From the Ashes

by Dark0592

Chapter 13

“Are you sure you want to come along, Twilight? Don’t you wish to spend time at your home without the threat of war?” Luna asked Twilight as her fleet crested the edge of the Scarred Forest.

“We made some significant findings in our research, but we don’t have the equipment to experiment with it. The Biometal is ready for production and I’m anxious to see what the inventors in Canterlot can do with it.” Twilight replied. Luna just shrugged.

“I suppose any excuse to have you in Canterlot is a good one.” The Princess said with a smile.

“I’ve also found references to some things I’ve seen in Canterlot’s archives in our own, allusions to times and places I’ve seen in the more hidden sections of the library. I wanted to ask Celestia if I could have access to them again. There’s reason to believe that this curse that degrades us is actually a curse, I’ve been skeptical for a long time.” Twilight continues.

“Really now? I’m not aware of any curse strong enough to affect an entire species, let alone for generations. Have you tried taking it apart to lift it like a spell?” Luna asked. Twilight nodded.

“The curse isn’t an active one, the curse must have become part of our biology. We can’t pinpoint the exact makeup of it since we have no comparisons. There are multiple differences between myself and my brood, there are even more between us and you. It’ll take years to parse any exacts out and experiment.” The Queen answered. Luna nodded.

“And you’re hoping to expedite the process.” The Princess concluded. Twilight smiled.

“It’s also an excuse to go see everyone again, so I’ll take what I can get.” She said. They both chuckled at that and went about passing the time until they reached Canterlot. On the way, Twilight immersed herself to help her fallen brood move on and recruited the ones wanting to stay as Guardians. With their help, her mother’s part of the hive mind was kept active and was slowly regenerating itself. Even her changelings were usually awake and active. She remained like that until Luna roused her as they neared the city.

She had spent the rest of the day with Celestia and her family, talking about what happened and her new discoveries. Celestia gave her full access to anything she needed in the research archives and the libraries. She was currently digging through the oldest texts she could find, her wraiths doing the same around her, when Nilan spoke up on both the hive mind and with her voice.

“Mother! I found something!” She called. Twilight was immediately at her side, the others paying attention through their connection so as to not lose their spots. Nilan passed the tome to her Queen and Twilight read on. It was a journal page from an ancient historian, translated of course.

‘These creatures are incredible. They know our history, but they are definitely not Human. They aren’t even Valkyries, but they have wings just as us. Some of them have wings like the Valkyrie, others have wings like Dragons. They are just as curious about us as we are them, they seem to relish social interaction. All of them.’ The first entry read. She read on, her scholar’s mind picking apart any detail and referencing it with every known resource. The next one seemed to be much later on, though dates were lost to time.

‘The Angels aren’t doing too well, their leaders are slowly dying and we can’t figure out why. Skirmishes with the Devils have caused a loss in numbers for both, but the Devils are experiencing the same problems. They both accuse the other of poisoning them, but I know not of any natural poison to do so. Even our mages can’t detect any real magic being used in this way. We’ll aid them as much as we can and prevent war.’

The second entry read. Twilight continued reading through the entries, putting them in order mentally to be transcribed in her own archives.

She soon learned that the race of creatures encountered were split into two tribes. The Angels and the Devils, at least that’s what the explorers called them. They couldn’t translate the word they used for themselves, there wasn’t even a written language that could convey it. The final journal entry caused her to surge with both dread and hope.

‘It’s Efialtis. That Angel has grown so vain she thought the world should be rid of their ‘uglier’ sister tribe. Then she started going crazy, thinks that only the truly beautiful deserve to live. We’re being forced to leave for our own safety, the whole race is poisoned now. The only two safe are being protected in an arcane stasis, we’ve been asked to take them with us and forget we were ever here.
They’re changing. The dark magic Efialtis is using is poisoning everyone, even herself. Her hysteric vanity is spreading too, many Angels and Devils are sounding a lot like her. There’s in fighting now, not just between the tribes. There’s fights between families, and even between siblings. Fights to the death. They all call her the first mother though.
I have to leave today, but I have to write this down while it is fresh. She was stealing something from us. Not physically, but she and her followers would come to us and we’d feel weak afterwards… One of the mages died from exhaustion. The others know it isn’t magic exhaustion but it’s very similar. We need to get the hell out of here, I just hope these things don’t spread back to Equestria.’

The final entry read. It was piecemeal, sometimes the placement of the sentences was almost random. Like there was no straight train of thought, jumping around ideas and things the explorer needed to say. The exact words meant something to her though.

The race of Angels and Devils, that intrigued her. She remembered reading somewhere a long time ago that Celestia and Luna used to be called Angels long before their ascension to the throne, but never found much mention of their parents or upbringing. She vowed to ask them about it later.

The second thing that caught her attention. The process the explorer described sounded like Degeneration and, more importantly, she recognized the name Efialtis. She had just recently read it, actually. It was in a small list of god-like beings that have been banished. She only remembered the list because Discord’s name was on it and scratched off about four separate times. She immediately requested her diplomat to ask Celestia to visit as soon as her court recessed for the night to let Luna take over.

The response was almost instant, Chrys informed her that Celestia was already on her way and Celestia simultaneously stepped through the door.

“Good evening Twilight Sparkle, how goes your research?” The Princess asked happily. She knew that look on Twilight’s face. She just found out something big. Or at the very least important to her own research.

“Celestia, what do you know about an individual named Efialtis?” Twilight asked, looking up from the book. The Princess’ expression darkened immediately.

“That… creature… is one of the greatest evils I had ever faced. She almost exterminated all of humanity two millennia ago, and so she was Banished.” Celestia explained, her tone grave. She was obviously upset at the memory, but what upset her most is that Twilight wouldn’t be asking that if it wasn’t linked to the Changelings.

“She… may be the progenitor of our race… Or rather corrupter.” Twilight explained. Celestia just kinda stood there for a moment before sighing heavily.

“She cannot be easily reached if she still lives… She wasn’t banished normally… She was Expelled from this plane of existence, into the Primordial Abyss.” The Princess said. Twilight was shocked, she had never heard of such a place. Celestia figured as much, as she continued explaining.

“The Primordial Abyss is a realm that I created a long time ago to preserve history. It is where things end up when they go extinct, it is where the worst that creation has to offer is banished to live out the rest of their days. It’s where knowledge goes to die… Where lost things go, and never return.” She explained. Twilight understood as the Princess slowly explained this place. Whoever she sent there to gather information would never return.

“Last resort then, come on let’s keep looking.” Nilan said quickly, attempting to diffuse the tension that had formed. The others quickly agreed and went back to work, though Twilight stood. She made her appreciation of the effort known mentally and moved towards Celestia.

“We’ll get to that if it comes to it then. For now, though, we found something else I’d like to talk to you about.” The queen changed the subject. Celestia sighed in relief and happily nodded.

Twilight explained the old races, but Celestia didn’t know about any of it. Efialtis had already been in power for nearly two thousand years when Celestia defeated her, which was a little under two thousand years ago from present day. Equestria was founded then, Celestia guessed that this explorer’s journal was three and a half thousand years old. They spoke of the findings, as well as current progress on their technological advances, well through the night.

Author's Note:

These are getting shorter, but it's mostly because I'm still addicted to mass effect and I can't summon up the drive to keep the filler going. I'll be jumping around a bit to clean up loose ends or smal sub plots to get through to the big chapters, otherwise I'd lose all drive to write in general again. I realize that's what did me in before, all the god damn filler.

Comments

[Razzy]

Interesting... Especially the mention of two uncorrupted members of the species put in stasis.

[ValNitak Choas]

I guess two angel what were put in stasis are the princess and the changeling were rest of the angels or devil, or well what left of them.

[stapart]

So...Changeling are descendants from corrupt be black magic "Angels" and "Devils"....Interesting,now let's see if that, that Twilight is an Element of Harmony will help remove somehow (It's seems to me that this is already happening: degeneration was stoped) this distortion/perversion
8071796
It is also interesting to know whether (yes or not) Alicorn are Angels

[stapart]

8071839
In that way, Twilight as Alicorn is still possible, in future (or she will end as something completely new [Changeling Empress or as Angel/Demon Hybrid......Nephalem?])

[pahnazd]

More history!
I have a feeling that Efialtis will make a comeback. Or at least there will be a threat of it - after all, she's not dead, merely banished.
Then again, there is a reason why that knowledge is not public. If it had been, there would certainly be some idiots who would try and set her free already.

But hey, it's at least a start for finding out more about the derangement's cure!

[Twilight Connor]

So the alicorns are 'angels', and the thestrals are 'devils'? Interesting. Excited to see where this heads.

[HeartfireFirebrand]

8136326
Maybe but the power gap would be too great, if you were to say Pegasi type Alicorns were angels and Thestral type Alicorns were devils that would make more sense.

[HeartfireFirebrand]

The second thing that caught her attention. The process the explorer described sounded like Degeneration and, more importantly, she recognized the name Efialtis. She had just recently read it, actually. It was in a small list of god-like beings that have been banished. She only remembered the list because Discord’s name was on it and scratched off about four separate times. She immediately requested her diplomat to ask Celestia to visit as soon as her court recessed for the night to let Luna take over.

Yeah Discord is unpredictable.