//------------------------------// // Pupa // Story: Metamorphosis // by Fabella //------------------------------// As if perhaps the most graceful sights, Celestia stood in the midst of the magical circle as her horn lit up. With eyes closed, focusing all of her energy into her magic spell, the symbols she stood upon begun to glow a hot white. A magical line traced over every one of the mystical symbols until every part of it was interlocked and intertwined. Once connected, the form glowed even brighter and emitted glowing glimmers of white light from below. Sending them up like snow falling in reverse. Celestia took a deep breath and continued putting her focus of attention into her spell casting. She squeezed her eyes and with a small groan, shifted her magic to that of the elements of harmony. The gemstone for the element of generosity glowed first causing her horn to alight with the color purple. A beam of light of the same color moved from it and onto the next, the element of kindness causing her horn to light up with the corresponding color. The same was repeated for the rest of the gemstones. The beam moved across the magical circle to honesty, orange, loyalty, red, laughter, blue and finally to the middle of the circle where the final element laid at. Magic. The circle and gemstones glowed immensely then before and shot corresponding colored beams straight to the tip of Celestia's horn. The solar princess's eyes shot open showing no pupils but instead orbs of all white. She groaned and strained under the pressure as the magical energy was not only seemingly rejecting her as it's wielder and summoner but also was too much for her too handle. Its magical power being too much for the alicorn to barely withstand without stress. Beads of sweat begun to pour down her temple as she tried to focus on her spells. "Come on...I can...oh..do...this!" She stammered over her words. Though her eyes were all but completely white, she kept her attention cleanly focused on the likes of her sister's moon. She was not going to give up and she was going to complete what she had alone started. It was too late to turn away now. She had made up her mind and though the Elements of Harmony fought against her, no longer viewing her as the wielder of their power, she held onto them. Celestia quickly straightened her bending limbs and stood straight up. Letting out a grunt as though she had just managed to pick up something heavy. The magic that was being sent to her finally grew stable enough that it no longer wavered. Making it much easy for the princess to gather herself back in order and refocus her attention on casting the spell. Celestia bent her joints and crouched low to the ground, summoning all of her raw strength and magical power to the very likes of her horn. The Elements of Harmony begun to beacon a glow like a light tower and pulsed as it pumped all of its magical potential into the likes of the alicorn that dared to harness its power. She was draining it like a leech. Lights pulsed from out of the elements, through the beams that connected it to Celestia's horn and into the bodily organ. Celestia felt her head pulse at the weight of the magical energy. It felt as though heavy weights were placed upon the likes of her entire body. Nearly unable to lift up any part as balls of magical light danced and wrapped themselves all around her body. Dancing across her fur as if performing a hectic waltz in panic. She could no longer hold her voice as it became overbearing. "Ugh!" Celestia screamed the ground sunk under her as it cracked beneath the sheer amount of magical pressure. "I..can...huh..do this! Ugh!" The ground cracked again and this time, beams of light danced across the borders of the circle. Celestia continued to crouch groaning, grunting and yelling under the intense being of com-pulsing the elements to bend to her will. The ground convulsed and cracks became more and more apparent from the midst of the circle as they multiplied in number. The ground convulsed and with a sudden jerk of the entire room, the largest window of the chambers completely shattered allowing aggressive and violent winds to completely swarm the entire room and blow against objects, candles, curtains and beds. As the moon stood in full before her, stars, something that had all but disappeared along with her sister, begun to emerge from the darkness one by one. Breaking through the shadows and unveiling themselves like a beautiful array of fireflies that never turned out their bio-luminescence. Only coming on one by one. The silhouette of the 'mare in the moon' as it came to be called begun to radiate a beacon like glow just like the magical circle before it begun to illuminate with the dazzling array of colors like the Elements of Harmony. It's working. Celestia gathered up all of her strength, reared on her hind legs and with her head pointed high with all of the Elements of Harmony connected to her as their center point, she came bearing down upon the ground and screamed. "UGH!!" The entire wing of the castle where the moon princess's room was located at rattled as the moon turned ebony black. "What in the world is going on!" Star Swirl had all but fell out of his bed as he was pushed out by a violent quake of some sorts. He could feel the ground shake with no stability and the walls seem to slightly rattle before him sporadically before erupting into violent convulsions. Starswirl, the brilliant mind of his time, the age and wisest unicorn, a grumpy old stallion, was less than pleased to have not only been awoken from his peaceful slumber, but to be awoken so violently that he was pushed out of his bed and onto the floor. Sensing the reality of what was going on around him, Starswirl raised an eyebrow. "What the-?" Another sudden jolt of the place came and some debris rained down from the ceiling of his room and onto his head. He grunted and brushed off his head. Dissatisfied at the state of things. "Great...is another villian attacking the place?" The doors of his bed chambers shot open as Clover the Clever, his trusted student from long before, came rushing in towards him. "Starswirl! Starswirl!" "What, what, what! Are you here to tell me what the hay is going on with this place?!" "We don't know!" she said panting. "The guards heard screaming that sounded like princess Celestia's voice but when they went to her room she wasn't there! Instead they found this note laying on her bed!" Clover quickly removed a rolled up scroll from her cape pocket and handed it over to the grumpy unicorn who read hurriedly over the words: Dear Starswirl, I know you trained me and Luna well and I know you only desire the best of me now but this I can no longer allow to continue. Left and Right is Equestria threatened with war and turmoil in an already crippled society between Discord and the loss of the Crystal Empire. Luna is banished and with her, the Elements of Harmony has been banished with her. Rendered useless and not answering to my call and command. I knew leadership and ruling came with issues...came with consequences. Some of them almost painful but still I cannot vision peace coming to Equestria like this. Already was I burdened down and heavy laden only for the war of the gryphons to come only a couple weeks ago. The bloodshed, the violence...what is there to be done? Those things can be handled through good old fashion sword swinging but what if an enemy like Discord dares to wreck havoc again? Comes and threaten Equestria like Sombra? My magic is powerful yes but only to an extent. It is not stronger than the Elements of Harmony and as out main defense and last resort what shall we do if we come under threat without those to help us? What is I...Equestria, to do? You will yell at me, you will scorn me but know that if anything shall happen I only did so out of the purest intentions. Using a combination of your spells, the elements themselves and my own magic, I will bring her back and in doing so, regain harmony and with the regaining of harmony, see to it that once again Equestria will be lead under its banner. I will break the seal that bounds her and I will free her from the demon that has claimed her soul. Forgive me but I am afraid that I know nothing else of what I can do. Nothing else I can do. As you read this know that I do not wish for you to understand but accept that I have made up my mind. I will do this and you will see...Equestria will be what its suppose to be. Your Most Faithful Student, Princess Celestia Starswirl looked up from the paper with wide eyes in absolute disbelief that Celestia, his most proudest of students was taking the risk of mixing not only two spells but the elements of harmony along with them to do this deed. His mind flashed before his eyes as he thought of the many other students he had seen and had that had fallen victim. Weather it was dark magic, the forbidden art of necromancy, typical mortal traits of greed or pride, or that of crossing forbidden boundries, he could not have imagined that Celestia of all ponies would dare breach his teachings, his trust, and go so far as to do this. "Clover! Where is Celestia! We cannot allow her to continue this! Even if the elements are unresponsive to her now, we cannot risk the most powerful magic known to ponykind to become tainted by whatever she may be conjuring up! We must find her! Now!" "She wasn't in her room but the guards said that they heard screaming coming from Luna's chambers! But they said they couldn't go in due to it being locked!" "Take me there! Now!" "Yes!" The two ran for it out of the room as another scream was heard and the ground, walls and entire infrastructure of the castle shook in aggression. As the two unicorns ran down the halls, Starswirl could only think of one thing: Celestia...please be alright.