The sun was beginning to set in the far end of the sky once more, and Luna’s moon was already high in the sky as a pastel rainbow roared through the sky. Below were lands of impassable forest that had long since been forgotten by ponies, places that had been labeled as only ‘wilderness’ in Equestrian maps for millennia, and probably even before. The oldest of maps even went so far as to label it with only the phrase ‘here be dragons’.

Reaching her destination, Celestia spread her wings and emitted a deceleration rainboom, sending out a shockwave of her characteristic colors. While Rainbow Dash had been the first unaltered Pegasus to exceed the sound barrier in over eleven hundred years, such things were trivial to a princess, at least Celestia.

Normally, she rather preferred to take a chariot where when she traveled. It added an air of regality, and the false vulnerability it presented was disarming to her subjects. Being pulled by white-coated Pegasus stallions also gave her a certain view that was not normally available to her. She had wings, though, and they were far stronger than those of any other living pony, and the area she was visiting was one of the two most classified locations in Equestria. She could not risk anyone knowing of its existence.

Celestia flapped her great alicorn wings, and rose up toward a looming mountain above her. Its cliffs were sheer rock, impossible for any earth pony or any unicorn to pass, and the wind that whipped through the edges of the mountain would have forced a lesser pony into the knife-like rocks below. The cold temperatures alone would likely have killed any of them by itself, but Celestia’s body was heated by solar warmth, and the chill could not slow her.

Near the summit of the mountain was a cave, one that had been carved into the gray rock millennia ago by unknown hooves. Celestia landed on its edge and stared up at the weathered, ancient carvings that surrounded it. They were depictions of beasts, or demons perhaps, and of creatures that predated even Celestia.

A warm, smoky wind came from the inside of the tunnel, and Celestia entered. She ignited the blinding light of her horn, and pulled air of the cavern togather, forming a tiny, glowing orb of fusion plasma. She released it, allowing it to drift upward into the cavern, where it illuminated the great hall.

Along the halls, standing in the shadows, were massive statues, many times taller than Celestia, carved from heterogeneous stone and crystal. They were bipedial, and menacingly shaped, wearing strange armor and bearing great axes, the blades of which alone were five times taller than Celestia.

As Celesita passed them, she suddenly had a feeling that she was being watched. Her sun set outside, and as darkness fell in the mouth of the cave, the statues moved, each lifting their axes. They focused their crystal eyes downward at Celestia, and took stances of attack.

One of them swung an axe, and Celestia unleashed her power. Her body instantly superheated, causing the great stone axe to liquefy over her, the molten rock vaporizing as it dripped over her body. She turned her horn to the axe’s owner, and fired a blast of magic that pierced its body. It stumbled backward from the force, but it felt no pain or loss at the massive hole in its chest.

Another moved forward, and Celestia cast a magical shield to defend herself. Simultaneously, she cast an arcing beam of energy that reached around her shield and grasped the monster. With a swing of her head, Celestia uprooted the beast and swung it into one of its comrades, shattering the pair of them.

She spread her wings and lifted into the sky, turning gracefully in the air, throwing forth another blast of energy. One of the creatures raise a great shield, and the shield instantly burned red-hot from Celestia’s divine magic, though the creature seemed either not to realize or not to care.

Celestia brought her hoof down on the creature’s head, and it was forced to the floor below, shattering from the force. Another reached from behind, and attempted to take her in its claws. Celestia was instantly surrounded by rock, and could feel her body being crushed. She focused her magic internally, and then released it, destroying the creature’s hands in a burst of blinding light.

Around her, the remaining creatures covered their eyes, but lifted their axes, as if to attack.

“Enough,” whispered a voice from deeper within the cavern. Though it was a wisper, its force was so great that it shook the very walls of the tunnel. The creatures immediately obeyed, yielding to Celestia and stepping back.

Celestia floated gracefully to the floor, and watched as the stones of the creatures she destroyed began to reassemble themselves. She stepped forward into the darkness, to a point where her miniature sun only illuminated the area incompletely. In the back of the cave, upon an unadorned and ancient throne, sat a figure cloaked in shadows.

A pair of reflective eyes glinted from the darkness.

“False god of the pony people,” said the ancient voice, sounding unamused. “Why do you darken your cavern with you presence.”

“My presence brings brightness and illumination,” said Celestia, smiling sweetly.

“Your light is that of destruction. It serves only to turn all it touches to ash.”

Celestia frowned. “I have come asking for your help.”

“My help?” said the figure, sounding either highly amused or highly insulted. “Divine Overload Celestia comes to me, asking for help? No, expecting help?”

“Are you so self-centered that you still refuse to help all of pony-kind?”

“Self-centered? Accused by the mare who turned herself into an immortal goddess!”

“I had my reasons,” said Celestia, speaking coldly but trying to retain her requite air of royalty.

“And it is not pony-kind that I have a problem with. My problem is with you. The creature whose first act as a god was the genocide of two of the seven great pony races, and the near-extinction of a third, a being who disgraces the memory of one of my dearest friends. But no. You would have my knowledge, and with it, you would construct new spells and new weapons to bring death and destruction to your enemies. I will not help you, nor will I help your poor, accursed sister.”

“Leave Luna out of this!”

“Do you think I cannot see what you have done, and what you still do? Though age and violence had rendered me blind, I have watched you. I watched as you imprisoned your general, Tirac, and murdered King Sombra when he refused to join your ‘divine’ empire. I have seen how you tricked the mortal embodiment of a Lord of Chaos into servitude, and how you cursed your own student, one who trusted you deeply.”

“If you will not speak to me, then I have ways of getting the information from you,” said Celestia, angered by the numerous true accusations brought against her. Her main glowed brightly, and her horn filled with power.

“Do not forget your place, false god,” said the voice, raising one of its hands.

Only then did Celestia see the glint of the magical chains, the ones that must have been bonded to her horn when the golem had surrounded her with its hand. Before she could dispel them, her magic shorted, and her head was brought crashing into the stone below.

“I have witnessed a creature,” said Celestia as the chains grew tighter and she desperately prepared a counterspell. “It is not one that even I recognize, but texts that are ancient beyond ancientness describe legends of ones like it.”

The chains slackened. “What texts are these?” said the cloaked figure, now genuinely amused.

“The legends of Single Horn. They describe creatures that, as this one, can shift their bodies as they see fit, creatures of incredible magical power.”

“And you have witnessed such a creature?”

“One of them attacked the Crystal Empire, and nearly stole the Crystal Heart, breaking through its enchanted barrier as though it were nothing.”

The figure reclined in its chair. It paused for a moment, and then, finally, spoke. “The creatures you describe are called Choggoths,” it said. “Although I gravely hope that you are either truly foolish or truly mistaken.”

“Why would you hope that?”

The figure in the dark stood, rising from her chair. Her eyes reflected the light beneath her hood, one milky and blind and the other constructed of gold, and as she moved, it was clear that she only had one arm beneath her cloak. As she approached, the black and red lines of her skins and ancient scars that covered her face became clear.

“If the Choggoths have returned, then Equestria will surely fall.” She raised her one claw, and the chains that bound Celestia snapped. She looked down at the pony before her, who was only a third of her height, as if her eyes were still able to see.

“Surely there is something that can be done.”

“I shall tell you no more.”

“Why?” demanded Celestia, rising. “Are you not the Grand Magus, last of the Draconians?”

“The Draconian Federation has not existed in close to one million years. Now there are only dragons. I am a ruler with no people, and therefore no ruler at all…a fate you will surely in time understand, false-god Celestia.” The Grand Magus returned to the shadows, taking her place on the ancient throne. “What would you have me do? I know not how to defeat them, but I now you very well. Even now, I see it in your mind. You seek to harness it, to create a new weapon for your empire.”

“I seek no such thing!” shouted Celestia. “I seek only the happiness and prosperity of all ponies!”

“Through destruction of properties you deem unworthy. What you now call ponies may as well be called sheep.”

Celestia could see that she would receive no more information. “Thank you for your help, Grand Magus of the dragons,” she said, gritting her teeth. She turned to leave, knowing that even though the Grand Magus was impossibly old, she was also incredibly powerful; even with the power of the sun, Celestia was not sure she could win a fight, not completely.

“One more thing,” called the Grand Magus. “This Choggoth. What was its symbol?”

“Symbol?” asked Celestia, turning her head back, confused.

“All Choggoths contain a geometric unique insignia, usually a shape. What was the shape of this Choggoth?”

“I did not see the beast first hand, and my subordinate described no shape.” She paused. “Is there any particular shape I should be weary of?”

“I know of only one by symbol and name. He is the Choggoth Oblivion, and he is the reason why I am the last of my kind. His symbol is two triangles.”

“I shall order my guards to be vigilant for this symbol.”

“For all the good it will do.”

Crimsonflame lay back in her stone chair, listening as the hoofsteps of the foolhardy creature left her cavern, watching the distorted image through the Aurasus eye that had been imbedded in her head. She propped her head on her one remaining claw. Even the Choggoths themselves were not truly evil, and by words, neither was Celestia- -but by actions, they were both abominations.

As much as she hated Celestia, though, Crimsonflame was now concerned. If a Choggoth had truly arisen, it meant only death. Even with all their power, the false-gods could not stop them; even with all her power, and all the power of her people and the other elder races, Crimsonflame had failed to defeat them, and destroyed the Trihorns, Aurasi, and Cerorians, and put the dragons on a path of degradative evolution that had converted them to little more than animals.

If a Choggoth had truly returned, it meant inescapable death for all of Equestria.

Before spreading her wings to take flight into the frigid air, Celestia looked back one last time. Crimsonflame, she decided, was as old a fool as ever. Dragons simply lived too long; they dwelt too heavily on their past, and too little on the present or the future. Celestia knew that what she had done in her past had hurt a great number of ponies, but the effort was justified for what she had created. She even believed that she had begun to reform herself, or at least render herself into a form that her people loved rather than feared. It had taken one thousand years, but Celestia had become something of a divine mother to her people, a smiling face, a being that the remaining three major races of ponies loved instead of feared.

There had been sacrifices, though. So much had to be destroyed for a new, perfect and peaceful Equestria to rise from the ashes. No creature, Celestia vowed, would take that from her. Whatever this Choggoth was, it would not be permitted to survive.