• Published 23rd Dec 2011
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Genesis - Helrael



The story of how the world was created, focusing on the tales of Discord and the alicorn princesses.

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2 - Supremacy

Genesis
Chapter 2 – Supremacy

Umbraeus opened his eyes to see that the dark sky that had been above when he first arrived had been replaced by a ceiling of purest diamond. Either he had moved, or someone had breached his and Ignis’ defenses. Immediately he was on his hooves, eliciting a startled yelp from somewhere behind him. The dark alicorn whirled around, his horn wreathed in red as he locked eyes with a frightened mare. Her coat looked as if it were made from steel or silver, reflecting the light of Ignis, who had begun to stir. Her mane and tail were white, but not from old age. Rather, the hairs seemed to have some prismatic quality to them, catching the white light flowing from Ignis’ mane and shining with all the colors of the rainbow. Her eyes, quaking under the intensity of Umbraeus’ gaze, were a light pink.

“Who are you?” He asked in an emotionless tone of voice, which, as he had expected, only served to frighten the mare even more.

“An-Anancita… Your Grace,” the mare stuttered and went on to speak of heritage and anything that might serve to calm the black king. Umbraeus, however, paid no attention to the words flowing from her mouth, focusing instead on the energy he sensed seeping out of her, the fears that drove and sustained the Alicorn of Darkness.

The fear of death is palpable. She knows my reputation, and she is no follower of mine. But the fear is not certain either, meaning that she has done something she believes will grant her my favor. No supporter of Ignis either, then.

A fear for her family; they are in grave danger. A danger closely tied to Ignis? No, his followers. So the war has begun.

Umbraeus let his awareness spread beyond the confines of the thick diamond dome and his protective circle and was greeted by a roiling ocean of fear and desperation. Already he could feel himself grow stronger. For the moment, though, he decided to resume his subtle interrogation of the mare, babbling of her family’s strong support of his name in a desperate effort to appease him.

She fears loneliness, very much so it would seem. Our subjects have remained divided in our absence; my own faction living among Ignis’, uneasily at best. Either they were with me or against me, and this Anancita was neither. She has sacrificed both friends and family in support of us both. The ground shuddered as something outside detonated violently, and the dark alicorn sensed a fear of the mare’s dome shattering, confirming that it was indeed her who had erected the additional defenses around the two kings. Within only a few moments, he had divined much and more of the mare’s hidden motivations and the conditions outside the dome.

“Silence,” Umbraeus ordered of the silver mare, who promptly shut her mouth. “You have done us a service, Anancita,” he said as Ignis finally rose. “You have defended Ignis and thereby my right to gain the throne through honorable battle,” he explained mostly for his rival’s sake, his tone condescending enough as to make the white alicorn bristle with indignation. “Although five alicorns would hardly be sufficient for such a task, I am sure he appreciates your sentiment.”

“Thank you…” Anancita answered hesitantly, bewildered by the dark alicorn’s knowledge of the events she had yet to tell him of.

“We are most grateful, Anancita,” Ignis added courteously. “I am sure that whosoever shall prove to be victorious in the battle to be will see fit to reward you most generously for your service.” The white alicorn gave Umbraeus a hard stare. “But you should leave now,” he told the mare without breaking eye contact with the black alicorn.

Anancita, seeing the hostility burning in both kings’ eyes, backed away hastily. “Very well. Shall I… Shall I remove the dome?”

“No need to; it will be gone in just a second,” Umbraeus assured her, his horn lighting up once again as he summoned his formidable power. Ignis followed suit, his horn wreathed in golden flames.

A crevice opened in the almost meter-thick diamond wall, and Anancita slipped through it, retreating to the relative safety of the alicorn war outside.

“Are we prepared?” Ignis asked of Umbraeus.

“You shall not kill me,” the dark alicorn promised, bracing himself for the impact that would follow their initial confrontation.

Without warning, their power lashed out at each other, blazing tendrils of blood and gold that branched off in a thousand directions, each seeking to find a way through the other’s defenses. Each tendril was met by another, however, and soon the diamond dome was blazing with the glow of their arcane struggle. Lightning bolts of black and white exploded from where the two alicorn’s magic met, punching holes in the diamond barrier as the kings continued to pour power into their lethal tendrils of searing energy.

Eventually, the thousand golden and red branches coalesced into one beam, and Umbraeus charged at Ignis, lowering his horn. The white alicorn answered by breaking into a gallop as well, and the kings locked horns as they met, each attempting to force the other to his knees. After half a minute of the wrestling, the pent up energy in the diamond dome finally became too much for it to bear, and every particle within it exploded violently, completely obliterating the diamond structure and all around it, showering everything within miles of the battling alicorns with burning, sparkling dust.

Umbraeus, shielded by the same magic that had caused the phenomenal explosion, now found himself far above the ground, hovering in midair. It did not take him long to catch sight of Ignis, the white alicorn’s shining form easy to spot amid the darkness of the world.

Beating his wings forcefully, Umbraeus launched himself at the shining light before him, summoning his magic only at the last second to remain camouflaged against the black sky. A razor-sharp blade of pure energy ripped into the source of brilliant white, followed by Umbraeus, who would have skewered his enemy had he been there.

The dark alicorn gave a frustrated snarl as he realized the light had only been a decoy, but before he could search for the true Ignis, a pair of hooves drove into the area between his wings with enormous force, sending him plummeting toward the ground. The light in Umbraeus’ horn became several shades brighter as he summoned a violent lightning bolt that descended from the black sky and struck the white alicorn above him, lessening the pressure on his back. The dark alicorn twisted out from under Ignis and drove his horn upwards in another attempt to spear his opponent but instead ended up locking horns with him.

Once again, the very matter of existence around the two kings was shattered by their ferocious discharge of power, creating another massive explosion that rained down fire and lightning upon the battlefield below. This time, Ignis was the slowest to recover, and the black king drew in the residual energy of the explosion and released it as another bolt of scarlet lightning. With only fractions of a second to spare, a golden shield flashed into existence before the white alicorn, deflecting the lightning bolt, which instead impacted on a huge glowing tree in the center of the alicorn encampment, ripping it apart and further spreading the fires that were by now consuming the area.

Ignis answered with a bolt of his own which Umbraeus too deflected, causing another explosion below them. The exchange carried on for a few minutes until Umbraeus realized that the lesser alicorns below him had almost all ceased fighting, realizing that the true battle of the kings had begun. Without the war below him, Umbraeus would have much less fear to support his massive arcane exertions. He would have to do something quickly if he wished to maintain his advantage.

His horn flaring ever brighter, Umbraeus let loose a shower of explosive charges that homed in on Ignis. As the white alicorn fought to avoid or shield himself against the blasts, the black king dove toward the ground, howling at his and Ignis’ subjects in an inequine voice that sent even the bravest soul scurrying. As he dashed along the ground, the fire seemed to be ripped from wherever it had taken hold, being pulled along by Umbraeus’ magic instead. Within moments, a massive inferno spread out from the dark alicorn’s ebony wings, roaring loudly over his future subjects as he flapped his wings to gain altitude. The lesser alicorns screamed as the searing fires came within inches of burning them alive, and Umbraeus smiled to himself, regaining the strength he had lost.

He turned and saw that Ignis, as could only be expected, had survived the dark alicorn’s attack without injury and was now diving straight at him. Again, Umbraeus beat his great wings and darted forward to meet his foe, the flames at his side morphing into a spear point as he fired volley after volley of energy lances at the approaching alicorn. Ignis dodged and twisted his body impossibly fast, avoiding every single projectile without losing his speed. Finally, a second before they met, the Alicorn of Light dove beneath him, avoiding his fiery corona by mere inches. Umbraeus, in response, twisted around and hurled the fire he had collected straight at Ignis with deadly force. He had, however, once again underestimated his opponent’s speed, and struck instead the ground, creating a roaring wave of searing fire that killed at least a hundred alicorns and reduced several square miles of fields and forests alike to gray ashes.

Umbraeus’ chest and right wing were struck simultaneously by twin bolts of golden lightning, bringing the dark alicorn out of balance and sending him hurtling away from the encampment. A transparent red bubble formed around the falling alicorn only moments before an additional six bolts lashed out at him with enough force to make even the black king’s defenses waver. He touched down on the ground, banishing his shield and summoning instead the shadows surrounding him to hide himself from the white alicorn. Ignis’ horn shone brighter than any light could ever shine as he sought to banish the shadows that obscured his enemy’s location, but in this world, Umbraeus knew, such was futile.

Soon enough, Ignis realized this as well and instead rained down comets of golden fire upon the darkened area, though none came close to striking the place where Umbraeus stood. Answering his opponent’s deadly rain, Umbraeus sent forth enormous spheres wrapped in billowing shrouds of darkness, hurling them in a wide arc at the king who easily dodged the attacks. The dark alicorn was surprised, however, when Ignis went off in pursuit of the huge projectiles. He then realized that given the spheres’ trajectory, they would strike down upon the alicorn encampment. The white alicorn overtook the missiles and, when he had reached both his and Umbraeus’ subjects, turned around. One after one, the spheres turned gold and exploded in a shower of sparks.

And now they admire him all the more, Umbraeus thought resentfully, berating himself for his carelessness. He rose out of his shadows, ascending more than a thousand feet before launching himself at the white king, the air around him crackling sharply as he reached unimaginable speeds. Ignis, somehow spotting the black alicorn amongst the dark mountains that were behind him, launched himself at Umbraeus as well. The black king pulled into a slight incline as the two opponents came closer and closer to each other, coating his body in a pointed force field as he prepared for the impact. Again, Ignis did the same.

The two met in a deafening clap of thunder, the force of their impact causing a shockwave that uprooted trees for miles around and left the earth barren and wind-blasted. The two alicorns now found themselves in a crater, once again locking horns in an effort to bring their opponent to his knees. With a grunt of exertion, Umbraeus was the one to succeed, managing to throw Ignis to the ground only moments before the air once again overcharged with their magic.

The dark alicorn summoned a veritable fist of unrelenting energy that descended from the heavens to strike Ignis into the ground. The black king was caught off guard by a burst of concentrated light, however, launching him into the air. Umbraeus hurled his powerful magic at the crater and Ignis answered in kind, golden tendrils of fire whipping about the flying alicorn.

With a force that caused the earth to shake once more, Ignis launched himself off the ground, shrugging off the dark alicorn’s attacks as if they were nothing and sought to skewer his opponent. Umbraeus, however, was too quick for him, and managed to rise over him by several inches. Taking advantage of the white alicorn’s vulnerable position and proximity, the black king was able to exert his telekinesis upon his opponent’s horn, pulling him up and around himself in a tight curve and sending him hurtling even farther away from the alicorns’ encampment. Once again gathering the residual energy of their arcane struggling as well as the very light and warmth that surrounded him, Umbraeus lowered his horn and released a jet of inky blackness straight at the disoriented white alicorn.

A hastily summoned golden shield was shattered as the full force of Umbraeus struck Ignis, driving him into the mountains they had initially landed beside. Wasting no time, the dark alicorn pursued his opponent, using his magic to bind his opponent to the crater in the mountain. Summoning every last ounce of his phenomenal powers, the mountain Ignis had struck shuddered as Umbraeus’ magic took hold of its peak. Boulders weighing several thousand tons were ripped loose by his power, hurtling toward the trapped white alicorn. Only, he was no longer there.

A hoof struck the back of Umbraeus’ head with more than enough strength to crush any lesser alicorn’s skull, followed by a blast of fire that blinded, burned, and drove Umbraeus into the same mountain Ignis had been trapped on.

The fire persisted, holding the dark alicorn trapped against the face of the mountain, the rock around him soon melting from the intense heat. The first of the boulders struck him, and for the first time, Umbraeus realized that Ignis might win. In vain, he drew shield after shield about him, but the white alicorn had preserved his power for this very moment, it seemed. The mountain shook as the Alicorn of Light finished what the Alicorn of Darkness had begun, pulling the entire mountain down on top of the trapped king. Finally, the gold and white of Ignis’ wrath gave way to darkness and the crushing weight of billions of tons of rock.

The dark stain that was Umbraeus vanished beneath a shower of boulders hundreds or thousands times his own size, burying the black king under the weight of half a mountain.

Ignis, however, refused to underestimate his opponent. The earth shook once more as he applied titanic pressure to the boulders, soon forcing them to meld into one uniform mass of rock, sealing away Umbraeus and driving even the dark alicorn’s defenses to their very limits. When the flattened rubble of the demolished mountain would yield no further, the Alicorn of Light finally ceased his attack.

He hovered in the air above where his enemy lay buried, waiting for any sign of the dark alicorn to emerge. When more than ten minutes had passed, he dropped to the ground, approaching the mound of rock warily, searching for the slightest hint of the black king’s malevolent aura.

The beating of wings and the sound of hooves upon rock caught Ignis’ attention, but knowing that Umbraeus lay safely buried beneath him, he did not strike out at the one approaching him. He turned to see the diamond mare, Anancita, who had apparently been the only alicorn to defend both kings whilst their subjects warred amongst each other.

“Is he gone?” the silver mare asked, walking up alongside Ignis, who only frowned.

“You should not be here,” he chastised her. “He is buried beneath us, but he still breathes,” Ignis explained, gesturing at the rock beneath his hooves. “He and I are invincible; as long as we will it, we cannot die.” He looked back at the diamond mare. “You are in grave danger standing here. You should go.”

Anancita, however, remained where she was, and so the Alicorn of Light decided to simply carry on as if she were not there. His horn glowed golden once more as he summoned his still potent magical reserves and split open the mound of rock he stood upon. A wide vertical shaft opened up before him, and as he peered down its jagged stone walls, he locked eyes with Umbraeus, the dark alicorn still standing despite all that he had been put through.

Ignis frowned again and waved his horn, causing the walls in the shaft to blaze brilliantly as they instantly melted, tendrils of liquid fire creeping along the bottom of the stone well and wrapping around the hooves of the fatigued alicorn king below. The white alicorn leapt into the wide opening, summoning a small platform of solid light just above the lava as he spread his wings and landed, standing before his adversary.

Umbraeus maintained his cold stare, though Ignis could see that he was suffering greatly. “You may smite me with your golden fire and thunder, Ignis,” he hissed defiantly, wincing slightly as the molten rock inched its way up his hooves. “You may burn away my hide and my flesh and even my bone, but my spirit shall still stand defiant against you. You shall not kill me and I shall never let you rule my people.”

“Then you shall suffer for an eternity,” Ignis said, although he was soon distracted as Anancita once again joined him, standing upon a nest of diamonds beside the white alicorn.

“Or we end this,” she suggested, her horn flaring a bright pink as she approached the black king.

“You would summon your powers against mine?” Umbraeus demanded, forgetting Ignis for a moment as he addressed the silver mare. “Your impudence is both amusing and fatally misplaced.”

The bottom of the shaft was lit with the red aura of Umbraeus’ horn, but before any spell could be cast, Ignis’ power gripped him, suppressing his powerful magic and paralyzing his entire body. “Go!” he shouted at the mare beside him, shaking from the exertion of holding back his adversary’s magic.

For a second, the diamond mare hesitated, but instead of flying out of the shaft and away from the two god-like beings, she instead lowered her horn to the dark alicorn’s, enveloping him in her own pink aura. Umbraeus’ terrible amber eyes darted between the two alicorns in front of him, radiating pure hatred, but Ignis was unaffected and Anancita had her eyes closed, focusing only on the spell she was casting on the black king. After a while of painful struggling for all three alicorns, the dark one’s ebony horn shone a bright white as the silver mare’s magic spread into his very being, transforming him in a way Ignis had never thought possible. The light travelled like a slow wave across Umbraeus’ body, spreading from the base of his horn to envelop his skull and within minutes, his whole body was blazing brilliantly.

Finally, when the entirety of Umbraeus’ form had been enveloped by Anancita’s magic, she raised her horn again and the dark alicorn broke free of Ignis’ grip. He reared up on his hind legs, preparing to deal the silver mare a killing blow, but Anancita held her ground, confident that her spell would work. And before Ignis’ eyes, his greatest adversary, still wreathed in brilliant light, suddenly froze. With another bright flash, the light around Umbraeus dissipated, leaving a diamond statue where there had once been a living, breathing alicorn.

For several minutes, Ignis regarded the statue of his enemy, marveling at the sight he thought he would never see. I defeated him, he thought. In his world of darkness, the air surrounding us drenched with the fear and desperation of a terrible war, I bested him in battle. His subjects are now mine. This world is mine. Darkness has failed and light stands victorious!

He turned his head to address the mare beside him. “Anancita. I cannot express how grateful I am for your services. You have done the world a great favor. With Umbraeus gone, I can free your people from the shackles of his cruel dominion, and I can lead the alicorn race into an enlightened age of peace and prosperity.” The small sheet of light he stood upon expanded, and the diamond mare stepped onto it as it rose out of the shaft, leaving behind the frozen and beaten alicorn king.

The stallion and the mare emerged from the shaft to be greeted by a crowd of almost a thousand alicorns, all of whom had gathered around the small chasm to see which king had won.

My people, Ignis once again thought, his coat brightening as he smiled with satisfaction.

“Spread the word to all who live in this world!” He called out to his subjects, his mane becoming a shining beacon upon the great mound of rock. “The Alicorn of Fear and Darkness, the black king Umbraeus, has been defeated. I stand before you as the new ruler of all alicorns and this world, and I hereby say to you all: The terrible war that has plagued you is at an end! Light has defeated darkness and banished the shadows of fear and malice, and under its brilliance you shall be united as one people! Those of you who followed the tenets of Umbraeus and those of you who fought in my name, let us put aside strife and hatred now and live as we have dreamed of living for the countless ages we drifted through the void of In-Between! I will light this world for you, my subjects, and together we will bring peace and prosperity to these lands and to our peoples! So follow me, and we will leave this blackened pit of ashes and found the capital of our new world!” He turned his head to Anancita as the crowd applauded his words. “Fly with me.”

And with that, he and the diamond mare spread their wings and left behind the ruined battlefield in which they had first set hoof, flying off in search of a new beginning for the alicorn race.