Vengeance at nightfall

(chapter 38) a murderer free again

Nightshade walked the halls with Sapphire and Mantis at her side, they made an effort to get to Luna's room before the sun went down. The spectacular view of the moon rising was always her favourite thing to see, it had given her the drive to find her mother all the years that she was travelling, and she thought it would be nice to show Mantis just how talented his grandmare was.

“mom, we're here, are you ready to raise the moon?”

Nightshade asked as she lead the two into her mother's room, taking a seat a fair distance away from the balcony near the edge of it. Luna was taking off her hoof covers and necklace, as well as her crown, clearly getting prepared to be relaxed.

“why of course my dear, and I'm more than happy to show my grand-foals how it's done,”

Luna said, taking a seat on the balcony, gesturing for them to come closer so they could get a better look at the sky. As the sun began to descend Luna's horn began to glow, and slowly the moon began to rise into the slowly dimming sky. Although Sapphire had seen this before, she still smiled at the sight. Mantis was a different story entirely: his big eyes filled with wonder and excitement, and he didn't hesitate to bounce up to Luna and question how she was so good at what she did.

Nightshade could only smile, and further into the evening they taught mantis some basic spells, seeing as how he had a little black, spire, horn just like other changelings did. When he had gotten too tired to try more spells they began to head back to their rooms, but while passing Angel’s room something bugged Nightshade. Although it made her gut twist in a way, she didn't mention it, and instead decided to hurry her daughter and son off to bed before truly inspecting it. But during this, Mantis became insistent on hearing a lullaby before bed, and Nightshade sang the same one Luna sang for her and her sister. It had always managed to help her fall asleep, and this night was no different. She only woke up when she noticed that Mantis wasn't in his bed, and that his room door was left open. Suspecting that he probably just went to the washroom, she got up and stretched.

“make sure you come back to bed, Mantis, it's late and you're going to need your sleep when your father gets back,”

Nightshade said, with a yawn, half expecting him to whine about wanting to stay up and star gaze. But instead, her only answer was silence, the silence confused and worried her, he would have responded to her even if he didn't want to, right? She walked over to his bathroom and noticed that the candle wasn't lit, when she did, she quickly made her way out of the room to look for him.

“Mantis, this isn't funny, you need your sleep. You can explore in the morning, sweetheart,”

No response. At this point, Nightshade was more than a little worried: she trotted around the halls until she so far from the room that she was sure that he couldn't have gone that far. Loud hissing sounds and the sudden sound Sapphire in pain made her instantly turn to head back, flying at a frantic pace as she went towards it.

When she got to the source of it, her heart sank and she felt her body soon became limp, and her legs began to shake as she looked down at Sapphire's limp body a few feet in front of her, and a small puddle of blood under her. The only redeeming factor this image had; was that she was still breathing, although it seemed like each breath was weak. Further ahead, in the darkness of the hall, the sound of fangs puncturing flesh made her nerves snap back into red alert. The sight of a silhouette of a stallion hunched over made her lift her wings, and she lowered to the ground.

“who are you and what do you think you're doing!?”

Nightshade hissed, not caring if it was an assassin or an out of control citizen this time. The chuckle of an all too familiar voice made her snarl quietly, and the figure known as Valour, stood up and appeared to be holding a small limp something in his hooves.

“oh you don't know how long I've wanted to taste this, the power, the bittersweet power in his blood,”

He chuckled again, before turning around and tossing Mantis’s pale limp body into view, making Nightshade gasp and stumble back slightly.

“when I heard you were with child, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to finally taste the power you were giving to Metamorph. The lucky bustard has been holding out on such a wonderful feeling of power,”

Nightshade didn't move, she just stared down at the bodies, the bodies of her babies, her flesh and blood, her pride and joy. And as the moment dragged on, she felt more and more hate fill her; hate for him, for what he'd done to her life and now, for what he had done to her kids.

“y-you….fucking murderer, you selfish murderer!”

She flared her wings so fast that the breeze they made forced him back, and just as he fell back, black crystals shot out of the tiles, impaling his body and immobilizing him.

“I've been merciful all this time, I finally thought that I wouldn't have to deal with your desperate attempts at obtaining power. But no, that wasn't good enough for you, was it now?”

A crystal began to grow up as the tip touched the back of his neck,

“I have tried so very hard to spare you, but I'm not going to make the same mistake this time,”

The crystal shot up through his spine and brainstem, and he began to choke and sputter, coughing up blood.

“I won't see you in hell, but I'm not entirely sure that's a bad thing,”

The crystal shot up the rest of the way through his neck, decapitating him within seconds, Nightshade didn't even flinch as his body disintegrated into dust in front of her.