//------------------------------// // A red sun rises // Story: The Hour of Demise // by Tioko //------------------------------// The Hour of Demise Chapter 2 A red sun rises Celestia was breathing heavily, staring into the night sky, trying to find any trace of the villain that had abducted her precious student. It was futile, they had completely vanished from sight. “Sister?” Luna said uncertainly, looking at the partially demolished room. “Pray tell, what happened here?” She could still feel a dark magic linger in the room, like a foul stain that tainted the air and offended her senses. “The culprit... That foul beast awaited us in the castle!” Celestia explained, barely controlling her anger. “He kidnapped Twilight...” Luna raised her eyebrows, her eyes widening. The last part was ill news indeed, but her dear sibling had still lost her with the first. What foul beast was she going on about? She hadn’t seen her sister this angry since their battle against Discord, more than a thousand years ago. “What foul beast, dear sister?” Luna asked. “It was a... A powerful magician. An ugly black dog that that walks on hind legs. But its physique aside from its... his doglike head is… unfamiliar. I have never seen anything quite like it,” Celestia explained briefly. “He calls himself the Hound.” The Princess of the Sun went on to give her little sister a quick overview of the events that had come to pass in the room between her own arrival and Luna’s. The more she heard, the more serious and worried Luna became. Though she was mostly worried for her sister. Celestia looked ready to throw a fit. She so rarely lost her calm that seeing her upset alone was a huge indicator of the severity of the situation at hoof. “He is extremely powerful and extremely insolent. And he has Twilight...” Celestia finished. “I... I see... Thee... you said that he fled when I was about to arrive?” Luna asked with a frown. Celestia nodded. “Then... I am afraid the abduction of Twilight Sparkle is a ploy to lure us out of the castle.” “The villain fled out of fear,” Celestia almost growled, while she started to pace back and forth in a vain attempt to get a hold of herself. “Whatever his magical prowess may be, against both of us united, he would stand no chance. This, he admitted himself. Though I suspect you may be right as well, Luna.” Luna nodded slowly. “What... are we going to do about it, sister?” She asked the older alicorn. She trotted over to the lifeless guard, nudged him gently, then bowed her head in quiet mourning as she felt no signs of life. Celestia fell silent, and stayed that way for a long while. “...I’m going after him.” She finally said in a quiet, determined voice. Luna straightened up in the blink of an eye, whirling around to face her sister once more. To say she was shocked would be an understatement, and the alicorn actually found herself speechless for a short while. Had this Hound taken away part of her sister’s common sense when he fled? “My dearest sibling, have thou lost thy mind?” the Moon Princess asked, when she finally found her voice again. She stomped the floor with one of her forelegs. “That be exactly what this villain wishes, and thou would fly into his trap open eyed? For certain, the situation is dire indeed, but thou must not be rash!” Luna found herself on unfamiliar territory. Before, the roles had always been reversed. She would be the one to rush blindly into action without thinking things through, so that Celestia would have to be the voice of reason to calm her down. Now it was the other way around, and it worried Luna greatly. She understood her Sun-blessed sister had to be stressed. Having the city and subjects you hold dear attacked by magical fire and fighting an unfamiliar foe, who escaped with the student you hold dear, could not be good for one’s heart or health, the Moon Princess had to admit. Celestia lowered her eyes. “I know this is madness... But I have no other choice.” She then looked at her sister. “He has Twilight, Luna... She... This little filly... Ever since I met her, my life changed.” The white unicorn swallowed hard, trying to keep her voice even and not shaking with emotions, yet failing. “I... I was lonely... ever since I banished you, Lulu, the palace, the life around me... it never was the same. Twilight... She was so much like you, back when we were little... She’s been my pride and joy for so long... I can’t leave her in the hands of that villain!” Luna forced herself to swallow the lump in her throat without making a sound. She glanced at the floor uncertainly, avoiding her sister’s eyes. Of course the two of them had talked a lot since her return from the Moon, and the Moon Princess had come to understand it had been just as hard for her sister as it had been for her. She knew Twilight Sparkle was important to her sister, just like she was. Sadly, she wasn’t sure how Celestia had to feel at this moment. She never had anyone dear to her taken away right before her eyes. Luna was making progress since her return, for certain, but someone so deeply dear to her heart, aside from her sister, she did not yet have. The Princess of the Moon hesitated, searching for the right words. “I understand thy reasons, my dearest sister,” she said slowly, picking out each word with great care. “But I must beg thee to reconsider. Do believe it pains me to say these words, but thou hast a duty to this kingdom. As thy fellow princess, I can not permit thee to put thyself at risk, and our kingdom with it, for the sake of one of our subjects, no matter how dear.” Luna bowed her head. “Do not think low of me now, my sister. I cannot yet phantom how thou dost feel, but I know thou art in pain. But our kingdom and subjects must be placed before all else. Our people look up to thee and trust thee, to a degree I have yet to achieve. What if something would happen to thee on this chase in the unknown? I have not yet the trust of our subjects to reign in thy place, and were would Equestria stand then? Please, sister, see my reasoning. I do not ask thee to abandon Twilight Sparkle. We shall send out our finest men, who shan’t rest until thy student has been returned to thy side.” “Our finest men, dear sister... don’t stand a single chance.” Celestia said bitterly. “Can’t you feel it? The ones who stayed in the castle, the ones who stood in the Hound’s way... The guards, the maids... They are all dead now.” Celestia shook her head. “I know I can not abandon my kingdom... But the only ones who can be on par with the Hound’s power are me and you, Luna.” The Moon Princess glanced at the fallen guard in the room and shivered slightly. She had to admit her sister had a point there, much as it pained her. Still the idea of Celestia leaving did not sit well with her at all. “Allow me to go in thy stead,” she suggested after a moment of brief silence. “Were something to happen to me, at the very least Equestria would suffer not from it. Thou art capable of handling the Moon, and our people need thee.” “No.” Celestia said firmly and sighed. “I cannot let you go either, Lulu...” She shook her head, her voice reduced to a quiet whisper. “A thousand years, Lulu... After a thousand years, I finally have you by my side again... I... I cannot put you in danger. I don’t want to lose you again, Lulu. Ever again.” Luna walked over to her sister and nuzzled her. “The same goes for me, ‘Tia.” The white deity nuzzled her back and sighed again. “I don’t know what to do, Lulu. I can’t bear the thought of losing either of you. You, or Twilight... Let alone both...” The Moon Princess smiled a bit, touched, and hugged her older sibling tightly. “I must save her...” Luna sighed deeply, but nodded, finally admitting defeat. She couldn’t stop her sister with anything less than banishment to the Sun. “Go.” She said quietly. Celestia nodded gratefully. “Thank you, Lulu.” She said, trotting over to the balcony. “I’ll be back in time for the sunrise.” The white alicorn promised before taking off into the skies. “Hey!” Luna called after her. “I didn’t mean right now! What of the paperwork saying I am to tend to thy duties in case thou art away longer than a night?! Who is going to calm our subjects in the city? How should I clean up this mess? Who is going to inform the families of the loss of their relatives who worked in the castle?! Sister?! SISTER?! AAARGH!!!” After expressing her frustration with a very uncharacteristic facehoof, Luna left the chamber to find anypony who could help her solve the problems dumped on her shoulders by her sister. Thankfully, the Prime Minister’s quarters were in a completely different part of the castle, so he should have stayed unharmed. She had a ton of explaining to do, no doubt. Why did Celestia always get away with the easy tasks? --- Celestia sped through the skies, following the barely visible trace of magic the culprit left in his wake. It was invisible to any normal pony, of course, but not to Celestia’s enhanced sense of magic. The trail never seemed to vanish completely from her senses, almost as if the Hound wanted to be followed. The odds of that actually being the case were quite high, all things considered. It was most likely a trap, one that she had no choice but to fall into. She was sure that if she had taken Luna with her, the Hound would have fled even further, or harm Twilight, so she had to do it alone. And survive. Equestria would be fine in Luna’s capable hooves. The trace was getting stronger, the scent of magic more apparent. She was nearing the target. Pushing her wings harder than ever before, the alicorn sped towards her destination. Celestia came to a screeching halt, however, when she once again found the unexpected on her path. Her senses told her she had arrived at where the Hound had to be. But there was no sign of the villainous creature anywhere. At the end of the magical trail, at the very spot where the hellish dog was supposed to be, there was naught but a strange black hole in the middle of the sky. “Wh...” Celestia blinked. She wasn’t supposed to go in there, was she? Carefully, she examined the hole with her magic. It appeared to be literally a hole in the sky, and nothing more than that. Which would most likely shut down immediately once she steps into it. She peered into the darkness, and for one brief moment, she saw a landscape flash before her eyes, appearing to reside at the other side of the hole. The white alicorn sighed. She definitely won’t be home in time for the sunrise. Luna would have her hide, horn and feathers when she returned. Cautiously, she stepped into the portal. She harmlessly passed through and appeared on the other side, as easily as stepping through a door. Needless to say, the portal immediately closed behind her. In quite a weird way. A part of the sky literally folded close… like a door. Celestia sighed, shook her head, and scanned her surroundings, hoping to understand where she was now. The land was completely unfamiliar to her, even though the white alicorn could feel the sun respond from its resting place to her presence. Judging by the Sun’s location, the princess determined this land was far to the south-east of Equestria’s southern border. And that meant she could still make it on time if she took some teleporting shortcuts. Depending on how far she was from Equestria, of course. She had never even seen the land surrounding her before. It wasn’t charted on any recent maps. Few ponies had ever gone beyond the borders of their homeland, few ever came back. And yet Celestia did remember seeing something on one particular map – the one that hung on one of the walls in the palace library. What was it called again? Sau... Her chain of thoughts was interrupted before she could recall the land’s name, though. Her magical senses picked up something that actually managed to nearly terrify her. There was a massive, dense spike of energy right below her. As the Princess of the Sun looked down, her eyes took in the sight of a barren wasteland that stretched out for endless miles below her. Nothing but barren rock and sand as far as the eye could see. Except for the ground right below her. Even from her current perch high in the sky, the alicorn could see a glowing white circle on the ground, and within it was another circle. The space between the two was filled with glowing rune symbols that were already ancient when Equestria was young. A second, smaller band of runes sat within the first one, and a third one within the second, and this continued until there were five sets of runes. The last circle had a pentagram drawn in it, and in its centre Celestia could make out an object sticking out of the ground. The ruler of Equestria knew better than to disrupt the runes by landing on them, but she did fly a little lower to see the object more clearly. It was an ancient, big sword. Once it had been pure white, but ceaseless exposure to the elements throughout countless millennia had turned it black and grey. All that remained white were the runes engraved on the blade, though the ones at the hilt of the blade seemed to have begun to fade. Looking closely, Celestia did recognize a few runes, and those definitely were runes of sealing. Realising she won’t get any more information here, and in fact shouldn’t be here in the first place, Celestia began to gain altitude again, determined to continue her search of her faithful student and the foul beast that abducted her. The sealing site below her kept tugging at the back of her mind, however. The power of the seal was almost beyond understanding, even for an alicorn. She would have to research it when she comes home... She was distracted for merely a second, just a small, tiny, insignificant second, but it cost her dearly. Pain exploded in Celestia’s chest as something hit her, giving the Princess a nasty, wide and deep cut. Her sacred blood stained her white fur. Her first instinct was to teleport away, far beyond the rune circles, for she knew that blood was a powerful magic medium, and by any means must not be spilled unto runes. But before she got any chances, she had the wind knocked out of her when an object barrelled into her already wounded front side at high speed and with great velocity. Celestia screamed in pain, and she looked at the object with horror. “Greetings, your highness, I do hope I didn’t keep you waiting?” the Hound said cheerfully as he made a mocking bow, before he promptly hit her with a dropkick in the back and sent her crashing into the ground. Celestia tried to get on her feet, and looked around, only to see that her collision with the ground had done just the thing she feared it would do. It disrupted the runes. Not a great lot, but for such a powerful seal the Princess feared the tiniest disruption, not knowing what the runes held earthbound. Slowly, she tried to climb to her feet, but the wound the Hound had inflicted upon her caused her unprecedented agony. It burned like hellfire, and without a doubt was anything but a normal flesh wound. “What... have you... done...?” Celestia heaved, glaring at the Hound. The canine landed on his two clawed feet before her, sword in hand, which now was stained with the alicorn’s blood. The Princess noted he was lacking his black cloak. And Twilight. The hellish creature grinned a terrible grin and proudly raised his weapon. Only now did Celestia pay close attention to it. It was almost entirely black, aside from the red, glowing runes engraved on it. Her eyes widened ever so slightly. “A cursed blade, befitting for one such as I,” the Hound explained with maniacal glee. “I’m certain you feel its wonderful effects as we speak, am I not mistaken? Oh yes, I can see it on your face, that delightful expression of pain, caused by the hellfire that burns your sacred flesh.” The burning in her wound intensified as he spoke those words, and Celestia had to stifle another scream of pain. “Where... where is Twilight?” She asked her foe. “The little pony? She is safe, worry not your pretty little head, oh goddess,” the demonic dog replied. He circled around her like a wolf ready to go in for the killing blow. “She is my esteemed guest of honour, to bear witness to the glory of my triumph!” Celestia felt relief at those words, but it was overshadowed by the pain in her wound. If Twilight was safe, then she had to save herself and get out of here. Easier said then done, she had allowed herself to be caught off guard like a foal and now paid a steep price for it. Nevertheless, she tried to focus her magic into a teleportation spell. “Are you honestly going to tell me you are going to leave now, flesh of the Sun?” the Hound said, surprised. “Instead of facing me? Ha! This is a joke of bad taste, your highness. You deeply offend me.” Celestia chose to ignore that comment and blinked out of existence in a flash of light. When she felt herself reappear, she was surrounded by a vast, dense jungle. She checked the Sun’s position and teleported again, not wanting to be caught off guard once more. The backlash of a failed spell hit her like a train at maximum speed and knocked her back to the ground. The powerful blow to her already weakened body worsened the wound on her chest even more and she felt it rip open further. Celestia clenched her teeth firmly together, not knowing what had went wrong. For something to interfere with a spell, one had to be a great magician of his or her own. “I hate being offended,” came the all too familiar voice of the Hound, who sat on a fallen tree polishing his blade. Celestia glared at him and fired a beam of pure magic at her foe with all the power she could muster. The canine effortlessly disappeared, and reappeared right behind the Princess. “Is a decent fight just too much to ask for? I haven’t had one in ages, your highness.” “Then by all means, you should have fought fairly.” Celestia said before surrounding herself with a shield of solar flames. “Whatever for?” the Hound asked. “I’m the bad guy, remember?” “Fair enough.” Celestia nodded before suddenly teleporting away again. The Hound sighed and flicked his hand almost casually, vanishing into thin air and reappearing right next to Celestia in another part of the jungle. He wasted no time to swing his sword directly at her head. The Princess turned to face him and with her horn, which she charged with magic, she blocked the swipe of his blade. The Hound grinned evilly, his eyes shining with excitement. “Now that’s more like it!” he praised gleefully. Celestia glared at him again, and then her horn suddenly glowed again, creating a pillar of solar fire aimed right at the Hound. The canine strafed to the right to dodge it, lashing out with his sword again, to have the alicorn block it with her horn once more. The two combatants set off in a fierce duel, Celestia using her horn as her own blade and, despite her agonizing injury, managing to hold her ground quite well at last. She tried to heal herself as well while fighting, but did not have much luck, for the blade was indeed cursed, and any magic that touched the wound caused her more pain. She had to finish this quickly, for soon it would be time to raise the Sun. The Sun Princess lunged and managed to pierce her foe’s shoulder, causing the Hound to growl in discomfort, but he retaliated by viciously scratching her with the claws of his free hand. Celestia cried out in pain, but with her horn still embedded in the Hound’s shoulder, she threw him onto the ground, and stomped on him violently with her gold-shoed hooves. The beast howled like a wolf, before doing one of the dirtiest tricks there was in battle. With all the might he possessed in his legs, which was a considerable lot, he kicked her right on her already gaping chest wound. The kick threw Celestia off balance, and she screamed in excruciating pain as the wound began to burn even more. The Hound took advantage of her distraction to get to his feet again in an energetic jump. He breathed in and then opened his jaws, breathing flames that were coloured black and blood red at the alicorn. Celestia immediately conjured a shield of light to defend herself, which took considerable effort. To her surprise, the flames of the hellish dog covered her shield instead of being cast away by it, and began to burn their way through it. It was anything but normal fire, not even the average magical flame. It was an entirely new form of fire for her. Perhaps it was an unwise decision, but she tried to fight fire with fire, and created a second shield, made of pure solar flames. This time she had success, and her flames overpowered his. It didn’t seem to deter the Hound. He ran towards her and leapt straight through her divine flames, sword brandished. Her horn and his blade met once again. Noting her success, she let the flames lace her horn as well. The Hound snorted. “Two can play that game, flesh of the Sun,” he said, and he proceeded to drench his blade in darkness, giving it the appearance as though it was giving off black smoke. “So I guessed.” Celestia replied, narrowing her eyes. “And how is that little scratch on your chest going for you?” the villain asked casually, as he swiped at her with his blade. She met it head on with her horn, but for some reason his blows seemed so much more powerful all of the sudden, as if the muscles driving it had increased in strength ten times. Celestia ignored his question and decided to change tactics: breaking out of close combat, she took flight. Her opponent remained on the ground, following her with his glowing yellow eyes. “Come now, your highness! Our dance had barely started!” he called to her. “Oh, you want a dance?” Celestia asked, charging her horn with magic. “Be my guest then.” A runic circle that covered the whole clearing they were fighting on appeared on the ground, courtesy of Celestia, which was immediately replaced by a round patch made entirely of solar flames. The Hound growled again in discomfort as the fire singed him, but aside from that it didn’t seem to do much. In the blink of an eye he had vanished, to promptly reappear standing on Celestia’s very own back. Now that was an insult, and Celestia shook him off immediately by diving lower in the air. At the same time the magic circle she had made began to shoot pillars of flame into the sky. The Hound deftly zigzagged between them all, before stopping in mid air. He held his free hand up, gathering shadows into it, until it seemed as if he were holding a thundercloud. It even had lighting coming from it, only it was coloured red. “Two can play this game, huh?” Celestia muttered, sending one of the fire pillars straight into the cloud. The cloud simply ate the flames like a tasty snack and grew bigger. It began to draw in the remaining solar flames, growing in size with each one it devoured. When it was the size of a small house, the Hound let it go and breathed his hellish flames at it, blowing the black cloud up into the sky. Celestia gulped, watching the cloud cautiously. The demonic dog below her now raised his sword high up into the sky, pointing it at the dark, unnatural thundercloud. A truly gigantic bolt of red lightning shot down from the cloud and struck the blade and the Hound holding it. Celestia’s first instinct was to flee before he struck her with that blade, and she did so, flying down to the tree level to land somewhere. Above her, the thundercloud dissipated, and the Hound, who now had red, electric sparks coming off himself and his sword, laughed quietly to himself. “I really shouldn’t have gone so high on the melodrama scale,” he mused. “A small cloud would have done just the same, but it’s just so much fun to be melodramatic and scare her senseless.” Shrugging, he blinked out of existence and reappeared on the ground, right before Celestia. The alicorn came to a sudden halt and moved back higher in the sky, watching him warily, but the Hound just smirked. He swung his blade, seemingly through thin air. But just when she was wondering what he was trying to accomplish with that, the sword elongated itself dramatically with a bolt of red lightning, which struck Celestia head on. The Sun Princess screamed in excruciating pain as red electricity coursed through her body. Her wings failed her, and she crashed into the ground, her chest wound exploding with pain from the rough impact. The Hound watched her fallen form calmly, petting his sword as if it were a dear pet. “A little trick I have named ‘Fulminous Edge’. Do you name your attacks, your royal highness?” he asked, as if he was just meeting her out in the park on a sunny summer day. “I sometimes do. A demon lord has to do something to keep himself busy when he’s not out bringing pain and misery into the world. Though I won’t blame you for calling it childish, for I do suppose it is. Why would an attack need a name, after all, no? True, true, but you would be surprised what boredom makes a hellhound do.” Celestia couldn’t make a witty retort, however, for she was paralyzed by the electricity. After an agonizingly long period of torture the after-effects of his attack faded and she could move again, though every muscle screamed with protest as she did so. Then all of the sudden she got a feeling that made the situation even worse. Her internal clock told her it was time to make the sun rise. Which she was in no condition to do properly. But she had to try, at the very least! Not rising the sun would mean worldwide chaos! And that was exactly what the villain wanted. So Celestia closed her eyes and concentrated. “Ah yes, it is indeed time to make the Sun go up,” the Hound nodded, once he saw what she was doing. He glanced at his wristwatch, which appeared out of nowhere and disappeared into the void beyond the fourth wall again as soon as he stopped looking at it. He sat down casually on a fallen tree again, folded his hands together neatly and waited. “Please, do proceed and put it up, we’ll continue after that little formality.” Celestia was surprised that he let her do it, but she had no other choice anyway. With her magic, she reached out to the Sun. Her wound burned and hindered her greatly, but she still felt it respond to her magic. Carefully, she began to raise the Sun. Slowly, but steadily the Sun began to rise. Celestia held her concentration pretty well, until a particularly strong pang of pain made her lose it for a moment. The Sun spun out of control for a split second before Celestia caught it again, but she was too exhausted to correct its course. No matter, she had to raise it. And during it all, the Hound just watched and didn’t interrupt. Finally, she had raised the Sun above what would be Equestrian horizon, and sighed in relief. The Sun could move by itself from here. “Well then, all done?” the Hound asked casually. Celestia didn’t reply, exhausted as she was. She didn’t even notice the bloodthirsty expression that appeared on his face. “Then let us finish this, what say you?” Before she could reply, the beast attacked. She only just got the time to raise her head when the Hound suddenly stood right before her nose, and without any hesitation he plunged his sword, brimming with shadow magic, through her chest. The blade sank into the sacred alicorn to the hilt, its tip emerging out of her body through her back again. Celestia opened her mouth but no sound left her throat, and watched in horror as the sun above her turned red. She sensed the ripple of magic before she saw it, and a blast of shadow coursed through the blade and into her body, and she felt it blast out of her via her back. The shadow struck directly into the Sun, causing its edges to start fading to black. With this dark rite complete, the Hound slowly and agonizingly, to make it as excruciatingly painful as possible, removed his blade from Celestia’s body, the Princess’ legs collapsing beneath her right away. The Hound stood before her, utter delight on his face. “As I predicted… Victory is mine, Princess!” he roared in triumph. And Celestia, the divine ruler of Equestria, could only admit defeat. The Hound raised his blade, no doubt to deliver the finishing blow. “And now…” He was suddenly interrupted by a blast of water, followed by a wave that nearly washed him away. Though the attack was unexpected, he managed to hold his ground and stood firm, but wasn’t prepared for something pouncing on him and driving two daggers deep into his flesh, before a firm kick in his gut sent him flying. Celestia’s vision was blurry from pain, and she couldn’t see exactly what attacked him, but she could tell it was light-blue and had roughly the same shape as the Hound. Whatever it was, it landed on two feet right next to her. In the distance, she heard the Hound get to his feet again. “By the fangs of the Hell Wyrm, if it isn’t good old Bluefin,” she heard the Hound say, but his voice sounded as if it came from miles away. Celestia heard the newcomer say something in reply, but could no longer understand it. She couldn’t focus, and everything went black. --- Back at Canterlot Castle, Princess Luna stood outside on the balcony, gazing at the Sun. She had been worried at first when the sun had set a few minutes later than usual, then incredibly relieved once she saw the first rays emerge from behind the horizon. But now, now there were no words to describe how she felt. The Moon Princess couldn’t think or act, she could only stare. She didn’t understand in the slightest, couldn’t even begin to imagine what had happened to make the sight before her happen, but it didn’t matter. All she could do was stare. Stare at the Red Sun that had partially risen above the world. To be continued.