Beacon

by shadeofthenight

Prologue

A peaceful dusk settled over Canterlot as Celestia lowered the Sun and raised the Moon. The ponies were settling into their beds, the guards on duty changed out to a much smaller crew, and Celestia herself withdrew to her quarters. It was going to be another peaceful night in Equestria….Or so they thought….

Celestia sighed, looking up at the moon, a tear forming in her left eye as she stared at the shadow of her sister imprinted on the front. She closed her eyes and turned away, trying to keep down her most painful memory. Her hooves glided across the balcony into her room, which was kept neat and orderly for her. As she climbed into her bed, her mind briefly thought about how agonizing every night had been for her to raise the moon. It had been something Luna had always took pride in, but after she was banished, most ponies didn’t care.

That’s what pained Celestia the most, seeing her ponies acting so cruel when so much had been done for them. For a moment, Celestia wondered how they would react to Luna coming back to Equestria after several years. Would they shun her, or would they accept her as the Princess of the Night again? Celestia shook her head, thinking too much about it would drive her crazy. Nestling into her bed, she was about to fall asleep, but a mental alarm went off in her head. One of the magical sensors had tripped, and something had just arrived.

Swiftly, Celestia rose up out of her bed, instinctively casting divination spells to search for sources of great magical power. Had her sister broken free early? She scanned Canterlot frantically, but she didn’t find any sign of her sister. Sighing, she was about to dismiss the spell, when she saw something curled up in the middle of one of the alleyways near one of the alleyways.

It was a newborn unicorn, sleeping alone and unattended on the dirty path.

“Guards!”

The foal was swiftly brought into the Palace, though it took a lot longer than it should have. Celestia heard hushed, cautious whispers coming from the guards that were bringing the newborn to her. They were clearly uneasy about something. Smiling comfortingly at the guards met her at the front door, she gingerly took the unicorn from the Pegasi captain who picked him up. Celestia scanned the foal for any injuries, but found none. There was nothing wrong with him! His black coat and white mane were slightly dirty from the alleyway, and his Cutie Mark-. Celestia immediately stopped. The newborn already had a Cutie Mark?!

Now she knew why the guards were so uneasy: nopony had ever been born with a Cutie Mark, especially nothing like this one! The Cutie Mark showed a rocky landscape, with a white pillar of light dominating the center, shadows dancing around it. Yet it still stood out, clear as the sun. Celestia turned her head to a servant who had brought several blankets. Setting the foal down carefully, she turned to the guards, who were still uneasy about something.Dismissing them with a nod, she went back to the newborn, who stirred, but did not wake. She smiled, before speaking to the servant who had brought her the blankets.

“Take him to the infirmary, he can rest there for tonight.”

She bowed, “Of course Your Majesty, what do you plan to do with him after tonight?”

Celestia thought about it for a moment,”Don’t worry, a newborn like this must have a loving home.” The servant bowed again before carrying the foal away. Celestia withdrew back to her quarters, and prepared a scrying spell to determine if the foal had any parents. She poured water into a bowl, then released it into the liquid. Celestia was honestly expecting to see a drunken pony or a foul tempered mare. Instead, tye water stayed transparent. There was no brief flash, no vision….Celestia stepped back away from the bowl. This newborn had no parents? That was impossible! She looked into the bowl again, and this time a scene appeared.

A cloaked pony of an unidentified gender trotted through the Canterlot Streets at dusk, completely unnoticed by any other pony. It wasn’t in a hurry, but every now and then it would look behind it, which gave Celestia a clear view of the mask it was wearing beneath its hood. It was a skull mask, but unlike the ones that were worn for Nightmare Night, this one was real. Yet, nopony that was out ever looked in its direction. The pony continued walking, arriving at the alleyway where the foal was sleeping. The moon was swiftly rising high in the air when the pony opened up part of its cloak and produced the newborn unicorn. It carefully laid it down on the cold stone floor of the alley before straightening up. Slowly, it turned and stared right at Celestia, allowing her to see its red eyes before vanishing in the water that was swiftly changing to its normal transparency. Celestia was shocked and somewhat bewildered.

A few minutes of walking later, Celestia was at the infirmary, staring at the blissfully unaware unicorn. The servant on duty did not ask any questions, but she was still curious. Celestia closed her eyes, then cast a detection spell, similar to the ones that her paladins used, but much more amplified. After witnessing the scene in her divination, Celestia was not going to take any chances. As her spell washed over the foal, Celestia was at war with herself inside over what she was going to do if she found anything in the unicorn. However, she soon sighed in relief as the spell found nothing malevolent inside the newborn. She left the infirmary, ever so grateful that she wouldn’t have to make another choice like the one she did with her sister. Of course, a new problem had arisen, but Celestia solved it fairly quickly. This foal didn’t have a loving family, and some married ponies didn’t have the luxury of having kids. So tomorrow morning, she was about to make two ponies very, very happy.

The next morning, after raising the sun and lowering the moon, Celestia trotted slowly to her throne room, mentally steadying herself for all of the political squabbling that would greet her. That is, unless her guards had carried out her instructions, but it didn’t hurt to be prepared. Taking a deep breathe, she opened the doors with her benevolent smile on her face.

The room was empty, save for two Solar Guards, and a couple near the throne. As Celestia neared them, the couple bowed as she took her seat. With a slight tilt of her head, the guards saluted then left the room, to give the three total privacy. The couple stood up, an earth pony with a pickaxe Cutie Mark, and a pegasus with a garden Cutie Mark.

“Your Majesty, it’s an honor to be here.” said the pegasus. His wife nodded in excitement.

“My messenger told you everything?” Celestia asked. The two ponies nodded vigorously.

“That’s wonderful, but I must tell you a couple of things first before I release the foal into your custody.” The two ponies nodded, waiting intently. Celestia hoped that they wouldn’t be turned away from this, but she had to tell them.

“This newborn foal was found with a Cutie Mark.” She told them. She watched their faces, shock, confused, and maybe a little bit afraid.

“He has a Cutie Mark already?” The mare asked, bewilderment plastered on her face.

Celestia nodded, then spoke reassuringly,” Yes, but it’s quite alright, He is just a special unicorn.” This seemed to calm them down for the most part, as Celestia generally had that effect on her ponies.

Celestia showed them to the infirmary, where the mare squeed about how cute the foal looked. As the couple cooed over the baby, the servant on duty quickly informed her princess that the newborn was perfectly healthy, despite having been deposited on an alleyway. Celestia nodded and thanked the servant as the stallion gently picked up the foal, who was still sleeping through all the noise.

“Thank you Princess Celestia.” The mare smiled,”You have no idea how much this means to us, since I can’t…..” Her voice broke, but she regained her smile as she took the unicorn from her husband and nestled him on her back.

“It was my pleasure, I enjoy bringing happiness to my ponies.” Celestia replied. “Take good care of him.”

The mare nodded,”We will.” She promised

The couple left soon after, bowing and thanking Celestia, their gratitude music to her ears. This was what she loved, seeing her ponies eager to love. It was what made being immortal worth while…..

The rest of the day went by fairly quickly. The nobles came in, bickered, squabbled, and attempted to seduce each other. It was a boring process, especially for the ones that thought themselves suitors for Celestia. This usually brought an eyeroll whenever nopony was looking. Of course, whenever she turned them down, this brought the whining, the guards, and then the whining through being restrained. Whenever she had a little bit of free time, Celestia would think of the couple that she had helped. That usually brought a smile to her face as she returned to finish the Sun’s Court.

After she lowered the sun and raised the moon, Celestia was about to retire for the night, when she felt a huge surge in magical power coming from one of the buildings in Canterlot. The ground rumbled as Celestia dashed for the nearest balcony. An orange glow pierced the dark sky, coming from one of the houses in the lower section of Canterlot……

A few minutes earlier

“I just don’t know what’s wrong with him!” the pegasus cried. The foal that Princess Celestia had given them had been completely healthy, at least for the first five hours. That was when the unicorn had started to cough up blood and begin to cry. On top of those problems had been the fact that his Cutie Mark had started to disappear and his coat had started to fall off. Both of the new parents had immediately called for Celestia, but had been put aside since their Princess was busy because of the nobles in court. So they had to send for a doctor, but when the described the problem, they were asked if they were pulling some kind of prank. Finally, one of them sent a nurse over, who was at the moment attempting to cast a healing spell on the foal, with appalling results.

“Why is it getting worse?!” She shouted as the foal kept spewing blood, it’s breathing slowing down rapidly. The pegasus’s husband rushed in, carrying towels on his back. The pegasus took the towels from him and placed them around the foal unicorn, replacing the blood splattered rags that had been placed before. There was one thing that was bugging the three ponies though. The foal had been coughing up blood for several hours now, and yet it always produced the same amount with each cough. How was he not dead? The foal coughed up another mouthful of blood as the nurse gave up on her healing spell. She turned back to the new parents and was about to tell them that she had no idea what else to do, when everything turned pitch black. A few seconds later, a spine chilling voice hissed from the shadows.

Go Now! Dispose of the witnesses, We cannot waste anymore time!

The darkness vanished, leaving the ponies there wondering what had just happened...Then the floor beneath erupted upwards as lava poured up to consume them, while strong winds and water also rushed in from unknown sources. Needless to say, the entire house was completely obliterated within seconds, and yet the earth rumbled, lava spewed forth, water streamed, and the wind blew around its collapsed structure. Ponies were now waking up to see what the noise was all about, and they would gaze up at wonder as a pillar of light shot upwards from the wreckage of the house, stretching all the way to the sky, making it visible to onlookers for miles,

In the center of the pillar of light, resting on the destroyed floor, staring with it’s blank white eyes at the destructive elements that was surrounding it, was the foal unicorn, no longer crippled with it’s mysterious sickness.

Author's Note:

WOW! That was a long hiatus. Sorry about that. I will most likely start back up on The Guardian whenever I can find the next chapter I stored for it. I'm not too sure about the Burning Void, since I lost most of the work for it. Also, I plan to do an Elder Scrolls story as well at some point.

Comments

[Phaedra]

Wow, I'd love to see where this is going. Good job!

[catfire13]

more?