Darkest Shadows

Celestia couldn’t remember much. Her mind was fuzzy and her vision blurry. There was something … she was supposed to be doing. Raise the sun? No, that couldn’t be right, could it? Wait, she was supposed to raise the sun, but after over a thousand years of doing so, she could practically do it in her sleep. It was something else, something related…

It must not have been urgent. The time hadn’t come to raise the sun yet, anyway; the moon was still casting light through her window. She thought she’d had the curtains drawn. In fact, she was sure she’d done it for some specific reason. Did she need to get up early in the morning? Perhaps she should close the curtains…

Except… her magic didn’t change anything when she reached out. She tried to focus her vision, and grew increasingly frustrated the longer she tried. Eventually, the blue blob became a distant blue glow, with more distinct shapes nearer, some emanating glows of their own. Even the solid shapes had soft edges to them still, and refused to become any clearer. Though she tried to move her head to get another perspective, she found that she couldn’t. That probably would have alarmed her normally, but she couldn't imagine why…

There were figures moving around her, and she could make out some details of those closer to her. They were definitely pony-shaped, though something seemed like it was off about the wings on one. Perhaps it was just her vision betraying her, or some combination of that and the armor the individual seemed to be wearing. The other was closer, and she could make out more details on her, even identifying the individual. It was Thistleback, Director of her Ministry. Right, Thistleback had requested to meet with her about an urgent concern. That must be what this was about, but why was she immobilized? It was hard to focus again. Maybe she should just trust that Thistleback had things in hoof…

Darkest Shadows
Part the Tenth: Longest Night II

“That’s a heavy accusation to level,” Beryl addressed Malthus confrontationally. “Do you have any proof to back it up?”

“Proof?” Malthus snorted. “None beyond what I’ve already told you. She’s too careful for that, obviously, if she was able to find her way to headship of the Ministry without being discovered for years. Celestia’s disappearance, now, in the manner it occurred, is proof enough. I had thought that she was working with Shadowmere, given that I’d been imprisoned in one of your tesseracts,” Malthus said, looking to the other immortal, who dismissed Daybreak now that they were no longer trying to kill each other, “But it seems she was working alone, or else with others who serve Nightmare Moon. They managed to steal artifacts from you, then?”

“Yes,” Shadowmere begrudgingly admitted, “They took anything that could find them, and other relics to obscure themselves. They took the Eye of Larghast as well.”

“If I had the Eye, do you think I would have refrained from using it in our duel?” Malthus asked, his lips curling into a snarl. “Not that it would have been much of a duel then.”

“I don’t know what history the two of you have,” Beryl interjected before Shadowmere could make a reply and set the two of them beheading each other again, “But clearly Thistleback, or whoever is behind this, knew about it and counted on pitting the two of you off against each other. If we want to deal with them and recover Celestia, we can’t be at each other’s throats.”

“I suppose you are correct, though I did not bear any ill will against you prior to this, Malthus,” Shadowmere said as he composed himself, though his last statement seemed to have the opposite effect on Malthus, whose brow furrowed angrily. “I do wish to know how they unsealed the Perpendicularity Gate, though.”

“I have… lost time these past few months,” Malthus admitted, taking a deep breath to calm himself. “My mind may have been compromised. In truth, I first thought it was my memory failing due to the decay of extreme age; then that it was you, seeking to break my barriers in preparation of my imprisonment. Now I see they must have been delving my memories, seeking how to access your lair in a way that would point to me.”

“Could… could Thistleback also be a diversion?” Beryl asked, hoping it was true, and the two immortals looked at her skeptically. “What if this is another instance of pointing ponies with the power to save Celestia against each other, delaying us from reaching her?”

“Berry is correct,” Shadowmere admitted, though Malthus harrumphed. “We must be certain, or at least have stronger evidence that Thistleback is the culprit, lest we waste more time. Attempting to locate her in a manner even the Ministry Director would not have the knowledge to ward against should be evidence enough. We will need to return to Canterlot for that, unless you’ve brought sufficient supplies with you?”

“I have not. My purpose here was to hunt you,” Malthus replied, before trotting over and retrieving his ragged cloak. “I can have us in Canterlot in minutes. Where is your lair?”

“My home has been compromised,” Shadowmere countered, “And your quarters in Canterlot Castle will not do. Beryl’s apartment will serve us best.”

“Of course,” Malthus chuckled dryly as he pulled the cloak over his form and refastened it. “Still no trust. Well then, Ministry Agent, what is the address?”

“805 Dewdrop Lane, Apartment 56B,” Beryl Fields supplied the requested information.

Malthus rubbed his chin with a hoof and his eyes took on a thoughtful look for a few minutes.

“Okay, this way,” he said, tromping off through the sand in the direction of the nearest beach house.

This house, like the one Shadowmere and Berry had emerged from, was vacant, and Malthus kicked in the front door. His horn lit up, providing a red glow to illuminate the darkened vacation home as he led the way. He paused when he came to a bathroom and shut the door with the trio still standing outside.

“Maintain a link with me until we’ve all passed completely through each door,” he commanded, and Beryl reached forward and placed a hoof on his cloaked back.

Giving a nod, Malthus reached for the door handle with his magic, which began to glow white, and turned it. As the door swung open, it revealed on the other side not the quaint bathroom they had glimpsed before, with its tropical theming, but the skyline of Trottingham. Malthus led the way through, Berry and Shadowmere trailing behind as they stepped out onto the balcony surrounding the top of a high tower. As soon as the door shut, they headed back through it, Malthus’s magic glowing red again, and they entered the tower. A staircase spiraled downward until they reached the exit at the bottom, where Malthus used his white magic.

They passed through onto the street of a desert town. As they trotted down the line of shops, they could hear cries of panic in the distance, order breaking down the longer the unnatural night dragged on. Through another shop’s front door, Malthus led them into a hotel hallway, down a floor, and through another room’s door to Manehattan’s central square. Here police were trying to corral ponies who had come to observe the summer solstice out of the area. Malthus kept them moving, crossing the square and stepping through another door.

The pattern continued as they jaunted around the world, never spending more than a minute or two in each location. They passed through empty streets, buzzing hospitals, panicky crowds, abandoned monuments, and scattered houses. Anywhere that had a door, they could move through. They even passed through Canterlot once, but Malthus didn’t turn aside, and the answer why eventually became clear. Even bouncing across the four corners of the planet, they still emerged from the door across from Berry’s apartment quicker than it would have taken to walk here.

Berry could feel Malthus’s eyes roving over the invisible wards protecting her front door as she produced a key and undid the entirely mundane lock. Within was not much to look at; Berry hadn’t done much to adorn her home and had become accustomed to a fairly spartan lifestyle. Anything she needed for her work and now for her double life of hunting monsters with Shadowmere, she kept out of sight of the front door. Leading the others into the shared kitchen/dining/living space, Beryl trotted over to a closet and retrieved a stash of magical materials kept on the top shelf.

Combined with some items from the kitchen, and others she kept in her bedroom, they were able to perform several rituals that should have been able to locate Thistleback. However, as with Celestia, they were unsuccessful. In fact, in the methods that were the same, they were unsuccessful in the exact same way. Beryl still didn’t want to believe it, but it seemed the Director of the Ministry truly was the traitor who had seized Celestia to pave the way for Nightmare Moon. They were near each other, it seemed, if they were being hidden by the same artifacts stolen from Shadowmere’s hideout. But how to find where they were?

***

Beryl Fields, dressed again in her Ministry uniform, approached the entrance to her official workplace. As she did so, several uniformed pegasi flew out of the mountain’s face, more agents headed off on urgent business. Though the Ministry had been compromised with Thistleback’s betrayal, Shadowmere and Malthus had both agreed it was the best resource they had on hoof that could help them locate Celestia and the director. Shadowmere had an extensive relic collection, and though they hadn’t seen it in his quarters, Malthus mentioned a collection of his own that had also been pilfered to prevent tracking down the missing princess. However, the two immortals hadn’t gathered every powerful magical relic in Equestria. The Ministry had gathered many dangerous and powerful artifacts in its millennium of operation, and Shadowmere and Malthus had identified a hooffull that could overcome whatever was hiding Celestia and Thistleback. If the director had been as thorough here as she had with their stashes, they would likely be missing, but they felt there was a chance that some had slipped under her notice because their locating abilities were unknown to the Ministry. So, that was where Beryl would look.

“Berry, you made it!” a security mare greeted her excitedly as she trotted into the Ministry’s entrance.

“I did, finally,” Beryl replied. The runed slate meant to summon her to the Ministry in case of emergency had been destroyed by Auzischell while she and Shadowmere had slumbered, but the emergency had been great enough that the Ministry had called and left several messages (coded, of course) on the phone in her apartment when she’d failed to respond to the summons.

“We could sure use your help,” the mare said as she glanced in the direction of the exit where her companion was now raising a shield, recalling the pegasus agents’ hasty departure. The security mare hastily lowered her own shield, granting Berry access and urging her to continue without further delay.

The atrium was in a complete frenzy when Beryl entered. Agents, normally composed, darted around wildly, trading reports, levitating multiple crystal balls, or shouting into speaking stones. The massive notice boards on the far wall told an alarming story. The monthly incident count was over a thousand, and the other board, intended for rotating notices, had been taken over entirely by an urgent announcement with the heading:

‘SELENE’ CRISIS ONGOING
THREAT LEVEL: DISCORDIA

What followed was a brief description of what was known, primarily that Celestia had vanished and that the moon remained in the night sky despite the fact that it was approaching midday, but strangely no mention of Nightmare Moon. The description also mentioned a “monster surge,” which wasn’t difficult to figure out the meaning of; the list of open incidents that scrolled at the bottom of the board, along with the total count, a number in the hundreds and rising.

“Agent Beryl Fields!” an agent with a clerical pin on his uniform pocket called out as Beryl tried to make her way through the chaos, “Take these cases!”

“Sorry, I’m on special orders from the deputy director,” she lied as she avoided the files the agent pulled from his stack of reports and levitated her way.

Beryl quickened her pace on her way to her office, trying to avoid being waylaid by any other agents who would attempt to rope her into dealing with the ongoing crisis. Well… she was dealing with the ongoing crisis, but not on official Ministry business, and she didn’t need any other agents getting in the way. When she reached her office, she used the crystal on her desk to search the Ministry’s records for the relics Malthus and Shadowmere had mentioned. She would still have to falsify the authorization to remove them from the Artifact Repository, but first she needed to verify that they were here. She wasn’t terribly surprised to find that none of the artifacts were found by her searches. If there was anything she’d learned over the past year, however, it was that that didn’t necessarily mean they weren’t at the Ministry. Maybe they truly weren’t, but maybe they were kept somewhere secret, some analogue to the Deep Archives. That would be difficult to locate, but perhaps with Director Thistleback absent, there was a way she could—

“Agent Beryl Fields!” Siren’s Song exclaimed as he entered her office unannounced. “What do you think you’re doing here in your office, claiming to be on ‘special orders’ from me, rather than assisting the Ministry! As if I didn’t have enough headaches to deal with at the moment!”

Beryl realized she wouldn’t have much time to come up with an excuse or explain herself. It occurred to her that Deputy Director Siren’s Song might be able to help her, but could she trust him? Some of the same worries Malthus had were running through her mind, that Thistleback wasn’t the only member of the Ministry who’d turned traitor. Siren’s Song was part of the Knights of Dawn, but though their intentions seemed just, they also followed someone impersonating Shadowmere who she did not know the intentions of. At the conclusion of the split second in which these thoughts ran through her head, she decided to risk it.

“The Black Briar and I are trying to find Celestia,” Beryl said, truthfully but from an angle that Siren’s Song was likely to be receptive to. “Something is hiding her from all spells that should locate her, so I came here to find an artifact capable of breaking through, but none of them are present in the Artifact Repository.”

With an effort, Siren’s Song calmed himself.

“The Black Briar, you say?” he asked, and Beryl nodded. “I haven’t been able to contact him since this whole mess started; I suppose that explains why. I’ve assigned whatever agents I could spare to investigate Celestia’s disappearance, but I can’t spare many. Monster attacks are exploding all across Equestria, and we don’t have enough agents to contain them. And with Director Thistleback missing as well, everything falls to me.” Siren’s Song let out a heavy sigh. “If you have a lead on finding Celestia… You said that what you were looking for is not in the Artifact Repository?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Beryl said as she passed the deputy director the slip of parchment with the list of relics.

“Hmm,” Siren’s Song mused as he perused it, occasionally looking back up at Beryl, “I’m going to grant you provisional level-1 access to the Deep Archives.”

“Thank you, sir,” Beryl replied as she took back the list.

“Give me a moment to sort things, and we’ll head down to them,” Siren’s Song said as he turned toward the office door.

“You’re coming along?” Beryl asked in surprise.

“Of course,” Siren’s Song replied. “With Thistleback gone, I need to cast the spell to grant you access to the Deep Archives.”

“Of course,” Beryl replied.

Siren’s Song paused, perhaps suspicious, though he didn’t look it, before exiting her office. She gave him a few minutes to sort things (and herself to figure out how she was going to proceed with the deputy director along) before stepping out after him. As she closed her door, Siren’s Song was finishing up giving marching orders to the department chiefs and shooing away the crowd that had formed in the hallway to get his input on the ongoing crisis.

Once that was accomplished, he led Beryl down the hall to the secret entrance to the Deep Archives. There were still a few ponies who interrupted the trip to speak to Siren’s Song, but with the Ministry the hive of activity it currently was, what was surprising was that it didn’t happen more. They still managed to slip through the wall to the elevator without being seen and descended to the entrance of the Deep Archives.

“Deputy Director, Agent Fields,” Boris addressed them as they entered his antechamber. He seemed more on edge than the previous times Berry had visited the Deep Archives, a harried expression on his face and a tenseness in his body that was completely at odds with the laid-back persona the elderly griffin usually assumed. Rather than lounging behind his desk with his hindpaws up upon it, he was sitting bolt upright in his chair. It was understandable given the crisis currently facing Equestria and the Ministry. “Are you here to check in on the teams scouring the Archives?”

“No, we need access to the Level-1 archives, Boris,” Siren’s Song said authoritatively.

“Right away,” Boris complied, some relief entering his voice and expression as he rose from his seat and stepped toward the vault door. “I hope this means you’ve discovered how to deal with the ongoing … unpleasantness.”

“I hope so, soon,” Siren’s Song answered as he stepped up to the vault door beside Boris and cast the spell that would give Beryl level-1 access.

“Good, good,” Boris said, though his voice betrayed a bit of uneasiness that had returned at the deputy director’s admission that they weren’t yet certain how to counteract Nightmare Moon’s return.

The elderly griffin produced the key ring Berry had seen him use before, though this time rather than slotting a key into one of the heavy door’s locks, he meticulously arranged the keys upon it until the ring emanated a slight reverse glow, seeming to suck in light rather than project it, for a moment until he pulled the keyring apart into two near-identical versions of itself. Selecting one key from each, he slotted them into two hidden locks upon the vault door’s surface. Boris paused for a moment, considering or remembering, before touching a series of runes on the door and adjusting several pins in their brackets. Finally, he grasped both keys, which required him to stretch his forelimbs to their limit, and turned them simultaneously. Clanks sounded from the door’s mechanisms as they disengaged, and Boris grabbed a handle and pulled the heavy door open. Through the opening the door slowly revealed, Beryl could see a vast cavern filled with evenly spaced pedestals, each bearing some arcane artifact, the area illuminated by magical lights on the ceiling that sprang to life in concentric rings radiating from the door.

“The Level-1 archives are seldom accessed, of course, but I still remember how to do it,” Boris said, pride overcoming his anxiety as Siren’s Song strode toward the open door. “Of course, it probably helped that I had to open them just the other day for the di—”

Magical energy exploded from the portal in a cacophonous blast the moment that Siren’s Song stepped through. Beryl witnessed the deputy director flash brilliantly, his body seeming to be made entirely of light, for just a moment before the blast struck her as well. Protective wards around her flared to life, keeping her from being consumed, but she was still thrown backwards, jarring her hip as it bounced off the corner of Boris’s desk. The protective wards common to the Ministry were overcome or seemed to do nothing, but those she’d placed herself, learned from Shadowmere or the contents of his library, held up (for the most part). Though she was bruised from her tumble, she was intact apart from some singed hair in her mane and tail, evident by the acrid smell that hung around her. As she pushed herself to her hooves, she saw Siren’s Song doing the same, similarly battered but alive. Boris was another story.

If he’d been vaporized, that would have been easier to deal with. Instead, the Keeper of the Deep Archives had been torn apart by the blast, shredded into so many small and pulpy parts that it was impossible to tell for the most part what each piece of viscera scattered in a cone from where he’d been standing had once been. The remnants had been propelled with such force that they’d torn gouges in the stone floor or splintered off bits of the griffin’s desk.

It took several seconds for Berry to contain her emotions. Not much time for a normal pony to come to terms with what had happened, but she was a Ministry agent and had been trained to deal with situations like this. The remains weren’t what bothered her, as she’d witnessed many terrible sights in her career, but the loss of Boris cut deeper than she thought it would have. She hadn’t been particularly close to the griffin—Berry didn’t have many friends in general—but Boris had always been a kind and friendly presence in this place where the Ministry kept its darkest secrets. She’d grown fond of not only seeing him here, but of the elderly griffin himself. She would miss him, and she cursed Thistleback for his loss, for it was clear to her that the traitorous director had been behind this. Though Boris’s words had been cut short by his untimely death, it was evident who he’d last opened the door to the Level-1 archives for and who had set this trap.

Meanwhile, Siren’s Song had been going through the same abbreviated, suppressed grieving process as Beryl. As Deputy Director, he’d undoubtedly known Boris longer and better than Beryl had. A slight wince for a moment, followed by a look of shame was all that betrayed it before Siren’s Song started to take a deep breath, thought better of it given what hung in the air, and shook his head before turning to face Berry.

“You have additional wards acquired through your non-Ministry activities?” he asked, and Beryl nodded in confirmation. “Yes, fortunate that you did,” the deputy director said with a brief glance at what had been Boris. “It seems that whoever set this trap was intimately familiar with what wards the Ministry uses and designed this to counteract them.”

“It was Director Thistleback,” Beryl decided to divulge.

“That is a very serious accusation to level, Agent Fields,” Siren’s Song said, a grave expression on his face as he stared her down.

“Who else could have set such a trap? Boris himself was saying he let her into the Level-1 archives just the other day.”

Siren’s Song looked hesitant for a moment before squeezing his eyes shut tightly and reopening them.

“We don’t know what Boris was going to say before he died,” Siren’s Song said at last. “I don’t want to hear any more of this. Let’s find the artifacts you were looking for.”

The archives had suffered some damage from the blast, burns upon the floor, ceiling, and pedestals, but the artifacts upon the pedestals seemed, for the most part, to be untouched. The door through which Berry and Siren’s Song passed was set into a column in the center of the chamber, with pedestals in rings around it. Most were simply laid or displayed upon the pedestals, but a few, likely the more dangerous ones, were chained down. Each pedestal had a plaque upon it bearing the name of the artifact, as well as information on how it was to be used and warnings about its dangers. Not all pedestals bore artifacts, though most of those which were vacant had no plaque and had never housed one. Those that did have a missing artifact were almost universally those that they were looking for. As they went through Berry’s list, again and again they found that the artifact was not in the archive.

“How can they all be gone?” Siren’s Song asked frustratedly.

“Clearly they were taken by the same pony who ponynapped Celestia, to keep us from finding her,” Berry said.

“But so many…” Siren’s Song said as he shook his head.

“Only Director Thistleback could have removed such a large number of artifacts without raising suspicion,” Beryl broached the subject again, and though Siren’s Song’s brow furrowed in anger again, this time he didn’t immediately contradict her.

“Maybe…” he conceded after internal deliberation.

“There’s one more artifact on the list,” Berry changed the subject to let the deputy director have more time to consider his superior’s betrayal.

“Yes, but I don’t see how the Arrow of Ages is supposed to help locate Celestia. It was Guiding Light the Just’s weapon, not a locator,” Siren’s Song said.

“I have it on good authority it’s both,” Berry replied.

“The Black Briar?” Siren’s Song asked, and she nodded.

Coming to the Ministry, Berry had known there was a good possibility that Director Thistleback had cleared out any artifacts that could be used to find or hide Celestia. However, she’d hoped that the Arrow of Ages had been overlooked. The Ministry didn’t know its alternative use, according to Shadowmere, so if Thistleback didn’t have additional insight, then it might still be here. Fortunately, the spear-length arrow made of gold was still standing upright upon its pedestal. Berry reached out with her magic to take it, but Siren’s Song beat her to it, grasping it in his magic and willing it down to the size of a regular arrow so that it could be tucked away in his uniform.

“If you’re taking a relic of this level with you, I’m coming along,” the deputy director said when Beryl looked at him questioningly.

“Okay,” Beryl said, not in any position to argue, yet feeling the need to try to keep him away from Shadowmere and Malthus, “But what about running the Ministry?”

“I can deal with that. This is more important, wouldn’t you say?”

***

Siren’s Song was able to make good on his intent, though not as quickly as Berry would have liked. Celestia remained missing and she was forced to wait while the deputy director put things in order for his departure. Command of the Ministry was passed off to a fellow Knight of Dawn: Operations Chief Verdant Blades. She could be trusted with a little more information than others regarding the situation that pulled Siren’s Song away. He also informed her of the situation in the Deep Archives and the unfortunate loss of Boris. There would need to be closer guarding of the Deep Archives now that their Keeper was gone. Until a replacement was brought in, nopony could enter the Deep Archives apart from when those already inside opened the door for their side. They had also closed off the Level-0 archive upon leaving, so they had to hope nopony in the Ministry needed to retrieve any of the restricted relics while they were away.

Once Siren’s Song had prepared the Ministry for his absence, Berry had a new issue to deal with. Though she’d been informed that the Arrow of Ages could be used to find Celestia, she had no idea how she was supposed to use it to do so. That meant she needed to return to Malthus and Shadowmere and couldn’t hare off with Siren’s Song on her own. The two immortals had taken up position in a warehouse near the Ministry’s entrance, though there was no sign of them as Berry and Siren’s Song entered until they stepped out of the shadows.

“What is he doing here?” Malthus asked while he and Siren’s Song looked suspiciously at each other.

“He insisted,” Berry replied while the two continued to stare each other down. “Everything was taken but the Arrow of Ages.”

“I’ll use it to point the way,” Shadowmere said, and Siren’s Song quickly snapped his gaze toward him, his eyes growing wide.

“Berry, that is not the Black Briar!” Siren’s Song said with alarm as he summoned a flaming sword.

“Wait!” Beryl called as the Deputy Director of the Ministry charged at Shadowmere.

The immortal stallion dodged Siren’s Song’s swings, but didn’t retaliate. Siren’s Song was unresponsive to Berry’s continued calls to desist. If she could, she’d have tried to physically hold him back, but doing so would probably end with him striking out at her as well, so instead she looked to Malthus. After rolling his eyes and sighing wearily, Celestia’s advisor wrapped Siren’s Song in his magic, restraining him.

“Siren’s Song, wait,” Berry said to the livid deputy director. “No, he is not the Black Briar you know, but he is the Black Briar. Maybe the Black Briar is just a mythological figure and there are multiple ponies claiming the title. Maybe one is copying the other. I’ve seen enough to believe that Shadowmere here is the original Black Briar. I don’t know who the Black Briar leading the Knights of Dawn is or how they’re related, but I trust Shadowmere and his knowledge of how to deal with crises like the one we’re facing.”

“And you?” Siren’s Song said, eyeing Malthus. “You trust him?”

“Ha!” Malthus cackled sarcastically. “I wouldn’t say I trust him, though working with him now is the best chance we have to recover Celestia. For that matter, I wouldn’t say I trust you either, with the betrayal of your Ministry’s director.”

“Director Thistleback? What are you talking about?” Siren’s Song said, tensing up as much as he could while restrained magically.

“I told him about Thistleback,” Beryl said as Malthus and Shadowmere looked to her questioningly. “Something is wrong.”

Shadowmere approached the deputy director and grunted.

“Someone has definitely interfered with his mind,” he said.

“What are you—” Siren’s Song said before suddenly flinching as Shadowmere removed the enchantment upon him.

A look of understanding and horror crossed over Siren’s Song’s face before it returned to neutral. Malthus released him from his magic, and the deputy director made no more moves against Shadowmere.

“It is a time for strange bedfellows,” he at last said before removing the Arrow of Ages from his uniform and hovering it over to Shadowmere.

As it left his possession, the Arrow grew back to its true size, and Shadowmere supported it with a hoof upright, balanced on its fletching. With a knife, he sliced into his foreleg until the tip of the knife was coated in blood. He scrawled several patterns along the Arrow’s shaft before wiping the blade off and putting it away.

“Arrow of Ages, point us the way to Celestia, Princess of Equestria, Child of Aetherius, Alicorn of the Sun,” Shadowmere commanded, and a humming sound came from the Arrow of Ages.

The relic levitated and began to slowly rotate on all three axes. After a minute of movement, it eventually came to rest pointing nearly directly upward. Through a skylight in the warehouse, the quartet of ponies could see that the Arrow was pointed directly at the Moon.

“Arrow of Ages, show us our quarry,” Shadowmere commanded again.

Above the tip of the Arrow, a sheet of ice began to form in the air, spreading in all directions. When the edges began to crackle and splinter off, the center formed into a glassy image. Through the ice, they could see a bizarre landscape of cyclopean stones and blue crystal. At the center of the image was Celestia encased in crystal. She was sharply defined, but the figures moving around her were blurry and indistinct. Nevertheless, from the coloring, it wasn’t difficult to tell that one of them bore a resemblance to Director Thistleback.

“She’s at the ALE,” Malthus said thoughtfully. “Clever.”

“The what?” Siren’s Song asked.

“The Arcane Lunar Equiposition,” Shadowmere explained. “It’s the point ‘balanced’ between Equus and the Moon’s magical fields. Because it exists both in and out of our reality simultaneously, it’s naturally shielded from many probing spells. Adding in the stolen relics, they made it nearly impossible for anypony to locate them.”

“How do we get there?” Berry asked the pertinent question.

“There are no connected doors at the ALE,” Malthus said as she looked to him, “But there once was. Perhaps…”

Malthus reached out with his magic toward the still-levitating Arrow. At first, the relic seemed to resist, the glow of Malthus’s magic stopping short of meeting its golden surface. Then, Malthus’s magic swirled around and caressed the Arrow’s shaft.

“I think… I can take us there,” Malthus said hesitantly. “Hooves upon the Arrow of Ages.”

The other three complied, stepping up and pressing their hooves against the shaft of the relic. Malthus did the same and gritted his teeth before making an attempt to take them to the Arcane Lunar Equiposition. Space seemed to stretch around the group, and a tension built in the air as if the Arrow of Ages was being physically drawn back. Then, it released, shattering the icy image of their target as it rushed forward, pulling the four ponies with it. Everything seemed to warp around them as they were drawn into the sky, passing through the warehouse skylight without shattering it. They rose high above Canterlot and the mountain range it was built upon, faster and faster until Equestria stretched out beneath them, and then the sphere that was the planet Equus. Bizarrely, night seemed to wrap the entire world, no sign of the Sun or hint of its light to suggest it was on the other side of the globe. Not that they had much chance to look back at where they’d come as they hurtled toward their destination.

The Moon grew large, but before it filled their vision, something else came into view. Two pyramids of dark stone hovered in space, the faint blue glow surrounding them matching the striations of crystal that ran through the stones. The pyramids stood with their points colliding, debris hovering in a captured moment of destruction. The Arrow curved around the ALE before swerving inward toward a doorway and finally going inert. The four ponies found themselves tumbling through open space. The unicorns halted their advance and shielded their falls while Shadowmere tumbled across the stones, none the worse for wear as he stood up, retrieving the Arrow of Ages from where it had clattered down beside him.

“We’re here,” Malthus stated what they could all easily observe. “I do not know how we are to return, though.”

“We can figure that out after we deal with the matter at hoof and have more time to prepare a way,” Shadowmere said. “Celestia is awaiting us above.”

He had only barely finished speaking when Berry spotted movement above. Instinctively, she raised her crossbow and fired off a quarrel. It missed the pegasus, as did Siren’s Song’s crossbow bolt fired off a moment later, but Berry’s second shot flew true, striking her in the heart. In this strangely balanced space, the body of who Berry desperately hoped she’d been right to label an enemy didn’t fall, but instead drifted away in the direction the bolts had propelled it until it was caught by the gravity of the pyramid above and fell down the sloped side.

If those who had taken Celestia hadn’t realized they were here before, they would now. The quartet needed to hurry lest they try to do something drastic with the Princess of the Sun. Shadowmere surrendered the Arrow of Ages to Siren’s Song, who once again shrunk it down to normal arrow size, as he led the way into the pyramid and up the ancient stairs. They had landed nearly two-thirds of the way up the pyramid, so it didn’t take long for them to reach the highest level that hadn’t been destroyed.

The stairs led up onto a large stone floor surrounded by broken walls with piles of rubble and crystal lying or floating around. A scattering of figures filled the space, mostly ponies, but with a few griffins as well. Three of the pegasi at second glance had bat wings rather than feathers, and they hovered near the center of the space, over a crystal within which was immersed Celestia, surrounded by piles of magical relics. Standing next to Celestia was a pony that was all too familiar: Director Thistleback.

“Stop them!” one of the bat-winged ponies commanded, pointing a hoof in the direction of Beryl, Malthus, Shadowmere, and Siren’s Song.

The various creatures arrayed against them rushed to comply, and Celestia’s would-be rescuers leapt into action. Shadowmere summoned Daybreak, the sword dropping into his mouth. A fan of weapons materialized behind Malthus, and he drew a sword and axe from the stash. Siren’s Song and Beryl both levitated their Ministry crossbows. Berry was glad to have taken the time while Siren’s Song was handing off his Ministry duties to restock her stash of quarrels, for now she found great need for them.

Blades swung and bolts of steel and magic arced through the air in both directions as the quartet charged toward Celestia. Their opponents were all armed in some manner, but most did not seem suited for combat. At least, not against ponies who had spent (in some cases hundreds of) years training to fight far more dangerous foes. Berry fired her crossbow at a swooping pegasus while hamstringing an earth pony stallion with a summoned sword. Blood flew from the sword as she threatened a unicorn with it, causing her to step back and stumble as the pegasus shot before crashed into her. Before either of them could rise, she summoned an inverted shield over them to keep them trapped. A Saddle Arabian-looking pony was all that now barred the way to Thistleback, but his swordplay forced Beryl to dodge and counter before dispatching her, allowing Siren’s Song to reach the traitorous director first.

“Director! How could you?” he demanded as he charged Thistleback with his rapier held aloft.

Thistleback neatly dodge out of the way, wearing a look not of anger, but of disinterested scorn.

“It was the logical choice, Deputy Director,” she replied as she levitated a set of half-moon blades and sent them spinning at Siren’s Song.

“How can you say that?” Siren’s Song said angrily as he tried to dodge the blades twirling around him, forced to twist his neck back and forth to keep them in sight. “The Ministry is sworn to Celestia! To protect Equestria from terrors of the dark, not assist them!”

As Siren’s Song began levitating shields around himself and assigning them to track the half-moon blades, Beryl closed the gap and joined the fight. Her summoned blade would have struck Thistleback in the back, but as it neared her, it struck against invisible armor that lit up, revealing it covering most of her frame, and the sword melted away.

“Have you forgotten your history?” Thistleback asked as she sent a wave of fire at Beryl, forcing her back to make enough space to counter the spell. “The Ministry exists because Celestia failed. For centuries, Luna held back the monsters, but when Celestia banished her to the Moon, she could not do what her sister had done. She needed the Ministry to do it for her.”

Beryl summoned magical daggers, sending them showering over Thistleback, trying to identify weak points in her armor, while Siren’s Song swung his rapier around to counter the bladed staff Thistleback had pulled from the pile of relics.

“But the Ministry cannot stop the rising tide,” Thistleback continued as she poured magic into the stones, causing those beneath Berry’s hooves to semi-liquefy and pull her in. “Monster attacks increase, ponies die, and soon we will fail to keep even knowledge of such things contained. I’ve seen the numbers. I’ve seen the projections.”

Siren’s Song teleported behind Thistleback, but she still managed to counter his swipe for the back of her neck. The blades that followed the deputy director bounced off her armor, highlighting it and the gaps at her inner joints and neck. Beryl freed herself from the stones and fired her crossbow at Thistleback, who caught the quarrel out of the air in her magic, before sending it rocketing back.

“Before Luna was banished, Equestria was an idyllic place. It can be so again, but we need something more than the Ministry to accomplish it,” Thistleback went on. “The Cabal of Nightmare Moon has been planning her return for a thousand years. Once I realized that we could restore things to the way they were, with no need for the Ministry, it was an easy choice to make to assist them.”

“You would make the Ministry obsolete?” Siren’s Song questioned as Thistleback teleported away from a jab.

“To save thousands of pony lives, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do,” Thistleback replied.

Thistleback found herself hounded by Siren’s Song’s and Beryl Fields’s attacks, but before they could press their advantage to a decisive conclusion, a shadow descended over Beryl. One of the bat-winged ponies had broken off from whatever other fight he’d been involved in and swooped silently down onto her. Faster than he should have been able to, the bat-pony hoisted Berry into the air and threw her out toward empty space.

Before she had flown too far, Berry reacted and drew her crossbow, slotting in a new bolt before firing it at the bat-pony. Her aim was true, striking him in a leathery wing, the barbs at the bolt’s tip extending and holding it in place. A wire ran from the bolt back to the winding device attached to Beryl’s shoulder which she activated as soon as it was in place, drawing her and the bat-pony together. The bat-pony managed to cut the line, but by then it was too late to cease the Ministry agent’s momentum. The two collided in midair, Berry using the opportunity to push off her opponent and away from the abyss.

Beryl’s hooves touched down on a crystal hovering in the floaty space between the two pyramids, producing a ringing sound, and she pushed off it as lightning began to course over its surface. Her trajectory brought her (intentionally) into contact with the bat-pony again, who had stabilized himself and attached long blades to his forelegs. Beryl struck out with a sword of magic, but his blades miraculously blocked her strikes. The two of them moved through the field of floating debris, attempting to strike each other, but Berry found herself on the backhoof, retreating more than attacking as her opponent used his wings as an advantage. Kicking one of the floating stones in his direction, Berry maneuvered herself so that she was headed toward the pyramid above the one where most of the fighting was going on. Gravity gradually returned, and she twisted in the air to try to regain her proper orientation before she landed upon the dark stone of the pyramid’s top level.

She threw up a shield around herself as the bat-pony swooped toward her and, as she’d anticipated, his blades cut right through it. Beryl had already stepped to the side and bucked her attacker away. She fired her crossbow at him, but he immediately took back off into the air and swooped around again. This time when he came at her, Beryl teleported away, reappearing behind him. Her crossbow bolt struck the back of his head, and though his armor did protect him from any real harm, it did stagger him. Berry took advantage of the bat-pony’s momentary vulnerability to rush in, a set of special quarrels levitated ahead of her. With blasts of magic, she drove them through her enemy’s wings into the stone, pinning him down. Once they were all driven in, lines of power appeared between them, binding the bat-pony in place.

Looking above her, she could see the remaining fights going on. Malthus and Shadowmere primarily faced off against the other two bat-ponies, though a few of the regular cabalites continued to hound them, not allowing them to fully focus on their primary opponents. Siren’s Song and Thistleback continued to duel, though their fight had taken them away from Celestia. Among the other relics piled around the Sun Princess, she thought she could see a large sword that, if she recalled what she’d read about crystal imprisonment correctly, would allow her to free Celestia.

Beryl teleported to the opposite pyramid, flipping herself nearly perfectly with the teleportation, but still landing at a slight angle and needing a second to steady herself. She pulled the sword from the pile with her magic, but her attention was yanked away as she heard Siren’s Song cry out in pain. He and Thistleback were locked in place, each holding the other still in their magic, and one of Siren’s Song’s hindlegs was snapped at an unnatural angle. His rapier was held at Thistleback’s throat, the tip poised in the gap between her invisible pieces of armor. While he was unable to move it, he was able to flick a switch on it that caused the blade to swiftly extend, slicing through Thistleback’s windpipe. Her eyes grew wide, and the director’s body turned to smoke, flitting away. As Thistleback’s body reformed, she looked in a very bad way, bloody foam coming from her muzzle. She pulled a powerful regenerative potion from her saddlebags, but before she could uncap and down the contents, Beryl fired a quarrel into it, sending the potion and glass flying out of Thistleback’s grasp. The Ministry’s director turned toward Berry for a moment, a look of horror in her eyes, before collapsing.

Beryl looked at Siren’s Song to confirm he was successfully treating his own injury before returning to her task. The sword was longer than Beryl’s body and wider than her forelimb. Instead of a pointed tip, the blade curved out before arcing into a rounded end. Beryl raised the sword up and plunged it into the crystal above Celestia, careful not to let it cut too deep and harm the pony trapped within. The sword had no trouble entering the crystal, though rather than cracking or slicing a solid surface, it felt as if it were sinking into a viscous substance.

The crystal, however, did exhibit cracks once the sword had entered and light flared out from it, a warm yellow light in contrast to the cold blue that came from them normally. Beryl was forced to step back as that light exploded from the crystal, appearing as a physical wave that rushed outward. Wherever it struck the members of the Cabal of Nightmare Moon, they all fell insensate. The wave did eventually fade but remained as a slight glow around the pony who stepped out of it: Princess Celestia. The princess looked slightly disoriented, but quickly recovered herself.

“Your highness,” Siren’s Song hurried to say as he hobbled up, his leg still repairing itself, and bowed before her.

“Deputy Director Siren’s Song,” Celestia addressed him, before frowning and looking toward the body of Thistleback, “And Director Thistleback.”

“Yes, your highness,” Siren’s Song said. “I’m sorry to say the Ministry has failed you.”

“The Ministry has not failed,” Celestia said in a motherly tone, as she looked at both Siren’s Song and Beryl Fields, “After all, you are here.”

Celestia looked next to the two other ponies. Shadowmere was busy restraining the unconscious enemies in case they were to awaken. Malthus, on the other hoof, was beginning to make his way toward the body of Director Thistleback while keeping his eyes on Celestia. The Sun Princess opened her mouth to say something before her eyes suddenly went wide. A serene smile then settled on her face.

“Malthus and Shadowmere together. I never thought I would see the day, but that will have to be interrogated later. I’m afraid I must leave you all now,” Celestia said before opening a swirling, glowing portal. “This portal will take you wherever you need to go. As for me, I have a student to congratulate and a sister I thought lost to me forever to reunite with. Director Siren’s Song, see that the survivors are taken into the Ministry’s custody for now.”

“Yes, your highness. Thank you,” the Ministry’s new director said as he gave another bow.

Celestia smiled, looking happy but also slightly nervous as she approached the portal and stepped through.

“Malthus, what do you think you’re doing?” Shadowmere called out, his voice urgent and icy, interrupting the moment of peace that followed Celestia’s departure.

Malthus stood over Thistleback’s body, her saddlebags’ contents strewn on the ground. Within Malthus’s magic hovered a small golden orb. His eyepatch was pulled up, revealing an empty socket, and he pressed the orb into the gap.

“No!” Shadowmere cried as he charged Malthus, taking up Daybreak, which he hadn’t yet dismissed.

As he swung at Malthus, the unicorn neatly sidestepped the blade. Again and again, Malthus anticipated Shadowmere’s swings and easily dodged them, never striking back himself, a grim expression on his face.

“You know you cannot best me now, Shadowmere,” Malthus said drily.

“You know what the consequences of using the Eye of Larghast will be,” Shadowmere said, fury in his voice barely contained.

“Then you had better give me what I most need. An end. Until then, I’ll hold onto the Eye, Shadowmere. Don’t wait too long,” Malthus said before striding confidently toward the portal created by Celestia, pausing as he passed Beryl to speak to her over his shoulder. “Don’t trust Shadowmere, Agent Fields. Get away from him if you can, before it’s too late. Before you become like me.”

With that, Malthus stepped through the portal, vanishing into parts unknown.

***

The Longest Night, or the Selene Incident (as the Ministry would refer to it, at least provisionally until somepony came up with a better name) would be quickly overshadowed in its terror to the general populace. While Shadowmere, Beryl, Malthus, and Siren’s Song had been attempting to rescue Celestia, unknown to them there had been somepony pursuing how to deal with Nightmare Moon. Celestia’s most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, had ventured into the Everfree Forest with five other random ponies and discovered the long-lost relics the Elements of Harmony, using them to defeat Nightmare Moon. In that defeat, however, they had not annihilated her, but restored her to who she’d been before she’d turned against her sister and been banished to the Moon. Luna had returned, and Celestia made spreading news of this her primary concern. While the Longest Night would not be easily forgotten, it could be downplayed, and though the Ministry would have a lot of work ahead of them covering up the surge in monster attacks, it wasn’t quite the “tearing of the veil” moment that it was initially feared to be. For the population at large, very little had changed in their perception of what was real regarding things that went bump in the night. However, for Beryl Fields and Shadowmere, things had changed, or had at least been set in motion to change in the future.

“It was inevitable that eventually the Ministry would learn—or rather, relearn—of my existence,” Shadowmere told her as they sat in the library of his hideout under Rosethorn Hall.

“I wouldn’t worry about Siren’s Song spreading this to the rest of the Ministry,” Beryl replied. “He understands the need to keep sensitive information restricted. I would be more concerned about that already restricted group—the Knights of Dawn—and how to deal with the other Shadowmere leading them.”

“Hmm, yes. We will need to deal with them sooner rather than later,” Shadowmere said thoughtfully. “As for Malthus… I will have to do what I can. Things are about to become… complicated.”

“Are they ever simple?” Beryl asked.

“Never,” Shadowmere said with great weariness.

Looking at him, Berry felt both that Shadowmere was more and less mortal than she usually perceived him. Who was he? What was he? Since meeting him, she’d come into contact with several ancient beings, and now multiple had warned them about him. Celestia seemed to trust him, but was that enough? Celestia had also trusted Thistleback, and Beryl’s faith in the princess’s judgement had been shaken by her superior’s betrayal. Shadowmere had secrets; that she’d known from the start. Now, however, she was finding it harder to brush those questions she had away. How was she supposed to start finding answers to these questions? She could ask Shadowmere, but he’d been reticent to reveal anything in the past, and the repeated warnings from others who had once been close to him made her wary of pressing too hard. Who and what was Shadowmere, and how had he become what he was?

***

The void was nothingness. Nothingness was the void. Yet, in the void, something stirred. The void stirred.

Everything would come to the void… eventually. Everything would become the void… eventually. Living or inanimate, all things were subject to decay and death in their own way. Eventually, they would cease to be, and the void would claim them.

The void was nothing and yet it could be said to be someone. It was aware, all too aware of the myriad living things that persisted in building and surviving while ignoring the truth that all they’d built would one day crumble and they themselves would one day die. Long ago, those that had seen the truth had worshipped the void, and given it names, things that gave it the power to act upon the world, to intervene. Not that Sithis needed to intervene, not when all that existed would succumb eventually. He’d been called a god, even the god of chaos, but he was no mere Draconequus, nor even an Equine. Discord was welcome to the title of chaos god; Sithis was something far more primal, a god of process, a god of entropy.

Sithis was the void, a being with great power, but no substance. Yet, as he was now, that void had been restricted, bound in place. His ancient servant had accomplished that feat, considered to be impossible by all, yet Sithis was not bothered. Even in betrayal, his servant still served him, and in time everything decayed, even powerful magical seals.

One seal had broken, a seal that had been known by mortals as Nightmare Moon. Another was weakening now at an accelerated rate. Yet, all the seals were weakening, crumbling, straining from the passage of centuries and the actions of mortals. The seals would all fail—in minutes or millennia, it mattered not to Sithis. The ancient void stirred, but made no attempts to strain against the confines of the prison he refused to acknowledge. To do so was not Sithis’s way, not when all would crumble and come to him in the course of time anyway. Sooner or later, he would be free to directly touch the world once more, and then he and his servant would have a little chat.