Chapter Zero: An Ominous Meeting
It was raining that night in Canterlot. There weren't many ponies out that night, the rain was unscheduled and most ponies with common sense were asleep. A cloaked figure approached the newly finished clock tower in the city square. There were many royal guards about and the figure made note to avoid them on the way in and on the way back out.The figure opened the ground entrance to the clock tower as lightning streaked across the sky followed by a crack of thunder.
'Somepony's feeling dramatic tonight' the figure thought as he took off his cloak and hung it on a nearby coat-hook. He was an earthpony; black fur with a white mane and striking grey eyes. His cutie mark was a playing card, an ace of spades. He began to ascend to the top of the clock tower, He put on his black fedora as he did so.
When he reached the top, he was greeted by a dark grey unicorn, a stallion with a stark, white mane and piercing red eyes with a hooded pony standing nearby. The earthpony tipped his hat to the stallion. Then he spoke with annoyance towards the stallion.
"You're late"
"I didn't know I was being hired for timeliness, or navigating a rainstorm while avoiding the Royal Guard. I might not take the job." the stallion replied, with just the slightest hint of malice in his voice.
"Just tell me your name and follow the instructions I give you or you won't get paid. I need to know who to make the payment of 150,000 bits to." he responded, his voice laced with anger and frustration.
Ace whistled, that was quite the some of money and not something he could turn his nose up at.
"Yes sir. You can call me. . . ." a deck of playing cards appeared in the stallion's hooves as he shuffled them in the most elaborate and stylish way possible. When he finished, he drew the card on top and showed it to the unicorn and her hooded friend. "Ace." the stallion stated, looking extremely smug.
"Fine 'Ace' you had better live up to your namesake. I need you to take this. . ." he said as the hooded figure opened a nearby case, revealing a sheathed sword. The unicorn levitated the blade over to Ace and then continued "and make sure that a certain group of Lunar Ponies get it. I had one of my agents give them intelligence that would lead them to a military supply train that leaves it's station tomorrow. Those Lunar Ponies need to find the sword on the train. Leave no evidence to trace it back to us."
Ace examined the sheath. It had a silver crescent moon around a small, golden star. he then drew the sword from it's sheath and looked it over. The blade itself looked to be made of the night itself while the hilt was a bright, silver color with dark blue streaks; Ace assumed the hilt was made of refined lunar steel by the dark blue streaks alone.
"Now why, by the light of Celestia's sun, would you be giving an artifact of not just any magnitude, but an Alicorn artifact. An artifact capable of killing an immortal, into the hooves of church militants who pray for eternal night and see it's former wielder as their god and savior?"
"Fate has stagnated Ace. I need somepony like yourself, who's beyond the reach of fate, to set my plan of revenge and installing a new era into motion without alerting Celestia to my presence. Now go, the wheel of fate turns tonight, Ace." he said as lightning flashed along the distant skyline.
Ace sheathed the blade and turned back to the stairwell to leave, but then he stopped and turned to face the unicorn and the hooded figure.
"I never caught your name, mind telling me?"
"My name is of no importance to you, mortal"
Ace turned back and continued down the stairs. He heard the gears in the clock tower suddenly begin to move. The earthpony thought nothing of it and continued down the stairs. He was more interested in the hooded figure. During the conversation he noticed green eyes beneath the concealment enchantment on the hood. Ace smiled. 'My new employer is certainly an interesting pony, treating such dangerous artifacts as toys. He does have a suspicious amount of money. But money is money.'
He put his fedora away, put on his cloak and slid the blade onto his back, ready to brave the weather, but when he stepped outside, it had stopped raining. The moment he thought he was in the clear, he found two spear points at his throat.
"Stop right there criminal scum!" one of the guards said.
Ace then spoke in a mocking tone "Watch where you're pointing those things, you almost killed me. What crime have I committed?"
The other guard spoke up "You're on public property after curfew and bearing a weapon, Can I see a permit for that sword?"
Ace smiled, then drew his deck of cards. "This is my permit." Ace said, his voice dripping with malice.
Both guards could feel blood lust radiating from the strange earthpony they were going to arrest and prepared to kill him. but all of a sudden he was gone. Then they heard his voice
"Over here!" they both turned towards the earthpony. He had drawn five cards.
"Ten, Ten, Ten, Ace, and another Ace. Full house, You two picked the wrong night to pick a fight with me."
Neither of the guards were prepared for what happened next.
The hooded figure turned to stallion as Ace left. "Father, are you so sure as to trust him with Nadir? I think we should have done it ourselves."
The stallion turned to his daughter "Please, call me Tyrannus, you're all grown up now. We would have been caught immediately. Yes I do trust him. You just need to trust my judgement darling."
The storm cleared as Starlight looked out of the clock tower. He could see Celestia's luxurious palace in the distance. 'Soon,' he thought 'Soon that will be mine, and nopony can stand in my way.' he smiled as the thought came into his head.
The bell inside the massive clock chimed as the hands struck midnight.
Two mutilated corpses of what could only be royal guards were found in the morning in the town square. Cause of death: extreme blunt force trauma and multiple ruptured internal organs.
Author's Note
Gratuitous dramatic effects for the win! I do hope this turns out well, I did storyboard six arcs, and I hope they go well. The characters in the Character tag section are showing up around chapter two, maybe even chapter 3. I'm still ironing this one out, so the first few chapters are going to just going to have non-cannon characters in them.
I labeled this chapter with a zero because this is a chapter to set the stage for the other ones. Same with this plot arch, Act 0
Leave constructive criticism and thoughts in the comment section and I'll get to it.
Two Thestrals approached the cliff-side; one wearing plate mail and carrying a halberd, while the other wore a chain-mail and wore a pair of claw gauntlets. Down at the bottom of the cliff sat a set of railroad tracks. The moon was high in the night sky and the train would pass under the cliff soon.
The halberd wielding thestral seemed to be getting impatient and spoke "Roanoak, hey Roan! Get your head out of stars and talk to me for a second."
Roan turned to the halberd wielder "What is it Kama? Don't like the view from the cliff? Or are you getting impatient?"
Kama smirked at the remark "Don't talk down to me kid. Besides, I'm itching to kill something, you know how it is; nice new armor, taking the youngest in the order on his third and most important mission. Normal paladin worries."
Roan laughed at that remark. He realized as he tried to think of something to respond with that this was his third excursion out of the Nexus and into the outside world. In fact, Roan realized that the only reason he ever got out of the chapel was because of 'The Blessing of the Night', a star and moon pattern on his left foreleg that seemed to spread a little bit more each year, and as the codex put the mark, it was a blessing from their savior that could allow thestrals to embrace the night fully.
Or as an old mare's tale goes. Either way, Roan was about to respond when he saw one of Kama's ears twitch. Roan took a quick glance down at the railroad, the train just about to pass under the cliff. Roan dove off the cliff and into free fall, followed by Kama, they both flared their wings before hitting the train to lessen their speed.
Kama jammed the ax head of his halberd into the train so he could get a grip and prepared to catch Roanoak just in case he failed the maneuver. He couldn't have one of the Night-mother's chosen die whilst on a mission. As Kama looked up, he saw the spry rookie's claw gauntlets open and the blades cut into the top of the train car. Roanoak dusted himself off and faced Kama, "How did I do?"
Kama smiled as he dislodged his halberd from the train and said "Pretty good, for a kid. Just don't wait until the last second next time." he then turned towards the front of the train and pointed with his halberd "If I were a betting pony, Incube should be up a few cars." He then turned to see the rookie grinning eagerly.
"I'll-"
"Don't even think those wor-" Kama interrupted.
"-Race you!" Roanoak shouted as he used his wings to give himself a boost of speed.
Kama dashed after the rookie and tried to stop him from making too much noise as they searched for their prize.
Flash Sentry stared at the two unicorns playing something that resembled chess. They were both wearing robes made of something called silk, with one wearing a grey robe and the other wearing a light blue robe. The Grey robed unicorn was somepony important; a noble named Sapphirus Myalo, with a distinct grey coat of fur, a cutie mark resembling a seven pointed star, and a dark blue mane that seemed to shimmer as if it was made from sapphire. Flash sentry guessed that unicorn in the light blue robe was Diamond Mind, supposedly Sapphirus's son. It did seem possible, especially since Diamond had a crystalline mane similar to Sapphirus's, except for the fact that Diamond was almost as big as his supposed father.
A squawk came from Flash's headset, which made him jump. The two game playing unicorns stopped playing and turned to look at him. "Do you mind? My son and I are trying to enjoy a good game of wits and your radio is interfering. Take it outside." Lord Sapphirus spoke, each word dripping with contempt for the guard.
"Y-yes Lord Sapphirus, sir" Flash Sentry said nervously. It almost seemed Sapphirus wanted to behead him for interrupting the game.
"That is Lord Sapphirus once, and only once. . ." Sapphirus paused for a moment "Pegasus." he added with nothing but pure hatred, as if it were an insult.
"Yes Lord Sapphirus." Flash Sentry said as he exited the room. He shuddered at the thought of the noble that he was supposed to protect wanting to kill him. Flash pushed the thought out of his head and turned on his headset.
Flash Sentry was immediately hit with a scolding from Shining Armor "Corporal Flash Sentry! What are you doing with your headset in receive only?"
Flash sighed "Babysitting nobles."
"Really now?"
"They have hypersensitivity or something, any noise seems to upset them"
"Whatever. This is just a situation update; two unidentified objects have landed on the train and are moving across it. I've already sent a team to stop whoever had the guts to buck with us." Shining Armor stated in a mater of fact manor.
"Could they be assassins? Here to stop Sapphirus from signing the peace treaty with Avalon?" Flash Sentry added with a hint of concern.
"They're heading your direction, and they are moving fast. Stay on your toes corporal and prepare to defend Sapphirus and his plus one."
"Roger that Captain, Flash Sentry out" Flash Sentry said as he shut off his headset.
He walked back into the room, where Sapphirus and the unicorn were still playing that board game, shut the door and locked it. Sapphirus turned to speak to Flash but was cut off by a sudden voice
"Blademaster to A5 . He slays your emperor. Seungli, Father."
His voice sounded too young for his physical appearance, almost as if he was a young colt wearing the body of a nearly full grown unicorn.
Sapphirus turned his attention away from the Pegasus he was going to murder and back to the game. Flash Sentry sighed with relief as he grabbed his blade, he was going to need it. This was going to be a long train ride.
Roanoak stopped at a hatch on top of one of the train cars and waited for Kama to catch up. As Kama galloped to catch up, Roanoak pulled at the hatch using his fangs. No such luck, as it was locked. He then heard the rattling of plate armor and turned to see Kama, out of breath.
"Savior-" -gasp- "Dammit-" -gasp- "Roanoak, you may have given our positions away"
"I thought we were just supposed to find the artifact, I didn't know slaughtering surface dwellers wasn't in the stars" Roanoak replied, annoyed.
"Stop thinking that way, that's how good Paladins die. Now let's get on with it; above entry maneuver 3, bait and switch. Since they already know were coming anyways from your antics." Kama stated as Roanoak's claw blades sprung out.
"On three" Kama said as he raised his halberd
Roanoak slashed the lock and the armor of the hatch with his claws then moved to an entry position.
"Three!" Roanoak shouted as Kama brought his poleaxe down on the hatch.
Roanoak lunged through the opening and landed in a battle position. The lights suddenly came on, causing the thestral to 'white out' as the experienced paladins called it.
There was the sound of multiple motorized spears revving up. Then a voice.
"Just who the hell do you think you are?"
Author's Note
Yo, sorry for taking so long. I've been caught up with school and other stuff.
Don't forget; constructive criticism in the comments section, pretty please?
Julius Caesar is the best play by Shakespeare on an unrelated note.
