In the Shadow of a Special Day

Chapters

Prologue: Wedding Prep
Chapter 1: Duel in the Darkness
Chapter 2: Machinations of Night
Chapter 3: The Black Battle
Epilogue: Auspicious Eventide

Prologue: Wedding Prep

Luna yawned as she got up, feeling more than a bit groggy. It had been a fairly uneventful night, but with the threat against Canterlot and the upcoming wedding of Cadence and Shining Armor, there had been a definite energy draining tension in the air.

She slapped at her annoyingly chirping clock, this device high on her list of “new” inventions she wanted to destroy every one of. She looked at the now silent alarm clock: early afternoon. Luna mumbled a curse upon the fact that almost everypony else was diurnal. She had only been asleep for four hours, having fallen asleep late in the morning. It was natural, really. Contrary to popular belief, she didn't pass out just because her moon went down, and she certainly didn't wake up during the night she herself brought to the world each day. She got a typical, 8 hour rest except during the longest of winter days, when there were precious few hours of restful daylight.

She had only an hour to prepare for the wedding, but she didn't feel any rush, she had plenty of time to do what she needed to do before attending. Unlike her dear sister, the servants didn't make so much of a fuss about her actions and how she would look on special occasions such as this. It wasn't so much that they didn't care as it was that they were still uneasy around her. Still, they were a lot better around her than they were at first. The first night back she had caused an actual panic among the castle staff; the following weeks, a noticeable habit of trying to leave whatever room she entered as quickly and quietly as possible by all but the bravest and kindest of ponies. These days it was merely leaving her to her own devices unless ordered otherwise, and a general avoidance of direct eye contact.

Luna got out of bed and trotted over to her bathroom, running the sink and splashing some cold water on her face in order to help wake her up. It didn't work particularly well in truth, her knowing it to be primarily the placebo effect of an old mare's tale. Quickly brushing her teeth and taking a brisk shower in both senses of the word, she dried herself off and stepped out of the bathroom, the silvers and navies of her room greeting her once more.

Luna selected to wear an ornate shoulder guard and breastplate for the occasion, adorned with the same eye her lunar guard wore. She glanced at the clock. Still another fifty minutes. Plenty of time considering that even at the most leisurely pace she was five minutes from her destination, zero by teleport. “What now? Should we- I, should I go back to bed, or should I go and stand in place or should I go and wait for the ceremony” she said to herself, bringing a hoof to her chin. Her eyes fell to her desk, a dozen books lying on it. Two on astronomy, three on casual speech, five on history, and two on modern wedding practices. “Nah,” she answered herself with a smile as she trotted over and sat down. She would NOT make a fool of herself again after the horrible start of the last Nightmare Night. “That's going to hang over my head forever” she thought with a shudder, opening her copy “Weddings and Things”.

“FOREEEVERRR!” a voice called out. Luna looked around. “WHO KEEPS DOING THAT?!?!” she yelled to nopony in particular, her Royal Canterlot Voice accidentally slipping out. A lunar guard opened the door a crack and poked his head in. “Is everything okay, your highness?” he asked. Luna blushed a little in embarrassment and coughed once. “Um, yes, Fletch, carry on.” she replied. Fletch bowed and ducked out, closing the door behind him, Luna returning to her book.

Chapter 1: Duel in the Darkness

Luna spent the next forty minutes cramming facts and practices about modern weddings into her head. As she flipped her book shut there was a knock on the door as Celestia stepped in. “Come, Luna, you're going to be late to the wedding,” she said in an annoyed tone. “Okay, Tia, I'm coming” the blue alicorn replied, hopping down from her desk and over to her sister's side.

The two walked at a swift pace toward the wedding. “Oh keep up, Luna” ordered the princess of the sun. Luna kept pace with the larger Alicorn, but something wasn't sitting right with her. Yes she was cutting it close, but Celestia rarely spoke to her in a tone as harsh as this, at least not since the incident over a thousand years ago. For that matter, she was presiding over the ceremony. If she wanted to let Luna know she was cutting it close, why would she fetch her herself and risk being late herself, rather than sending one of her royal guard to do it for her? Or even if she wanted to do it personally, why would she walk instead of teleport and waste precious time? While Luna pondered this, Celestia made a noticeable turn down the wrong corridor. Luna narrowed her eyes in suspicion for a split second before feigning a lack thereof.

The castle was massive, with many chambers and areas that hadn't been seen by anypony in years. It was down one of these paths that the royal sisters now walked. Shadows crept along the walls. There were no lights or torches, merely a few candles enchanted with “eternal flame”. In truth it only lasted about a century, but for most ponies that was semantic. Still, it was not nearly enough to drive back the darkness of the corridor.

Far out of sight and earshot of everypony else Luna suddenly stopped in her tracks, Celestia not taking notice for a dozen or so feet, where she stopped. “Come little sister, we're going to be late.” she said sternly, her voice echoing off the dusty marble walls.

Luna scoffed. “Oh sure, and that means walking down a hallway that hasn't been used in who knows how long? You're not my sister, she always calls me 'Nana' when she's cross with me, not to mention her nyctophobia.”

“Come now, Nana, you're trying my patience” Celestia barked angrily, punctuating by stomping her hoof and breaking a dusty porcelain tile beneath it. But Luna only grinned. “Got ya” she smiled, suddenly at point blank range as she blasted her sister with a duke blue bolt of potent, concussive magic. The bolt shattered tiles as if they were glass, reverberating in a deafening cacophony of sound against the walls and snuffing out each candle as it crashed into the white mare, dipping the hall further into the darkness. It knocked the wind out of "Celestia", sending her careening down the hallway, a dark glow disappearing rapidly into the distance, Luna already flying in hot pursuit.

The bolt reached the end of the corridor well before Luna could, Celestia crashing into rough grey stonework with a sickening cracking of rock and bone. They had reached a wall built into the mountain that Canterlot rested upon, thick windows carved into stone overlooking a dead drop into the valley below. The windows faced away from the sun at the moment, leaving only indirect light which was further dimmed by Shining Armor's shield.

Celestia leapt to her hooves and snarled in fury as green flames surrounded her, revealing her, or rather, his true form: a black, twisted creature of hate; a parasite that fed on what made the world good. “I'm going to tear the throat out of that smug little foal, after I gore her with my own horn,” he growled.

A black cloak of mist interrupted his thoughts as it blotted out the already dim light. “You've made us cross,” a voice called out from the blackness. “Now we'll have to explain to Celestia why we weren't at the wedding she so looked forward to, and we are loath to tell her such a thing.”

The creature fired an acid green bolt of magic down the corridor he had just been. He hit nothing. The voice called out again, seemingly from every direction. “You're a changeling. It's been so long since we last grappled with your kind. We suppose this explains our reports of Twilight Sparkle's odd behavior a bit better than simple jealousy.”

The changeling snarled and kept his ears open, listening for the mare's hoofsteps or the beat of her wings, or the sound of a spell. “I'm curious as to why you would target us personally, were you hoping to distract us? Who are you that you think you can impersonate our sister?”

The changeling needed to buy more time, so he decided to play the princess's little game. “I am Cocoon, the foremost assassin among the Changelings. I was dispatched to kill you.” he said bluntly.

“And why?” she replied. Cocoon heard a hoof tap to his left, thirty feet away.

He sneered. “Because you're too big of a threat to leave...” he said, leaping towards the princess and tackling her to the ground, his teeth inches away from her face, “... and too unloved to consume!” He brought his neck down, and thrust his horn upon her throat.

Nothing. His horn hit the floor but there was nothing. The sensation of puncturing the skin, of driving through his victim, of piercing bone, none of that was there. Nothing but a puff of air and the sound of his horn hitting the cold hard ground.

“I felt that. I felt you. That was a neat trick, freak. What did you do?” he said, listening once again.

“From what you just experienced? There are two ways we could have done that, but you'll never need to find out which.”

A faint glimmer of blue light. A muted sound of static. Cocoon launched himself once more into the darkness. In a flash, the two were locking horns, magic illuminating the walls. “What can you do? You're alone and unloved. The people do not love you, your sister does not love you, and you're so cold that you hold no love for anyone, not even yourself! Both you and the sister you hate will fall this day!”

Luna glared angrily. “You know nothing of us.” she said, ducking down and bringing her magically empowered horn up into the carapace beneath his chin, shattering it and sending him reeling, tumbling over onto his back in defeat.

Luna looked out the window, able to see through the darkness just fine as the demigoddess of the night. Changelings were now breaking through the shield. The princess glowered at this, turning to face the defeated assassin. “We have three parting statements for you. First, we lied of our sister's nyctophobia, it was a two layered trap, one you had already supposedly sprung. Being an imposter, and a rather poor one, you would have feigned anger or fright instead of confusion, adding suspicion to your claims even if you hadn't called me 'Nana'. Second, you say we do not love my sister, that we hate her? That she hates us? No.” she said, smiling for a moment. “I love her very much, and she loves me. I'll never forget that again.”

Cocoon rolled over onto his legs, trying to stand up, barely conscious through a bad concussion and several cracks in his bone from the blast he took. He groaned, having difficulty breathing, the taste of blood in his mouth, and unfortunately for him, this time it really was his own. Luna scowled at him. “And thirdly, you were wrong about one other thing. We are never alone.” she said as she turned about and walked down the hallway. “We always have friends in the darkness.” her voice echoed as several pairs of dragon-like eyes fell upon him, converging and surrounding him rapidly. A vile scream pierced the night.

Luna walked down the hallway as Fletch arrived and bowed before her. “Your highness, the changelings are through the shield and a battle has begun. What are your orders?”

Luna pondered this for a moment before replying. “Celestia's guards are more numerous and better practiced at defensive battle. Dispatch any stragglers or scouts who wander away from the battle, and I want that... thing brought to the dungeon and chained by the holes in his body, make sure he can't magic, break, or shapeshift his way out.” Fletch saluted and began to take off. “Oh, and one more thing,” Luna said, “make sure you and the rest of the lunar guard are prepared to counterattack.” Fletch's only response was a devilish grin as he flew down into the darkness. Luna smiled to herself. “Nothing wakes you up quite like adrenaline” she laughed as she too slipped into the shadows.

This battle was Celestia's to win, but the war belonged to Luna.

Chapter 2: Machinations of Night

The battle for Canterlot raged in the streets as the citizens of the proud city panicked and fled for their lives. The Elements of Harmony and princess of the sun were doing their part as best they could. The battle wasn't going well, but Princess Luna wasn't worried. She stalked the halls of Cantelot Castle as if some great horror incarnate, preying upon any changeling foolish enough to venture through the castle beyond where its swarm had control. It was quite thrilling, acting the part of the huntress in the night. So far, though, all this huntress had found was small game. She had effortlessly taken down seventeen of these creatures with a sleeping spell, a very easy spell for the princess of the night in particular, and was now carrying a group of three into yet another vacant room. Though Luna hated to admit it, sleep was well within her sphere of influence.

As she roamed the halls, a large Pegasus stallion landed next to her, wearing the armor of her royal guard. A pair of thin, hairless scars ran down his coat from his neck “Ah, I found you, Princess,” he said, trying to hide the relieved feeling he had now that he knew she was still all right. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he was trying to hide the worry that he had moments before that she might not have been.

Luna chucked. “Yes, it seems you have, captain. I must be terribly rusty after a thousand years,” she teased. “Do you have something to report, or did you simply pick the worst possible time to play hide and seek?”

The stallion saluted, not letting her jests get to him. “The assassin has been thoroughly secured and is now ready for questioning.” Luna looked aronud her for any additional foes quickly before replying, “Very well, Midnight Cloak, I'll go down right now. You watch these corridors for any changelings. You know the drill.”

“Stick to the shadows, and let the Solar Guard stand in their spotlights,” he recited, “strike from behind the lines”. It was a simple philosophy for battle, and one he felt strongly about. Prevent the enemy from getting a foothold behind your allies, don't let any main battle catch up to you, don't take risks and make each move count, and hit the enemy where and when they least expect it; where they are most vulnerable. It was a code he admired, and in a way it became a part of him.

Luna smiled. “Glad to see my captain is still as sharp as ever.” she praised. “Now make sure you're aiming at the right targets, changelings are tricky and there are ponies who have run into the depths of the castle for safety.”

“Funny how ponies who are afraid of the dark run into it for protection,” he mused grimly.

“You have no idea,” the princess deadpanned, rolling her eyes and leaving the area in the capable hooves of her captain.

The Lunar Guard was her own force, each member hoof picked and given the option to join or not. They came from many walks of life. A couple were bodyguards, and indeed, most ponies thought that all the Lunar Guard was for was her personal protection. A couple more were former Solar Royal Guards, catching her attention by the way they conducted themselves, the approval from their paladin-like superiors being arbitrary at best in her decision. Some were thieves, former criminals of various backgrounds, various motives, and various levels of theft; they would ply their guile to their trade, using the cover of Luna's night to aid them. One was a cartographer: an adventurer of sorts, making her living traveling the world and abandoning all fear, delving into dark, ancient and forbidden regions to bring back knowledge of the world both technical and personal back home with her, and all the wonders that she had seen.

The Lunar Guard was a symbol of her status. The “Royal Guard” was actually comprised of two separate groups, the Solar Guard and the newly re-established Lunar Guard. Few ponies realized this, referring to the Solar Guard and Royal Guard synonymously. At the head of the Solar Guard was Shining Armor, the older brother to the Element of Magic, wielder of powerful barrier magic, and whose mess they were currently attempting to clean up. No, “clean up” would imply that the mess was getting smaller. Perhaps it would be better to say “stem the tide of” for now. Luna frowned at this thought, but she trusted her sister and her guard. She trusted Twilight Sparkle and the other Elements of Harmony. And most of all, she trusted in the strength of good ponies to overcome any foe. Still, things were getting worse before they were getting better.

With that thought out of the way, her thoughts ran once again to her Lunar Guard. Midnight Cloak was her captain, and he had yet to let her down. He was a cunning pony who could always think on his hooves. He was a powerful stallion, his speed in flight for a pegasus of his size being unusually high, so when he performed a flying kick, he hit hard enough that even some of the more prodigious members of the Apple family would be hard pressed to buck with that much power. Even without magic, that kind of kinetic energy left him as one heck of a powerhouse. He couldn't put up a defense for a whole city, no, but that wasn't his job; such a feat would be useless to the Lunar Guard. Above all other things, he proved time and again to be steadfast and loyal to his princess.

The princess arrived at the dungeon, where Maria and Fletch were talking calmly, sitting at a wooden table playing tic tac toe on a piece of paper, despite a clearly wounded changeling beside them. Luna raised an eyebrow at this but shrugged, figuring that it didn't really matter. The room was unlike most dungeons she had seen a thousand years past: rather than a gloomy darkness, it was a brightly lit, magically illuminated, almost blindingly white room with twenty equally white rooms sealed with powerful magical barriers, with one larger room at the end of the hallway outfitted with a granite table. All the rooms perfectly square, arranged in such a way that no room could view any other room It wasn't perfectly suited to Luna's tastes for interrogation techniques, buy hey, it was a lot cleaner than what she was used to. Besides, Luna had no intention of getting information today.

Maria Breeze, a unicorn, noticed Luna first. “Hey there, Luna! We've got him locked up tighter than a bank vault!” she said chipperly. Luna nodded. Fletch, as usual, winced at the overly personal way that Maria addressed the princess. It didn't particularly bother the starry maned alicorn in this circumstance. Things were tense, but in this room they were out of their element, a more casual tone breaking out from being so exposed. Maria always knew when it was acceptable to dispense with the formalities and when to keep quiet and follow orders. Well, almost always.

Maria was an energetic prankster, and possibly the greatest (and least harmful) thief in Equestria. She had originally gotten Luna's attention when, one evening, Discord's statue started moving seemingly on its own. He wasn't cracked, and when Luna noticed that there was no chaotic magic coming from him, she became bemused, and yet amused at the same time. She could definitely sense magic coming from that direction, though. She decided she would let things play out that evening, seeing how things went.

The chaos that erupted the following morning would have had Discord himself high hoofing whoever caused it. Celestia was worked into a tizzy and the Solar Guard was running about like they were a mailmare who put on her saddlebags upside down. Luna, meanwhile, was sharing an inside joke with the fledgeling Lunar Guard and enjoying an oh so sweet comeuppance for the strudel incident from that April Foal's day. How Celestia had managed to get that inside the walls she will never know.

That evening, Luna was keeping an eye out when, lo and behold, the statue came into view, slowly moving across the ground and placing itself back on the pedestal, still just as frozen as ever. Luna decided to fly down and investigate.

Hovering well above the statue, she could hear giggling coming from below, but couldn't identify the source. The first thing that caught her eye was a note on Discord's face. Luna flew down for a closer look. “Look what I found! You know, you should really watch your things a little more carefully. What next, are you going to lose your castle?” Luna reread the note and blinked. The disembodied giggling had stopped and all was quiet, aside from her own wingbeat and her rapidly failing attempts to avoid laughing. She could still sense magic somewhere... about... three feet away and right next to the hedge?

Like a spark, Luna suddenly knew exactly what was going on. Luna summoned a bottle of ink to her and splashed it on the spot where the magic was coming from, resulting in several black stains floating in the air. “Got ya” she laughed as the stain panicked. “Oh no, um, look over there!” the feminine sounding stains said, not moving anywhere.

Luna eyed the stains. “I guess I didn't get your hooves, did I?” she snickered. The stains sighed. “Oh what's the point? And here I was having so much fun!” A chestnut mare with a cyan mane, covered in ink stains, suddenly appeared. Luna laughed. “I guess we've both got splotches on our flanks now, huh?” The thief just sat there for a second, as if her brain was on overload. Then, suddenly she snapped.

The two of them laughed themselves silly for a while afterward. Luna explained that summoning that ink bottle was a very old spell that she made when she was a filly, a way of giving everypony else splotches too so she wouldn't stand out so much. Being an alicorn, it was a lost cause, and she had received quite a scolding afterword. Maria in turn told her about a number of other burglary pranks she had pulled, the most impressive being the one week theft of the Pony Lisa. Luna invited her to join the Lunar Guard that evening, not to mention a royal pardon.

Luna walked down the brightly lit room as the two guards began to bicker. She'd be lying if she said she made an effort to tune out the conversation.

“Seriously, Maria, stop it, that's the princess you're talking to!”

“Oh yeah, owl eye? She's my friend and I'll address her how I want so long as she's comfortable with it.”

“I don't care if that's the case, at least do it when nopony else is around, it's disrespectful in public!”

“When nopony else is around, huh?.... there, problem solved! Isn't that right, Luna?”

Looking over her shoulder, the princess saw Maria sitting at the table alone, an empty chair across from her.

“Hey, change me back!”

“Make me!”

Luna rolled her eyes. “Do as he says, Maria.”

“Oh fine,” she said as she relented, turning the stallion visible once more.

“Quiet please, I'm about to visit with our... guest.”

Luna could clearly see the changeling who called himself “Cocoon” now. Or, rather, she could see herself strapped to a wall by a chain of brilliant white magic that seemed to go through her legs. The princess walked into the room, making a mental note to have a similar room built but with unnerving blacks instead of these suffocating whites. The changeling going nowhere.

Cocoon looked up at his hostess, still clearly in pain but definitely in his right mind. He put on a twisted grin. “You won't keep me here for long. I can tell, we're winning” he began to taunt, but as he did so, it was as if the universe itself couldn't help but to bite him in the flank for tempting fate. A massive magenta wall of energy came crashing forth through the wall behind Luna, who reflexively put up a violet barrier. The two fields collided, Luna's shield breaking up as it collided with the larger one. The wall washed over Luna harmlessly while knocking her would be assassin against the wall, and a sickening crunch coming from down the hall. A moment later a cry of disgust and a bout of uproarious laughter came from the other end of the “dungeon”.

“For the love of Luna, it's everywhere!” a masculine voice yelled out, clearly revolted.

“I don't know, I think most of it is on you!” a feminine voice replied, clearly having a laugh at his expense.

Luna knew what that was from the moment it washed over her. She could feel Shining Armor's magic in it, as well as Princess Cadence's. “It seems you're wrong about that. The tide just turned in our favor.” she said to her guest, who groaned with a fresh reminder of his injuries.

“Damn you” he said as he spat. Luna was well aware of this ill mannered tendency with defiant detainees and simply stopped the foul liquid in midair. It was all too common, but still a little perturbing to see herself taking such a vulgar action. She flung the stuff back at the changeling and proceeded to talk.

“You're very lucky that that was a strong repulsion field and not a solid wall, otherwise I think you might have ended up like... well, whoever that was over there.” she said coldly. This taunt struck a nerve. “I'd guess the vast majority of your comrades were raiding the city, or were at the ceremony and easily knocked through the glass. A few unfortunates such as yourself and, well, you know, were simply knocked violently into the walls”

Silence. Luna kept talking. “Normally I'd simply leave you to rot in this stifling little box but a servant of mine insisted that she get to try to talk to you. Have fun.” she said, walking out the door and out of sight of the parasitic creature.

At the end of the hall, Maria was helping Fletch wipe a sickly green ichor off of his wings. Luna concentrated her magic for a short while, a piece of her mane curling as if a living black smoke before growing and taking form. It coalesced and a moment later a darkly colored pony in a racing outfit stood before her, trotting off into Cocoon's cell.

“Transformation is your greatest defense against interrogation, as it's fairly difficult to watch yourself squirm. But can that be turned against you?” the princess thought. She waited a few moments before retracting her lone doppelganger, a blood curdling scream piercing the air for only a moment before being cut short. The blue mare smiled to herself as she did. “I'll take that as a yes. I've got a plan of attack.”

Luna walked over and saw that Fletch was mostly cleaned off, a large green and black splatter in the corner marking the otherwise pristine wall as if somepony had taken the world's largest flyswatter to the world's largest bug. She winced a moment as she remembered the number of changelings she had casually tossed into cold stone rooms in the darkness. She cleared her throat. “Fletch, I want an update on exactly what that barrier did to the changelings, put emphasis on 'where'.” Fletch grinned and saluted, taking off quickly to gather intelligence.

Fletch was Luna's best scout. For that matter, Luna was utterly convinced that he was the best scout in the whole of the Royal Guard, if not Equestria. For most of his life, he had been a part of a weather team in Chicacolt over in Fillynois. His specialty was spotting rogue cloud formations all the way at the end of the horizon, even at night during a full moon. This alone would be impressive, but he also had an uncanny precision about him.

Feeling lazy one night, Fletch had noticed a few incoming thunderclouds that hadn't been scheduled. This was actually pretty common, the weather teams of Equestria had to deal with uncontrolled weather coming from places like the Everfree Forest fairly regularly. He didn't feel like flying all the way over to them to push them out of the way, and he didn't have the energy to move them on his own. Everypony else was asleep and would be rather cross at waking up to an unscheduled storm. Grumbling to himself as he was about to try anyway, he had a funny idea. He looked out to the clouds. They were still a long ways off.

Fletch walked over to a building labeled “Cloud Storage”. To be honest, though, it wasn't really a building so much as a space where stuff floated about. Namely clouds. He looked them over and grabbed himself a small thundercloud and took off high above the city where the thunder wouldn't wake too many ponies up.

Fletch looked hard at the approaching clouds in the distance, lining himself up just right, ever so calm, his breathing relaxed. Then, as if by instinct, he kicked the cloud in the side, activating it and sending a bolt of lightning hurtling across the sky towards the offending formation. He squinted for a second, trying to get a good view. Suddenly, the clouds in the distance burst apart, showering their contents beneath them, well out of anypony's way.

What a thrilling sight! Fletch whooped and hollered, ecstatic that such a ridiculous idea had worked, congratulating himself on such a success when he looked down and realized that he had just activated a storm cloud off-schedule, though it was a little one. He swiftly flew to the east and tossed the cloud over the giant lake below the city, whistling nervously as he flew back to his post hoping nopony had noticed.

But of course, somepony had noticed. A gigantic bolt of lightning lighting up the night sky, and a small trail of rainwater? That's going to stick out. Facing the music, Fletch told his story to his boss. His boss was pretty understanding though, Chicacolt wasn't exactly known for its tame weather. After releasing a statement about the unusual weather, he had decided to call the event a “scatterbrained thunderstorm”, and had said that there may be more like that.

Fletch was soon showing the other members of the team how he did it, and soon they were taking out larger thunderstorms with smaller ones regularly. They weren't as accurate as he was, so they took their shots at shorter ranges, but they got the job done. Fletch's ability to see the clouds and hit them at such a great distance got him a nickname, “Owl Eye”.

Luna heard tell of this not too long after her return to Equestria. Noticing one night a fairly large thunderstorm over Ponyville down below, she made an offhooved comment about the weather having gotten crazier (though one could guess at just how offhooved one can be while using the Royal Canterlot Voice). One pony nearby chuckled, claiming that that was nothing, just another storm to make up for an off schedule. Luna was a bit curious as to just how odd the weather could be these days, so she listened as the mare described an number of much weirder phenomena. She described the rains in Baltimare and snows in Stalliongrad. And then she mentioned that the teams over in Fillynois seemed to have thrown up their hooves and practically done away with weather schedules, and how their teams would zap storms with other storms.

Intrigued at this, Luna looked into the matter, seeming that such an area would be utter chaos. Her news articles soon pointed her to Fletch, with several seemingly sensationalist stories about him, and yet he always seemed to try to shrink away from the spotlight, rarely answering questions.

Days later, Fletch received a royal summons to Canterlot, all fares paid in advance. The invitation was written in silver ink on a deep blue paper, silver filigree decorating the borders. He wasn't sure what to make of it. Maybe it was a commendation for his idea, and was going to pay his weight in bits! Of course, even to him this sounded very silly. Was Celestia upset that he had disrupted the typical weather schedules? Maybe she was going to put him on trial. And then banish him to the moon, or he sun! Or lock him up. Or lock him up and then banish him and his cage to the moon. One way or another, there was no chance he was going to run away from royalty.

When he arrived, much to his surprise there sat not Celestia, but her sister. He had heard of her return, and of her supposed redemption, but he was still more than a little unnerved. In those first few moments, he would've much rather faced an angry Celestia. Every foal knows the story of Nightmare Moon, once a year her tales were used to frighten them on Nightmare Night.

Luna instead simply said that she wanted a demonstration of his abilities. She had pulled some strings and gotten a lone thundercloud far off in the distance, while the rest of the sky was clear and dark, the demigodess having orchestrated this on the eve of a new moon. She asked him to take a lone thundercloud, large enough to hold only a single bolt of lightning, and to find and hit the only other cloud in the sky. Fletch couldn't help but grin. He enjoyed a challenge, and one issued by the co-ruler of Equestria? He couldn't say no.

After a minute or two of searching the horizon, his eyes spotted a slow and steady movement in the distance. It was too dark to see the details of the cloud itself, but he could tell by the way it moved where it was. He took aim, taking his time and waiting for everything to line up perfectly. He fired.

A brilliant white bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating a vast swath of the land for a moment, visible for many miles. The bolt tore through the sky and hit its mark, blasting the other cloud apart as a fire hose would a tissue paper.

The princess was left amazed at this feat. It must have been easier to throw a game of horseshoes blindfolded than to pull this off. With that Luna made him the offer.

“Lunar Guard? Is that like the Royal Guard?” he asked, confused.

“IT IS PART OF THE ROYAL GUARD, BUT NOT AS YOU WOULD KNOW IT,” the princess replied.

“I don't know, there are all these rules-” he began.

“THAT ARE QUITE DIFFERENT FROM OUR OWN” she interrupted.

Fletch stood there, mulling it over for a moment. Luna put on a devious smirk, whispering to him, or rather speaking with typical volume for a change, “Sizable pay raise, near complete access to the castle, free food, free shelter, out of view of the public,” she tempted. He was sweating now. She had him. “And. No. Reporters.”

Fletch raised his eyebrow. “What's the catch?” he asked. The blue alicorn laughed. “Well when you're wearing your armor your coat and mane will change colors, your wings will become batlike, and your eyes will become like those of a dragon and able to see in the night as if it were day.”

“That doesn't sound so bad”

“The eyes don't change back.”

“Ah.” he said. Still, his mind was made up. “Alright, your highness, I'll do it.”

As Luna walked out of the stuffy white “dungeon”, Maria asked her. “What do you want me to do with the changeling?”

The alicorn looked at her and smiled. “What changeling?” she asked, not slowing down.

Maria was confused but dropped the subject for another question. “What are you going to do now?”

Luna replied simply, “throw a dog a bone.”

“Cryptic,” Maria complained to herself walking back to the cell where Cocoon was kept. She gasped. “What happened?”

Chapter 3: The Black Battle

Luna stood on a patch of dying grass, overlooking a deep chasm below. This place made her hair stand on end, and if her mane was like most ponies', that would probably be literal. Still, she waited for her information, as she could not act without it.

A few moments later, a shadow blotted out the slowly sinking sun. A pair of winged silhouettes descended upon the waiting monarch. She looked up to them, shooting a quick bit of magic up which bounced harmlessly off them. “Not changelings” she thought. She asked the larger of the two figures, “A bit slow, don't you think, captain?”

Midnight landed next to her, offering her a salute. She simply waited. “Apologies, princess, Owl Eye here had some troubles locating me in that maze,” he said.

“It's fine. Your report?”

Fletch landed next to the captain, wasting no time jumping into his briefing. “The field was generated by Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, knocking the bulk of the invading force to these coordinates,” he said, reaching into a saddlebag and pulling out a map indicating a particularly sickly looking marsh.

Luna looked over the map and nodded. “How is Celestia doing?”

Fletch frowned slightly. “Princess Celestia engaged Queen Chrysalis in a direct magical clash. Her beam lost and she sustained minor injuries, but they were enough to take her out of the fight.”

Luna was surprised. “She defeated my sister head to head? If that's true then I certainly don't want to take her head on by myself, I'm no match for Tia in sparring matches. Of course, her tussle with my sister and the power of that barrier spell may have weakened her, but it's best not to take chances. What of the situation in Canterlot?”

Fletch rolled his eyes. “The Solar Guard is back down to normal readiness and, apparently, they're planning to re-hold the wedding in two hours.”

Luna's eye twitched at this information. “Are you serious?”

Fletch nodded, “Unfortunately.”

Her silver armored hoof swiftly found her forehead. “UGH! Of all the hasty, short sighted, ill-conceived, poorly timed, head in the clouds... this is just...”

“Stupid?” Fletch offered, which Midnight immediately followed with a rap on his head. “That's still the princess you're talking about,” he scolded.

Luna wouldn't have phrased it as such, but somewhat agreed with Fletch in this case. She groaned once more in frustration and sighed. “That's Celestia for you,” she relented. This didn't change much, but made her mission that much more imperative. “Looks like our timetables just moved up” she said, levitating the map of the area, summoning an ink bottle. “Do you have a quill, Fletch?” she asked.

Fletch fetched a quill from his satchel and Luna took it, dipping the feather in the ink and marking some things on the map. “Midnight, have the Earth Ponies stay low and use the swamp water for ambushes as an alligator would. Unicorns should take up positions in the trees here, levitating each other up as need be, and disrupt any organized movements with magic, corralling them into position for earth ponies and pegasi to take down and making sure they don't get past this line. The pegasi are to act as interceptors for high flying targets, using the canopy and cloud cover to strike unseen.”

Midnight nodded. “This a harassment mission, princess? Seems all we're doing is keeping them in this central area.” he said, touching a hoof to the map.

The princess shook her head. “No, I'm taking in a smaller task force to handle them, yourself included.”
The large stallion raised an eyebrow. “A bit bold, isn't it? It's out in the open.”

Luna shook her head. “Not with shadow magic it isn't. You'll be covering me personally. Fletch!” she called. Fletch looked up, having been distracted, looking down into the chasm with an expression of dread. “You're on long range support. I want you on overwatch from this position.” she continued, indicating a position several miles away.

Fletch trotted over, taking a look at the map. “Easy enough, any particular altitude?”

“High enough where the air feels thin but not high enough that you'll lose focus from it. Pick your targets carefully and pay attention for the usual signals.” The scout nodded. The alicorn continued “I also want Maria Breeze to come with us, captain. She'll be invaluable for escape and evasion.” She then spread her dark sapphire wings and began to fly, ordering “I want the guard in position in one hour,” as she took off toward a forward position to ready herself for battle.

Midnight and Fletch saluted. They took off at once, wishing to meet expectations and to leave the area as swiftly as possible, a pair of bits shining on the ground where they had been standing.

Before being found by Princess Luna, Midnight Cloak had been a mercenary, a problem solver of sorts. He made his living by helping his clients deal with ponies and creatures of all shapes and sizes. He was gruff, efficient, and sometimes ruthless, but he was anything but a common thug. He had his own moral codes about which contracts he would accept from which clients.

His resume was a long one, and had included knocking out a gang of Gryphons and taking back their stolen goods, smuggling a shipment of medicine for a doctor whose patients couldn't wait and needed to bypass all the bureaucracy and paying the costs anonymously (which were covered by his sizable paycheck), and even dealing with a parasprite infestation. That last one had wound up costing far more than the job paid, much to his chagrin. Who knew xylophones were so expensive?

One contract he undertook was clearly in the “insane” category: recovering a priceless keepsake from a full grown Dragon's lair. When he arrived at the lair, far beyond the borders few ponies dared cross, he discovered that the dragon was very much awake. He had waited til nightfall, but a waxing gibbous moon had given him far less cover than he would have liked.

Divising a plan that wouldn't require a half a month to act on, he flew over the top of the cave's mouth. Poking his head upside down from cover, keeping a close eye on the dragon's orientation. The dragon was not on guard, and as such would not see something as small as two pony eyes and a forehead sticking out from the top of his entrance.

Fifteen minutes later, the dragon had repositioned itself so that it was facing away from the mouth of the cave, and Midnight seized the opportunity, flying in swiftly and ducking behind a boulder on the dragon's left flank. From here he could see the dragon's hoard at the back of the cave. Once again, he waited for the dragon to look away. This time was more expedient, three minutes later and he zipped over to a variable treasure trove of gold, jewelry, gems, and other assorted objects of great value.

Working quickly, the stallion for hire stuffed a three hoof fulls of coins into his satchel. Hey, a pony's got to eat somehow. He kept a sharp eye out for the target, a sapphire encrusted silver locket, with a cutie mark engraved on it: a snowflake within a water drop. But in a vast pile of riches such as this, it was like looking for a tree carving in an unfamiliar forest.

Midnight checked high and low, zipping about in circles like a housefly trapped indoors, he searched for his target. Not seeing it, he landed and began to dig like a diamond dog possessed. Just then, he felt something was wrong, jumping and taking flight, spinning around to see a massive tail slam him back down into the gold, coins scattering in all directions as he hit the ground.

“Soft metal my flank” he muttered to himself as felt a pain that said that he was going to have quite a bruise the next day. Pegasi were born able to endure a crash that would send most earth ponies and unicorns to the hospital. They had to be to be able to take the falls they experienced during foalhood. The mercenary would be lying if he said that this particular crash didn't hurt, but there weren't any broken bones. Out of the corner of his eye, Midnight spotted a glint of blue and silver. Turning his head in a split second, he saw that it was his target; his crash had exposed the locket and placed him right next to it. He snatched the locket up in his teeth and swiftly rose to the air once more, keeping an eye on the dragon.

The dragon roared, blasting the spot where he had been laying with intense flames, incinerating enough valuables to likely feed a family of four for a year. The pony flew swiftly around the dragon's right flank, but this time the dragon had anticipated his move, swiping at his path with massive razor sharp claws. Midnight tried to evade and managed to dodge a likely lethal blow, but one talon ripped a gash from the right side of his neck down to his ribcage, cutting his saddlebags off and suffering a deep cut to the chest, shaving off part of the bone and leaving them exposed. A second talon had passed above the first, running from the back of his neck down the right side of his back, nearly severing his spine.

Midnight cried out in pain at the two deep wounds he had just received, dropping the amulet, which was now careening down to the cave floor. He lost his concentration, falling to the cave floor as the dragon sent an inferno down below him to intercept. Midnight looked at the bag full of gold and the delicate silver amulet falling toward the inferno and knew he was only going to be able to save one of them, but for this mercenary, there was only one choice.

He was stalling. Pegasi uncomfortable with flying would normally start to panic and fight gravity for dear life, but experienced flyers knew better. Midnight accelerated downward, grabbing the amulet and pulling up in one fluid motion, leveling out just above the flames threatening to roast him. The saddlebag was not so fortunate, turning to ashes in the blink of an eye.

This dragon was determined not to let Midnight go, and unfortunately for the pony, he had no idea how fast a dragon could fly. Steeling himself, Midnight launched himself toward the stone at the other end of the cave, soaring over the dragon's head. He quickly flipped over a hundred and eighty degrees, landing on the wall with his hooves. Mustering as much strength as he had, he sprang off of the wall and gave a mighty flap of his wings, aiming straight for the dragon's head, the dragon having a hard time following his movements. Just before contact, Midnight flipped around once again, and delivered a powerful buck to the dragon's head. Midnight hovered there for an agonizing few seconds, fearing nothing had happened. Then the impossible, the dragon's eyes rolled up in its head and fell over unconscious.

Midnight landed, panting but satisfied, adrenaline coursing through his veins, numbing the pain of the wounds. But even if he couldn't feel them, he wasn't dense, and the growing sanguine pool beneath him made it all too clear that these wounds would need to be treated, fast. His eyes fell upon the glowing, molten metal in the treasure trove, and upon a large steel shield. He picked up the shield and tossed it into the blazing hot metal. He pulled the steel away by the cool handle after a short wait, the shield glowing red hot and the gold on it having been cooled by the colder metal, once again solid. Gritting his teeth and suppressing a yell of pain, he pressed his wounds against the scalding surface, one spot at a time, cauterizing the wounds.

With one final look to the knocked out dragon, Midnight took off, locket in tow. Midnight arrived at the client's residence in Cloudsdale several days later.

The client was a mare with a pink coat and a mint green mane. She insisted Midnight come in and get something to eat. Not having eaten in half a week and not one to pass up a free meal, he accepted. When she got a closer look at the stallion, she was shocked and offered to take him to a hospital. He declined, insisting that the food and his agreed upon sum was enough. He hated hospitals.

As he was eating a wonderful carrot salad, the mare opened the locket, revealing a picture of a smiling alice blue filly with an azure mane and sapphire eyes, with a cutie mark of a white snowflake within a blue water drop. An engraving on the other inner half read

“Happy Birthday Mommy
Love, the Best Weathermare Ever!”

The mare began to cry, thanking him numerous times for retrieving the locket and writing him a check.

That day, he “forgot” his payment on the table.

Several years later, Midnight found himself sitting in a Canterlot prison cell, having been accused of assault on a noble. Much to his surprise, not a typical officer came up to interrogate him, but a royal princess. Even more surprising was that this wasn't Celestia, but her sister, only having returned home two weeks before. He knew about her through the grapevine, anypony in his line of work had to be very well connected.

“So, what's the special occasion, princess?” he asked in feigned apathy.

“WE BELIEVE WE ARE THE ONES WHO SHOULD BE GIVING QUERIES, ARE WE MISTAKEN?” the alicorn boomed.

“Yeah, that's definitely that rumored 'royal canterlot voice', and the rumors don't do it any justice” he thought, his ears ringing. He had a splitting headache already, and it had been less than five seconds. And then there were the unnecessary plurals, not to mention being stuck in a small room so the sound didn't dissipate much. This was going to be a long night. “Fine, ask away, your highness,” he replied, bracing himself.

“WE HAVE BEEN INFORMED THAT YOU STRUCK A PONY SEVERAL TIMES AND BROKE THREE BONES IN THE PROCESS” she stated.

“Stuck up conniving jerk had it coming” he said plainly, wanting nothing more than to devour a bottle of ibuprofen. Yes, definitely going to be a long night.

“HOW SO?”

“Just two words, thank Celestia” he thought. “The scumbag was extorting from my client,” he began, “and so he hired me to get him to stop. At first I busted in and tried to scare him straight, these rich noble types usually have spines made of jelly. No offense.” he said, immediately regretting uttering something that required a reply.

Luna nodded understandingly, answering “NONE TAKEN FOR THE MOMENT, BUT BE WARY TO WATCH THY TONGUE, LEST THOU MISTAKENLY ANGER US.”

“Just send me to the moon already, at least it's quiet there,” he thought. “Anyway, the sadist just starts laughing and burns a check and a proof of payment right in front of me, saying that my client must have forgotten his payment that day so he couldn't possibly let him off the hook, and was late and was going to charge interest.”

“WHAT DID YOU DO?” Luna inquired, now a little revolted at the noble's behavior.

“I broke three of his bones, grabbed a bag of the swindler's bits, took off out the window and tried to duck into a shadowed ally, and promptly crashed into a meandering mailmare, attracting the attention of every guard in a quarter mile” he grumbled.

“DO YOU REGRET THIS?”

“Yeah, nopony's ever been able to blindside me before, let alone accidentally. It's downright embarrassing.”

“WE MEANT YOUR ACTIONS AGAINST THE NOBLE.”

“Not a damn bit. Listen, princess, I have every respect for what your sister does, and I'm guessing you're the same way. I'm sure you and your high and mighty guard are just fine for most of the garbage that happens. Heck, I'd say that you keep things almost creepily peaceful. But there are some cases where playing nice isn't enough, so you have to trick or bludgeon your way through it. This noblepony had no record of his crimes, and was freely taking away pony's livelihoods. My client couldn't go to law enforcement because nopony would be able to pin a bloody thing on him, so he came to me, because I'm willing to do whatever is necessary to protect my clients.”

Luna flashed a devilish grin. “IT IS FUNNY YOU MENTIONED THE GUARD, YOU SEE, WE ARE LOOKING FOR PONIES OF A CERTAIN KIND TO JOIN OUR LUNAR GUARD”

“So Celestia and you want-”

“THAT WE WAS SINGULAR,” the blue demigoddess interrupted. “WE ARE LOOKING TO RECREATE OUR GUARD, A FORCE ONLY SEEN IN THE CORNER OF THE PUBLIC'S EYE, NEVER IN FOCUS, TO PROTECT EQUESTRIA FROM THE SHADOWS BY LESS CONVENTIONAL MEANS.”

After the concussion of the princess's booming voice wore off, Midnight found himself interested “And you thought of me?”

“WE BELIEVE THE TERM THESE DAYS IS 'YOUR NAME CROSSED OUR DESK', AND YOU CAUGHT OUR ATTENTION. WE HAVE RECORDS OF YOUR PAST ACTIVITIES AND FOUND THEM INTERESTING.”

“Uh huh. So, how long a jail sentence would I be looking at if I don't accept?”

“FROM THESE RECORDS, LIKELY SOMEWHERE BETWEEN SEVENTY TWO AND THREE HUNDRED AND SEVEN YEARS,” Luna answered in a tone that, if it hadn't been so loud, would probably have been teasing.

Midnight shrugged. “Okay, Princess, you've got yourself a guard,” he said matter of factly, secretly wondereing if the guards would be issued hearing aids.

He never regretted it. Well, except for the first few months of the Royal Canterlot Voice.

The hour had passed and the Lunar Guard was assembled and ready. Luna, Maria, and Midnight were approaching the center of the marshes under cover of Maria's invisibility spell. The marsh was putrid and foul, rotting plants and leaves in the water giving it a nasty odor. Say what you like about Everfree, it never had this kind of stench. Midnight was a little wary of this situation, it felt too direct. “Is it just the three of us, Princess?” he whispered.

Luna made some gesture, but nopony would ever know what it was. “No, we'll get another three,” she whispered. Maria whispered “You're getting all cryptic again, Luna.”

“I don't see anypony” the captain whispered back. Luna was glaring at him, but of course that was lost on him. Maria spoke up. “Of course you don't see anypony, we're invisible! That's kind of the point.”

“Quiet!” the princess snapped. There were four weaknesses to Maria's invisibility. First, nopony could cast a spell while invisible or the spell would break, with the exception of Maria, who could levitate and use the invisibility spell. Second, if you touch anypony, the spell will show a silver shimmer glowing brightly like a full moon on the surface of a rippling pond for five to eight seconds, limiting its usefulness in combat to first contact only. Third, it didn't turn substances that came into contact with the invisible pony invisible, as Luna had found out the day she met Maria. Fourth, and most importantly, it did not mean that nopony could hear you!

There in the center was a giant tree, its bark washed away, its wood rotten, changelings swarming all around it. The three of them circled around it, noticing a hole on the other side. “I'll bet you this is it,” Midnight suggested.

“I think you're right. Maria, stay close, when we need to leave I'll signal you and you recast your spell on us and round up the rest of the Lunar Guard. Retreat is always an option, but that's my decision to make. Midnight, stay out of sight, don't attack unless I signal you to or you have a clear opening.” she ordered.

Luna's horn glowed and suddenly, a black mist swirled around, blanketing the tree and everything in and the central area in blackest night. For the Lunar Guard, this was a signal. All across the forest, changelings began disappearing, snuffed out before they even knew what happened, let alone could sound an alarm.

Within the hollow of the tree, Luna spotted her: the changeling queen who had dared to attack her people, to have her assassinated, to impersonate royalty, and worst of all, to harm her sister. This was personal.

Queen Chrysallis was somehow not surprised when her vision snapped to black. “So, it looks like Cocoon failed me as well. Quite an unlucky day.” She did not turn to look for her foe, she knew that such an action was futile in such darkness. “Tell me, what happened to my assassin? Did you kill him?”

Luna's voice rang out in all direction. “He isn't dead, but he isn't among the living anymore if that's what your asking. If I win, you may end up joining him.” The demigoddess of the moon smirked in the blackness. She was calm, despite her anger, allowing the queen to continue to talk. An opponent is much easier to outsmart if they are not thinking clearly.

Fear was a funny thing. It could be used to send an opponent into a defenseless panic, or it could send your loved ones running from you in terror. It was used by both good and evil, in the forms of both deterrence and terrorism. It was a survival instinct, a sensation known to all creatures of any remote level of intelligence, indicating a danger, a thing to be avoided. Luna had learned just recently that it could even be used for enjoyment, that there was a certain joy to be scared, but know that you are safe. Here, though, it was a weapon, used to weaken the mind of a more powerful foe. Whispers in the dark were a primal fear, a powerful fuel for paranoia and madness.

The Queen was infuriated. These petty taunts would normally have meant nothing, but after her failure in Canterlot she was already in a foul mood. “Show yourself, you cowardly child! Your sister could not defeat me, and neither can you!”

Luna let out a laugh that echoed almost demonically. “Tell me then, why should I simply show myself? I'd much rather do something like this” she said. A duke blue light shone directly behind the queen, landing squarely on her back before she could turn around and sending her hurtling through the rotten wood and into the open marsh. Changelings wandered aimlessly about in the darkness, searching for their prey. when suddenly three dark figures shot out of the darkness, totally unobscured, moving at an incredible pace. Chrysallis felt them as they passed right by her and called out to her swarm. “After them, the little princess is mine!” she said. The swarm took off, those in the darkness leaving, all transforming into their targets to try to keep up.

Luna grinned. “I never imagined it would be so easy.” she thought to herself. The swarm on the trio's tail was growing, all the changelings that hadn't been taken care of by the Lunar Guard already joining in hot pursuit, each shape shifting to gain speed.

Luna now undid the spell of darkness, but as soon as she did, Chrysalis was right on top of her, wearing a familiar face: Celestia. “I will enjoy watching Celestia's face as I toss your cold and lifeless corpse at her feet. To lose a sister after just getting her back such a short time ago... yes, that will be delightful. And look at you, about to be drowned in a swamp by the very person to banish you for a thousand years,” she shrieked, a vile grin running across such a kind and loving face.

Luna moved her neck towards her right shoulder. A moment after she did so, Queen Chrysallis felt as if she had been hit by a falling house, sending her bouncing along the water. Luna took to the air, moving her right hoof behind her head and then pointing it at her foe. A blinding flash of white light blasted through the trees, striking the parasitic creature with a literally thunderous boom.

Several miles away, Fletch was grinning, sitting high up in the air on a dark cloud with an astronomical instrument. “Twelve miles away, perfect night vision, and a gyroscopically stable telescope? You've made my job too easy, your highness,” he laughed to himself.

Midnight stood beside Luna, shimmering as Maria's spell recoiled at the contact. “Cutting it a bit close there, Princess. What now?” he asked. Luna frowned. “Now,” she answered, “I finish this.”

A short distance away, the three figures were about to be caught, when suddenly they turned into smoke. Their pursuers, continuously copying their form, screamed in a high pitch chourus of shock as they, too, became nothing more than a clouds of dark energy, all flowing together into one point: Luna.

Chrysallis' eyes widened in shock as her entire swarm disappeared before her eyes. “What did you do?!” she screamed, flying toward the the alicorn in a blind fury. Before she could reach, Luna blasted her with a beam of cyan magic, sending her flying back into the dead and hollow tree.

Luna coursed with a dark magic. “I used a spell a monster devised not long ago. Three magical creatures in the forms of dark pegasi with incredible speed, whose sole purpose was to draw somepony away from the rest, made from the caster's own magic, retaining a certain amount of sapience and sentience. Only the most loyal of beings could resist their temptations for long, but I never expected you to encourage their pursuit. And once your changelings transformed into them, they too became tied to my magic. You made it all the easier, willing to drive your allies away, while mine were by my side the whole time.”

The wounded, parasitic queen growled defiantly, unable to move. “If that's so, then you have thousands of changelings screaming in your mind! Very soon now, you will belong to me.”

Luna shook her head. “No, I'm afraid I'm quite used to mental battles, I have had a thousand years to practice with an evil greater than this, and I don't plan to keep them here for very long. Maria, if you would.” she said, disappearing from sight seconds later.

Luna arrived back where she had been standing before, the dead and dying grass overlooking a great chasm. As she stood on the precipice, a trio of deep growls were heard. The princess looked at the source. “Now now, Cerberus, it is only me.” she said to the gargantuan beast. He could sense the evil in her, as he had hours earlier, only now a thousand fold. “Open the gate now, please,” she said, flying up and patting him on the heads. The dog stepped into the chasm, and cracked open the great skeletal gate, green flames licking through the cracks.

Luna concentrated her magic, giving form to the changelings as she had with the Shadowbolts, using their own magic to fuel the spell as they went screaming but alive down into Tartarus. Luna tossed a large bag of bits down into the gate as the great dog took hold of the giant metal rings and pulled the gate closed. “See you in hell” the demigoddess said, her magic back to normal, flying back towards Canterlot.

It was dusk, an orange glow painting the sky as Celestia's sun lowered to the ground. Luna took that as her queue. She felt her connection with her beautiful silver orb, her prison, and flew higher, hefting the moon into the sky and sending it on its slow nightly course through the heavens.

Luna knew at this point what time it was, she had missed the wedding. She pouted as Fletch flew up to her.

“Miss the wedding?” Luna nodded. “More important business?” Luna nodded again. Fletch flew up just a little bit and looked towards the city. “I think the reception is just beginning,” he said.

Luna squealed a bit. “Great work, owl eye!” she said, giving him a quick hug and flying off toward the castle, teleporting a ways every so often to get a boost. Fletch chuckled and returned to the castle himself, content to wait in the shadows. He didn't like crowds, anyway.

Luna descended to the crowd as she spotted her sister, landing next to her with a smile. “Hello everypony! Did I miss anything?”

Epilogue: Auspicious Eventide

It had been quite a party. Of course, that was to be expected when a certain pink pony was given charge of the whole event. Luna was just glad she had managed to go through the event without any world changing faux pas. As the celebration died down, Luna excused herself. She had a visit to make.

Luna walked over to the balcony and overlooked her kingdom. It was calm and dark, a beautiful night. She looked down at the city. There were holes in buildings and streets, but aside from a small lingering scent of smoke, any fires of that day had been put out, the city revealing its gentler hues in the starlight.

The princess turned her gaze upon the swamp where the last of the changelings was. She scowled, but her task was not quite complete. She had one final message to send. With a glow of her horn, she sent herself into the dreams of her foe.

The dream was a nightmare, even before Luna's arrival. She found herself in Canterlot, witnessing the dream play out. The queen sat there in the chapel as the sun began to grow in the sky, expanding ever closer, setting fire to the realm as the queen recoiled at the heat. The sun bulged and swelled, changing colors in until it was a massive magenta wall, colliding with her and banishing her to the darkness, which only grew darker as Luna heard her own laugh echo through the darkness, as the changelings screamed in terror, just as they did when Luna had sealed them within herself.

Normally this would be when the Queen woke up, but Luna had a message to pass on. Changing her dream's form, she took on the image of her monstrous self: Nightmare Moon. Even upon the moon, this monster had sometimes found the opportunity to prey upon the thoughts and dreams of others as her namesake implied, twisting them in her own sadistic way as Luna watched on helplessly. Even though that dark presence was destroyed now, the form remained a powerful and frightful symbol to every intelligent creature.

The nightmare began as a sweet voice called out. “Oh look how the mighty have fallen. Alone in the world, your entire race banished to a realm of wickedness. Chrysalis, queen of the muck and the rot. A pity your subjects shall never return. Without them, you could not have stopped the Elements of Harmony from sealing you away, and never will be able to stop them again. All vengeance has been denied to you.”

The defeated form shook in terror. “Are you here to gloat, monster?” she squeaked. It was hard to put up a front when one was unaccustomed to lucid dreaming.

The nightmare replied in a temptress' voice, putting on a false sympathy. “Gloat? Why would I do that? No, I'm here to offer you a choice. You may remain here, dead in the land of the living, an empty shell of your former self. Or, you may join your kin and live in the land of the dead. I have been generous, and Charon's toll awaits you upon the dead grasses above the gate. I have seen that Cerberus will allow you a one way ticket into that realm. The choice is yours.”

Luna then ended her connection, finding herself lying down upon the balcony. Chrysalis would wake up with a start now, possibly screaming. Even for a loveless creature such as that, this day's events must have taken their toll.

The princess glanced down. The reception was over and everypony had gone home, silence once again filling the air. Even after all this turmoil and chaos, everything was back to normal, as if nothing had happened at all. Luna decided to spend the rest of the evening reading a book, she still had history to learn, and to be as effective a ruler as her sister, she would have to become as well versed as a history professor, as Celestia had been there at the center of it all for a thousand years whilst Luna had existed in an unwilling ignorance.

Luna walked down toward her room, about to enter when Midnight walked up to her. “Pardon me, princess, but would you mind coming with me?” he asked. The princess nodded and walked beside the captain. She may as well, anyway; she could not allow herself sleep until she lowered the moon in several hours. Sure she had been tempted to ask Celestia to do it for her, but as far as everypony else knew, Luna had been the one who had not done anything all day, and this was a tale she was not sure she wanted anypony but Celestia to know. She would have to regale her sister tomorrow at supper.

Midnight led her to an unassuming room and opened the door. There inside was a brightly lit room with streamers and a cake. “Hi Luna!” a voice yelled right next to her, startling Luna and making her jump. “Oops! Sorry!” Maria replied, turning visible once again. She was not wearing her armor, revealing her natural chestnut coat and cyan mane, but her eyes remained forever golden and draconic. A cutie mark of an eye made of a dashed line decorated her flank.

Luna looked about room the rapidly, still a little caught off guard. “What is this? I don't even. When did you-”

“I was stealing a piece of cake when a pink pony called Pinkie caught up to me. We talked a bit and decided we'd arrange a small victory party” she giggled.

Several questions popped into Luna's head all at once. First off, how Maria had gotten caught? It wasn't as if she could be heard in that tumult. Second, Pinkie Pie and Maria Breeze together? The mere idea of those two hyperactive ponies in the same room sent shivers down her spine. Third, just when the hay did they have time to set this all up? Pinkie never left a party and her train left for Ponyville not too long after! Of course, her mind soon relented and accepted that if Pinkie was involved, it was best not to ask questions, and if there was a party being planned anywhere near that pony, she would somehow be able to sense it.

Luna looked to her captain. “Victory celebrations are good for morale, your highness, even with this lot,” Midnight stated.

The princess shrugged and smiled. “I guess I can go to one more party.”

The celebration lasted several hours. Maria and Fletch played a game of checkers, in which the unicorn had won a crushing victory, and then Fletch had won a game of darts against her. Even though she had magic and he was using his teeth he had managed to easily beat her. When the party ended, the two were still in the middle of a tie-breaker staring contest.

Midnight had been regaling the guard with some old stories from his mercenary days, including a particularly funny story about when he had to ditch a tail and wound up tricking him into going into an Ursa's den. Of course he had a little trouble with the homophone, which confused some ponies for a little bit as to why he would want to lose his tail.

The evening ended and Luna saw that it was once again time to lower the moon. Reaching out to it, she tucked it gently beneath the horizon as Celestia's sun rose once again.

Luna was exhausted. Parties, assassination attempts, powerful and exhaustive spells, lots of travel, dueling with a creature able to best the goddess of the sun herself, and damning an entire race of wicked creatures to Tartarus. Not bad for four hours of sleep.

The princess of the night tucked herself in for the morning, falling asleep once more and taking her well deserved rest.

Eight hours later, Fletch heard an alarm clock go off, and a loud BANG shortly after coming from princess Luna's chambers. He opened the door and poked his head in, seeing the princess pointing her horn at a gently smoking spot with a burnt out wire leading up to it. “Is everything okay, your highness?” he asked.

The princess glared at him out of the corner of her eye. “From now on”, she growled sleepily as she lowered her horn and rested her head on her pillow, “the guard wakes us up personally.” Fletch bowed his head and ducked out, closing the door behind him as the ruler of night drifted off to slumber once again.