The Cult of Lunaby Starlight ShadowChaptersChapter OneChapter TwoChapter ThreeChapter OneHufgrund, Germaneny, has been a bit off the radar for many years. It mostly served as the castle to the governor, who lived southeast of the town in Marelin. After all of these years, the castle has remained untouched, until now. The weeds and vines of the castle had been swept away for its new occupants, the Cult of Luna. These new owners of this once great castle shall hide from society. They shall plot. They shall gain new members. They shall take over Equestria...all from the comfort of their new home. "It's here!" Patient Care calls to his followers as a group of ten ponies, all bearing Luna's symbol, her cutie mark, somewhere on their clothing, (some had even branded it on themselves) trekked along behind him. "Me and a few others will go ahead, if you don't mind." Starlight Shadow offered, nodding to a few other pegasi, who flew ahead and were gone in a few minutes. "The rest of you, come with me. It's time for the ceremony." Patient enunciated to the remaining six ponies, the lot of which bow their heads and follow. After walking through the darkness of the castle, which surrounded them and penetrated their eye sockets like tentacles of pure void, the group finally reached where they need to be: a balcony at the edge of the main hall. The group of scouts had been taking down vines and assorted other plant life when they spotted the rest of the group. "It's perfect. There's an old library and a nice square in the middle, look!" Starlight pointed over the edge of the balcony. "After we're done here, we can go establish our headquarters in there." Patient Care tells the High Priestess, who nodded and stood back, along with the Neophytes they've acquired. Patient grabbed a bag hanging off of his saddle-bag holder and places it on the ground. Its contents leak onto the smooth, cracked stone like a bag leaves that sombody had left open to the mercy of the wind. Inside of the bag is a series of stones, each of which are about a few centimeters long and bear the mark of their cult: Luna's Cutie Mark. He grabbed the stones with magic and aligned them along the ground in a crecent shaped pattern, with the curved edge pointing outwards, towards the star splattered sky and the milky blackness of the forest below the castle. "Dearest Moon Mother, we bestow our gratitude to you and ask that you grace us with your presence!" Patient clearly called to Luna via the incantation as he, and his followers, bowed their heads in respect. Suddenly, a portal opened; its black, starry interior is highlighted by purple tendrils of energy surrounding the actual entrance. Within seconds, a very familiar alicorn strolled through the portal, standing in the cresent of stones. "Princess Luna. We are honored by your presence." Patient smiles and moves his head back to its original position; his followers mimicked his movements. "Tis no trouble, you wish for thy blessing to continue establishing thy home here?" The Moon Princess calmly and kindly bestowed her worshippers with her approval. "Yes, my princess. We would like to establish our base of operations and recruitment center here as well." Patient let her royal magesty in on the cult's plans. "I see that you have decided to make this place thy headquarters. I approve of this place. A castle, similar to the one me and thy sister shared, as thy commoners say it, 'back in the day.' I shall grant thee my blessing." Princess Luna spread her wings and rose into the night, her wings powerfully flapping until her outline blocked out part of her moon. Her eyes then glowed white, and the Cult had to block their eyes as the Moon Mother cast her blessing upon the old palace. Vines, weeds, and stray plants and mold that had sprouted through the cracks of the castle have accumulated over the centuries suddenly started to turn to ashes and vanish in a tiny stack of smoke. The cult watched in awe as Luna stared back at the de-weeded castle, smiling at her handiwork. The cult breaks their gaze from their goddess's visage and turns their gaze towards the castle, admiring the now ornate stained glass windows new repaired, the cracks now rendered nonexistent. All around the castle was being repaired before their eyes, the cracks in the stone healing like day-old scratches, fires starting in long forgotten fireplaces. Books of all volumes, creeds, and series were wiped free of cobwebs and dust mites and were given an ink-job on all pages to restore the fading text. "My work here is done." Luna stated to her followers, who bowed their heads in respect. As she realigned herself on the castle grounds once again, a shadow in the corner darkened and from it steps a tall bipedal figure, who was covered in a black cloak that hides his features. He stood to the right of the moon princess before bowing down on one knee before her. "My Queen, you have been gone for some time, how is it that as your servant the wind, does he serve you as well as I always have?" "Yes, he has served me just fine, Nightshade." Princess Luna replied, somewhat stiffly. "Need not you worry." "I worry only for my mistress, surely you have better things to do than bless a silly cult?" "They believe in me, Nightshade. As few nowadays do." ******************************* The group of ponies and humanoids casually strolled through the castle as they admired the newly placed decorations, heat, and light sources throughout the ancient home. "And over there will be the armory. It's got enough space for lances, mortars, and bombs, and it is perfectly protected within the castle walls." Patient pointed to his left in an open, vacant room; which was vacant par for an ornate rug featuring a cresent moon inside of a black heart shape. "Patient! This is the old library I mentioned! Look! Look at it!" Starlight flew into an enormous circular room only a few meters away the armory door filled with bookshelves, and complete with a magical index to find whatever volume you were looking for. Starlight swiped a random book of a shelf and hugged it to her chest, then put it back and flew over to another shelf, scanning the spines of each one. "This library has books on everything, some of these were lost years ago, but thanks to the Moon Mother's blessing, they've all been restored!" She let out a squee worthy of the most vapid of fanfillies, and continued sifting through the ancient literature. "Moon Mother's Mercy...there's gotta be thousands of tomes in here! This is perfect!" Patient happily told Starlight as he and the Neophytes following him gazed up towards the stupidly high shelves in awe. Starlight was like a hummingbird, first one place, then the next so fast you'd think she teleported, or had been drinking a Red Buffalo every hour of every day for her whole life. She then abruptly stopped. "Where are we sleeping? We still haven't gotten dormitories sorted out." "We could take up the servant's quarters for tonight." Patient suggested. "Okay, I'll take the Neophytes and Shining." Starlight set to her task of herding the younger members of the Cult to the servant's quarters, with no shortage of whining from them. "Come, now. We're only going to be staying in there for one night. We'll make accomidations in other rooms of the castle tomorrow...if you are willing to work for it." Patient paternally scolded the younger members, who grumbled and shut up. Starlight managed to get her own corner, with a bit of shoving. Only the Lunarseer got his own cot at the end of the room, with no shoving involved. On the bright side, she got a window. She peered out of said window, looking out at the grounds. "That will make the perfect training ground." she murmured quietly. She curled up on the nest of blankets and flipped through a book she had taken from the library to read. 'The Mysteries Of Princess Luna.' "There is only one group of ponies who know these secrets, or will ever know them. And that group is the Cult of Luna." Patient, on the other hand, squirmed and tossed thoughout the night and began to become caked in dry sweat. He woke up frequently through the night in wide awake gazes towards the ceiling. That was one of the longest nights Patient had ever experienced. Author's Note And here's the first chapter of our collab project! The product of much silliness. Many thanks to Patient X, Biker_Dash, and Father Mordetiva (I think that's how you spell it.) Moon Mother's Mercy! Chapter TwoStarlight stirred, glancing around at everypony. Most were still sleeping, some had taken out a book and were reading. The foals had even slept on top of each other like puppies. She noticed the faint blue glow of a unicorn's magic and went over to one of the foal's cots. A small filly was making something out of string. "Hey, what do you have there, little one?" The filly jumped and opened her mouth, presumably to scream, but closed it again once she realized who was speaking. "I'm making bracelets. String ones. I brought my scissors and things from the old camp." She wasn't very talkative, as she then immediatly went back to manipulating the bit of yarn. Make a loop, tie a knot, make a new loop. A chain of knots. "What's your name?" The filly paused in her work again. She looked as if she was trying to hide annoyance. "It's Firefly. Firefly Spark. I've seen you before. Why don't you tell me your name?" "Starlight Shadow. What's your special talent?" She gestured to the lantern that adorned Firefly's flank. "Illumination spells. Lighting up my horn, and everything related to that kind of stuff. I can even make little fires you can carry around with you." Her expression took on a flicker of pride. "Your's?" "Flying and navigating at night." "I guess that makes us friends now. That's a cool talent, by the way. And fitting, considering you're one of Luna's High Priests." "Yes, I am. Aren't you a Neophyte?" "Mhm." On the other side of the room, the Lunarseer continued to roll around and stir with each passing moment, obviously not accustomed to sleeping in huge, stone chambers. Patient then sat up sharply, eyeing the room and wiping sweat from his forehead with a hoof. He turned to his right and spied the two ponies under an illumination spell. Patient wobbly got onto his legs and waltzed over to the two mares, who were busy talking among themselves. He got close and smiled as the two of them look up. "What brings you two up so late?" The Lunarseer calmly asked, yawning like he actually had some sleep. "It was my fault. I was reading, and then Starlight woke up and saw my illumintaion spell, then she came over to see why I was up so late, and then-" Starlight slapped one hoof over Firefly's mouth. "It's alright! No need to apologize. It's not like I've had any sleep here, either." Patient chuckled quietly. "I love how I got more sleep than you, and you got your own cot." Starlight also laughed. Firefly's eyes shot wide open in warning, insolence wasn't tolerated-she knew this all too well-then she remembered that Starlight was a higher rank than she was. "You can go ahead and take it. That cot's way too soft for me, anyways." The Lunarseer yawned again. "Is 'too soft' even possible?" Firefly inquired. "I'll take it if you don't want it, Starlight." "No, I think everypony's waking up anyways." Indeed, many of the others who'd been crammed in the small room were yawning and stretching, and those who hadn't were being woken by the others. "Alright, everypony. We've got a decent day's work today." Patient looked out of the stained glass window at the rising sun, the symbol of an empire which he hated with a furious passion They all did. "Curse the Solar Empire. Damn them to Tartarus for every eternity there will ever be!" Patient roared, raising his hoof into the air. The followers soon did the same. "Damn them to Tartarus!" The crowd before him screamed, raising a hoof and hopping out of bed, sprinting out of the room and off to the armory. Everyone had left except for Firefly and Starlight. "And that is how you rally a party, ladies." Patient smiles and followed his disciples with a controlled trot. "Well. We'd best get going." Starlight quickly double-flapped and flew out the door, Firefly scrambling after her. Within five or so minutes, each member of the cult had ran into the armory, standing at formation before Patient Care, who strutted down the line and back again. Torches flickered throughout the room, while a fire burned furiously in the back corner of the almost empty room. A pair of gothic cathedral-style stain glass windows streak through one of the walls catty-corner to the fireplace, letting in the sunlight. "Now that we're all here, we can continue our unarmed training like we've done at the old camp, only we have more space to do so...and we have the ability to go into Hufgrund proper and order some weapons." Patient rattled off a few things that were on his mind at the moment while he waved a hoof, telling his followers 'at ease'. "I'll bring a few others and go into town." Starlight flew above the others, raising her hoof. "Alright. You can take whichever ponies you need." Patient was pleased with the High Priestess's commitment. Starlight took her hit squad and headed out, whle the rest stayed. "Now, the six of you...come closer into a circle." The Lunarseer calmly ordered, as his followers, well, followed. "Today, until we get weapons, we'll be learning how to buck at the opponent. When you're disarmed, the most powerful weapon is your hind legs. They're deadly, hard, and damn effective." Patient recites, almost like he's said all of this before. "We're gonna be practicing on air for now, so let's get warmed up!" ******************************** "For such a small town, this is a nicely sized market." Starlight mused. Stalls of all sizes and colors were scattered around, various merchants with different accents and creeds hawking their goods. No blacksmith in sight, however... "Speak of the devil, and he doth appear. Right when I think there's no blacksmith here." Starlight hurried over to a blacksmith's tent, the blacksmith himself being a buff unicorn stallion hammering away at an anvil with his magic. He turned and spied the group of ponies. "Aah, a new customer, yes? Welcome to the finest warrior's wares in Hufgrund--" The blacksmith was cut off by Starlight raising her hoof. "Your little jingle won't be necessary. We'd just like to order some weapons. Nothing in particular, just weapons that allow us to rearrange a pony's face." The blacksmith pony thought for a few seconds, hoof resting on his black facial hair. "I have just the thing! Lemme get it out for you." The blacksmith walked into his tent and pushed out a cardboard box. The group of ponies looked inside the cardboard box and found several wooden clubs, each of which were studded with steel rivets around the beating-area of the stick. "Those will do just fine. Oh, and we'd also like that." She pointed to a fine silver crossbow. "And plenty of arrows." "I can do that too." Blacksmith smirked, shoving the crossbow and a quiver of bolts into Starlight's saddlebag. "That'll be one thousand, eight hundred, and fifty three bits." The blacksmith grew a manure-eating grin. Starlight tossed a bag of bits onto the old wooden box that served as a counter. The blacksmith looked up at her own smirk, then back at the bag, then up at Starlight. "You were saying?" The blacksmith looked up at the group of hit-ponies and grinned wider. He then spoke after a long pause... "Danke! Kommen Sie wieder!" His rotten yellow teeth show as he spits happily onto the ground. ************************** "Good, good, keep those legs up!" Patient Care shouted at the ponies bucking away at the wall in front of him. Patient looked back at the door to find Starlight and her Hit-Squad carrying a box of wooden clubs, adorned with steel rivets for extra pain. "Ah, perfect! The weapons have arrived!" The Lunarseer giddily stopped the followers from bucking at the hard stone wall and they trotted toward the box, each grabbing a club in their mouths and returning it to the wall, taking violent swings at the air in front of the wall. "Easy, now! We need that wall!" Patient orderd. The cult stopped. "Later, we'll be filling bags with dirt and using them as practice dummies, but for now, we'll have to go out into the courtyard and practice on trees. " "Excuse me Lunarseer for interupting your practice." Nightshade spoke as he walked into the group. "But bags of dirt and empty blanks of air will only get you so far in a fight. I can offer you an...alternative." "Holy fuck, I forgot you were here!" Patient almost jumped at his voice. "What kind of alternative?" A member of the cult piped up behind the Lunarseer. Starlight shushed the foal and turned toward Nightshade. "What do you have to offer?" ""I can offer you a lifelike alternative. I assume I have your permission?" "Of course, Nightshade. What do you have in mind?" Patient asked, curiously gazing at the humanoid figure in the doorway. "Watch and see what your Goddess may deem you worthy to learn." He spoke as he raised out his right hand. All was quiet as a sutle green aura slowly enveloped it. Soon six dark shadows slowly boiled up from the ground and began to take a pony-like form. "It is done, these shadows are nothing more than your own; but they have a small will of their own and will be able to fight. When you are done for the day Lunarseer and I shall teach you this in return for a small favor." "This seems...excellent! Cultists, beat the living manure out of these shadow freaks!" Patient ordered his followers, who charged head-on into the shadow ponies. As the cult beat the tar from the darkness envoloped creatures, Patient walked up to the humanoid and spoke. "What is this favor that you need?" "Hmmm, worry not for now as you still train, my shadows will slowly reform for you to do as you wish till I dispell them. Find me in the Eastern Loft of the castle and follow the music." He bowed deeply from his hips to the Lunarseer before continuing. "Till later Lunarseer". And with that walked back into the hallway. Patient took this as his cue to continue training. "Come on, you lazy pukes! These shadows have the ability to fight back! You don't want to be caught with your plot hanging in the wind, do you? No? Then fight harder!" Patient continued to urge his followers to club the shadowy blood from the false ponies. "Um, Patient?" Starlight flew up to the Lunarseer. "We still haven't set up proper dormitories yet." Patient Care comitted one of the greatest face-hooves of all time. "How about we go and fix up the old ones?" Starlight suggested. "The old inhabitants left some wonderful things behind. All we need to do is clean everything up." "That's...not too bad of an idea, actually." Patient gave the trademark 'not bad' face to his High Priestess as they ushered the other cultists to leave the room with them, leaving the quivering, bleeding shadow ponies on the floor to heal and stand at permenant attention. **************************** "I think that'll do it." Firefly yelled over the sweeps of brooms, the creaks of wood furniture, and the yells of the Lunarseer givng orders. "I think so, too." Starlight flew into the air above the busy ponies. "Everypony! We think that's enough!" Everypony ceased in their work, then glanced toward the Lunarseer. "Thanks to the lot of you, this is now a decent enough space to live in!" Patient laughed, as slight 'whoops' and 'yeahs' echoed through the cult. "Let's clean up some more and call it a day." Author's Note Second chapter done! We're planning on pumping out a new chapter of this every night we can set up a livewrite. Moon Mother's Mercy! Chapter ThreeThe cult continued to clean for the rest of the day till night started to fall, many of the younger members quietly grumbling about their fatigue to one another, while most were content to get something to eat and head to bed. Starlight headed into her own room. It was quite nice. Firefly had made one of her portable fires in a jar, which changed color depending on what time it was. There was a large window with her telescope for stargazing, and Inky even had a little nest of blankets. The black cat mewed as her owner entered the room, and Star petted her with one wing. Her bed was nice too, with dark blue sheets. Just as she started to get settled in, there was a soft knock at her door. "Hmm? Come in." Another series of soft knocks followed soon after. "I said you can come in." Starlight said, an annoyed edge to her voice. Still the door didnt budge, and the only answer she recieved was one more soft knock on the door. She threw the door open, coming face to face with one of the shadow puppets they had been messing with earlier that day. A line split where it's mouth would have been and showed a maw lined with razor sharp death, it spoke to her as if whispering through a thunderstorm. "My Highlord, the one you name Nightshade requests your imediate presence. Follow me and do not fall behind." It then turned and started to walk off. Starlight flew after the creature. "Where are we going?" It didn't answer, but kept walking through the many corridors in the castle, slowly moving torward the east side of it. Starlight continued to follow, continuing to wonder what was at the end of their walk. As they continued, she started to hear a piano playing a soft tune she didn't recognize, and the closer they got to the Eastern Loft, the louder it became. Eventually they stood outside a grand door that led to the loft itself, the shadow she had followed stopped and looked in her direction, waiting. "Um, can we go in?" Its mouth reappeared for it to speak again. "Open." it tillted it's head at the door as it spoke. Starlight pushed open the large door, the piano's soft tune enveloped them both as they walked inside, at the end of the single long coridoor was a large pipe organ where Nightshade sat playing. The Shadow indicated for her to stop when they got a few feet from him, it walked up and bowed. Nightshade turned around his cloaked head looking at her then back at the Shadow. "Who is this?" "One of the leaders of the Cult as you asked Highlord." "No, I said bring me the leader, uh sometimes I wonder if you just try to annoy me on purpose. I apologize for the interruption Miss Shadow, he was supposed to bring me the Lunarseer but you may stay if you wish, it may concern you as well. And you, go get the Lunarseer. Now!" It hissed at the shadow who quicky ran out of the room. "Um, no, I'd rather go back to my room, I'll be seeing you, sir." Starlight backed up slowly, then bolted for the door they entered through, literally flying through it and the door slamming shut with a bang. She fled through the maze of corridors they went through, dashed into her room, and curled up on her bed, quaking slightly. Inky meowed in concern, brushing Starlight with her tail. Star waved the cat off and fell asleep without getting under the covers. ********** "Scaredy pony!" Elm teased his friend, Riona, for being skittish about the abandoned castle they stood before. "I am not! Quit it." But her own words sounded hollow. Elm laughed as they walked through the darkening forest, eyeing the many creepy-crawlies of the night that surround the old, dirt path to the ancient manor. Elm soon found an acorn underneath his front hoof and smooshed it, creating a sharp crack. "AH!" Riona jumped, only to give Elm a dirty look. "Real mature. Real. Mature." "You should have seen the look on your face!" Elm chuckled, his silver mane almost gleaming in the light of the full moon ahead. "Well, if I'm such a scaredy pony, why don't we go into that manor? Then we'll see who's the scaredy pony." Riona's defiant smile made her look like a different filly. She pointed to the ancient manor up ahead, which looked a lot bigger now that they were closer to it-and a lot creepier. "Pffft, whatever." Elm rolled his eyes and continued to walk with Riona towards the nearing castle. "Well...fillies first!" Elm and Riona were at the massive, sequoya front door, which bore the markss of vandalism and disuse. "With pleasure." Riona pushed open the doors, stepping inside. The two foals found themselves within the dim glow of torches. The walls of the decrepit manor seem to have been...revitalized, no longer cracked and moldy, but bore the look of being recently cut from fine stone. The torches on the walls crackled merrily, providing light and life to the many ponies inside, walking around and doing their daily chores and otherwise. All of them wore the same symbol on their cloaks. Princess Luna's cutie mark. An important looking unicorn caught sight of the two fillies, and walked over to them. "What do we have here?" The unicorn asks as kindly as he possibly can. "Are you two snooping?" He gave a sly smile. The two foals before him stood motionless. Neither have had more questions and neither had been more scared in their entire lives. The colt with the silver mane was the first, and only one, to lose it... "GHOSTS!!" He screamed in a high pitched tone, nearly leaping out of his skin. Once he had burst through the doors, Riona started laughing her flanks off. "Did you see him? And he thinks I'm the scaredy pony." She chuckled, then looked up at the unicorn. "Are you really ghosts?" "No. We're not translucent, are we?" The light yellow unicorn before her twisted his eyebrows into their interrogative form. "Oh. I'm Riona." The filly looked relieved. "What are you all doing here?" "We're the Cult of Luna." Another pony had approached the two, a purple pegasus. A black cat padded alongside her. "We've converted to this way of life to appease our mistress, Princess Luna, who has given us the blessing of the night, allowing us free reign to convert others into our ideology." The unicorn stated, his eyes filled with passion as he spoke. "Oh." She skimmed one hoof along the stone floor. "I've always liked Princess Luna too." She admitted. "She always seemed so...so regal, like she knew everything in the world, but didn't feel like telling us. She's my hero. But the ponies in Hufgrund think that she was always evil, even after she turned good. They'll get angry if they discover you. But you know what?" She turned up toward the two adults, an expression of determination on her face. "I don't care. Because I'm joining you." "G-G-G-GHOSTS!!" Elm shrieked at the top of his lungs, pushing his vocal cords to their absolute limit and waking everypony in town from deep slumber. Windows and door opened while showers of light poured through each open structural orifice, bleeding photons and concerned feelings onto the town streets. "What's all this about??" Elm's mother broke from her home and came to her hysterical son in front of their home on the road. "Riona and I...we got dared to go to the castle...and there were ghosts there!! Riona...I didn't see her come back with me!" Elm told his mother and the other ponies surrounding him his story. "Wait, Riona's missing??" Riona's father, who lived across the street from Elm, broke the silent crowd before them and spoke up, not giving two bits about the supposed ghosts. "Yeah! She's back up at the castle! We need to go find her!" Elm wheezed out before passing out in his mother's hooves. "We need to send out a search party! Get the blacksmith to get us some lanterns, and bring some pitchforks, there are some bad things in those woods at night!" Riona's father flared his wings before the crowd of ponies before them, who scrambled to get their equipment. "And over here is the armory. We keep our weapons in here, as well as practice a bit. Over here is the library!" Starlight threw open the large, grand library doors, her eyes glowing. Riona had learned that Starlight Shadow was the purple pegasus' name during her brief introduction to the Lunarseer and High Priestess before-hoof; she had also learned that the unicorn's name was Patient Care. She wondered if there were more fillies her age; if so, she couldn't wait- *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* "Riona! We're coming in, baby!" The voice of an older stallion rung through the main hallway of the manor, grabbing everypony's attention. Without warning, the colossal, hardwood doors burst open, sending in a flood of about twenty frightened ponies, each wielded either a lantern or a pitchfork. A tall pegasus, dipped in the same color scheme as Riona, waltzed towards the three ponies before him...one of them he recognized dearly. "Get your filthy hooves off my daughter, you freaks!!" The pegasus charged toward Patient Care, knocking him over with a bash of his head and sending droplets of saliva into the air. "Daddy?" He turned toward his daughter. "I chose to stay with these ponies. Don't take me away." Gasps all around. Then a foal's shriek snapped the near-silence in two...like an acorn getting stepped on. "She's possesed! The ghosts possed her! Take her to the solar priest!" Elm pushed through the crowd until he was face to face with the robed Riona. "Ri, Riona, do you recognize me?" "Of course she recognizes you." A purple pegasus stepped forward. "We don't have it in our power to possess a rock, much less a living, breathing filly. Does this pass through you?" She smacked the little colt. "Don't you dare hit my daughter's friend, you little bitch!" Riona's father smacked the purple pegasus twice as hard as she did the colt. "Both of you! Stop!" The unicorn roared, charging up his horn with a fire spell, engulfing his forehead in flames. "What is this now? You're going to sacrifice my daughter to your crazy little cult gods??" Riona's father got right up in Patient's face, almost spitting in his eyes. "We. Do. Not. Sacrifice. To Luna!" Patient's scratchy growl pierced through the ears of the cult, who stands behind their leaders, maces at the ready. The crowd of townsponies behind the paternal pegasus readied their lanterns and pitchforks. "Luna?? What kind of gig is this, some sick fetish meet up?" The disgust on Riona's father's face was real; it bled into his soul. "We worship Luna! We're here to spread her word throughout Equestria! We were only interested in seeing if your daughter wanted to join!" Patient's fire spell cooled down slightly, only engulfing his horn. "Wait...you worship that crazy moon whore? She tried to cover Equestria in darkness for a thousand years!" The pegasus angrily flung at the Lunarseer, who already had his response at the ready. "That was when she turned evil! Celestia forced her to make that decision! She was tired of being second best. Now, she wants her revenge on her good-for-nothing cunt of a sister. Now if you feel that our cause is just or not is your business only! But I don't think your opinions should justify what your daughter thinks is right or wrong!" Patient snapped, trying to lure the pegasus into his way of thinking. "You...you ponies are insane! Come on, Riona, we're leaving! Wait until Celestia's royal guard hear about this, then you'll be in the Canterlot dungeon, you bunch of fucking weirdos!" The pegasus strutted for the door, grabbing his daughter by the cloak and dragging her along with her. "One more thing..." Patient interrupted the slow retreat of the towns ponies. "What?" The pegasus snapped in a nasally tone. "I already signed up." Riona said quietly. "I'm a Shining, Daddy. They said that meant I was shining new. Please let me go now." "B-but Riona...these ponies are psychopaths! This isn't right; Celestia is the better princess because she kept Equestria safe without Luna for a thousand years." Riona's father stammered, horrified by his daughter's insistence to stay in the cult. "She was my hero, Daddy. She still is. But every time I went to say so, you didn't want to hear it. Here, these ponies have the same mindset I do. And together, we will pass on our goodwill." She tore herself free of her father's grasp, and went to stand between Starlight, Patient, and the rest of the cult behind her. She looked so serene, so grown-up. It tore her father's heart in half. "Goodwill?? You sound like one of them!" Her father stammered still, only now with tears strolling down his face. "Sir...if you take the time to listen to us, you might change your mind...and have your daughter back." Patient quietly suggested, making the townsponies chatter amongst themselves. One of the longest silences Patient had ever seen took place in front of him. The emotions of Riona's father before him were almost palpable and everypony could tell. Finally, he spoke up... "Fine...what's so special about Luna, anyways?" Riona's father walks up to the group of three, putting his foreleg around his daughter, who snuggled up to him for having an open mind. "...and that's why the Cult was formed." Patient ended his 30 minute long lecture of the cult's existence and Luna's will towards the Hufgrund-ites. Riona's father looked astonished. "I...she...It all makes sense now." His hoof touched his face, sliding down onto the ground. The townsfold behind the family stood agape, almost in epiphany. "Riona...I think your daddy might be in this with you." He smiled down at his daughter, who's face starts to stream tears of joy. The two embrace. The townsfolk grow massive smiles; even Elm, who had been irrational the whole time, seemed confident. "Praise Luna!" One of the townsponies piped up, leading to the next pony to do so, then the next. "Praise Luna..." Riona's father whispered into Riona's ear. "Now go, convert Hufgrund to the Cult's way! Together, we shall make Equestria whole!" Patient shouted. The townsponies let out a collective cheer and sprinted down towards the town, dropping their pitchforks and lanterns...which were then confiscated by the Cult and added to their armory. "Thank you so much for...enlightening my daughter and I. If there's anything I can do for you, let me know." Riona's father smiled at Patient, who smirked back. "Nothing really...but you could tell me your name." "Lightning Runner." Riona's father and Patient nodded to each other. The father/daughter combo slowly walked towards the town Author's Note Delayed, but here. Chapter Three.
Chapter OneHufgrund, Germaneny, has been a bit off the radar for many years. It mostly served as the castle to the governor, who lived southeast of the town in Marelin. After all of these years, the castle has remained untouched, until now. The weeds and vines of the castle had been swept away for its new occupants, the Cult of Luna. These new owners of this once great castle shall hide from society. They shall plot. They shall gain new members. They shall take over Equestria...all from the comfort of their new home. "It's here!" Patient Care calls to his followers as a group of ten ponies, all bearing Luna's symbol, her cutie mark, somewhere on their clothing, (some had even branded it on themselves) trekked along behind him. "Me and a few others will go ahead, if you don't mind." Starlight Shadow offered, nodding to a few other pegasi, who flew ahead and were gone in a few minutes. "The rest of you, come with me. It's time for the ceremony." Patient enunciated to the remaining six ponies, the lot of which bow their heads and follow. After walking through the darkness of the castle, which surrounded them and penetrated their eye sockets like tentacles of pure void, the group finally reached where they need to be: a balcony at the edge of the main hall. The group of scouts had been taking down vines and assorted other plant life when they spotted the rest of the group. "It's perfect. There's an old library and a nice square in the middle, look!" Starlight pointed over the edge of the balcony. "After we're done here, we can go establish our headquarters in there." Patient Care tells the High Priestess, who nodded and stood back, along with the Neophytes they've acquired. Patient grabbed a bag hanging off of his saddle-bag holder and places it on the ground. Its contents leak onto the smooth, cracked stone like a bag leaves that sombody had left open to the mercy of the wind. Inside of the bag is a series of stones, each of which are about a few centimeters long and bear the mark of their cult: Luna's Cutie Mark. He grabbed the stones with magic and aligned them along the ground in a crecent shaped pattern, with the curved edge pointing outwards, towards the star splattered sky and the milky blackness of the forest below the castle. "Dearest Moon Mother, we bestow our gratitude to you and ask that you grace us with your presence!" Patient clearly called to Luna via the incantation as he, and his followers, bowed their heads in respect. Suddenly, a portal opened; its black, starry interior is highlighted by purple tendrils of energy surrounding the actual entrance. Within seconds, a very familiar alicorn strolled through the portal, standing in the cresent of stones. "Princess Luna. We are honored by your presence." Patient smiles and moves his head back to its original position; his followers mimicked his movements. "Tis no trouble, you wish for thy blessing to continue establishing thy home here?" The Moon Princess calmly and kindly bestowed her worshippers with her approval. "Yes, my princess. We would like to establish our base of operations and recruitment center here as well." Patient let her royal magesty in on the cult's plans. "I see that you have decided to make this place thy headquarters. I approve of this place. A castle, similar to the one me and thy sister shared, as thy commoners say it, 'back in the day.' I shall grant thee my blessing." Princess Luna spread her wings and rose into the night, her wings powerfully flapping until her outline blocked out part of her moon. Her eyes then glowed white, and the Cult had to block their eyes as the Moon Mother cast her blessing upon the old palace. Vines, weeds, and stray plants and mold that had sprouted through the cracks of the castle have accumulated over the centuries suddenly started to turn to ashes and vanish in a tiny stack of smoke. The cult watched in awe as Luna stared back at the de-weeded castle, smiling at her handiwork. The cult breaks their gaze from their goddess's visage and turns their gaze towards the castle, admiring the now ornate stained glass windows new repaired, the cracks now rendered nonexistent. All around the castle was being repaired before their eyes, the cracks in the stone healing like day-old scratches, fires starting in long forgotten fireplaces. Books of all volumes, creeds, and series were wiped free of cobwebs and dust mites and were given an ink-job on all pages to restore the fading text. "My work here is done." Luna stated to her followers, who bowed their heads in respect. As she realigned herself on the castle grounds once again, a shadow in the corner darkened and from it steps a tall bipedal figure, who was covered in a black cloak that hides his features. He stood to the right of the moon princess before bowing down on one knee before her. "My Queen, you have been gone for some time, how is it that as your servant the wind, does he serve you as well as I always have?" "Yes, he has served me just fine, Nightshade." Princess Luna replied, somewhat stiffly. "Need not you worry." "I worry only for my mistress, surely you have better things to do than bless a silly cult?" "They believe in me, Nightshade. As few nowadays do." ******************************* The group of ponies and humanoids casually strolled through the castle as they admired the newly placed decorations, heat, and light sources throughout the ancient home. "And over there will be the armory. It's got enough space for lances, mortars, and bombs, and it is perfectly protected within the castle walls." Patient pointed to his left in an open, vacant room; which was vacant par for an ornate rug featuring a cresent moon inside of a black heart shape. "Patient! This is the old library I mentioned! Look! Look at it!" Starlight flew into an enormous circular room only a few meters away the armory door filled with bookshelves, and complete with a magical index to find whatever volume you were looking for. Starlight swiped a random book of a shelf and hugged it to her chest, then put it back and flew over to another shelf, scanning the spines of each one. "This library has books on everything, some of these were lost years ago, but thanks to the Moon Mother's blessing, they've all been restored!" She let out a squee worthy of the most vapid of fanfillies, and continued sifting through the ancient literature. "Moon Mother's Mercy...there's gotta be thousands of tomes in here! This is perfect!" Patient happily told Starlight as he and the Neophytes following him gazed up towards the stupidly high shelves in awe. Starlight was like a hummingbird, first one place, then the next so fast you'd think she teleported, or had been drinking a Red Buffalo every hour of every day for her whole life. She then abruptly stopped. "Where are we sleeping? We still haven't gotten dormitories sorted out." "We could take up the servant's quarters for tonight." Patient suggested. "Okay, I'll take the Neophytes and Shining." Starlight set to her task of herding the younger members of the Cult to the servant's quarters, with no shortage of whining from them. "Come, now. We're only going to be staying in there for one night. We'll make accomidations in other rooms of the castle tomorrow...if you are willing to work for it." Patient paternally scolded the younger members, who grumbled and shut up. Starlight managed to get her own corner, with a bit of shoving. Only the Lunarseer got his own cot at the end of the room, with no shoving involved. On the bright side, she got a window. She peered out of said window, looking out at the grounds. "That will make the perfect training ground." she murmured quietly. She curled up on the nest of blankets and flipped through a book she had taken from the library to read. 'The Mysteries Of Princess Luna.' "There is only one group of ponies who know these secrets, or will ever know them. And that group is the Cult of Luna." Patient, on the other hand, squirmed and tossed thoughout the night and began to become caked in dry sweat. He woke up frequently through the night in wide awake gazes towards the ceiling. That was one of the longest nights Patient had ever experienced. Author's Note And here's the first chapter of our collab project! The product of much silliness. Many thanks to Patient X, Biker_Dash, and Father Mordetiva (I think that's how you spell it.) Moon Mother's Mercy!
Chapter TwoStarlight stirred, glancing around at everypony. Most were still sleeping, some had taken out a book and were reading. The foals had even slept on top of each other like puppies. She noticed the faint blue glow of a unicorn's magic and went over to one of the foal's cots. A small filly was making something out of string. "Hey, what do you have there, little one?" The filly jumped and opened her mouth, presumably to scream, but closed it again once she realized who was speaking. "I'm making bracelets. String ones. I brought my scissors and things from the old camp." She wasn't very talkative, as she then immediatly went back to manipulating the bit of yarn. Make a loop, tie a knot, make a new loop. A chain of knots. "What's your name?" The filly paused in her work again. She looked as if she was trying to hide annoyance. "It's Firefly. Firefly Spark. I've seen you before. Why don't you tell me your name?" "Starlight Shadow. What's your special talent?" She gestured to the lantern that adorned Firefly's flank. "Illumination spells. Lighting up my horn, and everything related to that kind of stuff. I can even make little fires you can carry around with you." Her expression took on a flicker of pride. "Your's?" "Flying and navigating at night." "I guess that makes us friends now. That's a cool talent, by the way. And fitting, considering you're one of Luna's High Priests." "Yes, I am. Aren't you a Neophyte?" "Mhm." On the other side of the room, the Lunarseer continued to roll around and stir with each passing moment, obviously not accustomed to sleeping in huge, stone chambers. Patient then sat up sharply, eyeing the room and wiping sweat from his forehead with a hoof. He turned to his right and spied the two ponies under an illumination spell. Patient wobbly got onto his legs and waltzed over to the two mares, who were busy talking among themselves. He got close and smiled as the two of them look up. "What brings you two up so late?" The Lunarseer calmly asked, yawning like he actually had some sleep. "It was my fault. I was reading, and then Starlight woke up and saw my illumintaion spell, then she came over to see why I was up so late, and then-" Starlight slapped one hoof over Firefly's mouth. "It's alright! No need to apologize. It's not like I've had any sleep here, either." Patient chuckled quietly. "I love how I got more sleep than you, and you got your own cot." Starlight also laughed. Firefly's eyes shot wide open in warning, insolence wasn't tolerated-she knew this all too well-then she remembered that Starlight was a higher rank than she was. "You can go ahead and take it. That cot's way too soft for me, anyways." The Lunarseer yawned again. "Is 'too soft' even possible?" Firefly inquired. "I'll take it if you don't want it, Starlight." "No, I think everypony's waking up anyways." Indeed, many of the others who'd been crammed in the small room were yawning and stretching, and those who hadn't were being woken by the others. "Alright, everypony. We've got a decent day's work today." Patient looked out of the stained glass window at the rising sun, the symbol of an empire which he hated with a furious passion They all did. "Curse the Solar Empire. Damn them to Tartarus for every eternity there will ever be!" Patient roared, raising his hoof into the air. The followers soon did the same. "Damn them to Tartarus!" The crowd before him screamed, raising a hoof and hopping out of bed, sprinting out of the room and off to the armory. Everyone had left except for Firefly and Starlight. "And that is how you rally a party, ladies." Patient smiles and followed his disciples with a controlled trot. "Well. We'd best get going." Starlight quickly double-flapped and flew out the door, Firefly scrambling after her. Within five or so minutes, each member of the cult had ran into the armory, standing at formation before Patient Care, who strutted down the line and back again. Torches flickered throughout the room, while a fire burned furiously in the back corner of the almost empty room. A pair of gothic cathedral-style stain glass windows streak through one of the walls catty-corner to the fireplace, letting in the sunlight. "Now that we're all here, we can continue our unarmed training like we've done at the old camp, only we have more space to do so...and we have the ability to go into Hufgrund proper and order some weapons." Patient rattled off a few things that were on his mind at the moment while he waved a hoof, telling his followers 'at ease'. "I'll bring a few others and go into town." Starlight flew above the others, raising her hoof. "Alright. You can take whichever ponies you need." Patient was pleased with the High Priestess's commitment. Starlight took her hit squad and headed out, whle the rest stayed. "Now, the six of you...come closer into a circle." The Lunarseer calmly ordered, as his followers, well, followed. "Today, until we get weapons, we'll be learning how to buck at the opponent. When you're disarmed, the most powerful weapon is your hind legs. They're deadly, hard, and damn effective." Patient recites, almost like he's said all of this before. "We're gonna be practicing on air for now, so let's get warmed up!" ******************************** "For such a small town, this is a nicely sized market." Starlight mused. Stalls of all sizes and colors were scattered around, various merchants with different accents and creeds hawking their goods. No blacksmith in sight, however... "Speak of the devil, and he doth appear. Right when I think there's no blacksmith here." Starlight hurried over to a blacksmith's tent, the blacksmith himself being a buff unicorn stallion hammering away at an anvil with his magic. He turned and spied the group of ponies. "Aah, a new customer, yes? Welcome to the finest warrior's wares in Hufgrund--" The blacksmith was cut off by Starlight raising her hoof. "Your little jingle won't be necessary. We'd just like to order some weapons. Nothing in particular, just weapons that allow us to rearrange a pony's face." The blacksmith pony thought for a few seconds, hoof resting on his black facial hair. "I have just the thing! Lemme get it out for you." The blacksmith walked into his tent and pushed out a cardboard box. The group of ponies looked inside the cardboard box and found several wooden clubs, each of which were studded with steel rivets around the beating-area of the stick. "Those will do just fine. Oh, and we'd also like that." She pointed to a fine silver crossbow. "And plenty of arrows." "I can do that too." Blacksmith smirked, shoving the crossbow and a quiver of bolts into Starlight's saddlebag. "That'll be one thousand, eight hundred, and fifty three bits." The blacksmith grew a manure-eating grin. Starlight tossed a bag of bits onto the old wooden box that served as a counter. The blacksmith looked up at her own smirk, then back at the bag, then up at Starlight. "You were saying?" The blacksmith looked up at the group of hit-ponies and grinned wider. He then spoke after a long pause... "Danke! Kommen Sie wieder!" His rotten yellow teeth show as he spits happily onto the ground. ************************** "Good, good, keep those legs up!" Patient Care shouted at the ponies bucking away at the wall in front of him. Patient looked back at the door to find Starlight and her Hit-Squad carrying a box of wooden clubs, adorned with steel rivets for extra pain. "Ah, perfect! The weapons have arrived!" The Lunarseer giddily stopped the followers from bucking at the hard stone wall and they trotted toward the box, each grabbing a club in their mouths and returning it to the wall, taking violent swings at the air in front of the wall. "Easy, now! We need that wall!" Patient orderd. The cult stopped. "Later, we'll be filling bags with dirt and using them as practice dummies, but for now, we'll have to go out into the courtyard and practice on trees. " "Excuse me Lunarseer for interupting your practice." Nightshade spoke as he walked into the group. "But bags of dirt and empty blanks of air will only get you so far in a fight. I can offer you an...alternative." "Holy fuck, I forgot you were here!" Patient almost jumped at his voice. "What kind of alternative?" A member of the cult piped up behind the Lunarseer. Starlight shushed the foal and turned toward Nightshade. "What do you have to offer?" ""I can offer you a lifelike alternative. I assume I have your permission?" "Of course, Nightshade. What do you have in mind?" Patient asked, curiously gazing at the humanoid figure in the doorway. "Watch and see what your Goddess may deem you worthy to learn." He spoke as he raised out his right hand. All was quiet as a sutle green aura slowly enveloped it. Soon six dark shadows slowly boiled up from the ground and began to take a pony-like form. "It is done, these shadows are nothing more than your own; but they have a small will of their own and will be able to fight. When you are done for the day Lunarseer and I shall teach you this in return for a small favor." "This seems...excellent! Cultists, beat the living manure out of these shadow freaks!" Patient ordered his followers, who charged head-on into the shadow ponies. As the cult beat the tar from the darkness envoloped creatures, Patient walked up to the humanoid and spoke. "What is this favor that you need?" "Hmmm, worry not for now as you still train, my shadows will slowly reform for you to do as you wish till I dispell them. Find me in the Eastern Loft of the castle and follow the music." He bowed deeply from his hips to the Lunarseer before continuing. "Till later Lunarseer". And with that walked back into the hallway. Patient took this as his cue to continue training. "Come on, you lazy pukes! These shadows have the ability to fight back! You don't want to be caught with your plot hanging in the wind, do you? No? Then fight harder!" Patient continued to urge his followers to club the shadowy blood from the false ponies. "Um, Patient?" Starlight flew up to the Lunarseer. "We still haven't set up proper dormitories yet." Patient Care comitted one of the greatest face-hooves of all time. "How about we go and fix up the old ones?" Starlight suggested. "The old inhabitants left some wonderful things behind. All we need to do is clean everything up." "That's...not too bad of an idea, actually." Patient gave the trademark 'not bad' face to his High Priestess as they ushered the other cultists to leave the room with them, leaving the quivering, bleeding shadow ponies on the floor to heal and stand at permenant attention. **************************** "I think that'll do it." Firefly yelled over the sweeps of brooms, the creaks of wood furniture, and the yells of the Lunarseer givng orders. "I think so, too." Starlight flew into the air above the busy ponies. "Everypony! We think that's enough!" Everypony ceased in their work, then glanced toward the Lunarseer. "Thanks to the lot of you, this is now a decent enough space to live in!" Patient laughed, as slight 'whoops' and 'yeahs' echoed through the cult. "Let's clean up some more and call it a day." Author's Note Second chapter done! We're planning on pumping out a new chapter of this every night we can set up a livewrite. Moon Mother's Mercy!
Chapter ThreeThe cult continued to clean for the rest of the day till night started to fall, many of the younger members quietly grumbling about their fatigue to one another, while most were content to get something to eat and head to bed. Starlight headed into her own room. It was quite nice. Firefly had made one of her portable fires in a jar, which changed color depending on what time it was. There was a large window with her telescope for stargazing, and Inky even had a little nest of blankets. The black cat mewed as her owner entered the room, and Star petted her with one wing. Her bed was nice too, with dark blue sheets. Just as she started to get settled in, there was a soft knock at her door. "Hmm? Come in." Another series of soft knocks followed soon after. "I said you can come in." Starlight said, an annoyed edge to her voice. Still the door didnt budge, and the only answer she recieved was one more soft knock on the door. She threw the door open, coming face to face with one of the shadow puppets they had been messing with earlier that day. A line split where it's mouth would have been and showed a maw lined with razor sharp death, it spoke to her as if whispering through a thunderstorm. "My Highlord, the one you name Nightshade requests your imediate presence. Follow me and do not fall behind." It then turned and started to walk off. Starlight flew after the creature. "Where are we going?" It didn't answer, but kept walking through the many corridors in the castle, slowly moving torward the east side of it. Starlight continued to follow, continuing to wonder what was at the end of their walk. As they continued, she started to hear a piano playing a soft tune she didn't recognize, and the closer they got to the Eastern Loft, the louder it became. Eventually they stood outside a grand door that led to the loft itself, the shadow she had followed stopped and looked in her direction, waiting. "Um, can we go in?" Its mouth reappeared for it to speak again. "Open." it tillted it's head at the door as it spoke. Starlight pushed open the large door, the piano's soft tune enveloped them both as they walked inside, at the end of the single long coridoor was a large pipe organ where Nightshade sat playing. The Shadow indicated for her to stop when they got a few feet from him, it walked up and bowed. Nightshade turned around his cloaked head looking at her then back at the Shadow. "Who is this?" "One of the leaders of the Cult as you asked Highlord." "No, I said bring me the leader, uh sometimes I wonder if you just try to annoy me on purpose. I apologize for the interruption Miss Shadow, he was supposed to bring me the Lunarseer but you may stay if you wish, it may concern you as well. And you, go get the Lunarseer. Now!" It hissed at the shadow who quicky ran out of the room. "Um, no, I'd rather go back to my room, I'll be seeing you, sir." Starlight backed up slowly, then bolted for the door they entered through, literally flying through it and the door slamming shut with a bang. She fled through the maze of corridors they went through, dashed into her room, and curled up on her bed, quaking slightly. Inky meowed in concern, brushing Starlight with her tail. Star waved the cat off and fell asleep without getting under the covers. ********** "Scaredy pony!" Elm teased his friend, Riona, for being skittish about the abandoned castle they stood before. "I am not! Quit it." But her own words sounded hollow. Elm laughed as they walked through the darkening forest, eyeing the many creepy-crawlies of the night that surround the old, dirt path to the ancient manor. Elm soon found an acorn underneath his front hoof and smooshed it, creating a sharp crack. "AH!" Riona jumped, only to give Elm a dirty look. "Real mature. Real. Mature." "You should have seen the look on your face!" Elm chuckled, his silver mane almost gleaming in the light of the full moon ahead. "Well, if I'm such a scaredy pony, why don't we go into that manor? Then we'll see who's the scaredy pony." Riona's defiant smile made her look like a different filly. She pointed to the ancient manor up ahead, which looked a lot bigger now that they were closer to it-and a lot creepier. "Pffft, whatever." Elm rolled his eyes and continued to walk with Riona towards the nearing castle. "Well...fillies first!" Elm and Riona were at the massive, sequoya front door, which bore the markss of vandalism and disuse. "With pleasure." Riona pushed open the doors, stepping inside. The two foals found themselves within the dim glow of torches. The walls of the decrepit manor seem to have been...revitalized, no longer cracked and moldy, but bore the look of being recently cut from fine stone. The torches on the walls crackled merrily, providing light and life to the many ponies inside, walking around and doing their daily chores and otherwise. All of them wore the same symbol on their cloaks. Princess Luna's cutie mark. An important looking unicorn caught sight of the two fillies, and walked over to them. "What do we have here?" The unicorn asks as kindly as he possibly can. "Are you two snooping?" He gave a sly smile. The two foals before him stood motionless. Neither have had more questions and neither had been more scared in their entire lives. The colt with the silver mane was the first, and only one, to lose it... "GHOSTS!!" He screamed in a high pitched tone, nearly leaping out of his skin. Once he had burst through the doors, Riona started laughing her flanks off. "Did you see him? And he thinks I'm the scaredy pony." She chuckled, then looked up at the unicorn. "Are you really ghosts?" "No. We're not translucent, are we?" The light yellow unicorn before her twisted his eyebrows into their interrogative form. "Oh. I'm Riona." The filly looked relieved. "What are you all doing here?" "We're the Cult of Luna." Another pony had approached the two, a purple pegasus. A black cat padded alongside her. "We've converted to this way of life to appease our mistress, Princess Luna, who has given us the blessing of the night, allowing us free reign to convert others into our ideology." The unicorn stated, his eyes filled with passion as he spoke. "Oh." She skimmed one hoof along the stone floor. "I've always liked Princess Luna too." She admitted. "She always seemed so...so regal, like she knew everything in the world, but didn't feel like telling us. She's my hero. But the ponies in Hufgrund think that she was always evil, even after she turned good. They'll get angry if they discover you. But you know what?" She turned up toward the two adults, an expression of determination on her face. "I don't care. Because I'm joining you." "G-G-G-GHOSTS!!" Elm shrieked at the top of his lungs, pushing his vocal cords to their absolute limit and waking everypony in town from deep slumber. Windows and door opened while showers of light poured through each open structural orifice, bleeding photons and concerned feelings onto the town streets. "What's all this about??" Elm's mother broke from her home and came to her hysterical son in front of their home on the road. "Riona and I...we got dared to go to the castle...and there were ghosts there!! Riona...I didn't see her come back with me!" Elm told his mother and the other ponies surrounding him his story. "Wait, Riona's missing??" Riona's father, who lived across the street from Elm, broke the silent crowd before them and spoke up, not giving two bits about the supposed ghosts. "Yeah! She's back up at the castle! We need to go find her!" Elm wheezed out before passing out in his mother's hooves. "We need to send out a search party! Get the blacksmith to get us some lanterns, and bring some pitchforks, there are some bad things in those woods at night!" Riona's father flared his wings before the crowd of ponies before them, who scrambled to get their equipment. "And over here is the armory. We keep our weapons in here, as well as practice a bit. Over here is the library!" Starlight threw open the large, grand library doors, her eyes glowing. Riona had learned that Starlight Shadow was the purple pegasus' name during her brief introduction to the Lunarseer and High Priestess before-hoof; she had also learned that the unicorn's name was Patient Care. She wondered if there were more fillies her age; if so, she couldn't wait- *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* "Riona! We're coming in, baby!" The voice of an older stallion rung through the main hallway of the manor, grabbing everypony's attention. Without warning, the colossal, hardwood doors burst open, sending in a flood of about twenty frightened ponies, each wielded either a lantern or a pitchfork. A tall pegasus, dipped in the same color scheme as Riona, waltzed towards the three ponies before him...one of them he recognized dearly. "Get your filthy hooves off my daughter, you freaks!!" The pegasus charged toward Patient Care, knocking him over with a bash of his head and sending droplets of saliva into the air. "Daddy?" He turned toward his daughter. "I chose to stay with these ponies. Don't take me away." Gasps all around. Then a foal's shriek snapped the near-silence in two...like an acorn getting stepped on. "She's possesed! The ghosts possed her! Take her to the solar priest!" Elm pushed through the crowd until he was face to face with the robed Riona. "Ri, Riona, do you recognize me?" "Of course she recognizes you." A purple pegasus stepped forward. "We don't have it in our power to possess a rock, much less a living, breathing filly. Does this pass through you?" She smacked the little colt. "Don't you dare hit my daughter's friend, you little bitch!" Riona's father smacked the purple pegasus twice as hard as she did the colt. "Both of you! Stop!" The unicorn roared, charging up his horn with a fire spell, engulfing his forehead in flames. "What is this now? You're going to sacrifice my daughter to your crazy little cult gods??" Riona's father got right up in Patient's face, almost spitting in his eyes. "We. Do. Not. Sacrifice. To Luna!" Patient's scratchy growl pierced through the ears of the cult, who stands behind their leaders, maces at the ready. The crowd of townsponies behind the paternal pegasus readied their lanterns and pitchforks. "Luna?? What kind of gig is this, some sick fetish meet up?" The disgust on Riona's father's face was real; it bled into his soul. "We worship Luna! We're here to spread her word throughout Equestria! We were only interested in seeing if your daughter wanted to join!" Patient's fire spell cooled down slightly, only engulfing his horn. "Wait...you worship that crazy moon whore? She tried to cover Equestria in darkness for a thousand years!" The pegasus angrily flung at the Lunarseer, who already had his response at the ready. "That was when she turned evil! Celestia forced her to make that decision! She was tired of being second best. Now, she wants her revenge on her good-for-nothing cunt of a sister. Now if you feel that our cause is just or not is your business only! But I don't think your opinions should justify what your daughter thinks is right or wrong!" Patient snapped, trying to lure the pegasus into his way of thinking. "You...you ponies are insane! Come on, Riona, we're leaving! Wait until Celestia's royal guard hear about this, then you'll be in the Canterlot dungeon, you bunch of fucking weirdos!" The pegasus strutted for the door, grabbing his daughter by the cloak and dragging her along with her. "One more thing..." Patient interrupted the slow retreat of the towns ponies. "What?" The pegasus snapped in a nasally tone. "I already signed up." Riona said quietly. "I'm a Shining, Daddy. They said that meant I was shining new. Please let me go now." "B-but Riona...these ponies are psychopaths! This isn't right; Celestia is the better princess because she kept Equestria safe without Luna for a thousand years." Riona's father stammered, horrified by his daughter's insistence to stay in the cult. "She was my hero, Daddy. She still is. But every time I went to say so, you didn't want to hear it. Here, these ponies have the same mindset I do. And together, we will pass on our goodwill." She tore herself free of her father's grasp, and went to stand between Starlight, Patient, and the rest of the cult behind her. She looked so serene, so grown-up. It tore her father's heart in half. "Goodwill?? You sound like one of them!" Her father stammered still, only now with tears strolling down his face. "Sir...if you take the time to listen to us, you might change your mind...and have your daughter back." Patient quietly suggested, making the townsponies chatter amongst themselves. One of the longest silences Patient had ever seen took place in front of him. The emotions of Riona's father before him were almost palpable and everypony could tell. Finally, he spoke up... "Fine...what's so special about Luna, anyways?" Riona's father walks up to the group of three, putting his foreleg around his daughter, who snuggled up to him for having an open mind. "...and that's why the Cult was formed." Patient ended his 30 minute long lecture of the cult's existence and Luna's will towards the Hufgrund-ites. Riona's father looked astonished. "I...she...It all makes sense now." His hoof touched his face, sliding down onto the ground. The townsfold behind the family stood agape, almost in epiphany. "Riona...I think your daddy might be in this with you." He smiled down at his daughter, who's face starts to stream tears of joy. The two embrace. The townsfolk grow massive smiles; even Elm, who had been irrational the whole time, seemed confident. "Praise Luna!" One of the townsponies piped up, leading to the next pony to do so, then the next. "Praise Luna..." Riona's father whispered into Riona's ear. "Now go, convert Hufgrund to the Cult's way! Together, we shall make Equestria whole!" Patient shouted. The townsponies let out a collective cheer and sprinted down towards the town, dropping their pitchforks and lanterns...which were then confiscated by the Cult and added to their armory. "Thank you so much for...enlightening my daughter and I. If there's anything I can do for you, let me know." Riona's father smiled at Patient, who smirked back. "Nothing really...but you could tell me your name." "Lightning Runner." Riona's father and Patient nodded to each other. The father/daughter combo slowly walked towards the town Author's Note Delayed, but here. Chapter Three.
