//------------------------------//
// Gods Among Ponies 
// Story: Penumbra: The Toll of Arrogance 
// by Tolerance 
//------------------------------//

Gods Among Ponies

Celestia paced back and forth along the stone railing of the castle tower. For her, it had felt as though she had overthrown Discord and his reign of chaos only yesterday. Few had not suffered through the Draconequus' tyranny, and now something else had seen fit to threaten her little ponies. Even Celestia's younger sister, Luna, sustained major injuries during the battle, and it was through her sacrifice, that allowed Celestia to seal the chaotic creature away. Celestia still worried that her sister needed more time to recover from her injuries, but now it was beginning to look as though she was running out of time. 

The alabaster white Alicorn looked out to the horizon, still dark with the veil of nightfall, even though it was midday. Somewhere out in the distance a new foe had risen. After the Wendigo attacks and Discord's fall there were no Unicorn left to care for Celestial bodies, so the duty fell to the Alicorn sisters. Luna was still too weak to reclaim the moon, and with Celestia's power still recovering, this new enemy had seized upon the opportunity. Rumors had even began to circulate that the enemy was using the shadow to hide themselves from the light.

It wouldn't take long before this enemy revealed themselves to her castle. So Celestia began to see to readying her defenses. Surrounded by her well-tended gardens, the castle itself was warded to protect from most mundane attacks. There wouldn't be much that could stand up to magical attacks however, so ensuring that her supporters were protected was a top priority. 

Making her way to the barracks, Celestia learned that a number of the castle staff were not present. Not surprising, even those who remained were worried about the coming fight. Nopony under her care was a stranger to war, sadly, but a few were bound to have families that they felt the need to protect. After instructing her remaining subjects to prepare the Castle's defenses as best they could, Celestia decided to see how her own family was doing.

The journey to the top of the tower in which Luna resided was a familiar one, and soon Celestia found herself standing before the carved wooden doors of her sister's bedchamber. "Luna, Are you awake."

"Yes..." came the soft, labored answer from beyond the door.

"May I came in?"

Celestia pushed the door open before Luna could answer. The room was dark, as it often was, but once the older sister’s eyes adjusted to the low light, Luna's form could be seen under the covers of her bed.

"You know why I am here, don't you?"

"Yes." 

"I know you still need time to recover, but do you think you are well enough to help use them again?" Celestia asked referring to the same set of artifacts that they used to defeat Discord. 

"No, need... time..."

"I see..." The elder Alicorn exited the room, closing the door softly behind her. It pained her to know that Luna was suffering so. First the fight with Sombre, then Discord, Luna always seemed to get the worst of it from their enemies, but life was often unfair like that. 

Celestia was hoping that things would be different this time around. As she walked down the stairs of her sister’s tower, she could see the moon’s shadow swallow swaths of the garden each time she passed one of the windows. Soon the Eclipse would be complete, but the Alicorn had no intention of abandoning her ponies to another tyrant. Even without Luna's help, Celestia still had a few tricks of her own. If only she knew who it was that was so brazen as to challenge the Alicorn sisters in their own home.

What bothered Celestia the most was not knowing who her opponent was. Oh sure, she could outmaneuver Discord to a degree, But she was far from the best. Even Starswirl had managed to give her the slip from time to time. But not knowing her enemy was a failure into itself. If she did know something, it was that this new challenger was powerful, and it, or they, were almost here.

The shadow arrived almost without fanfare, until the distinct staccato sound of marching pierced the air above the castle, as though the terrible noise was warded away by the very light of the sun, now gone. Verifying that the few forces she had were fully outfitted and in their proper places, Celestia made her way towards the wall above castle gate. By the time she got there, clad in her own armor, the marching had stopped.

Peering into the courtyard beyond the gate Celestia spotted a small group in front of her opponent's main forces. As they approached the gate Celestia almost demanded their names, but with the group’s distance closing, she found that she recognized some of their faces. Of the four that approached the gate, three of them were known to the Alicorn. They happened to be a few of the ponies she had noticed absent from their quarters not moments before.

"Ink Blotch!" Celestia shouted, addressing the unicorn pony at the head of the group, "What is the meaning of this?"

"I know what it must look like, my lady, but rest assured that we only have the best intentions in mind."

"Then perhaps you can explain how shrouding the land in darkness is best for ponykind."

"Because we are weak!" replied an Earthpony whose name escaped the Alicorn.

"Yes," continued the Unicorn, "The events involving our exile from the northern lands showed us our weakness. Discord's reign only cemented that fact. We, as a species, are weak, but our mistress has given us hope. Living our lives in the light has made us soft, hopeful that when darkness comes, the light will return to save us. Our Mistress has revealed to us the truth. The light is a lie, a farce. Our world is full of unimaginable terrors. Only through the darkness can we truly hope to realize the dangers of this world. Only then can ponies rise above the horrors they face. Our Mistress demands it."

'Great, a zealot.' Celestia thought to herself. If there was one type of pony to avoid, it was the kind that ended up so obsessed with their beliefs that they were likely to refute logic and reason. Looking at the advanced group, she failed to see this 'Mistress' Ink spoke of. All four of the ponies were male. A Unicorn, a Pegasus, an Earth Pony, and... something else. Even in the dark she could make out the tiny fangs and bat-like wings on the fourth stallion. 

"Your mistress is wrong. Leaving the light will not bring hope. If she knew of the things I have witnessed, then she would know that it is only through the combined efforts of the pony races that we can hope to defeat the evils that surround us. Although I'm not sure what race he belongs to," Celestia said pointing to the mystery pony, "but I'm sure we can find a way to live in harmony with one another."

"So you like the Pyrippus I've created?" said a new arrival, swooping silently down between the group and the wall within a cloud of inky smoke. Tall and slender, her presence commanded the respect of her followers, who bowed upon her arrival. "Clouded skies is his name. His brethren were designed to be perfectly suited to deal with the tribulations of the night. This new race of ponies is just one example of the changes to come, once you relinquish your control of the sun."

She must be powerful indeed to not only attempt to alter life, but to actually succeed at it. Celestia made every effort to examine her newly revealed opponent, hoping to see any detail or weakness that she could exploit. If came to an all-out war, she wasn't sure she could force her troops to turn their weapons on their former colleagues. There might even be some of her opponents agents still hidden away amongst the castles soldiers. This 'battle' would have to be settled decisively before it could come to that.

Celestia watched as the black mystery alicorn predatorily encircle her own handiwork, observing the poor Pyrippus hybrid as though she were still trying to decide whether to judge him or eat him. "And what am I to call you who demands the Sun?"

"I am the Mare of the Night, Night Mare Moon! Under my guidance, I will make Pony-kind into a force capable of conquering all that cross their path. All I ask is for one simple request, that they heed my will. Starting with you.”

'If she is so powerful, then why doesn't she just try and take the sun from me. Is it because she knows the level of my own magic or is she hoping that I see her reasoning and blindly accept her ideology?" Celestia pondered, "No, it's something else, almost as if she's looking for...'

"So, you just show up and take the moon from my injured sister, threaten to take My sun, and spout nonsense to your followers just because you have a little power? What gives you the right? Do you even listen to yourself? Life cannot go on without the energy provided by the sun, or haven't you heard that the very food you eat requires it's light?"

The Night Mare's reply seethed with anger, "You think me to be some mere foal! I've spent plenty of time creating solutions to these so-called problems. Everything that required the light can either accept my will or wither and die! So which is it Celestia, will you kneel before me willingly? Or maybe will you prefer the alternative?"

Celestia could finally see her opportunity, this Night Mare Moon doesn't believe she is wrong, and that is her weakness. "No."

"No? Surely you can see that-"

"I said no. It's as simple as that. You are wrong, your ideals are misguided, and there's no way a weakling such as you has any right to tell others what to do. Face it, you know that your genius plan will fail, otherwise you wouldn't be asking me to join in your delusion. And, refusing to accept this as the only possibility, you brought your army in a poor attempt coerce me through brute force, but you probably can’t even use your subordinates to bully properly. Tell me, Mare of the Night, is my assessment correct?"

"I-, But-, No! You listen! As long as I control the moon everything will bow down to me! Including you!" 

Night Mare was seething in rage, nopony present could miss that fact. She had lost her level-headedness to a few simple taunts and now Celestia had Night Mare exactly where she wanted her. "I'd tell you to make me, but we both know you can’t." Before anypony could blink, Celestia cast a quick bolt of light directly at the black Alicorn, and took off to the sky as quickly as she could. No doubt Night Mare Moon would survive the spell, but that wasn't the intent of the attack.

'The farther I get her away from the others the less likely there will be any casualties. If she's got even an ounce of the magic I think she does, this will get ugly very quickly.' Celestia thought as she passed through the thin haze of the nearest cloud. 

As Celestia turned to look for her opponent, she found that Night Mare Moon was frighteningly close behind her, charging up her counterattack. Three black balls of flaming magic shot towards Celestia almost before she could react. Collapsing her wings protectively, two of the flames flew past, but the third ball grazed the thin plate armor on her wing. Any normal fire would have no effect, but the dark flames stuck fast to the metal, the contact causing the flame to burn even hotter. 

Celestia was forced to remove the burning plates before Night Mare's second attack could reach her. Quickly summoning a counterattack of her own, Celestia conjured up hundreds of needle-esque lights and fired them in quick succession towards the other Alicorn. The needles that found their target glanced off of the other's armor, leaving dozens of scratches on it's surface. The only damage the wearer was suffering was a collective toll of the numerous hits that her armor could only partially absorb.

Abandoning her second charge of fire-bolts, Night Mare Moon instead pulled the globes together into a dark, fiery wave, which she forcefully pushed in Celestia's direction. Readying two similar spells to cut of any escape, she was quite surprised when Celestia used a shining lance to cut the initial dark wave in two. The dark mare was even more surprised to see that very lance fired in her direction the moment Celestia was free of the magical flames. 

Night Mare Moon almost didn't have time to pull her dark waves into a protective shield, which only managed to slow the lance down as it lodged itself deeply into plate protecting her neck. 

Celestia waited until Nightmare moon removed the damaged armor before taunting her, "Is that all the magic you possess, Mare of the Night? I expected more!" 

Her rage renewed, Night Mare charged upwards towards the alabaster Alicorn firing off two fire bolts, then three more, before following up with a significantly stronger orb to finish the job.

Seeing the attack coming, Celestia conjured a sword of light to bat away the first volley of dark flame. After which she increased the size of the sword to match one of the second orbs, dodging the other. The final attack could not be dodged or parried so easily, however. Pulling her sword in close, Celestia also summoned a shield to guard her from the flames during her attack and she charged at Night Moon with all of her strength.

At the moment the two Alicorn met in the sky, the blast they created as their attacks collided was bright enough to light up the ground below, but only for a brief moment. Celestia's attack had pushed through Night Mare's dark orb, but not through the fiery wave she had concealed behind it. Celestia’s attack managed to foil the sneak attack, however, managing only to singe her magical shield a bit.

The clash had drained both parties. Celestia was about to taunt the other again when Night Mare Moon began charging another attack. Already far larger than her previous flaming orbs, Celestia noticed an evil smirk on the black mare as she continued to pump obnoxious amounts of dark magic into the sphere, further increasing its size. Puzzled as to what Moon had planned when the massive ball of dark magic was pushed her way, Celestia simply dodged the slower moving sphere as it flew past. When no follow up attacks came, Celestia realized the position she had just put herself in. The ball wasn't aimed at her, it was aimed at the castle!

Night Mare Moon only laughed as Celestia rushed as fast as she could in hope of catching up to the sphere but she had no idea how to deflect an attack of this size. During her frantic decent, the Alicorn conjured hundreds, and then thousands of light-filled lances in hopes of ripping the ball apart, but to no avail. With a final, desperate attack, Celestia pushed against the ball with the largest shield she had every summoned. With the black flames sizzling and popping upon contact with the magic shell, precious moments passed before the orbs trajectory had finally changed. 

The orb passed over the walls, and with a loud crack, it tore open the ground just beyond the castle yard. The Alicorn, who wasn't currently laughing maniacally up in the sky, turned to survey the damage done to the castle. Most of the castle was unharmed, and if the ponies within had done their job correctly then nopony should have been injured in the blast. It took only moments for Celestia to take notice of the sections of the castle that had taken damage, and among them, the very tower where her sister had slept. 

The tower was damaged beyond recognition, and worse still, Celestia found that she could no longer feel the presence of her sister. “No-” she said, fighting against what she knew must be the awful truth, the Alicorn found the emotions she kept buried deep within her being begin to well up and boil over. Rage, hatred, anger, sadness. These feelings the Alicorn often kept buried, but never before had they risen to the surface in such worrisome quantities. Celestia knew that she should quell them before she lost to the pull of their combined force, but she suddenly found that she no longer cared. Her sister was dead.

'Night Mare Moon will pay for this!' was the only thought that now ran through Celestia's head. Eyes aglow, She pulled upon the very artifacts that would accomplish her goal. The elements of harmony ripped through the various portions of the castle where they were hidden away, pulling apart stone, and mortar, and wood alike, as they made their way into positions around Celestia's body, forming an incandescent halo around her, the likes of which would even have had Discord fleeing in fear for his life. 

He would have been right in his assumptions. Night Mare Moon was no longer laughing, catching sight of the unholy light below had robbed her of any funny thoughts she might have had. Every fiber in the dark mare's hide was now attempting to pull her away, but in another instantaneous moment, Celestia was upon her. Before she could escape, the Mare of the Night had found herself in the unforgiving grasp of a very wrathful deity.

"Could we just talk about this, or-"

"SILENCE!" Celestia's voice resonated clearly and loudly enough that even those on the ground far below could hear her words, "You have committed a grievous sin, against not only us, but against all of pony kind. For these sins, we hereby find you guilty, the punishment for which will be most severe, and is to be carried out immediately!"

Night Mare Moon found herself being pulled far closer to the glowing Alicorn than she ever wanted to be.

"Since you love your moon so much, I believe that I've found the most appropriate punishment of all. Do you wish to share any final words? No? Then I, Celestia of the Sun, banish you, Night Mare Moon, to the very moon which you hold dear. For all of eternity."

Night Mare felt the magical grip tighten even more before the hottest flame imaginable tore across her body, forcing the very matter of her body to condense into energy so that it could be transported across the vast distance to the Lunar Sphere. Unable to handle the pain of such a forceful spell, the Nightmare that had been plaguing her body for years finally let go.

Luna screamed. Celestia, in her fury, heard only the words 'Sister, no-' before the light was disappeared from the sky. Those final words were enough to pull Celestia out of her trance. At first she thought she had only been hearing things, or that it was some final ploy by Night Mare Moon to garner some sympathy, but then things started to click into place for the Alicorn.


~~~~~


~6 months ago~

The final blow now struck, Discord's chaotic powers had been effectively sealed away inside his own twisted form, his body slowly turning to stone as the magic worked it's way up his body. Almost spent herself, Celestia rushed towards her fallen sibling. Discord only laughed.

"Good show! I must say, very impressive. I almost didn't think you had it in you." He taunted.

"Quite Discord! Let your misguided tongue die with you!" cursed Celestia.

"Misguided? Me? Oh nononono, I was simply bored. There are others like you and me out there you know. And not anyone or anypony can be as gallant as you. Others will come, just you wait. And lets not forget your poor, innocent, sister..." 

"Leave her out of this! As you can see We've both had enough of your games." Celestia gently lifted her sister off of the ground, careful not to disturb her wounds. Already, pieces of the landscape that had been under the influence of the Chaotic One's magic were returning to their natural states. "The world has had enough of your games."

"Oh I'm quite done playing games. I'm being turned to stone in case you haven't noticed. But just think, you knew I was coming. Created plans against my beautiful creations even. But not even you can predict every possible outcome. And highly doubt that it’s possible for you to have seen that coming." 

"Discord I swear if you-"

"-Well would you look at that. Times up!" Striking a final pose, Discord's body had finished it's transformation.


~~~~~


With the magical fires suppressed, Celestia poured over the rubble of her sister's tower. Even with the damage done she could tell that her recent conversations with her sister were the construct of some magical spell, nopony had been living up in the tower for at least a few months. She really had managed to banish her own sister to the moon. For eternity. 

For both sides of the conflict, no major casualties were received, on either side, thanks in no small part to the distraction provided by the battle between Alicorn, but all parties felt betrayed to some degree. The Pyrippi, their master gone, returned to their home, wherever that might be. As for everypony else, they might need a few generations, but Celestia was confident that they would learn to trust each other again someday. By the time she managed to correct the paths of the celestial objects, Celestia found herself nearly alone in the ruined castle. The few ponies that were left urged her to join them when they proposed to move to a nearby town.

Looking around, Celestia found she no longer recognized her home, even the gardens around it were now tainted with remnants of dark magic, the surviving plants now twisted into parodies of their original beauty. There was nothing left for her here, nothing except memories she knew she would never forget. Even if she wanted to. No, she would take the others up on their offer, but first she had some things to attend to.

Every glance at the moon, a reminder of her quest, the Alicorn searched for a way to restore her sister, and to return her unharmed from her banishment. Even the Elements of Harmony were no longer responding to her anymore, and without them, she she learned that nothing could be done for a very long time. Decades? Centuries? Celestia simply did not know, but she would find a way.

The End. 

The Beginning.