Rising Sunset

Walking past the portal I open my eyes to a familiar octagonal room looking around at paintings with burgundy carpeting, curtains, and an old chair. Cadance looked around the room franticly, "Where are we?" She asks.

"Not a clue." I lie "Celestia where exactly is w..."

Celestia appeared to be staring at one of the paintings, her face seemed forlorn. A few moments pass as Celestia did nothing as if she didn't even notice us, Cadance and I looked at each other the concern on her face matching my own, after a few more seconds of silance we walked closer to her.

The painting in question was of Celestia in battle with what could only be described as Celestia's polar opposite, were as Celestia was adorned in warm gold and red armor gleaming with light and a sword a flame the woman above her was clad in silver and blue pressing a dark spear down on Celestia.

"Nightmare moon," I whisper

Hearing this, Celestia slowly turned in our direction her dead eyes looking past us tired and forlorn with what looked like the weight of her centuries of living revealing themselves for a moment as she said "I suppose that would be her name." Slumping down on a chair Celestia rests her head in her hands, "I'm sorry, I haven't been in this room for some time I..." stopping she looked back at the painting and then around the room, "I'm not exactly fond of this place."

Siting to one knee next to Celestia, Cadance asked "What is all this?"

Leaning back raising her hands in mock grandiose for the second time "The hall of failures, a reminder of the past tragedies that either heavily affected Equestria or was caused by the failings of it."

Wakling around the room looking at each painting and its contents in mock examination. I point at each of the ones I recognize from my arcane history classes, "Crimson Light the first blood mage, The rise of Discord and the ever-free calamity, the death of Starswirl the bearded.

"Ha," Cadance laughed "well read as always, but it looks like you missed one.

With a sharp motion Cadance pointed atthe painting behind me with a glare that seemed to be directed at the painting rather then me for once, the plack at the bottom it read..."the fall of... the Crystal kingdom?

"Sombra!" Cadence cut in with all the hate and loathing echoing beneath her voice. Walking towards the painting she was breathing heavily staring daggers into the figure in the painting showing a figure of ashen skin and dark hair with the only color coming from his glowing red eyes, clad in dark grey armor with a red cloak, sitting on a throne of gemstone carried by what looked like chained slaves.

Getting up from her chair Celestia walked to the center of the room. "Now to business, what I'm about to say does not leave this room as these are secrets on a national level, do you understand?"

"Yes your majesty," we said in unison

"Good, There are many kinds of immortals: ancient, divine, earthly, human, and spectral, I am a divine immortal whose power and longevity come from a divine aspect, ancients are beings of immense age and power that they are beyond comprehension, earthly gain their power from a primal aspect, human simply has extended to eternal lifespans, and spectral is the dead returned to the physical plain. Any questions so far?"
I had several but new it was better to let Celestia finish her initial speech.

After a moment of silence, Celestia continued as I took it all in.

For nearly a thousand years, since the defeat of Nightmare Moon, I have been alone... before then, I had my sister Luna Goddess of the moon, and Co monarch of Equestria until Nightmare Moon took her from me, and stole her away. After the war I took the mantel of both day and night in my sister's stead, acting as the sole leader of Equestria, after a few centuries the weight of my loneliness began to chip away at me, living several mortal lifetimes and countless friends and companions either dead or dying as the years go by and no one else to act as my anchor.

Before she could finish, Celestia put her head in her hands.

"I'm sorry, saying it out loud is hitting me much harder than I thought."

I could practically feel the trembling in Celestia's body as she stood up straight, taking slow heavy breaths.

Gathering herself Celestia began "As the centuries passed the people of Equestia developed significantly higher education, longer life spans, and a stronger sense of community and a united culture, as such I decided to begin a new age for Equestria or at least I've had this plan about two centuries after I lost luna I felt it was time to delegate the responsibilities of my rule, by hand picking specificly talented and loyal individuals, granting them ascension to an imortal to rule along side me, Cadance being one of the chosen."

From the corner of my eye, I could see Cadance's posture straighten, I on the other hand had several questions more questions rumaging through my head.

"Wait, wait, wait." I interrupt "So, you have a list of people you've chosen to ascend, but what exactly is the criteria here, cadance and her kingdom apparently disappeared centuries ago and she is still a skyrider, what caused the disappearance all those years, why stop there ?"

Raising her hand Celestia answered a little too slowly. "Admitidly after what happened with cadance and sombra my confidance in in my ability to choose worthy candidates lessened significantly after the Crystal empire fell."

"What happened", I asked, turning to Cadance. "How did the empire fall?"

"I don't see the point in telling you Cadance what with it being useless information on a dead empire

Wincing at the memory Cadance simply replied "long story short, Sombra was the first to be ascended, he was a member of the royal guard turned gem knight if I remember correctly.

Slowly nodding Celestia replied "He was well respected amongst the gaurd and I trusted him with the task of gaurding the cristal empire and its resources unfortunately he only had interest in the crystal mines and the hordes of arcane crystals hidden within."

Well, seems the crystal empire just got interesting.

"Unfortunately" Cadance continued "my ascension was cut shot with Sombra's betrail, but before he could do permanent damage to the rest of Equestria I was able to connect to my aspect the Crystal Heart to preform a banishment spell unfortunately there was a backlash and both I and the crystal Empire were taken into the void as well.

With her story done, Cadance's shoulders went slack as all the tension released from her despite the feeling noticeably colder. Shaking her shoulders back into place Cadence began ajusting her hair.

"So thats my story," Cadance states bluntly "one can only hope you now understand why the Crystal Kingdom is important to me, if not to Equestria at large." There was a hint of venom as she spoke the last part.

"Now now you two." Celestia cut in "lets not start that again, if this is going to work and it will work, we all need to cooperate. "

Stamering I reply "I can only hope to exceed you expectations your majesty, if I am to obtain the same godhood as you, I promise to be as devote and loyal as any acolyte to prove I'm worthy." I give as low of a bow as I could

Signing deeply Celestia almost sounded disappointed "Rise sunset if you please." Standing straight I lock eyes with Celestia her eyes half lid with disappointment
"I suppose this intervention was inevitable, I only wish I spoke to you about it sooner."

Conjuring a small knife in hand, Celestia looked at me with the most serious face I've seen on her yet, "While your admiration is appreciated you need to understand that my godhood only goes so far even with all my divine power I'm still just as mortal as you and cadence are now."

Hammering the point Celestia cut her palm and clasped our hands together as the liquid dripped from my fingers I felt the warmth from the blood as it bled down my wrist Celestia gave the slightest sense of pain and my heart raced as I realized what was in my hand.

"What I need from you is not just loyalty, but the capacity to think for yourself as well." Using her clean hand Celestia taps on my forehead, with a cheeky tone says "You bare the confidence of a noble already but, if I'm to entrust you with all things arcane oh greatest mage in all Equestria for the next eternity I need you to show proper initiative. "

Unclasping our hands, I stared at my newly red palm. I couldn't say anything, just stare.

"You both know not to underestimate our enemies and we should not let rivalry cause you to underestimate our allies, we all have our strengths and weaknesses only by working together can we understand both.

Cadence and I look at each other for the longest time until Cadence broke the silence saying with what sounded like genuine regret "I'm sorry."

"Look, after being trapped in the void for thousands of years only for the first bit of real consciousness to be a feather-freezing blizzard and the only family I had left adopted someone else living their own life without me I was jealous and bitter! I'm not condoning my attitude towards you when you didn't deserve it, I just! Cadence began to cry "I'm sorry ok!"

Taken aback by this I look towards the Sombra painting and then back to her "It was rude of me to call your kingdom unimportant, you and your people have suffered so much and I didn't even consider what Sombra's spell might do to you all, I can't take back what I said but, look this is difficult for both of us, so how about tomorrow or next week we do lunch, make a day out of it and even if we don't become friends can we at least learn to tolerate each other?"

Wiping the tears off her face Cadence sniffles for a bit until finally saying "Agreed." Raising a hand for a shake.

Thinking quickly, I go up to Cadence and hug her, and she hugs me back. we held like this for a few seconds until Celestia broke the silence with rapid clapping, giving us the biggest smile, I've ever seen on her.

"Well, this is certainly a start, I'm so proud of you two." Joining our hug Celestia picks us both up a few feet off the ground, giving her best mom squeeze.

Putting us back down she waves a few hand signs to lean us all up from the emotional experience. I think we've had enough for today don't you two think? best we get to bed.

Finally reaching my room I quickly close the door shut clicking all three locks followed by casting three arcane locks just to be safe it was only then that I let out a mad laugh I didn't know I was holding.

"Hehe he hahaha hehe hahaha ha ha haha, oh this is it! OK uh... first things first" I look at my hand celestial blood hasn't dried yet "Great!" Scrambling to my closet and throwing off the floorboard I grab the books, hemomancy by Crimson light there we go, putting the book on my alchemy desk I grab a small vile and open the cork putting it on a stand.

"OK sunset Ok," I say to myself "Breath, this is a golden opportunity, you got to do this right." Looking through the first few pages three times over

PG 13 Hemo levitatum:
With this spell one may freely control any blood found outside a person's body so long as it is in liquid forms or has not dried up as any impurities will not move in tandem with the blood to remove any potability infections or blood clotting should the blood be returned to a body or experimentation.

PG 15 Temprus Valoom:
When cast on a closed vile or glass container, this spell will radiate perfect room temperature no matter what so long as the containment stays closed to keep blood in liquid form until the container is opened or breaks.

I prepare myself with a few more breaths and cast the spell.

Hemo levitatum, the blood then levitates off my hand and into the vile making it full, continuing my focus on the vile I say Temprus valoom the vile begins to glow a little, touching it revealed the vile to be warm to the touch. Taking a pen, I label the vile as gods blood.

With the blood properly sealed all I could do was stare at it, lay down on my bed, and hold the vile against the light giving it a crimson glow, a few minutes pass until I place the vile on my forehead feeling the warmth between my eyes.

"With this, I can be with her forever, and with this, my ascension will be all the easier, with the books from the Vault of Tragedy I can use nightmare moon's and Sombra's failures as a reference and achieve assentation even faster without their mistakes or shortcomings", a malicious grin comes across my face "and if I play my cards right, I might even be able to ascend before Cadence."

Drip drip drip

Feeling drops on my face as they trickle down my cheek, instinctively I licked the fresh liquid as it reached my lips I taste, water. Getting up in a flash, half-awake I nearly lose my balance as I try to gauge my surroundings through foggy eyes, wiping my face I hear and feel what's in front of me before I can see it, as a gust of air is blasted at me alongside a low grumble. Finally clearing my eye my heart nearly jumps out of my throat, I was still in the Everfree and I was currently staring down a giant river serpent as it stares back opening its mouth.

"Blood, I smell blood," it spoke.

"OK, time to run, Ignuis Murus" I shout as a wall of fire erupts between me and the beast and I run away, only to stop in my tracks when it unperturbed by the flame says in a low growl.

"God's blood."