Shadows of Sins Past

While Westwood had left the castle for Ponyville, Celestia had let out a small sigh. There was some relief that this could be settle before a full battle could be conducted between the two race, but at the same time she wished that this could be done without having to force any pony or dragon to kill another. As far as she could tell, this was the only way to save as many lives as she could. One life being risked was better than a nation on innocents, "Take care Westwood." She spoke watching the dragon flying off in a rush. The princess of the sun stood in front of the window that Westwood had left and stared at the dragon that had slowly glided out of view.

Shortly after the dragon had flown out of range of sight, another group of only small dragons had entered the perimeter of the castle grounds. Their small size and the white scales made it easier for them to blend with the clouds that were overhead. The small group numbered only a squad of three dragons, no armor to glisten in the light. The group landed on the side of the castle silently, one of the white scaled dragons made a motion with his hand before the other two followed his motions as well as the dragon himself. The supposed leader that was issuing hand signals for the other two took point as the group crawled up the wall of the castle, "Quickly and quietly. We don't need unwanted attention from the guards." He whispered to the other two white dragons.

The dragons had made it to the top of one of the towers, the leader looking through a set of holes in the railing to check if there was a guard present at the top. His hand lowered to show the other two to stop in their tracks and to not move, their claws made that service easier since they could dig into the stone and keep themselves planted, "Move." He spoke pulling himself up then rushing to the nearest door to the tower that they had taken. The leader's back was planted onto the door's frame, his breathing silent as he looked inside to see an empty hall, "I'm surprised that the ponies would leave this place unguarded." He spoke in a near whisper once his other two squad mates had made it to the top.

One of the other dragons, this one with a female voice, spoke keeping her voice low, "If the ponies were able to defeat the shades a century and a half ago they should be better than this. What's causing them to slip." The female spoke not seeing this as normal and staying cautious.

The leader put a finger to his lips, "Hush." The leader spoke to the female as he attempted to peer in through the doorway. His gaze found no guards in the hallway where he waved the two others into the hall. The two remained silent as they entered the brightly lit hallway of the castle.

The other dragon kept himself near the wall, his footsteps were quiet from the action of keeping his claws off the hard stone floor under him, "I just don't like this. It's just way too quiet to be a fortress." The second male spoke going as far as the keep his breathing silent on top of his words.

The leader groaned lightly at the male's observation, "They are ponies. The only thing they expected to find were more of those winged ponies. And they don't try to get in stealthily." He said to the other male, "So shut your mouths. We maintain silence from here. Hand signals only." The leader spoke to the second male. All three dragons kept silent after those words, as they progressed through the hallway.

Celestia, unbeknownst of the dragons a few floors above, had now gone to see how Luna was doing after what she witnessed the short time before. She felt guilty that she had let her sister see such a sight with her only recently returning back from her imprisonment in the moon, "Luna?" The princess of the sun spoke gently pushing the door open to see that her sister was now awake, "I'm sorry about what happened. It was a mistake to let you see what happened." Celestia spoke keeping her head low despite her normally regal stature.

Luna lifted her head hearing her sister's voice, "Do not be sorry sister. I had to see that the world is not as pleasant as our kingdom shows it to be." The darker of the princesses spoke looking out the window, "Do you know where Westwood has gone sister? I woke up and saw that he was not here like he was earlier." Luna spoke keeping her eyes focused out into the world outside of her room.

Celestia closer her eyes then took herself to be by her sister's side, "He went to Ponyville to say his goodbyes to the ponies that he befriended in his brief time there." Celestia spoke. Those words did not ease Luna's mind which was made apparent from the way the dark colored wings had drooped slightly, "He will be back. He wanted to let you rest before he told you what he was about to do for the whole of Equestria." Celestia spoke to her sister, her tone had deep emotion as she watched Luna's actions regarding Westwood.

Luna's head snapped to the side when she heard Celestia speak about what Westwood was about to do, "What did you tell him sister?" Luna started then placed her hooves on Celestia's shoulders, "TELL ME!" Luna finished using her Canterlot voice to show how much she was concerned.

Celestia felt her sister's voice push her mane aside, her eyes forcing themselves to stay open in the loud sounds, "He volunteered himself to go alone and attempt to end the war by assassinating the dragon king." Celestia spoke to her sister not wanting to make eye contact with the other alicorn that was watching her every move.

Luna was still and stiff when she heard that Westwood was playing assassin and was going to try to stop the war, "He." A brief pause could be felt, "He is risking his life to save us all?" She asked. She could tell Westwood was a brave drake, but this was beyond just brave. She felt that Westwood was being reckless and suicidal, "How could you let him do such a thing? How can you let him sacrifice himself?" She spoke with tears welling up in his eyes.

Celestia gently pushed Luna down from the sun princess's shoulders so that the two could talk more calmly, "He is doing this so that no lives will be unnecessarily lost. He is going to do everything he can to come back from this. The look in his eyes was not that of one that is accepting his fate. He is a warrior, I'm sure a better warrior than any of our guardsmen." She spoke to Luna.

Luna's eyes still leaked tears after hearing why Westwood was going on this mission, "This is still reckless. He is risking his life on something that might not happen even if he is not successful." She spoke trying to get herself under control. Her hoof stamped on the floor, the loud sound of her hoof echoing in her room.

The three white scaled dragons continued their infiltration of the castle, they had noticed the density of guards had increased steadily over the time they had entered. It made it seem like they were getting closer to the royalty. Now the three were near one room, the symbol of a crescent moon giving the obvious position that Princess Luna was in that room.

The dragon leader had given the signal for them to stop where he looked around the corner to see two guards standing watch over the one door. He then pointed upwards at the ceiling. The other two then silently climbed the wall with their claws keeping them secure as they then crawled along the ceiling. The leader followed suit, his movements moving with the other two dragons down to using their claw marks to make himself quieter.

The first two used the claws from their back feet to lower themselves down when they were above the two guard, their arms quickly wrapped around the guards' necks and pulled them up. Instead of attempting to snap their necks, they held them to stop their breathing. The result lead to two unconscious guards without a fatality. They were held up a few seconds longer by their necks until they completely stopped moving, the guards were then moved in the two dragon's arms so they could lift themselves up, hold the guards with one hand each all while keeping themselves suspended to the ceiling of the hall. The leader then looked around to check for another guard patrol before dropping down. His movements silent the more he attempted to release his grip on the ceiling. He looked to the two dragons over head and he gave then the sign to hold their position.

It was then that he opened the door in a manner to not cause a sound. He took a peek inside and huffed seeing Celestia and Luna, it seemed like this was not what he was planning on from the way he acted. He then looked back at the two over head and pointed down to the ground, "Seems like silent and undetected isn't an option." He spoke before the two dropped their unconscious victims to the hard ground to have their clawed feet stamp firmly on the guards' necks to permanently silence the two.

The leader broke down the door and charged at Celestia, his shoulder impacting the princess and sending back into the wall that was near her. As soon as the impact could be heard from Celestia impacting the nearest wall, the female white scale rushed in and grabbed Luna's head before slamming it into the floor. The impact of the dragon's strength with the floor knocked out the night princess, the other male dragon sprinted in to grab onto Celestia to hold her down no matter how much the sun princess had tried to struggle.

When the leader and the female tried picking up Luna with the male attempting to hold Celestia down, Celestia fought back and used her strength to throw the dragon off of her and fired a beam of magic from her horn at the leader and shot him into the wall behind him. Before she could aim at the female, the female dragon used Luna as a shield and held the unconscious princess in front of her and her claws at Luna's throat, "Don't you move or your sister dies." The female spoke in a cold manner while keeping herself shielded with Luna's limp body.

Celestia was hesitant to move now that her sister's life was on the life from a threat that had just declared war on them. This was not a battle, this was what she was planning on doing with Westwood doing to the dragon kingdom, "Do not hurt her. If you do there will be Tartarus to pay." She spoke keeping her ground though not moving an inch one way or the other.

The female gripped Luna tighter seeing the look in the solar princess's eyes like the dragons had just kicked a hornet's nest even more than when the other dragon had gone on with a full on assault on a civilian town, "Either way I'm finished. I come back a failure and I'm executed, I keep this up and you finish me off. I know when I'm finished and that's why I'm taking this as long as I can." She spoke inching her claws closer to Luna's throat.

Celestia found it difficult to understand, what was the dragon's goal here. If it was to kill the princesses then why were they giving them a chance to move, "Why are you here? If you wanted us dead then you would have already killed my sister." Celestia spoke keeping herself ready should the female try anything.

The female growled at Celestia, "I will not say as a definite your highness" She spoke slowly backing up towards the window, "But our objective was not about either ruler" She spoke feeling the back of her heel touch the wall under the window, "It involves a certain individual that you know about." She spoke giving an obvious hint to what her objective was without directly speaking what it was.

Celestia was shaken by what was happening, three assassins were sent to her kingdom over Westwood. This second of shock was enough to give the female dragon her chance. The female dragon jumped back through the window, shards of glass floating past the dragon's back before her wings quickly spread open and her flight back to the dragon kingdom. Her royal prisoner still clenched in her grasp as she flew.

Celestia had attempted to follow after, but her flight was disrupted by the leader and the other dragon jumping on the princess and pinning her down, "Sorry your highness. I cannot allow you to disrupt." The leader spoke using his legs to keep the princess from moving her head as he pinned her down.

Celestia struggled under the leader's strength before finally getting to the position where she could aim. She then fired magic into the leader and sent him flying through the wall and into the hallway. The other dragon soon followed suit though voluntarily as he rushed to the leader to make sure that he was still alive, the dragon then picked his leader up to his shoulder. Before the white dragon could move again, he was interrupted by another magic beam that impacted the wall beside the dragon's head.

Fear had the dragon tight, he couldn't move which was made even harder now that the princess had him and the leader dialed in and ready to attack at a second's notice.

"Now tell me. Where is my sister?" Celestia spoke with a voice that echoed the anger that was prevalent in her eyes after the abduction of her sister.

The male looked like he was staring into the eyes of death as he watched the princess, "T-the dr-dragon kin-kingdom." The male spoke with his chest heaving as his breathing spiked. Fear overtook him more than he thought it would be possible for a pony to do so, "We are under orders. We are not doing this because we want to!" He shouted to the princess remaining.

Celestia's eyes could almost be seen as monstrous to the dragons that had attempted to invade the castle, "The fact you are under orders does not make what you are doing right or permitted." She was entirely out of the room and spotted the two guards dead with their necks crushed, "You have also killed two of my guard. No amount of orders can save you at this point." Celestia added as dark magic once again flared from her eyes.

The sight caused the leader to shout, "Alabaster sent us here to kill the shade. If he dies then the war is over. Those guards are only dead because we had to take plan B. We had to show an act of aggression, killing your guards and a kidnapping was the best way to show it." The leader spoke.

The one name that the leader spoke made the look in Celestia's eyes change from anger to shock, "You were sent by Alabaster? He would betray my trust like this?" She spoke before slamming her hoof and nearly cracking the flooring with the strength that she expressed, "That is impossible. Alabaster sent you to attack us?!" The princess asked before a beam shot from her horn. The beam this time was a deep black color that left the wall behind the dragons singed in a dark black color, "Tell me the truth or this will be the last face you ever see." Celestia spoke. The blasts and beams having attracted the attention of the guards within the vicinity, within the minute the two dragons were surrounded by an assortment of ponies in royal armor.

The leader shouted, "That is the truth. Alabaster sent us here to either kill the shade or to kidnap Princess Luna. We had to go with Princess Luna because the shade is not here." The leader spoke again.

Celestia's eyes were now seeming to  swell from the power her dark magic had received when her anger fed the power, "That is impossible. Alabaster is a peaceful being that would never force his troops to do such an abominable act."

The leader knew that they were as good as dead as this point, "This is not a lie your highness. He has his reasons for doing this, it is not a simple act of terrorism." He spoke. The leader could see one position he could take to get around Celestia and took it. He rushed forward a few steps and evaded another dark magic beam that was shot at him by sliding underneath the beam on his back then jumping over the crowd of guards. His final act used one of the guards as a springboard to reach the nearest window and took to flight once again.

The last male however was not as fortunate as his leader. While the beam had been evaded by its intended target, the beam continued and impacted with the other male. The magic had not done anything at first, but a writhing pain could be felt in the dragon's body. His scales turned black after a few minutes longer.

Celestia looked at the dragon she had used her magic on then shouted to her guards, "Everypony leave now!" She shouted as she attempted to erect a shield to allow the guards to leave the area. The dragon, his body spasming in pain, then threw himself on the ground and screamed his pain until finally his body erupted into flames. Not a minute after his body ignited, the dragon detonated like a bomb. The wall it was closest to was now destroyed, bits and pieces of rocks and stone hanging loose. The smoke from the dragon's corpse left little to be seen, his body now was only a set of hard ashes in the shape of a dragon's skeleton.

Celestia looked at the destruction her action had caused and watched the world seem to collapse onto itself. Her eyes had now reverted back to their normal shapes. In her anger she had caused a fatality, the act scared her on how she could have allowed herself to do such an act. One of the guard lieutenants had approached Celestia, "Your highness. We need our orders. What do you wish for us to do?" His question was met with silence, "Your highness?" The lieutenant continued once more met by silence.

Celestia was so shocked by her own actions that the world had no sensations, no feel and no sound. The only thing she felt was the aftermath of her actions. Her mind suddenly came back which her attention was brought to the lieutenant, "Find the dragon that abducted my sister. I will send Westwood to complete his mission when he arrives." She spoke trying to recompose herself after she had extinguished a life after so much time between the war.

The lieutenant then rushed out giving the orders to the pegasi guard to try and find where the female dragon was and try to bring Luna back. The problem was that with the time that passed, the female was already a good distance away from the castle and was far out of sight.