Author's Note

Hi there everyone.

Before we begin, I just wanted to thank you for choosing this fic to read. After years of planning and rewrites, I really hope it will go down well.

This will get dark quickly. If this isn't your cup of tea, you might want to consider choosing a different story.

Thanks again!

Aeluna

Prologue

“Your Highness!”

Tired hooves fiddled with an old, semi-frayed quill, but try as she might she could not form any words on the parchment before her. Even more fatigued eyes hung low as they beheld the blank expanse, their usual sparkle diminished. Her years were finally catching up to her, it seemed; her flawless face was littered with wrinkles, and her mane no longer flowed in the wind. The hair itself looked dead and dry, but that was nothing compared to how dead she felt inside. Indeed, it took a great deal of effort for her to raise her heavy head up to see her new company.

“What is it, General?” she murmured. Her voice was quiet. Almost impossible to hear. Nevertheless, it still held something of an air of sophistication and confidence. That was only a habit. She had no hope left.

The mare who stood before her—a unicorn—bowed respectfully, but her movements were rushed and sloppy. Her sword clattered against the polished metal of her bloodied armour. A crimson droplet fell to the dusty floor. “We are surrounded, Princess,” she said, her words fumbled but still relatively slow. The old mare did not show much reaction to that statement, save for the weak yellow glow of her horn as she pulled a book closer to her from the pedestal on which it rested nearby. “They impersonated our armies, and now they've come to the base by train. We don't know if anypony has survived. There has been no intel.”

The great mare nodded once. She then unfurled her dishevelled wings and slowly rose so as to step towards the window. Lo, she could see them now; a wave of acrid green light poured out as the intruders dropped their transformations. They marched on the city from all sides, a massive wall of black.

“Thank you, little one,” the mare said, the tiniest of smiles ushering the newcomer away. “Retire to your home for today. You should see your loved ones once more before…”

The great mare trailed off, just as the entrance door was slammed open. The guards hurled their spears forwards at once, only for them to be deflected by a bright blue aura. The general took that as her excuse to leave, shooting from the room without a second thought for formalities and conduct. Who could blame her?

“Celestia, Sister! Tell me it's not true!” the newcomer pleaded.

The white mare hung her head and pulled the book to her side, unenthusiastically flipping through pages to the one she had looked at so often. The text was hundreds of years old, but the particular page of interest was very nearly dust by now.

“It is, Luna. You can see it from the windows.”

The smaller mare froze on the spot. She then turned her head to the outside and peered out cautiously; her ears fell back and her pupils shrunk immediately at the sight. She clamped her tail and let her wings fall to the ground. She had taken time to preen her feathers, at least. They were now covered with dust. But that wouldn't matter for long.

“Tia…” she prompted, shrinking back from the wall. “Tia, our ponies…”

“Our ponies are doomed.”

The larger mare’s words were harsh and cold and blunt. There was no emotion then. All of her tears had already fallen.

“No! No, we cannot just give in!” The blue mare stood tall and stomped her hoof. Her blue aura then snagged the precious page from the old book. She all but thrust it into her sister’s face, scanning it quickly at the same time. Her ears pricked and a small smile grew on her muzzle. And then she reached the final lines, the notes, and her face fell once more. “This spell… is one of Star Swirl’s, correct?”

“Indeed.”

The smaller mare was quiet for a minute before she let out a small breath. “What choice do we have?”

The great mare shook her head. “We could be condemning our own ponies to die, Luna! If we make a mistake… if we are not completely specific in our answer, anything could happen! We don't know what that disclaimer reads; the ink is all gone. It could be critical!”

“But it's our only hope.”

The smaller mare was right, and so the larger let out a sigh and rose a hoof. She ushered her guards out, an order they followed immediately. She then linked her hoof with the smaller mare, eyes focused directly on the approaching changelings, and began to speak.

“All is lost, but the lost is found. Upon mine enemies bestow this cursed charm. Deliver unto them a plague of dismay, in their downed hoofprints we lead the way.”

A single thought ran through the large mare’s mind then. Changelings. And then, just as the magic was about to taper away, she had a realisation. The changelings could be literally anything; she would need to target the whole land.

And then her magic fizzled off, and she was quiet for a moment. And then she screamed.

“My mind wandered!” she cried, suddenly much more alive as she gasped for air. The smaller took a sharp inhale and shot to the window with a heavy flap of her wings, where a thick cloud of green-tainted grey now grew at tremendous speeds. A noxious cloud of deadly, magical viruses.

“A health charm! We need a shield!” the small mare cried. The larger nodded as she let out a shrill cry for her guards. They were there in a second.

“Get Twilight and Cadence! Get the Wonderbolts! We must get as many ponies as possible brought here in half an hour!”

The guards squeaked, fumbling for their weapons as they rushed from the Throne Room. The large mare then collapsed, wailing over the screams of the changelings half a mile away.

“Thirty minutes,” the smaller mare said, her hoof jammed against the larger one’s side. “Thirty minutes to evacuate, then we put a health bubble up. Right?”

There was no answer.

“Alright?!”

The older mare mumbled and rose shakily to her hooves. “Fine. Half an hour. We’ll save as many as we can.”

The blue mare then frowned. “And the rest?”

There came no answer as the great white mare disappeared from the room in a flash of pale, shimmering yellow to leave her sister alone in the great expanse. And then, a second later, she too vanished.

Because in half an hour, a massive health bubble would have to be erected, and there would be nopony coming in or out any more.

Because ninety-nine percent would be dead.