In the Sun's Shadow

Chapter 1: Among the Ashes

Ponyville

Four Hours After Tirek's Defeat

Twilight

The town was filled with smoke, it clung to the air like a dark and smothering curtain, drowning out the light of the sun. The distasteful aroma of burnt wood drifted between the silent houses that stood sentinel over their fallen comrade. The wind was burdened with fragile gray fragments of paper that once carried knowledge and wisdom, their torn remains fluttering like forgotten memories in the unrelenting wind. Fire flickered like a taunting enemy, its unforgiving tongues tormenting the once mighty oak with deadly precision.

The Golden Oaks Library was burning.

Twilight Sparkle stood alone in front of the blazing inferno, her long shadow stretching as the sun set on the far off horizon. Any tears she had shed from her magenta eyes had evaporated long ago in the face her home's torching, now she could only look on mournfully and wait for the fire to burn itself out.

It was no ordinary fire. The blaze that was claiming her home had sprung from Tirek's twisted dark magic, a perversion of the combined stolen magical power of Equestria that the ancient horror had conjured with the intent of wiping Twilight off the face of Equestria.

Twilight had barely escaped with her life, for as soon as she had seen the burning darkness hurtling towards her she had single-mindedly rescued the only other living thing in her tree, her loyal companion Owlowiscious, and had thrown up a hasty magical shield before they were flung into the streets of Ponville from the force of the fiery destruction.

In the immediate explosion, the top half of the library where she had lived had incinerated instantaneously with the windows shattering from the shock wave. The ground floor which had contained thousands of books had combusted, the aged papers igniting in a beautiful yet terrible bonfire that cried out to the heavens as their embers floated into the smoke-filled sky. The laboratory underneath had superheated from the coals and fiery rain dropping from above, bringing ruin and ravaging flames to complete the task.

And even then, the fire did not stop.

It was not content to merely burn like a normal fire, as if that were not terrible enough. This fire had been mockingly summoned from the pits of Tarturus itself. The inferno resisted all attempts to eradicate its presence. Water, magic, anything that could be used to subjugate the blaze only added fuel to the flames. There was nothing that could be done.

But wait.

As the fire's light reflected Twilight's view, she dimly became aware of another pony approaching before the intruder sat beside her in silence. This mare's shadow was far larger than Twilight's, it seemingly swallowed the lavender alicorn's dark reflection easily, not even appearing to try to overcast the smaller shadow.

Of course, this shadow belonged to arguably the largest influence on Twilight's life, Princess Celestia.

"I...I'm so sorry Twilight." The taller alicorn said solemnly, her white feathers ruffling uncomfortably at her snowy sides as the inferno consumed Twilight's home before them.

Twilight didn't look at her, choosing instead to remain gazing into the fire's enrapturing sight, to look into her former mentor's eyes would be to acknowledge that the destruction of her home had somehow been the sun alicorn's fault.

"I messed up princess." Twilight stated plainly, her words almost too quiet to hear under the waterfall of sound as wood crackled and burned in front of her. "Do you know what I did when I first saw him?"