Fallen Crown, Rising Sword

"So, let me remember all this..."

"Yes?" Twilight asked. Having explained to Infinity the entire(nearly) history of Luna/Nightmare Moon to a point.

"Luna, Princess of the Night AND sister to Celestia, ruled with her sister in peace some odd thousand years ago. Got jealous and turned into some sort of evil corrupted princess, tried to overthrow her sister but ended up getting trapped on the very moon she controlled only to escape to take over Equestria again, but was stopped and turned back into her good ol' self by you and five other mares that are now the Elements of Harmony?"

"Well.... yeah I guess thats right."

   Infinity gave a silent nod, having processed and summarized hours of information into minutes of a paragraph. This impressed the alicorn greatly and made her sorta jealous, but nonetheless, she still loved him.

   The train ride was only half over though. The entire trip being eight hours total. Her attention was slowly drifted to the outside and to the sky.  Just something about those clouds just unnerved her greatly. Infinity was acrossthe table from her in the booth they sat in and observed her. In an instant he noticed that she was thinking, and about what wasn't hard to guess. So they sat in silence for a while.

   Of course, he couldn't help but stare at the mare's figure. It remained so unassuming. Her sweater didn't hug too tighly to her body, but enough to compliment her perky breasts, which weren't too big nor too small. Perfect fit to fit in the palm of a hand and then some. Then there was the skirt she wore, very professional-looking but also casual. Hugged her legs nicely. Compared to him, she looked more presentable. Infinity took a moment to look over himself, faux leather jacket over a red t-shirt, all accompanied by jeans.

The hairs on the back of Infinity's neck stood up, quickly snapping him out of his daze. A shift in the air as the train neared Canterlot Station.

"Whoah.... did ya feel that?" Infinity went on the alert.

"Feel what?" Twilight asked, slowly returning to reality.

"Don't know. Something seems.... off... in the air."

Twilight was about to say something about his statement, but thought against it considering her was a transdimensional being.

"You seriously brought that thing?" Twilight questioned as she observed the stallion bringing his weapon down from the baggage department.

"Well, yeah. Never know what we're gonna face and you can never be too careful." Infinity reasoned as he hooked up the blade and sheathe to the back of his legs via a specially designed belt.

   Twilight couldn't help but groan and made her way out of the booth with Infinity trailing close behind. Their traverse through the terminal was unhindered due to the fact that ponies were scared to come out of their homes most of the time or mainly stayed within their hometowns to help ease others. That is, until they came across two guard ponies that stopped both of them in their tracks at the entrance. Spears pointed at Infinity moreso than Twilight Sparkle herself. The guards even loomed like they haven't slept for days.

"HALT!" The captain barked, "Indentify yourself!"

Infinity had his hand on his sword, ready for a fight. Twilight quickly took hold of the situation. "Relaxs guys. He's my personal guard, Infinity Plane."

The guards eyed Twilight for a few moments.

"So, if you please, would so kindly retreat your weapons from my guard's face, he won't have to shame you all in front of a princess." Twilight did her best to hide a smirk.

   Infinity was apalled. He hadn't expected this much spunk or a well-placed lie to even flow so smoothly out of the librarian's mouth. It did the trick though as the five or so guards pulled their spears away and bowed their heads.

"Yes, Princess Twilight." The captain spoke again, turning his attention to Infinity. "Sorry for the misunderstanding Sir Infinity Plane."

"Not a promblem solider." Infinity replied, much to the captain's relief. "Juat doing your duty."

Twilight then leaned over to Infinity's ear. "A personal guard has, if not the same, higher authority over most Royal Guards...." she whispered into his ear.

"Shall we escort the Princess and her Sir to a hotel to rest? You both must've had a rather long trip." The captain adressed the both of them.

"What about the palace?" Infinity asked only to recieve a deadpan look from the whole squad of guards.

"Nopony has set hoof in that place since the invasion. It's been locked up tight and nopony can get in or out." The captain stated.

"Have you even tried looking for the royal sisters?" Twilight questioned interestingly.

   The guards stiffened for a few moments, then drew spears. Infinity quickly took defence by sliding in front of Twilight, drawing Edge from its sheathe and blocked the blows in one fluent motion. The troop stepped back but were quickly knocked off the hooves by a blast of wind from Infinity's wings. The pegasus held his position close the princess. The fallen guardponies rising to their hooves like marionettes.

"I fuckin' knew it! Possessed guards!" Infinity took quick note of their now glowing eyes. "But by who?"

All glowing, red eyes were now focused on one being.

"Get the Crosser!" The captain hissed in a more demonic tone, noticable higher pitch.

   Infinity took a different defense position, keeping himself close to Twilight as possible, both hands on his sword now, crossed diagonally but parallel with his torso, legs spread and bent slightly. He gave a thousand yard stare that would scare a pack of

Wait a sec...." Infinity paused, turning to look at Twilight. "... princess?"

  Four of the guards rushed towards the pair

"Are you really gonna ask about that NOW?" Twilight couldnt believe what she was hearing.

"Well yeah! I'd like to know when that happened!"

"I don't think now is a time for a chat!" Twilight argued back, crossing her arms.

"Now is a more perfect time than ever to chat!" Infinity launched himself onto the shoulders of one of the charging guardponies, his knees on either side of her head.

"How insane can you even be to think about talking while we're being attacked?!"

Infinity brought his left palm down on the bridge of the guard's muzzle hard enough to stun her in place. "It helps with my no casualties policy!"

"You know what? Fine. I became an alicorn some time ago by completing an old spell of Starswirl's."

"Neat. How old was this spell exactly and what did it do?" Infinity asked while blocking the other three incoming spears.

"Thousand? Couple thousand? I don't know! I did find out that it could switch ponies' cutie marks though." Twilight explained.

"Sounds dangerous..." Infinity sheathed his katana and brought his right fist down onto the guard's helmet, causing her to go unconscious and fall to the ground.

"It was relatively harmless. If you consider possibly screwing up your friends' destinies and jobs harmless."

   Infinity made quick work of the other three guarda rather quickly. The ways he dispatched them were different but also the same. The second guard to charge simply got his spear swatted away before recieving a heavy left hook to the snout. The third tried to jab at his foe only for Infinity to dodge these attacks with movements of his torso, eventual disarming followed by quick decks to the abdomenal region that ended with an uppercut to the chin. The fourth and final guard was pushed back a few steps before Infinity brought himself to a handstand on his shoulders, which was over the instant he planted hooves on the ground, lifting the guard over his head, and slamming the guard on the floor with her back facing out.

"Well. Some of them aren't gonna be returning to active duty for a looooooooong while" Infinity huffed, making his way over the unconscious body to the lavender alicorn.

"Uhm.... Imfinity..." Twilight tried to interject into his rambling, her eyes fixated behind the pegsus.

"I mean really! Who takes control of guards who can't fight?! It's unheard of!"

"Infinity!" Twilight yelled, successfully interrupting him.

"Can't you see that I'm on a rant here? These guys-" Infinity was cut off by a backhand to the side of his face that sent him flying through several pillars before stopping, a pile of rubble on him.

"I told you to look out... URK!"

   Twilight was then grabbed by her neck and lifted a few inches off the ground. The now changing guard possessed a wicked smile, taking on a new form. Hissing as the gender changed from that of male to female.

"Too bad your little guardian isssn't a match for me, princessss." She laughed a bit before continuing to speak. "You're coming with me back to the cassstle. Three down, one more to go..."

  And with that, they were gone.

   Infinity emerged from the rubble of the pillars hours later. A sort of darkened night had fallen across the city and much of the land. He groaned as he moved, his body protesting any more movement as he suveyed the area. Infinity, however, did find someone missing. That someone was gonna help him traverse the city of Canterlot up to the palace, but she was missing. So he opted to do the one thing he could do: wander the city until he found a place to stay for the night. With his plan set in stone, not literally, Infinity stumbled out of the train station and into the streets of the night-fallen Canterlot.

Much wandering later

   Infinity managed to wander aimlessly enough and long enough so that a sleep-deprieved denizen asked where he might have been heading. The citizen was a polite pony that Infinity was glad to work a little magic behid his back and relieve them of that burden. When he set hoof in the hotel's lobby he was given directions to, there was a mare at the front desk at the very late hour.

"Welcom to the..." she stopped mid-sentence and gasped when her eyes looked upon the new customer. "Oh my Celestia! What happened to you?!"

"Let's just say that I got into a fight protecting someone." Infinity simply replied as he moseied his way over to the desk. "Got any rooms open?"

"I think.... if you don't mind me asking, but who were you trying to protect?"

Infinity took a few moments to think about his answer. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. How much for a room?"

"Nono. You can tell me who." She was persistent, something Infinity usually liked.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle." Infinity said the name as if it wasn't a big deal. If he wasn't focused on digging for some bits (that he gladly had stashed before he left), he would've heard her take another gasp.

"You have the privilege of protecting a princess?! Is she okay?"

"No. She was taken and I plan on getting her back. They chose the wrong being to mess with." Infinity stated with a determination tha even inspired this mare to.... do something.

When he brought out a pouch, she simply put her hand up and tossed him a room key. "You deserve this, think of it as a token for your services as a guard. Plus you look like you had a rough night."

Infinity caught the key and nodded to her despite the fact he wasn't a real guard, just a lie that stuck.

   The room Infinity got was nice. Surely didn't look expensive. He had just gotten out of the shower and was now drying off his somewhat short mane. Another towel was wrapped around his waist snugly. He stopped and looked at the artificial light that was on in the room. Infinity held out a hand towards the light. A spark flew into his hand and curled his fingers to enclose the new light in his hand.

"Messed with the wrong being, Phalatrex. Attack me once, shame on me. Take my girl, shame on you. Send your lackey... shame on it." Infinity then crushed the light in his hand. He knew the powers anger held, but he was pissed, not angered.

The Next Morning

   Infinity took some time, not too much, to enjoy how the city of Canterlot was built. Even amazing to him that it was literally built into the face of a mountain, but the buildings still spoke elegance. He was on his way to the palace to hopefully find not only the Royal Sisters, but Twilight aswell. The directions given to him when he checked (and when he asked) were rather simple: look for the tallest tower in Canterlot. A direction he followed to a T.

   It didn't take nearly as long as he suspected, but still made it to some big, padlocked iron gates. Simple contraptions locks were, easily broken by Edge's steel, but effective in keeping unwanted visitors out. Infinity figured he could save the padlock from his wrath and use his wings to get over the wall. It only took a few flaps of his feathered appendages to get his body off the ground and few more to reach the top of the wall. Once he was over the wall, Infinity simply let himself glide back down to the ground.

   The courtyard of the palace seemed so empty. There were no guards, no servants, not even a soul looked to exsist here. Of course, this isn't entirely true since Infinity was walking up to the large double doors of the palace. He slowly opened one of them to point that he could slip in and disappeared into the building. The very interior of the palace was almost dark, but Infinity came prepared.

   He wandered throught the slightly darkened halls of the palace. No sense of a real direction, but silent enough to keep his thoughts to himself, mostly. His amore recent thought was a question from yesterday morning. A question about his strange habit with cereal.

"Maybe I should tell Spike why I eat cereal with a fork...." Infinity muttered to himself.

"I'm reading life signs, sire." Edge filled his ears.

"Where and how many?" Infinity quickly asked, his hope very evident.

"Close, very close. About three....."

"Oh thank-"

"Dozen." Edge finished.

"Fuck...." Infinity nearly deflated.

   A slight glow began in his hand, traveled up his arm, and exited just above the shoulder. His eyes went wide and jaw nearly hit the floor at the sight before him. There, stood statues. As still as stone but eerie like the darkened halls of an adandoned house. They each looked to be the bust of a knight, two swords crossing each chest. The same position as far as the light could shine. The closest statues drew back for a swing, but Infinity jumped up near the top of the hall.

"Edge, activate the spirit tracks!" Infinity commanded.

   The light that followed Infinity dimmed. Ghost-like railroad tracks started to lay themselves from around a corner and straight through the entire army of stone beings. The faint sound of a train whistle not to far off.

Infinity rounded the corner riding the boiler of a ghost train, laughing like a schoolfilly all the way.

"Choo choo mothafuckas! CHOO CHOO!"

   The train rammed into and smashed a good number of the statues before seeming soaring off the rails and turning around. The statues, much to their limited intelligence, made a formation back onto the track, drawing their blades for a counter assault. Their idea did little to protect them from the second strike. With their numbers now dwindled to a good few. Knowing the full damage he did, Infinity cast off the spell after jump and landed with his hooves planted firmly on the linoleum. With a smile, he drew Edge from her sheathe and silently challenged the rest of the statues to come after him.

   Infinity now had a direction to go, but still didn't know the layout of the palace. So he was lost with only a little bit of help from Edge. Just a general direction, a point B with no way to get to it. This sort of ticked off Infinity. Edge still remained in his right.

"Take a left here." Edge stated, making Infinity skid to a complete stop.

"Really? Now you start giving directions?!" Infinity looked at his blade in disbelief.

   He took the left though, running right into some nice mahogany doors. Infinity took the moment to rub his now bruised snout since he did run inot the doors pretty hard, before opening one of them. They led right into a brightly lit hall that turned out to be the royal archives.

"A library.... secret passage in the library I suppose. Now why doesn't that sound cliche?" Infinity slightly groaned.

"To save the sire some time, he might want to try the far west wall, the third to last bookcase on the left, top shelf, sixth book." Edge instructed in a matter-of-factly tone.

   Instead of opening his mouth like he usually did when Edge did this sort of thing, Infinity simply did as instructed. Finding the exact location of the wall, case, shelf, and book. All it took was a tug for the bookcase to slide in and to the right, reveal a flight of stairs.

"Yeah.... totally not cliche at all... How did you even manage to find all that anyway, Edge?"

"I may have looked ahead a bit in the story."

"Edge....." Infinity scolded. "You know how dangerous that is."

"I know, I know. Figured you'd need the help." Edge reasoned.

"Let's just go get the princesses and Twilight, show the attack dog not to mess with me, and go home." Infinity sighed.

"You forgot about finding Phalatrex."

"His time will come." Infinity said in a rather unnerving tone.

   Then he took the first few steps of descent down into the darkness.