Death to the Sun

by Mare Macabre

Chapter 1: Dawn

Eventide. The world hung suspended in the dim between night and day. Two figures, standing like towering statues, looked out over the great, sweeping vista of their kingdom. Seconds ticked by in hushed thought as they scanned the world below, drinking in the valley that stretched out before them, lit by soft twilight. As the last star was lost in the reddening light the taller of the two regal siblings stepped forward. She breathed deeply, magickally reaching beyond the horizon and taking the sun in her grasp.

Golden light poured over the edge of the world as the blazing orb rose steadily into the morning sky. Moisture in the atmosphere caught the light of the great sphere and refracted it into an angry red, lighting the cloudy dawn with the colors of rust and clay. On cue, curtains of rain descended from the overcast sky, pattering lightly over polished marble and running in rivulets down tapered spires. Petrichor filled the moist air, instilling an ever-deeper calm in the Amazonian women that shepherded the celestial sphere.

“No matter how many times I see it I always think: What a boisterous thing, the dawn.”

The older princess spared her sister a bemused grin as she turned to usher them both back inside. The two princesses let the rain-staying bubble collapse as they left the balcony, closing the doors quickly so the crashing wave of previously restrained water did not splash into the room. Thunder rolled over the palace once the royal siblings were inside, rattling the older windows and sending a nervous twitch through one of the younger guardsmen stationed just without the older sister’s chambers to await his lieges’ reentry.

“Nothing to say?” the shorter princess prodded, smiling teasingly at her elder.

“Methinks you may have more in common with the dawn than you realize, Luna,” the salmon-haired woman murmured with a knowing grin.

Princess Luna’s smile dropped from her face, the meaning of her sister’s words ringing through. For a moment she sought a witty reply, but eventually thought better of it. She instead took her frustration out on the nearest guard.

“Find the royal pâtissier,” she ordered a relatively new recruit. “Instruct her to have a torte added to my sister’s afternoon meal. She’ll know the one.”

The young soldier saluted sharply and tore off down the hall in front of them, turning off at the first branch in the path. Luna looked her sister’s way, fighting back a vindictive grin at the leer she was given in response.

“Always the schemer,” the elder princess sighed.

“I learned from the best,” Luna mused, smiling more earnestly.

Her sister kept her bemused façade as long as she could before a warm smile cracked it and she focused instead on watching where she was going. Already at least two servants had nearly been barreled over by the gargantuan royal, but both they and she were quick enough to avoid a collision. With her full attention set on navigating the halls there were no more accidents, save for when the winded young guard cut them off to report that his task had been done.

“Thank you . . . ”

“F-Flash,” the guard panted, bracing himself against his knees.

Luna nodded. “A deserved name. Thank you Flash.”

The young soldier took a steadying breath and put his fist over his chest, straightening from his exhausted stance into a bow. “Think nothing of it, Milady.”

The smile flickered on Luna’s face, but she dipped her head in return before strolling past him. “A bit too forward though, methinks,” she muttered to herself.

“The title is less familiar than you may remember,” her sister informed upon catching up. “There are few noblewomen left in the world. It is not a title used often or lightly.”

“I am not a noblewoman, sister,” Luna scoffed, blocking the sound beyond them from prying ears. “I am a princess, and our staff should do well to remember this. My absence does not diminish my title.”

The elder princess readied a rebuttal, but let it fall away. Past though it might all be, the subject of bad blood between them, or between her sister and their kingdom, was a sore subject and one she had no wish of broaching presently. Instead the two walked in silence through the wide and winding corridors of their palace toward Luna’s bedchambers. Luna gradually slowed as they reached the foot of the stairs leading to her private chambers and hesitated with her hand half-raised to the doors.

“I really must learn to defer to your knowledge, sister,” she sighed, glancing sidelong at her elder. “Please forgive my temper.”

The white-robed woman smiled brightly and embraced her sister. “Some lessons are not so easily learned. You have nothing to apologize for, Luna.”

They separated, each rising to their full height and striking impressive figures against the ebony doors beside them. Luna gave a slight bow to her sister, who reciprocated quickly, then turned and unsealed the mammoth black doors with a light touch. They swung inward, allowing her access to the spiraling stairs within, then silently drifted back together and sealed themselves again with a quiet click and hum of magick.

Her sister did not stay to watch. Already she was marching her way back through the palace, expertly dodging the rushed and, in some cases, clumsy serving staff. She kept her back straight and chin up, standing head and shoulders—and chest and elbows—taller than most of the inhabitants of her kingdom. The tallest guards averted their gaze as she approached, not out fear or respect but to avoid awkward situations, and the deific Princess of Sunlight grinned while heads turned as she walked. After so long being uncomfortably massive compared to the layman she had grown accustomed to such gestures, but it was always entertaining to see who would break their poise to leave her her modesty.

The solar herald walked briskly down a wide staircase, nodding and speaking soft greetings to palace staff and visiting nobles, waving demurely to a crowd of tourists walking a guided path through the capitol. She turned at the base and made her way down several twisting hallways before arriving at what was without a doubt the largest set of double doors anywhere in the palace, and likely in the entire city. The princess paused and mumbled a spell, quietly announcing her arrival to a guard inside the room beyond the doors, and waited for him to get the gathered citizens and petitioners under control.

“Citizens!” a voice boomed beyond the doors. “Settle!”

The conversations within petered out as the man’s voice reverberated through the room.

“It is my honour to present, presiding over this, the twenty one thousand three hundred and ninety sixth Court of Dawn: Princess Regina Celestia of Equestria!”

The doors groaned thunderously as they began to swing outward. All eyes focused on the entrance to the Grand Hall, silence sweeping through the room as those present awaited the sight of their magnanimous ruler. The princess waited for the thick doors to part enough to pass, then gracefully slipped through and, with a measured pace, strode through the parted sea of her subjects toward her throne. The silence persisted as hundreds of heads slowly pivoted to track the diarch as she moved, most watching the titanic woman with a mixture of awe and more than a little fear. She stopped briefly, smiling and offering a summoned charm to a disheveled young woman cradling a baby, but otherwise made quick progress to the dais hosting her looming marble throne.

She ascended the steps with the same even pace. As she peaked the short flight of stairs a flash of light burst through the decorative windows lining the halls, and the gathered citizens flinched in expectation of the boom to follow.

“Hush.”

Tension hung in the air as seconds ticked by in anticipation. Slowly, the people began to realize that the crashing boom they were expecting was not to come. Instead the sounds of the storm became distant, as though the whole of the world beyond the hall had been pushed away and only its fading echoes could reach the isolated space. They relaxed themselves, smiling and offering quiet thanks to the towering matriarch, and the princess smiled and dipped her head to them before lowering herself into the simple throne.

“Let this Court of Dawn officially commence,” she announced, her soft voice carrying to every corner of the room. “Will the first by appointment please step forward?”