Prelude:

Blood moon

One hundred years ago…………….

    A nervous unicorn approached a pool, deep in the Everfree forest. The pool was still, and it sat at the center of a semicircular clearing. Clouds always shrouded the clearing, and a rock face ran the length of the clearing, touching one of the pool’s edges. Painted on the rock face with molten gold were etchings, an artist’s relief of a golden spear, a weapon both great and terrible, in sharp detail cast by the flickering shadows of the candles surrounding the pool.

    By the pool sat a large white alicorn, princess Celestia herself. She sat resplendent, in a strange set of polished gold armour. Etched into it’s surface were runes of power, bolstered by gems, with gold filigree and hammered silver inlay composing the breastplate, which was shaped like Celestia’s cutie mark. Inlaid into the center of this sun was a pale gray gem that seemed garishly inappropriate for the armour. On her head rested a multicoulored crown with three pointed, swirling spikes set into a jeweled base of gold.

As a final touch, a long satin cloak was draped over the princess to complete her ensemble.  She sat, staring blankly into her own reflection.

“Are you ready, your majesty?”

Asked the unicorn, wearing the armour of the royal guard. His polished gold armour had been enchanted to change the coat color of the wearer to match that of the princess, and the gold hung low to obscure his cutie mark. The only part of his ensemble that deviated from the regular armour was the fact that his helmet was gone, in it’s place rested a simple gold hoop with a single cloudy, pale blue gem inset into it.

Celestia looked up at the relief of the spear and turned to the unicorn.

“ I am ready.”

The princess got up and her horn lit up. The flickering light of the candles lit only the pool, the sun having set hours ago. She began to ignite the small, clawed cauldrons that sat atop carved marble plinths obscured by the darkness, eight in all. The light cast from these beacons would make the following spell possible.

     Lighting beacons as she walked down a carved marble path, the princess approached an altar, carved from the living rock of this mountain. The altar was square, three times Celestia’s length wide, and was encircled by a floor of smooth stones. Inlaid into this floor were golden lines, which were currently being enchanted as the base of a huge rune with the table at its center, by several unicorn guards. Pegasi carried enchanted torches as they prepared to fly in a pattern to help the rune reach full strength.

A deep boom filled the clearing, indicating that the spell was about to begin.

Three guards dragged three unconscious ponies up to the altar at the center. One was a unicorn, one was a pegasus, and the third was an earth pony. All three were secured to the table with thick ropes, as Celestia approached.

She stood at the focal point of the rune on the edge nearest the pool.

All the guardsponies took a step back.

Celestia took a single drop of her own blood and dropped it on the gold filigree before her. The blood soaked into the gold, before racing across the ancient lines. Soon the entire rune was glowing with a reddish sheen.

The princess bent down and, summoning all her magical energies, activated the rune with the power of the hidden sun.

The white fire raced along the rune, the blood and the gold mixing. The fire rose up from the lines and the whole thing began to spin, like a demented tornado.

The pillar raised upwards in a red column before tapering off, and lancing the column of fire- now a red laserbeam- straight into the moon overhead. The moon almost seemed to scream for a moment before it turned blood red.

This was actually the pressure release and stopped the spell from imploding and destroying Equestria.

The business end of the spell was a crackling red ball of flame, which engulfed the three ponies contained within. They had been forcibly wakened and their screams pierced the night like an arrow. As their shadows began to move and merge, Celestia dropped the neutral expression. Her face had gone from the saintly expression that everyone knew and loved, to a wicked jack-o-lantern smile that made one’s skin crawl and was befitting of a psychopath.

Then the shadows merged completely and the ball of fire transformed into a second pillar, which then jettisoned its fire into the sky.

As the smoke cleared from the spectacle, Celestia stepped forward. The gilded rune was steaming a bit, but as it resumed its dull glow three airborne pegasi upturned their bowls upon the altar, tracing three lines of gold, which connected to the rune, as Celestia stepped forward.

Before her sat a quivering alicorn with the coat of the earth pony, a flowing mane and tail, the wings of the Pegasus and the unicorn’s horn. Her eyes were unfocused, and she was unbound.

“What….why…. what have you done to us?” sobbed the alicorn in a voice that sounded like three at once.

“Why…..WHHYYY?”

Celestia only sighed. She’d heard this before. The begging, the pleading, yadda yadda yadda.

She nodded, and the guards came forward and lashed the newly-created alicorn to the table, spread-eagled on her back, before retreating to beyond the rune border again.

Celestia sent a single spark into the rune. It had all of the potential energy that one could glean from a candle. The rune glowed brightly now, and Celestia began sending out these small sparks in a slow and steady rhythm. The rune glowed and pulsed like a heart.

Celestia spread her armored wings and called upon her ancient, sacred weapon; the sun spear.

The pool near the rock face rippled suddenly. It rippled again and again, and as it rippled a faint glow could be seen from below the surface. The glow intensified, and then a point of golden light broke the pool’s surface.

The sun spear rose up from the waters, casting a glow as bright as day. But this glow was not one of comfort and warmth, as was the day. No, this spear cast an aura of evil, hate, malice and cruelty.   A wickedly sharp tip, with a handle studded with gems, the sun spear cast a sinister pallor, which only intensified as Celestia telekinetically levitated it towards the center of the pulsing rune.

Small bolts of yellow lightning crackled upwards from the rune to the spear, as it passed over the golden lines.  Finally it was next to its mistress who looked upon this twisted artifact as one would a newborn child.  

Then Celestia stood on her hind legs. She reached out with a hoof and took the spear, in a special slot designed for a hoof. She spun it so that the tip pointed downward.

Celestia couldn’t contain herself. She really could not. Her face split into a wide, wicked grin, and her eyes held no warmth or mercy. She raised the sun spear above her head.

The pony on the table’s eyes grew wide. In her horrible mishmash of a voice she screamed, “MERCY! MERCY! NOOOOOOOO-“

“You shall be SILENT!” thundered Celestia, as she brought the spear down.

The air crackled with electricity. The rune was slowly losing its reddish pallor, retuning to normal unenchanted gold near the edges.  The color was draining inward, and as it reached the table it collected in the impaled alicorn. She began to glow, and the table’s runes came to life in this last, critical component of an unholy spell from the darkest tome in existence.

The alicorn felt like she was slowly weakening. That was because, all her magical energy was being drained into Celestia, and the runes were leaching off a large portion, too. The sun spear and runes linked, and then, there was a flash of light.

The pulse of light was the final product of this spell. It linked Celestia and the alicorn to the very wellspring of magic itself for but an instant- but even so small a space in time was more than enough.

   Using all the magic that floated around Celestia now, she harnessed but a fraction of it to create a gateway that would stay open for exactly sixty seconds. Celestia began to absorb ad much magic as she possibly could.

That volume of magic would have toasted celestial into a pile of ash- except that it was being routed through the impaled pony instead. The pony screamed and howled as an insane volume of magic stampeded its way through her fragile little body, up the sun spear, and was absorbed by Celestia.

Sixty seconds. For the newborn alicorn, it was pure torture. Every second lasted an eternity, and all the while the heat and pain increased two-hundred-fold.  It was a relief when Celestia removed the spear and allowed the magic to incinerate her victim.

With the ceremony over, Celestia telekinetically levitated the sun spear back to the pool. Its job complete, the spear’s aura now cast a pallor of......remorse? Yes, as strange as it sounds, the sun spear now seemed like it was regretting. The spear slunk back below the magically enchanted depths, not to see the light of day for another hundred years.  

        The light faded from the rune, which returned to its original state as just decorative gold lines. Celestia removed her armour and levitated it, too to the pool. It too sunk below the surface, to wait in a flooded cavern until Celestia needed it again. The guards packed up everything that was not nailed down and loaded it onto the royal chariots. As Celestia boarded hers, she swapped out her armour crown for the one she normally wore, and placed that in the cavern with the utmost care.

Unbeknownst to her, a single gem from the crown had come off and fallen at the bottom of the chariot.

With a nod from the princess, the beacons were extinguished and the convoy of chariots took off.

Celestia felt energized. She had not felt this good in one hundred years. The sheer power that flowed through her was indescribable. She would hoard this power, as the spell could only be cast once every hundred years. As she had hoarded the power from the past eight times she had done this. And the tenth time? The tenth time would be the last time she need ever do this.  For on her tenth sacrifice, she would not need to create her own alicorn.  Luna would do very nicely.