• Published 21st Nov 2012
  • 875 Views, 15 Comments

Creation, Destruction, and Eternal Sleep - NicholasLikesPoniez



Introducing the latest addition(s) to the Royal Family.

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Baby Steps

It was an especially hot and humid night in the Everfree Forest. The animals were unusually silent, and the forest has taken on a more menacing quality than usual, as accentuated by the amount of silence and darkness. Insects stopped flying, land animals ceased in their daily routine of hunting and/or gathering, and all attention was seemingly on a strange lake, glistening in the beautiful moonlight Princess Luna has brought about.

Gradually, the shadows, which were innumerable, began creeping towards the lake, filling it and suffocating any and all light present inside of it. Eventually, the forest was lit up quite brightly, which thoroughly unsettled the animals, as predator and prey alike all stood still to watch this odd, unnatural event unfold. The lake was completely devoid of any sort of light, as the essence of darkness had snuffed it out, leaving the fish inside of it completely blind, disoriented, and frightened.

Suddenly, a bright, piercing ray of light struck down into the lake, seemingly out of nowhere. The light began to spread out, with a blob of blackened water slowly rising out of it. This blob slowly began to take form, with the light seemingly integrating with it. With some time, it finally took the form of a filly. Once it did this, the light disappeared and the black water began to solidify, still floating a little bit above the rest of the water. The filly formed eyes, a mouth with teeth, a horn, small, nearly useless wings, a mane and a tail, and a cutie mark, which consisted of a simple skull and crossbones beneath it, a universally recognized symbol of death.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to the deeply disturbed creatures surrounding the lake, the water-born filly was given life. Its tail and mane were both silver. It opened its eyes, which were also colored silver, and it surveyed the area. The darkness in the water began to return to its origins.

"W-... where am I?" The filly asked the woodland creatures, confused. Out of nowhere, a voice answered her. "You are in the Everfree Forest, my dear.", the voice said, loud and booming all throughout the forest, as if it was talking to all of its inhabitants. "Who s-said that!?", the filly asked, now afraid and frantically searching, turning as she floated above the water. "And why am I floating?"

Just then, another intense beam of light struck down, except this time right next to the lake. It formed a huge ball of light, equally blinding, and out stepped a large equine being, brilliantly shining in the darkness. She had a white coat, completely white and shining eyes, huge, bird-like wings, and a large, sharp-looking horn. Her mane seemed to be made out of pure light, which seemed somewhat like fire, but it flowed and had only a single, solid color, which was a bright shade of yellow. After she had stepped out, the ball of light and the beam that delivered it was gone, leaving the filly to stare at the tall equine being before her in awe. The woodland creatures followed suit, staring at their Creator.

"I am the creator of the universe and all that dwell in it, but you may call me mother.", the Creator said in a matter-of-fact voice, still loud enough for all of the forest to hear her. "And why ask why you are floating? You're glad you're not wet, aren't you?"

"Oh... so you're... my mother?", the filly asked, bewildered that such a bright and divine-looking creature was her mother.

The Creator brought her newly-created daughter over to her via teleportation. "Yes, I am indeed your mother. I am mother to all living things, great and small, but you...", the Creator paused, apparently searching for words to describe the black-coated filly that stood before her. "...are a special case, so to speak. I put part of myself into your creation, as I did with your sisters. Your father did, as well. He should be arriving any minute now to come and inspect his newest daug-"

The Creator was suddenly cut off by a large, pitch black hole in the ground appearing. A shadowy, menacing-looking creature, also an equine, slowly rose out of it. After he did, the hole closed up, and he began to develop more physical features. His eyes were first, which glowed white, much like the Creator's, but his were... different. His did not glow nearly as brightly, and had scratch-like borders around them, as if they were coming from a mask of some sort. His mane and tail were made of some sort of odd, flowing darkness. His horn was bent backwards in a large arc, and had a dark purple glow to it. His wings were like those of a bat, the bases of them colored black, and ended in the same dark purple color his horn did. His coat was, of course, black.

"Ahhh...", the black-coated being said in a quiet voice. The filly grimaced at how much she had disliked both of her parents' voices, as one is loud and booming, and the other's is quiet, but still easily heard and echoing, as if he is talking from inside her mind. "So you are my new daughter, eh? I would have chosen a different color and overall style for your mane and tail, but this will definitely do. Hello! Hello, I am your father, little filly. Most of the subjects that know of my existence and/or have seen me refer to me as the Destroyer, for reasons I'm SURE you will find out soon enough." The Destroyer let out a chuckle, and the filly before him grimaced at the thought of her father being called "The Destroyer".

"Now, then! We're gonna need a name for you, aren't we, little filly?" The Destroyer asked, then turned to the Creator. "What SHOULD we name her? I'm not really the best with names here, I'm afraid. I'm usually not involved with this creation stuff, unless I'm simply twisting the designs you made to freak the subjects out... and, occasionally, you along with them." The Destroyer let out a sly chuckle again at his one and only sister's expense as she remembers the time he came up with the dreadful race of the Draconequui, a race she largely sent to Tartarus, along with all of the failed experiments and her brother's twisted designs, because of how loathsome and harmful they were, all but one, whom was imprisoned by her two older and closest daughters.

The Creator simply decided to move on with the task at hand. "Alright. I shall name her Eternal Sleep, and she will be tasked with escorting the souls of the dead out of the mortal world and into the afterlife.", she said, eyes transfixed on the confused filly before her. "I had been doing so myself until now. It's somewhat of a chore and I'm sick of doing it, so I shall pass it down unto you, Eternal Sleep. Now, then, are you ready to begin learning how you will do this job for the rest of eternity?"

The newly-named Eternal Sleep slowly nodded her head, afraid of what will come to pass by saying no.

"Then let us begin!"
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"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Luna was suddenly awoken from her day-long sleep by loud, piercing, shrill cries of agony. Not the cry of one, but the cries of many, which could mean only one thing: something terrible was happening to her subjects.

Bolting out of her bed, she went to the nearby window and looked out of it to observe a scene of absolute horror: Canterlot was in flames and her subjects below either running about the place in terror, or just staring at the raging flames as they consume the elegant buildings that will soon be nothing but useless piles of ash.

Luna quickly opened the window and jumped out, spreading her wings and landing next to one of her subjects, one who was simply standing there and watching, unable to comprehend what was going on.

"What has happened? Who did this!?" Luna asked frantically. No reply. She grabbed the confused pony and began shaking her to get her attention. "Please, answer me! How did this happen?" Luna urged. "T-..they did it." She finally answered after staring at Luna for what felt like an eternity as she pointed to somewhere among the destruction.

Luna turned her head to see a bunch of shadowy beings, who were occupied with brutally attacking her subjects. Luna, appalled and furious to see her subjects being treated in such a manner, immediately released the pony she was interrogating, saying "Get to somewhere safe. I'll take care of them..." to her, and began walking towards a group of the shadow beings as they were relentlessly beating one of her subjects.

"Stop at once!" Luna shouted as she lowered her horn and pointed it at the shadows. She only gave them time to divert their attention from their battered, helpless victim before she blasted them all to oblivion with a blast of lightning from her horn. She raised her head back up and walked over to the victim.

"Are you alright?" Luna asked, concern visible on her face. "Y-yes, I'm fine, just a little beaten up is all." The battered mare said, shakily getting up. She bowed her head to Luna. "Thank you for asking, Princess Luna."

"How did all of this happen? What caused this?" Luna asked, feeling confident she'd get a better answer out of this one.

"Well.. these weird shadow things attacked us, and they were led by a large, black-coated mare with hair much like yours, but she.. or it.. was acting as if it had gone mad, shrieking and drooling. Its eyes were a pure white, glowing frighteningly in the barely-lit morning. It looked kind of like Nightmare Moon, except it was behaving like some sort of feral monster!" The mare covered her face with a shaking foreleg. "It charged in the direction of Princess Celestia's castle."

Luna's eyes had widened as she listened to the mare's account. Right after the mare had mentioned Celestia, she began sprinting in the direction of her castle, outstretched her wings and took flight. As she soared over Canterlot, she got an even better view of the destruction raging in it, and felt terrible that she couldn't assist them first. But no, they will have to wait until she was sure her sister has not been harmed. She seemed to fly even faster as her worry grew.

Finally, after seemingly an eternity, she arrived at the castle, and smashed through one of the stained glass panes. She landed onto the mess of glass she had created, and looked in the direction of her sister's throne. Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw next.

What stood in front of Celestia's throne seemed to be some twisted incarnation of Nightmare Moon, which had its head bowed down. On the ground before Nightmare Moon was a large white equine with a puddle of blood. Luna heard disturbing moaning sounds, apparently of pain, and disgusting, wet chewing and biting sounds. The terrible realization hit Luna as soon as she saw this: Nightmare Moon was eating her sister.

She began charging, furiously yelling "Leave my sister alone!" As soon as she got close to it, however, she suddenly stopped right in her tracks, unable to move, just a few feet from where Nightmare Moon stood.

Nightmare Moon raised its head up and slowly turned around. Blood and saliva mixed into a sickening cocktail as they dripped slowly from Nightmare Moon's mouth, which was filled with sharp, blade-like teeth. Its white eyes stared into Luna's, and Nightmare Moon began to step forward very slowly. Luna heard her sister saying "Luna..." weakly.

Then, Nightmare Moon roared in Luna's face, an unholy, shrill sound which pierced her ears to the drum. Blood and saliva splattered on Luna's face, and the stench of its breath hit her like a brick. As it did this, she heard a low-pitched, deep voice say "Wake up, Luuuunnaaaaa...". Everything went dark, and the voice repeated this a second time, except much louder.

"I SAID WAKE UP, LUNA!"

Luna sprang to consciousness in her bed, laying on her side and finding herself shaking in a cold sweat. She stared at the curtains, wide-eyed, for a moment, through which dim sunlight had poured into the room. A sigh of relief escaped her mouth. "It was only a dream, thank goodness..". A smile creased her face. She rolled onto her back, and was deeply disturbed by what she found staring at her.

"Ahhh, you're finally awake!" The voice she heard at the end of her nightmare belonged to none other than her own father, who stood by her bed staring at her and smiling very creepily.

"Did you enjoy your dream..?" Her father asked sarcastically, a chuckle following the cold inquiry. "Because I surely did! Hehehe." Luna only stared at the unfamiliar being who stood before her, somewhat offended by what she heard from him. "Who... are you?"

"'Awww, Luna, it breaks my heart that you don't remember me, it really does. Granted, it has been EONS since we last saw each other, but c'mon! I, my child, am your father!" He stomped his hoof on the floor as he said father. "Remember?" Luna thoroughly searched her mind and, after about a minute or so, finally remembered the last she saw of the being who stood before her calling himself her father, but only vaguely.

"Ohhhh..." Luna said, breaking the awkward silence. "Yes, I remember now.. why have you come here now, after so long?" Luna raised an eyebrow in suspicious curiosity.

"Well..." Her father started. "I came here to bring you to Celestia's throne room, where your mother and Celestia are waiting. Impatiently, I might add. We have a.. surprise for the both of you." Not being one for surprises, Luna reluctantly arose from her bed and walked over next to her father. "Hmmm.. alright, then. I shall go with you... but did you really have to wake me up in such a manner? Assuming the dream was of your creation, of course, which I'm sure it is." Luna's father's overtly mischievous ways resurfaced in her mind. Her father thoroughly enjoyed scaring people, even his own relatives. Luna remembered how much she detested this trait of his. In fact, she did not remember liking him much at all. She definitely knows where Celestia got her sense of humor, albeit hers is far more benign. Her father's is sense of humor is fairly reminiscent of Discord's: sadistic and at times random, but peppered with much more irony.

"Alright, shall we be off, then?" Her father asked, growing slightly impatient, as he had been standing there for quite a while. "Forgive me if I was not too eager to get out of bed" Luna said sarcastically. "I did just watch my sister being eaten alive by a twisted version of my evil altar-ego, after all. Now lets go ahead and get this over with." With a malicious chuckle at his daughter's expense, he pulled her closer to him and a dark portal opened beneath them, swallowing them both, and closing just as quickly as it opened.