B is for Blessed: The story of Nightseer
By Numbername
They say we were blessed with the gift of life, that the fact we exist at all is a miracle in itself. That life is about living to its fullest to not waste such a beautiful gift. I agree with this but not in the way many view it. Many were raised to see family and friends as the true blessing in life, I was raised to see value in conquest!
“The meaning of life is conquest! To kill your enemies, the conquer of their mares, to enslave their children, to take their bones as your trophies! For we are blessed by Balefire!” This was the motto of my tribe, this was the principal I was raised on since birth. And it was with these ideals that my tribe was the deadliest force in the ruins of Fillydelphia!
For nearly a century we fought any who dared challenge our tribe. We raided the area surrounding the city like a wind of death! We were the fear and envy of many tribes, many tried to dethrone us but all fell beneath our hooves! For we were the Balefire Herd!
It was this tribe I was born into as Rad Light. Daughter to the tribe’s unicorn priestess Singing Light, from an earlier age I was tasked with learning the history of our herd, to magically sing it for future generations of our greatness. Spending my formative years listening to nothing but our great songs, Iron spear the Talon slayer, Rad Filly the eater of mutants, the list come go on. But I was not just invested in the tales I wish to go create my own.
My mother forbids it, saying “The role of Priestess is not to create stories but to tell them.” But I was blessed with a father who wanted his daughter to become a great hunter like him. It was with this idea that I took on many of his hunts in secret, oh how I made him proud with my kills but my greatest hunt ever was one of those Steel Rangers.
I’d heard of them from our stories. A tribe of Steel clad armor ponies who fought with a zealot of knights of old, with weapons that could kill whole warbands. We had fought them before, one of their temples sat on the outskirts of our city, always conducting raids into the ruins for treasures of the old world.
I saw them as the perfect prey to get my name song into our stories. And I spawn tales of hidden treasures in the ruins, letting my lies spread to other tribes, knowing full well they’d leave it alone in fear the Steel Rangers would take it. And like ghouls to the radiation they did.
They came in a pack to the old hospital I made my hunting ground, their overconfidence showed in the fact they all split off from each other, a big mistake. The first victim fell into a sinkhole I created, his steel armor being his downfall as he fell into a flooded room. The second fool trotted right into boom plates I had set up around the building, her armor protected her from their fire and smoke but one unleashed a torrent of energy that made her armor fall dead. A knife between her armor undid her. The last was waiting for me, he became aware of his fallen brethren’s and had sealed himself in a ward hoping I would attack. What he didn’t expect was for me to use my magic to tear the very floor from under him. I could hear the bones in his body breaking from within his armor, I jumped on him like a radrat on a corpse, and with magical knives, I tore into him.
I returned to my tribe a conquering hero, their bones my trophies wore on me like fine armor. All praise me, even my mother couldn’t find disappointment in my victory. They named me Rad Light the Steel Ranger Hunter and engraved my victory into the tribe’s legend.
So great was my fame that I rose to become both leader and priestess of my tribe. I led hunts and song tales to our foals. I rose our tribe to greater highs than before, even Steel Rangers knew to fear us. I brought the blessing of power upon my tribe, a glory we’d never known before!
However, all that changed with the arrival of one pony, one singular stallion turned my world upside down. Red Eye. He came to our city seeking the richest of the old world, hoping to restore it to its former glory.
He came to the tribes promising a new future where they lived in a beautiful metropolis that rivaled anything from before the balefire burned the world. Our tribe shunned him, we of the Bale Herd embraced the wasteland and all its bountiful beauty, we saw no need to end it. But other tribes fell for his words like a listener to a story.
His influence spread throughout the city like poison, tribe after tribe joining him. He brought Griffin mercs, gangers, and technology we'd never seen into our world. But notably, he brought Alicorns with him.
They spoke of unity through their goddess, how salvation in the wastes could only be found in them.
I read the writing on the wall, they would take our city by force if they couldn’t have it by words. I gathered my tribe and all tribes that didn’t listen to the stallion’s lies then wage war on them. We fought them hard, we fought them smart, fought for our future. But nothing we could do stood against those Alicorns.
They were beings more touched by Balefire than we were, they did not simply live in the radiation of the wasteland but grew stronger from it. Even when we did slay one they came back smarter than before, no tactic we tried worked more than once.
They defeated us, burned our homes, took our foals, and enslaved us to their whim. Red Eye and the Alicorns brought the ruins of Fillydelphia to heel.
We were the first stepping stone to rebuilding the great city. They broke us little by little, everyday my tribe suffered either in their newly acquired factories or in the cater of Fillydelphia, the resting place of Balefire. I watched as my tribe slowly faded into the dark stacks of the city, becoming no different than any other slave they brought in.
I was made to fight in their pit, turned into entertainment from the days of grinding work. I slayed many opponents with the reward of being recruited into Red Eye’s army. I had long given up, being nothing more than a puppet for my masters. Stripped of my priesthood, my tribe’s song forgotten. I suffered indignities and fell into despair!
In my defeat, I slowly realize errors of my ways, reasons my tribe was defeated simply because we were not blessed by the kiss of Balefire. No, that was the power was in the hooves of creatures like the Alicorns, they were born to inherit this wasteland. And all others were meant to bow to them.
So when promises of salvation through Unity came I took it as my chance to escape this hellish city and find new life. I surrender myself to the alicorns, I let them take me to their Goddess, I wanted to come face to face with the ruler of the wastes.
In a valley in the west, I came across true power. The Goddess was a being who I could never in my life imagine existing. Every word she said commanded respect, every motion caused power to radiate from her, even my own thoughts were controlled by her. She was a true god, not those fake Goddesses that so many wastelanders worship.
All I had to do to become one of her flock was surrender my mind, body, and soul to her. So I did, fell into her grand haze consumed by her loving embrace. They cease to exist as my mind was ripped away from me. It was like dying but then being reborn, it was an enlightening experience.
I awoke to my mind being one of many in a sea of minds, we were like puppets that the Goddess commanded. I could feel the emotions of hundreds of us and them me, we were all one being as if the existence of self was just a concept. Whatever the Goddess did we did, whatever she thought we thought, there was no I only we. It was heaven in the truest sense, the idea of being self again was a hell we hated.
The Wasteland was ours for the taking, we deserve it as we were the superior being. Even if our bodies were killed we lived forever in Unity, no enemy could fell us no matter how many times they tried. Only one thing stood in our way toward greatness, our physical bodies could only be female, our great race can not last long without males.
Only the tribute of Unicorn followers kept our race going. But our supplier Red Eye hasn’t sent us tribute in months, he denies us, he demands our kind serve in his ranks. He plots to kill us, to destroy our heaven and make us his slaves. We could destroy him but he and the empire he was building served its purposes.
He told us that he would help us. All we had to do was clear the sky for him. But we needed the corpse of a dead princess first, so it was with gritted teeth I was sent on a quest for the future of our kind.
I traveled to the heart of the Wasteland, Canterlot, to find the dead remains of our former princesses. There in the ruins of the kingdom, I found only a screaming pain, a pink mist had taken the heart of the land, its power magical and horrible. It, it cut me off from the heaven of Unity, I was myself again. I was alone in the city of the dead, I wasn’t the only one, I came across many of my sisters who became lost to the mist.
But I was determined, I would complete my quest and bring about a great future for the superior Balefire race. I fought through the ruins, killing machines and mutants alike until I came upon the throne room of the former princesses.
As if by cosmic luck, there at the foot of the throne itself sat the perfect preserved skeleton of a princess. I was just to collect the skull but a part of me buried by the will of the Goddess came crawling to the surface. I dawned the bones as armor, it felt like I was returning home. Memories came flooding back to me, I remembered who I was, the ways of my tribe. I wore the bones like a trophy as a reward for my conquest of this dead city.
Our next task was simple: Enter the towers controlled by the pegasi then use the corpse princess to remove the cloud covers giving the Wasteland it’s first sunlight in two centuries. It was an easy task for an Alicorn slipping past their defenses. These fools prided themselves on the idea that they were untouchable up here but we would rip that disillusion from right under their muzzles.
Or so we thought. When we arrived at the shield that protected the tower we learned an annoying truth. We could not enter, try as we might the shield forbid us from freeing skies There was something off about that shield, it was like it actively refused our entry as if it hated us.
Our objective failed, we fled from the skies, and the future of our being put into question. Would Red Eye keep denying us tribute? How would we secure the future of our race?
Then the answer came like a blessing from the heavens. The Black Book, an ancient tome of eldritch magic that would rip apart a pony’s very soul. Its power had to be ours, with it creating new Alicorns would be a cakewalk and so much more.
And so the Goddess sent me to Canterlot, she released me from Unity knowing full well I was a believer in our cause, that I would succeed where others fell. I took up the quest to save our herd, the those touched by Balefire would conquer this Wasteland whose stood in our way!
I fought my way back into that city, destroying arcane machines that guarded the halls of the old government. The undead mutants that infested this place were no match for one of the Balefire touched. Even the screams of the mist could not stop me.
And finally, I came upon it, it was a thing of beauty. It's jet black cover inverted me to read it, The book was written in archaic zebra glyphs that spoke to me. It whispered in my ears, spoke in my mind. “We can help you.”
Yes, they could, with this the Alicorns would rise to become unbeatable. We would be gods with this power, no living being would dare challenge us with this.
“No living creature will challenge you.”
And then it showed me the truth, showed who I used to be, how everything was stolen from me by Red Eye and the Goddess. How I became nothing more than a servant to the wills of others, how my story was sung in the legend of my tribe only to be destroyed by others.
“We can give you back what you lost.”
Then it opened my eyes to the future. A future where I rose up from my conquerors, where I led the Alicorns to victory. I would become the Wasteland’s new Goddess and destroy the false one, I would retake the lands of my tribe for my new tribe.
Looking down at the skeleton that became my trophy memories not of my own flooding my mind. I saw images of the night sky, the moon, all of Equestria. Wouldn't just become a princess but a goddess of the night! I will rule the world!
I am Nightseer, Goddess of the night, and Blessed with the power of Balefire!