Red and Black 2

As night fell upon the lands, a lone figure stalked through the halls of Canterlot’s palace, wearing a cloak that overshadowed most of their features. The only things poking out from beneath the hood were a gnarled, crimson horn and a crimson muzzle with a white lower jaw. Guards stationed before a pair of grand double doors stared at the figure.

"I wish to see Princess Luna," the figure spoke with a distinct feminine voice, giving the guards the barest glimpse of fangs as her mouth moved.

The guards exchanged glances before one of them turned to the figure and replied, "But she already has an audience at this time."

"Royal Court, I assume?" the figure asked cryptically, lifting her muzzle slightly. This enabled the guards to see a pair of golden eyes glaring at them, with slit pupils sizing them up and down. "I received a letter from Shining Armor himself. This matter is of utmost urgency." Her horn gave a cyan blue glow, which materialized into flames that danced for a bit before they then transformed into a closed scroll bearing a crystal clear, heart-shaped stamp.

The guards exchanged another glance, this time with their brows slanting. Then they turned back to the figure and nodded. She nodded back and put the scroll in her fanged mouth before using her magic to open the door, revealing Celestia and Luna sitting at the far end of the room and nobles lining either side of the room as a red and black alicorn stallion began parading back and forth, left and right.

She trotted inside and quickly sat next to a noble mare, if only to avoid being detected. She listened intently as to what the red and black monster that had somehow gotten into Royal Court had to say. "... so you see, Princess Luna, I must stress that for the good of the world you and I must be wed. The same applies to Celestia," the alicorn stallion began with a cocky grin on his face. Despite a swift booing of the nobles he went on, "And we must also cleanse this world of anything that isn't a purebred alicorn like myself."

Every non-alicorn noble at in the room laughed heartily and dismissively; even some of the guards quietly chuckled at the sheer absurdity of what they were listening to. Luna on the other hoof raised both brows questioningly. "By 'cleanse,' you mean…"

"Wholesale genocide, yes," the stallion replied in an amused tone meant to pass off as a quip. The peanut gallery just laughed that much harder. The cloaked pony would have done the same if she didn't hold a scroll in her mouth, but she did manage a toothy grin nonetheless.

"And why must we 'cleanse' the world of all non-alicorns? There'd be no need for money, an economy, farms… and let us not forget, a kingdom if such a thing were to transpire," Luna pointed out, garnering a short-lived applause from noble and guard alike. "Why, I daresay, even culture would cease to exist in such an event."

From somewhere in the crowd, Blueblood piped up, "I agree with my beloved Auntie Lulu that the entire notion you have proposed is beyond ludicrous, not to mention insubstantial and impossible."

"Good to know Blusey has some sense after all," the cloaked figure muttered under her breath through the scroll. She watched as the stallion waved a hoof dismissively.

"No it isn't," the alicorn abomination argued. "Because with one ruling sapient species, we could advance technology beyond our wildest dreams, and then conquer the galaxy." Again, he got a round of booing, but that didn't seem to faze him in the slightest.

Another noble, a duchess with a crisp, cyan coat and dark blue mane stood up and spoke her piece. “Do you not realize, sir... “ she waited for him to repeat his name, as she was not paying attention when it was first spoken.

“I am Sir Golden Gelding of Asgard. Our kind has made that place a refuge for us, and like minded ponies. And a few ponies who wished to attain the secret of ascension.”

Uproarious laughter, even from Celestia and some from Luna, filled the banquet hall. The duchess who initially spoke tried not to laugh herself silly.

“S-sir Gelding,” she paused and cleared her throat, blushing, “Do you not realize, however, that committing outright genocide is not only unbelievably unethical and immoral, but there simply isn’t enough horsepower or resources with which to rebuild everything afterward? Nevermind the fact that alicorns don’t breed as often as normal ponies do."

Gelding rolled his eyes at the duchess. "We alicorns define 'immoral' differently, madam," he began, donning a wicked smile that showed discolored, cavity-riddled teeth.

“Do you now?” she asked with a raised brow, then turned to Celestia and Luna as if for emphasis. “My princesses, is it true that alicorns have a differing stance on ethics and morality than us mortal ponies?"

Silence hung as Luna and Celestia pursed their lips. Then Luna spoke, "Morals and ethics change over the course of a thousand years, unless one clings to them so rigidly they develop a phenomenon that doctors have dubbed small-mindedness."

"But though we do see a meager hoofful of things differently than mortal ponies," Celestia began in a calm and collected voice, "know that you and I would usually agree on many morals and ethics, my subjects." She turned to the duchess and added, "Hence, we cannot agree to marry Sir Gelding, or call for a genocide of all non-alicorn sapients. Or genocide at all, for that matter."

Luna turned to the cloaked figure at the back and nodded, before a field of blue flashed from a gnarled horn in the span of a second. Gelding opened his mouth to start parroting again, only to scream in pain and double over with a hoof flying to his chest. He dropped to the floor and writhed as if he were having lightning coursing through his body, and he groaned pitifully as whole parts of his twisted mockery of a form stopped responding.

Then, only as his vision began fading did he feel something within his body explode violently. Blood pooled in his mouth seconds after and trickled, staining the floor beneath him. The cloaked figure bounced from her seat and made a beeline for Luna, mutely handing the scroll over as soon as she was within two feet of her before using her horn to gesture to Gelding's fresh corpse. Luna leaned in to whisper to the figure, "Yes, Foxfire, you can dispose of Gelding now."

Foxfire donned a malicious grin and trotted over to the door, using her magic to pick up Gelding and clean up his blood on her way out. "Quickly and efficiently," she muttered as the doors behind her closed. Luna looked around for a few seconds before Blueblood himself trotted to the center of the room.

He began parroting about alicorns, but compared to what Gelding had yapped about, it was monotonous. Luna opened the scroll and passed the time looking through it, and frowned at what the scroll bore.

Dear Celestia and Luna,

I am arriving from Asgard as I write this… or what is left of it, rather. We (as in, me, the Beholder, the Diabolical Surgeons, and the Special Task Force) have found that Asgard may or may not have been forcefully taken by the red and black alicorns. Even worse, we found a volatile unicorn mare with enough firepower to level it to the ground. As of now, Asgard effectively no longer exists.

This mare, who was very likely abused by the alicorns, may or may not have been forced to provide them with a means to learn dangerous and arcane arts. From what Rekka of the Task Force suspects of her, it must be stressed.

I feel I need to have this mare join us in the battle against the red and black monstrosities, but not until she regains some of her strength. All we know of her so far, as far as her identity is concerned, is that her name is Patchouli.

I await further word on this matter.

Best of regards,

Shining Armor

Luna passed the note to her sister and mentally groaned. "This is going to be a doozy," she muttered under her breath.

The court chatted quietly amongst themselves as Celestia read the letter. After a moment, she folded the note back and sighed. She stood up and smiled at the guests, excusing herself; she dragged Luna along with her. They stood upon the balcony outside the hall alone, and spoke.

“The city was leveled?” Celestia was grim-faced, barely keeping herself scowling.

“It appears so, sister,” Luna’s response was no more cheery. "That would explain the explosion we saw over the horizon earlier." A thought hit her and she added, "Though, I'd have liked Foxfire to show him the letter; at least then, we'd get some answers."

“That wouldn't have been wise, Lulu," Celestia sighed, shaking her head solemnly as she turned eastward. Already, she could see small pillars of smoke rising in the horizon, but from her vantage point they may as well have been threads of cosmic yarn. "And just one unicorn was all it took…"

"Mayhaps this Patchouli is a nascent alicorn in her own right," Luna remarked, frowning. "Nothing else even comes close to making sense of it." She looked up and saw a golden shooting star, and her brow rose as it spun towards her and Celestia to reveal a glowing scroll bearing a pentagram-and-feather wax seal. "I think that's the Valkyrie Brigade reporting in." She snatched the scroll in her magic, and turned to Celestia. "I think it's for you…"

Dear Princesses Celestia and Luna,

Reports have come in from the south, with surprisingly good news.

Local lords and ladies have paid bounties on every red/black alicorn head that was brought before them, as well as the wings of red/black pegasi and horns of red/black unicorns. So far, the death toll amongst their ranks has increased to a quarter of a million. So far, this has all but negated the hordes encroaching from the south and southeast.

However, another pressing issue has emerged. Your strike team sent into the Griffon stronghold of Asgard has displaced many of the alicorns without killing them off, causing them to migrate to the west in the thousands, and local policing and military forces are having a difficult time culling their numbers to a manageable degree.

Even worse, more hybrid alicorns are popping up. We've run into alicorns, unicorns, and pegasi claiming to be half-dragon or half-changeling, or even half-yak. It's getting ridiculous beyond compare.

We hereby humbly ask your permission to retain a regiment at our call, as to split and deploy it wherever help is needed most. If possible, we would also like to meet Foxfire in the flesh to discuss matters regarding the recently-reformed Changeling Kingdom in addition to the whole hybrid-alicorn issue that keeps swelling by the day.

Finally, we wish to ask you if we would be able to retain not only a regiment of soldiers, but also elements of your evidently successful strike team as well, just for “morale” purposes amongst the ranks of wretches. If possible, send every available hoof you can. And talon. And paw…

You get the idea.

With warm regards,

General Onyx Star, Equestrian 85th Heavy Battalion and Commander of Western Peacekeeping Operations, and Admiral Lance Boltwing of the Valkyrie Brigade

P.S. Katie and Maria of the Valkyrie Brigade insisted on telling me to tell you they said 'hi.' Apparently, they've gotten a wee bit antsy. I had to comply, lest Lance himself raise a fuss.

"It keeps getting worse and worse," Luna noted with a sigh. She turned to Celestia. "Should I get Foxfire to meet with the Task Force?"

“That would be best,” Celestia answered as she nodded. "Send for Foxfire immediately."

“The Task Force is about to arrive at the train station too, yes?” Luna asked her sister. Her question was met with a short nod signifying “yes."

The moon princess nodded, conjured a blank sheet of paper and a quill, and scrawled something onto it before making it vanish in a flare of blue flame. After that she spread her wings and flapped to become airborne, flying quickly to Canterlot’s main train station to meet up with her “employees." She tried to keep from scowling, she really did, but a frown still managed to firmly affix itself onto her muzzle nonetheless.

Tonight was going to be a long one.