Disclaimer thing:
My Little Pony is the property of Hasbro. Please don't sue me :)
Celestia sat upon her throne looking up through the large glass windows behind her chair. It was 8 o'clock on a summer morning but Luna still had her full moon up in the center of the sky. "What is she doing?" Celestia grumbled under her breath as the nobles in the courtroom waiting for an audience kept speaking in hushed anxious voices. It was customary for her to raise the sun to announce that court was in session but she could not do so while Luna kept her hold on the moon.
"Guards." Celestia stated and the two unicorn soldiers at the base of her throne turned around to look to her waiting silently for their orders. "Go and find where my sister is and tell her I want a word with her." The sun princess ordered and her two guards bowed their heads and cantered out of the courtroom.
Celestia rubbed her temple with a fore hoof. Luna had grown obsessed lately about ponies ignoring her night. Celestia had ignored her insistent whining because her younger sister had always been sort of odd and gloomy. However now Luna had overstepped her boundaries and Celestia planned on putting an end to this foalishness.
“Leave us!” A loud feminine voice ordered interrupting Celestia's thoughts. The low din of dozens of whispers suddenly ceased as the guards and nobles who had converged in the castle courtroom looked to her. They made a hasty departure not wanting to incur on the wrath of royalty. The large doors slammed shut behind Luna leaving her alone with her sister in the large hall.
“Luna, what is the meaning of this?!” Princess Celestia demanded as her sister walked forward indicating with a flick of her horn towards the glass ceiling, where the moon was seen still in the center of the sky when it was supposed to be early morning.
“It’s quite simple. From this night forth dear sister, the sun shall never again rise over Equestria.” The midnight blue alicorn declared with a cocky stance and a dark smirk on her face.
“You cannot be serious Luna.” Celestia replied levelly upset that her younger sister would play around so lightheartedly with her most sacred task. “This isn’t funny Luna. Now lower the moon!”
“Do not dare try to order us around, we are no longer going to stand by and allow you to dictate to us.” Luna growled in a low voice as she began hovering off the ground with her forelegs stretched to her sides and her hind legs hanging beneath her. She extended her wings and dark magic began to swirl around her.
The Princess of the Night became enveloped in a dark mist. Shining silver armor began to form on her body as pure blackness began to replace her midnight blue coat. As she lowered to the ground her ethereal starry mane was replaced with a dark blue flame that replaced her transparent starry mane and tail. Her eyes changed as well with slit like irises resembling the eyes of a dragon more than a pony. Celestia looked at her sister in shock. They had been roughly the same size, but the dark armored mare before her was nearly a head taller than the sun princess.
“Sister?” Celestia inquired in a quiet voice not wanting to accept what she saw before her. Any trace of her usually quiet and demure sister was nowhere to be seen in the hate filled alicorn before her.
An evil smirk came to the nightmarish creature’s face showing two large fangs. “Does my newest appearance bother you, Celestia?”
“Luna-“
The nightmarish creature glared at Celestia cutting her short. “From this day forth, you shall know me as Nightmare Moon! Luna was weak, I am strong!”
Celestia swallowed in an attempt to ease her anxiety before she took a firm stance and glared at her sister. “Lower the moon, now!”
“No.” The black alicorn replied smugly.
“Sister, what do you plan to achieve with this? Without the sun to give life everything will die.” Celestia tried to reason with the monster before her. “Then who is going to notice the night sky if there is nopony alive to see it?”
Nightmare Moon simply turned around and began chuckling. There was no joy in the sound, only hatred. “Do not worry dear sister; your precious little ponies shall be fine after you are gone.”
Celestia saw her chance to strike as Luna had her back turned. She never believed she would have to hurt her sister. However she knew if she did nothing to stop her she’d destroy everything that Celestia swore to protect. Drawing a great amount of power into her horn Celestia fired a bolt of magic at her sister. She watched in shock as it was simply absorbed by a dark blue aura around the black mare. Nightmare Moon turned around and smirked at Celestia revealing her fangs again.
Celestia felt herself being levitated off the ground. The white alicorn princess began trying to fight off Nightmare Moon’s magic with her own. However it was hopeless, Celestia could feel that she was immensely outmatched. She felt panic gripping at her upon realizing her sister was more powerful then she was.
Nightmare chuckled again as she swung Celestia through the air and smashed the white mare into one of the courtroom pillars, and then released her to drop to the polished granite floor with a soft thud. The bruised Celestia weakly picked herself up. She stood on shaky legs and looked over at her sister.
“You control one star in the sky, I control BILLIONS! Did you really think YOU could stand a chance against me?” Nightmare gloated as a moment of clarity came to Celestia realizing there was only one way she could stop this monster. Celestia ran from Nightmare and with a bright flash she disappeared. Celestia reemerged from her teleport spell inside the Elemental Chamber. She saw the 5 stone orbs sitting on their altar and sprinted desperately to reach them.
A dark mist formed in front of her and Nightmare Moon emerged tossing Celestia aside smashing her against the wall with a flick of her head. Celestia weakly got back on her hooves as blood dripped from numerous cuts and scrapes staining her beautiful pure white coat. She coughed up a spray of blood as she looked at her sister who stood between her and the elements.
“It’s time to end this. Goodbye, Celestia.” Nightmare Moon stated lifting the sun princess off the ground and levitated her above the black alicorn’s head. Celestia felt her neck being squeezed and she withered in her sister’s magical grip fighting to breathe. Celestia could hear Nightmare laughing at her as she writhed in agony in her magical grip. The sun princess could feel a twang in her heart as she looked down at her sister through tear filled eyes who laughed as she tried to strangle the life from her.
It was then the sun princess noticed one error in the arrogant mare’s plan. Celestia shifted her weight and delivered a kick with her hind leg to Nightmare Moon’s forehead. The black alicorn’s head flew back and her magic wavered with her break in concentration allowing Celestia to break free from her grasp.
Using her front hooves Celestia landed on her sister’s back and pushed herself forward while sending Nightmare tumbling to the ground. Celestia hit the ground less than gracefully and slid forward slamming against the elements’ altar.
Nightmare Moon growled as she got to her feet and turned to glare at Celestia. She lowered her horn and began charging at the sun princess who fought to get up on her knees and reached out to the elements with her own magic while keeping her eyes locked on her opponent. Suddenly the 5 inert stone orbs lit up with a bright light surrounding each sphere.
Celestia gasped feeling their combined energy rushing through her body imbuing her with their immense power. Nightmare Moon’s eyes widened in fear and faltered slightly in her charge, but regained her footing and kept pushing forward determined to stop Celestia before she could use them to stop her.
That moment of hesitation would prove to be her downfall. As Nightmare Moon charged forward building a wall of dark magical energy in front of her Celestia’s eyes began to glow a bright white. Then as the dark alicorn lunged forward a bright prismatic wave met her inches from goring her sister upon her dark horn. The wave of dark magic that she had built in front of her dissipated as the beam engulfed the hate filled alicorn.
The rainbow colored beam shot out blowing the roof off the room taking Nightmare Moon with it. Celestia watched with tear filled eyes as chunks of marble smashed down around her as the beam that carried her sister hit the brilliant white surface of the full moon. A moment later the image of a horned mare’s head appeared upon its surface.
Celestia bowed her head tears pouring down her bruised face. “Why?” She whispered to herself as she began to sob at the loss of her only family.
Four eggs sat in a nest looked over by two proud phoenixes. The two fire-birds had watched with puzzlement at the strange happenings in the morning sky. Just now the sun was beginning to rise unnaturally late in the morning. However a small rustling noise behind them brought their attention away from the peculiar happenings and back to their nest. They turned and noticed one of the eggs beginning to wobble. With a small crack a little beak erupted from the side of the orange and red egg.
The young phoenix inside became more restless. She knew it was time to leave the only place she knew. Her mission now was to escape from her small confined universe and emerge into the unknown. She tapped at the edge of her reality and felt her beak push through. A small beam of light erupted from the small puncture. The sensation assaulted the young bird’s closed eyes and she began attacking the shell with more strength as fresh air rushed into her lungs after she took her first breath.
With one last peck the young female flopped out clumsily from her egg. She picked herself up unsteadily feeling a strange weight on top of her blocking the bird’s eyes from its first glimpses of its new home. She was confused by the alien weight on her head that felt as though it did not belong. Though before she could deduce what the problem was it was suddenly lifted off of her.
The hatchling sat up and blinked her eyes trying to see through the bright glare as her mind began working to make sense of these new alien sensations. She moved her head up and saw two large fiery orange beings looking down at her. The larger of them was holding the upper half of her shell that she had been caught under in its large beak. The hatchling recognized them immediately even though she had never met them before this moment, Mom and Dad.
With a small happy chirp she hopped up to them and Mom wrapped a wing over her touching her large beak against the smaller one of her daughter. She noticed a happy look on the face of her father as he dropped the egg shell and then leaned down to rub his beak against the side of her head to greet his hatchling.
Another small crack could be heard and the young female phoenix turned around as her parents lifted their heads. The egg beside her cracked open one began to tremble and faint lines began forming along its shining surface, again another young phoenix began to emerge from their shell.
The young phoenix was busy playing with her brother under the watchful eyes of their parents. The two young hatchlings ran around the nest chasing each other chirping happily as they played. It had only been a week since they had hatched but phoenix chicks matured quickly. It would take years for them to reach their adult stature but they were nearly self-sufficient now.
A loud noise came from down below the nest and the two chicks paused and looked up noticing their parents’ looks of happiness turning to that of concern. The young female hatchling felt fear upon seeing her two guardians worried. Mom and Dad looked to each other and then out over the edge of the nest. Dad let out a ferocious screech and lifted off followed quickly by Mom.
The young hatchling watched with worry as both of her parents flew off. The young phoenix knew something was wrong since her mother and father appeared worried as they flew off their feathers turning into pure fire. She had never seen them concerned. She had convinced herself that there was nothing that they could not protect her from. The young female phoenix watched from the edge of the nest impatiently waiting for them to come back. Suddenly a large face appeared before the baby phoenix. She fell back with a loud squawk of fear at the monster before her.
“Hey, Firescale we’ve got two eggs and 2 chicks.” The scaled monster yelled. The young hatchling had never heard this strange noise before, but somehow the sound the intruder made, made sense.
“Well hurry up before the parents get back!” Came a reply from down below.
Brother hopped back and squawked like his sister as they tried to avoid the dragon’s claws while he grabbed the two eggs up in the other. A loud screech was heard and the young female lifted her head feeling hope as she saw her two parents diving down at the scaled invader.
Mom and Dad smashed into the monster’s face eliciting a loud roar of pain as it fell from the tree along with the two eggs in its claws. Brother stayed behind while she hopped over to the edge of the nest and looked down seeing the monster lying on the ground motionless beside two smashed eggs revealing her un-hatched siblings’ unmoving bodies.
There were four other invaders of different colors and sizes on the ground below now swiping at her parents as they dived and clawed at them. One grabbed Dad and threw him to the ground.
Mom saw her lover’s situation and desperately charged at the large intruder to save him. Another scaled monster grabbed her in both of its evil claws and Mom began screeching in terror. To the other creatures it was unintelligible but to both the young phoenixes they knew what she meant. Fly.
The young female phoenix hopped up flapping her wings lifting herself into the air. Brother did the same and followed her as they flew away from their nest. They were both clumsy on their wings but managed to disappear into the forest as the scaled invaders were left distracted by their parents.
They kept going until the young female fire-bird could not fly any further and began losing altitude. Brother seemed to be in the same condition and they both landed on a tree branch. The male phoenix looked to his sibling and noticed a single fiery tear coursing down her cheek.
He warbled softly to his sister quietly as he leaned closer rubbing his beak against the side of her face. She leaned against him making a soft chirp in thanks for offering her comfort. They sat upon that branch looking out at the setting sun finding some peace from their situation in each others presence.
The young phoenix chick lifted her head and blinked refocusing her eyes to see through the bright early sunrise. The memory of what occurred yesterday suddenly came back to the female fire-bird realizing it had not been a bad dream. She turned her head and saw her brother perched beside her with his head under his wing still asleep. It brought comfort to the hatchling to know she was not alone and still had him. Almost as if sensing he was being watched Brother lifted his head and turned to look at her. A look of sadness replaced the confused look on his face seeming to have come to the same realization she had just a few moments prior.
Brother lifted his head and closed his eyes for a moment before opening them. He looked around scanning the forest for something. She watched him for a moment before turning her head and looking around as well. Suddenly he gave a small chirp and lifted a wing pointing to a location to the left of their perch.
She turned her head and looked out to the location he was indicating. She did not see anything for a few moments before noticing a tree with large orange fruit growing on it. Brother stretched his wings out and glided from his perch to the nearby tree alighting on one of the lower branches and she quickly followed him.
They came to realize the round orange fruit on the tree was nearly as large as they were. Brother flew up and landed on a branch that had a large number of the heavy fruit hanging from it and cocked his head to the side trying to figure out a way to grab them. He flew over to one of the fruits and sank his talons into the skin with some effort. He tried flying up to grab it but quickly realized he did not have the strength to pick them. He settled for just leaving the fruit hanging from the tree while he bit into it.
The young female flew up and landed on the same branch. She moved across the course wood until she came to one of the large fruits hanging on the end. She opened her beak and bit into it and rip a chunk of the fruit off. It was incredibly sweet and helped relieve the pain from her empty stomach.
A loud screech shattered the quiet morning air making the young female jump in fright and turn around. She turned her head quickly to see a long scaled creature. It looked like the intruders who attacked the nest but without any limbs and considerably smaller. It stared at her with cold soulless eyes as it reared its head back.
An orange and red blur slammed into the serpent's head knocking it over and giving her enough time to fly up and get distance between herself and her attacker. Brother flew at the large snake again scratching at its large arrow shaped head. One of his talons ripped through the reptile's eye making it toss its head about in pain.
Brother turned to fly away from the predator but the snake reared its head back and lunged forward at a remarkable speed clamping its large fangs into the young phoenix. Brother squawked In pain and fell back onto the large branch just a few paces ahead of the snake.
She saw the danger her brother was in and flew down striking her claws against the reptile's scaled face trying to ward the creature off from her only family she had left. Large fiery tears ran freely down her face as she struck blow after blow at the retreating reptile pouring all of her rage and hatred for the world at this monster that sought to take the only thing she had left away from her. She landed on top of the snake gripping it behind the head in her claws as she repeatedly jabbed the back of its head with her beak.
The snake's head was covered in blood as the young phoenix continued to rip into the offending creature. Eventually the snake stopped struggling and she stood over the creature glaring at it, daring it to try and move again. However the creature did not having succumbed to the wounds it acquired.
As her burning hatred for the creature before her died down a cold realization came over her. She turned around and flew the short distance to come to her brother's side. His plumage no longer had a brilliant orange and red shine to it, now he just seemed sickly pale. She could hear him struggling to breathe as blood slowly oozed out of the two puncture marks on his chest.
She lifted her head and screeched a pitiful cry hoping someone could help. The only response she got was the background noises of the forest and the gargled breathing of her dying sibling. She didn't think she could cry anymore but a couple fiery tears poured down her cheeks dampening the plumage on Brother's chest.
He warbled a small sad tone to her. Trying to convey all his emotions in the short song telling her it was alright. She chirped back fearfully. She did not want him to leave her. Brother lifted his head with the last of his strength and rubbed his beak against the side of her face and she returned the gesture.
He slumped down on the branch his eyes looking out at the forest. He held on for a few more hours, and she kept close to him preening his feathers in an attempt to ease the suffering he was going through. His eyes were closed and he kept shivering breaking his sister's heart. She no longer was crying, she had run out of tears as she watched over him.
His shivering slowly ceased and then stopped altogether. Then with one last short ragged breath she was all alone. As the sun disappeared over the horizon her brother's body turned to ash.
Princess Celestia sat upon her throne resting one hoof against the side of her head to fight off her headache as she listened to another noble complaining about lowering the taxes on the lower class of pony society. Usually she would listen and nod her head and tell them she would look into it before dismissing their ideas. However she was not in the mood to listen to the prattling of a privileged snob.
“So as you see princess, if this new tax law comes into effect the upper class would be-“
“Get out of my sight!” Celestia ordered slamming her hoof down.
The noble was shocked that he was cut off by the usually complacent and patient princess. “Y-y-your majesty?”
Two royal guards stepped forward and glared at the middle aged unicorn. He seemed spooked by their approach and quickly scampered out of the courtroom. Everypony else in attendance turned their attention to the princess none of them wanting to step forward to be heard after her outburst.
Celestia stood up and turned to leave. “Court is adjourned for today.” She declared not turning to look at them as she marched out. The large gilded doors slamming shut behind her silencing the clamor of hushed whispers from the confused and shocked ponies in the courtroom.
Celestia swore under her breath as she made it out to the royal gardens. She had not meant to snap at her subjects. She had been distressed and during the whole time at court all she could think about was the absence of her sister. However it was no excuse as far as she was concerned. She was supposed to be royalty; she was supposed to set an example for all ponies. She'd have to make an apology to the noble she yelled at and the onlookers later, but for right now she needed to get her thoughts in order.
Celestia looked at her castle. It had been 3 weeks since her battle with Nightmare Moon; it was easier to think of her opponent as such. It took away some of the pain that it was actually her own sister who had tried to kill her and had forced Celestia to banish her with the Elements of Harmony.
As she walked along the garden pathway the sun princess heard the sound of a bird singing. It sounded different then any other fowl she heard before though. The tone was softer and more emotional then an average song bird and the feeling of sadness in it pulled at the alicorn's heart. She ventured off the cobblestone pathway and into the groove of trees approaching the source of the sad melody.
Celestia came into the center of the trees which formed a circle around a small marble bird fountain in the center. She saw a young phoenix perched on the lip of the fountain looking down at the still water at its own reflection as it continued its slow sad song.
"Hello there." Celestia greeted in a soft kind voice after it stopped singing not wanting to scare away the rare bird. The fire-bird turned around quickly and Celestia could see that it was a female by the crest on the top of her head. The females had three thin feathers with a small circle tip while the males had three broad feathers.
The phoenix turned around quickly flaring its wings out trying to intimidate her. Celestia stood back seeing the young bird seemed distraught and afraid upon seeing her. "I won't hurt you." She said calmly taking one slow step forward. Celestia had studied and read up on phoenixes like most intelligent animals would be able to understand her though unfortunately they also lacked the ability to speak back. "Where are you parents, young one?" The young phoenix bowed her head and made a sad caw noise. Celestia wasn't sure exactly what it meant but she could understand through the bird's body language that something bad must have happened.
"I know how you must feel. I lost my little sister only a short time ago." Celestia stated as she stood in front of the young phoenix who looked up at her with her head cocked to the side. The bird chirped touching her beak against Celestia's snout making a small smile come to the monarch's face. "You don't happen to have a name, do you my little phoenix?" The bird just shook her head and crooned in a negative sounding tone.
"Well I've got nothing else to do right now. Maybe I can come up with one you like?" The bird placed a wing under its beak and lifted its head mockingly as if giving Celestia's recommendation serious thought before nodding her head and chirping her agreement with a single nod of the head. Celestia giggled at the young bird's antics. "I have a feeling you and I are going to be good friends, young phoenix."
Authors Note: (and other details like mythology inaccuracies or misunderstandings portrayed in this story.)
Haven't seen many fanfics about Philomena and I think she deserves more. Been working on this one for a long time now (nearly 2 months, the show with the dragon migration nearly made me delete the entire thing a start over) also mostly because of procrastination, being unsure what I wanted to do with it and a lack of motivation for writing to boot. Was thinking about making it longer but I already have a really long story in the making.
Some ideas to explain in the story. I know the mythology behind phoenixes is they burst into flames when they die and are reborn so I guess in a sense can't die at all however i really don't know that for certain (I am not an expert on anything). However I've taken to the idea that they burst into flames and are reborn when they become so old. If they should die before they reach their 'old age' or w/e they won't burst into flames and just stay dead. Just makes more sense to me, since phoenixes can obviously reproduce in that show about the dragon migration so knowing that there would literally be millions of them all over the place because they'd just keep accumulating. Also the scene where Philomena's brother dies, I came up with the idea that when a phoenix is killed their body only remains as long as sunlight touches it. So hopefully this will deal with and clear up any confusion about my take and writing of the phoenixes.
I was really trying to work on this but it isn't one of my best works and I'm not that happy with how it came out but I hope you can enjoy it nonetheless. If enough people like it maybe I'll add an epilogue but if this story makes you want to pull your hair out and go on a murderous rage induced rampage I ca