Chapter 9, pushing through
"Harmony must be maintained, this is the one thing that must be constant. The balance must never tip, the scales must never become off balance. One must never become more powerful than the other, light must never overwhelm dark and vice versa. The day I sided with Luna and fought against Nova I breached that one rule, a rule I had swore to hold true to no matter what. I tipped the scales and upset balance"
"We where the embodiment of perfection. Two opposites may always act in tandem, but to maintain three different focuses of power was a true testament to the harmony we lived within. Nova was the ultimate embodiment of this balance, the perfect symbol of harmony. His powers weren't just limited to the stars, just as I am capable of controlling the moon; Nova is capable of controlling the sun and the moon as well as the stars. He can maintain the balance of opposites between the heavenly bodies themselves. Luna and I may pride ourselves on our power and abilities, but without Nova we shall never be at our full strength. Though we have watched the rise and fall of empires, seen dragons that lived in a time before our world and watched fillies being born, growing old and dying, we will never be able to match our brother for wisdom and knowledge"
"But Nova isn't with us; he may have returned, but he is not part of the balance. In my own lust for power I pushed him away from me; I excommunicated him from the balance. I took his soul, his mark, his stars…his life. Pity me reader, for I am a foolish mare. I have long preached the sacrament of harmony to my subjects, but I have hidden my own hypocrisy from their eyes. Nova will never be able to forgive me for what I have done to him; nopony would ever forgive me for what I've done to him. But every day when I wake in the morning and go to sleep in the evenings I pray that he may find it somewhere within his heart to forgive me, to find the strength to absolve me of my sins"
"Nova has returned now, he came from his star wrapped in fire, bringing the strength of the heavens with him. In a comet of blood red fire he fell to earth and within the caring hooves of my pupil twilight sparkle and her loyal friends he now rests, finally at peace…but I have glimpsed into his heart and see that he suffers agony for what he has left behind. Every night he experiences a new nightmare, every night he is tormented by the ghosts of what has been. I wish I could comfort him, but I am the one who drove him to this despair"
"Nova…you may never read this…but please know that I do care for you. Though brother and sisters we may be, one of us is not free. Let me free you Nova, let me bring a new light into your heart and guide you from the abyss I threw you in. We all have to live in harmony with one another, no pony can ever stand alone in the face of adversity, the elements teach us that. I have wronged you Nova, but I promise I will always work to rebuilding the bridge between us no matter what…I promise"
Celestia stared out into the night sky, watching her brother stars as they moved through deep space, dancing a dance that would last until the end of time. She lowered her head, a solitary tear running down her cheek.
"Please Nova…find it in your heart to forgive me for the things I've done"
Overhead the stars watched her coldly, feeling neither sorrow nor mercy within their ancient hearts.
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"Are you sure you want to go in there?" Rarity asked. Nova and the mane six stood before the everfree forest, enveloped by its cold shadow.
"I have too. To find peace I must fight, to fight I must have weapons" he smiled at her and gently kissed her forehead "I'll be back out before you know it"
"Take this" Twilight handed him a flankpack "I read a book about survival, the pack has everything you need in case you get lost" she smiled, obviously pleased with her astuteness to the situation. Nova opened the pack and began to rummage through its contents.
"let's see, food, water, bandages and plasters, a torch, dried fruit, a map, a compass" his felt something hard and cold under his hoof and he gripped it. "What's this?" he pulled out a heavy knife, Fluttershy recoiled. "Functional" Nova examined the blade "recently sharpened, poor job though, the edge is uneven" Twilight blushed "heavy, a bit too heavy to be used as a combat knife" he flipped it round his wrist and threw it at a nearby tree, the knife sunk deep into the wood "a decent throwing weapon" he pulled it magically from the tree, wiped it on the grass by his hooves and laid it against his flank, it stuck fast.
"How are you doing that?" rainbow dash gave his flank a look, staring intently at the knife. She prodded it, or more rather his flank. "It won't budge, you using magic or something to keep it attached?" Nova shook his head, smiling.
"no rainbow dash, during the war I had several strips of magnetised sheet metal implanted under my skin" he whacked his flank, the knife didn't even shift "nice to see that after nine thousand years it still works, I'm sure the thing must be running low by now though"
"Cool" rainbow dash said, staring intently at his flank 'may be more than just my flank she's checking mind'
"Are you sure you want to go alone?" Rarity asked him, once again there was concern in her eyes "we'll come with you if you want" Nova shook his head
"This is something I have to do alone, the place I'm going to is a shrine to the Goddess, only her servants may enter and bear witness to the ceremony" he gave them all a look, studying each one of them "and none of you bear her mark"
"Nova, before you go I have two things to ask you" twilight perked up, Nova raised an eye brow.
"That would depend on what you want to know"
"Ok, first. Who is this goddess you're talking about?" the others each turned their faces to him. Nova almost snorted.
"You're kidding me…right?" he raised an eyebrow "what, none of you where baptised when you where foals? The priestess never drew the horse shoe on your foreheads?" all he got was blank stares, Nova felt partially insulted. "The Goddess is the creator, the architect of reality" he explained. "She forged the first pony within the heart of the first star using her own flesh and gave her the sun to guide her through the day and the moon and the stars to light up the night sky whilst she slept. The Goddess made everything and all things are representative of her and her power. She is the beginning and the end, life and death, yin and yang, a force for creation and also for destruction, the ultimate personification of balance and harmony"
Rainbow dash snorted in derision, then burst out laughing, rolling around on the ground, she looked like she was having a fit. "Hahahaha, nice story Nova, but Celestia created the world with the elements of harmony, everypony knows that" it was all she managed before she was seized by another fit of laughter.
Nova felt something stir in his heart, a fierce urge to wipe this pony and her blasphemies from the face of the world, for a single moment he wanted nothing more than to obliterate her where she lay. Instead he suppressed his rage, compressed it into a tight ball, and stamped the floor. A shock wave ran out from his hoof across the ground, causing the mares to fall on their backsides and cracks to run like a spider's web across the earth. He walked up to rainbow dash and stared into her red eyes, within their depths he saw fear. "I fought for twelve days and nights against discords minions to hold the breach at the imperial cathedral whilst they evacuated the priestesses, when one of the creatures gutted me through the heart and ripped it out in front of my still seeing eyes. They were about to give up on me, but the high priestess brought me back from the land of the dead with her prayers. Remember that Rainbow dash, I don't ever want to hear that blasphemy come from your mouth ever again"
Rainbow dash nodded furiously, her head moving so fast it became a blur. Nova turned his attention back to twilight. "What else did you want to ask me miss sparkle?"
Twilight stared at him for a moment before she composed her thoughts "I want to come with you" Nova shook his head "please, this is the first time I'll be able to see a temple of your goddess. Or actual weapons from the discord wars. The book says once you take your weapons from the temple it'll crumble to dust" twilight stared at him with ridiculously round eyes, Nova found it slightly unnerving. 'Damn that pony'
"Fine, but when I move to reclaim my weapons you must leave. The receiving of a weapon from the Goddess is an important part of my faith, only those who are part of the faith may be present, and you're not a part of it" twilight nodded in understanding. Nova hefted the pack onto his flank and turned to face the forest, within the shadows of the trees seemed to move, coalescing into leering monsters and apparitions. "Don't fall behind" he told twilight and he set off into the forest, soon becoming enveloped in the inky black shadows
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Nightshade studied the ponies below him, circling overhead like a jet black vulture. He had just seen the fugitive prince Nova and a purple unicorn enter the everfree forest, disappearing into the undergrowth, leaving a unicorn, two pegausi and two earth ponies behind. Following the traitor would be impossible, the trees grew too dense for him and his ponies to traverse at great speed and if they lost their quarry within the forest it could take months to find them again. So they played the waiting game, letting their prey come to them.
His squad of pegausi was becoming restless however, and he feared that without some immediate form of action discipline would be lost. Princess Luna only selected the strongest and most aggressive ponies for her personal guard, and hammering discipline into such ponies was a laborious and time consuming process. It was difficult to break the minds of such aggressive ponies and mould them into more suitable shapes. 'Mend and make do' he thought.
After what seemed an age the sun began to slink towards the horizon, 'finally'. It would be night soon, and under the dark umbrella it provided they would swoop down on Nova like the deadly predators they were. "Captain" a soft, feminine voice said to his left. Nightshade turned his attention to his second in command, Poison ivy. Ivy was a lithe creatures, and beautiful too. Her skin was a deep night sky blue; her mane and tail were cascades of black, with deep blue steaks running through them. 'Just like the princess' it was no secret that princess Luna was prone to moments of intense vanity, and it was during one of these moments she had selected Poison ivy to be a member of her Lunar guard.
Ivy had been the daughter of a wealthy nobleman and had been raised as a spoiled, pampered filly with not a care in the world. One day her father had taken her to see the newly returned princess Luna as she paraded through the town with her also newly formed Lunar guard, thinking of it as nothing more than a day to share with his daughter. But when Princess Luna had spied Ivy through the crowd she had called an immediate halt and demanded that Ivy be handed over to become a member of the Lunar guard. Ivy's father had resisted of course, claiming that not even a princess had the power to take a filly from her father, but his argument had proved rather invalid after one of the Lunar guard had separated his head from his neck. Ivy had simply smiled and stepped with the princess onto her chariot, never looking back.
Now, ten years later, she had grown from a spoilt filly to a deadly killing machine. Her soul had hardened; her muscles were larger and stronger. She was graceful, sinuous; every movement she made flowed like water. Though she had also retained her beauty, and her body was as soft and well formed as any aristocratic mares. Nightshade had shared a bed with her many nights, and though they didn't feel any true emotion for each other, there was a certain…bond between them. Almost primal in its aggression and jealousy, neither of them would leave the other, nor let the other leave them. They had a certain magnetism that kept them together, something ferocious that could only be let loose whilst abed. Nightshade wasn't a soft lover, but neither was Poison ivy one for pointless frivolities whilst in heat, so it worked out just fine.
Nightshade had to keep his distance though. There was something in those dark eyes of hers, something…murderous. Poison ivy had bribed, murdered and seduced her way to the top of the ladder, 'and I'm the final rung, the last step to power'. "Poison ivy" he nodded, acknowledging her presence.
"There are rumblings amongst the squad sir, they believe we need to take some form of action" her voice was flat and almost emotionless, but her eyes were the eyes of a predator. She was watching his every move, searching for some form of weakness to exploit. Nightshade had to be careful here, one wrong word or sign the smallest sign of weakness at Ivy would descend on him like a wolf, ripping him to shreds. Only in a metaphorical sense however, Nightshade was too strong for her to engage in direction confrontation.
"Tell them our target will be within our reach soon, until then we are to maintain our current formation and altitude to avoid detection. Anypony found in violation of my orders is to be executed immediately, this operation must run perfectly" Ivy nodded at relayed his orders to the squad, the rumblings became more audible. 'this isn't going to work, I have to give them something to do' below him the five mares still waited at the edge of the forest, though by now the sun had fully descended and the moon had risen. 'they look like there asleep' Nightshade quickly considered his options 'the ponies need something to do, some form of action is to be taken' he glanced at the ponies below him 'there's five of us and five of them. their unarmed and unawares, we'll take them by surprise and hold them as hostages when Nova returns' he had seen Nova kiss one of the mares before he had entered the forest, Nightshade spied her asleep on the grass, her purple mane and tail easily noticeable. 'she'll make the perfect bargaining chip; we'll leave Nova on the back hoof. Once he comes out we'll demand he gives himself up or we'll kill the mares, when he does we'll kill them anyway. We'll leave no witnesses'. Nightshade relayed his orders to the squad, designating each of them a target. Silently they moved into position, directly over head their prey. Nightshade gave an almost imperceptible nod of his head and they dived, striking from the sky like murder itself.
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"So how are we going to find this temple?" twilight asked as she clambered over a rotting log, her hooves failing to find purchase on the slick moss that covered it.
"have faith twilight sparkle" Nova bit the back of her flank pack in his mouth and hauled her over, lifting her over the log as if she weighed nothing more than feather. "It's more likely it'll find us"
Twilight stared at him incredulously "find us? What the buck does that mean?"
Nova studied the land ahead of them, the trail they were on diverged into two separate paths, each one forking into the dense undergrowth. "Holy places resonate with divine power" he choose the left path, and though he didn't know what lay down it, something told him he was going in the right direction. "If you let you mind go into neutral you'll actually find that you've taken a few steps toward it" he pushed through the thick bushes that lined the trail with ease, twilight was having a harder time.
"If there's so much power from just one building" she paused to swat away a thick fly "then how come nopony has found it yet?"
"When you're welcomed into the faith, the priestess places an enchantment on you. It's like a guidance spell; it lets you know where the nearest temple or priestess is, so you'll always find your way home" he paused again, sniffed the air and left the path, cutting straight through the matted undergrowth. Twilight was having trouble keeping pace.
"Do you feel it now?" she stepped into a pool of thick mud hidden under a dense pile of leaves and began to sink "NOVA!"
"Don't worry, I got ya" Nova focused his magic and pulled twilight from the mud, gently depositing her beside him "you better take more care miss sparkle" he smiled at her "everfree ain't exactly the best place for a city mare like you"
"Hey! I haven't lived in Canterlot for three years!" twilight exclaimed "but anyway" she began to scrape the muck off her legs "do you feel this temple place calling you now?"
Nova raised an eyebrow, and then furrowed his brow as he concentrated. Twilight suppressed a giggle; Nova was terribly handsome when he looked confused. Twilight had never been a mare to look at stallions in any particular way, indeed her partial ignorance to the matter had led many to believe that she was a lesbian. But looking at Nova now she felt something stirring in her chest…and in other places, 'he is handsome, and clever and skilled with magic as well…no twilight you can't think like that' she scratched her head, what was she thinking? Only a week or so ago Nova had been a character in a book that she even doubted the authenticity of, but here she was now thinking about him such an obscene way, it made her want to slap herself. 'But still…rarity hasn't made a stake on him, though she didn't leave his bedside whilst he was in hospital. I could make him mine, a simple love potion would work…' she stopped herself from continuing any further 'get a grip on yourself idiot, you barely know this stallion but you want to make a move on him? The hells wrong with you today?'
"I…think I can feel it, it's not really something easy to describe, if you could actually describe it at all"
"So what is it then?"
"Just a…sense I guess, a sought of feeling in your gut that you're headed in the right direction" twilight simply nodded and they continued on into the forest. It was difficult to tell how high the sun was with the trees growing so thickly overhead, but the world around them seemed to darken as they pressed on, after what twilight had guessed was a few hours, rays of silver light had begun to pierce their way through the canopy, the moon was out.
"the moons bright tonight, really bright if it's making its way down to ground level" she watched the muscles in Novas wings and back tense 'he doesn't fold his wings tight against his body like Celestia, he sought of lets them…hang loose, like he's waiting for something'
"The moons at its brightest when Luna's pleased with herself" he turned at looked back the way they had come, his body statue still. Silence fell upon them, and for a moment twilight thought she could hear shouts of surprise from behind them. "We have to keep moving, double the pace" Nova turned back and ploughed straight into the forest, twilight almost had to gallop to keep up.
"Wait! Why are we running? Can we slow down abit?" she called out, her heart beginning to hammer within her chest.
"No time! If we stop they might catch us!" Nova shouted back, the muscles in his legs rippling under his skin, powering him forward, the ones in his wings twitching as he suppressed his flight instincts.
"Who?"
"The royal Lunar guard! Their Lunas personal protectors!" there was a new edge in his voice, it sounded like anger "their leader is a pegausi called Nightshade, he was one of the ponies responsible for Blossoms torture!" Novas eyes were ablaze "I need to get my weapons quick, by now they've probably either captured your friends and killed them, or are making sport of them before they kill them. We have to hurry or they'll die!"
"what!"
"just keep moving!"
They galloped on and on, ploughing straight through the heart of the forest. Twilight was panting heavily, she'd never run this fast for this long. Ahead of her Nova had barely even broken a sweat; he galloped almost silently, barely disturbing the terrain as he moved. 'This is his territory; this is what he was built for. He moves like an animal, like he's more beast then pony'
For what seemed like an hour they galloped, Nova always leading the way. Twilight was beginning to wonder if they were lost when suddenly the trees began to thin, and suddenly the forest came to an abrupt halt. They galloped out into a huge clearing, ahead of them was a huge stone structure with a massive then lanced into the air, menacing in the moonlight.
Nova ground to a halt, skidding along the ground as he checked his pace, Twilight wasn't as quick and slammed into his flank. "This is it" he said 'he's not even out of breath "come on Twilight" he made his way to the huge iron doors that were set at the entrance. The doors where decorated with images of war, showing ponies battling nightmarish creatures that seemed difficult to comprehend 'nothing could possibly evolve to have that many tails' in the centre of the doors was a single image of peace. A filly stood in the middle of the maelstrom of violence surrounding her, completely heedless to the monstrosities circling her. Her eyes where sapphire blue and in her mouth she held a small net, by her feet stood two jars.
"This is…incredible" Twilight had never seen anything like this before, these doors must have been thousands of years old. "What are those creatures? And why's there a filly in the middle of a battle?"
"The creatures are the daemons that Discord summoned from the bowels of hell to fight by his side" Nova walked up to the doors and placed his right hoof on them, directly below the smiling filly. "the filly is a pony I knew a long time ago…"
"What was she called?" twilight asked 'why has he put his hoof on the doors? They're way too heavy to simply push open' Nova closed his eyes and sighed, a single tear rolled down his cheek.
"Cherub…her name was Cherub"
For a moment nothing happened, then the sapphires the filly had in the place of her eyes flash a brilliant blue, blinding Twilight. There was a deep rumbling and the sound of rusted gears grinding together, she felt dust falling on her skin. When her sight returned she saw the doors where gone, leaving behind a yawning mouth that opened onto total darkness. A voice called out from the darkness, ancient yet sounding as though the speaker was only a filly.
"Welcome Starflight, prince of the heavens. We have been waiting for you"
Nova simply blinked, then stepped into the darkness. Twilight took a moment to summon up her courage, and then followed after him, walking straight into the heart of the darkness.
