Messenger Of The Dark Gods
Chrysalis stood tall and proud, defiant to the end against the pathetic ponies that had somehow managed to beat her. Besides, what did she have to fear from Celestia, whom she had managed to beat with her own—admittedly supercharged—raw power? She would find a way to escape from this blasted cell, and then she would have her revenge.
"I trust you are comfortable?" asked Celestia, as her stupid guards fiddled with layers upon layers of magical wards on the door to her cell.
Chrysalis hissed. "This was only a setback. I'll have my revenge on you ponies, just you wait and see!"
Celestia gave her a warm smile. "I'm sure. Good luck escaping a prison that's buried under half a mile of solid rock."
The changeling queen spat at Celestia, but her saliva merely splattered on a magical barrier. She glowered at the princess, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of an answer.
Eventually, Celestia sighed. "Guards, the enchantments are fine, please leave us."
"Bu—"
"Leave us," commanded Celestia, and her guards quickly scurried away. Chrysalis let out a quiet snicker at how skittish the 'royal guard' was.
"You were early," said Celestia, and Chrysalis immediately fell silent, instinctively edging away from the doorway.
Gone was the friendliness. Gone was the stuffed up, goody-two-shoes princess she knew. Instead, the air had turned to ice, and what stood in front of her was something inexplicably terrifying. Every fiber of her being screamed at her to run away, but she did not know why. Celestia looked exactly the same, but somehow, instead of talking to her, instead of looking at her, she stared right through the changeling queen, as if she was nothing more than an ant.
"W-w-w-w-what?!" she stammered, staring at Celestia with newfound fear, but there was no response.
Celestia continued her icy glare, sending a shiver down Chrysalis' spine. This has to be a nightmare, she thought, a terrible nightmare I will wake up from and quickly forget. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to will herself awake.
"I'm sorry."
Chrysalis almost let out a gasp of relief when she heard Celestia's familiar, warm voice flow over her. Opening her eyes, she saw a familiar Celestia looking at her with a smile.
"I shouldn't have given you such a fright."
Recovering quickly, Chrysalis stood tall once again, and tried to keep herself from shaking uncontrollably. She even let out a threatening hiss as Celestia rolled her eyes and trotted away, leaving her alone in her prison. She wouldn't let Celestia intimidate her like that. She would show these ponies that she could never be broken!
Chrysalis was curled into a pathetic, shivering ball in a corner of her jail cell. Her once proud mane was now an unkempt mess, and she was far past caring about what the ponies thought of her. She was nothing more than a broken shell of her former self, but perhaps that was why the guards seemed so willing to fetch Princess Celestia for her. Once upon a time, she would’ve hated the idea of ponies pitying her, but that was before the dreams had plagued her.
She could feel the nightmare coming. She had to warn Celestia before it was too late. Nothing else mattered. To be honest, she never really cared about taking over Equestria. She just wanted to escape from the beast that had haunted her sleep. It really hadn’t occurred to her, but maybe things would have gone better if she had just asked for help first…
It didn't take long for Celestia to show up. Chrysalis noticed an errant feather floating down to the floor—had she flown here? She didn't seem out of breath at all. Ugh, focus! The changeling queen slowly began to rise from her cell floor, except... it wasn't a cell floor anymore.
It was the charred husk that was once the Badlands. Behind her, she could hear screaming. Endless, tormented screaming as a million changelings were burned alive by a mad god. She could hear him giggling in delight as the dead bodies of her brothers and sisters rained down on her. Fear kept her running, kept her alive, forced her to punch a hole through the dead bodies of her own kin so she could take to the air. Black clouds and thunder raged as she flew faster and faster, praying to whatever gods might be listening that the insane monstrosity wouldn't notice—
"Chrysalis!"
Queen Chrysalis was jerked back into reality by Celestia, and was momentarily stunned to discover the Princess cradling her like a child. "Are you okay, Chrysalis?"
The queen gulped down air, clutching her sworn enemy, trying desperately to get her heart to stop racing. "Y-y-yes, I'm f-fine. Just... just give me a moment."
Celestia nodded and waited patiently as the queen picked herself up, shook herself off, and then slowly sat back down. Looking around her small cell, she realized the door was still closed, yet Celestia was with her. How did she get in here? Chrysalis groaned and rubbed her head. She needed to focus.
"There is... a monster coming," said Chrysalis, still staring at the ground.
Celestia raised her eyebrow. "Do tell? What kind of monster?"
Chrysalis shivered involuntarily. "A nightmare. A horror from beyond Tartarus. An unspeakably powerful demigod who treats reality as nothing more than his plaything, who revels in destruction and torture."
The queen took a deep breath. "I can feel him drawing closer. Soon he will reach Equestria, and soon after, there will be nothing left but smoke and ash."
“Hmmmm,” mused Celestia, and suddenly the princess was looking straight through her again.
Chrysalis found herself staring into eyes she had hoped never to see again. They were the eyes of a being that couldn't possibly care less about something as insignificant and pathetic as her. She could hear the screams of her dying kin whirl around her in a nightmarish storm of blood and hatred. She was staring into the purple abyss once again, and his maniacal laughter rent her very soul, assaulting her from impossible directions, as though he wasn’t entirely corporeal.
“Chrysalis?”
Queen Chrysalis snapped back to reality, and once again she was staring into the eyes of a kind and loving princess, not the demonic hell she had spent so much of her life fleeing from. She realized that Celestia had wrapped a wing around her.
“Chrysalis, how has this ‘monster’ you speak of escaped my notice if it is engaging in such wanton destruction? Surely somepony would have noticed.”
“There are no ponies down there, only changelings, and ponies don’t care about dead changelings,” spat Chrysalis. Celestia did not reply, and it wasn’t until several minutes later that Chrysalis noticed that the wing wrapped around her had vanished, and Celestia along with it.
Daylight Spear had been Captain of the Guard for many moons, but he had never been summoned so abruptly by the Princess. Then again, nothing particularly interesting had happened either, so he couldn’t help but feel a tinge of excitement as he cantered into the throne room.
“Guards, leave us.” Daylight Spear heard Celestia dismiss her guards as soon as he stepped inside. Whatever was happening must be crucial to national security.
He stood before the princess and saluted. “Your highness, what is the s-s-situation?” Despite his years of training, Daylight still stumbled over his words when he saw the fire in Celestia’s eyes. Raw power seemed to radiate from her like heat from an open furnace. He shuddered involuntarily, but managed to stand his ground.
“When was the last time we scouted the southern border, near the badlands?” Celestia did not seem to notice the trembling in his voice. She required information, and he would provide it.
Daylight Spear took a deep breath before answering. “The badlands are scouted on a biweekly basis, the last completed run was nine days ago. The next is in five days.”
“Has anypony reported anything unusual whatsoever during any of our recent scouting missions?’
Daylight shook his head. “No, your highness.”
Celestia frowned. “Send out another scouting party, today. Actually, send two, each one starting from opposite ends. Each scouting party will consist of precisely 14 guards, chosen from your best pegasi, flying at maximum speed, and will report directly to me. They will all bring standard issue signal flares, to be fired every 15 minutes. If anypony fails to fire a signal flare at any time, consider this a military emergency and inform me immediately.”
Daylight forced himself to stop trembling. “Yes, your highness!” he managed to say before scurrying out as fast as he could.
“Have we received any news, whatsoever, of any kind of calamity befalling the badlands? Or, I suppose, any calamity that’s… worse than normal.”
Sunlight filtered through a pair of silk curtains, as both Princess Celestia and Raven sat around a table. Tea had been prepared, but Celestia didn’t seem interested.
“It’s hard to say,” said Raven, “we don’t really pay attention to the badlands for… obvious reasons. Over the past year or so, there have been scattered reports of widespread destruction, but they were attributed to a rampaging dragon and ignored.”
Frowning, Celestia finally took a sip of her tea. “But... dragons aren’t anywhere near the badlands.”
Raven shrugged. “Well, yes, but what else could it be?”
“Perhaps I should have been more directly involved,” muttered Celestia. The rest of Raven’s report was interrupted by Daylight Spear barging through the doorway.
“One of the scouting parties has failed to send up a signal!” he cried out.
Celestia rose from her seat immediately. “How long ago was this?”
“By now, it’s been almost two minutes,” he replied, still slightly out of breath.
“Give me their last known coordinates, bearing, velocity, and estimated current position.”
Scrunching up his muzzle, Daylight did some quick arithmetic. “Last known coordinates were 17.809 north, 95.018 west, bearing 142 degrees, traveling at 15.6 wings per second. Extrapolating from that, they should be around 19.938 north, 95.052 west.”
“Daylight, I am going to perform a teleportation—”
“—But—”
“—Do not interrupt me. I am going to perform a teleportation. I am giving you an order as the supreme leader of this nation that you are not to disobey under any circumstances. Do not follow me. Do not let anypony else follow me. Order all guards in the vicinity of the southern badlands to retreat to the nearest town at once. I am hereby ordering the evacuation of Hoovesdale and Haylington, effective immediately. If I do not return in precisely one hour, awaken Princess Luna and inform her that a Level 9 threat has arrived on Equus.”
Daylight Spear stared at the Princess, and it took every ounce of training and discipline he had to keep his legs from trembling as he saluted her. “I-It will be done, your majesty.”
Princess Celestia vanished in a flash of light. It seemed brighter than usual.
Far away, in the empire of light, Vezulada The Brilliant felt a tremor course through the fabric of spacetime. It was a tremor she had hoped never to feel again. The Calamity had awoken from its slumber, and would consume whatever unfortunate planets were in its way. Such power was spoken of in hushed whispers, existing only in legends, passed down for uncountable generations.
She considered alerting the Galactic Council, but they probably already knew. In a few hours, they would convene for an emergency session where they would discuss “mitigation strategies” and “possible military actions”.
...But it was all a farce. No one can stand against The Calamity. All anyone can do is get out of the way and hope that it doesn’t notice.
An ancient being, perusing through a dusty tome, looked upward in surprise. “Well… that’s certainly unexpected. I thought you’d been locked away long ago, buried in a tomb where the galaxy would never find you.”
Returning to his timeless work, he flipped through another page. “I have to admit, this will be interesting to watch… Master.”
On the beautiful world of ӵ⊿§ॾ∂טּ, there exists a city spanning an entire continent. Inside that city, there stands a fortress upon the tallest mountain. At the top of its tallest tower, there is a room that has stood untouched for a hundred millennia. It is forged from strange metals and protected by ancient technology no one could hope to understand in a single lifetime. A soft, green light has glowed in front of that door for all of recorded history. It was a light that kept them safe. It was a light that promised the horrors of the past were behind them, and they were free to live without fear.
Today, the door was glowing red.
The little pegasus squirmed in his telekinetic grip. Its little hooves flailed in the air, and it let out another scream of pain as he playfully plucked its remaining wing off, like one would pluck the legs off an ant. The others had, unfortunately, gotten away, as he had been a mite distracted by his initial catch, but this one was proving to be quite entertaining.
Alas, torturing insignificant creatures was not sufficient to keep him from getting bored, and he eventually tired of its pathetic cries. With barely a second thought, he smashed it into the ground. Flying over the red smear, he wondered if he would encounter any more of those delightful pegasus things if he kept moving north. He was getting bored of changelings, even with the most creative methods of torture he had come up with.
His progress was halted, however, by the sudden appearance of a much larger pegasus. Curious, he cloaked himself and watched as the large pegasus flew across the same patch of sky the smaller one had crossed. It landed next to the bloody mess on the ground, and he noticed that it also had a horn.
Its horn began to glow, and the remains began to levitate, congealing in a large red mass that slowly began to resemble the small pegasus he had squashed. He watched in disbelief as the mangled wings were reattached to a now pristine body, and then felt the horned pegasus yank its soul back from the unknowable beyond. The insect he had so spent so much time torturing to death fluttered to life before his very eyes.
This is impossible! he thought, Only I should have that kind of power! No being so pathetic as that should have such control over life itself! Life is mine to give and take, and mine alone!
Furious, he grabbed the meddling creature with his mind and—felt his telekinetic grip slip right off. He tried again, and again, but he simply could not grab it. The winged unicorn nuzzled his prey before letting it fly away, and with a cry of rage, he struck out. A terrifying lance of incredible power tore through the air, only to smash into an impenetrable barrier. A colossal shockwave ripped apart the landscape, uprooting trees a hundred miles away. The very planet itself strained against the unimaginable forces colliding on its surface.
He had to admit he was rather impressed when he saw the winged unicorn step out of the dust cloud, unharmed. While it may have stolen his prey from him, perhaps he had finally found a worthy opponent. Still, he was a bit surprised by what he heard next.
“I can see you behind that pathetic cloak of yours.”
Chuckling, he uncloaked himself. “And who are you?”
“I am Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria. You are trespassing on my lands. I suggest you leave.”
A wicked grin crossed his face. “Make me.”
Without another word, he leapt into the air, moving so quickly he seemed to be in five different places at once. He struck with blinding speed, setting off a sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier. But he hit nothing but air, as he realized that Celestia had somehow managed to get behind him. Letting out a ferocious roar, he summoned his legendary sword from the depths of another universe, swinging a blade hewn from the black void itself at his bothersome opponent. The dark edge struck a barrier of light, and for a brief moment, time stood still. He was thrown backwards nearly a mile, smashing into the ground and creating a crater the size of ten hoofball fields.
Grabbing his sword, he stood up, but Celestia was nowhere to be seen.
“Coward! Come and fight me like a— oof!” His tirade was cut short by a hoof that appeared out of nowhere, slamming into his chest faster than the speed of sound. If he had bones, they would have turned to dust. If he had organs, they would have liquefied. Even with his superior biology, she had managed to punch a hole straight through him. Only his incredible regenerative abilities kept him alive. Behind him, a massive shockwave split the heavens in two, slicing through the clouds like a cosmic knife. In front of him, a sonic boom echoed backwards, tearing the ground to shreds as the pressure front collapsed back in on itself.
Celestia loomed over his broken body. “Sʜᴜᴛ ᴜᴘ.”
Wheezing pitifully, he looked up. “What are you?!”
“I am the creator of this world. I bring day and night to my little ponies. The machinations of my creation turn according to my will. You, on the other hoof, are disrupting my plans.”
“Oh, really?” He clutched at the hole in his chest, still leaking purple fluids. I need more time! “So you decide whether they live or die? Does nothing bad ever happen, or do you kill off their children, too?”
“The infant mortality rate in Equestria is 0%. All my ponies live long, happy, fulfilling lives, even if I must engineer a few disasters to keep things interesting. You, however, have forced me to start improvising. Some of my ponies are dying before their time. This is unacceptable.”
“That’s cute,” he said, rising from the ground, now fully regenerated. “But what if I don’t give a shit about your stupid little ponies? Do you even know who I am?!” He raised his sword, and the world began to tremble as he called upon the void.
“You?” Celestia snorted, “You are nothing more than a failed experiment run amok, wreaking havoc upon the galaxy. Tell me, have you ever met your makers?”
He stared at Celestia, and hesitated. “My… makers?” They were dead long ago, wiped out by some galactic catastrophe—
"I killed them," whispered Celestia, who was suddenly right next to his ear. "I am the cataclysm that tears through your legends. I am the destruction that brings the galaxy to its knees. I am a messenger of the dark gods, born out of the infinite unknown."
She stood up, towering over him. “I am The Calamity.”
He stumbled backwards, away from Celestia. "N-no, that's just a myth—"
"A myth that was retired!" roared the princess, sending her voice echoing off the distant mountain peaks. "For an eternity of service, I was granted a reprieve. I built a world of my own, where friendship was magic and love conquered all. A world far removed from the horrors of the galaxy, where I could spend my retirement in peace.”
The avatar of chaos stepped towards him. "A retirement that ended fourteen minutes ago."
He crawled backwards, his mind racing, more terrified than he thought possible. Celestia continued trotting towards him, as her mane ignited, and a searing heat incinerated everything within a mile radius. Rippling heat waves rolled off of her visage as she spoke in a voice that echoed in impossible ways, filling the very air around him with her demonic speech.
"I am the end of all things. I was here before the seasons bestowed life upon the galaxy, and I will be here when the last mountain turns to ash. I am chaos incarnate, servant of the endless roar, wielder of the wicked flame, and terror of the cosmos."
He screamed in agony as her very presence burned away his flesh, only for it to regenerate over and over again. “What do you want?!” he begged, as he lay trapped in unending torment.
Celestia looked at him with blindingly bright, white eyes, and snorted in amusement. She raised a single hoof, clad in superheated plasma flowing along her fetlocks.
“To rest.”
Back in the castle, things were slowly returning to normal. The evacuations had been canceled, the soldiers returned to their posts, and a soothing speech given to the populace. Order had been restored.
Princess Celestia was sipping her favorite tea while lowering the sun when she heard a door open behind her. She was surprised to see Daylight Spear return to her side. Surely he had duties to attend to?
The captain trotted up next to her and sat down, saying nothing. After a while, he looked up at her. “Permission to speak freely, your majesty?”
“Of course,” Princess Celestia nodded, taking another sip of tea.
“I was… very worried about you today. But I’m glad you’re okay. You mean the world to us, Princess. I don’t know what we’d do without you. Each of us is grateful to have you as our leader, even if it doesn’t always seem that way. I just wanted to say… I love you.”
The Calamity Princess Celestia smiled. “I love you too, Daylight Spear. I love all my little ponies.”