The sound of water running into a small pond echoed through the warm air of Luna’s greenhouse, her numerous plants had been moved aside to make room for the training area she had set up for Altair. Since his unit had returned to the mainland she and him had been spending a good deal of time together, working on his skills as a warrior with the intensity of a thousand stars. The mare was pushing her son harder than she had pushed his father, mainly because she wanted to know that he had the skills to keep himself safe. The boy didn’t complain once, taking each new challenge head on.

Soon, however, all that hard work would come to an end. Altair was nearing the end of his training, and that day in the greenhouse would be his last as a student. Seated at the center of the room was Altair, he sat on his knees and wore his training robe. His head was bowed in meditation, his shoulders hunched forward while he let his hands rest on his thighs. As Luna entered the greenhouse she had to force herself to hide the pride she felt, beside her was a wooden box made of mahogany, it floated in her magic field. The mare stopped in front of Altair and set the box down, she wore her own navy blue robes and gave off an aura of maternal strength.

“You have trained hard and well for many years, my son.” Luna said in an authoritative tone, Altair remained quiet. “What is your purpose?”

“To serve the Republic.” Altair replied quietly, his head still bowed in respect.

“Who is the master of the Night?” Luna asked firmly.

“None but you, Mother.” Altair replied just as firmly, Luna smiled softly as she continued to look him over. He had started out so small, and yet here he was, a man… He had trained and worked so hard to get to this point, Luna wanted to hug him so tightly, to tell him just how proud she really was of her boy. She would have to wait until after the ceremony before she could let him know just how much she loved him.

“This is your final chance to back out.” Luna said as she opened the wooden box to reveal a blade of Lunar Steel inside. “Altair Occisor, son of the Imperator, child of the Night, will you be baptised into the Lunar Order? Will you serve the Night, in all its glory?”

“Until my last breath.” Altair replied in a voice that was overflowing with conviction, Luna quietly levitated the sword from the box in front of her and moved it closer to Altair. The blade, like all other Lunar Corps blades, was made of Lunar Steel, which had a navy blue tint due to the process used to create it. Unlike most other Lunar Corps swords, this one was customized. The cross guard was shaped like an eagle’s wings, the pommel was an eagle’s head. The handle was black with gold bands around the center. Along the length of the blade words had been engraved… ‘Semper In Lumine Lunari’.

“Anoint thy blade, my son.” Luna commanded, this was her least favorite part of the ceremony, but it was necessary. She watched as Altair picked up the sword and drew the blade across his palm, blood oozed from the cut, which he proceeded to smear along the blade. “We become who we are through the pain we endure. Let your scar serve to remind you that your blood should not be spilled needlessly.” Altair nodded quietly and watched as his mother stood up. “Now… Arise Altair Occisor, Child of the Night.” The man stood up, his hand dripping blood still, but he didn’t seem to mind considering this was one of the greatest moments of his life. “Your training is complete.”

“Thank you, Moth-” Altair began to speak, but he was cut off as Luna wrapped her hooves and wings around him tightly. His eyes went wide as she squeezed him immensely hard, so much so that Altair felt the pressure stop the bleeding on his hand.

“I’m so so so so so proud of you, Altair!” Luna said with a squee while she continued to hug him, Altair had never seen his Mother so… Expressive before. It told him just how much that this milestone meant to her. The mare let go of him after a couple seconds before her horn glowed, a bandage floated up out of the wooden box, his mother used her magic to wrap his hand after she had put it in proper place. “I’ve waited so long to be able to give you a blade you can wield with pride, and now… Now you have it.”

“It’s beautiful, Mother.” Altair said as he looked at the sword, it’s design was based off of a katana’s while it had the length and weight of a sabre. “Thank you… For teaching me like you taught Father. I feel… Better. Like I can better control my emotions.” Altair walked to the water feature in the greenhouse and knelt down, then used the water to wash the blade and his hand of the blood. Luna moved up beside him and sat down, her horn once again glowing. She levitated two final item’s out of the box, the first was a headband that matched her fur color, the center bore a white circle that symbolized the moon. Luna tied the band around Altair’s forehead, surprising him at first.

“I merely showed you a few meditation techniques, it was you that used them to understand yourself better.” Luna said as she finished tying the headband, she levitated the second item into view. It was a silver pin, a crescent moon. Members of the Lunar Corps wore them on their uniforms to display their fealty to the night… Altair had seen knockoffs for sale in Army Surplus Stores, but this… This was the real deal. “Take it, you’ve earned it.” Altair reached out and grabbed the pin from his the field of Magic. “Now, would you care to do one more session of meditation before we head in, or are you more anxious to see Cassidy?” Altair paused, unsure of how he should answer. “I’m kidding… Let’s go.” Luna stood up and began walking towards the door, Altair stood and followed her, gripping the pin in his hand tightly.

[♠]

Deep beneath Canterlot Mountain, hidden under tons of rock, and protected by even more concrete, was a massive complex of tunnels and rooms. A massive bunker which contained the nerve center of the entire Onorussian Military. It made NORAD look like a pillbox. The main room housed a massive map of the world, displaying the various countries of the world in different colors. Onorus was marked with purple while the Crystal Empire and their allies were marked with white. Neutral countries were marked in green. Below the map sat row after row of computers and desks, each manned by an AIr Force officer.

This facility was so highly secret that hardly anyone that didn’t work there knew where the entrance was. It had been dubbed ‘The Crystal Palace’, due to the fact that it had been built to protect against the Crystal Empire. So far, the facility hadn’t been put to the use it had been built for, thankfully. It existed for the sole purpose of surviving a Thermo-Arcane exchange, though it also doubled as a global command center. The commander of this massive complex was Field Marshal Eventide, an old Thestral general that had served with the Imperator and Imperatrix during the wars.

Eventide currently sat behind his desk, watching the large map as usual. There wasn’t much going on at the moment, save for a couple military engagements in the lands south of the border. To be honest, the Field Marshal hadn’t been one to think the Crystal Empire would ever try something so destructive as a war with Onorus, but he had thought the same thing about the Caribou all those years ago. He had been busying himself lately with paperwork, his guard was lowered more than it should have. Meanwhile, a young changeling officer was watching his screen when a sudden blip appeared on the screen. It was a partial teleportation signature, it looked one associated with the Crystal Empire’s weapon systems.

“Field Marshal! I have a blip- make that three blips, sir!” The officer announced over the PA system, an alarm began to drone through the room as the officer’s screen was brought up on the main map.

“Sensors are confirming partial signatures, sir!” Another officer shouted, Eventide sat up in his seat and looked at the board in surprise.

“Run a check with the magic academies, find out if any of them have long range teleportation classes today!” Eventide ordered, he stood from his desk and continued to look at the map. “Take us to DEFCON Four, get the subs into launch positions and alert the Imperator.” There was a chorus of affirmatives as the officers in the room began going about their numerous tasks, as they did so more blips appeared on the screen.

“Sir! I have the Crystal Empire on the line! They’re saying they’ve detected the signatures as well!” An officer shouted from a desk marked ‘Foreign Intel’. “I don’t know what to think sir, but this guy sounds scared as hell we’re going to drop a fireball on his ass!”

“Get local Police to investigate the area! I want eyes on these signatures, anything that big has to at least be visible by now!” Eventide ordered as sweat formed on his brow. “Tell them it’s a matter of National Security! Really kick their asses into gear!”

“Yes, sir!” The officer replied before he put the Crystal Empire on hold and began dialing every police station within range of the affected areas. “This is Crystal Palace! Verification Code Delta Two Niner Seven Foxtrot Zulu! This is a matter of national security. Dispatch units to the following coordinates!”

[♠]

The marble floor of Canterlot Castle was lit only by the glow of a fireplace and a large magic screen, the air was warm and smelled of vanilla. A bird cage was nestled near the window, sleeping within was a pheonix. The sun had set in the distance, leaving the streets of Canterlot rather empty. No one went out at night, it just wasn’t as fun as the day time. At least, according to most of the polls. The screen that hung in the air gave off a warm golden glow, like that of an old incandescent light bulb. It displayed a rather odd sight, a white room filled with men and women in lab coats. Occasionally a changeling would poke his head in the doorway and talk to one of the workers, then disappear just as quickly.

Standing next to one another, staring at the screen, were two figures. One of them had seen this strange footage before, the other was seeing it for the first time. The figure on the right was a tall human, he wore a pressed white uniform with a gold fringe and a yellow eight pointed star patch on the shoulder. The other was an alicorn, the owner of the room, and the one who had never seen so many humans in one place before. Queen Celestia of The Kingdom of Equestria, lover of the man that stood beside her.

“You were right, Celly…” The man said as he crossed his arms and stared at the screen. “The fluctuations you sensed in the arcane fields were because of the inhabitants of this other realm…”

“What have you learned about them, Simon?” Celestia asked as she continued to watch the humans work. She was a bit surprised when she saw a unicorn in a wheelchair roll into view, the stallion went right towards the source of the video and stared at it, then shrugged and rolled out of sight.

“Not much…” Simon replied with a sigh. “Our attempts to send agents through have been less than successful…” The man trailed off when he saw a red light begin flashing on the wall of the facility. “Hold on…” Simon stepped forward and ran his hand through the screen, causing sound to start eminating from the light. The alarm in the background was joined by garbled announcments.

”Achtung! Achtung! Wir sind jetzt in Verteidigung Zustand drei!” The voice announced in a droning tone, the workers looked around nervously before two humans in black uniforms stepped into the room. Each carried an assault rifle and wore body armor, the two of them walked past the scientists and approached the source of the video. It gave Simon and Celestia a chance to see the strange flags on their shoulder patches, but something else caught Celestia’s eye. One of them had his sleeves rolled up, revealing a tattoo of an eagle perched upon a wreath, at the center of the wreath was a distinct crescent moon.

”What do you think’s going on?” One of the soldiers asked as they stood guard near the source of the video.

”I heard Shining Armor is finally pushing the button! They’ve got partial teleportation signals all over the country! It’s gonna be a full on Thermo-Arcane war!” The other replied in a hushed tone, Celestia and Simon froze at that. Celestia because she had never worried about such a thing, and Simon because he realized he had made a very big mistake. The man rushed to a desk on the other side of the room and picked up a phone, he quickly punched in a phone number and gave some hushed orders, then returned to the screen… His wife was staring at him, but she didn’t ask any questions.

”Great… The whole world is going to hell again, and what do we get to do? Stand next to the stupid Farland’s Orb.” The soldier with the tattoo said with a bit of an annoyed tone. ”Wonder if it will go down faster than the war with Equestria did… I mean, it only took two days to conquer an entire country with conventional weapons… Imagine how short this is gonna be.”

”I bet you twenty bucks it lasts two hours.” The other soldier said, the tattooed soldier chuckled before Simon turned off the audio, he appeared shaken and nervous as he continued to watch the screen, as if waiting for something to go wrong.

“I hope I stopped them in time…” Simon said quietly as he rubbed the back of his neck, Celestia looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “I was trying to send some scouting parties through, I thought sending them all at once would’ve made it easier… Apparently all I did was nearly start a global war.” The man scowled and looked at the floor. “These people, whoever they are… I don’t like them. There’s something… Off…”

“I think I know what.” Celestia replied as she pointed to the tattoo on the man’s arm. “That’s a symbol from the era of Nightmare Moon…” Simon stared at the tattoo for a couple seconds, then looked back at Celestia. “They work with changelings, and now apparently nightmare moon? I fear we have stumbled upon a very wicked empire indeed…” The mare looked at Simon quietly. “My love… I’m afraid I may need to ask something of you.”

“Anything for you.” Simon replied with a slight smile.

“Find out more about these strange people, and when the time is right, we will free that land of the darkness.” Celestia said with a quiet voice, Simon nodded as he gave a slight bow. “You will restore the glory of light, with our army you can hold back the night.” Simon nodded quietly and turned to look back at the screen. Ever since he had been brought to Equestria things had gone better and better, now would be his chance to give back to the ponies that had saved him, helping them free an entire country from an evil empire… What could be more noble?

[♠]

Field Marshal Eventide sighed in relief as the blips began fading from the screen, for whatever reason the unknown signatures had vanished as soon as they had shown up. There was no sign of Thermo-Arcane weapons on Onorussian soil, no evidence that the Crystal Empire had fired any shots, gradually the mood in the command room was starting to relax. That was, at least, until thirty men in black suits and sunglasses walked through the main entrance. Their badges identified half of them as Providentia while the others wore badges belonging to the Nocturne Agency.

“Attention everyone! My name is Agent Schwarze of Providentia!” A voice rang out over the PA system. “These fine gentlemen here will be visiting each of your work stations and downloading the data you took during this little ‘exercise’, afterwards they will wipe any evidence from the hard drive. Please, don’t interfere. Thank you, on behalf of Director Putin.” The PA went silent, Eventide appeared rather annoyed as one of the men began pouring over his computer. Unfortunately there was nothing he could do, and now that the Nocturne Agency was involved, he found himself wanting to know less and less about whatever was going on.

Schwarze let out an annoyed sigh as he stood in his office, staring out the window after his announcement to the people of Crystal Palace. The report had come in, the signatures weren’t Crystal Empire at all. They were old Equestrian Long Range Teleportation spells, modified to open portals in key cities all over Onorus… There were two conclusions Schwarze could draw from that information that seemed plausible. Firstly, the people of Zeta-Zero-One had been trying to instigate a Thermo-Arcane conflict between Onorus and the Crystal Empire… Or, more likely, Zeta-Zero-One had been trying to send troops through into Onorus, but had failed for some unknown reason… Whatever the cause, the effect had been felt worldwide.

Recruitment was up twelve percent, arms manufacturers were gearing up for a war time economy… All around the world, it was as if people could taste the copper of blood in the air. It was a feeling that Schwarze thoroughly despised…

Author's Note

So here's another chapter for you folks, we're getting closer to the next big story. Honestly, I'm a little worried that I've lost your interest, and that makes me have some reservations about starting another big project... Still, I'm gonna do it, I already made the cover art. However, if you don't mind leaving comments below letting me know what you think so far, I'd really appreciate it. Now, it's time for me to go to bed, so I'll leave you with the song of the day...

I kinda drew inspiration from this while writing the later portions of this chapter.