Chapter 1, fire star

In a time after the defeat of discord and before the banishment of Luna, there were three siblings. Celestia, whose powers influenced the heavenly body of the sun and brought warmth and light to Equestria. Luna, whose abilities allowed her to control the moon and brought the darkness and silence of the night to the world below. And nova, whose gifts lay with the stars and slowly, pulled the celestial bodies through their intricate dance. Queen Faust, an almost mythical Alicorn who had fought discord at the beginning of time, had chosen nova to rule equestria. Nova, though surprised, accepted and swore to lead pony kind into a brighter future. But it was not to be. Luna and Celestia, their pride damaged and blinded by jealousy towards their brothers' new power, combined their powers. For ten days and nights the three Alicorns fought, the sky lit up with great blooms of fire. But nova couldn't match his sisters and eventually succumbed. In a moment of spite, the sisters stripped nova of his powers over the heavens and locked him within the heart of one of his own stars. Nova, though deprived of his power and humiliated at the hands of his sisters, wasn't going to give in meekly to this chain of events. Trapped and unable to free himself, nova used the last vestiges of his power to rip the stars from their orbits, expending the last remnants of his abilities to form a new constellation, that would one day be called 'the stallion'. Nova hoped that one day some pony would understand the message he left in the constellation and he fell into a deep slumber, his mind resting in the warmth of his cell.

Time moved onwards. Day turned to night back to day back to night, the seasons kept turning. Nova was all but forgotten and became nothing but an old pony tale. Luna and Celestia, once allied against their brother, conspired against each other, Luna lost and was banished to the moon for a thousand years, leaving Celestia in sole control of reality, time kept on with its relentless march, and Luna was released from the moon, though she was shortly apprehended afterwards by twilight sparkle, a unicorn in the service of princess Celestia. twilight was a smart unicorn and resumed her studies afterwards, one night under the starry sky, twilight and her friends sat starring skyward, studying the constellation of the stallion…..

"I don't get it twilight" rainbow dash muttered stretching her wings "why do we have to spend all night out here looking at some dump stars, it's not going to do anything" dash gave her wings a flap before she leapt skywards, a rainbow streaming after her.

"of course you don't get it dash" twilight sighed, her horn began to glow as she used her magic to pick up one of the books that were littered around her "I've been watching the stallion for months now and I'm sure that something's gonna happen" twilight spread a stack of notes out on her desk "the central star in the stallions eyes, it's way brighter then it's supposed to be, and it's releasing pulses of energy, like it's a beating heart" Twilight picked up another of the notes "from what I can tell, I think this means that the star is dying"

"oh come on twi, you say that about every flashing light in the sky" spike said as he lay on his back, his eyes closed. Spike sighed with content "it's a nice night and all, but there's no need to worry about some stupid star, it's not like anything it does will affect us, we're all the way down here"

"Nightmare moon came from the moon spike, and that really far away, it can't be impossible for something from the stallion to land in equestria" twilight showed him a page from one of her notes "I copied this from an old book in the library, it's got to be at least a couple of hundred years old"

spike took the page, it was covered with strange runes. "what is it?" spike asked "it looks like hoof prints, but way more jagged" his brow furrowed in concentration and his tongue stuck out the side of his mouth

"it's written in old-hoof" twilight said absently, scanning through the rest of her notes "it talks about the stallion dying"

"old-hoof? what in the name of granny smiths hip's that?" applejack asked, taking a look at the page

"it's the language of ancient equestria" twilight replied, looking up from her notes "the princess told me that this was the language they spoke during the discord wars. The writing it self is meant to be some sort of encryption, I know what its about, but I have no idea what it means"

"well what have you worked out so far twilight?" asked rarity, she took the paper and gave the language a cursory look "oh my, even the writing looks savage" she gave the paper back to twilight "it's so hard to believe any self respecting pony would live like they did"

twilight smiled, showing off her perfect white teeth before she answered "from what I've translated it's talking about the star that forms the stallions eye" twilight picked up the paper and read the encryption out loud " when a stallion rides, chained in his eyes. Follow his path through the skies. Though brother and sisters they may be, one of them is not free. I beg you pony set me free. Watch the death of a star and you shall see me."

"the death of a star?" spike scratched his head with one of his claws "a super-nova, that's what its called right?"

"yes spike, well remembered" twilight answered, she looked up, watching the constellation of the stallion move across the sky "and if my theory on the pulses is true, then the star that forms the eye of the stallion is about to go into super-nova, possibly even tonight" twilight restacked the notes and books in a neat pile and looked out the window. "when a star goes into super-nova, it releases a huge flash of light into the night sky" Twilight turned to look out the window, her purple eyes fixed on the stallion "that's why I asked you guys to come over, so we could watch it together" she turned back and looked at each of the other five mares in turn. "it's been almost a few years since we stopped nightmare moon, I thought it would be cool if we could watch this together"

Fluttershy smiled "that sounds wonderful twilight" she replied quietly, her voice soft "I just hope that that the light doesn't scare my poor animals"

Twilight giggled "oh don't worry Fluttershy, it won't be that bright, it'll just be like a firework" she glanced at the clock "it's eleven minutes past ten o'clock, it's probably not that long until the stallion goes into a super-nova" the ponies sat down by the window and stared up into the dark night sky.

Silence, it was deafening. How long had it been since he had heard another pony talk, few minutes? A decade? He had no way to know. So he just floated there, held levitating in the center of the small spherical chamber. His body ached with a dull fiery pain. He scratched one of the runes his sisters had carved into his flesh to bind him to his prison, the damn things where always hurting him. He curled himself up into a ball and let his mind go adrift, remembering the sensation of the wind as it flowed through the feathers in his wings and the whistling of the wind as he dived, fast as a thunderbolt. He remembered the food he used to eat, cakes and grass and an excellent salad a little filly had made for him once, but he tried not to think about them too much, he hadn't eaten in so long, and even the memory of food made his stomach hurt. He remembered a lot of things, from his bed to his sisters, and even a little filly he had met once in the forest who was attempting to catch butter flies in a net. He missed all of these things, but the thing he missed the most was blossom, his sweet, sweet blossom. But there was no point in remembering these things, he was never going to eat again, or fly, or sleep in his bed or play with his sisters or see the little filly with the net. They were all dead, even blossom was gone. They where all dead except for his immortal sisters, who even now were probably reclining in the palace and ruling the world.

He felt a tear slowly roll down his cheek, salty on his tongue as it rolled passed his lips, and he watched as it floated in mid air, like a tiny plant revolving around his body. He flicked it away so it hit the side of his cell, a wet mark on the wall. He never cried, any sadness he had once felt was gone now, along with his happiness and jealousies and pains, they were dead things to him now, useless. He hated the tear the most, they way it hung in empty space reminded him too much of his stars, his glorious stars. They sang like a hymnal choir, their song echoing through the heavens. He couldn't here them now, or even feel their movements through his hooves every time he put them he put them to the ground as he once had done. But all that would be over soon, he knew that, every time he woke the pains were alittle sharper, his heart beating alittle slower. He was going to die, he knew that. All things must die in the end. For a few more hours he floated, lost in his memories when he heard something, a tiny voice. Did he actually hear anything at all? It was always so quiet in here, sometimes his mind would play tricks on him. Forcing him to listen to long lost conversations with blossom, or his sisters laughing as the door to his prison closed. The worst ones where voices he didn't even recognise, from ponies he didn't even remember, all they did was remind him of what he had lost. But no, there it was again. A tiny voice so quiet his ears had to strain to hear it, like a fly buzzing away. He listened to the voice for a long time, he had no idea what it was saying or if he could even understand it, but it was comforting all the same. It sounded like it was singing, even that hurt him, the song sounded just like his stars. After a while the voice became louder and another voice added it, their whisperings so quiet that he could scarecly believe they even exsisted. He could hear it now at least. It was a choir. A beautiful hymn of the stars, the voices were added by more, some deep and some high, all singing in perfect syncrony. Slowly, achingly slowly, the hymn became louder. Each note perfect, ringing in his head. He tried to join in with them, but when ever he tried to force some sound out of his body all he got was a croak. Slowly the voices became louder, he could here some of the words now, in a language he couldn't even understand. Then the hymn stopped, he waited for a few moments, hoping they would resume, but all he got was silence. He sighed, it seemed the voices were just another memory. Then, CRACK. He looked across from him and saw that where his tear had touched the wall a small crack had appeared. There was more cracking and the crack became slightly longer, with smaller cracks verging out from it. Then suddenly, BOOM. The crack grew even larger and chunks of the walls started to fall free, spinning as they went. Within moments his prison was gone and he was left hanging in an empty space, surrounded by star fire.

the golden flames consumed him, burning his body. He screamed in pain, the fire crawling over every inch of his body. He felt his skin burn and grow taught as the moisture left it. One by one, the runes on his body burned brighter and brighter, filling his body with pain. He was in agony, within and without. Then they shattered, their blasphemous power expent before the might of the flames. He realised the fire was Purging him, cleansing him of the bone deep runes. "Who are you boy?" a voice asked him, deep and booming. It seemed to come from the fire and it echoed in his head, he screamed again and the fire flowed into his mouth, scorching his tongue. He opened his eyes to the inferno and before the flames consumed them and he saw a beautiful white mare rearing out of the fire, her golden eyes dancing in the light of the fire. Radiance seemed to flow from her and even though the flames licked her skin the same as they did his, she didn't burn. Then she was gone, consumed by the sheets of golden flame. "blossom" he whispered before the flames burnt his mouth. "I ask you again boy" the voice said "who are you?" it was angrier this time, and it sent lances of pain through his mind. With an audible snap his skin tore and the flames began searing the flesh from his bones, the fire began to burn his laboured heart heart. It was agony. "WHO ARE YOU?" the voice seemed to scream, it's echo making him cry out with pain . "I don't know" he cried, the boiling jelly from his ruined eye sockets ran down his body, running over exposed muscle. "WHO?" the voice roared. "I'm no one, please leave me be!". "ANSWER ME YOU FOOLISH COLT, OR YOU SHALL SUFFER TRUE AGONY!". He didn't know what to say, "I have no name, I have no mark. I have nothing!". It didn't matter what he said, the flames simply burned hotter. His heart screamed to him, his blood was boiling within his veins. Lances of pain shot through his mind, probing deeper and deeper into his psyce. Images flashed before him, the queen, the war, his sisters, the little filly, his room, the cell. They came in a torrent, each jumping to the next before he even had time to comprehend them. Then they froze, in the image he saw, two ponies sat beneath a lone tree at the top of a grassy hill, arm in arm as the sun set in the horizon before him. He heard the colt talk in a ghostly voice that at once sounded far away and as if the speaker was right next to him, "I love you" he whispered in his companions ear. The filly turned to the colt and gently kissed him on the cheek, smiling. "I love you too, my sweet Nova". In that one moment it became clear. He stretched his wings, their skin and feathers gone, showing nothing but burnt flesh and pale bone beneath them. He stretched his powerful legs, they themselves devoid of any skin. He stood within the flames, and then he raised his head and roared back to the voice and the fire. "I AM NOVA!" he roared, he reared, showing his scorched heart, beating slowly within his ribs "AND I WILL HAVE MY VENGENCE". "you shall" the voice replied, but now it was softer, it was a mares voice. He felt the mare kiss him on his forehead and at once the agony ceased. He felt his skin start to knit toghter again, his muscles grew tense as they returned to their previous state and even the feathers on his wings returned. His eye sight was the last to return, and when it did he saw the flames had receded, leaving him in a ball of empty space. Before him stood a beautiful mare, her skin a pure alabaster white and her eyes a glittering gold. Over her head he saw a brilliant halo of light. "Blossom, is it really you?" Nova could scarcely believ what he was seeing. Blossom walked up to him and kissed him lightly on his forehead, "yes my sweet Nova, but now you must go". Nova opened his mouth to reply, but even as he tried to ask her what she meant he felt a force punch him in his stomach, winding him. Then another force and he shot backwards, disappearing through the flames. He flew through them, the force driving him on, and then they were suddenly gone. Space opened up before him, cold and silent and filled with tiny pin pricks of light. "I can't give you what was once yours, but I can take you home" Blossoms voice said within his mind. Nova felt a fierce heat on his back and turned in time to see the star that was once his prison explode outwards. The force of the explosion causing him to rocket out into space, black trendils crawled across his vision and spot began to appear before his eyes. Before he blacked out he heard Blossoms voice in his head once again.

"rest my sweet, the way is far and your journey long, rest" and then the darkness enveloped him.