//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 The Kings' Return // Story: Darkness Rising // by Bronyprophet //------------------------------// Celestia stirred awake with a familiar yet foreboding feeling, she became worried for her sister; she had once felt this particular feeling of lingering evil before, when Luna was losing herself to the forces of darkness, becoming nightmare moon. Celestia got out of bed, hastily trotting to her sisters' chambers. She saw Lunas' door open, and her precious sister sprawled on the floor; she immediately rushed over to her side. She was completely out of it, and the colors of her fur and wings seemed to have been growing darker. Celestia ran up to her sister and grabbed her. "Luna!... Luna are you ok!" She shouted, shaking her. Luna weakly fluttered her eyes open, she had grown weak from her encounter with the shade. Celestia noticed, that her sisters' blue eyes had developed slitted pupils, she was worried that history may repeat itself, However, that was at the back of her mind, because she also noticed that her sister was fading fast, and that was of greater importance than what happened in the past. "Celestia…" She started, her voice hoarse. "he's... back..." Luna trailed off as she started losing consciousness once again. "Lulu Stay with me, I can't lose you again. who is back?" Celestia pressed with urgency and a mixture of sadness and woe. Lunas' Eyes slowly opened as she grew weaker by the second. "So...mbra has returned... It's... too late for me... go... Twilight... is... in danger..." Luna stated before fully falling unconscious. Celestia rose from her position, igniting her horn in a brilliant golden light. Teleporting herself to Twilights' castle. She rushed into Twilights Castle as fast as her hooves could take her, once she made it to the main hall, she could hear Thoraxs' cries of pain resonating through the halls, Celestia hoped she hadn't been too late. She could tell that the cries were coming from Starlights' Chambers, however, as she entered Starlights' chambers, Thorax was in the bed, clearly suffering, he was crying and sweating profusely; visibly flinching with grimace. He whimpered in pain as he thrashed about in bed. Though Starlight didn't seem to wake up regardless of what was happening to Thorax. Celestia figured she had been charmed. Celestia ignited her horn once more, weaving a spell to enter Thoraxs' dreams. She saw Thorax with his sword raised high about to pierce Starlights side, as he plunged his sword towards Starlight, Celestia fired a bolt of magic shooting Thoraxs' blade, shattering the blade. Thorax realized what happened, and bellowed a vicious war cry, as he charged at Celestia; Celestia dodged the attack, but as she dodged Thoraxs' attack, she saw the Shade in the corner of her eye charging at her. Celestia fired a bolt of magic at Thorax, knocking him out, so she could concentrate on the Shade fast approaching her, with a maddening rage. Celestia reacted quickly by creating a shield around herself, as the shade made contact with the shield, a small buzzing sound could be heard as his claws glanced off the shield. Celestia teleported back gaining some distance from the shade, before releasing several bolts of magic at the foul creature; the bolts whizzed straight through the creature as if it were made from smoke. The creature hissed venomously as it rose a single gnarled claw. A ball of sickly green magic started forming and once it was fully formed the shade targeted Celestia with the spell. Celestia dodged the bolt of Eldritch Magic before, she summoned her regalia to her. "AS NIGHT BECOMES DAWN... AND THE DAWN BECOMES TWILIGHT... I SUMMON LIGHT BRINGER, LISTEN TO MY COMMAND, AND EXECUTE MY FOE" As Celestia finished reciting her ritual, she was engulfed by a blinding golden aura, her eyes turned white with power as it flowed through her, her main began to whip wildly, as a scepter made from pure light revealed itself. She aimed skyward before aiming at the shade in one swift motion and within an instant, a beam of bright white light shot from the heavens. The shade attempted to dodge the beam, but wasn't fast enough, the beam soon met its mark, disintegrating the Shades arm. The creature howled in pain before it flew through the opened balcony doors, and vanished into the night, Celestia began to return back to normal, after she had fully powered down, she cast a spell to leave Thoraxs mind. Once she was back in the room, she woke up Thorax to see if he was ok. "Cel...Celestia why are you here?" Thorax stated groggily rubbing his eyes. "Don't you remember?" Celestia inquired. "Remeber what?" Thorax held a confused expression Celestia tried to cast a spell on Thorax to allow him to remember, but as she tried her horn fizzled out, she assumed the last spell she cast had taken to much of her mana to cast another. Celestia explained what happened in the dream world, and wondered why Starlight had still been sleeping, although between the noise and Thoraxs thrashing would have been more than enough to wake up anypony. "I did all of that and I can't remember a thing about it. I hope I didn't hurt anypony," Thorax replied with a heavy feeling of regret. "No, you didn't harm anypony Thorax, I saved you before you could," Celestia replied in a motherly tone, finally calming down after her fight with the shade. She had been grateful that she had defeated the shade before it could harm any other pony, especially Twilight, her adopted daughter figure. "You best get back to sleep Thorax your safe now, that creature will not come back." "ok, your right I have a long flight tomorrow, I need to warn pharynx about this new evil we must put the changeling guard on high alert." Thorax had been living up to the expectation of a true ruler putting his ponies first and his emotions last. As Celestia left the room, she stopped by Twilights chambers to ensure that the shade had fully gone. Celestia thought Twilight looked darker than normal, however, she sided that it was nightfall so her eyes could be misleading her. As Celestia was leaving the castle she placed a ward on the Castle, protecting it from evil spirits. However, something had been bothering her about the shade. She felt like she knew who the shade was before it was corrupted. Once she headed back to her castle, she rushed to Luna who had been recently moved into her chambers upon her navy blue super queen bed. however, there had been a change in her appearance now she had looked a lot more like Nightmare moon now. Seeing her precious lulu in this state made her nervous, she didn't want to have to banish her again, so Celestia preemptively stationed her most powerful unicorn guard at her door. His name was Crimson Blade, he was accidently transported into this dimension when Twilight had tried casting a spell from Star Swirl The Beardeds' grimoire. The spell went terribly wrong summoning a pony and satyr from another dimension. Crimson Blade entered the dimension first, but it wasn't all heroes, an old villain had appeared from the spell as well. It also brought back The Storm King, who was once defeated, but he was now free and alive again. Celestia had known of his existence, however. Celestia had been searching for the satyr, but she didn't know where he fled too. After Twilight, Tempest and her friends tried to defeat him again. She had set a nationwide bounty for Storm King, she hoped he would be found before he could retrieve his staff from the forbidden vault that Celestia kept all of her most powerful magical items in, both collected by her, and reclaimed from the villains of Equestria. As Thorax had finally fallen asleep once again, he had a vision enter his mind; he was standing in Equestria although it was destroyed, and as he started to walk through the remains of Equestria, he came to Canterlot castle, or more, what was left of it. He entered through the now broken doors, he saw Starlight laying lifelessly on the ground. Filled with concern Thorax tried to run towards her to see if she was alright, however, he was halted in his tracks, by a charcoal changeling, wearing gunmetal black armor, with red glowing eyes, with whisps coming from the corner of its' eyes; he had a domineering smile, adorning his charcoal carapace, emphasizing his tyrannical white smile, he made a low chuckle as he looked down at Thorax. The shadowy Changling shot a beam of chaotic red magic resembling red lightning at Thorax, sending him sprawling over the floor. Thorax got up off of the floor and recovered, "who are you, what have you done to Starlight?" Thorax ignited his horn "Who am I? You already know who I am don't you? and as for what happened to Starlight, you happened to her... all of this was your doing." The changling stated in a deep commanding voice that sent chills up Thoraxs' Spine. "Your lying you did this. I'll ask again, who are you." Thorax replied as his horn started to buzz with energy. "My name is Shadowrax; I have another name too I use to be called Thorax. and yes I did this I'm the better you. A king without equal... now begone filth." Shadowrax shouted, releasing a powerful streak of red lightning, hitting Thorax with remarkable precision. Thorax was sent flying through the doors, to the base of the stairs leading up to the castle. He looked up as he saw Shadowrax slowly approaching, he heard sadistic laughter as he finally lost consciousness.