Rise of Ponietheus

by twitterdick

5. Luna: Relegation

Luna signed. Sleep wasn't coming. In less than four hours she would raise the moon. All she could think about was that damn book. By rights, it shouldn't even be a book she liked. She found the characters dry and idealized; she thought the plot was sporadic and had way too much exposition; some parts were just plain boring. Yet, she found herself fascinated by the world it implied -- alicorns of space, eldritch magic, a character that acted shortsightedly but with noble intentions, at least from a certain point of view. It had monsters, giants, dark themes and more than one character being irreversibly exiled. She smiled to herself weakly.

'You really ought to get some sleep,' Celestia would say, putting on that motherly face of hers.

Luna pulled herself from her bed yet again, and sleepily tip-toed over to a desk in the corner of the room. The mid-afternoon sun, filtered thru the closed curtains, stretched across the still bedroom as Luna flipped the book open again. She sighed. She would much rather have gone to sleep, if only her mind would let her. It was simply one of those books, the ones read as if possessed with something. She flipped thru a few pages, skimming for any hint towards that hidden world she found so interesting.

A rather exuberant crack of thunder bellowed in the far off distance. It was loud enough to playfully startle her. Her eyes did not break from the book, however. She shuttered suddenly, and attributed the source to an otherwise insensible draft. The building was pretty old, so that kind of thing was just expected. Yet, her room felt more arid than usual, like something unseen was being pulled out of it.

Suddenly, a flare lit the sky outside and its brightness illuminated her room intensely. Luna eyes shot up. She turned in her chair towards the window. Foreboding light flickered beyond the curtains, like a fire had been lit within the panes. Luna, ever watchful, removed herself from her chair, and cautiously approached the window. She reached out and brushed the curtain away with her nose enough to peer outside at the perplexing source of the light.

What looked like a shooting star that had slinked down to Earth shot thru the sky like a beacon. It moved southward.

Luna exhaled. Her eyes drifted towards the storm that had been gathering. It was closer now, spreading over the landscape like water on rock. It beckoned, a likely source of the newly formed forlorn atmosphere. It stretched much too quickly for normal weather. A shot of dread rattled Luna's spine and settled down on her belly like stone. She shuddered again, and blamed no draft.

She threw the book into a bag she'd placed on her back and burst from her room, making way to the throne room. There would be her sister, and a better view.

The hallways were full of mobilizing guardsmen - a Celestia-level precaution. 'Better to have them and not need them,' she'd say like a walking book of idioms. The guards barely acknowledged Luna as they passed her, save a quick "ma'am" or "m'lady" here or a held open door there. Luna payed no mind, she was fixated. She passed thru the familiar winding, decorated hallways to the large, open throne room. There were the columns, the big chair and her sister gazing out the panning windows.

Luna brushed up beside her sister, and greeted her with a smile. "Mobilizing the guards, I see."

Celestia smiled back, then returned to the window. "Better to have them and not need them. You really ought to get some sleep."

Luna laughed to herself, "Yeah. I heard thunder and saw a flare. It… woke me."

"I see."

"Any word from Twilight Sparkle?"

"Nope."

"Any idea what this is?"

Celestia peered over her shoulder. After making quite sure nopony could hear her, she sighed. "None whatsoever."

"Awesome."

"Constant crises - repetitive. I need a vacation."

"…How about an era of night? It's not too late, you know."

"Hmm. Tempting. Talk to me after we deal with whatever this is."

The clouds covered the skyline. A bolt of lightning struck the top of the palace. Luna jumped, but quickly mirrored her sister's stoicism. Celestia ignored her sister's subtle embarrassment, instead drawing her attention to a small crack in the ceiling produced by the crack of lightning. A dark liquid dripped from its contours. Celestia levitated a small mass of the liquid and brought it a safe distance from her face. It spiraled within itself like quicksilver. It almost seemed to pull away from her, almost like it was aware that she was watching it.

"What is it?" Luna asked.

The torches that lit the room then flickered sporadically. Celestia's droplet moved away from her and settled back into the small black puddle on the floor beneath the crack. The puddle began to pulsate, then it grew. First out, then up.

Celestia lowered her horn towards it. "Trouble," she said.

Milky black mass congealed vertically like a spring puddle. It spread to form an ovoid, a portal. And from that shadow a craven figure appeared. First his head, then body. He was an alicorn. From head to hoof, he was draped in decrepit gray bandages - all arbitrarily woven together - twisting at every turn. His white skin seen only at a point near his nose that stuck out of the ripped bandages and around his left eye, which was a piercing pale blue color. A dried stream of black tears formed a stain beneath his exposed eye and ran to the cusp of a helmet, appearing of a dim metal, he wore around a great sharp, bandaged and thorn like horn. He bore a dark mane that flowed to to his back, and - along with his tail - appeared of twisted shadows. Shadowy veins spiraled about his body like horrid lightning.

Near the base of his neck, he wore a dark pendant. It held the likeness of a chitinous claw from the depths of the earth that spiraled around itself, rising from a wrapped, twisted hive at the base -- like an insect ouroboros. The pendant was held in place by a decadent thorn lace twisted around his neck. A tapetum lucidum reflected the fragmented light of the room in the catlike slit in his iridescent left eye.

"Pestilent wretch!" bellowed Princess Celestia, pressing harder into the ground as she lowered her horn towards the incoming beast. "I know not what you are, but you shall not have your way with my kingdom and my subjects!"

Celestia raved, launching a fiery spell upon the invader. Bewilderingly, his stillness vanished, and he caught her fire and made it dance. It grew as he commanded it, and he employed a sweeping motion, driving the two sisters apart. Luna countered by stirring the air to a gust and hurling it upon him. As it approached, he ignited it in a panic and sent it up. It crashed into the window and burst, taking much of the window and stone work with it. The breach exposed the storm-ridden sky overhead.

He set his fire between them again as an able distraction. He levitated a patch of loose stone work and launched at Luna's fore-hooves. She stumbled from it, and lost her footing. She fell sideways, slamming her head upon one of the columns that held up the ceiling. Sharp pain took her thoughts, and she was left disorientated. Her bag flew from her back, sending the book sliding across the room.

His eye went dark, his head sunk low and tilted. One by one, the torches in the room went out, sacrificing themselves to his magic. He shifted back and forth, fixated on Celestia. She winced as if from a headache, and sporadically fired bolts of fire in a frenzied defense.

"Get out! Out!!" she cried.

"I'm wretched, but I'm powerful," he said, "and I am much older than you."

Celestia squeezed her eyes shut, and bent her head down. He swept his fire at her aggressively, driving her over more and more into the exposed section. Luna's vision blurred, but motioned to return. She swept up whatever rubble she could perceive and hurled it toward him desperately. They hit his torso and neck, and he snapped at her - throwing a bolt of fire at her fore-hooves, knocking her back more and blocking her view.

Celestia stood now in the open section, but regained her composure. He threw a small wall of fire around her, preventing her from leaving that area. Celestia pecked at the fire, rounding it up and brushing it down, and, as she did this, the invader's eye snapped to white, and he sent a stunning bolt up into the sky.

It ricocheted all about the cloud, from its birth to its source, and shifted from blazon white to cozen black. Celestia turned away from the fire and marveled. Luna coughed, and struggled to catch her breath. She motioned to push aside the rush of panic and looked onto her big sister.

Celestia turned to face her little sister, and began to cry out something incoherent before the black bolt gathered itself and struck her back like a fist from heaven. Celestia fell to the ground, and became consumed in black; her head, her eyes, her body -- all black!

"Big Sister!?" Luna cried as she pulled herself up.

His head shot back to her, and his eye shifted from white to black. He gathered the fire that laid before the catatonic Celestia and sent at Luna in broad sweeping motions -- never to attack, just pushing her away. They did not touch her, but she backed away to escape the heat. The combination of smoke and desperate emotion brought defensive tears to her eyes and muddled her vision. As she backed away, she unleashed sporadic gusts of wind in whatever direction she thought he was, but it proved useless. Options exhausted, she shot a gust up at the ceiling, creating a hole, and flew up into it and out into the night sky. He did not pursue.

Luna pushed herself up, up -- past the clouds and rumbling sounds. As she passed, she felt them snicker and crowd her. She held her breath. After she had burst out from above them, she peered back down. A black mass congealed along her path, but kept distance as if begrudgingly commanded to let her pass. The benevolent Sun glazed behind her, and the dark beneath bubbled like lava atop a molten pool.

She closed her eyes, and exhaled. The sound scape spread out across her perceptions like a table cloth and she found herself directly observing a blank space filled with oscillating beams of visible energy. She searched those familiar colored currents that stretched out across the open landscape, and following one down to its blazon purple source. The source reeked of panic.

"Twilight Sparkle!"

The blank space shifted, shook and became filled with trees. They sprung up on all sides, save the one behind, which became populated by a cliff looking over the moonlight. Twilight Sparkle was suddenly there, standing before her in the clearing with a noteworthy look of confusion. Twilight cracked her jaw and grinned, showing no sign of the panic that had colored her mind before. Luna just stood in Twilight's dream panting, exhausted and terrified.

"Princess Luna?" Twilight said, not noticing Luna's bruised demeanor, "What are you doing out here?"

"You're in a dream, dear Twilight Sparkle," Luna said.

"A dream?" Twilight said. She looked all around her as an actor perceiving a stage out of character. Reality snapped back into her, and she looked to the Princess in terror. All that had happened filled her thoughts.

"Oh my!" she said, "The clouds! Princess, we're in trouble! There's… something or somepony controlling them!"

"I know," Luna said, "Canterlot has been attacked. My dear sister has been cursed by that foul creature that commands the storm, and I myself have been pushed out. But where are you, are you safe?"

"Um, um…" Twilight said, trying to remember the outside, "Oh, we're at the library; Me, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy… Oh no, Fluttershy!! Princess, Discord is gone and Fluttershy has been…"

"You need to get out, Twilight…" Luna said.

"Hey, but…"

"You need to get out. Find whomever you can and get out!! To Everfree, I will meet you there!"

"Wait…Princess!"

Luna did not wait. She sent Twilight from her dream and found herself back above the clouds. The sun sat still and shined down across the landscape, but the cloud cover all from Canterlot northward. It moved out over Ponyville more slowly, but was still far from Everfree. Luna made for that decadent forest, and did not look back.

Comments

[Raziel Lupercal]

No offense but I think you meant foul not fowl I don't think he's a bird.

Also love this story extremly.