//------------------------------// // A Horrible Discovery // Story: Light of Harmony // by Dark Alicorn Warrior //------------------------------// My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Light of Harmony Chapter Ten A Horrible Discovery Celestia barely felt the freezing touch of the night wind that whipped through her mane and coursed through her fur as she dashed forward and flapped her wings; lifting her into the air toward the Spirit of War. She flicked her head back and then forward again as a mighty surge of magic expelled itself from her horn and roared toward her enemy. She could see past the massive yellow missile before her into the eyes of her opponent. She saw that they were saturated with a glowing bright red color. Even though she saw nothing but red, what sent a chill of surprise down how her back was the determination she saw in his eyes. It was like the red that shone brightly in his eyes was not only rage or hatred nor unfortunately was it fear; determination to either turn her to his side or to outright kill her. “You will leave Luna out of this! This is between you and me! She is nothing like you Demon!” Nemesis snorted as if he were amused as he flew he flew to the right. The yellow magic flew past him and into shrunk as it became nothing more than another twinkling star in the night sky. “My dear Princess…” His demonic voice echoed through the castle walls “…this fight is between Equestria and I. Know this…you, your kingdom, and all the kingdoms in the world will fail to imprison me again. This world full of lies and half-truths will be purified in the flames of war for all eternity…I promise you that.” Nemesis hissed ominously. “You will fail…that I promise you!” Celestia responded to Nemesis’ threat as she fired another magic beam toward Nemesis who again flew away from it. Letting out a grunt she raced after him; firing magic attacks at him. With each attack one of two sounds would meet her ears; either the ancient stones that made up the walls crumbled to the ground below them, or a tree outside of the castle began to give off a distinct cracking noise and slowly topple over somewhere in the forest. The solar Princess began to pant heavily as she continued her dogged pursuit of her opponent. “I have to stop him…” she scolded under her breath “He will not get away…not this time!” His disrespectful remark about Luna and herself infuriated her. Immediately she shook her head, disturbed that she would put personal reasons before her own subjects. Soon she realized that he was, like with everypony else, draining her dark energy to restore himself. Celestia was disgusted with herself. She was supposed to be a role model for her little ponies, she was supposed to guide them and be a teacher. However here she was being strung along by a pony claiming to be Nemesis, and giving in to her anger and aggression. For Luna, For Equestria; she launched another attack toward her opponent’s wings to disable him from flying. Suddenly her opponent turned around in midair and fired a red beam of magic toward her. Quickly she flew to the right just as the red missile streaked past her, it's heat radiating as it went. Celestia lowered her head and shot another bolt at him. The bolt slammed into his left wing; peeling off the armor that protected it and forcing him to land on the cold stones below. The Solar Princess took a deep breath as the young War Spirit shook his head and began to slowly walk toward her toward her down the Library's central aisle. She looked around at the many pillars that stood on either side of the main hallway like cold, grey sentinels watching over a kingdom. Celestia took another quick breath as she realized her only chance to stop this stallion for at least longer than a basic magic attack could. Celestia lit up her horn again with her sun-colored magic and fired bolt after bolt at her attacker. Each bolt was met with the same result, with him sideswiping each attack she threw at him. Exactly what she was hoping for... Celestia watched as Nemesis slowly began walking toward her. Celestia saw that his eyes were now glowing a solid ruby color; No Iris', No Pupils, just a dark crimson with dark red tails waving in the wind like their manes did. Celestia quickly replayed her current battle over and over in her head trying to find some weakness in his fighting style. But slowly she realized at the rate they both were going; neither of them would be victorious. She looked around again at the stone pillars and realized she had to change tactics. She lights up her horn again and fires another bolt. Nemesis watched the missile come at him and readied himself. He activated his horn and sent his red magic out in front of him and summoned itself as a translucent red shield spell. Celestia's yellow magic bolt, instead, slammed into the stone pillar behind Nemesis, sending dust and a loud crack reverberating through the air. Nemesis switched his gaze over to the pillar as it shook violently from the blast . Time seemed to slow down as it slowly began to lurch forward toward him. He activated his horn and sent his Red beam into the falling pillar sending another, much louder, cracking noise. Celestia concentrated all of her attention to her horn. She knew as she activated her horn that this attack should not be powerful enough to send her opponents whole body in the pillars path. while her opponent's attention was diverted, The Solar Princess fired a slightly less powerful bolt into Nemesis chest. Nemesis quickly turned his gaze back to Celestia just in time to feel her bolt impact his chest, sending him stumbling back an inch or two. Nemesis gritted his teeth in a dreaded anticipation of the pillars impact. He activated his horn and concentrated all of his magical strength into one powerful burst that slammed into the stone obelisk, cutting through it. Celestia watched the stone pillar begin to tear in half right where her opponent stood as he summoned another shield spell to cushion the pillars impact. The giant stone pillar impacted Nemesis crimson shield with tremendous force, sending the two pillar halves in opposite directions. However, Nemesis's head began to ache as the physical strain of keeping his shield up as the weight of the two pillar halves became too much for his endurance to bear. Celestia quickly shot at the pillar again, hitting a part of the first half of the pillar right above her opponent, causing the pillar to explode again sending debris everywhere. She watched her opponents red magic wink once and disappear as the pillar halves impacted the floor seemingly on and around her opponent with the loud crunch of stone, leaving behind nothing but a thick cloud of fog and the sound of loose rocks and stone coming to rest on top of each other. Celestia lifted herself into the air and dashed toward the mountain of debris that had seemingly buried her opponent. she came to land on a large piece of the pillar that overlooked the library's center aisle where her opponent now laid motionless, in the middle of pieces of stone, but breathing. Nemesis slowly turned his head from side to side trying to open his eyes. He tried rolling on his side to get up, but every time he attempted he was met by a sharp pain from his left wing. Finally, his eyes opened revealing a very blurry world around him, with an alabaster colored object touching down right beside him. Slowly his vision began to clear as he could distinguish his opponents golden slippers in front of his face. He turned his head following the white legs the slippers were attached to, eventually meeting his opponents lavender eyes. She arched her head back and shot it forward again leaving her horn dangerously close to his. The Solar Princess closed her eyes as her sunlight hued spell shot forward and attached itself to her opponents horn, his crimson colored magic being immediately and harmlessly dispersed. The Solar princess could feel her opponent attempt to writhe and struggle desperately yet fruitlessly break free from her grip with what little energy he had left. The Princess closed her eyes as dozens of voices from her opponents past began to echo around her. Her eyes suddenly shot open, encased in a glowing white light. Celestia saw nothing but a bright light as she began to hear several faint voices fill the air around her. Celestia's vision began to clear as the light began to dim as several glowing white boxes began spinning in circles around her. She watched the boxes closely as the voices around her became louder and louder with each passing second. Finally, the warrior's memories began to materialize in the white boxes. Celestia saw only the blur of hundreds of memories as the flew past her. Celestia watched on in awe as time continued to unravel itself before her eyes. The solar princess tried in vain to process all of the voices that shot past her, some voices that she had not heard in centuries. But as the stallions memories went on and a timeline was finally being unveiled, the memories began to take on a more tragic tone. She watched as an ice blue alicorn stallion was being tormented night and day by his captors. Being told over and over that his subjects suffered because he left, that what happened was his fault. She watched as an exhausted alicorn stallion fell to his knees. The stallion's heart too heavy to retaliate Celestia gasped in horror as she put a wing over her gaped mouth. "Glaciem?!" she shouted, her voice echoing through the endless black void. The starry night sky of the ethereal realm seemed to melt away back into the castle Celestia once called home. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Princess!" The scream of her mentor met a lavender Unicorns ears sending a shiver down her spine. She, Her Number one Assistant, and her five best friends quickened their pace. Twilight's now laborious breathes echoed through the castle as she dashed toward the voices. Their collective hearts, Riddled with anxiety and fear, pounding in their chests. The scream was a name she had only just learned moments ago. Her mentor, Princess of Equestria, had this amount of sadness in her voice only once in recorded history. Whatever revelation had just shown itself to her mentor, it held the same pain as Nightmare Moon's Rise over one thousand years ago. History, it seemed to Twilight, was repeating itself.