The Sun and the Clover

by BG9

The Queen of the Stars

Sunset Shimmer skimmed through the King's Library trying to find anything of interest. Some of the books were hundreds of years old, some thought lost to time. One in particular caught her eye: a book titled the Five Noble Families of the Mages. She could learn more about Celestia from this no doubt, maybe even Clover the Clever. She opened the rather large book. The first chapter, unsurprisingly, was dedicated to the first of the noble families: the Sparkles.

Of the Fix Noble Houses in the mage world, none possessed a more potent, more graceful, or more forceful style of magic than that of the Sparkle Family. Stellar Magic, Developed by the first member of the Sparkle Family, Starswirl the Beared, during the Magic Golden Age, was a force that could move mountains. It was said that during his youth he stared into the stars and vowed one day he'd harness the power for himself. Much like the Shimmer Family, who's folly to tame the sun scarred their very souls and made all male births stillborn, the price for obtaining such a violent force came with an equally violent cost.

"Go on ahead," Twilight said "I'll handle Chrysalis myself."

"That's suicide!" Amore said

"We don't have time! Nightmare Moon is slaughtering mortals by the thousands. We have to go now."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Rom is the only one with the power to beat Nightmare Moon other than Anon. We cannot wait another moment."

Chrysalis chuckled

"It's funny you think I'll give you that option."

She turned into fog before Twilight pointed out her wand, causing a shock wave that threw her against the wall.

"Go!" she yelled "I can handle this!"

They all began to run for the exit and Chrysalis glared daggers.

"You got lucky."

Twilight had a sullen look on her face

"Do you still resent me?" she asked "Is that why you've chose to stand against us, not with us?"

"My path is my own. Our childhood is nothing but a memory."

"Why do this?"

"Nightmare Moon will herald in a utopia. A world without magic, without fear and hatred."

"You say that even after Valencia killed your father?"

"My father was a bastard and a tyrant. But don't worry. Once you're gone Valencia will get hers."

"I see."

Twilight took what looked like a ballet dancers pose. Her wand hand extended forward with her other in the air, wrist slightly tilted so that the middle finger dangled above the center of her head. She stood on the toe of a single leg with her free leg bent so that to toe fit perfectly behind the knee. She made it look easy, but it took years of practice. Every muscle had to be in just the right place. She starred Chrysalis down with stone cold eyes, those of a woman who had foregone any emotional attachment to the situation. Eyes of a killer. The tip of her wand glowed brightly.

"Ursa Minor!"

A blinding light flashed causing Chrysalis to cover her eyes and scream in pain. Twilight, jumping from her position like a loaded spring, charged forward and put her wand right to Chrysalis's chest.

"Ursa Major!"

A strong, powerful beam of light scored straight through her chest with such force it nocked Twi on her back a bit. Chrysalis fell to the floor.

"I'm sorry. I wish I didn't have to be this-"

Before Twilight could finish her sentence a hand grabbed her wrist with force, nearly breaking it.

"Spare me your speeches." she said

"Y-you..." Twilight said "you became a vampire?"

"Right. But that's not everything."

Twilight pushed up her wand again

"F-Formax!"

A shield of pure mana surrounded Twilight before Chrysalis breathed poison gas into the air. She threw Twilight to the ground and the gas completely filled the room, blocking her vision in the cloud. If she dropped the mana shield for even a moment she'd be dead in seconds. This poison was a special brew Chrysalis made, designed to poison mana itself. It infiltrated ones magic circuits and made their own mana poison. The only problem was Twilight couldn't maintain a magic shield of strength to block a vampire's savage blows for very long, five minutes at most. The first punch came like a hurricane. It was so strong she could feel her magic circuits cry in pain from the amount of mana she needed to withstand the blow. Even for a vampire, she was incredibly strong. She had to think so something, anything. She looked down at the floor. Only one option. She pointed her wand down.

"Taurus!"

A large, fiery explosion expanded from wand, creating a wide hole beneath her. She landed on her feet, her muscles ringing from the shockwave of such a powerful blast so close. She forced her self to run and the vampire came down after her, claws extended, hoping to strike the finishing blow. Twilight took her stance again.

"Arcturus!"

She cast it just in time. Chrysalis' claws stopped just short of her as Twilight's body began to glow brightly, her pupils taking the shape of stars. Her former friend knew exactly what this spell caused: it was a suicide bomb. If anything cut her, or stopped her heart, her very mana would ignite and she'd go off with the force of a super nova.

"Is this you admitting defeat?"

"No. It's may way of saying we should stop."

"If you don't fight me I'll simply join with Nightmare Moon and kill the other nobles."

"All for a world without magic?"

"Yes." she said "And you should too. But I know better than to think the high and mighty Sparkle Family would ever renounce this life."

"For your mother?"

"Yes. That alone proves magic is not worth salvaging. She was assassinated and for what? All to turn me into a vampire."

Twilight's skin dimmed and returned to normal, as did her eyes.

"You know I'm not your enemy. You know I understand."

"It pains my Twilight but if killing you will bring my mother back, so I will."

"How would killing me do that?"

"Nightmare Moon's utopia is timeless. No one will live, no one will die. Those who have already passed can rejoin us in the living. I'll be a normal girl again."

"You think she could do that?"

"Yes. She'll cut down the Greater Magic itself. The Greater Magic keeps all the souls of those who have died with in it. With it gone, death will be a thing of the past."

Twilight remained silent for a while

"Twilight." she pleaded "Join us. The world Nightmare Moon is creating is like that of heaven. No more fighting. No hunger. No death. Please."

"Fine. I'll join you. On the condition you take me to see Nightmare herself. I'll lay down my wand and subject myself to whatever security measures you deem appropriate. I want to hear it from her personally."

"Thank you, Twilight."

They both hugged

"I knew you'd see reason. Come."

Chrysalis turned around. As she did all she felt was a cold chill of malice Twilight ran her wand through her heard, using Taurus to rip through her chest as thought it were paper. In the next instance Twilight removed the object the made her a vampire, her mother's bracelet, lodged deep in her heart. As Chrysalis fell, all she saw was Twilight's cold, murderous eyes. There was no soul behind those eyes, not an ounce of emotion. It was like looking into a machine.

Sunset flipped to the next page, continuing the description of the first royal family:

The stars, so irate at their power had stollen from them, placed a terrible curse on Starswirl that day, and all of his family to follow. All those who inherited the crest from then on would have their heart replaced with one of stone. They would become ruthless beasts, killing their fellow man without so much as a blink of their eye. In the stone heart that now replaced that of their human one, all that beat from it was the melody of hatred and wrath and in their wake, chaos. A demon wearing the face of a human.

"What're you reading?"

Sunset jumped a bit. It was Rarity.

"It's an early reading on the Five Noble Houses of Mages." she said "More importantly, is Anon back yet? It's been a while."

"No I'm afraid. Igneous said he'd seek advice from the king."

"I worry about him. As strong as he is, he's a novice." she said "he reminds me of me when I was young and innocent. When I wasn't so jaded."

"You don't strike me as the jaded sort, Sunset."

"Being royalty does that too, especially when you have to assume those duties as young as I had too."

"I know how you feel in a sense." she said "Great power comes at great cost."

"It does. There are times I wish I'd never taken this crest. That I'd simply lived my life out as the shy, unimportant sister. But I knew that if my did my sisters would ruin my family name more than it already had been."

"It was a hard choice you made. But no one more fit than you to make it."

"Anon... he's the first thing in a long time to make me happy in this life. I wish I could take the crest from him. Carry his burden. He didn't deserve this burden."

"Did any of us really?"

"No, I suppose not. But it feels worse knowing he had a normal life. You and I, we know no better. Assassination, death, horrendous magic experiments for the 'greater good'. It's all part of our life since birth. But now a man who's biggest fear before was failing a math final has had the responsibility to save a world he never knew existed hoisted on his shoulders."

"He's handling it well. I think it a mistake to underestimate his resolve."

"If there's anything I can do to lessen that burden I will. Maybe give the life of being a noble who holds together a less than equitable system together some greater purpose."

"That's your reason for living?" Rarity asked

"Yes. He reminds me... he reminds me of my mentor. The one who gave his life for me so that I could inherit the power I now have. He acts and behaves just like he did. It feels like in some strange cosmic way, that I'm saving my teacher by saving him. Is that strange?"

Before she could answer a large portal opened up, dropping Anon face first on the floor, blood pouring from a large gash in his chest. Sunset's eyes widened and she ran towards him, pulling out her wand. She pointed it at the wound and cast a healing spell. Nothing. The wound didn't respond at all.

"What's wrong!?" she yelled "Why isn't this working?"

Rarity looked down at the knife and her stomach dropped. The metal, it was none other than the same popular metal made to neutralize mana. Bits of metal must have been caught in the wound. In other words, Sunset's healing magic was being absorbed before it could heal the wound. Rarity rushed to his side.

"Let me try something." she said

She whispered an incantation, one which Sunset didn't recognize. It was in a very ancient tongue. A sphere of light consumed the three of them. When Sunset opened her eyes she looked like she was in some sort of church. There was a large statue depicting a beautiful woman with golden wings. Rarity, now a child, was tied to the statue. A man addressed the crowd in the pews.

"In preparation of your return, we offer you this child as living sacrifice and vessel Archangel Eris. She will live as you live, let her body give you strength. The Way of White grants you this most holy offering!"

A scream ran through her mind as her eyes shot wide open to find herself back in the library. Anon's gash had completely sealed, despite the bits of magic absorbing metal still imbedded within his skin. Whatever she used to heal it couldn't have been mana based. Sunset stared at her, remembering the vision she had gotten.

"What are you? What was the memory?"

Rarity merely lifted her finger to her lips in a 'hush' motion. Anon got up, rubbing his back.

"I can defeat Nightmare Moon! I know how! Or a way to do it!" he yelled

Comments

[Queuefka Palazzo]

Hey.

Rem is a shit.

[BG9]

10048740
Oi. I'll have you knew Rem is beautiful and amazing.

[Queuefka Palazzo]

10048827
Weird way to spell Limeyd you waifu thief.