CHAPTER TWO:
Moonlight
“What do you mean we have a problem?” Rarity asked with concern and worry in her voice. For some odd reason, Twilight was being incredibly vague.
“Its Luna, she's been struck with a terrible sickness.” She said after a long silence, bringing as much drama into the conversation as possible. Rarity looked at her with the utmost surprise, her face painted with a look of concern. Twilight motioned towards the door, and she said that she had to go back. Rarity followed out of worry and curiosity. Sweetie’s jaw finally slammed into the ground as she ran back to Scootaloo, her expression that akin to deep seriousness.
“Scootaloo, we need to go.” She said through the door. Scootaloo looked up from her activities with a confused look.
“Why? Can’t I stay for a little longer?” Scootaloo begged, but Sweetie refused.
“Its not that you have to go home, we need to follow Twilight.” She said as she ran back downstairs and through the front door, with Scootaloo close on her trail. They ran to see Rarity board a chariot. Sweetie looked around desperately. No carts, or a taxi, or anything that would help them follow her.
“I have an idea.” She said as the white unicorn gasped for breath.
“And that would be?” Scootaloo asked, still breathing heavily.
Sweetie ignored the question and ran off, out of sight. A couple of minutes passed, and she retured with Scootaloo's scooter.
“Perfect.” Sweetie said. Scootaloo nodded and Sweetie jumped onto the scooter, holding on as they speeded after the long-gone chariot.
Celestia had experienced challenges before, but nothing akin to this. She strained her entire magic reserve, but she barely budged the moon. No wonder Luna always complained about getting the hard part. She tried even harder, but only a little more was gained. She would need help, guaranteed. She fell back, exhausted. She had put her full power into moving that huge rock, but only a barely visible amount was even made. Just as she stood back up for another round, Twilight entered. She looked relieved, since Twilight could definitely help with this. She stood up, and nodded to start. She alone could barely move it, but with their magic combined, they might be able to see the day again. The moon rose like normal, and now there was no stopping them. Rarity was awestruck, hardly understanding the pure strain that they were experiencing. She watched as the slowly rose from the horizon, but this time it was almost breathtaking.
Many had been called in to aid the princess in finding her sickness and eradicating it, but none succeeded in finding any problem with her. She felt powerless as doctor after doctor came in, with all leaving after hours of testing. She had given up hope after the fifteenth doctor left without another word. She was tired, and attempted to rest, but the pain coursing through her every molecule made it impossible. Then, after almost six painstaking hours, she knew that her condition wasn’t medical. If fifteen doctors couldn’t figure it out, it had to be something else. Something… unnatural. But who would be able to find out something like that? No one that she knew. She would have to wait until someone else came in. She closed her eyes and just tried to drown out the pain to the best of her abilities. She fell asleep soon afterwards.
Night rolled in, and Blaze soon after fell into sleep. But little did he know, something sinister would be waiting for him in dreamscape. Instead of a building burning though, like the many colts and fillies before him, he instead found himself in an infinite black void. He looked around, and noticed a small campfire not far from where he stood. He walked to it, gazing into its unforgiving wisps of fire. Suddenly, a huge column of flame erupted from the blaze, and from it, stepped out a demonic being composed of fire and fear. Blaze stepped away in fright, but the creature beckoned for him to come closer. He stood there, frozen in complete and utter shock, as the creature began to talk.
“BLAZE.” Its voice exploded into the void, ringing Blaze’s ears. He had never heard something so loud.
“I AM THE BEING KNOWN AS IGNIS. I AM HERE TO WARN YOU. MANY STAND IN YOUR WAY TO BECOME THE ULTIMATE BEING. YOU WILL ERADICATE THEM, AND ASSUME YOUR POSITION AS THE TRUE RULER OF EQUESTRIA!” It bellowed, making Blaze cover his ears with his wings.
“B-But I don’t want to rule…” Blaze barely stuttered. The being’s expression, or whatever you could make of it, turned to anger, as it looked at him with sudden seriousness.
“YOU WILL RULE. IT IS YOUR DESTINY TO, BLAZE. IF YOU DARE DEFY ME, I WILL MAKE SURE YOU WILL REGRET IT.” He said, his voice impossibly becoming even louder than it already had. Blaze then woke up, sweating and panting. Written in black ink, all over his walls were:
NEVER DEFY ME, I AM ALWAYS WATCHING.
Blaze shuddered, and stepped out of his bed. Another message, this time written on the floor, was:
KILL THE ONES WHO DEFILED YOU. MAKE THEM SUFFER THE UTMOST PAIN.
Blaze disregarded the message, and ran down to Axle, telling him all about his nightmare and the messages. Axle ran up to his room, to see no black ink or anything that would have gotten rid of said ink. Blaze was dumbfounded. How had it disappeared?
“It was just a dream, bud. Whatever it told you to do, just forget about it and go back to sleep.” Axle said as he went back down to his room. Blaze got back into his bed. He quickly fell asleep again, and went without any nightmares for the rest of the moonlit night.
Celestia fell back into the bed behind her, completely drained of all her energy. She had tasked Twilight with raising the sun, since she had stood up much better to the strain of lifting the moon. She pulled the blankets up to her neck, feeling the warmth after a long and cold night. She fell asleep, and woke up not in her bed, but in an unusual dreamscape. It had no features, just a solid black cloud of fog in every direction. She noticed a small fire to the right of her. Walking over to it, she noticed also that it seemed to be showing… memories. Past experiences of all sorts. But the most disturbing part was the unfamiliar memories that seemed to be plagued by death and destruction on a global scale. Enormous bonfires, demons roaming the land, many being slaughtered and cooked alive. She felt a knot in her stomach as the creature who had caused this destruction was shown for a small moment before cutting back to the mass cremation. There was no mistaking him. His body was detailed and easily distinguished in the moonlight of the picture.
It was the red colt with a flaming cutie mark.