Ghosts Of The Umbral Flame
Chapter One: Blood Fare
In the quiet region just north of Equestria, very long before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were born, harmony was maintained between the ponies and the dragons. They helped and supported each other when need be and had grown to become the proper idol of a society.
But just as there is always a time of peace, there is also a heart wrenching end to one.
All it takes is one twisted soul to send all hope down the drain; one bloodthirsty king had formed an army large enough to overthrow the Draconic Empire. These doom bringers were trained to be unparalleled against the fiercest warriors in the Empire, wielding armor semi-impervious to fire and weapons that could cut through scales like a knife through warm butter.
The army stormed the Empire with troops that marched like thunder, and killed every dragon in sight. Full of honor and righteous fury, the dragons retaliated at the surprise attack. They fought valiantly: for honor, for family, and for their land.
The King anticipated his adversaries’ moves and attacked again using his unicorn soldiers laden with magically reinforced bows and explosive tipped arrows. Explosions could be heard for miles as the soldiers -his pride and joy, really- unleashed volley after volley of desolation down upon the Draconic Empire.
The dragons took massive casualties as their once strong home shook and crumbled against the King’s army. Children and unhatched eggs were reaped by the destructive offense that he had sown, tainted seed by tainted seed, and these seeds soon grew into trees whose branches spread leaving many innocent lives entangled within its thorns. The dragons would face extinction if a retreat was not sounded. Very few dragons knew who was to make such an order since the Draconic Queen had been slaughtered in the battle.
Despite the chaos, one took the reins. One black dragon, the Alpha leader, ordered them to the darkest depths of the earth, and blocked the entrance with a landslide. All alive and injured dragons stayed there for many years, keeping the sadness and anger from their losses locked away in their souls.
A dozen years passed since that war, and whatever dragons were left had been declared dead and extinct by the horrible king. With the dragons gone, he took control over their land. He expanded his castle and became the most powerful being in the region.
Like any other king, he started a family that would one day take his place on the throne and rule the residents of his great and powerful civilization. He had many earth pony daughters and a few earth pony sons. They acted, lived, and grew up alike with one intention in mind: take the throne.
One of his daughters, however, was born a unicorn. She stayed in her chambers mostly and was scarcely ever seen outside of them. The maids would clean and dust while she sat at her desk, writing spells and reading scrolls.
She studied all forms of magic which included the dark magic used by her father’s unicorn soldiers. She could conjure a spell to heal extreme injuries all the way to spells that could stop ones heart and turn blood to fire; however, she never used any of the dark magic spells. She was kind hearted and never hurt any creature. The unicorn only had intentions of healing the sick and injured.
And there were plenty of injured dragons in the cavern she found outside the castle. Never having a chance to truly test the extent of her powers in the castle, she decided she would do so in the cavern.
She knew if her father got wind of what she was using her magic for, and on whom she was using it on, her death would be expressed to the entire land.
Dragons were very diverse and mythical beasts before their migration to Equestria. They were the incarnation of children's nightmares. Their parents would soothe them with lies when one would wake up crying about the glowing eyes in the dark followed by the fire-breathing reptilian jaws. Naturally, they also told them nothing could get past the castle walls. The King himself made sure his walls were impenetrable, and in his manipulative way insured parents would tell this to their frightened children.
These lies fed to the children were fuel to the fire about how dragons never existed, but after all, they are lies.
Of course, the older ponies knew the terrible dangers dragons could bring if they rose up from the underground and attacked the castle. They lived through the horrible, bloody war their almighty King waged against the now dead Draconic Empire. The fillies and colts who were tortured by endless nightmares of those two horrible glowing eyes had been raised by the elders; some were even taught how to combat the elusive Draconic remnants.
This castle and all its residents were unaware of the rising tension between the King and his previous rivals, for the spark had been set, and soon the flame would burn through the darkness, catching fire to anything nearby.
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The King ruled with an iron hoof. His actions were much like the tyrant, Discord, who ruled over Equestria. That land was a random phantasmagoria of chaos and darkness.
The King however, did not possess the powers to manipulate the land into the horrible dream-like world Equestria lived in, for he was not an all-powerful Alicorn or spirit of chaos and unhappiness.
He was simply a very clever earth pony who rose to the throne with the help of his cunning, violence, and silver tongue.
In hopes of using his children to one day control the land more so than he already did, he found himself a wife and had many children.
To his subtle dismay, most of them were earth ponies.
However, one of his daughters was different from the rest. She was born a weak and fragile unicorn. The Kings hopes were severely crippled when he learned she may not survive for longer than a few, short years.
But, as she grew older her body and magic grew stronger. Her father sent her to the most powerful unicorn teacher in the land, in hopes that one day she could help him take complete and utter control.
She studied feverishly and devoted her younger life to learning about the possibilities her magic could one day procure to make her father proud.
Then one fateful day, he requested her to help him conjure a spell. A spell she didn't understand, but helped him anyway because it was to do the one thing she had been training to do for nearly her entire life.
She unknowingly helped him bring about the one weapon to control Armageddon.
That young unicorn grew up and learned more and more each day. It wasn't long until she put the pieces of the puzzle together about what lies her father had told her, and what horrible power she given to him. Soon after, an unrecognizable fear awoke inside her heart, and she shut the world away, keeping her powers for herself and those who truly needed them.
Some would say she had become insane, perhaps even a little too somber for a Kings daughter with the entire land at her disposal. The maids, residents, and even her mother had decided it was for the best that she not be asked to emerge from her room because of the clinical insanity they were so sure she had.
The young mare relished hearing this assumption because it was another step closer to being completely forgotten; even the maids stopped visiting her room. She aspired to stay with the dragons in the cavern she found.
Each day, she would wake up before the sun had shown over the hills, dressed warmly and levitate herself outside of the castle. As she reached the grass, still wet with early morning dew, she would run as fast as her legs could carry her. Some would even come to say she had done this routine so many times it made her the fastest in the region.
Only the King, his children, and his warriors knew of the creatures she would rush out of the safe confines of the castle to see. She had carefully made sure that the overwatch guards would always be surveying the opposite direction when she left the castle. If anypony figured out what she was doing, she would surely be hanged.
She darted through trees and leapt over streams to reach the dark and secretive draconic cavern hidden away in the forest.
When she reached the scaled beasts’ home, she treated every single dragon with the utmost respect. And for that, they accepted her. They were careful with her at first because she was the first pony that had found them in many years. But, the Alpha leader of the creatures saw something in her others did not: Loneliness. It was a feeling he knew all too well and had grown to resent it.
At her first visit, she had asked the Alpha if any dragons were in need of medical attention. Directing her to a few injured remnants of the Draconic Empire, she weaved tendrils of magic around them and healed paralysis, severed limbs and missing wings. If pressured to do so, many were convinced she could bring back the dead from the feats she accomplished.
After her work was done with the injured, the Alpha told her she was welcome anytime she wanted. Now, she helped mothers with the baby dragons and brought them diamonds she found on her path to the cavern.
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On her way to their home one day, she witnessed a mother dragon bringing an egg from the cavern, tears rolling down her face. When the young mare asked why she was doing this, the mother told her the egg was touched by the shadows of a Constellation Demon Spawn and would never hatch. The shadows of those creatures could poison and mutilate anything with its dark and destructive magic. Such creatures were abundant in the dark catacombs of the earth and had affected entire families of unhatched eggs.
The mother brought the egg to a sandy riverbed and buried it. Her claws glistened with fresh tears as she solemnly walked away, wiping her face.
The mare waited for her to return to the cavern and watched her scaly red hide disappear into the darkness. When she was gone, the mare quickly dug up the egg and laid it in the sand, trying not to shake it with the unborn dragon inside. She believed if there was any chance the dragon was going to survive, it was with her.
She may have been young, but her magical abilities were exceptionally advanced and may have even surpassed her teacher’s magical prowess. The dragons thought she could resurrect the dead because of her cakewalk of a performance with the injured residents of the cavern. How difficult could it be to heal a baby dragon?
Thinking back to her studies on age acceleration magic, she remembered she would need a bright, clear crystal to cast the spell. The crystal would amplify said spell and increase its usually ineffective weak outcome, but such stones were VERY rare and only one small shard had been found in the mines below the castle. Her idea was to mix simple regeneration magic used by nurse ponies to stop the poison from the Constellation Demon and acceleration magic to make the dragon hatch at a later age.
New dragons left the cavern all the time, but never any baby dragons. The youngest she ever saw leave on their own was her age, which was about the time dragons were considered adults since they had already developed claws on their hands and feet and spikes on their back and tail.
She looked at the suns position in the sky. Its zenith was just glowing over the top of the hills and lit the sky ablaze with an eerie orange light. It was nearly time for her father to wake up and the maids to wake the rest of the family. Herself included.
Not wanting to cause wide spread hysteria throughout the castle from her absence, she quickly buried the egg, cast a stasis spell over it so no more decay could occur, and rushed back to the castle as fast as she could.
Never before had she been caught. And now with the egg to take care of was simply a horrible time to start.
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She reached the castle walls and quickly began to ascend with her levitation. The strain was unbearable. She wasn't fully grown and her powers weren't ready for self-levitation magic.
Shutting her eyes, she used memories of the egg she found earlier to fuel her determination. With one final surge of upward magic, her hooves brushed her room’s windowsill and she desperately climbed inside, collapsing on the floor in an exhausted pile.
After recovering her breath, she opened her eyes and glanced up at the set of hooves in front of her. The maid, sent to wake the family, gasped as she realized that this mare that was covered in dirt and sand was the daughter of her king! A hundred thoughts went through her head as she tried to decide on what to do.
Then the young mare decided for her and said, "Tell anypony about this and horrible things will happen to you that nopony wants to clean, am I understood?"
The maid quickly nodded as memories of what happened to the last maid who didn't follow her orders. That poor pony had filled the girls tub with scalding hot water. She burnt herself, and in return, burnt the maid by dumping the tubs contents on her. She still had the scars.
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"Daughter! I'm glad you could join me!" Rumbled the old king as her hooves clopped against the floor. "There is a matter I need to speak to you about." His voice wavered. This was a sign his large pride was buried under fear. Curious, the king was known for his bravery in battle and unnerving pride just about everywhere else.
The only thing that really scared her father were dragons. The last time he met the creatures in battle they had not been prepared whatsoever, and their leader was lost in the midst of combat. With no one to give them orders, they lost.
If they had time to prepare, the King's head would be on a wall mantle in the Draconic Empire's throne room above a slow burning fireplace and his body on a rotisserie.
She considered the possibility that he discovered her daily travels to their cavern. No, he wouldn't be this calm. The last pony to make him angry was sent to the gallows, and hanged within mere seconds after being found with one of the King's many daughters.
"If my memory serves correct, you studied dragon habits and behaviors in the private school I sent you to." The mare nodded slowly, hiding her emotions. "I have recently discovered a dragon cavern not too far from our castle walls."
Her blood ran cold as permafrost.
"While our pasts aren't... the most friendly, we are on good terms for the moment. I would like you to visit the dragons and try to setup a talk for me with their Alpha." The unicorn mare knew of the wars her father fought against the dragons. They ended with his archers shooting explosive arrows at the hatchery. The dragons would have faced extinction had they not retreated. The thought of someone stooping so low as to kill unhatched baby dragons sent shivers down her spine.
"I accept your request, father." She bowed her head, hiding the disgust in her eyes from her father’s past sins. "I shall leave early tomorrow morning, before everyone else to avoid suspicion among the family." she replied.
Her father smiled. It was a smile that hid a thousand lies. He had lied to her many times about the wars, making himself sound like the righteous warrior. There was something else he wanted to say, but he wasn't going to say it. As she turned away, she let out a sigh.
She was going to see the dragons tomorrow, and speak with the powerful Alpha. Heading back to her chambers, she heard her father speak to one of the many well-armored castle guards.
"...into the underground? Will it work?”
“Yes... It is necessary. Now go. Inform the others."
The guard clanked away in his metal suit. Those words meant nothing to her now, but she feared she was going to have to find out the hard way later on.
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After a casual dinner in her room, she picked out her phoenix quill from a drawer and placed a blank scroll on her desk. She grabbed the quill in her levitation and began to write:
"Pain and suffering, locked away; never ending, every day"
She dabbed the quill in an ink jar, its bright red color reflected the setting sun through her window.
"Take a creation from the sky, beat it down, it won't fly"
The writing spilled from her head as she remembered the spell she helped her father create.
"Seek revenge on the one; kill the rest, just for fun"
It was her first spell and he lied to her, saying it would lock away all the worlds’ murderers deep below the ground, never to return again.
"Kill us all, no control, cast the spell and take a fall. Shroud the sky, bodies piled, nice and high"
The spell, when performed the first time, had locked away the greatest darkness ever discovered by ponykind: a Constellation Demon Mother. It stole the creature from its peaceful home among the stars and buried it deep, deep underground. Some Constellation Demon Spawns had invaded the Draconic Remnants home cavern. Their power was nothing compared to their Mothers, though. Had it been the mother to touch the dragon egg she had hidden away, the dragon inside would be a mutant creature only found in nightmares.
She placed down the red, reflective phoenix quill and closed her eyes, thinking back to the day she had created that spell. A horrible spell she could not take back.
She remembered how happy she'd felt and how happy her father was because of her. The spell had made a brilliant flash in the starry nighttime sky, and the earth groaned in protest as the evils of the world were shoved into the darkness.
The King lied through his teeth to bend his daughter’s power into gaining himself the most dangerous weapon at his disposal.
The exhausted mare got up from her desk and clambered into bed, letting her head collapse on the pillow and immediately fell into a deep sleep. Dreams danced around in her mind as the day rushed to catch up to her.
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Bodies were spread out beside her on the soft grass, leaking crimson blood through fatal cuts and gashes.
The sky was ablaze with an umbra-like fire, burning through the stars and the moon with brilliant colors.
Splashes of blue fire played around Scorpio, and streaks of orange flame prickled the ends of the Ursa Major. Both of the constellations came to life, and tried to escape the seething flame.
The sky fires spread like light prevailing over darkness. Then, the dead bodies strewn out all around her began to chant, and their eyes reflected the fantastic display of stars and fire.
Something else was in those hollow, white eyes, she noticed, something very different.
Pure hatred burned in their pupils and corrupted them like an evil poison.
The beautiful sky fires were squelched by six, yellow, ageless stars that burned with the same hatred. The stars shifted into an awkward formation, making a "V" shape looking down upon the necromantic ponies, all of them leaking more and more of the red life fluid.
The sky ripped and tore at itself, creating the silhouette of the beast shoved into the earth so long ago by her and the King. The six stars became its eyes and they looked into her soul, peering down, and down.
It opened its giant maw and blew a horrible shadow over the land, covering everything in a deadly poison that would soon erode the area, making it an inhabitable wasteland and killing everything that touched its toxic air.
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The young mare awoke with a start and a cold sweat mussing her coat and mane.
She knew that was not a dream she was in. It was a prophecy, and because of her, every sentient being in the land was going to fall at the hooves of her father.
It was going to be an eventful day for the kingdom tomorrow.
TO BE CONTINUED...