever catastrophe had befallen my city, yes that was it.
"My soldiers..." I said calmly. "It is okay now, there is no danger-"
As if spurred on by my words they charged! And while my mind was caught surprised and shocked my body reacted as it should have. Easily I deflected their thrusts away from me, throwing them both off balance. I then used the butt end of my weapon to land firmly on the sides of each head. They would awake with very bad headaches, but they would be alive.
Yet why had they attacked me? Surely it must of have been a spout of madness on their part. Violence brought about by shattered minds. It seemed the only reasonable explanation.
In any sense, it didn't seem like I would face much more resistance on my path to the palace. Yet the faces of those two guardsmen lay heavy upon my mind as I neared those grand gates, where they the only ones left?
The grand entrance lag crumbled, the two doors half-melted slag upon the floor. Everywhere the once beautiful artistry of my home was stained with black streaks, the stone and clay cracking from the sheer heat that must have ravaged this place.
I didn't know what I expected when I entered my throne room, but certain,y it wasn't this. Clearly the fire had begun here as every inch of the room had been stripped back several layers and heated to an almost glass-like sheen. The two thrones remained and upon one, the smaller of the two, say my sister Luna.
I was taken aback, both by her appearance and the fact that she was still here. But of course she wouldn't be dead? Yet I thought she must have fled the battle. Yet here she sat. Clad in her own ebony armour which appeared dented and damaged, laying across her shoulders was her weapon, a long dark shaft with a deadly curved blade curling back. The Crescent Moon Scythe.
"Sister!" I managed to exclaim once my shock had passed. "What occurred? Whom attacks us? Are the citizens safe? Luna?"
The look my sister gave me would chill my heart.
"Fascinating," Luna said. "That you do not recall, even in this state. Interesting still that you reverted back, perhaps you tired from the battle?"
"Battle? What battle? Luna tell me! We must regroup if we are to be victorious!" I said, what was wrong with her? "Who did this?"
"You did, my sister, or do you not recognize the flames you yourself wrought?" Luna said, her voice broke.
"I couldn't have..." I began. Yet, could I not have? After all had I not done it all before? So many conquests and battles, had I not brought doom then? How many had died to my flames? Thousands? More?
Why not to my own subjects?
No, not my own subjects. The deniers, the betrayers. Like those two guardsmen I met. They were not mad the were treasonous! As were all I had burned....
Memories returned to me again, my sun, me beautiful sun. I couldn't let it set, no, all should bask in its holy light for eternity should they not? No, they rejected my gift! Luna! She defied me! Turned my soldiers against me! Yes, I remembered, a great clash between us! The sky ablaze, the city wrought with destruction, and I wreathed in flame.
I began to laugh. Had they thought I was defeated? That the day was won? Fools! I laughed harder as flame wreathed my body, morphing it's form and crowning my head. Who where they to defy me? To challenge my might?
For was I not Daybreaker? Goddess-Empress of the Holy Sun?
"Ah there it is," Luna was saying, standing up and hefting her weapon. "A brief respite, a brief hope, I was foolish to think this was over."
"Yes! You were!" I declared. "You should kneel Luna! And accept the inevitable! The sun shall not set today!"
"It must!" Luna snapped, her emotions breaking through her composure. "It is your duty! Your purpose! Do you recall not to oaths you have sworn?! Would you cast aside the natural order of the world so carelessly?!"
"There is a new order to the world," I said, hefting Dawnhammer. "And it shall be born in fire."
"Not while I live!" Luna said, and so it began.
She came upon my in an instant, teleporting in a blink of an eye to swing her scythe in a vicious uppercut. I caught the blow with the shaft of my hammer and twisted it sway while also delivering a heavy smack to Luna's temple. She stumbled and I twisted my hammer around to deliver a harder blow but before my eyes she became like shadow only to shift and move and appear behind me.
I snarled and swung Dawnhammer in a wide arc towards Luna which she lithely dodged under, the fire singing the ends if her fur. With speed she struck towards my face and I managed to move just enough to only receive a glance upon my cheek. Yet with her so close I swung at her again and my hammer caught upon her side and sent her flying into a nearby pillar which crumbled upon her impact.
I could feel my blood burn like molten lava from my wound yet I ignored it. Luna was not done yet as she recovered, her wing which was caught in my blow was a mangled mess of splintered bones. Golden ichor, the blood of our kin, flowed from her wounds as her inherent magic slowly stitched the flesh and muscles back together. Like me Luna was a goddess I was reminded, yet her might was not equal to mine!
I roared and shot forward, our weapons collided as I pushed her back across the floor. Our hooves screeching and throwing up sparks. I gathered flame in my mouth and let in forth towards Luna's exposed face, she could but just turn away so I only managed to burn away the flesh and fur of her left ear.
Yet she was tiring, I could see it! Even as I was sent skidding backwards by a magical shove I could see that Luna had little energy left. Smiling I gathered forth my power to my horn and let lose its fiery might towards her in a beam of energy, if was met by Luna's own cool lunar lights. Where our powers met forms a singularity of energy, an area of our light. Lightning discharged off of our bodies and the ground beneath began to crack and quake.
For a moment but only for a moment did it seem we were evenly matched yet slowly I began forcing her back and back until her energy failed her and I sent her crashing to the ground. Her body burned and singed all over.
I approached, she was barely breathing as I leaned over her. She never stood a chance.
"I shall not beg," Luna said weakly.
"I never expected you to," I said softly, she was no threat now. I was gentle when I picked her up.
"I do expect you to enjoy your new accommodations," I said. "You should be familiar with them by now."
Luna's eyes widening told be she understood as I summoned forth my fury and might and with an angered roar I sent her flying through the roof upon a stream of fire. Her form and essences disappearing to land upon that moon she loved so much.
Now I stood alone, in my throne room surrounded by fire and ash. And I laughed. It had been easy, do very easy. But why wouldn't it have been? Now began a new reign, my reign. None who yet lived would survive the flame.
I laughed harder, my laughs carrying all throughout the palace and the ashes that where once Canterlot.
