And Pitiless As The Sun

by BuffaloBrony

Chapter 1 - Ponyville Burning

Princess Celestia dreamed...

She woke with a start as someone pounded on her bedroom door.

“Your Majesty! We apologize, but we bear urgent news,” one of her Royal Guards yelled through the door.

Before even moving or opening her eyes, Celestia reached out with her magic to feel the positions of the heavens and realized it was just over an hour until dawn. The pungent comment that she muttered probably would have shocked the majority of her subjects. The Princess of the Sun incarnate dreamed rarely, and this one had been such a nice dream…

“Enter!” Celestia telekinetically threw back the covers and leapt to her hooves. A scroll skittered away from her bed to land on the floor a short distance away.

A bright flash announced the arrival of one of her Royal Guard unicorns teleporting into her room, even as the door opened to allow another guard to enter. The unicorn spoke.

“Your Majesty, we have confirmed reports from a Royal Guard pegasi patrol that Ponyville is burning.”

Celestia blinked. Ponyville is burning? She strode across the room to a familiar window, the window that overlooked her student in far off Ponyville. To her horror, she could see the telltale flickering pinpricks of flame and bright flashes of magic being cast in the distant darkness. What can possibly be happening?

She remembered the scroll that fell from her bed. A message from Twilight, perhaps? Without conscious thought, she caused it to fly across the room and unfurl in front of her. Fine spatters of ink covered a hastily scrawled note.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Ponyville is under attack by monsters from the Everfree.

There are many casualties. Please send help.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

The writing was hurried and sloppy, very much unlike Twilight’s or Spike’s usual style. Celestia looked closer and realized to her horror that what she thought initially to be ink spatters were instead dried droplets of blood.

As she finished reading the message, an actinic flare of light ripped a false dawn in the Canterlot sky. It was painfully bright, even to eyes used to watching the brilliance of the sun. Quick gasps of pain from her guards made her realize that only her immortal eyes could withstand the brightness. The glare had originated just southwest of Ponyville, near the Everfree Forest. Celestia’s voice was low and serious as the glare waned.

“Mobilize the Royal Guards.” Celestia's voice was loud in the pre-dawn stillness. “We leave for Ponyville in twenty minutes. Prepare for anything.”

The unicorn Guardspony blinked out to muster the troops, followed by another arrival's pop and flash.

Princess Luna rushed to Celestia's side. “Sister, what's going on? Are you okay?”

“I'm fine, although I fear for Ponyville.” Celestia kept her eyes on the horizon.

“Ponyville? I know them well. Sister, let us fly! We can be there in minutes if we take wing now.”

The remaining Guardspony abruptly stepped beside the Princesses. “Your Majesties, we can’t risk either of you going to Ponyville until we know what's going on!”

Luna whirled to face the guard. “Thou wouldst interrupt thy sworn liege?” Her tone was dangerous.

Celestia simply looked at the Guardspony flatly, purple eyes boring into his soul. “Luna, he has a point,” she sighed. “It would be foalish to arrive without backup.” She watched the eyes of the Guardspony, whose enchanted armor did not quite hide his relieved look.

A long roll of thunder shook the room in a cascade of noise. Celestia held still until it faded.

“But realize this,” Celestia said firmly into the silence. “No force on Equestria can possibly keep me from leaving for Ponyville in 18 minutes. Now leave us and prepare for your flight.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anypony looking into the predawn sky over Canterlot would have seen a rare sight: wing after wing of the Her Eternal Princesses' Royal Guards lifting into the sky, led by the ebon and alabaster Princesses themselves. True to their orders, every single Royal Guardspony was fully ready at the appointed time, even the jealous few charged to remain behind to guard the castle. Many of the pegasi were hitched to chariots bearing the Royal Guard unicorns or containers of supplies. Small groups of other pegasi circled the formation protectively. As one, they moved toward the distant pillar of smoke and flame that was Ponyville. The flight was swift and Celestia raised the dawn just as they arrived over the town.

It was too late.

Princess Celestia was a near immortal being, all but worshiped as a goddess. She and her sister had fought the insane chaos god Discord together to liberate Equestria from his mad tyranny in the distant past. Their armies had faced off against each other during the terrible years of the Nightmare Moon rebellion. In the millennia since the rebellion, Princess Celestia had seen the results of countless accidents and natural disasters. None of it fully prepared her for what she saw on her approach to Ponyville.

A thick morning mist and drifting smoke still obscured large portions of the town, but she could see enough. Much of the town was just gone – razed to small smoldering piles of rubble. The larger buildings had fared little better, many of them collapsed and crushed. The Town Hall was still burning, while the Carousel Boutique existed only as charred timbers. Sugarcube Corner looked as though a particularly hungry hydra had gnawed on it for a few minutes before smashing it in disgust. Here and there, splashes of reds and brown indicated pony corpses mixed with the rubble, visible to her even from this altitude.

Only one lone building appeared intact in the entire town – its tall branches reaching up towards Celestia’s light. Celestia smiled to herself. Of course the library was unburnt. Her faithful student had long reinforced the fireproofing spells on the library to preclude any more “unfortunate accidents” with Spike. She nodded to her sister and banked toward the library. Celestia’s Royal Canterlot voice, rarely heard by most of her subjects, thundered through the morning sky.

“Knight Captain, I’m taking a squad with me. Take the rest of the troops and secure the town and surrounding area. Have your ponies locate any survivors. My sister and I would speak with my student.”

Celestia and Luna landed gracefully in front of the scorched door to the library, heavily scarred with deep claw marks. Celestia smiled at her sister and raised her hoof to knock.

“Twilight Sparkle! We have received your let-” The door swung open freely at the first brush of Celestia’s hoof.

Inside the library was a nightmare. Ash thickly covered the entire first floor, charred bones and scorched flesh lying in grotesque piles. The cloying smell of burnt meat and blood hung in the air. Most of the books were reduced to ashes, and the walls were coated black with oily soot. Furniture had been stacked into a crude barricade blocking a door toward the rear of the library - a barricade which had subsequently been shattered by the claws of enraged beasts and somehow torched.

Then Celestia saw the tiny, eviscerated body under the rubble, bones, and ash. Only the purple scales were visible under the soot.

“Spike!” Celestia screamed as she charged through the charnel house. Spike shuddered and opened his remaining eye. Blood pumped slowly from countless wounds, mixing with the ash to make a vile slurry on the floor.

“Princess… you came. Twilight… said you … would…” Spike's voice was little more than a whisper.

“Hold on, Spike. I’ll heal you right up,” Celestia replied, her horn already glowing.

“It's... too… late.” Spike coughed, blood spraying out his mouth onto Celestia’s brilliant coat.

“Twi said... spells... on lab... would… protect… everypony... inside... while she... led... monsters... away...” His breaths were growing shallower. Celestia could see his life fading before her very eyes, even as she ignored his warning and poured healing magics into him anyways.

“Even... Twi... couldn't... distract... all of... them. So… I did. I… stopped… the… rest.” Even as he gasped his last words, Spike smiled. “Tell… Rarity… Sir… Spike… saved…the...” Spike’s last breath rattled off into silence.

In the stillness, only a single scorched scroll fluttered across the floor.

Tears filling both Celestia’s and Luna’s eyes, Luna's horn glowed as she levitated Spike’s mangled body away from the door to Twilight’s lab.

As Celestia opened the door, a glowing pair of shears whirled past her head, missing by the narrowest of margins. The shears embedded deep into the wall behind her.

“I’m warning you, foul beasts, one step closer and you will NOT live to regret it!” The strident voice screamed defiantly. Celestia blinked in recognition.

Peering cautiously past the door, Celestia called, “Rarity, it's Celestia! You’re safe now.”

Rarity stood at the top of the stairs on three legs, her left foreleg and flank heavily bound by blood-soaked bandages. Needles, scissors, and kitchen utensils whirled in a protective orbit around her head, above her glowing horn. Behind her, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had hastily armed themselves as Twilight’s Laboratory Defense Force, holding sharpened pencils in their mouths. Down the stairs, the rest of the basement lab had been packed with as many ponies as could physically fit in the space.

Haunted eyes met the Princess’s as dozens of ponies stared up at their salvation. Many of the ponies present wore bandages, although the Princess idly noted that she had never before seen such stylish wrappings.

“Princess! Where's Twilight? Where's Spike? He was supposed to tell us when it was safe...” Rarity's voice trailed off as she read the expression on Celestia's face. Rarity’s weapons clattered to the ground. “Oh, no!”

“Rarity, please - tell me what happened.” Celestia moved close to block Rarity's view of Spike's last stand.

While Celestia spoke to Rarity, Luna muttered a few commands to the Royal Guardsponies accompanying the two Princesses. The Guards began clearing the detritus of battle from the library, flinging it out the broken windows and doorway. Meanwhile, Luna searched, remembering the layout of the library. A smoke-stained baby-blue blanket levitated from upstairs and wrapped Spike’s still remains within its folds. Luna stood protectively next to it as she listened to Rarity’s tale.

“I’m… I’m not entirely sure, Princess.” Rarity stammered, as she stepped into the devastated library. “Business had been a little slow this week, so when Sweetie Belle asked me if Scootaloo and Applebloom could have a sleepover at the Boutique last night, I said yes. When we all retired to our beds, everything was fine.

“I woke up to smoke and screaming. At first I thought it was the girls being rambunctious or Sweetie Belle trying to cook breakfast, but then I heard the beasts outside. When I looked out, all the creatures of the Everfree were rampaging through town. Manticores, cockatrices, hydras, even a salamander!

“Right about then, something large and unruly crashed through the back wall of my poor boutique. I was collecting the girls to make our escape when I heard Twilight’s voice over the entire din, yelling for everyone in town to get to the library. She simply sounded so impressive and commanding that I couldn’t help but listen.”

` The Royal Canterlot Voice. Celestia nodded to Rarity, thoughts racing. I never taught Twilight that spell myself, but it certainly would be simple enough for her to have read about and figure it out on her own.

“Twilight said the library couldn’t burn and everypony should be safe there. We managed to evade the brute in the boutique when he attacked my ponyquins instead of us.” She stopped, glancing sadly in the direction of her shop. “As we ran out the doors, I saw him knock the rest of the Boutique down around himself trying to catch Sweetie Belle.

“We were galloping to the library when a manticore pounced me.” Rarity nodded at her torn flank. “Twilight must have seen it, because the next thing I knew, she was standing next to me and tossing what was left of my boutique at the beast with her horn.”

Rarity paused, her wounded leg twitching. “Princess… I would have… I would have died right there if it hadn’t been for Twilight.”

Celestia nodded slowly, waiting for Rarity to continue.

“Twilight shepherded the girls and I to the library. She told everyone there to retreat into her lab because there weren’t any windows, and that she'd protected it with spells in case of a lab accident. She pulled Spike and I aside and told me she was going back out to see if she could rescue anypony else.

“I tried to go with her, Princess. I truly did. But my leg was bleeding fairly badly by that point. Twilight said I would only slow her down because of my wounds, and that she needed her number one assistant to mind the fort. She told us to stay here and make sure everyone got bandaged up and to take care of the fillies and colts. She said she would be back as soon as possible, and teleported back outside.”

“The last I saw of her, Twilight was everywhere. It was incredible, Princess, simply magnificent. She would teleport next to a monster, distract it or cast a spell, and then teleport away again before it could do anything to her. I don’t know how she was doing so much so quickly, but she was. It was almost like she was herding them, like Applejack and Winona…”

“Oh heavens!” Rarity tried to jump forward, but winced in pain. “Applejack! Princess, have you heard anything from Sweet Apple Acres?”

Celestia shook her head.

Rarity's eyes widened nervously. “While Twilight was away, some of the creatures broke into the library. Spike… he pushed me through the lab door and slammed it shut behind me. The last thing I heard was roaring and dragonfire.”

Rarity looked over at the small form wrapped in the blood-stained blanket next to Luna. She hobbled over to it and gently kissed the top of Spike's head.

“My poor little Spikey Wikey…” Rarity's whisper broke as tears fell onto the blanket.

A Royal Guard pegasus spoke from the front door. “Your Majesties, I’m afraid we’ve found Miss Sparkle.”

Comments

[SugarPesticide]

... the heck is Spike doing as a main character if he's dead?

Anyway keeping the nigh-godly princesses from charging on ahead because they don't know who's attacking Ponyvill seems contrived. And Celestia set a specific time for when they leave to save Ponyville seems contrived. And Twilight's magic not being enough to keep the creatures out of the library seems contrived. So all in all the entirety of the story seems contrived.

[BuffaloBrony]

368676
I understand your criticism. The story is far from complete, however, and at least one of the points you question will be answered in the second paragraph of the next chapter.

Spike *was* one of the three characters who had more than a single line of dialog though - and his actions were kind of important.
Still, you are correct and I've been intending to modify the character list as they show up; so I will remove him when the next chapter is posted.

As to as why the nigh godly Princesses didn't charge right in? How often HAVE the Princesses shown up in full "deus ex machina" mode in the series?
They generally haven't - with the exception of "Lesson Zero". Which implies to me they are either less "godly" or have other limitations. Twilight's letters *did* state "monsters" as in plural and many casualties, so Celestia realized that she might need assistance.

As to why Twilight couldn't defend the library herself? Perhaps she was busy elsewhere...

[SugarPesticide]

368983
Well, yes, they generally haven't arrived to save the day; in fact, it's about as rare as Ponyville getting rampaged through by an unexpected horde of monsters and dance with a fire big enough to see from Canterlot. It seems like a strange discrepancy.

And indeed, Twilight was busy elsewhere. I'm fairly certain that her spells on the library stayed put, however.

[Jake The Army Guy]

I hate to do so, but I have to agree. This feels contrived. If you're going to kill a main character like Spike, you really should have better reasons for him dying than, "Well, Celestia wanted to keep a time table." Also, while I sort of agree that the princesses have never rushed in to aid, they've never received a bloody scroll taking about monsters.

[BuffaloBrony]

368988

Well - as far as Twilight's spells are concerned. The building is relatively intact - unlike the rest of town. But I would also like to point out that Twilight has never really been able to stop Rainbow Dash from crashing through her windows and doors "onscreen", either...

The way I envisioned it, the library is a public space - so there are inherent limits on what kinds of spells Twilight WOULD put on the building as a whole. There's obviously no such thing as "Circle of Protection - Monsters", else there wouldn't be fear of them. She couldn't just seal the entire building shut because she wants ponies to be able to get in. After all, she was trying to see who else she could rescue, after all. So the protections on the building were mostly structural reinforcement.

As far as to why the Princesses didn't charge in - one doesn't stay *nigh immortal* by charging headlong into danger. My view of the Princesses is not that they are not Goddesses per se. Sure - they are powerful enough to move the heavens - but we have actually seen them do relatively little else "on-screen" that could not be explained simply by being nearly immortal and just having time to study and manipulate people and events.

Besides - one just doesn't clop a hoof and get an army in the middle of the night. It take SOME time to wake folks up and mobilize. Celestia got her guards together as fast as possible and then rolled out.

[Jake The Army Guy]

And that's the happened of writing multi chapter stories. You have to balance keeping secrets with not confusing the reader. I do like this story. And I love the spoilers you sent me! I think his will turn out great. Though, you might want to link. Just saying.

[StarbeardTheSwirly]

I hate to parrot what everyone else is saying, but some aspects of this feel a little forced. The princess taking her time, I can actually understand that. We know her to be prudent and calculating, that is how she got to be supreme ruler in the first place. My problem is with Spike dying. And not just cause it made me sad (which it did). But him saying "no don't, it's too late" to Celly's healing spell? It's almost as if he wants to die. Why isn't he in the lab with the rest? Its defenses held, apparently. Was it really necessary for him to act as a distraction?

Anyway, I'm liking the writing a lot. Your descriptions are pretty vivid and really speak to the imagination. The armada of royal guardsponies heading to Ponyville and Rarity's impromptu array of floating bladed weapons stand out in particular. I wouldn't mind seeing this go up on EQD once more chapters are out.

A few things though:

"Ponyville? I know them well. Sister, let us fly!"

I'm fairly sure Celestia knows that Luna knows ponies in Ponyville. They do live together, after all.

"actinic"

Fancy word is fancy. I had to stop and look it up, not sure if that is the effect you're going for here.

[BuffaloBrony]

378888
Re: Spike's Death.

Well - my intention is that the barricade/defenses ONLY held because Spike used his dragonfire offensively - which he couldn't exactly due from inside the lab. All the beasties that WOULD have gotten in and made all the ponies "spam in a lab" got barbecued by Spike at the door. That's why the interior of the library got so torched and the barricade got trashed. The LIBRARY is fireproof. SPIKE is fireproof. The books and evil beasties inside the library? Decidedly less so. Problem is that while Spike is fireproof - he isn't indestructible.

As to why he didn't want the healing - he *knew* he was dying from his wounds. Spike has been characterized CONSISTENTLY as the "realist" of the cast of MLP. He's often the one with the right answer - it's just that Twilight doesn't listen to him often enough. It's one of the reasons why I love him so. Also, notice that Celestia tried healing him anyways and it didn't make a difference?

As far as Luna's line: I mentally mapped the phrase as : "Ponyville? Yeah - I know them! Let's go - we can be there in a couple minutes!" then added a "luna uses slightly medieval sentence construction" filter.

And I make no apologies for actinic. I learned that word back in 6th grade; and I think of it whenever there is a painfully bright flash of light. (I read a lot of science fiction - where the phrase "actinic flare" is almost a trope...) Besides, like my favorite pony, I LIKE fancy words... Any time I find a new word, it's a new toy!

[Dashura]

I feel a little bad about the comments your getting for this so far (yeah, I know it's finished now, but shoosh). The writing itself is good enough. The style is clean, and there aren't annoying errors.

As for the content itself? Well... I can't say if the description or tags have been changed since you first posted this, so this may not apply, but whatever.

A quick once-over of the description left me going into this with a clear understanding that it was a dream. So, I had some obvious expectations that it would differ from canon, and presumably, the ending would reveal a bit more true-to-show dealings in a sort of 'react and wrap it all up scene'. Which is exactly what happened. That understanding made the first few chapters easy enough for me to follow and accept.

Now. This is a story about magical talking ponies. So am I going to complain that it's 'too dark'? Well sure, it seems an off-genre for said ponies, but hey. I've already suspended my disbelief this much. Will a little more really hurt? Enough people write dark fics for it not to be a big deal. The thing is, you've got Tragedy, Sad, and Dark tags. The for, I should not be surprised when said story contains tragedy, sadness, and darkness.

I normally avoid such stories, as I kind if despise them. However, combined with the assumption that the majority was in fact a dream, it was pretty easy to accept and move on.

The part about it being contrived? It's a dream. I never question /anything/ that takes place in dream sequences, because really, no one knows how dream logic works.

I can easily see how if I hadn't known it was a dream, and hasn't been expecting to encounter the Tragedy, Sad, and Dark tags, I'd probably have been much more startled, and picked it apart a bit more. As the description and tags stand now however, the story content is fine. There's really no need for you to fix or change anything further, and anyone who can read between the lines should have an easy enough time appreciating this story. :3

~Dash