Assassinverse: Let There Be Light

Underneath her younger sister’s moonlight, Princess Celestia made her way through the Canterlot Castle Gardens, wearing an expression that suggested that she was doing her best not to break down. Approaching a solid hedge, Celestia’s horn lit up with a soft golden glow, causing an entrance to appear in the hedge.

However, Celestia was not prepared for what was on the other side of the hedge.

Flash Sentry, a pegasus stallion with orange fur and a navy blue mane and tail who looked as though he’d seen better days, and who was wearing the dress uniform of the Equestrian military. Also present was Twilight Velvet, a unicorn mare with a lavender-and-white striped mane and tail wearing a black dress with matching heels and gold earrings, and Night Light, a blue unicorn stallion with a dark blue mane and tail wearing a black suit and tie. They were apparently having a heated discussion about something.

Flash was the first to spot the puzzled Celestia. He motioned Twilight’s mother and father to follow him and the three ponies walked up to the Solar Princess. “Where is she?” demanded Twilight Velvet, a look of the utmost fury on her face.

Celestia blinked. “She?” she repeated in a tone of confusion.

“My daughter’s body! The one who died on your watch!” shouted Velvet as tears began to run down her face.

“Honey, that’s not really fair-” Night Light started to say, before a glare from his wife forced him into silence.

“I don’t understand… Twilight’s body should be…” said Celestia, pointing in the direction of Twilight’s glass casket, only to withdraw the same hand in shock at what she saw.

The glass lid of Twilight’s casket had been shattered. Twilight’s vast flower arrangement sparkled with the shards of broken glass. Twilight’s body was nowhere to be seen.

Celestia looked at Flash, who answered her unspoken question at once.

“It was like that when I got here, Your Highness.”

“I… I don’t understand this. Who would want to steal Twilight’s body?” asked Celestia.

“That’s what we’d like to know,” said Night Light, holding his wife close to him.

…

“All right, ring. Where are you taking me?” demanded Twilight as she soared through the air like a fighter jet through a large metropolis.

I am not the one taking us anywhere, we are heading here because of your subconscious desire to find the location of your killers and bring them to justice.

“Oh, so that explains why we’re in Manehatten. But why would my murderers come to such a large city. I admit it is a good place to hide but so are so many other cities around Equestria.”

Perhaps they have friends here. Allies and co-conspirators.

“That makes sense. I gotta admit, hiding from the Royal Guard for seven years is pretty impressive. Especially considering that my older brother and coltfriend were part of the military,” said Twilight as she landed on the rooftop of one of the city’s smaller buildings. Peering through the skylight on the roof, Twilight caught sight of no more than nine individuals. Five of them Royal Guards, while the other four seemed to be important people of some degree, possibly nobles. Twilight quickly casted an eavesdropping spell, and began to listen in on her killers.

”You have each played your parts admirably. It’s been seven years since I orchestrated the hit on that insufferable know-it-all, and the Royal Guard is no closer to discovering our location, let alone knowing just how far my plans go. And at last, I have my father’s love.”

Anger began to surge through Twilight. She knew that voice anywhere. Prince Blueblood, Celestia’s nephew, and “the most uncharming prince” her old friend Rarity, or any mare as far as she knew, had ever met.

“Well, he’s just been promoted from ‘arrogant pain in the flank’ to ‘pitiful, cliche, evil prince’.” she said to no-one in particular. “Although, I can't blame him about the ‘father’s love’ part, even he deserves at least that much.”

”And what of the mare’s friends? Word is that they’ve become particularly outspoken for Sparkle’s changes, which Celestia forced upon us all after her pet got killed.”

What the noble said made Twilight angry in more ways than one. The first was that she had been called a pet, and the second also made her disappointed, because Celestia actually enforced her changes instead of letting the ponies of Equestria choose to follow them or not. Even if it was for a better Equestria, that action bordered on tyrannical.

”Ah, yes, of course… I take it some of them have sisters? Well, which of you wants to break the news that their sisters’ had an… accident… involving some muggers on their class trip to Manehattan?”

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Twilight smashed through the skylight, landing in a “heroic landing” pose.

“Sweet Celestia!” cried Blueblood in horror.

“Who is that?! And what’s that red stuff leaking from her mouth?! Is that blood?!” cried the nobles as the bodyguards who’d betrayed Twilight grabbed their weapons and made ready to attack.

What? Red stuff? Blood? thought Twilight as she looked down. Sure enough, a red, blood-like liquid was leaking from her mouth and burning a hole in the floor.

“Hello, everypony. I’m Twilight Sparkle. You may have heard of me, I was kinda sorta MURDERED BY YOU PLOTHOLES!” screamed Twilight. “AND NOW YOU’RE GOING AFTER MY FRIENDS’ SISTERS?! I THINK NOT!”

Almost instinctively, Twilight spat a stream of that same red liquid which would’ve landed directly on Prince Blueblood’s face had he not ducked. When the viscous, red, liquid hit the wall behind him it began to eat away at the concrete like an all-powerful acid.

Huh. Acid blood. That’s new, thought Twilight.

Time for a crash course in ring-slinging 101. You can create constructs out of anything you can imagine, so long as your will to live is powerful enough to create it. Be warned, though, creating constructs uses up ring energy, and we seem to be missing our Power Battery. Perhaps we should pick it up after we’re finished here.

“Kill her! And make sure she stays dead this time!” screamed one of the nobles. This was all the bodyguards needed to be told as they sprang forward, excluding Blueblood’s guard who led him behind a crate.

Twilight, following her new ring’s instructions, imagined the first thing she could think of. Sure enough, a glowing white katana appeared in her hands.

As the guards charged forward Twilight swung her katana in a circle, completely separating the blades of her opponents’ swords from their handles. The guards, nobles, and Twilight herself, were all speechless at this feat before one of the guards came to her senses and drew out her firearm, a small pistol, and started to shoot at Twilight and the others followed her example. Twilight instinctively summoned a white brick wall with a kite shield symbol on it.

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, okay, battle plan, battle plan,” she muttered to herself. “I’ve got it!”

Twilight summoned a pure white minigun and dissolved the wall between her and the guards before she opened fire, sending the killers into a frenzied panic to get out of the way of her gunfire.

“That's right, run! Run you little cowards!” Twilight yelled as she continued to spray gunfire all over the room.

The guards, despite years of military training, were unable to avoid the pure white bullets that pierced their armor and bodies, efficiently rendering them out of action.

Twilight then dissipated the minigun and turned her attention to the nobles, only to find them sporting similar injuries as the guards she’d just taken down.

Now all that’s left is Blueblood, thought Twilight as she made her way over to the crate where Blueblood and his guard were hiding. Blueblood tried to curl up into a ball in a half-witted attempt to defend himself while Blueblood’s guard quickly pulled out his sidearm.

“Don’t move!” yelled the guard, sweat dripping down his face as he aimed his weapon the best he could.

Twilight recognized the stallion’s voice immediately. It was Gallant Stride, the guard who’d been assigned to her room the night she’d been killed.

“You never struck me as the type who’d sell his soul to Blueblood, Gallant,” Twilight said, her voice as cold as ice.

“Sometimes you have to make tough choices for the greater good. To protect what matters most,” said Gallant.

Twilight glanced at Blueblood, then back at Gallant, her labyrinthian mind working hard. “They threatened somepony close to you, didn’t they? You were going to blow the whistle, but they blackmailed you into killing me, didn’t they?”

Gallant nodded. “My little brother, Gladius. He completed basic training a few months after I killed you,” he said. “I was the one who stabbed you to death, Princess. But, you have to understand, nothing in this world is more important to me than my little brother. Nothing at all.”

Twilight gazed down at Gallant. Tears were beginning to mingle with the sweat on his face. As she looked at him, she couldn’t help but feel that if she’d been in the same position, she might’ve done the same thing.

“I’ll talk to Celestia, see if I can’t get your sentence commuted to life or something. I need to have a chat with her anyway, assuming what Blueblood said was true and she forced my reforms down everypony’s throat. However, when the Royal Guard gets here, you must surrender yourself peacefully. Is that understood?”

“Do… do you really think she’s gonna keep her word, Stride?” choked Blueblood, speaking for the first time in the conversation. “Shoot her, then we can figure out what to do with the body. I’ll be damned if she gets a decent funeral this time…”

“Gallant, I’m offering you the last lifeboat. I’d take it if I were you,” said Twilight.

Gallant looked back and forth between Blueblood and Twilight, as if he were weighing two very heavy alternatives. Finally, Gallant lowered the gun and holstered it.

“Smart move,” said Twilight, before turning her gaze on the bane of her existence, Blueblood. “As for you…” she said, grabbing Celestia’s poor excuse for a nephew by the collar of his suit, which now had the strong smell of urine coming from it, and dragging him into the center of the room, directly beneath the shattered skylight.

“So, tell me, which bothers you more? That the pony you had killed has returned from Elysium, or that I’m even more powerful now than I was before I died?” Twilight asked as she held Blueblood down on the ground with her foot. Blueblood tried to speak, but terror was keeping a lump in his throat the size of a tangerine.

“You know, you really are the most uncharming prince it has ever been my misfortune to even hear of.”

On that last word, Twilight punched Blueblood as hard as she could in the face, knocking the sniveling coward out cold.

Gallant let out a low whistle. “Nice punch,” he said.

Twilight turned back to Gallant and smiled. “Thanks,” she said with a small smile.

No sooner had the words left her mouth then the door was kicked down, and through it stepped a small squad of Night Guardsponies with their weapons drawn. Gallant calmly got on his knees and put his hands behind his head. Most of them frozen in shock at the sight of Twilight, who had an otherworldly glow from both her uniform and the moonlight shining in from above.

“Well, I believe this is where I take my leave. Enjoy the leftovers, gentlecolts,” Twilight said before taking to the night sky. As she flew at breakneck speeds over Equestria, the reborn alicorn princess turned her attention back to her ring.

“Okay, ring, where’s this Power Battery thing at?” asked Twilight.

Going by your memories of the geology of this planet, I'd say it is in the San Palomino Desert. And I must say, for somepony who’s new to the White Lantern Corps, you handled yourself pretty admirably back there.

“Uh, thanks, I guess,” said Twilight, blushing a little as she flew towards the desert.

…

After a short while Twilight and the ring were hovering over the desert. Twilight looked from left to right, before looking at the ring.

“Nothing but sand, sand, and oh look more sand. Where is the lantern exactly?”

I do believe it is at least half a mile to your left. Would you like me to tell you a simple way of finding it?

“Yes please.” Twilight said in return.

Think of a compass, or a map.

Twilight did so, and a white compass appeared before her.

Now think of the Power Battery, this will lead us to it.

“Okay.”

Twilight did as she was told, and the compass needle began to spin before it finally stopped, pointing to Twilight’s left. As she followed the compass, Twilight began to get curious about what exactly the “White Lantern Corps” were.

The White Lantern Corps is similar to an intergalactic police force. the ring said, shocking Twilight.

“Did you just read my mind?!"

Your expression was the only thing I needed to know you were curious.

“Oh. So, I’m a space-cop now?”

Pretty much.

A few moments of complete silenced passed by before Twilight saw a crater, and sitting in the center of the crater was what appeared to be a shining white lantern. Twilight made her way into the crater and towards the lantern. Once she reached the Power Battery, Twilight picked it up and began to examine it from every angle.

“So, how do I charge you?” Twilight asked the ring.

Simple. You insert the hand I’m on and say the Oath.

Twilight turned the lantern around so that the business end was facing her before she slowly and cautiously inserted her hand. No sooner had her hand been fully insert than Twilight’s eyes flash white and she began to speak what sounded like an oath of some kind.

”Dread and plague, death and blight, the shadows all will fear my might. When darkness falls, don't fear the night. A new dawn comes... LET THERE BE LIGHT!”