//------------------------------// // Chapter I // Story: The Root Of All Fears // by RazgrizS57 //------------------------------// Princess Celestia stood beneath the shadows of a once grand hall, where its tall arches stood over her, broken and embittered. Rugs and tapestries laid torn and frayed, having all but lost their color. The thick marble walls were pocketed and scratched, and cracks ran along their surfaces and through the floor. The shattered remnants of glass windows resembled gaping maws, looking like they would devour her should she try and escape. She peered out of one of them. She could see the traces of a surrounding forest, but everything beyond was covered in blackness. She glanced up through a hole in the ceiling, catching a glimpse of a brilliant white ring where the sun should have been. She swallowed a lump in her throat and started walking. She didn’t know where she was going but she didn’t want to stay here. Every shadow in her periphery was darker than those she walked towards, as if they were chasing her. She stepped over fallen bodies and crumpled papers, which drifted through the hall in an absent breeze. Her mane fell over her eyes whenever she had to crouch under an obstacle. She hopped over a broken chandelier and now found herself at the end of the hall. All the carnage was left behind her, as this one particular section seemed completely untouched. Save the faded colors, all was pristine: no scratches on the walls, no destroyed pillars or broken windows, no fallen paintings or ruined furnishings. Not even the ceiling had been torn down. It gave her the idea of an amphitheatre, and she had just wandered out of the audience up onto its stage. At the far end, there was a balcony of sorts with two tall thrones sitting on either side, and a relatively simple staircases led up to them. Her hooves were heavy but she pushed herself up the steps. Her coat had lost its luster, dirtied having climbed through the debris, and it continued to gray as deeper shadows fell on her. Eventually, she made it up one side, where the yellow and gold throne she remembered so clearly presented itself to her. It wasn’t necessarily tattered, but it was covered with dust and in the lacking light, it was embittered. She gently lowered herself onto it. The throne creaked and groaned defiantly, like it wished her gone and only threatened to collapse beneath her weight. But she was too tired. She needed to sit, and this was the only place she knew where to sit. Fatigue plagued her bones and a steadily growing weariness made her breathing hard and uneven. She sighed and glanced across from her, to the other throne, and under the same conditions it was entirely black. Something moved out of the corner of her eye, then. She turned her head towards a large window sitting above the balcony between the two thrones, where faint light trickled through onto the floor. Dust speckled the beams, rising up towards the glass as if to invite her to take a peek outside. A weightlessness filled her chest and she slowly rose out of the throne. The few steps it took to get onto the balcony lasted much longer than they should have. Gazing up at it, she found herself looking for stained colors or cracks or chips, but all she saw was the moon eclipsing the sun and a thousand scattered eyes. Her legs became rigid and her neck started to ache, so she brought her nose back down and looked straight out in front of her. On the other side of the window, a living shadow stared back at her with its sharp blue eyes. A brushstroke of stars wrapped around the figure. Fangs glistened in the darkness, forming a wicked and unsettling grin. And then it pounced at her. Nightmare Moon floated in a viscous sea of raw magic. Spheres no bigger than her head drifted all around her, each one a little portal swirling with energy, electrifying the spaces between. She held one in her hooves, a big white marble amongst all the others, cackling madly. “Perfect! Too perfect!” she exclaimed between laughs. An image of Princess Celestia shuddering in her small tent reflected in the sphere, and her grin only widened as the beautiful, powerful, absolutely perfect mare woke from her dream with a start—fright clear in her eyes—only for the image to sputter out and become hazy. Nightmare Moon chuckled again and stared down at the now-woken sphere, gripping it tighter. “You thought I was completely powerless from my prison, didn’t you?” she said to it. “Oh my, dear Celestia, how sorely mistaken you are. Surely, you should have anticipated such a thing. Can you honestly believe that I am gone? Time does not work like that. No, you cannot just brush away the mistakes you’ve made and expect them to be gone for good. You, of all ponies, should know better.” She playfully shoved the white sphere aside and looked around at the countless others, each one varying in color, each one a pony. She would be here for quite some time, she wagered, and there was certainly a lot of the dreamscape to explore. Nightmare Moon popped her neck, laughed once more, and then dove into the throng in search of another sleeping sphere.