Shattered Harmony

by SubShock

Rating: mature
Tags: Dark, Sad, Adventure
Length: 50413

Twilight and Spike meet after a thousand years of separation to talk about the tragic events that changed their lives a millennium ago. Trying to come to terms with their actions they will recall the darkest time of thier lives and seek closure.

A thousand years have passed since a bloody civil war raged across Equestria. Celestia and Luna are long gone, and of the Equestrian princesses, only Twilight remains. Her friend's died centuries ago, and Spike had left her. She has been alone for hundreds of years, and time has taken it's toll on her memories before those awful years so long ago.
In a bid to remember the time before her life was changed forever she calls out to the only one who was there with her, her old dragon compatriot Spike. She sends him one final letter summoning him to her tower in Canterlot, where she hopes they might be able to come to terms with the horrific acts they witnessed and committed during the bloodiest chapter of Equestrian history.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-04-18 15:40:21 UTC

I: A Royal Summons

Shattered Harmony

I

   The dragon laid amongst the mountains of riches he’d acquired over the past several centuries, contemplating another decade of sleep while he shoveled an enormous claw full of gems into his mouth and began chewing. The gems had long since lost flavor in his mouth, and though they did nothing to sustain him, he continued eating them out of a lack of things to do.

His life had once entailed excitement, happiness, and even love. however, those days ceased to be thirteen-hundred years ago. He stopped to try to remember what those days were like, but as always, they could never come to him. His memories of fonder days clouded by the suffering and hatred of a brief period of time. One that was long lost to the history books. Trying to recall her face, he sees nothing but shattered corpses. When he tries to remember her scent, he coughs from the memories of acrid smoke. And when he beckons his mind to remember her touch, fire is all he can feel. Now he lies with a gut full of meat and precious stones, but he feels empty. Empty is all he’s felt ever since, and empty is all he would ever feel again, or would it?

***

   An odd feeling began to arise from his stomach, something he hadn’t felt in ages, but he knew what it was and this filled him with dread. “What could she possibly want?” he thought to himself, “Why after all these years?” The answer would come to him soon enough, the feeling was rising quickly through his throat, before he exhaled a gust of fire as a tiny letter bound with a black ribbon floated to the floor from his mouth. The dragon gingerly grasped the parchment with two claws before it began to rapidly grow to where he could hold it in his palm, “It’s her, she’s even using our old trick with the letters.” The dragon pulled the now giant piece of paper up to read it, unrolling in out to find the short and precise message, “I would have an audience with you. Your presence is required at my tower in a day’s time.” With the royal seal, a black silhouette of an alicorn looking straight ahead, reptilian eyes looking forward into the reader’s soul with wings unfurled straight out and hooves pressed together straight down as if it was standing at attention. With a heavy sigh he rolled over on his piles of loot and stood up to shake free the lodged coins and trinkets from his scales.

   “I’d best not leave her waiting.” He said with a gust of smoke from his giant maw. At that he began towards the exit to his lair with a tired shuffle. His thundering steps shook the ground around him and displaced stalactites from the roof as he passed, the ones that had been forced downward crashed with his bony scales and shattered like glass against them. The feeling of dread that first came with the letter had not left him since its arrival. What could she possibly need him for now, it had been more than a millennium since they’d parted ways, and from what he could see, the lands were doing well enough under her rule, he never found a shortage of food or treasure when he went out to his hunting grounds. His answer would have to wait until he arrived. Reaching the open sky above the mouth of his cave he squinted as his eyes quickly dilated to adjust to the sudden burst of intense light. The fires in his cave were sufficient to see, but always left his eyes to suffer a brief moment beneath the sun’s intensity. It was winter and upon his mountain the snow only compounded into great drifts that covered the ground around his lair. Taking a deep breath he exhaled a large burst of flame that melted the snow and boiled the water into steam, clearing the grounds at the mouth of his cave. Taking a step onto the flattened area at the entrance he carved a rune into the ground, a six pointed star surrounded by a circled before prying off one of the scales from his tale and placing it into the center. The circle and the scale seeped into the ground and out rose a towering stone Minotaur that stood twenty five feet at the shoulders bearing an almost equally large stone axe.

   “You are to guard this cave and its contents; none shall pass but the queen and I, understood?” The Minotaur slammed a huge stone fist into his chest and grabbed his axe before heading inside. “I’ll have to thank her for the guardian when I see her.” He thought before stepping out to the edge of the platform outside his cave. Making a quick shake throughout his body he began to unfurl his wings, a ring of air blasted the ground around him kicking up snow as it passed over, taking a few steps backward he charged to the edge of the mountain and leapt off aiming himself towards the ground to get air beneath his wings before turning up into the sky to flap them for altitude, the snow drifts obscured his vision, but he’d done the jump so many times before he knew exactly when to pull up to avoid crashing into the ground. The journey would not take long, but he would not have much time to rest if he wished to be there in a poignant manner, and he knew she hated to be kept waiting. Time and horrors may have dulled his memory to other things, but his memories of her are crystal clear in his mind.

***

   The flight was not hard it was merely time consuming and cold, but in the eyes of an elder dragon, a day of flight was practically like blinking, and cold was something he’d grown used to feeling. The snows had cleared from the sky as the tower came into sight before the rest of the town did. Canterlot was mostly the same as he remembered it, tall ivory spires topped with gold, hundreds of compact streets, and the old castle that had long ago been made into a prison that to this day holds the same prisoners it’s held since its change from a castle.

   And beside the old castle now sits the tower, the new seat of power for Equestria. The tower was immense in stature, easily one and a half times larger than the tallest spire of the old castle. It stood apart from the rest of Canterlot as the only structure that was not white with gold, rather it was constructed of black marble, and polished iron, the tower’s base held the castle court with the throne at the end of a long great hall, with a spiral staircase at the back of the room behind the throne. Only the queen and royal guards were allowed in the upper portions of the tower, and the lower floors beneath the throne room were sequestered for the empress alone. Only with her permission could you follow her down, and her permission normally meant you would not be coming back up.

   The tower exterior was solid black marble with an iron band that spiraled up from the base to the top where the upper chambers were, stopping as it hit the floors of the tower’s keep. The tower keep was a basic circular design, with an iron band at the top and bottom, eight large semi-circular windows surrounded each story of the three-story keep allowing the empress complete vision of the surrounding area, and at the top was only a large circular platform with square battlements. He could remember the construction of the tower, though foggy, recalling a lot of ponies died in its construction, especially building the keep atop the tower that protruded outward from the central spire. But he also remembered he didn’t care, they were slaves he’d of rather seen dead anyways. The only difference stuck out like a black spot on white paper.

   Wrapping around the whole of Canterlot was an enormous wall that stood incredibly high, taller than any of the buildings around it save for the castle. The large blackened bricks used in it’s construction seemed to consume the light around them, and even through the fog he could see it was exceptionally dark on the interior of the walled city despite the sun’s reflection off every flake of snow. The wall also went right over the top of the railway into Canterlot without a gate and no exit or entrance was visible from his vantage point, guessing by what he was seeing, there wasn’t one. “I guess she’d gotten paranoid.” He thought to himself as he continued his flight.

   As he approached he could see her atop the tower, awaiting his arrival. Time may ravage a dragon’s memory, but his senses would never dull, even from this distance he could see her looking straight at him with her dark violet eyes from beneath a shroud, a sight that chilled worse than the freezing air. Making his final approach he leaned back in his flight and killed his forward momentum with a few flaps of his wings before descending onto the tower with a thunderous crash, the snow blew away from his feet but the tower didn’t even shudder it had been built for exactly such a situation. Turning about he faced the empress of Equestria and spoke his greeting.

   “Twilight.” he paused, “And to what pleasure do I owe this unexpected summons?” Twilight’s appearance had dramatically changed over a thousand years ago. Her body had changed from that of an average pony to that of a princess’. The long slender features with the cut jaw and extended horn were marks of a princess, her coat had also darkened to a deep eminence shade of purple rather than her old lavender, and despite her age she was still as beautiful as he’d remembered her being. Beautiful except for one thing, as she turned around her eyes came into view from beneath the black shroud she wore to keep the wind off of her.

   Gone were the bright, caring eyes of her past. Long ago they had changed into the cold reptilian eyes that the goddess cursed those who descended to darkness with and unlike Luna’s, without the elements of harmony her eyes would remain the same for eternity. Her voice had also changed from her old light hearted tone to something that starkly resembled nightmare moon’s voice when she returned from the moon.

   “Welcome back Spike. It’s been far too long, I’ve been meaning to write to you for some time now, and our last meeting wasn’t left with much… closure. We just kind of went our separate ways without truly discussing all that had passed. I even find that my memories before that awful time have been clouded by what had transpired.”

   “I’ve likewise found my memories of better days obscured.” It had been ages since anyone had called him Spike, or even addresses him by anything other than “dragon” or “beast” before shortly being incinerated. Spike’s voice had also deepened incredibly, his voice all gravel and smoke after so many years of fire and growth.  “Perhaps it’s time that we come to terms with it all. Perhaps it might be the key to our salvation from the hell we’re living. I remember you well enough to know that you and I are one in the same in this Twilight, we sacrificed our souls for vengeance those centuries ago, and we’ve paid for it ever since.” As they stood in the cold talking to one another, each could feel small bits of the warmth that had long been missing in their hearts for hundreds of years. Twilight had never known how much she had terrified Spike with what she had become, just as Spike had never known how much she’d missed her only friend over the past thirteen-hundred years. But now here they stood atop a tower of marble and iron together for the first time in centuries.

   “Come.” said Twilight, “let us go inside, let me open the door for you.” Twilight flapped her wings and hovered above the tower’s peak and charged her magic as Spike also brought himself to a hover on Twilight’s instruction. Twilight shot a beam at the floor beneath them and the marble slabs began to float out of the way in an orchestrated manner, revealing the keep’s interior. The tower’s keep was a three story design, but without a solid second or third story. Instead the middle was a large open circle with two walkways for upper floors, a design that had been intended for the very purpose of housing a dragon while still allowing living space for the empress herself in the same area. The roof was held in place by immobility spells that could be opened with magic to allow entry from the roof.

   “I never knew that it was so spacious in here.” Commented Spike on his surroundings, “And warm too, a refreshing change from the cold of my lair.”

   “You left before you could see it finished, it was my intention that you should stay here, with me.” Twilight’s voice was burdened with great pain, but she had only known pain for centuries so it went undetected by the dragon. Spike hung his head for a moment before looking to Twilight who had cast off her shroud. Her features remained the same since they’d last met. The elegant features, the darkened coat, and those cursed eyes.

   “I wish I had known, it would have been much nicer that a mountaintop cave.” Spike let out a deep, but hollow laugh that floated in the air moments before fading to nothing. Twilight just stood next to the hearth with a fire going, staring into the flames.

   “I never blamed you for leaving you know, I wouldn’t have wanted to of had to stay with me either.” Twilight’s somber tone was the product of twelve-hundred years of loneliness and regret very similar to Spike’s, but at least Spike had tried to lighten the mood. “Well,” said Twilight before Spike could respond, “Since you brought it up, maybe we should revisit our troubled past. Perhaps you are right; maybe there is some salvation to be had in this venture. Where should we start?”

   “Where it all began, the dawn of the red sun.”

   “No, just before that,” Said Twilight, “The day before bears mentioning, we’ll start there.”

II: The Greatest Lesson

II

   It was mere days after the return of the elements of harmony to the Tree of Harmony and the three princesses were meeting for court in Canterlot. Twilight was in a private car on the night train with Spike going over a list of tasks to be completed upon arrival in Canterlot. The train moved quickly and the candle Twilight held aloft with her magic to read was flickering as small bouts of wind from the cracked window passed around it.

   “Alright,” Twilight began, “so first we need to go see the guard captain to make arrangements for an escort for the supply caravan to the northern settlements. Then we need to go to the jeweler’s meeting to see who we will commission for a crown. Then we must join Princess Celestia for a diplomatic meeting with the Gryphon Kingdom’s envoy, and after that we must attend a celebratory banquet for a soldier’s receiving of the cavalier’s signet for bravery before finally retiring to the castle to prepare for tomorrow’s charity ball for the foal’s home. We have quite the busy day ahead of us Spike.”

   “Sure do Twilight. We shouldn’t have any trouble though, unless you intend on spending hours deciding on what crown you think suits you better.” remarked Spike.

   “Oh please Spike, I’m not like Rarity, I’ll probably just pick a simplistic one if I know me.”

   “But you’re a princess; don’t you want to look as regal as possible wherever you go?”

   “You’ve been spending too much time with Rarity.” Twilight smirked at Spike and was quickly answered.

   “No such thing.” replied Spike, staring briefly into the eyes of an invisible pony that looked back affectionately only in his mind.

   “If you say so,” Twilight giggled, “but in all seriousness I don’t want to come off as being posh or snooty to my friends. I feel bad enough having to leave them in Ponyville every time I get called back to Canterlot.”

   “They understand Twilight, it’s not like they’re going to hate you over a jeweled crown, and a few missed lunches.”

   “But they will if I never see them because I’m too busy, or if I start acting like I’m too good for them just because I’m a princess!” Twilight’s volume and tempo increased characteristically of her spouting exposition.

   “Do you plan on acting too good for them?” Spike asked bluntly.

   “Well… no, but it could happen.” Twilight paused for a second, “I’m worrying too much again aren’t I?”

   “You’re worrying too much again; they’ll never hate you no matter how hard you try.” Spike and Twilight shared a good laugh before settling into the cushioned beds of the private car. “Well, we’d best get some rest, it’s going to be a long day tomorrow. Good night Twilight.”

   “Good night Spike.” Twilight chuckled softly at their prior joke, rolled over, and settled into her bed. Just as she got comfortable her right wing sprang up and tossed the blanket into the air, floating for a brief moment before settling back down. With an annoyed grunt Twilight retracted her wing and repositioned her blanket to return to the spot she had found before. Settling in, she fell asleep as the warmth of the blanket made her already tired body ready for sleep.

***

   The train ground to a halt as the sun’s light could be seen about to breach the horizon. The train’s screeching on the rail’s coupled with the sudden deadening of momentum brought Twilight awake gently, and tossed Spike out of bed where he skipped along the floor of the car once and landed face up. Barely opening his tired eyes with a displeased grunt, Spike made a quick observation of his circumstances.

   “Some wake-up call.” he moaned.

   “You always sleep too close to the edge of the bed, it’s no wonder it threw you off.” giggled Twilight.

   “I like my bed at home, nice little walls to keep me from falling out.” Twilight laughed again before rising to her hooves and picking up her little baby dragon and putting him on her back with her magic.

   “Go ahead and catch up on your sleep, I’ll take care of our morning tasks.”

   “Sounds good to me.” Spike yawned before almost immediately falling asleep on Twilight’s back. He would never admit it, but though slightly uncomfortable, it was his favorite place to rest.

   Twilight, with her dragon backpack, carried on with a yawn and few tired steps to the next car to exit. Ahead of her was a group of ponies unloading a series of large suitcases and chests, struggling to get them off the racks above.

   “Here,” said Twilight, “let me give you a hoof.” Twilight picked up their boxes and bags from the luggage racks setting them down. Much to her surprise, she wasn’t greeted with thanks all around, but rather on giving her thanks while one stared hatefully and the remaining two nervously shifted their faces away. “Okay then.”She thought to herself as the group of four shuffled off of the train toting their luggage. “Alright so, first thing is?” Twilight checked her list one more time, “The meeting with the guard captain, this shouldn’t be too hard. Ahead of her one of the four from the group earlier was talking with a guard for a brief period before two more guards came over and seized his suitcase and took him out of sight towards the train station guard post while the other three had shuffled away into the crowds.

   Twilight continued on to the castle so she could get an early start on her day, by now the morning sun had finally crested the horizon and was visible as an enormous red ball of heat and light half covered by the farthest visible lands, fighting to break free of its bonds with the horizon. The walk to the castle wasn’t difficult, the crowds abated in her presence and townsfolk bowed as she walked by, a sight she was still not used to seeing. The castle gates came into sight soon enough and the guards opened it before her before she needed to ask and greeted her “Princess Twilight” another thing she wasn’t used to. The castle barracks was on the other side of the great hall past the kitchen next to the detention block.

   The great hall was largely empty except for the cleaning staff, who were busy with their work and didn’t bother to greet the Princess as she walked by, which didn’t necessarily bother Twilight. She also noticed that there were fewer of them today than there were on any other given day. She assumed that they were working faster to compensate for the lack of staff, and didn’t have time to stop today, so she kept going. The kitchen doors were guarded, as always, by two royal guards who opened the door for her before she could ask and greeted her “Princess Twilight.”

   The kitchen in stark contrast to the great hall was bursting with activity. Today was a celebratory banquet, and tomorrow was a charity ball, so the staff was hard at work to fill their large orders in time. Bakers rushed between checking the ovens and rolling more dough. The doors flew open and three carts of fresh vegetables and fruits were hurriedly hauled in to ice rooms for cool storage. The ice sculptors were hard at work frantically carving out designs of all kinds with speed and precision. And the various support chefs were frosting cakes, chopping fruits, and arguing whether garnish is fiscally responsible in feasts of such size. A kitchen attendant was hobbling on his hind legs holding a bag of flour when he barreled into Twilight, knocking Spike off her back and tearing the bag wide open releasing a cloud of flour all over them and the neighboring staff, all of whom let out the exact same displeased grunt after being coated with flour. Spike tumbled to the floor and woke up coughing up flour dust, and Twilight simple stood there with her eyes closed for a moment as the attendant recovered from his fall.

   “Oh, uhm, I’m so sorry Princess Twilight, it’ll never happen again, I swear, please just let me clean this up, I’ll get right back to work I-” The nervousness in his voice was so heavy it practically a physical object. Before he could continue on his worried rant Twilight cut him off as Spike rose to his feet.

   “Don’t worry, things happen, there’s no need to be so upset. I’m fine, just help clean this up I must be going.” Twilight headed to the courtyard door while kitchen cleaning staff headed to the mess behind her where the clumsy kitchen attendant while he was being scalded by his superior, Spike was right behind her rubbing the sleep and flour from his eyes.

   “What a rude awakening, I think I’ll just stay up this time, I’m apparently not destined to nap today.” Spike trudged on shaking his limbs and patting his head trying to remove the flower that still clung to every crevice of his scales. “Maybe I’ll hop in the fountain before we leave.”

   “Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea.” giggled Twilight as she entered the courtyard. “I’ll just take a moment to dust off.” Twilight extended her wing and shook the flour from her body before looking at the fountain ahead of them and then back to spike with a sinister grin, “I think it’s time for a bath Spike.”

   “What?” before Spike got his answer he answered his own question when he saw the fountain he’d jokingly suggested taking a dip in prior. “Oh no, I was only joki-” before he could finish Twilight hoisted him aloft with her magic and threw him into the air towards the fountain as he screamed. Twilight took a running start and jumped using her wings for a burst of speed to meet Spike at the fountain. Moments before he would have hit, Twilight grabbed him again and slowly dipped him in the fountain. The cold waters shocked him awake and he assumed an indignant expression as he rose from the waters to Twilight’s giggling. “Not funny.” He said in an annoyed manner.

   “Oh the contrary, it’s quitehilarious.” Twilight laughed again and gave him the same look she did every time she did something similar, those same caring eyes with that same playful smile that could take him out of the worst of humors.

   “Well, at least I’m clean, can’t say as much about the fountain.” Turning to the waters there was not a glob of gelatinous mess with a thin coating of wet flour floating on the surface. The pair laughed for a short bit before turning simultaneously to see the castle groundskeeper staring at them. And from the look on his face, he was not amused in the slightest.

   “Ah, ha, we’ll just be going.” Twilight gave Spike a quick shake to get the water off and placed him on her back, nervously smiling as she walked by. Twilight hurried to the barracks entrance, and as before the two guards opened the door and greeted her with “Princess Twilight.” She scrambled inside and relaxed as the doors closed. “Well that was awkward. Alright then, excuse me, sir?” asked Twilight to a nearby guard, “Where exactly is the captain’s office?” The guard turned and directed her to follow him. The guards in the barracks either saluted or bowed as she passed, and she blushed with embarrassment nearly the entire time. Up the stairs into the second story and down a hallway that connected many different bunk rooms sat the captain’s office. Standing to the side the guard opened the door and bowed letting Twilight pass. Entering his office the guard captain looked up, rose to his hooves and gave a quick bow greeting her.

   “Princess Twilight, and to what do I owe this honor?” Guard captain Steel Hoof was a tall stallion, his purple and gold armor was the same as that worn by her brother when he presided over the Canterlot guard, but his silver coat did not compliment as well as the white of the former captain.

   “At ease captain, I’ve come to request an escort detail for a supply caravan to be heading northward this evening.” Twilight spoke kindly, but with authority just as Celestia had advised her, not that she needed to.

   “Alright then, how many guards for how long?” Steel Hoof was straight to the point, a quality Twilight liked, not being one for idle banter.

   “The caravan requires thirty guards for a period of one month in total, the guards will be back at the end of the month, and the caravan is willing to pay good bonuses for each guard who undertakes the route with them.” Twilight smiled brightly, making her offer as if she were about to ask ‘pretty please’ like a foal.

   “One month eh, that’s an awful long period of time for thirty guards to be gone.” Steelhoof raised a skeptical eyebrow to his princess’ proposition.

   “The caravan is also willing to send a return caravan with valuable supplies from northern adamantite mines.” Twilight felt this would convince the new captain.

    Steelhoof perked up in his chair “Well then, with that kind of return, we could outfit the royal guard elite with impenetrable armor. That should cover our time well enough. Alright then, they have their guards, where should I send them?”

   “The caravan leaves tonight from the valley side station one stop down the rails from Canterlot, have them there by sundown.”

   “Will do Princess, I’ll round up the volunteers shortly.” Steel Hoof bowed once again as Twilight left his office.

   “Pleasure doing business with you captain.” Twilight left the office and consulted Spike on their next task. “So what’s next Spike?”

   “The meeting with the jeweler’s about commissioning a crown, we’re to meet them in the banquet hall in an hour.” replied Spike looking over the list from Twilight’s saddle bag.

   “Well I guess that leaves us a short period of time to visit, let’s go hunt down Celestia to see how preparations for tonight’s banquet are going.” The pair set off once again, Spike walking next to Twilight thinking about how hungry he was having gone without breakfast.

   “Think we could go find something to eat? I’m starving.” Spike pleaded.

   “I think we could find something, let’s stop by the kitchen once again to see what we can find.” The pair exited the barracks and walked across the courtyard, awkwardly passing the groundskeeper skimming the bits of gooey flour out of the fountain and entering the door to the kitchen once again. The scene had not changed since they’d left, the floor still bustled with activity, the clumsy flour-covered attendant was sweeping flour from the floor, and the doors still flung open with carts of supplies being hauled in and out. Twilight took Spike onto her back to conserve space and began looking for the head chef. After a goose chase of hunting down where exactly the head chef had gotten off to they managed to find him instructing new hires on proper frosting mixing.

   “Uhm, excuse me,” began Twilight, “I hate to be a bother, but my assistant here is quite hungry, you wouldn’t happen to have any gemstones or fruits would you?” Twilight asked the gruff chef timidly.

   “Ah yes, Princess Twilight’s little pet dragon, we have quite the surprise for you, follow me please.” The chef told his employees to continue as he’d instructed and began off towards an ice box followed closely by Twilight toting a moderately upset Spike. He hated being called Twilight’s pet, it made him feel like an owned commodity, not a valuable assistant, and Twilight knew this.

   “He didn’t mean anything by it Spike, I’m sure the surprise they have for you is more than enough to make up for it.”

   “Better be.” grunted Spike. The pair followed the chef to an ice box in the back of the kitchen; he grabbed a large bowl and headed inside for a brief moment after telling Twilight and Spike to wait outside. Inside after a short period it sounded like someone was raking through piles of glass before he returned outside with a bowl full of gemstones and closing the door behind him, he put a lock on it.

   “Here you go little dragon.” his condescending tone did nothing to help Spike’s attitude towards him, but the bowl full of gems did.

   “Thanks!” shouted Spike as he hastily grabbed for the bowl. Upon taking it into his possession he greedily gorged himself on gemstones.

   “Thank you very much sir,” said Twilight, “We’ll be on our way now.” Twilight turned for the exit to the great hall and after looking at the clock realized that their hour had been consumed by chasing down the chef through the multiple kitchens and it was almost time to meet the jeweler’s so she set off to the banquet hall with her scaly companion consuming gemstones at an alarming rate on her back. The kitchen let out into the banquet hall on the far end of the kitchen adjacent to the one they were it, but rather than budging through the crowds of working staff, she would cut through the hallway where she would go without bumping into any pony.

   She proceeded out into the hallway and began making her way to the banquet hall. The only ponies to be seen here were a guard patrol and maid shuffling behind a food cart on her way from the kitchen to some room somewhere in the castle. Her trip was short and uneventful and when she made it to the hall there were four different jewelers had propped up small stands each with an example crown and a series of sketches on etch pads upon easels. Entering the room, the four ponies went from conversing with each other to fixing their attention on Twilight.

   “Good evening fillies and gentlecolts, and how is every pony this morning?” A blended series of simultaneous responses from the four ponies ended with them all casting brief unappreciative glares at one another before quickly turning back to Twilight with large fake smiles. “Where should I begin?” Twilight hummed to herself as the four jewelers once again simultaneously tried to talk, followed by them all stopping and once again scowling at one another. Twilight took the opportunity to decide for herself, “I’ll just begin on one end and work my way over.” Twilight smiled awkwardly and shuffled over to the jeweler on the far left.

   “Good morning princess I’m Flawless, owner of The Canterlot Galleria.” Flawless spoke with unneeded posh that almost made Twilight uncomfortable. Her design was anything but simple, the crown had six silver fleur di saints style points coming up from the central ring, each inlaid with rubies of the same cut centralized in each point, and a gold trim around the upper and lower edges of the ring, her sketches were equally elaborate and over the top with stars and points and crossed beams. Gems of every cut adorned every crown and each was more intricate and flashy as the last.

   “Alright then,” said Twilight, “onto the next one.” Twilight placed the etch pad back onto the easel next to Flawless’ stand and move onto the next jeweler.

   “Greetings princess.” said the stallion next to the second stand, “I’m Jet Set, owner of Trinkets and Treasures.” Twilight had recalled Jet Set from Rarity’s accounts and was determined not to give him her business based on how she’d heard about him. His designs were much like Flawless’ over the top and complex almost beyond measure. His example crown was gold with eight squared points that originated from the crown’s band at a corner, coming off the band, goring wider then coming to a point. Each point was linked to the one next to it with a small golden rod on the back of each point, each rod centered into the back of each point, forming a hexagon on the interior. The interior roof of the crown was padded with deep purple felt and lined around the edge with a fluffy white trim. The center of each point held a single amethyst star cut to the shape of Twilight’s cutie mark. It was plain to Twilight that he was egotistical enough to believe she would take his crown today. Twilight placed his crown back on his stand and proceeded to the next stand.

   “Good morning princess,” the pony bowed, “I’m Crystal Clear, and I’m the owner of Delicate Designs.” Crystal’s example crown was more what Twilight was looking for. The crown was silver with the band rising up in the middle to form a triangular crest with a simple octagonal amethyst in the middle. The band had two golden vines that originated on the back of the crown that weaved their ways up to the front where they furled out symmetrically on the crest of the crown. Her sketches were similarly elegant, but simple. Her choice was made, but she needed to continue onto the last one. She put the pad back onto the easel and thanked Crystal Clear before moving onto the next ponies stand.

   “Good morning Princess, my name is-” Twilight zoned out and nodded at appropriate times, from what she’d seen of her sketches and crown they were just like the first two, and she cared little for their designs. Twilight felt bad of course for not paying her any attention, but at the same time she was aware that her choice was made. The jeweler went through her greeting and bow and Twilight picked up the crown and faked looking at it, though she could see that it was just as over the top as the first two anyways. Twilight flipped through the sketches with feigned interest and placed them back on the easel before saying her farewell.

   “Well then, you all have wonderful designs, but I can only choose one of you. The chosen jeweler will receive a letter in the coming days informing them of their success. I bid you all a good day.” Twilight turned to exit the hall as the jeweler’s bowed and began packing their things back into cases for transport. “Alright then Spike, what time does the banquet begin tonight?”

   “Seven tonight, so we’ve an open few hours, good what should we go-” The memories blurred on Twilight and she could not remember the rest of what happened that day.

***

   From the Tower keep Twilight walked to the window to look down on the castle where her recollections were placing her. From her perch high above Canterlot she could make out the fountain that she and Spike had tainted with flour that day. Its condition was decrepit at best; the upper tiers of it had fallen into where the old pool was an empty stone basin that hadn’t seen water in centuries. “Spike.” said Twilight to get her companion’s attention, “I can’t recall anything until late that night, can you?” Twilight’s tone was almost worried.

   “I don’t believe I can either.” answered Spike. Twilight turned around and began walking towards the hearth once again.

   “Well then,” Twilight pressed on, “I guess we’ll just start after the banquet, I remember speaking to Celestia that night.” Twilight let out a pained sigh before continuing.

***

   It was late after the Banquet that night and Twilight was retiring to her chambers when she came upon Celestia lying on a balcony that protruded from the walkway between their towers.

   “Good evening Princess,” began Twilight as she walked to lie at Celestia’s side “what are you doing out here alone?” she asked.

   “Hello Twilight, I’m just thinking to myself beneath the moon, an old pastime of mine.” Celestia’s gaze did not break from the moon, “It’s been nice this past year not having to see my sister’s face every time I look at it.” Celestia smiled to herself before looking down to Twilight. “Twilight.”

   “Yes princess?”

   “Would you like to learn how to move the sun and the moon?” Celestia smiled.

   Twilight was practically stunned by the question “Would I? I would love to!” Twilight could barely contain her excitement. She had always loved magic lessons with Celestia but had never imagined learning something so grand.

   “Well, before we begin, a bit of a lesson. The sun and the moon do not need to be guided across the sky; they only need to be assisted over the horizon. The sun and moon work on a principle called the astral gyre. At each end of the astral gyre there are two equal clusters of planets and stars, each of which of equal mass to one another. In the middle of the gyre is the world we inhabit. Our world is much larger than all of the planets in both clusters, and these clusters revolve around us, never changing in orientation to each other. When the sun and moon reach the opposite side of the gyre they are slowed, and eventually stopped by the pull of the outlying clusters, held in between the clusters by the pull of each cluster and our own world. Thereby in order for the sun and moon to continue their cycle they must be set back upon the path. Once moved from the middle ground between each cluster, the sun and moon rotate along the gyre until they reach the other sides where they are stopped yet again. Canterlot was built on this mountain for the purpose that this mountain sits on the ground just ahead of the end of the second half end of the gyre, meaning that when the sun is about to rise, and when the darkness begins to overtake the light in the east it means that the celestial bodies have reached their stopping points.” Celestia paused for a moment looking back at Twilight who sat waiting with bated breath to hear how to move the celestial bodies.

   “I assume you want to learn how already?” Twilight nodded with the largest grin she could form on her face. Celestia gave a quick laugh and began to instruct Twilight. “Alright then my student, rise to your feet.” Celestia gave Twilight a moment before starting, “Although it’s not sunrise or sunset, the amount of magic required to move the bodies is the same at any time. In order to move them, you must attune yourself with them first. A task you might find difficult at first. In order to attune yourself, you must close your eyes and picture the gyre above us.” Twilight closed her eyes and began to try to see what Celestia was describing to her. “In the center lies our world, and outside are the sun and moon. Picture them in your mind on opposite ends of a circle. Now you must feel the movement of the world beneath you, realize your place in everything.”

   Twilight sat in quiet contemplation, placing together the image of the astral gyre as Celestia spoke to her, her world in the middle, and the sun and the moon chasing one another around it. At first her mind kept playing games on her, the moon and sun would collide like a model of energy transfer with one hitting the other sending it flying around to collide with the other. But eventually, she mastered her thoughts and the image began to take shape. “Picture the gyre in your mind,” Celestia continued, “see the bodies that glide along its invisible paths, feel the movement of the world beneath you. Now take a step away in your mind. Picture it as if it were a model in front of you; place yourself next to it in your mind.”

   Twilight almost broke her concentration when it happened. Twilight’s mind was tangible to her now, and she was standing in front of her mental model of the astral gyre. Everything else was black save for the small twinkling lights that could be seen in all directions, they appeared to be stars. She felt her body relax, her mind soothed, and all she could hear was a silence. Anything Celestia was saying was going completely unheard by Twilight, but she felt as if she knew what to do. The only thing in front of her was the model of the gyre. But it was not exactly as she had pictured it in her mind. Instead of the sun and moon being locked in one position, they were moving, ever so slowly on opposite sides of the world in the middle.

   “Welcome to the astral gyre Twilight, so glad you could make it.” Beside her in this mental plane stood Celestia, I must admit, even I had my doubts you would be able to attune so quickly, I am very impressed.”

   “Princess?” questioned Twilight.

   “Surprised to see me here I see. You are no longer within your mind my student, you are within the gyre, before you lies the key to day and night in our world.” Celestia walked over to the gyre and beckoned Twilight over. “Do not be afraid to fall Twilight, you will find solid footing with each step, the first step is the scariest though.” Twilight took a step forward and brought it down slowly until she hit a floor she could not see, giving her a shock similar to when one steps for the last step on the stairs only to find there are no more and that you’re already on the ground. After getting a feel for the elevation of the floor Twilight proceeded to Celestia’s side. “You see Twilight, the gyre is not a tangible thing, what you see around is a sort of… command center for it. We are currently given access to this view because we have become attuned to the gyre through our magic. The fact that you are here so quickly after finding out speaks volumes to your abilities Twilight. The gyre itself cannot be comprehended for manipulation in its true form, so instead we use this method. We become attuned with it, and then we transfer our understanding of it into a more palatable form we magically project when we wish to access it.”

   Twilight could not help but be held in awe by everything she was seeing, she was left absolutely speechless. “By using this method we are able to simplify and comprehend, and thereby control the forces around us.”

   “So what I’m seeing isn’t the gyre itself, but rather my understanding of it?” Twilight questioned.

   “Basically yes, you have become attuned with the gyre, meaning that you are able to comprehend the concept behind it, and manifest it in a tangible form. Being attuned with the gyre also means that you have become one with it through the use of magic, meaning that you are part of it and can manipulate it as long as you remain within it. This model in front of us is the tangible form of what you have projected the gyre to be, and from here you can manipulate the bodies it controls.” Celestia’s explanation was as confusing as it made sense.

   “So by becoming attuned, I am part of the gyre?”

   “Yet separate in that once you leave this manifestation of the gyre, you are breaking your attunement with it.”

   “And everything around me is what I can understand the gyre to be in a simplified form?”

   “Correct.”

   “Can I move the moon and sun from here?”

   “Go ahead my student, see for yourself.” Twilight reached her hoof out to the moon, its touch was cold, as she expected. Giving it a slight pull it began to move slightly. “Not too much now Twilight, we have to let the land rest, give it a nudge back to about where it was so we don’t upset things too much.” Twilight’s excitement was immense. She had just done what only two other ponies in Equestria had the power to do. Celestia bent her head down to nuzzle up against Twilight for a moment. “I couldn’t be more proud of you.” The two stood together for moment longer before Celestia released Twilight from her embrace. “I believe it’s time we should be going Twilight, in order to return just place your hoof on our world in the middle. I’ll see you back in Equestria Twilight.” Twilight turned away from Celestia and back to the gyre, reaching her hoof out to the planet in the middle she touched it and was shocked with sudden sensation. Opening her eyes again she was back on the balcony with Celestia, who was similarly returning from the gyre. “So Twilight, what did you think about one of the greatest secrets in our plane of existence?”

   “That was Amazing!” Twilight jumped up and hugged Celestia’s neck with her hooves, “Thank you so much!” looking to the sky Twilight could see that the moon was noticeably shifted from where it was when they’d began. “I can’t believe I just did that!”

   “You truly are the most amazing student I’ve ever had Twilight, I couldn’t be more happy than to of been graced with being your mentor these past years. You’ve done so much for me and my sister, and for Equestria as a whole, that I felt it was time for you to get something in return truly worth your contributions.” Celestia looked on with great pride at her student, having seen and guided her through her studies and now being able to join her in her first trip to the astral gyre, this was the proudest moment she could remember since guiding her sister there millennia ago. “But now I believe it is time for bed Twilight, I believe you may have even bought us a little more time to sleep.” Celestia laughed at her own little joke, even though the moon moved, time was a constant. “I will see you in the morning Twilight; we have a big day tomorrow.” Twilight released Celestia and backed away a step.

   “Thank you princess, thank you so much.” Twilight expressed her gratitude once again, “Good night princess.”

   “Good night Twilight.”

***

   Back in the tower Twilight had practically frozen. It had been ages since she’d been to the gyre, she’d long passed on its secret to another. As with many things, many generations had lived and died since she’d last gone. “You never did explain to me how the days and nights still cycled after she died.” said Spike, “I had always wondered.”

   “I don’t recall you ever asking about It.” replied Twilight soberly, “Yes, I felt that would be a good starting point to all this, the first of many secrets to be aired between one another. I only wish I could have done something different back then, you know, to stop it, to stop all of this from ever happening. But I’ve already tried my hooves at time travel, you only end up causing what you went back to stop.” Twilight grew quiet.

   “You and me both Twilight,” comforted Spike, “I would give anything to see this reality changed before it could become what it has. It’s unfortunate for us that it must be this way. I think however that no matter how much either of us try can never forget the next morning. My memory of it is still perfect unfortunately.”

   “I am similarly cursed. The dawn of the red sun, the death of the princess.”

III: Dawn of the Red Sun

III

   Twilight had hardly slept the night before, after learning the secret of the gyre her thoughts raced at the majesty of what she had come to know. She had moved the moon in the sky; a monumental feat that would stay with her forever. She couldn’t think of anything except the next time she could go to the gyre, would it be sunrise, or sunset? Would she assist the sun in waking the world below with its radiance, or allow it time to rest with the moon’s soft light? That night she had decided to wake up in time to return to the gyre when Celestia would return to raise the sun, so she’d forced herself asleep and wound the gears on her clock to set an alarm. When the time had arrived Twilight practically sprang from her bed fully awake with anticipation, hardly needing her clock to alert her to the time. Standing beside her bed, she closed her eyes and went to the steps as she had done the night before, and in mere moments the gyre began to take shape in her mind once again, she felt the movement of the world beneath her, and she taken once again to that sequestered place. Upon arriving however, it was not Celestia present, rather it was Luna.

   “Princess Luna?” questioned Twilight?

   “Hello Twilight Sparkle, our sister had informed us of your learning of the gyre’s secret. We were most pleased to learn of these events.” Luna’s voice was still the same dignified and precise tone she’d always had, and she never did get away from the old royal voice entirely. While her volume was never blaring, the royal “we” had never left. “We suppose that the confusion in your voice means that you were expecting our sister?”

   “Well, uhm… yes.” said Twilight trying not to offend Luna.

   “Art thou disappointed to find us here in her place?”

   “No no no, not disappointed, just.” Twilight panicked slightly, she needed to act quickly to avoid an awkward exit.

   “Wondering why it is we are raising the sun?” Luna asked Twilight.

   “Exactly,” Twilight relaxed, “I thought you only moved the moon, and she only moved the sun.” Twilight smiled and approached Luna at the gyre.

   “Either one of us can move either body within the gyre Twilight Sparkle, there is not one place for each of us that we are unable to deviate from. We simply chose to divide the duties between one another as two trips to the gyre each day are nothing if not exhausting. Besides Twilight Sparkle, you were able to come here and advance the position of the moon last night were you not?”

   “I guess that’s right.”

   “You were also able to, despite your efforts to correct it, set it too far back and delay the sunrise by forty-five minutes, an error we have been correcting slowly over the last three hours to avoid noticeable shifts in the bodies from ground.” Luna looked down to Twilight with unamused eyes and a playful grin.

   “Sorry about that princess.” Twilight laughed awkwardly, “It was my first time you know.”

   “We are not angry Twilight Sparkle; we merely feign annoyance at this trivial matter.” Luna smiled again to Twilight to reassure her that she was not angry.

   “So if both of you can access the gyre, why couldn’t Celestia just move the moon herself those years ago when you… you know, became Nightmare Moon.” Twilight felt incredibly uncomfortable asking Luna anything about her transition into Nightmare Moon.

   “Ah yes, excellent question Twilight Sparkle.” Luna turned to Twilight and could see her distress, “You need not be unsettled by asking us such questions. We have come to terms with what we have done and though it was shameful, we cannot change it, but as per your question. When we became Nightmare Moon we did so by beckoning with powers beyond our reckoning. The nightmare’s I had trapped on the dark side of the moon, by tapping into the nightmare energies we could channel darkness itself as a power source. Part of our bargain with those powers was to seal the gyre from our sister so as the night would never end over Equestria. That morning when Celestia rose to bring the sun she tried to enter the gyre only to be assailed by nightmare energies that clouded her mind and disabled her from reaching the level of concentration needed to attain attunement. In effect, I had cursed the gyre. In order for me to keep this barrier sustained I needed to be in proximity to Celestia to act as a focus for the nightmare energies to channel through and concentrate to the needed levels to block our sister from gaining access to the gyre, and ultimately destroy her.” Luna stopped for a moment and casually adjusted the sun and moon, “We regret attempting that those centuries ago, but we can at least say that our plan was sound. We only did not account for the elements being as strong when used by one however, and thus our fate was sealed, and we spent a thousand years amongst the nightmares on the surface of the moon. Do you have any questions Twilight Sparkle?” Luna faced Twilight looking dignified as ever, not a hint of shame in her voice.

   “No princess, you’ve pretty much covered everything.” Twilight stood in front of Luna for a brief moment before inquiring about the time.

   “It is sunrise Twilight Sparkle, we should be going, and we must be ready for the charity ball today, we’ve only a few hours before the event begins.” Luna turned to the model of the gyre and placed her hoof on the world in the middle. She was instantaneously gone, as if she was never there to begin with. Twilight followed suit and similarly returned to her room in the castle where she began the process of preparing herself for the charity ball.

***

   The snows had picked up once again in Canterlot, and the vision from the Tower’s windows was growing increasingly blurred. Twilight could not see down to the streets below her keep, and Spike was too busy listening to Twilight’s recollections to care when she stopped suddenly. Looking down while he tried to think.

   “Spike?” she asked, “Did you see what Luna did that day it happened?”

   “I don’t believe I did, I saw her fly up towards the tower, you on her tail, but I never knew what she did.” replied Spike.

   “I’ve always remembered it, her words, her movements, her face, everything. I had never seen a pony in true fear until that day, even just thinking about it makes my blood run cold to this day.” Back to her memories, Twilight began once again.

***

   Twilight had finished preparing and had awoken Spike to start their day. “So how do I look?” asked Twilight. Her dress was very similar to her gala dress with a dark blue foreground trimmed by a periwinkle trim. There were no stars present on the dress, rather a simple lace pattern on the interior of the trim that went up a short ways before stopping. Other than the omission of the stars it bore stark similarities with much the same overall design. Wearing such a similar outfit would be quite the faux pa in many ponies’ minds, but Twilight was a no pony when she’d first worn her gala dress, so she saw no offense in wearing something that held such likeness.

   “You look great, I’m sure you’ll get plenty of compliments.” Spike was always earnest in his appraisals; he could, however, be a little too blunt at times. But Twilight would rather she hear it from Spike than have it said behind her back.

   “You don’t look too bad yourself there Spike. I’m assuming you had Rarity make you that tux?”

   “Well, she more of offered it when you became princess. She said I should not be in such company with nothing on. I didn’t get her point though, I mean, I was always like this in Ponyville.” Spike’s little tux had to be custom made for him, and Rarity took many measurements to ensure it would fit him perfectly. It even accommodated the spines that protruded from his back, simply fitting around the base of them.

   “We’ll have to be sure to thank her for her work the next time we meet; you look quite dapper this morning. We should probably get going then, wouldn’t want to be late to one of our first charity ball would we?”

   “Sure wouldn’t Twilight.” The pair headed out into the hall and proceeded towards the castle gardens. The charity ball was being held in the banquet hall and adjacent garden. The guests were to be gathered in the courtyard before a short commemorative speech by Celestia, after which the guests would be let into the banquet hall and the ball would begin in earnest. “So what’s the plan for the ball Twilight?”

   “Well, I imagine after the princess is done with her speech I’ll likely try to stay close to her, I’d rather not be surrounded by a bunch of posh ponies who seek to make pointless banter for the sake of raising their social status. If I’m with Celestia, she can help me disperse them should they grow too many. You know how they get around royalty.”

   “Geeze Twilight you make them sound like a horde of zombies.” remarked Spike.

   “For all intents and purposes they are Spike. They swarm around big juicy targets like a princess or a diplomat just so they can be seen talking to them. They basically feed off reputation.”

   “Ahhhh,” Spike moaned, wobbling with his steps and holding his arms up in front of him, “Popularity… Social status… Feed me reputation.” Spike’s poor zombie imitation was a cheap laugh the both of them shared for a little bit on their way to the garden. They went unabated for the rest of their trek through the castle passageways, winding staircases, and massive halls, and arrived at the castle garden in a timely manner. The garden was packed full of posh, well dressed ponies and to each side of the garden were two long tables loaded with hors d'oeuvres  to sate any hungers until the ball began in earnest. Up near the entrance to the banquet hall was a large stage where Celestia and Luna were talking to the headmistress of the foal’s home the ball was benefitting beneath a large banner that read “40th Annual Canterlot Foal’s Home Charity Ball”.

   “Hang out down here by the stairs Spike, I’ll meet you back down here when the ball begins and we’ll go in together.”

   “Sounds good to me.” Spike replied staying at the bottom of the steps while Twilight ascended to stand next to the other princesses. Upon reaching them Twilight was greeted by Celestia and introduced to the headmistress.

   “Ah Twilight, good morning, I would like you to meet Merriweather, the headmistress of the Canterlot Foal’s Home.” Twilight extended a hoof out to the pony opposite her in the group.

   “So delighted to finally meet you princess, princess Celestia speaks quite highly of you.” Merriweather proclaimed.

   “The pleasure is all mine ma’am, you do great things here in Canterlot, and I’m quite excited to help you further your efforts.” Twilight and Merriweather shook hooves and shared a short chat until the bell tolled eight signaling the start time for the event. All of the ponies gathered more compactly in front of the stage, and the princesses along with the head mistress took their allotted positions upon it. The three princesses, Celestia in the middle with Twilight on her right and Luna on her left, stood in the back and Merriweather stood in the foreground to address the crowd.

   “Fillies and gentlecolts, I would like to welcome you all today to the fortieth annual Canterlot Foal’s Home charity ball.” A brief round of stomping hooves acknowledged her statement. “I am thankful for each of your contributions this day, and would like to encourage you to give kindly. While the foal’s home hasn’t fallen on hard times in many years it is your continued support that has assured that, and with your continued support we can keep running smoothly for many years to come. Now without further ado I present to you princess Celestia.” Merriweather relented the front of the stage to her princess as Celestia approached to the sound of stomping hooves.

   “Good morning everyone, I hope this day has found you well.” The crowd shuffled with smiles and brief remarks to one another before returning their attention to the princess. “It has been on this day for the past forty years that I have called the citizens of Canterlot to ask for their aid in making sure that the orphaned foals of Canterlot have had a place to ca-“ A loud thud originating from Twilight’s right stopped the princess mid-sentence. Looking over Twilight saw a crossbow bolt buried deep into the wooden pole that made held up the large banner above their heads.

   Turning back to Celestia Twilight saw her looking back inquisitively, wondering what it was that had made the noise. Before Celestia made the realization of the danger she was in, a second bolt flying from the tower far to the left at the back of the garden struck Celestia in the neck and passed through, planting itself in the stage below followed by a shower of blood that covered the ground beneath her and drizzled Twilight with crimson specks. Before anyone even had time to scream a third bolt buried itself in Celestia’s right shoulder and broke out the other side of her chest, sticking out with a spray of blood not unlike the last, sending her to her knees. Merriweather and the rest of the crowd let out blood curdling screams and began to flee the area. The guards began their run toward the princess but could not reach her before the second volley began.

   The first bolt came from the same direction the as the last barrage, it found it’s mark in the chest of the guard running up the stairs to Twilight’s right, stopping him at the top of the stairs where he began bleeding profusely. The second bolt was targeted at Celestia yet again, where it hit her left flank and buried itself in her hip. Before the third bolt could find its mark the guard from the opposite side of the stage had made it up the stairs and threw himself atop the princess. The third bolt came down striking him in the side, penetrating his armor, but only going in a short ways before stopping. Twilight stood in horror for what seemed like hours watching Celestia cough blood as she locked eyes with Twilight, her wounds bleed profusely, and Twilight felt completely useless.

   Taking a moment she looked towards the two towers at the far end of the gardens. Beneath them panicked ponies scrambled for cover from bolts that were not targeted at them. Then the third volley came. The first bolt struck at Twilight’s feet, jolting her to evasive action. The second bolt came in and nailed Twilight’s dress train to the stage, but her momentum was enough to rip the fabric freeing her. The third bolt she expected did not come; instead she looked in the direction of left tower and saw Luna, flying at full speed towards it.

   Without thinking she flew off after Luna thinking she might have seen something. The last thing she did before taking off was look back down at Celestia beneath the guard. Her face was pained and her eyes were full of worry, not for herself, but for Twilight and her sister. Celestia lay in a pool of blood, coughing up more with each breath; things looked incredibly bleak for her. Frantically taking off from the stage Twilight tried with all she had to carry herself to Luna. Luna had just reached the tower and raced inside from the balcony she landed on. As Twilight flew through air she heard the whistling of a single bolt cut the air next to her, she thanked her lucky stars as she reached the tower to find Luna standing above two guards who had detained a pony pegasus mare and were holding her to the ground.

   “Hold him here until we get back, do NOT let him escape or we shall throw the both of you from the tower spire!” Luna screamed at them with incredible volume and rage. Shortly after barking her orders she set out onto the wall between the tower and the banquet hall. Following her out Twilight could scarcely keep up with Luna as she bolted.

   Exiting onto the Wall Twilight could see Luna already a third of the way across. At the end of the wall where it went into yet another tower that cornered the courtyard two ponies appeared in the doorway, both with crossbows trained at Luna. One fired first and his bolt was caught in flight by Luna’s magic that fired at back at them nailing the second pony in the leg, which after receiving a bolt to the thigh fired his crossbow into the sky where it slammed into the tower across the wall and shattered harmlessly. Magic could be seen emanating from the crossbow of the first assassin and a lever rose up from the front of the crossbow as he took off from the door frame.

   The wounded archer tried reloading his weapon, but could not complete the task before Luna was upon him. Luna leapt toward the assailant, planting her hoof against his temple with a thunderous blow as Twilight had finally managed to catch up to her, knocking him out cold. Twilight looked down the hallway leading into the banquet hall to locate the next assailant, no sooner did she turn did Twilight see him. He stood on his hind hooves, and trained his crossbow on Luna. Twilight saw him fire a bolt in Luna’s direction as she turned to face him herself.

   The bolt had come too far for Luna to stop it and it found its mark in her right eye socket, tearing out the side of her face taking her eye with it. Luna staggered, screamed a pained, angered roar and furiously glared at the assassin at the end of the hall with her lone eye. Her eyes began to glow an incredibly bright white with magic, the wounded eye was not visible beneath veil of magic Luna was currently using to restore her eyesight and small wispy tails of magic wove in and out of her wounds as she tried to suppress the pain. The blood from the damaged socket ran from her eye socket and the exit wound on the side of her face. It was almost as if she was crying blood in her rage. Twilight stood feet away from her in sheer horror.

   “You DARE strike your princess worm!” Her voice boomed with a terrifying, unnatural echo. “We will tear you limb from limb!” Luna set off down the hall at great speed, followed by Twilight in a vain attempt to keep up with her. The assassin barely made it four steps before Luna had hauled him up with her magic. Not giving him a moment to realize the situation he was in, Luna threw him across the banquet hall. Twilight reached the door to the banquet hall in time to see him crash into opposite wall followed closely by Luna. “You have only begun to suffer whelp!” boomed a terrifying Luna before picking him up again and slamming him into the roof, “You DARE come to Canterlot!” Luna caught him and slammed him into the floor, “You DARE attack my sister!” Luna picked up the bolts from his quiver and began firing them at him with extreme force, nailing him to the tile floor by his legs. “You DARE attack US with your archaic weaponry!” Luna ripped him from the floor, tearing the bolts through his limbs, he screamed in agony. Spraying blood in a trail the entire time he flew. Luna lobbed him through the windows into the courtyard on the other side of the banquet hall from where Celestia lied bleeding upon the stage.

   She followed him out planting her right front hoof in his chest with force. “And you DARE think you could escape ME! I surely hope you hate pain unicorn, because it’s about to become all that’s left of your world.” Luna stared down at him with her glowing eyes in a hateful glare, blood from her wound dripping onto the assassin’s face. Twilight came alongside Luna as she started to finish the assassin.

   “Limb… from… limb…” she spat hatefully at the unicorn beneath her. The assassin began to scream as if intense pain, but Twilight could not see what he was screaming about, Luna was not doing anything immediately apparent to her, and then it became clear. The sickening sound of a breaking bone accompanied his screams as his horn tore free from his skull. His limbs began to extend outward and twist, creating more sickening noises as the rolled. Twilight could find nothing to say, instead she stand frozen by the grisly spectacle in front of her, unable to move. The flesh began to tear at the stallion’s front shoulder to more agonized screams, the blood running from where his horn had once been was clouding his vision.

   The stallion’s cries shifted to mercy, and tears began to mix with the blood in his eyes. With a disgusted look on her face she retracted her hoof from his chest and held him aloft in front of her with her magic. His dislocated limbs hung limply at his side, bleeding from the tears that had begun to form where they connected to his body. “Mercy?... MERCY? Dost our ears defy us Twilight Sparkle?” Luna turned to Twilight, her face burned into Twilight’s memory forever. Luna expression was as if she’d suddenly been taken aback, as if she truly could not believe the assassin had asked her for mercy. Her glowing eyes were truly terrifying as they stared into Twilight’s soul, the blood from her wound kept flowing, dripping down the side of her face and from her eye. Twilight was never more scared in her life than she was of Princess Luna in that moment. “Well Twilight Sparkle?” Luna questioned impatiently, her voice still emitting booming, angered echoes. “Dost this whelp just request mercy from us?!”

   “I- I, I uhm… I gue-” The words stumbled from Twilight’s mouth like a child’s first clumsy words. The stallion in Luna’s grasp sobbed uncontrollably, he looked to Twilight as if she might offer him some form of salvation, and Twilight was confused as to whether or not she would allow him that even if she could. Even after what had just transpired, she was unsure that any pony deserved what Luna was going to do to him.

   “YES OR NO TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” Luna impatiently demanded of her, bringing Twilight to tears.

   “Yes,” she started sobbing, “Yes, he asked for mercy.” Twilight was in fear even though her life was no longer in danger at the hands of assassins.

   “Mercy… ha! What type of coward art thou? Where was my sister’s mercy?!” Luna lobbed him into the fountain in the middle of the courtyard, shattering the tiered fountain and sending him into the waters. Walking over she picked him up once again with her magic and held him aloft for a moment. “You would not be showing me mercy were the tables turned.” The assassin pleaded, and lied saying that he would of showed her mercy. “Do not sully thyself further you coward!” Luna once again threw the unicorn through the air, and brought him down with enough force to crack a stepping stone in the courtyard flower bed. “You will receive no mercy from us worm! You will DIE here, but not before we have deemed thine suffering sufficient!” The cries of the assassin grew more gargles and frantic with each toss, he was scared to die, even if it meant suffering through more of the princess’ torturous ravage of his body, he would cling to life to the last.

   “Plee-, mersss, jut sto-” his cries fell on spiteful ears.

   “We find it strange that of all professions a coward such as thyself would choose to be an assassin. If we were thou we would try to save as much of our shattered dignity and die with a little grace, but instead thou insists on CRYING LIKE A FOAL!” Luna once again lifted the stallion into the air and held him in front of her. “LOOK INTO MY EYE WORM!” Luna’s eyes stopped glowing, revealing her torn eyelid closed around the wounded eye.

   Her remaining eye had changed from what it was however, her remaining eye was reptilian in shape, just like it was when she assumed the form of nightmare moon. The pupil dilated to abnormally large and a dark purple magic swam over the head of the unicorn in her grasp, whose screams of pain were now those of absolute horror. Gone were the sobbing pleas for mercy and the pained groans, they had been replaced by the horrified, high pitch screams of fear that gargled and popped from the mucus and blood mixed in his throat. “KNOW FEAR WHELP! WE WANT YOU TO KNOW THE VOID OF THE UNENDING NIGHTMARE BEFORE WE END YOU! SCREAM LOUDER, IT ONLY MAKES IT WORSE!” Luna began laughing uncontrollably, her voice had changed, and she sounded exactly like nightmare moon.

   Twilight’s tears now soaked her bloodstained dress, and she was once again frozen as she huddled into a ball on the ground trying to cover her eyes, but finding herself unable to move to shelter her vision. Luna’s maniacal laughing was deafeningly loud, drowning out the horrified screams of her victim. Luna then tossed him back into the fountain, continuing her laugh. As she approached the fountain she brought her laughter under control and took up a new mocking demeanor, and with a blink her eyes returned to their glowing. “We must admit coward, thine death has proved most entertaining to us. It’s a great shame that it won’t bring Celestia back!” Twilight shuddered at what Luna had said, “If only it could, we would assume she would be perfectly fine with the amount of work we’ve put into you.” Luna’s tone shifted suddenly to somber and angry, “But she is gone now, and we will mourn her later. For now we will exact our momentary vengeance out of you.” Luna plucked the stallion from the waters before he could drown and dropped him onto the ground at her feet.

   Placing her hoof on his neck she pressed down and began casting once again. The sinewy noises of cracking bone once again reverberated from his body, and the red lines around his hips and shoulders began to grow. Twisting them further, the stallion’s leg began to tear free of his body where Luna simply cast them aside as they tore, her hoof still firmly planted on the assassin’s neck. His pupils began to bulge, and his eyes raced for something he couldn’t find as the last vestiges of life left his body as his air ran out. All the while Twilight sat huddled up crying at everything that had transpired. See what was happening and hearing what Luna had said had shocked Twilight near to breaking. The bloody stump of a stallion finally went limp beneath Luna’s hoof and she held her hoof in place for a minute longer, all the while staring hatefully into his dead eyes, hers still glowing.

   After a while longer she relented, she closed her eyes and exhaled a deep breath. Opening them again Twilight could see they were no longer glowing, and the one remaining had returned to normal, no longer did it bear resemblance to the reptilian eyes of nightmare moon. Luna turned to Twilight from where she stood and spoke softly. “We are sorry Twilight Sparkle. Thou never should have had to of seen this. We never should have done what we did to you here. We should not have dragged you down with our self as we descended once again into the dark.” Luna’s words were spoken with great shame in her voice. “Our sister has gone to the goddess Twilight Sparkle, we felt it when we were running along the wall. We could not control our self, and for that we are sorry. But now we must restore order Twilight Sparkle.” Luna approached Twilight, “We must go to the citizens and let them know that the threat has been eliminated, at least for now. We must let them know what has transpired.” Luna extended a hoof to Twilight with a sorrowful look on her face. Even after losing the only family Luna had left in the world, she still kept her royal composure. Her one remaining eye revealed enormous emotional pain that the loss of an eye paled in comparison to. “Come Twilight Sparkle, let us go.”

***

   “That was the beginning. The day the machine set in motion.” Twilight spoke to Spike; he had been completely silent during Twilight’s retelling of Luna’s wrath. Even though he had only just now heard of it, Twilight recounted the tale with enough detail to freeze his blood. He drew many similarities from Twilight’s tale and his own, for it was the fear of Twilight that had driven him away those centuries ago.

   “That was bone-chilling.” remarked Spike.

   “How do you think it was to be there? Especially just after witnessing the assassination, I was mortified, I didn’t sleep for days.”

   “If I recall it wasn’t too long after that that the first news of conspiracy began coming in.”

   “A day… they really capitalized on momentum, they allowed a day for the news to spread and then they made their move. Celestia wasn’t even buried yet and they were already moving against us.” A tear almost made it to Twilight’s eye, but she’d long ago lost the capacity to cry.

   “They always did make the most of their momentum… the bastards.” A ball of ancient rage worked a knot in Spike’s gut as he sat there in memory. He fought it back knowing that there was no outlet for it. “At least they got what was coming to them.”

   “At least.” The pair sat in quiet contemplation before moving on.

IV: Closing the Wound

IV

   The night of assassination the castle was night silent. Demoralized guards stood at their posts with dread and sorrow. All staff had been sent home after the day’s events and the halls were void of life. Castle guests stayed in their suites and were issued a guard to watch them over night. Twilight lay in her bed sobbing. Celestia, her mentor, her idol, her second mother... had been brutally murdered in front of her very eyes, and there was nothing Twilight could do to stop it.

   The shock had worn away when she was with Luna in the courtyard, where her emotions were switched to fear by the mercilessness of Luna’s onslaught against the assassin she had captured. Twilight ran across the banquet hall after Luna had finished with her prey and she reached the stage before Celestia had been removed, or even covered up. Twilight flew up to the stage and landed at Celestia’s side and threw herself atop her lifeless body and burst into hysterical tears. The wounded guard was feet away, lying on his side being seen to by a castle medic and several other guards were escorting people off the castle grounds. Luna had simply walked slowly across the hall and began up the steps, stopping to close the eyes of the deceased guard that lay upon them before walking to Twilight.

   “Twilight Sparkle.” Spoke Luna, “We request that you refrain from such displays at this time.” Luna’s stern voice did well to disguise her crumbling emotional state. “We understand that this has been a most traumatic day for you, it has been greatly distressing for us as well, but now we must speak to our subjects.” Luna’s tone was calm and dignified, even under these circumstances; she spoke as a true ruler.

   “How can you just stand there like that? How can you just be so cold?” Twilight sobbed.

   “We are deeply distressed by the present events Twilight Sparkle, do not misunderstand us. We have suffered greatly today Twilight Sparkle, more than you know. But we are princesses Twilight Sparkle, and we have a duty to our subjects. If they see us in fear they will surely fall to despair and panic. We must be strong in harsh times, especially now Twilight Sparkle. We must go to them and assure them that even though Celestia is no longer with us, we are still here to lead them through this time. Be strong Twilight Sparkle, our citizens need us to be.”

   Twilight looked to Luna from hugging Celestia’s neck. Her one remaining eye was fixed upon her, and looking into it she could see that Luna was trying very hard to keep her composure. Her soul burned in her body and she desperately wanted to give up her calm and exchange it for tears to lessen the pain, but she would not allow herself that luxury, not now. Twilight however could not compose herself. No matter how much Luna’s words tried to convince her, she simply wasn’t prepared for it. Luna looked down from Twilight and turned to her left back towards the banquet hall. Twilight could see the bolt’s exit wound on the side of her face had still refused to stop bleeding, though Luna had surely used her magic to suppress it. Drips of crimson kept steadily dripping onto the ground wherever she walked, and when she grimaced from the pain of her cut eyelid twitching from nerves, yet another drop would seep from her tear duct.

   “We understand Twilight Sparkle,” Said Luna turning back to Twilight, “you are still very new to loss, and just as new to being a princess. We will go them; you stay here for as long as you need. A troop of guards with be along shortly to see our sister’s remains to a safer place, be sure to let them do as they need. We advise that you return to your quarters when they arrive, we are sorry there is not much more we can say Twilight Sparkle.” Luna turned and walked from the stage towards the castle gate. Twilight remained on her knees crying into Celestia’s coat. After several minutes, as Luna had said, a guard troop with a gurney and large sheet came to her side.

   “Princess Twilight,” said Captain Steel Hoof.

   “A thousand pardons princess,” his words were spoken with great sorrow and worry, “but Princess Luna has ordered us see that Celestia’s body is seen to, I must ask you to relent her remains to us.” He was greatly pained by the gravity of his words.

   Twilight rose to her hooves, “Yes,” she sobbed, “sorry to be in the way captain…” Twilight wiped her eyes, “Carry on.”

   “No princess, it is we who are sorry, we have failed you all.” Twilight didn’t say anything to the captain’s apology; she simply started off in the direction of the tower her bedroom resided in. On the way to her room she had to pass through the great hall, upon entering the door, she was greeted with hundreds of ponies immediately in front of her. The closest few began to immediately assail her with questions before the two guards at the door charged in to block them from Twilight. Up towards the thrones Twilight could see Luna, staring at her through all the commotion.

   “Citizens!” Luna called out from the back of the hall, silencing the room, “Today is a day of great sorrow.” She began, “Today our very own sister, Princess Celestia had been struck down by assassins… but we have secured the traitors and have detained them within the castle dungeon where they await justice. We would have you all know that we plan on finding out the source that planned such a heinous act immediately and we will mete out swift and righteous judgment upon them. Today’s heinous act will not be forgotten, and we will not rest until we have seen those responsible for such a crime punished to the full extent. In the mean time we shall all mourn the great loss we have suffered today. Our sister loved each and every one of you greatly, and we know that she is looking down upon us all from the warm embrace of the goddess. Further news will be distributed in the days to come, until then we bid you all return to your homes and hold your families closely. We shall let it be known when the funeral will be held, and what shall be done with the traitors.” Luna held the crowd’s attention with her aura of absolute authority. During Luna’s addressing the crowd Twilight had been, with a guard escort, making her way across the great hall to the stairs behind the throne. By the time Luna had finished, Twilight was by her side, almost to the first steps.

   “We never were very good with addressing the subjects,” said Luna to Twilight, “perhaps in time you shall prove a better speaker than us, Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight simply kept sulking by. “We will visit you later Twilight Sparkle. Before then, however, we must attend to something.” Luna’s voice grew quiet and sinister as she finished her last sentence. Twilight simply kept walking to her room.

***

   Back in the present, Spike had question for Twilight.

   “So where did Luna go after that?” asked Spike. Twilight looked up to him from the fire in the tower hearth.

   “She went to interrogate the prisoners. Weeks later I asked a guard later on what she had done and the story was just about as grisly as my encounter with Luna’s wrath.”

***

   Luna entered the barracks by throwing open the doors with a thunderous boom, “Where are they!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. The frightened guards pointed in the direction of the holding cells at the front of the castle dungeon. Luna moved with purpose and wrath, each step almost cracking the tiles beneath her hooves. Arriving at the door to the dungeon she threw it open yet again, knocking the guards in front of them out of the way without a word of apology. Turning into the dungeon she saw the guards had detained them to the same cell where they sat looking accomplished at the back of cell. “All of you out!” Luna ordered the guards. They rushed out back into the barracks and huddled around the door to try and see through the window.

   “So… these are the traitors.” Luna glared at the two ponies in the cell, one a large white unicorn stallion and the other a yellow pegasi mare.

   “You’re no princess to us!” spat the unicorn.

   “Silence!” Luna lifted the bench they sat upon throwing them to the floor before breaking it over the unicorn’s back. “You will speak only when I have given you permission to speak.”

   “We’ll speak when we damn well please, Princess!” the mare shouted back to Luna, sarcastically emphasizing Luna’s title.

   “I said SILENCE WHELPS!” Luna picked them both up inside the cell and threw them at the door with such force that it broke it from it’s bolts and sent it to the floor at Luna’s side. Rising to their feet they attempted to take up a defensive stance as the guards rushed in. “OUT, ALL OF YOU!” Luna boomed, throwing the guards from the dungeon and barring the door from the inside. Luna turned back to the pair of prisoners and saw the pegasus try to move her wing before flinching in pain from her now broken appendage, half of her wing hung limply from the solid end. “What’s the matter, is your wing hurt? Let me assist you you.” Luna mocked her, moment later her wing tore free from her body at the base, the mare screamed a blood curdling scream of pain. “There!, no more wing to ail you.

   “Ellie!” cried the unicorn with great worry in his voice before lifting a guards spear off the wall with his magic and throwing it at Luna. Luna didn’t even flinch as she stopped the spear and swung it around, striking the unicorn in the head with the handle before picking the both of them up and lifting them to her.

   “We have come to demand information from the both of you. Should you choose to offer it is purely up to you, but know that you’re not in the kind forgiving hooves of my sister, you have seen that she will never cast judgment over any pony ever again. You are in the cold, merciless hooves of Luna, princess of the night. If you should choose to remain resistant to my demands you will be met with a fate similar to that of your fellow conspirator.”

   “And what does the big scary princess of the night think she can do to make us talk!” the pegasi mare spoke bravely.

   “A strong one we see, your friend screamed and begged for mercy whilst we beat him into pulp before tearing his limbs off and  choked the last bits of life from his body. You will perhaps prove more satisfactory than that coward.” Luna looked to the unicorn to see him looking at the pegasus with worry. “Your fellow however is weaker than yourself; we believe he will give us what we seek.”

   “Not a damn word Quint!” the mare warned the unicorn.

   Gulping down the lump in his throat he replied, “Whatever you say Ellie.”

   “We see that you know one another quite well, might we ask your relationship” Luna’s tone shifted from pure hate to sinister inquiry. The two ponies in her grasp remained silent. “We have a QUESTION for both of you!” Luna threw them straight back into the bars of the cell behind them. “How do you know one another?” she asked yet again with an impatient yell. Still they remained silent, “At least you will not let us become bored, and we were worrying that you would.” Luna lifted the pegasus as she tried to get to her feet and held the unicorn to the ground. With the motion of her head she threw the mare into the stallion, impaling her side on his horn. The pegasi let out a pained grunt as the unicorn’s resolve broke.

   “Husband and wife!” he shouted

   “Oh really, how romantic.” Luna picked them both up and flopped them about like puppets in a theater as she spoke, “A husband and wife who do everything together I suppose, they hug, they kiss, they MURDER OUR SISTER!” Luna picked them both up again and slammed them against the wall, lofting a spear up from the weapon rack behind her she brought it’s point to the pegasi’s  chest, “Quint and Ellie correct?” Luna motioned the spear and cut a heart shape into the mare’s, “Quint and Ellie sitting in a tree!” Luna sang angrily, continuing on to carve their names into the mare’s chest as she grunted in pain trying not to scream. “K-I-S-S-I-” Luna was cut off by the pleas of the unicorn.

   “Please, I’ll tell you what you want!” he broke in on Luna’s macabre singing.

   “Not a word Quint!” yelled the pegasus through the pain, “You mustn’t, if they find out you squealed-”

   “Speak freely worm, we can assure you that whoever has put you to this cannot do worse than us.” As Luna spoke she finished carving “Ellie & Quint” in the heart she’d cut into the mare’s skin.

   “We’re…”

   “Quint! Be strong; don’t let this bitch get to you! Be strong for me!” Luna reacted very poorly to being insulted so.

   “Quiet whelp!” Luna shouted torquing the mare’s back left leg with her magic until a large pop could be heard as it dislocated. “Proceed.” Luna turned back to the stallion.

   “We… were…” The stallion’s words were full of hesitation.

   “Quint! Please!” the mare pleaded once more, though tears had formed in her eyes, she had not begun to sob.

   “We said be QUIET!” Luna threw her hoof into the mare’s neck pinning her further to the wall. “You had best provide an expedient answer, lest she die in my hooves before you can finish.”

   “Please, just… We’re not alone! We’re part of the army of the red sun, and we’re just the beginning, soon the rest will appear!” The stallion’s words were completely void of bravery of any form. He spoke hurriedly and panicked at the sight of his beloved being strangled.

   “What is the army of the red sun?” Luna questioned, her hoof still planted in the mare’s neck.

   “A rebel army, please release her!” In his panic he spoke out of context as to provide simple answers quickly in hopes of quickly saving his wife from asphyxiation.

   “A rebel army? Why do you seek to unseat the throne?”

   “To put an end to the matriarchy and put in place a government where the citizens will be heard.” He shifted between panicked glances between Luna and his bride.

   “What?” Luna yelled, retracting her hoof from the mare’s neck, who let out a gasp for the surrounding air to refresh her pained lungs. “Where the citizens will be heard? Our sister did nothing if not everything for you all! She always did! What could you possibly seek to accomplish by killing her!”

   “Ha,” the mare laughed between gasps for breath, “Celestia sat idle on the throne while fillies and foals died of starvation in the Northern settlements without batting an eye, we’ve suffered long under her rule and have received no assistance from Canterlot through all of our woes, and your dam guards are corrupt, taking what they want from us at every opportunity. Things will be better when you join your sister in Tartarus and the red sun works for the betterment of all!” The mare spat in Luna’s face.

   “You dare speak of Celestia in such a way!” Luna went into a blind fury and threw the mare across the room. Picking her back up she threw her once again and ripped her remaining wing off.

   “Please, you got what you wanted, now leave us to our fate!” cried the stallion. Luna turned picked him up and brought him alongside his wife in front of her. She was heavily bruised, and she bled profusely from her wounds, especially the places where her wings used to be, the stallion by contrast had only received minor injuries.

   “Ellie,” the stallion sobbed, “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t… I just couldn’t.”

   “Please Quint, just…” her breathing was strained by the pain, “I know…”

   “Now your wife here is far too bloodied for public execution, what would every pony think if they saw that marched out to the guillotine? They would surely want to know what had happened, not that they would care about a couple of traitors. She would also not be a very good show. How could some pony as strong willed as her provide any satisfaction to see accept her fate with quiet dignity, it wouldn’t be any at all. No, she will never see the light of the sun again. You however,” Luna turned to the stallion, “You will be marched out onto the executioner's block where your fear of death will be made apparent in front of a crowd that hates everything about you, and they will relish every last moment of your fear as the blade comes down upon your neck. Lucky for you, you don’t have any backbone, the blade will quite cut cleanly.”

   Luna stared at the stallion, whose gaze did not come off of the pegasus in front of him. “Before I release you to your respective fates, I will offer you both one last chance to embrace one another, you wouldn’t want to be leaving without saying goodbye.” Luna tossed them to the ground in front of her and the unicorn scrambled to the pegasus. He lifted her up and sat beside her holding her in his hooves as she lay in his embrace, exhausted from her ordeal.

   “I’m so sorry Ellie… I’m so sorry.” He spoke.

   “I know Quint, I just wish things could be different.” She replied in pained whispers.

   “I love you Ellie.”

   “I love you too Quint, I’ll meet you in the embrace of the goddess.” The stallion bent his neck in to kiss his wife and after short moment Luna froze them in place with their mouths pressed together.

   “How touching.” She spoke coldly, “We sure hope you made sure to use plenty of tongue, this was to be your final kiss. Also we have a request to make of both of you, well tis more of an order as neither of you has any say in the matter… Bite down.” Luna spoke and the pair was contorted by her magic. Both began muffled screams as blood began to run from their mouths. Tears formed in their eyes as they stared at one another. After several agonizing seconds Luna ripped the two apart and tossed them to opposite ends of the room. Both of them spat out the bits of each other’s tongues they bit off along with the blood that pooled in their mouths. The mare screamed a gargled scream of pain as the tears welled up in her eyes, and the stallion began crying hysterically.

   “Now then, tis about time we finished this don’t you think. We require something from you unicorn.” Said Luna as she walked over to him, “A moment please.” Luna forced her left hoof on the stallions head and put him to the floor. Raising her right she came down hard on his horn, snapping it off, leaving a jagged bleeding bone jutting from his face. “Wouldn’t want any magic tricks at the show would we?” The stallion screamed through the blood in his mouth as Luna picked up his horn with her magic. “Now then, we must be going, we apparently have a rebellion to quash. And if it’s full of cowards such as thyself we should little have trouble doing it.” Turning to the pegasus she propelled the horn with her magic straight into the mare’s forehead, her limp body fell to the floor facing the unicorn, her eyes wide open. Luna simply unbarred the door and walked out, “Clean up the mess, and prepare the unicorn for execution on the morrow.”  She said to the frozen guards at the door. Luna walked to her tower completely silent where she remained for several hours before she would go to Twilight’s room to inform her of the situation.

V: Aftermath

V

   Twilight lied in her bed cuddled up next to Spike, sobbing into her pillow, the moonlight from her window casting blue shades around the room. It had been an hour or so since her hysterical crying had turned to simply tearing up silently into her pillow and sniffling every now and again to clear her nose. Spike simply lay up against her, trying to console her. Celestia was always good to Spike, but she and he had never become close. The closest thing Spike could fathom to compare Twilight’s emotional state would be if he lost Twilight. Celestia was like a second mother to Twilight, her younger years under the direct tutelage of Celestia, spending most of her time at the castle instead of back at home. In many ways Celestia was the biggest figure in Twilight’s life, and now she was gone. It had been hours since either had said anything. Spike had been shunted off back to his quarters after Celestia had taken the first bolt and the only thing he got from Twilight when she came back spattered with blood was “She’s gone Spike.” All that happened after that was Twilight breaking down into hysterical tears, bringing them to where they are now.

   The door opened slowly in the other room of Twilight’s chambers. Muffled hoof steps could be heard treading the rugs in the next room. After a few moments Luna came into view in the doorway to her bedroom. Luna was not wearing her crown or breastplate; her hooves were bare as well lacking the jeweled guards she normally wore. Luna had left her normal attire back in her suite and preceded to Twilight’s plainly, an uncharacteristic informality Luna seldom allowed herself. She had also had her wound seen to. Luna had the wounded eyeball removed from its socket by the castle surgeon during her time in her suite, and after such a long time without the anesthetic of sheer rage the pain was starting to get to her despite her use of magic to suppress the pain. Her eye lid was closed over the now empty socket and there was an x shape cut in her upper eyelid where the bold had made its pass, and the side of her face was bandaged where the bolt had exited. Her remaining eye looked on Twilight with great pain, both physical and emotional.

   “Twilight Sparkle, we have to come to see to you, and ask if thou art in need of anything we can provide.” Luna spoke in an uncharacteristically melancholy tone, “We have also come to speak with you about today’s events and what we have learned about our sister’s assassins. There is much to discuss, and time is of the essence, we apologize if this seems too soon but we must discuss what is upon us.” Luna levitated a tissue to Twilight as she lifted her head from her tear soaked pillow. With a sniffle and a nod Twilight took the tissue with her magic and wiped her eyes before blowing her nose and discarding it into a trash bin with dozens of other tissues.

   “What’s there to talk about?” Twilight spoke depressingly “Celestia’s gone, murdered.”

   “Yes Twilight Sparkle, but we must press on despite her loss. We understand that without our sister things have become bleak and now her throne sits empty, but we cannot be lost in grief now Twilight Sparkle, our subjects need us to be strong.” Luna’s voice was abnormally sincere, her normal formality had seemed to of melted away in the stress of the day, this was apparent when she first walked in, but now as she spoke Twilight could perceive a new depth to Luna, a side she’d only caught glimpses of last nightmare night, “Tomorrow there will be a public execution of the remaining prisoner, this display, while macabre and barbaric, will help the public grieve in its own way.” Twilight couldn’t think of how killing an assassin in front of everyone would help their situation, but Luna continued on speaking from the years of experience as a leader before her exile, “Right now they are scared and unsure, by showing them that we have captured the traitors and displaying our ability to deal with the problem it will help to quell unrest and give the populace some sense of retribution and justice, at least in Canterlot.” Twilight sniffled and wiped her eyes with another tissue.

   “I… I just don’t see how anyone could have done this, why Celestia? What did she do to deserve this?” Twilight finished her statement with a fresh outburst of whimpers and tears, Luna stared on, her dignified expression had not returned to her face, instead she looked on the verge of tears, but she would not allow herself to succumb to those feelings, now was not the time.

   “The assassins were not alone Twilight Sparkle they are part of something much bigger.” Twilight looked to Luna to hear better, “These assassins are the just the beginning, from our interrogations of the remaining two we learned that the within the northern settlements there is such great unrest that many have decided to rebel against us. They call themselves the “Army of the Red Sun.” Twilight looked on shocked at what Luna was saying, meanwhile Luna had walked to the window and was staring outside, “While their plan is unclear they did relent that their ultimate goal is the elimination of the throne, they seek to topple us Twilight Sparkle.” Luna turned from the window; her face was now stern as if the revisiting of her newfound information had angered her. Blood had begun once again crawling its way out of her tear duct as if she were crying blood.

   “What? Why would anyone want to…? Why would-” Twilight struggled to reply.

   “They said our sister sat idle on the throne, that our subjects to the north were falling to attrition, and suffering from the lack of attention by her.” Luna cut her off, “We fail to see how this is the case, our sister did nothing if not everything for our subjects.” Luna raised her voice and stomped the ground, cracking yet another tile beneath her hoof. After a moment Luna composed herself, “We apologize Twilight Sparkle, this has been the hardest day of our life and without our sister, and we find it hard to keep our anger in check. She was always helped us with our temper.” Luna paused before continuing, “Moving on, I know you must detest such displays but I would ask your presence at the execution tomorrow. Much like the speech yesterday, we need to appear strong to our citizens, they find strength in us, and if we hide from them it will only worsen their despair, and lead them thoughts of our weakness. We must be strong for them Twilight Sparkle, we cannot say it enough. Until we have you a set of jeweled plate and a crown to wear to such functions, simply attend as you would a gathering of friends, there’s no sense getting dressed up for such a thing.”

   “Alright.” Twilight sobbed in reply.

   “The next day will be Celestia’s funeral,” Luna hesitated, “We will pay our final respects to our sister and then we shall light the funeral pyre, giving her whole to the goddess.” Again Luna paused, everything starting to boil inside her was becoming increasingly hard to suppress, but she kept it inside, at least for now. “Dress in black, as would be befitting of a funeral. After we have finished the service we will then discuss our course of action to see to the coming rebellion, if they are out there, they will likely not wait for us to finish mourning, so in the mean time I’ve dispatched a contingent of guards to Ponyville and tightened security in Canterlot. I’ve also sent flyers to halt the supply caravan heading north and have them return with everything. In the coming days we wait for the enemy to reveal themselves, and then we will strike back.” Luna’s face grew despondent, “We will be very vulnerable until that time, so remain within the castle unless absolutely necessary.” Luna looked at Twilight from her bedside with burdened eyes, Twilight’s were still laden with tears she still fought the constant battle to clear her breathing passages with the tissues beside her bed, “We will keep you informed as the days go by Twilight Sparkle, and we will also need to begin your training. Our sister was originally going to teach you the ways of being a princess, but now that duty falls to us. We must start tomorrow so as to help everyone else resume a sense of normalcy around here. Most of the clerical duties will be seen to by the castle staff in the coming days, but there will be a few things, such as criminal judgments and other rulings that must be seen to by the princesses directly. We will inform you of such appointments and accompany you to them to show you your new duties.” Luna stepped towards the door before stopping and turning back to Twilight, picking up a tissue from the box aside Twilight’s bed she wiped the blood from her wound and turning back towards the door to the living room of Twilight’s chambers. “Until tomorrow that is all Twilight Sparkle, we shall send for you in the morning.” Luna nodded and stepped through the threshold, and after an unusually long period of time without the door opening, Luna came back into sight in the threshold to Twilight’s bedroom. “We apologize for everything today Twilight Sparkle, many things we done that we regret putting you through, and we wanted to be sure that you understood that.” Luna looked to Twilight with the first look of shame Twilight had ever seen Luna make, her eyes begged forgiveness, and her voice was pained and regretful, Luna wanted few things more than to know her transgressions  against Twilight were forgiven.

   “I understand Luna, it’s been a very stressful day for everyone.” Twilight whimpered.

   “Good… good…” Luna began to turn away before stopping once again, “Would you mind if we stayed here tonight Twilight Sparkle, we would prefer not to be alone tonight.” Twilight was surprised by the sudden openness from the princess, but she could see where she was coming from.

   “I don’t mind, I’d be more than happy to have more company.” Replied Twilight glancing to Spike at her side, who nodded back with a small smile.

   “Thank you Twilight Sparkle, I will try not to be a hindrance to your sleep.” Luna went to the side of Twilight’s bed opposite Twilight and lifted the blankets and sheets before clambering into it. Curling up she wished Twilight good night before covering up and laying on her left side to avoid unnecessary blood staining Twilight’s bed. With Luna now in her place she figured it was time to go to bed as well, curling up on her side she lifted the covers up over herself as Spike dismounted the bed and went to his own to retire for the night. The last thing Twilight heard before falling asleep was quiet, muffled sobs from across the bed.

***

   “That day has always stuck with me.” began Twilight to Spike as he carefully shuffled his massive body within the tower to find a comfortable spot, “The beginning of the end as it were.” Twilight paused, trapped momentarily in her memories before Spike broke her free from her mental prison.

   “Indeed, I can only imagine how different things would be now had the Red Sun never come to be, the way our lives could have been. It’s a very depressing thought, I’ve tried to avoid it these many years but it always seemed to creep upon me when I would lie in my cave and try to remember those halcyon days of the time before. I couldn’t help but let it get to me; it would always pry its way into my mind, taking my thoughts by force.” Spike let out a heavy, smoke-laden sigh into the room; Twilight merely opened the window nearest Spike and pushed the wind with her magic to carry the smoke outside. The intense cold from the winter storm entered the room abruptly and sent a sharp chill through the room, neither one flinched at the freezing winds as it brushed against them, too long had they only felt the cold, they were too used to it after the centuries void of warmth.

   “It’s a constant battle to fight back against one’s own mind, one I’ve lost on many occasions.” The pair once again sat in silence for a few minutes before looking to one another and deciding to continue.

VI: Upon the Block

VI

   The following morning Twilight awoke and lay in place for almost an hour according to her clock, the sun had crested the horizon and Luna was not to be found in Twilight’s room having left to begin the day an unknown amount of time before. Spike similarly lay in his bed, fully awake but silent. The pair lay gazing at the clock watching the minutes pass slowly by. After fifty-two minutes, by her count, of lying in place Twilight rose to her hooves and began her day. Upon seeing Twilight move from her bed, Spike followed suit. Casting off his blanket, he rose to his feet and shambled on with Twilight. Twilight turned around and seeing her companion in tow greeted him good morning.

   “Good morning Spike.” said the melancholy Twilight.

   “Morning.” replied an equally despondent Spike.

   “Breakfast?” asked Twilight.

   “Breakfast.” the pair continued into the next room where neither bothered to stop and check their appearance before heading to the door, Twilight’s hair was an absolute mess and was in drastic need of combing, and Spike didn’t even bother to deal with the little white bits of shed scale caps on his arm and stomach. Opening the door they were immediately greeted by a cadre of royal elite stationed outside her door.

   Royal elite were not like normal guards in any way shape or form. To be selected for the royal elite you had to of proven yourself in combat to be above your peers, whether in the sparring rings or on the battlefield. Once selected for the royal elite you would then be put through what is known as the crucible, where you are put through an incredibly difficult series of tests of both physical fitness and skill in combat. Each royal elite cadet that survives and passes the crucible is ready to join their brother’s as the toughest soldiers in Equestria. The royal elite also reflected their status in their dress as well.

   Each elite’s armor is custom made to fit perfect instead of the royal guards, one-size fits all style back plate and helmet. The elite wore a series of gold-trimmed alabaster plates that covered their entire bodies. The helmet of each soldier was rounded at the back but came to a point in the front, with the top visor coming down angled at the front with a slit in the helmet to allow it’s wearer to see. Up the back of their necks were large white and gold manes made of sectioned armor on each band of the neck plate that slid into one another and shifted on the back of the plates to allow natural movement and provide another showpiece to the armor’s craftsmanship.

   The body plates were straight in the long sections of each limb with a cap over each joint, the armor was enchanted so that each plate glided completely frictionless across one another, allowing for nigh unhindered movement. The armor was also constructed of extremely light-weight but extremely strong metals that could take a blow from just about anything without so much as a dent. And on the large flank plate of each elite’s armor was the royal elite emblem, a gold-trimmed, white shield bearing Celestia’s sun in glorious fashion.

   Their weaponry was just as different to the standard guard’s as well. Each elite did not carry the normal halberd of the royal guard; instead they carried weapons Twilight had only ever read about before. Twilight recalled the book she’d seen them in, “Royal Security Doctrines” a book about the evolution of the guards in Canterlot throughout the last two hundred years. If she remembered correctly they were called rifles.

   The stock had two rings on it that hooked onto the front gauntlets so it could be steadied for aiming as well as triggered by the turning of the ring that stuck out on the right side of the weapon; the action was a ‘flint-lock’ design by what she could see, although she wasn’t sure what it meant. And at the front of the rifle was a two-foot long curved blade that stuck out past the end of the barrel by half of its length to turn the weapon into an equally effective slashing weapon as a bayonet.

   “Princess Twilight.” Formally greeted the sergeant followed by the detachment saluting her, their armor clinking with each movement. “We’ve been ordered by Princess Luna to escort you in everywhere until further notice. She, having seniority, has also commanded that we only take orders from her directly; we cannot abide a request to leave your side unless it’s a matter of upmost privacy such as restroom visits. Other than that we have been commanded to not leave your side, we apologize for the inconvenience. “

   “I see.” said the tired Twilight as she turned to Spike who just shrugged his shoulders while maintaining his dower expression. “Very well,” she sighed, do as you must. We were currently heading down to see about some breakfast.”

   “I’m afraid you have to stay here until the execution later this afternoon Princess, we will have anything you request brought up to you, but we have been ordered to keep you here until Princess Luna comes to fetch you.” Twilight couldn’t see the sergeant’s eyes through his visor, it was too dark, but even if she could she’d imagined them to be the stone cold eyes of a consummate professional. In his voice there was no emotion, simply duty. Unlike everyone else who was distraught at the loss of the princess, the elite in front of her seemed completely collected. His eerie calm, stern tone and professionalism was out of place in the atmosphere of sorrow. Twilight guessed that was just another quality that was sought after in the elite.

   “Oh… Alright then, I suppose I’ll just have a bran muffin brought up then, and some jewels for Spike I guess.” Twilight’s mood was not helped at all by her new imprisonment in her quarters, even if it was only for a few hours, or at least she hoped it was only for a few hours. The pair moped back into the bedroom where Spike took back to his little bed and curled up in his covers to lie there with his eyes open, Twilight went to the window and laid down looking outside. Not far from her window she could see more elites hovering outside her window. The wings of each elite had the same sliding plate armor that covered their bodies running up the bone of each wing; the reflections of the sun off the golden trims of their armor plates would occasionally cast an intense glare into Twilight’s eyes.

   Though Twilight knew that Luna had her kept to her room to keep her safe, it didn’t help comfort her in the slightest. Twilight and Spike waited in the room silently for their breakfast to be brought to them. After about ten minutes of silence there was a knock at the door. Twilight rose to her hooves and shambled over to the door. Opening it she was met with a royal elite standing beside a food cart.

   “Your breakfast princess.” he said plainly before gently pushing the cart in the room with his armored hoof. Once the cart was inside her room her nodded and grabbed the door handle and gently pulled the door shut without another word. Twilight levitated her muffin to her mouth and took a bite as she lifted the bowl of gems and carried it to Spike’s bedside, placing it down beside him and laying down on the rug beside him.

   “Eat up, we have a long day ahead of us.” said Twilight, Spike replied by grabbing a single gem and tossing it in his mouth as he stood up quietly chewing it. The pair sat quietly eating their food for a few moments before Twilight broke the silence. “I should write to my friends today, let them know I’m okay and tell them what happened. I’m sure they’ve gotten news by now, gossip traveled quickly from Canterlot, and I’m sure news of the Princess has traveled even faster.”

   “Might not be a bad idea.” Spike solemnly kept pecking at his bowl of precious stones.

   “I’ll write it up while we eat, we’ll send it after breakfast.” Twilight went to her desk with her muffin, picked up a quill, rolled out a parchment, and began writing.

   “My dear friends, you may have heard the recent new about the assassination of the princess.” Twilight paused from her writing, the words hurt to write, but she needed to continue, “I am writing to let you know that despite the circumstances I am safe. While I currently mourn the loss of Celestia, Princess Luna has seen to it that I am taken care of in this chaotic time.” Twilight couldn’t think of what else to write to her beloved friends, her mind clouded by the pain of her recent loss, “The castle is currently on lockdown and Princess Luna is being very thorough with the security detail, I’m unsure if I can get you access to the castle as Luna has even had me shut away in my chambers for the time being, but I will see if I can have permission to invite you into the castle for a visit soon, it would be really nice to see all of you right now. You will likely be granted entry for Celestia’s funeral tomorrow if it’s possible for you to make it, I figured it would be best I inform you myself rather than let it slip by you due to distance. I will be writing to you in the near future, but until then I am merely assuring you that I am alive and uninjured. Until next time, Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight’s quill came to a rest at the side of the parchment as she looked over it for anything amiss, and unable to think of anything else to add she rolled it up and bound it with a ribbon. Turning about she floated the letter over to Spike who was still making progress through his ever smaller pile of gems.

   “Send this to Applejack when you get the chance, she’ll be sure everyone see it.” Spike nodded with a dower expression as Twilight gently dropped the letter beside Spike’s bowl of gems and took the last bite of her muffin, finishing it off before wiping her muzzle with her hoof and climbing into her bed. She lay on her side staring at the threshold into the next room of her chambers. After a few minutes of nothing but the quiet crunches of Spike’s chewing she heard him pick up the parchment and send it on its way with a quick gout of green fire before returning to his bed and curling back up in his blankets. The pair waited in complete boredom with nothing but their thoughts to keep them busy until Luna’s arrival, thoughts they both wished they didn’t have.

   After an eternity of waiting strewn out in their beds with nothing to say there was a knock at the door, Twilight staggered from her bed and shambled to answer it with Spike right behind her, just as dour. Opening the door they were met by the Princess, she had returned to her dignified posture and demeanor and her wounded eyelid was stitched up, in place of the old eye was a jet black glass orb that reflected Twilight’s surroundings on its parabolic surface.

   “Good morning Twilight Sparkle, we are pleased to see you are awake this morning.” Luna moved on before Twilight could respond, “We apologize for the inconvenience of keeping you in your quarters, but until we have more accurately identified and seen to the protection against our new threats, we will be under tight security at all times.” Luna had moved into Twilight’s room and was walking toward the window opposite the door as she spoke. “Come here Twilight Sparkle.” said Luna as she reached the window. Twilight trotted to the princess’s side and beheld to her surprise a large crowd gathered in the large triangular courtyard below her tower quarters.

   “They’ve gathered here to taste for themselves retribution. Today we will present to them the surviving assassin, and they will feed off the grisly spectacle that will be made of his demise. It is truly barbaric, what we shall do today, but it is necessary if we mean to provide for our people. Celestia was dear to many of them; even those who had never met her face to face loved her from afar.” Luna paused; her dignified tone was gently accented by the malice and hatred she garnered toward the victim of today’s events, “And now these ingrates have taken her from them.” Luna turned from the crowd to Twilight.

   “Now Twilight Sparkle we must show our enemy that it is we who have the upper hoof in all of this, that it is we who are in control. Our enemy will be hidden amongst the crowd, to gauge our reactions, to seek out weakness in our expression, to sense any wavering in our voice. And we must show them that we are not afraid of them.” Luna looked sternly at Twilight.

   “I will instruct you on how you will need to present thyself to the public. Before we go out there, I will assess that you are ready to be shown, your presence is required, if you do not show up they will see you as a weak point, and will adapt their strategy to work upon that. So then, to begin, you must be stoic throughout the event, stoic and commanding. Your presence must act as the image by which our subjects will remember us in the coming days. Stride forth with a look of cold anger, do not appear eager to return to the castle’s chambers, let the enemy know that you do not fear them. If you must speak, speak with fiery inspiration, inflame their passions and focus their anger. Stand tall and commanding, as a beacon amidst the chaos of shouts and calls. Let it be known that we are their leaders, and that it is us who are in control.” Luna’s words were spoken with a passion that lifted Twilight’s spirits to hopeful levels; a smile even began to cross Twilight’s face as Luna spoke to her.

   “Now Twilight Sparkle, go on, show me how you shall present thyself to your subjects.” Luna stopped then looked on at Twilight, raising the eyebrow of her wounded right eye when Twilight did not immediately move. Catching on quickly after Luna’s changed of expression, Twilight walked back a short ways away and paused, stood up tall, turned her expression from the hopeful smile to a commanding look of indignance and authority, and with as much grace as she could muster, advanced a short distance to Luna’s right and paused, before assuming a rigid pose and maintaining her expression, trying to look as confident as she did controlled. And though Twilight’s courage was shaken by her mentor’s death she tried to her best to appear as if she was unafraid. Luna followed Twilight as she moved and then nodded to Twilight and spoke of her approval.

   “Yes, that will do nicely, let it be known that Twilight Sparkle will not buckle under the weight thrust upon her, show to them that you are strong and charismatic. Up unto now you’ve had no real opportunity to prove yourself to your subjects, but your time is now. Amongst all this turmoil, it shall be you who emerges triumphant at my side as we defeat the foes that hide in the shadows. Now then, we’ve tarried long enough, let us go and begin the spectacle lest the crowd grow restless.” Luna motioned to Twilight and headed for the door. Twilight looked over to Spike and knowingly motioned to him to stay in his bed; she knew that he wouldn’t want to see this. He was still a baby dragon after all.

   Luna opened the door and motioned to the cadre of soldiers outside the room, each of them rose to their hind hooves, clicked their gauntlets into the rings of their rifles and holding them with blades pointed up to their left waited for the princesses. When Luna and Twilight were out in the hall they walked in unison beside them. Two in front, two beside them, and two in the rear, Twilight felt both secure and uncomfortable as their armor seemed to make one noise as they moved in their unnatural stance. Most ponies couldn’t stand on their hind legs for any longer than a few moments, but after intense training they moved effortlessly in their strange position. Looking to one of the guards in front Twilight could see he was casting some form of spell, although she wasn’t sure what. The thin white glow surrounded the horn jutting from his helmet, the base of which was met by small armor plates that came up at an angle to meet the horn about an inch off the helmet and then angled back out, this modification to the armor was designed to dead-stop any blades that ran along the helmet before they struck the horn, keeping it attached to the owner’s skull.

   “What is it you’re casting sir?” Twilight timidly asked the elite.

   “I’m searching for invisible threats your highness; you never know when your enemy is hiding in your shadow.” The elite didn’t even turn his head, and his horn never stopped glowing.

   “Ah.” The answer Twilight received was much briefer than she was hoping for; instead of prying further she simply continued walking in silence alongside Luna. They continued down the halls and through the courtroom out into the courtyard where the public had gathered in a massive crowd that filled the courtyard in front of the line of guards that formed a line in front of the execution platform that cleared a walkway to the barracks and courtroom.

   This imparticular courtyard was reserved specifically for executions, and had not seen use in centuries. The castle groundskeepers had all been rallied to work through the night by torchlight to ready the courtyard for the public the following morning by Luna’s command. The courtyard was a large triangle formed by walls between Twilight’s tower, the guard barracks, and the castle courtroom. Directly beneath Twilight’s tower was a large marble platform with five square tiers, each a foot higher than the last and atop the last tier sat the headsman’s block. Opposite the execution platform at the ‘base’ of the triangle was the gate, only to be opened when the time was called for.

***

   When the door opened Twilight could see that the roaring crowd filled the courtyard in front of the guards, and ran out beyond the gate. The din created by the mass of angered citizens was incredible, and Twilight could barely hear herself think as they entered the courtyard. The entire time they walked to the large platform in the corner of the courtyard shouts calling for the blood of Celestia’s murderer would occasionally escape the blur and become audible as individual yells. “Bring him out!” “To the block!” “Vengeance for Celestia!” The crowd’s demands were savage and barbaric, Twilight was even more unsettled by this as she maintained her briefly practiced pose, her face looking dead ahead as if she were intent on seeing the villain brought to justice.

   The calls grew louder and louder as they reached the steps of the platform. Looking at the steps Twilight could see they were designed to aid in the theatrics of public executions. Below the block there was a depression in the white marble that made up the platform, running out to points all along the front edge of the top tier were angled grooves cut into the stone. The tier below simply held a basin with a drain in the middle of it. The block itself was a table with a yolk at one end where the accused’s neck would lay to await the cold embrace of the headsman’s axe. The macabre craftsmanship of the executioner’s block sickened Twilight; she wondered why Celestia would have had it made in such a way, or even at all. She’d never seen the block before, the castle courtyard was closed off at all other times, and the platform sat at the base of her tower so she was unable to see it from her window.

     Twilight maintained her expression and stature when they reached the top of the platform where Luna stopped her as the elites fanned out across the platform, two stayed at the bottom where they came up, two went to the corners on the front of the platform, and two went to the side facing the barracks. “Twilight, remember you must remain composed throughout the execution, and you must watch it. No matter what you have to watch with the crowd as our enemy falls beneath us, do not look away even as the axe falls, understood?” Luna asked very seriously.

   “Yes Princess Luna.” replied Twilight with a quavering voice.

   “Alright then, take your place at the opposite side of the block near the front of the platform. I’ll address the crowd and we’ll get this over with. Afterward you will accompany me to retrieve someone who will be of great importance to us in the future; we will not tarry here long so I’ll try to make this move quickly.” Luna’s words were puzzling to Twilight, who could they be getting that would prove so valuable? After her cryptic message Luna approached the front of the platform and began to speak in the old royal Canterlot voice, exceedingly loud, and terrifyingly commanding.

   “Citizens, we would ask that thou allow us to speak!” Luna bellowed above the crowd, her voice smashing any competition the crowd’s incredible din would provide to be heard over her. An abrupt and eerie hush fell over the courtyard before Luna began “Today we are gathered to see to it that no crime against Equestria shall go unpunished, especially one as heinous as the murder of our sister! Today we shall make the last of the assassins pay for their crime against us all with their blood!” Luna finished her sentence with fire in her voice, the crowd exploded into a hateful roar that demanded retribution, once again raising her voice to overpower the crowd she called out to the barracks, “Bring out the accused!”

   The crowd exploded once more into cries as the door to the barracks opened, out in front was an incredibly large black minotaur bearing and enormous bearded axe over his shoulder. His head was covered by an iron mask that hooked around his horns and clamped around the back of his neck. The mask bore a bovine skull in exaggerated effigy that seemed to be smiling, creating a terrifying last image to be seen by the accused. He slowly approached the block dragging something by a chain behind him. As soon as he rounded the corner and was fully in view Twilight could see a pony, bound up in chains and screaming hysterically while struggling against his bonds. Even though he was still a distance away, Twilight could see tear stains on his face. Every time the minotaur would take a step he would jerk at the chain and skip his unwilling guest across the stones of the courtyard where he would struggle more and inaudibly try to scream over the crowd. After a minute the minotaur reached the platform steps and dropped the chain. He picked up the hysterical pony, who Twilight could now hear screaming unintelligible cries, she was reminded of yesterday and was hoping she would not be put through anymore unneeded stress.

   The minotaur climbed the steps with his victim and placed him upon the slab at the block. Placing the pony with his neck in the yolk at one end of the table and locking him in face up. He squirmed and writhed the entire time, but to no avail. Once he was locked into the yolk the minotaur removed the bindings from the unicorn’s hooves, and his legs began to flail wildly, and press against the yolk in desperate attempts to free himself.

   The unicorn looked to Twilight with wildly scared eyes, his eyes were overflowing with tears, and blood had even begun to surface from his broken horn. He begged and pleaded to her, but Twilight stood looking at him with the look she had been told, hateful indignance. Inside Twilight was panicking, unsure how much longer she could stand this, death was such a new concept to her as it was, but vengeance and retribution were completely alien, she’d never felt the need or want to harm anyone, even this assassin before her, the one who’d had a hoof in killing Celestia, her lifelong mentor and she’d been as a second mother to Twilight. So she held back her feeling and turned to Luna, who could sense Twilight’s growing distress through her outer facade and decided to move along with the ceremony.

   “Citizens, now we shall mete out justice to this lowly worm who would dare take our dearest Celestia from us! Headsman!" Luna called to the executioner, "To Tartarus with him!” The headsman nodded and picked up his enormous axe, the blade of which was as long as Twilight was tall, and thick as her torso at its widest point, and lofted it above his head. Twilight did as Luna had told her and turned to the accused to watch his final moments pass before her. His legs flailed wildly as the headsman began his stroke, he begged unintelligibly for mercy with even more fervor and terror than before. And possibly the worst part of his situation was that he couldn’t look away from the axe that was about to take his life. The last thing he would see would be a giant minotaur with a smiling skeletal face bringing down a great axe to cleave his neck from his body, few things could be more terrifying in Twilight’s mind at that point. The headsman began his downward stroke and in mere fractions of a second the axe connected with the unicorn’s neck and severed it from his body with a spray of blood onto the axe. Rather than allowing the axe to sash into the platform the minotaur held it in place as soon as the neck was severed, right in front of the bleeding stump of a torso left lying on the table. The blood that initially would of sprayed Twilight was blocked by the headsman’s axe, and simply ran off the blade into the basin below, which worked exactly as designed much to Twilight’s disgust.

   Twilight managed to hold her gaze onto the execution as she was told, even as the last nerves in the unicorn’s body sickeningly kicked the limbs of his decapitated corpse to and fro wildly impulsively from the still active nerves. Four streams of dark crimson drained across the platform and over the first step and into the catchment below, she did not break her stance, and at least ensured she could leave without disappointing Luna. Turning to Luna she was met with a simple nod before Luna turned to the crowd to address them once again. Twilight also turned to face them while Luna spoke.

   “Today justice has been done, but we are nowhere near done with our enemy! The assassination of our sister was merely the beginning of much bigger events. In the coming days we will be looking for the enemy to reveal themselves in earnest, and we shall see to it that they are ground into the dust for the transgressions, and that our sister will be able to rest in peace knowing that Equestria is safe once more!” Luna’s words fueled the crowd’s fiery temperament, rather than making them question what Luna had said as Twilight would have thought it would. But in the end it was for the best, better they keep their spirits and go about their lives than question their leaders and begin to think ill of them. Twilight stood on the platform for a moment longer until Luna came to her and beckoned her to follow, the elites formed up around her and they headed to the courtroom amid the shouts and cheers of a bloodthirsty crowd that would have gladly taken more if the opportunity had arisen. Twilight felt extremely unsure of the coming days, and almost wanted to throw up from her most recent encounter with death. But she held it in, and pressed on with Luna into the courtroom wondering who they were going to retrieve.

VII: Falling Star

VII

  Twilight, Luna, and their armored entourage proceeded into the courtroom in silence. The roar of the excited crowd outside was quieted greatly when the doors shut behind them, but could still be heard through the thick stone walls of the castle. Luna quickened her pace and headed across the courtroom towards the castle library across the courtroom from where they entered.

   The elites in front opened the doors to the hallway leading to the library and stood aside as the rear four briefly hastened their movements to seamlessly transition their coverage through the door. The middle two moved up to where the front two had been and the rear two took the place of the middle guards. When the party passed through the door the elites holding it open quickly closed it behind them and took up the rear position, quickly getting back into sync with the rest where they began to move as one once more.

  The party maintained a swift walk through the hallway and did not stop to acknowledge anyone as they moved on, simply passing them without a greeting aside from the rhythmic sound of metal plates gliding over the top of one another. Upon reaching the door at the end of the long hallway the elites performed the same drill as before at the door to the library where they once again seamlessly accomplished the maneuver. Once inside Luna motioned them through a door to their left, the history section of the library.

  Twilight knew the library very well, her time as Celestia’s personal pupil had allotted her much time between the towering bookshelves. Passing by she could identify several different titles she’d read before, ‘The dragon situation’ the recounted story of the great general who strategized the downfall of the dragon lords eight centuries ago, ‘Lore of the gryphon tribes’ the written down translations of gryphon mythology in the pre-classical era, about the same time period as Star Swirl the bearded, and ‘Sisters’ the tale of Luna and Celestia’s period of rule up until the nightmare moon schism that ended in Luna’s banishment.

  The party continued to the back wall of the history section, which was the only section that was completely walled in by itself for a reason Twilight had never understood. All other sections of the library were in the vast open expanse of the main room while history was isolated from the rest in its own room. Upon reaching the end of the shelves they were met by the small area that held a few couches and a table where readers could relax with one of the castle’s many books, an area Twilight preferred when doing her studies because most other ponies would go to the more open areas and socialize quietly with one another while they read. Upon the wall was a large tapestry that bore Celestia’s sun hanging from the ceiling to the floor, Luna approached the wall art and paused for a moment.

  “Guards, leave us. Take watch at the door, we shall be with you in due time.” Luna turned to look briefly at each of them; they each saluted and spread out so one would walk up each of the six lanes between bookshelves in the history section, checking to see if it was clear before standing watch. Luna waited for them to exit the history section and close the door to address Twilight.

  “Twilight Sparkle,” Luna looked to Twilight, “Before we continue you must know something about who we are going to meet.” Luna’s voice was very serious, “When we became nightmare moon we were not alone in our attempt to unseat our sister, this was purposely kept hidden from the public. We had several guards who were unwaveringly loyal to us, and they pledged their lives to us as their queen of the night. The head of these guards was my personal captain of the night watch, her name was Falling Star. She was undyingly loyal to us, and she loved us dearly above all others, and it was in our name that she killed Celestia’s personal bodyguards, and many of our sister’s close friends. And it was because of this she met the worst fate of all involved in the attempted coup.”

  Luna looked away to the tapestry for a moment before turning back to Twilight; her voice was stern and foreboding. Twilight was unsure of what lie ahead of her, but she was sure it was nothing good. “The night of the coup, Falling Star and the band of separatist guards attempted to escape the castle after seeing us defeated by the elements of harmony. While our sister recovered from our battle they fled into the night only to be captured in the following days. When they were brought before our sister, Celestia had come to know her crimes, including the deaths of her bodyguards and friends within the castle. Celestia gave in to the anger she so rarely showed and used long forbidden magic to curse Falling Star.”

  Twilight couldn’t think of anything to say before Luna continued, “Though exiled to the moon, I could still see events in Equestria through the eyes of Falling Star, she and I had made the pact with the nightmare together and we were forever linked. And though we had anticipated grievous punishment for our loyal followers, even we were shocked by the revenge Celestia exacted upon her. By sacrificing two of our other soldiers using the ancient rites Celestia inflicted upon Falling Star the Sanguinis Curse, a fate worse than death. Are you familiar with the ancient curses Twilight Sparkle?” Luna asked Twilight.

  “I can’t say I am.” Timidly replied Twilight, frightened as to what everything Luna was telling her would lead to.

  “The sanguinis curse affects the body, and transforms the afflicted into a vampire, forcing them to thirst for the blood of their fellow pony. The curse also requires a special crystal to bind the soul of the victim, rendering them unable to die unless the crystal is destroyed. Many have foolishly taken this path as a means to immortality only to see what it truly does to one’s body and soul before they end up destroying their own binding crystal to end their torment, Falling star has not been allowed such a way out.  After cursing Falling Star she was locked away in the castle undercroft with the remaining traitors. After days of searching for sustenance among the dark expanses of the undercroft, the changes began.”

  “We watched through her eyes as the hope of her fellow prisoners waned in the darkness, as the hunger from consuming only lichens and drinking offal from the undercroft streams had started to take their toll. And the entire time the curse began to take hold of her. After two days fangs began to rapidly grow out of her mouth, painfully pushing the two teeth in the way out of their sockets. After four days the thirst began, though she didn’t know why she was, she began thirsting for the blood of her comrades. We watched from her mind as four more days went by until she could bear it no longer. She voraciously attacked one of her friends and tore into his neck as he flailed and screamed, she was greatly distressed by her actions, and she even began to shed tears as she was driven to commit the horrifying act. She would never of taken a comrade in arms’ life, but the curse forced her on to commit this same atrocity over and over until all of her remaining comrades lay dead, drained of the lifeblood their bodies needed to continue. Every time she would kill one when overcome by the thirst she would cry over their body for hours.”

  “She tried killing herself many times to prevent the deaths of her friend’s and comrades at her hooves, but her attempts only inflicted grievous wounds and caused her more pain. She would call out to her comrades, telling them to try and run, and screaming apologies to them, she only wanted them to understand that it was not her choice and constantly yelled echoing cries through the undercroft for them to try and escape, but they never did. The bloodlust would send her on the hunt, possessing her and moving her to repeat the unspeakable act until all of her friends were gone.” Luna’s voice was audibly saddened.

   “When Celestia had the castle built in Canterlot she ordered a lone cell, sequestered away beneath the castle, and hidden from all except her. After the chamber was completed, she went herself to retrieve Falling Star from the old castle’s undercroft. When she found her, she was horrifically emaciated, and she lay in the same place she had for ten years since the Canterlot castle had started being built. Her mind would have been completely destroyed were it not for my efforts from the moon. We would enter her dreams each time she slept, and assuage the nightmares of our lone soldier as she lay in agony. When Celestia came for her she was little more than bones. Had she any strength in her body it would have been used to strike out at Celestia, but there was none to be scrounged from her starved form. Celestia took her from the old castle undercroft and placed her within the new cell beneath Canterlot castle. Within the cell there was only darkness save for a small chute that went to the surface in the roof of the cell, beneath it was catchment bowl. The cell lies directly beneath the execution block. Our sister, while deciding to keep Falling Star as her eternal prisoner, had at least given her a means of sustaining herself.”

   Twilight stood in silence as Luna continued, still unsure as to how to react to anything Luna was telling her. For so long it had only been Celestia that Twilight had any interactions with among the princesses. Luna had only been back for a year and hadn’t really made any attempts to be sociable aside from holiday functions and occasional conversations. To have so much interaction with her as of late was still alien to Twilight. And after everything that had happened the last few days, she wasn’t sure of where she stood when it came to Princess Luna, not anymore anyways.

  “This brings us to where we are now, over the past year we have been keeping Falling Star from being driven mad with thirst by offering our own blood to her until the day we might have negotiated her release. Knowing that she would of only sought to destroy Celestia for what she’d done to her we never never brought it up with Celestia for fear of how she would react.”

   Luna turned around, facing the tapestry once again, “But it seems that we must no longer worry about Celestia’s opinion, or any retribution by Falling Star. We communicated with Falling Star this morning, and her reaction to the death of her most hated enemy was as expected... overwhelming joy… she was bluntly cruel in the face of our sorrow, but has agreed to keep her feelings about our sister to herself. Do not confront her about how you felt about our sister when you meet her Twilight Sparkle, she will respect you and recognize your authority. No harm shall come to you at her hooves, but she will not share your sympathies over passing of Celestia, and will react harshly if she is brought up, as I’m sure you can imagine.”

  Twilight could pick up worry in Luna’s voice as she went through her explanation. She was also very unsure of how to react to everything being thrust upon her all at once. If the pony they were going to free would have tried to kill Celestia if the opportunity arose, how was she any better than the assassins they’d dispatched in the prior days? She was immensely confused as to how she should feel about everything; her head was practically spinning as her thoughts swirled, unable to form into anything coherent.

  “Twilight Sparkle, we realize this must be extremely difficult to understand right now.” Luna seemed to know of Twilight’s inner distress, “But we will need her in the time to come. There is no pony we’ve ever met that is so fiercely loyal, or as skilled in the ways of subterfuge and combat. And though she held no love for Celestia she is still loyal to her homeland... and to us. Besides, it was we who led her to this fate… we owe her, her freedom. Let us go to her.” Luna looked to the tapestry on the wall; lifting it with her magic, she revealed the wall behind it.

  Twilight had wondered if Luna was mistaken as to the location of the door before Luna approached it and placed a hoof on a brick that was slightly smaller than the others, pushing on it, it receded into the wall. The bricks in the wall began to move back in a circular wave moving out from the brick Luna had pushed. As they would disappear from the center they seemed to fall off the back, until enough brick’s had moved Twilight could not see where they went. Once a larger portion of them had come away from the middle Twilight could see them swirling in the large, dark hallway behind the false wall.

  After a minute of the brick’s retreating into the space they’d once obscured a large section of the wall was now an open threshold full of bricks swirling in the air. A moment after the last one came free they began to form two stands on either side of the hallway, they stacked up a few feet high and had a depression in the tops of them. As the last bricks settled, fire appeared atop the stands. Moments after the first fire came to life in the dark it was followed by a chain of fires leading down a ramp to a turn in the passage. Luna beckoned Twilight to follow and started into the dimly lit hall.

  The pair reached the first turn and saw even more flames lighting up as they continued down the hall. After a few moments the last of the torches were lit revealing a large grey door at the end. The claustrophobic tunnel stretched for a very long distance, and judging by Luna’s description, did indeed head in the direction of the execution yard. Twilight felt a knot binding up her stomach as they approached the door, her uncertainty was eating at her every step of the way, and she was showing it. Twilight was scared of who she would encounter within the confines of Celestia’s secret prison, and she wasn’t sure of how they would react to her presence. Luna on the other hand was the same as always, dignified and graceful.

  After a few silent moments the pair reached the door, Twilight’s heart was pounding in her chest, the mix of fear and anticipation within her was becoming overwhelming as Luna approached the lever for the door’s locking mechanism. “Remember Twilight Sparkle,” Luna’s voice echoed in the tunnel, “you are in no danger from Falling Star. We can sense you doubt our judgment but we ask you to trust us. However we ask that you brace yourself for what you are about to see, those afflicted with the sanguinis curse have…” Luna paused, “frightening, appearances.” This did nothing to soothe Twilight’s anxiety. Luna reached a hoof out and pushed back the lever beside the doorway; a horrid screeching noise filled the hall and echoed deafeningly up and down the tunnel as the mechanism began to go to work, Twilight threw her hooves up to cover her ears and practically fell over before she was able to shift her weight to lean against the wall. The terrible screams of the gears ceased and the low rumbling of the machine in the wall took its place as the door began to pull into the left wall.

  Inside there was nothing but black, barely lit by the flickering flames in the hall behind them. As the door opened further a long shaft of light could be seen, a bright pillar of white created by the light on each particle of dust that passed through it, a pillar that ended into a pool of crimson, with drips still trickling in from the opening above. Nothing could be seen aside from the pillar of light in the room. As the door opened wider, only the doorway of the room became dimly lit by the low lights of the small flames, and when the door was completely open there was no pony inside that could be seen.

  “Falling Star,” Luna beckoned the dark, “present thyself.” Two red reptilian eyes slowly opened just beyond the shaft of light.

  “Yes my queen.” Replied a coarse female voice from within the cell, the words chilled Twilight’s blood. She tried desperately to keep her heart from breaking a rib and escaping.

  “I am not your queen Falling Star, there is no need to address me as such.” Luna replied sternly. The eyes closed for a moment before opening again, but this time they were higher than before and were moving toward them.

  “You will always be my queen.” The form of Falling Star came into view at the fringes of the light. Her coat was an iron grey, stained black around her mouth by the remnants of old meals. Her hair was a wiry and thin veil of silver, barely clinging onto her head as it hung unevenly around her face. And her wings were ragged, mere skin and bone that came to a jagged, spiked point at the end of the wing, much like that of a bat. Her facial features were gaunt and jagged from malnourishment, dripping with the blood of her last meal. Her eyes were sunken and drained, even though she looked Twilight in the eyes as she shambled forward they appeared distant and hollow. Twilight had always told Spike there was no such things as zombies, but now she wasn’t so sure. The visage of the pony in front of her made her want to scream and run, but she fought it back for Luna. She was young when she was cursed, were it not for her imprisonment and atrophy caused by prolonged starvation she would look no different in age than Twilight or her friends, but instead she was a walking corpse.

   “And you must be Twilight Sparkle; Luna has told me much about you. I am Falling Star, it’s my pleasure to make your acquaintance.” The voice of the pony before them was ragged; years of inhaling the same dust over and over had taken its toll, and every time she spoke Twilight could see her two fangs that protruded from her top row of teeth. Falling Star bowed before the princesses and struggled to rise to her hooves.

  “I’m embarrassed to have to meet you in such a condition, but as you can imagine, I’ve not exactly been well accommodated during my stay.” Falling Star’s words were void of humor, and what sounded like it could have been a joke, was a very grim appraisal of her past thousand years of imprisonment. “At least I’ve not gone blind, the light up above gives me enough to keep my sight from going,” Falling Star coughed, “I’ll be back to my old self after I’ve had a chance to recuperate.” Twilight couldn’t help but feel sorry for the figure in front of her, at one time she was a traitor, she had murdered many of those Celestia had held dear, and would have seen to the death of her beloved mentor a thousand years ago had the opportunity arisen, but she was unsure that anyone deserved such a punishment.

  “So…” Falling Star began again, “I’m to understand the crown falls under attack?” Falling star winced in the light of the fires in the hallway, it was more light than she’d been exposed to in the past millennia years and her eyes were having difficulty adjusting.

  “Yes,” replied Luna, “We have come for you so as you may assist your country in the days to come. From what we have gathered there is rebellion gathering in the North, and with the assassination of our sister we believe they are of sufficient power that they are confident enough to make such bold moves against us. With our sister’s passing we are left vulnerable, the citizens are frightened, and we are unsure of where our enemy will strike next, but we are sure that this isn’t just an assassination.”

  “Well then, it seems we’ve work to do then, what shall you have me do my queen?”

“After a thousand years of being locked away and in no condition to do anything, she asks immediately where she should go.” Thought Twilight, in awe of Falling Star’s readiness to do anything for Luna.

  “For now you shall stay in the castle and regain your strength my friend.”

“Her friend?” thought Twilight again, “Luna barely referred to Celestia as her friend.”

  “Then when the time comes you are ready, we shall summon you for assignment. Come then, let us go.” Twilight cautiously followed behind the pair in front of her, Luna helped prop up Falling Star as she struggled to move in her weakened state. By the time they’d made it halfway across the hall Luna was carrying Falling Star on her back, who could barely keep her eyes open. Twilight continued behind them, deep in her thoughts.

***

  “Ah, Falling Star, I remember her well.” Commented Spike, “After she recuperated, she actually wasn’t that bad looking; it just took some time for her youthful look to return.”

  “Once she was back up to strength she proved to be quite the valuable asset, even with her almost constant need for blood. I remember her carrying around flasks and jokingly offering it to other ponies in the camps after her secret was out.” The two shared a brief, but genuine laugh; the first one either had had in years.

   “It was that night we found out the caravan we’d sent up north was ambushed not far outside of Ponyville. They sent a guard back with his horn snapped off as a message to Canterlot.” Twilight nodded with her old anger faintly detectable in her voice.

  “Then the funeral business the next day, hell of a mess that turned out to be.” Spike added in.

  “Yeah, they almost finished what they started the day before, it was just a shame for them that the royal elite were present, bastards didn’t even stand a chance against them.” Twilight grinned when finishing her sentence.

  “It’s almost sad to look back on… almost.”

VIII: Last Respects

VIII

   The following morning Twilight awoke with a splitting headache. Her thoughts stressed her greatly and she was still unsure of what to make of everything at this point. More and more seemed to come each day, it seemed there was no respite. After collecting Falling Star yesterday Luna carried her up to a suite in the castle very close to her own, much to the dismay of many of the castle staff who saw her holding what appeared to be a breathing corpse on her back.

   Twilight was still questioning how she should even feel about Falling Star. For all intents and purposes she remained a traitor to Equestria, but the hinging factor was Celestia, who was now deceased. If she could be trusted and was everything Luna described, she could prove to be very useful, especially now. But there were so many different things that could go wrong. Falling Star would require blood from some source or another, but how would they supply it without drawing attention to it? If someone found out Luna kept a vampire in her personal entourage things could turn ugly very fast. What if Falling Star tried to kill her? Twilight was unsure she could defend herself from someone who could take on an elite member of Luna’s former guard. Everything felt wrong when she thought of Falling Star.

   And of all days, today was not a day she wanted to be thinking of it, if she ever wanted to think of it to begin with. Twilight arose and sat on the edge of her bed, putting a hoof to her temple she stretched her wings out as she applied pressure with her hoof to try and dull the pain in her forehead. Looking up she tried to wake Spike.

   “Come on Spike, time to get up.” Twilight yawned to her friend in his small bed below.

   “I’m up already, couldn’t sleep anyways.” Spike rose from his bed and let his blanket fall to the floor as he stood up. Taking a few steps to the vanity as Twilight did the same he mounted the stool in front of it and looked into the mirror for any shed scales as Twilight brushed her hair beside him. They swapped glances back and forth as they prepared themselves for the funeral. After they each finished their respective corrections of out of place scale caps, and unruly hairs they preceded to the front room of Twilight’s quarters where Luna had the castle seamstress deliver each of them an outfit the night before. Twilight’s outfit was a simple black gown with a veil, and Spike’s was a small tuxedo. They donned their outfits then waited silently in their room for Luna to come get them, knowing that if they tried to leave they’d be met with the royal elite who would stop them in their tracks. So they sat quietly in their room, alone with their thoughts until Luna arrived for them.

***

   “I’ll always remember those two days seeming to take forever.” Commented Spike, “I laid in bed the entire time, occasionally I’d get up and walk to the window to see what I could see, but it was always the same guards flying a few yards away. I didn’t even attempt to leave the room, I’m sure they would have let me if I wanted to.”

   “Time seemed to crawl by for me as well. I just wanted it all to be over, to lie in bed and cry. It was so overwhelming then, everything just happening so suddenly. You could hardly catch your breath before something else happened, I couldn’t think of a more exhausting time before that.” Twilight went to lie on a cushion she had near the fire as Spike shifted his mass to get more comfortable where he was. “I was so relieved when things slowed down after that day, at least in Canterlot. If I remember correctly when we got the news a week later, they’d started to purge the northern cities of loyalists the same day they assassinated Celestia. They knew it would take some time for us to react so they planned it all to happen on the same day. Killing the princesses wasn’t even critical to the success of their plan, it seemed it was just a side objective, understandably so when things got into full swing.”

   “There we so many of them by the time we were done. I’m surprised the gryphons didn’t try to make another attempt at Equestria after it all. You’d think with all the bad blood since the last war they’d of seized the opportunity to catch us so under strength.” Spike exhaled a small, but thick cloud of smoke into the fireplace where it was caught in the updraft of hot air and carried into the chimney.

   “They were too afraid to.” Replied Twilight as she gazed at the fire.

   “Of what?” questioned Spike, “Half of the country was decimated by a bloody civil war, and they could have taken us in their sleep. What possibly could have kept them in such fear to stave off an invasion.”

   Twilight looked Spike in the eyes and coldly replied, “The princess and her dragon.”

***

   Luna had come to get Twilight and Spike half an hour ago, they now stood at the rear of the Castle throne room as more and more guests piled in from the front door. Before them at the base of the steps leading to the throne was Celestia’s casket. The funeral would be held in the throne room, but Celestia’s burial would not be open to the public, instead the citizens would be sent home while Celestia was laid to rest in her favorite garden on the castle grounds. A bust of her was commissioned to adorn her grave as a marker with a small plaque, but it was days from completion; until it arrived Celestia’s grave would be marked by little more than simple stones and holy symbols.

   Twilight noticed as soon as they entered the room that royal elite were stationed all throughout the throne room. By the doors, in the corners of the room, on the stairs behind her, and some pegasi elites had even taken positions up in the rafters above, their white armor almost camouflaging them with the alabaster marble of the roof. Twilight felt a little less uneasy because of their presence. The room was filling quickly with ponies of all kinds, quietly sitting in the rows chairs that were brought in for them as they waited for the ceremony to begin. When the last of the seats had been filled, the elites at the door barred any further entry into the throne room, and forced all others to stand outside. Something that Twilight felt was extremely rude and betraying of Celestia’s memory, but she had no say in the matter.

   After every pony in attendance was settled in for a moment, the elites nodded to Luna from the front of the room. Luna then turned to the priestess at her side, who pulled back her white cowl and stepped forward to begin.

   “Welcome everyone to the final ceremony of our beloved princess.” The priestess’ voice was soft as silk, and soothing like the soft chords of a masterfully played harp. Her pure white vestments were bound at the waist by a chord of golden rope, and to the crowd before her, she was an angel sent by the goddess herself to retrieve her favored daughter. “Let us pray.” The congregation bowed their heads as the priestess began her prayer, “Goddess, hear our call. Your daughter has begun her journey to be at your side. We ask that you shepherd her across the void safely, and take our deserving sister into your loving embrace. We pray for her swift passage into your presence, and for her eternal peace at your side. And we ask that you watch over us, and keep us well until our time to join our brothers and sisters has come. Until we can be at your side, we pray.”

   “Amen.” replied the congregation. Twilight raised her head with the rest of the room to see the priestess in front of her begin walking down the steps toward Celestia’s casket, which was closed due to the grievous nature of the wounds she had sustained.

   “Our sister Celestia ruled over this land for time beyond our reckoning.” The priestess began once again, “She suffered many trials in her time, including the regrettable banishment of our princess Luna when the nightmare overtook her.” The chantry had obviously been instructed upon Luna’s return to alter the details of nightmare moon’s attempt on Celestia’s life to make it seem as though she was not acting of her own will, Luna said nothing, choosing to respect the ceremony rather than correct the priestess and worry the crowd further. “The dragon war those centuries ago that freed us of their tyranny. She saw those before us through the famine that ravaged the land five hundred years ago, leaving all but the crows to go without food, when the plague came two centuries ago she used her healing arts to cure the sick, and saw to the establishment of the chantry. And she led our mothers and father’s through five years of terrible war with the gryphon kingdoms, and emerged victorious against them.” The priestess paused, and began ascending the steps back towards Luna and Twilight by the empty throne.

   “But now she lies felled by assassins, an unfitting passing for our beloved sister.” The priestess stopped in front of the throne and turned back to the crowd, “But though we mourn her now, know that she will be with the Goddess soon, and that eternal peace shall finally be hers.” The priestess ended her speech and turned around to Luna who stepped forward to address the crowd herself, the priestess moved past Luna and took her place on the opposite side of the throne from Twilight.

   “Citizens,” began Luna, “It is our greatest sorrow that we should be here right now, at the funeral of our beloved sister. We cannot beg-” Luna’s words were cut off by deafening boom and a spray of blood upon the white marble tiles of the throne room. Scared by the thunderous blast Twilight’s gaze shifted from Luna to the priestess, who had been killed by whatever had made the noise a short distance from Luna, the front of her head was blown out chunks of meat and bone. Blood gushed from the fatal wound; at her side was a long stiletto blade, dripping with a viscous purple fluid.

   The entire crowd screamed and began a mad rush for the door as seven royal elite pegasi descended from the ceiling and slammed into the tiles in front of Luna and Twilight to create a barrier between them and the crowd. Spike who’d been standing next to Twilight the entire time now clung to Twilight’s front leg and buried his face in her side. The four elites in the front of the room near the door took to the side of the room and ran full speed towards the princesses as the guards from the stairs behind them jumped down to bring up the rear as all hell broke loose. Through the enormous crowd flooding out the door came at least a dozen ponies armed with small blades rushing the throne where Luna and Twilight stood amidst a fortress of steel. They were met with a completely merciless response.

   The seven elites in front of Twilight and Spike raised their weapons and leveled them onto the approaching assailants. Seven individual blasts, each fired within two seconds time, roared through the room. Five rushers went down immediately in the barrage of gunfire, two of which had been shot twice, and started bleeding profusely onto the floor with sucking wounds in their chests. Before the group could make it to the steps, two more shots rang out from the guards to the left and right of the stage, their bullets crossing each other in front of the line of guards atop the steps as they slammed into their marks sending sprays of crimson in opposite directions as two more assailants were downed.

   After the second volley three guards rushed forward while the remaining three stood in front of Twilight and Luna, and three from the rear guard advanced to the calls of their commander, who up unto this point hadn’t needed to say anything, his elites were well trained enough to know what to do. Twilight could only see between the guards all around her, and through the cracks she saw the three guards from the front line each dispatch an attacker and turn to the remaining five as the rear guard advanced around them to encircle them, but her visibility was as limited as her movement, and with Spike clinging to her, she couldn’t get a better view.

   Meanwhile the two guards who were running from the left front of the room came under attack by a group of five ponies who’d fought through the crowd to reach them. Three of them tackled one and attempted to wrest his weapon from him as his comrade dispatched the other two. At the same time another shot was heard across the room where Twilight saw an elite pulling his weapon up from having it aimed at the floor, on the wall and on his armor Twilight could see the spattered red contrasted against the white and gold.

   The crowd was almost entirely filtered out of the room when the last group made their break for it. By the time they had started their dash the elites had completely regrouped and formed a skirmish line in front of Twilight and Luna. All in all there had been twenty elites present, the entirety of the unit of Equestria’s finest soldiers were in front of them. As the last bits of the civilian crowd fled out of the door, the back fifteen turned about and rushed the throne. Twilight would always wonder why they didn’t just keep going, they may have lived had they fled. The remaining nine elite’s with a shot left in their weapons leveled their rifles and paused.

   “Fire!” yelled out the unit commander in a terrifying roar, even with his face completely covered by a helmet, he was audible above the screams and stampeding hooves that echoed from the front of the room. The nine shots rang out so fast it seemed as if only one shot had been fired. And six attackers went down to an explosion of smoke, blood, and steel. “Advance!” yelled the commander once more over the screams of wounded and dying attackers and the elites charged across the room. The assailants, their resolve broken by the initial barrage, attempted to flee; half of them tripped up over their fallen comrades, or slipped in the gore strewn about the floor. The guards caught up to them too rapidly for them to escape, the pegasi flew overhead and slashed down four of the remaining nine before landing at the door in front of them and blocking it off. The fourteen elites running across spread out across the throne room and encircled the would-be assassins.

   Twilight had to close her eyes as the royal elite butchered them, covering her ears with her hooves to try and silence their terrified screams. Spike kept holding onto Twilight with every bit of strength he had, and Luna remained completely silent; instead of rushing the attackers, she simply stared on in anger and let the elite do their job.

   After the last of the enemies lie bleeding on the floor, the elite formed into four ranks of five and approached the throne where Luna and Twilight stood, their armor spattered with gore, and black stains from the smoke of their rifles. Coming to a stop their commander spoke again.

   “All is clear princess Luna,” he bowed, “We count in all thirty-five assailants dispatched, they were no match.” The tone of the commander seemed a little cocky, rather than the standard stoic indignance they displayed.

   “Very well…” Luna paused for a moment and looked toward her sister’s casket, “The audacity of these rebels is astounding, that they would have the gall to make another attempt on our lives… at our own SISTER’S FUNERAL!” Luna slammed her hoof into the floor so hard it cracked the tile beneath it. “How many wounded?” Luna composed herself once more, but was still audibly angry.

   “Seven your majesty, but most will die soon enough.”

   “Bind them and take them to my quarters for interrogation, but first escort Twilight and Spike to their room… then clean up this mess.” Luna barked the orders to the commander and then went to her sister’s side amidst the bodies of dead. “We shall send for you later Twilight Sparkle when we lay Celestia to rest, until then we ask that you remain in your quarters.”

   Twilight, who’d only just a moment ago taken her hooves from her ears and opened her now teary eyes, nodded to Luna and waited for the guard to take her to her room. She picked up Spike and put him on her back as the commander sent six elites to walk her to her quarters, they stepped forth and took up their stance with the same formation as yesterday and waited for Twilight’s okay to go. Twilight nodded to them and they began their way to her chambers, tracking bloody hoof-prints across the tile floors.

   Luna was still at her sister’s casket, placing a hoof on it she spoke to Celestia’s body, “I will miss you sister,” a tear formed in Luna’s remaining eye, “until we meet again in the embrace of the Goddess.”

   The doors opened in front of Twilight, and she continued through sobbing hysterically.

Spike and Twilight’s trip to their quarters was quick. The guards kept a pace that was difficult for her to sustain as she tripped over herself in her crying, and she tried her best not to step on her dress as she moved. The elites at her side would perform the same drill at each door they came to as they did before, and Spike clung to her even harder, burying his face in her back, she was beginning to feel the wet sensation of his tears soaking through her dress as they moved. The entire party was a sight to behold as they passed by, a crying princess, her equally shaken dragon clinging to her back, and six fully armored guardsmen spattered in blood pacing down the hallways.

   After a few minutes of trotting through the halls they arrived at Twilight’s quarters, where the elites opened the door and quickly checked her quarters before letting her in. As soon as she could Twilight rushed to her bed and launched herself in. She quickly covered herself in blankets and allowed herself to completely let go of all pretense of control, hysterically sobbing into her pillows while Spike lay just behind her, still clinging to his companion like a child to his mother.

***

   It took a few hours for Luna to come for Twilight and Spike, by the time she arrived the two of them had soaked her sheets in tears. Luna entered the room quietly and walked slowly to the threshold to Twilight’s bedroom quarters, where she stood a moment in silence before saying anything.

   “Twilight Sparkle,” spoke Luna, her tone was uncharacteristically soft and sorrowful, “we would like to apologize to you. We feel we have failed to keep you safe once again, and we want to make it known that we will not allow things to continue as they have.” Luna sounded as if she took personal responsibility for Celestia’s death, which she probably did, “We have tried very hard to hold everything together in our sister’s absence, we’ve recently had to take on substantially more duties than we’ve had normally, and due to this, cracks have been allowed to appear in our defenses.” Luna took a deep personal responsibility for everything that happened on her watch, it was a conviction that Twilight could admire, but one that she could see being ruinous as well.

   “Initial estimations of the type of foes we’re dealing with have been proven false; they are quite intent on our destruction before they make any more moves.” Luna sighed, “For the next few weeks the castle will be on complete lockdown. As much as we know you hate being cooped up and away from your friends, we feel it is best that we ensure you are safe above all else. It would be the greatest failure we ever would have to suffer if something were to happen to you, our sister would never forgive us.” Luna paused for a moment before continuing, neither Spike nor Twilight had anything to add, in their state it was difficult to do anything except cry.

   “Quite,” said a despondent Luna who’d hoped for a response, “In any case we have come so that you may accompany us when we lay Celestia to rest. We know that given recent events you may not want to be there, and while it may be hard to take stock in what we say, we can assure nothing will happen. The castle garden has been completely closed off, non-essential staff has been sent home until further notice, and the entire perimeter is guarded by the royal elite. We only wish things were different Twilight Sparkle, but we ask that you come with us.” Luna sounded as if she was about to cry, it was rare when Luna showed weakness, and it made Twilight’s situation seem even more bleak than it was before.

   After a moment of lying in her bed quietly, Twilight shuffled to the edge of her bed and sat there for a moment. As much as she feared what happened beyond her quarters, she felt she owed Celestia this last respect. All her life Celestia had groomed her, and assisted her in becoming everything she is today, more so than her own mother. And she didn’t think that she could bear the thought of how she would think back on herself if she didn’t go; the guilt would drive her insane. So she moved from her bed weighted down by her heavy heart, and got on her hooves. She wiped the tears from her face and sniffled before turning to Spike who was hanging onto the covers as he let himself down. He looked up to her and tried to smile, but his worried and sorrowful eyes betrayed any comforting factor it may have had. The pair then shuffled over to Luna as Twilight picked up her now wrinkled veil and placed it on her head.

   Before they reached her, Luna turned about and headed to the door behind her with her two companions on her tail. The three reached the door and opened it to find that there was no guard escort this time.

   “We’ve arranged for the path to be guarded so we will not be escorted, we felt that the presence of the royal elite was unnerving to you, we could see it in your eyes when they were around.” Twilight was thankful for Luna’s powers of perception; she wasn’t looking forward to have to march next to the bloody guards that had just earlier today, ruthlessly butchered a group of retreating would-be assassins. The trio continued out into the hall and looking down to the end, Twilight could see two royal elite guarding the door to the stairs down on one end, and two more guarding the hallway intersection on the other. They moved down towards the stairs where the guards opened the door for them as they passed. The rest of the way was much the same, the three of them at a loss for words continuing through the near empty halls of the castle, passing by the posted guards and holding back the tears that threatened to drown their vision in a depressing blur.

   By the time they’d actually gotten to the garden the sun was low in the sky. The entire garden was shaded by the long shadows of the walls, and the bright star that warmed their world could not be seen beyond the ramparts that surrounded them. All around them the lights of each room surrounding the castle garden were brightly lit with no one in the windowsill of any room. Twilight figured the guards had seen to this so they could see when anyone came to the window so they could react accordingly; it was reassuring to think that someone had a plan at this point in time.

   Continuing into the garden they came to where Celestia was to be laid to rest, in the middle of a circle of rose bushes planted beneath a large willow tree. Right where Celestia used to teach Twilight about the ways of magic when she was growing up. Twilight couldn’t fight back tears any longer, before her was Celestia’s casket and the open plot where her body would spend eternity. Tears began to drip from Twilight’s muzzle as the Royal elite approached from behind them for the ceremony.

   Each of them was unarmed and stood in freshly cleaned armor without a helmet. Before Twilight stood Celestia’s most loyal soldiers, their faces were scarred and grizzled, but in this moment they appeared soft and fragile. Each of them bore upon their face a look of great pain, Twilight could see in their eyes that they held themselves responsible for the fall of their beloved princess just as much as Luna did. They exchanged looks with Twilight and Luna that seemed to ask for forgiveness that they were unsure they would receive. Instead of speaking they simply stood quietly, all twenty of them, as Twilight and Luna looked on. Among their ranks Twilight could see many familiar guards that she’d seen around the castle before, she figured that they only donned the elite’s garb when the time called for it, and now of all times demanded their appearance.

  “Devout soldiers,” began Luna to the guards behind her, “this is our darkest hour. Our sister was taken from us by an insidious foe, and her funeral was set upon by even more of those who would seek the destruction of our fair country.” Luna began to pace in front of Celestia’s casket, her wounded eye facing away from elites. “Tomorrow we shall begin to root out our foe, and destroy that which they stand for, but tonight we mourn that which we have lost. We know Celestia had personally picked you all, lest you would not be standing here today. It was upon her approval that you were accepted into the ranks of the royal elite, and it was upon your life that you swore to protect her. But it seems fate has dealt us a cruel blow that we could not defend from, and it is now that we know what our weakness has wrought.” Luna’s speech would be reprimanding if it weren’t so simultaneously self-deprecating, “This was something that we can say was not our fault, but in the end we hold ourselves responsible, and we shall never forgive ourselves for it, you all know it to be true. But it is here that we shall forge our redemption.” Luna’s tone picked up to a more stern pitch as she looked into the souls of each elite with her one remaining eye.

   “Tonight I ask that you take a new vow with me. Tonight we shall swear that we will be the end of those who dared to strike down our dear Celestia. Tonight we ask that you join us in a pact of vengeance for our sister that we may hunt down the enemies that hide in the shadows like cowards and wait until they believe the advantage is there’s.” Luna’s tone remained level and stoic throughout her call to the soldiers, this was not the time for fiery speeches, this was the time for serious conviction, “We shall scour this country for every last whelp that so dare take up the traitors mantle and oppose us, and we shall see to it that they fall with the rest of their ilk. Tomorrow we begin to set the machine in motion,” Luna came to an abrupt halt with her rally of the soldiers, “but tonight we ask that you assist us in laying our sister to rest.”

   The elites remained silent throughout the entire speech by the princess, Twilight assumed Luna didn’t need a response to ensure their cooperation; they were undyingly loyal to the crown and would do anything asked of them at the drop of a hat, regardless

of what the request was. They had also begun moving to either side of the rose circle and four of them had taken position at each corner of the casket next to the pulleys to lower it down, they stood awaiting the order to continue.

   “Is there anything you wish to say Twilight Sparkle?” asked Luna, looking down to Twilight with the saddest look she’d ever seen Luna display. Twilight looked away from Luna and wiped her eyes of the tears that flooded them, turning to Celestia’s casket she approached it and placed her hoof on the lid as if to try and confirm for herself that this was real, that this wasn’t just some nightmare she would wake up from.

   “I’ll miss you…” Though quiet, her words were heard by Luna a short distance away, who bowed her head as the single tear that breached her defenses ran off of her cheek and fell silently to the ground. The garden was silent as the sun fell to its resting point along the ends of the gyre, it would remain there for some time before the only two ponies who could do anything about it would leave the garden.

IX: Training Day

IX

   Time still moved at a crawl in the days that followed. Twilight, with castle on lockdown, spent her time with Spike in the library staring at books. She couldn’t focus on the words nearly enough to read them; instead she just stared on. Occasionally she would fail to hold back her tears and go into fits of quiet sobbing, but as the days passed they became few and far between. She saw very little of Luna in this time, she’d spent most of her time in her chambers or with the captain of the guard. She’d ordered all transit to Canterlot ceased until further notice, and even had them recruit more guards to replace those lost when the caravan Twilight had negotiated an escort for was ambushed, something that did not weigh lightly on Twilight’s mind.

   She’d also seen nothing of Falling Star, something that mildly worried her. The only thing relating to her that she’d heard about was that she had been relocated to Luna’s chambers after the funeral. Thinking of the prisoners Luna had brought up there as well, Twilight could only think of what unnatural punishment they had been given.

   But all in all things had been quiet, too quiet in fact. The constant silence did nothing to help Twilight’s mood, and the fact that Luna had cut off Canterlot from the rest of Equestria meant that she would also not receive a return letter from her friends, something that greatly saddened her. She figured she would send them another letter just to reassure them once again, knowing that the news of the funeral disaster would reach them soon enough. It wasn’t until six days had passed after Celestia’s death did the news finally arrive that things were only going to get worse.

   It came in the dead of night, in form of a band of guards from the north western settlements of Van Hoover and Tall Tale. There were three in total, one was severely wounded, and the other two wore bandages to cover their lighter wounds. While the most wounded guard was escorted away to the infirmary the other two were brought before Luna. Twilight had been asleep at the time but had been briefed in the morning by Luna.

   Van Hoover and Tall Tail had been overrun over the course of two days. It all started the day Celestia was assassinated, there were large explosions at the guard barracks in both towns, followed a sudden rush of attackers, some armed with basic weaponry such as clawed gauntlets and bladed bracers, though the majority of the attackers were armed with mere farm implements or mining tools. After two days of token resistance by the guards of Van Hoover, they were overrun and forced to flee the city, most were cut down as they fled while some managed to make it to the wilderness and escape to unknown fates.

   Tall Tale fared no better, most of the city guard were killed in the barracks by the explosives the rebels had set. After mere hours of trying to hold back the onslaught that overwhelmed them so quickly they were also forced to retreat into the wilds. They also reported rebel camps in the woods surrounding the cities, the most wounded of their party had been saved by the other two when his group ran afoul of a patrol from one of these camps. The guardsmen also reported finding dead guards from two other settlements in the wilds as they fled to Canterlot, by the looks of the fallen guard’s armors, Highwind Pass and Horseshoe Bend had also fallen to similar attacks.  And as the guards followed the railroad to make their way to inform the crown of the rebel activities, they’d seen that the rebels had blasted the railway to keep Canterlot from quickly reinforcing the north.

   Their situation was dire; Luna’s mocking estimations of an army of senseless cowards was far from the truth. The enemy had planned for their victory, and if something was not done quickly, they would have it.

***

   “Goddess I remember the morning Luna told me about the actions in the north west.” Twilight commented on their recollections. “To think that they remained undetected for so long. They caught us completely by surprise, even after Luna found out about them! No one expected them to just overthrow whole settlements in a matter of days. To think that they destroyed our garrisons so quickly, it made us look so weak.”

   “Truly impressive for an army of peasant farmers and miners.” Replied Spike, “Their resolve was admirable… poor fools, if only they’d known.”

   “We wouldn’t be standing here today if they had. I’ve come to believe though, that of all those involved that we came out with the worst end of everything. Immortality has a way of making death not seem as such a bad consequence.”

   “Quite.”

***

   It did not take long for Luna to respond to the news, the day after she was informed of the rebel activities Luna had it made public knowledge that there was a rebel army destroying Equestria’s northern settlements. And she masterfully fueled the public’s outrage into an expedient recruitment drive for the understrength royal guard. Trains were dispatched from Canterlot with recruiters and a small detachment of guards, one set to stop at Ponyville and Dodge Junction before heading to Apple Loosa to garner recruits, while the other was sent to the eastern cities of Manehattan, Filly Delphia, and Baltimare to do the same.

   It would be a week before both trains were set to arrive back in Canterlot, so Luna did her best to personally rally recruits in the royal city. By the time the trains had arrived again, she’d already recruited half of Canterlot’s able bodied citizens for a total of seven-hundred new guards. When the trains finally arrived back in Canterlot, the numbers of new recruits swelled to well over twenty-five hundred.

   Canterlot Castle was turned into an enormous barracks overnight. New recruits were herded into the ballrooms where they were given hastily made cots to sleep on and a small foot locker for personal possessions. They would spend their nights closely watched over by the castle guards, including the royal elite, and their days were spent in the courtyards under intense physical training and drill. Steel Hoof the newly appointed regimental commander to lead this new army of guards had given Luna an estimation of twelve weeks to fully train their new soldiers for complete combat readiness; Luna had given him a month.

   So each day the drills were brutal and unrelenting, the drill sergeants pushed each recruit to their absolute limit each day. After two weeks of solid drill and basic combat drills the physical demands proved to be too much for many of them, and large numbers washed out. The third week signaled the beginning of combat training, and Twilight received a summons from Luna telling her to report to the courtyard the following morning to meet with the battalion commanders to assist them with their newly formed battlemage companies. By this point in time Twilight had overcome her bursts of uncontrollable tears, but was still quite melancholy most of the time. She had also spent much of her recent time reading up on offensive spell casting, something that would come in handy in the days to come.

***

   Twilight awoke early and stumbled from her bed to bash the magically shielded alarm clock on the vanity. It was much earlier than she was used to waking up and the repetitive wail of the clock made sure she arose, even if she didn’t exactly want to. The rising sun was still just a glow beyond the horizon as she picked up her brush to even out her unruly hair and she used her magic to light up her room enough to see her mane in disastrous condition, as she squinted her eyes at the sudden burst of intense light. After brushing the awkward curls and tangles from her mane she turned around and carefully stepped around Spike in his little bed beside hers. She figured he would appreciate being left to his sleep.

   Groggily making her ways through the halls she was beset by no one on her trip. Due to the change in her sleep pattern, she’d decided to give herself time to make her way to the castle larder to find herself something to eat. Upon arriving she moved through the empty kitchen unabated and opened the pantry where she rifled through its contents before coming across a simple bag of oats, it would do nicely. Picking up the bag with her magic, she toted it over to the preparation table in the kitchen and tore it open with a simple spell. Without any regard for the staff’s normal cleanliness procedures she began lazily eating out of the bag on the preparation table. She didn’t figure it mattered, most of the kitchen staff had been sent home until further notice, and this imparticular kitchen hadn’t been used in almost a month.

   After finishing her small bag of oats, she proceeded to the courtyard. Once more she was assailed by the depressing emptiness of a once bustling castle. The darkened chambers and rooms void of life offered nothing in the way comfort for one such as Twilight, so she sauntered on to her destination trying not to think about how the castle once was.

   It didn’t take long for Twilight to arrive at her destination; in the courtyard, behind who Twilight could only assume to be the company leaders, was a large group of unicorns doing a set of demanding exercise drills with consummate ease, the intensity of their brief training period had paid off. As she approached the two unicorns in front of the others they stopped the recruits and turned to Twilight with a bow.

   “Good morning Princess Twilight.” They both said simultaneously. The pony to her left was a stallion about her height. His coat was a light blue, and he wore a grey officer’s jacket and a beret that had a hole in it for his horn. The mare next to him was about slightly smaller with a uniform like that of her comrades, and a coat just as white as Rarity’s, but that’s where her similarities to her Ponyville friend ended. The mare in front of her bore a vicious scar across her left eye, which was glazed over after being rendered blind by whatever had given her the scar on her face.

   “I’m Captain Ice Horn of Fifth Company Battlemages, Moon Battalion,” said the stallion to her left, who then pointed to the mare to her right, “and this is Captain Mystic of Fifth Company Battlemages, Sun Battalion.”

   “Pleased to meet you Princess.” Captain Mystic smiled genuinely and bowed her head once more.

   “We’ve asked Princess Luna for your assistance as it’s been displayed that your level of mastery over magic is quite high.” Spoke Ice Horn, “We feel that it would be more beneficial to our soldiers if you were to assist us for the week in training our new battlemages in the art of magical combat.” Ice Horn turned to the recruits behind him, “Before you stand the top two-hundred unicorns who qualified for the each battalion’s battlemage company. They’ve shown the highest magical prowess of their peers and wish to serve her majesty on the field as battlemages, and we hope that you can assist us in teaching them the finer points of magical combat.” Ice Horn was very cordial in delivering his, what seemed practiced, speech to Twilight. Meanwhile Mystic stood by him with a smile on her scarred face.

   “What exactly do you want me to do?” asked Twilight.

   “Well, your majesty, we’ve still got very much to do such as requisitioning supplies, training our newly recruited healers, and meeting with the regimental and battalion commanders. So we more or less need you to teach our cadets here these lessons in magic before the week is out.” Ice Horn levitated a small list that was tucked in his jacket’s pocket. “We do apologize for the sudden burden we’ve shackled you with, but we simply have no other choice due to our time crunch.”

   “Okay then.” Said a confused Twilight, wondering how she was going to teach to the large group in front of her, “I guess I can do that.” She smiled nervously as she took the list hovering in front of her.

   “We surely hope so; all in all you don’t have to teach anything too advanced mainly just simple levitation and projection. But focused energy, teleportation, and disarm spells must be refined on before they are sent out into the field.” Mystic spoke very gruffly, “We recommend spending a day on each of those four lessons to make sure they master them, if you have any other things to add once those are locked down feel free, but also be sure they get a few days to practice it in duels or team battles. Try to keep them from getting too hurt, but make sure they get a chance to try out their magic in a combat setting. “

   “And be sure that you meet all of them, it’ll be a great morale boost.” Ice Horn added in his last bit as he and Mystic looked to one another to see if either had anything to add. When neither had anything further to say they wished Twilight good luck and informed the recruits that they were to be taking orders from Twilight for the remainder of the week before exiting the courtyard leaving Twilight standing there quietly with two hundred unicorns staring at her. After a brief moment of awkward silence, Twilight smiled to the crowd and clumsily began.

   “Well, uhm… good morning every pony.”

   “Good morning princess.” Responded the unicorns in unison, they’d obviously practiced to respond accordingly.

   “I guess I’ve just become your new teacher, so before we begin let’s get introductions out of the way. There’s quite a lot of you so should I forget your name, please bear with me. So… form a line for me real quick and I’ll just go down the way getting everyone’s name.” The cadets looked at one another, exchanging awkward glances before shuffling into a surprisingly straight line where they organized themselves by squad and rank. Walking down to the far left of the now, quite extensive line, Twilight began to make introductions.

   “Private Fire Ball, Fifth Company, Sun Battalion ma’am. Pleased to finally meet you.” began the burnt orange unicorn at the end of the line in front of her, his hoof held aloft in salute.

   “Pleased to meet you Fire Ball, I look forward to working with you.” And this went on as Twilight moved down the line for an extended period of time. Each new face raised her morale to see them greet her with such anticipation and vigor, half way through she was legitimately excited to teach the cadets whereas before she was begrudgingly pessimistic about her conscription into being a teacher. As she was almost finished, she was greeted by a familiar face that caught her completely by surprise.

   “Sergeant Silver Flare, Fifth Company, Moon Battalion, happy to meet you Princess.” said the second to last recruit in line.

   “Glad to make your acquaintance Silver Flare.” Twilight turned to the last unicorn in line and could hardly believe her eyes.

   “Nice to see you again Twilight Sparkle.” said the blue unicorn at the end of the line, “Lieutenant Trixie Lulamoon, Fifth Company, Moon Battalion, at your service.”

   “Why a-” Twilight began before being cut off by her old rival, much to the dismay of her peers.

   “Am I here? Trixie is no traitor Twilight Sparkle. I may not exactly be your biggest fan, but I will not stand by while those ingrates threaten my home. So here I am, the great and powerful Lieutenant Trixie.” Trixie’s final sentence was spoken without the old vigor and emphasis that it once held, instead her demeanor was sarcastic and harsh, it had apparently been some time since Trixie had last gotten a win under her belt.

   “Well, I’m glad to see that you’re here then.” Twilight awkwardly tried to move the conversation along, “I’m sure you’ll do great.”

   “I know I will.” Trixie spoke with stoic arrogance. “At least she’s not talking in third person anymore.” thought Twilight.

   “Alright then,” yelled Twilight to the group of recruits around her “did your captains leave you any supplies to help with the training?”

   “They said they left us everything we’d need in those supply crates over there.” called out grey unicorn who Twilight had already forgotten the name of as he pointed to a stack of large crates near the walls of the courtyard.

   “Thank you!” replied Twilight with a wave before heading over to the supplies she’d been given. Cracking open the crates she found several large metal rings she’d seen used for teleportation targets, several magically regenerating circle targets about three feet wide, quite a few sets of bladed gauntlets, shields, and helmets, and an entire crate of short spears she only assumed were to be used as projectiles for the targets. Calling over several cadets she had them collect the targets, twenty in all, and evenly distribute them along a windowless castle wall. After that she had another group take the boxes of spears and give each unicorn one as she began to speak.

   “Alright then, today we’ll be practicing levitation and projection, or simply put, picking up and throwing things.” Twilight thought quickly, trying to think of something that wasn’t just throwing a spear over and over at a static target. She figured she’d have them start out with some practice shots, she could think of something while they did that. “As you can all see, you’ve been provided with a short spear. For the time being, form up into groups of ten, and each group take a target. Just take turns throwing spears and retrieve your spear with your magic after you’ve thrown it, I don’t want to see anyone using their hooves for the remainder of the training.”

   Twilight looked to the cadets in front of her, each of them looking at her with a look of moderate confusion before they began to look at each other trying to figure out who to form their group with. Twilight didn’t exactly take into account that she just asked two-hundred ponies to form groups, though they were grown-up, it was still like asking children in class to get together for project, they’d find their friends and some people would be left in odd groups, and it would take them forever. She needed some form of knowledge on their organization, so she’d have to ask. In her panic, she’d also forgotten almost everyone’s names, everyone except one.

   “Lieutenant Lulamoon, I have a question for you.” Twilight called out to the shuffling crowd, after a brief moment, the form of Trixie could be seen approaching her.

   “Yes Princess?” asked Trixie in a much more indifferent and disrespectful manner than her peers would have.

   “So after I asked them to form groups on their own, I realized this would take a while, so I need to know something… how exactly are your companies organized?” Twilight asked with an embarrassed smile.

   “Well, what we have here is two companies; at the head of each company there is a Captain who gives orders to the five lieutenants, such as myself, who each lead a platoon of twenty soldiers including themselves. Each Lieutenant leads the first squad of their platoon, made up of ten soldiers, and they have a sergeant that leads the second squad of their platoon which is made up of the other ten soldiers. Is there anything else you need, Princess?” Trixie mockingly emphasized the last word of her question. Though she would normally be reprimanded by her superiors for behaving such a way toward Twilight, she didn’t care to practice restraint with her dislike of her country’s newest leader.

   “Judging by the number of targets, I guess they intended for target practice to be by squad then,” Twilight’s contempt with Trixie was detectable in her voice, “we’ll just do it like that then.” Twilight turned to the crowd, who by now had become quite loud, as they conversed with one another in their search for those they wanted to spend the day with.

   “Excuse me everyone, if I could just get your attention for a moment.” Twilight was as commanding as your average doormat; she ultimately went ignored as her attempt to get everyone’s attention was lost in the banter amongst soldiers, who were still trying to get into their desired cliques for target practice. “If I could just… ugh!” Twilight groaned in frustration.

   “Wow Princess, great job leading your troops.” commented Trixie, who was still standing at her side.

   “Well, I’d like to see you do any better oh Great and Powerful Trixie.” Twilight had given up on her niceties and spat her words at Trixie in similarly mocking fashion.

   “Will do your highness.” Trixie turned to the crowd, “5THCOMPANY, MOON BATTALION!” Trixie’s voice was deafening from such a short distance away,“FORM RANKS BY ORDER OF THE PRINCESS!” The crowd abruptly split into two distinct parties. Those of Moon battalion, who quickly formed back up to how they were before when Twilight had given them the freedom of choice, and those of Sun Battalion, who looked momentarily at Trixie who was trotting to her spot in her company’s formation before quickly shuffling into their own ranks adjacent to the Moon battalion unicorns.

   Twilight grunted a defeated grunt and didn’t even bother to look at Trixie, whom she’d just given a reason to be smug. “Each squad will form into a group and take their own separate target. Sun battalion will take the first then targets starting from the right, and Moon battalion will take the first ten targets starting from the left.” Twilight’s exasperation over her most recent annoyance was palpable. “Now then, split up and form a line here where the tiles in the courtyard change.” Twilight pointed with her hoof at a line where the courtyard’s tiles changed from interlocking stones, to diamond shaped marble that formed a straight line down the middle of the courtyard approximately thirty yards from the targets. A suitable distance to practice from, thought Twilight.

   Each company fluidly formed into their respective groups under the shouts of their lieutenants and sergeants and they formed orderly lines in front of each target behind the courtyard’s differing tiles as per Twilight’s instructions. After a few awkward moments of silence and inaction, Twilight figured they were waiting for an order, something that was starting to become an annoyance that she knew she would have to keep up with.

   “Begin when ready.” sighed Twilight. No sooner did she finish talking did the whistling sounds of flying spears fill her ears. The twenty spears that made up the first volley all flew gracefully and true before slamming into their targets on the walls behind them. After seeing this display of marksmanship on the part of her temporary students, Twilight figured she would have to ramp things up if things continued as such. After the first group pulled their spears from the targets the second group came forward and intermittently threw their spears as they came up to the firing line. Each one hit that was thrown hit the target, a few of them came a little close to missing, but they hit them none-the-less. Then the third group, and the fourth, and so on, this continued on for almost three hours as Twilight thought of something they could do.

   The cadets were visibly bored by the repetition of this task, and their accuracy by this point was phenomenal. After three hours of trying to think of something for them to test their skill, Twilight finally had something she thought was good enough.

   “Alright recruits, that’s enough.” Muffled sighs could be heard all throughout the crowd. “Now we’re going to switch to something a little more challenging,” Twilight walked out in front of her figurative students, “For this next exercise, I want the last person who threw their spear to pick up the target and move it around in front of your group. The pony behind you will try to hit it, and then after they retrieve their spear, you pass them the target and move to the back of the line to await your turn to throw. If the first in each line would please pick up the targets now, we’ll begin.”

   All along the wall the targets began to bounce and fly in all directions, at first they were a tad crazy and disorganized but after a few moments of ponies trying to find their respective targets they began to calm down a bit and stay in the areas in front of each group. As spears began to fly Twilight was impressed by how many managed to hit some of the more sporadically moving targets. While a few spears still flew into the wall behind the targets most of them found their marks in the bouncing targets in front of them. Twilight even noticed that more and more of them were being manipulated mid-flight to make sure they hit.

   As the recruits continually nailed their targets over and over despite crazier movements and less predictable patterns by the target controllers, once more boredom began to set in amongst them. The day was still young, only four hours had passed since Twilight began their lessons and Twilight still had four hours of their time to fill before she was dismissed and the Captains return to begin their normal physical drills at their regular time, or at least she hoped they would. She had to yet again think of something to advance their skills. Although for the time being she figured that the recruits had done more than enough target practice, as they never missed, and didn’t even strain to achieve some amazingly difficult shots on erratic and unpredictable targets.

   “Alright then every pony!” Twilight called to them, “Put your spears back in the boxes and we’ll move on to teleportation, you all seem to have projection down to an art by now. Just form back into ranks when you’ve put your spear away” The crowd of recruits shuffled over to the box in a line and deposited their spears before shuffling back over to their ranks and took up their positions on the exact tiles that they were standing on when Twilight came into the courtyard.

   Twilight, meanwhile, walked over to the boxes to retrieve the four metal rings she’d seen earlier. Levitating them at her side she thought of a way to introduce some friendly competition into their dull morning. As the last of the recruits made their way into their ranks Twilight was coming back from the other side of the courtyard where she placed two of the rings on the white tiles of the courtyard’s edge. Upon stopping in front of the ranks she hovered the other two rings out to either side of her and placed them on the ground about twenty yards apart.

   “Alright then, so I’ve come up with a little competition for you all. To either side of me you’ll see a ring on the ground. And on the other side of the courtyard fifty yards away you’ll see another set of rings just like them. First we’re going to see who all can teleport with ease, then once everyone can do it fairly easily, we’re going to have a race between each battalion. So to begin, I want you to once again form a line for me like when we were doing introductions.” The rank and file formed from a gridded pattern of ponies into a straight line across the courtyard as Twilight made her way to the end of the line she started on before.

   “Now then, as I walk in front of you, I want you to teleport as far as you can to the other side of the courtyard. If you find yourself unable, simply wait for a moment while I go down the line and I’ll be more than happy to assist you. Now let us begin.” Twilight then started to walk down the line. As she passed in front of the ponies, one by one, they all seemed to make it across the courtyard the moment she crossed in front them with fair ease, each disappearing with a small flash of light and a magical pop. At the end of the line she was greeted by Lieutenant Lulamoon who simply stood there staring at her.

   “Can you not teleport Trixie?” Twilight asked her trying to hold back a laugh. Trixie didn’t take kindly to the insult and began teleporting all around Twilight.

   “Yes.” Said Trixie as she jumped behind Twilight, the moment she turned around to see her she teleported again, “I.” same as before Trixie jumped again as Twilight turned to meet eyes, “Can.” This time she stayed still when Twilight turned to see her. “Do you think this is magic kindergarten Twilight Sparkle?” Trixie sounded quite insulted by Twilight. “The captain even told you,” Trixie held one leg up in the air and bent her hoof down to make quotations in the air, “‘They’ve shown the highest magical prowess of their peers’ we fully understand the basics of magic, and you’re not going to help any pony here by trying to go through this like you’re teaching foals.”

   “But what if some pony can’t teleport as well as the others?” Twilight questioned Trixie with hints of rising anger in her voice.

   Trixie turned to the line of recruits across the courtyard with a resounding yell, “5THCOMPANY MOON BATTALION, TELEPORT BACK INTO RANKS!” Suddenly Trixie disappeared and after an abnormally bright flash of light and a rather loud pop Twilight found herself surrounded by ponies in perfect formation, “TELEPORT, TWELVE O’CLOCK, FIFTY YARDS!” To the same flash of light and loud cracking pops the group disappeared from around her and she turned to see all of them, once again in perfect formation a short distance away. “ABOUT FACE!” Twilight watched them all rotate their formation to face her like it had before with the same orientation, rather than just each pony turning around, all except for one.

   “You see Princess?” Twilight, almost becoming dizzy from her recent bout of spins, turned around once more to the annoyed glare of Trixie, “We’re going to be battlemages because we’re the best that volunteered. We’re not beginners, we all know levitation, we all know projection, and we all know teleportation. Most of us can already do disarms spells, and some such as myself, can even do focused energy beams. I know it’s all great in your castle, but we’re going out there to fight. If you want to help us at all, you need to teach us what we don’t already know, and stop treating us like foals who barely know anything.” Trixie finished her tirade by saluting and teleporting back into her formation. A brief moment after she did, Sun Company appeared right next to them in their formation.

   Twilight turned to face them all in front of her where most stood with their faces forward, but their eyes jumping back and forth between Twilight and Trixie nervously, unsure how Twilight would react to Trixie’s blatant disrespect of a princess. After a moment of collecting her thoughts she spoke to her ‘students’.

   “Okay then, show of hooves, how many of you can perform a disarm spell successfully?” a good three quarters of the class raised one hoof as per Twilight’s request. “Alright then, now how about focused energy beams?” About half of them raised a hoof at this question. “Now how about deflection shields?” even fewer hooves went up, “Come to life spells?” about twenty raised their hooves, “and what about paralyze?” only Trixie and two others raised their hooves.

   “So then, it seems the lesson plan has changed. For the remainder of the day I want you all go to the library and read up on disarms, focusing energy, and come to life spells. The library is quite extensive and you have about three and a half hours by my count until your normal physical drills begin. I in the meantime will gather up everything needed so that when we begin tomorrow we’ll be able to quickly move through learning into practicing and we won’t have to spend all day grinding out remedial chore-worthy tasks learning simple spells you already know. And who knows, if you’re able to quickly get a hold of those spells, by then end of the week we might move on to even more advanced magic. Until tomorrow, you are all dismissed, use your time wisely, I shall meet you back here same time tomorrow morning.” Twilight nodded to them all and began walking to the barracks to see about getting some more supplies for the next day. The recruits formed into tight formations and began making their way to the door on the other end of the courtyard. She would be much more prepared the next time they met and as she made her way to the barracks, more and more ideas began to form in her head. “Tomorrow is going to be most fun.” She thought.

X: Training Day II

X

   It was the same time as yesterday that Twilight arrived at the courtyard. Today though, she was accompanied by her companion Spike and a group of ten royal guards who’d been acquisitioned to assist her in teaching the recruits. This time she prepared to teach them what they didn’t already know and not be sassed by Trixie, something Luna had heard about and made a point to scold Twilight about the night before.

   “So Twilight Sparkle, we heard there was some… insubordination, at today’s training exercises.” Luna had said, “If you are to be a princess, you must act like one. The next time one of your underlings steps out of line, reprimand them and make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Luna had then given her a brief, and annoyed speech after that about how she needed to be in command at all times. Luna told her that now of all times was a time not be soft, now was the time to be rigid and strict, and that Twilight needed to have some backbone if she was going to do anything besides sit in the castle and read books until the end of days. Twilight took her own view on the tongue lashing Luna had given her however; she would try to stave off being as harsh as Luna could be when until the time absolutely called for it. Just because Luna was rigid and cold didn’t mean Twilight had to be, this was something Luna saw as weakness, but Twilight knew there was a difference between being tyrannical to one’s subordinates and being weak.

   Today she would start out teaching focused energy beams to those who didn't know since it would help later with other offensive magic. To start off, she figured it would be best to once again have them form a line and she’d just go down the way and have them fire a simple beam at a target, that target being Spike. Dragons were immune to all but the most advanced magic that even Twilight could barely perform, except of course for enveloping spells such as levitation. Anything that had to be focused into a small area like energy beams simply dissipates on the surface of their scales, a property that made them very valuable to armorers and alchemists. So even if they mustered a blast that could stop a pony’s heart, it would only just fizzle on the scales of Spike’s hide.

   Twilight had often used her friend for target practice; even if he seemed reluctant to do so he always admitted it was kind of fun. After a few times it became a game between the two of them, Spike would try and duck and dodge Twilight’s spells and she would be right behind him the whole way; tickling his scaly skin with blasts of magic that could cripple someone else. So upon hearing what was asked of him, he volunteered quite readily to assist his friend in her endeavor.

   “So, you ready to go Spike?” asked Twilight.

   “One second please.” Spike stretched out his arms, and rose to the tip of his toes with a great yawn. He then went back on his heels and pulled in his arms to scratch his stomach for a moment, “Alright then, I’m ready.”

   “Good to hear,” Twilight smiled at her sleepy companion, “now just walk about twenty steps that way and just keep pace with me as we go down the line, just be sure to look away so they don’t hit you in the eyes, it’s always unpleasant when that happens.”

   “You’re telling me.” Spike acknowledged Twilight’s request and shuffled over to be a little in bit away from where the front of the line would begin. Twilight then turned to the cadets in front of her.

   “Good morning everyone.” said Twilight.

   “Good morning Princess.” replied the recruits.

   “After yesterday’s… revelations, I’ve decided to change things up a bit. Today we’re going to get everyone up to speed on focused energy beams before we move further down the list of things to do. If you already know them, then try to improve upon what you know and hopefully by the end of the day you’ll all be masters of it. So to start out I want you all to form a line just like you did yesterday for the teleportation. Once you’re there, I ask that you focus a beam directed at my assistant Spike as we go down the line in front of you. And don’t worry about hurting him, there’s nothing you can do that will harm a dragon. Do not take this as an encouragement to try though, just cast a simple beam on him and we’ll move on. I will also be helping anyone who is having trouble as we go down the line, so if a lot of ponies are struggling then it may take a while for us to reach the end so just bear with us. We have a long day so I want to try and get everyone up to speed on an individual level so I know you’re ready. It just wouldn’t be right in my opinion to have everyone practice something you all need to know at the same time, this way I can make sure you’re ready by the time we’re done here.”

   Twilight then ordered the recruits to form the line she had requested and began making her way down to the end of the line. Before she arrived at the end, the recruits finished forming their line, just as straight and perfect as the last one, and were awaiting the order to go. Twilight turned and nodded to Spike, who gave her a thumb up with one hand while he covered his yawning mouth with another.

   “Alright then, you’re up first, uhm…” Twilight embarrassingly forgot the first cadet’s name.

   “Fire Ball.” replied the orange stallion in front of her.

   “Fire Ball! Sorry, I have a lot of names to keep track of.” She smiled and her face flushed with a hint of red. Fire Ball looked to Spike who stood there waiting the first of many magical blasts he’d be receiving for the day. Closing his eyes for a moment with a look of determination, the tip of his horn began to glow a bright red and a moment later he opened his eyes and with a nod of his head a bright red beam shot out from his horn and flew into Spike where it dissipated rapidly into a smoky cloud that vaporized in seconds.

   “Very good, Fire Ball.” Twilight then stepped forward to the next mare in line, she repeated Fire Ball’s actions and sending a blue beam straight at Spike who took it without so much as a flinch as it smacked into him with a sparkling puff of magical smoke. This continued on for the next ten recruits before Twilight came to one who couldn’t successfully form a beam. The mare’s name was Shining Star, a name that briefly reminded her of Luna’s former captain.

   “Okay then,” began Twilight, “nothing wrong with not knowing, that’s why we’re here. So to form a beam you first need to focus your magic into your horn, our entire body gathers latent magic from all around us, and we as unicorns are able to use this magic because our horns act as foci.” Twilight stopped for a moment, “Apologies if you’ve heard this before, but this is the way I was taught so bear with me. Through concentration we can bring forth the magic within our bodies to the tips of our horns, with other spells such as levitation, projection, and teleportation, we are merely channeling our magic around physical objects or ourselves and moving them with our magic. With energy beams, we are collecting and focusing this magic onto a small point and then unleashing it all at once at another. So to begin, call forth your magic to the tip of your horn.”

   Shining Star did was she was instructed, and the tip of her blue horn began to glow a bright white as she closed her eyes, “Now that you have your magic built up, you need to pick a point to unleash it at. Remember, aim small, miss small. If you just look at Spike as a whole, you’re more likely to miss, concentrate on one specific scale while holding the spell for a moment, you may release when I say.” Shining Star opened her eyes and strained slightly as she held the spell on her horn. Her eyes went straight to Spike and Twilight could see small movements as they searched for a target, after a few seconds of searching they settled on a target and ceased their movements. Twilight took this as a sign she’d found a target. “You may now fire when ready.” No sooner did Twilight finish did Shining Star loose a bean straight past Spike and into the wall behind him where it scorched a small mark into the white brick of the courtyard stone.

   “Well done Shining Star, now you just have to work on that aim and you’ll be just fine. I’m sure by the end of the day you’ll be shooting straight.” Twilight smiled genuinely to the small mare, who obviously wasn’t expecting this kind of response, her eyes were wide with fear and for a moment she held a hoof up to her mouth to stifle a gasp. After a brief moment she processed she wasn’t going to be reprimanded for scorching the bricks, and she calmed down as Twilight nodded to her before moving on. The next stallion was the same way, and he received the same attention that Shining Star had. His shot at Spike flew true however, and blasted into him with the same cloud of magical smoke that accompanied each successful hit on his scales.

   Down the line they went, Spike sleepily trudging along and getting shot at without so much as a wince and Twilight happily instructing the recruits who couldn’t accomplish the task at hand until they were able to form a proper beam before moving down the line. All in all about three quarters of them could successfully form and fire an energy beam without assistance, and it had already been an hour by the time Twilight made her way down to the end of the line to ask the one pony she’d been dreading to see since yesterday if she could do an energy beam.

   Arriving at the end of the line Twilight had to hold back the giggle she so badly wanted to let out in Trixie’s face. Upon Trixie’s face was a muzzle that kept her mouth firmly shut; something that obviously annoyed her to no end. When Twilight looked at her, Trixie could see that she wanted to laugh aloud in her face and she gave Twilight an angry glare through squinted eyes. She didn’t even wait for Twilight to speak before blasting Spike with a beam that smacked him right between the eyes causing him to sneeze at the puff of smoke in his face.

   “Well done Trixie, good to see you’ve improved since the last time we met.” Twilight took guilty pleasure in her ‘complimenting’ Trixie like she was a foal; she knew full well that it ate at her to no end that she couldn’t respond. Trixie being the last one in the line Twilight walked out to the middle of the line to address everyone.

   “Okay then, now that every pony has done at least one beam, we’re going to put that knowledge to the test, and to help me, I’ve brought along these gentlecolts here.” Twilight pointed to the ten royal guards who had been off to the side during Twilight’s session with the recruits to avoid being hit by a stray beam. “With their help, we’ll be conjuring familiars that will rush at you all, the familiars will also be infused with a simple paralyze spell so if they touch you will be frozen in place. It’s nothing dangerous or painful, but it is very inconveniencing.” Twilight laughed. “We’re going to have a bit of a game with this, you’ll be defending yourselves from wave after wave of familiars, you won’t be able to attack them until we say so, and they won’t attack until we give the order. So when I yell go, the familiars will attack you, and you have to dispel them with an energy beam, they’ll just poof into a little ball of smoke the rest will keep coming until you defeat them all. After each round we’ll conjure a few more and when we’re ready we’ll signal the next round to begin, everyone ready?” The recruits nodded, this time Twilight could see a little bit of enthusiasm in their faces.

   “Alright then,” Twilight turned to the guards “gentlecolts, if you would please join me up on the wall.” Each of them teleported atop the wall with Twilight and began conjuring familiars in the courtyard below as Twilight lifted Spike to her side from the courtyard below. Each familiar was a translucent pink pony with a cartoonish face that bore a resemblance to a nightmare night mask made by a foal with angry eyes and triangular teeth visible from a ridiculously proportioned mouth. It was obvious the magic constructs were training dummies. Once summoned they stumbled around and bumped into each other as more and more joined them in the courtyard until a total of fifty had been summoned. They walked around and fought as they bungled into one another by bashing their heads into each other and flopping hooves in the air wildly.

   For the few moments before the rest summoned it was quite comical to watch them with their idiotic movements and clumsy brawls, but when the last ones were summoned Twilight yelled out over them, “Go!” and each of them took off at unexpected speed toward a specific pony in the line, each going for someone different. It took a moment for most of the recruits to react and they’d almost reached a few of them before beams started flying across the courtyard, creating an impressive display of light as the beams crossed over one another and slammed into the familiars evaporating them into clouds of pink smoke. Numerous beams whizzed straight past the intended target or flew through the spaces now occupied by magical pink smoke to fly into the walls and make a little scorch mark in the bricks. Twilight figured she wouldn’t be too popular with the groundskeepers for a few days after this.

   When the first wave of familiars was wiped out and the pink smoke dissipated into the air they began making more. This time there were to be seventy-five conjured. Same as before the familiars acted like idiots as their numbers swelled, each of them flopping around and bumping into one another with little care. But this time the recruits weren’t losing concentration on them, sure a few of them giggle and laughed at the spectacle before them, but they weren’t looking away. When the last of them entered into the world Twilight once again gave the signal for them to begin. This time they were eliminated with incredible speed as a barrage of magic cut them down before half of them could move.

   “Good job every pony, much better that time.” Twilight called out to the recruits with a wave, a few of them even waved back to her as she went back to creating the next wave with the rest of the guards with her. This wave of one-hundred met much the same fate as the last one, most were wiped out a moment after Twilight said go and the rest lasted only a second longer. It was like this for five more waves until the full number of familiars summoned was two-hundred and fifty of the bungling target dummies.

   “I wonder how many they’ll be able to take.” said Spike.

   “Who knows, if they can keep up like that they should have no problems defeating well over a few hundred.” No sooner did she finish replying to Spike did they summon the last group bit of the needed familiars. When Twilight yelled for it to start the initial blast by the recruits took out the frontal line just like the wave before, the ones behind them burst out of the pink cloud and dashed toward the line in all directions, the blur of pink made them difficult to target as they kept firing at them. The cloud of smoke quickly grew towards the firing line as more of them were taken out in rapid succession as they drew closer and closer, but this time they didn’t have enough in them to stop all of them and four ponies were struck by familiars that exploded on them and froze them in place while simultaneously shading them an obnoxious pink. The ones who’d been paralyzed stood in place looking about with rapidly moving eyes, in panicky fashion as they assessed their situation. Spike was giggling at the ridiculous display as Twilight addressed the ponies below.

   “Ooh, looks like they got a few that time,” Twilight laughed to the recruits below, “better shoot faster next time or you’ll all be frozen up before too long.” The next was consisted of two-hundred and seventy-five familiars and Twilight wasn’t sure how much longer they’d have to keep going before they had to go down and free up a line of pink statues. She was pleasantly surprised to find out the recruits still had some fight in them when the next wave was ready to go. As the signal was given the wall of light that covered the courtyard once again crashed into the front row of familiars as the rest bolted through, the moment they came into sight on the other side of the cloud they were met by a steady stream of incoming beams that picked them apart and managed to stop them just before they reached the line.

   “Great job everyone! Keep up the good work!” Twilight once again offered words of encouragement before going back to summoning familiars. “Glad these are easy to do at least, it would be exhausting if the spell required any effort.” said Twilight to the guards helping her who nodded in reply. The next wave claimed a few more ponies however, seven in all were turned into pink reminders of what happened when you don’t aim or shoot quickly enough. The next wave took sixteen more and the wave after that twenty-five were taken by the familiar charge. It only took two more waves for the firing line to be defeated. All in all they had survived eleven waves bringing the total number of defeated familiars summoned on the last wave to four-hundred needed to completely finish off the line. Lasting so long against unnaturally fast opponent in such a small arena was quite impressive in Twilight’s book, she would let them know it as they went to de-petrify the recruits. Lifting Spike onto her back she jumped off the wall and flew down to the end of the line to begin countering the petrifaction spell as the guards teleported down to do the same.

   “Very well done every pony, you stood all the way up to two to one odds while severely under strength and I’m fully confident that had you all been free to move you could have gone even farther. Before we move on to the next round we’re going to do like we did when we started except this time I’m going to fly above you as Spike runs in front of you, simply fire when I pass overhead. I want to see how everyone has improved.” When Twilight had done her section of the recruits she walked to the end of the line where she started before. Picking herself up into the air she began to fly as fast as Spike could run on his short stubby legs as he closed his left eye to keep it from being hit and ran in a straight line to the end. As he went along he was constantly assailed by the slight annoyance of magical energies being launched against his side. Twilight saw there was an improvement in accuracy amongst those who’d previously missed, but a few of them still sent a beam straight into the bricks on the opposite side of the courtyard. After completing her flight across the courtyard she assessed that another round was in order to help everyone further improve on their skills. Picking up Spike as she passed over him she flew back up on top of the wall and was shortly followed by the guards.

   “Okay everyone, we’ll go through another round and see where we’re at after this.” Twilight called to the recruits as the guards once again began summoning familiars. It was after two waves that they received an unexpected visit.

   “Good afternoon Twilight Sparkle.” began a familiar voice behind Twilight. Turning around she saw Princess Luna landing on the wall behind her. “We were told that we could find you here, we came to see how the training was going.” The black glass orb that replaced her old eye, despite not having any form of iris upon it seemed to peer straight into Twilight as Luna approached.

   ‘It’s going rather well actually, the recruits went up all the way to a wave of three-hundred seventy-five paralyzing familiars until being defeated by a wave of four-hundred. I also saw in improvement in their individual accuracy when I ran them through a test afterward, I feel they’ve got some real potential down there.”

   “This is good to hear Twilight Sparkle; we have come to observe for a little while.” Princess Luna took a place at Twilight’s side as they began summoning more of the familiars for the next wave of one-hundred twenty-five. As the horde of magical pink constructs began to form at the base of the wall they were standing atop Luna’s expression was that of disappointment. When they began bumbling around and comically fighting amongst one another she seemed to be growing angry at the display before her, and Twilight began to take notice that Luna was not happy with what she was seeing with her remaining eye. She looked down to her dragon companion to see him excitedly awaiting the next display of magical force, gleefully unaware of the growing discontent in the princess behind him.

   After all of them were conjured Twilight gave the signal with a hint of nervousness in her voice. Much like the times before the familiars were cut down by a barrage of fire from the recruits in the line and clouds of pink smoke filled the courtyard once more. The ponies below hit their hooves together and laughed with their success. Luna’s displeasure at some unknown factor was visible as she turned to Twilight with annoyed expression.

   “You do realize that these ponies are going to war, Twilight Sparkle?” Luna questioned her.

   “Yes Princess Luna.” Twilight nervously replied and tried to think of a way to respond that wouldn’t come across as insulting, she was cut off before anything came to mind.

   “Then why are they preparing for it by fighting silly pink constructs?” Luna scolded Twilight, “They must be prepared for what they are about to face and they will not be fighting something that resembles a child’s toy.”

   “Then what would you suggest?” Twilight was in panic mode, with more of the kingdom’s operations having been suddenly thrown onto Luna’s shoulders she had grown very stressed and very short tempered. And with Luna in front of her voicing her obvious displeasure at her methods of teaching it became very difficult to think of what to say in return for fear of angering Luna further, something that had become a theme with all denizens of Canterlot castle over the past month.

   “We’ll Twilight Sparkle, when our father trained the armies of old for the conquests of what we now know as Equestria he used to use the nightmare energies of the void to acclimate his soldiers to fear and teach them that in failure came their worst nightmares. We will show you how to do this at a later time but for now we shall be assisting in the training of these recruits.” Luna beckoned Twilight to follow her as she leapt from the wall and glided down in front of the recruits.

   “Loyal soldiers of Equestria, for the rest of the day we shall be assisting in your training to better prepare you for your coming endeavors.” spoke Luna to the recruits with absolute authority. Many of them seemed so excited to be joined by yet another of their princesses, possibly thinking that Luna would teach them some fearsome and powerful magic, they were unfortunately mistaken, “Upon the battlefield you shall be assailed by the worst enemy we have to face… fear.” The air in the courtyard seemed to chill by a few degrees. “Today you will be meeting this foe head on, to conquer it here and now so that you are immune to its grasp upon the field. You shall be trained in the ways our father trained the greatest fighting force that Equestria has ever seen, the Equestrian Old Guard. They were successful in the great war of unification because of the way they feared nothing. No enemy could shake their resolve, and it was because of the way our father prepared them for it, the way we shall prepare you all for it starting today.” While some of the recruits seemed unsure of what to think, many of them were actually excited for what was coming next, “if only they’d known” Twilight would later think.

   “To begin this training, we request lieutenant-” Luna turned to Twilight, “Which one was it that was showing you such disrespect yesterday?”

   “Lulamoon.” Twilight felt like she was tattling on an old classmate and the shame in her voice reflected her displeasure at damning Trixie to whatever Luna had in mind.

   “Lieutenant Lulamoon, your presence is required.” From all the way at the end of the line came a faint pop as Trixie appeared in front of Luna with her hoof held up to her forehead in salute, the muzzle still firmly in place on her face. “Ah yes, you.” said Luna with a hint of malice in her voice.

   “Your training exercise will not differ much from what you had been prior to our arrival, only one aspect shall change.” Luna closed her eyes for a moment and a black swirling cloud of magic formed around her horn. To her immediate right a pool of what looked like quill ink began to grow on the ground as black smoke began to rise from it. As she continued casting it began to grow into what appeared to be a giant spider that skittered in place with quick and unpredictable movements of its eight chittering legs as it continued to form. Each time it would pick up one of its limbs from the ground a small black spot would be visible for a moment before evaporating away into a cloud of ashen magic. As soon as Luna was done fully creating the spider, which stood the height of a normal pony with eight constantly shifting white eyes, she spoke once again.

   “Before you is what is called an animate nightmare.”  The spider took off at speed to the end of the line where it ran down the length of it to the other end before skittering upon the wall behind them and jumping over the line to return to Luna’s side. “This is a construct of energies from the void, and it is nothing but your worst fears incarnate.” Luna looked to each of the ponies in the line and then down to Trixie, who was glancing at the giant, inky spider next to Luna with unsettling anxiety. “Now, they are dispersed just like your old targets, and will move in much the same way, but there are a few key differences. Lieutenant Lulamoon, if you would disperse the nightmare in front of you.” Luna directed the crowd’s attention to Trixie, who doing as she was told, fired a beam at the spider.

   While only being a few steps away the spider reacted immediately and threw itself to the side to dodge the beam that was directed at it. Its eyes also changed from white to a blood red and it screamed with blood-curdling pitch while lunging at Trixie, whose eyes widened as she quickly jumped backwards and fired at it once more. This time she hit one of its legs, the leg simply sheared of below where it had been hit and the severed section struck the ground and turned to ashen smoke. The spider was momentarily hampered by the sudden amputation and fell to the ground when it would have normally stepped on its recently lost leg, but quickly recovered and made another jump at Trixie who was unable to dodge it this time. The nightmare spider wrapped itself around Trixie’s face and sunk it’s fangs into Trixie before turning into an inky liquid that absorbed into Trixie’s skin.

  Trixie who up unto now had remained somewhat calm despite her arachnid assailant began to react very violently to nightmare as Luna began to explain, “You will no longer be simply frozen if a nightmare gets a hold of you.” Trixie’s eyes began to open very wide as they darted around in all directions, “You will be subjected to your worst fears for a short period should you fail to stop them in time.” Trixie began looking around in front of her and backing up, staring at something that wasn’t there. She shook her head back and forth, turned around and began running before turning sharply and falling over. Rolling onto her back she started kicking her legs wildly and screaming through the muzzle on her face. Twilight and the rest of the recruits watched in horror as Trixie began rolling around on the ground, kicking and screaming against some unseen attacker as tears formed in her eyes and she began crying hysterically.

   After a moment of kicking on the ground she managed to get to her feet and start running toward to opposite end of the line where she had stood before. She only made it a few steps past Luna before she fell over once again, this time she planted her face firmly in the tiles and bloodied her nose as she once again began fighting against something that wasn’t there with tears in her eyes and muffled, terrified screams from beneath her muzzle. And then, as soon as it had started Trixie closed her eyes and opened them once more with the realization that her nightmare was over. Though tears still formed in her eyes, she had stopped her screaming after seeing that it was completed and she looked around before rising to her feet and wiping her eyes. She just stood there for a moment, humiliated and scared in front of her peers as she collected her thoughts as to how to proceed when Luna began once again.

  “As you can see, the animate nightmares are something that are not to be trifled with. This training will be effective in one of two ways.” The crowd before her stood absolutely silent, too horrified about what they were getting into to reply. “Either you shall destroy your enemy before it is able to harm you… or you will become immune to the fear of it trying.” Luna paused for a moment, leaving the courtyard silent as the grave. “Now then, take up your positions and prepare for the beginning. We shall not stop summoning the nightmares until you have all succumbed or we have deemed your training sufficient for the day.” The line shifted nervously as Luna and Twilight once again flew atop the wall, “You may fire when they start to move, try not to strike any that are in the process of being made manifest or you will be instantly afflicted by it.” She called out to the recruits as she began summoning several nightmares at a time.

  Twilight at Luna’s right who was looking down below them at the line of recruits who now shuffled nervously in place awaiting the nightmare’s movement as a signal. She once again called into question the actions of her senior princess. Granted Luna had been a leader of Equestria much longer than Twilight could fathom, but she was unsure that this type of treatment was necessary. Ever since Celestia’s death Luna had grown exceedingly cold and harsh. She was extremely short with the castle staff and shouted each time they were in her way, even if she had nothing pressing and was just strolling the grounds. She caught herself just in time a few days ago and stopped herself from lobbing a poor maid through a second story window when did not leave a room as quickly as Luna had wanted her to. The only time nowadays she wasn’t violently lashing out at some pony was when she was in her quarters, presumably seeing to Falling Star, who Twilight had not heard anything from since their meeting after the execution. Luna’s actions caused Twilight increasing more stress, and these past weeks she’d strived not to do anything to anger her, even if it meant not voicing her opinions on Luna’s troubling actions. She and Spike exchanged a worried look as they looked to one another as if either one had something to say about their current predicament, neither spoke.

  As the first few nightmares began to finish their formations they began to move about on the courtyard and the first of the beams began to fly out to them. As before they let out a horrifying scream and dodged the beams as they quickly skittered towards the line. The first four were destroyed in a blaze of light and magic, being completely eviscerated by the beams. Some of the more unfortunate unicorns who’d cast at the moving spiders were unlucky enough to have their magic sail straight through the ash clouds left behind and slam straight into a forming nightmare. When their magic hit the coalescing magic it was absorbed into the spiraling ink of the void before them. The inky blots quickly pulled into a ball that spared no time turning into an incredibly fast spear of nightmare energies that cut the air and slammed into the caster of the beam that interrupted the nightmare’s conjuration.

  The oily pitch absorbed into each of them and after a moment their screams of terror filled the courtyard as they, like Trixie before them, began attempting to flee their invisible attackers, or curled up into a ball and began sobbing uncontrollably. Their comrades simply held their place knowing that there was nowhere for them to go from here, and fearing what Luna would do to them, kept their position as their horrified friends fought against their worst fears.

  This cycle would continue for hours as Luna summoned more and more nightmares into the courtyard as Twilight watched in horror, too afraid to say anything. The recruits began holding their own against the steadily increasing onslaught of nightmares, and as time went on, despite more and more screaming arachnids scuttling across the courtyard, a steady decrease in recruits who were being taken by successful attempts by the nightmares could be seen. After a about two hours into Luna’s nightmare wave scarcely any recruits at all were being taken by the nightmares. They would still break down into complete collapse when taken though; it would take more than a few exposures to pure fear to dull their senses to it.

  But after accepting the fact that they were trapped they fought against the nightmares with increased skill and efficiency. Squads would focus in on groups together and multiple ponies would focus in on the same target to cover the areas where it might dodge to and instead be struck by focused magic. It was only after Twilight had seen that Luna’s training method, though terrifying, was greatly effective. The recruits were holding off against a sizable horde of nightmares that only grew with each passing moment. The entire courtyard save for a space of about twenty yards in front of the line was completely covered in magical black smoke and the inky legs of screaming nightmare spiders that created a deafening screech due to their numbers.

  At intermittent periods of time Luna would open her eyes to check to see if the recruits had all been taken by the nightmares yet, before promptly closing them again to resume casting. It was at one of these points Twilight made a startling discovery. As Luna stopped her magic and opened her eyes once more to check on the status of the stalwart recruits Twilight was struck by the black orb occupying where Luna’s right eye had once been. Twilight couldn’t see where Luna was looking with her one good eye, but a large reptilian pupil was staring straight into her soul from the black orb in Luna’s skull. Twilight’s blood ran cold as her mind raced. Her memory of Luna killing the assassin in the courtyard flashed before her. In the back of her mind an echoing sound became louder and louder until it could be heard above all else around her. The fearsome laughter of Nightmare Moon blared in her thoughts as her breathing became quickened and erratic. Much like the nightmare stricken cadets who’d been struck by the pitch black spiders below, Twilight was beginning succumb to pure fear.

  And then, as soon as it started, Luna closed her eyes once more and whatever energy had taken hold of her had lost its grasp as she began channeling her magic again. Twilight looked around for a moment to try and find something else to think of, she searched in all directions, looking everywhere... everywhere except at Luna. She then turned to face the courtyard once more as thoughts raced through her head, trying to rationalize what had just happened. She hoped what she was thinking wasn’t what was happening. Twilight’s fear having been awakened in earnest moments before would not be quieted by trying to simply rationalize it away. She couldn’t even think of a way to rationalize it. She turned to Spike at her side who was staring at her with worry in his eyes. She looked to him with confusion, completely unable to process what she’d just seen. Though she wanted to believe it was something else, everything in her mind screamed Nightmare Moon.

***

  “If I recall correctly, wasn’t it that day that Falling Star came to you for the first time?” asked Spike as he shifted his enormous head closer to the roaring fire in the hearth.

  Twilight sighed, “Yes… yes it was. I was incredibly frightened; I wasn’t sure what to think at first. She just kind of appeared, she looked so different too.” Twilight looked behind her toward the window to the frigid world outside. “She’d been sent by Luna, to ‘guard me’. Luna thought I wouldn’t have been able to defend myself if I was attacked. For being a skeleton not a month before, she sure recovered quickly.”

   “It was that curse, every single time she took any form of grievous wound or injury she was back up and running in no time. All she needed was blood, and whatever the hell it was about the curse just regenerated her.” said Spike.

   “It was one of the things that made it so desirable to ponies that thought it was a source of power and not an affliction. She’d come to accept her situation though, as long as she had her queen.” Twilight sighed, “She never would stop calling Luna her queen, up unto the day she died.”

XI: The New Guard

X

   Twilight and Spike were in the library immediately after the day’s training searching for books on where the nightmare energies originated. Celestia had gone over it briefly when she’d taught Twilight the chronology of the Nightmare Moon schism, but she never went over it in any detail. Surely the shelves of the Canterlot library would have something on the subject.

   “Do you know of anyone who wrote about it?” asked Spike.

   “No, Celestia never mentioned any pony who did. I honestly don’t even know where to begin searching.” replied Twilight, “Let’s go check the magic section first, I can’t think of anywhere else it would be.”

   “Me either.” Spike hurried up to Twilight as he spoke. The pair reached the tall shelves of the library’s magic section after a brief period and began their normal method of searching, Spike on the bottom two shelves, Twilight on the top three. The pair made their way down to the sounds of shuffling books being pulled from the shelves and put back rapidly alongside the shuffling hooves of Twilight on the carpeted floor. Books were being pulled from the shelves in a wave-like fashion by Twilight’s magic before being put back in much the same manner as she made her way across the large selection. Spike was just in front of her checking each book on the two shelves on the bottom, able to keep pace with her due to years of researching with Twilight. The pair continued this way until they reached the other side of the magic section from where they started. Having found nothing yet, they continued through the other shelves in the section.

   “Focus beams,” Twilight began listing, “teleportation, levitation, transmutation, illusions... Ugh!” she grunted as she put back the last books of the shelf. “There has to be something here. I can’t think of anywhere else something like that would be.”

   “Perhaps there’s something in the history section.” interjected Spike, “Maybe it’s in a book about Nightmare Moon or something like it. My best guess is that ‘Sisters’ book. I think when we read through it before it mentions something about the source of Nightmare Moon’s power towards the very end.”

   “It’s worth a shot, I can’t think of anywhere else to look.” Twilight admitted with a sigh, “Let’s go check it out.” The pair took a quick look behind them to see if any books had been left sitting unevenly on the shelf before heading off to the history section of the library, as always, each the shelves were perfect.

   After a brief trot, the pair passed into the history section of the library and Twilight, having seen it just the other day, made a beeline for the book they were searching for. Pulling it off the shelf as she passed by they made their way to the small reading area at the back of the history section, where everything was back in place as it was before Luna had opened the secret passage behind it. Twilight threw herself down on a cushion and was joined by Spike who sat beside her as she opened the book in front of her with her magic.

   “Alright then,” Twilight began to read the table of contents aloud starting at the last four chapters, “Aftermath of the first war, growing unrest, ah, here we go… Nightmare Moon.” Quickly flipping through the pages to the designated number she quickly arrived and began reading, Spike did his best to keep up, and though he could read faster than most ponies, he could never truly keep up with Twilight. About five minutes later Twilight hit the part where it began to talk of nightmare corruption becoming noticeable in Luna.

“After many weeks of silence and solitude it was obvious that something was amiss in the castle. Castle staff began reporting consistent nightmares each night they spent on castle grounds, and shadows seemed to shift in scarcely noticeable fashion in the presence of Princess Luna. A week before the night of the attempted coup a servant disappeared. He was later found dead, his face locked in an expression of absolute terror with jagged black lines emanating from his eyes. The black lines were a sign that his death was at the hooves of someone wielding nightmare energies according to, the at the time court wizard, Alchem Augury, who would later write about his findings on nightmare energies before disappearing mysteriously from the castle.” Twilight stopped reading and looked up from her book for a moment.

   “Alchem Augury?” she questioned the air in front of her, “I can’t think of ever hearing about him aside from this book. Can you think of anywhere Spike?” She turned to her dragon friend.

“Nowhere I can think of, this is the first time I’m hearing the name, last time we went through this, I wasn’t really paying attention to be honest.” Spike shrugged as he voiced his ignorance.

   “Well then, if it’s anywhere it’ll be here. Let’s go check the index and see what we can dig up.” The pair made their way to the door but were stopped midway by the dulcet tones of a smooth female voice.

“Princess Sparkle, I have been looking for you.” The unexpected voice made the hair on the back of Twilight’s neck stand straight up. Twilight was sure she was about to be attacked, so she prepared a paralyzation spell and whipped her head around to see no one in the aisle behind her. Twilight’s heart practically burst from her chest when the voice came again, “I apologize for startling you Princess, I am currently atop the shelf to your left. I have been trying to stay out of sight to avoid any unwanted attention from the remaining castle staff. If I recall correctly, Queen Luna has kept the librarian present to assist you when you need her. I promise that I mean no harm to you, I only wish to become properly acquainted.” The words afforded Twilight little comfort as she looked up to the origin of the voice. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the pony atop the shelf.

   Looking down on her from her elevated perch was an iron grey pony wearing a light armor suit of dull grey steel plates on blackened leather pads connected by chainmail, though it wasn’t her garb that Twilight thought to be the most disconcerting. Her eyes were blood red and reptilian in appearance with a faint glow that was just enough to be seen behind her black veiled hood. Twilight had feared what this moment would be like, and currently, it was as bad as she imagined. Twilight’s thoughts were racing so fast that she’d scarcely listened to what she’d said at all. Falling Star stood silently above her, she had the superior position and the experience, if she wanted her dead… Twilight hoped it would at least come swiftly.

   Falling Star seemed to pick up on Twilight’s fear, and worked quickly to calm it. “Princess Sparkle, I assure you that I do not wish ill upon you.” Twilight, letting her fear of the worst case scenario grip her as she normally did, failed to believe her. “In fact, I’ve actually been sent to watch over you by the queen. She has tasked me with ensuring your safety, and I do not plan on letting her down.”

Queen… that word did not sit well with Twilight.

   “Now then Princess,” Falling Star said in a softer tone, “I would like to make a proper introduction and answer any questions that you might have. I have been assigned as your personal bodyguard and will henceforth be accompanying you most everywhere you go, so in light of the fact that we will be spending quite a lot of time together in the future, I have come to get to know you better...” Twilight was still cowering in the aisle below, “and try to quell any fears you have about me.” Despite the tangible awkwardness of the situation, Falling Star was the epitome of professionalism. She stood cool and composed atop the shelves even whilst Twilight held onto the spell with her horn ready to loose it in her direction at a whim. She had been given an assignment by her queen and she planned to see to it, no matter what Twilight wanted to say or do about it. Still unsure of how to act to the present situation, Twilight merely stood there for a moment before composing herself enough to speak coherently.

   “So…” Twilight tried to think of what to say while holding the spell in her horn, “Luna made you my bodyguard?” Twilight asked the obvious.

   “This is correct, now then, I would like to descend from this position. If you could close the door to the history section and lock it behind you, I will meet you at the back of the room so as we may discuss this arrangement further. I will also be happy to answer most any question you have about me if it would make you feel more comfortable about my presence. I’ve picked up the vibe that you aren’t exactly sure of what to think of me.” Twilight couldn’t see for sure, but she thought Falling Star was smiling behind her veil.

   “Well… I did just meet you. And from what Luna had said about-” Twilight had done it, she’d just set herself on course for the most awkward conversation of her life, she was sure of it. She tried to stop herself from continuing, but in her nervous blathering to fill the uncomfortable quiet she continued on the path to damnation, “well, you know… what had happened.”

        “When what happened?” Falling Star became very stern for a moment, “The queen’s attempt to wrest power from her sister?” There was hatred rising in her voice now, “When I became imprisoned by…” she cut off and kept herself from going further. Turning her head, she closed her eyes for a moment, or at least Twilight lost track of their glow behind the veil, and paused. “I understand your worries Princess Sparkle, you would think that I would harm you as some form of cheap blow against… her… but know that I am above such means of vengeance, especially since her… untimely passing.” Twilight could definitely tell that Falling Star was fighting back against a boil over, “Now then, if you would please lock the door and meet me in the lounge at the back of the room. I do grow weary of standing atop this shelf and would much like to sit upon a cushion whilst we talk.” There was a frustration in Falling Star’s voice that Twilight could tell she was fighting back with immense willpower.

   Twilight turned back around in front of her to see Spike looking at her with a worried expression. He didn’t see Falling Star before, so his reaction was much like Twilight’s first reaction, fear.

   “Her eyes,” said a shaken Spike, “what’s wrong with them?”

   “Sssshh.” Twilight hushed Spike with a whisper, “She’s cursed Spike, I’ll explain later, just wait outside until I get back.”

   “It’s okay,” came a voice from the back of the room, “he can stay, I prefer to meet your assistant as well, I’ve heard much about him and would like to make his acquaintance.” Twilight spoke at merely a whisper to Spike, she had no idea how she could’ve heard her.

   “Okay then.” Spike replied promptly, “I’ll go get the door, you go ahead and go back to meet her, I’ll catch up after I lock everything down.” Spike nodded to Twilight and she returned the gesture as they both nervously departed one another’s company to their separate locales, even though they wouldn’t be far from one another, they both felt the same anxiety of their momentary separation.

   Twilight got to the back of the shelf and took a deep breath before trying to smile to keep her from looking as scared as she was. Even though she’d been talking to Falling Star for a few minutes now, she still wasn’t exactly sure that she was safe, especially after seeing her reaction to the mere mention what happened to her. Rounding the corner she could see Falling Star in full detail.

   Her armor was unlike any Twilight had seen before aside from the pages of dusty old books. Consisting of only a few dull grey steel plates over black leather pads and chainmail, it was something that didn’t stick out as befitting of the captain of one of the most elite units in Equestrian history. Although almost completely bereft of decoration, the navy blue inlays of Luna’s moon on her breastplate and the band of stars around her neck were of a level of craftsmanship that Twilight had only seen in the armor of the Royal Elite. From what Twilight could remember from her studies of the old guards, this was the armor of one of Luna’s Night Watch.

   Much like the Royal Elite made up of those hoof-picked by Celestia, the Night Watch were Luna’s best and brightest. The Night Watch were the shadowy defenders of Equestria in the times of old, often working by stealth and subterfuge over bold and obvious shows of force, they would often deal with threats before the general public knew they were in danger while the Royal Elite would always take care of things in more direct fashions, showing up and flawlessly crushing the enemy out in the open for all to see. While there are many arguments from historians as to which of the two units was the more elite it often came down to the same saying. The Royal Elite made you fear the battlefield, the Night Watch made you fear your shadow.

   “So Princess Sparkle,” Falling Star spoke smoothly as she removed her hood revealing short platinum hair that was tied back in a knot, “Where would you like to begin?” Falling Star turned to Twilight with a comforting smile on her face, but it did nothing to distract Twilight from her terrifying eyes.

   “Well, I guess I… I’m not so clear on…” Twilight had been too shaken by her own fears to even know where to begin, so she decided on the simplest answer that would get the most information. “How about you start from the beginning, and I’ll ask questions if there’s anything I want you to elaborate upon. To be honest, I just don’t know where to start; I’ve never been the best when it came to meeting new people.”

   “Alright then, and by the beginning you mean?” Falling Star questioned Twilight as she made her way to lie on a cushion.

   “How about when you became part of the Night Watch? I understand if you don’t want to talk about what had happened, though.” The awkward tension in the air was practically suffocating as Twilight walked to the cushions to join Falling Star.

   “No, it’s probably for the best that I share what happened with you, the queen has made it a point that I should be as open with you as she was about the incident. From what we know she told you about the nightmare magic she wielded back then.” Twilight’s ears perked up at the mention of the nightmare.

   “Well, actually…”Twilight interjected as Spike arrived from the bookshelves to join them, “she didn’t tell me very much about that. At least, not as much as I would’ve liked.”

   “I assume this had been a cause of concern for you?” Falling Star, much like Luna, appeared to have amazing powers of perception.

   “Can I ask something of you before we continue with this?” Twilight asked worriedly.

   “Anything Princess, I have been bound to your will.” Falling Star’s tone was assuring for once, Twilight’s nerves had finally steadied to where she would allow herself to believe that Falling Star truly meant what she was saying.

   “Now, don’t take this as something that should cause alarm, I have full faith in Princess Luna and I trust that she will no doubt lead us well through these dark times, but I need to ask that you do not inform her of this conversation, or at least this part. I really, really, don’t want to stress her any further by thinking I’m worrying about her.”

   “Well…” Falling Star looked to the ground for a moment before returning her gaze into Twilight’s soul, “As long as it is nothing extreme, I shall keep this conversation between the two of us. It’s very important that you should be able to trust me, so I consent to your request.”

   “Alright then, now that we are in agreement…” Twilight paused, “earlier today, when I was with the Princess…” visions of the eye returned to Twilight’s mind, “when she was using her magic to make those animate nightmares. I was standing next to her, and she had her eyes closed, but when she opened the” she hesitated to continue, “In the black orb where her right eye used to be there was something… looking at me.” Twilight shivered for a moment. “It was like there was an eye there, an unnatural, unholy eye. The longer I looked at it, the more and more I felt myself being grasped by fear. I wanted to flee but I couldn’t, instead I was almost held there by something, forcing me to stare back into it as it did me. It was something I couldn’t help but think about since; I’ve been in here trying to find something that would help me understand what had happened, but to no avail. So here’s what I need to know… what is the source of Luna’s nightmare powers?” The awkward tension in the room was still suffocating, Twilight was incredibly worried as to whether or not this qualified as ‘extreme’. Falling Star paused for a moment before blinking her eyes and looking to Twilight.

   “I assume that there is no harm in wishing to understand it better, I reacted much the same way when she made her powers known to me, in fact I had fought against her decision until I saw the level of mastery she held over it. All accounts of nightmare energies being used by others had led them to be overtaken and controlled by the master of the dream.” She stopped once again as her ear flicked towards the door. She quickly looked to her right as if she’d heard something of concern, and after a moment of further silence she returned her gaze to Twilight and Spike before continuing. “Do you want the full explanation or the shortened version? I assume, from what I’ve heard about you, that you would want fully detailed story?”

        “You would be correct.” said Twilight nervously.

   “Well then, what do you know about the nightmare energies? Other than what they do when concentrated onto poor unsuspecting ponies.” Falling Star spoke in a serious tone.

   “Nothing really,” saying she didn’t know anything about something was almost completely alien to Twilight, “when Cele-” Twilight stopped herself once again at the mention of her mentor.

   “Celestia… just say her name, there’s no point dancing around what happened to me, I’d come to accept it centuries ago even though I still have outbursts over it. Or at least what I assumed to have been centuries ago, being locked away in darkness for a few hundred years takes a toll on your concept of time.” Falling Star sounded annoyed, but swallowed her emotions while she talked to Twilight, even though her last remark was slightly scathing.

   “Okay then,” replied Twilight hesitantly, “when Celestia taught me of the night of Nightmare Moon she didn’t really go into detail about what had happened, and when I encountered it first hand when she returned from her exile, I wasn’t able to really grasp what was happening. I had hoped I would never have to see it again, but circumstances have not been so kind as to honor this wish. I only seek to understand it, not knowing is what frightens me the most.”

   “Tis understandable Princess Sparkle, as I said before I too was quite taken aback by such forces, but knowing my feelings on the subject will not help you gain a better grasp on it.” Falling Star lifted a hoof to her mouth and cleared her throat, “Now then, I guess I shall start from the beginning. From what the queen had told me about the nightmares before we made the pact those years ago, the energies originate from a different realm known as “The Abyssal Dream.”  It is from the dream that they’re beckoned forth by a number of differing forces. To name the main ways, they are either called forth by an individual who is “linked”  to the dream, or they are sent into our realm by the dream’s omnipotent master.

   “Only known as ‘The Umbral Mind’, the master of the dream is something of an enigma to all who have attempted to interact with it, it’s actually unknown as to whether or not the Umbral Mind is separate from the dream, or if it itself is the origin of the nightmare energies. All notable scholars who dared to tempt the void with their prodding have ended up in… less than desirable states. The only one I know of that has successfully delved into the void and not been driven completely insane or corrupted is the queen. And from what she has described to me, it has been a constant battle.” Falling Star paused for a moment, “But it is from the dream that it watches our entire known world, and perhaps more, acting with unknown motivations.

   “Now here is where things started to become extremely cloudy to me as she had explained it. I had to see the dream for myself to even begin to grasp what the queen had said. The way she had tried to explain the complicated nature of the dream to me was by saying the two realms, being the dream and our own, are separate yet they occupy the same space. The dream exists inside of our realm, as well as our realm existing in the dream, but neither can easily interact with one another. According to her, there is a barrier that separates them, that keeps the nightmares of the dream, and those of our realm within their own respective realities, holding back each realm from joining the other. But as with all things, there are ways. When one sleeps in the mortal realm, their mind is susceptible to the dream. It was through this form of interaction that the Dream received its name.”

   Twilight listened quietly as she was made more and more uneasy by the complete comfort Falling Star seemed to have when talking about something that was so purely evil in Twilight’s mind. She was still trying to grip the fact that some pony who was but mere skin and bones not a month before had recovered to look just as youthful as she did in such a short period, but rather than interrupt her current teacher she chose to listen on in hope of gathering anything that could explain what Twilight had seen in Luna’s false eye. It was so easy to write it off as just “nightmare energy”  but it was so general and vague that it would never allow Twilight to stop thinking of it. So she listened on growing more and more confused by the information being thrown on her all at once.

  “Apparently,” Falling Star continued, “when someone is sleeping their mind is largely free of the protection offered to the physical world around them, the barrier that protects their thoughts is very thin and fragile. It is in one’s dreams that the Umbral Mind can reach you, and it was Luna’s charge to strengthen this barrier and protect the citizens from the dream. Most of the time it’s just through a simple nightmare, you end up waking up, and the connection is severed with no lasting effect. However, if one cannot wake from the nightmare, or performed magic to allow themselves to commune with it, they become linked. When one is linked with the dream, they are permanently connected to the dream. While most of the time this connection means little, on occasion the Umbral Mind will attempt to corrupt the linked individual and bend them to its will to perform whatever it is that it wants of them.” Her words trailed off for a moment and she yawned heavily, followed by Spike, who in his constant state of drowsiness could not hold back and keep himself from doing the same.

   “Now, my knowledge of corruption is minimal.” Falling Star’s voice lightened slightly, “As far as I can tell I have not been corrupted, I don’t recall doing too many things not of my own volition since I became linked.” she chuckled to herself, Twilight did not find her humor as amusing, but refrained from showing it with a short, nervous giggle. “Now, from what I know, the signs of corruption by the dream aren’t always obvious, most of the time it’s imperceptible. But when one has been corrupted to a certain degree the Umbral Mind can directly control them to do as he wishes. But there is one thing that had always been accepted as a sure sign of corruption, a phenomenon known as ‘The Mind’s Eye.’

   “Now, while no one has ever seen the Umbral Mind, or even knows if it has eyes, ‘The Mind’s Eye’ is perhaps the most damning piece of evidence in cases of nightmare magic use. In most cases it is thought, the eye appears only when the corrupted is either being possessed, or when the nightmare energy is being channeled. When the eye is present, the afflicted’s normal eye is seemingly replaced by a black, reptilian pupil surrounded by a bloodshot white, like the eyes of someone who hasn’t slept in days, all other color vanishes from their eyes while the condition lasts. It is believed that this is the mark of someone who is at the farthest reaches of corruption,” Twilight’s blood chilled in her veins, “however…” Twilight hoped Falling Star’s next few words would offer some kind of situation where the evidence that Twilight had witnessed would not make sure in Twilight’s mind that Luna was corrupted.

   “I have personally seen this phenomenon in the queen multiple times, and I do not believe that it is always a sign of one who is too far gone. The queen has never lost control of her powers when she has wielded them. She may lose control of her anger, but never over the power she wields. As I understand it from what I have been told, the eye appeared when the veil between our two worlds has been rendered thin within someone. While I’m sure that this in and of itself is not comforting to hear, it does mean that it does not constitute that when it appears all hope is lost for the linked individual. One of such strong will as the Queen is implacable in the face of the consuming void, and I have garnered full confidence in her ability to have complete mastery over the forces she wields.” After yet another brief pause in her lecture, Falling Star asked Twilight, “Is there anything that you are unclear on up to this point?” as completely lost as Twilight was she figured she would put it all together later.

   “No, I think I’ve heard enough.” Twilight lied, “I guess I just shouldn’t worry as much as I do.” Twilight knew she would be losing sleep over this new information. Perhaps one day Luna herself could shed some light on the absolute dark of the nightmares she controlled, but for now Twilight was left with almost more questions than answers. She just wanted to go back to her bed chambers and lay down now, she didn’t really have it in her to continue listening. Trying to think of a way she could escape her current situation, her thoughts were interrupted by a loud thud upon the door. Falling Star jumped to her hoofs and Twilight flinched at the sudden movement and nearly fell off of her cushion as she tossed Spike off her back. Spreading her large bat-like wings she leapt atop the shelves once again.

   “Have the dragon open the door,” she whispered back to Twilight below her, “I shall watch whoever enters. Stay back here Princess Sparkle, we shall come for you when it is deemed safe.” Falling Star silently trotted atop the shelves to the front of the room as Twilight turned to Spike who was visibly frightened.

   “I’m sure it’s just the librarian,” she assured her startled friend, “just be sure to get clear of the door if it’s not though. I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Twilight smiled a hollow, nervous smile to her friend as she shuffled away to the door, looking back behind him to Twilight who tried in vain to help steady his nerves with false comfort. All Twilight could hope for was that there was nothing of concern behind the door. If anything came through the door and managed to make it past Falling Star, she would become much like the books around her…history.