RISE
Princess Celestia looked longingly through the colored glass of the main throne room. She stared at the depictions of the legends and tales of Equestria. There she was, banishing her sister to the moon for a thousand years. In another window further down the hallway was her pupil Twilight Sparkle’s image, reflecting the multi colored glass throughout the entirety of the room. Her pupil was immortalized in this window for her and her friends calming the heart of Nightmare Moon all those years ago. It was a glorious accomplishment that she was still proud of her young pupil for today.
Celestia then glanced at the last window. It had no special decorations or colors, it was simply clear. There were no more legends or tales of importance to impress upon this window, so it remained the way it was, as clear and transparent as it was the day the palace was rectified. It stood there, a symbol of how the regal sisters could still look upon their subjects today. Even with all of the majesty and beauty of the palace and their powers, the two sisters could still see what was best for their subjects.
It was boring.
There needed to be a new tale, Celestia decided. A story that ponies would sing for ages to come. They would pass down legends of another great Equestrian story. Great heroic stories always seemed to boost morale, whenever the heroes won, that is. As Celestia stood there looking through the untouched window, she knew within her heart the real reason for her thoughts.
Something was wrong. She just couldn’t put her hoof on it.
~~~
In the beginning, dragons lived in the stars. They lived relatively peacefully, as peacefully as dragons can live together. There was one old dragon, some say the eldest of them all, that seemed to isolate herself from the others. No one had ever seen her outside of her little home in the stars.
She was protecting an egg. She had laid this egg quite a while ago, yet it refused to hatch until it was ready. Dragons were usually stubborn as infants, but this egg was different, the old dragon mother could feel it. This egg was waiting for the perfect time to hatch.
One day, the egg finally decided it was the right time. The egg split in two, releasing an immense amount of light. When the mother had opened her eyes, she found that the egg contained no dragon, but instead a new planet burst out of the shell, growing to an enormous size for the dragons to inhabit. Gleeful, the dragons swooped down to the new earth, but when they arrived, their happiness turned to rage.
The egg had not created just the celestial body, but also life of its own. There were other creatures already inhabiting this world. The dragons would not stand for it, insisting that the land was theirs.
The dragons and the others engaged in an epic war. Both sides lost several hundred beings in the process of forming peace, when they agreed that instead of killing each other, they could reluctantly share the ground. Both sides seemed to be happy with this plan, except for that one dragon, the First Mother.
Furious over the filthy beasts’ living on her child, and of the other dragons allowance of it, the eldest dragon descended upon them in rage. She torched villages, and endlessly wreaked havoc upon all the land.
The beings of the earth rose up against her, preventing her from slaughtering many more. In order to be sure that she would not rise again in fury, they sealed her away in the icy northern regions. There she slept for millennia upon millennia.
~~~
“Princess Celestia!” the stallion yelled as he galloped into the room. “Princess Celestia! It’s terrible!”
“What is it?” The princess always tried to remain calm, even during times of possible jeopardy to national security. She tensed her muscles and eased forwards in her throne, bracing herself for the worst.
She was not prepared enough.
“Princess Celestia! There have been reports of these, cracks all throughout Equestria! Earthquakes are splitting whole countrysides in two! They destroyed a stretch of railroad tracks, while there was a train, your majesty. We still have not found the ponies on board. You have to do something!”
“Cracks? Earthquakes?” the Princess questioned.
“Yes, your majesty. It really has started picking up quite suddenly. They appear to be-” A loud rumbling shook the palace. Chandeliers overhead shook, threatening to drop their priceless frames. The stained glass windows grew slight cracks. Bits of pebble and rock cascaded from the pillars. The warner took a deep breath when the rumbling had died down some. “They appear to be headed straight towards Canterlot, your majesty.”
“What do you mean?”
“The cracks, they all seem to be pointing here, princess.” The stallion reached into his satchel bag with a quick turn of the head. He plucked out a small scroll and held it out for the princess to take.
Princess Celestia quickly levitated the paper towards herself. She unfurled it, revealing a map showing Equestria and the kingdoms to the north. On the map were quick sketches of cracks zigging, curving, and ripping through the earth. The stallion did not lie, the lines appeared to be headed towards one singular place, Canterlot. This recent one had been the first to be felt by the capital, but Celestia feared it would not be the last. She rolled up the paper and threw it back into the bag.
“Send for Twilight Sparkle, Ponyville. Tell her to come immediately, and to bring her friends.” When the stallion hesitated, she commanded, “Hurry!” The out-of-breath pony did a slight bow, and then bolted out of the room, faster than he had entered.
Celestia stared at the closing door as the stallion left the throne room. She slowly got to her hooves. She walked over to one of her royal guards, who was now trying to assess the damage to the palace. “Forget the pillars, Blue Storm. Quickly, fetch Princess Luna.” The pegasus bowed as he too bolted out of the room.
Her worst fears were becoming a reality.
~~~
The two creatures were constantly at war. The first, an eagle, the most majestic and fiercest eagle that would ever live. The second, a lion, the most ruthless and ambitious lion that would ever exist. One would roar while the other would screech. One would growl while the other would caw.
The lion would bellow and roar so powerfully that earth would spring from his mouth. Whole lands and worlds were created by this lion’s growls. The eagle would screech and flap its wings so powerfully that air would wash over the earth. All of the air was created by this one majestic eagle and its powerful beatings of its wings.
With these two fighting constantly, they would generate enough of their respective elements to create the world as we know it. Alas, the land was barren, and the air void. There was no life and no water with which to fill the world.
During one of their more fierce battles, the lion defeated the eagle. It slew its archenemy and slit its throat. The lion boasted proudly of its victory, even taking the time to cut off the head of the eagle as a trophy. The lion did not get away without its own injuries, though, as it had become severely handicapped at the legs.
Still, despite its wounds, the lion bathed in the eagle’s blood. The blood, having come in contact with the lion, turned pure and blue, flowing freely out of the eagle’s body. With this abundance of water, life began to begin on this world along with many clouds appearing in the sky.
Later, the lion died from its wounds. To commemorate the two beings that created it, Nature took the injured halves of both creatures and created the First Griffon, a majestic being that was half-eagle and half-lion.
The First Griffon, hating both parts of its opposing body, instantly went into a rampage against Nature, threatening all life on earth. So Nature created new griffons from scratch to fight this first one.
These new griffons sealed the First Griffon into the icy caps of the far north, disposing of the last remnants of the creatures that created the world. It is there the First Griffon lays in wait for the day it will finally escape once more and wreak havoc on Nature for creating it.
~~~
Princess Celestia sat back down in her thrown once more. She turned to the left to gaze at the empty pane. She noticed ponies everywhere in the streets of Canterlot trying to recover from the tremors that shook Canterlot a few moments ago. In the distance she could make out a large crack in the ground. It wasn’t much, not nearly as big as a ravine, but it was a start. She faced towards the doors and gave a heavy sigh as her sister, Princess Luna, threw them open as she bolted in.
“What is it, sister? Is it about the earthquake?” Luna inquired.
Princess Celestia slowly lifted her head to face her sister properly. A slight amount of water graced her eyes as she solemnly said, “No, sister, it’s much worse.”
Luna took a step backwards. “What is it? What has happened Celestia? Tell me.”
Celestia gave her sister a small nervous laugh. As she opened her mouth her lower jaw wobbled slightly. Full-on tears slowly began to trickle down her face as she said, “Mother’s coming home.”
Her sister’s eyes grew wide with horror. She began to shake her head, repeating over and over again, “No, no, no, no, no, no...”
“I’m sorry, but she is.”
“But, how?”
Celestia turned towards the empty window yet again. She stared out at the crack in the earth caused by the earthquake. She continued staring as she said, “I’m not sure, but Mother’s rising again.” She turned towards the pegasus that had re-entered the room. “Blue Storm, fetch the Elements of Harmony.”
The two princesses gazed out the window as the pegasus left once more, looking on the clear evidence that something was amiss. With this and the news that Celestia had received earlier and the map she saw, there was no doubt in her mind what had to be done.
She just couldn’t bear herself to do it.
~~~
A lone alicorn floated in space. That’s how she remained most of her days; since her mysterious existence began she just stayed motionless in one spot. She didn’t do anything. She just perpetually remained in that one spot.
That is, until one day, when she spread her wings and opened her eyes. Bursting forth from the wings of creation came two smaller alicorns, one of light and one of darkness. She raised them and taught them how to use their powers wisely.
This Cosmic Mother created a new world for them to live. She inhabited the place with many more creatures of various types. The two sisters lived on this planet, exercising full autonomous reign, separate from their mother that gave them life.
For seemingly no reason, she grew increasingly angry at them. She rampaged across all the land, terrorizing, destroying, and wreaking general havoc. The princesses, in an effort to pacify their mother’s rage, sealed her in the icy north to calm her down.
Many years later, they released her, thinking that she had come to her senses. They were wrong. In her time of solitude, she had only grown angrier. She rampaged once more, this time destroying nearly everything. The lands were torched and maimed bodies laid everywhere. The princesses faced her once more, and again sealed her in the ice, hoping that she would never escape.
To this day the princesses are still traumatized by the events that took place during their mother’s outrage. They never spoke of their mother again, and whenever any creature mentioned her to them, they grew cold and distant, remembering the awful time when all hope was lost, and they almost ceased to exist.
RISE
Author's Note
As I posted in my blog a couple of days ago:
"The thing that makes me slightly excited about this story is that I have no plan for it. I usually spend several days coming up with ideas and drawing up outlines on my whiteboard, but this time I won't be doing that. I'm going to take the Tolkien approach to writing LotR and just sit down and write by the seat of my pants. The reason I'm even writing this story is because I was sick and tired of writing sad or dark ones."
So, in short, I have a general idea of where I'm going with this story, but that's it. I don't have a clue about what's even happening in the next chapter, though it's probably going to involve the Mane Six. Other than that, I have no idea.
This is going to be fun.
Twilight Sparkle groggily hopped out of bed. After quickly untangling and retucking the sheets, she walked down the stairs. A floating frying pan softly landed on the stove as it sparked a flame. She placed a small dab of butter in the heated pan while getting out the eggs for breakfast.
Spike awoke to the sound of eggs cracking. He couldn’t help himself, it was instinct. Dragons had been designed to react strongly to that sound. It was the sound that was filled with extreme emotion, being either good or bad. Naturally, Spike was usually fooled by this sound whenever cooking with unfertilized chicken eggs. He still was not used to it, and couldn’t help but flinch every time he heard the crack, even when he was the cause.
A few minutes later, Twilight called up to her assistant. Spike rubbed his eyes as he rolled out of bed. He slowly made his way down the stairs towards the kitchen below. Twilight spun around and set two steaming plates of eggs on the table as he sat down. They sat there, eating the delicious breakfast in silence.
Before settling down to study and other librarian duties, there was a knock at the door. Spike answered it, revealing it to be the local mail carrier. He pulled the letter out from his satchel and handed it to the dragon. The stallion quickly turned and left, with other letters to be delivered.
“It’s from Canterlot, maybe from Princess Celestia,” Spike said as he handed the letter to Twilight. She unfurled the parchment.
“That’s strange, it is from the Princess, well, the royal court. But why didn’t she send it through you?” Twilight’s eyes grazed the words on the letter. “Oh... oh dear.”
“What is it?”
“We need to get to Canterlot quickly.”
~~~
“Alright, girls.” Twilight paced in front of the five mares in front of her. They stood in front of a passenger train, bound for Canterlot. In the past two hours they had spent their time furiously packing and preparing for a long journey. They didn’t know what they would need in Canterlot, so they brought everything they could think of that they could possibly need. This led to a large bill in luggage transport.
“Hey,” called a voice from beyond the ponies, “don’t forget about me! I’m a part of this group!”
“Of course, Spike. I don’t know how I could’ve forgotten about you.” Spike lined up with the others, content. “Now then, Princess Celestia was not exactly clear about what we were going to be doing in Canterlot, but I do know one thing: it’s not good. The stallion that delivered this letter looked quite shaken, and the hoofwriting is hardly legible. We have to be prepared for anything. So let’s move!”
“Yes, ma’am!” Rainbow Dash barked back. They all loaded onto the train. The conductor announced its departure, and the train set off for Canterlot. They were ready for anything. They had to be ready.
~~~
“Why is it taking so long?” Rainbow Dash asked annoyingly after two hours. “Aren’t we usually there by now?” She lay down on one of the seats. She stretched her body, but she couldn’t fight back the restlessness.
“It is rather odd,” Rarity commented as she glanced out a window. “We’re also moving quite a bit slower. Wasn’t this trip supposed to be urgent?”
“Maybe they’re just going this slowly for safety?” Twilight asked doubtfully. They had ridden the trains countless times with no incidents. She couldn’t imagine what could be holding them up now.
The door to the train car slid open. In stooped the conductor, in his suit and cap. He addressed the ponies, “Good morning, ladies. I can assure you that we’re almost at Canterlot. Just a few more minutes and you’ll be able to see it out the windows.”
“Why are we travelling so slowly?” Twilight asked.
“Well, you see, the engineer has been taking precautions. There have been a number of earthquakes surrounding Canterlot, causing large cracks to appear in the landscape. The soil has been unstable at places, and we’re just making sure that we arrive without incident. We’re sorry for the delay.” With that, the conductor backed his way towards the engine, sliding the door closed behind him. The earth rumbled.
“Oh dear,” Fluttershy remarked from across the aisle. “Do you think the earthquakes are part of why Princess Celestia asked us to come?”
Twilight looked out the window. She could see Canterlot come into view, but it was different. There was a large pink bubble protecting it from outside invasions. No doubt Shining Armor was behind it. The bubble received another burst in magic from her brother as it rejuvenated itself. “Maybe,” Twilight said, “but the protective bubble is back up.”
Her friends gathered around the windows on Twilight’s side. Their eyes filled with terror when they saw the pink sphere of protection over the capital city. There had been a threat made against Canterlot. This was now certain.
They continued staring at Canterlot when the train lurched forward suddenly. It rocked back and sent the ponies inside to the ground. Applejack looked out one of the windows to discover that the engine car had fallen into a narrow crevice. Though the car could not completely fit in right now, it was only a matter of time before the crack widened, allowing more than just the engine car to fall in.
“We have to get everyone off this train!” Twilight yelled over the screaming of ponies in the cars behind them. “Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, fly towards the engine and rescue the two ponies up there before the car falls in!” Rainbow Dash saluted and quickly dove out of a nearby window. Her wings expanded and she took a sharp turn towards the front of the train. Fluttershy nervously but quickly flew with her.
“Applejack, run down the other passenger cars. Tell them to get off the train. Hurry!” Applejack nodded and bolted down the aisle towards the back door. She swung it open and descended into the other cars.
“The rest of us need to help the elderly and young deboard the train as quickly as possible! Go, go, go!” Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Spike followed Applejack into the other cars.
They rushed through the cars, helping the elderly off by levitating them off or by giving them a hoof/hand to guide them to the exits. Spike mostly helped get the younger ponies off, they would follow a dragon easily. Babies were crying and parents were scurrying around, searching for their children. It was a new form of chaos in each new car.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy met up with them about a quarter of the way through. They began flying ponies out of there faster than the other ponies could. Applejack finished announcing it to everypony, because it had become quite obvious from the screamings of ponies in the train, and began helping ponies leave. Things were running very smoothly for a mass exodus in a limited time.
Then, the train lurched forward again as a loud crash echoed across the area. Rainbow Dash flew back into the train to grab another pony. “The entire engine car is in the crack! The whole train’s going to fall in!” The train was slowly moving forwards now, but not in the way they wanted it to. It was slowly rolling into the crevice, with each end of the car making the crack wider and sending a loud crash throughout the train. It started to pick up speed.
“Come on girls!” Twilight shouted over the screams of distraught ponies. “We’re halfway done!” She levitated more elderly ponies off when she turned to Spike. “See if you can unhook this car from the one before it! We should be able to stop it from taking us too!”
Spike ran towards the other end of the passenger car. He slid open the door and looked down. The two platforms were connected by a large bolt, cemented in with an advanced form of magic. Spike recognized it from the day before as a locking spell. It could only be removed by saying the spell that bound it in reverse.
“No use! It’s a locking spell!” Spike called to Twilight.
“Blast! Don’t worry about kindness anymore! Just shove them off!” The ponies and Spike bolted their way through several more cars, shoving ponies through the doors in a matter of moments before moving on to the next one. It increased their pace, but it wasn’t enough.
The train picked up speed again. Half of the cars were now in the crevice, with the ponies not yet done with their job. Applejack, who had started from the back end, wasn’t helping much, despite her best efforts. There were too many ponies and not enough time.
“We don’t have time for this! Everyone off!” Twilight yelled. “You too,” she said to the rest of the mane six. Reluctantly, but quickly, the deboarded the train along with everyone else in that passenger car. There were still ten left that needed to be unloaded. They couldn’t save them all in ten seconds.
“All unicorns,” she screamed loud enough so that they would hear her over the roar of the train falling deeper into the crevice. It was racing in now. “Everypony! Help me!”
At once, hundreds of beams of light rocketed towards the train. They surrounded the last remaining cars with a bright aura of magic. The unicorns strained under the immense weight of the train that was already dangling in the crevice, but they held the remaining cars up. Applejack started shoving ponies out of the train now, not caring if she bruises them. She had to get them out as quickly as possible. Even with a hundred of unicorns, it was still a massively heavy train.
The last foal was carried by the mane by Applejack, who hopped off the train. She gave a short nod to Twilight, who screamed at the top of her lungs, “Release!” The beams stopped all at once and the aura disappeared. The humming of magic was then replaced by the crashing of the train as if all fell into the crevice. The train cascaded down the crack, and was heard from no more except the distant echoes that followed it.
The ponies slowly made their way towards the crack. They looked down into the abyss, seeing only blackness. There was no sign of a train. There was no sign of anything. “How does a whole train fit in there vertically?” a random pony asked.
“Yeah, and how come we can’t see it?” another inquired.
“This is an incredibly deep crevice,” Twilight stated as she looked up at Canterlot and the bubble surrounding it. “This isn’t good.”
“We have to walk now?” Spike said comically, trying to relieve the stress. A few ponies chuckled, but they were still raw from barely escaping with their lives. Many unicorns passed out from overexertion. Even Twilight felt like fainting. This was no joking matter.
~~~
The ponies and Spike finally arrived at Princess Celestia’s throneroom. They burst in without even knocking. The princess looked up, and was immediately joyous. They rushed forwards to greet her by bowing. When they looked up, she addressed them, “My little ponies, and wonderful Spike of course, how glad I am that you have come here this day. But I have troubling news.
“Every culture has a creation story, it almost couldn’t be considered one if it didn’t have at least one story about the beginning. It is an inherent part of our beings, to find out what came before us and how we got here. For griffons, it is a tale of an ultimate griffon that defiled Nature and its inhabitants. For this, it was locked away in the north for millennia. For dragons, it is a tale of the First Mother, the lone parent of a single egg that gave birth to the earth and its creatures. However, she rampaged and was locked away in the north. For ponies, it is the tale of the Cosmic Mother, which I’m sure you’ve all heard rumors of her existence. She too was sealed in the earth in the north. Are you noticing a pattern?”
“They’re all buried in the north?” Spike guessed.
“Yes. No matter how different these stories are, they all have one similarity: the land of Gelidus Septentrio, or Icy North in its native tongue.”
“What do you want us to do, Princess?” Twilight stepped forward and asked.
“I need you to go to the land of Gelidus Septentrio, find out what is causing all this, and stop it before this situation grows any worse. Are you up for the task?” Princess Celestia looked down upon the subjects before her.
“Yes princess,” Twilight bowed once more, “we’ll leave as soon as possible.” They turned around and briskly galloped out of the throne room.
Celestia called out while they left, “Good luck! I have faith in you!” When the doors slammed shut, she sighed and slouched in her royal throne.
They would need all the luck they could get.
Author's Note
And so it begins.
