Fallen

Chapter Eight

New Heaven

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Azrael Hefted his scythe and slung it over his back. He then attached the book of the dead to his belt with a chain of gold, inscribed with runes. Sheathing the fiery sword and pulling the hood over his head he was ready to depart. It had been a long time since he marched out in full battle regalia. The weight upon his shoulders felt nostalgic, and the thrill of the possible battle to come made his wrath boil in anticipation. He needed to keep a cool head however, lest he forget he was doing this to fulfill what The sun goddess had asked of him.

"I want you to give the other angels a message. I do not want to know where they are, or how you give it to them. Just make sure they get this scroll, and understand that my sister and I do not want anything to do with them. Equestria has survived for over a thousand years without the influence of your kind, and it has been a thousand years of peace." Celestia said, levitating a sealed scroll over to the large Stallion.

"Very well, is that all then?" Azrael said with a wicked grin as he contemplated his task.

"Please do not provoke them against me. I want them to leave Equestria alone, not feel the need to destroy it." Celestia said with a hard look in her eyes.

"Do not attack without provocation, got it." Azrael said, flaring his wings and taking off to return to Ponyville.

Azrael strode out of the room that contained his relics, the memory still fresh in his mind as he looked down to the scroll he now held in his hand. Just one more thing had to be taken care of before he departed. The host body needed to be double checked before he left.

As the angel strode down into his basement, the frosty air greeting him to the refrigerated room, he took in the sight of the body he had been inhabiting laying in the sealed glass case he had made for it. The embalming fluid had stained the white coat on the side of its neck where he had drained the blood and injected the preservative liquid. Azrael then checked the blood bags that were hanging, blood frozen and waiting to be reheated and injected back inside the body when he needed it.

The angel of death nodded to himself as he concluded that everything was accounted for. He then let the darkness swirl around him and he shifted through the shadows in his incorporeal towards where he suspected his kin might have hid in the thousands of years since he had destroyed their home.

As he shifted he thought of home, of memories that still left him bitter, and others that had brought him the little warmth he had ever known.

Azrael sat in the shadow of a pillar with an ornate bone pen in his hand as he wrote a name into his book. 'Nathaniel' he wrote in the crimson blood he used as ink for the book. A small sad smile adorned his face as he rose and re-hooked the book to his belt with the golden chain he had crafted. He then picked up his scythe and strode through the gardens of heaven, using it as a walking stick. Azrael made his way towards the grotto of the lord, where the angels were birthed into existence.

As he came to the entrance he was greeted by two guards who quickly stepped out of his way. Azrael smiled apologetically to them for bothering them as he strode inside and flared his wings, basking in the light that emanated from the crystals that were embedded into the cave walls. Azrael then continued towards the center of the grotto where he could meet the new angel.

Azrael rounded a turn in the cave and was greeted with the view of the new angel in his form. Azrael guessed it was a 'he' by the name he had been compelled to write. The angel was a large white lion with a mane of fire. Azrael smiled warmly as he strode up to his new little brother.

"Hello there young one, I am here to welcome you into the kingdom of heaven. I am Azrael, your older brother." Azrael said drawing closer.

The great lion growled a warning at the dark angel, the force of its vocals blowing the hood off of Azrael and causing his long hair to blow in the force. Azrael simply smiled and put a hand on the lion's head.

"Here we go, you might find this form easier to converse in." Azrael said as he guided the lion's powers into forming a new body in a form resembling a human with wings.

Nathaniel then looked down at his fingers and ran a hand through his blonde hair. He then noticed the white robe he wore.

"There we are Nathaniel, how are you feeling? I think you made the new body alright, I only guided you so you may have made a mistake in choosing the details. If anything comes up I will be glad to help." Azrael said swiveling his head taking in the form his little brother had chosen.

"How do you... know my name...?" Nathaniel managed to say, getting used to the new body.

"Because I wrote it in my book here." Azrael said motioning to the book hanging at his side, "I write the names of all life in here, and when their time comes to pass on and cease living I erase them from the book."

"You mean... You control when I die?" Nathaniel blurted out in horror.

"Yes, but do not worry, I do not use my gift without the permission of our lord and god. And his verdict is merciful to his faithful servants." Azrael said with a smile.

Nathaniel then noticed the ominous scythe and he shied away from Azrael. Nathaniel then jumped slightly as he noticed a figure wrapped in flames stride into view. The figure nodded curtly towards Azrael in greeting, then fixated her gaze onto him.

"Azrael, I was told to greet our new brother by our lord. What is his name?" The newcomer demanded with authority.

"He is Nathaniel, the angel of fire. And he is to be your subordinate Gabriel." Azrael said with a smile to his sister who merely scoffed.

"Very well, come Nathaniel. I shall show you the ropes, and get you away from the deathbringer here..." Gabriel said with a piercing glare at Azrael.

"I told you I was sorry, but it was by the lord's will that I erased her name, I miss her too." Azrael said with a sigh.

"Hold your tongue brother!" Gabriel spat the final word as she strode forward and took Nathaniel by the arm, "You do not fool me, you care not about what you did. And do not 'write off' your butchery of our sister as anything less.

"One last thing Nathaniel, do not show anyone your true form unless it is an emergency. Showing your true body to a mortal will cause their eyes to burn from their sockets, and showing it to another angel, or a demon is a sign that you wish for a fight to the death." Azrael warned.

Nathaniel took one final glance back at the dark and foreboding angel, before gratefully following Gabriel out of the presence of death incarnate.

Azrael materialized in the shadow of a great dome that loomed over the surrounding desert. The dome itself was proof of what Azrael was seeking, for no mortal could craft a wall this great, and imbue it with this much magical defense. No creature in existence could breach this wall, not even Azrael himself could, unnoticed that is.

Azrael lifted the fiery blade and gently dragged the blade across the face of the giant dome, immediately it parted around the blade and Azrael witnessed as the twelve foot thick wall of marble formed a hall for him to walk through. As he strode inside he was forced to squint against the magical light that radiated from the false sky from within the dome. Like all other creations made of angels this was a miracle, an entire world housed within this shell, a false heaven to house the remnants of the angels that were not in heaven when he fell to wrath.

Azrael took out the sealed scroll and held it in one hand, the sword in another. He then cast his gaze around the land, watched his brethren slowly take notice that something was wrong. Azrael found a small scrap of happiness in the fact that they had all kept using their false bodies that he had taught them how to form. In truth it was the most selfish thing he had ever done, because since they all learned from him to hide their true appearances, he could hide away his own true visage.

The memory from before once again began to swirl in Azrael's mind.

Azrael watched as his sister and new brother left his presence, and he sighed wearily. It did not matter how much he tried, the others always feared his presence. The look on Nathaniel's face when he confirmed that he held his life in his hands drove a dagger through Azrael's heart.

"You always make sure to tell them that last part. Normally one would leave that for the one chosen to teach them. Why are you so persistent on that 'social rule' we have?" A voice asked from the darkness.

"Hmm? Your voice is familiar... You are one of the older angels like me however aren't you? I can't quite seem to remember but I'm sure I was there for your birth..." Azrael said spotting an angel in the shadows holding something.

"Not as old as you of course, being as you are the eldest brother. I have not been around this section of heaven in a long time. Too busy, but I finally got a break." The angel said walking out of the shadows.

Azrael noticed what he was carrying to be an acoustic guitar, an instrument of interest to Azrael.

"Wait, I remember you brother! You are Lucifer, the leader of heaven's choir." Azrael said greeting warmly another angel willing to converse with him.

"I'm impressed you can remember me. It has been a long time since we last saw each other." Lucifer said with a kind smile.

"Well, you remembered me." Azrael offered.

"Yes, but no one forgets you." Lucifer chuckled shaking his head.

"So, did you come here to greet our newest kin?" Azrael asked as he took down his hood.

"No, it was more out of curiosity. I knew I would find you here when the new angel was born. So, why do you want us to hide our true faces? I understand about protecting the mortals, but our lord did not make that rule. You did didn't you?" Lucifer asked.

"Uhh... well..." Azrael stammered nervously.

"Was it to reduce your workload from mortals viewing us?" Lucifer asked with an accusing but playful smile.

"No... It was so I did not have to show my true form if you wish the truth." Azrael stated simply. He knew it was too good to be true that another angel wanted to simply share company with him.

"Huh, don't want to strike fear into your own brethren huh?" Lucifer stated solemnly

"Yeah, do you find it pitiful?" Azrael asked with his shoulders slumped.

"No, I think you are the kindest angel in all of heaven and that no one else cares about how kind you truly are..." Lucifer said, placing a hand on Azrael's shoulder

Azrael looked up and met Lucifer's eyes with a sad smile. The look he gave Lucifer was that of a dog who had been kicked all of its life, and Lucifer picked up on that.

"Hey, why don't you come with me for a little while? I know for a fact you do not have much to do at the moment, and I am free. Would you like to come and listen to my personal group play some music? I have just composed a new masterpiece, and I would like some outside input before we play it for our lord." Lucifer said motioning for Azrael to follow.

Azrael gave the guitar and his brother a skeptical look, but decided it could be interesting, "Very well, shall we?"

Azrael snapped back to attention as he saw a small mob of angels gathering about a mile off in a valley.

"Seems they have noticed..." Azrael mumbled to himself.

"It is not hard to notice when the shadow of death encroaches onto the kingdom of new heaven..." A man's voice called off to the side of Azrael.

"Nathaniel, I was just actually thinking of you earlier." Azrael said with a faux smile.

"You are not welcome here brother, and not just because you are a fallen angel either." Nathaniel said with a fair amount of anger in his voice.

"You are smart to suppress your anger, but you need work at it, I can still feed off of you like this." Azrael said offhandedly, "So, the 'kingdom of new heaven'... Who is the new god you have sitting on the throne?"

"There is no throne... And we are waiting to find a god..." Nathaniel said with gritted teeth.

"I know, I only know of two gods not sealed away or deceased at the moment. And the throne is still in my possession." Azrael said, remembering what he came for and looking down at the scroll.

"We figured you had something to do with our lord's throne disappearing. Wait, did you say you know of two gods?" Nathaniel did a double take and stared slack jawed at Azrael.

"Yeah they wanted me to deliver this. They do not want anything to do with you guys and this letter says it all." Azrael said tossing the scroll at Nathaniel.

"So Gabriel was telling the truth... What have you told them of us to cause them ill feelings towards us?" Nathaniel demanded.

"That is no way to talk to your elder." Azrael said in a warning tone that made Nathaniel back off slightly.

"Now that sounds like you are here for a fight..." A humored voice called from a short ways off.

Azrael turned to address the newcomer, and saw with a small amount of surprise it was one of the few angels he had come to call a friend.

"Abaddon? I did not expect to see you here. Given up on your quest of destroying hell?" Azrael said with a warm smile.

"The angel of destruction has had very little motivation after what you did Azrael..." Abaddon said with a welcoming smile, "Your act of destroying heaven though dreadful was beautiful in my eyes."

Nathaniel snarled at Abaddon as he drew a silvery sword from his side and pointed it at the angel of destruction, "Watch your tongue, your stay here in new heaven is on thin strings as it is. Consorting with this blasphemer will have you thrown out."

"Well, I see I have caused a fair amount of trouble so I will let myself out." Azrael said touching the marble wall with the flaming sword, causing the marble to ripple as if water that had a stone tossed into it..

The marble began to ripple and the two angels watching their eldest brother gasped at what they saw.

"You not only took his throne but his sword too?!" Roared Nathaniel.

"And with it hell was broken loose and heaven was destroyed..." Azrael murmured, just low enough to strain the ears of the two as he strode through the corridor he made, trailing the tip of the blade along the wall as he went, causing it to close behind him.

The two angels stared at the place where a hole was once in the marble dome that housed the realm of new heaven. The angel of fire spun in place and flew off with a mighty burst from his wings to warn his superior Gabriel. The other smirked darkly as he contemplated what he had just seen.

Applejack knocked once on the door to the large manor. The farm pony waited for a minute before knocking again. The orange mare then checked to make sure the steaming apple pie on her back was still doing fine. Granny's health had improved, and all signs of her old age aside from physical appearance had vanished. The old mare had been running around the farm and working as hard as a mare a quarter of her age. When she had asked Applejack told her a half truth, saying Azrael had 'given her some medicine or something' to help Granny.

Granny had baked this pie with apples she had bucked herself to give thanks to the large stallion. Applejack was more than happy to pass the gift along, though she still wondered what Azrael could possibly mean for her to stand up for him if anything arose. Did he expect to get into trouble for anything? Applejack could only hope that if so it was nothing too serious.

Applejack knocked for the fourth time before trying the door herself. The door opened for her, since it was not locked she assumed he was inside somewhere he could not hear the door. Perhaps if she could not find him she would just leave the pie somewhere.

Applejack looked around the house, searching many of the rooms but finding nopony at all. She had left he pie sitting on the kitchen table before she headed upstairs. Even there however her search for the large stallion proved fruitless, all she found was a few tidy rooms meant for guests, a study of some sorts, and a room with a large throne and a few odd items scattered around it. The farmer pony was about to give up and leave the manor, she was had opened and was almost out the front door when she noticed something. A door was slightly ajar, tucked at the side of the stairwell where she had not noticed it before.

Applejack moved to the door and pushed it fully open, only to be greeted by utter blackness and a gust of cold wind. The dark doorway caused a chill to go down her spine and her fur to stand up on the back of her neck. Applejack stared into the darkness for what seemed like an eternity.

"Applejack?" A voice called from behind the orange mare, causing her to jump a few feet and scream before falling to the ground on her rump and heave in deep breaths to calm herself.

"Oh... Gosh... T-Twilight its you..." Applejack said after a minute finally having caught her breath.

"Applejack what are you doing in here? I saw you about to leave but then you went back in." Twilight asked in a concerned tone.

"I brought a pie to thank Azrael for something, but I can't seem to find him. I left the pie in the kitchen and looked for him. But this is the last place I haven't checked." Applejack said with a bashful smile.

"So you aren't just breaking and entering?" Twilight said with a teasing tone.

"Me? Shucks nah." Applejack laughed.

"So what did he do for you anyways?" Twilight said cocking her head to the side in a questioning gesture.

"Uh, he gave me some uh... Medicine to help Granny... She had been feeling not so good and he noticed it and gave me some on Nightmare Night." Applejack told her half truth. She was not sure if it was truly medicine he had used, though she suspected it was not she had no proof so she wasn't technically lying. Perhaps the book he showed her only warned when somepony would die and he acted himself to fix it.

"Yeah she wasn't looking too good. I wonder what it was he used..." Twilight said in contemplation.

"Well, he should been down there if he is home at all... Maybe he'd tell yah" Applejack offered.

Twilight looked down into the pitch darkness of the stairwell and felt the cold air emanating from it as she drew closer.

"Oh wow that is dark... Here lemme fix that..." Twilight said illuminating her horn, casting purple light around her illuminating the stairs that spiraled down.

The two mares then trotted down and down a long ways, for what seemed like minutes.

"You know I've actually seen the blueprints for this place, they are in the library." Twilight said striking up a conversation to lessen the near deafening silence.

"Oh yeah?" Applejack asked.

"Yeah, but it did not have anything on it about a basement..." Twilight mumbled.

"Huh..." Applejack said in thought.

Twilight stopped abruptly causing Applejack to run into her.

"What is it Twi'?" Applejack asked.

"There is another doorway here, no door though... Something is in the way..." Twilight said.

Applejack trotted beside her friend to see what she was talking about, "What in tarnation..."

The two mares saw what looked like stiff drapes of some strange stiff looking material over the door. Twilight moved forward and pushed on one of the hanging pieces and noted that it pushed out of the way easily. She then took note that they let light through, but obscured what was on the other side. Twilight had never seen this kind of a material before. The two mares continued on into the room but it was too big for the light glow form Twilight's horn to completely light the room.

"Hey Twi' check it out, there are some torches around the room. Think yah could light 'em?" Applejack asked.

"Yeah once second..." Twilight said as she closed her eyes to concentrate then opened them after completing the spell to ignite the torches. What she saw made her want to scream had the sight not knocked the wind out of her lungs.

The room was tiled from wall to floor, and weird metal hooks and blades hung on the wall. In the middle however Twilight saw, suspended inside of a glass casket was the large white stallion they had gone looking for. Next to him hung several bags made from some transparent material that were filled with what looked like blood. Both mares felt sick to their stomachs, and the chill that ran down their backs was not from the cold of the room.

Twilight crept forward despite her fear however to get a closer look at the stallion inside of the glass case. With a closer inspection she saw a hole in his neck where two different colors of liquid had dripped down, one red and one yellow. She then noticed two needles connected to tubes close by. Twilight deduced from this that his blood had been drained and the yellow liquid injected into his body.

"Applejack... Something was done to his body... They drained his blood and injected him with something." Twilight said to her friend, bu she did not receive a response.

Twilight inspected the tube that had held the yellow liquid closer and followed it to a metal canister that had a strange language written on it.

"Applejack I think I found something, wanna help me get this out?" Twilight asked, again with no response.

"Oh, please tell me you haven't fainted..." Twilight moaned to herself as she turned around.

What Twilight saw however made her scream, the noise echoing around the room.