Chapter I: Alighting a Beginning
All I could see was white. Everything, and all. It was bright, uncomfortable, and seemed to last for an eternity. An eternity wherein I floated in a world of Nothing, formless and shapeless.
"Child..."The voice echoed in the Nothing. "You are Ours. You will be reforged in Our image."
A flame flickered to life out of the blank Nothing. It grew and grew to consume everything, to fill my view. Heat flooded my system; I tried to shy away- but found that my body could not move, if there even was one, for I floated in the Nothing. Blinking, I tried to struggle, to kick, to do anything, though nothing changed, despite how much I struggled and pain washed over me, floating in the flames. It was surreal, actually. The flames around me grew still larger, consuming the Nothing and filling it with fire and blistering heat that caused me to try to shrink back again, though I knew it was futile. It danced and twisted around me, whatever I was- before a shape appeared in the raging inferno.
It was vague at first, like the flames, before its contours became clear and a form was made permanent. It was a pony, tall and fair, with a mane that shone and moved like fire. A proud, white horn on its head, a wing extending from each alabaster flank. An Alicorn, and by the looks of it, a Royal one. Viewing this image, pure, tantalizing magic rushed past and through my shapeless figure as two slitted, white eyes looked upon me.
The Alicorn offered a faint nod. And it all went dark.
I woke up in an expansive round bed that stood at the end of a rectangular chamber. Bookshelves lined the white walls, barring the one behind my bed, it turned out, as I scrambled to my hooves. Behind the semicircular bed from which I clambered, a mural was embedded in the wall, depicting a rising (or setting, I wasn't sure) sun.
Shrugging and folding my wings on my back, I climbed from the bed, looking through the familiar room: the grandest of my quarters in the Celestial Palace. Cantering to one of the bookshelves, my horn glowed with the rich golden colour that signified my magic, trying to telekinetically lift the book from its shelf. It glowed with the same colour as my horn before it, ever so slowly, came to shakily drift from the shelf in my telekinetic grasp.
"Prince Orion-" The book hit the ground, my tentative magical grasp broken "-Her Divine Radiance demands your presence in the Throne Room." The voice of my steward, Graphite Quill, announced from the doorway leading into the room. I glared up to the Steward, standing between the golden doors that led into my chambers. The unicorn shrank back at my glare: "Y-your Radiance?"
"We are on our way. You may lead us to the Throne Room." I said, getting up to follow the elder unicorn, and soon joining him in the red and gold hallway of the resplendent Imperial Apartments. Gold and marble decorated the walls; my hooves trod on the burgundy carpet that covered the floor. Cantering down the long, maze-like hallways of gold, marble, and shades of red, mostly with fire motifs, I zoned out--mentally preparing myself and my filly form for what was to come--and followed Graphite Quill to the room at the centre of everything: the palace, the Empire, and the Imperial bureaucracy. Coming to a halt in front of a massive golden door inlaid with a rising sun, Graphite Quill turned to me: "You may enter, Your Radiance." The unicorn bowed his head submissively, took a step back, and prepared to knock loudly on the gong announcing an arrival. 'Why does She want to see me?' I wondered as Graphite's horn alighted with a white glow.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Thrice, the gong rang out, and with nary a sound, the grand door to the Throne Room opened. Suppressing any thoughts, though the Gods know I was shaking on my spindly legs, I held my head high as I had been taught and slowly entered the Throne Room, the grand golden door slamming shut with another boom behind me.
The room was dark; no torches lined the walls, or magical fire was present to light the immensely tall room. Darkness was over me but ahead of me was a bright light. Moving through the darkness over the carpeted--red, I guessed--floor, my hooves softly treading on the carpet leading to the end of the room. I was forced to begin squinting when I came close enough, my eyes taking time to adjust from the darkness to the glowing radiance.
Seated there on Her throne was Celestia, Empress of the Solar Empire, known to her enemies as the Daybreaker. She is divinity incarnate.
The Alicorn Empress was tall, towering over all even while seated on Her throne--or maybe especially while seated on Her throne. A mane of liquid fire spilt from her neck and hindquarters, flowing down to rest like dancing flame on the ground around Her. Celestia shone with inner luminosity, the only light present in the expansive throne room; the light was echoed and reflected on Her alabaster skin--something we shared, apparently. A tall horn came from her head; two large wings, also white, extended from Her back.
Baleful red-gold, slitted eyes came to rest upon me as I humbled myself before Her throne, kneeling before the God-Empress. "Hail, Your Divine Radiance, my Empress! Ever, I am at Your service!" I cried as I had been taught, although my voice seemed oh so small in the darkness before the Day Incarnate. At least She seemed pleased.
"DO NOT BE AFRAID, OUR CHILD. RISE," The uncomfortably warm, haughty Royal Canterlot Voice of the most Divine God-Empress of the Solar Empire thundered through the throne room. Then, it softened: "Humble thyself not before Us, thine own mother."
Author's Note
So, I hope y'all are enjoying it thus far! This is my first MLP fanfiction, so bear with me while I write this; new chapters will come out as soon as I write them.
Chapter II: Will of the Sun
"Y-yes, mother." I forced out as I rose to my hooves; an involuntary shiver went through my body, which caused my red-gold mane to tremble and shudder. The only thing I could do right now, I knew, was put on a brave face, so I did. Or, at least, I tried to.
"Good, The Daybreaker rose to Her hooves, standing up from the golden throne on which She had made her rest. She descended the stairs leading down from the tall throne, each step causing the golden horseshoes of Her regalia to land with a 'clink' on the next step down. Her mane and tail burned brightly, sweeping down as She moved, with the practised elegance of a huntress or a predator. Then She stood in front of me. The blistering heat stood like a pillar, radiating outwards from Her as Celestia glared down upon me—though there was a certain authoritative softness to it now. The Empress lowered herself to my eye-level, her slitted pupils level with mine. A shaky breath left my lungs as I stood there, stock-still and frozen--ironic, really--in front of Celestia. And so, we looked at each other, our eyes level as Her burning coals just... Stared into mine. A strange warmth grew at my temples--different and yet similar to the warmth Celestia naturally produced, as She stood there. In the darkness and Her blinding light, I did not see the red aura consuming Her horn as She watched; uncomfortably entranced by Her eyes as I was.
"Thou shalt be My Heir," Celestia declared eventually, raising Herself to Her full height--seeming satisfied with what She had seen within me. A shuddering breath escaped me as my limbs locked up, followed by another shaky breath, speaking not a word as I looked up at Her. Celestia just stood there, taking in the likely highly awkward sight before her: a blank-flank, terrified Alicorn who was supposed to be of Her flesh and blood. The Empress looked around, and a fire lighted in each of the hitherto unknown and regularly-placed sconces on the walls of the room.
The room that was revealed was one of white marble, a long, red (how surprising) carpet on the floor, leading from the tall golden doors through which I had entered, to the golden throne placed directly opposite--where the Empress and I were now located. The breath was taken from me as fire ignited in the sconces, illuminating brightly the room- though Celestia shone the brightest of all. "But before such times, My prince, I hath a gift for thee," She said, looking down upon me, Her red-gold, slitted eyes catching my gaze and holding it as I shrunk back, exposed in the bright light of the fires around the room, not to forget Her own. "For I hath little patience in many-fold areas, my son. Thine development is one: for this purpose..." Burgundy magic--Daybreaker's magic--engulfed my vision, and all went black.
I awoke in a strange place. Blue-white spotted patterns stretched across the sky; strange sparkling, shimmering lights covered everything I could see; things I had never seen before. It was beautiful, and yet an uncontrollable shiver went down my spine, my hairs standing on end as I wandered endlessly through this strange panorama: with each step I took, nothing seemed to change. There was no sound, not even a whisper, which made my strange new world spin as I tried, futilely, to move, to go anywhere.
"Dost thou find it beautiful, my Son?" Celestia approached behind me, swift strides crossing from nowhere in seconds where it had cost me an eternity to move. She yet shone with an inner light, but She seemed more gentle here than in the Imperial Palace.
"I do, Mother," I answered Her, looking up at the Empress as she came to rest in front of me, glaring down through Her red-gold eyes. Somewhere, I found the courage to somehow meet her gaze. The Solar Empress seemed content and allowed silence to flourish in... Where were we? Surely not Canterlot. I decided to ask: "Where are we, Mother?"
"The realm of dreams, my Prince. Here, I may demonstrate to thee thine potential. Potential that thee must refine." She stepped forward, touching Her horn to mine.
