Start of an Era

by ChangelingProductions

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, Alternate Universe, Twilight Sparkle, Sad, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, King Sombra
Length: 1963

Celestia, after a war between ponies and dragons, raises a lone dragon egg.

The war was cruel. Dragons ravaged ponies like candies and burned their homes to the ground.

The war ended with Celestia and an army slaughtering the dragons; bringing them to extinction at the cost of her soldiers' lives.

However, one egg remained. Powered by guilt, Celestia chooses to raise this egg as her own daughter... much to the dismay of one servant.

(Cover picture was taken by me)

Published 2022-04-19 06:50:00 UTC
Last updated 2022-04-19 06:50:00 UTC

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Sombra waited in his ruler's bedroom since sunset for her return. He sat on one of her guest chairs with a face void of emotions. The only way to see how anxious and worried he was, would be by looking at his hooves. They twitched at even the slightest sound. You could drop a pin, and his hooves would respond from anxiety by giving a small twitch. He would never admit he felt this fear, but he would not deny it to those that spotted such a thing. He took a shaky sip of his tea. He hadn't been able to use his magic since the incident all those years ago... He couldn't tell if it was from his own trauma or some outside party.

He stared at the moon, thinking about its legend. Some say Luna's betrayal of Celestia was what led to these blood-filled years. He scoffed at such a thought. He could not understand how something so unconnected to the dragons could be the domino that first fell. At the same time, whenever he brought such things up to Celestia, she would go out of her way to change the topic. Even if she had no easy way to derail the conversation, she would try and force a new topic.

Finally, he saw her flying through the sky outside. Celestia, from the glance he saw, was covered in blood. Hovering beside his master, grabbed by her magic, was the sword he helped to create... along with an odd-shaped... rock? What made his back shiver was what he didn't see. Not a single soldier was with her. In every battle she has been in, she always returned with her soldiers. The ones that lived, that is.

Sombra poured another cup of tea, knowing his ruler would come in very soon.

Celestia did not want to be seen. At least, not covered head to hoof in dragon blood. She wanted to sneak into her bedroom, but Sombra was sitting; waiting for her. She flew around the castle desperately trying to find a way inside unspotted. But her guard placement was too good. She was forced to enter through the only blind spot she had placed in her castle. Her bedroom.

Flying down to her balcony, she braced herself for the conversation to come. She already knew what he would say once he spotted the egg.

The balcony door opened quickly and shut just as swiftly.

"Are you okay?" That was all Sombra whispered, not facing his leader.

"... We won," Celestia replied. She was hoping that would be that, but she knew Sombra too well by now.

"Are you okay?" Sombra asked again, allowing a little bit of his worry to enter his voice in an attempt to get his point across.

"... I'm going to shower." This answer only served to make Sombra take a sip from his tea.

"You need one." He said flatly. "You look horrific and smell just as bad."

Celestia nodded. She lowered the sword beside her bed, not caring for the stains it would leave. She then lowered the egg under her blankets. She knew Sombra would not snoop on it. He respected her too much.

Sombra never looked at Celestia as she did this. He didn't even look as she entered her private bathroom. He only asked, "When do you plan on telling them we won for now?"

"... I'll tell them we won tomorrow, and make an official statement at the end of the weak," Celestia said blankly.

"What if any rouge dragons attack at that time?" Sombra suggested. "We don't know how many are left... they could-"

"They won't." That was the only reply Celestia could muster. Sombra raised an eyebrow but went quiet. Celesstia entered her bathroom holding

Celestia felt the cool water touch her body. The crimson colors swirling below her towards the drain. She stared blankly at it, analyzing its movements. Small chunks of meat and brain would occasionally flow down as well, but they were far and few in-between. Thoughts of the battle prior filled her head. Flashes of corpses entered her head. Ponies that would never see their families again torn in half; dragons who could never get the chance to change, perished in battle, and the Dragon Lord... He just stood there. Why couldn't he run? Why did he just let her kill him? It was too easy.

Celestia could feel the water flowing under her eyes that had not come from the shower. The tears were ready to burst out of her eyes. Quickly making sure a silence spell was cast on the bathroom before taking a breath, Celestia let herself cry. She did not just cry, she also screamed like a banshee and fell to her hooves. She felt like death. Not just like death; more than she was Death. It was a feeling that made her scream louder and louder. She screamed into the void of the restroom until her tears had dried.

Finally, her coat was white again. The shower was turned off, but Celestia still stood for a few more seconds. staring into the wall.

Sombra had seemingly not moved as Celestia exited the bathroom. Only now he was reading a book. Celestia raised her head high and began walking over to her bed. The egg was disturbed.

"Celestia," Sombra spoke. His master froze for only a second before turning towards him.

"Yes?" Celestia asked.

"I just want you to know I don't approve."

"Don't approve of what?" Celestia questioned with a smile.

"You're the type to keep a trophy from a battle seemingly as bloody as the one you were in. Yet, you seem to have a dragon egg with you. Not just that, the egg itself is in pristine condition. IF you had wanted to destroy it you would have by now." Sombra stood from his chair. "I don't want to do this and I could easily stop it... even easier if I still had my magic. Yes, if I still had magic I would have smashed that egg by now. Yet I know it must mean something for you to have kept it. When it hatches, if it ever tries to harm you, I will kill it." Sombra began to walk out of the room. Celestia did not turn to face him by even a glance. "Also, if you even need some help with that thing, I will be happy to serve so long as I am not required to be nice to it." With that, Sombra left Celestia on her own.

Celestia laid down next to the egg and held it close. She planned to begin before bed, but her hooves could walk no more. "Tomorrow." She whispered. "I'll hatch you tomorrow." And with that, Celestia fell asleep.

A FillyCrib enchanted to be resistant to fire was used to rest the egg in Celestia's bathtub. Celestia wished she could enchant living ponies with this spell, but magic on living organisms was her weakness. Without her sister, she could not enchant anything living. She wished she could use the fire-proofing spell that covered her bathroom on her soldiers, but only on their armor could she enchant. Even then, that did not stop the heat from boiling the poor soldiers.

Celestia realized she was getting sidetracked and refocused on the egg. All it needed to hatch was heat, and she could do with heat hotter than the sun. She had only ever seen dragons survive such heat and knew it would not harm the egg. It would not even leave the slightest scorch mark.

Celestia closed her eyes and began to cast the spell. The way for such a spell to be cast was to push feelings of rage and hate into one's horn. Celestia imagined her sister turning into Nightmare Moon. She imagined the rotting corpse of a dragon she once called a friend. She saw the ruins of the Crystal Empire. She remembered the names of every soldier to die under her watch. Then, she pushed those memories out into the world through her horn.

The room was as bright as the sun.

One thing Celestia did not know was why lava was used to hatch a dragon. A dragon's strength, power, and even late-developing mind were based on the heat that hatched them. A dragon born in a campfire would have a slow learning curve and be relatively weaker than most dragons. While a dragon born in lava would have an easier time progressing mentally and be quite strong. Of course, all dragons start almost the same in straight and intelligence at birth, but it is time that reveals how they were hatched.

You can imagine if Celestia had known that she would not have just hatched one with the fire of the sun.

The room blazed with heat so powerful that even with the fireproofing spell, the walls began to brown from the heat, and her tub began to crack. It took Celestia only moments to realize that some of that cracking was coming from the egg. She waited until the cracking stopped before cooling the room with an ice spell.

Where the egg once stood was now replaced by a baby dragon. They were light purple with violet almost hair-like fins atop her head. Two other pink fins lay on each side of their head to act as ears later in life once they were more developed. They were also strangely too skinny for an average baby dragon; along with being bigger than most baby dragons by being the size of a young filly.

Celestia began to feel more tears form as she stared down at the sleeping baby. Only... she was smiling. Celestia stared at what was essentially her creation for almost an hour before it began to wake up.

The young dragon looked around its alien environment with curiosity before it faced Celestia. In an instance, the baby had imprinted on the only other living thing it could see and began laughing as it reached for her. Celestia used her own hooves to pick up the baby rather than magic and brought them close in for a hug. The baby did not understand what was happening, only that it wanted to be held.

Every pony outside could see the sun shining bright... and they knew it could only mean good things. The sun was blindingly bright, and that was reason enough to celebrate early.

Outside the castle, an injured guard with a blue mane cried his eyes out with a smile.

Far away, A Pink Filly from a rock farm threw her first party. Above her, a rainbow maned filly sat by their home door waiting for her father to return home from war.

In a village close by, An Apple Family walked outside and cried more tears of joy; as well, an orange filly ran across her town to tell her fancy friend the good news.

The only one not celebrating was a yellow pegasus filly. Despite her young age, she lived alone in a cottage as her family kicked her out. She took care of the animals around her home and was seen as a local hero by the town. Only her friends, the orange filly and the fancy filly knew of her secret.

She was the only one shedding sad tears. believing herself to know what the glimmer of the sun meant only death... she could only calm herself by petting the purple spotted egg beside her side.

Author's Note

I could not stop thinking about this story, so I decided to explore it a bit more. Tell me what you think.

I'll try to finish this one, but no promises.