//------------------------------// // 23 The Mistress of the Sun // Story: Blitz And Balance // by Ennelly Von Swortts //------------------------------// Author: Ennelly Von Swortts Co-Author:  ElectroPHX228 (Blitz) Chapter Twenty-Three:  The Mistress of the Sun   I sat up with a start.  I shook my head as I looked around at the walls of what used to be my hive.  About two seconds later, the pain and sorrow hit me like a sack of bricks.  And then the memories of Aurora added to that weight of sorrow.  I’d beenrather fond of the electric blue-maned mare in my early years of life.  Part of me wished life was like that again...  That simple…  a time I’ll never see again, yet never forget. A time that ended so abruptly, Aurora was never seen again.  That day was the day the cycle of death I’d been living started. I heard hooves coming down the hall.  Not those of the starving changelings, but of a full grown Alicorn.  They stopped right outside the door as the mare on the other side gave off waves of worry, with a hint of panic.  But why the Princess of the night was here, I hade no clue.  “What are you doing here Luna.”  I said before she could lift her hoof to knock. Some of her worry subsided.  “Looking for our sister, whom came looking for thee.”  She spoke softly, as if afraid of being overheard.  I started to worry something happened to Celestia.  In which case, her nightmares...  Were...  iWell, bucki.  I thought.  Next thing I knew, I was standing next to Luna in the corridor.   “I’m sorry Luna.  If I hadn't teleported-“  I found a hoof against my muzzle.   Luna focused a gentle smile on me.  “It is, in part, my fault for teasing you. We fear Tia hast been taken by the enemy, and must find thy fillyfriend before it becomes too late.”  She started marching down the corridor, leaving me to process her words. The white Alicorn leaned forward and kissed the slightly shorter butterscotch Unicorn square on the muzzle, the younger mare’s eyes glazed over at the unexpected gesture.   I shook my head to clear it of the memories, the dark undertone putting a bitter taste in my mouth as I followed Luna. I remembered that day.  The day Celestia kissed Aurora.  It was just the first of many over the years. I had always thought Tia had just cared for that Unicorn mare, turns out I was wrong.  Which just filled me with regrets.  Regrets for things I should and shouldn't have done.  And as I followed Luna, I made a promise Aurora had once made herself.  A promise I intended to keep, unlike a certain mare. “Aurora!  Come back!” …0... Celestia opened her eyes to see only darkness.  She could tell it was a dreamscape, and yet...  As real as her sun.  Thick fog was drifting in lazy spirals, making it impossible to see more then three and a half-ish meters in any direction.It took a couple moments looking around to realize she was in a mix of the two.  Then she spotted the ruins close by.  Six stone pillars surrounded what looked to be a large well.   It was also old.  From what she could tell, quite possibly as old as her.  “I see you’re awake, Princess.”  She turned her head to see three ponies standing close by.All three were faceless, and gray. “Why have you brought me here, Nightmares?”  She asked calmly.   The Faceless Unicorn was the one to speak.  “Our masterwants you to see his latest triumph over Equestriawith your own eyes.”  She got a distinct impression of a sinister smile, despite the pony not having a face.   A confident smile slowly slid onto her face.  “You do realize you have made a fatal mistake by bringing me her?  Now I have no reason to hold back in fear of hurting one of my little ponies.”  She started to charge her horn for an attack as she took a battle stance, only for the spell to fizzle out before collapsing to the ground as her legs gave out.   Two of the three Nightmares started laughing.  Once the unicorn’s had settled, they seemed to be looking her in the eye.  “I would tell you to not try anything like that again, but it just gives us more power.”  It’s horn glowed a moment before black vines broke free from the ground around her, before wrapping around her legs and barrel holding her to the ground facing the ruins.  “Now watch as despair enters your heart at the powerful allay we’re about to set loose on your precious little ponies you care so much about.”  She could almost hear the malicious smile in their voice.   The three nightmaresstepped between the two pillars close to her, carrying an old helmet, a shovel, a flower in a small pot, what honestly looked like a bird mask, a piece of cloth soaked in green something, and an old book.The unicorn turned to her.  “Now...  I’m going to need some of your magic.”  Cold shivers ran down Celestia’s spineas it stepped up to her.  She glared at it’s faceless head, as if willing it to light on fire.  It’s horn sparked with a dull grey, and Celestia felt weaker and weaker until she could no longer hold her head high enough to keep her glare leveled at it.  But it didn’t stop there.  Even as she lay there, she felt what little strength she had left as it was sucked up into the horn of the nightmare.   It walked away, leaving her so tired she could not focus her eyes for several moments.Her vision cleared just in time to see it fire a power spell into the book for several moments approaching a minute or so before a flash of light blinded her.  When she could see, a beam of energy was shooting from the book and hitting each of the items, creating a hexagon as they floated up into the air.   Some rocks also took to the sky as they spun around.  With a flash, six ponies appeared.  Celestia recognized one right off the bat as Starswirl the Bearded.  There was an Earth Pony mare with a blue coat and Brown and red hair, an older Unicorn mare with a light purple coat and a mane that looked somewhere between green and blue, a Pegasus mare with a faded red coat and a blue and green mane almost entirely covered by a white head dress, a larger Earth pony stallion with a blue coat and blonde mane and beard, and finally a yellow Pegasus with a helmet that covered his mane   And then they fell.  The rocks would have landed on them if the Nightmare hadn’t blown them up.  The dazed ponies started to recover before black shadow formed in the big well before forming a floating ball, which unfolded into an Alicornmade of shadow.  Starswirl focused on it.  “Know this, Shadow Pony, we will return you to limbo!”   The Unicorn Nightmare stepped between them.  “Ah, ah, ah, ah Starswirl, we’ll be having none of that.  And Stygion here isn’t going back to limbo anytime soon.”  It seemed Starswirl hadn’t noticed the pony without a face.   He opened his mouth to reply.  “Hold up.  Who the buck are you?”  Stygion interrupted.  “You’re not the Chosen I know!  All three of them are already dead!” The Nightmare turned to the shadowy form.  “Because the order of balance did away with him some fourty thousand years ago.  Only around four thousand  years ago did our master send his Chosen of the time to give you form once more.  But the Order of Balance killed them.  So now you have us.”  The evil smirk in its voice made it clear what it thought of the other evil being. Stygion’s eye twitched.  “The Order could not take out the original Chosen, so Markus Ferromale had to do it for them!” The Shadow Pony near yelled.  The ponies who had appeared out of thin air looked back and forth between the two as they continued to argue.   “Princess Solina, are you okay?”  She glanced to the side. Starswirl had snuck up to her.  “Not really...  But I have an order for you to carry out.  Go to Ponyville on the edge of the Everfree Forest.  Ask for Princess Twilight Sparkle, and inform her of this Stygion.  Then place yourself under my sister and Queen Chrysalis.  Twilight will be able to answer any and all questions you will have.”  Her expression grew sad.  “One more thing, tell Chrysalis I’m sorry this is how it ended.  Now go, before it is too late!”  He blinked in surprise at the whispered order.   “But your Majesty-“  She cut him off with a raised hoof. “There is no time!  Now go!”  She watched him slip away into the fog.  She sagged back to the ground with a sigh.  Then the other ponies noticed her.   “Is that...  Princess Solina?”  The whispered question caught the attention of the Nightmare.   “Who?”  It asked, turning to the ponies.  One of them pointed toward Celestia.  “You talking about the goddess of the sun, Princess Celestia?”  It asked, more confused than the ponies.   She rolled her eyes as she lifted her head with what little strength she had.  “I had a name change a thousand years or so ago.”  She said as evenly as she could.   The sudden temperature drop caught everypony’s attention. Tree branches bent in freaky ways as the fog thickened, and the stone pillars seemed to grow and tilt to alarming angles.  Her heart started to beat faster as her breaths tried to catch in her throat. She recognized the presence of a being more powerful than she could ever hope to be.  A being of pure fear.  A being that scared the living crap out of her.  A being called Slendermane.   Then the plight on her ponies reared its ugly, faceless head.  The tall, white thing that could no longer be called a pony stepped through the fog. Celestia got the impression of pointed looks to the Nightmares and Shadow Pony alike.  All of whom blinked before apologizing for arguing with each other.   Than it looked to Stygion, who flinched slightly before turning to the Nightmares.“I’ll do my best to follow you.”   The Nightmare Unicorn cocked its head to the side.  “I shall do my best to follow you as well.  A stallion of your age has a lot to teach a villainous pony like me a few things.” Slendermane turned to the ponies still gripped in fear, and Celestia watched in helpless horror as he devoured their essence in the most gruesome show she had ever seen. ...0... Starswirl paused as he heard the tortured screams of his closest friends.  The pain, sorrow, and guilt hit him like a sack of bricks. And each brick weighed a ton.  But the Princess had given him a direct order...  And he intended to follow it through.  He had a little ways to go to reach the edge of the Everfree Forest.  If he was lucky, he’d be there by dawn. Hopefully this Princess Twilight Sparkle would be able to explain what the buck was going on. ...0...   I had lowered the sun so Luna wouldn’t drain herself trying to do both the sun and moon.  It was...  Surprisingly easy, once I figured out how to say hi.  She had a little bit of humor, it seemed, as she slid behind the horizon, she stopped.  I raised my eyebrow as I felt her mirth.  A soft smile lit my face as I gently coaxed her down the last little bit.  It seemed Tia had rubbed off on the fiery orb.  My smile turned sad after I left her to her devices.  No need to worry her over Tia who was still missing.  All we found was the overturned carriage after Luna remembered it had a...  Sent, I think she said, about it that made it possible to find with such speed.   I would go to the ends of the world to find her, now that I knew she had truly cared for me all those Melania ago.  And nothing, not even Slendermane, was going to stop me.  I looked back down to the book in the green aura of my magic. Chrysalis...  Well...  She is my mistress.