Remnants of an Empire

Chapter 4- The Other End of the Spectrum

-Sacred Fox-

I ran through the castle, barely avoiding crashing into unsuspecting ponies. I levitated various scrolls in my dark purple magical grasp.

My name is Sacred Fox, one of Nightmare Moon's closest assistants. I am her personal spell-caster, due to my strong affinity to all kinds of magic.

"Sacred!" A sharp, barking voice screamed down the hall.

I came to a halt, my hooves skidding across the marble floors. I turned my neck around, ears down with worry.

"Y-Yes Commander Elegance?" I whispered.

The dark unicorn, walking in her usual high strut, cracked her whip next to my ear. I involuntarily shrieked.

"Are you done with that spell, you incompetent fool?" She shouted, a bit to loudly, making my eardrums tingle.

Now, if I were to describe myself, 'fool' and 'incompetent' would be the last words used. I am very intelligent, so fool is very much out of the question, and I am Nightmare Moon's person assistant, so I highly doubt I am incompetent. But to Elegance, everyone is under her is a bumbling mouse.

"C-Can you use your inside voice?" I squeaked.

"I ASKED YOU A QUESTION, SACRED." She boomed. I cried out in response, dropping my scrolls and papers, disturbing what I had worked on for hours. Elegance brought her hoof back, slapping me hard. I slammed face first into the ground, stunned. Spots clouded my vision as Elegance bent down, hissing.

"Be done with the spell soon, Sacred Fox." She trotted away, going to yell at a bat pony soldier.

Making sure she didn't see me, I pulled myself up, touching my bleeding snout. I shook the dust off me, collecting my dropped scrolls.

Hoping no one else saw that embarrassing scene, I walked up the twisting staircase to Nightmare Moon's room. After she had defeated Celestia and claimed the castle, she did a good bit of remodeling, including building her a personal room with a view of the eternal night sky.

As I arrived in the room, I glanced about. It was beautiful, but there was no ceiling, creating a draft. Curtains were suspended, by magic, around what I assumed was Nightmare Moon's bed, a dark fabric that seemed to be made of the night sky itself.

The Princess herself was staring out at the sky, looking at the full moon in almost a wistful way. This behavior confused me at first, but then I remembered that had been her prison for so many years.

"Your highness..." I started quietly, kneeling into a bow.

Nightmare Moon turned around, shaking her head. "Scared Fox, there is no need to bow to me. I keep telling you this." The Princess was trying her best to keep her voice down, as she knew my biggest pet-peeve was ponies yelling at me.

"Y-Yes ma'am." I quickly said, pulling myself into a sitting position, ears down in shame. I sat down my scrolls, rolling them towards Nightmare Moon. "Here is my research. It's out of order but.... I sorta ran into Elegance. But it's all there. I checked."

Nightmare Moon shuffled through the papers, holding them with her blue magic. "Interesting..interesting." She murmured. "Should you be done soon?"

"N-No..." I moaned. "It's so difficult to create a spell from scratch. I barely have anything to go off of. This is going to take a while.." I lowered my head to the ground, shivering in the cold.

Nightmare Moon looked concerned. "What's wrong, Sacred Fox?"

My teeth were chattering. The only bad thing about eternal night was that it was freezing all the time.

"I'm cold..."

"Oh. I guess it is cold." Nightmare Moon said awkwardly, obviously oblivious to the coldness of her new world. She levitated a long blanket from her bed, wrapping it tightly around my shoulders.

"Go take a break, Sacred Fox. I am planning an attack tomorrow. I need you to conserve your energy for combat spells." She nudged me with her wing towards her bed.

I looked at the bed sheet, shocked. "I couldn't!" I tried to stumble to the door, but her blanket was surprisingly heavy. "I'll just go to my own bed."

Nightmare Moon sighed, sharp teeth making her frown a bit more scary than intended. She picked me up in her magic, sliding open the curtains and tossing me on the bed.

"It's fine, Sacred Fox." She said sternly. "I'm not planning to attack them personally. You need the rest more than I do." She started to walk out the door. "I was about to go instruct the soldiers anyway. Just sleep." With a curt nod, Nightmare Moon shut the curtains, leaving me alone.

I turned over on her bed. Her sleeping place was covered in soft, silky blankets, which I gratefully curled up in. Inwardly, I was happy Nightmare Moon let me sleep here, my bed downstairs was nowhere near this luxury. I quickly fell into a dreamless sleep, cocooned in silky bed sheets.