The Immortal Game

The Battle of Cloudsdale

It was afternoon, and Cloudsdale sat high in the sky, basking in the gleaming rays of Empyrean's sun. Its native pegasi flew about, soaring to and fro between the austere white columns that were a staple of the city's architecture. Ponies milled about on the surface of the clouds, catching breaks between their duties combining hues into rainbows and shaping precipitation into rain clouds. High above any dirt on the ground, the city gave off an overwhelming sense of cleanliness and was almost a uniform white. The achromatic radiance of the city was broken by the occasional stream of rainbow essence that flowed from the upper tiers of the Coraopolis, creating a favorable contrast.

The flying citadel broke through the permanent clouds that made up the base of the city from beneath. It tore its way upward, causing several structures to collapse and tumble into the open sky below. Pegasi frantically flew to avoid the debris and escape the collapsing structures. Ponies who had been doing nothing rushed to the scene, overtaken by curiosity, to observe from a safe distance. In moments, the bustling and orderly city was thrown into chaos.

In the city's central plaza, under the shadow of the dark citadel, a black pegasus dropped to the ground, managing a perfect landing despite having fallen at a speed that would make most pegasi envious. Slowly, her gaze took in her surroundings, her eyes evenly moving from left to right. The ponies around her and above her froze at her appearance. Even though most of them did not know her personally, they had still heard the stories. There was only one black pegasus in the world.

"Gather!" the dark pegasus shouted, and her voice carried to the far edges of the plaza. The surrounding ponies did not need to be told twice. Slowly and uneasily, they landed and formed a crowd that stood in the citadel's looming shadow. The closest ones formed a circle around the dark pony, and she moved, setting herself slightly off of the circle's center, closer to the citadel. The ponies around the pegasus waited, talking amongst themselves in hushed tones and looking around nervously. They clearly knew about what had happened to Ponyville. They were obviously terrified.

The dark pegasus didn't speak from her place surrounded by the other pegasi. The tension built as nothing else happened, rising to almost unbearable levels. Just as the moment would have ceased to be tense and become boring, however, over a hundred puppets swarmed outward from the dark citadel that had speared itself through the heart of Cloudsdale. Pegasi flew from its upper tiers and then landed amongst the terrified crowd below. Earthponies stormed from its forward facing entrances and formed ranks in front of the flying fortress. The crowd of pegasi shrank away from the intimidating soldiers. All of the puppets faced inward, at a point just in front of and above the dark pegasus.

She appeared with a crack that reverberated throughout the city, and a pinpoint burst of dark energy. She levitated, floating a dozen feet off of the ground so that every pony could see her arrive. Her mane, warped even further by the Sliver of Darkness, was a twisting mass of pure black, shot through with a single streak of sanguine. Her left eye was a shining purple, but her right was an iris of the same red as her streak, burning around a slitted pupil. A still-unhealed slash ran along her face. Slowly, she lowered herself, never once looking at the pegasi of Cloudsdale until her hooves touched the hardened cloud that made up the plaza's "ground". As she touched down, she gracefully lowered her head, closing her eyes softly and letting her mane burn more dimly. Then, she suddenly brought her head up sharply and glared at the citizens of Cloudsdale. The ponies, startled, drew back a step, and a ripple of motion moved through the crowd.

Nihilus loved a good entrance.

She gave a cold, humorless laugh, then began to address the crowd. "Judging by your reactions, my reputation precedes me. I will assume then, that you have all heard of that little trouble I caused in Ponyville about a week ago, so believe me when I say that if any of you disobey me, or keep me from what I want, the destruction I will bring upon you will make the incident in Ponyville seem tame. The first act of any survivors will be to rename Cloudsdale to the much more fitting 'Dale.'"