Tyranny of the Sun

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

Prologue

Don’t let anyone tell you being a princesses personal bodyguard is an interesting job, cause I’m telling you now, it’s not.

Sure, being “Sleight-of-Hoof, Protector of a Princess” and getting to accompany her all over Equestria seems interesting when you think about it, but what do you think you are doing the entire time she is greeting her subjects and attending meetings with other mares and gentlecolts of high society? Absolutely nothing. Add to that the fact the princess you are protecting is not only proficient in magic but also one of the bearers of the elements of harmony and a bodyguard seems completely pointless.

No matter how bored I was though, it was both my duty to royalty and a promise to her as a friend that I continued to be her protector. We had been touring all of Equestria so that the newest princess could meet with all of the ponies she would be ruling over. In most places we would only stay for a few days before travelling to the next location. However, in larger cities such as Manehattan and Las Pegasus, we could stay for up to two months meeting all the dignitaries and parading through the streets, and during it all the two of us are forced to act professional. Twilight had more trouble with that than I did though.

We were about to leave Saddle Arabia, our last stop on the tour, and head back to Ponyville. The tour had taken a whole year to finish and above anything else we wanted to return home, but just as we were about to leave, Twilight’s faithful dragon assistant Spike burped up a letter from Princess Celestia asking to make a detour in Canterlot so that she could discuss something important with Twilight.

Chapter 1

It was the day before we were to reach Canterlot and I was sitting in my usual spot in Twilight's train car. Being a princess, she had been given not only her own car, but many furnishings to fill it with. The car had been divided into two rooms by a curtain, a living room and a bedroom. The bedroom had a large bed, a night stand on each side, a dresser and an armoire, both used to hold the princess' many dresses. Other than the two couches, one of which I was sitting on, the living room had a table, a few lamps, and many shelves which now held the various gifts Twilight had been given over the course of the past year. Unlike the bedroom, this car had windows on opposite walls.

Twilight walked through the curtain into the half of the car I sat in. After offering me something to drink, which I refused, she walked over and sat down next to me on the couch. After a few moments of silence that I assumed must have been unnerving for Twilight, she spoke up, trying to start a conversation.

“Um, so what do you think was so important that Celestia needed us to come to Canterlot immediately? You don’t think there is trouble, do you?”

I turned to her and replied bluntly. “It wouldn’t surprise me. It seems in the past few years there has been more trouble for Equestria than there has been for the one thousand years prior. I’ll assume that she has called your other friends to Canterlot as well so that you can all use the elements against whatever threat this is.”

“I suppose that makes sense. At least we still get to see the others after all this time. Hopefully we can properly catch up unlike when we were in Manehatten.”

Manehatten had been the most tiring stop on the entire tour. Our entire time there had been pre-planned by the event planners. We were taken from one event to another, and at the end of the day we were locked in our hotel room for our protection.

For our protection my flank! Locking us in a room had made it easier for any threats to attack us.

Either way, it didn’t stop Twilight from worrying that her friends might think she was blowing them off, so to make sure they weren’t too mad, she asked me to sneak out and deliver a letter to them. Good thing part of my special talent was acrobatics because climbing down a skyscraper without wings can be pretty tricky.

After I found them, I gave them the letter and explained to them how our time in the city was being completely controlled by others and that Twilight wouldn’t be able to get together for a reunion. It took a bit of persuasion, but in the end they knew that Twilight was doing her best balancing being a princess and being herself. They gave me a message to return to her letting her know they understood and that they would see her in Ponyville at the end of the tour.

That had been a few months ago. Even I had begun to miss them in that time, and I was nowhere close to the friend Twilight was to them. Twilight was right; it would be great to see them again.

Twilight looked out the window, obviously thinking about her friends. “I guess we will just have to keep each other company until than.” I only nodded in response. Though I had known from the beginning she had asked me to be her bodyguard for company and less for actual protection, I had never been interested in talking with other ponies unless I had to. I was willing to humor her attempts at socializing however.

I looked out the same window to check the time. “Looks like it is getting late, you should get some sleep. We’ll be at Canterlot tomorrow and you should be ready for whatever Princess Celestia has in store.”

“Alright, can you check my car before you go?”

“Of course” I said proudly, putting on the professional personality I had developed after months of having to mimic a royal guard.

As she settled into her bed, I looked around the room for anything out of the ordinary. Every night since Manehatten, Twilight would always ask me to check her room for danger. The first few nights she had asked I thought it was a bit strange considering she never seemed to be worried about any threats. Eventually I stopped questioning it and since than it has become a sort of nightly ritual for us. Even stranger was sometimes right before I would leave she would seem to want to say something but never would.

Once I finished my sweep of the room, I looked to her and gave her my report, still wearing my royal guard persona. “Everything is all clear. Will there be anything else?”

She looked around the room in every direction except mine. Once she finished her own evaluation of the room, she turned on her side and almost squeaked “Um… no, it’s fine.”

With my final task done, I turned to head to my room in the guard's car. As I headed for the door opposite of her bed, I was suddenly stopped by Twilight quickly spurting out “Actually Sleight, can you stay here just in case?”

I turned around puzzled by the abruptness of the request, but I wasn’t going to say no to a princess. “Of course, is there anywhere specific you would like me to watch over you?”

Twilight blushed and looked away, smiling shyly. I stood there confused until Twilight scooted to one side of the bed, leaving enough room on the other side for…

Just than I realized what she meant and I blushed so hard I could feel the heat coming off my face. I must have looked pretty silly also because she giggled a bit when she looked back at me. I tried to think logically about Twilight's request, but instead I found myself struggling with another feeling, one I was unfamiliar with. Unable to think rationally as I normally did, I stood there dumbstruck, unable to a come to a decision. Thankfully, Twilight could tell I was having trouble thinking straight and in between giggles said, “Come on silly. We’re just going to cuddle.”

This statement from her only served to strengthen the strange feeling that was overriding my usually clear thoughts. As this feeling finally managed to win over my other senses, I finally managed to speak. "S-sure, if it makes you feel safer." I was unsure why I said that, or why I stuttered, but I wasn't going to go back on what I said. I walked over to the know open side of the bed and crawled under the covers. As I got comfortable, Twilight used her magic to close the curtain across the car, making our half of the room nearly pitch black. Once it was dark, Twilight moved next to me and nuzzled her head underneath mine.

Good thing it was dark because if I wasn’t red in the face before, I definitely was now.

I fell asleep that night listening to not only the sound of the train riding over the rails, but also the heartbeat of the princess I had promised to protect.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The next morning I woke up early and slipped back to the car for the royal guards without waking anyone. My logical thinking had finally taken control once again, and I knew I couldn't risk getting caught by FeatherQuill, our tour director. If she had caught us like that, her first thought would have been that we had spent the night "riding the rails." After that, she would have freaked out and gotten half the train to come running, which would have created a huge scene that Twilight did not need. Besides, she had a big day ahead of her and I only would have gotten in the way of any preparations.

Once in my room, I extended my magic out to the lock on my chest and began to pick it open. At the beginning of the tour I had lost the key to it, however as a result the chest actually became more secure, because instead of having a key to the chest, the only way someone could get to the contents of it was if they knew how to pick locks. I felt the dark blue magic field slowly wrap around each tumbler and push it into place. Once the final tumbler was set, I opened the lid and levitated out what was inside.

I placed the small bundle that held my armor on the bed and began to magically pick up each piece and place them on my body. The armor was similar in make to those the royal guards wore, except instead of being colored gold, the plates varied between dark blue and purple. Along with the armor plating came a cloak and hood of similar colors that attached to my shoulder plates. I had always enjoyed wearing the dark-colored hooded armor as it had a way of naturally repelling those who would normally want to converse with me, and such distractions were not needed while being a bodyguard.

Once the cloak had clicked into place, I pulled the hood over my head and than picked up the last part of my uniform. With the sword floating in front of me in its sheath, I began inspecting it as I usually do. Once I was done with that I pulled the curved blade out and checked it as well. Just like every other time, the blade was spotless. A ritual inspection such as this would make more sense if I actually used my sword, but it never hurt to make sure. I slid the blade back into the sheath and than attached the sheath to its place on my right side.

As I headed for the door, I glanced toward my mirror, the only other thing in my room. I definitely looked menacing in this armor. I questioned why Celestia would have chosen these colors for the armor of a royal bodyguard, but I didn't give it so much as a second thought and continued out of my room.

I walked back to Twilight's car, where I took my position outside of her door. Looking around, I watched the other royal guards on the car begin to wake up and get ready. Although I was Twilight's personal bodyguard, we had brought a whole squad of guards along on the tour. The only reason my room wasn't taken up by another royal guard was because the stallion's wife had just given birth to a child and he didn't want to leave her alone with the child for a year. I suppose Twilight saw this as an opportunity to bring some friendly company on the tour and asked me to come along.

As the white pegasi dashed about preparing for work, I saw a few glance at me. You would think that out of all the ponies in Equestria to not be afraid of the stallion in the dark cloak it would be the royal guard, but unfortunately the opposite was true. The only people that seemed willing to talk to me on this tour while I was in uniform was FeatherQuill and Twilight.

Suddenly the sound of rapid wing flapping and yelling came from the opposite side of the car and interrupted my thoughts. FeatherQuill dashed through the door and ran clumsily toward me. As she made her way to my side of the car, she bumped into nearly everything she could. Guards, armor pieces, she even bumped into one of the light fixture on the roof when she tried to fly over it all. Through out all of this, she was muttering to herself "oh no, oh no, oh no!"

Finally the clumsy pegasus was in front of me, except she landed on her snout. Sighing silently to myself, I leaned down and helped her on her hooves and made sure she hadn't hurt herself. "You okay there FeatherQui-"

"Don't worry about me!" she interrupted "Is the princess ready? What about the guards? Did you make sure nothing happened to her last night? We are so close to Canterlot I can practically smell Donut Joe's baked goods from here and we need to be prepared when we see Celestia!!!"

As she stopped to take a breath, I quickly interjected. "First off, I don't know if the princess is ready. Second, I'm not the guard's commanding officer, I'm more like a hired mercenary, so their progress with preparations is completely unknown to me. And third, I am absolutely sure that nothing happened to her last night."

Thankfully she didn't ask how I knew that

My answers didn't seem to calm her though, as she just had more questions. "What about you? Is your armor polished? Did you sharpen your sword? What abo-"

"HEY!!!!" I interrupted before she could drive me to insanity. "Would you relax? If you must know, Princess Celestia visited Ponyville awhile back, and I can tell you now she isn't going to be that uptight." That seemed to calm her a bit, but only enough to slow her barrage of questions.

"Oooooh where is Princess Twilight? What if she overslept?" she began to chew on her hoof.

"How about this?" I said calmly "I'll check on the princess while you go find Spike and make sure he is ready."

The suggestion seemed to make her even more frantic as she dashed back the way she came. "Oh no! I forgot about Spike! I need to go find him and make sure his scales are clean and that his breath..."

I felt a small amount of regret for putting Spike in that position, but I needed to get FeatherQuill away from me at least until we got to Canterlot and she saw there was nothing to worry about. I turned to knock on Twilight's door, but just as I rose my hoof the door opened.

Twilight looked just as she did the day of her coronation, with the gown, hair and everything. The only visible evidence that it had been a year since that historic event was that the gown's tail was now shorter due to her growing taller since than. Even with the slight difference, it was still a perfect fit on her.

"Hello, you in there Sleight?"

I suddenly realized that I had been staring at her dumbfounded. Quickly shaking off my daze, I responded quickly. "Oh, yeah, sorry, I was just... thinking." Twilight giggled at my strange response, making me wonder why I had stood there transfixed for so long. Was something wrong with me?

She looked up at me and said "I missed you this morning." Obviously she was looking for an answer as to my sneaking out. With that strange feeling returning, I felt the need to not give her my answer so bluntly.

In what I believed to be an apologetic tone, I told her the truth. "Sorry about that, but imagine if FeatherQuill had seen us like that. She is already so stressed about going to Canterlot, she doesn't need to be more worried than she already is."

"I suppose you're right." I couldn't tell if she meant it or not, but before my strange emotion could convince me to say something, we heard Spike cry out through the door. Down the hall came Spike as he ran on all fours towards us. Even though he had nearly doubled in size since last year, it had not hindered his ability to move. Before we knew it he had made it to us and hidden between Twilight's legs.

Twilight bent her neck down to speak to him. "Spike, what's wrong? You know you are getting a little big to be hiding like this."

"But Twilight, she is trying to buff my scales with something that smells like lemons!"

Twilight put a hoof to her face and sighed. By now, Spike was considered an adolescent dragon so behavior such as this was becoming ridiculous. With no dragons for Spike to look up to though it would be difficult for him to grow up right.

Suddenly FeatherQuill ran in with a brush covered with soap in her mouth. Though she couldn't talk quite right, she still managed to say "Spike, get back here!" With the guards all gone to their posts, she had room to charge down the hall at Spike. She was clearly determined to get him clean for the event in Canterlot, but Spike wasn't going to make it easy for her.

"You'll never take me alive!' he yelled as he jumped out from underneath Twilight's legs and landed on my head. Before I could regain my balance, the dragon leapt off and stuck his claws into the ceiling and made his way past FeatherQuill and out the door. The force of his leap caused to me to land on my armored side.

FeatherQuill let out a battle cry: "You'll never escape!" and before I could stand back up she had left the train car in hot pursuit.

Twilight walked up next to me. "Oh my, are you alright?" I nodded in response, still feeling a twang of pain in my side from the armor hitting my ribs. Twilight looked down the hall at the door. "I should teach that dragon some manners now that he's gotten so big."

"All in due time Twilight. Right now you just have to worry about your meeting with Princess Celestia."

Without warning, Twilight snuggled up against me. "And all you have to worry about is protecting me." I felt my face go aflame once again.

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Well, it wouldn't be a princess' visit to a city without a parade, right?

Apparently we weren't told that to get to the castle, we would have to parade there. I guess we should have assumed we would have to do something like this considering the last time we were here was the coronation. That and the fact FeatherQuill had been in such a panicked state before, she probably forgot to tell us. Although we were sure whatever Celestia had to tell us was more important than a parade, we begrudgingly accepted our fate and Twilight climbed into the carriage. As two royal guards pulled the carriage slowly down the road, I trotted along side it examining the crowd for threats just as I had done in the other cities we had visited.

The crowds cheered at the sight of the Princess of Friendship. Children sat on their parent's shoulders to get a better look, photographers took pictures, and Twilight waved to all the ponies she hadn't seen in a year. Who could have guessed that the presence of one mare could make all these people so happy? It certainly didn't make sense to me.

Just as I was thinking of letting my guard down and enjoying the parade, I suddenly heard a large bang come from the other side of the carriage. Acting on instinct, I leapt on top of the carriage and pulled my blade from its sheath with my mouth. As I landed, I quickly looked for the source of the loud noise, determined to strike down whatever the threat was.

What I saw was not what I had intended.

Turns out the loud bang had come from a young colt's homemade fireworks. He had set them off hoping to impress the princess. The last thing he had expected to happen was for a stallion in dark armor to jump up on the carriage ready to strike. For a second, the colt looked like he was about to cry at the sight of me, but than suddenly his mother started pointing at his flank in excitement. He turned to look and found a cutie mark of a firework rocket on his flank. His expression of fear turned into excitement as the little guy started jumping around joyfully.

Now that I was sure that nothing was threatening the princess' safety, I sheathed my blade and stepped down. After a brief pause, the parade continued as normal with me trotting alongside the carriage. I glanced back at the small colt as he was showing off his cutie mark to his friends. I personally never understood why getting one's cutie mark was so special, but watching the foal reminded me of the day I had gotten my own cutie mark.

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It started back at my school in Fillydelphia. I had been a shy kid and had few friends, but I wasn't sad. I had found ways of entertaining myself without the need for others so I was fine with not knowing anyone. Our school was placed near a cliff for some reason, however they had built a fence around the playground to keep us from getting too close to the edge and the teacher was always watching over us during recess.

One day while we were out playing, the teacher was stung by a bee and had to go back inside to treat it. Of course, some of the more adventurous kids took this as a chance to climb under the fence and play outside the playground. At first, I wasn't interested at all in their escape. I was much more interested in the book I was reading, but suddenly I heard some screaming coming from over the fence. To this day I'm not sure what drove me to go try and help those kids who I had never even talked to before, but I did.

Once on the other side of the fence, I ran toward the screaming until I found two of the kids who had escaped. They were standing at the edge of a cliff looking over the edge and yelling at something below. I walked up and looked at what they were screaming at and found the third of their group hanging by a branch sticking out of the cliff. I could tell that the branch wasn't going to hold for long so I told one of the colt's up on the cliff with me to run and get the teacher.

As he ran off toward the school, I began to search the cliff for anything I could use to get down to her. I managed to see a few small perches that I could jump on if I landed on them right. Without thinking, I began to climb down until I was standing next to the filly as she hanged on for dear life. Just as I was about to try and reach out for one of her hooves, the branch finally gave when and she began to fall.

Yet again acting on instinct, I grabbed her with magic and levitated her into a small hole in the cliff wall only slightly bigger than the filly was. I was so tired after exerting myself I nearly fell off the ledge I was standing on. Once I had sat down, the filly I had saved called out to me.

"How are we going to get back up the cliff?" she asked. It was clear she was too shaken up to climb up herself.

Before I talked to her, I tried to make sure I sounded more confident than I actually was."We're just going to have to stay here until Ms. Buttercup gets here. I don't have the strength to levitate you all the way up." She nodded in response, not able to complain since the hole I had placed her in was too small for her to move much.

Once Ms. Buttercup made it to the cliff, she used her magic to lift the two of use carefully back on top of the cliff. Just as we both landed, the colt who had run off to get help looked at me startled. "He-hey! You got your cutie mark!" he exclaimed. Everyone, including myself, turned to look at my flank. Just like the colt had said, there was my cutie mark, a target with three daggers sticking out of the center.

When I saw my cutie mark, at first I was confused. "What does a target and daggers have to do with saving someone from a cliff?" I asked Ms. Buttercup. She herself looked puzzled about it, but before she could answer, the filly I rescued spoke up.

"Well, you landed on those rocks perfectly, and than managed to pick me up and place me exactly in a small hole. Maybe your talent is being exact!" I thought about it for a bit and realized she was right. My talent was being able to do things accurately!

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My talent had never been anything that interesting. I had been forced to make something from my talent, becoming deft in multiple things. Acrobatics, lock-picking, even swordplay required accuracy, which made learning these things much easier for me than most ponies, but I wasn't as good as a pony who's talent was specifically one of those things.

Realizing I had dozed off, I cleared my head and looked up to see the carriage had gotten ahead of me. Scolding myself for my day-dreaming, I dashed ahead to catch up.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

As we passed through the wall that surrounded the castle, the large metal gate closed behind us. I looked up at the castle in awe, the towers reaching up to touch the sky. Two stairways with grand hoofrails began at the ground and than curved outward before meeting in front of the large doors to the castle. The doors were made of a thick wood that had been engraved with various markings that I assumed were in some ancient language

The carriage pulled into the courtyard and turned so that door faced the castle. As it came to a stop, I wrapped my magic around the handle and opened it for Twilight. As she stepped out she looked to me with a smile. A felt my thoughts become clouded, but I was quickly saved by the sound of large doors creaking open. Both Twilight and I looked in the direction of the noise to see the ornamented doors of the castle slowly opening. Just as the doors finished opening, out walked the unopposed ruler of Equestria herself.

Princess Celestia looked just the same as she had all those years ago when she had visited Ponyville with her beloved pheonix. Her rainbow colored mane flowed as if wind was blowing through it, but as far as I could tell there was none. Twilight, excited to see the alicorn that was once her mentor, ran up the stairs to meet her. Feeling no need to rush, I slowly trotted my way up the stairs after her. As I reached the top, I heard the two greeting each other.

"Twilight, I haven't seen you since the coronation. How was your tour of Equestria?" Celestia said with the voice of a caring mother.

"It was amazing, but also very tiring. Heading back to Ponyville has been the only thing on my mind for the past few months."

"Well, I'll make sure you have the first train ride back home once we have our discussion." Celestia turned her head toward me as I approached the two figures of royalty. Quickly remembering my manners, I bowed my head and knelt on one knee in respect for the princess of the sun. After what seemed to be an unusual pause, she asked me to rise. When I looked back up her face had changed from one of happiness to one of concern.

"Twilight, I had nearly forgotten about your friend Sleight-of-Hoof. Did you expect some trouble here in Canterlot?"

"Of course not, but I figured it wouldn't be worth sending him back to Ponyville just yet. Besides, we assumed that the rest of our friends would be here for whatever the emergency was." What she said made no sense. It wouldn't have been any trouble to put me on a train to Ponyville back in Saddle Arabia, and although I did know Twilight's friends, it wouldn't have been a huge deal if I had not been here to meet them. Did her reason for not sending me home have something to do with last night?

Celestia stood there for a moment in what appeared to be deep thought before finally returning to her warm smile. "But of course! Unfortunately the other element bearers won't be able to make it here until tomorrow morning, so until than you and Sleight are welcome to stay within my castle." Celestia turned and headed back into the castle, beckoning us to follow her.

The inside of the castle was more amazing than the outside. The hall we entered was made of smooth marble and had beautiful paintings lining the walls. Along the floor was a carpet made of red yarn embroidered with yellow that extended the length of the hall. Being from the rural part of Fillydelphia, I had not seen such expensive decorations until the tour, and even after a year of seeing Equestria's finest, none of it compared to the castle of the ruling sisters.

Remembering that Equestria was ruled by not just Celestia, I looked around for any signs of the Princess Luna as we walked down the halls of the castle. After we had walked for a good ten minutes and we had still seen no sight of Luna, I decided to pop the question as politely as I could.

"Excuse me, your highness, but I haven't your sister since we entered the castle. Might I ask where she is?"

We stopped in front of a set of double doors which I assumed to be our destination after the long walk. Celestia sighed and turned to look at us, her eyes showing great sorrow.

"I was actually wondering this myself Celestia." Twilight revealed. "Has something happened in the past year?"

As Celestia looked down at the floor, I realized that whatever the answer was must have been weighing down on her heart. "It is true." she said slowly. "Something has happened to my sister. This is actually the reason I called you here so urgently." She turned toward the doors and her horn began to glow a beautiful gold color. The doors were enwrapped in the same hue and slowly slid open. "Come, I will explain what happened in the library."

We stepped through the doors into a large open library. It was obvious the library had been built to accommodate unicorns as the shelves were much too tall to allow for earth ponies to gain access to the books. Above us hung a large chandelier in the shape of some celestial body with rings around it, though I couldn't remember the name of it. It let off a light magical glow that helped keep the room lit along with the torch sconces that were attached to the four pillars in the room. In the center of the room was a large round table with a few chairs surrounding it.

Once we had all walked inside, Celestia closed the doors behind us. "I haven't allowed for the news of my sister to get out yet because I was worried about how the citizens of Equestria would take it, but I need help her somehow." She walked over to the far end of the table and sat in a chair. "I fear that the plan I have may only temporarily fix the issue, but it will give us time to figure out a better solution."

Twilight walked up and took a seat at the table as well. "So what did happen to Luna? Is she alright?"

As I walked over to stand next to Twilight, Celestia took a breath to begin speaking. "Oh yes, physically she is fine. It is her mental health that I am worried about. You see, she seems to have regressed back into Nightmare Moon."

Twilight looked confused. "But how, I thought the Elements of Harmony cured her of the darkness she had?"

"Yes, I believed that as well, but after the coronation she began to show signs just like the first time all those years ago. However, it was only until a few months ago that she finally turned back into that monster."

"Sorry to interrupt" I spoke "but if Luna has been Nightmare Moon for the past few months, than why has the rotation of the sun and moon not changed. I thought it was her goal to bring eternal night to the world."

For a second, Celestia paused as if having to think about the question, than responded gently. "Yes, that is true. However, this time I knew what to look for so just before she became Nightmare Moon, I took control of the moon from her so that the balance would not be altered." I supposed that made sense. After all, Celestia had kept the rotation of the sun and moon going for a thousand years after she had sealed her sister in the moon. She surely could have kept it going for the past few months.

"I'm worried what else she might do though, and that is why I need you, Twilight, and your friends to use the elements on her just as you did before."

It was Twilight's turn to ask questions. "But if she turned back into Nightmare Moon even after being cured by the elements, than why do it again?"

"Like I said before, this solution will only be temporary. Once she has returned to being Luna, we can work toward finding a more permanent solution."

After a few moments of silence, I spoke up again. "So where is Nightmare Moon? Isn't that kind of important?"

Celestia looked down at the table, looking more sad than I ever thought the sun goddess could look. "I'm... not sure. After she changed she flew off before I could stop her. She could be anywhere in Equestria by now." It was clear she blamed herself heavily for having lost her sister.

Twilight put both hooves down on the table. "Don't worry Celestia, once the others are here, we'll find Luna and bring her back."

Celestia looked back up at Twilight, still looking sad but now with a smile on her face. "Thank you, Twilight"

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We went back down to the courtyard to gather a few things from the train, including picking up Spike and seeing FeatherQuill off. Even though Celestia had offered her a room in the castle, she had family in the city and wanted to see them. Spike was glad to know she wouldn't be around to clean him anymore as he still had the lingering scent of fruit on him.

Both Twilight and I were given separate rooms in the castle across the hall from each other. Each was furnished just as beautifully as the rest of the castle, with a large bed similar to the one Twilight had back on the train, as well as a dresser, an armoire, and a desk with an ink bottle and quill. The carpet was of similar color to the one from the entrance hall and was shaped to fit the room. Connected to each room was its own bathroom with soaps and more mane care products that I cared to know about.

Seeing as I had some time to relax, I pulled off my cloak and folded it up. I than pulled open the armoire and began taking apart my armor piece by piece, reassembling it in the armoire. Once the last plate had left my body, I grabbed my cloak and sword and placed them within the armoire below the now empty armor. As I closed the wood doors, I reached into the lock and pulled the tumblers out of their natural place, locking the door.

Now free from the uncomfortable uniform, I took a second to stretch before going across the hall to check on Twilight. As I stepped into the room, I was nearly struck in the head by a floating dress. Apparently being the element of magic had its perks, as I had walked in on Twilight doing nearly a hundred different things at once with her magic while Spike tried to stay out of the way on the bed. Dresses floated lightly out of suitcases, folded themselves in mid air, than landed softly inside the dresser. Mane products and various other beauty amenities floated into the bathroom and organized themselves. A small bed for Spike was being made in a basket from a few sheets and a pillow.

The entire scene was organized madness, and I just stood in the awe as Twilight finished with removing her own dress and folding it away in the dresser. Just than she turned and noticed me standing in the doorway and blushed, clearly not wanting me to have seen her showing off her talent in such a way.

Now that I was sure nothing was wrong, I turned to return to my own room. As I placed a hoof on the door, Twilight spoke to get my attention.

"Oh Sleight, I was wondering if you would like to go get something to eat in the city with Spike and me?" even this simple invitation caused my mind to become cloudy. Fighting back against it, I told myself that continuing to be in Twilight's presence would only contribute to my sick mind. However, I was her bodyguard and I had to make sure she was safe.

Deciding that it would be better to not wear my dark armor, I turned to Twilight. "Alright, I could use some food."

"Great!" Twilight replied. "Come on Spike, let's go."

With the promise of possible food, Spike jumped up excitedly. "All right! Can we find a place that has gemstones?"

"I'm not sure that we'll find anyplace that serves dragons, but we can stop by Joe's Donut Shop instead. How does that sound?"

Spike licked his lips. "Mmm, donuts. Alright, lets go!"

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After eating at a restaurant that surprisingly had some gemstones for Spike, we returned to the castle as the sun set. Spike had fallen asleep from a full stomach and was riding on my back. As we walked through the halls of the castle, we talked about our earlier conversation with Celestia and what we were going to do once the others showed up.

"You don't need me to come along for this venture." I argued. "From what you've told me, you girls can take care of yourselves pretty well. I'll just get in the way."

"That's not true. Besides, I haven't the foggiest idea on where to start looking and we could use someone with your skills."

"I'm sure you can figure it out, you're a smart mare." I wasn't sure why Twilight wanted me to come along so badly, but I was getting pretty annoyed by the constant pestering.

I watched as Twilight struggled to think of another logical answer as to why I should join in on the quest. She finally seemed to give up and grabbed my hoof forcing me to stop. As she spoke, her face turned red against her purple fur. "Alright, what if I wanted you to come along just because I wanted you around. Would you come along than?"

This answer was not what I had expected, and it caused my thoughts to become even more clouded than before. Every sensible thought I had was consumed by an overwhelming urge to accept her offer. Finally I gave in to this infection.

"Alright, alright. I will come with you to save Princess Luna." Twilight smiled, thankful for my extended company.

Feeling the cloud begin to lift from my thoughts, I quickly made a reason to return to our rooms. "We should get Spike in bed, he's starting to fidget in his sleep."

"Ya, you're right." We turned the corner and entered the guest wing. As we headed toward our rooms at the end of the hall, I noticed that a note had been tacked to Twilight's door. It had been folded in thirds and on the outside it said "For Twilight."

"I wonder what this is?" Twilight thought out loud as we approached her door.

"I dunno, you go ahead and check it while I get Spike in his bed." As Twilight pulled the note from the door, I opened it and levitated the sleeping dragon off my back and into his bed. As I tucked him under his blanket, Twilight began reading the note aloud.

"'Dear Twilight, meet me in the Hall of the Elements, signed, A Friend' that's all it says."

"Strange, I wonder if maybe one of the guards put it there."

"I don't know, but I feel like this might have something to do with Luna. We should check it out."

"Alright, but let me get my armor and sword. If this turns out to be some kind of trap set by Nightmare Moon, I want to be ready." Not wanting to waste time, I reached out with my magic and opened not only the door to my room, but also the armoire. With practiced precision, I picked up my armor, pulling it apart in mid-air and placing each plate on my body with no delay between each part. Within a few seconds I had assembled the armor on my body and placed my cloak and sword into their places.

Twilight watched the sudden armor assembly with awe. "Wow, and I thought I was good with magic." Not wanting for my thoughts to become clouded again, I shrugged off her compliment and began heading down the hall.

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I entered the Hall of the Elements, my eyes scanning the room for anything out of the ordinary. The hall only had the one entrance we had used. At the other end of the hall was the door where the Elements of Harmony were once held before Celestia gave them over to Twilight. The door still stood, locked by the magic seal that only Celestia herself could unlock. Along the walls were various stain glass windows, each representing a special event in Equestria's history.

After I was sure the room was empty, I called to Twilight. "All clear." Twilight trotted in looking around for whoever had left the note.

"This makes no sense, the note said to meet here. Perhaps they left?"

"That's a possibility. We were out for a long time." Just as I began to let my guard down, I heard something come from outside the hall. It sounded as if 5 or 6 guards were coming down the hall, but that didn't make sense as no guard patrol was that large.

"Something's coming" I muttered. I turned toward the door and knelt down, ready to leap in case what came through the door was a threat. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck start to rise as my body began to pump adrenaline. I began to speculate what was coming and thought about how I would fight each enemy.

What came around the corner was something I never expected.

Into the Hall of the Elements walked five pegasi with gold fur that seemed to glow like the sun. Their manes looked like fire as they moved. The armor and helmets they wore were a blinding white and attached to each side was a crossbow made of the same metal which forced their wings to stay extended. The trigger for the weapons was located on a bar in front of each pegasi's muzzle. But the strangest part of these warriors was their eyes, which were completely empty.

Behind the pegasi walked in a being who I nearly mistook for Celestia. It was clearly an alicorn, and it was just as tall as her, but other than its white fur, the similarities ended there. Around its neck it had a cloak with a ornamental sun on it. Its mane and tail were of similar color to that of its pegasi counterparts, and just like them, had empty, soulless eyes that sent a shiver down my spine just looking at them.

In my gawking, I almost didn't notice the alicorn's horn light up. As she waved it across the pegasi, each of their crossbows were loaded with an arrow made of pure light. Before I knew it, ten arrows were trained at Twilight and I.

Just as each one bit down on the trigger for their weapons, I quickly reached out with my magic and lifted Twilight up just as I had did with a filly all those years ago. Once she was airborne and leapt up myself, dodging the barrage. I quickly let Twilight back down as I landed on all four hooves and drew my blade with a quick spell. Not wanting to give them the chance to reload, I charged at the strange enemies.

I closed the distance between us in two seconds and wasted no time. I first lowered my blade and sunk it into the throat of the center pegasus. Without halting I grabbed the blade handle in my mouth and swung around, slashing the leg of its companion to my left. As it fell from the wounded leg, I brought my sword into its back and pierced its heart. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the horn of the alicorn glow yet again, this time much more brighter. Assuming the worst, I pulled my sword out and leapt back as a blast of energy passed under me. Landing back on the ground, I prepared for another attack, but I was stopped by what I saw.

The two pegasi I had struck down moments ago were getting back up! I watched as their wounds that would kill any other pony mend themselves at an unnatural rate. No blood had even been spilled from the wounds. Once they were standing once again, the alicorn swept her horn over them and they fired. Still shook up by what I had just seen, I dodged too late and two arrows grazed my neck, ripping my cloak off. Small amounts of blood leaked from the wounds.

As they prepared to fire again, I decided to choose a different tactic. As the next volley of arrows came, I leapt toward the pegasi, this time intending to cause more serious wounds in hopes that there was a limit to their regeneration. I landed in front of the same monster I had stabbed in the heart and swung my blade through its neck, severing the head from its body. Out of the corner of my eye I watched his friend on the far left leap toward me, armored hooves out in front of him. I quickly countered his attack by throwing my blade into his skull, landing between the eyes. The force of my throw stopped him in mid-air.

This time the alicorn instead of firing a blast reloaded the crossbows of those still standing. They fired at point blank range, too close for even my acrobatics to dodge. Three arrows met their mark, piercing my armor and cutting into my right side. I began to jump back once again when suddenly something struck the left side of my face, cutting just above my eye.

Using the momentum of the sudden blow, I rolled back and landed on my hooves, ready to fight the new enemy. All I found though was a pegasus with a hole in its head holding my sword in its mouth. I stood there in shock as not only the wound of this monster closed up , but also as the other pegasus got up, its head still slowly reconnecting itself with its body.

Taking a moment to look at my wounds, I noticed that the arrows that were once in my side were now gone, allowing for a profuse amount of blood to come pouring out. As I looked for a way to close the wounds, my left eye was suddenly blocked by a red curtain as the gash on my face began to bleed as well.

Realizing that there was no fighting these things, I quickly turned and yelled to Twilight who had taken cover near the back of the hall. "You need to get out of here! I'll try to distract them while you head for the door!"

Clearly as shook up by the strange ponies as I was, it took her a second to respond. "But what about you? You can't fight these things!"

"I know I can't, but it's obvious that you are the one they want. If you escape, they fail and you can figure out what is going on!" Although she very clearly wanted to argue more about sacrificing myself, she couldn't argue with my logic. She only nodded in response.

"Alright." I tried to sound as calm as possible. "When I attack, you fly past them and get the royal guards." Before I turned back around, I heard the twang of crossbows going off and leapt up on instinct, missing yet another barrage by a mere inch. Turning in mid air, I landed facing my attackers and charged while they attempted to reload. Using my forehooves, I landed a few hits on one of them and then quickly bucked its companion in the neck. Although I felt bones crack, I knew it was futile to believe that was all it took.

Just as I was about to continue, I heard a noise echo through the hall. I recognized what it was: Twilight screaming. I forgot about the fight and turned to see that the alicorn had conjured up some kind of binds around Twilight's horn, wings, and legs. In a desperate attempt to try and stop the alicorn, I leapt forward, forgetting the magical blast that had missed me only a minute ago. The alicorn quickly turned and charged another blast, this time though I was unable to dodge it. I took the full force of the blow as it rocketed my body back into one of the stained glass windows that lined the walls. I than fell in front of the now cracked glass, thankful that the window had not allowed me to fall through and to the ground far below.

I was now a bleeding, beaten mess. The magic attack had struck me clean in the head, causing the room around me to spin and my ears to ring. A few of my ribs had broken from hitting the window. The wounds I had received before had now bled plenty. Through it all though, I told myself to get up, to save Twilight. My body refused, too weak to even move. I heard Twilight scream something to me. Whatever it was I couldn't tell, but it didn't matter. I began to feel the same feeling from before, only this time instead of clouding my thoughts, it gave me energy I did not know I had.

Out of my one good eye I saw the pegasi move in front of me in an arc. The alicorn than moved behind them and waved its horn. Once again, arrows filled the creatures' weapons as I realized they intended to fire upon me and finish me off. I had accepted my own death however, and now my only goal was to save Twilight. Using the strange reserve of energy, I finally managed to get my hooves underneath me and I began to stand slowly. My legs shook, my mouth tasted of blood, I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness, but I wasn't going to stop. Every effort on my part was returned with an unimaginable amount of pain.

Just as I fully extended each leg, I felt the arrows hit my body. The force of the firing squad threw me back, this time with enough force to break the window. As I felt vertigo take me, time seemed to slow down. I felt my memories suddenly flash before me. I watched myself as a filly go to school, not caring to socialize with the others. The memory of the day I got my cutie mark came next, as I watched myself save the little filly, much unlike the present.

My more adult years came next as I watched myself leave Fillydelphia and headed out looking for work. Arriving in Ponyville, I found a job and a good home. All the ponies had been friendly despite my anti-social disposition. Life was simple and nice. My next few flashbacks were of the many troubles that seemed to plague Ponyville over the past few years, eventually leading up to Twilight's coronation and her offer for me to join her as her guard.

Seeing my memories of the tour go by so quickly made me realize that Twilight had been one of the first ponies I every really talked to. All the little moments we had on the train ran before me, each one bringing with it that unexplainable feeling. Finally it came to the night Twilight and I had spent together. The smell of her mane, the rhythm of her heart, the soft tough of her fur against my own. It felt like forever before that memory ended, leaving me feeling oddly empty inside. As the memories of the past day ended, I realized that my death was assured. If the fall did not kill me, than my wounds surely would. With this realization came another harsh truth.

I had failed.

As I began to close my eyes, finally giving into the unconsciousness my body so desperately wanted, I looked to the moon. Just before my world became darkness, I thought I saw a silhouette against the moon, but ignored it. It wouldn't matter in a few moments anyway. The wind blew through my blood-soaked mane as I plummeted to the ground below.

The last thing I remember is feeling myself land on something soft, and the sound of wings beating against the night air.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I was dead

At least it felt like death. What I experienced during my time in darkness was everything one would expect if they had died and awoken in Tartarus. When I first saw the darkness begin to part, I rushed toward it, believing that perhaps this was a way back to the land of the living. All I was met with though was torture.

I entered into the Hall of the Elements, from where I was not sure. I was standing at the far end near the sealed door, and before I could question how I had got here, the doors on the opposite side of the room opened. In walked a gray stallion wearing a cloak made of dark blue and purple hues. Underneath the cloak I noticed his mane, a tangled yet short mess of light blue with a dark blue highlight running from his bangs down to where the mane stopped before the base of his neck. He wore armor of a similar color to his cloak and as he walked in to the hall, I couldn't help but feel I knew this stallion. The strange pony walked into the hall slowly scanning the room. Before I could call out to him, he turned toward the door and said "All clear."

In walked Twilight, looking just as she did that night I had failed to protect her. Forgetting that I had just seen her taken away, I began to run toward her, but was stopped by what she said next to the cloaked stallion.

"This makes no sense, the note said to meet here. Perhaps they left?" I felt I had heard those words before, but I wasn't sure where. I looked at the cloaked stallion as they talked and realized that this strange stallion was me! I would have laughed thinking how funny it was I had thought of myself as so strange, but any chance of that was ruined when I realized what was really going on.

In walked the five sun-like pegasi creatures and their fake Celestia, the final piece of evidence to tell me what was happening. I was watching the night I had died. The night I had failed...

I watched in horror as the entire scene played out in front of me, finally ending with watching myself fly out the window. Just as my body left, darkness surrounded me once again, matching the feeling I felt. Just as I thought I had been left to my pain, I looked up to see the darkness part, and once again I was in the Hall of the Elements as my clone walked into the hall on the other side, cloaked in my armor.

The scene played before me an innumerable amount of times. Sometimes I would try to stop what was happening, only to find that running toward the creatures got me nowhere. Other times I tried to cover my eyes and ears in my hooves, but whatever force was making me watch this was not going to let up and whenever I covered my eyes and ears, the darkness I had created would simply part just as before and it would start again.

I don't know what the afterlife is really like, but if it is anything like what I had experienced during that time, than it gave me all the more reason to continue living.

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After darkness covered me yet again, I sat there looking down at my hooves, angry at my failure. But there was another emotion I felt. It was sadness, and I had no idea where it was coming from. Was I sad that my life was over? That wasn't it but before I could ponder it further, I felt the presence of someone else in the dark with me. Looking up I came muzzle to muzzle with Princess Luna.

There she stood, the princess of night herself. Her mane flowed just like her sister's, but the coloring made it look as if it had been part of the night sky itself. Her fur was the color of shadows, except around her moon cutie mark which was instead pitch black. Although shorter than her sister, the once evil tyrant still stood tall over me, looking down at me with a face that showed concern.

At first I brushed it off as another image and looked back down at my hooves, waiting for my personal play to continue once again. After a few seconds though, I felt something physical on my shoulder. Shocked at the sudden touch after not feeling anything but emotional pain for what seemed like days, I looked back up. Luna had placed a hoof on my shoulder, as if to show that in this world of images, she was not amongst them.

Finally finding words once again after so long, I asked the lunar princess a single word. "Why?"

Sighing lightly, Luna took her hoof off my shoulder. "I'm afraid I can't explain everything right now, but know this. What you believe this place to be it is not. You are in a horrible nightmare that I can not awake you from. Unless you wake yourself up soon, all of Equestria may suffer."

"You mean Twilight?" I said shakily.

Princess Luna turned away from me. "There is more to this than just the kidnapping of a princess, but I can't stay here for much longer. You must search your memory for an exit, and once your find it, I will explain everything to you in the physical realm. Until than, farewell Sleight-of-Hoof." With her good bye, she vanished, as if she had been a mirage the entire time.

With Princess Luna gone, the darkness parted and began again. This time I did not shy away though. With renewed spirits, I began to look around the hall, looking for something out of the ordinary that could show the way out of this nightmare. As the battle played out in front of me, it only strengthened my resolve to find the way out so that I could make right what I had failed to do that night.

I searched for about five repeats with no luck. As far as I could tell, the entire room was just the same as the Hall of the Elements. I even tried leaving the room through the door or out the breaking window, but even though my legs moved below me, the room did not. Frustrated, I turned around and walked over to the sealed door. I banged my head against the magical case that once held the most powerful magical objects in Equestria.

Suddenly I realized something. I had WALKED over to the door. Unlike the rest of the room, I was able to actually move here. Looking up at the ancient carvings, I tried to discern why out of the entire room was I allowed to approach this. I searched the door with my eyes, following the intricate carvings, each one meeting at the center where a small hole sat. The door had been built so that only Celestia herself could open it by putting her horn in the slot and charging it with magical energies.

Looking at the lock, I had a random thought. Reaching out to the door with my magic, I found what I had hoped to find. Tumblers. Although I imagine the original door did not have a physical lock, this one had been given quite a complicated one. The puzzle lock required me to not only push the tumblers into their places, but in some cases I had to pull them back out so to make room for another.

Not wanting to make a mistake and break the lock, I worked slowly. My hopes of finally leaving this place rose as each tumbler fit itself into its special place with a satisfying click. As I finally finished the lock, I began to wrap my magic around the door so that I could open it. However, as soon as the last tumbler clicked, the door threw off the field I had placed around it and began to glow. The carvings lit up one by one and pulled away from the center. Behind the door came a blinding light that pulled me in. Before I could react my once dark world was replaced with light.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

My eyes jolted open as I became conscious once again. The first thing I noticed was that I was on a sheet laying on my left side in what looked like an old fortress. The stone had many cracks in it, and where larger cracks opened up plant life had grown in between. Four pillars stood opposite of each other, three of them still standing as if the roof they once held up still existed. At one end stood what appeared to be the entrance, the other a hall that must go deeper into the building. In the center of the room stood a strange pedestal. Five arms branched off from the center of it, each stopping with a cup, as if it had once held an object in each. Although the place seemed abandoned, the lack of debris on the ground suggested that someone had found this fortress after it had crumbled.

The second thing I noticed was the immense amount of pain I was in. I lifted my head to look at my wounds, which only served to bring me more pain. Most of my body had been wrapped up in linen bandages, my left eye blocked by those used to cover the cut just above it. The linen smelled strange, as if someone had taken a variety of Rarity's mane care products, mixed them together, and rubbed them into my wounds.

Taking another look around, I could not see who had brought me here and tended to my wounds. Determined to figure that out, I pulled my hooves underneath me and tried to stand. Each inch I rose, huge amounts of pain throbbed through my body. Just as I was about to stand up straight, my left forehoof slipped and fell back onto my side with a loud thwomp. I groaned in pain, knowing I wouldn't have the energy to try that again for awhile.

Just than, I heard two voices coming from down the hall. I lifted my head once again, struggling to hear. One voice had a strange accent to it, and though I couldn't make out any words, it sounded as if whoever it was rhymed when they spoke. The other voice sounded familiar, as if I had heard it in a dream once.

The two voices stopped just before entering the room I was in. From where I stood, the first pony I saw walk in was not even a pony, but a zebra. She wore a lot of jewelry around her neck, left leg, and on her ears, though all of it was just simple gold. Her mane was done in a mohawk, and on her flank where a cutie mark would normally be was a spiral shape surrounded by small triangles. In a way, it reminded me of the sun.

The second voice belonged to somepony I had seen before. Princess Luna looked just as she had in my dream, only now instead of looking at me concerned, she smiled at me. The two of them walked over to where I laid immobile.

"Hello Sleight" the princess said, welcoming me back to consciousness. "I trust you wasted no time after our conversation?"

I replied with a groan. "How long have I been out?"

"You have not been out very long, only two days unless I'm wrong." rhymed the zebra.

Remembering one of Twilight's stories, I believed I recognized the zebra. "You are Zecora, correct? Twilight mentioned you."

"Ah, the book worm mare remembers me, after becoming one of royalty?" Zecora had come up in multiple of the stories Twilight told me on the train. Once feared by the ponies of Ponyville for looking so strange, she became a friend after Applejack's sister showed everyone that she was normal. Later on, Zecora had cured the same filly of cutie pox and helped Twilight when Trixie had come back with the alicorn amulet.

"I suppose I have you to thank for the strange-smelling bandages?"

"Tis a special concoction that I brewed, to help you heal quick and true."

Although I didn't want to be rude, the rhyming was getting on my nerves. I looked to Princess Luna in an attempt to change the conversation. "So what is going on? Last I heard you had turned back into Nightmare Moon and were plotting to bring darkness to the world."

Luna looked at Zecora, a silent message to leave so we could talk. As the exotic mare walked away, Luna sat down next to me. "I'm afraid that is not true. The only darkness I seek to bring to the world is the natural night."

"But Celestia told me that a few months ago you had changed, and that she was calling Twilight and her friends to Canterlot to help bring you back. Are you telling you didn't send those... things to capture her?"

She turned her head left and right. "No, I'm afraid everything my sister told you was a lie."

Now I was really confused. "Why would she lie to us about you?"

"Because I'm the only one who knows what she is really up to. If what I'm about to tell you were to become public, there would be rioting against her."

I pushed up on my forehooves so that I could sit up. Out of a hundred questions, only one stood out in my mind. "What does your sister want with Twilight?"

"I will show you." She leaned forward as her horn began to glow. As soon as I felt her horn touch my own, the world around me melted away. I felt like my spirit was leaving my body.

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When everything came back into focus, I was back in Canterlot castle, walking down one of the many halls. I tried to stop and look around but my body was not my own. As I walked by a mirror, my head turned to look at my reflection, except it wasn't mine. Instead I saw Princess Luna in the mirror. As I stopped in front of it, both me and the reflection rose a hoof up to our heads to adjust our manes.

I was watching one of Princess Luna's memories! I had heard of such spells before but they were extremely uncommon. Only unicorns with experience in mental spells could accomplish such magic though I should have assumed no less from a princess who could walk into the dreams of sleeping ponies.

After I, or rather the princess, had finished fixing my mane, I continued down the hall and around the corner. At the end of this hall was a door unlike any of the ones I had seen before in the castle. Where most of the doors were made of thick oak, this one was made of metal. A sun had been etched into the door by magic, leaving burns around the edges. In comparison to the rest of the castle, this door seemed out of place.

I walked up to the door and pushed it open with my head slightly to peek through. I felt words in my throat as if I was just about to say something but than I saw what was in the room.

Celestia stood in the room standing before what looked like a pool of shining gold. Around the room, several magic glyphs were etched into the stone, pulsing with orange power as Celestia muttered words in an ancient dialect. The rest of the room was sparsely decorated with a desk and what appeared to be the release for a pulley.

Following the chain from the pulley up to the ceiling, I saw that at the end of it was a mare being held above the pool. She looked as if she had been imprisoned for weeks, and was absolutely terrified of the gold swirling around below her. Just before I was about to say something, Celestia stopped chanting. The glyphs around the room flashed white as she put her hoof on the pulley release. The mare began to beg, pleading for her not to pull the lever. All of her begging appeared to fall on deaf ears as Celestia released the mare into the pool.

As the pony sank beneath the ooze, the white glyphs began to pour their power into the liquid, turning it from gold to a blinding white. Once the last of the energy had reached it, Celestia began to mutter once again. As she spoke, the pool began to move and bend, taking the shape of a pony! As the body formed itself, a mane of fire sprung from the back of its neck, armor began to shape itself around it, and wings sprouted from its back. As it finished taking shape, the goo began to return to its natural color. The strange pegasus opened its empty eyes for the first time.

Before me stood one of the very creatures that had been sent to kidnap Twilight and kill me. Before I could truly take in what I had just seen, I stormed into the room.

"Sister! What is this?" myself/Luna accused.

Celestia turned her head to look at her sister. The warm feeling I once got when I saw the sun princess would never return after how I saw her during this memory. She had dark rings below her eyes as if she hadn't slept in days. Her mane, instead of flowing softly, had become frazzled and no longer moved naturally like before. But what disturbed me the most was the look she had in her eyes, as if she had gone completely insane.

Celestia spoke with a smile in the same motherly tone that she spoke in the day Twilight and I met her, but with her crazed appearance it only served to make her appear even more insane. "Oh, this? Why it is the answer to our problem, my dear sister."

"What have you done to that poor mare? What is all this? Answer me Celestia!"

The princess stood there for a moment, simply smiling. "I've found out how we can finally assure that Equestria is safe!"

I took another step into the room. "What do you mean?"

"Think about it! Nightmare Moon, Discord, the changelings, even Sombra! I could do nothing about any of them!" Despite talking about how she had failed, she continued to smile. "I was forced to send Twilight to fight these battles, and each one was won by mere chance. But now," she looked toward the gold creature "now I have found a way to protect Equestria without the need for the Elements of Harmony!

"After months of searching through ancient tomes I have figured out how to create sun pegasi! With each filled with my own power, they will be unstoppable! Nothing will ever threaten Equestria ever again!"

I spoke in a calm tone, perhaps hoping to bring Celestia back to sanity. "But at what cost sister? Sacrificing the very ponies you seek to protect? We will find another way to protect Equestria, but this magic is unnatural!"

Celestia turned back toward me, her crazed happiness replaced with insane rage. "I knew you wouldn't understand this Luna! You have always been my opposite! The sun and the moon will never see eye to eye!"

Still speaking low, or maybe it just seemed so by comparison, I spoke again. "Celestia, if you continue down this path, I will have no choice but to strike you down!"

Celestia laughed insanely at this declaration of war. When she finally calmed down, she spoke "Oh, but you will be quite busy I'm afraid!" Laughing some more, Celestia horn began to glow dark purple, a color different from the gold she normally had. As her horn glowed, a surge of energy surrounded me as a glyph on the floor activated below me. I suddenly began to feel weak as I felt what seemed to be a tremendous burden be placed on me.

When the spell finally ended, I looked back up weakly at the crazed princess. "What... have you... done?"

"I've forced control of the sun onto you! Now with you holding both celestial bodies, I am free to use my full power!" As she said this, her horn began to charge with multiple layers of the same dark magic, preparing to cast a powerful spell upon me. Just before she was about to release all this power on me, I felt a smirk come across my face.

"I don't think so." As I said these words, I felt my own magical power cover my entire body and before I knew it I was no longer in the dark room with the crazed alicorn, but in the very same fortress I was in now.

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As the memory ended, I felt my mind snap back into my body. My stomach did not enjoy the sensation though and I turned to throw up on the stone floor.

"I apologize, I had forgotten that the feeling of entering another ponies memories can be disorienting at first, but you had to see what I had to truly understand the situation."

Wiping my muzzle of stomach bile, I turned to address the princess. "No... no it's fine. You did what you had to. I'm glad you did to be honest. It's just... when Twilight and I were there, she seemed so normal. How could I have missed... that?"

"My sister seems to be quite the actor." She was looking down at the floor, clearly saddened by what we had both just relived. "The memory you saw happened about three months ago. I knew that she could quite easily convince anypony who asked that I had simply reverted to Nightmare Moon so I did not return without being prepared. However, before I was able to enter the castle and tell the guards of my sister, I saw you fighting Celestia's sun pegasi through the window."

As Luna mentioned it, my feelings of anger and sadness rose up again. I looked down at the floor, gritting my teeth in an attempt to not let my emotions get the better of me.

Luna spoke to me in a calm voice. "It is alright. I saw your nightmare, remember? I know how much that moment must of hurt for you." I had forgotten about the night princess' ability to see dreams. "Anyway" she continued "I was going to help but by the time I could even see what was happening, Twilight had already been captured and you were about to be executed by the sun pegasi. Although I knew ways to defeat them, I was in no condition to fight five of them along with their commander."

"You mean the alicorn?"

"Yes, the... alicorn." She seemed disgusted to even call it the same species as her own. "So I made a choice to rescue you as you fell. Unfortunately, I fear this has made my mission to stop my sister all the more harder."

"What do you mean?" I couldn't think of anyway this could get worse.

"Are you ready to see more?" Clearly she meant to show me another memory.

I quickly checked my stomach to see if it had calmed down. Once I was sure I could take it, I told her. "Yes"

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As the world melted away once again, I found myself in a crowd outside of Canterlot Castle. A large platform had been built in front of the castle with the intention of someone making an announcement to the crowd. I looked down at a puddle I was standing in to see that I did not look like Luna but like some other mare. My fur was a light blue, with a long mane and tail of orange. As I looked back up at the stage, I questioned if all memory bodies felt the same or not as this memory felt just like the last one. Before I could think much more on the topic, a royal guard stepped onto the stage and turned to the audience.

"Ladies and gentlecolts. It is with great honor that I present one of our fair princesses. Princess Celestia!" the crowd roared as their ruler took the stage. After seeing the previous memory of the princess, it felt wrong seeing her in this natural state. She looked to the crowd with concern as she addressed them.

"My little ponies" she began. "I'm afraid I come here today with terrible news. Our newest princess, Twilight Sparkle, has been captured." This sent the whole crowd into a fuss as they muttered with each other, but Celestia did not stop speaking. "Now I know this is troubling, but that is not all. I believe that the culprit may be my own sister, because a few months ago, she turned back into Nightmare Moon and now is hidden somewhere in Equestria plotting to bring darkness to this land."

Now the crowd was truly upset. I few people screamed out while another pony fainted. Unrest spread throughout the crowd. The guards struggled to keep order in the crowd.

"Please everypony!" Celestia begged. "I know these are troubled times, but we must remain calm! There is one more thing you must know about Twilight's kidnapping." The crowd calmed down to listen once again. "Although we are sure Twilight was kidnapped, we have not seen any trace of the stallion who was once her bodyguard, Sleight-of-Hoof. Since he swore to protect the princess no matter what the cost, and since no body has been found, we can only assume that he had something to do with the kidnapping and is still at large."

At this time, a large banner rolled open behind Celestia. It was a giant version of a wanted poster with my face on it!

"If you see this stallion, report to the new sun guards posted in each city and town immediately." As she finished, ten sun pegasi flew down and landed behind her in a perfect line. The people in the crowd cheered at the sight of these monsters as the body I inhabited turned around and left the crowd. As I turned the corner into an alleyway, I felt a surge of energy go through me. As I struggled to call on more magical power, I looked down at my hooves to see that I had changed into Luna. Before I could question what was happening, everything began to blur as I left the memory.

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Snapping back into reality, I felt my stomach rock a bit, but I was nowhere near throwing up this time. As I readjusted myself to my own body, Luna explained what I had just seen.

"That memory was from yesterday. Using my ability to change my shape, I snuck into Canterlot and saw what you just witnessed. My sister must have not been able to find your body after sending her sun pegasi to kill you and assumed you had gotten away somehow. Knowing she couldn't take any chance on you coming out with the truth behind Twilight's kidnapping, she implicated you in the crime and made me the mastermind. We are now the most wanted criminals in Equestria. Even though we know what Celestia is really up to, no one will believe us."

Finally feeling normal again, I looked up to speak. "There is still one thing I don't get. Why would she kidnap Twilight?"

"I believe she wanted to make sure that her sun pegasi were the only true defense in Equestria, and in order to do that, she had to make sure the element of magic was out of the picture. Her entire plan was perfect."

"Almost"

Luna looked at me confused "Excuse me?"

"Her plan was almost perfect. She made one fatal flaw."

"And what is that?"

Making eye contact with the princess, I said only one statement with all of my being. "She didn't succeed in killing me."