//------------------------------// // - I - // Story: Solem Perditum // by PropMaster //------------------------------// - I - Celestia’s eyes slowly opened, her head swimming slightly as the ache of a failed release of arcane energy throbbed through her horn. She took a few deep breaths as the ache subsided, her vision focusing to reveal her surroundings. The first thing she saw was a rock: a lump of grey material, lopsided and odd. It sat in a fine, light dust that moved and floated slightly in the atmosphere of Celestia’s breathing spell. Celestia gave an experimental snort, sending a little plume of dust floating from before her nostrils. She sniffled, coughing slightly as she sat up on her haunches, and sneezed. She wrinkled her eyes open slowly, taking in more of the landscape. Grey. All around her was grey: just dust and hills and rocks of the same monotone and neutral grey color. Above, the sky was black, dotted with the stars and constellations that belonged to her sister. In the middle of her view lay a sphere of the most beautiful blue and white, with masses of green marring the otherwise immaculate expanse. Equis. Home. Celestia shook out her mane, feeling the solar winds flow through it and bolster her strength, and she stood to her full impressive height. Spreading her wings, she stretched a mighty stretch, her forehooves pushing out as she leaned her weight forward and left her rump high in the air, catlike and mostly undignified. Stretch complete, Celestia tucked her wings to her side, giving them a slight ruffle. She brushed some grey dust from the golden toque around her neck, adjusted her crown, and began to walk. She kept her head high as she trotted, her every bound carrying her gracefully a few extra feet in the low gravity. Her violet eyes, though, were locked on the horizon, focused and intent. Something marred the monotonous landscape of rolling hills and craters. It was square. Square wasn’t a natural shape, and that had given Celestia pause a few minutes ago, when she’d spotted it in the distance. She’d decided to try a teleport spell, but it had gone awry, dumping her in an undignified heap in the dust. Just like all the other times she’d tried to teleport anywhere. Flying, as it turned out, didn’t seem to work either. Every time she tried to use her wings for more than a cautious glide, they’d lock up, hindered by an unseen force. She’d resorted to walking after a few attempts. The walking wasn’t bad. She’d gotten used to it. She missed flying, occasionally, but the low gravity made her graceful trotting easy. It was probably good for her. She’d been eating too much cake at home, an indulgence of hers, and perhaps some enforced exercise would do her slightly plush plot some good. Celestia giggled at the thought, her steps light. Her stomach rumbled at the recollection of cake, and Celestia frowned. She paused in her trotting and faced the sun, low on the horizon from her vantage point. She absorbed some energy from her star, focusing her power, and subsumed it, turning the magic directly into energy to power her body. It wasn’t cake, but it’d keep her alive indefinitely. Celestia sighed to herself, and resumed her walk towards the square object in the distance, trying to forget about food. As she walked, she found her gaze drifting up, towards Equis. She wondered what was happening there. What would they be doing, now? She guessed, by her sharp sense of sight, that one of the continents facing her held Equestria. The side of the planet was dark, currently, so she hoped that the others were resting—excepting Luna, of course. She’d be awake, probably reading or consulting, perhaps holding her night court. Things had to carry on, of course, even in the wake of... Celestia looked away from the blue and white orb. She was closer to the square object now. She set her sights solely on the mysterious construct. It had grown larger as she’d approached, but not by much. She figured that whatever it was was only a little taller than she was in height. After an hour, she halted before the square. It was, indeed, a square—a slab of grey rock, ripped from the ground by force and set upright. It was thin, though, only a foot thick, while standing about twelve feet high. On the slab were runes, carved in an ancient tongue that Celestia had nearly forgotten. It was a little over a thousand years old. Celestia stared at the words written on it, a knot forming in the pit of her stomach. On This Place A Thousand Years I Wait To Claim What Is Mine By Right The Night Will Last Forever   Celestia stared quietly at the runes for a while, pondering their significance. She walked in a slow circle around the slab of rock, returning to her original position in a few moments. She read the words again, and a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Her horn began to glow. After a moment, her work done, she turned away from the slab of rock, her eyes searching the dust near the foot of the monolith. Her gaze centered on a set of hoofprints going away from her position. Not her own, but a new set: a trail a thousand years old, preserved by the unmoving dust. Celestia followed the prints away, towards a further horizon.