Kiss of the Dark Pt.2

Chapter 3

Canterlot general was getting a lot of visitors as of late. The most important, of course, was Princess Celestia. First, because she was in a coma due to near-burnout and a severe drain of her life-force, and second, because she was the freaking Princess.

So, quite a lot of the doctors were quite overjoyed when she woke up with a gasp.

“Twilight! Don’t-“ she paused, looking around the hospital. “Twilight?”

A mare, white with a stethoscope cutie mark, entered her room, and smiled at her. “Princess! Glad to see you’re awake! Perhaps you can tell us what happened to you?” Celestia’s eyebrow rose. “Did my guards not tell you?”

“Sorry, but they just dropped you off and left before we could ask. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life.”

“And let us both hope you never see anything of the like again, My Little Pony. I assume there are rumours?” The Doctor spun a clipboard absentmindedly as she contemplated telling the Princess.

“There have been. I’m not saying whether I believe them or not, but we’ve all heard rumours.”

“Tell me. No, wait. First send for a messenger, long distance, then tell me the rumours.”

The Doctor nodded, before her horn lit up. As if speaking to somepony else, she stated, “Heart Beat, the Princess just woke up. She needs to send a letter somewhere far away, so a long-distance Pegasus.” The shimmer around her horn dimmed, and she took a deep breath. “Well. The biggest rumour is that your student Twilight Sparkle has gone evil…”

Applejack bucked a tree.

Her legs hurt, and damn, every muscle in her hurt. All the way from her hooves up to her head, because, buck, even her brain hurt. She’d been working almost non-stop since she’d gotten home, at least getting close to a whole day. She’d gone for a long time before, she knew, and she’d have to stop soon. This might be the last one. But she wanted to see how long it would take before she outright collapsed, because she couldn’t handle what happened with Twi.

She had not taken the news well. Her friend, Twilight, bless her little academic heart, had tossed her lot in with that Sombra son-of-a-bitch? She wouldn’t believe it, and she thought it was all one really insensitive prank at first. Pinkie had simply gotten the Princess in on it, and she’d brought some of her guards to make it official, and…

Eenope. Real. All of it. The hay was Twi thinkin’, going along with him? She thought they’d all seen the last of him back up near the Crystal Empire, but apparently not. She jes’ couldn’t believe Twi had done that. It wouldn’t work in her brain.

Applejack bucked a tree.

The messenger had arrived, just as Doctor Clean Sheets finished the last rumour. Said messenger was a dark blue Pegasus stallion, with a cutie mark of a letter being hit by lightning. “Ma’am. Ready to take a letter to any part of the planet for you, Ma’am.”

Celestia nodded. “Good. Doctor Sheets, I shall have to dictate the letter to you.” Seeing the Doctor had a scroll and quill ready, she began.

“Emperor Gerard, of the Gryphon Empire, I send this letter as a request for military aid within our borders…”

“Oohhh, where to hit… Okay Sweetie Belle, D-6!”

“Aw, my Weatherpony…”

Scootaloo put a hoof on Sweetie Belle’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s all right. You’re not out of the game yet, and we’ll beat her long before she is!” Sweetie smiled back, and turned to Pinkie, who was giggling as she imitated her hit. “Hehe! Krrrz! Just like Ditzy Doo!”

Next to Pinkie, Apple Bloom was smiling too, having gone almost untouched throughout the game as soon as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle figured out how crazy good Pinkie was at four-pony Battleclouds. “I ain’t so sure, girls. Me and her are a pretty unstoppable team!”

Rarity’s voice came from the front of her shop, where she was working half-heartedly on a dress. “Ain’t is not a word, Apple Bloom.”

“Shucks, sorry Rarity. Jes’ comes natural. That’s how AJ taught me to talk.”

“Hmpph. I shall have to have words with her, one of these days.” The dress she was working on was one commissioned by Fleur de Lis, and was meant to be something to show off for her birthday. She’d requested whatever Rarity felt right, and Rarity had come up with a light purple dress, which was almost entirely skin-tight, save for lengths of silk in certain places to accentuate her figure.

Except that something was clearly wrong. What had seemed like such a beautiful design on paper had practically turned into a toga under Rarity’s hoof. It was like she couldn’t concentrate, being so distracted by recent events-

“Miss, Scoots! Didn’t even come close!”

And as helpful as Pinkie was, offering to help her sister and the rest of the crusaders try for board game cutie marks, she was getting on her nerves. Perhaps they were simply being too loud? No, she had worked in louder and more uncomfortable workspaces before. Perhaps having both Pinkie and the Crusaders in her shop simply had her on edge? No, because they had all agreed not to disturb anything, and she trusted Pinkie at least to hold them all to that. Or maybe it was-

“Krakow! B-12, Scootaloo!”

“What? But my cumulus was in the perfect place!”

“Not against Pinkie Pie, master of Battleclouds, it was-“

“Pinkie Pie, would you just shut up!”

Shocked silence filled the Boutique. All of the players had jumped at Rarity’s outburst, Pinkie in particular. She was staring at Rarity, agape, and her hair… It hadn’t quite deflated yet, but it was starting to get there.

“Pinkie Pie, how can you be enjoying yourself at a time like this, when Twilight is out there, her mind warped and twisted by Sombra, who knows what unspeakable things they might be doing-“

“Rarity.” Her voice was hard. Commanding. Rarity had never heard Pinkie speaking like that before, and a glance at the foals showed they hadn’t either. “Backroom. Now.” She was almost to scared to do anything… but she was definitely too scared to defy Pinkie at the moment.

She trotted into the backroom, sparing a glance at Sweetie, who was being held, almost protectively, by Scootaloo. Pinkie followed her in, closing the door behind her. “Rarity, do you think I’m being annoying?” The mare in question bit her lip.

“Darling… I think you’re being Pinkie. And as much as I normally enjoy Pinkie Pie, we may have just a little too much on our plates right now-“

“And that’s exactly why I’m still laughing.” Pinkie looked back at the door, beyond which were likely three now-terrified foals. They hadn’t exactly been told why they were Crusading inside, under Pinkie and Rarity’s supervision, or where Dash was right now, and for good reason. “Rarity, I’m just as concerned about Twi as you are, maybe more. But I can’t let that show. Did you see in there? How they got more scared then we’ve ever seen them, when we started acting scared?”

Rarity nodded. “Because they look up to us, all of us adults. Because we have to be strong, because if we start acting like there’s no hope, then as far as they’re concerned, there isn’t. I’m still being Pinkie, because the longer everything’s alright as far as they know, the happier they are, no matter what happens.”

Rarity nodded again. Of course. What would Sweetie think? Pinkie smiled a little bit, and her mane poofed up just a little. “Good. Now, Rarity, we’ve scared them. We’re gonna show them nothing’s wrong, because we’re both gonna go back in there, smiling, and just act like everything’s okay. For them. Alright?”

Rarity nodded one last time, and tried her best to smile. It came out looking as forced as it was. “Silly. That’s a terrible fake smile, and you know it. Think of… Think of something funny. Like that time you escaped a bunch of meany Diamond Dogs by whining at them.” The memory made Rarity smile, for real this time, and Pinkie did so too.

“That’s it, Rarity. For them. Smile, smile, smile!” Her hair still wasn’t as poofy as it was before, but it would do. Both smiling, they entered the shop again, and resumed what they were doing before.

Emperor Gerard, of the Gryphon Empire, he who had claimed his title from the last Emperor in a duel to the death hundreds of years ago, and had lived everlasting since claiming his head, was not expecting a letter from his good friend and ally, Princess Celestia. Certainly not on a Tuesday. Tuesdays had always been slow, and he could never figure out why, not in his 342 years upon the throne.

And as the message was read to him, more out of tradition than any worry of Celestia using exploding runes, he realized that this Tuesday was an exception. For this Tuesday, Celestia wanted him to send all his troops into Equestria to support her own, in what had to be a last-ditch strategy for her. His military advisor was informed, of course, and strongly recommended he did not comply with her wishes.

He didn’t give a damn. Celestia was his friend, and Equestria had certainly shown the power of Friendship in recent years. He’d back her up with everything he had.

“Send them in. All of them.”

Rainbow Dash glared at Fluttershy through the bars of the cell. It was a long, drawn out, spiteful glare, and Dash would have been proud of it had she not been trying to use it on Fluttershy.

“Dash, please don’t look at me like that. We both know I did this for your own good.” And then the glare broke, because no matter how annoyed she was at Fluttershy, she couldn’t keep it up.

“Flutters, I want to go help find Twilight. Is that so wrong?”

“It is when she might be dangerous, Dash. Trust me, let the guard handle this.”

“If you ask me, you’re putting way too much faith in the guard. What do you think they’ll do when they find her, huh? I know I’d bring her back in one piece, but they might bring her back in a bag for all we know!” Fluttershy eeped, and put her head in her forelegs. Dash instantly regretted it. “Aw, buck. Flutters, com’ere. You know I didn’t mean it.”

Fluttershy gave her wings a lethargic flap, and hopped across against the cell’s bars, which Dash hugged her through. “Sh, Sh. Come on, she’ll get back fine, and this’ll all blow over.” Fluttershy started sobbing outright into Dash’s shoulder, and Dash felt herself starting to tear up as well.

No pony as awesome as her had to cry if she didn’t want to. She was so awesome, she could’ve sucked that tear right the buck back into her face with the tiniest bit of effort.

It was a good thing she wanted to, then. She let out a few sobs herself, before starting to rock Fluttershy back and forth. Her scratchy voice began to sing one of Flutter’s favorite lullabies.

“Hush now, quiet now, it’s to lay your sleepy head…”

The Emperor’s third Air/Ground infantry division, like all the others, was in motion. As were all the others, Gilda bitterly thought. This was a stupid idea. They were going to go occupy Equestria, even if it was defensively, and it was a stupid idea to try and request this right now. Nonetheless, her paws brought her to her commanding officer’s desk. Lieutenant Gaston looked up at her. “Corporal Gilda. We’re on a schedule, what is it?”

She bit back a snappy retort, and remained rigid, business-like. “Sir. Requesting permission to ship out with one of the squads en route to Ponyville. Sir.” The Lieutenant eyed her up and down.

“I see. That’s an awful lot of paperwork to fill out right now, especially considering a personal request. Why should I put you on that Airship?”

“Sir, I’ve friends in Ponyville. I want to make sure they’re safe.”

“And you’re not alone in that. You’re the sixth Gryphon to come in here asking for the same thing, except in different cities. Denied.” Gilda blinked. She hadn’t expected that.

“Sir, with all due respect… I haven’t been the best of friends. No, that’s not… Sir, pardon my Prench, but I was being an ass the last time I saw them. Please, sir.” The older Gryphon leaned back in his chair.

“I was wondering where you’d come back from last time, having obviously been crying like you were. These the same friends you keep talking about? The rainbow one, and the pretty yellow one?”

“Yes sir. I’ve been a friend to Rainbow Dash since Junior Speedsters. I… Didn’t take well to her having found new friends. And I didn’t recognize Fluttershy immediately.” Gaston clicked his beak.

“So, you want to be transferred to Ponyville, huh?”

“Yes, sir. More than anything else, sir. I gotta keep them safe.” There were a few seconds of silence, and more than a few meaningful glances at the stack of papers already on the Lieutenant’s desk. Gilda busied herself with examining the Lieutenant’s rug.

“Request granted, Corporal. Get going.” Gilda looked up, surprised.

“You… You mean it?”

“I said request granted, didn’t I?” Gilda was grinning now, and bolted towards the door. She stopped in the doorframe, however, and looked back at the Lieutenant.

“Sir, I know you hate me doing this on duty, but… Thanks, Dad.” The older Gryphon smiled.

“Well, glad to see you stuck to protocol for a whole five minutes. Scoot, fuzzbucket. I liked your pony friends. I’m pretty sure this won’t amount to anything, but just in case… Keep them outta the line of fire, eh?” Gilda nodded, and ran back towards her locker to pack her equipment.

Keep them safe. Gotta keep Dash and ‘Shy safe.

Author's Note

Hey, lookit that, I'm still updating this! Now, all the different part ones are on purpose. You'll see in a bit. In the meantime, enjoy!