Twilight of Iron : Act 1

by BackroundVoice

Act 1 : Scene 5 : Promise of the Empress

Being marched through the high palace wasn't always so frightening. But when faced with reporting failure to their beloved ruler in person, changed that. The captain and her only remaining samurai were guided by the palace guard. They looked as if the armor they wore moved like skin. Not a single opening for movement, or cracks to get under, and large ruby bows hung from their backs. The captain looked around her, seeing only royalty and foreigners, chatting and discussing of business over seas. All of which the captain wished to not associate with. As she didn't take to strangers all too well.

Her fellow samurai couldn't seem to keep a level head. He constantly looked over his shoulder, scared an assassin would come up and kill him for dishonoring the royal empire, and muttered some old family saying of himself. The captain, clearly was the only one calmly sweating at the thought of dying by the Empress' blade.

And when they finally came to their destination, the two royal guards moved up to open the double wide doors leading into the throne room.

Breathing deeply, the captain and the samurai stepped in reluctantly. Now in the center of the throne room, both of them gazed up to the goddess perched atop her golden throne. Her mane burned red, and her eyes glowed a beautiful blue. This pale coated ruler smiled on her subjects, and the captain and her comrade bowed to her.

"State your name, rank, and business!" Empress Celestia said in a brave tone. The captain cleared her throat, suddenly it had gone dry. "Out with it," the Empress demanded, looking to the right side of the room and out the window, just to see what was out there.

"Lightning Dust, your Highness. 5th Captain of the Cloudsdale royal battalion," Lightning Dust finally stated.

"And your business?" the Empress asked. And just when Lightning was about to speak, the other samurai spoke up first.

"We were attacked!" the samurai said, "Ambushed by a rouge samurai! We didn't stand a chance!"

Silence filled the throne room as the Empress' attention turned to the samurai. All who were in the room, from the humble servant to the noble royal guard, looked to this loud and panicked Pegasus.

"A Ronin?" the Empress peered at the samurai, "You were defeated, and chased away, by a single Ronin?" she asked, stepping down from her throne, and standing before him. The Empress was not amused. Lightning Dust remained still as a servant approached the Empress on her left. Holding out a weapon still sheathed.

"S- She didn't show any mercy," the samurai said, "Killing two dozen of our comrades, and leaving me with these scares..."

"Oh, You poor thing." the Empress said, touching his bruised and battered face; before pulling her blade and holding up to him. “Redeem yourself...” She then said, waiting for him to draw his short sword. Lightning watched quietly as he knelt to honor his ruler. But just as he readied himself, stripping off his armor and positioning his blade, concentrating to gain the strength to commit Seppuku, the Empress raised her blade, and the royal guards each knocked back an arrow aiming for him.
But Lightning was too late to protest before the samurai had lifted his blade, only to die by the Empress and her guard, sullying his pride and loyalty.

Lightning Dust, looked back to the ground, wondering why, and why she wasn’t ordered to do the same.

"Pity," the Empress said, "Its always the coward who stains the carpet red. You may leave Lightning Dust, I have learned all that I need to know." Lightning stood, her helmet being taken away by the servants, who smiled as if no murder had occurred here. It's not like Lightning hadn't heard of rumors like this, that the Empress executes judgement on failed allies, but to witness it was completely different. She had seen so much death in just the last two days alone, and now the last of her friends were dead, and at the hoof of the Empress. Lightning Dust's mind flowed endlessly of denial that she serves such a ruler, who takes life on a whim.

Still stunned, Lightning Dust walked to the door, and as she left, she turned back to her ruler, curious, and asked the question, "She said you love cowards, That Ronin... Is it true?"

The Empress Celestia was puzzled as to why she would ask that, and then her eyes opened as if remembering something and she chuckled, laughing at the thought. "Yes," the Empress answered, "And as for the Ronin, she is nothing more than a deranged fool, once my pupil, but is now nothing more than a shadow cast behind me."

"So then, how did that shadow form?" Lightning Dust asked, and the Empress looked to her with a gentle smile.

"Continue to ask questions like that, Lightning. And you will be just as studious as my last pupil. That, I will promise you, and I hope to will leave this palace soon, before you become cowardly like he was." the Empress said, gesturing to the samurai being dragged out of the room. That sentence alone cut Lightning Dust to the core. That attack to the mind almost made her draw her sword.
But now is not the time, she thought. And she left the room, eyes connected with Celestia's until the doors closed behind her. And then she ran, leaving the palace, as ordered. Humiliating to say the least, but hatred is a double edged sword that can only be tamed in the most humble of circumstances.

And while the now former captain left, Celestia watched over her kingdom, bathed in the glorious sunlight of her rule.

"I wonder," Celestia thought out loud, "What animals will the children see in the sky today? Will it be a horse, or a rabbit?" she giggled with her hoof over her mouth, but continued to gaze on at the children in the courtyards.

"For I saw a Dragon, my sister a Tiger." She said, now alone in her throne room, peering over at a grand tapestry, depicting a white moonlit tiger falling to a brilliant crimson dragon. "My lover saw a Demon..." she said again, glancing only for a moment at the cracked crystal spear on the wall, "And both my pupils; they saw Dragons as well." The Empress now moved her horn in a counter clockwise motion, and in that moment, she had vanished and reappeared in her sleeping quarters, gazing at a library of letters, one half labeled Sunset and the other half, Twilight.

"The war will begin soon, I should say my good-byes my faithful student, before I regret it." and with a red and gold robe flung over her shoulders by golden magic, she whipped her horn clockwise, appearing at the front of the palace.
"Ready the chariot, I must find my pupil!" she said in the imperial voice, gazing up at the sky, not a cloud in sight.

Comments

[PhycoKrusk]

The plot thickens.

[Black Hoof]

Bad Celestia! Her former pupil will punish her one day!

[Vaguely Demented]

How very petty. At least wait to see if he had screamed when making the cut.

[Ze1a7in]

A crimson mane, yet blue eyes. So a mix of Daybreaker and Celestia?

[Black Hoof]

I am saddened to see this fanfic cancelled.

[BackroundVoice]

9632708
Same

[Black Hoof]

9634789
Why did you stop by the way?

[BackroundVoice]

9635065
I stopped because I wanted to become an actual author.
Writing fan fiction is super fun, and it’s rewarding to read what people think of my writing and how I tell a story. But you can only grow so much from that. I really enjoyed writing here because it’s honestly such a great formatted website and it’s easy to use.
But one reason is definitely that I didn’t want to write for the fandom anymore.
The original idea for Fighters Don’t Have Friends was just to make an excuse to have as many fight scenes as possible for me to write. And I loved it. Action I believe is one of my strong suits, but because I wrote the plot point of keeping Twilight in Ponyville, tons of people were making it seem like I hated Twilight.
But she’s truly my favorite pony.
I realized then that I was writing for the wrong group of people. The brony fandom hates conflict, I however don’t care. Of course, regardless of how I or some people feel, I was still received more positively than not on all my stories.
But no matter how good my stories became, it would always still be a fan fic.
I believe fan fictions have helped me grow as a writer, but not as a story teller.
So I decided through much thinking that it would be best to end my time as a fan fic writer and try to create something truly original and beautiful.
I regret the most that I never continued Twilight of Iron, but sometimes you need to know when to give up on a story and devote yourself to something more worth while than yourself.
Because if I wanted to write something that I wanted to read, I’d stay here and never write a real book.
But I believe more strongly that story telling and writing is an art form. And like any other art form, it should never be about what I want.
Neon Genisis Evangelion is the perfect example of a piece art that the original artist had no idea what he was creating. To this day, people are still talking about it and learning new things from that show that Hideako Anno never intended people to feel.
It was art that truly came from his heart.
And same thing with most Ghibili films, and books like Game of Thrones and Harry Potter.
I want to be like George R. R. Martin who creates a story for people to take and grow from.
But I don’t want to be a selfish writer like J. K. Rolling.
Because she made something that truly inspired people, but she doesn’t see it as a piece of art. She sees it as her thing to be whatever she wants it to be, which is why she keeps saying certain characters are gay or a different race when that was never supposed to be the point to begin with. And technically she did make it, but when you create something, be it an idea and giving birth to a real person, you have the responsibility to help it grow, but once it is made, it isn’t yours anymore. It’s the world’s.
We as humans take what we want out of a medium of art in order to better ourselves inherently. In a sense, we take art as a gift.
Cartoons, Books, Movies, Food, Speech, Opinions, even People are all pieces of art to see and experience for ourselves.
And I want to do that. It’s stupid hard, but it’s what I think is best for me.
I want to write stories, that are not for me.

[K-O-D-E-X]

-sighs- Welp.... Now I am incredably depressed this was one of the stories I was really looking foward to it's completion.

[Starlight Nova]

9637464
Well then, could you at least tell us how this story would've ended?

[BackroundVoice]

9680193
Empress Celestia eventually comes to ponyville to see her former student one last time.
But before that, Twilight sends Starlight away beforehand so that she doesn’t get hunted. Starlight runs into Lightning Dust who is deserting the Empire in order to escape its tyrannical rule.
Both resolve to return to ponyville to help Twilight.
In the meantime, Twilight attempts to kill Celestia with the Yoso no Chowa only to have them shatter on impact.
We then learns from this that Empress Celestia is the nessisary evil of this world and by the laws of harmony, cannot be hurt or killed by them. Where as Twilight doesn’t quite fit into the prophecy in order to counteract that. This is proof by how she bleeds when she cuts herself with the blades, marking her as one of the many the Yoso no Chowa deems unworthy or evil.
At this point, Twilight is about to be killed by Celestia’s royal guard, it’s here that Lightning Dust and Starlight help distract the army so that both Twilight and the residents of ponyville can escape.
The final fight is this act is between Twilight and Lightning Vs the pursuing royal guard.
In this fight, the royal guard is too fast and strong for Lightning to handle and she loses her right eye to a katana. Twilight then takes up that fight along with her own against the second guard and decides to make a gamble with Starlight’s life.
She brings the Yoso no Chowa down on Starlight and we learn that just like Celestia, Starlight cannot be harmed by harmony or fate.
Twilight then uses the shattered pieces of the Yoso no Chowa to levitate the blade shards into a tornado and practically blenders one of the royal guard.
This leaves the other in retreat as our heroes lament that they lost the battle officially, but gained victory in saving the villagers of ponyville in the escape.
Starlight’s relationship with Twilight grows more distant as She not only almost killed her for the sake of a gamble in breaking the swords but also in refusing to open up about her past and explain her hatred for the Empress, earning only distrust from Starlight and Lightning.
We end this act on a bitter note as we confirm the our protagonists aren’t exactly heroes but they’re all this dark world has in the face of an evil that is seemingly destined to exist.
Epilogue: Meanwhile, back in Tokyo, Celestia is tasking four generals to to hunt Twilight down and kill her, including Starlight and Lightning.
These four are described as Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie, with a fifth foreigner that is gladly taking up the bounty with them in order to kill Twilight.
This foreigner is Apple Jack and unlike the other four who are Samurai, AJ is from this alternate universe’s equivalent of America. She is a sharp shooting rifleman in alliance with the Empire, which sets things up for Act 2 of 3.

[BackroundVoice]

9680193
Another reason I’m stopping is because I lost contact with my main cover artist. But this is more of a minor point as apposed to the real reason you’ve already read.

[The Radiance]

9682764
So no more Twilight of Iron?

[Vaguely Demented]

9928490
President of the club is Gilgamesh.