Fallen

by ElementOfKindness

Hope

The white alicorn crashed through the front gates to the castle, ignoring the broken bodies of those flung into the unyielding masonry by the spell Celestia and Twilight had performed. There was now a constant nagging at the back of her mind. Celestia had gotten no stronger since the first unexpected show of resistance and the one in control of her body easily crushed her attempts to rebel, but it was worrying that she should need to at all.

She moved at a quick pace, going into a side corridor that lead up to a reinforced door. The door was unguarded; The two royal guards that would normally bar anyone's way were lying in a heap against one of the walls of the corridor. She used Celestia's knowledge to open the door and stepped inside, gazing at the objects that sat upon the pedestal before her.

"The Elements of Harmony."

She reached out, brushing a hoof against one and feeling it's intricate detail for a moment. Then she grasped it more firmly, lifting it up before her horn, and began the spell she had used to steal Twilight's magic. The Element was much harder to drain than a pony, but it no longer had a bond to anypony. The apple-shaped gem set into it showed the Element of Honesty, but Applejack was dead. Slowly, a steady stream of energy flowed from the gemstone into the alicorn's horn, while the edges of the necklace started to change into a grey shade.

When it was done, she dropped the stoned-over necklace to the ground, the fragile object cracking in two pieces next to what had been the gem, now just an ordinary stone. She moved to the next, and continued until all the necklaces lay as broken pieces of stone before her. Then she reached for the tiara, the Element of Magic. This was the one she expected to be the hardest to master, for it's bearer still lived. She wanted Twilight alive: She was sure the pony would come to see things as she did, even if she had to make it happen, and she wanted someone to assist her when she ruled. If someone such as Twilight was shown to be on her side, all resistance would crumble.

Despite her concerns, the Element of Magic offered little resistance. She barely had to touch it with the intent of draining it before the magic burst forth from the gem atop it, shooting into her horn in one quick bolt and staggering the alicorn. She didn't know whether it was the spell, the fact that she already held Twilight's magic, or some other unknown reason that made it so easy, and nor did she care. She held out the stone tiara before her, then dashed it against the ground. The last Element shattered, sending chips of stone flying across the room and impacting against the walls and the alicorn's hooves.

Now, all she had to do was be rid of Celestia, and her power would be absolute. Celestia, however, had noticed something the other had not. The parasite began a spell directed inwards, preparing to flush it's new body of Celestia for good, but something was wrong. She screamed in rage.

"The Elements are not WORKING!!"

***

Hardly anything was left of the Elements besides dust. Five small stones lay in a pile of other tiny pebbles, all that remained of the gemstones set in the necklaces. Of the sixth, there was no sign.

Celestia pushed aside what remained of the door, now almost completely destroyed by the ravages of time, as she stepped into the room. A certain darkness had taken residence here for a long time. It was almost completely gone now, slowly dissipating over time, but Celestia still felt a chill as she entered the space. She disliked coming here, hated the feeling of the oppressive energy on her skin, but she always came anyway. For a time, this place had brought her something that was now foreign to her: Hope. It was a feeling she hadn't felt for millennia now, but this place had been the last to give her any and she still passed by it from time to time.

In this place lay the most vivid memory of all.

***

The alicorn raged and ranted, screaming and kicking at the walls until she bruised her hooves, leaving cracks in the strong stone. She stood there for a time, panting after her exertion, before attempting the spell for the third time. Again nothing happened and again she flew into a rage, blasting the interior of the room with bolts of energy and causing chunks of stone to fall from the ceiling.

Celestia, hiding in the back of her own mind, looked on as if watching through a veil. The veil was made of her pain: She was utterly broken after seeing the vast amount of death brought to Equestria by her own hooves. She felt nothing but despair, but some small part of her knew why the other could not use the Elements. She was not pure of heart, and the Elements could only he harnessed by those with good intentions. She may hold the power, with the spirits of the Elements dead and the objects themselves drained of energy, but without knowing their true nature she could never use them.

Celestia could. She could use them and defeat the parasite, force it from her body. But then... what? There was nothing left, it had all been destroyed already. The parasite thought she would be able to control the ponies of Equestria, but her gaze was clouded by delusion. She had already destroyed most of the land and to make things worse, the celestial bodies had stopped moving. By now the moon should have been high in the night sky, but it was still sunrise from the day before, the mad alicorn completely forgetting her need to move the sun along in her fury.

Celestia had nothing more to live for. She could just submit, fade away until she was no more, and let the parasite win. Or she could fight, win control of herself back from the other, and then... endure eternity. She was the last of the immortal alicorns and any ponies left would eventually die, leaving her alone to mourn her world forever. There would be no rebuilding: Equestria was too far gone. She didn't want to go through that. She didn't want to. The parasite had... won.

All of a sudden, the one in control of Celestia felt a stir in the magic within her.

"YES!" she exclaimed gleefully. "You lose CELESTIA!!" She screamed the last word at the top of her lungs, overcome by insane joy. She began the spell one last time, feeling the Elements feed their energy into it as Celestia began to slowly fade from the back of her consciousness. Crazed laughter echoed from the ceiling.

I lose.

The laughter stopped abruptly as the parasite heard a whisper speak into her mind.

"What!?"

I lose, but you do not win this day.

The voice came back stronger, and the parasite felt a sharp twinge in her mind, as if she was getting a headache. It went away for a moment, then returned tenfold. A hundredfold, the pain searing her mind as she was stripped away, flushed from the body that was not hers. As she began to fade, a scream tore free from her lips.

***

Celestia screamed, an echo of her tormentor's scream ten millennia ago. She raised her head, her voice rebounding off the small space and deafening her as she used it for the first time in her memory. Then she opened her eyes, looking clearly at the world around her, not through a haze of pain as she had been before. After everything that had happened, she had given up. Yes, she had fought, defeated the one who had tried to oppress her, oppress Equestria. But then she had just given up, the same as if she had let the other win.

All this time she had wasted, believing she had nothing left. It hurt, but she did not linger on the thought. She didn't linger because she felt something... a feeling she had all but forgotten.

Hope.

After the vastness of her depression, she almost giggled with joy. Almost. She could not allow herself to believe yet, to believe that some ponies had survived in hiding all these years, able to make a way to live in this barren land so that they could have children and keep the species alive. But as long as there was any chance, it was her duty to make herself known to them. The world was still dangerous, and almost all knowledge that had existed in the past was now lost. All that remained was in Celestia's mind, and much of it she had forgotten. She no longer knew how to raise the sun, even if she had been capable.

She moved to the courtyard in front of the castle as fast as she was able, taking to her wings as soon as she was back in the main section of the castle and stopping just outside the gates. She prepared her magic and, not really knowing what she was doing, cast a spell. It was a powerful one, one that she couldn't have completed had the magical power of the Elements of Harmony not still been with her.

A powerful wind began to roar around her, throwing up dust and sending her mane swirling around her head, and a great beam of light reached up from her horn, extending into the sky, piercing the heavens. The area around her was bathed in white light, that of the pillar banishing the depressing shades made by the meager light of the sunrise. The courtyard looked like it was noon, the single place in the world that had seen the full light of day since The Fall. Most importantly, the pillar was a beacon.

The ponies wouldn't come for a long time. Perhaps they wouldn't come at all. Perhaps there were none, and Celestia was truly alone for eternity, but it didn't matter. For now, she had hope. She would wait, no matter how long it took.

Celestia turned back into the castle and, head held high, continued her long walk.

The End

Comments

[Ms_Fruit_Bat]

This deserves so much more attention.

[ElementOfKindness]

Thanks

Glad to know someone likes it.

[Flowey]

this is a very good story ^^. You should write a sequel about the survivers (if there were any ^^) and how they migrate to the light that celestia had made.

[ElementOfKindness]

981304

Thank you!

I already have a sequel in the works, but it takes place after the survivors arrive. There is actually an epilogue to Fallen, which I'll post later today after I've gotten someone to proofread.

I didn't consider writing a story of the journey to the light, but now that I think about it, I could put a couple of flashbacks in, in a similiar style to what I've done with this story.

[Flowey]

983326 Well I can help you proofread it ^^

[ElementOfKindness]

983385 Thanks for the offer, but I've already asked someone Much appreciated though!

[Flowey]

983416 No prob ^^