Princess Celestia was in her royal bathtub. It was one of the most, if not the most beautiful bathrooms in all of Equestria, its wide walls made of marble adorned with golden motifs of the sun, the bathtub being more of an indoor pool made to give the ruler of Equestria the most pleasant of times. Currently she was busy pouring bathing salts into the bathtub.
“Ah... this is life.“ said Celestia.
She was interrupted by a heavy thumping on the door.
“Ah, come on!“ she groaned, “What is it?” she shouted towards the door.
“Ma’am, sorry to interrupt you,“ a male voice shouted back, Celestia recognized the voice of one of her personal guards, “but the sun, it's changing color!“
“What do you mean by–“ suddenly a strange feeling began to fill Celestia, she could feel a lump forming on her throat, tension began to form on her withers, and she could clearly feel something alien affecting the sun –her sun–, this caused her to immediately jump out of the bathtub and out of the bathroom, ignoring the blushing guard that tried not to look at her naked, wet figure, she continued walking towards the balcony in her room, and as soon as she opened the doors that lead to it, a terrible sight caused her to reel back in shock:
The sun –HER sun– had become red, bloody red.
She managed to get ahold of herself enough to turn her head towards the still blushing guard, said guard cowered before her gaze, which was full of anger, “Ready our troops, I want two units ready NOW! “ she practically shouted.
The guard quickly regained his composure and he rushed outside the room. Celestia´s horn flickered with magic as she summoned a parchment and a quill, lifting both with her magic she began to furiously write down a letter directed towards the now Princess Twilight Sparkle:
To my faithful student
Dear Twilight,
I’m sure you already saw the new color in the sun, I want you to gather the elements of council of friendship and be ready for when I call you, in the meantime investigate any possible causes of this phenomenon.
We will be doing our part here in Canterlot.
Princess Celestia
She quickly rolled the parchment and with another flick of her horn the parchment disappeared in green flames.
Celestia closed her eyes as she began to concentrate on the magics that permeated the sun, she could feel her own power influencing the sun and she also felt something… foreign. This power was moving around, encircling the sun; she tried to push it away with her own, but every time she tried to influence it, it simply didn’t move. This power felt... absolute and… unnatural. She was interrupted by a flash in the room.
A dark-blue alicorn stood in front of Celestia, in her face she could clearly see worry, “Sister! “ she shouted in an actually manageable tone, “Somepony is messing with our moon! What is the meaning of this!“
Celestia opened her mouth in shock. “The moon? Too? “
Luna raised her eyebrow, “Too? “ she repeated, then it hit her. “Is the sun affected too? “
Celestia silently lifted a foreleg and pointed it towards the now open balcony. Luna turned her head towards it and the sight of the red sun made her gasp and reel back in shock.
“W-who? “ she managed to mutter. “Why? “
“I don´t know sister, but we are going to find out. “
Author's Note
Well, this is my first fic, so feel free to give me any help to make me a better writer.
And please, be brutal with the orthography, I like my stories nice and clean.
Princess Celestia looked towards Canterlot from her balcony, from there point she could see ponies going around, minding their business, however, she could see them moving with wariness, eyeing each other, she even saw a stallion jump back in surprise when he bumped somepony, Celestia could relate to them. Three days have passed since both the sun and the moon changed color and both the royal guard and the princesses have been on high alert, expecting something to happen.
“But nothing. “ Celestia whispered. “Still nothing. “
She put a foreleg on the back of her neck, trying to massage her tense withers to no avail, she just lowered her head and sighed before going back to her room. Said room was surprisingly spartan, it barely had any amenities but a desktop, a small bookshelf on one side, and her bed, covered in pillows next to a perch where her pet phoenix Philomena was perched at the moment and a chimney on the other. Currently her desktop was riddled with books, some open and covered with notes. She sat on a pillow in front of it.
Celestia frowned as she began to read to herself.
“Alright, there are two kinds of magical interference, “ she opened a book and read a part of it, “The indirect way, whiiiiich... “ she read a small hoofnote on the page, “Can be caused by either unicorn flares or strange phenomena, “ she changed the page with her magic, “Said interferences affect the immediate surrounding area and stop after the unicorn stops or the phenomena ends, “ She closed said book and opened another, “The direct way…“ she trailed off as her frown increased, “Is deliberately caused by an unicorn or a magical artifact with the intention of interference,“ she opened another book, “These can be stopped by either forcefully stopping the source of interference or by forcefully removing it, however,“ a bead of sweat began to form on her forehead, “In order to do so, the affected needs to be more skilled or powerful than the affecter,“ this made her more tense so she decided to close the book and refresh herself.
Celestia entered her bathroom and walked towards a big mirror on her vanity table and she took a look at herself: everything looking fine –Mighty fine if she could say so– except for the bags around her eyes, and after glaring at them for a while she closed her eyes gave a deep sight. As she walked towards her desktop she reminded herself to call the maidens for some coffee.
In her room her sister awaited, she was carrying a grimace on her face.
“Greetings, sister. “ Princess Luna to her said in an even tone.
“Hello, Lulu, didn’t hear you enter. “ Celestia answered.
Luna turned her back on her as she began to roam Celestia’s room, stopping in front of the perch where Philomena was, after looking at her of a while she extended a foreleg for Philomena to stand on. The phoenix looked at said foreleg warily before jumping towards it. This caused Luna to smile softly, her grimace returning shortly after.
“What are your findings, Tia? “ She said without looking at her.
“Long story short: somepony is doing it of using something to do so. “
“We came to the same conclusion, Tia. “ Luna was still not looking at her, “Sister, you know that the act of moving the celestial bodies requires an enormous amount of power, and by proxy changing the color of them also does.“ Luna extended her wing and used it to caress the phoenix in her foreleg for some time before speaking again. “If somepony is using an artifact to cause this, we will simply retrieve said artifact, but, “ she lowered her head, “If somepony is causing this… we must be ready. “
“And we are sister, I have sent my guard to sweep the country looking for an anomaly; I assume you did the same.“
“And you would be right, but I am afraid nothing noteworthy has been found. “
“Same here. “
Both sisters remained silent, the only sound the happy chirping of Philomena while it nuzzled Luna.
“I do not like this Tia. “ Luna broke the silence. “We have faced many enemies in the past, enough times to recognize when somepony is taunting us, mocking us by tainting the source of our cutie marks. Yet what worries me is that this… enemy has not made a move against us, or Equestria. That means she or he is expecting us to make our move, add that we do not know anything about her… or him and…–“ Luna finally turned her head towards Celestia “–I do not like this sister. “ she finished in an almost pleading tone.
“I don’t like this either, Luna, “ Celestia picked her tone, Luna probably wanted her to have a solution, just like she had a solution for any problem that arose in Equestria, “And you are right, the enemy probably wants us to make a wrong move before attacking, but we will not blindly do anything, that’s why I tasked Princess Twilight with finding a way to locate our enemy, “ Celestia smiled, she knew that Twilight would do that, and more, “And by knowing her or his location, we will act. “ she looked at Luna with her own hopeful eyes, “How does that sound sister? “
“That sounds... acceptable. “ Luna let Philomena go back to its perch, “I only hope that she finishes her task with haste, for our subjects grow weary of this situation, “ Luna walked towards Celestia “Now, in other matters…“ Celestia raised an eyebrow, she didn’t remember anything of importance that required her attention.
“You should really get some sleep, sister. “
Two unicorn guards stood at the entrance of Canterlot castle, their unwavering gaze staring towards the horizon with the pose and discipline that only years of harsh training could teach. For then the red sun in the sky meant nothing, for their duty was to guard the entrance and nothing more.
So to them the sheer amount of ponies walking in and out was nothing, they simply stood there, discreetly eyeing the flood of visitors looking for anything suspicious. They walked through the castle gates silently, not even sparing a glance at them and minding their own business. That until they heard a voice calling for them.
“I could use some help here!“
As one guard moved his head toward the source of the voice, the other kept eyeing the visitors, in case they this was a distraction. Spotting the caller was rather easy, thanks to the ponies giving way to the blue mare that was walking towards him. The first thing that the guard noticed is the pony walking alongside her.
It was a fellow guard, Pegasus to be exact, and he was badly injured, from where he could see several parts of his armor were dented, especially the chest area, his hoof shoes were missing too, and his face was a mess. It was barely recognizable due to the bumps in his eyes and due to the way his muzzle was broken and bent in an unnatural way. And to top it off, his normally pristine coat was covered both in blood and dirt.
He was barely able to stand on his own, often needing to lean on the mare to prevent falling. The guard briefly wondered what could have hurt him that much. But instead he turned his head towards his partner, giving him a questioning gaze, he, in turn casted a spell before nodding towards him, he then began to rush toward his injured comrade.
As soon as he got in from of them the injured he asked worriedly.
“What happened?“
He tried to say something but was unable to do so.
The uninjured guard was about to speak but he was interrupted by a pair of ponies with red cross caps pushing a stretcher towards them. When they were next to them they lowered the stretcher and gently pulled the injured guard away from the mare and set him on the stretcher.
“Don't worry, we got you.“
That's the last thing he heard before the paramedics took him away.
“Is he going to be alright?“
The guard looked toward the mare and he could clearly see the look of worry on her face. From that he could conclude that she was not there during the fight, but rather found him afterwards. Otherwise she would have a shocked look.
“He will, ma'am,“ he flashed her a genuine smile, “thanks to your efforts.“
The mare blushed at the comment, “Oh, it was nothing, I just found him during my morning walk.“
The guard returned to his stoic behavior, “Where, exactly?“
“Well, I usually walk around the outer forest,“ the mare put a hoof under her chin, “mmmmhhh, he was in the southern lookout, I believe.“
“Ma'am, do you mind filling a report detailing what you saw?“
The mare made a serious face, “Not at all, I'd like to have the brute that did this to that poor guard behind bars as soon as possible.“
“Glad to hear that, ma'am, follow me then.“
“Oh, stop calling me ma'am, you make me feel old, call me Bouquet.“
“Understood, Miss Bouquet“ The guard said as they walked towards the castle.
The first thing that Swift Sword saw when she woke up was a white ceiling, where white lamps lighted the room, flickering from time to time.
He looked around the room to get used to his surroundings. The room was adorned with nothing but a bed stand with an empty vase and the bed he was on.
He tried to leave his bed but his injuries made themselves known, making him hiss in pain. His attempt did not go unnoticed, for he heard hoof steps outside his room. Shortly after another guard, this time an earth pony walked in, and by looking at the markings on her armor, Swift Sword found that she was one of the Lieutenants of Shining Armor's personal unit. She took a long look at him, as if to make sure she had his attention before she spoke.
“Good morning, Sergeant Sword, I am sorry for bothering you while you are injured, but as you know we are in high alert due to the sun and moon changing color, and this attack on your being is the only thing that has happened thus far, so I hope you understand that we want your report as soon as possible, do you understand.“
Sword nodded.
“Good. So. What happened?“
Sword closed his eyes, “I... I am sorry miss...“
“Call me Goldenrod.“
“Yes.. I am sorry Miss Goldenrod but I just woke up, and my mind is a bit cloudy so I may forget a detail or two.“
“It's alright Sergeant Sword. Can I just call you Sword? I don't like formalities. I have what you need here,“ She pulled a small bottle out of her mane and opened it, she offered the contents to Sword, “Have a sip, it's a memory potion, it will help you remember.“
Suddenly remembered how thirsty he was Sword took the bottle and gulped it down. Memories of what happened came back to him almost immediately, overwhelming him.
“I remember.“ He said in mild shock.
“Good, tell me.“
“It was around 2 am, I was patrolling the southern lookout when I saw a dark brown unicorn, he was looking at the moon, and I was directly behind him. Ponies tend to do that you know? But they didn't because of the red moon so I walked up to him and before I could say anything he talked to me.“
“What did he say?“
“''Finally, a challenger approaches.'' He didn’t even turned his head to see me.“
“Did he say anything else?“
“Yes, he turned around and said: ''You who are trained to kill, face me!''“
Goldenrod's face tightened, “Just like that?“
“Yes... then I saw his eyes.“
“What's wrong with his eyes?“
“They were black, and his pupils, they were a red ring, then black again then a red dot. Those were not pony eyes.“
“Did you fight him?“
“No. I was too distracted by his eyes, and before I knew it, he stamped his hoof in my chest.“
“Well, that explains some injuries.“
“After that... he just beat me up.“
“Beat you up“ Goldenrod questioned.
“I wish I could explained any other way but, he just destroyed me.“
“Didn't you have your spear? Why didn't you fight back?“
“I tried! I swear!“ he shouted, “But he was too fast! I couldn't even lay a hit on him!“
“Relax Sword, I am not here to question your skills, I am just trying to get the picture.“
Sword sighed, “Sorry.“
“No problem. Did you try to fly away?“
“Yes, but he did a really big jump and then slammed me to the ground with a hit of his hoof.“ his ears lowered in defeat, “It was so fast...“
“We will get him Sword.“
He managed to give a small smile.
“I know we will.“
After a short silence Goldenrod continued.
“Anything else.“
“He just continued to beat me until I couldn't move. After I could only hear him mocking me.“
Goldenrod stopped him.
“Wait, he is an unicorn right?“ Sword nodded, “You haven't mentioned anything about him using magic.“
“Because he didn't. From the looks of things he didn't need to.“
“I don't like this.“ Goldenrod muttered to herself, “Well, what did he say?“
“You are weak and pathetic, worthless in a fight to the death.“
“Anything else?“
“Oh, yes, now that I think about it he kept muttering these words to himself while we fought.“
“Which words?“
“He kept saying ''Messatsu'' and ''Shoshi'' or ''Shoushi'' I'm nor sure. That's all I think. I'm sorry.“
“Don't be.“ Goldenrod put a hoof on the bed Sword was laying on, “Rest for now soldier, I will report this to the Captain and to Princess Celestia on your behalf.“
“To the Princess?“ If he wasn't before Sword was now aware of the importance they put on his encounter.
“Yes, she was very interested in this... incident. Anyways, I'll keep you informed Swift Sword, see you.“
With that she left the room. Goldenrod went immediately to the throne room to report her findings to Princess Celestia.
