Chapter One- The Fall of The Night and Aftermath
Chapter One - The Fall of The Night and Aftermath
It wasn't the tallest tower that every guard in the castle had rushed to. It wasn’t even the most impressive; there were no jeweled sun-shaped ornaments atop the spires, no gilded railings, and no pennant or banner had been flown or draped to express the reign of The Princess. The only defining feature of this tower was the fact that it jutted out from the cliff Canterlot rested on, hovering at least a hundred stories above the fields below and making it the perfect place to corner Night-Mare Ambassador, Midnight Runner.
No, it wasn’t the tallest tower in Canterlot, but as Clicky Links chased the guards up the hundreds of steps to get to the top, he wouldn’t believe it for a second.
But he couldn’t worry about the sheer amount of steps between him the top of the tower, he just needed to get there and get his long-lost wife out of another fatal- or worse- situation.
He had awoken in the middle of the night to speak to her, to apologize for what he had said and accused her of the night before, but on the way to the room she had been staying in on diplomatic business he had heard someone shouting orders.
“The Night-Mare has escaped her room! She’s trying to bring down the shield!”
Midnight had finally lost it.
Clicky hid out of sight as they ran by him. A fireteam of four guards led by a slate grey pegasus in armor clearly made just for him. The roots of the crest on his helmet a bright yellow that faded into black and the front shield adorned with a white star flanked by two golden wings. He shouted orders in a voice that could make one assume he had never had a drink of water in his life.
Pax Legatus. Clicky’s cousin and Chief Master Sergeant of The Royal Equestrian Air Force. Notoriously hostile against the Night-Mares and Midnight herself. He was shouting orders to take Midnight “dead or alive. I don’t care which but I prefer the former.” Pax always got what he ‘preferred.’
Clicky was finally on the balcony as was everyone else. It seemed the entire royal guard and almost every branch of the military had come to trap the rat. Earth pony guards stood in formation with swords clenched in their teeth, unicorns with spells at the ready, hovering pegasi dotting the view and gripping spears, and even Princess Celestia herself. She towered over the ponies around her, her own horn glowing with a white yet eerie glow.
“This is the end of the line, Midnight Runner,” She ordered, “You have nowhere left to go!”
“Midnight!” Clicky screamed and from behind, broke through past the ranks of guards, past Pax, and past the princess into the middle of the semi-circle they formed.
“Links!” Pax barked, “What the piss are you doing here?!” But Clicky didn’t hear him. He instead stared forward as the realization of what was going on finally hit him.
Midnight was standing on the battlements, mere inches away from the quarter mile drop into the valley. She had been successful in disabling the shield around Canterlot as the moon, full and bright, shone in the night sky behind her. The sight of her husband set a smiling across the unicorn’s weary and tired face. It was a weak smile. The kind of smiled that happens when the happiness somepony feels is vastly outweighed by the sorrow in their hearts.
“Clicky,” She whispered, “You’re here…”
“Midnight,” Clicky’s voice was quick and urgent.
“Stand down, Links!” Pax’s harsh tones broke through the silence
“I’m so glad you came…”
“Please!”
“Listen to me, Links-!”
“I wanted to see you. One last time.”
“Midnight!” Clicky’s voice rose. “This doesn’t have to happen.”
“LINKS! You better get the hell outta here or I’ll-“ Pax began to shout.
Clicky whipped his head around as far as he could to face his cousin. “Just shut the buck up, Pax!” He turned back to Midnight, eyes beginning to blur with tears. He took a hesitant step towards her and held out his hoof to her. “Please.” His voice cracked.
“I’m sorry, Clicky,” She said, “But this does have to happen.”
“Midnight Runner,” Celestia spoke up, “You are hereby found guilty of espionage, terroristic acts…”
“I wish it didn’t have to end like this,” Midnight continued, ignoring Celestia’s list of charges. “I wish I could’ve had more time with you…”
“Midnight, please! Don’t do this!” The brown pegasus was begging at this point with tears running down his face and the hoof he held out for his bride to grab shaking.
“…attempted murder, and acts of high treason against the royal family and against The Solar Empire. You are sentenced to imitate Desolation.” A cracking, like electricity popping, began to grow louder behind them.
Midnight closed her eyes and softly whispered, “I love you, Clicky.” before rearing up and kicking off the battlements with her hind legs and down into the darkness below.
Clicky screamed her name as he took off after her. As he leaped over the edge he heard a loud crack break the air behind him. He flew downward trying to descend faster than free fall. A few seconds or so of wind rushing past his ears and his tears being pushed back into his eyes, he saw her. She was falling back first with her eyes closed with a serene look on her face which was almost obscured by her long, raven mane whipping around her head and horn. Her hooves were up, if he could just grab one, he would have enough time to slow them to a stop or at least a non-lethal speed.
Just a little closer…
A sudden and loud crack followed by a blinding, white light seemed to fly past Clicky’s ear, disorienting him, forcing him to veer off course- away from Midnight- and causing him out of reflex to stop and regain his bearings. He was about halfway down the cliff face and loosing Midnight fast. He had to get to her before the cracking ball of white light did. He shook off the dizziness and white spots in his vision and began his rapid flight downward again.
He knew what that spell was. Everyone in Equestria knew the Desolation Spell. Manufactured by the Princesses personal spell-crafters, this spell was not used for killing, but for total destruction of one soul. You became nothing but an empty mindless husk. A perfectly functioning body and brain, but nothing else. It even erased your cutie mark. Such a punishment was reserved for enemies of The Empire. Meaning the Night-Mares.
He could see the light again. But as soon as it came into view he heard something different from the cackle of power from the spell.
A sickening crunch.
Like a body making landfall.
A loud crackle sounded a final time as the light fizzled out of view. Clicky slowed and when he finally stopped he could see it.
An ‘it’ that used to be ‘her.’
The mangled and misshapen corpse that used to be his wife.
The pegasus’s entire body failed him and he fell the remaining few yards to the ground grunting as he made the hard impact on his side. But the bone-breaking pain that shot through his right wing and back leg was nothing compared to the grief that overtook him and he began to cry out in anguish. About a dozen feet away from him was the earthly remains of the mare he had planned to spend the rest of his life with. Broken and shattered.
“Midnight…”
He began to drag himself over to her using just his front legs.
As he drew closer he could see everything. Her legs were twisted around in their sockets and bent at all the wrong angles. Her neck was bent in such a way that made it clear to him that the bone was no longer connected and her head -with its bleeding eyes, ears, nose, and mouth- was being held on by skin alone. But, there was something else he saw: A black bat on Midnight’s fractured flank. The Desolation Spell hadn’t hit her before she hit the ground. Her soul still existed, but it had left this world.
And left him alone.
He lay next to his wife’s body, whimpering. “Midnight…please….” He brought a hoof up to gently stroke her face. She was still warm. Clicky couldn’t hold it in anymore. He wrapped his arms around her and began sobbing into her dirt and blood soiled coat. He screamed, he wailed, he called out to her. He looked up at the moon hovering overhead and begged Luna to send him his love back.
But nothing happened.
~ * ~ * ~
Clicky opened his eyes. There was time when he would wake with a start or even sit up and start screaming when that dream came to him. But eight years of the same memory every single night, it becomes less being broken bit by bit and more like being slowly weathered away. Now he drifted out of sleep and out of the dream. Perfectly in time with the Revelry alarm Pax had set up to play around the villa at promptly 05:30 every day.
Pax. Pax Legatus. A phrase meaning ‘Peace through war’ in the old pegasus tongue. It was so appropriate it made his cousin sick; if history is written by the victors, than Pax could argue that all history books in Equestria should just have his name printed over and over on every page. He was the pride and joy of Clicky’s family, darling of Princess Celestia and after what they called The Fall of The Night, he was head of not only the Air Force but the entirety of the Equestrian military.
Clicky sighed and rubbed his face. He didn’t want to get out of bed but he knew if he didn’t Pax would come in and scream like he was back in BMT. So, with another long sigh, he sat up and put his hooves on the cold tile floor. He felt like leaving his bed a mess for the servants to make, but he aligned his pillows and tucked his blanket under them, albeit a bit sloppily. He walked over to the small dressing table and looked in the mirror. A grizzled and unkempt pegasus stared at him through tired brown eyes. His coffee colored mane was struck with bed head and a shadow of a beard had begun to poke through his pale brown fur. He hadn’t felt like trimming in a while. He didn’t even bother to brush his mane; he simply ruffled it then flattened it.
He turned away from his reflection and looked around his small room. Exposed wooden beams on the ceiling and undecorated terracotta walls. A window covered by a gauzing white curtain with the beginnings of a sunrise shining through on the wall across from him and a wooden door leading out to the rest of the house on the wall to his left. There were a few bits of simple wooden furniture like his bedside table and closet, along with his bed and dresser. He sighed again and closed his eyes.
I gave up a townhouse off the main thoroughfare in Canterlot for this? He thought to himself. He had given up a lot for this. It’s not like I wanted to.
He stood there for a few minutes longer. The trumpet player in the yard had stopped playing and he could hear the hooves of the servants shuffling around in the atrium. He shuffled and put his hoof on the handle to the door. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, not wanting to interact with anypony. He paused, and then pushed open the door.
