//------------------------------// // War between ancient Races // Story: Consequences of Past Mistakes // by SoaringCoal //------------------------------// “Uh, uh! What happened next?” Pinkie pie asked as she bounced up and down on the floor with a broad smile as Celestia closed the book she was holding. The rest of her friends also stood as they listened carefully to the tale that Starswirl the bearded himself had recorded. All except Rainbow Dash who was steadily floating in the air. Celestia sighed as she felt herself tremble a little under the emotional pressure from the things she was about to recount. “Starswirl returned to the beacon and told my mother and the rest of the council about what had happened. They sent an expedition to the location of the tree, but when they got there, it was gone.” Twilight looked confused at her mentor. “What? Gone?  How could it just be gone?” The rest of her friends seemed to be wanting to ask the same question. Twilight was about to ask more when Celestia held up a hoof, silencing her. “I will get to that.” Celestia replied with a small smile at her former student. Twilight would never change in her quest for answers and that had also one of the reasons why she had been such a good student in her time. “They found out what had happened a few days later when some griffins and minotaurs came to the beacon seeking shelter from some very angry draconequui. They said that the draconequui had used magic.” “Wo, wo, wo.” Rainbow Dash interrupted from her spot in the air. “Are you telling us that draconequui didn’t have magic before this?” Cadence put a hoof to her chin in thought. “That… Would actually explain a lot.” Celestia nodded. “Yes, draconequui were originally born without magic, but this changed with the help of the Tree of Turmoil. It gave them powers over chaos, power to do anything they wanted and they were strong enough to rival even the strongest of alicorns in magical power.” “But then how was Discord able to beat both you and Luna so long ago?” Twilight asked. “It will be explained soon.” Celestia answered. She continued. “The alicorns sent several diplomatic convoys to the home of the draconequui in the white tail woods or as it was called back then, The fauna of fear.” Rarity rolled her eyes. “What a charming name for a forest.” Celestia chuckled at her words and went back to her storytelling. “It was called that because few ponies had ever returned from going into those woods. The few that did, came home with hallucinations and terrible tales about many kinds of creatures and even trees eating their companions. Those stories were never confirmed but the alicorns suspected the draconequui for being responsible for those stories.” She received a couple of grimaces from the mares around the room from their thought of them eating ponies. “Anyhow, the draconequui refused to have anything to do with the alicorns and some took that as a threat or a sign of something more sinister. The alicorns also found out what was causing those hallucinations and weird tales. It turned out there was a plant in the Fauna that released a gas that caused hallucinations but somehow the draconequui weren’t affected by it. Many protesters in the beacon insisted that they should rid the world of the draconequui as they were now a threat to them, but those protests were dismissed as the council wouldn’t go to war without a good reason.” Celestia looked grimly at her guests and sighed. “It was at this times that the alicorns were granted a gift from the Zebra’s of Zebrica. This gift was a sign of their respect and friendship.” Celestia’s horn lit once more and an image appeared. It depicted a stained glass window, but it was blank. “It was called the window of fate. A sacred treasure of the Zebra’s said to have been made from the very sands that control the flow of time. Through it, a chosen few could see the future and some could see the past, but this was very rare. In time of great change the glass would prophesise what was coming. The second it came into the council's possession, it changed into this.” The blank glass changed and began gaining color and images. Blood red from top to bottom, a black snake like cloud with two mismatched horns and red eyes sat in the sky of the window, and in the bottom, a ruined palace that looked an awful lot like the beacon and canterlot but the castle image itself was too blurry to see which it was. Under the black cloud was black smudgy text, but it was still readable. Celestia began reading out loud.   Alicorns will rise and more will fall  But something will come that will consume us all. Through order, through chaos he shall rise  This world in his image shall be his prize. Madness and torment he will bring.  as compassion, love, was torn from his being. Shackled and bound shall be his fate. But it shall only fuel his hate. Insanity’s song shall be his mark. As he corrupts the ponies from the dark. Times will change and he will be free For Chaos is eternal and so is he. Twilight and her friends simply stood there contemplating the words of the prophecy. It sounded horrible and they didn’t know just how horrible that prophecy truly was. The mares didn’t know what to say and glanced nervously at each other before all looking back at Celestia for her to continue. “Those words sparked fear inside the council for the Window had never been wrong before so why should it be then?” Celestia asked rhetorically before shaking her head. “They decided to tell the public and they were outraged at the words of the prophecy. So much so that they demanded they go to war against the draconequui to stop the prophecy from happening, but as some of you might know, when you try to prevent something you might end up being the cause for it happening in the first place.” Only Twilight truly understood what Celestia said. She recalled that one time she got visited by her future self and thought something horrible was going to happen and then found out only to find out she herself was the course of the matter. Celestia lit her horn once more and images appeared in the room once more, but these were more bloody, violent. Pictures depicting battles between alicorns and Draconequui. “My race and the draconequui went to war and over two hundred years went by with little results.” The image shifted, showing a younger version of herself and a filly Luna running around, playing in a room similar to their current throne room. “It was around this time that Luna and I was born.” “Aww.” Cooed Fluttershy. “You both look so cute.” Rarity nodded in approval. “I concur, Fluttershy. They look positively adorable!” Celestia could feel blood rushing to her cheeks at their words. She coughed to get back on topic. “Anyways, since Luna and I were the daughters of Harmonia, we were to become the next great defenders of our countries and we were even made the future keepers of the night and day. Our mother had always been the one to bring the day and our uncle Erebus brought the night.” The image above her changed and showed a black stallion, that was even taller than Celestia, with a light blue mane with black stars circling around in them. He was wearing an oversized version of a night guard armor with spikes on the shoulders. He also had long fangs and slit eyes. Some of the mares in the room gulped at the sight and Fluttershy was visibly shaking. Twilight spoke. “He looks like a Nightmare Moon.” Celestia nodded. “Yes, the power of the night and moon manifests in many different ways, but uncle Erebus’ manifestation of the night’s power was the most terrifying ever seen in Alicorn history. He was the commander of the alicorn forces and had the responsibility for all conflict in and outside of Beacon. He was the one who had the final say in how conflict should be handled.” Twilight looked to be itching to ask a question, but Celestia didn’t let her, for she knew exactly what Twilight wanted to say. “The reason as to why the night’s magic manifests in such ways is because of what happens during the night.” Celestia continued. “When night falls a time of fear begins. Nightmares infects the minds of any creatures because of the most minimal negative emotions, horrible acts are committed and bloodthirsty creatures roam through the night as soon as it falls. Therefore the night’s magic in its purest form manifests through the emotion that is felt the most during its coming. Fear. As i’m sure you have noticed, Luna can seem very, uh, scary. Not because she wants to be, but it is simply who she is.” Celestia put out her horn and the image above her disappeared. Cadance chuckled at a memory of Luna scaring the living hay out of a few guards the day after her return with only her Canterlot voice. Celestia hesitated at what she was going to say next. Her heart was beating harder and harder in her chest as she remembered the events she was about to talk about. She could really use Luna right about now. She took a deep breath and started speaking once more. “Back to the story. When I was twelfth something happened that would change my life forever." Celestia lit her horn and a white bubble appeared around her. "A quick warning, what i’m about to do will make you see my memories through my eyes.” Her guests nodded and prepared themselves. The bubble began quickly expanded outward and engulfed the seven mares. Darkness. That was all Twilight and her friends could see. An all consuming void of nothingness. Neither cold nor warm, there was no air, no sound, no emotion. It was as if everything had been sucked out of the world and replaced by nothing, absolute nothingness. It was terrifying to say the least. Both Twilight, Cadance and their friends tried to speak, but no sound came out, some tried to walk, do anything to move or make contact with each other but no response came from their body. Somehow, they knew exactly where each other was, but other than that, they felt nothing. It was maddening. Suddenly, a white light shone in the far end of the void and started cracking open as if the nothingness was falling apart to be replaced by everything that existed. Shards began to fall off the nothingness like breaking glass and it revealed a meadow with tall grass during a sundown. The mares couldn’t help but look in awe at the beautiful sight. Some of them now realised where the meadow was located. It was where Ponyville usually was, but what they saw was from over a thousand years ago. They now realised they appeared to be walking, but they weren’t. At least not their own body. A voice, humming, started to ring through the meadow and caught the mares attention and it felt as if it came from their own mouths. It was Celestia’s voice. A white alicorn l filly with pink mane and tail hummed a song as she walked through the meadow. She had wanted to go outside her hometown for so long and she had finally found the courage to sneak out and she loved it. The green grass, the wind blowing through her pink mane and the pure smell of nature. She loved it all. She could see her future responsibility, the sun, slowly going down in the distance. She found a clearing in the meadow and sat down under a lonely tree, enjoying the view of the sun. The filly had only seen the sundown from her room in her hometown so this was something truly special to her, but most of all she enjoyed her loneliness. She was so rarely alone, always pestered by her mother, sister and other alicorns. For once, she was completely and utterly alone. And yet, she almost wished someone could join her in the view of the sundown. The sundown she in time would bring herself. The filly’s ears perked at the sound of grass rustling behind her and she turned her head. There was nothing behind her but the tall meadow grass. First now did the filly notice just how quiet it was. There was no sound of birds singing and no bugs buzzing. It was unnaturally quiet. “Hello?” The filly called. No one answered. She turned her head back to the sundown and was met with an odd creature instead and she gasped in fright. The creature was about her own size except it was standing on its hind legs. The sunlight blinded her, so she couldn’t make out much detail, but she could see it had four different types of limbs. A talon, a paw, a hoof and reptilian claw. The creature was frightening in her eyes and she eventually found its eyes and they were what made the cup flow over. They were red as blood. Without thinking the filly rushed to her legs and was about to turn and run away when the creature spoke, stopping her in her tracks. “Don’t be scared, don’t run away. I’m not here to hurt you or anything of the sort.” The filly gulped, but didn’t attempt to run away. Instead she looked curiously at the creature, who now had its arms in the air to implicate it didn’t mean any harm, and it looked back at her with a similar expression. “Who… Who are you?” The filly asked. She gained a bit of courage. “What are you?” The creature walked closer and moved away from the sharp sunlight so she could see him clearly. The filly’s eyes widened as she looked him over. Arms of a lion and eagle, legs of a goat and dragon, his grey head that of a pony with a goat horn and deer antler, mane of a zebra, on his back were a bat and a pegasus wing, his tail was that of a dragon. She recognised him for what he was instantly. She had read about his kind and their long war with her own race. He was a draconequus. Instinctively she took a step back. The draconequus’ eyes widened and he took a step back, trying not to scare her. The draconequus cleared its throat and lowered its stance to seem less threatening. “I’m Discord.” They both stared into eachothers eyes for what felt like an eternity. Eventually the filly out of common courtesy began to speak herself. “I am…” The filly didn’t get to speak further as her eyes were drawn to an oncoming shadow flying towards them behind the draconequus. The filly began to panic. The draconequus stepped closer and the filly turned around and began to run home without a second thought. Black shards began growing around the image and soon the mares found themselves back in the void. Twilight felt like she was about to panic when she saw the shards appear again and she instinctively tried to gasp, but her body wouldn’t. As all light disappeared, Twilight could only think about her friends and Cadance. How were they handling this? How were they handling the feeling of their senses shutting down and the feeling of the ever growing darkness closing in on them? She didn’t know. All she knew was that she wanted to get out of there. She already longed for the images that had been shown, but she longed the most for the emotions, the senses. She wanted her grasp on reality back. Time passed, Twilight didn’t know how long it had been since she they had been dragged back into the void, but it felt like days, if not years. There was no sense of time, no sense of direction or purpose, only darkness. Twilight suddenly felt herself getting very angry as she thought to how they had gotten there in the first place. How could Celestia do this to her? How could she do this to any of them? Were they not friends? And more importantly, why weren’t they out yet? Twilight didn’t get to think further as a blinding light appeared before her and consumed her and her friends.