Darkest Star

by The1Ryu

Chapter Seven: The Sun and the Star

Chapter Seven
The Sun and the Star

Princess Celestia stood amidst a sea of grass, the sky above her painted a gentle orange as the sun lazily made its way to the horizon where it would wait for her to lower it and give rise to the night. For a thousand years, she alone had guided the celestial bodies in their eternal waltz and for years prior to that with her sister’s help. Now apprehension gripped her, giving way to an uncertainty that she had not felt since the first time she had raised the sun as a young mare. She wondered what would happen, and if she was strong enough to overcome it.

The sun princess should have been reassured by Twilight Sparkle’s plan, clever as it was, but instead, she just felt weak. The ponies of Equestria celebrated Princess Celestia as a great mare who saved their land from the chaos of Discord and guided it to great prosperity. While she had given everything for the ponies of Equestria, there were many forgotten heroes like Twilight Sparkle and her friends who went un-praised despite all they had done.

Princess Celestia sighed as the sun touched the horizon, it was time. It was time for her alone to fight for her ponies, Equestria, and her sister. She held her head up, her eyes filled with stern determination and she looked every bit as royal as a princess should. “All right Dark Star come out,” She commanded staring out over the open meadow.

There was a powerful blast of wind that brought tears to the princess’ eyes, and in the moment it took her to blink them away he appeared. He stood across from her looking every bit as determined as she did, but his expression was cold and angry.

The determined look broke as Dark Star chuckled to himself, “Humph I see just like your little sister you have no respect for the natural order of things Celestia.”

“I thought you would like it,” the princess replied looking coolly up at the multi-hued sky. With the sun dipped to the horizon, illuminating half the sky orange and red while darkness tried to claim the rest turning it various shades of purple before giving way to black where a few bright stars shone through in the failing light. “As I recall the three of us would sit under this sky often, not wishing to segregate day and night. You would often comment that this was your favorite time of the day, Luna and me as one together with you.”

Dark Star snorted and forced a dry, humorless laugh, “Trying to manipulate my emotions, Celestia? I’m afraid it won’t work, I am a creature of the night, loyal to my queen, not some sentimental weakling.”

“All I want is for you to remember that we all used to be friends,” Princess Celestia said with a stern glare which softened at her own words. “More than friends, you were like a brother to us, please Star Knight you don’t have to do this. Nightmare Moon may have made you this way, but she’s gone now. I’m sorry for everything you went through, you must have felt so alone all those centuries, but you don’t have to be alone anymore; let me help you.”

Dark Star paused for several seconds, and Princess Celestia thought she heard him say ‘little brother’ under his breath, but through the angry glare, he shot her it was clear that the words had failed to move him.

“Your cowardice knows no bounds I see, you sit on your throne and send other ponies to fight your battles for you, and when you do manage to pry yourself away from it, all you have is honeyed words as weapons.” Dark Star spat, he looked as if he might attack but after a moment relaxed and smiled again. “But if you don’t want to fight that’s fine. Just raise the moon, and I’ll leave you to hide behind your subjects.”

Princess Celestia narrowed her eyes and glared coldly down at him, “No, never again Dark Star. You do not want to fight me Dark Star, I’ve had longer than you to master magic and I won’t hesitate to use all I know to stop you.”

Dark Star returned the glare his horn flaring to life surrounded by his dark magical aura, “My queen shall rise again.” The black stallion charged, magic power and raw ferocity melding together into one as he crossed the distance between them.

Princess Celestia matched his charge with one of her own, all her determination to end the conflict once and for all summoned up in her and her own horn glowed with the golden light of her magic.

Reaching one another the horns struck sending sparks of magic bursting in all directions fierce eyes meeting in a stalemate. The two pulled back and swung their heads again Princess Celestia’s horn moving to catch Dark Star’s causing more magic sparks to rain out from between them. As the princess moved back for the next exchange, Dark Star made his move dropping his head down instead of back and gave a quick flick of his horn cutting a shallow gash down the left side of Princess Celestia’s neck.

The rainbow maned princess gave quick gasp and hesitated on her next attack, it had been far too long since the princess’ last training session and longer still since last she was injured now she was paying for it. Rearing up Dark Star kicked out with his forelegs and knocking her off balance, before dropping down and throwing himself forward slamming his shoulder into the princess’ side.

He expected the blow to knock the ancient princess down, but she only staggered back a few steps and steadied herself with a quick deep breath, before lunging back at the gray-eyed stallion.

Snapping his head back up Dark Star’s horn deflected the princess’ causing crackling energy to spray from their horns. Princess Celestia pulled back to reposition herself for the next attack, but Dark Star needed no such advantage. He lunged forward slamming his shoulder into her again and made a shallow wound on her left shoulder with a flick of his bladed horn causing her to stagger back again and keeping her off balance.

Growing tired of their exchange Dark Star whipped himself around in an instant with a swift flap of his wings and brought his hind legs in for a powerful blow. Princess Celestia steadied herself just in time to see the powerful blow coming. With no chance to dodge, she relaxed her body and rolled her shoulder back hoping to lessen the impact.

The buck hit with the force of a creature twice the stallion’s size, throwing the princess back several feet, but she was ready. Princess Celestia hit the ground and rolled over completely before jumping back onto her hooves and sliding another foot back before stopping herself. It seemed as if the buck had not hurt at all with the princess standing confidently, a safe distance from her opponent. Then the pain ripped through her body, and she seized up, paralyzed.

Princess Celestia expected the final blow to come then and she tried to force herself to move even a little to dodge the oncoming blow, but none came. The moment slipped by and the pain lessened to the point her body could move again, the sun princess opened her eyes searching the meadow for her opponent. He was across from her several dozen feet away pacing back and forth glaring at her and muttering to himself.

Realizing that he was being watched Dark Star stopped and turned to face the princess. “Striker taught you well Celestia, and you haven’t gotten that soft over the years either. I guess it was worth all of that disgusting flirting you smother on him back then,” Dark Star snarled spitting several times angrily. Princess Celestia stepped back in surprise, memories of the stern silver pegasus coming back to her in a painful flood.

Sword Strike, more often called Striker, had been the captain of her personal guard and the leader of the Elite Royal Guard during Star Knight’s time. Striker had been Princess Celestia’s friend, instructor, and eventually her lover. Realizing just how long it had been since she had thought about Striker caused a dull pain and more than a little shame to wash over the princess.

“Forgot about him,” Dark Star chuckled coldly, a smug smile slithered across his face before quickly turning back to a frown. “I’m not surprised, you know nothing of loyalty, using ponies like playthings then discarding them afterward. Did you even shed a single tear when I killed him?”

Princess Celestia reeled from that as if it were a blow, anger welling up inside as she glared back at the offending black stallion. After several moments the anger passed and the princess let out a breath, “Your knowledge of history isn’t very good for somepony who was there. Sword Strike survived your battle and recovered in the aftermath of Nightmare Moon’s defeat.”

Princess Celestia smiled despite herself and thought back, “He passed away as an old stallion never once complaining that he got old while I stayed young. Our life together was a happy one, but still, I think he would have preferred to die in battle like you though he had.” The smile slowly faded as she spoke until her face was sad and mournful, “I cried for days when he passed on.”

Dark Star snorted angrily, “For yourself no doubt. Spending your time pining over some lost lover, but I’d wager that you got yourself a new colt in no time.”

“Star Knight why are you doing this,” The princess ignored the dark pony’s cutting words and spoke softly her face painted with concern. “I’m sorry I didn’t feel the same way for you as you did for me, but Striker was your friend, and you were happy for us. Please do not deny the truth Star; you know you could never hide your feelings from me. Is this what Nightmare Moon used to poison your mind and turn you against us?”

Dark Star snorted again, “I joined my Queen because I was totally devoted to her, and unlike you, I understand what loyalty truly means. It was only after I joined her that she told me of your callousness towards Star Knight’s feelings, but none of that matters now. I feel neither love nor kindness, and I am ruled by neither hate nor anger. I feel only eternal loyalty to my Queen, and I will do anything, destroy anypony in my way, to bring her back.”

Princess Celestia shook her head sadly; she had not been forced to face Dark Star’s madness all those centuries ago when Nightmare Moon had risen. During all the years afterward, when she had searched for the lost pony she kept hope alive that she could save him. Even with all that had happened she still kept that hope alive, believing that she could convince him to stop if she could only speak to him. Now she could see that she had been misguided, and Dark Star had clearly been driven even madder by the dark power than her sister had been.

Steeling herself and looking back at the evil stallion she fixed him with a cold glare; she would stop him even if it took all her power to do so. Her horn glowed gold, and she closed her eyes as she dipped into the vast wellspring of magical knowledge at her disposal and summoned up power that no pony had seen in well over a thousand years.

Dark Star cleared the distance between them in an instant and brought his blade-like horn down upon the princess who caught it with her own horn. Turning the blade edge down along the princess’ horn he tried to slash her down across the face and scalp, but she easily flicked him away with a toss of her head. Even as he attacked with his horn Dark Star readied his hooves to deliver another strong kick to her side, but the princess jumped back just far enough that the hooves missed her passing a hair’s width in front of her. Then without pausing kicked out with her hooves and slammed them into Dark Star’s side.

The sudden blow knocked the white-maned stallion back a few feet, and he snorted in anger quickly moving back in for another attack. He slashed out with his horn only to have it caught once again by the princess’. Pulling back he slashed at her from another angle, but his horn was once again intercepted with little trouble. Repositioning himself quickly he dived straight ahead for a strong, quick thrust, but this was just as ineffective as Princess Celestia’s horn came down over his stopping the thrust. Whipping her own horn down and around the white mare slipped past the black stallion’s horn and thrust her own at the side of his neck. It was Dark Star speed the saved him as he jumped back a safe distance before the horn could do more then give him a small gash.

Never one to back down Dark Star charged in again, finding the fight just as exhilarating as frustrating, and made to slash at her again. This time, however, the move was merely a faint changing suddenly to a thrust mid arch. Princess Celestia was not fooled, and counter the thrust as she had before whipping her head around for the inevitable counter attack. Dark Star moved quickly jumping not back but up into the air, a dangerous move that could have helped Princess Celestia’s horn stab deeper if he was not so quick, but gave him the chance to take the princess by surprise.

However, the princess quickly whipped around and kicked out with all the strength of her powerful hind legs slamming into Dark Star’s stomach and flinging him several dozen feet across the field.

The evil pony gasped for air as he slammed into the ground. He did not have a chance to think about how this turn had happened as the solar princess refused to let up her attack. This time she charged across the field slamming her hooves down at the fallen pony who only narrowly managed to roll away and leap back up onto his hooves.

His horn caught hers as she attacked with a powerful thrust, her horn ordinary horn unsuited for slashing motions. Dark Star jumped back trying to get away from her, but she followed, never pausing, and never failing to follow him perfectly slipping through his every defense and seeing through every feint in her relentless pursuit.

How could this be? Dark Star roared to himself as he narrowly evaded another of Princess Celestia’s attacks. He knew she was not this skilled a warrior, for he had seen her training many times before. Star Knight often found himself quietly watching the princess and Striker training together. Dark Star remembered the pain of that time keenly though he did not feel it himself anymore.

The princess' eyes were not even open half the time as they fought and yet her attacks were unnaturally accurate. No, wait, the princess' eyes were not closed most of the time, they never opened at all. Her eyes darted back and forth beneath her eyelids following him as he moved, but she never opened them. Dark Star watched her more carefully as he evaded her attacks, and quickly realized that her eyes weren’t following him but darting ahead of him.

Dark Star realized he had underestimated the subtle nature of the princess’ magic; she was using powerful divination magic. Behind her closed eyes, she could see the fight developing a few moments in the future allowing her to move and react with incredible speed and insight. Dark Star smiled to himself, this was an impressive feat, and it undoubtedly took her many years of training not to become confused by the space-time distortion, despite the effectiveness of the technique Dark Star quickly realized its flaw.

Summoning up his dark magic Dark Star reached out with his will to grab hold of two different elemental forces. Casting a spell of this nature was a strain on the black unicorn especially when he also had to keep dodging the deadly princess relentless attack, but his long years of training had prepared him for such exertions.

Princess Celestia stopped mid charge her head suddenly whipping back and forth as if looking all around her. She jumped up and took to the air as a pillar of stone shot out of the ground where she had been standing and banked hard to the right slipping out of the way of a bolt of lightning that tore down from the sky.

Suddenly the air was alive with dancing lights and stabbing stones as lightning rained down from the heavens, and long jagged pillars of earth thrust up from the ground. Dark Star smiled confidently as he shot through the air at the princess. Her precognitive powers might give her the edge against one attacker, but there was no way she could anticipate or train for being attacked on all sides by not only a pony but nature as well.

Dark Star dropped out of the sky just as the princess narrowly banked around a bolt of lightning and had no time to steady herself. His hooves slammed into her back momentarily paralyzing her wings and knocking her from the air, slamming her into the side of one of the stone pillars.

Not wanting to give her a chance to recover Dark Star summoned up his magic and focused it on the pillar shattering it completely and causing countless razor sharp stone to shoot off in all directions and throwing up a thin cloud of dust and debris.

Dark Star watched it settle and as he suspected Princess Celestia had slipped away, after all, if she had perished from that attack Dark Star would sense her grip on the sun and the moon slip away, and it most certainly had not.

Dark Star calmly landed in the meadow around the stone pillars which had been ripped up and in several places a scorched patch of once vibrant lush greenery marked were lighting bolts had struck. The meadow was cool and damp most likely Princess Celestia’s doing, not wanting Dark Star’s destructive magic to cause wildfires that would harm the nearby ponies and wildlife. Dark Star briefly considered unleashing a violent firestorm to make the princess’ fear a reality, but that would not serve his, nor his queen’s, purposes in the least, so he disregarded the thought.

“That was very impressive Celestia; I never expected your magic could make you such an effective warrior.” Dark Star said calmly with a slight smile as he searched for the missing princess. “But come now stop this foolishness and just accept that your time is over. You cannot stop this from happening, and you have no allies left to help you so just give up.”

“I will not give in Dark Star,” Princess Celestia voice echoed all around the black stallion. Dark Star knew this minor enchantment and used it himself frequently, though it left no way to detect where the speaker truly was. “I wished to defeat you with my own magic, but if allies are what I need then perhaps my magic can provide them to me.”

The next words she spoke caused Dark Star eyes to shoot wide open; they were the words of calling. Suddenly glowing runes formed into a circle beneath him and he took to the air just as the ground gave way, disappearing altogether and a hole opened up in the earth.

Not knowing what would come out Dark Star moved to put some distance between himself and the portal, but as he turned to fly away, something whipped around his right hind leg and squeezed it painful, pulling him back down.

Dark Star looked down to see what had him, it was a vine, thick as a colt’s leg, and it was not alone. Another shot up and grabbed a foreleg but one quick swipe of his horn cut the bond and fell back to the portal, which could no longer be seen under the mass of vines that seemed to grow up out of it. Several more vines shot up to grab the gray-eyed pony as he desperately cut and slashed at the grabbing vines in a rapidly losing battle to keep himself out of the pit.

As the seconds ticked by more and more vines reached out for him, soon there were too many to fight, two grabbing him for every one he severed. They encircled his midsection and squeezed down like the coils of a snake forcing the air from his lungs and making it impossible to breathe. Nopony understood the world that this lethal vine had come from, save for Princess Celestia herself, and Dark Star feared that he would not be given a chance to learn if he did not escape it now.

Summoning up his magic Dark Star unleashed an earth revere spell, pillars of earth shot across the pit crossing each other’s path and cutting off dozens of vines. Many of the vines wrapped around Dark Star, including the ones around his torso went slack as they were severed from the central mass allowing the pegasus to breathe again. Changing the flow of his magic Dark Star summoned up his wind spell next and used the blade like jets of pressurized air to slash through the remaining vines and free himself.

Flying up Dark Star looked down to see the animated vines begin to grow up out of the gaps between the covering stone pillars, and knowing that they would soon reach him again, Dark Star set about finishing them. Reaching out with his magic he took hold of the pillars and as he had before shattered them; millions of sharp stone fragments ripped through the plant creature several all of its reaching vines. Knowing that would not be enough to stop the rapidly growing plant monster, and he summoned up his most powerful magic unleashed a torrent of fire down upon the creature burning it to ash.

Dark Star panted recovering his lost breath as he hovered in the air watching the burning plant-life and smolder rubble as the portal slowly faded from sight unable to stay open once the creature it had been made to summon was dead. He started to scan the area around him for any sign of the princess again, but before he could take in much of the surroundings, a silver streak cut through the air like a blade and slammed into his stomach.

The fresh air was forced from his lungs, but the bat-winged pony managed to stay in the air. He looked all around himself trying to see what had attacked him, but whatever it was had already disappeared. Dark Star thought about slipping away into hiding until he could find out what the princess had summoned to attack him now when the silver streak dropped out of the air and slammed Dark Star into the ground.

Dark Star caught the silver creature speed out of sight from the corner of his eye but ignored it in favor of the towering green monster that stood over him now. The huge green thing reared up and brought its fore hooves down upon the black stallion whom narrowly rolled away, jumping back up onto his hooves then jumped back again as the silver streak dropped through the air and slammed into the ground where Dark Star had been a moment ago.

“Thou can consider that a warnin’.” The huge green figure said as it stood to stand next to the silver one.

Dark Star’s eyes grew wide at the familiar voice. The force of the unguarded strikes had caused the black stallion’s head to swim and distorted his vision, but with a quick shake of his head, his vision cleared he saw the two figures standing before him properly for the first time. One was a tall silver pegasus with a dark metallic colored mane and cold blue eyes; his partner was a slightly shorter but stockier female earth pony with a green coat, a brown mane, and soft green eyes. “Sword Strike… Green Garden...”