Sun & Moon Act I: Ascending Star

by cursedchords

Chapter 12: The Sun and the Moon

“In ancient times, ponies revered the Sun and the Moon as guardian spirits. They served as the closest approximation to gods that the tribes had. One perhaps understands the significance of the titles that Luna and I were given upon our ascendance to the throne. We were not merely royalty, but something greater than that.”

- High Princess Celestia, Personal Journals (Vol. 4)

A Forest Path

Present Day

With each step, Aqua led Celestia deeper into the wood. They had left the Citadel far behind by now, moving southeast, where the trees grew thicker and the leafy canopy overhead became more dark. Presumably, the Master of Air was going through a similar process with Luna somewhere else.

The excitement that she had first felt upon hearing the exact nature of the trial in front of her had by now fallen away a bit. It had seemed surprisingly simple back at the Citadel. Nothing physical or emotional about it, just a straightforward magical puzzle, exactly the sort of thing that she had prepared for. But if it were in fact so simple, somepony else probably would have done it by now.

As she walked, Celestia could feel the ground rising beneath her hooves, and she knew that they were heading towards the far-off hills that she had spied through her bedroom’s window. The magic that she had felt back in the Citadel was much stronger now, and pulsed gently in her eardrums with every step.

One of the first things that Aqua had taught her was that every pony’s magic was distinct, manifesting in unique pulses and rhythms that only an adept unicorn could sense. Whenever a unicorn created a spell, it would be unavoidably laced with its creator’s mental pattern. Understanding that pattern was the first step to interacting with the magic. Celestia knew, of course, that since Discord was not a pony, his magic could work in an entirely different way, but she hoped that she could interact with his magic via the same process.

She had experienced many unicorns’ natural rhythms in her studies, but the pulse that she now felt as her and Aqua pushed deeper into the forest was something entirely new. It had a deep, primal simplicity to it, thumping regularly with such magnitude that she could almost feel the pressure of each pulse upon her skin. It was not an uncomfortable sensation; indeed it was invigorating to feel the natural power of such strong magic coursing through her form. She glanced to her left and tossed a transmutation spell at a leaf. With only a bare effort, she turned it into a feather.

“You feel it, Celestia?” Aqua said in front of her. “We draw near to the Hill of Shadow, in the deepest part of the forest. Here all magic is amplified, for unicorns, pegasi, and even earth ponies.” She stopped, and with her magic drew aside a wall of branches to the right. Beyond it was a small clearing, its tall grass waving slightly in the breeze.

As Celestia stepped through into the clearing, she realized that the forest had grown quiet, as though all of the animals understood the momentous importance of what was about to transpire, and did not wish to ruin the moment. The Sun was now high in the sky, looking down at them from almost directly overhead. She now understood why Aqua had taken her here to attempt the trial, but there was an obvious question to ask. “Do you know why our magic is stronger here?”

“No” Aqua continued, still standing stiffly at the edge of the clearing, her eyebrows knit together in thought. “Terraria’s records show that nopony has lived here in all of Equestria’s history, and there is no evidence of anything before that either. We know, of course, that in the era of the dragons, Skullhum lived here. Perhaps it is some of his residual power that we now feel. It is likely that this power is what protects the area from the worst of Discord’s damage.”

As she spoke, the Sun rapidly sank toward the horizon, pulled down by the King once more, but as it fell Celestia noticed something else. Almost like thin wisps of smoke, tiny tendrils of grey pulled themselves up from the ground and swarmed toward the Sun. And as they did, Celestia for the first time heard the ghostly sound of Chaos in her mind. For that second the pulse of the area’s magic was overwhelmed, and collapsed into a cacophony of noise, thousands of overlapping rhythms competing to be heard. They flowed through her mind in a crescendo, and Celestia had to close her eyes and clench her teeth to force them away.

When she looked up again, Aqua had on a knowing smile. “As I said, all magic is amplified here, including Discord’s own. When I was young, I used to come out here and listen to it, trying to understand it, but I never could. If you can do that, then surely you are the Prophecy’s hero.”

Celestia felt her heart flutter up nervously and took a deep breath to settle it. “Thank you,” she said to Aqua, nodding towards her mentor. “Thank you for everything. I won’t let you down.”

Aqua’s grin widened, and for a moment, Celestia almost could have believed that the white unicorn was her mother, beaming with pride at her daughter’s success. “Best of luck,” she said tenderly. And then the smile disappeared, to be replaced only by the usual stone. “Usually, the trial lasts a couple of hours, but there is no hard time limit. We will await you eagerly at the Citadel.” She stepped back into the forest, and in a flash of her azure magic, she was gone.

Celestia decided not to waste any time, and found a clear and level spot in the grass where she could sit. Normally, before attempting to interact with magic like this, she would study the particular spell for weeks, understanding it on a theoretical level before putting anything into practice. But of course there were no books on Discord’s magic, so this time she was going to have to figure it out as she went.

She knew only what she had heard in that split second, and it had not been encouraging. The sound of the magic in her mind had seemed unbelievably complex, built fundamentally unlike anything she had felt before. Normally there was some foundation to any spell, some principle that held the other elements together, but she had not heard anything like that. In order to make any progress, she knew that she would have to focus her whole intellect on the problem. And not lose herself in it as she had the first time.

It did not take long for the Chaos to once again make its presence felt. In her relaxed state, Celestia heard it sooner than she had the first time, as it was still only a trill of a melody in the background of her perception. Very quickly, though, it began to grow, stronger and more discordant by the second. Celestia fought to keep her focus, to see the system that belied it, but the Chaos seemed to build itself into a thick fog, permeating everywhere and buzzing in her ears like a swarm of hornets. The more she fought to hold on to it, the louder and more insistent it became, until finally with a shriek of pain Celestia had to let go.

She opened her eyes to find that her cheeks were running with tears. Her ears still hurt from the magical barrage, but this was not how it was going to end. She needed to focus more.

Celestia shut her eyes again, and took a few more deep breaths. With each exhalation she shut off more of her thoughts and emotions, seeking emptiness of the mind. When the magic came again, there would be nothing to distract her, nothing between her and Discord’s power.

As she focused, Celestia became keenly aware of every sensation in the world around her: the touch of the long grass on her legs, the barest hints of a breeze circling through the leaves, the call of a bird heard from miles away. A butterfly could not have flapped its wings without her noticing, but this was not what Celestia wanted. All of these stimuli were still just noise, distractions that she could not devote mental time to.

She focused deeper, willing her mind into a state of complete blankness. Unconsciously, her magic flowed up out of her horn, and formed itself into a protective sphere around her form, separating her body from all of the rest of the world. It blocked out all light, all sound, all warmth, all sensation. Now, Celestia’s mind was totally clean. To her, there was only magic.

When she opened her eyes again, the forest had disappeared. She was sitting in a black void, lit only by a dull grey light that seemed to have no source. Very dimly, she could make out the outlines of the terrain that she knew lay all around her, and she could still feel the ground beneath her hooves, so it she could at least still get her orientation. To the northeast she could make out the profile of the Citadel, jutting high over the horizon. It too was illuminated in that slowly pulsating grey, casting no shadow.

Celestia turned around the see the southeast, and her jaw fell. The hills ahead, belying their name, shone bright as stars, and then she once again felt it. The beat of the magic in her mind built up once again, thumping in time with the pulse of the light that they gave off.

Celestia stood up, and with a bare effort she took to the skies. As she drew closer, she could see that the light coming from the hills was actually a multitude of small lights, each one manifesting as a shining thread wrapped from one point to another. She landed nearby to one of them, and tentatively reached out to grasp it. As soon as she came into contact with the glimmering thread, her mind was filled with a familiar sensation. A sense of focus and concentration, and the mental patterns and calculations that she could immediately identify as a transmutation spell. Each one of these threads, then, was a tiny piece of magic.

Celestia withdrew and thought for a moment. If she could see magic, then could she also interact with it. This close up, she could see that what seemed to be a single thread was actually a braided rope of many threads, each one a constraint, a parameter, a variable that the pony casting the spell had considered. Once more she reached out and touched it, and once more visualized it in her mind. Knowing each piece now, it was simple to undo them, to reset the variables and undo the constraints. As she worked she could the see braid uncoiling itself before her eyes, until finally with a last thought it vanished entirely.

Celestia smiled, knowing now that this was how she was going to succeed. Now she only needed to find some Chaos magic to work with.

Once more she took to the air, this time heading north, out of the forest and back into the open spaces of Equestria. It did not take her long to find what she was after. As soon as she emerged from the forest, she saw the whole country spread out before her, bathed in an unnatural mauve that came from Eridian in the east. Everywhere, like snakes slithering eerily over the landscape, she could see pieces of Discord’s magic, in some places wrapped tightly in knots, while in others long and thin like pasta.

Directly ahead though, stood the mightiest braid of all, a colossal tower of magic that stretched from the heart of Eridian up high into the clouds. And at the top, its light muted by the many strands of magic that held it in place, there was the Sun. Celestia took a deep breath and flew towards it.

---

Aqua, Atlas, and Terraria waited patiently on a high balcony which jutted from the central terrace of the Citadel of Everfree. The outlook offered an impressive view out over the whole of the forest. Overhead, the Sun spun through its cycle like an irregular pendulum, bouncing back and forth between high noon and twilight.

“So once again we come to the moment of truth,” Terraria intoned. “Tomorrow, Equestria may be saved, and our tasks will finally have come to their end.”

Aqua and Atlas joined their hooves together on the railing. “Yes,” he replied, a wistful edge to his voice. “This is probably the closest we have come yet.”

Aqua turned to him with her wide eyes open. “Which of them do you think it will be?”

Atlas considered the question honestly. Of course, Luna had been his choice as candidate, but he knew that his partner favoured Celestia instead. “Luna has as strong a heart as I have ever seen,” he said, raising his chin just a bit in defiance. “I bet that it will be her that comes back to us victorious.”

Aqua, he could tell, was also thinking hard on the question, but clearly she wasn’t about to abandon her own selection. “Heart alone will get her nowhere. It requires a clear mind to understand magic, and Celestia grasped that faster than any student I’ve ever taught.” She levelled her eyes at him. “I believe that it will be her that claims this prize.”

Atlas smiled, knowing that he was never going to dissuade his fellow Master. But Aqua did have a point. Both Celestia and Luna were prodigies in their respective fields, each one excelling where the other came up short. “It’s a shame,” he said finally, “that we could not take both of them. Together, they are very likely the greatest power we have yet seen.”

“Perhaps that’s true,” Terraria answered him. “But we all know that it cannot be done. The Prophecy is very specific in calling for three heroes, and the two of you are already here.” She took a seat on her high chair, and returned her gaze out to the woods. “It will be one of them, or it will be neither of them.”

Atlas thought a bit about that particular statement. This was not the first time that his own opinion had gone against what the Prophecy had foretold. So many years ago, his heart ached to think of what might have been. In the end, it had been his choice to make: his love, or his country. He had made the only choice that he could have back then; now he couldn’t help but think of what might happen if that decision came around again.

He could still hear his old friend’s impassioned words, reverberating back through his memory as they so often did when he took time for introspection.

“Who are we to deny our country its first true chance at redemption? All because our ‘destiny’ was scratched into a wall by a deluded dragon thousands of years ago? Equestria deserves so much more from us, the so-called Resistance. It deserves the right to freedom, not according to some divine plan, but however we can get it! Why wait for ‘the perfect moment’ when an opportunity for victory is staring us in the face today! Won’t you join me, my friends? Won’t you fight now, for the end of our struggle?”

It had been the night of the sundering of their fellowship, so many long years ago. He had had Seraph at his right and Aqua at his left, an impossible choice. Either way, he knew that he would be second-guessing himself for all the years afterwards, a prediction which had proven depressingly accurate.

Aqua caught the faraway look on her love’s face, and squeezed his hoof a little in her own, causing his face to turn back around into hers. Their eyes locked again, and he snapped back to the present day.

“None of this was your fault,” she said slowly, her voice filled with compassion. “You did the only thing that you could.”

His gaze wavered for a second, and then came down. “We’ve both sacrificed so much, my love. Our friends, our lives, our futures perhaps. Sometimes I just want the whole thing to be over. We’ve spent so long biding our time, waiting for the perfect moment, as we’ve been told. And for what?” He brought his hoof down hard onto the railing. “Twenty years ago, we were ready. We could have done it, but for the Prophecy. In all that time, all we’ve done is waited. We’ve scoured the nation for our hero, for the one who could lead us to victory. But what if we already had him?”

“Enough, Atlas!” Terraria cut him off before he could continue. She stood up and walked over to them, her eyes blazing. “What do you think would have happened if you had followed Seraph in his folly? If the two of you had kicked down the King’s door and demanded his surrender?” She waited a moment, expectant, searching his face for any sign of a reply. But Atlas knew that nothing he could say would be the right answer.

“Right,” she said after a few seconds had passed. “You don’t know. You would have thrown your chance away on a whim, just like he did. But remember: we are all that Equestria has. Without the Resistance, nothing would stand in the King’s way. We must move when we are sure, or we will surely accomplish nothing. Do you understand that?”

Atlas nodded, keeping the expression on his face blank despite his true feelings. “Of course, Master,” he said.

“Good,” Terraria replied, already on her way back to her seat. “Now come, let us watch. With luck, tomorrow you may get your wish, if one of the sisters is chosen.”

Atlas turned back to the forest, letting out a deep breath. But Aqua’s eyes were on him. “You still miss him,” she said.

“Whenever I stop to think, especially at times like this. Sometimes,” he said, turning his eyes east, towards Eridian, “sometimes I wonder if he might have survived, and still be out there somewhere.”

Aqua shook her head. “You saw. He walked right out into the middle of a Chaos Storm. There was no way that he could have survived.”

“You’re right,” he said, looking back over at her again. She wasn’t right, and Atlas knew it, but that was a secret for another time. If Terraria found out, Atlas knew she would move mountains to have him found. “Now we’re all that we have left.”

The two Masters took each other by the shoulder. Atlas let his head rest against his partner’s well-groomed mane, and both settled back to watch the horizon. Overhead, the Sun ground slowly to an agonizing halt.

---

Celestia swirled in quick circles about the tower of Chaos magic, analyzing and understanding each individual spell that made up its structure. Every time that she touched it, her mind was once again filled with its discordant melody, but now she could see its every reverberation, and it was not hard to pick out the patterns that sat beneath it. From there, she began to work.

Discord’s chaos was just magic, after all, and that meant that it could mount no opposition to a practitioner who understood its inner workings. As Celestia grew used to it, she picked up the pace with which she was unwinding its threads. It became a rote pattern, moving from one strand to the next. High above, she started to see the Sun poking its light out, as the Chaos loosened its grip. Finally, with a last mental twist, it was released.

Immediately, Celestia felt everything else in her mind fall away, to be replaced by a searing and unstoppable heat. The Sun came up before her, burning bright and hot, terrifying in its power.

Celestia drew back from the heat, but even in doing that she knew that she couldn’t stop now. The hard part was over. Now was just a matter of moving the Sun back into its normal place. It should have been as simple as moving a stone.

The Sun, though, seemed to have other ideas in that regard. Its might radiated through her, subsuming all of her thoughts and demanding that she give way, that she let it pass. Celestia grit her teeth and braced herself against its onslaught. There was no way that this was how it was ending.

She bore down and let out all of the magic that she could muster, burning the sky bright yellow with her power. Her magic reached out and latched onto each of the Sun’s sides, gripping it tightly. With all of her being, she willed it forward, inch by inch. It started slowly, but after a few seconds she began to feel the resistance letting up. She was doing it. When this was done, the Resistance would know that she was the third Triumvir, and together they would save, and then rebuild, Equestria. The vision of the future that she had first considered way back in Eridian materialized once again in front of her eyes. Justice, prosperity, security. And she and Luna could be together and happy again.

In that instant, though, there was a sudden flash of orange, blotting out her mental picture. Without warning, the Sun flared, bucking its way free of her control. It smashed the chains of her magic, and once more pressed itself upon her. Celestia tried to fight again, but she had already given it her all. There was no more magic left to give, and the Sun’s heat filled her again. There was nothing left in her except for its power, which built itself up to a tremendous roar. No, she thought weakly with what was left of her conscious mind. Then, in an instant, it all disappeared.

She snapped back to reality once again in the forest clearing. She was lying on her back, having been knocked down by the magical burst. Around her, the grass had been blasted and scorched flat, like something had exploded right where she had been sitting. Slowly, Celestia turned her gaze back up to the sky. The Sun still floated overhead, again seemingly benign and small from this distance. For a moment, she wondered if maybe she had impacted it at all, but all too soon she felt the grey wisps of magic once again coursing through the air, seeming to chuckle mockingly as they went about their work. Once more, the Sun spun below the horizon and she found herself looking out at the darkened forest.

Celestia breathed a final shuddering breath. So shortly ago, everything had been right in the world. Now, Celestia forced herself to consider the unthinkable.

I lost.

Comments

[AppleTank]

woah woah woah, wait a minute. What did Aqua and Atlas do that was so bloody amazing, that to stand by them, you had to move the freaking Sun and Moon?