Ritual

Luna was the first to leave the room, indignation and fury in the corners of her eyes. Going round and round in circles, no definitive answers and even more questions levied against the situation. How many more to come? Why would Celestia hide so much from her?

Her hooves shook against the floor. Her whole life. Cursed? She tried to have compassion for her sister, lucid and aware during all these years, watching all of her friends and comrades wither away and die... but the omission was so substantial she felt she was going to vomit. She was shaken by Liam's hand resting upon her shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

He moved around her and looked up into her eyes.

She threw her head over his shoulder, a sudden heaviness descending upon her. Her eyes watered, but she did not shed any tears, holding back the flood with a determined anger. She pulled him closer with her jaw as he embraced her, her pupils constricting into narrow turrets.

"Nay, but We shall have our answers," she said as she pulled away.

She quickly turned around and her horn began to light. Her fur rose slightly, as though pulled up by static, and a glow grew in her eyes. Her scowl lengthened as the power in her horn intensified, and in a flash, both she and Liam found themselves within Celestia's bedchambers. The plush carpet sat where it always did, and sunlit curtains wafted in a breeze unfelt by either of them.

She was not there.

Luna took in a deep breath to calm herself, but the sensation of that blasted coffee table against her fur quickly derailed that plan. She drove her hoof through it, snapping the wooden surface in-two, sending table legs flying. Liam flinched at the sudden crash, swallowing back the nausea of teleporting.

"Find the book," she ordered of Liam, staring down the poor guard that came to investigate.

"Princess-... er, Miss Luna, y-you're not permitted he-" she began.

Luna strode forth with a hellish look on her face, approaching the mare with an unstoppable gait. The mare quickly bolted from the door with a yelp, legs fast upon the ground as she ran for her life. The sight of the small pony fleeing filled her with a guilt, but it only served to fuel the fire within.

She turned around to find Liam looking down at the coffee table. He knelt down to pick up the remains of a teacup on its surface, movements slow and hesitant. Luna flew further into her rage and found her sister's dresser, set upon tearing it apart. She felt fangs fall upon her lower lips, and as she moved forward, she could see her fur darkening.

Luna took the drawer handles on the dresser, grabbing four at a time with her magic, and threw them across the room with reckless abandon. The small wooden boxes crashed and exploded against walls, clothing and jewelry flying through the air with the violent speed. She caught her own eyes in the mirror for the briefest second, and the face she wore was one familiar to her. It was familiar to Liam as well, having seen it during their talks with Chrysalis, but it was different this time. There was no concern in her irises, no fear nor love tethering this anger, not like before. It was free, and he could feel it eating away at her heart. It was betrayal, the degree to which he could not imagine feeling himself.

Her entire life was founded upon a lie, and now in this bedroom, she was trying to exorcise that demon. Nightmare Moon and Luna together, thrashing out in wild fury.

Though he knew she needed to let this out, he also knew that if she approached Celestia in this manner, all hell might break loose. He approached slowly, flinching and recoiling as errant pieces of furniture found themselves in splinters and fragments around him.

"Luna..." he said quietly.

Her smoldering eyes landed upon him. The expression upon his face tempered her anger briefly, but it flared once more, cat-like pupils tightening again. This was all Celestia's fault. Liam saw her like this because of Celestia. She growled and levitated the whole dresser, the few drawers that survived the initial onslaught fell freely to the ground. She let out a shout as she surveyed the ruins, no sign of any hidden journal in sight. He recoiled at the outburst.

"Luna," he said quieter. His resolve was diminishing as childhood fears bubbled to the surface.

She ignored him, frustrating mounting and blood boiling, cerulean orbs fixated on one of many bookshelves lining the walls. They would be next. She grabbed at the spine of an old, gray book when she heard a slight pop near the doorway. Without looking, she sent the book threw the air in that general direction.

Celestia was unfazed as it slammed against the wall behind her, magenta eyes locked upon Luna. Her royal adornments glinted as she walked forward underneath a few sunrays.

"We do not share the same blood!" Luna roared.

Celestia stopped. Her brow furrowed.

"So you have spoken with Discord," she looked to the diminutive Liam, arms crossed and pressed tight to his chest.

"Indeed," she declared.

"Luna, I-" Celestia started with an apologetic look.

Her hooves impacted the floor hard enough to shake the room.

"Thine lies and omissions pervade our deepest memories, sister. Should We even address thee as such, given thy duplicity?"

Celestia threw a hoof forward against the ground in a lesser stamp.

"I am your sister, do not ever say otherwise!" she shouted, tears in her eyes.

Luna would feel pity, maybe guilt, had circumstances been different. But here, and now, Luna could not feel the particular warmth she felt for her sister. Luna brought down the bookcase, not turning to watch the carnage, and instead advancing on Celestia.

"We had thought We knew thine honesty, but now, all is cast in doubt," she spat. Liam feared this was all set to explode.

Those magenta eyes widened in pain and threatened to spill over. It brought her a warped satisfaction to see her sister in pain, when just a day earlier she sought to comfort her, and that sensation only made her angrier.

"Tell us then, tell us our true origin. What past are we robbed of?" she sneered.

Celestia's head dipped low, remaining silent. Luna knew that guilty face.

"Celestia is not your name, nor Luna mine. Discord hath revealed much," she pressed her attack.

"Those are our names Luna!"

Luna challenged her with her eyes. Celestia conceded with another shameful glance away. She bit her lip and took a breath.

"Our old names escape my memory. I have not thought of them in a long time, but it is true."

"Who were we then?!" she screeched.

Liam's hand touched at her withers tentatively. Luna's head shot back, mouth open and ready to launch into a rant against him, but she studied his worried face for a few moments before calming herself. She let out a ragged sigh and some of that vitriol disappeared, but not much. She turned back to face Celestia.

"Who were we then?"

Celestia wiped her cheeks.

"Father did not care for our lives before so he did not record them. Our families, whoever they were, gave us to him."

"For what?" Luna sharply pressed.

"To ascend," she said softly, "in a pact with a True God."

Liam's brow quirked.

"What was their name?" Liam asked.

"He did not speak it," she said.

Luna looked to Celestia when she realized that she too had never heard his name spoken. They had only known him as Father. Slowly, Liam's brows came down upon his eyes and he spoke.

"Who the fuck is Astral then?"

Torches burned orange against the cold stone walls of the hallway. The architecture was different here, no polish nor care afforded to the uneven stones below his feet. Liam felt as though he were traversing an old cobblestone road, but Luna knew these stones. Her hooves felt at home against their icy hardness, shoes quietly clacking as they followed her sister. This entire section of the castle was taken from the Everfree, but how long ago, she could not guess.

The dimness of the hallway faded as they approached a large room, older, tattered curtains billowing apart to reveal the city below. The stale air of this hidden room found itself on Liam's tongue, the stench of old books and faded scrolls hanging heavy, a historian's paradise of undisclosed and buried information sitting upon plainly constructed shelves.

Here, there were no furnishings, no lavish coffee tables or exquisite sofas. Instead, only the light from the window and a single wooden chair occupied the center of the room. Celestia stopped, casting a spell into the open space before the chair, and slowly a podium materialized. Upon its surface was a red book, dyed leather with yellow pages exposed to the air.

She turned, her ethereal mane floating as she inspected the two, an alien nervousness on her body.

"This is his manuscript," she whispered. Her legs trembled.

Luna quickly ripped the tome from the podium and it flew towards her. She sat on her haunches and poured over the pages, intently examining each entry. The text was in old Equish, and despite the moving of time and the developments of ponykind, her understanding was immovable. As she read, Liam approached the window to find a translucent golden glow, brightening as he drew nearer.

"Many pages are missing, but he alludes to the ritual that we ascended by. Discord is absent from the text, save for passing curses and lamentations. The rest of the discernable passages are entries regarding treatises and agreements between folk of the time," Celestia said to Luna.

A particular passage within the pages sent Luna's eyebrows upwards. She read on, with her sister growing more uneasy as Luna navigated the words upon the page. Her anger had become shock, and the information within made her sick to her stomach. Such sentiments, she had believed, had only been held by the enemies of Equestria.

Plainly written upon those pages were those sentiments, those same sentiments, and the fondest of memories burned in the revelations she made.

"He was not our Father..." she hissed.

Celestia stepped forward and tried to smooth things over.

"He raised us, Luna."

Luna's hoof flattened the book against the floor and she reeled.

"He speaks of culling the griffons, conquering the dragons!"

"To unify Equestria, Luna. To protect ponykind," Celestia pleaded her case.

"All thy words hath been lies! Our name is poison on thy lips! Be silent!"

She meekly put her head down and tried to hold back her tears. It was all falling apart again. How soon would things spiral out of control. How soon would her sister trust her again? Did she deserve it? Liam beckoned Celestia over with a hand. She approached like a wounded animal, gazing out onto the landscape with a hollow look.

"Your dad sounds like a real charmer," Liam murmured.

"I am in no mood. This does not concern you," Celestia said quickly.

Liam turned his head to her and gave her a long look. He shook his head.

"It's definitely concerning. I can see why you'd hide all this, with your whole 'friendship is magic' spiel. Kind of undermines the whole message when your dad is a genocidal racist."

"He was not a racist! He-... he just wanted-"

"To exterminate threats to ponykind?"

Celestia almost hid behind her mane. She swallowed and Liam turned to face the window again.

"About... eighty years ago, a man just like your father took power in a country called Germany. Over six million people died in camps specifically designed to murder them. It took the combined efforts of the whole world to stop him, and it cost the world more than forty-million people. If that book is any indicator, I'd wager they have far more in common than you say."

Celestia felt as though she were dying.

"Do you share his opinions?"

"No!" she said in offense.

"Then re-evaluate your opinion of him, welcome to the daddy issues club," he patted her on the back.

It gave her no comfort, though she suspected it wasn't intended to offer any.

"What is this?" Luna called to Celestia.

In the back of the book sat an obsidian plate, weightless, wrapped over the final section of the journal. Upon the glassy surface, faint etches in red lettering were sprawled over the surface, engraved as though written hastily. The symbols were unknown to Luna, though she felt a faint connection with the material it was engraved upon. A sense of unease fell over her as she inspected the symbols again.

Celestia approached, promptly stopping when Luna's icy glare landed upon her. She wanted answers, not company. She dipped her head.

"I do not know. I cannot recognize the language, nor can I translate it. Our most powerful translation spells are ineffective against it."

Liam took a glance at the tablet and felt an immediate familiarity with the symbols upon it, approaching slowly. They seemed to quiver from a distance, and as he approached, they moved like fluid over the page. To the others, they remained static, sitting, waiting to be deciphered.

"I... I think recognize it," Liam said.

Liam took a step forward, drawing both of their attentions to him.

"What?" Celestia asked in disbelief.

"It's... I don't know what it is, but I've seen it before. It's... changing in front of me."

Luna walked over to Liam with the book held aloft before her. She set it in his hands and the symbols darted about the surface rapidly. His couldn't keep his eyes on them for long.

"Canst thou read the passage?"

He looked up into her eyes, then back down to the page.

"I can try, but... I don't have to worry about a curse or anything, right?"

Celestia shook her head and approached, her white coat seemingly brightening at the possible developments. Though her eyes had become weary, there was that same thirst for knowledge within them.

"There are no enchantments or hexes upon the book," she said.

Liam took the book and walked over to the podium, setting it down on the surface. He removed his jacket and knelt over the tablet within the book, trying to catch a fleeing symbol to no avail. Something was wrong. Something wasn't working. A warmth began to build on his collar, and touching at it with a finger, he felt the stone embedded in the amulet was growing hotter and hotter.

"I think the pendant is interfering with it. I'm going to take this off, don't cast a translation spell. I don't know how magic works, but I think there's interference. If I fall over and die, something went wrong," he said to the air.

He pried the chain from his neck and lifted the amulet in the air, offering it to Luna. She took it and said something in Equish. He gave her a deadpan look. She shook her head and closed her eyes, realizing her mistake, then reopened them to give Liam a look that communicated caution.

He nodded, then looked to the tablet before him. The symbols were still, and he could feel a faint hum in his mind. The sensation almost drove him away, but he figured there might be some sort of magical force at work. Slowly, the darkest corners of his brain began to stir, and he became familiar with the alien symbols.

'Adema... ilma... vasa...'

Then, he became fluent, information rushing to the forefront of his mind. They did not make sense to him. He should not have been able to read them. But he read, and he read aloud.

"Adema... adema..."

Vasa...

The voice was not his own.

The room fled away into an uncontainable darkness, a deep swirl into the unknown. Liam tried to pry his eyes from the page, but it was too late. He could see without seeing, watching from afar as he continued to read the symbols upon the page.

Doubts and fears blanketed his mind as he was flung into the furthest depths of the pages, iconography and images flashing in the forefront of his brain, rushing in with information he did not recall. He felt a weight upon his body, as though he were being pulled down by every atom of his being.

"Juma..."

The field returned, vague in detail, outlines of events passed. His body stood in the center of the vision, terrible screeching cutting through the silence and the fog, moans and cries echoed across the brain. As information filtered in, a deep nausea struck him, the sickly sweet smell of decay filling his nostrils.

"Ademaaaa... iiiiilmaaa... vasa jumaaaaa..."

A prayer. A ritual. His skin grew warm, though it felt numbed, as though he were drugged.

Fifteen ponies stood still in the dark, eyes closed, breathing fast as the spices flooded their bodies. Their details were approximations, colors changing and features blending together. One pony, a stallion, walked about them. He spoke, but the meanings of his words were lost.

The First of the line was clubbed by another, the thick wooden rod breaking apart skull and bone with brutal and heavy swings. The stallion swung. Brain matter was in his mane. They stripped the body of its skin. He tried to scream, but no sound left him.

The Second was clubbed. Burn the skin of the First upon her corpse.

"Lükütaka a saran e jag ilmaaaa..."

Blood collected in bowls beneath, grooves cut into the earth and packed soil carried the blood down. The bowls were collected. Three and Four, splashed, blood upon their coats. Clubbed. The teeth were taken, the others remained still. No cries, no screams, the spices kept them quiet. Blood upon their coats, blood upon the grass. Each blade cut deeper with the red. Blood upon their coats.

Liam tried again to pull away to no avail. His eyes closed, but the images remained.

Five and Six, they smiled with broken grins, a knife driving deep into the flesh of their underbellies. It tore apart the seal of the skin, revealing the treasure within, sacred organs for the tribute. Rampant thoughts bore into Liam's head, thoughts that were not his own. A chorus of voices, the voices of the sacrificed, joined the mantra. Their dissonant cries and passionate voices sang songs of victory and sorrow.

"Tadz mińä tadz kütke..."

Seven and Eight lifted their heads high as the stallion approached. They smiled to him. His chant continued, a mare and a stallion revealing long knives. They took their eyes and cut their tongues, lifeless bodies laying in the grass.

"Tadz mińä tadz tsa um ilmaaa..."

Nine and Ten exposed their throats for offering. The stallion took them as his own. Liam felt his stomach churning.

"Tadz kadz tadz sakluli... nüta tadz jumawanša..."

Eleven spread her legs and lifted her tail, then Twelve threw himself upon her. In their mating, they were immolated.

"Nüta-"

Thirteen, Fourteen and Fifteen pushed forward small shapes. The shapes wobbled and shook in the darkness, no fire could illuminate them. They moaned and cried. The stallion stepped towards them and spoke in his language, taking them to the center of the circle. One of the shapes shook and trembled under the assault of the cold winds. A familiar color shone from one of the shapes. They were the children.

They were the last to be sacrificed.

'It is spread too far. This is a lost cause,' an unfamiliar voice called out. Liam could not identify the source.

'Sarkikós-' a call came from deep within, as though responding. It hummed and whirred in a broken way, but felt solid in its foundations. The vision was stripped away violently by forces unseen, leaving him in a dark void. His mind reeled and his temples throbbed. His teeth clenched and ground together.

'Recalibrate, start again,' came another voice. This voice was familiar to him.

"Tadz-"

It felt as though his teeth were being ground to dust within his mouth.

'How much of him is left?' Was that...?

'Enough.'

Liam's body shook and trembled under the overwhelming forces acting upon him. His eyes burned, hot coals within his skull scalding the flesh about them. He could not scream.

'Diaperó-'

Finally, the veil cleared. The darkness seeped away into the corners of the room, daylight returning once more and filtering through the windows. He was once more in Celestia's bedroom. Weren't they somewhere else? The world felt colder, the warmth of the sun long since passed. The smell of the linens and the freshly cleaned bedroom was replaced by the scent of rotting meat and burning flesh. The rot fell away slowly, but the stench of scorched flesh hung heavy in his nostrils, and his pallid skin was slick with sweat. The podium was splinters where his hands were placed, his grip tight and palms raw from the force. His eyes did not blink, and he felt a warm wetness about them, running down his face.

He tried to speak. It was Sarkic! He tried to say anything, but no words came to him.

Droplets of red fell from his eyes, landing on the page and sizzling away, leaving behind dry brown stains. He could feel something shift and churn within him, within his mind. He unclenched fists as best he could, webby strands of sinew clinging from finger to palm, pulsing with his heartbeat. The thin, veined strands retreated back into the wounds of his palms, the wooden shards within pushed out with alien muscles. His hands shook as the final webs fell within the flesh, the gashes coming closed with no evidence of them having been there in the first place. No pain found him. With his hands close to his face, the stench had intensified, and he spun his hand around to find the source.

There, burned into the back of his hand, the golden sigil radiated immense heat. It seemed to hum faintly, echoes of the voice he had heard before, echoes of the voice he once possessed. He found another upon his other trembling hand, and watched as the symbols were slowly overtaken by flesh, growing around and over the molten lines. As the final blankets of flesh fell over the fiery symbols, he turned back to face them.

He felt his legs weaken, a hand shooting down to brace his fall. He sat there, eyes wide in horror, staring into space while the blood on his cheeks stretched into thin vine-like growths. He felt them retreat back into his tear ducts, fingers numbly pushed against them, slithering away inside his head. The blood that sat within his sclera fell back and sank within his iris.

He felt like screaming, throwing his voice into the air until he couldn't. His mind was alight with foreign activity, feeling memories and thoughts move about behind his consciousness, words and ideas spoken in hushed tones away from his mind. Everything was unraveling. His lips moved, but no sound erupted. He looked at Luna with terror in his eyes, and a question finally arose from within, bouncing around the walls of his skull.

Before he could speak, he saw their hatred, pure and raw. They could see what he was now, what he had become. He knew in their eyes, fear touching the rims, wide and violent. Their horns illuminated together, whips and lashes of energy dashing around the room. Their auras grew and pulsed, and he saw their nature within them, vessels for power beyond comprehension, of alien and unknowable origin. He hated how she looked at him. Betrayal.

"Synkrató!"

He blinked, standing at the podium, gripping its edges. Had that not happened? There was no smell, save for the lingering scent of old paper, and the faint burning of the torches. The hidden room. He heard them speaking behind him in their language, barely audible over the ringing in his ears. They were speaking to him. Was this real? He released the podium and touched at his cheeks, and no blood stared at him from his withdrawn fingers. His heartbeat failed to steady itself. The back of his hand bore no mark. He jumped when the amulet landed softly before him, glinting on the floor below. It made the loudest noise in the quietest room. They went silent and he slipped it on, and though he feared what he'd see, he turned to face them.

They looked to him with concern. The fear upon his features was harrowing. They did not stare at him in that same hatred. Luna's eyes looked as they had before, under the stars and beneath the heavens. His throat tightened. Was it safe?

"Liam? What is it?"

He rasped, "you weren't his daughters, you were sacrifices."

He felt dizzy. He was going to faint.

His legs buckled and he toppled to the floor, Luna darting forward to help him. Her fur was warm. He clung to her hooves like an infant, trying to forget and trying to remember the sights he'd seen. His teeth chattered and a shiver exploded across his form. She nuzzled him and brought his jacket over in her magic, and wrapping it upon him, she caught his gaze.

"Liam," Luna gasped, "your eye..."

Liam felt it. Something moved, and in those last moments of consciousness, he had an answer to his question.

He was not human.

Author's Note

Here we are. Now for a break.

Leave your comments, thoughts and critiques below. If I messed up somewhere, which I probably did, go ahead and point it out. I'll get to fixing it immediately.

See you all next time,
Caspian