Alicorn Origins: Legends of Disharmony

by lunabrony

03 - The Price of Magic

The look that the two sisters shared was one of immense fear, and Luna followed suit, chasing after her sister. But she was the younger sibling, and her magical reserves not as full. Already exhausted from their race, she found her magical energy drained, and resorted to racing after Celestia on all fours, panting for breath, and soon even her legs would fail her. The teleport race suddenly seemed like the worst idea they'd ever had.

Celestia appeared and disappeared as a flashing light disappearing and reappearing through the thick growth. Running was always easier than getting somewhere by magic. It drained you less quickly. Luna ran as fast as he could, but her legs felt like stone. In the distance she suddenly saw Celestia's light coming back, coming away from the village, flitting closer even faster than when she had tried to catch up to Discord. She appeared with wild and teary eyes. With speed and determination she touched horns and shared what meager power reserves they had.

"Ready? Turn around, and we teleport on go. And Luna whatever you do don't look back! GO!" She barked it as an order. Whatever she had seen, it had scarred her. Whatever she had seen, the determination in her eyes meant that she'd do anything to keep Luna from seeing it.

"But...but..." Luna protested. "Our parents, they're still-"

"Go!" Came the only response, and she turned back the way she'd come, confused and scared. She began to teleport as fast as she could, going farther and harder than she'd ever used magic before, until at last she could only lay on the ground with her face in the dirt, desperately trying to breathe. She'd never wanted her mother or father as much as she did that moment.

"I need... a minute..." Luna pleaded.

Luna heard sounds behind her, buzzing, the sound that usually meant a plant animated by a random streak of magic started to grow. Celestia didn't let her rest. Luna was equally disturbed by the thought of a giant flower trying to devour them. Had it gotten their parents already?

"Go!" She yelled fiercely, every time she sounded angrier and angrier. They passed the ruins and still the sound approached from behind. Celestia ran close, and whenever Luna tried to turn her head, Celestia forced them to teleport again. Luna had tried being run down and out of energy, had tried to starve herself of magic, had even experienced the drain felt when a spell too big for her to handle had gone through her. Yet nothing had ever felt like the searing pain she felt in her horn. Sharp cracks. Celestia's horn didn't just glow with a clean penumbra either, there were small fissures of bright light appearing. If they didn't stop soon their horns would crack permanently.

"One more jump as long as you can go, don't wait to think where you'll end up! Just empty your mind! Go!" The longest jump was quite a distance, and the spell was vague, her focus low. There was no time to cast the spell properly. Everything became light, then overwhelming darkness, and suddenly everything was quiet.

Celestia stopped writing again, and looked at Luna with sympathy.

"I just saw you disappearing, I never saw how you got out. Never knew where you went." The memories came to Luna, the quality of the experience had been a bit too similar to another not quite as distant one, but equally unpleasant...

Luna in all her life had never experienced a quiet like this. Except in her deepest dreams, when she dreamt of falling through the skies. She couldn't move, her mouth was full of something hard and cold. She couldn't breathe. There was only the tiniest reserve of magic left in her. No air, but she could keep from suffocating for a little while yet. The hardness in her mouth... was it stone? Rock? She was encased all around, unable to move. The only sound was the beating of her heart inside her chest, rapidly thumping away, slowing as her muscles had no more room to struggle in. Rising a new sense of panic settled across her. She tried to scream, but couldn't. Even if she had been able to make a sound, there was nopony for hundreds of miles in every direction to help her.

Luna had never told Celestia that she'd gone to the moon that first time. She had wanted to tell her right away, but how could Celestia have known she'd been stuck there, not once, but twice? The second time was her sisters doing, and only made the experience all the more horrible. She just didn't have it in her to say it hadn't been the first time trapped in that desert of nothingness. Luna had become teary eyed, her expression shattered.

"It doesn't matter." She had said. "What matters is that I got out."

The rock around her, though it didn't change in quality, seemed eerily familiar. And unexpectedly she felt a trickle of power flowing through her horn, gaps tenderly closed by the pressure of her prison. Her heart beat became steady. And she felt her magic bleed into the surroundings. Mingling with the haunting energies of the place. It was a place very near to her heart. Something she had never seen. It was large, far larger than she had ever anticipated it would be. She was embedded somewhere deep inside it. The world she had run around in was far away... but it was hard to tell how or where. However now she knew where she was. It was a real place after all, the moon.

But the moon was no place for a young unicorn.

Comments

[Neko Majin C]

Pretty good story, I mean, so far, I only read the prologue, however, the point still stands. It does one good to read a sad, dark tragedy once in a while. Seriously, Equestria cannot be all Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows. The only thing bad I have found so far is that the first chapter is a huge wall of text, which makes it a little hard to read. I cannot wait to see what happens next, so I will favorite and up vote. Anyway, as Winston Churchill said, "KBO."