Leviathan

by GiftedMonster

Chapter 01

Leviathan

Chapter 01: The Day of Glue

With a groan of pleasure, Princess Celestia allowed herself to collapse into the luxurious pile of cushions that served as her seat in her private quarters. Each cushion was large enough to let a normal pony lie upon it with all their limbs splayed out and still not touch all four sides.

Princess Celestia had over a dozen over them, some of them stacked two deep so she could flop on to the comfortable nest she had created.

So I can flop regally Celestia corrected herself and smiled wryly at the thought. Exactly how does one flop regally?

Shunting the thought to the back of her brain whilst levitating sheaf after sheaf of paper from beside the desk that rested just in front of the cushions, Celestia could only groan at the thought of how much work she was in for. A subtle glow surrounded a pull-rope that lay by the door and as the rope descended, a small silver bell was set to ringing in her assistants office.

Contrary to what most ponies thought and believed, the Day and Night court did not only deal with ponies who showed up in person. Indeed, with the population of Equestria as large as it was and as spread out as it was, having to visit Canterlot for every question or request was considered too time-consuming.

So instead, they sent letters.

At first it had started as a small trickle, mainly young foals who had decided to write to her with simple questions.

Those Celestia kept locked away, to remind herself why she continued to rule had there been a bad day in the Day Court. As it was, Celestia found herself going back to these letters more and more with each passing decade.

But it had rapidly escalted from a small trickle into a raging torrent with over a thousand arriving each week addressed specifically to her. Whilst the mail clerk and her assistant did a phenomenal job of screening them, that still left her with at least two hundred semi-legitimate requests or demands. From requests for more funds to build a new school or to demands she do something about the increased dragon sightings along the border to the Burning Wasteland.

And now we come to the heart of the matter. Everypony today was asking, begging or in Duke Blueblood's case, demanding that I do something about the rising amount of dragons on our borders. Fortunately, the treaty is still in effect but for how much longer?

The Treaty was an ancient tablet that resided in the Burning Wasteland. Carved into a mountain that had been as smooth as glass, Celestia and the chiefs of all the major dragon clans had sworn to never engage in war upon the other and had signed it with blood.

Though she had never ventured back in to the Burning Wasteland since that day, Celestia could still feel her magic resonating within her blood that she had splattered on the mountain-side.

Shaken out of her musings by the door opening, Celestia glanced up and smiled warmly at her assistant, true gratitude shining from her rose-colored eyes.

"Good afternoon, Your Majesty. I saw you having a difficult time in court so I took the liberty of pouring you that special blend of tea you love" Moonglow Rising stated as she entered the private chambers with a tray levitating just behind her.

Celestia felt a momentary surge of hope within her only to have it quickly crushed as a rather large sack was dragged in behind the tray.

"Seems we have more letters than usual, Your Majesty. About four hundred" Moonglow Rising stated as she gently lowered the tray on to the table.

Celestia eyed the bag of letters and for more than a few moments she entertained the possibility of just incinerating the bag and having an afternoon off to nap. Shaking her head to rid such thoughts from her mind, Celestia caught sight of Moonglow's cutie mark. A black orb surrounded by silvery light, Celestia had often remarked that it demonstrated Moonglow's ability to bring hope to even the most depressing of tasks.

"Let me guess. Most of the letters came from the settlements on the border?" Celestia asked, feigning ignorance in the hope Moonglow might surprise her.

You never know, it could be a lot of letters from Luna's secret admirers that were delivered to me by accident. The fun I could have...

"Princess, you are of course entirely correct. That's your third time guessing correct in a row" Moonglow stated, face rigid as she stared at Celestia.

Note to self: Never try and play poker against Moonglow. Again, anyway.

"Wonderful. More ponies demanding I come slay a dragon or drive it off" Celestia grumbled, though any attempt at good, old-fashioned grumpiness faded was headed off adroitly.

"I think we have a few letters that were meant to go to Princess Luna..." Moonglow stated, a sly smile dancing across her face as she watched Princess Celestia perk up at the news. Not only was Moonglow aware of Princess Celestia's desire for embarassing information about Luna, she had helped the Princess with a few of her more complex pranks that required an insider.

Frowning at Moonglow, Celestia adopted a disdainful expression and gazed down her muzzle at her assistant.

"I don't know what you're insinuating Moonglow, but I am sure you are not implying that I can be made to read every letter here for a few letters meant for my sister."

Moonglow nodded, face contrite though her eyes shone with amusement at the sudden change of attitude.

"In that case, I will ensure that these love letters get delivered to her tonight."

Celestia stared at Moonglow before sighing and gesturing to the table and a cushion that had been laid out for Moonglow.

"Fine. Let's get reading. I hope there's something reasonable in this mass of paper" Celestia stated.

I hate not being able to help my little ponies. They must be terrified, seeing the looming figures that feature in their nightmares. But a single act of aggression from me would violate the treaty.

Whilst the dragons were violating the treaty in the spirit it was intended, they had not stepped outside the very letter of the treaty. They were trying to goad her into taking action, into starting another war.

And it would be a war we would lose. Even with Luna back among us, I truly doubt we could hold off an invasion. And that's not even counting the possibility of the other two joining the fray.

At the thought of the two that slumbered in the wastes, Celestia felt a cold chill crawl down her spine. Shaking it from her thoughts and returning her attention to the growing stack of letters, Celestia got to work.

====

"Do you smell something, Princess?" Moonglow inquired, muzzle lifted so she could smell the air better.

Celestia blinked and glanced up from the parchment to look at Moonglow curiously. It was unlike Moonglow to break the atmosphere unless whatever she had smelled was troubling her.

"Let me try" Celestia murmured and slowly took a deep breath through her nose.

And her eyes flared wide whilst her gorge rose.

"What is it, Princess?!" Moonglow asked, her earlier joviality forgotten at the sight of true distress from her beloved monarch.

"Glue...I smell glue..." Celestia whispered, having to fight the urge to retch uncontrollably.

"But...isn't glue made from..." Moonglow inquired before the answer, coupled with the identification of the smell, made her turn and vomit on to the floor.

Celestia snapped her head around to gaze out the window and it was only the split-second warning that such an action afforded her which allowed her to save Moonglow.

The stone walls of her room which resided in the highest minaret of Canterlot glowed a cherry red before brightening to a blazing white.

Immediately teleporting Moonglow away without bothering to say a word, Celestia turned to face the window that she had seen the flicker of shadow out of.

"It's been centuries since I last fought. Let's see how these old bones handle."

A split second later and the tower detonated, the stone of the tower unable to handle such heat. A blazing shockwave screamed out from the ruins of the tower and after that came the shards of stone. Thousands of stone flechettes came rocketing down upon a scene of carnage with each piece of shrapnel glowing white.

And moments before they would have fallen upon the panicking ponies...they stopped. Simply stopped in mid-air and hung there like macarbe ornaments.

As the smoke cleared from the tower and the residents of Canterlot gazed upwards in a mixture of terror and hope, they bore witness to Princess Celestia, Undying Monarch of the Sun standing unharmed amidst the rubble of the tower with only a very slight cut along her flank to indicate she had just survived a pyroclastic inferno.

"Shatter" Celestia whispered and in perfect unison, the stone shards shattered into a fine powder that sprinkled down upon those watching.

Turning her gaze to look down upon her city, Celestia felt her gorge rise once more. Centuries had done much to blunt the memories of war and the smell that hit her made her stomach roil.

One of the poorer districts had simply been...liquified. A dozen houses had been reduced to glowing slag and the smell told her that none of the ponies had escapes.

Fifty ponies...gone. They trusted me to protect them from this...and I failed them Celestia thought, a tear escaping her right eye.

I can at least give them justice.

Raising her eyes to the sky and easily locating the source of the rampage, Celestia readied her power as she analyzed her opponent.

An enormous red dragon floated overhead, its scales glowing a deep sanguine in the blazing sun.

"You have violated our treaty, dragon!" Celestia thundered and began to ascend so as to face him on an even level.

I will not put any more of my innocent ponies in the line of fire. They deserve peace.

"I am not here as part of the Dragon Nation, thieving pretender. I have come for what was stolen from me" the dragon responded, its voice booming loud enough to shatter the stained glass windows that had just been replaced.

"You dare to insinuate that I or any of my ponies would dare violate the treaty?!" Celestia demanded though internally she winced.

The school never said where they acquired the dragon eggs from. When I did ask, they just said that they had found an abandoned nest in an eyrie on the border. After this is over, there WILL be an accounting for this. The deaths of these ponies are on their heads as well as mine.

"I do not insinuate it, I state it! Return my blood to me or Canterlot will burn!"

As if in testament to his threat, the great dragon unleashed a spiraling pillar of flame towards her with the flames glowing a luminous white.

Celestia considered dodging for a moment before casting that thought aside with the realization that if she dodged then the flames could strike the city. With a flare of her magic indicated by her fiercely glowing horn and a narrowing of her eyes, Celestia willed a concave shield into existence.

The spike of fire screamed across the sky and slammed into the shield with a fury that made Celestia reinforce her shield even as she tried to peer through the torrent of flames.

The dragon...was no longer there.

Acting on instinct that most ponies would have thought she no longer possessed, Celestia teleported upwards just as the monstrous red wyrm unleashed another gout of flame at what would have been her unprotected flank.

Folding her wings close to her body, Celestia plummeted like a falling arrow, legs and hooves tucked up against her body to minimize any drag. Targeting the dragons right wing-joint and tensing her wings, Celestia crashed down upon the bony joint just as she flared her wings.

A monstrous roar rent the air in tandem with the sound of shattering bone and ripping cartilage.

Giving her wings a quick flap, Celestia groaned at the pain radiating from her legs.

Mother of...me that hurt! Has it been that long since I dive-bombed a dragon or have their scales just gotten sturdier?

The now-crippled dragon plummeted down to the earth below, its gleaming scales giving it the appearance of a flaming meteor burning a path through the atmosphere.

With a thunderous boom and a cloud of dust, the dragon struck the ground like a hammer pounding an anvil.

Landing thirty seconds after the dragon had crunched against the ground, Celestia made sure to plant herself between the billowing dust cloud and the city.

That dust should have fallen by now. It's stirring it up and preparing to attack.

“You have used that before to kill my kind, have you not?” the dragon growled, one wing flapping gently to keep the dust raised to conceal its form.

“I have, yes. Though I do not remember the scales of your kind being this hard” Celestia replied. As she spoke though, Celestia’s mind was else-where.

“Then you did not use it against the third, did you? Had you tried then your legs would have shattered like tooth-picks.”

Celestia frowned at the mention of the third.

“You mean the third Leviathan, don't you?” she demanded, her body still remembering the agony of that fight.

“I do, young pretender. But for now...BURN!”

As it spoke, another torrent of fire exploded from within the dust cloud and such was its heat that a rain of glass tinkled to the ground in its wake, the dirt liquefied then crystallized by the fury of the assault.

Celestia had been anticipating the strike and had been drawing in power in preparation for her own conflagration.

But she had not been drawing it from herself or from the ambient magic that infused every atom of the planet, but from a source infinitely larger and far more ancient. A source that had raged for millions of years and would smolder for millions of years after.

The sun.

A needle of light flared from her horn and Celestia braced herself as the sonic boom struck her, the needle blazing forwards faster than sound itself.

A needle slim enough to rival any fashionista's but hot enough to to vaporize steel had coalesced from the air, the heat from it blackening the ground all around Celestia.

The dragon could only watch in shock as its final searing blitzkrieg was turned back upon itself. That shock only lasted a fraction of a heart-beat before the needle punctured its eye and liquified its brain.

A moment later and the flame followed, its trajectory slaved to the needles own. And whilst the scales of a dragon were immune to fire, the same could not be said of its internal organs.

The column of fire punched into the beasts skull, both eyes consumed by the fire before it rocketed deeper within as if searching for its now-lost prey.

A moment later and the column of fire consumed the heart of the dragon before it petered out. In its wake was left a skull charred black with a pile of gleaming red scales lying underneath its maw.

The inferno had not even scorched one of the scales but the flesh underneath had been consumed as if it had been tallow.

Feeling exhaustion rapidly creeping up on her, Celestia used what little power she had remaining to teleport back inside of Canterlot. Appearing on the steps of the castle and looking around, she smiled wearily at each of her beloved subjects.

"My little ponies. I am truly sorry that I could not spare you this tragedy when we have only just cast aside the shadow of Discord. Rest assured though that this was not an act of war and merely the actions of a single dragon. The treaty is still in effect, we are not at war."

Celestia glanced around and as she expected, saw the looks of fear on each of her subjects' faces. Not only fear of dragons...but fear of her.

This is why I hate war. Whenever I must step in to end a conflict, I am always feared.

With a heavy heart and her head dipped in remorse, Celestia made her way back inside the castle.

Author's Note:

And here we go!

The first chapter and my first foray into MLP fanfiction. Please be kind.

Comments

[Gagster]

This story screams Epic already.

[GiftedMonster]

2096919 *Grins* Why thank you, Gagster! I appreciate that. Whilst I am by no means anywhere near professional, I do try my best. And if that best is epic...so be it.

[Darkstar195]

Cool story. And I've always wondered where Celestia got the dragon eggs from...

[GiftedMonster]

2097069 I will admit that I did sort of borrow the idea from another story here. But only because it was such a good story. And it always seemed to me that people had TOO much faith in Celestia. She can't know everything and if the school was trying to keep it from her, it would be difficult to find out.

I was proud of the first chapter title, Day of Glue. Ominous when used in regards to Ponies.

[DARKPHANTOM13]

I'm just wondering what kind of powers Spike is going to get.

[GiftedMonster]

2097317 Ah ah ah! That would be telling! He might get the ability to -redacted- or perhaps he can -redacted-.

I don't even know! :D

All I WILL say is that its going to be interesting. For me especially.

[DARKPHANTOM13]

2097332 As long you don't take to long with the next chapter I can wait.

[JeffNunchucks]

Holy shit! I can't believe I almost missed this!

You finally got it up here, GM!

[SeventhBrony]

Note to self: Never try and play poker against Moonglow. Again, anyway.

oh of the dreadful experience that sentence speaks of

[Smurf]

this fic looks epic
update soon please, i desire moar!

[GiftedMonster]

2101554 Why thank-you Smurf! I appreciate that. I've got Chapter 02 waiting to be proofed. Anyone volunteering? Contains a Pinkie mystery, Luna and Celestia's battle against a Leviathan and the Moonshift Contingency.

And that's just THIS chapter.

Oh, and check the new cover art I just uploaded.

[UltiXevoz]

I like this. This WILL be epic. Please continue.

[SomeRandomMinion]

Nice precision by Celly there--different from the portrayals of her powers as basically a giant flamethrower or laser-y attacks I've usually seen.

Keep it up!