> The Last of Skyros
>  by NightFlame389
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> A Stormy Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was the middle of the night, and the moon shone bright in the sky. Just as it had been for nearly one thousand years, there was a pony-shaped mark on the moon. Thankfully, the non-alicorn ponies knew how to move the sun and the moon. He envied Celestia and Luna, they never had to do anything, even when they were alive.
In a few hours, he had scheduled to perform his monthly divination to watch Opaline’s movements.
The Tower of Lightning had many concealment charms placed on it. Not only was it on a small island south of the dreaded Storm Island, but the island itself was cloaked in an eternal thunderstorm that was next to impossible to fly through. The waves around the island would capsize even the strongest of ships. And even if someone were to find the island itself, unless they knew of the existence of the tower, the tower was invisible to them. They would only see jagged rocky spires.
And if they somehow knew that the tower was there, it was built specifically to look indistinguishable from an abnormally tall basalt spire.
No one, pony or otherwise, would ever be able to find it. And the only ones he told were dead.
He would be safe from Opaline.
He barely understood why Opaline did what she did. She had everything. Sure, Celestia and Luna got all of the attention, but if he had to choose a third, it would be Opaline.
And yet, she still wanted power. She wanted to be the guide to the new kingdom that had just formed. But they chose Celestia instead.
Celestia and Luna were surely dead now. Between Tirek, Scorpan, and Opaline, there was no way they had survived.
Centuries ago, he was regularly visited by Aeris, the Alicorn of Wind. But just a few weeks ago, his visits stopped. He feared Aeris had been killed, just as the rest of them had.
A magic signal shot up from the bottom of the tower. There was an intruder in the Tower. Panic shot through his body. Was Opaline here? It couldn’t be!
He covered himself with his cloak. If it was Opaline, he wouldn’t let her recognize him. That wasn’t much of a safety measure, as Opaline could easily just remove his cloak, but it was reassurance.
Over one thousand years ago, Opaline had betrayed the alicorns. She had led the centaur, Tirek, to them. Between the two of them and Tirek’s brother Scorpan, none of the alicorns beside himself, and of course, Opaline, had survived.
There were only ten alicorns left by then. The Great Alicorn-Draconequus War three thousand years before that had ensured that they would eventually go extinct. He wasn’t sure what happened to the final draconequi. He heard that one of them had stolen and absorbed their greatest artifact, the Chaos Pearl, but they seemed to have just vanished, never to be seen again.
When he arrived at the bottom of the tower, he came face to face with a darker yellow mare with a shimmering golden mane. Her mane and tail each had a red streak in the center. Her sky blue eyes betrayed none of her thoughts. She was much shorter than he was, nearly half his height.
“Who are you and what do you want?” he asked in a demanding tone. It clearly wasn’t Opaline, but still, he didn’t take kindly to intruders.
“I am Lady Dawnbreak of the House of Flare.”
“How did you get here?”
“You have amazing defenses against almost every other way to get to the island, but you left out teleportation.”
Teleportation? Teleporting yourself was strictly theoretical, and teleporting living beings was highly dangerous! How did she teleport?
“To be fair, safe self-teleportation was invented after Skyros fell, so you can’t be faulted for not knowing to defend against it.”
“Where did you learn?” he asked. He himself had learned from Venefi, Alicorn of Magic, just as all alicorns did, but after Opaline killed him, that wasn’t an option.
“I was a student of Princess Celestia. She called me her clever student.”
So Celestia had survived. Maybe Luna too. Opaline and Tirek didn’t get all of them. Celestia probably told Dawnbreak where to find him. But why didn’t she come find him herself?
“What happened to her?” he asked, his tone slightly relaxing.
“Don’t know, don’t care. She’s still moving the sun and moon.” So she was still alive. But if Celestia was moving the moon, then Luna still could have fallen.
Dawnbreak’s horn lit up, illuminating the dark room. The light revealed Dawnbreak’s wings. He hadn’t noticed before, but her horn had cracks in it, filled in with crystal. Crystals were Amore’s specialty. Chances were slim, but maybe she had survived as well?
“You’re an alicorn,” he said to his visitor. He wasn’t alone.
“So you’ve noticed,” she replied. Her head bowed, eyes closed.. “I wasn’t always.”
He nodded. “None of us were.” They were, after all, just ordinary ponies who happened to have a greater destiny. Even so, all alicorns that he knew of were born from other alicorns. Some of them believed that this meant they were superior, since they were destined from birth to hold the power of the three tribes, but through enough hard work and the right circumstances, anyone could become an alicorn.
“Where did you come from?” he asked.
“Born and raised in Canterlot,” she replied. “I’m what’s known as a ‘unicorn flare’. That’s why my family is named the way it is.”
“I see,” he said. “And where is this ‘Canterlot’?” He had never heard of Canterlot before. Were the remaining alicorns gathering there as a replacement for Skyros?
“You really have been here for over a thousand years.” Dawnbreak moved closer, as if to inspect him. “Do you know of anything that has happened anywhere in the world since you hid yourself here?”
Equestria. He recognized that name, just barely. It was the land that Celestia was supposed to guide. But after their founding and the fall of Skyros, he had no knowledge of Equestria whatsoever. “No,” he replied.
“Princess Celestia took it upon herself to raise the sun and moon. She battled threats like the Draconequus Spirit of Chaos, the Changeling Queen, and the Umbrum King. She ruled over Equestria by herself for one thousand years.” Her eyes closed. “When I was sixteen, she took me as her student after she saw my great potential.”
“And how did you learn of the Tower of Lightning?” he finally decided to ask.
A laugh escaped her mouth. “I was wondering when you would ask that.”
Something gave him a bad feeling about this.
“You told Celestia where you were hiding, in the hope that one day she would find you, and the two of you would fight back against Opaline. The location had since disappeared from her mind, but there are ways around that. I learned the art of Dream Weaving and pulled this location from the deepest pits of her mind.”
“And why did you want to find me?”
Dawnbreak stepped forward, her horn charged with a spell. The crystal fillings in her horn glowed a bright red as a more subdued red aura surrounded her horn.
“I was hoping you’d never ask.” The elder alicorn stepped back. “Sorry about this.”
The spell was unleashed. Every wall between him and the outside was breached. He landed on his back. And outside, waiting for him, was a familiar face.
Opaline Arcana, Alicorn of Fire.
“Hello, old friend,” she said, greeting him.
“You have no right to call me that,” he spat. His spit flew up towards Opaline, but didn’t reach high enough and landed in his eye. He winced.
“Just as foolish as always, I see,” she said with a giggle. “You didn’t think you could actually hit me with that pathetic attack, could you?”
“You’re here to finish the job, aren’t you?” He pulled himself up to his hooves, using a few wing flaps to steady himself. “It’s just me, then Celestia, Luna, Aeris, and Amore, isn’t it?” Even if Luna and Amore were gone, then saying that would at least waste her time. He didn’t hold the level of power that Opaline did. Fighting her would be a lost cause.
Opaline laughed. “No. I stripped Amore of her wings and sent her to the land of ice and snow, but I did not kill her. And I do not know what happened to Luna.” She looked up at the moon and pointed at it with her hoof. “Though I’m sure you’ve noticed the strange pony-shaped marking on the moon.”
He had. It had been over a century after Tirek and Opaline had destroyed Skyros when it appeared in the sky. Was that all that remained of Luna?
“Oh, and I killed Aeris.
He closed his eyes. Every alicorn had the ability of precognition, but he was the one who trained it the hardest. Though at the beginning of his self-imposed exile, he had used his precognition nearly every day to predict Opaline’s movements, he had eventually slowed his divinations once a month. If he hadn’t, then maybe Dawnbreak and Opaline wouldn’t have found him.
“Of course, that’s not all I’ve done…”
He focused on the strands of fate that wove together into the future. He found the strand he wanted. One that burned as bright as fire.
Opaline’s.
It ended much earlier than he expected.
There was something that would happen to her in the future. Something that could end her. He needed to know what.
He mentally reached out and touched her strand of fate. A bright glowing orb appeared out of the strand. He reached out and touched the orb.
The words of a prophecy seared themselves into his brain.
“…are you even listening?” By now, Dawnbreak was standing next to Opaline. Opaline towered over Dawnbreak, just as he had.
Dawnbreak’s expression betrayed no emotion, but her eyes told him everything. She was unsure. Unsure of her place. It was a feeling he knew well. If he could exploit her feelings, Opaline would soon fall.
“You can’t win.”
Opaline grinned. “I’ve already won.”
Celestia was alive. Maybe Luna as well. In the best case scenario, Amore had left an heir. And he had foreseen Opaline’s defeat. Though he may die, hope would live on.
Opaline’s horn glowed a brilliant magenta.
“Goodbye, old friend.”




A flare born in Canterlot will cause Fire to be undone
As destiny has foreseen their greatness
So has the Alicorn of the Sun