Epilogue: Umbra before the New World
Stellaura's legs buckled, along with the rest of her long before she could even look up at the sky. Warm sunlight rolled over the windswept tower, along with something else mixed in with the heat.
It was something deep and sickening, but what could it be way out here? She was alone as she took this break, guarding the city walls in the distance from any possible sandstorms. There weren't many pegasai in Marecca, after all, so the duty to deter the weather sent from Aerogard above fell to Elinora, Stellaura, and the unicorn mages too. With Elinora in the heart of the city a few hour's flight away, and Hasad absent on a trip to a nearby city, it was up to her to protect every brick of her beloved citadel.
But this wasn't a sandstorm. Never in her life had a mere sandstorm sent crippling waves of pain throughout her.
This was magic, but it was no magic that she knew of.
This magic was foul and proud, with every second she lay near paralyzed in her ill stupor, it felt as if a hundred fires roared around her.
The standards nearby whipped wildly in a sudden gust of wind.
What was that she saw out of the corner of her eye? Streaks of color, there were so many snaking up the tower like ribbons.
Smokey green as bright as emeralds, vibrant ruby, and wisps of glittering magenta. They were soon followed by a dense, chaotic cloud of similar colors. Stellaura heard a something she had never heard before below her: a crisp, shattering, metallic noise like somepony was walking on glass. With the wind and the glass-like sound it almost sounded like there was whispering in the air.
Were those words that she heard? What was it they said?
Stellaura tried to reach through the fever-like state she was trapped in. How did the goddess end up so? She pricked her ears, straining to capture what words that might be:
Aiiirrr...
How ironic it was that the sharp whistles in the air seemed to form the word itself in the Everfree tongue.
...rnt..
It was the sound of a dying breeze as well, as the reveal of what made such sounds. Like vines cling to a trellis, she could glimpse the gleaming gray crystals that shone like coal in the sun coating the smooth sandstone of the elegant guard tower with its top open the wind.
What were these crystals, so much like parasites to the young queen, and how was it that they came to the sands?
There was another whoosh of air, followed by the sight of feathers whiter than the tales of snow she had heard.
Next she finally felt something odd... she knew that magic was reaching into her mind, Elinora had done this a few times at meetings when they needed to discuss something in private, and it was merely telepathy and not illegal mind-works, violation, or hypnosis. This was how Stellaura learned to tell what another equine's mind felt like. But, whoever was doing this... she wasn't sure how to describe whoever this was, because when this normally happened she always could feel who it was, like they were standing next to her, but this mind just felt like she was floating above an abyss with nothing to hold onto.
A second later there were earsplitting screams, panicked whispers, and enraged shouts all at once but none of them from her. They came from the hollowness of it all, some voices sound female, some male. None were coherent they all sounded awful, and soon the very air here was coated with their suffering and free for all as these entities without even a bodies to call their own tried to fight for everything in attempts to tear everyone else apart at the risk of themselves in an immortal prison.
It was horrifying.
If Stellaura was afraid of anything else before, she would never be again, for whatever this was made her wish for everything else after mere seconds: Tartarus, oblivion, anything as long as it wasn't this screaming, crying hive.
Whoever it was that was trying to communicate with her was hollow.
She managed to throw enough focus together so she could light her horn and create a thin shield around herself, one that forced the yawning abyss of a conscious from her own. Lime green light hovered around her like transparent mist.
She had to fight this... whatever it was.
She slowly rose to her hooves. Although, her sensitivity to magic would always be severe it wasn't nearly as unmanageable or crippling as it had once been, with the exceptions being anything more powerful than a draconequus.
But whatever this was... it was worth at least a dozen draconequui.
She then saw the rest of the being as it landed on the tower's edge, bare hooves of white meeting crystal.
An unearthly smile full of viciousness and fangs. "Hello, Sister."
A mane of rippling black and eyes of purple, with pupils like a a dragon's.
Wings twice the size of her own, and a horn that was curved in a similar way to a tusk rather than any equine's. It was tipped in red.
This was not her brother. It couldn't be.
She saw only a glaring coat of white against a smoke-like violet and green overtaken by black sparks, and dots that gave her the impulse to rub her eyes.
Around his neck was an amulet, with what looked to be a ruby at the center.
He smiled unnaturally wide. "What is it Sister? Did you not miss me, because I will not miss you."
Stellaura gasped. "Y-You...! Y-You s-said it-t!"
"Yes, I did."
"Hasad, why?! What is this? This monster, this mess, this magic. What happ-"
"SILENCE!" He roared. It was not in the Voice but Stellaura still flinched. Her brother never yelled at her like that...
She was quiet, because the distraught queen was unsure if this was the brother she loved... it couldn't be... could it?
"Did you really not see this coming? Have you really never suspected me? Are you truly like everypony else in that you had never seen what was happening? Would you love me blindly, as your subjects did never suspicious of me simply because I was your own brother?"
"I do not understand!" Stellaura screamed. "Why would I ever be suspicious of my own family? My own twin?"
"Of course you do not understand, and you never will understand anything about what I have been doing, but I think you will begin to comprehend all of this if you learn what I did to you, Sister."
"W-w-what?"
Really, came the little voice Stellaura thought had disappeared, that is what you ask?
Her heart skipped a beat. Stellaura was shaking all over and her throat was dry and her tongue felt like it was stuck to the roof of her mouth but she managed to get it to work once the tears followed. "You were that voice?! Do you mean that ever since we were foals, you were that ambiguous whisper that told me I was worthless, or that I should be a pony because at least ponies can die, and everything else over and over again in that horrible emotionless tone... a-and you're using it right now?"
"Yes. All I had to do was change it so it sounded like you instead of me. I know you better than you do, Sister."
"B-but what else did you do?"
"It is simple really. I made sure you were always emotionally weak, and did everything for you but encouraging you to seek any opportunities, improve yourself, or ever break free of your comfort zone. I broke into your own mind countless times to rewire the tiniest parts of it so you would burst into tears, or become very sick for what appeared to be no reason. Unfortunately, you gained great 'magical sensitivity' from my work... that was a bit of a setback." He smiled at her, a smile that she wished he had never seen.
"I also altered you magic sensitivity enough at times, so you wouldn't sense any of this. Outside of that, I only ever lied to you in every way, instilled paranoias in at a whim with my magic, I also made you completely dependent on me. I even locked your magic in certain areas with the help of a few lucky guesses. Why do you think you got your mark so late? Hasad did not think you would be getting any at all! Or at least, that is what Hasad thought. I know him, I hear him, and he is desperate for blood, Stellaura. I am not him, you notice dissimilar and similar features in my face, yes? Our desires are not so divergent, thus I allow myself liberties with how I describe Hasad's deeds."
Stellaura couldn't respond, she was bawling on the floor, her crown had fallen off her head.
"Oh stop that will you? Quit acting like such a foal," he ordered, voice cruel and taking no disobedience.
She didn't, Stellaura kept going, wailing louder and louder. She looked up at him with pleading eyes that were overflowing with tears. Her mascara was smudged. "But Hasad, you are family! My own brother! How could you do this? Do you feel remorse?"
"No. I feel nothing, and I... Hasad never did."
"What will you do now?"
He flashed her the most disarming and sincere looking smile she had ever seen. "Oh Sister," he began, tone bright and cheerful, "it is not a matter of what I will do, but what you will!"
His horn lit up and a blast of gray magic hit her shield, tainting it and draining it of its bright hue before it collapsed. It would have been quicker than any she had ever seen before, but Stellaura didn't see it.
Then the dark aura that would become signature thousands of years later engulfed the former prince's now-curved horn.
His sister's eyes drained of all depth until her green irises were flat in color and her pupils lacked even the faintest glimmer of sentience. They gained a two-dimensional indeterminate and runny shade somewhere between gray and black. Her mane stopped sparkling and flowing. In a few seconds, it hung limp and lifeless in her face. There was no curl to it anymore. Even though her mark remained, it was translucent and mocking, a homeless memento of a creature who no longer existed. An insult. A lie. The half-mark was so meaningless that a dead language was of more value.
Everything that made up the Alicorn mare that was once Stellaura was gone. What was left wasn't even a husk.
He had taken her soul.
Those lifeless eyes blinked, but they saw nothing.
He scowled at the brilliant and foreign shade of lime in the air. This small cloud was a condensed version of Stellaura, it could do nothing on its own but remember. The 'body' left sitting on the tower's floor was but an object.
He blasted the hovering cloud. Stellaura shrieked as the last bit of her was dispelled into the air. While it was not gone, being an immortal's soul it would never again know mercy or a painless existence.
Yet another spell had to be cast because the risk of the soul finding the body in the proper circumstance was still possible.
The eyes of the body lit up with dark magic as it received the last words it was likely to ever hear:
"Seal yourself."
And it did, horn producing a flat aura that did not ripple at first before bursting into a lively swansong of sparkling verdant lime, one last time.
The air nearby was ripped open and a misty land of blue and soft, glowing star-like orbs was revealed.
This was the realm of magic itself, where only Alicorns could go, Where Gods Walk, though not every god was an Alicorn. There were many misty layers in this realm, some accessible only in certain conditions. The best known example were the demigods who were made when a pony of some kind causes exceptional magical phenomena, which causes an extreme magic surge that rips open a temporary gate - often through nearby objects - and transports them there. They can only leave if they find it in themselves to accept becoming a demigod, otherwise they will explode violently which will cause tremors that are absorbed by the parallel dimension and released in Midgard with disastrous results.
The Shadow did not stay to watch, for he knew that the order would be carried out. He took off in the direction of Marecca, which would be defenseless, as would Elinora and the rest of the country including some of the neighboring ones which did not have Alicorn rulers like most. He would not dispose of the others in the way he had of Stellaura, but he definitely had something in mind.
It only helped that he would draw the attention of others whether it be demigods, Alicorns, and even mortal armies. Their citadels would fall, their would be altered and his army of puppeted draconequui would only help before he turned on them too. He knew the locations of all the Alicorns, or so went his thoughts.
The book used to attain this was gone, transported at random to somewhere nearby its northern cousins were all Shadows-to-be would read it while all others saw only blank pages. He really had left his own mark on the world. A collection of manuscripts. A stone tablet. An amulet. A seemingly indestructible spellbook.
Soon the blood of billions would find their way onto his hooves.
The world itself could do nothing but if one were able to stand below the demon they would see feathers, like tears of snow falling from the sky.
The one trivial thing had always wanted, despite his own hollowness was a proper name. The book knew this and with its help he had been given one.
I AM UMBRA.
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Sithis would be pleased.
For my part, I think a good hitting of the reset button for their entire star system is now necessary. Well done, Hasad, I'm sure your species applauds your ability to become shadow incarnate's greatest puppet.
7357729 Don't go to beaches. They have more than just rain, they've got the whole hurricane.
7357746 Hurricanes are bad. Also yup, those are called feathers.
7608287 *psychopathic
And thanks for the praise!
...
7932960 ...
7932982 goddamn it Icy
I cannot describe the feeling the last chapter gave me.
7932996 Umm...
Well...
Wow, now I have to read the next story
This was super haunting tale, and even though you clearly laid out the bricks of the road the story followed, the story remained an amazingly riveting read. More than once in the final chapters, this chilling presence sat looming around your words. I think the really hard-hitting message about Hassad wanting a name really made this story great; all of that buildup to this chapter had me taking each sentence minute by minute. Definitely one of those slowest reads I've had in a long while, and I believe that should say a lot, considering this story is only a tasty morsel of 20,000 odd words. But what a tasty morsel it is, indeed. Almost as tasty an eldritch horror and its artifacts.
Either way, it was definitely one hell of an opening to the Iceverse's lore.
9110820
I'm actually really surprised that you read this one, since most people that have read it only dug into it when it became more relevant in the storyline, and Umbra/Hasad reappears. It was certainly a bizarre story to write and Hasad took a while to work out, but working on the most OC-centric story I've done to date was an experience. It always served as more of a supplement to the lore and 'verse rather than the opening, when I thought of it. Elinora, Stellaura, and the rest of the cast were all a blast to write - a few even appear again - and I'm glad that they were a blast to read too!
9458499
Makes me wonder if the artefact that Daring Do finds were created by Hasad.
That was an interesting read. It helps set the foundation of this story universe.
There were some problems though. The chapter synopsis say that of the three immortal alicorns. One will have their inner desire / wish granted.
Later chapters made it clear that it would be Hasad with too many chapters focused on him.
It probably would be better if more chapters were focused on the other two sisters so readers are left in suspense as to which alicorn gets their heart's desire. The elder barely gets any mention other that she's rulling. And Stella is only seen at earlier chapters and at the end.
9458533
That was intentional, especially because this was planned as a novella. So it was going to be all plot, no fluff. I never really meant to hide who gets their wish granted, considering how the tags/other bits of the synopsis make it ominous enough.
Thank you for binging this though!
10258070
Etna is a very good girl.
10257262
He and Luna have surprisingly little to talk about. But that is quite literally a whole other story.
10257089
I feel called out.
10256399
Gotta love scheming bastards.
10260577
No, Sombra is a good boy.
Poor Stellaura. That made me cry.
10260611
He's delighted to hear that.
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