The Tales Of The Lunar Consort, Volume II

The Tales of the Lunar Consort, Volume II

by

A Renegade Time Lord

Part I : The Rebirth of The Children Of The Night

Sub-Part I: The Procedure

Castle of They, The Hollow-In-The-Shades, Near the disputed Equestrian northeastern border

An ancient Pegasus stallion walked slowly along the empty hall of the deserted Castle. He wore a black suit with a black tie. The metal ferrule of his ebon cane tapped on the flagstones, echoing about the empty corridor. Aged tapestries, centuries old but suffering no loss of the vibrancy of their colorings, fluttered weakly in a breeze that blew through the place. They depicted numerous scenes from years long since passed and places far away, great battles and much glory, many lives and numerous souls. These and other memories of the life that once flowed here tormented the old stallion, and verily, tears sprang to his eyes. On his cane, the hand, gnarled with age but surprisingly strong, tightened; this was, to a very large degree, his shame, his failure. The Children Of The Night were his responsibility, and while he'd hidden for the better part of a century, the Race had virtually gone extinct.

He'd hoped that, even with the Fall, some other examples of the Race had survived and had continued to occupy the Castle, but it seemed that even this was too much to hope for...

The old one spent yet another few minutes, reviewing certain Facts in his aged but no less spry mind while a Bat Pony mare in gleaming armor lurked behind him protectively. This mare's name was Moonlight Rose. She had entered the old stallion's service some twenty years prior, when he'd discovered her lurking about his home, searching for food. With her being one of the Race, and thus his responsibility, he'd taken her in and sheltered her; she was merely a filly at the time, and now she was a tall, powerful and beautiful mare of the breed. Indeed, she'd flowered from a tiny, frightened filly into a fine, ferocious and highly fertile adult. Aside from a few other examples, she alone constituted her Race, that of the mighty and proud Lunar Pegasi, as her race was properly called. They had valiantly defended Equestria under the command of the Princess of the Night for ages, dying for a country that barely even knew they existed; now they were a tiny, pathetic remnant of themselves, and long since faded from the memory of all but perhaps three or four.

"Moonlight Rose." The old one croaked, not turning to her. Moonlight's ears perked, and she dashed to the side of her aged companion.

"My Lord," she said, bowing stiffly at the waist, never taking her eyes off the frail old stallion to whom she owed her entire life.

The stallion stopped his touring and turned to to look at her. "Do you know where you are, Moonlight? I've spoken to you of this place many a time before, but never have I brought you here. Tell me; where are we?"

Naturally, Moonlight Rose knew; she'd always nursed a desire to come here, ever since he'd taken her in and told her who she was.

"The Castle of They, in the Citadel."

"Correct. Very good. The Castle of They. The Heart of the Hollow. The home of your ancestors. Your ancestral home. I'm afraid that it is, alas, uninhabitable; creatures have made it their home." The old stallion said, emphasizing the word 'their'. "I've no more tests for you; you've completed them all. You, my child, are the alpha female of your entire Race. However, we still have work to do. Your sisters should be along presently."

Moonlight and her four sisters were the very last of their breed; their race now existed solely in these five mares. The Race would die permanently soon if they did not breed themselves. Fortunately, Faust had, in her eternal wisdom, provided for this eventuality in the form of the mares being gifted (or cursed) with a hyperactive reproductive system. A delayed implantation cycle, bicornuate uteri, both ovaries releasing multiple eggs at a time, in addition to an extremely powerful sexual drive. The only thing absent, in all actuality, was... a stallion of the race.

The two merely stood and waited, watching the Moon and their matron goddess. Soon, the snap of leathery wings alerted the pair to the four sisters' presence. The two turned and trotted to the abandoned courtyard. There, in armor identical to their eldest sister's, stood four other Bat Pony mares. Their names were Starlight Streak, Quercus Alba, Night Flight and Noctilucent Terra. Starlight Streak had a white blaze running down her snout. Quercus Alba had a blue dappled hide, contrasting with Night Flight's all-black fur. Noctilucent Terra had white irises, which was unusual; the genetic standard (monopoly, really) was golden yellow, slitted irises. All five of the mares had grown up, quite literally, under the massive wing of the old stallion, grown up under his teachings and they were now ready to assume the mantle of the rulers of their domain. But first, something more was needed. More Lunar Pegasi, stallions of the race, specifically, were needed.

"Come, my daughters," The old stallion said proudly, unfurling his big, broad wings. "We've a bit of work to do."

A month later, in the Armory beneath the Castle...

Night Flight was relaxing. She munched on some poor carcass she'd caught in the Castle as a snack. She'd been cleaning the Armory, under the order/request of the old one. As the old one had predicted, few of the suits of armor that had originally called the Armory home had remained there. Indeed, only seven intact suits remained, and three of those were damaged; the spells that had protected the Citadel had failed during the Great Purge, after the Fall. They would have to be reactivated and given a more physical grounding.

Night Flight reclined on one of the soft cushions that littered the place as she finished her noshing. One of the larger suits sat to her right. It was proportioned for a stallion. She wondered... What would a stallion be like? She'd never seen one; there were none to be seen, aside from the old one. Certainly she knew the anatomy of a male, from the old one, from her and her sisters' talking to him while he bathed and cooked and such. But that still wasn't enough. She still had questions, curiosities, that even the old one wouldn't or couldn't answer. She burned, sweet Mother, burned, burned for a stallion to make her submit and paint her vaginal walls with his fluid. Sweaty, sweet, steamy, sloppy, spermy sex was what she wanted. Admittedly the old one had taught her and her sisters about sex, but only from a technical view. She wanted the physical, and she wanted it now! She was sorely tempted to diddle herself, to play with her mound till she squealed, and indeed her hand was headed to her nethers, sweetest of sweets, when footsteps, some armored, some not, made themselves known and she instantly shaped up.

Moonlight Rose and the old one trotted down the stair and emerged into the dimmer light of the Armory. He bowed to Night Flight stiffly, as though it was a slight trouble to do so.

"Evening, Nighty," Moonlight Rose greeted her younger adoptive sister.

"Sister. Father." Night Flight replied, inclining her head, concealing her irritation at the pair's abrupt entrance.

"Daughters," the old one intoned. "The laboratory is set up. Everything is prepared for the procedure. And I myself am ready. Shall we proceed, please; I am dying, you know."

The other three mares entered the Armory, dressed unusually. Normally, it was a very rare sight to see a Bat Pony out of their armor, and it was nigh impossible to remove a Bat Pony's armor without the wearer's permission; the armor possessed numerous magical qualities that made each suit essentially a step or three below sentient, and each suit was, for lack of a more appropriate phrase, highly possessive of it's current wearer. The armor was also very much like skin to the Bat Ponies; to not wear it was pretty much equal to public nudity.

Now, Moonlight Rose's sisters were garbed in, not their armor, but simple, white cotton medical clothing, acquired from the Castle's infirmary. Noctilucent Terra carried a case, which she had wrapped in her arms; she looked like she was guarding it with her life. The old one trotted stiffly to her and took the case from her gently.

"Come, my dears," he croaked, "Let us hurry to the laboratory. I am most impatient to begin the procedure."

Castle of They, East Wing, medical sector,

Grandfather had dragged a screen across the room and stripped, leaving his clothes on a bed, and the mares strapped the old stallion, his wings flared as far as they would go, down onto the operating table, securing his wings and cinching the leather straps as tight as they dared. The mares knew that the straps hurt the old one, but it was he himself who had instructed them to do so. Now, Night Flight opened the case Grandfather had taken from Noctilucent Terra and opened it. Inside reposed thirteen sealed vials filled with a viscous, luminescent green fluid.

"Life, my daughters," Grandfather croaked. "That fluid, is life itself. It is what I have searched almost my entire life for. And now, it is done. All that remains is the injection into the bone marrow."

The mares all winced in unison; he'd told them almost everything about this procedure, but he'd left that out in every eloquation he'd given them.

"Nocti? Please load twelve of those vials into the appropriate slots."

Noctilucent Terra obeyed, fitting twelve of the vials into their destined places on the side of the table. The fluid slowly dribbled out of the vials and into a reservoir beneath the table and was promptly sucked up into another reservoir above the table. This one was attached to a deadly-looking device, with twelve needles about as thick around as your middle finger and tapering to very, very thin points. Connected to this device was a lever that, when thrown would send the needles plunging down into the old stallion's body at very precise points; specifically, certain bones in his body. The femurs, humeri, vertebrae, the pelvis and several other bones, including the major ones in the wings, were to be subject to the injection.

"Now. My children. Your final task for me. Before I tell you, though, I must warn you. The stallion you see before you, in the table, is about to die."

Being Lunar Pegasi, the five mares appeared to accept this news with much aloofness.  Internally, however, they all five were extremely upset, to say the least.Their father was going to have them kill him?

"This does not mean that I will die. Contradictory, yes, but for a purpose: the fluid in those vials will heal me, regenerate my body. I will no longer be the old, crotchety bag of bones that lays on this table. I will be young and healthy again. But, this procedure must be undertaken. In a moment, I will give you the signal to throw the lever. When I do, you must throw the lever and run from this laboratory. No matter what you hear, no matter your concern for me, no matter the screaming that will you will undoubtedly hear, you must not interrupt the procedure. To do so may well kill me. Do not return to this place untill three days hence. Do you understand?"

Somberly, the five mares nodded.

"Nocti, the dowel, please."

Noctilucent Terra inserted a cotton-wrapped dowel into his mouth, and he clamped down upon it. A moment passed, then he raised his head. He snorted, swallowed, then nodded to Moonlight Rose. The signal. She gathered her sisters and bundled them outside into the corridor, then kissed their father on the forehead and threw the lever. The very moment she did, she heard a rattle, a thunk and a muffled scream of pain. She was so sorely tempted to intervene, to stop the procedure and spare her father the pain that had just started, but she knew she mustn't. Without looking at him, she ran from the infirmary, pulling the door shut behind her.

Three days later...

The screaming, the terrible, horrendous, heart-shredding screaming had finally stopped.

The five had waited impatiently to see if their father's confidence in his calculations was justified.

They opened the door and entered the infirmary because it was now ruled by silence. And they didn't know if that boded well or ill.