72

Outside, the moon was raised to its highest tonight.  The mere presence was haunting, like the eerie pause that marked the interlude between furious battles. It's pale light glazed through the window with a fuzzy white cascading on the hard floors inside. The two regal sisters, who reign the whole of Equestria, stared at the massive doors that should abruptly swing open anytime in the night. Luna broke their weighted gazes, her tone speaking more of worry than urgency.

"Dear sister, I understand your concerns about tonight, by why with thee requesting such little help on the matter? We could've gained some help with this mass panic, and you would sleep in relative peace."

"All of the other princesses have gained their own problems to deal with. I don't blame them. And if this weapon is as worse as they claim, it's best for us to be the only ones to be affected."

The princesses stood high on their hooves, wings arched and heads straight forward. This was the supposed night, the night when everything that the anonymous pony group, The Flames, said that their greatest weapon will be here. It was such an enormous threat to have been sent.  It caused news to erupt into Equestria like numerous sonic rainbooms. Their mail was suddenly crammed with voices of their panicked subjects. Normal life was desperately urged to continue, yet news of the outrageous threat even reached The Crystal Empire. Princess Celestia can vividly remember when the first piece of "prophecy" suddenly floated in. It was written with the best cursive, graceful with a poetic feel all through out, yet, it felt simplified with a clear message in her head. Others will join us, and we all will agree that we should remove you and your sister. Then we'll go to the other princesses. Maybe they'll join us. The message was so taunting, so evil, the second thing she did was show it to her sister, Princess Luna. Soon after, Twilight sent other letters too. She needed help handling the chaos in Ponyville, yet, Canterlot wasn't any better. Then there was tonight.

The silence vanished when Luna turned her ear towards the doors. Multiple hooves clacked together with the muffled voices of other ponies were heard from the other side. A solid banging sound echoed cleanly across the halls, a slow thud that periodically disrupted the shouts. Luna raised her wings, horn glowing, until Celestia's command rang out to the two guards at the doors.

"OPEN the gates!"

"Sister, what are you-"

Two pony guards slumbered slowly to the princesses. One was carrying a pony with a slumped look and painful look on the eyes. The other bowed respectfully, removing his helmet to meet the princesses' gaze.

"Your royal highness. I regret to inform you of an incident that happened just recently. Two guards near the library were attacked. One guard fled, and one was horribly injured."

The other pony gently set down the guard to the ground. The guard looked up, and grunted as he tried to stand. Weakly, he moaned his testimony.

"He ran, he was scared of somethin' but I don't know. I was tired, you see, and then I saw these weird cloud things, then I just passed out. Hurt even."

"Who attacked you?" asked Celestia.

"Don't know. But the guard, the one who ran, his name was. . .was. . . Something really cool! Like 'Spinning' or 'Slimy' Arrow. But he just ran away!"

"Luna, go with the other guard and find who did this. I'll stand here and get a medic pony to tend to him."

"But sister! Are you strong enough to handle this monster?"

"The guards outside will need your help, just in case it happens again."

"But how about YOU? It might just get every pony and-"

A shriek was heard from outside. The one guard immediately galloped towards the source. Luna, unable to argue any longer, took flight. She soared high, darting her eyes from every piece of landscape. When she saw a little earth pony cradled to herself, a small rage kindled at how close she is in finding the dangerous piece of weapon. And judging by the condition of the little pony, she was close.

Luna landed alongside the terrified pony, putting a gentle hoof on her shoulder. The guard stood tall, snarling at the surroundings as if to challenge an invisible beast. Luna lowered her head,  remembering Twilight's advice to speak softly.

"Do speak, and tell us what happened."

The earth pony was a pale light color, with odd gray smudges spread across her fur. Her mane was shriveled, a black-brown color. Her eyes were yellow, and the cutie mark was warped.

"I'm sick. I ran away and I'm sick. I hate it, I just want to get rid of it. It's gonna come, and you princesses are in danger!"

"What's gonna come? Who did you run from?"

The pony fumbled to the ground. Her sickly eyes were welling with tears. Her voice was meek now.

"Just. . .help me. Protect your sister."

"Just tell me, protect my sister from whom?"

Fear dawned on Luna as much as mere shock. The yellow eyes turned into slits. Smoky clouds swallowed every pony in the vicinity. Luna's senses were alarmed as lightning crackled once and two shrieks were heard. One was Celestia's. Her horn lit up with defensive magic. The sickly pony was cloaked in the smoke as she stood unnaturally tall with a shadow of a horn and flared wings appeared for briefly a moment.

"From me."