//-------------------------------------------------------// Sunrise -by Redwolf15- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 0: Prologue 2 //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 0: Prologue 2 Prologue 2 Celestia desperately gasps for air. A monster grips her throat and lifts her off the ground. It stares at her with cold blue eyes. How did this happen? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Celestia is on her thrown, checking over notes and keeping up in recent events. It was, if anything, an average day. Suddenly a loud alarm is carried through the castle, the guards are unsure as to what this alarm was, they've never been briefed of it. Everyone was in a panic. Except Celestia. Fear took hold of her as she burst through the doors from the thrown room, she begged that this was a false alarm. She begged that the magic alarm she had placed over the tower that housed the Elements of Harmony was just old and going haywire. "Sister!" Luna runs up next to her, knowing exactly what the alarm meant. "I know Luna. I hope this isn't what we've feared for so long." They run through hallway upon hallway and past the courtyard until they reached the tower. And that small flame of hope that nothing was wrong was quickly extinguished as they saw the doors blown inward. They quickened their pace to stop whatever threat this was before it was too late. But it was too late. A creature held the Elements of Harmony in a magic suspension and covered in a black aura, ignoring the alarm and everything else. It looked like a pony about Celestia's size, perhaps eight inches taller. He may have looked like a pony, but with several different features. It was covered in a cloak pulled over most of his body that looked like it was made from the darkest shadows ever witnessed, they constantly moved and shaped around his body. The wings were not made from feathers, but instead looked more like a demon's. Leathery and tattered at the ends, wrapped tightly to the bone. He had a red horn that looked like it was caked in blood, unnaturally sharpened to a point and curls upwards. His head was covered by the hood made from shadow, so his face was hidden. "HALT THERE FOOL AND PUT THOSE BACK OR FEEL THE WRATH OF OUR MIGHT!" Luna's voice was loud enough to shatter glass with its vibration. The pony did not care. He merely looked at them, and when he did, two blue lights that were a little darker than Luna's coat came from behind the shadows of the hood that they could only presume were his eyes. His horn darkened with his magic aura, causing the aura around the Elements to fluctuate. This caused the Elements to bend and snap, eventually imploding and then ripping apart into hundreds of pieces. The five golden necklaces and tiara were destroyed and left into separate piles of discarded trash. Celestia gasped in astonishment, how could something as powerful as the Elements of Harmony be destroyed with the slightest of ease? How strong was this creature? Luna's eyes began to glow white and her horn was laced with magic. "YOU HAVE SEALED YOUR FATE!" Her voice boomed, it had been at least two centuries since she had spoken that loud. Luna lets out a magic bolt, the end was pointed like the tip of a spear, ready to impale him. All he does was lift up a pitch black hoof in front of him. The bolt struck the hoof, and stops in its tracks but still tries moving forward. Soon the dark blue bolt was consumed in his black aura, the bolt stops struggling and becomes docile. It slowly points back to the way it came. With a flick of his hoof, the magic spear is sent flying at Luna, twice as fast. Luna feels a sharp pain and something missing. She looks down to her body to find a huge hole where her chest and left shoulder should be. She didn't feel any pain. Blood started to pour out of the hole. Her brain finally catches up to speed as to what had happened. She falls to the ground, tears of fear pour out of her eyes and shrieks of agony are howled as her own blood pours from the open wound. The screaming soon stops as it is replaced with choking, she begins drowning in her own blood. She feels pain. But worse yet, she feels cold. "Luna?" Celestia asks in a shaky voice. She stares at her motionless sister, hoping for her to answer back. There was no reply. Tears began to stream down her own face. Unlike Luna's eyes, they did not glow a bright white. They turned green with purple smoke around the edges. Her rage grew titanically and wings outstretch. A black beam with purple bubbles shot from her horn. She normally doesn't use dark magic, but when your sister is mercilessly murdered in front of you, you would do anything. The dark beam hits him, but to no effect. He begins advancing towards her. The beam didn't slow him down a single bit. Celestia, too blinded by rage and hatred didn't notice his advancement. She just wanted him dead. He stops ten feet from her, the beam still ineffective. He lifts his right hoof over his shrouded head and in a gentle motion he brings it down. Two crest waves of black magic pass by him on both sides. The two waves cut up the floor as they pass by, and cut into Celestia. She cries out in pain as her two wings are lopped off. She loses concentration of her attack and falls to her knees. When she looks up she sees him towering over her. She attempts another blast of magic with her usual golden aura. He makes a quick motion with his hoof and swept it over her head. She closed her eyes expecting something to happen. But nothing did happen. She slowly opened her eyes, one at a time. He was holding something in his hoof, what was it? Celestia's pupils shrunk to pinpricks of horror. In his hoof was a horn, a white horn. He had snapped off her horn! Before she could scream again he drops the horn and bring his hoof back and dives it into her face. And then another. And another. And another. Each punch felt like a frozen iron ball against her face. He finally stopped after his hooves where covered in her blood. The walls to the tower broke away as a great purple dragon with green spikes crashed through. "PRINCESS CELESTIA!" He yells out to her. Like Luna, he too knew what the alarm meant. He lands behind the pony who so mercilessly killed one friend and crippled another other. The two hundred year old dragon was enraged. He stood on his two hind legs and inhaled heavily. The pony in shadows didn't even care to look behind him. Before the dragon could let out of belch of green fire, his body was covered darkness. For the entire six second that he was covered in the darkness, no sound was made. Not even the faint gust of wind. The darkness disappeared from his body and he came out intact, but he stared straight up, arms dangling to his by his side, mouth slightly open, and his eyes looked like he stared into the very being of terror itself. A tear rolled down his face as he said one single word. "Twilight..." Suddenly blood sprayed from the very centre of him and worked its way up reaching from the tip of his snout to the end of his tail. He fell in two separate directions as his body split in half into two perfectly cut pieces going down his centre. Without even noticing like it didn't even happen, the evil pony uses magic to let himself grip tightly around Princess Celestia's blood stained neck and hoists her off the ground. She couldn't feel anything. He brings out a double-edged sword, the steel was so black that light dared not reflect off it. The rain guard had the design of a pony's skull on it, the grip had red strips, and the pommel was a dragon's tooth pointing in the opposite direction of the blade. She knew it belonged to a dragon because it still sparkled. After all the gems a dragon eats, nothing can make a dragon's scale or tooth loose its shine. He brought the tip to her chest, and it pierces through. A short gasp come to her, she was about to die now. With the last bit of strength she has left, she asks three simple words. "Who... Who are you?" She asks terrified. He leans in close to her to whisper into her ear. A voice darker than a shadow's shadow and more unfeeling than the lifelessness of nothing, he gives her what she wants. "Lord Malum." //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 0: Prologue 1 //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 0: Prologue 1 Prologue 1 It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, no clouds in the sky, plants were green. It truly was a perfect summer day. A shame it was somepony's funeral. A large number of ponies came to mourn the loss of their dear friend and family member. Even Princess Celestia and Luna attended. There was a new tombstone in the Ponyville cemetery beside five others. It read: 'Hear lies Applejack: Mother, Grandmother, Friend.' There weren't a lot of words to it, but those few words said so many things. Her eldest son, Bonza, thought that she be buried in the orchard she loved, but Applebloom said that she would have wanted to be with her friends. It truly was a very moving ceremony. After it was done the Princesses, still as ageless as they ever were, got into their carriages and flew back to Canterlot. As they passed over the town, they looked at the statue in the centre. It was sculpted of Twilight Sparkle and her friends to remind everyone of their deeds of protecting the world from various enemies. Now those days are over. The two sisters quietly walked through their castle, no word were said, none were needed. "Is that it then sister?" Luna asks. "Afraid so Luna." Her older sister says in an emotionless tone. "We were lucky that nothing attacked us and the Elements of Harmony were needed. Ever since Rarity first passed away, it left us with a missing Element." "And many broken hearts..." Luna looks out the castle window to see a big purple dragon looking down at the little town of Ponyville. "Yes, Spike didn't take that too well. Nor did he take Twilight's." A single tear rolls down the Sun princess's face as she remembers a time with her star pupil was young and always wanted to learn. "It was hard on many of us. Personally I missed Pinkie Pie the most. She always knew how to make everypony smile." A tiny chuckle comes to Luna. "But what will we do now? The Elements of Harmony do not let just anypony wield them. And now that their previous bearers have all passed away, there is nopony." "Do not give up hope so soon sister. The Elements once chose us; then they chose six others. They will choose more." And under her breath she mutters "I just hope that it is soon."