“You aren’t listening.” Celestia said to Horizon with an aggravated undertone. He stood at the very peak of his mountain sanctuary, knee-deep in the snow and gazing at the dim light of the sun.
Horizon didn’t answer her, continuing to gaze intently into the ball of light as if it were all that existed, wishing that Celestia’s apparition would just go away. She kept appearing to try and dissuade him, to make him stop, to ‘save’ him. The cries of a dead mare should not have had such a large impact on his mind! Yet here he was, doing his best to ignore the hallucination.
“Horizon, please. Talk to me.”
“No.”
Celestia sighed and looked down, the lacerated flesh along her body squelching as she did so. “Does it mean nothing to you? The time we shared before all of this?”
“...”
Celestia snorted in annoyance, stepping up next to Horizon and glaring at him. He refused to meet her gaze, continuing to stare into the object she had assumed responsibility over for a thousand years. She narrowed her eyes at him. “You still aren’t listening.”
“Go away.”
Celestia closed her eyes for a moment, sucking in a breath. “What do I have to do for you to listen to me?”
“You won’t manage it, so don’t bother.”
“Horizon!” Celestia’s voice went harsh as she barked out his name. He flinched and glanced sideways at her with a disinterested expression. She was gritting her teeth and scowling at him angrily. “Listen to me! You’re acting like a stubborn foal!”
“I don’t talk to hallucinations.” he said bluntly before turning his eyes up again. “Be gone.”
“...Fine, then. If you aren’t willing to listen on your own…” Celestia’s voice lowered into a cold, threatening whisper. Horizon looked towards her to see she was gone.
“What-”
“Than I will force you to listen!” Celestia’s voice suddenly rang inside of his mind, a spear of white-hot pain shooting through him. He grunted in pain and reached up to his temple with one of his hooves, hoping to suppress his sudden headache.
“Get out of my head, you corpse!” Horizon grunted, shaking his head violently and stumbling back. His vision was blurring, the world around him distorting and peeling away like paint melting from a canvas. Colors blended and split into an ash storm of madness all around him.
“You ignore my words! You slaughter innocents! I know you are in here, Horizon, that you see the monster you are projecting!” Celestia’s voice was distorted within his mind, ringing and twisting into something unnatural. “Let me show you what you are becoming!”
“None of this is real! None of it! WAKE UP!!” Horizon snapped, shaking his head before falling to his knees against his will. The agony in his body was immeasurably. His bones felt as if they had been turned to molten steel within his body.
“You say it isn’t real, but it is, Lumen!” Celestia shouted in frustration, her hoof reaching out of the murky world before him. It grabbed his throat like a vice and yanked him up to look her in the eyes. Her skin had shriveled and shrunk to the point it was form-fitting on her bones. Flakes broke away and ragged straps danced in the wind of the dark storm. Her eyes were empty sockets with pin prick points of white light within them. “Denying what has become of you will only ever stop you from escaping a poor fate!”
To Horizon, it felt as if his neck broke. His vision was jarred sideways and he fell limp to the ground, unable to move or breath while the storm buried him in pieces of the world. His eyes darted left and right, looking for Celestia or a means of escape, but none presented itself and Celestia had vanished.
“Look!” Celestia snarled into his ear, appearing over him. Her boney hoof wrapped around his throat and yanked him up so he was looking straight ahead. He wheezed in discomfort before realizing what he was seeing take shape in the storm. A unicorn stallion sat suspended in the storm. Chains with hooks on their ends dug into his ribs, forehooves and shoulders, holding him aloft and swaying lazily in the intense winds. His coat was a bright blue and his mane and tail were deep blue with vibrant orange streaks running through them. His cutie mark showed half of a sun and half of a full moon, intersecting in the center to create a horizon line.
“Please… help me…” The stallion whimpered as another horrific blast of the storm rattled him, the hooks pulling at his flesh and crunching the bones in his forelegs and ribs.
“You know what you’re looking at, don’t you?” Celestia hissed into Horizon’s ear before dropping him to the ground. His face impacted with a thud, his body still unresponsive to his wishes. “That is YOU! That is the real you! The part of you that has been buried under this storm of malice, anger, resentment and hatred!”
Horizon turned his eyes to Celestia and narrowed them. His neck gradually began to form back into line thanks to his regenerating body. “You… should know… by now that… that pony… is long gone.” He gasped out as control returned to his lungs. He stood and wobbled on his legs.
“YOU STILL AREN'T LISTENING!”
Horizon gasped as he felt his forelegs pulled over his head and speared. A scream of agony ran through him as more pools of agony formed across his body. His sides, ribs, collarbone and shoulders. He looked up and glared at Celestia as he was hoisted into the air in a mimicry of his old self in the storm.
Then he realized he wasn’t glaring at Celestia. In fact, he wasn’t even controlling his body. He was looking at himself… his current self. Standing ahead and looking down on him with contempt and disgust was the father of all fiends, his deep blue eyes burning with an ever present. unyielding sadistic rage.
Why can’t I move?! I can’t open my mouth! Horizon thought to himself as the body he was now occupying began to thrash against its chains at the fiend.
“You son of a bitch! Stop this! Let me out! NOW! How many ponies are you going to kill in this worthless fucking crusade?! How long before you realize none of it is worth it?! How long until you just let go?!” he screamed out at himself in a much younger voice.
“The real you is still in here, Lumen!” Celestia seethed as she appeared in front of his face, materializing from the storm as if she were a part of it. “And he is screaming for his freedom! Stop this! STOP THIS NOW!”
“ENOUGH!!!!” Horizon screamed at the top of his lungs, a pulse of sickening magic erupting from his horn and evaporating everything around him. He opened his eyes after several seconds of silence and heavy breathing, finding that he was still seated at the top of his mountain in the snow with the sun shining down on him with a sickly light.
He took several moments before returning to his hooves and shaking himself. The hallucinations were getting more vivid… Perhaps I should remove the parts of my brain that are defecting. They’ll regrow as they should be and I’ll only lose functionality for a day or so…
“Master?” Skeintooth’s voice asked in his mind.
What is it, hunter?
“Skeintooth has completed his work in Ponyville, master. Skeintooth now moves to Canterlot for bones of Princess of sun.”
Horizon smirked slightly. Good. I take it you have a plan for dealing with Princess Luna? She won’t be happy to find her older sister’s grave dug up.
“Skeintooth has plan, master. Princess of moon will be angry. Angry ponies act recklessly.” Skeintooth cackled in Horizon’s mind.
Indeed. Luna has always been known to be more reckless than her sister ever was. But all the same, show caution. Luna may be easier to anger and provoke, but she has the lethality of the darkest parts of the pony mind to back up such rash behavior. Do not underestimate her.
“Of course, Master… but, Skeintooth has one question.”
Horizon raised an eyebrow. Speak it, then, hunter.
“Skeintooth saw that sun has already grown darker. Does master even need flesh of Princess of friend, moon and sun?” Skeintooth’s words were filled with a deep interested. Almost scholarly, in fact. Horizon smiled.
I will need the flesh to finish the process. Were her corpse not so decomposed by now, I would only need a sample of Celestia. As it is, her bones carry a trace of her blood, stored in the marrow. The flesh of Princesses Luna and Twilight Sparkle will act as a… catalyst, if you will. It will draw out the energy I need from Celestia’s marrow. After all, those two were the ponies she loved the most. The connection will draw out everything I need.
“Skeintooth thinks he understands…”
Then get a move on and get to work. There is still so very much to be done.
Skeintooth obediently withdrew from the mental link, leaving Horizon to stand at the summit of Mount Eclipse. He looked at the northern behemoth of a mountain with a small smirk. Without another word, Horizon turned and left his position atop the peak, entering into the mountain-wide tunnel network that one could equate to being his personal palace.
“Why are we heading to Canterlot?” Wonderboom asked curiously as the trio trotted along down the dirt road leading to Ponyville. They were lucky to be in the area of that town, Drifter figured, as she wanted to make her way back to Canterlot as soon as possible to ask about the situation with the sun. And besides, passing through Ponyville would give her ample time to check in on Twilight and see if they all had any developments.
“I need to talk to Princess Luna. We’re going to be taking the train from Ponyville, but we’ll probably stop by Princess Twilight’s castle on the way. I need information, and she’ll hopefully be able to help in that department.” Drifter explained simply, glancing uneasily at the sun overhead.
“It’s about the sun getting darker, right?” Palmwood deduced, earning a nod from Drifter.
“Yeah. It should not be this dark at this hour, no matter the cloud coverage. And look! We have clear skies right now.” Drifter said, waving a hoof to emphasize her point. “That can’t be normal. The ceremonial dimming of the sun ended after Princess Celestia’s funeral, so it shouldn’t be this dim now unless it’s being tampered with or another pony of incredible importance died.”
Wonderboom looked at the sun herself and shivered a little, despite it being fairly warm out. “I don’t like it… it looks sick.”
“I would guess that it probably is sick, or at least is suffering from something similar to sickness.” Drifter nodded in agreement, turning her head forward to look at Ponyville again. “But we’ll save it. Us or Princess Luna and Princess Twilight, anyway.”
“Are you sure?” Palmwood asked nervously, looking at Drifter uneasily. “I mean, Princess Celestia died a while ago, but… do you think the sun is dying too? Like, they were linked or something?”
Wonderboom scrunched up her face. “That’s not how that works, Palmwood. There was day and night before the princesses took over, remember?”
“Er, no?”
“History class, Palmwood. Mrs. Bucksworth told us about the time before Celestia and Luna. Something about hearth's warming eve being even bigger back then than it is now? I think?”
“Oh… Well, I was kinda nose deep in a comic book.” Palmwood answered sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.
“How did you manage that?” Drifter asked with a playful smirk and raise eyebrow, glancing back at the earth pony colt.
“I hid it with the history book.” Palm declared with a huge grin. Wonderboom facehooved and Drifter smiled.
“Well, you’d better not be slacking off like that when I start teaching you survival and combat skills.”
“Yeah, yeah. My comics are still at our old house anyway…” Palmwood sighed and looked down. Wonder patted his shoulder comfortingly and Drifter frowned.
“You two did live in Canterlot, now that I think about it… we could maybe go through your old house while we’re there. Grab some of your favorite things for the road?” she suggested with a soft smile forming on her face.
“Woah, really?” Palmwood asked excitedly, perking up without missing a beat. If he had wings, they would be buzzing right now.
“Yes, really. Just make sure it’s easy to carry in a saddlebag and doesn’t take up a lot of space. A volume or two of one of your comic series’ should be fine if you tuck it to the side of the bags.” Drifter replied with a nod. Palmwood cheered and leapt for joy, kicking his hind legs together and then failing to land properly, crumpling to a heap on the dirt road.
“Ow…”
“Don’t hurt yourself. C’mon, you two.” Drifter smiled at them and looked up at Canterlot. “Let’s get you home…”
