Hello bronies and pegasisters, or visitors! This is my first MLP fanfiction and I hope you will enjoy it much as I had fun writing it. To enhance this experience, I have provided links to Youtube music videos and I have tried to pick music that best suits the mood and situation. I will mark a sentence with a double asterisk (**) so you know where to play the music. Also, this fanfiction is rated T for legitimate reasons such as scary moments as well as gore. You have been warned! Anyhow back to the matter. Please leave any suggestions, reactions and criticisms you have, I will consider them all as I want to make this the best experience for you. Just please remember to keep your suggestions and criticisms constructive. Enough rambling from me and ON WITH THE STORY!
On a cliff by the sea, a pony gazed outwards with eyes as dark and fathomless as the sea she looked upon. She was clad in smooth, midnight blue armor and her silky mane blew in the ocean wind like ribbons of ink. The sun was beginning to set and its burnished rays set the sky aflame with burning sheets of crimson gold. Below the cliff, ocean waves dyed red by the ruddy light threw themselves against the granite cliff face with explosions of white foam before hissing back into the sea from which they came.
"What a pompous fool, he adores showing off." The pony snorted scornfully and turned her back on the stunning sunset before looking at the vast forest that covered the land behind her. Even though the light from the sun was still strong, her sensitive ears could already hear the furtive and sinister movements of the creatures within.
The woods themselves were as black as her coat, as black as night. She knew their darkness well for she had spent much of her time prowling through the forest's lightless depths. Small, silvery scars, evidence of her dangerous excursions, marked her dark flanks. She narrowed her eyes and readied her slender horn as the faint sound of wing beats approached.
"Selene! What are you doing here?" Another pony, with a blindingly white coat and a mane as luminous as fire approached. His bright, golden armor clanked as he furled his swanlike wings. He regarded his sister affectionately with sky-blue eyes.
She didn't return his warm smile.
"I should've known you would make such a garish sunset." Selene said coldly.
"What's wrong with it? I thought it looked nice." Helios said, looking a little hurt.
"Only you would be able to dream up such an abomination." His sister said even more coolly.
"No need to be so nasty, it's my last sunset after all." He sighed and looked out at the ever-changing ocean. Selene didn't say anything after that. The two siblings were quietly contemplative as they watched the ruby edge of the sun dip below the golden horizon. Without another word, Selene spread her black wings and leapt into the darkening sky. Helios stayed behind to watch his sister while his fiery mane grew brighter in the wake of encroaching night.
Selene flew in a graceful circle, flying low enough that the ocean left cool spray on her wing feathers. For the first time that day, she laughed as her hooves skimmed the glassy surface of the ocean. The draft from her wings split furrows and tunnels in the smooth water and she felt like some powerful, dark agent of nature.
Her horn began glowing bright white and she felt heady warmth tingling up and down her body as glittering sparks flickered across her black coat. When the heat was too much for her to bear, she began to fly upwards, straining under some huge, invisible weight. Her wings beat flapped hard and she slowly but surely began to rise like an avenging angel with a crown of silver light flickering around her head. Just as the tip of her horn cleared the horizon, the pale rim of the moon rose along with her.
Selene gritted her teeth and with a final, mighty effort, she shot upwards as if shot with a cannon. Her horn was now so bright that it stained the ocean a phosphorescent white for miles around. Deep ocean fish, attracted to the light they thought was the sun, swam up to the surface as the luminous moon rolled up into the sky like milky pearl. Selene stopped and hovered in the salty air, grateful for the coolness the water released at night. The fish swam in a lazy circle around her, their shimmering scales mirroring the glittering constellations in the sky.
Giving herself a few more minutes of respite, she circled upwards in lazy spirals to admire the way the ocean waves reflected the moon's pale light. It was a stark yet beautiful contrast of black and white that tugged on her heart. My last moonrise. She thought with a pang before she landed on the cliff side next to her white brother.
"It gets harder every time, doesn't it?" Helios asked.
"It doesn't matter how hard it is, it's our job as Guardians." Selene snapped back. She involuntarily looked at her right flank where her cutie mark was prominently displayed. She had been so proud when she had first gotten it, a white crescent moon hugging a star surrounded by a corona of blue clouds, but now, she only saw it a brand of her heavy responsibilities.
Helios looked at his own cutie mark, a many-rayed sun as fiery as his crackling mane and was quiet before saying in a much more serious voice," We've done it for millennia, Selene, and we're both tired and at the end of our power."
"We're still capable of fighting the monsters and raising the sun and moon, Helios. I would not underestimate our abilities so quickly."
Helios stamped his hoof impatiently. "For how long, Selene? Every battle only gets harder as our powers wane and even if you won't admit it, it's twice as hard for us to raise the sun and moon. You know what'll happen if we ever fail to raise them or die."
Selene was quiet. Though she would never say it out loud, his arguments echoed what she had been thinking for the past few weeks.
"I know it's difficult to accept, but our era is at an end. But don't be afraid-
"You should that I, of all ponies, do not fear death." Selene said angrily.
"I do not doubt your courage. I just want you to know that whatever happens next, I will always be by your side." Helios draped his milk-white wing across his dark sister's back. Selene's hostility and resentment towards her brother faded at the familiar touch of his warm wing feathers. They stood that way for a minute, their outlines black against the moon. It was Selene who drew away first.
watch?v=FWT5uHzAFIg
(**) "Come, there is not enough time for us to be sentimental. Let us call them."
Helios nodded and withdrew an ancient-looking horn with two mouthpieces from a saddlebag strapped to his hindquarters. The intricately carved horn was made out of a strange, heavy-looking black metal that glowed with an uncanny luminescence. Glimmers of silver light seemed to be trapped in the carved grooves, giving the illusion that the lines moved like thin snakes.
Helios sighed deeply before levitating the gleaming horn before them. It slowly revolved in the golden nimbus of his magic.
"Are you ready?" He asked his sister solemnly.
"Do you need to ask?" Her horn ignited so that her own silver cloak of magic rippled over the horn.
The two divine beings leaned forward and blew into the horn's two mouthpieces. The horn lit up like an unearthly beacon; its light was far brighter and purer than either sunlight or moonlight. A sweet and piercingly clear note rang out, shivering through the air, echoing through the heavens and shuddering deep beneath the earth. Animals and monsters across the land woke from their uneasy slumbers to feel the wild power of the horn pass over them like a half-remembered call. Mountains shivered, rivers trembled and trees stirred as if caught in a storm.
The horn dissolved into a black, ash-like dust that was blown away by a vagrant breeze. The siblings didn't even bother to glance at the horn's demise; their gazes were fixed on the sky where the bright stars swirled hypnotically. At first one might miss it because the movement was so gradual but after a few minutes, there was no mistaking it. The stars were falling from the sky.
They fell in an endless stream of heavenly white fire, painting the dark sky with their brilliant trails. Helios and Selene had to close their eyes as star after star streaked towards the earth, their bodies wreathed in fire that was neither hot nor cold. When the two siblings opened their eyes, the empty sky yawned above them like the black, gaping maw of a monster. Before them, there stretched endless ranks of ponies more radiant than either Helios or Selene. A star pony, brighter than the rest of the already-dazzling stars walked forward, her silver-shod hooves leaving no imprints in the dust. She smelled of fire and ice, of wild forests filled with night and long-forgotten paths shadowed from the sun.
"What is it that you seek?" The echoing voice of the lead star lingered on the air far after her mouth had stopped moving. She was covered in sparkling, silvery armor that covered every inch of her gray body except for her legs, wings and glowing white eyes. Her mane, tail and wings spilled through the air like tendrils of pale flame. She carried a slender spear, like the other stars, that looked as dangerous as her needle-sharp horn. Her glittering, star-shaped cutie mark was visible through a chink in her elegant armor.
"Lieutenant Faust." Selene stepped forward and bowed her head in respect.
"Selene." The star pony fixed her odd, piercing gaze on the moon goddess before examining Helios with the same unnerving, white gaze. He shifted uncomfortably before stepping forward to be by his sister's side.
"I hail you, Lieutenant Faust, and the rest of your brethren." A hint of Equestrian royalty colored his voice and his tone became deeper and more mature.
"Our time is at an end, we no longer have the power to repel those that dwell in the shadows with evil in their hearts. We beg you to appoint two new Guardians, ones powerful enough to take up our mantle and protect Equestria in our absence." Selene said, her voice as formal and royal as her brother's.
Lieutenant Faust had been watching them with an inscrutable gaze but Selene felt like she could see pity in the star's blindingly bright eyes. It was gone in a second as she turned to face the ranks of stars behind them. She spoke to the other ponies in the language of the stars, which was too high for Helios and Selene to hear but left faint reverberations in the night.
She turned back to the siblings and spoke one word. "Come."
They walked into the forest, the sun god and the moon goddess, thronged by lines of silent stars. It was quiet in the forest for not even the crickets or cicadas sang as the stars made their way through moon-splashed clearings and shadowy brooks. Helios and Selene lost track how long they walked through the dreamy and surreal forest of black and white.
The unearthly procession of celestial beings finally halted at a spacious meadow open to the sky. Selene was startled for though she had wandered through the forest for many millennia, she had never seen this place before. The clearing was as round as the moon above and the light of the stars filled it like spring water overflowing a cup. The grass was so smooth that, with the illumination of the stars, it shone like a luminous disk of flawless jade.
The stars flowed like lines of white fire as they arranged themselves in perfect, concentric rings around the very center of the meadow. Though the clearing was too small to contain all of the stars, many of them spread themselves through the acres of forest behind them so that every leaf and every twig was thrown into stark detail. Finally, all the star ponies were in place so that they radiated outward from the meadow like ripples in a moonlit pond.
The silvery-bright ponies stood at attention so that their sharp spears and proud heads pointed upwards at the black sky. Selene could feel the stiff hairs of her mane rising at the ancient and powerful magic that emanated from the celestial beings. Before, she had thought the stars similar to her and Helios but now, feeling the alien power wash over her, Selene knew that these stars were completely and utterly different from anything in Equestria She looked at her brother and saw that his blue were wide and glassy as if similarly spooked by the strange magic.
"Lady Selene and Lord Helios, come forward." The words dropped from Lieutenant Faust's mouth with the icy weight of frosty marbles. The two siblings walked forward until they reached the space that had been left for them in the front ranks.
"As the two current Guardians, you must provide all of your strength and boundless knowledge to the future Guardians to help them survive and to protect this realm." The star pony's eyes burned like twin beacons. "This will result in the end of your era and existence. You will have a little time to teach the new Guardians but your deaths are unavoidable. Do you wish to continue?"
Selene thought about all the long years she had spent in the land she had so loved. The feeling of flying through velvet skies, raising the moon and watching its pearly light, and tasting sweet, rich dew in dark meadows. All of that would be gone and she would be no more. She looked at Helios who stood proud and strong by her side without a trace of regret on his face. She would lose him too, this loud, obstinate brother of hers whom, despite her resentment, she loved dearly.
Selene looked at him and saw the warm, brotherly love in his eyes and relaxed. No, she would never lose him. She was sure of it.
"Yes, we are ready." They said together.
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(**) Lieutenant Faust bowed her head and turned to the rest of the star ponies. She spoke a command and every star opened their mouths and began to sing. Their music made the note of the horn, which had rung so clearly and sweetly before, sound like a tin bugle. The notes of the song were almost too high to hear but the heavenly voices of the luminous ponies sent chills down the spines of the god and goddess. The pure notes shivered through the air and seemed to crack the sky into glassy pieces for so unbearably beautiful were the voices of the stars.
The slow, heavy power that Helios and Selene had felt before quickened and began to grow colder and colder. They watched in awe as a brief spark flickered to life in the empty space in the center of the clearing. The stars' song grew more complex with different voices weaving an indescribable tapestry of crystal and silver sounds. Sweet duets and cadences added a dissonance to the beating melody that made it sound both strange yet familiar. Selene had tears in her eyes and she could feel her heart thrumming and her blood pumping as the song of creation reverberated through every fiber of her being.
Bright white tendrils of mist flowed from the shimmering bodies of the stars and began to lazily wind around the clearing like a whirlpool of tingling magic. The faint spark that had grown in the middle of the clearing grew larger and brighter until it resembled a bonfire as white as waterfall foam. It pulsed to the aching melody of the song like a heart, The streaks of magic swirling around the trees grew thicker and thicker until the meadow they all stood in was enveloped with a milky globe of frosty light.
Selene felt like they had been transported to another world where everything seemed gilded in white luminescence and the air seemed to tingle with raw power. She closed her eyes and let the magic and song of the stars wash over her with the force and freshness of a breaking wave.
The pulsing fire in the center had grown far brighter than any of the stars, even Lieutenant Faust, and it seemed full and round as if something was curled in its secret heart. The rhythm of the song changed and every star pony raised their voices until it seemed that the notes and melody were as sharp and cold as the spears they held. Selene staggered as an unknown force sucked the energy from her body.
A bright stream of golden and silver light flowed from the two Guardians where it nestled into the brilliant, pulsing fire in front of them. Selene fell to her knees as another wave of exhaustion buckled her legs. Helios remained standing but she could see from his trembling hooves how much effort it took to remain standing. She could feel every ripple and eddy of magic that left her body.
Finally, the torturous drain of magic halted, leaving Selene feeling like an empty shell, aching over the loss of the powerful magic she had commanded for countless centuries. The globe of white light around them slowly faded as the stars sang their last note, letting it ring in the air far after they had stopped singing.
The pulsing fire rippled and a shudder ran through the ground as a hoof, followed by a pearly-white body emerged from the sun-bright flames. An alicorn filly with violet eyes and a mane as pink as dawn stepped out into the clearing, drawing her first breath. Seconds later, a dark blue leg reached forwards until a second, smaller alicorn filly with large blue eyes and a periwinkle mane stood by her sister. The light of the stars seemed to still hang about them so that they glowed with a soft glow. Their tiny horns were as delicate as seashells found on a gentle tide and their wings were still tufted by soft down. In contrast to their young appearance, their eyes had an unseen depth to them, as if they had already lived a thousand lifetimes.
Lieutenant Faust, Helios, Selene and the rest of the stars sank on their knees and bowed their proud heads in deference to the two fillies.
"All hail Celestia and Luna, the new Guardians of Equestria!" Lieutenant Faust proclaimed, slamming the butt of her spear on the ground.
"All hail!" The cries of the star ponies rang through the forest clearing like a shower of silver.
Pheeewww! That was a lot to write! I'm not quite sure how often I will be able to update as I am quite busy at the moment. But I will try to do it as often as possible. See you in the next chapter!