From the ashes

A light orange, yellow maned, pegasus in golden armor was flying with his squad towards their destination in silence. That silence was broken when one of the squad members spoke up.

“Commander sunrise, do you want me to go ahead and serve the damage?” A young guard asked. Sunrise Road looked back at his young comrade and nodded his head, singling him to proceed As the young soldier flew past the group.

From the reports that he got, Sunrise was mildly surprised by it. One of the equestrian railroad trains derailed a few hours ago and the death toll only complemented how bad the crash was. There hasn’t been a train crash, at least not this bug, ever since Sunrise could remember, and they were about to see it first hoof.

In the distance, the crash site came into view as the commander and his squad approached. The train itself was toppled over with its wooden cab in splinters, lucky the driver had hopped off before he could get injured. As for the cars themselfs, it was the worst site Sunrise had seen in his entire life to the point he almost felt sick.

Paramedics were on scene treating any injured, Some ponies on stretchers with broken or missing limbs with some covered by white cloth. The worst being the ponies that were in the cars, or what was left of them. Sunrise and his squad landed near the site as they started to spread out, taking the injured away to the hospital, or cleaning up any damage.

Sunrise looked over at one of the cars and something made him feel a bit disgusted a bit. A middle aged stallion was handing out of a broken window, glass piercing his abdomen and body parts twisting in ways Sunrise thought wouldn’t be possible. He passed the stallion's corpse as it was removed by two of his soldiers carrying it off.

Sunrise spread his wings and used them to fly up onto a train car that was flipped on its side and broken in half. The inside was surprisingly intact except for the widows and some minor damage to the seats.

His eyes scanned the ruined interior with slightly narrowed eyes, luggage was everywhere, items and clothing covering the floor. Sunrise's eyes almost passed over a pile of rubble and clothes, until he noticed a navy blue hoof sticking out of it.

Rushing over and grabbing it, he pulled on it as gently as he could while moving any rubble out of the way with his wings. Once out, Sunrise noticed the pony was a slender looking unicorn stallion, he almost mistook him for a mare, with an odd looking horn and blindfold covering his eyes. Looking over The stallions body, Sunrise released a relieved sigh to see minimal damage, mainly due to the old, and now damaged, armor covering his body. Sunrise wasted no time putting the unconscious stallion on his back and bringing him to the paramedics.

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Cold stone-1st person

The familiar stench of burning air filled my nose as my eyes slowly opened, only to widen at what I saw. I was in that weird realm again, the nonsensical environment, the horrible air, and most of all…it.

This time however the statue was more clear now and I was able to make out details this time. The statue had the body of a regular body but more…boney? The ribs of the creature showing through. Instead of normal front forelegs, they were replaced by two powerful, bird-like wings that folded against itself. The back legs almost resemble that of a griffon but more bird-like in appearance. The most noticeable feature of the statue was the bird head That looked exactly like that of the fabled phoenix.

My body stiffened as a Booming sound echoed in the endless void as the eyes of the state glowed like a roaring fire. “This path thou hast trekked will only bring suffering, thou can not turn back, nor must go any further, thy must carve his own to ascend.” The voice of the avian statute boomed, making my body vibrate violently.

Despite this, I felt more calm than the first time I met the stone creature, almost like meeting a friend you haven’t seen in a while. I then noticed something on the statue, black tendril poking out behind it and looked to be infecting the stone creature like a parasite. Before I could look at it more, a pulling sensation dragged me back as my vision went black.
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I tried opening my eyes, but a bright light forced me to shut them again in sudden pain. There were some strange beeping noises coming from both sides of me, and the repetitive sounds started to annoy me. My eyes finally stopped burning as I slowly opened them, my altered vision only being filled with a white light that flickered momentarily. I turned my head side to side to see strange boxes with blinking lights and tubes that connected to my forearm.

Looking around some more, the only other features I made out were the bed that I was laying on, two chairs opposite to it, a window to the left of my bed, and a wooden night stand under it.

A knock suddenly came from a door off to the right, and turning my head towards it, it opened to reveal a young earth mare with a nurse's cap and clipboard, who entered and closed the door behind her as she approached me with a smile.

“Good morning mister, are you feeling any better?” The nurse asked while writing something onto her clipboard.

“Where am I? What is this place?” I asked in my usual monotone voice. The mare's smile felt a bit, but returned as she replied.

“You’re in Canterlot central hospital, you unfortunately got involved in a bad train accident a few days ago. You are pretty lucky to only come out with only a couple of lacerations and a fractured hoof.” The mare trotted over to my bedside and sat down as she finished explaining. ”I’m going to need some basic information for the records, then I can let you rest okay?” the nurse said with her clipboard and pencil in hoof.

I stayed quiet for a moment as I gathered my memories. The last things I remembered were that kind stallion that helped me, getting on the train and falling asleep. That stallion was most likely dead but recent events left me emotionally drained as I looked at the nurse.

“My name is Black Ivory, I’m 33 years old” I started out at the mare and wrote down what I said onto her clipboard. The mare looked up from writing and had an uncomfortable look on her face.

”I-I’m sorry if this is a sensitive topic, but are the scars on your face…recent?” The mare gained a sheepish smile as she looked to the side. ”I-it's to make sure any recent injuries, not from the accident, weren’t infected.”

At the mention of my face, my eyes widened a bit and my stomach dropped as I quickly covered my face by wrapping a foreleg around it. Even though my eyes were covered, I could still see the mare back away from the sudden motion with a surprised expression. The room was silent for a moment before I slowly removed my foreleg away from my face.

“S-sorry Mrs. it's just that I don’t like my face being out in the open.” Ever since my face first healed, my face only served to get me disgusted and uncomfortable glances from Sombra's soldiers. Their glances were distracting and made me self conscious about myself. So my king came up with the idea of me wearing a blindfold to cover my scars, and ever since that day the glances stopped and I wore that blindfold almost all the time.

”Also, where is my gear? I don’t see it anywhere.” The mare looked confused for a moment before a look of realization came across her.

“OH, your ‘clothing’ had to be discarded. They said it was probably the reason why you aren’t dead right now, that unfortunately meant that they were in damage beyond repair, I’m sorry” The nurse gave me an apologetic look as my mood dropped even more than before.

“It's alright Mrs. did my blind fold stay intact, and if it did, can I have it back. ”I requested with some desperation in my tone. The mare smirked as she pulled out the worn out cloth from a saddle bag I didn't notice before and placed it in front of me.

“Luckily it did Mr.stone. I also have your cloak as well, also, call me pumpkin spice, Mrs makes me sound old.” She replied with a giggle as she set my cloak on the end of my bed. I tied my blindfold around my head as a small smile came to my face. Pumpkin spice asked me a few questions and then left me to myself.

I took this time to get out of my bed, cold air passing over my now naked body, making me shiver a bit. I got out of the bed and my legs almost gave out.’Guess being in bed for days left me weak.’ I thought of balancing myself out. I trotted over to the widow and looked out of it, only for my eyes to widen again at the landscape that was in front of me.

The place itself was expansive to say the least, buildings white as clouds with purple and gold accents covered most of the view as the streets below were filled with ponies, mostly unicorns, wearing expensive clothing. The most shocking part was the fact this kingdom was situated on a mountain, from what I could see, and the thought of the kingdom sliding off frightens me a little.

“So this is the city of Canterlot I’ve heard about?” a familiar voice suddenly made itself known, making me jump a little in surprise.

“King Sombra I was beginning to wonder why you were being so quiet. Also…what is a sit-tee?” I asked. The immediate response I got was a amused grunt from my king.

“While you were sleeping, I was busy trying to get enough magic from the atmosphere so you can perform magic.” Sombra explained.

“I-I’m sorry sir, but i am not sure i understand what you mean by that.” I asked with a timid voice instead of my monotone one. Sombra’s voice sighed and I could imagine him pinching the bridge of his muzzle with his hoof.

“I should have expected this since you weren’t a unicorn before. To put it lightly, the sun and moon are the main sources of magic for everything and all living and nonliving things absorb that magic. Then the magic those things absorb get expelled into the atmosphere for all creatures to use. Then when a creature, like unicorns, uses magic, it gets reabsorbed by the earth and the cycle repeats. It is like how a plant makes oxygen but with magic instead, and I'm currently trying to use your horn to absorb as much magic as it can from the area.”Sombra finished his crash course with a heavy sigh of breath.

My head hurt slightly from the short explanation…and maybe a concussion…but I tried to understand it as best I could as I got back into my bed.

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Celestia-3rd person

As another talked Celestia ear off about some petty inconvenience, something was making her nervous. Ever since her faithful student and her friends defeated Sombra, there was a little nagging feeling in the back of Celestia's mind that she was missing something. It didn’t help that she felt the awful energy of dark magic somewhere in her kingdom, so she recently had guards patrol more often in search of a pony with features of a dark mage, such as a sharp horn or dark magical presence.

Celestia snapped herself out of her thoughts as she finished speaking with the rest of the bothersome nobles. The sun was setting as the moon rose in the distance, turning the hallways Celestia was walking down pitch black, only the light from the moon illuminating her path. Sadly the thoughts that were plaguing her mind dampened her mood as she reached her room.

Entering her room, Celestia made a beeline towards the bathroom and started a nice warm bath. Celestia climbed into the porcelain tub and her body instantly relaxed as she used her magic to levitate a small read book over to herself and began to read.

The only sounds that filled the room was the occasional turning of pages and the silent popping sound of bubbles. Celestia's ears perked up to the sound of hoof steps outside her bathroom door.

At first, Celestia thought that it was a maid bringing her something, but she didn’t remember requesting for anything to be brought to her. After a long minute of nothing, the solar diarch got out of the tub and dried herself off with a quick spell and moved towards the door as quietly as she could and put her ear up to it. She could hear the faint sounds of breathing and a slight shift of a hoof from the left side of the door. Breathing in deeply, Celestia charged her and teleported to the other side of the door with an offensive spell charged and pointed at the intruder that was…Luna with a pie in her magical grasp.

Luna stared at her sister in surprise but gained a devious grin as she threw the pie at Celestia, who didn’t dodge it in time. Luna fell on the ground laughing while holding her sides as Celestia wiped the remains of the pastry off her face.

“Ha Ha Luna, very funny, especially since I just got done taking a nice bath.” Celestia said sarcastically with a slightly amused expression.

“We are sorry dear sister, we saw an opportunity and took it. ”Luna got off the ground and gave her sister a slight glare.” consider paying back for switching the sugar with salt when i was making my tea.”

Celestia giggles at the memory of her most recent prank. Luna got introduced to the concept of ‘prank wars’ from somepony and started getting Celestia involved in their little battles. It served as a good distraction to get her mind off stressful things for a moment.

“It was quite amusing seeing you freak out, I thought you were going to banish the maid who served it to the moon. ”Celestia giggled again, Luna soon joined her as well.

Luna stopped giggling and gave her sister a worried look as she approached Celestia.

“Sister, I've noticed something has been bothering you for the past few days. Is it because of that dark present you felt?” Luna questioned, putting a wing around Celestia's shoulder>

“Yes, it's about that dark magic present. I can tell it’s somewhere far inside the Canterlot, but even I can feel it from here. Either it’s somehow multiple dark magic users, or their hate is so strong that their magical presence practically overshadows Sombra’s. ”Celestia trotted out to her balcony and looked to the night sky, the wind blowing the hair out of her face as Luna trotted beside Celestia and leaned against her.

“It’s good to be cautious but there is nothing that you or I can do right now sister. The most we can do is increase patrol guards and wait until something comes up.” Luna reasoned as she nuzzled her sister's neck.

“You're right Luna, maybe I should relax mor-'' Celestia was about to finish when suddenly the door to her bedroom burst open and Commander Sunrise came in with a panicked expression.

“Your majesty! We found the origin of the dark magic presence.” At that, Celestia and Luna faced him with shocked expressions. ”But the suspect was found at Canterlot central hospital but is on the run. ”Sunrise waited for Celestia to respond. Celestia on the other hoof gained a serious expression as she pointed her hoof at him.

“Gather any available units and pursue them, do not engage unless necessary.” Celestia commanded as she charged a teleportation spell. ”I’ll deal with them myself." Then she disappeared in a flash of light.

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Cold stone-3rd person

Cold stones body ached as he galloped as fast as he could through the lantern lit streets of Canterlot with golden armored guards hot on his trail. Cold stone turned a corner and saw a cart of apples on the side of the road. Getting close, he kicked the middle of the cart, breaking an opening in it as apples poured out of it. Most of the guards simply jumped over them, while a few unlucky few slipped on them.

So far, Cold stones stay in Canterlot was interrupted when some of the golden guards came into the hospital on the basis of ‘inspections’. When they came into Cold's room, they reacted almost instantly, a unicorn guard pointing an offensive spell at him and saying to come quietly.

Instead of coming quietly, Cold made a rash decision and jumped out of the window of his room and landed in some bushes. He’d be damned if he allowed himself to be apprehended by Celesita’s lap dogs. Galloping non-stop for 5 minutes straight wore on his already damaged body and a broken hoof didn’t make it any easier.

Cold stone turned another corner, but stopped when he saw another group of guards coming towards him. The street was at a 90 degree angle and he was currently trapped. Cold stone turned and galloped towards a window and broke it, grabbing a big shard of glass in his mouth. The taste of blood covered his tongue, but it mattered little to him as the guards were coming right at him.

Cold breathed in deeply and then got to work by pouncing at the oncoming crowd. The first guard was a unicorn who fired a stun spell, but Cold stone dogged it by moving to the right and then spinning around and slitting the guard's throat.

More guards either charged in to tackle Cold or fired stun spells. But every time Cold barely dodge their attacks and slashed, stabbed, and mained and guard that got in his way. Purple smoke started to emit from behind Colds blind fold and he roared in anger as he used a full force punch to pierce through a guards chest, the sensation of his hoof breaking not being registered.

Suddenly a golden blast came down from the sky and hit Cold stone, sending him through the wall of a nearby store. The rest of the living guards backed up as Celestia descended and touched down onto the ground. She looked around with a dark grimace at the carnage caused by Cold stone.

“Stand down now and I'll make sure your sentence won’t be as long.”Celestia commanded as her horn glowed brightly. Her furious expression turned one of shock as Cold stone trotted unsteadily out of the store. Upon seeing The solar diarch, Cold snarled like a fucking animal and got into his biped stance and pounced at Celestia.

Celestia Made a shield instead of dodging and Cold stones' broken right hoof impacted the shield, causing a small crack to appear and his blood to splatter onto the shield. Cold recoiled in pain and Celestia took this change to pin him to the floor with a levitation spell.

Some of the guards joined in by firing off multiple stun and sleeping spells at the struggling stallion. Unfortunately, the spells did little to calm the stallion's rage as Celestia started to struggle with holding Cold stone down. Celestia gave the stallion a look of pity as she charged a high level sleep spell and shot it at Cold. When Cold stone got hit, he instantly started to calm before he eventually started to lightly snore.

The guards lowered their guard upon noticing the now sleeping stallion. Celestia orders them to bound him and to have a cell ready, and to bring a clean up crew as well. Two pegasus guards cuffed and gagged Cold stone with rope, then flew their prisoner back towards the castle. As they flew into the distance, Celestia couldn’t help but stare in confusion as to how she could forget him.

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Twilight-3rd person

The sound of birds chirping and the smell of spike cooking breakfast woke up Twilight sparkle. She got out of bed and did her daily routine like she had hundreds of times before and went into the kitchen.

Spike was wearing a little pink apron as he was cooking the usual breakfast of pancakes, hay bacon, and eggs.

“Good morning Twi, did you sleep well last night?” Spike asks as he expertly flipped a pancake out of the pan as it landed perfectly on a stack of other pancakes. Twilight yawned and shook her head.

“No, I couldn’t sleep last night again. ”The tired mare half mumbled. Twilight closed her eyes, opened them up when Spike put a plate of food in front of her.

“You’re starting to worry me Twi. Ever since we got back from the crystal empire, you haven’t had a good night’s rest. I think you should go see a doctor.” Spike said with a worried look as he took his own set across from Twilight and started eating.

“Maybe you’re right spike, I shou-”Twilight was interrupted when green flames spewed green flames almost hitting Twilight's face.

“A letter from the princess, this early?” Spike questioned as he opened the letter and read it.

“My most faithful student,

Something has come up that requires you and the rest of the element bearer’s attention. I’ll send two chariots down to ponyville to make the trip quicker, bring the elements just in case.

Sincerely, Princess Celestia”

Spike finished reading as he rolled the scroll back up and sighed with a defeated expression. ”not even a week and something comes up again.”

Twilight finished her breakfast as she levitated the dishes into the sink.

“It’s probably nothing too serious…i hope.” Twilight trotted to the front door with spike tailing her but turned towards him. ”Take care of the library while I'm gone and I'll get you a ruby when I come back, ok?” Spike lit up at the prospect and gave a mocking salute which made Twilight giggle. She said her goodbyes and left the library to collect her friends.

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Cold stone-1st person

My consciousness started to return to me as my eyes fluttered open, only to close when a spike of pain ran through my head. I opened them again to find myself in a dark, dank stone cell with old rusty bars blocking my escape with torches on the wall as my only light source.

I looked down to see both my hoofs wrapped in bandages, my right fore hoof hurting a lot more than my left. I felt something attached to my horn, and reaching up to touch it, it felt like a ring of metal with a lock on it. The sound of a door opening caught my attention as I tried to move my weak body into a defensive position.

There were 5 unicorn guards who came into my cell, and with little struggle, bound my hoofs with chains and tied rope around my barrel as they led me down the dark hallway. Soon we went up a long flight of stairs and reached an oversized wooden door and went through it into a marble white hallway. After a bit more trotting in the empty white hallways, we reached an even bigger door decorated in gold.

One of the guards forcefully held my head down as me and the other guards trotted inside of the high ceiling room.

“You may stop there, make sure he doesn’t get free.”

That familiar voice almost gave me the strength to break my cuffs and charge at it, but my body was too weak to even stand at the moment. I just sat on my haunches with my head still held low and my teeth clenched as hard as I could.

“Raise your head and face justice.”

I wanted to go against her word, to just yell and curse her for a 1000 years but ,much to my surprise, my head started to slowly rise and I eventually faced…her.

“Long time no see…Black Ivory…”Celestia said with a serious glare.