Immortalusby Imperator Chiashi ZaneChaptersAriseDrainRebirthArise ”My knights, my guardians for so many centuries. Do you understand the gift you will receive? It is within the power of the moon to grant you what has been gifted to myself. Power beyond imagining, life longer than you can imagine. You will be indestructible, Undying…You will be my Immortals.” A tear traced a single, pure black line down Nightmare Moon’s face as she looked at the five Guardsponies before her. The only five to remain loyal to her when she had claimed the mantle of the Lunar Ascended. But now, her sister was coming to take her on with the others to break their oaths of Eternal service to *both** princesses. She couldn’t allow them to win.* The Nightmare’s horn began to glow, a menacing black that seemed to eat up the light of the flickering candles. It crept down to the floor and surrounded the blue steel boots her Knights wore. Darkness crept up plates of metal forged of fallen Iron, leaving behind nothing but cold in its wake. One of the Knights shuddered as the cold reached his cannon, and fell into the roiling blackness, consumed in an instant. The chill began to creep up haunches and over shoulders. A Pegasus was the next to fall, his body not ready for the cold to unexpectedly reach right through his feathers. A flick of one wing, and he too was consumed in the darkness. Three remained. Neck muscles fought against the urge to move as the chill climbed silent throats. A Unicorn blinked as her eyes glassed over. The corpse was gone before it even had the chance to fall. Two remained, staring blindly at their princess. A Pegasus mare and an Earth Pony Stallion. The doors split open behind them, but neither moved. Neither could. Everypony was gone, leaving two behind, waiting for orders that would never come. __ Princess Luna pushed on a pair of half-rotten doors in the old castle. She hadn’t been down there in over a thousand years. Not since that night. Not since she had lost herself. She carefully stepped around the dusty wreckage and looked at the three suits of almost completely rusted away armor on the floor, then her eyes rose up the rear legs of two armored statues. Beautifully carved. Her hoof, without touching them, gently traced over the individually carved hairs in the tail of the Pegasus. It lightly settled onto the smooth, almost shining flank of the barding. It chilled her hoof, like real metal. Probably marble. But who would have carved two Guardsponies in marble like that. She came around to the front and saw the armored visages. Fully enclosed in the armor, she could still see the little bits of unkempt mane poking through, carved out of something that she swore felt like real hair. That was impossible though. Anything soft enough to bend without breaking would have degraded after so long, but the layers of dust coating the sculptures was thick enough to show that these had been here at least as long as she had been gone. Her hooves gripped the sides of the helmet, wondering if there was another stone beneath the marble, carved into a face. It didn’t move more than a hair, but that was enough to tell her the helmet was not part of the underlying stone. She lit up her horn and reached into the helmet through the eye-slots, and gently held the stone to keep from breaking it as she removed the helmet. The helm touched down on the marble with a loud, reverberating clang, more akin to metal than stone, and with a glance, she saw the blue of traditional Night-Guard armor sitting there on the floor. The dust merely made it appear as stone. Her eyes shot back up to the now exposed face. A perfect stone replica of one of the mares from her dream. A Pegasus, loyal to the end. It couldn’t be her though. She had died, so many years before. Celestia had showed her the grave site of those who died when the Nightmare rose. How, then, was this here? Why had it been carved in this shape, with such detail? She breathed gently on the mare’s ear, whispering the name given to the long dead pony into the cold stone. “Why, Starlight. Why did you die for me?” A deep, gravelly male voice interrupted her before she could even turn to the other statue and find out whose face it had been carved with, “Starlight was allays in yer favor, Lady Lunari, but do I not deserve a pittance of tears as well? I been dead long as she has.” Luna’s head whipped around, looking for the source of the voice, but she was alone. Just the statues, the darkness, and herself still remained in the room. Not even an echo. Then she looked again. The other statue had moved closer, but was still at attention. “Whoever thou be, We demand that thou cease thine behavior before We hath a reason to banish thee!” The statue of the other guard moved suddenly, dust cascading off the blue steel as it approached her and raised a hoof to its brow in a salute. Luna’s jaw dropped, “Impossible!” The armored statue looked at the hoof, then shook it. The sound of dust sliding around and the clanking of bone on metal met her ears, “Prolly, Milady. But what hath happened, hath happened.” “Who art thou?” “Raedfaest, Milady, of Family Integra. Lupus sancti tui, simul.” Luna turned to the statue, gently peeling herself from the statue of Starlight, not noticing the dust and shards of stone in her mane and fur as she got a closer look at the dust covered statue. She placed her hoof on the boot, nail to cleats, and watched as it wiggled in an unnatural manner. After a moment of staring at it, she turned to the helm and looked into the eyes, “Raedfaest, Loyal and trustworthy. Wouldst that I had known sooner.” The stallion removed his helmet, shaking it out and revealing a sight that would have made the lunar princess keel over on the spot, had she not been acquainted with the corpses of the thousands of non-immortal ponies Celestia had banished to the moon over the years. With the exception of a pair of deep, tar black eye sockets, the skull was bare of any distinct markings, save one. A scar on the bone, beneath the left eye, where the cheekbone had been cleaved very nearly off. The scar had been a clear reminder to Raedfaest of both Duty and Instinct. He had taken a spear meant for Luna square in the face. The blade had very nearly taken him out, and would have left him blind in that eye for life, if not for Luna’s influence. “Thine eyes.” The stallion reached up and touched his bony face, then carefully pressed the tip of one armored boot into his damaged socket. With a kind of wheezing laugh, he pulled it back and picked up his helmet, shaking it more vigorously until a glass orb dropped out onto the floor. He picked the orb up, and with eyeless skull, appeared to examine it before holding it before his mouth for several seconds. “Raedfaest, what are thou doing?” “Damn. No breath. I got dust on my eye, and I can’t get it off.” Luna levitated the glass orb away from him and breathed gently on it, wiping the glass against her fur quickly before examining it. The orb stared back. She had ceased to be horrified by the astonishingly realistic iris inside the orb, but now, it amused her. That one preservation trick had worked so flawlessly, while another had failed spectacularly made her want to laugh, but she had more to do. She popped the orb back into the Earth Pony’s empty socket, watching as the blackness inside the socket seemed to catch it and hold it in place, even turning it in circles like the stallion had done when he was bored. She turned to the statue of Starlight and looked at the dust crumbling off another bare skull, “Starlight, please be alive in there. Or at least as alive as Raedfaest is.” The mare shook, and the sound of cracking stone falling to the metal and ricocheting off bone echoed out as the Pegasus shook herself. Her armored wings spread from her sides, bare bones exposed, but connected by a thin film of what looked like lunar magic. “Of course, Milady. Thou gave us very specific orders,” The muzzle was turned in a way that made it appear to be smiling. Luna remembered those orders very well. The last thing she remembered clearly about that night. Those two had been called to her room, and she had given them very specific orders to protect her from the wrath of Celestia, no matter what may come to pass, “I remember, my Guard. Not much after, but my sister tells me I became a monster when she confronted me.” Raedfaest was the first to speak up, “Thou didst indeed. Nightmare Moon, it declared itself. Ordered us around. Gave us…” he trailed off, hooves gesturing to himself “She made us immortal. Our reward for loyalty. Our curse.” “And them?” She pointed to the armor lying on the ground, covered in dust, rusting away. Starlight pressed her bony head to the princesses neck, cradling it against the back of her armor, “They were not…” her head moved like she was trying to find the right word, jaw undulating as a tongue that was no longer there mashed itself inquisitively against the inside of cheeks long since gone “They were weak. Unfit for duty in thine service. Maggots of the Daystar in it for power. Dishonest, Greedy, Unreasonable Bastards. With the exception of that one,” she pointed at the middle, a unicorn, judging by the rust-enlarged eye-slit that crawled up the crest, “She was a bitch. Only wanted the power to lord her immortality over stallions.” Luna stared at her guards. The two most loyal, most honest, kindest of her guard. They had given their own lives for her, literally. She could feel that her magic reserves had dropped far more than would have been necessary for the simple levitations, but not nearly enough for a reanimation protocol. If that was even possible. Even returning them from being made of stone was hard enough. It was why Starswirl the Bearded remained in the library, with a young mare dusting him off every few days and occasionally turning a page in one of the ancient texts she thought she was pretending he was reading. “But thou represented more than vice. Virtues that saved thou.” Raedfaest let out a sound that may have been intended to be a laugh, but without lungs, or a throat, it came out as a grinding sort of sound, “Always knew that vow of Celibacy would come back to bite me. Hey, Star, now that we’re, you know, dead?” “I told thou then, and will repeat mine self, Not if thou were the last stallion on Equuis. And clearly, thou art not.” “Guards. I will NOT tolerate fighting in my service. Now, Ready thyselves. Mine sister will be here soon. Thou will make a good impression on her and her student or I will find a way to end your unlives.” Bones clacked on steel as the two Night-Guards helmed themselves and stamped their hooves to attention. “Attend Us.” Luna trotted out of the room, dodging the rubble once more as her two Guard followed. On reaching the stairs, she reflected a moonbeam into the corridor to check that her millennia old guards were still presentable. They were. Impeccably so, despite the dust. “Remember thine orders. They still stand, though my sister is no longer a threat to me.” Hooves clacked a salute, “Yes, Lady Luna.” Drain“Luna, you told me you had to come to the old castle to check on something. Alone. I need to know why, for your own safe…” Celestia’s voice cut off as she saw the two armored figures behind her sister. She recognized the style of the armor. It hadn’t been made in centuries, let alone in that color for nearly a millennium. That was the armor of the old Night Guard, the ones who had turned in their armor, or worse, turned traitor, when the Nightmare had risen. But those looked flawlessly preserved, and the two Guardsponies stood at attention in the ancient manner she had grown accustomed to. Neither held a weapon, which in itself was unusual. Her eyes were drawn to a glint of blue from the larger’s eye-slit, and leaned closer to look, “Guards, I do not recognize you in that armor. State your name, please.” “Raedfaest Integra. Legio Nocturne Immortalus.” “Starlight Overdusk. Legio Nocturne Immortalus.” Both together concluded, “First and Last Regiment, Lady Celestial Solus Faustdatter.” The two Pegasi who had escorted Celestia to her sister’s location just stared. Then immediately glanced at each-other, then Celestia herself. Celestia turned to them, and stopped, her horn glowing softly as she erased the last few moments of their memory. She did not need the kind of stress that came with the low guard knowing her true-name. She spoke softly, “Leave us be. I will call if you are needed,” the Pegasi flew away quickly as Celestia cast a silence spell and scowled at the two Night Guard. The Royal Canterlot Voice burst out of her throat, “WHAT IN FAUSTS NAME ARE YOU DOING! NOPONY ALIVE KNOWS MY NAME BUT LUNA!” The sheer force of her words would have been enough to erase the memories of any pony who had learned her true name recently, and wasn’t an Alicorn. She looked at Luna as the two Guardsponies shook their heads. Not dazed shaking, but scornful, “Luna, explain.” “Sister, I believe you already know my loyalist Guard. You killed most of them.” Celestia stared at her sister for a long minute, “You were turning your own Guard to dust. Tartarus, you built a shrine to yourself in the basement, with two statues even. A…” it dawned on her that the two Guardsponies behind her sister were identical matches to the stone ponies in the basement. “Those suits of armor you built on the statues, they were cursed, weren’t they?” The larger of the two guards shook his head sadly, “Not the armor, Lady Celestial. The pony inside.” “But, that means she was able to turn you to stone without the Elements of Harmony, and turn you back without killing you,” her mind was spinning at a thousand trots a second, “We can finally free Starswirl!” “No, sister. We cannot. I didn’t free them from the stone.” “But they’re moving, and alive, aren’t they?” Celestia was so close to jumping for joy when she saw the smaller of the two remove their helmet, revealing a skull. Bleach-white, completely without flaws. Completely without life, but she knew the skull was looking at her, even as the Guard spread a pair of skeletonized wings. “Necromancy?” “Not exactly. I think the Nightmare made them, well, Immortal in a way. I don’t know how, exactly, but I intend to find out. I need to know what I did, so I can fix it.” The two Guard looked at Luna, and the taller spoke up, gravelly and rough, “Lady Lunari, you cannot. Returning us to mortality would kill us as soundly as any death spell would.” “I did not give you that curse to suffer for eternity. You do not deserve to suffer for my mistakes.” The guard reared up, and Celestia finally figured out that it was male by the contour of the belly-plates, before grabbing his helmet and removing it in a way that would be sure to injure a normal pony. He twisted it and shook the metal form several times until a glass orb fell into his hoof. He pressed it back into the socket in his skull, “Lady Celestial, Thou knowest me before. Even when I had mine life within me, mine own, that is, I swore loyalty to thine sibling for so long as I couldst draw mine blade. Give me a blade once more, that I wouldst raise it in defense once more.” Celestia stared at him. Yes, she had known both of them. She had seen the statues, had inspected them, even personally studied them inside and out for any hidden magic. She had found none, yet here they stood. No traces of Necromantic magic in them either. “How are you still moving if you do not draw breath?” His muzzle shook up and down with a clattering of bone on metal, “I have no idea, Milady. The details were sparse. The Nightmare said she was making us immortal. Not undying.” Celestia groaned, “Fine. Look, my sister has new guards, who aren’t skeletons, and won’t terrify everypony. I can assign you to her personal guard, but you will not be participating in any out-of-armor events, do you understand?” “I do. But, I fear that you are mistaken,” Starlight pulled her boot off and shook it, dumping her arm bones onto the ground, and put the boot back on after shaking out her hoof, “We are not skeletons. I may have participated somewhat more in-depth in my own curse than I revealed to your sister. She does not remember everything she did, and I wish to keep it that way as long as possible, for her sake. The spell required a number of Pegasus feathers, identical in every way, laid out in a circle around her in order to work properly. Mine were donated to the cause. As was a measure of Raedfaest’s blood and etchings from the Nightmare’s horn.” “Why her horn and not a Unicorn horn?” “Specifics. I was a chemist before the Guard recruited me. The difference between Alicorn and Unicorn horn shavings is very specific. Without it, we would have died right then and there, turned to stone for real.” “So why did you two survive and the others didn’t?” “Part of the spell. It was never meant to take two at a time, let alone five. I imagine the extra drain was partially responsible for us seeing Lady Lunari before us again. Unfortunately, the spell was never meant to preserve the flesh. Only the mind.” “I thought I banned all of those kinds of spells, after I used one on Starswirl to preserve his mind until his body could be restored. He didn’t forgive me for almost six hundred years.” The Pegasus bowed deeply, “Say hello again to the greatest bucking thief in all of Equuis.” Celestia stared at the suit of armor, now wearing her crown, “How?” “Part of the curse. The body is merely a physical restriction of the mind. Without the body, the mind takes on traits more like its natural state,” her hooves pointed back to herself, “A cloud, for example,” pointed to the Stallion across from her, “or a solid stone. Go ahead. Hit him. Whack him as hard as you dare.” “What? Even if he was made of stone, not armor with a skeleton in it, I’d take his head off.” “Lady Celestial, I promise you, we are more than that. And, at the same time, less. Now that the stasis spell has broken, our armor will begin to degrade. We will need things from you to survive.” Celestia looked at them, trying to figure out what to do about these two, “What would you need to survive? And to pass for normal ponies?” The Pegasus dropped on her belly, armored hooves pounding the dirt as an airless laugh pushed out of the skull, “We will be never again normal. The spell will force us upon new hosts. Artifacts, our souls themselves, are trapped in our artifacts. Take them, give them to another pony, our hosts, and we will be able to survive.” Celestia was about to respond that she couldn’t do that. She couldn’t give up two ponies for two others, when Luna interrupted, “Sister, I remember reading about the spell, before the Nightmare. They will not harm the hosts. They were never intended to be trapped in the armor.” “What do you mean, never meant to be? Of course they wouldn’t have intentionally trapped a soul in a suit of armor. Tartarus, I can’t even remember one that allowed a soul to animate anything.” Starlight’s chin turned up, and with her hooves, she pushed some grass up on the sides of her muzzle to mimic a smirk, “Soul Sword. Starswirl the Bearded, notebook Fifteen, Mind Altering Spells and Traps. Binds the soul of the target into the included object. Often used to rip the soul out of adventurers and imprison them in puzzle boxes for the trap-setter to later destroy.” “But the targets of that spell became immobile. I used it on Starswirl’s stone body to keep his mind tethered to it. And that one doesn’t require Pegasus feathers at all.” “No. But Platinum’s Passive Puppetmaster does.” “You mean you’re just puppeting your own armor around?” “Not exactly. See. Entrapped minds cannot utilize that spell. But Loren’s Life Leech allows an entrapped mind to cast spells as though a Unicorn, such as Platinum’s Passive Puppetmaster.” “Which can only be cast by Unicorns and Alicorns.” “Exactly why it had to be cast ON us. That was why we needed Earth Pony blood.” “So you’re saying a simple Dispel Magic on you would kill you instantly?” The Stallion shook his head side to side, bones crashing around in it, and the Pegasus continued, “That was the reason we had another Earth Pony and Pegasus in the room. Stone-heart’s Spirit Shield, blocks Dispel Magic up to class seven. Not Alicorn level by itself, but enhanced by the class fifteen default of an adolescent Alicorn, it has a much higher break strength. You could probably dispel it, unless there was an unexpected interaction between Soul Sword and Spirit Shield. Even if it does work, it probably won’t do more than make us immobile artifacts.” “So you need the hosts why? I didn’t hear anything in there that requires a host body.” A huff from Luna this time, “Sister, what is the first spell Starswirl always told us to cast before we started a large scale enchantment?” “Body Bind? So the spell would default to leeching power from the user’s body, rather than the environment?” “Yes. Now, you’ll notice the lack of bodies in my guards. They will need hosts to supply enough magic to maintain the Body Bind, else they will begin to consume the forest at a great rate. It was why the castle never had anything living in it while I was gone. I suspect life will return to it soon.” “So how am I supposed to find hosts? Just go around and ask everypony if they want to be the host to an undead soldier with ties to the darkest part of our history?” “If you think that will help, go ahead. I was thinking less sarcastically, give them to the Elements of Harmony. They will figure it out. They always do.” The Stallion spoke up, “So, the two of you are no longer the Element bearers?” Celestia shook her head, “Not since that day. They abandoned me, took on new hosts.” Starlight nuzzled the solar princess, “Perhaps, milady, we could meet them before we start killing plants, or you?” “How long do you have before that starts happening?” “Minutes, maybe hours. We have been leeching energy from Lady Lunari at an increased rate since we were awakened, so faster would be better.” “Why her?” “She cast the spell. It was bound to her by default, but together, we draw more than a lone adolescent can handle. It would take great magic to preserve us.” Rebirth“Girls, Princess Celestia has requested our presence, immediately. Something of Legendary proportions.” “Oh, my. Are we going to need to bring anything special? I redesigned Fluttershy’s mission suit, and made one for each of us.” “I don’t think we’ll need those. It’s probably just a meeting. I bet it’s to discuss the Tirek incident.” “Of course. That would make sense, wouldn’t it?” __ “Twilight, you remember the book you found the tale of Nightmare Moon in?” Celestia looked at her prize pupil, knowing that Twilight remembered. The filly had a practically photographic memory. And Celestia knew she had read the whole book. After all, the return was at the back of the book. Twilight nodded, “Yes. Of course.” “Then you remember the part about her Guard.” “Murdered by her own hoof, turned to dust, with only a pair of statues in tribute.” “Yes. At least, that was the way I understood it when it happened,” the solar Princess sighed. Twilight’s eyes widened, “But that wasn’t really all of it, was it? They weren’t statues, were they?” “Not…exactly, no.” “But they’ve been freed now, and they still think Nightmare Moon is in charge, and want to help her take over again?” Pinkie Pie burst into conspiracy mode in an instant. Her idea was immediately squashed with a bony growl, “No. Quite the opposite, in fact.” The pink pony spun around and stared at the skull of the armored stallion, “Who are you?” “Raedfaest Integra. My lady’s knight, Most loyal and honest of those who survived,” he shook his head, the glass eye rattling around in his skull noisily, “Also, close to dying, so if we could hurry these talks up, I would be most appreciative.” Another trotted up, clinking softly, “Raedfaest, where are your manners. We are not going to perish in mere hours,” a second knight travelled up behind Rarity with a soft clanking noise, “Starlight Overdusk, at your service.” Rarity yelped and leapt away from the armor behind her, “There’s two of you?” Raedfaest nodded, “The last two. The, uh…” “The spell matrix, um…It was lethal. Nopony should have survived it. Technically, nopony did.” Twilight looked curiously at Starlight, her horn lighting up, “Can you show me the matrix? I might be able to solve the…problem…You know, make you not die.” Raedfaest shook his head, rattling his eye again, “Too late, filly. At this point, it’s not about keeping us alive, but the Lady.” Twilight glanced over her shoulder at him, “I don’t understand.” “The Matrix, as the Lady built it used Starswirl’s Fifth notebook, the ‘Time to Spare’ spell, as the foundation. Onto that, we built Platinum’s Passive Puppetmaster and Red Sun’s Perfect Preservation to stabilize it as a base. We tied Soul Sword into that, and sealed everything together with Loren’s Life Leech and Stone-heart’s Spirit Shield.” As the undead Pegasus spoke, Twilight used her magic to weave a pattern into the air, “I see. And when it all ties together like this, it turns your personal artifacts into a sort of Phylactery. Those need to draw life off something, so that means you need to remain in a place with a lot of life in it, or find a host with a lot of life. There have been a lot of new developments since the Event.” “Yes, I am led to understand that the Library is currently larger than it is capable of being, at least, on the inside. I assume that means there are many more books there as well.” “Yes, full of spells. I don’t think I’ll need to look for the bits I need though. I need to see your artifacts. And we need hosts, or something,” she started muttering to herself as a second layer of magic formed over the first, bending and warping it, “Let me see. If I use Depth Charge’s Solar Storage here, and Red Sun’s Crystal Ear around it, it can reduce the load on your host. But then there won’t be enough excess power to fit Shatterstar’s Immaterial Tether, so you won’t be able to travel more than one meter from your host without killing them, or yourself.” “Unless we use Red Sun’s Compiling Charge Cascade to build up an impulse first. And lace it through Long Strider’s Ethereal Kudzu to stabilize the weave of the Tether,” the Pegasus was almost as excited as Twilight, and the two were almost muzzle to muzzle through the floating weave. They needed a solution, and they were going to find it. Twilight pulled up a third layer of magic, displaying the layer Starlight had suggested, “Ok, but to cast this chain, we’ll need a few ingredients. Feathers, a perfect circle of identical feathers, Orange specifically. What was it about Long Strider and his attraction to the color Orange? That needs to be laid across the third layer, with a mesh of red hair, one inch grid, across the middle. That has to be sandwiched between two pieces of parchment,” She froze for a moment, “Rainbow Dash, can you get me eight feathers from Scootaloo. They must be identical, they do not need to be primaries. Rarity, do you know anypony with a red mane? I need Twenty-four strands exactly. No less than twelve inches long. Applejack, I need an apple, no less than three inches in diameter or it won’t hold the cascade.” She stared at the matrix for another minute, waiting as Rarity and Rainbow left, “I need hoof shavings from an Earth Pony, ah, a lot of them. Specific breed isn’t important, so Pinkie, Applejack, I’ll need enough bits to fill a cup. The smaller the better. And I’ll need a few more feathers for the Solar Storage, Alicorn specifically, so I’ll need six from you, Princess. None of Luna’s. That could cause the whole thing to collapse catastrophically.” “And two Pegasus W. Humerus bones, powdered, to stabilize the resonance with the original enchantment.” Twilight stopped abruptly, “I’m sorry. What?” “Don’t forget we will need host bodies. They don’t necessarily need to be alive, just intact and unenchanted. One Earth Pony, one Pegasus.” Twilight swore under her breath, “Fluttershy, I hate to ask this of you…” Fluttershy nodded, “I understand, Earth Pony male, Pegasus female. Princess, which way is the morgue?” Both princesses stared, even as the elder pointed, “Fourth door on the left, take the stairs all the way to the bottom. The nurses will direct you to the, uh, ideal bodies.” As Fluttershy flew away, Twilight sat up, placing the three layers on the floor, “I need both artifacts as well. They have to go in the top of the matrix, after I get it charged up. How much time do we have left?” Luna sighed, “Less than a day.” “Ok. Let’s get started. Hoof shavings?” She floated the cup over and poured the bits into a circle on the floor, then lowered the feathers onto the shavings. Starlight shook her wing sleeves out in the center, forming a pair of piles, and carefully started patting the piles down, preparing them for the artifacts. His eye, her crystal tooth. Rarity and Rainbow Dash returned with their components, and Applejack with an apple, all of which Twilight snagged and began placing precisely in the matrix. The artifacts went into their places, and the matrix began to glow under its own power. It quickly became too bright to look directly at, right as Fluttershy arrived with two bodies in tow. Twilight quickly levitated them up into the glowing sphere, “Here we go. In three…Two…One!” The light disappeared in an instant, forming itself around the bodies, lifting them up, and ripping them apart before the room went dark so abruptly that it blinded everypony in the room. __ Raedfaest was the first to regain his sight, his eyes rolling around as he regained his stance. He hadn’t felt pain like this since he was a colt. Still, he stood and opened his eyes, looking around at the floor, at his hoof. His very, very yellow hoof. He slid his hoof along the back of his scalp, yanking a bit of mane out. He looked at the clump. Perfect, pristine apple red. At least his chin felt right, if a little softer than the stony jaw he remembered. At least all his other parts felt like they were in the right place. He turned around to look at where Starlight had been, and froze at the sight of a sky blue Pegasus filly sitting in the armor. A glance at his own back showed that he was still at least partially in his armor, though he had removed his helmet and boots to get his eye out. A brief tap of his face showed that the glass orb was still there. The filly smiled at him, revealing her crystal tooth, “It worked, Raedfaest. We’re alive!” Twilight shook her head, “Not exactly. Your bodies are alive, in a manner of speaking. They will grow, develop, everything that a normal body does. Except for one major change. Any injury will remain indefinitely, and will require magical repair.” “I think I understand. Is there anything else that you mixed into the matrix?” “Yes. The tether. It will allow your Phylacteries to travel as much as five hundred meters from your body, and also prevents them from being damaged as long as they are NOT inside your bodies at the time. Your bodies will not die as long as the Phylactery is not present inside them, so if it looks like you are going to get hurt really bad…” “I am not a child, Lady Twilight. I understand. I will need some time to adjust to this new body before I can get back to my duties, Lady Lunari.” The younger princess cleared her throat, “Actually, my loyal servants, I must ask you to break your eternal oath to me. I no longer require your services at this point in time. You will instead be sent to Ponyville with the Elements of Harmony, where they will help you move back into society, as they did with me when I was first returned to this land. Now, I must rest and recover my power. A carriage will take the eight of you back to Ponyville. Hopefully they can do for you, what they were able to do for me, and your transition to the present day will not be overly harmful to your psyches. Any moreso than what I did to them already.” Raedfaest shook his head, “I understand, Milady. Until we meet again, and when we again fight by your side.” His hooves spread, lowering his muzzle almost to the ground, a comical look in his now oversized armor. Starlight nodded, and matched his pose, slipping out of her armor’s neck hole and stretching her long wings wide.
Arise ”My knights, my guardians for so many centuries. Do you understand the gift you will receive? It is within the power of the moon to grant you what has been gifted to myself. Power beyond imagining, life longer than you can imagine. You will be indestructible, Undying…You will be my Immortals.” A tear traced a single, pure black line down Nightmare Moon’s face as she looked at the five Guardsponies before her. The only five to remain loyal to her when she had claimed the mantle of the Lunar Ascended. But now, her sister was coming to take her on with the others to break their oaths of Eternal service to *both** princesses. She couldn’t allow them to win.* The Nightmare’s horn began to glow, a menacing black that seemed to eat up the light of the flickering candles. It crept down to the floor and surrounded the blue steel boots her Knights wore. Darkness crept up plates of metal forged of fallen Iron, leaving behind nothing but cold in its wake. One of the Knights shuddered as the cold reached his cannon, and fell into the roiling blackness, consumed in an instant. The chill began to creep up haunches and over shoulders. A Pegasus was the next to fall, his body not ready for the cold to unexpectedly reach right through his feathers. A flick of one wing, and he too was consumed in the darkness. Three remained. Neck muscles fought against the urge to move as the chill climbed silent throats. A Unicorn blinked as her eyes glassed over. The corpse was gone before it even had the chance to fall. Two remained, staring blindly at their princess. A Pegasus mare and an Earth Pony Stallion. The doors split open behind them, but neither moved. Neither could. Everypony was gone, leaving two behind, waiting for orders that would never come. __ Princess Luna pushed on a pair of half-rotten doors in the old castle. She hadn’t been down there in over a thousand years. Not since that night. Not since she had lost herself. She carefully stepped around the dusty wreckage and looked at the three suits of almost completely rusted away armor on the floor, then her eyes rose up the rear legs of two armored statues. Beautifully carved. Her hoof, without touching them, gently traced over the individually carved hairs in the tail of the Pegasus. It lightly settled onto the smooth, almost shining flank of the barding. It chilled her hoof, like real metal. Probably marble. But who would have carved two Guardsponies in marble like that. She came around to the front and saw the armored visages. Fully enclosed in the armor, she could still see the little bits of unkempt mane poking through, carved out of something that she swore felt like real hair. That was impossible though. Anything soft enough to bend without breaking would have degraded after so long, but the layers of dust coating the sculptures was thick enough to show that these had been here at least as long as she had been gone. Her hooves gripped the sides of the helmet, wondering if there was another stone beneath the marble, carved into a face. It didn’t move more than a hair, but that was enough to tell her the helmet was not part of the underlying stone. She lit up her horn and reached into the helmet through the eye-slots, and gently held the stone to keep from breaking it as she removed the helmet. The helm touched down on the marble with a loud, reverberating clang, more akin to metal than stone, and with a glance, she saw the blue of traditional Night-Guard armor sitting there on the floor. The dust merely made it appear as stone. Her eyes shot back up to the now exposed face. A perfect stone replica of one of the mares from her dream. A Pegasus, loyal to the end. It couldn’t be her though. She had died, so many years before. Celestia had showed her the grave site of those who died when the Nightmare rose. How, then, was this here? Why had it been carved in this shape, with such detail? She breathed gently on the mare’s ear, whispering the name given to the long dead pony into the cold stone. “Why, Starlight. Why did you die for me?” A deep, gravelly male voice interrupted her before she could even turn to the other statue and find out whose face it had been carved with, “Starlight was allays in yer favor, Lady Lunari, but do I not deserve a pittance of tears as well? I been dead long as she has.” Luna’s head whipped around, looking for the source of the voice, but she was alone. Just the statues, the darkness, and herself still remained in the room. Not even an echo. Then she looked again. The other statue had moved closer, but was still at attention. “Whoever thou be, We demand that thou cease thine behavior before We hath a reason to banish thee!” The statue of the other guard moved suddenly, dust cascading off the blue steel as it approached her and raised a hoof to its brow in a salute. Luna’s jaw dropped, “Impossible!” The armored statue looked at the hoof, then shook it. The sound of dust sliding around and the clanking of bone on metal met her ears, “Prolly, Milady. But what hath happened, hath happened.” “Who art thou?” “Raedfaest, Milady, of Family Integra. Lupus sancti tui, simul.” Luna turned to the statue, gently peeling herself from the statue of Starlight, not noticing the dust and shards of stone in her mane and fur as she got a closer look at the dust covered statue. She placed her hoof on the boot, nail to cleats, and watched as it wiggled in an unnatural manner. After a moment of staring at it, she turned to the helm and looked into the eyes, “Raedfaest, Loyal and trustworthy. Wouldst that I had known sooner.” The stallion removed his helmet, shaking it out and revealing a sight that would have made the lunar princess keel over on the spot, had she not been acquainted with the corpses of the thousands of non-immortal ponies Celestia had banished to the moon over the years. With the exception of a pair of deep, tar black eye sockets, the skull was bare of any distinct markings, save one. A scar on the bone, beneath the left eye, where the cheekbone had been cleaved very nearly off. The scar had been a clear reminder to Raedfaest of both Duty and Instinct. He had taken a spear meant for Luna square in the face. The blade had very nearly taken him out, and would have left him blind in that eye for life, if not for Luna’s influence. “Thine eyes.” The stallion reached up and touched his bony face, then carefully pressed the tip of one armored boot into his damaged socket. With a kind of wheezing laugh, he pulled it back and picked up his helmet, shaking it more vigorously until a glass orb dropped out onto the floor. He picked the orb up, and with eyeless skull, appeared to examine it before holding it before his mouth for several seconds. “Raedfaest, what are thou doing?” “Damn. No breath. I got dust on my eye, and I can’t get it off.” Luna levitated the glass orb away from him and breathed gently on it, wiping the glass against her fur quickly before examining it. The orb stared back. She had ceased to be horrified by the astonishingly realistic iris inside the orb, but now, it amused her. That one preservation trick had worked so flawlessly, while another had failed spectacularly made her want to laugh, but she had more to do. She popped the orb back into the Earth Pony’s empty socket, watching as the blackness inside the socket seemed to catch it and hold it in place, even turning it in circles like the stallion had done when he was bored. She turned to the statue of Starlight and looked at the dust crumbling off another bare skull, “Starlight, please be alive in there. Or at least as alive as Raedfaest is.” The mare shook, and the sound of cracking stone falling to the metal and ricocheting off bone echoed out as the Pegasus shook herself. Her armored wings spread from her sides, bare bones exposed, but connected by a thin film of what looked like lunar magic. “Of course, Milady. Thou gave us very specific orders,” The muzzle was turned in a way that made it appear to be smiling. Luna remembered those orders very well. The last thing she remembered clearly about that night. Those two had been called to her room, and she had given them very specific orders to protect her from the wrath of Celestia, no matter what may come to pass, “I remember, my Guard. Not much after, but my sister tells me I became a monster when she confronted me.” Raedfaest was the first to speak up, “Thou didst indeed. Nightmare Moon, it declared itself. Ordered us around. Gave us…” he trailed off, hooves gesturing to himself “She made us immortal. Our reward for loyalty. Our curse.” “And them?” She pointed to the armor lying on the ground, covered in dust, rusting away. Starlight pressed her bony head to the princesses neck, cradling it against the back of her armor, “They were not…” her head moved like she was trying to find the right word, jaw undulating as a tongue that was no longer there mashed itself inquisitively against the inside of cheeks long since gone “They were weak. Unfit for duty in thine service. Maggots of the Daystar in it for power. Dishonest, Greedy, Unreasonable Bastards. With the exception of that one,” she pointed at the middle, a unicorn, judging by the rust-enlarged eye-slit that crawled up the crest, “She was a bitch. Only wanted the power to lord her immortality over stallions.” Luna stared at her guards. The two most loyal, most honest, kindest of her guard. They had given their own lives for her, literally. She could feel that her magic reserves had dropped far more than would have been necessary for the simple levitations, but not nearly enough for a reanimation protocol. If that was even possible. Even returning them from being made of stone was hard enough. It was why Starswirl the Bearded remained in the library, with a young mare dusting him off every few days and occasionally turning a page in one of the ancient texts she thought she was pretending he was reading. “But thou represented more than vice. Virtues that saved thou.” Raedfaest let out a sound that may have been intended to be a laugh, but without lungs, or a throat, it came out as a grinding sort of sound, “Always knew that vow of Celibacy would come back to bite me. Hey, Star, now that we’re, you know, dead?” “I told thou then, and will repeat mine self, Not if thou were the last stallion on Equuis. And clearly, thou art not.” “Guards. I will NOT tolerate fighting in my service. Now, Ready thyselves. Mine sister will be here soon. Thou will make a good impression on her and her student or I will find a way to end your unlives.” Bones clacked on steel as the two Night-Guards helmed themselves and stamped their hooves to attention. “Attend Us.” Luna trotted out of the room, dodging the rubble once more as her two Guard followed. On reaching the stairs, she reflected a moonbeam into the corridor to check that her millennia old guards were still presentable. They were. Impeccably so, despite the dust. “Remember thine orders. They still stand, though my sister is no longer a threat to me.” Hooves clacked a salute, “Yes, Lady Luna.”
Drain“Luna, you told me you had to come to the old castle to check on something. Alone. I need to know why, for your own safe…” Celestia’s voice cut off as she saw the two armored figures behind her sister. She recognized the style of the armor. It hadn’t been made in centuries, let alone in that color for nearly a millennium. That was the armor of the old Night Guard, the ones who had turned in their armor, or worse, turned traitor, when the Nightmare had risen. But those looked flawlessly preserved, and the two Guardsponies stood at attention in the ancient manner she had grown accustomed to. Neither held a weapon, which in itself was unusual. Her eyes were drawn to a glint of blue from the larger’s eye-slit, and leaned closer to look, “Guards, I do not recognize you in that armor. State your name, please.” “Raedfaest Integra. Legio Nocturne Immortalus.” “Starlight Overdusk. Legio Nocturne Immortalus.” Both together concluded, “First and Last Regiment, Lady Celestial Solus Faustdatter.” The two Pegasi who had escorted Celestia to her sister’s location just stared. Then immediately glanced at each-other, then Celestia herself. Celestia turned to them, and stopped, her horn glowing softly as she erased the last few moments of their memory. She did not need the kind of stress that came with the low guard knowing her true-name. She spoke softly, “Leave us be. I will call if you are needed,” the Pegasi flew away quickly as Celestia cast a silence spell and scowled at the two Night Guard. The Royal Canterlot Voice burst out of her throat, “WHAT IN FAUSTS NAME ARE YOU DOING! NOPONY ALIVE KNOWS MY NAME BUT LUNA!” The sheer force of her words would have been enough to erase the memories of any pony who had learned her true name recently, and wasn’t an Alicorn. She looked at Luna as the two Guardsponies shook their heads. Not dazed shaking, but scornful, “Luna, explain.” “Sister, I believe you already know my loyalist Guard. You killed most of them.” Celestia stared at her sister for a long minute, “You were turning your own Guard to dust. Tartarus, you built a shrine to yourself in the basement, with two statues even. A…” it dawned on her that the two Guardsponies behind her sister were identical matches to the stone ponies in the basement. “Those suits of armor you built on the statues, they were cursed, weren’t they?” The larger of the two guards shook his head sadly, “Not the armor, Lady Celestial. The pony inside.” “But, that means she was able to turn you to stone without the Elements of Harmony, and turn you back without killing you,” her mind was spinning at a thousand trots a second, “We can finally free Starswirl!” “No, sister. We cannot. I didn’t free them from the stone.” “But they’re moving, and alive, aren’t they?” Celestia was so close to jumping for joy when she saw the smaller of the two remove their helmet, revealing a skull. Bleach-white, completely without flaws. Completely without life, but she knew the skull was looking at her, even as the Guard spread a pair of skeletonized wings. “Necromancy?” “Not exactly. I think the Nightmare made them, well, Immortal in a way. I don’t know how, exactly, but I intend to find out. I need to know what I did, so I can fix it.” The two Guard looked at Luna, and the taller spoke up, gravelly and rough, “Lady Lunari, you cannot. Returning us to mortality would kill us as soundly as any death spell would.” “I did not give you that curse to suffer for eternity. You do not deserve to suffer for my mistakes.” The guard reared up, and Celestia finally figured out that it was male by the contour of the belly-plates, before grabbing his helmet and removing it in a way that would be sure to injure a normal pony. He twisted it and shook the metal form several times until a glass orb fell into his hoof. He pressed it back into the socket in his skull, “Lady Celestial, Thou knowest me before. Even when I had mine life within me, mine own, that is, I swore loyalty to thine sibling for so long as I couldst draw mine blade. Give me a blade once more, that I wouldst raise it in defense once more.” Celestia stared at him. Yes, she had known both of them. She had seen the statues, had inspected them, even personally studied them inside and out for any hidden magic. She had found none, yet here they stood. No traces of Necromantic magic in them either. “How are you still moving if you do not draw breath?” His muzzle shook up and down with a clattering of bone on metal, “I have no idea, Milady. The details were sparse. The Nightmare said she was making us immortal. Not undying.” Celestia groaned, “Fine. Look, my sister has new guards, who aren’t skeletons, and won’t terrify everypony. I can assign you to her personal guard, but you will not be participating in any out-of-armor events, do you understand?” “I do. But, I fear that you are mistaken,” Starlight pulled her boot off and shook it, dumping her arm bones onto the ground, and put the boot back on after shaking out her hoof, “We are not skeletons. I may have participated somewhat more in-depth in my own curse than I revealed to your sister. She does not remember everything she did, and I wish to keep it that way as long as possible, for her sake. The spell required a number of Pegasus feathers, identical in every way, laid out in a circle around her in order to work properly. Mine were donated to the cause. As was a measure of Raedfaest’s blood and etchings from the Nightmare’s horn.” “Why her horn and not a Unicorn horn?” “Specifics. I was a chemist before the Guard recruited me. The difference between Alicorn and Unicorn horn shavings is very specific. Without it, we would have died right then and there, turned to stone for real.” “So why did you two survive and the others didn’t?” “Part of the spell. It was never meant to take two at a time, let alone five. I imagine the extra drain was partially responsible for us seeing Lady Lunari before us again. Unfortunately, the spell was never meant to preserve the flesh. Only the mind.” “I thought I banned all of those kinds of spells, after I used one on Starswirl to preserve his mind until his body could be restored. He didn’t forgive me for almost six hundred years.” The Pegasus bowed deeply, “Say hello again to the greatest bucking thief in all of Equuis.” Celestia stared at the suit of armor, now wearing her crown, “How?” “Part of the curse. The body is merely a physical restriction of the mind. Without the body, the mind takes on traits more like its natural state,” her hooves pointed back to herself, “A cloud, for example,” pointed to the Stallion across from her, “or a solid stone. Go ahead. Hit him. Whack him as hard as you dare.” “What? Even if he was made of stone, not armor with a skeleton in it, I’d take his head off.” “Lady Celestial, I promise you, we are more than that. And, at the same time, less. Now that the stasis spell has broken, our armor will begin to degrade. We will need things from you to survive.” Celestia looked at them, trying to figure out what to do about these two, “What would you need to survive? And to pass for normal ponies?” The Pegasus dropped on her belly, armored hooves pounding the dirt as an airless laugh pushed out of the skull, “We will be never again normal. The spell will force us upon new hosts. Artifacts, our souls themselves, are trapped in our artifacts. Take them, give them to another pony, our hosts, and we will be able to survive.” Celestia was about to respond that she couldn’t do that. She couldn’t give up two ponies for two others, when Luna interrupted, “Sister, I remember reading about the spell, before the Nightmare. They will not harm the hosts. They were never intended to be trapped in the armor.” “What do you mean, never meant to be? Of course they wouldn’t have intentionally trapped a soul in a suit of armor. Tartarus, I can’t even remember one that allowed a soul to animate anything.” Starlight’s chin turned up, and with her hooves, she pushed some grass up on the sides of her muzzle to mimic a smirk, “Soul Sword. Starswirl the Bearded, notebook Fifteen, Mind Altering Spells and Traps. Binds the soul of the target into the included object. Often used to rip the soul out of adventurers and imprison them in puzzle boxes for the trap-setter to later destroy.” “But the targets of that spell became immobile. I used it on Starswirl’s stone body to keep his mind tethered to it. And that one doesn’t require Pegasus feathers at all.” “No. But Platinum’s Passive Puppetmaster does.” “You mean you’re just puppeting your own armor around?” “Not exactly. See. Entrapped minds cannot utilize that spell. But Loren’s Life Leech allows an entrapped mind to cast spells as though a Unicorn, such as Platinum’s Passive Puppetmaster.” “Which can only be cast by Unicorns and Alicorns.” “Exactly why it had to be cast ON us. That was why we needed Earth Pony blood.” “So you’re saying a simple Dispel Magic on you would kill you instantly?” The Stallion shook his head side to side, bones crashing around in it, and the Pegasus continued, “That was the reason we had another Earth Pony and Pegasus in the room. Stone-heart’s Spirit Shield, blocks Dispel Magic up to class seven. Not Alicorn level by itself, but enhanced by the class fifteen default of an adolescent Alicorn, it has a much higher break strength. You could probably dispel it, unless there was an unexpected interaction between Soul Sword and Spirit Shield. Even if it does work, it probably won’t do more than make us immobile artifacts.” “So you need the hosts why? I didn’t hear anything in there that requires a host body.” A huff from Luna this time, “Sister, what is the first spell Starswirl always told us to cast before we started a large scale enchantment?” “Body Bind? So the spell would default to leeching power from the user’s body, rather than the environment?” “Yes. Now, you’ll notice the lack of bodies in my guards. They will need hosts to supply enough magic to maintain the Body Bind, else they will begin to consume the forest at a great rate. It was why the castle never had anything living in it while I was gone. I suspect life will return to it soon.” “So how am I supposed to find hosts? Just go around and ask everypony if they want to be the host to an undead soldier with ties to the darkest part of our history?” “If you think that will help, go ahead. I was thinking less sarcastically, give them to the Elements of Harmony. They will figure it out. They always do.” The Stallion spoke up, “So, the two of you are no longer the Element bearers?” Celestia shook her head, “Not since that day. They abandoned me, took on new hosts.” Starlight nuzzled the solar princess, “Perhaps, milady, we could meet them before we start killing plants, or you?” “How long do you have before that starts happening?” “Minutes, maybe hours. We have been leeching energy from Lady Lunari at an increased rate since we were awakened, so faster would be better.” “Why her?” “She cast the spell. It was bound to her by default, but together, we draw more than a lone adolescent can handle. It would take great magic to preserve us.”
Rebirth“Girls, Princess Celestia has requested our presence, immediately. Something of Legendary proportions.” “Oh, my. Are we going to need to bring anything special? I redesigned Fluttershy’s mission suit, and made one for each of us.” “I don’t think we’ll need those. It’s probably just a meeting. I bet it’s to discuss the Tirek incident.” “Of course. That would make sense, wouldn’t it?” __ “Twilight, you remember the book you found the tale of Nightmare Moon in?” Celestia looked at her prize pupil, knowing that Twilight remembered. The filly had a practically photographic memory. And Celestia knew she had read the whole book. After all, the return was at the back of the book. Twilight nodded, “Yes. Of course.” “Then you remember the part about her Guard.” “Murdered by her own hoof, turned to dust, with only a pair of statues in tribute.” “Yes. At least, that was the way I understood it when it happened,” the solar Princess sighed. Twilight’s eyes widened, “But that wasn’t really all of it, was it? They weren’t statues, were they?” “Not…exactly, no.” “But they’ve been freed now, and they still think Nightmare Moon is in charge, and want to help her take over again?” Pinkie Pie burst into conspiracy mode in an instant. Her idea was immediately squashed with a bony growl, “No. Quite the opposite, in fact.” The pink pony spun around and stared at the skull of the armored stallion, “Who are you?” “Raedfaest Integra. My lady’s knight, Most loyal and honest of those who survived,” he shook his head, the glass eye rattling around in his skull noisily, “Also, close to dying, so if we could hurry these talks up, I would be most appreciative.” Another trotted up, clinking softly, “Raedfaest, where are your manners. We are not going to perish in mere hours,” a second knight travelled up behind Rarity with a soft clanking noise, “Starlight Overdusk, at your service.” Rarity yelped and leapt away from the armor behind her, “There’s two of you?” Raedfaest nodded, “The last two. The, uh…” “The spell matrix, um…It was lethal. Nopony should have survived it. Technically, nopony did.” Twilight looked curiously at Starlight, her horn lighting up, “Can you show me the matrix? I might be able to solve the…problem…You know, make you not die.” Raedfaest shook his head, rattling his eye again, “Too late, filly. At this point, it’s not about keeping us alive, but the Lady.” Twilight glanced over her shoulder at him, “I don’t understand.” “The Matrix, as the Lady built it used Starswirl’s Fifth notebook, the ‘Time to Spare’ spell, as the foundation. Onto that, we built Platinum’s Passive Puppetmaster and Red Sun’s Perfect Preservation to stabilize it as a base. We tied Soul Sword into that, and sealed everything together with Loren’s Life Leech and Stone-heart’s Spirit Shield.” As the undead Pegasus spoke, Twilight used her magic to weave a pattern into the air, “I see. And when it all ties together like this, it turns your personal artifacts into a sort of Phylactery. Those need to draw life off something, so that means you need to remain in a place with a lot of life in it, or find a host with a lot of life. There have been a lot of new developments since the Event.” “Yes, I am led to understand that the Library is currently larger than it is capable of being, at least, on the inside. I assume that means there are many more books there as well.” “Yes, full of spells. I don’t think I’ll need to look for the bits I need though. I need to see your artifacts. And we need hosts, or something,” she started muttering to herself as a second layer of magic formed over the first, bending and warping it, “Let me see. If I use Depth Charge’s Solar Storage here, and Red Sun’s Crystal Ear around it, it can reduce the load on your host. But then there won’t be enough excess power to fit Shatterstar’s Immaterial Tether, so you won’t be able to travel more than one meter from your host without killing them, or yourself.” “Unless we use Red Sun’s Compiling Charge Cascade to build up an impulse first. And lace it through Long Strider’s Ethereal Kudzu to stabilize the weave of the Tether,” the Pegasus was almost as excited as Twilight, and the two were almost muzzle to muzzle through the floating weave. They needed a solution, and they were going to find it. Twilight pulled up a third layer of magic, displaying the layer Starlight had suggested, “Ok, but to cast this chain, we’ll need a few ingredients. Feathers, a perfect circle of identical feathers, Orange specifically. What was it about Long Strider and his attraction to the color Orange? That needs to be laid across the third layer, with a mesh of red hair, one inch grid, across the middle. That has to be sandwiched between two pieces of parchment,” She froze for a moment, “Rainbow Dash, can you get me eight feathers from Scootaloo. They must be identical, they do not need to be primaries. Rarity, do you know anypony with a red mane? I need Twenty-four strands exactly. No less than twelve inches long. Applejack, I need an apple, no less than three inches in diameter or it won’t hold the cascade.” She stared at the matrix for another minute, waiting as Rarity and Rainbow left, “I need hoof shavings from an Earth Pony, ah, a lot of them. Specific breed isn’t important, so Pinkie, Applejack, I’ll need enough bits to fill a cup. The smaller the better. And I’ll need a few more feathers for the Solar Storage, Alicorn specifically, so I’ll need six from you, Princess. None of Luna’s. That could cause the whole thing to collapse catastrophically.” “And two Pegasus W. Humerus bones, powdered, to stabilize the resonance with the original enchantment.” Twilight stopped abruptly, “I’m sorry. What?” “Don’t forget we will need host bodies. They don’t necessarily need to be alive, just intact and unenchanted. One Earth Pony, one Pegasus.” Twilight swore under her breath, “Fluttershy, I hate to ask this of you…” Fluttershy nodded, “I understand, Earth Pony male, Pegasus female. Princess, which way is the morgue?” Both princesses stared, even as the elder pointed, “Fourth door on the left, take the stairs all the way to the bottom. The nurses will direct you to the, uh, ideal bodies.” As Fluttershy flew away, Twilight sat up, placing the three layers on the floor, “I need both artifacts as well. They have to go in the top of the matrix, after I get it charged up. How much time do we have left?” Luna sighed, “Less than a day.” “Ok. Let’s get started. Hoof shavings?” She floated the cup over and poured the bits into a circle on the floor, then lowered the feathers onto the shavings. Starlight shook her wing sleeves out in the center, forming a pair of piles, and carefully started patting the piles down, preparing them for the artifacts. His eye, her crystal tooth. Rarity and Rainbow Dash returned with their components, and Applejack with an apple, all of which Twilight snagged and began placing precisely in the matrix. The artifacts went into their places, and the matrix began to glow under its own power. It quickly became too bright to look directly at, right as Fluttershy arrived with two bodies in tow. Twilight quickly levitated them up into the glowing sphere, “Here we go. In three…Two…One!” The light disappeared in an instant, forming itself around the bodies, lifting them up, and ripping them apart before the room went dark so abruptly that it blinded everypony in the room. __ Raedfaest was the first to regain his sight, his eyes rolling around as he regained his stance. He hadn’t felt pain like this since he was a colt. Still, he stood and opened his eyes, looking around at the floor, at his hoof. His very, very yellow hoof. He slid his hoof along the back of his scalp, yanking a bit of mane out. He looked at the clump. Perfect, pristine apple red. At least his chin felt right, if a little softer than the stony jaw he remembered. At least all his other parts felt like they were in the right place. He turned around to look at where Starlight had been, and froze at the sight of a sky blue Pegasus filly sitting in the armor. A glance at his own back showed that he was still at least partially in his armor, though he had removed his helmet and boots to get his eye out. A brief tap of his face showed that the glass orb was still there. The filly smiled at him, revealing her crystal tooth, “It worked, Raedfaest. We’re alive!” Twilight shook her head, “Not exactly. Your bodies are alive, in a manner of speaking. They will grow, develop, everything that a normal body does. Except for one major change. Any injury will remain indefinitely, and will require magical repair.” “I think I understand. Is there anything else that you mixed into the matrix?” “Yes. The tether. It will allow your Phylacteries to travel as much as five hundred meters from your body, and also prevents them from being damaged as long as they are NOT inside your bodies at the time. Your bodies will not die as long as the Phylactery is not present inside them, so if it looks like you are going to get hurt really bad…” “I am not a child, Lady Twilight. I understand. I will need some time to adjust to this new body before I can get back to my duties, Lady Lunari.” The younger princess cleared her throat, “Actually, my loyal servants, I must ask you to break your eternal oath to me. I no longer require your services at this point in time. You will instead be sent to Ponyville with the Elements of Harmony, where they will help you move back into society, as they did with me when I was first returned to this land. Now, I must rest and recover my power. A carriage will take the eight of you back to Ponyville. Hopefully they can do for you, what they were able to do for me, and your transition to the present day will not be overly harmful to your psyches. Any moreso than what I did to them already.” Raedfaest shook his head, “I understand, Milady. Until we meet again, and when we again fight by your side.” His hooves spread, lowering his muzzle almost to the ground, a comical look in his now oversized armor. Starlight nodded, and matched his pose, slipping out of her armor’s neck hole and stretching her long wings wide.
