//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4: Phoebus 
// Story: Equestrian empire: peace in order 
// by writing dragon 
//------------------------------//

year: 117 BE

Star Swirl was at a complete loss. He had studied magic for three centuries, raised the sun every day, revolutionized and mastered the arcane arts, and was often called the greatest unicorn to have ever lived. And yet this seemingly simple matter had completely stumped him.

White and Blue still didn't have their cuitie marks. White was 15 now and Blue wasn't too far behind. Usually, fillies and colts got their cutie marks somewhere around the age of 10. So why hadn't White or Blue gotten them yet? It didn't make sense to him, these two fillies were probably the most talented students he had ever trained. They may even be capable of surpassing him one day, and yet they still didn't have their marks.

To make things worse, the unicorn tribe was in a near state of panic. After so many decades of raising the sun, the unicorns were at a complete loss. Half of the unicorns in Equestria had already lost their magic. riots had become a regular event, suicide rates were at an all-time high, and a cult of sun-worshippers was gaining members. They called themselves: The eye of heaven. They were trying to get the unicorns to go back to the old ways of racing the sun. When unicorns used to kidnap pegasi and earth ponies and use their life as fuel for magic. Several of their people had already been arrested for sacrificing pegasi or earth ponies. This in turn was causing tension between the unicorns and the other two races to rise. It was a complete shit show, and it was giving Star Swirl a massive headache.

Speaking of headaches, one was currently busy assaulting Star Swirl full force. He felt like he had drunk 5 bottles of hard cider the night before. Raising and setting the sun every day was becoming more exhausting by the day. And due to the magical draining that occurred when raising the sun Star Swirl's magic was degrading day by day. It didn't help that Star Swirl was getting older either, every unicorn experienced the same thing. At some point, their magical abilities would start degrading. Just like any other physical ability, magic too would fade with age. Star Swirl had slowed the process drastically by slowing his aging with his magic. The fact that he had the greatest magical ability recorded in pony history was also helpful, but even he would not be able to stop time forever.

Star Swirl had to do his duty despite the pounding in his head. He stumbled through the halls of the castle when he heard a voice behind him.

"Art thou alright, Star Swirl?"

He turned around, he saw a white unicorn behind him. The unicorn had a purple mane with pink swirls running through them. Her white coat was shining from the grooming it received every day, and on her head sat a crown made of silver with purple gemstones inside of it. Her cutie mark was a picture of two white opals.

"Yes you're majesty, I am fine. Just a bit tired," Star Swirl forced himself to smile at the mare.

"Please Star Swirl, call us Opal. Thou has known our grandmother since they were a foal. And thou hast served the royal family for generations."

"Of course, how is princess platinum."

"Mother has been getting worse, we fear we might have to take their place as ruler soon."

Star Swirl and princess Opal made their way to the courtyard not realizing they were being followed by two fillies.

'That is not good news,' Star Swirl thought. 'With so much tension, a change in leadership could be disastrous.'

Star Swirl and princess opal stepped into the courtyard, where five guards dragged unicorns to the center. The unicorns were chained, and they all had a sun engraved somewhere on their bodies. They were solar cultists.

The cultists were screaming at the guards, raving about how they would burn in eternal fire for their sins. One of the unicorns started casting a spell. Star Swirl quickly cast a cancelation spell, causing the spell the cultist was trying to cast to destabilize. The spell exploded, and the cultist was knocked unconscious. A different cultist stepped forward this one was much calmer than the others.

"Brothers, please stop." He said the cultist had a brown coat, with a red mane and tail. His cutie mark was a black circle out of which several lines went a few inches outwards. At his words, the other cultists stopped resisting the guards

The stallion walked towards the cultist whose spell had exploded. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yes, I am fine brother" The cultist replied.

The brown stallion helped the cultist back on his hooves.

"You still have much to learn brother, for one combat spells take a long time to create. And they're easy to cancel. It is much better to use a quick spell that your enemy won't see coming."

Before anypony could even react the cultist's head was held in a red aura and twisted 180 degrees. The guards quickly raised their spears and readied their horns.

The stallion merely chucked the dead cultist aside with his telekinesis before bowing to princess Opal.

"My apologies for that one's rude behavior your majesty."

Star Swirl stepped in front of Opal readying his horn with magic. Casting several spells on himself. The spells would increase his perception speed and reduce casting time for future spells.

'He may have cased that spell too fast last time,' Star Swirl thought. 'But, I'll be sure to catch him this time.'

"Guards," He ordered. "Get another participant immediately. And restrain that one" He said pointing at the stallion who had just killed his compatriot.

"Please, court sorcerer Star Swirl there's no need for such a thing. I will not harm anypony else."

"I have seen your type enough over the past few years. You are all lunatics as far as I am concerned, I will not trust a single word out of your mouth."

"We merely see the truth where others cannot. You know as well as I do that unicorns did not always raise the sun this way. We must stop this heinous practice and return to the old ways."

"When we would use the souls of the other pony tribes to fuel the rising of the sun? No, I will never allow us to go back to such an illogical practice. At least now there are still survivors, it is the better alternative."

The stallion frowned at Star Swirl. "Can't you see it Star Swirl? The unicorn tribe has been getting weaker, our magic isn't as powerful as it used to be. There was a time once when we had hundreds of sorcerers who could kill Ursa Majors. Now, the most powerful mage we have after you could maybe kill a minor, while walking away with major injuries. It's a clear sign from Sol, we must send him sacrifices."

"And what of our relations with the other tribes? Would you have us once again divided? Risk war with the other pony tribes? That is not the way forward."

Star swirl looked at the remaining guards who had still not restrained the unicorn. "Guards! What did I order? Restrain him now."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the stallion said. "I am a messenger of soul and she will strike you down if you try."

'Ah forget it, there are plenty less dangerous cultists left we can use.' Star Swirl made his horn flare with power. He was done with this conversation, he was going to kill this unicorn. He was far too dangerous to be left alive. Just when he was prepared to kill the cultist in front of him though, Star Swirl heard a voice that made his blood run cold.

"Who's Sol?" A filly's voice asked.

'No,' Star Swirl thought in panic whipping his head around to the voice's owner. Two fillies were standing at the entrance of the courtyard, White and Blue. 'What are they doing here?'

"She's the benevolent goddess that looks over us unicorns, she's the one who gave us our magic." The stallion smiled, and a chill went up Star Swirl's spine.

Star Swirl felt the use of magic, and the shadows moved. Cloaked unicorns materialized from the shadows of the sisters and opal. The cloaked unicorns grabbed them tight and put daggers to their necks. A few of the guards turned on their fellow guardsmen taking them by surprise as they killed their brothers in arms. The few guards that remained were trying to fight back, but more unicorns appeared from the shadows. They launched knives into the eyes and the joints that the armor of the remaining guards left exposed.

"FUCK!!" Star Swirl bellowed as his horn glowed with power.

"Perhaps you should reassess your situation before you do that." The stallion said with obvious smugness.

Star Swirl looked around at the unicorns surrounding him, quickly assessing the new situation.

'23 enemies in total, four of them were guards that turned traitors, four of them are the unicorns brought out initially for the sunrise, and the rest are the cloaked unicorns who used stealth magic. Unicorns who favor stealth magic often neglect the mastering of powerful attack spells, as long as I keep my detection spells up I could kill them quickly. The guards will be more challenging the guards here are trained in incapacitation magic to immobilize any escapees without killing them. I can not get hit by their magic so I will need to keep teleporting to dodge them. Then there are those remaining four, three of them will be no thread, but their leader. I do not know what kind of magic he has but based upon his love for the sun god Sol to the point of becoming a priest to a cult that worships her. I am confident that he probably favors fire magic, ice magic would be the perfect counter to him.'

'On the other hoof, having a drawn-out fight could be risky and it would be hard to protect the princess and my students. Maybe I should just use one powerful area of effect attack and kill them all instantly, no my students and the princess aren't strong enough to survive that kind of attack. And summoning a shield to protect them while simultaneously casting the area off effect spell would take too long to cast. Besides those cloaked ponies holding my students, hostage has a spell cast on them that activates upon death, it is probably an explosion spell of some kind. I could maybe counter it if I had more time, but I do not have the strength to cast a chronomancy spell richt now. I'm still weak from yesterday's sunset.'

Apologies for my rudeness, but you were about to kill me. Let us start over," the stallion gave a bow. "My name is Phoebus, priest of the eye of heaven."