A CHALLENGER IS NEAR!
A CHALLENGER IS NEAR!
Chapter one
It was a slow day in canterlot, ponies weren't shuffling about with their usual busyness. A heat wave was rolling over the city for the past three days, and the unicorn forecasters predicted that it would last all week. Celestia could do nothing, she simply raised the sun, she couldn't alter it's properties. She sighed and smiled as she watched the city crawl. Couples sipping lemonade together, rich ponies having patsies hold umbrellas over them as they spritzed themselves with water, even a few fillies were enjoying themselves as they swam and splashed in canterlot river. She came off her balcony and decided to get to work. Today was book sorting day, and that meant going into canterlot libraries many sub-basements and choosing which new books she was going to introduce to the library this year. She stepped out the door to her study and turned left down the hall, passing Luna on her way to the main hall.
"Hello sister." Luna said in her usual stoic manner.
"I'm sorting books downstairs, wanna come?" Celestia asked.
"Well as fascinating as sifting through a bunch of old books sounds, I'll have to pass." The sarcasm nearly visibly dripping from her voice. "Discord and I are having an FPS tournament in fifteen minutes and I HAVE to be there."
"Come on woona, you love old books!"
"I love reading old books, as they remind me of the time of old. The absolutely droll task of sorting through them is slightly less appealing. And I thought we agreed never to bring that nickname up again."
"Now Luna, you loved that name! You called yourself that for years!" Celestia prodded.
"Key word loved. she retorted.
"You know who else loved that nickname?"
There was a slight pause as Luna pondered what her sister meant by that. During which Celestia slowly whispered into her ear...
"Discord."
"YOU TOLD!?!? I HATE YOU!!!"
" Na-na-na-na-na!" Celestia taunted as she bolted off towards the library.
Celestia opened the hardwood oak door marked sub-5, and stepped into the room. the musk of old books and stale air hit her nose, and she sighed deeply. The scent was intoxicating, luring her in. She loved the smell of old books. It was like an old grandmother, beckoning her grandchildren closer for another story about her youth. Celestia walked in and sat down, basking in the cool air of the library sub-basement. She began levitating the stack nearest to her and started to sort them. A conga line of books weaved in and out of the cobwebbed columns, suspended by magic. Their titles ranged from "The art of recreational cheese making" to "The rule of Sombra, volume four". She sifted through about seventy different titles before a particular one caught her eye. An old purple tome, with a strange symbol she did not recognize on the cover floated past her. It seemed to call out to her, beckoning the goddess to read it. She set the other books down and brought the mystery book before her. It had a mystical feel to it, almost ethereal.
"What are you?" she whispered.
"There is no life in the void, only death" the book answered.
"Gahhh!" she screamed, dropping the book and backing away.
Did it just, answer her? She heard the voice in her mind, it was a voice that roiled with power. The voice of a god, a cruel god. She remembered the days back when she used to have that voice too, long ago. In the days before Sombras banishment, before discord was overthrown, she was Celestia; God-queen of ponykind. The true voice of a goddess is actually the template from which luna created the ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE, as it didn't cause mortals to cower in terror and agony. Well, agony at least. However that was long ago; this, this was fresh. She picked up the book as it subtly whispered into her mind and she opened it. Celestia flipped through the pages, it was all in a text she could not read. As she examined it though, the ancient text began to glow with a magical light. Startled, she tried dropping it but it refused to be discarded, the book beginning to shine with blinding light. It didn't hurt though, as she looked into the light knowledge flowed into her mind like a river. She could see it's purpose, what it was men't to do. She started to be able to read the daedric text, but that was nothing compared to the true purpose of the book, the spell within.
As the knowledge entered her mind, the book began to burn, an ethereal flame that only consumed the tome. When the spell was fully transferred, the book erupted in fire, leaving not even ashes behind. Celestia sat, pondering what just happened. She looked over the spell in her mind. It was supposed to summon something, that much was certain; She just didn't know what she would summon, where it was being summoned from, or even what it was supposed to do. The book had only told her how.
She had to talk to Luna immediately.
Celestia raced down the hall towards Luna's quarters at top speed, her mind muddled. She had so many questions, and how to find answers was one of them. Why was there such an unfamiliar tome in the basement? Who had written it? Where did it go? She shot past guards and maids, who didn't even have time to salute or bow before she was already gone. She turned a corner and finally saw Luna's door at the end of the hall. She ran down and skidded to a halt at the door. She blew open the door to Luna's bedroom, where she, discord, and some other small brown earth filly with a beanie cap.
"Luna!"
"Not right now sis I'm busy! Ah shit, Discord! We got boomers!"
"BAM! Hah, headshot!" Exclaimed the little one. carrying an obscenely oversized cannon with which he just vaporized another minigun wielding grinder.
"Nice job button, Discord, how's that heavy support coming?" All Luna heard was a little beeping noise as several small red lasers closed in on the approaching horde of locust. Suddenly a massive crimson laser descended from the skies above and vaporized the entire wave, ending the match.
"Always have to end things with a bang don't you?" Luna remarked.
"Would either of us have settled for anything less?"
"Good point, now what did you want sis?"
"Okay so I found this old spell in the basement and I think it's going to summon some weird creature we never saw before!"
...
"Again?"
"Look this is not the time to discuss that jock strap incident, we need to figure out what this thing does!
"Alright alright I'm coming."
Meanwhile, in the throne room...
"So what's with this new spell anyway?" Luna asked.
"Alright so I went over the spell in my head and I found a little flaw in the design, whatever I summon would only be here for about a minute, so I changed some of the mechanics around so it should be permanent until we send it back. Of course that nearly doubled the mana cost but I can handle it."
"But sister, it might be dangerous! Wouldn't having a big dangerous monster around for good be a bad thing?"
"Nonsense Luna, we can banish it when we want, and I actually want to study it first."
"Okay..."
"Guards! Ready defensive positions!"
Celestia closed her eyes and concentrated, her horn beginning to glow with golden energy. She tensed, beads of sweat rolling down her forhead. Suddenly, she released. A large ball of purple flame expanded several feet in front of her, and then dissapated. Leaving in its place a large, heavily armored warrior. Upon seeing the guards, the creature drew a massive flaming greatsword and charged, bellowing wildly.
"A CHALLENGER IS NEAR!"