Those Forty Years

by Spell Writer

Eternal 10 - Celestia's Kingdom Part 1

Celestia rushes through Canterlot, black vines, scraggly trees, and strange flowers starting to sprout and creep upwards. A dark ooze coating the floor washes over Celestia's hooves, causing her to gag and shake it off. "What is this…?" Celestia says in bewilderment as she flaps her wings, beginning to hover above the ground. The tar-like ooze seems to be eating away at the stone and woodworking of the houses. Entire streets and buildings become consumed by the liquid, leaving nothing but strange patches of grass, giant vines, and an ever-increasing canopy of dark trees.

"This isn't good. Stay close, Philomena." Celestia says before flapping her wings and flying forward. Celestia is as careful as possible and only lands once the pair reaches the castle's steps. The castle and city are falling apart, with trees, vines, and other foliage forming within its walls, cracking and damaging everything they touch. It's almost like this forest has intelligence, as each sprouting tree crashes out in ideal locations to destroy more and more of Celestia's home. Rubble forming at an alarming rate.

Just as Celestia steps forward, the ooze in front of her begins to shift, spinning violently as three black and yellow orbs start to form. Wood and bark from the nearby trees start to magnetize onto the orbs as green magic begins to swirl within them. Celestia takes a defensive step back as three Timberwolves appear from the magical globs. "What?! That's not possible! Mom and Dad defeated Grogar. Why are there monsters in Equestria?!" She quickly grabs Philomena with a wing and dives out of the way of a Timberwolf's pounce. A loud splat rang out as Celestia got a mouthful of the ooze and a large glob on her face.

"PEGHF. Gross! It tastes like tar or something!" Celestia gags violently. She's never tasted tar, but nothing else can describe it. The taste is worse than even rotten food! Philomena quickly flies and grabs Celestia's mane to try and force Celestia to stand. Of course, the small phoenix can not hoist the Alicorn up, but the tugging sensation recentered Celestia enough for her to notice the second attack by the wolves. Lurching up with a hoof and slamming it into the monster's softer underbelly, she knocks the beast over her, the force of its pounce helping launch it. With a loud thud, the creature slams into the ground, sliding due to the black ooze and spinning out of Canterlot entirely.

Celestia blinks and looks mildly surprised. Her birth parents always told her that monsters were not something to be trifled with. But these ones seemed almost cartoonishly inadequate at combat. They weren't even attacking all at once! Celestia smiles with a little bit of confidence from this realization. "Alright, if mom and dad could do it. Then I can, too!" She says as she prepares herself for the battle.

The battle lasts around thirty seconds. Celestia uses her wings to her advantage to avoid and push the Timberwolves out of Canterlot. Using the ooze to her advantage, the final two monsters would find themselves sliding into the forest as the slippery substance is entirely frictionless for the creatures. The timberwolves even escaped with only their pride wounded. Celestia exhales in relief as she notices more oozing orbs begin to form. This would only stop once she finds the source.

"Quickly, Philomena," Celestia says as she rushes into the castle, the monsters forming as she makes it inside her home.

Celestia closes the large door behind herself and the phoenix. The fiery red bird lit a small area while the three elements of harmony glowed gently to provide light around Celestia herself. The castle was falling apart at the seams! Celestia thought about all the dangerous magical books her birthparents and mother collected. They would all be buried with this place once it fell apart. Celestia knew she didn't have time to go through and save everything. Much of it was likely already far too dangerous to approach since the traps could have shifted or changed from the castle's destruction.

Celestia rushes towards the Unity wing of the castle. Her mom's memory gems should all be there in Unity's room. Then, she can worry about undoing the pacification spell. Ignoring all the monster core… thingies forming around her, Celestia rushes to Unity's room. "Faster. Gotta go faster!" She says as she takes flight, running forward as quickly as possible, her mane stretching a bit in color as she blasts through the halls.

Then she hears it. The sound of fighting coming from nearby. "There are still ponies here?!" She says with wide eyes before flying towards the noise. "Why can't things ever go smoothly?!" Celestia groans out a little. Celestia burst into the destroyed ballroom, finding the entire remains of the royal guard battling various monsters. Chimera, Timberwolves, even Changelings, and a Bugbear!

Celestia's eyes widen before she quickly knocks the bugbear out of the sky with a swift kick to the back of her head, knocking it out in a single blow. "I'm here everypony! Push quickly, spears front and mages on backup!" The guards see Celestia, many smiling and cheering before beginning an attack with their invigorated morale. Celestia quickly begins helping the guards kick out all the evil monsters from the ballroom. The efforts of all twenty-odd ponies resulted in all the monsters running away or being launched out of a broken stained glass window. Celestia pants a little bit from exertion as Philomena flies around the area, the gentle, warm sparkles filling all the ponies in the room with just a little more energy. Celestia can't help but smile as she feels her stamina restoring.

There's no time to lose to relaxing or revelry. Celestia speaks to the Sergeant the moment the battle ends. "Quickly, you all need to get out before the castle comes crumbling down." But all the guards stand firm. "Wha?"

"Your Majesty, it's our duty to protect YOU. As long as you're in the castle, we will stay, too." The Sergeant says with a straight face before all the guards bow. "Please, allow us to help to the best of our ability." He says before bowing to Celestia.

Celestia bites her lip. She doesn't want anypony to get hurt. However, the guards would likely follow her, with or without permission. "Fine. But only the healthy. The wounded must go." She says firmly to the group after taking a moment to think about the best course of action. To which the guards nod and agree. None of them want their injured to fight. After a moment, one unicorn and an earth pony are quickly helped out of the castle, exiting through the broken window. A single pegasus going with them to protect them. "Take the secret exit. The area is far more dangerous now." Celestia says to the leaving group. The duo nod and wish everyone else good luck as they quickly leave, the pegasi saluting Celestia before following suit.

The large group then bursts out of the ballroom, evicting all the monsters that have formed inside the castle with magic, brawns, or tactics. The three pony races work together in perfect tandem to defend their Princess. Celestia quickly says. "I have to get to Unity's room and workshop. The rest of you need to stop the monsters HERE. However, if it starts to get too dangerous."

The Sergeant smiles. "Princess, each of us took an oath to defend you and your family to the last breath. Once you escape, we will escape. Now go. Save Equestria. We will be your rearguard." He says with a smile. Celestia bites her bottom lip before nodding. "You better win Princess! We're all counting on you." The Sergeant says before grabbing a fallen spear and charging right into the fray with his fellow guards with a loud. "GAHHHH, come and get me you monsters!"

Celestia worriedly watches the fight before rushing forward on her quest. Once this is all over, she's throwing the entire castle guard a party, a big one. Like the biggest one she can without Mom getting angry about wasting tax money. Celestia quickly dashes through the decrepit castle. Stones from the walls and ceiling crashed around her as pulses from the pacification spell and the growing ooze continued to damage and reshape the area.

But she made it. Celestia and Philomena see the double doors that lead into Unity's room. She hears some noise from upstairs, but that is far from vital to her right now. Celestia goes faster, speeding up faster than she's ever flown. Quickly twisting in the air, she slams her right shoulder into the double doors, blasting them open with great force. Only then does she notice the fountain of ooze coming from just in front of the doorway. A festering pustule of disgusting tar releases the ooze flowing constantly from the rug below, creating a limitless amount of the black ooze, which is destroying everything around her.

With a stomp, Celestia forces her hoof down on the pustule, popping it with a loud SQUELSH noise. Her entire leg ends up covered with the tar, which she shakes off with disgust. The strange liquid ceases its flow, but not without consequences. The area begins to shake and stir as Celestia rushes to Unity's window, holding onto it as the earthquake shifts and stirs. Celestia, seeing the very land around the castle starts to shudder and twist, pulling apart at the seams. The castle shakes and writhes as it is ripped in twain, leaving only the main hold atop the rock it was once on. The rest of the town begins to crumble, falling into the crevice that is slowly forming. Years and years of pony history crumbling to dust in an instant.

When the shuddering stops, all that is left is a decrepit, old castle on a plateau in the middle of a forest, with a deep trench around and nothing linking it to the other side. Canterlot City was utterly destroyed, and everything else along with it.

This broke Celestia's heart. Everything Ponies had, all the progress, all the love and care they put into their city, and now there was nothing left. Nothing left of her birth parents. Nothing left of their legacy. The garden, the statues. They were all gone.

Celestia closes her eyes momentarily and forces herself to focus on other things, yet her heart screams for revenge. Revenge on the single creature that destroyed everything. Philomena seemed to sense Celestia's turmoil as she landed on the Ivory Alicorn's nose and gave her a feathery hug.

Celestia holds back some tears. The time for sorrow would come later. That's what her birth father would say. Yet, Celestia has another voice in her head. Once much more recent.

'It's okay to be scared, angry and sad. Just remember that I'm always here for you. No one will judge you for your emotions. They are not weakness.' With that, Celestia allows a few tears to drop before she reaches with her hoof and begins gathering all the crystals. Tears fresh in her eyes, stinging them, she runs out of the room. Accidentally, having grabbed an extra artifact in her rush, a small stone lying in her saddle bag. Glowing a light green.

Celestia pushes into the mage tower, the crumbling building missing many of its stairs. With several flaps of her wings, she flies up to the top of the tower. The magical spell is swirling and spinning as she enters the room, revealing a sight she never wished to see.

She sees Discord and Luna writhing inside the spell, squirming as their magic is used to power the spell. The door slams behind Celestia as she hears a loud Peep. With a quick flap of her wings, she narrowly avoided two magic beams that crashed down where she stood. Twilight, her mother, lands in front of the door while Unity crashes down with a grin.

Unity giggles and says, "Nice attempt. I have to admit, Celestia, this plan was truly incredible! You ALMOST got me." Unity's grin breaks out into a full smile. A curled smirk mixed into it that exuded confidence. "Course, as I said several times. Discord has ZERO chance against me. I think we both knew how this was going to end."

Celestia steps back a tiny amount. Trying to think of a way out of this. What is she going to do? What can she do?!

"Nothing. You can't do anything, Celestia. I win. I WIN. Game over. You lose. This is MY story now. Once the world is pacified, I can push back this strange forest, fix whatever is going on with my magic, and we will have a perfectly harmonious world! But you deserve a reward since you did get this far." Unity says with a smile that reeks of maliciousness, yet, on some level, she also seems to be sincerely interested in Celestia now. The smile reminds Celestia of how Unity used to look at Twilight, sending shivers down the Ivory Alicorn's spine.

"Join me, Celestia. We both know you wish to bring harmony to the world, too. Your methods are just far too shortsighted, like your mother's were. This world is mine now. So give up your sister your family, and join the winning side." She grins as she holds her hoof out.

Luna and Discord grunt as they float inside the magical apparatus. Discord saying something first. "You might as well, Celestia. I'm out of ideas." He says as he groans out in a small amount of pain.

Luna just smiles a little bit. "You got this sis. You always do." She giggles. The three elements synced with her glowing gently in response to being close to the other three. Celestia looks downward as she approaches Unity.

Upon which she punches Unity as hard as she can in the face. All her anger in that one singular attack. Enough to make the green and blue Alicorn flinch. Celestia glaring. "Never."

Unity smirks as she allows Celestia to return to her spot in the room, rubbing her cheek slightly. "Ya know. I know that it's bad for someone to enjoy pounding someone into the dirt." She spits a bit on the ground. "But I am SO going to enjoy putting you in your place, Celestia Sol."

Celestia smiles a little as Philomena chirps in her ear. "That's Celestia Sparkle to you." With a glow of her horn as one last crack repairs itself, infused with the power of both the sun and phoenixes. Celestia fires a single blast of magic.

Time almost feels as if it's slowing. The confidence on Unity's face slowly faded to surprise. Then, terror as she saw the beam she was expecting to come at her wasn't actually aimed at her.

It was aimed at the artifact instead.

Author's Note:

Awwwww yeaaaa. MLP references in the title.

Today's character is!

Luna~!

Luna Sol Sparkle:

Title: Twilight's Woona

Luna is the alicorn of the moon and the youngest of the two sisters. She was adopted at a very young (Alicorn) age, meaning that she sees Twilight as her one and only Mother. She used to love hanging around with her dad, but he hardly paid attention to her till Twilight showed up. Even then, she still learned a lot from him, making her an expert on Monsters and strange creatures! She even knows who Grogar is, a fact that she's really proud of! Between her and her sister, she loves relaxing. She does handle her nightmare duties from time to time, but unlike in the mainline story, she does get a decent amount of praise for her duties. Luna's favorite food is pizza! However, the recipe was deleted during the incident, meaning the only place she can get it now is with her Mom's time magic. Luna's relationship outside of her family is varied. While she never liked Unity, she never outright disliked her like Celestia did. Instead, she just found the spirit creepy. As for Discord, she finds him a complete pain and wants little to do with him, which usually results in him focusing on her the most with his 'life lesson' stuff.

Twilight's notes:

Luna is the youngest of my two daughters and the one that I worry about the most, mostly because I know her future. Therefore, I try my best to give her the best life she can have while I am around. Luna, while being young, is extremely book-smart and studies magic really hard. While she doesn't have a particular talent for it, she gets through with study and dedication. Once Starswirl is around, I'll have him be her exclusive tutor while I try to focus on reigning Celestia in and getting her to study for once.

Celestia:

My little sister and the cutest thing this side of the Everfree, even though she'd never let me say that in public. Luna is the protector of the night and my little sister. I try to keep an eye on her and make sure she goes out and meets new ponies as much as I can, but she's a bit more introverted than I am. Where I prefer to go skiing or sledding down a hill at high speed, she'd rather make snow angels or read with some hot cocoa. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just a little boring. Even then, though, she does help me out a lot, namely by scaring away chickens... Don't ask.

Comments

[Blood Rarity]

[Spell Writer]

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You’ll find out~!

[The Spy of the Tiger]

With a stomp, Celestia forces her hoof down on the pustule, popping it with a loud SQUELSH noise. Her entire leg ends up covered with the tar, which she shakes off with disgust.

I've noticed a lot of passive voice in this story, and I think if you were to change most of it to active voice, the story would feel better to read.

A phrase in active voice carries more authority and action than the same phrase in passive voice.

"The horse eats the hay," is a fine example of active voice. In passive voice, to convey the same meaning, I would say "The hay was eaten by the horse." Do you see the difference? Active voice is more direct and conveys more action than passive voice.

That's not to say there isn't any use for passive voice, it certainly has its place, but I think you're overusing it a bit. I would adjust the quoted sentence as such, "With a stomp, Celestia forces her hoof down on the pustule, popping it with a loud SQUELSH, which covered her entire leg with the tar, that she then shook off in disgust."