Pezzonite eyes shine with mirth as they watch the little lavender filly jump around with glee. Princess Celestia smiles, a genuine smile, not one of her practice smiles for the nobles. Seeing the excitement in the little filly fills her heart with joy.
Joy.
A feeling sadly foreign to her for too long.
Another feeling seeps into her heart an old acquaintance.
Urgency.
Time marches on and waits for nopony not even demigod alicorns. The time for her sister's release from the moon approaches. She needs the Elements of Harmony. She needs to find the Element Bearers. Somepony to bear the Element of Magic finally appears and sadly they are a young filly. The other Element Bearers will reveal themselves in time now that the key Element Bearer awakens—at least, Celestia hopes so. She turns her gaze to the window to see the rainbow explosion in the sky radiate across the land. She will need the names of all the ponies gaining their cutie marks at this time.
After repairing the school, Princess Celestia makes her way back to the castle to resume her tasks. A second explosion in the sky stops her mid-step and the orders for the Equestria Bureau of Investigation clatters to the ground slipping from her magic. A crimson wave emanates from the castle chills her bones. Her horn ignites as she teleports to the castle statue garden.
Flames lick the soles of bare feet. Chains whip across bodies. Wails and shrieks fill the air along with laughter and howling. Choking smoke from the burning bodies and furnaces leave hardly any breathable air.
"Need to keep running! Need to leave!"
Malicious laughter echoes.
Fresh air enters the lungs of the filly laying on the ground. Broken stone lays strewn around the filly. She coughs as her lungs acclimate to the overwhelming amount of oxygen. A red mane with black streaks covers the side of her white face not pressing against the green grass. White ears swivel around and listen to the various voices in the vicinity.
"Need to," her voice scratches the back of her throat as she labors to stand, "can't stop." Her breathing strains as she tries to steady herself with four wobbly legs. Her head continues to weigh her down and does not want to cooperate. "Move!" She growls in frustration and finally collapses to the ground after two minutes of fruitless laboring. The sides of her barrel rise and fall rapidly as she inhales shallow breaths. A loud thud next to her head grabs her attention. The air around her starts to rise in temperature and weigh heavily on her as if in the presence of a star. She grunts as she uses her chin to dig into the ground in order to turn her to face the nearby presence. Blinding light stabs her eyes close and elicit a wince.
The blinding light fades away and her eyes open to see a tall creature standing above her. A creature that fails to register in her brain. A look at their white feet and chest reveals the creature being smart enough to wear armor. A long white muzzle with large nostrils, perhaps holds a great sense of smell. Large eyes glare at her holding high intelligence and a flicker of hostility in the background. A horn protrudes from their head, an impressive horn, a dangerous stabbing looking horn. A crown adorns their head so a royal. Long, flowing hair billows in the nonexistent wind. Giant wings flare from the creatures back. Some sort of avian-mammal hybrid creature?
A defensive posture. Yet no fangs or claws. A prey species. the filly observes mentally. Obviously I am seen as a threat to them. Why? the white filly thinks to herself.
"Do you know who you are?" the creature speaks, which honestly surprises the filly.
Of course I know who I am and that is none of your business.
The filly opens her mouth to speak. An animal noise escapes from her mouth drawing looks of confusion from everypony.
Huh? That doesn't sound right.
The filly proceeds to neigh when she opens her mouth to speak again. She furrows her brows and releases a squeal of agitation. Such an animalistic and primal noise unsettles the creatures wearing armor and wielding weapons in the garden. The filly watches the large, white creature before her close their wings and their face soften.
"Do you understand me?" the creature asks.
Yes. The filly gives a neigh and head nod.
"Do you know who you are?"
The filly thinks for a moment. She closes her eyes and scrunches up her muzzle as she tries to recall her name. Flashes of fire pop up first. After a few more seconds of thinking she sees a face. A flat face creature unlike the large, white creature, with smaller eyes, a small nose, and a mouth. This new face starts melting, the skin falls off to reveal the muscle underneath. The filly shakes her head to get rid of the grisly image.
"Shade," the creature speaks which immediately grabs the filly's pale yellow eyes, "that is your name."
Shade.
Shade.
Shade.
That name echoes and rattles around in the near empty space of the filly's memory. Different voices speak the name. The tone of the voices changes from happy to angry to sad and every emotion in between. Hearing the cacophony of voices wears on the white filly's mind and weighs down her head to the green grass.
Shade.
Shade.
"We are sisters, Shade." the creature's voice resounds in the filly's head which silences the other voices.
She opens up her pale yellow eyes to look up at the creature with confusion on her face, "What?" Her voice barely registering as a hoarse whisper.
A small smile forms on the creature's muzzle. "I said, your name is Shade."
The filly, Shade, begins to convuls on the ground as if an unseeable force shocks her. Flashes of creatures—ponies(! That's what they are!)—fly by on the back of Shade's eyelids. Bits of memory start to from and play as pictures flying at her.
"Shade!" a new voice calls out to her.
A memory plays out before her. A battle. A loss.
A betrayal.
Her eyes open to see the betrayer igniting her horn for an attack.
Celestia's Flashback
Celestia pants loudly as she pumps her wings as hard as possible. First, the griffons attack and now, she has to deal with the mysterious storm that sprouts out of nowhere. Her pegasus magic barely keeps the storm from sweeping her away. Lightning flashes and streaks around her as she continues flying for the next pegasus city. A flash of lightning blinds her and she quickly raises a shield with her magic. The bolt of lightning bursts her shield and sends her straight to the ground. The last thing she remembers is crashing to the ground and a tree falling on her.
Feeling the warmth of the sun awakens Celestia. Her magenta eyes shoot open as she scans the area around her. She tightens her eyes as shooting pain racks her body. Her breath exhales sharply as she tries to ignore the burning sensation. She opens her eyes again to assess the damage. She grimaces when she sees a giant pine tree across her back pinning her to the wet earth. She also notices her wings bending at unnatural angles.
"That's not good," she comments to herself out loud. She prepares to move her back legs when an unmistakable sound reaches her ears: griffon wing beats. She looks up and her pupils shrink as she sees three griffons descending upon her. She lights up her horn for a teleportation spell. A jolt of pain prevents her from casting the spell. She yelps as she hears her magic fizzle out. She reaches to soothe the ache in her horn and she stops when her hoof touches something metallic: a horn cuff.
"Nuh-uh-uh!" A large gray griffon says as he lands close to her head, "not today, little unicorn." He sets the cuff launcher on the ground beside him.
A second griffon perches on the tree crushing Celestia eliciting a growl in pain from her. The third griffon, a sandy tan hen, sets down next to the large gray griffon. She levels a spear at Celestia's face.
"Looks like breakfast is served early!" The gray griffon squawks. The other two griffons cheer.
Not like this, Mother, Celestia thinks to herself. Luna, I'm sorry. She hangs her head as a tear rolls down her cheek. The screeching of a fourth griffon makes Celestia open her eyes. She sees the two griffons levitating off the ground with a crimson aura enveloping them.
"What—!" The gray griffon's exclamation is cut short when he explodes inside the crimson sphere.
Celestia closes her eyes when seeing and hearing the bloody explosion. She winces when she hears a second splat sound behind her.
"Wait! Wait! Wai—!" The eruption of fire drowns out the pleas of the hen.
Celestia hears the body fall to the ground. Bile rises from the back of her throat as the smoldering stench of burning griffon assaults her nose. She swallows the bile and opens her eyes. Her heart deflates with hope as a new monster replaces the previous three. An ash white tricorn mare stares down at her with serpentine pale yellow eyes. A soft breeze brushes the crimson and black mane of the mare.
They watch each other for a minute. Celestia sees the conflict in the mare's eyes as an internal war wages. Celestia does not know what the tricorn will do. The tricorn is as likely to kill and eat her as the griffons considering how barbaric her tribe is and how recent the war had ended between their tribes. Celestia's blood boils as the memory of her people's fall plays behind her eyes. She and her sister, Luna, may be the only alicorns left. Then again, the tricorn before her may be the last of her kind as well. The war had ended with the remaining dozen or so alicorns casting a spell to eradicate all the tricorns. Her blood simmers down as she thinks about how lonely the tricorn may be and how she also lost everything she loves.
The three horns of the tricorn mare glow crimson and Celestia feels the weight on her back disappear. Celestia looks behind her and watches the tree float away from her and put down next to her. She returns her attention to the tricorn to thank her and sees the spear thrust at her face. She clenches her eyes close and throws her forelegs in front of her to shield herself.
Clang!
Celestia sees the horn cuff fall to the ground.
"Your life now belongs to me—Shade—your savior," the white tricorn says. She speaks in a low tone with an edge of aggression in her words.
"Th-thank you," Celestia replies.
Shade's Flashback
Shade slowly draws in a breath. She ignores the flaring pain on her left side which is black and smoking; she ignores the slow ooze of blood trickling down her face from the fracture in the crown of her skull; she ignores the aching of her bloody hooves on the broken marble tiles.
She pays close attention to the body laying across from her. The body yet draws breath as its barrel rises. A crown, belonging to the body, rests in pieces in the middle of the throne room.
Calling this space a "throne room" is a courtesy. The throne rests in pieces from the numerous times Shade had used it as a throwing weapon. Glass from chandeliers sparkles on the floor from the moonlight streaming through the broken stained glass windows from the body's spellslinging. Burn marks and pony size craters litter the ceiling, floor, and walls. Clashing swords and explosions from outside informs Shade that her army continues to fight.
Shade steadily exhales the breath in her lungs. Her pale yellow eyes flash in the dark, smokey room, and a crimson, rejuvenating wave of magic washes over her to remove her wounds. Her three horns ignite with crimson magic as she holds the body in place to make her advance. The body strains against the crimson magic. Weary magenta eyes glare at Shade. Fight and fury still blaze hotly and defiantly in those eyes.
"Do not look at me like that," Shade says in her low, soft voice, "you brought this on yourself. You grew too ambitious—too greedy. Taking the Bison Territory was the last straw. Actually, banishing our sister was the last straw."
"I did what I had to do to protect my little ponies." The body closes their eyes as a tear rolls down their cheek.
"Is that why the Elements abandoned you? They know you are corrupted, just as I do."
The magenta eyes burn with rage at Shade. A shadow moving in close makes her eyes sparkle with tears. She smiles up at Shade, hoping to distract the white tricorn for a few more moments, "Thank you for talking to me one last time, Shade."
"Only because I once considered you a sister—" A spear enters through Shade from the side cutting her words short.
"For Princess Celestia!" a stallion in gold armor yells victoriously as he stands on his back hooves with his forehooves wielding the spear. His grey coat sticks out from the gaps in the gold armor and his horn throws out yellow sparks from the crack in it.
Shade turns her head to face the attacker. A smile splits her muzzle as her fangs glisten in the moonlight. With an audible pop Shade disappears with her form dissipating like a cloud. Golden eyes fill with confusion. Magenta eyes shrink in horror with realization. A crimson spear skewers the stallion through the chest and protrudes from his back. He gasps as his world begins to grow cold. Shade materializes beside him as she steps out of his shadow.
"Ah. The Smith." Shade's crisp voice sends chills down the stallion's spine. "A shame. I was rather fond of you and your work."
The Smith gasps for air. He turns his head to gaze at Shade with golden eyes fading away. "Can. . . I get a p-parting. . . k-kiss?" He manages to utter with a lopsided grin.
Shade smiles. "Your bravery does deserve a reward."
As her lips press against his, the Smith reaches into his back greave to pull out a dagger. With every last bit of strength he can muster he plunges the dagger into Shade's breast. The shock dispells her telekinetic hold on Princess Celestia and the crimson spear.
Shade chuckles which wipes the smirk off of the Smith's muzzle. She gives him a more passionate kiss. "Too bad for you that is not where my heart is."
Smith coughs as blood begins to fill his lungs and flow from his wounds. He lays on the ground and rests his head against Shade's hoof. "Shame. We didn't. . . talk more."
"Maybe in the next life—"
Princess Celestia drives Smith's spear down between Shade's withers which embeds itself in the marble floor. "I know where your heart is." Celestia's voice carries the intensity of the sun.
Shade inhales her body's last breath of air as she gasps in surprise. "Of course. You keep breaking it." Shade whispers before slumping over the corpse of Smith. Her pale yellow eyes disappear behind heavy lids. A faint smile tugs on the corners of Shade's lips.
"Farewell, sister."
Three horns flash with crimson energy.
