//------------------------------// // And we rise from our ashes // Story: Kingdom of the Moon // by PheonixCircle //------------------------------// It had been around two months since the army had departed from Westbrucke. Moonprayer stood at the city gates as she did every day the last two months. The guards left her alone. They knew that no words could make her feel better. She was afraid. Afraid to lose her husband she was married to as long as he was away. Afraid that they would have to pay a price. She looked down, not on the floor but on her belly. Someone who didn't know would have thought she was fat. But she wasn't. The missing fat in other regions was proof enough. No, she was pregnant. And the father of her unborn child was away to fight a battle, not knowing that he had a child. Like every day she cried fearing that he might never know that he was a father. And like every day she went to the church next. As always she had hoped that the goblet that normally stood there had returned so that she could contact the one she considered not only her liege, but her only relative. She had grown to love Luna over the few months they prior, and she considered her her own mother. Losing her too was just another sting in the back of her already frightened mind. She was sobbing before the empty pedestal as the mayor entered. Another common activity in these dire times. As always the mayor sat down beside the young priestess. They never spoke. Words were futile against the fear of a young wife and mother. Both were hoping that the prince and the king returned healthy, then even though the mayor hadn't told anyone, she had grown to have feelings for the elderly king. A love that would never be returned as she very well knew. But she had never been the type to get into a relationship. She had always been to busy leading the city to it's current prosperity. Both were with their minds in the east when a shiver ran down their spines. An omen that meant death and despair. The priestess began to cry louder and even the mayor lost some tears over the feeling. They knew that some ponies wouldn't return home after these battles. ______________________________ The city of Osttor was an abomination of what it once represented. The castle was buried under the eggs that were all around it. Green slime was running down it's outer walls. The rest of the city was either a collection of strange, organic structures or the remnants of what once were the homes of ponies. The king grumbled into the beard that had grown while travelling. "Whatever has taken over the city had made a pretty good job of removing everything that was unnecessary." He turned his head north to where the church stood. "Even before the mighty goddesses they made no halt. They are not only murderer. They are heretics. They are beast. Hopefully they are at least worthy of being slain by a king and his heir." The prince smirked but said nothing. He thought like his father. Besides, his mind was set towards the west where his wife was. The young mare that had conquered his heart as they would conquer this town. He barely noticed that princess Luna had arrived through the goblet they had taken with them from Westbrucke. They would have arrived a few days earlier if it wasn't for this thing. But having one of the deities of the celestial bodies with them was certainly reassuring. The morale of their troops was clearly higher than usual. The princess stood beside the king. "What is the situation here?" she asked. The prince looked at her and his heart was filled with fear. The face he saw wasn't the one he knew from the princess. It was a face of ultimate rage. A face of somepony ready to kill everypony that opposed him. Especially the eyes looked horrifying. They looked almost reptile. "We have prepared the siege weaponry. We are ready to fire. You may command when they should start to fire princess" Luna took a deep breath before she began to speak with a magically enhanced voice. The royal canterlot voice. "FIRE. FIRE ALL SIEGE WEAPONRY. WEAKEN THE SAVAGES THAT DARED TO TAKE OVER THE CITY THAT ONCE BELONGED TO OUR GLORIOUS REALM. FOR WINTERWALD." Her call was answered by hundreds of ponies and the noise of the catapults firing simultaneously. The stones hid several targets inside the city. The organic structures exploded into green goo. The splashing noise of the hit structures could be heard even up the hill were the army was waiting. What they didn't know was that every hit building and it's dying inhabitants sent a small sting towards the south were a wedding was about to be crashed by a young and eager to be helpful unicorn and her old childhood friend. ______________________________ Chrysalis had been near to achieving her goal and she would have if it weren't for this nosey unicorn and her friends.Her act had been a fair bit from the original, she was well aware of this. But the time passed since the last time they saw each other should have given her an excuse to act differently. Apparently not. And now she was fleeing towards the north. The stings that were happening since a few minutes, the only reason she lost, were worrying her to a great extend. Never had she felt so many of her underlings die in this small period of time. Whoever was fighting there was intending to eliminate all her northern peasants. The only home she had left. About an hour after the battle had started she found the green fire she had once lit to travel through to the north and back in the smallest amount of time possible. She had never understood how it worked, only that it served her purposes. The remaining changelings that followed her also jumped through the fire. She was their queen, and they went were she was going. ______________________________ "Pesky Ponies" the changeling snarled. The army that had began to siege the town a few hours ago seemed to have unlimited rocks they could throw with their weapons. Each hit dealt devastating damage and the numbers of changelings was slowly diminishing. But what he really worried wasn't death. It was the wrath of his queen, the queen every changeling followed. He didn't question why. He knew that she was supposed to lead them, and that was enough for him. For every changeling. Her arrival came as surprising to him as her defeat had come to her. "My queen, what honour it is to welcome you home. How was your campaign? Was it as successful as expected?" he asked, immediately keeping quiet and cowering when he saw the deadly look queen Chrysalis threw at him. Nonetheless she answered to her subject. "I admit that it was a failure. These darn ponies were to strong. Magic of Love and Magic of Friendship in one day was too rough. And now I return and see that you yourself are failing. And I had enough failure for one day. Out of my sight. I take over command of our troops." And with a snap the light telepathic connection the changeling commander had with the troops was severed by a force of mind much stronger than his own. He shivered by the thought that there could be someone stronger than her. He glanced one last time down the tower they stood on before he went down. On his way down he passed a door. A door that was open. An open door that normally was closed and no entry was permitted for anyone except the queen and those she selected. The sight of what he saw inside was awe-inspiring. It was a goblet made of stone. A fire with the colour of poisonous green was burning slightly above it. The commander remained for a moment before he went further, with new will to fight the thread that stood in front of their gates. ______________________________ Outside, the princess was agitated to get to the next step of the siege. She wanted to enter the city and finally conquer it. Long enough had it been under the rule of these beasts. "How much longer do we have to do this. I want to see results." King Conglatius IV stood beside her and shook his head while suppressing a smile. "Princess, we fire as long as it needs for them to attack us outside the walls. Charging in would be suicidal, especially because we neither now our enemy nor the layout of the city." Luna sighed and kept her eyes on the city gates. The king was astonished by the endurance the princess showed. It had been two hours and her concentration hadn't diminished in the slightest. Conglatius IV turned around and wanted to order some water when he noticed a slight grin on the princess faces. He turned his head only to widen his eyes in fear. Down there poured pony-like creatures out of the city gates. "EVERYONE READY YOUR WEAPONS. THEY ATTACK" he shouted and a few seconds later a spear wall had been created. The creatures ran upward. The princess noticed that a few were injured. One had even his ear torn from his head. But they still charged towards their imminent doom. Luna prepared a spell, forbidden by her sister, the council of unicorns and even herself over a thousand years ago. But here nobody knew of this ban. She stepped in front of the spear wall. Behind her were the cries of the other ponies but she was too concentrated on the right incantations of the spell to listen to them. Then the spell was ready. Everyone understood the might of this spell, simply because even the princess had to use a secondary layer on her horn to hold it. She targeted towards the incoming army and whispered "perish" when the lighting shot from her horn. The magical lightning hit the first enemy and grilled him before it split apart and jumped onto three other enemies. This went on for five more jumps before the lightning got weaker and the hit enemy was injured but still able to run. Like it knew that it was to weak to kill it vanished into thin air. The killed creatures looked like a burned carpet. The princess smiled and felt for the first time in a millennia the excitement of battle. It filled her with joy and fear at the same time. Had she always been this strong? What would have happened if she had defeated her sister? "Do not worry about this now." the little voice in her head told her. "Take my power and clear this pesky changeling hive out." Luna hesitated. Would Nightmare Moon take her over again if she used her power? Would she try to conquer Equestria again and create a land of eternal night? But she had not many options. She'd like to say that the previous spell hadn't exhausted her, but that would have been a lie. While in her mind nothing changed, her appearance did. She grew a bit. Her fur got darker as did her eyes. Those began to look like a reptile's eyes, too. "Not just a reptile" Nightmare moon whispered. "A dragon." Luna charged the spell anew, a lot faster then before with the exact same outcome. ______________________________ Chrysalis cringed as she realised that down there was the darn princesses sister. And she seemed even stronger than her. A frightening thought if you think about the fact that the sun's guide had almost overcome her. And now a good third of her army had been destroyed. "Retreat." she said through the telepathic link that was given to all leaders of a changeling hive. The changelings fled as fast as they had left the city. The gate remained open. An invitation, an obvious trap, Chrysalis thought. Nonetheless effective as she watched the princess lead her army inside the city. The queen smirked. Her changeling could finally engage in one on one combat. "Split them up and kill them. We are superior in numbers and they shall regret their decision to attack us in our own hive." And so many smaller quarrels began everywhere along the way from the gate to the castle. Chrysalis watched over the battle as she noticed a single pony ahead of the others, killing any changeling in his path. He seemed bigger than any other pony and also older than most. Chrysalis turned around and walked down to engage this pony in battle. He seemed to be skilled enough to provide her at least some relief after the failure that had happened only a few hours prior to arriving back home in this siege. ______________________________ Conglatius IV was well aware that his companions were far behind him, but this is exactly what he wanted. He still remembered the feeling and the possibility of his troops losing their moral because one of their leaders died was an option he tried to avoid. On his way he had killed a few of this strange creatures. A few tried to change into ponies and engage in altered form into combat, but he hadn't been leader because he was afraid of killing those that opposed him. He struck them down like the others, if not with more ferocity because they dared to mock him. He was turning around a corner when two other creatures blocked his way. They ran towards him, one from left and one from right. He charged, ducked under the left's attack while stabbing the right creature with his hoof blade. The stabbed creature dropped on the floor, too weak to further fight. The other turned around and shot a beam from his horn. Conglatius IV raised a shield and barely deflected the beam before he himself shot one. The creature jumped and remained in the air as the beam flew below him and hit the wall behind. A grin appeared on the creatures face and it charged towards the king again. Conglatius ducked again below the creature and hit his hoof upwards. The blade ran through the torso of the beast and it's intestines dropped on the ground. The king ignored the still living creature and ran further towards the castle. When he arrived at the gates and entered the huge entrance hall he was greeted by a bigger version of the creature. This one was apparently female and regal. It seemed to be the queen. He didn't no if he could call it beautiful or not. If it were a pony, it certainly would have been almost as beautiful as a princess. But it was an insect and it could talk. "I have awaited you. You are pretty capable of running through the masses of my minions and arrive her unscathed, but you ran out of luck. I am not as weak as my underlings and I am in a really bad mood right now." The king smirked. "Stop talking and let's finish this." "As you wish." ______________________________ Princess Luna had been following the king before he got too far ahead. There were just too many enemies streaming from the sideways that slowed her down. And flying was no option since these creatures had the ability to fly, too. They had the dominance in the air at the moment and even she would have been severely injured if she had tried something. But she already knew where he was heading. Towards the castle, to defeat the enemy on his own. "Fool" the princess thought. She had to hurry to save him. In a moment where fewer enemies were around she broke through and charged through the single enemies that lay ahead, confused where to fight next. Their ends came fast by the magical blades the princess conjured. She was fast on her hooves and reached the castle only a few minutes after the king. She entered the room where the changeling queen had waited for the king. Now she was still standing at the same spot but looking at something high above the ground. "I told you I was in a bad mood" the queen snarled. She dropped the king she had hold up and let him smash to the ground. The princess immediately saw that he was dead: His head was twisted around. So where his legs and his horn had almost been ripped off. The princess was shocked. It had been a long time since she had seen a corpse but never had it been this bad. She gulped and glared at the monster that had done this to him. "You savage will pay for this." she said as her appearance began to change more. She now looked almost like Nightmare Moon. But she was even taller than her evil self. She had achieved a resonance with her other self. Both were furious and willing to give it all to kill that changeling in front of them. "No, princess. You will pay for what your damned sister had done to me. I will not be humiliated again." "You will not live long enough to feel humiliated, don't you worry." What happened next is a battle of the minds. While the queen summoned her minions and used beams to lock the princess in place, her foe used shields to defend against the beams and her blades to kill the changelings, all while she was charging a powerful beam of her own. After Luna had charged her beam, she awaited the next attack. The beam hit her shield and she lowered it in response and countered with her own beam. She barely missed the queen but the damage to the wall showed Chrysalis that this enemy was capable enough to destroy her even in her best form. Another salve of beams from Chrysalis, another devastating counter from the princess. The hole grew bigger. There was one more entrance for the changelings to charge through. Luna thought how she could escape this stale mate. She couldn't hope for her army to arrive soon and help her. She was aware of the fact that the beam might be strong, but highly inaccurate. And she noticed that her blades had no possibility of reaching the wicked queen. "No, there is a way." she thought. She created a thinner and more curved blade than normally. An act that normally would have drained a significant amount of energy but with her other side's help this was nothing more than a little walk through the park. She shot to the left. This didn't go unnoticed by the queen which laughed and taunted her. A few seconds later she suddenly stopped and got silent. Not only her but all her minions, too. Everyone was concentrated on her. And the blade in her right side. "You bitch. I will not die by the likes of you." she said. To Luna it sounded a lot like she was trying to shout but horribly failed at it. She dropped her guard just enough to approach the queen which had dropped on her knees. Just as she stood in front of her the queen fell on the ground. She tried to speak but the princess hushed. "Remain quiet. You will die now. For all the ponies that died today. For all those that died when you invaded this city. And for the fact that you tried to harm my sister." A blade appeared and almost immediately a gush of blood sprayed into Luna's face while the queen's head rolled to her feet. The princess turned around and took the king's corpse with her levitation. She corrected his head, legs and horn and cautiously laid him on the floor in the middle of the room, a few metres from the queen's corpse. Just in this moment the prince arrived at the gate. "Princess, the enemy has totally lost their mind outside. They are rampaging and their missing discipline has opened us a window of opportunity to strike back." He made a step in. His eyes had accustomed a bit to the darker room and he finally notice his father's corpse. He dropped on his knees, a tear running down his cheek. "No...." ______________________________ Three months later the princess attended another funeral. It was the king's funeral. His son and the priestess stood there by her side. While the priest from Icewind held his speech, Luna thought about all the things that happened after the battle. She had returned to Equestria as soon as the last changeling had been eradicated. The ones in the castle were all in a state of shock. But outside the changelings had lost their leader and began to lose all common sense. This lead into infighting and finally the destruction of the once strong foes. While the changelings were eradicated, the princess had been notified of another goblet within the castle. She immediately charged it with her own magic. It was inactive when she arrived even though she had been certain that it had been used by the queen. Her only idea was that it had been deactivated because the queen had died. Just before she left, she commanded the queen to be buried in front of the castle. It should serve as a remainder of the cost that they had to pay and the dangers that still might be out there. Afterwards she had began to recruit new settlers for Osttor. Many farmer ponies were interested because the soil there hadn't been used for a long time and was rich in minerals. They were certain that the next harvest would be richer than any in the past century. Three months later she had looked at the town before going to Westbrucke for the funeral. It was a relieving sight to see the city prosper again. She had also been notified by Flankrium to the current process of integration into Winterwald. It all went better than excepted. Mostly because most of the inhabitants had remained loyal to the princess and the customs from the past. And Winterwald had been renamed by it's queen. Queen Moonprayer I and her husband King Conglatius V of Icewind proposed the name Plenaris. And so the name they had for a millennium had been changed. For Luna it was mostly one thing: A sign of the new era that was about to begin for the realm she created for her most loyal subjects. Soon it would be time to tell her sister the truth and to begin to create the alliance of the two princesses.