Genesis

by Helrael

1 - Arrival

Genesis
Chapter 1 – Arrival

In the In-Between, there is nothing. In the limbo, there is nothing. In that impassable void that stretches on beyond and between existence and all there is, there is nothing. It is a plane unlike any other plane, for it does not exist, yet still it is there, unreachable and unattainable. It cannot be seen, for it is empty of both light and darkness, empty of color. The In-Between is what separates all, but it is also what binds it together.

Two creatures, two kings, were aware of this. And when no other option had presented itself to the two, they had sought the safety of the nothingness, using their fantastic powers to go beyond the borders of existence itself in search of a new home for themselves and their subjects. Through the void of the In-Between they sped, travelling through inexistence and passing by more worlds than could ever be counted.

They were a comet of gold and crimson, blazing a trail through a void to which no other being had ever gone, the two kings shining brighter than any star as they led their herd through the infinite expanses of emptiness. The members of the herd, enveloped in the magic of their rulers, were the alicorns, equines possessing strong wings and horns that wielded phenomenal powers that no other creature could hope to match.

Above them all, however, were the two kings, set apart from their subjects by the impossible feats they could perform and the sheer, humbling gravity of their presence.

One was Ignis, a white stallion who possessed a mane of purest, flowing light. His eyes were a deep blue that radiated serenity, and from his horn flowed thousands of threads of ethereal gold that arced out behind him as he flew.

The radiant Ignis was accompanied by his direct counterpart, Umbraeus, the infamous king known to all as the Alicorn of Darkness or the Alicorn of Fear. His coat was of the deepest black, his mane nothing but a billowing cloud of darkness framing a pair of amber eyes said to have driven hundreds of alicorns insane. His ebony horn was wreathed in scarlet flames, red tendrils joining together with the magic of Ignis.

The alicorns flying behind them were of both rulers’ factions, held in a deep slumber and propelled forward by their kings’ magic. This magic was also what kept them alive, for nothing could survive in the nothingness of In-Between.

None knew for how long they had travelled, nor how far, for the In-Between existed outside the realms of space and time, but the two kings visited countless worlds in their fruitless search for a place to call home.

“This world is dead,” Ignis complained of one, for the alicorns desired to live in a place where life was abundant and food and sustenance were easy to come by.

“Much too small,” Umbraeus said of another, for the alicorns would need a home where they could prosper and grow without hindrance.

The last world they had visited was the one to have shown the greatest promise of all, a massive globe running rampant with most any kind of life imaginable, what might have been considered a true utopia were it not for a single fact. “Too fragile,” they had said as one, giving each other a knowing glance.

But now, after what had to the kings seemed a millennium of searching, they found themselves before what could very well be their future home. From In-Between, the world was a swirling, black orb, a sphere encased in an ethereal barrier that separated existence and void.

Umbraeus was the first to dive through the border of the world, soon followed by Ignis and the herd of thousands behind the two kings.

The alicorns emerged from the black sky into a world drenched in darkness. Vast and indomitable forests sprawled out below them, strange luminescent plants providing the only light in the world. Among the trees and upon the fields strange shadows flitted about, attesting to the immense abundance of life in the world. Mountains rose thousands of feet into the air, and strange, winged creatures soared among the tall peaks. Ink-black oceans roiled for as far as the eye could see, surrounding the enormous mass of land directly below the flying equines.

Umbraeus, who had oriented himself quickly in the darkness, dove toward the ground and Ignis followed, having easily lost the black alicorn in the dark world were it not for the blazing radiance of his horn. The two touched down near the foot of a great mountain range and gave a long sigh as they could finally allow their wings some rest. The sleeping alicorns behind them were gently lowered to the ground and soon the powerful magic flowing from the horns of the two kings faded away for the first time in countless ages.

The amber eyes of Umbraeus turned to the white king with a dangerous gleam. "We have arrived."

"We have," Ignis answered cooly, returning the black immortal's gaze.

"Two kings, one world," Umbraeus went on, and Ignis chuckled.

"Eager for the throne," he observed. "I must admit I have no intention of letting you tyrranize your people any further, just as I suspect you have no intention of allowing me to continue my... 'softhearted' rule."

"A duel," Umbraeus agreed. "A battle to be remembered for all eternity."

The two stallions stood before each other, eyeing the other for any possible weaknesses. To their regret, however, they found plenty, both among themselves and the other. “A rest,” Ignis finally suggested. “Or our struggle may hardly prove memorable. The throne of this world deserves a glorious battle, does it not?”

The black alicorn was silent for a long while, his eyes blazing with an unsettling enmity just as Ignis' radiated a maddening calmness to match the other's gaze. “Very well,” Umbraeus finally. “A respite then.”

And so, while their subjects slowly came to life after a centuries-long slumber, the alicorn kings surrounded themselves with their most powerful protective enchantments and fell into a deep slumber, preparing for the battle that would shake the world.

The heartvine gave an odd, shuddering sigh, one of its large, glowing sacs deflating slightly as Anancita walked by it. Its fumes, capable of killing lesser creatures, soon reached her nostrils and she hurried on away from the glowing plant. Although the wilds could be a dangerous place at times, the silver coated mare still preferred it over the atmosphere of the alicorn camp. In fact, her home had recently seemed to become even more dangerous than the forests of toxin-filled plants and savage predators. She looked back toward the fulgid crown, the enormous tree that marked the center of the alicorns’ temporary encampment, its draping, willowy branches bathing several square miles in a warm, yellow glow.

More than a year had passed since the conclusion of the grand exodus, and for more than a year the alicorns had been waiting for their kings to awaken. Anancita supposed that a year-long rest was well deserved, but like any other subject of the two kings, she wished that they would have given their people at least some instruction before retreating into their deep slumber from which none could wake them.

After another few minutes of walking through the dark fields, the mare arrived at the resting place of the great kings. The two lay very unceremoniously upon the ground in the same position they had been in for a year. Surrounding the rivals was a circle of odd shining runes; the old alphabet of their kind, Anancita had been told, although few seemed to remember it. Few seemed to remember anything of their old home. All they knew of the runes was that any creature that passed across them would burst into flames.

Surrounding the powerful rulers and their magical defenses were a number of soldiers, some sworn to protect Ignis, others to protect Umbraeus, while most were supposedly impartial.

“Still asleep,” Ferroce, the most talkative of the royal guards, greeted Anancita as she approached.

“I think we would all know if they should awaken,” the mare pointed out with a small smile. “But maybe they would desire some company that did not consist of their sworn guards.”

"For a year now, the most devout followers of both kings have desperately called out for their guidance," Ferroce reminded her. "Many have prayed that they would soon awaken. However, here we still stand. And here we may well stand for another hundred years."

“A hundred years of rest?" Anancita replied skeptically. "Last time I was here, you suggested it was a decade. I am afraid you have grown quite pesimistic since I first met you."

"I have stood here for a long time. Ten hours every shift, ten hours break. A year. I have done nothing but stare at that fulgid crown and wait. And yet I know that at any moment, our kings may awaken and leap at each other's throats, destroying all in their way. And the peoples, both Umbraeus' and Ignis', have changed. They no longer visit their rulers as they once did."

“Too busy looking for reasons to murder each other!” Anancita scoffed. The armored stallion stepped aside as she approached the lethal barrier. “Things keep getting worse. If they do not wake soon, I fear it may come to war.” She sat down a few feet from the glowing runes and her long horn shone pink as she absentmindedly directed her magic at the air in front of her. Within a few moments, a small crystal appeared before her eyes, drawing in the air around it as it slowly gained mass. After less than half a minute, a sharply faceted diamond the size of her own head had materialized in front of her. “My family is teaching me how to use my diamonds as weapons,” she despaired, slowly driving the beautiful diamond into the impenetrable barrier, watching the gem slowly disintegrate.

“Please don’t do that,” Ferroce complained as the other guards eyed the mare suspiciously. “It’s a waste of your beautiful talent.”

“So is going to war!” Anancita said, withdrawing the crystal that had now been grinded down to half its size. The gem splintered as she focused her magic on it, and each of the shards grew into sparkling crystal flowers. “I can make nearly impenetrable barriers or spears that can pierce steel, my father can meld with the shadows and disappear at will. I know a mare who can burn your eyes to ashes with the flick of her horn. Any alicorn can kill another, but none of that matters! In the end, what matters is the outcome of our kings’ battle!”

“So you still insist you support neither?” the guard asked, more than a little doubt in his voice. “It is said none are impartial when it comes to the king they would prefer to see seat the throne of our world.”

“I support them both,” Anancita insisted. She took one of her sparkling flowers and placed it in her bright white mane. "After all that they did, they deserve to be our rulers. If only they could get along."

Ferroce burst with laughter, but the mare's frown soon silenced him. "If they could get along..." he muttered, allowing himself a final chuckle. "They are each other's opposites. In each and every way."

"I know."

"You can't have a king that wants nothing more than your love and one who expects obedience or screams of terror."

"I know, I know!" Anancita exclaimed. "But my point still stands. They both deserve the throne."

“So they have your respect,” Ferroce concluded. “But why? Do you admire or fear them?”

The diamond alicorn gave the guard an annoyed look, but sighed in defeat. “They carried us through the very borders of existence and far beyond to find us a new home. I suppose I admire them.”

“And the admiration and love borne to him gives Ignis his strength,” the stallion concluded. “Some would say that means you support the Alicorn of Light.”

“But my family does not,” Anancita argued, stepping away from the runic circle. “They want me to fight for Umbraeus!”

“You said yourself that did not matter. What would matter is who you fear or admire, who you respect. Although we do not possess their formidable powers, we still have a say in who might stand victorious,” Ferroce pointed out.

“That is true.” She trotted past the guard again, placing her remaining diamond flowers in his mane. “I just wish people would stop pushing me.”

"You should fight for Ignis!" Ferroce joked, neatly avoiding a diamond rose as it was flung at him.

---

“Faster, Anancita!” her father ordered, losing what little patience he had. “A barrier doesn’t need to be pretty, it just needs to be sturdy!”

Anancita sighed with frustration, but focused her magic on the ground between herself and her father, a roughly hewn and flawed diamond wall the size of an alicorn rising up out the ground. “Can I go now?” The two alicorn stood in an empty field, separated from the main encampment by a mile of dark forest. Almost empty at least, since several diamond projectiles and structures now littered the area.

“And do what?” the dark alicorn asked. “You may not have noticed, but we are on the verge of war! The worshippers of Ignis may attack us any day now!” The stallion stepped around the small barrier and put a hoof on Anancita’s shoulder. “We need you, child. You have great powers. Use them in Umbraeus’ name, and he will reward you.”

“If he defeats Ignis,” the diamond mare pointed out, but her father only smiled at some humor she failed to see.

He pointed at the horizon behind her and asked, “tell me, what do you see?”

Anancita squinted, but could see nothing out of the ordinary. A dark field and darker hills behind it. “I don’t see anything,” she replied.

“You see darkness,” her father corrected her. “The favored element of Umbraeus. This world is drenched in it. Believing in Ignis is futile. It is foolish. The Alicorn of Fear and Darkness will stand victorious, he will ascend the throne of this world, and he will punish those who opposed him. Everyone around us is choosing sides. We have chosen the one that will win. All we need do is hold out against the white king’s followers until the rulers awaken.”

“If you say so, father,” Anancita responded flatly, still not swayed by his arguments.

The dark stallion hesitated for a moment, having noticed his daughter’s lacking conviction, but did not pursue the matter. “Good. Projectiles,” the stallion said. “Show me something that can pierce any armor.”

“I do not wish to pierce armor,” Anancita muttered between clenched teeth. “You said yourself that we only need to hold out until the kings awaken!”

“And how would you do that?” her father asked pointedly. “How would you defend our people from a thousand warriors of light? Give them your pretty crystal flowers? A flower will not win a war, child!”

“You keep speaking of my future as if I stand on the battle front, defending the name of Umbraeus. I should have told you weeks ago, and I had hoped you would see it for yourself, but… I do not wish to fight for Umbraeus.” At her father’s hostile expression, she was quick to add, “nor shall I fight against him.”

“You claim impartiality? Now? At the eve of war?”

“How could you have failed to notice!?" the daughter shot back angrily. "It is no recent decision! If you may recall, I have never claimed partiality either,” Anancita pointed out.

“It is said that none are impartial,” the stallion said, repeating what had apparently become a common saying as of late.

“I do not care.”

“And what of your family?” her father asked, his temper flaring again. “You would abandon us!? You cannot! You do not have a choice, child! As your father…”

“I am no child, Father!” Anancita countered. “I am a grown mare! If you believe me strong enough to stand before those thousand warriors of light, then I am strong enough to make my own decisions!” She turned and left, small diamonds materializing out of thin air in a circle around her as she once again idly practiced the more passive aspects of her magical talent. “And I decide I will not fight. You should consider the same.”

As she trotted away, her father only stood there, watching her go. Finally, he let out a frustrated roar, releasing a powerful bolt of lightning from his horn that split Anancita’s diamond barrier in two. “We need you more than you know, daughter! With you, we can defeat Ignis!” he called out to her.

Anancita ignored him. “He’ll understand,” she whispered herself. “Once all of this is over.” She looked away from the fulgid crown she was headed towards and gazed at the resting place of the kings, highlighted for all to see by Ignis’ brilliant luster. "Their slumber must end," she told herself. "Or all will be dead by the time they awaken. There must be something I can do."

---

And so, the very next day, the diamond mare left the vast and sprawling encampment of her fellow alicorns, its atmosphere thick with resentment and tension as always, and set off toward where the two kings slept, opting once again to go by hoof rather than fly. Even after having lived there for more than a year, Anancita still found her new home to be an excitingly different world. Although she could not remember much of the place Ignis and Umbraeus had carried them from, she seemed to remember that the sky was rarely black, and that it would change its colors each day instead of this world’s constant black sky. The plants were strange as well, the majority of them preying on small animals and insects and quite a few of them carrying very powerful toxins. She did not remember the flora of her old home to have been so hostile. The mountains rearing up far ahead of her were the steepest and most majestic things she had ever seen, rising thousands of feet into the air and inhabited by those strange creatures they had yet to contact.

Anancita drew to a halt as she noticed a purple flash of light near where the kings slept. Someone was using magic. The diamond mare frowned as she drew to a halt. She had visited the resting place every week since she had woken from the exodus. Lately, her visits had been even more frequent, but she had never seen the guards forced to use their magic before. She lowered her body to the ground and began creeping toward the resting place, giving the heartvines a wide berth not just to evade its headache-inducing gasses, but to avoid its light falling upon her bright mane.

As she approached the runic circle that held the two kings, it soon became clear to her that something was indeed very wrong. There were no guards surrounding the circle, but there was a group of alicorns not far to her left, five of them seeming to be overpowering a sixth, and, upon closer inspection, she realized that this sixth alicorn was Ferroce. Before she could open her mouth or intervene in any other way, however, the armored stallion was dead, flung to the ground by a powerful spell.

They had killed him. Had they killed the other guards as well? Was the war finally starting?

Anancita stood stock-still as the five alicorns turned away from their defeated adversary and approached the runic circle. Thankfully, none of them noticed the mare hiding in the grass not much more than forty feet away.

“How fast can you crack this thing?” a stallion, silhouetted against the glow of the runes, asked of a mare, his voice a rough and agitated whisper.

“I’ll have to read the symbols first,” the mare answered, walking around the circle slowly. “Then I’ll need to figure out which symbols to add to the equation to nullify the defenses and etch them into the ground. At least an hour,” she concluded to the apparent dislike of her partners, who let out exasperated sighs and grunts.

“The watch shift is in one and a half hour!” a second stallion complained, but the mare, studying a symbol intently, pointed an accusing hoof at a fourth alicorn. “This whole situation could have been avoided if Phasmaeus had kept his part of the deal. The guards would have been dealt with quicker and you wouldn’t have to protect me when the enemy shows up.”

Anancita flinched at the mention of her father’s name, and soon enough, the very stallion spoke, confirming her belief. “I did my best, but she decided she’d rather remain impartial.”

“You guaranteed Anancita would be here!” the fifth alicorn, a mare, hissed at the diamond mare’s father. Anancita recognized the owner of the voice to be a friend of the family. “How are we supposed to kill Ignis? Most of our team bailed on us, and the guards took down six of us!”

“He’s asleep,” Phasmaeus insisted, but failed to convince the mare.

“Ignis may be a soft ruler, but he is still much stronger than a hundred of us put together! He’s immortal! The way I heard it, he’s as invincible as the black king! The idea was risky enough with just fifty horns, but five!?”

“I do hope you are not entertaining the idea of running off, Paricia,” Phasmeus said in a threatening tone.

Anancita could hardly believe her ears. Her father was conspiring to assassinate Ignis, to interfere with the great duel between the god-like alicorn kings.

Do I let him do it? She thought, inching towards the runic circle without even realizing it. One who supported Umbraeus would stand by and watch or even help them. If I followed Ignis then I would either call for help or confront them. But what would one who was impartial do? No, not impartial. One who supports them both.

Memories flashed before her mind, the very faint memories of the stories she had been told of both Ignis and Umbraeus. They had been renowned warriors, for alicorn customs often demanded a great show of force, a demand that could not be ignored if you claimed to be a king. Ignis had always fought honorably, she remembered, and so too had Umbraeus. Were they to die would they not wish to do so with honor? Felled by their equal on the field of battle?

Umbraeus wouldn’t want this kind of victory, Anancita told herself. He would punish my father. Both kings carried us farther than any of us can imagine; none of them deserve to die by the hooves of an assassin.

The diamond mare took a deep breath to steady herself and stood, walking purposefully toward the group of assassins. “Father?” she called out in a shaky voice. She felt as if her knees would give way beneath her any moment now. They are five alicorns! What am I doing!?

Phamaeus and the others, all except the mare who was reading the symbols, whirled around to face the newcomer, their horns aglow with sinister shades of red and green. “Anancita?” he asked when he recognized her, disbelief tinging his voice. “What are you doing here?” He held up a hoof and ordered the others to stand down.

Anancita hesitated, wanting nothing more than to be back at the camp. The other alicorns were still shrouded in the shadows cast by the kings’ protective circle, but she could clearly see the gleams of anger and murder in their eyes. Finally, she found the courage to challenge them. “I could ask the same of you.” Again, she took a deep breath. “You can’t kill Ignis!” she blurted out as her father opened his mouth to speak. One of the stallions’ horn became wreathed in green as he no doubt prepared some destructive spell. “He carried you through the borders of existence, and this is how you repay him?”

“This is how we repay Umbraeus,” the mare who wasn’t reading the symbols argued.

“We do this to aid our king, to aid or people,” one of the stallions said.

“We end the war before it can begin,” Anancita’s father reasoned. “If Ignis is dead, there can be no war in his name. Help us.”

“He’s immortal. He’s invincible…”

“He can be killed,” Phasmaeus insisted. "Why else would the kings battle each other?"

“You’re not convincing her!” the mare staring at the runes hissed impatiently. “Kill her!”

Several things happened at once. Anancita’s father leapt at the stallion whose horn was blazing with green, shouting at him to stop. A polished wall of pure diamond rose between the same stallion and Anancita, absorbing the impact of the amalgam of fire and lightning that exploded from the unnamed stallion’s horn.

Anancita leapt forward, into the gap left by her father’s absence and focused her magic on the mare reading the symbols, throwing her backwards with a powerful telekinetic tug. Before the mare could get on her hooves, four pillars of diamond shot out of the ground at a sharp angle all around her, forming a small cage that prevented her from rising. The diamond mare whirled around so that the runic circle was at her back and erected another two barricades that were almost immediately pulverized by the attacks of the remaining two assassins.

“Anancita! What are you doing!?” her father shouted, breaking free of his wrestling match with the first stallion. He directed his magic at the trapped mare and forced the diamond bars to part, allowing her to stand.

Before she could answer, Anancita was struck hard in the chest by a bolt of lightning from one of the other assassins and sent flying backwards while her father shouted obscenities at the shooter.

For what felt like a full minute, she lay on the ground, her eyes clenched shut as she awaited the death blow. She knew her father would not be able to hold the others back forever. But when nothing happened, she opened her eyes. Her father was unconscious, lying sprawled on the ground at the hooves of the stallion who had first attacked her. The four other assassins were loosing bolts of unbridled power straight at Anancita, but for some reason, they all terminated a mere one foot from her face. She then noticed the runes forming a circle around her and panicked. She had breached the protective perimeter of the two kings. Again, her eyes snapped shut, expecting to burst into flame at any moment.

“What’s going on?” a gruff voice asked with frustration, and Anancita heard the assassins’ barrage cease. “How is she still alive?”

“She has some strange connection with diamonds,” Phasmaeus’ friend replied. “Perhaps she possesses some of their resiliency as well.

“It would explain why she survived Obrus’ attack, but not even diamonds can pass through the kings’ enchantments.”

“‘Whomsoever shall breach this ward with evil intent wished upon either king shall be punished with the might of both Light and Darkness combined.’ That is one of the imperatives of the spell,” the mare who had been reading the runes revealed. “Phasmaeus said the mare was supportive of both kings. It would seem he told it true.”

Anancita opened her eyes again and finally stood, the fear of death banished by the assassin’s revelation. As long as she stood within the circle, the four alicorns could not reach her, not even with their most powerful magic, it seemed.

“She is safe for now,” the mare continued. “But once we nullify these defenses, she’ll be as vulnerable as Ignis.” Her laughter was cut off as a small ball of diamond punched into her face and knocked her out cold.

Exerting her magic as she had never done before, Anancita screamed as she directed it at the ground surrounding the kings’ runes. A jagged circle of polished and faceted diamond rose from the ground, growing and growing as the diamond mare fell to her knees from exhaustion. The erected diamond wall began curving in on itself and within moments, Anancita found herself alone with the sleeping kings in a large dome of purest diamond, the only source of light being Ignis’ shining coat and mane of liquid light.

As she fought to breathe after her violent exertion, she heard new voices from outside her dome.

“Murder!” one shouted, having seen the bodies of the royal guards.

“The followers of Umbraeus have declared war! Kill them!”

Battles cries and choked screams of pain soon followed, and Anancita could do nothing but turn away, pressing her hooves against her ears in an effort to block out the sounds of suffering and dying while holding back her tears.

“He’ll understand. Once all of this is over,” she had told herself, but she could no longer find solace in that statement. Because of her, Phasmaeus now lay unconscious in the crossfire between the remaining assassins and the followers of Ignis.

The war had begun, and as she had predicted, she would not be taking part in it.

No. All she had done was start it.

Comments

[dzamie]

It's starting again? I thought this fic had finished?

[Hadschott]

OMG this is gona be awsome...again !!!

[Helrael]

1085894
It was finished, but I had been kind of dissatisfied with it for some time. I got a writer's block with my other project, so I just went ahead and started redoing this one. If you're not interested in reading the new version here, I hope the notifications won't bother you too much.

[DuskFrost]

this will be awesome to read a improved version