Fallen

Chapter Ten

Darkness and Silence

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"So? Has he delivered the message yet?" Celestia asked her younger sister.

"Yes, but he gave warning that they might not have accepted our letter to them. He also said to contact him immediately if we are contacted by a few angels... Oh what were their names... Abaddon, Samael, and... As-something..." Luna said to herself, not quite remembering the last name.

"What? Why would he warn us about those ones specifically?" Celestia asked, concern in her voice.

"Asmodeus! that was the last ones name. Azrael said they were friends a long time ago, but that he suspected they were up to no good. Perhaps they had a falling out?" Luna offered.

"Oh... It always saddens me when friends fight. Though I guess the angels have a bit of a complicated history... I wonder if they tried to stop him when he rebelled, or if he doesn't trust him because they let him go." Celestia said, contemplating what could break friends apart.

"What do you mean?" Luna asked with a puzzled look on her face.

"He seemed to have come to terms with the other angels hating him, but why would he care about old friends specifically. Something must have happened to set them apart as a foe instead of a friend. Perhaps they even conspired against him and pushed him to do what he did." Celestia offered.

"Hmm, you may be right. Speaking of friends sister... Is it alright to allow Azrael to stay in Ponyville? Is it not dangerous to allow him so close to the Elements of Harmony's bearers?" Luna asked.

"He does not seem hostile to the ponies, and he is currently a legal resident of the town anyways. What is the worst that could come of it?" Celestia asked.

Twilight hunkered down behind a bush, binoculars levitating in front of her face as she watched the house she had been in not so long ago. She could make out movements from within the windows every now and then, but not what she was waiting for. Hours passed while Twilight watched diligently.

Finally Twilight saw the front door open, and Azrael strode out, shutting the door behind him and locking it. The large pegasus took to the air after locking his home and flew off in the direction of the Everfree Forest. Twilight wondered briefly what he would be doing in that direction, but then focused her mind on the task at hand. He was hiding something, and she was going to find at least enough evidence to present a report to Celestia or the authorities.

Twilight's horn began to glow as she readied a teleportation spell, aiming for the inside of the home, just past the front door. As the spell was released something went wrong. Twilight;s spell was blocked and she ended up materializing and colliding against the side of the house with a loud thud. The purple mare then fell unconscious to the ground, a large lump forming on her head.

Azrael felt the telltale tingles of his wards, they had stopped an attempt to teleport inside. Azrael allowed himself a small smile, but it was gone in an instant. There was business to attend to. There was a creature somewhere in these woods that held intelligence, and was about to die, leaving its species extinct. Azrael was going to judge this poor creature if it deserved life, or if it was justified in being destroyed.

Azrael need not manually visit every soul of the dearly departed anymore, not since he crafted the book, but Azrael still took pride in his work and the last of a species was always an interesting case. Sometimes Azrael even felt its kind deserved another chance, and in those rare instances he could gather the genetic information from the final one and recreate the species a few pairs at a time until a community could be large enough to repopulate on their own. Azrael had done this once long ago in the past for the humans in the garden that was his prison under his old master's orders. Funny how death prone that species proved itself, and it was another reason why Azrael had refused to save them a second time.

As Azrael continued through the trees, weaving through the gnarled trunks and avoiding any brightly colored plants, as bright colors generally meant danger. After a few hours of travel like this, still unbothered by the feral animals who could sense his true nature, Azrael found what he was looking for. As he approached the starving creature cast its glowing green eyes upon the large stallion.

Red glowing eyes met the once lustrous but now dull green ones of the once Changeling Queen. Chrysalis was now the last of her kind, her ploy to take over the Equestrian capitol Canterlot had ultimately been defeated, and her kind starved as a result of the following purge of all changelings found in towns across Equestria. The ponies now wary of changelings were not as easy to fool, so food was impossible.

"Hello there Chrysalis, are you ready to be judged?" Azrael asked as he sat before the withered form of Chrysalis.

"Who are you... To address me as such? How do you know my name?" Chrysalis asked weakly, but with an edge to her voice.

"I am either the death or salvation of your species, depending on how you do in this interview. And I know your name because it is in my book." Azrael stated simply.

Chrysalis rose slowly to on her hooves and raised herself to her full height, looking eye to eye with the large stallion Chrysalis realized then there was something off about this stallion. He was no normal pegasi, and Chrysalis could feel an aura of darkness coming off of him. Chrysalis also realized she could feel a small amount of love seeping from him.

"You... You know what I am, but you still have a small amount of love in your heart for me. Why?" Chrysalis asked with a confused face.

"I love all life that holds respect for life. You treated your kin well enough, and those you fed on you did not needlessly kill, imprisoned perhaps, but not killed. That is commendable and deserving in my eyes. Unfortunately this feeble amount of food is all I can offer you. Not enough to live perhaps but enough to prolong your life for a while longer." Azrael said, his eyes never blinking as he measured Chrysalis's personality.

"If you are and can do what you say... What do you want me to say?" Chrysalis asked as she set herself back down on the ground.

"Start from the beginning, tell me what I cannot gleam from history books." Azrael said with a small smile.

Twilight rose slowly and rubbed her head with her hoof. The lavender librarian looked up at the sky and noticed the sun had moved a considerable distance. Twilight figured it had been roughly a couple of hours that she had lost consciousness for.

"Hmm..." Twilight hummed to herself as she sized up the house.

There was a magical defense around the house, much like the defense King Sombre had used that she hadn't the time to figure a way around before. Twilight prodded with her magic only to have it be rejected the moment it touched the house. Twilight rubbed a hoof under her chin in thought.

"Hey Twilight, what'cha up to?" Rainbow called from the air above Twilight.

Twilight however was too far in thought to hear her friend and continued to stare at the house and mumble to herself.

"Hey! Rainbow, ah need ya' fer' somethin'." Applejack called from across the street.

Rainbow took one last glance at Twilight before shrugging and hovering over to Applejack.

"What is it A.J.?" Rainbow asked.

"Well, since we raised the new barn the old one is ready for demolition like the last one." Applejack explained.

"geez, did you at least get better lumber this time? It can't be cheap to have to put up a new barn every year because the lumber in the old one is rotting..." Rainbow said.

"Yeah, we double checked the lumber this time, no termite infestations in the wood." Applejack laughed.

Meanwhile Twilight in the background was focusing a spell into her horn, the energy was beginning to shed sparks and glow dangerously. Applejack and Rainbow Dash noticed this, and took in the fact that Twilight was trembling from the power she was channeling.

"Hey uh, Twilight, I don't reckon you need help with anything do ya'? applejack asked.

"Yeah Twi, What are you up to?" Rainbow asked as she flew slightly higher to get a better view of what Twilight was doing.

At that moment, Twilight launched her spell that was meant to breach the barrier. However, the spell instead of impacting on the house was reflected and ricocheted off and flew, directly at Rainbow Dash. The cyan pegasus had no time to react and the magical blast struck her square in the chest, scorching the fur and shocking her body with the force of the blast.

Rainbow fell limply to the ground, landing in a heap with a sickening crunch. Applejack's face widened in horror, and Twilight spun around at the sound and gasped sharply at the display of her burned and broken friend.

"Oh no! Rainbow!" twilight wailed as she ran toward the still form of her friend.

"After a while, my hive grew. We became too large to infiltrate a mere town, and were forced to stretch ourselves across many, impersonating or even becoming new ponies to live life and get love to feed on. But that became not enough... so the invasion plans started to take over Canterlot..." Chrysalis said as she finished her story to the angel of death in his pony body.

"Hmm, a noble start... You were a hero to your people, but unfortunately you lived long enough to see yourself a villain..." Azrael commented.

"So then, what is your verdict?" Chrysalis asked, hope in her eyes.

"Reviving a species takes time, rebuilding a source of food will take longer. I can make sure you live long enough to see the mortals who hold a grudge against you fade into time. Your kind lives as long as you must as long as you maintain a food source, an interesting thing that age does not effect you. After your kind is forgotten once more, we can go about creating a new queen for you to teach,and start a new hive. At that time you will then die." Azrael explained.

"Oh, thank you... Thank you. But, what of me in the time it takes for ponies to forget about my kind? That could take centuries..." Chrysalis asked.

"You will live under the protection of my domain, Without my blessing you will not die. Be warned however, you will be unable to die, not unable to be harmed." Azrael warned.

Chrysalis nodded her head with a smile, she had succeeded in saving her race after all.

"What do we do?!" Twilight exclaimed, fearing the worst that her friend was dead.

"Twi, help me get her inside!" Applejack said in a commanding tone as she galloped to the large doors of the manor.

"Applejack that's no use Azrael locked his house, and what do you hope to find in there? We need to get her to a hospital!" Twilight yelled after Applejack.

Applejack procured a key from under her hat and unlocked the door, she then bucked it open and motioned for Twilight to hurry. Twilight stared for a second, but then shook her head and lifted Rainbow's body gently in her magical aura.

The two after getting Rainbow inside stared at the blackened chest and the seared flesh of their friend. Twilight began to cry at the sight of what she had done. Applejack had tears in her eyes but she kept a strong look on her face as she looked at the stairway and took off up it.

"Applejack... Where are you going?" Twilight choked out between sobs.

"Ta' get Azrael, only he can help us now..." Applejack called.

"But he left, I watched him go!" Twilight screamed in frustration with herself and the situation.

"No he hasn't..." Applejack mumbled to herself as she ran up the stairs and burst into the room that had the sword wreathed in flames, and the throne that held Azrael's true body when he was controlling the pony body he had. Applejack ran over a shook the still form with her hooves, nudging his legs.

Azrael told Chrysalis he lived in Ponyville, and she halted.

"The six that were responsible for my defeat are there, other than Shining and Cadence they most likely hate me the most..." Chrysalis mumbled, barely loud enough to hear.

"We will hide your presence do not worry. If need be we--" Azrael suddenly stopped moving and his eyes went blank as if he was a thousand miles away.

"Azrael?" Chrysalis asked hesitantly.

"Wait here and watch over this body will you, something is wrong... Someone is touching my body..." Azrael said before going limp and falling to a heap on the ground. Chrysalis jumped back at this and stared at the now lifeless form before her.

Azrael opened his eyes and stood up form his throne. He looked down and saw that it was Applejack who was touching him.

"What is it Applejack? I was a little busy, but I trust this is an emergency? You wouldn't bother me like this otherwise..." Azrael said in a neutral tone assessing Applejack's tear filled eyes and look of panic.

"Rainbow Dash was hit by a spell Twilight cast that ricocheted off yer' house... ah'm not so sure she is still alive, so please... Can you save her?" Applejack asked, tears streaming down her orange cheeks.

Azrael considered this, there was something about the rainbow haired pony that struck Azrael's interest, but if she was already dead he was going to have to commit to her.

"Where is she now? I am going to need to commune with her spirit before I undo her death. And even then, it is not guaranteed. Souls have a tendency of preferring the eternal bliss of death, to the brutal reality of life." Azrael explained.

"Downstairs just inside your door with Twilight." Applejack said in a hurried voice.

Azrael strode out of the room and down the stairway, Applejack in tow. As Azrael descended and came into View Twilight let out a sharp gasp, freezing at the sight of the angel. Twilight remembered the angel as the form that was in the darkness holding Applejack from before. Twilight's shoulders shook with her repressed sobs.

"I told you not to snoop, and look what your disregard for my wishes has brought you. I hope you are satisfied miss Sparkle..." Azrael said with a lip curled in disgust at the mare who carelessly slew her friend.

"Hey now, it was an honest accident..." Applejack tried to defend her friend.

"One that would have been avoided had she heeded my warning, now silence. I am going to need to focus, it has been a long, long time since I last did this..." Azrael said as he knelt over Rainbow Dash's body.

Rainbow was alone in the darkness, but she felt oddly at peace, almost as if for the first time ever, she was complete. The feeling was pure bliss, to float for eternity with no worries. Rainbow was truly happy. The absence of any feeling was making her become drowsy, and Rainbow could feel herself slowly drifting off to sleep. A nap sounded simply wonderful and Rainbow began to close her eyes. But her eyes stopped descending half way when she saw something.

A set of red eyes appeared from the darkness and drew closer to her. Rainbow looked into these eyes, and giggled in wonder as to why she felt no fear from the piercing glare. The eyes held a certain intensity that she felt even a dragon would whimper at. But nothing mattered to her, she was dead. What was the worst anything could do to her?

"Rainbow Dash, I have come to take you home." A familiar voice called from the direction of the eyes.

"Why would I want to go back? This place is so nice, and I finally get it... Everything is so clear as to why they happened..." Rainbow said dreamily.

The eyes began to glow brighter, almost as if building energy, until they were two blinding suns and the entire world turned from blackness, to pure white. Rainbow looked down and she could once again see her body, and she noticed how bad the burns on her chest looked. But once again, she found herself unable to care.

Rainbow looked up and saw what would normally frighten a pony to madness or death, but in her current state, the ponies mind was unbreakable.

"To return to the living, you must want it. Overcome the peace of darkness and silence Rainbow Dash..." The horror's voice echoed in the white nothingness.