A nightly guardian

Chapter 11

Pony-eating darkness

Lyra lay in her bed, oblivious to the pale blue mist that was connected to her horn like a sucking leech. Her body lay in the bed, her mind however was a thousand years in the past. She found herself running through cold and dark hallways towards a gold-rimmed double door.

Her hands reached out, shoving the doors open without stopping. Lyra felt the impact of the doors on her palms. It was painful do to her speed. Something was very urgent. She had to get somewhere very fast, even so she knew not where. Her whole body was aching from being close to an arcane burnout. She had been close once in the past, but not THIS close. Her circuit felt as if it was on fire, while her muscles strained on each an every step. But... something was off. She was walking on two... feet?

Lyra started to come to her senses. She could feel, see and hear everything, yet she could not interfere with anything. Even the angle she saw was beyond her control. Being unable to shift her eyes, was disturbing on more then one level. Finally she got her bearings and realized where she was. She was running through the archives. Soon she burst through the door to the technology section. It looked a little different f!om what she knew, but the three doors on the far end of the room were what gave it away. She assumed that she was seeing through Zeos eyes right now. How this could be, she did not know. Searching her own memories, she remembered going to sleep. Was this a dream? If it was, then it was surely a vivid one. She could not remember ever having such a lively one before.  Was Luna using the mind-link-spell on her while she was asleep? But if that was the case, then why did she see everything from a humans perspective?

Again shifting her attention to the images before her eyes, she saw two hands, one of them badly burnt, rummaging through the drawers of a cabinet. Each time the digits on the right hand moved, Lyra could feel the pain of high grade burn wounds.

Finally the left one shot out of the drawer again, putting something small and almost transparent away before she could get a good glimpse at it. Shortly after the right hand emerged as well, pulling out another object. It was a red gemstone, and as soon as the fingers closed around it, all the pain and exhaustion she felt subsided, like a candle that was blown out.

Again her vision shifted. Running down the stairs to the first floor of Zeos study and out into the archives. Zeo was running so fast, that Lyra got a little dizzy. The hallways of the old castle were unfamiliar to her, but Zeo navigated them , with the ease she would have found her way around her parents home. Suddenly she was standing in the courtyard, looking at Princess Celestia who lay on the ground, while Nightmare Moon was towering over her.

Lashing her right hand forward a whip of pale blue magic shot towards Nightmare Moon. She evaded it with ease, but had to leave Celestias side to do so. Thinking about it, Lyra thought that that  had been exactly Zeos intention.

To her dismay, Lyra was unable to listen to the conversation that followed this. She heard their words, but did not understand a single one of them. One thing however was perfectly clear, and that was that Zeo said something that made the eyes of the dark mare widen in surprise. He had obviously told her something she had not thought he knew.

Not much more talking followed this, because Zeos tone of voice became aggressive. Even so Lyra had not understood a single word, she suddenly felt cold all over. She had only been this afraid once, and that had been in the actual presence of a Timberwolf.

Lyra could feel how her body tensed up, ready to fight if it had to. She had hoped it would not come to this, but then it happened. Zeo crouched down, grabbed Celestia and teleported her away. Meanwhile Nightmare Moon advanced on him, shooting blows of midnight blue magic at him. He reflected those with his outstretched hand, and Lyra could not help but be impressed. After Celestia was brought to safety, Lyra closely observed the fight that took place.

The time for talking seemed over. Zeo clenched his right fist, causing his knuckles to become white. He walked towards her slowly, to meet her in the middle of the courtyard. His left hand disappeared in a pocket of his coat, drawing out a transparent gemstone, that was wrapped into some hair. As soon as Nightmare Moon saw it, she began to retreat backwards. As he still did not halt his approach, she lashed out at him. Lyra saw a midnight blue whip appear in mid- air and hit Zeo straight in the face. He caught his glasses before they could shatter on the ground, but blood was dripping from his face nonetheless. Nightmare Moon had drawn first blood.

Lyra could feel how Zeo jumped forwards, trying to get a grip of Nightmare Moon as he did so. The dark Alicorn however, evaded his attempt of contact with ease and took flight. From her higher vantage point, she began to fire spells at him, that Zeo had to run away from. She was unable to shift her gaze, unless her host did so, so she could not tell what happened all around her. All she could make out, where the sounds of crumpling stones and explosions behind her.

Zeo put his hand onto his chest, while running, and a pale blue light enveloped him, lifting him into the air. Lyra recognized a levitation spell. It would not actually make him fly, but enable him to pursue the dark mare wherever she decided to fly.

The now airborne combatants hovered for a moment, before Nightmare Moon turned and tried to make a run for it. She was fast, but Zeo was even faster, as he fired a blast spell from his left hand. The movement that followed was far from the graceful flight that his opponent was showing, but it did the job. Just about in the middle of Canterlot he managed to tackle the surprised Alicorn to the ground again.

From the words she hissed, Lyra could make out that she had to foreseen that he could actually catch up with her. She shot a fire spell in his direction, but he dodged it, causing the multi-story building behind him to be set aflame. Ponies came running into the street now, all of them looking at the two combatants. When they saw that one of the buildings was on fire however, their attention was soon directed elsewhere.

Zeo retaliated her earlier attack with five magical strands, one coming out of each of the fingers of his left hand. He was obviously not willing to use more lethal spells, but tried to restrain her instead. One of the strands curled around one of Nightmare Moons forelegs, and she tried frantically to remove it. Zeo on the other hand, jumped upwards, igniting two jets of white hot flame beneath his feet to give himself more momentum as he climbed into the air, dragging Nightmare Moon with himself. Then, when his flames died down, he turned mid-air, and did the same again, gaining speed towards the ground this time. Nightmare Moon hissed something again, but Lyra still didn't understand the language she spoke.

Just before Zeo would have hit the ground, he used levitation again, to slow down his fall, whipping the strand that held Nightmare Moon to the ground as hard as he could, slamming her into a fountain in the middle of town-square. From all around them Lyra could now see Ponies fleeing the scene. Nightmare Moon got up, relatively unhurt by the impact, and charged at Zeo, throwing spells of different kinds at him as she went.

Some of those, he dodged, others he took head on, to shield Ponies in the street or building behind himself. As Nightmare Moon had closed the distance, her horn buried itself deep into Zeos shoulder. He tried to grab it with his hand, but with a flash of midnight blue light, the Alicorn had teleported out of his reach. Strangely enough, Lyra did not feel any pain from the wound, and neither seemed Zeo. His stance never faltered, nor did his following movements show any signs that he even knew that he had been severely wounded.

The two charged at each other again, throwing spells at each other in a dizzying speed. Some hit their marks, while others were either dodged or deflected. The city around them was burning at this point and Ponies were screaming for help, or in pain. It was hard for Lyra to listen to this. Why didn't he try to take the fight somewhere else? This was a densely populated city! A fight between two magic users was a disaster like no other.

Finally Nightmare Moon took to the air again, and Zeo pursued her with his levitation magic. Just as he got close enough to grab her, she suddenly turned in mid-air and bucked at him with what Lyra supposed was her full strength. Zeo began to plummet to the ground, but was able to get two more spells to hit Nightmare Moon. One she recognized as a silencer, which was a spell that temporarily robbed Unicorns of their magic. The other was a magical strand that wrapped around her foreleg once again. He dragged her to the ground with him, only barely able to wrap himself into a shield spell before he impacted in the asphalt. The dark Alicorn didn't seem to know such spells. She hit the ground full force, and was struggling to get to her hooves this time. Before she could, Zeo was on his feet again, unharmed by the long and hard fall. He raised his left hand, that still clutched the red gemstone, and pale blue bindings came out of the ground, all around Nightmare Moon. She was silenced for a short while, and she was unable to move. For all meaning of the words, she was at Zeos mercy at that moment. Instead of doing whatever he had brought the transparent gemstone however, the two of them began to talk.

Again she could hear the words, but she couldn't make sense of them. They sounded vaguely familiar, but they didn't even resemble ancient Equestrian in the slightest.

Lyra couldn't feel any pain, but it was obvious that Zeo was exhausted. A small clicking sound could be heard as Zeo opened his right hand involuntarily. Lyra could feel that the gem he had clutched had slipped out of his grasp. As soon as it parted contact with his skin, she screamed out in her mind. The pain that suddenly flooded her mind was barely bearable.

Zeo was no better off it seemed. He began to stagger as he grabbed Nightmare Moons horn with his now free right hand.

"....you are...kill...AGAIN!", Nightmare Moon screamed at the top of her lungs, and this time Lyra understood the words, for this time they were speaking Equestrian.

"You are... already dead...", he said between pained breaths.

Lyra could feel that he had gone way past his limits. The gem must have been some kind of magical suppressor, so he did not feel his body protesting.  The next thing she saw, was a gigantic flash of midnight blue light and then.... blackness....

Lyra shot up in her bed, a cold sweat dampening her sheets. It was almost as if she had gone through the ordeal she had just dreamed off herself. What was this anyway? It was too vivid to have been just a dream... But what was it then? Had she just witnessed Zeos death? If that was the case, then how could she have seen it?

She doubted that it had been real, but could not help to think even higher of him now. He had never stopped to look for a cure for Luna. The Death-root magic had no will right now, and was therefore almost harmless. Who had been her will at the time? Zeo seemed to know who it had been. Had he succeeded in extracting her will from Luna? If so, then what had happened to it? If he had done it, then how had he died? Had Nightmare Moon managed to get one final spell out before he had finished? Nothing made sense anymore. The weirdest part was, that she was thinking about this "dream" this hard. After a few more minutes of wrecking her brains, Lyra lay back down again and tried to sleep....

Morning came all to fast for the mint green Unicorn. Only three hours had passed since she had awoken from her earlier dream when somepony, that she assumed to be her mentor, shook her awake. Lyra was not too pleased by this, since she had went to bed pretty late as it was, and only about five hours of sleep just didn't cut it for her.

She swatted at the offending pair of hooves with one of her own, trying to get Luna to stop shaking her. To her surprise however, it was a little fillies voice that she heard as her hoof struck something solid. It was accompanied by a high pitched scream of pain, that jolted Lyra awake in an instant.

As she looked down on herself, she saw a small Alicorn filly sit on the bed next to her, and clutching her head. Tears were forming in the corners of the fillies mismatched eyes. The right one was of the same green as Lunas, while the other was brown in color. Her coat looked a little dirty, and her feathers ruffled. Her dark blue coat, pure black mane and tail with only a streak of midnight blue running through it, made Lyra recognize the filly at once.

"Silk... Light?", she asked in disbelief, to which the filly nodded, and drew away from her a bit.

Lyra wrapped her forelegs around the crying filly and pulled her close. She had helped Pinkie Pie with the cake twins more then once, so she knew how to console a foal. After a few moments of stroking the fillies mane, she finally calmed down and stopped trying to get away from Lyra again.

"So Silk... what brings a supposedly dead Alicorn Princess into my bedroom?", she asked jokingly.

"I... I... Why did you hit me?", the filly stammered.

"I thought you were Luna, and were trying to wake me up for some more lessons. I would never intentionally hit her either, but it's hard to aim with your eyes closed.", she responded, sticking her tongue out at the little filly. Lyra did not know what to make of this. Silk Light was supposed to be dead for over a thousand years, just like her father. How could she be here then? Was it possible that she was still dreaming? If so, then why did all of this feel so real? She could even smell the slight scent of ash and sweat, that emanated from the filly in her hooves...

"I wanted to see if you hate me too...", Silk Light muttered barely above a whisper.

"Hate you? Why would I hate such a cute and sweet little filly?"

"But even mom and dad hate me... They always try to get rid of me...", the filly began to cry again.

"Shhhhhh.... It's alright. I'm sure they don't hate you. Your mother was crying just as you are now when she told me about your death..."

"But then... then why don't they want me to live?"

Before Lyra could answer this time, the door to her bedroom burst open. At first the Unicorn didn't see what had caused it, since she saw only blackness. Was her study that dark? No. She had left the fire in the fireplace going, so there should be some kind of illumination. The darkness was caused by something else... Something way more sinister.

A wall of thick black liquid oozed into the room, and black tentacles formed and aimed for the filly in Lyras hooves. As she realized this, the mint green musician sprang off of her bed, with the filly still in her forelegs. Silk struggled and screamed in fear, but Lyra didn't let go of her.

"If this is a dream, I will never eat another banana-walnut muffin before I go to bed." she thought to herself, as she cast the containment spell Luna had her learn. Since she needed all her concentration for this, Silk was able to struggle free of her hooves and hide behind her, while shivering in fear.

It seemed to work, since a mint green fore-field erected itself around the blob of blackness. Just as Lyra wanted to sigh in relief, she had to struggle to maintain the spell. The thing grew bigger and bigger, the more strength she used to hold it contained. The bigger it grew, the stronger it pressed against it's bindings, until the field finally shattered like glas...

Panting, Lyra fell back a few more steps until she felt that she was already pressing Silk against the wall with her plot.

"Horse-apples!", she screamed, and began to chuck the furniture of the room at her attacker.

The effect she had desired however, never came. The damn thing didn't flinch, or slow down in any way. Instead a tentacle shot straight for her. With nowhere to run, Lyra made herself as big as possible to shield the still shivering filly.

SMACK

The impact on her face felt as if she had decided to stop a train with it. She was knocked back against the wall, and only barely avoided crushing the filly behind her. Lyra felt dizzy as she got up again, but she had to try. That thing blocked the doorway, which was the only way out of the room. Putting Silk on her back, Lyra started to channel the phase-shifting spell. To her surprise, it worked like a charm. As soon as she has her own and the fillies frequency in sync, she rushed towards the other side of her bedroom, passing through her own bed as she did so. Her plan was to phase through the wall and into the bathroom of her study. She did not want to attempt shifting through the attacking blob, since she had just realized why it had grown so fast while she had tried to contain it. It had absorbed the magic she had poured into the fore-field, and strengthend itself with it.

Just as she reached the wall where her dresser stood, she was knocked into the far wall once again, hitting it head first this time. She could feel the filly tumbling to the ground as her spell fizzled away on contact with one of the things tentacles, that had lashed out at her. The would-be escapee Unicorn lay on the remains of her nightstand, unable to get up. Several bones in her body seemed to have broken from this last attack, while she was barely clinging to consciousness...

The last thing she saw, was one of the tentacles grabbing the kicking and screaming filly by one of her hind-legs. Lyra tried to reach out to the filly, but could not ,move anymore. The horrific screams subsided, as Lyra was enveloped in blackness...