The War in Heaven

by voroshilov

II. The Emissary

“Before us they had stood, unbowed, haughty, with authority. But, upon the arrival of the Emperor’s Son they were cowed. He made but one gesture of His hand, and they scattered.”

- Prince Kyhron: A Profile by Aurelia Cassian -

"An audience?" Asked Iron Shield, "you wish to visit the Princess?"

"I wish no such thing," answered Kyhron, "but my oath demands it. She must be warned of what approaches and make preparations for His coming."

Kyhron pointed to the Guard Captain, "you will come with me. We must make haste to Celestia. The gates of Tartarus will not hold back the encroaching tide."

---

Canterlot was a vibrant city but was by no means modernised. The houses were of ancient, classical designs, favouring marble and gold works of art over the more utilitarian and lasting steel and glass. The road systems were cobbled and well worn by the constant hoofsteps of thousands of ponies and the drainage system was straining to ensure Canterlot was not flooded.

When Nicholas looked upon the city, he snarled in disgust. Such grandeur would not serve his purposes well. Canterlot was not a fortress, not a mighty engine of destruction or bureaucracy, it was a palace crudely bolted to a mountain side. What he needed was a vast castle, one whose walls were impenetrable. But, the palace would have to do.

His arrival in the city proper was unnoticed, for he arrived through the broken seams of reality. His weave was completed with a shrieking pop, marking his form's arrival in one of the palace's many marble corridors. Almost immediately, his crown struck the ceiling, forcing him to stoop to avoid causing another gash in the masonry. Celestia arrived close behind, making an asinine remark in her head about Nicholas' size. He silenced her with a stare.

"I am too large," said Nicholas, "this shall not do."

With a sound analogous to the crunching of bone, Nicholas began to shrink. The change was slow at first, but soon he was barely taller than the doors, still nearly twice Celestia's height. He stretched out his wings, the span covering almost the whole corridor and blocking the sunlight entering through one of the stained glass windows.

"When will Twilight be joining us?"

"Within a moment, my lord."

"The guards were sworn to secrecy?"

"Yes, my lord."

"You will stop calling me 'my lord'."

"As you wish, my lord."

Nicholas turned, fist raised menacingly; Celestia's smirk fell and she lowered herself.

"I would bid you silence, but I assume I have no right to do so in your own palace," Nicholas growled under his breath, before spinning to face the double doors at the end of the hallway, "I sense something approaching us."

Sure enough, through the double doors, followed by a gaggle of service ponies, came Prince Blueblood. His eyes were near closed and his head stuck up so high that he did not see Nicholas until he crashed straight into his right leg.

"Out of my way," he yelled, rubbing his face, "damned plebeian."

"You would do well to learn your place, vile knave," Nicholas retorted, putting all his effort into the act, scaring off most of the service ponies, "lest you, of course, wish to fall to my blade."

Blueblood staggered backwards, various stuttered sounds that could be interpreted as speech coming out of his mouth. Nicholas swung his titanic sword towards him, causing the skin behind his white coat to pale even further and drive him to flee in a blind panic.

"Bring him to me!" Nicholas shouted, at no one in particular, "he must not leave this place."

Celestia walked over to Nicholas as a pair of golden armoured guards raced after Blueblood, "what are you planning?" She asked, looking down the corridor. Her reply was an ethereal groan, followed by a chuckle.

"We shall see."

---

"Princess Luna is located on your planet's satellite, where she has been trapped for centuries. I believe that it was during the first few years of her banishment that she was replaced by the daemon. The forces of the Aether are merciless and not beyond using such underhanded tactics, Luna is likely trapped in a spell of some kind. I should be able to reach the satellite and free her from whatever holds her, however it is likely she retains her." Nicholas paused for a moment. "Aggressive tendencies."

Twilight knew exactly what he meant, "she is still Nightmare Moon?"

"I believe so, for that is likely the only way she would remain imprisoned."

Celestia had remained strangely silent, Twilight thought, looking over to see her former mentor frowning and apparently deep in thought. Nicholas had been surprisingly animated, his wings flexing subconsciously and his right arm swinging his sword through the air as he paced back and forth. His every step was thunderous, even so much shorter now than he had been when she first met him, cracks had even begun to form in the marble floors.

"Celestia," the voice of the Emperor broke her from her trance, "I need you to be ready to purge Nightmare Moon from Luna should I not succeed."

Celestia shook her head. "That is not in my power anymore. That honour belongs to Twilight," she strained every word as she pointed to her former student.
For a brief moment, Nicholas looked taken aback, "then you have trained her well. Twilight, you must ready the Rite of Purification for my return - I fear Nightmare Moon's inherent aggression may have been exacerbated by her tenure in exile."

Twilight blinked, the rite of purification was a spell she had never before heard, she was the Element of Magic, wasn't she? She was supposed to know every spell! For someone who wasn't even a pony to come along and within hours tell her a spell she hadn't heard of before was…

"He means the elements, Twilight," Celestia said, having seemingly read her mind.

"Does she always babble like that?" Nicholas asked her, before nodding gravely in response to Celestia's affirmative. "Go," Nicholas commanded, "gather your elements and prepare yourself. I will begin the spell."

Twilight nodded and made to leave, but turned for a moment to behold Nicholas. He had risen her height off the ground and the cracks between the bone segments of his form glowed with a baleful blue light. The extremities of his arms and legs began to crackle and turn to smoke.

Twilight's eyes widened and she stepped back in horror, but she could not turn away. He gave a thunderous laugh as his head began to break up, before he vanished with an ethereal screech.

"Go Twilight," Celestia pointed to the door, "he will return soon."

---

Iron Shield and Kyhron had marched for hours in the direction of Canterlot. Fortunately for the titan, the land they had passed through was mostly deserted and what few ponies had seen him were cowering in their basements and likely not to leave for the next few decades. Iron Shield had attempted to make conversation, but Kyhron had either ignored him or answered with a simple affirmative or negative.

"How do you know Princess Celestia?" Iron Shield asked, admittedly not expecting Kyhron to answer.

"I had originally encountered her only at the behest of my master, Emperor Nicholas, who had some purpose in mind for her. Then, I was sent to bring her around to the Emperor's vision a few centuries ago..."

---

"The enemy is approaching the edge of the forest, Princess," a bedraggled and dirtied scout pony said, bowing deeply, "we saw a pair of dragons, bigger than any we've ever seen, with the titan, at their head. We estimate they'll be here in about ten minutes."

Princess Celestia, clad in her enchanted golden armour, nodded. "Return to Canterlot," she said, "observe the battle and rest. If we are defeated, evacuate the city."

The scout didn't reply, heading up the track towards Canterlot with three of their fellows following. More than likely, that evacuation order would be necessary; whatever they were facing had blocked off the Elements of Harmony with its advance, depriving Equestria of its best line of defence, with only the Royal Guard and Celestia's magic remaining to combat what, from scattered reports, was a threat beyond any Equestria had ever faced in its entire history - with even Nightmare Moon's rebellion dwarfed in comparison.

Celestia's army numbered a few thousand, though she knew full well that number would be greatly decreased by the end of the day. None of the ponies had particular veterancy, the Royal Guard had been reduced to a purely ceremonial role over a century earlier. The odd few were relatively adept at riot control, though the destruction a dragon wrought was often greater than a riot.

Sure enough, the destruction soon became apparent, as a boulder the size of a house tore through the forest, Celestia's army breaking rank as they scrambled to move from its path. The boulder's caster became visible a few seconds later, in the form of a black dragon at least fifty metres tall, with Celestia estimating its total length at about three hundred metres. It growled menacingly as soon as the ponies came into view, being joined by a fellow, whose scales were dark purple but otherwise mostly identical.

The black dragon went first, coming to within a few feet of Celestia's face. "You are Celestia?" It questioned, voice booming.

Princess Celestia nodded. "Indeed I am."

The dragon seemed to smile, baring hundreds of dagger-like teeth. "Excellent. Our masters wish to speak with you."

"Your masters?"

From the forest emerged a titan, flesh green and ghostly, with bone armour covering almost all of its body. Its eyes, three lurid red pools, were surrounded by a crown of eight vertical spikes. Shadow bled off of it, turning the ground black and ashen as it did, vegetation withering and dying. Its sword, green soulfire burning and filling her mind with ethereal whispers, seemed to cut and burn at the air around it, itching with a desire to kill. Celestia recognised him immediately.

"Kyhron," she whispered, jaw trembling, "you are here."

Something laughed all around her, guttural and loud, wrong in a way Celestia couldn't quite describe. The ground to the left of Kyhron began to shift, as though its foundation was collapsing downwards, before the ash that was once dirt was replaced by a growing mound of sickly green and grey, tumourous, flesh. Mouths, lined with long, serrated teeth, leading into dark abysses, opened at random; eyes, bloodshot, bulbous and looking about frantically, emerged from various angles, scaring Celestia's guards back with just a glare.

The tumour reached several metres in height, dozens wide, before its top split open, with a figure arising from it. Suspended by tendrils of diseased flesh, covered in pulsating tumours, body parts continuously shifting forms as if unable to settle on one, emerged someone whose mere aura mutated the trees and earth around them.

"He," the figure spoke, voice guttural and malicious, but similar to one she had heard before - the voice of Emperor Nicholas, "does not come alone."

One of the braver guards took a step forwards, before one of the dragons pushed him back with a very close swing of its mighty head. "Keep your soldiers back, they are too weak."

"Who are you?" Celestia asked, doing her best to stay stoic and appear in control.

"I," the diseased figure said, with a theatrical opening of its arms-cum-wings-cum-eyes, "am The Composer. You have already met one of my brothers, as well as Kyhron. We have never been formally introduced, but I know you have seen my handiwork: the wizard had meddled in far too much of my business."

He spoke, of course, about Starswirl the Bearded. Who, nearly two centuries earlier, had discovered a supposedly ancient magical artefact from a temple in one of Equestria's jungles. The artefact, upon being returned to his tower in Constantineighple, began, as Celestia had read from Starswirl's diary on the subject, to eat at his soul and flesh. The magician had, rightly, locked himself within his tower, in an attempt to stave off whatever could be afflicting him from reaching out to the rest of the city, but to no avail. By the time Celestia had been informed of what had transpired, the entire city, with some half a million inhabitants, had been subsumed by some horrific amalgamation of constantly shifting and evolving biomass, using Starswirl's immense reserves of magic to enhance its own power and feed its expansion. Celestia had been forced to destroy Starswirl with a magic she hadn't used since Nightmare Moon's rebellion, then burn the city and the surrounding region to the ground, creating what was now known to ponies as the Badlands. Sadly, it would not have been the first time such drastic action and subsequent lies would be necessary.

"Your fear," The Composer said, "and your anger tastes sweet to me. But, I have not come to partake in the rituals of feast, your soul and flesh are yet needed. Rather, I have come to deliver a message, if you will. A message, but, also, a token of gratitude from an old friend," a tendril of flesh reached out from just below his left hip and grabbed something in the abyss, pulling it out and throwing it to Celestia's feet.

The alicorn lifted the object in her magic and inspected it. It was a dulled gemstone, a dark purple in colour and cut into the shape of a six-pointed star. When Celestia touched it, it seemed to pulse gently, almost like a heartbeat.

"What is this?" She asked.

"A soul," The Composer said, "more specifically the vessel for the soul of Starswirl the Bearded - that was his name, right? He may have meddled in much of my business, far more than you could care to know, but the knowledge held within his soul could still be useful. Not to you, but to the one who is to come. Now, for my message."

The flesh he stood on had expanded, erupting from beneath Celestia's feet and binding her in place, with the dragons holding back her guards. The alicorn struggled vainly, but realised that, whenever she did, the corrupted flesh would begin to meld with her, subsuming her just as it had done to Starswirl.

Kyhron approached from her right, clutching something in his right fist, he kneeled down just in front of her face, sword menacingly close to her rear leg. A rush of air passed Celestia's face, apparently a result of his speech, "centuries ago," he said, bringing his right fist up to just under her face, "you performed an act of great betrayal. Had the Emperor been able, he would have led his armies and burned this world until its surface was nothing but glass, such was the extent of your crime. You are lucky my loyalties lie with him, and his plans allowed for you to live. Otherwise, you would be dead where you stand."

He dropped whatever was in his fist to the ground and stepped away, allowing The Composer access to her. He was of a similar basic body shape to Kyhron, with two mostly legs and two mostly arms, with a mostly torso and a mostly head, though he was carried by dozens of tendrils of red-grey, tumourous flesh, pulsing rhythmically, which had surprising dexterity and balance considering they had nothing analogous to feet attached to them. The Composer stood over whatever Kyhron had dropped before Celestia could get a proper look at it, though she had seen it was made of obsidian.

"My vision," said The Composer, "is absolute. I see all futures, all pasts, all presents. I see all of time. But, I do not see just time, I see thoughts, I see souls, I see every action you would willingly make. I see your hopes and your dreams. Yours is a most tender flesh, a most fine soul to drink of. There is one I wish for you to care for, to train, to nurture in her formative years, Twilight Sparkle, the one to come. I know that you had forgotten that name, that you had used the power that I gave you to further your own imperium on this world. You had thought I could be cheated, or that you could use my gifts, my tokens of gratitude, to build up your mortal power rather than prepare for what is to come. You will use my gifts to perfect the arts needed to school her, you will use my gifts to ensure above all else her safety. I will know if you have placed her in danger, if you have not trained her to the utmost of your perfection by the time I arrive. From here on, you serve me and me alone. Not yourself, not anyone, but me. To ensure your cooperation." Something bit into Celestia's leg, worming its way up inside of her, releasing something that felt like fire. “I will allow myself a portion of you, your heart will suffice.” She felt a sudden tightness deep in her chest, around the area of her heart, as the invaders seemed to converge on and wrap around it, shortening her breath. "You and I will become almost as one. You do not wish to know what will happen if you fail. But, if you succeed, I will ensure you are rewarded with the finest, never-ending pleasures."

The tightness faded, and Celestia's breathing returned to normal. "Yes," she said, bowing her head, "my lord. I apologise for all of my transgressions, conscious and unconscious. I am but your humble servant."

"Your apology is accepted," The Composer said, releasing her legs as the fleshy corruption seemed to fall dormant, "let us see how you work with a clean slate, so to speak. Your first task, select two of your guards, the ones you deem most loyal to you, bring them forwards."

Celestia did, choosing her Captain and personal standard bearer, the only two members of her Royal Guard with any sort of fighting expertise.

They tentatively stepped forwards, Celestia behind them. The Composer looked over them, seeming to appraise them, before he nodded in what, apparently, was satisfaction. "You have made very good choices," he said to Celestia, before focusing on the two guards, "I am Nicholas, The Composer, you have seen a small selection of my power. Celestia bows to me, do you?"

The two guards nodded and both bowed.

"Excellent," The Composer said, "rise, rise. You are loyal and diligent. But, you are also cautious, this is good. I can bestow a great many gifts upon both of you, if you so wish, or, you may live out the rest of your lives as mortals. You will face sickness and eventual death, but you will have your free will. Serve me and you will live forever, you will be touched by blight and you will come away from it changed, every pain, every ache, will be like the greatest joy to you. If you so wish, your loved ones may too share the same gifts as I shall grant you, you may live with your dearest in perfect joy forever. All you have to do is agree."

The standard bearer spoke first, "I agree. If Celestia may serve you, then I too shall do so."

The Captain followed, "I agree. Only the kindest of lords would offer such generous gifts."

"You have made your choices." The flesh around them erupted upwards, encasing them in a pair of bulbous cocoons, "thus, the two ascend. Kill the rest, leave no trace of our presence. Celestia, expand the forest over this area, ensure none of your kind enter it."

Celestia nodded, bringing forth a number of seeds with her magic and quickly planting and assisting their growth, her back turned to the pair of dragons who slaughtered her guards. She had just the way to prevent anyone entering the forest: a series of myths and legends about the forest's inherent evil should suffice.

After all, her little ponies would listen to her.