Humans in Equestria

Humans in Equestria

Chapter 4

Death

Guard captain Bright Shield galloped to the hallway that led to the chambers that had been assigned to Prince Zeos sister. Princess Celestia had ordered her and her squad to help the Prince as good as they could, to fend off some attacker that had been powerful enough to knock out Princess Luna. She and the other guards were just about to turn a corner, when they heard a thundering booming sound. She increased her speed a little, with her fellow guards following suit.

What she saw when she turned the corner, made Bright Shields blood freeze in her veins. A human woman lay panting on the floor, holding some strange device in her right hand. Prince Zeo lay only a few feet away from her, bleeding badly. From her vantage point, she could see that most of the right side of Zeos torso was gone. His right arm lay a few feet away from his body, and Bright Shield could tell, even from a distance, that the Prince had stopped breathing.

“RESTRAIN HER!”, she ordered her guards, never once stopping. Her subordinates fanned out from behind her, ready to attack the strange woman who had obviously just murdered Prince Zeo. Before the first of them reached her however, the blue haired woman disappeared in a flash of light. The last thing Bright shield saw of him, were here red eyes and her yellow eyeballs.....

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Petra awoke to the clip clop of hooves, and somepony nudging her side gently. Her whole body hurt, and she felt as if someone had just dragged her through a meat-grinder. Slowly, but steadily, she opened her eyes. Two bright blue eyes looked back at her. They belonged to an Earthpony guardsmare.

“Are you alright your highness?”, the Pony asked her.

“I... I... I am not sure. I'm hurting all over, but nothing seems to be broken. What about my brother? Is he alright? Who was that woman?”, she asked frantically, remembering that she heard Zeos voice shortly before she passed out.

“Your highness... I am... I am sorry for your loss....”

The implications hit Petra like a hammer blow. Despite the pain in every inch of her body, she jolted up, and scanned the room. She didn't have to look for long. There, in a puddle of his own blood, lay Zeos badly torn body.

“No....”, she whimpered, her voice breaking. Petra crawled over to her dead brother on all fours, and slumped down next to his lifeless form. His eyes were closed, and only a trickle of blood flowed from the left corner of his mouth. Had there not been a gaping hole in his body, she could have believed that he was simply taking a nap. Tears started to well up in Petras eyes, as she placed her brothers head on her lap, stroking his face and hair affectionately.

“Your highness... Maybe you should come with me. A doctor should....”, the guardsmare addressed her again, but Petra slapped the hoof away that the mare had extended towards her.

“Leave me alone! LEAVE ME ALONE! GET LOST! ALL OF YOU!”, Petra screamed, never taking her eyes off of her brothers face.

“As you wish.... your highness...”, the mare responded with a bow, nodding to her fellow guards to leave the room.

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“Captain, do you really think it is a good idea to leave her alone like this?”, her second in command asked, as Bright Shield closed the door behind herself.

“And what do you suggest I do? Knock her out and drag her to the hospital wing? Make yourself useful and get a Unicorn here who knows a slumber spell. It's the only way we can get her to the hospital wing, without actually hurting her. While you do that... I will report to the Princess... She won't like this one bit. Might as well get over with this as soon as possible.”, Bright Shield sighed.

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“Repeat that.”, Celestia said aghast.

“I said, that Prince Zeo is dead. My squad arrived only moments after he died. I am very sorry that we have failed you. Had we been there earlier, he might still be alive....”, Bright Shield bowed so low, that her muzzle was touching the ground.

“Don't martyr yourself Captain. If my brother in law was unable to stop that intruder, even after she had knocked out my sister, then there was nothing you could have done. More likely, you all would be dead by now.”, Celestia interrupted her, but Bright Shield disagreed.

“Your highness. Had we arrived earlier, we could have assisted in the fight. That woman looked like she was ready to faint, shortly before she cast that teleportation to escape. Had we arrived earlier, Prince Zeo might still be alive....”, but Bright Shield was interrupted by a gasp that came from the door to the throne room. As she turned around, she saw Princess Silk Light, standing in the doorway.

“No....”, she shook her head, her eyes already filling with tears.

Celestia strolled past her guard Captain, and made her way towards her niece, embracing her with her wings.

“You are dismissed Captain. Find that woman. I want her in chains, before me as soon as you find her. I don't care what methods you have to apply to find her, but you have full authorization to do what you see fit.”, Celestia said to her.

“Your highness.”, Bright Shield saluted and left Celestias office. She was determined to find that woman and drag her by her hair to the Princess, if she had to. No one killed a member of the royal family on her watch, and got away with it....

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Celestia guided her niece to a sofa in her office, so she could lay down, never taking her wing off of her back.

“I... I can't believe he's dead.... After all this time.... I wanted to... I wanted to....”, Silk sobbed into the pillows of the sofa, while her aunt stood next to her, stroking her mane with a wing.

“Shh.... I know. You wanted him to be proud of you, after all that has transpired a thousand years ago.... He was proud of you, of that much I am sure. Don't be too hard on yourself. Nothing of this is your fault.”, Celestia tried to reassure her.

“But... But... had I returned after I brought mom to the hospital wing... I could have helped him!”, Silk insisted.

“No you couldn't after Nightmare Moons death you lost all your knowledge of combat spells. Zeo was a very capable fighter, and if you had tried to help, you might have ended up getting in his way. That could have resulted in both of you dying, and he wouldn't have wanted that.”

Silk obviously wanted to say more, but couldn't Celestia knew that sensation all too well. She had outlived her parents as well, due to her ascension into an Alicorn. She had carried both of them to their graves, and she had loathed herself for being immortal, and yet powerless to safe her own parents. It was a pain that Silk would have to face again in the future, for she would outlive all of the friends she would make during her long life.....

Celestia dreaded the moment Luna would awake. She didn't want to be the one to tell her sister the bad news....

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Three days later

Luna was still in a coma. Even the doctors could not explain why this was the case, but Celestia could guess. Her sister had most likely felt the moment in which Zeo passed away, for one of her domains was the realm of dream, that bordered on the realm of the dead. She would have felt it, if her beloved entered the latter. Maybe she didn't want to wake up because of it. Maybe she couldn't stand the thought to live without him again, after being reunited with Zeo after over a thousand years.

Frank and Peter had been shocked beyond measure. Peter had demanded that he was sent back to his own world, if Equestria was this dangerous, but Celestia could not grant this wish. She didn't know the spell that Zeo had used to open the gateways, and he had destroyed all of his research notes....

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Almost a month had passed since Zeos death by now, and Celestia could not hold of the funeral any longer. She had preserved his body for as long as she could, but her preservation spells had never been very good. So far this lack of magical knowledge had never bothered her, but now it did.

She stood on a podium, next to Silk Light and in front of a crowd of gathered Ponies. While the Princess of the sun prepared herself for her speech, she mulled Bright Shields report over in her mind again. She did that a lot lately, to distract herself from the fact that Luna had still not woken up.

“...yellow eyeballs with red irises....”, the white Earthpony mare had said. Something about that struck her as familiar, but she didn't know what it was.... Celestia was pulled back to the present by Silk Light nudging her side gently. Her niece looked like she had aged a lot in a short period of time. The bags under her bloodshot eyes told the tale of sleepless nights spent crying. Celestia nodded, and stepped forward to address the Ponies who had come to attend the first royal funeral ever to occur in Canterlot.

“My little Ponies.... We are here today to pay our respects to my brother in law, Prince Zeo. He was not a Pony, like us, but he did more for our race then I could possibly relate in a single speech. He was kind, determined, he loved his family and he never once raised his hand against a Pony that did not have ill intend against him or his family. Even though I must admit that I thought that he was dangerous at first, I can't imagine where we would be today, had he not been here. I owe my life to him, and I never thanked him appropriately... I regret that now. He may have been rough at times, and outright disrespectful at others, but he  was always someone I could rely on. He will be missed greatly.”, Celstia said, bowing her head to the coffin that stood a few feet to her right before stepping back to make room for Silk.

“My... My father.... I didn't have the time to get to know him very well.... but he saved me. He freed me from Nightmare Moon. He endured a thousand years in stone, due to my corruption. I love him, and that will never change... I... I...”, but Silk Light could speak no more. The tears she had tried so hard to suppress, broke free and a lump in her throat made it hard for her to breathe. Celestia rushed to her side, embracing her with her left wing, and taking over again.

“Zeo... I hope you finally have the peace you longed for. I swear on your grave, that I will find your murderer and punish her.”, she added as her horn glowed and she levitated Zeos coffin into the hole that had been prepared for it.  As she did so, her gaze fell on a statue that stood farther back in the gardens, and she finally remembered where she had seen eyes like the ones Bright Shield had described to her before.....