1: Not in 5000 years...
Bang... Boom boom... tatatatatat... A whistle shortly followed by a blast wave... things that hadn't been herd... seen... FELT... in almost 5000 years... a trail of these noises streaked through the Everfree: Nothing less than a violent chase, by ANY stretch of the imagination... sounds: raw, fierce, ominous... dangerous... They were coming... Closer and Closer... the sounds... of WAR.
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The Brilliantly midnight-blue mare-woman... no, more specifically, Princess, was sleeping somewhat soundly... not to say it was restful, or content... quite the contrary in fact. Her tail and hooves flicked restlessly as she tightened her slender fingers around the frills of her pillow. The Sun was just beginning to reach the ending horizon on this chilly, damp, cold, and cloud darkened day... nearing the end of what little light it provided for a while, almost a week in fact. Princess Luna's dreams were haunted... Things she recognized from the past: Changelings, Chrysalis, Diamond-Dogs, The old legends, the children of the city, the element bearers... and Some things that she shouldn't remember... things that weren't her own memories, as though viewing them through another... The past: Death, Strife, conflict, Hatred, lies, weapons, war... the future: Lights blocking out the starts at night, metal creatures that gluttonized their precious resources into nothing more than toxins in the air and water, more weapons: bigger, stronger, faster, causing more destruction with each evolution of design... Disasters: Earthquakes, Volcanoes, hills and mountains flattening around whatever point of view she was being shown... Death: Not the same as what she witnessed in an earlier part of her... was it hers? … an an earlier part of the dream... This death was specific, precise, intentional, planned to every step and stab... Bang... boom boom... tatatatatat... A whistle shortly followed by a-
"EEAAAAAAHHHHH!" A terrifyingly shrill and chilled scream wailed through the great castle!
Luna Bolted upright from her ill kept slumber, something was terribly wrong, she felt a drastic emptiness and heard her sister- "Tia!" Luna RAN as fast as her hooves would carry her in her night(day?)-Gown, holding it off the cold, tiled floor as she ran barehoof down the hallway, "Accursed waking dream! Why doth thine hallway never seem to END?!" 'especially when we hath desperate need of thine lavatory...' But now wasn't the time to think of such trivial things, her sister sounded to be in the most grave of dangers! Luna came to a skidding halt, nearly passing her sisters door by mistake. "Tia?!"
Celestia was thrashing about on her bed, in some kind of pain that failed to manifest any physical signs. Lunas only clue to her sisters plight was the fact that she was clutching her chest directly above her heart as though she had been run through with some unphysical blade- "NO! NOOoooOOO! It cant be! It MUSTN'T be!" She thrashed more wildly now than only a few moments before- "WHYYYY?! Why couldn't it just evade Equestria's lands?!" She screamed, not realizing that she was already being calmed(or at least trying her best) By her sister.
"Tia! TIA! What ails thee my sister?! What doth strife you so?! Please, PLEASE dear sister! You must-AH!" Celestia was far stronger than her sister could conquer alone, her slowly bleeding nose a testament to her sisters musterable force. "GUARDS! GUAAAAAARDS! oh confound the night-watchmen asleep at their posts, GUARDS!" She shot a petrifying image of herself as Nightmare Moon into the minds of those who would have otherwise slept through her pleas for assistance, and they came running. It took 8 Guards and Luna to restrain the once majestic and beautiful woman that was their acting ruler: 2 on each leg, 1 on each arm, and 2 HIGHLY focused unicorns and Luna herself to restrain the magic she was bringing to bear simply to escape! And even now her magic was at its weakest for lack of focus... any more and-
"AAAAAAIIIIIIII!" Celestia Screamed even farther to the heavens, feeling a pain that Luna couldn't comprehend- Its Dieing! ITS DIEING!"
'Dieing?' thought Luna, 'Things die all the time in these lands, thine circle of life and all thine fancy crap-er, rubbish' "Dear Sister! Caaaalm yourself... I will aid you if you merely let me?"
"GAAAHHHHHH!" Was all celestia could reply.
"... Twas close enough for us!" Luna gently braced her head against her sisters... and-
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Bang... Boom boom... tatatatatat... A whistle shortly followed by a blast wave... She was knocked off her feet, wings torn from her back by that last concussive impact... She couldn't escape... she couldn't get away... this poor little changeling only known as Swie (Z-vi), Named for being the second born the month in which she hatched... the queen was never good at naming things, she simply gave them numbers at the start of each month, a different language set for each page on the calendar. She fell... 5 feet... 10... 20, 30? yeah... that crack of her shoulder breaking on the ground told her that her estimate was about accurate... She already had several holes in her, some from starvation, some from fresh wounds made by a loud, painful magic she couldn't understand... she was dieing, or about to... and she knew it... An acid green light ejected from her horn, to signal the others that she was in troub- BANG! The noise rang out, snuffing the would be flare before it even left the trees, then another- BANG! Her horn splintered into several smaller pieces as the bug like carapace it was made out of was impacted by this magic of death... She could almost FEEL her magic fizzle out in her heart... this was it...
"Wh-why?!" She shouted behind her, voice barely audible through the dampness saturated air. The only thing that wasn't too injured to move was her left eye and left arm, holding said arm up as if the death magic might stop should she beg hard enough...
"Because..." His voice was something akin to a man that humans would have referred to as "'dirty hairy", like gravel on porcelain, stirring a fear she had never known before now into the very fiber of her existence, a voice that was impossible to follow through fear, but impossible not to follow through the purest tone of command she'd ever heard... If she was given a command from this man and her queen... even she couldn't tell you what she would do... "Because I HATE being rejected." His boot landing on her right leg, the one that had been broken in several places when she first encountered him.
"Wh-what?!" She cried, loosing her vision to pain. "I don't even know you!"
"Oh but you should..." He lowered his weight onto her leg, breaking it further."
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"AHHHHHHH!" Luna jerked back, her sister screaming into her ear having felt the fresh wave of pain from and for this helpless creature, one she loved as her own no matter what race she was, even the changelings had her love as disciples, even if they didn't know it.
"Tia! TIA!" Luna was beginning to panic, the guards were beginning to loose strength, and she had never seen her sister so traumatically enraged by some phantom of a vision. "Thy must return to us Tia! Be at peace for the sake of us, and our followers!" Luna knew she wasn't being heard, but it reinvigorated the Guards back into working pace.
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"W-who?!" Swie couldn't put any more than that into words the tremors being sent through her body by the carapace of her leg beginning to crack... and so it did, spilling the dark green ooze that was her blood as lightning cracked, revealing a man so different from anything she had ever seen it terrified her! He was wearing cloths made of some dark material, heavy and sturdy, his backpack was made of some unknown metal, as were the magic sticks of death in his hands... His eyes were so cold that her body, in this dark, damp, cold, and wet place, felt warmer just by comparison, and he had strings of golden looking metal seeds going into the death sticks... His eyes were dark green, like a midnight sea with no moon, his hair and tail were silver with royal dark blue streaks, and his skin, black, with what looked like ashes covering scars from more battles than she had ever read about... but none of that mattered now... his mark... couldn't be anything one would think of as "Cutie". It was a vibrant, neon blue circle with a silver rim and three dark blue triangles pointed towards the middle of the whole piece... it was a symbol she only knew from one place, the very center of the hive... there, it was always warm, always glowing with a beautiful soft and dim green light- "W-wait... B-but you're-!" And in one last act of defiance she yelled at the top of her failing lungs, "TRAI-!"
"Mind your own FUCKING business!" His thumb reached up, -click-
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"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Celestia cried at the top of her lungs, throwing EVERYONE off of her all at once, flaring her wings and making a bolt for the balcony!
"TIA WAIT! WE STILL DOTH LACK THE KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT AILS THEE!" But before Celestia even reached the end of a balcony... the was no lightning... but there was one long and loud sound of thunder... "... By the heavens..." Luna Didn't know what else to say as her sister collapsed mid flight, skidding a short way to the end of the balcony, only the railings stopping her from falling... she was in a miserable heap, sobbing uncontrollably, muttering incomprehensible curses and prayers for something Luna didn't fully understand... but she felt it... "Tia... what... What hath happened this night?"
"She has DIED sister! DIED!" Celestia wailed, having said her only understandable sentence since she collapsed.
"Dear sister, These things happen... It is... Thine Circle of life, and such-"
"MURDERED, LUNA! MURDERED! Such a thing hasn't happened in 5000 years!" She sobbed.
"This word... 'Murdered'... We hath never heard-"
"Of COURSE you haven't... of course... my apologies dear sister... that word and all its ill kin are from an age before your time... an age I had hoped was long since dead and gone... but... it has not... it's simply been brewing, festering, waiting for a new vessel... and now it seems, it has one..."
"Tia... What are we to do?"
"I... I don't know any more my dear Luna... Truly I don't..." And that was the moment Luna knew they were... excuse the pun... Royally Screwed... Today was the first day Luna had ever seen it: Her sister, the Sun, was too shaken to shine...
