//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Fire that burns // by Poniard Dagger //------------------------------// “Princess Luna!” a young guard, possibly twenty-five years old, decked out in the night guard uniform, ran into Luna's royal chamber. Upon realizing what he did, he quickly bowed, flaring his wings out to brush the ground. He trembled slightly, he knew it was a capital offense to enter the Princess's chambers without first being invited in. The room he had entered was decorated in an Old Equestrian style. Luna had changed her speech greatly since coming back, but her taste in decoration had not changed. The bed was seated to the right of the door, a single four-poster bead twice the size of any normal bed, draped with dark blue silk smattered with white dots to give the appearance of the night sky. Opposing the bed, on the other side of the door, a single vanity sat calmly, laden with the night princess's crown and hoof-shoes, made of the finest obsidian, Luna's personal favorites. Luna however was at neither, and sat in the center of the room, facing the door, on a light blue pillow, writing in what the guard assumed to be a diary, it was old, ancient in fact, the leather binding of the book was falling apart, and what pages he could see were yellowed with age. Looking up from her written page with a raised eyebrow to look upon the out of breath messenger, the night princess nodded to him to continue, “I assume you have something important, if this is about the trade agreements between Diamond Dogs and Equestria-” He cut her off quickly, “No, Majesty, it has happened, Princess Celestia, she has killed ponies, in the middle of the evening court, two stallions, they were arguing over a small land-piece near Trottingham, she seemed perfectly calm then she flared her wings and the two of them cried out and... I could not see, a blinding light, and they were gone, two scorch marks on the floor, thats all that was left.” “Are thou sure?” she asked simple, momentarily slipping back into her natural tongue. Her tone conveyed concern and fear. A single nod from the intruder was all that was required to confirm her fear. Rising quickly, the matriarch motioned to the two guards outside her room, “With all haste, go to Ponyville, gather the elements and the bearers, with force if necessary. Bring them to the safe-house under the statue in the Everfree, and guard them until my arrival. Nopony is to leave or enter that area. You will know it is me when I speak these words to you, 'Filia sum Atlas.' Am I understood?” With a quick salute and a nod, the pair of night soldiers flared their wings and took off out of Luna's balcony. Turning to the young guard, she motioned for him to come near, walking herself the desk behind her. The desk itself was plain, made from wood found only in the Everfree forest, but apart from its distinctive coloration, a dark mahogany, it bore no special markings. What was on the desk however was something of interest to the young stallion. On the surface lay scattered pages, most with charts and maps of Equestria, as well as a small cup of ink, and a quill lain peacefully to the side. The guard watched closely as Luna grabbed a specific sheet, and after magically dipping the pen in the ink, began to draw a pattern on the back of one of the charts. After a few seconds, she handed the chart to the guard, “On the front of this chart is the location of a temple known only to a select few, it is a temple in the Griffon Kingdom, built to protect against the possibility of one of the two of the princesses attempting to destroy the world. Your sole duty is to go to the area marked on the chart, and prepare the temple inside. You will need the symbol I have drawn on the back of this chart to enter, along with a drop of blood.” Startled only slightly at the mention of blood offerings, The guard nodded once. Looking over the chart, the guard recognized the mountain range as the Taishuh mountains, nearly 200 miles inside the Griffon Kingdom. His mouth pursed a his pegasus instinct to discover the quickest path surfaced. After several moments he stared up to his Princess and asked, “Your majesty, if I may, why me?” Smiling softly the nocturnal matriarch replied simply, “You were the only one here,” and turned to leave the room. The guard bowed to her majesty again and flapped his wings, before flying quickly from the balcony. Sighing softly, Princess Luna walked to the door, “It is time to see what my sister is up to, hopefully I have put in place these safeties for nothing but a short temper.” The walk to the throne room was quick and uneventful, for Luna at least. Solar guards ran to and fro, barking indistinctly to each other, one unicorn mare stopped her and begged her not to go to Celestia, telling her how the day princess had changed. Luna paid her no heed, but smiled softly and told her calmly, “go to your family, make them safe, they need you now more than I do.” Upon reaching the throne room door, she noticed two unexpectedly calm guards, standing stoically at either side. As she approached the doors, they looked at each other and lowered the pole arms across the door. “You will let me pass,” The night princess glared at each of them in turn. It was then she noticed the guards blue eyes, or what should have been blue. In place of the normally bright blue instead were hot pink. Luna's head cocked ever so slightly to the right. “No Ma'am, The Queen ordered that none shall enter.” they spoke in a monotonous voice, filled with what sounded like a hundred voices speaking as one. Their eyes never moving from looking straight ahead. The voices startled Luna, she herself recognized several voices, one of which was Luna herself. Luna nodded quickly, and lit her horn, “Very well.” She called to herself a power she had not used in several centuries. Closing her eyes, she reached out to the guards' minds and slowly smothered the flame that had ensnared their minds. The eyes glowed a vibrant navy blue on top of the pink, and slowly fell shut, the pair falling to the side to begin resting peacefully. They would wake in several hours time, refreshed, rejuvenated, and the hold on their minds removed. Walking slowly and carefully levitating the guards to the side, out of the way of anypony who might have run over them, she slowly opened the doors. Inside the doors at the center of the room, Celestia, or what should have been Celestia, stood, towering over a pair of ponies who trembled, on their backs, completely exposed to the solar ruler. Celestia had lost all semblance of a benign ruler, her mane had become magenta flames, encapsulated by blue plasma. Her cutie mark had become darker, oranges becoming reds. The cutie mark itself moved, the flames on the sun flapping as if real fire. Celestia's eyes glowed a bright white, and her coat followed suit. The air around her distorted with heat, the ponies beneath her clearly roasting alive. “Sister! Cease this at once!” Commanded the night princess. The thing that used to be Celestia slowly turned her head towards Luna, the smile on her face unmistakably evil. The ponies beneath the solar ruler took the opportunity to slide backwards along the marble floor, seeing a chance at escape. “Why hello my dear little sister, come to talk?” The creature's voice, filled with thousands of other voices, flared out. Quickly she turned back to the ponies hurriedly attempting to scoot along their backs to safety. The creature roared out at them, and just as quickly the two ponies burst into the same flames that erupted from the creature's head and neck. Luna watched in absolute horror as the two ponies literally melted in front of her, their skin burned black, and cracking open. The water inside them evaporating to dry them out. They cried out in pain, the mare of the two grabbing hold of the stallion. The stallion acting on instinct to cover the mare he loved in an attempt to protect her. Luna's horn lit as she attempted to beat back the flames she saw, but she was too late. The two were left as husks, black smoldering crisps of what used to be two young ponies. Luna growled carnally, “What have you done to my sister?” her teeth bared, her canines grew to a point. She struck a defensive pose, head low and horn bared, the Nightmare inside her beginning to stir. Luna knew it was dangerous to call upon her darker self, yet she also knew she was completely in control of it. The elements did not rid her of Nightmare Moon, they simply locked her away, the power that the Nightmare held locked deep inside her. Luna's coat grew darker, and her teeth sharper. She knew in an all out brawl she would need as much help as she could get, and if that meant using the darkness inside her, then so be it. “Nothing my dearest little sister, I have chosen this path.” “Celestia listen to reason, you just killed two-” Luna began, hoping that somewhere inside her, Celestia still was fighting to be free. “THAT IS NOT MY NAME!” the creature roared, The heat concussing Luna, causing her eyes to water from the sheer heat. The creature regained her composure quickly, and smiled, the same smile Luna had seen many times, the smile that Celestia used when speaking. “My name, sweet little Luna, is 'Solar Flare.'” Luna's resolved hardened, and she steeled herself, “In that case, Solar Flare, thou will release our sister or thou will suffer our wrath.” Luna's horn flared to life, the night blue aura coating the alicorn that comprised it. Solar Flare responded in fashion, striking a defensive position opposite that of Luna. Luna had the high ground in this fight, and she knew it. Her eyes scanning the room quickly, her combat experience rising quickly. Luna was always the one to fight in wars, Celestia always attempted to find diplomatic solutions to some griffon slicing open a pony near the borders. As a result Luna's instinct in fighting was light-years ahead of her sister's, and Luna hoped it would be enough. Luna's horn flared and a small bolt of pure lunar energy propelled itself towards Solar Flare. Before reaching home however, the creature's own horn flared brightly as she disappeared, only to reappear behind Luna, catching the night princess off guard, before smashing her down the small flight of stairs. Luna grunted as she landed on the marble floor, sliding a few feet before regaining her composure. Luna flared her own horn and teleported herself to the top of the stairs, before turning and bucking where Solar Flare aught to be. What she found though was air, the solar queen had blinked out of existence in the moments before Luna would have landed the blow, only to reappear a second later grabbing hold of Luna's read legs and twisting them around to cause Luna to fall once again. The lunar princess was caught on her back, with the creature standing over her, gazing down upon Luna's lightly beaten form. “You lost little sister, and now you will pay the price.” Solar Flare's horn glowed with the brightness of a thousand burning suns, as she pointed it directly at Luna. The creature prepared to burn her sister out of existence as her horn continued to grow brighter. “Neigh, Solar Flare, thou are not our sister.” and with that one phrase, Luna simply disappeared into the dark mist that was her mane. The dark purple mist slithered along the floor and out the main door of the throne room, Solar flare staring in silence as she watched it leave. Snarling to herself, she walked slowly to the golden throne. She stared at the walls that surrounded her throne, the roared and began to blast out the stained glass windows that decorated the walls, each symbolizing a different element. She melted the glass with ease, growling to herself and roaring at the windows. She paused however on the one representing the Element of Magic, focusing on the lavender mare depicted in the glass. Several moments passed before she growled and melted that window as well.