Ascendance: The Starswirl Chronicles

Empress Corona silently brooded in her room, long after the sky had turned from it's brilliant orange dusk to a shadowy, muted purple as twilight eased into it's bosom. The moon shone brightly, casting it's soft rays upon her balcony as she mulled over a glass of wine.

"What has happened to me... I risk the life of mine own charge to make him an engine of war? For what reason do I desire so much power? I've even succeeded in turning mine own sister against me..." Corona stared sadly into her blood-red wine, her reflection warped by the undulating liquid as she gently swirled it with her magic, disturbed by her own behavior earlier that afternoon.

Corona started at the soft hoof steps that she heard as Luna smoothly touched down onto the hard stone behind her. Turning to face her only friend, Corona was not surprised to see a look of disapproval etched upon her younger sister's brow. "Pray, dear sister, tell me of his condition."

Luna scoffed, turning her head to observe the wide expanse of the forest surrounding the castle. Crickets mildly chirped into the midnight air as time stretched between the two goddesses. It was well over five minutes before Luna deigned to reply.

"He is well, although no thanks to thy efforts. We channeled as much moon energy as we dared into his mortal frame, and still there remains the blessing of the Sun within his veins. However, he lives; that is all that matters."

Corona sighed in relief, taking in a large gulp of air as she realized that she had been holding her breath. "That is good to hear. He is one of my favorite initiates."

"Favorite indeed, if thou wert willing to see him die for the sake of your war," Luna said bitterly, her voice never rising past a husky tone of anger. "We had but no choice except to bless him with our own magic. He is now destined to walk a path of greatness, balancing the energy of the sun and moon lest it destroy him from within." Suddenly turning to face her sister, Luna stalked forth. "What is wrong with thy mind, sister? Pray, do tell. You are not the princess who took the throne all those years ago. You are not the Celestia we know. Why must we continue to rain death upon innocents? Does your greed for power know no bounds?"

Corona's expression hardened. "I thought I told you never to call me by that name. All that I do is for the sake of Equestria and it's prosperity. You, of all ponies, should know this to be true!"

"How long have you stayed in yon castle, our sister? We have walked amongst the common folk many times, and not a single time did we hear cries for more blood to be spilled, more land to be conquered. The empire already contains over a hundred vassal states, each one becoming more rebellious as the years pass by. Please, dear sister. Let us end these endless years of war, before we are devoured by our own machinations." Luna pleaded softly, her eyes filled with guilt from carrying the weight of a million dead souls in her heart. A single tear broke free, slowly tracking it's way down her cheek before falling to the floor with a plip.

"I thought you were better than this, Luna. Such weakness is not befitting of a royal blood." Corona furrowed her brow in anger, her face warped with choler. "Away with you. If I ever hear such notions of ending Equestria's expansion again, I'll have you exiled for treason against the crown."

Luna recoiled violently, as if hit by a physical blow. "Celestia, I-"

"And for Faust's sake, do not call me Celestia! I am Empress Corona, Regent of the Sun, Ruler of the Holy Equestrian Empire, the Bringer of Dawn and the Solar Goddess! Leave me now, lest you wish to burn to ash." Corona stared down at her sister, daring her to continue.

Bowing her head down in defeat and anguish, Luna flew off the balcony into her comforting night. Casting a sad glance at the one she called sister now turned a monster, she silently cursed the Council of Magi who had made her sister become like so. Her mind was bleak, darker than her darkest night, and her woe threatened to overtake her before she realized that a glimmer still existed in the form of Starswirl, who was due to begin the Rites of Challenge. With renewed hope, Luna quickly returned to her chambers and waited for the coming dawn.

Starswirl awoke, blearily rubbing at his eyes as he quickly sat up in his bed. The warm softness of his covers threatened to draw him in again, and it was with intense willpower that he managed to struggle out of its grasp. Gingerly touching a hoof to the floor, he shivered and instantly recoiled from the contact. It was frigidly cold that morning, the Immortal Sun shining less brilliantly in the clear blue sky. Frost had formed both outside and in on Starswirl's window, and he started to shiver violently as his body began to feel the cold.

As he had done many times in the past without consciously thinking it, Starswirl summoned a burst of heat that instantly warmed the room to agreeable temperatures. Sighing with satisfaction, he then wriggled out of bed and nonchalantly performed his morning rituals. He was halfway through brushing his tousled mane before he suddenly realized what he was supposed to do today.

"In all things that are holy, please let me not be la-" Starswirl choked on his words, his eyes bulging as he stared at his magically refilling waterclock. The marks indicated he had approximately five minutes before being late to the rites of challenge and being disqualified by default, as it had not fully turned to dawn yet. Cursing to himself, Starswirl made do with a half-brushed, charcoal gray mane as he quickly slipped into the woolen white robes of a Class 2 initiate. With the insignia of the Sun  proudly on his back, he ran out of his room and tore down the hallway towards Empress Corona's study, where he was to receive further instruction on the rites.

Unbeknownst to him, Starswirl was being silently observed by a Lunar Stallion, who had taken to the clouds outside his window on orders from his mistress. His task now completed, he quickly flew off towards her chambers, ready to giver her his report.

Silent Night trotted towards the main hall, gently humming to herself as she moved forward. While she was outwardly happy and carefree, she secretly worried about her long-time friend who had simply disappeared after his summons yesterday. He hadn't even shown up for his evening class exams, a fact that deeply disturbed Silent when she found out from Winter Frost.

Without noticing it herself, she sighed, finally dropping the smile she had maintained since walking out of her room. While smiling was the thing she least wanted to do, it would worry her classmates and friends if the friendliest pegasus in class suddenly wasn't as happy as she usually was. For a brief moment, she allowed her emotions to come to surface along with one question that had been nagging her for quite a while. "Why am I worrying so much? It's not like I like him or anything..."

While she tried to convince her mind of this, her heart said otherwise. "Ok, maybe I do like him a little... but as a friend. I mean, a pegasus and a unicorn? Who's heard of that happening? Come on, Silent, stop thinking of silly things and just get to breakfast."

Silent had become so engrossed in her inner monologue that she almost didn't notice a grey-coated pony speeding down the hall past her, the wind rustling her mane before he sharpy skidded around a corner and continued barreling towards the general direction of the castle. She paused, wondering why the blurred shape looked so familiar before she remembered what it reminded her of. "Starswirl!"

Now galloping herself, Silent quickly rounded the corner to see Starswirl almost half way between the castle and the Institute. "Starswirl, wait up!" As no response was forthcoming, Silent allowed herself a rare curse in olden Equestrian. At this rate, he would simply disappear again and subject her to another day of worrying. Quickly casting a glance behind her to make sure there were no professors in the area, she gave two powerful flaps of the wing before taking off into the air in pursuit.

While Starswirl was fast, there was no way he could beat the speeds a pegasi windmage could achieve. There was also the fact that Silent had augmented her wings with a small rune that caused each wing-beat to generate twice the amount of speed for half the effort. It was far from perfect, as the rune decayed quickly over time after each activation, but it often-times gave her the final burst of speed she needed to reach whatever pony she was chasing.

Just as Starswirl powered up his magic to pass through the doors leading to the castle, he felt a strong surge of wind creep up from behind him, nearly knocking him off his hooves. He stumbled into a nearby wall, quickly picking himself up to see Silent Night panting heavily in front of him.

"You -pant- doofus. Where are you -pant- going so -pant- fast?" Silent breathed in short bursts, her lungs desperately grasping at whatever oxygen it could intake. Her body shook slightly from the physical exertion she had placed herself under simply to talk to him.

Starswirl just stared, his face the very model of confusion. "Why did you fly so fast? You could have just used wind magic to carry your words over to me, you know."

Silent slapped a hoof to her face. She had completely forgotten about that spell and realized that it would have been a lot faster to just send him a message than chase him almost the entire length down the hall. "Right. That one spell. I forgot about it," she said ruefully, feeling very much like an idiot.

Starswirl laughed. "Your expression right now is priceless, Silent. But why did you try so hard to catch up to me?"

"Oh, no reason, It's not like you caused me to worry about your sorry plot over the past twelve hours or so wondering what happened to you. I mean, you totally showed up to your evening exams and did not cause me and Winter to worry, right?" Silent shot him her best withering gaze before her features softened into that of concern. "Seriously, Star. What's up?"

"You were worried?" Starswirl raised his eyes in surprise. While he and Silent were very close, he didn't think that she'd be worried over a small absence like that. "My meeting with the empress just took longer than expected, so she excused me from my evening exams."

"Won't that reflect badly on your graduation status when you complete year three in the next Class?"

"I think graduation is the least of my problems at the moment, considering I have to get to the ri-" Starswirl suddenly shut up, remembering that he was about a minute away from being blown sky high from the wrath of an angry goddess.

"Ri-?" Silent was curious. She hadn't seen Starswirl this stressed over anything in the longest time. In fact, the most stress she saw out of him now a days was which cloak color to wear on their jaunts out on the town with their group of friends.

"Rites of challenge. Please don't ask," Starswirl said hurriedly, quickly lifting a hoof before Silent could say anything. He estimated that he now had about half a minute to reach the Empress' chamber. "I'll explain to you later, I promise, but right now I've got to get to Empress Corona's study before she decides that I would make a nice ornament for her wall." Gathering up as much magical power as he dared at the tip of his horn, he flashed Silent a strained grin before activating his teleportation spell, instantly whisking him away into the Empress' study.

Silent just stood there, her mouth agape as she tried to understand what she just heard. Starswirl, taking the rites? Does that mean...? Dazed, she started to wander back towards the main hall. "Is he going to become a Magus? What's going to happen to us then?" With this disturbing revelation in mind, Silent suddenly urged herself into a gallop. She had to tell the others about this.

When Starswirl phased back into existence, the last thing he expected to see was his Empress indulging herself in a prodigious amount of cake. He stood there in shock, his eyebrows nearly flying off his face as she continued to devour the delicious confections. Deciding that it would be less awkward to simply teleport to her front door and knock rather than address her, Starswirl prepared another teleportation spell and was about to warp when a burst of solar magic wrapped around him, locking him down in magical chains.

"Don't think about escaping, young one. As a goddess, I can feel a magical presence as soon as it enters my range," she commented casually, levitating another forkful of chocolate double-fudge delight to her waiting mouth. Chewing slowly, she relished the smoothness of the fudge as it melted on her tongue, almost moaning in delight at the sensation. "Ah, cake is a goddess' delight, truly." Daintily setting down her plate, she stood from her red cushioned couch and approached the entrapped Starswirl, who was struggling against his bonds of light. "At least you were on time. I was on the verge of defaulting you from the rites."

Wriggling awkwardly against his bonds, Starswirl chose not to answer and instead adopted a docile demeanor. He was not sure why his Empress was bothering with this banter, but he certainly did not want to feel her wrath. As confident as he was in his own abilities, he was fairly sure that a duel with the Regent of the Sun would leave him in ashes.

Uncharacteristically, the Empress puffed her lips, a pouting expression in her eyes. "Really, you're no fun at all. Although," she added, seductively winking at her charge, "you are a very comely unicorn."

Starswirl paled significantly. His goddess found him...attractive? Surely this could not spell out good things for the future.

Noticing the expression on his face, Corona smirked. "I merely jest. Now then, let us be on our way." With a sudden burst of magic, Starswirl felt his surroundings melt away as the teleportation spell took effect. He now found himself in a tall hall, carved out of various gems and crystals. The banner of the Magus Aquus, emblazoned in shimmering colors of cobalt and silver, quietly hung from the center of a shrine.

"Ahh, the young initiate has arrived." Magus Darkslick approached Starswirl, his eyes filled with a cold, calculating gaze. While Starswirl had heard stories about the mysterious council of Magi, he had never actually seen a member of the corrupt group until now.

Darkslick Blizzard was dressed in the fineries of court, sporting a violent cobalt blue cloak embroidered with silver threading. His frame was filled and showed signs of one too many feasts attended as his rotund belly. However, while the Magus had let his body fall to waste, the same did not apply to his mind. Of the three Magi, he was probably the one who schemed the most to get his hooves on as much power as he could possibly gather before passing on into the void.

The Magus stood there, sizing up who would potentially be his new apprentice. He caught a glimmer of disgust in the eyes of this young stallion, something that Starswirl had been unable to suppress despite himself.  "Ohoh. This one has a grudge. Perhaps against me...? No. It must be against the Council and what we represent," he thought to himself. "I would be lying if I didn't feel the same when I was first apprenticed. I will just have to have him see the truth, just as my mentor before me did."

"Well, this initiate simply reeks of magical energy. When DID you discover such a gem, Corona?"

Corona shot Darkslick a withering glance. "Address your empress properly, Magus. Do not pretend to be so familiar with me as to be on a first-name basis."

"But of course, my Empress," Darkslick said smoothly, grandly bowing his head low in a show of mock deference. Corona deigned to ignore this and instead turned to Starswirl. "This is where you will begin - in the gem stone caves of Canterlot Mountain. Keep your wits about you, or they may slip through your hooves faster than quicksand." With that, the goddess simply ported out of the cave, leaving Starswirl alone with the despicable water molder.

"Now then, my dear student; shall we begin?" The cold smirk etched on Darkslick's face told Starswirl that he was not going to enjoy this.

"A-and then he just 'ported just like that!" Silent Night wailed, breaking down in front of her friends. A gloomy silence had enveloped the group when they heard that Starswirl was in line to become a Magus apprentice.

"Wait, does that mean we'll never see 'im again?" Titanus' voice was deep and syrupy, lower than the normal stallion. Then again, he was larger than the normal stallion. With a barrel chest and a steel resolve, Titanus was turning out to be one of the more potent geomancers the Institute had trained in the last century. This was disregarding the fact that he was also participating in voluntary training with the Lunar Stallion Corps, causing his body to become muscled and toned unlike the rest of his spindly and rare brethren. While geomancers usually gained their bulk later on in their lifetime through their connection to the earth, Titanus enjoyed doing it the old fashioned way.

"Guys, calm down. We should be happy for him!" Winter Frost spoke enthusiastically, his eyes alight with excitement. "Don't you see? When Starswirl passes the Rites, he'll be on the fast track to Magus Aquus. We'll personally be friends with a Magus!"

" 'When?' Don't you mean 'if' ?" Stormy Skies sounded doubtful and cast a skeptical glance over to Winter. "Passing the Rites isn't an easy thing to do. I've heard stories from past initiates before they were forced to the frontlines. It's a test of mental acuity, physical endurance, and skill, all of which are tested to their limits. I wouldn't be so quick to peg this as an automatic pass; it can just as easily turn out that Starswirl's going to be sent off to war by the end of the week."

"Pft, you have no idea how strong Starswirl is, Stormy!" Winter declared, undeterred by his friend's apprehension. "Just watch, I bet you he's just breezing through those exams right now!"

"Faster, faster! Didn't they teach you anything in the Institute?" Magus Aquus Darkslick sneered at the exertions of his apprentice-to-be. He had forgotten how fun it was to have an apprentice when his last one mysteriously drowned in the castle moat, and now he was enjoying himself to the fullest.

Starswirl, unable to properly articulate himself, merely grunted as he struggled to balance yet another levitating sphere of water with his magic. Any notion of confidence he had before was now completely deflated as it became increasingly difficult to comply with his teacher's orders. Currently, he was levitating his one hundred and eighth sphere and felt as if his horn was going to wrench itself from his skull due to the magical pressure building up in its tip.

"Is the little apprentice tired already? I thought you were better than this, seeing as Corona herself recommended you," said Darkslick mockingly as he lazily sipped from a crystal goblet filled with clover cinnamon win. "Hurry up and make another! This lake isn't going to empty itself, you know."

Currently, the duo was standing in front of a shallow underground lake, deep within the cavern. Light of all spectrums flooded the area as it refracted off the various crystals present, giving it an ethereal after glow. It was truly a sight to behold, if Starswirl hadn't been occupied with other pressing matters; namely, the level of water still present in the lake. Despite his best efforts, the lake refused to empty out in the slightest and instead forced him to manipulate more and more water until the air above him was completely filled with floating orbs of water, each one threatening to burst apart should he lose his concentration.

Starswirl would have groaned in frustration if he had the strength to. How much more water could there possibly be in this lake? Braving himself, he started to form yet another orb of water before he caught something from the corner of his eye.

Darkslick was muttering an incantation under his breath, staring intently at the water in the lake. The surface seemed to shimmer slightly before settling once more, Darkslick having the most supreme of arrogance smirks on his face. Now suspicious, Starswirl inched himself forward step by step, burdened by the weight of the orbs he was carrying, until his hoof stood at the edge of the lake.

Darkslick's smirk quickly disappeared. Oh, damn. Look's like this one is brighter than the rest of them. He watched as his charge placed a hoof in the water and muttered a spell of his own. A look of indignation was etched across Starswirl's face as the water in the lake and in the air around him instantly vanished in a burst of light.

"What in Equestria is going on here, Magus Aquus?" Starswirl spoke as calmly as he could, his breath ragged from the magical exertion he had placed on his body.

A slow clap emerged from the rotund figure. "Bravo, bravo I say! You are the first candidate in the past two weeks to have seen through that particular trick. Funny thing, really, how strong illusions can be. Even now, your mind believes it to have been levitating orbs of real water and is simulating the drain on your magic reserves." Darkslick raised his eyebrows as if reappraising the shorter figure before him. "Congratulations; you've passed the first Rite." Darkslick smiled mockingly at his charge. "Perhaps you're only half as dense as the others. Now, come along. There are other challenges you must complete before you can breath easily. The show has just begun." With a flick of his horn, the couch beneath him began to levitate and move down the corridor, carrying the oversized Magus with it.

Suppressing a desire to strangle the old mage, Starswirl slowly trotted behind the couch as it made it's way through the cavern. He didn't want to get lost down there, after all. Taking one last look at the crystal cavern, Starswirl plunged into the darker depths of the cave in an effort to keep the quickly escaping couch in vision.