Left Behind: Sunny Disposition

by The Psychopath

A New War

King Gallant paced about impatiently in the garden, extremely nervous and stressed out while the animatronic strummed the strings of its instrument and adjusted the tension of the chords with each passing of its hoof.

"Doing that will make you age faster," it said.

Gallant glared at it briefly then resumed his nervous march. "I thought you were supposed to help me!" he squeaked. "I have two literal goddesses crunching me from both sides."

"But one is expanding through conquest and corruption," the automaton said. It strummed the chords of the instrument again, kept its ear close to them, then smiled as the tune got closer to what it wanted. "The other is expanding by mere existence and a promise she cannot keep." It stood up and slowly stepped into the path of the panicking king. "That lightens the load on your shoulders."

Gallant grumbled and bit his hoof. "Are you saying that I should pit vassal against vassal?" he said in a somber tone. "You would have me begin a civil war just to retain my position."

The automaton shrugged casually. "You're the one who declared war on the alicorn by offing her first vassal." It tapped its chin. "A certain mayor, no?" it asked with a sly and knowing grin.

The king's features grew more strained. "I believed that without him, she would be lost as to what to do next. He was the one pulling her strings."

"Seemed more to me, by what I read, that he was directing her for his own amusement and left to her own devices." It gave the king a large smile.

It casually leaned aside to dodge a pile of dirt thrown by Gallant. "So I made a mistake! I've made them in the past! I've fixed them through my own determination or the aid of my vassals."

"But this mistake didn't catch the ire of a literal moon goddess that had made you an offer you could have accepted."

Gallant grit his teeth. "You think you're so perfect? Why else are you in this...thing!" he said as he gestured to the doll.

The false smile receded into the automaton's 'head' and it looked away. "I overestimated the power she had accumulated over the years and she destroyed my body." The king huffed and looked as though he had won the argument. "My...predicament, however, means that I can't really die." Gallant's smile faded as the automaton slowly laughed maniacally. "You think I haven't died or failed before? It's the sacrifice I made! Me!" it said as it pounded its chest multiple times. "The others are all gone! I'm meant to safeguard the future of ponies!"

"And a lot of help that's been! It's like we stagnated," Gallant accused. "I didn't even know that there were alicorns in the world. I thought they were a myth. Now there's not one, but two! This is getting out of hoof!" he waved his hoof away. "What next? There's going to be ghosts? Am I to expect some kind of apocalyptic beast to awaken and torment us all with its mere existence?"

The automaton chuckled. "It's that fiery passion and imagination that makes you the perfect candidate to rule ponykind." It watched a flock of birds fly overhead and drop a feather onto a nearby bush. The king's 'advisor' plucked the feather from its new home and analyzed it meticulously. "Perhaps you could ask the griffins for help."

"And why would I do that?" Gallant asked. He was exasperated. "They were our enemies in several wars in the past. Why would they suddenly see to aiding us when we're being destroyed from within?"

The machine pondered a moment and strummed its instrument. "A common enemy."

The king rolled his eyes. "Oh please. The enemy of my enemy? Is that where you're getting at?"

His question was met with a head shake. "No. When the alicorn of the night is done with taking back Equestria, what is she going to do next? A being that is ageless and so powerful won't be satisfied with Equestria forever." It grimaced. "Then there's the firey one to the south. Her hunger for getting revenge on those who wronged her has gone beyond simply killing the ones that attracted her ire. She'll likely go after everything around Equestria to turn all into ash and cinder. Of the two, the night alicorn is the most dangerous."

The king nodded. "Because she's more cunning and rational. Is it not possible to direct them towards each other? They could battle and we take out the exhausted remnant."

He flinched when he saw the automaton look up at him then smile ear-to-ear. "Or they ally. They're siblings."

Gallant felt himself shaking. "So I'm trapped between a volcanic eruption and a falling moon." He slumped. "Fantastic."

"Could be worse," the automaton mused. It turned to the king and smiled slyly, creasing its 'eyes'. "Could have an alicorn made of literal lava consuming your fractured kingdom." They bounced in place when the king slowly turned to glare at them. "I forgot. Aren't there little pockets with griffins here and there? That can be levied as well."

The king grumbled. "That's true. The pockets we couldn't take back last time." His face illuminated with realization when he suddenly realized that they existed. "What's Nightmare Moon going to do with those pockets?"

By this point, the automaton had arrived next to Gallant and patted him on the shoulder. "Never you mind about that. You just need to figure out a way to start negotiations with the griffins."

---

Solar Flare peered at the lands in front of her from her burning cloud perch in the sky. Her expression had grown somber and her face tense. Nothing beyond her burnt domain and mindless servants was even vaguely recognizable to her. Even Canterlot mountain, which she should have been able to witness from where she was, could be seen nowhere. She could feel magic, but it was not the same kind. Not the right kind. With her brow furrowing further, Solar Flare looked upon the many forests and the misshapen lands. Whatever had destroyed her legacy went so far as to reshape the land itself. Her tenseness lessened when she noticed the sunlight reflecting off some glassed areas and looked up at the sun shining brightly with white light for the first time in so long.

"Yes. I missed you too, but we can't keep musing ourselves with the presence of one-another," Flare said softly. she frowned again, looking down in annoyance. "But these ponies. I don't recognize anything." She grumbled. "Since they refused to listen to my demands, I think I'll just charge forward and burn everything as I retake my country," she growled. "I've had enough of just sitting here."

The alicorn had been resting in her newly burned land, taking in the heat she had produced. What was once a city on fire had turned into a bubbling molasses of lava and soot. The buildings had been warped into ever-flowing shapes of lava from which molten rock flowed and corrupted the land around. Trees became crystal-like and their leaves resembled dripping red brushes. The grass had become like burning sticks of incense: Forever bright and letting out tiny streams of smoke. The air beneath her was choked with the cinders of what once was and what would happen to the rest of Equestria.

Flare dug her hooves into the cloud, breaking pieces of its burned body off and revealing the unharmed, cottony surface beneath. There was something in the air outside of her rage and grief that could never be quelled. Something oddly familiar, but not yet her daughter. Where would she be hiding? Suddenly, Solar Flare's fires quelled, and she felt her broken heart with yearning for something lost long, long ago. She clenched her teeth and wiped her cheeks of the burning rock flowing down before reigniting her flames. She was stolen from her. It was nostalgia and her need to see her again that brought about familiarity with errant magic.

"What..." The alicorn looked to the north. "Something broke my magic?" She paused then grinned. "Only half of it." Solar Flare let her body glow with magic before speaking. "Go to the source. Destroy it. If you're unable to destroy it, report back to me." She looked to the side. "And try to return my pony. They are a ressource I require at this time. I cannot spend them so freely."

---

The 'intruder' was dropped onto the ground, their body cleansed of whatever curse had befallen them. Sitting before Nightmare Moon was a pony seemingly freshly removed from the sea. Its tail made of wrapped tentacles flickered nervously as it looked down at its hooves, trembling.

"There. I cleaned...whatever this thing is of its curse," Moon stated dismissively. "They can go back home or something. I don't care right now." She shoo'd the pony and her guards away, but when she made to turn, the intruder yelled in horror.

"What have you done to me?!" he exclaimed. "You got rid of your sister's blessings?!"

The alicorn spun around, shocked, to see the pony's eyes were still burning as though on fire. "What is this?"

"That's a crancan, your highness," a guard explained. "But they shouldn't be resistant to magic."

Moon put her wing to her chin and hummed pensively. "That would have been my first guess."

The crancan looked between the guard and the alicorn angrily. "Why are you talking about me like I'm some sort of display?" He clumsily got onto his hooves and almost toppled over. "When Empress Solar Flare hears of this--"

"Empress?" Moon repeated incredulously. "You mean to tell me my sister aims to control Equestria before me?"

"B-but I thought you didn't-Ulp!" The guard was immediately silenced by a hoof to her mouth.

"If she wishes to rule alongside me once more then I would be remiss to act on such a suggestion." She paced around while keeping her eyes on the intruder. "But judging by what she has done to you, I can only surmise that her intentions are through conquest and corruption." Moon leaned in closer and stared at the crancan's burning eyes. "You still seem to be under her thrall."

The crancan was taken aback and visibly disgusted. "You say that like I'm brainwashed. I follow her willingly!"

Moon rolled her eyes and backed away. "Yes, I'm sure you are." She gestured to the guards. "Take him to the dungeons until I can figure out how to deal with this."

The guards saluted her and took the now relatively harmles pony kicking and screaming into the dungeons beneath the keep.

"How did the spell not break?" Moon wondered to herself.

Her newfound powers should have been enough to handle anything her sisters' fragments might have been able to conjure, so why didn't the brainwashing change? She couldn't think of anything until she noticed several guards holding up a map while arguing and writing various things on it. Besides that being a waste of a perfectly good map, the writing reminded her of something. Something she had seen a while back in the old castle of her sister where the changelings were.

Was this part of that new magic that her sister was researching? The alicorn walked around the grounds of her new home and looked in delight at the progress that had been made for the keep and the walls. It kept the guards distracted and prevented her from showing any weakness that these ponies were sure to capitalize on.

It allowed her to think clearly, which she needed. She wasn't entirely certain what the magic was that affected the crancan's mind, but simple brainwashing or mind control could be done with any number of magic tools and spells, all which paled in comparison to Nightmare Moon's new power.

"Look out!" a guard atop the walls shouted.

Moon looked at the door blow open, blasting a wave of freezing wind her way and blowing away several guards around her.

"Intruder!" another yelled.

They sounded the bells sitting atop the walls while Moon confronted the attacker. She was going to comment on this creature's audacity but instead found herself utterly baffled at the view before her.

"What manner of necromancy is this supposed to be?"

Comments

[TheUndeadEmpire]

Guess the dead man!

[Jmunoz13]

Now I can't wait for the next chapter!

[stag the story teller]

WTF is SHE doing THERE?

[The Psychopath]

11773199
Oh no. Did I break something again?

[stag the story teller]

11773213
nah, just sent Celestia after Luna, or just the shard Luna previously destroyed

[The Psychopath]

11773234
Oooh. Thought I fucked up like I did when I wrote Adwanee Sands and accidentally brought a character back to life.

[tsaukpaetra]

Dun dun dun!