Burn The Fallow Land

by RainbowBob

Chapter 2: Empty Throne

Luna landed in the hall leading to the throne room. She glanced up at her full moon, and scowled as it continued to journey towards the horizon.

“All a part of the order of things…” Luna scoffed. “Yes, all a part of your order, maybe, Celestia…” Luna paid no mind to the few Royal Guards stationed throughout the hall, more than a few of them giving her concerned looks. “That will change soon enough, though.”

Luna opened the doors to the throne room, unsurprised to see that it was vacant. She walked up to the raised platforms where she and Celestia sat when they held court. Both thrones were of equal size, the only difference between them being their color. Vibrant, brilliant gold for the Princess of the Sun. Dark, blue, cobalt metal for the Princess of the Night. She ignored the obvious signs of more frequent traffic on the rug before her sister’s throne. The fabric was flatter, and had more imprints of hooves on Celestia’s side.

She let out a huff of frustration. More reminders of how her sister managed to give the appearance of being Luna’s equal while also holding more power over her at the same time.

Luna’s innate magic told her that it was almost time to lower the moon and make way for the new day. The new day would not last for long, however. Once Celestia made her way into the throne room, Luna would make her intentions to her sister loud and clear.

Summoning her magic, Luna slowly lowered the moon from the sky, and she could feel Celestia’s own magic making itself known. The sun’s overpowering light slowly flooded the sky, lighting up the horizon with oranges and yellows. Within a few minutes, the sun had risen, and a new day had started.

In some ways, Luna supposed, it was the beginning of a new day. A day that would end Celestia’s hold over Equestria.

Luna’s ears perked up as she heard the distinct sound of hooves clicking against the stone floor outside of the throne room, just beyond the doors. She ducked behind her throne and waited. No doubt her sister would not be expecting her to still be in the throne room. Luna rarely ever stayed there unless she had any major issues or paperwork to take care of.

The doors opened and Celestia stepped through, a gentle smile on her face as she made her way to her throne. She closed her eyes for a moment as the gentle rays of morning light beamed down upon her from the windows.

“Not another step,” Luna said, walking out from behind her throne. She glared down at Celestia, who paused with a look of mild surprise upon her face.

The two sisters held each others’ gaze for several long seconds: one a condemning glare, the other an uneasy frown mixed with confusion.

“Did you really expect me to sit idly by while they all basked in your precious light?” Luna asked, though she expected no answer from her still confused sister.

Of course she would expect as much. She’s the Princess of the Sun. The object of their adoration and praise…

Celestia slowly recovered from her stunned silence, and opened her mouth to speak.

“There can only be one princess in Equestria,” Luna interrupted as she walked up a small, balcony-like platform that was raised up behind the two thrones. “And that princess will be me!” Luna stomped her forehooves into the base of the balcony, causing it to crack and break off in pieces. The cracks quickly spiderwebbed up the wall behind her and over a stained glass window.

A dark shadow fell over the throne room as the window shattered apart, bringing forth even more rays of sunlight. Luna raised up her front hooves and stood up on her back legs. Calling forth her magic, she grabbed ahold of the moon and pulled it up from the other end of the world. Slowly, she moved it across the horizon, stopping it in front of the sun itself, blotting out the daylight and bringing night to the land once more.

Dark shadows flooded the room and slithered about Luna’s body. Luna blinked once, her eyes turned an ethereal white. She lifted herself into the air and welcomed the darkness with open forelegs. Her eyes closed as she felt a surge of arcane power flow through every fiber of her being, almost to the point that it suffocated her.

Without warning, the darkness that filled the room began to concentrate around the Princess of the Night. It engulfed Luna’s body, whirling about her and creating gale force winds. A sinister, orange light formed within the center of the growing mass of darkness, eventually becoming brighter and brighter until it more shadows engulfed it. For several long seconds, the shadows coalesced and fused into a single, solid sphere of intense, dark magic. A dark blue veil of magic washed over the inky orb, only to part with sudden force and reveal a shape within. The darkness, however, did not dissipate. No, if anything, it had become a single body, and was absorbed into whatever had just emerged from the magical tempest.

What appeared to be wings flexed open, and four legs stretched out. Its form was equine, and on top of its head rested a long, midnight black horn that matched the color of its coat.

Eyes opened. The once gentle, perceptive eyes of Luna changed, the pupils contracting and thinning out into draconic slits. The alicorn that may or may not be Luna grinned maliciously as she looked down upon Celestia, and let out a cackle, wild and terrifying.

And thus marked the beginning of what would forever change the history of Equestria.

---

Tick-tock on the clock, never going to fully stop. Time never ended, it just kept on going, never to stop, stop, stop!

Which just can’t be topped, mostly certainly not!

Jarring, isn’t it?

I didn’t stop either. Always going, perpetual motion, existence of life, the fields of physics, energy transferring and changing more often than a change of pants. Oh, it was complexly beautiful disaster, I’ll give it that, but a disaster nonetheless.

That’s all life really was. A disaster. One after another, culminating in death and all the fun that goes alongside it. Birth was a disaster, living was a disaster, and then finally death was the last disaster you never pull through. How cold and empty one feels once you experience.

So cold.

So empty.

Experiencing it over and over and over again.

Oh, but not anymore. No, no, certainly not!

For he has appeared. Oh, you know him already. I sure do. You know him from me, because I introduced him to you. You know who, oh, you sure do.

He was a nutty one, a bit unhinged, but nutty, so he was good. One foot in the door, the other foot chopped right off. Heh, chopped clean off. He tried to step through the wrong time.

But he made no short order to go towards the light. The same light that cut his foot right off.

Heh.

Foot.

He kept on burning as he approached the light closer. I just laughed at him. You know why. He was hobbling. What’s not to laugh about?

Oh, he didn’t stop there. He let it burn him. To ashes, ashes, ashes, ashes, we all fall down! His ashes covered the sky and created the night. His tears formed stars. He was laughing and crying.

Laughing and crying the whole while.

He was nearly gone. Nearly ash.

Ash made up of tears.

I kept on laughing when he stopped, because someone had to. I kept on chuckling as he cried, because only I could do it. I kept on cackling madly while he curled up in a ball, because this was too good to pass up.

Pass up, up, up, and away we go!

He was both the night and the stars and the misery and woe, but denied being sad. The light just laughed at him for this.

I joined it.

He joined me, crying again, while I laughed harder and harder and harder and harder. The laughter never stopped. The sheer amount of giggling had me teetering on my toes.

The despair was gone, from me at least. The misery had disappeared, from me at least. The inhibitions were nonexistent, for me at least. All of it gone, with something odd to fill in the void.

Something I knew too well.

The light laughed, he cried, and I joined in, though I couldn’t remember what I had done. I was too busy for the first time in my life being sane.

Too bad it ended when he started chuckling.

Comments

[Dash The Stampede]

The same light that cut off foot right off.

methinks that first 'off' should be 'his'

[Csquared08]

This half and half chapter structure is pretty cool.

[devas]

Oh, but now anymore

I think I found a typo :-\

[Cerulean Voice]

This is really something. I'm yet to figure it out, but it pulls me in.