The Fallen: The Sins of the Solar Empire
Prologue: The Original Sins
Directly before the coming of Nightmare Moon
The deity of the day, Princess Celestia, approached the blank, solid-liquid pool of glass wrapped in the ever shifting frame. The princess of the sun was beneath the Reflecting Pool in the ancient Everfree Forest. The water above the small cavern was affected by the object below it and therefore gave it the magical properties a future Pinkie Pie would use to create multiple copies of herself. The cavern itself was a round cave of sand that changed to glass at its center, in which the enchanted object stood.
Celestia advanced on the magical mirror, with every intention of shattering it, keeping it from corrupting the world. The Mirror Matrix was created as a byproduct of one of Discord's ancient spells. The mirror was originally a completely chaotic object that would break down the mind of those who looked upon it. But over time, under the care of the Sirens, it evolved and changed. The maremaids altered and perfected it, now it polarized, or reflected a person's opposite, more chaotic personality. It brought out the opposite of a pony's personality, it changed them, transforming them into a split personality that would consume them.
Before coming to the omnipotent artifact, Celestia cast upon herself a spell of purification and protection. The incantation of protection was only so strong; she could not hesitate. The frame of the magnificent mirror was metal, shaped like the waves of the ocean at the bottom, but as it progressed upwards, became a flickering flame. The reflecting glass it held together was blank and showed no refection of the alicorn even as she came closer to it. She blinked and when she opened her eyes, her two eyes were as wild and as green as emeralds. Her coat was a searing hot scarlet and her mane was replaced with a blazing inferno of swirling fire. Atop her head sat a helmet of gold with a tall bayonet that ran along the front of her long, sharply tipped horn. A chest plate of the same material hung around her torso, and at its center rested a perfectly aged fire ruby. The alicorn in the mirror wore boots of white metal that lead halfway up her calves. She stared directly into Celestia's eyes and the righteous princess could feel her sanity, her mind, slipping through the mental cracks, falling into the endless abyss of black.
The body of the regal mare began to shift as Celestia examined the figure in the mirror. Her eyes froze when they landed on the alicorn's flank. Resting on each side was an image of a sun. The sun had several long tendrils of flame erupting from it. Celestia fought her body with all her might, trying to tear her gaze from the pool of corrupted reflections. The cutie mark was that of a sun, spewing and spitting flares; it was a flaring sun.
With the use of all of her willpower, the goddess of the day freed her eyes from the hypnotizing sight of the mirror. That's when she noticed it: the pain. Her body burned with the fire of the sun itself. Oh no. She looked down to see her own body lit alight with the sacred fires of magic. It burned and reddened to a cardinal hue before cooling with the pain subsiding. She looked at her outstretched wings of red rust. Celestia turned to look at her flank, the clicking of her new boots hitting the ground. As she caught a glimpse of her new, fiery cutie mark and her eyes hazed over. Her mind rattled and was overthrown by a need for power and dominance.
"This is outrageous!", the baffled unicorn exclaimed. "Listen to this, 'The punishments of disobeying this new curfew include and are not limited to, arson, torture, confiscation of property, and execution. These new laws are to be enforced by the new police force: The Servants of the Sun.'" The crowd of ponies in Canterlot Square burst into murmurs and hushed conversation. The higher ranked members of society enjoyed their new positions of power, while the middle and lower class citizens suffered heavily from the corrupt governmental changes. "'The heads of the Servants of the Sun will be given authority over the Royal Guard and are to be treated as royalty by all of Equestria's subjects. In addition to these new regulations a bounty is being placed on the head of the traitor ex-princess Luna Nightrix. The bounty is eight hundred thousand bits. In addition to this, any citizen found to have aided or housed her will be sentenced to life imprisonment or in some cases, death.'" He concluded, "'New heads of the Servants of the Sun: Flightmaster Metal Storm, Knight Solar Blade, and Hunter Darklit Star will take office at the Summer Sun Festival in three days.' These new laws and polices, they're nonsense, they're ploys! Will you all sit and watch as your freedom goes out the window and this new 'Blazon Sun,'" he used his hooves to make air quotes, "takes away your rights? Will you allow this hollow princess to oppress you?", he asked looking out at the multiple faces watching him.
Metal Storm pressed his hoof to the cold glass surface of the scanner and the metal contraption above him whirred and came to life. Its steel arms set him on his stomach laid out on the table. The clamps closed themselves against his fore and hind legs. Screens all around him blinked and filled with statistics and numbers. The black pony had to have his head and neck shaven for the procedure, but his tail remained long and wild. Suction cup diodes ran all long his neck and chest, clinging to his flesh, monitoring his vitals, brainwaves, and other things.
His scientific devices had been outlawed in his homeland and were dubbed "dark magic." Only after a cataclysmic system failure at one of his facilities did the government there realize his use of the strange machines. They then banished him to an endless abyss of land know as the Barren Lands, and it was there where she found him. The alicorn wreathed in flame fed him an irresistible proposition. She would put him in charge of her army, allow him to continue his peculiar research, and give him full royalty status as a knight in her kingdom that was renowned for its kindness, its magic, its hope, and its blood stained past. Equestria: the paradise that rose from its past of hate and struggle, but now it seemed the alicorn that had brought it the day and the light was now different, changed, wanting only power.
Metal Storm was brought out of his memories by the loud screaming of the nerves in his back. The pain engulfed him, flooding his mind and overthrowing his sanity. The striped pony's cries joined the chorus of whirring, ticks, and hissing emanating from his own mechanical creations.
Solar Blade slid the rectangular stone across the carbon fiber edge of her long scythe. A quiet, almost non-existent, hum came from the weapon as the tool sharpened its razor fin of metal. Her long, black mane drooped past her right shoulder and ran along the length of her right foreleg that stroked the blade with the small rock, making it more deadly. It originally was a slick silver with light streaks of white, but as a Servant of the Sun, it was dyed as black as pitch with golden rays of sunlight popping in and out of it. The dim rays of light that the lantern gave swung lightly back and forth through the air. Their radiance shifted across the room, reflecting off the scythe, magnifying to a slim, crescent of white that swayed to and fro. Her normally gleaming coat was now a bland grey after the disappearance of the Crystal Empire. The original soldiers that protected the kingdom were cast out by King Sombra when he came to power leaving them with no place to go. The past few years she had been living as a sort of mercenary in Sadle-Arabia, living off the blood money paid for her victims' deaths. She too had been recruited by the twisted mare of the heated blaze: Blazon Sun. She had heard the legend of Equestria and its coming. The ultimate country of harmony that had came to be through blood and death. It was truly an example of reformation for the entire world. An example of how something so beautiful and pure could have come from such a dark, hideous series of events.
The name her parents had given her was Shining Aura, a symbol of light and kindness for all, one that had been erased with time. She changed her name upon leaving the Empire, the killer grew to like her new alias. It gave her a sense of danger and precision. The grey mare chuckled to herself as she brushed the edge of the scythe's blade, testing its sharpness. A gash appeared on her hoof as she applied minuscule pressure to the cooling metal. A thin trail of blood traveled along the length of razor edged blade. The knight folded the weapon layer after layer until it was just a steel rod as long as her ear. She carefully wedged it between two plates of her armor's chest plate before slipping it on. Once the black and gold suit of protection was put on she stepped into its matching boots and pulled on her helmet, hiding her luscious locks of hair and masking the amethyst gems that were her eyes.
"I can give you limitless riches! Untold treasures! Infinite power!", the dragon pleaded. In the darkness of the Everfree Forest, he crawled backwards on his back, yelling into the black. Two streams of crimson leaked from the holes on his back where his wings had once been. They flowed staining the green grass and brown dirt of the forest floor. He eventually bumped into the trunk of a densely built tree. The slit pupils of his eyes darted frantically between the shadows, looking desperately for his predator, his hunter. The small snap of a branch caused the reptile to jump away from a nearby bush. It rustled and a cute, white bunny sprung from the underbrush. He sighed loudly in relief until he saw the two amber eyes looming from the shadows beyond the bush. "Please!", the draconic creature pleaded. "What did I ever do to you?", he cried. The forest was then filled the screams of agony and shouted curses of the dying creature of greed and scales.
The alicorn of the galloping blaze and corrupt fire, Blazon Sun, flew up into the morning air bringing with her the burning sphere of heat, the symbol of love and purity for all of Equestria. The meaning of this glowing, light giving object was now forever changed. Its purity was tainted, its light dimmed, the Sun no lower showed balance and hope for Equestria, instead it was the symbol for its greedy dictator, its dubious leader. It showed how the beautiful country was now governed by a pony that sought only power and control, one that was willing to banish her own sister to maintain the throne. After she had descended and landed gently back on the stone stage, she turned to face the double doors off to her right.
The first to come forth from the doorway was a black pegasus decorated with slightly lighter stripes. He worn an attire of metal, all black, save for the occasional streak of silver. The boots he wore were of multiple layers overlapping one another held together by two separates gears, one large and one small. His shaggy tail stretched from his armored flank along his hind legs until it reached back two hooves. Wrapped around the back of his head was a single strap that led past his ears and continued toward his face where it reached the lens of his goggles. The dark purple, almost black, glass pieces made his eyes completely invisible and were held in place by a golden frame, but the most remarkable feature on this pegasus was his wings. The wings this pony was born with were completely destroyed in one of his experimental failures and left nothing but stubs; as stubs they remained, until he was allowed to continue his research in Canterlot Castle. All the materials he needed were given to him and an entire army of unicorns was at his disposal to fuel his machines with their magic. It was with these resources that he was finally able to accomplish his goal. He had forged two wings from metal and magic. The twin wings of metal had been magically attached to his back and now he was truly the fastest flier in all of Equestria. His creations had all the attributes of real wings, save their faults. They could not fatigue, they could not grow tired or sore, where bone and flesh had failed he had succeeded. His unusually metallic appearance seemed to intimidate the crowd and draw out quiet murmurs and curious looks.
"THE FIRST HEAD OF THE SERVANTS OF THE SUN: PEGASUS METAL STORM!" Blazon Sun announced in her own royal Canterlot voice.
The next pony to walk through the threshold was one of a dim silver shade. All four of the pony's hooves were covered by gold and black metal, so was the earth pony's head, chest, and rump. Her tail poked out from the back of the armor, trailing down the pony's hind legs. It was as black as the armor itself with a similar golden hue as its accents. Both ears that stuck out of the sides of the helmet had small slices of flesh missing, showing two sideways v's in the ears. The helmet itself had three spaces at its front in which the wearer could see through, but the metal was meticulously warped so that no light could enter through the thin slits, hiding the pony's face. No one could have guessed that beneath the dark headpiece was a beautifully dyed mane and two twin pearls of mauve. The disguised mare stepped forward and the power hungry fascist announced the next leader of the Servants of the Sun.
"THE SECOND HEAD OF THE SERVANTS OF THE SUN: KNIGHT SOLAR BLADE!" Blazon Sun grinned maliciously.
The foul, pyro alicorn turned and stared at the doorway expectantly. After several moments she began to grow impatient and her fiery mane glowed a little brighter and began to give off a harsh heat. The moment before her anger and disgust took her, there was a burst of gamboge light and before the crowd stood the third and final leader of the Servants of the Sin. The dark grey mare was outfitted with a black cloak and hood that mixed well with the gold, spiked rings that wrapped around her calf and quads. Embedded in the fronts of all eight braces was a gem as black as death that gleamed under the light of Blazon Sun's mane of flame. The unicorn's face was as stern and cool as stone and it was decorated by freckles that sprinkled both sides of her dark face. The mare's expression was one of complete indifference, no emotion showing at all. Her amber eyes stared expectantly at the tyrant ruler of Equestria as her black, arrow like horn lost its aura of tangerine. The mysterious hunter's mane was a strong shade of white that was painted with long streaks of yellow, as was her tail. But the feature that seemed to set everypony that could see her on edge was her hooves.
As she stepped forward to take her place next to Solar Blade, she left small hoof prints of crimson in her wake; from the ankle down her hooves were coated with fresh, warm blood.
"THE THIRD AND FINAL HEAD OF THE SERVANTS OF THE SUN: HUNTER DARKLIT STAR!" Blazon Sun concluded with loud cheers erupting from the darker guards of her army and some of the more...special citizens. "I HEREBY DUB THESE PONIES THE LEADERS OF THE SERVANTS OF THE SUN AND ROYALS OF EQUESTRIA!" She knighted the three. "TONIGHT WE REJOICE IN THEIR BECOMING SOLDIERS OF THE SOLAR EMPIRE!", the perverted leader of the empire announced. Out in the audience, the unicorn who had openly disagreed with the Princess's newly passed laws muttered to himself as two guards in the new attire of the Servants of the Sun approached him.
"More like Sins of the Solar Empire.", he whispered as he was escorted out of the crowd and into a metal carriage that waited on the street neighboring the festival. Once inside the heavy carriage, he turned around to see a lone timberwolf staring at him; hunger in its eyes. "NO! NONONONONO!", but his cries of pain and wails of death could not be heard outside the soundproof doors of the carriage labeled
"The Servants of the Sun."