Chapters //////////////////////////////////////
Realium
By Deathstrike666
Prologue - ∞
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‘I was betrayed,’ thought Luna, ‘Betrayed.’
“Telepathic link to Celestia is down,” said Deathstrike, telepathically to Luna, “Interference, maybe... I-I can’t be sure. There is too many of them. I’m pulling back. What should we do princess? Princess?”
His voice was half muffled by the distant sounds of magical blasts and gun fire, getting closer and closer.
“Are you there? Princess Luna?”
Luna does not reply, instead concentrating on keeping her sword pressed up against the Alicorn’s neck.
“What is stopping me from killing you now, Realium?" Luna said to the Alicorn, staring deeply into his green eyes.
“I can save both of us," said Realium returning the stare, “And your guards. She lied to you, all of you. She has murdered both of us. She knew exactly what would happen, she has always known”.
Luna looked up to see, to her horror, Spike laughing. Luna’s sword starts shaking. If Spike knew that this was going to happen, then the whole mission was a lie. She tries to regain her thoughts but the sounds of magical blasts and gunfire were too loud for her to handle. Luna knew that the griffons don’t have magical powers; she had to accept the truth, the magical bombardment had begun.
Luna’s mind was slipping. The temporal distortion had reached the chamber and was scratching her mind like blades on metal. She couldn’t be sure what was happening now and what was happening then. Currently Luna had her sword against Realium’s neck and simultaneously leading her guards through the ruined castle, but she knew that had already happened. Luna stares deeper into Realium’s eyes.
“Telepathic link to Celestia is down,” said Deathstrike, telepathically, to Luna, “Interference, maybe... I-I can’t be sure. There is too many of them. I’m pulling back. What should we do princess? Princess?”
Luna cursed to herself and looked to Spike them back to Realium.
Time is collapsing. How many times did she hear the same message, over and over again? Am I, the one and only Princess of the Night, going crazy?
“I Won’t let you live!”, snapped Luna, “You’re an abomination to all ponykind!”.
“He has wronged us both”, replied Realium pointing to Spike, “Why should we accept our fates. We are a select few. We both have power. Great power. Why should we let others make our final decisions?”.
Luna shook her head, which was starting to fill with doubt. Killing him meant failure, but what other option did she have, they were all going to die anyway.
“Behold the power of Celestia!”, yelled Spike over the sounds of approaching gunfire and magical blasts, “You’re a fool, Luna. All this death lies on your head. Did you ever think that Celestia would ev-”
Luna silenced him with a quick slash of her blade, through his neck. Spike’s head stayed there for a second before it fell to the floor. This was slowly followed by the rest of his body crumpling onto the ground. His legs gave a small spasm in the quickly spreading pool of blood before he became utterly motionless. Luna returned her concentration back to Realium.
“You’re... a... MONSTER!”, said Luna shouting the last word.
“What does that make you, Alicorn?”, said Realuim with Spike’s blood over the left of his face but he still maintained a low defiant voice.
The sounds were growing all around her: Deathstrike’s despite request for orders, the groaning earth, griffon gunfire, magical blasts. But one thing that stood out from this was Luna’s doubt. ‘How and why would Celestia trick me?’ As the question starts to torment Luna, her doubt turns to rage, a dark rage, ‘Not even my own sister believes in me, didn’t believe in my armies. Me and my guards have been sent to our deaths. Probably the best course of action was to listen to Realium?’
“I will prove you wrong, Celestia," said Luna slowly backing away from Realium, “I will make you pay!”
Luna looked around the chamber and then back to Realium, who was still lying on the ground.
“Save us then,” ordered Luna
Realium just nodded and his horn starts glowing a dark gray. Out from his horn a magical dome starts spreading outwards, faster and faster, until a few minutes later, the dome covered the entirety of Equestria. As suddenly as it started, the dome imploded on itself.
The Princess of the Night woke up, with a satisfied smirk. Luna, though, was no where to be found.
“Yes, yes, we are finally free!" said Nightmare Moon picking herself up from the ground.
“After a thousand years of being on the moon, we will make thou pay, Celestia. MUHAHAHA!”
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Chapter 1 - Her Last Friend
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Realium
By Deathstrike666
Chapter 1 – Her Last Friend
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The moon was high up in the sky above Canterlot. The Princess of the Night was sitting on her throne, sixteen years since she has returned. Many things had happened during this time, being freed of Nightmare Moon, returning to the throne with her sister, gaining new friendships, finally getting to grips with modern society, and even learning their way of speaking.
But she was sad and unhappy. In the end, all of her friends have left her, while she was stuck in Canterlot. Cadence and Shining Armour now only stayed in the Crystal Kingdom, as Princess Twilight, with Spike and the rest of the bearers of harmony, set up another kingdom far across the eastern sea. Even Discord had gone missing a few years back, and Celestia never had any time to be with her. All her friends have left her, but one.
Her last real friend, the captain of her night guard, is a pegasus called Deathstrike. He had been her friend long before he became one of her guards, and because of this he quickly climbed up the ranks. She could still remember the night they first met sixteen years ago during Nightmare Night.
To ease her sadness Luna liked to think about how they first meet when she was alone in her throne room. Back then, he was the only pony that truly understood her loneliness. Luna Shuts her eyes and starts the dream.
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Deathstrike was happily doing what he did best, avoiding everypony. He had been dodging the sights of others for countless years, and by now nopony seemed to know that he even existed. He really didn’t mind being alone, he had learnt to put up with the sadness long ago.
Today, Deathstrike decided to hide in a dark alleyway on the outskirts of Ponyville. He sits next to a dumpster, getting comfortable and starts to think about his day. Earlier that night he had heard loud shouting and screaming but just ignored it, shouting and screaming were typical occurrences during Nightmare Night. Looking up at the night sky he tried to ease his boredom by trying to make shapes out of the stars.
The distraction didn’t last that long before the sounds of approaching ponies grabbed his attention. He quickly looked around the dumpster to see if the ponies were heading in his direction. He saw two mares, one was purple while the other was midnight blue, standing on the bridge out of town, having a conversation. He was too far way to make out what the two were talking about but he could make out something on the midnight blue one. What he saw on her was sadness, the same kind of sadness that he had suffered when he first started avoiding everypony. When he saw her turn and walk away from the purple mare with her head pointing to the ground he decided to do something that he never thought that he would do, he decided to follow her.
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Luna had been walking for a few minutes now but had only just noticed a presence nearby, following her and Twilight. She turned around and looked for the stalker, but failed to see anypony.
“WE KNOW THOU IS OUT THERE,” shouted Luna using the royal Canterlot voice, “SHOW THY SELF!”
There was a small rustling from a nearby bush. Slowly, a dark red pegasus came out, with a black mane and a tail with grey-blue streaks. He didn’t seem frightened like all the other citizens on Nightmare Night, which took her interest. Actually, he seemed more sad than scared. The pegasus continued walking up to her, only stopping once he was few feet away.
“WHY WERE THOU FOLLOWING THEE?” asked Luna still using the royal Canterlot voice and giving this pony an angered stare.
“Because I can see the sadness in you, the same kind of sadness that I have been under for nearly my entire life. The feeling of loneliness,” said the pegasus, “Everypony ran away from me, they feared me. So one day I decided to hide from everypony, I have been doing this for so long that nopony knows that I even exist. I don’t want anypony else going through the same thing, especially you, Princess”.
Luna was shocked by this. A pony that understood her sadness, her loneliness. A pony that had been through the same sadness for nearly his entire life. A pony that wanted to help with her sadness.
“What is thou name?” asked Luna, no longer using the royal Canterlot voice.
“Deathstrike, your highness,” answered the pegasus with a small bow, “Well that is what I changed it to”
“What was thou name before thou changed it?”, asked Luna a little bit concerned with what he changed his name too.
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Her nightdream was interrupted, though, when the massive doors to her throne room slowly opened. she opened her eyes and saw a pegasus wearing black armour, slowly entering. He stopped just in front of the Luna’s throne and gave a small bow to the Princess.
“Are you ready, Luna?” asked the pegasus.
“Of course I am Deathstrike,” answered Luna with a small smile, “Going for our walks around the castle is the only time that I never feel lonely nowadays”.
Luna slowly sat up from her throne and walked down the steps towards Deathstrike. When she reached him, he turned around and escorted Luna to the doors of the throne room. Once they had exited, Luna used her magic to gently shut the doors behind them. On their walks, the two rarely spoke to each other, preferring each other’s company over small chit-chat. Going on these walks every night was really the only thing that kept Luna going all these years.
They stopped on a balcony that overlooked the entire Canterlot gardens, above them was the magnificent night sky, uncorrupted by any cloud a far as the eye can see. They both stood there staring at its uncomprehending beauty.
Luna knew nearly everything about the pegasus next her but one really important thing.
“There has been one thing that I have always wondered about you, Deathstrike”, said Luna, turning her head to Deathstrike.
“Oh... and what is that, Luna?” asked Deathstrike, also turning his head.
“After sixteen years, you have still never told me what your cutie mark is and how you came to acquire it,” said Luna while pointing a fore hoof at his cutie mark.
Deathstrike’s cutie mark was one of the main reasons of his sadness and is what caused ponies to run away at the sight of it. His cutie mark was a bloodstained knife with two drops of blood coming off the tip of the blade.
*Sigh* “I have never told that story to anypony before,” said Deathstrike taking his eyes off Luna and pointed them back towards the sky, “I just don’t want to think about it right now. I will eventually tell you my sad story but just not right now.”
Luna was slightly disappointed with his response. She had been wondering how he had gotten such a disturbing cutie mark since they first met.
“As you wish, but I do want to hear this story one night,” said Luna, “Shall we proceed with our walk?”
Deathstrike just nodded. The rest of the walk was meet with total silence, and it wasn’t just them that were silent. The entire castle was quiet. As they continued their walk around the castle the only signs of life were the several Night Guards that were on duty. They only nodded to the Princess and their Captain as they passed and didn’t say a single word.
The silence was interrupted when Deathstrike decided to speak.
“Well the sun is about to rise. Do you think we should go back to the throne room?”
Luna just nodded in agreement. The two changed their course and headed towards Luna’s throne room.
Once they arrived, Luna slowly opened the two massive doors, revealing a tall white Alicorn with a pink, green, and blue mane which was moving in the windless air. The white Alicorn was standing in the middle of Luna’s throne room with an angered look on her face. Luna quickly noticed this.
“What’s wrong? ‘Tia? Did something bad happen?”, asked Luna
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Edited by Ultumateus
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Realium
By Deathstrike666
Chapter 2 – It Begins
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The princess of the night paced quickly around her throne room, as she was doing for the past several minutes After hearing what her sister told her, she knew why she was irritated, it even started to make her angry.
“Why would the Griffon’s do this?”, asked Luna with an enraged tone in her voice.
“I don’t know,” replied Celestia calmly while slowly shaking her head, “Our two civilizations have been at peace for years now. I honestly don’t know why the Griffon Kingdom would declare war on us.”
“We must warn the citizens of Equestria about this new threat and prepare our armies for war before it is too late,” suggested Luna.
“I agree,” said Celestia, “We were lucky that our spies intercepted one of their messages. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t of known until it was too late.” Celestia turned her gaze from her sister to her guard, a dark red pegasus with a raggedy red and bluish grey mane. He had been there the entire time, he was going to leave earlier but Celestia ordered him to stay. “Captain Deathstrike, I want you to go and get all the commanders. I want them in the war room within the hour.”
“Yes, Princess,” replied Deathstrike with a salute before leaving quickly through the doors of Luna’s throne room.
The two princesses left shortly after the captain. They walked side by side through the moonlit halls. Not speaking a single word on the way to the war room. When they arrived the doors were covered in dust. The doors took a little bit of force to open and they did so with a loud creaking screech, revealing a large black space.
Celestia’s horn starts glowing and one by one large candles along the walls light up. As they lit up they revealed a large oval shaped table in the middle of the room. The table was littered with maps, tactics, and other large pieces of paper.
“Couldn’t somepony have dusted this room sometime within it being last used. They had eight hundred or so years to do so”, wondered Celestia as the two walked into the room.
Princess Luna’s horn started glowing. Around the room, every single speck of dust and cobweb started forming into a large ball above the table. There was a lot of dust and cobwebs. Once they were all gathered the ball vanished into thin air. The two princesses sat at the large oval table and waited for the commanders to arrive.
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A purple dragon was walking through a dark cave. The only thing illuminating the darkness was the large stick he had set on fire in his right claw. There were several small cuts in his scales but they weren’t deep enough to draw any blood. He was shaking all over as he walked through the cave. Something had terrified him. As he was walking he took quick envious looks over his shoulder making sure the thing wasn’t following him.
“You cannot hide for ever, Spike,” said a male voice coming from the darkness causing the dragon to back against the cave wall in fear, “Why don’t you just give up and join me”.
“I will never join you!” yelled Spike into the darkness; his heart was now racing and he was still looking around to find where the voice was coming from. “Certainly not after what you did to my friends!”
The voice laughed in response. “Your friends. They were never your friends. They never have been your friends. I am your only friend, now”.
“NO! You’re not my friend! Twilight has always been my friend!”, yelled Spike angrily.
“But she is gone now,” said the voice calmly, “She is gone forever. So why don’t you just stop this and become my chaotic servant?”
The voice had now cornered Spike into a dead end. Spike’s heart was racing. He was now breathing heavily. Pools of sweat were now running down his forehead. He had seen what the voice had done to the Keepers of Harmony. The voice had corrupted them. Changed them. Destroyed them.
Before the dragon could respond a hand shot out of the darkness and pinned him against the wall. The hand lifted him up a little so that his legs were no longer touching the ground. He started struggling against the voice’s grip but it was no use.
“You will join me,” said the voice calmly while he placed his other hand on Spike’s forehead.
Spike’s eyes closed. The voice’s hand just stayed there for a second. When the voice removed his hand Spike’s eyes opened again but they had changed. His eyes were no longer green; they were now a dark grey. After seeing the changed eyes the voice lowered Spike back down to the floor.
“Now I will repeat the question,” said the voice, “Will you join me?”
“Yes, Master,” replied Spike while kneeling on the ground.
The voice just replied to this with a loud chaotic laugh.
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The princesses waited as one by one their commanders took their seats. After a few minutes, the last of the commanders entered the room and took their seat at the oval table. All the commanders were mumbling to themselves about what all this is about. Celestia rose from her seat, drawing everypony’s attention.
“I know you are all wondering why we are gathered here today,” said Celestia, “We are all gathered here because of some very grim news that I received a few hours ago.”
All the commanders started whispering to each other before one of them asks, “What is this grim news?”
Celestia gives a small sigh before responding, “A few hours ago I received a message from our spies that the Griffons are going to invade Equestria and that they are marching towards Equestria right now.”
All the commanders gasped in horror. There hadn’t been war in Equestria for last seven hundred and forty eight years. None of them had ever thought that another nation would ever declare war on Equestria.
“Why would they declare war on us?” asked one of the commanders breaking the quiet whispering.
“I do not know why,” replied Celestia shaking her head, “All I know is that we should prepare defence measures for when they do get here”
“How long until they do get here?”, asked Luna.
“Three to five days,” answered Celestia, “So that doesn’t give long to prepare ourselves. Before they arrive we need to get our armies ready and evacuate every city and town that is at a direct risk from the Griffons”.
“What are we sitting around here waiting for?” said a commander while slamming her hoof into the table, “We need to start now!”
“I agree, Spitfire,” said Celestia.
There was one thing that ponies didn’t know about the Wonderbolts, that their main job isn’t about being about being Equestria’s top flyers. They were actually looking for the best flyers to join as a special part of the Equestrian Army that focused on the more dangerous and life threatening operations.
The meeting lasted for another hour. During this time they mainly discussed tactics and how they were going to fund the war. The sun was just rising as the commanders started leaving the war room. Each one of them knew of the hard times to come.
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Sitting in the lowest chambers of a ruined castle sat a light blue alicorn stallion with a dark purple mane. Several candles were scattered around him, forming two circles. Looking at the ground, the alicorn was drawing several magical symbols with his horn.
“So it begins,” said the Alicorn to himself with a small grin on his face as he finished the last symbol, “Two thousand years of preparation has led to this”.
He slowly stood up and walked towards the the only entrance to the dark chamber. While he was walking away the symbols started to faintly glow a dark gray. The alicorn knew that they needed time to absorb magical energy before they would properly work but he knew that they would be ready when they were needed in his plan.
“I have brought the death and salvation of Princess Luna!”
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Deathstrike and the Alicorn