Dawn
Long before the pony that is draped in enchanted chains is visible, I can hear the sound of metal bearing against metal. Accompanied the march of my royal guards escorting the one bound in chains, which were enchanted to sap the magic of the guilty pony they bound. The pounding of the once small hoofs reverberated through the air, each step they took created great tremors. Even as the reverberations grow in strength and volume I do not allow the guilt to show upon my muzzle. I cannot allow myself to break.
My ponies needed me. They had lost friends, fillies, colts, and parents. The number of ponies impacted by this was nearly uncountable. However, the number of ponies that would lose their lives to this madness was set to increase by one in a few short moments. One more parent would lose their child before the Sun would set.
There could have been other outcomes, banishment, Tartaruas, or something that I hadn’t considered in my frantic searchings, but among those lost was an Alicorn Princess. The first to ascend to the throne in nearly a thousand years. The only one after myself and Luna. Love herself perished in the chaos, no she was the target of such cruel insanity. Mi Amore Cadenza, Cadance as she had kept trying to correct me, was butchered in a display of unfettered madness.
Once more I had allowed hope to form, that for one fragile moment, there would be another. That I would no longer be the sole lynchpin of Equestria’s foundation, that even were I to buckle, another would support the foundation of what I had created. That I would have found another to join me in the battle against the endless march of time. One who understood what it meant to be truly eternal. Yet it was not to be. I was once more set to forever rule alone, high above all others.
To be the sole guiding light for the countless ponies that depended upon my strength. For each pony that needed another and yet could not find one, I would be there to lead them. To bring them forth into a shining blaze of a better tomorrow, desiring an evermore perfect outcome. Saving them from the shadowed darkness of today.
The clanking of chains grew louder, and the pounding of an all too familiar heart swelled with what I could only pray was fear. The hateful murmurs spread through the horde of ponies that gathered, darkness had befallen them, and only furthering their descent would allow them to emerge from this shadowed fugue. My normally peaceful subjects baying for the blood of the one that had harmed them, the one that had threatened their herd. Seeking vengeance against the monster that had slain an Alicorn before she could fully ascend before she could fully realize her strength.
A weight had long since hung over my shoulders, threatening to crush me under the expectations of the ponies I had long since guided. I was their leader, my mistakes were theirs to bear. Their mistakes were my own. My every decision impacted the well-being of their very existence.
Ever since I had come across the guilty pony deep in the act of desecrating Mi Amore Cadenza’s corpse, that weight had been nearly insurmountable. Yet I could not falter. Not once could I slow. Never could I allow my march to halt in pursuit of an ever brighter tomorrow.
My ponies needed my strength. My wisdom. My guidance. My leading light illuminated the way through the darkness. One that they had never lived without.
They had just lost a Princess. They had lost one that would have given them a bountiful supply of Love. They lost her just as I had lost her. Yet they would never know the pony beyond the Princess.
They knew her name, they knew what she could have done. What she would have done. Yet it was the minority of my ponies that knew Cadance. The way her feathers furrowed whenever she was confused. The joy that sang from her wide eyes as she saw Love being freely given.
Even I did not dare to claim that amidst all of my ponies, I was the one who had known her the best. I had only known her for barely a year. A large fraction of her life, an utterly insignificant portion of my own. Such a percentage would have decreased as the eons passed.
I knew no pony. Not fully. Not anymore.
My ponies now held their poised tongues as they fell deathly silent as the guilty party finally was spotted within her entourage of guards. This was no trial, there was no further deliberation. This was nothing more than an execution. One that must be carried out with regard to the personal cost.
46 ponies had been lost within the span of ten minutes. 76 had their lives snuffed within a week as their wounds proved too much for them to withstand the suffering they were put through. Each of their names had been recorded, even if they were not of such vital importance as the Alicorn that had been slain. They were still my ponies. They would be remembered.
Now not even a month after, another would be added to those lost. The final addition that would add another soul to the 76 that had already perished. Turning the final tally to 77 of my ponies that had been stolen from me.
Throughout the expanse of eyes that were upon me one set in particular stood out amongst the masses. One eye a brilliant cyan and the other a lovely purple, that unflinchingly stared at me with fervorous adoration. There was no doubt, no hatred, no there was but one truth that was held within those eyes. A twisted macabre mockery of a Love that had once existed between the two of us.
I had once more missed the signs and as such I was the one who was once more at fault. A millennia had passed yet I was just as blind as I had been back then. Iron and fear weighed down the stagnant air in this place that the Sun couldn’t touch. That I had been unable to touch. Seeded within the darkness of this cave system was what I once could have described as inspired and awarded full marks to its caster, now it was simply another obstacle that was before me.
Another that burned as I shifted my attention to removing it from the path that I blazed. The stones that the wards had once been inscribed upon were reduced to little more than slagged rocks. No longer would they be blinding me. No longer would they prevent my sight from seeing what I had missed. What I had been forced to overlook in my haste to find the ponies that were still unaccounted for.
No longer would I turn a blind eye to what was happening before me. Seventy-Five. That was the number of ponies that she had inadvertently killed. An even greater number had been indirectly injured by her actions. Stepping forward I allowed her meager defenses to splash against me as I sought out my erstwhile student… Even now she is my student. Even after she had been led down this path, blinded to the consequences as it were. She was still my student.
Even now I was still showing my inability to separate the past from the present. Luna was right even at my harshest, I was too soft. It was that weakness that had once more cost my ponies. It was that softness that I still couldn’t quash that had once more allowed tragedy to occur. When she had first expressed such concerning behaviors I couldn’t bring myself to quash those troubling quantities.
How could I do that to one that young? Barely a foal, she who only had myself to look after her? She had suffered a tragedy greater than the majority of my ponies would endure, let alone at such a young age. She had taken after me in so many ways. She who I myself had named?
I couldn’t allow such a weakness to further fester. I couldn’t allow my favor for one of my ponies to outweigh the well-being of all others. I had crafted the system. It was I who had forged the laws. I was the just judge who watched unwaveringly from above. I was the one who had finely adjusted the scales, so I knew exactly the weight of these actions that had been taken. What the cost would be at the end.
This was my burden to bear just as it was mine to fix. I would be forced to correct the tragedy that had occurred. Even now as I marched forth, spells burning away in the air, I didn’t know exactly how this would end. How many ponies would perish by the time I had once more settled this newest threat against Equestria?
How many more ponies would be lost by the end of this crisis that I had all but allowed to form? How much blood would be on my hooves? How much more would I lose? How much was finally too much?
How much more could I withstand before I joined my sister?
Luna… She would have done a better job. She could harden her heart. She could endure the hate of our ponies when she had for a short time ruled by my side. She would not have been so lost to their love as I had been caught within. She would not have faltered like I had.
Finally, the deluge of spells had petered out, she always had been overly cautious. Ensuring that she had all the theorems mastered before she attempted her first castings of a spell. I had initially thought of what a boon such an attitude would allow her to accomplish in the near future. Now I was seeing the consequences of such an attitude being fully applied to one of her more… cruel ideas.
Standing before a torrent of magic that should have been forgotten I stepped forward. Even suspecting what lay beyond the divide that had kept me from her, did not prepare me for what lay beyond.
Portions of two ponies had been tossed to the ground as if they were discarded scraps of meat. No longer needed. No longer serving a purpose. No longer required by their owners. For they would no more need these cuts of flesh, after all the others had been superior.
My heart wallowed in weakness at the sight of the amber limbs that had been discarded by the one I had raised. Would you look at that sister, even she is able to discard what she had no doubt thought to be her weakness. She in her short years had managed that even sooner than I had in my millennia of life. The pink limbs that were intertwined with amber were an unfortunate truth that I had hypothesized once the incident had transpired.
Yet I still held onto the final embers of hope that not all was lost. That even despite what had happened I could still find a better tomorrow. That I could forge a happy ending for the two ponies that were in this cave with me. For on the morrow, the Sun will once more rise across Equestria. Bringing its light to all of the ponies that just needed to accept it.
Once more in my long life, my hopes would be lost, for within the darkness a familiar cyan eye gleamed. With it, a purple eye contorted in fear as it too opened in sync with the cyan. Once more in my life, I had been too late. Once more I had failed. Once more I couldn’t save the ponies that were closest to me.
Seventy-Six. That would be the lowest number of casualties that was caused by this most recent display of my weakness.
Once more I couldn’t save the ponies that were my family.
First my sister.
Now my niece.
Next, no doubt my daughter.
Author's Note
This was an idea that had been rattling around in my head for a while. What if instead of creating the alliance between Cadance and Sunset in Mirror Mirror, Sunset had done what she had initially planned? That was the basic premise for this tragedy. A fragmented tale told through our three leads.
Ironically enough this is the first time that I have posted a chapter through Celestia's perspective for if I were to do so in Mirror Mirror that would reveal far too much. It is almost cathartic to finally do so. That aside I hope my interpretation of Celestia isn't too horrible as while I have a decent bit of experience writing for both Sunset and Cadance, I haven't practiced for our favorite Princess of the Sun.
This story will be an interesting change of... pace would likely be the best way I could describe it. It will be far more somber than most of my other current works. I hope those who read it will enjoy it as much as I did writing it.
*Mirror Mirror does not need to be read to understand this story. If you like this story however I would recommend you give it a shot.
-LittleFaerieFire
